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The robots are coming, automation will take your job.” It quoted a rather famous economic historian, Robert Heilbroner. Most of you have heard of him. He says, “The new technology is threatening a whole new group of skills.” He sounded just like Mr. Keene. He said, “The calculating, the remembering, the comparing, the OK’ing skills, the preserve of the office worker will go away, and machines will invade society to make that type of human labor redundant.” Guess what? It’s been 50 years, and since then, soon after he wrote that, we had the greatest leaps of technology you can imagine. The Internet, the personal computer and the microprocessor all come into play, but nobody has been rendered redundant.
This is a perfectly fair criticism of those who claim robots are coming for our jobs—these alarms have been raised before, back to Keynes in the 1930s and the Triple Revolution letter and breathless Time magazine articles in the 1960s. Anyone making the case for increasing technological unemployment in the coming decades must explain why “this time is different” from those other times.
I believe this time is different because the capabilities of the hardware and software are different and the nature of human work is different. Manufacturing is only about 9 percent of employment in the U.S. The vast majority of jobs now are in the retail, service, and knowledge economy sectors. Until now, technology has been a complement to people in those sectors but could not replace them.
However, ubiquitous connectivity, advancing computer vision, learning, reasoning, and language capabilities, and the vast digitization of economic activity are beginning to enable direct substitution for and elimination of human labor.
We are already seeing the first prototype self-driving cars and trucks. While working through the technical, legal, and regulatory issues may take 10–15 years, there are millions of people who drive for a living who will no longer have a job. It will become increasingly easy for people to interact with machines and for software agents to act on their behalf, eliminating many front-line customer service roles. Knowledge workers who enter, transmit, process, or analyze data can be replaced by AI programs. Significant portions of what lawyers and doctors do can be replaced by eDiscovery and eDiagnosis software.
The key technology underlying this is machine learning, which enables computers to learn from the vast quantities of digital data now and increasingly available, without a human needing to program them step by step.
While this technology has been around for decades, only in the last few years have we had access to huge digital databases for training machine learning algorithms, and there have been breakthroughs in designing new deep learning approaches that rival human perception. Machines that can learn is something fundamentally different about this time vs. the past.
Isaacson continued:
There are more jobs, there are more types of jobs now than there were 50 years ago. As Mark Andreessen, the person who invented the web browser said, “Just as most of us today have jobs that weren’t invented 100 years ago, the same will be true 100 years from now.”
This is a very common statement that has been repeated all over the internet, but it is unfortunately completely untrue. If you examine the Bureau of Labor Statistics breakdown of occupations, what you find is that only 20 percent of today’s occupations did not exist one hundred years ago, and more importantly, 90 percent of all U.S. employment today is in fact in occupations that did exist 100 years ago.
While some new jobs have been created, mostly in the computer/Internet realm, they employ very few people. People use anecdotal jobs like “Web designer” and “social media marketing coordinator” and say “what farmer in 1915 could have imagined that job?” They don’t use the actual top occupations in the U.S.—like retail salesperson, cashier, food prep/servers, office clerks, nurses, customer service, waiters and waitresses, hand laborers, secretaries, janitors, managers, stock clerks and truck drivers because of course the farmer would have not have been the least surprised that those jobs existed. (Note that those few listed jobs are 25 percent of U.S. employment.)
The fact is that we have not invented all kinds of new jobs that employ masses of people. For the last 100 years, we have shifted people from agriculture and manufacturing into jobs that already existed, but that the machines were not yet capable of doing. And the machines are becoming more and more capable of performing those jobs.
Let me give some examples. There’s the app economy. It began in 2008, when Steve Jobs was convinced by other members of his management team to allow outsiders to create apps for the iPhone, and then, the iPad. The app store alone, since then, has created 627,000 jobs. The app economy last year was $100 billion, far surpassing the film industry. This is an industry that did not exist seven years ago.
The figure of 600,000 jobs in the app economy has unfortunately also spread over the Tnternet. It comes from a single analysis of help wanted ads with a highly suspect methodology. The authors of the study looked at open positions for mobile app developers and multiplied that count by the ratio of other kinds of software developers to the open positions for their jobs. So if companies generally had seven existing software developers and one open position for a software developer, the ratio was seven to one. In this study, any mobile app open position was therefore also assumed to represent seven existing mobile app jobs.
This makes no sense. Mobile application development is quite new compared to existing software development teams. Companies are generally hiring their first developers—or supplementing small existing teams. There was also no accounting for software developers simply shifting from Web or other kinds of development into mobile development as those older areas became more productive and need fewer headcount.
Another important fact about the “app economy” is that it is not very democratic. Like many digital products sold primarily through user recommendation, it is subject to winner-take-all dynamics. A very small number of apps do extraordinarily well, while the rest in the “long tail” earn almost nothing.
Winner-take-all markets are a very precarious place to attempt to make money. It is hard to recommend the app economy to a truck driver used to a steady income that pays the mortgage and the bills.
Other advances in technology have helped facilitate new forms of work, such as the sharing economy, where people both here, New York, New Orleans can drive, be part of Uber, be part of AirBnB, be part of Lyft. Likewise, online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay have enabled the rise of artisans, makers, the type of people who existed in the pre-industrial age. People who had creative and things, and then, could have connections to customers around the world. If you create a book or a song, now, you have new ways to publish, as Pippa did with her own book. New ways to distribute. If you dream up a new specialty, this world allows you to find customers and provide a service, just as if you were an artisan or a service maker in the pre-industrial revolution. It even helps long established companies find markets all over the globe. There’s a more fundamental shift going on in the economy that’s also good. We’re creating an on demand, or on tap economy. If you need a housekeeper, or a handyman, you don’t have to go to a particular firm to get it. It can be done on tap. If new technologies reduce the total number of jobs, we would all be out of work now. I doubt that Mr. Keane, nor I, nor you can guess what wondrous jobs technology will bring to our great grandchildren.
Unfortunately, these are also not good replacements for a full time job. Marketplaces like Uber, AirBnB, eBay, and Etsy certainly do enable some people to supplement their income. But very few people actually make a living from these marketplaces. It is true that distribution of content like songs and books is certainly far, far easier than it used to be. But because of the vast quantity of content on those networks and winner-take-all dynamics, very few people can also earn a living from content creation and distribution.
As for the on demand or on tap economy, this does not create any new jobs, it just makes it slightly more efficient for customers to find existing handymen or housekeepers.
Isaacson’s final statement is a straw man. No one is making a categorical statement that “new technologies reduce the total number of jobs.” The statement at issue is that the particular technologies under development right now—in AI, robotics, 3D printing, advanced personalized health care, etc.—will have a significant impact on jobs that employ masses of people over the next few decades. There will no doubt be “wondrous jobs” created for our great grandchildren—there is simply no evidence, however, that those jobs will employ masses of people.
Pippa Malmgren’s prepared statement had some additional arguments.
I take you to the case of Jenny Doan, who runs a fantastic quilting company in Missouri. This is a woman who is getting 30 million YouTube hits for showing people how to make quilts. A very old-fashioned activity, but not possible without computers, without the artificial intelligence to make the pieces the right size, to sew them together quickly. She employs 85 people. 300 people a day come from around the world to go to her shop in the middle of Missouri. To that end, I have to say, as someone who’s actually employing people in this business, what there’s a shortage of out there is not intellectual capability, or high levels of education and training.
There’s a shortage of people who have the practical skills, who know how to make an engine work. Who know how to do electrical wiring. We need more people who can do these things, because they are the ones, the technology empowers to do something. Robotics and artificial intelligence won’t destroy jobs, they are the tools by which we will build the jobs we are going to have tomorrow. They will be different than the ones we do today, and thank goodness, because that will be much more interesting, exciting, and draw on our capabilities much more than anything else we can imagine.
It is not exactly clear how the anecdote of Jenny Doan and people “who have practical skills” relates to Malmgren’s closing thought. Jenny Doan’s quilters and the people who “know how to make an engine work” do not have the “different jobs of tomorrow” somehow related to AI and robotics. In response to an audience question, Malmgren expressed another commonly held belief:
There’s a global shortage right now, for example, of welders. They’re hiring people in their 70’s to work with modern robotics because welding still is a skill. A robot can’t replicate what a human knows about this. The human nuance and knowledge of how things work is still essential in the application of robotics.
There may be job openings for welders, but employment in welding and cutting has declined slightly from 390K in 1990 to 370K in 2014. Welding robots with vision will be coming soon and replacing even more of those jobs. Welding and other trades would not seem to be a high growth refuge for service and knowledge sector workers displaced by AI and robotics.
In the ongoing Q&A, Isaacson argued:
I do think that we’ve always thought AI was coming, ever since about 1956, and it always is a little bit harder than we think. So whether it is domain awareness or creativity, the humans have a way of cognitive thinking that is so fundamentally different, in its carbon-based, wetware system of our brain, than in the digital silicon system, that artificial intelligence remains a mirage and it’s not about to change everything. Our creativity, our humanism, will always be part of the party.
The fact that computers operate differently than human brains tells you nothing about whether they will be able to perform tasks that the human brain performs, any more than observing that airplanes do not flap their wings the way birds do tells you whether they can fly. The fact that self-driving cars use high res digital maps, LIDAR, cameras, and ultrasonic sensors instead of a “wetware brain” and eyes does not mean they can’t exist and replace millions of human drivers. A very large percentage of jobs do not require extensive creativity as they perform routine cognitive or physical tasks.
An emerging model of training AIs can also deal with the “unexpected” or “exceptional” cases in these jobs. A small contingent of human workers remain on the job even as AIs take on the vast majority of the work. When the AI comes across something it hasn’t seen before, it refers it to a human and observes what the human does and learns from it so it can handle the case the next time.
As for what jobs will be safe in the future, Isaacson said:
If you’re going to be looking for a job in the future, be creative. What will robots/computers not do that we can do? They work by algorithm. Almost by definition they are not creative. They don’t think out of the box, they don’t think imaginatively. Our minds are cognitive, so we supply Intelligence Squared debaters. No robot is going to replace this panel but nor will it replace the Pixar people and the animation people and the people doing the creativity. And if you learn to code and connect the arts and the sciences that was Steve Jobs’ great advice.
Actually, computers are already being programmed to be creative, in the sense that they are given underlying rules of physics, chemistry, music, or cooking and then they produce innovative hypotheses, compositions, or combinations of ingredients that in fact no human would have thought of. In a way, computers are like children, and they will generate many “out of the box” ideas because they are quite free of accumulated human “boxes” like conventional wisdom and prevailing paradigms.
While many jobs have a creative component, it’s also important to note that all of the creative occupations in the U.S. economy (e.g., artists, writers, editors, musicians, photographers, actors, dancers, designers, choreographers, journalists, marketers/public relations, etc.) only account for about 1 percent of employment. There has never been an economy filled with only highly creative or highly skilled people.
Malmgren picked up on the theme of human creativity:
Look at some of the greatest innovations of our time…[describes MIT container farming]. … You cannot ask a computer to create that. Human beings create that. Computers can execute based on algorithms once you’ve decided what you need executed. But to solve the problems our society faces, that still is about human ingenuity.
Once again, the arguments for what computers can’t do ignores the reality of real people in actual occupations. The highly talented scientists, researchers, and engineers that “invent the future” are a very small fraction of the workforce. In the U.S., there are about 700,000 scientists and three million engineers, or less than 2.5 percent of workers in total. The vast majority of workers are not involved in the “ingenuity” phase of problem solving; they are involved in the “execution” phase. And that is where AI and robotics are going to become more and more capable.
In summary, these common arguments against the risk of technological unemployment ignore what is different about the technologies under development and they suggest solutions (“be creative,” “become a welder,” “”develop an app”) that are unrealistic ways for tens of millions of displaced workers to continue to earn an income.
Going back to the debate proposition, however, I don’t believe we need to be afraid. I think this technological progress can be an amazing achievement for humanity, if we adjust our mindset appropriately. With machines doing most of the work we will need a new social contract, new mechanisms like a basic income guarantee, and new conceptions of a meaningful life. I believe we should embrace a future where humans can be liberated to follow their passions, reach their full potential, and contribute to their communities.
Some people will find the notion of people not selling their labor for income incomprehensible or impossible. But the notion of a “job” working for a stranger at a “company” is a very recent invention. And humans are supremely adaptable. After tens of thousands of years living in small villages of hundreds of people where everyone was related, who could have imagined cities of ten million strangers living side by side? Ideas like slavery, commonly accepted for millennia, were eventually discarded. It’s a challenge, but cast your mind ahead 100 years.
Won’t our descendants look back and say, “I can’t believe that for hundreds of years people spent most of their lives doing all that boring work that machines do for us now. They had no time to actually enjoy life”?
Gerald Huff is the principal software engineer at Tesla Motors.
This article was originally featured on Medium and reposted with permission.
Photo via CJ Isherwood/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)Audiochecker is a tiny and portable tool which analyzes the source of WAV, LPAC, SHN, APE and FLAC audio formats, in order to verify if the encoding is lossless. If not, it means that the files in question are converted from other formats with lower quality, such as MP3.
Since installation is not a prerequisite, you can drop the program files anywhere on the hard disk and run the executable. It is also possible to save Audiochecker to a USB flash disk or similar device, in order to run it on any workstation with minimum effort.
What's more, no entries are added to the Windows registry, and no traces are left after removing the tool.
Featuring a user-friendly interface with a well-organized layout, Audiochecker lets you load audio stream into the workspace using the file browser, folder view, or drag-and-drop support. Plus, you can submit audio CD tracks for evaluation, as well as schedule the machine to power off on task completion.
Summarized results reveal probability percent values that testify to the files' authenticity, while a more detailed reported can be read in the log file.
Setting up the program's configuration is done through the Options screen, where you can filter the file types to check, modify the power option on task completion, include subdirectories, restrict format analysis to the smallest files of each folder, and create a log in each checked directory. Moreover, you can adjust the process priority, minimize Audiochecker to the system tray, and switch to a different UI language.
The audio diagnostic utility uses little RAM and moderate CPU, and it takes its time to perform a job. Taking into account that it hasn't been updated for a very long while, Audiochecker works smoothly on newer OS platforms and serves its purpose without error.African civilians in war-torn countries have experienced the threat of violence or death, and many have witnessed the abuse, torture, rape and even murder of loved ones. Many Congolese living in Ugandan refugee camps are suffering from severe posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
New research shows that Congolese war refugees who learned the Transcendental Meditation® technique showed a significant reduction in posttraumatic stress disorder in just 10 days, according to a study published today in the February 2014 issue of the Journal of Traumatic Stress (Volume 27, Issue 1, 112–115).
In the study, "Significant Reductions in Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in Congolese Refugees within 10 days Transcendental Meditation Practice," 11 subjects were tested after 10-days and 30-days TM practice. After just 10-days PTSD symptoms dropped almost 30 points.
"An earlier study found a similar result after 30 days where 90% of TM subjects dropped to a non-symptomatic level. But we were surprised to see such a significant reduction with this group after just 10 days," said study author Brian Rees, MD, MPH.
The subjects were assessed using the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for Civilians, (PCL-C), which rates the severity of PTSD on a scale from 17 to 85. A score below 35 means the symptoms of PTSD have abated.
This is lead author Col. Brian Rees, MD, MPH, US Army Reserve Medical Corps
(Photo Credit: David Lynch Foundation)
The subjects in the study initially tested with an average score of 77.9. After just 10 days of practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique, their PTSD test scores dropped to an average of 48, which was highly significant clinically.
Thirty days later the subjects were tested again with their PTSD scores falling to an average of 35.3 — meaning that they were nearly without symptoms of PTSD.
"What makes this study interesting is when we tested them in the 90 days before they began the TM technique, their PTSD scores kept going up," said coauthor Fred Travis, director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition at Maharishi University of Management. "During that period their scores were rising, from 68.5 at the beginning to 77.9 after 90 days. But once they started the Transcendental Meditation technique, their PTSD scores plummeted."
According to the researchers, during this particular meditation technique one experiences a deep state of restful alertness. Repeated experience of this state for 20 minutes twice a day cultures the nervous system to maintain settled mental and physical functioning the rest of the day. This helps to minimize disturbing thoughts, sleep difficulties, and other adverse PTSD symptoms.
In this video, Dr. Travis explains the neurophysiology of trauma and how TM relieves it. He says, "Something very profound is happening. Because experience changes the brain, and trauma locks in a specific brain functioning (the over stimulated amygdala), you're stuck in a specific way of thinking and feeling, (vigilance, fear and mistrust) and appreciating the world." He further explains how the experience of transcending, with Transcendental Meditation, calms the amygdala, relieves PTS symptoms and frees the individual "to see more possibilities.”
Esperance Ndozi was one of the Congolese refugees traumatized by the civil war. The 35-year old mother of 5 was part of the group of refugees that learned TM. Before learning the effortless technique, Esperance couldn't find relief from a flood of dark disturbing memories. She could hardly sleep. After a week of meditating 20-minutes twice a day she describes increasing relaxation and relief from PTSD symptoms. "Your mind, your body relaxes. You feel you are out of the outside world. You are just in your peaceful world. No negativity. It doesn't come near me now." Like other refugees in the study the calm and peace grew to last throughout the day. Watch the video.
A previous study of Congolese refugees, which involved 42 subjects found that the Transcendental Meditation group had an average Checklist score of below 35 after 30 days, a non-symptomatic level, while the average score of the control group actually worsened over the same period.
"This is now the fourth study to show an improvement in PTSD," said Dr. Rees, a colonel in the US Army Reserve Medical Corps. "The Transcendental Meditation technique is increasingly being seen as a viable treatment by the US military."
Eleven Congolese refugees who had been tested three times over a 90-day period on the PCL-C, which rates the level of PTSD on a scale from 17 to 85, began with an average score of 77.9. They learned Transcendental Meditation within 8 days of the third test and after 10 days their average score dropped to 48, which was highly clinically significant. They were retested 30 days later measuring an average score of 35.3. With scores below 35 considered non-symptomatic, they were practically symptom free.
(Photo Credit: Fred Travis, PhD)
This video was taken of Esperance Ndozi, one of the Congolese refugees in the study. She was interviewed before learning the Transcendental Meditation technique, and one week after regularly practicing TM twice a day. The transformation was noticeable.
(Photo Credit: David Lynch Foundation)
Source: Maharishi University of ManagementTo me, there’s virtually no doubt that Italo Calvino is a literary genius. Each one of his works create either a beautiful compendium of light and airy magical fables or tricky Borgesian fictional puzzles. I read the first collection of Cosmicomics earlier in the year and was blown away; the lucidity of his prose and the wit of his storytelling are something that very few writers can match. Signore Calvino’s follow up Cosmicomics collection, Time and the Hunter, is characteristically imaginative.
The book is broken up into three parts. The first carries on where the previous collection left off, following the celestial being Qfwfq’s adventures throughout space and time. The lighthearted and witty prose of the first four stories are a perfect addition to the previous Cosmicomics. In particular I loved the story The Origin of Birds in which Qfwfq describes his encounter with the first ever feathered creatures (a sort of avian love story) through a prose representation of a comic strip:
Now these stories can be told better with strip drawings than with a story composed of sentences one after the other… To begin with, you can read a lot of exclamation marks and question marks spurting from our heads, and these mean we were looking at the bird full of amazement – festive amazement, with the desire on our part also to sing, to imitate that first warbling, and to jump, to see the bird rise in flight…
Here we can see the exercises in style that Calvino will become renowned for in his later works Invisible Cities and If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller. The utilisation of the comic strip form reminds me of Alan Moore’s famously long winded comic book scripts in which he outlines, down to the last detail, every aspect of the page that the illustrator will have to draw. There was definitely no coincidence that these stories were entitled Cosmi-comics. Both in the humourous sense and in Calvino’s admiration for the comic book format.
The second section I didn’t enjoy quite as much. It describes Qfwfq’s love of a being named Priscilla through a rather dense storied explanation of a singled celled organism’s journey through Mitosis, Meiosis, and Death. Although this part is still extremely clever, especially the beginning descriptions of a being with no knowledge of the concept of ‘Other’ suddenly urging to become two beings, I feel it lacked some of the magic that Calvino showed in the earlier tales.
The final section abandons Qfwfq as a narrator and takes us through a journey of extremely Borgesian stories that focus on the infinite divisibility of space and time. I took these stories to be a modern fictional rendition of Zeno’s paradoxes. In particular t zero representing Zeno’s ‘Arrow’, and The Chase representing ‘Achilles and the Tortoise’. However, the more dense academic style of some of these stories have caused other commentators such as literary critic, and huge Calvino fan, Gore Vidal, to mention that this closing section focuses too much on it’s ‘literariness’ over the magical elements that made the first collection so brilliant:
In Cosmicomics Calvino makes it possible for the reader to inhabit a meson, a mollusk, a dinosaur; makes him for the first time see light ending a dark universe. Since this is a unique gift, I find all the more alarming the “literariness” of Time and the Hunter. I was particularly put off by the central story “t zero,” which could have been written (and rather better) by Borges.
And to me some of the stories seemed to read more like an analytic philosophy paper than a work fiction (a criticism that is common of Borges as well – a;though I personally don’t see it). Take this line from the first paragraph of t zero for example:
… the arrow A suspended in midair at about a third of its trajectory, and, a bit further on, also suspended in midair, and also at about a third of his trajectory, the lion L in the act of leaping upon me, jaws agape and claws extended. In a second I’ll know if the arrow’s trajectory and the lion’s will or will not coincide at a point X crossed both by L and by A at the same second tx…
However, in The Night Driver Calvino is back to his best, and with an air of melancholy that is unusual to find in such a fun and lighthearted collection. It describes the never ending chase of a broken hearted man trying to find his estranged lover but, in an almost Kierkegaardian sense, being infinitely resigned to the idea of never reaching her due to the infinite divisibility of the space he will have to cross from point A to point B to do so.
In conclusion, I will always be mesmerised by Calvino, and I still thoroughly enjoyed Time and the Hunter although it became a little bit more of a slog for me that the first collection had been. Calvino, much like his predecessor Jorge Luis Borges, has the ability to play with logic and fiction in a way that most storytellers can only dream of. I’ll give the last word to Gore Vidal who thought of Calvino as a perhaps the most inventive and brilliant writer of the 20th century, describing him as ‘the only great writer of my time’, and if it were not for my admiration for Borges who came before him, I may have to agree.
During the last quarter century Italo Calvino has advanced far beyond his American and English contemporaries. As they continue to look for the place where the spiders make their nests, Calvino has not only found that special place but learned how himself to make fantastic webs of prose to which all things adhere. In fact, reading Calvino, I had the unnerving sense that I was also writing what he had written; thus does his art prove his case as writer and reader become one, or One.The presidential election was called weeks ago, naming Republican Donald Trump president-elect, but Green Party candidate Jill Stein is demanding a recount.
ABC News reported that Stein sought to raise $2.5 million for a recount in three states -- Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania -- by Friday. Over $2.6 million was raised early Thursday.
>> Read more trending stories
President-elect Donald Trump called the "ridiculous recount" a "scam by the Green Party."
On Saturday morning, it was announced that Hillary Clinton's campaign counsel will participate in the recount process.
Related: Clinton campaign will take part in recount efforts
CNN reported that the goal was increased to cover the cost of a recount in Wisconsin, and Stein's website then focused on a $4.5 million goal, saying that it was for recount costs in Pennsylvania. That goal was reached quickly and the goal is now set for $7 million for recount costs in Michigan. Over $5 million has been raised so far.
On Saturday, Stein said that she would seek a recount in any state where the deadline for filing hasn't passed.
Related: Time running out for Clinton to call for recount in three swing states
The Wisconsin Elections Commission tweeted Friday that it had received the recount petitions by the 5 p.m. deadline.
On Tuesday, a group of scientists and lawyers suggested that seeking a recount in those three battleground states might be worthwhile. In a New York Magazine article, they claim based on statistical analysis that manipulation may have taken place in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, but the group has not found proof that any manipulation has occurred.
In an interview with CNN Thursday, Stein pointed to incidents of hacking throughout this election cycle, saying that there were hacks into voter accounts, party accounts and emails.
The New York Times reported in August that a hack targeting the personal email accounts of Democratic officials was widespread and included Hillary Clinton's campaign. In September, The New York Times reported that documents stolen from the Democratic National Convention in a hack were released.
"What we are saying is not that hacking or fraud has necessarily taken place," Stein told CNN Thursday. "I don't think we have evidence of that. But I think it's only natural and it's good for Americans to be reassured that our votes are counted, especially after such a divisive and bitter election."
"The fact that (the campaign) has basically funded itself overnight reflects the incredible hunger out there among the American people to actually start doing something positive and to start creating an election system that we can believe in," Stein said.Click on MORE to see style details.
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From now on I am a blogger for TheHellishDiva Store by the lovely Karolinque!
YaY! 🙂
Also, please check out CuCkoo Skins & Shapes by RavenRehan Bluebird. She makes some really cute shapes/skins and lots of them are 10Ls.
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AdvertisementsThere are many moons in the solar system, but none like ours, it exerts an extraordinary influence on Planet Earth, keeping our world in balance. But why is it so powerful? I want to explore the relationship we have with our closest neighbour, to see how the Moon has sculpted our planet and shaped our evolution. Without the Moon, would we even be here? So, the top 5 things we’d miss if we didn’t have a Moon:
1 Eclipses on Earth We will miss it at all
From our perspective, the Sun and the Moon look almost exactly the same size. Actually, the Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun but it is also 400 times closer. Moon and the Sun appear to be the same size, this is why we can have solar eclipses, where the Moon passes in front of the Sun, just barely obscuring it from our view, that’s gives us the most mesmerising sight, a total eclipse. Because the Moon’s disc is the same size as the Sun’s, they line up perfectly, with just a halo of solar gases spilling out around the rim. I always thought there must be some astronomical reason for this, something in the physics which means it must be this way buts no, it’s just a cosmic coincidence, it happens because right now, the Moon is just the right distance from Earth. So, without our Moon — just a few hundred thousand miles (or kilometers) away — there’d be no object that would pass through the Earth’s shadow; there’d be no lunar eclipses, we’ll lose the magic of the total eclipseRussian operatives hiding behind false identities used Facebook’s event-management tool to remotely organize and promote political protests in the U.S., including an August 2016 anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rally in Idaho, The Daily Beast has learned.
A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Beast that the social-media giant “shut down several promoted events as part of the takedown we described last week.” The company declined to elaborate, except to confirm that the events were promoted with paid ads. (This is the first time the social-media giant has publicly acknowledged the existence of such events.)
The Facebook events—one of which echoed Islamophobic conspiracy theories pushed by pro-Trump media outlets—are the first indication that the Kremlin’s attempts to shape America’s political discourse moved beyond fake news and led unwitting Americans into specific real-life action.
“This is the next step,” Clint Watts, a former FBI agent and expert on Russia’s influence campaign, told The Daily Beast. “The objective of influence is to create behavior change. The simplest behavior is to have someone disseminate propaganda that Russia created and seeded. The second part of behavior influence is when you can get people to physically do something.”
Last week Facebook acknowledged for the first time that Russia used false identities and about 3,000 ads to spread politically divisive posts to Americans before and after the election. The content, according to an expert on Facebook’s advertising system, was likely seen by between 23 and 70 million people, based on the $100,000 ad buy alone.
Much of the Russian Facebook propaganda campaign has since been deleted. But bits and pieces remain visible in search-engine caches, including a 2016 notice on Facebook Events—the site’s event-management and invitation tool—announcing an Aug. 27 rally in a rural Idaho town known to welcome refugees.
“Due to the town of Twin Falls, Idaho, becoming a center of refugee resettlement, which led to the huge upsurge of violence towards American citizens, it is crucial to draw society's attention to this problem,” the event notice began. The three-hour protest was titled “Citizens before refugees,” and would be held at the City Council Chambers beginning at 11 a.m. The notice provided the street address and ended with a fiery exhortation.
“We must stop taking in Muslim refugees! We demand open and thorough investigation of all the cases regarding Muslim refugees! All government officials, who are covering up for these criminals, should be fired!”
The event was “hosted” by “SecuredBorders,” a putative U.S. anti-immigration community that was outed in March as a Russian front. The Facebook page had 133,000 followers when Facebook closed it last month.
Although 48 people clicked that they were “interested” in the protest, only four said they went to City Council Chambers that day, according to the event page, possibly because it was a Saturday and the Council was not in session. It is also possible to claim attendance on Facebook at an event that didn’t exist. Some of the profiles of interested rallygoers listed themselves as Twin Falls residents.
Facebook did not explain if the “several promoted events” were upcoming ones at the time of the account deactivation or were events that had already occurred at the time of deactivation. |
would not be given a free trade deal by the EU in the next two years and said a transition arrangement to cushion the UK’s exit after 2019 could last no longer than three years.
British cabinet ministers have repeatedly insisted that a comprehensive free trade deal could be struck within the two years of talks allowed under the Treaty of Rome.
The document further suggested the UK would not only be under the jurisdiction of the European court of justice during any transition period but that its treatment of EU citizens forever into the future would be a matter for its judges.
In her letter, May had insisted that leaving the EU would mean leaving the jurisdiction of the court in Luxembourg. However, Verhofstadt denied that this would be possible.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The European parliament’s Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt. Photograph: Stephanie Lecocq/EPA
“The withdrawal agreement will be an act of union law,” Verhofstadt told a press conference in Brussels. “An act of union law is naturally controlled by the European court of justice. It is as simple as that. The withdrawal agreement will be nothing outside the treaties. So automatically the court of justice is competent.”
Manfred Weber, the chair of the largest party grouping in the European parliament, warned Britain that the consequences of Brexit would impact on its citizens daily lives, and that the EU would be “tough” on the UK.
“We have developed in the last decades thousands of detailed regulations which had the idea of limiting the impact of borders in our daily lives, in the daily life of citizens, to make our life more comfortable, easier, more safe,” Weber said.
“That was the idea of all these regulations, and the British people decided to leave this union, so they will not be so comfortable, so safe, not so economically strong. That’s why we will say that it really is a very negative day.”
Denmark’s prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said Britain’s farewell to the EU was “incredibly sad”, but added he expected “many bumps on the road” following a decision that “will have consequences … Rights and responsibilities go hand in hand in the EU. You cannot have one without the other.”
The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, said Spain’s priority was to “minimise uncertainty in relation to investment in place between Spain and the UK”, while Sweden’s Stefan Löfven said he wanted “organised, results-oriented negotiations” because good relations with London “are important for Britain, Europe and Sweden”.It’s a win for me if I get selfish and try to ignore the stuff I already know and the stuff I dislike and hunt for the one thing that makes me better.
Raymond Smullyan does much more than write about Infinity, Combinatory Logic, Recursion Theory, and Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems. And he does much more than teach these concepts delightfully by turning them into stories and puzzles to solve. He also teaches philosophy by way of insightful essays and anecdotes.
I’m going to paraphrase one of his down-home insights. This particular little story has helped me through many dark periods in my life. Raymond was talking about Taoism, and he explained that his two pet dogs embrace the Tao. I think he described them as “Sages.”
Raymond explained that like many dogs, they preferred rich chunks of meat and gravy to dried kibble. And like many people, Raymond had tried making the kibble more palatable by mixing in some meat with the dry dog food and pouring gravy over the whole thing.
The dogs, of course, would carefully pick the meat out and lick up all the gravy, leaving nothing but the dried kibble behind. But did they resent this? Did they howl and whine about the kibble ruining the meat? Of course not! They would wag their tails and frisk about, joyous in finding all that good meat and tasty gravy in their bowls. It was like the kibble existed in some alternate dimension that the dogs could not perceive.
Aaah… Dogs truly are Sages.
This post is not meant as a criticism of people for writing blog posts criticizing other blog posts. Or even for flaming them. It’s just a challenge to keep our eyes out for value and to keep our minds open at all times.
I see that someone has posted this on programming.reddit.com. There’s something ironic about the first couple of comments I saw. Honestly, I tried to respond and then deleted my thoughts immediately. I’ll return to participating there when there’s an opportunity to add value, not just to deepen entrenched prejudices.
The saw and the blunt instruments are not metaphors for programming languages, compilers, or debuggers. Please comment here or email me if this is not obvious, I will edit the post to be more explicit.
This just in: someone has pointed out that Zen and Taoism are not the same, and that the parable was wrongly attributed. Thanks.
In sales, there is a very high, observable, and measurable correlation between attending sales training seminars and sales volume. One explanation for this is that the kind of people who take time off of selling to sharpen their own saw are the kind of people to be top salespeople.The other possibility is that there is something abut the seminars themselves that make salespeople better. I have asked salespeople about it, and generally I get a variation on the exact same answer: If I can learn just one thing that improves my sales skills, the seminar will pay for itself.Think about that. They go to an all day seminar, where they will probably hear twenty, thirty, or forty tips. They will probably sit through tip after tip thinking “Yawn, I knew that, tell me something new.” Or they hear something and think: “That is the worst suggestion I’ve ever heard.” But then, suddenly, they hear something new, and they profit from it.In sales, you are used to making call after call, facing rejection after rejection, but you keep dialing because… the next one could be a winner. So the kind of person who can keep on dialing after rejection ought to be the kind of person who can sit through a seminar waiting to pounce on one new thing that can improve their income.Is this how we learn about programming? No!What we do is this: we read a blog post, reading thing after thing we agree with, and if just one thing in there doesn’t fit our personal world view, we demand a correction. If the thesis of the post clashes with our prejudices, we accuse the author of being an idiot. Honestly, we would suck as salespeople. We would quit the first time someone disagreed with us.What I suggest we do is mimic these salespeople. When we read a post, or a book, or look at a new language, let’s assume that some or even most of it will not be new. Let’s assume that we’ll positively detest some of it. But let’s also look at it in terms of our own profit: we win if we can find just one thing in there that makes us better programmers.That’s all we need from a blog post, you know. It’s a huge win if there’s one thing in a post. Heck, it’s a huge win if we read one hundred posts and learn one new valuable thing.This is what I’ve learned from sales: It’s a win for me if I get selfish and try to ignore the stuff I already know and the stuff I dislike and hunt for the one thing that makes me better.When someone says something outrageous, like: Fuck compilers and their false sense of security, it is not important whether I happen to think that programming languages with strong, expressive type systems are valuable (hint: I do ). What is important is to look at this statement and ask yourself: Is there just one thing in there, one kernel of wisdom that I can extract and use to be a better programmer?I think there is a lot of useful stuff to be extracted from that one outrageous statement. So much so that it is not important to me whether, on the whole, compilers are a bad idea. And likewise, it is not important to me whether debuggers are always a bad idea.No more important than asking a salesperson if, on the whole, she thought the seminar presenter was any good. She’ll be too busy using the one thing she learned to give any thought to the question.(Part I of “What I’ve Learned from Sales,” Don’t Feed the Trolls, looked at why resistance to a new idea is expressed as a never-ending series of objections. Part II, Wanna Bet?, described how to handle one very common form of objection.)Update: A couple of thoughts after sleeping on this post.Where Does Voucher Funding Go? How Large-Scale Subsidy Programs Affect Private-School Revenue, Enrollment, and Prices
NBER Working Paper No. 21687
Issued in October 2015
NBER Program(s):Children, Economics of Education, Labor Studies, Public Economics
Using a new dataset constructed from nonprofit tax-returns, this paper explores how vouchers and other large-scale programs subsidizing private school attendance have affected the fiscal outcomes of private schools and the affordability of a private education. We find that subsidy programs created a large transfer of public funding to private schools, suggesting that every dollar of funding increased revenue by a dollar or more. Turning to the incidence of subsidies and the impact of subsidies on enrollment, our findings depend on the type of program introduced, with programs restricting eligibility to certain groups of students creating relatively large enrollment gains and small price increases compared to unrestricted programs. We calculate elasticities of demand and supply for private schools, and discuss welfare effects.
Acknowledgments
Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX
Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w21687
Published: Daniel M. Hungerman & Kevin Rinz, 2016. "Where does voucher funding Go? How large-scale subsidy Programs Affect Private-School revenue, enrollment, and prices," Journal of Public Economics, vol (). citation courtesy of
Users who downloaded this paper also downloaded* these:Michel Louwagie expressed his delight at facing Spurs in the knockout stage, revealing a little more than expected following the last 32 draw
Gent managing director Michel Louwagie had a bizarre reaction to being drawn against Tottenham in the Europa League Round of 32, claiming it was the club's 'wet dream'.
After finishing second in Group H ahead of Portuguese side Braga, Louwagie was anxious ahead of the draw for the knockout stage. The Gent director hoped his side would get a glamorous tie, and was not disappointed when they were drawn against the Premeir League club.
'Ronaldo and Messi are monsters!'
However, his reaction to drawing Spurs left little to the imagination!
"We feared we would draw a Turkish opponent," Louwagie told Sporza. "It was the wet dream of mine and the president to get either Roma or Tottenham.
"This is like a Champions League game. We will play at Wembley, which is fantastic. Every game in that stadium is an epic. Now we can play there, and that is something you want to experience once in your career."
Having only won the Belgian league title once, Louwagie knows that Gent are not at the same level as Tottenham or many of Europe's other big clubs. Despite that, he is looking forward to the challenge of Gent proving themselves against Mauricio Pochettino's side.
"We have not been one of the top clubs for long, so this is all relatively new for us. We are extra excited," the 60-year-old admitted.
"The coach always wants a challenge. Last year he was disappointed we did not get an English club. Tottenham are obviously stronger [than Gent], but Gent has also put in performances in Europe that nobody expected.
"Who knows, maybe they will underestimate us? Tottenham is a big name, and we will go there with a lot of respect."Tucked into an historic winding Hutong of Beijing, this work of convertible architecture featuring a modular moving wall to make maximum use of flexible interior and exterior space on demand.
The so-called Humble Hostel by Chinese architect Cao Pu is a tiny 130-square-foot apartment with beds that can be rented out for just $20 a night. Its novel modular nature is a reflection of complex courtyard politics of these intertwined neighborhoods.
Meanwhile, over the centuries in China the lines have become blurred regarding ownership of communal open pedestrian space shared by the aged dwellings that surround them, attached organically over time to branching streets, paths and alleys.
In pulling back the facade of the structure, the design effectively gives space back for public use when the interior volume is not needed, creating space for seating and socializing in otherwise cramped quarters. The resulting roofed patio can host card games, a tea table, pop-up shop or temporary bar.
This prototype could herald potential applications in all kinds of close-proximity housing situations involving small-space dwellings. Future buildings might include this technology from the ground up, reshaping the way we think about architectural flexibility.French drug giant Sanofi is the textbook case of the tax-avoiding, corporate-welfare-loving multinational colossus taking Australian taxpayers and consumers to the cleaners.
An investigation of nine years of financial statements by Sanofi-Aventis Australia Pty Ltd, has found the company paid income tax of just $106.5 million on revenues of $7.5 billion, just 1.4 per cent.
The trend however is for increasingly belligerent tax avoidance. Over the past five years, Sanofi has paid just $19.7 million in tax on revenues of $4.1 billion; this despite billions in subsidies from Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).
In order to pull off this tromperie of tax avoidance, Sanofi has deployed most of the devious strategies from the multinational playbook:
It has pulled the marketing expenses lever: racking up a ludicrous $1.3 billion in “marketing expenses”, despite selling Lantus, the most prescribed basal insulin in the world, a medicine which needs little marketing.
It has pulled the debt-loading lever: racking up large borrowings from another Sanofi entity overseas in order to rip out pre-tax profits via onerous interest charges.
It has pulled the offshore capital return lever via a share buy-back with a US entity in 2009.
It has pulled the darkness and non-disclosure lever: switching to skimpy Special Purpose reporting from General Purpose reporting in 2006.
It has pulled the marketing hub lever: shuffling its boxes of pills from Germany to France to Singapore to Australia to run down taxable profits thanks to three layers of unnecessary costs.
It has pulled the political bribery lever: forking out a plethora of donations to the Liberal Party, the Labor Party and the National Party, year-in year-out, to keep government off their backs.
It has pulled the corporate welfare lever: claiming billions in taxpayer subsidies for its pharma products from the PBS while having the cheek to claim R&D offsets.
It pulled the overpaying for acquisitions lever: stumping up $549 million in intangibles (total purchase price $562 million) for something it bought in 2009. Creating losses is de riguer for the multinational.
It has pulled the Big Four accounting firm lever: paying EY to sign off on its accounts as if its auditor somehow brought integrity to its statutory disclosures.
The rub is, this is fairly typical multinational behaviour. As is the smokescreen which is its rhetoric and manicured public image.
In the ETHICS section on the Sanofi website, you will find the following:
“Our company believes every employee and contractor must abide by the highest ethical principles. Therefore, our success depends upon the legal and ethical behaviour of every employee. Sanofi has established strong ethical standards that are described in our business Code of Ethics. Our Code is based upon our company values and the culture we promote throughout our organisation. We believe that economic performance cannot be dissociated from responsibility.”
It is telling that directors and auditors are not bound by this code of self-righteousness. If it were to be believable, it would read:
“Just like most other multinationals operating in Australia, our aim is to rip out every cent we can to our offshore associates while burnishing our PR image and claiming as much welfare from the government as we possibly can. Our only ethic is self-enrichment and pushing the envelope as far as our lawyers permit us.”
Sanofi enjoyed subsidies of $354 million from the taxpayer-funded PBS in 2015/2016, or $41 per script. That same year, it notched up sales of $764 million and paid a measly $95,000 in income tax. Its gross margin was 35 per cent of revenue, its marketing expense $149 million, admin expenses $91.5 million, finance costs $51 million and employee benefits expense $92 million.
The main gameplan, and indeed that of its peers, is to bulk up costs in Australia and drive down profits so profits head offshore.
One of the ruses it deploys to bring this outcome is bouncing its boxes around the world. We should give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they don’t just invoice but actually, physically bounce them.
At the Senate Inquiry into Corporate Tax Avoidance in 2015, Sanofi executives told the Committee they did not know how much tax they paid in the previous year. Was tax expense $8.7 million?
The question was taken on notice and, when it came back, it was revealed income tax due was just $3.4 million after amortisation of brand names and $10.1 million in R&D tax credits.
Little tubes and boxes of pills are not like live cattle exports. They are not big things which need to be tended and watered. Nonetheless, Sanofi – again in responding to questions on notice – revealed they bounced their little boxes about on a world tour before they got to Australia.
The biggest seller in 2014 was Lantus Solostar 5 (LS5), representing some 89 per cent of total Lantus sales (Lantus is Sanofi’s number one product. How did this product get to Australia?
“Financial flows from Germany to Australia are as follows: 1) Sanofi Germany sells LS5 to a French Sanofi affiliate acting as a regional logistic hub for Europe (French hub); 2) French hub sells LS5 to Sanofi Singapore acting as a regional logistic hub for the Asia and Pacific region (Singapore hub). 3) Singapore hub sells LS5 to Sanofi-Aventis Australia Pty Ltd (SAA) that acts as a distributor of Lantus in Australia.” Sanofi failed to reveal the cost of its French hub but admitted the profit margin the Singapore hub received in 2014 on the LS5 units sold to Australia was “about 1.3 per cent of its LS5 sales to Australia”. That’s sales, not profit mind you, and that’s roughly equivalent – just the Singapore leg – to how much tax this company has, on average, paid the Commonwealth over the past nine years.
Singapore, as is so often the case, is nabbing its cut of the Australian taxpayer and consumer dollar thanks to an artificial construct designed to scive out of tax.
It is not even in the same stratosphere of “marketing expenses” though, which accounted for a gargantuan 18 per cent of revenues over the past nine years to 2016.
In 2008, Sanofi paid $35 million or 5 per cent of its revenues as income tax. At their current rate, it would take another four years, or nine years in total, before Sanofi cracks the $35 million mark again. This is no accident. Sanofi’s quinquennial of tax avoidance has been planned and executed with military precision.
Around 2006, Sanofi knew its stellar pharmaceutical product Lantus, used by insulin dependent diabetics, was set to deliver the company big profits in Australia. Sanofi summoned its cuff-linked buccaneers from the legal and accounting fraternity and set about pulling on all those levers of tax avoidance; the very levers which swindle ordinary Australian citizens and lead to things like cuts in government funding and pension freezes.
Creating artificial costs and losses and running down taxable income in Australia is de riguer for the multinational. Sanofi pulled those levers to inoculate the company from Australian income taxes on Lantus sales.
One particularly aromatic transaction occurred in 2008 when Sanofi purchased Symbion CP Holdings, a vitamins and dietary supplements business whose products include Natures Own, Cenovis, Bio-organics, Golden Glow and Microgenics.
Interred in the notes to the financial statements for that year is the admission that the acquisition price was $562 million but goodwill was $354 million and “Brand Intangibles” $195 million.
How did Sanofi finance this acquisition? It borrowed from an associate offshore, Sanofi-Aventis Europe at an interest rate of 8 per cent via a bunch of Redeemable Preference Shares. While Sanofi Australia was paying its associate 8 per cent interest, interest rates in the US were in freefall thanks to the financial crisis. It is not quite in Chevron’s league but it probably could have borrowed at half that rate and saved the Australian company some onerous interest costs.
That is not the game though, the game is wiping out Australia’s profits by whisking interest payments offshore and evidently the French do it with the aplomb of the Americans. Meanwhile, a propos of compliance and obeying les lois de la terre, Sanofi’s financial statements were filed late every one of the past 12 years. Bien joue EY!
To borrow from its mother tongue, Sanofi is a quintessential case of banditisme multinational. And when the profession’s social media celebration #AuditorProud Day rolls around this Thursday, EY should declare, “Excusez-nous”.
Sanofi declined to respond to specific questions for this story, electing to respond with the following general statement:
“Sanofi Australia conducts its business in an ethical, legal and socially responsible manner complying with all applicable tax laws in Australia.
“As a multinational corporation, Sanofi is committed to fully complying with the laws and regulations in force in all countries where the Group operates.
“During the 2016/2017 year the principle activities of the entities within the Group continued to be the business of healthcare products (prescription pharmaceuticals, vaccines, over the counter medicines and vitamin supplements) sale and distribution. We also continue to manufacture vitamins, minerals and supplements locally at our manufacturing plant in Brisbane following a major business acquisition in 2008 to the amount of $ A560M.
“Expenditure in our R&D activities is claimable through the Australia R&D tax regime. In the last few years, we have applied for, and received, a tax benefit from the Australian Taxation Office for projects undertaken in our clinical trials area, as well as the R&D activities undertaken in our Consumer Healthcare business.
“As with all businesses, Sanofi Australia experiences the vagaries of business but at all times it has complied with the tax laws in Australia and made appropriate claims to which it is entitled under those laws.
“All necessary financial documentation has been lodged with the relevant Australian Authorities and the Corporations Act 2001.Buyer Beware. At the end of September, the USDA quietly halted a program called the Agricultural Chemical Usage Program. The program’s purpose was to measure pesticide use in fruit and vegetable crops. Data from the program was widely used by the EPA to set allowable pesticide levels and also by university researchers and other groups that help farmers minimize the amount of pesticides they apply to their crops.
The reason cited for the move was cost. I don’t know about you, but $8 million a year seems a small price to pay for safer food.
A little background: remember the Alar scare in 1989? Alar was a carcinogenic chemical widely sprayed on apples and when its residue ended up in the apple sauce and apple juices so often eaten by children, a public furor erupted. The flap over Alar resulted in the banning of the chemical, a new slate of food laws, and the enactment of the Agricultural Chemical Usage Program in 1990.
Fast forward: university researchers and EPA policy makers must now purchase the data privately at a cost of $500-$800 a year from a company called Dmrkynetec. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dmrkynetec has a few lobbyists roaming the halls of the USDA. After all, the USDA is the same government agency that was recently ordered by a federal judge to stop buying ads against Proposition 2 in California (a proposition that will ban some of the worst confined feeding practices in industrial meat and egg production). Last time I checked it was illegal for government agencies to try to influence elections.
This development is just another reason to buy your produce from a local, organic farmer you trust. There is a bright side. If word gets out, this will only help the community farmers who are doing it right. So after you hit your local farmers’ market, tell a few friends about what the USDA isn’t doing to ensure safe food supplies.
Sources:
SFGate: Prop 2 Story
Chicago Times: Pesticide Program
More on the Program
Image: soylentgreen23Years after the snakes have been defeated, modern aviation has found a new nemesis: cellos.
Boston-based cellist Paul Katz recently bought a pair of seats – one for himself and another for his 1669 Andrea Guarneri cello – on an American Airlines flight from Calgary to Los Angeles. Only when he arrived at the airport did he learn that American Airlines "code-shares" with WestJet. His flight on American turned into a flight on WestJet – which, unlike AA, doesn't allow cellos in cabins.
Katz was faced with a choice: Stow the cello in baggage or get off the plane. With great reluctance, he allowed his valuable instrument to be placed in the plane's hold – and fretted until he and his cello arrived safely in L.A.
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The incident so appalled Katz that he wrote an as-it-happens account of the incident, published in the Boston Globe last week.
"My imagination is out of control," he noted in mid-flight. "I see my cello in pieces, fingerboard off, cracks in the back and – worst of all – the bridge pushed through the top."
His fears weren't unfounded. Stowing instruments in an airplane's baggage compartment is a risky business – as Canadian country singer Dave Carroll learned in 2008, when his Taylor guitar was damaged on a United Airlines flight. He memorialized the incident in a song, United Breaks Guitars, which became a YouTube hit.
Top-of the-line Taylor guitars sell for about $8,000. But the best cellos are in a different league altogether, commanding prices of more than $1-million.
Baggage handlers may have no idea of a fine cello's value or fragility, however, treating it just like another piece of luggage. And on top of the risk of damage through mishandling, the changes in air pressure, temperature and humidity that a cello must endure in a baggage compartment can play havoc with a sensitive instrument.
Overhead luggage bins often accommodate small instruments – violins, flutes, clarinets and the like. Large instruments such as harps and double basses must inevitably be stowed in cargo, in specially constructed transportation cases.
But cellos are an in-between size, standing about four-and-a-half feet tall, and this makes the idea of strapping one into a seat a desirable option. Yet policies governing cellos in cabin seats vary from airline to airline – even from plane to plane. And everyone from Transport Canada bureaucrats to airport security staff and pilots is involved in the decision-making process.
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Further complicating matters, says Toronto travel agent Rade Sekulic (who specializes in travel arrangements for musicians), is the fact that musicians don't always know how to deal with airlines and airports.
"When musicians encounter problems at airports, they can become very negative," he says. "They don't understand how the channels work – or what to do if someone says no. So to prevent problems, musicians should inform airlines in advance, and get an acknowledgment that they can bring a cello, or other instrument, on board."
On many Air Canada flights, cellists can buy an extra seat for their instruments, which are then secured with a special net.
Porter Airlines has no such equipment – but a lucky musician may be allowed to place a cello in an on-board closet, if space permits.
Then there's WestJet, which won't make any special arrangements for cellos in the passenger cabin – and has no plans to do so.
"The demand for this service is insufficient to justify the cost, time and resources involved in launching the certification," says WestJet spokesman Robert Palmer. "We fly roughly 16 million guests each year, and receive at most a handful of telephone calls from guests asking if they may purchase a seat for their cello."
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"I find that outrageous," Katz says. "If that's their policy, the least they could do is program their online computer system so it won't accept a booking for a cello."
After four decades of flying around the world with his precious instrument, Katz has learned which airlines are cello-friendly and which aren't. And the least accommodating, in his experience, are Canadian.
"I hate to say it," he says, "but of all the countries I've been in, Canada is the worst for flying with a cello."
Katz isn't the first cellist with a fear of flying with an instrument stowed in baggage. The late Canadian cellist Zara Nelsova famously once became so frustrated with an airline official who told her that passengers couldn't board with cellos that she attempted to pass hers off as an exotic folk instrument. "It's not a cello," she protested indignantly, "it's a jumbo balalaika!"
Special to The Globe and MailThis is news to me but apparently Joan Rivers has a TV show on WE, and also there’s a channel named WE, and on last nights episode Joan was nervous about meeting her daughters boyfriend. So she got together with a friend. And they got stoned as fuck.
The Daily Mail says…
(Joan) calls her friend Lynne who tells her she can get her something that will calm her down.
The pair visit a medical marijuana doctor for a prescription before heading to a shop that sells cannabis.
She and Lynne then find a spot to park their car and light up the pipe.
The pair get the giggles, with Joan exclaiming: ‘I’m starving, i want to eat right now, lets go.’
But Lynne, who is in the driver’s seat, is clearly in no state to be behind the wheel, saying: ‘I cant tell if I’m moving.’
Joan says: ‘I don’t think you should drive… I’m going to call Melissa.’
Her daughter arrives and is furious at the pair, saying: ‘Oh my god, we have to go right now come on, we’re going home… I’m ashamed of both you.’
The women make Melissa stop at a roadside food truck for burgers and chips.
Back at home home, Melissa tries to put the laughing pair to bed quietly while everyone else sleeps.
But Joan and Lynne aren’t ready to sleep, and go into the hot tub fully clothed in the middle of the night.
Well it’s a good thing marijuana is still illegal almost everywhere in this country. If she hadn’t been under a doctors care when she giggled and ate a hamburger, it would have been pandaemonium.After the years of Occupy Wall Street the Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton is completely bought and paid for by Wall Street. The hedge-funds have donated nearly $50 million dollars for her campaign and this doesn’t include that the Clintons made $3.15 million in 2013 alone from speaking to firms like Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and UBS, according to the list her campaign released of her speaking fees.
From the Wall Street Journal:
The top five contributors to pro-Clinton groups are employees or owners of private investment funds, according to federal data released last week and compiled by OpenSecrets.org, the center’s website. The data show seven financial firms alone have generated nearly $48.5 million for groups working on Mrs. Clinton’s behalf. The total for Donald Trump: About $19,000.
The Young Turks exposed Hillary’s relationship with the banks here:
CommentsIn March, Hillary Clinton said she had turned over "all my emails that could possibly be work-related." Two months ago, she signed a statement "under penalty of perjury" swearing that she had provided all emails that were, or potentially were, federal records.
Did she perjure herself? It appears she did. If she had turned them all in, why are officials asking for more?
Last week, Patrick F. Kennedy, the State Department's under secretary of state for management, told Clinton's lawyer in a letter that she had better get busy providing more emails.
"To the extent her emails might be found on any internet service and email providers," he wrote, "we encourage you to contact them."
Kennedy's letter raises another issue beyond possible perjury from a presidential candidate. Is he suggesting that there is possibly another private email account used by Clinton while at State that we don't know about?
So far we know that Clinton used [email protected] and [email protected] during her tour at the State Department. If she turned over all her relevant emails from these known accounts, as she says she has, then what is Kennedy referring to? More from those same accounts? Or emails from another not-yet-identified account? The wording "on any internet service and email providers" leaves the request wide open for interpretation.
Speculation that an undiscovered personal account exists is not a reed too thin to hold up. Clinton has been covering up and continually lying as the scandal has played out.
She has said that she used the personal account(s) because she didn't want to juggle multiple devices. That was untrue.
Clinton has also said she had no classified material on her personal email. Again, this is not true.
Also untrue is her claim that she turned over her emails because of a general State Department request asking for emails of several prior secretaries. The request was for hers alone. She was targeted because of suspicions.
And while Clinton has admitted that she employed a private server for personal email accounts used by her and at least one other State Department aide, some say evidence points to the existence of a second server.
Believing the Clintons has become a task too difficult for the average person. Across a quarter century of national public exposure, they have nurtured and refined a special brand of dishonesty. There's really not anything they can be trusted with, and that includes another shot at the White House.* Tax office head aims to recoup $15.6 bln in lost revenue
* Says much of the lost money is in resources sector
* Says better data, more tax officers will help collection (Adds comment from tax office, background)
By Gayatri Suroyo and Eveline Danubrata
JAKARTA, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Indonesia will crack down on corporate tax avoidance via transfer pricing this year to try and recoup 200 trillion rupiah ($15.6 billion) in lost state income, mainly in the commodities sector, the new head of the tax office told Reuters.
President Joko Widodo’s administration, which took office in October, is planning to double its infrastructure spending this year to build ports, power plants and other projects, and the tax office figure for lost income would cover more than two-thirds of that spending.
As a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP), Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, has one of the lowest tax takes in the region, trailing behind Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, according to the World Bank.
Sigit Priadi Pramudito, the country’s director-general of taxes, said in an interview late on Monday that many Indonesian companies, particularly in the coal, palm oil, cocoa and other commodities sectors, were avoiding corporate taxes by using transfer pricing.
He declined to give names, but said some of them were major companies.
Under the transfer pricing method, an Indonesian company sells its goods to a subsidiary in another country below market prices, and the subsidiary in turn sells them to the market.
This effectively reduces profits in Indonesia and increases them in that foreign country.
“There’s a lot of potential in this area. We suspect that all along, they have been using the transfer pricing method,” Pramudito said. “This year we will chase them.”
The tax office has the authority to adjust the tax bill of a company if it suspects that a sale to a related entity is under-priced.
In the past, it was difficult to prove companies had under-priced their goods as the tax office lacked comparable data on market prices, Pramudito said.
But now it has collected more comprehensive data and is increasing its number of officers, he said, adding that it could take such companies to a tax court and indeed had won some such cases.
Widodo plans to add 4,000 taxmen per year to its existing 36,000 to help achieve an ambitious tax revenue target of 1,489.3 trillion rupiah this year, up 30 percent from last year’s collection.
During his presidential campaign last year, Widodo pledged to increase tax collection to 16 percent of GDP from about 12 percent, and the tax office is keen to close any loopholes.
The tax crackdown on the resources sector comes at a time when the prices of commodities have fallen to multi-year lows due to slowing global economic growth and ample supplies, setting the stage for a showdown with these companies.
Even so, many of them are still making big profits, Pramudito said.
“The prices of commodities have dropped, but the costs are still cheap. The fact is, their profits are still tremendous, and using that method (transfer pricing) adds to the profits.”
Indonesia’s finance minister has said Southeast Asia’s largest economy will review its tax treaties with dozens of countries and may suspend those it concludes are being abused for tax avoidance.
When asked whether the tax crackdown will hurt the investment climate in Indonesia, Pramudito said the country’s hope to boost investment should not come at the expense of tax compliance.
“How can you build an investment climate on the basis of tax avoidance?” ($1 = 12,860.00 rupiah) (Editing by Randy Fabi and Will Waterman)The Strip: I love Bastion…so much. The narrator is always, well narrating the shit out of your every move, in a sort of folky, old west film noir style. He will, from time to time, alert you to your short comings. Nothing overt. Not nearly as mean as I made him out to be in this strip.
Gaming: Another great weekend at the arcade. I think I am becoming fully addicted once again to Kortal Kombat 3. I find myself burning to get better…and trust me, I will. There was a time before marriage and children where that promise was as good as gold, now though, not so much. I am finding an old itch that needs to be scratched…soon. The itch? To shoot things, in first person mode, mostly heads if possible.
TV/Movies: T |
, where a plaque will be dedicated in her memory.
[VIDEO: Watch the video of Bretagne's final walk]
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Copyright 2016 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.The white-black ideological split has been a constant in American politics for decades. In the series of election year polls conducted by the American National Election Survey (ANES, a Stanford-University of Michigan polling collaboration), blacks have consistently sided with the view that “government in Washington should see to it that every person has a job and a good standard of living” by much higher margins than whites—sometimes by more than 2 to 1. Conversely, ANES reports that many more whites than blacks agree that “government should provide fewer services, even in areas such as health and education, in order to reduce spending.”
These general findings suggest the possibility that the political strength of voters whose convictions are perhaps best described as Social Democratic in the European sense is reaching a significant level in the United States. With effective organization and mobilization, such voters are positioned to set the agenda in the Democratic Party in the near future.
At the same time, the share of the electorate made up of the demographic group most strongly committed to a political agenda relatively favorable to the material interests of the “haves” is declining. The U.S. Census predicts that by 2050, non-Hispanic whites will no longer be in the majority. Teixeira, in a report for the liberal Center for American Progress, predicts that by 2016 “it is likely that the United States will no longer be a majority white Christian nation.”
The potential or even incipient shift in the balance of power from “haves” to “have-nots” is not purely demographic. The shift stems from a combination of economic developments, especially the army of long-term unemployed and stagnant incomes at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.
Just as the number of the unemployed with bleak prospects has been growing, so too has been the number of those without health insurance. From 1987 to 2008, the percentage of people without coverage grew from 12.9 to 15.4 percent; and, in hard figures, from 31.03 million to 46.34 million. This is a constituency desperately in need of help, and the only source of help for many, if not most, is the government.
* * *
While the uninsured have been increasing absolutely and as a percentage of the total population, so too has been the percentage of the population receiving government-financed medical coverage from Medicare or Medicaid. These two programs covered 21 percent of the population in 1987, and 28.4 percent of the population in 2008.
According to the Federal Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the share of total personal income in the United States that comes from government transfer programs – Social Security, Medicare, veterans’ benefits, unemployment compensation, etc. – has grown rapidly over the past six decades, from 5.9 cents of every dollar in 1950, to 8.5 cents in 1970, to 11.8 cents in 1990, 12.5 cents in 2000, to 17.3 cents in 2009. In addition, according to BEA, another 9.8 cents of every dollar went, in 2009, to salaries for state, local and federal government employees, a figure that does not include costs of fringe benefits. In other words, more than a quarter of all personal income in the United States is paid for with tax dollars.Ubisoft is one of my personal favorite game publishers, and that shouldn't come as a surprise given their strong output of good games—with recent titles like Assassin's Creed 3 and Far Cry 3 taking up most, if not all of my gaming time in recent weeks.
Thus far, they've made nothing but classy ads that reflect (relatively) well upon their games, often reflecting the original material positively and accurately, to a degree scarcely captured by other game publishers. Say what you will about the dark themes of Far Cry 3, but its ads—which feature the actor, Michael Mando, who portrays Vaas in the game—are exactly the same as the game in their tone. They don't portray the game as anything other than what it is.
It makes me disappointed to write that Ubisoft UK's marketing of the very excellent zombie survival horror game ZombiU for the WiiU diverges from the publisher's practice of putting out good ads by attempting to pander to gamers, lazily, with an ad laden with ironic sexism. As @Mar_Lard said to me on Twitter, "Ironic sexism is still sexism." And so it is.
The ad depicts a large-breasted woman in her lingerie in the process of removing her top, on one page, with the words "SHE'S GOT A BODY TO DIE FOR." There's a caption at the bottom that reads "WANNA SEE IT?", encouraging the reader to flip over to the next page.
The next page contains a picture of the same woman, zombified to hell and back by makeup and photoshop filters to look like a crazed living corpse with blood on her hands and drying wounds under the caption "WE DID WARN YOU."
For a game that can very easily sell on its own merits, I have to question whether it was ever necessary for Ubisoft UK to create such a sexually charged ad for the game. They say "sex sells", but why would you ever use sex to sell a game that has next to nothing to do with sex at all?
Maybe it's about time we exercised our creative muscles to put together an ad instead of vomiting out an ad with breasts in it to sell something completely unrelated.Republican donors want nothing to do with Donald Trump.
On Wednesday morning, the presumptive GOP nominee, who has largely self-financed his presidential bid so far, announced that he would be soliciting checks from small contributors and would soon make a decision about whether to accept big contributions from the ranks of Republican megadonors.
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But in interviews with more than a dozen major GOP funders, not one on Wednesday would commit to donating to Trump. Some raised the possibility that they would focus solely on giving to House or Senate candidates.
Others went further in expressing their discontent: Representatives of Charles and David Koch, the billionaire industrialists who helped to bankroll the rise of the tea party, warned the brothers could sit out the presidential campaign entirely — or even back Hillary Clinton.
With so many of the GOP’s funders closing their checkbooks, battles over money are breaking out behind closed doors. And as concern grows that Republicans will suffer a shortfall that could stymie candidates up and down the ballot, some foresee looming cash fights pitting Trump against congressional Republicans who are anxious to preserve their hard-won majorities.
“There will definitely be high competition for resources,” said Curt Anderson, a former Republican National Committee political director and veteran party strategist. “There’s going to be a push-and-pull. You have a nominee that isn’t universally liked, so there’s going to be a lot of jockeying.”
To say big donors are turned off by Trump might be an understatement. On the day that the GOP crowned a de facto nominee, some of the party’s most prolific benefactors talked openly about backing the expected standard-bearer for the rival party.
Brad Freeman, a Los Angeles investment banker who donated over $1 million to a pro-Jeb Bush super PAC and who has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to congressional Republicans over the years, said he planned to donate to “one of the presidential candidates,” though he declined to say which party he’d support.
“Don’t have to decide before maybe October!” he added.
Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, might be the Kochs. Last month, Charles Koch told ABC News that it’s “possible” Clinton would make a better president than Trump. On Wednesday, a spokesman for the brothers declined to rule out the possibility of backing the former secretary of state, though he implicitly criticized both her campaign and Trump’s.
Mark Holden, the general counsel and senior vice president at Koch Industries, said Koch-funded political groups would consider supporting a general election candidate who is “able to garner support from the public with a positive message in support of the issues we care about, and did not engage in personal attacks and mudslinging.”
“That hasn’t happened yet and there is no indication that this will happen given the current tone and tenor of the various campaigns,” he added.
(On Thursday, a spokesman for the Koch-funded political arm Freedom Partners sought to clarify their position, indicating it was unlikely the Kochs would support Clinton. Her “big-government” policies, the spokesman said, were out-of-step with their goals.)
Even before Trump’s Indiana win, party officials had expressed concern about the state of the GOP’s finances — much of it surrounding the Republican National Committee, which ended March with just $16 million on hand and nearly $2 million in outstanding debt. Taken together, the bank account is a fraction of where the committee had been at similar points in 2008 and 2012.
The shortfall has raised alarms among congressional candidates in key battleground states, who traditionally rely on the committee to fund an aggressive field program. The RNC recently acknowledged that it would be directing field staffers to those states later than it initially hoped to.
Behind the scenes, tensions have grown. The RNC recently abruptly canceled a meeting with Pennsylvania Republicans to discuss planned field efforts, leading some party officials to express private frustration, according to three sources familiar with the situation. (An RNC spokeswoman said there had been a scheduling conflict, but the meeting had been rescheduled.) Adding to the strain, last month the RNC told The New York Times that it would establish a Senate Fund to boost candidates in tough races. Yet before announcing the program, it didn’t give a heads up to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, leaving staffers there fuming.
“First anyone here heard of it was in The New York Times,” an NRSC official said.
The RNC declined to directly address the back-and-forth with the Senate committee but said in a statement that “beyond ensuring we win back the White House we are committed to maintaining majorities in the House and Senate.”
With Trump clinching the nomination, the presumptive nominee and the RNC can establish a joint fundraising program that would allow the businessman to simultaneously raise money for himself and the committee. The RNC has attributed its cash shortfall to the protracted nature of the primary, making it impossible for the committee to reach such an agreement until now.
But, even as Trump embraces the mantle of GOP standard-bearer, questions persist about his ability to raise funds. The real estate mogul has shunned fundraising and lacks the donor network most party nominees typically have. He has railed against lobbyists and rainmakers and has bragged that, unlike other candidates seeking the presidency, he can’t be influenced by megadonors.
Yet as he turns to the general election, Trump will be relying on GOP contributors. The businessman said on Wednesday that, after spending more than $40 million out of his own pocket on the primary, he would only partly self-fund the fall campaign.
Many of the GOP’s biggest financiers, though, won’t commit to helping Trump bankroll what’s expected to be a challenging general election campaign.
“Will be watching it all carefully,” said Lawrence Bathgate, a prominent New Jersey attorney and former RNC finance chairman. “Very unusual cycle.”
“My wife would like me to give it up all together,” said Anthony Gioia, a major GOP contributor and former ambassador, adding that he was evaluating his options.
A spokesman for Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson declined to comment on his plans. So, too, did representatives of New York City hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer. A spokesman for the Ricketts family, major GOP givers and owners of the Chicago Cubs, said no decision had been made on whether they’ll invest in the presidential race.
Others say they’re turning their attention to critical down-ballot contests, where candidates could find themselves at risk if Trump tanks. Randy Kendrick, the wife of Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick and a player in the Koch fundraising network, said she would be focused on funding congressional races. So, too, did Frayda Levy, a board member of the anti-tax Club for Growth and the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity.
“If and how to participate in the presidential remains to be seen,” she added.
Said George Seay, a Dallas investor who was a major fundraiser for Marco Rubio: “I have gotten involved in some Senate races, but I’m pretty much sidelined politically for now.”
In some corners of the GOP fundraising world, the mood on Wednesday was downright morose. During an interview, one of Washington’s most influential lobbyists joked that he was considering opening up the window of his high-rise office building and jumping.
Others, though, were more sanguine. Trump, they reasoned, might not be so bad after all.
“I think we'll go through an initial phase of holding back,” said former Minnesota Rep. Vin Weber, a prominent Washington lobbyist. “If Trump looks good, he'll convert all sorts of donors.”One day in June, Shantell McNair headed to the Broward Juvenile Detention Center in Fort Lauderdale to visit her 13-year-old son. She was turned away without explanation.
For weeks, McNair, who is 28 and lives in Pompano Beach, tried calling the center to ask why she hadn’t been able to see her son, whom she identifies by the initials A.R. Each time, she was told she’d get a call back. There was no return call, nor had her son made contact, which was unusual. Finally, she received a message from the Department of Children and Families that A.R. was about to be released from the hospital. He’d been in treatment there for 21 days after suffering from a potentially fatal asthma attack.
Even more disturbing: He wound up in the hospital after staffers at the detention center placed a “snack bounty” on him, according to the Office of the Public Defender, which represents A.R. It’s a tactic that’s well-known at other juvenile jails, including the Miami-Dade Detention Center, where a 17-year-old died last year after he was beaten to death by as many as 20 other kids. When staff members feel that a juvenile is acting up or has disrespected them, they reward other kids with snacks like honeybuns in exchange for attacking him or her. Then, they write up an incident report saying the kids got into a fight — thus evading responsibility.The Central Processing Unit (CPU)–the component that has defined the performance of your computer for many years–has hit a wall.
In fact, the next-generation of CPUs, including Intel’s forthcoming Sandy Bridge processor, have to contend with multiple walls–a memory bottleneck (the bandwidth of the channel between the CPU and a computer’s memory); the instruction level parallelism (ILP) wall (the availability of enough discrete parallel instructions for a multi-core chip) and the power wall (the chip’s overall temperature and power consumption).
Of the three, the power wall is now arguably the defining limit of the power of the modern CPU. As CPUs have become more capable, their energy consumption and heat production has grown rapidly. It’s a problem so tenacious that chip manufacturers have been forced to create “systems on a chip”–conurbations of smaller, specialized processors. These systems are so sprawling and diverse that they’ve caused long-time industry observers like Linley Gwennap of Microprocessor Report to question whether the original definition of a CPU even applies to today’s chips.
In releasing Sandy Bridge, Gwennap observes, Intel has little to tout in terms of improved CPU performance:
Sure, they found a few places to nip and tuck, picking up a few percent in performance here and there, but it is hard to improve a highly out-of-order four-issue CPU that already has the world’s best branch prediction.
Instead, Intel is touting the chips’ new integrated graphics capabilities and improved video handling, both of which are accomplished with parts of the chip dedicated to these tasks–not the CPU instelf, which would be forced to handle them in software and in the process burn up a much larger percentage of the chip’s power and heat budget.
And what of general-purpose computing tasks? Gennap explains that here, paradoxically, the key to conquering the power wall isn’t more power–it’s less. Fewer watts per instruction means more instructions per second in a chip that is already running as hot as it possibly can:
The changes Intel did make were more often about power than performance. The reason is that Intel’s processors (like most others) are against the power wall. In the old days, the goal was to squeeze more megahertz out of the pipeline.
Today’s CPUs have megahertz to burn but are throttled by the amount of heat that the system can pull out. Reduce the CPU power by 10% and you can push the clock speed up to compensate, turning power into performance gains. Most CPU design teams are now more focused on the power budget than on the timing budget.
This means that, at least with this generation of chips, Intel is innovating anywhere but in the CPU itself.
As task-specific processors become more and more common, one can’t help but notice parallels with the world’s most powerful computer–the human brain.
The brain is full of high specialized processing cores as well as general computational capabilities. If silicon continues to follow the trend laid down by evolution, we can expect future “CPUs” in which the “central” processing unit is less and less important, and task-specific processors proliferate until Systems on a Chip come to resemble the tangled, sprawling metropolis that appears to have conquered massive parallelization in a way that computer scientists can now only dream of.
Follow Mims on Twitter or contact him via email.Canada's inflation rate held at the bottom of the central bank's target band in February as falling gasoline prices were countered by higher costs for home insurance and meat.
The consumer price index rose by 1.0 per cent for a second month in February, Statistics Canada said Friday from Ottawa. The core rate, which excludes eight volatile products, slowed to 2.1 per cent from 2.2 per cent. Both rates matched the median in Bloomberg economist forecasts.
The Bank of Canada says a drop in oil prices will slow the inflation rate to 0.5 per cent in the first quarter. Governor Stephen Poloz has said his surprise January interest-rate cut helped create "more balanced" risks for consumer price trends and bought time to assess the damage from cheaper oil.
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Gasoline prices fell 21.8 per cent in February from a year earlier, a trend that may not last with prices at the pump jumping 9.4 per cent from January, the most in almost eight years. Excluding gasoline, the 12-month inflation rate slowed to 2.2 per cent from 2.4 per cent.
The price of oil collapsed about 60 per cent from June to January as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries maintained production and the U.S. pumped at the fastest pace in three decades. Crude oil is Canada's top export and the price drop has triggered layoffs and canceled investments from companies such as Talisman Energy Inc. and Cnooc Ltd.'s Nexen Energy.
The inflation report for February also showed that food costs rose 3.9 per cent as meat advanced by 12.4 per cent and fresh vegetables by 8.4 per cent. Home and mortgage insurance costs rose by 8.6 per cent. Automobile prices fell by 1.0 per cent, the first decline since May, 2013.
The Bank of Canada's January forecast was for inflation to slow to 0.3 per cent in the second quarter, and for core inflation to remain close to 2 per cent through next year. The central bank sets interest rates to keep inflation in the middle of a 1 per cent to 3 per cent band.
On a monthly basis, total inflation rose 0.9 per cent in February and the core rate rose 0.6 per cent. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted that overall monthly prices would rise 0.8 per cent and the core rate would gain 0.6 per cent.
Seasonally adjusted inflation rose 0.2 per cent in February and the adjusted core rate increased 0.1 per cent.Save this picture! © Kawan Golmohamadi, Shilan Golmohamadi, and Soad Moarefi
What if a power plant could also be a home, an office, or even a park? That is the question behind Cypher CO 2 ling Plant, a conceptual design developed by Kawan Golmohamadi, Shilan Golmohamadi, and Soad Moarefi. Power plants are a ubiquitous and inevitable byproduct of modern lifestyles, but they are typically located in remote areas, far from where the power is actually needed, due to their unsightly appearance and the emissions associated with combustion-fueled energy generation. Cypher CO 2 ling Plant proposes an alternative scenario that utilizes the infrastructure of the power plant’s cooling towers to support mixed-use development, while also mitigating the less desirable aspects of energy generation.
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Save this picture! © Kawan Golmohamadi, Shilan Golmohamadi, and Soad Moarefi
Save this picture! © Kawan Golmohamadi, Shilan Golmohamadi, and Soad Moarefi
All thermal power plants generate waste heat that must be rejected to allow effective operation. At many large plants, heat rejection is handled through large cooling towers using evaporative cooling. Massive concrete hyperboloid cooling towers form the backbone of the Cypher CO 2 ling Plant proposal. These towers can be as large as 200 meters high, approximately as tall as a 60-story building, and since their function is purely dedicated to exhausting waste heat, they are physically separated from the actual power generation.
Save this picture! © Kawan Golmohamadi, Shilan Golmohamadi, and Soad Moarefi
Save this picture! © Kawan Golmohamadi, Shilan Golmohamadi, and Soad Moarefi
The Cypher CO 2 ling Plant proposal seeks to generate efficiencies by integrating habitable space into the cooling tower structure. Embedding housing or commercial spaces on the exterior surfaces of the towers reduces the use of building materials and lowers construction costs compared to providing separate structures. In addition, the waste heat in the cooling towers can be utilized to heat the habitable spaces during winter months, and the proximity to the power generation reduces the transmission losses generally associated with transferring electricity across long distances. The mixed-use nature of the buildings also provides living and working spaces in close proximity, reducing the need for automobile transportation.
Save this picture! © Kawan Golmohamadi, Shilan Golmohamadi, and Soad Moarefi
To address the remainder of the power plant, Cypher CO 2 ling Plant proposes burying the actual generation functions underground, replacing the noise and visual pollution with a landscaped hill. The only part of the plant that rises out of the hill would be the tops of the chimneys, surrounded by a space frame structure filled with trees and plants that filter the CO 2 and pollutants generated in the combustion process.
Save this picture! © Kawan Golmohamadi, Shilan Golmohamadi, and Soad Moarefi
Save this picture! © Kawan Golmohamadi, Shilan Golmohamadi, and Soad MoarefiYou’re drunk and you stink and you love me. Must you tell me with your frothy lips half an inch from my nose, though? It smells like you ate a bag of shit dipped in tequila. And because you’re drunk I have to counteract the kindness and sincerity of your statement with the converse: I love you, ya fucking asshole! I love you, ya stupid faggot! I love you, but you guys suck donkey dick!
I haven’t been drunk since the mid-‘90s when I wandered into the New Orleans home of a young couple and puked on their living room rug on the way into their bedroom. Fortunately, they weren’t armed and guided me back to the street. Eventually, my guitar player found me and when he was done laughing, put me to bed. I felt for weeks like I had been poisoned and never had any desire to drink again.
I didn’t even remember the couple until years later when reading about Robert Downey, Jr. pulling a similar stunt in Los Angeles. It came back to me in a flood of revulsion. Now don’t get me wrong, I love to get fucked up, always have. Marijuana is my personal fave, but coke, heroin, pills, ecstasy, LSD, DMT, PCP, I’ve done them all. And I doubt I’ve been too brilliant on any of them.
But nothing matches the raw stupidity of a drunk. People on acid make inane observations. People on heroin rifle through handbags and sofa cushions, looking for spare change. People on weed talk about how stoned they got this other time they got stoned. None of it really passes for genius level activity.
But drunks take the cake in the annoyance sweepstakes, hands down. Every idiot that ever wanted to fight me was drunk. Every swerving, passing, honking car accident waiting to happen had a drunk behind the wheel. Every jerk off in the late-night drive thru that took fifteen minutes to order fries and a root beer was drunk.
I make my living in nightclubs and nothing makes the end of the night go slower than a drunk who thinks they’re amusing. They never are. And, usually, they own the nightclub so I have to pretend that they are until I get paid.
That’s why I’m starting an online petition to reinstate the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, commonly known as “Prohibition.” If this works, no longer will I be subjected to slobbering buffoons insulting my band and your intelligence. No longer will I endure the stupid observations, the obvious humor, the insufferable stench of alcohol as it courses through a moron’s bloated veins.
I’ll be free at last of the inebriated females who knock at the door of my hotel room at all hours of the night demanding three-way sex with me and their friends, I’ll be free of the…
Wait a minute, perhaps I’ve been a bit hasty here. It is summertime after all. Alcohol sales help boost the economy. Booze is one of our only exports. And doctors have found that wine has lots of anti-oxidants, beer assists in white blood cell maintenance, and a nice aperitif can aid in digestion.
Ladies, have a drink on me!
--
BLAG DAHLIA - Rock Legend
August 2012
Blag Dahlia sings for the Dwarves (www.thedwarves.com) and podcasts at RadioLikeYouWant.comMartin Shkreli’s Wu Tang album to be seized by US federal officials
Federal officials are forcing Martin Shkreli to give up the rights to his exclusive $2 million dollar Wu Tang album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.
In August, Shkreli was convicted on two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The convictions were found in connection with Shkreli’s biotech company, as well as two hedge funds that the thirty-four-year-old ran.
Shkreli is currently being held on $5 million bail at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Correctional Center awaiting his appearance in court. CNBC reports that Shkreli’s attorney, Ben Brafman, says he’ll “vigorously oppose the government motion.”
“Our position is clear,” said Brafman in a prepared statement on Friday. “None of the investors lost any money and Martin did not personally benefit from any of the counts of conviction. Accordingly, forfeiture of any assets is not an appropriate remedy.”
Prosecutors, on the other hand, believe that Shkreli gained access to “funds he would not have had but for his criminal offenses.”
Prosecutors have tallied $3 million for fraud at the hedge fund MSMB Capital, $3.4 million at MSMB Healthcare, and $960,000 for Shkreli’s conviction on conspiracy to commit securities fraud. “These funds were, in essence, the life blood that fueled the fraud scheme,” prosecutors wrote.
Shkreli’s efforts to sell the album as a piece of art, rather than simply release it to the public, were near-universally reviled by the music community, especially considering Shkreli’s dubious moral background.
Shkreli is scheduled to be sentenced on January 16th, 2018. Considering the evidence, he might want to protect his neck.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Source: CNBC
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Categories: NewsThen-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a March 2011 international conference on the Libya crisis in London. (AP Photo, File)
(CNSNews.com) – In an email to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shortly after the U.N. Security Council in March 2011 authorized military intervention in Libya, a former senior State Department official praised her achievement in “turning POTUS around on this.”
In her reply, Clinton expressed hope “for a soft landing for everyone’s sake.”
The message to Clinton, among the latest batch of her private server emails released by the State Department at the weekend, came from Anne-Marie Slaughter, who the previous month had returned to a politics professorship at Princeton University after serving as Clinton’s director of policy planning.
“I cannot imagine how exhausted you must be after this week, but I have NEVER been prouder of having worked for you,” Slaughter wrote in the March 19 email, which carried the subject line “bravo!”
“Turning POTUS around on this is a major win for everything we have worked for,” Slaughter added.
Replying, Clinton wrote, “Keep your fingers crossed and pray for a soft landing for everyone’s sake.”
Slaughter was an ardent support of intervention in Libya, where Muammar Gaddafi early that year launched the bloodiest crackdown on dissent in his 41-year rule. Her message to Clinton reinforces the view that Clinton persuaded a reluctant President Obama to shift direction on Libya.
On the night of March 17, the Security Council had passed a resolution authorizing a no-fly zone and “all necessary measures” short of foreign occupation to protect civilians from Gaddafi’s forces.
Acting under that resolution, U.S., British and French forces launched airstrikes on Libyan regime targets on March 19, an operation that came under NATO military command several days later.
By October, Gaddafi was dead – killed by rebel militiamen – and Libya quickly spiraled into chaos that largely continues to the present day, with rival government vying for control and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups active. A Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi cost the lives of lives of the U.S. ambassador, a foreign service officer and two Navy Seals.
The wisdom of the U.S. intervention in Libya, and the role played by Clinton, continues to generate debate at a time when the former secretary of state is contesting the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency.
During one of many congressional hearings on the Benghazi attack, Clinton was asked by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) last October about the role she played in the decision to take military action in Libya in March 2011.
“There were senior voices within the White House that were opposed to military action – Vice President [Joe] Biden, Department of Defense, [Defense] Secretary [Bob] Gates, the National Security Council and so forth,” Roskam said. “But you persuaded President Obama to intervene militarily. Isn’t that right?”
Clinton said there were “many in the State Department” who believed intervention to protect the Libyan people was in America’s interests, but that amid varying opinions,
“at the end of the day, this was the president’s decision.”
In a New York Times op-ed days before the Security Council Libya vote, Slaughter made a case for military intervention, listing five arguments that were coming at the time from anti-intervention voices and then dismissing each one.
Challenging the line of reasoning that intervention was not in the U.S. interest, she wrote that “we have a chance to support a real new beginning in the Muslim world – a new beginning of accountable governments that can provide services and opportunities for their citizens in ways that could dramatically decrease support for terrorist groups and violent extremism.”
Confronting the argument that the U.S. did not know what a post-Gaddafi Libya would look like, Slaughter acknowledged that the U.S. “should not expect a rosy, Jeffersonian Libya.”
“But the choice is between uncertainty and the certainty that if Colonel Qaddafi wins, regimes across the region will conclude that force is the way to answer protests,” she said.
“And when Colonel Qaddafi massacres the opposition, young protesters across the Middle East will conclude that when we were asked to support their cause with more than words, we blinked,” Slaughter continued. “Americans in turn will read the words of Mr. Obama’s June 2009 speech in Cairo, with its lofty promises to stand for universal human rights, and cringe.”Your kinks are not “BDSM”.
vdsdisc:
So, the first thing your post made me think of was this:
Q: You know, the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.
A: A good hacker is willing to repurpose any tool they can get their hands on and makes a practice of understanding their own tools well enough that they don’t need to rely on superstitions about provenance to get the job done.
In other words, yes, I agree that words have power and it’s important to be careful about the impact of the words we choose. At the same time, words are tools and we need to avoid becoming so concerned about the possible impacts of our words that we are paralyzed from using them.
Maymay and I were talking about your response over coffee earlier and what they said was that the language itself doesn’t matter; what matters is the impact you’re trying to have. Understand the impact you want first, and then you’ll be able to better think about which tools will best help you achieve it.
The impact I’m trying to have is to get people to question their assumptions about erotic intimacy. The way I’ve dealt with this in my own personal work around this topic is sort of by using all the language. If you read through the Bandana Blog, you’ll notice that I describe myself as “rolequeer” sometimes, “submissive” other times, and “dominant” in other places. Sometimes I say that I’m “kinky” but “anti-BDSM,” but sometimes I still describe my erotic intimacy as “BDSM” or “rolequeer D/s” or talk about “topping” or “bottoming” in a “scene”.
Some of this is because my language about this topic has evolved over time, so what I might’ve once thought of as “submissive” behavior I now consider “rolequeer” – but some of it is really because there’s no good word yet for the thing I’m trying to describe, and so the best way I can get my meaning across really is by saying something is “sort of submissive-y rolequeer-y, y'know…ish, but not really-, ugh, all the words suck…” And that’s awkward and not very punchy within the context of a written work.
There’s a little exchange that maymay and I often have, especially when trying to talk about our own desires and fantasies. It happens so frequently that it’s kind of become a bit of an inside joke. But it basically goes something like, “This really hot because…because…ugh. All the words suck. Okay, if I was going to explain this in tropey language it would be [insert busted traditional BDSM trope here.] But not that.” We do this back and forth enough, we eventually start to sort of get a sense of the new dynamic we’re describing.
Thing is, we’re coming up with lots of new words and ways to talk about our play and that’s great, but since they’re new they don’t always have enough content to convey meaning in a certain context. Whereas some of the old words are problematic and fraught with assumptions and tropes, but also have a rich history of meaning that isn’t entirely irrelevant to my current conception of eroticism. Sometimes, you just have to approximate. Mixing all the words together in a sort of ever-changing kaleidoscope of approximations, throwbacks, neologisms, and negations seems to stretch and muddle the language enough to create more space in it.
To some degree, because most of the language we have available to us is already in some way corrupted, it’s impossible to completely avoid perpetuating what we’re trying to counter. But the solution to bad speech is not censorship, not even self-censorship; the solution to bad speech is more speech.
I think one of the best outcomes that could come from someone reading my blog is that they’ll come away confused about what my role orientation is. “She described herself as ‘submissive’ here, but then when she was talking about Dominant women she said 'we’, and then there’s this 'rolequeer’ thing, and she says she’s not a'switch’ but that she likes to top and bottom at the same time. What’s going on?” To me, this is a more powerful shift that me simply saying, “These old words don’t apply to me. I am only this new thing,” because that’s easy for people to dismiss as, “Well, okay, whatever. This new thing, fine, but I don’t really get it and it has nothing to do with me.” Whereas, if I use words that DO mean something to them in ways they’re not used to, they’re forced to question (and maybe even stretch) their own assumptions about what those words mean.
Ultimately, I don’t think it matters a ton if e.g. you use the word “Dominant” to describe some act in your story. What matters, I think, is that in another story (or maybe even elsewhere in the same one) you describe the same act using different language. Or you treat “Dominance” like it means something different than the reader assumes it does. Ideally, in the long run, I’d love to see a lot of this tropey and problematic language jettisoned from our discourse. But the way that happens isn’t by just starting to use a new language cold turkey. You’ll leave a lot of people behind. It’s by continuing to use the language we have, but using it in unexpected ways – and using new language alongside it in ways that people get curious about.
That’s my philosophy anyway. YMMV.Looking for news you can trust?
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I slept badly last night and feel kind of crappy this |
's 50 states, making Puerto Rican bonds artificially attractive to rich investors in high-tax jurisdictions. That enabled the island to borrow more money at lower rates than its economic fundamentals could justify. The island’s dire financial condition—and resulting speculation as to whether a federal bailout may be forthcoming—has refocused attention on its status. Can Puerto Rico become the 51st state?
The United States won control of Puerto Rico in 1898 following the Spanish-American War. It granted citizenship to the island’s residents in 1917—which conveniently allowed 20,000 of them to be drafted into service in the first world war the following year. Although boricuas, as Puerto Ricans call themselves in homage to the indigenous name for the territory, set up their own government in 1952, their legal relationship with the federal government remained the same. Since then, they have held four non-binding referendums regarding their status. In 1967 and 1993 they voted to remain a commonwealth, and in 1998 a majority chose “none of the above”, owing to disagreements over the technical definitions of the various options. Only in 2012 did statehood advocates finally come out on top: in a ballot with two separate questions, a majority voted both in favour of changing the island’s status and for becoming a state if a change did occur. Critics argued that the referendum’s design was rigged to produce a pro-statehood outcome, since even people who voted against a change in status were still asked to select a preferred arrangement other than the current one.
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Regardless of the referendum, Puerto Rico is unlikely to become a state any time soon. Because the island remains a territory, the decision is ultimately out of boricuas’ hands. Only the federal Congress, to which the island appoints a non-voting “resident commissioner”, can grant statehood, which it has not done since it admitted Hawaii in 1959. Until the most recent referendum, Puerto Ricans had never voted in favour of statehood, so Congress had no reason to act. That obstacle has now been removed, but coming on the heels of a government shutdown and a brush with debt default, the legislature is highly unlikely to prioritise a Puerto Rican statehood bill.
Even if Congress were to break out of its current gridlock, the Republican Party would surely use every tactic at its disposal to block a statehood bill. Exit polls showed that last year Barack Obama won 83% of the presidential vote among Puerto Ricans living on the mainland. Adding two Democratic-leaning senators, five representatives and seven presidential electoral votes would be a political nightmare for the GOP. Now that statehood advocates have won a referendum at home, they will need to focus their efforts on supporting Democratic legislative candidates in 2014 to have any hope of success.Your complimentary articles You’ve read one of your four complimentary articles for this month. You can read four articles free per month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please SUBSCRIBE NOW
Articles
Atheist In A Foxhole
David Rönnegard asks how a committed atheist confronted with death might find consolation.
I am a secularly-minded philosopher. Faith is not a virtue I hold. In particular, I disbelieve claims to knowledge about God’s existence or will. As an atheist and a Humanist, my approach to life has been grounded on rational thought and empirical evidence. I consider death to be the end of our conscious existence, and that any meaning that life may have resides with man.
Public reflecting on life is often done in fear of, but seldom in the face of, death. I am in the privileged but unenviable position of doing the latter. I have just been told, at the age of 37, that I have stage four lung cancer. Atheism and news of one’s impending death would appear to be a particularly unfortunate combination. From where does a faithless philosopher obtain consolation? What provides meaning for a life lived, and acceptance of a fate anticipated?
Having never had an inclination towards the supernatural, religion has never appeared to me as either credible or a source of comfort. News of looming death has not encouraged me to grasp for false consolation, though consolation is sorely needed. Rather, my obsession with death has hitherto been soothed by Socrates’ description of philosophy as the process by which one comes to accept one’s own death. Now, confronted with the terminal nature of life at a young age, I wonder if I have sufficiently moved along this process of acceptance, which is invariably a very personal one.
Philosophers are often caricatured as dealing with the big questions, particularly the meaning of life, but I have rarely observed this to be a matter of concern among professional philosophers, other than fleetingly in conversation with colleagues after some beers. Few thinkers of a non-religious bent have tried to address the question of meaning head-on. Perhaps as independent thinkers philosophers nowadays have a tacit understanding that life’s meaning or value is a personal journey; but most philosophers I know don’t seem to spend much time pondering the meaning of their own lives either. And if the philosophers among us are not doing it, who is? It’s the elephant in the room of secular thought.
Having been schooled in the analytic philosophical tradition I don’t find myself laden with a rich history of thought on life’s meaning. Until recently it has been remarkably absent in the analytic literature, and recent contributions have centered on unpacking ‘the meaning of life’: that is, most efforts have been made to understand the meaning of ‘meaning’, as well as getting a better grip of the term ‘life’. Bertrand Russell’s words that “everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise” convey the analytic tradition’s admirable ambition for clarity. But frankly, none of this is very helpful to the individual struggling with mortality in search of meaning. It is both too abstract to be comprehensible to the uninitiated, and too divorced of sentiment to be of personal guidance. The Existential tradition of continental philosophy proves more insightful: Existentialism emphasizes the subjective nature of being; that is, the essence of what it is like to be us. It gets us closer to considering what it is we value, which is central to shaping a meaningful life for ourselves as we pursue those values. That said, for the Existentialist, ‘meaning’ (and thus also ‘the meaning of life’), is primarily a descriptive rather than prescriptive notion.
Biting The Bullet
In this void, religion has largely claimed a contemplative monopoly on the prescriptive meaning of life and death. Here meaning is provided by the creed, often with the ultimate promise of escaping death altogether. (For example, John 11:25: “he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”) The human desire for religion is partly founded on our fear of death and its consolation through faith in a hereafter.
However, the comforting notion of an afterlife is astonishingly unlikely to be true, and it is not needed. I don’t think that death should be feared, because looked squarely in the eye it can be seen to be the same as the silence from which we came. Moreover, with no afterlife, we should make more of the period we now have – a length of time that is largely unknown to most of us. Therefore our fears should be either to waste that time or to not be given enough of it.
A non-religious outlook does not hold the promise of immortality, but it does provide some relief. For example, I have no sense of being unfairly afflicted. I do not wonder what I have done to deserve this – and I most certainly do not think that anyone else is more deserving of it. Well, I can think of some, but that’s beside the point. The point is that no one has handed me these cards, and therefore I do not need to waste emotional capital pondering the injustice of my lot. I have simply pulled the short straw in the malignant mutation lottery.
Religious people sometimes say that no-one is an atheist in a foxhole (presumably that applies to cancerburrows too) – the presumption being that “ye of little faith” will grasp for solace through a supernatural belief system hitherto rejected because ye have now had a change of fortune. But if wishful thinking were so easy, and effective, I would simply wish the cancer to be gone – that would seem to be the straightforward wishful approach. The Humanist approach, eschewing the supernatural, closes off this ‘afterlife’ avenue and keeps us grounded in making the best of the one life we know we do have. The hitch is that sometimes we don’t get as many years as we hoped (let alone an afterlife). I wish I could say something consoling; but perhaps it’s part of the Humanist’s ontological bullet that one must at this point bite down hard.
Enduring Sentiments
With nothing left to lose you are made very aware of what you never want to lose. You are confronted with life in a way that only the news of death can bring. My nurse has a tattoo along her inner forearm that reads “live life like you will die today, love like you will live forever.” Living in the present becomes a much easier prescription to realize when you know there is less time to be had. The importance of those we love is also made more acute, and the relative insignificance of financial matters is cemented. I have the luxury of saying this partly because I live in Sweden, where, thanks to universal healthcare, my very sizable medical bills are of no consequence. But regardless, money is of limited use if you cannot spend it. With no materialism to obstruct the view, our intangible values can be seen more clearly.
For most people life appears as a forward projection rather than a countdown. But both perspectives are needed. At some point in our lives the horizon will appear and we must ask ourselves the following question: looking in the rear-view mirror, how do I feel about what I leave behind?
The distinction between ‘objectivist’ and ‘subjectivist’ conceptions of the meaning of life hinges on whether anything is valuable beyond personal perceptions of value. Religious outlooks, where value is externally imposed by a deity, are clearly objectivist, whilst Humanist outlooks, grounded in the mind of man, tend toward subjectivism. I don’t think there is anything valuable beyond the subjective perception of value, because value is a mental state, which requires a subject who does the valuing. Nonetheless, there might be room for sentiments that we all find valuable. The terminality of life helps us see that value.
When regarding life as a forward projection, a life of self-indulgence doesn’t seem unreasonable, but what we value in the moment may not seem so important when seen in the context of a finite life. When forced to look through a rear-view mirror, the life of self-indulgence has already been had. What then remains of value to give the sensation of a life fully lived? What are the sentiments that endure?
Sharing experiences with friends and loved ones is what’s ultimately important
As I see it, these sentiments are memories we hold dear that bear the test of time: joy over moments shared with those we love; perhaps pride over achievements recognized. It is difficult to put words on such mental states, but they contain the numinous. It is said that philosophy takes over where religion ends, but in this instance poetry might take over where analytic philosophy ends. Conceptual precision may need to give way to language more suited to sentiment.
What gives rise to enduring sentiments may well vary among us, but my new shortsighted spectacles suggest to me that they will spring from events that have touched the lives of others. When such sentiments are shared they live on in those who stay behind. And so the Humanist quest for immortality is not corporeal. Rather, it takes many forms that touch lives, such as the friendships we maintain, the children we give birth to, the enterprises we start, and the books we write; in essence, the footprints we leave behind.
A life fully lived is in large part a life lived through others. While we are alive others provide meaning to us by being the objects of our affection. When we are dead we provide meaning to others by continuing to be the objects of theirs. The awareness of death highlights such enduring sentiments and shows us what we value deeply. By implication, faith in an afterlife, which amounts to a denial of death, may hinder such insight.
© Dr David Rönnegard 2014
David Rönnegard has a PhD in philosophy from the London School of Economics, and is a researcher and teacher in corporate social responsibility in Stockholm.I am so thrilled with my gifts, my gifter is amazing! They definitely had a good read of my likes/dislikes and a good look at my profile because they managed to get me the most perfect presents. They sent me a lush giftbox (containing a bath bomb and bar of soap) which I can't WAIT to use, it smells absolutely amazing, I don't think they could have picked better products to get me. They also sent a box of mocha praline chocolates (which combines my three favourite flavours into one, coffee, chocolate and praline), a bottle of awesome polka dot nail polish, and a hand made crochet headband which I love!
Also they wrapped it all in lovely purple wrapping paper and there was a note written on the coolest stationary I've ever seen. (They wrote their username on the back of the note but I can't for the life of me work out what it says, it looks like "AnasBrokenMirror" but I must be reading it wrong). Anyway whoever you are, thank you so much! You got me the most perfect gifts, I honestly don't think you could have done a better job, I'm so happy!Statistics of The Holocaust Country Initial Jewish Population Estimated % Killed Estimated Killed Number of Survivors POLAND 3,300,000 91% 3,000,000 300,000 USSR 3,020,000 36% 1,100,000 1,920,000 HUNGARY 800,000 74% 596,000 204,000 GERMANY 566,000 36% 200,000 366,000 FRANCE 350,000 22% 77,320 272,680 ROMANIA 342,000 84% 287,000 55,000 AUSTRIA 185,000 35% 65,000 120,000 LITHUANIA 168,000 85% 143,000 25,000 NETHERLANDS 140,000 71% 100,000 40,000 BOHEMIA
MORAVIA 118,310 60% 71,150 47,160 LATVIA 95,000 84% 80,000 15,000 SLOVAKIA 88,950 80% 71,000 17,950 YUGOSLAVIA 78,000 81% 63,300 14,700 GREECE 77,380 87% 67,000 10,380 BELGIUM 65,700 45% 28,900 36,800 ITALY 44,500 17% 7,680 36,820 BULGARIA 50,000 0% 50,000 DENMARK 7,800.8% 60 7,740 ESTONIA 4,500 44% 2,000 2,500 LUXEMBOURG 3,500 55% 1,950 1,550 FINLAND 2,000.03% 7 1,993 NORWAY 1,700 45% 762 938 TOTAL 9,508,340 63% 5,962,129 3,546,211 Return to The History Place - Holocaust Timeline
The History Place Main Page
Terms of use: Private home/school non-commercial, non-Internet re-usage only is allowed of any text, graphics, photos, audio clips, other electronic files or materials from The History Place.MONCTON, NEW BRUNSWICK--(Marketwired - Nov. 14, 2016) - OrganiGram Holdings Inc. (TSX VENTURE:OGI) ("OrganiGram" or the "Company"), a leading licensed producer of medical marijuana, is issuing this press release in response to a recent request by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada to comment on recent trading activity in its stock.
The Company announces that it is not aware of any material, undisclosed corporate developments and has no material change to report at this time. The Company will keep the market informed as required.
For more information, visit www.organigram.ca
About OrganiGram Holdings Inc.
OrganiGram Holdings Inc. is a TSX Venture Exchange listed company whose wholly owned subsidiary, OrganiGram Inc., is a licensed producer of medical marijuana in Canada. OrganiGram is focused on producing the highest quality, condition specific medical marijuana for patients in Canada. OrganiGram's facility is located in Moncton, New Brunswick and the Company is regulated by the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations ("ACMPR").
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This news release contains forward-looking information which involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectation. Important factors - including the availability of funds, the results of financing efforts, crop yields - that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are disclosed in the Company's documents filed from time to time on SEDAR (see www.sedar.com). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.Tabletop Battle with Flannery!
“Uh.. Snake eyes. Um.. All of them.”
The entire table grew silent. Flannery narrowed her eyes while her two dragon guardians glanced at each other.
This silence went on for seemingly minutes until Nina huffed loudly.
“Is everyone gonna keep gawkin’, or what? Yeah, it’s a crit failure. So what? You’ve been wreckin’ my Qrew with Doom Desire and stuff. I can’t see how this is goin’ to make a difference. Heck, we’re in one of the safest areas!”
Flannery adjusted her glasses.There was no way this disc jockey could ever know what kind of troubles one could get from a bad roll. She could not help but think of her grandfather. The stories she had heard about rolling all ones would make anyone’s hair stand on end. She had to make this person understand.
“You trip.. No…”
She hesitated. Those words were not enough.
“You fall.. No…”
Flannery needed more emphasis. She leaned forward and raised a fist. As she moved forward, she slammed her other hand onto the table, causing her own glasses to become lopsided. She practically spat out her next words.
“You PLUMMET off the LEDGE!”
“Ugh. Are you for real?”
“S-serious! Dead serious!”
“Alright, whatevs. I’m gonna need to grab another bottle if I’m gonna have to make the entire trip back up.”
“Oh.. Oh…”
As she watched Nina get up, Flannery wondered if she may have gone overboard.
Yo, I had too much fun drawing AND writing this. Though, I kinda doubt most people will have read that. That’s fine, though. It was a little bonus. The main focus was the image itself.
So, I was trying to think of how to make this work. Flannery’s gym had dragons, and a few dragons, including her own, kept using Role Play. A lot. Suddenly, njikeartist mentioned D&D, and my brain went into overdrive.
I kinda really like how Flannery looks. I’m almost bummed out that I won’t be seeing this design ever again.
Sidenote: I can’t help but feel like this design of Flannery went from someone’s childhood crush to another’s.
Alas, this’ll probably be my last contribution for the run for a while because the stream is now further than I am in the game, and I don’t know if I can find the time to catch up fast enough, haha.
Also, have a bonus image. I made this because I needed to see how Flannery looked in a neutral state. I was having trouble trying to draw her in the pose that you see in the finished drawing.People say that I never say anything bad about the iPhone. Here’s something: its notification system is awful. In particular, I’m talking about the way notifications are managed. They aren’t. Any Push Notification that comes in overrides another one. Apps can get badged with updates, but you’ll have no idea what’s new. That’s why Boxcar is a vital app.
We’ve written about Boxcar a number of times over the past year or so. They’re now launching version 4.0 of the app, and it’s by far the best yet. The entire app has been overhauled from the ground up. The result is a killer management system for Push Notifications. Apple needs to buy this company.
While previous versions of the app gave you a time-ordered stream of your notifications, it was somewhat daunting to look at. And you couldn’t do much from in the app itself. The new design makes everything much easier to manage and more visually appealing. For example, notifications from Twitter now show up complete with the user’s profile picture. And you can retweet or reply to any of those message right from within Boxcar.
The app itself has taken a design cue from the excellent Facebook iPhone app and features a home screen with nice looking big buttons for each service you have activated. There is also now Retina Display support if you have the iPhone 4. All of this works on the iPod touch and iPad as well.
And 4.0 brings Support for a host of new services. Google Buzz, Google Voice, Github, App Recommendations, and a few others are all now included and can be installed with a few easy steps. These App Recommendations are done by Boxcar themselves.
Boxcar is now a team of 5 people based in New York City. To date, they’ve delivered over 500 million notifications to iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads.
Boxcar is a free download in the App Store (though it’s $4.99 if you wish to disable in-app advertising). You can find it here. Version 4.0 should be live shortly.It’s a common enough feature request: add a loading screen between levels. This isn’t quite as easy as you might expect, but it’s pretty quick once you’re familiar with Unity’s scripting features.
Because Unity allows us to control the way levels are loaded, we can put up a very simple “transition” scene while we wait for a bigger level to load. The transition scene could be just about anything, but here are some ideas:
Completely empty, except for an OnGUI hook showing some text.
hook showing some text. An orthographic camera staring directly at a textured quad.
If you have Unity Pro, you could even take advantage of async level loading to create a quick animation or mini-game; otherwise, I’d recommend you stick with something that renders one frame (think “splash screen”).
Point is, the particular contents of the transition scene don’t matter very much. This tutorial just gets you as far as having one.
Creating a transition scene
We’re going to need a transition scene. I strongly recommend keeping it simple, so that it can load quickly and won’t slow down the more expensive target scene load.
Create and save an empty scene, name it “Loading”.
Add the scene to your build settings (File > Build settings…).
Populate the scene with some simple stuff.
As I mentioned above, I’m a fan of the ortho camera staring into one or more textured quads. You could whip up some scripts to show a semi-randomized texture, show some helpful tips, or whatever you want.
For the purpose of this tutorial, we’ll get up and running with the simplest possible thing:
public class LoadUI : MonoBehaviour { public Color backgroundColor = Color.black; public Color textColor = Color.blue; public string message = "Loading..."; void Start() { Camera.main.backgroundColor = backgroundColor; } void OnGUI() { //cache and update GUI settings Color cachedColor = GUI.contentColor; GUI.contentColor = textColor; //draw label float width = 60f; float height = 20f; float left = Screen.width / 2 - width; float top = Screen.height / 2 - height; Rect rect = new Rect(left, top, width, height); GUI.Label (rect, message); //restore GUI settings GUI.contentColor = cachedColor; } }
Attach that script to something in your scene and press play. You should see the loading message. Nothing else will happen (yet).
Creating a script hook
Most people switch levels by calling Application.LoadLevel. Since we want to control the process, we need to provide a single hook for other scripts to call. We’ll make a new class called LevelManager that’s just simple enough to keep working:
public class LevelManager { public static void Load(string name) { Application.LoadLevel(name); } }
This is just a wrapper, but it gives you a single access point: all other level switching should be done by calling LevelManager.Load, so that you can swap it out later without breaking the project.
Here’s a very simple test script:
public class LevelManagerTest : MonoBehaviour { void Start() { Invoke("TestLoad", 2f); } void TestLoad() { LevelManager.Load("SomeOtherLevel"); } }
The above will wait two seconds before calling LevelManager.Load. You should probably replace "SomeOtherLevel" with the name of an actual level that exists in your project. Or, if you’re in a hurry, use Application.loadedLevelName to reload the current level.
As an aside, remember that Application.LoadLevel can only load levels which are configured in your build settings.
A single-frame loading screen
This next step will get us to render one frame in the transition scene, then load the target scene. While performing a blocking load, Unity displays the last rendered frame; in our case, this is an advantage.
We’re going to start mixing static and instance members of the LevelManager class. If you don’t understand the difference, you might want to look it up.
We’re also going to use a coroutine. They enable us to create asynchronous functions which can execute across multiple frames.
Let’s flesh out the LevelManager class a bit more:
public class LevelManager : MonoBehaviour { public static void Load(string name) { GameObject go = new GameObject("LevelManager"); LevelManager instance = go.AddComponent<LevelManager>(); instance.StartCoroutine(instance.InnerLoad(name)); } IEnumerator InnerLoad(string name) { //load transition scene Object.DontDestroyOnLoad(this.gameObject); Application.LoadLevel("Loading"); //wait one frame (for rendering, etc.) yield return null; //load the target scene Application.LoadLevel(name); Destroy(this.gameObject); } }
Reminder: unless you have access to Pro’s async loading, the transition level will freeze during the load. Keep it simple.
Try your LevelManagerTest script again. You should notice that your loading scene gets used!
AdvertisementsAndroid WebView automation testing
Kamil Krzyk Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 22, 2016
Creating tests for Android WebView usually means writing tests for “third party” code. Consequently you might need to struggle with not always suited for testing, unexpectedly changing code. Those who work with automation tests on a daily basis for sure know how problematic it can become to create and maintain such tests.
At Azimo, we allow people from around the world to transfer money via our app. We support various payment methods and some of them rely on displayed in WebView third party provided solutions. In order to fully test our application’s core feature, we have no other way but to provide reliable end-to-end tests.
First try
When dealing with WebView, first thing that will probably come to your mind is using Espresso-Web for your tests. That for sure will allow you to deal with simpler websites. But at the same time it requires you to analyse source code of the website in order to find hooks for Espresso methods.
We could give you some examples of inconveniences we came across during our work with WebView feature:
Security features preventing Espresso to access code of elements you would like to interact with. It could be for example part of the code hidden inside JavaScript block or inside iframe when code doesn’t allow you to use inWindow WebInteraction of Espresso.
WebInteraction of Espresso. Sometimes code is simply auto-generated and labels are different each time you access the web.
Unformatted spaghetti code of over 15000 lines.
WebView elements missing hooks which would allow Espresso to localise them within web code and perform action.
which would allow Espresso to localise them within web code and perform action. If you need to perform a lot of operations on WebView then matching when single action ends and the next one can start becomes troublesome and leads to flaky, unclean code.
Those are probably only a few of problems and we wouldn’t be surprised if you could name more of them. It is safe to state that there are cases which are impossible to handle only by relying on Espresso-Web. What to do when you hit the wall?
Different approach
Esspreso-Web strongly depends on loaded inside WebView source code. But what if you forgot about third party code entirely and focused only on Android?
Whole purpose of WebView is to allow you to display web pages as a part of activity layout. To be more precise, it will map elements of website which user can interact with into Android View objects and it’s extensions. You won’t be able to access those views with findViewById(int id) method as most of them don’t have ids or those ids are not accessible in your app package.
But those children are for sure present on the screen and you can track them by using Android Device Monitor:
Facebook login screen in WebView — view hierarchy
Those views can be accessed in tests with usage of provided by Google — UiAutomator.
To show how it could work, we will provide you example of code that allows to login to Azimo app via Facebook and it’s native WebView fragment:Sal Paolantonio breaks down how coach Gary Kubiak is handling the Broncos and the biggest issues facing Denver before the Super Bowl. (2:28)
The Carolina Panthers are the prohibitive favorite to win Super Bowl 50. One Las Vegas director of trading says he cannot remember a more one-sided Super Bowl in terms of betting, and there are reports that as many as 90 percent of tickets are being placed on the Panthers' side of this ledger.
Editor's Picks Sando: League insiders predict Super Bowl 50 Which team has the edge in Super Bowl 50? Mike Sando polled four people inside the NFL to get their predictions and analysis, with a consensus pick emerging.
Bowen: How Wade Phillips will confuse Cam Denver's Wade Phillips devised the perfect game plan against Tom Brady, but what does he have up his sleeve for Cam Newton? Matt Bowen details how the Broncos can slow Carolina's offense. 1 Related
Add that to polls and media selections that strongly favor the Panthers, and it's clear it would be considered a major upset if Denver were to win.
Meaning no disrespect to the Panthers, but why in the world is this the case? Some of it has to do with having the likely league MVP (Cam Newton) on their roster, but the reality of the situation is there are many reasons Denver should be considered the prohibitive favorite in this game.The hockey season is now in full swing, and this year’s draft class is off to a strong start. Early season successes and struggles have seen many prospects move from their initial rankings, and have seen changes to the ISS Top 5 prospects. ISS Hockey is proud to present its November rankings of the 2018 NHL Draft Class.
November 1, 2017 [Waterloo, ON] ISS Hockey has released its new monthly rankings of the top prospects eligible for the 2018 NHL Draft. The rankings
have been created and compiled by our worldwide network of scouts.
Below is the ISS Top 31, highlighting the rankings for the top 31 skater and top 2 goalie prospects, which is released on the first Wednesday of every month during the hockey season. An interactive page where the ISS Top 31 can be viewed, sorted, and commented on, and where users can interact with our scouts, can be viewed at: isshockey.com/iss-top-31
ISS Hockey Top 31 Ranked Prospects For 2018 NHL Draft
Rank Player Name Position DOB Shot Height Weight Team League Previous Rank 1 Dahlin, Rasmus LD 4/13/2000 L 6.02 181 Vastra Frolunda SweE 1 2 Svechnikov, Andrei RW/C 3/26/2000 L 6.02* 186 Barrie OHL 2 3 Tkachuk, Brady C 9/16/1999 L 6.03.25* 196 Boston University H. E 4 4 Zadina, Filip RW 11/27/1999 L 6.00* 196 Halifax QMJHL 5 5 Wahlstrom, Oliver C 6/13/2000 R 6.00.75* 205 USA U18 NTDP 11 6 Hughes, Quinn LD 10/14/1999 L 5.09.5* 170 University of Michigan Big Ten 7 7 Veleno, Joseph C 1/13/2000 L 6.01* 195 Saint John QMJHL 3 8 Boqvist, Adam LD 8/15/2000 R 5.11 170 Brynas IF Jr. SweJE 8 9 McLeod, Ryan C 9/21/1999 L 6.02* 200 Mississauga OHL 6 10 Kupari, Rasmus C 3/15/2000 R 6.01.25 183 Karpat Oulu FinE 9 11 Smith, Ty LD 3/24/2000 L 5.10.25* 176 Spokane WHL 10 12 Wilde, Bode RD 1/24/2000 R 6.02.25* 195 USA U18 NTDP 12 13 Farabee, Joel LW 2/25/2000 L 5.11.5* 164 USA U18 NTDP 18 14 Thomas, Akil C 1/2/2000 R 5.11* 169 Niagara OHL 13 15 McIsaac, Jared LD 3/27/2000 L 6.01* 195 Halifax QMJHL 14 16 Bouchard, Evan RD 10/20/1999 R 6.01.75* 193 London OHL 15 17 Sutter, Riley RW 10/25/1999 R 6.03* 205 Everett WHL 16 18 Denisenko, Grigori LW 6/24/2000 R 5.11 165 Yaroslavl Loko RusJr 17 19 Groulx. Benoit-Olivier C 2/6/2000 L 6.00.75* 192 Halifax QMJHL 19 20 Woo, Jett RD 7/27/2000 R 5.11.75* 205 Moose Jaw WHL 23 21 Lundestrom, Isac C 11/6/1999 L 6.00.5 185 Lulea HF SweE 20 22 Alexeyev, Alexander RD 11/15/1999 R 6.03* 200 Red Deer WHL 21 23 McBain, Jack LW 1/6/2000 L 6.03 194 Toronto OJHL 26 24 Samuelsson, Adam LD 6/21/2000 L 6.05.75* 240 USA U18 NTDP NR 25 Hayton, Barrett C 6/9/2000 L 6.00.75* 191 Sault Ste. Marie OHL 24 26 Olofsson, Jacob C 2/8/2000 L 6.02 192 Timra IK SweAl 27 27 Merkley, Ryan RD 8/14/2000 R 5.11.25* 170 Guelph OHL 29 28 Johansson, Filip RD 3/23/2000 R 6.01 180 Leksand SweJE NR 29 Ginning, Adam RD 1/13/2000 L 6.03 196 Linkoping HC SweE 25 30 Tychonick, Jonathan LD 3/3/2000 L 5.11.25 166 Penticton BCHL 31 31 Dobson, Noah RD 1/7/2000 R 6.02.75* 180 Acadie-Bathurst QMJHL NR Goalies 1 Rodrigue, Olivier G 7/6/2000 L 6.00.25* 159 Drummondville QMJHL 1 2 Gravel, Alexis G 3/21/2000 R 6.02.5* 226 Halifax QMJHL 2
Published November 1 2017
Oliver Wahlstrom (USA U18 Program) has seen one of the biggest jumps from the initial prospect rankings, rising from #11 to #5, largely due to the fantastic start to the season he’s had with the National Team Development Program. Wahlstrom has 20 PTS in 12 GP already, and is only just getting started.
Regarding Wahlstrom, ISS Director of Scouting Dennis MacInnis says that “Oliver is a goal scorer with a solid frame and high end offensive talent. He currently leads the US U18 team in points with 20 in just 12 games including 11 goals. Oliver is a good skater armed with very good puck skills and an NHL shot. He is improving, especially in his own zone, and looks so much stronger this year. He will shoot the puck often and from almost anywhere. From the red line in to the offensive zone he is very creative, strong on the puck and dangerous offensively. He is not a liability defensively and understands the game well”.
The complete ISS Hockey rankings, evaluations, game reports, player reports, player profiles and more are exclusively available to hockey professionals through RinkNet, ISS parent company HockeyTech’s Scouting and Player Information System. |
with the director of the TV channel to rig poll results in favor of Erdogan. It is wise to be cautious.
That said, there is a consistent, significant gender gap in voting in Turkey and we can summarize four main causes why women vote to the right of men.
First, this is an expected behavior in “traditional” societies, where the roles of women follow a more conservative pattern. In a prominent study titled “Values Map 2012,” Yilmaz Esmer, a scholar from Bahcesehir University, found that 71% of women agreed that “men are the head of the household”; a striking 59% said “women should always obey their husbands”; and 60% of women said “men should get priority over women in employment.” Esmer measured changing values as well. One telling example was in 1996, when 66% of those surveyed agreed with the statement “Men would make better politicians than women.” In 2011, the figure rose to 71%. With these numbers, it is understandable that Erdogan’s rhetoric and policies on alcohol, number of children, abortion and dress code and labor market participation find female voter appreciation. A scholar has summarized this as, “Women who want protection and cuddling prefer the AKP.”
Second, the AKP has developed social policies centered upon family. Women, especially women who have limited education and work skills, found these “grants-in-aid” helpful. This is by no means “vote-buying”; rather, the AKP has generated trust from particularly conservative women that as long as the AKP is in power, their values will be protected. A&G’s Gur told Al-Monitor. “The social policies, all sorts of financial support for disabled kids, kids in school and widows are run through women with AKP policies.” In addition, segregated facilities are appreciated by these women. They credit, rightfully so, the AKP for the spread of religious education — which allows for separate schools by gender — women-only buses, swimming pools and beaches. As a young AKP supporter, Nur Cenk, told Al-Monitor during an August presidential rally, “Any woman who has attended an Erdogan rally knows that the probability of sexual harassment in the crowd is much less than with other parties because here women are respected.” These women are not concerned enough about AKP policies on women's murders, alcohol and birth control to switch their allegiances.
Next, we can attribute this to the well-organized women’s associations established through Islamist networks. As a tradition of the Muslim Brotherhood, women’s grassroots networks are crucial. Women from different neighborhoods meet to talk about different social issues, how to help each other and particularly assist women in need. These networks since the early 1990s became a crucial bastion of the AKP’s voter base.
The last explanation is probably the weakest and the most controversial. Given women’s lower levels of education and socioeconomic independence, some pundits argue that women have the right to vote, but that men vote on their behalf. In other words, women vote as they are told. We need further studies to prove this point as simple logic begs the question that if women vote as men tell them, then why is there a gender gap? One reason might be a single man gets to control multiple numbers of women. The factor of illiteracy and “obeying your husband” combined may contribute to women as “passive voters.” However, anecdotal evidence is not sufficient to measure how many women vote “under the influence.”
Despite the AKP's worries during the initial stage of the presidential campaign about the female vote, in the end Erdogan charmed the majority of women voters: He mobilized them to cast ballots, and got their vote. This is no small accomplishment for a leader whose rhetoric on women is less than “friendly” by Western standards; yet, it seems many women in traditional societies find comfort in “macho” leaders. This machismo may be a turnoff factor for other alpha males, but for now, Erdogan seems to feed the majority of women constituents, who seem happy with his policies.Carbon dioxide pollution is one of the driving factors of climate change. The CO2 given off from burning fossil fuels and deforestation makes up over 75 percent of climate pollution every year. At the climate talks in Paris this week, 147 world leaders have come together to try to figure out a way to cut global carbon emissions to keep global temperatures below 2˚C.
To put all of the talk of the dangers of rising CO2 levels into perspective, Bloomberg has created a Carbon Clock that tracks the level of CO2 in the atmosphere in real time. Pulling data from NOAA Mauna Loa Observatory, the clock feeds the numbers from the past few years it into an algorithm that calculates the level of CO2 in parts per million at any given moment.
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Pull up the clock right now, and you’ll see levels hovering at 399 ppm. To put that number into context, consider that in 1968, the year the U.S. started measuring CO2 in the atmosphere, we were at 316 ppm. 800,000 years before industrialization, levels hit around 280 ppm. Thought parts per million is a tiny, tiny increment, each increase has a huge effect on the atmosphere (if you divide any molecule of air into a million parts, a certain portion of those parts will be carbon).
The risks of continuing on this current trajectory is clear: if levels continue to rise at this rate, we’ll be up to 450 ppm–the “danger zone”–by 2040. Any higher than that and we’ll start to see the disastrous impacts of extreme weather and rising sea levels.
[via Bloomberg]Oakland police kill one suspect, wound another Crime
A wild evening of shootings in East Oakland that began in a drugstore parking lot, spilled onto Interstate 580 and ended up in an apartment complex left one man shot dead by a police officer and two others wounded, authorities said.
The dead man, 18-year-old Kenneth Ross of Oakland, was killed when he allegedly pulled his gun on police as they tried to question him in the stairwell of an apartment complex at 2701 64th Ave., police said.
His companion, Jarone Castle, 19, of Vallejo, was wounded, possibly by gunfire, and arrested on suspicion of involvement in the earlier parking lot shooting, police said.
Investigators said they believe the pair and as many as four other men with them were members of the 211 Gang - named for the 211 penal code for "robbery" - which is suspected of a string of holdups in Oakland, Merced and Modesto. Police are still hunting for as many as a half-dozen men involved in the evening's fracases.
"There are still some very violent people out there, and we need to find them," police spokesman Officer Jeff Thomason said.
Sources identified the officers who fired their weapons as Anthony Tedesco and Kevin Kaney, who is a firearms expert for the department.
Ross had a conviction record for armed robbery and gun crimes, Thomason said. Castle has prior convictions for drugs and resisting arrest.
Thursday's shooting was the sixth involving Oakland police this year, Thomason said. Last year there were 11.
The incident is under investigation by police homicide and internal affairs and the Alameda County district attorney's office. Any officers who fired their weapons will be placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure.
The clashes began at 4:56 p.m. when Ross, Castle and their companions in a maroon van got involved in either a shootout or a drive-by shooting with a blue sedan in the parking lot of a Walgreens drugstore on 33rd Avenue, police said.
After the flurry of shots there, the van sped off to I-580, where it rammed a car about 5:10 p.m. near the Edwards Street exit. The occupants of the car were not badly hurt.
While the van was stopped, the blue sedan pulled up and some men jumped out, police said.
The sedan's occupants dragged a man from the van, shot him and pistol-whipped him, police said. The attackers then fled, and a bystander took the man to Highland Hospital.
The victim, whom police have not named, was later arrested for possible involvement in the Walgreens shooting. He is expected to recover, Thomason said.
The men remaining in the van then drove to the apartment block on 64th Avenue, where a resident called police after seeing at least one emerge with a rifle.
Investigators raced to the scene, and after several officers tried to stop Ross and Castle in the stairwell, Ross was shot dead about 5:40 p.m., police said.
Ross and Castle were both carrying.45-caliber Glock semiautomatic pistols, police said. Officers also recovered an assault rifle and a pistol-grip shotgun from the van.
"There was just an absolute disregard of the public in these incidents," Deputy Chief Jeffrey Israel said. "There was apparently no fear by these shooters for the people nearby or for the witnesses, and there were plenty of witnesses."The Blue Fairy waved her magic wand today and turned my child into a real live boy.
At least, that’s a little bit how it felt, opening our passports.
The federal government legally recognized my son as a boy.
We danced for ten minutes in the middle of the kitchen.
He checked again and again, where it reads Sex, to make sure his had an M. Then he looked at mine, just to be sure it read F.
It makes me a little sad, to be honest. Sad to think of what he would have done, if I hadn’t been here to advocate for him, to be his front line of defense, to fight his battles, so he can live happily and authentically on his own. I think of all the countless people in this country without a mom or a dad, or really anyone at all, to stand at their side.
Sad to think about how, until 2010, he couldn’t have gotten a passport without hacking off parts of his body. Not in Illinois, anyway, or in a majority of the states in our country. Illinois requires surgical intervention, to prove that he’s man enough.
In 2010, an executive order from Obama legally recognized a change in gender based on treatment from a medical doctor. No longer did a trans person have to surgically or chemically alter their bodies to prove their gender.
This is, perhaps, the greatest thing a country can do.
Since as early as I felt it was appropriate to teach my child to love his body, I found ways to build up his self-esteem and his body image.
He’s never hated his body, despite that he has body parts, and knows that he has body parts that are typically associated with female identified individuals. He has never wished for anything other than what he has. When his little brother points out their differences, my son patiently explains that he is a boy with a vagina and his brother is a boy with a penis.
And you know what? My three year old has no trouble accepting this at all.
I know that puberty might change those things. Both physically and mentally. But puberty might also bring puberty blockers, if he chooses, which will stall the inevitable and irreversible changes that occur when estrogen enters the body. And when he’s old enough and ready, he might start hormone replacement therapy, which will bring about the deeper voice and hairy face and chest that we have come to associate with male identified individuals. He knows that his anatomy won’t change and he doesn’t care. And at that time in his life, he might still love his body. I hope and pray he still loves his body.
But the state of Illinois tells him that he isn’t man enough.
That he will never be man enough until he takes a knife to his body to affirm his gender.
That he will never be a real boy until he hacks away the strings.
But the federal government, at least for now, agrees with me. That my child is perfect exactly as he was made. That my child doesn’t need to change a thing.
We didn’t need any Blue Fairy today.
My son is a real boy, with or without strings.
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Don't miss either of my Listen to Your Mother Videos: Best Laid Plans and Welcome to My Holland.
Read Portrait of a Transgender Child to learn more about my son.
Read my latest post here: 'Here in the Middle' Release Day
I'd love to hear your story. Please email me at affirmedmom@gmail.com if you want to share.
If you like what you've read, don't be shy about hitting the Share button and following me on Facebook at Affirmed Mom or Twitter @affirmedmom.The following is an illuminating lecture by Paul Foot on the Haitian slave revolt where he challenges the perception that British goodwill ended slavery. The lecture is based on C.L.R. James’ classic study The Black Jacobins. There is also an excellent documentary on this topic titled Egalite for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution.
Paul Foot – The Haitian Slave Revolt of 1791 (57:27): MP3
Paul Foot vividly describes how the most successful slave revolt in history, which began in 1791, came to be closely allied to the events of the French Revolution and how each in turn influenced the other.
Taking self-emancipation as his main theme, Foot also challenges the idea that it was William Wilberforce, the British Tory MP and factory owner, that brought about the abolition of the most brutal and systematic regime of bondage and exploitation.
On the contrary, it was the San Domingo slave army itself, brilliantly led by their General, Toussaint L’Ouverture that made the greatest contribution to the ending of slavery. Over twelve years this Caribbean revolution defeated the French slave owners, Spanish colonists, a British expeditionary force, a native mulatto army and finally, Napoleon’s army. Through this struggle, independence was won in what had been France’s most profitable colony, which today we know as Haiti.
In a talk lasting one hour Paul Foot brings the lessons of these events to life, encompassing an array of hidden history in a compelling and humorous way.The 1973 movie Soylent Green depicts a dystopian future set in 2022 in which overpopulation, pollution and climate change have destroyed agriculture. The population is forced to survive on a food ration called "soylent green" (which is processed humans).
This week, the year 2022 perhaps got a little closer. A new scientific report released on January 6 reveals that droughts, heat waves, floods, and hurricanes have wiped out roughly a tenth of the globe's wheat, corn, and other cereal crops over the last five decades. These disturbing findings were underscored on January 7, when the U.S. government released its annual National Climate Monitoring Annual Report.
Let's face the hard truth: The best way for investors to make money over the long haul is to buy the stocks of companies that meet crucial demands that are generated by multi-year, unstoppable trends. Whether the trend is good or bad makes no difference; investors must dispassionately deal with the world as they find it.
One of the most urgent of those secular trends today is crop damage from climate change, and the company best positioned to mitigate this damage is Monsanto (MON). Here's why this stock should be a part of your long-term growth portfolio.
As a producer of seeds that protect crops from hostile growing conditions, Monsanto directly benefits from the problems outlined in this week's two troubling reports.
Monsanto's forte is the development and marketing of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), a politically controversial technology that, despite its occasional bad rap in the press, shows no signs of getting hindered by regulators. At the same time, the courts have consistently ruled in Monsanto's favor, upholding the company's claims on GMO seed patents.
The vast majority of crops are grown with GMO seeds; Monsanto is the leader in the field. Monsanto's engineers are now working on a sophisticated genetic innovation called "RNA interference" to destroy crop-eating pests. As the world's burgeoning population craves ever-more grain, Monsanto stock will feed investors hungry for gains.One of my favorite quotes in economics comes from Frank Graham, who wrote that disorder is the sole substitute in social science for the controlled experiments of the natural sciences. What he meant was that drastic events, outside the normal run of experience, offer a much better way to test competing theories than day-to-day events, which aren’t too hard to shoehorn into various dogmas.
So it was with the global economic crisis, and especially the monetary policy response. Broadly speaking there were two views about what would happen when central banks hugely expanded the monetary base. On one side, those with a more or less Keynesian viewpoint saw this action as harmless at worst, possibly somewhat helpful, because they expected most of the new bank reserves to just sit there given near-zero interest rates. After all, that is what happened during Japan’s attempt at quantitative easing after 2001:
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On the other side, many people were quite sure that explosive inflation was just around the corner.
So this was as clear a test as you’re ever likely to get. But the side that got it wrong refuses to take no for an answer, because that would mean admitting that Keynes (and possibly other economists whose names begin with the same letter) was actually right about something, while they were wrong. And so we have denial on multiple levels.
The crudest level is that of the inflation truthers, who insist that the government is covering up real inflation. There’s also the “I never said that” faction, claiming that they haven’t been refuted, because they only said there was a “risk” of hyperinflation — I’m not sure which position is more contemptible.
At a higher level are those who claim that we would have had runaway inflation if only the Fed hadn’t decided to pay 0.25 percent, that’s right, 0.25 percent, interest on reserves. Aside from being highly implausible, this runs up against the example of Japan, which massively expanded the monetary base without paying interest, and got the same result.
And at the highest level we have the neo-Fisherite claim that everything we thought we knew about monetary policy is backwards, that low interest rates actually lead to lower inflation, not higher. At least this stuff is being presented in an even-tempered way.
But it’s still very strange. Nick Rowe has been working very hard to untangle the logic of these arguments, basically trying to figure out how the rabbit got stuffed into the hat; the meta-point here is that all of the papers making such claims involve some odd assumptions that are snuck by readers in a non-transparent way.
And the question is, why? What motivation would you have for inventing complicated models to reject conventional wisdom about monetary policy? The right answer would be, if there is a major empirical puzzle. But you know, there isn’t. The neo-Fisherites are flailing about, trying to find some reason why the inflation they predicted hasn’t come to pass — but the only reason they find this predictive failure so puzzling is because they refuse to accept the simple answer that the Keynesians had it right all along.Policymakers opt for more finely tuned economic relief rather than the massive spending and borrowing after 2008 crisis
China's leaders have unveiled a mini-stimulus aimed at shoring up sputtering growth in the world's second largest economy.
Under the measures announced by Premier Li Keqiang, small businesses will get bigger tax breaks, social housing will be built to replace shantytowns and railway construction will be sped up.
Li, China's top economic official, announced the new measures on Wednesday evening after a regular meeting of the state council, China's cabinet.
It comes amid signs that China's economy continues to slow, raising fears it may expand less than the 7.5% that the country's leaders have targeted. Factory data released this week showed that business conditions in the first quarter remained mostly weak. China's economy has been decelerating after a decade of double-digit growth as its communist leaders try to shift the economy's focus to domestic consumption instead of trade and investment.
The stimulus announcement "means policymakers don't want to take the risk of seeing growth slipping to below 7%", HSBC economists Qu Hongbin and Sun Junwei said in a report. "The government is clearly signalling that it intends to follow up with real policy actions to maintain growth."
China's growth rates remain high compared with the recent sluggish standards of western countries, but last year's expansion of 7.7% was the slowest in two decades.
China's policymakers are opting for smaller, more finely tuned economic relief measures rather than the massive spending and borrowing they unleashed following the 2008 financial crisis. The sweeping stimulus helped China's economy recover rapidly but also led to a credit boom that leaders are now trying to rein in.
Parts of the package are aimed at financing the construction of public housing and railways, two important parts of China's broader urbanisation drive.
The latest measures call for slum clearance to be accelerated. To support redevelopment projects, the China Development Bank, the country's biggest policy lender, will set up a special agency to issue home financing bonds.
To finance railway construction, authorities will create a special fund worth 200bn-300bn yuan (£120bn-£180bn) a year. They will also issue up to 150bn yuan of bonds annually and encourage bank loans.
Li reiterated that China plans to build 4,000 miles of railway this year, about 620 miles more than was built last year. About 80% of that will be in China's central and western regions.
Existing tax breaks for small companies will be extended until the end of 2016 and the threshold for smaller companies to pay tax will be raised, although the new level was not specified. Li's statement had few other specific details and did not give the overall cost of the package.New research in The FASEB Journal suggests that platelet-activating factor receptors cause increased adiposity and weight gain, and regulating these receptors could lead to treatments for metabolic diseases
As most people resolve themselves to lose weight this New Year, here's why it seems to get easier and easier to pack on unwanted pounds: New research published in the January 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal, shows that as we age, the thermogenic activity of brown fat is reduced. Brown fat is a "good" fat located in the backs of our necks that helps burn "bad" white fat around our bellies. Additionally, the researchers also discovered a possible metabolic on/off switch that could reactivate brown fat.
"Future studies on how PAF/PAFR signaling controls UCP1 levels through beta3-AR production in the BAT of animals and humans may reveal new therapeutic targets to treat metabolic disorders associated with obesity," said Junko Sugatani, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Department of Pharmaco-Biochemistry at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Shizuoka in Shizuoka, Japan.
To make this discovery, scientists analyzed two groups of mice. The first group had the platelet-activating factor receptors (PAFR) gene knocked out. The second group was normal. PAFR-deficient mice developed a more severe obese state characterized by higher body and epididymal fat mass with age than that of wild-type littermates. Findings from the PAFR-KO genetic model reveal that PAFR-deficiency causes brown adipose tissue (BAT) dysfunction, which converges to induce the development of obesity, due to impaired thermogenic activity of BAT. This study could elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying the PAF/PAF receptor-mediated anti-obesity, leading to the development of new targets for the treatment of obesity and related disorders, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, infertility and ulcers.
"A common complaint is that older people have to work twice as hard with their diets and exercise to get half of the results of younger people," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "Now we have a much better idea why this is the case: Our brown fat stops working as we age. Unfortunately, until a way to turn it back on is developed, we'll have to be prepared to eat more salads and lean proteins, while logging more miles on the treadmill than our younger counterparts."
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Receive monthly highlights from The FASEB Journal by e-mail. Sign up at http://www. faseb. org/ fjupdate. aspx. The FASEB Journal is published by the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). It is among the most cited biology journals worldwide according to the Institute for Scientific Information and has been recognized by the Special Libraries Association as one of the top 100 most influential biomedical journals of the past century.
FASEB is composed of 27 societies with more than 110,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. Our mission is to advance health and welfare by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences through service to our member societies and collaborative advocacy.Oil behemoths BP and Chevron dumped toxic waste - including some radioactive material - from their drilling operations into coastal waters, claims Louisiana parish Plaquemines in a lawsuit removed to federal court Thursday.
Plaquemines Parish alleges the companies released oil field waste into ocean water “without limitation,” violating the Louisiana State and Local Coastal Resources Management Act of 1978. The law requires companies to clear, revegetate, detoxify or restore polluted areas, which the companies did not do, the lawsuit claims.
The pollution, along with the companies’ lack of adequate maintenance of their oilfields, has resulted in serious coastal erosion and contaminated groundwater, according to the lawsuit.
“I think the oil companies have an obligation to self-report, I think the oil companies are to blame and I think the oil companies took advantage of the state,” John Carmouche, a lead attorney for Plaquemines, told The Advocate in November when the suit first came out in state court.
Plaquemines and the Jefferson Parish filed nearly 30 lawsuits in November aimed at dozens of energy companies and their contractors based on claims of destruction and pollution of coastal space.
The suit against BP and Chevron alleges the companies should have recognized that the drilling waste, or “brine,” contained “unacceptable and inherently dangerous” amounts of the radioactive materials Radium 226 and Radium 228.
Though minor amounts of Radium 226 were once used in health items like toothpaste, they were eventually discarded in everyday uses when it was discovered the perceived health benefits were not at all true, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Exposure to radium over a long-term period increases one’s chances of developing diseases such as lymphoma, bone cancer, leukemia and aplastic anemia, the Environmental Protection Agency reports.
Containing gamma radiation, radium is harmful if ingested or inhaled. The Environmental Protection Agency says about 20 percent of ingested radium does not leave the body, entering the bloodstream and often accumulating in bones.
The lawsuit also calls attention to the company’s construction of “unlined earthen waste pits,” described in the lawsuit as “simply holes, ponds or excavations” dug into the ground or a marsh. Many pits were never sealed correctly, nor did the companies even attempt to acquire permits to close them, the suit says.
Plaquemines also alleges BP has illegally, without permits, dredged canals throughout the area for oil and gas development.
“These suits are more of the same,” Louisiana Oil and Gas Association President Don Briggs told The Advocate in November. “Extort as much money from the oil and gas industry as possible, thus lining the pockets of a small group of trial lawyers.”
In November, Harper’s magazine published a comprehensive report on the dirty legacy of oil development in the state and how industry has an unrelenting grip on Louisiana politicians.
Briggs played a part in the article, lamenting environmental and health initiatives used to halt domestic fracking or oil and gas production in Louisiana.
In an interview with Briggs, author Ken Silverstein wrote that the lobbyist criticized what he saw as a “shameless scramble by residents along the Gulf of Mexico to get a piece of the $20 billion compensation fund created following the Deepwater Horizon spill. ‘BP is getting raped and pillaged by anyone who had any sort of business on the Gulf Coast,’ he said with a snort.”
BP is currently embroiled in a legal dispute against what it says are meritless claims filed by businesses impacted by the 2010 oil spill, part of a multi-billion dollar compensation scheme.The Basque witch trials of the 17th century represent the only serious attempt at rooting out witchcraft ever undertaken by the Spanish Inquisition, which was generally skeptical of such allegations. The trial of the Basque witches began in January 1609 at Logroño, near Navarre and the Basque country. It was influenced by the background of similar persecutions conducted in nearby Labourd, France, by Pierre de Lancre. Although the number executed were small by European standards, it was almost certainly the biggest single event of its kind in history in terms of people investigated. By the end some 7,000 cases had been examined by the Inquisition.
Process [ edit ]
Although Logroño is not a Basque city, it was the setting for an Inquisition tribunal responsible for the Kingdom of Navarre, Alava, Gipuzkoa, Biscay, La Rioja and the North of Burgos and Soria.[1] Among the accused were not only women (although they predominated) but also children and men, including priests guilty of healing with nóminas,[1] amulets with names of saints.[2] The first phase ended in 1610, with a declaration of auto-da-fé against thirty-one of the accused, five or six of whom were burned to death and five of them symbolically, as they had died before auto-da-fé).
Thereafter proceedings were suspended until the inquisitors had a chance to gather further evidence on what they believed to be a widespread witch cult in the Basque region. Alonso Salazar Frias, the junior inquisitor and a lawyer by training, was delegated to examine the matter at length. Armed with an Edict of Grace, promising pardon to all those who voluntarily reported themselves and denounced their accomplices, he traveled across the countryside during the year 1611, mainly in the vicinity of Zugarramurdi, near what is now the French-Spanish border, where a cave and a water stream (Olabidea or Infernuko erreka, "Hell's stream") were said to be the meeting place of the witches.
As was usual in cases of this kind, denunciations flowed in. Frías finally returned to Logroño with "confessions" from close on 2,000 people, 1,384 of whom were children between the ages of seven and fourteen, implicating a further 5,000 named individuals.[3] Most of 1,802 people[4] retracted their statements before Salazar, attributing their confessions to torture. The evidence gathered covered 11,000 pages in all. Only six people out of 1,802 maintained their confessions and claimed to have returned to sabbaths.
In the stir of the events, proceedings were started in Hondarribia too (1611), some 35 km away from Zugarramurdi and 19 km from St-Jean-de-Luz, main hotspots of witchcraft allegations, against presumable female witches accused of casting spells on living creatures and meeting in Jaizkibel in akelarres, led by a he-goat shaped Devil. Men in this Bidasoa region were recruited in droves for Basque whaling, leaving women on their own (sometimes save for the priests, children, and elders) to deal with their problems and fend for themselves during long periods. According to evidence given by a witness as attested in the document, "the Devil summoned in the Gascon language those from San Sebastián and Pasaia, and in Basque those from Irun and Hendaye, addressing a few words to them."[5]
Skepticism [ edit ]
Belief in witches was actually quite low in Spain. It was never strong to start with, and became weaker under the Visigothic law, established by the Visigoths during their last century of rule in Spain and preserved by the Christian nations during most of the middle ages. According to said law, belief in supernatural phenomenon of any sort - witches, fortune tellers, oracles... - was a crime and a heresy in itself. The belief in witchcraft had survived, even though watered down, only in the northmost mountain regions of Galicia and the Basque Country. [6].
The Spanish Inquisition was more inclined to persecute Protestants, Conversos (baptized descendants of Jews and Moors), and those who illegally smuggled banned books into Spain. As far back as 1538 the Council of Inquisition had warned judges not to believe all that they read in Malleus Maleficarum, the infamous witch-finding text[citation needed]. In March 1610, Antonio Venegas de Figueroa, the Bishop of Pamplona, sent a letter to the Inquisition in which he claimed that the witch hunt was based "on lies and self-delusion"[7] and that there had been little knowledge of witchcraft in the region before the outset of the trials.
Contrary to the usual picture of the Inquisition, ready to believe all and every confession of wrongdoing, educated Spaniards were usually skeptical of witchcraft and considered it a northern or Protestant superstition. Salazar, the youngest judge in a panel of three, was also skeptical about the whole thing, saying that he had found no substantive proof of witchcraft on his travels, in spite of the manifold confessions. More than that, he questioned the whole basis of the trials. Because of this disagreement on how to proceed, the matter had to be referred to the Inquisitor-General in Madrid. The senior judges, Alonso Becerra y Holquin and Juan del Valle Alvarado, went so far as to accuse their colleague of being "in league with the Devil." Some of Salazar's objections are remarkable:
The real question is: are we to believe that witchcraft occurred in a given situation simply because of what the witches claim? No: it is clear that the witches are not to be believed, and the judges should not pass sentence on anyone unless the case can be proven with external and objective evidence sufficient to convince everyone who hears it. And who can accept the following: that a person can frequently fly through the air and travel a hundred leagues in an hour; that a woman can get through a space not big enough for a fly; that a person can make himself invisible; that he can be in a river or the open sea and not get wet; or that he can be in bed at the sabbath at the same time;... and that a witch can turn herself into any shape she fancies, be it housefly or raven? Indeed, these claims go beyond all human reason and may even pass the limits permitted by the Devil.
The Inquisitor-General appeared to share his view that confession and accusation on their own were not enough. For some time the central office of the Inquisition had been sceptical about claims of magic and witchcraft, and had only sanctioned the earlier burnings with considerable reluctance, and only because of the reported mood of panic from Logroño. In August 1614 it ruled that all of the trials pending at Logroño should be dismissed. At the same time it issued new and more rigorous rules of evidence, that brought witch-burning in Spain to an end, long before in the Protestant North.[citation needed]
Discussion [ edit ]
The background and circumstances leading to the events unleashed are not unknown to us, if we dismiss the magical and esoteric. In a wider context of religious persecution and conflict in all of Europe, the Catholic Church aimed at suppressing old popular customs and ways that could contend against and question official ideology and manners. In the Basque Country, where the language provided a stronger shelter for old semi-pagan beliefs and against the Church's authority and control, midwives and herbalists played an important role,[citation needed] besides holding a social status and carrying a popular wisdom that didn't go down well with the authorities.[citation needed]
The so-called sabbaths and akelarres may have[citation needed] been meetings out of reach of the official religious and civil authorities. Those who attended the meetings would eat, drink, talk, and dance, sometimes all night long in the forest or caves, at times consuming mind-altering herbs and ointments.[8][citation needed]
Memory [ edit ]
The "Cave of the Witches" near Akelarre in Zugarramurdi.
It was reported that the witches of Zugarramurdi met at the meadow of Akelarre (Basque for "meadow of the he-goat"). Even today aquelarre[9] is the Spanish word for a black sabbath. The village of Zugarramurdi holds the Witchcraft Museum highlighting the appalling events of the early 17th century, where the memory of the victim villagers is dignified.
Akelarre was a 1984 Spanish film by Pedro Olea about these trials. The town of Zugarramurdi now celebrates the witches with a feast by the cave on Midsummer's eve, June 23, the folk date for the summer solstice.
The Basque witch trials are also featured as a subplot in Season 4 of the HBO series True Blood, when the spirit of a powerful witch Antonia Gavilán, fed upon, tortured, and condemned to death by vampire priests in the city of Logroño in 1610, takes possession of a modern-day Wiccan in order to exact revenge on vampires.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
General
Henningsen, Gustav (November 1980). "The Greatest Witch-Trial of All: Navarre, 1609-14". History Today. 30 (11): 36–39.
Henningsen, Gustav (1980). The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (1609-1614). Reno: University of Nevada Press. ISBN 0-87417-056-7.From the moment I heard a Legoland Discovery Centre was opening in Toronto at Vaughan Mills Shopping Centre, I knew I wanted to check it out.
For most of my life I’ve been a huge fan of Lego’s little plastic bricks. I even have about eight boxes of various Lego sets (mostly of the pirate variety) stashed away in my parents’ garage (much to their dismay). Unfortunately, as a childless Lego fanatic with no friends or relatives who have kids falling within Lego-loving age, checking out Legoland has been impossible for me because all adults need to be accompanied by a child to attend.
Thankfully, for all us grown-up Lego fans, Legoland’s Discovery centre holds an “adults only” evening every few months. This week I finally had |
Germany, of which the BND feared a „very critical public“. The visit resulted in an elaborate „situation report“, but it’s classified „top secret“ and only accessible for few people.
Additionally, the new Data Protection Commissioner Andrea Voßhoff produced a legal analysis of the findings and sent it to the Federal Intelligence Service coordinator in the German Chancellery and former BND president Gerhard Schindler. But this analysis is still classified „secret“ and our Freedom of Information-request has been denied. Media have raised the question „Secret, because embarrassing?“. We have now received this legal analysis and have published the full text of the document (in German).
18 Severe Legal Violations, 12 Official Complaints
This report is indeed embarrassing for BND and Chancellery: On 60 pages, the highest German Data Protection Commissioner lists 18 severe legal violations and files 12 formal complaints. Such a complaint under the German Data Protection Act is the Commissioner’s most severe legal instrument – forcing the authorities to issue a statement in response. This is the first time that a German authority has received this many complaints at once. Usually, the Commissioner files a similar amount of complaints in an entire year – to all federal authorities combined.
The report’s executive summary describes serious violations of the law [emphasis added]:
The BND has illegally and massively restricted my supervision authority on several occasions. A comprehensive and efficient control was not possible. Contrary to its explicit obligation by law, the BND has created [seven] databases without an establishing order and used them (for many years), thus disregarding fundamental principles of legality. Under current law, the data saved in these databases have to be deleted immediately. They may not be used further. Although this inspection was only focused on the BND station in Bad Aibling, I found serious legal violations, which are of outstanding importance and concern core areas of the BND’s mission. The BND has collected personal data without a legal basis und has processed it systematically. The BND’s claim that this information is essential, cannot substitute a missing legal basis. Limitations of fundamental rights always need to be based on law. German (constitutional) law […] also applies to personal data which the BND has collected abroad and processes domestically. These constitutional restrictions have to be strictly abided by the BND.
Bad Aibling: Only One of Many Surveillance Stations
These are clear words, that are even more damning, considering that the inspection visit was limited to a single BND-outpost in Bad Aibling – and not a comprehensive review of all of the BND’s activities. Zeit magazine reported other stations across Germany, where the BND also collects, receives and processes mass surveillance data:
In the BND stations located in Schöningen, Rheinhausen, Bad Aibling and Gablingen, metadata from all over the world converge, about 220 million data points every single day.
But not even Bad Aibling could be thoroughly investigated by the Data Protection Commissioner: Repeatedly and contrary to law, the BND has „constrained [her] statutory powers of scrutiny“. These are „grave legal infringements“.
Emerald: „Non-European Cable Interception“
Nevertheless, the report corrects a few things, which were so far presented differently to the public and the Federal Parliament Inquiry Committee investigating the NSA spying scandal. For example, former BND-president Gerhard Schindler claimed that Bad Aibling intercepts only satellite signals from crisis regions. Now we have written proof that Bad Aibling also intercepts cables:
ZABBO is the satellite interception Bad Aibling in Afghanistan. SMARAGD is the cable interception in non-european countries with assistance by a foreign secret service.
An operation with code name „Emerald“ has also been mentioned in Snowden-documents published by Der Spiegel.
Last year, we reported that the BND intercepts cable communications in at least 12 locations. Now, for the first time, we have written proof that these data are also transferred to Bad Aibling and processed there.
No Database Establishing Orders: „Must Be Deleted Immediately“
All these data are collected by the BND’s computer systems, where they are stored and processed in various databases. The law obliges the BND to create an establishing order for each database and consult the Data Protection Commissioner. However, in at least seven cases, the BND did not comply with the law:
Contrary to legal provisions […] i.e. unlawfully, the BND created several databases (VERAS 4, VERAS 6, XKEYSCORE, TND, SCRABBLE, INBE, DAFIS) without having issued an establishing order and without the legally mandated consultation of the Commissioner. Additionally, the BND has stored extensive personal data in these databases and has processed them without respecting requirements that should have been set out in each particular establishing order – particularly defining the purpose of the database. These are severe infringements.
The Commissioners conclusion: The BND has to „immediately delete“ all data stored in these seven databases and „must not further process these data“. Delete all XKeyscore data. A slap in the face for the secret service.
XKeyscore: „Scan All Internet Traffic Worldwide“
One of these seven illegal BND databases is the notorious NSA tool XKeyscore – „NSA’s Google for the World’s Private Communications“, which collects „nearly everything a user does on the internet“:
The BND uses XKEYSCORE for SIGINT collection as well as for SIGINT analysis and stores both metadata and communication contents via XKEYSCORE – without an establishing order.
Contrary to the German domestic secret service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which purportedly uses XKeyscore only offline to analyze already gathered data, the BND employs XKeyscore also for massive SIGINT data collection – directly at internet exchange points and fiber optic cables:
For the SIGINT collection, i.e. as so-called front-end system, XKEYSCORE – using freely definable and linkable selectors – scans […] the entire internet traffic worldwide, i.e. all meta and content data contained in internet traffic, and saves selected internet traffic data (e-mails, chats, content from public social media, media, as well as non-public – i.e. not visible to the normal user – messages in web forums, etc.) and hence all persons appearing in this internet traffic (sender, receiver, web forum member, member of social networks, etc.). In real time, XKEYSCORE makes these internet traffic data – attributed to its users – readable and analyzable for an agent.
„Multitude of Personal Data from Irreproachable Persons“
This mass surveillance is not limited to terrorists, but affects many „irreproachable persons“:
Because of its […] systematic conception, XKEYSCORE – indisputedly – collects […] also a great number of personal data of irreproachable persons. The BND is not capable of substantiating their number […]. In one case I checked, the ratio was 1:15, i.e. for one target person, personal data of fifteen irreproachable persons were collected and stored, which were – indisputedly – not required by the BND to fulfill its tasks […]. The collection and processing of these data are profound violations of [the] BND law. These infringements of constitutional rights are conducted without any legal basis and thus harm the constitutional right of informational self-determination of irreproachable persons. Furthermore, these infringements of constitutional rights result from the inappropriately – and thus disproportionately – large scale of these measures, i.e. the inappropriately large number of irreporachable persons surveilled […].
The BND not only breaks several laws using XKeyscore, but – following the arrangement „data in exchange for software“ – also transfers the collected data to the NSA:
The content and metadata collected via XKEYSCORE are transferred to the NSA, following an automatic clearing of information falling under the G-10 law (G-10 assessment). These transmissions are additional severe violations of fundamental rights.
Fundamental Rights Filter: „Substantial Systematic Deficits“
However, this „automatic G-10 assessment“ does not work. The BND, as a foreign intelligence service, is not allowed to monitor German citizens in its „strategic“ mass surveillance. Therefore, the secret service uses the data filtering system DAFIS, which is supposed to filter out all data originating from German citizens and individuals according to article 10 of the German constitution (Privacy of correspondence, posts and telecommunications). Last year, we already revealed how this filter thwarts legal obligations.
The Data Protection Commissioner goes even further: The filter „has substantial systemic deficits“.
The DAFIS filter does not completely detect and filter data from individuals protected by article 10 of the constitution. Hence, the BND has – contrary to legal obligations resulting from the G-10 law – processed personal data of these individuals and has unlawfully intervened in communication that is protected by article 10 of the constitution.
A complete filter of all communications protected by the constitution is not possible in the internet age, even with DAFIS‘ three layers. The first layer includes of the German country code +49, the German top level domain.de and German IP addresses. If we are communicating in English using our domain netzpolitik.org and a foreign IP address (via Tor or VPN), our communication is not filtered out by this system. While some top politicians brushed us off with „Bad luck!“, the German commissioner is clear: This is illegal.
The BND knows it cannot rely on „rough“ filters based on criteria like country codes and top level domains. For this reason, it maintains „G-10 whitelist“ containing telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and domains which are then filtered on a second layer. This includes domains like eads.net, eurocopter.com and feuerwehr-ingolstadt.org. Our domain netzpolitik.org is not on this whitelist – and must not be, because already storing it on this list would be illegal:
For this, the BND would have to know the selectors of constitutionally protected persons beforehand and it would need to legally store them on the G-10 whitelist. Records of this kind are not allowed according to current law.
NSA Selectors: „Unconstitutional Infringement of Fundamental Rights“
So the BND monitors internet communication with XKeyscore on a massive scale and cannot effectively filter those protected by fundamental constitutional rights. Nevertheless, the BND also sends this data to the NSA.
For this purpose, the BND in Bad Aibling pulls a list of selectors from an FTP-server at the Wiesbaden NSA-agency European Technical Center „several times a day“ – totaling about 14 million. The BND then searches for these selectors in its mass surveillance streams like internet-cables. The „hits“ from these selectors are passed to the NSA, automatically. Thus, the BND collects, stores, processes and transfers the NSA selectors – all legal terms defined in the German Data Protection Act. Thereby, according to the law, the BND is the „controller“ of the data and the Data Protection Commissioner is authorized to see and inspect the NSA-selectors.
However, the BND actively prevents supervision by denying the Data Protection Commissioner access to the selectors. This puts her in good company: The Parliamentary Control Committee for the Secret Service, the G-10 Commission, and the Parliament Inquiry Committee investigating the NSA spying scandal are all denied access to the NSA-selectors. The latter two are suing the German government over this refusal. Only a special investigator by the government was allowed to see far less than one percent of the list – but his independence is heavily doubted.
The BND’s refusal constitutes another „unlawful constraint of [the Commissioner’s] supervision authority“ that leads to a „de facto elimination of an efficient data protection control“:
This is inconsistent with the requirements set out by the Federal Constitutional Court. Thus, the BND’s refusal is an unconstitutional infringement of the affected persons‘ informational self-determination.
Furthermore, the BND has an obligation to examine itself: The organization is only allowed to „store and process selectors, if they are required for its legal mission“. This requirement has to be „proven at the time of collection for each specific case“. The BND did not do this. It is unclear whether such a task is even possible with 14 million automatically transferred selectors. But on top of that, the BND used NSA-selectors which it cannot examine, because of a lack of proper background information. This is another serious violation of the law, these selectors are „impermissible“.
„Unexceptional Transfer of All Selector Hits to the NSA“
The conclusion of the Data Protection Commissioner:
The BND must not have processed nor used these selectors, because of the lack of necessity. It had to delete these […] selectors. Contrary to these legal provisions, the BND used the selectors […] as search terms and transferred the resulting hits […] to the NSA. This usage of data constitutes serious violations of [the BND law and the law of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution].
Regardless of all these legal violations, the BND transferred all communication content, belonging to the 14 million US selectors, directly to the NSA:
The unexceptional transfer of all hits resulting from using the NSA selectors – G-10-filtered – constitute serious violations of the provision of the [BND law and the law of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution]. The same conclusion is reached if one assumes that all of the NSA selectors are without exception central to the mission of the BND and that the DAFIS filter system does not have any systemic deficits.
VERAS: „All Metadata of All Communications Traffic“
For metadata, the BND does not even need selectors, because it stores all of them in its own database: VERAS 6. VERAS stands for „traffic analysis system“ [German: Verkehrs-Analyse-System“], the current version 6 was „developed by the Bundeswehr“. This database also lacks an establishing order, meaning that the BND would have to delete all data immediately. Instead, VERAS is likely one of the largest BND databases:
By diverting and collecting all metadata of all traffic on a communication line, the BND also stores and uses metadata of communication traffic by irreproachable persons which are not necessary to fulfill the BND’s mission. This means metadata of irreproachable persons is also stored in VERAS 6 and used for metadata analysis. Findings gained from this metadata analysis are used by the BND, f.e. as new selectors.
So: The BND stores all metadata of entire communication lines. For three months. Not from terrorists but from „bystanders or irreproachable people“. „Intentional and on a large scale“. This means that the BND violates the German BND law and constitutional law: „These are serious violations.“
Metadata Analysis: Discovery of „New Relevant Individuals“
This vast amount of data is permanently being screened by the BND: „the essential purpose of metadata analysis is to find new individuals who are relevant to intelligence services“. This is happening exactly in the way we constantly describe: through social network graphs and movement patterns and profiles.
According to the […] user manual, it is, for example, possible to expand the „topology“ view by one communication hop at a time. This process can be repeated at will. In combination with the […] technical capabilities, it is not only possible to extend communication hops at will, to conduct technical screenings, and to target specific persons directly, but also to create movement patterns and profiles of these persons.
Two years ago, the Parliament Inquiry Committee was surprised to learn that the BND stores metadata over five hops. Now we learn that this was an understatement. The BND stores all metadata and is capable of screening any amount of hops:
All persons having a connection to a directly relevant person, or if their metadata are stored because of a geographical perspective are indirectly relevant for the BND. The connection to a directly relevant person can be established over any amount of hops. VERAS 6 does not have a restriction.
Obstruction: „Potential Abuse of Law“
This „storage and processing of personal metadata in VERAS is subject to the BND law and subsidiarily to the Federal Data Protection Act“. But in many aspects the Data Protection Commissioner was hindered from examining the data properly. When requesting only the retained data of individuals protected by fundemental rights, the database had too many be displayed. Thus, she gradually reduced the time frame: „90 days, 30 days, 1 day“. Still too many hits:
In none of the these cases, the system was able to display the hits because the number exceeded the limit of 15.002 – not even in the case of the least possible time restriction of one day.
This means the Federal Data Protection Commissioner was not able to examine the contents of the massive meta data retention. Additionally, she was not able to check how the BND used personal data, because: There are no logs.
The BND is neither aware of the kind or the scope of logs, nor was it technologically possible to access the log data of VERAS 6. Further, there existed no technical capability to analyze the logs.
This is another grave violation of law and another constraint to the Data Protection Commissioner’s supervision authority. Particularly since she wanted to resolve „urgent matters which required further clarification with the help of log data“.
But that’s not all. The BND has also actively deleted data:
About two weeks prior to my inspection in October 2014, the BND deleted all data-sets in VERAS which were older than 60 days, even though VERAS is designed to have a maximum storage period of 90 days.
Even though the BND has to respect a moratorium not to delete data that might be examined by the Parliament Inquiry Committee or the Data Protection Commissioner, this is now the second time it deleted sensitive data: In March 2012, all e-mails with problematic selectors older than six months were deleted.
SUSLAG: Direct Data Exchange Between BND and NSA
The BND Bad Aibling Station also houses the Special US Liaison Activity Germany (SUSLAG), where BND ans NSA directly exchange mass surveillance data:
The SUSLAG is connected to Building 8, in which the BND’s IT servers are located, via fiber optic cables. There is a physical 100 Mbit/s connection between the server room in Bad Aibling and the SUSLAG building. SUSLAG also has a technical connection to the US-European Technical Center (ETC) in Wiesbaden. The data exchange between the BND office in Bad Aibling and the ETC Wiesbaden is facilitated via SUSLAG.
The Data Protection Commissioner is convinced, her supervision authority also extends „to SUSLAG and its staff members“. Therefore, she wanted to inspect this core area of BND-NSA collaboration. But the BND also blocked these attempts. The Commissioner and her staff are not allowed to enter the building and not even allowed to know how many people work there:
The BND denies my authority on this matter. It refused to answer my question concerning the amount of employees/contractors in the Bad Aibling Station working for US authorities.
This is another „grave infringement“ by the secret service. It fits the picture, though: The BND had concealed, covered up and lied before – including to the Data Protection Commissioner.
BND Reform: Everything The BND Does Is To Be Legalized
The paper’s conclusion: „The BND has to respect the law.“ Meaning: It is not doing so.
This criticism is as clear as it gets. The Data Protection Commissioner, usually rather soft, whips BND and Chancellery left and right. The secret service breaches law and constitution by the dozen – and that’s only a small glimpse into its actions.
Unfortunately, the consequence of this is not an end to the illegal actions: While the Data Protection Commissioner was examining the BND in Bad Aibling, the secret service ramped up its equipment for 300 million Euros. And while the Commissioner waited for an answer to her report from the Chancellery, the government drafted a reform bill for the BND that not only legalizes the organization’s actions, but even increases its powers. This legislative package is scheduled to be adopted this year and will presumably come into effect at the beginning of next year.
Edward Snowden and Andrea Voßhoff have shown that secret services always get close to the edge or even overstep the boundaries of law. Now, the governing coalition wants to extend the law.
Read the original full document in German.An image of Russian president Vladimir Putin and a pregnant President Donald Trump appeared on buildings in New York City on Valentine’s Day, along with the message “Love Through Hate.”
That is the slogan for the dating app Hater, which connects people based on shared dislikes. It was responsible for the display, which appeared on three separate buildings: on the corners of 15th Street and Ninth Avenue, the location of Apple’s Chelsea store; 14th Street and Eighth Avenue; and at North Sixth Street and Wythe Avenue.
Hater
“There’s a lot of tension out there, regardless of which side you’re on,” Brendan Alper, Hater’s founder and CEO, told Business Insider. “We’re just trying to make people laugh. Through humor, hate can turn into love.”
Trump has routinely defended Putin, including in a recent interview with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, where he excused the history of Putin’s critics winding up poisoned by saying, “You think our country’s so innocent?”
Michael Flynn stepped down as national security adviser for giving “incomplete information” regarding a phone call he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
This Story Filed UnderI will not do your tech interview.
Ike Ellis Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 21, 2013
I am terrible at taking tech interviews. Out of dozens that I’ve done, I may never have passed one. My typical pattern goes like this: A serendipitous contact leads to outstanding phone call with a manager or recruiter. I move on to a phone screen with a hiring manager who comes away very excited. Finally, I go onsite (or online these days) to dig into the nitty gritty with coders and get washed out.
Sometimes they would want to hear something I didn’t know. Other times I just froze on topics that I know very well. (One time I couldn’t even name my favorite video games.) Many times, I failed to perform well on some logic puzzle. Every job I actually got was because a friend made sure that it happened.
For years and years I lived in fear of the interview because I knew that I’d fail. At the same time, I knew that I was a very good developer. I was always a go-to guy on my teams, took on large projects alone, and had success as a lead.
As I struggled with my own interviewing issues, I set up interview pipelines as a manager that mimicked those that I had experienced. Brain-teasers, tests, technical grilling, the whole works. As I informally observed the track record of those pipelines in hiring great people, I began to realize that the only real predictor of great hires was if the candidate already knew someone on the team. You can’t just go off of one guy’s word that his college buddy is great, though. It’s not fair to your current employee to bear the entire burden of the hiring decision. So what do you do?
I finally stumbled upon the cure when I interviewed at a small startup that had a different approach. I met the leads for lunch, then followed up with a social chat with the whole team. We talked tech, but they didn’t try and vet my skills. Instead, they offered me a paid contract to do some work that they actually needed done. They gave just enough direction to get me started and then left me to my own devices to see if I could get it done well, on time, and with good communication. It took me about 10 hours of time in the evenings to complete. Three days later, I had a job offer!
Since that day, I have refused to take traditional tech interviews. I politely suggest that a short contract job might be the best option for a company to evaluate a senior developer. This works very well if they are unsure about you. It works even better if they really want you. As an added benefit, you get to see what it’s like to really work with a team before you take a job with them.
There have been some companies that refused to use my model, which I totally understand. Those jobs are just simply jobs that I am not going to get anyway. I just thank them for their interest and move on.
Succeeding with this approach to interviewing gives you a level of credibility and leverage that you can never get from a traditional interview. I have had a 100% success rate (4/4) in getting job offers from companies that I interview with in this way. The one that I actually accepted was from a company that, instead of hiring me, decided to invest in creating a new startup with me.
Some people do very well with traditional interviews and they should stick with what works for them. However, I’d urge any company to really look hard at what their interview process is screening for. Does it accurately produce employees that do great work and fit well with the team? Does it select people who have heard your particular brain teasers before? Are you just going through the motions on interviews and then going with someone’s gut? Maybe that manager is really good at guessing, but what happens when they leave? Think about whether or not the short term contract approach might give you a better idea about a candidate’s value.Attention! This news was published on the old version of the website. There may be some problems with news display in specific browser versions.
War Thunder - Winter Magic!
Today is the last day of our Christmas special events. Dreams come true in War Thunder! Participate in our special missions and choose what aircraft you want to receive special boosts!
January 12th!
We are already giving out rewards for the most active players! Those who completed all the missions from January 1st to January 10th receive 7 days of premium account for free. Congratulations!
Please remember that exclusive aircraft will only be given out AFTER all the missions are over.
I. Premium aircraft missions
Each day we will issue two special missions. Perform each mission in a series to obtain one of two unique premium aircraft, all complete them all to get both planes!
Update: from now on it only takes 10 missions out of 17 to obtain each aircraft! TB-3 and XF5F are closer then ever!
Update 2: your exclusive aircraft will be given out after January 12th.
Missions for today:
TB-3 - destroy 15 enemy aircraft, while flying any USSR planes XF5F - destroy 15 enemy aircraft, while flying any USA planes
II. Discounts for today:
x4 RP gain for the first victory of the day for all nations
Bonus of your choice:
-50% discount on purchase and repair of Fw.190D-9 and Ta.152H-1
Bonus for yesterday's most popular aircraft:
+50% RP gain for Ta.152H-1Papa John’s, a chain restaurant that makes arguably awful pizza yet still boasts over 5,000 locations worldwide, saw its stock price drop by 11% this week, wherein CEO and founder John “Papa John” Schnatter saw his net worth tumble by $70 million. (Do not weep for Schnatter; Forbes still pegs his personal balance sheet at around $801 million.)
To calm the frazzled nerves of investors, Schnatter and COO Steve Ritchie hopped on a conference call to bravely announce that the lower-than-expected earnings were someone else’s fault: NFL players protesting state-sanctioned violence and systemic racism.
Papa John’s, which renewed its sponsorship agreement with the league on Aug. 4, thus retaining the company’s status as the “Official Pizza Sponsor of the NFL and Super Bowl,” is miffed that the NFL didn’t rewrite the rules in order to bar players from doing anything but standing and saluting during the national anthem. Papa John’s contends that players’ protests have made pizza-hungry, patriotic fans across the country less likely to purchase pizza.
“The NFL has hurt us,” Schnatter said during Wednesday’s call. “We are disappointed the NFL and its leadership did not resolve this.” Schnatter added that the failure to clamp down on political activity showed a lack of “leadership” on the NFL’s part and “should have been nipped in the bud a year and a half ago,” presumably when Colin Kaepernick first began protesting.
It is true that NFL broadcast ratings are down this year. Moreover, Papa John’s does advertise heavily during games and has sponsorship agreements with 23 teams. That said, how exactly has Papa John’s determined that the decrease in viewers has directly led to a decline in sales? They won’t say, and per ESPN, “Company executives declined to disclose exactly how much money in projected sales Papa John’s lost from its association with the NFL.”
That’s certainly the kind of information you’d think a COO would come armed with if it were going to point the finger at a corporate partner. After all, they’re saying outright that the NFL needs to crack down on protests in order to bolster their bottom line. Further, the decline in Papa John’s earnings doesn’t seem to have a one-to-one relationship to NFL protests, as ESPN’s Bill Barnwell handily pointed out on Twitter:
None of Schnatter’s logic seems to add up. Chain restaurants overall are seeing lower sales numbers, and all televised sports are garnering fewer eyeballs, largely because of cord-cutting.
In February, Ritchie complained that the 8% drop in NFL ratings for the 2016 season was causing Papa John’s sales to flag, though he then pegged it as having only “played a small factor in some of our performance,” and didn’t cite protests at all.
This appears to be just like when Schnatter tried to falsely and preemptively blame Obamacare for lost revenue and threatened to increase prices. Papa John’s is grandstanding about its CEO’s pet political cause, hoping it will deflect attention away from a subpar earnings report and equally subpar pizza.
Considering what should have been a mundane conference call is already being drowned out by ridiculous partisan noise-making, in that respect, Schnatter has already succeeded.
Share image by Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Images.[Steve] needed a tool to diagnose and fix his friend’s and family’s WiFi. A laptop would do, but WiFi modules and tiny OLED displays are cheap now. His solution was to build a War Walker, a tiny handheld device that would listen in WiFi access points, return the signal strength, and monitor the 2.4GHz environment around him.
The War Walker didn’t appear out of a vacuum. It’s based on the WarCollar Dope Scope, a tiny, portable device consisting of an off-the-shelf Chinese OLED display, an ESP8266 module, and a PCB that can charge batteries, provide a serial port, and ties the whole thing together with jellybean glue. The Dope Scope is a capable device, but it’s marketed towards the 1337 utilikilt-wearing, The Prodigy-blasting pentesters of the world. It is, therefore, a ripoff. [Steve] can build his version for $6 in materials.
The core of the build is an ESP-based carrier board built for NodeMCU. This board is available for $3.77 in quantity one, with free shipping. A $2 SPI OLED display is the user interface, and the rest of the circuit is just some perfboard and a few wires.
The software is based on platformio, and dumps all the WiFi info you could want over the serial port or displays it right on the OLED. It’s a brilliantly simple device for War Walking, and the addition of a small LiPo makes this a much better value than the same circuit with a larger pricetag.Perhaps some of the readers have heard about the idea that our planet is some kind of a superorganism. In particular, it is usually said that Earth is able to control by itself the processes occurring on it and with it, in addition, being responsible for the existence of life. We’re talking about the Gaia theory. Gaia, in turn, was the Greek goddess of the Earth. By and large, it doesn’t matter whether life on the planet is the result of the “conscious” activity of the planet as an organism, a combination of a number of “random” circumstances, or a consequence of the existence of a universal law of the life-friendly areas.
In any case, life on the planet exists and it is likely that to make it appear, many different coincidences or assumptions were required. One of which is, of course, the geology of the planet.
Tectonic or lithospheric plates are responsible for the geological activity on the Earth.
To get a better understanding of the plates you can take a look at this 3D model:
It is believed that plate movements can affect the existence of life on the planet. It also worth noting that geological activity is not only present on the Earth but also on other celestial bodies in the Solar system. However, Earth is unique not due to the earthquakes which are even present on the Moon or Mars (called moonquakes and marsquakes, respectively), but rather for a well developed and strong tectonic activity.
Also, the Earth is the only planet in the Solar system whose outer crust is broken into plates. The tectonic plates are tens of kilometers thick.
Scientists have tried to explain the cause of the movement of the tectonic plates and continents in the expansion of the radius of the Earth. It is a very beautiful hypothesis which hardly has anything in common with the reality.
In reality, the main reason for the active movement of tectonic plates is thermal convection. The lower layers become lighter when heated and float while the upper layers cool down (being away from the heat source), become heavier and, as a result, fall down. The convection can be observed during the movement of the wind when in some parts of the planet air is heated and in other parts is cooled at the point of contact and so movement is created. And though we can’t see the wind and the air flows (it can only be felt), we can see the phenomenon of convection in the lava lamp.
Of course, the oil in a lava lamp is not the igneous rock in the mantle, but we shouldn’t forget about such factor as time. Specifically the fact that in the scale of seconds (in which an individual actually lives and thinks) the substance of the Earth’s mantle is solid, but on the scale of years and decades, this substance gets liquid properties. Perhaps it also depends on the size of the object considered.
In part, this shows that life and the perception speed of the surrounding space are preferably in the scale of seconds (or maximally minutes). Whereas global and cosmic processes must exist on a slower time scale. It turns out that in addition to the need for the existence of life-friendly zones, there is also a need for a certain time window of a certain scale. But we’ll talk about that later.
It will be interesting to take a look at the convection phenomenon in the mantle based on the results of the current research by Harro Schmeling which indicate cold (blue) and hot (red) fields in the Earth’s mantle.
In the image, the convective movement within the mantle is clearly visible. The movement that is caused by the convection leads to a number of processes, namely the movement of tectonic plates and their consequences.
The movement between the two plates can obviously be either converging and colliding or diverging with the formation of fractures. Convergence leads to subduction (one plate goes under the other) or collisions (a collapse of the two plates with the formation of mountain ranges). The discrepancy or divergence leads to spreading of the plates with the formation of ridges in the oceans and rifting (formation of a rift of the continental crust). There is also a third type of plate motion: plates are in a transform when they move along the crack. One way or another it is worth to talk about the nature of the plate motion some other time, especially given a significant number of terminology.
It is also worth mentioning the thickness of the plates. The Earth crust is continental and oceanic; the oceanic crust is up to 5–15 km while the continental reaches 15–80 km. This suggests that in comparison with the mantle the crust is extremely “thin”. Therefore, the movement of the plates and their stability even in the scale of seconds is extremely difficult to envision (if that’s even possible). And that’s why the movement of the tectonic plates in itself can cause extreme surprise of its inability to structure, its implementation complexity and apparent unreliability. In any way, we don’t have a better choice.
The result of the movement of the plates in addition to the existing life (although not proven) we can call earthquakes and volcanism. While volcanoes are common not only at the plate boundaries, the map of earthquakes over the past tens of years clearly draws the boundaries of the tectonic plates and we can see an apparent dependence here. The ring of volcanoes around the Pacific plate is called the “Pacific Ring of Fire”.
That’s it for now. What will the movement of the tectonic plates on the Earth lead to and what will happen due to it we’ll cover in the future articles.Executive Orders
Executive Order 12291--Federal regulation
Source: The provisions of Executive Order 12291 of Feb. 17, 1981, appear at 46 FR 13193, 3 CFR, 1981 Comp., p. 127, unless otherwise noted.
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and in order to reduce the burdens of existing and future regulations, increase agency accountability for regulatory actions, provide for presidential oversight of the regulatory process, minimize duplication and conflict of regulations, and insure well-reasoned regulations, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Definitions. For the purposes of this Order: (a) "Regulation" or "rule" means an agency statement of general applicability and future effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy or describing the procedure or practice requirements of an agency, but does not include: (1) Administrative actions governed by the provisions of Sections 556 and 557 of Title 5 of the United States Code; (2) Regulations issued with respect to a military or foreign affairs function of the United States; or (3) Regulations related to agency organization, management, or personnel. (b) "Major rule" means any regulation that is likely to result in: (1) An annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more; (2) A major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, Federal, State, or local government agencies, or geographic regions; or (3) Significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or on the ability of United States-based enterprises to compete with foreign-based enterprises in domestic or export markets. (c) "Director" means the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. (d) "Agency" means any authority of the United States that is an "agency" |
attack seems to be the group's first 'internationalist' act in solidarity with IS as a global network," remarked one Afghan intelligence official who asked to remain anonymous.
"They've attacked embassies before, along with other government and civilian targets - their motivations are mainly to recreate chaos and destabilise the country, but this is the first action of this motivation, I believe... It's too soon to see whether this is a campaign or a one-off attack in response to IS losses in Iraq".
But Jawed Kohistani, a Kabul-based security analyst, drew a more direct line. "To avenge its defeat in Iraq, Islamic State and its supporters attacked the Iraqi embassy in Kabul," he stated.
I swear to God, not even the Russians were like this
From its inception, IS-K's brutality rang alarm bells among locals. Initially presenting themselves as refugees, IS-K members spread out in areas of Achin and Shinwar, districts bordering Pakistan in Nangarhar province, and began to convince locals they would push out the Taliban from the region. Once IS-K had established a foothold, they brought greater oppression than any locals had seen before.
"I swear to God, not even the Russians were like this," one Shinwar resident told The New Arab.
Borhan Osman of the Afghan Analyst Network claims the group splintered off from the Pakistani Taliban (TTP).
"The IS fighters who pioneered the Khorasan franchise of the IS were Pakistani militants who had long been settled in the southeastern districts of Nangarhar, in the Spin Ghar mountains or its foothills, bordering the tribal agencies on the Pakistani side of the Durand Line," he said.
Anand Gopal, a journalist and author, said back in 2015 that a media "obsession" with the development of IS in Iraq and Syria, allowed IS-K to develop rapidly.
"There's been increased dissatisfaction among certain elements of the Taliban, and with the media talking about ISIS all the time and the Afghan government playing up the idea of ISIS as a way of keeping the United States interested, all of that sort of set the ground for the groups to rebrand themselves," he told PBS.
Accusations were made by the former governor of Paktika, Abdul Karim Mateen, which were later pushed to the public's attention by the deputy speaker of parliament, Haji Abdul Zaheer Qadeer - that President Ashraf Ghani's national security advisor, Mohammed Hanif Atmar, had been secretly funding and propping up the local Islamic State group wilyat.
The Ghani administration promised to investigate the allegations but has yet to release any information.
In 2015, there was a brief moment where local forces - both state and non-state armed groups - coordinated against IS-K to great success, but were denied support by the US military.
The distrust between the US and some of those leading the efforts against IS in Afghanistan, including Haji Zaheer Qadeer - a former senior figure in the Northern Alliance - led to the expansion of IS into other regions of Afghanistan.
In a 2015 interview with Qadeer at his fortified family compound in Sorkrod, Nangarhar, he told this reporter that "his men" had dealt major blows to the IS-K network's operations. "They were surrounded and their supply lines were cut," he said. "Another couple of months and they would have been wiped out."
There was direct communication and coordination happening between local [Taliban] militias and ANA forces when were fighting against [IS-K]... we were back to being brothers
The government led by Ashraf Ghani was critical of his efforts, claiming he was looking to usurp power in Nangarhar. The accusations continued against Qadeer for weeks while the government planned a way to take over anti-IS efforts in eastern Afghanistan.
A Taliban official told this reporter "there was direct communication and coordination happening between local militias and ANA forces when were fighting against [IS-K]". The official said he had been hopeful at the time that their joint anti-IS efforts would lead to greater unity: "There was a feeling that we were back to being brothers, although we always were."
Government and media reports of IS-K losses in the past year appear to indicate that the group has been severely weakened. As reported recently, proving any of the claims made by the US military or Afghan government have been difficult if not impossible to verify.
The commander of US Forces in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, said in a July statement: "This operation is another success in our campaign to defeat ISIS-K in Afghanistan in 2017. Abu Sayed is the third ISIS-K emir we have killed in the last year and we will continue until they are annihilated. There is no safe haven for ISIS-K in Afghanistan."
Nicholson was referring to Hafiz Sayed Khan, who was killed in 2016, and Abdul Hasib, who was killed this April.
Donald Trump, for his part, has stayed true to his plan to "bomb the sh*t" out of IS - with the US military dropping at least 1,634 bombs on Afghanistan in the first six months of 2017 - a 65 percent increase from the same time last year, according to the US Air Force's own figures.
One of those was the "Mother Of All Bombs", experimentally used in Achin district of Nangarhar province to dislodge the group - which appears to have had little effect.
If IS-K loses its footing in rural areas in Nangarhar, the group will likely simply reappear elsewhere and continue to operate in areas like Afghanistan's supposed "safe" cities, as we have just seen in Kabul.
Mohammed Harun Arsalai is an independent journalist and political activist from the Bay Area of California, and co-founder of the independent media project, Documenting Afghanistan. Currently based in his native Afghanistan, Mohammed's recent work focuses on refugees, the War on Terror, and militant groups operating inside Afghanistan.
Follow him on Twitter: @ArsalaiHLeft to right: Bava and Sons, Coast.biz; Jon Rafman, Juan Gris Dream House; Charles Broskoski, Untitled (Iris); David Kohn architects, Carrer Avinyo; Etienne Descloux, Visitez ma tente. Photograph by Noah Rabinowitz.
If Google had a pavilion at the Venice Biennale, who would they exhibit? How would their installation compete against the Artsy auction exhibition? Would a Young Incorporated Artist feel more comfortable representing Tumblr or the USA?
Biennales have long been recognised as vehicles of internationalization and globalization in the worlds of art and architecture. Founded in 1895, with its younger sibling the Architecture Biennale following in 1980, the Venice Biennale is perhaps the most well known of its ilk. Although structured around a thematic exhibition in the imperially-named Arsenale, a significant attraction is inevitably the soft state play that occurs between the national pavilions. But in a world where the certitude of nation states is increasingly coming up against a new dominance of multi-national business, it is perhaps surprising that outright corporate pavilions aren't more of a Biennale mainstay, beyond the aggressive sponsor interests that keep national pavilions afloat.
It is in these international waters that the organizers of the (insistently unofficial) AIRBNB Pavilion positioned their project during the opening weekend of this year's 14th International Architecture Exhibition. Programmed by four graduates of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London–Alessandro Bava, Octave Perrault, Fabrizio Ballabio and Luis Ortega Govela–this "pavilion" consisted of three concurrent exhibitions held in rented Airbnb apartments across the city. These showed works by a large cast of international architects and artists, including Jon Rafman, Marlie Mul, Hayley Silverman and Some Women (Morag Keil) on the artist side, and m-a-u-s-e-r, Unu La Unu and Raphael Zuber amongst the architects. Most architects contributed drawings of built or under construction housing projects, whilst the artists were asked to produce imagined interiors, a winking indictment of the role of the artist in contemporary economies. These were mostly printed digitally, for ease of install, tacked like provisional building site notices in bathrooms and by bookshelves, although some artists chose to spill out into mini installation, with Martti Kalliala and Jenna Sutela producing a unique printed curtain for the main bedroom, and Ilya Smirnov sending a stuffed bird via Amazon Prime to accompany his somewhat abstract CAD sketch. The classical soundtrack for Rafman's video of his Jean Gris Dream House (2013)–which included Léo Delibes's "The Flower Duet" sequence from Lakmé, recently used in British Airways adverts–could be heard throughout the apartment.
Left to right: Unu La Unu, House with an outside room; Jasper Spicero, Untitled; Go Hasegawa, House in Gotanda. Photograph by Noah Rabinowitz.
Only open for three days, the pavilion bought into a franchise that is increasingly popular amongst young artists and curators: find a temporary space, install artworks, document, distribute widely and then move on. This was fitting to the context, but was nonetheless also affecting. The architectural sketches, often presenting dramatic alterations of the domestic setting, became strangely elegiac when set in the interchangeable apartments of the global Airbnb city. Inside the apartments, and away from Venice's constant press scrum and picture postcards, you might get the sense you could be anywhere. As the curators detail in an excellent text produced with the architecture weekly Fulcrum for the exhibition: "it is finally certain that people adapt to architecture more than architecture adapts to life."
Left to right: Marlie Mul, Untitled; Stewart Uoo, Confessions; m-a-u-s-e-r, Top 13 Favourite Homes Worldwide. Photograph by Noah Rabinowitz.
Similarly, the visual art felt poised between critical intervention and somehow the obvious thing to encounter in someone else's apartment. Stewart Uoo's video Confessions (2013) was playing on loop on a Macbook Pro left open on a bed–I swear just like my own room when I left it three days ago. A rendering of a clean white-windowed cell by Olivia Erlanger was hung as backdrop to a jacuzzi. The 20th century desire for art to be incorporated into life has left art almost lifelessly comfortable within the products of Apple Incorporated. Most anarchic was Adam Cruces, who managed to come and draw in shaving foam on the mirror. The visual art of course sat perfectly in the context, working through clever quips on real and imagined visions of space. The unaddressed curatorial question was to what extent it might problematise the context.
In fact, this is the question raised by the pavilion more generally: how does an exhibition, such as this, reproduce pre-existing conditions of production, or of life, and to what extent can they challenge or castigate them? At what point does complicity turn into compliance?
The "sharing economy" turns everything in your life into monetizable assets, "democratizing" access to them even as it imposes new social and technological firewalls on the city and domestic space. At the same time it dismantles any worker solidarity through appealing directly to the entrepreneur-as-individual. These are invisible class vectors that will be no stranger to anyone in the art industry. Next time you're at an opening and you find the work boring, consider that these emergent capital formations are what you're looking at as much as anything. The AIRBNB curators were on top of this, and what's more managed to redistribute this as image back into the network that produced it. Perhaps you should rent out one of your museum rooms to them at your next biennial?While the president has been urging “insourcing,” the government has been sending money to the Philippines to train foreign workers for jobs in English-speaking call centers.
According to New York Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop and North Carolina Republican Rep. Walter Jones, this is unacceptable and “shocking.”
The pair are calling on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to immediately suspend what is known as the Job Enabling English Proficiency (JEEP) program.
According to Jones’ office, in 2010, after the two men compelled USAID to end a similar training program in Sri Lanka, the agency assured the congressmen that they would “conduct a review to ensure the project will not take any jobs away from Americans.”
In a letter to the USAID administrator, Rajiv Shah, Bishop and Jones expressed their displeasure at learning of the effort they thought the agency had explicitly promised against.
“I believe it was reasonable to conclude from that statement that your agency’s outsourcing training program was terminated, particularly in light of President Obama’s ‘insourcing’ initiative announced earlier this year,” the pair wrote. “Therefore, I was shocked to learn that USAID has used taxpayer dollars to invest in outsourcing training programs in the Philippines at the expense of American workers.”.
According to Bishop, more than 4.5 million Americans currently work in call centers, but since 2007 more than 500,000 call center jobs have been outsourced to foreign countries.
Information Week broke the story about the JEEP program this week. According to Information Week, the program is part of the Growth and Equity in Mindanao (GEM) initiative, which costs $100 million annually.
“The JEEP program was developed to promote peace and stability in Mindanao by teaching English to youth in conflict-prone areas to help them pursue gainful employment in tourism, nursing and other locally-based industries and to break the cycle of violence which had gripped that region of the Philippines,” a USAID spokesperson told Information Week, adding that it is set to expire at the end of the year.
The congressmen want it gone yesterday.
“Using Americans’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars to fund the training of foreign nationals to take our jobs is absolutely crazy and totally unacceptable,” Jones said in a statement. “Uncle Sam is over $15 trillion in debt and unemployment is still elevated because of policies like this, and it’s got to stop.”
The pair pledged in their letter to “use every legislative option available to permanently prohibit USAID from engaging in such practices in the future.”
“I support the international development mission of USAID but my top priority is protecting American jobs and American taxpayers,” Bishop concluded. “I anticipate working closely with USAID in a bipartisan manner to ensure that none of its programs overseas will hurt workers here at home.”
Follow Caroline on TwitterBeware the Error of Those Who Proclaim Mercy Without Repentance
Those who preach and teach mercy without repentance are deceivers, and are likely deceived themselves
As we prepare for the Year of Mercy, a blessed declaration from our Holy Father to be sure, permit me to express one concern. Fundamentally it concerns a flawed notion of mercy that is widespread in the world today, and also to some extent in the Church.
A simple way of describing the problem is to say that one of the great errors of our day is the proclamation of mercy without repentance, without reference to our sinful condition. So many pulpits have gone silent on sin! And therefore they are silent on the true glory of mercy and the astonishing gift that it is! Ah, mercy! Divine mercy! Perfect mercy! But only when we know and acknowledge our sins can this joyful cry be deep and authentic.
Yet too often today mercy is preached in a detached way and is taken by many to mean that our sins aren’t really sins, or are no big deal, and that God doesn’t really care what we do because, after all, he is merciful. And, by contrast those that do speak of sin are thereby unmerciful and mean.
Thus yet again we must state the critical and central truth that the astonishing and glorious mercy of God is accessed by repentance. It is repentance that opens the door to mercy, forgiveness, and kindness.
Consider a medical analogy of a man who is in very poor health. Perhaps he has a host of problems such as hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes. Now modern medicine has a lot to offer people who are struggling with poor health. The healing help includes everything from medicine to surgery, to information on nutrition, etc. But in order for this man to access that healing help, he needs to realize and admit he has a problem, schedule an appointment, keep the appointment, take the medicine and follow the advice he receives.
Now, when he does this, AND ONLY when he does this, will the healing help of the medical profession unfold for him. It is not enough for him to say, “Well isn’t it great that there are doctors and medicine out there.” That is not enough. He has to make a change and actually reach out and develop a relationship with the medical community. He has to actually take the medicine. It is not enough to praise the medicine and rejoice that healing is available; he has to act and set a new course for his life.
And this is an analogy for the spiritual life and repentance. God’s offer of mercy and healing love stand, and are offered to everyone. But these magnificent gifts must be accessed through repentance.
The Greek word that is usually translated as repentance is metanoia and it means more than simply to clean up our act. Most literally it means to come to a new mind, or a new way of thinking. The “meta” in metanoia signifies change. So repentance involves more than a sorrow. It involves actual change or a move or a step in the right direction. And in this way metanoia (repentance) unlocks all the blessings the healings, the mercy, and the salvation that is promised. We must allow the grace of God, interacting with our freedom to effect an actual change, a decision in our life that changes the way we think, the way we act, and puts us into a saving relationship with the Divine Physician Jesus.
Repentance is the key that unlocks mercy. We need to recouple mercy with repentance.
Isaiah had said, The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the LORD (Is 59:20).
And to the Disciples in Emmaus Jesus said, Repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:46-48)
St. Paul warns, In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30).
Thus those who preach and teach mercy without repentance are deceivers and likely themselves are deceived. And those who think of mercy without reference to repentance are deceived.
Repentance is the supernaturally transformed and assisted human element that is necessary to unlock mercy and the graces of God. To ignore or deny this amounts to a denial of human freedom and does not help God’s people. Rather it hinders them, for mercy is accessed through repentance, and without it, the door cannot open.
But the point of the call of repentance is not simply to go out and tell others how terrible they are, but rather to tell them about the forgiveness of sin! And this is why we need a Year of Mercy! On the one hand we’re living in rebellious times, times in which many are dismissive of sin and have refashioned God into just a nice fellow who doesn’t really care all that much about sin (despite what His own Scriptures say to the contrary), reducing mercy to mere kindness and a sort of blindness of a doting God.
On the other hand, these are also times when many are scared and angry with God, rejecting His judgments and glorious moral vision. A lot of people know that their lives are in disorder: their families are broken; they are confused; greed, materialism, lust, and other sinful drives are taking a heavy toll. And many are angry with the Church because deep down they know the Gospel is right. They don’t like being reminded that people have no business calling good what God calls sinful.
But most of all, many are confused and angry because they don’t know forgiveness. All the more reason to preach the glory of mercy experienced through repentance. For indeed, if we do not know the bad news, the good news is no news.
So let’s celebrate this Year of Mercy, but do it in the only way that truly unlocks its power and highlights its glory: Repentance for the forgiveness of sin is to be preached to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem! (Luke 24:48)Cardinal Rainer Woelki, archbishop of Cologne, Germany (2012 Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
German Bishops to Allow Employees in Same-Sex Unions, Civil Remarriages to Keep Jobs
Automatic dismissal of those in such circumstance is now ‘out of the question,’ according to the president of the Central Committee of German Catholics.
EDWARD PENTIN
BONN, Germany — With potentially far-reaching consequences, the bishops of Germany have voted by more than a two-thirds majority to relax Church labor laws to allow civilly remarried employees or those living in same-sex unions to retain their jobs with Church institutions.
In an announcement Tuesday, the German bishops’ conference in Bonn said the majority of bishops had ruled that immediate dismissal will only be a “last resort” for employees who are divorced and subsequently “remarry” or those living in a registered partnership.
Until now, such employees were required to be dismissed from such employment, although the rules were often ignored. The Church is the second-largest employer in Germany.
“An automatic dismissal may now in future be ruled as out of the question,” said Alois Glück, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, the country’s top lay Catholic organization. From now on, he said, any public violation of loyalty to Church teachings must be examined on a case-by-case basis.
The amendment, when enacted by a bishop, explicitly overturns a 2002 ecclesiastical law, which stipulated that all Church employees need to be loyal to the magisterium. Glück said the change “represents a substantial paradigm shift in the application of ecclesiastical law,” adding that the new regulation will “open the way” for decisions to be made in accordance with “human justice.”
The lack of unanimity among bishops means the new regulation is left to Germany’s 27 bishops to implement the reform in their dioceses. But in practice, it could be unlikely that any bishop will be able to resist the new measures. According to the official statement, the bishops’ conference is setting up “an additional working group” to examine the question of whether the Church’s labor law can be “more institutionally oriented” in a bid to make it a nationwide and uniform labor structure. The bishops’ conference has also instructed dioceses to publicize the changes in their diocesan newsletters. This is required to formally enact the law.
“I expect and hope this will happen everywhere,” Cardinal Rainer Woelki, the archbishop of Cologne, said in a May 6 interview with Katholisch.de. The cardinal, who headed the committee that drew up the new law, said the first objective of the amendment is to ensure “compliance with lived practice,” but denied the amendment in any way undermines the principle of the indissolubility of marriage.
Caritas Germany, which employs 591,000 staff, welcomed the change. President Peter Neher said Church institutions need a “broader understanding of the concept of loyalty” and that ecclesiastical labor law should reflect how the Catholic Church “stands alongside” those who live broken lives.
Unilateral Action
The law reform is viewed as affirmation of recent remarks made by the president of the German bishops’ conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who said the German episcopate is “not just a subsidiary of Rome” and that it “cannot wait” until the upcoming synod on the family in October.
Some Church observers see the change as representing a kind of “gradualism” whereby the magisterium must continue to be upheld among those employed as “proclaimers of the Gospel” — that is, priests, deacons and pastoral workers — but not for others. The critics argue that it is instilling a kind of schizophrenia in the Church whereby an openly active homosexual Catholic can be employed in a Church institution but a pastoral assistant or catechist must “stick to the rules.” They also point out that faithful Catholics will now be supporting active homosexual employees and public adulterers through the Church tax.
For this reason, according to the critics, the move represents a striking break with fundamental Church teachings.
“What they are pushing is not Catholic anymore,” said one source close to the German hierarchy. “This is an arbitrary law that is against divine law, the natural law and ecclesiastical law. It’s Protestant what they are doing, and they must think we’re idiots not to realize this.”
The reform has been considered for years, the German bishops said. The episcopal conference had planned to vote on the new law last November but postponed it after a federal court ruled in favor of current Church labor law regarding dismissal of a divorced-and-civilly-remarried employee.
Following the announcement Tuesday, the bishops’ conference organized a campaign throughout the German Catholic media in support of the decision, drawing on members of Catholic institutions favorable to the decision.
And Jesuit Father Hans Langendörfer, secretary of the bishops’ conference and one of the key figures behind the new law, wrote a letter to all bishops instructing them on the change, stressing that the law should be implemented by Aug. 1.
The date is notable, as it is well before the October synod and just ahead of the German bishops’ ad limina visit to the Vatican in September. The visit fulfills the Church requirement that all bishops must report to the Vatican every five years on the status of their dioceses. With characteristic German efficiency, observers say, the bishops’ conference is working on presenting the change as a fait accompli in time for the synod.
Cardinal Woelki
The leading figure behind the labor reform is Cardinal Woelki, who has not only headed the commission on changing the labor law but also heads the bishops’ committee for overseeing Caritas Germany.
In 2012, when he was archbishop of Berlin, the cardinal caused controversy by saying that if two homosexuals “take responsibility for each other, if they take care of each other permanently and faithfully, this must be viewed in a similar manner as with heterosexual relationships.” During last year’s synod, a move to see positive aspects of such unions was roundly rejected by synod fathers. This latest development will therefore be viewed in some quarters as a victory for the homosexual-rights proponents.
The news of the change to labor law comes after the disclosure of a pre-synod questionnaire, which revealed that only 54% of priests there go to confession even once a year; only 58% of priests pray daily; 60% percent of parishioners don’t believe in life after death; and 66% don’t believe in Christ’s resurrection.
It also showed that German bishops hope that civil second marriages will be blessed in church, that holy Communion will be given to non-Catholic spouses and that “positive aspects” of homosexual relationships and same-sex unions will be recognized.
Whether the labor amendment really is in line with canon law and doctrine and, if it is not, how Rome will react has yet to be determined.
Edward Pentin is the Register’s Rome correspondent.Breaking: After yesterday's report that rattail-coiffed Koran savior Jacob Isom's dream was to be featured in High Times, the doobie denizens agreed to feature our rattail-coiffed hero in the pages of their vaunted magazine.
On its website, High Times thanks Jacob for his "bravery in the face of intolerance" and promises him a place in an upcoming issue. By phone, Jacob told me that he talked to a representative from the magazine today who said they'll be overnighting him a package of High Times merchandise. He will then take pictures, and High Times will post them on their website. A comic-book-style summation of his harrowing defeat of Amarillo, Texas' wannabe Koran burners may also be in the works.
We will let you know about this most glorious turn of events as it happens. When we spoke, Jacob was en route to work at a local pizzeria. Fame, it seems, has not slowed our hero's humble, delicious calling: cooking pizza. [High Times]
Previously
Koran Hero Has a Dream: 'I Want to be in High Times'
Guy Steals Koran from Burners and Runs Away
'Dude, You Have No Koran': The Autotune VersionIn an interview with the Center for Security Policy’s Frank Gaffney yesterday, retired Navy Admiral James “Ace” Lyons, who is a frequent guest on Gaffney’s radio program, linked a recent string of U.S. naval collisions to Obama administration efforts to allow LGBT people to serve openly in the military and to open up more positions in the military to women, suggesting that the person responsible for one collision might have been a member of one of these “social engineering” groups.
Lyons told Gaffney that the recent deadly collisions involving the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain were likely the result of “personnel errors” stemming from “training” and “crew makeup.”
“And by that,” he said, “I am referring to part of Obama’s social engineering mandates and the great emphasis where we’ve replaced best and brightest with diversity that rules supreme. And I find it interesting that the Navy will not release the name of the officer of the deck of the Fitzgerald, which leads me to believe it’s one of the anointed social engineering mandates.”
Gaffney asked Lyons to discuss the possibility that the Fitzgerald collision was the result of “a deliberate incident” that was “perhaps contributed to by some of the considerations that you’ve just talked about,” before telling Lyons that he had heard from unnamed military personnel that an Obama-era emphasis on “diversity training” meant that the service members in charge of these ships were unqualified.
“I’ve had more than one senior military officer tell me that they suspected that all of these personnel were highly rated in terms of their diversity training and equal-opportunity sensitivity and all of that, but may not have gotten their chops checked out in terms of navigation and seamanship,” Gaffney said.Motorola has released two smartphones in the year already, and it is already rumored that the firm will launch a bunch of smartphones in coming days including the upgrades to last year's Moto E3 and Moto E3 Power, named as Moto E4 and E4 Plus.
While the internet is filled with the several renders of smaller sibling Moto E4, we are bringing you the exclusive first real life images of the E4 Plus, which will pack a massive 5000mAh battery.
As you can see in the images, the E4 design of the phone is on par with earlier leaked renders, but nevertheless, the back panel is removable, same as the Motorola Moto G5 released recently.
The SIM card tray and the microSD card slot are below the back panel, and the battery is removable as well. However, the speaker placement is slightly awkward though at the rear left of the phone.
Recently, complete specs of the Moto E4 Plus have leaked online and going by that leak, the E4 Plus will have a 5.5-inch HD display. It may be powered by the MediaTek MT6737M SoC, clubbed with 2GB/3GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage.
As far as optics are concerned, it is said to sport a 13MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP front-facing flash that also comes with support for LED flash. The device runs Android 7.1 Nougat and aforesaid, it gets a massive 5000mAh battery.Being a terrible hockey team for almost a decade impacts a lot of things. The low morale of fans, the constant trade rumors and bogus narratives, and the negative perception of management and owners are all tied to loser franchises. These are things that can easily be reversed if the team starts winning, but unfortunately, that isn’t happening any time soon.
And as the playoff drought continues for the Oilers, the history of a franchise also starts to get diminished. There’s this notion that the Oilers have been bad far past the 2006 cup run. The narrative makes sense: they were the 8th seeded team that barely made the playoffs in 2006 and beat out Detroit (1st), San Jose (5th) and Anaheim (6th) to get to game seven of the finals. Following the loss to the Hurricanes, the team went on to missing the playoffs nine straight years. Add it all up, and you could safely assume that the 2006 run was a complete fluke.
What gets overshadowed by the Oilers remarkable playoff run in 2006 is their regular season performance. While it’s true that the team finished 8th and clinched a playoff berth in the last week of the season, there are some underlying numbers worth highlighting. Here’s their overall record
GP W L OT PTS PTS% VS WEST VS CEN VS NW VS PAC 82 41 28 13 95 0.574 38-25-9 10-6-4 15-15-2 13-4-3
That Northwest division was quite the killer that season. All five teams had points percentages above 0.500. No other division was as this tight. The Oilers needed 95 points to qualify for the playoffs and were only four points back of 5th place San Jose. The club ranked 14th on the powerplay (18.1%) and 8th on the penalty kill (84.1).
Here’s a high level snap shot of the Oilers’ advanced stats from the 2005-2006 regular season. I took into account all situations and found a comparative team from the 2013-2014 season based on rank. Regular season shot attempt data is worth reviewing, as it’s been a pretty good predictor of championships.
All Situations Corsi For % of total Fenwick % of total Shot Differentials Total Percentage of shots On ice shooting percentage On ice save percentage PDO Off Zone Starts Rating 52.2 53.7 347 53.8 10.2 88.4 98.6 53.1 Ranking 6th 3rd 3rd 3rd 17th 30th 26th 6th 2013-2014 Comparison St. Louis Chicago LA LA Montreal NYI Calgary Boston
Source: War on Ice
The Oilers put together some fantastic numbers over a full season, and compare well to some of the more recent top teams. The Oilers were a strong possession team over 82 games and had the sixth highest offensive zone starts. The team allowed the fewest shots in the league, but had the worst on-ice save percentage. That of course impacted the PDO, which was one of the lowest in the league. Worth noting that the Avalanche, who finished 7th overall, had the second highest on-ice shooting percentage (11.4%), while the 6th seeded Ducks combined their excellent possession stats with the sixth highest on-ice save percentage (90.9%).
Chris Pronger was instrumental in the team’s possession numbers, but the Oilers had a very well constructed roster that started with talent down the middle. They had the second best team-faceoff percentage that season (53.4%), with Horcoff and Stoll both finishing with 65+ points. The wingers took close to half of the total shots, with Smyth and Hemsky finishing with 66 and 77 points respectively. And of the top six defencemen based on total ice time, only one was under 30. Not bad roster management. Source: Hockey Reference
The weakness of the Oilers that year was definitely in goal as the club struggled all season to get consistent performances. The goaltending was pitiful with no clear cut starter all season. Only two shutouts registered in 2005-2006, while the Flames got 10 from their keepers. It was finally at the deadline that Lowe acquired Roloson from Minnesota for a first round pick and sent away Morrison (waivers) and Conklin (AHL).
Player Games Minutes Wins Losses T/O SV% GAA SO Jussi Markkanen 37 2016 15 12 6 0.880 3.12 0 Mike Morrison 21 892 10 4 2 0.884 2.83 0 Dwayne Roloson 19 1163 8 7 4 0.905 2.42 1 Ty Conklin 18 922 8 5 1 0.880 2.8 1
Source: Hockey Reference
Piecing together these stats is really just a way to get a fair assessment of what the team actually was ten years ago. The narratives grow and evolve over time depending on the context, so it’s critical to ground our understanding of the game in some degree of quantitative evidence. A blend of the advanced stats derived from analytics with the standard boxcar numbers of the players give a much better assessment of the team’s regular season success.
If there are additional stats or stories from that season worth mentioning, let me know.
AdvertisementsRazer’s 2014 Blade Pro seems to be caught between two hardware generations. While its less-professional cousin, the 14-inch Blade, benefits from an enormous bump in graphics horsepower and display resolution this year, the 17-inch Blade Pro looks much the same as it did in 2013.
Razer abided by the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” axiom here, and I can’t fault them: The Blade Pro was a beautiful, sleek, and capable machine in 2013, and all that remains true in its present incarnation.
The Blade Pro ships with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M that’s slightly faster than last year’s 765M, but not spectacularly so. Nvidia has crammed some new game-related features into the 800M series though: Battery Boost and ShadowPlay.
Battery Boost allows the computer to dynamically adjust the power draw of the GPU to keep games at a steady 30 frames per second (or higher/lower, depending on your own preferences). ShadowPlay leans into the YouTube, share-everything obsession of modern players by automatically capturing footage in the background without a performance hit.
The Razer Blade pro features a large 17-inch display and an all-alumuinum chassis.
Also under the hood: an Intel i7-4700HQ processor (the same as last year), 16GB of DDR3/1600 memory (twice as much as last year), and a 128-, 256-, or 512GB solid-state drive (our review unit was outfitted with a 256GB SSD). There aren’t any other options for more capacious onboard storage, so digital hoarders beware. Three USB 3.0 ports are on the left side of the machine, along with HDMI, a combo headphone/microphone port, and a gigabit ethernet port. If you prefer to go wireless, the Blade Pro sports an 802.11ac Wi-Fi |
life expectancy at birth for Costa Ricans was 79.3 years.[161] The Nicoya Peninsula is considered one of the Blue Zones in the world, where people commonly live active lives past the age of 100 years.[162][163] The New Economics Foundation (NEF) ranked Costa Rica first in its 2009 Happy Planet Index, and once again in 2012. The index measures the health and happiness they produce per unit of environmental input.[23][24] According to NEF, Costa Rica's lead is due to its very high life expectancy which is second highest in the Americas, and higher than the United States. The country also experienced well-being higher than many richer nations and a per capita ecological footprint one-third the size of the United States.[164]
In 2002, there were 0.58 new general practitioner (medical) consultations and 0.33 new specialist consultations per capita, and a hospital admission rate of 8.1%. Preventive health care is also successful. In 2002, 96% of Costa Rican women used some form of contraception, and antenatal care services were provided to 87% of all pregnant women. All children under one have access to well-baby clinics, and the immunization coverage rate in 2002 was above 91% for all antigens.[citation needed] Costa Rica has a very low malaria incidence of 48 per 100,000 in 2000 and no reported cases of measles in 2002. The perinatal mortality rate dropped from 12.0 per 1000 in 1972 to 5.4 per 1000 in 2001.[165]
Costa Rica has been cited as Central America's great health success story.[166] Its healthcare system is ranked higher than that of the United States, despite having a fraction of its GDP.[167] Prior to 1940, government hospitals and charities provided most health care. But since the 1941 creation of the Social Insurance Administration (Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social – CCSS), Costa Rica has provided universal health care to its wage-earning residents, with coverage extended to dependants over time. In 1973, the CCSS took over administration of all 29 of the country's public hospitals and all health care, also launching a Rural Health Program (Programa de Salud Rural) for primary care to rural areas, later extended to primary care services nationwide. In 1993, laws were passed to enable elected health boards that represented health consumers, social insurance representatives, employers, and social organizations. By the year 2000, social health insurance coverage was available to 82% of the Costa Rican population. Each health committee manages an area equivalent to one of the 83 administrative cantons of Costa Rica. There is limited use of private, for-profit services (around 14.4% of the national total health expenditure). About 7% of GDP is allocated to the health sector, and over 70% is government funded.
Primary health care facilities in Costa Rica include health clinics, with a general practitioner, nurse, clerk, pharmacist and a primary health technician. In 2008, there were five specialty national hospitals, three general national hospitals, seven regional hospitals, 13 peripheral hospitals, and 10 major clinics serving as referral centers for primary care clinics, which also deliver biopsychosocial services, family and community medical services and promotion and prevention programs. Patients can choose private health care to avoid waiting lists.[citation needed]
Costa Rica is among the Latin America countries that have become popular destinations for medical tourism.[168][169] In 2006, Costa Rica received 150,000 foreigners that came for medical treatment.[168][169][170] Costa Rica is particularly attractive to Americans due to geographic proximity, high quality of medical services, and lower medical costs.[169]
Since 2012, smoking in Costa Rica is subject to some of the most restrictive regulations in the world.
See also
References
Further reading
Government and administrationCarrabassett Valley, Maine (CNN) -- Several ski-lift riders fell to the ground and others were trapped in the air Tuesday when a lift a broke down at Sugarloaf Ski Resort in Maine.
Before the accident, high winds had delayed the opening of the lift. Conditions at the time of the accident were windy, but not unusually so following a major snowstorm, a spokesman for the resort said.
More than 200 people were trapped up to 90 minutes and as many as nine were injured, officials said.
Ethan Austin, a spokesman for the resort, said the derailment on one tower of the Spillway East lift happened around 10:30 a.m. ET, when lift's cable skipped over the edge of a pulley. Five of the lift's chairs fell 25 to 30 feet and hit the ground, he said.
"The chairs were pretty mangled, but the ski patrol was there right away," patron Ben Martin told CNN affiliate WCSH.
Winds had diminished by midmorning and resort personnel checked the lift prior to opening, Sugarloaf said in a statement. Austin said conditions were basically what is expected after a major storm.
The rescue operation was completed around noon.
The lift will remain closed until the preliminary investigation is completed and it is cleared by the state to resume operation, the resort said.
Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington, Maine, was treating eight patients, according to spokeswoman Jill Gray. She could not provide the nature of the injuries or the conditions of the patients. A ninth person originally was taken by ambulance to Franklin Memorial, but that person had to be taken by helicopter to Maine Medical Center in Portland, Gray said.
Sugarloaf said seven people were injured.
Robb Atkinson, a CNN employee who initially was trapped on the lift, said he saw skiers fall from the lift when it came to an abrupt stop during high winds.
"I felt a jerk," said Atkinson, who was riding the lift with his wife. He also described hearing "screams from skiers below" as he watched at least three chairs drop 20 to 30 feet to the ground.
Matt Rolfson, 17, of Albion, Maine, was on a parallel lift with a friend and shot video from his helmet cam of injured skiers.
"People on the lift yelled to see if everyone was OK," said Rolfson, adding a portion of the Spillway East line did a "yo-yo."
He told CNN his lift was unaffected and he skied down later to offer assistance.
High winds were gusting between 30 mph and 50 mph in the area at the time, according to CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras, and temperatures at the resort were well below freezing.
Austin said Tuesday afternoon there were an estimated 220 people on the more than 100 chairs on the lift, and the process of evacuating everyone from the chairs dangling above the resort was under way.
"You had to slide off the chair lift 40 feet off the ground into a swing," Atkinson said. After that, skiers were lowered down to the ground and had to ski to the base of the mountain, he said.
Franklin County Emergency officials contacted Gov. John Baldacci with updates on the incident and subsequent rescues, according to David Farmer, Baldacci's deputy chief of staff.
"It's extremely unusual," Austin said. Sugarloaf has never had a lift derailment of this nature in its 60-year history, he added.
The cause of the accident was under investigation.
"We're deeply concerned about those who were injured," said Austin, "and we're committed to understanding the cause of this incident. We want our guests to have fun, but our first priority is their safety."
Two inspectors with the Maine Safety Board were sent to Sugarloaf to investigate, said Farmer. The probe is "protocol for any accident where the state government oversees certification of a ski resort," he added.
The resort is located about 100 miles north of Portland, Maine.
Atkinson and Rolfson said patrons were excited about up to two feet of new snow on the slopes. Both will be back at Sugarloaf on Wednesday.
CNN's Alta Spells, Justin Lear and Phil Gast contributed to this report.As a coronial inquest continues into the death of a young Aboriginal woman in West Australia, Amy McQuire looks back at the warning signs ignored by a nation.
In 1982, Aboriginal mother-of-five Nita Blankett was serving a six month sentence for driving offences at Bandyup Women’s Prison in WA. On the 14th January, she became ill, and told the custodial officers that she was in the midst of an asthma attack.
The staff, some aware she suffered from chronic asthma, waited for three devastating hours, despite Nita’s requests for a doctor. At one point, she became distraught, anxious and began crying.
Early on, a nurse with a poor knowledge of asthma, examined Nita for five to ten minutes, but did not believe Nita’s claims she was suffering from an attack. Instead, the nurse thought it was more likely she was ‘working herself’ into one.
When Nita was finally sent for medical care, three hours later, she made her premonition.
“I will die anyhow,” she told a correctional officer transporting her to the ambulance.
“Why,” he asked, “Is it the first time you had an attack?”
She told him she had suffered them “all the time for 12 years”.
He asked “How did you survive?”.
Her response was tragic. ‘By good luck’.
A short while later, Nita died. She didn’t even make it to the medical centre.
Her death, like so many other black deaths in custody, was entirely preventable. And her concerns, like so many expressed before her, were disregarded, her pain was belittled. Nita died not surrounded by her five loving children, at an old age, but in the back of an ambulance with correctional officers as witnesses.
The only reason any person outside of her family may know of her name today, more than three decades on, is because she was one of 99 deaths investigated by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
I wonder how many more there were, who have faded into the background of history.
The Royal Commission uncovered not just the tragedy of her death, but the tragedies that came to define her life. Nita was a member of the Stolen Generations, but growing up she was able to escape the pathway to jail that condemns so many of our removed children.
It wasn’t until she turned 35 that she came into contact with the criminal justice system.
The Royal Commission traced a number of offences she was charged with – from disorderly behaviour, resisting arrest and motor vehicle offences – to the date her husband was arrested and charged with incest and assault.
Her offences were all committed under the influence of alcohol, and it was the arrest of her husband that seemed to have led to her final bout of numbing the pain – which in turn, weaved the pattern of offending.
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Many Aboriginal women find themselves behind bars for similar reasons – for driving offences, for the criminalisation of drunkenness, for protecting themselves against family violence. Not only are there more and more women being locked up for victimless crimes like unpaid fines (in Western Australia at least), there are more and more Aboriginal women who are locked up for protecting themselves from family violence.
These offences have roots in an unwanted inheritance – a legacy of trauma that has compounded with every generation stemming from the original invasion.
But Nita Blankett’s name, like so many other Aboriginal women, has been lost over time.
The deaths of Aboriginal women investigated by the Royal Commission were overshadowed. They were faceless and nameless; were not given precedence in national campaigns around deaths in custody.
But the failure to talk about Nita Blankett, to demand justice for so many others like her, has had devastating consequences. This is the reality today.
In the years following the Royal Commission, the numbers of Aboriginal women filling our nation’s dark places has sky-rocketed.
Since 2000 alone, the jailing rate of Aboriginal women has climbed by 74 percent.
74 percent.
This number should shock you. Aboriginal women are the fastest growing incarcerated group in the country, and as a community, we aren’t talking about it.
It’s not a ‘feminist’ issue. But what has become a ‘feminist’ issue are conversations about domestic violence that treat Aboriginal women as an afterthought, a statistic that must be accommodated because the rates are just too horrifying to ignore.
But the complexity of family violence in Aboriginal communities is assimilated by white feminist analysis that overlooks the fact that in First Nations communities it is due to a multitude of factors, and is not a result of a single factor.
Instead, Aboriginal family violence is talked about simplistically in the context of the criminal justice system – a racist institution that has continually let down not just Aboriginal women, but men and children.
Meanwhile, the unique situation of Aboriginal women, who are jailed for their visibility, their vulnerability, their poverty, their trauma, remains overlooked. And removing Aboriginal women from their communities is even more insidious.
Children who have parents in prison are more likely to end up in out-of-home care, where they are more likely to enter the justice system, perpetuating this vicious cycle of trauma and state sanctioned violence.
If you rip Aboriginal women from communities, you rip out their heart. You rip out the backbone, and it’s a backbone that is already brittle, having been beaten mercilessly over the course of two centuries.
What’s remarkable about all this is that more than three decades on from the pointless and cruel death of Nina Blankett, there are still people who are ‘shocked’ at the treatment of 22-year-old Yamitji woman Ms Dhu, who died in horrendous pain after being locked up for $3,000 in unpaid fines last year.
Ms Dhu was also a victim of family violence, according to her father’s statement in the coroner’s court yesterday. Already, the coronial inquest has unveiled another form of violence perpetuated against her – the structural violence that ultimately lead to her death.
Ms Dhu died of septicaemia and pneumonia after crying out in pain for three days. Like Nina Blankett, she was ignored, accused of ‘faking it’.
Her pain, like Nina Blankett’s, was belittled because she was an Aboriginal woman.
She died at the hands of a brutal white justice system which treats Aboriginal women as nothing more than objects to be warehoused in dark prison cells.
Our shock at her treatment says a lot about this country. If we had been shocked, 30 years ago at the devastating treatment that killed Nina Blankett… maybe Ms Dhu would still be alive.
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Most Valuable Player: Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
Ho-hum. Crosby won the award last year, he was the overwhelming favorite to win it this year, and so far that looks like it’s exactly what he’s going to do. He’s not running away with the scoring title, which is a mild surprise. But all the guys keeping pace with him come from struggling teams, and the Hart Trophy basically always goes to someone from a Cup contender. So it’s Crosby by default, which is basically too boring to spend any more time on.
Most Valuable Player Who Isn’t Sidney Crosby: Jakub Voracek, Philadelphia Flyers
That’s better! And we’ve got several candidates to consider, like Voracek, who’s tied with Crosby for the lead in points, and Tyler Seguin, who leads in goals scored. Steven Stamkos has been fantastic, Vladimir Tarasenko has owned the highlight reels, and Rick Nash’s hot start left him carrying basically the entire Rangers offense.
And that’s just the forwards, which is … well, which is probably all we need to talk about, since defensemen and goalies rarely win the Hart. Besides, we’ll get to those guys in a minute.
I’m going to go with Voracek, who’s recorded a point on over half of the Flyers goals this year, and is basically single-handedly keeping them in the playoff picture. Will it last? No, not at his current pace, but that shouldn’t matter. We’re trying to recognize the first quarter of the season here, not predict the rest of it, so Voracek has earned the right to pick up Crosby’s scraps.
Least Valuable Player: The Backup Goalie, New Jersey Devils
Do you know his name? I didn’t know his name, and apparently neither did Devils coach Peter DeBoer until the weekend, when he finally gave him his first start of the season in the team’s 21st game. Before that, Cory Schneider had gotten the nod each and every time, becoming only the third goalie in the salary-cap era to make that many starts in a row to begin a season. That streak ended on Saturday, when DeBoer remembered that he had a second goaltender on the roster.
The guy’s name is Scott Clemmensen, by the way. That probably sounds familiar, since the journeyman has been backing up around the NHL since 2001, including three separate stints in New Jersey. He got his first start of the season against the Flames in Calgary. He lost. LVP! LVP!
Best Rookie: Filip Forsberg, Nashville Predators
An easy call; he’s running away with the rookie scoring title, racking up nine goals and 22 points in just 20 games. The 20-year-old center has been productive all season long, never going more than two games without a point, and he’s had five multipoint games in November alone. While guys like Johnny Gaudreau, Aaron Ekblad, and Tanner Pearson have been good, Forsberg’s been on another level.
All of which leads to the question: Where does the Forsberg-for–Martin Erat trade rank among the worst of the salary-cap era? The Capitals took Forsberg with the 11th overall pick in 2012, then traded him for veteran winger Erat and prospect Michael Latta before he’d even played an NHL game. Erat lasted less than a year in Washington, scoring two goals in 62 games before being traded to Phoenix.
I mean, that’s awful, right? And that’s not just 20/20 hindsight based on Forsberg’s hot start; nobody seemed to like the trade when it was first made, and they hated it even more before Forsberg broke through. Now that he looks like a legitimate star, the Erat trade has to at least be knocking on the door of Rask-for-Raycroft and McDonagh-for-Gomez territory, doesn’t it?
Best Defenseman: Mark Giordano, Calgary Flames
Another easy choice, as Giordano has been one of the league’s best stories so far. Heading into the season, Giordano was one of the league’s better-kept secrets, a first-pairing stud who didn’t get enough credit because he was stuck on a rebuilding Calgary team. Stats guys loved him thanks to his fantastic possession numbers, and he even earned some Norris love last year, but for the most part he was considered a notch or two below the Charas and Webers of the league.
That’s coming to an end, largely thanks to his offensive numbers. His 23 points lead the league in blue-line scoring, and those are the sort of numbers that get you onto the radar no matter where you play. He won’t keep that pace up, but that’s fine — if you’re new to the Giordano bandwagon, just understand that he’s not quite as good as you think offensively, but probably even better in his own end.
It may be a year late, but the Giordano hype train is finally here, and while that’s inevitably going to lead to some people going overboard, it’s mostly deserved. The guy is good.
Most Annoying Pedants: Everyone Who’s Mad That I Used the Term “Quarter Pole” in the Opening Paragraph
Yes, we know, that’s not what the horse-racing term means. I did that on purpose just to annoy you. I bet you’re already yelling at me on Twitter right now.
Best Goaltender: Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators
With all due respect to Roberto Luongo, Brian Elliott, and even Marc-Andre Fleury, this one came down to a two-man race: the Kings’ Jonathan Quick and the Predators’ Rinne.
Quick has been fantastic, posting the league’s best save percentage among undisputed starters. And the Kings have needed every one of those saves, as the team has struggled through an uncharacteristically bumpy defensive stretch. Quick has always had his critics, and his massive contract still looks like a mistake, but there’s no question that he’s been fantastic this year.
But I’m going to give a narrow edge to Rinne. His even-strength save percentage is slightly better than Quick’s, and he’s doing it behind a team that few expected to be very good this year. He’s also a nice story, having come back from a serious hip injury that derailed his career. You know me, always a sucker for the sentimental story.
Best Coach: Bob Hartley, Calgary Flames
There are plenty of excellent candidates in this category. Willie Desjardins has done a great job in Vancouver, Peter Laviolette has turned the Predators into contenders, and Mike Johnston has steadied the ship in Pittsburgh. But each of those guys is in his first year with a new team, and guys in that situation inevitably dominate the coach of the year voting. When in doubt, I always try to give a little extra credit to those who’ve been on the job for a while and are still getting results.
And so my pick is Hartley, who’s managed to take a Flames team that was supposed to be a contender for dead last and lead them right into the thick of the playoff race. It’s unlikely to last — all the underlying numbers say that the Flames are due to slip back to the pack — but Calgary has been one of the league’s best stories. For a guy who plenty of us have had penciled in for a pink slip going on two seasons, that’s some impressive work.
Dumbest Controversy: The Thing With the Stick Salute, Toronto Maple Leafs
Here’s the background if you were fortunate enough to miss out on last week’s soap opera: The Leafs seem to be on their way to yet another middling season, the fans aren’t happy about it, and they’ve shown it, with methods ranging from the typical (booing) to the extreme (jersey tossing) to the indefensible (going after family members on social media). After being given another rough ride during an embarrassing 9-2 loss to the Predators, the Maple Leafs players apparently had had enough. At some point, they decided to send a passive-aggressive message by skipping the traditional post-win stick salute to the fans.
That doesn’t sound like much, but this being Toronto, it turned into front-page news. It was a manufactured controversy, to be sure, with few fans even noticing the snub when it first happened. But here’s the thing: It was a controversy that the Leafs players brought on themselves, and it was completely unnecessary. They know what the Toronto market is like, and they had to know how the move would be received. But they went ahead and did it anyway, like petulant teenagers who just have to get in one last word during a fight with Mom and Dad. Don Cherry called the players’ move “dumb,” and he was absolutely right.
The next day, Maple Leafs players were forced into PR crisis mode, pretending that the move wasn’t intended as a shot at the fans (nobody believed them) and vowing that the salute was well and truly dead. Then, one day later, they backed down and did it anyway. The whole thing was ridiculous, and you just lost 20 IQ points reading about it.
With 60 games left to go, the favorite for every other award in this post is probably going to change a dozen times before the end of the season. But the race for this one is already over; the Leafs players may one-up themselves, but nobody else is going to catch them.
Best Offseason Acquisition: Ryan Kesler, Anaheim Ducks
The Ducks acquired Kesler in a trade with the Canucks, and they certainly got him cheap. He hadn’t topped 50 points in three years, and had looked worn down at times during Vancouver’s disappointing season. More importantly, he’d basically forced the trade, leaving the Canucks in a position where they had to take what they could get.
So maybe you want to put an asterisk on this one, especially if you’re a Vancouver fan. But the fact remains that Kesler has been everything the Ducks were hoping for. He’s settled in as an excellent no. 2 center behind Ryan Getzlaf, playing a defensive role while chipping in consistent offense. That’s helped the Ducks to first place in the conference, and a healthy Kesler gives Anaheim the kind of center depth they’ll need to compete with the West’s other top teams.
Worst Offseason Acquisition: Ales Hemsky, Dallas Stars
The Stars’ big offseason move was trading for Jason Spezza. Like Kesler, he forced the move and came cheap, and he’s been just about what you’d expect for Dallas. The team recently signed him to an extension, so you’d have to say that move worked out just about right.
But you couldn’t say the same for the other forward that Dallas landed. That would be Ales Hemsky, the longtime Oiler (and then briefly Spezza’s teammate in Ottawa) who signed a three-year, $12 million deal as a free agent. At the time, it looked like a solid move, maybe even a bargain. Hemsky had never really lived up to expectations in Edmonton, but he’d never played alongside the sort of firepower that the Stars were ready to roll with, and he’d certainly displayed some occasional flashes of elite-level skill. Even if he could put up only borderline top-six numbers, he’d be worth the money.
Instead, he’s barely put up fourth-line totals. He doesn’t have a goal yet, and has just five assists in 20 games played. At one point, he was even a healthy scratch. He’s been better lately — three of his assists have come over the last two games — but it may already be too late for a heavily hyped Dallas team that’s barely keeping up with the playoff race.
There were worse signings — Brooks Orpik’s deal with Washington and Dave Bolland’s with Florida will be far worse in the long run. But Orpik has been OK and Bolland has been hurt, so we’ll give him a pass. We’re just looking at the first quarter of this season, and on that basis, Hemsky’s been the biggest bust of them all.
Most Intriguing Story Line to Watch Over the Second Quarter: The Race to the Bottom
Every year, a handful of teams drop out of the playoff race early and are forced to write off their season. They become sellers, the supply line that feeds useful players to the rest of the league’s teams that have a chance to contend, or at least think they do. And most years, those sellers wait until the trade deadline to start unloading their wares, because that’s when prices are higher.
But this year is different. This year, sure-thing superstars Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel are waiting in the 2015 draft, which makes the bottom of the standings very valuable real estate. And that could lead to a change in philosophy for hopeless teams like the Sabres, Hurricanes, Blue Jackets, and Oilers: Why wait until the trade deadline when you could start selling now?
Sure, you could probably get a better deal if you wait a few more months. But is it really worth it to squeeze every drop of value out of that second-line winger if there’s a risk that he’ll win you a few extra games between now and then? The race for last place looks like it could be tighter than anyone expected, and every loss counts. The sooner your tank gets rolling, the further it can carry you.
Valid theory? Or the delusional rantings of a fan who’s just desperate for some decent midseason trades for once? You decide. Then check back in six weeks, as we all change our minds about everything based on 20 more games.Miniball Say we have a set of circles L, and we wish to compute the smallest circle e that encloses these circles.
{ const context = DOM.context2d(width, 500); const L = d3.packSiblings(d3.range(200).map(() => ({r: Math.random() * 22}))); replay; return Generators.map(encloseStar(L), S => { context.save(); context.clearRect(0, 0, width, 500); context.translate(width / 2, 250); if (S.e) { context.beginPath(); context.moveTo(S.e.x + S.e.r, S.e.y); context.arc(S.e.x, S.e.y, S.e.r, 0, 2 * Math.PI); context.strokeStyle = "red"; context.stroke(); } context.beginPath(); L.forEach(p => { context.moveTo(p.x + p.r, p.y); context.arc(p.x, p.y, p.r, 0, 2 * Math.PI); }); context.strokeStyle = "#ccc"; context.stroke(); if (S.i) { context.beginPath(); S.L.forEach(p => { context.moveTo(p.x + p.r, p.y); context.arc(p.x, p.y, p.r, 0, 2 * Math.PI); }); context.fillStyle = "rgba(0,0,0,0.1)"; context.fill(); context.strokeStyle = "#000"; context.stroke(); } context.beginPath(); S.B.forEach(p => { context.moveTo(p.x + p.r, p.y); context.arc(p.x, p.y, p.r, 0, 2 * Math.PI); }); context.fillStyle = "black"; context.fill(); context.restore(); return context.canvas; }); }
viewof replay = html`<button>Replay</button>`
How might we do it? Let’s start by getting a feel of how to represent an enclosing circle. As you drag circles below, notice that the enclosing circle only moves when you move a tangent circle, and that the set of tangent circles depends on how the circles are arranged:
{ var svg = d3.select(DOM.svg(width, height)).style("overflow", "visible").datum([{"x":302,"y":105,"r":47},{"x":290,"y":231,"r":23},{"x":265,"y":320,"r":22},{"x":413,"y":182,"r":20},{"x":298,"y":206,"r":17},{"x":245,"y":171,"r":13},{"x":367,"y":276,"r":12},{"x":222,"y":219,"r":10},{"x":331,"y":152,"r":9},{"x":286,"y":141,"r":4}]); var e = svg.append("circle").attr("stroke", "red").attr("fill", "none"); var p = svg.append("g").attr("stroke", "black").attr("fill-opacity", 0.1).attr("cursor", "move").selectAll("circle").data(d => d).enter().append("circle").attr("cx", d => d.x).attr("cy", d => d.y).attr("r", d => d.r).call(d3.drag().on("drag", dragged)); svg.append("path").attr("class", "path-move").attr("transform", `translate(20,${height - 20})scale(0.05)`).attr("d", path).append("title").text("Try dragging a circle!"); function dragged(d) { d3.select(this).attr("cx", d.x = Math.max(0, Math.min(width, d3.event.x))).attr("cy", d.y = Math.max(0, Math.min(height, d3.event.y))); update(); } function update() { var d = enclose(svg.datum()); e.attr("cx", d.x).attr("cy", d.y).attr("r", d.r); p.attr("fill-opacity", p => d.basis.indexOf(p) < 0? 0.1 : 1); } update(); return svg.node(); }
Depending on how you arrange the circles, there can be one, two or three tangent circles. This set of tangent circles is called the basis for the enclosing circle. But before we can compute this basis, we’ll first need to be able to test whether a circle encloses another circle. A circle a encloses a circle b if and only if a’s radius is greater than or equal to b’s radius plus the distance between the two circles’ centers. Expressed as an inequality:
tex.block`r_a \geq r_b + \sqrt{(x_a - x_b)^2 + (y_a - y_b)^2}`
In the diagram below, the larger circle represents a and the smaller circle represents b. The inequality value can be seen as the radius of gray circle. Drag the circle b to see how its position affects whether or not it is enclosed by a.
{ var svg = d3.select(DOM.svg(width, height)).style("overflow", "visible"); var delta = svg.append("line").attr("stroke", "black").attr("stroke-width", 2); var a = svg.append("g").datum({x: 290, y: 201, r: 144}).attr("transform", d => `translate(${d.x},${d.y})`); a.append("circle").attr("stroke", "black").attr("fill", "none").attr("r", d => d.r); a.append("circle").attr("r", 3.5); a.append("circle").attr("class", "gray").attr("stroke", "gray").attr("fill", "none"); var b = svg.append("g").datum({x: 302, y: 130, r: 47}).attr("cursor", "move").call(d3.drag().on("drag", dragged)); b.append("circle").attr("fill-opacity", 0.1).attr("r", d => d.r); b.append("circle").attr("r", 3.5); svg.append("path").attr("class", "path-move").attr("transform", `translate(20,${height - 20})scale(0.05)`).attr("d", path).append("title").text("Try dragging a circle!"); function dragged() { var bd = b.datum(); bd.x = Math.max(0, Math.min(width, d3.event.x)); bd.y = Math.max(0, Math.min(height, d3.event.y)); update(); } function update() { var ad = a.datum(), bd = b.datum(), e = encloses(ad, bd), dx = bd.x - ad.x, dy = bd.y - ad.y, l = Math.sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy); b.attr("transform", d => `translate(${d.x},${d.y})`).select("circle").attr("stroke", e? "black" : "red").attr("fill", e? "black" : "red"); a.select(".gray").attr("r", l + bd.r); delta.attr("stroke", e? "black" : "red").attr("x1", ad.x).attr("y1", ad.y).attr("x2", bd.x).attr("y2", bd.y); } update(); return svg.node(); }
To avoid the square root, we can instead test two equivalent inequalities:
tex.block`r_a - r_b \geq 0`
tex.block`(r_a - r_b)^2 \geq (x_a - x_b)^2 + (y_a - y_b)^2`
This works because the square root is a monotonic function. In code:
// Given two circles a and b, returns true iff b ⊆ a. function encloses(a, b) { const dr = a.r - b.r; const dx = b.x - a.x; const dy = b.y - a.y; return dr >= 0 && dr * dr > dx * dx + dy * dy; }
To test whether a given circle a encloses all of the circles in array B, a loop:
// Given a circle a and set B, returns true iff b ⊆ a for every b ∈ B. function enclosesAll(a, B) { for (var i = 0; i < B.length; ++i) { if (!encloses(a, B[i])) { return false; } } return true; }
The final implementation uses slightly different “weak” variations of these methods that use a small epsilon to address imprecise floating point calculations.
function enclosesWeak(a, b) { const dr = a.r - b.r + 1e-6; const dx = b.x - a.x; const dy = b.y - a.y; return dr > 0 && dr * dr > dx * dx + dy * dy; }
function enclosesWeakAll(a, B) { for (var i = 0; i < B.length; ++i) { if (!enclosesWeak(a, B[i])) { return false; } } return true; }
Finding an Initial Basis Armed with only this test, we have the start of a potential algorithm—we’ll call it dumb luck: we can pick the first of the input circles and test whether it encloses the other circles. In fact, this is a reasonable strategy not only if you are lucky, but if there is only one input circle: the circle encloses itself by definition.
// Given the set L = {a}, returns the enclosing circle. function enclose1(a) { return encloseBasis1(a); }
// Given the basis B = {a}, returns the enclosing circle. function encloseBasis1(a) { return {x: a.x, y: a.y, r: a.r}; }
But what if there is more than one input circle |
, Facebook, and Google continue to have high favorability ratings, according to public opinion surveys. Research firm Morning Consult finds Google with an 82 percent net favorability rating, Amazon 77 percent, and Facebook 60 percent. That’s not even frenemy territory. Those companies are also among the most widely admired by Americans aged 18-34. What’s more, there’s been no apparent change in the “brand health” of Big Tech over the past year, as measured by the YouGov BrandIndex. All that despite a year of terrible headlines, whether it’s Russians using Facebook to influence the US presidential election, sexism at Uber, free speech issues at Google, or more existential concerns that artificial intelligence and robots will destroy the human job market.
In other words, the fervor for targeting these companies remains mostly an elite-level phenomenon, at least for now.
See also: Do the tech masters of the universe need to be tamed?
Which isn’t to say it’s unwarranted. The most common objections to these tech titans have some prima facie appeal: Critics may argue that the sheer size of these firms harkens back to the robber barons of the last century, or that their market dominance may be stifling innovation, or that Google’s and Facebook’s ubiquitous presence in our lives suppresses free speech. And then of course there are the worries about Russia: Maybe these firms are a danger to something more fundamental than just innovation or a more equal income distribution. Perhaps they’re a threat to American democracy itself.
Those are some of the prominent gripes against Big Tech, anyway. But I’m not necessarily sold yet. As I’ve argued elsewhere, looking at the past decade, about the only thing that seems to have really gone right in the US economy is what’s happening in Silicon Valley. The success of these big companies has brought amazing products and services to consumers, and we’ll want further innovations from them in the future. So maybe the government should hold their fire. Better to tread carefully than have politicians mucking about highly innovative and evolving business models they don’t fully understand.
This debate is the topic of an upcoming event here at AEI on November 27, beginning at 1:30 PM. Joining me for a panel conversation will be MIT’s Andrew McAfee, research scientist and co-author of Machine, Platform, Crowd; Luigi Zingales, director of the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago; Ryan Hagemann, Director of Technology Policy at the Niskanen Center; and Michael Strain, John G. Searle Scholar and Director of Economic Policy Studies here at AEI. You can find more details and RSVP at this link, here. We hope you can join us.
If you are unable to attend, you can watch the livestream of the event through AEI’s Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube channel, here.OAKLAND — With his signature railroad cap, broom and dustpan, Michael Lydon is easy to spot on Piedmont Avenue, especially because he’s one of the few people out and about when the sun is just rising and most shops are closed.
He’s also the busiest, sweeping up cigarette butts, candy wrappers and any other piece of litter he comes across.
It’s a job he has been doing — without pay — since 1979.
“You’re out in the fresh air,” the 69-year-old said as he swept a crushed paper cup from the gutter outside Fentons Creamery. “You’re doing something positive. How could anyone not want to do this?”
His walk, which can begin as early as 6 a.m., takes him up and down both sides of Piedmont Avenue, from Pleasant Valley Road to West MacArthur Boulevard. He empties his dustpan in the street’s garbage cans along the route.
On a recent morning, the Rev. Tim Johnson, Catholic priest at the Church of Saint Leo the Great,¿ was the first to greet Lydon. Johnson, carrying hand weights, was out for his morning exercise. Then a woman wearing earbuds said hello as she jogged past.
“She’s trying to lose weight,” Lydon whispered, before pausing outside Starbucks, where a customer inside had knocked on the coffee shop’s window to get his attention.
“Hey there,” Lydon said as he pointed at the man, waved and continued cleaning the street.
Litter accumulates more in some areas than others, Lydon said. Bus stops and benches are particularly bad, and some merchants never sweep the sidewalk outside their shops.
“Others do a good job,” Lydon said. “But they are only cleaning in front of their own business. They are not doing the whole street.”
Dick Stone, the owner of the Continental Hearing Aid Center on Piedmont Avenue, accompanied Lydon for about a block as he headed into work.
“Mike is not just an institution on Piedmont Avenue,” Stone said. “Mike is the avenue.”
Lydon began cleaning the busy shopping street simply because it needed to be done.
His father, an Irish immigrant who died in 1983, tended the gardens around Saint Leo’s church. Sometimes Lydon would help him.
“There would be garbage on the sidewalk and in the bushes,” Lydon said. “It was pretty bad, so I picked it up. Then I just started cleaning more and more of the street.”
Lydon began going out every day, rain or shine, before he would leave for his job at KTVU, where he worked as a program director. He retired from the television station in 2007 after 38 years.
His efforts caught the attention of the Piedmont Avenue Merchants Association, which in 1985 enlisted him to help create its “Clean Sweep” program. It currently employs two people who pick up litter five mornings a week.
Lydon, who manages the program, still goes out on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The association offered to pay him, but he declined the offer.
“I told them to forget it,” Lydon said. “I said they could use the money to promote their Halloween parade and other activities.”
Outside of a stint in the U.S. Navy, Lydon has spent his entire life in the Piedmont Avenue neighborhood. He lives alone on Entrada Avenue, a cul-de-sac off the street, in the same house where he grew up.
Along with picking up litter, Lydon maintains the planter boxes in the plaza across from the Piedmont Theatre and tips off city officials about graffiti.
He also spearheaded the drive to restore the clock on the tower of the triangular building at 41st Street and Piedmont Avenue that was once a depot on the Key Route system of street cars. A restaurant sign covered the clock until 1993, when Lydon and others raised about $5,000 to restore it.
“Mike is truly an unsung hero,” said Valerie Winemiller of the Piedmont Avenue Neighborhood Improvement League. “It’s pure altruism. There’s no glory, no financial reward and a very, very long-term commitment.”
In June 2008, then-Oakland Councilwoman Jane Brunner proclaimed Lydon a community hero of her district. Over the years, he has received other accolades from the city, as well as from the state Senate.
But Lydon said his true reward is a tidy Piedmont Avenue and seeing the smiling faces of his neighbors as they start their day.
“Everybody says hello to me,” Lydon said. “Everybody says, ‘How are you doing, Mike?’ It’s therapeutic. It’s good for the soul. How could you ever stop wanting that?”
Reach Peter Hegarty at 510-748-1654 or follow him on Twitter.com/Peter_Hegarty.IN the darkest days of World War II, a fighter pilot took to the air. He never came home. Seventy years later, his aircraft has been declared the "Tutankhamun's tomb" of aviation history.
It was 1942. Germany's ace general, Rommel, was steamrollering across the Mediterranean. Britain was yet again on the backfoot.
British Flight Sergeant Dennis Copling was tasked with what seemed to be a routine mission - returning a damaged P-40 Kittyhawk fighter to an Egyptian repair base safely behind friendly lines.
He was never seen again.
Seventy years later, the near perfectly preserved remains of his aircraft were discovered sitting in the dust of the Sahara desert. Now, the aircraft has been recovered and is safely tucked away in a secure hangar - awaiting the outcome of negotiations to be returned to Britain to become the centre of a new memorial display.
Its epic story of struggle and disaster spans generations.
An oil worker stumbled across the sandblasted remains while surveying part of the Western Desert late last year.
It is 400km from the nearest town, apparently crash-landed - but largely intact - on a rocky outcrop.
Alongside were the remains of a makeshift shelter, a ramshackle construction consisting of the pilot's parachute, a few panels and piled rocks.
The pilot likely set out on foot in a desperate bid for safety.
How the Kittyhawk ended up so far off course is uncertain.
It is riddled with bullet holes: But were they the result of a fresh action, or the earlier action which caused the aircraft to set off for repairs?
Whatever the case, the pilot ended up far, far off course.
Likely on the last dregs of fuel, he attempted a landing on the featureless Sahara desert below.
It was not a perfect landing: The buckled propeller and landing gear were found nearby.
But getting the plane down in largely one piece was a good job, given the boulder-strewed landscape.
Flight Sergeant Copling never made it to safety.
Human remains have been found several kilometres from the downed aircraft. But it has not yet been established if these belong to the lost pilot.
But the aircraft he so carefully brought down is now a time capsule to a phase of World War II largely lost in the sands of time.
Battles continue to surround the wartime relic.
The yearlong struggle to recover the fighter unfolded amid Egypt's tumultuous civil unrest which has seen many museums and archaeological sites looted and destroyed.
The Kittyhawk has - at last - emerged the victor.
Now, the relic has been recovered and is safely tucked away in a secure hangar. Aviation enthusiasts have declared the find as significant as Tutankhamun's tomb for its untouched quality.
The Royal Air Force Museum is in the midst of negotiating through the British Embassy in Cairo the return of the iconic fighter to become a central feature of its London display.
###Seattle privately-run bikeshare pilot is widely heralded: it’s cheaper, shinier, and more widespread and flexible. There’s just one catch. Besides being better than Pronto Cycle Share was, private bikeshare hasn’t accomplished much yet.
After pulling the plug on Pronto Cycle Share in the midst of a planned reboot as a completely city-managed separate system, Seattle tried something that no other U.S. city had tried before: letting as many private bikeshare operators come in and have access to all of Seattle’s city right-of-way with relatively limited restrictions. All the companies had to do was pay the appropriate fees and Seattle’s streets and sidewalks were theirs. (Incidentally, managing sidewalk bike clutter is a major challenge facing the free-floating bikeshare program going forward.)
In September, the city council’s transportation committee received a presentation on the state of the pilot program that the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) had been implementing around private bikeshare operators. At the meeting, SDOT’s Transit and Mobility Director Andrew Glass-Hastings and Kyle Rowe (the SDOT staffer credited with creating the framework for free-floating bikeshare) laid out what had happened with the free-floating pilot since its launch in early July. “We’re talking about bikeshare, and we actually have a positive story to share,” Glass-Hastings told the committee, chaired by Councilmember Mike O’Brien.
Compared to Pronto, the numbers for free-floating bikeshare (FFBS) look positively stellar. Pronto, which suffered from poor station placement and a disjointed network that almost everyone agrees gave it a severe handicap, also had the misfortune of being one of the most bad-mouthed arms of the city’s transportation system. The free-floating counterparts, made up of (in order of their arrival on Seattle’s streets) Spin, LimeBike, and Ofo, are free from association with city funding, and have the backing of heavy amounts of start-up cash.
The presentation made to the city council rightfully showed optimism toward the prospects for free-floating bikeshare in Seattle. But we should be examining the system on its own merits, not simply asking “is it better than Pronto?” In a chart that was not included in the presentation to the city council committee, but that was posted on the SDOT blog in a post that–after only looking at two months of data for FFBS–was ready to declare “it’s a pretty big success.” Pronto’s metrics were laid out, side-by-side, with the free-floating bikeshare.
Seattleites were very anxious to use bikeshare bikes in the first few weeks of the pilot program. Average usage of 2,231 trips per day is a lot of trips. However, the days examined here only include summer days with long hours of daylight, combined with excitement over the launch of the program and all of the buzz associated with that, as well as high numbers of free rides provided by the companies for new users. In other words, the factors that combined to create the metrics above will likely never be repeated ever again. We have to look deeper into the numbers, insofar as we can, to glean as much as we can about the sustainability and usefulness of the system.
Let’s look at one of the metrics above: average trip duration. 26 minute average trip time on a bikeshare system might not seem like that much, but you can cover quite a bit of area on a bike in that amount of time. According to Google Maps, in 26 minutes you can get from Westlake Station almost all the way to Gas Works Park (24 minutes), or from Beacon Hill Station to Seward Park (27 minutes). If the average trip length is this amount, that means many users are taking more time. It doesn’t look like bikes are being used for last-mile connections.
But that metric is at odds, slightly, with the metric of average trip length. If a trip from Westlake to Gas Works Park, for example, taking 24 minutes is 3.8 miles, that means that if the average trip length of free-floating bikeshare trips is instead 2.6 miles, we can safely conclude that free-floating bikeshare trips are, on average, leisurely rides. It’s also worth noting that while we know exactly how far trips were on the free-floating systems, we don’t have that exact same metric for Pronto trips. Pronto bikes were not equipped with GPS and instead distance had to be extrapolated from trip time, which, as I’ve demonstrated above, can be problematic.
But the most telling metric shown above is the percentage of trips taken during peak hours on weekdays: 20%, with just 4% taken during the morning peak. 80% of trips outside commuting hours on weekdays tells us that, for the most part, people were not using the system to get to work. This will be very interesting to track over time, but we really won’t be able to get to the bottom of the information without a completely different set of data: what the riders are experiencing.
Rider surveys are going to be essential to gauging the success of the private bikeshare in fulfilling a public good: getting people to where they need to go without the use of a car. Is the reason that few people are using the bikes to commute because riders attempted to get a bike in the morning before work and either couldn’t find the bike based on the position suggested by the app, or found the bike inoperable, or had trouble getting the app to work in the first place? We don’t know the answer to these questions right now; nonetheless, our free-floating bikeshare guidelines are already well on their way to being a national model for other cities to copy.
Meanwhile, in Vancouver, B.C., the city council there has been reviewing the performance of their station-based system, Mobi, after it has wrapped up its first year of operation. Mobi, like our free-floating pilot, gradually added additional bikes to the streets over the course of that year. However, while we have around 6,000 bikes citywide, their system is currently paused at 1,214 bikes at 123 stations closely clustered around the downtown peninsula.
The free-floating bikeshare average of 2.25 rides per bike per day in Seattle during the first two months is right on par with the metrics that Mobi has seen during its highest ridership summer months. With almost five times as many bikes in Seattle, this goes to show that a station-based system in a city that shares a climate and terrain with Seattle could also be successful if given a chance. Another factor shared between the two cities is a helmet requirement law. Vancouver is reporting a 70% compliance rate after providing every user with a cranium cup. But I’m sure there are some that will continue to insist that Seattle is completely different.
The free-floating bikeshare pilot is still in its infancy. Other cities are greenlighting these systems, and many are looking at our regulations before creating their own framework. We must ensure that we examine exactly how the system is functioning for all users (or attempted users) before we continue down this path. Rider surveys must be a part of this, considering the many aspects that free-floating bikeshare can “let down” the user. We may ultimately decide that free-floating bikeshare is a resounding success that benefits most of its users, but we are a long way from being able to knowledgeably make that decision.
We hope you loved this article. If so, please consider supporting our work. The Urbanist is a non-profit that depends on donations from readers like you.Although motion pictures are the main focus, some television and other media have been included. Dates listed are for original US debut. Numbers following description are the Wilhelm “take” used (4-6 being the “classic” screams). This list is verified to the best of the ability of a panel of sound effects professionals (who, in many cases, were responsible for including Wilhelm in the following titles themselves). Some screams have been edited, altered, mixed with other elements, lowered in level, or even removed from some versions of these titles.
Distant Drums (Dec 25, 1951)
Three Indians are shot, one after the other. (4,5,6)
A man is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator. (5) Springfield Rifle (Oct 25, 1952)
Sgt. Snow (Guinn Williams) thrusts his sword into a horse rustler. (4) The Charge at Feather River (Jul 11, 1953)
Wilhelm is struck in the leg by an arrow. (4)
A soldier is hit with a spear. (4)
Chief Thunder Hawk gets stabbed by Archer and rolls down a hill. (4) The Command (Jan 15, 1954)
An Indian is shot off his horse during an attack on the wagon convoy. Them! (Jun 16, 1954)
Giant ants attack the crew of a ship at sea. (1,6,4)
James Whitmore is throttled to death by a giant ant. (4,6)
A soldier is struck by falling debris in the sewer. (5) A Star is Born (Sep 29, 1954)
While Judy Garland tries to find her way out of a theater during a screening, a Wilhelm is heard in the movie that is playing there (actually Charge at Feather River.) (4)
Someone screams in the rehearsal record of “Somewhere There’s a Someone” that Judy Garland plays for James Mason. (4) The Sea Chase (Jun 4, 1955)
Schlieter (James Arness) accidentally whacks Winkler (Claude Akins) with an axe. (1) Land of the Pharaohs (Jun 24, 1955)
Victims are thrown to alligators. (4) Helen of Troy (Jan 26, 1956)
During the siege of Troy, a pair of soldiers struggling with each other falls off the battlements. (3)
A couple of minutes later, a Trojan soldier gets stabbed and falls off a landing. (1 & 2)
During the ensuing retreat, a Greek soldier gets speared. (4) Maverick, Season 2, Episode 6 "Escape to Tampico" (Oct 26, 1958)
Maverick throws a Mexican knife wielder through a window. Maverick, Season 3, Episode 9 "The Ghost Soldiers" (Nov 8, 1959)
An indian is killed and falls off the walkway at the top of a fort's pallisade. Maverick, Season 3, Episode 10 "Easy Mark" (Nov 15, 1959)
A man falls from a train. Maverick, Season 3 Episode 17 "The Cruise of the Cynthia B." (Jan 10, 1960)
The villain is thrown over the side of a river boat. Sergeant Rutledge (May 18, 1960)
A rider is speared in the back by an Indian. (4) PT 109 (Jun 19, 1963)
A crew member of PT-109 screams as a Japanese destroyer smashes through the patrol boat. (4) Harper (Feb 23, 1966)
Harper (Paul Newman) strikes Puddler (Roy Jenson) in the head with a rasp. (1) The Green Berets (Jun 17, 1968)
Enemy soldiers are hit by a launched grenade. “That’s what it's all about, Mr. Beckworth!” (4)
Two more Wilhelms are heard later in the same night battle. Impasse (May 7, 1969)
Morrison (Burt Reynolds) and a thug fall to the bottom of some stairs during a fight in a warehouse. (1)
A moment later, Morrison and another thug come crashing down from a balcony. (4) The Wild Bunch (Jun 18, 1969)
After the opening bank robbery, Buck is shot in the face as he rounds a corner. (4)
A little later, Pike puts Buck out of his misery. (4) Chisum (Jul 29, 1970)
In the middle of the film, at the river ambush, Jess shoots a wagon driver (1), then shoots Billy the Kid as Billy tries to take the reins of the wagon. (3) The Scarlet Blade (1974)
The Leader of the Tax Collectors Three gets caught in a tree during a swordfight. Hollywood Boulevard (Apr 25, 1976)
During the filming of the battle scene, two Wilhelms can be heard as enemy soldiers are shot. (4) Star Wars (May 25, 1977)
A stormtrooper falls into the chasm before Luke and Leia swing across. (3,4) The Star Wars Holiday Special (TV, Nov 17, 1978)
A stormtrooper falls over the edge of Chewbacca's family treehouse. (4) More American Graffiti (Aug 3, 1979)
A man gets tossed over the bar during a barfight. (4) The Empire Strikes Back (May 21, 1980)
A rebel soldier screams when his laser gun dish is hit and explodes during the Hoth battle. (1)
Chewie knocks a stormtrooper off the platform of the carbon freezing chamber. (4, barely audible) SP FX: The Empire Strikes Back (Sep 22, 1980)
A film clip from The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms shows a policeman getting chomped by the creature (although it is not in the original film). (4) The Big Brawl (1980)
Jerry (Jackie Chan) feints toward a thug, who falls off the upstairs railing. (4) Raiders of the Lost Ark (Jun 12, 1981)
A Nazi soldier is thrown from the back of a truck into the windshield of a jeep. (4)
Another soldier falls from the left side of the truck, ripping the canvas as he falls. (1) History of the World, Part I (Jun 12, 1981)
Count de Monet (Harvey Korman) treads upon peasants trapped under a red carpet. (2,1) Swamp Thing (Mar 1982)
The Swamp Thing grabs a thug and tosses him out of his speedboat. Poltergeist (Jun 4, 1982)
Little Carol Ann watches a soldier killed in a war movie after her mom has changed the channel from just static. (4) Return of the Jedi (May 25, 1983)
A victim is slashed by Luke’s lightsaber falls and into the Sarlacc pit. Another follows shortly after (less audible). (4)
(ALSO: Ben Burtt imitates a Wilhelm during his cameo in the film when he is knocked over a ledge by Han Solo.) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (May 23, 1984)
While trying to get the vial of antidote, Indy crashes into the nightclub band, and a musician screams. (4)
Indy shoots the driver of Lao-Che's car. (5)
Mola Ram is eaten by alligators. (4) From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga (Direct-to-Video, Jun 1, 1985)
A Wilhelm is used in a speeder bike chase animatic. (1) Explorers (Jul 12, 1985)
Someone is heard screaming during an explosion in the drive-in movie "Starkiller." (4) Howard the Duck (Aug 1, 1986)
Howard knocks a duck hunter out of his boat (yelling “Banzai!” just after the Wilhelm). (4) Nutcracker: The Motion Picture (Nov 26, 1986) Spaceballs (Jun 24, 1987)
Barf (John Candy) uses a section of tubes to reflect several laser bolts back at guards. The last victim (far right side, hit in the rear) lets out a Wilhelm. (4) Willow (May 20, 1988)
Soldiers crash their carriage after chasing the heroes. (4)
An soldier is knocked off his horse. (4)
The Brownies manage to trigger a huge spear shooter that hits several enemy soldiers. (4) The Star Trek Adventure (Universal Studios, CA, 1988)
A crew member on the bridge of the Enterprise falls during the obligatory bridge tilt shot. (4) Three Fugitives (Jan 27, 1989)
Lucas (Nick Nolte) smashes his van into a bar, sending Charlie (Bruce McGill) flying into a bathroom stall. (4) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (May 24, 1989)
Two Nazis throw grenades at the attacking soldiers, one right after another. (4,3) Always (Nov 22, 1989) Legion of Iron (1990)
A guard takes a throwing star right in the eye. (4) Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Jun 15, 1990)
A victim covered with gremlins falls off a ledge. (4) Beauty and the Beast (Nov 13, 1991)
Someone screams on an exterior shot of the castle during the battle (just after Chip says “You guys gotta try this thing!”). (4) Young Indiana Jones: The Trenches of Hell (TV, 1992)
During a charge on the trenches, a German soldier gets bayonetted. (5) Young Indiana Jones: Daredevils of the Desert (TV, 1992)
A mortar round sends a British soldier flying. (4) Batman Returns (Jun 19, 1992)
Batman punches and throws a clown out of his way. (4) Mom and Dad Save the World (Jul 24, 1992)
As Dick tries to get into a ship, one soldier stupidly shoots another in the back. (5)
A couple of soldiers stupidly pick up a light grenade. (1,5) Reservoir Dogs (Oct 23, 1992)
Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) pushes someone out of his way while while running down the sidewalk. (4)
Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) guns down two cops in their police car. (2) Aladdin (Nov 11, 1992)
Villagers flee in terror as the Genie (controlled by Jafar) lifts the palace into the air. (4) Matinee (Jan 29, 1993)
A couple Wilhelms can be heard in the movie within the movie, “MANT!” Young Indiana Jones: The Phantom Train of Doom (TV, 1993)
During the battle over the big gun on the train, a couple of Wilhelms are heard. (5) Evening Class (TV, 1993)
Rick (Micheal Beach) scares Martha (Mariangela Pino) from a window. (1) Young Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Hawkmen (TV, 1995)
A truck chasing Indy is shot off the road. (6) A Goofy Movie (Apr 7, 1995)
During the song “On the Open Road,” Goofy's car strikes a construction scaffold. (4)
Backstage at the Powerline concert, a crew member is flung into a big screen monitor. (4) Die Hard: With a Vengeance (May 19, 1995)
John McClane (Bruce Willis), while driving through Central Park (literally), almost hits a mime - before confessing that maybe he was aiming for him. (4-partial) Runaway Brain (Aug 11, 1995)
Mickey Mouse is playing a video game when his game character dies. (4) Toy Story (Nov 22, 1995)
Buzz Lightyear is knocked out the bedroom window. (4) Dante’s Peak (Feb 7, 1997)
Paul plunges to his death from a collapsed bridge as it's carried away by mud and lava. (4) The Second Civil War (Made for Cable, 1997)
A News Net crew watches a John Wayne movie on a big screen TV while waiting for action at the Idaho border. (4) Star Wars: Episode IV – Return of the Jedi (Special Edition) (Mar 14, 1997)
A stormtrooper is thrown off a bridge on Coruscant during the final celebration. (4) The Fifth Element (May 9, 1997)
Zorg blows up his henchman while they’re talking on the phone. (4,3)
Two Mangalores are sent flying from the Diva's suite. (4) Hercules (Jun 20, 1997)
Villagers flee in terror as their city is attacked. (4) Lethal Weapon 4 (Jul 10, 1998)
Riggs (Mel Gibson) shoots a terrorist's flamethrower, turning it into a jetpack. The terrorist screams as he flies towards a gas truck - which explodes upon impact. (4) Small Soldiers (Jul 10, 1998)
The Brick Bazooka toy gets thrown off Alan’s bike. (4)
The Kip Killigan toy shorts out while trying to kill Alan’s dad. (4) Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (May 19, 1999)
Two security officers, one after the other, are hit in the chest and scream Wilhelms during the blaster battle in the Naboo hangar. (3,4) The X-Files, Episode #7X19, “Brand X” (Apr 16, 2000)
A man is killed with a bayonet in an old war movie on TV. (5) The Kid (Jul 7, 2000)
While Russ is talking to Amy, someone screams on TV in a movie that Rusty is watching. (4) Backstage (Sep 8, 2000)
During a paintball match, an animated guy gets pelted. (4) The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (Direct-to-video, Sep 19, 2000)
A crew member jumps from his ship and screams just before part of an iceberg falls on it. (4) Thirteen Days (Dec 25, 2000)
When an American jet screams over a Russian ship and the deck crew all react and duck, a Wilhelm is used (inaudible). Golden Dreams (Disney's California Adventure, 2001)
During an earthquake, a native American screams as he falls to the ground. (5) Tomcats (Mar 30, 2001)
Near the end of the film, a cello player at a charity fundraiser screams when Michael (Jerry O'Connell) collides with him. (3) Just Visiting (Apr 6, 2001)
Count Thibault (Jean Reno) dodges a thrown axe, which instead hits a bad guy. (4) Planet of the Apes (Jul 27, 2001)
Tival (Erick Avari) is body-slammed to the ground by an ape soldier. (4)
General Thade (Tim Roth) hurls two humans into the air at once. (2)
Using the sharp point of his helmet, Thade stabs a human. (3) Wet Hot American Summer (Jul 27, 2001)
Beth (Janeane Garofalo) and Henry (David Hyde-Pierce) kiss for the first time while a man falls behind them. (4) Osmosis Jones (Aug 10, 2001)
Thrax pulls someone out of his car. (4) Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition (Nov 6, 2001)
When V'ger fires at the Enterprise, a crew member in the engine room gets hit by an energy bolt. (4) The Majestic (Dec 21, 2001)
Someone screams when part of the theater's neon sign explodes. (4) Life or Something Like It (Apr 26, 2002)
A Wilhelm is mixed into sounds of riders enjoying a rollercoaster. (6) The Salton Sea (Apr 26, 2002)
Kujo (Adam Goldberg) is hit by an ambulance. (3,4) Spider-Man (May 3, 2002) Angel, Episode 64, “A New World” (TV, original air date: May 6, 2002)
Connor throws a knife into a thug's arm. (4) Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (May 16, 2002)
A ship explodes when it arrives at Coruscant at the beginning of the film. (3) Bounty Hunter (Video Game, Nov 19, 2002)
Dying Imperials will sometimes utter Wilhelms. (3,4) Scorched (Jul 25, 2002)
Shmally crashes her motorcycle in the desert, and Doleman screams as he falls off. (4) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Dec 18, 2002)
An elf soldier falls off the battlements during the Helm's Deep battle. (4) Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (Dec 31, 2002)
Chuck watches TV (and hears a Wilhelm there) after returning home from a barfight. (4) The Legend of Suriyothai (Jan 19, 2003)
A soldier is pulled down from the battlements during an assault on a fortress. (4) Cradle 2 the Grave (Feb 28, 2003)
In the 12-on-1 cage match, Su (Jet Li) sends a guy flying. (4) Tears of the Sun (Mar 7, 2003)
Rebel soldiers are blown up. (4) Agent Cody Banks (Mar 14, 2003)
A guard falls off a balcony and through a glass ceiling. (4) A Man Apart (Apr 4, 2003)
In a raid by DEA and Mexican drug agents on a Tijuana nightclub full of drunken cartel honchos and gunmen, a Wilhelm is heard when one of the agents is hit by gunfire. Texas: The Big Picture (IMAX, May 3, 2003)
In a stylized depiction of the battle at the Alamo, a Wilhelm can be heard as two shadows clash. (4) Robbery Homicide Division, Episode #13, “Absolute Perfection” (TV, April 21, 2003)
Tommy Cheung is squashed by a bus in the episode’s teaser. Dell Computers – “PC Dreams” (TV Commercial, May 2003)
One of the Dell Interns is repeatedly dropped through a trap door during a dream about how Dell computers are tested. The Animatrix - “Matriculated” (Jun 3, 2003)
Someone is lifted and thrown across the room by a tentacled robot. (4) Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Jun 28, 2003) Once Upon A Time In Mexico (Sep 12, 2003)
A bad guy on a motorcycle strikes a car and goes flying. (4) Steak 'n Shake, “Workaurant” (TV Commercial, 2003)
A man suddenly remembers to get ketchup. (4) Under The Tuscan Sun (Sep 26, 2003)
Lighting strikes a washing machine outside the villa. (Inaudible) Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (Oct 10, 2003)
The bride slices one of the bad guys during the black and white fight sequence. (4)
Later in the sequence, one of the bad guys falls down the stairs. (4) Angel, Episode 94, “The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco” (TV, Nov 5, 2003)
While a security guard is checking out the basement of a warehouse, another man gets attacked. (4) Star Wars: Clone Wars, Chapter 4 (TV, Nov 12, 2003)
Durge shoots a trooper sniping at him. (3) Looney Tunes: Back In Action (Nov 14, 2003)
While talking to DJ (Brendan Fraser) via the wall portrait, Damian (Timothy Dalton) blows up a bad guy with a grenade. (4) Peter Pan (Dec 12, 2003)
A pirate falls from the ship’s rigging into the water. (4) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Dec 17, 2003)
A dragon drops a Gondorian soldier to the ground. (4)
Legolas climbs a mumakil and throws one of its |
137 people accepted the spray can from his group.
Lige en lille kommentar til asylspray-balladen. pic.twitter.com/vqOS0qpx14 — Daniel Carlsen (@DanielCarlsen) 25 сентября 2016 г.
His group has previously engaged in anti-immigrant attacks through popular media – be it a poster with white children playing, with the words “Your children deserve a Danish Denmark,” or its criticism of the French national team for the presence of players of African descent.
In April, Carlsen defended the vandalism of a Danish municipality with road signs showing the distance to Syria and Iraq. Like other European countries, Denmark has seen a mixed response to the refugee influx.
In mid-August, police arrested a Dane for trying to blow himself up at an asylum center. Denmark registered 21,000 asylum applications in 2015, which made it one of the main EU destinations for refugees per capita, behind only Finland, Austria, Germany and Sweden.Boko Haram militants have attacked villages in northeastern Nigeria, killing and terrorizing civilians and political leaders. (AP File Photo)
The Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram beheaded a six-year-old boy during a June attack on the predominantly Christian village of Attagara, according to an eyewitness account provided by the Voice of the Martyrs ( VOM) missionary organization.
) –
“Over 100 militants dressed in military uniforms swarmed the predominantly Christian village just as Sunday church services were beginning on June 1,” VOM reports.
“The rebels opened fire on the village and went after people with their machetes.”
Boko Haram became internationally known after it staged a mass kidnapping of over 250 Nigerian school girls in April. The majority of the girls are still missing. Last month, the group publicly aligned itself with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
According to VOM, which has been assisting some 30 people injured in the attacks, “55-year-old Sawaltha Wandala witnessed the Boko Haram slaughtering children at a church as he arrived for the second service. He saw the men throw one child into a ditch. More concerned for the child than his own safety, he picked up the 6-year-old boy, who had survived being severely slashed, and immediately rushed to take the child to the hospital in Cameroon.”
“Sawaltha was stopped by five insurgents, who grabbed the boy from his arms and beheaded him, before turning to beat Sawaltha with tree branches.”
“They finished their attack striking him in the head with a large rock, leaving him for dead with blood running from his nose and mouth.”
The latest attack is believed to be revenge for the deaths of seven Boko Haram gunman during an earlier raid on the village on May 25.
Boko Haram returned to Attagara and other villages in the Gwoza district following their first onslaught. “The back to back attacks left an estimated 200 people, including small children, dead,” VOM reported.
John Yakubu, another Christian villager from Attagara, reported being tied to a tree for three days and tortured with a machete and a knife by Boko Haram terrorists in an attempt to forcibly convert him to Islam.
The bloody raids by Boko Haram were confirmed by CNN, which reported in June that "heavily armed gunmen dressed as soldiers in all-terrain vehicles and on motorcycles attacked Goshe, Attagara, Agapalwa and Aganjara villages in Gwoza district, shooting residents and burning homes."
In Attagara, “the insurgents set fire to homes and a church and killed dozens of residents, according to Bulus Yashi, who fled to Gamboru Ngala,” CNN reported at the time.
VOM is an “inter-denominational Christian organization dedicated to assisting the persecuted church worldwide.” It has offices worldwide, including one in Nigeria.The Berkeley riots confirm that anyone, from California to Greece, will go nuts if budgets are they're going to be pinched.
But the California rioters did get an audience with Governor Schwarzenegger this week. And it turns out Arnold had a brilliant line to them:
LA Times:
Schwarzenegger told the students about the proposal he'd made in January for a constitutional amendment to prevent California from spending more on prisons than universities. He blamed the prison guards' union for driving up costs at the state's lockups.
"They are a force," he said of the union. "They are very powerful."
Brilliant! He's telling the students that they should blame a union -- not the typical enemy of radical students.
Now the whole prisons vs. universities amendment sounds kind of arbitrary, but the prison guard unions are a major force in the state, and arguably are a huge reason the state drove itself off a cliff.
Here's a quick backgrounder.The “Despicable Me” Movie Series And “Minions” Exposed
By David J. Stewart | January 2015
2nd Thessalonians 2:3-4, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition ; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”
There is a new upcoming movie, due for release in July of 2015, that is intended to prepare children to receive the coming Antichrist. The movie is titled, “MINIONS”...
Minions is an upcoming American 3D computer-animated comedy film and a spin-off/prequel to Despicable Me (2010) and Despicable Me 2 (2013). It is being produced by Illumination Entertainment for Universal Pictures. Written by Brian Lynch, it will be directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, and produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy. Sandra Bullock will voice Scarlet Overkill, the villain of the film, and Jon Hamm will voice her husband, inventor Herb Overkill. The film is scheduled to be released on July 10, 2015. The film was first foreshadowed in the ending credits of Despicable Me 2, where Stuart, Kevin, and Bob, Gru's minions, are seen auditioning for the film. SOURCE: Minions (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The upcoming 2015 film “MINIONS” is a sequel to the first two movies, “DESPICABLE ME, MINION MAYHEM” (2010) and “DESPICABLE ME 2” (2013). There are already plans for a 2017 sequel titled, “DESPICABLE ME 3.”
The first film in the series, “DESPICABLE ME,” brought in a whopping $543,000,000 at the box office!!! It cost $69 million to make the film. Hollywood is making billions-of-dollars from this film franchise (books, video games, Universal Studios theme park rides, toys, hot air balloons, MacDonald's Happy Meals, Smartphone applications, comic books, IHOP even promotes a kid's “minion” breakfast, et cetera). [1]
The second film, “DESPICABLE ME 2” raked in a whopping $970,000,000!!! The film budget was only $76 million. [ 2]
Satan is going after the children!!! Have you ever heard about “the Devil and his minions?” It's not a mere coincidence that the word “minions” was used. The message taught by the minions characters are really bad for children. Look at the promotion poster to the above right (Gru and his minions), which reads at the top: “When the World Needed a Hero, They Called a Villain.” Talk about the Antichrist. When the world needed a hero... THEY CALLED A VILLAIN?
The Illuminati are preparing the world's children to receive the coming SuperVillain, THE BEAST (Antichrist). In 2nd Thessalonians 2:3-4, the Bible calls the coming Antichrist “that man of sin” and “the son of perdition” and tells us that he will exalt himself “above all that is called God, or that is worshipped.”
A “minion” is “a nameless, faceless, servant. It is a negative term implying that your only importance is from the person who orders you around. Minions are villains helpers.”
Satan is DESENSITIZING children to the idea of a villain being bad. Clearly, children are being taught (confused) that evil is good...
It is described on Wikipedia in this way: The riders will be tested if they “qualify” to be minions and asked “if they are fully prepared to be so“. They are given minion 3D goggles. They are welcomed by # 1 SuperVillain. His children are said to be “trying to be evil” and use “the voice of an evil clown“. Dr. Nefario is SuperVillain’s side kick. The word “nefarious” means sinful or evil.
There is a “zap gun” that turns humans into minions and all the riders on the ride will have a body scan to see if there are any human genes left in them to be removed. They also tell the participants that “there will be no backing out“. They use the word “henchmen” too. The words, “are so doomed” are part of the ride.
What I am tying to say is that these movies are desensitizing our children to the idea of a villain as being bad or that the devil and his helpers are evil. Just as Hollywood introduced homosexuality in comedies, so now the devil and villains are being introduced by funny movies to our children. SOURCE: "Despicable Me" and Satan and His Minions
Satan is using funny movies to recruit children into the New World Order (NWO). Look at the disturbing image to the left of a group of minions, many of whom only have ONE EYE. The film series is promoting the All Seeing Eye—one of the occult symbols of the Ancient Mystery Religion.
The Luciferian-worshipping religion of New Age teaches the masses to love man and God, but to reject Christianity. By accepting all religions and faiths under the pretense of love and the brotherhood of mankind, the Antichrist will be able to deceive the world's masses into following him as God.
In order for the Devil's NWO to succeed, Christianity must go, because the Holy Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to Heaven! In the Luciferian religion of New Age, all faiths are accepted EXCEPT CHRISTIANITY.
Here's a 54-minute YouTube video that I put together in January of 2015, which explains the basics (the big picture) of the Luciferian conspiracy and the New World Order.
When Barack Obama won the election in 2007 for the U.S. Presidency, it was a classic experiment in social mass-hysteria. People were worshipping President Obama, even calling him “the Messiah,” children's choirs were singing “Obama Be Thy Name,” public murals appeared on the side of buildings which portrayed Mr. Obama hanging on a cross, et cetera. Literally, Barack Obama could just as easily have been the Antichrist and the world would have received him gladly. Clearly, when the Antichrist comes, the world WILL FOLLOW HIM! The world is now being prepared to receive the man of sin, the BEAST. Please read, THE LUCIFERIAN CREED.
Make no mistake, there is a generational Masonic plot to overthrow America's liberties and freedoms and usher in a Global, Godless, Totalitarian, Communist, Police State. Out of the ashes of American society will arise a New World Order (which is stated in Latin on the back of every U.S. one dollar bill, under the Illuminati pyramid).
Commander William Guy Carr (1895-1959) made the following insightful statements nearly 60-years ago...
The High Priests of the Luciferian Creed know they cannot usurp world power before the United States is ruined as the last remaining world power, so those who direct the W.R.M. (World Revolutionary Movement) AT THE VERY TOP are arranging matters so the United States will, as Lenin stated, “Fall into our hands like an overripe fruit.” This is how events taking place today indicate the subjugation of the U.S.A. is planned. SOURCE: William Guy Carr, the awesome book “SATAN, PRINCE OF THIS WORLD,” pg. 30
This explains the moral meltdown in America, which is being led by Hollywood and the reprobate music industry. Please read, THE LUCIFERIAN CONSPIRACY.
Consider the following statement made in 1957 by the prominent Belgian diplomat, European Union co-founder, and astute European strategist, Paul-Henri Spaak (1899-1972)...
“We do not want another committee. We have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all people and to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us such a man be he god or devil, we will receive him.” [empathies added]
That man of sin is coming, as soon as the world is prepared to receive him. Hollywood is targeting all age groups through cleverly incorporated propaganda into their movies. You have to admit that it is creepy seeing tens-of-thousands of minions all following and helping a world SuperVillain named “Gru.” This is exactly what Satan wants from your children in reality. The Antichrist is coming and the Devil wants the upcoming generation to receive him.
Luciferians are Deliberately Promoting All Forms of Immorality in Society
The following quote is taken from William Guy Carr's excellent book titled, “SATAN, PRINCE OF THIS WORLD,” from the chapter titled, “HOW THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN WORKS IN HIGH PLACES”...
Professor Pitrim Sorokin of Harvard University published an exposure of this angle of the Luciferian conspiracy in a book entitled The American Sex Revolution. The author states that perverted sexual behaviour plays a major part in modern U.S. political life and that sex bribery and blackmail are now as prevalent as monetary corruption.
He states "sexually infamous persons, or their protégés, are being appointed to ambassadorships and other high offices; profligates sometimes become popular mayors of metropolises, members of cabinets, or leaders of political parties. Among our political officials there is a vast legion of profligates both heterosexual and homosexual. Our morals have changed so notably that continence, chastity, and faithfulness are increasingly viewed as oddities."
Professor Sorokin's book didn't get the same kind, or volume, of publicity as did Dr. Kinsey's books dealing with the alleged moral practices of males and females.
According to Satanism, it is perfectly right and proper to encourage moral turpitude in all classes of society, and at all levels of government, by convincing the public that abnormal sexual behavior is normal; and that the moral code accepted by civilized nations, based on the Commandments of God and teachings of the Holy Scriptures, is old fashioned and introduced by Church and state for selfish purposes. But behind the building up of a WRONG conception of sex, and its purposes as intended by God our Creator, is the Satanic principle that "The best revolutionary is a youth absolutely devoid of morals." When Lenin stated this as recorded in Pawns in The Game he only confirmed what other Satanists had stated a hundred times previously.
It is Satanism, as it is direct from THE TOP, which is responsible for the increase in juvenile delinquency, but those selected by the governments of the world to investigate this problem invariably give every CAUSE other than the right one...
I discussed [these issues] with a top level official of the Department of Health and Welfare in Canada. He literally snorted: "Well! What do you suggest we do... clean every homosexual out of the civil service, and throw them in prison where they can indulge their queer ideas of pleasure to their hearts desire? Many of them are brilliantly minded men. When on the job they are efficient and work long hours. You seem to forget Oscar Wilde was a homosexual. Stop trying to save the human race. The vast majority aren't worth the time or the trouble. Most of them will be better off if they are forced to live under a totalitarian dictatorship; they will then get what the government decides is good for them." [emphasis added] SOURCE: William Guy Carr, the awesome book “SATAN, PRINCE OF THIS WORLD,” pgs. 56-57
In the preceding quote, Commander Carr mentions the word “turpitude,” which is defined as, “a corrupt or depraved or degenerate act or practice.” Now you understand why society's top singers, celebrities and Hollywood actors commit so much turpitude. Satan wants to corrupt our youth, steering them away from Biblical Christianity so they'll be Godless and vulnerable, preparing them to follow the man of sin (the Antichrist) when he comes. This is why the satanic lie of Evolution is taught in the Communist public school system. Should it come as a surprise, with these disturbing truths in mind, that films like Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2, Minions and Despicable Me 3 are intended to indoctrinate children to follow an evil world leader? Wake up folks!
So little children must be conditioned and desensitized, so that they will view a despicable, evil, world leader as a SuperHero instead of a SuperVillain. I am very curios to see where this film series is leading children. Lord willing, we'll find out in June of 2017 if and when “DESPICABLE ME 3” is released. And there will likely be more sequels as long as the interest and money is there. Remember, Satan is the Boss of Hollywood.
Teach Your Children Well
Could it be that the minions are a mockery of the average, mindless, American, working-man (look how they are clothed), who is a pill-head (notice that they all look like yellow pills). Are you the Devil's minion? Is that what you want your children to be taught? Make sure to teach your children that Satan is evil (John 8:44), and that the coming world leader called “Antichrist” is the enemy of God (2nd Thessalonians 2:3-4). Satan's “minions” are in fact his demons, who follow his orders. Please make sure to tell your children and others that the movie “Minions” is trying to desensitize children to the true evil nature of Satan, demons and the coming Antichrist. The Devil's party won't last long, and then it will all be over forever. Amen!!!
Children more than ever need a good Sunday school to attend. It is important that every family find a local New Testament church to attend faithfully. It doesn't have to be a Baptist church, but those are amongst the best churches in my humble opinion. I'd look for an Independent Fundamental Baptist Church (IFBC), preferably with a bus ministry. A growing church is an exciting church. Make sure that the church you attend only uses the King James Bible. If there's not a good church in your area... MOVE!
When Satan came to tempt Jesus in Matthew 4:1-10, the Lord quoted the Scriptures all three times to defeat the Devil. If our very Lord and Savior needed to use the Word of God to drive the Devil away, then so also do we. That means we need to read, study, love, meditate upon and memorize the Holy Bible. Kids need to learn all about the different characters in the Bible, and the life-changing truths which apply. Children won't get this education anywhere else, but Sunday school and church.
Unlike this temporary world, the precious promises and glorious future that we have as Christians in the Lord Jesus Christ will last forever and ever!!! Those who follow Satan can only enjoy this short earthly life, but then the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). We who serve the Lord Jesus Christ suffer during this earthly life, but we will enjoy Heaven forever with Jesus. Praise God!A giant banner — reading, “This is Potawatomi land! F–k the KKKolumbus murals!” — was unfurled inside Notre Dame’s campus library on Friday morning as students were studying for final exams.
The message was meant to be a direct jab at school officials, who have refused to remove 12 iconic murals honoring Christopher Columbus, despite a recent petition garnering hundreds of signatures.
Activists from the Michiana branch of the grassroots group Rising Tide — which advocates for climate action and opposes “all forms” of colonialism, capitalism and oppression — claim to be behind the stunt and say it was in direct response to Notre Dame’s stance on the paintings.
“We were talking to indigenous members of the local community, and we realized they were not asking, ‘Should the murals be addressed?’ Instead, they were asking, ‘When will the murals finally be addressed?'” the group explained in emails to The Post.
“We decided to drop a banner in the library as students were studying for final exams and writing final papers,” they said. “We chose this spot so that the banner would not be ignored.”
Noting why people don’t want the murals on campus, the group said: “We know from reading history that Columbus was involved in the enslavement, murder, and genocide of indigenous people. To heal our society, it is important not to honor someone who helped launch centuries of conquest and mass murder in the Americas.”
Hundreds of students, alumni and staff have signed the petition to get the Columbus murals removed over the past week.
The document’s creator likened the 19th Century paintings to “a Confederate monument” — saying they did not deserve to stay on campus “in this era of political divisiveness and a renewed rise of dangerous nationalism.”
Notre Dame did not provide a statement about the Rising Tide banner when reached for comment by The Post on Friday, but a spokesperson did make its stance known on the situation once again.
“The Columbus murals are of historic and artistic value, and the University has no plans to remove them,” said Dennis K. Brown, Assistant Vice President of News and Media Relations for the university.
Many people find the paintings at Notre Dame offensive to Native Americans and want them relocated to a museum or galley.
“These murals are symbols of oppression that do not represent local Native Americans — but yet Notre Dame calls the location ‘A Potawatomi Place,'” explained Julie Dye, a Pokagon Band Potawatomi Elder and descendant of Leopold Pokagon and Simon Pokagon.
“They contribute to the erasure of Native culture by feeding myths of history and perpetuating stereotypes,” she said in a statement. “The original intent does not negate the detrimental impact on the audience—especially the races depicted. Images matter. Teach the truth. Honor Native people by relocating the murals to a museum or gallery.”
Rising Tide says that several local groups have joined up with them in their efforts to get the murals removed, including the IWW GDC Local 26, the Graduate Workers Collective of Notre Dame, and Fossil Free ND.
“White supremacy must be dismantled as part of the fight to preserve life on Earth,” the group said. “We will take further actions in support of indigenous people’s demands to address these racist murals.”Well, it’s been 5 day since the last episode of Under the Brush, and despite my wrist being stubborn and not wanting to heal, I managed to get a little done this week.
All paints are in the Vallejo Game Color line unless otherwise noted.
When we left off last, I had only managed to finish the skin and base coat about half of the trench coats with Cobra Leather. I finished up the rest of the base coats, then washed the trench coats with Vallejo Model Dark Brown Wash. After cleaning up a little with the Cobra Leather base color, I did just a few edge highlights with Plague Brown.
For the shirts, I wanted to go with an almost nondescript grey color. You might say the kind of grey that you see used for “Army” t-shirts in the US. I used a base coat of Cold Grey. From there I applied a wash of Black Wash, then highlighted with Stonewall Grey.
Originally I was thinking about using a camo-ish green for the pants, but then I remembered that I don’t actually have any camo-ish green colors. As most of my paints are Vallejo Game Color, my greens are all pretty bright and vivid. With green no longer being an option, I ended up going with blue. I used a base coat of Imperial Blue, then applied Blue Wash. I tried something a little different with the highlights on the pants, and some of them worked better than others. I basically went straight from the base coat and wash, to edge highlights with 50% Imperial Blue and 50% Dead White. I probably could have done a better job, but hey, it was worth the try.
At this point, I have the flesh, shirts, coats, and pants done. I still have things like boots, belts/holsters, goggles, guns, backpacks for the Heavies, and bases to go. I would say that I am probably about 60% done with the gang. We’re going in to a three day weekend, so I hope to get some more painting done in between family time and cookouts.
As I have said before, for the sake of my sanity, I am only going for a tabletop standard with these minis, so they definitely will not be winning any awards. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the minis.
That’s all for today. I’ll post more when there is more to show! Let me know what you think.
AdvertisementsCannabis delivery startup Eaze Solutions Inc. has a lofty goal: By fiscal year 2020, it expects to ship the rough equivalent of a 33-foot-cube of marijuana — nearly three joints for every registered voter in the U. S. — to weed fans in America’s legal markets.
The goal of moving the equivalent of $1 billion in cannabis and related products in a year has led the company to burn about $1 million a month as it aggressively expands into markets that have, in some cases, proved costly, according to information provided to potential investors and exclusively obtained by MarketWatch. The documents render a snapshot of a company wrestling with complex, often difficult regulations, that’s pushing the boundaries of what’s legal in a market where the laws are changing rapidly and causing uncertainty about the potential for investments.
When contacted about this story, Eaze Chief Marketing Officer Stephen Matt wrote in an emailed statement, “While we don’t disclose revenue or discuss future plans, the marijuana industry is incredibly promising, and presents an opportunity that innovators, investors and policy makers alike are excited about.”
Born in 2014, Eaze’s origin sounds similar to startup success stories such as Airbnb and Uber, and like those two it also claims to only produce tech that connects people, rather than selling pot itself. Founder and former chief executive Keith McCarty used his own money to launch the company from his San Francisco apartment with four employees and the idea of promising delivery of medical marijuana within minutes. McCarty, an ex-Yammer employee who received a healthy payout when Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +0.69% acquired the company for $1.2 billion in 2012, even helped fulfill early orders, packing driver kits in his apartment.
Since its humble beginnings, Eaze has developed an expansive delivery footprint in California that has given it a dominant position and attracted outside investment. It has banked $24.5 million in venture funding from investors including rapper and entrepreneur Snoop Dogg’s Casa Verde Capital LLC, as well as a number of well-known Silicon Valley venture-capital firms. It now seeks an additional $25 million in funding, according to the investor deck.
Heralded by the tech trade press as the Uber of pot, Eaze has expanded alongside the legal market, which has reached $6 billion in annual sales across the country, according to a report from Cowen and Co. Marijuana continues to be classified by the federal government as a Schedule I drug, along with heroin, LSD and ecstasy. As a result, federal law requires banks to report any marijuana-related transactions as suspicious activity, which could open them up to seizure by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation..
Despite federal prohibitions, Eaze now operates in more than 100 cities as executives leverage generous promotions, fierce expansion and, per several sources, hardhearted negotiation tactics. It also launched a line of vaporizers, is planning to create private-label cannabis brands, and offers low-cost marijuana recommendations under EazeMD.
Don’t miss: Marijuana experts question how industry will mature as full legalization lags
Yet on-demand pot delivery has not blossomed to the same extent as the total marijuana market. The practice is banned outright in some states where recreational pot sales are legal, such as Colorado and Washington. Where it is legal, such as in Eaze’s home state of California, delivery is something of a work in progress, with regulations resembling a motley patchwork ranging from pot-friendly to effective prohibition.
Eaze claims in its pitch deck to potential investors that it will expand to one of the markets on the more negative side of that scale this year: Los Angeles, a city that has banned delivery outright. Los Angeles officials did not sit idly by as other delivery companies attempted to make bank on clandestine sales, squashing or muscling out several upstarts, and the pitch to investors did not give insight into how Eaze will avoid the same treatment.
But Eaze’s forays into other areas in Southern California show that regulatory roadblocks may not be the only issue that keeps Eaze from succeeding.
The massive costs of 20-minute delivery
The promise of marijuana delivered within 20 minutes, while attractive to customers, has pushed per-delivery costs in Orange County to top out at $27, MarketWatch has learned. Delivery costs matter to Eaze. It does not charge for delivery but rather takes a cut from each sale that it looks to recognize in its financials as a technology fee, so large delivery fees on small purchases of pot can add up to big losses.
“In some of these markets, it can be prohibitively expensive to be sending drivers out to only be doing one or two transactions in an hour,” said Morgan Pahxia, managing director at Poseidon Asset Management LLC, an asset-management company that focuses exclusively on the marijuana industry. “That’s just crazy. You have to be at such high velocity.”
Orange County is something of an outlier, as per-market delivery costs can drop to as low as $6 in tightly-packed urban areas such as San Francisco — the second densest city in the U. S. — and the midrange for many markets Eaze operates sits between $8 and $12 per delivery, averaging about $9 to $10 across all its markets in the Golden State.
Opinion: How investors can separate the winners from the losers in the marijuana industry
Khaled Naim, CEO of Onfleet, a company that makes delivery-logistics software, says costs in the $6 to $12 range are not outrageous, likening pot to the economics of alcohol and pharmaceuticals delivery, both of which can be profitable with those delivery costs. “With a 30% margin, you can easily do a couple of deliveries in an hour in a big enough market with a good enough product.”
Yet Eaze’s cost of revenue and operations dig deeply into its bottom line. According to the pitch deck, the company expects a $12 million loss before interest and taxes in fiscal year 2017, widening from $8 million in 2016. The costs, broadly, are broken into two segments: cost of revenue, which will grow to $16.8 million this fiscal year compared with $7.1 million in 2016, and operating expenses, which it expects to widen to $14 million from $9.5 million in 2016.
While not as unmanageable as the Orange County costs, the money Eaze must spend to deliver marijuana in other cities will still make turning a profit difficult without immense expansion.
“Delivery is a tough business, ask anyone even in mainstream industries. You have to be a large company, which can only be done at scale — which Eaze is trying to do,” said Ben Larson, co-founder of Gateway Incubator, a marijuana startup accelerator. “But this isn’t pizza delivery…[regulations] are going to drive up the cost of delivery. It’s going to be very slim margins, and so what I think it’s going to do is to drive the company to add other revenue models.”
‘It still kind of feels like a drug deal’
To some extent, Eaze looks to be moving toward alternative revenue streams. Its vaporizer cartridge line is one example, reaching $1 million in sales within four months of launch, according to the investor deck. It’s less clear what the potential returns for its coming private-label brand will be, but the deck says that it can “fill gaps in the market” and that because there are no marketing or distribution costs, Eaze will receive a higher retail margin and can scale quickly.
What’s clear from the investor materials is that Eaze’s revenue has been climbing steadily: Executives forecast a 112% rise to $18 million in fiscal year 2017, from $8.5 million in 2016. Between 2015 and 2016, revenue rose 118%.
See also: Marijuana industry could be worth $50 billion annually by 2026
Eaze’s expanding losses despite the revenue gains may be one of the reasons the company’s founding CEO, McCarty, ceded the top boss job to another ex-Yammer employee, Jim Patterson, in 2016. It also may be why the company is seeking new funding, as well as its expansion plans for Los Angeles and the rest of the state as California prepares for recreational legalization to take effect in 2018.
But for pot businesses, regardless of the fact that Eaze says it’s a tech company, raising more cash is not a by-the-numbers operation as with other entirely legal startups.
“One thing different for this industry, is that it’s very undercapitalized,” said Pahxia. “There’s no guarantee the next round of funding is there.”
Cannabis investment in public and private markets.
Even if it can get enough funding and avoid regulatory challenges to keep growing, Eaze will still have to overcome the economics of the industry to become profitable, investors say. As the industry matures and products and services become more alike, says Larson, the economics around marijuana farmers and retail operations, including Eaze, will tighten.
“As the industry grows and becomes more efficient and things become commoditized, [pot growers and retail] will be the two endpoints that get pinched the most,” said Larson. “Dispensaries and grows are historically not just very scalable businesses, and if they are it’s at very low margins. And I think that’s where Eaze will find themselves, especially if they haven’t built a strong brand.”
Read also: Pot paradise planned as cannabis company buys California town
If Eaze is able to build a profitable business out of delivering marijuana, it could be in danger of larger, more established businesses butting in to the industry. At least in the near term, Eaze likely will not have to fight with existing delivery businesses such as GrubHub Inc. GRUB, -1.51%, or United Parcel Service Inc. UPS, +0.16%, said Onfleet CEO Naim.
“Even if it is recreationally legal on the state level, a company like Amazon AMZN, +0.21% will never touch it,” he said. “Even if it is federally legal, it’s still a controversial thing. If you have big enough business elsewhere, [cannabis] might tarnish it, especially if it might anger a big part of their investor base. Wal-Mart WMT, -0.43% won’t do even do cannabis delivery because it’s a brand risk.”
But that doesn’t mean states such as California and beyond cannot support more than one significant company in the market, Larson says.
“We feel that there is room for a competitor that builds their company around a strong brand, and a vision that resonates with the millennial market, and finding the brand that people will shop at,” Larson said. “But people drive toward convenience in cannabis. I’ve done Eaze orders here and there, and it still kind of feels like a drug deal.”I am teaching a seminar at Yale Law School this term, and the students there asked me—based on my experiences with Lawfare—to give a talk about student online writing. (I am also teaching a how-to “laboratory” at Harvard Law School for students who want to write for Lawfare.) One needn’t choose between online, bloggy forms of writing and more traditional law review forms. (I write both, and other forms as well, as do many professors.) But I believe that the shorter, more relevant, less normative online style is (in general) a more useful form of student legal writing than the traditional student law review note. I also think online writing is a more productive use of student time, measured in terms of influence and amount learned per word written or hour spent on the project. Harvard Law School now has many professor-run, student-involved blog-like projects that involve this form of student online writing, including Lawfare (which is not Harvard-affiliated but on which many Harvard students write), OnLabor (run by Ben Sachs), The Global Anticorruption Blog (run by Matthew Stephenson), Court to Table (run by Jacob Gersen), and SHARIAsource (run by Intisar Rabb, forthcoming).
What follows is a write-up of my notes from my talk at Yale last week.
***
Why write for the public in law school? Many possible reasons, including (a) to generate writing samples for various audiences (including judges and employers), (b) to develop expertise, (c) to signal interest and expertise in a topic to a community of scholars or practitioners, (d) to practice and thus improve one’s writing, (e) the joy of discovery, or of figuring something out, or (f) to have influence (even if that means nothing more than someone reading your work). Online student writing can satisfy (a), though judges and employers often want longer and more complex writing samples. But compared to the traditional student note, online writing is often—I would say usually—a better way to satisfy (b)-(f). I think this because students can write many more online pieces; because they spend significantly less time on substantively irrelevant tasks (e.g. blue booking and responding to superfluous multiple rounds of editing); and because online pieces in general are more widely read. (These claims are too simple, but to put them another way: I am confident that the student pieces written for Lawfare are read carefully by more people than the same students’ |
9, T-33 Shooting Star jet trainer derivatives of the F-80 began to arrive.
3525th Pilot Training Wing [ edit ]
With the establishment of the United States Air Force in September 1947, Williams Army Airfield was re-designated Williams Air Force Base on 13 January 1948. In addition, the 89th AAFBU was discontinued and the 3525th Pilot Training Wing (Advanced Single-Engine) was established as the host unit at the new Air Force Base. Training squadrons under the 3525th Pilot Training Group were:
3525th Training Squadron, 26 August 1948
Re-designated 4532d Combat Crew Training Squadron, 1 July 1958 Re-designated 3525th Pilot Training Squadron, 1 October 1960-1 February 1973
3526th Training Squadron, 26 May 1949
Re-designated 4533d Combat Crew Training Squadron, 1 July 1958 Re-designated 3526th Pilot Training Squadron, 1 October 1960-1 February 1973
Emblem of the 3525th Pilot Training Wing
T-38A Talon, 1963
T-37 Tweets, 1971
Through the Mutual Defense Assistance Program began in 1952, international students received flying or technical training at various ATC bases. Students from Taiwan began to arrive at Williams, and training of Taiwanese pilots continued until the closure of the base in 1993.
Air Training Command redesignated the 3525th Pilot Training Wing (Basic Single-Engine) at Williams on 1 January 1956. It became the 3525th Combat Crew Training Wing (Fighter). A month later, on 1 February 1956, ATC reassigned the 3525th from its Flying Training Air Force to Crew Training Air Force. It also discontinued the single engine basic pilot school (T-28 Trojan) at Williams and replaced it with an advanced fighter school with T-33s exclusively. (Williams had transferred its single-engine training responsibilities to Laughlin AFB, Texas in September 1955.)
In 1958, Air Training Command transferred its combat pilot training to Strategic Air Command (SAC) and Tactical Air Command (TAC). ATC would concentrate on Primary and Basic flying training. As a result, jurisdiction of Williams was passed to TAC on 1 July. This was a brief transfer, as on 1 October 1960, TAC transferred Williams AFB back to ATC. Williams would become part of ATC's new consolidated pilot training program. On the same date, Tactical Air Command reassigned its 4530th Combat Crew Training Wing (Tactical Fighter) and subordinate units at Williams to ATC and ATC discontinued the wing. Concurrently, Air Training Command used assets from the 4530th to organize and establish the 3525th Pilot Training Wing.
Pilot training continued throughout the 1960s. The T-33s began to be phased out in 1962, being replaced by the T-38 Talon as the primary jet training aircraft. T-38s were used until the closure of Williams in 1993 along with the Cessna T-37 "Tweet" Both trainers were two-seat, dual-engine jet aircraft, the T-38 being capable of supersonic flight.
Students began with academic classroom and simulator instruction. After initial training in a Cessna T-41 at an offsite location (e.g., Eloy, AZ was used in the late 1960s), the first jet flight was largely a 'demo' flight in the T-37 aircraft with the instructor orienting the student to the aircraft, the local training area, and some basic flight maneuvers.
The undergraduate flight training program lasted just less than one full year and involved classroom, simulator, and aircraft training activities. Graduates were selected to remain as instructors, after an intensive training course, or went on to train in their primary weapon system aircraft.
F-5 Freedom Fighter [ edit ]
In 1963, Williams was selected to support the Military Assistance Program F-5A/B Freedom Fighter sales by providing pilots and maintenance training personnel to nations purchased the fighter under the MAP program. The F-5 was a lightweight fighter designed for allied nations, and was not programmed for USAF use. Initial deliveries, beginning in April 1964, were to the 4441st Combat Crew Training Squadron, which was activated to run the F-5 school.
The first overseas order for F-5As was from Norway, which ordered 64 aircraft plus four attrition replacements on 28 February 1964. Other nations whose pilots trained at Williams were South Vietnam, Iran, South Korea, Greece, Philippines, Taiwan, Turkey, Morocco, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Libya, Joran and Yemen.
Skoshi Tiger Program [ edit ]
Skoshi Tiger F-5B of the 602th Fighter Squadron, Bien Hoa AB, South Vietnam, 1966
Although all F-5A/B production was intended for MAP, the USAF actually requested at least 200 F-5s for use in the Vietnam War. This sudden request on the part of the USAF which had previously perceived no need for a lightweight fighter, was a result of heavier than expected attrition in Southeast Asia and because the F-5 promised to be available with a relatively short lead time. The USAF request for combat evaluation in Southeast Asia was approved by the DoD in July 1965, and the evaluation was initiated on 26 July 1965.
The program was given the code name *Skoshi Tiger*, which was a corruption of "Sukoshi Tiger" (Japanese for "Little Tiger"). In October 1965, the USAF "borrowed" 12 combat-ready F-5As from MAP supplies (5 F-5A-15s and seven F-5A-20s) and activated the 4503rd Tactical Fighter Wing (Provisional) at Williams for operational service trials. The 4503rd TFS (Provisional) was formed on 29 July 1965 to conduct the evaluation, and their pilots underwent training at Williams AFB while Northrop modified the aircraft for duty in Southeast Asia.
The aircraft left Williams AFB on 20 October 1965 for Southeast Asia, arriving at Bien Hoa Air Base on 23 October. They flew their first combat mission the same afternoon.
Although the Freedom Fighter was judged to be a technical success in Vietnam, the Skoshi Tiger program was essentially a political project, designed to appease those few Air Force officers who believed in the aircraft. The Freedom Fighter was destined to have a relatively brief operational career with the USAF, and the DoD turned down a second request for F-5s, deciding instead to look at other types such as the Navy A-7 Corsair II. The surviving F-5s were turned over to the South Vietnamese in March 1966.
After the Skoshi Tiger program, substantial numbers of Freedom Fighters were supplied to the Republic of Vietnam Air Force. The Air Force directed ATC to initiate immediately a training program for South Vietnamese F-5 pilot replacements. The 4441st CCTS at Williams began this training on 15 April, although the base's training facilities were already saturated by the school's undergraduate program. The first Vietnamese crews left for Williams AFB for training in August 1966.
The 4441st CCTS was transferred to Tactical Air Command and re-designated as the 425th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron on 15 October 1969. It was placed under the 58th Tactical Fighter Training Wing at Luke AFB, Arizona, although the squadron physically remained at Williams AFB as a Geographically Separated Unit (GSU).
Training of South Vietnamese pilots on the F-5 continued until the collapse of the South Vietnamese government in April 1975, with some pilots being at Williams at the time of the fall of Saigon.
F-5E/F Tiger II [ edit ]
425th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron Northrop F-5B-50-NO Freedom Fighter, AF Ser. No. 72-0439, Williams AFB, Arizona, 1973.
425th TFTS Northrop F-5E Tiger II, AF Ser. No. 72-1400. When the F-5 training program ended in 1989, this aircraft was sold to the Brazilian Air Force.
On 4 April 1973, the first upgraded F-5 Tiger II reached the 425th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron. This squadron was assigned the task of training for crews that had acquired the F-5E under MAP. Pilots from over 20 nations trained at Williams throughout the 1970s and 1980s on the F-5E. The F-5E/Fs assigned to the 425th for training carried USAF serial numbers and were procured through normal aircraft procurement procedures and channels. Initially carried tail code "LZ". Aircraft were re-coded to the common wing "LA" in 1974.
Although the USAF never did adopt the F-5E as a front-line combat aircraft, it did adopt the F-5E as a specialized aircraft for dissimilar air combat training (DACT). Beginning in 1975, some 70 F-5Es were turned over to the 64th and 65th Fighter Weapons Squadrons of the 57th Tactical Fighter Wing at Nellis AFB, Nevada. F-5Es were allocated to two more units that were created overseas: the 527th Aggressor Squadron of the 10th TRW in the UK at RAF Alconbury and the 26th Aggressor Squadron, 3rd TFW in the Philippines at Clark AB.
The 425th TFTS was reassigned to the 405th Tactical Training Wing as of 29 August 1979 when the 58th TTW was re-designated at Luke AFB.
The last two F-5Es off the production line were delivered to Bahrain on January 16, 1987. However, a few more were assembled from spares, the last ones being delivered on June 29, 1989. That month the squadron's F-5 training program terminated after having produced 1,499 graduates, and the 425th was inactivated 1 September 1989
82d Flying Training Wing [ edit ]
Northrop T-38A-50-NO Talon, AF Ser. No. 63-8221, 1986
In 1972 and 1973, ATC inactivated its four digit flying wings and replaced them with two-digit and three-digit wings. All of the newly activated units then had a combat lineage. At Williams the 3525th PTW was re-designated the 82d Flying Training Wing on 1 February. Squadrons were re-designated as follows:
3525th Pilot Training Squadron --> 96th Flying Training Squadron (T-37 Tweet)
3526th Pilot Training Squadron --> 97th Flying Training Squadron (T-38 Talon)
One of the most dominant features on the ATC landscape in 1974 was the serious jet fuel shortage the command had to contend with for much of the year. The shortage arose when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) sent oil prices skyrocketing by cutting back on production in response to the United States' support for Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Almost overnight, the price of aviation fuel tripled. To conserve fuel, ATC made numerous adjustments to the UPT syllabus, including a reduction in the number of sorties and flying hours and an increased reliance on the use of synthetic trainers.
In other efforts to cope with the crisis, the Air Force initiated base closure and flying training wing inactivation actions at Craig AFB, Alabama and Webb AFB, Texas. ATC also cut overall pilot production goals by 18 percent, with USAF Officer Training School (OTS) not accepting any pilot or navigator applicants for FY 75, 76 or 77, and the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) initiating a Reduction in Force (RIF) program, rescinding previously promised pilot training and navigator training slots for approximately 75% of those AFROTC cadets in commissioning Year Groups 75, 76 and 77 originally slated for flight training, re-directing them into non-aeronautically rated career fields or offering them opportunities to resign and transfer to officer flight training programs of the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard or Army. Unaffected by the reductions, USAF Academy (USAFA) cadets/graduates of the same period continued to maintain their guaranteed allotment of approximately 75% of USAFA graduates assigned to undergraduate pilot training, 15% assigned to undergraduate navigator training, and the remaining 10% assigned to non-flying duties.
All female UPT Class 77-08 of Williams Air Force Base, May 1977.
In September 1976,[1] UPT class 77-08 at Williams became the first UPT class with female student pilots. All were serving USAF officers at the rank of 2nd Lt, 1st Lt and Capt who had been previously performing non-flying duties in the Air Force. All were OTS and AFROTC graduates; none were USAFA graduates, since USAFA had only begun accepting females in June of that same year. On 30 November 1976, Capt Connie J. Engle became the first female UPT student to solo in a jet aircraft when she took off in her T-37.[2][3]
In 1988, each UPT wing had two flying training squadrons one for T-37s and the other for T-38s, plus a student squadron. Air Training Command wanted to find out whether training could be conducted more effectively if student squadrons were eliminated. Instead, all training and administrative duties would be placed in the wings’ two T-37 and two T-38 flying training squadrons. Officials at ATC chose the 82d Flying Training Wing at Williams as the test unit.
Air Training Command activated two additional squadrons at Williams the 98th Flying Training Squadron (T-37) and 99th Flying Training Squadron (T-38) on 1 June 1988. That gave the 82d a total of four flying training squadrons. However, by year's end, the test had shown that a fifth squadron was needed to provide operational support. The 82d became the first ATC wing to have five flying training squadrons when, on 1 September 1989, the command activated the 100th Flying Training Squadron (T-37).
However, it didn't last long. In December 1990 ATC implemented the objective wing organization. The command's UPT wings kept four flying training squadrons each, two for T-37s and two for T-38s. The fifth squadron was redesignated as an operations support squadron, but fulfilled essentially the same functions as the old student squadron.
Closure in the 1990s [ edit ]
Emblem of the 82d Training Wing
Air Training Command was directed to close four of its training bases as a result of the 1993 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. The non-flying officer and enlisted technical training center at Chanute AFB, Illinois and the sole undergraduate navigator training base at Mather AFB, California were chosen to close in round one, with Chanute's technical training activities relocating to other USAF technical training centers or similar activities operated by the other services, and the latter UNT activity slated to relocate to Randolph AFB, Texas. The non-flying officer and enlisted technical training center at Lowry AFB, Colorado and Williams AFB as an undergraduate pilot training base were selected in round two.
Air Education and Training Command (AETC), the 1992 successor major command to ATC, inactivated the host unit at Williams AFB, the 82d Flying Training Wing, on 31 March 1993, redesignating it as the 82d Training Wing and transferring it to Sheppard AFB, Texas, where it would control non-flying officer and enlisted technical training, a role it continues to this day. This left the now independent 82d Operations Group to close Williams AFB. The command inactivated the operations group on 30 September 1993, and the approximately 4,127-acre (16.70 km2) base was closed 30 September 1993.
At the official closing ceremony, two men, who as Boy Scouts in 1941 had raised the first flag at Williams Field when it was first officially opened, were there to officially lower the flag at its closing, after a combined fifty years of military service.
Today, Williams continues to serve the Phoenix area as a growing industrial park and commercial airport.
Major units assigned [ edit ]
89th Base HQ and Air Base Sq (advance detachment), 16 October 1941 – 4 December 1941
89th Base HQ and Air Base Sq, 4 December 1941 – 1 May 1944
Re-designated 3010th Army Air Force Base Unit, 1 May 1944 Re-designated 3010th Air Force Base Unit, 27 September 1947-28 August 1948
Air Corps (Later Army Air Forces Advanced Flying School), 26 June 1941 – 1 June 1948
38th Flying Training Wing, 26 February 1945 – 16 June 1946
Army Air Forces Pilot School (Specialized Fighter), 1 December 1945
Re-designated USAF Jet Pilot School, 1 June 1948-1 October 1949
Army Air Forces Pilot School (Advanced Single-Engine), 6 July 1946
Re-designated USAF Basic Pilot School (Single Engine), 1 June 1948-8 January 1956
3525th Pilot Training Wing, 26 August 1948
Re-designated 4530th Combat Crew Training Wing, 1 July 1958 Re-designated 3525th Pilot Training Group, 1 October 1960-1 February 1973
4441st Combat Crew Training Squadron, 1 December 1963 (MAP F-5 Support)
Re-designated 425th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron, 15 October 1969-1 September 1989
4503rd Tactical Fighter Wing (Provisional), 22 July 1965 – 10 March 1966 (F-5 Skoshi Tiger)
82d Flying Training Wing, 1 February 1973 – 30 June 1993
Major commands assigned [ edit ]
Air Corps Flying Training Comd, 23 January 1942
AAF Flying Training Comd, 15 March 1942
AAF Training Comd, 31 July 1943
Tactical Air Command 1 July 1958 – 1 October 1960
Air Training Command 1 July 1946 – 1 July 1958; 1 October 1960 – June 1993
Historic sites [ edit ]
Historic resources of the Williams Air Force Base were identified in a 1995 study.[4]
Seven separate objects or buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 19, 1995. These are:
Accidents and incidents [ edit ]
Williams Field suffered its first fatal accident in the six months it had been open as an advanced training base on 3 June 1942 when Curtiss-Wright AT-9-CS Fledgling, 41-5867, of the 333d School Squadron, crashed five miles NE of the base, apparently flown into the ground,[6] killing John Clifford Eustice, 23, of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Irving C. Frank, 24, of Brooklyn, New York.[7]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.Arsenal face BATE Borisov in their final Europa League group game tomorrow night knowing that top spot has already been secured.
It could give Arsene Wenger some licence to experiment with his line-up, and the manager has provided the latest team news update ahead of the game.
Speaking at a press conference at London Colney this morning, the Frenchman said, “Everybody is available. We have a small problem with Mustafi from Saturday.
“A little thigh problem, but it’s a small one. It’s a possibility, if not Southampton it’ll be West Ham.”
“Not too much because I have many players who need competition, because we go into next week, another week with three games.
“We’ll play tomorrow with quite an experienced team.”
Wenger confirmed that both Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott would start, the latter returning after a period of illness.From Audrey Snyder of Penn Live:
Stan Hixon, the Nittany Lions ’ assistant head coach and wide receivers coach, informed the parents of wide receiver commit De’Andre Thompkins on Wednesday morning that he will be headed with O’Brien to the Texans. Thompkins is slated to enroll at Penn State on Jan. 10 but without Hixon in the fold he and fellow wide receiver commit Chris Godwin could both be looking elsewhere.
Hixon came to Penn State after spending 31 years in coaching at both the collegiate and professional level. He coached the Buffalo Bills wide receivers from 2010-2011 and worked in the same role with the Washington Redskins from 2004-2009. He’s worked with the likes of Stevie Johnson, Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle-El and has a proven track record.
Hixon was as associate head coach and wide receivers coach at LSU from 2000-2003 and also worked with O’Brien at Georgia Tech, coaching the receivers from 1995-1999.
The Iowa State alum’s most recent project included helping Penn State’s standout wide receiver, Allen Robinson, transform into a two-time All-Big Ten player. The Nittany Lions’ junior hauled in 174 catches for 2,445 yards and 17 touchdowns during the last two seasons and could declare early for the NFL Draft.Supporters of a higher minimum wage came out in force when the St. Louis Board of Aldermen held a hearing on the issue. - Jason Rosenbaum
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Bettie Douglas could barely contain her excitement when St. Louis raised its minimum wage. Dressed in her black McDonald’s uniform, Douglas crammed into St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay’s office earlier this year after the St. Louis Board of Aldermen approved legislation raising the city’s minimum wage to $11 an hour by 2018.
After Slay signed the bill into law, Douglas predicted it would mean a little more money in her pocket — and a lot more piece of mind.
“I need to be able to eat, be able to take care of myself,” Douglas said. “And I can see in the future I won’t have to rob Peter to pay Paul."
With a stroke of Slay’s pen, St. Louis joined more than 25 cities and counties that raised its minimum wage independently from the rest of the state. It’s part of a nationwide movement that’s struck a chord with labor unions, left-leaning activists and Democratic politicians like St. Louis Alderwoman Megan Green.
“I don’t think that any person who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty,” Green said. “And that’s what we have right now. Somebody who’s making minimum wage is earning $16,000 a year roughly. You can’t raise a family on that. You can’t get an apartment on that — at least not a decent apartment. And it makes it very difficult to break that cycle of poverty.”
But St. Louis’ minimum wage push came with a big catch. Not only is the new law facing a fierce legal attack from businesses and business groups, but it’s being met with some serious push-back from the Republican-controlled Missouri General Assembly.
Missouri lawmakers overrode a gubernatorial veto of legislation banning cities from raising their own minimum wage. The bill effectively invalidated Kansas City’s minimum wage hike and prevents any other city from following St. Louis’ lead.
If St. Louis’ minimum wage law survives a legal challenge, the city could have a higher wage scale than the rest of the state. That’s alarming enough for Cooperative Health Care owner Mitch Waks to threaten to leave St. Louis if the minimum wage hike goes into effect.
“If the economics force us out of business, what is the alternative?” Waks said. “Well, you can start caring for your mom, and I applaud that.”
Cooperative Home Healthcare owner Mitch Waks speaks against the minimum wage increase at the St. Louis Board of Aldermen committee hearing. - Jason Rosenbaum
Some St. Louis aldermen who opposed the minimum wage bill, such as St. Louis Alderman Antonio French, felt that the city was putting itself at a major competitive disadvantage. He thought it was a mistake to go through with the wage increase without surrounding counties following suit.
“I want people to remember this vote today, how we’ve changed the economy in the city of St. Louis and how we’ve done something alone when didn’t have to do it,” French said. “We did it without the proper information. And it’s going to hurt the folks that I think many people are intending to help.”
So did St. Louis just shoot itself in the foot from an economic standpoint? It depends on whom you ask.
David Wiczer, an economist at the St. Louis branch of the Federal Reserve, said the “potential cost of a minimum wage is in effect a detrimental effect on employment, which is difficult to observe in the data.” He went on to say that “if [a detrimental effect] is there, it’s very small.”
But Wiczer said there’s “anecdotal evidence” that a minimum wage hike’s employment effect “happens with a lag.”
"At some point in the future, the job growth in this locality is slower than somewhere else. And that’s the result of all of these small-level decisions affirmed to not locate in one area and locate then in another area. And there is research that shows that if there is an employment effect, it often happens with a lag,” Wiczer said.
Jake Rosenfeld is a sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis. He just moved back here from Seattle, where novice baristas and fishmongers will eventually make $15 an hour thanks to a local minimum wage increase.
Rosenfeld said minimum wage boosts aren’t completely inconsequential to businesses. But he said companies shouldn’t panic either.
“If you’re an employer in the city, and you’re only competitive advantage is paying rock-bottom wages, then yes. A minimum wage increase is going to be alarming. But there are other ways businesses compete,” Rosenfeld said. “This is a tried-and-true tactic that you can compete on things like productivity, on having the best most productive workers. And having this differential between surrounding areas actually does provide an advantage to those employers who see themselves as kind of 'high road' employers who take care of their employees and in return get higher productivity out of them.”
But St. Louis’ minimum wage law isn’t set in stone quite yet. A court case over its legality is set to begin in October.Image copyright Rossiya TV Image caption Anatoly Travkin's funeral was covered by the Rossiya 1 TV channel
Russian state television channels have for the first time reported on the funerals of Russian troops who fought alongside pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine.
The broadcasts repeated the official line that the troops are "volunteers" or travelled to Ukraine on leave rather than in any official capacity. Western leaders accuse the Kremlin of sending regular army units into Ukraine.
The three main channels - Rossiya, Channel One and NTV - ran reports on the funeral of one such "volunteer", Anatoly Travkin, in the city of Kostroma northeast of Moscow.
'Preventing atrocities'
The reports were full of patriotic rhetoric about Slavonic unity and Russian brotherhood.
Mr Travkin was a "volunteer who could not idly observe events in Ukraine", said NTV, which reported that he had just got married six weeks earlier.
His only relative to speak on air, an aunt, was also on-message: "He wanted to serve his motherland. He gave his life for all of us".
NTV interviewed army veterans at the funeral, one of whom expressed pride that his "regimental comrades are carrying out the duty of any Russian person honourably, to prevent the atrocities now taking place in Donetsk and Luhansk regions".
Russians rely overwhelmingly on the state TV channels for news.
'International duty'
Rossiya TV interviewed Russian army veterans who said that fighting for the separatists was a matter of "internationalist duty", echoing the rhetoric of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and even the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.
"As long as there is a Russian world, we will stand up for it," said a veteran of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, jabbing his finger at his television audience. "These lads did their duty, their international duty, their fraternal duty, and they should have eternal glory."
Image copyright Rossiya TV Image caption TV channels showed Anatoly Travkin being honoured with a salute
Another volunteer, apparently still fighting in Ukraine, spoke of "not letting fascism pass" - a popular slogan of Spanish Republican forces in the 1930s.
Rossiya said up to 4,000 Russians were fighting for the Donetsk and Luhansk militias, and its correspondent interviewed a wounded volunteer in Moscow who had gone to Ukraine "because he realised that otherwise he could not consider himself a man".
'Amazing spiritual impulse'
The volunteers are "united by a heightened sense of justice and historical truth", the correspondent continued, and animated by an "amazing spiritual impulse".
"They speak of their own wounds reluctantly, of their comrades' feats with admiration, and of the Ukrainian punishment units' atrocities with contempt."
Rossiya contrasted the Russian volunteers with foreign fighters on the Ukrainian side, whom it dismissed as "mercenaries". One Russian volunteer from the city of Rostov said he had disarmed a bayonet-wielding American in hand-to-hand combat.
'Heroes'
On Friday the speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, spoke at the funeral of Andrei Stenin, a Russian news agency photographer killed while covering the fighting in Ukraine.
She said "more and more Russian volunteers are joining the ranks of those fighting for their rights, for justice, and for peace in the land of our fraternal nation", and dubbed them "heroes" in a live report on LifeNews TV.
Ms Matviyenko made what appears to be one of the first acknowledgements by such a senior figure that "volunteers" are dying alongside the separatists in Ukraine.
In Kostroma some relatives of paratroopers have been trying to get news of their whereabouts, fearing that they have been sent to Ukraine.
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. For more reports from BBC Monitoring, click here. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and FacebookWith 2017 free agency less than a year away, Bengal fans are already nervous about the prospects of losing star offensive guard, Kevin Zeitler. In 2015, Cincinnati had one of the best offensive lines in football. With Andrew Whitworth far and away the top player on the Bengals' offensive line, Zeitler has a case to make as the next-best player. So is there even a scenario in which the Bengals let one of their top offensive linemen walk in free agency?
The financial implication of having to pay Zeitler millions after paying Clint Boling when he hit free agency last year, scares fans, as most don't believe the Bengals are willing to allocate more money to the guard position. But contrary to popular belief, Cincinnati may be willing to do so. It's important to remember that when the Bengals paid Boling, they already knew a Zeitler extension would be something that needed to be worked out in 2016.
The good news for the Bengals is, they have the cap space to pull off a Zeitler extension. I'll explain.
Bengals have cap space for future Zeitler extension. Could also give Whitworth an extra year or 2 if they want. pic.twitter.com/w5HnHfICYz — Connor Howe (@HoweNFL) June 1, 2016
Assuming Cedric Ogbuehi and Jake Fisher take over at the tackle spots after the 2016 season, the Bengals' offensive line payroll significantly drops off after the upcoming season. Though Boling has a contract that will pay him an increasing sum each season, the millions they'll be saving by either letting Whitworth walk (around six or seven million dollars per season) or holding onto him as a reserve tackle (around three or four million dollars per season) leaves space for a Zeitler extension.
And as the Bengals have done with past contracts, like the Vontaze Burfict extension, they'll likely frontload Zeitler's extension, taking a big cap hit in 2017 in order to lower his yearly cap hit moving forward. And because Zeitler has consistently proven to be durable, the team likely wouldn't have an issue in doing so. As long as Cincinnati front loads Zeitler's contract, giving him a deal that's worth somewhere between $6-7 million (or potentially up to $8 million) in average yearly salary would be more than fair.
The Bengals won't be alone in paying interior linemen big money. The Vikings pay Alex Boone and Brandon Fusco a combined $11.55 million in average yearly salary. The Raiders pay Kelechi Osemele and Rodney Hudson a combined $20.6 million in average yearly salary. Paying offensive linemen has been more and more popular among NFL clubs. In 2015, the Bengals offensive line had a collective cap hit of $25.6 million, which ranked third in the NFL. But despite the Bengals offensive line having a cap hit of nearly $25.8 million 2016, Cincinnati will rank 11th among NFL clubs.
Ultimately, the average yearly salary numbers don't matter nearly as much as the years in which Cincinnati's players are taking the biggest cap hits. Katie Blackburn, Duke Tobin and the rest of Cincinnati's front office staff have done a great job of ensuring the team can pay its top players. Because Zeitler has been a quality player and has proven durable, there's no reason to anticipate the Bengals won't be able to get a deal done with their star offensive guard if the asking price is reasonable.Rich and creamy homemade Irish cream with a fall kick! Pureed pumpkin + pumpkin pie spice make this taste like pumpkin pie in cocktail form! Shhh it’s secretly lightened up and vegan.
Youuuuu guuuyyyyys! I have been waiting almost an entire year to share this recipe with you! For the last two weeks, I’ve been asking my husband if it’s “fall enough” yet to post it, and his response, as someone who could care less about pumpkin, and could care even less about when I post things on my blog, is to shrug his shoulders and hardly reply. So, I’ve decided. It’s fall enough. Here we go.
Last year, I started experimenting more with homemade liqueurs and cocktails thanks to my drink-spiration, and I made a huge batch of this baby for Thanksgiving. I couldn’t believe what a huge hit it became! My family couldn’t get enough, and even my family members who don’t generally drink kept coming back for more.
I even had a signature Thanksgiving drink where I mixed the Pumpkin Irish Cream with Pumpkin Pie Vodka (<– OMG a MUST try!) and a spiced simple syrup (<–not that exact one, but similar). There are seriously no words. Everyone thought I was super fancy, but the truth is, the recipe is so so easy. In fact, it takes less time than going to the store to buy a bottle of Irish cream!
One thing I love about making Irish cream at home is that I can control what goes into it. This stuff has just a handful of ingredients including pure pumpkin puree and a homemade vegan sweetened condensed milk.
The result is strong, rich, creamy and filled with pumpkin flavor without overwhelming the non pumpkin lovers (why do these people exist??) in your life. You will want to drink it all fall year long, and I’m pretty certain it will become a staple at your Thanksgiving also!Imagine being Rian Johnson. While we all sit out here and gossip about what’s happening in Star Wars Episode VII, he’s sitting at Lucasfilm with the full knowledge of that film, working on how the story will unfold after this first new chapter. For real, that’s got to be in the top five coolest jobs in the world right now. So it’s pretty special when the writer/director of Star Wars Episode VIII and potential writer of Star Wars Episode IX steps out of his Lucasfilm shell for a little interview.
Johnson Skyped into the live 500th episode of the Filmspotting podcast to talk a bit about his new movies. Among his statements was this: “I’m really excited about all the things I can’t tell you.” He also joked about how he got the job, what it means to him and his respect of the prequels. Read all about Rian Johnson and Star Wars 8 below.
The Rian Johnson Star Wars 8 quotes came from the 500th Filmspotting podcast, as reported on by the Sun Times (via SW7News).
When first asked about the upcoming movies, Johnson said, “I’m really excited about all the things I can’t tell you.” He then talked about why he took the job. “The thought of it made me so completely joyfully happy,” he said. “I wanted to to play in this world, of literally the first movie my dad put me in the car to see.” Next he was asked how he got the job, to which he jokingly said “I can only assume it was a clerical error, like in the movie ‘Brazil.’ There’s a ‘Brian Johnson’ out there who is really mad.”
He described working at Lucasfilm (which is where he was sitting when doing the podcast, hence being on Skype and not in person) as “kind of like summer camp.” He said that, this early in the process, he’s been spending time showing his crew movies every single night. The night before the podcast they watched Twelve O’Clock High and Letter Never Sent, a Russian film.
Johnson was later asked what order he’d recommend a newbie watch all six Star Wars films and he responded “I would do (Episodes) 4-6 then 1-3. Storytelling-wise, 4-6 were constructed without the knowledge of the past.” As for those prequels, Johnson actually said he liked them. “There was something really beautiful about the prequels.”
“With these films, I am trying to harken back to |
all have their individual quirks and foibles. Most get at least a vignette to explain their background, if not a whole chapter. His plot takes a few surprising turns, so sumo wrestling is just one feature that is unexpected. There are quite a few laugh-out-loud moments, and Beatty has a talent for leading his characters into moments of insight and perceptiveness. His extensive knowledge of the era and the social class about which he writes is apparent in every paragraph, and this is a novel that would appeal especially to readers familiar with Spanish Harlem at the cusp of the twenty-first century. This one is even better than The White Boy Shuffle. Funny and clever.Greetings once more. It’s finally Friday, so in celebration, I’ll post an example of Adventure Creation from Light and Honor with the new random tables.
First, I roll 1d6 to determine which Clan the story principally involves. I get a 1, so the story is principally about the Void Clan. I also have to determine a secondary Clan, however, so I roll again and get a 2; Mountain Clan.
Now that I have my clans determined, I roll a d6 for each Clan to determine the major acting NPC’s. A 3 for Void gives me Umeda Tatsokashi, a rich and clever samurai detective who plays the part of a crippled old fool. Another 2 for Mountain gives me Tachibana Morokatsu, an enormous samurai bodyguard who favors philosophy over combat.
Although a plot is already beginning to be shaped in my mind, I finish by rolling to determine a location that is involved in the story. After randomly determining whether the location is “Civilized” or “Wild”, I roll one last d6 to determine the nature of our story’s setting. A 4 throws me a curveball: A Remote Village.
Some of the plot hooks the Remote Village offers include someone hiding in the village, taxes, and whether Clan boundaries have shifted over the village although the villagers don’t realize it.
I immediately rule out the Clan boundary hook, because we’re dealing with Void Clan which is the Imperial Clan. No honorable family would take land from the Emperor, although few would cede him land as well.
Originally, I was keen on the idea of Morokatsu’s bodyguard nature to suggest that the Mountain Clan were sending emissaries to meet with the Void Clan for something, but although the Remote Village doesn’t render that impossible, it presents a more fitting opportunity: we already know that Morokatsu is reluctant to fight, and that Tatsokashi is an investigator. Since the village hints that someone may be hiding there, the first definitive element of the plot flashes to my mind:
Morokatsu has fled from his duty and is hiding in our Remote Village. Tatsokashi has been ordered to track him down.
There are two ways to develop the plot from here:
We could have a political plot focused primarily on negotiating with Morokatsu, in which case we have to come up with a good reason for him to want to stay there. If Tatsokashi can simply track him down and order his arrest, then there is no plot.
Morokatsu is hiding near the remote village, but not in it. In this case, I roll 1d6 on the Wild locations table to determine that he is hiding in (rolls a 3) the Bay of Shimmering Waters! There’s a large lake in the center of the Void Clan’s territory, so this could fit. Additionally, I read about the Bay of Shimmering Waters and realize that the treacherous cliffs and small shrines along its edges could make for an interesting scene.
So at this point, I have to decide whether I want to have the adventure focused on the physical skills of the samurai (tracking Morokatsu and then perhaps fighting him along the cliff’s edge), or whether I want to have it focus on the players’ negotiating skills. Both of these adventures could be incredibly interesting with a little bit of thought.
Because it’s been a long week and I’m tired, I don’t want to come up with a moral dilemma. Fortunately, there’s a list of those for me to choose from as well, and there’s a perfect one although it requires me to change my plot a little bit.
A disease ravages the countryside. It is possible the disease is of Darkness [evil corruption that turns men into monsters], but by no means certain. Is it right to kill the population to ensure that corruption doesn’t spread?
What if Morokatsu has discovered that a disease is spreading among the people of the village, and Tatsokashi has been sent to not only arrest Morokatsu but also to determine the fate of the village? If we give the players a head start of, say, two nights and the intervening day on Tatsokashi, it could be up to them to set the stage for Tatsokashi’s decision regarding the fate of the village and the fate of Morokatsu. Let’s re-tabulate:
Morokatsu has fled his duty and is hiding in a remote village. The people are becoming sick, and word is spreading. Tatsokashi, who appears to be a fool, is ordered to travel to the village and determine whether the disease is Corruptive, as well as to apprehend Morokatsu, who has grown to love the people of the village (and they support him). The players have a head start on Tatsokashi and they arrive at the village first. Morokatsu is stubborn and believes that the people are not corrupted, but that Tatsokashi is not clever enough to realize this. He is willing to fight to defend the village. Tatsokashi will interpret Morokatsu’s willingness to fight him to be a sign that he is Corrupted, and so will order the village purged if Morokatsu decides to fight. If Tatsokashi dies and is unable to make his report, the village will surely be purged. It’s up to the players to decide whether they think the people of the village (and Morokatsu) are corrupted, and convince Morokatsu to stand down [in which case he will likely be executed for failing his duty to his lord] so that Tatsokashi can reach a fair decision. If Morokatsu stands down he will be killed, but Tatsokashi will investigate and decide that the disease is not of Darkness. Morokatsu’s death will spare the innocent town.
A skillful gamemaster can take this and run with it. We have two characters in direct opposition to one another, and the players can choose to take either character’s side. Both characters are stubborn, and it will take skillful negotiating to get either to yield.
I’d love to hear what you can do with the more physically focused plot! Post your reply in the comments below.
AdvertisementsAll-you-can-eat buffets are nothing new, but one restaurant in Germany is now charging for all that you don’t eat. That's right: In an attempt to limit food waste, sushi spot Yuoki in Stuttgart has added a fee to its bill for customers who don’t clear their plates.
The restaurant's “Taste 120” option allows diners to consume as much sushi as they want in two hours, but now, Yuoki will also fine €1 ($1.15) for any remaining food as part of its “eat up or pay up” policy. “It’s called ‘all-you-can-eat,’ not ‘all-you-can-chuck-away,’” owner Guoyu Luan told local paper Stuttgarter-Zeitung. Luan estimates he has already collected €900 ($1,020) to €1,000 ($1,133) as part of his campaign, the sum of which he will donate to charity.
While Yuoki is getting some new notoriety for its policy, several other spots across Germany have similar rules when it comes to waste. Another Japanese restaurant, Okinii in Düsseldorf, announced in 2013 that it would charge diners the same €1 for leftover food, writing on its website that “waste is not appreciated.” Be careful, too, what you leave behind at the Chinese-Mongolian restaurant Himalaya in North Rhine-Westphalia: They charge €2 ($2.25) if more than 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of food is left behind, so even if you're stuffed, take that one last bite.
It's not just Germany that's jumping on the no-waste bandwagon. A Chinese restaurant in South Shields, England, offering an all-you-can-eat buffet made the news in recent years after charging customers £20 in "wastage" fees if they leave food. We're wondering if our moms are behind this trend.The two vehicles collided in Carnegie Hill on Friday morning, officials said. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Trevor Kapp
CARNEGIE HILL — A motorcyclist died Friday morning after his bike hit an ambulance that was rushing through a Carnegie Hill intersection with its sirens blaring, police said.
The 44-year-old motorcyclist, whose name was not released, was riding south on Lexington Avenue about 9:40 a.m. when his bike collided with a New York-Presbyterian ambulance on East 96th Street, an NYPD spokesman said.
"The motorcycle gunned it. You heard the engine rev," said John Doherty, 23, who was walking at the intersection.
"It was like clockwork. You knew they were going to collide. The motorcycle just rammed into the side of the ambulance."
The motorcyclist, who was wearing a helmet, was taken in a second ambulance to St. Luke's hospital where he was pronounced dead, witnesses and police said.
The first ambulance remained on the scene after the impact and witnesses said the crew inside tried to help the man as he lay under the dented driver's side door.
"He was on his back. His head was turned to the side. EMS from the ambulance picked him up and put him on the stretcher," said witness Elizabeth Quiroz, 73.
“I looked out and the guy was under the driver’s side door of the ambulance," said another witness, Joe Ansbacher, 59.
He was on the ground on his back. He wasn’t moving. The paramedics came rushing out and called for another ambulance,"
Police didn't suspect any criminality in the crash.Antonio Sabato Jr.’s new reality show, ‘My Antonio,’ is as juicy as one of the daytime soaps the star was famous for earlier in his career.
But the breakout star of the series is feisty Tully. She’s passionately vocal about her devotion to the celeb, fights with the other contestants…and keeps licking Antonio’s hands any chance she gets. But it gets even weirder than that.
She just happens to be Antonio’s 44-year old ex-wife.
Tully Jensen met and married the much younger soap hunk back in the 90’s, and their relationship only lasted under a year. The two also had to keep their relationship a secret.
“Antonio and I met when he was 17 years old. We lived with his parents for a couple months after we were married,” she said in an interview. “When his parents found out we got married, they were not happy. It’s not that they were unhappy for us. It was more that his career was taking off and being married could ruin him. So we kept it hidden.”
On Sunday’s episode, sparks will fly when Jessica – one of the younger contestants – and Tully get into a screaming match. “You live with your parents!” yells Jessica. “And how old are you? You don’t even have a real job.”
Nothing on this show is weirder than hand-sucking Tully – except maybe her casting tape, which you can check out below. Check out full episodes of ‘My Antonio’ on Fancast.
‘My Antonio’ airs Sunday at 10 p.m. on VH1
[iframe http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/tv/My-Antonio/105330/1221003850/Casting-Tapes%3A-Tully%21/embed?skipTo=0 420 355]
The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Comcast.Lawmakers in several states are pushing to establish independent review boards that would have control of all investigations over fatal incidents that involve police officers, a move that many police advocacy groups are calling a mistake.
Wisconsin became the first state to enact such a bill, but similar legislation has been proposed in New Jersey, California, New York, Colorado and Missouri.
“This does not take the investigation out of the hands of county prosecutors,” said Anne Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Justice. “Rather, it requires an agency separate from the one that the involved officer is employed by to conduct the investigation.”
Laurel Patrick, a spokeswoman for Gov. Scott Walker, who signed the first such statewide bill in April, said the legislation was not designed to attack police but to add more oversight for everyone involved.
“An overwhelming majority of police officers follow procedures and do a good job of protecting and serving the public,” she said. “By providing for an independent review, this bill just adds another level of transparency in the investigation process.”
Following the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York City during confrontations with police officers, civil rights advocates have pushed for greater oversight of the investigation process following such events. Accusations have flown that the reviews of the fatal shootings by police were not objective since they were often handled by the departments themselves or by local prosecutors who need to have close ties with the officers.
DAs resist proposals
But law enforcement officials argue that removing departments from the overview process creates more problems than it solves.
“I think the proponents of this, they always want to have it both ways,” said Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations. “If the department, they feel, is too detached from the community, they criticize that. Now they’re saying, ‘We don’t want people too involved in the community to review this.’”
Outside independent investigators can help police departments in some instances by bringing in unique knowledge and perspectives, he said. But establishing a permanent independent review board would lead to situations where the board is passing judgment based on political pressure, not evidence.
“The people who constitute this board, they’re going to know the reason they’re there in the first place is that people disagreed with the grand jury,” said Mr. Johnson, who has worked as both a police officer and prosecutor.
As for Ferguson and New York, “I think there were a large number of independent and thorough investigations,” he said. “I think people just didn’t like the result.”
The federal Department of Justice went ahead with a civil rights probe in the Ferguson case, but several news outlets this week have reported that Justice also will bring no charges.
‘Conflict of interest’
Tim Lynch, director of the Project on Criminal Justice at the Cato Institute, disagreed that the recent attention to policing issues has been solely the result of the Brown and Garner cases.
“I think what those cases did was draw more people’s attention to the general issues that are involved,” he said. “We’re not just talking about St. Louis or New York, we’re talking more generally about what happens when the police do overreach. What mechanisms are in place to ensure accountability?”
Mr. Lynch, whose website tracks instances of police misconduct nationwide, said he favors special prosecutors because there is an “inherent conflict of interest” when police try to investigate their own actions.
“It’s a good idea to have an independent, impartial investigation of allegations of illegal police activity,” he said.
It can be unrealistic to expect police to want to send one of their own to prison for murder charges or open themselves up to lawsuits by admitting they made a mistake, Mr. Lynch said, which means pressure is put on either covering up abuses or trying to brush them off as accidents.
But district attorneys are not persuaded that this is a good reason to take these cases from them. Prosecutors are already independent, argued Josh Marquis, an Oregon district attorney and board member of the National District Attorney’s Association.
“Independent [is] exactly what district attorneys are,” he said. “In the vast majority of the United States, district attorneys are elected — and sometimes thrown out of office for precisely [because] they’re not vigilant enough about police shootings.
“The idea that some appointed person who has no relationship with the community would be more likely to rigorously review a police shooting I don’t think is true,” Mr. Marquis added. “There is accountability in an elected official.”
‘Knee-jerk reactions’
With an independent — and likely unelected — review board, “you’re not going to get the same kind of accountability, nor are you going to get the understanding of the particular needs of the community,” Mr. Marquis said.
“Many prosecutors, certainly myself included, are seeing in state legislatures what I consider knee-jerk reactions to Michael Brown and Eric Garner,” Mr. Marquis said.
In 2014, in an effort to make investigations more independent, Mr. Walker, a Republican and presidential contender, signed legislation that would require at least two outside investigators to be involved in any review of “officer-involved deaths.”
Support for the Wisconsin law grew from a 2004 incident where Kenosha police fatally shot a young white man, Michael Bell, 21, during a traffic stop. Officers said Bell tried to grab one of their guns, and they were cleared of wrongdoing in the resulting investigation.
But Bell’s family hired their own investigators and uncovered enough evidence that contradicted the officers’ stories that, in 2010, the city agreed to a nearly $2 million settlement.
The family used some of the money to buy billboards that read “When police kill, should they judge themselves?”
Now a Colorado state representative, Joe Salazar, is planning to introduce similar legislation for his state by the end of February. His proposal would create a special office to review accusations of police brutality.
“What we’re looking at is for the special prosecution office to investigate cases of excessive force where there is substantial bodily harm or death,” Mr. Salazar said. “Colorado’s had its problems. This isn’t just an issue that’s taking place in other parts of the country.”
He pointed to several recent Colorado cases, including a homeless man who died after being Tasered and put into a chokehold by police, and a prison inmate who died of seizures while prison videotapes show workers “laughing and joking” instead of getting him medical attention, reports say.
In all these cases, governments agreed to pay out millions of dollars for restitution despite there being no indictments, Mr. Salazar said.
“There’s only been two indictments since 1987 in the state of Colorado,” the representative said. “We want to make it very clear that this isn’t targeting police, this is targeting a practice.”
Experience of cities
The practice of an independent review board has been more common at the municipal level, where a number of American cities have implemented the idea. But the boards have not been without their critics.
In 2007 the city of Chicago created the Independent Police Review Authority to try to help reform a police department that, at that point, was receiving the most complaints and accusations of police brutality and other misconduct in the nation.
Made up entirely of civilians, the board was given the task of investigating police brutality charges, with advocates arguing police were being too heavy-handed, with no fear of reprimand.
But the agency has received repeated criticism for its pace of work. In 2012 the Chicago Tribune reported that it was sometimes taking the review authority years to decide whether accusations against officers were valid or not.
In one instance, the board ruled that an officer had used excessive force when he beat a man in the head with a baton. But because the board’s investigation had taken so long, the five-year statute of limitations for the incident had expired and the charges were tossed, the Chicago Tribune said.
Mr. Lynch said that the boards can also often just become extensions of the police departments themselves once political attention turns away.
Eventually, he said “people pay less attention to it; it kind of fades away. You look at it three years later, and you find sometimes the people who make them up are not all that independent. They’ve got some kind of ties to the prosecutor or to law enforcement.”
Mr. Johnson said he rejects the notion that the events in Ferguson and New York have led to any loss of actual trust between civilians and police where there had been any.
“I think any trust that’s been lost has been lost among groups or segments of an electorate that wasn’t really inclined to trust the police in the first place,” he said.
But Mr. Lynch said concerns over investigations into police actions aren’t going away.
“The critics are more right than wrong in the sense that — again, we’re speaking generally — in many jurisdictions we don’t have the accountability systems that we ought to,” he said. “If those checks on police power aren’t there, people want to see them fixed.”
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.On the back of incessant rumours, the very first spy shots of the Porsche 911 R have emerged online. These pictures show a vehicle that is just like the rumours suggested; based around the 911 GT3 but without any of its fancy aerodynamic components.
The resemblance between this prototype and the 911 GT3 is immediately obvious. At the front, it looks identical to the GT3 with the same enlarged grille, air intakes and splitter. Additionally, the test mule is rolling on the same set of centre locking wheels which come standard on the GT3 but importantly, it is reported the 911 R has slightly slimmer tyres to reduce grip and increase playfulness. The biggest visual difference between the 911 R and the GT3 will be the removal of the GT3’s large rear wing.
It is suggested that the 911 R will be powered by either GT3’s 3.8-litre flat-six engine or the larger 4.0-litre powertrain found in the new GT3 RS. Whatever the case may be, it is set to make customers very happy by being available exclusively with a seven-speed manual transmission.
Production of the car will reportedly be limited to between 600 and 800 copies and it is believed to have already been sold out.The Top 10 North American Beer Festivals
On a nose-hair-freezing afternoon in early February, I stood outside Whitefish, Montana’s Great Northern Brewing Company amidst a crowd of rowdy beer-swilling locals. Considering my toes were the temperature of creamsicles, I wondered what the hell I was doing. Then contestant #22—a tall, tanned, eminently good-looking man named Troy Nooroa—walked onto the stage. He unzipped his jacket, lit a couple of batons on fire, and, juggled them to the delight of every lady in the crowd. Cold toes be damned.
Nooroa was competing in a new tradition of snow-blessed Whitefish: the second annual Black Star Barter. The premise is simple—what would you do or trade for a year’s worth (52 cases) of Black Star Beer? The answers, as it turns out, are notably entertaining. Contestants offered a year’s supply of homemade macaroni and cheese, line dancing lessons, on-call magic-trick performances, dogsled trips, deer butchering services, and two Volkswagen Transporter vans in a multi-hour beer-soaked spectacle. The Black Star Barter isn’t the only inventive new event-slash-excuse-to-drink-a-profuse-amount-of-beer. Festivals are cropping up across the U.S.
"Thanks to the U.S. craft beer revolution, there are 2,000 U.S. craft breweries open now, and 1,000 planned to open in every part the country in the next year or so," says Christian DeBenedetti, author of The Great American Ale Trail and editorial director of Weekly Pint. “There's been a historic mushrooming of beer fests, public tastings, and other beer-centric gatherings.”
Which means the time is ripe for travelers to set forth and imbibe.
Brews with Views Raft Trips
Best for River Rats
Rogue River, Oregon
July 26, August 9, and August 23, 2012
River rats have married beer and rafting for decades, but more recently raft companies have institutionalized the pairing. Northwest Rafting Company’s four-day Brews with Views raft trips on the Rogue River ($895; nwrafting.com) are just one example. (O.A.R.S. also has new trips on the Tuolomne, Rogue, and Main, Lower, and Middle Fork Salmon rivers.). By day, rafters ply the Class II and III rapids and marvel at the lush gorge on this Wild and Scenic stunner. By afternoon, beer experts from one of three esteemed breweries—Sierra Nevada Brewing, Deschutes Brewery, and Double Mountain Brewing—extol the virtues of their ales and offer unlimited tastings on remote, sandy beaches.
Hops in the Hills Beer Festival
Best for Hikers
Okemo, Vermont
August 4, 2012
Vermonters rival Portlanders with their love of all things beer, and the state has some of the best time-tested craft breweries. The Hops in the Hills Beer Festival ($20; okemo.com) is low-key and family-friendly but it offers the perfect excuse to taste some of the region’s best beers—Harpoon, Long Trail, Magic Hat, Otter Creek, Switchback, Sam Adams, Allagash, and Saranac, to name a few. After tasting some of the entries in the highly competitive Chicken Wing Competition, quaffing some ales, and listening to live music, head out for an afternoon hike on the six-mile Healdville Trail to the top of Okemo Mountain.
Stay: The nearby Inn at Water’s Edge ($125-$250, including breakfast; innatwatersedge.com) is a classic country inn with welcome modern updates like Jacuzzi tubs. The 150-year-old English pub serves—you guessed it—beer and comfort food.
Biketobeerfest
Best for Bike Commuters
Portland, Oregon
August 25, 2012
Perhaps it’s the water, the abundance of locally grown hops, or the area’s entrepreneurial spirit that makes Portland the Pacific Northwest’s epicenter of craft beer—with more than half a dozen major beer festivals to prove the point. Our favorite? Biketobeerfest—a bike-in Oktoberfest celebrating both bikes and beer, hosted by Hopworks Urban Brewery (free, hopworksbeer.com). Last year, among the quirky festivities, four live bands played, BMX teams performed stomach-dropping stunts, mechanics gave bike-building demos, and, naturally, the brewery’s 15 organic beers flowed all day. But arguably the most entertaining sideshow is the Huffy Huck, a contest to see who can throw an old bike the farthest. (Trust us, the bragging rights are priceless.)
Stay: The Jupiter Hotel (from $134; jupiterhotel.com) is within easy biking distance of the Hopworks Urban Brewery—or simply rent one of the hotel’s two on-site Zipcars. Rooms are kitted with minimalist furniture and artsy touches like original murals and chalkboard doors.
Where the Wild Beers Are
Best for Sharing
Brooklyn, New York
May 5, 2012
Where the Wild Beers Are ($10 plus beer to share; wherethewildbeersare.com) is a biannual festival dedicated to wild and sour beer tasting. What is a wild and sour beer? Good question. It’s a brew made from wild yeast that is marked by a tart, refreshing acidity. The events, held in Brooklyn in spring and Minneapolis in fall, are still small—about 100 people—but the vibe is decidedly friendly. To enter, bring $10 and a commercially produced wild, sour, or farmhouse ale to share. (Bonus points for obscure, hard-to-find bottles.) For every 750 ml. of beer brought, attendees receive tickets good for tastings of others’ beers—and unlimited hobnobbing with the home brew set and beer aficionados.
Stay: In Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, Hotel Le Jolie (from $189; hotellejolie.com) has a hipster vibe, complimentary breakfast, and a convenient location near the Brooklyn Brewery and Knitting Factory Brooklyn.
Tour de Fat
Best for Cyclists
Fort Collins, Colorado
September 1, 2012
New Belgium Brewing, the makers of Fat Tire Amber Ale, are serious about not taking themselves too seriously. A case in point is the Tour de Fat (Free, newbelgium.com), an annual series of bike parades and events that’ll hit 15 cities this summer. The flagship event is still in the brewery’s hometown, Fort Collins, Colorado, where some 20,000 cyclists have turned out for a gigantic beer-soused bike parade. (Costumes encouraged.) There are also vaudeville acts, yo-yo performances, bands, slow-riding contests, and, of course, plenty of New Belgium brews. The Tour is free, and proceeds from beer sales go to bike-related charities. Over the past 12 years, New Belgium has raised nearly $2 million. Cheers to that.
Stay: The Armstrong Hotel (from $129; thearmstronghotel.com), in downtown Fort Collins, has 43 bright, funky rooms with vintage furniture and hardwood floors. Bikes are complimentary and pets are welcome.
Brewgrass Festival
Best for Live Music Junkies
Asheville, North Carolina
September 15, 2012
Beer pairs well with a number of things—burgers, pizza, and cards come to mind—but Ashevilleians would argue none so well as bluegrass music. Hence Brewgrass (about $45; brewgrassfestival.com), a celebration of music and beer in a town that has become a hub of craft beer production. Over the last 15 years, the burg has sprouted 11 breweries with 70-plus local brews. The premise of Brewgrass itself is simple: drink beer, listen to music. Past acts have included the Yonder Mountain String Band and the Infamous String Dusters, but there’s plenty else to do in Asheville beyond the pint glass. Our suggestion: an amble along the nearby Appalachian Trail.
Stay: Haywood Park Hotel (from $220; haywoodpark.com) is situated in a historic downtown department-store building near plenty of restaurants and stores—and the Brewgrass venue in Martin Luther King Jr. Park. Complimentary valet service and nightly chocolates win over the well-heeled.
Oktoberfest Zinzanniti
Best for competitors
Cincinnati, Ohio
September 22-23, 2012
Considering that the defining moment in the history of Oktoberfest Zinzinnati (free, oktoberfestzinzinnati.com) is the world’s largest chicken dance—48,000 danced in 2004, for the record—it’s safe to say the festival is happily unpretentious. Now, some 500,000 people descend on this celebration of Cincinnati’s German heritage and beer-brewing history to imbibe and listen to German entertainment on some seven stages. Meanwhile, a host of goofy events accompany the beer, like a bratwurst-eating contest, stein-hoisting championship, and the running of the wieners. (Yes, wiener dogs.) Plus, where else can an average schlub get his picture taken with the St. Pauli girl?
Stay: Garfield Suites Hotel (from $104; garfieldsuiteshotel.com) has a central downtown location and free shuttle rides in the area. Condos have full living rooms and kitchens and views over the city.
Great American Beer Festival
Best for Beer Connoisseurs
Denver, Colorado
October 11-13, 2012
There’s no better place to learn about the craft of brewing—or get wickedly tipsy—than the Great American Beer Festival (about $60; greatamericanbeerfestival.com), the largest of its kind in the U.S. Every year, nearly 50,000 people show up to this downtown Denver institution to sip unlimited one-ounce samples of more than 2,200 beers, from fruity wheats to chocolate stouts. (According to the Guinness Book of World Records, no other place on earth has as many beers on tap.) Rub shoulders with the country’s top brewmasters, taste pairings of local food and limited-edition brews, and dance at the silent disco, where music is piped in through dancers’ headphones—a ridiculous sight to the uninitiated. Just don’t forget the designated driver.
Stay: For the Great American Beer Festival, Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel & Spa (from $152; brownpalace.com) partners with the local Wynkoop Brewery to produce a limited edition beer. It also has six restaurants and serves lobby cocktails with live music.
Tall Sails and Ales Tour
Best for the Sailing Set
Gulf Islands, British Columbia
October 25-30, 2012
A six-day sailing journey on a 1904 schooner through British Columbia’s Gulf Islands sounds pretty good. Add beer and it sounds downright unbeatable, at least for those people not prone to seasickness. Such is the idea of Maple Leaf Adventures ($2,254; mapleleafadventures.com), which teamed with brewing historian Greg Evans to design the special tour for beer aficionados. Along the way, Evans leads field trips to remote island breweries to meet brewmasters, taste some 50 microbrews, and wash it all down with delectable local seafood. Meanwhile, spot porpoises, sea lions, sea otters, and eagles as the boat weaves in between dozens of wild, forested islets.
Black Star Barter
Best for Anyone Who Loves a Good Time
Whitefish, Montana
February 2, 2013
Perhaps it’s the mind-fraying lack of sunlight that prompts so many small, northerly towns to stage outsize—and offbeat—winter festivals. Whitefish, Montana (pop: 6,357) is a prime example with its mile-long parade, lake plunge, and, most notably, the Black Star Barter (free, blackstarbeer.com). For the event, the Great Northern Brewing Company posits a deep philosophical question to locals and visitors alike: What would you do or trade for a year’s worth of beer? Past contestants have proffered an array of imaginative services—on-call deer butchering, chest waxing, line dancing lessons—and offerings, from airbrushed wolf drawings to a defunct Volkswagen Transporter. Even more entertaining? Watching it all with a brew—or two—in hand.
Stay: The Garden Wall Inn (from $155-$195; gardenwallinn.com) is within stumbling distance of Whitefish’s main drag. It has deep tubs for defrosting after skiing Whitefish Mountain Resort and serves an impressive two-course breakfast.LANSING — The state is backing auto seat maker Adient Ltd. in its bid to move its corporate headquarters to downtown Detroit, awarding the company a $2 million grant in exchange for 115 new jobs.
Adient plans to spend $97.9 million to move its headquarters into the city after being spun off from Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls Inc. in October, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corp. The MEDC's Michigan Strategic Fund board on Tuesday approved the performance-based grant for Adient.
The state did not disclose the location of Adient's new headquarters, but sources recently told Crain's that Adient will move into the Marquette Building at 243 W. Congress St.
"We are pleased that the Michigan Economic Development Council today approved incentives for Adient to add jobs in downtown Detroit," Adient said in a statement. "We will take these incentives into consideration as we make a final decision for the location of our new headquarters, and expect to make an official announcement in the next several days."
Adient's move would add another major corporate tenant to downtown Detroit, the latest auto supplier to set up in the city's central business district. Southfield-based Lear Corp. opened what it's calling its Detroit Innovation Center in October in the Capitol Park district.
The 164,000-square-foot Marquette Building is vacant above the first floor. If Adient moves there, it would be home to about 500 employees, including more than 100 new hires in such departments as legal, accounting, audit and treasury, Crain's reported.
The 115 new jobs would be in addition to 1,240 employees statewide, the MEDC said.
The MEDC said its grant was needed to offset higher costs of renovating the building in Detroit, compared with "minimal investment" required in Milwaukee.
"This, in addition to finding parking for the 500 total employees they plan on having at the headquarters and paying the Detroit payroll tax for its employees, puts Michigan at a large disadvantage," the MEDC wrote in a memo to the Strategic Fund board.
The city of Detroit offered a property tax incentive, according to the MEDC.
With the spinoff complete, Adient is the first Fortune 500 company to relocate its headquarters to Southeast Michigan since auto supplier BorgWarner Inc. moved to Auburn Hills in 2004.
Adient is tax domiciled in Dublin, Ireland, and is estimated to be worth $17 billion.
Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Helu bought the Marquette Building for $5.8 million in 2014.The Future of Griptape.
Sandpaper was built to cut and grind things down, which means shoes never stood a chance. Until today, there's never been a decent alternative since existing non-abrasive materials were either too expensive or didn't have the right friction. This is why we've spent the last 4 years perfecting our own.
Unlike sandpaper or foam, DKL Griptape is more similar to the rubber found on ping pong paddles. This similarity gives it the same flick and friction without being abrasive. It's a one of a kind material backed by years of research, creation and testing of new materials built specifically for skateboarding.
Prototypes: DKL testing and development
Fun Fact: Years ago, ping pong paddles were also made with sandpaper but have since evolved into rubber grip.
The Process.
Just like skateboarding is a process, building something new that's never been done before is also a process. Check out the video below to see our very first prototype. Since then, we've perfected the material and built a manufacturing line based on testing with pros, skate shops and tons of skaters.
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Rewards.
We're partnering with a leading deck manufacturer to offer two deck designs. To help signify this milestone in skate history and your contribution to helping build it, each design is printed with a "kickstarter 2016" insignia.
Deck#1: DKL #superhawt
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For our higher tiers, we're also offering a t-shirt design, and an additional sweater design for our highest "Anthology |
the male that moves out of the home tribe to the rival tribe, finding a mate and settling there. In other species, it is the female.
This is a very strong source of tension within the individual, as you might imagine. The bond of family must somehow be broken, and the desire to bond with strangers (which normally present a danger) must take its place. This is as bizarre a change as a caterpillar becoming a moth, or an organism changing its sex in adulthood. And yet it happens with regular frequency. The survival and health of the species depends on it.
Seeing this across all primates, it makes sense to look for the same adaption in humans. Our closest genetic primate relatives achieve genetic mixing by exchanging female offspring. In humans, it is so common as to become cliché that girls war with their mothers after puberty. It is usually a brief period of time, and thankfully not all mothers and daughters undergo the same severity of a break, but too many mothers have watched their little angels turn around one day and scream, “I hate you!”
Could it be that the same repulsive effect that drives primate offsprings to neighboring tribes also drives human offspring to date the wrong type of boy (or girl)? Another cliché that’s too often true: dating the very last partner your parents would want you to see. Someone from the “other” tribe. If there is truth to these ideas, it would not only explain a lot, it would offer the same solace our doctor provides when she prescribes a hormone pill. The same solace a woman finds from a menstruation calendar, or a man who knows he’s taking testosterone. Imagine a generation of mothers and daughters getting through puberty with warnings of what’s to come, explanations for why they might want to date someone who could be a terrible fit. Rebellion, the social psychologists today like to say. Genetic mixing, the anthropologist might explain. Which explanation is correct requires more research. Which answer defuses tensions and which one inflames them seems obvious to me.
So here’s the hope within this hypothesis: Knowing what eusocial bifurcation entails gives us the best chance of ignoring its poisonous effects. It gives us the best chance to overcome our primal instincts of division and replace them with the exercised muscles of compassion. Those we rail against are often those most like us. Perhaps we can learn to love ourselves more, see what we have in common with the “other,” and then reach out a hand to them as well.
For more of my thoughts along these lines, check out my Wayfinding series on Amazon.UPDATE: Around an hour after the outage began, at 13:20, Facebook appears to be coming back online. The site is still slow but, for us at least, mostly functional.
Facebook is offline and unavailable for a large number of its billion-plus users worldwide. The social network is displaying no error message, forcing browsers such as Chrome to simply say: "This site cannot be reached."
The site fell offline at approximately 12.40pm BST and is offline for users in the UK, France, Germany and Australia. Facebook users at IBTimes UK are also unable to access the network.
Facebook's mobile apps have also become unresponsive, and while the website briefly flickered back into life minutes later, it is down again at the time of publication.
More than half of the complaints registered with DownDetector say Facebook is a "total blackout", with 29% unable to view pictures and 17% unable to login.
Users of Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, are also reporting problems. As of 13:00 BST, Facebook is switching between loading very slowly and being completely unavailable. The iOS app is in a similarly fragile condition.
The website DownForEveryoneOrJustMe also reports Facebook as being offline. "It's not just you!", the site says. "Facebook.com looks down from here."
Users vented their frustration on Twitter with usual gusto:Jeremy Hunt has said giving MPs a vote on Theresa May’s Brexit negotiating plans would harm the economy, but parliament was “highly likely” to get a vote on the final deal.
Last week the prime minister’s plans for leaving the European Union were thrown into disarray when three senior judges ruled that parliament, not the executive branch, was responsible for starting the process.
But the health secretary said it would be damaging to force the prime minister to reveal her hand. “The impact on the economy will be far worse if through some parliamentary mechanisms Theresa May is forced to lay out her entire negotiating strategy,” Hunt told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show.
Engineering an early election looks more tempting for Mrs May | Andrew Rawnsley Read more
“Parliament passes laws – it always has – but government negotiates treaties,” he said. “You can’t decide international treaties by a simple vote of MPs … you have to give the government latitude to make a deal.”
MPs were already involved in scrutinising the plans, Hunt said, adding: “Government has said it is highly likely there will be a vote to ratify the deal.”
The justice secretary, Liz Truss, faced criticism this weekend from senior lawyers for failing to condemn media attacks on the high court judges who ruled on the case. But Hunt said: “The idea that the government does not passionately defend the independence of the judiciary and the sovereignty of parliament is absolute nonsense.”
He described the legal challenge as “processology” that was really aimed at stopping the UK from leaving the EU “at all costs”. The government is to appeal against the ruling to the supreme court, with a hearing expected early next month. Theresa May said on Sunday she was confident the court would overturn the decision.
Most MPs supported the remain campaign, but Hunt said he would still expect them to vote in support of leaving the union. If the Lords voted against the proposal it would be “incredibly difficult” and “unprecedented”, but, he said: “I think it’s highly unlikely that parliament wouldn’t in the end back a decision to trigger article 50.”
Hunt earlier warned: “The damage to the fabric of our democracy would be far, far worse if people felt the establishment was trying to unpick the decision they have made.”
He aimed to play down suggestions that fallout from the court case could force an early general election. “I think a general election is, frankly, the last thing the government wants. Theresa May wants to get on with the job – and, frankly, it’s the last thing the British people want,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gina Miller, the businesswoman behind the successful legal challenge, said the high court ruling had stopped the government behaving like a “tinpot dictatorship”.
The investment fund manager and philanthropist also said the press had “behaved disgracefully” following the court judgment. She told Andrew Marr: “This is about creating legal certainty and, actually, everyone in the country should be my biggest fan because I’ve used my own money, and a few of us used our own money, to create legal certainty for Mrs May to move ahead.”
Gina Miller on her Brexit legal challenge: 'This had to be done' Read more
She said it was “misdirection” to claim that the decision was unpicking parliamentary sovereignty. “The case is that she cannot use something called the royal prerogative to do it because we do not live in a tinpot dictatorship,” she said.
Miller, 51, was born in Guyana but grew up in Britain. She co-founded the firm SCM Private and previously launched a campaign with her hedge-fund manager husband, Alan, against mis-selling and hidden fund charges in the City of London’s fund management industry.
Reaction to the Brexit case had been fuelled by sexism, racism and homophobia, she said. “I was aware there would be nastiness because if there’s anything to do with the word Brexit, people lose their minds and it’s all about heart,” she said.
Nigel Farage warned there would be disturbances on the streets if parliament attempted to thwart Brexit. The interim Ukip leader said political anger – “the likes of which none of us in our lifetimes have ever witnessed” – would emerge if voters felt they were going to be “cheated” over the June referendum result to leave the EU.
Brexit judgment reinforces the supremacy of parliament Read more
He called on Brexit backers to “get even” through peaceful protests and oppose at the ballot box anyone who sought to overturn the process. But Farage claimed he was “finished” with party politics, as he sought to play down the possibility of him returning to the long-term leadership of Ukip.
The MEP said: “We may have seen Bob Geldof and 40,000 people in Parliament Square moaning about Brexit. Believe you me, if the people in this country think they’re going to be cheated, they’re going to be betrayed, then we will see political anger the likes of which none of us in our lifetimes have ever witnessed in this country. Those newspaper headlines are reflecting that.”
Asked if there was a real danger of “disturbance in the streets” if Brexit was thwarted by parliament, Farage replied: “I think that’s right. I heard you talking to Gina Miller earlier about the nasty things that have been said about her. Believe you me, I’ve had years of this, I’ve had years of hate mobs – taxpayer-funded hate mobs – chasing me around Britain.
“The temperature of this is very, very high. Now, I’m going to say to everybody watching this who was on the Brexit side: let’s try to get even, let’s have peaceful protests and let’s make sure in any form of election we don’t support people who want to overturn this process.”The packaging of an iPhone (left) compared to the packaging of a Samsung phone (right). An iPhone (left) compared to a Samsung Galaxy S phone (right). Apple's iOS icons (left) stacked up against the Samsung Galaxy Tab's icons (right). Apple's iTunes and phone icons for the iPhone (left), compared to the Galaxy S's music and phone icons (right).
In a lawsuit filed Friday, Apple accused Samsung of copying the iPad and the iPhone, and the Korean giant is threatening to retaliate.
Apple's lawsuit named some Samsung phones and the Samsung Galaxy Tab, claiming that their similarities with Apple products were beyond the realm of coincidence. The Cupertino, California corporation has accused Samsung of committing patent and trademark infringements.
"Samsung will respond actively to this legal action taken against us through appropriate legal measures to protect our intellectual property," the South Korean company said in a statement.
Samsung added that it has successfully built its own intellectual portfolio based on its own technologies.
Most interesting to note is that Apple is a customer of Samsung: The Korean company is the supplier of some components for Apple, and it manufactures some of the A4 and A5 processors that power the iPad, iPhone and Apple TV.
Given the relationship between the two companies, the lawsuit shows that Apple isn't afraid to sue anyone when it comes to its intellectual property, notes Nilay Patel, a former copyright attorney and former Engadget editor. Patel posted a full analysis of the lawsuit at This Is My Next Podcast.
Apple's lawsuit, which went public today [.pdf], includes a collection of images (above) comparing Apple packaging, hardware and software with Samsung's. Occasionally the images are stacked side by side to depict similarities.
In addition to claims of patent infringement and trademark infringement, Apple lists examples of "trade dress" infringement, which is basically a trademark for design elements.
The elements listed under "trade dress" infringements include "a rectangular product shape with all four corners uniformly rounded," "the front surface of the product dominated by a screen surface with black borders," "a metallic surround framing the perimeter of the top surface," and other characteristics used to describe a flat slab with a touchscreen.
“It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging,” an Apple representative said in a statement. “This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”Tornados have touched down in Nebraska and Iowa as a storm with heavy winds moves across the Midwest. Midwest states may see thunderstorms, heavy rain, strong winds and even tornados. This Autumn storm is caused by cool wintry air mixing with unstable summer air, says meteorologists.
“It’s a very strong storm,” said Miles Schumacher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Johnston office. “There are a lot of dynamics involved.”
Here is Jeff Piotrowski's picture of the destructive Moville, Iowa tornado today! Wow! pic.twitter.com/kKBaoZdekQ — Georgia Storm Chaser (@StormCoker) October 5, 2013
Pea-sized hail was reported in Moville, Iowa, where the National Weather Service said a mile-wide tornado touched down just before 7 p.m. Witnesses reported heavy rain and strong winds and extensive damage. One resident was helping his neighbor clear trees from his driveway that had fallen earlier in the day when he said he saw a wall of water coming his way.
“I saw a wall of water coming, and then the wind switched from the east to the south real fast. Then I decided it was time to go into the house,” he said.
Many homes in northern Iowa are without power, trees have fallen and irrigation units were reportedly flipped over after the storm and tornados. Many residents were still trying to locate their loved ones and assess the damages.
QUIMBY, IOWA GET UNDERGROUND! A massive, violent tornado is heading into town! I can't stress this enough!! pic.twitter.com/r5zmbIYe45 — Georgia Storm Chaser (@StormCoker) October 5, 2013
13 people were reported injured in Wayne, Nebraska where a tornado hit about 5:30 p.m. Many homes and softball fields were also damaged. Many people are trapped in their home or in other building and their are power outages, gas leaks and panic throughout Wayne.
“The tornado ripped through the east side of town” about three blocks from Wayne State College, Jay Collier, a spokesman for the college, told the Omaha paper. “We are doing everything we can to assist the city.”
Image from Wikimedia Commons.Mr. Lyashko has denied any connection to crimes or oligarchs and said that his opponents are constantly trying to smear him with all sorts of allegations.
He certainly has enemies. On Wednesday, he canceled all of his remaining campaign events for the week after the state security service warned him of a planned assassination attempt.
In the interview, he said his critics in the establishment have it backward: They are the problem. “I think I’m smarter than they are,” he said. “They pretend to know everything, to know how to do everything, but we see the results of their politics.”
“My performance might look plainer, maybe primitive to some point,” he said. “Better I be a populist than to be the authorities who are desperately different from people, and don’t understand people’s problems and how to solve them.”
It is not hard to grasp the appeal of his message.
As chief of the Radical Party, in a country that remains at war, and is suffering from more than two decades of government corruption and mismanagement, Mr. Lyashko calls for — no surprise here — “radical reforms,” including changes to end government corruption and force the wealthiest businessmen to pay their fair share of taxes, to rebuild the military, to increase salaries and pensions, to join the European Union and NATO, to end Russian influence, to stop borrowing so much from the International Monetary Fund and other foreign creditors. The wish list is long, with few explanations of how to afford or accomplish it.
“To save our country, we need to act quickly and forcefully,” he said.
PERHAPS most controversially, he calls for rebuilding Ukraine’s nuclear arsenal, once the world’s third largest after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons as part of an agreement in 1994 with the United States and Russia that called for respecting Ukraine’s borders and territorial sovereignty — an accord breached by Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Alyona Getmanchuk, the director of the World Policy Institute, a political research organization in Kiev, said Mr. Lyashko was filling a populist niche once dominated by former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko, who has fallen out of favor with voters. Ms. Getmanchuk said that his appeal was strongest among rural, less educated voters, and that he was running against the political establishment, though he is actually a part of it.As for the upcoming payments, the first is due next Friday. The price of that bond dipped from a one-year high of $86.80 last week to $83.48 on Monday. It has rallied from a 12-month low of $62.50 on Aug. 1.
PDVSA needs to pay $841 million in principal, plus interest, on that bond. It's a critical moment for Venezuela because a default is seen as hastening Maduro's demise. Making matters worse, the collateral against the bond is Citgo, PDVSA's Houston-based refining and retail subsidiary.
The following week, on Nov. 2, a nearly $1.2 billion PDVSA bond is maturing. Total outstanding obligations for 2017 are about $3.4 billion, and there's no grace period for the two biggest payments.
As Venezuela's economic and political crisis worsens, foreign reserves have dwindled to just $9.9 billion. But analysts and money managers say more than half of that could be in gold and illiquid assets.
The market currently puts the odds of a Venezuelan default at 15 percent, according to an analysis by RVX Asset Management, but Zucaro said he believes the chances are closer to 40 percent. The environment is deteriorating, he said, as Venezuela's latest election results are being questioned and as sanctions on the country expand to include measures that prevent it from raising new funds.
Given the severe cash crunch, it's possible that Venezuela skipped out on the five coupon payments, which have a 30-day grace period, in order to allocate those funds to the payment due on the Oct. 27 bond, Zucaro said.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
Russia has successfully tested a ballistic missile dubbed Satan Two, the country's defence ministry claims.
The weapon, also known as RS-28, was launched from the Plestek Cosmodrome and travelled 3,600 miles before hitting it's far-off target on the Kura test range late on Thursday, officials confirmed.
Footage released by the Russian Ministry of Defence showed the deadly rocket launch.
The weapon is said to be capable of delivering warheads of 40 megatons - 2,000 times the scale of destruction dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, experts from the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau said.
Three other submarines capable of carrying nuclear warheads also performed ballistic missile tests, while three bombers hit their "ground-based" targets with cruise missiles.
A statement by the Ministry said a missile was fired from a military truck around 800km north of Moscow. They also said two submarines aimed their missiles for the Okhotsk Sea, north of Japan and North Korea.
"[We] have carried out an exercise to manage its strategic forces...All objectives of the training have been successfully completed," the statement said.
In early September, Russia also test fired another two next-generation nuclear missiles from the Plestek Cosmodrome.
The tests come in the wake of fresh allegations by NATO officials that Russia has been misleading the alliance over the scope of its military training exercises in Belarus, claiming soldiers have been simulating attacks on western powers.
Some western officials have expressed concerns that parts of the Baltic states, which have large ethnic Russian minorities, could be seized by Moscow, as Crimea was in 2014.President Donald Trump's Treasury Department released its long-awaited analysis (pdf) of the GOP tax plan on Monday, and experts are aghast. Promised "full transparency" and a comprehensive explanation of how the legislation would meet its lofty goals, the public instead got one page of "pure propaganda" that makes fantastical projections in the service of bolstering Trump administration talking points.
While the report attempts to validate Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's oft-repeated claim that the GOP tax bill would more than pay for itself through surging economic growth, it only does so by assuming legislative victories down the road.
In addition to the economic growth the department expects from corporate tax cuts, the Treasury report asserts that a full 50 percent of projected growth will come "from a combination of regulatory reform, infrastructure development, and welfare reform"—policy initiatives that have not even been fully proposed yet, let alone enacted. In short, the tax bill will pay for itself, analysts noted, but only if a bunch of "unrelated imaginary legislation" is piled on top of it.
Jim Tankersley, economics reporter at the New York Times, likened the wild assumptions that form the foundation of the Treasury Department's report to "an old joke about economists debating how to get off a desert island."
"Step one, they agree, is 'assume a boat,'" Tankersley writes. "The Treasury Department just assumed a boat."
Other critics of the plan skipped over the jokes and went straight to laughter. When asked by a reporter for his reaction to the one-page "study"—released just two weeks after a whistleblower said the promised "comprehensive analysis" did not actually exist—all University of Chicago economics professor Austan Goolsbee could muster was: "Hahahahahahaha."
Tax March, a coalition of advocacy groups working to stop the GOP tax bill from becoming law, argued on Twitter that Treasury's report shows "the bill would be great for the economy...in a world where unicorns exist, pigs fly, and Trump has released his tax returns."
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Ridicule aside, tax experts expressed genuine bafflement—though not exactly surprise—that the Treasury Department could arrive at conclusions that departed so drastically from those of independent analysts.
For instance, the Joint Committee on Taxation—Congress's official "scorekeeper"—estimated that the Senate version of the GOP tax bill would boost economic growth by 0.8 percent after ten years. By contrast, the Treasury report projects economic growth of 0.7 percent per year—which, after ten years, would equal seven percent GDP growth.
The Treasury Department only could have produced such results by working backward from its own assumptions, some analysts concluded.
What's amazing is that the Senate plan produces EXACTLY as much growth as the tax plan in President Trump's budget, despite having a 5% higher corporate rate, a 3.5% higher individual rate, a 15% higher top pass-through rate, and $1.5 trillion more of borrowing. https://t.co/vBohIU4qxH — Marc Goldwein (@MarcGoldwein) December 11, 2017
The willingness of Trump administration officials to lie about key aspects of their agenda is unlike anything I've ever seen before. https://t.co/8LhLClaTMp — Robert Reich (@RBReich) December 11, 2017
Denouncing the Treasury report as a "ridiculous piece of paper," Seth Hanlon, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, concluded: "Do they think we—members of Congress, analysts, reporters, the American people—are that stupid?Outside Group Sends Blunt Message In N.C. Senate Race
Enlarge this image toggle caption American Future Fund/YouTube American Future Fund/YouTube
"More weed, less war."
That's the latest campaign slogan in the North Carolina Senate race advertising wars. And no, neither Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan nor Republican challenger Thom Tillis is jumping on the state's marijuana legalization effort.
A quarter-million dollars in online ads is now supporting a third-party Senate challenger — Libertarian candidate and pizza delivery guy Sean Haugh. The ads are coming from an unlikely source: the American Future Fund, a secret-donor political group backed by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers.
The spots are aimed at young voters who typically support Democrats. One features a 20-something who criticizes Hagan for opposing legalization and supporting President Obama's war efforts in Afghanistan.
"Vote Sean Haugh," she says. "He shares our progressive values. Pro-legalization, pro-environment. More weed, less war."
toggle caption Twitter/Sean Haugh
In a tweet, Haugh says he now has "a whole new reason to despise Koch brothers & their dark money."
"It's all kind of surreal, frankly," Haugh told NPR. "Obviously they want to try to use me to siphon votes away from Kay Hagan and maybe swing the election to Thom Tillis."
Neither American Future Fund nor Koch Industries responded to queries about their strategy. But Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Justin Barasky said: "The Koch brothers are doing everything they can to elect Speaker Tillis because no one has gone to the mat for the Koch brothers more than he has."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Tamara Keith/NPR Tamara Keith/NPR
Haugh is drawing about 6 percent in public polls, with some analysts believing his support is coming equally from those who would otherwise vote for Hagan or Tillis.
The $225,000 is nearly 30 times more than the $7,744 Haugh said he has spent for himself.
To put that in perspective, the two main party candidates and outside groups have already spent $85 million on the North Carolina Senate race in advertising that directly tells voters to support or oppose a candidate. Nonprofit political groups that are allowed to keep their donors secret, including the Koch brothers-founded Americans for Prosperity, have spent tens of millions of dollars more in so-called "issue" ads attacking Hagan.
"You have to wonder why people are willing to spend up to $100 million to elect somebody to a job that only pays $174,000 a year," Haugh said.Andre Marriner was appointed to referee a match this upcoming weekend, but that match is in League 1, not the Premier League. The head referee found himself the subject of much criticism after a nightmare officiating performance when Everton visited Manchester City last Saturday.
Marriner, who by most accounts(including Roberto Martinez's), awarded a questionable penalty to Manchester City which resulted in the winner for the Citizens. The referee also chose to keep his cards in his pocket as Elaquim Mangala kicked Everton's Samuel Eto'o in the back, as well as when Gareth Barry received a boot to the head from City's Fernando. Later in the match, Ross Barkley received a yellow card for diving when replays showed there was contact from Frank Lampard.
When the weekend's Premier League referee assignments were released today, Marriner's name was absent from the list. However, his name can be found on the list of those assigned to League 1 matches, and the referee will be in charge when Sheffield United travel to Fleetwood Town this Saturday.
No reason was given for the relegation to League 1, but speculation leads to his performance at the Etihad Stadium. There is also no word on a possible return to the Premier League, but Evertonians won't be campaigning for his reappearance.Sir John Sawers says Moscow has shifted balance of power but criticises Boris Johnson’s call for demo outside embassy
The world faces cold-war-era threat levels, Sir John Sawers, the former head of MI6, has said, due to the west vacating the stage in Syria and failing to recognise that the growth of Russian military power over the past 15 years required the development of a new strategic relationship with Moscow.
“We are moving into an era that is as dangerous, if not more dangerous, as the cold war because we do not have that focus on a strategic relationship between Moscow and Washington,” Sawers told the BBC on Wednesday.
He said the west needed to recognise that the balance of power had changed in the world because of an increase in Russian military power, and its willingness to use that power.
'We need deeds, not words': bombs fall on Aleppo as MPs debate Syria Read more
He also chided the UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, for calling for demonstrations outside the Russian embassy in London, saying it was necessary to be mindful of the welfare of diplomatic staff in Britain’s Moscow embassy.
“We all recall what happened to our embassy in Tehran,” Sawers said. A similarly violent attack on the UK embassy in Moscow was unlikely, he added, but “we need to be careful about the consequences of things we call for”.
Johnson had called for demonstrations outside the Russian embassy in a Commons debate on Tuesday, partly as a rhetorical device to criticise leftwing groups such as Stop the War Coalition for failing to denounce the Russian bombing of Aleppo, the second city of Syria. He also reiterated allegations of Russian involvement in an attack on aid convoy last month, prompting an accusation of “Russophobic hysteria” by the Russian defence ministry.
On the ground in besieged eastern Aleppo, residents said air raids using powerful bunker-buster bombs resumed on Tuesday and continued into the early hours of Wednesday morning. Doctors said they had documented 34 dead and 216 injured on Tuesday alone, adding that the total number was likely to be higher as some families retrieved their dead from bombarded sites without taking them to local hospitals. Airstrikes on the largest market in eastern Aleppo on Wednesday killed at least 15 people, with fears for others who were trapped.
In his BBC interview Sawers rejected calls for a no-fly zone to prevent Syrian helicopters or Russian planes from bombing Aleppo, saying this might have been an option three or four years ago but was not realistic today.
“You cannot have Nato forces or American forces operating in the same theatre as Russian forces without risking a very direct clash between the two.”
He added that a partial no-fly zone was unrealistic since it also carried the risk of direct confrontation with Russia. Sawers doubted that Russia would let its allies in the Syrian government be attacked.
The former MI6 chief said the decision by the Commons not to intervene in the wake of Syrian use of chemical weapons in 2013, and the US decision to hold off on strikes that followed, had left the west with fewer options.
He said: “We vacated the theatre and the Russians moved in. It was certainly a mistake. Chemical weapons were being used against civilians in Damascus by their own regime. We had upheld a taboo against the use of chemical weapons and we have failed to uphold it on this occasion.”
More broadly, he argued, the west had not caught up with the consequences of a change in the balance of power in the past 15 years, including a Russian and Chinese decision to invest in full spectrum military power.
“We are not treating Russia and China as major powers that can cause us a great deal of damage,” he said. “What we really need to avoid is moving down a road that leads to a direct confrontation.”
He said the west no longer had a clear strategic framework with Russia, as had existed in the cold war, to ensure stability, singling out a lack of rules between Russia, China and the west about the legitimate use of cyberwarfare.
The absence of strategic communication and engagement led to the Ukraine crisis, he argued, saying Vladimir Putin had misread the signals from Washington and moved in believing he was foiling a western-backed uprising.Stephen Jimenez didn’t set out to be the most dangerous journalist on earth.
Or, more to the point, the most dangerous gay journalist.
But Jimenez unearthed a story that few people wanted to hear. And it calls into question everything you think you know about the life and death of one of the leading icons of our age.
Matthew Shepard, college student. Killed, at 21, for being gay.
Or was he?
Jimenez’s “The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard,” out last month, challenges every cultural myth surrounding Shepard’s short life and unspeakable death. After some 13 years of digging, including interviews with more than 100 sources, including Shepard’s killers, Jimenez makes a radioactive suggestion:
The grisly murder, 15 years ago this month, was no hate crime.
Shepard’s tragic and untimely demise may not have been fueled by his sexual orientation, but by drugs. For Shepard had likely agreed to trade methamphetamines for sex. And it killed him.
Heresy.
Why dredge this up now? Jimenez’s answer surprised me.
“As a gay man,” he said, “I felt it was a moral thing to do.”
Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, now doing life for murder, were not homophobes, writes Jimenez. Shepard was lured from a bar, then driven to the outskirts of Laramie, Wyo., where he was robbed. McKinney savagely pistol-whipped Shepard with the barrel of a.357 Magnum. The men then hung him, barefoot, freezing and barely alive, on a fence, in a pose resembling a crucifixion. He died six days later.
But McKinney was no stranger. Strung out on meth for a week before the slaying, writes Jimenez, McKinney likely had been Shepard’s gay or bisexual lover.
“To understand who Matthew really was,” Jimenez said, “to alter our perception of him as a martyr and an icon, is not going to be damaging to gay rights.
“I don’t buy it. I don’t think we have anything to lose from telling the truth.”
Activists, journalists, politicians and filmmakers who, with the best of intentions, based careers on Shepard’s murder are furious. But Jimenez insists he’s willing to trade Shepard’s irreproachable image for a serious talk about drugs. Meth, he said, is haunting the gay scene, bringing with it a plague of ultra-violence, new HIV infection — and gay-bashing.
If this book saves one life, it’s worth it.
Jimenez, 60, a Brooklyn native who splits his time between New York and Santa Fe, NM, has seen his work attacked by organizations from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which helped push through a 2009 federal hate-crimes law in the name of Shepard and James Byrd Jr., the black man dragged to his death behind a pickup truck in Texas in 1998.
The New York Times Magazine commissioned, then canceled, a piece from Jimenez in 2004. (The editor claims it wasn’t any good.) But ABC’s “20/20” ran with a story Jimenez produced, which won two major broadcasting awards. Yet the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch blog recently accused Jimenez of serving as a lapdog of “right-wing pundits, radio hosts and bloggers.”
In Washington, DC, gay activists pestered bookstores to cancel Jimenez’s appearances. So much for free speech.
“It’s offensive,” said Jimenez.
I find it offensive that a gay journalist should be held to a different standard than a straight one. But Jimenez’s every word has been vetted by protectors of Matthew Inc. to determine his agenda. Is he a traitor to the cause?
Jimenez is not the enemy. He’s just a man who told an uncomfortable truth, as he saw it.
He should be proud.
Back after sLho start
Nice to have you back, Joe.
After waging a sleepy campaign against tax-loving, cop-cuffing Democratic mayoral front-runner Bill de Blasio, Republican challenger Joe Lhota finally turned up the fire.
“I’m back!’’ he exclaimed after a spirited showing in last week’s debate.
De Blasio accused Lhota of “race baiting’’ by airing an ad that vividly suggested this city will return to the old, crime-ridden days if de Blasio is elected.
“I was shocked!’’ Lhota bounced back. “He threw out the race card as if it was 25 cents in his pocket.’’
Lhota said in a Midtown speech that de Blasio, who has been in city government for two decades, has to take some blame for turning New York into what he calls a “tale of two cities’’ — wealthy haves and poor have-nots.
It’s about time you got in the game, Joe. Let’s hope it’s not too late.
It’s time to get the El outta here
Delusional ex-Love Gov Eliot Spitzer, whose hooker-hiring ways led to his trouncing in the Democratic primary for city comptroller (voters went for Scott Stringer), isn’t done messing with our heads.
The Post’s Richard Johnson reported that Spitzer was overheard boasting over a Midtown lunch of kosher sushi and prime steaks that his disastrous showing among voters will only make it easier for him to run for another office! (A Spitzer spokeswoman denied he’s eyeing an office.) An ego this big doesn’t vanish in the cold glare of reality. Get a real job, Eliot.
Running rings around Kanye’s rock
Does size matter?
Kim Kardashian said “Yes’’ to Kanye West’s marriage proposal, accepting a huge, 15-carat diamond ring designed by Lorraine Schwartz. But is it big enough?
The rapper and father of Kim’s baby girl was outdone in the sparkler department by Kim’s ex-hubby Kris Humphries, who in 2011 presented his lady love with an engagement ring by the same designer, bearing a 16.21-carat center rock and two side diamonds of 1.8 carats apiece. That’s 19.81 carats of bling.
(Originally valued at $2 million, the bauble sold at a Christie’s auction this month for a paltry $749,000.) It wasn’t clear which gem is worth more. Kanye’s diamond is described by Schwartz as flawless. Kris’ was big enough to give Kim carpal tunnel syndrome — and that union lasted just 72 days. Will the Kimye marriage make it?
Kanye might consider taking another trip to the lucky jeweler.
It’s love, by George
True love can’t be faked. Prince William barely took his eyes off his infant son, Prince George, as the proud daddy held the child in his arms during a christening that attracted four generations of royals, including George’s great-granny, Queen Elizabeth.
Parental warmth, formerly in short supply among the House of Windsor, is making a comeback, brought into vogue by William’s late mom, Princess Diana. As a veteran royal hater, I find myself saying, “Awww!’’
There is hope for this family.The new mines that are scheduled to open, including in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, are ones that will produce metallurgical coal, which is used to make steel. This coal is used to produce coke, which is then used to blast the furnace to create metal. It’s different from thermal coal, which is burned for steam to produce heat and electricity.
For both kinds of coal, there are limited markets. In the case of coal used to general electricity, that market is steadily shrinking as natural gas and renewable sources replace coal in the marketplace. Coal is being forced out for a simple reason: Cost. It’s not just the cost of coal, it’s the cost of handling coal at the plant, the cost of |
and Jason Peters for the second offensive tackle spot. Peters is the guy I notice destroying other human beings most frequently on tape, but he also has 11 penalties this season, which hurts his case in this rarefied air. I think Smith is a better run-blocker than Brown, but he also has a far better line to work alongside, especially with Chris Myers starting to slip at center in Houston this year. Brown was also credited with just two sacks allowed for a mere four total yards by STATS this year. I’m narrowly picking him, but you could pick any of those three and I wouldn’t argue against you.
Second Team: Jason Peters, Eagles; Tyron Smith, Cowboys
Joe Robbins/Getty Images
Guard
Josh Sitton, Green Bay Packers
Marshal Yanda, Baltimore Ravens
Sitton is a reasonable candidate to be considered the most underrated player in all of football. The 2008 fourth-rounder has made only one Pro Bowl and doesn’t ever get discussed as one of Ted Thompson’s best draft picks, but Sitton consistently stands out as the best player on the league’s sixth-best run-blocking offensive line. STATS has him down for just three penalties and zero sacks this season.
Yanda teams with Kelechi Osemele to form what might be the best tandem of guards in football right now. Baltimore has totally turned its running game around this season, as a team that averaged just 3.1 yards per carry during a dismal campaign last year is now up to 4.5 yards per rush, the seventh-best rate in football. Baltimore basically punted at right tackle this offseason and gave the job to 2013 fifth-rounder Ricky Wagner, but Yanda has been good enough at guard to solidify that side and make Wagner’s job all that much easier.
Second Team: David DeCastro, Steelers; Zack Martin, Cowboys
Center
Maurkice Pouncey, Pittsburgh Steelers
Offensive linemen don’t win leaguewide awards, but Pouncey deserves some consideration for AP Comeback Player of the Year after tearing his ACL and MCL just eight snaps into his 2013 season. The early injury gave Pouncey basically a full season to heal, and he’s come back every bit as good as the player he was before the injury, when he made three straight Pro Bowls. This will also be his first full season since his rookie campaign in 2010, a small bonus for a player who signed a five-year, $44 million extension even before returning this summer on the final year of his rookie contract.
Second Team: Rodney Hudson, Chiefs
Defensive Line
J.J. Watt, Houston Texans
Calais Campbell, Arizona Cardinals
Ndamukong Suh, Detroit Lions
Michael Bennett, Seattle Seahawks
You wouldn’t really line up these four guys as a 4-3 unit, but I have a feeling they would get the job done. Obviously, that starts with Watt, who spends more time than ever these days playing over the right tackle’s shoulder before endlessly swimming into the backfield as if that tackle weren’t even there. He leads the league in just about everything but sacks:
Stat Leader No. Second No. Sacks Justin Houston 18 J.J. Watt 17.5 Tackles For Loss J.J. Watt 25 Houston/Suh 20 Quarterback Hits J.J. Watt 47 Carlos Dunlap 28 Batted Passes J.J. Watt 9 Alec Ogletree 7 Fumble Recoveries J.J. Watt 5 D’Qwell Jackson 4
Watt gets a second crack at the Jaguars this week in a game the Texans need to win to have any hope of making the playoffs. Jacksonville has allowed 66 sacks this year, 11 more than any other team in football. Watt sacked Blake Bortles three times the last time these teams faced off. Does anybody doubt he’s going to get to 20 and lead the league in just about every possible category a defensive lineman can? The only thing he hasn’t done this year is throw a touchdown pass, and I wouldn’t put it past him on Sunday.
Campbell has been the rock of the Arizona defense on a front seven that has lost three of its other six starters for most or all of the 2014 season. Campbell himself missed two games with a sprained MCL he suffered on a dangerous chop block from Julius Thomas, but he came back without showing any ill effects and continues to make plays in the backfield on a weekly basis. It’s not fair to say he’s single-handedly carrying Arizona’s defense into the playoffs, but this is a team that routinely plays a safety at linebacker and has gotten career years out of rotation linemen like Tommy Kelly and Frostee Rucker. Much of that is the influence Campbell wields at his spot up front.
Suh’s done everything anybody could have asked of him in a contract year. Despite the routine double-teams he faces on the interior of the Detroit defensive line, he leads all mortal defensive linemen with 20 tackles for loss and has more quarterback hits (18) than any other 4-3 defensive tackle. The Lions will comfortably finish with the league’s best run defense DVOA even after losing run-plugging middle linebacker Stephen Tulloch to a torn ACL in September and going without Suh’s partner, Nick Fairley, for the entirety of the second half.
I would have chosen frequent Suh comp Gerald McCoy as the fourth lineman, but McCoy is on injured reserve with a sprained knee and will end up missing three games this year. That’s just enough to swing me to Seattle, where Bennett has done yeoman’s work while moving around the defensive line to put out fires. Seattle lost its best run-stopping defensive tackle (Brandon Mebane) in November and didn’t miss a step thanks to Bennett, who simply doesn’t come off the field these days. During this ridiculous five-game, 33-point stretch for the Seahawks defense, Bennett has played 89.6 percent of the defensive snaps, and that figure would be higher if Pete Carroll hadn’t rested his first-team defense late in the fourth quarter against Arizona on Sunday. 4-3 linemen just don’t do that. Assuming Bennett plays 55 snaps on Sunday against the Rams, he’ll finish the year having played 826 defensive snaps to McCoy’s 664. That 162-snap difference just puts him over the edge for me.
Second Team: Gerald McCoy, Buccaneers; Marcell Dareus, Bills; Fletcher Cox, Eagles; DeMarcus Ware, Broncos
Peter Aiken/Getty Images
Outside Linebacker
Justin Houston, Kansas City Chiefs
Lavonte David, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Two very different types of players fit into this broad category for the purposes of this team. Houston might arguably be the best pure edge rusher in all of football at this point. It’s not just sacks, either; Houston is second in the league in tackles for loss, with 20, and ESPN Stats & Information notes that he has disrupted 3.8 percent of opposing dropbacks this season. The only player who tops him in either category is Watt. He’ll surely be franchised this offseason.
David, meanwhile, continues to roam the earth looking for ballcarriers to swallow up for losses. Despite missing two games, the league’s preeminent 4-3 weakside linebacker has still managed to lead the NFL in defeats this season, topping even the mighty J.J. Watt. He’s second in the league by the NFL’s official count of tackles, with 141, only narrowly behind our All-Pro middle linebacker …
Second Team: DeAndre Levy, Lions; Elvis Dumervil, Ravens
Middle Linebacker
Luke Kuechly, Carolina Panthers
… who leads the league with 145. It hasn’t been quite as impactful of a season for the 2013 Defensive Player of the Year, but Kuechly has remained all over the field for a Panthers defense whose secondary has basically disintegrated. The only linebacker to knock away more passes than Kuechly (nine) is Alec Ogletree of the Rams, who would have been a third-team choice at outside linebacker. I might have preferred Levy (who hasn’t missed a single snap all season) if he had moved full time to middle linebacker in Stephen Tulloch’s absence, and I could have opted for Bobby Wagner, who was incredible but missed five games with a toe injury — but Kuechly’s been good enough to justify his return engagement here.
Second Team: Bobby Wagner, Seahawks
Jim Rogash/Getty Images
Cornerback
Darrelle Revis, New England Patriots
Richard Sherman, Seattle Seahawks
The easiest one-two on the team. There are plenty of deserving cornerbacks worthy of consideration, but Revis and Sherman have been a step above this season. Patriots beat writer Doug Kyed’s game charting notes that Revis has basically turned opposing no. 1 receivers into the 2013 version of Kenbrell Thompkins this season, as they’ve caught 36 passes on 76 targets for just 499 yards and two scores.
Sherman, well, I’m just scared he’s going to get me fired. If I’m being honest, he hasn’t been quite as otherworldly as he was a year ago — teams have had some success attacking him over the top in Seattle’s Cover 3, especially earlier in the season — but he’s still so phenomenally effective that it’s impossible to keep him off of this list. Teams have posted a passer rating of just 64.8 on throws to the right side of the field, where Sherman operates as the left corner. That’s the third-best figure in football.
Second Team: Vontae Davis, Colts, and Brent Grimes, Dolphins
Safety
Earl Thomas, Seattle Seahawks
Antoine Bethea, San Francisco 49ers
Nobody is even in Thomas’s stratosphere. And that was before he got off the quote of the year this week about Marshawn Lynch: “He is who he is. He’s going to hold his [redacted]. That’s what he do.”
Bethea has been the linchpin of the San Francisco defense all season, a unit that led the league in pass defense DVOA for a good chunk of the year, despite starting afterthoughts like Perrish Cox and Chris Culliver at cornerback. Ask Colts fans whether they miss Bethea and you might have to wait a few minutes for them to stop crying. He’s one of the few 49ers who can come away from this season with his head held high.
Second Team: Devin McCourty, Patriots; T.J. McDonald, Rams
Special Teams
Pat McAfee, Indianapolis Colts
Stephen Gostkowski, New England Patriots
Darren Sproles, Philadelphia Eagles
McAfee is the best specialist in all of football, as he’s a candidate to be both the best punter in football and the best kickoff specialist in the league. He’s second in the league in touchback percentage (74.2 percent), and his punts have produced a net of 44.2 yards, which also leaves him second-best in football.
Only McAfee’s teammate Adam Vinatieri has produced more points above expectations on field goals than Gostkowski this year, and I’m putting Gostkowski ahead of Vinatieri because the Patriots kicker also remains above-average on kickoffs.
Sproles finishes the team off as the only returner in football with two touchdowns this season. His work as a return man and situational running back helped keep the Eagles afloat early in the season, and while he faded as the year went along, the trade that sent him to Philadelphia for a fifth-round pick remains one of the most lopsided deals of 2014.
Second Team: Matt Bryant, Falcons; Kevin Huber, Bengals; De’Anthony Thomas, ChiefsFinal Exit (fully titled Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying) is a 1991 book written by Derek Humphry, a British-born American journalist, author, and assisted suicide advocate who co-founded the now-defunct Hemlock Society in 1980 and co-founded the Final Exit Network in 2004. The book was first published in 1991 by Dell Publishing under the name Dell Trade. The current edition was published in 2010.[1]
The book, often described as a "suicide manual", describes the means that the terminally ill may use to end their lives. The book further outlines relevant laws, techniques, and living wills.[2] Final Exit was perceived as controversial,[3] and the book drove debate regarding the right to die. Another concern was that people who were mentally ill could use the information found in the book to end their lives.[4][5] Despite the controversy, Final Exit reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list in August.[6]
Final Exit Network claims that approximately 750,000 copies have been sold in the United States and Canada and approximately 500,000 elsewhere. The book is banned in France.[7] Final Exit is Derek Humphry’s third book on the subject of self-euthanasia; it was preceded by Jean's Way (1978) and The Right to Die: Understanding Euthanasia (1986)
Success of the book [ edit ]
In 1991, Final Exit spent 18 weeks on the New York Times non-fiction Best Seller list, it reached #1 in August,, and was 25th on USA Today's April 2007 list of 25 books that leave a legacy.[8]
It has been translated into 12 languages.[9] The original English language version is in its third edition.
In 2000, Derek Humphry recorded a VHS video version of the information in the book[10]; a DVD version[11] and a Kindle version[12] were released in 2006 and 2011, respectively.
The ethicist Peter Singer included it on a list of his top ten books in The Guardian.[13]
References in pop culture [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]Olga Kotelko is a 95 year-old masters athlete who now holds more than 30 world records in track and field. She continues to defy conventional wisdom about aging. Her goal is to live to see 125 years of age. Physicians and scientists credit her long healthy life to healthy habits, vigorous daily exercise, positive attitude, and a passion for living.
Olga found track and field at the age of 77 after playing slow pitch softball since the budding age of 70. Her late entry into the sport may be a blessing. Her body is relatively fresh as compared to an athlete who is competing after suffering decades of wear and tear already. Contrary to traditional thinking, many seniors have the capacity for strenuous exercise (sweating is good). Daily exercise is a force multiplier in terms of staying physically young.
Bruce Grierson knows that Olga is special. His new book, What Makes Olga Run? is part biography, part self-improvement, and part research paper on the science of anti-aging. Grierson’s narrative keeps the reader’s interested in their own welfare as he reveals clues to Olga’s success. This was a hard book to put down.
Olga has outlived all ten of her siblings and one of her two children. She’s 95 now, and claims she feels more like 50. Could it be genetics? Diet? Sleep? Exercise? Faith? Friends? Yes to all. Each of those areas have a huge impact on overall health and well-being. But, attitude trumps them all.
Olga set an unbelievable 26 world track and field records by the time she was 94. But, rather than take it easy and revel in her glory, she was motivated by the chance to chase a whole new set of records once she turned 95. Game on!
The masters track meets are a place for seniors to not only compete against each other, but also to make meaningful friendships. Olga and her fellow athletes know that they are not alone, their efforts are recorded and appreciated, and the next meet is already scheduled.
[amazonjs asin=”0805097201″ locale=”US” tmpl=”Small” title=”What Makes Olga Run?: The Mystery of the 90-Something Track Star and What She Can Teach Us About Living Longer, Happier Lives”]
Like this: Like Loading...Three new and very different Toronto restaurants in a raft of new openings this year lured me in on a recent trip. I enjoyed terrific Thai food at Kiin in the financial district, saw the best views of Toronto at KOST, a restaurant on the 44th floor of the new Bisha Hotel and entered a secret door into comic book heaven at Figures, a new fine dining establishment in Yorkville.
Kiin, the new venture by Chef Nuit Regular and Jeff Regular, was already busy when I visited not long after its opening and after sampling the food I can confidently say that a reservation would be highly advisable to secure a table. I’ve been raving about the food ever since my visit to Kiin to whoever will listen because it really was one of the finest meals I’ve ever had. The attention to detail, both in the presentation and the food itself was astonishing. Every dish was a work of art and a delight to the palate.
Building on the success of Pai that serves outstanding Thai street food, Nuit and Jeff decided that their new restaurant would serve the type of food served in Thai royal palaces. The interior design reflects this aim and is understandably less casual than Pai but the bright, elegant decor makes for a relaxing atmosphere. The Regulars worked with Steven Fong Architect to give the feel of Thai colonial style architecture and the royal palaces. One wall in the restaurant features photos of Thai royalty. The food mirrors the decor with royal Thai cuisine focusing on beautiful presentation and the use of the freshest, seasonal ingredients to create dishes with delicate and complex flavors and textures.
If you're looking for those Thai restaurant favorites, pad thai or green curry, you'll need to visit Pai, the Regular's other restaurant which is also great. The menu at Kiin offers more sophisticated dishes. Sharing plates such as Yum Tua Plu, a dish made of wing beans with chilli shrimp paste, toasted coconut, peanut and soft boiled duck eggs is a riot of flavors and colors. Gaeng Boombai, a braised beef short rib with tamarind, field cucumber and pearl onions is so tender it melts in your mouth. Other standout dishes include the royal Thai dumpling platter, almost too beautiful to eat, Pomelo Salad with peanuts, poached shrimp, toasted coconut, lemongrass, sawtooth coriander, lime fish sauce dressing and Mieng Pla, a sea salt-crusted whole sea bream with Thai herbs and baby gem lettuce wraps.
Kiin, 326 Adelaide Street West, Toronto M5V 1R3 Tel:(647) 490-5040
For anyone who pines after the superhero and comic book characters of their childhood, Figures, a new 80-seat eatery in Yorkville is just the ticket. Co-owners Nader and Patrick Marzouk have aimed to create an atmosphere of fun and adventure, as well as comfort and nostalgia. After pressing a large red button at the entrance of what looks and is a comic and superhero memorabilia shop, a secret door in the wall swings open and you enter a darkened dining room decorated with superhero and comic book “figures” drawn by local artists commissioned by Prototype Design Lab. The fun continues with a cocktail menu created by well-known Toronto mixologist James Bailey who has worked alongside Frankie Solarik at Toronto’s Furlough by BarChef.
And the good news is that, even if you’re not a superhero fan, the food is more fine dining than burger joint. Seasonally-inspired sharing plates and larger-format dishes change regularly, based on ingredient availability. From the varied menu, we chose delicately cooked scallops flavored with lime, accompanied by sweet potato and steak frites with an excellent béarnaise sauce. Desserts include childhood comfort food like S'mores and peanut butter and jam donuts. After dinner, Figures becomes a late-night club with DJs and live music.
Figures, 137 Avenue Rd, Toronto, ON, M53 1R2 Tel:(416) 900-1022
For fine food and one of the best views of Toronto, head to KOST restaurant, on the expansive roof terrace on the 44th floor of Bisha Hotel. With incredible, panoramic views of the city, Lake Ontario and Toronto’s iconic CN Tower, as well as an infinity pool, the food seems almost irrelevant but it deserves high praise as well. Although the infinity pool is open only to hotel guests and condo residents, KOST, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner plus its lively cocktail bar, is open to non-residents as well.
KOST's lunch menu is bursting with Mexican/Californian flavors, featuring seafood (tuna ceviche, trout, mussels), fresh fruit and salads, acai bowls and avocado toast. Trout with poached eggs over a spicy tomato salsa is a flavorful and highly satisfying lunch dish.
Bisha Hotel, 80 Blue Jays Way, Toronto, Ontario Tel: 844-275-1726The War on Human Extinction
Brock Ganeles Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 14, 2016
The planet needs a public relations department. Climate Change is boring. No one wants to talk about it. Three Presidential debates and barely a mention. America’s top journalists had the opportunity to grill our two candidates on the most pressing issues in the world and there was barely a word on the environment. The long-term fate of humanity did not make it to the list of priorities. It’s a drag on ratings and does not generate clicks on the website the next morning. The planet has no entertainment value.
Becoming a Soldier
Climate Change has not succeeded in getting into America’s DNA. The issue has two major problems: 1) it does not connect on a human level and 2) it cannot be solved quickly. We have no inspirational “ice bucket challenge” for the planet. Consistent and long-term initiatives are not conducive to an emotional burst of support. Thus, the issue needs to be framed more aggressively to engender a higher sense of urgency and ultimately action by the American public. It is time declare war. I am no longer a proponent for “Climate Change” or focused on “Saving the Planet”. Too boring. Too soft. Too defensive. And not aligned with American values. We don’t save things. We fight for things. Therefore, I am now a soldier in the “War on Human Extinction”.
The World is Flat?
The first battles must be against the anti-science tactics of Climate Change deniers and must be addressed head on. We can’t laud the efforts of science on in curing cancer, exploring travel to Mars and developing self-driving cars while at the same time allowing science to be denigrated. The actual scientific analysis of Climate Change must be simplified into bites that can be digested by a non-technical audience. Climate Change deniers are this generation’s “World is flat” proponents and need to be labelled as such. No person in a position of power or elected office should be allowed to skate on this topic. It is hard to position oneself as an agent of change when you are adopting a major policy position reminiscent of an ignorant belief espoused in the 1600’s. It is even harder to be on the wrong side of America’s War on Human Extinction. It’s downright unpatriotic. The opposition needs to be put in this box.
Getting into the Living Room
Because this is a long-term battle we will also need some gamification and some buzzwords to keep attention. Cue the creatives and the PR community. Great documentaries are helpful to educate intellectuals, but they do not attract the masses. As an example, let’s compare climate change to concussions. Both had overwhelming science as to their detrimental impact and people in power ignoring or downplaying the concerns. But concussions impacted our beloved NFL players and affected our Fantasy Football teams. A high-profile Hollywood movie on the concussion topic helped push the issue over the tipping point. Now there are few parents in America not aware of concussion risks. It influences decisions made about their children every day. The issue got into America’s living rooms and will never be downplayed again. Another prime example is the pollution campaign from the 1970’s featuring a crying Native American. The collective psyche of the country was touched and behavior changed.
The Scoreboard
Americans will rise to a challenge. Let’s develop a climate scoreboard and throw down the gauntlet. We need to define winning on key topics such as:
1) Heat index
2) Air quality
3) Sea level
Connect specific every day actions to the +/- on the scoreboard and frame public policy by how they impact the “Human Life Forever” scoreboard. Every American will be a player in this battle for survival.
Policy Becomes the Easy Part
As for the actual clean energy policy, the fight needs to be aggressive. This is war. This is not an issue that can afford to be soft-pedaled. As an example, let’s take the War on Human Extinction to one of the front lines. Republican candidates accused Democrats as of fighting a “war on coal”, positioned it as an assault on workers and an attack on a treasured American way of life. I am all for job creation, but not every job needs to be preserved. Coal as a fossil fuel has a negative impact on the planet and mining ranks as one of the least healthy occupations known to man. (Somebody dig up the statistics on life expectancy of coal workers, on the job deaths, lung disease, etc.). We need to give coal miners’ lungs the attention of NFL football players’ brains. Politicians should be criticized for promoting this way of life. It’s amoral to willingly destroy our planet and it’s an insult to tell people the only job for which they are qualified is in a “Death Trap” aka the coal mine. Mitch McConnell needs to be labeled the “death trap” proponent. Instead, let’s provide an economic incentive to build a solar panel or wind turbine plant in West Virginia. Enfranchise the manufacturing sector and the people who know how to build things in this country to lead the charge of winning on the “Human Life” scoreboard. This will also connect the technologists on the Coasts and the working class of Middle America. Energy policy and Climate Change are intertwined and because they touch all of us they are a connective thread. It gets all of America on the same page for the future. From a political tactics basis, I will let Mitch McConnell fight the coal war while I fight the War on Human Extinction.
Leadership Requires Walking the Walk
Instead of allowing “death trap” policies to take hold. Saving the planet needs to positioned as a bigger game. A greater challenge. The Space Race for the modern era. Becoming the world leader on Climate Change must be made synonymous with a truly great America. Only an overwhelming commitment to this cause will allow us to credibly lead others around the world. The Country does need to unite. America needs to come together to fight and win the “War on Human Extinction”.Rory McIlroy hit a 436-yard bomb on Thursday at the Euro Tour’s Scottish Open, driving the green that was occupied by the playing group in front of him. As a comparison, no player on the PGA Tour has hit a 400-yard drive this season. (The longest belongs to Webb Simpson’s 397-yard poke at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.)
The best part of the clip below is the camera focusing on a landing area at around 320 yards, then confusedly panning and panning and panning to find the ball. You can almost feel the cameraman’s disbelief when McIlroy’s shot is spied trickling onto the green.
Sure, the hole was playing downwind on a notoriously breezy links course, but that’s like Usain Bolt running a 9.50 and saying “yeah, but there was a tailwind.”
McIlroy two-putted for a birdie three, en route to a course-record 64 at Royal Aberdeen.
After the round, he said he joked with Ian Poulter, who was in the group ahead, about the shot.
“I told Poulter it was a 3-wood.”Not to be confused with the Czech sailor Michal Maier
Michael Maier[1] (Latin: Michael Maierus; 1568–1622) was a German physician and counsellor to Rudolf II Habsburg. He was a learned alchemist, epigramist and amateur composer.[2]
Early life [ edit ]
Maier was born in Rendsburg, Holstein, the son of a specialist in beadwork in embroidery named Peter Maier.[2] He studied philosophy and medicine at Rostock (1587–1591), Frankfurt (Oder) (M.A. 1592), and Padua (1595–1596).[2] Maier left Padua abruptly after getting involved in a fight, injuring the other party, and being arrested.[2] He went on to the University of Basel, where he attained a doctorate in medicine in October 1596. His doctoral thesis, De epilepsia was dedicated to Matthias Carnarius.[2] Maier then returned to Holstein to practice medicine. Around 1599, he became interested in alchemy and attempted to create an alchemical concordance, synthesizing the works of different authors.[2]
In the service of Rudolf II (1609-1611) [ edit ]
In 1608, he went to Prague, and on 19 September 1609, he formally entered the service of Rudolf II as his physician and imperial counsellor. Ten days later, Rudolf raised him to the hereditary nobility and gave him the title of Imperial Count Palatine.[2] He was granted a coat of arms which depicted a bird, bonded together with frog by a golden chain. Around this time, Maier published an extremely limited print run of De Medicina Regia et vere Heroica, Coelidonia (1609), including in it his autobiography. The interest of the emperor in the occult was the reason of his high esteem for Maier. However, by April 1611, Rudolf's political position had substantially deteriorated, and he was more or less imprisoned in his castle in Prague[3] Maier left the city that month. He corresponded with Moritz of Hessen-Kassel, and visited Hessen-Kassel's brother-in-law, Count Ernst III of Holstein-Schauenburg. He was also a guest of Christoph Reinhard, Doctor of Laws and town syndic of Mühlhausen, to whom he later dedicated his book Atalanta Fugiens.[2]
In England 1611-1616 [ edit ]
First Maier visited the Netherlands where he stayed with Petrus Carpenterius in Rotterdam. Carpernterius had previously been the rector of a Walloon school in Norwich in 1598.[4] From there he continued on to London arriving in 1611 or 1612. Whether he had arrived in person or not by Christmas 1611 is unknown, but he did send Christmas cards to both James I and his son Prince Henry.
He composed a wedding song for the nuptials of Frederick V of the Palatinate to Elizabeth Stuart daughter of James I. He was in London on 6 November 1612, attending the Funeral of Prince Henry in the retinue of Frederick of the Palatinate.
His first well-known book, Arcana arcanissima, was published in London in 1613 or 1614, and he dedicated copies to a number of notables, including the Bishop of Ely and Sir Thomas Smith of the East India Company.[2]
Atalanta Fugiens by Michael Maier. Image taken from the hermetic splendid bookby Michael Maier.
Maier returned to Germany in September 1616, settling in Frankfurt am Main.[2] His Atalanta Fugiens, an alchemical emblem book, was published in 1617. Alongside images, poems, and discussion, it included fifty pieces of music in the form of fugues, the form itself being a pun on Atalanta "fleeing". In 1619, Maier became the physician of Landgrave Moritz of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel). In 1620, he moved to Magdeburg to practice medicine, where he died at the age of 54, leaving a noteworthy quantity of unpublished works.
A devout Lutheran all his life, Michael Maier had a strong influence on Sir Isaac Newton.[5] He was also involved in the Rosicrucian movement that appeared around this time, which afforded part of the matter of his Themis aurea.[6]
Influence [ edit ]
The 1656 English translation of Themis Aurea appeared as Themis Aurea: The Laws of the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross, and was dedicated to Elias Ashmole.[7] Under the initials N.L.T.S. and H.S. the dedicators justified their dedication over three pages; they are now identified as Nathaniel Hodges, and Thomas Hodges (either his father or his brother, both of that name).[8] Ashmole, they said, began to learn seal engraving, casting in sand, and goldsmith's work when living in Blackfriars, London, at which time he was initiated into rosicrucian "secrets" by William Backhouse of Swallowfield in Berkshire.[9] While illustrating the chain of Rosie Cross links from Michael Maier and Robert Fludd, via Backhouse to Ashmole, the details given about Ashmole's training as a craftsman could illustrate the background of the latter's acception in operative masonry.
James Brown Craven, who gave detailed descriptions of the works above in his catalogue raissonée (1910) of Michael Maier, also included the 1654 English translation of Lusus Serius: or, Serious Passtime. A Philosophical Discourse...wherein Hermes or Mercury is declared King of all Worldly things. The copy from the Bodleian Library described by Craven[10] was dedicated "To the Honourable Cary Dillon, Esq., Son to Robert, late Earle of Roscommon by J. de la Salle" [i.e., John Hall of Durham]. This is a fair example of the intellectual circle in which Maier's work circulated contemporary with the association of Rosie Cross with Elias Ashmole.
Works [ edit ]
Atalanta fugiens, 1617 Discursus XXXI, Epigramma XXXI, from, 1617
De Medicina Regia et vere heroica, Coelidonia. 1609.
1609. Hymnosophia.
Arcana arcanissima, hoc est, Hieroglyphica Ægyptio-Graeca: vulgo necdum cognita, ad demonstrandam falsorum apud antiquos deorum, dearum, heroum, animantium, et institutorum pro sacris receptorum, originem, ex uno Ægyptiorum artificio, quad aureum animi et Corporis medicamentum peregit, deductam: unde tot poetarum allegoriae, scriptorum narrationes fabulosae et per totam encyclopaediam errores sparsi clarissima veritatis luce manifestantur, suaque tribui singula restituuntur, sex libris exposita. London: Creede, 1614. [11]
London: Creede, 1614. De Circulo physico, quadrato: Hoc est, de Auro ejusque virtute medicinali, sub duro cortice instar nuclei latente, an et qualis inde petenda sit tractatus haut inutilis. Oppenheim: Lucas Jennis, 1616.
Oppenheim: Lucas Jennis, 1616. Lusus Serius. Oppenheim, 1616.
Oppenheim, 1616. Silentium Post Clamores, 1617.
1617. Symbola aureae mensae duodecim nationum, hoc est Hermaea seu Mercurii festa ab heroibus duodenis selectis, artis chymicae usu, sapientia et authoritate paribus celebrata, ad Pyrgopolynicen seu adversarium illum tot annis jactabundum, virgini Chemiae injuriam argumentis tam vitiosis quam convitiis argutis inferentem, confundendum et exarmandum, artifices vero optime de ea meritos suo honori et famae restituendum. Frankfurt a. M: Lucas Jennis, 1617.
Frankfurt a. M: Lucas Jennis, 1617. Atalanta Fugiens. Oppenheim, Johann Theodori de Bry, 1617.
Oppenheim, Johann Theodori de Bry, 1617. Examen Fucorum Pseudo-Chymicorum. 1617.
1617. Jocus Severus. Frankfurt, 1617.
Frankfurt, 1617. Tripus Aureus, Frankfurt, 1618.
, Frankfurt, 1618. Viatorium. Frankfurt, 1618.
Frankfurt, 1618. Themis Aurea, hoc est, de Legibus Fraternitatis R. C. tractatus, quo earum cum rei veritate convenientia, utilitas publica et privata, nec non causa necessaria, evoluntur et demonstrantur. 1618.
1618. Tractus de Volugri Arborea. 1619.
1619. Verum Inventum. 1619.
1619. Septimana Philosophica 1620.
1620. Civitas Corporis Humani. 1621.
1621. Cantilenae Intelectuales de Phoenice Redivivo ; or Chansons Intelectuelles sur la resurection Du Phenix. 1622.
; or 1622. Ulysses. Sapientia seu intelligentia, tanquam coelestis scintilla beatitudinis, quod si in fortunae et corporis bonis naufragium faciat, ad portum meditationis et patientiae remingio feliciter se expediat. 1624. (Posthumous)
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Environment Canada has “muzzled” its scientists, ordering them to refer all media queries to Ottawa where communications officers will help them respond with “approved lines.”
The new policy, which went into force in recent weeks and sent a chill through the department research divisions, is designed to control the department’s media message and ensure there are no “surprises” for Environment Minister John Baird and senior management when they open the newspaper or turn on the television, according to documents obtained by Canwest News Service.
“Just as we have ‘one department, one website' we should have ‘one department, one voice,' ” says a PowerPoint presentation from Environment Canada’s executive management committee that’s been sent to department staff.
It |
receive, the more we demonstrate global support for our initiative, providing a mandate for our respective governments to adopt free movement as official immigration policy.– we rely solely on financial donations from the general public to ensure that free movement between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom is recognised and discussed among MPs, senior government officials and diplomats.– change within our parliaments begins with parliamentary members drafting Bills and promoting causes which the public support. By writing to your local MP, you are asking them to represent your voice in parliament and advocate CANZUK free movement within their respective national governments.Advertising pays for a lot of what you see on the Internet. This makes ad blockers a big deal. Readers are using them. Advertisers are panicking about them. Publishers are attempting to quash them. Meanwhile, ad blockers market themselves as a way to speed up web browsing while you skirt evil data collectors and attention-hungry advertisers. But ad blockers are running businesses too. And their business models aren't too far off from the very ones that publishers and advertisers use to make money on the web.
Content industry anxiety spiked last year when Apple said ad blockers would begin working on iPhones. Since then, the advertising and publishing industries have been in a kind of endless panic, trying to work together to clean up the way they serve up content and ads. While there are no reliable estimates on how many people use ad blockers, the general consensus is that the number is growing.
One thing's for sure: a veritable cottage industry of ad blockers has cropped up. Some have been around for years, while others were newly created for ad block-capable iPhones. This already bustling industry seems likely to continue to bustle, in part because there seems to be some real money to be made in blocking ads. As publishers and advertisers try to reinvent or at least refresh how they make money off of your attention, ad blockers are pushing just as hard to make money off of ending distraction.
The Business of Blocking
The ad-blocking industry can be broken down into a few major categories. Some of them don't make any money at all. But many do, in sometimes surprising ways.
First, there are the ad blockers that block, well, nearly every ad and tracker. Privacy Badger, for example, is a nonprofit blocker operated by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that detects and blocks what it calls “non-consensual tracking," or ads and trackers that follow you around from site to site, serving you up, say, an ad about sneakers in a banner after you browse the Nike site. In effect, if you use Privacy Badger, it prevents your browser from loading anything from third-parties that you haven't agreed to see. The EFF accepts donations (and coding help), but the site itself operates as a nonprofit.
On the other hand, Adblock Plus—possibly the most popular ad blocker on the Internet—is a business. For you, the web user, it’s a free browser extension that blocks ads, banners, pop-ups, and video ads. It also disables tracking services. But for many in the publishing and ad industries, it’s the scourge of the web. And it takes advantage of that antagonism.
Adblock Plus doesn’t block all ads, but rather operates what it calls an “acceptable ads” program, where ads that meet its criteria for things like placement, size, and distinction, are “whitelisted”—that is, if the company displaying the ads is willing to split the revenue gained by whitelisting with Adblock Plus. Companies can apply to have their sites whitelisted, but Adblock Plus has also reached out to some to solicit their business. Other ad blockers, such as mobile app Crystal, take a similar whitelisting approach.
Ghostery, another popular ad blocker, operates under a different model. As a user, you don't see ads and aren't tracked by pesky data trackers. The company, however, makes money by collecting anonymized data on what those trackers pick up. It repackages that data and resells it to publishers, websites, and other companies it says can use the information to help improve the speed, privacy, and performance of their sites.1 (Ghostery users can choose whether or not they want their data to be shared.)
Mobile ad blockers such as Disconnect and 1Blocker operate under a “freemium” model, which allow you to download the service, but then charges for certain options like being able to block more than one irritant at a time. Apps like Purify, meanwhile, just charge you a few bucks when you download them on your phone.
The Future of Ads
To some in the publishing and ad industries, these business models are nothing less than extortion.
"The ad-block profiteers are building for-profit companies whose business models are premised on impeding the movement of commercial, political, and public-service communication between and among producers and consumers," Randall Rothenberg, the president and CEO of advertising trade group Interactive Advertising Bureau, said in a speech earlier this year. "They offer to lift their toll gates for those wealthy enough to pay them off, or who submit to their demands that they constrict their freedom of speech to fit the shackles of their revenue schemes."
Adblock Plus in particular has come under fire from some publishers and advertisers. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Taboola, for example, have all reportedly paid hefty fees to Adblock Plus to have their ads whitelisted, according to The Financial Times.
But Ben Williams, the founder of Adblock Plus, says his software is a way to help clean up the internet—to provide, as he says, "a scalpel rather than a baseball bat."
"We realized it could kill the biggest form of advertisement on the web," Williams says about Adblock Plus after it launched in 2006. "What 'Acceptable Ads' does is provide a fair way for publishers and advertisers to reach a previously lost audience."
Blowing Up the System
Many publishers would likely argue that it's lost that audience because of ad blockers themselves. But concern over ad-blocking has also spurred soul-searching in the industry, as well as aspirations to innovation, such as WIRED's own ad-free subscription service, which launched last month. The trade group IAB released a report last year on how advertisers should change their digital ads to be cleaner and less intrusive.
Jason Kint, the head of Digital Context Next, a digital publishing industry trade group that represents publishers (including WIRED parent company Condé Nast), says that focusing on ad blockers’ business models is a “red herring." The industry, he says, should be focused instead on serving its readers.
Or it could try the nuclear option: going to court. Benjamin Edelman, a Harvard Business School associate professor who studies online advertising, says publishers could try to shut down blockers with a copyright lawsuit. “You’ve modified our website for your business purposes... You've modified it in order to get us to pay you tribute, in order to get us to buy our ads back in. You claim it’s all about protecting consumers from bad ads, but actually you’re perfectly willing to certify our ads so long as we paid you,” he says publishers could argue. That line of argument might work, he says. In copyright fair use lawsuits, Edelman explains, the economic impact is the single most important factor, meaning money is taken into account when weighing the impact on the creator of the original work (in this case, publishers, whose works are their websites).
Meanwhile, advertisers themselves are looking to the future. Chris Tuff, the executive vice president and director of business development and partnerships at ad agency 22squared, calls the current dust-up over online ads a transition period. The advertising industry is already finding more value in a different kind of ad: so-called native advertising, which looks more like the content consumers are coming to websites to see in the first place. “People don’t mind advertising as long as it’s relevant,” Tuff says.
"Will there be banner ads in 10 years? Doubt it," he says. "We’ll be moving to content. You have to blend in to stand out."
1UPDATE 3:47 PM ET 03/02/16: This story has been updated to accurately reflect that Ghostery does not collect the same data that third-party trackers collect, but rather collects and sells data about the trackers themselves.A man who tossed a beer can onto the Rogers Centre field during a Blue Jays wild-card game in Toronto last fall has pleaded guilty to mischief under $5,000 in a Toronto court.
Kenneth Pagan appeared at Old City Hall court this morning before Justice Robert Bigelow, according to his defence lawyer Tyler Smith.
Pagan threw the beer can onto the field during a game between the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles on Oct. 4, 2016.
Police released an image of Pagan after the game. He surrendered to police at 52 Division two days after the incident.
The toss occurred in the bottom of the seventh inning, as Orioles outfielder Hyun Soo Kim was tracking a fly ball. As he made the catch, a beer was thrown out of the left-field stands and onto the field, narrowly missing Kim.
The toss triggered a social media frenzy as many analyzed photographs and video footage from the game to figure out where the can had come from.
Pagan is scheduled for a sentencing hearing on June 28.The situation in the ATO zone escalated yesterday. “Russian occupational troops increased number and intensity of attacks at Ukrainian troops’ positions. In particular, they used Grad multiple rocket launchers and repeatedly opened fire from barrel artillery. Number of projectiles launched at Ukrainian troops’ positions along the entire frontline yesterday exceeded 400, informed the spokesman of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on ATO relatedissues C olonel Andriy Lysenko at a pre ss briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
In the Luhansk sector militants instigated 15 armed provocations, namely 11 from heavy weapons. Over 150 projectiles were launched at Ukrainian positions. In Krymske militants instigated one armed provocation in the morning and three more in the afternoon, using mortars twice. First attacks in the Popasna district started after 5 p.m. “Novooleksandrivka, Novozvanivka and Popasna came under hostile mortar fire. The enemy opened fire from 152-mm artillery and Grad MRLS at Troitske after 10 p.m. Insurgents were shelling Novooleksandrivka and Novozvanivka from 122-mm artillery in the late evening,” said Col. Lysenko.
In the Donetsk sector militants violated the armistice 16 times and conducted 11 mortar attacks. In total, over 140 projectiles were launched at Ukrainian positions. Most attacks took place in Kamianka– Avdiivka-Butovka coal mine position. Russian proxies were shelling Avdiivka from mortars and grenade launchers between 4 and 7 a.m. “Three buildings were damaged in Avdiivka in a hostile attack around 3 a.m,” said Col. Lysenko. Sporadic provocations took place during the day. Insurgents resumed attacks from mortars, grenade launchers and small arms between 4 and 8 p.m. Russia-backed militants opened fire from light arms and mortars in the vicinity of the Svitlodarsk bulge and Horlivka perimeter. Two mortar attacks took place in Verkhniotoretske. The armistice held in the vicinity of the Donetsk airport.
In the Mariupol sector most attacks took place in Pavlopil-Shykolyne- Mariinkyi area and northern Volnovakha district. Militants were shelling Ukrainian positions from light weapons at dawn, and Shyrokyne was attacked from 122-mm artillery between 4 and 7 p.m. “Occupants shelled Krasnohorivka, Mariinka, Chermalyk, Pavlopila nd Hnutove from mortars during the day, and another artillery attack at Shyrokyne occurred around 8 p.m.,” added the spokesman. In total, 26 militants’ attacks took place in the Mariupol sector, and heavy armor was used 12 times. Over 120 projectiles were launched at Ukrainian positions.
Ukrainian Armed Forces incurred no losses in combat yesterday, and seven troops were wounded.
Col. Lysenko also informed that two days ago militants shelled Red Cross mission while they were holding a humanitarian action in the temporarily occupied part of the Donetsk region. “Several machine gun bursts were fired in close proximity to people and vehicles while a prearranged distribution of food packages and personal care kits was taking place in Dolomitne settlement. Luckily, there were no casualties,” said the spokesman.
Report on the military developments as of May 19 is available here. Interactive data on the shelling: chronology shelling chart and the interactive map.The Navi Mumbai police and social workers rescued a 22-year-old man Raj Patel who was locked up in his 100 sq feet bedroom of a duplex flat for ten years, reports The Indian Express. His family lives in the lower floor of the duplex home. The flat is located in Sanjivani building in Belapur and belongs to the family. Raj's father is a businessman and has nine other children.
Sharada Shah, President of the Damini Sena who helped rescue Raj reportedly says that all other tenants except the family had moved out following litigation issues. “They (the family) continued to stay in the building without any water or electricity supply,” she was quoted in the report. Sharada also reportedly said that Raj's step-mother and step-sisters wanted Raj to live separately.
According to the social workers, it was only after contacting the local police they could rescue Raj and no one ever tried to contact the family.
The social workers reported that the the floor where Raj lived was covered in faeces. “It was terrifying to walk upstairs. The passage next to the lift was filled with faecal matter. The place was stinking because of the faecal matter all around the room," says Shah. Raj would get food covered in newspapers, but he had reportedly used them to cover the faecal matter in his room. The watchman too had complained that someone would throw faeces from the room's window.
When the rescuers came they found Raj naked trying to cover himself with a gunny bag, according to the report.
Raj was hesitant to step into the ambulance but did so only after being given two vada pavs to eat. "It was only when we gave him two bags of vada pav that Raj followed our instructions,” said Shah. The family did not object to Raj being taken away.
Sharada Shah said that the last time Raj was seen out of his own was when he was a teenager. "He survived on a bare minimum supply of food and water. It looked like he had not taken a bath for the last 10 years," she says in the report.
Raj was seen clutching two polythene bags and repeatedly saying 'Dada food' when he was taken out of his confinement. Raj has been admitted to DY Patil hospital.
The Navi Mumbai police has decided not to file charges against the family for the moment but instead focus on providing psychiatric assistance to Raj and his family members. We will soon decide what sort of action needs to be taken against the family,” said a police officer.Tyne Talk
Newcastle United Financial Accounts – Where Has The Money Gone Under Mike Ashley?
Football is a game of opinions, it is what keeps us all going in between those ninety minutes’ that are played on the green stuff.
Sadly, much of the chat between fans these days isn’t just about what happens on the field of play, instead much of our time (including on this website) is spent discussing how the club is run off the pitch under Mike Ashley.
The finances coming into the sharpest focus when for example Newcastle United don’t buy a single player in the summer window just gone by.
Alan Pardew has regularly told us that Newcastle can’t compete when it comes to the financial side of things, justifying the lack of transfer activity and Newcastle United’s place in the scheme of things.
To back this message up, we have been treated to some quite bizarre columns appearing under Joe Kinnear’s name in recent matchday programmes, for example lecturing fans about the ins and outs of FFP (Financial Fair Play) and United’s commercial income compared to other clubs. All very bizarre, not just the ridiculous nature of what they are saying, in my opinion, but that they also expect us to actually believe that Joe Kinnear has written it.
Repeatedly it is hammered home, Newcastle fans who think their club should be able to compete these days with the ‘big boys’, or indeed the not so big boys, are clearly deluded.
So is that the end of it? Should we just accept that Newcastle will always now be also-rans, with no chance of ever competing with what people generally see now as the ‘top six’, or even those below that?
Alan Pardew has often said that off the pitch there is no way Newcastle can compete with Manchester United financially but to many of us that isn’t the point. What I, and many others, believe is that a well run Newcastle United can year after year build its way into a club that can compete with those in that top six. Newcastle will never have a turnover that matches Manchester United but what NUFC are capable of, is making massive strides in closing the gap on those other clubs in that top six and eventually getting in amongst them.
How can this be done? Well the answers to many puzzles are often to be found by looking backwards to help take us forwards.
Newcastle United’s financial position is currently;
1. Mike Ashley has made clear Newcastle United has to live within its means, he isn’t going to put his own money in to subsidise the running of his club (asset).
2. The second part of the equation is that the income Newcastle bring in from commercial activities and match day revenue streams, is far lower than that of those top six and much of a muchness now with clubs such as Everton, Villa and others.
So that’s it then, isn’t it? If you believe so then it is a depressing reality because then the only possible advantage Newcastle could have over any of our ‘competitors’ is Graham Carr unearthing player after player who will massively increase in value, with Newcastle selling high and reinvesting in other hidden gems.
Obviously it is a huge benefit to have somebody of Graham Carr’s experience and expertise but it isn’t a whole plan or strategy in itself. For starters every club is looking to get quality players at the best price, plus for every success you will have players who don’t increase in value.
So the bottom line is that for Newcastle United to realistically compete year after year and have a chance of winning trophies you need money, the conundrum is where can it come from?
The financial information below, comes from the annual Deloitte reports, or the ‘Rich List’ as it is often referred to. Deloitte put out a report examining the twenty football clubs with the highest turnovers in the world, they look at each club and see where they get their money from.
The income is divided into Matchday, which includes all money generated such as corporates and boxes, not just the ‘ordinary’ fan buying tickets.
Then you have Broadcasting which is almost exclusively from the various TV deals both in the UK and increasingly, income generated from overseas rights.
Finally, Commercial income, which is pretty much everything not included in the other two categories; shirt sponsor, merchandise, kit deal, perimeter advertising inside St.James’ Park and increasingly (for most clubs) all kinds of tie-ins with companies both in the UK and again increasingly around the world, with the reach of the English Premier League allowing its clubs to bring in massive amounts of extra cash due to the exposure. This was given a massive shot in the arm with the latest North American deal seeing matches shown live on terrestial TV over the pond, making the audience infinitely greater.
So what about Newcastle United?
Well look at these figures we have taken from various Deloitte reports, as a decent illustration we have compared Newcastle United’s figures with Tottenham’s, for the three seasons before Mike Ashley took over and then the latest available Deloitte report for the 2011/12 season when Newcastle finished fifth in the Premier League.
Have a good look.
The world placing refers to highest turnovers in the world, so basically in 2004/05, Newcastle’s was the 12th biggest and Spurs’ was 13th.
Then we have the overall turnover figure, before the breakdown of that figure into the three different categories that make up the total..
World Placing Turnover Matchday Revenue Broadcasting Revenue Commercial Revenue £Millions £Millions £Millions £Millions 2004/05 Spurs 13th 70.6 21.1 25.5 24.00 NUFC 12th 87.1 35.3 27.9 23.9 2005/06 Spurs 15th 74.1 17.6 28.7 27.8 NUFC 13th 85.9 31.5 26.5 27.9 2006/07 Spurs 11th 103.1 30.9 33.7 38.5 NUFC 14th 87.1 33.6 25.9 27.6 2011/12 Spurs 13th 144.2 41.1 61.6 41.5 NUFC 20th 93.3 23.9 55.6 13.8
Naturally, there are all kinds of talking points but there are a number I’d particularly like to draw your attention to.
1. Spurs have more than doubled their income in seven years, Newcastle’s has pretty much stayed the same, rising by around 7%.
2. In those three seasons before Mike Ashley arrived, Newcastle were more than competing with Spurs and in fact Matchday income saw United well in front, while it was only in that 2006/07 season where Spurs came alive on the Commercial front and leapt ahead of Newcastle.
3. Newcastle’s income was very steady and it isn’t using a one-off season to back up any argument. These were solid income streams and these aren’t from Champions League seasons either, sadly they (Champions League seasons)were history by this point.
4. The TV money has gone up by tens of millions.
Leaving comparisons with Spurs aside, because really we are only bothered about Newcastle, the NUFC figures are astonishing.
We are repeatedly told that Newcastle are now a financially well run club under Mike Ashley. Not spending more than you get in is only part of the equation, the amount of money you get in is ‘quite’ important as well!
The figures are mind blowing, Mike Ashley has managed to halve Newcastle United’s Commercial income from £27.9m in 2005/06 to £13.8m in 2011/12, this is without even taking into account higher prices/inflation and so on which should have automatically INCREASED the total, never mind it going backwards. Standing still would have been seen as disastrous, never mind what the actual reality we are faced with..
When it comes to Matchday money, income has come down from £35.3m (2004/05) to £23.9m (2011/12).
What has happened to the money? With Mike Ashley owning Newcastle United in its entirety, he presents his accounts as he sees fit, with only the basics available for us to see via the published club accounts and then set out by such things as the Deloitte reports.
What the figures tell me is that Newcastle United has been turned into a massive financial failure, it is an absolute disgrace. Money that should be there, and we are talking tens of millions every season, is just no longer there in the totals. Where it has gone is obviously a very interesting question.
The combined income from Matchday and Commercial was £57.2m in 2004/05 and Ashley has turned that into £37.7m in 2011/12.
Comparing Newcastle to Spurs is a very small part of the story, if you looked at every single club in the Premier League and probably all of those below the top division, I bet you wouldn’t find one that has less (non-TV) income in 2011/12 than they had seven years previous.
Mike Ashley is turning us (has turned us?) into almost another Blackburn or Bolton. Clubs where the TV income is everything.
What Ashley has done to Newcastle is strip away belief and self-respect amongst many fans that our club is something special.
Read the following extracts from the Deloitte reports in the three seasons before Ashley arrived at St.James’ Park.
2004/05
“Newcastle is the highest placed club not to benefit from Champions League revenue. This is a remarkable testament to the strength of the brand, and the club’s fanatical support. Average Premiership attendances stood at 51,800.”
2005/06
“Newcastle’s Money League placing is largely due to the club’s strong home support, and average Premier League attendances have been above 50,000 for all six seasons since St James’ Park expanded.”
2006/07
“Newcastle have featured in all eleven Money Leagues, and the club is once again in the list despite not benefiting from UEFA Champions League football, a tribute to the strength of the club’s brand and its loyal following.
“The club will hope the change in ownership and management will provide the catalyst for improvement both on and off the pitch.”
Read those quotes and weep.
Mike Ashley took over a club that was a brilliant ‘brand’ and was successful (in making money) BECAUSE of the massive support, Newcastle United just needed a little care & attention and management expertise to turn that into success on the pitch. Freddie Fletcher’s commercial expertise had helped make Newcastle a money making machine and it had only been brought to its knees thanks to all the money the Halls and Shepherds took out of the club and the disastrous decisions made in appointing people like Dalglish and Souness, combined with a disastrous transfer policy much of the time.
Freddie Fletcher turned Newcastle United’s fanatical support into pounds, via the Matchday and Commercial income.
There has never been a better time to sell the appeal of Premier League clubs both in the UK and around the World.
Whatever his motivation, Mike Ashley has screwed Newcastle United into the ground and into a club that cannot compete, thanks solely to the way he has the club organised. The rest of Ashley’s empire is booming but Newcastle United is now starved of money as well as trophies.
For Newcastle United to compete and potentially win trophies, the club doesn’t need Mike Ashley to ‘put’ money in, all that it needs is to be run professionally and with ambition.
We know our club is something special and one day it may have the chance to prove that once again to the outside world, sadly it won’t happen without massive changes and clearly the biggest of those is Mike Ashley.
For quality coverage of Newcastle United, new issue of our magazine on sale in all Tyneside newsagents, or order now online for only £3 (plus postage) for Worldwide delivery straight to your door, or why not start a subscription – prices from only £23.
[latest_issue]After many years of misandric conditioning, I no longer accept that my father helped to pave the downward spiral of self-hate, self-negation and paranoid narcissism that exemplified the path I took. For nearly two decades, I aloofly hurled myself into an abyss of depraved personal and social deconstruction while working diligently to appear lucid to the outside world. My apathetic antics were a constant source of personal shame that I was able to numb by projecting contradictory values. It would be years before I would come to terms with the preceding factors that waged psychological warfare against my development but once I did, I justly stopped the castigation of my paternal influence.
Not only was I reared in an environment that pointed the finger at men no matter what the infraction, I was also indoctrinated into a definition of manhood that was based on the complete refusal to be male. A select few who are close to me have told me that my story is one of anomalous circumstances. Whether or not that is the case I don’t know as I’m sure many had it worse than I did, but I do know that my past stands as a stark outcome of misandric calamities.
Because my father was deemed public enemy number one by my mother and because she smothered me with her narcissistic need for affirmation (which became my only social outlet as I wasn’t allowed friends), my development was hijacked and replaced with intersexual insecurities that essentially mirrored my mother’s. Her hatred for men was entrenched in my psyche from birth. What I was taught as a child revolved around mom being an innocent victim, and dad being the evil perpetrator.
My mother did provide me with concrete reasons (that I later discovered were lies) to hate my father.
Her most referenced myth was that he sexually molested my older brothers. As a child I found it odd that he didn’t molest me as well, but my mother said it was because he didn’t like fat people and I was a chubby kid. It was this fetid detour from development that would mold the confusion and desperation that prompted my next action. I compensated for this lack of attention by making myself as sexually approachable to my father as a young boy could be imagined to. (I know that is disturbing to think about, but this was the only environment I knew as a youngster.) Due to the aberrational atmosphere my mother created, I literally thought that in order to get dad’s attention I essentially had to “put out” and offer him sexual favors that my mother refused to. I was convinced it would get his attention and love. But even though my mother explained exactly what he enjoyed sexually, and what she wouldn’t do for him in graphic “pity me” detail, my efforts were futile.
When my mother learned of this she, of course, blamed my father for “ignoring” me. I began hating my father as well as all other “heartless men”, and my mother fed the rage. It didn’t help matters that my two oldest brothers had molested me at a very young age and my mother’s response was “that is what men do”. I don’t harbor resentment towards my brothers as they weren’t men at the time but that didn’t faze her. It never fazed her that my growing sexual obsession with my father was unusual and unhealthy. It also never fazed her to not relay sexually graphic information about her sex life to her barely-walking sons. (Side note: She did eventually send me to therapy but not for any of these reasons. Around the age of 12, she thought I was a danger to her because I listened to “sick and violent” music.)
I further arrested my manhood during adolescence by prostituting myself to men in order to gain self (and fatherly) approval, albeit on a subconscious level. In order to do this I had to completely disregard my heterosexuality and essentially convince myself that I was either gay, or female. I chose the former because certain physical traits would have proved the latter more difficult. Not ironically, at times I did wish to be female in order to receive less torment from my mother. Her pain over having boys was too much for her to bear at times, as her depression was deemed “all our fault”. Knowing I was the cause of the misery that bounced back on me tenfold was too much for me to bear at times.
I was reminded time and time again how badly she wanted me to be a girl because her pregnancy with me was the “last time she stretched herself out for a fuckin’ kid”. It was subtleties like this mixed with the occasional crypto-crossdressing she subjected me to as a toddler while repeating comments such as “you would have made such a pretty girl” that stuck with me well past adolescence. It was surprisingly easy to take the path of male prostitution because the lies I told myself were rooted in the belief that all sex with women equaled rape as my mother had taught me, so why bother pursuing women in the first place?
Because I repressed my heterosexuality to such a debilitating level, I began to HATE women…ALL women. My misogyny became unparalleled. Ironically, it was the type of woman I hated the most that I unknowingly emulated in my relationships with men, both straight and gay alike. It is no wonder why I was never “one of the guys” in the way I desperately wanted to be. I hated women for not being approachable and I hated men for making them that way.
It wasn’t until after years of drug use, countless unsafe sexual encounters with the intention of catching AIDS (surprisingly I came out of it unscathed), and endlessly aching for a healthy connection with a woman, that I started to snap. My emotional crashes and drug-induced physical breakdowns were occurring on a regular basis before I realized something had to change or I was going to die, voluntarily or otherwise. I didn’t want to die without ever knowing the touch of a normal woman or a life free of my mother’s mental invasions. I had to purge her from my life, which I eventually did.
Shortly after turning 30, I started taking responsibility for my actions, and I changed my life completely. Cut to the present, I have since counseled and (legally) medicated myself into a more adjusted person. I still don’t feel altogether like a man, and I suspect I never will, but it won’t stop me from trying. I am finally able to admit that not only do I want to be male but I like being male. That may sound trivial to most, but the metamorphosis was huge to me. I’m not to be mistaken for one of those “reformed homosexual” cases you sometimes hear about. I knew the whole time I was with men that I wanted to be with women but the level of hatred and disgust I had for myself kept me caged in the cell my mother had built in my head. I hated myself for being male and for having the normal inclinations of one. And it was easy to be a street hustler. I knew more about sex than anything else. In some ways, it really was what I jokingly referred to as “the family business”. It’s like a light went off when I was a kid and I spent adulthood trying to turn it back on.
I missed out on a lot of things during my years of misandric self-enslavement.
I’ve just recently experienced what a lot of men take for granted. I’ve taught myself much of the things I should have learned from my father, some of which are very basic life lessons. I discovered all of the innate things men are capable of after I cleared my head of its previous female conditioning and allowed my manhood to shine through. I started to take pleasure in things I missed out on like championing honor over turning the other cheek when it came to personal accountability. Even little things like teaching myself how to play a sport became a liberating focus.
Now I am ready to form healthy friendships with men and I can draw on my past experiences to help men who are seemingly lost. It’s a really good feeling. I am nowhere near the man I wish to be, but I’m closer than I was 5 years ago. I have never sought pity for my lot in life nor do I expect understanding. I don’t know if there are many cases like mine in which a man in his 30’s “comes out of the straight closet” after years of sexual disorientation, but if so then maybe reading this might help them realize that they are not alone. My story is bizarre and there is no way that in one posting I could or would drive the reader down all of the avenues leading into the locked maze of manic misandry that was my brain, but nonetheless I am honored to say that I am here among you; among the living and no longer immersed in a lifestyle of terminal self-destruction.
As for my father – I don’t really know much about him. I’m not even sure if he is still alive. I severed ties with my family years ago. I believe he did his best given what he had to work with and against. He did want to teach me how to be a man as he saw fit, but my mother prevented it with all of the fire and scorn of a self-hating narcissist. It took years to turn the table on the real perpetrator, but once I did I was able to relieve myself of the guilt and shame of hating my mother. It’s funny how the words “I hate my mother” shock our society yet “I hate my father” is usually received with “yeah, so do I” or “mine was an asshole too”.
I feel it is important to start sharing my story in order to shed light on the women who are not held accountable for the mental and/or physical destruction they inflict upon their children. My mother’s anti-male brainwashing, albeit uncontrived in the sense that she wasn’t smart enough to be intentionally devious, was unprecedented. And for what? To have a lifetime of emotional control over her sons? Why is it so important for so many women to have such a manipulative stranglehold on their children? How can a woman prioritize the mitigation of her selfish insecurities over, and at the expense of, the emotional well-being of her kids? Perhaps we may never know. At least not until society recognizes that women are just as guilty of child abuse as men are. Regardless, it is high time after all of these years that I give dad a break.
I’m left to wonder how many other dads out there deserve the same.Some residents of Ottawa's Vanier neighbourhood say a proposal to build six residential towers ranging from six to 18 storeys at the busy intersection of Montreal Road and Vanier Parkway will only make traffic worse in the already-busy area.
A numbered company, 1147310 Ontario Ltd., owns the site that currently houses the Ottawa Plaza Inn at the southwest corner of the intersection.
On Nov. 8 councillors on the city's planning committee will consider a conditional amendment to the zoning bylaw to allow the towers, which would house hundreds of rental apartments and some townhouse units.
The owner first submitted a proposal back in 2014 for more than 600 units in four 18-storey high-rises, along with two shorter buildings.
City staff said the project has now been refined, and recommended councillors approve it because it would help develop a main street.
Residents unhappy
The revised proposal calls for two 18-storey towers, a 15-storey tower, a 13-storey tower, a shorter mixed-use building and a seven-storey apartment building on Gardner Street.
But the local community association said residents who attended a pair of presentations this fall were not happy with the proposal.
"It causes a whole heap of traffic," said Chris Penton, president of the Vanier Community Association, noting the development would have access to Vanier Parkway. "The intersection is already a nightmare."
Residents are also concerned the development, which would contain mostly bachelor units and one- |
, leading to a temporary falling-out with the network.
Unbowed, he hurled hurtful comments about the appearance of former Republican hopeful Carly Fiorina, and more recently, Ted Cruz’s wife. But the low blows reached new highs this week with his statements about abortion and another abusive women-hating remark.
He joined the ranks of the Republicans who would roll back the clock to 1973 and ban abortion in an interview on Wednesday with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who followed up with a question about whether this meant he would punish women who had obtained illegal abortions.
“The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment, yeah,” he said.
But what about the guy who gets her pregnant, would he be punished too?
“I would say no,” said Trump.
“They’re usually involved,” commented Matthews.
The public pushback was fast and furious and forced Trump to retreat somewhat. Doctors and abortionists would be punished, not women, he said several news cycles later. There remained no mention of the fathers whom he believed were never on the hook in the first place.
This all happened the day after Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was arrested and charged with battery for an incident involving a female reporter at a rally. The reporter said she was manhandled, asked for an apology, got none and went to police.
As usual, Trump stands by his man. He refused to fire him, attempted to discredit the reporter, criticized the police then disputed the legality of the charge.
“It’s outrageous what the police have done. They are destroying a very good person, with four great kids, over nothing,” Trump said. Matthews asked him why he had no sympathy for the reporter – why didn’t his manager simply apologize? Trump shrugged it off. “I don’t have great respect for her,” he said, then speculated he may go to police to have her charged for touching his arm.
Within minutes, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton tweeted: “Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse. Horrific and telling.”
Her rival, Bernie Sanders, commented, “I don’t know what world this person lives in” or, for that matter, the Republican Party itself.
Even fellow Republican John Kasich, who would also ban abortions, said “of course women shouldn’t be punished”. And Trump supporter Ben Carson, admitted that Trump answered the abortion question poorly but said it was because Trump wasn’t expecting it to be asked – an excuse that could only be offered by another candidate as unpresidential as he was.
So far, Trump has reduced the Republican party to rubble and has yet to erect anything in its place, because he cannot. Asked Wednesday about his abysmal polling results among women, he responded with characteristic self delusion: “The numbers aren’t good, not as good as they were, but nobody respects women more than I do.”
Hmmm.
Some respect. Some candidate.WASHINGTON -- House Republicans dealt defeat to their own proposal for a $2.4 trillion increase in the nation's debt limit Tuesday, a political gambit designed to reinforce a demand for spending cuts to accompany any increase in government borrowing.
The vote was lopsided, with just 97 in favor of the measure and 318 against.
House Democrats accused the GOP of political demagoguery, while the Obama administration maneuvered to avoid taking sides -- or giving offense to majority Republicans.
The debate was brief, occasionally impassioned and set a standard of sorts for public theater, particularly at a time when private negotiations continue among the administration and key lawmakers on the deficit cuts Republicans have demanded.
The bill "will and must fail," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., the House Ways and Means Committee chairman who noted he had helped write the very measure he was criticizing.
"I consider defeating an unconditional increase to be a success, because it sends a clear and critical message that the Congress has finally recognized we must immediately begin to rein in America's affection for deficit spending," he said.
But Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., accused Republicans of a "ploy so egregious that (they) have had to spend the last week pleading with Wall Street not to take it seriously and risk our economic recovery."
He and other Democrats added that Republicans were attempting to draw attention away from their controversial plan to turn Medicare into a program in which seniors purchase private insurance coverage.
The proceedings occurred roughly two months before the date Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has said the debt limit must be raised. If no action is taken by Aug. 2, he has warned, the government could default on its obligations and risk turmoil that might plunge the nation into another recession or even an economic depression.
Republicans, who are scheduled to meet with Obama at the White House on Wednesday, signaled in advance that the debt limit vote did not portend a final refusal to grant an increase.
The roll call vote was held late in the day, and there was little, if any discernible impact on Wall Street, where major exchanges showed gains for the day. At the same time, it satisfied what GOP officials said was a desire among the rank and file to vote against unpopular legislation the leadership has said eventually must pass in some form.
Republicans said they were offering legislation Obama and more than 100 Democratic lawmakers had sought.
But Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking Democrat, accused the GOP of staging a "demagogic vote" at a time lawmakers should work together to avoid a financial default.
All 97 votes in favor of the measure were cast by Democrats, totaling less than a majority and far under the two-thirds support needed for passage.
For its part, the administration appeared eager to avoid criticizing Republicans.
"It's fine, it's fine," presidential press secretary Jay Carney said when asked about the Republican decision to tie spending cuts with more borrowing.
"We believe they should not be linked because there is no alternative that's acceptable to raising the debt ceiling. But we're committed to reducing the deficit," Carney said.
The government has already reached the limit of its borrowing authority, $14.3 trillion, and the Treasury is using a series of extraordinary maneuvers to meet financial obligations.
By no longer would making investments in two big pension funds for federal workers and beginning to withdraw current investments, for example, the Treasury created $214 billion in additional borrowing headroom.
At the same time, the Obama administration and congressional leaders are at work trying to produce a deficit-reduction agreement in excess of $1 trillion to meet Republican demands for spending cuts.
Political maneuvering on legislation to raise the debt limit has become common in recent years, as federal deficits have soared and presidents of both political parties have been forced to seek authority to borrow additional trillions of dollars.
Because such legislation is unpopular with voters, presidents generally look to lawmakers from their own political party to provide the votes needed for passage. In the current case, though, Republicans control the House, and without at least some support from them, Obama's request for a debt-limit increase would fail.
However, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced months ago that he would demand spending cuts as a condition for passage.
"It's true that allowing America to default would be irresponsible," he said on May 9 in a speech to the Economic Club of New York. "But it would be more irresponsible to raise the debt limit without simultaneously taking dramatic steps to reduce spending and to reform the budget process."
He added that any spending cuts should be larger than the increase in borrowing authority, a statement meant to lay down a marker for the deficit-reduction talks led by Vice President Joe Biden.
Few details have emerged from those negotiations, although Biden said recently the negotiators had made progress. He expressed confidence they would be able to agree on specific cuts in excess of $1 trillion over the next decade, and then look to procedural mechanisms known as "triggers" to force further automatic deficit cuts adding up to another $3 trillion or so.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a participant in the talks, said afterward, "I am confident that we can achieve over a trillion dollars in savings at this point, and hopefully more."
Earlier, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., had said the discussions centered on deficit cuts totaling in the range of $150 billion to $200 billion over a decade, but that was from a relatively small category of programs.
Among the areas eyed for spending cuts is the federal pension program, where the White House has signaled it is receptive to a Republican proposal for employees to make greater contributions.Story highlights Dean Obeidallah: Rick Santorum annoyed the media ask for his stance on social issues
Obeidallah: But doesn't he get how running for president works if he raises those issues?
Santorum says he almost threw up at John Kennedy's stand on separation of church and state
Obeidallah: Santorum must clarify he will not put religion over Constitution
Poor Rick Santorum. He is very frustrated and apparently now a bit nauseous.
The "liberal elite" media are getting under his skin with their incessant questions about his views on social issues such as same-sex marriage, abortion and birth control. (Santorum's opposition to birth control seems a bit disingenuous since he loves to wear a sweater vest -- which I view as a form of birth control.)
This frustration was bad enough, but his emotional state recently took a turn for the worse. On Sunday, Santorum reiterated that he "almost threw up" after reading John F. Kennedy's famous 1960 speech that declared a president's religious views were private and should not be "imposed by him upon the nation."
It appears that Santorum is an irritated, woozy wreck of a presidential candidate. Maybe that is why this week he requested Secret Service protection. (My question is: Who is going to protect us from Santorum?)
Dean Obeidallah
The joking and nausea aside, I can't comprehend how Santorum could be distraught when the media inquire about topics he raised? Is he confused about how this whole running for president thing works? Or does he not understand the words coming out of his mouth?
Santorum was so distressed by the "liberal" media that he took off time from campaigning last week in Michigan and Arizona and headed to Dallas seeking refuge with the least liberal elitist media person he could find: Glenn Beck.
JUST WATCHED Santorum's college and religion claims Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Santorum's college and religion claims 05:34
JUST WATCHED Santorum calls Romney 'a joke' Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Santorum calls Romney 'a joke' 00:45
There, Beck and Santorum sat on couches directly across from each other, making it look less like a political interview and more like a session with "Dr. Phil." It wasn't long before Santorum opened up to "Dr. Glenn" about his feelings regarding the "bad" media: "They ask the question, 'Why are you always talking about contraception?' I said, 'Because that's all you want to ask me about.' I mean, it is frustrating.... You can get a little frustrated."
I was hoping Beck would offer Santorum one of Dr. Phil's famed lines of advice such as: "No dog ever peed on a moving car."
Despite all Santorum's talk that our nation's and God's laws must agree and that biblical truths are the basis for his views on social issues such as same-sex marriage, he assured us during last week's CNN debate in Arizona that he does not intend to transform his religious beliefs into public policy: "Just because I'm talking about it doesn't mean I want a government program to fix it."
Sorry, you can't have it both ways. You can't try to win conservative voters by telling them that the Bible -- not our Constitution -- is the standard our laws must agree with and then try to assure mainstream Americans that you don't mean it. In the words of Dr. Phil: "That dog don't hunt."
Santorum needs to come clean with the American people. Is his allegiance to the Bible or the Constitution? Will he publicly recognize there is a separation of church and state in America? Does he believe the United States does not have an official religion?
Kennedy -- a Roman Catholic like Santorum -- was dogged by these same issues when he was running for president. Kennedy addressed this matter head-on in that 1960 speech to a group of Protestant ministers: "I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic.... I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute."
To say Rick Santorum is no John Kennedy is too easy. It's like comparing Justin Bieber to the Beatles. But Santorum has a chance to follow Kennedy's example despite his feeling that the 35th president's sentiments in that speech almost made him want to "throw up."
To be honest, however, even if Santorum would make such a speech, it would be more challenging for him to put this issue behind him than it was for Kennedy. After all, it was not Kennedy who raised these issues but his opponents, who claimed that he would be more loyal to the pope and Catholic law than the Constitution.
In contrast, Santorum intentionally made these subjects a central theme in his campaign, often sounding less like a person running to be the leader of a democratic nation and more like someone seeking the position of pastor or the leader of a province in Afghanistan.
I believe most Americans -- including myself -- suspect that a president's faith could color his decisions on some level. But I hope that most Americans would, too, agree that a president's religious beliefs should be subservient to our Constitution.
Even Ronald Reagan stated clearly that: "Church and state are, and must remain, separate." We now need to hear that from Santorum.next Image 1 of 2
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A group of gun-rights activists seeking to oust a top Democratic state lawmaker in Colorado over the passage of strict gun control legislation on Monday turned in double the signatures needed to force a recall election.
KDVR reports the group turned in over 16,000 signatures, more than double the 7,178 valid signatures needed, to the Colorado Secretary of State's office in the effort to recall Colorado Senate President John Morse.
“This sends a strong message,” Rob Harris, who delivered three boxes full of petitions to the office, told KDVR. “We’ve obtained enough signatures to recall a state legislator for the first time in the history of Colorado.”
The Secretary of State’s office now has 15 days to determine whether enough of the signatures are valid, and then Morse's office has another 15 days to contest the validity of the signatures.
Morse tells KDVR he is going to fight the recall effort.
“We’ll go through these signatures with a fine-toothed comb,” Morse told the station. “And we’ll file some protests with the Secretary of State’s office because we know a lot of these signatures were gathered based on misinformation and lies.”
He also insisted he will not resign his seat to avoid a recall election.
“This is a hill worth dying on,” Morse said. “This is a fight worth having; it’s a fight we’ve already had on the floor of the Senate; it’s a fight worth winning.”
Last week, the non-profit America Votes, which lists New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg among its backers, released a video in support of Morse.
The recall effort is also receiving financial help from national non-profits. However, Harris claims it was a grassroots effort.
“I ran this recall,” he told KDVR. “Not the N.R.A. It sends a message to Denver and Washington, DC that we, the people, are watching and that we will do something about it.”
The effort against Morse has become a national focus of efforts to push back against lawmakers from moderate districts who support ratcheting back gun rights.
Gun-rights activists are seeking to recall another Democrat, a senator from Pueblo. Signatures in that effort aren't due until next week.
Click for more from KDVR.
The Associated Press contributed to this reportNintendo has explained why it decided not to include online multiplayer in Wii U launch title Nintendo Land.
Developers wanted to encourage players to interact in the real world, with the virtual theme park's attractions specifically designed for players sitting next to each other.
"Nintendo Land's multiplayer attractions work because of the communication shared between the people playing them," Nintendo Land producer Katsuya Eguchi told Famitsu (via Polygon). "They were set up from the start to be something people in the same room could enjoy."
Nintendo Land's co-director Takayuki Shimamura added: "With the GamePad, I think you're seeing a new dimension of multiplayer, something that hasn't been seen before."
The closest Nintendo Land gets to true online interaction is the appearance of other players' Miis in the game's hub - although these just appear as NPCs.
One franchise notably missing from Nintendo Land hub is Star Fox - although an earlier version of the game did include the anthropomorphic vulpine.
"Generally it was easy to match the gameplay from the prototypes with one series or another," director Yoshikazu Yamashita explained. "For example, a game with air and ground battles works well with Metroid.
"There was a time when Metroid Blast was going to be a Star Fox title, but the prototype featured this vehicle that hovered around like a helicopter and we figured that'd never be a good match for an Arwing."
Donkey Kong's Crash Course, a nerve-shredding 2D gyro-controlled platformer, was similarly prototyped as an Excitebike and a 1080 Snowboarding tie-in.I’m not sure how long these will stay up but Bothan spies (whung, CM4sci, J2G) over on Eurobricks has found a slew of LEGO 2016 set images found on LEGO’s servers already. Note that these images are official and do not have watermarks but LEGO can decide to remove them from the servers at any time. Some of the images are system sets while some are promotional or polybag sets. What sets are you looking forward to?
Update: LEGO has taken down all their links on their server but the good folks at Brickset had them backed up.
Update 2: LEGO has begun telling sites to remove the images so I’ve complied to their wish. If you’re looking for them, they’re still out there on the web. You just have to find them.on •
THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT — While many of us are already sharply tuned into the current state of being transgender in this country, Gunner Scott, the director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, does a pretty nice job summing it up in a piece for The Boston Phoenix. I thought I’d touch on a few of the topics he covers in his article.
1) Transgender men and women who are visibly different from cis men and women are at higher risk for harm.
Not everyone “passes.” Some are at the beginning of their transition, posing additional difficulties. In the psychological sense, passing doesn’t matter – you are what you are and I agree with this. However, when it comes to the risk of being harmed, those that don’t pass face a higher degree of risk. This is something we just don’t talk about enough. I’d hate to suggest that we better start passing, or else! But the rate that we are being harmed, beaten and killed is staggering. What is the solution here?
2) Research indicate staggeringly dismal employment conditions.
These stats taken from a 2009 National Transgender Discrimination survey show unemployment rate for trans people at double the average and are four times likely to be surviving on less than $10,000 year than non-trans people. These conditions likely are the result of discrimination. This is also likely the cause for many trans people becoming sex workers. The recent EEOC ruling should help reverse these conditions and its something many of us are going to monitor closely.
3) The evaporation of rights one had before transition.
Scott: “It is frustrating to think that, before I transitioned from female to male, I had these rights and protections, but once I came to terms with who I was and began to let the rest of the world in on my reality, these rights and protections I’d grown accustomed to — like being treated fairly when trying to rent an apartment — evaporated.”
This is something I believe that we need to turn around and use it as an argument FOR equality. Rights should never be taken away from people. It’s amazing to me that we’re stripped of rights in the first place and we’re letting them get away with it!
———-
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Categories: Discrimination, Equality, Civil Rights, Transgender, Transsexual, TransBetween November 2012 and September 2013, online payday-loan companies controlled by Timothy Coppinger and Frampton "Ted" Rowland issued $28 million in payday loans to consumers and received $46.5 million in return.
The Kansas City businessmen did not achieve those staggering profit margins honestly, according to a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit filed September 8 (and unsealed last Friday) against Coppinger, Rowland and the constellation of shell companies they use to shield themselves from the scrutiny of consumers and law enforcement. In fact, the FTC believes that Coppinger, et al., were a sufficient threat to U.S. consumers that it filed an ex parte temporary restraining order to freeze all their assets, appoint a temporary receiver to all their business interests, and give the FTC and the receiver access to their business premises, in order to preserve the possibility of relief for consumers they've taken advantage of.
The lawsuit contains sworn statements from dozens of consumers who say they were defrauded by entities controlled by Coppinger, whose "businesses" (CWB Services, Sandpoint, Namakan, and many, many others) operated for years at 2114 Central, in the Crossroads District, before recently moving across State Line Road to 6700 Squibb, in Mission. Several statements reveal that these operations would drop money into the bank accounts of individuals who had not applied for loans, and then debit out late fees and interest on that money. From the suit:
Using consumer data purchased from third parties, Defendants have falsely represented that consumers agreed to their online payday loans, and then automatically debited finance charges from consumers' bank accounts without their consent. Second, Defendants have misrepresented the cost of their loans — even to those consumers who actually agreed to the loans in the first place. Instead of charging consumers the amount they disclosed (the principal plus a one-time finance charge), Defendants have extracted finance charges every two weeks indefinitely, without applying any of the payments to the principal. Third, Defendants have consistently violated statutory requirements relating to the disclosure of loan terms and recurring electronic fund transfers.
By issuing what are called "Civil Investigative Demands" to Missouri Bank (the preferred bank of several local payday operations, until the government essentially ordered it out of the business) and other institutions where Coppinger and Rowland banked — in effect, requiring those banks to open up their books — the FTC has meticulously traced the flow of money from consumers to payment processors to DBAs to the bank accounts of Coppinger and Rowland. The suit offers arguably the most comprehensive examination yet of how these online payday lending schemes work.
The Pitch noted Coppinger's involvement in this unsavory industry in the second part of its "Usury Suspects" series. Coppinger is the second local payday player to run afoul of the FTC. Scott Tucker got rung up back in 2012, and lost in court back in March.
We're hearing there may be more payday-related shoes dropping later this week. We'll be following up on this story soon.Until you came up behind me, I was on cruise control.
I pegged you for another of those nose-pickers of the interstate.
But when I moved to pass a truck, you sped up to tailgate me. You got behind me — breathing down my neck — and then you flashed your headlights. You know I couldn’t hear your car horn. But flashing your headlights meant I was supposed to get out of your way.
But I was doing ten miles above the speed limits already. Hey, pal, you shouldn’t ask me to get out of your way when I’m already speeding.
But I moved aside and then I thought —
How dare you get angry!
My job is not to help you break the laws.
How do you like someone riding your ass?
You being in front of me means a lot to you. And I guess if we were both going to a mutually agreed-upon destination, you crossing the finish line ahead of me might matter. But we aren’t — which makes you look shallower than the bird bath in my back yard.
I learned the two-second rule on following other cars. I’m following the guy ahead of me, minding my own business, not pushing him. Then you jumped between us. You don’t respect the distance I’m trying to keep. You don’t respect me.
But I forgive and I forget.
Then the next day you’re back.
You came up behind me and rode me, bumper to bumper, until you were close enough to see who printed my bumper sticker. And I was supposed to ignore that?
You take it as a personal affront that I am in the lane ahead of you. Man, I was here first. I was here before you.
I saw you. You only speeded up because I got in front of you.
I got your number, son of a bitch.
You don’t own the road. So you wait. You hang back until I’m done with it.
Stop pushing me, I bitched when you drove past. Inside your car, you were busy looking at your watch.
I made faces at you when you sped past me. I looked mean and angry, as if I had been squinting into the morning sun. But you didn’t look my way. You didn’t care about me. Drinking coffee from your commuter mug was more important.
I thought about it afterwards. I’m driving two tons of steel, you’re driving two tons of steel, and you want to play kiddy games at freeway speeds?
You don’t have stopping distance.
Why don’t you go suck a knife?
But then — You’re the same clown I saw on the surface streets. You come from behind me, cut around me, jump back into my lane, you cut me off, and I have to slow down or rear-end you, and then you speed up and get my green light and I have to wait until the light turns greens again.
Yeah, I saw you on the surface streets a second time, too. You come from behind me, cut in front of me, we go about a dozen yards, then you hit the brakes, and make a right turn into a driveway ahead of me, making me hit my brakes, and I’m cursing you.
After, I feel like I ran four miles. I have to take deep slow breaths to catch myself.
Listen — I’ve always been annoyed that speeders "expect" us to let them speed. Who says we have to let ’em? Why should I care that some clown gets angry because I’m obeying the laws of the road?
But then I saw you again. You like to sit back there like a bandit in the bushes, ready to bushwhack me, ready like an enemy jet aimed at my blind side.
I was in the right lane, and you saw me coming up behind a semi, and you were behind me in the left lane — and you sped up to pass me.
A slow-moving truck was coming down the on-ramp ahead of us — and you sped up to keep me from moving into the left lane.
You saw the same thing ahead of us that I saw. You saw how slowly that semi coming down the off-ramp a quarter-mile ahead of us was moving. You saw how he was going to take over the lane in front of me. But you sped up just fast enough to cut me off.
Yeah, I couldn’t believe it! As soon as I put the turn signal on, you — the guy behind me — you sped up to cut me off and keep me from moving into the passing lane, blocking me from entering your lane, keeping me from moving into the fast lane, forcing me to slow down to match the speed of a slow-moving semi entering the Interstate.
You were talking on your cell phone as you drove past me, too busy flapping your lips with your office or your wife or your client to pay attention to my needs. But that wasn’t all, either. I guess you’re too oblivious to me to care about me as you drifted over the yellow line into my lane, but you insist I should be responsive to you.
Now I know who you are and I see you every night at this time. All you have to do is get home, right?
Do you really have to get home before me?
Will the world end if you don’t get home earlier than everybody in front of you? Does everybody in front of you have to move out of your way and get home after you? Does nothing in the world work right tonight unless you get home first?
Who the hell are you?
You would rather run me off the road rather than let me slow your driving.
Where are you going that is so important?
Are you bleeding?
Why don’t you call for an ambulance?
Do you need to go pee? Is your teeny weenie what makes you drive so fast?
Why are you so sneaky?
Do you think you’re getting away with something?
When you force me out of what I want to do, you are telling me your life is more important than mine is.
Because there was another time–
I got out of your way — got into the right lane — and then, after you passed me, you got into my lane and slowed down, and then I was stuck behind you.
You know, one day I wrote down your license numbers, thinking I would look you up later and see if you remembered the terrible way you drove on the Interstate. But the folks at Motor Vehicles wouldn’t give your home address out.
These days I am so tempted to follow you home, to wherever you are going, fool, where a fool like you lives, and just tell you to your face what an ingrate and a bully and a jackass you are.
I tried following you home. But then I couldn’t, because I realized I would be just like you. If I match your speed, I’m as bad a driver as you are. That’s how you got away with it last time.
If I do find out where you live, you might want to get someone to start your car for you.
Who are you?
The Bully.
I confess you do intimidate me when I see you fast approaching me in my rear view mirror. How fast are you going? I wonder. Are you smart enough, quick enough, to stop in time? And my heart starts throbbing and my throat constricts.
Yes. You intimidate me.
Sometimes my palms are red from gripping the wheel.
But then you come back at me the next day. I can’t believe how quickly you cut in front of me. You wanted me to hit the brakes.
You have been counting on me being civilized enough not to hit your car. But you have been pushing the envelope too long.
I drive differently now.
I look inside your vehicle now. I see who you are.
You’re always on the phone.
When you cruise past, I want to speed up and rear-end you so hard, you lose control and careen off the road into the ditch.
I don’t mind you trying to go around me. I would do the same in your place. It’s how you try to intimidate me — even worse — try to kill me — that gets me riled.
I feel shame. My face shows it.
How come you drive so bad?
The other night I saw you back there, ten cars back, matching my speed, just sitting there for the last two minutes. But — I watched — and as soon as I got behind a semi and moved to pass that truck — I looked in the rear view mirror, and you were moving up on me.
I saw you closing the gap between us, closing in on me, galloping up the miles and speeding like the Greyhound bus after midnight. I saw you speeding up and then you were tailgating me, you rude bastard, so closely I couldn’t see your headlights!
You’re driving me crazy!
If you don’t kill me first.
So... You do it your way.
So... You don’t have to follow the same rules as everybody else.
So.. guess how I feel about you.
I want to squeeze your neck like an orange until the juice is gone.
I want you dead.
Why am I so pissed? Because I should be looking forward and not fearing what’s behind me.
Think about this: Have you ever gotten onto the Interstate, driven for a hundred miles, then woke up? You got there — wherever there is — on automatic, you tell yourself. Did you know the purpose of the Interstate Highway System was to get you from here to there without you having to think too hard?
You screw it up, jerk-off!
Yeah, that’s it. We’re baby-sitting you — me and the rest of us normal drivers — we are making a collective decision to let you pretend you’re powerful and cool, that you deserve to get ahead of us, that we will forgive and forget the lunatic way you drive and the criminal way you make us change the way we drive.
We have to baby-sit you.
You sit up there in your captain’s chair in your SUV, jockeying for position on the freeway, a cigarette in one hand, your cell phone in your other.
You are a fool. You take too much for granted.
If I slam on the brakes — you’re dead meat.
Push me and I will push back.
You should never do something that your insurance company will call you an asshole when they hear about it.
But you can’t stop being a fool.
I heard once somebody say that there was just one miserable son of a bitch who spends his entire day going from person to person making each person’s day miserable.
I want to be him for you.
So now I plan on getting back at you.
Want to know what am I going to do?
I will do what I can to piss you off. When I see you coming behind me, speeding faster than the Greyhound bus, right when you’re a couple of car lengths behind me, I will swerve — just a tire or two — over the line and into your lane. And I will watch you wake up and slow down and hesitate, wondering if I am drunk or having a heart attack.
As you get close behind me, I will suddenly — deliberately — swerve over t he white line — both left tires, and I will startle you.
When you go to pass me, I will start matching speed with you, and then I’ll start pushing you to go faster, faster, faster, and start sliding over the dotted line, to make you flinch.
When you tailgate me, oh, I will move aside and let you pass. Then I will speed up and get in the fast lane behind you and tailgate you, just like you did to me. And I will have my brights on, just like you did to me. Right in your rear view mirror.
I can see myself getting behind you on the Interstate. When we get stuck behind other cars in the fast lane, I will flash my headlights once a minute for the entire ten minutes you are stranded in place in front of me, locked into a position you don’t want.
Move aside, my brights will say, move aside, you son of a bitch.
Ahead you will see a semi passing another semi. We will all be stuck behind them. When you speed up and tailgate me — are you going to pass all of us — cars and semis both — on the left?
That’s grass out there!
Sometime you are going to end up being behind me doing 75, stuck behind me, last in line, a half-dozen cars ahead of you, and you self-absorbed son of a bitching leadfoot will be stuck behind me while a semi will be passing another semi ahead of us.
For a minute I will be tempted to stick my arm out of the window and motion you to go around me and the other six cars ahead of me that are blocking us. Hell, you could do that — you could ride the grassy center strip of the freeway.
If you want to ride the grass in the center of the freeway, you go for it. I won’t stand in your way.
Listen: I will be ahead of you. You be patient. You wait.
When you do pass me, you will flip me off with the Finger.
You will think it’s over then. What you won’t expect —
I will chase after you, get behind you, and start all over.
See, pal, I like playing mind games on the Interstate. Maybe I know my games will backfire and kill me, but the thrill of screwing you over keeps me alive.
I just want to piss you off.
Monsters always want revenge. Or they die trying. When I get that rage inside me going strong, I don’t care about you. Afterwards maybe I’ll say I don’t know what came over me. But I will be lying. I will know what came over me.
You’ve been driving me crazy!
Tomorrow I’m bringing my gun.
I will pull out in front of you when you want to pass me. I will watch you fume in the rear view mirror.
I’ll bring my slide automatic to show you I mean business. I’ll hold it up so you can see it — and I will rack the action.
You get out of your car and come at me, I will kill you.
I swear to god.In a 1950's mining town called Coalwood, Homer Hickam is a kid with only one future in sight, to work in the local coal mine like his father. However in October 1957, everything changes when the first artificial satellite, Sputnik goes into orbit. With that event, Homer becomes inspired to learn how to build rockets. With his friends and the local nerd, Homer sets to do just that by trial and a lot of error. Unfortunately, most of the town and especially Homer's father thinks that they are wasting their time. Only one teacher in the high school understands their efforts and lets them know that they could become contenders in the national science fair with college scholarships being the prize. Now the gang must learn to perfect their craft and overcome the many problems facing them as they shoot for the stars. Written by Kenneth Chisholm <kchishol@execulink.com>John D. Norton
Critique of Bayesiansim
Induction and Confirmation
home >> research >> induction and confirmation: critique of bayesianism
Non-trivial calculi of inductive inference are shown |
had written Issa a letter saying that recalling his client before the committee was “not only improper but dangerous.”
“I advised the staff that calling Ms. Lerner knowing that she will assert her rights was not only improper but dangerous,” attorney Bill Taylor wrote to Issa, according to a letter obtained by The Hill. “Ms. Lerner has been the subject of numerous threats on her life and safety, and on the life and safety of her family. I left with the staff recent evidence of those threats.”
Watch the video:The global craze over the new augmented reality game Pokémon GO, which was released in the U.S. early this month, has also caught on in the Valley. On a recent hot afternoon, players were out and about in Harrisonburg, smartphones in hand, willingly sharing their personal information in exchange for fun. WMRA's Christopher Clymer Kurtz reports.
I don't know much about gaming, and even less about Pokémon, so earlier this week I joined the Pokémon Go Trainers of Harrisonburg Facebook group, which is where I learned that Court Square is one of the good places in town to find "gyms" and "Pokéstops" and, therefore, players or "trainers," as they're called, since they are "training" their Pokémon to well, do stuff, I guess.
CLYMER KURTZ: I've already seen a number of people walking along staring at their phones. I don't know if that's normal or if they're playing Pokémon GO, I'm not sure.... May I interview you?
RAY ORAM: Sure, if we can stand in the shade.
Ariel Hallam and Ray Oram are JMU students studying, respectively, computer science, and network security and telecommunications. Ariel says she's been playing two hours a day; Ray, three to four.
ARIEL HALLAM: The spring over there is a Pokéstop, the courthouse is a Pokéstop, the chalk wall over there is a Pokéstop. There's one by the ice cream place down there. I've had ice cream a lot this week.
[Sounds of Pokémon GO]
ORAM: And see, this stop gave me something, and it has the module, so I've collected those items, and you can see this, with the hearts around it, is luring Pokémon as opposed to the other ones which aren't activated around here, and then there's these big gyms where people go to fight the Pokémon.
A bit later, Gabe Chapman and his mom and brothers are just coming out of the Public Safety Building when I spot them.
GABE CHAPMAN: I spend about an hour a day. I try to get out once or twice a day and walk around. Came out here about two nights ago, ten, twelve o'clock, and there was just a whole bunch of people downtown hitting the Pokéstops. Found over 60 Pokémon. It was a good night.
His mom, Rita Chapman, likes the game, too, as only a mother can.
RITA CHAPMAN: It gets them out of the house. It gets me out of the house to walk with them.
"Out of the house" indeed. In the shade of the courthouse lawn, meet Heaven Ford.
HEAVEN FORD: I play video games more than I live my life. So it's like a video game on the go. I can see what's happening in the real life while I play video games. Squirrel!
Not far away is a nostalgic David Snyder.
DAVID SNYDER: It's a piece of my childhood. I remember when it first came out when I was a kid, the cards, the cartoon. I wished Pokémon were real. And now in a sense they are.
CLYMER KURTZ: So what am I seeing right there?
SNYDER: I actually just caught a Pokémon.
CLYMER KURTZ: You just caught one? While we were talking?
SNYDER: Yeah.
But there's a sober caution to consider. Benjamin Heatwole has been a computer programmer for three decades. He works with a number of software products that store people's data.
BENJAMIN HEATWOLE: When you sign up for a new application like this or anything else, and it says, "Do you trust this developer?" you should actually take a moment to reflect as to whether or not you do. What kind of information is going to be collected? How long is it going to be kept? And, How are they going to use it?
When Pokémon GO was first released on July 6, iOS users who logged in with their Google accounts had to agree to terms of service allowing the app full access to their Google accounts. That has been described by Pokémon GO's parent company Niantic Labs as a mistake that is being fixed. But that didn't deter the nearly 21 million daily users in the US who were active in the game's first week.
HEATWOLE: It should have raised more red flags than it did. They just clicked the button because it was a "Play" or "Don't play" button.
The Pokémon GO users I ask seem unfazed by this -- and aren't that worried about Niantic knowing their every movement. Player Joshua Lindsay:
LINDSAY: I don't see much difference between what everyone is already using and the app is actually using. It's just open and more blunt about it.
As Ariel Hallam says, Pokémon GO itself uses user-generated content from an earlier game from Niantic.
HALLAM: In Ingress, the goal of the game was to take a picture of a place and protect that place from the opposite team. They just pulled the data from that and changed them to gyms and Pokéstops in this game.
As her friend Ray adds, Niantic...
RAY ORAM: Made a game to do the work for them, which is really awesome.
For WMRA News, I'm Christopher Clymer Kurtz.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
ATLANTA -- Former President Jimmy Carter described his cancer diagnosis Thursday morning, using a news conference at the Carter Center in Atlanta to say doctors had found four spots of melanoma on his brain.
"I'm going to cut back fairly dramatically on my obligations at Emory (and) at the Carter Center," Carter said Thursday, saying he'll get his first radiation treatment this afternoon.
"It is in the hands of the God who I worship," Carter said, adding he feels "good," and that he's following the recommendations of his doctors"I can't really anticipate how I'll be feeling. Obviously I'll have to defer quite substantially to my doctors who are in charge of the treatment," Carter said, saying he'll get his first radiation treatment this afternoon.
Carter said he would cut back at his work at the Carter Center and at teaching at nearby Emory University. He added he was still hoping to do work with Habitat for Humanity work in Nepal, but that it will again depend on his doctor's guidance.
Carter said so far the only places where cancer had been found in his body was in his brain and liver, though he also discussed his family's history with the disease.
"For a long time my family was the only one on earth that had four people who have died of pancreatic cancer," he said.
Carter had a "small mass" removed from his liver in an early August surgical procedure.
Carter, elected in 1976 and ousted in the 1980 election by Ronald Reagan, has a family history of pancreatic cancer -- a disease that claimed his father, brother and two sisters. His mother had breast cancer, which later spread to her pancreas.Like any other young mother, Julie Strelley-Jones expected to see her young children grow into adulthood. But this vibrant 43-year-old, brimming with enthusiasm for life, has been unlucky: she has an incurable, aggressive breast cancer that conventional treatments have failed to stop progressing.
Last February Julie discovered the cancer, first diagnosed in October 2012, had spread to her liver, lungs and bones. She was given the devastating news that any further treatment could only control the disease, rather than cure it.
Julie refuses to look at survival statistics for her type of breast cancer: instead she is focussed on enjoying for as long as possible her life with husband Mark, 43, an architect and sons Fergus, 11 and Alistair, nine. And the latest generation of sophisticated, life-extending drugs for incurable, metastatic breast cancer have so far enabled her to do just that.
For the last year Julie has been taking an innovative new drug called Kadcyla. It contains a combination of Herceptin, a standard treatment for certain breast cancers, and a medicine called emtansine.
The drug targets cancer cells directly, causing minimal side effects, and has had a remarkable impact. “Scans have shown that the cancer has gone completely from my lungs and is hardly detectable in my liver. I now have a good quality of life,” says Julie, who lives in London with her family. “The drug is not just keeping me alive – it is allowing me to enjoy bringing up my children.”
But Julie’s quality of life comes at a price. Kadcyla costs the NHS £90,000 a year per patient.
It is one of six drugs for incurable breast cancer that are deemed by England’s official NHS advisory body, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), to be too expensive to be routinely prescribed by the NHS. The drugs have so far been available through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), a temporary supplementary funding system for costly treatments established by the Coalition Government in 2010.
However this month, three of those six treatments are set to be “de-listed” from the CDF. Kadcyla will remain, along with the drugs Perjeta and Avastin. But drugs called Afinitor, Halaven and Tyverb will no longer be available to new patients.
The drugs being removed have been clinically proven to increase the lifespan of terminally ill breast cancer patients by up to seven months - and one would almost certainly have been offered to Julie when her cancer stopped responding to Kadcyla. “It feels as if my safety net has been taken away and someone else has decided my fate,” says Julie.
“I am disappointed and angry. I don’t want to give up. I know these drugs are expensive but why put all this money into researching them if they can’t be accessed?”
Kadcyla targets cancer cells directly
The six breast cancer drugs are examples of a new generation of treatments for cancers that have stopped responding to conventional techniques such as standard chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Most are only effective for a few months before cancer cells become resistant; but used consecutively to manage metastatic disease, such drugs can be used to considerably extend a patient’s lifespan.
The issue of how such costly drugs are funded is causing heated debate between doctors, and between a pharmaceutical industry demanding high prices for their drugs, an increasingly cash-strapped NHS, and those who believe the lifespan of a terminally ill patient should never be reduced to a finite sum of money.
Before the last general election David Cameron pledged that no patient in need of such treatments would be denied them, despite their cost. But without making cuts, the CDF he established on becoming prime minister would this year be £80m over budget.
As of this week, the Fund will begin the process – announced in January - of removing a total of 16 drugs from the list it makes available. They include treatments for bowel and breast cancer, for cancers of the prostate, ovaries, lung, pancreas and kidneys and for blood cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma.
According to NHS figures, de-listing the three breast cancer drugs alone will affect 1,700 women with incurable breast cancer. The charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer says they offer the best hope for these women, giving them and their families extra quality time, and that stopping access is simply not acceptable.
“The CDF was only ever intended to be a short term solution,” says the charity’s Assistant Director of Policy and Information, Dr Sarah Rawlings. “Everyone involved needs to come together to create a long-term plan to make a system that works within a constrained NHS budget.”
Emlyn Samuel, senior policy manager at Cancer Research UK, agrees. “The next government needs to look at a long-term solution that is sustainable,” he says. “At the moment we have a fragmented, two-tiered system of approaching drugs funding, with NICE and the CDF appraising drugs and making different decisions.
"We need one system of appraisals that is more flexible and nuanced.”
X-ray showing cancerous breast tissue
Halaven, Afinitor and Tyverb cost the NHS up to £36,000 a year per patient, compared to the £2,000 cost of conventional chemotherapy. “All three of these drugs are effective for the treatment of advanced breast cancer,” says Professor Stephen Chan, a consultant oncologist at both the NHS-run City Hospital Nottingham and the city’s private BMI The Park Hospital.
“Our patients will lose out. Most obviously can’t afford to pay for them privately. We understand these drugs are expensive but those in charge of funding are effectively telling patients their life isn’t worth saving in their calculation of cost versus effectiveness.”
But Professor Peter Clark, Chair of the CDF and consultant medical oncologist at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, Merseyside, says Afinitor, Halaven and Tyverb “did not offer sufficient clinical benefit,” to justify their inclusion, adding: “If we don’t prioritise the drugs that offer the best value, many people could miss out on promising, more effective treatments that are in the pipeline.”
Halaven is a new version of a type of chemotherapy called a microtubule inhibitor. It is injected into the patient’s veins to stop cancer cells dividing and growing. Afinitor and Tyverb are, like many of the drugs on the CDF, targeted cancer therapies.
This means that unlike chemotherapy, which cannot distinguish between normal and cancerous cells, they stop the spread of cancer by blocking specific molecular pathways that enable the tumour to grow.
Afinitor is taken orally and used in conjunction with hormone therapy drugs. “It enhances the effectiveness of hormonal therapy but can cause side effects such as the scarring of the lungs and mouth ulcerations,” explains Prof Chan. “The CDF’s argument is that it is difficult to justify the expense given the toxicity to the patient.”
Tyverb blocks HER2 (human epidermal growth factor) proteins that help certain breast cancers survive. “It has the unique advantage of being able to travel to the brain and is the only systemic treatment available to patients whose cancer has spread there,” says Prof Chan. “For a small number of patients it has a very important place.”
Sadly, Julie is among these patients. Although she feels well at present, a scan last April revealed the cancer had spread to her brain. She underwent radiotherapy to treat it in August and is anxiously awaiting a further scan to see if the cancer has spread again. “If that is the case Tyverb would have been an option for me in future,” says Julie. “Obviously, I’m devastated.”
Although some pharmaceutical companies have agreed to negotiate on the price of their drugs, Dr Rawlings insists more must be done about their exorbitant costs. “We don’t know how pharmaceutical companies set their prices and we understand they put billions of pounds into research and need to make a profit,” she says.
“But they have to be realistic about their pricing policy. The drugs do no good to anyone if they’re sitting on a shelf because the NHS can’t afford to pay for them.”
Gary Hendler, president and CEO of Eisai EMEA, the company responsible for Halaven, says: “The arbitrary removal of Halaven from the CDF will have a devastating impact and will set the clock back years for cancer care. We will be challenging these decisions by filing complaints in accordance with the CDF’s own process. If these are not successful, we will consider all alternative options up to and including legal action.”
The CDF, meanwhile, is due to be wound up next March. The Conservatives have yet to detail their policy for the provision of cancer drugs when it ends; Labour, meanwhile, has announced plans to establish a new “Cancer Treatments Fund” worth £330m.
On the eve of another general election, the future of cancer drug funding has once again become a political issue, prompting a heated debate between the parties vying for control of the NHS purse strings.
“There is no easy solution to a system that enables funding of these drugs,” says Dr Rawlings. “But we cannot continue as we are.”
To support Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s campaign to Demand a Fair Price for life-extending drugs visit www.breakthrough.org.uk/stopLUVERNE, MN (MNN) -- A state lawmaker works at a plant where animal rights activists exposed sick pigs being abused and neglected. Republican Representative Rod Hamilton of Mountain Lake is in the human resources department at Christensen Farms in Luverne.
It's notable, because Hamilton sponsored a bill in 2011 which would have made it illegal to get a job or enter an animal facility under false pretenses. The so-called "ag gag" bill never passed, but Hamilton continues to defend the idea. He says it's wrong to go into any private property under false intentions. But Chris DeRose of the group which recorded the video at Christensen says exposing "atrocities" needs to be done.
The company has suspended seven employees, and is investigating the alleged animal mistreatment. Rock County sheriff's deputies are also conducting their own probe.The Shambhala Experience reveals the reasons countless passionate patrons return to the Salmo River Ranch every summer to participate in what they like to call, "a life changing experience". For many it's not just another music festival...it's an amalgamation of creativity and independence where its colourful attendees can truly be free of judgement and societal influence. This film showcases some of the fascinating qualities of electronic music festival culture which will be explored more in depth in the upcoming feature film, I/O: An Electronic Music Documentary. Performing artists making appearances include Stickybuds, LongWalkShortDock, ill.Gates, Dub Fx, Opiuo, Kytami, ill-esha, Chali 2na of Jurassic 5, SkiiTour, and more.
A film about why people love Shambhala, the documentary is comprised of footage filmed from 2012 - 2014. It speaks the message that this world renowned music festival spreads: that its community is the most outstanding foundation for why festival goers put Shambhala in a class all its own.
It's all about the people on the dance floor.
The Shambhala Experience is available for immediate download with a $10 e-transfer sent to inputoutputfilm@gmail.com, which goes directly into funding I/O: An Electronic Music Documentary. A contribution of $25 grants downloads of both The Shambhala Experience and I/O: An Electronic Music Documentary once it is available in 2018.Unlike commercial operating systems such as Windows or Mac OS X, Linux stands alone because of its unique nature. One of the major benefits of using this OS is that it is open source, meaning that the underlying source code may be used, modified, and distributed as its users see fit.
There are very specialized flavors of Linux such as Bedrock, which can utilize the benefits of various other Linux distributions. Then there are companies like SuSE that provide enterprise-grade Linux for those, mainly corporations, looking for a high degree of stability in server functionality.
But why is it that a higher percentage of bitcoin enthusiasts in China than anywhere else seem to use Linux to download the bitcoin client (Bitcoin QT)?
Take a look at the statistics below and you’ll see that over a third of users downloading the bitcoin client in China chose the Linux version in August alone.
Compare that to the US or UK, which only had a 5% download rate.
Since August up until this week, Chinese users have downloaded the Linux client 17% of the time, tops for the five major countries overall that download it.
It’s not because of regular, everyday use
At first glance, one might think that the reason why so many users in China are on Linux is because Windows is so expensive to use. Why pay for Windows when you could just use Linux? That does seem logical, but that’s not the real reason.
Anyone who is familiar with China’s lax laws regarding copyright protection knows that all you have to do is go down to the local pirated DVD seller and a Chinese language version of Windows is available for cheap.
This is further substantiated by operating system browser usage in China. It’s clear that the majority of Chinese internet users are not using Linux when you take into account StatCounter data, generally respected as a good source for statistics on browser versions and thus as a subsidiary operating system usage.
What the Chinese are using the Linux bitcoin client for
It becomes pretty obvious after looking at a few factors that the only reason the Chinese are overwhelmingly using the bitcoin client on Linux for mining coins is to solve cryptographic problems in order to unlock additional units of BTC. And that makes sense because resources can be better pooled using Linux than with other operating systems.
This may be one of the biggest indicators that it is the Chinese who may be the biggest miners of bitcoin overall, and that shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who has been following the ASIC mining race.
Hunter Sherman, a software developer working on content distribution and data gathering solutions, believes that the Chinese are simply harnessing the computing power of older hardware.
“Bitcoin mining is about raw CPU, so a bunch of two year old machines running a low overhead OS like Linux have more power and is an overall cheaper solution then a new PC. They can also throw the money spent on Windows or OSX at more hardware,” says Sherman.
The incentive to mine
Ankur Nandwani, a bitcoin enthusiast running the open BitMonet microtransaction project, believes that Linux’s open nature is a component to the rise in mining in China.
This was widely reported in a recent article called “Bitcoin Mania Grips China” for Bloomberg Businessweek.
“Being open-source, miners can easily optimize Linux for bitcoin mining”, says Nandwani. “Also people have written drivers that enable Linux to run on different ASIC’s, so that might be another reason motivating miners to use Linux.”
Linux and its relative technological freedom could also be considered a counterbalance to what China has done for some time to control its currency, the yuan.
“Currency controls seem to be the driving force behind the growth of bitcoins in China,” says Nandwani. “Also, considering that bitcoin might become really popular in the future, the Chinese government might be further incentivized to promote mining in China.”
Conclusion
It would seem that, given the Chinese government’s history of controlling the value of its currency, it would not readily embrace the idea of bitcoin. It’s not something they can control, though, and that is perhaps why instead of enacting rules regarding it they have tacitly accepted it.
One way they expressed this was by showing a documentary about bitcoin on national television. Yet China’s central bank has issued warnings on virtual currencies in the past.
Tencent QQ, the popular instant messaging service with over 798 million active users, has its own virtual currency called Q Coin. QQ users trade in Chinese yuan for Q Coin to purchase mostly virtual goods. But it has also been traded amongst QQ members and used to buy real-world products and services.
This has led the government to issue a warning regarding the use of Q Coin to launder money through it by taking illegitimately earned money and trading it through the virtual currency.
Bitcoin has this same propensity, and China would have a harder time controlling that than to simply tell Tencent, the operator of QQ, to simply shut down Q Coin.
What do you think about bitcoin in China? Do you think that the government there will accept bitcoin long-term? Do they have a choice? Let us know in the comments.
Featured Image Source: FlickrGonzález and the second or maternal family name is Blanco. This name uses Spanish naming customs : the first or paternal family name isand the second or maternal family name is
Raúl González Blanco ( Spanish pronunciation: [raˈul ɣonˈθaleθ ˈβlaŋko]; born 27 June 1977), known as Raúl, is a retired Spanish professional footballer who played as a striker. Raúl is considered one of the most important players in the history of Real Madrid and regarded as one of the greatest Spanish players of all-time.[2][3][4]
Raúl was born in the San Cristóbal de los Ángeles neighborhood of Madrid where he played for the local youth team before moving to the Atlético Madrid youth team. He later moved to Real Madrid's youth academy and played at its various levels. In 1994, he signed his first professional contract with the fourth division team Real Madrid C and then was swiftly promoted to the first division team.
He spent 16 years of his career playing for Real Madrid and is the club's second all-time top goalscorer with 323 goals.[5] Raúl is also the most capped player in the history of the club with 741 appearances, ahead of Manolo Sanchís. With Los Blancos, Raúl won six La Liga titles, three UEFA Champions League titles, scoring in two finals, four Supercopa de España titles, one UEFA Super Cup and two Intercontinental Cups. He is the third highest goalscorer in Champions League history, behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, and the fifth most capped player. In 2003, he was appointed captain of the team and retained that position until his departure from the club in 2010.
In La Liga competitions, Raúl is the fifth-highest goalscorer in the history of the competition with 228 goals, behind Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Telmo Zarra and fellow Real Madrid legend Hugo Sánchez. He is also the highest Spanish scorer in European leagues, with 256 goals, scoring 228 goals in La Liga and 28 goals in the Bundesliga. He is also the second-most capped player in the history of the Spanish competition, with 550 matches played, just behind Andoni Zubizarreta (622 matches). Leaving Real Madrid in 2010 and signing for Schalke 04, he scored the 400th goal of his career in February 2012.[6] He signed with the Qatari club Al Sadd in 2012. He won the Qatar Stars League in his first season and he reached 1,000 matches played in his career,[7] 1 of only 18 players to have achieved this landmark.[8]
Although he did not win any major competitions while playing for the Spain national team, he scored a then-record 44 goals in 102 appearances for la Roja, appearing in three FIFA World Cups and two European championships. Raúl took over the captaincy of the side in 2002 and held it until 2006, the year in which he played his last international match for Spain.
Raúl was named the best striker in the world by International Federation of Football History & Statistics in 1999, and is the only player to be named UEFA Club Forward of the Year three times, in 2000, 2001 and 2002.[9] He ranked second in the 2001 Ballon d'Or and third in the 2001 FIFA World Player of the Year.[10] In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players, and was included in the UEFA list of the 50-best European players of the 1954–2004 period. He was part of the European Team of the Year of European Sports Media in 1997, 1999 and 2000.[11] Raúl won two Pichichi trophies (1999 and 2001), the top goalscorer award of the UEFA Champions League (2000 and 2001), five Don Balón Awards (1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002) and one Best Player Award at the Intercontinental Cup in 1998.
Club career [ edit ]
Youth clubs [ edit ]
Raúl's career began at his local team CD San Cristóbal de los Ángeles playing for their Alevín team and the Infantil the next season.[12][13] He signed with Atlético Madrid's Infantil team and won a national title with the Cadete team the following season. Following Atlético's then-president Jesús Gil decision to close their youth academy as a cost-saving measure, Raúl moved on to Real Madrid's Cadete team in La Fabrica. The following season, he was promoted to the Juvenil C team and subsequently went on to play for their Juvenil B and Juvenil A team.[14] While with the Real youth set-up, Raúl won the Dallas Cup in 1993 and 1994.[15]
Real Madrid [ edit ]
He started his professional career in the 1994–95 season with Real Madrid C;[17] he scored 16 goals in just seven games and was swiftly promoted to the first team by coach Jorge Valdano, replacing Emilio Butragueño in a symbolic "passing of the crown." He became the youngest player – 17 years and 124 days – ever to play for the senior side, though the record was broken by Alberto Rivera later that same season. On 29 October 1994, in an away game against Real Zaragoza at La Romareda, he created a goal for strike partner Iván Zamorano, heralding the demise of Butragueño in the process. The very next week, Raúl scored his first goal in his second senior game on a home debut against Madrid rivals and former youth club Atlético Madrid in a bitter derby match. Duly establishing himself as a fixture in the first team, Raúl registered a total of nine goals in 28 appearances to help Real Madrid win the 1994–95 league championship in his first season.
With Real Madrid, he won several honours, including further La Liga titles in 1996–97 (scoring 21 La Liga goals), 2000–01 (scoring 24 La Liga goals), and 2002–03 (scoring 16 La Liga goals in a campaign truncated by a bout of appendicitis for which Raúl was hospitalised). During the period from 1998 to 2002, Raúl and Real Madrid also won three UEFA Champions League trophies in 1998, 2000, and 2002. For most of this time, Raúl struck up a prolific scoring partnership with Fernando Morientes and later Ronaldo. During a La Liga game against fierce rivals Barcelona at the Nou Camp in October 1999, Raúl silenced the hostile home crowd of 100,000 fans when he scored and then memorably celebrated his goal by putting a finger to his lips as though to tell them to be quiet.[18][19] Raúl took over the captaincy of Real Madrid when Fernando Hierro was transferred in 2003, a responsibility he held until leaving the club in 2010. Despite appearing in two finals, in 2002 (in which he scored) and 2004, Raúl never lifted the Copa del Rey.
Raúl being substituted by Cristiano Ronaldo during a match in November 2009. Ronaldo would wear the #7 jersey at Real Madrid after Raúl's departure in 2010.
He became the first player to score 50 Champions League goals when he converted in a 2–1 group stage win over Olympiacos on 28 September 2005,[20] and was also the first to make 100 appearances in the tournament.[21] He was also the first player to score in two Champions League finals, netting in the finals of both 2000 against Valencia in the Stade de France, Saint-Denis, and 2002 against Bayer Leverkusen in Hampden Park, Glasgow. Samuel Eto'o later equaled this feat, scoring in the 2006 against Arsenal and in 2009 against Manchester United, with Lionel Messi also scoring in the same match and later in 2011 against the same team.
Raúl holds the distinction of having never received a red card throughout his 17 years at the professional level.[22] On 11 November 2008, Raúl scored his 300th goal for Real Madrid with a hat-trick against Real Unión, with Real winning the match 4–3 but being eliminated on away goals after draw 6–6 on aggregate.[23] In total, Raúl scored 323 goals for Real Madrid, breaking the long-standing club record of Alfredo Di Stéfano (307) with a volleyed goal against Sporting de Gijón on 15 February 2009. He is presently fifth on the all-time list of La Liga goalscorers, behind Argentine Lionel Messi, Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, Spaniard Telmo Zarra and Mexican Hugo Sánchez.[24]
Raúl in his last match with Real Madrid against Real Zaragoza
Raúl and fellow long-serving teammate Iker Casillas were both awarded "contracts for life" in 2008, the terms of which stipulate the contract will be renewed annually for as long as they play 30 matches each season.[25] On 23 September 2009, Raúl equalled former veteran and legend Manolo Sanchís' league appearance record for Real Madrid,[26] and is second in La Liga behind Andoni Zubizarreta, who played in 622 matches.
Along with years of captaincy for both Real Madrid and Spain, Raúl was known as "El Capitan" ("The Captain").[27]
Raúl's last touch with the ball as Real Madrid player before an injury ruled him out of action for the rest of that season was to score his last goal, an opening goal scored on 24 April 2010 in a 2–1 away victory against Real Zaragoza in La Romareda, coincidentally the stadium where he made his debut in 1994. It was scored in the 50th minute after Raúl (himself only on the pitch as a substitute for Rafael van der Vaart after 15 minutes) had signalled he could not physically continue and was prepared to be substituted off for Karim Benzema one minute after the goal.[28] Before the substitution could be made, Real Madrid launched a counter-attack to create a goal. Though Raúl ran to a slow hobble, he shuffled into the box and was able to poke the ball from Cristiano Ronaldo's pass.
Having spent the rest of the season recovering from that injury, the club confirmed on 25 July 2010 that Raúl would be leaving the club, a day after his teammate Guti confirmed he was also leaving after a 15-year spell.[29]
Schalke 04 [ edit ]
Raúl in a training session with Schalke 04 in August 2011
Raúl signed a two-year contract with Schalke 04 on 28 July 2010. Schalke head coach Felix Magath hailed the signing and told the club website, "It's great news for FC Schalke 04, I am pleased that we have succeeded in signing such an exceptional footballer and world-class striker switching to the Bundesliga for Schalke 04."[30] Previously, it was expected Raúl would have finished his career in the United States or Qatar, and that he also received a lucrative offer from an unnamed Russian club. Raúl chose Schalke because they qualified for the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League.[31]
Raúl scored his first goal for the club during his first match on 1 August 2010 with a brace in a 3–1 victory over Bayern Munich in the final match pre-season competition LIGA total! Cup 2010. One week later, he made his competitive debut in the 2010 DFL-Supercup on 7 August 2010 again against Bayern, but this time he failed to score in the 2–0 defeat. Raúl made his Bundesliga debut on 21 August 2010 in a 2–1 defeat against Hamburger SV.[32] and scored his first goal for Schalke in the Bundesliga against Borussia Mönchengladbach on 25 September 2010 in a 2–2 draw.[33] After a quiet start, he rediscovered his goalscoring form in the Bundesliga with a brace against FC St. Pauli on 5 November in a 3–0 win, and on 20 November, he scored his first hat-trick for the club in a 4–0 win over Werder Bremen. On 18 December, he scored his second hat-trick for Schalke in a 3–0 win against 1. FC Köln.
Raúl with Schalke in 2011
Raúl scored another crucial goal on 2 March 2011 in a 1–0 victory over Bayern Munich in the semi-final of 2010–11 DFB-Pokal. After being absent for six years, Schalke ultimately reached the finals since 2005. In the final match, they played against MSV Duisburg, the first 2. Bundesliga team which reached the final since 2004. Raúl never won a domestic cup with Real Madrid (the Copa del Rey), but on 21 May 2011, in his first season, he finally won a domestic cup and got his maiden trophy with his new club. They won the tournament with a 5–0 win at the Olympiastadion, Berlin. This success was followed with victory two months later on 23 July 2011 in the 2011 DFL-Supercup against the league champions and rivals Borussia Dortmund.
In European play, Raúl has since become the highest goal scorer in all UEFA competitions with 73 goals, ahead of Milan veteran Filippo Inzaghi with 70 goals. He scored 71 goals in Champions League (66 goals with Real Madrid and five with Schalke 04) and addition his two goals with Los Blancos, one goal in 2000 UEFA Super Cup and the other one in 1998 Intercontinental Cup. On 22 October 2010, Raúl scored twice against Hapoel Tel Aviv in a 3–1 win, which tied him with German legend Gerd Müller for the most number of European goals. Raúl duly broke this record on 15 February 2011 on his return to Spain with a crucial away goal in the round of 16 tie against Valencia at the Mestalla Stadium in a 1–1 draw.
In the quarter-finals, Raúl scored two goals against Internazionale: one goal in the first leg, a 5–2 away win at the San Siro, and one in the second leg, a 2–1 home win at the Veltins-Arena. Schalke progressed to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in their history, where they played against Manchester United. Schalke |
in the US within eight years on a levelised cost basis.
When the cost of installation is taken into account, however, the story changes.
Wind and solar are much cheaper. Not only is the fuel free and faces no regulatory risk — in the form of a carbon price — but the technology is simpler and quicker to install.
Australia's chief scientist Alan Finkel went one step further. He factored the extra costs of adding gas or battery backup to ensure stability or baseload power in the system.
Wind still came out cheapest, with solar only marginally more expensive than black coal.
Renewable plants can be built within one to three years while coal-fired plants take between four and seven years to build.
Putting aside arguments about climate change, the main problem with coal-fired electricity is that the numbers no longer stack up.
It's too expensive, it has much higher regulatory risks and renewable technology is rapidly advancing.
It will take more than a taxpayer subsidy to build one here. It will need a full taxpayer handout. And it will result in more expensive power bills.
Coal is simply a form of stored solar energy. New technology has delivering cleaner, more efficient and cheaper ways to directly harvest solar energy to power our lives.
Don't expect that innovation to stop.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, industry, electricity-energy-and-utilities, climate-change, environment, alternative-energy, solar-energy, wind-energy, coal
First postedHTC’s new CEO and chairwomen, Cher Wang, told in an investors meeting yesterday that the company will be launching a new “hero product” in the smartphone segment in October.
The chairwomen apologised for the poor performance of the company in recent times, but promised that things will change for the better later this year. She also promised that HTC will be making major improvements in the design and innovation of its 2016 flagship.
“In an effort to improve the company’s smartphone segment, HTC’s core business, Wang said the company plans to launch a ‘hero product’ in October, and make significant improvements in innovation and design for the next flagship model next year.”
It is likely that HTC will be introducing a new phablet phone to take on the likes of the Galaxy Note 5 and the iPhone 6s Plus later this year.
To further improve profitability, HTC will also be looking to reduce its production cost and improve production efficiency. Wang also revealed during the meeting that HTC will not be renewing its contract with actor Robert Downey Jr. for advertising its product once it expires at the end of this year.
HTC managed to impress consumers with the One M7 and One M8 over the last two years, but completely dropped the ball with its 2015 flagship — the One M9. Compared to its competition, the One M9 is inferior in every possible way, and in some areas, it has even regressed when compared to the One M8. The disappointing flagship have led HTC’s share to fall to a 12-year low of NT$98.
[Via Taipei Times]
Like this post? Share it!Here comes the hysterical moonbat brigade to provide some comic relief.
Yesterday we did have Mr. Bernanke in our committee and he came to tell us what he’s doing with quantitative easing and that is trying to stimulate the economy with the bond purchases that he’s been doing because he’s trying to keep the interest rates low and jobs – and he said that if sequestration takes place, that’s going to be a great setback. We don’t need to be having something like sequestration that’s going to cause these jobs losses, over 170 million jobs that could be lost – and so he made it very clear he’s not opposed to cuts but cuts must be done over a long period of time and in a very planned way rather than this blunt cutting that will be done by sequestration.
And so forth.
Waters predicted a possible 170 million jobs would be lost. There are currently about 143 million Americans in the workforce.
Waters eventually corrected herself, saying that 750,000 jobs could be lost. Where she got either number remains a mystery, since the sequester only cuts $22 billion from the rate of growth of government spending this year.Gold Gang's 31gramms releases an appetizer of music in the form of his latest tape Extra Gramms. The Atlanta spitter details his life on the trap in the seven-track mixtape released via SoundCloud. With production from Hustle Gang’s Rara, Tino, MPC Cartel and more, the music plays like street symphony. Whether you're looking for a relatable ode to the past like "Familiar Places" or catchy hook banger "Wideout," Extra Gramms shows 31gramms' versatility. Trinidad Jame$ appears as the only feature on the mixtape on the last track, "Just Think About It."
"Extra Gramms is just that, extra cracc that didnt make the package," 31gramms shared in the bio of the SoundCloud post before announcing his album is on the way this month. "RICO, dropping 3/31/17 hosted by DJ Drama."
Gold Gang label president Trinidad Jame$ spoke highly of 31gramms when he sat down with XXL earlier this year.
"31gramms is an Atlanta street lyricist with the realest stories you can imagine. He raps from the right place: the heart. If MJG and Pimp C were mixed in a styrofoam cup, 31gramms would be the drank," said Jame$. "I want fans to get a little insight into the sound of each artist. I feel like today’s listener is way more about how things sound before they care what you say."
Check out Extra Gramms below.The Crown Prosecution Service has just announced that Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks have been charged over the alleged bribery of public officials.
In the case of Coulson, the charges relate to payments made for a Palace phone directory, known as the "Green Book", containing contact details for the Royal Family. Clive Goodman, the News of the World's former royal editor, who was imprisoned in 2007 for hacking phones belonging to the Royal Household, has also been charged in relation to these allegations.
In the case of Brooks, the charges relate to an alleged payment of £100,000 to Ministry of Defence employee Bettina Jordan Barber in exchange for information which formed the basis of a series of stories published by the Sun. Jordan Barber and the Sun's chief reporter, John Kay, have also been charged.
These are the third set of charges Coulson and Brooks have faced. Coulson has previouly been charged with committing perjury at the trial of Tommy Sheridan in December 2010 and with phone-hacking between October 2000 and 2006. Brooks has also been charged with phone-hacking, including in the case of Milly Dowler, and with perverting the course of justice by concealing evidence from police investigating hacking last summer.
Fifty two people have now been arrested as part of Operation Elveden, the Met's investigation into alleged illegal payments to police and other public officials, including 21 journalists at the Sun.rumpology
Rumpology, also known as butt reading, is the art of reading the lines, crevices, dimples, and folds of the buttocks to divine the butt owner's character and get a glimpse of what lies ahead by analyzing what trails behind.
According to Jacqueline Stallone, a foremost American rumpologist, rump reading is an art that was practiced in ancient Babylon, India, Greece, and Rome. She claims that the ancient Greeks thought the butt was the key to health and fidelity. She says the Romans used butt prints the way some people use graphology today: to determine potential talents and future success.
She does readings by mail. Just send her a digital photo of your rump and she will analyze it for a fee ($125, and she takes major credit cards and PayPal). Her website includes examples of appropriate rump shots, including one of "a male action hero movie star," "a Jewish princess," and "a Fortune 500 CEO." She'll not only give you a butt reading for your money, but she'll send you an 8 1/2 x 11 glossy color print of your butt, suitable for framing.
Stallone has not been tested by Dr. Gary "The Validator" Schwartz at his psychic-testing clinic at the University of Arizona, but her son Sylvester says that his mother's greatest talent is her ability to see the future.* It is likely, though, that were she tested by The Validator her clients would rate her accuracy at 75%-80% due to the Barnum and Forer effect.
Stallone claims that the left and right butt cheeks reveal a person's past and future, respectively. She says she has a degree in chemistry, but she must not have studied anatomy or physiology. She claims any doctor will tell you that the body is like a warehouse which stores everything. She thinks that the right buttocks represents the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain, while the left buttocks represents the right hemisphere. Her rump report, she says, can tell you "whether you are going ass-backwards (into that little closet called the left brain)" or are going forward with the right brain.
She even teaches others how to read the future by looking at behinds. José Miranda, for example, learned rumpology from Stallone. The Little Havana (Miami) soothsayer became a hit on the "phenomenally popular and raunchy late-night talk show 'La Cosa Nostra' on Spanish-language WJAN-TV Channel 41."*
Miranda says that rump reading is "no different than reading a palm or someone's eyes." That's no exaggeration. Rumpology works the same way as astrology, cartomancy, metoposcopy, palmistry, and getting messages from ghosts. Although Miranda's live readings of scantily clad models adds a new dimension to the expressions cold reading, subjective validation, and sympathetic magic.
Ulf Buck (left) is a Rump Reader from Meldorf, Germany. He's also blind, yet he claims he can read people's futures by feeling their naked buttocks. (Ivan Kelly calls him an asstrologer.) Buck says he spent many years training his fingers to do the reading, a practice he started on a small circle of friends but which has grown to include many prominent people, including a stockbroker who apparently invests depending on his butt bumps. Buck says that rumps "have lines like those on the palm of the hand, which can be read to reveal much about character and destiny. An apple-shaped, muscular bottom indicates someone who is charismatic, dynamic, very confident and often creative. A person who enjoys life. A pear-shaped bottom suggests someone very steadfast, patient and down-to-earth." Ulf has no comment on those whose rumps are on their shoulders. (Tattersall 2003)
You can't deny that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at his or her hindquarters and a person who has his or her butt read exposes a great deal about themselves. Having the benefit of hindsight, however, I think I can safely say that this ancient art should have been left in the can.
However, for those who would like to pursue a career in this potentially lucrative field, I have posted my essay "Rumpology for Dummies."
See also papyromancy, stichomancy, self-deception and the rumpology hoax.
further reading
books and articles
Christopher, Milbourne. (1970). ESP, Seers & Psychics. Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
de Givry, Grillot. (1931). Witchcraft, Magic & Alchemy. Reprint. (New York: Dover Books, 1971).
Dickson, D.H., & Kelly, I.W. (1985). "The 'Barnum effect' in personality assessment: A review of the literature," Psychological Reports, 57, 367-382.
Hyman, Ray. (1977). "'Cold Reading': How to Convince Strangers That You Know All About Them," The Skeptical Inquirer, Spring/Summer.
Kelly, Lynne. (2004). The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal. Thunder's Mouth Press.
Marks, David and Richard Kammann, (2000). The Psychology of the Psychic. 2nd ed. Prometheus Books.
Mackay, Charles. (1841). Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds. Crown Publishing, 1995.
Pickover, Clifford A. (2001). Dreaming the Future - the fantastic story of prediction. Prometheus.
Randi, James. (1982). Flim-Flam! Prometheus Books.
Randi, James. Video. "Secrets of the Psychics." James Randi reveals the secrets of the psychics and self-deceptive workings of the human mind.
Rowland, Ian. (2000). The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading, 3rd. ed.
Steiner, Robert A. (1989). Don't Get Taken! - Bunco and Bunkum Exposed - How to Protect Yourself. Wide-Awake Books.
Steiner, Robert A. (1996). "Fortunetelling," in The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal edited by Gordon Stein. Prometheus Books, pp. 281-290.
Swanson, Diane. (2009) Revised and updated. Nibbling on Einstein's Brain - The Good, the Bad, & the Bogus in Science. Annick Press.
Zusne, Leonard and Warren Jones. (1989). Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking. 2nd edition. Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc.
websites
Blind Psychic Gropes Buttocks to See Future by Nick Tattersall, Reuters, July 9, 2003
Your future is behind you - Botswana Guardian
John C McLachlan, a professor of medical education, may have read this article. He certainly knows how to present rumpology as science, at least to those whose standards aren't too high. See Integrative medicine and the point of credulity
"...I have discovered a new version of reflexology, which identifies a homunculus represented in the human body, over the area of the buttocks."---John C McLachlanThe U.S. Navy is actively monitoring a Russian spy ship that has been operating in international waters along the East Coast of the United States, according to a senior United States official, and Connecticut lawmakers are responding to reports from several news outlets that the ship is “loitering” in the waters off the coast of Connecticut, near the submarine base.
The senior U.S. official said the Navy is monitoring the ship on its radar systems. NBC Connecticut has not independently confirmed the reports of the ship being off the shores of Connecticut.
A U.S. defense official told The Associated Press that a Russian intelligence-collection ship has been operating off the East Coast, in international waters.
If the ship is in international waters, it is legal for them to be there.
Gov. Dannel Malloy said "the fact that we know that it's there is probably a good thing and I suspect that we have some of our ships in delicate places as well."
"I think it’s getting a lot of coverage because of the President’s changed policy towards Russia, which is very different than has been sustained by other administrations. It’s not that we shouldn’t be talking to the Russians, but we shouldn’t necessarily be embracing everything they are doing. And quite frankly, now that we understand that they have recently been active in our own elections, we should be wary of that. But that there are spy ships in the world – we shouldn’t be surprised,” Malloy said.
The reports that the ship is near the submarine base in Groton also brought a response from many Connecticut congressional representatives, who by and large called the action aggressive and concerning.
NBC Connecticut reached out to officials at the base, who said they don’t have a comment and referred inquiries to the U.S. Department of Defense. Officials from the DOD have not yet responded.
The White House didn't respond to a request for comment.
Groton is home the the Naval sub base, as well as Electric Boat, which designs and builds submarines.
“I think that clearly they like to track submarines. We know that they do," Malloy said about the ship's proximity to Groton. "This is not something that is brand new. It’s getting a lot of coverage because, again, I think of other Russian stories related to the Trump administration. They seek to understand how we have the best submarines in the world. And they’re made here.”
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy’s office said that this is not “unprecedented,” but the senator is concerned this is “part of a pattern of continued Russian ‘boldness.’”
“Russia is acting like it has a permission slip to expand influence, test limits of reach,” Murphy tweeted. “Questions are obvious: does it, and if so, why?”
"While this is not wholly unprecedented, it’s part of a series of aggressive actions by Russia that threaten U.S. national security and the security of our allies," Murphy said in a statement. "Just yesterday, news broke that Russia violated an Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Coupled with escalating fighting in eastern Ukraine and Russian jets buzzing a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Black Sea, Putin clearly thinks the Trump administration has given him a permission slip to flex his muscles. President Trump and his administration must end their silence and immediately respond to these threats to our national security.”
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal said in a statement that the presence of the spy ship "has to be regarded very seriously because Russia is an increasingly aggressive adversary."
"It reflects a clear need to harden our defenses against electronic surveillance and cyber espionage. I am personally monitoring this situation and remain in close contact with both the Department of Defense and the U.S. Coast Guard," Blumenthal said in the statement. "The return of a Russian vessel is particularly concerning in the context of escalating Russian aggression - within days of the Russian's buzzing a U.S. Navy ship in the Black Sea, as well as deploying a cruise missile in violation of our arms control treaty - which only underscores the need for an independent investigation into possible collusion between the Trump administration and Russian agents."
U.S. Rep. Jim Himes issued a statement saying residents should know that the presence of the ship does not present "a direct threat to our physical safety."
"Its appearance is troubling, however, viewed in conjunction with the ongoing stories of Russian ties and interference in the Trump Administration and the recent deployment of a Russian cruise missile in apparent violation of international agreements," Himes said in a statement. "In my opinion, Russia is making a show of strength and pushing established boundaries and norms to gauge the reaction of a new administration in disarray.”
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro tweeted that “Russia is flexing its muscles.”
U.S. Rep. John Larson responded to the reports with a tweet as well.
"This is a stark reminder of why we need a full account of Russia's influence in the White House & meddling in our election," Larson tweeted.
U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney also responded to the reports in a statement.
“A Russian spy ship patrolling 30 miles from the Groton SUBASE underscores that the threats posed by a resurgent Russia are real,” Courtney wrote. “This unacceptable, aggressive action, combined with the buzzing of US Navy ships in the Red Sea yesterday are clearly testing the resolve of a new administration. While I have total confidence in our Navy’s vigilant, responsible readiness, the White House needs to move past their seeming infatuation with Putin and treat him like the serious threat to global peace and security that he has been for the last five years.”
Courtney also made a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives about this ship.
U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty also responded with a statement.
“Russia’s escalating aggression is a serious national security threat," Esty wrote. "Yet again, the Kremlin is testing the resolve of the Trump administration. It is long past time for the White House to stop making excuses for Vladimir Putin and respond to his acts of thuggery with the toughness our security demands.”
Check back for updates on this developing story.Bitcoin may be touted as a global and accessible currency, but some of its users are being badly underserved.
Michael Staffen is a bitcoin user who is blind. He posted about his frustration with bitcoin wallets, which currently don’t offer any accessibility options to visually impaired people, on reddit:
“I am a fully blind person who uses a screen-reader and every bitcoin wallet I have downloaded is inaccessible to my screen-reader … This is making me very annoyed as I am a bitcoin supporter and I have acquired my own bitcoin, I just can’t goddamn use them without getting help from someone else.”
Staffen’s reddit post attracted nearly 200 comments and almost 1,000 upvotes. The comments were largely positive, calling on wallet developers to provide accessibility features for blind bitcoin users.
A core developer working on Multibit, a popular open-source wallet, said he raised the issue with the Multibit developer community and had started beta testing for accessibility issues after seeing the post. He has also recruited Staffen as one of Multibit’s beta testers.
Wallet accessibility
CoinDesk contacted Staffen to get a walkthrough of his experience using a bitcoin wallet with a screenreader. A screenreader is a piece of software that reads out the entire contents of a computer display and allows a blind or partially sighted person to operate the device.
[post-quote]
Staffen uses the market-leading third-party application JAWS. As he fired up his computer, JAWS called out his cursor’s location on the screen.
Staffen said he uses only a keyboard to navigate through his computer. The screenreader read out each menu so quickly that Staffen had to slow it down for us to follow.
Firstly, he chose to demonstrate his problems with the the Bitcoin-Qt wallet. When the application launched, Staffen showed that he could only access the main menu bar in the application.
This menu bar contained three drop-down menus that allowed him to backup and encrypt his wallet, but did not allow him to perform basic functions like check his wallet address or send and receive bitcoin. Those features are accessed through buttons contained in the application’s main window.
“If I go to the Bitcoin-Qt wallet, I can get into menus like ‘file’, ‘help’ and ‘settings’, but I can’t really do anything with them. There’s nothing to [help me] hear what’s going on. There’s no interaction with the screenreader, so basically the wallet is useless to me, unless I get someone to help me.” He added:
“For example, even getting to the [wallet] address, which I need to cut and paste – I can’t even really do that.”
Staffen said his sister, who is also a bitcoin enthusiast, currently helps him access the wallet. However, Staffen says he’s not pinning blame on a particular company or person for the poor state of accessible wallets.
“Most people want to make it accessible, probably including the developers – they just haven’t considered it. That’s one of the problems around accessibility: It’s not that people intentionally exclude others. It’s also up to [people with disabilities] to make noise.”
Michael Staffen’s story
Staffen (pictured) is a 36-year-old who lives in a town called Regina in a relatively rural province called Saskatchewan, which is part of the ‘Canadian prairies’. He developed lymphoma, a cancer of the blood, four years ago.
When he was diagnosed, he was told he had stage-four lymphoma and that the cancer had spread to his central nervous system. He was given a bleak prognosis.
“I was in a coma for a total of a month and was given a 0% chance of living. When I woke up from my coma, I could not see or move.”
The cancer had damaged Staffen’s optic nerve, leaving him with no light perception. After a year-long stay in the hospital, where he received chemotherapy, he eventually started a physiotherapy regime to regain use of his body.
“I did physiotherapy twice a day, where I learned how to walk and use my body again. I am now considered cured!”
Staffen is currently enrolled at the University of Regina where he is studying for a master’s degree in public policy and administration. He expected to graduate in September.
He has also become active in the local technology scene, becoming a board member of a maker-space called Crash Bang Labs. When CoinDesk spoke to him, he was in the midst of monitoring his new litecoin mining rig.
Staffen got interested in bitcoin two years ago after hearing about it on a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio show, but was struggling to adapt to using technology as a blind person.
“As a relatively new blind person I just did not have the wherewithal to go about [buying bitcoin in 2011] and wiring money at the time just seemed extraordinarily shady.”
By April of last year, Staffen was comfortable enough with technology to give bitcoin another go.
“My sister and I teamed up to figure out how to buy bitcoins from Mt. Gox. We had to wire our money to Japan which seemed ludicrous and scary.”
Staffen was so enamoured with the digital currency that he used a cash advance from his credit card to get enough funds to buy some. Unfortunately for Staffen and his sister, they bought into the cryptocurrency at its April peak of about $250.
“The price collapsed the very next day. I kept them because I thought they may recover eventually,” he said. The cryptocurrency’s price, of course, rallied to over $1,000 over the course of the year. It’s currently about $850 according to the CoinDesk BPI.
MultiBit’s perspective
Gary Rowe, a core developer on MultiBit, said the team is working on a new version of the wallet that would implement the Java Accessibility API recommendations.
This set of guidelines is designed to help developers create Java applications that are accessible to people with disabilities, including visual impairment or blindness. Rowe said he expected MultiBit HD to be released by the end of March at the latest.
“MultiBit are committed to delivering code of the highest quality to a wide range of users. Some of those users require support for accessibility to make their experience of MultiBit better,” he said, adding that Staffen is MultiBit’s only visually impaired beta tester at the moment.
Assistive technology boom
Screenreader technology is becoming increasingly common on computing devices, led by a combination of consumer expectations, industry adoption and legislation, said Robin Spinks, the principal manager for digital accessibility at the Royal National Institute of Blind People, the leading charity in the United Kingdom.
The latest WebAIM survey of screen reader usage, for example, shows that adoption of the technology has grown from 12% to 72% in the last three years. WebAIM is a non-profit organisation focused on web accessibility solutions at Utah State University.
Apple developed a screen reader and made it standard on iOS in 2009, a move that Spinks says sparked mass adoption of the technology. He said:
“Apple has led the march on this and other companies are following in their wake. Leaders in industry are demonstrating that it’s economically viable.”
As for Staffen, he says he plans to immerse himself further in the bitcoin economy. He’s been thinking about developing an education centre for people to learn about bitcoin or a wallet that’s accessible to blind users.
“I’m not sure what the business will be yet, all I know is I want to make a living from it.”
Image via Shutterstock, Michael StaffenInternet sleuths have dubbed the culprit “Original Guy,” the person or persons responsible for hacking and stealing the nude pictures of scores of Hollywood celebrities. Original Guy has been variously reported “on the run” from the FBI, lying low in a “hideout,” searching frantically for a lawyer, and “defiant,” threatening to release more photos unless he gets paid off — in bitcoin, of course.
One story describes Original Guy as a “collector who gradually added to his haul over months before suddenly deciding to post it online” — “one well-connected figure in underworld porn forums.”
Another suggested Original Guy wasn’t a just a guy, but “a loose gang of hackers working independently and trading to create the collection” of intrusive, intimate photographs such as the ones turned loose over the weekend of Jennifer Lawrence, Kirsten Dunst and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Whoever Original Guy is, there’s an Internet mob on the loose looking for him on sites such as Reddit and 4chan, where the pictures reportedly first showed up. Judging from the zeal of the pursuit, Original Guy may have more to fear from them than from the FBI.
A programmer from Atlanta named Bryan Hamade learned that this week when sleuths on Reddit and other sites decided he was Original Guy. Hamade, a.k.a. “BluntMastermind” on Reddit, is described as a 27-year-old computer programmer working for a company in Lawrenceville, Ga. In the frenzied hunt, according to BuzzFeed and other news outlets, Hamade had been hawking the pictures on Reddit and had posted a screenshot of his computer to show off the leaked picture folder.
The word traveled across the continents in a matter of hours. News outlets from the United States, Britain, Australia and India spread the word — and Hamade’s name — with headlines identifying him as “the main suspect” and “the culprit.”
“Hamade, who graduated from Collins Hill High School in 2005, was identified as responsible for the massive leak by members of the online community on the website Reddit,” reported the Gwinnett Daily Post, which covers Gwinnett County in Georgia. Reporters showed up at his mother’s home, where he reportedly lives, and — just as reporters do after any crime — interviewed neighbors. Reported the Daily Post:
Calls to his parents’ house went unanswered as news trucks gathered outside. Neighbors Fiona Fraley, 17, and Chris Atkins, 16, said they were surprised about the accusations against Hamade. ‘They’re quiet people,’ Fraley said, adding that Hamade ‘just had a baby girl. ‘They don’t talk very much. If you see them on the street and say hello they’re nice, but other than that, they keep to themselves.’ Added Atkins: ‘They’re generally very nice people.’
Meanwhile, Twitter went wild. “Bryan Hamade is the new Julian Assange,” said one tweet. ” “#BryanHamade must be upset that his picture is being spread all over the Internet, violating his privacy,” said another.
Hamade finally got in touch with BuzzFeed and Britain’s Daily Mail. He acknowledged obtaining some of the pictures and trying to hawk them for bitcoin, but he denied he was Original Guy.
“I am not behind this. It was so stupid — I saw a lot of people posting the actual leaks and bitcoin addresses and I’ve read a lot about bitcoin and how they are valuable and I thought, ‘Oh cool I’ll get free bitcoins,’” he told BuzzFeed. “I am just an idiot who tried to pull one over on 4chan and lost big time and stupidly left this identifying information. They took my proof and back traced it — it isn’t remotely true. I am not a hacker. I have no idea how the hell someone could hack into all those accounts.”
He told BuzzFeed he and his family have been harassed by 4chan users since his allegedly Photoshopped post went live.
“It’s been a nightmare and I haven’t slept in 34 hours now,” he said. “4chan users are harassing me with nonstop phone calls and emails. They email me constantly, emailing saying they’ll hack my personal websites and keep calling.”
Hamade was repentant.
“I regret it so much,” he said. “I didn’t even get any bitcoin out of it. It’s the stupidest thing I’ve done and I hope it won’t ruin my life, though it probably will since it’s just the biggest news story.”The much-maligned 2013 NBA draft was on Thursday evening, and though we saw some surprises and some slip-ups, by and large it was an entertaining night out.
Now to dig into the really-real, and judge each team on its selections. Click the jump for more.
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Atlanta Hawks
Grade: B+
Haul: Lucas Nogueira, Dennis Schroeder, Mike Muscala, Raul Neto.
This is going to be a re-occurring theme of this review, and we’re just going to have to live with it as we judge teams for using guaranteed contracts to secure iffy players.
THIS WAS NOT A GOOD DRAFT. Even though the Atlanta Hawks may go for broke in their attempts to sign either Dwight Howard or Chris Paul, gutting the roster along the way, there was not much to be had in terms of 2013-14 contributors outside of the lottery. Still, the Hawks managed to score Lucas Nogueira (16th overall) and Dennis Schroeder (17) in the middling stages. They pulled what could be a serviceable defensive big in Nogueria out, and Schroeder appears to have the sort of potential you’d align with a high-lottery level point guard. Muscala might be able to latch on as a fourth big, and Neto won’t be in a Hawks uniform for a while.
***
Boston Celtics
Grade: B
Haul: Kelly Olynyk, Cotton Iverson.
I’m not a huge fan of Olynyk, but he can play at this level and will be able to contribute right away due to his age (22) and jump shooting acumen. Pulling a front court contributor out of the low lottery is to be commended. Iverson seems like the sort of tough guy that won’t be able to make it out of October and into November with his new club, though he’ll certainly have his chances with Boston rebuilding so harshly.
This grade has nothing to do with the trade Boston agreed to on Thursday, it should be noted.
***
Charlotte Bobcats
Grade: D
Haul: Cody Zeller.
Story continues
I want Cody Zeller’s game to translate to the pros, badly, mainly because I feel for whatever Charlotte Bobcats fans are left. I understand that he’s super athletic when it comes from running from baseline to baseline, but in the NBA just about every big-minute big man can run fluidly from baseline to baseline. It’s not as if Zeller has to outrun Bob Lanier, here. It’s the quickness in which Zeller gets into his (very good) hops that worries me. And with Ben McLemore and Nerlens Noel (and the possibility for a trade with Noel) still available at fourth overall, this one is hard to swallow.
This grade has nothing to do with Michael Jordan’s drafting history oh wait yes it totally does.
***
Chicago Bulls
Grade: B-
Haul: Tony Snell, Erik Murphy
Via trade or great record, the Bulls have been drafting near the end of the first round for so long that you forget that Snell comes to a luxury tax-fearing team via the 20th pick. In other years the skinny shooter would probably rank towards the end of the first round, but that’s just how this draft goes. His rebounding and steal marks give me pause, but as a long, lanky shooter and hoped-for defender, his potential intrigues. As a Bulls fans who has been cool on a few of their picks over the years, it truly does.
Erik Murphy is a stretch four. I have never seen an episode of ‘Entourage’ so I don’t get all of your jokes.
***
Cleveland Cavaliers
Grade: A-
Haul: Anthony Bennett, Sergey Karasev, Carrick Felix.
Bennett will contribute right away. He will use his long arms and good touch to immediately set to scoring, putting up great per-minute numbers, as some sort of (and this isn’t a shot) David Lee and Ike Diogu combo. I understand that you don’t draft for need, but I still would have liked to see the Cavs take a chance on Noel while working with their slow and smart rebuilding plan, and while I understand you have to take the best player available in the lottery, the presence of the “pretty good, he’s aiight” Tristan Thompson still has to be considered.
Will Bennett end up being the best player in this draft? Right now, I don’t believe so, because defense matters to me (and the Cavaliers were 27th in defense last year). Because of his overall gifts, though, he’s not far off even in these early stages, and that’s all you can ask for in the crapshoot that was the 2013 NBA draft. Meanwhile,
Karasev is a fine scorer to find waiting on your doorstep with the 19th pick.
***
Dallas Mavericks
Grade: B
Haul: Shane Larkin, Ricky Ledo.
Nothing against Larkin or the idea of grabbing him 18th overall, but will the $1.5 million he’ll make next year prevent the Mavericks from being able to sign off on a maximum contract this summer? Nah, probably not – this team isn’t getting Dwight Howard anyway, even if he does leave Los Angeles. Plus, the Houston Rockets had the 18th pick last year, and that didn’t stop them from dealing for James Harden. Larkin’s size will be an issue, he’s 5-10 and no Tim Hardaway-in-waiting, but he can play at this level.
Ledo is a raw talent, but at just 20 years of age and at a second rounder’s price, a fantastic flier (in more ways than one) that Dallas just took a slim chance on.
***
Denver Nuggets
Grade: C-
Haul: Erick Green, Joffrey Lauvergne.
This was a terrible draft, so the Nuggets (who are owned by the billionaire that runs Wal-Mart) decided to make a cash grab for its first round pick, dealing Rudy Gobert to Utah for money and a second rounder. Green is a 6-4 college scorer that may be able to shoot his way onto the roster, while Lauvergne probably isn’t long for his draft rights.
***
Detroit Pistons
Grade: B-
Haul: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Tony Mitchell, Peyton Siva.
Even selecting eighth overall, the Pistons weren’t going to find an earth-shaker in this draft, and I don’t think Caldwell-Pope is an earth-shaker. His rebounding rates at Georgia and shooting acumen bode well for a nice NBA transition, though I worry slightly about his height.
Mitchell is a banger who could forge out a career as a fourth big man, while Siva may find it tougher to contribute.
***
Golden State Warriors
Grade: C
Haul: Nemanja Nedovic
This is an interesting one. The Warriors traded up and then back down to have perhaps the least desirable spot on the board – the 30th pick in a terrible draft. The last pick of the first round, if he signs, will receive a guaranteed deal, and while I’m reading that many are high on Nedovic, he’s also an in-between guard, a 6-3 scorer |
new analysis published in the journal Nature correlates these earlier studies with changes in temperature, the study's lead author says.
There was a close relationship between temperature shifts between 1970 and 2004 and changes in plants, animals and the physical world, such as the retreat of glaciers and the water level in desert lakes, the study says.
"When you look at all of the glaciers and all of the snowpack and all of the birds laying eggs earlier and all of the plants having spring earlier across a continent, then we see we can detect anthropogenic signals," says Dr Cynthia Rosenzweig of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
The researchers worked to rule out observed changes that could have been caused by other factors besides anthropogenic climate change.
Building on research done to support findings reported in 2007 by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rosenzweig and her co-authors brought together nearly 30,000 sets of data about biological and physical changes around the world.
The researchers, including Australia's Professor David Karoly of the University of Melbourne, then matched that up with a detailed database of global temperature change.
"We overlay those two global datasets and then we do a spatial pattern analysis globally about the co-location of significant temperature trends and observed changes consistent with warming," Rosenzweig says.
"We see that those are strongly co-located."
The link between human-caused global warming and observed biological and physical changes is very strong, she says.
On a global scale, the correlation is more than 99% between the two factors. On a continental scale, she says, the correlation if very likely 90-99%.
In a commentary published by Nature, climatologists Dr Francis Zwiers from Environment Canada and Dr Gabriele Hegerl from the University of Edinburgh picked over the big dispute as to whether climate impacts could be pinned on human interference.
They placed a question mark over the shortness of the records put forward by Rosenzweig's team. Evidence stretching back far longer than a few decades was needed to get a solid perspective, they say.
But, they add, these objections are outweighed by "the sheer number of changes" that the paper lists.
Seen so far
Here are some observed changes in the natural world attributable to climate change, according to the study:Share
At a time when the entire U.S. surveillance community is under fire for snooping on everybody’s private business, you might think a little rebranding is in order. Something lovable and non-threatening – something cute and cuddly, like Whiskers the NSA Kitten. That could win people over, right? How can you be against kittens? You can’t, is the answer.
So, is the Office of the Director of National Intelligence – the agency that oversees the NSA – going to revamp its image with adorable snugglebombs? Ha! Who do you think protects this country from the world’s most fearsome terrorists, six-year-old girls? Buzzfeed editors? The moderators of /r/aww? Get real, you pansy.
No – ODNI has a much better mascot in mind: A giant, world-eating octopus!
This is a real thing: On the side of a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) spy satellite that launched on Thursday night, you’ll find the logo for NROL-39: an Earth-encompassing octopus along with the tagline “Nothing is beyond our reach.” Nothing!
In a statement given to Forbes’ Kashmir Hill, NRO spokeswoman Karen Furgerson defended the logo, saying “NROL-39 is represented by the octopus, a versatile, adaptive, and highly intelligent creature. Emblematically, enemies of the United States can be reached no matter where they choose to hide.” Furgerson added that the “Nothing is beyond our reach” line “defines our mission and the value it brings to our nation …”
The NROL-39 satellite is carrying a “classified payload,” Hill reports, so we can only imagine what this satellite will be used to do, specifically. But given all we now know about the NSA’s activities these days, one doesn’t need to strain too hard.
In addition to the giant octopus, NRO’s logo selection includes a bull, a dragon, a panther, a buffalo, and this:
Yes, really.Amber Heard, the former wife of Johnny Depp, said she always had bisexual tendencies Joel Ryan/Associated Press
Virginia Woolf famously fell in love with a woman while happily married to a man. Now bisexuality has moved beyond the circles of writers and artists and into the mainstream of British life.
The number of people who describe themselves as bisexual has jumped by 45 per cent in just three years, according to official statistics, with more young people saying they are “bi” than gay.
The Office for National Statistics said the number of people in the UK openly identifying as bisexual jumped from 230,000 in 2012 to 334,000 when the most recent population survey was carried out last year. Among 16 to 24 year olds, 1.8 per cent said they were bisexual, compared with 1.5 per cent who said they were gay or…Jessica Dolcourt/CNET
An icon of a speed camera pops onto the display of what has to be the world's most helpful in-car navigator, signaling the police-enforced stretch of road ahead.
Beside the icon is another symbol, this time posting the road's speed limit. More solicitously yet, the GPS unit sounds a light chime every time our wheels spin too fast around one of these areas, which, it seems, is always. Ding-dong-ding-dong-ding. Tickets are pricey in this part of town. The driver lays off the gas.
I'm tooling around tree-lined Jeju Island, often regarded as Korea's version of Hawaii for its balmy climate and dominating volcanic mountain at its eye. The navigation unit outfitted into most rental cars here is part of a highly organized and tightly-integrated mapping system that, in addition to keeping you out of trouble from the strict traffic cops, uses business names (or telephone numbers!) to guide tourists anywhere from a traditional farming village to a bustling food stall in the center of a pedestrian-only marketplace.
The unit in our Hyundai seems to only "speak" Korean, though the warnings are clear enough to the droves of visitors from Japan, China, and further abroad.
Day turns to dusk as we zoom past the numerous speed traps dotting the roads between Jeju's ancient standing stones and famous volcanic crater. The nav blares a warning once again. As the palm trees whiz by, I start to wonder what the rental agency would say if we got a ticket, and in which world KT/Hertz would consider giving us a break in our rental price for better driving behavior that avoided the increasingly irritating warning jingle altogether.
Jessica Dolcourt/CNET
Better yet, what if those insurance benefits translated to my policy back home? In other words, what if road-aware in-car technology rewarded conscientious drivers who never speeded and always used their turn signals, who never slammed the breaks or leaned on their horns? I'm not one for an automotive police state, but I would certainly be inspired to lighten my lead foot if there were potential price cuts to be gained.
The idea doesn't seem like such a long shot from what our current infrastructure would allow. Crowdsourced navigation app Waze included route-based gamification long before Google absorbed the app into its churning information empire. Surely turning safe driving into an (optional) game with real-life perks would be a relatively easy, and dare I say, fun, way to improve roadway compliance while also helping a driver out around expected speed traps.
The navigator ding-dong-dings. The car rolls on.Band's headlining performance closing the festival
Biffy Clyro‘s Simon Neil says that the band’s headlining performance at Reading festival has produced “moments [they’ll] never forget”.
Speaking in the middle of their set, frontman Neil told the crowd that they thought it “couldn’t get any better” than their headlining performance at the festival in 2013. He also told the audience to “Mon the Reading” – a play on the famous ‘Mon the Biffy’ fan phrase.
The Kilmarnock trio headlined Leeds last night (August 26) and are currently headlining Reading today (August 28) in what is their 10th appearance at the festivals – and the second time they have headlined.
Getty
Meanwhile, the band have said they feel as though they have “paid our dues” at Reading and Leeds festivals over the years.
“To be asked [to headline] before was such a huge moment in the band’s life,” guitarist James Johnston told the BBC. “I think we have probably paid our dues, we’ve played all the small stage and worked our way up.”
Asked why they have such a close relationship with the festivals, Johnston replied: “It feels like there is a lot of good will from the punters that come here. We feel it is an opportunity to try and improve on what we did before, maybe we will pick up some new fans. It is one that has long been really close to our hearts,” he added.May 2, 2017, 3:17 AM GMT / Updated May 2, 2017, 3:17 AM GMT By Chandelis R. Duster
American University is investigating after bananas scrawled with racist messages were found hanging from fixtures around the Washington D.C. campus Monday morning.
The bananas, strung up in black noose-like rope, were marked with the words "Harambe bait" — a reference to the lowland gorilla who was shot at the Cincinnati zoo to protect a boy who fell into his enclosure and instantly became the subject of popular memes, some of which took on racist connotations — and “AKA free” in reference to Alpha Kappa Alpha, a predominantly Black sorority, and were found in three different places on campus.
The university president spoke out against the incident on Monday, calling it a "crude and racially insensitive act of bigotry."
Banana found outside the Hurst building at American University in Washington, D.C. Courtesy Quinn Dunlea
"Racially charged acts of bigotry are done to instill fear and inflict pain in our community—especially at stressful times, such as at the end of the term," university President Dr. Neil Kerwin said in a statement on Monday night. "I regret this happened, apologize to everyone offended, and state emphatically that this incident does not reflect what American University truly is."
The campus president continued to state that despite the "targeted" nature of the incident, "our entire university community has been adversely affected by this cowardly, despicable act."
The incident took place on the same day that Student Government Association president Taylor Dumpson, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, started the new position. “Being first isn’t easy,” Dumpson said addressing the incident in her first letter to the campus community. Calling the issue “disheartening” she called for unity.
“As the first black woman AUSG president, I implore all of us to unite in solidarity with those impacted by this situation and we must remember that ‘if there is no struggle, there is no progress,’ ─ Frederick Douglass,” Dumpson said. “We must use this time to reflect on what we value as a community and we must show those in the community that bigotry, hate, and racism cannot and will not be tolerated.”
The racist displays are being investigated by AU Campus Police with assistance from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and other AU offices and senior officials.
The Eagle, the university newspaper, reported that school officials, members of the sorority, and campus police met Monday afternoon to discuss next steps.
Students and campus organizations took to social media to show solidarity with Dumpson and the sorority with the hashtag #AUSupportsAKA.
AU is no stranger to controversy regarding racial incidents. In September 2016, two black female students reported bananas were thrown at them by white students on campus, sparking protests and a university investigation.
And in March 2015, racially charged comments including, "It’s obviously racist, but I don’t like 99% of the black people I meet," were anonymously posted through social media app Yik Yak by alleged AU students, sparking backlash — and even more racist comments.
Follow NBCBLK on Facebook, Twitter and InstagramSteve Bannon declares war on the Republican Party, slams Trump. File photo: US President Donald Trump's former strategist Steve Bannon arriving at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, April 9, 2017.
Republican senate leadership is firing back at former Trump cheif strategist Steve Bannon after a report surfaced that he has a hit list of incumbents he and 'his allies' are planning to recruit primary challengers for.
"I wish they would focus on Democrats instead of Republicans," Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, was quoted replying to Bannon in The Hill.
"It does [make it harder]. And it's not particularly productive....We ought to stay focused on the task at hand," added John Thune of South Dakota who is the Republican Conference chairman in the Senate.
The Senate leaders responded after Bannon disparaged his fellow Republicans in a highly anticipated interview with "60 Minutes," that aired on Sunday night. Bannon warned of a "civil war" within the party, claimed Republicans are at risk of losing the House of Representatives in 2018 and even slammed his former boss.
skip - Bannon: McConnell told Trump to back off "Drain the Swamp" talk
Bannon: McConnell told Trump to back off "Drain the Swamp" talk CBS
Cornyn added that Trump should lay off his criticism of Senate leadership as well saying, "The president's going to need as many friendly faces around here as he can get in order to get things done. I realize that bipartisanship is important, but he shouldn't mistake a smile for support when it really counts."
Bannon said during the interview that the firing of FBI Director James Comey may have been the biggest mistake in "modern political history."
The interview aired just hours before CNN reported that "Bannon and his allies" are planning to run primary challengers to establishment Republicans during the 2018 general election. The source went as far as disclose Bannon's hit list: Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, Alabama Senator Luther Strange, Nevada Senator Dean Heller and Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, the source said
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Bannon confirmed he opposed President Donald Trump's decision to oust Comey, calling the FBI "an institution." Bannon told CBS that institutions such as the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives can be changed "if the leadership is changed." But he also said the FBI is different.
"I don't believe that the institutional logic of the FBI, and particularly in regards to an investigation, could possibly be changed by changing the head of it," Bannon said.
The ousted White House adviser also said that if Comey hadn't been fired, "We would not have the Mueller investigation," referring to special counsel Robert Mueller.
Bannon also weighed in on Republican infighting over the fate of immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children. Bannon said the issue could be so vitriolic that the party loses control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year.
Bannon, whose far-right views on immigration, climate and trade helped shape Trump's presidential campaign and his first months in office, was fired by the Republican president last month in a push to end factional fights within the White House.
Trump said last week he would scrap a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, that allowed the young immigrants to live and work in America.
Bannon supported ending the program, which had been put in place by Democratic former President Barack Obama.
Trump gave the Republican-controlled Congress six months to come up with an alternative, saying he would "revisit this issue" if lawmakers could not agree.
"I'm worried about losing the House now because of this," Bannon told CBS.
"If this goes all the way down to its logical conclusion, in February and March it will be a civil war inside the Republican Party," he said. "And to me, doing that in the springboard of primary season for 2018 is extremely unwise."
Republicans are divided over the Dreamers. Some believe they are illegal immigrants who are taking American jobs, while others say they contribute to the country and deserve compassion.
Bannon, who said he left the White House on his own terms, lashed out against "establishment" Republicans who have at times grappled with Trump, a real estate celebrity who had never before held elected office.
"The Republican establishment is trying to nullify the 2016 election," Bannon said, saying it was an "open secret on Capitol Hill" that many Republicans did not support Trump's agenda, and singling out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan for criticism.
"They do not want Donald Trump's populist, economic nationalist agenda to be implemented,"Bannon said.
He called Republican national security officials who had served in the George W. Bush administration "idiots," including former secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, and former Vice President Dick Cheney.
"I hold these people in contempt, total and complete contempt," Bannon said, blaming them for U.S. trade problems with China and involvement in Iraq.
"They're idiots, and they've gotten us in this situation, and they question a good man like Donald Trump," Bannon said.By Jason Wang / Published on January 4, 2014
The short answer is no one.
Unlike PCI, there is no one that can “certify” that an organization is HIPAA compliant. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the federal governing body here. And, HHS does not endorse or recognize the “certifications” made by private organizations.
There is an evaluation standard in the Security Rule § 164.308(a)(8), and it requires you to perform a periodic technical and non-technical evaluation to make sure that your security policies and procedures meet the security requirements. But, HHS doesn’t care if the evaluation is performed internally or by an external organization.
Having said all that, being evaluated by an independent, third party auditor is still a really good idea. Even though it is not official you should still do it. There are a number of great companies that can help. For example, Coalfire Systems (http://www.coalfire.com) and ComplySmart (http://www.complysmart.com) offer HIPAA Assessments.
Important. Even if you get a “certification” from an external organization HHS can still come in and find a security violation. Third party audits and “certifications” do not absolve you from your legal obligations under the Security Rule.
It is interesting to note that Texas was the first state in the nation to create a formal Covered Entity Privacy and Security Certification Program. The program was developed as part of Texas' House Bill (HB) 300. The Texas Health Services Authority (THSA) and the Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) have partnered to implement the Certification Program. They will tell you that the Texas state law protecting patients' health information is more stringent than HIPAA. So in theory, if you are certified by the THSA, then you are ipso facto HIPAA compliant. Don’t hold me to that because HHS does not endorse or otherwise recognize this claim. But, considering the absence of a federal seal of approval this is a fantastic program and a step in the right direction.
If you have any questions about HIPAA compliance certification please talk to us today!With slightly warmer temperatures ahead and no snow piles blocking sidewalks this year, you can take advantage of the fact Boston was, yet again, ranked the No. 3 most walkable city in the nation, according to Walk Score, a company that ranks walkability and is owned by the real estate firm Redfin.
As in the 2015 rankings, Boston fell just behind New York and San Francisco with a Walk Score of 80.1, increasing 1.2 points from last year.
The Walk Score is a measure of how easy it is to walk from any given address to nearby amenities, on a scale of 0 to 100. Scores between 90 and 100 indicate that daily errands do not require a car, while scores between 70 and 89 indicate that most errands can be done on foot.
Walk Score also notes that walkability can be related to real estate values.
In cities where the Walk Score is above average, homes can get a value boost of between $4,000 and $34,000 compared to a similar home in an area with below-average walkability. A high Walk Score can similarly increase office and retail values.
To determine a city’s score, Redfin “analyzed more than 10 million locations and computed more than 2 billion walking routes for 2,500 U.S. cities,” and then uses an algorithm to look at walking routes, amenities, distance to those amenities, friendliness toward pedestrians, and neighborhood data.
You can get the Walk Score for your specific address here.FOR those of you not watching the television coverage of today's march against spending cuts in central London, let me offer you a vignette. On a big stage in front of the bulk of the protestors in Hyde Park, Brendan Barber, the head of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) warms up for Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, by screaming into the microphone about the injustice of the government's austerity mission. Meanwhile, Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy, stands to his side while Mr Miliband waits at the back. So far, so bad. Viewers who worry that the current Labour leadership is beholden to the unions and public-sector vested interests will hardly be changing their minds.
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Then the public-relations nightmare really begins. At the exact moment that Mr Miliband arrives at the lectern and begins speaking, black-clad protestors who had broken away from the main march begin misbehaving in the shopping areas of Regent Street and Oxford Street. Topshop, the high-street retailer accused of tax-dodging by many of the protestors, comes under assault. Various other shops close down as a precaution. The Metropolitan Police have just tweeted that some of their officers have been attacked by lightbulbs filled with ammonia.
The television coverage shows footage of all this happening while the disembodied voice of Mr Miliband, speaking in Hyde Park, compares the march to the Suffragette cause, the civil rights movement in America and the anti-apartheid protests in South Africa. As the words "David Cameron, this is the big society!" tauntingly leave his lips, viewers are treated to the spectacle of police officers being charged at by protestors. Mr Miliband finishes his speech by invoking Martin Luther King.
This embarrassing juxataposition of the speech with the violence is, according to some angry left-wing bloggers and tweeters, the dastardly work of Sky News. They are mistaken. I was watching the coverage on BBC News, who were carrying the same images and the same speech. How could they not?
Now, of course, Mr Miliband was unable to see what was going on a mile of two away from Hyde Park. And it was a pure accident of timing that one breakaway march (which amounted to a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands peacefully demonstrating) turned ugly just as he began speaking.
But it was his choice to address the rally in the first place, the latest stage in his curious political strategy of appealing to people who are already certain to vote Labour. It was his choice to go for the moral bombast of the apartheid and civil rights allusions in his speech, which were hostages to fortune. And he must have known that some kind of violence would take place today: it is only three months since the smashing-up of Parliament Square by protestors opposed to higher university tuition fees. Those few seconds of news coverage will have reached many viewers (it is Saturday, after all) and those who did not see it will probably have it brought to their attention in the coming weeks by the Tories' attack operation, who must not be able to believe their luck.
It is not just the violent fringe of these protests that are a threat to Labour's credibility and electability, though. As Bagehot blogged yesterday, and as Philip Collins wrote in The Times, the decent and good-natured majority of the anti-cuts movement are often wilfully oblivious to the need for any spending cuts at all, and "the alternative" they campaign for is the old standby of getting assorted tycoons, banks and corporations to pay more in tax. Labour's decision to associate itself so closely with these groups (who, in their soft-headedness, are worryingly evocative of some of the company Labour kept in their 1980s dog-days) is, quietly but surely, damaging the brand of a party that is already seen by voters as too left-wing. It may also make Labour look swivel-eyed and perpetually angry, in the way the Tories once did. In the short term, backing the protests might help rattle the government. In the long term, which slice of the electorate is Mr Miliband hoping to win over that he cannot already count on?
As I watch the television coverage of the march making its way through London, and of an HSBC branch being smashed up by anarchists, my eye is drawn less and less to the angry protestors and more to the ordinary people milling around looking perturbed. Some are foreign tourists. The rest are called voters.Whether it’s been a long day at work or you’ve been in school all day since morning, one of the things you look forward to most is a hearty meal cooked by your biwi or ammi or even your cook who you dragged out of your village years ago that doubles as a driver. And more often than not, you’re hoping they made biryani.
Dat booty? More like dat boti.
But is that it?
Actually, you’re not just hoping that they made biryani. You’re PRAYING that they did. You would beg them all day and night to make you a plate of that delicious biryani otherwise you’re just gonna refuse to eat at home and get a packet or two of that shit from the first thela you see on you way home just to feel some of that masalay-dar goodness.
However, if you end up getting biryani from a thela, it’s probably gonna feel a hell of a lot better on the way in your stomach than on the way out of it. But you don’t care. You want that biryani. Inside you. Right now.
When you see it
When you see that degh, time stops. You lift the lid and watch the steam escape and you can’t help but look at it the same way you’d look at a girl after studying in a boys only school all your life. The rice and the chicken fall on your plate and your dignity falls to the ground because at the moment all you can think about is stuffing that biryani inside you. You give the biryani the ‘you’re going home with me tonight look’.
You’re going home with me tonight. Just give me three hours to comb my moustache.
Wait. Something’s wrong.
As the last bit falls on the plate and you put it in front of you, something seems wrong. There’s something really off with this biryani.
Then it hits…
No. It can’t be.
You pick up a spoon and start to sift through it. When that fails, you throw the spoon away and go through it all over again with your fingers. You do this again and again until you’re forced to accept the bitter truth. THERE’S NO AALOO IN THE BIRYANI.
The pain. The pure, undiluted pain.
There’s no word in the dictionary that quite defines what you’re feeling right now. Agony and suffering are understatements. Most of us would rather lose our mind than lose that delicious piece of complex carbohydrate in our plate.
So you go back to the degh. But it’s too late. Everyone else in your family already emptied it. You go to each one of them, begging them to give you a piece of their aaloo. You offer to become their slave for the rest of your life. To give them your kidneys. Both of them.
But they love their aaloo as much as you do so why would they give it up for anyone?
Mothers would give up their babies than give up that potato that’s such an important part of their biryani. So you go back to your table and try to have that aaloo-less biryani which tastes extra salty because of the tears that are falling into it from your eyes.
Let it out. You deserve at least that much.Albany Devils' head coach Rick Kowalsky instructs hius players against the Providence Bruins' during the second period of an AHL hockey game in Albany, N.Y., Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016. (Hans Pennink / Special to the Times Union) ORG XMIT: HP104 ORG XMIT: MER2016020920524747 less Albany Devils' head coach Rick Kowalsky instructs hius players against the Providence Bruins' during the second period of an AHL hockey game in Albany, N.Y., Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016. (Hans Pennink / Special to... more Photo: Hans Pennink Photo: Hans Pennink Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Coach Rick Kowalsky a constant for Albany Devils 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
Albany
Since they arrived in 2010, the Albany Devils have gone through 120 players and one head coach.
Rick Kowalsky has been the boss of them all, from Matt Anderson to Vladimir Zharkov. He has endured two ownership groups, two general managers and some lean times with talent.
Patience can be rewarded. In his sixth season in charge, Kowalsky led the current Devils to a 46-20-10 regular-season record, a.671 points percentage that is highest for New Jersey's AHL affiliate since the 1995-96 Albany River Rats went 54-19-7 (.719).
For that, Kowalsky received recognition as the American Hockey League's Coach of the Year, although he hopes the season is far from over. The Devils begin a Calder Cup playoffs first-round series against the Utica Devils on Friday night.
"It's been a long time coming," said defenseman Dan Kelly, the only player to be with Kowalsky for his entire Albany stay. "It's always good when you've been with a guy to see him get rewarded. We've got a great team this year, and he's done a great job managing it."
In his 10th season as a head coach, including four with ECHL Trenton, Kowalsky has developed a simple philosophy. "It's important that you're demanding of your players without being demeaning," he said.
More Information Rick Kowalsky profile Playing career Position: Right wing Draft: 10th-round selection (227th overall) by Buffalo Sabres OHL: 209 games (Sault Ste. Marie), 54-100–154, 259 PIM ECHL: 516 games (Hampton Roads, Trenton, Roanoke), 221-329–550, +162, 979 PIM AHL: 183 games (Cornwall, Portland, Norfolk), 35-57–92, +4, 297 PIM BISL (Britain): 2 games (Cardiff), 0-0–0, 0 PIM Coaching career AHL (assistant): 2005-06 Norfolk ECHL (head): 2006-10 Trenton, 138-122-28,.528 AHL (head): 2010-present Albany, 217-179-64, 541 Personal Born: March 20, 1972 (age 44), in Simcoe, Ontario Family: Wife Debbie; children Dylan (13), Sydney (12), Ryan (9) Devils playoff schedule Albany Devils vs. Utica Comets (First round; best-of-five) Friday: at Albany, 7 p.m. Saturday: at Albany, 5 p.m. Tuesday: at Utica, 7 p.m. Thursday, April 28: at Utica*, 7 p.m. Saturday, April 30: at Albany*, 5 p.m. * — if necessary
The Devils may have more talent than any time in their six years in Albany, but Kowalsky has had to handle a fluid roster, normal in the AHL. A total of 45 players suited up for Albany this season, including 14 who have played in the NHL.
"He's definitely a players' coach, which is a great thing for the younger guys," said rookie Matt Lorito, who emerged as the team's scoring leader. "He's really not one to yell, but at the same time he's not shy to tell you when you've done something wrong. It's not like he's trying to single you out, he just wants to make you a better player."
"We've built a very good player-coach relationship," said Rod Pelley, the Devils' captain the past three seasons. "You can go into his room and talk to him about any concerns that you have. Where I have a question about a tough spot I'm in or how to deal with something, and he'll give me some advice on it, not tell me what to do at all."
Most of the players know Kowalsky's background. A career minor-leaguer, he played professionally for 12 seasons, mostly in the AHL and ECHL. Kowalsky didn't get his nickname "Killer" by playing passively, though the moniker was a natural given his last name. (Killer Kowalski was a Polish-Canadian wrestling star.)
He had 1,276 career penalty minutes but scored 20 goals or more in seven of his ECHL years.
"I probably didn't have good enough skating and probably wasn't strong enough, but I scratched and clawed my way and developed," Kowalsky said. "I played tough. I would not say I was a tough guy, but I played tough. I played a physical role."
Because of the way he played and his ability to quickly pick up systems and strategy, Kowalsky seemed destined to be a coach. That almost happened after his first season as a pro player.
Read Full ArticleENGLEWOOD, Colorado — Ahmad Brooks is the grey beard of the 49ers defense, a 32-year-old outside linebacker who is one of the last survivors of their 2012 season’s Super Bowl run.
What is he still doing there, amid the franchise’s obvious rebuild?
Brooks represents the 49ers’ best chance of sacking quarterbacks, at least through the season’s first four games while Aaron Lynch serves a suspension for substance-abuse.
Brooks won’t disagree with that assessment.
“I believe in my heart that I’m one of the best football players in the NFL today, regardless what position I play,” Brooks said this week. “That’s how I’ve been my whole life: I’ve just been one of the best guys on the team.”
He looked like one of the best Thursday in a joint practice with the host Denver Broncos. He produced a would-be sack of Mark Sanchez and nearly intercepted rookie Trevor Siemian, who will start Saturday night’s exhibition.
It’s the second straight year the 49ers worked out at the Broncos’ facility on back-to-back days prior to an exhibition. But Brooks didn’t stick around for last year’s follow-up practice.
A year ago, Brooks had to fly home before that Thursday’s practice, having been charged by Santa Clara County prosecutors with sexual battery in a December 2014 incident with a woman at former 49ers Ray McDonald’s house.
His tenure with the 49ers was in jeopardy, as was his legal freedom, of course. Brooks has not discussed the case as it weaves through the judicial system. A July 18 pretrial conference was continued to Nov. 21, according to prosecutors.
Trent Baalke, the 49ers general manager, wasn’t aware of Brooks’ legal standing when the topic came up Wednesday during an interview. Nothing new has happened regarding the case since Baalke and the 49ers aligned themselves with Brooks amid his troubles.
“Ahmad and I, along with ownership, we sat down and had a great visit when Ahmad was going through a lot of this,” Baalke said. “We listened to him. We dug into the situation. We decided it was in the best interest in all of us to stand behind the player.
“He’s made some mistakes; he’s well aware he’s made some mistakes,” Baalke added. —… I couldn’t be happier with the progress he’s made off the field. He’s done everything asked of him.”
On the field, Brooks had a sack, three tackles and chased down a running back in Sunday’s opener.
Brooks’ 45½ sacks since 2009 rank him fourth on the 49ers’ all-time list of sack leaders. His next regular-season sack will tie him with Dana Stubblefield for third place behind Bryant Young (89.5) and Charles Haley (66.5).
“What Ahmad does really well is his feel for football,” outside linebackers coach Jason Tarver said. “When he starts with speed and feels blockers, he’s really good at seeing and bursting from that blocker to get to the quarterback.”
Such moves come with experience. As Brooks enters his 11th season, he’s already passed his rookie goal of lasting 10 seasons, and he now watches film to confirm he’s still a high-caliber player. Keeping his body fresh isn’t as easy, however.
“Man, I know I’m 32 years old, and this is my 11th year, so the things I was able to get away with before, I can’t now,” Brooks said. “So I have to keep that in the back of my mind as far as maintenance, rehab, hot tub, and cold tub — my best friend right now.”
Brooks isn’t exactly surrounded by long-time friends on the defense. Since 2014, there’s been a wave of departures, replaced by a surge of first- and second-year players.
“They keep me young,” Brooks said. “A lot guys on the team don’t think I’m 32 years old. They think I’m 27 or 28. I’m like, ‘What?’
“I guess it’s the way I act because I don’t seem like I’m old. That’s how I approach this |
La Raza which is really a hate group who cloaks themselves in civic engagement). All of these ceremonies were lumped under the (predictable) descriptor of “Diversity Year-End Ceremonies”. Well let me tell you something, I attended a small, private liberal arts college in Los Angeles with an 80% international student body. If we had gone that route there might have been 20 of us in the hall (and I mean the Americans). If we took the gays out-wow maybe 10 of us? If these numbers sound off to you, my school had a large fashion program-stereotypical, maybe. But true.
Thank goodness there are some voices of reason out there to tamper down some of this insanity we find ourselves confronted with daily these days. Ward Connerly, president of the American Civil Right Institute, and former regent in the University of California system, sums up my feelings about the separate commencement ceremonies.
“It’s not easy being a student, being a student anywhere, but especially at a place like Harvard,” Ward Connerly, president of the American Civil Rights Institute and a former University of California regent who campaigned against racial preference in admissions, said sympathetically. But events like black commencements, he continued, serve only to “amplify” racial differences. “College is the place where we should be teaching and preaching the view that you’re an individual, and choose your associates to be based on other factors rather than skin color,” he said. “Think about it,” Mr. Connerly added. “These kids went to Harvard, and they less than anyone in our society should worry about feeling welcome and finding comfort zones. They don’t need that.”
Harvard even had a separate commencement for their students of Latin extraction and a separate black commencement for their undergrads as well. All ceremonies were open to students of all races, but virtually all who attended the black commencements were black. Imagine that, white people did not feel welcome at a segregated commencement? Pfft. Haters.
One graduate of the school’s African-American and social studies program summed it up so very eloquently:
“For me, the black community is a home away from home,” Olivia Castor, a student speaker from Spring Valley, N.Y., who earned a bachelor’s degree in social studies and African-American studies, said exuberantly. “It’s where I spent most of my time, where I found my closest friends and, more importantly, where I’ve learned the most important lessons during my time here,” she went on. “So thank you, thank you for being beautiful, brilliant and blackety-black-black.”
I cannot even begin to explain how horrified I am on so many levels. SMOD 2017 where are you?Taxi-booking app goCatch will begin paying drivers to pick up early-morning passengers at notorious Sydney trouble spots.
In a month-long trial starting on Friday, drivers will be paid up to $20 a trip to take fares between 1am and 4am from central Sydney and Kings Cross.
GoCatch will report the results to the NSW government, which on Tuesday announced measures to crack down on drug- and alcohol-induced late-night violence in those areas.
App co-founder Andrew Campbell says many drivers avoid areas with a reputation for violence.
"They tell us that it's not worth the hassle and aggravation," he said.
"Sometimes demand outstrips supply and passengers have difficulty finding a cab.
"We have to find a way to encourage the drivers to return to the city, and hopefully this measure is one small way to do that."
He hopes a successful trial will lead to a partnership with the government to introduce the incentives across NSW.
GoCatch is a free app for Android and iOS that allows users to book a taxi directly with a driver and to see the location of taxis on their phones.What I mean is this: Many of the biggest Jewish federations in America have special fundraising sub-groups organized around specific professions, including lawyers. Let's encourage these lawyers' division to write to the prime minister and tell him that, as much as they would love to have him visit and share his views with them, American lawyers -- and in particular, First Amendment lawyers, half of whom, it seems, are Jewish -- don't feel it is appropriate to honor a speaker who advocates punishing others for exercising their right to free speech.
There is wall-to-wall opposition among American Jews toward this ridiculous law, and this opposition needs to be communicated to the prime minister and to the Knesset in very clear ways, before Israel slips further down the slope away from democracy.
Oh, and by the way, I've just gotten a report that the greatest Zionist in American history, Justice Louis D. Brandeis, is, in fact, currently rolling over in his grave.
UPDATE: Good God, my inbox is filled up with stupid shit today. The stupid shit is coming in two categories: Israel-haters, welcoming me to their deranged club, and Israel-right-or-wrongers, accusing me of treason. To the Israel-haters: Criticism of a specific Israeli policy or law does not make me an Israel-hater. Sorry. One letter states, "So you're finally seeing that Israel is an apartheid state." Well, no. What I see is an Israeli prime minister not brave enough to stand up to a revanchist minority within his own party. Because I love Israel, I would like to see Netanyahu come out against laws that punish free speech. Here's another letter: "So you endorse a boycott of Netanyahu. That means you find boycotts legitimate." Okay, that one I can't even respond to, it's so dumb. Okay, here I go, responding anyway: I'm trying to make the point that it is vital for pro-Israel American Jews who care about free speech (the heavily-Jewish First Amendment bar comes to mind) to let Prime Minister Netanyahu he's wrong, why he's wrong, the consequences of being wrong, and how to fix the wrong he's done. That's all. But yes, I do think it would be odd and unseemly for a lawyers' division of a Jewish federation to honor him at this moment, given what seem to be his evolving views on free speech. It would be great if he would come to New York and meet some free-speech advocates in the pro-Israel community, so that they can give him a piece of their mind. Of course, he could do this in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.
To the knee-jerk defenders of every single Likud Party policy, right or wrong: Keep on blinding yourselves. You obviously enjoy the dark. And to the person who wrote this: "Come on, you must know that Israel doesn't have a First Amendment or a Constitution that guarantees free speech," all I can say is this: Since 1948, Israel has been a besieged state that nevertheless has, with rare exceptions, defended the right of people to say whatever they have wanted to say. This is why Israel has the freest press in the world, and why Arab members of Knesset can scream down the prime minister and not get shot. Israel's defense of freedom of speech, even in wartime, is one of the many reasons to be proud of it. Let's not go spoiling this record now.He leans forward at the desk in his cluttered study, fanning out three baseball cards like a man unveiling the winning hand in a poker game.
The faces are in black and white, the subjects in bow ties and upturned mustaches. The names — Gleason, Hemming, Reitz — would mean little to most modern fans.
Yet the players belonged to perhaps the greatest team in local baseball history, the cards to a set so rare that owning them changed Dan McKee's life. He sold them for six figures in 2006, earning enough on the deal to purchase his family's dream home in northern Baltimore County.
But for the 51-year-old lifelong hobbyist, the sale also came to represent the way collecting has changed from an innocent pursuit into a high-stakes trade. He never thought he'd part with the cards, and now that they're on the market again, he said he'd "have to rob a bank" to get them back.
"You could say there was 'before the Alpha cards and after the Alpha cards,'" said McKee, who also works as a software developer.
Only one such set is known to exist, making it "one of card collecting's most legendary and rarest issues," according to a catalog published by Robert Edwards Auctions of New Jersey, which specializes in memorabilia.
Printed by the old Alpha Photo-Engraving Co. in Baltimore, they show 15 members of the 1894 Baltimore Orioles of the National League.
Pitchers George Hemming and Kid Gleason and infielder Henry (Heinie) Reitz starred for the team, which featured seven future Hall of Famers, collectively hit.343 and finished 50 games above.500.
The saga of Dan and the Alphas began, in a way, 44 years ago, when he was growing up in middle-class Reisterstown.
His father, Lambert ("Dan") McKee, a construction company manager, collected vintage coins and other artifacts, many of them off the mainstream hobbyists' path.
In 1969, when Dan Jr. was seven, the Orioles were an established power in the American League East, winning 109 games en route to a World Series appearance. Dan's path became clear: He'd collect baseball cards.
In those days, he insisted, it didn't occur to him to measure their value in dollars. What he valued was the simple joys they represented, like riding his bike every week to a local store to score Topps' latest.
The five-cent packs contained five cards and a sweet-smelling slab of gum.
"I had a happy childhood," he said. "It's why I collect. I think looking through my stuff is a way to remember."
He kept at it, amassing a complete big-league set each year and learning to save "doubles" to trade his way up. He learned history — how tobacco companies published the cards starting in the 1880s, then bread and clothing firms, then Bowman, Topps and other bubble-gum outfits.
As Dan Sr. took him to memorabilia shows, he never took to baseball much — "too slow," he said — but the cards depicting it were something else.
They exuded history, embodying the way baseball and the culture changed together from the pre-World War II era through modern-day life. Yet one tale was missing.
Collectors familiar with Baltimore sports had long told him of a great team even locals were beginning to forget — the 1894 Orioles, a squad so formidable that historians have compared them to the 1927 New York Yankees.
Playing in the National League, the only major circuit of the day, they finished ahead of 11 other teams, including the second-place New York Giants and the cellar-dwelling Louisville Colonels. They finished 89-39, averaged 9.14 runs per game and established an aggressive, often dirty style of play.
The players included third baseman John McGraw, later one of the greatest managers in history; shortstop Hughie Jennings who later managed the Detroit Tigers to several World Series victories; and William ("Wee Willie") Keeler, the right fielder who reeled off eight straight 200-hit seasons while popularizing the phrase "Hit 'em where they ain't."
Yet no collectors McKee knew had ever heard of a card set showing the team.
In 1992, that changed.
Dan the elder was at a Sotheby's auction in New York, trolling for oddball cards, when he realized a consigner was offering a set that showed 14 of the team's 16 members.
It was printed by Alpha, a long-defunct company described only briefly in the auction catalog. For reasons unknown, it didn't include Keeler, the team's biggest star, or backup catcher William "Boileryard" Clarke. But the rest were there.
The cards were the first ever made for some of the players, including Keeler. That made them "rookie cards," a genus that exploded in value during a collecting boom in the early 1990s.
The set failed to meet its reserve price of $3,000, perhaps because collectors had no idea it was coming. The consigner sold the cards separately to others around the country.
McKee's appetite was whetted, and he kept watch.
"They were one-of-a-kind. They included many great players. But most of all, they represented 19th Century Baltimore Base Ball — and I do mean 'Base Ball' with two words," he says, referring to the accepted spelling of the time.
This, he thought, was a set worth assembling.
Over the next decade, he went after each card, acquiring them one nervous deal at a time. He never paid more than $2,500. By 2002, he'd spent $30,000 and owned them all.
"I felt — complete," he said, a grin spreading below his close-cropped mustache.
Later that year, another hobbyist, W. Thomas Lawrie, decided to write an article on the set for a collector's magazine. He spent weeks researching the Alpha company. His work was a window on history.
Lawrie believes that Alpha took the unusual step of printing just the single set so it could place the cards in a display window when the city was in the grip of pennant fever.A photograph has emerged of two men lying on the ground after having been shot by the police during the terrorist attacks in London.
The image, taken by a documentary photographer, shows the men on a road near Borough Market — one of whom appears to have canisters taped to his body.
Police later confirmed armed officers had killed three suspects in the area. They said the canisters appeared to be designed to look like suicide bombs, but did not contain a viable explosive.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
Six people were killed and 48 injured after a van drove into pedestrians on London Bridge and the attackers stabbed passers-by in Borough Market just after 10pm on Saturday.
Gabriele Sciotto, who took the photograph, has told The Independent he witnessed three men trying to attack people in the crowds, before officers shot them and they fell to the ground.
“There were three men. Policemen were trying to pull the attackers off the crowd. He managed to pull them off. Then I saw them being shot,” said Mr Sciotto.
“I couldn’t tell who was dead or who was alive. I’m glad I’m alive.”
Amid a flurry of conflicting reports, witnesses spoke of up to half a dozen people being hit by the vehicle and seeing victims bleeding and receiving CPR on the street.
One eyewitness, named only as Gerrard, told the BBC he saw a man with stab wounds on the floor, before then witnessing three men repeatedly stabbing a girl at Borough Market.
“I was walking up to London Bridge, going past the Natwest Bank, and next thing, I saw a geezer on the floor going ‘I’ve been stabbed’. He’s got blood all down him. His mate comes past saying some stabbed his mate.
“Next thing, I saw three Muslim guys with knives, they started stabbing this girl. There were three of them. I was defenceless, I could do nothing. They attacked her. […]. She was shouting ‘Help me’.
“They stabbed her I don’t know how many times. Ten times, maybe 15 times. I tried to throw bottles at them. I tried to throw a bike at them. But I couldn’t do nothing.”
Alex Shelham, who was in the Mudlark pub situated just off London Bridge with his girlfriend and friends, said they saw a woman who entered the venue “bleeding heavily from the neck”.
“A woman, probably in her early twenties, staggered into the pub and she was bleeding heavily from the neck and from her mouth,” Mr Shelham told BBC News.
“It appeared to myself and to my friends that her throat had been cut. People went to her aid. The pub was then closed.
“We saw police on the roads nearby. As we were told to leave the area by armed police, and started running from there, to my left was a further individual having CPR performed on them by the emergency services.”
Another eye witness, Georgia Grantham, a software consultant, was leaving the theatre on Southwark Street near Borough Market around 10:30pm, and said she and her parents were initially held inside the theatre and then hustled out.
She said she saw a man lying on the floor with his shirt off and “lots of police were near him”.
“It was obviously an emergency scene. There were loads of sirens and flashing lights and a lot of confusion. Everyone was very panicked,” she said.
Holly Jones, a BBC reporter who was on the bridge at the time, described seeing the white transit van hitting people walking nearby.
Shape Created with Sketch. London Bridge Terror Attack Show all 16 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. London Bridge Terror Attack 1/16 Armed police on Borough High Street as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA 2/16 Armed Police talk to members of the public outside London Bridge Hospital as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA 3/16 Police Officers outside the Barrowboy and Banker Public House on Borough High Street as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA 4/16 Armed Police talk to members of the public outside London Bridge Hospital as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA 5/16 Armed police on Borough High Street as police deal with a'major incident' at London Bridge PA 6/16 Emergency services near the scene of the incident Screengrab 7/16 People run down Borough High Street as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge Reuters 8/16 Emergency services arrive at the scene near Borough market at London Bridge Carl Court/Getty Images 9/16 Emergency personnel on London Bridge as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA 10/16 Police sniffer dogs on London Bridge as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA 11/16 A second helicopter lands on London Bridge as police are responding to three incidents in the capital, amid reports that a vehicle collided with pedestrians on London Bridge, Scotland Yard said. Officers are dealing with reports of stabbings in Borough Market, where armed officers attended and shots were fired. They are also at an incident in the Vauxhall area PA 12/16 Police attend to an incident on London Bridge in London REUTERS 13/16 Police attend to an incident on London Bridge in London, Britain Reuters 14/16 A police officer escorts members of the public to safety at London Bridge Getty Images 15/16 Police attend to an incident on London Bridge in London, Britain REUTERS 16/16 Police attend to an incident near London Bridge in London, Britain Reuters 1/16 Armed police on Borough High Street as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA 2/16 Armed Police talk to members of the public outside London Bridge Hospital as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA 3/16 Police Officers outside the Barrowboy and Banker Public House on Borough High Street as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA 4/16 Armed Police talk to members of the public outside London Bridge Hospital as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA 5/16 Armed police on Borough High Street as police deal with a'major incident' at London Bridge PA 6/16 Emergency services near the scene of the incident Screengrab 7/16 People run down Borough High Street as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge Reuters 8/16 Emergency services arrive at the scene near Borough market at London Bridge Carl Court/Getty Images 9/16 Emergency personnel on London Bridge as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA 10/16 Police sniffer dogs on London Bridge as police are dealing with a "major incident" at London Bridge PA 11/16 A second helicopter lands on London Bridge as police are responding to three incidents in the capital, amid reports that a vehicle collided with pedestrians on London Bridge, Scotland Yard said. Officers are dealing with reports of stabbings in Borough Market, where armed officers attended and shots were fired. They are also at an incident in the Vauxhall area PA 12/16 Police attend to an incident on London Bridge in London REUTERS 13/16 Police attend to an incident on London Bridge in London, Britain Reuters 14/16 A police officer escorts members of the public to safety at London Bridge Getty Images 15/16 Police attend to an incident on London Bridge in London, Britain REUTERS 16/16 Police attend to an incident near London Bridge in London, Britain Reuters
“He hit several pedestrians in front of me. Myself and two pedestrians jumped out of the way. One of the casualties on the floor was being treated by a paramedic. She says she doesn’t know where her boyfriend is,” she said.
Ms Jones said she had seen “probably about six casualties” on the ground. She also said she had seen a man being arrested, but it was unclear what connection to the incident he had if any.
Another witness, Will Heaven, a journalist with the Spectator, told Sky News he had been travelling south on the bridge in an Uber when he saw two people on the floor. One of them was on the pavement, the second in the middle of the road.
“It was about 10.10pm, I was back of an Uber when suddenly I noticed somebody down on the pavement with a small crowd around them. It looked like someone hd collapsed,” he said.
“We drove a bit further and there as another person, this time in the road. Then the penny clicked that something serious had happened....The traffic came to a halt. We looked around and we could hear the sirens.”
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe nowThis guest article is by Mark Cooper, senior fellow for economic analysis at Vermont Law School's Institute for Energy and the Environment.
From 2011 through 2013, as the overwhelming majority of the new reactors that had been proposed as part of the “Nuclear Renaissance” were abandoned or delayed, the industry blamed low natural gas prices. In 2013, when five old reactors were retired early, and today with many old reactors being considered for early retirement, the industry blames low wholesale prices that result from a market that is distorted by the entry of subsidized wind power.
The irony in these complaints is that for fifty years the selection of generating capacity has been rigged in favor of nuclear power with socialized accident insurance and waste management costs, forced purchase of overpriced power, and advanced recovery of construction costs. Nuclear advocates complaining about policies that balance things out a bit to give other generation resources a decent chance of delivering electricity would be laughably hypocritical, if it weren’t so important. In fact, if the playing field were actually level, nuclear would be in even more trouble than it is.
The nuclear hypocrisy does not stop with complaints about subsidies. The nuclear utilities continue to complain about the challenges of the safety and licensing requirements imposed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, even after they convinced Congress to streamline and reform the process in the 2005. Yet, these challenges are matched by the obstacles utilities put in the path of alternatives at the public utility commissions, with hostile interconnection requirements, unfair contract conditions and uneconomic tariffs.
The fifty year failure of nuclear power to be economically competitive compels nuclear advocates to label every pro-consumer analysis as anti-nuclear. The anti-nuclear label is used to avoid the inconvenient truth about nuclear: it is and has been unable to compete economically with the alternatives available. More importantly, it is not likely to be able to compete for the foreseeable future.
The economic reality is that efficiency and natural gas can keep the lights on and computers running at a fraction of the cost of nuclear power and the cost of wind and solar have been declining dramatically. Utility scale solar with storage is entering the market, as is utility scale battery storage. The decision to give them a boost, is paying off. These alternatives have exhibited the one characteristic that has always eluded nuclear, declining costs driven by innovation, learning, and economies of scale.
In contrast to the success of the alternatives, the projected cost of nuclear power has increased five-fold since technology vendors and academic boosters declared the “Nuclear Renaissance” in the mid-2000s. If the industry had been able to deliver on the hype of a decade ago, it would not be in such dire straits. Having failed miserably a second time, the industry is demanding another round of massive subsidies, relaxed oversight, and pampered treatment for a third bite at the apple.
The buzz surrounding small modular reactors among nuclear advocates over the past couple of years is another example of the nuclear hype cycle. The industry is demanding massive subsidies and further relaxation of licensing and safety requirements. Independent analysts think the cost per kilowatt hour will not be less than the cost for the current crop of large reactors and is likely to be more for a significant period. The economic traits that are supposed to make small reactors attractive—small size, short construction periods, flexible deployment—are exhibited by many of the other alternatives. Westinghouse, one of the leading U.S. vendors, has recently nixed further investment in small reactors, even though its partner in Missouri, Ameren, had extracted $40 million in support from the state. The reason Westinghouse gave – “no customers” – was a quintessential real world market answer.
The hope that concerns about climate change would revive the prospects of nuclear power has also not panned out and the problem is not that most nations have refused to impose heavy costs on carbon. The problem is that most of the alternatives are low carbon resource and get exactly the same boost from climate policy as nuclear does. Even natural gas, which emits about half the carbon as coal, remains less costly unless the carbon price is quite high. Even then, nuclear has become so costly that it has trouble competing with natural gas facilities that add carbon capture and storage.
The most important impact of the nuclear hypocrisy lies in the fact that nuclear utilities are wedded to the mid-20th century concept of massive base load facilities that require huge investments on which they can earn large profits. While they build and maintain electricity grids to serve the needs of those facilities, the decentralized, smaller scale generation technologies that have become less costly require a different approach, using intensive information and control technologies to manage the grid. Given the expense of nuclear power, a commitment to nuclear crowds out the alternatives. In the current context, it will slow or prevent that transition to a 21st century industrial structure.
The ultimate irony is that small modular reactors and large scale carbon capture and storage are both hypothetical resources that are a decade or more away. In the meantime, the other alternatives are advancing like a freight train. By the time the new base load technologies reach their cost floor, it is very likely they too will be unable to compete.
Unable to compete today and unready to even attempt to compete for a decade or more, nuclear advocates would like to have a hundred year debate, declaring that the alternatives will be unable to achieve the decarbonization goal set for the end of the century, a claim that is hotly contested. Given the history of failed nuclear promises, the recent dramatic success of the alternatives, and the fact that currently available renewable technologies and efficiency can meet the demand for low carbon electricity for the foreseeable future, the path that a prudent decision maker would take is to maximize their contribution. The biggest mistake policy makers could make is to allow the search for yet another nuclear holy grail to delay the transition to a 21st century electricity grid."Thrift shop" redirects here. For the song, see Thrift Shop
"Op shop" redirects here. For the band, see Opshop
A charity shop in Fareham Hampshire, UK
A charity shop or thrift shop is a retail establishment run by a charitable organization to raise money. Charity shops are a type of social enterprise. They sell mainly used goods such as clothing, books, music albums, DVDs, and furniture donated by members of the public, and are often staffed by volunteers. Because the items for sale were obtained for free, and business costs are low, the items can be sold at competitive prices. After costs are paid, all remaining income from the sales is used in accord with the organization's stated charitable purpose. Costs include purchase and/or depreciation of fixtures (clothing racks, bookshelves, counters, etc.), operating costs (maintenance, municipal service fees, electricity, heat, telephone, limited advertising) and the building lease or mortgage.
Terminology [ edit ]
Charity shops may also be referred to as thrift stores (in the United States and Canada), hospice shops, resale shops (a term that in the United States also covers consignment shops), and opportunity (or op) shops (in Australia and New Zealand).
History [ edit ]
One of the earliest charity shops was set up by the Wolverhampton Society for the Blind (now called the Beacon Centre for the Blind) in 1899 to sell goods made by blind people to raise money for the Society.[1] During World War I, various fund-raising activities occurred, such as a bazaar in Shepherd Market, London, which made £50,000 for the Red Cross.
However, it was during the Second World War that the charity shop became widespread. Edinburgh University Settlement opened their 'Thrift Shop for Everyone' on Nicholson Place, Edinburgh in 1937, the Red Cross opened up its first charity shop at 17 Old Bond Street, London in 1941. For the duration of the war, over two hundred “permanent” Red Cross gift shops and about 150 temporary Red Cross shops were opened. A condition of the shop licence issued by the Board of Trade was that all goods offered for sale were gifts. Purchase for re-sale was forbidden. The entire proceeds from sales had to be passed to the Duke of Gloucester’s Red Cross or the St John Fund. Most premises were lent free of rent and in some cases owners also met the costs of heating and lighting.
The first Oxfam charity shop in the United Kingdom was established by Cecil Jackson-Cole in Broad Street, Oxford, and began trading in December 1947 (although the shop itself did not open until February 1948).
Popularity [ edit ]
Truck used by the Suncoast Humane Society Thrift Store to collect donations in Port Charlotte, Florida
Charity shops are often popular with people who are frugal. In the United States, shopping at a charity store has become popular enough to earn a slang term: thrifting. Environmentalists may prefer buying second-hand goods as this uses fewer natural resources and would usually do less damage to the environment than by buying new goods would, in part because the goods are usually collected locally. In addition, reusing second-hand items is a form of recycling, and thus reduces the amount of waste going to landfill sites. People who oppose sweat shops often purchase second-hand clothing as an alternative to supporting clothing companies with dubious ethical practices. People who desire authentic vintage clothing typically shop at thrift stores since most clothing that is donated is old and out of normal fashion, or is from a recently deceased person who had not updated his clothing for a long time. Shopping at thrift stores, or "thrifting", has become incredibly popular with young adults. It has become a trend on many YouTube channels to make "thrifting" videos. The young adults making these videos tend to shop at thrift stores more for the fashion than the prices.
Second-hand goods are considered to be quite safe. The South Australian Public Health Directorate says that the health risk of buying used clothing is very low. It explains that washing purchased items in hot water is just one of several ways to eliminate the risk of contracting infectious diseases.[2]
Sale of new goods [ edit ]
Some charity shops, such as the British Heart Foundation, also sell a range of new goods which may be branded to the charity, or have some connection with the cause the charity supports. Oxfam stores, for example, sell fair trade food and crafts. Charity shops may receive overstock or obsolete goods from local for-profit businesses; the for-profit businesses benefit by taking a tax write-off and clearing unwanted goods from their store instead of throwing the goods out, which is costly.
Charity shops by region [ edit ]
United Kingdom [ edit ]
Window display in a UK charity shop.
Oxfam has the largest number of charity shops in the UK with over 700 shops. Many Oxfam shops also sell books, and the organization now operates over 70 specialist Oxfam Bookshops, making them the largest retailer of second-hand books in the United Kingdom. Other Oxfam affiliates also have shops, such as Jersey, Germany, Ireland (45 shops in NI/ROI), the Netherlands and Hong Kong. Other charities with a strong presence on high streets in the UK include The Children's Society, YMCA, British Heart Foundation, Barnardos, Cancer Research UK, Shelter, Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, Age UK (formerly Age Concern and Help the Aged), Marie Curie Cancer Care, Norwood, Save the Children, Scope, PDSA, Naomi House Children's Hospice and Sue Ryder Care. Many local hospices also operate charity shops to raise funds.
There are over 9,000 charity shops in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Their locations can be found on the Charity Retail Association (CRA) website,[3] along with information on charity retail, what shops can and can't accept, etc. The CRA is a member organisation for charities which run shops. British charity shops are mainly staffed by unpaid volunteers, with a paid shop manager. Goods for sale are predominantly from donations - 87% according to the official estimate.[4] Donations should be taken directly to a charity shop during opening hours, as goods left on the street may be stolen or damaged by passers-by or inclement weather. In expensive areas, donations include a proportion of good quality designer clothing and charity shops in these areas are sought out for cut-price fashions.[citation needed] 'Standard' charity shops sell a mix of clothing, books, toys, videos, DVDs, music (like CDs, cassette tapes and vinyl) and bric-a-brac (like cutlery and ornaments). Some shops specialise in certain areas, like vintage clothing, furniture, electrical items, or records.
Almost all charity shops sell on their unsold textiles (i.e. unfashionable, stained or damaged fabric) to textile processors. Each charity shop saves an average of 40 tonnes of textiles every year, by selling them in the shop, or passing them on to these textile merchants for recycling or reuse. This grosses to around 363,000 tonnes across all charity shops in the UK; based on 2010 landfill tax value at £48 per tonne, the value of textiles reused or passed for recycling by charity shops in terms of savings in landfill tax is £17,424,000 p.a.[5] Gift Aid is a UK tax incentive for individual donors where, subject to a signed declaration being held by the charity, income tax paid on donations can be reclaimed by the charity. Although initially intended only for cash donations, the scheme now (since 2006) allows tax on the income earned by charity shops acting as agent for the donor to be reclaimed.[6]
Charity shops in the UK get mandatory 80% relief on business rates on their premises, which is funded by central government (not by local ratepayers) and is one illustration of their support for the charity sector and the role of charity shops in raising funds for charities.[7] Charities can apply for discretionary relief on the remaining 20%, which is an occasional source of criticism from retailers which have to pay in full.[8]
Australia [ edit ]
In Australia, major national opportunity shop chains include the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store (trading as Vinnies) which operate 627 shops across Australia,[9] Anglicare Shops, that currently operate in 19 locations across Sydney and the Illawarra also various locations around Australia, the Salvation Army (trading as Salvos), the Red Cross, MS Australia, and the Brotherhood of St. Laurence. Many local charitable organisations, both religious and secular, run opportunity shops. Common among these are missions and animal shelters.
United States [ edit ]
In the United States, major national charity thrift shop operators include Goodwill Industries, Value Village/Savers, Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store, and ReStore[10] (operated by Habitat for Humanity). Regional operators include Deseret Industries in the Western United States, and those run by Bethesda Lutheran Communities in the Upper Midwest. Many local charitable organizations, both religious and secular, operate thrift stores. Common among these are missions, children's homes, homeless shelters, and animal shelters. In addition, some charity shops are operated by churches as fundraising venues that support activities and missionary work.
See also [ edit ]As the National League North side prepare to take on AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup the striker has learned how to cope with his release by Liverpool
Friday afternoon at a Liverpool city centre hotel and Adam Morgan is speaking enthusiastically about life at Curzon Ashton. The goals are flowing for the striker and so is he in his praise of the National League North side and belief before Sunday’s FA Cup second-round tie against AFC Wimbledon that they can cause an upset by beating opponents who sit three divisions and 81 places above them.
Suddenly, Morgan’s mood changes. Looking over his shoulder in the ground-floor coffee shop-cum-bar, the 22-year-old becomes briefly but noticeably embarrassed. A woman is walking over. It’s his mum.
Maxine Morgan takes a seat at a nearby table and waits patiently for her son to finish this interview. They are going on a shopping trip straight afterwards, but her presence is also symbolic, representing the support Adam has required during the past four years, a period when he has gone from the high of making his debut for his boyhood club, Liverpool, to the low of falling so out of love with football that he came close to quitting.
At the end of a week when Ben Woodburn announced himself as Anfield’s latest goalscoring prodigy, Morgan’s story shows just how perilous the road ahead can be for young talents at the highest level. He describes what happened to him as a downward spiral and it is only now, with the help of loved ones and having joined a club where he feels truly appreciated, that Morgan is on the up.
Ben Woodburn’s rise no surprise despite Klopp’s kid-gloves approach at Liverpool | Andy Hunter Read more
“Everyone at Curzon has been great,” he says. “They’ve took the pressure off me. Normally, when I’ve gone somewhere there’s been a win-at-all-costs mentality, but |
will produce the same results–the star will be visible at the same meridian time, without the slightest alteration being required in the direction of the tubes: from which it is concluded that if the Earth had moved one single yard in an orbit through space, there would at least be observed the slight inclination of the tube which the difference in position of one yard had previously required. But as no such difference in the direction of the tube is required, the conclusion is unavoidable, that in six months a given meridian upon the Earth’s surface does not move a single yard, and therefore, that the Earth has not the slightest degree of orbital motion.
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Traditionally, stellar parallax has been notoriously difficult to measure with even the best of modern equipment.
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The angles involved in these calculations are very small and thus difficult to measure. The nearest star to the Sun (and thus the star with the largest parallax), Proxima Centauri, has a parallax of 0.7687 ± 0.0003 arcsec.
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There are 3,600 arcseconds in 1 degree, 180 of which cover the sky at night. No wonder we can’t see any movement with the naked eye. Even so, movement for only a tiny fraction of the stars can be measured at all even by modern equipment!
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In 1989, the satellite Hipparcos was launched primarily for obtaining parallaxes and proper motions of nearby stars, increasing the reach of the method tenfold. Even so, Hipparcos is only able to measure parallax angles for stars up to about 1,600 light-years away, a little more than one percent of the diameter of the Milky Way Galaxy. The European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, due to launch in 2013, will be able to measure parallax angles to an accuracy of 10 microarcseconds, thus mapping nearby stars (and potentially planets) up to a distance of tens of thousands of light-years from Earth.
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There are an estimated 100 to 200 billion galaxies in the universe (which is bunk, as there are no galaxies) each with up to 100 trillion stars! So being able to detect movement in 1% of the stars of our own galaxy is a miniscule amount. We also know about our space agencies’ weird and wonderful orbiting machines, so even this 1% is unlikely to be true.
This is a big problem for heliocentric theory which states that every 24 hours the Earth rotates on its axis at 1675km/h, revolving around the Sun at 107,000km/h, which in turn moves around the center of the galaxy at 900,000km/h, which moves in the universe at 2,160,000km/h!
Apart from the atmosphere disappearing at these speeds, how is there no stellar parallax, especially considering that all the other stars and galaxies are revolving around each other and the Earth as well. The sky must be a right mess! Each new day must bring a brand new unique constellation in the sky at night with some new stars getting nearer so they can be seen with the naked eye and some traveling further away and disappearing never to return for thousands or millions of years.
Before we move on, this lack of stellar parallax is the reason why advocates of heliocentric theory give the unbelievably enormous distances the heavenly bodies must be from Earth. They can’t measure it! The stars must be thousands and millions of light years away (with the Milky Way 100,000 light years across, 1 light year being 9.46 trillion kilometers!) because there is no (or little) detectable stellar parallax; otherwise heliocentric theory would be definitely wrong.
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It is clear from Euclid’s geometry that the effect would be undetectable if the stars were far enough away, but for various reasons such gigantic distances involved seemed entirely implausible: it was one of Tycho Brahe’s principal objections to Copernican heliocentrism that in order for it to be compatible with the lack of observable stellar parallax, there would have to be an enormous and unlikely void between the orbit of Saturn and the eighth sphere (the fixed stars).
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Not only is there no evidence for such astronomical distances, but we have now proven that the stars are approximately 4000 miles away!
Does making stuff up to support a theory lacking any observational or experimental evidence sound like science to you?
Speaking of which…
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How do we know it is not the heavens or “space” which moves above us, instead of the Earth, which causes both the rotation of the stars and any of their hard-to-detect parallax. We now know it is the former, thanks to an experiment in 1871 by Astronomer Royal, George Airy; which is this:
If stellar parallax is too small to see with the naked eye, then why not artificially increase it. If the Earth rotates at the same speed constantly, then by slowing the light down (by filling the telescope with water), the angle of star movement would increase. If stellar parallax increased then the telescope would have to be tilted more to see the same star and prove a rotating Earth once and for all.
And guess what? As confirmed by others, the most careful measurements gave the same angle for a telescope with water as for one filled with air. This is called “Airy’s failure”. It proved the rotation of the heavens, not Earth, which moves stars.
The angle stayed the same, proving that the Earth does not rotate.
The heliocentric advocates were now desperate. What was needed was another observable experiment to still offer the possibility of a rotating Earth. Enter Foucault’s pendulum in 1885. This pendulum swings back and forth, each swing moving slightly to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere until, at the poles, one full circle is achieved in 24 hours. It doesn’t move left or right at all at the equator.
Foucault Pendulum in California
Not to scale, but illustrating the movement.
As you have noticed, this is the same phenomenon as the stars rotating every 24 hours around the polar star, which was proved not to be caused by a rotating Earth thanks to George Airy. Unfortunately for the heliocentric supporters, Foucault’s pendulum also had a problem. In 1954 and 1959, Maurice Allais noticed that during a solar eclipse, which lasted 2 and a half hours, the angle of the pendulum changed dramatically by 13.5°. This has been repeatedly observed with positive results on most of the subsequent eclipses, which obviously means that the pendulum isn’t registering the Earth’s rotation, but the motion of something else instead.
With Airy’s failure proving that the Earth does not rotate, the heliocentric theorists needed to quickly show with no further doubt that the Earth rotated. Enter two staunch supporters of heliocentricity, Albert Michelson and Edward Morley, who in 1887 set up a device which split up light: one beam in the direction of the Earth’s rotation, and one at right angles. The two light beams then recombined and hit a photographic plate. The difference is speed of the two beams would create an interference pattern. They expected to measure a speed of 30 km/s as that was the speed of the Earth’s supposed rotation, but instead registered a variable difference of between 1 and 10 km/s each time the experiment was repeated. They called this a “null” result. This proves that the Earth is not rotating and at the same time proved the existence of the ether.
Gosh, the traveling light wasn’t rotating with the Earth. Who’d a thunk it?
It didn’t stop there, Georges Sagnac, and Henry Gale conducted similar experiments, but on a rotating platform, which again demonstrated the existence of the ether, already proved by default in 1871 and 1885 by combining the results from George Airy and Foucault’s pendulum, and also in 1887 by the Michelson-Morley experiment.
How do you think the advocates of heliocentric theory responded? Why, they made something up of course! What else could they do but invent another wild theory to play down these experimental results and lead us further into the cesspit of fallacy. Enter showbiz academic of the 20th century, Einstein and the special theory of relativity.
Enter the clowns.
Special relativity was invented to make sure all these experiments still gave heliocentric theory a chance of being correct. It needed objects to shrink to a specific size in direct proportion to its speed. These objects weren’t measured! The concept had never been observed at all. It was metaphysical only. But it had to be correct, otherwise the unthinkable would be true.
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The rescue operation was performed by means of a purely metaphysical concept lifted directly from Professors Fitzgerald and Lorentz, who had also been trying to explain the results of the Michelson-Morley experiment, and renamed by him the Special Theory of Relativity. What was suggested was that if the dimensions of an object in motion were assumed to shrink exactly in proportion to the speed at which it was traveling by exactly the necessary amount, mathematical calculations could be made to show that the Earth was in motion after all. No one has ever seen an object shrink as a result of being in motion, and indeed one of the world’s leading authorities on relativity, Dr. Herbert Dingle, was later to dismiss the theory of relativity as metaphysical nonsense with no basis on what could be observed.
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Making up a new branch of mathematics to explain the results of experiments that disagrees with your worldview does not a proof make! As a J.J. Thomson once said:
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We have Einstein’s space, de Sitter’s space, expanding universes, contracting universes, vibrating universes, mysterious universes. In fact the pure mathematician may create universes just by writing down an equation, and indeed if he is an individualist he can have a universe of his own.
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However, when you make stuff up not based on anything in the real world, it is bound to run into trouble.
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Ironically, when Special Relativity failed due to its internal contradictions, Einstein had to invent General Relativity to shore up the façade, and in the process he had to take back the very two foundations he had discarded in Special Relativity, namely, (a) that nothing can exceed the speed of light and (b) the existence of ether. In the end, Einstein’s theories were a mass of contradictions which are covered over by obtuse mathematical equations.
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Despite this nonsense, the heliocentric “authorities” pushed it through with all their media power and academic might so that once this new mathematics was firmly established, they had carte blanche to sneak in other bad “science” when experimental observations went against them, like black holes, dark matter, wormholes and other such unobservable and unverifiable nonsense. The worst offence though was trying to tie in the Coriolis effect of a rotating Earth with observable atmospheric phenomena. The Coriolis effect is an optical illusion whereby an object traveling in a straight line is seen to be moving in a curved one instead because the observer is on a rotating platform.
The Coriolis optical illusion. You are the red dot. Below is what you observe. Above is what actually happens.
This is the complete pattern and scale of ANY Coriolis effect on the Earth. If something in the real world doesn’t match this, it can NOT be the Coriolis effect!
They say it is this effect which causes moving objects to be deflected in a clockwise direction in the northern hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the southern hemisphere; an example of which are large cyclones. This is obviously false. The Coriolis effect is NOT a force, it is an optical illusion. It cannot cause objects to be deflected; their trajectories remain the same, which is straight. Cyclones do not “travel in straight lines, but just appear to be curved because we are on the surface of a rotating sphere”. Their size ranges from under 222km to over 888km making their curves far too tight and localized. Plus there are very high altitude images looking down on cyclones from above. Is the camera rotating with the Earth to get this curved perspective?
Is the camera rotating with the Earth? How can a cyclone twisting on itself be a straight line? Is this image even real?
A tropical cyclone in Australia twisting down to Earth is not a straight line.
And what about smaller vortex phenomena like Tornadoes which average only 150m across. Where is the Coriolis effect now?
A 150m wide tornado is really a straight line!
If you wish to study further the fallacy of linking the Coriolis effect with atmospheric phenomena then Miles Mathis‘ work is a must. Otherwise, those inclined to understand cyclones and tornadoes would do well to study the relationship between gravity and electromagnetism, and vortex dynamics instead, as even physicists admit that the Coriolis “effect” and electromagnetism is eerily similar. (What a surprise!)
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So far we have proved that:
The Earth does not tilt.
The Earth does not rotate.
The Sun moves, not the Earth.
The heavens move, not the Earth, which means that:
“Space” or the ether moves and not the Earth.
“Space” moves in a circular motion (and is probably a vortex).
Heliocentricity is now dead. The debate is over. However, it is only fair to list the arguments for heliocentric theory which we will address in part 2. Unfortunately you will see that they try and attack (one of the models of) geocentrism rather than try and support their own concept, but never mind. Let’s reply to what they have to say anyway.Bill Doe, the chief executive, said the number of veterans participating was small but growing: perhaps 300 since the program’s inception. The number on trail crews this summer is about 100, estimated Harry Bruell, the executive director of the Southwest Conservation Corps. Like the California Conservation Corps, whose logo adorns Mr. Snyder’s and Mr. Morin’s hardhats, the Southwestern Corps offers a chance to cut trees and rebuild switchbacks amid huge forests and tiny flowers.
The veterans benefit from having work (albeit at $8 an hour) and from being in a familiar situation: part of a small group in a far-off location with a little-understood job to do.
“This reminds me of Fallujah, being in a remote area with a tight family,” said Aaron Hernandez, a former Marine who served as a diesel mechanic in the Iraqi city during a bloody assault in 2004. “There were 10 mechanics, and we all lived together, we all ate together, we all worked together. That was what kept us going.”
Mr. Bruell said he had heard much the same from others in similar programs. “You have all these people who had all these experiences, trained expensively at government cost, put their bodies on the line and have all kinds of skills,” he said.
The backcountry provides a respite from the very different demands of civilian life.
“You’re out here in the middle of nowhere,” said Mr. Snyder, 26, who attended Bowling Green State University in Ohio. “It gives you time to reflect. You don’t have to deal with all the chaos in society. You have to deal with yourself and your community, and it’s a very small community. It’s easy to function.”
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The close quarters, heavy-duty chores and interdependence of a backcountry camp reminded participants of the military but with a new wrinkle. Most of the civilians on the crew have lacked contact with military life. “People outside the military, they think people in the military who’ve been veterans and been to Afghanistan and Iraq, they think like all of us have, like, P.T.S.D.,” Mr. Snyder said, referring to post-traumatic stress disorder. “They are really kind of cautious at first.”
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In its last big job before moving on to the Inyo National Forest, the Sequoia crew rerouted a trail near Evelyn Lake under the direction of Major Bryant, leader of a permanent trail crew from the National Park Service. They reduced a steep grade by adding six switchbacks, each anchored with a massive keystone that they found, unearthed and replanted. Each switchback was dedicated by the team to someone who died not long ago, like the singer Amy Winehouse or the author J. D. Salinger.
Emergencies also forged common bonds. A lesson in using a cross-cut saw turned into a lesson in fleeing as the log broke loose and rolled downhill, catching a comrade, whom the group rescued.
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A more serious emergency had some crew members cutting trees to create a trail and a helicopter landing area while others — Mr. Snyder included — ran two miles to get oxygen from a ranger station for a 57-year-old visitor who had had a heart attack. The man survived.
Crew members networked with every ranger and park supervisor they met. At least three want to land permanent backcountry jobs; Mr. Snyder wants to become a backcountry firefighter.
“Wild-land firefighting, as anybody understands, it’s a military operation,” said Mr. Doe, listing the skills required: “communications, traversing over terrain with lots of equipment on your back, using chain saws.”
Finally, Mr. Doe added, “There’s the element of risk.”
Seeing bears and mountain lion tracks, catching a trout with bare hands, as Mr. Snyder did last month, is gravy.It’s been an odd year. Getting married was a cue for everything else in my life to fly off the rails. “Change Places!” it yells, like some sort of existential Mad Hatter.
Since then, my wife has graduated university, learned to drive and gotten herself a job so far away from our home that we’ve had to move. Which is lucky because my graphic design work dried up and we could no longer afford to live there anyway. We’ve since moved back in with my parents, which isn’t exactly how I intended to spend the first year of my marriage, but it is what it is.
I also recently learned something about myself that has fundamentally altered the way I see my own life and the decisions that I have made in the past, like putting on a pair of glasses that you weren’t aware you needed; I can see things much more clearly now, but I have to live with the fact that I need glasses for the rest of my life. The metaphorical glasses that is, I came to terms with needing actual specs a long time ago. Either way, it would seem the mistakes and hardships in my life have never been entirely my fault, which is a heavy weight that has gone unlifted for far too long.
Anyway, that’s enough of that. There hasn’t been anywhere near enough art here recently so let’s try and get that back on track, shall we?
I’ve recently fallen in love with vinyl art toys in a big way, specifically Lunartik In a Cup of Tea. Something about them appeals to me in a huge way, which is interesting considering I don’t even like tea. Recently the artist behind the series sold a very limited run of Halloween themed toys, but they were a little bit too expensive for me at the time. I decided to design my own to make myself feel better. I’m hoping to actually make it at some point, but I have this to show for now.
EDIT: I spend an hour of so experimenting with this after uploading it, adding more atmospheric lighting and painting over it to integrate the texture better. I also did the eyes to look more glassy and dead. All in all I’m pleased with it. Progress is always good.Issue 102 is the one-hundred-second issue of Image Comics' The Walking Dead and the sixth and final part of Volume 17: Something To Fear. It was originally published on September 19, 2012.
Contents show]
Plot Synopsis
Dwight growls at Andrea and Rick that they are going to be killed when Negan gets to them. Andrea punches Dwight in the face and threatens to mess up his other eye, but Rick tells her to stop. He explained what The Saviors did to Glenn. Rick explains to Andrea that he vastly underestimated Negan's forces and that Glenn was his friend and a good person who didn't deserve to die the way he did. Rick shows signs of blaming himself for what happened and that Glenn and Maggie were his hope of a better future.
Paul is shown around the Alexandria Safe-Zone and given a house to stay in by Heath. Heath expresses liking the sense of community that the Hilltop Colony offers, which is more people and bigger walls. Jesus says he would trade the Hilltop Colony's trailers for the Alexandria Safe-Zone's setup any day. Jesus always says that he is here to help.
Carl expresses to Rick that they should kill Dwight to show Negan that Alexandria isn't to be "fucked with" and that he is angry over Glenn's death. Rick says he doesn't know what to do.
Michonne and Rick discuss a course of action regarding The Saviors. Rick thinks they shouldn't fight back, or at least not at the present time. Michonne says she has seen what they are up against and is fine by living without fighting and that feels like she is on the group's "leash" and could use a break from being the de-facto "killer". She agrees they should try a different path this time than what they pursued with Woodbury.
Eugene tells Rick that he and Abraham were looking for the items to manufacture ammo when he got killed. He tells Rick he can make bullets and wants to do his part by making the ammo to help kill Negan's men. Rick admires Eugene's offer, but says that isn't what's going to happen.
A town meeting is called where Rick breaks the news of his compliance to Negan's demands and the release of Dwight, much to the disgust of Andrea. Rick explains to the town exactly what they are up against and how Negan saw killing Glenn as a game that meant nothing to him. Rick wishes to live in peace.
Alexandria releases Dwight, much to the anger and uneasiness of Andrea, Michonne, Carl, and Holly. As everyone disperses to return to their houses, Jesus approaches Rick, telling him they will get over it and understand eventually. Rick then tells him to pack up while everyone's distracted and hit the road to catch up with Dwight before his trail goes cold. Rick wants to know what they are up against, find out as much as they can about Negan and his people, and report back. No one in the Alexandria Safe-Zone or the Hilltop Colony can know what they are really up to.
Credits
Deaths
None
Trivia
The figure featured on the cover of Issue 102 is the only figure from a Volume 17: Something To Fear issue cover to not appear on the cover of Volume 17.
This issue marks Rick Grimes' 100th appearance.
This is one of the few issues with no zombies, including on the cover.
A letter sent in by Steven Yeun, the actor who plays Glenn in the television series, was published in the letters section. In it, he jokingly insulted Robert Kirkman and stated that he was very upset about the death of Glenn in #100.
This issue marks the 100th issue since the first appearance of Andrea, Sophia and Carl.
Goofs/errorsBEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon could face economic sanctions from Arab countries or worse if Hezbollah does not stop meddling in regional conflicts, a Lebanese Sunni politician said on Friday.
Lebanon's former Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi speaks during an interview with Reuters in his office in Beirut, Lebanon November 17, 2017. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi
Former Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, who rose to prominence with vocal opposition to Shi’ite Hezbollah, is closely aligned to the Saudi position in Lebanon and more hawkish than long-established Sunni leaders.
“We can expect economic repercussions. At the political level too, at the level of our Lebanese-Arab relations. And it’s open to all the possibilities, unfortunately,” he said.
His comments to Reuters echo recent statements by Saad al-Hariri, who quit abruptly as Lebanese prime minister in a broadcast from Saudi Arabia two weeks ago.
The shock resignation thrust Lebanon into a regional rivalry between Riyadh and its allies against an Iranian bloc, which includes the Hezbollah militant group and political party.
Rifi said he has been in touch with Saudi officials recently over Lebanon’s crisis and is familiar with Riyadh’s thinking.
A political rival of Hariri, Rifi defeated a Hariri-backed list in local elections in the mostly Sunni city of Tripoli last year, though he lacks the premier’s country-wide standing.
“Today, Lebanese officials have a big responsibility. All the Lebanese officials have to be careful about good relations with the Arab world,” Rifi told Reuters. “There is no more leniency towards Hezbollah...using its illegitimate arsenal” in Middle East conflicts.
Lebanon’s heavily armed Hezbollah, a part of the political fabric, wields great influence in the country. It also has sent thousands of fighters into Syria to battle alongside the Damascus government against mostly Sunni rebels and militants.
Lebanese politicians and bankers have said they fear Saudi Arabia corralling Arab allies to economically blockade Lebanon as they did with Qatar.
“Lebanon cannot live without the Arab countries,” Rifi said. “We know how many Lebanese work in Saudi Arabia or in the Gulf and how much revenue they bring...to the Lebanese economy.”
Up to 400,000 Lebanese work in the Gulf, and remittances flowing into the country are a vital source of cash to keep its economy afloat and the heavily-indebted government functioning.
Political sources have said that potential sanctions include a ban on flights, visas, exports and transfer of remittances.
LINE IN THE SAND
Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies have now drawn a line in the sand, Rifi said. “That there is no place for (Hezbollah) in (Lebanon’s) future government, if it keeps choosing to be a security and military arm for Iran.”
The Lebanese state will have to distance itself in “a real and practical” way from regional wars “so that we don’t bear the repercussions of Hezbollah’s acts,” he added.
In his resignation speech, Hariri said he feared assassination, railing against Iran and Hezbollah. A Sunni Muslim leader and long-time Saudi ally, Hariri has yet to return to Beirut.
In his public comments after quitting, Hariri warned of possible Arab sanctions and a danger to the livelihoods of Lebanese in the Gulf. Hezbollah must stop intervening in regional conflicts, particularly Yemen, he said.
Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun has called Hariri a Saudi hostage, refusing to accept his resignation unless he returns to Beirut, and stressing that the government still stands. Saudi Arabia and Hariri say he is a free man.
Hariri became prime minister last year in a power-sharing deal that made Aoun, a Hezbollah political ally, president and his coalition government includes Hezbollah.
Slideshow (3 Images)
Rifi criticized Aoun’s stance, as well as other Lebanese accusations that Riyadh forced Hariri to quit, as “surprising and unprecedented.” He considered Hariri’s resignation constitutional and said Lebanon would have to form a new, “more balanced” government in the near future.
Rifi, a former police chief, resigned as justice minister in 2016 in protest at what he described as Hezbollah’s dominant role. He had also heaped criticism on Hariri for nominating another Hezbollah ally to fill the vacant presidency.
“From the moment the prime minister uttered his desire to quit, the government became a resigned one,” he said.In response to their exceptionally poor track record of ordering shows by women and promotion of the alt-right comedians and fans behind Million Dollar Extreme, comedian Brett Gelman publicly announced last night that he’s decided to sever ties with Adult Swim going forward. Earlier today, I spoke with Gelman on the phone about his decision to part ways with the network, what other comedians can do to take action against hate and bigotry, and what he’s learned from the unexpectedly explosive reaction to his announcement.
Hey, Brett! Thank you for taking a stand.
Well, to me it didn’t even really feel like a stand. I mean, I had already decided to do that, and once I’d read those articles, I just couldn’t see how I could continue to work with the company when those were their policies. And how it was defended – that is what I had a real problem with, but also the greenlight of Million Dollar Extreme and allowing that on their network. And then the election happened and I was really angry with social media and thought it was pacifying us, our side, on these matters. A fan of mine called me out on my hypocrisy and said “You’re working for a company that does this – that has these policies of greenlighting a white supremacist sketch show and not having any women showrunners.” I responded to him by saying “No I’m not.” So I decided to make it public. A lot of people are probably gonna think that this is bullshit, but I honestly didn’t think that people were tracking what I say on there. I always think it’s falling on deaf ears, so I really did not assume that it would get this type of reaction. But I’m very glad that it did.
So how far does this go back? When did you first decide you were done with Adult Swim?
I started thinking about it I guess a couple weeks ago when I fell upon the articles. I mean, I had already made the decision, right then. I was like “I’m done.” I would’ve made it public earlier, but I guess the election really kind of looped me into making it public – and also, just seeing a fan feel like I’m letting them down in a way, saying I’m proselytizing but not backing it up. But immediately when I heard that, I was done.
But I’m not a martyr here. I’m a straight white man – I have options, and I’m not blocked on a consistent basis when I wake up in the morning because of my race, sex, and orientation. I have options; this is not a martyrdom by any means or a sacrifice for me. And I do think this is what straight white men need to do on the liberal side: It is up to us to not just talk but to take action here. And today has taught me more than anything, “Oh wow, my action does count.” There is a reaction behind taking this action, and my voice is heard. But the loudest voice is in action.
Did you not ever have any inkling about this before, having worked with Adult Swim for a while now?
I didn’t know. I didn’t have such an in. Look, the reality is the whole business is misogynist, racist, homophobic, and transphobic. The oppressed people need to deal with the state of our business every single day, and as much as we move forward, that is still present – not necessarily consciously, but it is subconscious. And this is the thing that everybody, especially straight white men, have to realize not only about the system but about ourselves: We are subconsciously conditioned to be comfortable, and we might be looking the other way without even knowing we are looking the other way. We might be making racist, misogynist, homophobic, and transphobic decisions without knowing that we are actually doing so because we are conditioned to be comfortable. That is the thing that we all have to realize, and when we make mistakes we must not defend ourselves; we just must move forward and change our policies, and apologize and acknowledge that we’ve made that mistake.
What can comedians do to actively fight against this?
Really go out of your way to hire women, people of color, homosexuals, transgendered people – go out of your way to hire them. This whole thing of “Oh, it’s the most qualified!” Bullshit. That argument of who is the most qualified – you have to question that, that impulse, because what is making you make that decision might be the fact that you are uncomfortable with hiring a person different from you, and that might be limiting your honest appraisal of your work. Even if somebody is maybe a little less qualified, you can bring them in, you can teach them, and it will also make your work better because you’ll have different perspectives. Even if somebody is less talented, they’re coming at it from a completely different perspective, and that helps your work. That perspective is invaluable to us.
So it’s hiring practices and it’s knocking out this fucking bullshit thing that you hear a lot of people say – heroes of mine have said this, peers of mine who I respect as artists have said this – that “I write what I know.” Okay, that is a lie. That is a lie you’re saying out of fear of losing your comfort. If you’re saying you write what you know and you’re a Jewish man and you’re writing any female character, any person of color, if that person of color is not your job, your age, your thoughts and beliefs completely, you are writing something other than what you know. You have to recognize that that is a lie you’re telling yourself, and we got into this to use our imaginations: Use your imaginations and use your empathy. If you don’t do that, you’re limiting yourself as an artist and you’re hurting the world.
It’s now time for us to take action and really be activists for the rights of our fellow human beings. This is something that I deeply believe, and it wasn’t so obvious to me when I was working there. I mean, you’re involved in your show, and the practices of my work were not being blocked by them. They made my last special Dinner in America, which is about this. So they allowed me to make that, and in my experience of that, I was not experiencing any sense of discrimination, but things swell up in you, and your fear of making waves is hopefully overcome by what’s right.
A lot of women have spoken up about this, but unfortunately, I don’t think it was seen as “legitimate” by a lot of people until you commented on it. So, how can Adult Swim work to fix this now?
I mean, they cancel that show and they start hiring women showrunners. They can start being more conscious. I never had a conversation at Adult Swim about this; it is not my policy ever to discuss directly with executives the other shows that they’re making. So I don’t know what their reason was behind greenlighting a show like Million Dollar Extreme. I hope that they didn’t think it was a show promoting white supremacy – I hope that they just saw it as another crazy sketch group that was pushing the envelope. But that was an erroneous way to evaluate that. And on top of that, you’re not giving any shows to a lot of women who fit the creative mandate of that network. There are a lot of women who are comedic minds who are absurdist or surrealist who would do great things on there, so when you’re not greenlighting and you’re not hiring female directors… I don’t really track what other shows do, so I don’t know the full extent of all of it. But I saw that article and it was heartbreaking to see.
And yes, it is a problem that these things can only get attention if a white guy says something. So guess what? Until it changes, white dudes, we better fucking step up and take action, because we are the ones who can afford to do so. Why are we not seeing more white male representation locking arms with Planned Parenthood and with Black Lives Matter and the ACLU? Why are we not seeing more representation of that? That is how we change this: By everyone supporting each other, unifying, and taking action. That’s what the right has done, and it’s proven to be very effective. So we need to do that, and you have just as much white liberal men being sick of hearing about discrimination as white conservative men, or just not doing anything.
So does this mean your Dinner specials are officially over?
[laughs] Yeah. I mean, I could still do specials, they just won’t be Dinner specials. I could still do comedy specials, and Jason Woliner could still do comedy specials – I wanna give a shout out to him, he’s half of all of my work on Adult Swim. And you know, I’ve got tons of options. This is not a sacrifice to me.
I will also say, I don’t begrudge anybody for continuing to work with them, especially my friends of color. But I do think it’s time, especially for the powerful white liberal men – and I am not powerful – but for us to do something. For white liberal men it’s easy, so take that easiness and fucking do something. If somebody tells you that it’s gonna be really hard to hire inclusively or write something you don’t know, say to that person, “Well, it’s not harder than not having a fucking job and being discriminated against your entire life and being told and treated like you are less than.” That is something that white liberal men need to fight against. Right now.The 1980s were almost certainly Bob Dylan’s least fruitful decade artistically, but the cult of Dylan is such that you’ll find apologists for every album in his discography. Count producers Jesse Lauter (Elvis Perkins, The Low Anthem) and Sean O’Brien (Dawes, PAPA) among the key witnesses for Dylan’s dark decade; they’ve assembled a compilation called Bob Dylan In The 80s: Volume One that aims to “shed new light on a large cache of Bob Dylan songs that have long gone ignored,” specifically the period ranging from 1980’s Saved to 1990’s Under The Red Sky. The duo rounded up some formidable talents to make their case; the comp includes contributions from Built To Spill, Aaron Freeman of Ween & Slash, Glen Hansard, Reggie Watts, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Lucius, Langhorne Slim, Craig Finn Of The Hold Steady, Deer Tick, Dawn Landes, Blitzen Trapper, Carl Broemel Of My Morning Jacket, Elvis Perkins and more.
Today we present Aaron Freeman (aka Gene Ween) and Slash’s take on Under The Red Sky opener “Wiggle Wiggle,” among the most-maligned songs in Dylan’s oeuvre. Freeman and Slash have turned the tune into a screeching, burping, electrified blues romp that might actually accomplish its goal of redeeming this song. (Incidentally, Slash played acoustic guitar on the original version.) Check it out below.
Aaron Freeman & Slash – “Wiggle |
megacity, of which there were many.” He proceeded to describe what he and his students had concluded after sifting through their documentation of the event and comparing it with other pop-up cities, everything from refugee camps to Burning Man.
“When you look at structures like refugee camps, you often see everything planned out in advance, with rows of identical houses built for refugees to just move right into,” he says. “But the theory of urban planning for the Kumbh Mela is very different. The authorities provide the infrastructure—roads, water, electricity—and they divvy up the sectors between groups. But each individual organization has to build out their own space, which makes for much more of a community than when you just move people into something you’ve built for them. There’s some rigidity to the Kumbh Mela planning system, with its preordained grid structure and its map of the sectors and their essential resources ahead of time, but there’s also a profound flexibility. Individual communities can shape their spaces to be exactly as they want them to be. And that combination works.”
The Kumbh serves to expand Mehrotra’s knowledge of what he calls the kinetic city. Traditional architecture, Mehrotra said, looks at the planned, built and permanent structures that constitute the formal, static city. But increasingly, especially in places like India, a second kind of city shadows the traditional one. The kinetic city is made up of things like informal settlements, shantytowns and improvisational market areas erected in a transitory fashion without official planning or permission. In many small- to medium-sized cities of the developing world, which Mehrotra sees as vital to our future, you have a large rural population, much like most attendees of the Kumbh, flocking to newly expanding cities and often ending up in the kinetic, informal areas. He hopes his research can inform how city governments or urban planners respond to these new waves of often unforeseen urban expansion.
“There are a few central insights,” he says. “First, you need flexible infrastructure that can be rapidly deployed for sanitation, transport and electricity. Second, public-private partnerships can work if it’s very clearly understood what each side will do. Here the religious groups knew exactly what they would get from the government and what they would have to fill in for themselves. Third, we can see that when there is a common cultural identity, as there is among the Kumbh Mela attendees, it means that they can much more easily conform to the norms of a new place and live together.”
What’s most interesting to me about Mehrotra’s insights is that he has found such practical wisdom woven into the fabric of the gathering. That this public-private conglomeration could pull off such a massive event is no small achievement and, as Rampuri, the California-raised guru pointed out, it’s not clear we’d be able to stage an event of this magnitude in the West. Can you imagine, he asked, if millions and millions of people suddenly descended on Kansas City?It’s time to care less. Yep, that’s right. Sometimes we take the world on our shoulders, and instead of making the world a better place, all we end up doing is creating more stress for ourselves. Here are simple tips to ease that heavy mental load and feel more carefree.
1. What others think
Dance to your own beat. Act dumb. Do whatever you have to but don’t take on board what others think. It’s your life, your decisions and choices. Others love to judge, and why should you care if they do? Only you define yourself, so let them be amused if it makes them happy. When you care too much about that others will say, you live your life for them and not yourself.
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2. Past mistakes
We all make mistakes and mess up in life. That’s just how life goes. Don’t be hard on yourself, though. Accept that everyone gets it wrong sometimes; it’s part of the human condition. You really are allowed to cut yourself some slack. Learn to forgive yourself more often.
3. Failure
The big “F” word that everyone fears. It doesn’t have to be a scary concept, though. Ultimately, it depends on your attitude to failure. If you see failure as not being perfect, you’re going to be permanently miserable. A more realistic idea of failure is giving up. If you haven’t given up, you haven’t failed. See failure as a learning curve, a trial and error process. See failure as your friend – it’s no big deal unless you allow it to be.
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4. What you don’t have
The human default position tends to err on the side of lack rather than abundance, which is not conducive to feeling carefree. We focus on what we don’t have and end up feeling thoroughly deprived. What’s the point of that? I often tell my clients to focus on the positives of what they have and the negatives of what they don’t have. Why would you want to torture yourself with all the things you don’t have? That type of thinking will not serve you in any productive way at all. Make a list of all the things in your life that you appreciate. There will always be others with more and others with less. What you have is enough.
5. “What Ifs”
We can drive ourselves crazy worrying about what might happen in the future. No one can predict the future (psychics might dispute this), and there is no point in torturing yourself unnecessarily about things that may never come to pass. Remind yourself that this type of worry is wasted energy and distract yourself. Face worry head on – if you can do something in the present moment, go for it. If not, distract yourself and ‘shelve’ the worries.
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6. “I’ll be happy when…” thoughts
When we believe that we will be happy once something has happened, we effectively put our life on hold until the event happens. Wishing your current life is away is a precious waste of happy moments in life. Be in the moment more and care less about being happy in the future. Decide to be happy now. Happiness is not a destination, it is a manner of traveling.
7. Regrets
Regret is a part of life. The past cannot be undone, so it pays to look at what you have done in life philosophically. Did you learn something from it? If you learned never to do it again or to try a different approach, then you’ve ended up with a positive result. Accept what has gone before, make allowances for human error and move on.
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8. Rejection
Many of us are so afraid of rejection that we stay in our comfort zones and never risk true intimacy. Wear your heart on your sleeve and risk being vulnerable. The more you hide out of fear, the greater the fear will grow. Show yourself that you can express your feelings and live with the consequences. You will conquer fear of rejection in this way and feel more carefree. Even if the outcome is not as expected, you will soon realize that it wasn’t as bad as you anticipated and that you can deal with it. Be a little more thick skinned, be brave and see life as an adventure.
9. Society’s expectations
Be thin, be beautiful. Show off your wealth and status and then you’ll be adored. What nonsense. When you like and accept yourself as you are, you don’t need to prove yourself to anyone. Don’t buy into the constant media images of perfection. Most of the images are airbrushed and lead us to believe that we should all look as perfect. Try not to take it to heart. We all like to see perfect images, but don’t lose sight of the fact that most of it is digitally enhanced and not natural. Love yourself, imperfections and all. Self acceptance is true freedom.
10. Being good enough
It’s easy to feel that we don’t measure up somehow. We live in a competitive world. It’s okay and even healthy to want to improve and grow as a person. It becomes unhealthy, though, when we internalize negative ideas about how we aren’t good enough. Always challenge this type of thinking. What is “good enough”? Where is the international rule book that clarifies what “good enough” is? As long as you feel happy with who you are, where you are and how far you have come, that is all that matters.
We all worry unnecessarily and create inner misery for ourselves. Remember the above ten points, as they are definitely items you can immediately remove from your worry list. Hopefully you’ll feel a little lighter and a little more carefree too!Story highlights Rep. Reid Ribble is tearing into Donald Trump
The Wisconsin Republican is a longtime critic of the now-presumptive Republican nominee
(CNN) A Republican congressman is accusing his party's presumptive presidential nominee of being a "racist," ratcheting up the criticism over Donald Trump's remarks about an Indiana-born federal judge of Mexican heritage.
Three-term GOP Rep. Reid Ribble of Wisconsin told CNN on Wednesday Trump's comments -- that federal judge Gonzalo Curiel could not rule fairly in a Trump University case because of his Mexican heritage -- is a "racist" remark, putting him in line with House Speaker Paul Ryan's criticism.
But Ribble took the matter one step further.
"His comments over the weekend are authenticating what I believe is the man's character," Ribble said. "Something that walks like a duck, talks like a duck, is likely to be a duck. If you continue to say what I believe are racist statements, you're likely to be a racist."
Ribble, who is retiring, said he doesn't plan to vote for Trump and is weighing whether to back the Libertarian Party ticket.Image caption A campaign called for a new conclusion to Mass Effect 3
The makers of Mass Effect 3 are to provide a free extension to the video game following complaints about its original conclusion.
Players had described the three original endings as "underwhelming" and not significantly different, and had demanded a change.
Developer Bioware had previously described the feedback as "incredibly painful".
It has now said the new content will be available in the summer.
"We have reprioritised our post-launch development efforts to provide the fans who want more closure with even more context and clarity to the ending of the game, in a way that will feel more personalised for each player,"said Casey Hudson, the series' executive producer.
Dr Ray Muzyka, co-founder of Bioware, added: "With the Mass Effect 3 extended cut we think we have struck a good balance in delivering the answers players are looking for while maintaining the team's artistic vision for the end of this story arc."
Backlash
The title - which involves the player taking part in a galactic war to save the Earth - topped the video games charts when it was released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC earlier this year.
Publisher EA said it shipped 3.5 million copies worldwide in its first week of availability. At the time it boasted of the title's high review scores and described it as "the first pop culture event and the biggest entertainment launch of 2012".
However, a backlash soon gathered pace among the first players to complete the role-playing title.
They believed Bioware had not lived up toits promise that their choices would deliver"radically different ending scenarios".
A campaign called Retake Mass Effect 3 demanded an overhaul of the conclusion - and publicised its efforts by collecting $80,000 (£50,000) over nine days for the Child's Play charity.
One of the group's members gave the latest announcement a guarded welcome.
"It is nice that Bioware responded to the pressure we put on them and that they listened to us," Sebastian Sobczyk told the BBC.
Image caption Bethesda made gamers pay to play the new ending to Fallout 3 which was released in 2009
"But we are still cautious about this. We don't just want a few minor changes. We want conclusions that properly reflect the choices we made over the many hours we spent playing the game - including at least one happy ending."
Limited changes
Mr Sobczyk and other gamers may remain frustrated.A FAQ posted to Bioware's sitelater clarified that it would expand on the ending "by creating additional cinematics and epilogue scenes to the existing ending sequences".
However, it added that "the extended cut DLC will expand on the existing endings, but no further ending DLC is planned."
The news promptedangry posts by some users on the company's social network, although others defended its decision.
While it is not unprecedented for video game developers to extend or change the conclusion to their titles, Bioware's relatively rapid response has drawn attention.
"There were similar complaints about the ending to Fallout 3 in 2008 and the studio Bethesda issued the Broken Steel update [7 months later] - although it did charge for it," said James Batchelor, staff writer at the video games trade magazine MCV.
"The extension to Mass Effect 3 is a high profile example of a publisher responding to fan demands, even if they were a vocal minority."Controversial Uttar Pradesh politician DP Yadav was sentenced to life behind bars on Tuesday by a special CBI court for the murder of an MLA 23 years ago.
Yadav's son Vikas and another family-member Vishal are also in prison, serving a 30-year jail term for the highly-publicised murder of businessman Nitish Katara in 2002.
Pronouncing the quantum of punishment, special CBI judge Amit Kumar Sirohi sentenced DP Yadav, a former MP, and three others to life imprisonment and also imposed upon them a fine of Rs 1 lakh each, Yadav's counsel Rupendra Bhandari said.
"We will file a review petition in the Uttarakhand high court seeking relief," Bhandari said.
While Vikas is jailed in New Delhi, Yadav will spend time at the district jail in Dehradun, 280 km from the national capital.
Apart from Yadav those sentenced to life imprisonment in the 1992 murder case are Pal Singh, Karan Yadav and Praneet Bhati.
All of them were convicted for murdering Mahendra Singh Bhati, who was said to be Yadav's mentor in a flourishing liquor trade. Bhati was then a member of the UP assembly from Ghaziabad.
The case was transferred to Dehradun in 2000 on the direction of the Supreme Court after doubts were expressed about fair trial in Uttar Pradesh where Yadav is an influential politician.
"My father's murder had caused immense pain and suffering to our family and we have not been able to overcome the loss till now… but we are happy with the law of our country which has not spared the guilty," said Samir, son of the slain leader after the verdict.
Once a close confidante of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, the muscleman from western UP had first switched loyalty to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and later settled in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
In between, he had also launched his own political outfit, Rastriya Parivartan Dal, but did not catch the attention of the people.
(With PTI inputs.)
First Published: Mar 10, 2015 14:59 ISTBehind The Scenes: Iterative Design on a New Component of the Recess Framework
Over the last four months Joshua Paine and I have been iterating on the design of a layout & view system for the Recess Framework. The new layout & views are a major part of next week's 0.2 release. Recess is an open-source PHP framework. I know what you're thinking: how much "design" can you really do in PHP? If you can agree that design is the process of taking something raw and making it beautifully functional, then in PHP there's a lot of opportunity for design.
In the initial release of Recess there wasn't much of a story for the front-end, views. You got plain-old PHP, could plug-in Smarty, or roll-your-own. Templating/layout/view APIs are hard to design because they're tremendously important: views and UI dominate the time spent developing most applications. Rather than taking a swing in the dark I decided to see if anyone in the Recess community would step-up to the plate and knock it out of the park. To the benefit of Recess users, Joshua Paine did just that.
This is the behind-the-scenes of how Recess' new templating and layouts came to be, and an interesting look at the evolution of an API.
Design #1 - "View" Helper: The Swiss Army Knife
The original API work was done by Joshua with a helper class called simply 'view' (click above for full example). It invented some abstractions, with inspiration from other libraries, on top of PHP's output buffering: blocks, slots, & templates. The original class had 10 static methods around these abstractions in roughly 90 lines of code. Let's walk-through some key components of the origina ldesign.
"Blocks" & "Slots"
A concept I fell in love with immediately: blocks and slots. Blocks fill slots. Blocks in child templates fill slots in parent layouts. It wasn't too different from other slot-driven layout systems (Django's blocks, Rail's yield, Smyfony's slots, etc) but the blocks fill slots idiom was beautiful. (Aside: Having Blocks in Recess, also a win!) Let's take a look at how they worked:
A Block 'navigation' in a 'Child' Template:
Fills a Slot in a 'Parent' Layout:
The 'navigation' block in the child template becomes a variable, $navigation, in the parent layout, and is used to fill a slot. If no block is provided we can have default contents.
Do you notice an assymetry here? Blocks are named with strings, and, with some magic, become variables in the parent layout. The jump between block('navigation') and slot($navigation) may feel small, but it was a point we could add symmetry and thus consistency. So we've got two leads on improving the design: 1) Increase Symmetry, 2) Reduce Magic.
A by-product of the magic that turns a block named 'navigation' to a variable named $navigation in the parent layout is that in order to know what blocks to pass a parent, you must understand the 'guts' of the parent (or parents, with child->section->master). This isn't a big deal when you're writing both concurrently, but when you come back to a project a few months later, or when you're working on a team, it's a real pain with complex layouts. So, we've got another design improvement lead: 3) Don't expose your guts.
Partial Templates
If you've used a web framework you're likely familiar with the notion of 'partial' templates. Unlike the Layouts just mentioned that flow from specific to general, Partials flow the opposite direction. In the following example we're rendering the 'person/details' partial template with a $person:
(Note: The comma should be a => for 'key' => $value).
The notion of passing a key/value array to a template in PHP is common practice. In this instance it really hits a nerve. This is an example of PHP puke. To pass variables to a partial template you've now got to know the name and type of the inputs to a partial and match them in a keyed array.
Partial templates, just like functions, take specific inputs. Why can't I call a partial like a function and pass my parameters in linearly? Now, we've got another lead for a design improvement: 4) Partial templates should call-by-contract.
Noise
Finally, there were some methods that didn't really seem necessary: if the pattern of use is that child templates always start and end by extending a parent (or don't extend one at all) then we could remove some noise from the API by making a method like end_template called by the framework instead of the user. Our final lead for a design improvement: 5) Reduce noise & concept-count from user code.
Design #2 - Layouts: A Simple Pattern
After spending some time with the original system and noting the potential for design improvements I iterated on the original API. 10 methods on 1 class became 8 methods on 2. When it comes to an API, if you can accomplish the roughly the same tasks, less is more.
The first, big cosmetic change is in naming: 'view' is an overloaded term that already has meaning in Recess so the 'view' helper became the 'Layout' helper. Rather than conflating layouts and partial templates, partials got their own helper class: 'Part'.
Symmetric Slots & Blocks
Let's attack those weak points in the design. In the second iteration, the first three leads for design improvement were addressed with a simple change: slots and blocks are both specified using strings. How did this address each point?
1) Increase symmetry - Now the methods to start slots and blocks both took strings. No more remembering which one took a string and which took a variable.
2) Reduce magic - Variables no longer magically appear in the scope of your parent layout. The only way to access the shared state from a child template is to ask for it from Layout.
3) Don't expose your guts - By requiring parent templates use Layout for every slot, it became easy to look at a layout file and know exactly what blocks a child could pass. You could even use a simple regex to extract the names. Unfortunately, they're still scattered throughout the layout so child template developers still have to wade through some guts. Yes, it's much easier to do now, but it could be better. Here's an example parent layout:
The Assertive Template is Born
How can we make headway on #4) Parts should be call-by-contract? An easy way: define parts as functions. Unfortunately, for view logic this winds up looking pretty ugly in PHP. It also means you have the mental burden of naming a function. Sure, you could use a convention based on the file name, but it's an extra step.
How do functions work? They name their inputs in linear order. How could we name our inputs in linear order? We could assert them and their type. Thus, the assertive template was born. With a simple regex we can know, for certain, what variables and types a part takes. Here's an example:
Here's how we now render it, compare with view::template('person/details', array('person' => $person));
This is a big win. Though we've increased the cost of implementing a part, we've simplified the common case of actually using the part. We've also hidden some more guts, just like a function, by only needing to know the order and the type of inputs. We've also opened the door to higher-order functionality with full-knowledge of a part's inputs. I'll let you dream about the implications...
Obtuse: Passing Variables with Slots
In the process of improving the design, trade-offs were made. Trade-offs that had unintended consequences. The most obvious was in requiring symmetry with blocks and slots the case where you simply wanted to print a slot became excessive:
So there's room to improve yet, with another lead: #6) Simple shouldn't be hard.
A more subtle, but more damaging consequence of the second design was that passing variables between child and parent wasn't straightforward, passing blocks and slots was. What I failed to realize at the time, but Joshua did immediately, was in bringing symmetry to the great 'blocks fill slots' abstraction complicated the plain-old-PHP. While looking at how I had resolved #5) reduce noise & concept count from user code, by removing the need for template_end in user code (or, now extendEnd) he had an epiphany and another lead for a better design: #7) Slay cute abstractions and simplify, simplify, simplify.
Design #3: Who Needs Slots? Same Scope Minimalism.
From 10 methods to 8 and now to 4. No more slots!? Tomorrow we'll dive into how Joshua turned the problem on it's head and simplified everything. Was it too simple? We'll address this in the 4th and the final design of Recess' view and templates system in 0.20 version launching next week. Stay tuned...
PS - If you're getting married in the next year, or know someone who is, be an alpha user of Joshua Paine's new wedding website service built using Recess.The Bloc opened less than a year ago in Downtown LA, and since then, it has become the first shopping complex in LA with its own subway access tunnel. But the Real Deal reports that the much-hyped open air redevelopment of formerly fortress-like Macy’s Plaza is experiencing setbacks.
The Real Deal notes that deals never materialized with businesses such as the exclusive Wingtip club and Killer Shrimp restaurant, which were said to be moving in. Sexy retailers including Apple and Sephora have passed on leasing agreements. And, continued construction delays have stalled the arrival of other tenants, including a first Los Angeles location for popular dine-in movie theater chain Alamo Drafthouse.
As a result, the complex is more than half vacant.
With major Downtown LA housing developments continuing to pop up in South Park and other neighboring areas, it’s probably only a matter of time before demand for commercial real estate in the area is back on the rise, but the Bloc’s struggles have reportedly put Downtown real estate professionals on their guard.
Head over to The Real Deal for the whole story.It’s been nearly 300 years since paper money became accepted as legal tender. While much has changed about how we make, sell, and buy goods, cash has stuck around. It’s been only recently that the road to a wider cashless society has started to really take shape. From apps such as PayPal, Venmo, or Square Cash to mobile payment platforms like Kenya’s mPesa, Bangladesh’s bKash, or Apple Pay, there are signs that cash is following the path of other “information goods,” such as printed photographs, cassette tapes, and DVDs in being replaced by digital alternatives.
Or as Samantha Bee, host of the show Full Frontal, put it recently: “I’d like to talk a little bit about money. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, it’s like Venmo for old people.”
But all of this may still leave us with a question – if cash isn’t inherently broken, why fix it?
Policy makers and economists, such as Harvard’s Ken Rogoff, have made elegant arguments for the benefits of a cashless society. Economic uncertainty around the globe has raised concerns that consumers could take cash out of banks – especially in negative interest rate envrionments — and hoard it. Eliminating cash is one way to reduce that risk. Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are already considering it, while the European Central Bank is considering getting rid of large-denomination bills.
Cash, according to a recent MasterCard study, accounts for nearly 85% of global consumer transactions. Cash has stubbornly resisted going the way of digital extinction. Paper currency is ubiquitous. It is also untraceable and universally accepted (except in some circumstances, usually involving very large payments). For many users, cash equates to a sense of security and for many it is a sense of independence from government oversight. The rise of cyber-crime and growing concerns about the ability of public agencies to look through digital records will add to the unwillingness among many to let go of paper money.
The migration to a cashless society is far from being either uniform or universal. Whereas most Swedes are embracing a cashless future, along with an unlikely peer group, that includes both Somaliland and South Korea, some of Sweden’s neighbors, in response to EU’s increasing regulations on restricting cash usage, are demanding a “constitutional right to pay in cash” fueled by concerns around negative interest rates and a perceived loss of privacy that comes with digital money.
For some countries, the transition has been very rapid and at a scale that is without precedent. In 2009, over two-thirds of all ecommerce payments in China were cash on delivery. Thanks in no small part to the mobile wallet wars among the BAT – Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent – mobile payments today account for over 70% of all e-commerce transactions in China.
These irregularities in the migration to cashlessness raise several questions: Which countries have the greatest to gain from the migration to a cashless society? Which countries are most prepared in terms of their digital readiness? Understanding the answers to these questions will enable decision-makers, innovators, and investors in both the public and the private sectors to locate the world’s “cashless sweet spots” and allocate resources to unlock value trapped by transaction costs and frictions inherent to cash-intensive societies.
We wanted to know the answers to some of these questions so we analyzed the cost of using cash using a database extending across 154 countries. We approached the question from several angles, to derive costs to key constituents in the economy:
Assess the costs to banks of maintaining ATMs (for all 154 countries);
Create a score for the cost of cash to consumers (for 72 countries for which there is data availability), combining the actual costs of getting cash, including transport to get cash and ATM fees;
Compute the “tax gap” — an estimate of the proportion of money owed to the fiscal authority of the government, but goes uncollected due to unreported and under-reported cash transactions — as a proxy for the revenues that governments forgo because of a cash economy.
A caveat on interpreting the map below: It doesn’t mean that countries with “low” costs of cash are closer to being cashless societies or that they need to do nothing to change status quo. All the map indicates is that the costs of cash in these countries are relatively lower compared to that of the rest.
Scanning for patterns across these different analyses, one key conclusion is quite revealing: The cost of cash varies widely across countries and the relative ranking of costs across countries changes significantly depending on whose perspective – banks, consumers or government – you take. The costs do not correlate with levels of economic or political development.
The details of this reality play out in many ways:
Keeping ATMs stocked and working properly is a cost to banks. These ATM maintenance costs are disproportionately high in many parts of the developing world, such as sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, with myriad security and infrastructure challenges, as well as in geographically large, sparsely populated countries, such as Canada, Russia, and Australia, where the logistics challenges are high.
The absolute cost of cash to consumers, based on average transit time and cash access costs are high in some of the world’s most populous countries: Indonesia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, India, China, and the United States. They are high in many of the major European countries, such as Germany and France, as well as in Japan. These costs are lower in several Scandinavian countries with relatively entrenched mobile payments systems, such as Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, as well as countries with rapidly evolving mobile payment systems, such as South Korea and Kenya.
Countries in the developing world tend to have a greater tax gap and a greater degree of uncertainty about the reliability of the estimate of the gap. Developing countries have the largest tax gaps, with their shadow economies as large as 30%-44% of GDP. In India, for example, the tax gap could be as large as two-thirds of overall taxes owed.
We propose two factors that are useful in offering guidance to those working to enable cashless societies and allocate resources optimally. We suggest, first, prioritizing countries where the consumer costs of cash are high, since consumers will be the prime adopters of digital alternatives. Next, we suggest a focus on those countries that are more digitally ready for a migration to a cashless alternative. To gauge digital readiness, we used our Digital Evolution Index. The combination creates a mapping of “cashless sweet spots.”
Based on our analysis, the following countries have the greatest potential for unlocking value by policy and innovation led migration to a cashless society: U.S., Netherlands, Japan, Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Czech Republic, China and Brazil. The U.S., for example, incurs a cost of $200 billion annually to keep cash in circulation; nearly a third of all store sales are still cash based despite its long history with plastic money.
China on the other hand while well ahead of the U.S. in its transition from cash to mobile wallets, continues to be among countries that impose the highest absolute costs of cash on its citizens. Both the U.S. and China would do well to adopt policies in partnership with market actors to nudge their already digitally ready societies towards digital money and unlock massive savings – in time and money – in the process.
A second group of countries have higher than average consumer costs of cash, but they would first need to improve their level of digital readiness and become more “digitally inclusive” before they can realize value from going cashless. These include parts of Eastern Europe such as Poland and Russia, and countries with large populations such as India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Egypt, and the Philippines. Cash imposes severe costs on consumers in India and Mexico as we detail in our Cost of Cash studies: New Delhi’s 11 million inhabitants collectively spend some 72 million hours per year chasing cash and Mexico’s small businesses suffer a 21% incidence of cash fraud — nearly twice the rate faced by larger businesses in the country. However, fledgling digital infrastructure in both countries and unequal access to the internet make the transition to digital money harder. Policy makers and market actors in these countries would do well to work on addressing the digital inclusion challenge ahead of digitalizing money.
Countries that are highly digitally evolved are best positioned to unlock value by focusing on migrating to digital alternatives to cash. For those countries lagging in their digital evolution, the path to cashless nirvana is through investing in digital inclusion first. This sequencing is crucial to success.
Note: This research was conducted with support from the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth. The conclusions do not necessarily reflect the views of MasterCard Worldwide. The authors are grateful to The Fletcher School graduates Yan Bai, Christina Filipovic, and Caroline Troein for their research and analysis.
Editor’s note: We have corrected the map titled “The Cost of Getting Cash Around the World.” An earlier version indicated cost of cash scores for Romania, Chile, Taiwan, Slovakia, Norway, Libya, South Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire, Montenegro, and Ethiopia. Cost of cash scores are not available for those countries at this time. We also updated our “Which Countries Are Best Positioned to Go Cashless” matrix to better reflect the study’s findings. This included moving Brazil, Thailand, and Indonesia into the lower right quadrant and moving South Korea to the top right quadrant.Anti-choice activists hand a small child propaganda material in Mexico City.
worldfocusonline / YouTube
This article was reported in partnership with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute and originally published in the September 16 issue of The Nation.
On May 1, a familiar anti-abortion story line played out on Azteca 13, a popular television channel in Mexico. In the opening scenes of an episode of Lo Que Callamos Las Mujeres (What We Women Keep Silent), a Lifetime-like telenovela series about “real-life” stories, a pretty brunette with a heart-shaped face, Alondra, discovers she is pregnant when overtaken by a sudden bout of morning sickness. Her sister Sofía is concerned, but later that night, when Alondra’s boorish boyfriend comes home and she breaks the news, he asks if it’s his, then tells her to abort.
Alondra complies and, in a series of hazy scenes, visits a clandestine abortion provider. But she’s haunted by what she has done, and is awoken at night by phantom baby cries that send her searching throughout her apartment until she collapses on the living room floor, her white pajama bottoms soaked through with blood. Her illegal abortion was botched, it turns out, and by terminating her pregnancy, a doctor tells her sister, she has forfeited her fertility as well. Some weeks later, Alondra’s boyfriend is accosted on the street by another woman, also pregnant by him, who begs him to acknowledge his future child. Sheepishly, he does, shrugging as he tells Alondra, “I’m going to be a papa,” before walking out the door to be with the other woman—the one who didn’t abort.
The message seems clear enough, but the story doesn’t end there. Two years later, when Alondra meets a good man who wants a family, she pushes the memory of the abortion out of her mind. In a state of manic delusion, she experiences a hysterical pregnancy, her belly swelling with her hopes, until Sofía forces her to see a doctor and Alondra breaks down, confronted with her unresolved grief. As Alondra again lies in a hospital bed, two years wiser and infinitely sadder, the doctor hands her a pamphlet. On its back cover, facing the camera, is the logo of the Instituto para la Rehabilitación de la Mujer y la Familia, or IRMA, a Mexican Catholic ministry that offers counseling for women suffering “post-abortion syndrome”—the medically unrecognized claim that terminating a pregnancy leads to serious psychological trauma.
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The May episode of Lo Que Callamos was one of several instances in which IRMA was invited to suggest a “true-life” story line for the show, broadcasting to millions of viewers its message that abortion causes devastating harm to women and their families. One episode alone had generated some 200 calls and 400 emails to IRMA in a single day, said María del Carmen Alva López, IRMA’s president and founder, when I met her last October.
“They take a real story from us, a real history, and then at the end the lady goes to IRMA and receives help,” explained Alva, a cheerful 42-year-old with beauty-pageant poise. In a lush Mexico City suburb full of gated houses, Alva sat me down on a pleather loveseat in IRMA’s small, stucco-walled counseling room. The bookshelves outside were lined with copies of Alva’s book, Y después del aborto, ¿que? (And After the Abortion, What?), and in her hands she held a thick binder containing the results of a survey of 135 clients. Of these 135 “post-abortive” women, said Alva, her smile dimming and her eyes heavy with sympathy, IRMA estimates that 70 percent have clinical depression and 10 percent have attempted suicide. Results like these, she says, prove that post-abortion syndrome is real.
That these numbers are gathered from a self-selecting group of women who have sought out IRMA’s services doesn’t dampen Alva’s conviction that all Mexican women need to hear how abortion can hurt them. They especially need to hear it now, Alva believes. It’s been six years since first-trimester abortions were decriminalized in Mexico’s Distrito Federal, home to Mexico City, and more and more Mexican women are gradually learning about their limited right to choose—although abortion rights advocates fear this message |
the wagons. They stated that she already knew what to do, had nothing to learn from No Kill advocates, and was already doing what she needed to do. They also claimed that all the animals who were being killed were unadoptable.
Did the ASPCA support your efforts and the efforts of others to put a No Kill plan based on the No Kill Equation into action?
The ASPCA was against the No Kill plan the entire way. They rallied the troops around the director who was committed to killing. If we did not have the opposition of the ASPCA, we would have achieved success earlier. Every time we wanted to implement a new program, they’d basically go to city officials and say, “You shouldn’t do that.” Although the ASPCA felt it had no choice but to vote for the plan, they fought it behind closed doors.
When the City passed a moratorium on killing savable animals when there was empty cages (e.g., end “convenience killing”), Dorinda Pulliam stopped treating sick and injured cats, did the ASPCA condemn her for it?
No, they continued to defend her. They continued to defend the shelter. They implied that concerned citizens did not understand sheltering. In fact, when she left, they lamented her reassignment, despite the cruelty.
When the City held a press conference and celebration to announce that save rates in excess of 90% were achieved, was the ASPCA there?
It spoke volumes that the ASPCA was not there to celebrate the success of Austin’s No Kill plan.
The results speak volumes, too. You and other reformers were right and the ASPCA was wrong. But now that you have achieved tremendous lifesaving success, the ASPCA is claiming credit. Why is this so offensive?
They were not involved. They fought it. Now, they are trying to take credit? It’s wrong.
Who, in fact, deserves credit for Austin’s success?
FixAustin, Austin Pets Alive, the Commission, the City Council, the Central Texas Animal Alliance, and every day rescuers, animal lovers, and Austinites.
What advice do you have for people in their own communities who are fighting entrenched interests?
Nobody is going to do it for you. Do it yourself. Don’t accept defeat. We could have quit. And at times it seemed insurmountable, but we kept banging against the wall and finally broke through.
Should No Kill advocates consider the ASPCA an ally?
Absolutely not, they are an obstacle.A British prison has become the world's first to use a new system designed to stop drones flying over perimeter walls to drop contraband into jails.
The device creates a 2,000ft (600m) shield around and above a prison that will detect and deflect the remote-controlled devices.
It uses a series of "disruptors", which are sensors to jam the drone's computer, and block its frequency and control protocols. The operator's screen will go black and the drone will be bounced back to where it came from.
Drones have become a major security problem in Britain's prisons and are increasingly used to smuggle in drugs, weapons, phones and other valuables.
The new system, called Sky Fence, is being introduced at Les Nicolles prison on Guernsey, where around 20 "disruptors" will be installed on the perimeter and inside.
The Channel Island jail was initially going to install a drone detection system, but went a step further to put in the technology that stops drones in-flight.The alarming rate of glacial shrinkage worldwide threatens our current way of life, from biodiversity to tourism, hydropower to clean water supply.
LONDON, 15 September, 2017 – Glaciers cover one-tenth of the planet’s land surface – but not for much longer.
Glaciers worldwide are in retreat, and losing mass. They are shrinking and melting, and that will create problems almost everywhere, according to new research.
Between 2003 and 2009, glaciers melted on a gargantuan scale, with an estimated 1,350 cubic kilometres of meltwater streamed from what had once been vast streams of slowly flowing ice.
Ice has been in retreat in the Gulf of Alaska, the Canadian Arctic, Greenland and Antarctica. In the European Alps summers have become measurably warmer during the last 30 years, snowfall has diminished and 54% of the ice cover in the mountains has disappeared since 1850. By 2100, Alpine summits may have lost around nine-tenths of the ice that still covered them in 2003. In South America, the glaciers of Bolivia lost almost 50% of their mass in the last 50 years. In western Canada, somewhere between 60% and 80% of the ice measured in 2005 will have disappeared, and flowed into the sea to raise sea levels everywhere.
And, says an international team of scientists, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the loss of mountain ice creates problems for the people who live downstream.
“ We don’t believe that the sheer enormity
of the impact of glacial shrinkage on our downstream
ecosystems has been fully integrated to date”
Glaciers in the basins of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Indus rivers are right now losing 24 billion metric tons of ice a year: between 2003 and 2009, that added up to about a tenth of all the glacial ice lost everywhere in the world. Ice loss upstream means changes in the timing, magnitude and frequency of the flows downstream, and that in turn affects the levels of sediment, and the nutrients, both for the human populations who depend on the farmland in the valleys and plains below, but also for the natural ecosystems in the rivers, lakes and coastal zones.
It is time, the scientists argue, for some serious thinking: glacier loss cannot be separated from complexities such as changes in natural hazards such as flooding and drought, in agriculture, tourism, hydropower, cultural life and political economy.
“We don’t believe that the sheer enormity of the impact of glacial shrinkage on our downstream ecosystems has been fully integrated to date. From biodiversity to tourism, from hydropower to clean water supply, the breadth of risk to our current way of life is vast. The first step must be a realignment in how we view glacial shrinkage, and a research agenda that acknowledges the risk to regions likely to be most affected,” says Alexander Milner, professor of river ecosystems at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, who led the study.
Four tasks
He and colleagues, from Alaska, Switzerland, Norway, Austria, France, Iceland, Denmark, Italy and other UK universities, want the global science community to think about four big things.
They want new technologies to map the details of ice loss with greater precision. They want better global monitoring of the nutrients and contaminants that are now trickling at ever greater rates from glaciers into downstream waterways.They want to see better understanding of the impact of what scientists like to call “ecosystem services” delivered by glaciers – and that includes what happens to salmon habitats and sports fisheries. And they would like to see management plans for change in the most sensitive glacier regions, and that could include international legislation to protect what they call “strategic glacier-derived water resources”.
Researchers have been warning about glacial loss for many years: they have highlighted regional alarms in Greenland, central Asia, the Antarctic, and the Bolivian Andes.
They have firmly linked glacial loss to global warming driven by profligate human fossil fuel combustion and they have warned that such loss risks social change and potential catastrophe for millions.
Glacial water
So the latest study is a kind of summary of the research so far, and an attempt to identify what glaciologists, geographers, hydrologists and social scientists should do to understand the problems ahead, and identify steps to ameliorate some of the worst impacts. They see potential for conflict over access to dwindling water supplies downstream from what had once been great glacier systems.
And, they warn, there is even a religious dimension.
“For example, thousands of pilgrims annually traverse the Gangotri Glacier in India, considering it a sacred spot, and in Peru and the Yukon Territory of Canada, indigenous people consider glaciers as gods. In Peru, the loss of ice and snow from mountain peaks is thus associated with the god’s departure and the end of the world. On the Tibetan Plateau, residents consider the glacierised Yulong Snow Mountain their spiritual home, but already 65% have recognised the necessity to potentially migrate to adapt to climate change and achieve a sustainable livelihood,” they write.
“These social upheavals would clearly lead to implications across the wider array of services that human populations use from glacier-fed rivers.”
– Climate News Network22 February, 2016. 14:23
ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
An unpaid intern at one of Australia’s most popular alternative news websites has taken the time this afternoon to focus her publication’s blowtorch on one of the most controversial talking points of her industry – unpaid internships.
Specifically, the dirty little secret that male unpaid interns are often paid more than their female counterparts.
“It’s something that needs to be fixed,” said media student Hyacinth Tomming.
“On average, unpaid male interns are paid 30% more than females. The work isn’t any different, either.”
The 20-year-old interviewed a number of final year communication students about their experiences on the unpaid internship circuit – with horror story after horror story emerging from the cohort.
In particular, an unpaid female intern at the Daily Telegraph explained to Ms Tomming that she was in the same intern intake as a male from another university.
“There’s one guy here from QUT doing the same thing I am and he’s taking more than a third more than me at the end of each week,” said the unpaid intern.
“It’s bullshit. He basically swings on his chair, picks his nose and writes something about rugby league twice a day and he gets more than me. I write six articles a day and all the editor does is give me a double thumbs up as I walk out the door.”
At her current role at Pedestrian.tv, Ms Tomming said she receives the same as the other unpaid interns, which is something the industry needs to adopt across the board.
More to come.The Western Bulldogs have today confirmed that Josh Prudden’s contract hasn’t been renewed for the 2018 AFL season.
The 23-year-old was selected with the Dogs’ third round pick (50th overall) in the 2012 NAB AFL Draft and made his debut in Round 15 2015 against the Gold Coast Suns.
Prudden was delisted at the end of the 2016 season before the Club recommitted to the midfielder in November by picking him in the Rookie Draft.
Hampered by injury, Prudden averaged 12.5 disposals, four marks and two tackles over four AFL career games, and also appeared in 43 VFL games.
Western Bulldogs List Manager Jason McCartney said Prudden was popular among his teammates and his presence around the club would be missed.
“Josh was the very definition of a great teammate and he should hold his head high for the impact he’s had on the group in his time here,” McCartney said.
“We wish Josh all the best for the future and we thank him for his commitment and dedication to our football club over the journey.”
The Bulldogs have until Tuesday October 31 to lodge their initial 2018 playing list to the AFL.A sign is seen outside BP's North Sea Headquarters in Aberdeen, Scotland January 15, 2015. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell each have shipped cargoes of Canadian crude oil out of the Texas coast this month, according to industry firm ClipperData, highlighting a once-rare journey that is expected to become more common.
The two Aframax tankers loaded from Enterprise Products Partners LP’s export terminal in Freeport, Texas, according to the firm, which tracks crude tanker movements. They are currently en route to Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and Spain, data show.
Track the vessels on the Eikon MAP: reuters://REALTIME/verb=Interactive%20Map/context=%3CNavigation%3E%3CEntities%3E%3CEntity%3E%3CInteractiveMap%20version=%221%22%3E%3CMap%3E%3CMapTargetZoom%3E3%3C/MapTargetZoom%3E%3CMapTargetCenter%20X=%22-78.39929378%22%20Y=%2232.75456001%22%20/%3E%3CMapMode%3E2%3C/MapMode%3E%3CLayers%3E%3CLayer%20Type=%22UserList%22%3E%3CIdentifiers%3E%0D%0A%20%20%3CIdentifier%20namespace=%22RIC%22%3EC%7DKA7309488445%3C/Identifier%3E%0D%0A%20%20%3CIdentifier%20namespace=%22RIC%22%3EC%7DKA7309511121%3C/Identifier%3E%0D%0A%3C/Identifiers%3E%3C/Layer%3E%3CLayer%20Type=%22VesselsTracks%22%3E%3CTrackedVessels%3E%3CRIC%3EC%7DKA7309511121%3C/RIC%3E%3CRIC%3EC%7DKA7309488445%3C/RIC%3E%3C/TrackedVessels%3E%3CConfiguration%3E%3CTrackLength%3EDUR:P21D%3C/TrackLength%3E%3C/Configuration%3E%3C/Layer%3E%3C/Layers%3E%3C/Map%3E%3C/InteractiveMap%3E%3C/Entity%3E%3C/Entities%3E%3C/Navigation%3E
Canadian crude reaches the terminal via Enbridge Inc’s 600,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Illinois-to-Cushing, Oklahoma, Flanagan South pipeline, where it loads into the 850,000-bpd Seaway pipeline system, which Enbridge co-owns with operator Enterprise. Flanagan and the new 450,000-bpd Seaway Twin started up in December and have been ramping up. Enbridge has a license to re-export Canadian crude.
ClipperData said that on April 10, BP’s 600,000-barrel shipment of Canadian light sour blend, loaded on the Catalan Sea, left the Freeport terminal bound for Rotterdam. On Monday the vessel was southeast of the eastern tip of Canada, heading northwest toward western Europe.
On April 13 the Zuma left the same Freeport terminal loaded with Shell’s 523,000-barrel shipment of Western Canadian Select headed for Spain, they said. On Monday that vessel was northeast of Hispaniola, heading northeast toward the Iberian peninsula.
Neither vessel stopped at a lightering zone in the Gulf of Mexico, the firm said.Club Sports: Now with Guns
One of Harvard’s oldest clubs is now back and fully loaded. The Harvard Shooting Club, the only University-sanctioned group that...
One of Harvard’s oldest clubs is now back and fully loaded. The Harvard Shooting Club, the only University-sanctioned group that utilizes handguns, pistols, and shotguns, has recently been named an official club sport team. Originally formed in 1883, HSC was disbanded in 2003 because of a lack of student involvement. In October 2009, a group of students went on a shotgun trap outing with the Harvard Law School and became so enthused about the sport that they decided to revive the organization.
The club immediately began organizing group outings, target practices, and open classes, which were wildly popular on campus. Within two days, 140 campus gun enthusiasts had signed up for their course “Handguns 101.” With so much student interest, the club leadership decided that the time was ripe to apply for a status upgrade to an official club sport.
But to gain this kind of recognition, they had to bring out the big guns.
“We had to go through a lot of bureaucratic red tape and restrictions,” said team co-captain Tian Wang ’12, referencing the safety concerns, liability issues, and financial logistics that they had to address. “We applied in February and weren’t approved until September.” Currently, there are 50 students who count shooting shotguns as one of their activities at Harvard, and in the past two years, the team has raised over $13,000 in funding, primarily from the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
“There’s a marked difference between a team and a club,” said team member Lila E. Nieves-Wang ’13, who has been shooting since she was 6 years old. “I love the new team vibe. It brings people in and they’re much more committed.” The team practices trap and skeet shooting with shotguns off-campus, and hopes to begin target shooting with pistols and rifles in the spring.
“It’s been a very satisfying experience,” said Wang. “I don’t think there’s anyone who’s tried it and been like ‘ehh.’ Everyone loves it.” The team is still planning on giving open classes and holding paintball competitions. Newcomers are welcome, so anyone is welcome to ride shotgun in this learning process.This is the third installment in a short series of articles on photo manipulation in the days before computers. The first explained how photo retouching worked before Photoshop, and the second discussed hoaxes and fads in early photography.
Slimmed noses, banished blemishes, nipped-in waists, and other common photo modifications existed long before computers. At the turn of the 20th century, retouching was done by hand, with the majority of the work performed directly on the negative. Glass plate negatives offered wide latitude to retouchers, who could draw on them with pencils or etch into them with sharp tools. According to the Complete Self-Instructing Library of Practical Photography, a 1909 guide for beginning photographers, “The general public demands considerable work on the portrait negative.”
People who went to the trouble of having their portraits taken wanted to look good, and photographers or specialized retouchers would alter images, sometimes drastically, to please their customers, following prevailing ideas of beauty. Our culture still shares some of these ideals—smooth skin, slenderness—but others might seem bizarre to a modern audience.
1. THE HEAD
Turn-of-the-century retouchers relied, either explicitly or implicitly, on cultural ideas not just about beauty but also about how the human body is supposedly marked by personality traits. Phrenology (the pseudoscience of judging a person’s character from the size and shape of their head) and physiognomy (a similar practice of judging character based on facial features) influenced retouchers’ ideas about “pleasing” versus “objectionable” physical features.
“The cranium of each individual has its elevations and depressions which indicate to a great extent, if not all, the intellectual and moral character of the man,” Clara Weisman stated in her 1903 guide to photography and retouching. The author of The Complete Self-Instructing Library of Practical Photography agreed, noting that the retoucher should understand the basics of phrenology in order to be able to “retain all of the good qualities of the individual” and “alter or modify the predominating undesirable qualities” when retouching portraits.
For any skeptics, the author reassured, “Physiognomy, phrenology and character reading are actually sciences.” (They are not.) He then offered a hypothetical scenario to convince doubters:
The Complete Self-Instructing Library // Public Domain
Some people are of the opinion that heads mean nothing, yet in order to let you judge for yourself, we desire that you compare the two accompanying figures in Illustration No. 37. Fig. 1 is an outline of the head in which the thinking, moral and esthetic faculties stand out the strongest. In fact, all of the higher faculties are more strongly developed. This is exemplified by a high forehead, the high frontal top head, the broad temples, and the expansion of the upper half of the back head. In these portions are located all of the better, unselfish, humane, cheerful, moral and spiritual faculties. When these exist strongly in the individual they shape the head as illustrated. Whatever is the shape of the head so will be the shape of the face. Notice the face in particular and see the happy, tender, true, refined, friendly, generous and cheerful expression. Compare Fig. 2 with Fig. 1. Notice in particular the shape of the head. It is exactly the opposite of that in Fig. 1. Observe also, how the face corresponds. Now, which of these two persons would you rather meet on a lonely highway? Your preference, we know, will be for the first one. When it comes to a practical test, a test of life or death, or a test of dollars and cents, then prejudices are immediately dropped and physiognomy and phrenology are at once accepted.
Putting aside the author’s attempt to argue the inescapable correspondence of head-shape and facial features using as evidence a sketch that he drew, there’s also the fact that the unnamed author of The Complete Self-Instructing Library seems to have copied these heads and other such sketches directly from a 1902 book on phrenology called Vaught’s Practical Character Reader. What head shape indicates plagiarism?
However, most retouchers were likely just trying to make their clients look more attractive, rather than trying to read their heads for hints of criminality. Per Finishing the Negative, such retouchers worked to subdue bony “prominences” in the skull and cultivate “that much desired quality in a portrait—roundness.” Luckily, according to Wilson’s Photographic Magazine, the forehead “can be altered more than any other part of the face.”
Note how the subject’s skull has been rounded in the second photo. Image credit: (1901) // Public Domain Finishing the Negative (1901) // Public Domain
2. WRINKLES
Gender and age were the most important considerations in determining what and how much to retouch. “The subject has everything to do with the amount of work applied to the negative,” noted the Complete Self-Instructing Library. “For example, negatives of aged persons, whether man or woman, require less lines to be removed than younger people, and negatives of men require less retouching than those of women, regardless of age.”
Most retouching manuals cautioned against erasing the wrinkles of older people, lest they end up looking uncanny. An 1881 guide to photography observed, “An old man without wrinkles is an unnatural and ghastly object—the ‘marble brow’ of the poet should be left to literature.” In portraits of older women, however, wrinkles were sometimes almost entirely erased.
// Public Domain Older woman heavily retouched. Image credit: The Practical Photographer, Dec. 1904
Retouching guides concurred that female subjects require a heavier hand, particularly “In cases of ladies who have been noted for beauty, but whose beauty has somewhat faded,” according to one 1895 photography guide. An instructive article on retouching in the magazine The New Photo-Miniature noted that forehead wrinkles are “lines and marks of age or thought or worry” and that “In women under fifty they should generally be removed almost completely. In men they are generally merely softened, as often expressing character and individuality.” Women’s wrinkles, apparently, do not express character or individuality as men’s do.
Older woman’s wrinkles, before. Image credit: The Practical Photographer, Dec. 1904 // Public Domain
Older woman’s wrinkles, after. Image credit: The Practical Photographer, Dec. 1904 // Public Domain
Within the pseudoscience of physiognomy, wrinkles were believed to reveal specific character traits. While The Complete Self-Instructing Library generally advocated softening wrinkles, lines thought to communicate positive qualities were to be preserved. In particular, “Long vertical furrows across the whole front of the forehead are indicative in most cases of benevolence,” while “The perpendicular wrinkles between the eyebrows above the base of the nose denote honesty, and as this is a valuable attribute to the individual the greatest of care should be exercised in having them reproduce as near their natural state as possible.”
Mustachioed man, unretouched, over-retouched, and correctly retouched. Image credit: Photo-Era, Oct. 1919. // Public Domain.
3. THE NOSE
// Public Domain Nose widened and straightened. Image credit: The Practical Photographer, Dec. 1904
The magazine The Camera called the nose “the most important feature of the face,” but noted that it can cause trouble for retouchers, since “its irregular shape and size generally constitute the most glaring defects of the sitter’s personal appearance.” Wilson’s Photographic Magazine cautioned against altering the nose, as “The form of the nose is the most essential attribute toward a good likeness.” Of course, “Artists who idealize the face, are sure to idealize the nose,” Clara Weisman realistically observed.
Nose straightened on portrait of young man. Image credit: The Practical Photographer, Dec. 1904 // Public Domain
Victorian and Edwardian ideas of what constituted a beautiful nose were imbued with racism. “The fineness of the nose is indicated by the cultivation and advancement of the race,” Weisman asserted. “The noses of the Ethiopian and the Mongol,” she continued, are “shorter and compressed” in comparison with the noses of “the Caucasian, or the white race.” According to Finishing the Negative, “A narrow straight line gives the effect of a fine sharp-cut feature often found in the English aristocracy: a broad and spreading band shows the sort of nose one would imagine to belong to a more plebeian type of face.” Short or broad noses indicated one was of a lower race or a lower class, in the minds of many retouchers of the time.
The Complete Self-Instructing Library provided a chart of noses that the author claimed corresponded to different personality traits. This chart, the author contended, “enabl[es] you to reproduce the very best character in the individual” by minimizing parts of the nose that indicate negative personality traits and building up the ones that indicate positive traits.
Table of nose shapes. Figure 1. Positive and Masculine; Figure 2. Antagonistic; Figure 3. Motive; Figure 4. Balanced; Figure 5. Thinking; Figure 6. Vital; Figure 7. Imitative; Figure 8. Erratic; Figure 9. Good and Bad; Figure 10. Looking; Figure 11. Commercial; Figure 12. Selfish and Hopeful; Figure 13. Negative; Figure 14. Feminine; Figure 15. Neutral; Figure 16. Cunning; Figure 17. Peculiar; Figure 18. Deceitful and Pessimistic; Figure 19. Intellectual; Figure 20 shows the three divisions of a well-balanced nose. Image credit: The Complete Self-Instructing Library of Practical Photography
4. THE CHEEKS
“Sophie Braslau,” close-up.
Unlike today, when YouTube videos and fashion magazines promise to help you fake prominent cheekbones with contouring, turn-of-the-century retouchers saw prominent cheekbones on women as a flaw to be minimized. “The hollow or angular [cheek] expresses more of the masculine or muscular,” Clara Weisman argued. The Complete Self-Instructing Library agreed, noting, “The cheeks which present a quite full and round outline, are usually the most pleasing and tend greatly toward beautifying the face. Men’s faces, which are usually quite muscular, are, as a rule, more hollow or angular.”
As roundness was considered feminine, retouchers would lessen the degree of shadow under a woman’s cheekbone by shaving away at the negative. The 1901 photographic guide Finishing the Negative advised that “In the case of ladies, it is safe to err on the side of over-roundness,” while The Complete Self-Instructing Library warned, “A high cheek-bone suggests more of the animal nature in the individual; a lower cheek-bone, which gives by far more beauty to the face, denotes mildness of character and a more congenial nature.” Sharp, prominent cheekbones imply too much forcefulness of character to be considered attractive on women, it was thought.
5. THE MOUTH
Phrenology mouth shapes. Fig. 3: a deceitful mouth; Fig. 4: a mouth showing strong self-esteem and firmness; Fig. 5: a mouth showing strong friendship, Fig. 6: a deceitful chin; Fig. 7: an honest mouth and an honest chin; Fig. 8: an impulsive mouth. Image credit: The Complete Self-Instructing Library of Practical Photography // Public Domain
“Ladies especially will not admit, even to themselves, that their mouths are large or badly shaped,” Robert Johnson observed in his 1895 book Photography: Artistic and Scientific. In her guide to retouching, Clara Weisman advised, “If lips are too thick and too noticeable, they may be narrowed by bringing down the light on the upper lip and shortening the lower, narrowing it.” Of course, lips may also be too thin—a problem because “lips that are narrow and close” indicate a lack of affection, Weisman said.
For retouchers who subscribed to physiognomy, the mouth revealed a lot about a subject’s character. According to The Complete Self-Instructing Library, “The more the teeth are shown the more love of applause,” but luckily The Practical Photographer offered instructions for hiding visible teeth.
The Practical Photographer, Dec. 1904
Primarily, retouchers were concerned with the mouth’s emotional expression, especially any downward lines or shadows, which Finishing the Negative dubbed “objectionable from the depressed and spiritless expression thus given to the face.”
6. THE CHIN
Chin dimple diminished. Image credit: The Complete Self-Instructing Library // Public Domain
“A well developed chin is a sign of love,” according to The Complete Self-Instructing Library, while “A square chin is the sign of honesty” and “A strong square chin is indicative of a strong heart.” A retoucher had the opportunity to improve weak chins, which was especially important for men, given that, according to Clara Weisman, “The chin is usually considered as being indicative of voluntary action or will-power.” As roundness was more desirable for women, their chins and jawlines were usually given a softer curve.
Retouchers at the turn of the 20th century were also not fans of chin dimples. “Dimples in the chin are nearly always too deep and large,” Weisman wrote. Wilson’s Photographic Magazine, The New Photo-Miniature, and The Complete Self-Instructing Library agreed that chin dimples should be softened but not eliminated.
7. THE NECK, SHOULDERS, AND DÉCOLLETAGE
Smoothing out the décolletage. Image credit: The Complete Self-Instructing Library of Practical Photography // Public domain
The Complete Self-Instructing Library opined, “Many retouchers have made reputations, not only for themselves, but also for their employers, by the skillful manner in which they eliminate and build up a faulty neck and bust, giving a pleasing appearance to the subject.” What makes a neck or bust “faulty”? Lines or angles of any kind, it turns out.
The guiding aesthetic principle of The Complete Self-Instructing Library was “Remember, curved lines are always pleasing, while straight lines and angles are ugly.” Following this principle, any visible bones, tendons, or muscles must be either softened or eliminated, especially in portraits of women.
“In portraits of ladies in décolleté gowns the bust should be absolutely smooth. All protruding bones should be entirely removed,” instructed Wilson’s Photographic Magazine. According to a writer in The Photo-Miniature, “The usual custom is to obtain what may be termed a marble or alabaster polish to the shoulders,” but while he called this approach “a case of overdoing it,” he still asserted that “Where the bones or muscles of a neck show they may be almost entirely removed.”
"Subject in Décolleté," unretouched. Image credit: The Complete Self-Instructing Library of Practical Photography
The outline of the neck and shoulders also demanded attention. “[V]ery few necks are perfectly formed,” lamented The Complete Self-Instructing Library. Square necks required rounding, while thick necks must be thinned, particularly given that “a large neck” is a “sign of selfishness,” according to phrenology.
As for the shoulders, they should be “Give[n] a graceful curve,” with their outline “shaved a trifle, so as to give a soft blending or rounding away of the flesh.” Retouchers during the Victorian and Edwardian periods sometimes gave women’s shoulders such a downward slope that it looks like something is wrong with their skeletons.
Retouchers were also instructed about subduing cleavage, should any appear. “In some subjects inclining to plumpness the shadow between the breasts will be pronounced,” The New Photo-Miniature noted. “Properly the shadow should be softened so that the bust will appear neither flat nor swollen, its naturally beautiful curves being presented by a pleasing balance of light and shadow.”
8. WRISTS AND HANDS
Retouching of hand. Image credit: The Camera
“Frequently the curve of the wrist is quite angular,” The Complete Self-Instructing Library stated—a problem, as all angles are ugly—whereas “Sometimes the wrist is exceptionally large, and looks bad.” The retoucher could remedy these objectionable wrists by shaving the negative to create a slender wrist with a “graceful curve.” The “veins and lines on the hands” were to be “entirely eliminated” for young people, “especially women,” and to be softened considerably even for older patrons. Clara Weisman warned that “overdoing” retouching on the hands “makes them look weak, insipid and flabby.”Friday, October 16, 2009 at 18:51
Update (3 March): The Guardian reports....
In the case of Binyam Mohamed, you imply that the government has refused to disclose material related to his case because it would embarrass the government. Again, this is not true. As Mr Mohamed's legal representatives have themselves said, it is through this government's efforts that this material was provided to them for use in Mr Mohamed's defence. We have no objection to this material being disclosed publicly. But we believe that the decision to do so is for the US, because the material is from the US.
Far from being a threat, it was solicited [by the Foreign Office]. The Foreign Office asked for it in writing. They said: "Give us something in writing so that we can put it on the record." If you give us a letter explaining you are opposed to this, then we can provide that to the court.
This afternoon a British court issued an important and long-awaited ruling in the case of Binyam Mohamed, a British resident tortured in Pakistan and then detained at Guantanamo Bay. The court ordered the British Government to present documents, demanded by Mohamed's lawyers, that established not only the torture but also US and British complicity in the "enhanced interrogation". The British Government had maintained that, because the documents contained information which originated with their US counterpart, its revelation could jeopardise the US-UK intelligence relationship.In the last hour, I have heard British Foreign Secretary David Miliband maintain in two radio interviews that he would be happy to release the documents but that Washington has insisted they be withheld. Therefore, before getting into the details and implications of his argument --- for example, that any decision of a British court should be set aside because of the demands of the "intelligence" relationship, indeed that torture must not be investigated if there is a US-UK intelligence dimension --- let's re-state:Miliband is lying.Reprinted below is our entry from March 2009, after an earlier court decision reluctantly accepted the withholding of the documents. Then as now, Miliband trotted out the line that the decision was up to the Americans; unfortunately, his cover was blown by a State Department official who revealed that the Brown Government had asked Washington to make that statement to the court. That way, the material would still not see the light of day but the British Government could claim that it was not hiding evidence alleging London's own involvement in the torture of Mohamed.----David Miliband, the foreign secretary, is to be questioned by senior MPs over what he and his officials knew about the ill-treatment and secret interrogation of Binyam Mohamed, the former UK resident recently released from Guantánamo Bay. The move was announced yesterday by the Commons foreign affairs committee, which said it also intends to investigate other key issues where recent evidence has thrown up uncomfortable questions for ministers to answer. They are allegations of British complicity in torture in Pakistan, in the US practice of rendering terror suspects to countries where they risked being tortured, and in the transfer of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.The foreign secretary will not be able to refuse to testify before the Commons foreign affairs committee, which was set up to monitor the activities of his department.I thought of using the English euphemism "economical with the truth", but that doesn't capture the brazen statement of the Foreign Secretary yesterday regarding alleged British complicity with the torture of detainees.Having refused to appear before a Parliamentary committee invstigating the charges, Miliband and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith chose instead to write to The Observer of London. Here's a key extract from the letter:Which would merely be a case of passing the buck rather than lying shamelessly, were it not for this revelation by a former State Department official in The Observer two weeks earlier. He commented on the American letter which asked for the Mohamed evidence to be kept secret:Foreign Secretary, if you're going to lie while avoiding an inquiry into torture, could you at least give us enough respect not to do in the same newspaper which busted you in the first place?“I learned to cook for TV and got pretty good at it, but would never cook like that at home. It would kill people.” Photo: Melissa Hom
Penn Jillette is best known as half of the magic-and-comedy duo Penn & Teller. He’s also an author, actor, radio host, and co-creator of The Aristocrats. But he’s recently taken on a more unexpected role: weight-loss authority. In fact, he’s now the author of Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear. “I’ve written eight books, but this is the only book people asked me to write,” Jillette explains. “They said to |
despite its own departmental advice.
Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg announced on Thursday the exemption for the meshing trial from the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act will be extended to the end of October 2019.
Shark exemption: Nets ''trial'' extended for another two years. Credit:AP
In a statement, Mr Frydenberg said the extension was "due to the risk to human life from shark interactions", and to enable the continuation of research into shark mitigation measures.
"The trials will continue to assess the catch of target sharks and bycatch of the nets against SMART drumlines used in the trial area," he said, adding the NSW government would use further trials to test ways to minimise the capture and mortality of non-target animals.Join the Ranks! The CoolStuffInc.com Red Shirt Program is our way of letting our fans help us out at various conventions for both CoolStuffInc.com and our partners. Experts aren’t required! We are in the business of fun and hope you can join us at our upcoming shows. We are looking for help that is Personable Friendly Trustworthy What will I be doing? You’ll be assisting guests at the booth for both buying products and sometimes demoing games that we’ll teach you. Otherwise you’ll answer questions, assist with booth setup and breakdown, along with various duties that might pop up along the way. We will let you know what needs we have on a per-show basis when you apply. How does it work? There are two rotations at each show: morning and afternoon. You will earn points that you can redeem for CoolStuffInc.com merchandise or gift certificates. You will need to work a minimum of four (4) shifts. For each 10 points you earn you will receive $1 in value. Compensation Convention Badge
Free shirt for each day you work
330 Points for each of your first four (4) rotations
670 Points for each rotation after your first four (4)
Free lunch for those working both morning and afternoon rotation
One free board game (To be determined for each show) If accepted for the program, you will be responsible for your own travel and lodging accommodations. Sign-up today! Email us at redshirt@coolstuffinc.com, or fill out the form below with your information, and we’ll be in contact as soon as possible if we need your assistance at any of our upcoming shows. Sign UpThe Braves have acquired right-hander Luis Ayala from the Orioles in exchange for minor league lefty Chris Jones, the Orioles announced (on Twitter).
As Roch Kubatko of MASNsports notes (on Twitter), the move allows the team to call up outfielder Chris Dickerson and makes it easier to keep Rule 5 pick T.J. McFarland on the 25-man roster.
Ayala, 35, returned to baseball in 2011 after not pitching in the Major Leagues in 2010. Since his comeback, he's reinvented himself, compiling a 2.50 ERA, 6.2 K/0 and 2.3 BB/9 in 133 innings of work. While he's not a left-handed reliever, Ayala gives Braves' manager Fredi Gonzalez another late-inning option with Jonny Venters currently on the shelf.
The 24-year-old Jones has a 3.58 ERA, 8.3 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 in 356 2/3 minor league innings. He's yet to pitch higher than the Double-A level, where he's maintained his solid strikeout numbers but owns a 4.11 ERA. He will report to Double-A Bowie for the Orioles.China's remarkable success at infiltrating U.S. government, military and corporate networks in recent years shouldn't be seen as a sign that the country is gaining on the U.S. lead in cybertechnology expertise.
State-sponsored hacking groups in China are no more -- or less -- sophisticated than criminal and politically motivated cybercrime gangs elsewhere. The difference, experts say, is how the Chinese hackers target victims, their persistence and their ability to lie low and secretly maintain access to breached networks for long periods of time.
The U.S. Department of Defense earlier this month, in a departure from its usually thinly veiled innuendos, openly accused state-sponsored hacking groups in China of launching cyberattacks aimed at extracting information from the U.S. government, military and businesses.
Outside of the Pentagon, such allegations aren't new. Security experts and major corporations like Google and Microsoft have long maintained that hackers in China use cyberattacks to steal military, government and corporate secrets.
The Chinese government has denied that it coordinates hacking campaigns.
However, said Anup Ghosh, CEO and founder of security firm Invincea, "the acknowledgement by the Pentagon is a first step in publicly declaring the threat."
Though the tone of the government's report on Chinese cybercrime is ominous, the reality of cyber expertise in the country is more mundane, say security experts.
"It's not that the Chinese have some unbeatable way of breaking into a network," said John Pescatore, director of emerging security trends at the SANS Institute. "What is innovative is their targeting."
Pescatore said U.S. contractors and defense and high-tech companies that could be targets of Chinese espionage efforts should be less concerned about the origin of the attacks than about the need to shut down basic vulnerabilities and fix configuration errors in their corporate networks.
While China likely does have an arsenal of attack techniques and zero-day assault tools, it usually "uses the lowest level of tools and the easiest means to get in" to networks, said Dan McWhorter, managing director of threat intelligence at security firm Mandiant. If the Chinese hackers do come up against a sophisticated company, "they will up their game," he added.
Many of the hackers operating out of China have become adept at stealing legitimate corporate network credentials and then using them to log in as an employee, McWhorter said.
After they strike, the attackers are quick to erase all signs of a break-in, making it difficult for a company to even know that it was compromised. Therefore, the hackers are able to extract a lot of data without attracting suspicion, McWhorter said.
If a company does discover such a breach, IT managers must exercise great care not to tip off the hackers, he said.
Unlike the exploits of many European cybergangs, most of the malicious hacking activity originating in China focuses on industrial espionage and theft of trade secrets. McWhorter said Chinese hackers generally don't bother taking financial data and other personal information from individuals.
Jeremy Kirk of the IDG News Service contributed to this story.
This version of this story was originally published in Computerworld's print edition. It was adapted from an article that appeared earlier on Computerworld.com.OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Senate majority leaders on Thursday unveiled a $15 billion transportation revenue package that includes an incremental gas tax increase of 11.7 cents over the next three years.
Senate Transportation Committee chairman Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, introduced the proposal at a news conference joined by Sen. Joe Fain, R-Auburn, and Democratic Sens. Marko Liias and Steve Hobbs.
Before the announcement, King said he said was confident that the measure would pass the chamber with bipartisan support. He said he understood that some, including colleagues in his caucus, may oppose the idea of a gas tax increase but said, "we don't have any other way to do it, without changing our whole system."
"We don't have another alternative at this point but we also believe we can't wait any longer to address our maintenance and preservation issues and address congestion," he said.
Under the 16-year plan, the gas tax would increase in three stages: a 5-cent increase would take effect this summer, a 4.2-cent increase would follow next year, and then a final 2.5-cent increase would take effect the following year.
The plan also seeks to redirect sales-tax money from transportation projects to a transportation fund instead of the state's general fund.
The Senate proposal puts more than $8 billion toward road projects that include the North-South Freeway in Spokane and I-90 on Snoqualmie Pass, and puts money toward transit and local rail projects, as well as bike paths and pedestrian walkways. It also would allow Sound Transit to ask voters to fund potential expansions of its rail line.
The package has a total of 11 bills, and King said public hearings would likely start early next week. The plan does not incorporate elements of Gov. Jay Inslee's climate-based proposal, which would have charged polluters under a cap-and-trade program to pay for transportation projects.
Part of the plan also addresses another idea Inslee is considering, a low carbon fuel standard that would require cleaner fuels over time. If that standard is ultimately adopted, under the Senate plan all non-bondable revenues - like fee-based money going toward transit and bike paths - would instead be moved into the main transportation account.
Hobbs noted that there are issues where he and his Democratic colleagues have areas of disagreement over some issues, including the clean fuel standard issue, but that he thought they could work through them.
"The bottom line is this, this package moves Washington forward and will drive our economy for years to come," he said.
Even with the lingering areas of contention, King said he remained confident.
"I don't think the four of us would be standing here if we didn't feel confident that could muster enough votes," he said.
Lawmakers have struggled the past few years to reach agreement on a transportation plan, but Fain, the vice chair on the Senate Transportation Committee said the current plan is "the most positive movement that we've seen on transportation in this state for many, many years."
Rep. Judy Clibborn, a Democrat who is chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee, said she was encouraged by the proposal, but noted that the measure must pass the chamber before House and Senate negotiators can begin their work.
"I look forward to a robust discussion between our two chambers once that occurs," she said in a written statement.
In a statement issued after the announcement, Gov. Jay Inslee thanked lawmakers for their work, and said it was "a strong start."
However, he wrote that he had some questions concerning the conditions attached to the bill.
"Under the Senate plan, if Washington adopts a low carbon fuel standard to reduce emissions, we lose transit funding," he wrote. "As I've been saying, we must make progress on funding transportation and reducing carbon emissions this session."Editor's Note: Sportech Venues operates the state's 14 off-track-betting facilities. The number of facilities was incorrect in an earlier version of this post.
That suggestion has fresh currency among legislators grappling with the bill that would allow the casino-owning Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes to operate up to three “satellite” facilities in strategic locations around the state, chiefly along the Interstate 91 corridor north of Hartford.
“I think it would be a great site,” Sen. Tim Larson, the East Hartford Democrat who co-chairs the legislature’s Public Safety and Security Committee, said Thursday. “As much as we’re looking for international business out at Bradley — they’re doing some remodeling there … they have an isolated area that’s a natural traffic-generator — it would be suitable … Of course, it would be up to the people who run the airport and the people of Windsor Locks (where Bradley’s located).”
An airport casino would target a resort under construction in Springfield, Mass., the first of several out-of-state competitors expected to imperil jobs and revenues at the Connecticut gaming facilities.
Larson noted that the Mohegans, who own Mohegan Sun, announced this week that they’re pursuing a plan to develop a resort casino at Incheon International Airport in South Korea.
He also said he believes a casino development at Bradley should be “separate and distinct” from Bradley Teletheater, the off-track-betting facility adjacent to the airport that provides pari-mutuel wagering on simulcast horse racing, greyhound racing and jai alai.
“I’m in the airport business myself,” said Larson, a former East Hartford mayor who’s the executive director of the Tweed New Haven Regional Airport Authority.
A top airport official declined to discuss the casino-at-Bradley idea.
“We don’t have any comment,” Kevin Dillon, executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority, said. “We’re certainly waiting to see what the legislature does. If the legislation opens the door for a casino at the airport, we would consider it.”
As the owner and operator of Bradley as well as five other airports in the state, including Groton-New London, the authority has a mission to promote aviation “and serve as an economic driver,” Dillon said.
Though the tribes have yet to publicly identify any potential casino sites north of Hartford, several north central Connecticut towns have made their interest in a casino known. Windsor Locks would be among those willing to host one, according to Rep. Peggy Sayers, a Democrat whose district includes the town.
“I would certainly support a casino coming to the airport,” Sayers said. “It’s an excellent location. We’ve got hotels with 1,500 rooms at the airport, and a captive audience. My concern is protecting the 125 jobs at the teletheater. We’d have to find a way that it doesn’t impact OTB.”
Ted Taylor, president of Sportech Ventures, the New Haven-based company that operates the state’s 14 OTB facilities, voiced a similar concern.
“If a casino opens up five miles away from me in East Windsor, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the impact on my business,” he said.
While the teletheater might lack the space to accommodate all that a casino might entail, including table games and slot machines, it could be adapted to such a use, Taylor said.
“Nowhere is there a building where you can walk into a new casino,” he said. “Wherever you put it, you’re going to have to go through various design and planning stages."
In addition to Windsor Locks, East Windsor and East Hartford also have indicated they’d be willing to host a casino. In Windsor, the town council has adopted a resolution opposing gaming facilities. In Enfield, the town council tabled action this week on a similar resolution.
A spokesman for the Mohegan Tribe declined to identify locations that the tribes have under consideration.
“It’s far too early in the process to talk about actual sites,” Chuck Bunnell, the tribe’s chief of staff, said. “The focus is on the passage of the legislation and the protection of jobs and revenue for the state. Certainly, there are numerous very nice locations along the I-91 corridor that would not impact any neighborhoods.”
In East Windsor, a former Showcase Cinemas building and a former banquet facility have been mentioned as potential casino sites.
b.hallenbeck@theday.com
Twitter: @bjhallenbeck
This article was edited to correct the number of OTB facilities.The Case for an Independent Kurdistan
The state of Iraq as we once knew it is in shambles. ISIS continues to occupy vast swaths of Iraq, sectarian conflicts are on the rise, and the Maliki government cowers in Baghdad while the barbarians batter the gates. In response, the U.S. has sent a few hundred military advisors in an attempt to bolster the Iraqi military's morale, so far with little success. Elsewhere in the region, Israel and the Palestinians are in the midst of another conflict, Syria is still in a bloody civil war (with ISIS involved), and the Iranian nuclear talks have been extended with no real promise of a deal in the works. Simply put, the Middle East as a whole is extremely volatile. That is, except for Kurdistan.
The Kurds of northern Iraq are sitting pretty. They have not only successfully defended themselves from the ISIS threat, but they have taken control of the key city of Kirkuk, as well as some crucial oil fields. According to Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Kurdistan has taken in over 220,000 refugees fleeing Syria, and over two million others fleeing ISIS. In addition, what is left of the small Chaldean Christian minority of Iraq has been given protection by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Recently, the Kurds even helped some monks expelled from Iraq by ISIS. Ironically enough, it appears Kurdistan, which is technically not sovereign, is perhaps the most stable state in their neighborhood, apart from Israel, of course. Just as importantly, they are a regional leader and symbol of democracy and human rights in this volatile region. If there ever was a time for the U.S. to recognize an officially independent Kurdistan, it is now. Unfortunately, it appears that most world leaders are more concerned with trying to return to the status quo of a “united” Iraq as opposed to looking for new solutions to the problems of the ongoing civil war. But like it or not, Kurdistan has become a de facto independent state and has, for all intents and purposes, already separated itself from Iraq. Apart from the efforts made by the KRG and the Peshmerga (the Kurdish military) in response to the ISIS threat, the members of the Kurdish delegation to the Iraqi parliament have long been at odds with their Iraqi counterparts, as they are unwilling to subordinate their legitimate concerns to the desires of the corrupt Iraqi government. Even if ISIS was successfully suppressed, it is highly unlikely that the Kurds would retreat from Kirkuk and resume their role as an autonomous region of Iraq, nor should they be expected to. The West, in particular, is missing out on establishing a major strategic ally in the Middle East by not exploring the idea of a fully independent Kurdistan. First and foremost, Kurdistan is a remarkably stable example of democracy in a region fraught with conflict. Second, the KRG supported the U.S. during the Iraqi invasion and has prevented any American deaths on Kurdish soil ever since. In fact, they, and the Kurdish population, are consistently pro-U.S. Third, economically speaking, the Kurds have extensive oil reserves and are eager to explore foreign investment in several markets. Fourth, in contrast to the rest of the Middle East -- barring Israel -- the Kurds put a special emphasis on encouraging women to participate in the political sphere. In fact, women actively serve side by side with their male counterparts in the Peshmerga, engaging in the same rigorous training as their male counterparts. Fifth, strategically speaking, Kurdistan lies in a crucial area between Iraq, Iran, and Turkey. A bastion of stability in this area of the world would undoubtedly prove useful to the West, and the world as a whole, in regard to international relations and future diplomatic efforts. Sixth, Kurdish independence has already been recognized by their regional neighbors, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Lastly, it should be noted that the Kurds have proven they are ready for independence. The KRG has acted as a more than responsible leader in an area on the brink of total chaos. They have gained the respect of their peers and have defended not only their own people, but also those of different races, nationalities, and religions. Iraq needs a strong neighbor to help it rebuild after the ashes of the ISIS incursion have been cleared, and Kurdistan is poised to be just that. The U.S., Israel, and the West all need an ally that can serve as a viable example of successful Middle Eastern democracy. Put simply, a fully independent Kurdistan is good for the Kurds, good for the Middle East, and good for the world as a whole. Russ Read is a Legislative Associate at the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET)shWolf Pack Sign Defenseman Jared Nightingale to PTO
Wolf Pack general manager Jim Schoenfeld announced today that the Wolf Pack has signed defenseman Jared Nightingale to a Professional Tryout (PTO) agreement.
Nightingale, a ninth-year man out of Michigan State University, is highly familiar with the Wolf Pack jersey, as he played parts of three seasons, 2007-08 through 2009-10, with the Pack and spent the entire 2010-11 and 2011-12 campaigns with the Connecticut Whale. All told, Nightingale has played in 240 games for the Wolf Pack/Whale, tenth all-time in franchise history, and he ranks fifth on the all-time franchise penalty-minute list, with 595. The 32-year-old, 6-3, 207-pound Jackson, MI native also totaled eight goals and 26 assists for 34 points as a member of the Wolf Pack/Whale.
Nightingale has played in one game this season for the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye, after logging 67 AHL games last year with the Rockford IceHogs. He notched one goal and three assists for four points in those 67 contests in 2013-14, along with a team-leading 114 penalty minutes.
Nightingale has skated in 387 AHL games in his career, with the Wolf Pack/Whale, IceHogs, Syracuse Crunch, Chicago Wolves, Iowa Stars and Springfield Falcons, amassing 14 goals and 35 assists for 49 points, plus 854 PIM. In 114 ECHL contests with the Walleye, Idaho Steelheads and Charlotte Checkers, Nightingale has totaled four goals and 23 assists for 27 points, along with 376 PIM.
The Wolf Pack are next in action tomorrow night, Friday, October 24, hosting the Albany Devils at the XL Center in a 7:00 PM game. Once again this season every Friday night home game features $1 hot dogs and $2 beers through the start of the second period. Tickets for all 2014-15 Wolf Pack home games are now on sale at the XL Center ticket office, on-line at www.hartfordwolfpack.com and by phone at (877) 522-8499. Wolf Pack tickets start as low as $12 for youth 12 years old or younger.
To speak with a Wolf Pack representative about season or group tickets, or any of the Wolf Pack’s many ticketing options, call (855) 762-6451, or click here to request more info.In the face of Miles Teller on this poster for Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four, I read only confusion. What we have is a picture of a person who is not sure what he’s doing here or what precise expression to wear while doing it. This is face-weather you can’t describe without reaching for nonsensical combinations of adverbs and adjectives: quizzically resolute? Steadfastly, uh, pensive? If it were a piece of punctuation, this face would be a question mark trying to pose as an exclamation point. It’s the spinning-beach-ball cursor of faces.
In Fantastic Four, Teller plays science genius Reed Richards, who in most versions of the Fantastic Four’s origin story is the architect of the experiment gone awry that turns him and three of his friends into the FF. In Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s The Fantastic Four No. 1, from 1961, the accident involves some cosmic rays and an experimental rocket ship launched hastily, so as to beat “the Commies” into space; in Trank’s movie it’s teleportation and the Negative Zone.
In Fantastic Four No. 1, practically the first thing the FF do after they stagger from the wreckage of their fateful mission is argue about whose fault the accident was. Ben Grimm — the rocket’s pilot and Reed’s old college buddy — becomes The Thing, a super-strong golem made from orange rock briquettes, and tries to hit Reed with a tree trunk, growling, “I’ll prove to you that you love the wrong man, Susan!”
The decision they make on the very next page — to use their newfound abilities to help mankind — essentially comes out of nowhere and plays almost like a sublimation of the rage and infighting and Cronenbergian body horror depicted in the preceding panels. In a sense, Trank’s great debut film, Chronicle, is a version of this story where that moment when someone says, Guys, maybe we should stop being assholes, never happens, and I’m genuinely curious to see what the person who made that film does with this one. I think there’s a chance this movie will work, that it’ll redefine the Fantastic Four for a new generation of fans, and that Teller’s quizzically resolute Reed Richards will end up supplanting the old Reed Richards in the popular consciousness as thoroughly as Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury has overwritten this guy.
I could be wrong about this. But just in case, let us now salute the old Reed Richards before he slides into eclipse.
And I do mean “old.” Reed Richards is probably supposed to be about Teller’s age — 28 — in that first Fantastic Four story, but it’s an old, 1961-ish 28, not a Vine-star 28. He’s gray-templed, a smoker of pipes, and a wearer of suits. Like Jack Cole’s Plastic Man, who preceded the FF into print by 20 years, Reed can reshape and elongate his body at will, but this is basically the only way Reed is like Plastic Man. Plastic Man is part of a line of goofball trickster-heroes that runs unbroken from the Cheshire Cat to Deadpool, whereas no matter what form Reed’s pliable body assumes, the shape he returns to is, colloquially speaking, a square.
Some comic-book heroes are infinitely repurposable, modern archetypes that continue to make sense even as their context evolves. Batman (haunted vigilante passing childhood trauma along to the urban-criminal class) is a good example; Iron Man (rule-bending playboy industrialist and repentant war profiteer) is another. In 1963, Tony Stark was Howard Hughes; in 2015, he’s Elon Musk with repulsor beams. Both Reed and Tony are constructs representing Cold War–vintage ideas of manhood, but Reed feels pinned to a context in a way that Tony doesn’t.
While Reed’s very first appearance on the comics page involves a rash error in judgment — stealing the rocket — he’s still identifiably the grown-up in the room, sober and serious, addressing Johnny Storm (the future Human Torch) as “lad.” There’s also a fatherly aspect to Reed’s dynamic with Johnny’s sister Sue, a.k.a. the Invisible Woman (I know, right?). She’s nominally his love interest and eventually they marry and have children, but in those early FF stories, Sue’s forever in a girlish huff and Reed’s a distracted, distant authority figure whose attention she craves.
Marvel
Something about the idea of a “young Reed Richards” therefore voids an essential aspect of the character in the same way, say, “young Gandalf” would. The most successful attempt to recast Reed as a young person is probably the version from Marvel’s Ultimate Fantastic Four, conceived in 2004 by the writers Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar; in the ensuing years, Ultimate Reed became a disfigured mad-scientist type not unlike the FF’s perennial nemesis, Dr. Doom. Remove Reed’s maturity and all the other certainties come into question. No wonder Teller looks befuddled. He’s trying to portray a contradiction in terms.
♦♦♦
At some point in Jonathan Hickman’s miniseries Dark Reign: Fantastic Four, Reed Richards writes “IDEA #101: SOLVE EVERYTHING” on the wall of his Thinking Room.
I am jealous of Reed Richards. I am jealous of his Thinking Room, which appears to have floor-to-ceiling tablet-screen walls on which to write Beautiful Mind–ish equations. I am jealous of his having had 100-plus ideas. But I also relate to Reed. Reed has a wife and a family, but in order to see to their safety and security, he has to absent himself from their lives and spend long periods of time in the Thinking Room. As a professional writer, I relate very strongly to all of this.
Superheroes tend to be edgy loners, or members of surrogate families made up of other edgy loners. Batman. Wolverine. Cyclops from the X-Men, who tried for years to settle down with versions of the same woman and start a family, only to have that domestic idyll ripped away over and over. Spider-Man’s 1987 marriage to Mary Jane Watson was erased from continuity 10 years later by editorial decree, in the name of “story potential.” Being Daredevil’s girlfriend is a death sentence, like being the drummer in Spinal Tap. Reed Richards, who married Susan Storm in 1965’s Fantastic Four Annual Vol. 1 No. 3, is practically the only major superhero who’s been successfully and un-tragically married for the bulk of his publication history.
And the important thing about Reed as a husband is that he kind of sucks at it.
He’s a pretty good dad to his two weird kids, reality-altering Franklin and superintelligent Valeria. But if you throw a dart at 50 years’ worth of FF comics, chances are you’ll hit a panel in which Reed is depicted being paternalistically overprotective of Sue and/or oblivious to her actual needs, while simultaneously demanding endless amounts of patience and space in order to go off and SOLVE EVERYTHING. For all of his brilliance, he’s often completely in the dark about what’s going on with the people closest to him. He’s one of the smartest men in the Marvel Universe and one of the most emotionally obtuse.
All of this was lost on me as a kid, as I imagine it’s lost on kids in general. For decades, Fantastic Four has been a comic book largely about grown-ups reckoning with grown-up problems, one whose focus invariably returns to Reed, whose responsibilities as scientist and superhero are often in direct conflict with his responsibilities as husband and father. Throughout those same decades, it’s rarely been one of Marvel’s biggest-selling books, no matter how many hot creators the company throws at it. Those two things can’t be coincidental. Lee was almost 40 when Fantastic Four No. 1 was published; Kirby, now widely presumed to have done much of the actual creating on comics Lee is said to have created, was 44 and a World War II veteran. The concerns of men of a certain age are written in Reed’s DNA.
♦♦♦
I became a fan of the Fantastic Four and specifically of Reed Richards when I was 32, reading those Dark Reign issues for the first time. My wife was pregnant with our daughter and I was trying — in vain, it turned out — to finish writing a book before the baby came. It would be great to be able to tell you that Reed Richards inspired me to keep going even when all seemed lost, but this isn’t that kind of story. I never finished the book. But during those months when I was trying, I returned again and again to that “SOLVE EVERYTHING” panel and imagined myself as the Reed Richards of my own family, unshaven in the lab, too smart not to realize my situation was hopeless and too desperate not to keep going.
2015 is a weird time to be a Fantastic Four fan. Earlier this year, Marvel announced that the monthly Fantastic Four comic would be canceled as of Issue No. 645, which came out in April. This fall, Marvel will roll out more than 50 new or retooled titles as part of an initiative dubbed “All-New All-Different Marvel”; although Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm will appear in Guardians of the Galaxy and Uncanny Inhumans, respectively, the announced lineup doesn’t currently include a Fantastic Four–branded title. The conspiracy theory is that Marvel’s corporate overlords — possibly Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter, who also owns an enormous stake in the Walt Disney Company — would rather erase Marvel’s First Family from history than help promote a franchise controlled by 20th Century Fox.
Last fall, Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn referred to the cancellation of the FF comic as a “fully independent decision” on Marvel’s part. The conspiracy theories began, in part, because the narrative they propose is poetically plausible. Marvel begins as a comic-book company and evolves into a multibillon-dollar movie studio and intellectual-property titan to which comics and the sentimental attachments of comic-book readers are of circumstantial importance; having played their role in that evolution, the Fantastic Four are symbolically discarded.
Marvel continues to insist this isn’t the case, that reports of the FF’s permanent excision from the canon have been greatly exaggerated. But the sense of an ending still pervades Hickman and artist Esad Ribic’s event series Secret Wars. After Dark Reign: Fantastic Four was published in 2009, Hickman took over as writer of the monthly Fantastic Four series. His run on the title was a dense prog-sci-fi epic, as solemn and sweet as a Yes ballad with an eight-minute modular-synth solo in the middle. It was also thick with apocalyptic foreshadowing that paid off in Hickman’s subsequent work on Avengers and especially The New Avengers, in which Reed Richards and a star-chamber of A-list heroes worked in secret to prevent the destruction of Marvel’s various fictional universes by a race of extradimensional conquerors called the Beyonders.
Secret Wars is about what happens after they fail. In the first issue, time runs out and reality as Marvel’s characters have known it is wiped away. The second issue takes place on Battleworld, a patchwork planet cobbled together from scraps of leftover Marvel continuity by Dr. Doom, who’s become God Doom after staring down the Beyonders as the universe died. Secret Wars and its countless tie-ins are superhero comics at their most mercenary and their most sentimental; each realm of Battleworld takes its cues from a different fragment of Marvel’s past, including many other successful crossover events. There’s a world where it’s always Inferno, one where it’s always Days of Future Past, where it’s always the Age of Ultron. It’s simultaneously pure fan service and a sprawling metacritique of the ad hoc nature of even the most seemingly cohesive fictional world, with Doom in the role of editor-in-chief, policing the canon with an iron fist.
But without quite announcing itself as such, Secret Wars is also the last chapter of a story that began in 1961, with Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny climbing into a rocket. I don’t believe for a minute that we won’t see these characters together again — the only certainty in comics is impermanence, and every erasure is the prelude to a return, whether the Trank movie bombs or breaks records. But Hickman’s story feels final in a way that these things seldom do. All is lost. Nothing will ever be the same. And everything’s going to be fine.
MarvelI’m just a crafter and tea guzzler, whereas my husband is the smart software engineer guy. First, he asked for a Java Duke, which I quickly made (though it needs a revision). He then requested a Go Gopher to punt around the office. When I was telling some friends that I crocheted a Duke, they requested a gopher as well! Popular little rodent, isn’t he?
Even if you aren’t familiar with Go, their Go Gopher mascot is pretty cute. Making a gopher was entertaining as I’ve been watching Great Horned Owl nest cams and often they are eating golf course “pocket gophers”, so now I got amigurumi gophers that my Tea Owl amigurumis can peck at.
The pattern for Gopher Amigurumi is actually pretty straight forward, with shaping in the back to create an appealing bean shape. It was a refreshing break to work on a pattern that is easy going since the last few amigurumi I’ve designed have been on the complex side. I have also come to a mental block on the current, more complex, pattern I’ve been working on, so it was really cool to bang out a fun pattern.
Gopher Amigurumi measures 4.5″ tall, 2.5″ wide if made with worsted weight yarn. I’d say my Gopher Amigurumi crochet pattern is a fun beginner project with little sewing on parts. If you mess up placement of the eyes or limbs, that is okay as looking silly is totally what this gopher likes to be! These gophers crochet up quick as well. After a weekend, I had a three line up of derpy looking gophers on my desk and a husband anxious to take one to work.
To get this PDF format crochet pattern, purchase directly via Ravelry by clicking which will take you through Paypal. You do not need a Ravelry account to purchase, though advisable as your pattern purchases are stored there forever.
Check out the Gopher Amigurumi Ravelry page for more information!
Don’t crochet, but want a Gopher? Check out my Amigurumi Commissions page and request to get one made!
(The Go Gopher mascot design is by Renee French)We’re using apps on our smartphones and tablets much more to look things up now, according to a new report out from eMarketer. That means a serious drop in ad revenue for many of the major search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo.
According to the report, Google mobile ads saw a dramatic 17 percent drop in revenue from 2012. The search giant owned 82.8 percent of the $2.24 billion search market just two years ago. While the U.S. mobile ad market brought in a whopping $17.73 billion this year, mobile search spending jumped to more than half of that at $9.02 billion — but Google’s piece of that pie dropped to just 65.7 percent.
Basically, we’re on our smartphones a lot more when looking things up than we are on our desktops. And we’re fragmented in the way we search now as well. Google is all search for everything but can’t necessarily tell us in a click the best restaurant or what the price is on a coveted item. We use niche travel apps such as Kayak to look up travel info, Trulia to search for homes and local business search company Yelp to look up local businesses.
A Nielsen consumer report out earlier this year confirms the shift to mobile. We’re spending an average of 34 hours using the Internet on our mobile phones every month compared to 27 hours using the Internet on our desktop.
According to the eMarketer report, we’re really big on local search. Yelp is leading the pack here in terms of ad-revenue growth. Predictions for the local business search company are at 136 percent, or $119 million in mobile ad revenue this year. While that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the spend for Google, Yahoo or Bing, it’s a telling shift in consumer behavior. Revenues are expected to triple by 2016 for Yelp. Meanwhile, Google revenue is expected to drop to 64.2 percent of the overall market by then.
No word yet on what the “other” category is in the report. Also note that this report does not mean Google is losing revenue. On the contrary, it’s still growing — it’s just capturing less of the overall market than it was before. As mentioned above, the total mobile ad spend has jumped by nearly $7 billion in the last two years. That still gives Google close to $6 |
and the goblin lunged at him again, he moved to the left this time and the sword nicked his arm. Still holding the arrow he jabbed it into the goblins left eye. The goblin made a loud shriek and reached for the arrow, the goblins arms trembling. Bastian reached up grabbing one of the beams on the ceiling, he lifted his self up and kicked the goblin in the face forcing the arrow through the eye and out through the back of the goblins head. The impact threw the goblin back and over the railing of the tower falling fifteen feet to the ground below. The eyeball laid only a few feet away from him.
Bastian was tired, bloody, and afraid, but there was no time to rest. He heard the sound of a goblin war-horn.
Looking out from where it came from he saw the source. Another horde of goblins was approaching fast. A hundred more at least, heavy armored with steel plates they had stolen from the dead of the common folk army. In addition, three bears approached. A few of the goblins were riding in saddle on top of them. Bastian reached for an arrow, his quiver was empty. He grabbed the wooden railing and jumped down from the tower landing on his feet with a roll. When he raised his head he saw the goblins screaming and running away green-faced as they made their way back out through the city gates.
Bastian heard the sounds of horses galloping. When he turned to find that, the Elvish Century Elves had arrived from the Citadel. They galloped through the goblins running them over and shooting arrows at them. Slicing at them with their swords was incredibly difficult from horseback, which they had learned long ago. The leader of the Century Elves was Gristle, the greatest fighter in all of Japrite. Long silver hair that came down to his elbows, and armor so shiny it could almost be used to blind his enemies.
“Run them down,” Gristle said, signaling his men. Twelve riders kicked their horses and took off after the retreating goblins. Arrows flew through the air sticking goblins as they cried in fear. Even the bears turned around retreating like scared puppies throwing their masters off their backs. One of the goblins foot was caught in the saddle and was being dragged through the field. The other two bears were trying to run away so quickly that they were taking out whatever goblins were in its path. Bastian stood there watching as the Century Elves did more in thirty seconds than the elvish guards did all year.
The twelve riders chasing the goblins away had returned.
“How many of ours were killed?” Gristle said in a sympathetic tone.
“Four sir” Another century men said stepping out through the gate.
“And a merchant... Human, from... Warren”
Very well, clean all this up” Gristle commanded as he turned his horse and rode back to the Citadel.A Bermuda-registered oil company owned by the ruling family of Dubai and legally represented by the brother of Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi was handed oil exploration rights by the Tunisian government in a move described as "totally illegal" by a local anti-corruption watchdog.
Documents relating to the deal were published in a report this week by I WATCH detailing links between Salaheddine Caid Essebsi and the Maktoum ruling family of the Dubai emirate, hidden through shell companies registered in the Atlantic island tax haven.
I WATCH, which was set up in the aftermath of Tunisia's 2011 revolution, said the deal appeared to breach laws forbidding exploration rights being granted to companies registered in countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Tunisia.
It also called for a "full investigation" into the government's approval in February of a share deal that allowed Dubai-owned Dragon Oil to inherit an off-shore oil exploration license.
The sale of shares belonging to CEE Tunisia Bargou Limited to Dragon Oil (Bargou Tunisia) Limited was authorised by Hela Cheikhrouhou, Tunisia's minister of industry, energy and mining, despite article 34.5 of the Tunisian hydrocarbon code, which prohibits the sale of interests to a company registered in a country that does not have diplomatic relations with Tunisia.
Tunisian law explicitly forbids the granting of oil permits to companies that are registered in countries that Tunisian does not have diplomatic relations with (of which Bermuda is one)
Tunisia also lists Bermuda, described as the "world's worst corporate tax haven" by aid charity Oxfam in 2016, among a list of territories with which financial transactions are not recognised under a law passed in 2014.
I WATCH spokesperson Cherif El Kadhi told Middle East Eye that "the action of the minister and the government to approve this transaction and accept a Bermuda-registered company is totally illegal".
This is totally illegal - Cherif El Kadhi, I WATCH
During their investigation, I WATCH discovered that the legal representative of Dragon Oil's Tunisian branch is Salaheddine Caid Essebsi, brother of the Tunisian president, and uncovered links to Dubai's ruling Al-Maktoum family.
Salaheddine Caid Essebsi, sibling of the current Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, is the legal representative of Dragon Oil
Dragon Oil (Bargou Tunisia) Limited, of which Essebsi is the legal representative, is registered in Bermuda and is a subsidiary of Dragon Oil (holdings) Limited.
This, in turn, is owned by Dragon Oil plc, of which Hamdan bin Rashid al-Maktoum, deputy ruler of Dubai and minister of finance for the UAE, is chairman of the board of directors. He is also chairman of the board of directors for the Emirates National Oil Company, of which Dragon Oil is a subsidiary.
This is held by the Investment Corporation of Dubai, of which Hamdan and his brother, Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the vice-president and prime minister of the UAE, are also vice-chairman and chairman of the corporation, respectively.
Dragon Oil (Bargou Tunisia) Limited is registered in the Bermuda Companies Register (I WATCH)
Allegations of UAE involvement in political corruption in Tunisia are not new, and the relationship between the UAE and Beji Caid Essebsi have previously sparked controversy. In 2014, the UAE gifted Essebsi two bullet-proof armoured cars at a time when he was the leader of the opposition, leading to accusations of political corruption owing to Tunisia's stringent rules on the foreign funding of political parties.
A year later, a row broke out after it emerged that the UAE attempted to buy political influence from Essebsi himself, allegedly trying to persuade Essebsi to "follow the Egyptian model" after the removal of the then president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, in a military coup.
In 2017, the former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki made reference to these allegations, claiming that the forces who worked on the Egyptian coup had attempted to do the same in Tunisia.
On Wednesday, Tunisia's parliament approved a controversial law granting amnesty to officials accused of corruption during the rule of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia's former president who was toppled in the 2011 revolution. The bill was first proposed in 2015 by President Essebsi of the Nidaa Tounes party, who insisted that Tunisia must focus on future development rather than previous crimes.
This is in stark contrast to the declared objectives of the Tunisian government, headed by Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, who declared a "war on corruption" that saw several high-profile businessmen arrested over corruption allegations.
Max Gallien, a North Africa researcher at the London School of Economics, told MEE that this case uncovered by I WATCH is "an important reminder".
"We need to take a critical and broader view at the current government's 'war on corruption'. While arrests always receive public attention, important processes like the fate of the confiscated assets or the creation of new contracts can easily pass under the radar of the mainstream press," said Gallien.
I WATCH told MEE that it demanded a full investigation into the findings of their report, as there are "questions that must be answered".
"They [the government] claim that they are fighting a war on corruption, yet at the same time they allow the reconciliation bill to pass - granting amnesty to corrupt officials - while there are suspicions of corruption hanging over the president, his family and some ministers in government over these links to the UAE. It doesn't make any sense."
'Post-revolution kleptocrats associated to foreign companies are perpetuating Ben Ali's cronyism' - Mohamed Dhia Hammami, investigative journalist
Mohamed Dhia Hammami, an investigative journalist who has worked on corruption issues in Tunisia, added that the report's findings "give an insight about how post-revolution kleptocrats associated to foreign companies are perpetuating Ben Ali's cronyism".
MEE contacted Salaheddine Caid Essebsi, the Tunisian government and Dragon Oil for comment but had not received any responses prior to publication.
This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French edition.Game Title: Superdimension Neptune vs Sega Hard Girls
Developer: Compile Heart, Sega, Idea Factory International
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 1.5 GB
NA Availability: Retail | Digital Download
EU Availability: Retail | Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes
Hyperdimension Neptunia has always been known as a series to parody other series. The first two games in the main series parody the home console wars (PS3 vs Xbox 360 vs Wii) and the handheld console wars (PSP vs DS). Since then, everything in the series has parodied everything about gaming, from characters based on gaming companies to monsters parodying known RPG enemies.
One thing that hasn’t been done yet, is the series actually crossing over with another franchise. It’s been known that many of the Neptunia characters are based on Sega consoles, and Sega took note of that. Working with the developers, they’ve made a cross-over between Neptunia and the animated series known as Sega Hard Girls (Short for Sega Hardware Girls).
So, here is my early review of Superdimension Neptune vs Sega Hard Girls!
Story
Superdimension takes place in a post-apocalyptic world that has been reduced to a dead wasteland. A traveler known as IF seeks out a famous library known to hold records of the entirety of history in the hopes of finding out why the world is a wasteland. Upon arriving, she is drawn into an adventure across time as segments of history begin to disappear.
The plot of this game is more in-depth and less focused on comedy alone like the other spin-offs do. It does a fair amount to give background for eras based on Sega consoles as well as incorporating the Sega Hard Girls into the Neptunia series in a way that makes sense for them to be there and involved with the CPUs.
Gameplay
Like the main series, Superdimension is a turn-based RPG with additional unit management and platforming elements thrown into the mix. The game plays out very much like the Re;Birth games do on the PS Vita with world map exploration, quests, and story events pushing dungeon availability forward. If you’ve played the Re;Birth games, you have a very good idea of how you’ll be playing this game.
Main exploration has a new feature in the form of terrain you can interact with. New dungeons incorporate these and many returning dungeons have expanded sections. You can now climb walls, squeeze through crawlspaces, dash to make longer jumps, and climb on ropes to reach your objective areas. This is also encouraged with the inclusion of medals and baseballs you can pick up in each dungeon, normally associated with these interaction areas.
Although you can freely explore different eras through the world map, story progression is quest-based. Each time you want to do a side-quest or see the next story segment, you have to accept it as a quest from the library. Once a story quest is accepted, it will trigger an event in the appropriate era, and you can go into the dungeons and see those events play out.
The way this works is refreshing, but it also has a bad side to it. One thing I like is that there isn’t a set order for the story. You have four different time eras you can visit, and you can progress those story events in any order you want. If you want to do the Dreamcast era before the Mega Drive era, you can do that and it will not have any consequences. This gets more strategic later in the game when quests you take will affect the strength of the final boss. But it gives you a lot of freedom you don’t normally get from JRPGs.
The bad is that it feels repetitive. Some story quests are literally a cutscene and nothing else so you’re going through Accept a quest, watch a scene, backtrack to report quest. Accept next quest. Repeat process. This really starts to feel repetitive with all the backtracking you have to do with constantly leaving eras just to activate the next story event.
Combat looks similar but it has also significantly changed. You no longer set up combos with learned skills. You now have an Action Gauge on the left that fills when you move, use an item, attack, or use a skill. You have a lot of freedom in this. In previous games, you went through an attack combo on a single enemy and the turn was over. In this game, you could use a few attacks to knock out one enemy, and use the remainder of your gauge to move to a different part of the arena and start taking out another.
This is also changed with Overdrive, Gems, and the Fever Time systems. Overdrive is like a charged attack. If you hold the attack button, you can charge to do a finishing combo at any given time so you don’t have to use a skill to finish off an enemy. I personally prefer using most of my action gauge with normal attacks and ending with a charged attack.
Gems are floating objects that will randomly appear during battle. Jumping into these could do a lot of things, from healing you to regenerating SP needed for skills. There’s also a Gem for Fever Time, which builds up as you fight. Fever Time will give you extra turns before your enemy can go, increases all of your party’s stats, and give you access to EXE Skills, exclusive to Fever Time and only use part of the Fever Gauge instead of using SP.
The final addition is the use of Classes. Like other RPGs, each character can change classes, which affects what skills they learn. Characters level up for stats, but classes level up to give you skills, both offensive like SP skills and support skills that can affect battle, such as increasing the amount of EXP you get from combat or changing how quickly the Fever gauge fills up. You can keep support skills you’ve learned in other classes, so it’s worth the grind to be able to get those skills for the optimal setup.
This all comes together pretty well, giving the game a lot of customization, much of which is needed for the game’s boss fights. Normal battles don’t increase difficulty terribly quickly, but when bosses show up, get ready to give everything you’ve got. Every major boss fight is a struggle unless you’ve done a lot of grinding and have your EXE skills and Fever Time set up before the battle starts. It’s certainly not an easy game without all of those and a good formation setup.
As far as length is concerned, don’t expect to spend the same amount of time in this as you would in the Re;Birth games, but it does have a good amount to it. Your first run through for the story-based ending should take you around 20-25 hours. If you know exactly what you’re doing, though, you could probably clear it in a little less than 20 hours. Then you’ve got New Game Plus for the two alternate endings, quests you didn’t do before, and the NG+ exclusive secret boss fight to test your skills.
Controls
Controlling the game is pretty simple and there isn’t a lot different between this and previous games of the series. As always, the game is compatible with the PlayStation TV but there are no special controls, unless you consider hitting L1 as an alternative to the touch screen for skipping battle animations as a special control at this point.
The Left Analog Stick is used to move around and the Right Analog is for the camera. D-Pad can be used in menus, but also for zooming in and out when in the field or in combat.
Almost every other button is used in combat, though. The R trigger is used for escaping from battle or choosing to end your turn after you’ve done actions. X is used for attacks, Square for using items, Triangle for skills, and Circle for jumping. It’s pretty self-explanatory as all of those combat controls have their button displayed in the battle HUD.
Presentation
Visually, this game is a step up from previous games. There is a lot more detail and higher quality cell-shading done to make the game look prettier. There’s a lot of physics done as well, showing character hair and costumes flowing in the wind, especially when rope-climbing and the shadows are very accurate.
This doesn’t come without cost, though. There are many areas that have frame drops. You can watch the video review to get an idea of this, but it’s more or less like the frame drops seen in Re;Birth 2. It’s not a huge deal since it doesn’t happen terribly often, but something to consider since a few of the drops are relatively significant.Twelve people were shot over 12 hours in Chicago on Thursday, including five people wounded on a block in the Austin neighborhood where six people had been shot last weekend, according to police.
There was also an exchange of gunfire between a Chicago police officer and a suspect at a park on the Near South Side on Thursday night that killed the man and wounded the cop in the leg. The officer was expected to survive. Officers on bike patrol confronted the man in the Prairie District neighborhood after he was seen "acting erratically" at the park, police said.
In the Austin shooting, two women and three men were standing on the sidewalk in the first block of South Leamington Avenue around 9:30 p.m. when someone in a gray sedan fired shots, police said.
A 23-year-old man was shot in the ankle, and a 23-year-old woman was shot in the left foot. Both were taken to Stroger Hospital, police said.
A 24-year-old man was shot in both ankles and the forearm, and a 22-year-old man was grazed in both knees, police said. Both were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital. A 20-year-old woman went to Loretto Hospital with a graze wound to her right arm. The conditions of all five people were stabilized, police said.
Six people were shot on the same block over the weekend in three separate attacks.
About 9:15 p.m. Thursday on the South Side, a 29-year-old man was shot and killed in the South Shore neighborhood, police said. He was walking on the sidewalk in the 6700 block of South Chappel Avenue when someone walked up and fired, hitting him in the chest.
He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital and pronounced dead. He was identified Monday as Andre Wells, 29, of the 4400 block of North Magnolia Avenue, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. He died from a gunshot wound to the left arm, the office determined following an autopsy.
In other shootings:
• About 10:15 p.m., two people were shot in the West Elsdon neighborhood on the Southwest Side. A 20-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman were on the sidewalk in the 5400 block of South Kostner Avenue when they were hit by gunfire. The man had been shot in shot in both legs and the woman was grazed in the right thigh. They went to MacNeal Hospital, where their conditions were stabilized.
Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune A pedestrian crosses the street while members of the Chicago Police Department secure the scene of a double shooting on the 5400 block of South Kostner Avenue on July 22, 2016, in Chicago. A pedestrian crosses the street while members of the Chicago Police Department secure the scene of a double shooting on the 5400 block of South Kostner Avenue on July 22, 2016, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune) (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
• At 9:10 p.m., a 22-year-old man was shot in the back in the Oakland neighborhood on the South Side, police said. He was in the 3600 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue when someone shot him in the back. He went to Northwestern Memorial Hospital and his condition was stabilized.
• At 6:20 p.m., a 20-year-old man was shot in the 3900 block of South Rockwell Avenue in the Brighton Park neighborhood. He was shot in the side of the body by someone on foot, police said. The man was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and his condition was stabilized.
• At 4:30 p.m., a 24-year-old woman was grazed by a bullet in East Garfield Park. She was sitting in front of a residence in the 700 block of North Harding Avenue when someone fired shots from a nearby vehicle. She went to Presence Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center with a graze wound to the hand. She was listed in good condition.
• A 28-year-old man was critically wounded in a West Side shooting about 11:30 a.m. in Austin. Officers responded to a call of a person shot in the 1100 block of North Lockwood Avenue and found a man with multiple gunshot wounds lying in a parkway, police said. Witnesses said a vehicle pulled up, a gunman exited and fired shots. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition, police said.A controversial leader of a U.S. Muslim group resigned from a Virginia state board hours after Gov. Tim Kaine learned during a radio call-in show about incendiary comments the appointee made about Israel, Islam and U.S. foreign policy.
Dr. Esam Omeish, who is a top surgeon at a Washington, D.C., area hospital, also is seen in videos found on YouTube.com that show him advocating "the jihad way," decrying the Israeli invasion last year of Lebanon, and calling for President Bush's impeachment.
In a statement Thursday afternoon, Kaine said he had accepted Omeish's resignation from the state Commission on Immigration, which only met for the first time on Tuesday.
"Dr. Omeish is a respected physician and community leader, yet I have been made aware of certain statements he4 has made which concern me," Kaine said. "Dr. Omeish indicated that he did not want this controversy to distract from the important work of the Commission."
Omeish, who president of the Muslim American Society,.appears in one video of an Aug. 12, 2006, rally in Washington near the White House where he denounces Israel's invasion of Lebanon and the "Israeli war machine." He also accused Israel of genocide and massacres against Palestinians and said the "Israeli agenda" controls Congress.
• Click here to see the video of the August 2006 rally.
And in a video of C-SPAN coverage of the Sept. 15, 2007, antiwar rally, Omeish appears, calling for Bush's impeachment.
"We must prosecute those who are responsible for this war. Impeach Bush today!" he screams to a boisterous crowd. "Let us cleanse our State Department, our Congress, our Pentagon of those who have driven America into this colossal mistake."
• Click here to see the video of Omeish at the Sept. 2007 rally.
Omeish is chief of the division of general surgery at INOVA Alexandria Hospital.
In a separate, undated video, Omeish tells a crowd of Washington-area Muslims, "...you have learned the way, that you have known that the jihad way is the way to liberate your land."
That video was credited to Investigative Project, a Washington-based organization that investigates radical Islamic organizations.
A caller to Kaine's program on WRVA radio in Richmond asked the governor about the Omeish appointment and the video.
"That is news to me, what you say, and it's something we will check out," Kaine told the caller, identified on the air only by the name Kent.
Neither Kaine nor The Associated Press was immediately able to contact Omeish. Mahdi Bray, a spokesman for the MAS, said Omeish was performing surgery and not immediately available for comment.
Omeish was among 10 appointments Kaine made on Aug. 2 to a 20-member panel created this year by the General Assembly to assess the benefits and costs of immigration and the effects on federal immigration policies on the state. The commission met in Richmond for the first time Tuesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.The Guardian’s Dana Nuccitelli uses pseudo-science to libel Dr. John Christy
By Paul Homewood
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/02/20/the-guardians-dana-nuccitelli-uses-pseudo-science-to-libel-dr-john-christy/
You may recall that Dana Nutticcelli ran a piece in the subsidised, left wing Guardian the other day, which attempted to debunk John Christy’s testimony to Congress. The deluded drones who read the Grauniad naturally sucked it all up.
I did not respond at the time because I knew that Lord Monckton would make a much better job of it than I ever would.
Here is his response in WUWT:
One Dana Nuccitelli, a co-author of the 2013 paper that found 0.5% consensus to the effect that recent global warming was mostly manmade and reported it as 97.1%, leading Queensland police to inform a Brisbane citizen who had complained to them that a “deception” had been perpetrated, has published an article in the British newspaper The Guardian making numerous inaccurate assertions calculated to libel Dr John Christy of the University of Alabama in connection with his now-famous chart showing the ever-growing discrepancy between models’ wild predictions and the slow, harmless, unexciting rise in global temperature since 1979.
The chart, described by Nuccitelli as “simply another example of cherry picked data … presented in a multiply misleading way”, shows his comments. Each comment is then given in more detail in bold face, followed by the truth in Roman face.
1. “The data are misleadingly misaligned” to start in 1979, so as “to visually exaggerate any difference between the models and data”. Instead, Mr Nuccitelli opines that they should have been aligned to a common baseline some decades in length.
Altering the baselines does not alter the trends. Nevertheless, to test Mr Nucccitelli’s allegation that Dr Christy had “misleadingly misaligned” the data, trends on the models’ predictions (red), satellites’ observations (green) and radiosondes’ measurements (blue) were expressed as centennial-equivalent warming rates of 2.22, 1.00 and 0.86 Celsius degrees respectively. The warming rate predicted by the models is thus some 2.2–2.5 times the warming rates observed by the satellites and radiosondes. The graph, therefore, correctly reflects a real and widening discrepancy between prediction and observation. Note also that the CMIP5 predictions were made in about 2010, so that nearly all the red curve represents hindcasts: yet still the models’ trend is excessive.
2. “No uncertainty ranges are shown whatsoever”. When they are taken into account, “the observations are consistent with the range of model projections”.
Data since 1979 for the CMIP5 models were not to hand. However, in 1990 IPCC (AR1, p. xxiv), on the basis of “substantial confidence” that the models on which it relied had captured all essential features of the climate, predicted near-linear warming of 1.0 [0.7, 1.5] Celsius degrees over the 36 years 1990-2025, equivalent to 2.78 [1.94, 4.17] Cº/century. The boundary between the two zones, marked with the red needle in the clock-graph below, is the IPCC’s then best prediction: warming equivalent to about 2.8 C°/century by now.
The very wide range of predictions made by the IPCC is shown as orange and red regions. The observed warming on the RSS and UAH satellite datasets, again expressed as centennial equivalents, is shown by the two green needles. The HadCRUT4 dataset, to Dr Jones’ credit, publishes its combined measurement, coverage and bias uncertainties, which are about 0.16 Celsius degrees either side of the central estimate. The satellite uncertainties are smaller. It is plain that there is no overlap whatsoever between the exaggerated predictions made by IPCC in 1990 and the rates of global warming since then shown by the satellites.
3. “Observational data disagreements are hidden,” because “Christy’s graph also averages together multiple different observational datasets, which aren’t in terribly close agreement.”
In the present context, disagreements between trends on the RSS and UAH satellite datasets, for instance, would only be material if either of the datasets showed a trend close to the trend on the models’ predictions: otherwise, such differences would be inconsequential when set against the far wider difference between the trend on each observational dataset and the trend on the models’ predictions.
To test whether the two satellite datasets “aren’t in terribly close agreement”, their spline-curves and trends from 1979-2015 were separately determined and plotted. Results showed that the two curves are visibly in reasonable agreement.
To verify this, copy each graph on to a PowerPoint slide, start the presentation and then use the up and down arrows in rapid succession to make a blink-comparator.
Their centennial-equivalent trends are within a tenth of a degree of one another, whereas the differences between each of the two observed trends and the model-predicted trend are each an order of magnitude greater than the difference between them.
4. “The chart isn’t peer-reviewed or easily reproducible”, in that “Christy doesn’t say which observational data sets he’s averaging together”.
Mr Nuccitelli did not email Dr Christy and simply ask for the information. On one occasion when I asked Dr Christy for some data to assist me in a paper I was writing, I received the requested data within 24 hours. My questions about the data were answered promptly, courteously, fully and helpfully. Furthermore, the chart is plainly labeled indicating that it was prepared using the online and publicly available Climate Explorer program and data maintained by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.
Had Mr Nuccitelli done a little homework, he would have been able to find the following widely-circulated graph that actually lists 73 of the models used by Dr Christy, and shows IPCC’s ever-increasing confidence in the “consensus” proposition that recent global warming was mostly manmade. In fact, as Mr Nuccitelli knows full well (for his own data file of 11,944 climate science papers shows it), the “consensus” is only 0.5%. But that is by the bye: the main point here is that it is the trends on the predictions compared with those on the observational data that matter, and, on all 73 models, the trends are higher than those on the real-world data.
Read the rest here.
AdvertisementsEver wondered what operating system aliens use? The truth, readers, is out there.
Well ‘out there’ in as far as Carcia, Italy.
It’s here that, over the last few weeks, Ubuntu-shaped impressions have appeared in wheat fields belonging to Joseph Fasciana’s family.
Many of the designs (there are more than one) span between 600 to 800 square meter in size.
So what is causing the grain-groping geometry? UFOs? Aliens? Pranksters?
OMG! HQ is a fair distance from Carica so we can – exclusively – reveal that it wasn’t us (scouts honor).
The Italian Police are also keeping their heads firmly out of the clouds too, and are putting the circles creation down to pranksters influenced by a May edition of paranornal TV show ‘Mystery’ – which happened to explain precisely how to make crop circles…
Joshua and his family are less convinced by this ‘earthly’ explanation however.
“This time of year the wheat [will bend and break] if we walk in the middle,’ he told Italian blog Ctzen.it, ‘There are [no] signs of people who walk, nor wheels of vehicles; nothing that suggests that they were created by a human hand.’
“We have looked carefully, the designs are so perfect that they seem to be made with a compass and the ears are intertwined.”
You can see and read more on the shapes at ctzen.it (Italian).
But the answer as to what is making them – and why they chose to draw the Ubuntu logo – remains a mystery…
Luca, via Ctzen.it1981 Audi Quattro Reading time: about 2 minutes. Cars
Engineering
German
Rally
The original Audi Quattro, retroactively named the Ur-Quattro, is almost certainly the most important vehicle ever manufactured by the German automaker. The Quattro name is still used to denote all-wheel drive cars built by Audi, but with a lowercase “Q” in deference to the original car, which almost singlehandedly changed the face of international rallying.
The original concept for the Quattro is credited to Audi chassis engineer Jörg Bensinger, who in 1977 during the development of the 4×4 Volkswagen Iltis. It was discovered that on snow, the Iltis could outpace any other vehicle regardless of the horsepower deficit, thanks to its 4×4 system.
Jörg started developing an all-wheel drive version of the pre-existing Audi 80 in with Walter Treser (Audi Director of Pre-Development), they used a modified version of the Volkswagen Iltis drivetrain – and the concept proved to be a significant performance boost, especially when on slippery terrain.
Audi started selling the Quattro in late-1980 fitted with a 2.1 litre inline-5-cylinder 10 valve SOHC engine, with a turbocharger and an intercooler. In street trim the engine produced 197 hp and 210 ft lbs of torque, with the initial competition versions being tuned to produce 300 hp.
The Quattro began racing competitively in 1980 at the Janner Rally in Austria, the car proved successful and by 1982 when the development had progressed to a suitable level, Walter Röhrl took the World Rally Manufacturer’s Championship for Audi, in 1983 and 1984 it won the Driver’s Championship in the hands of Hannu Mikkola and Stig Blomqvist respectively, and in ’84 it also took another Manufacturer’s Championship win.
Audi kept the road legal version of the Quattro in production from 1980 till 1991 with significant changes over the years, today they’re considered highly collectible and values have been climbing year on year.
The Quattro you see here is though to be the first one brought into Britain, it was used as a press test and demonstrator car before being assigned to David Sutton Motorsport’s official Audi Rally Team.
It was used extensively as a back-up and reconnaissance car, and it was used as the official practice car for the Acropolis Rally in Greece. The car is now being offered for sale as a road legal race car, with an extensive history file and a long list of lower level race entries from after its days with the official Audi Rally Team.
If you’d like to read more about this car or register to bid on it you can click here to visit Bonhams.
Images via BonhamsThe 1670 Inks collection celebrates the life and adventures of J. Herbin, a famous French sailor.
On his travels, J. Herbin gathered formulas for inks and sealing waxes. The inks in this collection pay homage to this history.
Each bottle contains 50ml of finest quality Herbin ink in colours only available in this collection, and include tiny flecks of gold; whilst these give another dimension to the ink and to your writing, we recommend that you don't leave this ink unused in a pen for a prolonged period of time. The gold flakes do make it an ink that deserves extra care.
When writing with Stormy Grey ink, you'll notice that the ink will go down a deep grey colour and dry to a slightly lighter grey with an intense gold sheen. The gold sheen tends to linger at the centre of your writing, taking on a grey shadow effect.
The Ocean Blue and Rouge Hematite inks seem to give a more consistent sheen of gold all through your writing, adding a little sparkle to what's usually more conservative colours.
Caroube de Chypre is a deep golden brown colour, with a green sheen when laid down very heavily, and a warm gold sparkle.
Emerald of Chivor is a beautiful blue-green ink with hints of red as well as the gold.Demarcon, thank you so much! The presents are amazing! I love the mug & the cute little box it came in. It's totally my style and something I would pick for myself. The food truck cookbook is also amazing. I love eating at food trucks. The cookbook even says where the trucks are located! It is by far the best cookbook I now own. My sister was here when the gifts arrived and we already went through it page by page and are excited about "attempting" to make some stuff. I love how you took my love of r/shittyfoodporn and bought me the food truck cookbook. Hopefully my attempts at cooking some of this stuff don't end up there! You are an amazing gift giver! Update: Today there was another package in my mailbox & it just so happens to be my birthday! thanks so much for the phone case, its adorable and it came on the perfect day. :D'Don't Give Up' signs catching on in Newberg
Newberg woman's yard signs with encouraging phrases a reaction to growing suicide trend locally
(Editor's note: This is the fourth in a long-term series of stories)
If you've driven around, taken your bike for a ride or gone for a long walk through Newberg over the past three weeks or so, you've likely encountered phrases like "Don't Give Up," "Your Mistakes Don't Define You" or "You Are Worthy of Love."
There is nothing else on simple black-and-white yard signs that have popped up on lawns across Newberg — no name, website address or phone number — because the messages are meant to speak for themselves and nothing more.
They're simply words of encouragement put out into the world just in case someone might need them |
turn around the “world’s emptiest airport”, it would signal Colombo’s intention to have a balanced approach towards Delhi and Beijing. Hambantota in southern Sri Lanka is key to China’s One Belt One Road initiative. There are reports that India could invest $205m into MRIA for a 70% share for 40 years. Sri Lanka is understood to have received eight proposals, including one from China, but India’s proposal is being reviewed separately.MRIA, located, 250 km south from Colombo, was built for $209 m largely with Chinese assistance ($190 m). The airport located at a half-an-hour drive from the deep-sea port figured high in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s plan to develop his constituency Hambantota with assistance from China. There were apprehensions that the key infrastructure would also be used by China for purposes detrimental to India’s security interests.While Beijing recently got a 99-year-lease for running the Hambantota Port, it has been made clear by Colombo that the port will not be utilised for any defence activities. Rajapaksa had also planned to create a large industrial and export processing zone, an exhibition centre, a large cricket stadium, and a hotel and leisure area in the sleepy Hambantota zone.But these are yet to fructify. Ever since it was built, Mattala airport has struggled to attract both passengers and airlines. Only one or two flights a day are served by the airport and, according to the Sri Lankan government, the 3,000 flights that touched down at the airport in 2014 served just 21,000 passengers — averaging seven passengers per plane.By the end of 2016, MRIA suffered approximately a loss of $ 113 million, according to the Lankan government. This has made it difficult for Colombo to repay loans to China.NEOGEO: a visual history
ネオジオ〜目で楽しむ軌跡〜 Home About us Books
Bitmap Books is excited to announce that we will be releasing an officially licensed NEOGEO art book in 2017. We’ve been working closely with SNK CORPORATION (“SNK”) over the last few months to bring you NEOGEO: a visual history. This lavishly illustrated volume will be the first official NEOGEO art book of its kind released in the English language.
A visual celebration of all things NEOGEO, the book is full of concept artwork, game graphics, photography, box art and promotional material straight from the SNK archives.
We’ve been working with renowned collectors Frazer Rhodes, Massimiliano Macri and Brian Hargrove, who between them have pretty much everything released for the NEOGEO, including complete game collections and rare items. These will be professionally photographed and included in the book.
“NEOGEO: a visual history” also features official interviews with key staff integral to the NEOGEO’s history, including producer Yasuyuki Oda, artist Tatsuhiko Kanaoka (Falcoon) and composer Hideki Asanaka (Sha-V).
“NEOGEO: a visual history” comes as an A4 hardback and is available in both standard edition and a limited edition collector’s edition, presented in a metallic gold slipcase.
As with all our products, each book is printed to very high standards and is destined to be a must-have for fans of the NEOGEO or gamers who want to learn more about this groundbreaking console. NEOGEO: a visual history is available for pre-order in May 2017 with a publication date of summer 2017.
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More details to follow soon. Sign up to our newsletter Also available... Bitmap Books is proud to present Super Famicom: The Box Art Collection – a compilation of Japanese game packaging, professionally shot and presented as a glorious hardback edition. Commodore 64: a visual Commpendium, celebrates one the most popular home computers of all time. It takes you on a journey through the C64’s varied and colourful gaming library. Available as a 476 hardback expanded edition. Over the course of some 420 pages, Commodore Amiga: a visual Commpendium showcases more than 140 of the biggest titles, bringing them vividly to life with a double-page screen grab or loading page. A Gremlin in the Works plots the course of the company, from initial successes with Monty Mole, Jack The Nipper and Thing On A Spring, to its ground-breaking Lotus-branded racing games, and eventual purchase by Infogrames in 1999. Gamers who cut their teeth in the arcades will love this trip down memory lane. Artcade is a unique collection of coin-op cabinet marquees, some dating back 40 years to the dawn of video gaming. Shop now with free UK deliveryProvigil (AKA modafinil) has been called a wonder drug: it can keep you awake and alert for hours without side-effects, and it's even recommended as "the professor's little helper" by neuroscience researchers writing in the prestigious journal Nature. Provigil, approved by the US food and drug administration for the treatment of narcolepsy, is often prescribed "off label" for ailments like severe jet lag, ADHD, and even problems with sleep cycles. But this drug, which is supposed to be a non-addictive stimulant because it doesn't get you high, turns out to be potentially as euphoria-inducing and addictive as cocaine.
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In March 2006, researcher Stefan Kruszewski wrote in The American Journal of Psychiatry:
Modanifil is reinforcing, as evidenced by its self-administration in monkeys previously trained to self-administer cocaine.
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And back in 2002, an article published in Behavioral Pharmacology states:
Modafinil and cocaine dose-dependently increased heart rate and blood pressure. The results of the present study suggest that modafinil has minimal abuse potential, but should be viewed cautiously because of the relatively small sample size. Future studies should further characterize the abuse potential of modafinil using other behavioral arrangements, such as drug discrimination or drug self-administration. A full characterization of the abuse potential of modafinil will become important as the use of this drug increases.
Other reports suggest that Provigil isn't addictive at all, and would in fact work well as a cure for methamphetamine addiction. Here's a snippet from a 2006 article from Current Psychiatry Reports:
In early trials, several candidate medications—bupropion, modafinil, and, to a lesser extent, baclofen—have shown promise in treating aspects of methamphetamine dependence, including aiding memory function necessary to more effectively participate in and benefit from behavioral therapies.
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With more and more people getting prescriptions for Provigil, and the drug fast catching up with Viagra for most spammy ads online, shouldn't someone be investigating just how addictive it is?FoodTank
by Doug Gurian-Sherman
The biotech industry’s web of attempts to buy credibility, by laundering its messages through supposedly independent academic scientists, is unraveling and beginning to reveal the influence of huge amount of industry money on the independence of academic agricultural science. Some of this process was revealed recently in The New York Times. Many of these efforts to influence policy or public opinion start with industry staff emails, including suggested topics, points, and themes, which are then laundered through the credibility of academic scientists. It is a matter of academic scientists promoting positions and arguments of the industry, not merely a sharing of positions that each party already held and were acting on.
The emails from several academic scientists linked in the NYT article show numerous instances of industry personnel, such as Eric Sachs of Monsanto, in ongoing dialogue with academic scientists, including strategizing about how to influence policy and how academic scientists can carry out industry desires.
A deeper dive into the emails coming forward through this article and from U.S. Right to Know public disclosure efforts shows a broader and more troubling picture of influence peddling in the agricultural sciences.
The overriding issue is the huge amount of money from the biotech and industrial agriculture industries pouring into public universities, and the corrosive effect all that money is having on the independence of science. Evidence suggests that biotech industry influence is a pervasive problem, corrupting science and distorting public discussion. It extends much farther than the specific examples provided by the New York Times article. As with the climate change debate, where a powerful fossil fuel industry is slowing response to an environmental and social disaster, the biotech industry and industrial agriculture more broadly is delaying choices that would move us toward an urgently needed sustainable and just food and agriculture system.
The emails linked to the New York Times article also reveals some of the many other academic scientists, who have vocally supported biotech or panned biotech critics, were copied on industry emails. We should not implicate scientists in greenwashing or collusion with the biotech industry simply for being copied on emails, or even some communication with companies. It is not clear from these emails whether those other scientists have also engaged in collaboration with the industry, or accepted industry money. But the efforts of many of these scientists to vigorously defend biotechnology or even attack critics have been documented elsewhere.
There is no reason to think this money buys less influence in academia than the widely recognized corrupting influence that money has on politics. Unlike academic science though, no one has illusions that our political process is objective. The perceived objectivity of academic scientists presents a huge opportunity for the biotech industry to influence public opinion in ways it could not accomplish otherwise.
A Tangled Web
Since the NYT article was published, several of these scientists have doubled down, saying that they have been proud to serve a cause they believe in. And I have no reason to doubt their sincerity. These scientists are effective in their spokesperson roles in part because of their backgrounds in molecular biology, the deep interest in which preceded their involvement with the ag biotech industry.
But this misses the point, which is that the collaboration with industry, its public relations machines, such as Ketchum, and access to industry dollars, allows these scientists to amplify their voices with the journalists and the media, the public, and policymakers way beyond what could otherwise occur.
As one small example, Bruce Chassy, an emeritus professor at the University of Illinois, bemoans the challenges of flying economy class (all he can afford, he says) to participate as an invited speaker at a biotech conference in New Delhi. He strongly implies he would not endure such tribulations, and would skip the meeting without industry support. In an August 29, 2011 email to Eric Sachs of Monsanto, he suggests that the ag industry trade group CropLife, of which Monsanto and other biotech companies are members, pay his way (Chassy was listed as a speaker at the event). In a separate email, Monsanto’s Sachs also suggests to Chassy that he participate in an American Medical Association meeting to try to dissuade the AMA from supporting mandatory labeling of GE foods.
That academic scientists recognize the value of their perceived independence is suggested in an email from University of Florida Scientist Kevin Folta to Monsanto’s Keith Reding, Regulatory Policy Lead, on April 17, 2013: “keep me in mind if you ever need a good public interface with no corporate ties. That knows the subject inside out and can think on his feet [emphasis added].”
In another example from the NYT article, Dow reminds David Shaw, a Mississippi State University weed scientist, of its generosity. And an email to Shaw on Jan 17, 2012 from John Jachetta, Government affairs leader at Dow AgroSciences, urges Shaw to submit comments to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to approve Dow’s Enlist soybeans, and provides three pages of helpful suggestions about topics and arguments. The Enlist crops are resistant to glyphosate and 2,4-D herbicides, and are the industry’s response to the epidemic of glyphosate resistant weeds caused by the first generation of glyphosate resistant crops. This strategy has been criticized as futile and one that will lead to greatly increased herbicide use and more herbicide resistance.
In a February 20, 2012 email from Shaw back to Jachetta, Shaw supplies his draft comments and asks for feedback from Dow.
In several emails in the spring of 2013, John Sorteres of Monsanto coordinates activities with both Shaw and, apparently, Prof. Mike Owen, a weed scientist at Iowa State University, on how to counter public comments to APHIS that argue against approval of Monsanto’s dicamba resistant crops, including detailed arguments and analyses. Dicamba is an herbicide similar to 2,4-D.
An August 30, 2013 email from Mississippi State acknowledges unrestricted gifts from Monsanto to Dr. Shaw and four other faculty members.
I go to some length to describe these interactions because, in addition to their collaboration with the biotech industry, both Shaw and Owens were on the steering committee of the so-called second “weed summit,” held in the spring of 2012, and sponsored by the prestigious National Academy of Sciences. The summit was called to address the crisis in weed control caused by glyphosate herbicide resistant weeds that arose from the use of genetically engineered herbicide resistant crops.
Dr. Shaw contacted the Union of Concerned Scientists, where I was formerly a senior scientist, for input into the meeting. One of our highest priority recommendations was that Penn State University weed scientist David Mortensen be included as a speaker and participant at the meeting.
Mortensen’s research focuses on ecologically-based weed control, and he has been a critic of the reliance on herbicide resistant crops that characterize current weed control in corn and soybeans in the US. He is also one of the best-versed scientists on ecological practices as alternatives to herbicide resistant crops and over-reliance on herbicides. Our request to include Mortensen was not accepted. As a consequence, the critique of the failing herbicide resistant crop strategy at the weed summit, and support for feasible non-herbicide, ecologically-based alternatives, was weakened to the point of ineffectiveness.
Since that time, the USDA has unconditionally approved these new GE crops, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA) stewardship plan does not require any alternatives to the use of herbicides on these crops. Serious efforts to implement agroecological alternatives to GE herbicide resistant crops would be a threat to the industry’s bottom line, because these approaches require much lower use of herbicides and expensive herbicide resistant seeds.
While not proof of collusion between the industry and academics, it is part of a bigger pattern of exclusion and intimidation that has been linked to industry influence.
Greatly Increased Flow of “Big Ag” Money is Going to Universities
Even a quick internet search shows numerous “generous” donations from Monsanto to universities, such US$1 million from Monsanto to Iowa State University for the “Monsanto Student Services Wing,” in 2012, Monsanto Student Travel awards, or US$1 million for a community center at the University of Missouri in 2012, among many examples of industry funding of academia.
If these were isolated situations, their overall impact on academic independence and integrity might be negligible. But that is far from the case. The particular situations detailed in the NYT article are undoubtedly the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Since the beginnings of the assault on government funding for public institutions in the 1980s, public, independent, and research funding of agriculture science has stagnated or fallen. Meanwhile, private sector funding, previously a minority of research dollars, is now the majority. This was documented in the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report on agricultural preparedness and research, in late 2012. PCAST noted that 61 percent of research funding is from the private sector, with 11 percent of that, or about US$957 million, going to universities and other state institutions. And this does not include millions of dollars in gifts for non-research purposes, such as student centers.
It was also revealing, as I noted at the time, that the PCAST report seems to consider private sector funding only as a positive, calling it by the favorable and innocuous sounding term, “Public-Private Partnerships,” with virtually no caution about the possible cost to scientific independence that may accompany these funds. But when we examine the participants or advisors for this report, we find it replete with biotech industry representation.
Some of the many connections, and millions of dollars provided by the ag industry to academia, was also documented in the 2012 Food and Water Watch report, “Public Research Private Gain.” It would stretch credulity to suggest that the biotech industry would provide these funds without the expectation of quid pro quos. And the emails revealed by the NYT strongly suggest this.
The organic industry is also implicated by the New York Times article. And of course, influence from the private sector can come from any industry.
However, as the New York Times article notes, the research contributions of the organics industry is miniscule compared to those of the biotech and industrial ag industries. Unfortunately, the extensive highlighting of Charles Benbrook, who performs research on organics supported by the industry, gives the appearance of an equivalence between biotech and organic that isn’t credible. This comparison, in practical terms, is a distraction from the real world issue, which is the corruption of independent agricultural science by biotech, and more broadly, industrial agriculture industries.Introduction
Problems in competitive programming which involve Mathematics are are usually about number theory, or geometry. If you know number theory, that increases your ammo heavily in solving a lot of tougher problems, and helps you in getting a strong hold on a lot of other problems, too.
Problems in competitive programming require insight, so just knowing some topics is not enough at all. All of the problems requires more or less math tough. For instance, solving large systems of equations and approximating solutions to differential equations.
Set Theory
Before we proceed, let us get through the some common set operations.
Q.) What is a Set?
-In mathematics, a set is a collection of distinct objects, considered as an object in its own right.
For example, the numbers 2, 4, and 6 are distinct objects when considered separately, but when they are considered collectively they form a single set of size three, written {2,4,6}.
Sets are one of the most fundamental concepts in mathematics.
A set of polygons in a Venn diagram.
Subsets
If every member of set A is also a member of set B, then A is said to be a subset of B, written A ⊆ B (also pronounced A is contained in B).
Equivalently, we can write B ⊇ A, read as B is a superset of A, B includes A, or B contains A.
The relationship between sets established by ⊆ is called inclusion or containment.
If A is a subset of, but not equal to, B, then A is called a proper subset of B, written A ⊊ B (A is a proper subset of B) or B ⊋ A (B is a proper superset of A).
Example:
- {1, 3} ⊆ {1, 2, 3, 4}.
- {1, 2, 3, 4} ⊆ {1, 2, 3, 4}.
The empty set (denoted by the symbol ∅) is a subset of every set and every set is a subset of itself:
- ∅ ⊆ A.
- A ⊆ A.
A is subset of B.
Basic operations on Sets
There are several fundamental operations for constructing new sets from given sets.
Unions :
Two sets can be "added" together. The union of A and B, denoted by A ∪ B, is the set of all things that are members of either A or B.
Examples:
-{1, 2} ∪ {1, 2} = {1, 2}.
-{1, 2} ∪ {2, 3} = {1, 2, 3}.
-{1, 2, 3} ∪ {3, 4, 5} = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
The union of A and B, denoted A ∪ B.
Some basic properties of unions:
-A ∪ B = B ∪ A.
-A ∪ (B ∪ C) = (A ∪ B) ∪ C.
-A ⊆ (A ∪ B).
-A ∪ A = A.
-A ∪ ∅ = A.
-A ⊆ B if and only if A ∪ B = B.
: Two sets can be "added" together. The union of A and B, denoted by A ∪ B, is the set of all things that are members of either A or B. Examples: -{1, 2} ∪ {1, 2} = {1, 2}. -{1, 2} ∪ {2, 3} = {1, 2, 3}. -{1, 2, 3} ∪ {3, 4, 5} = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} The of A and B, denoted A ∪ B. Some basic properties of unions: -A ∪ B = B ∪ A. -A ∪ (B ∪ C) = (A ∪ B) ∪ C. -A ⊆ (A ∪ B). -A ∪ A = A. -A ∪ ∅ = A. -A ⊆ B if and only if A ∪ B = B. Intersections :
A new set can also be constructed by determining which members two sets have "in common". The intersection of A and B, denoted by A ∩ B, is the set of all things that are members of both A and B. If A ∩ B = ∅, then A and B are said to be disjoint.
Examples:
-{1, 2} ∩ {1, 2} = {1, 2}.
-{1, 2} ∩ {2, 3} = {2}.
The intersection of A and B, denoted A ∩ B.
Some basic properties of intersections:
-A ∩ B = B ∩ A.
-A ∩ (B ∩ C) = (A ∩ B) ∩ C.
-A ∩ B ⊆ A.
-A ∩ A = A.
-A ∩ ∅ = ∅.
-A ⊆ B if and only if A ∩ B = A.
: A new set can also be constructed by determining which members two sets have "in common". The intersection of A and B, denoted by A ∩ B, is the set of all things that are members of both A and B. If A ∩ B = ∅, then A and B are said to be disjoint. Examples: -{1, 2} ∩ {1, 2} = {1, 2}. -{1, 2} ∩ {2, 3} = {2}. The of A and B, denoted A ∩ B. Some basic properties of intersections: -A ∩ B = B ∩ A. -A ∩ (B ∩ C) = (A ∩ B) ∩ C. -A ∩ B ⊆ A. -A ∩ A = A. -A ∩ ∅ = ∅. -A ⊆ B if and only if A ∩ B = A. Complements: Two sets can also be "subtracted". The relative complement of B in A (also called the set-theoretic difference of A and B), denoted by A B (or A − B), is the set of all elements that are members of A but not members of B. Note that it is valid to "subtract" members of a set that are not in the set, such as removing the element green from the set {1, 2, 3}; doing so has no effect.
In certain settings all sets under discussion are considered to be subsets of a given universal set U. In such cases, U A is called the absolute complement or simply complement of A, and is denoted by A′.
Examples:
-{1, 2} {1, 2} = ∅.
-{1, 2, 3, 4} {1, 3} = {2, 4}.
-If U is the set of integers, E is the set of even integers, and O is the set of odd integers, then U E = E′ = O.
The relative complement of B in A.
The complement of A in U.
Some basic properties of complements:
-A B ≠ B A for A ≠ B.
-A ∪ A′ = U.
-A ∩ A′ = ∅.
-(A′)′ = A.
-A A = ∅.
-A B = A ∩ B′.
-U′ = ∅ and ∅′ = U.
Basics of Combinatorics
NOTE: here denotes the number of elements in Set.
The basic rules of combinatorics one must remember are:
The Rule of Product:
The product rule states that if there are possibilities from set and, then there are ways to combine one from and one from. The Rule of Sum:
The sum rule states that if there are possibilities from set and possibilities from set, then there are ways for either or occur assuming the elements of and are distinct. Inclusion-Exclusion Formula: (also know as the sieve principle):
Generalising the above formula, we get:
The reason this works is that summing the sets double counts certain possibilities, namely, those occurring in both sets.
Double counting is a slippery aspect of combinatorics, which can make it difficult to solve problems via inclusion-exclusion.
These rules can be used for a finite collections of sets.
Basics of Permutation
Permutation of Distinct Objects :
Suppose we have to permute k objects out of n distinct objects, then the total number of permutations is given by
P = n * (n – 1) * (n – 2) * … * (n – k + 1)
which when simplified gives us
P = n! / (n – k)!
where
n! = n * (n – 1) * (n – 2) * … * 2 * 1.
: Suppose we have to permute objects out of distinct objects, then the total number of permutations is given by which when simplified gives us where. Permutation with Repetition:
If we have total n objects, where we have n1 objects of type 1, n2 objects of type 2 and so on upto k.
Thus n1+n2+…+nk=n. So the number of permutations of these objects is given by:
Combinatorial Objects
A bijection is a one-to-one mapping between the elements of one set and the elements of another. Counting the size of one of the sets automatically gives you the size of the other set. Exploiting bijections requires us to have a repertoire of sets which we know how to count, so we can map other objects to them.
Combinations without repetition :
In combinations we choose a set of elements (rather than an arrangement, as in permutations) so the order doesn’t matter. The number of different k-element subsets (when each element can be chosen only once) of n-element set is:
: In combinations we choose a set of elements (rather than an arrangement, as in permutations) so the order doesn’t matter. The number of different k-element subsets (when each element can be chosen only once) of n-element set is: Combinations with repetition:
Let's say we choose k elements from an n-element set, the order doesn’t matter and each element can be chosen more than once. In that case, the number of different combinations is:
It is useful to know that is also the number of integer solutions to this equation:
Binary Vectors
Accordingly, some knowledge of the basic combinatorial properties of binary vectors is rather important. Let’s have a look at some simple things associated with them:
Number of binary vectors of length n: 2n. Number of binary vectors of length n and with k ‘1’ is since we just choose k positions for our ‘1’s. The number of ordered pairs (a, b) of binary vectors, such that the distance between them (k) can be calculated as follows:.
The distance between a and b is the number of components that differs in a and b.
Recurrence Relations
Recurrence relations make it easy to count a variety of recursively defined structures. Recursively defined structures include trees, lists, well-formed formulae, and divide-and-conquer algorithms - so they lurk wherever computer scientists do.
A recurrence relation is an equation which is defined in terms of itself. They are useful because many natural functions are easily expressed as recurrences:
Polynomials :
: Exponentials:
Weird but interesting functions otherwise hard to represent:
It is often easy to find a recurrence as the answer to a counting problem. Solving the recurrence to get a nice closed form can be somewhat of an art, but as we shall see, computer programs can easily evaluate the value of a given recurrence even without the existence of a nice closed form.
Binomial Coefficients
The most important class of counting numbers are the binomial coefficients, where counts the number of ways to choose things out of possibilities.
Paths Across a Grid:
How many ways are there to travel from the upper-left corner of an grid to the lower-right corner by walking only down and to the right? Every path must consist of to the right. Every path with a different set of downward moves is distinct, so there are such sets/paths.
Computation of binomial coefficients can sometimes cause arithmetic overflow in intermediate steps. So a more stable way to perform calculations is using the following formula:
.
Other Counting Sequences
Catalan Numbers: The recurrence and associated closed form
Catalan Numbers and it’s uses. Eulerian Numbers: The Eulerian numbers count the number of permutations of length with exactly ascending sequences or runs. A recurrence can be formulated by considering each permutation of 1,2,...,n-1. There are n places to insert element n, and each either splits an existing run of p or occurs immediately after the last element of an existing run, thus preserving the run count. Thus
. Integer Partitions: An integer partition of n is an unordered set of positive integers which add up to n. For example, there are seven partitions of 5, namely, (5), (4, 1), (3, 2), (3, 1, 1), (2, 2, 1), (2, 1, 1, 1) and (1, 1, 1, 1, 1).
The easiest way to count them is to define a function f(n,k) giving the number of integer partitions of n with largest part at most k. In any acceptable partition the largest part either does or does not reach with limit, so f(n,k)=f(n-k,k)+f(n,k-1). The basic cases are f(1,1)=1 and f(n,k)=0 whenever k>n.
Introduction to Probabilities
Basics
Working with probabilities is much like conducting an experiment. An outcome is the result of an experiment or other situation involving uncertainty. The set of all possible outcomes of a probability experiment is called a sample space. Each possible result of such a study is represented by one and only one point in the sample space, which is usually denoted by S.
Let's consider the following experiments:
Rolling a die once: Sample space S = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}
Tossing two coins: Sample space S = {(Heads, Heads), (Heads, Tails), (Tails, Heads), (Tails, Tails)}
We define an event as any collection of outcomes of an experiment. Thus, an event is a subset of the sample space S. If we denote an event by E, we could say that E⊆S. If an event consists of a single outcome in the sample space, it is called a simple event. Events which consist of more than one outcome are called compound events.
What we are actually interested in is the probability of a certain event to occur, or P(E). By definition, P(E) is a real number between 0 and 1, where 0 denotes the impossible event and 1 denotes the certain event (or the whole sample space).
.
As stated earlier, each possible outcome is represented by exactly one point in the sample space. This leads us to the following formula:
Independent Events
When two events are said to be independent of each other, what this means is that the probability that one event occurs in no way affects the probability of the other event occurring.
An example of two independent events is as follows; say you rolled a die and flipped a coin. The probability of getting any number face on the die in no way influences the probability of getting a head or a tail on the coin.
If two events A and B are independent, then neither can influence the other, and we can write
.
Conditional Probability
Conditional probability deals with further defining dependence of events by looking at probability of an event given that some other event first occurs.
Conditional probability is denoted by the following:
.
The above is read as the probability that B occurs given that A has already occurred.
The above is mathematically defined as:
.
Rules of Probability
When dealing with more than one event, there are certain rules that we must follow when studying probability of these events. These rules depend greatly on whether the events we are looking at are Independent or dependent on each other.
First acknowledge that
Multiplication Rule (A∩B):
This region is referred to as 'A intersection B' and in probability; this region refers to the event that both A and B happen. When we use the word and we are referring to multiplication, thus A and B can be thought of as AxB or (using dot notation which is more popular in probability) A•B
If A and B are dependent events, the probability of this event happening can be calculated as shown below:
.
If A and B are independent events, the probability of this event happening can be calculated as shown below:
.
Conditional probability for two independent events can be redefined using the relationship above to become:
The above is consistent with the definition of independent events, the occurrence of event A in no way influences the occurrence of event B, and so the probability that event B occurs given that event B has occurred is the same as the probability of event B. Additive Rule (A∪B):
In probability we refer to the addition operator (+) as or. Thus when we want to we want to define some event such that the event can be A or B, to find the probability of that event:
Thus it follows that:
But remember from set theory that and from the way we defined our sample space above:
and that:
So we can now redefine out event as
Mutually Exclusive Events
Two events are called mutually exclusive or disjoint if they do not have any outcome common between them. If the two events A and B are mutually exclusive, then A∩B=ϕ (null set).
For three mutually exclusive events A, B and C, we have A∩B∩C=ϕ.
Rules of Probability for Mutually Exclusive Events
Multiplication Rule
From the definition of mutually exclusive events, we should quickly conclude the following:
From the definition of mutually exclusive events, we should quickly conclude the following: Addition Rule
As we defined above, the addition rule applies to mutually exclusive events as follows:
As we defined above, the addition rule applies to mutually exclusive events as follows: Subtraction Rule
From the addition rule above, we can conclude that the subtraction rule for mutually exclusive events takes the form:
Conditional Probability for Mutually Exclusive Events
We have defined conditional probability with the following equation:
We can redefine the above using the multiplication rule:
hence
.
Bayes’ Theorem
In probability theory and statistics, Bayes' theorem describes the probability of an event, based on conditions that might be related to the event.
Bayes' theorem is stated mathematically as the following equation:
where A and B are events - P(A) and P(B) are the probabilities of A and B without regard to each other. - P(A | B), a conditional probability, is the probability of A given that B is true. - P(B | A), is the probability of B given that A is true.
Extended Form
Often, for some partition{Aj} of the event space, the event space is given or conceptualized in terms of P(Aj) and P(B | Aj). It is then useful to compute P(B) using the law of total probability:
Randomized Algorithms
We call randomized algorithms those algorithms that use random numbers to make decisions during their execution. Unlike deterministic algorithms that for a fixed input always give the same output and the same running-time, a randomized algorithm behaves differently from execution to execution. Basically, we distinguish two kind of randomized algorithms:
Monte Carlo algorithms: may sometimes produce an incorrect solution - we bound the probability of failure. Las Vegas algorithms: always give the correct solution, the only variation is the running time - we study the distribution of the running time.
Read these lecture notes from the College of Engineering at UIUC for an example of how these algorithms work.
The main goal of randomized algorithms is to build faster, and perhaps simpler solutions. Being able to tackle "harder" problems is also a benefit of randomized algorithms. As a result, these algorithms have become a research topic of major interest and have already been utilized to more easily solve many different problems.
Some problems have many possible solutions, where a number of which are also optimal. The classical approach is to check them one by one, in an established order. But it cannot be guaranteed that the optima are uniformly distributed in the solution domain. Thus, a deterministic algorithm may not find you an optimum quickly enough. The advantage of a randomized algorithm is that there are actually no rules to set about the order in which the solutions are checked and for the cases when the optima are clustered together, it usually performs much better.
Delving deeper into the Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion
The verbal formula
The principle of inclusions-exclusions is as follows:
To calculate the size of combining several sets, it is necessary to sum the sizes of these sets separately, then subtract the size of all pairwise intersections of these sets, add back the sizes of intersections of all possible triples of sets, subtract the sizes of the intersections of fours, and so on, up to the intersection of all sets.
The formulation in terms of sets
In mathematical form the above verbal formulation is as follows:
It can be written more compactly, using the sum of the subsets. We denote the set whose elements |
messier (again, another thinkpiece for another time). However, if we are gonna talk about consent and Sleeping Beauty, then let’s have that conversion.
Yes, Aurora is asleep when Phillip kisses her. However, I would not consider that sexual assault for three reasons:
(1) Aurora’s Feelings For Phillip:
Aurora and Phillip only meet for like five seconds and it is instant love, which is “silly” and “dated” and a valid thing to complain about. However, Aurora does have feelings for him. She is devastated when her “mothers” tell her that she is betrothed to someone else. Before then, Aurora is happy and excited to share her new beau with her family. She likes (loves) Phillip. That is important. Her feelings are important.
(2) Phillip Knows Kissing Aurora is the Only Way to Save Her:
Phillip doesn’t just kiss Aurora because he’s horny. He is told in a very intense monologue by Maleficent that Aurora is under a spell that can only be broken by true love’s kiss. This is not a drunken accidental hook up, or an older male authority figure taking advantage of a younger co-worker. He is literally saving her from an eternity of sleep.
(3) Aurora’s Reaction to the Kiss:
That is the face of a woman who is happy. Not just happy, not to be cursed for a hundred years, but like hell yeah, it’s that dude I like, and I get to marry him and not a total stranger (just an almost stranger). Non-verbal consent is a thing, and Aurora gives Phillip plenty of it in her body language once she is comfortable around him and her reaction to Phillip during her awakening. She is not upset about being kissed, she got kissed by someone she liked, she would have kissed him if she was awake.
Of all the points the last is the most important to me because there is very little focus given on what Aurora is shown to feel, as opposed to what she should feel. Don’t get me wrong, I think we should talk about Disney movies and the messages they send out, and how they have had to evolve and change with the times, but I also think it is important (both in film and in real life) to not ignore a woman’s individual feelings. IF Aurora’s feelings were vaguer, we should definitely be having the consent conversation. Hell, I’d feel more comfortable having this conversation about Snow White, because that dude literally just swings over to kiss a dead girl. However, what Aurora in the movie feels is pretty damn clear. She gives implied consent and reacts with delight and pleasure to his actions. That matters.
What is a problem in the film, if you ask me, is the fact that Aurora is lied to for almost the entire movie. In fact, Phillip is probably the only person who doesn’t manipulate her. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather do not give Aurora any information that allows her to make informed decisions about her life, because they think ignorance would be better than knowledge. They keep her from other people, and don’t just tell her “hey girl, you in danger, evil witch about, so be cool.” Much better parenting move, especially when she’s 16 now!
Anyway, yes I feel Sleeping Beauty would be a great story to teach about consent and how there can be implied/non-verbal consent and how to look at your partner’s reaction to make sure they are also interested. Now, other versions of the fairy tales like the Italian version—in which the Prince does far more than kiss her—are super rapey and should be avoided.
Or just watch Maleficent instead.
(via Comicbook.com, image: Walt Disney )
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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—Deputies with the Robeson County Sheriff's Office confirmed they got involved in a high speed chase with a murder suspect, who reportedly killed his mother Friday morning.
That suspect was then shot and killed by NC Highway Patrol following a high speed chase, according to Marlboro County Sheriff Charles Lemon.
The victim has been identified as 42-year-old Tina Thomas, according to Marlboro County Coroner Tim Brown.
Lemon said Jamake Cason Thomas, 22, shot and killed his mother at a home on Adamsville Road in Bennettsville around 2 a.m. and then left the home.
He added a relative found the woman dead in the home and called 911.
Lemon said they developed Thomas as a suspect early on and got a tip he may be in the Robeson County area.
Deputies said they headed to Robeson County and Thomas was spotted in Maxton.
Officers tried to stop him, but he kept driving, Lemon said.
He added Thomas had a woman in the car with him and stopped to let her out, then started driving at a high rate of speed.
Lemon said the chase went on for more than a hour through the communities of Maxton and Rowland.
He added Thomas then went on I-95 south in Robeson County and was driving the wrong way.
Lemon said troopers, driving in the right direction, caught up with Thomas and that's when he started firing shots at the troopers and they returned fire killing him.
A portion I-95 North near mile marker 7 in the south bound lane in Robeson County remains shutdown.
The NC State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) said they're investigating the deadly officer involved shooting, according to Acting SBI Media Relations Director Pamela Walker.
WLate Friday evening, Highway Patrol released the names of the two troopers involved in the chase and armed confrontation.
Their names are Douglas Strickland and Henry Locklear.
Highway Patrol said both troopers have been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of the internal and SBI investigations.
Strickland is a 9-year veteran assigned to Robeson County, while Locklear is a 12-year veteran assigned to Robeson County.The University of Arizona put the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity on an interim suspension as it investigates a report that members attacked a Jewish frat.
According to Tucson News Now, police determined an SAE member he had taken "dozens" of his brothers on Nov. 14 to an apartment where several Alpha Epsilon Pi members live, where they banged on the door and shouted racial slurs. Four members of Alpha Epsilon Pi, or AEPi, a Jewish fraternity, were assaulted.
SAE is now being investigated for violating the UA code of conduct on charges of "endangering/threat/ cause harm, off campus behavior, and discriminatory activities," according to the university's Greek life website. SAE was already on probation for an alcohol violation. AEPi is also on an interim suspension for a potential violation of the alcohol policy.
Police said this attack is not being investigated as a hate crime.Virtual reality startup Jaunt is about to announce a massive Series C round of financing, Variety has learned. Exact numbers weren’t available ahead of the company’s official announcement, but multiple sources peg the amount north of $50 million.
The raise comes just a year after Jaunt secured a $27.8 million Series B, and less than 18 months after the company’s $6.8 million Series A. Previous Jaunt investors include Highland Capital Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Google Ventures, BSkyB and others.
An announcement of the new funding could come as early as next week, when much of the VR world is congregating in Los Angeles for Oculus VR’s Connect developer conference. A Jaunt spokesperson declined to comment.
Jaunt has been a bit of a jack-of-all trades in the virtual reality (VR) world; the company has built its own VR camera, has produced VR experiences and apps for studios and others, and has developed its own software and tools for VR content production.
Some of Jaunt’s recent work includes a cooperation with ABC News and a virtual reality runway show for Rebecca Minkoff. Earlier this summer, jaunt unveiled its own VR camera, code-named the Jaunt Neo. However, Jaunt has no plans to sell the Neo to consumers. Instead, it built it primarily to help its own production efforts.
Jaunt is said to be focusing more on original content, with the goal of becoming more of a full-featured studio. Jaunt has launched a new corporate division called Jaunt Studios that is headed by former Lucasfilm CTO and Digital Domain CEO Cliff Plumer and that includes a physical production space in Los Angeles.
Jaunt’s big Series C can be seen as a sign that investors believe in the importance of non-gaming, cinematic VR content, and could possibly help other studios and production companies raise big rounds as well.
Investments in VR have been heating up in general. In the first half of 2015, VR companies raised a total of $248 million, according to data from CB Insights.NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Arkansas Razorbacks Coach Mike Anderson said he was extremely surprised when he heard Bobby Portis punched a Chicago Bulls teammate in practice Tuesday.
Portis is a former Little Rock Hall star who was SEC Player of Year for Anderson's Razorbacks as a sophomore during the 2014-2015 season. He then entered the NBA Draft and was a first-round pick by the Bulls.
"Bobby is not a hothead," Anderson said Wednesday at SEC media day. "As a matter of fact, Bobby is one of those guys that tried to calm things down [in practice]."
Anderson said Portis and Moses Kingsley had physical practices against each other at Arkansas.
"He and Moses used to go at it quite a bit," Anderson said. "But it never got to the point of anybody throwing punches."
The Bulls announced Wednesday that Portis has been suspended for eight games for punching teammate Nikola Mirotic in an altercation during Tuesday's practice. Mirotic suffered a concussion and facial fractures.
"Evidently something had to provoke Bobby," Anderson said. "I don't know the details... but I know Bobby the person. I don't think his makeup is like that.
"I guess we'll eventually get the true story."
Anderson said he hadn't talked to Portis, but they had exchanged text messages.
"I just texted him to ask if he was OK, and he texted me back that he's good," Anderson said.
Great experience
Daryl Macon said he was glad to represent the Razorbacks at SEC media day.
"It's been a great experience," Macon said. "It's something I've always wanted to do. I'm finally getting a chance to do it."
What's so great about coming to media day?
"When you're playing in this league and you're playing at this level, you want to experience lots of things," Macon said. "You don't want to just go out there and play ball.
"I mean, playing ball is fun. But there are a lot more things to experience, and coming to an event like this is a blessing."
No news
Razorbacks freshman guard Khalil Garland still hasn't been medically cleared to practice, and senior forward Arlando Cook remains on indefinite suspension.
"No update at this time," Coach Mike Anderson said.
Guardians of the game
Mike Anderson repeated at SEC media day that the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville's program has not been contacted by the FBI regarding its investigation into college basketball bribery involving coaches, agents, and shoe and clothing apparel companies to entice top recruits to sign with certain schools.
Anderson said during Arkansas media day Oct. 3 that he runs at a clean program.
"Just kind of stunned like everybody else," Anderson said Wednesday. "Just kind of taken aback when you talk about the FBI and they actually have footage [of illegal dealings].
"It's very unfortunate because this is a game that we're the guardians of when you talk about the coaches. So for something like this to come down the pike, it hits at the core.
"But at the same time, this is something that's been exposed, and maybe a lot of good will come out of it."
Anderson stressed there are many coaches who aren't involved in bribery schemes.
"I don't think it should cast a cover over the whole rim of college basketball," he said. "We've got some great coaches, great universities.
"We've got some great programs that are doing the right things. So hopefully a lot of good comes out of it."
Picked sixth
Mike Anderson said he's not paying attention to Arkansas being picked to finish sixth in the SEC in a preseason media poll.
"I don't put a whole lot into the rankings," he said. "I know you guys get tired of hearing me say this, but that's somebody's opinion.
"It's like everybody's got a behind. Well, everybody's got an opinion, too. The key is what happens when it's all said and done."
Arkansas has finished higher in the SEC than predicted the previous four seasons.
The Razorbacks were picked eighth for the 2013-2014 season and finished fifth; picked third for the 2014-2015 season and finished second; picked 11th for the 2015-2016 season and finished eighth; and picked fifth last season and finished tied for third.
"I think this will be a team to be reckoned with when it's all said and done," Anderson said. "People are kind of sleeping on us, and our players will tell you that, too.
"But they've slept on us before, so that's OK."
At a glance
Arkansas men's schedule
DATE;OPPONENT;TIME
Oct. 27;Cent. Oklahoma+;7 p.m.
Nov. 3;Missouri Western+;7 p.m.
Nov. 10;Samford;7 p.m.
Nov. 12;Bucknell;5 p.m.
Nov. 17;Fresno State;7 p.m.
Nov. 23;Oklahoma%;4 p.m.
Nov. 24;UNC/Portland%;TBA
Nov. 26;TBA%;TBA
Dec. 2;at Houston;6:30 p.m.
Dec. 5;Colorado State;7 p.m.
Dec. 9;Minnesota;5:45 p.m.
Dec. 16;Troy^;7 p.m.
Dec. 19;Oral Roberts;7 p.m.
Dec. 27;CSU Bakersfield;7 p.m.
Dec. 30;Tennessee*;TBA
Jan. 2;at Mississippi State*;8 p.m.
Jan. 6;at Auburn*;5 p.m.
Jan. 10;LSU*;8 p.m.
Jan. 13;Missouri*;5 p.m.
Jan. 17;at Florida*;6 p.m.
Jan. 20;Mississippi*;2:30 p.m.
Jan. 23;at Georgia*;5:30 p.m.
Jan. 27;Oklahoma State;5 p.m.
Jan. 30;at Texas A&M*;8 p.m.
Feb. 3;at LSU*;2:30 p.m.
Feb. 6;South Carolina*;6 p.m.
Feb. 10;Vanderbilt*;7:30 p.m.
Feb. 13;at Mississippi*;6 p.m.
Feb. 17;Texas A&M*;3 p.m.
Feb. 20;Kentucky*;8 p.m.
Feb. 24;at Alabama*;5 p.m.
Feb. 27;Auburn*;8 p.m.
Mar. 3;at Missouri*;5 p.m.
Mar. 7-11;SEC Tournament, St. Louis
*SEC game
%at Phil Knight Invitational, Portland, Ore.
^at Verizon Arena, North Little Rock
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Sports on 10/19/2017A police report has revealed that cops once found the wife of Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz with her head in hands beside a Texas expressway and was 'a danger to herself'.
According to the 2005 report which DailyMail.com highlighted in June, Heidi Cruz, 43, had walked from her home after dinner on August 22.She then sat down beside N. Mopac and Enfield in Austin, at around 10pm.
While Mrs Cruz has not spoken out publicly about the incident, an adviser to her senator husband said she had experienced 'a brief bout of depression' ten years ago in response to questions about the police report.
A concerned passerby had made the call after spotting a woman in a pink shirt was just'sitting in the area with her head in her hands.'
Scroll down for video
Family: Heidi Cruz married Republican presidential nominee in 2001 after they both campaigned for Bush
Support: Mrs Cruz left her high-powered job at Goldman Sachs to join her husband on the campaign trail
The police report, which was published heavily redacted, states that 'Cruz related to me that she had been particularly [BLANK], for the past three weeks, and was currently [BLANK]
The police report, which was published heavily redacted, states that 'Cruz related to me that she had been particularly [BLANK], for the past three weeks, and was currently [BLANK].
It continues to say that she was not on any type of medication and had not been drinking, except for 'a couple of sips' of a margarita with dinner an hour earlier.
After talking to Mrs Cruz police officer Joel Davidson, wrote in his report: 'I believed she was a danger to herself.'
Campaign: It is thought her move from Washington to DC caused her depression as she struggled to adapt
In comments made to BuzzFeed, Heidi Cruz's husband, Sen. Ted Cruz, released a statement about a period of their lives that the couple has not previously discussed in public.
'About a decade ago, when Mrs. Cruz returned from D.C. to Texas and faced a significant professional transition, she experienced a brief bout of depression,' said Jason Miller, an adviser to the senator in the statement.
'Like millions of Americans, she came through that struggle with prayer, Christian counseling, and the love and support of her husband and family.'
Mrs Cruz, who is highly successful lawyer in her own right and served under Condoleeza Rice in the National Security Council, is said to not want to speak about her recovery as she doesn't want to show off her own happy ending, a source told BuzzFeed.
The power couple married in 2001 after meeting while campaigning for George W. Bush in Texas.
They have two daughters together and Mrs Cruz has left her high powered job at Goldman Sachs to join her husband on the campaign trail in his bid to become the Republican nominee for this year's presidential elections.Schoen discusses calling matches with Ray Hudson, the soccer landscape in Florida, and more
From his base in Miami, beIN Sport’s lead soccer announcer Phil Schoen discusses South Florida’s vibrant professional soccer scene and, of course, his work with his rollicking broadcast partner Ray Hudson on more than 100 games a year.
Schoen has been one of the more recognizable voices calling soccer games on American TV for more than 20 years, first with ESPN/ABC, then on GolTV, and now on beIN Sport. The native of South Florida traces his soccer heritage back to the NASL’s Golden Era when he followed the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. Schoen spoke recently with Jack Bell of NASL.com.
Bell: What have been some of your recent career highlights?
Schoen: Getting to be a part of an international venture like beIN Sports from the outset is exciting, it’s similar to what I experienced when GolTV started. It’s energizing being a part of something new and having the chance to do it better than before. Along the way I’ve had the chance to actually call a game at the Camp Nou [in Barcelona] and the Bernabéu [in Madrid], and to do Copa América in Chile, those have been some of the high points. But I would also say getting another chance to do U.S. games with road qualifiers also has been a thrill.
Bell: OK. The obvious next question is what has it been like working with Ray Hudson?
Schoen: I’ve been blessed to be able to do what we do, and, I’m trying to think of the right way to say this – in some ways it’s a dream come true to work with Ray. He’s someone I appreciated as a player in our youth and to get a chance over the last decade-plus to work with him has been amazing. I know there are some people out there that don’t get him. I guess there’s a lot of that. But working with Ray is never boring and, in any sport, it is important to be able to both understand and explain the tactics of what you’re seeing and to convey the passion that’s going on in front of you. I think there are very few people who are able to do both in any sport. Ray is one of them.
Bell: You guys call so many games, whether it’s off monitors in Miami or on location. Do you ever worry about going stale?
Schoen: Absolutely not. It’s one of the reasons I never went out and got a goal call like some announcers do. Or in baseball a home run call. For me it’s because every goal and every game is different. Every game I watch I pick up something new, that helps to keep it fresh and to realize in many ways that it’s not about us, it’s about the game. While a lot of people draw attention to what we do, we both realize that to be able to commentate on games that contain the likes of a [Lionel] Messi or [Cristiano] Ronaldo is a big reason people are tuning in in the first place. Not much building up that needs to be done. I love what we do and we work hard to do the best we can for the people watching at home. It’s the game that is important.
Bell: It is an exciting time for professional soccer in South Florida. Miami FC is about to start its first season, under head coach Alessandro Nesta. There is certainly going to be a rivalry with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. What do you think are some of the challenges for pro soccer in the area?
Schoen: There is a huge potential market down here and I think the problem in many ways throughout the United States and specifically in South Florida is that people view the soccer market as they do the American sports market without realizing that soccer fans are different. It isn’t any more true than in South Florida. The area gets a bad rap because of the ambivalence of fans of the established sports. I think we saw a bit of potential the last year of the Miami Fusion when Doug Hamilton took over the front office and Ray took over the team on the field and captured the hearts of soccer fans. There was steady growth and excitement building in the community. Unfortunately it was cut short largely because of the economic situation of the time.
Over the last decade that potential market has grown astronomically. Some people say that whatever team comes here has got to win right away and keep winning to keep attention. I think that is a little simplistic if not utterly wrong. One thing that needs to happen is that the team has got to integrate itself into community. More importantly it has to be exciting. Even if they win there’s probably nothing more fatal than being boring. I think, from what we see now in this market, Florida will have two MLS teams, four NASL teams, six or seven NPSL teams and numerous college teams. There is a fan base out there that is waiting if not begging to be energized and entertained.
Bell: How do you think it’s all going to play out?
Schoen: Some people think putting another NASL team in South Florida is a bad idea. I’m not one of them. I think it’s taken a while to come to the realization that what we’ve seen in MLS with New York having two teams is that the market is energized more than it’s ever been. The addition of Beckham’s team could make things more difficult for [Miami FC owners] Paolo Maldini and [Riccardo] Silva, but not impossible. It could actually prove to be a net positive.
The disadvantage they [Miami FC and Fort Lauderdale] have is not much chance to go head to head [with a potential MLS team], but there will be increased attention on the sport that they will have access to. If they take advantage of that and opportunities to go head to head in friendlies and the Open Cup, that could be an opportunity to make their claim. Overall from an NASL perspective, I think the Open Cup is one aspect that has not been taken advantage of as much as could be. Back in the early days of MLS when Rochester came up and won the Open Cup, it showed that MLS was not the only avenue.
Bell: What do you make of the rivalry between Miami FC and the Strikers?
Schoen: It’s too early to tell, however, there is an awareness in the soccer community that to have the likes of Ronaldo and Maldini/Nesta can only help. However all three of them are beyond their playing days. It’s a hook, it’s an opportunity. But you still have to accomplish on the field. While the Strikers improved last season and while Miami seems to have some very good early signings in [Dane] Richards and [Wilson] Palacios especially, the final verdict has to wait until they step onto the field.
Bell: For you personally, how do you think it’s going to shake out? What excites you?
Schoen: As a fan, having grown up in the days of the Strikers and to have seen that ripped away makes me realize how valuable the sport can be, but also how tenuous it can be. I have always believed in the Florida market considering it is, arguably, among the few places in the country you can play the sport year round. And with an influx of people from around the globe it gives you a melting pot of soccer that has so much untapped talent. I think that with more pro teams down here with better coaching that comes with that, the more Floridians you will see in the national team picture. That’s something that has not always been the case. We’ve taken a back seat to California, even New Jersey. Arguably, Florida has even more talent has even more raw talent.
With the addition of Miami FC, the re-emergence of the Strikers, and all the NPSL teams in the area, it makes it much more likely that talented players will be spotted and developed rather than slipping through cracks.Chris Herhalt, CP24.com
Investigators have named a person of interest they wish to speak to in connection with the death of a homeless transgender woman found in a Rosedale ravine earlier this year.
Alloura Wells, 27, was found in a ravine near Rosedale Valley Road on Aug. 5.
Det. Sgt. Dan Sabadics said her body was found laid prone near a tent and appeared to have been there for three or four weeks.
He said the decomposition of the body hampered the effort to identify it initially.
They attempted to cross-reference it to disappearances of two transgender persons —one from Alberta and another from northern Ontario — but neither was a DNA match.
On Nov. 6, members of Wells’ family reported her missing to 51 Division.
Her father, Mike Wells, told CP24 that he was disappointed with police when he reported her disappearance, as they suggested her disappearance was not unusual because of her situation.
“The gentleman came up with a bunch of excuses why my kid’s missing. But as a parent, you know something was wrong. Because it was totally out of character, that’s what I told the officer, it was out of character,” Mike Wells told CP24 Friday.
On Friday, Chief Mark Saunders said the interaction between Wells’ father and police presented an opportunity for police to improve.
“Call it intake, when someone’s calling in, an element of sensitivity is something that is necessary – realizing what the circumstances are, is something that can go a long way,” Saunders said.
Wells told CP24 Friday he met with Chief Saunders privately and received an apology about how the case was handled.
“We had a decent meeting – he apologized again. He was very emphatic about everything, he listened to what I had to say, especially toward the gay community,” Mike Wells said.
Saunders said that officers from the professional standards section would be looking at the Wells case as part of a broader review of how Toronto police handle missing persons cases.
Sabadics said the police are still looking to speak with a man believed to be the last person to see Wells alive, sometime in early July. He was identified as Augustinus Balesdent, in his late 20s or early 30s.
Wells’ time of death has been estimated at July 15. Her cause of death is undetermined at this point.
Sabadics stressed that Wells’ body was badly decomposed when it was found, but all examination to this point has not revealed any sign of foul play.
Balesdent is asked to call 53 Division.xNightshade 22 asked:
A simple question for you. Why don't they put all the anime streaming services together on one platform and charge a monthly fee for it? I believe this is a crucial reason why people use pirate sites to watch anime and why these companies are losing money to those sites. With that being said if they did do that, it could potentially cut the costs of obtaining licenses for shows so they split the costs between each other to post them on a single website.
What you are essentially asking for is for all of the companies who license anime to stop competing and put all their anime under one umbrella service, much like Funimation and Crunchyroll did, so that you can have all your anime in one place for one low price. I can understand why you want that. But it is a terrible idea in practice.
It's funny, consumers used to love competition. Competition meant that nobody could jack up prices too far without sticking out, and had to put out a high quality product, because if they didn't, the competition would. Because of competition, companies have to work hard to keep customers happy, because if they don't, the consumer can always go to the other guy. Competition, so long as it's kept in check, generally keeps markets healthy and functioning. Lack of competition -- monopolies, to put a name on it -- creates slow, lazy companies who don't try very hard to impress anybody. There's a whole host of reasons why monopolies are bad for consumers, the market, and tend to abuse their market power. Just think of your local cable company for a good example.
One of the strange things about the internet era is that the internet loves monopolies. Think of any one website category and you can probably immediately identify one clear, uncontested market winner, and maybe a few also-rans that nobody takes seriously. Want to search for stuff? You go to Google. Want an email account? Gmail is your best bet. Video game livestreaming? Everybody uses Twitch. Pretty much every other form of livestreaming? If it's not YouTube, people grumble. General shopping? Amazon is the first place you go. While a few competitors have found small niches to carve for themselves, nobody even attempts to compete with these companies head-on anymore. Nobody would even take them seriously.
While the quality of those services remain high, you don't have to look very far to find complaints of these companies abusing their power, be it with snooping on customers' private data and selling it to advertisers, strong-arming product manufacturers, or manipulating news feeds. If any of these companies had significant competition on those spaces, they might be forced to be better or more transparent in order to win customer trust. But that won't happen, because you don't really have a choice.
What would happen if we had a total monopoly in anime streaming? It's hard to predict. Probably not a lot at first, and things would seem pretty good. But after a while the company would get complacent, and stop trying so hard. Companies that simulcast today pretty much break themselves in the rush to license, subtitle, dub and encode tens of hours of anime every week. I would bet that after a while we would stop getting shows so quickly. And the fees being paid to Japan for them would probably go down.
Anime production in Japan is increasingly dependent on license fees from companies that stream to the West. Without competition for new shows, those license fees would decline substantially. Japanese anime producers are so concerned about this that, six years ago when Crunchyroll had a near-total monopoly, several of them cooperated to start a site called Daisuki to compete with them. The site had a lot of problems, fans didn't like it, and it failed, but other competition sprung up eventually.
The current companies streaming anime are pretty unlikely to work together, in my estimation. Amazon has zero incentive to work with Funimation and/or Crunchyroll. The whole point of their content-buying odyssey is to boost their streaming service to the point where people consider it competition to Netflix. The only way they'd be interested is if they bought both companies to add their subscribers (and given the current owners of both companies, I don't see that ever happening). HIDIVE isn't much of a thing yet. Hulu is still getting stuff from Viz, who has their own priorities (that don't include any of the previously mentioned companies). For all of these companies to work together, they'd have to have identical goals and ambitions that compliment each other. That doesn't seem very likely.
You could say that the pirate sites are competition enough, and unfair ones at that (since they don't have to license, translate or dub anything). And it's true that not being able to get everything immediately for very cheap all in one place might be pushing some more people to stream illegally. But having a sustainable competitive ecosystem is important too, and balancing that with keeping services affordable to fans is the only way anybody in this industry is going to make a living.
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this i first make juniper montage full body but this too hard if i drawing thisin today official release my little pony the movie in 6 octoberso congratulations official release my little pony the movie i hope someone will like,if you want watch don't forget booking official ticketVCDS® with HEX-NET® Enthusiast
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The HEX-NET WiFi/USB Interface communicates with VCDS by wireless WiFi or by wired USB, turning a Windows® PC into a factory level diagnostic tool for VW, Audi, Seat or Skoda automobiles. Also, at no additional cost, embedded in the HEX-NET is our new VCDS-Mobile® software which enables most smart devices with WiFi and a web browser to perform VCDS like diagnostics on non-PC devices. The number of vehicles is managed by VIN (Vehicle Identification Number). VCDS-Mobile is a "Beta" product.
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No software or printed documentation is shipped with this product. Software and documentation must be downloaded from the Ross-Tech web site.Unidentified individuals or groups posted stickers saying “it’s okay to be white” around Cambridge, Mass. Wednesday morning.
Police were sent to investigate the matter, and officials asked the Department of Public Works to remove the stickers. The stickers were posted “on light poles and electrical boxes around Cambridge Common and Harvard Square” in the heart of |
.espChooseof these to use, otherwise the last.esp loaded will take effect. Note that the first file, CarryWeight100.esp reduces your base carry weight.If you are installing via Nexus Mod Manager simply choose the desired file when activating the mod.There are fiveoptions for modifying your bonus carry weight:CarryWeight5Strength.espCarryWeight25Strength.espCarryWeight50Strength.espCarryWeight100Strength.espCarryWeight200Strength.espAgain, choose onlyof these.esps to use. Again, select the desired rate when installing. Note that the first file reduces strength gain from levels.Note that the Bonus and Default Carry Weight mods are independent of one another. You can use just the default carry weight mod, just the bonus carry weight mod, or both! Or none I suppose.player.modav strength 1player.modav strength -1This will update your carry weight without changing your other stats.The Nintendo of America President, Reggie Fils-Aime, has sat down in an interview with Polygon to talk about the Wii U and its somewhat troubled start. Reggie reckons the bumpy start for the Wii U is down to the lack of good games that showed the console off at launch. Miyamoto has also been speaking about the struggles of the Wii U and what factors he thinks are responsible. The sales tend to speed up and slow down again every so often, but they’re hoping the current momentum will continue. He said:
“This industry is all about content. I can map out why the Wii took off at launch, it had two killer pieces at launch: Twilight Princess, Wii Sports. Look at our DS business. Our DS business was OK, but it was the launch of DS Lite, the launch of Nintendogs, the launch of the first New Super Mario Bros. where that system sort of dramatically took off.”
“So what happened with Wii U? Once the software came that showcased the capabilities of the system, guess what happened? The hardware took off.”
“I think it began holiday of 2013 as we prepped those launches that gave us some momentum. Then Mario Kart 8 hit, then it was Smash. I think it really was holiday of ’13, when we started to get the momentum.”CLOSE USA TODAY Sports' Laken Litman previews the second Women's World Cup match between the U.S. and Sweden. USA TODAY Sports
Hope Solo is scheduled to start for the U.S. women when they play Sweden on Friday. (Photo11: Bruce Fedyck, USA TODAY Sports)
U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo, soccer's Ray Rice without the video, will be on the field Friday in Winnipeg when the U.S. soccer team plays its second game of the 2015 Women's World Cup.
She shouldn't be.
The powerful, 5-9, 150-pound veteran, charged nearly a year ago with beating her half-sister and nephew in an ongoing case that has not been resolved, should have been suspended by U.S. Soccer right then.
Because the sport's leaders did nothing at the time, they should do it now. They won't, of course, because Solo is just too valuable to the team when it matters most, in the vitally important games being played in the highest profile and most prestigious tournament in the world.
What a statement that is: The renowned U.S. women's national soccer team, which has historically stood for what is best in sports, and the best of us, is now protecting -- even promoting -- an alleged domestic abuser.
Just nine months after our nation embarked on a conversation about the horrors of domestic violence, a topic that carries on to this day in the NFL and throughout society, U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati and the federation's other leaders continue to fail to take domestic abuse by a woman seriously.
By doing nothing when the issue first arose, Gulati ensured that it would come to a head at the worst possible time: during the Women's World Cup, as the U.S. prepares to play Sweden in the second game of group play.
That it has. On Thursday afternoon, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., released a letter he sent to Gulati, calling for U.S. Soccer to "conduct a thorough investigation into this incident.
"In the interim," Blumenthal wrote, "I urge U.S. Soccer to reconsider Hope Solo's position as an active member of Team USA. As boys and girls tune in to Friday's game, watching the women on TV as role models, it sends exactly the wrong message to start Hope Solo at goal."
Blumenthal, who was outspoken in his criticism of the NFL's handling of the Rice incident last year, told me in a phone interview Thursday afternoon that U.S. Soccer's lack of action was troubling.
"It's the attitude that is most offensive here in my view," he said. "This is a profoundly important issue of domestic violence that U.S. Soccer has an obligation to at least review and investigate, which it so far really has declined to do."
Solo was arrested last June and charged with punching her 17-year-old nephew in the face and tackling him during an argument at Solo's half-sister's Kirkland, Wash., home. The teen's mother told ESPN that Solo "grabbed him by the head and she kept slamming him into the cement over and over again." When she tried to intervene, Solo allegedly attacked her as well.
According to police reports obtained by the Seattle Times and ESPN, when officers arrived on the scene, the nephew's T-shirt was torn and he had scratch marks on his arms and a bleeding cut on his ear.
Solo pleaded not guilty to two counts of misdemeanor domestic violence. Her case was originally dismissed on procedural grounds, but prosecutors have filed an appeal and arguments are set to begin July 13, according to ESPN.
The U.S. soccer team and its supporters will no doubt blame Blumenthal and the news media for creating this controversy at the worst possible time, but 100% of the blame for this debacle should fall at the feet of Gulati, who has never taken the Solo news seriously enough.
Gulati and U.S. Soccer were shown the way by the NFL after the Rice elevator video surfaced on Sept. 8, 2014. They failed to take it. The NFL immediately suspended its abusers, alleged and real. U.S. Soccer did no such thing.
In fact, Teresa Obert, Solo's half sister, told ESPN that neither she nor her son was contacted by U.S. Soccer.
(As a comparison, the WNBA certainly got the message. It suspended both Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson for seven games each after their domestic violence arrests in April.)
What an irony this is: Gulati, the man who has been so vocal in voicing his concern for transparency and modernity in corrupt-to-the-core FIFA, blundering so badly when given the chance to take a stand with the nation's most beloved and iconic women's team -- on an issue that is so vitally important to women.
CLOSE For The Win's Laken Litman asked fans outside of Winnipeg Stadium about their choice in wearing Hope Solo jerseys.
GALLERY: HOPE SOLO THROUGH THE YEARSby BRIAN NADIG
Residents living near the site of a proposed five-unit condominium at 5629 W. Higgins Ave., where a single-family home would be demolished, expressed parking and density concerns about the project at a Jan. 27 community meeting.
“We’ll talk to the developer about the number of units and see if there is any flexibility there,” Alderman John Arena (45th) said at the end of the hour-long meeting, which about 30 people attended. New construction would be limited to one house or a two-flat under the site’s existing RS-3 zoning, while the proposed RT-4 permits up to five units.
Several residents said that the proposed building would worsen the parking congestion on Higgins and on nearby side streets. “You’re putting five families on a footprint where there was one,” one man said
About two thirds of the existing residential buildings on the block are multi-family structures, according to project architect John Hanna.
Project attorney Mark Kupiec said that the project would include five outdoor parking spaces which would be accessible from a rear alley and that a curb cut on Higgins in front of the property would be closed off, creating two additional on-street spaces.
Kupiec said that higher density on the site makes sense given its proximity to the Jefferson Park CTA Terminal, 4917 N. Milwaukee Ave. He said that an increasing number of people, especially younger adults, are seeking easy access to public transportation and that they want to reduce the number of cars for their family.
“There is a trend away from the cars. Insurance is experience, and cars are expensive,” Kupiec said.
A landlord of a nearby building said that he is seeing the trend described by Kupiec, but several residents disagreed. “If you have five units, you’re going to have 10 cars,” one woman said.
A six-unit building near the proposed site regularly has 12 cars parked behind it, as the cars are stacked one behind the other into the six parking spaces provided, according to a resident at the meeting.
“We can look at what we can do to manage parking in the area,” Arena said. “We can give you tools to mitigate it.”
Arena recommended that permit zone parking be implemented for nearby side streets and that his office has the petitions which can be used to start the process of collecting support signatures from residents. The cost for zone parking is $25 per year for each car.
Under the proposal, the two-story building would have three condominiums units on the first floor and two on the second floor. The first-floor units would include a basement.
The asking price for the units would average $250,000, according to project developer Wojciech Lejman. Two of the units would have three bedrooms and three baths, while the other units would have two bedrooms and either two or 11/2 baths.
The building’s facade would include red brick and limestone, and rear and front decks are planned.
Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association Zoning Committee chairman Ron Ernst urged the developer to build under the current zoning. “The neighborhood association opposes all zoning changes like this. When you bought the property, you knew the zoning was for single-family or two-flat,” he said. “Zoning is about the quality of life for everyone in the neighborhood.”
Arena said that the single-family character on area side streets should be protected but that “modest density” is appropriate along arterial streets and near transit centers. He said that if ruled out all up-zoning requests, Jefferson Park would not get the type of investment it needs to attract more stores to the area.
“We’re looking to concentrate the density on the commercial corridor,” Arena said.
While Higgins is an arterial street, the 5600 block is almost exclusively residential, said a woman at the meeting. “We deserve a quiet street,” she said.Bandai is at the 2016 International Tokyo Toy Show, showing off some model kits from both their Star Wars and Dragon Ball lines. A 1:2 scale BB-8? More Battle Droids and Clone Troopers to make the wait even harder. And then another shot of S.H. Figuarts EPII Obi-Wan Kenobi. Whew.
For those who don’t listen to me go on and on about the Bandai Star Wars figure model kits on The Fwoosh YouTube channel, the next releases in the line are Clone Troopers and Battle Droids. Clones are due this month while the Droids come out in August.
The Clone Troopers include both Phase 1 and Phase 2 helmets, two weapons, and macrobinoculars. I already love the classic Stormtrooper model kit so I’m anticipating a lot of the Clones coming home to rest on my shelf.
The Battle Droid includes the STAP vehicle. Like the Figuarts, the droid itself can fold down to transport position. While the Figuarts version is awesome I think the model will be slightly larger to better fit the overall collection, but the addition of a vehicle bumps the price up to about $37. A little heavy for crazy army building but I can see a few of these in the toy room.
These mashups are included in the display but I’m pretty sure they are customs, showing the possibilities of the out-of-the-box model. Damn fine customs, though.
On the Star Wars vehicle model front, we’re finally getting a 1:72 scale Millenium Falcon, along with Poe Dameron’s X-wing.
Weirdest of all though, Bandai is displaying a 1:2 scale BB-8 model kit. We already have a 1:12 scale version, and it was a blast to build, but half scale? That’s crazy talk, mister. I would write this off as a display piece for the booth, like the 1:12 scale Vader’s TIE Fighter that we’ve seen a couple of times, but this BB-8 has a placard and everything. Of course, Bandai is Bandai and we’ve seen placards with more than a few Star Wars S.H. Figuarts figures in displays that have not yet seen the light of day. So we shall see.
But don’t let me fool you. If this does see pre-order I’ll be buying it. Still crazy, but I now need it.
And then there’s a line where I don’t know the property in-depth but it’s a figure model kit line so it’s on my list now. Dragon Ball Figure-rise.
The Figure-rise Standard and Mechanics Dragon Ball display is about the same as we saw at the Shizuoka Hobby Show. But Bandai did release this awesome commercial, giving more info on Series 2 and 3.
Poor Vegeta.
Series 1 is Super Saiyan Son Goku and Frieza and is coming this month.
Series 2 is Super Saiyan 2 Son Gohan and Cell.
Series 3 will be Super Saiyan 3 Son Goku and Majin Buu.
Finally, here’s another look at the S.H. Figuarts Star Wars EPII Obi-Wan. It looks like this release will also come with Qui-Gon’s lightsaber for some reason. Quit teasing and make with the Qui-Gon, Bandai!
Obi-Wan will drop in November.
Pics via Tag Hobby and Dengeki Hobby Web
Like this: Like Loading...For SpaceX, every flight is the real deal. It’s that way for any rocket company. But this time around, more than in the past, the private company contracted with NASA is flying without a safety net.
Sunday, if all goes well, at 8:30 p.m. ET, a Falcon 9 Rocket with a Dragon capsule on top will lift off from launch pad 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
This will be the first of a dozen NASA-contracted flights to resupply the international space Station, at a total cost of $1.6 billion.
Symbolically, this flight is huge. In May, SpaceX carried out a successful test flight that attached a spacecraft to the international space station, making it the first company to do so. But if something had gone wrong, another test flight would have been put in place. Now, there's no alternative.
On this flight, the Dragon capsule is filled with 1,000 pounds of cargo, everything from low-sodium food kits to clothing and computer hard drives.
Much of Dragon’s cargo is material to support extensive experimentation aboard the space station. One deals with plant growth. Plants here on earth use about 50% of their energy for support to overcome gravity. Researchers want to understand how the genes that control that process would operate in microgravity - when objects are in free-fall in space. Down the road, that could benefit food supplies here on the planet.
The spacecraft is also carrying nearly two dozen microgravity experiments designed and being flown through the Student Experiment Spaceflight Program. More than 100 students and teachers and family members will be at Cape Canaveral for the launch.
SpaceX is not the only commercial company in the spacefaring business. Within the next few months, Orbital Sciences is expected to fly its own demonstration flight to the space station. But Orbital is not using Cape Canaveral as its launch site. The company’s rocket will take off from Wallops Island of the coast of Virginia. Orbital has a nearly $2 billion contract with NASA for station resupply missions.
Of course, SpaceX founder Elon Musk is looking well beyond just these cargo flights to the Station. SpaceX is one of three companies - Boeing and Sierra Nevada are the other two - NASA has selected to continue work developing a human rated spacecraft that would carry astronauts to the International Space Station. The SpaceX plan is to modify the Dragon capsule to carry people.
Musk said in a previous interview with CNN, “We believe firmly we can send astronauts to the space station within three years of receiving a NASA contract.” Right now, the United States must rely on Russia to get astronauts to the station at a cost of about $60 million a seat. Musk believes he can get the job done for a seat price of about $20 million.
So far, SpaceX has made the ongoing transition from the Space Shuttle to private ferry flights look somewhat easy. But Musk admits there is nothing easy about rocket science. “When I started SpaceX it's not as though I thought rockets were easy. I mean, I did think they were hard. But, it ended up being even harder than that.”
If the launch goes off on time Sunday, the Dragon spacecraft will catch up with the Space Station early Wednesday morning. Station Commander Sunita Williams and Aki Hoshide from the Japanese Space Agency will use the robotic arm to grab Dragon and berth it to the station.
In late October, Dragon will head back to Earth for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.The 12 final entries carry out youth issues including child labor, youth in conflict with the law, out-of-school-youth, teenage pregnancy, and mental health
Published 12:36 PM, August 06, 2017
MANILA, Philippines – Still wondering what to do over the upcoming long weekend on August 19-21? Why not spend it watching socially-relevant films?
On August 16-22, the National Youth Commission (NYC) will be showing the 12 short films that made the cut for the Sine Kabataan Short Film Competition, in line with the celebration of the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (Festival of Philippine Films).
Tackling social issues affecting the youth like HIV, bullying, and teenage pregnancy among others, NYC said the competition aims to provide a platform for aspiring young filmmakers and become a "vehicle to engage them in advocating public awareness of youth issues through their short films."
“Kung hindi mismo sa’yo, maaaring ang issue na tinalakay ay kwento ng kaibigan mo, ng kamag-anak mo, o ng kapatid mo,” NYC Chairperson Aiza Seguerra said in a statement.
(If it does not directly happen to you, the issue could affect your friend, your relative, or your sibling.)
Encouraging everyone to support the film festival, Seguerra also reiterated the importance of watching the Sine Kabataan short films that are driven by the current issues affecting the youth.
The short films for PPP will be shown in cinemas nationwide on August 16-22. Here are the 12 finalists:
AKALINGWAN NANG ROSA
Directed by Max Canlas, this film tells the story of a 50-year old transwoman who lost her memories. She recollects her past with the help of her 7-year-old daughter.
ALIPATO
A mother who longs for her daughter copes with the distance by listening to her recorded voice messages. The two are about to visit Hong Kong together until an unforeseen event occurs. This film is directed by Jao Manahan.
DELAYED SI JHEMERLYN ROSE
Directed by Don Senoc, the film tells the story of an 18-year-old college freshman, Jhemerlyn Rose. In the film, she informs her boyfriend Jogbert that her period is 5 days delayed. What follows is a series of attempts to control the situation.
DOROTHY (A GOD’S GIFT)
Brought by a mistake in a relationship, a 19-year-old girl faces an unwanted pregnancy. When everything in her life becomes miserable, she finds herself stuck in the situation. This short film is directed by Angelique Evangelista.
FAT YOU
A fat girl named Trixie is invited to a class reunion. Bullied before because of her physical appearance, she is afraid to show up. Will she attend the reunion as she is? Or will she show up as a new Trixie? This movie is directed by Ronnel Rivera III.
HARAYA
Directed by Daniel Delgado, Haraya tells the story of Jude who seems like a typical teenage boy living a normal life. He has a small group of friends by his side all the time, and a girlfriend, Eunice, whom he is head over heels for. However, things would change when he realizes something important in his life.
ANG KAPITBAHAY KO SA 2014
At present, people would identify friends as those they see on the screens of their monitors or phones. This film, directed by Anya Zulueta, explores the issue of social dynamics through a screen: a window screen, and whether it ulltimately makes “interaction” mean any less.
ANG UNANG ARAW NG PASUKAN
The film, directed by Ar-Jen Manlapig, tells the story of a 10-year-old boy from a family struggling in poverty who wakes up to what seems to be an enticing day. Having only his dreams and determination with him, he goes on his way for the first day of school.
MAKARTUR
Makartur believes that if you study hard, you will be able to achieve your dreams. But when he meets Maginhawa, a homeless orphan who spends her days in the playground, Makartur realizes he has to help her. After all, not being able to go to school should not get in the way of getting an education. The film is directed by Brian Spencer Reyes.
PAHIMAKAS
In this film directed by Lance E. Maravillas, a daughter writes a letter full of grief and regret.
SHADED
Indulging in the sweetness and pleasures of life, Ivan Rosales has been living the good life. Like a day that ends, however, the idea of perfect happiness turns into an illusion. This short film is directed by Vanessa Estanol.
YA RIGHT
The film, directed by Gab Mesina, features an unusual but relatable conversation between two adolescent girls about their dreams and the family traditions that force them to confront their own realities.
The NYC has received a total of 185 entries since May 12, 2017, when it made a call for submissions for short film stories about youth issues, including values, child labor, youth in conflict with the law, out-of-school-youth, teenage pregnancy and mental health.
The best picture will receive P50,000 while the jury’s choice will receive P30,000. Special awardees will receive P15,000 while the rest willl receive P5,000 as consolation prizes. – Rappler.comWest Ham are set to re-sign striker Carlton Cole
The 29-year-old, who has won seven caps for England, is undergoing a medical with a view to signing on a short-term contract.
It comes after the Hammers missed out on three international strikers on transfer deadline day.
Former Chelsea frontman Cole, 29, made 237 appearances for West Ham over seven years, scoring 59 goals.
Manager Sam Allardyce said at the time of Cole's release in late May: "Carlton's need at his age is to be playing football as often as he can. We felt it better he found pastures new."
Cole's West Ham years Appearances: 237
Goals: 59
England caps: seven
Cole scored the opening goal in West Ham's Championship play-off final victory over Blackpool in 2012.
2012-13 appearances/goals: 29/2
West Ham made four senior summer signings in and winger Stewart Downing from Liverpool, left-back Razvan Rat from Shakhtar Donetsk and goalkeeper Adrian from Betis.
They have three experienced strikers - Carroll, Modiba Maiga and Ricardo Vaz Te.
The Hammers confirmed in a statement they were looking at striker signings throughout Monday and also turned down several other offers.
"Joint-chairman David Sullivan and manager Sam Allardyce did spend all night on Monday trying to sign one of three international strikers, but all opted for the lure of European football instead," it read.
"Importantly, the board also turned down bids for several first-team players in the last week of the window as they are determined to give the squad the best chance possible of bettering last season's 10th-placed Premier League finish."Lammergeier Mountain Challenge 2013
As you might have seen in the “Events” section of our site, the Lammergeier Mountain Challenge (sometimes also referred to as the Lammergeier Half Marathon) is drawing near. This exciting trail running event challenges trail runners to conquer the mountain by taking on the third-steepest mountain pass in South Africa.
The Lammergeier Mountain Challenge / Lammergeier Half Marathon
The Lammergeier Mountain Challenge will be taking place on the 29th of September 2013, starting at 7am from the Lady Grey Country Club.
For the more serious trail runners, there are two options to choose from:
The 24km Classic Lammergeier Mountain Challenge
The 32km Extreme Lammergeier Half Marathon
The Lammergeier Mountain Challenge Extreme Route
The Extreme route takes you through the picturesque town of Lady Grey, after which you head out towards the Southern Drakensberg mountains of the Eastern Cape. Your stamina is tested during your ascent along the the old Lesotho trek path, which takes you to the highest point in the challenge at approximately the 11km mark. The trail continues straight on up to the tower path, leading you to the top of the 3rd highest mountain pass in South Africa, the Jouberts Pass. After running a further 2km on the gravel road, you will turn left onto a foot path. Once you reach the 21km mark, you start a steep descent back into town, to the finish at the Lady Grey Country Club.
Medals
Gold medals are awarded to the top three male and top three female finishers in both categories.
Silver medals are awarded to those trail runners who finish the race within 2hr45
Bronze medals are awarded finishers within the cut-off time.
The Lammergeier Mountain Challenge Fun Run
If your fitness level isn’t quite on par with the rigours of mountain trail running you could always enter the 5km Lammergeier Fun Run. The Fun Run also allows Classic and Extreme entrants to involve their families, to get the kids off the couch and out into the fresh mountain air and gorgeous scenery. No advance booking necessary. Simply join us on the day.
Accommodation for the Lammergeier Mountain Challenge
There is accommodation aplenty here at Lammergeier Highlands Reserve for Lammergeier Mountain Challenge participants and their families. Visit our
Accommodation page to see what’s on offer. We look forward to hosting you here.
How to Enter the Lammergeier Mountain Challenge
Make sure you don’t miss out.
Secure your place in the race by e-mailing the organiser, Pieter du Preez, at lammergeyer.mc@gmail.com, or even quicker,
Secure your place online at Trailrunning.co.za
Entries cost R120 per runner and close on the 26th of September. We regret no late entries will be accepted.
You can load up on some carbs with a delicious pasta dinner at the Lady Grey Country Club for R35 per person. Bookings essential. Simply send an email to info@adventuretrails.co.za with Mountain Challenge Meal Deal in the header and the details of your booking in your message.Kevin Sully | On 12, May 2014
Photo via TrackTownPhoto
If you were to look at a list of marks from this weekend’s professional track meets, you would probably think the times came from a meet in July or August. From the Doha Diamond League meet on Friday through Saturday’s Grand Prix in Tokyo, the times were fast and the competition was deep. As always, the marks are just part of the story. Let’s dive a bit deeper.
The Medalists
The top three performances of the week
Gold: Asbel Kiprop
Kiprop won the 1,500 in Doha with a world-leading 3:29.18. Behind him five other runners ran under 3:31. Six runners in total ran personal bests, including the Olympic champion Taofuik Makloufi who finished fourth. Kiprop had the help of ambitious rabbits who set a fast early pace, but he closing speed was devastating. He covered the last lap in 54.50 and sprinted with relative ease to open up a gap on Silas Kiplagat and Ayanleh Souleiman.
Running this fast this year in the season backs up Kiprop’s world record talk. When he outlined his goals in January he said, “Honestly, it’s my goal for 2014 to run 3:26 if not 3:25. The world record’s my main target.”
Last year, Kiprop ran surprisingly close to Hicham El-Guerrouj’s world record of 3:26.00 in Monaco when he posted an uncontested 3:27.72. Even with that time, the world record still seemed to be outside of Kiprop’s grasp.
So does a 3:29.18 in May mean Kiprop has a legit chance at the mark? It very well might, but remember Kiprop traditionally runs fast in May. Here is a look at his last few seasons:
Though his time from Friday is the fastest he has run this early, it isn’t abnormal. Kiprop usually runs very close to his eventual season best in May. The lone exception was last year, when he shaved off 3.41 seconds between from Doha to Monaco. He would need something similar this year– a 3.18 second improvement to tie El-Guerrouj’s world record. With no championships to challenge him, he should have many chances. Rieti and Monaco both have fast tracks, but the question might come down to pacing. The list of rabbits who can run around 2:48 for a 1,200 is very short.
Silver: Hellen Obiri
She crushed Genzebe Dibaba (and as a result most fantasy track and field teams) with a 8:20.68 in Doha. Like the men’s 1500, an incredibly deep field finished behind her. Mercy Cherono finished second in 8:21.64 and Dibaba’s 8:26.21 was only good enough for sixth. 17 women finished the race. 10 ran personal bests. Obiri’s 8:20 is the 7th best time in history and is the fastest time not run on September 12th or 13th 1993.
We should have known Obiri’s was sharp after her demolition of the 1,500 field at the Drake Relays two weeks ago. Still many of us, myself included, looked at Dibaba as the clear favorite after her three world records this winter. Obiri shut her and the rest of the field down in the final 400 meters. Though there were six women together at the bell, Obiri blasted a 61.58 last lap and Cherono was the only woman anywhere close at the finish.
We did it with the men’s 1,500, so let’s now discuss the possibility of the women’s 3,000 world record being broken. Both Obiri and Cherono hinted after the race that it was a possibility. The IAAF’s ran the headline “Obiri and Cherono Warn Wang Her 3,000M Record May Finally Be Challenged.”
Notice the word choice–may finally be challenged.
Not broken, eclipsed or erased but challenged. Wang Junxia’s 8:06 is under no threat. Not by Obiri, Cherono, Dibaba or any woman in this generation of runners.
An 8:06 is roughly a 2.8% improvement from 8:20. A similar improvement in the men’s 1,500 world record (3:26) is 3:20. Put another way, Obiri would have had to run almost two seconds faster per lap or back-to-back 4:03s in the 1,500. It’s not going to happen unless Obiri can hop onto the same magic track in Beijing that Wang, and the three other women who broke 8:20, competed on during the Chinese championships in 1993.
Bronze: Men’s High Jump
Five men went over 7-9 ¼ (2.37 meters) this week. Ivan Ukhov won the Doha competition in 7-10 ¾ with Derek Drouin, Erik Kynard, Mutaz Essa Barshim all finishing at 7-9 ¼. Then on Saturday, Ukhov returned to face Bohdan Bondarenko in Tokyo. Bondarenko cleared 7-10 ½ to best Ukhov.
This is shaping up to be a historic year in the men’s high jump. Not just with the depth, but with multiple athletes having the ability to challenge Javier Sotomayor’s 8-0 ½ world record from 1993. In an era of hyper-specialization and geographic dominance in most events groups, it is interesting to see that all five over 2.37 this weekend hail from different countries–United States, Russia, Canada, Ukraine, Qatar.
Surging….
-Lashawn Merritt
Lost in the shuffle of the deep distance races in Doha were some interesting head-to-heads. Lashawn Merritt bounced back from his loss last week to Luguelin Santos to take the men’s 400 in 44.44, equalling his world leading time. Youssef Masrahi finished second in 44.77 and Santos struggled in fifth with a time of 44.94.
Merritt looked like a different runner than he did when he was caught at the line in Kingston. Perhaps I got ahead of myself when I suggested last week that Santos could crash the rivalry between Merritt and Kirani James this season. Probably why you shouldn’t make broad statements after one race.
-Mohammed Aman
Of all the distance races in Doha, the men’s 800 was really the only one where the competitors showed some rust. Not having David Rudisha probably slowed things down a bit as well. After not following the rabbit, Aman caught Nijel Amos in the homestretch to win in 1:44.49. Amos, the Olympic silver medalist who disappeared last year amid reports that he might give up running to become a DJ, held on for second place.
Somehow Duane Solomon’s non-paced 1:43.88 from Mt. SAC is still the world lead.
-Christo Landry
The American won his second US road racing title of the season at the River Bank Run in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Landry tied the American US 25K record, finishing in a time of 1:14:18. In April, Landry won the US 10-mile title in Washington DC. Future marathoner Chris Solinsky ran the longest race of his career and finished in 3rd place in 1:16:43.
Slowing….
-Genzebe Dibaba
The triple world record holder was left at the bell in Doha. She eventually finished in 8:26.21, good enough for a personal best outdoors, but she was a spectator in the final lap. While the 8:26 is nothing to get too concerned about, it is far off the 8:16.60 that she ran when she set the world record indoors. For how potent Dibaba has been in the winter, she hasn’t been nearly as effective outdoors in the spring or summer. Maybe she runs better in smaller fields when she can dictate the pace. On Friday, she got stuck at the front for the latter part of the race and she still had five other women sitting on her should when she hit the bell.
There is also the possibility that she overcooked the indoor season and hasn’t quite recovered fully from that whirlwind couple months where she set world records in the 1500, 3000, 2-mile and won the World Indoor Championships.
-English Gardner
Gardner, a multiple time NCAA champion, has struggled in her first full season as a professional. She was handily beaten by her former teammate Jenna Prandini at the Mt. SAC Relays, placed seventh in 11.50 at the Jamaica Invitational and finished last with a 11.57 clocking in Doha.
Surprising results for someone who was routinely running low 11s last year despite competing in multiple events for the Ducks. This season, she hasn’t been a factor in any of her races and is losing to women she beat easily last year.
-Allyson Felix
After about a month of professional meets, it doesn’t look like any American sprinter will push Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce this year. Her main rival over 200, Allyson Felix, has yet to debut despite planning to race twice in the past two weeks. The Felix question is best summed up by Nick Zaccardi:
Interesting that Allyson Felix flew to Grand Cayman, did the pre-meet press conference and then didn’t run (for a second straight meet). — Nick Zaccardi (@nzaccardi) May 8, 2014
-Moses Mosop
Mosop embodies the fragile line between elite and irrelevant in the marathon. He debuted at the distance in 2011 Boston Marathon where he ran 2:03:06 and finished four seconds behind the winner, Geoffrey Mutai (in retrospect, his proximity to Mutai is more impressive than his time). That fall, he won the Chicago Marathon and broke Sammy Wanjiru’s course record. Since then, it has been rough going. Mosop has been injured and inconsistent for much of the last three years. On Sunday, he finished 12th at the Prague Marathon in 2:20:37.
Under the Radar
-Kemi Adekoya
In Doha, the Nigerian turned Bahrainian ran a world-leading 54.59 in the 400 hurdles. The time is a personal best by over two seconds and her first result since 2012. That year she ran 57.22 and signed with the University of Houston. However, she never competed for the Cougars and didn’t appear in any results that I could find for all of 2013. Fast forward a year and she switched nationalities, got a bunch faster and won a Diamond League race out of lane one.
-Jenny Simpson
Jesse devoted an entire section of his pro recap |
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As Boyer et al. found, people are willing to modify their behavior in order to reduce risks, but this is only possible if they know what the actual risks are. Unfortunately, there are severe problems with partisan, policy-driven information sources. While the quality of government-sponsored sources has improved over the last decade, sites such as Freevibe.com, a youth-oriented website funded by the federal government, still include laughable exaggerations like “heart and lung failure“[27] as a general effect of hallucinogens—a deceptive claim they have made for more than eight years. Scientific literature reviews on the most common hallucinogens do not support their claims; most recently, Johns Hopkins researchers found that, “hallucinogens generally possess relatively low physiological toxicity and have not been shown to result in organ damage.”[28] Once people realize that a source is deceptive, as is the case for those teens visiting Freevibe who know someone who has tried LSD or psilocybin-containing (“magic”) mushrooms, they will be inclined to distrust all information from that source.
Public information sources should prioritize accuracy and completeness over maintaining a single, politically driven message. It is inconsistent with the democratic ideals of American culture to corrupt information in order to support public policies. The issues are complex and sources should reflect that.
In government-sponsored information, the benefits of disapproved drug use are absent, a void obvious to all but the least curious reader. Individuals try psychoactives largely based on the belief that they will be beneficial in some way: fun, enlightening, anti-depressive, anxiolytic, inhibition-reducing, etc. A recent study has confirmed what many users of “magic” mushrooms have described for decades: In the right context, the effects can be profound and can improve quality of life. According to the researchers, “67% of the volunteers rated the experience with psilocybin to be either the single most meaningful experience of his or her life or among the top five most meaningful experiences of his or her life.”[29]
While there is no question that the specialized, supportive circumstances of this research made positive reactions more likely and reduced the chance of negative outcomes, the findings are also consistent with a large survey conducted on Erowid.org in 2005 that asked about the life impact of LSD use. With nearly 50,000 valid responses, 53.4% of those who reported having taken LSD said that it had affected their life positively, compared to 3.4% who said it had a negative impact (21.9% reported “no effect,” 17.2% reported a “mix of positive and negative effects,” and 4.1% did not answer or didn’t know).[30] As of September 2008, none of the top government-funded public drug information websites had a single mention of any benefit associated with psilocybin.[31]
Misrepresentation and oversimplification in this complex field of study damage society’s ability to engage in accurate and honest dialog about issues that affect everyone’s daily lives. When private or government-sponsored prohibitionist organizations are found untrustworthy, people seek information elsewhere. Unfortunately, advice provided by peers about the risks and benefits of recreational drugs can also be of dubious value. Teenagers, especially, can not provide each other with the quality of information they need and deserve.
Public educational resources need to provide comprehensive, honest information in order to be worthy of trust. To climb out of the well of distrust our culture has dug, students, teachers, parents, law enforcement officers, medical professionals, marginalized subcultures, and the general public all need to look to the same libraries, rely on the same sources, and expect balance and neutrality in the reporting of scientific findings. Establishing a culture of responsible use—built on a foundation of unbiased, factual information—is essential to the practical long-term management of psychoactives in our society.
[Conflict of Interest Disclosure: This article was written partially under the influence of oolong tea, diet cherry Coke, and California chardonnay.]
Fire and Earth Erowid are the co-founders of Erowid Center, an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization which runs Erowid.org, an online library of information about psychoactive plants and chemicals.
References
[1] Johnston LD, O’Malley PM, Bachman JG, et al. “Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2006. Vol II.” NIDA. 2007. 98.
[2] SAMHSA. “Results from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Appendix G.” 2007. Table G.3.
[3] Erowid E, Erowid F. “How Do They Measure Up? Part II: The Problems.” Erowid Extracts. Nov 2005;9:16-21.
[4] Griffiths RR, Mumford GK. Caffeine: A Drug of Abuse? in Psychopharmacology: The Fourth Generation of Progress. Edited by Bloom FE, Kupfer DJ. New York, Raven Press, 1995.
[5] Volkow ND. “Statement on Scientific Research on Prescription Drug Abuse before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs.” Mar 12, 2008.
[6] SAMHSA. “Older Adults: Substance Use and Mental Problems.” http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/aging.cfm Accessed Sep 4, 2008.
[7] Erowid. “Alcohol Timeline.” Erowid.org. Jul 9, 2006. Available from http://www.erowid.org/alcohol/alcohol_timeline.php. Accessed Sep 2, 2008.
[8] Drug War Facts. “Prisons, Jails and Probation – Overview.” drugwarfacts.org. Aug 1, 2008. Available from http://www.drugwarfacts.org/prison.htm. Accessed Sep 2, 2008.
[9] Federal Register. Jun 6, 2007;72(108):31343. http://cryptome.org/bop060607-2.htm.
[10] Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). “Results from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Detailed Tables.” 2007. Tables 1.11A.
[11] Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). “Results from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Detailed Tables.” 2007. Tables 1.1+.
[12] Johnston LD, O’Malley PM, Bachman JG, et al. Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2006. Vol II.” NIDA. 2007. 108.
[13] Erowid. “The Distillation: Erowid Traffic Statistics.” Erowid Extracts. Jun 2008;14:25.
[14] SAMHSA. “Results from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings.” Office of Applied Studies, NSDUH Series H-32, DHHS Publication No. SMA 07-4293. 2007.
[15] SAMHSA, Office of Applied Studies, “National Survey on Drug Use and Health.” 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. http://oas.samhsa.gov/NSDUH/2k6NSDUH/AppG.htm#TabG-20. The statistic comes from the survey’s definition of binge drinking, namely consuming five or more drinks on a single occasion.
[16] BBC News. “Scientists Want New Drug Rankings.” news.bbc.co.uk. Mar 23, 2007.
[17] Boyer EW, Shannon M, Hibberd PL. “The Internet and psychoactive substance use among innovative drug users.” Pediatrics. 2005;115(2):302-5.
[18] Kleiman MAR. Against Excess: Drug Policy For Results. Basic Books. 1992. 386.
[19] “Effectiveness of Drug Analysis Curbed.” The PharmChem Newsletter. 1974;3(4):1.
[20] Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Act. U.S. Code, Title 20, Ch. 70, Subch. IV, Pt A, Subpt 4, § 7162.
[21] California Health and Safety Code Sections 11999.2 and 11999.3.
[22] National Institute on Drug Abuse. “NIDA Research Identifies Factors Related to Inhalant Abuse, Addiction.” Sep 28, 2004. http://www.drugabuse.gov/Newsroom/04/NR9-28.html. Accessed Sep 2, 2008.
[23] Volkow ND. “Statement by NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow. Nida.nih.gov. Jul 11, 2006. http://www.nida.nih.gov/about/welcome/messagepsilocybin706.html. Accessed Sep 2, 2008.
[24] Silber BY, Croft RJ, Papafotiou K, et al. “The acute effects of d-amphetamine and methamphetamine on attention and psychomotor performance.” Psychopharm. Aug 2006;187(2):154-69. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16761129.
[25] Michael N, Johns M, Owen C, et al. “Effects of caffeine on alertness as measured by infrared reflectance oculography.” Psychopharm. Jun 9, 2008. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18537025.
[26] Borin E. “The U.S. Military Needs Its Speed. Wired. Feb 10, 2003.
[27] Freevibe. “Drug Information: Hallucinogens.” http://www.freevibe.com/Drug_Facts/drug_info.asp. Accessed Sep 2, 2008.
[28] Johnson MW, Richards WA, Griffiths RR. “Human hallucinogen research: guidelines for safety.” J Psychopharm. Aug 2008;22(6):603-20.
[29] Griffiths RR, Richards WA, McCann U, Jesse R. “Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance.” Psychopharm. Aug 2006;187(3):268-83.
[30] Erowid F, Erowid E. “Erowid Visitors on LSD.” Erowid Extracts. Jun 2006;10:10-12.
[31] Sites searched on September 3, 2008 included Freevibe.com, AboveTheInfluence.com, TheAntiDrug.com, MediaCampaign.org, and WhiteHouseDrugPolicy.gov.ADVERTISEMENT:
By: Travis Allen
Journey Into Nyx spoilers are in full swing. In another week or two we’ll have the full list, and at that point I can give you guys a complete rundown of the set and what we’re looking at. In the meantime though, I figured I’d double back to my Theros review and see how I did. It’s been just about seven months, which is plenty of time for us to understand as much as we will about these cards before rotation.
Chained to the Rocks is poised to be one of the strongest removal spells in the format, especially with how good decks with Sacred Foundry look at the moment. I see it available for about $2.50 on TCG Player as of 9/23/13, which likely is fairly close to its floor. Mizzium Mortars never really sunk below $2 retail, and I think Chained compares pretty well. The ceiling on this card isn’t particularly high though. While it’s quite a powerful effect, you still need to have actual Mountains (and a good deal of them) to use it, not just lands that tap for red, such as Clifftop Retreat. I can’t imagine this breaking $5 for longer than a week or two, if ever. The best strategy regarding this card will simply be picking them up in trade for $1-$2 and trading them away at $3-$4.
This feels like a pretty reasonable read. They’re about $1 to $1.50 low on TCG, which is right about where I expected them to be. My advice on how to trade them seems to have been appropriate to. I’m putting a check mark in the success column on this one.
Elspeth is still in that Planeswalker honeymoon period of $30+. Given her high mana cost, I anticipate it may take a little longer before she starts showing up in decklists. I’m guessing she may pull a Gideon Jura though, where people are lukewarm at first, playing only one copy, but then adding more and more. I’ll be keeping a close watch on her price and quantity of appearances in T8 decklists. If she shows up as a one-of in the maindeck of a winning list and the author talks about how great she was, expect positive movement. Like most Planeswalkers, if she dips below $15 it is time to start seriously considering picking her up in trade.
I didn’t really give you guys a specific price, but overall I thought she was powerful and relevant. I wasn’t entirely sure if the rest of the Standard community would pick up on that immediately, but in hindsight they clearly did. Overall I think this was a pretty reasonable evaluation, if perhaps a bit prudent.
I would expect his price to typically hang out in the $1-$3 range on any given weekend, but spiking an event could jump him to $6+ pretty easily. If Brave the Elements targeted, then we’d be in another ballpark. Even still, I think this is the type of card that can oscillate pretty easily. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him dip, jump, dip, and jump again all within his journey through Standard.
Fabled Hero is about $1 on TCG, which is on the lower end of my expectation. I was a little more bullish on this guy than the rest of the world was, but I also didn’t foresee the format becoming a wasteland of Hero’s Downfalls. I doubt rotation will change too much since all of the excellent removal is in Theros, not Ravnica. I’m hesitant to call this a miss, but it’s certainly not a success.
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Intro deck rare. I love the card, but do not buy into this with the intent of profit.
Bingo.
Heliod reads to me as the second weakest of the five gods…The gods are a little tricky financially. They’re almost-sorta a new card type, and subsequently I don’t feel like I have a good gauge for how their casual support is going to be. If I had to take a guess (which I suppose I do since I’m writing this article), it’s that the gods in general will be more popular with the casual crowd than the average decent mythic. I feel like the floor on Heliod – and all the gods – is probably around $5-7…My opinion on the gods, and other cards in general of which I’m not confident in my predictions, is to ship them early and wait until I understand them better.
I was pretty accurate in regards to the power level here, although Heliod is arguably the weakest at this point. I set their floor a tad higher than it turned out to be, but not by much at all. I’m glad to see I advised caution when considering what to do with them early in their life span. I guess my call on the floor was a little high, so I’ll mark this as a miss that I don’t feel too bad about.
Boy, Savannah Lions has come a long way, huh? Remember that we just came out of Ravnica, so “Protection from multicolored” reads a little better now than it will in a year. It will still probably be in discussion for any Modern white weenie deck, so if you can find Craig Wescoe, you know you’ve got a buyer. Other than that, your white one drop has to see heavy, sustained play (think Champion of the Parish) to maintain a $4+ price tag.
I told you that he looks better immediately after a mono-multi block, and then I told you it’s unlikely he would maintain even a $4 price tag. I’m pleased with this summary.
Artisan seems very weak to me. These days, a ton of the value in good creatures is their ETB effect, which Artisan doesn’t get you. You also have to do a lot of work to even get the clone effect. Bulk rare; trade away accordingly.
Spot on.
Release promo. Bulk.
Yep, I completely missed on this one in terms of playability. It is clearly better than bulk, having been in Mono-Blue for the better part of six months. Still, the price is well under a dollar. I was way off on how playable it would be, but still right on the price. Half miss, I suppose.
Bulk, unless they reprint Aether Flash.
Good, good.
I have a lot of trouble seeing Master accomplish much. Blue token makers are fairly rare, but creatures that die when their Master dies just seem miserable. Given the current state of blue, what permanents do you have in play that give you a healthy amount of devotion that are not already putting the game away for you?
Welp. That’s a big ol’ stinky miss. I completely under-evaluated how powerful slamming even two or three tokens into play would be, much less five, six, or even more. What I should have said was that for four mana you get a bare minimum of two 2/1’s, one of which has a very relevant protection, and that the rate isn’t embarrassing at all when you consider how well he scales up. Instead, I focused on how little blue was playing to the board at that point and made a sweeping generalization. I understand why I said what I said, but clearly I need to be a little bit more welcoming of powerful effects that I don’t see an immediate application for.
THE TEEF will never be a four-of. I’d say $2 at his absolute best.
This is satisfactorily a success.
I believe Thassa is quietly the best god in the set. Purphorous and even Erebos are getting a lot of chatter, but most Thassa discussion has been less high-energy. However, I believe this is due in part to people underestimating the power of scrying every upkeep. In discussions with other players, the common opinion seems to be that the fair yet still playable cost for an enchantment that was just the upkeep scry would be 1U. That effectively means you’re getting the entire rest of the card for one colorless mana. Not competing with Jace or Supreme Verdict on the mana curve is also a great position to be in. When you finally do get Jace down, all it takes is UU somewhere to suddenly be within range of closing the game out fast. Notice that Thassa is capable of making herself unblockable.
Of all the gods, Thassa is the one I’m most interested in financially. If she ever does get below $10, I’ll start grabbing as many in trades as possible. I think it will take time for the format to begin including her, so there will hopefully be a window where she’s under-priced.
I feel pretty good about this one looking back at it. I was basically completely correct, with the sole exception that I was hoping she may get cheap before people realized she was the real deal. What in truth happened was that she hadn’t really gotten much cheaper than maybe $18 when the Pro Tour happened and she skyrocketed to something like $25 or $30.
I didn’t really give you a long-term plan on her, but I don’t feel too bad about that. I knew she would go up, and after that it would be all metagame. In any case, I think I gave a pretty good evaluation overall. I’ll take this success and be happy with it.
This card seems fantastic to me…Agent of the Fates is $2 on TCG Player while I write this, which is almost low enough for me to just start buying copies. If he gets under $1, he will be a major trade target, and under $.50 I’ll start in with cash.
Hot off the heels of my great Thassa prediction is my rather shameful outlook on Agent of the Fates. I was clearly wrong about this, as he’s done nearly nothing since the format’s inception. There are indeed copies on TCG for around $.50 and I’m not rushing out to buy them, so I certainly am not as big a fan as I used to be.
There’s a silver lining here, and that’s that Agent of the Fates feels like a victim of the metagame. Mono-Blue and Mono-Black just poop all over his face for a variety of reasons, but he’s still rather powerful in a vacuum. Wizards gave us all sorts of great BW heroic things such as Hero of Iroas, Nighthowler, and Herald of Torment, the latter two having already proved their mettle in battle. I’m not purchasing any today, but I’ll be keeping my eye out to see if he pops up anywhere before rotation. I was wrong up until now, but I’m keeping a candle lit for this one.
Erebos has been the second most popular god so far, and I’m pretty sure that is due entirely to people not realizing how high of a cost his draw is. Two life is not an insignificant amount of life to pay to draw a single extra card. Yes, it’s repeatable, but the toll adds up fast. The ability is strongest late in the game, when both players are already limping. I don’t think the ability worthless, but I get the impression people read the words “draw a card” and ignored everything to the left of the colon. On top of that, his static anti-lifegain clause goes from “highly disruptive” to “niche ability” with Thragtusk rotating.
Erebos seems poised to see a pretty heavy drop off in demand. I’d get out now and not look back.
Erebos was an easy $12-$15 at release, and he’s a weak $8 today. The absolute best circumstances for him has been realized with Mono-Black being the best deck in Standard, and he’s still only a one or two-of. I’m happy with my review of this, especially in noting that the card draw ability isn’t as strong as people thought it may be.
Domri Rade is going to find himself on the business end of a minotaur hoof frequently in the coming months. Hero’s Downfall will be a major factor in the forthcoming Standard landscape. Murder was always “almost,” and adding ‘Planeswalker’ to the card text will definitely push it over the edge. That said, I don’t see much of a reason for this to deviate from the Mizzium Mortars/Dreadbore path. I expect it to spend a very stable life hovering in the $2-$5 range. Your profit here will be trading for them at $2 and then trading them away at $4. If black ends up being the best color in Standard, the top end here may be as high as $6 or $7. (There is also no chance I call this anything other than Murderbore for the next two years.)
I was completely right that this would be a major player in Standard, although I was way too prudent about the price. In my defense I don’t think we’ve ever seen rare removal get that expensive before. It’s down to $4-$5 now after a few months well over $10. I was right about how playable it would be, but wrong about how expensive it could be. I’ll take this as a miss I’m ok with, and be well aware of just how expensive Standard rare removal can be these days.
Possibly playable card that I doubt will ever crest a dollar. I bring it up because it’s the Game Day Top 8 promo, and it looks super sweet. The promo will likely hold value better than it’s playability would have you believe because of this.
Nighthowler is still under a dollar, but he’s been creeping up for the last week or two. Regardless of where he ends up in the next year, I think I was a bit too shy on his power level. My comment about his promo copy being a harbor of value was accurate though, with copies easily over $6 right now. If Nighthowler does indeed break out harder, the promo will just keep on moving up.
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There’s really not too much to say here. Thoughtseize is and will be a Standard, Modern and Legacy staple. Expect Snapcaster-esque prices for the next two years.
I was clearly right on the power level. I’m not entirely sure how much I like my financial prediction, as Thoughtseize has gotten cheaper than I probably would have guessed it could in September, but I suppose Snapcaster behaved quite similarly. This is a success, but perhaps not as strong as I would have liked it to be.
Cool card that’s in an intro deck. If it hits the Standard scene, don’t look to profit on this, but rather the other cards it will be dragging out of graveyards. And yes, it does work as well with Obzedat as you’d like it to.
This is entirely non-committal and really tells you very little, so I’ll call this a miss. For Journey Into Nyx, I’ll try to provide a little more concrete expectations.
Possibly a better Slagstorm depending on what you’re in the market for, and an effect we have been desperately in need of. (Take that, you lousy Burning-Tree Emissary decks.) This has bonus points for being impactful in Modern. I see no reason to expect much price behavior different from Murderbore.
While I was correct about it being a strong card, even in Modern, I was definitely wrong on the price. Why? Well, for starters, I come back to the metagame. Both Mono-Black and Mono-Blue shrug this card off entirely, meaning it’s seen more play in Modern since it came out than Standard. Between my expectations that this would see more play than it does and my failure to predict $15 Murderbores, I gave you faulty pricing information. Sorry guys.
Maybe it’s because I’m not a Jackal Pup kind of guy, but I really don’t care for this much at all. I’d ship these fast and avoid down the road. People tend to remember old cards, or new cards similar to old cards, a little too fondly in vastly different formats than when they were originally good. Remember when Nantuko Shade was like $8 preorder or something?
Currently at about $.50, I feel good about this one.
Solid looking card, but falls into the Koth trap of mostly being only good in really heavy red decks. Even if the card is fantastic, how many Hammer of Purphoros decks can there really be? I wouldn’t take the risk of trying to make money here; there’s better places to put your gaming bux.
I’m pleased with this as well. I correctly identified that the mana cost was going to be far too prohibitive for meaningful growth.
I will say right now that I am less enthralled with Purphoros than many others are…I wouldn’t be surprised to see him alongside Boros Reckoner and Stormbreath Dragon in the near future…I don’t doubt that he’s very powerful, but $25 will be a very difficult price tag to maintain amidst a lot of other very competitive-looking mythics such as all three Planeswalkers, Stormbreath Dragon, and Thassa…In any case, I’d be trading these away ASAP. The odds that he loses a lot of value are far greater than he gains any. If he slips towards $10, feel free to start grabbing them, because someone will probably give him a breakout performance at some point.
Overall I’d say I did pretty well here. I was correct that he didn’t end up being as powerful as others thought he would be. My recommendation was that he couldn’t maintain his price, and to get rid of them. I told you to come back around once he got down to around $10, and I would still be comfortable telling you to trade for them today now that he’s around $7. I think in general I expected the god’s floor to be a bit higher than it has been, but on the whole I think I did a good job with Purphoros.
This card is the real deal…As I see it, Stormbreath is poised to step in and assume Thundermaw’s role without missing a beat. Preorders have jumped from $15 to $25, and I don’t think that’s an unreasonable number for him to hang around at. Thundermaw hit $50 for a period, and if Stormbreath comes out of the gate terrorizing heros, I would expect no different. At this point he’s too expensive to buy into to spec on, but if you want a set, I wouldn’t hesitate to trade for him. I doubt you stand to lose much, and his upside is very high. If he dips below $15 again, I’d start snatching them wherever possible.
I was quite bullish on Stormbreath. Perhaps a hair to bullish, I admit. He has managed to rule the skies since Theros though. Dodging Archangel of Thune and Detention Sphere has in fact been relevant, and I can’t help but think he would have been even better than he has been if it weren’t for the menace of Blue and Black. I think I was afraid of telling you he’d “only” be $20 and looking timid when he hit $50, so I left the door open on that. I suppose I could have tempered this prediction a little bit more. He maintains a solid $20 price tag though. I like where I left you with this one.
Even though there’s a lot of chatter about Boon Saibot, he’s still only $2 right now. Keep in mind that Loxodon Smiter has seen significant play in Standard and has even broken into Modern yet is still currently only about $4. There’s a real limit to how expensive an in-print rare can be. It will be tough for Boon Satyr to maintain a price over $4-$5 while he’s in the current set even if he’s seeing excessive Standard play. However, if he is consistently putting up results over the next year or is prevalent at the Theros Block Pro Tour, look to start snatching them up next summer when he’ll be at a low.
I was right that he would have a heck of a time maintaining a price upwards of $4, but I didn’t tell you just how cheap he could be. I don’t feel like my prediction was wrong, but I didn’t give you enough information. I’ll call this a miss.
Nylea is widely considered to be the weakest of the gods. I’m not entirely convinced that is true, but she certainly has an uphill climb to prove otherwise. On the one hand green decks that will want trample are likely to be strong devotion enablers, and she’s a solid beater herself. The activated ability feels very weak to me however. She’s $9 right now, and I expect that to start slipping very quickly. I’d say $4 is her absolute floor though, so if she gets that low don’t be afraid to grab a few sets. Even if she never gets there in Standard, it’s likely the gods will always maintain solid casual demand.
This was spot on. She managed to show up just a little bit in a heavy green deck, but it faded away in the face of darker devotion decks. The $4 floor prediction was perfect, with several of the cheapest copies on TCG at exactly that number. Homerun.
Polukranos is a powerful card that is going to be responsible for a lot of dead 2/2s and 3/3s. He’s in the Duel Deck though, so his price has a firm ceiling. While I’m seeing copies under $5, I’d guess is floor is around $2.50. If he slips under $3, there’s a lot of room for potential profit there with little downside. I also wouldn’t hesitate to trade for a set now for personal use, as again there isn’t that much to lose.
And then I come crashing back down. While I was technically correct that his price had a ceiling, I was thinking he would be much cheaper than he ended up being. I guess I didn’t explicitly tell you he would be $3, just that if he got that low you should grab some. At the end of the day this feels like a miss though.
[Exposition about Buy-a-Box promos]…A lot of people expect Caryatid to be a major part of the standard landscape, and I agree. She (?) is currently right around $5, which sounds a tad high. Like Daniel Boone, I expect there will be money to be made on Caryatid next summer.
Correct that she (?) would see Standard play, but too prudent on the price. $5 is the lowest Caryatid has been, and she even hung around $7-$10 for awhile. Part of my read was that they would get destroyed much more frequently by sweepers, especially Anger of the Gods. With Anger not being too common in the format, it meant there was not a lot going on that could punish Caryatid. I was correct that the card would be frequently played, but wrong about the price. I’ll take my lumps here.
Probably won’t be too expensive, but foils will command a premium. If it ends up being a 4-of in Obzedat’s Aid/Erebos’ Whip type decks, the price could quintuple very quickly though.
Sounds about right. There’s still a 5x multiplier on the foil too.
Many players I’ve spoken to are not wild about Ashiok, but I am quite confident Ashiok will be a part of the Standard landscape…Ashiok is still rather pricey at ~$18. I anticipate Ashiok cratering pretty quickly, as it may take time for Ashiok to find Ashiok’s way into lists. Once the number is below $10, I will gladly start picking up Ashiok in trade.
Hrmph. I was a big fan of Ashiok, and I guess I still kind of am. She’s shown up here and there, but not enough to move the price much. To be quite honest I’m a little mystified here. Ashiok seems like she would be playable in variations of Mono-Black or even Esper. I like trading for her right now as well. I suppose this isn’t a miss per se, but certainly not a success. I’ll just say the jury’s still out.
If a single thing on this card was missing, I’d be proclaiming it bulk. As is though, Daxos seems to have a lot of intriguing puzzle pieces…At $2, I’m not interested. If Daxos slips below $.50 though, I’ll definitely consider acquiring aggressively depending on if he’s appeared in any results. When a card ends up below $.50, the risk is just so low and the profit potential so high.
Another victim of the metagame. He’s powerful for sure, but Pack Rats and Frostburn Weirds just stonewalled him entirely. I do trade for them were available though, so at least I’m following my own advice here. Like Ashiok, this doesn’t quite feel like a either a miss or a success.
This could end up being the most overpriced card in the set. We already have something better than Watchwolf at the moment (Call of the Conclave) and nobody is playing it. The monstrosity clause is almost surely better than the state of being a token, but is it by any meaningful amount? Decks that play Watchwolf want to put guys into play and attack with creatures like Stormbreath Dragon, not spend their turn five mana to do one extra damage in a format full of good edict effects. There will be games where the monstrosity wins the game, but plenty more where you’ll wish you had just played Scavenging Ooze instead. I sold mine at the prerelease; I recommend you do the same.
Fleecemane has done better than I thought it would, but the price has still been pretty lousy. Remember that during prerelease season this was around $10, so my call to ship them at the prerelease was golden. I admit that the monstrosity clause has been better than expected in a format full of spot removal. All in all I’m pleased with how I called this, although I recognize that it could be better than I originally anticipated six months from now.
Nifty card that is almost surely unplayable in Standard. Foils will be worth a bunch for EDH.
Bulk, yes. Foils are maybe $5-$6, so is that “a bunch?” Relatively I suppose it is.
Potentially great card but he’s in an intro deck. It’s possible someone will manage to make money on him, but it won’t be me.
Likely to be a much more relevant card in September given what we’ve seen of Block, I’m taking this opportunity to revise my previous dismissal. There is a LOT of enchantments floating around now, and it looks like the density of enchantment creatures has gone up in BOG and JOU. Given how good he’s been in Block decks, he may overperform at rotation. The intro deck thing is still very real, but I’m seeing copies under a quarter. I don’t like him at more than $.50, but if you can get them below that, I think you’re probably safe.
This card seems to have a great deal of financial potential. There were only two other creatures in RtR that had three activated abilities: Deathrite Shaman and Lotleth Troll…I don’t think this card will necessarily be a major player in Standard for two years, but I do think it will see enough play to warrant a several dollar price tag at some point. Like Daxos, if this slips under $.50, consider me a buyer.
My evaluation of Reaper was strong, so I’m pleased with that. I identified the fact that it wouldn’t be a major player in Standard for a long stretch of time, but that it may be good enough for a period to be worth a few bucks. MTGPrice is telling me it hung around $2 for awhile, which is on track. The printing of JvV has completely derailed any opportunity for profit this fall though, so my long-term prospects have fallen off. No way to predict that though, so overall I think this was a good one.
Cerberus is one of those cards that has a lot of disconnected moving parts that makes him tremendously difficult to properly evaluate. Cards like this are notorious for |
});
Configuring Grunt Tasks
Each Grunt task contains it’s own configuration settings that fall within the object passed to the configInit method. The name of the property containing the task configuration is almost always the same as the name of the grunt task being performed. This naming convention makes editing grunt tasks easier than ever.
watch: { css: { files: [ 'path/to/sass/*.sass', ], tasks: ['sass', 'autoprefixer] }
In the above written configuration we have defined a target. This target watches for changes in the sass files located in our SASS directory. As you can see, it is possible to use a wildcard to target a group of files which saves plenty of time regarding SASS partials.
The Gruntfile looks for changes in SASS files and then carries out the tasks performed inside the tasks property. In this case, it compiles the SASS and then runs the compiled file through something called autoprefixer. Autoprefixer simply looks for items that require vendor-specific prefixes in the css. Although mixins can address this, the need to use the mixin is sometimes overlooked, so I like to use this as a backup.
Loading Grunt Plugins
The next section of the Gruntfile loads the actual plugins we wish to use. These plugins are specified in the package.json file that we previously created and then installed using npm install. If you try running Grunt task manager without installing the plugins, there’s a good chance that you’ll encounter errors.
// Load the Grunt plugins. grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-autoprefixer'); grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-sass');
The registerTask method of the grunt object is used to designate a set of tasks that should run when the grunt command is executed.
grunt.registerTask('default', ['watch']);
The first parameter of this method specifies the name of the task and the second contains the array of tasks that you wish to be executed. The watch task that we define takes care of the Sass and autoprefixer that we defined earlier.
Running Grunt Task Manager
So now that we’ve got Grunt all configured, all we have to do is run it. To run Grunt, just execute it in the command line by typing grunt. This will run all of the default tasks that you have set up in your Gruntfile.
This is where we see Grunt’s true strength. As mentioned above, any team members can clone your Git repo and run this command to install all of the dependencies you’ve decided to use for this specific project.
Final words on Grunt Task Manager
If you’re looking for a way to improve your workflow but haven’t quite figured out what you’re looking to do, then Grunt might be the tool for you. Grunt might also work for you if you’ve already moved to something like Codekit or Prepros and you’re looking for a bit more functionality and customization.
I put off using Grunt in my workflow because I found it confusing. But, after playing with it for a little while, I found it to be incredibly useful. Hopefully this post will help you quickly figure it out and give you a better idea about how to use Grunt. If you’ve got any other tips or ideas, I’d love to read them below in the comments or on Twitter. I’m always looking for ways to speed up my web development work flow.While all of us at Kotaku are big fans of typing, a handful of us have started taking our love of keyboards to the next level. There’s nothing like a good mechanical keyboard, especially when you take extra steps to make it your very own. I’ll show you what I’m typing on if you show me yours.
I’ve been covering keyboards for Kotaku for years now, but it’s only recently that I’ve been introduced to the wonderful world of customization. I blame Chris Person, who was parading a sexy set of pastel keycaps around the office when I was visiting our New York headquarters earlier this year. Between that, with Gita Jackson’s recent acquisition of a lovely pink Filco keyboard (which is perpetually out of stock) and a visit to Reddit’s Mechanical Keyboard community, I was hooked.
Acting on a suggestion from some folks on the Reddit board, I pulled the trigger on a Unicomp Ultra Classic, the spiritual successor to IBM’s famed Model M keyboard.
Like the original Model M, the Ultra Classic utilizes a unique buckling spring key switch. Basically there are springs under each of the keys attached to an activation hammer. When a key is pressed, the spring buckles, activating the hammer and registering a keystroke. They have a very unique feel and sound.
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The drawback to going old-school for my first serious mechanical keyboard is that the unique key switches are not compatible with most custom key caps, most of which are aimed at the more popular Cherry MX switches and their various clones/offshoots. Thankfully the folks at Unicomp offer a selection of printed and non-printed color caps at their website. I ordered mine on Saturday, and they had them to me by Wednesday.
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I originally planned on replacing all of the grey keys with blank whites, but once I got this far I really started digging the contrast. I might order a set of grey blanks instead, now that I’m certain I can type on a keyboard without lettering (this article was my trial by fire). (Editor’s note: >.>)
Note that I did not plan the colors to coincide with the Autobot Hot Rod. He just happened to be on my desk when I started taking pictures, just sitting around waiting for an Optimus Prime to get killed.
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Now it’s your turn! Mechanical or membrane, out of the box or heavily modified, I want to see what you’re typing on. I probably won’t steal any of your ideas.Actor Jonathan Goldsmith attends the Kentucky Derby in 2011. (Photo: Michael Loccisano, Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — TV's "most interesting man in the world," known in Dos Equis beer commercials for achieving the wildly impossible, probably could eliminate landmines by himself — using only his beard.
But actor Jonathan Goldsmith, who has played the cultural icon for nearly nine years, is looking for help from others. He's raising funds for landmine removal in Cambodia, where accidents involving buried explosives have spiked this year, through a contest to be his guest for a day in Vermont. He won't be in character, but he'll make it interesting.
"We're going to spend a day doing some things — off-road driving and some other little events, one being falconry," said Goldsmith, who turns 76 on Friday.
Goldsmith has volunteered for the Mines Advisory Group since visiting the non-profit group's operations in Vietnam last year. MAG has worked in more than 35 countries and shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. The contest will benefit the organization.
"It's a terribly important charity," said Goldsmith of Manchester, Vt. "Accidents are up. Funding is down. Kids are getting hurt. I want to do whatever I can to help and bring attention to it."
In the popular Dos Equis ads — an Internet meme — Goldsmith's dashing, cigar-smoking character can be found dog-sledding to a black-tie party, saving a firefighter from a burning building or releasing a growling bear from a trap. A narrator claims, "He's trained canaries in the art of falconry" or "He can speak Russian … in French."
Goldsmith often ends the ads relaxing in a lounge while surrounded by young women. He delivers his classic sign-off, "Stay thirsty, my friends," in a deep Spanish-accented voice inspired by his late friend, the actor and director Fernando Lamas.
Through his advocacy for landmine removal, Goldsmith fills a void left by other celebrity advocates, most notably the late Princess Diana, said Jamie Hathaway, a MAG consultant. "Ironically, when much of the world has lost interest in the movement, comes the'most interesting man in the world' to help us out," said Hathaway, a friend of Goldsmith's who got him involved with MAG.
In April, Goldsmith joined Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., for a reception and photo exhibit honoring the group's 25 years of work. Leahy, a decades-long proponent of landmine removal efforts, said Goldsmith has "invested his time, his talent and the intangible capital of his star power to bring attention to these vital missions."
The United States is the biggest donor to mine removal efforts. This week, the Obama administration moved closer to compliance with a global treaty banning landmines, announcing the United States will not use mines outside the Korean Peninsula. The United States is among 34 United Nations members that haven't signed the treaty.
Casualties from mines and other explosives totaled 3,628 in 2012, according to the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, an initiative of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. That's the lowest total since the monitor began recording casualties in 1999.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1sv3g7FI wanted to share a little treat with you today, a new recipe from my cookbook The Nourished Kitchen. After having worked on it, visiting farms, testing recipes and taking photographs, for the better part of two years, The Nourished Kitchen will finally arrive in stores (or on your doorstep if you were good enough to preorder a copy) in just a few short weeks. And, for those of you wondering, the cookbook features almost entirely new recipes and tutorials not featured in the recipe archives.
There’s something special about the tangibility of a cookbook, thumbing through pages instead of clicking through on a screen. It’s something you can hold close, pass around, dog ear and mark for your favorite recipes. It’s that real, hold-in-your-hands beauty I wanted to share with you as I carefully photographed, prepared and wrote the book.
Recipes from The Nourished Kitchen
In the book’s first chapter, I focus on foods from the kitchen garden, with emphasis on fresh, seasonal salads and vegetable side dishes. You can sneak a peek of some of the recipes in this chapter if you click through here. Each of the cookbook’s eight chapters brings focus to how and where foods are produced: gardens, pastures, rangeland, waterways, orchards and fields. Here The Nourished Kitchen emphasizes the connection between how our food is produced, how it is prepared and how it nourished our bodies, our families and our communities. My goal was to create a cookbook of beauty, tradition and connection.
Roasted Beet and Walnut Salad with Kombucha Vinaigrette
One of my family’s favorite recipes from the first chapter – from the Garden – is this Roasted Beet and Walnut Salad with Kombucha Vinaigrette in which the sweet spice of allspice and cloves and the acid notes of kombucha tea envelop roasted beets and crunchy toasted walnuts. I make this salad in cold weather from the beets we’ve grown in our garden, serving it as a wintertime salad with a hunk of crusty sourdough bread and a bowl of soup.
I like to use a mix of beets in the recipe – golden beets, deep red beets and occasionally the candy-striped chioggia. Their loveliness comes together in an exquisite way as the juice from the red beets bleeds into paler varieties, tinging them with pink.
Kombucha tea (you can learn more about how to brew it here) has a lovely sweet sour profile comparable to apple cider vinegar, which makes it a good substitute for vinegar and a fantastic pairing for sweet spices. It’s a lovely match for the earthiness of beets that want for something striking to brighten their flavor.
Quick Note for International Readers
Many of you have asked if you’ll be able to order the book in the UK, Canada or in other countries, and I’m pleased to let you know that The Nourished Kitchen will also be available in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.Over the past few days, Arctic sea ice extent has braked dramatically in the daily loss rate and now has made a sharp right turn, which is rather unusual. Here’s the JAXA extent:
And here is a close up view, note the 2011 red line:
That turn is unique to the record since 2002. Note that in 2007, there was also a turn, though brief, and then melt accelerated.
It is also showing up in the NSIDC plot:
But what is really most interesting is the plot from DMI, which show not only a turn, but a reversal:
What does this mean? The short answer is, probably nothing. When we approach the minimum, and the ice pack becomes more fractured and scattered, it also becomes more susceptible to the vagaries of local and regional wind and weather.
WUWT regular and contributor “Just the facts” suggested in comments that:
One factor appears to be the Greenland Sea, where sea ice began to grow on July 15th and has been trending above average since then.
Source: ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02186/plots/r07_Greenland_Sea_ts.png
On the other hand, looking at the most recent comparison with 2007, the Arctic ice cover looks a bit more soupy in 2011:
Air temperature is above freezing throughout the Arctic….
…as is fairly normal for this time of year:
Clearly, at present, air temperature in the Arctic is not in any way climatologically abnormal, so the reasons for the current extent being low and making erratic turns must lie elsewhere. Wind, soot deposition/albedo, ocean currents, etc. all factor in.
So, while we may have temporarily avoided a new record minimum (as many in the “Serreze death spiral” camp said we are headed to) there’s still the possibility that the plots will turn to the left again, and resume or even accelerate. It all depends on the weather, and the outcome could go either way at this point. Historically, we have about 7 more weeks before the turn upwards as the Arctic begins the slow re-freeze.
Still, it makes for interesting observation and discussion. The WUWT sea ice page has all the latest stats, updated as soon as they are made available.
============================================================
UPDATE: Bill Illis runs his own database, and offers this interesting view in comments.
The last 21 days are the lowest melt since 1973 in my database over the same period. The total ice extent is still well-below average but there are very few periods in the record where the trend is so different than normal for an extended period of time like the current period is.
Matching up a few different datasets back to 1972.
UPDATE2: In the meantime, while extent loss slows, the NSIDC “death spiral team” tries to make a case for a record low average for July, while at the same time admitting that On July 31, 2011 Arctic sea ice extent was 6.79 million square kilometers (2.62 million square miles). This was slightly higher than the previous record low for the same day of the year, set in 2007.
Arctic sea ice at record low for July
Arctic sea ice extent averaged for July 2011 reached the lowest level for the month in the 1979 to 2011 satellite record, even though the pace of ice loss slowed substantially during the last two weeks of July. Shipping routes in the Arctic have less ice than usual for this time of year, and new data indicate that more of the Arctic’s store of its oldest ice disappeared.
Figure 1. Arctic sea ice extent for July 2011 was 7.92 million square kilometers (3.06 million square miles). The magenta line shows the 1979 to 2000 median extent for that month. The black cross indicates the geographic North Pole. Sea Ice Index data. About the data. —Credit: National Snow and Ice Data CenterHigh-resolution image Overview of conditions Average ice extent for July 2011 was 7.92 million square kilometers (3.06 million square miles). This is 210,000 square kilometers (81,000 square miles) below the previous record low for the month, set in July 2007, and 2.18 million square kilometers (842,000 square miles) below the average for 1979 to 2000. On July 31, 2011 Arctic sea ice extent was 6.79 million square kilometers (2.62 million square miles). This was slightly higher than the previous record low for the same day of the year, set in 2007. Sea ice coverage remained below normal everywhere except the East Greenland Sea. more here
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RedditThis year on Game of Thrones, the dragons are bigger and nastier — so the VFX crew bringing them to life had to come up with two new methods for portraying Drogon, the biggest of the bunch. Including "the world's largest fire-breathing crane."
TV Insider has a great feature about the VFX behind Drogon in season five of Game of Thrones. Including this great quote from VFX supervisor Joe Bauer:
Drogon is twice the size he was last year. He's about 40 feet long and 20 percent bigger than the other two dragons. He's also the alpha, so his way goes. He's still affectionate with Dany, but he's got his own mind and needs her less, just like any child growing up... Drogon gets to perform more this year than ever, and have more complex interactions with Dany.
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To create Drogon's movements, they started with a "Technodolly," which is a 15-foot crane usually used to hold a camera on its telescopic arm — but instead, they put a flamethrower on the end of it. "Standing 50 feet away from the dragon fire, you could get a nice tan," said producer D.B. Weiss to TV Insider.
Over that, they sketched the fine details of Drogon's movements digitally — and this year, he's based on Komodo dragons, iguanas, horned lizards, and crocodiles. His movements are based on eagles and bats, and the way he takes off is based on pelicans. Meanwhile, the VFX team also used a Simulcam system, so you can see by looking at the monitor where Drogon would be in the final shot, and "the scene could be framed properly," says VFX producer Steve Kullback.
This is all a huge upgrade from previous years — in season one, dragon balls were tennis balls on sticks. In season two, they were stuffed dragons, or maquettes, on her shoulders. Then they were soccer balls on 30-foot poles.
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Tons more details at the link. [TV Insider]Edmonton's plan to brand itself as Edmonton and leave room for interpretation could be flawed, suggests a marketing expert.
After learning that city councillors had endorsed the word 'Edmonton' followed by a little red maple leaf as the city's new "one-word brand" on Tuesday, NAIT marketing instructor Ray Bilodeau warned that people might not fill in the blank the way the city expects.
"Do we really want to be known as the construction city or the photo radar city?" Bilodeau said.
"Google 'Edmonton photo radar city' or 'photo radar capital' and you'll see the images come up where people have filled in that blank. I don't think a brand wants to leave it to chance."
The responses on social media have been sassy.
No elegance, not too bright, doesn’t look like it’s good at sports.. this brand embiggens everything that <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Edmonton?src=hash">#Edmonton</a> is. I love it. <a href="https://t.co/bcF2XixIaB">https://t.co/bcF2XixIaB</a> —@MrRileyJB I wasn't going to invest in Edmonton and then they did a new font as their brand and now I will invest in Edmonton. Thank you for your time —@IDidTheIggy
"At a minimum, the City of Edmonton might want to look at modernizing the font that they chose to use," Bilodeau said.
But in the grander scheme of things, he said he thinks the city could be missing an opportunity to brand itself beyond its name, to a target market that includes the investment community.
"I've always been a big fan of having a brand like 'an inspiring capital,' " he said, adding it recognizes Edmonton as the capital of Alberta, but also what it has to offer.
The Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) worked with city officials to come up with four themes it believes describe Edmonton: open, innovative, courageous and collaborative.
Some of the reaction indicates the new one-word brand captures that.
The EEDC has emphasized the new brand is not a slogan or tagline, but a wordmark. Where and how it will be used has been a point of confusion.
The EEDC noted the city's signage will not be changing from what it is now.
This image created quite a stir today. Please know it's not the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/YEG?src=hash">#YEG</a> brand or logo. It's a wordmark that I use in presentations - that's it. <a href="https://t.co/JmgFbO7D2r">pic.twitter.com/JmgFbO7D2r</a> —@EEDC_BRAD Being bad at branding is so on brand for Edmonton —@nmtho After 4 years of debate <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/yegcc?src=hash">#yegcc</a> has settled on a brand and will go with "Edmonton". Other cities are expected to re-brand as "Not Edmonton" —@GroseAndrew Branding a community is inauthentic. It tries to tell a narrow story. "Edmonton" is right because it doesn't brand. Is a name we share. <a href="https://t.co/l3WbJqRDOC">https://t.co/l3WbJqRDOC</a> —@tkoriordan
The City of Vancouver also recently commissioned a new wordmark, simply City of Vancouver. It was mocked tirelessly on social media. The mayor announced that it was being put on hold for further community consultation.'Inherent Contempt' Anyone?
Brad Friedman Byon 6/18/2008, 6:56pm PT
Is the photo at left beginning to seem less and less absurd?
Looks like we're headed for an interesting game of chicken next month in the House Judiciary Committee surrounding Rove's subpoena to appear before it to answer questions in the Don Siegelman affair (and perhaps others) on July 10. RAW has the story worth putting on your radar, with no less than two House Judiciary members hinting that they may be willing to take extra steps (e.g., use of "inherent contempt" to have Rove arrested by the House Sergeant at Arms if need be) should he refuse to testify.
If Rove refuses to appear, says Rep. Wasserman-Schultz, "then we have to take the next step." And Rep. Sanchez notes, "We really need to set our foot down and show there are consequences to people who laugh in the face of Congressional subpoenas."
Tea leaves sure, but interesting ones, worth watching. The point is also made that the Committee may continue with this particular investigation, even as a new President takes office. Would be a whole different ballgame under those conditions. Presuming that new President isn't McCain, in any case. Hmmm...It's no secret that there is already a trend among young people toward later. After rising precipitously for decades, the median age for first marriage is 28 for men and 26 for women today. Undoubtedly this shift is due to a number of factors, including the sexual revolution and better opportunities for women, but the key has been the increase in life expectancy. In 1850 it averaged around 43 years, so individuals didn't have the luxury of waiting around to look for their "perfect soul mate." The goal instead was to have children early and hope for the best.
Now, not only do changes in lifestyle encourage later marriages, the biological imperative to reproduce can be made less urgent by science. New techniques to extend the reproductive functioning of ovaries have also been explored in recent years. For example, in November 2008 the first birth from a full ovary transplant was announced to the public, a promising sign for older women who are unable to conceive owing to, cancer treatment, or other causes of ovarian failure. In this case, a 38-year-old woman from London who experienced ovarian failure in her teenage years, sending her into early menopause, received an ovary from her twin sister. This procedure could pave the way for more women to have ovaries removed and frozen along with their eggs, to be thawed later on when they choose to have a child.
As life expectancy increases, the age at which women will want to have children will likely continue to grow, thereby increasing demand for reproductive technology to add even more time to women's biological clocks. One possibility that could really change the rules of the game is the ability to grow eggs in the lab. This would entail taking tiny pieces of ovarian tissue through keyhole surgery, a minimally invasive technique that is less painful and requires less recovery time than regular surgery. The tissue, which contains thousands of immature eggs, would be frozen until the woman decided to have children, at which point scientists would stimulate the eggs in the lab to grow to the point where they could be fertilized. This method would allow women to avoid injecting themselves with or having to undergo an uncomfortable procedure to harvest mature eggs. As procedures like this become simpler and less expensive, the era of the 70-year-old mom may not be far off! Today, that sounds strange, but in a world with 150-year life expectancies, it could be commonplace.
An intriguing possibility resulting from the ability to have children at later ages is large age gaps between siblings. At the moment, it is rare to have an age gap of more than twenty years between children of the same biological. In a future of extended spans and reproductive time, the possibility for large age differences among siblings mushrooms—they could be separated by two years, 20 years, or even 50 or 70 years.
What effect will this have on the conflict and closeness in families? No one can tell, but it will certainly be profound. Though generally true that siblings close in age fight more in but are closer as adults, elder siblings can help younger children cope with and manage their external. But there is no precedent for the age gaps that the longevity revolution will make possible: relationships may well resemble child-aunt/uncle or child-grandparent relationships soon.Are you a modern web worker but did not spend four to eight years in the computer science lab? Don’t want go thousands into debt for a new degree, but have hours of time and a keen interest in teaching yourself new skills sets? Get inspired or depressed with this vid.
Well, likely you are not alone. As the web evolves and the skills needed continue your career as a web worker evolve and new skill sets are needed even in less technical web roles, where do you turn to? Bless you peer-to-peer publishing and cheap media production costs.
I have recently been learning basic Java and object orientated programming (OOP) (for disclosure for a class yes, but the tutorials have been extremely helpful, hence the post).
My past exposure to traditional programming was via summer seminar learning Basic, Pascal, and C++ when I was much, much younger and less, less interested. Or hacking up ugly uncommented out Velocity (dead apache tempelating language) and XML templates in a work setting to build traffic over many weekends. Two very different ways to learn and work through pretty tough material.
The third way is the pure classroom old pedagogical model pay tuition model… This has many benefits and draw backs as well especially if you have a learn-by-doing learning style. However, it does force you to block out a specific amount of time to figure out tools and learn. But sometimes you want to learn m0re and not drop the money for a tutor…. Or you need to learn some skills for a specific project or to be able to speech competently about it.
This led me to learn about TheNewBoston the home of Bucky Robert’s tutorials are great for step by step concepts instructions, but only if you know the theory behind what you are doing. You can spend days and grow your web beard long with the amount of information you can gain just by watching and following along.
For OOP theory explained well if you are like me and ask “why” all the time, I am a big fans of the Baltimore based fellas at wibit.net and the green wibit frog. Mid Atlantic region represent! Love the corridor. These guys provide the kind of advise anyone getting into programming, software engineering, or development should start with before you dive in. They are really quite good at explaining the relationship between procedural languages and OOP and moving your mental framework from one to the other.
I have also found some really great lectures on iTunes U, but less for what I am currently interested in learning and what I want to learn in the future. Mostly academic and class lecture audio driven, but the content is very high-end. But audio lectures are not what I am looking for in e-learning.
I digress… If you want to learn the core concepts of how all the wonderful software and applications most of you take for granted everyday works and was made join up. Learning what you can do with to add new things into the world and join a well-developed friendly community of learners (the wibit boards or Bucky’s youtube comments), they may be a few steps ahead or behind you so be nice. Then join up with Bucky and the wibit.net fellas learn and participate and get learning.
The great thing about these tutorials are they make you want to learn much much more… and the amount of material available for the introductory price of free is unreal. If you include those others out there they like as well like PHPAcademy on youtube…
Just remember, you got to hit them back when you land your new gig or that big raise. The more you give the more you get back. Or until you do just write a blog post singing a few praises and giving them some nice linkbacks.
Keep up the great work and a big thanks to your teams that work with you to develop your material and scripts. Not to mention all the jokes built-in to the wibit.net material makes learning fun.
If you have the spare bucks and can afford $49 bucks a month I highly recommend TeamTreehouse and their growing video library.
Or maybe you wanna learn some JavaScript, and now much more? CodeAcademy is really great, and I love the social aspect of the training and its free. Glad to see their couses available free are growing.
Here are a few more I have used or found and may explore in further detail:
More Java..
http://www.java2s.com/Tutorial/Java/CatalogJava.htm
http://www.javabeginner.com/
W3Schools are a great resource, but not video learning driven.
http://www.w3schools.com/sitemap/default.asp
JavaScript, etc…
http://codeschool.org/core-units/
A few paid online software-training sites.
http://www.appsumo.com/ (They often have cheap self-edu deals and more if you are looking)
http://www.lynda.com/
http://www.ostraining.com/ (paid web and in person joomla, drupal, and wordpress training)
http://www.codeschool.com/ (I am interested in learning CoffeeScript first training of it I have seen offered)
Drupal Gardens from the Aquia folks in Co, is a great way to learn the content user side of drupal for publishing. If you are not quite ready to dig in the drupal.org FAQs and tutorials.
http://www.drupalgardens.com/pricing
Got a question? Sign up for Quora the question answer format around subjects is very helpful.
Some great resources links for journalism converts into frontside development.
Free University courses online.
Many more at Coursera.
Related articles
53.386000 -6.257928
AdvertisementsCalifornia’s most destructive wildfire this year has claimed Anam Thubten’s Sweetwater Sanctuary and now threatens Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.
According to the LA Times, the Soberanes fire in Big Sur was started by an unattended illegal campfire. The fire has caused one death and burned 67-square miles of Monterey County.
Last week, Sweetwater Sanctuary reported that they had evacuated all retreatants, and were unsure of the fate of Sweetwater. On Friday, an update revealed that many buildings were burned to the ground following the evacuation, with the exception of a few structures, including the meditation yurt.
Regarding the loss at Sweetwater Sanctuary, Anam Thubten, currently on retreat in France, wrote a poem, which reads:
Dancing With Nature’s Wrath
Soberanes fire is burning everything that gets in her way.
She is merciless,
She is magnificent… from a distance.
The thick smoke turns the mountain more majestic than ever.
Night is lit by red light that keeps eyes glazed forever by its magic.
The famous Big Sur is dramatic now in blazing fire along with sky, wind and sea.
She does not listen to our prayers,
She does not spare anyone’s begging
She is raging with cosmic wrath,
Burning a paradise on earth.
A place we cherished with our hearts.
“Sweetwater Sanctuary”
Right now, our hearts are burning not with fire,
Not with anger,
Not with sadness,
But with compassion.
The folks who lost their homes,
May they find comfort in the kindness
Poured out by others.
The innocent animals who are terrified,
May they find safety from the danger.
The firefighters,
May all the good forces gather to make sure
They are not in harm’s way.
Never forget the redwoods happily spreading their seeds.
Many baby trees soon are going to grow.
The whole host of earth spirits are dancing
To welcome nature’s rejuvenation.
Is this good or bad?
Let’s try not to find an easy answer for everything.
Let’s stay with the not knowing.
Many found true freedom
by surrendering to the not knowing.
This is indeed an ancient secret that liberated
Thousands of hearts.
Tassajara, the oldest Zen Buddhist monastery in the United States, has previously been threatened by wildfire. The center was evacuated most recently in June 2008, inspiring five senior monks to defy the authorities and stay behind, risking their lives to save the monastery. Thanks to their training, they saw the fire not as an enemy, but as a friend to guide. Colleen Busch’s book Fire Monks tells their inspiring story of saving one of the most historic and revered centers in American Buddhism.
Tassajara is one of three practice communities that comprise the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC). The SFZC posted an update on their Facebook page, saying evacuations are underway at Tassajara as a precautionary move against the erratic pattern of the fire. As reported by SFist, an evacuation notice was issued for Tassajara Sunday morning. Fire officials say the wildfire may not be contained for another month.
“Right now the air at Tassajara is clear. All of our guests and most of our students were evacuated last night and early this morning,” the post reads.Police have released CCTV footage of a man they wish to identify and speak with following an assault at hotel in Newham, London.
In the early hours of Saturday, 19 September police were called to the Custom House Hotel on Victoria Dock Road. Upon arrival, they found a 37-year-old man being treated by the London Ambulance Service for a cut mouth and bruised eye.
Still taken from the CCTV footage just before the assault took place. Photo: Met Police
CCTV from the hotel captured the assault, which took place just before midnight on Friday, 18 September.
In the video the suspect is seen to argue with the victim, the two men then square up to each other before the suspect takes the victim’s neck in his left arm before hitting him in the face, knocking him unconscious.SEATTLE — Kshama Sawant, the socialist on the City Council, is up for re-election this year. Since joining the council in January of 2014 she has helped push through a gradual raising of the minimum wage to $15 an hour in Seattle. She has expanded funding for social services and blocked, along with housing advocates, an attempt by the Seattle Housing Authority to allow a rent increase of up to 400 percent. She has successfully lobbied for city money to support tent encampments and is fighting for an excise tax on millionaires. And for this she has become the bête noire of the Establishment, especially the Democratic Party.
The corporate powers, from Seattle’s mayor to the Chamber of Commerce and the area’s Democratic Party, are determined she be defeated, and these local corporate elites have the national elites behind them. This will be one of the most important elections in the country this year. It will pit a socialist, who refuses all corporate donations — not that she would get many — and who has fearlessly championed the rights of workingmen and workingwomen, rights that are being eviscerated by the corporate machine. The elites cannot let the Sawants of the world proliferate. Corporate power is throwing everything at its disposal — including sponsorship of a rival woman candidate of color — into this election in the city’s 3rd District.
Sawant’s fight is our own.
I met Sawant in a restaurant a block from City Hall in Seattle. She is as intense as she is articulate. Sawant, born in India, is a leader of the Socialist Alternative Party. She holds a doctorate in economics from North Carolina State University and before her election to the City Council was a professor at a community college. She knows that there will be no genuine reforms, let alone systemic change, without the building of radical mass movements and a viable third party. She is as familiar at Seattle street demonstrations, where she has been arrested, as she is in City Council hearings. If there is any hope left for the absurdist political theater that characterizes election campaigns it is in renegades such as Sawant.
“The idea that things have to get a lot worse to have some sort of awakening and bring about an alternative to this corrupt and defunct corporate political system is inaccurate,” she said to me. “What we need is a big surge for an independent working-class political alternative while people are experiencing a sense of confidence, after decades of bitter defeat. The $15-an-hour victory in Seattle is going nationwide. And while unions are under massive attack, as you see in Wisconsin with Scott Walker, there are also successful labor initiatives getting |
too happy about this. I hope they'll respect our judgment.
Some customers were using it exclusively for their email - so what are you suggesting those customers do now?
Hushmail has a fairly secure email service. They've been around for some years. I've used them.
You said in the past that Silent Circle's products were secure because you don't hold the encryption keys - but in the company's blog post today your CTO talks about risks with e-mail related to standard internet protocols. What exactly would a court order from the U.S. government have been able to get?
At the very least they would be able to see the plain text headers of the e-mails, [which] would say who the mail is front, who it's to, the date it's sent, time stamp, and subject line. If the message body is encrypted to a key that we hold on our server, they could ask for the key, or ask us to decrypt it, or ask for the key so they could decrypt it. That's what we were afraid could happen.
We didn't have a PGP client that could run on a smartphone, and our market is primarily smartphone users. So how [could] we get it? Get a server side implementation of PGP, a Symantec product called PGP Universal, meant for enterprise customers who want to manage keys on the servers. So that's what we were using. But if someone comes to us and forces us to hand over the keys, [we're in trouble.]
There is no way to do encrypted e-mail where the content is protected. No way where the metadata is protected. Assuming that the e-mail is based in the country that can apply pressure to the mail provider... Almost any government has the ability to pressure a mail provider in that country to hand over what it has.
But Silent Circle's mail server is in Canada.
Well, the U.S. would approach the Canadian judicial system and ask for the Canadians to cooperate, and depending on the nature of the request, the Canadians might choose to cooperate.
And just to be clear, there isn't this same sort of risk with your mobile texting, calling and video calling services?
No. We're proud that we don't have the keys to the other service. I've really felt very comfortable talking to people about our architecture - the fact that we don't have the keys, and every time we would talk about that there was always that caveat: "Except for the mail." I didn't like that caveat. And that's why we've been debating this for some weeks.
How did you end up deleting all that e-mail data?
We copied out our employee email to another disc drive, and then erased the disc drive containing every thing else.
Were your clients annoyed?
I heard a lot of customer service phones ringing this morning… It's a terrible thing. I hope that we'll try to find something nice that we can do something for them to deaden the pain.
Why not give a warning before shutting the e-mail service down?
We had thought about phasing it out over several months time but yesterday… when we saw what happened with Lavabit, we could see it was an unpleasant experience of Lavabit to go through.
Did you think government would come in today or Monday?
I don't know, and it's possible something could happen or not. I have no idea. If they do come in, it would be an odd thing to happen because I would assume they keep up with news articles.
Do you know who your customers are on individual level?
We don't really see the full name of the individuals. We ask for a log-in name and password.
Was Edward Snowden a client?
Well, I don't know who our customers are. I've never had access to our customer list.
Your CEO Mike Jenke recently said that Silent Circle counted heads of state and reporters among its users. How could the company know that?
We know anecdotal stuff. We know who our enterprise customers are. We sell large numbers of seats to news organizations. We know who they are. Heads of state… we sell to a lot of governments. We have a London office with three former SAS operators who work for us, and they facilitate sales to the British government. The FBI has come in - they want to know about pricing.
Does this all strike you as a sign that the safe, secure use of e-mail is destined to phase out?
I don't use e-mail that much anymore. One reason why I don't is PGP doesn't run very well on a Mac these days. Symantec hasn't kept that up. So I hardly ever run PGP. When people send me PGP encrypted mail I have to go through a lot of trouble to decrypt it. If it's coming from a stranger, I'll say please re-send this in plain text, which probably raises their eyebrows. If I want to send something securely I use Silent Text [Silent Circle's mobile texting service].
Do you expect more consumers to move from using e-mail to mobile messaging services?
Mobile messaging is less clunky than e-mail. E-mail has its place. Sometimes you want to have an audit trail of business communication. Sometimes that's a feature rather than a liability. So e-mail is not going to go away, but if you want to send secure messages, there are more streamlined ways to do it now. E-mail usually has a size limit for attachments... Silent Text has limited attachments to something huge like 100 MB, or bigger.
Do you think incidents like that of Lavabit are going to encourage more U.S. consumers to use foreign communication services?
It's hard to say where it would be safe to base things like that. We do the best we can. We know that China is not a good place to put services like that. Or Russia. But we put them in Canada because they have pretty good privacy laws. It's not full proof. The U.S. and Canada have a good working relationship between judicial systems, so in a lot of cases a U.S. judicial request would go through the Canadian judicial system, and would probably be honored if it was reasonable. Canada has a privacy commission. We don't have a privacy commission. We have the Federal Trade Commission. Canadians have a bureaucracy dedicated to privacy… We [also] plan to put some servers in Switzerland.
Why Switzerland?
They don't have the data retention laws that the European Union have. All of the EU countries are subject to EU data retention laws. In that respect Europe is worse than the U.S. We don't really have the same data retention laws here, although we seem to be heading in that direction.
We're working on [building servers to base in Switzerland] now. It takes time [due to] complicated agreements with European carriers. [Note: Silent Circle essentially wants to build gateways in Europe to the region's public switch network, so that someone using the Silent Circle calling or texting app outside of Europe, could call into someone without the service in the region.] That's where we're getting the customer demand. If you're doing end-to-end encryption, the servers we have in Canada are just fine for that.
With questions from staff writer Kashmir Hill.
See also:
Lavabit's Ladar Levison: 'If You Knew What I Know About Email, You Might Not Use It'
Email Company Used By Edward Snowden Shuts Down Rather Than Hand Data Over To Feds
Encryption App Silent Circle Shuts Down E-Mail Service 'To Prevent Spying'
Gov Spying Boosts Swiss Data Center RevenuesCanada ranks among the least corrupt countries in the world, while Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia are among the most crooked, according to a new report released Wednesday by a non-profit organization that tracks political corruption.
The annual Corruption Perceptions Index by Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International ranked the public sectors of 174 countries and territories based on the data collected from over a dozen groups, including the World Bank.
According to the data, Denmark, Finland and New Zealand ranked in a three-way tie as the least corrupt countries in the world.
Bottom placeholder Somalia elected a new government in Sepember and may be on the way to better performance under a new regime led by Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
Best and worst Here are the extremes of Transparency International's 2012 ranking of 174 countries and territories based on their perceived corruption. Top 10: Denmark.
Finland.
New Zealand.
Sweden.
Singapore.
Switzerland.
Australia.
Norway.
Canada.
Netherlands. Bottom 10: Haiti.
Venezuela.
Iraq.
Turkmenistan.
Uzbekistan.
Myanmar.
Sudan.
Afghanistan.
North Korea.
Somalia.
For the sixth year in a row Canada placed in the top 10 least corrupt countries, tied for ninth with the Netherlands. Among the Americas, however, Canada was on top, ahead of Barbados and the United States.
Six European countries, including all four that make up northern Europe's Scandinavian region, cracked the top 10 list for least corrupt. Greece was the worst among European Union countries at 94th overall, but across the European continent, Ukraine was perceived as the most corrupt at 144th.
'The system needs to change'
The index is tabulated from sources dating back to 2011, before the recent wave of corruption allegations in Canada that has toppled political leaders in Quebec and Ontario.
Tyler Sommers, co-ordinator at the Canadian non-profit Democracy Watch said despite Canada's score on the corruption index, the data being used may be skewed because of lax enforcement systems.
"The system needs to change rather dramatically in Canada," Sommers said. "If we had widespread audits we would find more instances of corruption, more instances of individuals who are breaking the law, [and] so those scores, because they're based on public perception, would decrease."
Gerald Tremblay speaks at a news conference in Montreal Monday, November 5, 2012 where he announced his resignation as mayor of Montreal. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)
On Nov. 30, Richard Marcotte became the third Quebec mayor in recent weeks to resign. He was arrested in April and charged with fraud, corruption, breach of trust and conspiracy by Quebec's anti-corruption task force, but had refused to step down as the mayor of Mascouche until last week.
Earlier in November, the mayors of Montreal and Laval both resigned within days of each other over allegations of corruption. Both resignations have been linked to testimony at the Charbonneau inquiry which is looking into connections between Quebec politicians and the construction industry in the province.
Joe Fontana, the mayor of London, Ont., was also charged with fraud last month following an RCMP investigation that found he misused public funds in 2005 as a federal cabinet minister and Liberal member of Parliament.
Fontana has said he refuses to step down and will remain in office while he fights to clear his name.A new peer-reviewed scientific study has found that soybean workers exposed to glyphosate suffer from DNA damage and elevated cell death. Adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T) are the components of nucleic acid that make up DNA, and biotech is making these important parts of our biology a mash-up that no sane person would ever want to experience.
Soybean workers in Brazil exposed to fungicides herbicides and insecticides (the main three chemical classifications used extensively by the biotech farming model) experienced an elevated level of cellular apoptosis, as well as remarkable DNA damage according to the Elsevier published, Mutation Research/Genetic Toxicology and Environmental Mutagenesis.
The research concentrated on Glyphosate and 2,4-D, two chemicals that practically cover all of the US farming landscape. Glyphosate alone is used doubly as often as it was five years ago, with more than 185 million pounds of glyphosate-based and Round Up ready chemicals sprayed on our crops annually. Most GM crops were made, in fact, to withstand Round Up chemicals specifically. (Interestingly, the USDA won’t even test for glyphosate regularly because it’s ‘too expensive.’)
The herbicide 2,4-D has been used even longer than glyphosate – since the 1940s in fact – so there is no telling just how saturated our soil, and water is with this particular chemical. (Agent Orange, used during the Vietnam war contained 2,4-D.)
Danieli Benedetti and others found that the widespread cultivation of GM soybeans in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (RS, Brazil), especially in the city of Espumoso is particularly toxic to farm workers there.
They find:
“...the comet assay in peripheral leukocytes and the buccal micronucleus (MN) cytome assay (BMCyt) in exfoliated buccal cells were used to assess the effects of exposures to pesticides in soybean farm workers from Espumoso.A total of 127 individuals, 81 exposed and 46 non-exposed controls, were evaluated. Comet assay and BMCyt (micronuclei and nuclear buds) data revealed DNA damage in soybean workers. Cell death was also observed (condensed chromatin, karyorhectic, and karyolitic cells). Inhibition of non-specific choline esterase (BchE) was not observed in the workers. The trace element contents of buccal samples were analyzed by Particle-Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE). Higher concentrations of Mg, Al, Si, P, S, and Cl were observed in cells from workers. No associations with use of personal protective equipment, gender, or mode of application of pesticides were observed. Our findings indicate the advisability of monitoring genetic toxicity in soybean farm workers exposed to pesticides.”
It isn’t just farm workers that need to be concerned, though. Research in the German journal Ithaca stumbled upon significant concentrations of glyphosate in the urine samples of city dwellers. Many of the participants in this study showed glyphosate levels in their blood and urine that were up to 20 times the allowable levels in drinking water.
Other Studies Agree – Pesticide Chemicals Damage DNA
Multiple studies prior to the Brazilian research just conducted have shown cytotoxic and DNA-damaging effects of glyphosate exposure. In one study, Koller and his colleagues found that:
“... lymphocytes and cells from internal organs indicate that epithelial cells are more susceptible to the cytotoxic and DNA-damaging properties of the herbicide and its formulation. Since we found genotoxic effects after short exposure to concentrations that correspond to a 450-fold dilution of spraying used in agriculture, our findings indicate that inhalation may cause DNA damage in exposed individuals.”
As Natural Society previously reported, another study found that it only takes 57 parts per million for Round Up to completely destroy human kidney cells. We kind of need our kidneys. Agricultural levels of glyphosate are often more than 200 times this level.
You have to assume Monsanto knew that its RoundUp chemicals would damage DNA. After all, they’ve hidden toxicity results before, saying that they were a ‘commercial secret.’
Approximately 92% of all soybeans grown in the US are GMO, which means they are grown with Round Up or glyphosate-containing chemicals, and the Koller study found that even smaller concentrations (.02%) of Monsanto’s best seller sprayed on our crops causes DNA damage.
That means you can dilute Round Up more than 98% and it will still damage your cells.
In what country is a company allowed to knowingly, purposefully, scientifically kill human DNA (and thus humans) and not be charged with murder, treason, or at the bare minimum the withholding of information? Oh, that’s right – America.
Sure, biotech companies will tell you that DNA gets damaged all the time – from UV rays, oxidation, medical X-rays, even environmental toxins which biotech doesn’t create, but hen they systemically market a product(s) that kills your cells – shouldn’t they be stopped?
Damaged DNA leads to cancer, faster aging, neurological disease and the break down of our organs. There are hundreds of pathological conditions which are caused by damaged DNA, not that we can’t take proactive steps to heal our DNA, but agencies which allow these products to stay on the market are an abomination.
Even 9th graders understand the importance of DNA, and while the human genome project that sequenced more than 100,00 genes stilldidn’t explain the whole picture of our genetic make-up, DNA is an essential part of it, and shouldn’t be damaged. You can revisit the basics of DNA, here.
This article originally appeared at Natural Society.SAN MATEO COUNTY — Authorities on Thursday announced the removal of thousands of marijuana plants from illegal grow sites on public and private lands in San Mateo County.
The 2-month-long Campaign Against Marijuana Planting netted 11,400 plants with a street value of $22.8 million, according to the San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force.
Led by the California Department of Justice, the campaign was designed to eradicate large-scale grow sites on public and private lands that cause deforestation, damage wildlife habitats and pose a danger to residents.
Reading this on your iPhone or iPad? Check out our new Apple News app channel here and click the + at the top of the page to save to your Apple News favorites.
The sites were well hidden on San Francisco Water Department and Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District property near Devil’s Canyon, west of Skyline Boulevard, authorities said.
Four men were arrested in connection with the illegal grow sites: Joaquin Sanchez, 38, and Joel Ochoa Sanchez, 32, both of Redwood City, and Juan Farias Galeana, 28, and Jose Antonio Mendoza, 26, both of Michoacán, Mexico.
The suspects, who were linked to 6,889 of the plants, dammed a creek and diverted the water into a man-made pool, which they used to irrigate grow sites in the Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Authorities said they also found well-supplied camps near the sites.
Last week, Galeana and Mendoza pleaded no contest to misdemeanor stream diversion charges. They each received 18 months of court probation and were ordered to repair the environmental damage as well as serve eight and five days in jail, respectively, prosecutors said.
On Monday, Joaquin Sanchez pleaded not guilty to unlawful cultivation of marijuana, a misdemeanor. He is out of custody on a $10,000 bail bond.
Like our Facebook page for more conversation and news coverage from the Bay Area and beyond.
Joel Ochoa Sanchez also is charged with unlawful cultivation of marijuana, as well as resisting arrest and assaulting a police animal. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Sept. 1.On This Day
Thursday 11th February 1937
82 years ago
After a difficult 44-day sit-down strike at the Fisher Body plant in Flint, Michigan, General Motors (GM) President Alfred P. Sloan signed the first union contract in the history of the U.S. automobile industry. Organised by the Union of Auto Workers (UAW), the strike was intended to force GM to give ground to its workers. GM workers had protested before, and they'd been fired and replaced for it. The UAW decided they needed to achieve the total shutdown of a working plant in order to bring company executives to the negotiating table. On New Year's Eve, 45 minutes after lunch, union leaders ordered the assembly line halted. Executives kept the belts running, but the workers wouldn't work. GM turned to the courts, winning an injunction against the workers on the grounds that the sit-down strike was unconstitutional. The injunction was overturned when it was discovered that the judge who presided in the case owned over $200,000 of GM stock. Twelve days after the strike had begun, with the workers still dug in, Sloan ordered the heat in the building turned off and barred the workers access to food from the outside. Police, armed with tear gas and guns, surrounded the building. The police fired--first tear gas and later bullets--into the plant. Sympathetic picketers outside, many of them family members of the strikers, helped to break all the windows in the plant by hurling rocks from were they stood. Others, braver still, broke the picket line with their automobiles to form a barricade that prevented the police vehicles from overrunning the building the strikers occupied. Finally, days after the Battle of the Running Bulls, as the violent confrontation came to be known, Michigan Governor Frank Murphy called in the National Guard with the intention of quelling any further violence. The presence of the National Guard bolstered the strikers' confidence. Realizing the futility of their position, GM executives came to the bargaining table. After a week of negotiations over which Governor Murphy personally presided, an agreement between GM and the UAW was reached.Ikusa Megami ZERO Complete English Translation Version F1.2
The dialog was translated by nekoHen so if you have any questions/comments
about that, I suggest you post them at
Everything else and Append Dungeon dialog was by ZAP.
The dialog was translated by nekoHen so if you have any questions/commentsabout that, I suggest you post them at the nekoHen thread Everything else and Append Dungeon dialog was by ZAP.
nekoHen & ZAP Present:戦女神ZERO (Ikusa Megami ZERO)Battle Goddess Episode 0Complete English Translation Patch Version F1.2 (2 August 2016)Change Log:1.2 Replaced SP047.BIN should fix a bug in a Silver Duke scene1.1 Added CIMES.BIN (character biographies) which I forgot to add in previouslyIf you find any major bugs, feel free to post in the thread mentioned aboveor send an e-mail to zapinterlations@gmail.comMost recent version can always be found at www.zapinterlations.com(However, there shouldn't be any more updates)Requirements:Ikusa Megami ZeroAppend 1Append 2/V2.00V2.01 update(in this order)Installation:Backup any BIN/AGF files on the games folder (just in case)Unpack all files to the games folder(If you don't want translated dialog, don't copy the files starting with SC/SP and $1$SC/SP)Enjoy! :)Credits:Tools: Asmodean, SaintLouisXMain Story Dialog & Terminology: ushoranExtra Story Dialog: zoltanar, essenialAll Other Text: zoltanar, alinelrene, essenialImage Editing: er0gamr, alinelrene, zoltanarFeedback: nekoHen and Hongfire communitiesAnd of course Eushully for making great games~If you wish to complete the game fully (All routes and all items, etc) I suggest using this website, however, it is in japanese.It is hard to respond to hate with love and tolerance.
But when a woman let off a racist rant after mistaking a Sikh politician for a Muslim, he responded with remarkable kindness.
Canadian politician Jagmeet Singh had barely started his meet and greet when a woman accosted him.
Singh - who is currently running for leadership of the federal NDP - valiantly continued his mic check as the woman accused him of being "in bed" with Sharia and the Muslim Brotherhood.
It is worth repeating that Singh is a Sikh, not a Muslim.
In a situation where many restrained, harmonious people would find their tolerance tested, Singh stayed calm and addressed his audience with a message of love.
He said:
What do we believe in? We believe in love and courage, right? Love and courage!
Understandably, the crowd started chanting his name.
He continued:
What is this? We don't want to be intimidated by hate. We don't want hatred to ruin a positive event, right? We don't want hatred to ruin a positive event. So let's show people how we would treat someone with love.
Singh released a similarly inspiring statement after the event, explaining that he avoided saying that he wasn't actually a Muslim because "it suggests hate would be ok if I was Muslim".
Read the full statement here:
As the first turban-wearing Sikh man to sit as an MPP in Ontario and one of the most prominent Sikh politicians in Canada, Singh is no stranger to racism.
On Canadian Multiculturalism Day, he shared some personal experiences.NEW DELHI: Emphasising the need to change the way his party functions, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said that he will work with leaders to transform the organisation."Congress party has the ability to stand up to the expectations of the people. I am going to put all my efforts to transform the organisation of the party," he said. "I am going to make sure that a transformation happens, and I will do it in ways in which you cannot even imagine. We will involve people (in the party) in a way you cannot even imagine right now," he reiterated.Talking about Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) debut in Delhi elections, Gandhi said, "I think AAP has involved a lot of people, which the traditional parties did not. Both the major parties are thinking about politics in a traditional way in Delhi. Congress needs to change that."Asked about his take on Narendra Modi, Gandhi said, "Mr Modi is the leader of BJP. Congress has a vision of the country, BJP has another perspective. Congress will try to make sure that its perspective reaches people.""Congress believes in working for the people. What we need do as a party is to move ahead of just talking about good governance," he said. Gandhi went on to congratulate his opponents for their victory.Addressing the media, Rahul Gandhi shielded Sheila Dikshit, despite her defeat, saying, "Sheila ji has done good governance."Accepting the people's verdict with humility, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said the state poll results call for deep introspection and the party would study "the many reasons for this defeat".Sonia said, "We are very disappointed over the results. We congratulate our opponents for victory. We will introspect and take all necessary action to rectify.""This result calls for deep introspection," she said. "We have to understand to look at the many reasons for this defeat. We have to look into the way we did not take our message to the people.TAMPA — Commuters and day-trippers will cruise between the downtowns of St. Petersburg and Tampa this fall at 33 mph on a 98-foot, 149-passenger catamaran, under plans unveiled Wednesday for what has been formally dubbed "the Cross-Bay Ferry."
"I challenge you to name any other world-class market across the country, and across the world, and not see this kind of service," said Chris Steinocher, president and chief executive of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce. "Our visitors demand this kind of opportunity. They want to be on the water. You can see the water, and we've been teasing people. Now we have the opportunity to live up to what we believe our promise is — which is the best community on the water in the country."
Details of the service were unveiled at a news conference at Schifino Lee Advertising & Branding, one of two agencies handling marketing for the project.
"It's an on-the-water destination experience that will transform people's perception of Tampa Bay," said Ben Lee, principal of the firm. "The Cross-Bay Ferry will connect Beach Drive in St. Petersburg to the Riverwalk in downtown Tampa and all the great things that each of those destinations offer — the shopping, the dining, the museum, the hotels."
The ferry is a collaboration of the two cities, along with Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. The governmental bodies of each voted this summer to kick in $350,000, or a quarter of the $1.4 million cost of a six-month pilot program.
Seattle-based HMS Ferries is providing the vessel, the Provincetown IV. It has been ferrying passengers between Boston and Provincetown, Mass., during the summer months and will arrive in late October.
Organizers said the public will have several days to try the ferry for free during Thanksgiving week. The regular fare will be $10 for a one-way trip, $8 for ages 3 through 12, and free for children under 3. There will be reduced pricing for commuters. The trip will take 50 minutes each way.
Ed Turanchik, a longtime public transit advocate in the Tampa Bay area, said the ferry schedule will link with trolley services on the St. Petersburg side and the streetcar and Downtowner shuttle service in Tampa. "What's exciting about this is great first-mile/last-mile connectivity," Turanchik said. "There's ample parking. So we are going to have a multimodal transportation system involving water transportation starting this November, and that's going to be exciting."
The website CrossBayFerry.com is now active. According to the ferry timeline, which is subject to change, online ticket sales will commence on Oct. 15.
An inaugural VIP launch trip is planned for early November.
From Nov. 3 to Nov. 18, community and business organizations can experience the trip through a series of "Test the Waters" excursions.
Friday-Saturday-Sunday service, serving the entertainment, sports, shopping and tourism markets, begins Nov. 4, with Monday-Thursday service serving the commuter and tourist market launching the week of Nov. 28.
The twin-hull aluminum catamaran is designed for exceptionally smooth runs. In St. Petersburg, it will dock in the yacht basin along Bayshore Drive NE, while in Tampa, it will dock adjacent to the Tampa Convention Center.
There will be food and beverage service, bicycle racks, and indoor and outdoor seating.
The Provincetown IV is on loan, which limits the length of the test program from Nov. 1 through April 30. The local governments and HMS said they will measure demand for both commuter and noncommuter services and impact on vehicle use.
"Everywhere I go, people ask me about the ferry," said St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, an early supporter of the project. "The Cross-Bay Ferry is a fantastic example of regional collaboration to take on an important challenge — transportation — in a way that's exciting to experience and pays homage to our maritime history. Importantly, this is a test project, and we need the community to support this if we want it to continue and expand."
Contact Jerome R. Stockfisch at [email protected]A new rumor has sprung up that suggests Microsoft is looking at a third alternative for sending out copies of Windows 7: USB drives. There are currently two known ways to move to Windows 7 without buying a new computer: via retail or via download. The third solution would make it easy for users with netbooks without DVD drives, most of which are running Windows XP (as opposed to Vista), to upgrade to Windows 7. Of course, installation from USB is much faster than from DVD, so such an option could end up being adopted by a larger demographic. USB drives are still more expensive than DVDs to mass manufacture, however, so we doubt Microsoft would be happy with that.
CNET quotes an undisclosed source in its speculative report: "Microsoft is considering offering Windows 7 on a thumb drive to allow netbook owners to more easily upgrade their machines." Microsoft confirmed in February that all editions of Windows 7 would run on netbooks but never disclosed how those who already own the low-end computers could get the operating system on their system. The currently only known solution, downloading a copy and putting the installation on a USB drive, isn't a process many netbook users would be happy to do. If the USB drive option is skipped, most will likely have a friend or a tech support guy get the job done for them.
On another note, could this rumor somehow be related to StartKey, a Microsoft technology that was supposed to allow users to store entire Windows profiles and all their data on portable flash drives? We criticized it in March 2008 but Microsoft has yet to acknowledge it, assuming it hasn't already been scrapped.
We asked a Microsoft spokesperson about the possibility of Windows 7 on flash drives. "I can't confirm the rumor—we don't have any information to share about this," the spokesperson told Ars.By Michael Snyder
BlacklistedNews.com
The United Nations has officially designated October 31st as 7 Billion Day. On that day, the United Nations estimates that the population of the earth will hit 7 billion for the very first time. But instead of celebrating what a milestone 7 billion people represents, the UNPF is focusing instead on using October 31st to raise awareness about “sustainability” and “sustainable development”. In other words, the United Nations is once again declaring that there are way too many people on the planet and that we need to take more direct measures to reduce fertility. In recent years, the UN and other international organizations have become bolder about trying to push the sick population control agenda of the global elite. Most of the time organizations such as the UN will simply talk about “stabilizing” the global population, but as you will see in this article, there are many among the global elite that are not afraid to openly talk about a goal of reducing the population of the world to 500 million (or less). To you and I it may seem like insanity to want to get rid of more than 90 percent of the global population, but there is a growing consensus among the global elite that this is absolutely necessary for the good of the planet.
As we approach October 31st, dozens of articles are appearing in newspapers all over the globe that are declaring what a horrible thing it is that we are up to 7 billion people.
In fact, it surely is no accident that the United Nations put 7 Billion Day on the exact same day as Halloween. Perhaps they want to highlight how “scary” it is that we have 7 billion people on the planet, or perhaps they are trying to send us a message by having 7 Billion Day occur on the same day as “the festival of death”.
In any event, it seems like way too much of a coincidence that 7 Billion Day just happens to fall on the same day as Halloween.
Today, “sustainable development” has become one of the key buzzwords that those in the radical environmental movement love to use, but most Americans have no idea that one of the key elements of “sustainable development” is population control.
So what precisely is considered to be an ideal population for the earth by those pushing “sustainable development”?
Well, of course there is much disagreement on this issue, but many are very open about the fact that they believe that the earth should only have 500 million people (or less) on it.
For example, the first of the “new 10 commandments” on the infamous Georgia Guidestones states the following….
“Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.”
CNN Founder Ted Turner would go even farther….
“A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.”
Dave Foreman, the co-founder of Earth First, says that reducing our population down to 100 million is one of his three main goals….
“My three main goals would be to reduce human population to about 100 million worldwide, destroy the industrial infrastructure and see wilderness, with it’s full complement of species, returning throughout the world.”
Sadly, this kind of garbage is even being taught at major U.S. universities. For example, Professor of Biology at the University of Texas at Austin Eric R. Piankaonce wrote the following….
I do not bear any ill will toward people. However, I am convinced that the world, including all humanity, WOULD clearly be much better off without so many of us.
Mikhail Gorbachev thinks that reducing the global population by 90 percent would be just about right….
“We must speak more clearly about sexuality, contraception, about abortion, about values that control population, because the ecological crisis, in short, is the population crisis. Cut the population by 90% and there aren’t enough people left to do a great deal of ecological damage.”
But most of the time, the way that the global elite speak of population control is much more “politically correct”. They tend to use terms such as “sustainable development” and “reduction of fertility rates” and “quality of life” when discussing the need to reduce our population.
As 7 Billion Day has approached, there have been articles popping up in major publications all over the globe that are advocating increased population control measures. Of course in the western world such measures are always framed as being “voluntary”, but that is the way that they always introduce things like this. Once enough people get on board with the “voluntary” population control measures they will become “mandatory”.
So now that you are aware of some of the buzzwords that are used, check out what has been written on some of the biggest news websites in the world recently….
Jeffrey D. Sachs, the director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, recently said the following in an article for CNN….
“The arrival of the 7 billionth person is cause for profound global concern. It carries a challenge: What will it take to maintain a planet in which each person has a chance for a full, productive and prosperous life, and in which the planet’s resources are sustained for future generations? “How, in short, can we enjoy ‘sustainable development’ on a very crowded planet?”
For Sachs, one of the “keys” to sustainable development is the “stabilization” of the global population….
“The second key to sustainable development is the stabilization of the global population. This is already occurring in high-income and even some middle-income countries, as families choose to have one or two children on average. The reduction of fertility rates should be encouraged in the poorer countries as well.”
In a recent article for the Guardian, Roger Martin stated that all of the problems that humanity is facing would be easier to solve if less people were running around the planet….
“…all environmental (and many economic and social) problems are easier to solve with fewer people, and ultimately impossible with ever more.”
He also says that if we reduce the population, it will mean better lives for all the rest of us….
“On a finite planet, the optimum population providing the best quality of life for all, is clearly much smaller than the maximum, permitting bare survival. The more we are, the less for each; fewer people mean better lives.”
But is that really the case?
Of course not.
There has been tremendous human suffering all throughout history. If we eliminated 90 percent of the global population it would not suddenly usher in some kind of “golden age”.
But many among the global elite are truly convinced that we are spoiling “their planet” and they don’t want so many of us around anymore. Thanks to technology, they only need a few hundred million people to run their system, and they view the rest of us as “useless eaters”.
This all may sound quite bizarre to many of you, but this is the kind of stuff that is being taught in colleges and universities across the western world.
In fact, you are starting to see an increasing number of people in the western world actually suggest that we adopt a “one-child policy” such as China has. For example, the following is from an opinion piece that appeared in the National Post….
A planetary law, such as China’s one |
that the villain was actually his own grandfather and not Spider-Man. The symbiote fragment is subsequently separated from Normie while the main symbiote is apparently destroyed during the final battle between Red Goblin and Spider-Man. It is implied that Liz and Mark kept at least some of the symbiote in storage for some future use. However, it showed that some of the symbiote still remained in his body, swirling in the boy's eye. [9]
Normie is seen in a Sensational Spider-Man issue playing baseball, being watched from the stands by the Molten Man and the Chameleon, while Electro is in the shadows. No harm comes to Normie, but the Chameleon uses his safety as a bargaining chip to bring the Molten Man into his plan to attack Spider-Man after the hero's recent unmasking. [ volume & issue needed ]
When Norman Osborn Sr. returns from the dead, he also uses a robot Goblin to kidnap his heir. This version appears as the standard Green Goblin, and causes Normie to believe his father has returned. This is part of a complex ploy to increase Norman's visibility by playing the unfortunate grandfather. [ volume & issue needed ]
Harry Osborn recovers his sanity shortly before a modified version of the Goblin Formula claims his life. He saves Spider-Man and says to him, "You're my best friend". Normie is shown overhearing this, possibly changing his view of Spider-Man. [2] While still recovering from his father's death, Normie is befriended by Peter Parker, Spider-Man's alter ego, who becomes a sort of surrogate uncle to him. [3] A trio of robotic "Goblin women" (one of a number of failsafes prepared by Harry before his death) kidnap Normie, intending to turn him into the new Green Goblin. Spider-Man and the Molten Man (Normie's uncle) defeat them before he can be exposed to the Goblin Formula. [4]
MC2 Edit
Normie kidnaps May.
In the MC2 alternate future, little Normie Osborn is all grown up. A sensitive boy, he took his mother's remarrying hard, never getting along with his stepfather, Foggy Nelson (until after her death when the two finally bonded), and he held Peter Parker responsible for the death of his father and grandfather. When his mother became ill and died, Normie broke down, accepting his father's and grandfather's mantle as the Green Goblin as his destiny. His appearance as the Green Goblin forced May Parker to adopt the mantle of Spider-Girl. His first few appearances met with failure as he was continually defeated by Spider-Girl, Phil Urich (as the "Golden Goblin"), and even in one instance by Mary Jane Parker. Then one day, when May had temporarily lost her powers, Normie kidnapped her. He unmasked her, tied her up and taunted her with a knife. May realized that Normie was hoping she would break free and kill him. At this time, May was able to convince him to go get help and to forsake the Goblin legacy.[volume & issue needed]
Normie reformed, and even helped May continue on as Spider-Girl during her temporary power loss by lending her his goblin equipment (Normie also confided in her that he was actually acrophobic). He later also helped Phil Urich return to costume as the good Green Goblin. For a time, Normie converted one of his grandfather's old Goblin hideouts into a kind of "batcave" from which May and Phil could use as a base of operations, which he christened "the Website." However, the Website was later located and destroyed by Canis' people.[volume & issue needed]
While in group therapy (for former supervillains), he began dating Brenda Drago (the daughter of Blackie Drago, the second Vulture), much to the chagrin of May who had developed a crush on him. During the events of the Season of the Serpent storyline, May confessed her feelings to Normie, but Normie did not think it would be appropriate. However, after he is shot in the chest by Mr. Nobody in the Marked For Death arc (who shot him to mess with May's head), Normie's true feelings are revealed in a coma vision where his grandfather taunts him, "All you had to do was kill the girl. But no you had to fall in love with her, and how's that working out for you, Normie?" The vision of Norman also taunts him that "you will never truly be rid of me."[volume & issue needed]
His relationship with Brenda became rocky for a time when Élan DeJunae appeared to inform him of their betrothal which had been arranged by her father and Norman Osborn when Normie and Élan had just been children. Normie was not thrilled with the news, and Élan decided it was up to her to make sure that Normie was true to the family legacy. First, she attempted to expose him to the Goblin chemicals, but she was foiled by Spider-Girl. Normie was submerged in the chemicals for a long time, but he said the doctors gave him a clean bill of health. Next Élan objected to his wedding to Brenda by literally crashing it. She forcibly bonded the Venom symbiote to him as a "wedding gift." The new Venom went on a rampage until Normie with the help of Spider-Girl was able to gain control of the symbiote. May told him to cast it into the fire, but Normie could not bring himself to kill it. "I overcame the Goblin legacy, I should be able to control a simple alien symbiote." It looks as if Normie wishes to use the symbiote to be a hero. However, he is apparently afraid of a repeat of what happened on what was supposed to be his wedding day. He told his secretary Kristy Watson (Normie's nanny growing up, cousin of MJ), that if the alien ever takes control of him again, to have Spider-Girl destroy him.[volume & issue needed]
His superhero persona does not have a name yet. They object to being referred to as Venom (because Venom was the symbiote with Eddie Brock) or as Normie (he would like to keep his identity secret) while out patrolling but "all the good ones [names] are already taken." For a time he considered using the name Dusk. When in control of the symbiote, Normie resembles Spider-Man's black costume.[volume & issue needed]
When the Avengers came to arrest him for harboring the Venom symbiote, the cyborgized-Jim Rhodes short-circuited (claiming that Tony Stark murdered him) and went on a rampage in New York City. In the end, Normie with the Venom symbiote saved the day because he was the only one who did not hold back—he snared Rhodes with the symbiote and then grabbed onto a live wire from inside a streetlight, electrocuting both himself and Rhodes, with the short-circuiting Rhodes falling first. Afterwards, he informed them that Raptor is a government agent and so "surrendered" to her custody. He voluntarily joined Kaine's team of reformed supervillains on the condition that Raptor (who does not get along with Whedon, its director) may be allowed to quit.[volume & issue needed]
When Brenda is viciously wounded in an attack by the Hobgoblin, he joins Spider-Girl in the hunt for the Hobgoblin. They discover that the Hobgoblin's entire purpose is to lure Spider-Girl to a group of assassins known as the Scriers, and Spider-Girl is impaled by one of their swords. Osborn and the symbiote lash out, killing several of the Scriers with symbiote-constructed blades, causing the Scriers to momentarily retreat (this momentarily lapse would become his and Kaine's little secret). Then, Normie with the symbiote saves Spider-Girl when Osborn transfers the symbiote to her. It heals her wounds and removed the blade's poison from her system. While Spider-Girl with the symbiote go on to hunt down Hobgoblin, Kaine and Normie are besieged by more Scriers. They are later joined by Spider-Girl and Peter Parker (back in costume). The battle is halted however when the Scriers are called off by the Black Tarantula, who had just assumed control of their organization.[volume & issue needed]
The symbiote had been vulnerable when Peter Parker rejected it, and it was corrupted by the hate and anger of the second host (Eddie Brock). When it bonded to Normie Osborn, it was changed by his loving nature. When the symbiote gives its life to protect Spider-Girl and her father from the Hobgoblin, Normie felt it die.[volume & issue needed]
Normie and Brenda return, and Normie agrees to fund an operation to restore most of the hearing of May's baby brother, Benjamin Parker.[10]
Normie summons Peter to an old Oscorp warehouse, and reveals a girl in a tank, discovered during his travels abroad, and says that SHE may be the real May Parker. In the next issue, Normie shows Peter his grandfather's journal, which states that he kidnapped May and arranged to have a clone of her returned to the Parkers. With the veracity of the journal in question, Normie and Peter attempt to discover the truth without informing May of their discovery and its possible implications. Normie visits Élan DeJunae and questions her without success; although her body language at the mention of "Project: Changeling" implies that she knows something, she is unwilling to talk. Later on at the warehouse, Peter (with Normie present) draws some fluid from the tank in order to run some tests on it. Peter realizes too late that the fluid has become unstable from exposure to air—it explodes in his face to Normie's distress.[11]
The girl is later awoken by a recently escaped Fury, and assaults Normie before making her escape.[volume & issue needed]
While he was the Green Goblin, Normie got several tattoos. The tattoo on his back read "Honor Thy Father/Kill the Spider." The tattoo on his chest read "Revenge" and has a spider impaled with a knife. He also had scars on his wrists from his suicide attempt. The Venom symbiote removed all of his tattoos and scars as it died, as a parting gift.[volume & issue needed]
Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows Edit
In the pages of Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, Normie inherits the entire Oscorp company sometime after Harry's death at ten years old and takes on the name Norman Osborn II. Despite his age, he is a cold, calculating, and relentless CEO similar to his grandfather. When the Spider Family makes their debut, he becomes fascinated with the youngest member of the group, Spiderling. Due to Liz being in charge of Allan Biotech, he is taken care of by his personal assistant, Miss January, who reports to Liz about Normie's behavior. Despite no longer being close to him, Liz attempts to make sure Normie doesn't follow the same path as his father and grandfather. However, blaming the death of his father on Spider-Man, Normie constructs a giant Green Goblin Mech to take Peter Parker and his family down. It is later revealed that Normie was manipulated by Miss January, who pilots the Goblin Mech and coerced Normie into building it to avenge Harry. Normie assists Spiderling in destroying the mech from the inside. He thanks Spiderling for helping him gain his life back.[12]
After the incident, Spiderling becomes his first close friend, but as they grew up they saw each other less as Normie's life did get better and more normal despite him still running the company. Eight years later, he takes a more cautious approach for his latest experiments with gene therapy to avoid the incidents caused by his father and grandfather, though he is still a target of enemies as a result of their legacy (though Spiderling does assist in protecting him time to time). He is determined to make the world a better place to redeem the Osborn name, but is unaware that his lead scientist is secretly Mister Sinister, who uses his resources to create various clones of the Spider family to attack the X-Men. Normie uses a smaller version of the Goblin mech to assist the Spider Family and the X-Men in defeating Mr. Sinister, but his exposure to Sinister's chemicals causes him to grow an additional four arms.[13]A recent study indicates that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, a database of endangered species, seems to underestimate the number of species at risk. About 200 forest bird species from six of the world most biodiverse are at risk of extinction. On the other hand, in IUCN the species is listed as non-threatened.
The findings of the study were printed in Science Advances. Stuart Pimm, the co-author of the study and Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment, said that the Red List employs rigorously objective criteria, is transparent and is democratic in soliciting comments on species decisions. He further said that its methods are seriously outdated.
The study involved 586 bird species from Central America, Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Madagascar, Western Andes of Colombia, Southeast Asia and Sumatra. The team of researchers included geospatial data on the elevational preferences of the birds. Then, they added data on the forest cover remaining for the birds to gauge the amount of suitable habitat remaining within their distributions.
Based on their refined ranges, 210 bird species are in a higher threat category. On the other hand, the IUCN listed 108 species at risk of extinction. One example of the bird species is the gray-winged cotinga found in Brazil. It is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. On the other hand, in the study, its refined range size is smaller than 100 square kilometers that must be categorized as critically endangered, according to Mongabay.
Furthermore, the researchers theorize that the finding would probably expand to mammals and amphibians. Meanwhile, the IUCN disagrees on the study. Stuart Butchart, the head of Birdlife International and oversees the Red List's birds, said that the study is "fundamentally flawed."
He further explained that in the study, they use the various set of metrics than the IUCN. He also said that the IUCN uses a broad habitat range, while the study uses much narrower criteria, as noted by Smithsonian.In an earlier post we looked at nationwide growth in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as "food stamps."
We found that, thanks to many years of accelerated growth in the program under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, 1 in 7 Americans now participate in the food stamp program.
There are, however, very large differences from state to state in how much the food stamp program has expanded. If we look at growth in the program from the year 2000 to 2015, we find growth varying from 641 percent growth in Nevada, to 54 percent growth in Wyoming:
Regionally, the areas of the country with the most growth are the South and West:
We can't draw an easy conclusions from this map, however, since food stamp usage can often increase with population growth. That is, it is probably not a coincidence that many of the states with the the most growth in food state usage also happens to be states with some of the highest rates of population growth :
There are some states, however, where there was very weak population growth during this time period, but food stamp usage increased considerable. In these areas, we are led to conclude that the economy worsened. For example, in Nevada during the 2000-2015 period, the population increased 44 percent, but food stamp usage increased 641 percent. In other words, food stamp usage increased 14 times more than population. By contrast, in North Dakota, food-stamp usage increased by less than five times as much as population.
As explored in this article, median income growth has varied considerably from state to state. In many cases, the states most heavily impacted by declining median incomes were states in the Great Lakes region, including Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
[RELATED: "Why Some 'Flyover States' Switched to Trump."]
If we look at food stamp growth compared to population growth, we get the following scatter graph:
From 2000-2015, all states experienced at least some population growth, except Michigan. Not surprisingly, Nevada, which experienced the highest rate of population growth, also experienced the highest rate of food stamp growth.
However, Nevada's growth in food stamps was much higher than we'd expect, given the food-stamp growth rates in other states.
We can get a sense of whether or not food-stamp growth was typical or atypical if we insert a trend line. Given the population growth for each state, those states that fall above the trend line experienced a larger-than-expected growth in food stamps, while those states below the trend line experienced less growth in food stamps that would be expected.
The reasons for a state having an especially large growth rate in food stamps can include any number of things. However, many of the states that were found to have dropping median incomes over this period also show up as having higher-than-expected growth in food stamps. This is especially noticeable with Wisconsin and Nevada. Also included in this group are Florida and Michigan, while Pennsylvania and Ohio are both slightly above the trend line.
And, it may also not be a coincidence that Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin, and Ohio were all states that flipped in the electoral college from Obama to Trump in the 2016 election. Indeed, as Yahoo News reported today, black voters in Milwaukee, many of whom are suffering economically, may have been an important factor in Hillary Clinton's defeat in Wisconsin.
By itself, food stamp usage predicts nothing in terms of elections, of course, since ideology, demographics, and other factors matter as well. Nevertheless, we do see here additional information that lends itself to the idea that the so-called "flyover states" continue to be overlooked in terms of national economic analysis.
While the national economic news may continue to show growth and relatively low unemployment numbers, there continues to be many areas of the United States where economic growth and income growth are behaving contrary to the trends found in the nation at large.Image copyright AFP/Getty
US authorities have fined Exxon Mobil $2m (£1.5m) for violating sanctions against Russia while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was its chief executive.
Exxon dealt with Igor Sechin, the president of Russian oil giant Rosneft, who was blacklisted, the US Treasury Department said.
Exxon has challenged the finding, calling it "fundamentally unfair".
The US imposed sanctions against Russia in March 2014 as Russia annexed Crimea and tension rose in Ukraine.
In April 2014, the US added Mr Sechin to the list of people blocked under the rules.
Ukraine profile - Timeline
Exxon signed eight legal documents with Mr Sechin in May 2014 and did not disclose the activities voluntarily, the Treasury Department said. It described it as an "egregious case".
Exxon, citing administration statements, on Thursday said it believed the sanctions targeted Mr Sechin as an individual and not in his professional role at Rosneft.
It said the Treasury Department had been reviewing the issue for several years.
As head of Exxon, Mr Tillerson signed deals with Rosneft, leading Russia to award him the Order of Friendship in 2013. At Exxon, he spoke against sanctions.
But Texas-based Exxon was forced to wind down drilling after sanctions were imposed.
Mr Tillerson's ties to Russia prompted controversy when US President Donald Trump named him as his choice to lead the State Department.
The US in April said it would not waive sanctions to allow Exxon to resume drilling in Russia.
US sanctions exposed Exxon to up to $1bn in losses by the end of 2014, Exxon said.There was minor consternation in Internet engineering circles today, as the number of IPv4 networks worldwide briefly touched another magic “power of 2” size limit. As it turns out, 512K (524,288 to be exact, or 2-to-the-19th power) is the maximum number of routes supported by the default TCAM configuration on certain aging hardware platforms.
The problem is real, and we still haven’t seen the full effects, because most of the Internet hasn’t yet experienced the conditions that could cause problems for underprovisioned equipment. Everyone on the Internet has a slightly different idea of how big the global routing table is, thanks to slightly different local business rules about peering and aggregation (the merging of very similar routes to close-by parts of the Internet address space). Everyone has a slightly different perspective, but the consensus estimate is indeed just under 512K, and marching higher with time.
The real test, when large providers commonly believe that the Internet contains 512K routes, and pass that along to all their customers as a consensus representation of Internet structure, will start later this week, and will be felt nearly everywhere by the end of next week.
Enterprises that rely on the Internet for delivery of service should pay close attention to the latency and reachability of the paths to customers in the coming weeks, in order to identify affected service providers upstream and work around them while they perform appropriate upgrades to their infrastructure.
Here’s a plot of monthly routing table sizes from our peers, over the last several years. Note that there’s no good exact opinion about the One True Size of the Internet — every provider we talk to has a slightly different guess. The peak of the distribution today (the consensus) is actually only about 502,000 routes, but recognizably valid answers can range from 497,000 to 511,000, and a few have straggled across the 512,000 line already. The number varies from minute to minute as well, and this close to 512K, any minor event, such as a deaggregation by a large provider (fragmenting a network route into smaller ones for traffic engineering purposes) could push the global collective past the critical point.
Putting This Event in Perspective: Don’t Panic
It’s important to put this all in proper perspective (and yes, friends from the media who cover Internet infrastructure issues, I’m especially hoping you read down to this paragraph).
This situation is more of an annoyance than a real Internet-wide threat. Most routers in use today at midsize to large service providers, and certainly all of the routers that operate the core infrastructure of the Internet, have plenty of room to deal with the Internet’s current span, because they were provisioned that way by sensible network operators.
Affected boxes cause local connectivity problems for the network service providers who still run them, so they will be identified quickly and upgraded as we pass the threshold. Their instability in turn causes some minor additional load on adjacent routers.
But the overall stability of the global routing system should be unaffected. In terms of a threat, this isn’t nearly in the same class as some poison-message scenarios we’ve described before, which combine router failure with contagion dynamics.
Origins of the Problem
This has been coming for some time. The Internet keeps growing, which is what it does best. There’s very little indication that the current shortage of IPv4 space has done anything to dissuade new autonomous systems (enterprises, universities, service providers, etc.) from connecting to the Internet and expecting to route some space of their own.
Ironically, exhaustion may be speeding up the growth, as enterprises and service providers learn to use tricks like carrier-grade NAT to get their jobs done in tinier and tinier fragments of the remaining IPv4 space.
The routing table in every border router on Earth has to carry a route to each and every one of those tiny fragments, as free addressable space gets tighter and tighter. And every IPv4 route takes basically the same amount of memory in the router, whether it’s an enormous university-sized block of 64K IP addresses, or a little taste of 256 IP addresses (the smallest generally routable block). That relentless pressure has pushed the distribution of global routing table sizes up and up, as more and more people join the Internet, and find themselves fighting over smaller and smaller crumbs of IPv4 space.
And that means that 512K is right around the corner for everyone on Earth, as early as next week. Here’s a plot of the distribution of routing table size, marching forward, from May 2014 (red) through July 2014 (purple) and up to today (blue). This wave only propagates one way. Someday, sooner than you think, we’ll be facing the 1024K routing table challenge.
The Good News So far, as the first providers cross the 512K line, we’re not seeing real, serious evidence of increased Internet instability, at least not at the levels that would affect enterprises and service providers worldwide in meaningful ways. Some people who are downstream of affected equipment may be noticing early problems, if they find themselves learning 512K routes today thanks to a deaggregation event that injects thousands of transient routes. Here we can see the percentage of the Internet that’s affected by routing instability on a daily basis, the kind of flickering change that we’d expect to see if routers everywhere were rebooting. Typically it’s 3 to 7 percent and obeys cycles based on human timescale: less on the weekends, when networking professionals leave the Internet alone, less during the December holidays. We see some increase in 2014, but in recent months and days, no clear trend higher in instability.
What Comes Next
This event won’t be over tomorrow; in fact, it has barely begun. As the routing table size distribution creeps to the right, the number of routers in the world who “see” 512K+ routes will steadily increase. Within a few weeks, nearly every piece of vulnerable gear will have been discovered, as 512K+ becomes the global consensus opinion. We don’t know how many machines that represents, and we don’t know what the net impact will be on local Internet connectivity before it all gets sorted out.
There is irony lurking here, of course, if you read the advisories. You can change the default configuration to reclaim more TCAM for IPv4.. but only at the expense of support for IPv6, the “next generation” Internet addressing scheme that continues to struggle for widespread adoption. Sadly, this elderly gear was shipped at a time when the world was full of hope for the emergence of a real, live, flourishing IPv6 routing table. There’s far too much TCAM alloted to IPv6, as a result (in at least one case, 256K routes, when the current IPv6 routing table still requires fewer than 20K).
You can reclaim most of that precious router memory for IPv4, and you’ll be fine again.. at the expense of evicting your IPv6 routes from TCAM. That’s probably a decent bet, since anyone who failed to future-proof their deployment and is still running this older gear probably has very, very little IPv6 traffic on their network anyway. For IPv6 aficionados who are are tracking the continuing growth and robust good health of the “legacy” IPv4 Internet, that’s called “cold comfort.”BWP keeps scoring, Sacha gets his moment in the sun, and the unbeaten streak rolls on. And that’s just the first segment.
On this week’s Seeing Red, Mark and Eric take a look at New York’s second road win of the season as the Red Bulls took care of the Vancouver Whitecaps to extend their league unbeaten run to ten matches.
The guys also discuss Sacha Kljestan’s triumphant return to the USMNT, leading the Stars and Stripes to two crucial wins with two goals and two assists.
Making his SR debut, Ronald Zubar stops by to talk about his stellar form of late. The defender talks about his French connection along the backline and the importance of yet another rivalry match with D.C. United at the weekend.
Next up, Greg Lalas (VP of Content, MLSsoccer.com) joins the show to discuss the ninth edition of the Kicking and Screening Film Festival in NYC before giving his take on end-of-season awards.
Your emails close the show on another episode of Seeing Red!Greetings, true believers!
Our apologies for the radio silence these past couple weeks. We’ve been steadily working on Story of Seasons, and we can aaaaaalmost see that blessed light at the end of the tunnel. All the major errors have been (to our knowledge) swept away, and now we’re hunting down the stragglers, picking them off one by one as we strive to bring you the finest farming simulation man, woman, and machine can produce.
One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is the game’s entertaining characters. It’s almost impossible to be a fan of these games without having a favorite character – that one person (or persons) you look forward to talking with each day and giving gifts to, in the hope you’ll see one of their event scenes. We here at XSEED definitely have our preferences as well, and it actually works out rather well for the localization effort. At some point, the text for the characters will cross the desk of one person who understands a character a little better than the rest. Someone who really “gets” what they’re about. Sometimes it’s one of our skillful translators. Sometimes it’s an editor, like myself. Sometimes it’s our dedicated in-house playtester, who’s been a fan of the series since she was a wee lass. Whoever it might be, when a character and the person who really understands them come together, it helps lines fall into place by giving them that extra little touch of personality – the sort that makes you think, “Yeah…that IS what she would say, huh?”
One of the interesting things we’re afforded as we work on the game is a bird’s eye view of the characters and their inter-relationships. Little facts and scenes that establish the nature of the connection between particular characters that you’d normally not see in a single playthrough are open to us, giving us a fuller picture of who each of these people are. For example, you can only marry one person per game and see their scenes, but we’ve seen ALL the scenes. And there are many, many scenes! Scenes even for edge cases like if you and your spouse happen to share the same birthday! Ultimately, gaining that knowledge through months of working with the game’s files gives us the fullest possible portrait of each character, so it’s easier to make their personality shine through in each scene.
Of course, as I mentioned, we DO tend to develop favorites, as anyone would…
Me, I’m sweet on Iris. Maybe it’s because she’s the “mature woman” type in this game and I’m over the hoary, grizzled age of 30. Maybe it’s because she’s totally gorgeous. But I think the main reason is because, as a novelist, she’s an idealized version of what it’s like to see the world in a creative way. In all her interactions, she sees seeds of inspiration for a new story. Her constant search for something that will strike a spark even leads her to go out, to try new things and have new experiences. All of us, I think, have that sort of creative impulse in us, and of course Iris is an idealized case, but I like how interactions with her emphasize a way of looking at the world that seeks something worthwhile in any experience. Her mischievous sensibilities also resonate with me – it becomes obvious, the more you get to know her, that some of the things she does to other people, she does purely because it entertains her. If you see the TV interview with her former literary agent, you’ll even find she has some trollish tendencies, too! But I totally get it – people are often unpredictable, and as such, are a potentially endless source of entertainment! I have a feeling that Iris may turn out to be the most popular choice to marry, since she has the most obvious womanly charms, but I hope that those of you who choose to date her enjoy and appreciate the same whimsical qualities in her that delighted me. I’ve tried my best to bring out that aspect of her personality when I write for her. Will mai waifu become your waifu? Only time will tell!
Of course, my appreciation is not limited strictly to the ladies. I’ve definitely got a favorite bachelor too, and it’s Raeger. I think part of it is because I watch a lot of anime and Raeger has a personality that would fit right in with that milieu. He’s slick and handsome, and it’s alluded to here and there in the game that women from out of town are always pining after him. He’d almost be a playboy…but he isn’t. He’s a well-grounded, level-headed guy who’s there for his friends. Raeger doesn’t deny he’s a dish, but many of his events revolve around him just chatting it up with someone at his restaurant. In a character personality guide I put together many months ago for everyone working on this project, I described Raeger as the kind of guy you’d leave your spare house key with if you were going out of town. He’s got that air of practicality and trustworthiness about him that makes him easy to like. This is reinforced with his casual, easygoing style of speech. He meets you at your level – he’s not too good for you, and even his jokes mainly amount to good-natured ribbing (not that we’d expect a Bokujou-series character to totally rip on someone…). I guess ultimately, the thing I find cool about Raeger is that with his good looks and his mad cooking skillz, he COULD have been someone who turned into a self-aggrandizing jerk, but through it all, he’s remained humble and affable. He’s like the bartender that people pour out their hardships to before they know it, and ultimately feel better for having chatted with him. He’s definitely the bachelor I’d aim my sexy eye-beams at, but of course, I may already be under his handsome-guy spell.
One thing that’s stuck with me really strongly as I’ve worked on the game these past months – perhaps the guiding star of my principle in writing the bachelors and bachelorettes – is that every one of these characters will be SOMEONE’s special somebody. Each of them will, in different versions of Oak Tree Town, be the lucky one who captures the heart of our hard-working protagonist. Because of that, we’ve tried to clearly represent each character’s likeable qualities – and even the weird qualities that might not qualify as likeable right off the bat, but that you grow fond of after you’ve known someone long enough. That feeling of really liking someone and thirsting for more information about them; the feeling of amusement when you get to see a side of someone you’d never seen before – those are things we hope we’ve been able to effectively convey as our colorful cast chit-chats its way into your hearts.
That’s about all for now, but be on the lookout for further announcements, and of course, keep those blue feathers close at hand!BY: Follow @matthewwalther
Editor's Note: Matthew Walther wrote this piece in 2015 in honor of Barbara Bush's 90th birthday. The Washington Free Beacon is reposting now to remember the former first lady.
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In the preface to the first volume of her amusing and compulsively readable memoirs, Barbara Pierce Bush writes of a bargain struck with her editors at Scribners under the terms of which she was allowed "to use one ‘wonderful’ a page and one ‘precious’ a chapter." We learn more about her relationship with her editors in a diary entry reproduced in volume two:
Lisa [Drew, who worked on both books] hates exclamation points. She is not crazy about the words "dearest," as in "dearest friends"; "greatest," as in "greatest children" or grandchildren; "best," as in "best friend." Lisa actually has become a great friend and if she behaves, she will be in danger of becoming a great dearest best friend.
Thank goodness Lisa did not win the day! Almost unique among the work of contemporary political memoirists, Mrs. Bush’s prose is her own. It owes its success to the chiaroscuro of incessant praise ("beautiful, fascinating children," "perfect hotels," "charming, soft-spoken people") and prickliness that allows her to write of a group of nuns she meets on a post-White House trip to Nicaragua:
The darling sisters smelled like billy goats. I guess bathing was not easy.
While blocking up the flow of pluck and good manners would give readers a false sense of her character, there is more to Mrs. Bush than dogs, pearls, milk toast, seaside luncheons, and being "dear" friends with retired bishops, wonderful as all these things are. In the popular imagination, the 43rd First Lady of the United States is either a smiling white-haired grandmother who knits, reads lowbrow mystery novels, and lavishes attention on her pets; or a kind of Emily Gilmore figure, snobbish, conniving, nasty towards the help, and, probably, sozzled half the time.
As it happens, Mrs. Bush prefers needlepoint to knitting, and although she is a great fan of Mary Higgins Clark, who once, over tea, encouraged her to try her hand at fiction ("She said that it was really easy"), she is also an admirer of P.D. James, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Elizabeth Jane Howard. The White House staff remembers her with great affection, something that cannot be said of the press corps, of whom she has spoken with occasional and, needless to say, well-earned disdain.
Born in 1925, she grew up in Rye, New York, from which her father, Marvin, a magazine publisher, commuted to the city daily by train—riding, his daughter tells us "in the Club Car, where the men had a drink and played bridge." Her carefree early life revolved around the Encyclopedia Britannica, radio dramas, cycling and other sports, and old-fashioned nursery food ("On Sunday night, we would have graham crackers and cream. What a glorious dish that was"). Early in the first volume of memoirs she tells us how one day she was spotted by several neighbors "walking down the street covered with Marshmallow Fluff, eating right from the can." Phone calls were made. "Mother did not think it was quite so cute. To add insult to injury, I was violently ill. I haven’t eaten it since."
The Pierces were well off, especially by the standards of the Depression, but far from rich. Barbara’s mother, Pauline, a great beauty who held the conservation chair of the Garden Club of America, spent twice her annual allowance for frivolities and kept a drawer full of unpaid bills that Marvin did his best to settle twice a year. The now unfashionable WASP ethos of which Mrs. Bush—with her ceaseless charity work, her ab |
can’t blame them for thinking that; it’s what the website said.
But not only was We Are Atheism *not* getting their 501(c)(3) status “next year,” at this point, they hadn’t even applied for it.
Even if you don’t care about that, I promise you the IRS sure as hell does.
Someone was lying to the government. Was it the donors who unknowingly took tax write-offs? Or was it We Are Atheism for claiming donations to them would be tax-deductible even though they weren’t?
(Incidentally, I have worked with other non-profit groups that did fundraising like this, but we didn’t accept any donations until after we were incorporated and had filed for our 501(c)(3) status specifically to avoid problems like this.)
To make matters worse, the donors who gave money before We Are Atheism became a non-profit may not even be aware there’s a problem because the matter is only vaguely mentioned on their website, on their current FAQ page (emphasis mine):
As of 10/1/2014 the IRS finally granted us tax exempt status and it goes back to 5/23/2013. We are working to get our donations covered further back than that but as of 10/1/2014 that is where it stands. If you did deduct your donation to We Are Atheism, Inc. BEFORE 5/23/2013 then you need to make adjustments on your taxes.
So, um, go fix your taxes, donors… even though you already filed them incorrectly and took deductions that you weren’t legally entitled to.
Was this just an innocent (albeit very serious) mistake? Consider this: In January of 2011, long before all the fundraising began, Adam Brown wrote about how he was developing an atheist charity and how “the 501C3 paperwork is being filled out.” He also posted on Reddit in 2011 about how he was forming a different 501(c)(3) group.
Point being: he clearly knew the importance of having a registered non-profit long before the fundraising for WAA began, and he knew how to do it, but it didn’t happen for We Are Atheism until several months after Sandy Hook.
Amanda Brown also wrote about how We Are Atheism was a non-profit group long before they even applied for that status:
When I raised this issue with the Browns, this was Amanda’s response:
I have spoken to the IRS on the phone and according to them under publication 526 and 577 we have 27 months to file for 501c3 but can operate as one until then. As of yesterday I have 100% verbal confirmation that ALL donations from 9/2012-present are in fact all completely tax deductible. Also, they will not issue a document pushing back our status to have officially on record. The representative stated that the publication I stated above is sufficient. As well as going against their policy of back dating only until the company is incorporated which didn’t happen officially until 5/23/2013. Again, under the IRS representative’s word, WAA ever telling anyone we are operating as a 501c3 before getting official status is not illegal as long as you get the status approved. If you don’t…. then it’s a nightmare.
Amanda didn’t have the badge number of the person she spoke with, so I’m not sure who told her this… but it’s wrong.
I called the IRS this morning. The agent I spoke with (who gave me her badge number immediately) said that, simply put, they cannot backdate the tax deductions to September of 2012 because the non-profit simply didn’t exist then. It was incorporated on May 23, 2013. That’s when it was technically created. That’s when the tax deductions can begin. Full stop.
Who the heck was giving the Browns all this bad information? Amanda says they hired a lawyer to help them out with all of this:
The lawyer technically wasn’t wrong. He just informed us incorrectly. His name honestly escapes my mind.
I asked if she still had his phone number so I could get in touch with him. She told me she didn’t have that, either.
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Where is all this money going?
If you look at the group’s Donate page from 2012 to 2014, you’ll see that all donations fund seven different areas… none of which include salaries. We Are Atheism’s current FAQ even states:
All donations go directly to the disaster being raised for at hand. 100% of the donations raised for the natural disaster or national tragedy goes to those in need.
On a Reddit thread from April 16, 2013, Adam Brown also mentioned how “we don’t take a salary.”
The current donation page says the same thing:
As of 2014 all employees are volunteers but once able we will begin having salaried employees
To summarize: All volunteers. No salaried employees (yet).
However, according to We Are Atheism’s own Income and Expense Report, the group spent $9,428.84 on salaries… in 2013.
That’s a *huge* transparency fail. At worst, they took funds from a pool of money that may have been intended for charity. At best, it’s completely misleading because donors were likely unaware this was part of the overhead costs.
Someone even brought up this problem more than a year ago, asking for documentation of where donation money was going:
Amanda was saying she couldn’t provide documentation because all the money was mixed together. In other words, there was no clear-cut way to distinguish what was supposed to go to victims and what We Are Atheism could keep for itself.
So if you made a donation on their site for tornado victims, but didn’t specify that, there’s a chance it could have been confused with donations to We Are Atheism itself.
Amanda says they did everything in their power to separate money intended for disaster relief from donations to their own group, but by mixing the money together, it made that separation a lot more confusing. Still, even if the money was properly earmarked, it was not clear that donations were going toward anyone’s salary.
When I raised this issue with the Browns, this was Amanda’s response:
As noted in the 2012-2014 Income and Expense report all money that did go out in charity was used for charity… The WAA General fund was used for these [other] expenses and part of that was giving me a smidgen of money to live off of so I could make sure my daughter had a place to live, food to eat, and clothes to wear. … … We did have donors BEFORE 2012 that gave regularly to support the “Out Campaign”. [That’s the “It Gets Better” campaign for atheists I mentioned earlier — Hemant] The “Out Campaign” is how We Are Atheism had money to use for things like the camera, mail chimp, setting up the website etc. We never said what the money donated to We Are Atheism PRIOR to Sandy Hook would be used for. Most just assumed expenses that helped further the campaign. We did have a section on the website that listed things we needed and that we’d be using the money for that but I hope I never gave the impression that I wouldn’t eventually take a salary from We Are Atheism.
Actually, they did say what “the money donated to We Are Atheism PRIOR to Sandy Hook would be used for.” You can see the list right here. “Salary” isn’t on it.
She added that they had taken precautions since then so that donors would know exactly where their donations would go:
A great example would be the fundraiser we just did for the 3 muslims that were shot by the atheist in Chapel Hill NC. We put a GIANT graphic that links to the PayPal account that has been specifically labeled for that campaign so the money raised goes specifically to that.
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Did the money go where donors thought it would go?
This is where things get really weird, because the bookkeeping is completely out of sync across various websites. The amount of money raised frequently gets smaller over time and the cash doesn’t always go where donors might expect.
So let’s go through some reconstructed timelines of We Are Atheism’s major fundraising events. (All dates on the left represent actual dates we can document via the Internet Archive.)
Sandy Hook Elementary
12/14/2012: The shootings occur and We Are Atheism begins raising money soon after that.
01/04/2013: We Are Atheism says they’ve raised $29,562.78 (as of 12/31/12).
01/15/2013: We Are Atheism says they’ve raised $29,757.25 (as of 01/04/13).
03/05/2013: We Are Atheism says they’ve raised $30,000 (as of 01/15/13).
04/23/2013: We Are Atheism says they’ve raised just under $28,000 (as of 03/16/13). And this is where they say the money went:
(If you do the math, that’s a total of about $25,500… not even $28,000.)
Today: We Are Atheism says they raised $25,000 during the fundraiser. And the money was disbursed this way:
$8,333 went to the Newtown Memorial Fund (I have confirmed this)
$8,333 to the University of Connecticut Foundation for scholarships (This has been confirmed)
$8,333 to the “Connecticut PTA who sent it to the Sandy Hook Foundation for a physical memorial to be built”
But wait. On their other website, specifically for Atheists Giving Aid, it says they raised $25,000, but the money was disbursed this way:
$16,666 to the Newtown Memorial Fund (which is inaccurate because I confirmed the lower amount)
$8,333 to the University of Connecticut Foundation for scholarships
But wait. On We Are Atheism’s “Income & Expense Report,” which is mentioned on their “Transparency” page, it says the Sandy Hook fundraiser only took in $22,386.45.
Questions that I still have:
Why did the amount raised drop from $30,000 to $28,000 to $25,000 to $22,386.45?
Why are there discrepancies in the amount given to Newtown Memorial Fund?
What happened to the money given to the My Sandy Hook Family Fund? Why was this replaced with the Connecticut PTA (actually PTSA)? And why is neither group mentioned as a recipient anymore?
When I raised the first issue with the Browns, this was Amanda’s response:
Based on the paypal button labels Sandy Hook only raised $22,000. BUT when I sent the money out to the different funds/organizations I decided to go ahead and just give the General Fund donations too. Mainly because I was afraid people got confused and that really the $3k that I was questioning deserved to go to the families that were affected. So I did that. There wasn’t a board at the time to help me make that decision. It was completely my own. The money didn’t disappear….. I was just horrible at understanding how paypal worked at that time. We didn’t have a way to put in a thermometer or donation counter. All that I could find at the time cost money that we didn’t have. So I just tried to update based on what my phone would tell me when I checked the account. Come to find out that if you don’t download the data or click on each donation individually you have no idea what cause they are donating to. So after I found that out I had to go and recalculate the total. I’m also dyslexic with numbers so that took me a while to do because I had to check it 3 times myself and then have Adam do it too.
What about the My Sandy Hook Family Fund?
I wanted to send that group the money. And at the time when I put it on the website they agreed to take it. [They] backed out later and until I found someplace else to send the money to I didn’t change it. Then I thought I had updated the website to reflect the change and Todd [Stiefel] pointed out I hadn’t. This is another area where someone was supposed to be helping me update the website and make sure it was all accurate. Again, I shouldn’t have trusted this person. They ended up putting a lot of misinformation that I have recently completely fixed. So using the “WayBackMachine” [Internet Archive] just doesn’t look good for us b/c of this. But everything that is currently there is correct.
I asked for the name of the person who wrongly updated the website in order to verify this for myself, but Amanda wouldn’t tell me who it was.
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The Boston Marathon Bombings
04/13/2013: The bombings occur and We Are Atheism begins raising money soon after that.
04/30/2013: We Are Atheism says they’ve raised $28,321 (as of 04/18/13).
06/23/2013: We Are Atheism says they’ve raised $29,000 (as of 04/18/13).
Today: We Are Atheism says they raised $20,718. And the money was sent to One Fund Boston. (This has been confirmed.)
Question that I still have:
Why did the number drop from $29,000 to $20,718?
When I raised this issue with the Browns, this was Amanda’s response:
… I royally fucked up with PayPal. I hope soon we will have enough money to do our own credit card processing and donation gathering but until then I have to rely on the cheapest route possible and right now that’s me doing all accounting by hand (double checked by a friend who’s studying to be a CPA) and using PayPal and Square to gather donations.
I asked for the name of the soon-to-be CPA who double checked this accounting in order to verify this for myself, but Amanda wouldn’t tell me who it was.
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West, Texas Explosion
04/17/2013: An explosion occurs at the West (Texas) Fertilizer Company facility and We Are Atheism begins raising money soon after that.
04/20/2013: We Are Atheism says they’ve raised $620.
06/23/2013: We Are Atheism says they’ve raised $1,000.
Today: We Are Atheism says they raised $2,121. (The separate Atheists Giving Aid site says the amount was $2,161.)
All of that money was given to three families. (More on them in a moment.)
None of them were affected by the explosion.
Question that I still have:
Why wasn’t this money given to a general fund to help victims of the explosion?
When I raised this issue with the Browns, this was Amanda’s response:
We didn’t give the money to families affected by the explosion because we (the board at the time) decided to reallocate the money because no one was willing to say that they received money from an atheist organization. They didn’t want their Christian donors to disappear because they took money from atheists, even though it was a minute amount… We knew of people in need so instead of saying no we don’t help out on an individual basis we, the current board at the time, decided to switch from donating to organizations to doing individual aid.
I’ll say more about all of this in the next section.
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Oklahoma Tornado
05/20/2013: The tornado hits Oklahoma and We Are Atheism begins raising money soon after that.
06/08/2013: We Are Atheism says they’ve raised $18,302.
05/31/2014: We Are Atheism says they’ve raised “a little over $16,000.”
Today: We Are Atheism says they raised $14,760. And the money was disbursed this way:
$8,615 to DoYourPart.org, which was assisting survivors of the tornado. (This has been confirmed.)
$6,145 to three different families: “A homeless family, a couple suffering from identity theft, and Teresa Mitchell.”
About that first donation: Not only does the separate Atheists Giving Aid site say the amount was $8,167, which is incorrect, it also says the money was given to the “Oklahoma Strong Disaster Relief Fund,” which is also not true.
As for the second group of donations: Mitchell, who was unemployed and needed help, received $1,300 (including nearly $500 from We Are Atheism’s general fund), though she was not affected by the Oklahoma tornado.
The homeless family received $1,456.67, though they were not affected by the Oklahoma tornado.
The couple affected by identity theft received $6,000 to replenish their bank account. We are not told anything else about this couple because they asked to remain anonymous, only that “Amanda Brown happened to be talking to this couple while at an atheist group hangout at a restaurant.” Whether they were strangers or friends of hers, we don’t know. They, too, were not affected by the tornado.
To be sure, these stories are all heartbreaking. But the Browns were using money that was earmarked specifically for victims of the tornado (and fertilizer plant explosion) to help an entirely different group of people.
If donors gave money to help victims of the tragedy, they should be aware that their money did not go toward that cause. (I suspect there are donors who would not have given money to WAA at all if they knew this in advance.)
Questions that I still have:
Why did the number drop from $18,302 to $14,760?
Why was money given to families that were not affected by the Oklahoma tornado, even though people donated for that cause specifically?
When I raised the first issue with the Browns, this was Amanda’s response:
Again…. I was an idiot at paypal but this was around the time that I figured out what was going on. So this is when I was beginning to pay out the money coming in. I downloaded the data from PayPal and realized the mistakes I had made and set out to change the website. Hence the discrepancies.
And why was money given to individuals not affected by the tornado?
The local atheists [in Oklahoma] never found anyone who would be willing to accept our help. So after that I tried calling contractors, local Orgs, even the city, and all told me to basically die and go to hell.
I asked Amanda if she could name any of these groups refusing money from an atheist organization. (Because I’d love to know who they are…)
She said, “I honestly don’t remember.”
But why not just give all the money to DoYourPart.org, since they were willing to accept it?
Amanda said the rest of the money had already been allocated to the individuals.
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All in all, at least $50,000 (and possibly a lot more) was given to We Are Atheism before they were legally a non-profit organization and before any of the donations were tax-deductible. Quite a bit of it went to people whom donors were likely unaware of when they were making their contributions.
I’m sure many people would’ve given money to help those individuals, for what it’s worth, but the bait-and-switch method (even if unintentional) leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to transparency.
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I’m frustrated and disappointed with how the Browns have handled all this because I supported their work for a long time. I am a board member of Foundation Beyond Belief and I like the idea of groups willing to gather donations from atheists to help those in need. (I should point out that I wrote this story on the basis of tips from multiple sources, not because I see We Are Atheism as competition. The FBB board is unaware of the fact that I’ve been working on this piece.)
I want to believe that this is all a matter of good intentions mixed with a very poor understanding of how to manage and keep track of all this money. I understand the urge to help out in the event of a tragedy and it makes sense that, if you have a platform, you want to use it. But doing so haphazardly, without the proper precautions, is just unacceptable and makes it harder to run these kinds of fundraisers in the future.
Speaking only for myself here, I don’t feel comfortable giving any money to this organization until these problems are straightened out. They have a lot of work to do to regain my trust.
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By the way, I wanted to share the details in this post with “Mark Felt,” so I emailed him several days ago.
The email bounced back. It no longer works.
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***Update*** (10:18p): We Are Atheism’s President Lee Moore has issued a brief statement on the matter here:
It has come to my attention that a recent blog post by Hemant Mehta has brought forth some questions about our founder’s activities during the early years of our organization. This has been of great concern to our board of directors and we are currently investigating the claims and will be issuing our findings and an official statement on them within the next 48 hours. Let me assure you that since the time I and our board members (Ben Blanchard, Georgina Capetillo, and Justus Cade) signed on with Amanda Brown, there have been no paperwork irregularities and that we are dedicated to total transparency. We are devoted to the mission of We Are Atheism and will do our absolute best to put any concerns you may have about its early days before myself and our current board signed on to rest.
I look forward to seeing what they produce.
***Update 2*** (3/18): Lee Moore has issued a longer statement here. As I said before, I hope they can get to the bottom of any mistakes and get this organization back on track. I want to see more atheist-led charities like WAA, but I also want them all to be well-managed, fully transparent, and always above board.
***Update 3*** (3/22): Former board members of We Are Atheism have spoken out here.
***Update 4*** (3/23): Lee Moore has issued further updates to how We Are Atheism is responding here:Koji Kondo managed to create rich musical tapestries with severely limited means. Illustration by Slate. Still by Slate. Photo of Kondo by Vincent Diamente/Flickr. Drawing by tulpahn / Shutterstock.
Several passages in this article are adapted from Koji Kondo’s Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack, out now from Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros.—a game that broke sales records and set new standards of game design. Celebrated for its colorful levels, phantasmagoric characters, and intuitive controls, Shigeru Miyamoto’s masterpiece is familiar even to those who’ve never played it. Yet when brought up in conversation, the game rarely incites a discussion of the Minus World, Goombas, or programmable physics. It provokes instead an almost primal urge to belt the music with which Mario’s adventure begins: Ba-dum-pum-ba-dum-pum—PUM!
But those 8-bit bleeps that fill the Mushroom Kingdom so memorably are more complicated than they sound. Unlike most game music of the time, the original Mario score was not put together by a computer programmer with little musical background; it was meticulously crafted by a talented composer—the first to be hired by any game company—who elevated music to an unprecedented role in video game design. His name: Koji Kondo.
It’s easy to take Kondo’s work for granted, downplaying his talent as a mere knack for writing memorable tunes. But the truth is quite different. Kondo managed to create rich musical tapestries with severely limited means. The Nintendo Entertainment System’s programmable sound generator—Kondo’s orchestra—had just three monophonic sound channels, a noise channel, and a rarely used sample channel. To a composer, that’s the equivalent of two alto flutes, a bass clarinet, and a snowy television screen. And that’s to say nothing of the severe memory constraints that required Kondo to keep his tunes short and repetitive. Try doing that without driving a gamer nuts. Not so easy! Yet Kondo crafted something that still resonates with the masses 30 years after its conception. Even the four-second “Game Over” theme—our window into his craft—oozes compositional rigor, technical knowhow, and inventive spirit.
Koji Kondo’s “Game Over” theme, for piano. Transcription courtesy Andrew Schartmann
Kondo’s artistry, however, is only part of the story. Nintendo’s dedication to quality game design, fueled by a strong desire to avoid mistakes that caused other companies to perish in the video game crash of 1983, opened the door to forward-thinking minds. Any composer at Nintendo in the 1980s would’ve benefited from the company’s synergy, especially with now-legendary game designer Miyamoto (Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda) at the helm. But Kondo went the extra mile. Rather than compose run-of-the-mill tracks, he used Nintendo’s collaborative environment to develop core aspects of a new compositional philosophy—one driven by a perfect marriage of game design, gamer experience, and music: “I wanted to create something that had never been heard before,” he said, “where you’d think, ‘This isn’t like game music at all, [is] it?’ ”
In the spirit of a studio album, Kondo created a unified set of pieces without sacrificing the individual character of each. This move alone is enough to cement his place in video game history. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Super Mario Bros. was originally packaged with the Nintendo Entertainment System, guaranteeing that every kid with the console would have Kondo’s tunes etched into their eardrums. But this should not detract from Kondo’s musical vision—a vision that pervades his work and continues to influence the industry as a whole.
At the 2007 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Kondo outlined the basic tenets of his approach with three keywords: interactivity, rhythm, and balance. This musical Triforce encompasses Kondo’s lifelong contribution to game music. What makes his music so special is that no passage, no matter how short, is exempt from these compositional criteria—as “Game Over” illustrates, even music that will be heard only once during almost every playthrough of the game is carefully molded with them in mind.
Interactivity
The interactive aspect of this theme is self-evident: When Mario missteps on his final life, the music kicks in to tell us that our adventure is over—at least temporarily. In short, the soundtrack responds to the player’s actions. Less evident, however, is how the music interacts with the player’s psychology. And this is where Kondo sets himself apart.
In 1985, Nintendo escaped the blackness of arcade screens by adorning Mario’s first level with a bright and cheerful blue sky. Ever since, the company has developed its whimsical image through cutesy games that downplay the darker side of life. This is why Kondo insists on saying “Play again!” rather than “You’re done for!” with his music. No matter what level you’re on, any Mario “death” is greeted first by the “Power Down” theme—a brief excerpt from the “Overworld” tune that recalls the playful bounce of Level 1-1. When Mario has no lives left, the “Game Over” ditty that follows begins with the familiar three notes of the “Overworld” theme. When played side by side, these themes sound like the beginning of a new “Overworld” loop—renewal instead of defeat, and certainly not death. And so Kondo combats the psychology of defeat with a subtle reminder of where we began and where we can begin again.
Rhythm
Kondo’s take on rhythm is more complicated. In one respect it refers to the syncing of music with on-screen animation (e.g., when Cheep-Cheeps flap to the beat of the “Underwater Waltz”). But in another respect, it refers to a player’s inner movement as he or she guides Mario through the Mushroom Kingdom. Think of it this way: If you play the game without sound, an internal rhythm emerges based on jumping patterns, running speed, and the like. In Kondo’s view, it’s possible to harness this rhythm and build it into the music. Anything less is filler.
The most visceral example of this is the “Overworld” theme. As Mario jumps from platform to platform—a stunt that causes real anxiety in players—the music mixes percussive triplets with a syncopated duple melody. In other words, it grooves in twos and threes at the same time, with several notes sounding off the beat. The result sounds off-kilter, just like the gamer who can’t quite find her footing.
Another of Kondo’s strategies is to interrupt the established rhythm—the steady beat to which we entrain. This is precisely what happens in the “Game Over” theme. By incorporating a ritardando (i.e., a gradual slowing down) into the music, Kondo forces us out of our rhythmic groove. With no steady pulse, our internal dance comes to an end. The idea is to make the “Game Over” message as visceral as possible: We don’t just see words on a screen, we feel their meaning in our bones.
Balance
According to Kondo, balance in video game music exists on multiple levels. At a local level, music and sound effects must harmonize, such that neither overpowers the other. And at a global level, the soundtrack must cohere as a single unified gesture. Although this sounds esoteric, it’s rooted in compositional choices that can be studied and explained. Ultimately, Kondo’s balance refers to the set of musical features responsible for that distinct “Mario sound.”
Kondo achieves balance with the “Game Over” theme by reusing music from the “Overworld.” As I’ve noted, the syncopated notes in the first measure recall the bounce and excitement with which Mario’s journey began. But something’s not quite the same—this time Kondo silences the noise channel, which had previously provided a lively percussion track in the corresponding part of the “Overworld” theme.
The “Game Over” theme as composed by Kondo for the NES’ sound channels. Note the silent percussion (“noise”) channel. Transcription courtesy Andrew Schartmann
Kondo then takes us off course by lengthening the last note of the measure (it’s no longer staccato) and placing those that follow firmly on the beat. This neutralizes the music’s sprightly character and takes the familiar tune in a new direction—one that is appropriately somber. The end result is unity in variety—or, to use Kondo’s word, balance.
* * *
Had Nintendo fostered a less collaborative environment, the Super Mario Bros. soundtrack might have been nothing more than background noise. But the company’s gamble—hiring a young composer, giving him rudimentary tools, and freeing him to make new, adventurous music—paid off. Now a new generation of composers is making more complex and sophisticated music for video games—but it’s using many of the same techniques that Kondo pioneered 30 years ago.
Several passages in this article are adapted from Koji Kondo’s Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack, out now from Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series.How do you integrate the 10th Planet system into an already existing BJJ program?
New England and the Mid-Atlantic showed up in droves. Idyllically located 1-hour from New York City and 2.5 hours from Boston, 10th Planet Fairfield opened its doors at Radius Martial Arts Academy in Connecticut. We greeted folks who traveled from all the states surrounding us, as far as Pennsylvania and Maine, eager to learn this nominally and stylistically unique system of jiu-jitsu developed by Eddie Bravo. We are honored to be part of the 10th Planet revolution.
Adding another jiu-jitsu style to an already existing school is not something that is common. That is why we thank our head instructor, Luigi Mondelli, 4th degree black belt and owner of American Top Team Connecticut. Luigi has his own Brazilian jiu-jitsu association, KORE BJJ, with 20 academies across the United States, stretching from Massachusetts to California. Radius is one of them. American Top Team CT/Kore BJJ and 10th Planet together is an exiting experiment in keeping the art of jiu-jitsu open to including what works within the keystone philosophy of its maxim: maximum efficiency, minimum effort (Japanese: zeiryoku zenyo, from judo and Jigoro Kano). In this spirit, our guest instructor for the grand opening was Travis Newaza, 10th Planet fighter and trained by catch wrestler Erik Paulson, founder of Combat Submission Wrestling (CSW).
However, it does raise an interesting question. How do you integrate the 10th Planet system into an already existing BJJ program?
A month after our grand opening, the answer is slowly taking shape. The easiest answer was to make the “no-gi” program (or classes) essentially 10th Planet classes. This meant a number of things. One was to learn the essential “warm-ups” in the system, as all 10th Planet schools are required to do. More dramatically, however, was the opening up of the lower limbs for attacks by all belt levels, as well as those neck cranking, spine twisting submissions (i.e. the twister), that exist in 10th Planet. This has had a leveling effect we had not foreseen. As students who were good at the leg game, particularly the heel hook traps and set-ups, all of a sudden “became” better against the higher rank grapplers at our academy. It will take a while for other aspects of our rolling to be affected. Some of us already do the lockdown as our go-to half-guard game. None of us, other than our head instructor, Pat, has any clue about the rubber guard. Which is to say that the most surprising thing has been just how much 10th Planet jiu-jitsu resembles, well, any jiu-jitsu. A few tweaks are there, as well as the opening of the lower limbs, but after a month we sit back and wonder, “where did the arbitrary rule of excluding the lower limbs come from and why did we stick to it?”
Our gi program remains. We do believe in the necessity of gi training. Whether it’s “realistic” or not, I doubt any argument can be made – given the list of nogi champions who train gi – that gi training hurts nogi training. A good balance of both is our stance, and personally, both forms of training are fun, and intellectually and athletically challenging in their own right. What’s changed is that we do allow leg attacks (minus heel hooks, following the convention established by sub-only tournaments) at all levels. Again, a lot of us have had to watch for toe-holds by blue belts from de la Riva, but, those insisting on the leg too much have found themselves on the receiving end of easy cross chokes or guard passes.
As we head into the summer, the goal is to build our knowledge of the warm-up series to create the class structure whereby the first 15 minutes of each class are devoted to the warm-up of the day. These warm-ups are all online for free.
Stop by if you have an itch to try 10th Planet jiu-jitsu in the NYC/New England area.45 Pages Posted: 14 Aug 2014
Date Written: July 6, 2014
Abstract
The existence of a ‘Chicago school of economics’ has for many years been all but taken for granted in the profession, recognized in scholarly articles and books, in history of economics texts, and even in the popular media. Its defining characteristics and membership, though, have been the subject of controversy, and some have even questioned whether it is proper to speak in terms of a ‘school’ of economists associated with Chicago. Though the Chicago school has been the subject of no small amount of research over the past several decades, that scholarship has focused largely on persons, ideas, and influence — in short, on the school itself. No attention has been paid to how it was that economists came to apply the ‘Chicago school’ label to a particular set of ideas and the individuals propounding them — that is, to the origins and emergence of the professional perception of a Chicago school of economics. This paper attempts to address that lacuna, showing how the idea of a ‘Chicago school’ crept into the economics literature and what it was that economists believed made this ‘school’ sufficiently distinctive to merit the label.Eric Decker is entering the third of a five-year contract he signed with the New York Jets, and it’s the year he thinks the club can finally attain their ultimate goal.
“If you don’t have the goal to be a championship team, then we’re starting off on the wrong foot,” Decker said when being honored at the Jefferson Awards Foundation. “I believe that we’re capable of doing it. I think we’re very close.
“If we can jell like that and be consistent and add a couple pieces that maybe we are missing. Again, it’s all about if you stay healthy, if you make a run at the right time. That’s the bottom line. So I think we can be a championship team.”
The Jets vastly improved from their 4-12 outing in 2014, which saw the departure of Rex Ryan and John Idzik, improving to a 10-6 standing and earning a victory over New England that set up an opportunity to play in the postseason for the first time in five seasons.
But Decker admitted he was still brewing about the way the Jets’ season ended.
“I think I’m still bitter, to be honest,” he said of the team’s failure to qualify for the playoffs with a win over Buffalo. The Jets lost, 22-14.
“It was hard watching the Super Bowl for a while. And then toward the end I just started to root for Peyton [Manning] and be happy for some of my friends that are still out there. It was just a hard way to go out. And to think about how we’re kind of jelling and coming together at the end, not to have a chance to make a run was tough.”
He finished the season with 1,027 yards on 80 receptions for 12 touchdowns as one half of the most productive receiving tandem in the game. Along with Brandon Marshall, Decker helped bring down some longstanding Jets records.
The Jets are hoping they can repeat that formula next season and improve upon their already impressing stature in the AFC behind one of the most suffocating defenses in the league. They’re hoping they can keep their offense together with their forthcoming free agency negotiations and with their No. 2o selection in the draft.
Related: Eagles' QB deal a model for Ryan Fitzpatrick, JetsNot happy with the taste of your beer? Try changing the soundtrack. According to a new study out of Belgium, music can alter how people perceive the taste — and even |
separatist political agenda prevailing in such classes. Ms. Shafer says Horne has not visited any of the classes himself.
The law takes effect next January, and if the state superintendent or school board says Tucson schools are out of compliance, “I would imagine there would be a legal challenge,” Shafer says.
The law could be challenged on a First Amendment basis for being too broad and vague in its references to solidarity and resentment, says Ruthann Robson, a professor at the City University of New York School of Law. “The biggest problem is the chilling effect,” she says, noting that teachers or school leaders in Arizona might end or modify legitimate classes out of fear of losing funding.
A group of United Nations human rights experts expressed concern earlier this week about both the immigration and ethnic studies laws in Arizona. “Everyone has the right to seek and develop cultural knowledge and to know and understand his or her own culture...,” they said.
Hunger-strikers at the University of California at Berkeley recently included among their demands that the campus preserve its commitment to ethnic studies in light of what they considered an attack on such courses in the Arizona law. The group ended their strike Wednesday after a meeting with administrators produced “modest agreements.”
Related:In the Xbox One's giant backtrack yesterday, Microsoft announced they were removing the region lock on their upcoming console. The company's new console joins the ranks of the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita. All four of the systems are not region locked. By this winter, the only hardware devices that will not be region-free will be the Wii U and 3DS, both of which are distributed by Nintendo.
One NeoGAF user has had enough and is attempting to spark a revolution, aiming to remove region locks on all Nintendo consoles. A Twitter account called @EndRegionLock has been created, and it is encouraging users to tweet their concerns to Nintendo of America, Nintendo, and Nintendo of Europe divisions. #EndRegionLocking and #NintendoRegionFree are the encouraged hashtags to use. In addition, a petition has been created that anyone can sign. Check it out here!
Finally, to hit Nintendo's core, a massive list of Miiverse posts has been given. NeoGAF users are encouraging everyone to "Yeah!" all of these posts to get the message to Nintendo. See the entire list in the original thread right here! Make sure to "Yeah" all those posts if you want Nintendo to go region-free.
In addition, you can send letters via snail mail to the offices of Nintendo, Nintendo of America, and Nintendo of Europe. The addresses can be found in the thread as well!
I'm dubbing this movement Operation Region-Freefall! Let's all work together and make history! Check out all the linked pages to support the revolution!
Do you want Nintendo to go region free? Sound off in the comments below.Retired Brazilian soccer great Ronaldo had harsh words Friday for Brazil’s chaos-plagued preparations for the World Cup, set to begin June 12.
“It’s a shame. I feel appalled,” he said. “There is a disregard for the population. I think, primarily, serious planning was lacking for everything to have been delivered. We had time — seven years.”
Ronaldo, who led Brazil to two World Cup championships and sits on the local World Cup organizing committee, made his comments to newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, the Associated Press reports.
“I got on the (organizing) committee because it (the Cup) was a great opportunity for Brazil,” he said. “We are failing to take advantage of it.”
Brazil’s World Cup preparations have been hampered by delays and mass demonstrations protesting lavish spending on the spectacle in a country with widespread poverty and a stalling economy. The country is spending about $11.5 billion on the World Cup, but Ronaldo estimates that only about a third of non-stadium infrastructure –including roads and access ways — needed for the event have been completed. What’s more, several stadiums are still not finished, either.
“”Nobody here will ever see another World Cup in Brazil,” he said.
[AP]
Contact us at editors@time.com.Bad news for everyone who signed the petition demanding Chris Dodd be investigated for bribery charges: The White House isn't going to do it.
A couple of weeks ago, MPAA President Chris Dodd rubbed a lot of folks the wrong way when he made some pretty obvious veiled threats about how Hollywood wouldn't donate money to Obama's re-election fund since the president refused to support the Stop Online Piracy Act. As a result, Dodd found himself the subject of a petition that called for the White House to investigate him on bribery charges because of his statements. The petition reached its required 25,000 signatures rather quickly, meaning the Obama Administration would officially read and respond to it. Well, said response has finally come in, and it's going to leave a lot of people disappointed.
Yesterday, an email was sent out to everyone who signed the petition with the following message:
"Thank you for signing this petition. We appreciate your participation in the We the People platform on Whitehouse.gov. However, consistent with the We the People Terms of Participation and our responses to similar petitions in the past, the White House declines to comment on this petition because it requests a specific law enforcement action."
So, for now, Chris Dodd can breathe a little easier (if he was worried at all, that is). However, it sounds like law enforcement groups could be asked to look into the matter, so this whole case may not be over yet.
Thanks to Alorxico for the tip!Pine DevBlog #22 - Kickstarts and Kickoffs Posted in Development Blogs
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What a week! Yesterday, we launched on Kickstarter, after about 7 months of preparation. It's been a long ride, but we feel confident about our campaign. And that feeling got better as we reached more than 20% of our goal in just 24 hours!!! We couldn't be more grateful.
As for our week, that meant a lot of last-minute tweaks to the page and the video. Check it out below on YouTube! It contains a ton of new gameplay, footage and assets!
Work hasn't been completely silent in other areas - we're working on improving Hue's looks, and we're updating the Litter and Cariblin slightly! We'll hopefully share some more about this.
Until next time!Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Matt Nichols played the last month of the season with a broken ring finger on his throwing hand.
RELATED: Edmonton Eskimos knock Winnipeg Blue Bombers out of playoffs with win
Nichols told reporters about the injury on Monday – less than 24 hours after his team was eliminated from the playoffs. He broke the bone on Oct. 6 during the Bombers’ home game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
“That first week of practice was pretty brutal,” Nichols said.
“Luckily, the finger was one of the least important for a quarterback. Had it been a broken bone in one of my top fingers or thumb, it probably would have been more difficult.”
Nichols admitted he felt extreme pain anytime he applied pressure on the ball or when it left his hand. Despite the discomfort, he doesn’t believe the injury hindered him.
“It didn’t affect the ball coming off my hand because it’s the last finger to leave it,” Nichols said. “With the glove I was wearing, it gave me a little grip that I needed.”
RELATED: Blue Bombers’ Matt Nichols misses practice after new addition to family
Nichols also strained his calf late in Winnipeg’s loss to the Toronto Arognauts on Oct. 21. The injury forced him to leave the following game in the first quarter and kept him out of the Bombers’ regular-season finale.(CNN) -- Like thousands of other Iranian women, Parisa took to Tehran's streets this week, her heart brimming with hope. "Change," said the placards around her.
Iranian women demonstrate Thursday in the streets of Tehran, the capital city. more photos »
The young Iranian woman eyed the crowd and pondered the possibility that the rest of her life might be different from her mother's. She could see glimmers of a future free from discrimination -- and all the symbols of it, including the head-covering the government requires her to wear every day.
Women, regarded as second-class citizens under Iranian law, have been noticeably front and center of the massive demonstrations that have unfolded since the presidential election a week ago. Iranians are protesting what they consider a fraudulent vote count favoring hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but for many women like Parisa, the demonstrations are just as much about taking Iran one step closer to democracy.
"Women have become primary agents of change in Iran," said Nayereh Tohidi, chairwoman of the Gender and Women's Studies Department at California State University, Northridge.
The remarkable images show women with uncovered heads who are unafraid to speak their minds and crowds that are not segregated -- both the opposite of the norm in Iran, Tohidi said.
She said a long-brewing women's movement may finally be manifesting itself on the streets and empowering women like Parisa.
"This regime is against all humanity, more specifically against all women," said Parisa, whom CNN is not fully identifying for security reasons.
"From the Streets of Iran" Christiane Amanpour shares her first-hand look at the explosive Iran election, Saturday and Sunday night.
7 ET see full schedule »
"I see lots of girls and women in these demonstrations," she said. "They are all angry, ready to explode, scream out and let the world hear their voice. I want the world to know that as a woman in this country, I have no freedom."
Though 63 percent of all Iranian college students are women, the law of the land does not see men and women as equal. In cases of divorce, child custody, inheritance and crime, women do not have the same legal rights as men.
In the past four years, Ahmadinejad has made it easier for men to practice polygamy and harder for women to access public sector jobs, according to CNN's Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour.
Amanpour, who has reported extensively from Iran, describes Iranian women as "very strong." In 1997, it was women who came out along with young people to put reformist candidate Mohammed Khatami into the presidency, Amanpour said.
Increasingly, women's voices are gaining power as their numbers rise and their demands grow louder.
Even the granddaughter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the architect of the Islamic republic, voiced frustration at the way women are treated.
"Women are just living things," Zahra Eshraghi told Amanpour. "A woman is there to fill her husband's stomach and raise children."
For the first time, women were allowed to register for the presidential race, though none, including Eshraghi, were deemed fit to run by the religious body that vets candidates. But women's issues surfaced in the campaign.
That was partly the result of a women's movement comprised of educated, urban, middle-class women that has grown in recent years with the addition of more conservative and poorer women, said Tohidi, a longtime observer of women's rights in Iran. Ironically, traditional women first gained voice under the clerics.
"Khomeini needed their votes, so he encouraged them to be publicly active," Tohidi said.
The middle-class women who enjoyed certain freedoms in prerevolutionary days refused to turn back, while a new generation of conservatives were awakened to feminism.
In 2003, lawyer and women's rights activist Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize, providing a "big boost" for Iranian women, Tohidi said.
At the same time, private organizations and charities that deal with women's issues blossomed under the presidency of reformist Mohammed Khatami, growing by as much as 700 percent, Tohidi said.
Marriage age increased as more women opted to marry for love, instead of entering arranged marriages. The One Million Signatures Campaign officially launched in 2006 sprouted new discourse and attention with a petition that asks the parliament to reform gender discriminatory laws.
In this year's presidential campaign, Iranian women pressured candidates to agree to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The 1979 treaty has been ratified by 186 nations, including several Islamic states.
Two opposition candidates, Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi, vowed to look into parts of the Iranian constitution that defer women's rights to what is regarded as an outdated version of sharia, or Islamic, law. Moussavi had even promised to appoint women as cabinet ministers for the first time.
Some women in Iran looked to Moussavi to carry their banner, perhaps because they were inspired by his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, a much-admired academic who told CNN's Amanpour that Iran's 34 million women want civil laws and family laws revised.
Author and journalist Azadeh Moaveni, who spent several years working in Iran, said Ahmadinejad's fundamentalism has pushed Iranian women to the edge.
"He has been a catastrophe for women," said Moaveni, who wrote "Lipstick Jihad" and co-authored "Iran Awakening" with Nobel laureate Ebadi.
The weight of discrimination against women is felt most profoundly through Iran's legal system, but Moaveni said Ahmadinejad added to the hardship by clamping down on women's lifestyles. He mandated the way women dress and even censored Web sites that dealt with women's health, Moaveni said. A woman would be hard-pressed to conduct a Google search for something as simple as breast cancer.
Moaveni was almost arrested because her coat sleeves were too short and exposed too much skin. In that setting, she said, it's striking to see women protesting, especially without their hijabs, or head coverings.
"While it's not at the top of women's grievances, the hijab is symbolic. Taking it off is like waving a red flag," Moaveni said. "Women are saying they are a force to be reckoned with."
Azar Nafisi, a professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and author of "Reading Lolita in Tehran," said she has been watching the footage from Iran with "inordinate pride."
She marched on the streets during the 1979 revolution because she believed in greater freedoms for her people, only to see her dreams shattered as hardline clerics took hold of Iran. "Reading Lolita" is largely a memoir of her harrowing days in Iran until 1997, when she immigrated to the United States.
"The way I walked down the street became a political statement," Nafisi said.
She recalled her own mother being a devout Muslim who chose not to wear a veil. Her grandmother, like more traditional women in Iran, wore a veil but resented the government ordering her to do so. Covering up, Nafisi said, was a matter of faith, not politics.
Nafisi believes that women have become a symbolic statement of the power of the Islamic state. She called Iranian women canaries of the mind -- barometers of how free society is.
It's impossible to predict what will transpire in Iran in the coming days.
Nafisi believes a regime change will not be enough; that only a change in mindset can lead to greater freedoms for women.
Moaveni said the sheer scale of the demonstrations assures her that the political and social climate will never again be the same in Iran.
Tohidi is keeping her fingers crossed that the protests won't prompt Iran's hardliners to clamp down and rule by repression.
But all of them shared the hopes of the women -- like Parisa -- who are marching on the streets.
"Today, we were wearing black," Parisa said, referring to the day of mourning to remember those who have died in post-election violence.
"We were holding signs. We said, 'We are not sheep. We are human beings,'" she said.
Parisa was thankful for all the images being transmitted out of Iran despite the government's crackdown on international journalists. She was thankful, too, that the world cared.
"Today," she said, "I had this feeling of hope that things will finally change."
All About Iran • Mahmoud Ahmadinejad • Mir Hossein Moussavi • Ayatollah Ali Khamenei • Tehran<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Jordan Richards worked as Allen’s personal protector on the opening punt. For most of the scrimmage punts/free kicks from Allen were used instead of kickoffs.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Garoppolo’s first throw of day was thrown down the right sideline for Hogan, who got tied up with the coverage player and fell to the ground. Garoppolo then tried to find a crossing Bennett, but the ball actually flew past the tight end and hit Devin McCourty in what looked to be the knee on what easily could have been an interception.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Allen’s ensuing punt off his goal line was a shank to the right that wobbled short and out of bounds.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--On the next series Brady scrambled for a would-be first down and spiked the ball as he stumbled out of bounds past the sticks, but the coaches ruled he would have been tackled long before getting that far. It appeared that Joe Vellano had the chance and let up on the franchise QB.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Allen’s next punt was actually caught by Slater, the gunner in coverage, despite the fact that he was actually engaged by a blocker as the ball came down to him. It was an impressive play at the goal line by the Pro Bowl special teamer.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Rookies Jones and Malcolm Mitchell seemed to go at each other a bit a couple different times on the day with the young coverage player going up against the young pass catcher.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Even when the quarterbacks completed throws on this tough day they weren’t actually complete. Garoppolo had a throw to Mitchell waved off because the young receiver was out of bounds.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Using the running game, Garoppolo’s team moved into place for what was about a 38-yard field goal for Gostkowski and the 3-0 lead.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--At one point Brady handed the ball off nine straight times, with varying degrees of the success.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Jamie Collins popped into the air for a nice pass defense on a Garoppolo throw intended to get further down the field.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Brady found some connection with Carter midway through the scrimmage, including a nice catch-and-run gain beating rookie cornerback Jonathan Jones.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Brady also hit Derby crossing for a good gain, beating Patrick Chung who trailed badly.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Belichick then indicated that a 40-ish-yard Gostkowski field goal missed wide left.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Garoppolo had a completion in which Bennett showed impressive concentration to haul in a ball that looked like it was tipped at the line of scrimmage.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Most of Garoppolo’s sets with the white squad included two tight ends (Gronkowski/Bennett) and two receivers (Mitchell/Hogan) with one back in the backfield.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Garoppolo closed out the drive with a touchdown to Bennett in the left side of the end zone, beating McCourty for the score and the 7-3 lead.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Markus Kuhn was an active pass rusher for the white squad against Brady, forcing the quarterback to move off his spot and throw the ball away at different times.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--After Brady overthrew Derby for the interception he had a long chat with Daboll as he walked off the field.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Even when they were completing passes, both Brady and Garoppolo had throws that were behind or off-target in terms of the eventual receiver.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Vinnie Sunseri also got work as Allen’s personal protector.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Brady gave way for rookie passer Jacoby Brissett for a couple of series in which the young passer handed off often.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Gaffney got knocked off his feet on a nice pop from Sunseri to conclude one of his productive runs. He took a second solid shoulder from the safety a couple plays later.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Brissett had an ugly third down play down the right sideline when Carter seemed to fall as he came back for the ball and it was nearly intercepted.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--After a slow start on the ground, LeGarrette Blount had some productive carries later in the scrimmage, a number of which saw him follow the blocks of fullback James Develin. Develin did a good job iso-ing young linebacker Elandon Roberts.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Develin was among those who had a false start/illegal motion penalty at one point.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Kamu Grugier-Hill had a nice pass defense in coverage of Bennett.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Gostkowski made the score 10-3 on a long field goal that may have been from 50-plus, though it was hard to tell exactly where the ball was put down for the impressive boot.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Late in the scrimmage Brady tried on two different occasions to find Brandon Bolden down the right sideline and both times the running back dropped the ball.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Despite the drops, Brady put a drive together in which he had to move the chains a couple times on his patented QB sneaks.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Derby had a nice catch down the numbers when he fell to the ground and caught a tipped ball as he hit the turf, beating the decent coverage from Ramon Humber. It was more of a circus, lucky catch than a crisp completion. But the blue squad would take anything it could get on this day.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--At one point on the drive there was a close call on the first down. Belichick called for the measurement. The only problem is that during these practice sessions there is only one stick or first down marker in use, not a pair with a 10-yard chain. So the ball boy ran out with the single stick and Belichick signal a first down.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Brady capped the comeback drive attempt with a touchdown to Carter in the end zone. The young receiver was wide open on the right side, seemingly between Harmon and Dont’a Hightower, though it was tough to tell exactly what happened with the coverage.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--It was at that point that Brady made the call to go for two points and connected with Derby on the controversial throw at the goal line.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Hogan worked with the JUGS machine for extra work on his hands after practice. Edelman and Mitchell also got extra work with a ball boy throwing passes.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">--Brady and the other quarterbacks signed autographs for the fans in attendance, which was audibly obvious given the loud cheers that erupted for No. 12 at signing time.</span>Please enable Javascript to watch this video
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Police are searching for the person who shot and killed a grandmother and father in Northeast Memphis.
Police confirmed the victims were Laura Winborn, 59, and Ronnie Winborn, 29.
Family members told WREG two young children were home when they were shot and killed in the 3000 block of Vivia Avenue.
"My wife and my son...they're gone," Ronald Winborn said, through tears.
In one violent night, Ronald lost his wife, Laura, and his son, Ronnie.
Ronald told WREG he was not home when police said the two were shot inside the home late Friday night.
"They were good people," Ronald said. "These weren't bad people. These were good people."
To make matters even worse, family members said Ronnie's 5-year-old and 3-year-old were home and witnessed the shooting. They ran outside and went next door for help.
"They loved their daddy," Ronald said of his grandchildren. "Their daddy was king, the king of the earth to them, and he loved them very much too."
The neighbor did not want to talk on camera.
The children were taken into Department of Children's Services custody.
Family members flooded the front lawn Saturday morning as detectives questioned neighbors and continued to search the house for evidence.
Ronald said he is desperate for justice, but nothing will be able to fill the two large holes left in his heart by the loss of Laura and Ronnie. "I love them to death," he said, sobbing.
No arrests have been made at this time. If you have any information about this crime, call CrimeStoppers at 528-CASH.Posted on July 25, 2012
Geithner: "Economy Is Not Growing Fast Enough; Unemployment Is Very High"
"I'll tell you my general view on this," Secretary of Treasury Tim Geithner said about the economy in his testimony to Congress. "The economy is not growing fast enough. Unemployment is very high. There's a huge amount of damage left in the housing market. Americans are living with the scars of this crisis."
"The institutions with authority should be doing everything they can to try to make economic growth stronger," Geithner said. "That is an obligation we all share. Congress under the Constitution has the authority for the most powerful tools we have available to help economic growth. We'd like Congress to use those tools now in this context. And again we will keep supporting anything practical, sensible, that will make growth stronger, help get more people back to work, help make credit more available to more people not just to buy a home or to refinance a mortgage, but to make sure businesses can expand to meet growing demand for their products."If you switch on the television these days, you will get the impression that the whole country is doing nothing but guzzling glass after glass of From happy, bouncing kids to glamorous divas, anyone and everyone can be seen selling a carton of packaged mango nectar to heat-beaten, exhausted consumers. If you can tear your eyes away from Katrina Kaif, who wants us to believe that savouring a is nothing short of an intensely sensual experience, then look at the composition and ingredients of the juice before you pick up a carton. Nutritionists insist that the choice of the brand should depend not on the superstar who endorses it but on parameters such as the amount of pulp, sugar levels and the type of preservatives that have been used.
vs mango drink
There are four categories of packaged mango drinks available in the Indian market today. Mind it, we say 'drinks' and not juices; not all mango drinks can reach the exalted status of juices, they need to meet some parameters to be called so, starting with the composition.
If you go by the definition given by the (AAP), a is either natural or 100 per cent concentrate without added sweeteners. It further states that anything less than 100 per cent concentrate is labelled a drink, beverage or cocktail. Fruit drinks are defined as calorically sweetened beverages with a small percentage of or juice flavouring containing carbonated water. They have less than 20 per cent concentrate and may or may not include fortifiers such as vitamin C. In India, for instance, offers a range of both mango juices and beverages, starting with which is a 'drink' and and 100% which are juices. "Please note that and fruit beverage / fruit drink are standard categories under the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India Regulations. As such, 100% is covered by standard 'fruit juice' and the remaining range of Tropicana and are covered by same standard 'fruit beverage / fruit drink,' says a India spokesperson. Similarly, Parle Agro's and Coca-Cola's are fruit drinks, while Hector Beverages' Paper Boat Aamras, which contains 45 per cent pulp, is a juice.
"The first and lowest quality of mango drinks makes use of water, sugar, preservatives and fruit essence, something like Rasna. Just like vanilla essence is not made from real vanilla, the mango essence too is not derived from the fruit. Instead, it is a synthetic chemical that resembles the flavour.
Higher up the ladder comes the category that contains some part of the preserved fruit concentrate, sugar and water. These can be classified as 'juice'.
The third category composes of real fruit pulp, concentrate, water and sugar.
And the fourth is the sugar-free category like Tropicana 100% which has no added sugar but real pulp, concentrate and water. While the fruit used in the pulpy juices is very much real, it's not necessary that it will be mango. For instance, apples are often mixed with really saccharine fruit like grapes to lend an intensely sweet taste to the juice. There might be very little mango, with huge quantities of cheaper fruits like beetroot being added.
Of all the fad diets peddled by wellness gurus these days, the fruitarian diet seems to be the most popular. But those who think that they will go from flab to fab with packaged juices, think again! In fact, doctors believe that even fruits should be eaten in moderation, due to the high levels of fructose present in them. "More than 50 gram of fructose per day can be counter productive and can increase the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease," says Ishi Khosla, clinical nutritionist and founder,. She considers packaged juices low on fibre and disguised forms of fructose. "Unlike other sugars like glucose, ingestion of excessive fructose is associated with insulin resistance, thus leading to metabolic syndrome, including increased blood sugar levels, high triglycerides, high uric acid, fat deposition in the liver, weight gain and eventually obesity and Type-2 diabetes," says Khosla.
Know your brand A fruit drink which has pulp or juice, chemicals and flavour is called synthetic. Mostly, all brands like Frooti, Maaza, and Jumpin' have flavours added to them and hence fall in this category
Pulp content varies across brands. Real and Tropicana contain over 80 per cent pulp, KDD Harvest and Amigos contains over 30 per cent pulp, while Frooti, and Minute Maid have less than 20 per cent pulp content Suman Agarwal, Mumbai-based nutritionist and owner of Selfcare
, etc - in small quantities.
Another issue with packaged mango juices is that they are high on simple sugars and contain very little complex sugars, which is not ideal for those with a sedentary lifestyle. What about the fresh juices churned out by your neighbourhood vendor? Are they any better? "I would say not. The hygiene levels at these places is very low. Moreover, they add syrups and concentrates to sweeten it. So again, these juices are loaded with sugars," says Sharma.
Read the fine print
While most nutritionists like Khosla don't recommend having packaged juices at all, ("Have a fruit or fresh vegetable juices. If you want to indulge yourself, then dilute 100 ml of juice with water or soda," she says) if you really MUST have it then check the pulp content, sugar levels and expiry date before you buy a juice carton from the supermarket. "Even one tablespoon of sugar is high enough. It is equivalent to 15 gram. If a fruit juice carton declares the sugar level as 20 gram then it contains five teaspoons of sugar, which is very high," says Sharma. One should also check the preservatives and stabilising agents used. "A lot of juices use soya protein to add texture and as stabilising agents. Those with soya allergy should avoid those," she adds.Murder. Criminal Depositions. Witness Accounts. Evidence. Once upon a time, I wouldn't have imagined that these words would form the fabric of my dinner conversations. But with the advent of the wildly popular 'Serial,' and polarizing call-it-a-sequel 'The Jinx,' those words are thrown around like seed to hungry birds. We've grown up on ghost stories: Goosbumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark were the fireside tales of the 20-something generation. But we are in a new generation, and this is a new type of ghost story.
Because they are not fantasies. They are real. And relevant. 'Serial' and 'The Jinx' have captivated audiences, and these stories represent a groundbreaking year for journalism as entertainment.
Documentaries are nothing new. Podcasts, although witnessing a burgeoning rebirth, have been around as long as radio itself. But what 'Serial' and 'The Jinx' have done, inadvertently, is to create stories that have a direct impact on the fabric of our society. Unlike 2014's Citizenfour documentary -- which was a fascinating account of Edward Snowden in its own right -- these pieces of journalistic gold didn't just recount a story: they created one. In the case of Adnan Syed, the wildly popular podcast led to a call for an appeal. Koenig, outside of the bounds of any legal jurisdiction, had free reign to question witnesses and suspects, spinning a story of her own through conversations with those close to the crime.
Jarecki turned opportunity into a gift from God after being contacted by Durst following the release of All Good Things, his somewhat-biographical film about the wayward heir. The request for an interview turned into a conversation, which turned into a second conversation, which turned into a much-debated possible confession by the man with the wild eyes and twitchy mouth. How Jarecki handled the evidence -- namely, the entrapment of Durst when showing him a handwritten letter that matched a murder note -- has been hotly debated, but the matter is clear: these stories do, and have, affected real crimes in real time.
A movie can't do that.
And this, coming from a screenwriter. Sure, a movie can open a conversation. Create discourse. Bring awareness. But investigative documentaries? In this case, they've literally re-opened unsolved murder cases. Cases where lawyers couldn't pin it on the rich man. Couldn't place a high school kid in the library that fateful day. Are professional investigators ineffective? Bumbling? Somehow dumber than these journalists?
Andrew Jarecki, Director of 'The Jinx' and 'Catfish'
One thing that 'Serial' and 'The Jinx' have in common, other than their mutual focus on murder, is the idea of time. Both of these journalists are approaching the subject matter at a time distanced from the crimes themselves. When the cases are less emotionally fraught, the stakes seemingly lower, if not forgotten. No way Durst would have sat down for an interview when the heat was on him. In every piece of news footage shown in the documentary, he declines all opportunities for comment to the reporters. And what of his decision to speak, after so long a silence? Can we call it vanity? Ego? Did he just get lazy? Clearly Durst wanted to be seen: he glows when the cameras are on him, taunting his brother during sidewalk strolls outside of the Durst building. A man scrutinized for years, yearning for just one more greedy taste of the limelight.
And it is this combination, of time with the inescapable draw of celebrity and entertainment, that can coax the snail from its shell. The lion from its den. Pandora from her box. In Jarecki's case, Durst may have signed his own death warrant. His ego got the better of him: he wanted to be seen, and what better feeling than to have a camera crew on him, makeup people fixing his thinning hair, a producer and a director hanging on his every word?
Funny or Die parody of 'Serial'
In 'Serial,' it gets a bit more complicated. Syed calls Koenig from jail. His own fate has already been sealed. For him, it is more likely a break from the monotony of prison life than the draw of ego that compels him to talk. So, the allure of journalistic inquiry instead fell upon one of the witnesses: Asia McClain, a woman who had remained silent on the case for over a decade. She was the only person who could place Syed at the library that afternoon, thus discounting the prosecution's assertion of the timeframe in which Syed supposedly killed his girlfriend, Hae Min Li. But she was also the woman who had initially refused contact following the trial. Koenig seduced McClain out, just as Jarecki unintentionally lured Durst with his film. These journalists had a very powerful weapon in the combination of media allure and distance from the events.
In the cough-inducing cloud of media dust kicked up following 'The Jinx's' finale, is investigative journalism in danger of curtailment? Will the unrestricted freedoms that Koenig and Jarecki enjoyed as private citizens become folkloric? These investigations -- ostensibly germinating as forums for reality entertainment -- have inadvertently launched us into a new stratosphere, where entertainment changes things. Cases broken and reopened due to the work of private citizens, whose main objective is to educate and entertain their audiences, not necessarily to put them behind bars. You could see in his eyes that Jarecki felt that he was betraying Durst by entrapping him: it wasn't the intention of the documentary, but the unforeseen outcome of it. And, 'The Jinx's' credit sequence could give any scripted HBO show a run for its money.If reading any of the 2013 Perl Catalyst Advent articles has inspired you to get involved, I've just |
castigates in the harshest terms.
The difference between the two turns on the above-board and public nature of the former, in contrast to the rumored-filled innuendo and envy that fuel the latter. “Accusation,” that is to to say, is based on witnesses and publicly available evidence, “calumny” on lies, half truths, and gossip. “[C]alumnies,” Machiavelli wrote, “have need neither of witnesses nor of any other specific corroboration to prove them, so that everyone can be calumniated by everyone.”
“Accusation” in Machiavelli’s sense is healthy because it acts as a check against corruption in a republic. It helps keep public officials honest. “Smith pilfered money from the public fisc. Jones and Sterling saw him do it.”
Calumny is destructive partly because it operates behind the backs of those it attacks, partly because it has in mind not the good of the republic but the advancement of those fomenting the attacks. Hence calumniators should be “punished harshly.” “How detestable calumnies are in free cities,” Machiavelli wrote: “to repress them one should not spare any order that may suit the purpose.”
The extraordinary performance of James Comey before the U.S. Senate last week reminded me how pertinent Machiavelli’s schema is to our contemporary political consternations.
As is becoming increasingly, almost embarrassingly clear, a large portion of the anti-Trump brigade is engaged in what Machiavelli called “calumny,” essentially baseless attacks against his character and behavior whose end is not the good of the republic but the destruction of Donald Trump, on the one hand, and the advancement of his attackers, on the other. The good of the republic, though sometimes appealed to as a pretext, is actually nowhere in sight.
One frequent sign that the attacks against Trump are not public “accusations” in Machiavelli’s sense but rather “calumny” is the locution “Sources say...” Sometimes this is emended to “Sources in the White House” [or State Department, Department of Justice, etc.], but the source is never named.
The entire “Trump-has-ties-to-Russia” meme was a fabrication of this sort. As has been endlessly rehearsed by critics of the anti-Trump phalanx, the whole story was built around anonymously sourced leaks that have been shown to be nothing but a tissue of desperate fantasy. Just one example: back on March 3, Democratic Senator Chris Coons excitedly announced that there were “transcripts” suggesting that “Russian intelligence and Senior Russian leaders, including Vladimir Putin... were colluding with the Trump campaign at the highest levels to influence our election.” “Collusion at the highest levels,” Kemo Sabe! Two days later, Coons was walking that back: “I have no hard evidence of collusion,” he admitted. “No hard evidence”: that is wretched weenie speak for “I have no evidence at all, I just repeated a salacious rumor because it was damaging to someone I loathe and because it might help me in my grubby effort to clamber up the political ladder.”
You saw the same pattern everywhere on the Left. Screaming mendacity followed by half-hearted, mumbling semi-correction. The vertiginous nature of the exercise was partly amusing, partly disorienting. In February, The New York Times helped stir the “Trump-has-ties-to-Russia” pot by publishing a story that began:
Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former American officials.
“Phone records and intercepted calls,” eh? How’d they come by those?
Then Donald Trump tweeted to complain that the Obama administration had “wiretapped” Trump Tower. Horrors! Unsubstantiated rumor!
But didn’t the Times just acknowledge that there were “intercepted calls”?
Go figure.
This is where James Comey’s June 8 testimony comes in. I know it’s been endlessly picked over, but here are what I think are the chief take-aways:
The New York Times reporting on the Trump/Russia wheeze was “almost entirely wrong.”
Donald Trump was not under criminal investigation.
Trump told Comey that “if some of my satellites did something wrong, it’d be good to find that out.”
When asked point blank whether Donald Trump or anyone from his administration had asked him to stop the Russia investigation, Comey responded “No.”
Loretta Lynch, Attorney General under Barack Obama, ordered Comey to refer to the ongoing criminal investigation in Hillary Clinton’s homebrew email server as a “matter” not an “investigation.”
Comey himself, who had made memoranda of his conversations with President Trump because he was “honestly concerned he [Trump] might lie” about their conversations, decided to leak a memo to a friend who would in turn leak it to the press in order to “prompt the appointment of a special counsel.”
You might be wondering how it is that Loretta Lynch gets away with her interference in an on-going FBI investigation or why it is that James Comey can leak FBI property with (as it seems now) impunity. After all, on Comey’s leak, as the legal commentator Jonathan Turley points out, “the standard FBI employment agreement bars the unauthorized disclosure of information ‘contained in the files, electronic or paper, of the FBI’” without written permission of the FBI. But then, how is it that Hillary Clinton committed multiple felonies and is still staggering around Chappaqua, Chardonnay in tow?
But what about Trump’s Henry II moment? Not “who will rid me of this turbulent priest?” but Mike Flynn is a “good guy” and “I hope” you can let the investigation into his alleged ties with Russia go. What about that?
The Democratic legal scholar Alan Dershowitz had the last word on that episode. In our system of government, the Justice Department and the FBI work for the President and “he may order them to do what he wishes,” including to investigate a particular individual or group or to stop investigating a particular individual or group. “[O]ur history shows,” Dershowitz notes, “that many presidents—from Adams to Jefferson, to Lincoln, to Roosevelt, to Kennedy, to Bush 1, and to Obama—have directed the Justice Department with regard to ongoing investigations.”
The history is clear, the precedents are clear, the constitutional structure is clear, and common sense is clear. Yet virtually every Democratic pundit, in their haste to “get” President Trump, has willfully ignored these realities. In doing so they have endangered our civil liberties and constitutional rights.
Indeed. Which is another reason it is so important for the President to Trump the Narrative. The wholesale disregard of what this unremitting attack on Trump might do to the country is breathtaking. Trump’s enemies—including his former Democratic opponent—fancy themselves part of a “resistance.” Leave aside the nauseating presumption of that rubric, as if they were freedom fighters struggling against a totalitarian threat. In truth, what they are “resisting” is the result of a free and open democratic election and the rule of law—what Dershowitz rightly calls “our civil liberties and constitutional rights.”
I thought that James Comey’s performance on June 8 was mostly pathetic: a whiney, grandstanding effort at self-exoneration. For most people listening, I suspect, the effort failed. Comey stood exposed as a coward for not standing up to Loretta Lynch and a selfish careerist by leaning on a friend to leak possibly classified information to the press in order to burnish his own image. Donald Trump bruised his amour propre, so he lashed out at him. The net result of his performance was twofold: it diminished James Comey in the public eye and served to exonerate Donald Trump. As Machiavelli noted elsewhere in his Discourses, “However Deceived in Generalities, Men Are Not Deceived in Particulars.”Part of the human experience seems to be finding ourselves in highly embarrassing situations. At some time most of us have tripped on the stairs in a crowded area, spilled our drink on a stranger, put our foot in our mouth during an important conversation, or simply had to face the world on a really bad hair day. When I find myself in one of these situations, such as the last time I tripped over my own feet in the middle of campus (a bi-monthly event, at least), I instantly blush and put my head down, hoping to avoid the pity and that I’m sure is on the faces of all those who witnessed my moment of. But, according to social psychology research, I shouldn’t be so quick to blush and look away. It turns out that the number of people who noticed my mishap are likely to be much fewer than I’d imagined, as we tend to overestimate how much our actions and appearance are noticed by others, something social psychologists call the “spotlight effect."
One set of studies by Thomas Gilovich and colleagues (2000) gave the spotlight effect its name and put it to the test. In their first two studies, they had participants put on a shirt with a big picture of someone’s face on it and then walk briefly into a room filled with students sitting at a table facing the door. After the each participant left the room, he or she was asked to estimate how many people in the room would be able to remember who was on their t-shirt, while the observers in the room were asked if they could remember who had been on the shirt. This was all done under the guise of it being a “study on.” What did they find? As shown below, in the first study participants drastically overestimated how many people would remember that Barry Manilow (a face they were embarrassed to wear) had been prominently featured on their shirt. Even when their t-shirt had a face that wasn’t embarrassing*, they still overestimated how many people would remember who was on their shirt, suggesting that its not just those moments when we’ve tripped on the stairs that trigger the spotlight effect.
They followed up this first set of studies with a third study where they tested whether the spotlight effect extends not just to people’s appearances, but also their actions. They had people get into groups to talk about “the problems of the inner cities” for 30 minutes. At the end of the conversation each person estimated how the whole group would view their performance and the performance of each of the other members of the group. As with the previous studies, whether the participants were thinking about what they’d done right or were asked to recall their more embarrassing moments during the conversation, they tended to overestimate how much had been paid to them.
So why do we think everyone’s paying attention to us? Gilovich and colleagues suggest its because we are so focused on ourselves. We are acutely aware of our own appearance and actions, and we have trouble realizing other people might not be as focused on us. This is an example of a phenomenon called “anchoring and adjustment.” We are anchored by our own experiences and we have trouble adjusting far enough away from them to accurately estimate how much attention other people are paying us. They found evidence for this when they ran the Barry Manilow t-shirt study again, but had half the participants wait for 15 minutes in a nearby room before they completed their estimations. By delaying the estimation process, the experimenters gave the participants time to get used to wearing their shirts. Once the participants were comfortable in their shirts, they were no longer as aware of Manilow’s face, and along with this, they no longer assumed everyone else was as well. These findings suggest that they had indeed been using their own experience to estimate what everyone else was thinking. I know this rings true for my own experiences—the day after an embarrassing haircut I am sure the whole world is pointing and, but four days in when I’ve gotten used to the face in the mirror, I think everyone else has too, even if they are seeing if for the first time.
The bottom line: No need to blush and run the next time you embarrass yourself since you are probably the only person who was really paying attention to your mishap. But you also have to give people a break when they don’t notice your new shirt or compliment you on that really smart comment you made during a meeting. They aren’t paying as close of attention to your appearance and actions as you are because they are too busy paying attention to themselves.
*who did students of the 90’s see as not embarrassing? Bob Marley, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jerry Seinfeld
What do you think of these studies? Do you fall prey to the spotlight effect? Do you pay much attention when people around you do embarrassing things?Manchester United, arguably the world's most famous soccer team, are in a worse debt position than Greece and Ireland, according to analysis by City Unslicker.
The club announced an £83.64 million ($133.4 million) loss today. Profits were, however, the highest ever in club history, at £100.3 million ($159 million), according to Soccernet.
The big concern for the club, however, is its level of debt and the costs of servicing it.
City Unslicker's analysis shows Manchester United to have a "debt to GDP ratio" of 182.4. In comparison, Greece's ratio is 113. On top of that, the interest rate on United's debt is 8.75%.
The club claims they don't need to sell players to make debt payments, but, according to City Unslicker, the club are spending 40% of revenues on debt payments.Forget the grammar. We have bigger fish to fry here. We're going to try to define the nature of love in 1000 words or less. I admit that even including some checkered personal experience, I'm far from an expert. In fact, I'm not even sure what expertise would consist of. Administering and scoring questionnaires? Giving lovers an MRI and examining which parts of their brains lit up when they swooned or rhapsodized about each other? Despite our nearly universal desire to understand the topic, I'm pretty sure this is not an area that lends itself to conventional methods used by psychological researchers. Setting aside my avowed ignorance and the probable ignorance of my peers, I do have a few thoughts about what love is and this seems like an apt place to share them.
Some time ago, an acquaintance and I were discussing the topic of love and she offered a rather conventional definition that probably owed more to poetry than psychology. I won't even trouble you with that definition since you probably shared similar beliefs when you were 14. Afterwards, she made one of those "You're a psychologist. You must know the answer" overtures and turned it over to me.
I denied having that kind of formal expertise, but I did tell her that I held a different view than hers. The truth is, I was not aware of holding any view until she asked me about it. Here's what I told her: We don't fall in love with a person because of their qualities, per se. Rather, we fall in love with ourselves in their presence. In other words, we fall in love with the version of ourselves that we become when we are around them. That, I suggested to her, is what is all about (I'm setting aside any discussion of love of family, love of animals, etc). If, for example, I normally perceived myself as relatively unattractive or unintelligent, but I felt good-looking or smart in my lover's presence, I am likely to get hooked on her. I might go on about how beautiful, smart or enticing she is, and I might actually believe those things, but the truth is it's the new improved "me" I have fallen in love with. This may be a version of myself I hoped to be all my life and if she is the key to finding it, I want to be around her more and more.
I concede that all of this is not very romantic. Nor is it very self-aggrandizing. In fact, it's a pretty pathetic scenario, despite how universal I believe it is. No wonder it is rarely acknowledged. But it is a powerful motivator, whether we admit it or not. And when love ceases to work, i.e. when your partner no longer triggers those feelings in you, love can and usually does die. In the course of a relationship, we do all we can to keep us feeling wonderful about ourselves. Obviously, we give a lot in the course of maintaining such a relationship because giving is the best way to keep the process humming along. But no matter how generous we appear to be, it is ultimately all about ourselves.
Before you criticize me for being too cynical, let me hasten to add that none of this process is conscious. I agree, that would be an awful view of human nature. Everything I‘ve said operates well below the radar. Is this a selfish view of love? Sure it is. But ultimately, we are all hedonists. Like all mammals, we were born that way. There's nothing wrong with hedonism or looking after our own needs. The problem only occurs when our search for pleasure causes another person pain. That's a very important line to draw.
Is my view of love without precedent? Hardly. If I've made it sound unappealing here - and I'm sure I have to some of you - I should point out that others have done a better conveying these same sentiments. Consider a pop song by Johnny Mathis appropriately titled When I Am With You. Released in late 1957 (Columbia 41082), the song contained the following lyrics:
"When I am with you I am nothing I was before /
I am everything I ever wished I could be and more.
So it's not just for what you are yourself that I love you as I do/
But for what I am when I am with you."
That's a pretty clear statement of what I'm talking about, and my guess is nobody picketed Mathis's concerts or charged him with being a heartless, selfish brute when he sang about that view.
If going back half a century isn't far enough for you, we can look a full century before Mathis and find the same expressed by Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. In her words:
"I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.
I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me.
I love you for the part of me that you bring out."
Whether this viewpoint comes from me, a honey-toned balladeer of the ‘50s, or a romantic poet of the mid-19th century, the message is pretty much the same. Love is deeply, even primarily rooted in our feelings about ourselves, and secondarily about our loved one. You can even state this same principle in the language of Theory - both operant and Pavlovian. Our loved ones function as both CSs and SDs (discriminative stimuli). They drag the good stuff out of us as conditioned responses, and they set the occasion for us to emit the good stuff as operant responses. It's no wonder we love that person.
Although I have no fMRI data or questionnaire results to support my theorizing, I am pleased to be able to list a pop balladeer and romantic poet among my supporters. It's not every day you get to do that while writing for Psychology Today.An Ontario teachers' union is calling for an end to new Wi-Fi setups in the province's 1,400-plus Catholic schools.
The Ontario English Catholic Teacher's Association says computers in all new schools should be hardwired instead of setting up wireless networks.
It also says Wi-Fi should not be installed in any more classrooms.
In a position paper released on Monday, the union — which represents 45,000 teachers — cites research by the World Health Organization.
Last year the global health agency warned about a possible link between radiation from wireless devices such as cellphones and cancer.
Some believe wireless access to the Internet could pose similar risks.
But while Health Canada cautioned parents to limit the use of cellphones by children, it said that based on scientific evidence, low-level exposure to Wi-Fi is not dangerous.
The OECTA, in its paper, said the "safety of this technology has not thoroughly been researched and therefore the precautionary principle and prudent avoidance of exposure should be practised."
The Ontario government has said it would examine the WHO warning but wouldn't take any immediate action to require warnings on wireless devices. The province said it's up to school boards in the province to make decisions about whether to use Wi-Fi or not.
Some Canadian private schools and at least one public school board in British Columbia have removed or strictly limited Wi-Fi due to safety concerns. But many other public school boards across Canada continue to use it.I’m glad Benga has given up DJing. Not for any reason of snotty schadenfreude, nor argument with his musical direction – that’s a complicated issue, which we’ll get to presently – but because it’ll probably be good for him. Beni Adejumo has always been a fascinating character, and though he was extremely adept at playing the superstar DJ – striking poses on album covers and websites, and being Skream’s partner in crime – there’s a lot more to him than that, which differentiates him from his old childhood friend and which means he could never take the same trajectory as Ollie Jones. With Skream, what you see is what you get – the hyperactive, hyper-social workaholic, constantly barreling from one conversation to the next, one musical project to another, always ready for a joke, an argument, a recording session. But whenever I’ve met Benga over the years, whether alone or with Skream, no matter how hectic the surroundings are and how much he’s got his performance head on, there’s always been something reflective about him, a sense that part of him was standing back observing. I’d bumped into him a couple of times before but the first time I interviewed him at length was at the start of 2008, when ‘Night‘ had just properly blown up. We met at his family home in Croydon, and at 21, even with six years experience of putting tunes out, he still seemed like a kid. He was full of questions, still bemused by dubstep’s growing overground popularity, intrigued by the machinations of the industry, friendly and funny. But then that night, watching him stride through the crowd at FWD>>, afro teased out, beads swinging, he looked every inch the superstar, super-cool yet full of enthusiasm, and it was obvious that he was up for the ride without question. There’s always been something reflective about him, a sense that part of him was standing back observing. Two and a bit years later, at the beginning of dubstep’s truly maniacal phase, he didn’t seem so sure. I caught up with him along with Skream, Caspa, Rusko and Joker for a huge feature on the genre going global, and he was still the same gentle and wryly funny presence, but visibly older and wiser, and just a little regretful about having blown some opportunities. After Eve had repurposed one of his beats, superstars were knocking for collaborations, but he’d been unable to stop the roller coaster for long enough to play the US industry game properly. This was around the time he’d spoken to the NME of repeatedly coming close to death from tour excess, but he seemed to be well on top of it, and in particular was glad to have his Croydon friends around to ground him and remind him that he was nothing unless he pulled his finger out and actually built some tunes. That same week it was the monumental Rinse at Matter rave where the video for ‘Katy On A Mission‘ was filmed, and watching him and Skream on stage they seemed on top of the world – looking back, they kind of were. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages
Since then, though, Benga somehow seemed to lose his footing. I saw him at Outlook in 2011, and though he was in good form in person, his set was fragmented. As is well documented, I have no issue with tear-out dubstep – and indeed, in 2012-13 Benga showed how good his ear for the sound is with some banging releases by Pixel Fist and Kutz on his Benga Beats label – but this set was just a series of climaxes with no flow, nothing to connect them. Interviews over this period showed him no longer dicing with death, but still embracing being a man-about-town in Ibiza, pinballing from DJ set to party to DJ set to party, and it seemed that this was taking precedence over his work as a producer. He was still making tracks all this time, but it seemed like there was no focus, no centre to it. His major label album, which eventually became Chapter II, was delayed and delayed, track listings mooted then changed, and when it finally emerged last year, it felt like it was stuck between rave madness and chart aspiration, and more to the point was way too late. That style of high-octane dubstep as pop music had already peaked, and everyone else – most notably Skream – was moving on. Ironically, for all the attempts at pop vocal tracks, it was the instrumentals – the funky as hell ‘There’s no Soul’, the techno of ‘Getting 42’ and the film-scores-in-waiting ‘Running’ and ‘Chapter II: To Inspire’ that shone out and showed what he was capable of. They were the exceptions though, and despite a huge poster campaign and expensive videos, the album did not sell very well. If he wants some quiet, domestic time to start a family then more power to his elbow for making the clean break and doing it. “Retirement” is always a movable feast for musicians, but at this point a stepping back from all the nonsense of the industry is almost certainly the best thing Benga could be doing. Dubstep is in a much needed period of re-assessment and rebuilding after the ridiculousness of 2010-12, and hopefully he is too. If he wants some quiet, domestic time to start a family then more power to his elbow for making the clean break and doing it. And here’s hoping that while Skream gets stuck into the industry hustle that he does so naturally, Benga can let that reflective side of his personality dominate for a while and maybe get back to what made him fall in love with music production, and us in love with his productions, in the first place. Here are 15 moments to remind us why Benga is a game-changing producer first, superstar DJ second (leaving out ‘Night’ and ‘Katy on a Mission’ because they speak for themselves perfectly well). Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages
BENGA
‘Dose’
(Big Apple, 2002) Still such strange music, even leaving aside the fact it was made by a 14-year-old. It’s garage, it’s breakbeat, it’s dub, it’s none of the above, the rhythm programming is so on point, and the sense of wide open possibility is palpable. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 3/17)
BENGA
‘Amber’
(Big Apple, 2003) Again, dubstep in its ‘what u call it‘ phase – the galloping rhythm is like nothing else, and you can still play this now and have people demand to know what it is. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 4/17)
BENGA
‘Bass Beat’
(Benga Beats, 2004) It’s all in the fine detail. Let’s hope that Benga uses his time off to check out some of this stuff and just remember how much it’s possible to do with so little. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 5/17)
BENGA
‘Music Box’
(from Mary Anne Hobbs Warrior Dubz, Planet Mu, 2006) From Mary Anne Hobb’s Warrior Dubz comp and clearly showing the influence of Digital Mystikz, this is Benga’s potential coming to fruition. It’s all about subtle melodic hooks, and as with so much in Benga’s catalogue, would make for a killer vocal version. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 6/17)
HATCHA & BENGA
’10 Tons Heavy’
(Planet Mu, 2006) It’s amazing to think there was a time when people complained that this was too heavy and noisy and it “just wasn’t dubstep” any more. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 7/17)
BENGA
‘Live Drums’
(Tempa, 2007) During this period, Benga would go in any direction rhythmically, as at the beginning no formulae were set in stone. Also: that garage organ. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 8/17)
BENGA
‘Better’
(from Pleasure EP, Tempa, 2008) The Pleasure EP double pack might actually be the closest thing to a great album that Benga has made. The title track with the right vocalist could easily have been another ‘Katy on a Mission’, and ‘Benga’s off his Head’ is outrageously trippy. A good techno DJ could kill it with this zoned-out but superheavy beauty to this day. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 9/17)
EVE
‘Me N My (Up In The Club)’
(Terrorhythm, 2009) Essentially this is Eve riding ‘E Trips’ from the Diary Of an Afro Warrior album, for a hip hop meets dubstep mixtape that Plastician put together. It is brilliant, but a bittersweet hint of what could have been. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 10/17)
PRODIGY
‘Warrior’s Dance (Benga Remix)’
(Take Me To The Hospital, 2009) The beginnings of Stadium Benga, it absolutely blows the slightly pedestrian original out of the water. I know it’s popular and easy to hate Benga’s big, crashing later tracks, but if he (and/or Magnetic Man) had become the new Prodigy, that would be one motherfucker of a stadium/festival act. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 11/17)
DISTANCE VS. BENGA
‘Choke Hold’
(Chestplate, 2009) Listen to the stutters and trick fills in the bass and drums – this is a mental record. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 12/17)
BENGA
‘Baltimore Clap’
(from Phaze: One, Tempa, 2010) When Benga goes four-to-the-floor, he always seems to do it with real panache, and this one is just ridiculous. It’s the same trick he later pulled with ‘Getting 42’ – over-the-top EDM ridiculousness in the dynamics, but with enough reliance on the subs and enough hints of ghetto house to make it massive fun. Could imagine DJ Funk playing this. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 13/17)
DJ ZINC & BENGA FT. MS. DYNAMITE
‘My DJ’
(Bingo Bass, 2010) Overshadowed by Zinc’s massive ‘Wile Out’ on the a-side, this still stands up as a fantastically crackers bit of wobble-house, and again makes us wish our man hadn’t got so locked into the 140 groove, as turning to a different tempo seemed to fire up his inventiveness… Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 14/17)
TODDLA T FT. WAYNE MARSHALL
‘Sky Surfing (Benga Remix)’
(from XX, Ninja Tune, 2010) …but then he didn’t even need to move away from 140bpm to get his mojo working. This stone cold banger, from Ninja Tune’s XX 20th anniversary compilation opens up a whole realm of what might’ve been possible – indeed might yet be possible – from Benga going dancehall. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 15/17)
BENGA
‘Acid Lie’
(Kapsize, 2011) Joker was going through a bit of a trance phase here, and he clearly roped Benga into it for this piece of absolute ridiculousness on his own label. Hardfloor acid, rock bass guitar, crashing brostep and trance rushes: it goes overboard in so, so many ways. You may hate it, but just imagine what a world-conquering album Chapter II would have been if every track was as audacious as this. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 16/17)Aman
Amdavadis
Zahid Qureshi
Mashla
Ambli-Bopal
Jignesh Vora
CAUTIOUS, BUT HELPFUL
Dipak Mashla
Vipul Bhatt
Bhatt
Vijay Crossroad
Vijay
ALWAYS READY TO HELP
Parth Narania
Trishila
Parth
Vivek Trivedi
Nandan Dixit
Riyas Shaikh
HOME GUARDS TO RESCUE
GUJARAT
Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum
Joshi
Parmar
NO HELP HERE
‘IT IS OUR DUTY’
Bharat Desai
Badal Shah
Rushil Barot
Mohit Aswani
‘WHY TAKE A RISK’
knocked down by a tempo lay bleeding on a Delhi road for 90 minutes. Several commuters in cars and scooters passed by but none stopped to help. A Mirror test drive in Ahmedabad paints a different picture: howare good Samaritans with their hearts in the right place. And how they don’t hesitate to stop even at a late hour to help an accident victim.During the test drive, Mirror correspondentsand Dipakwent to six spots in the city on Friday, between 12 midnight and 4.30 am, and posed as accident victims. While at a couple of places, motorists hesitated/ failed to come to the aid of our correspondents posing as accident victims, at others passersby stopped and came to their rescue. On theRoad, a couple stopped despite the late hour, to help the correspondent. While the drama unfolded, Mirror photographertook pictures from a distance.SPOT: MUKTI DHAM, THALTEJ CROSSROADMirror correspondentlay passed out next to the divider, his bike lying next to him. Seven commuters passed him by but did not stop. A little later, a biker stopped to investigate. He saw Mashla on the ground and immediately rushed to his aid. The biker,, tried to revive Mashla, who was pretending to be unconscious. When that failed,took the correspondent’s phone and tried dialling the last number, which is when another correspondent approached him to tell him that this was a test which he had passed it with flying colours. Bhatt, who owns a refreshment shop near, said, “When I saw the person on the roadside, I was scared he might be dead or grievously injured. I believe in helping accident victims. In the past, I have chased a truck that had knocked down a two-wheeler driver nearcrossroads in 2015.” While Bhatt did not hesitate in offering help, he was cautious enough to put his belongings in the storage compartment of his vehicle and check his surroundings before approaching to help.When I saw the person on the roadside, I was scared he might be dead or grievously injured. I believe in helping accident victimsVIPUL BHATT, BusinessmanSPOT: AMBLI –BOPAL ROADMirror Correspondent Zahid Qureshi stopped at the Ambli-Bopal road after midnight and pretended to be injured. As he lay “unconscious”,and his fiancéeon a bike saw him lying on the road and immediately stopped by.said, “I stopped as it was late and I thought that the person might be injured. I thought there might be a family out there waiting to hear from him.” As Parth inquired if he was alright, the correspondent got up and told the couple that this was part of a test drive. Trishila said, “For a moment I thought we were being ambushed. But it is good to make people aware of their public duty. Not to offer help to someone who is injured is insensitive. I would never do that.”At the same location, two bikers and an auto driver also came to the correspondent’s aid. Bikersandsaid that it was their duty to help a person in need. Meanwhile, auto driversaid, “I mostly work at night and have seen several accidents as people drive recklessly when traffic is sparse. I always stop to help the victims. Who knows some day I might need the same help.”I mostly work at night and have seen several accidents as people drive recklessly when traffic is sparse. I always stop to help the victims. Who knows some day I might need the same help.”RIYAS SHAIKH, Auto driverSPOT:UNIVERSITYAt Gujarat University, the correspondent lay near. A few motorists passed by but none stopped to help. A man on a two-wheeler slowed down on seeing a man lying on the road but did not stop. Instead, he went ahead and reported about the injured man to the home guards posted near the passport office. The home guards rushed to the correspondent’s help. They carried him to a nearby bench and gave him water. They inquired whether he was injured and how the accident took place.When they were told that this was a test drive being conducted by Mirror, they were taken aback but appreciated the efforts to sensitise the public. Home guards K M Ravat, R A Nai, K J Parmar, K A Chauhan and R Pwere on duty.said, “We have been posted near the passport office for past three years. A scooterist informed us that an |
the result was a solid comedy sequel. Myers was even able to incorporate some British humor into it by having Ralph Brown play a legendary British roadie named Del Preston, using stand-ins to make it look like Wayne and Garth went to London and hit some of the tourist hot spots. So Myers got his mega happy ending for Wayne’s World 2, but now I want to read that original script.A listing on China’s version of the FCC, TENAA, has surfaced with details of what is an entry-level version of the Xiaomi Mi 6.
The phone was unveiled a while back and as usual, it came with the aim of downing the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy S8 with flagship specs but with a very affordable price tag, but to no significant success. A successor to the Mi 5, the Mi 6 came with similarly high-end specs and features, but unlike its predecessor, it had one RAM variant.
Well, it appears that this is going to be short-lived thanks to a listing on TENAA showing a 4GB RAM version of the Xiaomi Mi 6 is probably being lined up. The already released version has 6GB of RAM alongside two storage options of 64GB and 128GB. Whether the 4GB RAM variant will be restricted to the 64GB storage is still unknown, but it’s likely this will be the case.
From the TENAA listing, every other known specs and features of the Xiaomi Mi 6 will be retained on the entry-level variant. These include a 5.15-inch display screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor clocked at 2.45GHz and a dual-lens camera on the back, but the specs sheet also says the battery capacity is 3250mAh instead of the known 3350mAh.
The dimensions remain unchanged and so does the OS running the show out of the box, Android 7.1.1 Nougat. Perhaps one notable thing about the new listing on TENAA is that the Xiaomi Mi 6 now has up to ten color variants, yet we only know of the three – or four – that came with it back in April – White, Blue, Black and Ceramic Black. The new ones are Gold, Gray, Silver, Pink, Champagne Gold, Frosted Black, Dark Gray, and Cherry Blossom.
There’s no word of when this version of the Mi 6 will be unveiled, but it shouldn’t be long now that TENAA has cleared it.
SourceWorkers In Japan Seeing Success In Cooling Reactors
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After a week of disasters and setbacks, power plant workers and military personnel at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant made some progress Sunday in cooling over-heated fuel rods.
On Friday, U.S. officials warned those rods posed the most urgent danger of radiation leakage into the environment because the water that is supposed to cover them – keeping them cool and shielding their radiation – had largely drained away.
Unlike the nuclear fuel inside the plant's reactors, the rods in the storage pools are not walled off by containment vessels, and the buildings they're in have been heavily damaged by explosions and fires. That allows radioactive gases to escape directly into the environment.
But NPR's Christopher Joyce in Tokyo reports that seawater sprayed from water cannons has succeeded in lowering temperatures in the storage pools.
Workers were also able to back away from a planned release of radioactive gases at the facility's troubled No. 3 reactor because pressure within the reactor stabilized after mounting ominously earlier.
They also brought electrical power to the No. 2 reactor from what was essentially a mile-long extension cord, and planned to extend the power to other reactors.
Tokyo Electric Power Company declared No. 5 and No. 6 reactors safe Sunday. The two units are the least problematic of the six reactors at the plant.
However, it isn't yet clear whether the power will be able to reactivate pumps and other equipment needed to cool the reactors and adjacent storage pools for radioactive fuel rods. Much of that equipment may have been damaged by the 20-foot tsunami that inundated the power plant on March 11.
Hundreds more workers have been brought in to the afflicted plant, bringing the total to 500. For most of the past week, 170 workers have rotated in and out of highly radioactive parts of the plant and a lead-lined bunker, to keep their radiation exposure below levels that would sicken or even kill them.
Two Survivors Found 9 Days After Quake
An 80-year-old woman and her teenage grandson were rescued Sunday in northeastern Japan when the youth was able to pull himself out of their flattened two-story house nine days after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Jin Abe, 16, was seen calling out for help from the roof of the collapsed home in the hard-hit city of Ishinomaki, according to the Miyagi Prefectural Police. Like other homes in northeastern Japan, they had lost electricity and telephone service in the March 11 earthquake.
He led them inside to his 80-year-old grandmother, Sumi Abe. Both were conscious but weak, and had survived on the food they had in their refrigerator, said Shizuo Kawamura of the Ishinomaki police department.
The woman could not get out of the house because she has trouble walking, and the teenager, who was suffering from a low body temperature, had been unable until Sunday to pull himself from the wreckage. During the nine-day ordeal, they ate yogurt and other food.
Still, police estimates show more than about 18,400 have died since the quake and trsunami. More than 15,000 deaths are likely in Miyagi, the prefecture that took the full impact of the wave, said a police spokesman.
Fuel, Food And Water Remain Scarce
NPR's Richard Harris in Tokyo reports that radioactive iodine levels in these foods exceed Japanese and U.S. safety standards, but aren't high enough to pose an immediate health threat. Authorities are stepping up screening of produce from the regions near the plant.
Dr. Harold M. Swartz of Dartmouth College told the New York Times that the Japanese government's reassurances about contaminated food were "probably reasonable," but people would probably avoid milk and spinach anyway because they're so afraid of any radiation.
Another expert on the health effects of low-level radiation, David J. Brenner of Columbia University, told the Times that he would avoid the tainted foods as a precaution.
Government Admits Mistake
Officials have begun distributing protective potassium iodide pills to people from the area around the power plant. But one official in Fukushima, Kazuma Yokota, told reporters that the government now realizes it should have distributed the pills earlier last week.
Potassium iodide protects people against thyroid cancer if they have been exposed to radioactive iodine, but it must be taken promptly.
The pills help reduce chances of thyroid cancer, one of the diseases that may develop from radiation exposure, by preventing the body from absorbing radioactive iodine. The official, Kazuma Yokota, said the explosion that occurred while venting the plant's Unit 3 reactor last Sunday should have triggered the distribution. But the order came only three days later.
"We should have made this decision and announced it sooner," Yokota told reporters at the emergency command center in the city of Fukushima. "It is true that we had not foreseen a disaster of these proportions. We had not practiced or trained for something this bad. We must admit that we were not fully prepared."
Japanese Worry About Food Safety
Most public concern about radiation this weekend has focused on traces of radioactive iodine that Japanese authorities have found in milk and spinach from Fukushima, the prefecture where the power plant is located, and neighboring Ibaraki. Higher-than-normal levels of radioactivity have been found in foods produced up to 90 miles away from the power plant.
Traces of radiation have also been found in fava beans exported from Japan to Taiwan.
With reporting from NPR's Russell Lewis, Christopher Joyce and Richard Harris in Tokyo.CLOSE The Ice Creations team are sculpting 7 life-size cars around the Campus Martius area in downtown Detroit. They will be on display for the month of January. Jessica J. Trevino, Detroit Free Press
Buy Photo Working with a vision: This team from Ice Creations blasts, saws, cuts and shaves away at a block of ice Wednesday in front of the Chase building, helping it to take the shape of a ‘66 Mustang. The sculpture will be part of a winter fest event downtown this month. (Photo: Jessica J. Trevino/Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo
They arrived Wednesday at Campus Martius Park as huge blocks of ice, but by the end of the week they’ll be transformed into a 1957 Chevy Nomad, a 1961 Chrysler 300G and a 1966 Ford Mustang. The cars, being carved by Ice Creations of Napoleon, Ohio, are features of the 12th Annual Quicken Loans Season of Winter Magic throughout January. Their arrival coincides with the North American International Auto Show, which opens to the public Jan.16. The Chrysler 300G and Mustang are replicas of two of three classic cars being driven to Detroit from Tacoma, Wash., as part of the auto show’s media week opening.
Buy Photo Some tools of the trade: With help from these, the team hopes to have the sculptures ready by this weekend. (Photo: Jessica J. Trevino/Detroit Free Press)
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/1OPv6R0Convergence is all the rage in the technology industry nowadays and for good reason -- our handheld devices are insanely powerful. It makes sense to leverage a smartphone or tablet's processor for desktop computing. By connecting a monitor, mouse, and keyboard to the mobile device, it can serve as a full-fledged computer. Those with more hardcore computing needs, such as editing video, for example, may have to wait a while for more powerful handheld devices.
Microsoft has shown off its Continuum functionality, which turns a Windows 10 Mobile smartphone into a desktop, but because of shocking limitations, it really isn't ready for prime-time. Canonical has long been working on its own convergence plans with Ubuntu -- it is not copying Microsoft's. Quite frankly, it can be argued that the open source Linux kernel is a more adaptable base for such Swiss Army-like devices as Windows could be too bloated. Today, Canonical unveils the BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition tablet which fulfills its Linux convergence vision. Not only can a user be productive with the tablet itself, but it can be connected to peripherals to create a full desktop experience.
"The Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition is the first device to offer an Ubuntu convergent experience. It is also the first tablet with the Ubuntu Operating System. Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition brings Ubuntu's rich full touch experience to life. It's simple to connect a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard to convert the Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition into a full Ubuntu PC, featuring everything you know and love about Ubuntu. Then, connect the tablet to an external display for a full-sized PC experience", says Canonical.
The company further explains, "third party developers will be able to easily create new Ubuntu applications which only need to be developed once but which can be available and used across all Ubuntu interfaces. The Ubuntu SDK provides the fundamental tools developers need to make their apps easy to adapt and run on any display. When you see your application on the phone and then use that application on the desktop, it is the exact same code running each application. Ubuntu does not need to know if the app is coded for a mobile or desktop display rather it is the application that surfaces the appropriate interface depending on which display is required".
READ MORE: 5 ways Ubuntu Linux is better than Microsoft Windows 10
Canonical shares the following specs.
10.1 inch multi-touch screen
MediaTek Quad Core MT8163A 64-bit ARM processor up to 1.5GHz
High capacity Li-Po battery (7280mAh)
Full HD (1080p) camera for super-sharp video recording
2GB RAM
16GB internal storage
MicroSD slot for extra storage (up to 64GB)
8 megapixel camera with autofocus and dual flash
Frontal speakers
Micro HDMI port
Dimensions: 246 x 171 x 8.2mm
Lightweight at only 470g
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For years, some people -- including myself, early on -- hated Ubuntu's default Unity desktop environment (I love it, now). Some detractors called the company insane for bringing a touch-friendly interface to a desktop operating system. Unlike Microsoft with its confusing Windows 8, however, Canonical got merging desktop and touch right. While Windows 10 is improved, it can still be confusing -- some users can't even figure out how to change the default search engine in Microsoft Edge web browser! Ubuntu's settings are far more streamlined. The Unity DE is now a beautiful and useful desktop UI that should transition brilliantly to a tablet.
The MediaTek SoC that powers the BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition tablet is an ARM processor, meaning that there will be fewer available packages than an x86-based computer. With that said, the number of packages for ARM have increased dramatically over the year. Users should have no problem finding tons of useful apps.
READ MORE: System76 Oryx Pro is the Ubuntu Linux gaming laptop of your dreams [Review]
Not only can the M10 serve as both a desktop and tablet, but I can see it being used as a makeshift laptop too. For instance, there are countless inexpensive Bluetooth keyboards on the market -- some will even prop-up the tablet for better viewing. If you keep the BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition in a backpack with such a keyboard, you could be productive anywhere, like a coffee shop or in a park.
Of course, the device should also be a wonderful media device for road-warriors. Don't want to pay to rent a movie in a hotel? Don't. Load some movies from a micro SD card, and connect the tablet to the hotel's TV with HDMI. If you choose to watch a movie on the tablet itself, the front-facing speakers should supply great audio quality. Exciting stuff.
Rodrigo del Prado, Deputy CEO of BQ shares his excitement by saying, "the Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition is our third mobile device to ship with Ubuntu. Our customers were delighted with the Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition and Aquaris E5 HD Ubuntu Edition phones, and we're excited to be the first OEM to ship the converged Ubuntu experience. It's this kind of innovation that makes BQ and Ubuntu such a great fit".
Unfortunately, pricing for this BQ-made tablet is a bit of a mystery, but Canonical promises it will be available in Q216 -- April, May, or June. Yeah, it stinks having to wait, but as they say, good things happen to those that do. Hopefully Canonical and BQ can deliver a truly solid convergence solution.
Do you think Ubuntu is the smarter choice for convergence compared to Windows 10? Tell me in the comments.Sprung A Leak Recurring Survivor Challenge Description: A recurring water challenge Appearances: Pearl Islands
China
Sprung A Leak (also known as The Bucket Stops Here) is a recurring Reward Challenge in Survivor. First appearing in Survivor: Pearl Islands, it has since reappeared in China.
Contents show]
Rules
One tribe or team must sink the other's boats. The first tribe or team to do so wins.
History
In Survivor: Pearl Islands, each tribe had two boats (each with three members inside) and a fisherman grappling hook to help to remove plugs that covered holes along the sides of each boat. The Drake tribe sank both Morgan's boats and won reward.
In Survivor: China, the Hae Da Fung tribe was divided by Schoolyard Pick in two groups, with the last remaining member not competing in the challenge and not going on the reward. One member of each group sits in a small boat in the middle of what is essentially a pool, while the three remaining members of the other team stand on a pontoon and use buckets to throw water at the boat to try and sink it. The first group to win two rounds wins the challenge. The yellow group successfully sank the red group's first two boats and won reward.
Winners
Gallery
Add an image Pearl Islands."> Drake sinks the last Morgan boat (Pearl Islands)."> China."> Frosti throwing water on Todd's boat (China).">
Trivia
Both times this challenge was used, the eventual winners and 3rd place finishers were on the winner group.Sight and vision is indeed a major part of this game and Sight and vision wards are the backbone of keeping vision on the map. However trying to balance dealing with wards and vision along with the other aspects of the game is a dangerous slope to tread.
The idea of an additional item slot for wards is a strong idea. But really it should only be available to supports and placed deep in the support tree. As much as other roles can also put down wards the item slot dilema should be placed on them and their choices for items at the time. Then again that thought comes down to your thoughts on how you view roles and warding, but then if everyone has the benefit whats the point of going that choice route? However something else that might be added to allow another role to perhaps contribute to wards without taking up inventory slots is for the shopkeep to have a reserved slot where the wards of both varieties can be placed so the support only has to add them to their inventory.
Giving additional item based actives or passives isn't a strong idea. Perhaps there should be more item options in the game that might help with such vision problems like Grez's lanturn. Or perhaps like boots give the sightstone a special upgrade that can have additional effects or perhaps other item sets with similiar upgrades. The biggest trap one can fall into is giving them something a champion might already do. Giving items that can cause the 'Evelynn' effect dampens the usefulness or the 'Ashe' or 'Quinn' abilities decreases their effectiveness when 'anyone with the talent/non-champion passive' could do it. Not only that it retroactively makes them weaker choices since its 'only one extra ability when we can get someone else with it.'
Site wards are invisible for a reason. The fact you don't know if you are being watched or not without precautions is a big part of the gameplay mechanics. 'Did they ward here?' 'Is my jungler going to be spotted?' If these can be negated with but a simple quick choice or an indicator that shows you when you walk in range or over a ward then it diminishes the effectiveness of wards and their use overall. There has to be some effort in order to negate these elements like the difference between sight and oracle wards. On top of that an ability to go 'oh, I'm hidden but I can still be seen' simply makes it easier for someone to go 'ok I can get my oracles to kill it here'. The sight stone in my opinion has been a great addition to the game where you can put vision down from an item and if it gets de-warded still not be out a vast amount of gold. Though admittantly the disparagy and cost of Oracle and sight wards might require some modifications. Oracle wards can counter sight wards but that means you just need to be more creative with your warding. Not that the game makes that easy considering how some spots are more important than others but the fact there is that effort you can make should still be rewarded instead of having some other 'lazy' counter. A talent allowing a support to ward at slightly longer range though is a good idea.
However there should be some added advantage to having a green ward over a pink one rather than a 50g price difference, not so much to make the greens more worth it but to give them something more unique to a pink ward. Also the price of keeping up said wards is still a burden no matter what you do the support is going to have to bear. Perhaps a deep talent in the support tree could make ward items slightly more inexpensive, like perhaps a 3 point talent that decreases the price of a green ward by 5/10/15 and pinks by 1/3/5 for example. Perhaps even affect the price of vision wards. But you can then further distinguish sight wards from sightstone and vision wards by giving sight wards a 5 minute timer instead of the 3 minute of a vision or a stone ward. That way there is a distinguished difference and it might catch an opponent off-guard early or perhaps late game if they get complacent with their ward placements.
As horrible as it feels to be behind and how overwhelming it can be when they are able to invest more and more into denying your vision and making it harder to defeat them, its something the game needs to have. If they've gone to the effort to play well and get far ahead enough to place down these measures shouldn't it be rewarded with an easier victory? If it gets too much easier to bounce back in the game then it will encourage late-game compositions and make anything less than that either not optimal or very hard to use. And using some item that can simply knock out or down wards in an AoE just diminishes people smartly placing wards. One that blinds wards for like a 10 second period might have interesting effects especially if the radius works well enough but to be honest its again an item that just punishes sufficient effort. Players should be rewarded for good warding habits, not simply negated with no warning. The oracles elixer persisting through dead perhaps was a bit much of a boost for it and probably should be switched back. It makes the investment both harder and more significant to make.
Indeed there are some changes that would make the vision war more exciting and allow for supports to contribute more than just holding up ward vision. But giving abilities too similiar to other champions and the like could end up making things worse for the game rather than better. There are some good suggestions here but there is still much to look at when it comes to this topic.One Nation preference deal could cost Liberal Party WA election, Barnaby Joyce warns
Updated
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and a string of federal Nationals MPs have criticised the West Australian Liberals for striking a preference deal with One Nation — warning the agreement could cost them power in the state election.
Key points: Liberals are directing preferences to One Nation in the WA state election
Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce is warning the Nationals may retaliate by running candidates in urban seats
Premier Colin Barnett says the move is purely to keep Labor out of power
The West Australian Liberals have decided to preference One Nation above the Nationals in the Upper House in regional areas, with One Nation preferencing the Liberals in all Lower House seats in return.
WA Premier Colin Barnett has said it is a pragmatic decision aimed purely at keeping Labor out of power.
But Mr Joyce has predicted the move will backfire.
"It's a statement of fact that the most successful governments in Australia are Liberal-National Governments and however that bond is formed it works well. When you step away from that, there's one thing you can absolutely be assured of, you're going to be in opposition," Mr Joyce said.
"This is a disappointing move. I hope the architects of it clearly understand the ramifications of the decision that they're a party to."
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said the deal demonstrated her party was gaining stature and influence.
"They've got no choice but to take me seriously. The primary vote for both major political parties is on a downer. So they know to shore up and try to get themselves back into Parliament and into the government it's with One Nation's preferences," she said.
But Mr Joyce also warned the WA Nationals might be tempted to retaliate in the future by running candidates in urban seats.
"The game could be played in any way — we won't, but it could easily be that the National Party could stand in every Lower House seat in Perth and preference another party. What would that mean? You'd lose a heap of seats, as simple as that," he said.
"Colin Barnett has been around the political game a long while. He should seriously consider whether he thinks this is a good idea, or whether he's flirting with a concept that will ultimately put his own side, his Liberal colleagues, in opposition."
Deal angers Nationals heavyweights in Canberra
The Liberals and Nationals in Western Australia have a more antagonistic relationship in Western Australia than they do in the eastern states.
The two parties are in power together, but they do not govern in a formal coalition.
But the deal has still angered Nationals heavyweights in Canberra, who are increasingly concerned about the electoral challenge that a resurgent One Nation poses in regional areas.
Nationals MPs lined up to criticise the WA Liberals as they entered parliament house this morning.
"[The Liberals] will need the National Party if they're going to have a hope of forming government, and always remember who your friends are," Victorian Nationals MP Andrew Broad said.
"It seems a bit desperate I've got to say and when you go and make friends with people who don't share the same values of you, it makes it very hard to form a government."
Nationals MP Mark Coulton also questioned the deal.
"I don't know whether it's all that smart of a move. The Nationals have done an amazing job. The Royalties for Regions, they've really stood up for the bush, so I wouldn't think that the One Nation would be in the ascendency in a lot of those places," he said.
Decision is for WA Libs, Turnbull says
Finance Minister and Western Australian Liberal powerbroker Mathias Cormann brushed off the criticisms — pointing out the Nationals had previously preferenced One Nation and several other minor parties ahead of the Liberal Party.
"In 2013 both the Liberal Party and National Party preferenced the Shooters and Fishers, the Christian Democrats and the Family First party ahead of each other. This is just business as usual," Senator Cormann said.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also dismissed questions about the deal, saying it was a decision for the Liberal Party in Western Australia.
"They've got to make their judgement based on their assessment of their electoral priorities. Their objective you've got to remember is to persuade people to vote Liberal and return the Barnett Government," he said.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott told Sydney radio station 2GB that if he was making decisions on preferences he would be "putting the National Party ahead of everyone".
"The National Party are our Coalition partners in Canberra and in most states, and they're our alliance partners in Western Australia. So as I said, One Nation above Labor and the National Party above everyone. That would be my approach," Mr Abbott said.
Mr Abbott was a fierce critic of One Nation in the late 1990s and early 2000s — and Senator Hanson accused him of bankrolling the court cases which led to her brief imprisonment for electoral fraud in 2003.
Senator Hanson served 11 weeks before the conviction was quashed.
Labor's Anthony Albanese said there was no comparison between Labor's decision to preference the Greens and the Liberals preferencing One Nation.
"There's a big difference between the Greens political party and the views of people like Bob Brown and others who I disagree with and the views of Pauline Hanson," he said
"A major difference — John Howard recognised that."
Topics: government-and-politics, political-parties, state-parliament, canberra-2600, act, australia
First postedIris, the Pit mix, was found huddling in a thick tunnel of bushes. One of her eyes appeared to be severely injured, presumably the result of a blunt-force trauma. It is highly likely that this poor little Pit mix had been abused in her past life. Sadly, due to their stereotype for being aggressive dogs, Pit Bulls and Pit mixes often fall prey to such unwarranted abuse.
However, the amazing rescuers from Hope for Paws stepped in and were able to lend a helping hand to a scared and confused Iris. Getting access to Iris was certainly a challenge, as she had wedged herself deep into the bushes, but with patience and persistence, they were able to coax her out.
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What rescuers discovered as they were able to get a better view of Iris’ hiding spot, was that she had recently given birth to a litter of puppies! No wonder she was so hesitant to leave her little cave. Thankfully, Hope for Paws was able to save Iris and all of her puppies, and give them all a chance for the happy life they deserve.
To find out more information on how you could adopt these special dogs, check out The Dog Rescuers website.Image caption The view from Alicante in south-east Spain
Tuesday witnessed the first partial solar eclipse of 2011.
People standing across a great swathe of the Earth's surface saw the Moon take a big bite out of the Sun.
For north Africa and much of Europe, the event began at sunrise, whereas in central Russia and north-west China, the spectacle occurred at sunset.
North-east Sweden had the best sight. From 0850 GMT, near the city of Skelleftea, the Moon covered almost 90% of the Sun's diameter.
To get that view, however, Swedish skywatchers would have needed a high vantage point, as both celestial bodies were skirting the horizon at that time.
As is always the case for solar eclipses, the public was warned to take great care.
Viewing the Sun's harsh light should only be done through protective equipment - proper solar glasses and solar telescopes, or through a pinhole projection system.
In many places, professional and amateur astronomy groups set up safe observing systems. In the UK, for example, there were a series of events tied into the BBC's Stargazing Live programmes.
Partial solar eclipses occur when the Sun and Moon do not quite align in the sky as viewed from Earth, and the deep shadow cast by the smaller body passing across the bigger one just misses the planet.
Nonetheless, the phenomenon resulted in a dip in light, depending on how big a chunk of the solar disc the Moon was seen to obscure.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Jonathan Amos: "It's the beauty of seeing these celestial bodies move"
This effect varied from place to place and in time.
Northern Algeria was the first location to experience the eclipse at 0640 GMT.
In European cities like London and Paris, the eclipse was already under way as the Sun rose, and the Moon covered up almost 70% of our star by 0812 GMT in the British capital, and 65% of the solar disc by 0809 GMT in the French capital.
The further east the event tracked, the closer it got to local sunset. Central Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and north-west China all observed an eclipsed Sun dive over the horizon.
Image caption A view of the partial eclipse from Andy Green in Cambridge in eastern England
Although there are three more partial solar eclipses this year, for Europeans in particular Tuesday's event was the key one. They will not get another chance to see so much of the Sun being covered up by the Moon until 20 March 2015.
The next total solar eclipse is in November 2013 over the South Pacific. An annular eclipse, in which the Moon sits inside the Sun's disc but does not completely block out its light, occurs in May 2012 over the North Pacific.
Image caption BBC News website reader Gary Baker caught this view in Stockholm, Sweden
Image caption The best partial eclipse in Europe for several years. This view from Vayrac in the Lot, SW France
Image caption Reader Peter Foster saw the eclipse while on holiday in the Czech Republic
Image caption A Scottish perspective, from Nairn near Inverness
Image caption Stonehenge in southern England: A monument that has witnessed eclipses for thousands of years
Many thanks to all those BBC News website readers who sent in pictures, only a small proportion of which we have been able to feature on this page. We have put some others in a special gallery. We also have a collection of eclipse pictures taken by professional photographers from across Europe.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.ukThis is a glossary of terms relating to computer graphics.
For more general computer hardware terms, see glossary of computer hardware terms.
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Edge vector a vector between 2 position vertices in a polygon or polygon mesh, along an edge Extents The minimum and maximum values of an object or primitive along a coordinate axis or set of axes.
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Near clipping The clipping of 3D rendering primitives against the near clip plane. Necessary to correctly display rendering primitives that partially pass behind the camera.
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Z [ edit ]A new book called The Home Brewer’s Guide to Vintage Beer presents beer history in a new and very tangible way, through homebrew recipes of historical beers. Home brewing is one of the beer enthusiast’s ultimate joys – not just because you get to enjoy the fruits of your effort, but also because you learn so much about beer. And what better way to learn, than through this book about historical beer for home brewers.
Ron Pattinson has studied historical beer for years, and he has now put together The Home Brewer’s Guide to Vintage Beer full of old recipes from British breweries, “translated” to modern home brewing. Divided into nine broad beer styles, the book takes us through numerous recipes used between 1800 and 1950. In most cases, they are based on the brewer’s actual brewing log from the brew day. You don’t find a much more authentic recipe on an early 19th century porter, an 1850s India Pale Ale, or mild ale or Burton Ale as they were served at the time of the First World War..
Before the recipes there are some general notes on traditional brewing techniques and the historically available ingredients. Both these things have been a challenge when adjusting the recipes for the modern home brewer, but the solutions are well explained. For example, we learn that historic brown malt wasn’t the same malt as the brown malt we can buy today, but it’s still considered the best option to use it.
Brewing sugars, the so-called invert sugar is a part of many beers beginning from the second half of the 19th century. You can buy it today, but only in industrial scale amounts, and instead it’s explained how to make it at home. If you want to use the most authentic form of brewing sugar for British beer styles, you can see how to make it here on the right.
Each chapter begins with a short summary of the beer style’s historical development. The chapter on porter, for example, begins with five pages of history, followed by 16 recipes, each headed with little notes of interest. The first porter is a Barclay Perkins TT from 1804, where the notes say that because of restrictions on malt due to the war with France, this porter was only 5.3% ABV. For comparison, the second to last porter is a Barclay Perkins TT from 1936 – at that time it had reached 2.9% ABV!
For the historically interested beer lover there is a lot of amusement in such comparisons, and the interesting little notes. Did you know that imported American Cluster hops were used regularly as bittering hops all over Britain as early as in the 1860s, or that Fullers in 1910 used more adjuncts (invert sugar and maize) in their porter than most other brewers. Or that they brewed mild ales at above 10% ABV in the 1830s? Mild meant un-aged beer, and not mild in any other way. This mild ale had a bitterness of 73 IBU, while a stock ale, an aged ale, from the same decade and with the same strength had an bitterness of 112 IBU.
But the real value of this book is for the home brewer with a little experience, who can read recipe and learn from it. As with a good cookbook, half the joy is browsing through the book and just reading the recipes. Time will tell how many of them I will actually brew. But when the time comes, the book is very practical with a spiral binding, making it easy to keep it open on the right page. A fine little details that would improve many cookbooks too.
Buy the book on Amazon
Buy the book as Kindle E-book
Test one of the recipes for yourself! Here is an 1848 Imperial Brown Stout from the classic London brewer Barclay Perkins. It’s the original Imperial Russian Stout as brewed for the imperial Russian court in St. Petersburg. Each recipe in the book is set up in this reader-friendly format. The mashing schedule at the very bottom is how it was brewed back then. Ron Pattinson recommends a single infusion mash at 71C instead.The Liberal Democrats on Tuesday accused the Tories of "nicking" their ideas after Iain Duncan Smith joined forces with supporters of George Osborne to press for a noticeable increase in the national minimum wage.
Vince Cable said he hopes the low pay commission will introduce "significant rises" to the minimum wage as Lib Dem sources described the Conservatives as "latching" on to their fairness agenda.
The Lib Dems, whose leader Nick Clegg warned on Monday that Osborne is in danger of making a "monumental mistake" by pressing for welfare cuts of £12bn in the next parliament, turned on the Tories again amid signs of a Tory push for a dramatic rise in the minimum wage as a way of signalling that the party is keen to champion low-paid workers.
A Lib Dem source said: "This is the fourth or fifth thing the Tories have tried to nick from us – the raising of the income tax threshold, payday lending, the triple lock on pension and now this.
"Having tried to turn themselves into being more compassionate they went back to basics and now they are latching on to the |
his site, NDERF.com, with a detailed survey in order to create as much scientific structure as possible—and he employs translators across the globe to help collate the NDE’s into a cohesive understanding of what might happen after we die, and the statistical prevalence of certain features appearing (life review, encountering spiritual beings, being stopped at a boundary, etc.). He has written several books, including New York Times bestsellers—Evidence of the Afterlife is a great place to start for an overview of his findings—which establish undeniable themes that hold regardless of religious background, language, age, or cultural background. (What’s most incredible are the NDE’s of young children, who have never been exposed to the concept, as well as NDE’s of those who were born blind, yet have vision for the first time on the other side.) Below, we asked him some more questions.
A Q&A on Near Death Experiences with Jeffrey Long, M.D.
Q There are accounts of many mystical experiences and encounters “beyond the veil”—why did you decide to focus on near-death experiences? And why do you believe that only about 10 percent of people who become clinically dead experience one? A For decades, researchers, myself included, would scratch our heads and wonder why some people have near-death experiences and why some people don’t. And why, despite the fact that there are very strong, consistent patterns, no two experiences are alike. What’s going on with all that? I think the Rosetta Stone of understanding came for me many years ago when someone shared a near-death experience that was an incredibly blissful and positive experience. She firmly believed that she had encountered God in an unearthly realm during her near-death experience. And for the first time out of thousands of instances that I’ve ever seen, she asked God directly: “Why me? Why was I so blessed to have this experience happen to me?” God’s response was very revealing: “Love falls on everyone equally; this is what you needed to live your life.” I think that helps explain why some people have these experiences and some don’t. I think it’s coming from a wisdom outside of ourselves. And I think it helps explain why people have very similar experiences, yet no two are identical.
Q You have found that near-death experiences dramatically change peoples lives—why do you think that is? A Oh yes, enormously. It’s interesting, we’ve asked very direct survey questions about that, so we have some quantified data. The great majority of people who experience a near-death experience change. And unlike virtually every other transformative human experience or life-changing event of earthly origin, the changes in their life actually seem to become progressive and more notable the longer they live. These changes can go on for decades and you just wouldn’t do that in response to an experience that you understood to be unreal or hallucinatory. In fact, we ask that as a very direct survey question: What do you currently believe about the reality of your experience? And of about 590 NDE responders, 95 percent say the experience was definitely real with the other options being probably real, probably not real, and definitely not real. So among those that have these experiences, virtually everybody knows that it was a real thing. It’s just much harder to believe for those of us who have never had one. Seeing is believing. If you don’t personally have a near-death experience, which is again a blessing—obviously these people nearly died—it’s hard to understand these unearthly experiences.
Q For some people, do these have the quality of a vivid dream? A That’s a great question. In the very first version of the survey in 1998 when I first put the website up, I asked that question: Was your experience dream-like in any way? I deliberately worded that in a somewhat non-scientific way because it was leading them to answer yes if any part of their NDE was dreamlike. I thought, geez that’s about as aggressively as I can conceive of wording a question to bring out any dream-like aspects, at any time, in any way during the experience. Well, the responses to that question were so overwhelmingly, “NO, absolutely not, no way, are you kidding?” I felt bad I was asking them that because the responses were not only so uniformly no, but so emphatically no. I ended up taking that question out because I got a tongue thrashing up behind the ears. That was one of the very first things I learned at the dawn of my research and understanding: No, near-death experiences are not dream-like in any way.
Q What were the other similarities in response to survey questions that reinforced your belief that these are so real? A In my first book I had nine lines of evidence for the reality of near-death experiences. What’s most persuasive to me as a physician-researcher is a little bit different than the lines of evidence that are most persuasive to the public. The public is very persuaded by a near-death experiencer who was totally blind from birth and yet had a highly visual NDE—it was the first time she ever saw. And they are also persuaded by out-of-body experiences. In a little over 40 percent of my surveys, NDE’rs observed things that were geographically far from their physical body, that were way outside of any possible physical central awareness. Typically, someone who has an NDE with an out-of-body experience comes back and reports what they saw and heard while floating around, it’s about 98 percent accurate in every way. For example, in one account someone who coded in the operating room had an out-of-body experience where their consciousness traveled to the hospital cafeteria where they saw and heard their family and others talking, completely unaware that they had coded. They were absolutely correct in what they saw. These types of out-of-body experiences are very persuasive to a lot of people. “Typically, someone who has an NDE with an out-of-body experience comes back and reports what they saw and heard while floating around, it’s about 98 percent accurate in every way.” A lot of people with a medical or scientific background, like me, are very persuaded by people who have had near-death experiences while under general anesthesia. Under adequate general anesthesia, they’re very carefully monitoring heart respiration—in fact, it’s artificially controlled in many operations because you literally shut the brain down to the point where the brain can’t simultaneously breathe. And so the person needs to be artificially ventilated. When their heart stops, i.e., when they code, and they’re under general anesthesia, it’s extremely well-documented that they have no brain activity—yet, when these people have an out-of-body experience, what they report of what goes on during codes is what really happens, and not what Hollywood shows. Its frantic, crash carts aren’t immediately available, there can be some swearing typically by the doctors. It is very difficult for everybody there. It’s not like what they show on TV—you would have to be there to accurately report on what is happening. After this out-of-body experience, when they then go on to have a typical near-death experience, it again seems doubly impossible. For one, they’re under general anesthesia and there shouldn’t be any possibility of any conscious experience; secondly, their heart has stopped, and 10-20 seconds after your heart stops, the electroencephalogram, or EEG, that measures brain critical electrical activity goes absolutely flat. So, during general anesthesia to have your heart stop and have a near-death experience absolutely, in my mind, almost single-handedly refutes the possibility of a near-death experience being the result of a physical brain function as we know it. It is not a dream state, it is not a hallucination. It is absolutely beyond any medical explanation.
Q Do you believe that someone has to be physically dead to trigger a near-death experience? A My definition of near-death experience is fairly stringent among researchers. In other words, they have to be unconscious at the time of the experience or clinically dead with absent heartbeat and respiration. They have to be so physically compromised, that if they didn’t get better they would suffer permanent irreversible death. I think that’s what the public, in general, accepts near-death experience to be. In the media public vernacular, the deader the better. Now, having said all that, we have a huge number of experiences that can occur without a life-threatening event. Just an hour ago, I reviewed an experience from this week, and one of them was a dream. If you pulled out the very beginning of it and the very end of it, it would be indistinguishable in most people’s minds from a near death experience: In the dream, he felt he had died, suffered pain, the pain immediately went away, he had an out-of-body experience, he felt intensely positive feelings, he approached a light and was told it’s not your time, he felt resentment that he had to come back. All that is a classic near-death experience. And yet, this is what made me wonder: He woke up, and called it a dream, but said he had blood on his tongue and a bad taste in his mouth. I am suspicious that he had a seizure. That would explain the tongue biting, though there was no indication of any seizure disorder before or after. And he had what sounds more like sleep paralysis. So I scored that one as just being NDE-like. There are a number of people within a number of different circumstances who have experienced non-dreams as an out-of-body experience. Prayer and meditation are the most common settings in which people have experiences that resemble near-death experiences.
Q Based on your research, what do you think happens to consciousness after death? A Part of what I’ve been doing some research on lately may offer a direct answer to that important question. Certainly, you can’t ask that question of people who die irreversibly, but I now have a growing number of what I call shared near-death experiences. This is where two or more people have a simultaneous life-threatening event where they lose consciousness. And they both have a near-death experience but they’re aware of each other. One of the classic ones that I present to groups is fiancées, and it’s a tear jerker. “The beings separate the two from holding hands. Two of the four beings take the lady and move away with her, toward a light. The other two beings gently take the guy and lead him back down to the car.” A guy and a gal are driving to Canada and have a bad car wreck—the two of them are actually holding hands as they share their near-death experience rising above the car. They’re met by spiritual beings, and they feel intense love, which is all very classic. The beings separate the two from holding hands. Two of the four beings take the lady and move away with her, toward a light. The other two beings gently take the guy and lead him back down to the car, which is burning below him. He recovers consciousness in the car and his fiancé is leaning on his shoulder, though he knows already that she is dead. He knows he has been with her sharing a near-death experience on her initial part of permanent irreversible death. We have about 15 or 16 of these accounts. Shared near-death experiences are certainly suggestive that what is reported in near-death experiences is a pathway that can occur for those who permanently, irreversibly die. Of all the shared near-death experiences that I’ve studied in my research series, one of the people permanently, irreversibly died and yet they were communicating during their near-death experience, often in great detail. So, the remarkably good news is that near-death experiences may well be what actually happens based on shared near-death experiences.
Q When people are given a choice, whether to continue with death or return to life, or when a situation like this happens when fiancées are separated, what is the idea? Was it an inevitable that she was going to die, and it was not yet his time? A Interestingly, during some near-death experiences some people are given a choice, and some are simply returned to their body involuntarily. Among those who are aware they have a choice to return to their earthly body, it is remarkable that the great majority do not want to return. That’s very puzzling, isn’t it, when you consider that all their friends, family, and loved ones are on earth, and everything that they remembered for their entire life up to that moment was their earthly life. How could they not want to go back? According to 75 to 80 percent, the answer is they feel very intensely present, positive emotions in their near-death experience, more so typically than they ever knew on earth. They very strongly like this afterlife realm, this unearthly realm, which some call Heaven, and there’s a sense of familiarity like they’ve been there before. They very much want to stay. It’s amazing how powerful these experiences are. “They very strongly like this afterlife realm, this unearthly realm, which some call Heaven, and there’s a sense of familiarity like they’ve been there before.” To more directly answer your question on why some shared NDEs have a choice and some don’t, reading between the lines, you can tell that the other person in the shared NDE had more severe trauma—either injury or illness—and their body simply wasn’t able to support life. These are people who really did die irreversibly because that life-threatening event was so severe that this was not a near-death experience to them, it was a witnessed death experience. And there was no choice.
Q In your second book, you talk about evidence of God—can you explain how that manifested in survey results? A One thing that was obvious to me early on is that God would appear quite regularly in near-death experiences. So, in the most recent version of the survey, I directly ask: During your experience, did you encounter any awareness that God, or a supreme being, either exists or doesn’t exist? I worded it in the binary format because the skeptics would say: Aha! You only asked if they had awareness of the existence of God and you didn’t ask about awareness that God doesn’t exist. How do you know an equal percentage of people aren’t going to come back and say, “I was aware God didn’t exist but you didn’t ask.” We sorted that out by having a narrative response, and once again, I was more than a little embarrassed when it was extremely obvious that virtually all—I think there was one exception out of hundreds—answered yes, they encountered an awareness of, or encountered God directly, during their near-death experience. Something like 44 percent of people answered yes, and I was astounded. The narrative response that followed made it very clear that, indeed, God does exist. That’s never been reported by any other researcher before. I think a lot of researchers consider that to be sort of taboo, and if they have an academic affiliation, what are their colleagues going to think? That’s the glory of being in private practice. I don’t have to worry about academic constraints. My methodology was to get a huge number of sequentially shared near-death experiences; we included everybody who encountered God, or Jesus, over the span of 1,000 near-death experiences in the study. I found 277 people who were aware of or encountered God (I limited it to those who mentioned God specifically rather than supreme being). Within this group, the consistencies of their descriptions of God were amazing to me, in particular, because it’s not consistent at all with conventional religious thinking. For example, God is essentially never described as judgmental. God is essentially never angry or wrathful. People who do encounter God find an overwhelmingly loving presence, and an overwhelming sense of peace. Often there is a dialogue with God. It doesn’t seem like God wants to be worshipped. “God is essentially never described as judgmental. God is essentially never angry or wrathful. People who do encounter God find an overwhelmingly loving presence, and an overwhelming sense of peace.” The two things that stuck out as the most common descriptions within their experiences are two-fold. First, by far, God’s overwhelming loving nature; a close second is that people felt a unity, a oneness with God. Typically, they use the stronger language of unity or oneness, as opposed to the less strong words of connection or connectedness. That surprised the heck out of me because that’s not conventionally taught in American or in Western religion. For most of reported history, you could be murdered by the church of power for such thoughts. And yet here were people expressing that overwhelmingly, consistently, and very vividly. It certainly changed my view of God doing that research. I had a liberal Protestant upbringing, but this God is a God I would have more respect for than any God I was taught growing up.
Q So it was a more Eastern perception of God, that we are all one? A Yeah, and, I might add, best I can tell there is no correlation at all between sub-types of religion. The people who report on these experiences with God aren’t “new age”—in fact, people who identify as “new age” are five percent or less. These are people from Protestant, Catholic, and every denomination of religion you can think of who are having these encounters, which again to me is further striking evidence that they’re consistently seeing something that is not conventionally taught in religion. In fact, it is poo-pooed in most conventional religions, in the West anyway.
Q Do people come back with an idea or understanding of what Earth is about? A I asked very directly in the survey: Did you receive any information regarding our earthly purpose, meaning, and purpose of our earthly life? And again: yes; uncertain, no. The interesting thing was the narrative response. The gist of it is: That we are truly spiritual beings having an earthly existence, but our real nature is something beyond that. So what are we doing here? The best I can tell from reviewing hundreds and hundreds of responses is that we’re here to learn lessons. Lessons about what? Well, the number one thing that pops up is lessons about love. Apparently, in this earthly environment, we have this illusion that we’re separate from God. We have this illusion that we are separate from everything and everyone, which in the grand scheme of things, in the afterlife, is not true. But in this unique realm of, if you will, diminished consciousness, we have an opportunity to learn things we couldn’t learn apparently in any other way. And that sort of makes sense to me. In the afterlife when you know everything and everyone is connected, and there’s unity, and there’s an overwhelming sense of peace and love, you literally could not learn some of what we need to learn down here. And apparently, interestingly, what we learn down here is important. It’s important not only for our lives but in some way, that I don’t have it all figured out, it seems to have universal, if you will, cosmic consequences. What we’re learning is important far beyond just significance for our own lives, and the lives immediately around us. There seems to be, a ripple effect, which we see in life reviews, too. An action can really have far more wide range in consequences than we ever thought possible—sometimes the simplest things can turn out to be the most important. I guess you can intellectually know that’s true, but you hear that described in near-death experiences quite a bit.
Q Why do you think so few people have negative near-death experiences? A Yes, that’s true. In the scholarly literature, we refer to them as frightening or distressing, as those seem to be the emotions they evoke. And the reason we don’t call them negative is that even though they can be very frightening, the experience typically has a very positive, life-changing consequence. About 1 percent of near-death experiences are truly hellish. Now frightening, there’s a whole spectrum. For example, sometimes people, very uncommonly, are frightened when they have that initial out-of-body experience because it’s so unfamiliar. They quickly calm down and go on to have the typically pleasant experience. The experiences that most people ask about when they’re asking about those types of negative NDEs are the ones that I call objectively frightening, in other words, these are the ones that have true hellish imagery. There are two ways that it seems to be encountered: either at a distance where they’re aware of a very frightening/horrible place, often as they’re sailing by during their near-death experience accompanied by someone else; or, about half the time, they’re actually in that realm themselves. What I think is most important is that for many of these near-death experiencers, they’re clear afterward that they needed an experience like that to force them to face some issues in their lives and grow and be more loving to people on Earth. Basically, they had the self-recognition that they literally needed a kick in the butt to become a more decent person. And so there’s really a silver lining to that darkest cloud in some of the most horrific experiences I’ve ever read about. “For many of these near-death experiencers, they’re clear afterward that they needed an experience like that to force them to face some issues in their lives and grow and be more loving to people on Earth.” After reading these accounts, my opinion, based on this fairly objective evidence, which is mirrored by work from other researchers, is that there is indeed a hellish realm. However, there are also near-death experiencers who say there can be no Hell here. Both are correct, and here’s why. When hellish realms are encountered in near-death experiences, they’re generally highly compartmentalized. They can’t, won’t, don’t interact with the rest of the blissful, pleasant afterlife. And why or how these hellish beings can be there is very interesting. We’ve had one near-death experiencer describe that these beings literally chose to live in that realm and all they have to do is choose to leave it. So, what you see there in these hellish realms are beings that have made unbelievably bad choices in the afterlife, not that they’ve been sentenced there or forced there, but because they are such dark, evil beings, their Heaven is literally to be surrounded by beings who are like them, who share their values. Neither I nor any near-death experience researcher that I’m aware of believes in a permanent, involuntary Hell based on our research. It seems to be a product of incredibly bad choices.
Q Why do you think some people are so resistant to the idea that NDEs could be real, and so desirous to find a physical explanation for what’s behind them? A Coming from a scientific background, this is just so different from the typical scientific thinking about consciousness and literally who we are. It’s much easier for scientists to try to grasp onto what we call material explanations for evidence—and obviously, there’s no material or physical brain explanation that could account for all of this. I think part of it is they want to draw the unfamiliar to what is familiar to them, and they have a lot of confidence in science, which is a great thing. It’s interesting that the scientists who are skeptics tend to find explanations for NDEs that correlate with their area of scientific expertise. Kevin Nelson, a neurologist, will see rapid eye movement or random trusions, which is interesting. An anesthesiologist, who worries about the effects on the cell membrane, will believe NDEs are related to mitochondria, the energy producers in all cells. And the psychologist will believe that there’s a psychological explanation. Over twenty of these skeptical explanations for NDEs have been proposed. And the reason there are so many is not one, or several explanations of NDEs based on materialist understanding make sense even to the skeptics.
Q Is this really the question of whether the mind—our consciousness—is generated by our brain in a very literal way, or if there is a spiritual, animating force? A I think from the Atheist materialist point of view, they quite correctly point out: Aren’t we our brains? Isn’t what we remember generally a product of what we actually perceived at some prior time? Neurologically, if you have a stroke, that part of your brain that affects that particular muscle group is no longer working and so that muscle group doesn’t work. It’s very deterministic: There are lesions in the brain, there are lesions in the visual track, you’re going to be blind sometimes in one part of the visual field that’s part of the occipital lobe. There’s no question that who we are, and what we are in our perceptions found here, are clearly based on the physical functions of the mind. I don’t doubt that. “It’s just that there’s some other part of us that seems to be intimately related to our consciousness and who we are, and what we are, that’s much more than our physical brain.” It’s just that there’s some other part of us that seems to be intimately related to our consciousness and who we are, and what we are, that’s much more than our physical brain. And it’s non-physical clearly. Some call it the soul, but the term to use is neither here nor there. Every shred of evidence from near-death experience and a number of other related experiences all convincingly point to the conclusion that consciousness, that critical part of who we are, survives physical brain death.With the Illinois basketball team still looking for some commitments for the class of 2018, they have reached back out to now available Courtney Ramey.
Ramey just decommitted from the Louisville Cardinals after the FBI came down on the program for paying a player. Their assistant coach is in some serious trouble for, allegedly, committing some illegal acts and Rick Pitino was fired because this is essentially his third strike and there is the possibility he is in the FBI reports.
So, with all that put on the Cardinals program, their class of 2018 has scattered and one of those players was Ramey. He has now opened his recruitment back up and, last night, Illinois said the scholarship is still valid if he wants to come to Champaign.
At one time, Ramey was looking at Illinois heavily. He loved the visits he took up to Champaign and I thought the Illini had a chance to snag this talented point guard. But since then, Ramey has committed and decommitted from Louisville and Illinois has gone through a coaching change.
The second time around will hopefully turn out better for Illinois. They could use a kid like Ramey. He is a 6-foot-3, 170-pound point guard from Webster Groves High School in Saint Louis, Missouri. He is rated as a five-star recruit who is the No. 26 player in the class of 2018 and the No. 7 point guard in the nation.
I have to assume Missouri would be all over this kid considering he is an in-state product. But the Tigers, as of right now, don’t have a scholarship to offer Ramey. They already hit their max but in all likelihood, Michael Porter Jr. will take off for the NBA after this season which would leave another scholarship open. But as of right now Missouri doesn’t have one to offer Ramey which means they are out of the picture.
A dark horse in the re-recruitment of Ramey could be Saint Louis. They were able to snag Jordan Goodwin from the state of Illinois in the class of 2017 and he was a top 100 recruit. They also have a scholarship open for 2018 as well. Don’t be surprised if they are a contender in the Ramey sweepstakes.
Texas, Illinois, Ohio St, Mizzou, Arkansas, Marquette, Purdue, Clemson, Wake, Cinci & Tex A&M have reiterated their offer for Courtney Ramey — Corey Evans (@coreyevans_10) October 3, 2017
Ramey has also mentioned in the past he likes a program that is closer to home. So of the programs who “reiterated” their offers, I would throw out Texas, Ohio State, Clemson, Wake Forest, Cincinnati and Texas A&M. That would leave Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Marquette and Purdue.
I am not saying Illinois will snag Ramey but they were in the running the first time and I believe they were left on the doorstep. They got beat by a team that has been known for shady dealings. Maybe, just maybe, this is Brad Underwood’s time to shine.On this day in 1782, in Newburgh, New York, General George Washington, the commander in chief of the Continental Army, creates the “Badge for Military Merit,” a decoration consisting of a purple, heart-shaped piece of silk, edged with a narrow binding of silver, with the word Merit stitched across the face in silver. The badge was to be presented to soldiers for “any singularly meritorious action” and permitted its wearer to pass guards and sentinels without challenge. The honoree’s name and regiment were also to be inscribed in a “Book of Merit.”
Washington’s “Purple Heart” was awarded to only three known soldiers during the Revolutionary War: Elijah Churchill, William Brown and Daniel Bissell, Jr. The “Book of Merit” was lost, and the decoration was largely forgotten until 1927, when General Charles P. Summerall, the U.S. Army chief of staff, sent an unsuccessful draft bill to Congress to “revive the Badge of Military Merit.” In 1931, Summerall’s successor, General Douglas MacArthur, took up the cause, hoping to reinstate the medal in time for the bicentennial of George Washington’s birth. On February 22, 1932, Washington’s 200th birthday, the U.S. War Department announced the creation of the “Order of the Purple Heart.”
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In addition to aspects of Washington’s original design, the new Purple Heart also displays a bust of Washington and his coat of arms. The Order of the Purple Heart, the oldest American military decoration for military merit, is awarded to members of the U.S. armed forces who have been killed or wounded in action against an enemy. It is also awarded to soldiers who have suffered maltreatment as prisoners of war.
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit WebsitePA Paul Scholes doesn't rate Paul Pogba
The Juventus star is closing on a £101million move after weeks of discussions. And should the transfer go through, the 23-year-old will become the world’s most expensive player, smashing the current record held by Gareth Bale. But Scholes, who played with Pogba at Old Trafford, believes the Frenchman is not worth the fee United are understood to be prepared to pay.
Manchester United launch new home kit Sat, July 23, 2016 Manchester United have launched their new 2016/17 home kit during their pre-season tour in China Play slideshow Man Utd via Getty Images 1 of 10 Manchester United have launched their new home kit
He told Sport Witness: "He was a very talented young player, I played with him and I knew how good he was. "He played for the first team maybe once or twice, but from my understanding he was asking for too much money. "For his age, he was asking for far too much money, that too for a player who hasn’t played first team football.Hello Rocksmith fans!
You voted for ’em, so here are the results for the Rocksmith DLC Battle of 2016!
Best Rocksmith DLC of 2016
Rush (67.1%) 243/362 Votes!
Dream Theater (32.9%) 119/362 Votes!
Rush wasn’t here to accept the award but as a Toronto resident I will take it on their behalf, thanks eh.
Best halsb video of 2016
Rush “La Villa Strangiato” – 34.56% 56/162 Votes!
Joe Satriani “Satch Boogie” 30.2% 49/162 Votes
Y’all really like Rush I guess…
Favourite Rocksmith video of 2016
@Audrey123Talks @Rancid’s Maxwell Murder 100% on Bass 27.1% 32/118 Votes
We can’t disagree
Zombie David Stevens – White Zombie “Black Sunshine” 25.4% 30/118
Two votes? Well, that’s two brains that David will be feasting on!
So there you have it, the best of 2016! What will this year bring us in the months to come? We’re already off to a great start and hopefully it only gets better. Did you vote for @RushTheBand? Or was their final round inclusion enough to make you pick up @DreamTheaterNet’s pack?"Everybody's going to war but we don't know what we are fighting for." – Nerina Pallot, from "Everybody's Gone to War"
Iran Wants War
Although a peaceful nation for hundreds of years, Iran was invaded and occupied by the Allies in both World War One and Two. Then in 1980, at the urging of the United States, Saddam Hussein invaded them and used poison gas against both Kurds and Iran. Over 500,000 civilians, Iranian and Iraqi soldiers died in the longest war of the 20th century, which lasted until 1988.
Iran wants war because they believe they can withstand an Israel and US air assault and that unless they are invaded and occupied they can claim victory. No Middle East nation has ever been victorious against either the US or Israel and to declare victory against both will make Iran the leading nation across the entire region, at least for the people in the street. An Israel/US assault would also solve growing domestic political problems against the regime.
Israel
Bibi Netanyahu obviously believes Iran threatens the survival of Israel, as no major domestic political reasons to go to war are evident. The majority of Israel's population appears to be opposed to a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities because of retaliation from Iran and Hezbollah. But as in the US, what the majority of the people want is of no consequence.
If the war plan leaked several days ago is real (see "Bibi's Secret War Plan") it's excellent but no war plan survives the first contact with the enemy. It appears to be an exact reverse of my fictional "The First American Dollar War Defeat" in which Electromagnetic Pulse weaponry is deployed.
So Netanyahu believes Israel can delay Iranian nuclear advances by bombing them back into the Stone Age with the help of America, who will surely be drawn into the conflict. Although most neocon experts believe the war will be short with a minimum of retaliation I fear the war could be a long one, pulling in many other nations in the Middle East. Again, Iran showed its resolve against Iraq in their long war and this same determination would rise to extreme levels against an Israeli strike.
USA
The old war against terror propaganda is losing ground to alternative news and opinion now available because of the Internet Reformation. Frankly, few people believe anything from either the American government or its establishment propaganda outlets and this is a frightening situation to the power elite that rules America.
Due to the growing economic crisis, the government needs to take strong actions that could be violently resisted by large segments of the US population unless a major financial or military crisis can be used as an excuse and cover for coming dictatorial actions. Simply stated, there are not enough police and military in the US to control the population should an insurrection take place. A major war in the Middle East can provide a casus belli for a direct assault against US private wealth, liberties, benefit programs and opposition by the power elite.
For example, the imposition of a military draft will dramatically cut unemployment rates as well as limit inner-city crime and outrage over cuts in domestic spending and welfare. Remember, austerity is needed and a draconian cut in Social Security and benefit programs must be engineered against the 50 percent of the population who receive some type of government benefits.
In addition, gold will need to be confiscated. Forced retirement investment into collapsing dollar denominated Treasury obligations must be required when foreign investors stop buying US debt. Stronger TSA authority, drones and harsh domestic controls will need to be implemented for the duration of the conflict in order to squelch domestic opposition. Taxes must be raised, penalties and fines must be doubled and tripled at the federal, state and municipal levels and finally, severe limitations on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly will be forced on the American people, along with gun control and limited access to Internet news and communications.
Finally, a major, long-term war in the Middle East will provide an excuse for the deferment and rescheduling of US debt obligations owed to nations and governments that oppose the US/Israel war in the Middle East. For the $1 trillion owed to China and many Middle East nations, this is effectively debt repudiation.
China
China wants to see the US weakened long-term as a world power and a major war in the Middle East will do this. They also need a reason to dump US Treasury debt and an excuse to avoid the blame of the coming broader repudiation of US debt. The Chinese people will be justifiably outraged that the Chinese government and central bank accumulated $1 trillion in US debt, although there were legitimate global trading reasons and domestic economic justification for this over-concentration in US debt and dollar obligations.
A Middle East war would avoid direct military action between the US and China while protecting both US and Chinese politicians from the coming Treasury debt repudiation, Chinese dump and global run on the dollar and Treasuries.
Conclusion
All sides in the coming conflict – except for the civilian populations and the soldiers maimed and killed – will win if everything goes according to plan. However, nothing ever goes according to plan in wars and this is the problem the world will face. Prolonged recession or depression, wealth and benefit confiscation throughout the EU, US and other Western democracies and the risk of a Middle East conflict spreading around the world is my fear.
Who is guaranteed to win regardless of the outcome of the war and whether it can be contained? The Anglo-American financial elites and the bankers always win every conflict regardless of the military outcome. This is the history of the 20th century and I see no reason that will change now.
Forty-plus years ago, when I was in basic training, we sang the patriotic and somewhat funny marching songs. But when our drill sergeants were out of range, we would shift into "1, 2, 3, what are we fighting for?"
Looks to me like nothing has changed. American soldiers are still fighting for the power elites and their favored industries. I wish it were different.
You don’t have to play by the rules of the corrupt politicians, manipulative media, and brainwashed peers. When you subscribe to The Daily Bell, you also get a free guide: How to Craft a Two Year Plan to Reclaim 3 Specific Freedoms. This guide will show you exactly how to plan your next two years to build the free life of your dreams. It’s not as hard as you think… Identify. Plan. Execute. Yes, deliver THE DAILY BELL to my inbox!A program designed to help incoming draft picks adjust to life in the NFL will be canceled if the league’s work stoppage continues.
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An NFL spokesman told FOXSports.com that the annual rookie symposium won’t be held unless a new collective bargaining agreement is reached between the league and |
among the NBA leaders in assists per game (31st) and scoring average (37th)…led the HEAT in points, scoring average, field goals made and attempted, free throws made and attempted, assists and assist-to-turnover ratio and finished second in minutes played and starts…tied Wayne Ellington for the team lead in four-point plays with three…topped the team in scoring a team-high 27 times, in assists a team-high 35 times, in steals 18 times, in minutes 12 times, in plus/minus on 11 occasions and in rebounds and blocks three times each…scored in double figures a team-high 62 times, including 30 games with at least 20 points and five 30-point performances (both team highs)…scored in double figures in each of his first 14 games in 2017-18 to extend his streak of consecutive double-figure scoring games to a career-high 60 games…grabbed double-figure rebounds twice and handed out double-digit assists once while posting three double-doubles…hit a career-high 27 consecutive free throws from Nov. 6-22, the most consecutive free throws made on the HEAT in 2017-18…scored his 9,000th career point on Nov. 28 at Cleveland…grabbed his 2,000th career rebound on Dec. 11 at Memphis…connected on his 800th career three-point field goal and eclipsed the 20,000 minutes played mark in his career on Mar. 23 at Oklahoma City…recorded his 700th career steal on Dec. 9 against Brooklyn in Mexico City…played in his 700th career game on Feb. 14 at Philadelphia…matched his career high by grabbing 12 rebounds on Jan. 9 at Toronto…Season Highs: 33 points (twice), 13 assists (vs. Detroit, Jan. 3), 12 rebounds (at Toronto, Jan. 9), three steals (vs. Philadelphia, Mar. 8), two blocks (at Charlotte, Dec. 15) and 42:04 minutes (vs. Denver, Mar. 19). 2016-17 SEASON:
Started all 73 games in which he appeared for the HEAT and averaged 20.3 points (.475 FG%,.790 FT%), 5.8 assists, 3.8 rebounds, 1.22 steals and 33.7 minutes…officially missed six games due to injury and three as a DNP-CD in which he dressed and was available only in an emergency…missed three games (Nov. 12-15) due to a sprained left ankle, two games (Nov. 25-26) due to a strained left elbow and one game (Mar. 12) with a right orbital contusion…missed three games (Dec. 27-Jan. 1) with lower back spasms that were officially listed as DNP-CDs since he dressed and was available in an emergency…set single-season career highs in scoring average, field goal attempts and total rebounds…ranked among the NBA leaders in three-point field goal percentage (20th), assists per game (22nd), scoring average (31st), minutes per game (33rd) and steals per game (38th)…led the HEAT in points scored, scoring average, double-figure scoring efforts, 20-point games, 30-point games, field goal attempts, free throws made and attempted, free throw percentage, assists and steals and ranked second in minutes, starts, field goals made, three-point field goals made and attempted, three-point field goal percentage and double-doubles…topped the HEAT in scoring a team-high 30 times, in assists a team-high 45 times, in steals a team-high 25 times, in minutes a team-high 17 times, in plus/minus on seven occasions, in blocks six times and in rebounds once…scored in double figures 70 times, including 39 games with at least 20 points and seven 30-point performances…scored in double figures in each of his final 46 games to set a career high for consecutive games scoring in double figures…handed out double-figure assists on six occasions and posted six double-doubles…connected on a season-high 17 consecutive free throw attempts from Jan. 3-8, one shy of the HEAT high in 2016-17…hit a trey in a career-high 15 consecutive games from Jan. 6-Feb. 6 and tied the streak from Mar. 4-Apr. 5…scored his 8,000th career point on Feb. 4 vs. Philadelphia…recorded his 3,000th career assist on Feb. 24 at Atlanta…appeared in his 600th career game on Dec. 23 at New Orleans…amassed his 600th career steal on Nov. 21 at Philadelphia…Seasons Highs: 34 points (vs. Washington, Dec. 12), 17 assists (vs. Boston, Nov. 28), nine rebounds (twice), four steals (vs. Toronto, Mar. 23), two blocks (three times) and 45:10 minutes (vs. Orlando, Dec. 20). 2015-16 SEASON:
Started all 72 games in which he appeared for the HEAT and averaged 14.1 points (.477 FG%,.727 FT%), 5.8 assists, 3.8 rebounds, 0.99 steals and 32.8 minutes…officially missed seven games due to injury and was a DNP-CD for three others in which he dressed despite suffering from a strained left calf…sat out one game (Dec. 22) with a sore left wrist, five games (Nov. 25-Dec. 7) with a strained left calf and one game (Mar. 28) with a cold…set single-season career highs in both defensive (223) and total (277) rebounds…ranked among the NBA leaders in assists per game (18th) and field goal percentage (36th)…led the HEAT in assists…finished second in minutes played, double-figure scoring efforts, field goals made and attempted and charges taken and third in points scored and steals…topped the HEAT in scoring six times, in assists a team-high 50 times, in steals 21 times, in minutes played on 14 occasions, in plus/minus a team-high 14 times, in blocks twice and in rebounds once…scored in double figures on 55 occasions, including 12 games with at least 20 points…scored in double figures a season-high 20 consecutive games from Feb.5-Mar. 22…grabbed double-figure rebounds once and handed out double-figure assists a team-high four times…recorded five double-doubles…recorded his 2,500th career assist on Feb. 9 vs. San Antonio…scored his 7,000th career point on Mar. 30 against the Lakers in Los Angeles…made his 300th career start on Jan. 6 vs. New York…grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds on Apr. 7 vs. Chicago…grabbed five offensive rebounds at Orlando on Apr. 8 to match his career high…Season Highs: 26 points (at Chicago, Mar. 11), 12 rebounds (vs. Chicago, Apr. 7), 11 assists (three times), four steals (twice), two blocks (three times) and 41:21 minutes (at Memphis, Dec. 29).
2014-15 SEASON:
Split the season between the HEAT and the Phoenix Suns…started all 78 games in which he appeared and averaged 16.3 points (.501 FG%,.774 FT%), 4.5 assists, 3.5 rebounds, 1.00 steals and 33.8 minutes…missed a total of six games, two officially due to injury (Dec. 14-15 with a low back strain), one while in route after being traded and three that were officially listed as DNP-CDs although he dressed for two of them (Mar. 7-9) despite being injured with a lower back contusion…led all guards and ranked 19th overall in the NBA in field goal percentage and also ranked among NBA leaders in minutes per game (29th), assists per game (31st) and scoring average (39th)…set a single-season career high in offensive (81), defensive (193) and total (274) rebounds…scored in double figures 68 times, including 27 games with at least 20 points and one 30-point performance…handed out double-figure assists three times and grabbed double-figure rebounds once…recorded four double-doubles…appeared in 26 games with the HEAT and averaged 16.6 points (.502 FG%,.808 FT%), 5.3 assists, 3.4 rebounds, 1.08 steals and 34.8 minutes…topped the HEAT in scoring four times, in assists 17 times, in minutes 10 times, in steals on eight occasions and in blocks twice…appeared in 52 games with the Suns and averaged 16.2 points (.501 FG%,.746 FT%), 4.1 assists, 3.6 rebounds, 0.96 steals and 33.4 minutes…topped the Suns in scoring 11 times, in assists 16 times, in steals on 12 occasions, in rebounds three times and in blocks once…hit a career-high 26 consecutive free throw attempts from Feb. 23-Mar. 4…scored his 6,000th career point vs. San Antonio on Mar. 31…scored his 5,000th career point at the L.A. Clippers on Nov. 14…handed out his 2,000th career assist at Houston on Dec. 6…hit his 1,000th career free throw vs. Indiana on Dec. 2…hit his 500th career three-point field goal and recorded his 500th career steal vs. the L.A. Lakers on Mar. 4…played his 500th career game vs. Chicago on Apr. 9…grabbed a career-high five offensive rebounds vs. Denver on Mar. 20…Season Highs: 34 points (vs. Indiana, Dec. 2), 13 assists (at Dallas, Dec. 5), 10 rebounds (vs. Philadelphia, Jan. 2), four steals (vs. Indiana, Dec. 2), two blocks (vs. Chicago, Jan. 30) and 46:19 minutes (vs. Sacramento, Nov. 7).
2013-14 SEASON:
Appeared in 76 games (75 starts) for the Suns and averaged 20.3 points (.505 FG%,.760 FT%), 5.9 assists, 3.2 rebounds, 1.37 steals and 35.1 minutes…missed six games due to injury…sat out five games (Nov. 5-8, Apr. 11, Apr. 16) due to a sprained left ankle and one (Feb. 26) with a sprained right ankle…earned All-NBA Third Team honors and was named the NBA Most Improved Player…was named the Western Conference Player of the Week for the Week ending Feb. 2…finished 16th in the voting for NBA MVP…ranked among the NBA leaders in fast break points per game (tied-6th), three-point field goal percentage (15th), free throw attempts per game (tied-16th), scoring average (18th), assists per game (18th), field goal percentage (26th), steals per game (28th) and minutes per game (29th)…became just the fourth player in NBA history to exceed 20.0 points, 5.0 assists, 50.0 FG% and 40.0 3-PT FG% in a single-season joining LeBron James (2012-13), Jeff Hornacek (1991-92) and Larry Bird (1984-85, 1986-87, 1987-88)…set single-season career highs in points, scoring average, field goals made and attempted, field goal percentage, three-point field goals made and attempted, three-point field goal percentage, free throws made and attempted and minutes…led the Suns in points, scoring average, field goals made and attempted, field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage, free throws made and attempted, assists and minutes…topped the Suns in scoring a team-high 30 times, in assists a team-high 51 times, in steals on 22 occasions, in blocks six times and in rebounds three times…scored in double figures 73 times, including 37 games with at least 20 points, nine games with 30-or-more points and his lone 40-point performance (all of which are single-season career highs)…scored at least 20 points in a career-high seven consecutive games from Jan. 27-Feb. 8…handed out double-figure assists six times and grabbed double-figure rebounds once…amassed seven double-doubles…had a career-high 39 multi-trey games…scored his 4,000th career point vs. Dallas on Jan. 17…grabbed his 1,000th career rebound vs. Boston on Feb. 19…played in his 400th career game vs. Houston on Feb. 23…scored a career-high 40 points vs. New Orleans on Feb. 28…connected on a career-high 14 field goals on Feb. 23 vs. Houston and matched that total two games later vs. New Orleans on Feb. 28…Season Highs: 40 points (vs. New Orleans, Feb. 28), 14 assists (at Denver, Feb. 18), 10 rebounds (vs. L.A. Lakers, Jan. 15), five steals (twice), three blocks (at New Orleans, Apr. 9) and 47:54 minutes (at New York, Jan. 13).
2012-13 SEASON:
Started all 77 games in which he saw action for the Suns and averaged 14.7 points (.443 FG%,.748 FT%), 7.4 assists, 3.1 rebounds, 1.61 steals and 33.5 minutes…sat out three games due to injury and was a DNP-CD for two games (Mar. 27-28) to rest…missed one game (Dec. 9) due to the flu, one game (Dec. 28) due to a hip contusion and one game (Apr. 17) with a right ankle injury…set single-season career highs in assists, steals and blocks…ranked among the NBA leaders in assists (8th), steals (17th) and assists-to-turnover ratio (20th)…led the Suns in points, scoring average, three-point field goals attempted, free throws made and attempted, assists, steals, minutes and starts…joined LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kemba Walker as the only four players in the NBA to lead their team in points, assists and steals in 2012-13…topped the Suns in points a team-high 18 times, in assists a team-high 59 times, in steals a team-high 29 occasions, in blocks eight times and in rebounds twice…scored in double figures 65 times, including 15 games with at least 20 points and a pair of 30-point performances…handed out double-figure assists a career-high 20 times and recorded a career-high 19 double-doubles…had a career-high 38 multi-steal games…amassed multiple steals in a career-high 10 consecutive games from Nov. 9-27…scored his 3,000th career point vs. Atlanta on Mar. 1…hit his 1,000th career field goal vs. Dallas on Feb. 1…played in his 300th career game at Minnesota on Dec. 29…handed out a career-high 18 assists at Portland on Feb. 19…made the first career game-winner, a two-foot layup with 0.5 seconds left vs. Memphis on Dec. 12…Season Highs: 32 points (vs. Golden State, Apr. 5), 18 assists (at Portland, Feb. 19), nine rebounds (vs. Brooklyn, Mar. 24), five steals (twice), three blocks (vs. Philadelphia, Jan. 2) and 43:34 minutes (at Memphis, Dec. 4).
2011-12 SEASON:
Appeared in all 66 games (28 starts) for the Houston Rockets and averaged 11.7 points (.462 FG%,.805 FT%), 5.3 assists, 2.5 rebounds, 1.29 steals and 26.5 minutes…was named NBA Western Conference Player of the Week for the week ending Apr. 8…ranked among the NBA leaders in assists per game (21st) and steals per game (27th)…led the Rockets in assists and steals and finished second in points and field goals made and attempted…joined Luis Scola as the only Rockets to play in all 66 games…topped the Rockets in scoring 12 times, in assists a team-high 35 times, in minutes on 10 occasions and in rebounds once…scored in double figures 39 times, including 13 games with at least 20 points…handed out double-figure assists nine times and recorded eight double-doubles…recorded a steal in a career-high 15 consecutive games from Mar. 4-30…scored his 2,000th career point at Portland on Apr. 9…made a career-high 13 free throws on Apr. 11 vs. Utah…Season Highs: 26 points (at L.A. Lakers, Apr. 12), 14 assists (at L.A. Clippers, Mar. 17), seven rebounds (vs. L.A. Lakers, Mar. 20), four steals (four times), one block (10 times) and 47:40 minutes (vs. Dallas, Mar. 24).
2010-11 SEASON:
Split the season between the Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets…saw action in 70 games (five starts) and averaged 7.5 points (.435 FG%,.624 FT%), 2.9 assists, 2.0 rebounds and 17.6 minutes…missed a total of eight games due to injury/illness…missed seven games (Jan. 30-Feb. 13) with a left foot injury and one game (Feb. 27) with flu-like symptoms…scored in double figures 23 times…grabbed double-figure rebounds on three occasions and handed out double-figure assists three times…posted five double-doubles and one triple-double…appeared in 48 games (two starts) with Phoenix and averaged 7.4 points (.421 FG%,.608 FT%), 3.1 assists, 1.8 rebounds and 17.8 minutes…finished third on the Suns in assists…led Phoenix in scoring and rebounds once each and in assists five times…appeared in 22 games (three starts) with Houston and averaged 7.7 points (.472 FG%,.667 FT%), 2.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 17.2 minutes…topped the Rockets in assists three times, in minutes twice and in rebounds once…recorded his lone career triple-double with 11 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in the season finale at Minnesota on Apr. 13…grabbed career highs in both defensive (9) and total (11) rebounds at Minnesota on Apr. 13…played a career-high 53 minutes vs. Dallas on Apr. 11…scored his 1,000th career point at Charlotte on Nov. 20…played in his 200th career game vs. Atlanta on Apr. 3…Season Highs: 17 points (twice), 11 rebounds (at Minnesota, Apr. 13), 11 assists (at Minnesota, Apr. 13), four steals (twice), two blocks (vs. L.A. Clippers, Apr. 9) and 53:00 minutes (vs. Dallas, Apr. 11).
2009-10 SEASON:
Appeared in 80 games (two starts) for the Suns and averaged 7.9 points (.452 FG%,.736 FT%), 3.0 assists, 2.1 rebounds and 18.0 minutes…missed two games (Mar. 4-6) due to a sprained right ankle…ranked 25th in the NBA in three-point field goal percentage…finished second on the team in assists…topped the Suns in scoring once, in steals 16 times and in assists five times…scored in double figures on 25 occasions, including three games with at least 20 points and one 30-point performance…handed out double-figure assists on three occasions and posted one double-double…Season Highs: 32 points (at Utah, Jan. 25), 10 assists (three times), seven rebounds (vs. New Orleans, Nov. 11), four steals (vs. Golden State, Jan. 23), one block (eight times) and 39:57 minutes (at Oklahoma City, Feb. 23).
2008-09 SEASON:
Saw action in 55 games for the Suns (one start) and averaged 4.5 points (.393 FG%,.769 FT%), 2.0 assists, 1.9 rebounds and 13.2 minutes...missed two games (Dec. 29-30) with flu-like symptoms and was a DNP-CD on 25 occasions…topped the Suns in steals five times, in assists twice and in blocks once…scored in double figures six times…made his NBA debut at San Antonio on Oct. 29 and was scoreless with two assists and one rebound in 14:03 minutes of playing time…made his first NBA start at Sacramento on Nov. 14 and tallied five points, four assists, four rebounds and three steals in 30:22 minutes of play…Season Highs: 14 points (at L.A. Lakers, Feb. 26), eight assists (at Minnesota, Apr. 11), five rebounds (twice), four steals (at Memphis, Apr. 10), one block (three times) and 30:22 minutes (at Sacramento, Nov. 14).
NBA PLAYOFFS:
2010: Came off the bench in all 16 games for the Suns and averaged 7.6 points (.430 FG%,.742 FT%), 2.3 assists, 1.8 rebounds and 14.8 minutes…was tied for second on the team in assists…scored in double figures on five occasions, including one 20-point performance…averaged 6.8 points (.419 FG%,.800 FT%), 2.0 assists, 1.2 rebounds and 14.8 minutes in the Opening Round vs. Portland…made his postseason debut on Apr. 18 vs. Portland and tallied six points, two assists and one rebound in 13:35 of action…averaged 9.0 points (.452 FG%,.500 FT%), 2.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 13.0 minutes in the Western Conference Semifinals vs. San Antonio…scored a postseason career-high 26 points (including 23 in the fourth quarter) in Game 3 in San Antonio on May 7…also set postseason career highs in field goals made (10) and attempted (13) and three-point field goals made (5) in the May 7 contest at San Antonio…averaged 7.5 points (.421 FG%,.800 FT%), 2.7 assists, 2.2 rebounds and 15.8 minutes in the Western Conference Finals vs. the L.A. Lakers…handed out a postseason career-high eight assists in Game 4 vs. the Lakers on May 25.
HONORS:
2016-17: Received the Robes Patton Memorial Award for media cooperation from the Miami chapter of the Professional Basketball Writers Association…2013-14: Earned All-NBA Third Team honors and captured the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award…was named the NBA Western Conference Player of the Week for the week ending Feb. 2…participated in the Skills Competition at All-Star Weekend…2011-12: Was named Western Conference Player of the Week for the week ending Apr. 8.
INTERNATIONAL:
National Team: Member of the Slovenian National Team since 2006…was named tournament MVP and a member of the All-Tournament team while leading Slovenia to its’ first EuroBasket championship in 2017…averaged 22.6 points (.482 FG%,.844 FT%), 5.1 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 27:49 minutes while leading Slovenia to a perfect 9-0 record…set a Slovenian single-game record for most points in an international competition when he scored 35 points in the gold medal game against Serbia…was the only NBA player on Slovenia’s roster for the 2017 EuroBasket tournament…helped his national team qualify for EuroBasket 2017 during the summer of 2016 while leading Slovenia to a 6-0 record by averaging 17.4 points (.532 FG%,.875 FT%), 8.4 assists and 2.8 rebounds…averaged team highs of 16.0 points (ranked 11th in competition) and 4.3 assists (9th in competition) while shooting 55.4% from the field (8th in competition) at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain leading Slovenia to a 5-2 record and a quarterfinals appearance before falling to the United States…named to the EuroBasket 2013 All-Tournament Team after leading the host nation to a 7-4 record and fifth-place finish, the nation’s second-best finish at the European championships…ranked fifth in the competition in scoring (15.8 ppg) and third in assists (4.5 apg)…participated in EuroBasket 2011 in Lithuania, the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey, EuroBasket 2009 in Poland, EuroBasket 2007 in Spain and the 2006 FIBA World Championships in Japan…was a member of the nation’s U-20 National Team in 2004 and 2005…
Full name is Goran Dragić…nicknames are “Gogi” which is short for Goran in Slovenia and “The Dragon” which was given to him as a rookie by Steve Nash…is the son of Marinko and Mojca Dragić…has one brother, Zoran, who he played with on both the Suns and the HEAT…married his wife, Maja, in 2013 in Slovenia and the couple has a son (Mateo) and a daughter (Viktoria)…speaks fluent Slovenian, Serbian, Spanish and English…received the Apple of Inspiration award by Slovenian President Borut Pahor in the summer of 2014 in recognition of his humanitarianism and success…serves as an ambassador for City of Hope, the world-renowned medical research and treatment center, and donated the Kia he received for winning the 2013-14 NBA Most Improved Player Award to the foundation…along with his brother, Zoran, launched a partnership with Blessings in a Backpack in November of 2014 to provide ready-to-eat food for 125 students at Cesar Chavez Community Center in Phoenix, the program mobilizes communities, individuals and resources to provide food on the weekends for elementary school children across America who might otherwise go hungry…lists former teammate Steve Nash as someone he admires because of his basketball skills, the fact he’s a role model for kids and also because he helped him a lot when Goran came to the NBA…would wake up at 3 am as a kid to watch NBA games in Slovenia which would be shown at 4 am…lists Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson and Steve Nash as some of his favorite players growing up, but his basketball heroes were Vlade Divac and Drazen Petrovic…hosts a yearly basketball camp in the off-season in Slovenia…when his playing career is over he would like to stay involved in basketball as either a coach or agent…his favorite sport other than basketball is soccer and he lists Real Madrid and AC Milan as his favorite teams…grew up playing soccer in Slovenia but an injury forced him to switch sports at age 11…enjoys watching movies and playing soccer and tennis in his free time…his first job was as a forklift operator in his mother’s book factory…says something most people don’t know about him is that he loves dogs…wears size 12.5 sneakers.In a Phoenix suburb in March, protesters parked about two-dozen cars in the middle of the highway to stop drivers on their way to an outdoor rally for Donald Trump and Joe Arpaio, the controversial Arizona sheriff.
With posters that read "Dump Trump" and "Must Stop Trump," the protesters, in one sense, acted on their right to demonstrate against the Republican frontrunner and the sheriff who was sanctioned for refusing a judge's order to stop racial profiling.
But Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) saw it differently: The demonstrators prevented Trump supporters from expressing their political views.
Inspired by this event, Governor Ducey signed a measure into law Monday that increases penalties on protesters who block traffic to political events.
"That hopefully will create a deterrent for people intruding on others' abilities," said Daniel Scarpinato, a gubernatorial spokesman. "There's a balance here of everyone getting their voice heard."
"If someone is physically preventing someone from participating in exercising their constitutional rights, that is unacceptable," said Mr. Scarpinato.
In the wake of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and the Trump campaign's orders to remove protesters from its rallies, the Arizona law could further complicate this conflict between competing free speech rights: A protesters' right to demonstrate vs. how they demonstrate can prevent others from expressing their views.
The measure Ducey signed is made up of two laws. One increases the penalty for anyone found to have intentionally blocked traffic for access to a political campaign event or government meeting or hearing to a six-month jail sentence, according the Associated Press. The other law prevents state universities and community colleges from limiting where free speech can be exercised, which directly affects a lawsuit against Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix. Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian organization that aims to protects free speech, alleges the college prohibited a student from having an informational table in a "free speech" zone on campus.
Although Ducey and the one of the two bill's sponsors celebrated the laws, not everyone in the state legislature was happy about it.
"To stop somebody from going to a political rally to hear a candidate is not furthering the First Amendment,'' said Steve Farley, a Democratic senator. "It is suppressing that person's First Amendment right to assembly.''
The First Amendment does restrict violence. Yet, questions around whether incitements of violence, trespassing, and obstructing others from expressing their own, constitute violence or actual restrictions on speech.
In the Occupy Wall Street movement, for instance, Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered New York City police to clear protesters' encampment at Zuccotti Park because, he said, it become a "fire and health hazard."
In an interview with ProPublica shortly after the incident, Geoffrey Stone, a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago, cautioned that the First Amendment is "not absolute."
"Government can make reasonable stipulations about the time, place and manner a peaceable protest can take place, as long as those restrictions are applied in a content-neutral way," he said. "Things like noise, blockage of ordinary uses of the place, blockage of traffic and destruction of property allow the government to regulate speakers."
These restrictions apply to all public spaces, he said.
In the year after the Occupy Wall Street movement, President Obama signed into a law an act that further provides government the right to restrict protesters. The Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Acts is an update to a law that restricts areas around the president, vice president, or any others under the protection of the Secret Service, Slate reported shortly after the passage of the law in 2012. Under the act, restricted areas can also include large public events like the Super Bowl and the party conventions, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Some said the passage of the law was minor, while others said it gave prosecutors the right go after any protester who knew they entered a restricted area, but didn't realize their actions were illegal.
Private property makes things trickier because owners can constitutionally call the police to remove someone for trespassing. At his rallies, Trump has called for removal of protestors because they are private events.
In an interview with The Huffington Post three days before the Arizona protest, Stone said Trump can ask police to remove from his rallies anyone who opposes his candidacy. But its' debatable whether Trump can forcibly remove those who oppose his political views if he didn't advertise the event as only for Trump supporters, said Stone.
In a comment thread on The New York Times website, Jay Levine, of Richmond Virginia, weighed in.
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"Where does it say someone has a right to disrupt a private event?" wrote Levine. "If Trump holds his rallies in public venues, then fine, he has to face the public. However if he pays for a private venue and the participants are there by invitation, then no, people do not have a 'right' to protest inside the venue."
"They of course can protest outside the venue all they want," he added.Cookbook | Recipes | Ingredients | Cuisine of Japan
In Japanese cuisine, sushi (寿司, 鮨, 鮓) is vinegared rice, usually topped with other ingredients including fish (cooked or uncooked) and vegetables. Outside of Japan, sushi is sometimes misunderstood to mean the raw fish by itself, or even any fresh raw-seafood dishes. In Japan, sliced raw fish alone is called sashimi and is distinct from sushi, as sashimi is the raw fish component, not the rice component. The word sushi itself comes from an outdated grammatical form of a word that is no longer used in other contexts; literally, sushi means "it's sour."
Sushi must contain rice, typically contains nori (and sometimes seaweed), and virtually always includes fillings or toppings such as of various types, such as seafood, chicken, tuna etc., the possibilities of which are endless. Similar to Western appetizers (although sushi is often intended to be the main course), sushi should be served in a manner that will allow eating by hand, usually in a bite or two. Many types of sushi are individually made by the cook to the appropriate size or are cut by the cook to this size before serving. Although sushi may be prepared in a wrap or roll format prior to serving, traditional ingredients lack the structural strength needed to allow them to be eaten by hand as an entire roll or wrap.
Sushi, in its simplest forms, is made by first cooking rice, then cooling it, molding by it hand or in a mold and adding a topping, or wrapping the rice in nori and adding fillings to make a roll, using a bamboo mat to help, which is then cut into smaller pieces. Usually served cool and with soy sauce, sliced ginger, and wasabi.
Sushi can be eaten as served by the cook or dipped into (or, using sliced ginger as a 'brush', wiped with) soy sauce and then eaten, with additional wasabi added by the brave. As a general rule, it is always appropriate to eat sushi by hand, unless it is obvious that you cannot avoid getting rice or other ingredients stuck to your fingers, in which case chopsticks should be used.
Much care is put into the creation of the dish and the many methods of preparing the food indicate the importance of appearance to the educated consumer.
History [ edit ]
Beginning as a method of pickling fish centuries ago, sushi has evolved into an artful, unique dining experience. In its earliest form, fish was placed between two wads of rice, producing a moderately complex chemical reaction as the fish fermented, helping to preserve it. Sometime between the 14th and 16th centuries, rice vinegar started to be added to the rice to help speed up the process which took several months. Around this time the rice also started to be consumed with the fish it was used to preserve. Nori (red algae seaweed paper) was added about this period as a way to keep one's fingers from getting sticky, thus creating the first ancestor of modern'makizushi', or rolled sushi.
Sometime in the mid to late 18th century, a restaurant in Edo (modern Tokyo) started serving sushi rice alone with thinly sliced fresh fish pressed into it. This was the start of Edo-Mae sushi, which is also known as 'nigirizushi', or pressed sushi.
Sometime after this, a chef took this one step further and eliminated the sushi rice all together: the birth of sashimi. It is important to note that sashimi specifically refers to thinly sliced raw or mostly raw fish and shellfish.
It is hard to tell when exactly the wasabi and pickled ginger were added, but it is probable they came in with the Edo-Mae sushi, as this was when the focus of sushi became enjoying the taste of the exceedingly fresh fish, and the condiments heighten the experience.
Types of Sushi [ edit ]
Sushi types include makizushi, nigirizushi, oshizushi, and inarizushi.
Makizushi [ edit ]
Makizushi (rolled sushi), or maki for short, is the kind that is most common to North American consumers (see California Rolls) as it is basically sushi layered on top of nori, rolled into a tube, and cut into thick slices. Easy to make and even easier to mass produce, it has found a wide proliferation as a new form of fast food, but still manages to be found in Japanese restaurants that still respect the tradition.
Nigirizushi [ edit ]
Nigirizushi (hand formed sushi), or nigiri for short, is, as stated above, a hand-formed small bed of rice with an ingredient on top (ranging from tuna or salmon to eel or egg). Nigiri sushi that is served without the rice is called sashimi. Gunkanmaki (battleship roll or boat sushi) is a nigirizushi where an oval piece of sushi rice is surrounded by nori and topped with a topping such as fish eggs.
Oshizushi [ edit ]
Oshizushi (pressed sushi) is similar to nigirizushi |
, objective ground of Identity. It means to open up our very terms of Identity to debate and critique. The hypothetical third is an Identity that admits its own strangeness. It acknowledges the other but, instead of affirming itself in the others negation (that would be a concrete third like the idea of “blackness”), it uses and takes the perspective of the other as a lens to reconstruct Identity. Thus the Identity of hypothetical thirds is an identification that keeps intact the difference of the Other. With this hypothetical perspective, boundaries are transparent and translucent instead of veiled and constitutively exclusive.
So, in the case of “reasonableness”, taking the perspective of the hypothetical third means opening up the concept of “reason” to critique and re-examining the very grounds of what counts as reasonable. In contrast to Identity of the Ego-Ideal, this position acknowledges that our Identities (as reasonable people for instance) are always socially constructed, never based on any transcendental truth. It fully admits the death of the Big Other –the gaze (talked about above) that guarantees that our acts have meaning. This perspective puts forth in plain view the previously hidden presuppositions of Identity. It prevents me from claiming that my treatment of the other is justified because of my identity: “I’m too cool for those weak losers over there.” Such a claim relies upon a concrete third (an imagined gaze of Beyoncé or another popular figure looking down at us with approval).
When we shift our perspective and view Identity as an arbitrary, constantly shifting construction, then, we open up the space for an inclusive Identity of difference. We are able to take the forms of multiple identities, and shift our perspective when the situation calls for it. Taking the stance of the hypothetical third, of not directly relating to our identity makes the creation of identities founded upon exclusion impossible. We are no longer rigidly tied down to defending arbitrary distinctions. We no longer need to posit an out-group so we can be the in-group. Instead of seeing other identities as strange we must recognize our own identity as strange. We must reconstruct the very idea of normalcy so that it is not based on exclusion but rather an exclusion of exclusion ; what we should consider weird are things like sexism, racism, and homophobia.
What, then, distinguishes this perspective of hypothetical thirds from Thick’s sarcastic identification with sexism? How do we prevent the Hypothetical Third Identity from falling into sexist cynicism where our hypothetical attitude, our cynical disengagement, is the very condition of possibility for prejudice? The answer can be stated fairly clear: unlike Dean, Thick’s cynicism –his distance from his identity as a “womanizing sexist” facilitates his sexism. That is, his ability to shift between identities allows him to shift into sexist ones and use them more ruthlessly then before; Thick, then, fundamentally Identifies with non-identity and non-seriousness. For Thick everything is permitted. His logic seems to go: “after all if identity is just a fantasy, then what is so bad about taking on the role of a sexist one.” Thick uses his jovial, joking nature as an excuse for sexism; his “open” careless nature is a guise for oppression. In contrast, the perspective of hypothetical thirds uses open-identities to critique exclusion. That is, while for Thick the openness of identity is an excuse to exploit, for Dean, the openness of identity is an obligation, a responsibility to fight for inclusive reconstruction (we have no ego-Ideal giving us an excuse why we shouldn't). Thick still remains caught in a concrete third. The only difference is that Thick’s identity instead of being “fierceness” or “rationality” is non-identity. Thus, Thick while rejecting identity nonetheless maintains its form and, as such, a disavowed belief in the big Other.
Zizek’s reading of Hegelian dialectics provides a further insight into this distinction. Against the textbook reading of Hegel which views the dialectic as a process where an original thesis is negated by its antithesis (only for that negation to be subsumed into a higher synthesis which incorporates truths from each position), the properly Žižekian “synthesis” is rather a “negation of negation” or a sublation ( aufheben ). In this sublation all that happens is a change in perspective where the original problem is seen as its own solution. We can apply this to Identity politics. Identity starts with a negation of an originally posited thesis –i.e. we posit Woman as an Identity in opposition to Man (or Black in opposition to White). These Identities can be written as non-man or non-white. The Hegelian move, crucial to the concept of hypothetical thirds, is to negate this negation, to become non-non-women, non-non-white, non-non-Jew, etc. This simple shift in perspective changes everything. We are no longer tied to the original term. Our new identity is now based on inclusion where all are allowed to participate in identities as well as their construction (no matter our religion we can all be not non-Jewish). We are unified in our difference and in our rejection of exclusion. More precisely, this difference itself is unity. It is not that under the perspective of hypothetical thirds all difference is canceled and we reach some absolute, Utopian ideal of togetherness (this would be the textbook Hegel). Rather, as Frederick Jameson so aptly describes, a society where we come to terms with the arbitrary and false nature of identity is a
utopia of misfits and oddballs, in which the constraints for uniformization and conformity have been removed, and human beings grow wild like plants in a state of nature…no longer fettered by the constraints of a now oppressive sociality, blossom into the neurotics, compulsives, obsessives, paranoids and schizophrenics, whom our society considers sick but who, in a world of true freedom, may make up the flora and fauna of ‘human nature’ itself.
Women, in porn, stare directly into the camera; entire scenarios are created where women are interviewed and asked random personal questions such as, ‘what is your favorite food?’ Objects do not get asked questions; objects do not directly stare back at their viewer; and objects do not dress up to show off their personality. Women, in porn then, are not subject to objectification but to fantasy; they are given a personality to which the viewer can dream about. They are made to fit the male gaze of a “perfect girl”, the cute, the submissive, and so on.This, I think, is a key task for feminism today. Other forms of feminism, although valuable, often generate and are tied to the very sexism and oppression they hope to defeat. The undertaking, then, is not only political but also psychoanalytic: we must confront the falseness of direct Identity and Ego-Ideals. If feminism is to remain a powerful and subversive tool, it must maintain a radical, secular, fidelity to difference as constitutive of Identity.In the Dorchester section of Boston, the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation (CSNDC) has been working for 25 years to, as they put it, “build a better, stronger community in Codman Square and South Dorchester by creating housing and commercial spaces that are safe, sustainable and affordable.” Yet, in a story that echoes a recent Next City feature on gentrification in nearby Somerville, transit improvements have led to increasing fears that longtime residents might soon become priced out of the historic area.
Working at the neighborhood block level as they do, CDCs around the U.S. typically have plenty of anecdotal evidence about gentrification fears, but the CSNDC decided it wanted hard data. So it commissioned a report on changes to Boston’s Codman Square to prod at two questions many communities wrestle with: What should the role of a community development corporation (CDC) be in the face of gentrification? And how do you determine who is the most susceptible to being displaced because of affordability issues?
Prepared by students and faculty in Boston University’s Urban Symposium, the study notes that the demographic and real estate trends seen in the neighborhood could be viewed as the “successful sustainable community work the development corporation has done over the past few years,” but that the same work could “ultimately pose a threat of displacement for low- to moderate-income residents.”
That “sustainable community work” included the addition of new transit stops on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Fairmount-Indigo rail line and the creation of an initiative for the neighborhood to become an Eco-Innovation District. Of course, new amenities often mean new residents and higher rents. To play out what could happen on this course, the Boston University team created a series of GIS maps that point out areas where low-income residents in Codman Square could see themselves pushed out because of rent increases.
The neighborhood has a high percentage of rentership — 70.5 percent of residents are renters. More than 60.5 percent of this subset are spending more than 30 percent of their incomes on housing costs, which makes them cost-burdened by HUD standards.
(Credit: Boston University Urban Symposium)
The smaller maps of Codman Square on the left side display indicators that might contribute to displacement, including the geography of renter concentration, proximity to parks and the location of the new T stops. The maps were then combined and weighed equally to construct an overall susceptibility map (on the right) to see what areas low- and moderate-income might be impacted by current conditions. The areas that are more red are “hotter” or more susceptible, and the areas that are more green are less susceptible.
“The key is to make sure that people are able to stay in place before it reaches that threshold where property values are so high that the people who’ve been living there for decades are priced out,” says Barbara Jacobson, who worked on the report and is now a program manager for the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition.
“We created some best practices for the community development corporation to develop into their work plan,” continues Jacobson. “They are working to implement them, which is really fantastic. It’s just sort of a race against the clock to ensure that they’re done in a timely manner, so that the people who are living there can stay there.”
Recommendations included improving community outreach to the vulnerable elderly and aging residents in the neighborhood, increasing financial literacy and counseling services, and pursuing the regulation of condo conversions. The last is critical as the study found there’s potential for Codman Square to become a target for speculating investors and corporate landlords (something that’s happened in Atlanta). Condominium conversion limits and market-based homeownership programs could help not only mitigate displacement, but also increase homeownership.
“Their primary concern is about ensuring that the pricing structure of homes in that immediate area of the new T stations remain cost effective,” says Jacobson.
Since the completion of the study, CSNDC has continued to hear from locals that there’s been an onslaught of rent increases. Last month they held a public forum in order to engage with impacted residents. Executive Director Gail Latimore told the Dorchester Reporter that the CSNDC is joining forces with other advocacy groups. “We worked hard to get those stations built so we could get where we wanted to go at a fair price,” one of those organizers at the meeting told the Reporter, “not so these vultures can swoop in and trick people out of their homes.”Nigerian and Cameroonian troops killed 22 suspected Boko Haram fighters and arrested three purported commanders of the Islamic militant group during a massive raid Monday along the mountainous border region that separates the neighboring countries. The combined forces also rescued 1,275 captives held in several terrorist hideouts, Nigerian army representative Col. Sani Usman said in an online statement Tuesday.
“During the operation, the troops cleared Nbaga, Bula, Dabube, Ybiri, Greya and Suduwa towns and other adjoining settlements. The towns and settlements were occupied by suspected fleeing Boko Haram terrorists who escaped from villages previously cleared by troops of the Nigerian army,” Usman said. “It is gratifying to note that the operation was a huge success as there was no casualty or injury on the troops.”
The suspected Boko Haram emirs arrested Monday were identified as Lawal Abba, Mallam Gana and Mallam Hisna from the towns of Shatte, Bula Burra and Bulla Jaja, respectively. The hundreds of captives who were freed are being registered and screened before being relocated to an internally displaced persons camp, Usman said.
Boko Haram’s deadly footprint pic.twitter.com/oh2dlRFNYq — ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) April 6, 2016
The Nigerian military conducted the vast operation in conjunction with Cameroonian troops under the umbrella of the Multinational Joint Task Force, whose mandate is to crush Boko Haram’s brutal insurgency. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari last July appointed Maj. Gen. Iliya Abbah as commander of the 8,700-strong joint task force, which encompasses troops provided by Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. The task force has its headquarters in the Chadian capital of N’Djamena.
Buhari has made battling Boko Haram a top priority of his administration. Since taking office last May, he has resupplied soldiers, replaced the Nigerian military’s top brass and moved its command center for the fight from the West African country’s distant capital, Abuja, to the heart of the militant group’s insurgency in Maiduguri in Borno state.
The Nigerian army said last week its troops have rescued thousands of civilian hostages during raids on Boko Haram’s territory in the border regions between Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon since Feb. 26. It also claimed 800 of the militant group’s fighters had surrendered in recent weeks.
The Nigerian military has made repeated claims of recapturing territory, winning skirmishes against Boko Haram and recovering weapons and equipment. Previous statements said dozens of the militant group’s members, including women and children, had surrendered this year and that many appeared emaciated and begged for food. But Boko Haram has continued to devastate local communities with hit-and-run tactics and suicide bombings, raising doubts about the Nigerian military’s claims that the militant group is losing the war.Tom Van Baak has set up an atomic-clock lab at his home in his Bellevue, Washington. *
Photo: Quinn Norton * View Slideshow BELLEVUE, Washington – Tom Van Baak's spare upstairs bedroom looks like a cross between the control center of a remote polar outpost and the inner sanctum of a Victorian mad scientist. In reality, it's a home-built lab dedicated to the study of time.
One wall is stacked with a small museum's worth of old nautical clocks, thin slabs of quartz, vacuum tubes of unknown purpose and a few metronomes. Another wall is dominated by shelves overflowing with metal boxes sporting dials, knobs, flashing LEDs and constantly shifting digital displays. A sealed metal cylinder resting on a paint-splattered stepladder bears the not-quite-reassuring sticker, "Cesium Device. Not Radioactive."
"If you have one clock... you are peaceful and have no worries," says Van Baak, fingering a length of cable connecting two of his machines. "If you have two clocks... you start asking, 'What time is it, really?'"
Van Baak is in a better position to answer that question than most. He's part of a community of about 400 geek hobbyists taking advantage of a glut of surplus precision timekeeping gear to pursue a serious interest in very precise timekeeping. They call themselves Time Nuts, and they spend their spare cycles collecting, repairing, tweaking – and occasionally using – super-precise clocks.
With the end of the Cold War, and with telecommunications technology advancing rapidly, surplus stores and eBay have filled up with discarded precision time equipment once beyond the reach of all but governments. Cesium clocks, rubidium clocks and even the occasional hydrogen maser can be had for less than a decent laptop. A recent search on eBay turned up an HP 5061B cesium standard for sale for $2,000, and you can get a telecom surplus rubidium standard for less than $400. Some of this equipment costs upwards of $50,000 new.
Their access to once-forbidden technology lets the time hackers play in a realm of precision that underpins the modern technological world. A select few, like Van Baak, have started exploring the underpinnings of the universe.
A retired Unix kernel programmer, Van Baak began buying time instruments a decade ago, slowly building what today is probably the best-equipped, individually owned time lab in the world, exceeding the capability of many national labs. His gear lets him perform some impressive experiments. Two years ago, he realized he'd acquired the capability to offer his children a demonstration of one of the effects predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity – a demonstration that Einstein himself couldn't have performed with the equipment of his day.
The theory says time passes slowly for someone near a massive object, as measured relative to someone farther away. On Earth, this effect is so small as to be undetectable to all but the most precise equipment, putting demonstrations beyond the reach of, say, a typical high school science fair. Consequently, "kids grow up thinking relativity is only for really fast speeds or really heavy gravity," says Van Baak.
He wanted his children to see that relativity is proportional. So he loaded the family's blue minivan with portable power supplies, monitoring equipment, and three HP 5071 cesium clocks. Three, because time is always marked relative to other clocks: More clocks mean more accurate time. With his three kids and some camping gear in tow, he drove the winding roads spiraling up Washington's Mt. Rainier and checked the family into a lodge 5,319 feet above sea level.
They hiked the trails, and the kids relaxed with board games and books, while in the imperceptibly lessened gravity, time moved a little bit faster than at home. Van Baak found himself explaining to park rangers more than once why a minivan filled with inscrutable equipment was idling in front of the national park lodge for hours on end. But the effort paid off. When the family returned to the suburbs two days later, the cesium clocks were off by the precise amount relativity predicted. He and his family had lived just a little more life than the neighbors.
"It was the best extra 22 nanoseconds I've ever spent with the kids," Van Baak says.
Existential thrills aside, the Time Nuts dabble in the practical as well. John Ackerman, an attorney with a technology company, offers super-accurate time over the internet to anyone who wants it, courtesy of four of the most accurate NTP (network time protocol) servers in the world.
Located in a pegboard-lined basement in his Dayton, Ohio home, three of Ackerman's servers use external sources: GPS and LORAN-C navigation broadcasts, and the WWVB radio station that broadcasts U.S. standard time from the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder. His fourth machine, though, is the most impressive: It has its own cesium clock. A rack-mounted PC watches the cesium clock's output and uses it to keep the other clocks in line during the microsecond chasms between broadcast pings.
Ackerman fell into the time rabbit hole while practicing his other hobby, ham radio. Precise frequencies are important when trying to get to the right bit of radio spectrum, and from his pursuit of the perfect frequency it was easy to get drawn into clocks. "It led me into buying all sorts of crap from eBay," he admits.
It's a hobby that feeds on itself: A good clock always needs a better clock to set it. "You always have to have a reference frequency," says Ackerman. "If you get the next new good thing... you have to measure it against something even better." It's a source of pride to Ackerman that his four machines keep time within 100 nanoseconds of each other.
That fastidiousness is typical in both the amateur and professional timekeeping communities, where people are drawn first to the idea of finding precision in the physical world. Consistently, they tell stories of an early fascination with looking ever closer at something, trying to understand its exact boundaries. Fundamental to the field of precise time is that it will never be perfect. With every new level of accuracy comes a new frame of reference for error. Time has an intractable precision – you can spend your days always moving closer to the ever-unreachable now.
The time hackers' commitment has earned them the respect of professional horologists, some of whom lurk on the Time Nuts mailing list to offer advice – or even unofficial tech support. One participant, Rick Karlquist, is a celebrity of sorts in the group. Now an electrical engineer for Agilent Labs, in the 1980s Karlquist helped design two of the precision clocks now showing up in the surplus market.
At Agilent's Sunnyvale, California, campus, Karlquist shows off one of his inventions. It's a "hockey puck" – a silver discus on a circuit board the size of a PC card slot. Inside is a quartz-crystal-based oscillator that can keep its accuracy through 100-degree Celsius variations in temperature. Originally designed for Qualcomm CDMA towers, this was the clock that could keep you talking from Barrow, Alaska, to Phoenix, Arizona. Now, it's a popular plaything in the hands of the Time Nuts, who appreciate its legendary indestructibility.
Karlquist's other achievement is the HP 5071 cesium clock – the model Van Baak hauled up the slopes of Mt. Rainier. "The 5071 was indisputably the best commercial clock that's ever been made," Karlquist says. There's consensus on this in the time community. The 5071 is a damn fine clock, and a rare $30,000 find on eBay. At one point, explains Karlquist, it made up 80 percent of the weighting of international atomic time.
On Agilent's campus, though, the 5071 is literally a museum piece – an exhibit in a small museum of Agilent devices, most of them dating from when Agilent was Hewlett Packard's R&D arm. That's why Karlquist feels a duty to the Time Nuts – it's how he keeps his creations alive. "Most of the pro community has moved on," he says. "If I didn't support them, it would be impossible to get them to work.... I can't resist coming in and sounding like an expert," he says, laughing.
People like Karlquist built a backbone of time technology that stretches from obscure government labs to our mobile phones and e-mail servers. For curious enthusiasts, the chance to explore and understand that hidden connection is now wide open, and cheap surplus.
"Precision time is the infrastructure on which most modern technology depends," says Van Baak. Unlock the black boxes of the computers, travel, telecommunications and transportation, he says, and you get clocks.
\—
Part one of a two-part series.
Tomorrow: At a government lab in Colorado, the future of precision-clock research is unfolding. It's no longer just about keeping accurate time.
The Bleeding Edge of Time Gallery: Time Hackers Tinker With Their Atomic Toys How Super-Precise Atomic Clocks Will Change the World in a Decade Gallery: Step Inside America's Time Lab Amateur Time Hackers Play With Atomic Clocks at Home Gallery: Time Hackers Tinker With Their Atomic Toys
Atomic Rulers of the World
Did Quake Speed Earth's Spin?
Anybody Really Know What Time Is?To get through the long, tiring days many swear by a quick disco nap in the middle of the day to boost their energy and keep them focused.
Visit the Faroe Islands to see the world's most spectacular musical stage
If you’re barely keeping your eyes open at work or feeling sleepy trudging the streets mid-shopping spree, you might want to rest your head pretty soon.
If you’re feeling this way and happen to be heading to Spain anytime soon, fear no more as Siesta & Go in Madrid is the first nap bar to open in Spain.
Based on similar bars around the world, including in London, Japan and Dubai, Siesta & Go offers either private or shared rooms to lay your weary head for just €12-14 an hour.
If you can’t make it through the working day a nap bar may be for you (Picture: Getty)
Located in Azca, the heart of the financial district in Madrid, workers can either pre-book or walk in to use one of the 19 available beds.
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If you’re only mildly tired but not ready to get into your jammies and eye mask midday yet, don’t worry.
The centre has a lounge where you can read and relax in comfy armchairs. Nappers are also offered coffee, newspapers, slippers and nightshirts.
For any germaphobes, bedding is single use and professionally cleaned so you don’t have to worry about catching anything.
Snooze without a care in the world (Picture: Getty)
But what if you oversleep? They’ve got it covered – an employee will wake you up at the end of your session.
Siesta & Go are firm believers in being well rested. The company’s website claims that napping can help relieve tension, stimulate creativity and improves performance.
If you’re in Madrid and want to check it out visit Siesta & Go’s website or Facebook page.
We’ll just be sitting here exhausted, waiting for one of these to open in the U.K.
MORE: This nap bar in Dubai is what dreams are made of
MORE: Tired of sleeping: my quest for a good night’s rest
MORE: Here’s why you always feel tired – even if you’re getting enough sleep
Advertisement AdvertisementEU leaders ended 2013 with a show of support for Ukrainian "people," but indicated that they will wait for President Viktor Yanukovych to leave power before trying to revive an EU pact.
EU Council chief Herman Van Rompuy led tributes to the pro-EU protesters, who have camped out in Kiev city centre for the past month.
He said after a summit in Brussels on Friday (20 December) that: "A lot has happened... for instance with Iran, in the Middle East, in central Africa. But the most significant development for Europeans currently is the peaceful popular protest in Ukraine."
European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso noted: "When we see those European flags in the streets of Ukraine in this very cold temperature, we cannot resist to say that they are indeed part of the European family."
A summit communique said the EU is still "ready to sign" an association and free trade pact with Ukraine for the sake of "Ukrainian people."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron repeated the line in their press briefings.
The Lithuanian President and outgoing EU chairman, Dalia Grybauskaite, spelled out what it means.
"The European Union is open to Ukrainian people, but not necessarily the current Ukrainian government - that's the message," she told press.
The message comes after Yanukovych said No to the EU pact shortly before meeting EU leaders in Vilnius last month. He later agreed a bailout with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, but details of the deal are under wraps.
A senior EU source told press on Thursday that EU leaders gave up on Yanukovych already in Vilnius.
The source recalled that after meeting him at the Lithuanian event, Cameron said the Ukrainian leader is "from a different civilisation. He is not a partner for Europe at all."
The EU source described Yanukovych as "deeply criminalised."
The source noted that, according to "intelligence" circulated by "a Nato country," the Putin-Yanukovych deal contains "a personal guarantee of security for Yanukovych's family and his family fortune" no matter what happens in Ukrainian elections in 2015.
The source added that if Yanukovych uses force to disperse protests then EU sanctions are likely to follow.
EU leaders also criticised Russia's interference in EU-Ukraine relations.
The summit communique spoke of "undue external pressure" after Putin threatened to bankrupt Ukraine if it signed the EU accord.
Merkel and Van Rompuy said the EU will sign similar pacts with Georgia and Moldova by August in an accelerated procedure, which is designed to limit the scope for Russian sabotage.
They both noted that Russia is Europe's "strategic partner."
But Van Rompuy promised to tackle the Ukrainian issue in an "open and frank manner" with Putin at an EU-Russia summit in January. Merkel noted: "We have to get out of this either/or logic with Russia. The EU-Russia summit will discuss this."
Putin is used to batting away EU complaints.
But bad feeling on Ukraine and on Russia's recent crackdown on civil liberties threatens to spoil his plans for the winter Olympics in Sochi, on Russia's Black Sea coast, in February.
The German and French Presidents, Grybauskaite and one EU commissioner have said they will not go to the event.
For his part, Putin on Friday freed oligarch-turned-reformer Mikhail Khodorkovksy after 10 years in jail. He also promised to free the Pussy Riot singers and Greenpeace activists.
His Khodorkovsky decree said he did it for "the principles of humanity." But it is widely seen as pre-Olympic PR.
Merkel said it shows "it was important not to forget him [Khodorkovksy] and to bring it up all the time." She added that Sochi is a "window of opportunity" to extract other concessions from Moscow.
Van Rompuy declined to give Putin credit for his amnesties.
"I will not comment on the releases in Russia," he said on Friday, when asked by press.A Boulder County man who killed a kitten that was chewing on his ailing wife’s oxygen tube has pleaded guilty in return for a deferred sentence that requires him to comply with conditions set by a judge.
Charles Kenneth Corwin, 57, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated cruelty to animals.
Boulder District Court Judge D.D. Mallard will set the conditions — based on recommendations from probation officers — when Corwin is sentenced May 15.
If Corwin fulfills the conditions for a period of two years, the case will be dismissed, said Carolyn French, spokeswoman for the Boulder County district attorney’s office.
Corwin told police he bashed the cat’s skull repeatedly against a book case and threw it out the door of his trailer after finding the animal biting the oxygen tube on Dec. 11.
His son, Charles Corwin Jr., became angry after learning that Corwin had killed the cat and pulled a knife on his father, Corwin later told deputies.
Boulder County deputies came to the trailer and arrested Corwin Jr. on suspicion of threatening his father with a knife.
Corwin Jr. bonded out of jail.
Two days later, Corwin Jr. shot himself to death in the bathroom of the trailer.
Deputies questioned Corwin more closely about the cat’s death and arrested him after his son’s suicide.
After the arrest, Emily Busick, who identified herself as Corwin’s daughter, wrote a letter defending him to Channel 7 News.
“Charles did not originally plan to injure the cat, merely remove it from the oxygen tube that was keeping his wife alive,” Busick wrote.
“Think about the punishment he has already endured,” Busick wrote. “Charles had to see his barely 21-year-old son be carted away in a body bag. Not only that, but he was left to clean the bathroom where the death occurred.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com"The problem of timing would be resolved if Kate had a first-born son". Credit:Getty Images
In Australia, the issue is complicated by the federal system. It is most likely that the Federal Parliament does not have unilateral power to change the rules of succession. It has no specific power to do so and as the Queen is also a part of state constitutions and state parliaments, it is likely that any Commonwealth attempt to interfere with state constitutions would be invalid. The most appropriate approach is to use a section of the constitution that permits the states and the Commonwealth to co-operate to enact laws that only the Westminster Parliament could have enacted at the time of Federation. This would entail each state parliament passing a law that requests the Commonwealth to enact the changes to the Australian law of succession.
It is fairly unlikely that any state would have a philosophical objection to making changes that remove discrimination on the basis of sex and religion. The states all have anti-discrimination laws and it has long been incongruous that the sovereign is chosen by discriminatory methods that would otherwise breach Australian laws. However, in the context of current Commonwealth-state relations, it would not be too surprising if at least one state held out,until it squeezed some benefit or promise from the Commonwealth relating to other issues of inter-governmental conflict.
The problem for Britain is that while it can legislate to change the rules of succession in relation to its own throne, it does not want to risk the bifurcation of the throne if some of the realms do not make the same constitutional change. It would not want to risk the throne of the United Kingdom and New Zealand being held by the eldest daughter of William and Kate, while the throne of Canada and Australia was held by her younger brother. Hence its plan has been to introduce legislation to make the change, but provide that it does not come into force until the same change is made in all the other realms. This may take quite a while.
The problem of timing would be resolved if Kate had a first-born son. With three males in direct line of succession, the urgency of sorting out the rule changes is significantly diminished. But what if Kate had twins, with a girl delivered first and then a boy? Although unlikely, this could potentially lead to difficulties. First, as a matter of law, the boy would be legally third in line to the throne, displacing his older sister. Although it was agreed at CHOGM that any laws enacting these changes would apply retrospectively to all heirs born after 2011, the boy would still be third in line to the throne until such a change was legally made. The problem then would be that each of the realms would presumably change their laws at different times, with the daughter progressively upgrading her place in the line of succession as her brother was progressively demoted (unless all realms agreed on a uniform commencement date). For the younger brother, this might prove to be a case of heir today and gone tomorrow.Story highlights Trump said the US murder rate "is the highest it's been in 47 years"
The US murder rate isn't even close to such record highs
Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump continues to decry a record-high murder rate that simply doesn't exist.
The President said Tuesday that the US murder rate "is the highest it's been in 47 years."
"I'd say that in a speech and everybody was surprised because the press doesn't like to tell it like it is," Trump said during a meeting with US sheriffs at the White House. "It wasn't to their advantage to say that. The murder rate is the highest it's been in I guess 45-47 years."
But the reason there's no reporting on a 45- or 47-year high murder rate is because the US murder rate isn't even close to such record highs.
Read MorePalila v. Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources was an ecological court case pertaining to the Palila and the Māmane-Naio ecosystem of Mauna Kea. The case stems from the introduction of goats and sheep onto Hawaiʻi island in the late 18th century, which became feral and damaged the local ecosystem. Before the 1920s elimination program was completed, it was replaced with a game control plan that caused controversy between hunters and conservationists. Claiming that the state of Hawaii was violating the Endangered Species Act, a suit was filed to the Ninth District Court; as a result the state was ordered to eradicate all feral animals on the island within two years. A public hunting program was put in place, and has been largely effective; the Palila has begun to recover, and the case demonstrated federal power to protect endangered species.
Roots [ edit ]
The roots of the case go as far back as the late 18th century, when goats (Capra hircus) and sheep (Ovis aries) were released on the island and became feral. They were highly damaging to the endemic ecosystem (especially Palila (Loxioides bailleui), which became critically endangered), and competed with commercial livestock for resources. A government program for their elimination was put in place in the late 1920s. The numbers were reduced from an estimated 40,000 to 200 in 1950. However, they were not fully eradicated; an increase in leisure time and greater ease of access to the mountains drove an influx of hunters who saw the remaining feral species as game animals. The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources conceded, and in place of the eradication program a sustained-control program was introduced. This was followed by introducing feral mouflon (Ovis aries orientalis) onto the island for hunters.[2]
In addition to mouflon, axis deer (Axis axis) were proposed for introduction. This was met with protests against their introduction by farmers and ranchers, who saw them as a threat to food resources and a vehicle for bovine disease. The hunting industry fought back, and the back-and-forth between the ranching industry and hunters eventually gave way to a rise in public environmental concern; reports were published that showed that there was no environmentally sustainable way the deer could be introduced onto the island, and the issue was finally laid to rest.[2]
With conservationists demanding protection of Mauna Kea's ecosystem, plans were made to fence off 25% of the forests from foreign influence, and leave the remaining 75% under the same regulations. This plan was met by extreme opposition from conservationists, who questioned the effectiveness of such a plan as well as where the money for the fence, an expensive project, would be found. While the land was partitioned as planned, no money was allocated for the building of the fence. During these wranglings, the federal Endangered Species Act was passed. The National Audubon Society and Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit against the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, claiming that they were violating federal laws of conservation.[2]
Hearings [ edit ]
Basis [ edit ]
The arguments of Palila et al. were based on wording in the Endangered Species Act that extended protection to "critical habitats...the loss of which would appreciably decrease the likelihood of the survival and recovery of the listed species." These arguments were centered on the Palila, an endemic species of finch-billed Hawaiian honeycreeper. Because of deforestation, the Palila, which used to range on Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Hualālai, had its range cut to limited areas of Mauna Kea representing just 10% of |
23.02 24.50 25.70 28.5 31 Nigeria 20.63 20.89 20.88 20.89 19.0 22 Pakistan 14.01 14.63 17.80 20.10 19.8 20 Egypt 19.24 17.83 19.83 20.40 16.6 20 Vietnam 10.00 11.00 11.80 12.30 13.4 14 Bangladesh 14.24 13.86 15.10 15.80 13.7 13
Note: The countries mentioned below are the largest 15 recipient countries of remittances only for the year 2013. World Bank data is used for all countries and years.
As a share of GDP, the top recipients of remittances in 2013 were Timor-Leste (16.6%), Tajikistan (42.1%), Kyrgyzstan (31.5%), Nepal (28.8%), Moldova (24.9%), Lesotho (24.4%), Samoa (23.8%), Haiti (21.1%), Armenia (21.0%), The Gambia (19.8%), Liberia (18.5%), Lebanon (17.0%), Honduras (16.9%), El Salvador (16.4%), Kosovo (16.1%), Jamaica (15.0%) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (8.82%, which is 1.540 billion $ for 2017 on 31 December 2017 conversion rate between € and US$).[8][10]
By region [ edit ]
The US has been the leading source of remittances globally in every year since 1983. Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Switzerland have been the next largest senders of remittances since 2007.[8]
Asia [ edit ]
A majority of the remittances have been directed to Asian countries like India (approx. 62.7 billion USD in 2016), China (approx. 61.0 billion USD in 2016), the Philippines (approx. 29.9 billion USD in 2016), Pakistan (19.8 billion USD in 2016) and more.[11]
Most of the remittances happen by the conventional channel of agents, like Western Union, Ria Money Transfer, MoneyGram, UAE Exchange, and similar. However, with the increasing relevance and reach of the Internet, online and mobile phone money transfers have grown significantly.[12]
India [ edit ]
Remittances to India are money transfers from non-resident Indians (NRIs) employed outside the country to family, friends or relatives residing in India. India is the world's leading receiver of remittances, claiming more than 12% of the world's remittances in 2015. Remittances to India stood at US$80 billion in 2018, accounting for over 2.8% of the country's GDP.
Jordan [ edit ]
The flow of remittances to Jordan experienced rapid growth during the 1970s and 1980s when Jordan started exporting skilled labour to the Persian Gulf. These remittances represent an important source of funding for many developing countries, including Jordan.[13] According to the World Bank data on remittances, with about 3 billion USD in 2010 Jordan ranked at 10th place among all developing countries. Jordan ranked among the top 20 recipients of remittances for the preceding decade. In addition, the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) statistics in 2010 indicate that Jordan was the third biggest recipient of remittances among Arab countries after Egypt and Lebanon. The host countries that have absorbed most of the Jordanian expatriates are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where the available data indicate that about 90% of Jordanian migrants are working in the Persian Gulf.[14]
Philippines [ edit ]
According to a World Bank Study,[15] the Philippines is the second largest recipient for remittances in Asia. It was estimated in 1994 that migrants sent over US$2.6 billion back to the Philippines through formal banking systems. With the addition of money sent through private finance companies and return migrants, the 1994 total was closer to US$6 billion annually.[16]
The total is estimated to have grown by 7.8 per cent annually to reach US$21.3 billion in 2010. Remittances are a reliable source of revenue for the Philippines, accounting for 8.9 per cent of the country's GDP.[17]
The Estrada administration in 2000 declared it "The Year of Overseas Filipino Worker in the Recognition of the Determination and Supreme Self-Sacrifice of Overseas Filipino Workers." This declaration connects monetary remittances of overseas workers as the top foreign-exchange earnings in the Philippines.[16]
Latin America and the Caribbean [ edit ]
In Latin America and the Caribbean, remittances play an important role in the economy of the region, totaling over 66.5 billion USD in 2007, with about 75% originating in the United States. This total represents more than the sum of Foreign direct investment and official development aid combined. In seven Latin American and Caribbean countries, remittances even account for more than 10% of GDP and exceed the dollar flows of the largest export product in almost every country in the region.[18]
Percentages ranged from 2% in Mexico, to 18% in El Salvador, 21% in Honduras, and up to 30% in Haiti.[19] The Inter American Development Bank's Multilateral Investment Fund (IDB-MIF) has been the leading agency on regional remittance research.[18]
Mexico received remittance inflows of almost US$24 billion in 2007, 95% of which originated in the US.
North America [ edit ]
United States [ edit ]
A 2004 study found that over 60% of the 16.5 million Latin American-born adults who resided in the United States at the time of the survey regularly sent money home. The remittances sent by these 10 million immigrants were transmitted via more than 100 million individual transactions per year and amounted to an estimated $30 billion during 2004. Each transaction averaged about $150–$250, and, because these migrants tended to send smaller amounts more frequently than others, their remittances had a higher percentage of costs due to transfer fees.[20]
Migrants sent approximately 10% of their household incomes; these remittances made up a corresponding 50–80% of the household incomes for the recipients. Significant amounts of remittances were sent from 37 U.S. states, but six states were identified as the "traditional sending" states: New York (which led the group with 81% of its immigrants making regular remittances), California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, and New Jersey. The high growth rate of remittances to Mexico (not the total amount) is unlikely to continue. In fact, according to the Mexican central bank, remittances grew just 0.6 during the first six months of 2007, as compared to 23% during the same period in 2006. Experts attribute the slowdown to a contraction in the U.S. construction industry, tighter border controls, and a crackdown in the U.S. on illegal immigration.[15]
Remittance culture in the United States has contributed to the formation of "micro-geographies", tightly knit networks that integrate U.S. communities with communities throughout Latin America, such as migrants from Oaxaca, Mexico, who have settled in Venice Beach, California. Oaxacans not only send money back to their communities, but they also travel back and forth extensively.[15]
As of recently, remittances from the United States to Latin America have been on the decline. While there were USD 69.2 billion worth of remittances sent in 2008, that figure has fallen to $58.9 billion for 2011. This trend is a result of many factors including the global recession, more economic opportunity in Latin American countries, and rising fees charged by coyotes to smuggle immigrants across the border.[21]
The pattern of migration has changed from a circular flow, in which immigrants work in the United States for a few years before returning to their families in their home countries, to a one-way stream whereby migrants find themselves stuck in the United States. As a result, the new wave of migrants are both less likely to leave and more likely to stay in the United States for longer periods of time. Overall, this trend has contributed to falling levels of remittances sent to Latin American countries from the United States.[21]
Africa [ edit ]
Remittances to Africa play an important role to national economies. However, little data exists as many rely on informal channels to send money home. Immigrants from Africa today number approximately 20 to 30 million adults, who send around $40 billion USD annually to their families and local communities back home. For the region as a whole, this represents 50 percent more than net official development assistance (ODA) from all sources, and, for most countries, the amount also exceeds foreign direct investment (FDI). In several fragile states, remittances are estimated to exceed 50 percent of GDP.[22]
Most African countries restrict the payment of remittances to banks, which in turn, typically enter into exclusive arrangements with large money transfer companies, like Western Union or Money Gram, to operate on their behalf. This results in limited competition and limited access for consumers, which allows these Money Transfer Operators (MTOs) to charge the highest fees for remittances in the world.[23] However, there are a number of new players aiming to disrupt this established MTO model, such as Xoom and Willstream, which leverage increasing mobile phone penetration in the region and provide different rate structures to Diaspora customers.[24][25]
According to a World Bank study,[15] Nigeria is by far the top remittance recipient in Africa, accounting for $10 billion in 2010, a slight increase over the previous year ($9.6 billion). Other top recipients include Sudan ($3.2 billion), Kenya ($1.8 billion), Senegal ($1.2 billion), South Africa ($1.0 billion), Uganda ($0.8 billion), Lesotho ($0.5 billion), Ethiopia ($387 million), Mali ($385 million), and Togo ($302 million). As a share of Gross Domestic Product, the top recipients in 2009 were: Lesotho (25%), Togo (10%), Cape Verde (9%), Guinea-Bissau (9%), Senegal (9%), Gambia (8%), Liberia (6%), Sudan (6%), Nigeria (6%), and Kenya (5%).[26]
Nigeria [ edit ]
A major source of foreign-exchange earnings for Nigeria are remittances sent home by Nigerians living abroad.[27] In 2014, 17.5 million Nigerians lived in foreign countries, with the UK and the USA having more than 2 million Nigerians each.[27]
According to the International Organization for Migration, Nigeria witnessed a dramatic increase in remittances sent home from overseas Nigerians, going from USD 2.3 billion in 2004 to 17.9 billion in 2007, representing 6.7% of GDP. In 2016, remittances reached a new record of $35 billion.[28] The United States accounts for the largest portion of official remittances, followed by the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Spain and France. On the African continent, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Libya and South Africa are important source countries of remittance flows to Nigeria, while China is the biggest remittance-sending country in Asia.
An August 2016 Nigerian Central Bank (NCB) decision to suspend the operations of all MTOs in the country, except those of Western Union, MoneyGram and Rio,[29] was met with a strong backlash.[30] It was argued that the decision was not appropriately justified, while also standing in contrast to the NCB’s previous move to ban all exclusivity agreements with Western Union.[31] The decision was considered to disproportionally strengthen the dominant position of Western Union, MoneyGram and Rio.[32] Under pressure, however, the Central Bank reversed the decision and granted new licenses to a number of competing MTOs.[33]
Somalia [ edit ]
Somali expatriates often send remittances to their relatives in Greater Somalia through Dahabshiil and other Somali-owned money transfer companies. In order to ensure that these funds go to their intended recipients rather than Al-Shabaab and other militant groups, the governments of the United States, Australia, and a number of other Western countries tightened their banking requirements or stopped processing altogether the remittances.[34][35] To address the concerns, the United States Congress passed the Money Remittances Improvement Act of 2014.[34]
In April 2015, the Federal Cabinet of Somalia also officially launched the Special Task Force on Remittances (STFR). The multi-agency initiative is mandated with facilitating the Federal Government of Somalia's new national policy pertaining to the money transfer industry. Its main priority is centered on establishing a comprehensive strategy and a consultative implementation plan for the formalization of the local financial sector. Additionally, the STFR is tasked with helping to foster a business environment and financial infrastructure conducive to growth. It is also empowered to coordinate and speed up the endorsement of financial governance instruments and transparency associated legislation, such as the laws on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Financing of Terrorism (CFT). In accordance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)'s recommendations, the STFR is in turn slated to oversee the Somali federal government's campaign to ratify various international treaties. The Task Forces' membership is scheduled to be announced shortly, and will be drawn from government institutions, the remittance industry, banks and other key private sector stakeholders.[36]
History [ edit ]
Overview [ edit ]
Remittances are not a new phenomenon in the world, being a normal concomitant to migration which has always been a part of human history. Several European countries, for example Spain, Italy and Ireland were heavily dependent on remittances received from their emigrants during the 19th and 20th centuries. In the case of Spain, remittances amounted to the 21% of all of its current account income in 1946.[37] All of those countries created policies on remittances developed after significant research efforts in the field. For instance, Italy was the first country in the world to enact a law to protect remittances in 1901[38] while Spain was the first country to sign an international treaty (with Argentina in 1960) to lower the cost of the remittances received.[citation needed]
Since 2000, remittances have increased sharply worldwide, having almost tripled to $529 billion in 2012. In 2012, migrants from India and China alone sent more than $130 billion to their home countries.[39]
In 2004 the G8 met at the Sea Island Summit and decided to take action to lower the costs for migrant workers who send money back to their friends and families in their country of origin. In light of this, various G8 government developmental organizations, such as the UK government's Department for International Development (DFID) and USAID began to look into ways in which the cost of remitting money could be lowered.
In September 2008, the World Bank established the first international database of remittance prices. The Remittance Prices Worldwide Database[40] provides data on sending and receiving remittances for over 200 "country corridors" worldwide. The "corridors" examined include remittance flows from 32 major sending countries to 89 receiving countries, which account for more than 60% of total remittances to developing countries.[41] The resulting publication of the Remittance Prices Worldwide Database serves four major purposes: benchmarking improvements, allowing comparisons across countries, supporting consumers’ choices, and putting pressure on service providers to improve their services.[41]
At the July 2009 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, G8 heads of government and states endorsed the objective of reducing the cost of remittance services by five percentage points in five years. To drive down costs, the World Bank has begun certifying regional and national databases that use a consistent methodology to compare the cost of sending remittances.[42]
At the G20 2011 Summit in Cannes, Bill Gates stated that, "If the transaction costs on remittances worldwide were cut from where they are today at around 10% to an average of 5%…it would unlock $15bn a year in poor countries."[43] A number of low-cost online services such as Azimo have emerged with the objective of lowering the cost of money transfers to developing and emerging economies.
Dynamics [ edit ]
Emergencies [ edit ]
During disasters or emergencies, remittances can be a vital source of income for people whose other forms of livelihood may have been destroyed by conflict or natural disaster. According to the Overseas Development Institute, this is being increasingly recognized as important by aid actors who are considering better ways of supporting people in emergency responses.[44] Refugees and other displaced populations also often remit to family members left behind in conflict areas.[45]
Potential security concerns [ edit ]
The recent internationally coordinated effort to stifle possible sources of money laundering and/or terrorist financing has increased the cost of sending remittances, directly increasing costs to the companies facilitating the sending, and indirectly increasing the costs to the person remitting. As in some corridors a sizable amount of remittances is sent through informal channels (family connections, traveling friends, local money lenders, etc.). According to the World Bank,[46] some countries do not report remittances data.
Moreover, when data is available, the methodologies used by countries for remittance data compilation are not publicly available. A 2010 world survey of central banks found significant differences in the quality of remittance data collection across countries: some central banks only used remittances data reported from commercial banks, neglecting to account for remittance flows via money transfer operators and post offices.[47]
Remittances can be difficult to track and potentially sensitive to money laundering (AML) and terror financing (CTF) concerns. Since 9/11 many governments and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) have taken steps to address informal value transfer systems. This is done through nations' Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs). The principle legislative initiatives in this area are the USA PATRIOT Act, Title III in the United States and, in the EU, through a series of EU Money Laundering Directives. Though no serious terror risk should be associated with migrants sending money to their families, misuse of the financial system remains a serious government concern.
Economic benefits for developing countries [ edit ]
The extent to which remittances produce benefits for developing countries is argued.[48]
World Bank economists contend that remittance receivers' higher propensity to own a bank account means that remittances can promote access to financial services for the sender and recipient, claimed to be an essential aspect of leveraging remittances to promote economic development.[15] Meanwhile, critical migration scholars have expressed concern about the ability of remittances to address the structural causes of economic underdevelopment[49][50] and see an increasing policy emphasis on finance as symptomatic of a paradigmatic shift towards a'self-help development' that burdens the poor.[51]
Remittances are generally thought to be counter-cyclical. The stability of remittance flows amidst financial crises and economic downturns make them a reliable source of foreign exchange earnings for developing countries.[15] As migrant remittances are sent cumulatively over the years and not only by new migrants, remittances are able to be persistent over time. This is particularly true of remittances sent by circular migrants, migrant workers who move back and forth between their home and host countries in a temporary and repetitive manner. At the state level, countries with diversified migration destinations are likely to have more sustainable remittance flows.[15]
From a macroeconomic perspective, there is no conclusive relationship between remittances and GDP growth.[52] While remittances can boost aggregate demand and thereby spur economic activity, other research indicates that remittances may also have adverse macroeconomic impacts by increasing income inequality and reducing labour supply among recipient countries.[53]
The World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements have developed international standards for remittance services.[54]
See also [ edit ]WASHINGTON–No one, not even the eventual candidate, knew it at the time. His attendance at the rally was not even noted in his hometown newspaper. But Barack Obama built the foundation for his win over Hillary Clinton on a blustery morning in Chicago on Oct. 2, 2002, and his words that day could also provide the foundation for his victory over John McCain this Nov. 4.
"I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences,'' the young Illinois state senator said. "I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. "I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.''
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A week after the speech, Clinton voted to authorize the war and now Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is facing a Republican adversary who is staking much of his campaign on a promise that America will prevail in Iraq and who even tossed out an ill-advised thought that the U.S. could be there for 100 years. With one speech that now looks prescient, Obama provided the clearest distinction between him and Clinton while parrying arguments that he lacked experience by pointing to the Iraq fiasco as the product of more experienced Washington insiders. In essence, he made the argument of judgment over experience, even as former president Bill Clinton once dismissed Obama's Iraq narrative as "the biggest fairy tale I have ever seen.'' The Illinois senator has promised to remove U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. Obama will win in November because the grueling struggle against Hillary Clinton launches him into the presidential election battle-tested, confirming his self-analysis: "I may be skinny, but I'm tough.'' He has proved he can meet a crisis – most notably the comments by his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright – and deal with it forcefully.
He will also win by continuing to sell himself as the candidate of change, a decision his campaign team decided early was the message to take to a nation that is weary after years of George W. Bush. He will go to an electorate that believes the war was badly mismanaged, was "sold'' to them on false pretences and continues to tarnish America's reputation abroad.
Article Continued Below
It is a nation that is paying record high gas prices, is watching their home values plummet – if they were able to keep their homes – and feels it is falling behind. He will be an embodiment of that change, a young African-American who will be 47 in August, running against a man who turns 72 that same month and seeks to be the oldest president ever elected. Already, stark contrasts were drawn when the two men spoke back-to-back on national television Tuesday evening; McCain, his delivery wooden and forced before a small gathering in Louisiana, Obama eloquent and inspiring before 17,000 inside a Minnesota arena, as 15,000 more listened outside. Obama advisers look forward to the optics of the two side-by-side on a debate stage where the Democrats' new era of politics will be on display without a word being spoken. He enters the race with the gap between those who identify themselves as Democrats versus those who declare themselves Republicans at an all-time high. He is running against a Republican brand so badly damaged that it's toxic, but also against a nominee with a much higher approval rating than the party he represents. So Obama will continually tell voters McCain is running for Bush's third term. "It's not change when John McCain decided to stand with George Bush 95 per cent, as he did in the Senate last year,'' Obama said this week. "And it's not change when he promises to continue a policy in Iraq that asks everything of our brave men and women in uniform and nothing of Iraqi politicians. There are many words to describe John McCain's attempt to pass off his embrace of George Bush's policies as bipartisan and new. But change is not one of them.'' Obama will also win because he'll convince Americans a new style of international diplomacy is needed, what he calls "tough, direct diplomacy, where the president of the United States isn't afraid to let any petty dictator know where America stands and what we stand for.'' More than any factor, however, the Obama victory in November will be a product of an American electorate that knows it can make history by electing a black man, a victory that will transcend politics, become a seminal moment in the history of race relations in this country and change the way the rest of the world looks at the United States.
Read more about:Homeland Security officials sounded a major alarm Wednesday about the world’s airlines, revealing a “web of threats” they said prove terrorists remain determined to attack aircraft flying into the U.S. — and announcing a new round of increased screening for inbound passengers.
Secretary John F. Kelly decided against expanding the laptop ban, which applies to 10 foreign airports. He instead argued that enhanced screening worldwide can improve safety without resorting to the painful step of making passengers forgo their large electronics while sitting in the cabin.
He said there will be more bomb-sniffing dogs and tighter electronics screening, as well as other measures passengers won’t necessarily see.
Airlines that comply with the new secret directives will be allowed to fly into the U.S. with no restrictions, officials said, but those that fail to comply with the directives could have laptops and other large devices banned from flights or even lose their flight privileges into the U.S.
“Inaction is not an option,” Mr. Kelly said at the Center for a New American Security, where he declared the new steps as just a “starting point.”
Officials briefing reporters refused to say exactly what the enhanced methods would include or whether they would delay passengers. The department said that depends on how carriers and foreign airports implement the procedures, which appears aimed at trying to prevent terrorists from smuggling bombs hidden inside laptops on board a plane.
Mr. Kelly said the goals are to spot potential threats in the equipment passengers bring onto planes, to identify suspicious travelers and to sniff out “insider threats.”
Homeland Security officials say part of the web of threats they have detected recently involves terrorists hoping to recruit airport and airline “insiders” who would be in positions to cause serious damage.
For months, Mr. Kelly had been warning he would expand the ban that has been in place since March for flights to the U.S. from 10 foreign airports, all serving predominantly Muslim nations in the Middle East.
Airlines and European leaders vehemently fought an expansion of the ban on laptops, which applies to any electronic larger than a smartphone.
Wednesday’s policy appears to be an attempt to compromise, though department officials insisted they have not backed down but rather found a solution that could work for all sides.
Briefing reporters ahead of Mr. Kelly’s announcement, senior Homeland Security officials said the department for years had been playing catch-up to threats, including the underwear bomber, the danger from liquids and the potential of a laptop explosive.
Rather than banning a specific items, the officials said, their approach should step up the overall security environment.
The 10 airports where the laptop ban is in place can earn their way off the list if airlines there agree to the stricter screening, officials said.
Airlines prefer a more focused approach based on risk assessments at each airport instead of a worldwide set of procedures. But Homeland Security officials said they wanted to set an international standard.
“We cannot play international whack-a-mole with each new threat,” Mr. Kelly said. “Instead, we must put in place new measures across the board to keep the traveling public safe and make it harder for terrorists to succeed.”
There are 280 international airports in 105 countries that have direct flights to the U.S. They average roughly 2,000 flights a day, totaling about 325,000 passengers.
The travel industry seemed resigned to the new procedures and praised the Trump administration for talking through the issues with stakeholders.
“We cannot push our travel system to the limit or risk the unintended consequences of too heavy a burden on airports, airlines and travelers. We must ensure security at all costs, but our government also has an imperative to keep trade and commerce flowing,” said Jonathan Grella, an executive vice president at the U.S. Travel Association.
He also urged the Trump administration to issue a welcoming message to international travelers along with the new security procedures.
The aviation system has been a target since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. In the years since, a number of plots have been thwarted, including those of Richard Reid, who attempted to detonate explosives in his shoes, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who had plastic explosives in his underwear but botched the ignition attempt. Also averted was a 2006 plot in Britain to try to use liquids to make an explosive.
Mr. Kelly said terrorists still see an attack on commercial aviation as “the greatest takedown” and are searching for weak links to exploit.
The threat of explosives in large electronics came from intelligence gathered by Israel, which reportedly hacked into an Islamic State bomb-making cell and discovered the plot.
Flights within the U.S. won’t be affected because American airports already have enhanced measures, Homeland Security officials said.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Rapini, commonly marketed in the United States as broccoli raab or broccoli rabe, is a green cruciferous vegetable. The edible parts are the leaves, buds, and stems. The buds somewhat resemble broccoli, but do not form a large head. Rapini is known for its slightly bitter taste, and is particularly associated with Italian (as 'cime di rapa' or 'friarielli'), Galician, and Portuguese (as 'grelos') cuisines. Within the Italian tradition, the plant is associated especially with southern Italian cuisines such as those of Naples, Campania, and Apulia. Rapini Species Brassica rapa Cultivar group Ruvo group Contents
Classification Edit
The plant is a member of the tribe Brassiceae of the Brassicaceae (mustard family). Rapini is classified scientifically as Brassica rapa subspecies rapa,[1] in the same subspecies as the turnip, but has also been treated as Brassica rapa ruvo, Brassica rapa rapifera, Brassica ruvo, and Brassica campestris ruvo.
Description Edit
The young leaves of these plants as used in cooking are either the same as or the South European equivalent of turnip tops or turnip greens. Rapini has many spiked leaves that surround clusters of green buds that resemble small heads of broccoli. Small, edible yellow flowers may be blooming among the buds. The flavor of rapini has been described as nutty, bitter, and pungent.[2] The flavour is also reminiscent of mustard greens. Rapini is a source of vitamins A, C, and K, as well as potassium, calcium, and iron.[3] The cultivated vegetable probably descends from a wild herb related to the turnip that grew either in China or the Mediterranean region. Rapini is now grown throughout the world, and is available all year long with a peak season of fall to spring.
Culinary use Edit
See also Edit
References Edit
Further reading EditSince 2004, viewers have watched 15 seasons of success stories on "The Biggest Loser" -- but what happened after the cameras stopped rolling? "Oprah: Where Are They Now?" followed up with some of the early contestants to see how their lives have changed since leaving the ranch.
During season 4, former pageant girl Julie Hadden came in second place by dropping 97 pounds. In the years since then, Julie battled infertility but finally got pregnant at age 40. Now she's a happy stay-at-home mother of three, as well as an author and public speaker.
"I have always been known for my greatest weakness, which is being overweight," Hadden says. "But I believe that we are all given trials and circumstances not just for us but so we can teach other people, and that is what I plan on doing in my future."
In season 2, Matt Hoover took home "The Biggest Loser" title after dropping 157 pounds. He fell in love with fellow contestant Suzy Preston, who lost 95 pounds. The couple married less than a year later. Oprah first caught up with Suzy in 2008 after she gave birth to their second child. "I hadn't eaten anything good in two years," she said. "And so once the doctor said, 'You know, you really shouldn't be on such a restrictive diet,' I said, 'Okay. No problem.'"
Today, Matt and Suzy say they no longer live by a number on a scale. They've regained some of the weight back, but say they keep active with their two boys.
Season five contestant Mark Kruger, a father of two who originally weighed 285, says he's been able to maintain the nearly 100 pounds he lost on the show. He tells Oprah he's doing better than ever by avoiding processed foods and working out six days a week.
For more from "Oprah: Where Are They Now?", visit wherearetheynow.buzz.Table Of Contents
What is Garbage Collection
Garbage collection in Java is the processes of freeing the dynamic memory used by objects that are no longer being used by an application. In languages such as or C or C++, the developer is often responsible for managing dynamic memory (using malloc and free or new and delete). However, in Java, this task is left up to something known as the garbage collector. A garbage collector automatically frees unused memory, freeing the developer from much of this thankless memory juggling.
The most basic garbage collection algorithm works by starting at the root objects (ie objects on the thread stack, static objects, etc) that are live (live meaning currently in use) – and then iterating down over every reachable object. Any object that cannot be reached in this manner is garbage and can be collected. The application is paused while this process goes on. This is referred to as mark and sweep – first you mark the objects that are live, then you sweep those that are not. The time needed to do this is obviously proportional to the number of live objects (which can be quite a large number in modern Java applications), and so more efficient collection schemes have been devised.
One such scheme comes from the natural fact that you can divide up objects based on how long they live. Most applications create a lot of very short lived objects, and fewer objects that are around for a long time (I’ve seen estimates that for the average application, 85-98% of allocated objects are short lived). You can take advantage of this fact when doing collections. In Java, objects are allocated from a region of memory known as the heap. The Java heap is generally divided up into a few spaces (its usually the same across implementations, but there is the odd exception or two). The major spaces are the young generation, the tenured generation (also called the old generation), and the permanent generation. The young generation is then further sub divided into the eden space and two survivor spaces. The permanent generation is generally for objects that are around for the life of the application (interned Strings, class objects, etc) and doesn’t usually play much of a role in garbage collection. The permanent generation size is not part of the heap region defined with -Xms and -Xmx. Though a very unusual need, it is still worth noting that the permanent generation can actually be collected if needed using:
-XX:+CMSPermGenSweepingEnabled
When objects are first created, they are allocated within the eden space. When the eden space becomes full, the still live objects within it are copied into one of the survivor spaces (or if they don’t fit, into the tenured space). One survivor space is always left empty, and on each young generation collection (a minor collection), the live objects from the eden space and the non empty survivor space are copied into the empty survivor space. This leaves a newly emptied survivor space for the next round, as any still live objects in the formerly full survivor space will be copied into the tenured space.
As you can see, rather then running over every object for every collection now, you can collect the young generations more often, and the tenured generation (long lived objects), much less often. You can also optimize your collection for the characteristics of the space – ie usually, almost all of the objects in the young space will be garbage. In general, an object will have to survive a couple minor collections to make it to the tenured space (first making it into a survivor space and then the tenured space). A copying collector identifies garbage by copying live objects from one space to another – anything left over is by definition garbage. The Sun JDK uses copying collectors for the young space and mark and sweep type collectors for the tenured space.
Tuning Garbage Collection
Tuning for garbage collection means adjusting the sizes of the various spaces mentioned in the previous section, as well as the algorithms used to collect them. You can do this with various JVM command line options.
The amount of RAM available for the various spaces is dependent upon the size of the heap that the JVM has allocated. Defaults are chosen based on the hardware detected, but you can usually do better by specifying a good Xms, Xmx yourself. On a server machine, it can be a good idea to pin those two settings together so that the JVM does not waste any time resizing itself. You generally do not want to size the heap much larger than is needed – this can needlessly increase the cost of full garbage collections, and take RAM from other important activities, such as file system caching.
-Xms Initial Heap Size -Xmx Maximum Heap Size
A Note About JVM Cmd Line Options
Boolean options – On : -XX:+<option> Off : -XX:-<option>.
: :. Numeric options: -XX:<option>=<number>. Numbers can include ‘m’ or ‘M’ for megabytes, ‘k’ or ‘K’ for kilobytes, and ‘g’ or ‘G’ for gigabytes (1M= 1048576). In the case of Xms and Xmx, only one X is used and no colon.
. Numbers can include ‘m’ or ‘M’ for megabytes, ‘k’ or ‘K’ for kilobytes, and ‘g’ or ‘G’ for gigabytes (1M= 1048576). In the case of Xms and Xmx, only one X is used and no colon. String options: -XX:<option>=<string>
Sizing the individual spaces
You usually want to grant plenty of memory to the young generation – especially |
Although the research is still in its early stages, the researchers believe that the successful animal testing is proof that the 3D printed myocardial patch offers some hope of a new form of heart disease treatment. By 3D printing the stem cells into precise arrangements, medical professionals would be able to fabricate patches tailored to an individual patient’s heart.
“The human heart has been regarded as an organ that cannot be restored once damaged, but the patch opens up the possibility of regenerative therapy for recovery from heart attacks,” the researchers explained. “Using the patch, we will work on a next-generation stem cell therapy platform, making use of tissue engineering techniques such as 3D cell printing and the preparation of stem cell lines that can be clinically applied.”
The results of the 3D bioprinting study have been published in the journal Biomaterials.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
Maybe you also like:In a collaboration with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute) has started the world's first major research program on autonomous floating vessels in metropolitan areas. Roboat will be conducted by researchers from MIT, Delft University of Technology (TUD) and Wageningen University and Research (WUR). The five-year program has a budget of €25 million and is set in Amsterdam.
While the first prototypes of self-driving cars are taking to the road, Amsterdam ushers in a new chapter in the international push for autonomous vehicles. Roboat is the world's first large-scale research that explores and tests the rich set of possibilities for autonomous systems on water. "Imagine a fleet of autonomous boats for the transportation of goods and people," says Carlo Ratti, Professor at MIT and principal investigator in the Roboat-program, "but also think of dynamic and temporary floating infrastructure like on-demand bridges and stages, that can be assembled or disassembled in a matter of hours."
"Roboat offers enormous possibilities," says Professor Arjan van Timmeren, AMS Institute's Scientific Director, "as we'll also be exploring environmental sensing. We could for instance do further research on underwater robots that can detect diseases at an early stage or use Roboats to rid the canals from floating waste and find a more efficient way to handle the 12,000 bicycles that end up in the city's canals each year."
The research, with a €20 million MIT contribution, is set in Amsterdam but aims to become a reference study for many urban areas around the globe. "It is a fantastic opportunity for Amsterdam," says the city's alderman and vice mayor Kajsa Ollongren. "To have the world's most prominent scientists work on solutions with autonomous boats in this way is unprecedented, and most fitting for a city where water and technology have been linked for ages."
The first prototypes of Roboat will be visible in the waters of Amsterdam in 2017.
Roboat is a research program by AMS Institute. Working on the project is a consortium of researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Delft University of Technology and Wageningen University and Research. Waternet, City of Amsterdam and City of Boston are supportive of the program.
Source and top image: AMS InstituteWhen blogger Justin Watt looked at his blog during a hotel stay, he noticed a thin grey bar at the top of the page that should not be there. Watt says that he first thought was that it was due to a CSS problem related to a browser update; however, on examining the source code, it was soon apparent that there was more to it.
The source code on the server had not been changed, but when viewed in his browser, there was additional CSS information after the <head> tag and additional JavaScript being injected after the <body> tag. And it wasn't just his blog that was affected – every web site he loaded contained the additional snippet of JavaScript.
Somewhere between the internet and his computer, web sites were being modified. The injected JavaScript appeared to be there to serve more advertising, although Watt notes that he was not seeing any additional advertisments. There were also side effects: the injected code caused embedded YouTube videos in Google Reader to stop working and instead show up as "empty black squares".
Further research revealed that the hotel, the Courtyard Marriott in New York's Times Square, was using an RG Nets hotspot gateway. RG Nets calls its product a Revenue eXtraction Gateway (RXG) and promises users extra revenue by displaying extra ads (See also RG Nets' own advertisement). Following Watt's post, Marriott said that it was not aware of, nor did it approve of the ad-service's practices, and that it has since been disabled.
The story offers one more good reason for always exercising caution when using a public network and underlines the benefits of using a VPN wherever possible. This helps to protect against both unwelcome eavesdropping and modification of the type described – assuming that it's possible to set up a VPN through this kind of gateway.
(crve)CLOSE Knoxville residents want to know when action will be taken on a shuttered VA hospital, which has sat vacant for 13 years. Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register
Buy Photo Buildings at the shuttered Veterans Affairs hospital in Knoxville, Iowa, have fallen into disrepair. (Photo: Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register)Buy Photo
KNOXVILLE, Ia. – This town is tired of waiting for the federal government to decide what to do with its old Veterans Affairs hospital, a sprawling facility that has deteriorated since being put in mothballs a decade ago.
“It’s sad to look at that campus and know what it was, and how great it was in this community,” said Richard Biddle, an Army veteran and retired VA employee who lives next door to the old hospital. “It’s sickening.”
The 151-acre grounds have 39 buildings, some dating to 1905. Many of the brick structures still look stately on the outside, even if their entrances are overgrown with weeds and bushes. Inside is a different story, Biddle has been told by friends who still work for the VA.
“They say it’s really bad," he said. "Water damage everywhere. The floors are buckled, ceilings are falling in everywhere.”
More: This Iowa government building used to be called the 'boozitorium'
VA administrators are not letting the public, including journalists, into the buildings. But a federal official acknowledged the truth about the structures during a town-hall meeting last month.
“Most of them are in pretty rough condition,” the official, Dana Hatfield of the General Services Administration, told about 100 Knoxville residents who gathered in the high school auditorium.
The hospital’s red brick buildings and broad, manicured lawns were a centerpiece of Knoxville life for generations. At one time, the campus covered more than 300 acres. It had its own fire department, greenhouse, bowling alley, water tower and golf course.
“It was like its own little city,” Knoxville Mayor Brian Hatch said.
The hospital used to house hundreds of veterans, many of whom were psychiatric patients who stayed there for months or even years. The VA also provided hundreds of solid government jobs. The patient load peaked after World War II, then dwindled as modern psychiatric care shifted away from using such institutions. The VA decided in 2004 to shutter the Knoxville campus and move most of its services to the agency’s Des Moines hospital. Most of that shift was accomplished within a few years.
Buy Photo Richard Biddle, an Army veteran and retired VA employee, stands for a portrait in his backyard next door to the old Veterans Affairs hospital in Knoxville, Iowa, on Friday, Oct. 13, 2017. (Photo: Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register)
Biddle said he and his neighbors worry about what might happen next.
“Who’s going to buy it? Are they going to tear it down? Are they going to put a hog processing plant in there? I think that we should have some input and be informed,” he said at the town-hall meeting.
Parade of frustration
Even at half its original size, the hospital grounds cover about 5 percent of Knoxville's total area. As a VA facility, the prime property is exempt from property taxes, making it a major financial drain on city and county governments and the school district.
Local resident Linda Hicks joined a parade of town-hall speakers expressing frustration at the lack of action. “I realize government wheels turn very slowly, with lots of bureaucracy, but it’s really not fair to the people of Knoxville to let this continue in the way that it is. We need to move it forward,” she said.
Gail Graham, central Iowa director of the VA health system, acknowledged to Knoxville residents that it’s important to keep the grounds up while the government tries to decide what to do with the mothballed hospital. Broken windows are being fixed, the grass is being mowed, and snow is being plowed, she said. The VA plans to hire a private security firm to limit vandalism.
“We know that when you drive into Knoxville, this is one of the first things you see,” she said. “And we want to make sure it isn’t an eyesore to you.”
Graham didn’t dispute residents’ contentions that many of the structures are plagued with mold, asbestos, leaking roofs and peeling paint. Graham said the VA can’t afford to spend more than the nearly $2 million per year it’s spending just to do basic maintenance on the facility’s grounds.
Buy Photo Buildings at the shuttered Veterans Affairs hospital in Knoxville, Iowa, have fallen into disrepair. (Photo: Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register)
However, she said, the VA demonstrated its continued commitment to Knoxville veterans last spring, when it opened a new outpatient clinic in another part of town.
She pledged the old hospital campus would not sit idle much longer. “This is a priority for VA leadership,” she said. “… Our secretary is really determined to take the money we spend on properties we can’t use and make them available to the community, and more importantly take the money we’re spending on these properties and put it back into veterans’ health care.”
Years of marketing
A few years after shuttering the campus, the VA signed a five-year agreement with a local group, the Knoxville Veterans’ Alliance, which was put in charge of trying to find new tenants. That agreement expired last December.
James Washington, a leader of the local group, said in a recent interview that a for-profit college from California showed some interest in the property, as did Des Moines Area Community College and some smaller business. None of those deals panned out.
“We marketed the campus very aggressively," he said. "We just didn’t have success."
Washington said he originally believed that because the property would still be owned by the VA, any tenants would be exempt from property taxes. But the city successfully objected to such an arrangement, contending for-profit businesses must pay their share of taxes.
Buy Photo Knoxville Mayor Brian Hatch gives an interview at the now-shuttered Veterans Affairs hospital in Knoxville, Iowa, on Friday, Oct. 13, 2017. (Photo: Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register)
Mayor Hatch said city leaders were frustrated for years by a lack of communication from the VA, but he said the situation has improved significantly with regular conference calls and meetings. He's grown more optimistic about a solution, but he hesitates to estimate how long it would take or what it would look like. He said the city might be interested in obtaining some of the open land for recreational uses, but it probably isn't in a position to buy any of the buildings and redevelop them.
The federal government is now looking to sell the property relatively quickly to private developers. The VA has brought in specialists from the U.S. General Services Administration, who travel the country disposing of surplus federal property. Jennifer Mollenshott, an agency administrator from Texas, told the town-hall participants they should be optimistic that a sale of the Knoxville campus could be completed within about a year.
“I want you to have hope, please,” she said.
'Just bulldoze the thing'
Several people in the crowd expressed doubts that any developer would buy dozens of falling-down buildings when they could instead buy vacant land that is ready for new construction.
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“Why don’t we just bulldoze the thing down and be free of this headache?” one man asked, drawing applause from several others in the crowd.
Mollenshott said the federal government generally sells mothballed properties “as is,” and does not demolish structures. She also said her agency might be willing to split the campus into several parcels, but it isn’t allowed to pay developers to take distressed property off the government’s hands. But she exuded confidence in her ability to find buyers.
“I’ve literally sold a hole in the ground,” she bragged.
Buy Photo Plants grow around the shuttered Veterans Affairs hospital in Knoxville, Iowa, on Friday, Oct. 13, 2017. (Photo: Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register)
Residents said they wished the federal government had shown such resolve years ago. The sore points included the sorry state of a row of brick duplexes, which used to house VA doctors. Those houses, on one of Knoxville's main streets, could have been sold right away and used as private homes, speakers said. But the duplexes' roofs are dilapidated, and the homes are probably beyond repair now, they said.
Hicks said some fellow local residents and veterans remain angry that inpatient services were curtailed, and they still are demanding the VA reopen some of the wards.
“But that horse is out of the barn," she said. "That’s gone, and they’re not going to bring people back here to take care of them. So the best thing for the government and the people of Knoxville is to move forward and get rid of the property."
Knoxville resident Scott Evans recounted how he tried to lease one of the buildings for use as a physical therapy business.
“We wanted to repurpose it, to use those buildings," he told federal administrators. "It would have been cheaper to give the property away than to sit on it for years and then try to sell it. You’re losing money every day that it’s not being used.”
Evans urged government officials to get serious about the issue.
“I hope you’ll move the process on, even though I know the government is not structured that way," he said. "Hopefully now that we’re at this point, where we’re meeting with you and you’re starting to look at it, you’ll look at things without rose-colored glasses and you’ll say, what have we done in the past and what can we do to improve things.”
Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/2yJ8JQxThe App That Aims To Gamify Biology Has Amateurs Discovering New Species
Enlarge this image toggle caption Annika Lindqvist Annika Lindqvist
It's dusk at a park in Dallas, and white sheets are pinned up next to tall trees, fluttering like ghosts in the wind. They've been lit up with ultraviolet lights to attract moths.
A handful of people are holding up their smartphones, zooming in on the small dark specks that fly to the cloth.
"Bugs have become my obsession," says Annika Lindqvist. "And the more you look, the more you have to look at the tiny things, and when you blow them up you see that they are gorgeous."
Like a lot of bug fanatics, Lindqvist doesn't just take photos of moths — she uploads them to iNaturalist. It's like a social network for wildlife. When you upload a photo of a moth or bird to the app, it posts your location. Then, both amateur and expert naturalists help identify the species.
Lindqvist has uploaded more than 2,000 observations on her profile.
iNaturalist has grown exponentially in the past few years. There are nearly 250,000 users and about 3 million observations. At gatherings like this one, put on by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, people who've connected online meet in person to swap stories about giant walking sticks and learn about moths together.
Stalin Murugesapandi, an engineer by day, is one of the citizen scientists here with his smartphone. He points out a moth with feathery antennae that's landed below some mayflies.
Murugesapandi's passion is photography. Some of the moths we're looking at — including one that's meringue yellow and another with bands of olive green — will end up on iNaturalist, next to his pictures of fire ants and turquoise mushrooms.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Lauren Silverman/KERA Lauren Silverman/KERA
Sam Kieschnick, an urban biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife, says an individual photo might not be groundbreaking — and true, you're not getting any PokéCoins or other rewards — but each observation adds to our understanding of biodiversity, like a mosaic or pointillist painting.
"It's just a single dot if you look up close, but when you start to take a step back, you can get to see these patterns that start to develop," Kieschnick says.
There have been major discoveries as a result of photo sharing on iNaturalist.
In 2013, for example, a man in Colombia uploaded a photo of a bright red and black frog. A poison frog expert in Washington, D.C., spotted it and eventually determined it was a brand-new species. The pair co-authored the results in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa.
One of the developers behind iNaturalist is Scott Loarie. He says when he partnered with naturalist Ken-ichi Ueda, the initial idea was to use it as a tool to get people engaged with nature, and later, as a tool for science.
He recalls another great discovery, in 2014, when one app user traveling in Vietnam happened to upload a photo of a snail.
"A couple of weeks later, a Vietnamese scientist who was a specialist in snails and slugs was going through and looking at pictures and said 'Wow! I recognize this,' " Loarie says.
It turned out to be a snail described on one of Captain Cook's voyages in the late 18th century. It had been drawn but never photographed.
Loarie says developers like him are trying to make science fun, to gamify it, the challenge is pleasing such a mixed crowd. You have to entertain both the world's foremost beetle expert and the 13-year-old kid who just wants to explore his front yard.
"I think that's possible," Loarie says, "Because if you think about it, natural history really is a game. It's going out there and trying to learn as much as you can about the things that you're finding in nature."
And with more than 8 million species on Earth, there's little risk you'll "catch 'em all."Ubuntu is finally getting around to adding TRIM support, a pretty basic feature of most modern OSes. It's an essential command for maintaining the performance and health of solid state drives, since they operate in a fundamentally different way than your standard spinning-platter. This function allows an operating system to tell the drive which chunks of data are no longer necessary and are ready to be erased or over-written. That may sound a little obtuse, but essentially it means the disk needs to perform less writes, resulting in faster performance, longer life and less performance degradation over time. Windows added support way back in 2009, while OS X followed in 2011. Even Android jumped on the bandwagon back in July of this year, but Linux has lagged behind. Experimental support was added to the Linux kernel in 2008, but the feature is turned off by default due to performance concerns. And the option to enable it requires at least a moderate level of command line ninjutsu.
Canonical has put a lot of work into getting TRIM support up to snuff, and finally feels it's ready for prime time. With the next version of Ubuntu, 14.04, it will be enabled by default, finally allowing its dedicated user base to fully realize the benefits of speedy, silent, power-sipping solid state storage. While the move is certainly later than many would have hoped, it comes at an opportune time as the company plans to make a serious mobile push. And, as we all know, solid state reigns supreme in the tablet and smartphone world.Authorities say they have recovered a body they think is a missing three-year-old North Carolina girl from a creek in a neighboring county.
Onslow County Hans Miller said dive teams found Mariah Wood's body around 5.30pm Saturday.
FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch said in a statement the body was in Holly Shelter Creek along Shaw Highway in Pender County creek about 25 miles from Mariah Woods' home in Jacksonville.
Earl Kimrey (left) has been arrested in the disappearance of his girlfriend Kristy's three-year-old daughter Mariah Woods (right). Her body has now been found
FBI Special Agent Stanley Meador (left) and Onslow County Sheriff Hans Miller (right) Saturday
Her body was found in Holly Shelter Creek (pictured) in Pender County creek about 25 miles from Mariah Woods' home
A boat is pictured at one of the search locations. Mariah's body was found by divers Saturday
Law enforcement search near the Southwest Creek Bridge for three-year-old Mariah Woods
The medical examiner still needs to identify the body, but investigators are confident it is Mariah, Lynch said.
Deputies have charged 32-year-old Earl Kimrey in the death. Arrest warrants say Kimrey moved Mariah's body from where she died, knowing her death was not natural. They haven't said how they think the girl was killed.
Kimrey is the live-in boyfriend of Mariah's mother Kristy. He was arrested in the early hours of Saturday morning.
On Saturday, Kimrey was brought before a magistrate to be charged with concealing a death, obstruction of justice, burglary, larceny and possession of stolen property.
He is now being held in county jail on a bond of $1,010,000.
'It was too late to save Mariah the moment the 911 call came in,' FBI agent Stanley Meador said of the call the girl's mother made Monday to report her missing. 'The arrest warrants are public record and the records speaks for themselves. We will not discuss any details related to the homicide investigation.'
One arrest warrant also charges Kimrey with larceny, breaking and entering and possession of stolen goods, according to News Channel 12.
He is accused of stealing two dressers after breaking into a home in Jacksonville between 11pm on Sunday and 3.30am on Monday.
Kimrey has a long criminal history which includes charges for larceny, assault, threats to government and being drunk and disorderly.
The charges date back to 2002. They stretch over several counties and two states.
Police and volunteers turned out in their hundreds on Friday to search for Mariah who, at that time, was still hoped to have been alive
An organizer for the National Center for Exploited and Missing Children speaks to volunteers on Friday before they went out to look for the girl
Social services would not confirm on Friday whether they had ever investigated Kimrey or the home where Mariah was living.
A spokesman refused when asked by DailyMail.com if there had ever been reported concerns about the family and said the information was confidential.
On Saturday, Meador urged people with surveillance footage near where the girl disappeared to call police and share the video as they investigate her death.
He asked businesses or residents who live on U.S. Highway 17 or state Highway 53 in Onslow and Pender counties to call police if they have surveillance cameras.
The toddler had been missing since 6am on Monday. Kimrey and her mother Kristy Woods told police he was the last to have seen her at around midnight on Sunday.
They said he told her to go back to bed and that when they went to her bedroom the next day, she was gone.
Days ago, the girl's biological father Alex Woods said he did not believe Kimrey's story that Mariah was abducted by a stranger.
Woods, who has not seen her for a year despite claiming to have visitation rights, said he had been trying to get Mariah out of the home but that he could not afford a lawyer.
Kristy Woods' boyfriend Earl Kimrey has been charged in the death (pictured Kristy and Mariah)
Kimrey (above with Mariah's mother Kristy) told police he was the last to see Mariah alive
'Someone just walked right up in there, grabbed the 3-year-old out of the bed and she didn't cry, she didn't scream?
'Nobody heard anything? Four people in the house, two adults and two kids, someone just comes up and snatches the baby and walks out?', Alex Woods said.
Kristy, who this week disabled her Facebook account after posting the missing person's appeal for her daughter, claimed that Mariah was taken by a stranger.
In a tearful television appearance on Tuesday, she said: 'Please, bring her back.
'I love her. I'll do anything that I can, whatever you want.
'Please just bring her back safe and sound – she's my baby, she's my everything.'
Kristy called police to report her missing on Monday at 6am.
Suspicious: Mariah's biological father Alex, who has not seen her for more than a year, said he did not believe Kimrey's story that his daughter was abducted by a stranger. He is pictured with his wife Heather earlier this week
Kristy made a tearful appeal to her daughter's abductor earlier in the week and begged for her to be brought back
Mariah is pictured with her mother, mother's boyfriend, and her two older brothers. Her biological father says he has been trying to get sole custody of the children for years
On Friday, 700 local volunteers turned out to join in the search for Mariah. At the time, they were still hoping to find the girl alive.
'Items of interest' which the FBI sent to its lab in Quantico earlier in the week have still not been revealed.
They were sent straight to the FBI's base in Virginia for testing on Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier that day, agents were seen searching the trailer where Mariah lived with her 29-year-old mother Kristy, her older brothers and Kimrey.Xander is not satisfied living in the basement of his parent's house and is looking for an apartment of his own to live with Anya. Meanwhile, a demon called Toth chases Buffy at the Magic Box, and his smell guides Giles to the city dump. When Buffy and the Scoobies see Toth in the garbage landfill, he uses a rod device called Ferrula-Gemina blasting a ray against Buffy but hitting Xander instead. Toth vanishes and the group leaves the place with a confident Xander. Later the insecure Xander awakes in a pile of trash, follows his double and meets Willow to tell about his clone. Giles finds that the ray discloses one person into half, distilling personality traits into two separate bodies. Further, if one part is destroyed, the other will die. While trying to find a mean to unite Xander, they have to face the evil Toth. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilANN ARBOR -- Erik Swenson was the longest-tenured commitment in Michigan's 2016 recruiting class. No longer. Swenson tweeted Wednesday that he's reopening his commitment due to "unforeseen circumstances." In a text message to MLive, the four-star offensive tackle said Michigan recently pulled its scholarship offer and canceled his previously scheduled official visit. He said the program did not provide a reason for doing so. He declined to speak further on the matter at this time. Michigan cannot comment publicly on any unsigned prospects, per NCAA rule. The 6-foot-7, 285-pound Swenson -- from Downers Grove, Illinois -- committed to Michigan in 2013, when Brady Hoke was the program's head coach.
In an interview with MLive this summer, Swenson explained how it was important to him to stick to his commitment during the program's coaching transition -- because, as he put it, he committed to a school and not necessarily a coach. "You have to stick with your commitment, you committed to Michigan, you have to honor that,"
"You made a commitment and you have to show you're willing to honor it. There will be ups and downs at any place, and any place you go you'll have to show you can push through them." Swenson is the second player to decommit from Michigan's class in the past week. Three-star corner Sir Patrick Scott also reopened his recruitment last week. Michigan now lists a total of 23 public commitments (seven are early enrollees) in its 2016 recruiting class with exactly two weeks to go before signing day. The number of available scholarships Michigan has to give is currently unclear. The Wolverines finished last season with five free scholarships and saw 13 players graduate without any remaining eligibility. Michigan also lost junior Willie Henry to the NFL draft, and at least three players (Derrick Green, Terry Richardson and Ross Taylor-Douglas) have opted to transfer.
-- Follow MLive's Michigan coverage on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
-- Subscribe to "The Wolverine Beat" podcast on iTunesMUMBAI: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today launched a free high-speed public Wi-Fi service in collaboration with technology giant Google at Mumbai Central here, the first station in the country to get such facility.
Terming the facility as "world class", Prabhu said around 100 busiest stations across the country will be brought under the free public Wi-Fi service by this year-end, making it the world's largest such project.
"When I proposed the full-fledged (Railway) budget last year, I had vowed to improve ailing condition of Indian Railway, and launching free Wi-Fi at Mumbai Central Station is one giant step towards improving the Railway," Prabhu said while addressing the gathering comprising senior railway officers, Google executives and passengers at the suburban railway station.
Terming it as a "historic day", the minister said that his government was trying hard to develop sustainable infrastructure and to improve safety and security of the passengers and bring financial stability to the entity.
The project of providing free Wi-Fi connectivity at 400 railway stations across the country was announced last September during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Google headquarters in the US.
The Vice-president and Managing Director of Google South East Asia and India, Rajan Anandan, said, "Google is delighted to launch India's first high speed public Wi-Fi service in partnership with Indian Railways."
"Bringing affordable Internet access to millions of people is an important part of making internet both easily accessible and useful for more than 300 million Indians who are already online, and the nearly one billion more who are not," he said.
Anandan said that over one crore people will be able to enjoy this experience at 100 stations spread across the country by this year-end.
"The network is built for wide coverage and high capacity usage unlike a typical Wi-Fi hotspot which offers connectivity in limited area and poor experience. This network will extend to cover both long distance train station and the local train station in Mumbai Central," he said.
In a statement issued later, Google said the four stations where free Wi-Fi facility would be provided soon are Allahabad, Patna, Jaipur and Ranchi, and other stations will follow shortly.Bucking Idaho’s two GOP senators, the Kootenai County Republican Party has approved a resolution praising Russia for resisting a “progressive globalist agenda.”
The county Republican Central Committee narrowly passed the resolution on Tuesday favoring friendlier relations with Russia and condemning the Russian sanctions bill that was sponsored by Idaho GOP Sen. Mike Crapo and passed overwhelmingly by both the U.S. House and Senate.
The resolution praises Russia and denounces Crapo and Idaho GOP Sen. Jim Risch for supporting the measure. It also calls for them to “re-examine their foreign policy orientations” and adopt “an anti-globalist, America-first foreign policy orientation.”
Lindsay Nothern, communications director for Crapo, said Wednesday his office didn’t know about the Kootenai County GOP resolution.
“We certainly weren’t thinking about globalism when we wrote the bill,” Nothern said. “It was more about adding up all the things that Russia has been doing over the last couple, three years and saying that they probably deserve increased sanctions. … Congress feels strongly about this, and it’s a bipartisan thing.”
Bjorn Handeen, a North Idaho real estate agent and the precinct committeeman who sponsored the resolution, said the vote was focused on avoiding actions that could spark a war.
“A lot of us feel like we missed the boat when it came to the Iraq War, that there should have been a greater grass-roots movement to oppose movements toward war then. And so now, we’re not going to make that mistake again.”
Handeen said, “It’s traditionally understood that sanctions are the first step towards war. It’s not a peaceful move. Real people suffer under sanctions.”
Crapo’s bill expands and strengthens existing sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine and Crimea, its “brazen cyberattacks and interference in elections” and its “continuing aggression in Syria.”
It also requires Congress to vote before any sanctions on Russia are lifted, and it would expand tracking of illicit finances linked to Russia. It passed the Senate on June 15 with only Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah voting no. An agreement was reached between the House and Senate over the weekend on minor changes to the bill, and President Trump announced on Sunday that he’d sign it. On Tuesday, it passed the House with just three no votes, from Reps. Jimmy Duncan, R-Tenn; Justin Amash, R-Mich.; and Thomas Massie, R-Ky. It’s now pending a final vote in the Senate on the House version.
Handeen said the few dissenters in the House and Senate are people “that North Idaho Republicans really look up to.”
“I would question what Mike Crapo and Jim Risch’s foreign policy expertise actually is,” Handeen said. “If you ask me, anyone that does not read antiwar.com does not qualify to be a foreign policy leader.”
Crapo is a Harvard-educated attorney who chairs the Senate Banking Committee. Risch, also an attorney, serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, giving him access to classified briefings.
Antiwar.com is published by the Randolph Bourne Institute, a Redwood City, California, nonprofit founded in 2001 that promotes noninterventionist foreign policy.
The Kootenai County vote was close, at 20-18; arguing strenuously against it was another member of the Kootenai County central committee, Sid Smith, who also is the regional director for Risch.
“I think that it’s pretty unfortunate that the resolution was approved,” Smith said Wednesday. He said he described Russia’s lack of freedom of assembly and speech, and how critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin “seem to have a pattern of disappearing or turning up dead, and a few things like that.” And he pointed out that “those are not things that mesh with our Republican values.”
Smith said he also disagreed with the resolution’s suggestion “that if you supported sanctions against Russia then you are a progressive globalist.” Smith said Idaho’s two GOP senators are “anything but progressive.”
“That guy is super-smart, and I would tread lightly contradicting him,” Handeen said, “but I guess we both laid out arguments, and although he was more eloquent than I was, I think that obviously more people agreed with what the resolution was saying.”
Handeen, who has been on the central committee since 2010, said, “I come from the Ron Paul movement. … I recognize that even among my Ron Paul friends, I’m kind of an outlier. Lots of people care about economic issues or debunking climate change and things like that, and personally I don’t care about any of that stuff. I got interested in politics during the run-up to the Iraq war, which I saw then as a bad move, and that’s what’s kept me engaged ever since.”
He added that he’s had inquiries from several other county GOP central committees about adopting similar resolutions.
Smith said he tried to remind his fellow committee members about the panel’s role.
“Central committees are traditionally tasked with recruiting Republicans and getting them elected to local offices, raising money,” he said. “We’re really getting out of our element to think that we have the expertise as a body to carry out policy analysis on the state level or the national level, much less the international level.”
Handeen said the Kootenai County central committee typically debates and votes on resolutions every month. When it stopped doing that for a while, he said, “the meetings, they went along so quickly that it was barely worth the drive for some people.”A couple in Washington State has sustained multiple injuries after crashing their car into a tree while having sex, police said.
The man was drunk and the woman was sitting on top of him, engaging in sexual activity, while they navigated a local highway, State Trooper Brooke Bova told The Independent. Both were naked.
The man failed to negotiate the curves in the road, Ms Bova said, and struck a tree with his car. The woman broke her pelvis and the man broke his wrist.
Their three-month-old child, properly restrained in a carseat in the back, was uninjured.
Witnesses told police they saw the couple, both in their early twenties, exit the vehicle naked. Some witnesses reported one of them fleeing the scene. Ms Bova believes the couple were scrambling to locate their clothes before police arrived.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Ms Bova said.
If the man is convicted, it will be his fourth DUI in Washington State – a felony offence. He has also been charged with vehicular assault and child engagement. He was booked into Pierce County jail immediately after his release from the emergency room.
The woman has been admitted to the hospital and it is unclear whether charges will be brought against her, Ms Bova said. Authorities have not announced what will be done with the child.
A study of college students conducted by researchers at the University of South Dakota found 33 per cent of men and nine per cent of women had engaged in sexual activity while driving. None of the students surveyed had crashed their cars as a result.
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It’s a really, really good time to be a sci-fi fan. The big studios are regularly throwing money at smart, adult-oriented genre films (and the Academy is taking notice) and television is populated with clever spins on time-travel and A.I. In the midst of all those options, not to mention the dreaded “Peak TV”, some of the good stuff is naturally going to slip under the radar. |
&E maintains that power prices could rise under the new system, although the utility has already asked state regulators for permission to raise its own rates next year. Under the Marin Energy Authority's rates set on Thursday, most residents will pay the same amount for electricity, month by month, as they do with PG&E. Residents who want 100 percent of their electricity to come from renewable sources will pay an extra $3 to $6 per month.
Not all Marin County residents and officials have welcomed the public power plan. In December, the county's civil grand jury issued a report called "Marin Clean Energy: Pull the Plug," arguing that the effort's costs were too uncertain.
Some residents have complained that the local power effort isn't local enough: The authority has hired Shell Energy North America, a subsidiary of an international oil company, to do most of the actual work.Before I start writing about the food, drinks and ambiance of Tamarind (formerly Duetto and previously Viceroy), I would like to talk about why Tamarind is the way it is. The essence of Tamarind can be found in one person, Mr. Rajeev Bhasin, the Managing Director. A veteran in the restaurant business, Rajeev has seen many fads and equally as many restaurants come and go. Hailing from New Delhi, the (food) capital of India, Rajeev has grown up immersed in the wealthy history of Mughlai and North Indian food. Being from Delhi myself, our conversation took us both on a journey to the smokey streets of Old Delhi, where you will find legendary kebabs and non-vegetarian dishes rich in taste and equally rich in history. I spent a good time talking about his experiences in the restaurant business; his love of authentic Mughlai cuisine and street food is something he has incorporated at Tamarind.
The Indian kitchen chef, Ravilal Bhandari has been hand-picked by Rajeev, to make sure that his passion for authenticity is carried forward. In the Thai and Vietnamese kitchen Chef Amoo from Thailand teams up to make Tamarind an authentic Pan-Asian restaurant. The view is one of the most spectacular in Hong Kong, and definitely a place to bring ‘out of towner’s to impress.
Appetizers
Pani Poori Trio: A crispy fried ball of flour filled with tangy potatoes served with shots of 3 different flavours of water – Tamarind, Beetroot and Mint. The dish is presented beautifully with the puffs resting on top of the shot glasses. For the uninitiated, this water is supposed to be poured into the puffs and then the puff eaten whole. The beetroot flavoured water is a variation of a wintery drink in North West India called “Kanji” – spicy yet refreshing.
Seekh Kebab – Spiced minced lamb hand rolled and cooked slowly in a ‘Tandoor’ (clay oven). What I loved is that I didn’t have to gulp down a gallon of water right after having a bite. It’s flavourful without being overly spicy.
Rice Paper Rolls – Vietnamese speciality of crispy soft shell crabs, Mango and fresh herbs – rolled into rice paper and steamed. The mango goes well with the crab and makes this a fairly light appetizer.
Main Course
Chicken Makhani – Or Butter Chicken as this dish is more commonly known by, is fillets of tandoori chicken in a rich tomato gravy. It is the herbs and spices you use in the gravy that makes this dish stand out or be forgotten. Luckily Chef Bhandari has perfected the recipe over years and it stands out in the spread as a creamy wholesome affair doused with a generous helping of dried fenugreek.
Dal Makhani – Black lentils cooked over a long time and simmered with butter and cream. A very technical dish, the Dal shows the experience of the chef. The lentils are kept overnight in the kitchen’s oven. One of the best Dal Makhanis being served in Hong Kong, not to be missed. Best had with Naan: Indian clay oven flat bread.
Wok Fried Vegetables with Chili & Garlic – Straight from Chef Amoo’s kitchen is your stir fried broccoli, mushroom and asparagus. The vegetables are crunchy just the way they are supposed to. The chili & garlic bring out the inherent flavours of the vegetables, rather than to drown them.
Lamb Dum Biryani – Dum cooking is a centuries old technique of cooking slowly in a pressured pot. Boneless pieces of lamb are marinated for few hours and then cooked together with rice and a lot of aromatic herbs and then cooked on a pot sealed with wheat dough. Once cooked, the dish is garnished lavishly with mint leaves and saffron. Normally, Biryanis are fiery, but at Tamarind, the focus is on the fusion of all the flavours. If you take your Biryani as a challenge against your taste buds and sweat glands, you might want to skip this.
Shahi Dum Tamatar – A chef specialty and a must try for people who like milder palates. Tomatoes are stuffed with spiced cottage cheese (paneer) and cooked in the tandoor. After which they are cooked in a thick creamy cashewnut sauce.
Desserts include Jalebi (deep fried dough in squiggly shape and soaked in sugar syrup), Rasmalai (sugary cream balls of cottage cheese soaked in creamy milk) and Kulfi (creamy ice cream with nuts and cardamom).
Overall, Tamarind is the closest you can get to Pan Asian fine dining in Hong Kong with amazing views. Two dining halls and an outside seating area combines to make it a preferred spot for parties and even weddings. The restaurant serves mostly classic food with a touch of contemporary. Extensive wine list to go with the variety of the menu and a list of in house cocktails – Bollywood is a must try. The menu changes often and I would not be surprised if the restaurant moves into a more contemporary cuisine with time.
Tamarind – 2/F, Sun Hung Kai Centre, 30 Harbour Rd., Wan Chai, Hong Kong, Phone: 2827-7777
Follow Tamarind on Facebook here.
Photographs captured by Chandni Chotrani
Did you like the article? Leave a comment below.Sources indicate highly regarded junior quarterback Grant Gunnell, who's committed to Texas A&M, will re-evaluate the Arkansas program in the off-season because of the expected hiring of Coach Chad Morris.
Gunnell, 6-6, 200 pounds of St. Pius X High School in Houston has more than 30 scholarship offers from schools like Arkansas, LSU, Florida State, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas A&M, Louisville, Georgia, Houston and Northwestern.
He has completed 336 of 471 passes for 4,433 yards and 56 touchdowns while throwing only 6 interceptions this season. He and St. Pius will play Prestonwood Christian for the TAPPS Div I Football Championship on Saturday.
Gunnell connected on 271 of 387 passes for 4,973 yards and 65 touchdowns while having 11 interceptions as a sophmore. He also rushed 54 times for 389 yards and 5 touchdowns.
He has moved into 11th place all time in passing in Texas while being 8th all time in career passing touchdowns with a season to go.
Gunnell has been invited to the US Army All American Bowl and the Under Armor All American Bowl for 2019. He will be at the Under Armor Future 50 at the 2018 UA Bowl which showcases the top 50 juniors in the nation.
Gunnell has visited Fayetteville eight times to check out the football program.
ESPN rates him the No. 2 pocket-passer and the No. 58 overall prospect in the nation for the 2019 class.
His father, Chris and mother, Julie earned degrees from Arkansas while his grandfather, Jim Price played linebacker for the Hogs’ 1964 national championship team.On Friday, April 24 at 8:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall, acclaimed musicians from Afghanistan, India, and Tajikistan join together for In the Footsteps of Babur, a program celebrating the exuberant vitality of the Mughal court in the 16th century. Featured artists on the program-presented by Carnegie Hall in partnership with Robert Browning Associates-include Homayun Sakhi (Afghan rubab), Rahul Sharma (santur), Salar Nader (tabla), Sirojiddin Juraev (dutar and tanbur), and Mukhtor Muborakqadamov (Badakhshani setar).
In the Footsteps of Babur represents a modern-day version of Mughal artistic fusion. Inspired by visual images and literary descriptions of high-spirited music-making in the Mughal courts-which stretched across a vast area of the Indian subcontinent beginning in 1526-the Aga Khan Music Initiative has brought together musicians from Afghanistan, India, and Tajikistan with the aim of merging their talents, traditions, and musical instruments to create new sounds.
Since immigrating to the United States in 2002, Homayun Sakhi has established a worldwide reputation as the outstanding Afghan rubab player of his generation. Born in Kabul into one of Afghanistan's leading musical families, he studied rubab with his father, Ustad Ghulam Sakhi, in the traditional form of apprenticeship known as ustad-shagird. Ghulam Sakhi was heir to a musical lineage that began in the 1860s, when the ruler of Kabul, Amir Sher Ali Khan, brought classically trained musicians from India to perform at his court. Over the next hundred years, Indian musicians thrived there, and Kabul became a center for the performance of North Indian classical music. Musicians in Kabul also cultivated the art of playing the rubab, which was prominent in regional folk music. Today the people of Afghanistan regard the rubab with great pride as their national instrument. Homayun Sakhi currently resides in Fremont, California, a major cultural center of Afghan émigré life, where he opened a school to teach Afghan music to children. His busy performance schedule regularly takes him to cities around the world.
Born in Mumbai in 1972, Rahul Sharma is heir to the Indian classical santur tradition established by his esteemed father, Shiv Kumar Sharma. "It wasn't a preconceived idea that I would become a professional musician," Rahul recounted. "I majored in economics at university, and didn't begin performing publicly on the santur until I was around 22. But once I started, it just took off. In the last dozen years, I've probably released more than 40 albums and had a lot of opportunities to collaborate with international musicians. I've always enjoyed composing. Ever since I was a kid, I played the Casio synthesizer and composed my own tunes. Composing offers freedom from the discipline of classical music. When I was growing up, I was fascinated not just by Indian classical music but by world music and rock. I listened to the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Celtic music, Sting. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's collaborations with Michael Brook inspired me. So I thought, why don't I do something like this with santur? I've always had a desire to experiment. I played with Shakti and John McLaughlin, and with percussionist Zakir Hussain and mandolin player U. Srinivas. The santur is not just a classical instrument. It has a whole different side. My father established the santur in the classical mode. Now it's ready to head off into new realms. I'm still experimenting."
Salar Nader is one of his generation's leading performers on the tabla. His parents emigrated from Afghanistan to Germany, where Nader was born in 1981. At the age of three, he came to the United States, and at age seven, he began formal tabla study with renowned tabla master Ustad Zakir Hussain. Nader frequently accompanies Homayun Sakhi and other performers of Afghan and North Indian classical music. He is also active as a performer in world percussion and jazz-fusion groups. A resident of San Francisco, Nader recently appeared as an onstage musician in an American theatrical adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's bestselling novel The Kite Runner. In addition to his performance activities, Salar is a devoted teacher of tabla.
Sirojiddin Juraev comes from a lineage of dutar players in his native region of northern Tajikistan. "Both my father and grandfather played the dutar," said Sirojiddin, "and my first ustad (master, or teacher) was my father. Later I studied at the Music College in Khujand and at Khujand University, and after that, at the Academy of Maqam, in Dushanbe, where my ustad was Abduvali Abdurashidov. I listen a lot to old recordings of the great ustads, and when I hear something I really like, I try to learn those tunes. Now I teach dutar in the National Conservatory in Dushanbe. When I feel inspired, I also compose my own music on the dutar. If you listen a lot to old records that are inspiring, there should be an urge to compose. You can't compose from a void. There has to be an inspiration that comes from listening to a master."
Badakhshani setar player Mukhtor Muborakqadamov makes his home in a village near Khorog, Tajikistan, the regional capital of Tajik Badakhshan and Badakhshan's largest city, with a population of around 40,000. "I began playing the setar when I was in eighth grade. I learned by ear from my uncle," said Mukhtor. "I've never learned to read music. I like Indian music and frequently listen to it, so probably that's why my style sounds Indian."
Related Articles View More Classical Music Stories
More Hot Stories For YouBefore their game vs. Schalke, Hertha knelt and locked arms for "tolerance and responsibility."
BERLIN -- Hertha Berlin players and officials kneeled in solidarity with the recent NFL protests ahead of their Bundesliga match against Schalke on Saturday.
A number of NFL players have "taken a knee" in recent months and German club Hertha showed solidarity for the ongoing protests in the United States before their game on Saturday.
"Berlin is colourful," the Hertha stadium announcer told the fans in attendance. "Hertha BSC stands for diversity and against violence.
"For this reason, we are joining forces with the protest of our fellow American athletes to take a stand against discrimination.
"For a tolerant Berlin, both now and forevermore."
Hertha BSC stands for tolerance and responsibility! For a tolerant Berlin and an open-minded world, now and forevermore! #TakeAKnee #hahohe pic.twitter.com/spZvRSGVxQ — Hertha Berlin (@HerthaBSC_EN) October 14, 2017
After the teams greeted each other prior to kick-off, Hertha -- whose matchday squad included players from 10 different nations -- kneeled in their own half and looked toward the marathon gate of Berlin's Olympiastadion.
In the dugout, Hertha's Hungarian coach Pal Dardai, the entire staff and substitutes also kneeled.
Jonathan Klinsmann, son of former U.S. men's national team coach Jurgen, is the only American player at Hertha but was not involved in the matchday squad on Saturday.
Speaking after the game, Hertha sporting executive Michael Preetz told reporters: "We live in times in which football clubs, who are very much in the spotlight, must work out how to position themselves, and this is in tune with the values and the philosophy of Hertha Berlin.
"I've been here for 21 years, and we've always been against discrimination of any kind and against racism. We are Berlin. We are an open-minded city, and we stand for diversity, and that's what the team and the club wanted to stand up for today."
Ivorian forward Salomon Kalou told reporters: "Hertha always stands against racism. If we can fight against that as a team, and as the city of Berlin, then that's something we want to do.
"I think Hertha is living a good example to fight against this phenomenon.
"The idea comes from the whole team. We stand against racism and we will always fight this behaviour as a team, as a city."
Asked if the idea had come from the NFL, he replied: "No. I mean yes. But we are in a different situation.
"As Hertha we always fight against racism. For us, kneeling down is a way of fighting against this kind of behaviour. It should not exist in any kind of sport. Not in NFL, and not in football or soccer, like they call it in the U.S. -- it shouldn't exist in any sport, period. For us, it's a good example to show."
Stephan Uersfeld is the Germany correspondent for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @uersfeld.Buy Photo Police Beat (Photo: The Journal News)Buy Photo
A man is being sought by police after what is described as a bicycle rage incident.
What got the man's really tight shorts in a twist is not known, but he is said to have banged on the hood of a car, then reached inside a window and grabbed a passenger with both hands while the car and bike were still moving.
"It was a physical and verbal altercation," South Nyack-Grand View Police Chief Brent Newbury. "This is unacceptable behavior by a bicyclist."
The run-in occurred about noon at Clinton Avenue and South Broadway. The cyclist is described as a white man, about 6 feet tall with brown hair and a thin build. He was last seen heading south on South Broadway wearing bright green bicycle shorts with white stripes down the thighs, and no helmet.
Police ask that anyone who witnessed the incident or has information call 845-358-0206.
Read or Share this story: http://lohud.us/1sD3eKMMicrosoft's Xbox Live. Yes, you heard it right. A gamer drugged his girlfriend to avoid interruption while playing on his
fined EUR€500 (approx USD$555) by a judge in a Castrop-Rauxel district court, German website The Local The 23-year-old German man, who has not been named, was(approx USD$555) by a judge in a Castrop-Rauxel district court, German website The Local reports
The man admitted in front of judge that he put between four and five drops of a sedative in his girlfriend's tea to make her fall asleep, so he could keep playing the video game on his console.
His girlfriend fell asleep for more than 12 hours and wake up midday on the next day, but even after waking up she felt constantly drowsy.
"Then I got up and drove to work although I was nodding off again and again," the victim told.
Girlfriends Broke-Up with her Boyfriend
The offender's girlfriend, 24, broke up with her now-ex-boyfriend after he did this to her.
Sentencing the man, the court judge said:
"Your girlfriend slept long and deeply, which didn't harm her, but this is certainly a premeditated bodily harm."
The man admitted that what he did is "stupid" but also said he was "on a straight path" now after staying off drugs for ten months, and was planning to start an apprenticeship.NEW YORK – Is the ultimate aim of campaign strategist Karl Rove’s stop-Trump plot to make Mitt Romney the 2016 Republican nominee?
At a meeting of Republican governors and donors in Washington, D.C., last month, Rove – dubbed the “architect” of George W. Bush’s election success – launched a movement to prevent Donald Trump from gaining the 1,237 delegates he needs in the primaries to win the GOP nomination on the first ballot at the party’s convention in Cleveland in July.
Last weekend, Rove stepped up his efforts to block Trump, arguing his case at the American Enterprise Institute’s World Forum in Sea Island, Georgia, a closed-to-the-press meeting of billionaire GOP donors, tech company CEOs and Republican establishment leaders.
Hillary for prosecution, not president! Join the sizzling campaign to put Mrs. Clinton where she really belongs
The highlight of the meeting was Rove’s presentation of focus group findings in which he argued that encouraging votes for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ohio Gov. John Kasich could derail Trump’s march to the nomination by denying him the plurality of votes he needs to win March 15 “winner take all” primaries in Ohio and Florida.
Rove’s ‘Draft Romney’ strategy
As WND reported Tuesday, if Trump wins both Ohio and Florida, stopping him from gaining 1,237 delegates in the remaining GOP primary contests will be difficult, if not impossible.
By pushing votes for Cruz, Rubio or Kasich, Rove appears to be angling for a “brokered” or “contested” nominating convention in which all delegates would be free to vote their preferences if the first ballot fails to produce a winner.
Mitt Romney’s availability as a possible consensus choice at a brokered convention gained credence with in an interview last Sunday with Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”
See the Fox News interview with Mitt Romney:
“Just slam the door on it. Close the door. Unambiguous – you will not run for president?” Wallace asked Romney after several failed attempts to get him to say whether or not he would accept a draft in a contested nominating convention.
“I’m not running for president, and I won’t run for president,” Romney said.
“OK. This is the kind of thing – the question I’m going to ask you now is why people hate reporters,” Wallace responded. “You say you won’t run for president, but you didn’t rule out a draft. So here is an opportunity.”
From there, the exchange got even more pointed.
ROMNEY: OK, Chris, this is so ridiculous. I’m not going there. You’ve got three people who I’d like to see as the nominee. I’m going to endorse one of them. I’m going to campaign with one of them. I’m not running for president. I’m not planning on running for president. And that’s what it’s all about. You got four people running for president on this stage. One of them will be our nominee. WALLACE: And as General George Sherman said, if nominated, I will not run, if elected, I will not serve? ROMNEY: That’s an absurd — in my opinion, that’s an absurd thing to say. No Republican should say that. That makes no sense for someone to say if they were drafted by their country, that they’d say no. What I can tell you is I’m not running for president. ’m not going to run for president. I’m going to support one of these four people to be our nominee. I’m supporting three of them right now. And that means that we’re going to get one of those people as our nominee. WALLACE: You realize that by saying what you just said that people are going to say he opened the door to a draft?
Romney concluded the discussion by making it clear he would not vote for Trump under any circumstances, preferring to write in a candidate if the real estate billionaire were to become the GOP presidential nominee.
Robo for Rubio, Kasich
On Tuesday, Fox News played a robocall Romney recorded supporting Rubio and Kasich while attacking Trump. It targeted the four states holding GOP primaries March 8 – Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii.
Romney spokesmen insisted the calls were not intended to endorse Rubio or Kasich, adding more evidence Romney had decided to go along with Rove’s strategy of promoting votes for Trump competitors.
The Romney campaign also told Fox News that the robocalls did not mean Romney was entering the race himself. But they gave no indication Romney would rule out a draft nomination.
“Gov. Romney has offered and is glad to help Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich in any way he can,” a source close to Romney said in a statement. “He’s been clear that he believes that Donald Trump is not the best person to represent the Republican Party and will do what he can to support a strong nominee who holds conservative values to win back the White House.”Clarifying the 5+ roles of a “Front-End Web Developer”
Anyone who has looked for a job in this area understands there is widespread confusion about who does what when it comes to designing user experiences (UX) and building user interfaces (UI) in a web browser.
For example, the variety of titles seen in job postings is crazy:
Senior UX Designer
Front-end UX Developer
Web Front-End Application Designer
UI/UX Engineer
Web UI Developer
Front-end UX Ninja
UX/JavaScript Developer
Junior Web Designer
Front-End UX Architect
Web / UI Designer
Senior Front-End Engineer
Front-end Unicorn
etc…
Looking at them in summary, it's usually some formulation of:
(Sr./Jr.)
(Web/Front-End/JavaScript)
(UI/UX)
(Designer/Developer/Engineer/Architect/Ninja/Unicorn)
This is nuts, people. Who are we looking for, exactly? This may partially explain why there are so many terrible web experiences out there.
It's especially frustrating for someone with skills in visual- and/or experience design who is considering what exactly to learn to land a job in the world of the web.
I've spent the last decade of my life “designing” and overseeing the development of web products (working myself mostly as a Rails/JavaScript developer). What I've observed, especially recently with the advent of JavaScript-heavy applications, is that during the design and development process there are at least five distinct jobs that need to get done on the “front-end” alone. These five roles are usually forced upon (or ambitiously tackled by) 1–2 people.
(1) Creative Director
Someone needs to tie in the branding and business objectives of the company into the high-level visual and experience design of the product. This person needs to be a dreamer and influential visionary. If this role is lost at any point in the process, it can lead to team burnout and/or disillusionment with the project.
(2) UX Designer
While the high-level creative direction is being set, a member of the team needs to talk to a zillion potential users and get radically specific about the product objectives, content, views, feel, and flow. While it's best to start prototyping in a web browser ASAP, at this stage getting a decent set of wireframes in place is smart. The UX Designer of the project needs to know what can and cannot be done in a web browser from a technical perspective, and be disciplined about listening carefully to users, staying at this level of product development as long as possible while leaving the bulk of visual work to the UI Designer.
(3) UI Designer
Here is where the mood boards, color boards, and style tiles get rolled out and iterated with the team to figure out what exactly the UIs will look like. The best visual designers don't necessarily (in fact, rarely) make the best UX designers, so it's important to hire someone who can really nail the UIs. This is harder than you think, so set realistic budgets and timelines… (I'm looking at you, hiring manager).
(4) UI Developer
Amazing mockups are useless unless someone can actually bring them alive in web browsers across all devices and screen sizes/resolutions. The best teams move lightning fast through the actual “mockup” stage (making as few as possible) and do most of the prototyping work and subsequent iterations in the web browser itself. The UI Developer, therefore, is responsible mainly for the HTML and CSS. Don't expect your UI Dev to do any heavy-lifting with JavaScript (yes, read that again, I mean it). This is perhaps the most common mistake when hiring the team and building the product. I've learned the hard way (especially when it comes to down-the-road iterations) that it's better to have your UI dev be a strong visual and/or experience designer than a back-end developer.
(5) JavaScript Developer
A JavaScript (JS) developer is essentially a back-end developer (in fact, the best ones are indeed proficient with Node.js) who needs to architect the JS tools to efficiently test the UX and manage the flow of data to/from the back-end. At the same time, the browser performance needs to be rock-solid, consistent with what the UX designer has in mind (slow page rendering is lame). A modern JavaScript developer should be able to discuss with you the cost/benefit of starting your project on Angular.js versus Flux/React (or something else), and be very comfortable with SVG technologies to encourage your visual/experience designers to think bigger about what can be built.
— —
Every company/team thinks about these roles slightly differently, so I'm sure this can be divided in other ways, but the key takeaway is that building great web applications these days requires at least these 5 roles on the “front-end” alone.
[Author's note: I originally wrote this article in December 2014 and had it posted on my personal site here. I've recently migrated and redirected the few articles I had there over to Startup Rocket, including this one. Subscribe to my newsletter and I'll let you know when I get new articles up. Thanks!]The N.C. Association of Educators for years was a major voice in state policy discussions, making weighty endorsements and campaign contributions. The teacher’s organization has been the most consistent opponent of privatized education and charter schools.
As the NCAE’s influence dimmed when Republicans won control of the legislature after the 2010 elections, the power of charter-school supporters grew. Lobbying intensified and campaign contributions flowed.
Charter school advocates since 2011 have made more than $1.7 million in political contributions in the state.
Most of that money came from three people. North Carolina businessman Robert Luddy accounts for about half of that total. Luddy started a charter school and contributes widely to Republican candidates and committees.
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John Bryan of Oregon gave about $600,000 to dozens of Republican candidates and GOP-run political committees.
Another major donor was former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg – but he didn’t always contribute to advocates of charter-school expansion. He gave $250,000 to the state Democratic Party, whose platform raises concerns about the use of charter schools to segregate students, and $5,100 to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who has expressed similar concerns. Bloomberg also contributed $5,100 to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson, a Republican school-choice advocate.
Some charter school supporters have made targeted donations. J.C. Huizenga of Michigan, founder of for-profit charter management company National Heritage Academies, contributed $2,000 to state Senate leader Phil Berger; $2,500 to state Sen. Jerry Tillman, who has pushed for more charter schools and charter-friendly laws; and $1,000 to Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, a Republican school-choice proponent with key roles in choosing state charter school leaders.
Johnson received campaign contributions from charter advocates around the country, including Jon Sackler, an investment executive from Connecticut, and Bloomberg.
Johnson received at least $22,300 from charter school supporters, including $2,000 from Baker Mitchell, who runs a for-profit charter management company with four schools in the state; $500 from Paul Norcross, who runs a for-profit company that manages one school, and $1,000 from Gregg Sinders, who worked at the state legislature and is now the state director for a nonprofit charter school network called TeamCFA, founded by Bryan. Sinders is on the board of directors of a charter school in Holly Springs.
Johnson said campaign contributors have not influenced his thinking.
“These are things I have learned from my own experience,” he said. “If I disagree with the policy, I’m not afraid to say ‘no’ to anyone who gave me money.”
Charter Schools USA CEO Jonathan Hage contributed the maximum amount, $10,200, to Forest and Republican former Gov. Pat McCrory in the last election cycle. Charter Schools USA is a for-profit charter management company.
Hage gave smaller amounts to legislators. From 2014 to 2016, he gave $5,500 to Republican state Rep. Jason Saine of Lincolnton, who helped sponsor a new law that allows companies to employ the teachers in the schools they manage. Before the change, teachers had to work for the schools’ boards of directors. That law also allows charter schools to grow faster and authorizes the state charter school office to help the schools open NC Pre-K programs.
Saine is on the board of directors of West Lake Preparatory Academy, a Charter Schools USA school set to open next year in Lincoln County.
Saine said there was no connection between the new charter school, his support for the new law, and Hage’s contribution to his campaign.
“No connection, just good policy,” he said.
Saine signed on as one of the bill’s primary sponsors, but said that it was mostly the work of another Republican legislator.
Saine said he considers Hage a personal friend. They met five or six years ago, Saine said, when Hage’s company was developing a charter school in Mooresville.
“I’m a long-time supporter of the charter school movement,” Saine said. “Glad to know him as well.”
Forest has said he doesn’t keep track of donations from charter supporters and the money does not “in any way influence the decisions I make.”
“I make the decisions, then people choose to support me because I make the decisions. It doesn’t go the other way around,” he said.Strict vegetarians bite into meat at Indigo Deli, say they’ll go to court.A Jain family, strict adherents of a vegetarian diet, were inadvertently served, and unknowingly consumed a dish of lamb at the reputable Indigo Delicatessen at Palladium on Thursday. The Shahs, who live in Breach Candy and are engaged in the garment trade, were so incensed at their faith being sullied that they attempted to lodge a complaint with the local police, who directed them to take their grievance to consumer court.The staff and management of Indigo, meanwhile, have issued a written apology to the family. Unconvinced, the Shahs have said they will pursue the matter in consumer court.“Five of us were at the deli on Thursday to celebrate my daughter’s birthday,” said Ekta. “We ordered five vegetarian falafel rolls and when we bit into them we realised instantly that something was amiss. The taste was completely different to anything we’d experienced earlier.” When it dawned on them that they’d chewed mouthfuls of lamb rather than chickpea patties, they were aghast. “We instantly summoned the waiter, who admitted to the mistake,” Ekta said. “It came as a shock that we’d eaten non vegetarian food. We rushed to the washroom to clean our tongues.”The Shahs observe a diet that is prescribed by their faith – they abjure meat, fish, eggs, garlic and onions. “And to think that we ate lamb; that too on Dussehra, just after we’d performed Devi pooja,” Ekta exclaimed. “We feel cheated and this incident has hurt our religious sentiments.”The Shahs railed against the slight furiously, upon which Indigo’s assistant manager Shabir Shaik and the chef Sanyo offered a written apology.“We inquired into what happened and it turns out that an order of lamb falafel meant for another family landed up at the Shahs’ table,” said Indigo’s manager, Abhiraj Shekhar. “We are really sorry for what happened. It was not intentional.”Sameer Bhatia from Degustibus Hospitality Private Limited, which handles brand marketing and communications for Indigo Deli, added: “This is the first time such a thing has happened at Indigo. In fact just after this incident occurred, we held a meeting and decided that the chef would use a different coloured garnish in the lamb falafel to set it apart from the vegetarian version so the mistake isn’t repeated.”“Just an apology will not suffice,” Ekta said. “The restaurant should be punished for what we went through and for hurting our sentiments.” The Shahs have consulted with a lawyer and said they will file a suit against Indigo Deli in consumer court.I can see I've been missing a pretty good series of Female PI books, and I will have to fix that. When this one was offered for free, I decided to give this author a try. I like that even though it is a series of stories, they are stand alone and can be read in any order. I was assured of that in one of the reviews, and even though there has been some relationship building in previous books, it didn't leave the reader struggling to figure out the key figures and their relationships. Some definition of who the characters are, and how they interact told in the course of telling this story was handled very well.
There was a generous serving of twists and turns that kept the reader guessing, as the author builds to the ending with just the right amount of tension. For some reason I don't understand, I didn't really warm up to Sarah as I felt I should. She is bright enough, and handles her emotions and reactions well. Her judgment and hunches were usually correct, and she cut her boyfriend a lot of slack when she found out he was working with an ex-girlfriend. I really liked that she didn't jump to conclusions at first. Even though she was skeptical, she still believed in and trusted him. One thing I hate in a story is someone sees or hears one little thing, takes it out of context, and storms out, refusing to listen. At least Sarah waited, listened, and tried to understand.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes a mystery without excessive blood, foul language and descriptive sex scenes. Just a well told mystery, compact size, and interesting.Outsourcing: The word American developers love to hate. There are lots of stories out there about failed efforts that involve offshore development (“offshoring”). I even have a few myself. But this post is not about bashing outsourcing countries, the cheapskates that hire them, or the project managers who can’t control the resulting chaos. This is about understanding why we have such a difficult time making offshore development work before any of those folks get involved.
Airline Disasters and PDI
What got me thinking about this subject was the book Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell. In it, Gladwell discusses the reason for a series of catastrophic airline failures. Without repeating most of his excellent dialogue in the book, here’s the Cliff Notes version:
There was a study by Geert Hofstede, where he tracked the Power Distance |
so much convincing, morally, as performatively flourished. These are not modern ghosts, but the last, already‐dead walking dead of a dead epoch, bobbed about on sticks.
Le Fanu’s ghosts, by contrast, in their moral contingency, are intimations of disaster.(35) Even in his more seemingly traditional ‘moral’ stories, such as ‘Mr Justice Harbottle’ (1872), the nature of the spectral agents of revenge – their inhuman, de‐subject‐ed strangeness, and the repeated intimations that they, victims of injustice, are in hell (‘pallid […] secretly suffering […] glittering eyes and teeth’) makes sense according to no moral accounting. In the extraordinary ‘Green Tea’ (1869), the text’s insinuations that Jennings’s merciless torment at the hands of the abominable monkey spirit is in some way payback – that he is ‘guilty’, that he shows ‘shame’, though for what is unknown – read as morally obscene.
The blurring of the Weird with the ghostly is prefigured in the auditioning of animal spirits as avatars of the monstrous (before the Weird’s demand to be considered cephalopod was clear), in the stark and amoral universe, in the autotelos of the monster (the monkey in ‘Green Tea’ just is), perhaps in the formlessness‐implying shapeshifting of the vampire Carmilla (1872).* For these reasons it is tempting to agree with Sullivan that Le Fanu, rather than the more‐usually‐cited James, is the key revolutionary figure in the so‐called ‘traditional’ ghost‐story that we can now see was a – Weird‐inflected – ‘New Ghostly’.
However, while his fiction is if anything more vatic and perspicacious than James’s (shades of Hodgson and Lovecraft), Le Fanu is a towering interstitial figure. The popular story of his death is so theoretically kitsch on this point that it could have been scripted by a cultural critic. Le Fanu was reputedly a martyr to a recurring nightmare about being crushed to death by the collapse of an old grand mansion. When discovered dead, a horrified look on his face, his doctor was said to have intoned: ‘I feared this. That house fell on him at last.’ The story is tenacious, which, in the face of the fact that it is almost certainly untrue,(36) bespeaks its cultural resonance. Le Fanu’s problematic is the crisis and coming fall of the house of Victoriana (and of the particular colonial upheavals of fading Protestant Ascendancy), and as such foundational to what followed; but the present of which it is a vivid expression is the fringe of a past, rather than the start of a future. His fiction is of end and failure.
The politics of sensory perception are important. Le Fanu, in his masterwork ‘Green Tea’, stresses the malevolent inhuman strangeness of the monkey, but also that it was incorporeal. This was, in ghost‐story terms, not ‘New Ghostly’ but ‘new traditionalism’, uniting Le Fanu with Dickens and other pre‐Weird, fabular‐logic‐wielding ghost‐smiths. As Victorian ghosts grew more ostentatiously moralistic, they decorporealised. (In earlier centuries they had moralised and provided the thrills of physicality: they were often ‘thought capable of moving material objects and of inflicting physical harm […] [and] those who were confronted by ghosts believed that they could inflict material damage by shooting or stabbing the spirit’.)(37)
Central in marking him out as the key figure in this peculiar period, later to be designated the birth of a ghost‐nation, Le Fanu’s disciple M.R. James’s ghosts could be touched, and touch.
3. The Old New Weird Ghostly
James is regularly cited as a – or the – founder of the ‘tradition’ of English ghost stories. It is commonplace to then wryly point out that James’s ghosts are in fact often not ghosts, but inhuman ‘demons’ of one sort or another.38 Lovecraft stressed that James had ‘invent[ed] a new type of ghost’, not ‘pale and stately, and apprehended chiefly through the sense of sight’ but ‘lean, dwarfish, and hairy – a sluggish, hellish night‐abomination midway betwixt beast and man – and usually touched before it is seen’.(39) In the rubble of the Lovecraft Event we can go further: the adversaries of James’s stories are disproportionately and emphatically Weird.
• Touch and touchability is central. James’s is the horror of the physical universe (a trauma that would trace into the obsessive materiality/‐ism of Lovecraft’s horror). It is the cloth‐ness of the notorious face ‘of crumpled linen’ in ‘Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You My Lad’ that makes it so terrible. James even names one of his late stories ‘The Malice of Inanimate Objects’. The touchability of his ‘ghosts’ is not a return to that of their 18th‐century cousins: this is a new (Weird) haptos, with little to do with human somaticism, and everything to do with the horror of matter. The most grotesque moment in ‘The Ash Tree’ is the ‘soft plump, like a kitten’, with which a just‐glimpsed giant spider drops off the bed.
• James’s repeated insistence that he is an ‘antiquary’ is not convincing. He is acutely conscious of capitalist modernity, and a surprising number of his ‘ghosts’ manifest through it. The demon in ‘Casting the Runes’ bizarrely announces its intent by means of an advertisement in a railway carriage. The attack which the runes occasion is brought down quite amorally on whoever took them last, according to the depersonalised passings‐on of bits of paper. The horror is of the universal equivalent in mass commodification: the runes are Bad Money. Most astonishingly, in ‘The Diary of Mr Poynter’, what is haunted is not a scrap of fabric nor the materials with which it is made but the design upon it: it is the copied design, reprinted with explicitly cutting‐edge modern techniques, that is the locus for the apparition. This is the work of hauntology in the age of mechanical reproduction.
• James, like the haute Weird, is largely uninterested in plot, subordinating it to his invented strangeness. Unlike Lovecraft, who might simply dispense with it, to present Weirdness in pulp bricolage, ‘flashed out’, as he puts it, ‘from an accidental piecing together of separated things’,(40) James goes through the motions of plot; but i) his narrative arcs are utterly predictable, and ii) he knows this, and repeatedly uses formulations like ‘I surely do not need to tell you …’ or ‘It will be redundant to conclude…’ or similar. This palpable impatience is underlined by his later increasingly epigrammatic and sparse stories. And like Borges, when he cannot be bothered even with half‐hearted narrative, James simply describes his ideas freed of it, as in ‘Stories I Have Tried to Write’.
• Most important, of his non‐ghost ‘ghosts’, a disproportionate number have appurtenances of the Weird, and read now as startlingly teratologically ahead of their time. His apparitions are hairy (‘The Diary of Mr Poynter’, ‘Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook’), chitinous (‘The Ash‐Tree’), slimy and/or amphibious (‘The Treasure of Abbot Thomas’), totally bizarre (‘The Uncommon Prayer‐Book’), and more than once, tentacled (‘The Treasure of Abbot Thomas’, ‘Count Magnus’).
Today’s ghost stories are, overwhelmingly, exclusively hauntological, their figures revenant dead in time out of joint.(41) This tradition misremembers itself into existence. Many of its claimed foundation texts can only be so anointed in an act of heroic misrepresentation. Neurotically insistent on his own status as a ghost‐story writer James may have been (the titles of his collections reiterate: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), More Ghost Stories …, (1911), A Thin Ghost and Others (1919), A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925)); however, though he is often considered to have perfected or inaugurated such hauntological work, it is not, for the most interesting part, what defines James’s oeuvre.
Nor, though, did he write Weird in any straightforward sense. James does not have the visionary abandon of later haute Weird. His use of more traditional ghosts and/or occasional folk‐ish figures is repeated alongside Weird figures that in shortly forthcoming work would be repudiations of them. James’s corpus represents an under‐one‐roof co‐existence – that would be all but unsustainable at any but that unique fulcrum moment – of what will later be seen to be hauntology and the Weird, the oppositional dyad.
In this context, the key James story is without question ‘Count Magnus’. Here, the ‘strange form’ from whose hood projects ‘the tentacle of a devil‐fish’ – a Weird, inhuman, Cthulhoid figure who sucks faces from bones – is the servant of ‘a man in a long black cloak and broad hat’, a malevolent human ghost. This is an astounding crossover, its categoric transgression eclipsing any Marvel‐DC or Cerebus‐meets‐Teenage‐Mutant‐Ninja‐Turtle shenanigans. James creates the ultimate tag‐team: Hauntology deploys Weird as its sidekick.
4. Jean Painlevé’s Quantum Vampire
There is, in ‘Count Magnus’, and in James in general, no aufhebung of the Weird and hauntological. The two are, I suggest, in non‐dialectical opposition, contrary iterations of a single problematic – hence in ‘Count Magnus’ the peculiarly literal and arithmetic addition of Weird to hauntological (with the latter privileged, precisely because James is, fundamentally, somewhat ghostlier than he is Weird).
Alongside the fantasist’s urge to literalise and concretise problematics, modern – particularly geek – culture is characterised by an accelerating circuit of teratogenesis, new monsters endlessly produced and consumed (exemplified in commodity form by the innumerable RPG and video‐game bestiaries; by the coquetry with which films hint at and protect their ‘monster shot’; by Pokémon, which deployed the cultural addiction as its slogan: ‘Gotta catch ’em all!’).
If the contradiction between Weird and hauntological was sublatable, then such drives would surely have led to the monstrous embodiment of any putative ‘resolved’ third term between Weird and haunt.
Nor is it difficult to imagine what such a synthesis would be. The outstanding synecdochic signifier for a revenant human dead is the skull – mind‐seat now empty‐eyed, memento mori, grinning, screaming.(42) The nonpareil iteration of the embodied Weird is the tentacle, and by suspiciously perfect chance, the most Weird‐ly mutable – formless – of all tentacled animals is the octopus, the body of which, a bulbous, generally roundish shape distinguished by two prominent eyes, is vaguely homologous with a human skull.
The shapes are ready, and take little to combine: the Weird‐hauntological monster is clearly a tentacled skull (see below for my own rendition).
Considering the fecundity and vigour of the teratological drive, the symbolic resonance of its constituents and their apparent topological compatibility for easy crossbreeding, the extreme rarity of the skulltopus in culture is mysterious. There are a very few examples, but the pickings are astoundingly meagre.(43) There is clearly something not right about it – the two components may imply one another but are resistant to syncrex, and the categorical unease this occasions denies the figure proliferation. The Weird and the hauntological generally relate to each other not by sublation, nor, pace James, by addition, but by either‐one‐or‐the‐otherness, in a manner suggestive of quantum superposition.
Bataille’s favourite anarcho‐visionary marine biologist, Jean Painlevé, understood this. His 1945 ‘Le Vampire’44 contains extraordinary footage of an octopus lasciviously crawling over a human skull very similar to it in shape and proportion. The octopus should, with that oozability of Weird skin, merge with the skull to become a skulltopus.
That event is the asymptote of the interaction we see – but of course it does not happen, because it cannot.
Jean Painlevé, ‘Le Vampire’ (Science is Fiction BFIVD17190)
Instead, Painlevé shows us the unstable haptic flirtation of the two without merger. Those seconds are fleeting – the intervening years have distinguished the traditions of skull and octopus, and James’s ingenious ‘Count Magnus’ solution would be hard to pull off now – but are the heart of the film (which otherwise pretends to be about vampire bats and ticks). They are the outstanding cultural example of the superposition of Weird and hauntological. We cannot sustain the skulltopus; as close as we can come is Painlevé’s skull‐and‐octopus‐interaction quantum vampire.
5. Neoliberalism, the Skull and the Octopus
Hauntology and Weird are two iterations of the same problematic – that of crisis‐blasted modernity showing its contradictory face, utterly new and traced with remnants, chaotic and nihilist and stained with human rebukes. We can see these tendencies of the fantastic pulling at each other in the years since James, who inaugurates their contrary twinned birth, in waves of varying speeds depending on the ideological moment. At times one or other iteration might be dominant, but neither can ever efface the other. Opposed but not separable, the traces of the Weird are inevitably sensible in a hauntological work, and vice versa.
The degree to which one or the other has been stronger has affected the tendency towards their separation as genres of thought and pulp. Since the 1970s their ‘separateness’ has become dominant, not because there is a ‘drive to separate’, but as a corollary of the oscillating efficacy of as‐simon‐pure‐as‐possible Weird and/or hauntology, for thinking our fraught and oppositional history since the end of Keynesianism, that great Cthulhu‐swat and ghostbuster.
In quick and dirty caricature, with the advent of the neoliberal There Is No Alternative, the universe was an ineluctable, inhuman, implacable, Weird, place. More recently, however, as Eagleton haunto‐illiterately points out, the ghosts have come back, in numbers, with the spectral rebuke that there was an alternative, once, so could be again.
We do not get to choose, however – and why would we want to? If we live in a haunted world – and we do – we live in a Weird one.
This essay is available in PDF form from Collapse.
* The original version of this essay erroneously conflated the fate of Helen Vaughan from Machen’s ‘The Great God Pan’ with Carmilla’s. I am very grateful to Theodora Goss for pointing out this embarrassing geek fail.
END NOTES
(1) S.T. Joshi’s periodisation of the golden age of Weird as 1880 – 1940 is persuasive (S.T. Joshi, The Weird Tale, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990).
(2) I have argued this elsewhere: ‘Introduction’ to H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness (NY: Random House, 2005); presentation at the ‘Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Theory’ event, London, Goldsmiths, 26 April 2007; ‘Weird Fiction’, in Mark Bould and Sherryl Vint (eds.), Routledge Companion to Science Fiction (London: Routledge, 2008 [forthcoming]).
(3) In his contribution to the ‘Weird Realism’ event in 2007 (see previous note).
(4) William Hope Hodgson, The House on the Borderland, and Other Novels (London: Gollancz, 2002), 28 – 29.
(5) Named by Reza Negarestani for Pierre Dénys de Montfort (1766 – 1820), pioneering and dissident French malacologist, author of, among others, the multi‐volume Histoire Naturelle Générale et Particulière des Mollusques (6 volumes [1 – 4 only by de Montfort]Paris: F. Dufart, 1801 – 5), which took seriously the existence of the ‘kraken octopus’ and ‘colossal octopus’, and included still‐iconic illustrations.
(6) In fact the animal is, fittingly, slightly evasive of precise taxonomy: it is described as a ‘poulpe’, usually translated ‘octopus’, and as ‘calmar’, ‘squid’. Though it seems to resemble the latter more than the former, with eight limbs it is lacking the squid’s two longer hunting arms. It has also been translated into English as an ‘immense cuttlefish’, ‘devil‐fish’, and indeed as a ‘poulp’.
(7) All quotations from Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, translated by William Butcher (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, revised 2001. Available at: http://home.netvigator.com/~wbutcher/books/20t.htm.)
(8) What Lovecraft calls ‘Cosmic alienage or “outsideness”’ (H.P. Lovecraft, Notes on Writing Weird Fiction, 1937. Among many other locations, see: http://www.geocities.com/soho/cafe/1131/14notesen.htm).
(9) Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [emphasis added].
(10) Victor Hugo, The Toilers of the Sea, translated by James Hogarth (New York: Random House, 2002), 350 – 352.
(11) Ibid., 351.
(12) Ibid., 354.
(13) Ibid., 355.
(14) ‘poulpes’ – octopuses, properly.
(15) The Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror & The Complete Works, translated by Alexis Lykiard (Cambridge: Exact Change, 1994), 101, 103.
(16) http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Sea_Raiders
(17) Simultaneous with the increase of its formlessness and historylessness, its efficacy as placeholder for the unrepresentable, the octopus’s somatic specificity – its spreading tentacles – also saw it increasingly deployed in satire as symbol for the ‘new imperialism’.
(18) William Hope Hodgson, The Wandering Soul (Hornsea: Ps Publishing/Tartarus Press, 2005), 384.
(19) Personal communication.
(20) Which is why, despite the seeming isomorphism of interests and recent inevitable cross‐fertilisation, haute Weird is radically opposed to the sub‐genre of pornographic ‘hentai’ manga and anime known as ‘tentacle rape’.
(21) Jacques Derrida, Specters of Marx (London: Routledge, 1994): et, subsequently, very many al.
(22) Sigmund Freud, ‘The Uncanny’ (1919). < http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/uncanny.html>.
(23) William Hope Hodgson, ‘The Hog’ (1947) http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff4/hog.htm.
(24) Algernon Blackwood, ‘The Willows’ (1907). <http://www.Gutenberg.org/files/11438/11438.txt>; H.P. Lovecraft, ‘Supernatural Horror in Literature’ (1927). http://www. yankeeclassic.com/miskatonic/library/stacks/literature/lovecraft/essays/supernat/supern00.htm.
(25) Terry Eagleton, ‘Mark Neocleous: The Monstrous and the Dead: Burke, Marx, Fascism’, Radical Philosophy,137, May/June 2006: 45 – 47, at 45.
(26) Sasha Handley, Visions of an Unseen World: Ghost Beliefs and Ghost Stories in Eighteenth Century England (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2007), 8.
(27) Jack Sullivan, Elegant Nightmares: The English Ghost Story from Le Fanu to Blackwood (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1978), 9. While praising the book in her invaluable bibliography on the supernatural, Jessica Amanda Salmonson takes Sullivan to task for the ‘obscene impression that there were no women writers of ghost stories in England’. http://www.violetbooks.com/bib-research.html
(28) Julia Briggs, Night Visitors: The Rise and Fall of the English Ghost Story (London: Faber 1977), 12.
(29) Joshi, Weird Tale, 2.
(30) Briggs, Night Visitors, 12.
(31) Peter Penzoldt, The Supernatural in Fiction (London: Peter Nevill, 1952), 12 n.12.
(32) Srdjan Smajic, ‘The Trouble with Ghost‐Seeing: Vision, Ideology, and Genre in the Victorian Ghost Story’, ELH, 70:4, Winter 2003, 1107 – 1136, at 1131.
(33) Handley, Visions, 134.
(34) Le Fanu’s masterly ‘Green Tea’ appearing in All the Year Round in 1869. 6 – 19.
(35) Sullivan is excellent on this point, and I draw on him here extensively. Elegant Nightmares, 32 – 68.
(36) Jim Rockhill, ‘Introduction’, in J Sheridan Le Fanu, Mr Justice Harbottle and Others (Ashcroft, BC: Ash‐Tree Press, 2004). xii‐xv.
(37) Handley, Visions, 9.
(38) See for example Rosemary Pardoe, ‘MR James and the Testament of Solomon’ (1999). http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/ArchiveSolIntro.html
(39) Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror.
(40) Lovecraft, ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.
(41) Of the sixteen stories in the acclaimed recent collection of ‘new ghost stories’ The Dark (New York: Tor, 2003), various innovations of approach notwithstanding, there is only really one story (‘One Thing About the Night’, by Terry Dowling) in which the haunt is not a revenant function of the human (and it is not Weird, but the dark of the collection’s title). Even more telling is All Hallows, the journal of the Ghost Story Society, that contains, according to its own guidelines, work ‘in the style of the classic supernatural tale’, listing James as its first exemplar. Of the 23 stories in a recent bumper issue (All Hallows 43, Summer 2007), one contains a hint of the genuinely Weird (‘The Reflection’, by S.D. Tullis, haunted both by ghosts and by the ‘wrinkled tentacles’ (253) which may have trapped them in a mirror). For the others, two time‐slips and one imp aside, to be a ghost story is, reasonably enough but innovatively, and in contradiction to James, definitionally to be a story of a ghost.
(42) See for example The Screaming Skull directed by Alex Nichol (1958); F. Marion Crawford’s ‘The Screaming Skull’ (in Uncanny Tales, London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1911).
(43) There is a five‐second animation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly2jNr1_nro)); an illustration (http://tachyonmkg.deviantart.com/art/skulltopus-11383138); a hipster t‐shirt (http://www.HowlingGoodTshirts.com/marketplace/87072931/skulltopus_t_shirt); and, most impressively, Becky Cloonan’s cover illustration for her comic East Coast Rising Volume 2 (Los Angeles: Tokyopop, 2008 (forthcoming)), visible online at http://stabstabstab.deviantart.com/art/wrist-hurts-in-color-66012269.
(44) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjNh0uZCCLc
Early version of the skulltopus, by China Miéville…Well, I'd meant to try this when it was really cold out again, since I have never done it. You take a cup of water, get it to boil, then throw it up in the air and watch it turn to vapor. I was out at my parent's the night before, when I remembered I wanted to do it. It was 15 out and we tried and it worked pretty well. I didn't have a camera and it was getting dark out anyway, so I didn't get any pictures of it then. But, some wheels started to roll on doing it the next day with the camera. So here I am, Sunday the 10th. I'm by myself doing it and having to use the cable release, or the timer.
I'm fairly camera shy, so before I went out, I put my hood up. That's the only reason I thought to put my hood up. Good thing I did. The lens I'm using here is at 10mm, giving about 107 degree view on my Digital Rebel. The top of the frame is almost straight up. Well, silly me throws the thing straight up, thinking that since it was 5 out today that it would just all evaporate. I look down as it is up in the air and a bunch of it lands on the back of my neck. It was very warm, but thank god I had my hood up. I was aware of the obvious risks of throwing boiling water around, but was mostly just thinking about my face and making sure to look away and close my eyes.
I couldn't just be happy with one cup, had to up things with dual cups! Timing things wasn't horribly easy. The light blinks, then it goes steady before the shutter fires. It's a 10 second timer, so I set things down where I want them, go to the camera, push the button and get back and try to time it right.
Why stop with a cup or two? How about a pan!
Well, that pan wasn't big enough, time to up it some more! I thought screw it, I'll find the biggest pan they have and do it. Notice this pan above has little handles on the side, where the one before has the longer single type handle. This is a big pan/pot. It has to hold 2 gallons, as big and deep as it is. I obviously timed it badly here. I stood up and couldn't see the blinking light on the camera next to the lens. I had to move over some first. I was amazed at the size of cloud 2 gallons of boiling water makes. I get back to the camera and it's still floating up in the air to the south, taller than a house.
Woohoo! I made sure to throw it much sooner this time, since the cloud would be in the air fairly long anyway. It'd just be hard to throw it too soon, since the cloud would grow so big. It took some time between each of these as I'd have to bring another huge pot to boil. Throwing it north, into the breeze wasn't too scary since the vapor didn't seem threatening. I just had to make sure not to fling the water towards my face at all. It gets a bit tricky trying to really heave 2 gallons or so into the air. I was sort of pissed I couldn't get several frames per throw. The only reason I got 3 frames on the first one on here is because it was on bracket mode and I didn't realize it when I pushed the cable release, holding it down firing all three off. I didn't see any way to get the self timer mode to fire 3 consecutive shots off. Since I was alone there just was no way to do it....at least not on throws like this that require both hands. So I was stuck with one frame each pot.
Number 3 with the big big pot! I got the timing a little better, but I'm wasting some of the frame...the left side. On the far right/north you can see the water falling down toward the driveway. I wanted to do it that way as it would give the water more time in the air. This cloud would grow even more and float off to the left/south and up into the air. I'd already spent enough time playing with this, and didn't want to wait on another big pot to boil, but I wanted one more try to fill more of the frame(in other words toss it left from the right side, and time it so the cloud has fully grown...none on here do justice to how big it gets with this much water). So I thought, ok one last one. I should have just stopped, lol. It's that "one more" that always gets you. I soon remembered why it was framed in the middle like this. If I got further to the left here I couldn't see the timer light blinking, since the lens would get in the way. So my only option was to move the frame left, stand on the far right side, and throw the next pot south/left.
So here I am on my final try, throwing left this time. This was the first and only one I threw left with the big pot. I'm not sure what I did different, but this throw sucked in a hurry! The water isn't just hot, it's boiling hot. As soon as I heave it out, I feel a wave of it go right down in my left glove.
Crop from picture above. The glove is just landing, as I quickly flung it off of my hand. I'm clinching my left hand as I think to myself,......."oh crap". It only briefly stung a hair. It was not severe pain at all. Then I felt no pain. For about the first 1 to 2 minutes there was no pain.
After the 1 to 2 minutes went by, the pain kicked in bad. I kept running cool water on it and it kept burning. If I left it out of the water it quickly turned into severe pain. It would go in waves of about a minute gap. It'd be just bad pain for a bit, then it would really freaking hurt and burn to where you couldn't stand it. Then it'd go back...then it'd come back....back and forth. I finally just got a pan and left it in the water. After awhile it was content if it was in there. If I took it out it would quickly hurt again.
I've never burned anything that bad before. I've bumped my hand into a hot pan a time or two, enough to give a small blister, but nothing over a larger area like this. I can't even begin to imagine what severe burn victims go through. Next time I get gung ho about throwing large pans of boiling water, I'm taping the gloves closed and wearing some kind of facial protection. I still don't get how the water went that direction. It had to have sloshed wrong before I went to throw it. It amazes me how little pain at first can be followed by such intense pain.
4 days later. I thought it was nearly finished healing, till I barely bumped it. Guess the whole layer of skin needs to come off and heal that layer underneath yet.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday gave the green signal to a slew of infrastructure projects in Mumbai and Pune, besides inaugurating the new campus of SEBI’s National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) during his daylong visit to Maharashtra.
Modi also laid the foundation for a Rs 3,600-crore grand memorial for Shivaji Maharaj off the Mumbai city coast, an event that comes a few months ahead of the civic polls and amid tussle among parties to claim the legacy of the 17th century warrior king.
Here are the highlights of Modi’s visit
8.20pm: After 8th November, urban local bodies have seen a rise in their income. This makes it possible to spend more resources of development: PM Modi
8.15pm: Those who governed earlier did not act (against black money) hence I had to take harsh steps, says PM Modi.
8.12pm: In this nation everybody is equal before the law and everyone has to follow the law: PM Modi
8.10pm: Parliament passed a law on benami property in 1988 but was never implemented, says PM Modi.
8.05pm: Earlier, infrastructure was only about roads, rail and airports. Now, we need to cater to people’s expectations too: PM Modi
8pm: The gains of the present are vital but we need systems that cater to the needs and aspirations of the future too, says PM Modi in Pune.
7.55pm: India is urbanising at a very quick pace & thus, its essential to work in 2 directions. It’s essential to improve quality of life in villages while we mitigate the challenges that our urban areas are facing: PM Modi
7.50pm: PM Modi lays the foundation stone for the Pune Metro project
7.30pm: We will make Pune, the start-up capital of India, says Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis
7pm: Narendra Modi arrives in Pune. NCP chief Sharad Pawar shares dais with the PM at the metro rail foundation function.
5:20pm:Modi concludes his speech at the Bandra Kurla complex and leaves for Pune.
5:19pm:This fight will continue until we win it, says PM Modi, stressing his resolve to root out graft.
5:18pm:The country is not ready to tolerate corruption anymore, says Modi.
5:17pm:This is a cleanliness campaign (demonetisation) for the betterment of the country, the PM says.
5:14pm: After 50 days, the hardship faced by the honest will start to ease. But problems faced by the dishonest will increase, says Modi.
5:11pm: There were efforts to mislead and even intimidate people but they supported us in the battle against corruption and black money, says Modi.
5:10pm: We sounded the bugle, launched a decisive fight against black money and corruption on November 8, Modi says referring to his government’s demonetisation exercise.
5:06pm: Who says India can’t change? The strength of 125 crore Indians will bring about the change. The country will advance, says Modi.
5:04pm: We have taken up the task to supply cooking gas to the poor, says Modi.
5:00pm: Development is the solution to every problem, says Modi. “Development is our focal point.”
4:58pm: Modi thanks the people of Maharashtra.
Performing the Jan Pujan of #ShivSmarak was very special. Glad I got the opportunity: PM @narendramodi — PMO India (@PMOIndia) December 24, 2016
4:52pm: Modi says Shivaji’s courage is famous, talks of other aspects of his character. The PM goes on to laud Shivaji’s policies on water and currency management.
4:50pm: Shivaji Maharaj was a multifaceted personality, Modi says, adding that so many aspects of his personality inspire us.
4:46pm: Even in the midst of struggle, Shivaji Maharaj remained a torchbearer of good governance, tweets the official handle of the Prime Minister’s Office, quoting Modi.
4:44pm: In his address at Bandra Kurla Complex, PM Modi showers praises on Chhatrapati Shivaji.
4:32pm: Modi lays the foundation stone for two metro corridors and other projects at the MMRDA grounds.
Hon PM @narendramodi performs Bhumipujan for Metro 2B (D.N. Nagar-BKC-Mankhurd) in Mumbai; project cost ₹10,986crore with 23.5km long route. pic.twitter.com/1w2mS86UFb — CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) December 24, 2016
3:44pm: Before that, PM Modi pays floral tributes to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue at MMRDA grounds.
3:15pm: The Prime Minister will now head for the inauguration of the Mumbai and Pune metro projects.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis (right) and Uddhav Thackeray, the leader of BJP ally Shiv Sena, in Mumbai. (Photo: PIB/Twitter)
3:10pm: PM Modi reaches land at Girgaum Chowpatty after performing rituals for the start of the Rs 3600-crore Shivaji memorial project.
3:00pm: Modi also took photographs with the crew of the hovercraft who took him out to sea.
The statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in the middle of Arabian Sea pic.twitter.com/j6mk8s5yMH — ANI (@ANI_news) December 24, 2016
2:57pm: Modi drops holy water and mud into the sea at the location where the Shivaji memorial will come up, 4km off Mumbai’s Marine Drive.
PM Narendra Modi performs Jal Pujan for Chhatrapati Shivaji memorial in Mumbai pic.twitter.com/1CVCDQPc4y — ANI (@ANI_news) December 24, 2016
2:53pm: PM Modi en route to the location for the ‘bhumi puja’ in the Arabian sea on board a hovercraft.
2:41pm: PM Modi arrives at Girgaum Chowpatty for the foundation-laying ceremony.
Mumbai: PM Narendra Modi reaches Girgaum Chowpatty, Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maha CM also present #ShivajiMemorial pic.twitter.com/48RsZGyHiC — ANI (@ANI_news) December |
Jr. and Kushner struck deals to avoid having to testify openly. The committee initially thought it had a deal with Manafort, but it fell through and late Monday Grassley and Feinstein subpoenaed him.
Feinstein told reporters Tuesday afternoon she doubted Manafort would ultimately testify and that negotiations with his lawyer were ongoing. She said she wanted the hearing to get back to its original focus.
“The hearing was supposed to focus on FARA,” she said. “This is just an addition to it at the end.”
Update: Fusion GPS sent me the following statement after this article posted:
“Let’s be clear about what’s happening: The President’s political allies are going after Fusion GPS because it was reported to be the first to raise the alarm about the Trump campaign’s links with Russia.”Student volunteers at the Bristol and Avon Law Centre have overturned 95 per cent of Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) decisions made over the last two years in relation to 200 claimants who challenged the DWP’s assertion that they were fit for work.
The students have won £1m in compensation over that period, securing an average £5,000 in welfare benefits for every person wrongly declared fit for work. The £1m milestone, reached last week, coincided with the revelation that 2,380 people died shortly after being declared fit for work between 2011 and 2014.
The 95 per cent rate contrasts with the 59 per cent national rate. In order to win cases, students represented their clients at benefit appeals in front of a judge and doctor. The project recruits only the best law students to ensure best results for vulnerable clients. All University of the West of England volunteers received first class degrees on graduation.
The coalition government made £17bn of welfare cuts between May 2010 and May 2015. The current government aims to make another £12bn of savings over the next three years. Legal aid for those wishing to challenge benefit entitlements has been severely restricted.
Law Centre welfare benefits adviser Andy King said: “Our students have provided much needed legal help to over 200 vulnerable individuals who wouldn’t know where to start in challenging the decision that they are fit for work.
“Due to the cuts in legal aid, we could only help a tiny fraction of that number without the law students. I am confident the law centre can build on the project’s success, helping a lot more people that cannot afford to pay for legal advice.”
See alsoFRESNO, Calif. – The United Soccer League (USL) has awarded a franchise to a Fresno investor group headed by local businessman Ray Beshoff. At a press conference earlier today at Chukchansi Park, USL President Jake Edwards officially presented Mr. Beshoff with the franchise for Fresno Football Club. Fresno will join Nashville SC and one more club to be announced for the 2018 USL season.
“As professional soccer continues to grow in this country, the USL stands at the forefront, leading the sport’s next phase of expansion to fantastic markets like Fresno,” said USL CEO Alec Papadakis. “Fresno is a vibrant community with passionate soccer fans, a strong corporate base, and a regional population of nearly one million people. Today’s announcement is another step toward the USL’s goal of becoming one of the best Division II professional soccer leagues in the world, on par with the English Championship, Liga Adelante and 2. Bundesliga. Our success is possible due to the league’s strong ownership group, one of the best in professional soccer, and we welcome Ray and his team to the family. We are thrilled to be a part of this community, and officially welcome another fantastic club to the USL.”
Mr. Beshoff proudly unveiled the new club’s name, Fresno Football Club, at the press event. “We wanted to pick a name that the entire Fresno community would be proud of,” Mr. Beshoff said. He also announced that the team will start playing its regular season games in March 2018 at Chukchansi Park, which is the current home of the Premier Development League’s Fresno Fuego.
Mayor Lee Brand, who spoke at the conference, noted that the City of Fresno was working with the club to provide a high-quality fan experience at the venue. Certain modifications will be completed in time for the March kickoff.
The team’s General Manager, Frank Yallop, a two-time Major League Soccer Coach of the Year and former English Premier League player, unveiled the team’s crest and logo. The crest incorporates elements that are unique to Fresno’s identity, with colors drawn from the city flag, as well as an ash leaf above the team name. Mr. Yallop noted that Fresno in Spanish means ash tree and the logo was designed with that identification in mind. “It is a symbol for the community,” Mr. Yallop said. “One we hope the community will be proud to wear.”In a match contested between two kabaddi giants, India beat a resolute Iran side 38-29 to Kabaddi World Cup for the third time in a row. Riding on a terrific performance by Ajay Thakur’s 12 points, the hosts produced a strong comeback in the second half at the TransStadia Arena in Ahmedabad on Saturday to send the packed crowd into raptures.
The final was like a boxing bout as both teams traded punches and gave it as good as they got. India struck the early blows as Sandeep Narwal and Ajay Thakur scored raid points to lead 2-0 in the third minute. Meraj Sheykh scored Iran’s first point as they leveled the game at 2-2 in the fourth minute. Iran’s defence were up for it as they contained Pardeep Narwal effectively and then sent Ajay Thakur to the bench to lead 5-4 in the eighth minute.
The match lived up to its expectations as both teams fought hard and refused to give an inch. Skipper Anup Kumar scored his trademark bonus point to level the scores at 6-6 in the 10th minute. Meraj Sheykh scored with an excellent raid and reduced India to just three men as Iran led 9-7 in the 13th minute. India’s defence had a below par first 15 minutes as they scored just one tackle point. Iran reduced India to just two men but a brilliant super tackle by Mohit Chhillar the 16th minute to cut the lead to just one point again.
Meraj Sheykh continued to be a thorn in the Indian defence but Nitin Tomar came up with a brilliant raid and scored two points in the 18th minute as India trailed 11-12. India were again reduced to just one man and Iran inflicted the first all out of the match in the 19th minute to lead 16-12. The first half belonged Iran’s defence as they did a brilliant job on Indian raiders as they led 18-13 at the end of the first half. Both Manjeet Chhillar and Pardeep Narwal scored zero points and their subdued performances hurt India’s chances.
Iran made India commit errors as Meraj Sheykh forced Manjeet Chhillar off the court during a raid to lead 19-13 in the 23rd minute. Ajay Thakur scored two points in the 25th minute as India cut the lead to three points and sent Fazel Atrachali and Meraj Sheykh to the bench. Iran sent Pardeep Narwal to the bench yet again as they led 20-17 in the 28th minute. The tide turned for India when Ajay Thakur scored his ninth point in the 29th minute to level the game at 20-20. India inflicted their first all out the match in the 30th minute to lead 24-21 as they took their biggest lead of the match.
The all out was perhaps the fillip India needed as Ajay Thakur completed his super 10 and sent Meraj Sheykh to the bench. India led 26-21 with nine minutes to go. TransStadia Arena was a cauldron of noise and passion as India played it smart once they had the lead.
Nitin Tomar produced another excellent raid in the 34th minute as India led 29-22 and reduced Iran to just two men. Fazel Atrachali forced a super tackle in the 35th minute as Iran trailed 24-29. Ajay Thakur all but sealed the match in India’s favour in the 37th minute as he scored two points and India inflicted another all out to take an unassailable 34-24 lead. Meraj Sheykh scored with a two-point raid in the 28th minute as Iran trailed 27-34.
Surjeet, however, produced an excellent tackle on Sheykh in the 39th minute as India led 35-27. A terrific second half performance saw India emerge victorious as they won 38-29 to become the world champions for the third time.SfC Home > Physics > Thermal Energy >
Temperature Scales
by Ron Kurtus (revised 13 November 2014)
A temperature scale is a way to indicate or measure temperature relative to a starting point (0 or zero) and a unit of measurement. This is usually done by defining some physical occurrences at given temperatures—such as the freezing and boiling points of water—and defining them as 0 and 100 respectively. Then the unit can be determined by dividing the range into 100 units or degrees.
The major temperature scales used are the Fahrenheit, Celsius, and Kelvin scales.
The first major temperature scale was the Fahrenheit scale, which is still used in the United States. Its temperature unit is somewhat awkwardly defined. Afterwards, the centigrade or Celsius scale was established. Celsius is considered metric or SI and is used throughout most of the world. The Kelvin scale is a variation of the Celsius scale that starts at absolute zero and is used in scientific measurements and in many heat-related calculations.
You can use a formula to convert a temperature in one scale to another.
Questions you may have include:
How was the Fahrenheit scale determined?
What are the Celsius and Kelvin scales?
How do you convert between scales?
This lesson will answer those questions. Useful tool: Units Conversion
Fahrenheit
Around 1700, a German scientist Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the thermometer by putting water in a thin glass tube. The warmer the temperature, the higher the water went up the tube.
To be able to measure temperature with numbers, Fahrenheit had to determine a unit of measurement. Just as the measurement of weight and length was based on multiples of an arbitrary unit of measurement (the pound, gram, inch, meter), the measurement of temperature is based on an arbitrary unit of measurementthe degree.
Fahrenheit defines units
Fahrenheit used his body temperature as 100° F (100 degrees Fahrenheit) and the freezing temperature of saturated salt water as 0° F. He marked those levels on his thermometer and divided the scale into 100 parts for each degree.
Poor choices
The choices of his body temperature for 100° F and the freezing temperature of salt water for 0° F were unfortunate.
Fahrenheit's metabolism was higher than most people, so 100° F for him resulted in 98.6° F as the body temperature for the average person.
Fahrenheit designated the freezing temperature of water saturated with salt as 0° F. But that certainly is not the coldest temperature you can experience in winter weather. It also makes the freezing point of water an awkward 32° F. Since ocean water is not saturated with salt, it freezes at 28° F.
U.S. still uses it
What is more amazing than this poor selection of temperature units is the fact that countries such as Great Britain and the United States embraced that system of measurement. England has since gone to the the Celsius scale, while the U.S. still stays with the Fahrenheit scale.
Metric temperature units
The metric or SI (System International) units of temperature are Celsius and Kelvin.
Celsius
About 20 years after Fahrenheit invented the thermometer, Swedish professor Anders Celsius defined a better scale for measuring temperature. He proposed using the boiling point of water as 100° C and the freezing point of water as 0° C. This made a lot more sense, and it was called the centigrade system. (Centi- means hundred and centigrade means divided into 100 units.)
The centigrade scale was used until the 1960s, when the scientific community renamed it the Celsius system in honor of the inventor. Some people still call it the centigrade scale.
Europe and most of the world measures temperature in Celsius units.
Kelvin
For scientific work with the energy of molecules, it is good to have a starting point where the energy level is at a lowest possible state. This point is called absolute zero.
The Kelvin scale was determined based on the Celsius scale, but with a starting point at absolute zero. Temperatures in the Kelvin scale are 273 degrees less than in the Celsius scale. Thus absolute zero is -273° C and the boiling point of water 100° C is 373 K or 373 kelvins.
Note: There is no degree sign (°) when using the Kelvin scale. Don't ask me why. That is just the way they wanted to do it.
There is also the Rankine scale, which also starts at absolute zero but is based on the Fahrenheit scale. Since most scientific work is done based on the Kelvin scale, the Rankine scale for absolute temperatures is seldom used.
Converting between systems
Because Fahrenheit is used in the United States and Celsius is used almost everywhere else, you may have to convert degrees from one system to another. A simple way of doing that is by using the following conversion application:
Temperature Converter
Enter a number in one box and then Click Here.
Use the reset button to clear the numbers.
°F °C Click Here
If you have to learn to make the calculation by hand, the following equations are used:
Celsius to Fahrenheit
The formula to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit is:
F = 9C/5 + 32
In other words, if C = 100° C (boiling point of water), then
F = (9 x 100)/5 + 32 = 212° F
Fahrenheit to Celsius
The formula to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius is:
C = 5(F - 32)/9
In other words, if F = 50° F, then
C = 5*(50 - 32)/9 = 5*(18)/9 = 10° C
Celsius to Kelvin
Converting from degrees Celsius to Kelvin is simple.
K = C + 273
Thus, if C = 10° C, the Kelvin temperature would be 283 K.
Summary
Temperature is designated as a multiple of a unit of temperature. There are three major temperature scales used, The United States uses the Fahrenheit system of temperature units. The metric unit of temperature is Celsius, which is used throughout most of the world. A scientific unit is the Kelvin, used in many heat-related calculations.
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School for ChampionsDennis Prager and Adam Carolla have launched a crowdfunding campaign for their No Safe Spaces documentary.
A video previewing the film features students attending the fictional "Utopia University," where they get to identify as whomever or whatever they want, "check their privilege," and punch any "fascist" who dares disagree with them. A professor explains that at Utopia students will be taught to think "the right way."
Eventually, Carolla pops up and states, "That doesn't even look like parody to me. You could run that after Don Lemon's show on CNN and it would just play as a commercial."
The documentary will feature Prager and Carolla traveling to various college campuses across the fruited plain to expose the lunacy of so-called safe spaces and conduct interviews with "students, professors, commentators and comedians from both sides of the political aisle about freedom of speech," per Townhall. The dynamic duo will also be featured in live shows.
Among the college campuses that Prager and Carolla travel to are California State University Northridge and University of California Berkeley.
A crowdfunding campaign for the movie can be found on the Indiegogo website, where they hope to reach a fundraising goal of $500,000. The campaign has raised $127,945 at the time of this writing.
"We’re not making this film to solve all of America’s problems, but we are making this film to wake the country up to the fact that we've become a place that’s no longer adult enough to discuss ideas," the Indiegogo page states. "And there’s no more dangerous place to talk about ideas than on college campuses."
The site also features various No Safe Spaces items to purchase, such as a No Safe Spaces coloring book, a t-shirt featuring the word "college" with a pacifier right underneath it and a "Utopian University" diploma. All it takes is $25 to receive a digital copy of the film.
The film is slated to be released in 2018, during either the spring or the summer.
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Gianluigi Buffon has again claimed both Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson failed to sign him before the goalkeeper's world-record move to Juventus.
The 39-year-old is gearing up for his third Champions League final as the Serie A champions take on holders Real Madrid, having lost on two previous occasions in 2003 and 2015.
Buffon has won nine Scudettos and the World Cup during 16 years with the Old Lady but was approached by Arsenal and Manchester United before making a €53 million (£33m) move from Parma in 2001.
A world-record fee for a keeper which still stands, though Manchester City this week paid £35m for Ederson but the deal was valued at a smaller conversion of €40m.
“From what I know, there have been three serious times when English clubs made an approach for me," Buffon is quoted as saying by The Mirror.
“Two of them were when I was a young player at Parma, and I know Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger asked about me – and then, when Manchester City was taken over, I know they approached Juventus.
“There are many reasons why none of the deals happened. Even though the Premier League is a special league, I have always wanted to stay loyal to Juventus.
“I have always been very successful here. I would not have changed anything.”
Buffon has previously confirmed interest from Arsenal, adding that Wenger went as far as meeting him, telling BT Sport: "I remember when I was 20 years old in 1998, I had dinner once with Wenger."
England No.1 David Seaman was still Arsenal's undisputed first-choice goalkeeper at the same, with Arsenal winning the Premier League and FA Cup double in the same year.KABUL: At least 30 people were killed and hundreds wounded when a Taliban truck bomb tore through central Kabul and a fierce firefight broke out Tuesday, a week after the insurgents launched their annual spring offensive.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a densely crowded neighbourhood, which sent clouds of acrid smoke billowing into the sky and rattled windows several kilometres away.
Smoke rises after a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, April 19, 2016. ─ AP
The brazen assault in a densely packed neighbourhood marks the first major Taliban attack in the Afghan capital since the insurgents announced the start of this year's fighting season.
"(We) condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist attack in Puli Mahmood Khan neighbourhood of Kabul, as a result of which many of our countrymen were martyred and wounded," Ghani said in a statement without specifying the number.
The Afghan health ministry said at least 320 wounded people were rushed to hospital.
Afghan security forces carry an injured security personnel after a suicide car bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan April 19, 2016. ─ Reuters
"Such cowardly terrorist attacks will not weaken the will and determination of Afghan security forces to fight against terrorism," Ghani said.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed their fighters had managed to enter the offices of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the main spy agency.
Afghan officials did not confirm that claim but intense gun battles could be heard near the NDS compound.
The Taliban are generally known to exaggerate battlefield claims.
"The first blast was carried out by a suicide bomber in a car and possibly one or two bombers are still resisting,” interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told AFP.
"The scene of the attack has been completely cordoned off by Afghan security forces."
Pakistan's Foreign Office also condemned the attack.
UN chief condemns Taliban attack
UN chief Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the Taliban suicide truck bombing.
“I would like to express my deepest condolences for the victims and their families and friends,” the UN secretary general said at a press conference during a visit to The Hague.
“I condemn strongly these terrorist attacks,” he said, adding “there's no justification whatsoever (for) attacking civilian people as well as security people.”
“We must fight against these terrorist attacks and the international community must be united in working together,” Ban said, speaking alongside Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders.
'Spring offensive'
The Taliban on Tuesday last week announced the start of their "spring offensive" even as the government in Kabul seeks to bring them back to the negotiating table to end the drawn-out conflict.
An Afghan medic carries stretcher after a Taliban-claimed suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, April 19, 2016. ─ AP
The Taliban warned they would "employ large-scale attacks on enemy positions across the country" during the offensive dubbed Operation Omari in honour of the movement's late founder Mullah Omar, whose death was announced last year.
The insurgents began the fighting season last week by targeting the northern city of Kunduz, which they briefly captured last year in a stunning setback for Afghan forces.
But officials said Afghan security forces drove Taliban fighters back from the city on Friday.
The annual spring offensive normally marks the start of the "fighting season", though this past winter the lull was shorter and rebels continued to battle government forces, albeit with less intensity.
Afghan soldiers responds to a Taliban-claimed suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, April 19, 2016. ─ AP
The Taliban's resurgence has raised serious questions about Afghan forces' capacity to hold their own. An estimated 5,500 troops were killed last year, the worst-ever toll.
Peace talks which began last summer were abruptly halted after it was revealed that Taliban leader Mullah Omar had been dead for two years, a disclosure which sparked infighting in the insurgents' ranks.
A four-country group comprising Afghanistan, the United States, China and Pakistan has been holding meetings since January aimed at jump-starting negotiations.CIA Spying On The Senate Went Much Further Than Originally Reported
from the because-of-course-it-did dept
Agency Access to Files on the SSCI RDINet: Five Agency employees, two attorneys and three information technology (IT) staff members, improperly accessed or caused access to the SSCI Majority staff shared drives on the RDINet.
Agency Crimes Report on Alleged Misconduct by SSCI Staff: The Agency filed a crimes report with the DOJ, as required by Executive Order 12333 and the 1995 Crimes Reporting Memorandum between the DOJ and the Intelligence Community, reporting that SSCI staff members may have improperly accessed Agency information on the RDINet. However, the factual basis for the referral was not supported, as the author of the referral had been provided inaccurate information on which the letter was based. After review, the DOJ declined to open a criminal investigation of the matter alleged in the crimes report.
Office of Security Review of SSCI Staff Activity: Subsequent to directive by the D/CIA to halt the Agency review of SSCI staff access to the RDINet, and unaware of the D/CIA’s direction, the Office of Security conducted a limited investigation of SSCI activities on the RDINet. That effort included a keyword search of all and a review of some of the emails of SSCI Majority staff members on the RDINet system.
Lack of Candor: The three IT staff members demonstrated a lack of candor about their activities during interviews by the OIG.
We already covered how the CIA has admitted to and apologized for its spying on the Senate, but the CIA's official "unclassified" statement on the matter shows that what the CIA did was even worse than the initial allegations. Here's the basic summary, according to the CIA's Inspector General:So, the first bit we already knew. That's what Senator Feinstein initially revealed -- and Brennan pretended to deny, while actually admitting to the facts about them accessing the Senate Intelligence Committee's private network where they were storing documents for their investigation into the CIA's torture program.We also knew that the CIA had bogusly reported the Senate staffers to the DOJ, claiming they had "improperly accessed" CIA information. However, now the CIA is admitting that "the factual basis for the referral was not supported." In other words, for all of Brennan's blustering about how awful the Senate staffers were and how they were breaking the law, it appears that the CIA knew they were making it up. That's really bad.But it's theitem where things getall of this came out and Brennan told the CIA folks to knock it off, CIA peopleLet's repeat that.Feinstein had already made this public and called the CIA out on its spying of intelligence committee staff members and after Brennan told them to knock if off, the CIA went and directly spied on emails. The AP is further reporting that "the CIA used classified "hacking tools" and created a fake user account in an effort to retrieve documents the CIA believed the Senate staffers had improperly accessed."This is aproblem, and something of a Constitutional issue, given the separation of powers. No wonder Mark Udall is demanding Brennan's resignation Oh, and then we find out that the CIA staffers involved "demonstrated a lack of candor" about all this during the internal investigation by the CIA? Sure, it's an intelligence agency that's built on lying, but it certainly looks like the culture of professionally lying all the time is pretty deep there. Over at Foreign Policy, Shane Harris has gone through the many statements Brennan made vehemently denying the spying. It appears that all of them were false and in some cases, blatant lies.And, remember, this is only what the CIA has deemed worthy of revealing publicly. The full Inspector General report may be evendevastating.
Filed Under: cia, dianne feinstein, emails, john brennan, senate, senate intelligence committee, separation of powers, spying, torture reportEnlarge Image Video screenshot by Bonnie Burton/CNET
Roller coasters, waterslides, skydiving and other adventurous attractions are no match for reality show science stars and former Kari Byron and Tory Belleci.
"Thrill Factor" -- a new 10-part TV series that explores the science behind some of the most exciting excursions hosted by Byron and Belleci -- debuts with back-to-back episodes on Travel Channel on August 12. (Fans in the UK and Australia, check your local Travel Channel website for the time and date of the episode.)
"After 'Mythbusters' ended, I was looking for fun projects that are both intelligent and entertaining," Byron told CNET's Crave blog. "I always loved being a part of smart TV. 'Thrill Factor' and Travel Channel called at just the right time. Who wouldn't want to do a show about the science of thrill rides?"
Byron and Belleci start the series off in the premiere episode with a frightful fall via one of the tallest freestanding drop rides in the world.
"Tory has an intense fear of heights and I haven't been on a drop ride for years," Byron told Crave. "When we arrived at Busch Gardens in Tampa Florida to see Falcon's Fury, I may have had second thoughts about this show. It is the tallest freestanding drop ride of its kind."
"What makes it special is that when you finally reach the top, the seats snap back and face you straight down," Byron added. "Then you hang for an undetermined amount of time so you can really build up a panic. By the time I got off the ride my legs were buckling and my hands were shaking. It was awesome."
If freestanding drop rides aren't enough to make you gasp, the duo also jumped off very tall buildings in the name of science.
Enlarge Image Video screenshot by Bonnie Burton/CNET
"I was terrified to jump off the Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas," Byron told Crave. "It is a 108-story decelerated fall to the ground. Looking out over the edge, there was a moment where I didn't think I could do it. The drop is so long that I actually had time to run out of scream, compose myself and enjoy the view. I landed with a full adrenaline buzz. I instantly wanted to do it again."
"It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do and just talking about it is making my hands sweat," Belleci added. "I'm glad I did it, but once was enough."
show's hosts hearts beat in double time as they duplicate the kind of antics meant more for stunt people and superheroes. Byron and Belleci test these hair-raising experiences, collect data using high-tech bio sensors and then determine what it is that makes these moments so scream-worthy.
"My favorite thrill ride by far was flying stunt planes in Vegas at Sky Combat Ace," Belleci told Crave. "We were testing how G-forces effect brain activity and we actually got to fly the planes! In another episode, I get to drive a Formula 3 race car at the Sonoma Raceway. Talk about taking the thrill into your own hands. It's hard to believe this is our job."
For fans who want to follow in Byron and Belleci's fearless footsteps, the hosts have some rather sound advice.
"I say scream your heart out," Byron suggested. Said Belleci, "And don't forget to breathe."The PSN, Xbox Live and Steam trophy/achievement tracking site exophase updated to include English PuyoPuyoTetris trophies, which is strange considering the game hasn’t been announced for a western release. PuyoPuyoTetris (ぷよぷよテトリス Puyopuyo Tetorisu) was a Sonic Team and SEGA developed puzzle game that first hit Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation 3 in Japan way back in February 2014, then later in December it hit PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
The English PuyoPuyoTetris trophies will include a total of 43 to unlock, which has a platinum if you complete all the trophies. Are they hard? It seems pretty typical like popping 10,000 Puyos, 100% the adventure mode and winning a certain number of matches in the game’s various modes. PuyoPuyoTetris was really well received in Japan, Famitsu gave the game a 9/9/9/8. It would seem that if SEGA of America wants to continue to bring high rated content from Japan over to localize, then PuyoPuyoTetris would be a no-brainer. Though, the site is missing PlayStation Vita trophies for the game, which seems to be a trend with most publishers (ignoring that system outside of Japan).
Check out the English PuyoPuyoTetris trophies here.
Having English PuyoPuyoTetris trophies hitting a website doesn’t mean that its coming West. I guess right now we sit tight and see what SEGA has to say about all this. Maybe SEGA reached a agreement for a Western release with The Tetris Company, seems they love to go to court over the franchise.
[Via: Wario64 on Twitter]Canoers navigate through a wetland in the central Everglades. Photo: Mac Stone
As the new administration looks to slash environmental programs, we hear the same rationale over and over again: We can’t afford to protect the environment, because doing so damages our economy. There’s just one little problem—it’s not true.
You may already know this instinctively. Shopping for binoculars, traveling to new birding spots, hiring birding guides— all of these activities feed the economy. In fact, one industry calculation estimates that outdoor recreation contributes more than $800 billion annually to the economy, and is directly or indirectly responsible for employing more than seven million people.
But the connections between a healthy environment and a healthy economy go much deeper than that. Take southern Florida. Businesspeople from a range of industries have told Florida’s government that when the Everglades and its surroundings suffer, so do their profits. And it’s not just boat salesmen and fishing guides who are speaking up. Real estate agents complain they can’t sell homes where pollution closes beaches and paints canals green for two-thirds of the year. Ninety-two percent of hotel owners in Lee County, near one highly publicized algal bloom, reported losing more than 100 nights of bookings because of the incident.
$800 billion
Economic value of U.S. outdoor recreation industry
$41 billion
Economic value of birdwatching in the United States
100,000
Jobs created by Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule
And for every example like these of economic losses caused by environmental problems, it’s easy to find plenty of cases of the reverse. In particular, environmental regulations create jobs targeting pollution reduction and cleanup. The Environmental Protection Agency’s mercury rule alone has created more than 100,000 jobs to date. One long-term study looking across paper, plastic, petroleum, and steel production found that when regulations were introduced, losses in dirty jobs were balanced out by jobs in retrofitting technology and cleaning pollution.
Sure, sometimes conservation measures can look expensive, particularly when there are plenty of other issues people of all parties want to tackle. Not all programs will succeed, and some could certainly be made leaner. Where investments can be trimmed without harming their positive outcomes, they should be. But that’s a far cry from using the economy as an excuse to slash programs that are real successes, both environmentally and economically speaking.
At Audubon, we pay attention to data, and the numbers show that we don’t have to choose between the environment we enjoy and the economy we need. We—and the birds we love—can have both.Yale University’s College Republicans chapter hosted a barbecue on campus Friday, just a few tantalizing feet from a union-led hunger strike.
According to The Yale Daily News, eight graduate students had resolved to fast until university administrators agreed to cooperate with a graduate student-employee union, Local 33, over its requests for renewed contract negotiations.
“We’re really focused on making sure we’re drinking enough water and getting enough rest.”
[RELATED: Yale grad student hold pseudo-hunger strike over union contract]
The school had repeatedly neglected to meet the union’s deadlines for beginning negotiations, eventually pushing members of the union to launch an indefinite hunger strike on campus, with one participant in the strike, Emily Sessions, remarking that “a fast requires a community around the fasters.”
As Campus Reform previously reported, the hunger strike is actually more of a tag-team effort, with plans to send in fresh strikers to replace members who grow hungry.
Consequently, the College Republicans decided to host a “friendly barbecue in support of Local 33,” noting that for “solidarity purposes” the barbecue would be in the protesters’ “immediate vicinity,” the Daily News reports.
Members of the union, however, claimed they were able to ignore the sights and smells of the barbecue, telling the Daily News that they “weren’t focused on it.”
“We’re really focused on making sure we’re drinking enough water and getting enough rest. We’re focused on getting the university’s attention,” Local 33 Chair Aaron Greenberg explained.
[RELATED: Grad students move to unionize nationwide]
While it is unclear how long the strike will go on, Yale spokesman Tom Conroy informed the Daily News that Local 33 never actually requested permission to erect a tent on campus, explaining that the protesters’ continued “presence and the structure do not comply with university policies on free expression.”
Meanwhile, it was reported Sunday evening that an unknown individual, referring to himself as an “anonymous Yale alumnus,” delivered $200 worth of pizza to the strikers, though they in turn redirected the food to an on-campus food drive.
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Senior MEPs today mocked Ukip leader Nigel Farage upon his return to the European Parliament, reminding him he had broken his "very important promise" to resign.
Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt, who leads the ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) group at Strasbourg, welcomed Mr Farage by calling him "a man of his word".
"Nigel Farage has sent a letter to Nigel Farage saying, 'I resign,' and Nigel Farage has responded to Nigel Farage saying, 'I refuse'," he joked.
"That's the way it works there."
The Daily Mail reports German MEP Manfred Weber - leader of the dominant European People's Party - told the chamber: "I would like to welcome Mr Farage, the loser of the elections."
He added: "The British voters didn’t vote for him and I have to say that Mr Farage has lost credibility because he announced that if the British voters didn’t vote for him, then he would stand down as party leader.
"You didn’t keep your electoral promise, Mr Farage. You are still here in your capacity as party leader and you've broken a very important promise that you made in your election campaign. So welcome back."
Ukip polled 12.7 per cent of the popular vote on May 7 but won just a single seat in Parliament. Nigel Farage failed to get elected in South Thanet.
He told The Telegraph in March he would quit if he lost the poll - but after stepping down on May 8 he returned to the top spot three days later, his chairman and national executive committee having rejected his resignation.
"We've jumped over some amazing hurdles," he said in March. "But this hurdle is the biggest |
’s a bit of a shame, really, to see such a wonderful genre become riddled with game designs that often seem more intent on hooking you rather than enchanting you. Which is why this week on Listed, we’re diving in to explore some of these unfriendly aspects so that we can all collectively agree that they need to be burned in a fire. They aren’t innovative, they aren’t fun; they are exhausting and trite. So let’s gather some kindling, have ourselves a big bonfire, and talk about what parts of our favorite MMORPGs should be tossed into said fire and never seen again!
Daily Quests
From a developer’s perspective, daily quests are kind of genius. Locking rewards behind a time-gated questing mechanic that entices players to logg in every day in order to complete these assignments is a great way to steer engagement. However, this design concept, more often than not, is usually used in the worst possible way. Daily quests are rarely rewarding or engaging, which means you’re typically going to spend your days rushing through them as fast as possible.
The big kicker here ties into a problem that a lot of MMORPGs have in common: playing the game isn’t the reward. Completing a series of rote quests day in and day out is no fun by any means, but we feel compelled to do it because of the rewards that we will eventually be given. This feeds into a lot of areas in MMORPGS, but that doesn’t mean we should just accept it and move on.
The fact of the matter is, daily quests suck. Very few games bother to implement them in a way that enriches the experience, and most players typically slog through them while keeping their eyes on the prize. On a conceptual level, daily quests are actually a smart idea, but they also need to be implemented in a way that doesn’t appeal to the lowest common denominator. Make the quests fun and dynamic, so that players don’t feel like walking into the ocean at midnight and never returning after doing one for the hundredth time.
Raid Tiers
Yeah, I said it: Raid tiers need to be tossed in the fire. There was a day when raid tiers were a practical solution to a problem that many MMORPGs were beginning to experience as they expanded their content and raised the level cap. The fact that they still exist today and are still the staple of endgame progression in MMORPGs is nothing if not ludicrous.
For those unfamiliar (ignorance is bliss), raid tier is a fancy term to describe the jump in stats that sets of gear go through in order to keep up with the new requirements of new content. Basically, most games will have a few tiers of equipment that players work towards once they reach the level cap. This gear is usually earned in steps, so you can’t always jump to the highest tier of gear unless you’ve worked your way through the bottom steps.
When new content is released, such as an expansion, the stats of the monsters and dungeons you’ll tackle will scale upwards, meaning you need stronger equipment in order to tackle them. The problem is that these systems are usually implemented to the detriment of the game’s most dedicated players.
When a new raid tier is introduced, developers will often shallow out the difficulty curve for those who have not achieved the highest tier of gear in order to keep them moving along. On paper, this might seem like a smart way of keeping your endgame players, whether they are maximum tier or just beginning, roughly grouped together. The last thing you want, as a developer, is to have your player base spread out on a wide swathe of content, especially if much of it is quickly becoming irrelevant. Finding players for group content becomes much harder if everyone is spaced out, so developers feel inclined to help push the stragglers forward by reducing the difficulty and the grind.
So how is this a bad thing? Well, if you’re a casual player, it isn’t. It’s kind of awesome! If you’re on the other end of the spectrum, however, and you just spent two months grinding away at a boss for that coveted top tier gear only to have new content released a few months later that trivializes that boss for everyone else and hands everyone the same gear you shed tears and blood for, that kind of sucks. A lot of people simply shrug and continue onward, and I respect those people, because I’ve had enough.
Raid tiers are broken and archaic, and it’s time that developers found new ways of expanding the game without trivializing content and punishing their most dedicated users. EVE Online is a great example of a game that isn’t bound by tiered progression and benefits from is immensely. Of course, creating a system would be complex and complicated, but hey, I think you’re worth it!
Stop Making Everything About Stats and More About Skill
Coinciding with the issue of raid tiers is the other side of the coin: Developers lean on stats too much. The problem here is, much like raid tiers, MMORPGs are too reliant on tried and true methods. Look, we get it, MMOs are expensive to make, sure. But when that excuse starts to come between the genre and meaningful innovation, we have a right to get a little grumpy about it.
“Skill” is a relative term in MMOs that’s usually a doppleganger for “how high are your stats?” One of the things that I found so refreshing about digging into CD Projekt Red’s latest game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was the fact that, with enough determination and actual skill, I could slay monsters well above my pay-grade. It adds a sense of realism to the world that many MMOs are sorely lacking because their basic fundamental systems refuse to acknowledge it. But the fact of the matter is, even if you’re cloth armor is 20 levels above my sword, it makes zero sense that I can’t do even a tiny bit of damage to it.
Stats are a meaningful metric to gating content for players and drawing out the game experience, but they’re also responsible for creating games that, at times, feel like skill is a non-issue if you’re geared enough. That notion removes all sense of satisfaction from the game, because as a player I am only as good as the suit of armor I wear.
Creating online worlds that weave skill and stats together would make for an ideal combination. Developers are able to access meaningful metrics to help design and portion out content, and players can feel like there is a real sense of progression to the game as they not only progress externally, but internally as well.
Final Fantasy XIV is actually a game that manages this surprisingly well. Don’t get me wrong, the emphasis on equipment is still too heavy, considering “progression” at times means getting a weapon with 2 more stat points. But the endgame content is largely a robust offering of encounters that require perfect timing and flawless coordination. Outside of endgame instances though, combat is usually a one dimensional affair—especially if you’re a white mage.
Tera deserves a nod for the way its combat works even outside of dungeons, as plenty of monsters are capable of murdering you with just a single misstep if you don’t learn to anticipate their moves.
Tab Targeting and Hot Keys
Nothing ruins the majesty of calling down a thunderstorm from the heavens quite like initiating such a complex magical procedure with the careless click of a button. Tab-targeting and hotkeys have been a staple of the genre for decades. And while I have to applaud games like The Elder Scrolls Online, Tera, and others for making strides to depart from this control scheme, it still just isn’t enough.
For one, tab-targeting has always been a rather cumbersome approach to selecting the proper target for your wrath. Most players will likely end up just selecting the proper target with their mouse because no one enjoys having to mash that key nine times just to find that one minion they need to destroy before the timer runs out and wipes the group. As I mentioned above, it also contributes to a sense that skill is less important, since once you’ve selected a target, all of your abilities immediately acquire homing powers.
Hotkeys also represent another pretty bland method of controlling your character and unleashing their coolest abilities. I can really appreciate the nuance of hotkey rotations; pulling them off perfectly to achieve maximum DPS is rewarding, but it also trivializes everything you’re actually doing by boiling it down to simple button presses.
Magic and abilities should, in theory, require more than a careless press to initiate, and it saddens me that more developers haven’t strived to invent more compelling systems for lobbing fireballs back and forth. Plenty of games have come up with interesting alternatives, like Magicka‘s rune combo system where you combine various runes on the fly to create different kinds of spells. Black & White has another great system where you use your mouse to draw patterns in the air in order to cast spells. Really, the possibilities are endless, so its a bit tragic that magic and ability systems have stagnated the way they have.
Quality of Life Systems That Also Destroy Any Sense of Immersion
Everyone gets into MMOs for different reasons, so it makes sense that this item will appeal to some more than others. I, for one, have always enjoyed MMORPGs because they carried a sense of enchantment with them. Recently, however, the trend has been towards making these games as approachable as possible. Part of that push also brought in a bevy of quality of life enhancements geared at maximizing how productive you can be while playing the game.
The problem is that 90 percent of these systems kill any sense of immersion or physicality that the world might have. Being able to instantly enter a dungeon that is half way around the world kind of shatters the illusion. Fast travel is another aspect that instills a sense that the world you inhabit is tiny since you are capable of travelling to its farthest corners with a flick of the wrist.
These systems can be really helpful for players who don’t have a ton of time on their hands, and I’m certainly not lobbying that we do away with them entirely. I just find it disappointing that many developers aren’t willing to strike a balance and have instead swung one way or the other.
Consider The Witcher 3, for example. There is a fast travel system in the game, but it is relegated to signposts that you must travel to before gaining access to it. That type of smart system creates a sense of cohesion in the world that is an important ingredient in helping you want to be a part of it.
The issue isn’t black or white, but having a semblance of nuance to conveniently being able to teleport everywhere and anywhere would go a long way in creating memorable gaming experiences.
So there it is in all of its glory: My big list of gripes with the current status quo of MMOs. But enough about me, what about you? I’m sure we all have a personal wishlist of systems, concepts, or mechanics that we’d love to see die off as new generations of MMOs spring to life! We want to hear yours, so be sure to sound off in the comments and we can all vent together.
Related: Column7-22-85
Dear Hans van den Broek:
Thank you for your letter telling me of the removal of one of my books from the Nijmegen library. And that it is accused of discrimination against black people, homosexuals and women. And that it is sadism because of the sadism.
The thing that I fear discriminating against is humor and truth.
If I write badly about blacks, homosexuals and women it is because of these who I met were that. There are many "bads"--bad dogs, bad censorship; there are even "bad" white males. Only when you write about "bad" white males they don't complain about it. And need I say that there are "good" blacks, "good" homosexuals and "good" women?
In my work, as a writer, I only photograph, in words, what I see. If I write of "sadism" it is because it exists, I didn't invent it, and if some terrible act occurs in my work it is because such things happen in our lives. I am not on the side of evil, if such a thing as evil abounds. In my writing I do not always agree with what occurs, nor do I linger in the mud for the sheer sake of it. Also, it is curious that the people who rail against my work seem to overlook the sections of it which entail joy and love and hope, and there are such sections. My days, my years, my life has seen up and downs, lights and darknesses. If I wrote only and continually of the "light" and never mentioned the other, then as an artist I would be a liar.
Censorship is the tool of those who have the need to hide actualities from themselves and from others. Their fear is only their inability to face what is real, and I can't vent any anger against them. I only feel this appalling sadness. Somewhere, in their upbringing, they were shielded against the total facts of our existence. They were only taught to look one way when many ways exist.
I am not dismayed that one of my books has been hunted down and dislodged from the shelves of a local library. In a sense, I am honored that I have written something that has awakened these from their non-ponderous depths. But I am hurt, yes, when somebody else's book is censored, for that book, usually is a great book and there are few of those, and throughout the ages that type of book has often generated into a classic, and what was once thought shocking and immoral is now required reading at many of our universities.
I am not saying that my book is one of those, but I am saying that in our time, at this moment when any moment may be the last for many of us, it's damned galling and impossibly sad that we still have among us the small, bitter people, the witch-hunters and the declaimers against reality. Yet, these too belong with us, they are part of the whole, and if I haven't written about them, I should, maybe have here, and that's enough.
may we all get better together,
yrs,
(Signed)
Charles Bukowski
In 1985, following a complaint from a local reader, staff at the Public Library in Nijmegen decided to remove Charles Bukowski's book, Tales of Ordinary Madness, from their shelves whilst declaring it "very sadistic, occasionally fascist and discriminatory against certain groups (including homosexuals)." In the following weeks, a local journalist by the name of Hans van den Broek wrote to Bukowski and asked for his opinion. It soon arrived, and can be read below.Transcript follows.(This letter, along with 124 other fascinating pieces of correspondence, can be found in the bestselling book, Letters of Note. For more info, visit Books of Note.)Fans of "Community" will really get a kick out of these new webisodes from NBC featuring the one and only Dean Pelton of Greendale Community College. Dean Pelton's "Office Hours" feature the Dean in action dealing with the problems of GCC's students and faculty.
If you're a regular watcher of "Community," you know that Dean Pelton is one of the funniest characters outside of the study group, constantly trying to up Greendale's reputation as a great school and always failing miserably.
Watch all three webisodes below to see the Dean handle sexual harassment, suffer embarrassment over a hair piece, and console his independent study assistant after a misunderstanding. And don't forget to catch an all-new episode of "Community" tonight at 8:00 EST when Hillary Duff co-stars.
WATCH: Episode One, "Pamphlet Serious"
WATCH: Episode Two, "Hair Piece"Following last month’s introductory post to Conrod there has been some excellent feedback via HN, reddit and IRC!
One of the most promising and repeatedly occurring suggestions was to switch the API over to a “builder pattern”. So we did!
Old Style
button::draw(&mut gl, // The OpenGL instance used to draw the GUI. &mut ui_context, // A user interface context keeps track of state. unique_id, // Each widget needs it's own UI_ID. Point::new(x, y), // Screen location. width, // Rectangle width f64. height, // Rectangle height f64. Frame(frame_width, frame_color), // Or perhaps `NoFrame` if you don't want one. Color::new(r, g, b, a), // The color of the rectangle. Label("PRESS", font_size, font_color), // Here you can pass Label(...) or NoLabel. || { // Callback closure - Do your things here! });
New Style with “Builder Pattern”
uic.button(unique_id).dimensions(width, height).position(x, y).rgba(r, g, b, a).frame(frame_width, frame_color).label("PRESS", font_size, font_color).callback(|| /* do stuff */).draw(gl);
Benefits of the builder pattern include:
All methods are optional apart from.draw(..). The old style was much more verbose due to the lack of default arguments.
. The old style was much more verbose due to the lack of default arguments. All methods apart from.draw(..) can be called in any order which saves trying to remember arg ordering.
can be called in any order which saves trying to remember arg ordering. Once themes and positioning-helper-methods are implemented, you could do something like this uic.set_theme("awesome_theme") in your load/setup, and then widgets could look more like this:
uic.button(uiid).down(padding).callback(|| /* do_stuff */).draw(gl);
Removes the need for the old enums that were necessary to handle defaults, etc.
the Callable trait (which offers the callback method) is generic. If my impression of associated types is correct, this means that handling different kinds of callbacks could be done statically rather than doing them dynamically with a Callback enum which we were previously considering.
this pattern is much more consistent with the rust-graphics api (on which Conrod depends), meaning that users hanging around the Piston ecosystem will move between APIs more easily.
Still to come
Themes!
Positioning methods i.e..down(padding), right_from(other_uiid, padding), etc.
,, etc. More widgets.
Optimisation and faster performance.
Lots more
We could use help on all of these things! Feel free to drop by the github issues and pitch in or add your own ideas :)
https://github.com/PistonDevelopers/conrod
mitchmindtreeGem, a provider of enterprise blockchain solutions, launched Gem Health, a network for developing applications and shared infrastructure for healthcare powered by the Ethereum blockchain, and announced that Philips Blockchain Lab, a research and development center of healthcare giant Philips, is the first major healthcare operator to join the Gem Health network.
Gem Health is a blockchain network for the global community of companies and individuals that take part in the continuum of care. The company intends to leverage blockchain technology to address the trade-off between patient centric care and operational efficiency by creating a healthcare ecosystem connected to universal data infrastructure. “Shared infrastructure allows us to create global data standards without compromising privacy and security,” notes the new Gem Health website.
The Gem Health blockchain network includes identity schemes, data storage, and smart contracts applications that execute against shared data infrastructure. Using the Gem Health network, different healthcare operators can access the same information, which will permit the development of a new class of blockchain-based applications that will unlock wasted resources and solve important operational problems in healthcare.
Closed book-keeping and medical record repositories prevent effective interoperability and collaboration between different healthcare providers, which is an important issue for people who relocate or become sick when they travel and are unable to connect with their local doctor to retrieve their medical records. It’s also important to note that new medical research is introduced every year, which makes it difficult for individual physicians and healthcare providers to keep up with medical innovation.
“A lot of healthcare companies started reaching out to us,” Gem Founder and CEO Micah Winkelspecht told Bitcoin Magazine. “A lot of companies were suffering from these same pain points - working with siloed data that we could bridge together. Use cases of distributed ledger technology span the entire healthcare continuum, a whole range of processes from wellness and prevention to billing and claims. We need a patient centric model for healthcare and particularly how to secure clinical data.”
“One of the most interesting groups that reached out to us when we started talking about the blockchain and healthcare were physicians themselves,” added Winkelspecht. “Many of them see the problems with today’s technology and are fed up with the current system. Physicians want to help. And so we want to create platform for all the different stakeholders to collaborate.”
In a recent article published in Distributed, Winkelspecht argued that it is now possible, using blockchain-enabled data sharing with guaranteed data integrity, to build a global repository of data within the healthcare and other industries, which each party can trust reliably. “Gone are the silos and separate, differing views of the world,” he said. “Every company now has the same data, shared transparently”. In particular, blockchains will permit creating a robust and resilient healthcare ecosystem with industry-wide workflows involving data moving around among multiple parties.
Winkelspecht is bullish about the potential of Ethereum to provide a suitable, evolving technology framework for Gem Health. “We chose to develop this network on the Ethereum blockchain because we’re driven by customer need and look for platforms that satisfy those needs,” he said. “Because Ethereum is trying to build a global computer for general use, it is good platform for diverse use cases. It doesn’t make a lot of strong assumptions and it has a really great community building lots of different tools.“
Gem, which recently raised $7.1 million in Series A funding round, is betting that blockchain networks will underpin entire industries, transforming how we collaborate and share value. The early focus on payments and financial applications is, according to the company, a limitation to overcome. “We found that a lot of the discussion around blockchain was so focused on the financial industry and we felt that that was a limiting view of the blockchain,” said Winkelspecht. “We decided to start creating some content around non-financial use cases of the blockchain and found that there was a lot of interest beyond just the financial sector.”
Early support by a major operator like Philips Healthcare, which employs 37,000 employees in 100 countries and makes up 42 percent of the global sales revenue of the Royal Philips group, is a positive signal for Gem Health’s adoption in the wider healthcare sector.
“Like the financial industry, it’s going to start with small groups working together on proof of concepts and pilot projects to tackle specific use cases,” concluded Winkelspecht. “Out of those use cases, we’ll develop a common fabric for the entire industry. A blockchain to run the entire healthcare continuum: the free and instant transfer of healthcare data.”The Crows elected to leave some distance between themselves and strike an imposing figure across to their Greater Western Sydney counterparts, who all linked arms during the singing of the anthem, per normal.
But it may have had some bearing on the result, with the Crows comfortably sealing their spot in the preliminary final with a 36-point win.
Former AFL star and now commentator Dermott Brereton said it may have been done to give off the appearance there were more Adelaide players than GWS on the pitch.
“I don’t know if they were trying for a visual illusion,” Brereton told Fox Footy.
“If you have a half a metre between each one of them compared to a team that are linking arms, you spread the line from the boundary to the centre square with the way they line up.
“Perhaps they want the optical illusion that, ‘There are so many of us out here’.
“It’s the old Muhammad Ali, ‘I’m hitting him from everywhere and he’s going to think he’s surrounded’. It’s a little game, but I tell you what, it’s working at the moment.”
However, Adelaide midfielder Richard Douglas said it was not a tactic planned in advance.
“(It was) just a bit of gamesmanship,” he told ABC radio.
“It was a bit spontaneous, just the way it panned out. I’m not sure if we’ll do it next time, I think it worked... the crowd enjoyed it.”We may complain about taxi or bus drivers, but the San Francisco Police Department says that Uber and Lyft drivers are to blame for nearly two-thirds of all congestion-related traffic violations in the city, the San Francisco Examiner reports.
SFPD Commander Robert O’Sullivan heard "anecdotally" that a "significant number of the violators" were drivers for the ride-hailing companies. O'Sullivan directed a sergeant to tabulate some hard numbers to validate this claim, which he presented at a Board of Supervisors Land Use and Transportation committee hearing Monday.
Between April 1 and June 30, 1,144 out of 1,715 citations for illegally driving in transit-only lanes were issued to Uber and Lyft drivers.
"In San Francisco, only transit vehicles and other buses, taxis, and emergency vehicles are allowed to use the transit lanes. Other vehicles are prohibited," a San Francisco County Transportation Authority survey explains. Despite providing a similar service to buses and taxis, ride-hailing drivers are not included. The assumption that they are included, or perhaps their disregard of the law, may explain why they get so many of these citations.
Improper use of transit lanes is far from their only violation. O'Sullivan's report also mentions that Uber and Lyft drivers received 183 out of 239 tickets issued for drivers obstructing a lane of traffic or a bike lane, and 42 tickets out of 57 for making U-turns in a business district.
Supervisor Aaron Peskin told the San Francisco Examiner that the number was dramatic enough to spur a potential lawsuit against Uber and Lyft.
“I’m going to talk to City Attorney [Dennis] Herrera about this right now,” he said, and added he’d like to ask the State Attorney General’s Office to join a potential action.
In a written statement to the San Francisco Examiner, Lyft wrote, "We are supportive of holistic efforts to address congestion and have been in conversations with city officials for months to engage collaboratively on a pilot program to do just that."
Yet this is not a concrete statement about exactly what Lyft intends to do about the problem. Perhaps its proposed self-driving ride-hailing program will help, particularly with Ford's assistance.A few years ago, a senior politician called me and suggested the only reason I was considering speaking out about my experiences with Liberal Democrat peer Lord Rennard was because I wanted a seat in the House of Lords. Joining a perpetrator in their place of work would be the last thing a victim wants. It was the first hint of the sobering lessons that were to come.
When I was a 21-year-old candidate, Rennard had shoved his hands down my knickers. (He continues to deny this). Despite being one of many women to come forward, a tsunami of incompetence by the Lib Dems resulted in all those who publicly complained leaving politics. Meanwhile, Lord Rennard continues to pass legislation, and pose for pictures with politicians who should know better.
There is little unusual or special in my tale. As the outpouring of revelations in recent weeks show, from Harvey Weinstein to Westminster, they follow a creepily familiar playbook. Except this time, some perpetrators may not be left to continue.
When people make one bad decision, odds are, they are making more. So, when challenged about grabbing a breast, intimating a promotion in return for a night of passion, or appearing in front of you naked in a work meeting, the chances of a perpetrator suddenly showing good judgement are slim. Instead a repetitive story emerges:
Get challenged. Deny it
Get shown proof it happened. Say it was a harmless bit of fun. A one off.
Get shown proof it was a pattern. Say it is a hit job.
The accusers hold their ground. Seek to smear them
At any of these points, perpetrators could admit it, say sorry and take the lesser consequences. They don’t, because they make bad decisions.
These aren’t situations where negotiation is effective. One party is going to win and one is going to lose. It will end with someone leaving. That shouldn’t be the victim, but it too often is.
Before Channel 4 broadcast my story, I wrote myself a note, then squirreled it away. “You are doing this to make it better for the next generation. Don’t let others feel how you have.” When you stick your head above the parapet people attack you. That playbook again. Part of the power, the same fear and horror abusers leverage to keep you quiet, is that they can induce emotional responses. Anger, fear, shame. All designed to distract from what you are doing this for. Over time I learned to hold that note, read it and deny others the power to control me. No one should have more power over the decisions you make and how you feel, than you do.
Successful challenges, when they do come, are rarely on their own. In the related cases of bullied employees, US Academic, Dr. Pam Lutgen-Sandvik quantified the power of allies. She found those who spoke out alone about bullying were fired in 20 per cent of cases. The bullies were fired in 27 per cent of cases. When people banded together to complain, 58 per cent of abusers and none of the bullied were fired. Retaining power over how you feel is aided by having good allies around you.
I was on the way to meet my in-laws for the first time when I told my now husband what had happened. And I explained the impending shit-storm I was desperate to avoid. Pulling the car to the hard shoulder, he told me to get out, hugged me, and said how proud he was. The power abusers hold over you is deeply embedded in a sense of shame. Friends, family or employers are critical support networks to even up the power dynamic. Ellen Pao tells of the greatly mismatched resources between her and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer.
The reactions of others will be varied and occasionally surprising. From the people who could confirm your story and stay silent to the ones who proactively, admiringly, contact you. In a contrast to many party colleagues, employers went out of their way to support me. Tell me they were proud and impressed. Still, if you work in this area and speak out against the powerful, it has repercussions. I used to provide advice, mainly to charities, on how to win campaigns aimed at governments and had co-founded a successful agency. I arrived at a pitch one day to find I was asked not about the work but for the inside scoop on the investigation. Rennard’s friends in the Lords stopped returning contact regarding clients on issues they really should have cared about. I left the business and took a new job. Speaking out is the dickhead detector you never asked for, or wanted.
Any decent system should offer protection to the less powerful player in this situation. But those crossing the threshold can’t expect that yet. An organisation is interested in protecting itself. A perpetrator wants to give up none of their power, as Weinstein did after groping Ambra Battilana Gutierrez. Never underestimate the potential for an organization to sit on the fence when it could take a difficult decision either. Those in power, especially men, will change this when then join victims in saying it is unacceptable and do not leave them to bear the brunt of the consequences.
In 2016 I moved to California. Packing up, I found that note I’d squirrelled away. I thought of the tears, the fear, the shaking, the sense of failure I had experienced. I’d been found credible, yet nothing was done. This time. I also felt pride. When it comes to dealing with arseholes, you must be able to live with yourself. When enough of us speak out. The next generation will get it better, but the journey will not be easy. There is a long way to go.
Alison Goldsworthy recently graduated as a Sloan Fellow from Stanford University. For fifteen years she was an active Liberal Democrat and from 2011 – 2014 she was the Deputy Chair of the party’s ruling body.Deepa Malik is an Indian swimmer, biker and athlete. She is a paraplegic. She has won numerous accolades for her participation in various adventure sports.
She was born on 30th Sept 1970.
Malik is not an ordinary person. She is a paraplegic, paralysed from waist down, but that has not stopped the 41-year-old from taking up challenges. The mother of two and wife of an Army officer, in fact, turned adversities into opportunity and success. Life took a twist when a spinal tumor made walking impossible 12 years ago. It was a tough time for Malik family. Her husband Bikram Singh Malik was fighting the Kargil war and at home Deepa was struggling with her tumors. Finally the family won both the war. India won Kargil. Despite three spinal tumour surgeries and 183 stitches between shoulder blades, she came out a winner and has never looked back.
Deepa also runs a successful restaurant by the name Dee’s Place in Ahmed Nagar, where the family is settled. She is very active in adventures sports. She is associated with Himalayan Motorsports Association (H.M.A.) and Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (F.M.S.C.I.). A lesson for all able and disables, she has done 8 days 1700 k.m. drive in minus degree temperatures. Even on an altitude of 18000 feet with oxygen shortage, she was able to sustain it all. It was – ‘Raid-de-Himalaya’. This journey covers many difficult paths including remote Himalaya, Leh, Shimla and Jammu.
She has won numerous accolades for her participation in various adventure sports. Whether it is swimming against the strong Yamuna current, or riding a special bike or even taking a shot at the Paralympics, she has done it all. She has won bronze medal in Women’s Javelin Throw. She has got nominated in Limca Book Of World Records for her swimming records.
Read also …
A lady from a labor to CEO!This video demonstrates a really interesting experiment: sticking a Vive Tracker onto an ordinary chair in order to sync it up perfectly with its VR counterpart. The result? A chair that is visible in VR as a virtual object, but has a 1:1 physical world version occupying the same space. This means that unlike any other virtual object, this chair can be seen, touched, felt, moved, and actually sat in while the user is immersed in VR.
The purpose of this experiment seems to have been to virtually explore seating arrangements for real-world environments, and spawned a theatre planning tool by design studio [Agile Lens]. But we wonder if there’s unrealized potential in the idea of connecting physical objects that can be touched and held (or sat on) with their VR counterparts. Video demos of the chair test are embedded below.
The Vive Tracker is a self-contained wireless piece of hardware that opens some VR hacking doors. We recently saw one attached to a 3D printed spray can to allow virtual spray painting, and it’s really interesting to see the different directions people are going with it.Following the Cleveland Cavaliers’ disappointing 104-97 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday evening, LeBron James vented his frustration to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin — targeting former basketball great and current NBA on TNT analyst Charles Barkley, who recently spoke out on LeBron’s remarks about needing help. Barkley called them “inappropriate. Whiny. All of the above. The Cleveland Cavaliers, they have given him everything he wanted.”
James held nothing back in response. Via ESPN:
“He’s a hater … What makes what he says credible? Because he’s on TV?
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“I’m not going to let him disrespect my legacy like that,” James told ESPN. “I’m not the one who threw somebody through a window. I never spit on a kid. I never had unpaid debt in Las Vegas. I never said, ‘I’m not a role model.’ I never showed up to All-Star Weekend on Sunday because I was in Vegas all weekend partying.
“All I’ve done for my entire career is represent the NBA the right way. Fourteen years, never got in trouble. Respected the game. Print that.”
LeBron then issued a declaration directed straight at Barkley:
“And if this makes him want to talk to me, the schedule’s out there … He knows every road arena I’ll be in. Don’t just come up to me at All-Star and shake my hand and smile.
“I collect one paycheck from this … There’s the owner, Griff’s [David Griffin] the GM, I’m the player. Screw Charles Barkley.”
“I’m tired of biting my tongue … There’s a new sheriff in town.”
While he was at it, James also took the opportunity to direct more words at Knicks president Phil Jackson, who last year called out James for having a “posse.”
“I went to see Melo at the Garden two years ago when we were in New York … They played Portland. I went up to a suite at halftime, and Phil Jackson didn’t say one word to me. I’m here to win ballgames and take care of my teammates and take care of my, what’s that word, oh, my ‘posse’.”
NBA All-Star Weekend is scheduled for Feb. 17-19 … Sound the bell!Sunday began with the statue of Joe Paterno removed from outside Beaver Stadium. And that was the least controversial moment of the day.
Stand back, everyone. The NCAA is on the case.
While Penn State was busy addressing the bronze statue, CBS News reported that the NCAA had reached a decision on penalties in the case of the university hiding Jerry Sandusky's sins.
Words like unprecedented. Punitive. Death penalty.
Here's a few more words for you: disingenuous. Grandstanding. Blowhard.
UPDATE: Severe NCAA penalties include $60 million fine | Paterno loses wins record
Excuse me if I can't get excited about an organization that saw Ohio State players accept cash in envelopes after coach Jim Tressel's lies and illegal benefits for players were exposed, but said lack of institutional control wasn't an issue.
If I can't get excited about an organization that knew Cecil Newton was shopping his son, Cam, to Mississippi State — yet let him continue to play at Auburn (and eventually win a national championship) — because it had no rule prohibiting parents from shopping their offspring to the highest bidder.
If I can't get excited about an organization that knows street agent Willie Lyles was paid $25,000 by Oregon for useless recruiting information; that knows Lyles was the "mentor" for five-star recruit Lache Seastrunk; that knows Oregon coach Chip Kelly lied when asked by a newspaper if he knew Lyles (Kelly later said, we call him 'Will'); that knows Kelly told Lyles he needed more recruiting information from Lyles after the fact, yet we're more than a year into the Oregon investigation |
it), for you are a ship.' Even if I was carrying the load of six or seven donkeys while we were on a journey, anyone who felt weak would throw his clothes or his shield or his sword on me so I would carry that, a heavy load. The prophet told me, `You are a ship"'
Hadiths Referring to Muhammad's Slaves
the Prophet was and requested to a black slave of his: "Will you get the permission of (Allah's Apostle) for Umar (to enter)? The slave went in, talked to the Prophet about it and came out saying, 'I mentioned you to him but he did not reply.' So, I went and sat with the people who were sitting by the pulpit, but I could not bear the situation, so I went to the slave again and said: "Will you get he permission for Umar? He went in and brought the same reply as before. When I was leaving, behold, the slave called me saying, "Allah's Apostle has granted you permission." So, I entered upon the Prophet and saw him lying on a mat without wedding on it, and the mat had left its mark on the body of the Prophet, and he was leaning on a leather pillow stuffed with palm fires. I greeted him and while still standing, I said: "Have you divorced your wives?' He raised his eyes to me and replied in the negative. And then while still standing, I said chatting: "Will you heed what I say, 'O Allah's Apostle! We, the people of Quraish used to have the upper hand over our women (wives), and when we came to the people whose women had the upper hand over them..."
Sahih Bukhari 3:43:648...In those days it was rumored that Ghassan, (a tribe living in Sham) was getting prepared their horses to invade us. My companion went (to the Prophet on the day of his turn, went and returned to us at night and knocked at my door violently, asking whether I was sleeping. I was scared (by the hard knocking) and came out to him. He said that a great thing had happened. I asked him: What is it? Have Ghassan come? He replied that it was worse and more serious than that, and added that Allah's Apostle had divorced all his wives. I said, Hafsa is a ruined loser! I expected that would happen some day.' So I dressed myself and offered the Fajr prayer with the Prophet. Then the Prophet entered an upper room and stayed there alone. I went to Hafsa and found her weeping. I asked her, 'Why are you weeping? Didn't I warn you? Have Allah's Apostle divorced you all?' She replied, 'I don't know. He is there in the upper room.' I then went out and came to the pulpit and found a group of people around it and some of them were weeping. Then I sat with them for some time, but could not endure the situation. So I went to the upper room where: "Will you get the permission of (Allah's Apostle) for Umar (to enter)? The slave went in, talked to the Prophet about it and came out saying, 'I mentioned you to him but he did not reply.' So, I went and sat with the people who were sitting by the pulpit, but I could not bear the situation, so I went to the slave again and said: "Will you get he permission for Umar? He went in and brought the same reply as before. When I was leaving, behold, the slave called me saying, "Allah's Apostle has granted you permission." So, I entered upon the Prophet and saw him lying on a mat without wedding on it, and the mat had left its mark on the body of the Prophet, and he was leaning on a leather pillow stuffed with palm fires. I greeted him and while still standing, I said: "Have you divorced your wives?' He raised his eyes to me and replied in the negative. And then while still standing, I said chatting: "Will you heed what I say, 'O Allah's Apostle! We, the people of Quraish used to have the upper hand over our women (wives), and when we came to the people whose women had the upper hand over them..."
Sahih Bukhari 3:47:765 Narrated Kurib: the freed slave of Ibn 'Abbas, that Maimuna bint Al-Harith told him that she manumitted a slave-girl without taking the permission of the Prophet. On the day when it was her turn to be with the Prophet, she said, "Do you know, O Allah's Apostle, that I have manumitted my slave-girl?" He said, "Have you really?" She replied in the affirmative. He said, "You would have got more reward if you had given her (i.e. the slave-girl) to one of your maternal uncles."
Sahih Bukhari 4:53:344 Narrated 'Ali: Fatima complained of what she suffered from the hand mill and from grinding, when she got the news that some slave girls of the booty had been brought to Allah's Apostle. She went to him to ask for a maid-servant, but she could not find him, and told 'Aisha of her need. When the Prophet came, Aisha informed him of that. The Prophet came to our house when we had gone to our beds. (On seeing the Prophet) we were going to get up, but he said, 'Keep at your places,' I felt the coolness of the Prophet's feet on my chest. Then he said, "Shall I tell you a thing which is better than what you asked me for? When you go to your beds, say: 'Allahu Akbar (i.e. Allah is Greater)' for 34 times, and 'Alhamdu Lillah (i.e. all the praises are for Allah)' for 33 times, and Subhan Allah (i.e. Glorified be Allah) for 33 times. This is better for you than what you have requested."
Allah's Apostle had a slave called Mid'am who had been presented to him by one of Banu Ad-Dibbab. While the slave was dismounting the saddle of Allah's Apostle an arrow the thrower of which was unknown, came and hit him. The people said, "Congratulations to him for the martyrdom." Allah's Apostle said, "No, by Him in Whose Hand my soul is, the sheet (of cloth) which he had taken (illegally) on the day of Khaibar from the booty before the distribution of the booty, has become a flame of Fire burning him." On hearing that, a man brought one or two leather straps of shoes to the Prophet and said, "These are things I took (illegally)." On that Allah's Apostle said, "This is a strap, or these are two straps of Fire."
Sahih Bukhari 5:59:541 See also Sunan an-Nasa'i 35:67 Narrated Abu Huraira: When we conquered Khaibar, we gained neither gold nor silver as booty, but we gained cows, camels, goods and gardens. Then we departed with Allah's Apostle to the valley of Al-Qira, and at that time. While the slave was dismounting the saddle of Allah's Apostle an arrow the thrower of which was unknown, came and hit him. The people said, "Congratulations to him for the martyrdom." Allah's Apostle said, "No, by Him in Whose Hand my soul is, the sheet (of cloth) which he had taken (illegally) on the day of Khaibar from the booty before the distribution of the booty, has become a flame of Fire burning him." On hearing that, a man brought one or two leather straps of shoes to the Prophet and said, "These are things I took (illegally)." On that Allah's Apostle said, "This is a strap, or these are two straps of Fire."
ask (her) slave girl, she will tell you the truth." 'Aisha added: So Allah's Apostle called for Barira and said, "O Barira! Did you ever see anything which might have aroused your suspicion? (as regards Aisha). Barira said, "By Allah Who has sent you with the truth, I have never seen anything regarding Aisha which I would blame her for except that she is a girl of immature age who sometimes sleeps and leaves the dough of her family unprotected so that the domestic goats come and eat it."
Sahih Bukhari 6:60:274 Narrated Aisha: That night I kept on weeping the whole night till the morning. My tears never stopped, nor did I sleep, and morning broke while I was still weeping, Allah's Apostle called 'Ali bin Abi Talib and Usama bin Zaid when the Divine Inspiration delayed, in order to consult them as to the idea of divorcing his wife. Usama bin Zaid told Allah's Apostle of what he knew about the innocence of his wife and of his affection he kept for her. He said, "O Allah's Apostle! She is your wife, and we do not know anything about her except good." But 'Ali bin Abi Talib said, "O Allah's Apostle! Allah does not impose restrictions on you; and there are plenty of women other than her. If you however,, she will tell you the truth." 'Aisha added: So Allah's Apostle called for Barira and said, "O Barira! Did you ever see anything which might have aroused your suspicion? (as regards Aisha). Barira said, "By Allah Who has sent you with the truth, I have never seen anything regarding Aisha which I would blame her for except that she is a girl of immature age who sometimes sleeps and leaves the dough of her family unprotected so that the domestic goats come and eat it."
Sahih Bukhari 6:60:281 Narrated Ibn Abbas:... I returned to my house, astonished (and distressed) that I did not know for what purpose I had gone out. Then I became sick (fever) and said to Allah's Apostle "Send me to my father's house." So he sent a slave with me, and when I entered the house, I found Um Rum-an (my mother) downstairs while (my father) Abu Bakr was reciting something upstairs.
Sahih Bukhari 6:60:435 Then I put on my clothes and went to Allah's Apostle's residence, and behold, he was staying in an upper room of his to which he ascended by a ladder, and a black slave of Allah's Apostle was (sitting) on the first step. I said to him, 'Say (to the Prophet ) 'Umar bin Al-Khattab is here.'...
Sahih Bukhari 7:62:119 I sat with them for a while but could not endure the situation, so I went to the upper room where the Prophet; was and said to a black slave of his, 'Will you get the permission (of the Prophet ) for 'Umar (to enter)?' The slave went in, talked to the Prophet about it and then returned saying, 'I have spoken to the Prophet and mentioned you but he kept quiet.'
Sahih Bukhari 7:64:274 Narrated Ali: Fatima went to the Prophet complaining about the bad effect of the stone hand-mill on her hand. She heard that the Prophet had received a few slave girls. But (when she came there) she did not find him, so she mentioned her problem to 'Aisha. When the Prophet came, 'Aisha informed him about that. 'Ali added, "So the Prophet came to us when we had gone to bed. We wanted to get up (on his arrival) but he said, 'Stay where you are." Then he came and sat between me and her and I felt the coldness of his feet on my abdomen. He said, "Shall I direct you to something better than what you have requested? When you go to bed say 'Subhan Allah' thirty-three times, 'Alhamdulillah' thirty three times, and Allahu Akbar' thirty four times, for that is better for you than a servant."
Sahih Bukhari 7:65:346 Narrated Anas: I was a young boy when I once was walking with Allah's Apostle. Allah's Apostle entered the house of his slave tailor and the latter brought a dish filled with food covered with pieces of gourd. Allah's Apostle started picking and eating the gourd. When I saw that, I started collecting and placing the gourd before him. Then the slave returned to his work. Anas added: I have kept on loving gourd since I saw Allah's Apostle doing what he was doing.
Sahih Bukhari 7:65:344 Narrated Anas: Allah's Apostle went to (the house of) his slave tailor, and he was offered (a dish of) gourd of which he started eating. I have loved to eat gourd since I saw Allah's Apostle eating it.
Allah's Apostle was on a journey and he had a black slave called Anjasha, and he was driving the camels (very fast, and there were women riding on those camels). Allah's Apostle said, "Waihaka (May Allah be merciful to you), O Anjasha! Drive slowly (the camels) with the glass vessels (women)!"
Sahih Bukhari 8:73:182, See also: Sahih Bukhari 8:73:229 Narrated Anas bin Malik:and he was driving the camels (very fast, and there were women riding on those camels). Allah's Apostle said, "Waihaka (May Allah be merciful to you), O Anjasha! Drive slowly (the camels) with the glass vessels (women)!"
Sahih Bukhari 8:73:221 Narrated Anas: Once Um Sulaim was (with the women who were) in charge of the luggage on a journey, and Anjashah, the slave of the Prophet, was driving their camels (very fast). The Prophet said, "O Anjash! Drive slowly (the camels) with the glass vessels (i.e., ladies)."
Sahih Bukhari 9:91:368 Narrated 'Umar: I came and behold, Allah's Apostle was staying on a Mashroba (attic room) and a black slave of Allah's Apostle was at the top if its stairs. I said to him, "(Tell the Prophet) that here is 'Umar bin Al-Khattab (asking for permission to enter)." Then he admitted me.
Hadith Referring to Aisha's Slave
A'isha the wife of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sent her slave girl Nukhayla to me yesterday. She swore that my hair would be dyed and she informed me that Abu Bakr as- Siddiq used to dye his hair." " Yahya related to me from Malik that Yahya ibn Said said that Muhammad ibn Ibrahim at-Taymi had informed him that Abu Salama ibn Abd ar-Rahman said "Abd ar-Rahman ibn al-Aswad ibn Abdal-Yaghuth used to sit with us and he had a white beard and hair. One day he came to us and he had dyed them red, and the people said to him, 'This is better.' He said. ", may Allah bless him and grant him peace,. She swore that my hair would be dyed and she informed me that Abu Bakr as- Siddiq used to dye his hair." " Yahya said that he heard Malik say about dyeing the hair black, 'I have not heard anything certain on that, and other colours than that are preferable to me." Yahya said, "Not to dye at all is permitted, Allah willing, and there is no constraint on people concerning it." Yahya said that he had heard Malik say, "There is no clear indication in this hadith that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not dye his hair. Had the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, dyed his hair, A'isha would have sent a message to that effect to Abd ar-Rahman ibn al-Aswad."
archived) https://sunnah.com/urn/417980 Imam Malik, "Malik's Muwatta: Book 51 Hadith 8"
Slaves Enslaved by Muhammad
took the captives, and the booty was collected. Dihya came and said, 'O Allah's Prophet! Give me a slave girl from the captives.' The Prophet said, 'Go and take any slave girl.' He took Safiya bint Huyai. A man came to the Prophet and said, 'O Allah's Apostles! You gave Safiya bint Huyai to Dihya and she is the chief mistress of the tribes of Quraiza and An-Nadir and she befits none but you.' So the Prophet said, 'Bring him along with her.' So Dihya came with her and when the Prophet saw her, he said to Dihya, 'Take any slave girl other than her from the captives.' Anas added: The Prophet then manumitted her and married her..."
Sahih Bukhari 1:8:367 Narrated 'Abdul 'Aziz: Anas said, 'When Allah's Apostle invaded Khaibar, we offered the Fajr prayer there yearly in the morning) when it was still dark. The Prophet rode and Abu Talha rode too and I was riding behind Abu Talha. The Prophet passed through the lane of Khaibar quickly and my knee was touching the thigh of the Prophet. He uncovered his thigh and I saw the whiteness of the thigh of the Prophet. When he entered the town, he said, 'Allahu Akbar! Khaibar is ruined. Whenever we approach near a (hostile) nation (to fight) then evil will be the morning of those who have been warned.' He repeated this thrice. The people came out for their jobs and some of them said, 'Muhammad (has come).' (Some of our companions added, "With his army.") We conquered Khaibar,, and the booty was collected. Dihya came and said, 'He took Safiya bint Huyai. A man came to the Prophet and said, 'O Allah's Apostles! You gave Safiya bint Huyai to Dihya and she is the chief mistress of the tribes of Quraiza and An-Nadir and she befits none but you.' So the Prophet said, 'Bring him along with her.' So Dihya came with her and when the Prophet saw her, he said to Dihya, 'Anas added: The Prophet then manumitted her and married her..."
Vol. 8, p. 116 Al-Tabari,, See also: Ishaq:511 So Muhammad began seizing their herds and their property bit by bit. He conquered home by home. The Messenger took some people captive, including Safiyah and her two cousins. The Prophet chose Safiyah for himself.
The Prophet said, "I give to some people, lest they should deviate from True Faith or lose patience, while I refer other people to the goodness and contentment which Allah has put in their hearts, and 'Amr bin Taghlib is amongst them." 'Amr bin Taghlib said, "The statement of Allah's Apostle is dearer to me than red camels." Narrated 'Amr bin Taghlib: Allah's Apostle gave (gifts) to some people to the exclusion of some others. The latter seemed to be displeased by that.or lose patience, while I refer other people to the goodness and contentment which Allah has put in their hearts, and 'Amr bin Taghlib is amongst them." 'Amr bin Taghlib said, "The statement of Allah's Apostle is dearer to me than red camels."
Narrated Al-Hasan: 'Amr bin Taghlib told us that Allah's Apostle got some property or some war prisoners and he distributed them in the above way (i.e. giving to some people to the exclusion of others).
Sahih Bukhari 4:53:373 Narrated Al-Hasan: 'Amr bin Taghlib told us that Allah's Apostle got some property or(i.e. giving to some people to the exclusion of others).
The Prophet had their warriors killed, their offspring and woman taken as captives. Safiya was amongst the captives, She first came in the share of Dahya Alkali but later on she belonged to the Prophet. The Prophet made her manumission as her 'Mahr'.
Sahih Bukhari 5:59:512 Narrated Anas: The Prophet offered the Fajr Prayer near Khaibar when it was still dark and then said, "Allahu-Akbar! Khaibar is destroyed, for whenever we approach a (hostile) nation (to fight), then evil will be the morning for those who have been warned." Then the inhabitants of Khaibar came out running on the roads.Safiya was amongst the captives, She first came in the share of Dahya Alkali but later on she belonged to the Prophet. The Prophet made her manumission as her 'Mahr'.
Allah's Apostle vanquished them by force and their warriors were killed; the children and women were taken as captives. Safiya was taken by Dihya Al-Kalbi and later she belonged to Allah's Apostle go who married her and her Mahr was her manumission.
Sahih Bukhari 2:14:68 Narrated Anas bin Malik: Allah's Apostle (p.b.u.h) offered the Fajr prayer when it was still dark, then he rode and said, 'Allah Akbar! Khaibar is ruined. When we approach near to a nation, the most unfortunate is the morning of those who have been warned." The people came out into the streets saying, "Muhammad and his army."Safiya was taken by Dihya Al-Kalbi and later she belonged to Allah's Apostle go who married her and her Mahr was her manumission.
"O Allah's Apostle! We get slave girls from the war captives and we love property; what do you think about coitus interruptus?" Allah's Apostle said, "Do you do that? It is better for you not to do it, for there is no soul which Allah has ordained to come into existence but will be created."
Sahih Bukhari 8:77:600 Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri: That while he was sitting with the Prophet a man from the Ansar came and said,what do you think about coitus interruptus?" Allah's Apostle said, "Do you do that? It is better for you not to do it, for there is no soul which Allah has ordained to come into existence but will be created."
Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) called for them and divided them into three sections, cast lots amongst them, and set two free and kept four in slavery; and he (the Holy Prophet) spoke severely of him.
Sahih Muslim 15:4112 'Imran b. Husain reported that a person who had no other property emancipated six slaves of his at the time of his death.
Sad said, "Kill their (men) warriors and take their offspring as captives, "On that the Prophet said, "You have judged according to Allah's Judgment," or said, "according to the King's judgment."
Sahih Bukhari 5:59:447 Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri: The people of (Banu) Quraiza agreed to accept the verdict of Sad bin Mu'adh. So the Prophet sent for Sad, and the latter came (riding) a donkey and when he approached the Mosque, the Prophet said to the Ansar, "Get up for your chief or for the best among you." Then the Prophet said (to Sad)." These (i.e. Banu Quraiza) have agreed to accept your verdict."or said, "according to the King's judgment."
Slaves Traded by Muhammad
One Arab for Two Blacks
Sell him to me. And he bought him for two black slaves, and he did not afterwards take allegiance from anyone until he had asked him whether he was a slave (or a free man)
Sahih Muslim 10:3901 Jabir (Allah be pleased with him) reported: There came a slave and pledg- ed allegiance to Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) on migration; he (the Holy Prophet) did not know that he was a slave. Then there came his master and demanded him back, whereupon Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) said:, and he did not afterwards take allegiance from anyone until he had asked him whether he was a slave (or a free man)
Slaves Sold by Muhammad
so the Prophet cancelled the manumission (and sold the slave for him). No'aim bin Al-Nahham bought the slave from him.
Sahih Bukhari 3:41:598 Narrated Jabir: A man manumitted a slave and he had no other property than that,No'aim bin Al-Nahham bought the slave from him.
so the Prophet took the slave and said, "Who will buy this slave from me?" Nu'aim bin 'Abdullah bought him for such and such price and the Prophet gave him the slave.
Sahih Bukhari 3:34:351 Narrated Jabir bin Abdullah: A man decided that a slave of his would be manumitted after his death and later on he was in need of money,for such and such price and the Prophet gave him the slave.
When the Prophet heard of that, he said (to his companions), "Who wants to buy him (i.e., the slave) for me?" Nu'aim bin An-Nahham bought him for eight hundred Dirhams. I heard Jabir saying, "That was a coptic slave who died in the same year."
Sahih Bukhari 8:79:707 Narrated 'Amr: Jabir said: An Ansari man made his slave a Mudabbar and he had no other property than him.Nu'aim bin An-Nahham bought him for eight hundred Dirhams. I heard Jabir saying, "That was a coptic slave who died in the same year."
This news reached Allah's Apostle and he said, "Who will buy that slave from me?" So Nu'aim bin An-Nahham bought him for 800 Dirham. Jabir added: It was a coptic (Egyptian) slave who died that year.
Sahih Bukhari 9:85:80 Narrated Jabir: A man from the Ansar made his slave, a Mudabbar. And apart from that slave he did not have any other property.So Nu'aim bin An-Nahham bought him for 800 Dirham. Jabir added: It was a coptic (Egyptian) slave who died that year.
The Prophet asked, "Who will buy the slave from me?" No'aim bin 'Abdullah bought the slave and the Prophet took its price and gave it to the owner.
Sahih Bukhari 3:41:588 Narrated Jabir bin 'Abdullah: A man pledged that his slave would be manumitted after his death.No'aim bin 'Abdullah bought the slave and the Prophet took its price and gave it to the owner.
The Prophet called for that slave and sold him. The slave died the same year.
Sahih Bukhari 3:46:711 Narrated Jabir bin 'Abdullah: A man amongst us declared that his slave would be freed after his death.The slave died the same year.
Prophet came to know that one of his companions had given the promise of freeing his slave after his death, but as he had no other property than that slave, the Prophet sold that slave for 800 dirhams and sent the price to him.
Sahih Bukhari 9:89:296 Narrated Jabir: Thebut as he had no other property than that slave,and sent the price to him.
Slave Transactions Initiated by Muhammad
The slave-girl and the sheep are to go back to you, and your son will get a hundred lashes and one year exile." He then addressed somebody, "O Unais! go to the wife of this (man) and stone her to death" So, Unais went and stoned her to death.
Sahih Bukhari 3:49:860 Narrated Abu Huraira and Zaid bin Khalid Al-Juhani: A bedouin came and said, "O Allah's Apostle! Judge between us according to Allah's Laws." His opponent got up and said, "He is right. Judge between us according to Allah's Laws." The bedouin said, "My son was a laborer working for this man, and he committed illegal sexual intercourse with his wife. The people told me that my son should be stoned to death; so, in lieu of that, I paid a ransom of one hundred sheep and a slave girl to save my son. Then I asked the learned scholars who said, "Your son has to be lashed one-hundred lashes and has to be exiled for one year." The Prophet said, "No doubt I will judge between you according to Allah's Laws.and your son will get a hundred lashes and one year exile." He then addressed somebody, "O Unais! go to the wife of this (man) and stone her to death" So, Unais went and stoned her to death.
Sahih Bukhari 3:50:885 Narrated Abu Huraira and Zaid bin Khalid Al-Juhani: A bedouin came to Allah's Apostle and said, "O Allah's apostle! I ask you by Allah to judge My case according to Allah's Laws." His opponent, who was more learned than he, said, "Yes, judge between us according to Allah's Laws, and allow me to speak." Allah's Apostle said, "Speak." He (i.e. the bedouin or the other man) said, "My son was working as a laborer for this (man) and he committed illegal sexual intercourse with his wife. The people told me that it was obligatory that my son should be stoned to death, so in lieu of that I ransomed my son by paying one hundred sheep and a slave girl. Then I asked the religious scholars about it, and they informed me that my son must be lashed one hundred lashes, and be exiled for one year, and the wife of this (man) must be stoned to death." Allah's Apostle said, "By Him in Whose Hands my soul is, I will judge between you according to Allah's Laws. The slave-girl and the sheep are to be returned to you, your son is to receive a hundred lashes and be exiled for one year. You, Unais, go to the wife of this (man) and if she confesses her guilt, stone her to death." Unais went to that woman next morning and she confessed. Allah's Apostle ordered that she be stoned to death.
Ishaq:693 Then the apostle sent for Sa'd bin Zayd al-Ansari brother of bin Abdul-Ashhal with some of the captive women of Banu Qurayza to Najd and he sold them for horses and weapons.
Miscellaneous
Bilal Bought in Exchange for a Black Non-Muslim Slave
Ishaq:144 A rock was put on a slave's chest. When Abu Bakr complained, they said, 'You are the one who corrupted him, so save him from his plight.' I will do so,' said Bakr. 'I have a black slave, tougher and stronger than Bilal, who is a heathen. I will exchange him. The transaction was carried out.
Attempts to Free Slaves Sometimes Discouraged and Thwarted by Muhammad
Sahih Bukhari 3:47:765 Narrated Kurib: the freed slave of Ibn 'Abbas, that Maimuna bint Al-Harith told him that she manumitted a slave-girl without taking the permission of the Prophet. On the day when it was her turn to be with the Prophet, she said, "Do you know, O Allah's Apostle, that I have manumitted my slave-girl?" He said, "Have you really?" She replied in the affirmative. He said, "You would have got more reward if you had given her (i.e. the slave-girl) to one of your maternal uncles."
See also Sahih Muslim 15:4112 and Sahih Bukhari 9:89:296 above for hadiths where Muhammad sold slaves whose masters had promised to free them.
Muhammad disapproves of Ibn Mas'ud beating his slave
Jami` at-Tirmidhi 4:25:1948 Abu Mas'ud [Al-Ansari] said: "I was beating a slave of mine and I heard someone behind me saying: 'Beware O Abu Mas'ud! Beware O Abu Mas'ud!' So I turned around and saw that it was the Messenger of Allah. He said: 'Allah has more power over you than you do over him." Abu Mas'ud said: "I have not beaten any slave of mine since then."
Free a Slave Who is Beaten or to Expiate Certain Sins
Contrary to apologetics, Islam did not bring exceptional treatment of slaves by ancient standards. Before Islam, Zoroastrian law had protections for slaves against violence, and it was considered a virtue to free a slave, who could also buy their own freedom.[5] It was also common in ancient Rome to free slaves, so much so that Augustus had a law enacted to prevent manumission of slaves younger than 30 years old. In Islam, slaves are to be freed when there is violence against them, or to expiate certain sins.
Sahih Muslim 15:4079 Zadhan reported that Ibn Umar called his slave and he found the marks (of beating) upon his back. He said to him: I have caused you pain. He said: No. But he (Ibn Umar) said: You are free. He then took hold of something from the earth and said: There is no reward for me even to the weight equal to it. I heard Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: He who beats a slave without cognizable offence of his or slaps him (without any serious fault), then expiation for it is that he should set him free.
Sahih Muslim 15:4084 Suwaid b. Muqarrin reported that he had a slave-girl and a person (one of the members of the family) slapped her, whereupon Suwaid said to him: Don't you know that it is forbidden (to strike the) face. He said: You see I was the seventh one amongst my brothers during the lifetime of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ), and we had but only one servant. One of us got enraged and slapped him. Thereupon Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) commanded us to set him free.
Sahih Bukhari 7:64:281 Narrated Abu Huraira: A man came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and said, "I am ruined!" The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Why?" He said, "I had sexual intercourse with my wife while fasting (in the month of Ramadan)." The Prophet (ﷺ) said to him, "Manumit a slave (as expiation)."
Reward for Freeing Muslim Slaves
Sahih Bukhari 3:46:693 Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, "Whoever frees a Muslim slave, Allah will save all the parts of his body from the (Hell) Fire as he has freed the body-parts of the slave." Said bin Marjana said that he narrated that Hadith to 'Ali bin Al-Husain and he freed his slave for whom 'Abdullah bin Ja'far had offered him ten thousand Dirhams or one-thousand Dinars.
Sahih Bukhari 8:79:706 Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, "If somebody manumits a Muslim slave, Allah will save from the Fire every part of his body for freeing the corresponding parts of the slave's body, even his private parts will be saved from the Fire) because of freeing the slave's private parts."
Female Slaves can be Flogged and Sold if they have Illegal Sexual Intercourse
Sahih Bukhari 8:82:823 Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, "If a lady slave commits illegal sexual intercourse and she is proved guilty of illegal sexual intercourse, then she should be flogged (fifty stripes) but she should not be admonished; and if she commits illegal sexual intercourse again, then she should be flogged again but should not be admonished; and if she commits illegal sexual intercourse for the third time, then she should be sold even for a hair rope."
Sunan Abu Dawud 38:4458 Narrated Ali ibn AbuTalib: A slave-girl belonging to the house of the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) committed fornication. He (the Prophet) said: Rush up, Ali, and inflict the prescribed punishment on her. I then hurried up, and saw that blood was flowing from her, and did not stop. So I came to him and he said: Have you finished inflicting (punishment on her)? I said: I went to her while her blood was flowing. He said: Leave her alone till her bleeding stops; then inflict the prescribed punishment on her. And inflict the prescribed punishment on those whom your right hands possess (i.e. slaves).
Conversion of Slaves to Islam
Sahih Bukhari 1:3:97 Narrated Abu Burda's father: Allah's Apostle said "Three persons will have a double reward: 1. A Person from the people of the scriptures who believed in his prophet (Jesus or Moses) and then believed in the Prophet Muhammad (i.e. has embraced Islam). 2. A slave who discharges his duties to Allah and his master. 3. A master of a woman-slave who teaches her good manners and educates her in the best possible way (the religion) and manumits her and then marries her."
Marrying Slaves
Allah's Apostle said, "A lady slave should not be given in marriage until she is consulted, and |
Lowe, Matthew McConaughey, Norah O'Donnell, Dennis Quaid, Julia Roberts, Kelly Rowland, Adam Sandler, Ryan Seacrest, Blake Shelton, Michael Strahan, George Strait, Barbra Streisand, Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon.
More information about the Hand in Hand benefit can be found on the Hand in Hand website.
Copyright 2017 by KSAT. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.I won’t lie, It scares the hell out of me. On the one hand I’ve simplified my life, I can work whenever I want, from wherever I want. But, and this is a big but, I’ve also taken on significant risk — if the course(s) don’t sell, where does the money come from? How will I handle tax, retirement contributions and everything else. There are a lot of elements I haven’t even considered and feelings that I didn’t expect. In short, I’m an equal amount excited and scared to death — the next 1–2 years will probably be the best or worst of recent times.
I’m going to blog my journey — I’ve been thinking about it for a long time and I’ve had help from the Quit! and Cortex podcasts, not to mention the amazing support from everyone at Cloud Guru and Nick Triantafillou. I’d like to help, or dissuade others by documenting my experiences and feelings throughout the whole process. I’m in a position where I can take the risk — just do it and see how it works out. I understand that for people who are less fortunate or in a life situation with more commitments, this isn’t the case. If my experiences can help them — all the better.
Wish me ‘luck’ — even though I don’t believe in it.
If you want to support me, then checkout the amazing courses at A Cloud Guru the All5 or Professional bundles are especially good value. I’ll also be doing short term consultancy in Brisbane/Australia or remotely, if you need, or know anyone who needs Architecture, Design or Implementation consultancy for AWS/Azure or GCE then give me a shout and we can talk.
A special mention to Myke Hurley your podcasts, specifically Cortex have made this much less scary and much more exciting — my shoes were dusty! :)Dundalk have begun to plan for life after Richie Towell with the announcement of the signing of former UCD playmaker Robbie Benson.
The 23-year-old had spent the last five seasons with the Students, choosing to remain in Belfield following their relegation to the second tier in spite of interest from a number of Premier Division clubs.
Benson played in all four of College's Europa League qualification matches last season and was a key part of Collie O'Neill's side's unexpected promotion push.
His absence through injury for the final stages of the season was keenly felt, as it was in the first leg of the promotion play-off with Finn Harps as the Students lost out by the odd goal conceded at the UCD Bowl.
“I’m over the moon to be here,” Benson told his new club's official website.
“I have moved on from UCD and this was my first time really experiencing the off-season and the madness that it is! I’m really happy to get it sorted out.
“One of the deciding factors [in joining Dundalk] was Stephen Kenny. I have got a lot of advice. It was my decision at the end of the day but everything that was said pointed in the direction to come here.
“I know a good few players from before. I have kept in close contact with David McMillan since he left UCD and I am looking forward to starting that partnership again.
“We are slowly taking over here – there’s 5 or 6 of us here! It’ll be good to link up with them again.”
Benson cited the prospect of playing Champions League football as another motivating factor in his decision to enter the demanding atmosphere of the back-to-back league champions.
“Champions League is another step up. Playing in the Europa League with UCD last year gave me a taste of it. It’s what everyone wants to play in.
“It’s the highest level. The lads came close to getting the breakthrough this year. Hopefully we can push on next year and make progress in it.”If you choose your travel destinations by culinary reputation, there are some obvious choices. But recently, a growing list of unexpected cities has joined the traditional foodie meccas such as New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Here, we explore five secret delectable destinations worth a second look this year.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
The western-half of the Twin Cities, Minneapolis is having its full moment when it comes to food. Though we hate hearing that head chef and co-owner Jack Riebel has left Butcher & the Boar, we’re crossing our fingers that the recipe for housemade sausages, fermented venison with homemade cheddar cheese whiz, to jerk duck sausage with green cabbage, green mango slaw and plantain aren’t exiting with him. Riebel was a James Beard Award semi-finalist for Best Chef: Midwest in 2013; here’s hoping that Peter Botcher can keep up the delicious work in the kitchen as the new head chef. Now, if you’re looking for a place to drink, look no further than Marvel Bar, a lavatory of libations located downstairs from The Bachelor Farmer in the Warehouse District. Get to the newish spot early to grab a seat and ask any questions you might have about the menu, but whatever you do, don’t miss the Tomas Collins or any other cocktail with the spicy Scandinavian-inspired liquor called aquavit — it’s a local treasure.
Columbus, Ohio
Known more for its businesses than its food, Columbus is quickly transforming that reputation, particularly in the Short North Arts District near downtown. Last year, restaurateur Cameron Mitchell opened The Pearl, an oyster bar and gastropub serving classic cocktails such as the barrel-aged Manhattan and a stout list of entrées such as ricotta dumplings with acorn squash, toasted walnuts, crispy kale and crimini mushrooms. The nearby, and more established, North Market offers locals and tourists a European-style, indoor food vendor market, where the James Beard Award winner for best baking and desserts book in 2012, Jeni Britton Bauer, got her start churning splendid, full butterfat treats that can be savored today at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. And don’t miss James Beard Award semi-finalist for Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2012 Kent Rigsby’s delectable oysters diavalo at Rigsby’s Kitchen. This Italian-American treasure served with Tabasco cream and crispy eggplant will leave you licking the bowl. And while you’re grubbing your way around the Ohio capital city, make sure to stop by Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Final Cut Steak & Seafood Columbus for an elegant dining experience that’s a throwback to old Hollywood.
Little Rock, Arkansas
Once a land dominated by chain restaurants and barbecue joints, the capital of The Natural State has thoroughly expanded its palate. For high-end fare, the Joël Antunes-helmed Ashley’s at Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Capital Hotel sets the standard with its collection of Southern cuisine done with an international flair. For small plates inspired by European traditions (see: ham and brie crostini), venture to the Hillcrest District for Ciao Baci, or if you’re looking for a more relaxed meal of organic, local ingredients, don’t miss Zaza’s Fine Salad + Wood-Oven Pizza Co. — the prosciutto-arugula pizza pairs well with just about every fresh salad on the menu. But if you’re still hoping for that traditional smoked barbecue during your Little Rock visit, don’t worry — the award-winning Whole Hog Café’s four-bone rib plate will certainly hit the spot.
Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville prides itself on being on the wacky side, and a little bit of wacky goes a long way when it comes to interesting cuisine. To get a taste of the variety to be found in this little mountain town, consider the fact that the 2012 James Beard Award Rising Star Chef of the Year semi-finalist Katie Button’s Cúrate offers her take on modern Spanish tapas on one street, while chocolatiers Dan and Jael Rattigan’s French Broad Chocolate Lounge serve sips of ganache-based drinking chocolates, also known as liquid truffles, just around the block. To try more down-home delights, consider a drive to the Looking Glass Creamery, just 10 miles from downtown Asheville, and sample locally made goats milk, brie-style, or aged cheeses with wine and bubbly pairings. For an even more elevated experience, venture an hour into the mountains to Spruce Pine and reserve a spot with chef Nathan Allen at Knife & Fork.
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder may have a reputation for snow bunnies and tapping the Rockies, but there’s much more happening here than ski-lifts and beer. Flagstaff House Restaurant is a Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star establishment and Boulder staple for fine cuts of meat and perfectly prepared seafood. Chef Corey Buck recently opened a breakfast and lunch restaurant called Food at the Riverside, serving delicacies such as lobster Benedict, quiches and fresh salads, along the city’s only patio overlooking Boulder Creek. For a happy hour that won’t quit, try Bramble & Hare. Everything from the restauranteur’s organic 130-acre farm is $5 in the 5 o’clock hour: small plates such as country pâté and an artisan cheese plate, beer, wine, and cocktails, too. And local foodies won’t let you leave until you know that Boulder is also home to five out of the country’s 118 master sommeliers. Boulder’s not just for skiing, folks. Not anymore.
Photos Courtesy of The Pearl and Angel McVayNEW DELHI: India may soon get its first runway on a “sea bridge”. The Airports Authority of India AAI ) has got green nod to extend Lakshadweep’s Agatti Airport by building an RCC platform on the beach and shallow sea.The runway will be extended on this platform and the longer airstrip will allow bigger ATRs to operate to the island. The nod for this came after AAI was asked to drop its earlier plan of linking two adjacent islands for the purpose of extending the runway. “The island-linking plan has been changed due to environmental concerns. Now, we will get into the beach and shallow sea area, erect pillars there and build an RCC platform on that. On this extended area, we will expand the runway and terminal,” a senior AAI official said. “The entire project is likely to cost about Rs 1,500 crore. Once completed, the runway will be long enough for ATR-72 to operate. At present, only smaller turboprops operate there,” he said.According to officials, the air fare (to and from Agatti) is on the higher side as the ATR–72 aircraft are running with load penalty and carry only maximum of 50 passengers with 15 kg of luggage against 65 passengers with maximum luggage of 15 kg and no provision of paid luggage.The new improved airport will help in bringing the fares to affordable level. Agatti could be India’s first runway-on-sea bridge as the same was considered for two more airports — Juhu airport in Mumbai and Kullu — but was not found suitable for those places.There are lots of cakes out there made by famous personages, most of whom are from Taiwan. The quality of these things vary from very good to very poor, especially when factoring in the price involved, which is almost always high, because there is usually a substantial premium charged for these things, precisely due to the fame of the person who made them. This cake, the Zipin hao from 2003, was made by Zhou Yu of Wistaria House.
I distinctly remember seeing this at Wistaria the first time I visited in 2005. Back then, my thought was “my god, this thing is expensive”, which it was. I can’t quite remember how much it was, but it was heads and shoulders above what a normal cake sold for back in the day, and being a poor graduate student, I balked and never bought it. Nor did I try it at the time, because instead I spent my money drinking some loose Tongqing hao from Wistaria instead. It was good, and the Zipin was forgotten.
I had picked up a cake of their 2007 Hongyin last time I visited, and this time I went back to Wistaria again during my most recent trip to Taipei, and remembered this cake. When I inquired how much, the price was shocking – shocking low, relatively speaking anyway for something approaching 10 years and made by a famous tea master. At 4200 NTD, it’s not cheap for a single cake, but compared to a lot of new stuff, its price is more than reasonable. I bought one.
The dry leaves really don’t look too good. The cake’s front looks like someone stomped on it. Six Famous Tea Mountains’ pressing skill was never great, and it’s evident here too. But then, we don’t judge teas by their looks.
How does it taste? One word – good. It’s got this nice, long lasting aftertaste. It has qi. It has body. I brewed it pretty light, because these days I’m trying to limit my caffeine intake, but the tea still delivered. It’s no longer youthful, and exhibits a taste that is typical of something that’s been around for its age and stored in a wettish climate. The wet leaves look good too.
At this point, one must wonder – why bother buying new cakes of teas that are the same price as this, when there’s something like this to be had? At the same price, you can have something from a reputable tea master aged 10 years, or you can buy some new cake of supposed old tree material (a sometimes questionable claim) and chance it ten years from now. To me, the choice seems pretty obvious.Now that the author of the infamous “anti-diversity” memo that reportedly compelled some women at Google to stay home from work has been fired and the deceptive headlines have been written, maybe the media could take a breather and, you know, read the actual memo?
The Federalist was among those outlets republishing the complete text of the memo that reportedly violated Google’s code of conduct.
If you want to read the full Google memo (rather than the version redacted by progressive media), here you go. https://t.co/nr7ebm91Cs — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 8, 2017
Just how far off were members of the media in their interpretation of the memo? CNN changed its headline from “anti-diversity memo” to “controversial manifesto,” and CNN’s Brooke Baldwin described the author as saying, well …
Brooke Baldwin mischaracterizes Google memo author as saying "I don’t really like women anywhere near a computer." Twice! https://t.co/lFAixHZlzn — Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) August 8, 2017
Here's @MKHammer's priceless reaction to @BrookeBCNN claiming the Google guy basically said he doesn't "like women anywhere near a computer" pic.twitter.com/dfbfMOhAlM — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 8, 2017
Painfully obvious @BrookeBCNN getting her info from social media, not ACTUALLY READING THE BLOODY THING. — Ben Crystal (@Bennettruth) August 8, 2017
CNN political analyst Kirsten Powers also read the memo and described the media’s characterization of it as “hysterical.”
Finally read the Google memo … have some issues w it, but it bears no connection to the hysterical, biased media coverage of it. — Kirsten Powers (@KirstenPowers) August 8, 2017
Also was really distressed to learn in that memo that Google puts the worst safe spacey, coddling college campuses to shame. — Kirsten Powers (@KirstenPowers) August 8, 2017
Ouch. That’s what we suspected, but it’s frightening to think a corporation with the power and influence of Google is ushering new hires from one safe space into another.
What i think abt Google memo: 1) This guy was trying to do something helpful but missed the mark. But by no means was it 'anti-diversity.' — Kirsten Powers (@KirstenPowers) August 8, 2017
That’s the impression others got as well — at least those who weren’t so reflexively offended at the idea of gender differences that they couldn’t go on reading.
Actually, his memo respected the differences between men and women, and offered solutions that would – get this – HELP WOMEN. — Evil Red Kid (@_SOURKIDZ_) August 8, 2017
The tragedy of the Google guy is he thought he was actually helping. Read his list of recommendations. I want to work at a place like this! pic.twitter.com/YEFng5Mvzh — PoliMath (@politicalmath) August 8, 2017
I'm an extrovert. The hardest part of my job is NOT being around people. His vision of a diverse workplace sounds like heaven /2 — PoliMath (@politicalmath) August 8, 2017
More pair programming?
I'd love to learn from my peers!
better work/life balance?
Awesome!
Reward cooperation?
need more of that in tech /3 — PoliMath (@politicalmath) August 8, 2017
Honestly, if Google *did* implement his suggestions it probably would be a more attractive place for women (for anyone!) to work /4 — PoliMath (@politicalmath) August 8, 2017
It would probably also make Google *less* attractive to the kinds of insular guys who we stereotype as bro-coders /5 — PoliMath (@politicalmath) August 8, 2017
Reading the memo, I got the sense he wanted to help. Of course, if he retained a lawyer *before* this all went down, he probably didn't /6 — PoliMath (@politicalmath) August 8, 2017
From someone who’s been there …
Probably the most terrifying thing about Darmore is watching people, in real time, lie about what he said, even though we can all read it — PoliMath (@politicalmath) August 8, 2017
Remind me to keep everything to ten pages max. https://t.co/4RpO3ajokT — Charles Murray (@charlesmurray) August 8, 2017
So this is what led women to stay home from work at Google Monday and got this guy fired? If so, diversity is not the human resources problem Google should be worrying about.
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Related:India is ripe for a legal action that challenges mass surveillance of personal user data: not just that within the country, but also the collection of data of Indian citizens by US companies. A ruling today from the European Court of Justice has struck down the Safe Harbor mechanism (notes on how it worked below) which facilitates the transfer of personal data from the EU to servers hosted in the US, which essentially means that user data generated in the EU will have to be hosted in the EU, and be governed by EU laws for data protection.
Quite simply, the court has said that the data held in US servers isn’t secure enough for EU data, given that the NSA’s ‘PRISM’ program gives the US government “unrestricted access to data stored on servers in the United States owned or controlled by a range of companies active in the internet and technology field, such as Facebook USA.”
The Lowdown on the judgment
1. How this began: The ruling comes following a complaint from Maximillian Schrems in 2013, in which he said that the law and practices of the United States offer no real protection of the data kept in the United States against State surveillance, following the revelations by Edward Snowden in May 2013. The complaint was filed with the Data Protection Authority in Ireland, since the terms for Facebook in the EU are applicable to Ireland. Facebook Ireland keeps its subscriber data in servers in the United States.
MediaNama’s take: Readers should note that the US National Security Agency is believed to be accessing servers of companies like Facebook, Google and Microsoft, which also store data of Indian citizens, apart from snooping via other means. Firstly, there is cause for someone to approach the Supreme Court of India, in the interest of protecting the rights of Indian citizens, to ensure that data belonging to and generated by Indian users isn’t accessible to the NSA, and companies like Facebook and Google are prevented from sending Indian data to servers in the US. Secondly, there is a need to push for a Privacy and Data Protection law in India, to ensure that rights of Indian citizens are protected.
2. The weakness of the safe harbour scheme: In its ruling, the court points that the safe harbor scheme is weak, given that it relies on self-certification and self-assessment by private organisations and some intervention by the public authorities. Categorically, the court points out that the safe harbour scheme, “does not contain appropriate guarantees for preventing mass and generalised access to the transferred data.”
MediaNama’s take: Does data get transferred outside India under any particular law? We’re not sure, but it’s pretty clear that Indian citizens should not be subjected to mass surveillance by the US government, and India needs to take steps to ensure this. It’s the only way of ensuring that the data of Indian users is governed by the country where that data originates from, and not of the country in which it is stored
3. States must protect right to privacy and data protection: The court ruled that, referring to the NSA surveillance, that “where systemic deficiencies are found in the third country to which the personal data is transferred, the Member (EU) States must be able to take the measures necessary to safeguard the fundamental rights protected by Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter (of FundamentalRights of the European Union)”.
Note that Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (link) includes:
Article 7: Respect for private and family life ; Everyone has the right to respect for his or her private and family life, home and communications.
Article 8: Protection of personal data 1. Everyone has the right to the protection of personal data concerning him or her.
2. Such data must be processed fairly for specified purposes and on the basis of the consent of the person concerned or some other legitimate basis laid down by law. Everyone has the right of access to data which has been collected concerning him or her, and the right to have it rectified.
3. Compliance with these rules shall be subject to control by an independent authority.
The court points out that “Such mass, indiscriminate surveillance is inherently disproportionate and constitutes an unwarranted interference with the rights guaranteed by Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter”, and that “the continuing transfer would create an imminent risk of grave harm to data subjects“.
MediaNama’s take: India doesn’t believe that the right to privacy is fundamental. To quote Mukul Rohatgi, the Attorney General of India, representing the Indian state: “The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.”
4. Rights of EU citizens and the usage of the data: The court pointed out that:
– “…citizens of the (European) Union have no effective right to be heard on the question of the surveillance and interception of their data by the NSA and other United States security agencies.”
– An additional factor is that the citizens of the (European) Union who are Facebook users are not informed that their personal data will be generally accessible to the United States security agencies.”
– The United States rules on the protection of privacy may be applied differently to United States citizens and to foreign citizens.
– Neither the US FTC nor private dispute resolution bodies have the power to monitor possible breaches of principles for the protection of personal data by public actors such as the United States security agencies.
– “…transfers of personal data to third countries should not be given a lower level of protection than processing within the European Union.”…”The protection against surveillance by government services provided for in section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 applies only to United States citizens and to foreign citizens legally resident on a permanent basis in the United States.”
– “…there are no opportunities for citizens of the Union to obtain access to or rectification or erasure of data, or administrative or judicial redress with regard to collection and further processing of their personal data taking place under the United States surveillance programmes.”
MediaNama’s Take:What will it take our for the Indian government to protect data belonging to Indian users?India doesn’t have a data protection authority. In fact, we don’t even have significant enough protection for data collected within India, leave alone ensuring that our data is protected in other countries. Secondly, do citizens in India have a right to be heard regarding surveillance? Given the mass surveillance programs in India, from the Centralised Monitoring System, NETRA, linking of all user data to Aadhar, collating databases using NATGRID, and the secrecy that all of this is cloaked under, rules and regulations are enforced so that either this data cannot be collected, or that accessing it is subject to judicial oversight, independent of the executive branch of the government.
*
Also note that MediaNama has contacted Facebook India for responses to the following questions:
1. Where does Facebook store data from its Indian users?
2. Where does Facebook store data from its Internet.org users?
3. Does Facebook store any Indian user data within India?
4. Does Facebook provide data to the US’ National Security Agency (NSA), as revealed by Edward Snowden (and acknowledged by the EU court) under the PRISM program?
Readers should note that Facebook hasn’t responded to our questions in the past six-eight months, and we’re not sure if they’ll respond now.
*
What does the Safe Harbor for user data provide for?
– Users need to be informed about: the purpose for which data is collected, used, and on how to contact the organisation with any inquiries or complaints, the types of third parties to which it discloses the information, and the choices and means the organisation offers individuals for limiting its use and disclosure. A notice must be provided when individuals are first asked to provide personal information to the organisation or as soon thereafter, as is practicable, but in any event before the organisation uses such information for a purpose other than that for which it was originally collected or processed by the transferring organisation or discloses it for the first time to a third party’.
– A choice to users: about “whether their personal information is to be disclosed to a third party or to be used for a purpose that is incompatible with the purpose or purposes for which it was originally collected or subsequently authorised by the individual. As regards sensitive information, an individual ‘must be given affirmative or explicit (opt in) choice if the information is to be disclosed to a third party or used for a purpose other than those for which it was originally collected or subsequently authorised by the individual through the exercise of opt in choice’”
– Rules on the onward transfer of data. Thus, ‘to disclose information to a third party, organisations must apply the Notice and Choice Principles’;
– Organizations need to take reasonable precautions to ensure that the data is protected from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction.
– Data integrity: to ‘take reasonable steps to ensure that data is reliable for its intended use, accurate, complete and current’
– Users must be allowed to make changes: a person whose personal information is held by an organisation must, in principle, ‘have access to [that] information … and be able to correct, amend, or delete it where it is inaccurate’
– Users should be able to take action in case of non-compliance: “an obligation to make provision for ‘mechanisms for assuring compliance with the Principles, recourse for individuals to whom the data relate affected by non-compliance with the Principles, and consequences for the organisation when the Principles are not followed’.”Mitt Romney responded to President Obama’s criticism of his tenure at Bain Capital in an appearance on CBS.
Barraged with questions about his tenure at Bain Capital, Mitt Romney fired back on Friday in five national television interviews and repeated his assertion that he left the Boston private equity firm in 1999 and not years later as some company documents indicate.
“The truth is that I left any role at Bain Capital in February of 1999” and “relinquished all management authority,” Romney said in an interview with CNN.
Questions about his role at Bain, which reaped lucrative dividends from some companies that laid off workers and faced bankruptcy after 1999, have escalated since the Globe reported Thursday that documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission listed Romney as chief executive, president, chairman, and sole stockholder as late as 2002.
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Romney has said he stopped all management duties at Bain in 1999 when he left for Salt Lake City to organize the 2002 Winter Olympics, which had been beset by scandal and dire financial trouble.
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“There’s a difference between being a shareholder — an owner, if you will — and being a person who’s running an entity,” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said on CNN from his vacation home in Wolfeboro, N.H.
“I think anybody who knows I was out full time running the Olympics would understand that’s where I was: I spent three years running the Olympic Games, and after that was over, we worked out our retirement program, our departure-official program, for Bain Capital, and handed over the shares I had,” Romney said.
Romney’s round-robin of five television interviews, his first attempt to directly address his departure from Bain since the Globe report, escalated the intensity of the presidential campaign and followed a series of blistering attacks from the Obama reelection team.
On Thursday, Stephanie Cutter, the president’s deputy campaign manager, said that Romney either was “misrepresenting his position at Bain to the SEC, which is a felony,” or was “misrepresenting his position at Bain to the American people to avoid responsibility for some of the consequences of his investments.”
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Romney explicitly assailed President Obama and his campaign for the attacks, which he called an attempt to divert attention from the nation’s stagnant economy.
But when pressed, he stopped short of calling the president a liar. He did, however, ask for an apology.
“Is this the level that the Obama campaign is willing to stoop to? Is this up to the standards expected of the presidency of the United States?” he asked. “It’s disgusting, it’s demeaning, it’s something which I think the president should take responsibility for and stop.”
On ABC News, Romney said that “the president needs to take control of these people. He ought to disavow it and rein in these people who are running out of control.”
Earlier, Obama said in an interview in Virginia that Romney “absolutely” should answer questions about when he relinquished control at Bain Capital.
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“My understanding is that Mr. Romney attested to the SEC, multiple times, that he was the chairman, CEO, and president of Bain Capital, and I think most Americans figure if you are the chairman, CEO, and president of a company that you are responsible for what that company does,” Obama said. “Mr. Romney, I think, is going to have to answer those questions because if he aspires to being president, one of the things you learn is you are ultimately responsible for the conduct of your operations.... I think that’s a legitimate part of the campaign.”
By hammering away on Romney’s business record, which the Obama campaign insists was focused on creating personal wealth instead of jobs, the president might have found a way to gain some separation in what has been a razor-close race.
A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows Obama leading Romney, 47 percent to 45 percent, in battleground states, and that his ads are swaying voters. Eight percent of voters said political ads had changed their minds, and three-quarters of that group now support the president. Romney’s ads persuaded 16 percent of those voters to support the former governor.
Negative ads against Romney, which include those attacking his time at Bain, have been seen by nearly two-thirds of voters, the poll found.
Several media and fact-checkers, however, have addressed the issue and found there is no clear evidence that Romney had operational connections with Bain after 1999.
The questions about Romney’s links with Bain are part of a fusillade of recent attacks on a candidate who touts his business acumen as the best antidote to the country’s economic problems. Romney has been hit with questions about family funds in Bermuda, Switzerland, and the secretive Cayman Islands, and whether companies in which Bain invested had expanded by creating jobs overseas.
In the CNN interview, Romney said he would not release any additional tax returns beyond the 2010 and 2011 forms.
“I know that there will always be calls for more,” Romney said. “People always want to get more. And, you know, we’re putting out what’s required, plus more that is not required.”
Those two years, he added, are “all that’s necessary to understand my finances.”
Democrats are certain to continue to hammer away at Romney’s wealth, which has been estimated to be as high as $250 million, as a sign of disconnect from the financial concerns of average Americans.
Romney, however, used the appearances on national television to attack Obama again on jobs, the issue he is citing relentlessly as he travels the country.
“The president has been a failure when it comes to reigniting the American economy,” Romney said, citing a run of more than 40 consecutive months with unemployment above 8 percent.
Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at macquarrie@globe.com.NORTH PORTLAND, Ore. - A bizarre mystery is playing out in Portland where X-rated, adult toys are being placed on power lines throughout the city.
No one seems to know who put them up; neither the city, nor the power companies, nor the neighbors, nor police.
KATU talked with a worker at an adult toy shop near North Mississippi Avenue, where many of the items have been found, and she said they didn't do it.
Some are calling the toys obscene.
"It's anatomy that's pretty graphic," said Meagan Ghorashian, who was visiting North Portland Tuesday with her mother from Beaverton. "Personally, it makes me giggle, but if I were with my grandmother or if I had a preschooler in tow it could get outside of the comfort range."
Others think the whole situation is hilarious, including Meagan's mom, Judi Homen.
"I've got two boys and six grandsons so it's nothing new to me," said Homen. "Usually, I don't see it hanging from a wire."
Crews for the utility companies and the city are definitely not laughing.
They've been removing the objects in North, Northeast and Southeast Portland for the last two weeks at least.
No agency has come up with a definitive number, but the city, Pacific Power and Portland General Electric each say several toys have been removed.
The power companies say at worst there are potential safety and reliability issues. At best, they say it creates a situation where crews have to spend time removing the toys, which isn't cheap.
Tom Gauntt, a Pacific Power spokesman, said it isn't just a local issue.
He said a crew removed an adult toy from a power line in Southern Oregon about a month ago.Investigators for Special Counsel Robert Mueller have joined efforts with the New York State attorney general's office in its probe of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's business and real estate dealings, according to a person familiar with the matter.
CBS News' Pat Milton reports that prosecutors from the State attorney general's office and prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan have worked together successfully in the past in white collar and corruption investigations.
One of the prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan has joined Mueller's team, which is conducting the investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russian government entities, as well as any knowledge of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been investigating Manafort's real estate holdings in New York.
Mueller, who is using a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. to help with his investigation, is particularly focused on Manafort's lobbying efforts between 2012 and 2014 for a pro-Russian Ukrainaian political party, and his offshore banking and financial dealings.
From 2012 to 2014, Manafort and his associate, Rick Gates, who also worked as a strategist for the Trump campaign, were consultants to the political party of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. A non-profit governed by Ukrainian politicians friendly to Yanukovych paid at least $2.2 million to the Podesta Group Inc. and Mercury LLC to advocate for positions favored by the Yanukovych government, the Associated Press reported in August. Yanukovych now lives in exile in Russia. Manafort has since registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for his consulting work, acknowledging that he coached party members on how to interact with U.S. government officials.
As part of the ongoing probe, public relations executives who worked on the pro-Yanukovych campaign organized by Manafort were subpoenaed by Mueller's team late last week.
An individual familiar with the matter also confirmed to CBS News on Thursday that Manafort's spokesman, Jason Maloni, received a subpoena from Mueller in the Russia investigation. Maloni runs a public relations and crisis management firm in Bethesda, Maryland called JadeRoq. The Wall Street Journal first reported Maloni's subpoena -- for records of his work for Manafort since 2010. However, the Journal went on to point out that he has worked as Manafort's spokesman only since March, so it's not clear why it is the subpoena goes back for so many years.
The Senate Judiciary Committee had subpoenaed Manafort to appear at a public hearing last month, but his attorney said that Manafort would instead be willing to provide a "single transcribed interview to Congress."
CBS News confirmed on Thursday that Manafort has now denied an NBC News report that the words "RNC" and "donations" were seen close to each other in notes he took during his meeting at Trump Tower with Russian citizens during the 2016 campaign. Manafort conceded that he did take notes, which were taken on his cell phone, and that he gave those notes to the Senate committee, but he denies that donations were discussed at the meeting.
"It is |
that online retailers and law enforcement are trying to tackle,” she said in an email. “Companies with web sales, not just airlines, have security measures to prevent online fraud. “To maintain the effectiveness of these measures, you will understand that we are not at liberty to discuss the details. However, we understand it is unsettling when these measures disrupt travel.” Earle said, in his experience, people are afraid of the costs of going through legal proceedings. “But how many seniors can afford to put $6,000 on a credit card at 19.99 per cent interest and not be compensated?” he said. Earle said he believes Air Canada has adopted a “tough-it-out approach with customers.” “They want to wait and see what happens, to see if they can get out of paying compensation,” he said.
Read more about:Short-story collections prove to be a solution to folks who are "too busy to read" or are trying to find a way to break up a monotonous commute becoming the "just right" in a Goldilocks situation. If you're looking to test drive a new author or want to break into a new genre without committing to a long book, take your pick from the smattering of short-story collections coming out this fall.
****HANDOUT IMAGE?Kiss Me Someone,? by Karen Shepard, (Tin House Books) ***NOT FOR RESALE
KISS ME SOMEONE
By Karen Shepard
Tin House. 288 pp. $19.95 (Sept. 12)
Shepard's collection draws on the fear of isolation. Floating in limbo, the multiracial women in her stories struggle to claim their identity. Shepard suggests that despite their efforts to move on, they find themselves trapped in self-destructive patterns.
COMPLETE STORIES
By Kurt Vonnegut
Seven Stories. 944 pp. $45 (Sept. 26)
Vonnegut fans, rejoice! This giant volume contains all the master's short fiction: classics such as "Welcome to the Monkey House" and "Harrison Bergeron," posthumously published pieces and five never-before-published stories. Organized thematically under headings such as War, Women and Science, it's a treat for Vonnegut fans and newbies. With a foreword by Dave Eggers.
FRESH COMPLAINT
By Jeffrey Eugenides
FSG. 304 pp. $27 (Oct. 3)
This is the first collection of stories from Eugenides, who won a Pulitzer Prize for "Middlesex" (2002). Five of these pieces appeared in the New Yorker. "Air Mail" was selected for the Best American Short Stories 1997.
****HANDOUT IMAGE?Her Body and Other Parties,? by Carmen Maria Machado, (Graywolf Press) ***NOT FOR RESALE
HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES
By Carmen Maria Machado
Graywolf. 248 pp. $16 (Oct. 3)
Blending science fiction, comedy and fantasy, Machado explores violent acts committed against women. From a wife refusing to let her husband control her body to a woman attracting unwanted attention after weight-loss surgery, Machado's stories inspire horror as well as sympathy. Longlisted for the National Book Award in fiction and a finalist for the Kirkus Prize.
THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2017
Edited by Meg Wolitzer
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 336 pp. $28 (Oct. 3)
If you feel uneasy choosing just one author's collection, let a witty novelist pick the best stories of the year for you. Wolitzer, whose most recent novel for adults is "The Interestings," has selected stories by Mary Gordon, T.C. Boyle, Lauren Groff, Jim Shepard and many other beloved writers.
****HANDOUT IMAGE?Catapult,? by Emily Fridlund, (Sarabande Books) ***NOT FOR RESALE
CATAPULT
By Emily Fridlund
Sarabande. 240 pp. $16.95 (Oct. 10)
Following on the heels of her debut novel, "History of Wolves," Fridlund's "Catapult" won the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. The collection centers on the hard, ugly parts about relationships ranging from familial to romantic. Fridlund pairs her writing with complex characters who evoke a sense of shock with the familiar.
****HANDOUT IMAGE?Uncommon Type,? by Tom Hanks, (Knopf) ***NOT FOR RESALE
UNCOMMON TYPE
By Tom Hanks
Knopf. 416 pp. $26.95 (Oct. 17)
Tom Hanks can now add author to his list of accomplishments, which already include producer, director and Academy Award-winning actor. Hanks's debut collection contains 17 stories tackling different visions of the American Dream. His characters include an avid bowler who winds up on ESPN, an Eastern European immigrant and a billionaire trying to make it big in America.
SIX MONTHS, THREE DAYS, FIVE OTHERS
By Charlie Jane Anders
Tor. 192 pp. $12.99 (Oct. 17)
Winner of the 2017 Nebula Award for her novel "All the Birds in the Sky," Anders is back with a collection of six stories about aliens, the end of the world and time travel. Bonus: For readers who finished "All the Birds in the Sky" and wondered what happened to Patricia's cat, a story written exclusively for this collection has the answer.
****HANDOUT IMAGE “The King is Always Above the People,” by Daniel Alarcon, (Riverhead) ***NOT FOR RESALE
THE KING IS ALWAYS ABOVE THE PEOPLE
By Daniel Alarcón
Riverhead. 256 pp. $27 (Oct. 31)
These stories explore immigration, family loyalty and redemption. Alarcón throws his characters into high-stakes situations to draw out humanity where it seems little hope is left. Longlisted for the National Book Award in fiction.
Nicole Y. Chung is the office manager of Book World at The Washington Post.Big changes are coming to Lonsdale Quay as part of a plan to revamp the marketplace and provide it with a refreshed look and new offerings.
Taylor Mathiesen, the Director of Operations for Quay Property Management, the development company that owns and manages the marketplace complex, told Daily Hive the property is aging and in need of some upgrades and a refocus.
The Quay marked its 30th anniversary recently, as it opened just in time for Expo ’86.
“What we want to do is some cosmetic improvements, give the whole property a bit of a facelift, and with respect to the offering and tenant mix inside,” he said.
This includes cosmetic upgrades to the facade of the exterior and interior and improvements with the retail and food tenant mix on the ground floor, with an emphasis on rounding out the fresh food offerings.
“There is a lot happening in the food scene in Vancouver and a lot of growing attention in Lower Lonsdale, so we really want the market to be a part of that,” he said. “We are revamping things quite a bit, and bringing in some new tenants.”
As well, there will be a new anchor restaurant coming to the south end of the market – facing the waterfront.
“We have a spectacular waterfront restaurant location that is currently on the second floor of the market,” he continued.
“We are doing some changes to the space to make it a two-storey restaurant. We are in discussions with some really exciting groups for that and we are hoping to confirm something by the end of the year.”
Quay Property Management also operates Tsawwassen Quay Market and Nanaimo Quay Market on BC Ferries property and Victoria Public Market.
Additionally, in partnership with the City of North Vancouver, they are also behind the $35-million commercial space, ice rink, and public space development at The Shipyards in Lower Lonsdale.
See also
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Kenneth Chan National Features Editor at Daily Hive, the evolution of Vancity Buzz. He covers local architecture, urban issues, politics, business, retail, economic development, transportation and infrastructure, and the travel industry. Kenneth is also a Co-Founder of New Year's Eve Vancouver. Connect with him at kenneth[at]dailyhive.com @iamkennethchan National Features Editor at Daily Hive, the evolution of Vancity Buzz. He covers local architecture, urban issues, politics, business, retail, economic development, transportation and infrastructure, and the travel industry. Kenneth is also a Co-Founder of New Year's Eve Vancouver. Connect with him at kenneth[at]dailyhive.com
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.The destruction of sites associated with early Islam is an ongoing phenomenon that has occurred mainly in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, particularly around the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The demolition has focused on mosques, burial sites, homes and historical locations associated with the Islamic prophet Muhammad and many of the founding personalities of early Islamic history.[1] In Saudi Arabia, many of the demolitions have officially been part of the continued expansion of the Masjid al-Haram at Mecca and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina and their auxiliary service facilities in order to accommodate the ever-increasing number of Muslims performing the pilgrimage (hajj).[2]
History [ edit ]
Much of the Arabian Peninsula was politically unified by 1932 in the third and current Saudi State, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The military campaign led by King Abdulaziz ibn Saud and his Bedouin army of tribesmen conquered the Hejaz and ousted the ruling Hashemite clan. The new Najdi rulers, nomadic Arabs largely tribal and illiterate, found themselves at the reins of a highly sophisticated society. A cohesive political structure based on the Majlis al-Shura (consultative council) system had been in place for centuries. A central administrative body managed an annual budget which allocated expenditure on secondary schools, military and police forces.[3] Similarly, the religious fabric of the Najd and the Hejaz were vastly different. Traditional Hejazi cultural customs and rituals were almost entirely religious in nature. Celebrations honouring Muhammad, his family and companions, reverence of deceased saints, visitation of shrines, tombs and holy sites connected with any of these were among the customs indigenous to Hejazi Islam.[4] As administrative authority of the Hejaz passed into the hands of Najdi Wahabi Muslims from the interior, the Wahabi Ulama viewed local religious practices as unfounded superstition superseding codified religious sanction that was considered a total corruption of religion and the spreading of heresy.[5] What followed was a removal of the physical infrastructure, tombs, mausoleums, mosques and sites associated with the family and companions of Muhammad.[6]
19th century [ edit ]
In 1801 and 1802, the Saudis under Abdul Aziz ibn Muhammad ibn Saud attacked and captured the Shia holy cities of Karbala and Najaf in today's Iraq, massacred parts of the Shia Muslim population and destroyed the tomb of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad and son of Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law. In 1803 and 1804, the Saudis captured Mecca and Medina and destroyed historical monuments and various holy Muslim sites and shrines, such as the shrine built over the tomb of Fatimah, the daughter of Muhammad, and even intended to destroy the grave of Muhammad himself as idolatrous, causing outrage throughout the Muslim world.[7][8][9] In Mecca, the tombs of direct relations of Muhammad located at Jannatul Mualla cemetery, including that of his first wife Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, were demolished.[10] The initial dismantling of the sites began in 1806 when the Wahhabi army of the First Saudi State occupied Medina and systematically levelled many of the structures at the Jannat al-Baqi cemetery.[11] This is the vast burial site adjacent the Prophet's Mosque (Al-Masjid al-Nabawi) housing the remains of many of the members of Muhammad’s family, close companions and central figures of early Islam. The Ottoman Turks, practitioners themselves of more tolerant and at times mystical strains of Islam, had erected elaborate mausoleums over the graves of Al-Baqi. These were levelled in their entirety. Mosques across the city were also targeted and an attempt was made to demolish Muhammad's tomb.[12] Widespread vocal criticism of this last action by Muslim communities as far away as India, eventually led to abandoning any attempt on this site. Political claims made against Turkish control of the region initiated the Ottoman–Saudi war (1811–1818) in which the Saudi defeat forced Wahhabi tribesmen to retreat from the Hejaz back into the interior. Turkish forces reasserted control of the region and subsequently began extensive rebuilding of sacred sites between 1848 and 1860, many of them done employing the finest examples of Ottoman design and craftsmanship.[13]
20th century [ edit ]
On 21 April 1925 the mausoleums and domes at Al-Baqi in Medina were once again levelled[13] and so were indicators of the exact location of the resting places of Muhammad’s family members and descendants, as it remains to the present day. Portions of the famed Qasida al-Burda, the 13th century ode written in praise of Muhammad by Imam al-Busiri, inscribed over Muhammad's tomb were painted over. Among specific sites targeted at this time were the graves of the Martyrs of the Battle of Uhud, including the grave of the renowned Hamza ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib, uncle of Muhammad and one of his most beloved supporters, the Mosque of Fatimah Al Zahraa’, daughter of Mohammad, the Mosque of the Two Lighthouses (Manaratayn) as well as the Qubbat Al-Thanaya,[13] the cupola built as the burial place of Mohammad’s incisor tooth, which was broken from a blow received during the Battle of Uhud. In Medina, the Mashrubat Umm Ibrahim, the home of Mohammad’s Coptic Egyptian wife Mariah and birthplace of their son Ibrahim, as well as the adjacent burial site of Hamida al-Barbariyya, mother of Musa al-Kadhim, were destroyed during this time.[13] The site was paved over and is today part of the massive marble esplanade beside the Mosque. The government-appointed permanent scholarly committee of Saudi Arabia has ordered the demolition of such structures in a series of Islamic rulings noting excessive veneration leading to shirk.[14]
21st century [ edit ]
The twenty-first century has seen an increase in the demolition of sites in Mecca and Medina by Saudi authorities, alongside expansion of luxury development.
As the annual hajj continues to draw larger crowds year after year, the Saudi authorities deemed it necessary to raze large tracts of formerly residential neighborhoods around the two important mosques to make way for pilgrimage-related infrastructure. In 2010, it was forecast that developers were going to spend an estimated $13 billion on the largest expansion project in the city’s history.[15]
While there is widespread agreement for the need of facilities that can accommodate greater numbers of pilgrims, the development of upscale hotels and condominium towers, restaurants, shopping centres and spas[16] has caused some to criticize the over-commercialization of a site which many consider to be a divinely ordained sanctuary for Muslims.
The rapid influx of capitalist investment in Mecca and Medina leads many to believe that money and economic growth are the ultimate reason for Saudi authorities. Critics argue that this monetary focus works with Wahhabi state policy that imposes a massive cultural and social deletion within the Holy Cities,[17] erasing any elements that encourage practices counter to the Wahhabi creed.
According to The Independent, the House of Mawalid where Muhammad is said to have been born is about to be replaced by a huge royal palace, as a part of a multibillion-pound construction project in Mecca which has resulted in the destruction of hundreds of historic monuments.[18]
The Saudis are turning Diriyah, the domain of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, into a major tourist attraction, with Diriyah becoming an important place of touristic visitation within Saudi Arabia's modern borders.[19][20]
Destroyed sites [ edit ]
Below is an incomplete list of destroyed sites:
Mosques [ edit ]
Cemeteries and tombs [ edit ]
Historical religious sites [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]It's one of the enduring arguments when football people get together: What is the ideal way to handle a prized rookie quarterback? There are two diametrically-opposed schools of thought here -- start him right away or sit him for the time being.
Matt Ryan and Andrew Luck are examples of starting by design, quarterbacks who had the starting job the day they walked in the building. There's a variation here: Joe Flacco also started as a rookie in 2008, but it was less by design than circumstance, as he was elevated only after Kyle Boller suffered a season-ending injury and backup Troy Smith had to miss Week 1 with an illness. Flacco proved he was ready, never gave up the job and went on to become a Super Bowl-winning quarterback.
In contrast to the "starting them early" approach, either by design or circumstance, is the more temperate and patient strategy of sitting them by design. Aaron Rodgers is the textbook example here and, going back a bit further, so is Steve McNair.
As it happens, all three methods -- starting by design, starting by circumstance and sitting by design -- are represented this season. Let's break down the different approaches:
1) Start by design (accelerated by circumstance): In Philadelphia, we saw Carson Wentz start the season opener for the Eagles after just a single appearance in the preseason. And while this was by design, it certainly wasn't the plan just three short weeks ago. I visited the Eagles preseason training camp in early August and spoke to Doug Pederson about the quarterback situation. He made it clear to me that they were comfortable having Wentz learn from the sidelines, at least to start the season.
That was certainly no surprise. Wentz didn't play major-college football (North Dakota State), so there was an inevitable adjustment period. And Pederson had direct experience with a similar arrangement; he'd been brought in to Philadelphia as the place-holder quarterback in 1999, to fight the good fight while then-rookie and No. 2 overall selection Donovan McNabb observed from the sidelines. Pederson started the first nine games in 1999 (going 2-7) before turning it over to McNabb, who won his first career start and finished with a 2-4 record as a rookie starter on his way to an accomplished career.
Pederson initially seemed content to follow the same timeline with Wentz this season, but then Teddy Bridgewater went down and the Vikings came calling for Eagles starter Sam Bradford. It's hard to fault Philadelphia for recouping their first-round pick and potentially more by sending Bradford packing. And it wasn't like they had no alternatives -- they'd paid solid backup Chase Daniel $21 million for a reason. But after the Bradford deal was made, Pederson pulled a 180 and -- now by design -- handed the reins to Wentz despite his limited preseason snaps and a rib injury that potentially hadn't been fully healed.
Though I had Wentz ranked as my No. 1 overall prospect in the 2016 NFL Draft, I didn't really know what to expect from him in his first career start. What I saw was Wentz adeptly executing a perfectly-designed game plan that called for multiple boots and waggles to start the game, and then -- once he was settled -- integrated some throws from within the pocket, including a dime to Jordan Matthews for his first career touchdown pass. Wentz finished the game with 22 completions on 37 attempts and two touchdowns, but more importantly, you could see the game slow down for him as he stood tall in the face of pressure. He made confident reads and stepped into his throws with real purpose.
Now, before we jump to any conclusions, let's remember he was facing a Browns defense that wasn't exactly intimidating. He has another mediocre defense albeit on the road in Chicago this week, but his true test will be how he handles Pittsburgh's wide range of blitzes and pressures in Week 3.
2) Start by circumstance: This year's version of the accidental starter -- the 2016 analog to Flacco being thrust into the starting role his rookie year -- is, of course, Dallas' Dak Prescott. Prescott was selected in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft and at the time, was seen as little more than a developmental player who'd shown some raw potential -- and someone who'd demonstrated a commanding presence as the leader on his often outmanned college team. But Prescott moved up the depth chart when backup quarterback Kellen Moore broke his leg in the first week of training camp, and then was named the starter after Tony Romo suffered yet another back injury in his only preseason action.
This is different from the Flacco situation because I don't anticipate that Prescott will maintain the starting duties upon Romo's return (the people forecasting otherwise are either deluded about Prescott's short-term potential or simply fatigued with the ongoing injury saga of the hard-luck Romo). But that's not to say that Prescott hasn't opened some eyes or that he isn't the likely heir to Romo down the line. He had maybe the most impressive preseason for a rookie quarterback in recent memory -- leading the league's rookies in completion percentage, passing touchdowns and passer rating. On Sunday, against a bitter division rival, Prescott wasn't flawless, but he certainly proved that the game wasn't too big for him.
However, two things clearly must change for the Cowboys as they move forward with Prescott under center. They simply don't want him to throw it 45 times as he did last week -- especially in a game that never turned into a shootout. For most quarterbacks, the ideal pitch count is around 30; you don't want to go much above that, especially when you've got a rookie quarterback, a tight game and Ezekiel Elliott carrying the rock for you. When Prescott does throw it, he needs to generate more explosive plays down the field. The Cowboys had just one single play against the Giants that gained more than 20 yards, a completion to backup tight end Geoff Swaim. As I've said many times before: In today's NFL, just winning the turnover battle (the Cowboys were plus-1) isn't enough; you must create explosive plays as well, and one per game just simply isn't going to cut it.
3) Sit by design: This worked ideally for Rodgers -- who learned from Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre in Green Bay. But Rams' No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff is sitting behind Case Keenum and Sean Mannion, who have five total wins during their combined six seasons in the NFL (Goff could be elevated to No. 2 on the depth chart, before this week's game). Monday night, Goff became the first QB taken No. 1 overall in the draft to not start his team's season debut since JaMarcus Russell in 2007. (Russell had held out all of training camp and even into the first week of the season, and remained unsigned until Sept. 12, four days prior to the second game of the season.) That year, Russell didn't earn his first start until the final game of his rookie year, and we all know how the rest of that story played out. I'm certainly not predicting a similar ending for Goff, but anytime you are a young quarterback and mentioned in the same sentence as JaMarcus Russell, it's usually not a good thing.
Paxton Lynch also falls into the sit-by-design category, losing out on the starting job to a list of unproven quarterbacks in Denver. With Mark Sanchez cut and now moving to the backup role in Dallas, Lynch will serve as the backup to Trevor Siemian until further notice.
Of the two, I expect we will see Goff much sooner, simply because Denver is a sounder overall team with realistic playoff aspirations. One or two more performances like Keenum's on Monday night in San Francisco will have fans screaming for Goff. (A slow start will also put Jeff Fisher in the position of needing to get the rookie into the lineup to preserve his own job.)
While we are obviously years away from knowing how all these situations play out, I am on record that as a coach, particularly in the win-now environment of the NFL, half-measures usually don't get it done. Unless you have a truly promising alternative (by which I mean someone other than Keenum), you almost have to start your rookie quarterbacks, especially the ones drafted in the first round -- if for no other reason than to find out what you have or in about 50 percent of the cases, don't have. The Eagles and Cowboys are finding out; the Rams and Broncos have chosen to wait.It turns out, as it almost always does, that the murderer of UK imam Jalal Uddin was not an “Islamophobe,” as had originally been thought, but other Muslims (one with terror links) who had opposed his “efforts to turn youngsters away from radical Islam.” CAIR was unavailable for comment —
The above tweet is typical of leftist apologists for Islam. Where’s Sarah’s follow up tweet? How glaring is their malevolent agenda. Islamic supremacists and Islamic apologists immediately cry “islamophobia” when a Muslim or mosque is attacked, and they are almost always wrong. The perps are usually Muslims. And yet, in the near constant news reports of jihad, Islamic supremacists and their apologists never blame Islam or jihadic doctrine. Instead, their knee-jerk response is to wail about “fear of reprisals.”
It has also emerged that the team investigating the murder has been extended to include anti-terrorism officers, reports the Guardian.
“Prime suspect in murder of Rochdale imam ‘has fled the UK’ it is revealed as three people remain in custody over the death – including one for terrorism offence,” By Alex Matthews for Mailonline, April 29, 2016: Jalal Uddin, 64, found with head injuries in children’s play area in Rochdale
Imam attacked after leaving a friend’s house following evening prayers
Death could’ve been organised due to his work to de-radicalise youngsters
Men, aged 28 and 21 and a 17-year-old boy questioned in relation to crime The prime suspect in the the murder of a Rochdale imam ‘has fled the UK’ as three others remain in custody. Jalal Uddin, 64, from Bangladesh, was found lying in a pool of his own blood with severe head injuries in a children’s play area, in Greater Manchester, on February 18. He was taken to hospital for treatment but died a short time later. The prime suspect in the the murder of a Rochdale imam ‘has fled the UK’ as three others remain in custody. Jalal Uddin, 64, from Bangladesh, was found lying in a pool of his own blood with severe head injuries in a children’s play area, in Greater Manchester, on February 18. He was taken to hospital for treatment but died a short time later. Imam Jalal Uddin (pictured) was found lying in a pool of his own blood after a brutal attack near a playground The religious leader, who attended mosque every day, was attacked as he left a friend’s house following evening prayers. Detectives believe that his killing may have been organised by those seeking to stop his efforts to ‘de-radicalise’ young people in the area. On Thursday police arrested a 24-year-old man on suspicion of arranging funds for terrorism, and a 28-year-old man on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder. A third man, 21, was also being further questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder, after he answered bail. While a 17-year-old boy previously arrested on suspicion of murder has been bailed until June pending further inquiries. It has also emerged that the team investigating the murder has been extended to include anti-terrorism officers, reports the Guardian. Assistant Chief Constable Rebekah Sutcliffe, of Greater Manchester Police, said: ‘The investigation into Jalal’s murder has so far been a far-reaching and diligent process with a team of officers working meticulously to examine every lead that has come to light.
Police believe the attack could have been organised due to Uddin’s efforts to ‘de-radicalise’ young people Three men have been questioned in relation to the popular imam’s murder and remain in police custody ‘We are continuing to make good strides in the investigation which would not be possible without the understanding and support of members of the public and I would like to thank them for their patience whilst we work through our inquiries. ‘The investigation remains very much active and we are continuing to appeal to anyone who may have information that they believe can assist us to please contact police.’ Anyone with information should contact Greater Manchester Police on 0161 856 2538 or 101, or call the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3565135/Prime-suspect-murder-Rochdale-imam-fled-UK-revealed-three-people-remain-custody-death-including-one-terror-offences.html#ixzz47E4s9S8C
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The Truth Must be Told Your contribution supports independent journalism Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more. Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible. Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too. Please contribute to our ground-breaking work here.
Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best. Contribute Monthly - Choose One Subscriber : $18.00 USD - monthly Contributor : $36.00 USD - monthly Patron : $50.00 USD - monthly Silver member : $100.00 USD - monthly Gold member : $250.00 USD - monthly Platinum member : $500.00 USD - monthlyAs President Bush prepares to deliver his last State of the Union address tomorrow night, a legion of pundits, politicians and, yes, historians is already assigning the 43rd president his final place in history. These commentators, and especially those who confidently assert that Bush is the "worst president in history," would do well to remember the British historian C.V. Wedgwood's observation: "History is written backward but lived forward. Those who know the end of the story can never know what it was like at the time." We all know -- or think we do -- what things are like in our union now, with an economy hitting a rough patch and a foreign war grinding on with no end in sight. But we don't know how the story will turn out.
Bush is admittedly so unpopular that even Republican presidential candidates rarely mention him, preferring instead to compare themselves to the GOP's great icon, Ronald Reagan. We both actually think that Bush bears some comparison to Reagan, at least on the home front. Even so, it's a safe bet that the Republican nominee who emerges from the present melee will not be eager to have Bush at his side during the fall campaign.
Such downturns are hardly new in U.S. history. For decades after the Great Depression, no Republican candidate wanted Herbert Hoover within hailing distance. Fifty-six years ago, few Democrats cared to share a platform with the discredited Harry S. Truman, widely seen as an ill-spoken, partisan rube who had led the nation into a needless foreign war. (Sound familiar?) Truman hit the lowest job-approval ratings in the history of the Gallup poll, including Richard M. Nixon's on the eve of his resignation.
Today, the pendulum has swung. Many historians blame Hoover's predecessors, not Hoover, for the high tariff rates and other excesses that led to the Depression. Meanwhile, historians place Truman close to the top rank of modern presidents. These reversals of historical fortune raise the question: Why is it so difficult to judge presidents, especially while they still occupy the Oval Office?
Three reasons help explain why it's folly to rate a sitting president. First, history isn't written by a single person or school of academic thought. So George W. Bush has a point when he notes, in an admittedly self-serving way, that scholars are still arguing about the first president named George. Second, we have no idea what the future holds. Voters judge their presidents -- and their presidential candidates, for that matter -- based on who (and what) has come before. A president's historical legacy, by contrast, is also dependent on who and what comes after. When Dwight D. Eisenhower left office in 1961, for example, one of his presumed foreign policy accomplishments was the CIA-led overthrow of Iran's popular, supposedly pro-Soviet ruler and the installation of the pro-Western shah. The United States is still paying for that strategy.
Then there's the third factor: The excesses of a current president often make previously neglected characteristics in another president seem desirable. Truman's reassessment gathered steam 20 years after he left office -- just as Nixon's true character was revealed on the Watergate tapes. Nixon's scheming and manipulations made Truman's blunt style seem benign.
Today, Americans are judging Bush as part of the process of sorting out their feelings about the crop of candidates to replace him. For Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in particular and the other Democrats in general, the answer to nearly every policy question is that they'd do it differently from Bush, as you'd expect. What's unusual is that this year's Republican candidates are pretending that they've never heard of Bush -- and saying that they'd do whatever Reagan would.
After all, Reagan's message was a major political winner. He unseated the incumbent Jimmy Carter in 1980, then won one of the great landslides in U.S. history four years later. In 1989, as Reagan headed to retirement in California, he posted the highest job-approval rating of any outgoing president. He was succeeded in office by his vice president, a result often attributed to Americans' desire for "a third Reagan term."
In 2008, the Republicans seeking to succeed George H.W. Bush's son in office are not gunning for a "third George W. Bush term" -- more like a fourth Reagan term. And although it may be a fool's errand to already assign the current president his ultimate place in the pantheon of presidents, we believe that George W. Bush can be meaningfully compared to Ronald Reagan.
By the time Reagan left office, he had remade the GOP in his own image. Movement conservatives tended to view his successor, George H.W. Bush, as an insufficiently pure torchbearer of the Reagan legacy. But in 2000, something curious happened: The party establishment, including numerous Reaganauts, coalesced around the first Bush's son as the Great Conservative Hope. No less an eminence than Reagan secretary of state George Shultz, retired to think-tank life at the Hoover Institution, went around assuring skeptical conservatives that "this young man" from Texas was a worthy inheritor of the Reagan mantle.
On some issues he has been. On taxes and judicial appointments in particular, Bush's conservatism has been constant and effective. He undid the Clinton-era tax increases (that in turn had undone some of Reagan's cuts) across the board, so that nearly every taxpayer in the country received a break.
By conservative lights, federal court appointments are even more important; tax cuts can be repealed, but federal judgeships are for life. Here too, Bush has justified the faith conservatives placed in him -- and then some. His two Supreme Court appointees, John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr., made many of the party faithful even happier than Reagan's less predictable troika of Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia. When he leaves office, Bush will have appointed approximately one third of the judges on the federal bench, tilting it indisputably to the right. Terry Eastland, a Justice Department official in the Reagan administration and now publisher of the Weekly Standard, calls Bush's judicial appointments his "strongest achievement."What also goes with the territory, or should, is a thick skin, and a long view. Politicians can get away with the occasional public flash of anger about unfair accusations. That can be part of the personality they present to their constituents, though Trump is the first to make grievance itself such a long-running political act. But judges aren’t supposed to. There’s a reason the adjective judicious has the word-origin that it does. And by past conventions, Supreme Court candidates were supposed to present themselves as the most calmly judicious of all.
(1) Temperament. Positions of public power that are in the public eye are uncomfortable. People disagree with you. They criticize and even hate you. Often they twist facts and reach unfair conclusions. All of this goes with the territory of being a president—or a governor, a general, a boss, any kind of leader, or anyone who has to make high-stakes decisions that involve other people, and that some people won’t like.
The details in these three categories fill the weekend’s news, and have been covered in many strong posts on our site: by Matt Thompson, by Megan Garber, by Judith Donath, by Joe Pinsker, by Adam Serwer, and many others. But to explain the grouping, and why it departs from the known past:
In Kavanaugh’s case, his afternoon before the Senate Judiciary Committee revealed three traits that previous nominees who sat in that chair have carefully avoided, because they would have been considered so damaging. They were: temperamental instability; open partisan affiliations; and a casual willingness to tell obvious, easily disprovable lies. These are apart from the underlying truth of the multiple sexual allegations about Kavanaugh, which may not ever be provable.
By the pre-Trump rules of presidential campaigning, Trump’s prospects would have come to an end numerous times along the trail: when he mocked John McCain as “not a hero,” when he similarly criticized a Gold Star family, when he refused to release his tax information, when the “Grab ‘em!” tape came out, when he talked about the “Mexican judge,” when he revealed that he didn’t know what the “nuclear triad” |
and behaviors.
Jessica D. Ribeiro, PhD. earned her B.A. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008 and her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Florida State University in 2014. She completed an internship in clinical psychology at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard and Vanderbilt Universities. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Florida State University. Her work focuses on developing and implementing scalable and highly accurate suicide risk detection methods.
References Cited
(Source Article) Franklin, J.C., Ribeiro, J.D., Fox, K.R., Kleiman, E.M., Bentley, K.H., Jaroszewski, A.C., Chang, B.P., & Nock, M.K. (2017). Risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors: A meta-analysis of 50 years of research. Psychological Bulletin, 143, 187-232.
Mackie, J.L. (1965). Causes and conditions. American Philosophical Quarterly, 2, 245-264.
Walsh, C.G., Ribeiro, J.D., & Franklin, J.C. (in press). Predicting risk of suicide attempts over time through machine learning. Clinical Psychological Science.It's possible offer may now only be available on newly purchased chromecasts, possible it was a mistake by Google to allow it for all chromecasts for a brief window of time.
Offer might be finished, I no longer see it in my offers, last checked 6 PM EST/AUG 25th. Maybe it will show up again, or maybe it's done for good?
same wifi network as your Google Chromecast
alooshca wrote: ↑ Aug 25th, 2016 11:32 am I wasn't able to see the offer on the app on my phone, but when I visited " I wasn't able to see the offer on the app on my phone, but when I visited " https://cast.google.com/chromecast/offers/ " from my home computer I was able to see it.
chriskwarren wrote: ↑ Aug 25th, 2016 12:48 pm When I looked closer at each of the devices, the one where the code would not work had the country code set us US, while the other 3 were set to CA.
Now that I recall, I was an early adopter to the chromecast, and purchased one on Amazon (the cdn site). I am guessing that the first one I purchased was a US chromecast, so if you get an error redeeming an offer check the country code and see that its listed as CA. When I looked closer at each of the devices, the one where the code would not work had the country code set us US, while the other 3 were set to CA.Now that I recall, I was an early adopter to the chromecast, and purchased one on Amazon (the cdn site). I am guessing that the first one I purchased was a US chromecast, so if you get an error redeeming an offer check the country code and see that its listed as CA.
eternity525 wrote: ↑ Aug 25th, 2016 1:29 pm john.canad wrote: ↑ Aug 25th, 2016 1:12 pm When does the offer expire? When does the offer expire? The link below shows that this offer expires on Sept. 8th, 2016.
https://www.google.ca/chromecast/get-offers/ The link below shows that this offer expires on Sept. 8th, 2016.
*May only work on Chromecast video? Unsure so far if it works on Chromecast Audio yet, someone let us know if they got it working on one?
No guarantee it will work for everyone, but best of luck, seems to be working for many of us! Limited time offer, so grab it as soon as you can.
Feel free to post Play Store app, music and film/tv suggestions. Many of us now have a bunch of credit and would like to get something worthwhile. Thanks!
----Check your chromecast offers via Google Cast app, I just got $20 offers on 2 of my chromecasts v1 & v2 both purchased a while back, going to check another v1 one once I hook it up. N8Magic confirms it was valid with his CC Audio, others also confirm CC Audio is working.----1. To check offers, make sure you have Google Cast app installed on your phone: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta....app&hl=en 2. Open Google Cast app, click = menu button (top left side) and click Offers. You should see a $20 credit offer, redeem it to your account and use it for Google Play store.Here is a screenshot:--------The graphics team for Civilization: Beyond Earth announced early on that the game would be utilizing AMD's Mantle API, as opposed to the more traditional DirectX or OpenGL. One YouTuber decided to test how this new API worked when pushed into a display 5,000 pixels wide using an Oculus Rift DK2. What this means for us is that we can see how the game looks when run on a cinematic widescreen with the industry's first name in virtual reality.
Check Out Our Full Tips And Tricks Roundup For Civilization: Beyond Earth
The footage comes from YouTuber THEGAMEVEDA, who runs the game using a 5120x1600 resolution. The wide screen doesn't do much while the game is still early and much of the planet is still under the fog of war. Once some exploration happens and the player's view of the world expands, though, the wide display seems to be useful for keeping track of many areas of the map at once.
Though the title of the YouTube video mentions "5K" resolution, probably because it's more than 5,000 pixels wide, the display is better compared to 4K resolution, just in terms of pixel count.
The Final Expansion For StarCraft II Announced At BlizzCon
The player in the video runs into some hang-ups while playing the game at such a wide resolution. All of the buttons in Civilization: Beyond Earth are in the corners of the screen, and they don't scale up to account for the larger display. This means that every time the player wants to advance a turn, he needs to turn his head over to the far end of the display and fiddle with the small interface. It's a fine example of how game developers might need to rethink traditional UI practices as VR becomes more popular.
You can check out the full video either below or over on YouTube. Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth is now available for PC, with Mac and Linux version due later this year.HOUSTON — Masked militias have arrived in South Texas with semi-automatic rifles and tactical gear, causing a stir not only in border communities, but also among state officials.
News of the militias has spread at a time when the border has grown more militarized in response to an influx of Central American immigrants, many of them families and children who made the crossing unaccompanied — more than 57,000 since October.
Gov. Rick Perry activated 1,000 National Guard troops last month, drawing from the Texas State Guard as well as Texas Air and Army National Guard. That activation came on top of a state Department of Public Safety border surge, bringing the state’s total monthly cost to more than $17 million.
Perry has so far said the troops do not have arrest powers, although it appears they could if authorized by the state. Immigrant advocates and some local officials oppose granting them arrest powers.
Militia members started arriving on the Texas border in recent weeks to assist as part of a deployment they called Operation Secure Our Border: Laredo Sector. The effort entails creating a training command near San Antonio and rotating groups south to patrol private ranch land on the border with the permission of ranch owners.
The early groups included Oathkeepers, Three Percenter’s Club and Patriots. Then the Minutemen announced that they, too, were deploying.
An online controversy flared after a militia member appeared on YouTube advising members to confront and intimidate those caught crossing the border illegally. There also have been tensions between militia groups, but no major clashes have been reported.
Response to the groups has been mixed.
Supporters of the militias are planning a weeklong convoy from Murrieta, Calif. — site of recent anti-immigrant protests — to the border city of McAllen, Texas. The convoy, scheduled to start Saturday, will be “stopping to support citizen border patrols along the way.”
Mike Morris, who works with Three Percenter’s, told the Los Angeles Times that several militia groups were invited to South Texas by ranchers who face regular break-ins and “incursions” by migrant groups.
“It is a dangerous situation,” he said.
Morris said there were numerous militias operating without a central command, some armed. While some groups “observe and report,” he said, others saw the need to be armed in remote areas because if a threat arises, “the Border Patrol are stretched so thin — they may not respond.”
“Some parts of the border these days, Border Patrol has pulled back and it’s not safe,” Morris said.
Local law enforcement circulated a bulletin among themselves after a group camped out near an international bridge to Mexico in Pharr, Texas.
Some sheriffs declined the militias’ assistance, while others refused to take a position on their presence.
This week, the San Antonio Express-News published photographs of militia members patrolling the border, including an image of a Border Patrol agent leaning through an armed militia member’s car window and pointing to a map. The paper reported that a militia provided the photos on condition that the paper blur members’ faces because they feared being identified by cartels and gangs.
Outraged, members of the Texas Democratic congressional delegation wrote a letter to the state’s attorney general demanding he denounce the militias and define what they can legally do.
The dozen members of the delegation said they were “deeply disturbed” by the images of “armed and masked militia groups purportedly patrolling our Texas border in response to the arrival of unaccompanied children from Central America to our state.”
They called the militias “lawless,” warned that they “perpetuate the stigma that the border is a war zone” and requested that the attorney general “clarify the jurisdiction these militia groups have to patrol alongside local law enforcement and Border Patrol agents.”
Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican campaigning to replace Perry as governor, dismissed the letter through a spokeswoman.
Abbott backed the National Guard deployment and the state border surge, and has demanded the federal government foot the bill.
Abbott spokeswoman Lauren Bean called the letter a “partisan political stunt” and said that instead of complaining about the militias, the Democrats “should work with their Republican colleagues to secure federal funding for the state’s border security efforts.”Saudi Arabia has officially launched a request for proposals (RFP) for 300MW of solar power – the RFP sits at the front end of a 9.5 GW solar rollout by 2023. The proposed project’s site has gone through full pre-development work with those site assessments will be made available to qualified parties. Bid due date is March 20th.
Earlier this month, Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said that “the terms on renewable contracts will be motivating so that the cost of generating power from these renewable sources will be the lowest in the world.” The previous lowest bid was by a Japanese-led group in Au Dhabi for 2.3¢/kWh as part of a ‘side bid’ of 1,170MW.
As we saw in India’s recent bids, government support and intelligently designed programs will lead toward record low prices when expectations scale to the multi-gigawatt level.
With the continued increases in solar panel efficiency, and falling solar module and utility-scale power plants, we expect that someone will bid 1.99¢/kWh or lower.
Khalid Al-Falih said in the statement ministry intends to set up “the most attractive, competitive and well-executed government renewable energy investment programs in the world.” Benefits that have been seen around the world that lower system costs: government guarantees of payment, long-term contracts written with all stakeholders in mind, positive permit environment, development access to strategic sites near viable energy infrastructure, intelligent payment for electricity produced (time of use in a place where demand is 50% for cooling in summer months), etc.
Al-Falih has stated that the total project will include more than simply building a solar power plant – it will be tied toward the larger goals of moving Saudi society away from its 90% dependence on oil. Part of the broader deal will be for the construction of solar module production factories, and education and R&D facilities that will allow future developments to cost even less while employing and educating locals.
The very specific economic reason the Saudis are moving to solar power: the Saudi populace is burning an increasingly larger amount of oil – 25% of all oil drawn – for producing electricity. And – that 25% is growing by 7% a year. Since oil can be sold at a higher price on the global market than the value of the electricity domestically – the basic economics dictate maximizing export value. And if they don’t begin to shift soon – a growing population that has growing needs will consume their cash cow.
Saudi Arabia does also have goals to export electricity to both Europe and Africa. “We will connect to Africa to exchange non-fossil sources of energy,” Energy, Industry and Mineral Recourses Minister Khalid Al-Falih announced at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi in January. The European electricity export dreams have moved little since first being considered in 2012-2013. Announcements of 24GW by 2020 and 54GW by 2032 excited many with their grandeur – global volumes were 20-30GW/year in those days. Maybe we should look at these programs as a more pragmatic vision resulted from the deeper analysis from those days.
Direct from the ‘Renewable Energy Project Development Office’ of Saudi Arabia’s webpage:
The Sakaka project forms part of the Round 1 of the National Renewable Energy Programme being launched by MEIM. The Project will involve the development, design, permitting, engineering, financing, procurement, construction, commissioning, testing, completion, ownership, insurance, operation and maintenance of a greenfield solar PV plant near the city of Sakaka, in the northern region of Saudi Arabia. The Project is expected to have a total capacity output at interconnection not exceeding at any time 300 MWac capacity of electricity generation. The Project will be developed on a build, own and operate (“BOO”) basis under one special purpose company (“Project Company”) to be 100% owned by the successful Bidder, i.e. pre-qualified Applicant. There will be no investment from any Government entity in the Project Company. In addition to funding from the Project Company’s shareholders, Renewable Energy Project Development Office (“REPDO”) expects the Project to be financed through the raising of limited or non recourse debt facilities. Applicants are invited to submit a SOQ by no later than 15:00 hrs (KSA time) on the Due Date of 20 March 2017.
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For more electric vehicle, autonomous transport and clean technology news, make sure to follow us on Twitter, Newsletter, RSS or Facebook to get our latest articleThey may be a third-tier team playing one of this country’s second-tier sports, but good luck trying to get a ticket to their championship game.
The 8,000 tickets available for the Sacramento Republic FC’s match Saturday against the Harrisburg City Islanders from Pennsylvania were snapped up in minutes, putting the game in competition with the city’s Farm-to-Fork dinner on the Tower Bridge on Sunday for having the hottest ticket in town.
Those who failed to snag a ticket to soccer’s USL Pro championship match, which starts at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Bonney Field in Cal Expo, can still watch it on local Channel 31.
The least-expensive game ticket on resale site StubHub was selling for $105 Thursday afternoon, a 320 percent markup from its $25 face value. The most expensive ticket was listed at $300. The average price of resale tickets was $166.
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The sharp demand for Republic tickets contrasts with the tepid market for Sacramento Kings games in recent years, with unwanted tickets sometimes dumped for as little as $2.
Professional soccer still ranks below football, baseball and basketball in national prominence. But Sacramento fans are showing why it’s considered by many to be an ascending sport. The overwhelming support for the city’s lower-division soccer team has helped lay the groundwork for a potential upgrade to Major League Soccer, the highest league in the U.S. An MLS delegation visited Sacramento last week, wooed by a group of Republic owners and investors who plan to build a new stadium in the dormant downtown railyard.
It’s widely believed that Sacramento is in a close race with Minneapolis for the 24th and final spot in MLS. The league’s owners could make a decision as early as December.
About 7,000 of the 8,000 tickets for Saturday’s game went to the team’s season-ticket holders and the league, said team spokeswoman Erika Bjork. Fans without season-ticket privileges faced a digital scrum to secure a seat in the stadium.
Nicole Comer of Fair Oaks was among those who came away disappointed.
“It’s very sad. My son was very sad. He was like, ‘What? You didn’t get tickets?’ ” said Comer, who grew up playing and watching soccer. Her son, who is 9, plays goalie on his club team. Her parents, who do have season tickets, will be going to the game.
She said she’s not surprised the team is drawing so well: “There is a lot of soccer around here.”
Comer said she and her husband got tied up at work and didn’t log on to the Republic website right away when the tickets went on sale at 10 a.m. Wednesday. But state worker Brandon Chapin waited with his credit card.
“I was able to bag two of them when it opened,” said Chapin, who will be taking his girlfriend. He said they’re both new soccer fans.
Student Jessica Trudell turned to Facebook, asking for a miracle.
“Greedy scalpers bought up all the Sac Republic tickets so they can sell them for much more than face value. I can’t afford to pay for an overpriced ticket on my student’s budget. I’m dying to go to the game and I’m hoping there’s a friend out there with an extra ticket or two who is willing to sell to me for face value,” Trudell wrote.
The team’s booster group – the Tower Bridge Battalion – offered to give tickets to fans who would willingly be tattooed with the group’s logo.
The group, which was also willing to pay the price of the tattoo, quickly found more takers than tickets.
Bjork said there was plenty of evidence, dating back to when the team packed Hughes Stadium with 20,000 fans earlier this year to start its inaugural season, that there would be more demand for tickets for the championship game than could fit in the new, smaller stadium. After four matches at Hughes, which doesn’t have the proper dimensions for soccer, the team moved to 8,000-seat Bonney Field at Cal Expo.
“We really do feel like we could have sold 20,000, 25,000, 30,000 tickets,” Bjork said. “Our phones have been ringing off the hook.”
After season-ticket holders were given tickets and tickets for the league were taken out of the mix, there were 1,500 to sell. Season-ticket holders were given access to an allotment of extra tickets Tuesday, leaving about 1,000 to sell to the general public on Wednesday, Bjork said.
The success of the Republic FC in many ways mirrors the early days of the region’s basketball Kings and baseball River Cats. Both teams enjoyed immediate fan support and made postseason appearances in their inaugural seasons.
Jerry Reynolds, a longtime color commentator for the Kings, said he sees similarities between the two franchises.
“There was an immediate love affair with the Kings, and there was an immediate love affair with this team,” Reynolds said.
But while the Kings played their first season in a small facility before moving into a larger one, the Republic experience has been the opposite. He said the team likely benefited from playing games in a smaller stadium much of the season, ensuring packed houses.
West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon said there are similarities with the River Cats’ experience but that the Republic’s route was harder. The team had to prove to naysayers that the region would support soccer.
The sport has quickly become a hit with young people, said Emily Cameron, who chairs the Metro Edge young professionals group in the Sacramento Metro Chamber.
“It’s almost like the new watering hole or new town square,” she said. “A couple years ago, the complaint was that there wasn’t enough to do. Now, not only is there a lot to do, but a lot of amazing things to do.”
The success of the Republic and other events – including the city’s sold-out Farm-to-Fork gala dinner Sunday – shows how this community supports things it wraps its arms around, said Mike Testa, a spokesman for the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau.
“When the citizens of Sacramento embrace something, they help it do well,” Testa said. “This city and this region is passionate, especially when it comes to sports.”How Segwit2x Replay Protection Works
Jimmy Song Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 4, 2017
Note: This replay protection scheme has since been reverted! Please make sure you DO NOT use the protection scheme from this article for anything as you WILL NOT be protected before or after the 2x hard fork.
Jeff Garzik merged in an opt-in replay protection scheme for Segwit2x yesterday. In this post, I’m going to explain how it works, what you’ll need to do and why they did it this way.
What is Replay Protection, anyway?
Before explaining the exact scheme of Replay Protection, it’s important to understand what replay attacks are first. In the event of a hard fork without replay protection, transactions that spend pre-fork coins are valid on both chains. That is, if Alice sends Bob 1 coin on chain X, the same transaction will be valid on chain Y.
Alice may be intending to send Bob 1 XCoin and 1 YCoin, in which case she’d be broadcasting the transaction on both chains and have no vulnerability. However, if she wanted to send Bob only 1 XCoin and not 1 YCoin, we have a problem. Alice will, of course, broadcast the transaction on chain X, but the transaction is now public and that opens up a security vulnerability.
An attacker can take the public transaction sending 1Xcoin from Alice to Bob from chain X and replay it on chain Y. This would cause Bob to get the 1 YCoin. This is called a replay attack and causes a lot of unintended transactions.
Replay Protection is the generalized term for how you can prevent an attacker from executing replay attacks. In other words, make transactions from chain X not valid on chain Y and vice versa.
Strong 2-way Replay Protection vs Opt-in Replay Protection
Strong 2-way replay protection means that transactions from chain X are never valid on chain Y after the hard fork and vice-versa. That is, all transactions have some marker that makes it clear what chain they were intended for.
Bitcoin Cash achieved this through marking the signatures, which every transaction requires. This made transactions on their chain invalid on Bitcoin and vice-versa. This is called “strong” replay protection because there is no way for anyone to accidentally be exposed to replay attacks. Strong replay protection is a lot like an automatically locking door that prevents the transaction from escaping chain X.
Opt-in replay protection means that transactions from chain X need to do something special to be invalid on chain Y. That is, by default, transactions are exposed to replay attacks, but if you manipulate your transaction in a certain way, the transaction won’t be valid on chain Y. Opt-in replay protection is more like a door you have to remember to lock, because otherwise the transaction may escape chain X and get into chain Y.
What did the Segwit2x Developers do?
The Segwit2x developers decided on a particular Opt-in replay protection scheme as in the pull request above. Alice, when sending coins on the Legacy chain to Bob, will have to send a small amount to 3Bit1xA4apyzgmFNT2k8Pvnd6zb6TnwcTi in order for the transaction to be invalid on the 2x chain. This address was chosen because it’s somewhat easy to see visually (starts 3Bit) and is easy enough to spend since the private key is well known.
Other opt-in replay protection schemes are being considered, such as putting a special string in OP_RETURN, making a magic nSequence value or ignoring transactions with certain version bits (this one may still happen), but this scheme was chosen, most likely, because it’s relatively easy to do, even with wallets that aren’t aware of the hard fork.
Now before you start trying to send coins to the address above, I have one caveat. This replay protection scheme only activates after the chain split. That is, it’s useless to send a small amount to the address above until November 18 or so when block 494784 gets mined. At that point, sending a transaction that includes a small amount to the address above on the Legacy chain will not be replayable on the 2x chain.
Why didn’t Segwit2x add Strong Replay Protection like BCH?
Segwit2x developers feel that they are going to be the majority chain after the hard fork. As such, they want all current wallets that exist in the Bitcoin ecosystem to be compatible with 2x and not require upgrades. That is, wallets and services won’t need to upgrade their software with opt-in replay protection. Their view is that strong replay protection would then cause a bigger split in the ecosystem than needs to be.
When BCH forked on August 1, there were almost no wallets that supported BCH specifically because their replay protection scheme was strong and because wallet developers hadn’t had a chance to code in the adjustments required to make transactions valid on BCH. It looks like Segwit2x is trying to avoid this by making transactions work with current Bitcoin wallets, merchants and services that exist.
What would it take for Core to implement Strong Replay Protection?
Unfortunately, any strong replay protection scheme requires a hard fork. Many Core developers view hard forks as requiring a lot of lead time and community consensus to do, which is a large reason for the current debate with the 2x folks. As such, a strong replay protection scheme looks unlikely going forward.
What do I need to do to split my coins after the hard fork?
You will want to move your Legacy coins first to new addresses (your Legacy wallet), but each of these transactions will have to send a small amount to 3Bit1xA4apyzgmFNT2k8Pvnd6zb6TnwcTi. If you don’t care much about privacy, you can make one giant transaction that sends all your current bitcoins to another address or set of addresses. Just make sure a small amount is also sent to 3Bit1xA4apyzgmFNT2k8Pvnd6zb6TnwcTi in the same transaction.
After that, you can send your 2x coins to different addresses and that would be your 2x wallet.
Conclusion
Hard forks bring up a lot of issues that the Bitcoin community hasn’t had to deal with before. Replay attacks is one of them. As always, be very careful when making Bitcoin transactions and keep yourself informed of hard forks like this before sending any Bitcoins anywhere.
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Are you a developer that wants to get into Bitcoin and blockchain? Sign up for Programming Blockchain Seminar in Stanford, London or Seoul!"You are what your record says you are," legendary former NFL coach Bill Parcells was fond of repeating, and for some fans that's an article of faith. For those fans, this year's Minnesota Timberwolves are one of the league's biggest disappointments. More than two months into a season that was supposed to snap a nine-year playoff drought, the Timberwolves stand.500, two games behind the Dallas Mavericks for the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference postseason.
Change the perspective, though, and Minnesota is suddenly a very different team. The Timberwolves have outscored opponents by 4.8 points per game, which puts them tied for fifth in the West and seventh in the NBA.
As a result, advanced team metrics built on point differential consider Minnesota a contender. That goes double for the Hollinger Power Rankings, which put more weight on recent performance. Since the Timberwolves have three wins by 20-plus points in their past 10 games, Minnesota has jumped to fifth in the Hollinger Power Rankings, ahead of the Miami Heat and Portland Trail Blazers.
So, are the Timberwolves what their record says they are? Or are they what their point differential says they are?Oracle is promoting conversions from the popular Spring Framework for Java development to Java EE (Enterprise Edition). But the founder of Spring counters that these technologies can work together and cites a financial incentive for Oracle's campaign.
Oracle has been promoting these migrations in a series of Web presentations going on for many months. A Java Spotlight posting this week pertaining to migrations to Java EE 6 links to an interview with Paul Bakker and Bert Ertman from Luminus Technologies in the Netherlands. They argue Spring no longer has advantages over enterprise Java that it might have had previously.
[ Think you know Java? Test your programming smarts in InfoWorld's Java IQ test. | Find out how the experts weighed in on Java EE vs. Spring at the JavaOne conference. | For more news on enterprise Java, subscribe to InfoWorld's JavaWorld Enterprise Java newsletter. ]
Some users have been holding onto beliefs about enterprise Java inadequacies from several years ago based on books from Spring Framework inventor Rod Johnson, said Bakker, senior software engineer at Luminis. "But nowadays, when we have Java EE 5 and Java EE 6, we [have] completely revised programming models, which are very lightweight and POJO-based (plain old Java objects)," Bakker said. "It's about time to re-educate people that Java EE no longer stands for Java Evil Edition, but it's actually quite ready to build some very good enterprise applications with."
Dependency injection, popularized in Spring and used for linking related objects, is now enabled in Java EE 5, the Luminis technologists stressed. Lightweight, aspect-oriented programming is now implemented in Java as well, they argued. But Johnson, in an emailed response to questions, dismissed the notion of a conflict between Java EE and Spring, calling it "fictitious." Spring and Java EE 6, Johnson said, "can work very nicely together."
"The 'Java EE 6 does away with the need for Spring' argument is essentially commercially motivated," Johnson said "Spring has reduced the need for traditional application servers like Oracle WebLogic and has enabled users to choose lighter-weight infrastructure. While Java EE 6 is an improvement on previous versions of Java EE, Spring offers significant additional value."
Spring works in a broader set of scenarios than Java EE 6, thus giving Spring users greater choice, said Johnson. "They may not wish to use a Java EE application server; even [if] they are on Java EE, they may not be running Java EE 6; they may be in a cloud environment where Java EE is not available; they may not be using any app server; or they may wish to be able to deploy in different scenarios. Spring's portability is highly valuable."
Spring's ecosystem solves a wider range of problems than Java EE, such as integration, batch, and nonrelational data, Johnson said. Fine-grained security is supported as well, he said. "Using the Spring component model can offer many other benefits."
Elsewhere in the Java EE realm, Oracle is looking to the planned Java EE 7 release to extend transactional capabilities of Enterprise JavaBeans and its transactional semantics, according to Oracle's Arun Gupta. "What we're doing in Java EE 7 is we are abstracting the semantics so they can be more widely applicable," for example, to Managed Beans or CDI Beans, Gupta said in Java Spotlight. With CDI Managed Beans, a managed bean is implemented by a Java class, called a bean class.
A top-level Java class is a managed bean if it is defined as so by any other Java EE technology specification or meets conditions such as not being a nonstatic inner class, according to a Java EE 6 tutorial. Java EE 7 is expected to be released this summer and featured in the GlassFish Server 4 application server.
This article, "Oracle to Spring developers: Convert to Java EE," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in business technology news and get a digest of the key stories each day in the InfoWorld Daily newsletter. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.After battering Cuba and several Caribbean islands for most of a week as it crept slowly northwestward, Hurricane Irma turned north into Florida on September 10, 2017. Heavy rain and hurricane-force winds battered both the east and west coasts of southern Florida, even though the eye of the monstrous storm made landfall in the southwestern part of the state. Seas were rising with storm surges as far north as Charleston, South Carolina.
Hurricane Irma made its first U.S. landfall on Cudjoe Key, Florida, about 30 miles east of Key West, around 9 a.m. on September 10. The storm was rated as a category 4, with sustained winds of 130 miles per hour at the time. It made its second landfall at Marco Island around 3:30 p.m. with similarly potent winds.
At 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the National Hurricane Center reported that Irma was over Naples, Florida, bringing sustained winds of 110 miles (180 kilometer) per hour, with gusts to 140 miles per hour. Hurricane-force winds extended 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the center of the storm; tropical storm winds stretched at least 220 miles (350 kilometers), wider than the state from west to east. The storm was moving north at 14 miles (22 kilometers) per hour. It was expected to hug the west coast of Florida through Monday morning.
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 13 (GOES-13) acquired data for the composite image above at 8:15 a.m. on September 10 as the storm was passing over the Florida Keys. Infrared data (band 4) is overlaid on a MODIS blue marble. The satellite is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), while NASA helps develop and launch the GOES series of satellites.
The second, natural-color image was acquired at 10:50 a.m. local time by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.
Though much popular interest focuses on the winds and rain of a hurricane, storm surges are often the most deadly part of such an event. National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters warned of dangerous storm surges from the Florida Keys to Tampa Bay. Forecasters predicted waters as high as 10 feet (3 meters) above normal in places. The western shore is known for its relatively shallow coastal waters, and many neighborhoods are carved into lagoons and canals near the shore. “This is a life-threatening situation,” NWS declared.
Irma has been churning at hurricane force since August 31, and it has been a major hurricane—category 3 or above—for nearly all of that time.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using data from the NASA-NOAA GOES project and LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response. Story by Mike Carlowicz.NEW YORK – As the Caribbean continues to be battered by Hurricane Irma, Verizon is extending its support to our U.S. customers who are concerned about family and friends. With Irma's path now heading towards Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas, as well as Florida and other parts of the U.S, Verizon is extending its initial offer of free wireless and wireline calling from the U.S. to extend through September 10, 2017 and now includes the Bahama Islands. The company is committed to helping our customers stay connected and will provide additional support for those in the U.S. who are preparing for the impact of this historic storm. Once we are able to better assess where the impact will be, we are prepared to provide data relief for our customers in the hardest hit areas in the U.S.
Home wireline telephone customers will incur no charges to Anguilla, The British Virgin Islands; Puerto Rico; Dominican Republic; Haiti; Turks and Caicos and now the Bahamas, from their U.S. landlines from September 6 through 10, 2017 (applicable taxes and surcharges will apply).
Wireless post-paid customers will incur no charges for texts or international long distance calls originating from the U.S. to Anguilla, The British Virgin Islands; Puerto Rico; Dominican Republic; Haiti; Turks and Caicos and now the Bahamas, from September 6 through 10, 2017 (applicable taxes and surcharges will apply).
Wireless communication is essential during severe weather, which is why the Verizon network team prepares year round to ensure a superior network experience, especially during and after severe weather. As it did during Hurricane Harvey, Verizon’s network is well prepared to serve its customers in the U.S.Online community-based business services are gaining increasing popularity due to the rapid development of computer networking technologies. However, such applications are still struggling to obtain wider acceptance by mainstream users due to a number of unresolved issues including trust, security and privacy.
Trust, in such community services, mainly addresses whether a remote user — called a trustee — behaves as expected by an interested user (the trustor), through the activity of other users called recommenders. A ‘trust graph’ consists of a trustor, a trustee, recommenders, and the trust relationships among them.
In LaborX, in addition to the commonly-used roles of Worker and Client, we have introduced another three roles — Evaluator, Verifier and Provider. Together, these will serve the purpose of recommenders.
The Evaluator. The highest-ranked members of a community will be able to evaluate and confirm relevant skills of workers, building a chain of trust. In this way, clients can be sure that the assigned worker has all the required skills for completing the job. Workers will be required to have a high rating and sufficient activity points in order to become an Evaluator. Evaluators may verify and endorse skills of other workers, ensuring clients have a more accurate description of their potential workforce. Workers with skills endorsements will typically have a greater chance of being selected for any given job by the LaborX core |
a mystery: The next day, my father yelled at me for knocking over a chair in the kitchen and not picking it up.
6.
If you would like to see someone get very angry very quickly, be sure to ask Lieutenant Keith Ricciardi of the West Milford Police Department about Clinton Road. His nose will flare and he will grit his teeth and talk through them and barely be able to even mention the Weird NJ guys (though he will) because of the information that they put out on the Internet “which is patently false.” It leads to all sorts of shenanigans.
And some of it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Aside from that poor guy who died off the ghost bridge, there have been double dares that lead to grave injury. A few years back a guy would dress as a ghost or put on a hood and jump in front of cars. People with black pickup trucks would ride the tails of visitors, and if the visitors weren’t as stoned or drunk as the usual Clinton Road tourist, they would become enraged and try to run the SUV off the road. Someone died doing this, too.
All Clinton Road—a road Lt. Ricciardi likes to take his kids camping on, if you can believe it—is a heap of trouble for the town, and all that trouble begins at Weird NJ. “They must make money off their website by advertising,” he sneers, as if making money off a website is a dirty wish, as if it is not the modern American dream. “And I think that they just make up these salacious stories and people who are less than informed believe it, for whatever reason. Hey, if it’s on the Internet, it must be true, right?”
7.
Eight point eight miles from a Target; 6.6 miles from a Mandee discount women’s clothing store; 1.3 miles from a Dairy Queen, which is across the street from a billboard advertising a bank that reads “Trust us,” which, sure, I guess is creepy and foreboding, you will find the traffic at the base of Clinton Road. The light can be as long as four minutes, and as little as two (I timed it three times, and couldn’t get one solid number). The national average on a traffic light peaks at 120 seconds, so more than twice that—and it’s tedious, but it’s not really scary. If I’m honest, it’s hard to get worked up about a haunted road in walking distance of a Dairy Queen.
I went to Clinton Road twice, and both days had terrible ambience for this story: Sunshine and new season warmth. The street begins unceremoniously with an accounting firm. A few houses in, I found a man in front of another house, and I got out to talk to him. His name was Ron, and he wore a gold necklace that said “Mets” on it. He was planting shrubbery at his wife’s bequest. No, the house wasn’t cheaper because it was on a haunted road, he told me. No, he’d grown up around here, and didn’t I seem like a smart girl? Why would I believe in such legends?
I found nothing, miserable nothing, on my first visit. My friend Rachel and I hiked, all the way to the temple, now in ruins, covered with glass from six packs of Coors. We were there, alone in the woods, and it couldn’t have been less scary, and we couldn’t have been more disappointed. Deeper and deeper we went, getting lost even, trying hard to scare ourselves, but there was nothing. Later on the road, we passed Dead Man’s Curve, and it said “HE DIED HERE” on the concrete barrier in graffiti, and that was scary, or maybe I just find it upsetting now that I’m a mother. The scariest thing that happened that day was that we found a tick on Rachel’s shirt, but don’t worry, we got it off before it got to her skin. The other thing that happened that is remarkable, only because I’m searching, is that there was a very large turtle in the middle of the road when we came back, and briefly we wondered how it could have gotten to the middle of the road so quickly. We’d only been gone a few minutes.
The next time I went back to Clinton Road, it was a few weeks later, and I dragged poor Chirico, in my shitty car, and she explained that there are said to be time warps on Clinton Road, and perhaps Rachel and I were traveling back over or through time. (Maybe, but then why hadn’t I missed my chiropractor appointment later that day?)
Chirico and I got the Dead Man’s Curve, and brave Chirico, unscared Chirico, Chirico who will befriend the boy, she got out of the car and she called to the boy. “Little boy,” she called. “Come out and talk to us.” We offered his favorite thing, which is loose change, and then nothing. Chirico confessed to me that she felt no activity—less on Clinton Road than most other places, which seemed odd, but there you go. I told Chirico I was sorry for wasting her time, and she maybe felt sorry for me and suggested I check out Shades of Death Road, a more reliably haunted place.
I didn’t find it odd. Rather, it just confirmed what I was beginning to suspect was behind all the New Jersey hauntings: That we lived in a place that might as well have hauntings because most of the population never faces real danger. They go through life numb, this is my observation, and they talk about the weather and they talk about the humidity and thank god it’s Friday and not for nothing, always not for nothing, and sports sports sports. But for a moment there is the impulse in the soul of the New Jersey teenager, one who just wants to be scared for a moment, to feel a danger that simple suburban life can’t offer, and you can have that on a late night joyride through Clinton Road and still you’d be home by curfew.
But right when I had given up, thinking I was no better than the teens in SUVs bumping bumpers with other teens in SUVs, the most haunting and unexpected thing that has ever happened on Clinton Road happened to me right then and there. I was filled suddenly with an overwhelming love for New Jersey—for the roads and the hauntings, and the people talking about humidity. This place that just wants to be special; its people who just want to be remembered. Who could argue with that? Who could not get behind that? The ghosts and the people all fighting to be heard and fighting to be loved. I would love them all. I would love it here. I would stop thinking of New Jersey as a satellite office for New York. I would take it on its own terms and I would be its daughter.
I turned around and I took one last ride, this time alone, down Clinton Road. It was even less foreboding that it had been before. Yes, a road is just a road. A state is just a state. A place is just a place, unless you decide differently, unless you absolutely need it to be something else. And you and I are just people who still believe that we are alive.
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Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a contributing writer at GQ and the New York Times Magazine.
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Editor: Reyhan Harmanci“I felt a lot of emotions last night and into today, some sadness, some anger, some fear,” he said. “But I’m also aware that those are a lot of emotions that Trump supporters felt, emotions that led them to make their choice. And it would be wrong for me to think that my emotions are somehow more authentic than their emotions. We’re always better as a society when we have empathy for one another.”
Still, Meyers’s greatest empathy was for those around him crushed by Clinton’s loss; including his mother, who he noted was excited to cast a vote for the first female presidential candidate. Meyers’s voice cracked as he delivered that anecdote, dropping the typically arch, fake-newsman personality he honed over years at Saturday Night Live and Late Night. He also did well to acknowledge the people of color and LGBTQ viewers watching, saying, “As a white man, I…know that any emotions I’m feeling are likely a fraction [of theirs]... Hopefully the Trump administration and Trump supporters will be compassionate to them. Because they need your compassion.”
Most importantly, Meyers voiced the thought pulsing through every Clinton voter’s mind a day after the election: that maybe Trump’s changeability, his willingness to adopt different political positions over the years as he wooed difference audiences, would mean his administration would surprise them. It’s a slim hope, and a strange one—to rely on someone’s untrustworthiness. But while moments of Meyers’s monologue were punctuated by anger, others by fear, and others by self-deprecating humility, it was that naked honesty that felt the most memorable.
Best of all, though, was his promise for the future, one that’s likely to echo across other programs like Bee’s, Oliver’s, Trevor Noah’s, and more. “Democracy is a fantastic thing, even when it doesn’t go your way. It gives everyone in America a voice, and last night, those voices spoke,” Meyers concluded. “Donald Trump made a lot of promises as to what he was going to do over the next four years, and now we get to see if he will, if he can, fulfill them. So I’d just like to make one promise to him: We here at Late Night will be watching you.” During the Obama administration, the role of political comedy was at times listless, poking fun at what seemed like the margins—cable news, extremism, and outspoken celebrities like Trump. Now, that celebrity is in the White House, and the focus will no longer be at the margins, but at the seat of power. It’s a bigger responsibility, but also one with greater weight.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.The morning of the FOMC announcement on Wednesday (Oct 28) gold was up $14 overnight, close to $1080 and the cartel’s dreaded 200 day moving average. The “premise” was that the market was expecting another rate hike deferral.
I friend called me that morning and I told him to not get excited because when the FOMC policy decision hits the tape, they will annihilate gold and push the S&P 500 up toward 2100. I was only 10 pts off on the S&P call, as the S&P 500 closed at 2090, up an absurd 24 points. Gold was taken to the cleaners:
What’s incredible is not one mainstream media analyst or reporter questions this market action. If the premise behind the gold sell-off was a “hawkish” FOMC statement and the threat of a rate hike in December (yawn), then the exact same premise should have cause a big sell-off in stocks. Since when does the threat of tighter monetary policy not hit the stock market?
Just to recount the play-by-play in gold, the moment the FOMC announcement hit the tape, the Comex computer system was bombarded with sell orders. At this point in the trading day, the ONLY gold/silver market open is the Comex computer Globex system. In the first 30 minutes 29.6k contracts were unloaded – 2.6 million paper ounces. In the entire hour after the announcement 50.5k contracts were unloaded – 5.1 million ounces. Note that the Comex is showing around 200k ounces to be available for delivery.
The blatant, unfettered manipulation and intervention in the gold and silver market is sponsored by the Fed and the U.S. Treasury, executed by the big bullion banks and fully endorsed by the CFTC.
Dan Norcini vomited up a theory that the hit on Wednesday was a product of long side (hedge fund) liquidation. That view proved to be utter scatological regurgitation from an analyst who’s analysis and views have gone completely off the rails. As it turns out, open interest increased by over 4,000 contracts on Wednesday. So much for that “long liquidation” idiocy.
The manipulation of the gold and silver market is a nothing but a product of complete systemic corruption. The only way that the Fed and the politicians can claim that the economy is “fine” and QE “worked” is to make sure that the one piece of obvious evidence which would say otherwise is kept highly restrained.
I’ve told colleagues for years that the only way the elitists will let the Comex default, causing gold and silver to launch in price toward Pluto, is when they know they can no longer support their fraud.
If I’m wrong, how else to do you explain the fact that the front-running candidate to be the next President of the United States is openly a criminal and traitor who should be devoting her entire resource base toward defending herself from being throw in jail forever? This person, by the way, issues a statement today giving the U.S. economy an “A.”
On a positive note, I do believe that this country is in its 9th inning and there will be no extra innings in this game. Gold and silver do appear to be back in an uptrend, with a lot of pressure from the part of the world that demands physical delivery.
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TweetIt’s no secret that Heroes of the Storm is an absolute blast when you’re playing with friends, or that raiding the Team League queue as a five-player party only turns the fun up to eleven. However, we also know that it can take a little more effort to make sure everyone’s schedules line up when it comes time for a few Team League matches, and the games themselves involve quite a bit more coordination and communication than our other modes. In recognition of that extra effort, we’d like to try something new for those of you who assemble five-player squads in search of ranks, rewards, and glory in Team League.
More XP and Gold per Match
Starting today, and for the remainder of Ranked Season 1, we’re amping up the rewards you can earn simply by playing Team League:
Each Team League game you complete will now award 100% Bonus XP.
. Team League Gold rewards have been increased to 50 per win, and 30 per defeat.
Better yet, Stimpack bonuses will stack additively with these new reward amounts, making Team League the best place to squeeze the most out of an active Stimpack per game.
These bonuses are ripe for the taking right now, and will remain in effect until Season 1 concludes during the week of August 23. Gather your closest allies, take another look at all of the epic loot you can unlock by ranking up, and hit that Ready button as hard as you can! If there are a few empty slots on your Team League roster, then be sure to check out the official Heroes forums, or the Heroes of the Storm Subreddit, to find other players who are looking to party up.
Until next time, we’ll see you in the Nexus!I am confused about why the man who attacked Senator Rand Paul is being charged with fourth-degree assault, which is a misdemeanor. According to Doug Stafford, a senior aide to the Kentucky senator, Paul suffered five broken ribs, three of which were displaced. In addition, he has bruises to his lungs: “This type of injury is caused by high velocity severe force. It is not clear exactly how soon he will return to work, as the pain is considerable as is the difficulty in getting around, including flying.”
I’m not a doctor, but those kind of injuries aren’t typically sustained in an ordinary fistfight. They seem more consistent with a fall or some kind of vehicular accident. Short of that, maybe a rifle butt or repeated kicking with steel-tipped boots might break and displace ribs. At a minimum this attack seems like a felonious crime, perhaps even attempted murder.
Yet, we’re not getting a whole lot of detail.
Rene Boucher, 59, a Bowling Green doctor, was arrested Friday and charged with fourth-degree assault after an incident at Paul’s home in the gated Rivergreen community just east of Bowling Green. Boucher, 582 Rivergreen Lane, was released Saturday night from the Warren County Regional Jail on a $7,500 bond, according to online jail records. The arrest warrant in the case indicates that Paul told police that his neighbor came onto his property and tackled him from behind, forcing him to the ground and causing pain. According to the warrant for Boucher’s arrest, Paul had injuries to his face and had trouble breathing due to a rib injury.
Something is not right with this story. I don’t doubt that being forcibly tackled from behind could cause some rib and lung injuries, but it sounds more like he was run over by a golf cart.
And then the assailant is a bit odd:
Boucher is a Bowling Green anesthesiologist and pain specialist who developed a product called Therm-a-Vest, a cloth vest partially filled with rice and secured by Velcro straps that is designed to relieve back pain by delivering heat directly to the areas of the back where most pain is felt. Boucher applied for a patent for the vest in 2003 and has marketed it through the QVC shopping channel.
It almost sounds like Boucher was trying to create a natural client for his QVC product. What would compel an anesthesiologist to attack a U.S. senator? Is he crazy or was he provoked?
If he was unprovoked, why are the charges so light? And why did Paul’s complaint sound so mild when it appears he was beaten to within an inch of his life? Displaced ribs can easily lead to quick death from a torn aorta, for example.
The New York Times has a little more detail.
Mac Douglas, who lives about 100 yards away from Mr. Paul, said on Sunday that he was shocked to hear about the altercation, and that Mr. Paul and Mr. Boucher had been courteous neighbors. Mr. Douglas described the neighborhood as calm and secluded, and a place where residents did not regularly interact. “It’s unusual when you see a senator and a doctor having problems,” Mr. Douglas said. Still, one of Mr. Paul’s neighbors told a local news outlet that Mr. Paul and Mr. Boucher had “ongoing problems.” Mr. Paul was mowing his lawn at the time of the altercation, the neighbor said.
The local news determined that Boucher has been retired since 2015 and was once registered as a Democrat in Rhode Island. Apparently his Facebook page has an appropriate level of outrage about President Trump, but nothing related to his neighbor Rand Paul. None of that really helps me understand why Boucher allegedly ran into Rand Paul’s yard and tackled him while the senator was trying to mow his lawn. Nor does it explain how Paul was so badly injured or why he reacted so mildly, calling it only an “unfortunate incident,” instead of a nearly lethal and apparently unprovoked attack that will leave him in severe pain for many months to come.
Let me put it this way. If your neighbor attacked you like this while you were mowing your lawn and you didn’t think you had it coming, would you call it an “unfortunate incident,” file a police report that minimized your injuries, and be satisfied with a misdemeanor charge?
It would be irresponsible not to speculate that there’s more to this story. Perhaps the real Bowling Green Massacre was caused by a little hanky panky going on in the cul-de-sac?In June of last year, I finally decided to commit to an Android device. I had carried every flagship iPhone up through that point from the original iPhone to the 5S. To the world around me, I heaped the praise into a life transforming device, but in my tech circles, and on my blog, I frequently posted about my frustration, mostly with shackles and intentional limitations imposed. So last year, why I decided to make the jump to Android. I outlined 10 reasons why I was finally ready to make the jump to Android’s 4.4 release, KitKat. A year has passed. It’s time to revisit my original assertions and complaints with some follow up and see where I stand one year later.
I cited several reasons for choosing the KitKat release as the marker heralding Android’s readiness.
I’ve been waiting a long time for Android to get to the point that it was fast and responsive enough, with a big enough application warehouse, wide enough support, and a smooth enough experience, to support me. Android is maturing with a consistent, system-wide look-and-feel, almost every major service now has an Android app as the counterpart to its iOS-first experience, and has a bright future with wearables, home automation, and more.
So, let’s approach this in two sections: first, I’ll review my own iOS complaints as they stand today on Android. Second, I’ll score Android as a standalone mobile OS experience and register a list of complaints that I have with Android Lollipop similar to what I did with iOS last year. Before we jump in, let’s look at all of the devices I’ve carried in the last year:
iPhone 5S HTC One M8 A work device running a second phone number Moto X (2013) my first Android device, noticeably laggy, returned immediately Nexus 5 my first full-time Android phone, loved it, eventually upgraded because I found it underpowered Moto X (2014) first modern flagship, bought the day it was released, used it until it hard failed. Motorola replaced it. Windows Phone 635 A holdover until my new Moto X arrived. I actually really enjoyed Windows Phone, but couldn’t find quality apps Moto X (2014) Motorola’s replacement of my bricked Moto X Samsung Galaxy S6
I forced my major iOS issues into 10 categories. It seems fair to see how Android compares on the issues I highlighted.
iOS UI/UX inconsistencies
iOS 8 is, to some, beautiful. To my eyes, iOS 8 is more of the same. I simply don’t like the style Apple adopted with iOS 7. The move to “flat” for Apple doesn’t feel like a complete thought. I find Yosemite less sexy than even Tiger was over 10 years ago, and I feel that iOS has less of a visual identity than any pre-iOS 7 image.
When I wrote my original article, Android’s current release was KitKat and Google I/O had just given us a preview of Material Design. So, How does Material Design stack up? Subjectively, I find Material Design to be best-of-breed today. The “layer” concept, the animations (which I routinely speed up in developer mode), the bold colors, the fabs, the buttons, I’ve been eating it right up. Design is undoubtedly subjective, but in this area, I simply couldn’t be happier. I absolutely love Material Design and appreciate every bit of thought that went into it.
Jony Ive, a design genius if there ever was one, has a lot on his plate, and I have no idea what percentage of iOS, if any, is actually influenced by him as opposed to his team. But I see so many areas where I think Material Design surpasses Apple’s design language, starting with confusing buttons/links and ending with a impossible to click widgets in the notification shade.
Verdict? For me personally, Android wins by a landslide
The Keyboard/Auto-Correct
Not much to say here. Third-party Android keyboards can be laggy and they’re inconsistent with their access to emoji, voice control, auto-prediction, and autocorrection. And every one of them is miles better than the default iOS 8 keyboard. Third party keyboards on iOS have gone through growing pains, but I know dozens of people who’ve had frustrations with rotation and lack thereof, and I’ve seen plenty of “keyboard won’t go away” issues. My co-worker, literally today, reported “every 2 to 3 days, I have a keyboard stuck in the wrong place, but I just quit my apps and it’s fine. But third party keyboards, forget it.”
I also hear users complain that they don’t understand why the keyboard switches. This is, of course, because the iOS keyboard reverts to native on “secure input.” This is a feature with noble aim that is unquestionably good protection, but several users just don’t understand it.
Verdict? For anyone objective, it’s hard to argue that Android isn’t the clear winner.
Siri
Siri has clearly been massively improved in the last few years, and it seems recently it’s gotten much, much better. It’s got some contextual awareness, and it has gotten far more accurate. I think Siri has impressively closed the gap in a big way.
But Google is the gold standard here, and Siri has a lot to live up to.
Verdict? Again, Google wins, but by much less of a margin than last year.
Integration Degradation
The AppleTV appears to continue to gain steam, and while Apple has evidently shelved the announcement of major AppleTV upgrades from WWDC 2015, I expect it’s coming. I fully expect AppleTV to be the center hub of Apple’s HomeKit-based vision of a smart home. But the AppleTV is such a garbage device for media. For Airplay? Amazing! But getting movies to the AppleTV is such an unnecessary pain in the butt. Like I said last year, my Roku is so much faster, with a better remote, supports Plex, supports Google Play, and has the ability to add over 1000 channels.
Sharing media from the iPhone is still a mess. AirDrop is still barely used by anyone I know, Handoff and Continuity are far from “it just works,” and Instant Hotspot is problematic. It’s worth noting that many of these problems may be due to Apple’s relatively new discoveryd network management process, which, at least in recent OS X betas, Apple has mercifully reverted to mDNSResponder.
Google’s first suggested result reveals issues with Instant Hotspot
On Android, I use Airdroid, a little app that starts a mini-web server on my phone that allows me to do a surprisingly large amount of things from my desktop browser. I also can use Google’s simple Android File Transfer for large media files and occasionally, Bluetooth. Truth be told, so much syncs effortlessly to the cloud at this point that much of the time, it’s just pulling something down on my desktop.
The Airdroid Interface (click for full size)
Android segregates pictures from apps into their own folders. I can choose not to backup photos downloaded from reddit, Facebook, and other third party apps with camera photos, cluttering my history with disposable garbage. Big win there.
Verdict? Not much has changed for my lifestyle here. Android is a clear winner again.
Lack of interactivity
iOS 8 is far more interconnected than iOS 7, but the home screen remains a woefully dead shell that does nothing save the “parallax” effect. I’m 100% certain that Apple has the technical prowess to allow for widgets or some form of interactivity. What I don’t know is whether those limits are technical (i.e. it eats up too much battery life) or philosophical (i.e. too confusing for the standard user). Apple has a long history of making compromises to make products simpler. Historically, they’ve been very measured in employing these limits, and for the better. But over the last few years, we’ve seen iMovie, Final Cut, and iWork, amongst others, reduce their interface and remove features. So I think it’s possible Apple just hasn’t come up with an implementation that isn’t scary or overwhelming.
On Android, you can wholesale replace your application launcher, which equates to iOS’ Springboard. Depending on which Launcher you use, the process of modifying the launcher is different. But noteworthy here is that even different phones come with different launchers, making this not so much an obscure power user ability as much as a differentiator from phone to phone. The Google Now launcher, Blinkfeed, TouchWiz, Sense, They all bring their own flavor of launcher and interactivity.
My launcher (which is Nova Launcher Prime) consists of 5 widget-heavy pages, none of which animate, but all of which provide some sort of information. I have a weather widget, an embedded calendar, Google Music controls, podcast controls, a widgets that shows recent texts, and a widget that shows recent Hangout chats. These are tremendously useful. Also, I occasionally change icon sets, just one more customization bonus of alternative launchers.
2 of my 4 Android Launcher pages
As far as actionable notifications goes, I overestimated Android a bit. Notifications before Lolipop were limited to three actions, all of which simply did one thing. “Archive,” “Like,” “Delete,” etc. The S6 has customized notifications which I’ll revisit later, but the default SMS client allows a reply from the notification itself, and Google’s “Messenger” does the same. A few other SMS apps support this as well, but very few other app notifications do anything besides offer a single verb of action. My experience with iOS suggests it’s mostly the same. So, we’re merely on par there.
Verdict? My Android launcher screens are far more useful and informational than my iOS home screens ever were. Notifications are a wash. Once again, point goes to Android.
Lack of system control
Last year, I bemoaned the fact that I couldn’t set “Mailbox” as my default mail client, or “Google Maps” as my default maps client. This year, if anything, I’m overwhelmed with choice. I’ve cycled through several mail clients (most recently Nine, but finally settled on the S6’s default Mail app for Exchange and Mailbox for Gmail), several text apps (including chompSMS and qkSMS before settling on Samsung’s default SMS app), several reddit apps, several music apps, several photo apps, several camera apps, several calendar apps, several twitter apps, several dialers, Do you see a trend here? There’s no discussion on the iOS side: you use the apps you’re given or you accept inconvenience. There’s no middle ground, and I don’t see this changing anytime soon, although I’d love to be proven wrong.
My phone feels like my phone, because I use my chosen apps. I don’t need more words here: iOS not allowing you to change defaults hurts the app ecosystem, because sometimes, it’s just easier to submit to the defaults.
Verdict? Android continuing to dominate.
Inter-app communication
Credit goes to the iOS team, iOS 8’s extensibility is pretty awesome. I didn’t expect this at last year’s WWDC keynote, and I just love where it’s going. For as many developer’s on the Mac who have not embraced the app sharing concept, iOS apps really have, and I think we’ve really just scratched the surface of what’s possible. I suspect the APIs to blow this out of the water are still one or two major releases away. For now, while it appears that Android integration is much deeper, on a day to day basis, this is a pretty close call. I just don’t do things routinely that require much deeper integration than iOS offers.
There are a few areas that are great though: when an app saves its first photo, it creates a new folder, and immediately, the system asks me if I want it included in backups. I can register default apps for individual scheme names and/or URIs. So I can tell the system that URLs for reddit.com open in Baconreader, and apps from youtube.com open in the YouTube app, repeat for IMDB, Amazon, Instagram, etc.
Verdict? In the iOS 8 world, it’s probably safe to call this one a tie.
Privacy controls
Let’s not overcomplicate this: I prefer the Android way of classifying privacy controls, but there is no doubt I got this wrong and iOS, which allowed granular permissions from the get go got it right and Android with its “all or nothing” got it wrong. Thankfully, Android M (which I’m betting is “Marzipan”) will fix this, and as far as I can tell, you’ll be able to access permissions by app as well as by permission.
Android M Permissions, “Finally”
Verdict? iOS is on the board with its first point!
Central account registration
Nothing has changed here. This is still awesome. iOS supports this for a few chosen providers, but has no API for other services to store credentials in any sort of global keychain.
Verdict? Android, iOS doesn’t even compete.
Stability
I wish both operating systems were far better than they are. But both are a mess. On iOS 7, I experienced what, in retrospect, must’ve been a bum install: constant Springboard crashes, constant camera crashes. In iOS 8 on my wife’s iPhone 6 Plus, I see plenty of issues still exist: she still experiences Springboard crashes – apps that become unresponsive followed by the Apple logo and a drop to the lockscreen. As mentioned above, there are plenty of issues with the keyboard alignment and rotation. I see these problems frequently.
On Android, background services constantly crash and report their crashes via a modal alert dialog. The lockscreen doesn’t unlock or appears frozen with some frequency. The keyboard sometimes just refuses to come up until after some inexplicable delay.
Verdict? Both have a long way to go. Both are equally, but much differently frustrating. For me, personally, I’d prefer the Android method of alerting me, only because I can say “Hey, at least the system knows something is wrong!.” But I’ll call it a tie, because I think this is more preference than evidence.
iTunes
One year later, Google Photos is now my authoritative storage for photos, because getting photos back into iPhoto, and now OS X Photos, has been difficult. Even with iOS, this would be confusing, because of the insane prices of iCloud storage. I won’t rehash the entire debate, but when you buy a 16GB iPhone, the smallest iPhone out there, you can eclipse your storage space, and you can’t really use iCloud Photo Library without buying more space unless you have a very small photographic history.
Google Music is amazing, beautiful, far easier to manage than iTunes, and available anywhere, For free. I never load music on my phone anymore, because I just use Google’s shuffle, which caches an ungodly amount of music into the free space on my phone. I have access to my entire library, and no, I don’t have to subscribe to Google Music Match to get that feature.
I load media via the methods I detailed above. In fact, I never really have to use iTunes for anything anymore. And I feel my Mac experience is better for it! This is a double win.
iTunes is a disaster. It’s just as bad and bloated as it was last year. I really wish Apple would break it up into multiple apps: a syncing daemon, a video manager that supports far more codecs than iTunes, and a music manager. Having iTunes live in the periphery of my life and my Mac experience rather than at the center of it has made my computing experience less frustrating. For everything good/great that iTunes is, it’s lived past its prime.
Verdict? Android wins. And so do I.
Part I Conclusion
So where does that leave me? One year later, almost all of my concerns are no longer concerns or, at least, I am happier than I was with iOS. 8 points to Android, 1 to iOS, 2 items too close to call. Seems like the move to Android was a good one for me.
In reviewing the first page of this article, you might conclude that I am an Apple hater, a blind Google lover, and/or completely satisfied with Android. But all three of those would really be unfair characterizations, because none are really true.
I’ve been using OS X full time since Panther. My house has two Airport Extreme Base Stations and an Airport Express, an iMac, a Macbook Air, a Macbook Pro, a Mac Mini, several iPads, several iPhones, and one last iPod Touch. We still have an AppleTV in the guest room. We are unabashed Apple lovers, even if the iPhone and AppleTV have lost me.
But more importantly than that, and certainly more relevant, is that it’s not all roses and butterflies with Android. Android has its own set of challenges. In no particular order, here they are:
Backups
Background service policing
Inconsistent hardware
Android File Transfer
Better SD card support
Integrated voice mail
Video calling
Hangouts
Lockscreen
Encryption
Backups
Without question, the number 1 issue with Android is lack of quality backup/restore. Now, I tried not to include things that will be resolved in Android M, and this is thankfully addressed in M. As it stands, when I get a new Android phone, as we saw I’ve done several times, I have several apps in which I simply lose my data. Games that don’t use Cloud Save data? Fuhgeddaboudit. They choose not to so the game is usable offline, which means that if my phone dies, the data is gone. Email configuration? Options in every app? History. The iCloud restore process is such an out-of-the-park home run that it ends the conversation before it begins.
iCloud Backup is the Gold Standard
Android M allows developers to include all app data up to 25Mb, to include only specific files, or to exclude specific files. That seems like a great solution, with 25Mb seeming like enough, but almost certainly increasing as time goes on. Unfortunately, it will be 24 months before even half of Android users can use this feature. People in 2017 still won’t have reliable phone backups. That’s not okay. This is Android biggest weak point. I get that Google’s hand are tied: they can’t force manufacturers and carriers to update old phones. But it’s taken too long to get this right and should be embarrassing for them.
Background service policing
I started to notice that not only was my Galaxy S6 less responsive, but also the battery even less impressive. As a last ditch, I uninstalled scores of unnecessary apps. I’m an app guy, I had close to 200 apps, so I uninstalled the majority of them. Made an immediate difference. Turns out that many apps were running background services. Amazon is always running on my S6. I want that app on my phone, but I can’t tell it that it can’t run in the background. Without the ability to limit an app to foreground activity, I have to either live with the toll it takes or uninstall it. Sadly for your developers, most of the apps are getting the axe.
Inconsistent hardware
The Nexus 5 and the Moto X both have three soft buttons in this order: back, home, and app switcher. The Galaxy S6 has two soft buttons around one physical button, in this order: app switcher, home key, back. How did we let this happen, you guys? You |
delay is possibly due to manufacturing the camera with the aforesaid technology. It’s not like Android manufacturers are not working on improving their own technology. We will see plenty of advancements in the coming months for the Galaxy Note 8 as well as any other Android smartphone that features facial recognition technology. The current 2.5 years lead is devoted to Apple’s TrueDepth Camera technology will result in a huge advantage for the company.
There will be more to the story, be sure to stay tuned and share your views in the comments.
SourceThe death of Philip Seymour Hoffman has brought public attention not only to rising heroin overdose rates, but also to the unprecedented use of opioid painkillers such as Oxycontin and Opana in mainstream America: in suburbs, rural towns, and affluent urban neighborhoods like Hoffman's. Prescription opioids are the most common cause of overdose deaths in the U.S. And now, according to data published in the New England Journal of Medicine, opioid pill users are transitioning to heroin following the manufacturers' replacement of abusable pills with tamper-resistant formulations. Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, that mandate doctors to check patients' existing prescriptions before prescribing opioids, have been followed by an increase in heroin use. Drug policies that unilaterally curb access to prescription opioids can have unintended consequences, exacerbating the very problems, such as overdose, that they purport to solve. It is time for us to adopt harm reduction approaches to drug policy that put public health above the fear and stigma of addiction.
In Western Europe, heroin overdose deaths have been dramatically reduced by making an opioid -- buprenorphine, commercially known as Suboxone -- readily available. In France, for example, the rate of opiate overdose fell by 80% in the first seven years after primary care doctors routinely prescribed Suboxone for opiate dependent patients. Suboxone is less likely to cause people to stop breathing, and therefore has a lower risk of overdose death, than heroin and synthetic opiates (opioids). In the U.S., Suboxone was FDA approved for office-based treatment of opiate dependence by general physicians in 2002, based on its safety profile and its combination of buprenorphine with naloxone, which causes withdrawal symptoms when injected rather than taken orally as prescribed.
Ironically, in the U.S., doctors who want to prescribe Suboxone must complete an 8-hour certification course and use a special identity number for DEA surveillance of their prescriptions, yet prescribing more lethal opioid painkillers requires no special training or identity number. The number of Suboxone certified prescribers is small relative to the growing number of opioid dependent patients, particularly in public clinics. This has led to disparities in access to Suboxone treatment by income, ethnicity and race. And the DEA has begun auditing Suboxone prescribers' records, which may further discourage physicians from prescribing it.
Another widespread policy response to the prescription opioid epidemic are prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), now operational in almost every state. These programs are designed to identify and stop "doctor shopping" and "pill mills" by flagging multiple prescribers, excessive doses, and dangerous combinations of medications. In almost every state with a PMDP, prescribers face serious sanctions or criminal penalties for failing to use the PMDP. This is intended to reduce prescribing, and research suggests it does just that, but there is no evidence that they help people access the harm reduction and treatment services they need. Our interviews with prescribers and patients in New York City indicate that doctors are turning away opioid seeking patients without offering the opiate antidote naloxone for emergency overdose reversal, Suboxone, or referrals to drug treatment. This isn't surprising. Most doctors have not been given the training, tools, and resources needed to effectively manage or refer patients struggling with addiction. Yet their refusal to see such patients may well drive them from pills to heroin.
To redress the opioid overdose crisis rather than compounding it, we need to equip doctors and our health care system to respond more effectively to addiction. The DEA licenses that permit doctors to prescribe narcotics should require them to train in the safe use of opioids for pain, in the distribution of naloxone overdose reversal kits to opioid treated or dependent patients, in the use of Suboxone, and in skillful assessment and referral of patients to addiction treatment. We must also use the opening provided by the Affordable Care Act and the Mental Health Parity Law to create effective linkages between health care, harm reduction, and drug treatment programs, by making the provision of a wide range of substance abuse treatments and services, as well as patient retention and satisfaction, key quality indicators in evaluation and reimbursement protocols. This will also require investment in harm reduction programs, such as community based naloxone, Suboxone, and methadone, and investments in the underfunded addiction treatment system. These steps would re-tool our drug policies to prioritize public health over punitive responses.
We now have the opportunity to respond to a public health crisis with a public health approach, by offering safe alternatives to people at risk for overdose, infection and incarceration, along with health care and other essential services.
Helena Hansen, MD, PhD, is an addiction specialist and researcher, and is assistant professor of Psychiatry and Anthropology at New York University.This is an illustration showing the anatomy of a Caenorhabditis female/hermaphrodite worm. Sperm crawl from the uterus to the site of fertilization (spermatheca). The spermathecal valve prevents sperm from crawling into the gonad, but allows eggs (oocytes) to move into the spermatheca to be fertilized. Credit: Janice Ting The classic definition of a biological species is the ability to breed within its group, and the inability to breed outside it. For instance, breeding a horse and a donkey may result in a live mule offspring, but mules are nearly always sterile due to genomic incompatibility between the two species.
The vast majority of the time, mating across species is merely unsuccessful in producing offspring. However, when researchers at the University of Maryland and the University of Toronto mated Caenorhabditis worms of different species, they found that the lifespan of the female worms and their number of progeny were drastically reduced compared with females that mated with the same species. In addition, females that survived cross-species mating were often sterile, even if they subsequently mated with their own species.
When the researchers observed the sterile and dying female worms under a microscope using a fluorescent stain to visualize sperm in live worms, they discovered that the foreign sperm had broken through the sphincter of the worm's uterus and invaded the ovaries. There, the sperm prematurely fertilized the eggs, which were then unable to develop into viable offspring. The sperm eventually destroyed the ovaries, resulting in sterility. The sperm then traveled farther throughout the worm's body, resulting in tissue damage and death.
"Our findings were quite surprising because females typically just select sperm from males of their own species during fertilization, an action that does not lead to long-term consequences because there is no gene flow between the species," said Asher Cutter, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto.
This image depicts an instance of cross-species breeding gone awry. Fluorescence microscopy reveals sperm, in red, invading a female worm's body. Credit: Gavin Woodruff
The results suggest the interaction between sperm and the female reproductive tract as a novel reason for failed mating in worms, noted Eric Haag, associate professor of biology at UMD. "The findings may be worth investigating in other species as well, because similar coordination problems may be relevant to infertility in other organisms," he added.
The study, which was led by graduate students Gavin Woodruff from UMD and Janice Ting from the University of Toronto, was published on July 29, 2014 in the journal PLOS Biology. Woodruff is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Forestry and Forest Research Products Institute in Japan.
The researchers believe the "killer sperm" may be the result of a divergence in the evolution of worm species' sexual organs—in particular, the ability of sperm to physically compete with one another. When a female worm mates with multiple males, the sperm jostle each other, competing for access to the eggs. Female worms' bodies must be able to withstand this competition to survive and produce offspring. The researchers hypothesize that the aggressiveness of the sperm and the ability of the uterus to tolerate the sperm are the same within a single species, but not across multiple species. Thus, a female from a species with less active sperm may not be able to tolerate the aggressive sperm from a different species.
There is evidence for this theory. In the current study, three species of hermaphrodite worms—which produce their own sperm and fertilize their own eggs to reproduce—were especially susceptible to sterility and death when mated with males of other species. The hermaphrodite uterus may have evolved to tolerate "gentler" sperm, but not the larger, more active sperm of non-hermaphrodite species, according to the researchers.
"We found that hermaphrodites can sense, and try to avoid, males of species that can harm them," added Haag.
These are time-lapse videos of Caenorhabditis hermaphrodites that were (A) mated with the same species and (B) mated with a different species. Male sperm were fluorescently labeled and appear as white dots. In A, sperm localize normally to the spermatheca and uterus (outlined in yellow) and in B, sperm migrate abnormally outside of the gonad (outlined in white). Scale bar represents 100 microns. Images were taken every 10 seconds and the video is sped up 10X. Credit: Janice Ting
This instance of lethal cross-species mating is of special interest to evolutionary biologists, Haag notes, because it's unclear how the many species on earth—8.7 million, not counting bacteria, according to an estimate published in Nature—remain distinct from each other.
"Punishing cross-species mating by sterility or death would be a powerful evolutionary way to maintain a species barrier," Haag said.
However, evolution usually leaves a few survivors behind, even in the most adverse conditions. The researchers had previously found that the harmful crosses between species nevertheless can produce a few viable offspring. Haag plans to follow up on this study by investigating how these hybrid worms behave when they are bred to different species.
Explore further: Biologists give paternity tests to fish (Update)
More information: PLOS Biology,DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001915.Syria says it has received advanced military aircraft from Russia for its battle against the Daesh Takfiri terrorists who are wreaking havoc in the war-torn country.
The air force has “taken delivery of at least five fighter planes from Moscow as well as reconnaissance aircraft which allow us to identify targets with great accuracy,” a senior Syrian military official said on Tuesday.
The official added that Syria has also received “sophisticated military equipment” such as targeting equipment and precision-guided missiles. He also said the new arms have been put to use in Deir ez-Zor and Raqqah in the battle against Daesh.
"Russian weapons are starting to have an effect in Syria," the official stated.
Syrian infantry units are now receiving precise satellite imagery of Takfiri positions thanks to the new equipment, another official said.
According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around 38 Takfiri militants were killed in airstrikes in the ancient city of Palmyra, located 215 kilometers (133 miles) northeast of the capital Damascus and two other towns on Monday.
“The number of raids is growing and the strikes are more precise after the Syrian air force received arms and more efficient planes from Moscow,” said the UK-based monitoring group’s director Rami Abdel Rahman.
The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria has reportedly claimed about 250,000 lives since March 2011.
The United Nations says the militancy has displaced more than 7.6 million Syrians internally, and over four million others have fled the country to take refuge in neighboring states, including Jordan and Lebanon.
Latest UN diplomatic efforts
Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed the heads of four groups tasked with resolving the crisis in Syria.
"It is hoped that their outcomes could eventually set the stage for a Syrian agreement to end the conflict,” said UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura.
De Mistura (seen below) first brought up the concept of working groups in July, stating they could help reach a "Syrian-owned framework document."
“The working groups are intended to provide Syrians with a platform to address in-depth themes that are certainly not new but have lacked to date sustained intra-Syrian discussion," said a statement from De Mistura's office.Philip Khan, a 54-year-old businessman, has few options in the fight against the injustices facing Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities – a cause he has pursued for years.
His family came to the city from what is now Pakistan more than a century ago. He said his two uncles defended the former British colony against the Japanese during the Second World War, with one killed and the other seriously injured. Born in Hong Kong, Khan grew up in a public housing estate and attended local schools, where he learned fluent Cantonese.
A high-school graduate, he worked for many companies in different industries – from textiles to plastic production – before running his own trading business in China. Having worked in Shanghai, Khan also picked up Mandarin skills on the job.
He was also among some 40,000 Hongkongers who sat in Victoria Park on May 20, 1989 – on a night when a No.8 typhoon signal was raised – in support of student protesters at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Though the solidarity protests were associated with “Chinese patriotism” at the time, Khan was motivated by a sense of justice that goes beyond skin colour and state borders.
Khan considers himself a Hongkonger. He is hardworking, resilient, and a firm believer in equal opportunities.
But he experienced an identity crisis in 2012, when he found out he could not run in that year’s legislative election because he is not deemed a “Chinese national” under the law. Hong Kong’s election laws require geographical constituency candidates to be Chinese nationals with no right of abode outside China.
Khan, however, is among many Hongkongers of ethnic minority descent denied Hong Kong passports and the chance of naturalising as “Chinese nationals,” thereby stripped of their right to stand as a candidate in some elections.
“I feel like we are third-class citizens,” the businessman said, while referring to new immigrants from mainland China as “second-class citizens.”
Representative democracy
There are other ways ethnic minority residents in Hong Kong feel shut out of the political system. For one, many feel that politicians are insensitive to their concerns.
Though pro-democracy, Khan is critical of the dismissive attitude of most pan-democrats towards ethnic minority issues.
“Hong Kong’s political parties are quite disappointing. The pan-democrats often say they don’t have enough resources to deal with ethnic minority issues,” he said, adding that they might also fear a public backlash in light of the rise of xenophobic sentiments against some ethnic groups.
“Meanwhile, the DAB [Hong Kong’s largest pro-Beijing party] has ample resources for ethnic minorities. They often hand out freebies like Ocean Park tickets, but they are just after our votes.”
He recalled a forum held last August, during which pro-democracy figures debated ethnic minority issues in front of a large crowd of non-Chinese residents. Two pro-Beijing speakers did not show up for the event. Khan remembered feeling the politicians were “out of touch” and had no idea what their ethnic minority constituents needed.
“They said there should be more schools serving only ethnic minorities. That is the complete opposite of what we have been asking for: we want integration, not more isolation,” he said.
Khan is not alone in feeling that no politicians take his needs seriously. In a survey conducted last year by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service and the Hong Kong Christian Service, over 70 per cent of 476 ethnic-minority respondents felt their concerns were not addressed by any Legislative Council candidate. More than 90 per cent of them also did not read Chinese, and hence could not make informed decisions about the election.
Countering the mainstream perception that ethnic minorities are politically disengaged, Khan said: “It’s not that they don’t care about politics… It’s just that they don’t know what’s going on, or feel that there is no place for their voices.”
‘Systematic exclusion’
Social worker Ansah M. Malik, a fifth-generation Hongkonger of Pakistani descent, is one of those interested in current affairs but facing difficulties in navigating the political scene.
Though she understands Cantonese, Malik said her lack of Chinese reading skills rendered it “very hard” for her to decide whom to support in elections. “Recently it has become easier because I am more involved [in social organising] and know more people. But before, I had no idea [who the candidates were].”
She said she used to pick candidates based on whether they published publicity materials in English, which she considered to be an indication that they bore in mind non-Chinese constituents.
Nowadays, Malik has access to a wider range of information thanks to her activist and social worker friends, many of them local Chinese. “Now my family and friends rely on me [for voting suggestions],” she said.
The language barrier is a common concern. In her 2015 report on the status of ethnic minorities, law professor Puja Kapai of the University of Hong Kong said the lack of Chinese language skills deprives ethnic minorities of access to information, thereby limiting their exercise of the right to full and equal participation in political life.
“We often hear that the real news is in the Chinese media,” Kapai told HKFP. “Non-Chinese people are often told that our understanding of what’s happening in politics is either delayed or distorted, because our access to the press is [limited].”
She also warned that limited access to information renders ethnic minorities susceptible to manipulation by political groups.
“In a way, there has been systematic exclusion from the political discourse,” she said.
Yet, even with his proficiency in the Chinese language, it has not been easy for Khan to participate within the system as an independent who is not affiliated with political parties or influential bodies.
For example, he applied last year to serve on government advisory bodies, after former chief secretary Carrie Lam expressed interest in expanding ethnic diversity on those bodies.
Khan never got a response, but a prominent think tank submitted a list of 16 ethnic minority people to Lam, who promised to give the list to the city’s bureaus for consideration.
“It is unclear what criteria the government uses in deciding which nominations to accept. It seems that it is about having connections with the right people,” he said.
Leadership race
Khan’s latest battlefield for political inclusion is the chief executive race, which takes place at the end of this month.
For the first time, Khan has a vote in the small-circle election. He was invited by his friends to form an alliance to run for a seat on the 1,200-member Election Committee, Hong Kong’s chief executive electoral college.
After months of campaigning, Khan and 12 other members of the alliance were elected into the social welfare subsector of the committee last December.
Khan originally planned to use the position as leverage to get the candidates to meet with civil groups that focus on ethnic minority issues.
“But it turns out that they were only willing to meet with big, established organisations,” he said, adding that the candidates’ platforms on ethnic minority issues were “not concrete at all.”
Professor Kapai said the exclusion of ethnic minorities from political discussion goes against the spirit of democracy. “Democracy is not about having the largest numbers; it is about having all voices adequately represented and looked after,” she said.
Instead, Kapai advocates an inclusive political framework, which she argues would empower minorities as well as cultivate compassion among the majority, ultimately leading to a more just society.
The fight continues
For now, Khan and Malik are going to keep fighting for inclusion.
As a social worker, Malik empowers ethnic minority communities by informing them of their rights and opportunities to participate in public life. Outside work hours, she organises events with her friends regularly to promote acceptance of ethnic diversity.
Meanwhile, Khan plans to apply for naturalisation as a Chinese national again. If his application succeeds, he may run in the legislative elections – “not to win but to have a platform for ethnic minority voices.”
He said he expects to see personal attacks if he joins the race, as he feels racial discrimination has become more rampant since the 1997 handover. “I have been told by random people on the street to get out of Hong Kong, saying it is a place of Chinese people.”
But the unfazed businessman said that was the exact reason why he felt the need five years ago to come under the spotlight and participate in the election.
“I wanted to remind people that there are Hongkongers of ethnic minority descent too and we don’t deserve negative labels,” he said.PRESIDENT Trump’s visit to the UK has been downgraded from being an offical guest of the Queen to sharing a bed at Nigel Farage’s place, it has been confirmed.
Following threats of protests which Her Majesty has gratefully seized upon as an excuse, the state visit has been reduced to two days at the former UKIP leader’s flat and complimentary crazy golf.
Farage said: “It goes without saying that I’m the tail in this scenario. He’s the leader of the free world, after all.
“I’d happily give him the sofa, but I’ve only got the one duvet and there’s nothing wrong with sharing a bed as long as we’re safely inverted so nothing can happen.
“It won’t be in the least uncomfortable, despite the liberal media elite’s claims, though I am open to negotiation if he wants to place something long and heavy between us in the bed.”
A White House spokesman said: “The President is very much looking forward to visiting the comments section of Mail Online, which he has heard so much about.”MOTIHARI: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev today said that India should immediately reclaim Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) as it was the root cause of all the problems emanating from Pakistan."All the problems emanating from Pakistan is because of PoK and hence India should immediately reclaim PoK," Ramdev said.He said India should destroy all terrorits camps operating from PoK.Yoga guru was talking to reporters on the third and concluding day of a three-day yoga-cum-meditation camp organised by his Patanjali as part of Champaran Satyagrah centenary celebrations here at historic Gandhi Maidan.Holding terrorists like Azhar Masood, Hafiz Sayeed, Dawood Ibrahim responsible for bloodshed at the Indo-Pak border, Ramdev said that these terrorists should be handed over to India, dead or alive.He, however, praised the people of Pakistan saying that they were good and peace loving people except some bad elements who believe in bloodshed.Replying to a query on human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, Ramdev said that Indian army personnel too had their human rights.In reply to another question, he said that Patanjali Yogpeeth would set up a unit in Bihar to process products like jaggery, honey and litchi among others this year.Besides, Ramdev said that Patanjali would also start work on 'cow research and promotion centre' in Bihar in near future.Ramdev heaped praise on the Nitish government's decision to implement prohibition in the state and said that 'yoga education' be included in the government and private schools in the state.Inclusion of yoga as part of education would help better the future of students, he said while making it clear that "Yoga is not a political agenda at all."Rice & Iron team has been interested in the city of Hyesan for a long time. While rice prices in this border city are often higher than those in Pyongyang and Sinuiju, Hyesan has traditionally enjoyed lower price volatility relative to the capital. This phenomenon can be most likely attributed to the city’s intimate trade relations with China. While this usually meant a more stable supply of food in the city, recent events also show that this relationship alone may not protect the city from wild fluctuations in prices.
The volume of goods entering North Korea through Hyesan is most likely lower than the amount imported via Sinuiju; however, the distance between Yangkang Province (which Hyesan is in) and the capital also provides many opportunities. According to sources inside North Korea, alongside the critical supply of rice imported through Hyesan, the city also acts as an important entrepot for smuggled goods which spur North Korea’s budding consumer economy.
Imported Chinese grain are usually mixed in with domestic rice by vendors in public marketplaces due to consumer preference for more glutinous characteristic of domestic rice. Nonetheless, recent measures granting greater price autonomy to shop owners have boosted sales of Chinese rice at public market places as retailers lowered prices to better compete with rice sold at the jangmadang. The positive effect of this market process was reflected in market data collected by Daily NK which noted a 250 KPW fall in rice prices from June to July (standing at 4800 KPW in Hyesan between July 12 and 18).
The Korean People’s Won (KPW) has also been gaining in strength since May vis-a-vis the US dollar, no doubt improving the import capabilities of the North Korean market.
Despite these positive developments for domestic consumers, insider information gathered by the Daily NK noted that rice prices in Yangkang and North Hamgyeong provinces have been increasing, reaching 6,000 KPW per kilo in some parts. Although price spikes in North Korea are not unprecedented, the Rice & Iron team had not read of reports of a 1000 KPW week-to-week jump since prices stabilized in early 2013.
The Daily NK article that reported the event presented several possible reasons for why the price increases may have occurred.
Reduced rations have increased demand and affecting prices
Below-average yield of early new potatoes created domestic scarcity, fueling price increases
Kwon Tae Jin from the GS&J Institute speculated that the drought in eastern China may have negatively impacted imports
Kwon also contemplated the negative impact of travel restrictions to prevent the spread disease
The first hypothesis appears to have been largely dismissed by the internal source as prices in cities near mining operations (like Masan) remained high despite the workers there receiving rations.
The remaining hypotheses all carry some weight; however, the reports of the price increases appear (for now) limited to the northeastern parts of the country – the absence of similar stories coming from other peripheral areas like Kangwon Province render us unable to critically analyze this recent development.
Meanwhile consumer attitude in North Korea appears divided on near-future market movements.
Some people in the affected regions are concerned that prices may climb even higher, to 7000 KPW, as they expect the flooding from the monsoons to negatively impact the upcoming harvest of barley, corn, and rice. On the other hand, many also remain optimistic that the bump in domestic food availability at the end of the lean season will bring prices back down.
More to come.
AdvertisementsA few years after Ajit Jain went to work for Warren Buffet, the legendary investor wrote to his parents in New Delhi, asking if they had one more son like him at home. “Of course I knew the answer before writing. There isn’t anyone like Ajit,” Buffet recalled in his annual letter to shareholders in 2007. ( More articles on Ajit Jain Jain’s parents were naturally overjoyed. “To my absolute embarassment, they framed that letter and put it right in the middle of the living room. I had to put my foot down and get that out because it was kind of awkward,” 59-year-old Jain, among the most successful business executives to be born in India, told ET.Buffet, the world’s most successful investor and currently the third richest man on earth, has been showering high praise on Jain in his famous letters to investors year after year. “Even kryptonite bounces off Ajit,” he wrote in 2010, describing the outsize achievement of the Orissa-born executive, who heads Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group, a giant business that is at the heart of Buffet’s sprawling empire.Jain, the Superman of Buffet’s world, has for years been considered a leading contender for the ultimate prize at Berkshire Hathaway, indeed anywhere in the business world today—the job of the CEO of the diversified $136 billion group, succeeding 80-year-old Buffet.“I truly believe I have the best job under the sun,” says Jain, whose friendly and unassuming manner can lull you into underestimating his wisdom, stature, and achievement. In New Delhi preparing for Buffet’s first visit to the capital, Jain was remarkable for the complete absence of the usual retinue of assistants, PR folk and protocol that surround many CEOs. In fact, Jain happily hitched a ride with ET reporters, as the cab driver he had hired didn’t know the way to his next destination. “Why don’t cabs here use GPS?” he asked enroute. We assured him it’s catching on.If little is known about Jain’s achievements in his home country, it is perhaps because he is reluctant to talk about himself. “The real story is about Berkshire and our insurance business, but ok...” he said, relenting to ET’s queries about the life and times of a towering business figure.He says he has been extremely fortunate to be working with Buffet. That is why he hasn’t budged from the reinsurance division he joined in 1986. “The opportunity to work for Warren is like winning a giant lottery. Quite honestly, no amount of money can substitute for working for a boss for whom you have the utmost respect, almost to the extent of worshipping him. Who has treated you more than fairly, who you have learned a lot from,” he said, letting us in on why nobody in America has been able to poach away Buffet’s prized warhorse.How does he react to the praise the world famous investor heaps on him? “He is very kind with his words. I wish I do something to deserve it some day,” Jain says, in a manner that is plainly sincere.Jain was born in Orissa, but his roots are in Rajasthan. He graduated from IIT Kharagpur in 1972. Having the IIT name on his resume opened a lot of doors initially, he says. For his first job at Tata Steel Company, and then in securing admission at Harvard Business School for an MBA.But he says he wouldn’t recommend any 16-year-old spends five years growing up at an IIT. “It’s tough work, good discipline to train your mind early on,” he says. “But IIT Kharagpur was a godforsaken place in those days, with no women and terrible food,” he says, laughing.Subsequent to HBS, Jain worked at McKinsey, where his boss was one Mr Goldberg, who moved to Buffet’s firm, Berkshire Hathaway. “Mr Buffet told him to find some people to join the new insurance business he was planning to enter. Goldberg, being a lazy guy, instead of doing a proper search, called his flunkey at McKinsey who had been useful in carrying his bags. That’s how I went to work at Berkshire,” Jain says.That operation would grow to become one of the largest insurance businesses in the world.Jain says Buffet, his boss for quarter of a century, is an easy and flexible person to work with. “You get what you see. He is a very simple, down to earth person with very simple tastes. He loves what he does, enjoys his work, loves where he lives... He is just happy where he is.”
Buffet looks for managers with a solid track record, Jain says. “He is looking for managers who love their businesses and love their work more than they love the money. People who have delivered over a meaningful period of time.” Buffet especially watches out when he buys companies, Jain says. “When he buys businesses, he looks out for this. Because when someone sells a business to him, he gets a big cheque. If he loves the cheque more than the business, that manager is gone, and Mr Buffet is not getting what he thinks he is buying.”
Jain says he doesn’t worry about the succession issue one bit. “If you watch Mr Buffet, he has more energy at his age than I have now. So I don’t worry about the succession issue because I don’t think about it at all,” he says.
For a company that works in a ruthlessly competitive industry globally, Jain says they have a system with no targets. “There is more than one way to get to heaven,” he says, explaining the rationale and benefits of a target-less system.
Jain says the target-centric system build in perverse incentives in the risk-taking business.
“The problem with target, from my perspective, is that people focus so much on targets, that they very often sacrifice rationality.” In a business that exposes a large amount of capital to risks, that would be a recipe for disaster.
While the lack of targets might keep his colleagues happy, it causes Jain a lot of stress about the company becoming “fat, dumb and happy”.
Without targets, how does his company identify the performers? “We don’t have a compensation system that is tied to targets. The easiest way to solve that problem is to hire the right people and you set the right example, it filters down. Whether we do an adequate job of that or not, there is no way of knowing.”
Because his unit works without targets, he says, there is no telling if they have excelled. “I often wonder if we should have achieved a lot more than what we have achieved given our potential, access to capital, our brandname and Mr Buffet’s name,” he says. As of date, Buffet seems to differ.
Jain is so central to Buffet’s business because of the cash generated by the reinsurance division he heads. Buffet, who used to be a value investor in the stock markets, has been increasingly buying companies whole and the cash comes handy. Another factor that endears Jain to Buffet must be a shared understanding of risk, a quality all investors value immensely.
The master of risk
The soft-spoken Jain is as removed from the popular image of a big shot risktaker—an abusive, high rolling stock trader—as possible. But Jain conquers big risks for a living, and does it calmly.
In the dizzyingly complex world of insurance, there is a niche area that few dare to tread. It’s called mega-catastrophe insurance. Broadly, it is about insuring against Black Swan events—events with very low probability and very high impact. If a marquee building like the Sears Tower, once the tallest building in the world, wants to buy insurance, an insurer has to take on a huge deal of risk. Or if a massive sporting event, like the 2002 Winter Olympics wants to buy insurance, a year after 9/11 (the biggest Black Swan event of them all), you need to structure an extraordinary policy.
If a high-profile baseball player like Alex Rodriguez wants to insure his health for the next ten years, days after signing the biggest contract in the history of the sport, most insurers would be at a loss. Jain has structured, and signed off, on these, and many more complex and unusual policies.
It’s an esoteric world inhabited by the elite few of the financial services industry. The risks are enormous, and the rewards are commensurate. Jain is the emperor of that rarified world.
He has been able to stare coldly into the terrifying eyes of risk, and use his mastery over the beast to generate billions in profits for Berkshire Hathaway. His business unit controls some 70 insurance companies around the world.
“From a standing start in 1985, Ajit has created an insurance business with float of $30 billion and significant underwriting profits, a feat that no CEO of any other insurer has come close to matching. By his accomplishments, he has added a great many billions of dollars to the value of Berkshire,” Buffet wrote in 2010 in his letter to investors.
With that kind of a track record, and impressive recommendations from a man admired by investors and businessmen everywhere, Jain seems set to take on any job, and any risk, in the world.David Rockefeller Is 101
David Rockefeller is arguably the longest-lived power behind the throne in American history.
He received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1940. Yes, his grandfather had provided money to create the school, but the economics department was rigorous. He did not get a free ride academically. Yet he showed no signs of that department's moderate free market outlook.
He served as chairman of Chase-Manhattan Bank (1969-81), a giant bank in his day, which merged with a giant, J. P. Morgan-Chase. Wikipedia writes:
Under his term as CEO, Chase spread internationally and became a central pillar in the world's financial system; Chase has a global network of correspondent banks that has been estimated to number about 50,000, the largest of any bank in the world. In 1973, Chase established the first branch of an American bank in Moscow near the Kremlin, in the then Soviet Union. That year Rockefeller traveled to China, resulting in his bank becoming the National Bank of China's first correspondent bank in the United States.
He did not bother with minor temporary positions.
In a private capacity Rockefeller has met with and advised every American President since Eisenhower and has even at times served as an unofficial emissary on high-level diplomatic missions. President Jimmy Carter offered him the positions of United States Secretary of the Treasury and Federal Reserve Chairman but he declined both instead preferring a private role.
He has close connections with the Dulles family.
As well as knowing Allen Dulles and his brother John Foster Dulles--who was an in-law of the family--since his college years, it was in Rockefeller Center that Allen Dulles had set up his WWII operational center after Pearl Harbor, liaising closely with MI6 which also had their principal U.S. operation in the Center. He also knew and associated with the former CIA director Richard Helms, as well as Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt Jr., a Chase Bank employee and former CIA agent whose first cousin CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. was involved in the Iran coup of 1953. Also, in 1953, he had befriended William Bundy, a pivotal CIA analyst for nine years in the 1950s, who became the Agency liaison to the National Security Council, and a subsequent lifelong friend. Moreover, in Cary Reich's biography of his brother Nelson, a former CIA agent states that David was extensively briefed on covert intelligence operations by himself and other Agency division chiefs, under the direction of David's "friend and confidant", CIA Director Allen Dulles.
It is not just that he had connections. They had him as their connection.
Throughout his life, Rockefeller has participated in and even created a number of policy groups aimed at responding to domestic and international concerns. In 1947, Rockefeller was |
the No. 1 killer of Americans. At work, stress dampens performance, thwarts teamwork, leads people to make bad decisions, and accounts for nearly half of turnover. [5] The greater the stress at home, the more spouses will argue, criticize, withhold affection, and judge the relationship negatively, not realizing that stress is the real problem. [6]
Stress isn't something we should someday do something about. Yet 83 percent of Americans are doing nothing about it. [7] And neither are organizations, and it's cutting into their collective brain power.
When a company hires an employee, they are essentially hiring that person's brain and hoping it's a smart brain that will grow even smarter with experience. But place that person in a high pressure work environment without the tools to transcend stress and the likelihood is that he or she will lose brain capacity. There are two brain scans from the Mayo Clinic that show the impact of stress on brain function. One scan shows a brain beleaguered by stress. The other shows a brain functioning at optimum, lit up and pulsing with activity. The scan of optimal brain function looks like the massive network of lights you see when flying on a dark night over a metropolis like New York, while the stressed brain looks like the dim lights you see scattered here and there as you fly over Nebraska's farmland. The difference between the two brain scans is a good representation of the brain power a company has lost and could retrieve if they could solve the problem of stress.
The Good News in All This Bad News
The good news is neuroscience has identified a solution to stress that goes far beyond conventional stress management. This approach not only repairs the damage stress hormones cause, but also generates the neurological conditions that stimulate the growth of new connections within the higher brain that expand brain capacity, making people smarter, more innovative, and emotionally intelligent. The solution lies in the power of our mental state to rewire our brains. Change your mindset in specific ways and you can literally change brain structure to extinguish stress reactions and amplify higher brain function. The technical term for this change is neuroplasticity.
Here's a list of the positive change neuroplasticity can produce:
The usual networks that generate the brain's executive functions grow larger and become more fully integrated with other neural networks. This means you increased your skillfulness at planning, decision making, error correction, and troubleshooting. You build strong cognitive abilities and can think abstractly.
Gamma wave activity is far better organized and coordinated, signaling the higher mental activity and heightened awareness found in peak performers.
The right brain and the prefrontal cortex work together to elevate intuition and creative insight into practical innovation.
Activity in the left prefrontal cortex, the seat of positive emotion, swamps activity in the right prefrontal cortex, the seat of negative emotion. This condition enables you to achieve a high level of emotional intelligence.
There is greater activity in the center of the brain, especially the caudate and right insula, generating the social intelligence that sustains interpersonal resonance.
Your physiology functions at optimum, securing a high level of health and energy.[8]
Who in their right mind wouldn't want a change like that? Who in corporate leadership wouldn't want a work force operating at that level of brain function? The point is, if an individual or company is not actualizing the mindset that transcends stress to empower higher brain function, they are not maximizing their full extent of fluid, creative, emotional, and social intelligence.
Achieving the prescribed shift in mindset is easier than you might imagine, adding little to your to-do list. It's essentially about practicing a to-be list. Even better is the fact that change in brain structure happens quickly, within four to eight weeks.
More and more, CEOs and HR executives are contracting with experts on neuroplasticity to heighten the brain power in their company. Mark my words, neuroplasticity will soon become the new competitive edge.
NOTES:
[1] Eduardo Dias-Ferreira, João C. Sousa, Irene Melo, Pedro Morgado,Ana R. Mesquita, João J. Cerqueira,1 Rui M. Costa,2,4,* Nuno Sousa1,* Chronic Stress Causes Frontostriatal Reorganization and Affects Decision-Making, Science 31 July 2009: Vol. 325. no. 5940, pp. 621- 625
[2] S. T. Charles, J. R. Piazza, J. Mogle, M. J. Sliwinski, D. M. Almeida. The Wear and Tear of Daily Stressors on Mental Health. Psychological Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1177/0956797612462222
[3] Robert M. Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: An Updated Guide to Stress, Stress Related Diseases, and Coping, 2nd rev. ed. (New York: W. H. Freeman, 1998), 144-153.
[4] Ibid
[5] Wesley E. Sime, MPH, PhD, Stress Management: A Review of Principles, an online series of lectures on stress management, Lecture 1, University of Nebraska, Dept. of Health and Human Performance
[6] L. A. Neff and B. R. Karney, "Stress and reactivity to daily relationship experiences: How stress hinders adaptive processes in marriage," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 97 (2009): 435-50.
[7] American Psychological Association, "Stress in America, Missing the Health Care Connection," February 7, 2013, pg. 5Like two aging grizzly bears well past their prime but refusing to retire gracefully, David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar continue to fight bitterly about who is the best man to front Van Halen.
In the red corner is Diamond Dave, the flamboyant verbal virtuoso, martial arts expert, and ladies man whose rock just keeps on rolling. And in the blue corner is former boxer and Roth’s replacement in Van Halen, Sammy Hagar.
Roth and Hagar’s beef is an ancient and highly entertaining one. Roth pretty much had Hagar on the ropes in the mid-’80s with a flurry of witty jabs and below the belt cheap shots, but Roth never quite managed to deliver the knockout blow that would silence his portly and frizzy haired replacement for good.
LAS VEGAS, NV - MAY 17: Singer David Lee Roth of Van Halen attends the 2015 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 17, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
On top of his game and posturing like a perfumed peacock, Roth once vowed that, unlike Hagar, he’d never have to sing one of the other’s songs in concert. And we all know how that ended.
Like a meaty and tenacious bull, Hagar soaked up all of Roth’s punishing jibes and turned the tables in the later rounds. Hagar’s defining moment of triumph came when he repeatedly taunted Roth to duel with him on stage during their 2002 co-headlining tour.
More recently, Hagar has been extremely vocal in his criticism of the Roth-fronted Van Halen’s live set, and has remained sceptical as to the exact reason why Roth refuses to sing Hagar-sung tracks on the current Van Halen tour.
Ultimate Classic Rock reports that Roth’s refusal to sing Hagar songs is because the fans want classic Van Halen martial and not sloppy seconds, and also because, “This hamburger don’t need no helper.”
“There’s a credibility issue there. Good, bad or in the middle, you know Roth means it; the other guy doesn’t. … And why would you bring that into the proceedings? This hamburger don’t need no helper.” One punch Roth baby! That’s all I need!
Not about to let such an insult of the so-called Van Hagar period pass unnoticed, Sammy responded to Roth’s comments at a recent gig with his new band Circle, before launching into a a live version of Van Halen hit ‘Right Now.’
“The boys are out on tour — happily doing well, I hope, but they’re not playing any Van Hagar songs. My buddy Diamond said it was something about a quality issue. I laughed. I’m cracking up. You know, sometimes the guy says the wackiest things. But there’s a lot of truth in that. A quality issue — you think about that. Think about them with Diamond, singing this next song, it would definitely be a quality issue, OK? [Chuckles.] It would definitely be a quality issue.”
(Photos By Scott Gries, Jason Merritt, Ethan Miller/Getty Images)“There is always some controversy around large iconic buildings,” said Mike Holleman of Heery International, the architectural firm that designed the stadium for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. “They are opportunities for countries to say to the world: ‘We’ve arrived, here’s an iconic venue. We can do that.’ That is the goal, to show the world that you can step up.”
Indeed, the Japan Sport Council, which governs the Tokyo stadium, said in an emailed statement: “We aim to build Japan’s National Stadium to boast to the world.”
Sometimes, a country appears to get it right, as China seemed to do in Beijing with its National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics — nicknamed the Bird’s Nest because of Herzog & de Meuron’s lattice exterior. It received international acclaim for what The New York Times called its “intoxicating beauty.”
The Tokyo stadium faces another challenge that has dogged its cousins: It must avoid becoming an economic burden by carving out a life as an arena long after the closing ceremonies.
Montreal’s stadium, for example, designed for the 1976 Olympics by the French architect Roger Taillibert, left the city with $1.5 billion in debt that took 30 years to repay, earning the arena a nickname change from the Big O to the Big Owe. Scheduled events there are sporadic, as they are for the stadium used for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, which has been widely criticized for not having a post-Olympics plan. One success story is the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which has twice served as an Olympics arena — in 1932 and 1984 — and continues to be used for college football and other events. Olympics officials are emphasizing permanent use in evaluating possible sites for the 2024 Summer Olympics. “The problem with Olympic stadiums is it’s somehow the most terrible commitment,” said Jacques Herzog, one of the Bird’s Nest architects. “You have to think about what will happen after the Games are over. The majority are there for nothing, or are ruins, or don’t really have a meaning anymore.”LYNN, MASS. (WHDH) - A man is being held without bail and questioned in connection with the murder of an Atha’s Famous Roast Beef delivery driver in Lynn, and a rape and robbery in North Andover, authorities say.
Brian Brito, 21, was stopped by Massachusetts State Police Monday night on Route 1 in Peabody. Police say he was in possession of an illegal firearm and was driving with a revoked license.
During the arrest, Brito was questioned in connection with a fatal shooting that happened Monday night behind a school on Bowler Street in Lynn.
Officials say the shooting victim, identified as 24-year-old Sina Zangiband, of Salem, was shot multiple times shortly before 6 p.m. in the parking lot of St. Pius V School, a religious elementary school.
A vehicle that matches the description of one connected to the fatal shooting, a 2004 Audi, has been towed to the Danvers State Police Barracks.
Officers found Zangiband dead in his vehicle. They believe the murder could have been a random case of road rage.
In the hours following the murder, police say Brito traveled to a North Andover convenience store and raped a female clerk at gunpoint. They say he also grabbed money and fled the store. He was arrested a short-while later.
Brito allegedly told the woman that he’s charged with raping that he had killed someone, a source told 7’s Steve Cooper.
Brito is being held without bail as investigators try to piece together the alleged crime spree.
The Essex County District Attorney’s office is investigating Zangiband’s death.
(Copyright (c) 2019 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)Epidemiologist criticises official precautions recommending use of only goggles and masks as ‘lethally inadequate’
An Australian infectious diseases expert has accused the World Health Organisation of playing Russian roulette with the lives of healthcare workers fighting the Ebola outbreak in west Africa.
Raina MacIntyre, a professor of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology at the University of New South Wales, questioned health worker protection guidelines issued by the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control in a co-authored editorial in the International Journal of Nursing Studies on Tuesday.
The guidelines recommend medical staff treating Ebola patients wear goggles and masks, but because the virus is largely transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids and not airborne particles, they do not recommend using higher-level protective equipment like respirators.
But in controversial comments MacIntyre said this was a mistake, with 120 healthcare worker deaths reported during the ongoing outbreak so far, which is also the worst recorded.
“I have conducted the world’s largest randomised control trial of respirators and surgical masks, and it is concerning to me that we are dealing with a disease which has a fatality rate of up to 90% and yet we are not taking the most cautious approach,” she said.
“If our healthcare workers die we have no hope of controlling the outbreak. There has been no criticism of the guidelines but lots of commentary supporting them. But they’re playing Russian roulette with frontline health workers’ lives.”
Laboratory workers researching Ebola were required to wear full protective gear, yet face masks and goggles had been deemed adequate for healthcare workers, MacIntyre said.
It was “outrageous” that scientists had one set of guidelines and healthcare workers had another, she said.
“It’s like they have no concept of what the clinical setting is like,” MacIntyre said.
“The hospital is an unpredictable, highly contaminated setting which poses higher risk of Ebola transmission.”
Her comments come as medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières accused world leaders of turning their backs on west Africa and described the international Ebola response as “lethally inadequate”.
However, MacIntyre’s comments are controversial. A recent piece in the highly respected international medical journal, the Lancet, said a rational and efficient approach to healthcare worker protection was needed.
“Excessive precautions could offer reassurance to those responding to Ebola, yet complete respiratory protection is expensive, uncomfortable and unaffordable for countries that are the most affected,” the authors wrote.
“Worse, such an approach suggests that the only defence is individual protective equipment, which is inaccessible to the general population.
“Goggles and masks might not even be necessary to speak with conscious patients, as long as a distance of one to two metres is maintained.”
It’s a view that Allen Cheng, an associate professor with the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at Melbourne’s Monash university, agrees with.
“The issue is whether Ebola can spread via an aerosol route, and the overwhelming weight of evidence is that it doesn’t,” Cheng said.
“There has been quite a lot of experience from people who have dealt with Ebola outbreaks that came before this one, and while this one does seem to be a little bit unusual in terms of the number of deaths, there are a lot of other explanations for why healthcare workers are so affected.”
It could be that medical staff were not removing their masks or goggles correctly and were contaminating themselves in the process, he said, or were poorly trained.
“The other way of looking at this is there is a very limited pot of money for dealing with Ebola and we want to maximise the amount of masks and other equipment that is out there,” he said.
“I am also concerned that by criticising the guidelines people may not trust them, which could also be a real problem.”So far so good! At home screen and all keys and jacks are working fine! Everything looks like new! Will update if this changes, but so far so good. Thats $800 I brought back to life right there.
Spilled water on my laptop 5 months ago, feared the worst when it wouldnt turn on, accepted its fate. Would try to test the on button now and again for the next few months just to see, nothing each time. Finally decided to scrap it a week ago, decided to press the on button because hey why not, old times sake. SUDDENLY, it turned on! I was flipping my shit! That was short lived though because it went back to dead a day later. Posted about it on reddit, and a kind person told me to try to bathe my motherboard in isoprophyl alcohol. I did, and it worked! Heres the process from the pics I could remember to take.The World Boxing Super Series is pleased to announce the seeding for the inaugural season of the Muhammad Ali Trophy, The Greatest Prize in Boxing. During tonights Draft Gala, the top four seeds will select their opponents from the four unseeded boxers. The live TV show (23:00 local, 5 PM ET) will be broadcasted in multiple territories.
For more info on the seeds, the full fighter fields and the seeding process, please visit our social channels (@WBSuperSeries) on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. You can also view the videos on our website: worldboxingsuperseries.com
In the World Boxing Super Series, 16 elite fighters – eight super-middleweights and eight cruiserweights – will battle it out in a bracket-style elimination tournament. In both divisions, there will be four quarter-finals (September / October 2017), two semi-finals (early 2018) and one final (May 2018), making for a total of 14 high-class fights.by
Today’s post is a fascinating article by Katherine Marcella about the Mary Rose and its connection to Henry VIII’s sister, Mary.
I love having such talented readers who are willing to share their interests and expertise with us all. Thank you Katherine!
Mary Rose: The Princess and The Ship
A guest post by Katherine Marcella
Everybody knows the pride of Henry VIII’s war fleet, the Mary Rose, was named after Henry’s sister, Princess Mary Rose. Right? Well, almost, but not quite…
When Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509, he foresaw a threat to England from the powerful fleets of France and Scotland and immediately began shoring up England’s navy which had not been a priority during his father’s reign. He made a half-hearted attempt to diguise his efforts by claiming his new ships were merely pleasure vessels for the use of his family. It’s doubtful he fooled anybody, but among the first ships to be completed were the Henry Grace a Dieu, Catherine Pleasaunce, Peter Pomegranate — and the Mary Rose.
Her story is as murky as the waters of the Solent that hid her for 437 years. There is no extant documentation of her design. Construction may have begun as early as 1509 and documents from 1509 and 1510 show authorizations of construction materials for the building (most likely in Portsmouth) of a large ship that was eventually towed to London for final rigging and outfitting before joining the navy as a full-fledged combat ship. Even this early she or possibly another ship – as I said, it’s extremely murky — was being listed in documents as the Mary Rose (or Maryrose or even Marie Roze). She saw service as Lord High Admiral Edward Howard’s flagship in 1512 and 1513 in a combined English-Spanish-Empire campaign against the French.
By early 1514 the political winds had shifted. King Ferdinand of Spain and the Emperor Maximilian conspired behind Henry’s back to arrange a separate treaty with the French against England. Henry was livid. He started immediate negotiations with the newly-widowed Louis XII of France for a marriage between Louis and his own beloved younger sister, Mary Tudor, then around seventeen. By July, 1514, the agreement with Louis was secured, and Henry was ready to break Mary’s long-standing engagement to Prince Charles of Castile, the grandson of both Ferdinand and Maximilian. Securing Mary’s agreement to this was another matter.
Mary Tudor was an unusual princess in an age that cared little for the personal feelings of royalty, male or female. As a child, she was betrothed to the younger Charles in 1507, a betrothal firmly anchored in politics. The negotiations waffled on for years: They should marry now. No, they should wait. The terms aren’t good. Perhaps this isn’t the best match we could get. Perhaps we should discuss this further. The result was that Mary wasn’t married off early as her older sister Margaret had been. She remained in England and had free reign at her brother’s court.
She shone brightly there. As her brother’s preferred dance partner in court frivolities, she came to the attention of virtually all the ambassadors to the English court whose collective description of her was middling tall, blonde, stunningly gorgeous, and unbelievably charming.
Mary was not unduly unhappy at the dissolution of her betrothal, but neither was she interested in marrying the elderly king of France. Apparently she was won over when her brother promised her that after Louis’s death, she could marry as she pleased.
But the marriage to Louis was short-lived, lasting only about ten weeks. In poor health even before the marriage, he died on January 1, 1515. His new widow’s immediate concern was to avoid being married off by either the new French king, Francis I, or her brother. Both were eager to use her as a pawn in the chessboard of European politics. Tudor that she was, Mary played them off against each other. To Henry she merely promised she would not let Francis choose a husband for her. To Francis, she was a bit more forthcoming, admitting that the man she was in love with — the only man she would ever marry — was Henry’s close friend, Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk.
Francis was disappointed, but somewhat mollified by the thought that Henry was going to be equally thwarted. As for Henry, he very conveniently sent Charles over to negotiate the return of the dowry and escort the widow home. It’s hard to know for certain what Charles and Mary had planned beforehand, but they secretly married almost immediately in Paris. I’ve always thought they decided it would be easier to obtain forgiveness than permission, and presenting Henry with a fait accompli would take away any temptation on his part to try to change Mary’s mind about another royal marriage.
By April of that year, they had resolved the dowry issue and obtained permission to return to England. Henry met with the newlyweds near Dover and, just to make certain there could be no legal objections raised over a marriage in France, he arranged for them to be married again at Greenwich on May 13, 1515.
If the Mary Rose had indeed been named after Mary Tudor, it would have been only natural for that ship to take Mary and her entourage to France or Mary and her new husband back to England. But that doesn’t seem to have been the case, and after early 1514 there is no mention of the Mary Rose until the autumn of 1518 when she and several other ships were laid up for caulking.
During this time another ship came to be associated with Mary Tudor Brandon. On October 29, 1515, this ship was sailed to Greenwich where amid many prayers and much music, Katherine of Aragon christened her the Virgin Mary. The Venetian ambassador, who was present and described the ceremony, stated that everybody immediately began referring to her as the Princess Mary in honor of Henry’s sister who also attended the ceremony. A royal banquet on deck followed, and Henry, a gold whistle around his neck, then proceeded to personally steer the ship down the Thames.
I find it odd that there would be two ships named after the same person, especially in such a short time span. That more than anything else leads me to believe the Mary Rose was not named after Mary Tudor — at least initially.
I think there is an outside chance that the ship known as the Princess Mary may actually have been the Mary Rose which isn’t recorded as having ever had a christening. Christening rules seem to have been very loose, with no set time frame in which the ceremony should be conducted, so it’s not out of the question that Henry might have decided to hold a splashy ceremony for one of the largest ships in his navy and honor his sister at the same time.
I could find nothing in the known history of the Mary Rose to contradict this possibility. Nor could I find any further mention of a ship known as the Virgin Mary or the Princess Mary. This would be an interesting project for anybody with better access to Tudor maritime records than I currently have to investigate. I would love to see what turns up.
Even if they aren’t the same ship, it’s possible the elaborate ceremony and the similarity of names may have blurred in the public mind and created an association of Mary Tudor with the Mary Rose where one had never really existed.
Through the years the Mary Rose eventually saw further action against the French and possibly against the Scots until her sinking in the Solent at Portsmouth Harbor on July 9, 1545.
As for Mary Tudor Brandon, she died in 1533, her association with the ship already firmly established by her death. But was her name really Mary Rose? No. Middle names were almost unheard of in Tudor times and were completely unheard of for royalty. There is no reference or documentation during Mary Tudor’s lifetime that would even suggest a possibility she had a middle name.
I haven’t been able to determine exactly when she was first called “Mary Rose”, but I believe it is a 20th-century phenomenon. The earliest biography I have of Mary is Mary Croom Brown’s Mary Tudor, Queen of France, published in 1911, which does not call her Mary Rose nor does it even mention a possible connection between the Princess and the ship. Other biographers also seem to have been careful in this respect, but popular literature is another matter. I haven’t read every romance novel about Mary, but I just gathered together all the ones I do have and checked them. Every last one of them calls her “Mary Rose”.
I can’t say I really blame them. It’s a very pretty name that they would certainly want to associate with a pretty princess. Combine that with the serious attempts to salvage the Mary Rose that began in the 1970’s and brought the ship into the public consciousness and the renewed interest in the Tudors that has shown itself in numerous books, television programs, and movies. The result is almost inevitable. In addition, the name is very practical. It serves to distinguish Mary from Mary Tudor, her niece and namesake. Google “Mary Rose Tudor” and you will get numerous questions and discussions on Tudor sites that refer to her by that name.
For better or worse, where once there was a 16th-century ship that came to be associated with a princess in the popular mind, now there is a princess who is being renamed after that ship in the 21st-century mind.
On the Tudor Trail is trying to raise much needed funds for the Mary Rose Appeal and needs your help! Read full details of how you can contribute here.Russian senators want to cut the number of U.S. media outlets in the country in response to Washington’s request that the RT America news channel registers as a foreign agent.
The U.S. Justice Department has asked that the Kremlin-backed RT adhere to a 1930s foreign agent registration law amid concerns over Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections.
Reports on Friday indicated that Russian prosecutors could label U.S. outlets “undesirable” in tit-for-tat measures, and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova threatened “analogous” legal steps against state-funded and private U.S. media over the weekend.
Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, is proposing to cut the number of U.S. media organizations so it equals the number of Russian outlets in the United States, the Izvestia newspaper reported Monday, citing parliamentary and diplomatic sources.
The retaliatory measures could target state-funded Radio Liberty and Voice of America, privately-run CNN, as well as a number of news agencies and newspapers, according to the unidentified sources.
Andrei Klimov, the head of the Federation Council's committee on state sovereignty, confirmed the proposal. He added that the committee had requested proposals on response measures from the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Foreign Ministry, the Justice Ministry, and state media watchdog Roskomnadzor — to be submitted by Oct. 20.
“This is needed to understand what we can do and how to give a tit-for-tat response according to Russian legislation,” Klimov told Izvestia. The senator said existing laws could also be amended to respond to what Russia sees as U.S. “administrative measures and propaganda” against state-funded RT.
The authors of Moscow's retaliatory steps are focusing on U.S. outlets with an active presence in the Russian regions, according to Izvestia’s sources. These include Radio Liberty’s Krym.Realii project, as well as The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.
Another proposed step was for the watchdog Roskomnadzor to ask CNN to label itself a foreign agent. Late in September, Roskomnadzor warned CNN International over alleged media law violations.It's hard to imagine the happiness at Netflix when they realized that House of Cards – the company's much-heralded premiere of self-produced original programming – would debut its complete 13-episode run on the same week that the U.S. Senate held a hearing to confirm John Kerry as Secretary of State. After all, the updated American version of the 1990s BBC political drama launches with Kevin Spacey's character, Congressman Frank Underwood, learning he won't be nominated for that very position, a devastating insult that inspires his secret campaign to undermine the newly elected administration he pretends to serve. The show, it seemed, couldn't be any more topical.
The problem for this new House of Cards is that despite this timely coincidence, the content of the show often feels curiously old-fashioned, especially in the context of its innovative format. That's squarely the fault of the writing; for every smart move that writer Beau Willimon (The Ides of March) makes in updating the basic setup and plot of the BBC original for a modern American audience, he undermines his good work with clumsy dialogue and scenes that are too on-the-nose and out-of-step with the kind of sophisticated, layered writing we've come to expect from shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad or even Game of Thrones.
How does the show demonstrate that Underwood is ruthless and a man to be reckoned with? In the very first scene, he personally kills a mangled dog that's been hit by a car, while literally reporting to the viewer that he is the kind of guy who can do what needs to be done. When Underwood's all-too-willing partner-in-crime, reporter Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara), initially tries to get his attention with a cleavage-revealing top, Underwood sneers, "It's a cheap ploy." "It's cheap," Barnes agrees, "but effective" – the kind of exchange that would feel more at home in 1940s film noir.
Similarly retro, and seemingly unintentionally so, is the attitude towards the internet at the Washington Herald, the fictional paper where Barnes works. When we first meet her, she's arguing for her own blog, a place where she can speak truth to power and make a mark as a serious journalist. Her dismissal at the hands of her editor and her peers feels like the sort of "oh, bloggers, they're not even real journalists" scene that we've seen countless times before.
Considering how prevalent the web has become in our culture, and how internet-conscious newspapers are today, it doesn't just feel redundant; it feels anachronistic. And when Barnes finally gets her big break – thanks to an underhanded scoop from Underwood – it's hard not to be agog at how eager her editors and bosses are to let her run the content without asking where she's getting the information or how real it is. In a post-Judith Miller and Jayson Blair world, it feels particularly out of place.
The actors do the best they can with the material, which turns out to be quite a lot. Although Spacey's smarmy, know-it-all politician initially feels unconvincing, he grows on you as you keep watching. His character has a habit of breaking the fourth wall – a quirk carried over from the BBC original – and every aside to the camera makes the viewer feel complicit in his dealings. There's a point in the second episode where Spacey doesn't even need to speak; in the middle of a conversation, he simply raises his eyebrow to the audience as if to say, "Can you believe this?" and you realize that you've been won over by his insincere charm despite yourself.
As impressive as Spacey's somewhat-campy performance is, though, Robin Wright blows him out the water as Underwood's wife, Claire. Clearly positioned as the Lady MacBeth of this scenario, she is utterly compelling in her brittle coldness and inability to accept any potential failure of the world to bend to her will. "My husband doesn't apologize," she tells him after he offers her a mea culpa for his bad behavior. "Even to me."
What shines most, though, is the direction. David Fincher (The Social Network), who helms the first two episodes of the season, brings a lot of weight to this material, mitigating the script's melodrama with lovely cinematography and building an appropriate sense of distance and scale into proceedings. This is a surprisingly beautiful series to look at; there's a stillness and grace to the direction that manages to ground the story in something that isn't "realism," but feels naturalistic nonetheless. Despite the heavy-handed script, I found myself drawn into the show, eager to find out and especially to watch what happens next.
That's one of the wins for the format that Netflix offers. If this were a traditional television series, I would have had to wait a week between the first and second episodes, and that would've colored my feelings about it rather differently. Being able to watch the next installment immediately after the first made me retroactively like the premiere more; I got to the pay-off more quickly, and to a second episode with more momentum and less awkward exposition.
Also a plus for Netflix: The episodes of the show can be whatever length they need to be, and not edited down (or filled out) to fit a time slot predetermined by broadcast schedules or commercial breaks. It's not something that is immediately perceptible, but as time goes on you start to notice it; nothing feels rushed, or stretched out of natural shape, and the story flows more naturally.
In the end, House of Cards is a victory for Netflix. It may not be the greatest show on television – how likely was that to be the case with the company's first try? – but it is a good show, and one that benefits significantly by being freed of the time and scheduling restrictions that television typically imposes.
Think of it as the continuing evolution of the television series: As the cable channel model freed dramas from the mandatory demands of 20-odd episodes a season, the Netflix model frees them from mandatory running times or artificial cliffhangers preceding commercials. Whether or not something that doesn't actually air on television could be described as "the future of television" is perhaps debatable, but if this is the beginning of that future, it's off to a pretty good start.
All 13 episodes of House of Cards are currently available to watch on Netflix.The father of a Palestinian toddler killed last week after their home was firebombed by suspected Jewish extremists has died of his injuries in an Israeli hospital, a Palestinian official said Saturday.
The arson attack on the family's home in the occupied West Bank that killed 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsheh sparked an international outcry over Israel's failure to curb violence by hardline Jewish settlers.
The child's father, Saad, had been being treated for third-degree burns at an Israeli hospital, where a spokeswoman last week described his condition as "critical".
Early Saturday Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official for the north of the West Bank which includes the village of Duma where the Dawabsheh family lived, announced the father had succumbed to his injuries.
"Saad Dawabsheh died and plans are underway for his funeral in Nablus," Daghlas said.
The Dawabsheh family in Duma also confirmed the death.
Mother Riham and four-year-old son Ahmed were also in an Israeli hospital, where a spokeswoman described their condition last week as life-threatening.
The family's small brick and cement home in Duma was gutted by fire early on July 31, and a Jewish Star of David spray-painted on a wall along with the words "revenge" and "long live the Messiah".
Israel this week used a controversial form of detention without trial normally invoked for Palestinians against an alleged Jewish extremist, following an outcry over the attack.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack as "terrorism in every respect", and vowed to spare no effort in bringing the perpetrators to justice.
Last Update: Saturday, 8 August 2015 KSA 10:31 - GMT 07:31Note: the above image was totally NOT photoshopped. Feel free to invade Georgia message boards and have Bulldogs fans lose their shit.
Jacob Eason, Rivals’ No. 1 quarterback recruit in the country, could be headed to the Miami Hurricanes.
“I think it’s entirely possible,” Fox Sports’ Bruce Feldman said on Hochman, Crowder, and Krantz on 560 WQAM Thursday. “I mean Jacob Eason was a kid I saw this summer at the Elite 11. He is a kid from Washington state. He is 6-5, and he’s probably 230 now. He’s got a big arm. For people wondering, a comparison, a lot of people think, hey this guy reminds folks of Drew Bledsoe. That would be a good fit for Miami and if you think hey we’ve got Brad Kaaya for two more years, he would come in and Eason would probably redshirt his first year and probably be the backup in Year 2 because he would believe in Mark Richt.
“If Jacob Eason comes down to visit Miami that’s a big deal because that’s a five star. A lot of people think he’s the best quarterback recruit in the country and that will get the attention of other top recruits.”
Jacob Eason's personal QB coach told @Rivals that he thinks Miami could have a shot |
of people (the crowd) collaborate on something by sharing information. In this context, Block Together works by every participant sharing their lists of Twitter users who are abusing the system.
Block Together is inspired by another Twitter blocking tool: The Block Bot. You start by going to the main Block Together webpage, and signing in with your Twitter credentials. When you do, you will see a few settings.
You should tick “share your block list with friends” because that is kind of the main point of the exercise. If you don’t, then you can still use the tool to block any pests that are bothering you, but how will others know of these pests, if you don’t tell them? You are given a URL to share with your followers, so they can view who you have blocked. They can subscribe to your list as well.
There are reasons why you may want to keep your list secret. You may not want to tip someone off that they are on the list, for example, because that would only make them set up another account to harass you from.
Yay! The End Of Twitter Trolls!
There’s no doubt that Block Together is helping a lot of people. We should be fair and credit the tool with that much. The site has its fair share of fans.
And finally, I am fond of using shared lists on @blocktogether – which lets me use my pals lists of shared blocks, or share mine. —????????????????????? (@SuperSpacedad) April 12, 2015
Sounds Good. So What’s The Problem?
When you block someone (for whatever reason), they will appear on your block list. If anyone is subscribed to your block list, then whoever you have just blocked is automatically blocked on the subscribers’ Twitter accounts too. There is no “Mark has blocked Wiley Coyote. Would you like to do the same?”. It just goes ahead and blocks that person from the Twitter account of every person who subscribes to your block list.
This leads to a question:
Who Gets To Decide Who Deserves To Be Blocked Or Not?
One man’s enemy is another man’s friend. You may decide that someone deserves to be blocked but your subscribers may not feel the same way. And the person being blocked may be justifiably aggrieved that their tweets are being blocked for reasons unknown. This could quickly lead to a “mob mentality”, where people are blocked for the silliest of reasons, and for minor infringements. And get this – the aforementioned Caroline Criado-Perez is the victim of just such unfair blocking. Irony, or what?
.@Wo0d7 But @j4cob doesn't want to see that his @blocktogether baby is growing as Frankenstein.
Why would a legit user block more than 1000? — Charlie? (@abd_charlie) April 19, 2015
If you block someone through Block Together, and then subsequently decide to unblock them, that account will also be unblocked on your subscribers Twitter accounts too. So give some thought when considering unblocking – it isn’t just your Twitter account that you are potentially affecting.
The Terrorism Connection
But the most shocking part of all of this is the fact that ISIS UK Plan Bans Whatsapp & Snapchat, ISIS Hacks Military Command [Tech News Digest] UK Plan Bans Whatsapp & Snapchat, ISIS Hacks Military Command [Tech News Digest] Read More terrorists are using Block Together to block anyone they don’t agree with. This will then automatically block those legitimate users on anyone who subscribes to the ISIS block lists.
A Twitter user who was directly targeted by ISIS this way wrote an open letter to Twitter protesting, wrongly attributing the creation of Block Together to Twitter (BlockTogether is independent of Twitter).
The ISIS connection is a rather unfortunate one for Hoffman-Andrews and the EFF. As I said before, their intentions in building Block Together were good, but this has turned into a monster that is slightly out of control. They are now facing demands by Twitter users to start blocking the ISIS Twitter accounts – something that Twitter security should be doing themselves.
So What’s The Solution?
Hoffman-Andrews has already put one new feature in place, which is designed to stop people from opening a Twitter account and then immediately start blocking people. It’s a flimsy measure, but better than not having it, as I’m sure you’ll agree.
Subscribing to a block list now requires a Twitter account > 7 days old. Young accounts can still share and use autoblock features. — Block Together (@blocktogether) April 13, 2015
You can also study the source code on Github, and suggest improvements and tweaks. You may think of something which is plainly obvious, but not to the rest of us. Get your thinking caps on.
But one of the major changes that needs to be done is to find some way to remove the ISIS terrorism connection. This is a slur on the reputation of Block Together, Hoffman-Andrews, and the good work of the EFF. Obviously they never anticipated that this would be a consequence of the tool, but now that it is, they need to find some way of cutting the ISIS cord.
At the end of the day, it’s Twitter that needs to step up to the plate, and start acting like it gives a damn about its users. Dick Costello can’t stick his head in the sand and pretend that these problems don’t exist. He can’t go “la! la! la!” to drown out the complaints. They need to be more proactive in speedily shutting down the accounts of anyone who abuses Twitter. They need to be better at communicating with victims, instead of shutting them out. And they need to provide tools for users to help protect themselves, until Twitter deals with the issue.
So why not do it Dick? Does an ISIS terrorist have more rights than an ordinary innocent law-abiding Twitter user?
Image Credits: punch from monitor Via Shutterstock, Internet Troll Road Sign – Shutterstock, Thomas Koch / ShutterstockThe BBC is reporting on the discovery of a mammoth carcass found preserved in Siberian ice for at least 10,000 years. The carcass is that of a juvenile mammoth, about 2 1/2 years old, that researchers have dubbed "Yuka." Its flesh, and even hair, have endured astonishingly well over millennia buried in ice. Video of the mammoth being uncovered can be seen on the BBC website.
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Researchers on the joint BBC/Discovery expedition are saying that this adorable ginger beast would have almost certainly interacted with humans. In that we probably ate him after a hot pursuit from a lion. As Discovery News quotes David Fisher, curator and director of the University of Michigan's Museum of Paleontology, as saying:
Yuka then apparently fell, breaking one of the lower hind legs. At this point, humans may have moved in to control the carcass, butchering much of the animal and removing parts that they would use immediately.
If the findings are confirmed, it will be the first mammoth remains to show human interaction. Details of the expedition will appear on Wooly Mammoth: Secrets of the Ice, airing tonight in the UK, and at a later date in the US. [BBC, Discovery News]According to reports out of England via The Daily Express, Chelsea will join in the race for Borussia Dortmund forward Aubameyang. Recent stories had linked Milan with a massive offer for the Gabon striker, but new sources claim that following the disappointing missed effort for Lukaku, the Blues will now open their potential targets to the Bundesliga. The large Belgian Lukaku decided to join Manchester United, a move that should be soon finalized.
As Antonio Conte looks to be ready to allow Diego Costa to leave, he will soon be looking for an improvement or replacement on the front line. Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata was another name linked with the Chelsea transfer strategy, but all options will remain open now for the Premier League champions who are looking to rebuild their entire squad to remain competitive in England and in Europe. Aubameyang’s impressive scoring rate and technical ability make him a prime candidate to upgrade the Blues attack, and would even offer him better wages than Milan.
adapted by David Baleno (@davidbaleno)Sermon 21
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On the Feast of the Nativity, I.
I. All share in the joy of Christmas
Our Saviour, dearly-beloved, was born today: let us be glad. For there is no proper place for sadness, when we keep the birthday of the Life, which destroys the fear of mortality and brings to us the joy of promised eternity. No one is kept from sharing in this happiness. There is for all one common measure of joy, because as our Lord the destroyer of sin and death finds none free from charge, so is He come to free us all. Let the saint exult in that he draws near to victory. Let the sinner be glad in that he is invited to pardon. Let the gentile take courage in that he is called to life. For the Son of God in the fullness of time which the inscrutable depth of the Divine counsel has determined, has taken on him the nature of man, thereby to reconcile it to its Author: in order that the inventor of death, the devil, might be conquered through that (nature) which he had conquered. And in this conflict undertaken for us, the fight was fought on great and wondrous principles of fairness; for the Almighty Lord enters the lists with His savage foe not in His own majesty but in our humility, opposing him with the same form and the same nature, which shares indeed our mortality, though it is free from all sin. Truly foreign to this nativity is that which we read of all others, no one is clean from stain, not even the infant who has lived but one day upon earth Job 19:4. Nothing therefore of the lust of the flesh has passed into that peerless nativity, nothing of the law of sin has entered. A royal Virgin of the stem of David is chosen, to be impregnated with the sacred seed and to conceive the Divinely-human offspring in mind first and then in body. And lest in ignorance of the heavenly counsel she should tremble at so strange a result, she learns from converse with the angel that what is to be wrought in her is of the Holy Ghost. Nor does she believe it loss of honour that she is soon to be the Mother of God. For why should she be in despair over the novelty of such conception, to whom the power of the most High has promised to effect it. Her implicit faith is confirmed also by the attestation of a precursory miracle, and Elizabeth receives unexpected fertility: in order that there might be no doubt that He who had given conception to the barren, would give it even to a virgin.
II. The mystery of the Incarnation is a fitting theme for joy both to angels and to men
Therefore the Word of God, Himself God, the Son of God who in the beginning was with God, through whom all things were made and without whom was nothing made John 1:1-3, with the purpose of delivering man from eternal death, became man: so bending Himself to take on Him our humility without decrease in His own majesty, that remaining what He was and assuming what He was not, He might unite the true form of a slave to that form in which He is equal to God the Father, and join both natures together by such a compact that the lower should not be swallowed up in its exaltation nor the higher impaired by its new associate. Without detriment therefore to the properties of either substance which then came together in one person, majesty took on humility, strength weakness, eternity mortality: and for the paying off of the debt, belonging to our condition, inviolable nature was united with passible nature, and true God and true man were combined to form one Lord, so that, as suited the needs of our case, one and the same Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, could both die with the one and rise again with the other.
Rightly therefore did the birth of our Salvation impart no corruption to the Virgin's purity, because the bearing of the Truth was the keeping of honour. Such then beloved was the nativity which became the Power of God and the Wisdom of God even Christ, whereby He might be one with us in manhood and surpass us in Godhead. For unless He were true God, He would not bring us a remedy, unless He were true Man, He would not give us an example. Therefore the exulting angel's song when the Lord was born is this, Glory to God in the Highest, and their message, peace on earth to men of good will Luke 2:14. For they see that the heavenly Jerusalem is being built up out of all the nations of the world: and over that indescribable work of the Divine love how ought the humbleness of men to rejoice, when the joy of the lofty angels is so great?
III. Christians then must live worthily of Christ their Head
Let us then, dearly beloved, give thanks to God the Father, through His Son, in the Holy Spirit, Who for His great mercy, wherewith He has loved us, has had pity on us: and when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together in Christ Ephesians 2:4-5, that we might be in Him a new creation and a new production. Let us put off then the old man with his deeds: and having obtained a share in the birth of Christ let us renounce the works of the flesh. Christian, acknowledge your dignity, and becoming a partner in the Divine nature, refuse to return to the old baseness by degenerate conduct. Remember the Head and the Body of which you are a member. Recollect that you were rescued from the power of darkness and brought out into God's light and kingdom. By the mystery of Baptism you were made the temple of the Holy Ghost: do not put such a denizen to flight from you by base acts, and subject yourself once more to the devil's thraldom: because your purchase money is the blood of Christ, because He shall judge you in truth Who ransomed you in mercy, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit reigns for ever and ever. Amen.Get the biggest Daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Think you know the River Medway? Think again. You may live in the area, but we bet you have never heard these five obscure facts about the river.
It was the site of the first underwater oil pipeline
During the Second World War, the underwater oil pipeline was developed in order to support the upcoming Allied invasion of mainland Europe. Codenamed Operation Pluto, a prototype pipe was first tested in May 1942, when a line was run under the River Medway.
The origins of this divide are thought to originate more than 1,500 years ago, when the Jutes occupied the east of the county and the Saxons lived to the west.
You can find some bizarre creatures lurking in its depths
In 2004, a nature warden was shocked when he made a strange discovery near what was then Kingsnorth power station. What he had found was a lamprey, a terrifying-looking jawless fish, which dates back to prehistoric times.
The Environment Agency said they did not previously know the fish inhabited the area.
It separates the Kentish Men from the Men of Kent
Were you born north of the River? You have the right to call yourself a Kentish Man (or Maid). Born to the south? You are a Man (or Maid) of Kent.
The origins of this divide are thought to originate more than 1,500 years ago, when the Jutes occupied the east of the county and the Saxons lived to the west.
It's a huge source of artistic inspiration
You may not think of Medway as a particularly glamorous location, but the river has inspired literally hundreds of pieces of work by writers over the years.
22 of the best wedding venues in Kent
Perhaps the most famous tribute was in Edmund Spenser's 1596 epic poem The Faerie Queene, where he described the Medway's'marriage' to the Thames in extensive detail.
It was a favourite destination for the Vikings
During the 8th Century, when the east coast Britain was under constant attack from Viking forces, the Medway became a popular route inland for the invaders.
People from Medway are tough though and when Vikings tried to capture Rochester in the year 883, citizens fought off the invasion until King Alfred the Great and his army arrived to save the city.Batman Arkham City Covered In Blue Haze Too
by David 'Hades' Becker [ Wednesday, 1st of September 2010 - 08:14 PM ]
Well looking below, they are doing just that with Batman: Arkham City and its denizens. To be truly honest, the only character model/textures that look similar from Batman: Arkham Asylum would be that of the titular character. (Batman, for those who don't know what that word means.)
While I do love the new look of Harley Quinn, the generic henchmen and the two new villains shown, I am curious on what is the point now? One of the big gripes from the art department was that detective mode pretty much got rid of all of their hard-worked-on assets. This supposedly was going to bring a change to that mode so that we could appreciate what the art team slaved over, but if you look at the two shots of the "new" detective mode, it seems not to be the case.
There is an even deeper blue tint over everything. Yea, it is nice that there's a bit more detail on the skeletal structure of everyone in Batman's eyes, but again I see myself missing a good portion of the art and visuals due to detective mode being needed or making planning that much easier. I mean, unless the art style they want to convey is that Batman sees everything through blue tinted glass that hides fine details all the time.Get the latest news and videos for this game daily, no spam, no fuss.
The Suicide Squad, a special task force made up of super villains in the DC comic books, is coming to LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham in a new piece of DLC, but they're not called The Suicide Squad. Instead, they are simply called The Squad.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment didn't explain the omission, but since Lego Batman 3 is rated E for Everyone 10+ by the ESRB and is generally designed all ages, it's safe to assume they left the word out to keep it kid-friendly.
The Squad DLC adds Deadshot, Deathstroke, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang and other members of The Squad as playable characters, who must fight through Belle Reve Penitentiary and stop a mysterious enemy.
You can buy The Squad DLC separately for $3 or as part of the the game's Season Pass, which is currently available for $15 and includes six pieces of DLC in total.
For more on the game, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.× Furniture and bacon spill leads to 9 hour closure on I-64
JAMES CITY Co., Va. – Crashes involving loads of furniture and bacon created a mess on I-64 Sunday, closing part of the interstate for nine hours.
According to Virginia State Police, a truck that was carrying a trailer full of furniture crashed just after 2 a.m.
The truck hit the guard rail and went across both lanes of the interstate. During the crash, the trailer of furniture came loose from the truck and furniture fell out onto the roadway.
Another vehicle slowed down to avoid the furniture debris in the road and was sideswiped by a tractor trailer carrying bacon. The tractor trailer then ran off the road and into the woods.
According to VDOT, As a tow truck attempted to pull the tractor trailer back onto the road, bacon spilled out onto the interstate and the tractor trailer fell down into the woods again.
It took crews nine hours to clean the road and dispose of the bacon properly before the road could be reopened.
No one was hurt.Less than three years ago, Manuel Pellegrini was appointed to manage Malaga, a team dubbed "the Manchester City of Spain".
Now, following Roberto Mancini's departure from Etihad Stadium, the 59-year-old Chilean takes over the real thing.
But why have City's hierarchy decided to dispense with their Premier League and FA Cup-winning manager and replace him with a man whose only trophy in Europe is the 2004 Intertoto Cup? And who is he?
Emergence at Villarreal; doomed at Madrid
Following City's appointment of chief executive Ferran Soriano and director of football Txiki Begiristain, both with roots in Barcelona, it was always likely they would follow the Spanish route for their next manager.
The man they call 'The Engineer' A defender in his playing days, Manuel Pellegrini spent his entire career at Universidad Chile, making over 450 appearances
Retired in 1986 and took his first managerial role the following year at Palestino. Has taken charge of 10 teams in total including Villarreal (2004-09), Real Madrid (2009-10) and currently Malaga
Won league titles in Ecuador and Argentina and the Intertoto Cup with Villarreal in 2004
And City's powerbrokers will be fully aware that Pellegrini's success with Malaga has been far more than a flash in the pan.
After starting his managerial career with a variety of short-lived posts in his native South America, the Chilean first moved to Europe in 2004 when he joined undistinguished Villarreal.
Despite operating on a limited budget with a combination of unproven youngsters, such as Pepe Reina and Santi Cazorla, and players deemed not good enough elsewhere, like Diego Forlan and Juan Roman Riquelme, he created a team that played attractive, high-tempo, short-passing football and achieved unprecedented success.
In Pellegrini's debut campaign, Villarreal finished third, their best ever league performance. The following season they went all the way to the Champions League semi-final, knocking out Rangers and Inter Milan before losing 1-0 on aggregate against Arsenal in the last four.
They continued to flourish, finishing second in La Liga in 2008 and reaching another Champions League quarter-final in 2009, again losing to Arsenal - this time 4-1 on aggregate.
Initially Pellegrini stayed loyal to Villarreal, but he eventually departed in the summer of 2009 after being handed the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of managing Real Madrid.
In hindsight, the move to the Bernabeu was destined to fail.
Pellegrini's record in Spain Villarreal (2004-2009: Games: 259; Won: 123; Drew: 72; Lost: 64
Games: 259; Won: 123; Drew: 72; Lost: 64 Real Madrid (2009-2010): Games: 48; Won: 36; Drew 5; Lost: 7
Games: 48; Won: 36; Drew 5; Lost: 7 Malaga (2010-present): Games: 128; Won: 52; Drew: 30; Lost: 46 *statistics correct on 14 May 2013
From the very beginning, he was undermined as the club's bosses sold two players he wanted to keep - Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben - and bought two players he did not really want - Karim Benzema, a £29m signing from Lyon, and Kaka, who cost £59m from AC Milan.
They also signed Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United for £80m and Xabi Alonso from Liverpool for £30m.
He fashioned a highly credible season, leading Madrid to a club record 96 points, but with Pep Guardiola's Barcelona at their peak, that was only good enough to secure second place in La Liga.
Even more damagingly for Pellegrini, Los Blancos were knocked out of the Champions League in the last 16 by Lyon, and it was no surprise when he was sacked and replaced by Jose Mourinho at the end of the season.
Malaga's rise and fall
Following his earlier achievements with Villarreal, it was inevitable that Pellegrini would soon return to work.
In July 2010, previously unheralded Andalusian club Malaga were taken over by Sheikh Al Thani, a multi-millionaire from Qatar who arrived with the promise of unleashing unlimited resources to create a new European superpower, in a similar fashion to Manchester City's takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008.
The man the Sheikh chose to lead his team was Pellegrini, and the new manager was allowed to invest a fortune on a flurry of high-quality players with the challenge of building a similarly high-quality team.
Manuel's Malaga spending spree After becoming manager of Malaga, Manuel Pellegrini spent around £55m on players. Santi Cazorla, Isco, Joaquin, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Nacho Monreal, Martin Demichelis and Jeremy Toulalan were all brought in
In the summer of 2011, Malaga outspent every other team in La Liga - even Barcelona and Real Madrid - by lavishing a reported £50m on players such as Cazorla, Isco, Joaquin, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Nacho Monreal, Martin Demichelis and Jeremy Toulalan.
For the time being, Al Thani was putting his money where his mouth was.
Pellegrini delivered, turning his new team into a formidable force. A year ago, at the end of his first full season in charge, Malaga finished fourth in La Liga to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in their history.
Their euphoria quickly disappeared, however, as Al Thani suddenly withdrew his funding, citing frustration at the strangling grip held on La Liga's revenues by the big two of Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Malaga were plunged into crisis. Without Al Thani's backing, their debts reportedly grew close to £84m and key players such as Cazorla, Salomon Rondon and Joris Mathijsen were sold to raise around £25m, but still the remaining squad members were regularly left unpaid.
Amid the uncertainty, Pellegrini stayed loyal and exercised calm authority to keep his squad together, somehow cajoling another strong league campaign as well as a remarkable Champions League voyage which only ended in the quarter-finals, where Malaga came within an absent offside flag of overturning Borussia Dortmund as Felipe Santana's late strike sealed a 3-2 aggregate win for the German side.
But now, with the further disincentive of a Uefa ban from next season's European competitions as a punishment for outstanding debts owed to employees and tax authorities, Malaga's season - and quite possibly their future - is unravelling fast.
Pellegrini's agent has publicly acknowledged that the Chilean boss is considering his future, perturbed by the fact that his job has turned into something very different from the task he signed up for. And few could blame him.
Personality and tactics
Pellegrini's calm, diplomatic and understated personality is best illustrated by his behaviour in the build-up to and aftermath of his sacking by Real Madrid in the summer of 2010.
Despite Madrid's media launching an ugly smear campaign in an attempt to discredit the ousted manager, the Chilean bore his dismissal with calm dignity, resisting the temptation to hit back and earning respect for the professionalism and stoicism of his conduct.
Pellegrini studied engineering at the end of his playing career, earning him the nickname "The Engineer", and there is an analytical, almost scientifically methodical approach to the football played by his teams, who strike a fine balance between defensive discipline and attacking flair.
A microcosm of Malaga's style under Pellegrini could be seen in the two legs of their 2-1 aggregate victory over Porto in the last 16 of this season's Champions League.
Pellegrini's tactical nous could be seen in Malaga's Champions League last 16 tie with Porto
In the first leg, away from home, they were chiefly defensive, operating a rigid 4-5-1 formation and reining in their attacking instincts with the aim of keeping the tie alive for the return leg. They succeeded, only suffering a 1-0 defeat after Porto scored an offside goal.
Back in Spain for the second leg, similar personnel were used but with an entirely different strategy. With key creative players Isco and Joaquin given much more positional freedom in a more flexible 4-2-3-1 set-up, Malaga played at a higher tempo and dictated the pattern of the game, but in a calm, measured manner.
There was nothing frantic or reckless about their approach to scoring the goals they needed, but their patient probing eventually saw star man Isco score a sizzling opener before Roque Santa Cruz secured a 2-0 victory to send them through to the last eight.
As he showed with those two ties against Porto, Pellegrini possesses a great deal of tactical flexibility. Operating from the base of a traditional back four, he regularly employs a wide variety of formations and strategies in midfield and attack, and throughout his career he has always harnessed skilful playmakers such as Riquelme, Cazorla and Isco.
Perhaps most importantly, Pellegrini's players are comfortable in his methods. Unlike City under Mancini, whose teams could look disjointed and confused with new systems, Malaga are always compact, coherent and organised.
Back in the big time
Pellegrini's achievements, his entertaining style of play and his likeable personality combine to ensure he is hugely respected in Spain by players, fans and the media alike.
And after the experience of his one season with Real Madrid, it is hard to deny him the opportunity of another shot at the big time.
Manchester City presents him with that opportunity and history suggests he will succeed because - with the possible exception of his difficult season at the Bernabeu - he has consistently overachieved throughout the last decade.
And there is one final factor to warm the hearts of City fans: David Moyes' best Premier League finish with Everton was fourth in 2005, but the Toffees failed to reach the Champions League group stage after losing out in the preliminary round, with a 4-2 aggregate defeat.
Their conquerors were none other than Manuel Pellegrini's Villarreal. City 1, United 0?This study examined the proportion of normal-weight adolescents who consider themselves to be too heavy (size overestimation), and the proportion of overweight or obese adolescents who consider themselves to be about the right weight (size underestimation), in a large population-based sample of 13–15 year olds. Our results showed relatively low levels of overestimation among normal-weight adolescents, with just 4% of boys and 11% of girls perceiving themselves to be ‘too heavy’. However, size underestimation among adolescents with a BMI in the overweight/obese range appeared to be much more prevalent, with almost half (47%) of boys and a third (32%) of girls perceiving themselves to be ‘about the right weight’ or ‘too light’. These findings are consistent with results of several previous studies of adolescent weight perceptions, indicating higher rates of underestimation among overweight and obese teens compared with overestimation among those who are normal weight.9, 12, 14, 15
The finding that overestimation was more common among normal-weight girls compared with boys is also in line with previous findings12, 13, 14, 15 and likely reflects greater societal pressure towards, and expectations for, thinness in women.26, 27, 28, 29 Underestimation was also significantly lower in overweight/obese girls compared with overweight/obese boys, and the sex difference for underestimation was much larger compared with that for overestimation, suggesting that overall, girls had a more accurate recognition of weight status.
In addition to producing general estimates by pooling data across the eight surveys, we also examined whether underestimation and overestimation had changed substantially over time. Results showed no significant effect of survey year in either sex, providing no evidence for notable change in the prevalence of underestimation among overweight/obese adolescents or overestimation among normal-weight adolescents between 2005 and 2012. The latter finding mirrors the observed lack of significant change in weight perceptions over a similar time period (2007–2012) in obese adult men in England in a recent study.30
It is encouraging that rates of size overestimation among normal-weight adolescents, particularly girls, were relatively low, despite continued emphasis in popular western culture on achieving and maintaining a slender, toned physique. Nonetheless, there may be room to improve recognition of healthy body weight among adolescent girls, particularly those in the upper normal-weight range, where the prevalence of overestimation was higher (14% vs 4% in lower normal-weight range). Previous studies have indicated that perceived overweight in normal-weight adolescents can lead to unnecessary, sometimes unhealthy, dieting behaviours,5, 6, 7 and in extreme cases may result in clinical eating disorders.31 In the context of today’s public health focus on curbing the incidence of obesity, there may be a temptation to focus efforts on strategies for reducing weight among overweight adolescents. It is important that obesity prevention programmes targeted at this age group also include educational components that address the risks of unhealthy weight control behaviours, regardless of BMI status.
The relatively high prevalence of size underestimation among overweight and obese adolescents may have implications for the future health and well-being of young people. Overweight and obesity have been shown to track from adolescence into adulthood, with overweight teens at substantially raised risk of becoming overweight adults.32 Previous studies have demonstrated strong associations between accurate weight perception and efforts to control weight in adolescents,8, 9, 10 suggesting that those who fail to recognise their weight status may be at greater risk of continued weight gain and obesity-associated comorbidities in later life compared with those who recognise they are overweight. This presents some challenging questions: whether and how to promote accurate weight perceptions and whether to proactively promote weight control efforts—for example, would weight loss or prevention of weight gain be most appropriate for this age group?
Raising awareness of weight status is challenging. Reliance on visual estimation is inaccurate as demonstrated in this study and others.9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 Opportunistic identification aside, a universal screening programme would seem the only viable method of raising weight awareness objectively at a population level. These have been used most widely used in children of primary school age (4–11 years), although to date success has been largely limited to improving parental awareness of weight status,33, 34, 35 with behaviour change more elusive.33 This approach also presents considerable logistical and financial challenges.
In relation to promoting weight control, studies have shown that many adolescents engage in healthy diet and physical activity practices, but the proportion engaging in unhealthy and even harmful weight control practices is unclear.9 It is important that efforts to promote a healthy weight in adolescents are mindful of potential harm. Structured obesity management programmes36 and obesity prevention programmes37 are not typically detrimental for adolescents’ psychological functioning. The impact of unstructured weight loss efforts is less clear, but appears to be associated with less successful weight management and a greater risk of disordered eating.38 Although the integral role of parents in child weight management is well accepted,39 parents are also an important influence on adolescent behaviour, and it is generally recommended that they are involved to some extent in treatment.40 As well as acting as role models and influencing food availability in the home, parents can have an influence through the messages they portray about weight. In particular, parental engagement in conversations around healthy eating rather than dieting or weight appears to lessen the risk of adolescents engaging in unhealthy dieting behaviours.41, 42 Simple strategies such as these could be promoted to parents to encourage healthy behaviours and appropriate weight control efforts in their adolescent offspring. An alternative approach could be school-based initiatives, which have had some success in terms of weight and behavioural outcomes in adolescents.43, 44
This study benefited from a large, population-based sample of adolescents living in England, with analyses weighted to match key population characteristics. Objective measures of height and weight were an advantage given previous data showing that adolescents tend to overestimate their height, and particularly among those who are overweight/obese, to underestimate their weight.45, 46 Data across eight consecutive years allowed us to assess trends over time. However, there were also limitations. Weight measurements were not available for all adolescents included in the Health Survey for England (11% missing). If those who were more concerned about their weight were more likely to decline to be measured, our results may slightly underestimate the proportion of normal-weight adolescents who consider themselves to be too heavy, and overestimate the proportion of overweight/obese adolescents who consider themselves too heavy. It is very difficult to tell whether this was the case, as this survey is currently the best source of information on adolescent weight status in England. Items on weight perceptions were only included in questionnaires administered to 13–15 year olds, limiting the scope to examine variation across different periods of adolescence.
The relatively low prevalence of overestimation of body weight among normal-weight adolescents is potentially a cause for celebration given the longstanding concerns regarding unnecessary body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls. However, almost half of boys and a third of girls with a BMI placing them in the overweight or obese range perceived themselves to be about the right weight. Lack of awareness of excess weight among overweight and obese adolescents could be a cause for concern. Our findings highlight a disparity between the enduring focus of adolescent weight perceptions research—size overestimation in normal-weight teens—and the more prevalent issue of size underestimation among overweight teens. There is a need to develop methods of improving recognition of overweight and obesity among adolescents that do not cause unnecessary concern over weight in those whose weight is healthy.Python is a very popular language for web application development. It's easy to learn and powerful enough to program any kind of system. There are many options for Python web development frameworks, from lightweight packages to everything-and-the-kitchen sink solutions. However, Grok offers a solid foundation for developing powerful, extensible, and secure web applications without too much complexity. This is because it is based on a very advanced object-oriented web framework: Zope 3. Grok enables web developers to tap into the power of Zope 3, thus giving a range of useful features for our applications with very little code.
This book offers Python developers a comprehensive understanding of Grok and a look at its main features by way of developing and evolving a sample application from concept to deployment. You will learn how to use Grok to create web applications and how Grok offers you an agile and enjoyable development experience.
This book will introduce you to the Grok web development framework and show |
or testes have to be producing those eggs and sperm. This means the person has to be past their natal puberty and produce enough viable eggs and sperm that they can be harvested.
For transgender adults, sperm/eggs are best harvested before any hormones are taken. Hormones do reduce fertility, although they are not considered reliable enough to be used as birth control. The amount of estrogens or testosterone needed to have an impact on fertility is currently unknown, but it seems to be different for everyone. So your safest bet is to store egg/sperm before beginning hormones if you can afford it and if having a biological child in the future is important to you. Surgical removal of ovaries/uterus/testes does, of course, make a person sterile and unable to have future biological children.
Trans men who still have a uterus can carry a child but need to be off testosterone to do so as testosterone is harmful to fetal growth. Transgender women cannot carry children with current medicine.
For transgender youth it’s more complex. If the youth hasn’t gone through their natal puberty (e.g., for someone assigned female at birth that would be a female puberty) enough to have fertile sperm/eggs, then they have no sperm/eggs to harvest. Going from pre-puberty to puberty blockers to gender-appropriate hormone therapy means that, with today’s technology, there is no future fertility for the youth. If the youth has been on puberty blockers only, the blockers can be removed and the youth allowed to go far enough into natal puberty so that sperm/eggs can be harvested, and then transition. However going through natal puberty is often traumatic for trans youth, and may not be worth it for the youth. There are experimental options currently being used for children with cancer — taking ovarian or testicular tissue from the child and freezing it for future use. However it’s very experimental and I don’t know of anyone doing it for trans youth at this time.
With trans youth there is the added concern of ethical decision making. Children and adolescents cannot give informed consent. That’s the job of the parents or legal guardians. But their desires may clash with that of the youth, possibly causing harm. Depending on the family the question of fertility may or may not be problematic.
For intersex people or people with differences of sexual development, the effect on fertility depends on the specifics of the medical condition. But there are some larger concepts we can talk about. First — being intersex does not automatically mean a person has no fertility. Many of the intersex medical conditions do result in lower fertility. The potential treatment depends on what’s actually causing the low fertility.
If the ovary/testis itself is considered “abnormal” (e.g., a mosaic ovary), the effect on fertility is often failure of the ovary/testis. In this case, there’s little that modern medicine can do. The person can try the experimental preservation technique of harvesting and freezing ovarian/testicular tissue, but that’s an experimental technique.
If the root cause is hormonal (e.g., congenital adrenal hyperplasia), then it’s possible that sperm/eggs can be harvested. Hormonal treatment may also help fertility.
If the root cause is a higher risk of ovarian/testicular cancer, fertility preservation depends on whether the person is pre- or post- puberty. Treatment for an ovary/testicle that has a high risk of becoming cancerous is removal of that ovary/testicle. So if the person has already gone through puberty and is about to have the organ removed, sperm/eggs can be harvested before. If they are pre-pubertal, they can try the experimental technique of freezing the tissue.
Genetic counseling may also be useful for intersex people, as some differences of sexual development conditions are genetic and can be passed down to biological children. Intersex people should receive fertility counseling from physicians knowledgeable in their particular condition at as young an age as possible to maximize their options.
Lastly — never forget that having biological children isn’t the only way to have children. Adoption, fostering, and co-parenting are all wonderful things and are not any less valid ways to have children than having a biological one. If the laws in your state allow, consider adopting, fostering, or co-parenting.
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Related Posts:At a black church in Detroit, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called Saturday for a “civil rights agenda for our time” that would deliver better education, good-paying jobs and and safer streets to inner-city neighborhoods.
Mr. Trump touted his effort to bring economic and social justice to minority but also stressed the need to restore Christian values and forge racial unity, as he reached out to minority voters who historically vote as a Democratic bloc.
The New York businessman said that it was the greatest honor his his life to be the presidential nominee of the party of Abraham Lincoln.
“It is on his legacy that I hope to build the future of the party but more importantly the future of the country and the community,” Mr. Trump said from the pulpit of Great Faith Ministries Church. “I believe we need a civil rights agenda for our time, one that ensures the rights to a great education — so important — and the right to live in safety and peace, to have a really, really great job, good-paying job and one you love to go to every morning.”
“It can happen,” he assured the congregation, which warmly received the address despite protesters outside who denounced Mr. Trump as racist.
Before the service, Mr. Trump sat for a videotaped interview with the church’s pastor, Bishop Wayne T. Jackson. The interview will by broadcast Thursday on the church’s Impact Television Network.
Mr. Jackson said that the interview and Mr. Trump’s appearance at the service were not an endorsement.
Mr. Jackson praised Mr. Trump’s address to the congregation, which included Scripture versus, and said Mr. Trump could add the title of “preacher” to his resume. The bishop also presented Mr. Trump with a prayer shawl and a study Bible.
The visit to Detroit was Mr. Trump most aggressive effort yet to court black voters. For weeks, he has appealed for minority support and argued that the Democratic Party has taken their votes for granted and for generations failed to deliver on promises to bring opportunity and prosperity to their communities.
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton responded with a series of attacks, including TV ads, that accuse Mr. Trump of being aligned with white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis.
“Our nation is too divided,” Mr. Trump told the congregation.
“We talk past each other not to each other,” he said. “Those who seek office don’t do enough to step into the community and learn what is going on. They don’t know. They have no clue.”
Mr. Trump said that he was different.
“I’m here today to learn so that we together can remedy the injustice in any form and so we can also remedy economics so that the African-American community can benefit economically,” he said. “Our political system has failed the people and works only to enrich itself. I want to reform the system so that it works for you, everybody in this room.”
He said reform had to come from outside the system and that was what he was offering American voters.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Fossil data suggest that limbs evolved from fish fins by sequential elaboration of their distal endoskeleton, giving rise to the autopod close to the tetrapod origin. This elaboration may have occurred by a simultaneous reduction of the distal ectodermal fold of fish fins. Modulation of 5′Hoxd gene transcription, through tetrapod-specific digit enhancers, has been suggested as a possible evolutionary mechanism involved in these morphological transformations. Here, we overexpress hoxd13a in zebrafish to investigate the impact of increasing 5′Hoxd expression during fin development. This overexpression causes increased proliferation, distal expansion of chondrogenic tissue and finfold reduction. In addition, we also show that the tetrapod-specific 5′Hoxd enhancer CsC promotes similar expression in zebrafish fins and mouse limbs. Our results support the idea that modulation of 5′Hoxd gene expression, by acquisition of novel enhancer elements, offered the substrate for the evolution of fins and the origin of tetrapod limbs.
Here we have tested these two conditions in the teleost zebrafish. We find that overexpression of hoxd13a in fins causes distal overgrowth of chondrogenic tissue expressing markers characteristic of autopod development. Moreover, this occurs with a concomitant finfold reduction, a phenotype that reflects the morphological changes expected during fin evolution (). In addition, we evaluated the activity of the tetrapod-specific Hoxd13 enhancer CsC during zebrafish fin development and found comparable domains of activity to the ones described in developing mouse limbs (). Together, these results provide functional evidence supporting the hypothesis that modulation of 5′Hoxd transcription, through the addition of novel enhancer elements to its regulatory machinery, was a key evolutionary mechanism for the distal elaboration of vertebrate appendages.
andhave characterized several cis-acting regulatory elements (CREs) involved in the activation 5′Hoxd gene transcription in mice. Their results indicate that interaction between several CREs is required to ensure the strong expression of 5′Hoxd throughout the autopod (). Interestingly one of these CREs, CsC, is tetrapod-specific and promotes expression in the whole autopod, fully recapitulating the 5′Hoxd expression domains. Therefore, CsC is a potential candidate to be involved the 5′Hoxd modulation required for the evolution of fins. Indeed, the appearance of specific 5′Hoxd enhancers in the tetrapod lineage, such as CsC, seems a plausible explanation for the tetrapod-specific pattern of 5′Hoxd expression. In such an evolutionary scenario, two conditions should meet in the last common ancestor of fish and tetrapods. First, the trans-regulatory machinery operating on this enhancer should be present. Second, the downstream target genes of the 5′Hoxd proteins should be ready to respond to such an increase in 5′Hoxd activity by generating distal endoskeletal structures compatible with the evolution of fins.
These observations raise an interesting possibility: modulation of 5′Hoxd gene transcription during evolution may have been a key evolutionary mechanism that led to the formation of novel distal endoskeleton elements in fishes and tetrapods (). If that is the case, the fish patterns described so far may indicate trackways of this mechanism in its evolving form in which the levels of transcription may not still be sufficient to generate an autopod-like structure.
More recently, a reevaluation of 5′hoxd gene patterns in zebrafish indeed indicated a distal expansion of these genes during late fin development (). It is still debatable if these patterns represent a true novel second phase of expression or just an expansion of the first phase (). Interestingly, fishes at other phylogenetic positions throughout vertebrates evolution, such as chondrichthyans, basal actinopterygians, and lungfishes, also seem to have a late distal phase of 5′Hoxd expression during their fin development (). However, these phases are quite diverse among those fishes and never fully recapitulate the expression found in tetrapods ().
Tri-phasic expression of posterior Hox genes during development of pectoral fins in zebrafish: implications for the evolution of vertebrate paired appendages.
The first attempt to explain the fin-to-limb transition, from a developmental point of view, was made by. By then, 5′Hoxd genes were known to play an essential role during autopod development (). Therefore, the basic question concerned whether HoxD expression in developing fish fins was different than in tetrapod limbs. Remarkable differences were found when expression patterns from zebrafish and tetrapods 5′Hoxd were compared in developing fins and limbs (). During limb development, tetrapods show two phases of 5′Hoxd gene expression. In a first phase, these genes are restricted to the posterior limb buds. Later, in a second phase, their expression patterns expand distal and anteriorly throughout the presumptive autopod region. Interestingly, this expansion was hardly detectable in zebrafish fins (). This observation led to the proposal that the tetrapod-specific second phase of 5′Hoxd expression would have been required to mediate the transition from fish fins to tetrapod limbs ().
The Hox-4.8 gene is localized at the 5′ extremity of the Hox-4 complex and is expressed in the most posterior parts of the body during development.
The main innovation of tetrapod appendages is the autopod, a multifinger extremity that evolved from sarcopterygian fins by sequential expansion and elaboration of their appendicular skeleton (). In tetrapod ancestors, the addition of novel distal endoskeleton elements co-occurred with the reduction of the ectodermal finfold characteristic of fish fins (). Living sarcopterygians, such as the Coelacanths, show a coincident evolutionary tendency, having more distal endoskeleton elements and smaller finfolds than fishes that diverged prior to their radiation ().
The colonization of land by vertebrates represents a major event in the history of life. According to the fossil record, tetrapods were the first vertebrate group with the ability to walk on terrestrial environments, which required profound morphological changes in their locomotory appendages during evolution ().
(C) Comparison between mCsC activity and hoxd13 expression in zebrafish and mouse. Dashed lines indicate the distal limits of the endoskeletal territory. Left panel shows that expression of GFP in mCsC transgenic zebrafish fin is nested within hoxd13a expressing domain at 60 hpf (arrowheads). Central panel shows simultaneous anterior expansion of mCsC activity and hoxd13a expression throughout the distal portion of the endoskeletal territory at 4 dpf (arrowheads). Note that mCsC activity is detected also within a subdomain of hoxd13a expression at this stage. Schemes on the right are based on. Left scheme indicates relative position of mCsC upstream of Hoxd13 in mice. Schemes on the right represent CsC and Hoxd13 expression in mouse limbs (blue and pink respectively). Note that mCsC is also active in a subdomain of Hoxd13 expression in this organism.
(B) Transverse sections throughout a mCsC transgenic fin expressing GFP at 4 dpf. Left panel shows restriction of GFP mRNA to the distal tip of the endoskeletal territory (arrowheads). Central panel shows a higher magnification of the expressing region (arrowheads). Note GFP expression in chondrocyte-like cells (delimited by a white dashed line) and in surrounding cells. The scheme on the right represents the inferred localization of the expression pattern in the endoskeletal territory (green: chondrocytes and undifferentiated distal mesenchyme).
(A) Enhancer activity of mouse CsC (mCsC) shown by the expression of GFP in the posterior half of the fin buds (Fb) at 30 hpf and surrounding the distal margin of the endoskeletal disc 4 dpf. Bracket line delimits the distal border of this territory. The scheme on the right represents the main domain of mCsC activity in zebrafish fins at 4 dpf (green).
Prior to endoskeletal differentiation, the molecular mechanisms involved in limb development are mostly conserved in zebrafish fins (). The main differences arise later, with the transcription of actinotrichia mRNAs exclusively in the zebrafish finfold and the differential expression of 5′Hoxd distally (). Given that appropriate levels of 5′Hoxd transcription are required for autopod development, addition of novel 5′Hoxd enhancers during evolution, such as CsC, may have increased 5′Hoxd transcription, promoting the expansion of distal endoskeleton that might have served as substrate for further fin elaboration. For that to occur, the upstream machinery acting on this enhancer must have been established prior the autopod origin in tetrapods. To evaluate this hypothesis, we investigated the activity of the murine CsC enhancer (mCsC) during the development of zebrafish fins. We hypothesized that if mCsC was active in the distal fin, this would indicate that developing fins and limbs share the expression of the CsC transactivators, at least to a certain extent. Further, such a result would support the view that these transactivators were already in place prior to the origin of the autopod in tetrapods. To this end, we generated several independent stable transgenic zebrafish lines carrying mCsC enhancer driving GFP expression in a reporter vector specifically designed to evaluate enhancer activity (). During fish development, mCsC activated GFP expression in the posterior fin mesenchyme at 30 hpf and in the distal margin of the endoskeletal territory 3 days later ( Figure 5 A). Transverse sections throughout these fins further confirmed the strong activation of mCsC in the most distal chondrocytes of the endoskeletal disc and, weaker, in mesenchymal cells surrounding this area at 4 dpf ( Figure 5 B). When compared with the pattern of hoxd13a at different time points, the pattern promoted by mCsC seemed to be initially nested within hoxd13a expression. Thus, at 60 hpf, mCsC was observed restricted to the posterior fin mesenchyme but its activity was displaced distally and anteriorly later ( Figure 5 C). This pattern resembles that of CsC and Hoxd13 in mouse limbs (). In light of these analyses, we suggest that mCsC is sufficient to drive a murine Hoxd13-like pattern in zebrafish fins. Therefore, addition of enhancer modules, such as CsC, may have modulated 5′Hoxd gene expression during evolution in order to increase their distal expression.
Tri-phasic expression of posterior Hox genes during development of pectoral fins in zebrafish: implications for the evolution of vertebrate paired appendages.
(C) Schematic representation summarizing cell proliferation levels in wild-type and hoxd13a-overexpressing fins. Chondrocytes are represented in blue and BrdU staining in red.
(B) Blue (DAPI) corresponds to cell nucleus and pink are proliferating cells (anti-BrdU). In WT fins, BrdU labeled cells are detected mainly at the distal end of the endoskeletal disc (arrow). Confocal planes throughout hoxd13a overexpressing fins show proliferation in the distal endoskeletal territory (white arrowheads) and in the mass of cells folding from it (arrowheads). Note similarities of the cyclin d1 expression and BrdU labeled cells distribution (yellow arrows mark equivalent domains).
(A) cyclin d1 expression is restricted to the distal end of the endoskeletal plate in WT (arrow). In hoxd13a-overexpressing fins, cyclin d1is observed throughout the expanded endoskeleton (arrowheads) and in the mass of cells folding from it (arrowheads).
Two recent reports indicate that proximal-distal limb patterning depends on diffusible signals and growth (). Thus, distal digit identity is acquired only if sufficient growth takes place within the developing limb to displace cells beyond the influence of flank-derived signals, which promote proximal fates. Interestingly, increased distal cell proliferation in fins was also proposed to be involved in the evolution of fins potentiating the development of novel distal endoskeletal structures (). As shown above, the enlarged distal chondrogenic tissue observed in hoxd13a overexpressing fins was associated with a distally extended cyclin d1 expression domain ( Figures 2 C and 4 A), a gene that promotes cell proliferation (). To further evaluate the impact that hoxd13a modulation might have in cell proliferation during fin development, we compared BrdU incorporation in control and hoxd13a-overexpressing fins at 150 hpf ( Figure 4 B). BrdU was combined with DAPI staining to determine nuclear morphology. Although cell proliferation was quite restricted to the tip of the endoskeletal territory in control wild-type fins at 150 hpf (30 ± 8 BrdU cells/fin, n = 8; Figure 4 B), it was drastically increased in hoxd13a-overexpressing fins (111 ± 15 BrdU cells/fin, n = 11; Figure 4 B). BrdU positive cells were detected in the distal endoskeletal territory, where a mass of densely packed cells was observed proliferating and folding. Interestingly, the domains of increased BrdU incorporation coincide with the areas of cyclin d1 expression (compare Figures 4 A and 4B) and where hoxd13a was expressed at similar stages ( Figure 2 A). These results suggest that zebrafish has retained the capacity to respond to a sustained expression of hoxd13 in the fins by increasing cell proliferation distally ( Figure 4 C).
meis1 regulates cyclin D1 and c-myc expression, and controls the proliferation of the multipotent cells in the early developing zebrafish eye.
Finally, we examined the expression of sonic hedgehog (shha), a gene that controls anteroposterior (AP) polarity during limb development (). Shh-deficient mouse limbs present severe distal truncation lacking the development of digits (). In the hoxd13a overexpressing fins, shha appeared upregulated (100%, n = 12, Figure 3 D), which was somehow expected given that Shh is trans-regulated by Hoxd13 during limb development (). Therefore, modulation of shh through Hoxd13 may have been also important for fin evolution and our results suggest that this trans-regulation might be conserved in fish fins. These results suggest that mesenchymal cells of the distal fin, which are affected by the overexpression of hoxd13a, change their identity resembling the ones in the distal limb prior to autopod formation ( Figure 3 E).
(E) Schematic representations of the observed phenotypes. Blocks of graded blue represent the domain where characteristic distal limb markers (hox13b, pea3, and cyp26b1) are expressed in wild-type and in hoxd13a overexpressing fins.
(C) fgf8a expression is confined to a narrower distal domain in injected fins. Dashed lines indicate the approximate plane of the section shown bellow.
(A and B) cyp26b1 (A) and pea3 (B) is extended distally in hoxd13a overexpressing fins. Dashed lines in (A) indicate the approximate plane of the sections shown bellow. In these sections distal cyp26b1 expression can be observed surrounding the differentiated chondrocytes (yellow dashed line) in injected fins.
Each panel shows expression pattern of a gene at 120 hpf, in which wild-type controls (WT + Dex) and Dex-treated hoxd13a-GR injected fins are on left and right columns, respectively. Stages of development are indicated at left of each panel. Arrows point to the WT expression and arrowheads indicate expression induced by hoxd13a-GR injections. Ed, endoskeletal disc; Ff, finfold.
We then further examined other markers in fins clearly affected by increased hoxd13a function at 120 hpf ( Figure 3 ). Both cyp26b1 and pea3 genes were distally expanded in the hoxd13a-GR overexpressing fins ( Figures 3 A and 3B; 80% and 100%, n = 30 and 10, respectively). Transverse sections throughout these fins ( Figure 3 A) showed cyp26b1 expression surrounding the endoskeleton that extended toward the tip of the affected fin, as observed with AB/PAS/hematoxylin stained sections (compare with Figure 1 D). Opposite results were found for the expression of fgf8a, which typically marks the signaling activity of the finfold (). In affected fins, the expression domain of this gene was much narrower than in controls (80%, n = 15, Figure 3 C). Therefore, we suggest that overexpression of hoxd13a negatively affects the development of the finfold structure and also its signaling activity.
In addition, when we evaluate hsp70:hoxd13-GFP and col2a1:hoxd13-GFP transgenic fins with reduced finfolds at 3–4 dpf, we found distally expanded expression domains of hoxa13b and cyclin d1 (75%, n = 28) and and1 downregulation (100%, n = 15) not observed in control embryos exposed to heat shock treatment ( Figure 2 E).
In order to evaluate whether finfold reduction in hoxd13a-overexpressing fins was indeed indicative of structural changes in this region, we also examined the expression profile of and1 throughout development, a gene that encodes for a structural component of the finfold (). No differences in and1 expression were observed between hoxd13a-GR injected and wild-type embryos equally treated with Dex at 48 hpf ( Figure 2 D, n = 50). We later found a progressive reduction of and1 expression in the finfold in hoxd13a Dex-treated individuals at 60 (35%, n = 50) and 90 hpf (42%, n = 50). By 120 hpf, when we specifically selected fins with clear reduction of the finfold, we detected drastic downregulation of and1 in all fins evaluated (n = 15). No alterations were observed in wild-type or hoxa4-GR injected fins neither in the presence or absence of the hormone ( Figure S3 ). Because both hoxa13b and cyclin d1 were already upregulated in a significative number of injected embryos at 48 hpf by the time changes in and1 were not yet visible (compare Figures 2 B–2D), we suggest that hoxd13a overexpression affects primarily the fin endoskeletal component having a later effect in finfold development.
We also monitored the expression pattern of cyclin d1 throughout development, a gene expressed in the distal endoskeleton and known to promote cell proliferation (). In wild-type fins treated with Dex, we found that cyclin d1 was expressed in a narrow territory immediately under the AER between 48 to 90 hpf ( Figure 2 C). However, in Dex-treated embryos injected with hoxd13a-GR, cyclin d1 was considerably upregulated throughout the entire fin mesenchyme in 40% of fins at 48 hpf (n = 50), resembling the expression pattern of hoxd13a and hoxa13b found in injected fins ( Figures 2 A–2C). The levels of cyclin d1 expression remained high in 64% of fins at 60 hpf (n = 50) and 62% of fins at 90 hpf (n = 50, Figure 2 C). We then analyzed the expression pattern of cyclin d1 in a pool of fins clearly affected by hoxd13a overexpression at 120 hpf (n = 12). In all these fins, cyclin d1 expression was clearly expanded toward the distal region where extra-chondrogenesis took place (compare Figures 2 C and 1 D–1F). These effects were not observed in fins overexpressing the hoxa4a-GR construct and treated with Dex ( Figure S3 ).
meis1 regulates cyclin D1 and c-myc expression, and controls the proliferation of the multipotent cells in the early developing zebrafish eye.
The expression of hoxa13b at 48 hpf appeared expanded to most fin mesenchyme in 32% of the hoxd13a-overexpressing fins when compared with wild-type controls equally treated with the hormone (n = 50, Figure 2 B). Later on, at 60 and 90 hpf, the expression of this gene became largely similar to the controls in the distal border of the endoskeletal disc. However, it showed increased expression levels in a significant number of fins evaluated (45% at 60 hpf and 46% in embryos at 90 hpf, n = 20 per stage). As for the hoxd13a analyses, we then selected injected embryos with visibly affected fins (n = 8) at 120 hpf to further characterize changes in hoxa13b expression ( Figure 2 B). In wild-type embryos, this gene was expressed in the distal part of the endoskeletal disc that typically ends close to the marginal blood vessel at that stage ( Figures 2 B and 1 A). Identical expression pattern was observed in control embryos injected with hoxa4a-GR and treated with Dex ( Figure S3 ). However, in fins affected by hoxd13a overexpression, hoxa13b appeared to be expressed further distally beyond that vessel ( Figure 2 B).
Genes such as hoxa13, Pea3, and Cyp26 are known to be involved in the proximal-distal subdivision of the developing limbs (). Their expression leads to establishment of a distal cell identity domain, where formation of the autopod takes place in tetrapods. In order to investigate changes toward a distal limb fate in the region affected by the overexpression of hoxd13a, we characterized the expression of these genes in overexpressing fins and controls.
(E) Gene expression changes caused by hoxd13a overexpression controlled by hsp70 and col2a1a promoters. Transgenic fins show distally expanded hoxa13b and cyclin d1 expression 3 to 4 dpf and reduced and1 expression (arrowheads) when compared with controls (arrows).
(D) No differences of and1 expression are observed between injected and control fins at 48 hpf. However, between 60 and 120 hpf, injected fins present a progressive reduction of and1 expression in the finfold.
(A–C) hoxd13a (A), hoxa13b (B), and cyclin d1 (C) expression is located throughout most fin mesenchyme after injection (48 hpf). At 60 hpf, these genes show slightly higher levels in the injected fins. At 90 hpf, their expression domains start to be expanded distally. This expansion becomes very clear at 120 hpf.
Each panel shows expression dynamics of a gene from 48 to 120 hpf, in which wild-type controls (WT + Dex) and Dex-treated hoxd13a-GR injected fins are on left or right columns, respectively. Stages of development are indicated in each row at left side of the figure. Arrows point to the WT expression and arrowheads indicate expression induced by hoxd13a-GR injections.
Next, we evaluated how increased hoxd13a expression may have affected the molecular identity of the ectodermal and endoskeletal components of the fins throughout development. We started by characterizing the expression dynamics of hoxd13a itself in embryos injected with hoxd13a-GR versus control wild-type embryos equally treated with Dex. We found that, in 42% of the fins 48 hr after the injection, hoxd13a expression was spread throughout most fin mesenchyme (n = 50, Figure 2 A). At 60 hpf hoxd13a expression levels progressively decayed ( Figure 2 A), showing a similar distribution in control and injected fins, although with slightly higher levels in the latter fins (72%, n = 50). However, by 90 hpf hoxd13a acquired a distinct expression domain in the area of apparent finfold reduction (72%, n = 50). We then selected embryos at 120 hpf with visible finfold reduction (n = 8) and found that they all have fins with anteriorly expanded hoxd13a expression when compared with the controls ( Figure 2 A). Although the molecular cause of this expression is not known, it might be due to an autoregulation process triggered by the ectopic Hoxd13a protein. Interestingly, the distinct hoxd13a expression domain was coincident with the distal area where extra chondrogenesis took place in the affected fins (compare Figures 2 A and 1 D–1F).
Given the lethality associated with the phenotypes generated with these transgenic approaches ( Figure S2 ) and the need to obtain a considerable number of embryos with temporally controlled manipulations, further analyses were carried out using the hoxd13-GR overexpression system.
We also adopted alternative methods to overexpress hoxd13a in zebrafish fins to further confirm the results obtained with the Dex-inducible hoxd13a construct. Using the Tol2kit technology (), we generated constructs in which a hoxd13a-GFP fusion gene was placed under the control of either heat-shock protein 70 (hsp70) () or collagen (col2a1a) promoters (). These constructs allowed us to generate Tol2-mediated transient transgenic embryos () where hoxd13a levels could be modulated in time (hsp70) or space (col2a1a) by those specific promoters ( Figures 1 G and S2 ). Upon heat-shock induction (see Experimental Procedures ), at 3–4 dpf, the hsp70:hoxd13a-GFP transgenic fins showed finfold reduction in 27% of the cases ( Figure 1 G; n = 300). Similar results were found for col2a1:hoxd13-GFP transgenic fins (24%, n = 175), although more mosaic effects were observed in these fishes ( Figures 1 G and S2 ). Both of these transgenics presented distally expanded sox9a expression domains in 75% of the fins (n = 12), when compared with controls exposed to heat shock treatment ( Figure 1 H). The similarity of effects detected for each of the three overexpression systems indicated that these effects were specific to the overexpression of hoxd13.
In order to evaluate whether these changes were due to a distal expansion of the chondrogenic tissue or to an indirect consequence of the finfold reduction, we performed measurements starting from the cleithrum toward the distal end of the col2a1a expression in controls versus Dex-treated fins (see Figure 1 A). These analyses revealed a significant increase of the chondrogenic tissue (t test p < 0.03) from 148.9 ± 17 mm in control fins (n = 4) to 182.4 ± 14.6 mm (n = 4) in hoxd13a-GR overexpressing fins. Together, these results suggest that increased levels of hoxd13a induce an expansion of chondrogenesis distally in zebrafish fins.
In order to confirm the chondrogenic nature of the altered tissue in hoxd13a-overexpressing fins, we analyzed the expression profiles of two genes involved in chondrogenesis, sox9a and col2a1 (). Sox9 activity is expected to regulate both chondrogenesis and chondrocyte proliferation and Col2a1 is its known trans-activation target (). These genes were expressed mostly in the distal part of the endoskeletal disc and absent from the finfold in embryos not injected but treated with Dex at 120 hpf ( Figures 1 E and 1F). In 80% of hoxd13a-overexpressing fins with severe finfold reduction (n = 20), the expression of these genes was observed further distally, in a domain coincident with the positive alcian blue staining ( Figures 1 D–1F).
We then performed histological sections of injected and wild-type embryos treated with Dex ( Figure 1 C) and stained them with hematoxylin together with two cartilage matrix stains (periodic acid-Schiff [PAS] and Alcian blue [AB]). Analyses of these sections suggest a distal expansion of the endoskeletal territory toward the affected finfold region in hoxd13a overexpressing fins ( Figure 1 C). Whereas in control fins the proximal/distal cartilage length was in average 194.2 ± 4.6 mm (n = 3), in the injected ones this length was significantly expanded (t test p < 0.01) to 273.2 ± 16.7 mm (n = 3). In addition, whole mount alcian blue skeleton preparations also pointed to a strong finfold reduction associated with distal expansion of sulfated proteoglycans ( Figure 1 D), endemic to chondrogenic cells (). After these experiments, larvae with altered fins have problems with swimming, and consequently with feeding, and died massively before individual skeletal elements are formed, precluding the analyses of the abnormal fins at later stages.
The effect of Dex-inducible overexpression could be detected in one or both pectoral appendages presenting a variable degree of finfold reduction clearly visible 96 hpf onward. Overexpression of this gene did not seem to affect visibly other embryonic territories. Just a few treated embryos (3%–5%) had deformed bodies and were excluded from further analyses. Moreover, these phenotypes were not observed in the absence of the hormone, when Dex was added at later stages or in embryos injected with a control hoxa4-GR construct ( Figure S1 available online).
The activation of hoxd13a has been described in the posterior zebrafish fin mesenchyme at 30 hr postfertilization (hpf) and, 6 hr later, was observed expanding to more distal and anterior domains (). Taking in consideration the mouse data, this second phase of expression seems to be the one that potentially would mostly affect the formation of distal structures also in fish (). We therefore added Dex at 24, 30, 32, 36, and 48 hpf to increase the levels of hoxd13a activity around this phase of hoxd13a expression. When Dex was added at 30 or 32 hpf, which is just prior to when the anterior expansion of the endogenous hoxd13a gene takes place (), thickening and reduction of the finfolds was found in 40% of the treated embryos (n > 200, Figure 1 B). The remaining embryos did not show |
8 million
Traded P Rick Porcello to the Dodgers for P Ross Stripling
• Traded OF Steven Moya to the Mets for P Bartolo Colon and $3 million
• Traded OF Daniel Fields to the Mariners for P Tyler Olson
• Signed P Chihiro Kaneko to a 4 year $40 million contract
• Signed DH Victor Martinez to a 4 year $50 million contract
• Signed OF Mike Carp to a 1 year $2 million contract
• Signed OF Don Kelly to a 1 year $500,000 contract
• Signed 1B Daric Barton and P Joel Hanrahan to minor league contracts
Payroll: $179.6 million
Recommended Budget: $178 million
Houston Astros
• Traded P Collin McHugh, P Mike Foltyznewicz, and OF Jake Marisnick to the Red Sox for OF Yoenis Cespedes
• Traded 1B Chris Carter and C Max Stassi to the Diamondbacks for P Josh Collmenter and P Aaron Blair
• Traded P Scott Feldman, P Chad Qualls, 3B Matt Dominguez, and 2B Delino Deshields Jr to the Diamondbacks for 3B Jake Lamb and P Cody Reed
• Traded OF L.J. Hoes to the Athletics for IF Nick Punto, P Michael Ynoa and C Bruce Maxwell
• Traded OF Dexter Fowler to the Twins for P Tommy Milone and P Stephen Gonsalves
• Traded 1B Telvin Nash to the Phillies for 1B Ryan Howard and $50M
• Traded P Jason Stoffel to the Brewers for P Jonathan Broxton and $4.5M
• Traded P Richard Rodriguez and 1B MP Cokinos to the Marlins for 3B Casey McGehee
• Signed P Phil Coke to a 1 year $1.5 million contract with a $1 million club option
• Signed P Josh Johnson to a 1 year $1.5 million deal with $1.5 million in incentives
• Signed P Andrew Bailey to a 1 year $1 million contract
• Signed OF Tyler Colvin to minor league contracts
Payroll: $48.5 million
Recommended Budget: $65 million
Kansas City Royals
• Exercised the option on P Wade Davis
• Declined the option on 1B Billy Butler
• Non-tendered IF Jayson Nix and P Aaron Crow
• Traded P Jason Vargas, P Christian Binford, and P Cody Reed to the Cubs for P Edwin Jackson, IF Luis Valbuena and $6 mill
• Traded P Kyle Zimmer, IF Hunter Dozier, 1B Ryan O’Hearn and P Ramon Torres to the Nationals for P Jordan Zimmerman and OF Brian Goodwin
• Traded P Greg Holland to the Red Sox for 1B Allen Craig, P Brian Johnson, and $5 mill
• Traded P Jeremy Guthrie, 2B Omar Infante and $2.2 million to the Blue Jays for P R.A. Dickey and C Josh Thole
• Traded P Louis Coleman, P Sam Selman, and P John Lamb to the Rays for IF Sean Rodriguez and $1.4 million
• Traded P Tim Collins to the Brewers for P Ariel Pena
• Signed P Luke Hochevar to a 3 year $10 million contract with a $4.5 million club option ($2 mill buyout)
• Signed 2B Hector Olivera ta 3 year $9 million contract
• Signed P Jason Frasor to a 3 year $6.5 million contract
• Signed OF Jonny Gomes to a 1 year $2.5 million contract
• Signed P Joe Thatcher to a 1 year $1.3 million contract
• Signed P James McDonald, P Jose Veras, P Scott Baker, P Juan Carlos Oviedo and P Matt Lindstrom to minor league contracts
Payroll: $101.8 million
Recommended Budget: $105 million
Los Angeles Angels
• Exercised the option on P Huston Street
• Non-tendered IF Gordon Beckham and P Wade LeBlanc
• Traded C Hank Conger to the Blue Jays for OF Anthony Gose
• Signed P Ervin Santana to a 3 year $40 million contract
• Signed IF Juan Francisco to a 1 year $2 million contract
• Signed IF Donnie Murphy, IF Ramiro Pena, P Buddy Carlyle, P Jonny Venters, P Brad Mills, P Chris Perez, P Jeff Manship to minor league contracts
Payroll: $159.5 million
Recommended Budget: $171 million
Los Angeles Dodgers
• P Brian Wilson and P Dan Haren both exercised their player options
• Decline the option on P Chad Billingsley
• Non-tender IF Darwin Barney
• Traded IF Juan Uribe to the Indians for 3B Lonnie Chisenhall and P Nick Hagadone
• Traded OF Matt Kemp, OF Scott Van Slyke and $80 million ($16 million per year for five years) for SS Chris Taylor and P Tom Wilhelmsen
• Traded P Ross Stripling to the Tigers for P Rick Porcello
• Traded C A.J. Ellis to the Mariners for OF Logan Bawcom
• Signed C Russell Martin to a 4 year $60 million contract
• Signed P Casey Janssen to a 3 year $15 million contract
• Signed OF Ichiro Suzuki to a 1 year $7 million contract
• Signed P Chad Billingsley to a 1 year $5 million contract with up to $4 million in incentives
• Signed IF Mike Aviles and P Jamey Wright to minor league contracts
Payroll: $237.6 million
Recommended Budget: LOL
Miami Marlins
• Exercised the option on C Jeff Mathis
• Traded OF Giancarlo Stanton and 1B Mark Canha to the Red Sox for C Christian Vazquez, SP Henry Owens, SP Rubby de la Rosa, SP Allen Webster, 3B Garin Cecchini, OF Bryce Brentz, OF Daniel Nava, and OF Nick Longhi
• Traded P Nathan Eovaldi and P Chris Hatcher to the Red Sox for IF Brock Holt and 3B Will Middlebrooks
• Traded 3B Casey McGehee to the Astros for P Richard Rodiguez and 1B MP Cokinos
• Traded P Arquimedes Caminero and P Mike Dunn to the Pirates for P Jeff Locke
• Traded P Brad Hand and OF Austin Wates to the Brewers for 1B Justin Smoak
• Signed IF Darwin Barney to a 2 year $10 million contract
• Signed P Joe Beimel signs with the Marlins for 2 years $4 million
• Signed P Kyle Kendrick to a 2 year $5 million contract
• Signed IF Kelly Johnson to a 2 year $3.5 million contract
• Signed P Nick Masset to a 2 year $3 million contract
• Signed OF Scott Hairston to a 1 year $900,0000 contract
• Signed C JP Arencibia, 1B Lyle Overbay, OF Endy Chavez, P Kevin Slowey and P Scott Downs to minor league contracts
Payroll: $55.7 million
Recommended Budget: $60 million
Milwaukee Brewers
• 3B Aramis Ramirez agree to exercise his mutual option
• Exercised the option on P Yovanni Gallardo
• Declined the option on 2B Rickie Weeks
• Non-tender P Brandon Kintzler
• Traded P Marco Estrada to the Mariners for 1B Justin Smoak and P Anthony Fernandez
• Traded P Wily Peralta and 1B Matt Clark to the Rockies for 2B D.J. LeMahieu and OF Kyle Parker
• Traded IF Orlando Arcia, OF Victor Roache, and P David Goforth to the Rays for 1B James Loney, P Alex Colome, P Steven Geltz, and IF Tim Beckham
• Traded P Kyle Lohse to the Indians for IF Dorrsys Paulino, OF James Ramsey, and P Mitch Brown
• Traded 1B Justin Smoak to the Marlins for P Brad Hand and OF Austin Wates
• Traded OF Geraldo Parra and $2 million to the Blue Jays for P Austin Biebens-Dirkx
• Traded P Ariel Pena to the Royals for P Tim Collins
• Traded P Will Smith to the Nationals for P Pedro Severino and $2 million
• Traded P Jonathan Broxton and $4.5M to the Astros for P Jason Stoffel
• Traded 1B Jason Rogers to the Twins for OF Max Kepler
• Signed P Jon Lester to a 7 year $192 million contract with a vesting option for $20 million
• Signed P Tom Gorzelanny to a 2 year $6 million contract
• Signed P Francisco Rodriguez to a 2 year $6 million contract
• Signed P Daniel Hudson to a 1 year $500k deal with a $2.5 million club option and up to $1 million in incentives
• Signed P Sergio Santos to a 1 year $750,000 contract with a $2 million option
• Signed IF Ruben Tejada and P Joe Saunders to minor league contracts
Payroll: $113.3 million
Recommended Budget: $114 million
Minnesota Twins
• Decline the option on P Jared Burton
• Non-tender IF Eduardo Nunez, P Anthony Swarzak, and P Brian Duensing
• Traded P Tommy Milone and P Stephen Gonsalves to the Astros for OF Dexter Fowler
• Traded P Ricky Nolasco, OF Travis Harrison and $2 million to the Nationals for P Bryan Harper
• Traded P Mike Pelfrey and 2B Eddie Rosario to the Cubs for OF Ryan Sweeney and P Felix Doubront
• Traded P Michael Cederoth to the Cardinals for OF Randal Grichuk
• Traded OF Max Kepler to the Brewers for 1B Jason Rogers
• Signed P Francisco Liriano to a 3 year $36 million contract
• Signed OF Colby Rasmus to a 2 year $22 million contract
• Signed P Kris Medlen to a 2 year/$12 million deal with an $8 mill club option ($1 mill buyout)
Payroll: $95.4 million
Recommended Budget: $94 million
New York Mets
• Non-tendered IF Ruben Tejada, OF Eric Young, P Dana Eveland and P Buddy Carlyle
• Traded P Jon Niese to the Blue Jays for SS Jose Reyes and $21 million
• Traded P Bartolo Colon and $3 million to the Tigers for OF Steven Moya
• Signed OF Alex Rios to a 1 year $4 million contract
• Signed P Craig Breslow, P Dana Eveland to minor league contracts
Payroll: $74.2 million
Recommended Budget: $98 million
New York Yankees
• Non-tender P Esmil Rogers
• Traded OF Brett Gardner, P Michael Pineda, OF Aaron Judge, P Manny Banuelos and SS Jorge Mateo to the Braves for OF Justin Upton, OF B.J. Upton, P Craig Kimbrel, P Aaron Norcraft plus $9 million
• Traded P Luis Severino, P Ian Clarkin, P Caleb Smith, C Gary Sanchez, and 1B Greg Bird to the Phillies for P Cole Hamels, SS Jimmy Rollins and $33.5 million
• Traded OF Carlos Beltran and $8 million to the Giants for OF Gregor Blanco and P Jean Machi.
• Traded RP Adam Warren, C JR Murphy, and P Ty Hensley to the Cubs for 3B Mike Olt
• Traded 2B Jose Pirela and P Brady Lail to the Cubs for P Travis Wood
• Traded P Preston Claiborne and OF Ramon Flores to the Rays for P Brandon Gomes and OF Brandon Guyer
• Signed P Ryan Vogelsong to a 1 year $7 million contract
• Signed P Joel Peralta to a 2 year $4 million contract
• Signed IF Alberto Callaspo to a 1 year $2 million contract
• Signed IF Mark Reynolds to a minor league contract
Payroll: $222.4 million
Recommended Budget: $224 million
Oakland Athletics
• Declined the option on SS Hiroyuji Nakajima
• Traded P Scott Kazmir, P Jarrod Parker, OF Sam Fuld, 3B Renato Nunez, and P Raul Alcantara to the Nationals for OF Steven Souza and P Blake Treinen
Traded OF Josh Reddick and P Ryan Cook to the Indians for IF Jose Ramirez
• Traded IF Nick Punto, P Michael Ynoa and C Bruce Maxwell to the Astros for OF L.J. Hoes
• Signed P Max Scherzer to a 6 year $200 million deal with two options worth up to $57 million
• Signed P Gavin Floyd to a 1 year $5.5 million contract
• Signed 2B Rickie Weeks to a 1 year, $5 million contract with a $7 million club option ($1 mill buyout)
• Signed IF Mark Ellis, IF Jonathan Herrera, P Josh Outman to minor league contracts
Payroll: $84.8 million
Recommended Budget: $91 million
Philadelphia Phillies
• Declined the option on P Mike Adams
• Traded P Cliff Lee, P Antonio Bastardo and $15 million ($10 million in 2015) to the Mariners for P Dominic Leone, P Luis Gohara, and P Mayckol Guaipe
Traded P Cole Hamels, SS Jimmy Rollins and $33.5 million to the Yankees for P Luis Severino, P Ian Clarkin, P Caleb Smith, C Gary Sanchez, and 1B Greg Bird
• Traded 2B Chase Utley and $10 million to the Nationals for OF Michael Taylor, P Taylor Jordan, and P Austin Voth
• Traded 1B Ryan Howard and $50M to the Astros for 1B Telvin Nash
Traded P Jonathan Papelbon and $3 million to the White Sox for P Daniel Webb and 1B Rangel Ravelo
• Traded OF Marlon Byrd to the Rangers for P Wilmer Font and P Keone Kela
• Traded P Tyler Buckley to the Pirates for OF Jose Tabata
• Traded P Colton Murray to the Giants for P Tim Lincecum and $5 million
• Traded P Jonathan Pettibone to the Indians for 2B Joe Wendle and OF Carlos Moncrief
• Signed IF Jose Fernandez to a 6 year $80 million contract
• Signed IF Jhung-Ho Kang to a 4 year $20 million contract
• Signed P Chris Capuano to a 1 year $3 million contract
• Signed P Jerome Williams to a 1 year $2.5 million contract
• Signed SS Everth Cabrera to a 1 year $2 million deal with $2 million in incentives
• Signed P Brandon Beachy to a 1 year $3 million contract with up to $3 million in incentives
• Signed 1B Gaby Sanchez, SS Clint Barmes, P Kevin Correia, P Randy Wolf, and P Roberto Hernandez to minor league contracts
Payroll: $132.6 million
Recommended Budget: $178 million
Pittsburgh Pirates
• Non-tendered 1B Gaby Sanchez
• Traded 3B Pedro Alvarez, P Vance Worley, and OF Reese McGuire to the Padres for P Ian Kennedy, P Nick Vincent, 1B Tommy Medica, and IF Yangervis Solarte
• Traded OF JaCoby Jones, OF Andrew Lambo and P Jared Hughes to the Rays for P Jeremy Hellickson and OF Mikie Mathook
• Traded P Mark Melancon to the Rockies for IF Josh Rutledge, P Brooks Brown and 1B Ben Paulsen
• Traded OF Josh Bell to the Orioles for C Caleb Joseph
• Traded P Jeff Locke to the Marlins for P Arquimedes Caminero and P Mike Dunn
• Traded OF Jose Tabata to the Phillies for P Tyler Buckley
• Signed P Justin Masterson to a 3 year $30 million contract with a $12 million mutual option
• Signed P Pat Neshek to a 2 year $8.5 million contract
• Signed P Carlos Villanueva to a 1 year $2.5 million contract
• Signed P Logan Ondrusek to a 1 year $750,000 deal
• Signed IF Josh Wilson, IF Eduardo Nunez, P Jared Burton, and P Felipe Paulino to minor league contracts
Payroll: $81.7 million
Recommended Budget: $86 million
San Diego Padres
• Decline the option on P Josh Johnson
• Non-tendered IF Everth Cabrera and P Eric Stults
• Traded P Ian Kennedy, P Nick Vincent, 1B Tommy Medica, and IF Yangervis Solarte to the Pirates for 3B Pedro Alvarez, P Vance Worley, and OF Reese McGuire
• Traded OF Carlos Quentin and $2 million to the Blue Jays for 1B Adam Lind
• Traded OF Will Venable to the Cardinals for P Boone Whiting
• Traded OF/1B Yonder Alonso to the Rays for OF Kes Carter
• Traded P Robbie Erlin to the Mariners for 1B Xavier Scruggs
• Signed OF Yasmany Tomas to a 8 year $128.8 million contract
• Signed P Jake Peavy to a 2 year $26.5 million contract
• Signed P Tim Stauffer to a 2 year $3.4 million contract
• Signed C Wil Nieves, IF Chris Nelson, OF Reed Johnson, OF Nyjer Morgan, and P Heath Bell to minor league contracts
Payroll: $97.1 million
Recommended Budget: $99 million
San Francisco Giants
• Non-tendered 1B/OF Travis Ishikawa and P J.C. Gutierrez
• Traded P Tim Lincecum and $5 million to the Phillies for P Colton Murray
• Traded OF Gregor Blanco and P Jean Machi to the Yankees for OF Carlos Beltran and $8 million
• Traded P Kyle Crick and P Mike Kickham to the Red Sox for OF Jackie Bradley Jr.
• Traded P Stephen Johnson to the Cubs for P Kyuji Fujikawa
• Traded P Christian Jones to the Indians for P Josh Tomlin
• Traded P Javier Lopez to the Cardinals for C Ed Easley
• Signed 3B Pablo Sandoval to a 6 year $100 million contract
• Signed P Jason Hammel to a 4 year $48 million contract
• Signed P Sergio Romo to a 2 year $12 million contract
Signed C Ryan Doumit to a 1 year $1 million contract
• Signed 1B Travis Ishikawa, OF Nate Schierholtz and P Ronald Belisario to minor league contracts
Payroll: $177.7 million
Recommended Budget: $169 million
Seattle Mariners
• Traded P Dominic Leone, P Luis Gohara, and P Mayckol Guaipe to the Phillies for P Cliff Lee, P Antonio Bastardo and $15 million ($10 million in 2015)
• Traded P Cliff Lee, OF Jon Jay, P Matt Brazis and $8 million to the Tigers for P Anibal Sanchez
• Traded 1B Justin Smoak and P Anthony Fernandez to the Brewers for P Marco Estrada
• Traded C Tyler Marlette and P Victor Sanchez to the Cardinals for OF Jon Jay and 1B Xavier Scruggs
• Traded P Tyler Olson to the Tigers for OF Daniel Fields
• Traded 1B Xavier Scruggs to the Padres for P Robbie Erlin
• Traded OF Logan Bawcom to the Dodgers for C A.J. Ellis
• Signed IF Jed Lowrie to a 3 year $24 million contract with a $8 million club option and a $3 million buyout
Payroll: $133.1 million
Recommended Budget: $118 million
St. Louis Cardinals
• Exercise the option of P John Lackey
• Traded OF Jon Jay and 1B Xavier Scruggs to the Mariners for C Tyler Marlette and P Victor Sanchez
• Traded OF Randal Grichuk to the Twins for P Michael Cederoth
• Traded P Boone Whiting to the Padres for OF Will Venable
• Traded C Ed Easley to the Giants for P Javier Lopez
• Signed OF Nick Markakis to a 4 year $62 million contract
• Signed OF Mike Morse to a 3 year $30 million contract
• Signed P Luke Gregerson to a 3 year $18 million deal
• Signed P Zack Duke to a 3 year $10 million contract
Payroll: $122.5 million
Recommended Budget: $122 million
Tampa Bay Rays
• Exercised the option of IF Ben Zobrist
• Declined the option of P Joel Peralta
• Traded P Chris Archer, P Enny Romero, P Ryne Stanek, 2B Ryan Brett, P Blake Snell, 3B Richie Shaffer, and P Grant Balfour to the Cubs for 1B Paul Goldschmidt, P Eric Jokisch, P Justin Grimm
• Traded P Jeremy Hellickson and OF Mikie Mathook to the Pirates for OF JaCoby Jones, OF Andrew Lambo and P Jared Hughes
• Traded IF Ben Zobrist and P Taylor Guerreri to the Cubs for OF Albert Almora and 1B Dan Vogelbach
• Traded 1B James Loney, P Alex Colome, P Steven Geltz, IF Tim Beckham to the Brewers for IF Orlando Arcia, OF Victor Roache, and P David Goforth
• Traded IF Sean Rodriguez and $1.4 million to the Royals for P Louis Coleman, P Sam Selman, and P John Lamb
• Traded P Brandon Gomes and OF Brandon Guyer to the Yankees for P Preston Claiborne and OF Ramon Flores
• Traded OF Kes Carter to the Padres for OF/1B Yonder Alonso
• Signed OF Michael Cuddyer to a 2 year $22 million contract
• Signed P Rafael Soriano to a 2 year $20 million contract
• Signed P Kwan-Hyun Kim to a 6 year $29 million deal with two club options
• Signed OF Ryan Ludwick to a minor league contract
Payroll: $83.1 million
Recommended Budget: $84 million
Texas Rangers
• Declined the option of OF Alex Rios
Traded IF Jurickson Profar to the Blue Jays for P Aaron Sanchez and P Miguel Castro
• Traded P Wilmer Font and P Keone Kela to the Phillies for OF Marlon Byrd
• Signed OF Torii Hunter to a 1 year $8 million contract
• Signed P Colby Lewis to a 1 year $3 million contract
Payroll: $145.3 million
Recommended Budget: $149 million
Toronto Blue Jays
• Exercised the options of P J.A. Happ and 1B Adam Lind
• Declined the options of P Brandon Morrow, P Dustin McGowan, P Sergio Santos, and C Josh Thole
• Non-tendered IF Juan Francisco
• Traded SS Jose Reyes and $21 million to the Mets for P Jon Niese
• Traded P Aaron Sanchez and P Miguel Castro to the Rangers for IF Jurickson Profar
• Traded 1B Adam Lind to the Padres for OF Carlos Quentin and $2 million
• Traded P R.A. Dickey and C Josh Thole to the Royals for P Jeremy Guthrie, 2B Omar Infante and $2.2 million
• Traded SS Richard Urena and P John Stilson to the Reds for P Homer Bailey
• Traded P Austin Biebens-Dirkx to the Brewers for OF Geraldo Parra and $2 million
• Traded OF Anthony Gose to the Angels for C Hank Conger
• Signed P Jesse Crain to a 1 year $4 million contract
• Signed P Burke Badenhop to a 3 year $7 million contract
• Signed P Jim Johnson to a 1 year $1.5 million deal with a $1.5 million option ($500k buyout)
• Signed OF Grady Sizemore to a minor league deal
• Signed C Chris Gimenez, P Matt Belisle and P Dustin McGowan to minor league contracts
Payroll: $136.1 million
Recommended Budget: $148 million
Washington Nationals
• Declined the options on 1B Adam LaRoche and P Rafael Soriano
Traded P Jordan Zimmerman and OF Brian Goodwin to the Royals for P Kyle Zimmer, IF Hunter Dozier, 1B Ryan O’Hearn and P Ramon Torres
• Traded OF Michael Taylor, P Taylor Jordan, and P Austin Voth to the Phillies for 2B Chase Utley and $10 million
• Traded P Pedro Severino and $2 million to the Brewers for P Will Smith
• Traded P Bryan Harper to the Twins for P Ricky Nolasco, OF Travis Harrison and $2 million
• Signed P Joba Chamberlain to a 3 year $7 million contract
• Signed P Brandon Morrow to a 2 year $10 million contract
Payroll: $163.8 million
Recommended Budget: $147 million
It was again a year full of fireworks and fun, and I want to thank all thirty participants for their time and commitment. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the experience, I am all ears.
Also use this to give your opinion on transactions (but please be respectful to the GM!) and for the GMs, talk a little bit about what happened behind the scenes.When Ashley Prichard ran for homecoming queen at Marshall University this fall, she knew there would be negative reactions to her campaign. She lived with bullying her whole life. From a young age, when peers would tell her she was a Satanist on the playground, to last summer, when two men pointed a gun at her and told her it was “freak hunting season.”
In fact, it was this bullying that encouraged Prichard to run for homecoming queen. “I wanted to prove a point, that differences don’t necessarily determine our place in society and if you work hard you can be anything,” said Prichard.
Prichard identifies as goth, which means she dresses differently from most people living in West Virginia, and these differences have caused her a lifetime of taunting. She shares some of these experiences on YouTube, where she is known as lonelygothgirl2.
In her YouTube series “Goth In Public,” she chronicles what it’s like to identify as a goth growing up in the “Bible Belt;” a nickname for the regions in south-eastern and south-central United States where being a conservative evangelical Protestant is a significant part of the culture. While some of her stories are positive and feature children telling her how beautiful she is, many are disturbing. In one video, she talks about a man who started performing Hail Marys after noticing her. In several videos, she discusses people who follow her as she runs errands just to yell insults at her.
Perhaps what is most frightening is that this is not an isolated incident. “We (fellow goths) can sit there and share incidences for hours. It’s almost universal, and it’s scary,” said Prichard.
In November, Canadian man Calvin Nicol was physically attacked by a group of men who mocked his heavily-modified appearance during the assault. In 2007, Sophie Lancaster and her boyfriend were attacked in England by a group of teenage boys who often insulted their appearance. Lancaster went into a coma and died a few days later. In 1997, Brian Deneke was killed in a deliberate hit and run in Texas. Deneke’s death is often referred to as an example of someone who was killed for being “punk.”
After Lancaster’s death, The Sophie Lancaster Foundation was established; an organization dedicated to spreading awareness about assaults against members of alternative subcultures as well as campaigning to have the United Kingdom hate crime laws extended to individuals who identify with those subcultures.
Kate Conboy-Greenwood, The Sophie Lancaster Foundation campaign manager said, “Hate crime is being extended to cover alternatives (in the UK), which we are lobbying for, as we feel it is any individual’s right to express who they are. Yes, they choose the clothes and music, but it is about who they are.”
Conboy-Greenwood explained that by extending hate crime laws to members of alternative subcultures, the assaults are taken more seriously, and the victims have more support.
Listening to Prichard, it’s obvious that the issue of assaults targeting Goths needs to be publicized in the United States as well. “I don’t want other kids to have to go through that,” said Prichard. “More often than not, law enforcement doesn’t take these attacks seriously, leading to more violence.”
While campaigning for homecoming queen, Prichard had her posters ripped down, urinated on and written over. “It doesn’t really matter,” said Prichard about the vandalism. “I touched Marshall students. I made a point, and the amount of positivity shows how much times are changing.”
Prichard used her campaign not only as a chance to debunk the negative stereotypes that surround Goths and subcultures, but as an opportunity to raise money for The Trevor Project, an organization that provides crisis intervention to LGTBQ youths.
Prichard may not have been crowned homecoming queen, but she’s not bitter about it. Instead. she’s happy that she had a chance to stand up for herself and what she believes in. “Based upon what’s been told to me, consistently,it seems that many people see alternative people as immature, lowlifes, too free spirited, the products of bad parenting, unwilling to contribute to society or jobless slobs living in their mom’s basement,” Prichard said, but she’s not letting the misconceptions control her life. In a few months she will be graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and plans on getting her PHD.
“People may harm you, but it’s because they’re afraid,” said Prichard. “Afraid of what a black-clad kid stands for. Challenge the status quo.”
Have a thought about this piece? We encourage your civil communication with our writers. Tweet us at @fembotmag or reach out to us on our Facebook page.
Image via Bryan Ledgard.
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Beside Ayika, Mizumi was still waiting patiently on her short stool for something to happen. Now and then her eyes glanced around the fire-lit room with the vague suspicion that she might be missing some detail. She did not see any change but for now she had managed to subsume her anxiety beneath her curiosity. Despite Mua's proclamation of the intent to show her spirits she could clearly perceive no new arrival.
Mama Mua was curious now as well, but for obviously different reasons. She brought her brows together as she looked at the spirit sitting cross legged in the middle of her fire. She said:
"I don't know you."
Mizumi jerked back in surprise at the fortuneteller speaking to thin air and opened her mouth to respond before Ayika put a hand on her friend's knee. Mua did not notice this interaction. She was still looking at the little orange man. "I was expecting to see the Southern Girding Shadow or Dark Streams. Before, when I..."
The spirit barked a soundless laugh. "Ha! You sure think a lot of yourself don't you, human? What, next are you going to be wanting Lord Blind Dog setting up shop outside your door? The Wall's consort and Chained River's child, really? But first thing's first, what've you got for me in this world? Exchange of gifts and all that."
Mua was irritated. This was not what she had expected. But Ayika had seen her grandmother act out the spirit ceremonies before, even if Ayika was not sure they had ever been attended. She cleared her throat. "Erm...Hello."
The glowing spirit spun in place without changing posture as if he was on a pivot. Now he was facing Ayika and she could see through his ephemeral flesh to where Mua was frowning at the back of his head. He said, "That's more like normal. Was hoping you'd speak up. Well, come on, give what you've got. What is it?" He held out a clawed hand. The tips sputtered and sparked.
Ayika flicked her eyes over and saw Mama Mua holding her tongue for now. Mizumi was inspecting the coals of the fire very suspiciously as she tried to follow Ayika's eye-line in this conversation with invisible air. Ayika had somehow seized control of this interaction from Mua and now had to respond to the spirit. She swallowed quickly and hoped that Mizumi did not see that. "Information is what we want so information is what you get." But what to tell him?
She studied his, for lack of a better term, body language. This little spirit was grasping, searching. Most of his words were questions. There was a desperation. A searching for a place. And he was fiery. Spirits rarely cared about humans or this world in general. What would such a being value? Mua had said that things in this world were echoed by the spirits. Grandma had said spirits had a need to be echoes.
Ayika put her palms down on her knees, crossing her ankles below her stool to sublty mimic the spirit's posture. "Things change frequently in this world. And I bet it is hard to keep up on current events in the spirit world. Even fire works differently now. There are little sticks now, sticks dipped in special clays that you can flick once against stone and make a flame. They call them matches. Any person can do this as easily as an Islander bender. This is new, I doubt all the spirit world knows this yet."
The spirit seemed very pleased with this, though he tried to hide it. "Hmm? There are? Well of course I suspected. I was just over in this world two hundred years ago, did you know? I see things, don't I?"
Mua stamped her feet on the ground before her stool. "All right. That is enough. Ya clearly accepted her offerin. Now how'd a little thing like you get here to answer my callin!"
The spirit in the fire puffed himself up as he declined to swivel to face the irritated woman. "That is hardly the proper way to address..." It abruptly cut off as he peaked out of the corner of its glowing eye and saw Mua had plucked forth a small clay disk from her sleeve. Ayika got the impression the spirit was now thanking its immaterial nature that stopped sweat from springing up across its suddenly nervous brow.
Mua twisted the corner of her mouth up in a smile. "I thought so. You may be fire but ya are bound by the stone traditions of this land. But such a little thing as you does not have the power to cross over the veil at this paltry calling. Especially a spirit of fire. This is a land of earth and the calling was by water souls. Explain how ya wormed your way in front of all the others of your kind." She held the clay disk in both hands as if threatening to snap it with a twist. There was a symbol drawn on it in some dried dark liquid. Ayika did not recognize the shape.
"Hey, hey. Is that needed?" the little spirit asked in a worried tone. He seemed even smaller now as he rapidly swiveled back and forth to face both Mua and Ayika. "I didn't sneak in! I hardly had a choice, didn't I? Things are getting awfully crowded on the other side. All the big ones are either already holding their door or prepping for what's building. The usual crossers are just staying over since they can so easily now. Even all those new doors are claimed by the grabbers as soon as they pop up. For one of mine, sure this calling's by earth and water but with the way things are around here right now I might as well use an advantage. It's about time mine got a leg up here, right? And you humans can't complain about me popping over what with what you're keeping across the worlds, can you?" He squirmed as he looked at the little disk in Mua's hand. "Come on, enough already. Let her ask her gift won't you? The veil won't be like this forever and I don't mean to miss it. Hasn't been something like this in ages and even Lords' court can't do nothing!"
Mizumi was thoroughly lost in what to her seemed like sporadic outbursts of half a conversation. She had gather that there was something that she could not see or hear but watching Ayika and Mua's reactions to the silent speech had greatly unsettled her. All she could discern was that there was some sort of fire spirit here. For a moment her memory was back in the fire temple back home listening to the ancient chants of the sages. She shivered from memory of the blasting heat.
Ayika gathered her thoughts. She had given information as a ritual gift and so she was entitled to information. Apparently Mua's questions did not count and the little spirit in the fire was just flustered enough to answer them outside the terms of the ritual. But what to ask? What would the spirit know?"
"Spirit," she began. Mua narrowed her eyes at Ayika continuing to preside but gave the slightest of nods. "You said things are happening in the spirit world. Things are happening here too. Things we need to find out more about. People are putting on masks and when they do, they begin to show more than human power. Something that is very different from bending. They must be drawing this energy from the spirit world so you must have some knowledge. My question is who is giving the mask wearers their orders? Who is their leader?"
"What? How should I know what humans are doing to...?" The orange man |
is a very different administration than the United States has had in the past.”
And Trump repeated his vow to never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea that could threaten the U.S. and the rest of the world. “The regime has pursued nuclear weapons with the deluded hope that it could blackmail its way to the ultimate objective,” Trump said, calling it an “objective we are not going to let it have.”
U.S. MILITARY MIGHT: The president again touted America’s unparalleled military might as ready to counter any North Korean threat. “The United States under my administration is completely rebuilding its military and is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to the newest and finest military equipment anywhere in the world being built right now,” Trump said. “I want peace through strength.”
Trump referenced the three U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups, which are preparing to stage a rare joint exercise in the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula as a show of force, but curiously said the U.S carriers were “loaded to the maximum with magnificent F-35 and F-18 fighter jets.” U.S. carriers will have F-35s in the future, but for now the F-35s in the region are on the ground at bases in Japan. Marine F-35Bs were joined last week by Air Force F-35As.
NORTH KOREA REACTS: According to CNN, which has a correspondent in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, officials there were closely watching Trump, but said they weren't listening. “We don't care about what that mad dog may utter because we've already heard enough,” officials in Pyongyang authorized to speak for the government told CNN.
“The United States is threatening us with nuclear aircraft carriers and strategic bombers. They are challenging us with the most vicious and demeaning provocations but we will counter those threats by bolstering the power of justice in order to take out the root cause of aggression and war," the officials said.
A commentary in the state-controlled North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun published before Trump’s speech said U.S. threats show why North Korea must continue to develop its nuclear capability. “The present grave situation once again clearly shows that Trump's mad remarks of ‘total destruction’ and ‘annihilation’ of the DPRK have resulted in military gambling and that it is just the U.S. which poses threat to the DPRK's existence and development and brings disastrous nuclear war to the Korean peninsula.”
ONE THING TRUMP DIDN’T DO: Korea watchers were waiting to see if Trump would put North Korea on the U.S. list of nations that support terrorism. Speaking to reporters on the plane, White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said it could still happen. “He just said that he would make a decision or have a decision at the end of the trip,” Sanders said.
RED CARPET WELCOME: Trump is now in China, where President Xi Jinping has literally staged a red carpet welcome. Trump has said China has been “very, very helpful,” and has praised Xi, who has recently consolidated his power as a “strong leader.” Television images show the president and first lady Melania Trump getting a private tour of the Forbidden City, Beijing’s ancient imperial palace, and sitting down for a performance by young opera students before dinner. Trump said afterward that he’s “having a great time” in China.
SANCTIONING BANKS: The Senate Banking Committee approved legislation on Tuesday that would sanction banks in China and other countries if they continue to do business with North Korea. “This bill sends a clear message to the world that the entire U.S. government is committed to the strongest possible sanctions against North Korea,” Sen. Pat Toomey said during a Senate Banking Committee markup of the legislation.
The BRINK Act passed unanimously out of the committee Tuesday morning, in a vote timed to take place hours before Trump arrived in China. If passed into law, the bill would apply to financial institutions around the world, but China is the top target after decades of throwing economic lifelines to the pariah state.
NO SURPRISE DMZ VISIT: Trump attempted to make a surprise visit to the Demilitarized Zone before leaving South Korea, but his helicopter turned back due to bad weather. The White House had initially said Trump would not visit the 2.5-mile-wide strip of land that separates North and South Korea, with one senior administration official dismissing the traditional visit as a “cliché.”
Reporters traveling with the president said press secretary Sanders summoned them early this morning in Seoul to get ready to accompany Trump on the surprise visit to the DMZ. But Marine One was forced to turn back after 18 minutes due to heavy fog, and did not take off again after an hour of waiting to see if the conditions cleared.
Good Wednesday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre ( @jamiejmcintyre), National Security Writer Travis J. Tritten ( @travis_tritten) and Senior Editor David Brown ( @dave_brown24). Email us here for tips, suggestions, calendar items and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter @dailyondefense.
HAPPENING TODAY: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is in Brussels today for a two-day NATO defense ministers meeting. Speaking to reporters en route from Finland, Mattis said he’s already received informal commitments to send more troops to Afghanistan from many of the U.S. allies he met with this week in Helsinki, members of what’s known as the Northern Group. “There was feedback from a number of nations, both formally and informally, about what they're looking to uplift their numbers based on the American uplift,” Mattis said. “Full support for the South Asia strategy, and that was demonstrated by a number of them saying they're going to add troops.”
In a news conference yesterday ahead of the opening session, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO was prepared to send 3,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. “There will be more troops; the current level is around 13,000; the new level will be around 16,000,” Stoltenberg said. “We will not go back in combat operations but we need to strengthen the train and assist and advise mission, the Resolute Support Mission, to help the Afghans break the stalemate, to send a clear message to Taliban, to the insurgents, that they will not win on the battleground, the only way they can achieve anything is by sitting down at the negotiating table and be part of a peaceful negotiated political solution.”
HOW MANY TROOPS? On his plane, Mattis was asked to clarify whether the 3,000 troops mentioned by Stoltenberg was in addition to the 3,000 the U.S. is sending, which would bring the total force to roughly 20,000. Mattis said he hadn’t seen the context of Stoltenberg’s remarks but made clear he was expecting additional forces from other NATO countries on top of the reinforcements America is sending. “We're sending, as you know, a little over 3,000 — over 3,000 U.S. troops, and then there's more coming from the NATO nations, but also the partner nations, the non-NATO nations that are there, as well,” Mattis said.
AIR WAR SHIFT: Now that ISIS holds less than five percent of the territory it once held, the U.S.-led air campaign in Iraq and Syria has fewer targets. That is giving U.S. commanders more flexibility to send U.S. warplanes based in the region to attack the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to the senior U.S. Air Force officer in Iraq. “We can take an air asset and push it to Afghanistan one day, and the next day it can fly over Iraq and Syria,” Brig. Gen. Andrew Croft told reporters a conference call from Iraq yesterday. Croft says the number of bombs dropped in Iraq and Syria is down by 60 to 70 percent for October, compared to the first nine months of the year, when the battle against ISIS was raging.
LOOMING INSURGENCY: The Institute for the Study of war is warning of “looming insurgency” that would reverse U.S. gains against ISIS and facilitate the return of Salafi-jihadi groups to the area. “Turkey and ISIS are exacerbating tensions between local Sunni Arabs and the Syrian Kurdish YPG, which dominates the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Turkish support to anti-Kurdish insurgent groups in SDF-held areas may support the reemergence of Al Qaeda, which also seeks to exploit ethnic strife and hostility toward the SDF, in northern Syria.” The full assessment is here.
BIN LADEN’S BACK: The Middle East Media Research Institute reports an audio recording by Hamza bin Laden, the son of Osama bin Laden, has been released by an al Qaeda affiliate. In the recording, which appears to be from sometime in the past 12 months, Hamza calls on Muslims to target Americans in revenge for his father. “I invite Muslims generally to take revenge [on] the Americans, the murderers of the Shaykh... specifically from those who participated in this heinous crime…” Hamza goes on to acknowledge the failure of the Arab Spring, and invites Muslims, especially young people, to prepare for a new wave of armed uprisings, according to MEMRI.
McCAIN’S REFRAIN, ‘NO STRATEGY’: Sen. John McCain took to the Senate floor yesterday to return to one of his favorite subjects, his repeated criticism that the Trump administration has no clear policy in the Middle East. “Our power and influence is diminishing in the Middle East as a result of our lack of direction, and the vacuum has been filled by forces working contrary to American interests,” McCain said.
“In Iraq, Iranian forces are working to sew discord as we recently saw in Kirkuk, where the presence of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani exacerbated tensions among the Kurds and the government in Baghdad. Iranian-backed militias continue to gain power and aim to turn next year’s election into a setback that drives American influence out of Iraq. Meanwhile, the scourge of ISIS remains despite recent military successes. The terrorist attack last week in Manhattan shows its persistent appeal; its rise in the wake of U.S. withdrawal years ago demonstrates the danger of leaving before winning the peace.”
McCAIN MOVING NOMINEES: After months of delay, there was brisk movement on Trump’s Pentagon nominees in the Senate on Tuesday, with an overwhelming 91-7 confirmation floor vote of John Gibson to be deputy chief management officer. The Senate Armed Services Committee held a voice vote to move the president’s pick for Army secretary, Mark Esper, and three other nominations to the floor where they too await final votes. The committee also held a hearing on four other nominees Tuesday and has scheduled testimony from four more on Thursday morning. McCain had been holding up nominees over a dispute with the Pentagon, but told the Washington Examiner he plans to keep up the quickened pace of hearings next week as well. Pentagon confirmations are still lagging nine months into the Trump administration with just 17 of the 57 Senate-confirmable seats filled.
NOMINEE SAYS GUN LAWS ARE ‘INSANE’: For most Pentagon nominees, the approach to Senate Armed Services confirmation hearings involves keeping their heads down, avoiding hot-button political issues and not giving any responses that could annoy McCain. Dean Winslow, a Stanford University professor and Trump’s pick to head up the military health system, did not follow that approach. During his committee testimony Tuesday, Winslow jumped headlong into the heated U.S. gun debate, saying laws allowing civilians to purchase long guns like the Texas church shooter used are “insane.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen specifically asked him whether the shooter, Devin Patrick Kelley, should have been dishonorably discharged from the Air Force for his domestic violence conviction. Winslow added this at the end of his answer: “I’d also like to, and I may get in trouble with other members of the committee, just say how insane it is that in the United States of America a civilian can go out and buy a semi-automatic assault rifle like an AR-15, which apparently was the weapon that was used.” McCain, seemingly annoyed by the remark, jumped in. “I don’t think that’s your area of responsibility or expertise,” McCain said. Shaheen also clarified that she was asking a different question.
ABORTION TOO: The gun law comment was not Winslow’s only brush with a controversial, non-defense issue during the confirmation hearing. He also ran afoul of McCain for a comment in his written testimony to the Armed Services Committee about providing abortions to women in the military. “I also believe that therapeutic abortion services should be provided by the military in appropriately staffed facilities,” Winslow wrote in the submitted questionnaire. McCain read the quote aloud and asked pointedly, “What do you mean by that?” Winslow said he was glad for the opportunity to clarify his response and that he understands the military has long been barred by law from providing abortions in most cases. Therapeutic abortions refer to situations in which the mother’s life is in danger, he said. “You better clean it up, doctor, or you are going to have trouble getting it through the Senate,” McCain warned about the abortion comment.
DEFENSE BUILD-UP BRIEFS: The Heritage Foundation has put out a new policy brief, just as the House and Senate are poised to finish up the National Defense Authorization Act, that calls for any military build-up to start right away, not next fiscal year as the Pentagon says it plans to do. “The 2018 budget is the right place to begin rebuilding the Armed Forces. Congress should follow the Heritage-recommended amount of $632 billion for 2018,” according to the brief. To get there, it says lawmakers should lift Budget Control Act caps that are set to hold spending at $549 billion.
However, another brief released by the Bipartisan Policy Center throws cold water on any optimism of raising the BCA caps to the $632 billion figure for 2018. “Such increases of around $83 billion in one year seem very unlikely,” according to the brief. In fact, it is appearing less and less likely the Pentagon will see a substantial hike at all. “While some analysts continue to predict a substantial increase in defense outlays in the next fiscal year, this expectation no longer conforms with the facts on the ground,” the brief says. Looming deficits, the BCA cap and dismay among lawmakers that the U.S. has spent $1.3 trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan are all part of the reason.
TEXAS SHOOTER HEARINGS? The Republican leaders of both the House and Senate armed services committees are vowing to hold the Air Force accountable for an error that allowed Kelley to purchase guns and kill 26 people during a Sutherland Springs, Texas, church service. McCain indicated that could include public hearings. “What do you think we just did with the USS McCain? Yes, we will be holding them accountable,” he told the Washington Examiner when asked if he would be calling in witnesses to testify.
Rep. Mac Thornberry said House Armed Services is beginning its “own comprehensive oversight” of the Air Force role in the Texas mass shooting, which staff said could include hearings, following news that the Defense Department Inspector General will investigate. “News that the Air Force failed to notify the FBI of Devin Kelley's military criminal record is appalling,” Thornberry said in a released statement.
MAJOR MISS: The Pentagon has known for at least two decades about failures to give military criminal history information to the FBI, including the type of information the Air Force didn't report about the Texas church gunman who had assaulted his wife and stepson while an airman, the Associated Press reported.
John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said he is working on legislation that would require swift reporting of military criminal history data. The requirement currently is based on an internal Pentagon rule that does not have the force of law.
An FBI database known as the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which contains information for use in background checks on prospective gun buyers, had only one Pentagon entry for domestic violence convictions as of Dec. 31, 2016. Most federal agencies had zero entries in that category.
In 2012, in addition to his conviction in the domestic violence case, Kelley had escaped from a mental health center, a Houston TV station reported Tuesday, citing a police report. The Air Force said federal privacy laws prohibited it from commenting on the report.
TURF WAR OVER DRUGS: The Food and Drug Administration is pushing back on an attempt by Congress to give the Department of Defense the power to approve new drugs and medical devices used on the battlefield, Robert King writes. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Tuesday that he is seeking an alternative to proposed language in the National Defense Authorization Act, which is being negotiated by House and Senate conference members this week.
The alternative seeks to head off an agency brawl over the authority for approving new drugs used by service members. “We think keeping it within the FDA’s context is the right thing,” Gottlieb said. He said his compromise would speed approval of drugs and devices designed for troops.
THE RUNDOWN
Defense News: Report: Full Cost Of U.S. Wars Overseas Approaching $6 Trillion
Stars and Stripes: General’s nomination stalls after Army finds he mistreated congressional staffer
Wall Street Journal: NATO To Discuss Bolstering Cyberwarfare Capabilities
Agence France-Presse: South Korea ‘In Talks To Buy Nuclear Submarine’ From US – Reports
Bloomberg: Japan In Talks With U.S. On Buying Aegis Missile Defense
Reuters: Sweden Seeks To Buy $1 Billion U.S. Patriot Air Defense Missile System
Navy Times: Shoddy Seamanship To Blame In Lake Champlain Collision
USNI News: McCain to Navy civilian leadership nominees: ‘We want an audit’
The Diplomat: Trump, Moon Reach Final Agreement To Scrap Warhead Limits For Ballistic Missiles
New York Times: A leading Afghan TV station is attacked in Kabul
Defense Tech: ‘A terrifying experience’: Senator discusses Navy hypoxia demo
Navy Times: Lawmaker Demands Regular Updates On Combating Pilot Oxygen Deprivation
Roll Call: Play on Congress’ power to declare war gets a showing in the Capitol
Defense News: U.S. installs final ground-based missile interceptor to counter ICBM threat
KOAA-TV: Cadet candidate found responsible for racist messages at USAFA Prep school
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | NOV. 8
7 a.m. 2425 Wilson Blvd. Breakfast forum with acting Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. ausa.org
7:45 a.m. 5151 Pooks Hill Rd. The 4th annual ISR & C2 Battle Management U.S. conference with Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, military deputy for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition. isrusa.iqpc.com
8:45 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. 2017 International Conference on Cyber Conflict with Sen. Martin Heinrich. aci.cvent.com
9:30 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. The Trump administration and the future of the ROK-U.S. alliance with Sen. Cory Gardner. heritage.org
10 a.m. Dirksen 342. Nomination of Kirstjen Nielsen to be secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. hsgac.senate.gov
10 a.m. Rayburn 2167. Moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem: Challenges and opportunities. oversight.house.gov
10 a.m. Rayburn 2172. Joint subcommittee hearing on objectives and resources for the President’s plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan with Alice Wells, acting assistant secretary of state. foreignaffairs.house.gov
2:30 p.m. 1789 Massachusetts Ave. NW. A strategy for a brighter future in Libya: Redefining America’s role. aei.org
3 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. The civilian elements of the new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan with Ahmad Nader Nadery, chairman of Afghanistan’s civil service commission. atlanticcouncil.org
3 p.m. Senate 116. A closed hearing with Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, about her recent trip to Africa. foreign.senate.gov
4 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. A book talk with Nathalie Nguyen about America's forgotten allies, the soldiers of the Republic of Vietnam. csis.org
THURSDAY | NOV. 9
7 a.m. 901 Massachusetts Ave. NW. The 5th Annual Defense One Summit with Gen. Stephen Wilson, Air Force vice chief of staff; Rep. Elise Stefanik; and former Ambassador Wendy Sherman. defenseone.com
8 a.m. 5151 Pooks Hill Rd. The 4th annual ISR & C2 Battle Management U.S. conference. isrusa.iqpc.com
8 a.m. 2401 M St. N.W. Defense Writers Group breakfast with Sen. James Inhofe. centermediasecurity.org
10 a.m. Dirksen G-50. Nominations hearing for Robert McMahon to be assistant secretary of defense for logistics and materiel readiness; R.D. James to be assistant secretary of the Army for civil works; Bruce Jette to be assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology; and Shon Manasco to be assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs. armed-services.senate.gov
10 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. Turkey, Europe and the U.S.: New challenges and changing dynamics. brookings.edu
10:30 a.m. Rayburn 2212. Lt. Gen. Chris Nowland, deputy Air Force chief of staff for operations; Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, Naval Air Forces commander; Lt. Gen. Steven Rudder, deputy Marine Corps commandant for aviation; and Maj. Gen. William Gayler, commander of the Army Aviation Center of Excellence testify on aviation readiness. armedservices.house.gov
12 p.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. Mounting challenges to U.S. naval power: A book discussion with “Seablindness” author Seth Cropsey and Rep. Mike Gallagher. hudson.org
2 p.m. 1789 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Japanese internationalism in an era of upheaval. aei.org
MONDAY | NOV. 13
10 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Is there really a military readiness crisis in the United States? brookings.edu
1 p.m. Preparing military leadership for the future with Rear Adm. Jeffrey Harley, president of the U.S. Naval War College; Brig. Gen. William Bowers, president of the Marine Corps University; Maj. Gen. John Kem, commandant of the U.S. Army War College; and Vice Adm. Frederick Roegge, president of the National Defense University. csis.org
4 p.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. A historical discussion about “When the World Seemed New: George H.W. Bush and the End of the Cold War” with author Jeffrey Engel. wilsoncenter.org
TUESDAY | NOV. 14
8 a.m. 2101 Wilson Blvd. Robotics division quarterly meeting. ndia.org
8 a.m. 45425 Holiday Dr. Navy League board of directors meeting. navyleague.org
11 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. Winter is coming: Russia, the Baltic states and U.S. policy in Europe. heritage.org
2 p.m Sustaining U.S. leadership against nuclear terrorism and proliferation: A conversation with Christopher Ford, special assistant to the president and senior director for weapons of mass destruction and counterproliferation. hudson.org
WEDNESDAY | NOV. 15
8 a.m. 45425 Holiday Dr. Navy League board of directors meeting. navyleague.org
9 a.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Kleptocratic regimes and national security: A pervasive threat and how it can be neutralized. hudson.org
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Prospects and challenges of building the 350-ship Navy with three former service secretaries. csis.org
4 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Book discussion of “Russia's Border Wars and Frozen Conflicts.” atlanticcouncil.orgWatching Sam Whitelock take over the captaincy of the Crusaders reminds me of when Zinzan Brooke took over the captaincy of the Blues when Sean Fitzpatrick, the All Blacks captain, was in the team.
He just takes the workload away from All Blacks captain Kieran Read, and by taking the captaincy mantle on he has been brilliant. An unassuming type he has shown, in a would-be could-be sort of way, that if anything ever happened to Read his leadership qualities are such that the guys are able to get behind him and just follow so easily.
Editor's Picks Barrett challenging Carter's status as best No. 10 Beauden Barrett has been instrumental in transforming the Hurricanes into an enlightening, innovative, state-of-the-art outfit that is defending their 2016 Super Rugby title with panache.
ARU rejects Brumbies, Rebels Super merger The ARU insists the Brumbies will not be included in any discussions around cutting Australia's Super Rugby participation from five to four teams. 1 Related
When it comes to looking at the All Blacks locking role, Whitelock has tended to be overshadowed by Brodie Retallick in many people's eyes. Retallick has won the World Rugby Player of the Year award but Whitelock is not that far behind.
Retallick is an absolute beast and really, really physical, but Whitelock comes across as the brains and the lineout technician. He just goes about his work, does his job and never lets you down.I think back to that vital lineout against South Africa, on their throw, in the Rugby World Cup semifinal in 2015 when it was an absolute must that New Zealand win the ball to deny the Springboks any chance of a late surprise, and Whitelock just nailed it by beating a player as good as Victor Matfield to the ball.
(Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)
Clearly his leadership, and the way he plays, he has the respect from all the players. He's got that Crusaders team just absolutely humming and they look like they are having so much fun.
That's the key part: nothing is strained, pushed or forced, the offloads are brilliant, and, judged on the tries they are scoring, it looks like the team are just having a ball; and I haven't even mentioned Scott Robertson, a debut coach at Super Rugby level who has come in and taken the team up a notch.
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He, again, is a very relaxed character and he's a little bit different, and it looks like the players love it.
They may have had a couple of lucky refereeing calls, but I think from where they started the season, and the amount of injuries they had, and the games they have stolen in the final stages, you didn't expect this sort of situation and I recall mentioning one of those games might be later regarded as the turning point of the season.
You get a couple of lucky wins under your belt and you grow in confidence. They're not winning by one point now or narrow margins; they're now actually making a statement and bringing back their heavy artillery from injury.
We started the season looking at the Chiefs and thinking they were the benchmark, but now the Crusaders have clearly laid down a marker; the benchmark has been lifted and they are saying 'We're the team you've got to catch'.
David Havili MARTIN HUNTER/AFP/Getty Images
Relieving Read of the captaincy hasn't done him any harm. There's a spring in his step and he's gone into a team where everyone else is enjoying it. There is a burden when you have the captaincy, but under these circumstances all he has got to worry about is getting his form back and clearly he is doing that by going about his business and wanting to play.
I think it is also a credit to the management they way they have handled his transition back into the side. It has been done very well.
What has also impressed me is the way the younger players in the side have really come forward. The likes of George Bridge, Richie Mo'unga, Jack Goodhue and David Havili, there's a whole bunch of them, which is great and exciting not only for Crusaders rugby but also for New Zealand rugby. It's a really good sign.
I possibly expected a bit more from the Stormers but really it was all about the Crusaders.
The Hurricanes did the job against the Brumbies, scored some tries, and again there are players who are performing really well. The Brumbies were pretty average opposition.
Really, it wasn't a good weekend for the Aussies. When we thought things were already at rock bottom, even that situation was surpassed when the Waratahs lost to the Kings. It was terrible for Australian rugby.
(Photo by Kerry Marshall/Getty Images)
You can't help but feel for Daryl Gibson. You have to wonder what some of those players are thinking. To go and lose to the Kings with the likes of the cattle they have in New South Wales... if everyone of those players went out and played to a level they should have because that's their reputation and they've got some good players in there, there's no way they would lose.
But if they drop their standards, their performance drops and they play down to the Kings' level, it is an embarrassing moment for them, especially when the fate of the Rebels and the Force is still in limbo. While they would never get rid of the Waratahs, you have to feel for the Rebels and Force who have to look at the Waratahs and think 'What sort of message are we getting here?'.
The Force played with a point to prove in Perth and gave the Chiefs a hurry-up. The Chiefs won't be pleased with their standards at the moment, especially after we, and many others, saw them as the benchmark earlier in the season. That's a couple of hiccups in as many weeks but they are good enough. They've got the team to bounce back and be there at the end.Author Salman Rushdie arrives at the Vanity Fair party to begin the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival in New York, April 17, 2012. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
PARIS (Reuters) - British author Salman Rushdie, who lived in hiding for nine years under a death sentence from Iran’s supreme leader, said in an interview published on Thursday that something had gone wrong at the heart of Islam.
Rushdie told Le Monde newspaper that his years fleeing the 1989 fatwa from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had forced him to pay close attention to a radicalization of the Muslim world.
“Something has gone wrong at the heart of Islam. It is quite recent. I remember when I was young, many cities in the Muslim world were cosmopolitan cities with a lot of culture,” he said in an interview published in French.
“For me, it is a tragedy that this culture has regressed to this point, like a self-inflicted wound. The Islam in which I grew up was open, influenced by Sufism and Hinduism, and not like the one which is spreading rapidly at the moment.”
The fatwa, in response to his 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses”, made Rushdie synonymous with the tussle between freedom of expression and the need to respect religious sensitivities. A memoir of his nine years in hiding following the fatwa was published this week.
The interview was conducted on September 12, just as a film mocking the Prophet Mohammad sparked violent protests across the Islamic world. These included a deadly attack in Libya which killed the U.S. ambassador and three embassy staff.
The California-made film, and a series of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published by a French satirical weekly on Wednesday, have revived international debate over free speech, religion and the right to offend. Many Muslims consider any representation of Allah or the Prophet Mohammad blasphemous.
“There is a limit beyond which you cannot blame the West any more,” Rushdie told Le Monde. “Having said that, if there was the slightest sign that Muslim society was able to create an open democracy, I would change my opinion.”
This week an Iranian religious foundation increased its reward for the killing of Rushdie, in response to the film mocking Mohammad.The Effect of Substance Use Disorder Treatment Use on Crime: Evidence from Public Insurance Expansions and Health Insurance Parity Mandates
NBER Working Paper No. 20537
Issued in October 2014
NBER Program(s):Health Care, Health Economics, Law and Economics
We examine the effect of increasing the substance use disorder (SUD) treatment rate on reducing violent and property crime rates, based on county-level panels of SUD treatment and crime data between 2001 and 2008 across the United States. To address the potential endogeneity of the SUD treatment rate with respect to crime rate, we exploit the exogenous variation in the SUD treatment rate induced by two state-level policies, namely insurance expansions under the Health Insurance Flexibility and Accountability (HIFA) waivers and parity mandates for SUD treatment. Once we address the endogeneity issue, we are able to demonstrate an economically meaningful reduction in the rates of robbery, aggravated assault and larceny theft attributable to an increased SUD treatment rate. A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that a 10 percent relative increase in the SUD treatment rate at an average cost of $1.6 billion yields a crime reduction benefit of $2.5 billion to $4.8 billion. Our findings suggest that expanding insurance coverage and benefits for SUD treatment is an effective policy lever to improve treatment use, and the improved SUD treatment use can effectively and cost-effectively promote public safety through crime reduction.
The NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health provides summaries of publications like this. You can sign up to receive the NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health by email.
Acknowledgments
Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX
Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w20537
Users who downloaded this paper also downloaded* these:College “was always an expectation,” he said. His mother talked about it. His teachers talked about it. Everyone talked about it. The mentality that college is the logical step after high school—an idea that is baked into the upbringing of so many middle-class children whose parents have degrees of their own—was reinforced early and often as he grew up.
Dendy’s high school, part of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) charter network, encouraged him to take advanced-placement classes and even a course at a local university, which gave him a taste of college life. They required him to enroll in a class about how to apply to colleges and then helped him research options. By that point, he’d also connected with a nonprofit called College Summit, which works with high schools to help more students enroll in college.
One of Dendy’s favorite teachers had graduated from Fisk a few years earlier, which sparked his interest in the school. “I felt like she was a great person,” he said. “I was like, if I want to be great, I’ve got to go to the same school as her because what isn't great that doesn’t come out of Fisk University?” His counselors and mentors could have left it there; they could’ve simply applauded the fact that he was applying to a four-year college at all. That happens far too often. Recent research has indicated that few high-achieving poor students apply to schools that match their ability levels. While students with parents who have navigated the college-application process are presented with a range of options, a kid with decent but not outstanding grades might apply to a local state school that admits nearly everyone, and Harvard, because he’s heard about both and isn’t aware of good options in the middle.
“My whole idea was I would go to Fisk and Fisk was the only place to go. I didn’t think about those safety and reach schools,” Dendy said. But his school and College Summit mentors did. Initially Dendy was put off by the idea of expending energy by applying elsewhere. “I was like, okay, I see what you’re trying to do here,” he said. “You’re trying to pull me away from Fisk University.” It wasn’t until later that he understood that, “in actuality, they wanted to make sure I was safe.”
The application process was daunting, he said, but he persevered in part because his classmates were also going through the same struggle. “You think you’re doing this alone but there are actually people all over the world doing the same thing as you,” he said. Dendy ultimately received an acceptance letter from his first choice, and headed off to Nashville.
When Dendy, the oldest of four children, left, his brother and sisters, he said, “felt like there was going to be some void left in the house.” His mother worried about him being a 13-hour bus ride away. Dendy wondered if he’d made a bad decision. Arriving in Nashville did little to assuage his concern. “Is this a city?” he wondered. “It’s pretty slow. It’s nothing like D.C.” He was surprised when he tried to pick up something to drink at a local gas station one evening and found it closed. But his mentor from College Summit called him frequently to check in and tell him he was “a leader,” he said, setting a precedent for his siblings.Law Firms Removing Their Name From SOPA Supporters' List; SOPA 'Support' Crumbling
from the well-look-at-that dept
So we were just discussing how a bunch of companies who were listed by the US Chamber of Commerce as SOPA/PIPA supporters are demanding to be taken off the list, noting that, while they had agreed to a generic statement about fighting the sale of counterfeit goods, they don't support crazy broad legislation like SOPA/PIPA. It seems that others listed as "supporting" SOPA are scrambling to get off the list as well. The Judiciary Committee's official list had included a bunch of big name law firms as being in support of the law as well -- which is a little strange, since law firms usually don't take official positions on things like this. They may express opinions on such matters on behalf of clients, but outright supporting legislation is a different ballgame altogether.A group of lawyers (most of whom have a long history of working with the entertainment industry) did send a letter to the Judiciary Committee to say that they agreed with Floyd Abrams' analysis of SOPA. That's it. They didn't say their firms supported SOPA -- and, in fact, there's an asterisk with the signatures noting that the names of their firms are. Yet the Judiciary Committee took those names anyway and put them on the supporters list. Expressing a legal opinion on a bill isfrom supporting |
RUMOR – The Lost Ark Beta may begin in April – Lost Ark, an upcoming Diablo-like action MMORPG from Korean developer Smilegate, could be entering the Korean phase of closed beta testing in April 2016, according to Chinese website 17173.com.
Lost Ark is set to feature the same birds eye view and open combat mechanics typical of action MMOs, as well as vast open world which includes puzzle-like challenges in addition to the more usual hack and slash combat. There was a focus group test for the game in August of 2015, and the first closed beta was planned for the first half of 2016, so there may be some truth to 17173.com’s report. The game is planned for launch in Korea, as well as in China. Eventually the game is supposed to be available in the West as well, though not until the Korean version is “solidified”. There are no definite plans for launch dates, regions outside of Korea and China, or business model at this point.
Our Thoughts:
There are a lot of great game developers and publishers in the Asian market, and as they begin to be available in the West, we can see how truly great some of the games being produced in the region are. We really hope that this trend is one that continues!
Source: FreeMMOStation.com News Post
Related: BetaPlay with Pro is a weekly series that provide hero guides for intermediate and high-skilled players, with direct insights and advices from best professional players from all over the world, in a informative and entertaining way. This week, we will welcome Joakim 'Akke' Akterhall to the colloquium, with Chen the Holy Knight up his sleeves.
CHEN THE HOLY KNIGHT
Strength: 20 + 1.5
Agility: 15 + 2.1
Intelligence: 21 + 28
Damage: 48-53
Mana: 273
Armor: 1.1
Movement Speed: 300
Sight range: 1800/800
Attack Range: 600
Missile speed: 1100
Attack Duration: 0.5 + 0.5
Cast Duration: 0.3 + 0.51
Base Attack Time: 1.7
=> Which strategy that Chen can fit in?
=> Which pick phase should Chen enter (considering that he is not in the ban pool)?
1. SKILL SET:
2. ITEM BUILD:
3. SKILL BUILD:
4. PLAYSTYLE:
5. AKKE'S GOLDEN RULES:
"*Decent micro (the ability to not freak out when controlling multiple units at once)
*Good decision-making when it comes to farm in woods /gang /push (a wrong call could cost you your life, your teammates’ lives for the gain of some flames towards you – quite bad trade) "
6. YOU ARE CHEN, THE HOLY KNIGHT. DON'T DO THIS THING, JUST DON'T:
7. AND DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME. AT LEAST, NOT DURING SERIOUS MATCHES:
8. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION
It says 'jungler' in the Role section, so can I go jungling in the enemy's jungle?
Yes, but not really advisable. Since Chen cannot get more than one creep until level 5, he may have a hard time in enemy's territory since he does not have an escape mechanism to deal with highly imminent ganks. And also you've got to have a stronger trilane on the offlane to keep the pressure constantly up. If you think that the situation does not really work out for you, try retreating to your own jungle instead. Enchantress may perform this role better since she can get more creeps at early level; possesses a reliable slow and also a non-ultimate healing ability.
There are so many neutral creeps in the jungle, which one should I pick up?
This is based on the situation that your team are in and the current stage of the game. Generally, the Dark Troll Warlord is the most preferred one since he has 1 disable and can summon Skeleton Warriors as well; which makes him useful in both pushes and teamfight. The Enraged Wilkins are also useful with the summoned Cycloned being a great harassing tool. Ursa Warriors and Centaur Khans provide an AoE slow with mediocre damage and an AoE stun, respectively, along with good tankability. The best combination for mid game would be Dark Troll Warlord + 2 Centaur Khans which, if pulled off successfully, produce 5.5-second disable in total.
The next edition of Play with Pros will feature a star player from the North America scene with his favourite hero. Stay tune to find out who and which hero will be on the spotlight next week. You guys can give out suggestions on which heroes are going up next on the list by filling up the comment section below!
Basic & Advanced AttributesRole: Support/Pusher/JunglerPros:- Strong pusher early game with converted neutral creeps- An effective jungler, meaning more farm/exp for other hey heroes.- High support capability thanks to Holy Persuasion + Hand of God- Good ganking potential.- Item independant (that’s right, Chen doesn’t need much items to prove his worth)Cons:- Micro-intensive playstyle- Far less useful during late game- Fragile- Lack of mobility (since the converted creeps cannot teleport to towers)One of the best thing about Chen is that he can fit in almost every strategy (of course except for a crazy 5-man mid lane push and ten-minute GG). The current Dota 2 metagame is all about taking down towers as fast as possible, gaining map control and Chen is perfect for that, with his pushing power.Chen should be selected during the first 3 picks, either as a first pick or second pick; since Enchantress is his only natural counter (but not totally much of a fierce one), and there are more spaces for mind-games and other important picks for the drafter.( Only the usage and maneuverability of the skills are discussed here, basic information of the skills can be viewed here + Penitence: a decent skill to round up Chen’s support capability. Provides a mediocre slow and damage amplification, however, this skill is not really useful until maxed out. Besides the bonus damage will always be physical damage, regardless of the initial source; thus Penitence declines sharply in usefulness towards mid game.+ Test of Faith: despite being based on luck to some extent, this is actually a decent nuke. Since the damage type is pure, the nuke pierces right into the target’s hp, regardless of armor and magic resistance. This helps Chen to finish off his enemies more quickly. However, with high manacost and long cooldown, it should be used wisely.+ Holy Persuasion: Chen’s bread-and-butter skill, enough said. Notice that it only allows 2 converted creeps at level 3, so getting Chen to level 5 as soon as possible is a must for Chen, since 2 neutral creeps provide huge pushing/ganking power. The allied-unit teleport is just the icing on the cake of this skill. Note that there are 6/5/4/3 seconds delay for hero but a instant effect for creeps. Also the unit cap of the skill means that if you try to convert an extra unit beyond the cap, one random creep of yours will die (even the newly converted one).+ Hand of God: a GLOBAL heal, what more needed to say? 400hp at level 3 can simply turn the tide of the battle.*Start with: Courier/Ward of Observation – Ring of Protection – Tangoes – Clarity – Smoke/Iron branches-> You are a support, getting courier or wards is simply your responsibility. Ring of Protection is to combined with Sobi Mask (which can be purchased at the side shop), some basic regens and smoke for gank. You can replace the smoke with branches if you aim to stick inside the jungle to farm up rather than go ganking.*Early – mid game: Arcane boot – Mekansm/Pipe of Insight-> Arcane boot is a critical first item, since both you, your allies and creeps need mana for constant pushing. Mekansm provide you with everything you need: some stats, armor and an AoE heal to combine with your ultimate, making you a mobile fountain during pushes. You can get a Pipe instead if you can farm very well and the enemies possess a lot of magical burst damage or there is already someone in your team picking up Mekansm, however, Mekansm is still a more advisable choice over Pipe.*Mid – late game: Force Staff/Scythe of Vyse/Vladmir’s Offering/Necronomicon/Drum of Endurance/Aghanim’s Scepter-> This is the time that your importance declines sharply, as your skills start to drop in usefulness. What you should get during this stage of the game is basically whatever your teammates need. Force Staff is always a good choice due to its manueverability. Scythe of Vyse is a highly luxury item for Chen, but worth picking up if possible. Vladmir’s Offering is prefered when you have a melee carry in your team; and Necromicon and Drum is merely to pile up on your pushing power (however, make sure that you have super duper great micro-ing skills before getting the Necronomicon – controlling 6 units at once can give you a headache, literally). Aghanim’s Scepter is also a decent choice on Chen, since it gives him a little more survivability and 30-second cooldown ultimate that makes half of the map happy.Generally, there is not much deviation in Chen’s skill build, as his core skills – Holy Persuasion and Hand of God – must be picked up whenever available. Certain confusion in choices can occur between leveling up Penitence or Test of Faith; however, Test of Faith is more advisable in team play, since your teammates should help you with the initiation, thus the burst damage ensures a quick and successful gank.Most intermediate players already have a certain concept of how to play Chen. Head straight into your jungle (just because this is your home, don’t go to lane because your natural laning capability sucks bad), tell your allies to get a couple of wards here as well to help you avoid ganks from enemy supporters. Farm up there using your converted creeps (this part should be easy) and stay aware of possible ganks to get your core items.Besides farming, you also have 2 options at hand: ganking and pushing. Generally Chen is put into a trilane to utilize his power early game. If you have an aggressive push-oriented lane i.e with Leshrac and Vengeful Spirit, facing the enemy solo hero, then you should coordinate with your teammates and go push whenever possible, since Leshrac’s Diabolic Edict can take down tower very fast. In case of having a more passive trilane i.e Slardar and Crystal Maiden or facing enemy’s trilane, it is more advisable to play safe to get to level 5 first (by then you should have 2 converted creeps, unless you misclicked while leveling up your abilities or you are trolling your teammates) then overwhelm the enemies with your pushing power.Moving towards mid and late game, your job is pretty much the same: accompanying your teammates to put pressure on enemies’ lanes and take down as many towers as possible. Meanwhile, keep your team up and alive with Hand of God/Mekansm and teleport teammates home if needed. If possible, farm up a couple of luxury items to increase your presence in teamfight. Details can be found in the ITEM BUILD section above.Finally the biggest question: what do you do in a teamfight as a Chen player? You should stay “in” and “out” of the battle, which means that you should keep off the main area of the fight (since you are food to enemy carry and you do not want the only thing you do during the fight is waving your glowing scepter in vain and shaking your head in stun); but meanwhile, if possible, take a couple of minor nukes, but make sure that you are still able to pull off at least your heal. Most of the time of the battle, you should stay outside, since 1. You are a range hero, you can attack from afar and 2. By staying outside, you can focus more on controlling your creeps. In certain circumstances, you should keep a Dark Troll Warlord out of the battle so that he can disrupt enemy’s channeling spells (Enigma’s Black Hole,; Crystal Maiden’s Freezing Field, Bane’s Fiend’s Grip etc.)- Steal kills and farm from your carry:Don’t ever let your ego comes before your knighthood. You are a support hero, you SUPPORT. One of the criteria of support is giving up heroes and creeps kills to your carry.- Stay too passive:You are a pusher, you PUSH whenever possible. Don’t towerhug when you have your whole team around you ready for pushing. And even though the jungle is your home, do go out whenever possible because Chen is not a nerd! Even some fake-pushing can help create space and time for your carry to farm.- You feel so boss yourself, and you just realize that Chen has good attack animation, decent attack speed (2.1 agility gain per level) and good base damage, along with a damage amplifying skill. So theoretically, Chen is a viable Mjollnir carrier. So you put on your Gunnar glasses and pretend that you are playing a Lycan with range attack. Farm up like crazy in the jungle, go to lane to steal creep kills when you need some time aways from the trees, stealing any hero kills like there's no tomorrow. A Maelstrom-wielded Chen around 13, 14 minute mark is just pure imbaness. Use Penitence on the poor enemy hero and watch him going down under your scepter swings.- Okay, it’s another day and you feel Mjollnir is not good enough. You are an Intelligence hero, and Thor’s hammer is clearly not to be wield by someone with so much intellectual prowess (you gain 2.8 intelligence per level, for god’s sake). Besides, Chen already has himself a scepter, who holds both a scepter and a hammer at one time? So, get Dagon instead. Two scepters, one blue and one red, sounds like a perfect combination. And what you do is very simple, farm like ZSMJ and use the Penitence + Test of Faith + Energy Burst (from Dagon) combo and watch the Fortress going down at your feet (could be either yours or the enemies’, depending on how REALLY “boss” you are).Forum Forums Share Share
Walt Disney Imagineering has recruited Martin Buehler, a well known expert in the field of advanced robotics.
Buehler is most well known for his work on the Boston Dynamics 'BigDog' project, which you can see in action in the video below. BigDog runs at 4 mph, climbs slopes up to 35 degrees, walks across rubble, climbs muddy hiking trails, walks in snow and water, and carries 340 lb load.
Martin was also director of research at iRobot and a VP at Vecna Technologies.
Buehler joins WDI at a critical time for Audio-Animatronics, as Disney looks to separate itself from the wider adoption of animated figures at other parks around the world.
The upcoming AVATAR project at Disney's Animal Kingdom is expected to debut some next generation Audio-Animatronic figures to bring the AVATAR story to life.
Martin will lead WDI R&D's Advanced Robotics and will take on the role of executive R&D Imagineer.
Discuss on the Forums
Article Posted:InkTober 2016 Writing and Drawing Prompts by Tom Oddo
The InkTober Initiative is the brainchild of artist / illustrator Jake Parker. The idea is to draw & ink a picture and post it on social media every day during the month of October. 31 days, 31 inked drawings.
Like you, I'm more of a writer, but I do have an artistic ability as well. So, to open this up to more folks to encourage the daily outlet of creativity and artistic expression, we're hosting the InkJournal version of InkTober.
Here's the deal: Every day during the month of October, let's put ink on paper, be creative and share it with the world using the #inktober and #inktober2016. Our version of InkTober can be written word, calligraphy, sketches w/ words or any combination of those. To help get the creative juices flowing each day, here's a list of prompts that we'll be following throughout the month.
Hope you all have fun and stick with it. Please make sure to share your work with the #inktober hashtag and mention us @inkjournal if you would like for us to share your work with our followers.http://www.bourbonblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/sheriff_Pappy_auction.mp3
1-5-2016: An update the story has happened which will likely change the auction click here for most recent update and read original story below.
Click play above to stream and l isten to our podcast interview above as we report that one of the greatest holiday gifts as we end the year (and Bourbon blessings as we begin 2016) is that the 28 bottles of stolen Pappy Van Winkle are scheduled to be saved and auctioned for charity.
Given the scarcity of Pappy Van Winkle on the whole combined with the historical value of the theft, these stolen bottles could represent one of the most unique collections ever.
Franklin County Sheriff Pat Melton tells BourbonBlog.com in this exclusive interview that the plan is to auction the stolen bourbon rather than destroying it. Melton says that Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate will ultimately hand down the order allow the Bourbon to be auctioned one the case is adjudicated. Melton says that while the judge has the final say, Wingate has expressed support for the auction.
Since the unveiling of the stolen Pappy Van Winkle and other evidence during the famous press conference in April 2015 when the indictment was announced, Melton has been clear that he wanted to preserve the untainted and unopened bottles of stolen Bourbon.
The bottles to be auctioned include Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 23 year, Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 20 year, and Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 15 year.
Melton says that the empty Bourbon barrels will also be auctioned.
One partially opened bottle will be donated to the Capital City Museum in Frankfort, Kentucky.
All of this will happen after the case has been adjudicated. Melton says he hopes the case will go to trial toward the beginning of 2016.
Melton says he isn’t sure yet if they will be sold as a lot or individually. However, the bottles will have a letter of authenticity included.
Currently, the charities being considered are Kentucky Sheriff’s Association Boys and Girls Ranch and United States Marine Corps EOD (for Wounded Warriors and Families of those who have lost service members).But sometimes, it's even more blatant than that. In fact, some of the most successful musical acts in history based huge chunks of their careers entirely on plagiarism. Like...
Every artist "steals" a little, whether they realize it or not. For instance, we talk about how some musician was "influenced" by music they grew up with, even if sometimes that influence consists of outright stealing and/or barely remixing a classic. That's just the way it works.
5 Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin are remembered for two things: banging a groupie with a mudshark and recording songs that rocked harder than any band had ever rocked before. Too bad a bunch of that shit was stolen.
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Don't believe us? Well, here's a whole laundry list of songs they stole; but if the words of a dawn-of-the-Internet era website aren't enough to convince you, consider their classic song "Dazed and Confused."
A young Jake Holmes played a song of the same name (and chords, and lyrics kind of) at a show in 1967 where he was opening for The Yardbirds, who featured--say it with us!-- Jimmy Page on guitar. "Dazed and Confused" became a mainstay of The Yardbirds live sets and eventually found its way onto Zep's 1969 debut album, where it was credited to... nobody. Holmes never took legal action but he did eventually send Page a letter asking for acknowledgement and maybe a little gas money if he could spare it (he could). The letter went unanswered.
But who cares, right? We're talking about Led Zeppelin here. The band who wrote "Stairway to Heaven" man! It's the most popular song in the history of sound! It's the song that was playing on the van stereo when your father shot the load that would become you into your mother's moist and eager lady parts! That one song is enough to secure the legacy of 10 bands!
Gross.
Too bad they jacked that shit too. The opening notes (and easily the most recognizable part) of "Stairway" were taken almost note-for-note from a song called "Taurus" by Spirit.OTTAWA - The Ottawa Senators ( @Senators ) announced today that they have reduced their training camp roster today, assigning 20 players to the training camp of Binghamton of the American Hockey League and placing one player on waivers for the purpose of assignment to the B-Sens.
Ten (10) players were assigned to Binghamton this morning, including: Casey Bailey, Vincent Dunn, Andreas Englund, Macoy Erkamps, Gabriel Gagne, Ben Harpur, Matt O'Connor, Francis Perron, Ryan Rupert and Patrick Sieloff.
Ten (10) players were released from their professional tryouts and assigned to Binghamton's training camp, including: Vincent Arseneau, Chris Carlisle, Kyle Flanagan, Scott Greenham, Alex Krushelnyski, Guillaume Lepine, Alex Loiseau, Louick Marcotte, Jack Rodewald and Chris Rumble.
Zack Stortini was placed on waivers for the purpose of assignment to Binghamton.
The Senators training camp roster is now composed of 33 players: three goaltenders, 10 defencemen and 20 forwards.
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- end -Yesterday I spotted my first flower of the season! Wooohooo! Winter is over! In celebration, I wanted to add a bright jolt of color to my front door. I made this door decoration from recycled magazines and buttons from my stash.
You will need:
Smoothfoam 12" x 1" Disc
Aleene's Turbo Tacky Glue Pen
old Magazines
buttons - various sizes, shapes and colors
scissors
aluminum Foil
foam sponge
green acrylic paint
double-faced satin ribbon in green
tape measure or ruler
Let's Create!
1. Cut out petals. Carefully cut or tear out magazine pages. As orange is my color-du-jour, I chose pages with that color
plus a few in shades of green. Vertically fold the magazine page in half. Fold it the same way again. With each petal cut,
you will automatically get 3 more due to the folding of the paper. I chose to make my petal round at the top and tapered
at the bottom. If you would rather have a daisy look to your flower, make the top of the petal pointed. The key here is that
each petal has tapered bottom and is approximately 2" tall. For a slightly rustic look and to add a bit more texture, lightly
crumple the petals in your hands.
2. Glue petals to the button. Pinch in the paper at the tapered end of the petal. Add a few dots of glue and place on the
back of the button. Each flower should have 5-6 petals. To keep the buttons from sticking to your craft table, place them on
a piece of aluminum foil and allow to dry.
3. Paint Smoothfoam disc. Squirt some paint onto the foil and paint one side and the edges. Allow to dry. Paint the
other side and allow to dry.
4. Add ribbon loop. Cut a 24" piece of ribbon. Glue ends together. Allow to dry. Glue to top of disc. Allow to dry.
5. Glue down flowers. Arrange the flowers on the disc. Once you are satisfied with the arrangement, add a few dots of
glue to the center of the back of each flower and press into place on the disc. Allow to dry.
For more handmade flower crafting ideas, checkout the work in the Designer Crafts Connection webring wherever you see this logo. Each blog in the hop is written by a designer associated with the Craft and Hobby Assocition. We each have unique styles, so be sure to hop through to see what each is doing with this month's theme!Police arrested a 24-year-old man after finding three baggies of marijuana in his car and a handgun in the man’s hamburger.Craig Wilburn was charged Monday with marijuana possession and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. He posted bail Tuesday.Officers pulled Wilburn's 2006 black Lincoln town car around 7 p.m. Monday in the 2700 block of Tanner Street near Malcolm X Boulevard after seeing Wilburn change lanes without signaling. His car registration was also expired, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.When officers approached, the noticed a strong marijuana odor coming from the vehicle. While Wilburn was stepping out of the car, he was holding a food bag containing a hamburger. Officers asked him to leave the bag in the car, the report says.During a search, officers found two clear plastic bags containing marijuana and a 9mm semi-automatic handgun hidden underneath the top bun of the burger in the food bag, police said.Officers also found a larger bag of marijuana hidden in Wilburn's underwear during a pat down, the report says.Wilburn has several prior convictions of marijuana possession and unlawful possession of a weapon.Netflix has done it again, they released another original series that has viewers eyes’ glued to the television screen. After seeing the success from “Orange is the New Black” they created the new series “Daredevil”. Daredevil is based off an original Marvel comic starring Matthew Murdock, a blind lawyer.
Murdock strongly believes in the criminal justice system and spends his nights seeking revenge on the criminals of Hell’s Kitchen, New York. Murdock was blinded at a young age from an accident involving toxic waste. The series shadows Murdock’s life of being a lawyer by day and a resilient crime fighter at night.
Being blind heightened his 4 other senses, which causes him to be two steps ahead of his opponents. The series just finished their first season and Daredevil, the man without fear, is set for a second season. Be careful binge watching this series, because it’s not scheduled to come back until 2016.
AdvertisementsAriana Grande’s Brother Claims He Fell In Love On Big Brother… But Anyone Who Watched The Show Should Know Otherwise
The latest season of Big Brother has come to an end, and with it, much of the cast trying to stay relevant now that they’re out of the house.
Fittingly, one of the bigger plot lines of the summer is still getting some headlines!
Said story is of the budding bromance-turned-romance between houseguests Zach Rance and Ariana Grande‘s brother.
[ Related: Ariana Grande’s Brother Reveals A Secret Of Hers On Live TV ]
Fans quickly latched on to the straight-and-gay relationship, and even adopted the name “Zankie” for the pair.
And now that the season is over, Ariana’s brother spoke to People Magazine about their romance, saying:
“I am just now seeing some of the footage and there is no doubt that we love each other. I felt it in the house but I didn’t realize how ridiculous it looks to everyone else because we are a couple. It’s very strange. It’s unbelievable.”
However, the latter half of Zankie decided to eliminate his “best friend” in the house, something someone truly in love probably wouldn’t do.
We think Ariana’s brother is just bummed that he’s not a very well liked contestant and is hitching his annoying horse to Zach’s awesome wagon so that they can be on The Amazing Race together.
But don’t worry, brother of Ariana, Zach totally has a chance of being on TAR next season… just with fan-favorite Donny Thompson as his partner, not you.Reading The Tea Leaves To Understand Why CISA Is A Surveillance Bill
from the it's-not-as-easy-as-you'd-think dept
That is, CISA affirmatively permits private companies to scan, identify, and possess cybersecurity threat information transiting or stored on their systems. It permits private companies to conduct precisely the same kinds of scans the government currently obligates telecoms to do under upstream 702, including data both transiting their systems (which for the telecoms would be transiting their backbone) or stored in its systems (so cloud storage). Thus, CISA permits the telecoms to do the kinds of scans they currently do for foreign intelligence purposes for cybersecurity purposes in ways that (unlike the upstream 702 usage we know about) would not be required to have a foreign nexus. CISA permits the people currently scanning the backbone to continue to do so, only without consideration of whether the signature has a foreign tie or not. Unlike FISA, CISA permits the government to collect entirely domestic data. Of course, there’s no requirement that the telecoms scan for every signature the government shares with it and share the results with the government. Though both Verizon and AT&T have a significant chunk of federal business — which just got put out for rebid on a contract that will amount to $50 billion — and they surely would be asked to scan the networks supporting federal traffic for those signatures. But they can do so if they want to. And the telecoms are outspoken supporters of CISA, so we should presume they plan to share promiscuously under this bill.
CISA, as written, would let FBI and NSA veto any scrub (including of content) at DHS. And incoming data (again, probably including content) would be shared immediately not only with FBI (which has been the vehicle for sharing NSA data broadly) but also Treasury and ODNI, which are both veritable black holes from a due process perspective. And what few protections for US persons are tied to a relevance standard that would be accomplished by virtue of a tie to that selector. Thus, CISA would permit the immediate sharing, with virtually no minimization, of US person content across the government (and from there to private sector and local governments).
I've had a few conversations recently with people on Twitter who claim that CISA is "not a surveillance bill," claiming that they've read the bill and there's nothing about surveillance in it. It's true that the bill positions itself as nothing more than a "cybersecurity" bill that clarifies a few things and then provides some immunity for companies who "voluntarily" share information. However, as I've said in response, in order to understand why it's a surveillance bill, you have to look more closely at how CISA interacts with other lawswhat the intelligence community is currently doing. Unfortunately, this isn't always easy, because part of what the intelligence community is doing and how they've interpreted other laws remains secret. But, as you've probably heard, some of that has been leaking out over the past few years.Back in June, we wrote about Jonathan Mayer's analysis of another leak story done by Pro Publica and the NY Times, showing that the FBI and the NSA blurred the lines between "terrorism" and "cybercrime" in order to do more warrantless surveillance of people they deemed to be "hackers." As Mayer noted at the time, this revealed that beyond the kinds of selectors most people believed the FBI and NSA were allowed to search the "upstream" corpus of data on, it could also use "cybersignatures." And thus, it seemed clear that CISA was about expanding the ability of the FBI and the NSA to get access to more such signatures, in order to more widely do warrantless surveillance on Americans' communications.You have to dig a bit deeper into the muck to understand whyis true, and it has to do with another recently revealed tidbit, which is that the NSA and FBI (and CIA, for that matter), frequently make use of backdoor searches of the upstream data -- a capability that was approved in 2011. Basically, the rules changed so that the intelligence community could sniff through data that was deemed collected "incidentally." And that includes basically anything that is picked up in the "upstream" collection of data (tapping internet backbone lines) under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act.Now, Marcy Wheeler has taken this a step further, noting that it looks like Mayer's analysis may actually have underplayed things. Wheeler's post is long and detailed, and delves deeply into more partially secret things, and tries to read the tea leaves from some previously declassified and leaked documents and programs, but comes to the conclusion that CISA is likely to be the key piece for letting the NSA and FBI warrantless spy on Americans' after the FISA Court limited that ability a few years ago.Without going intothe details of Wheeler's post, the short version is that it's well established that the NSAhave a program very similar to the phone dragnet program, but for internet communications. Eventually that was determined to go too far and was shut down. But Wheeler is suggesting that a more narrow version was likely re-authorized later, and CISA is the way to expand it. It appears that the intelligence community was allowed to collect online info, but only to protect its own network. But, with the immunity granted under CISA, the NSA and FBI could effectively hand that power over to AT&T and Verizon, and freely "share" information back and forth with no liability for the telcos (both of which have a long history of proactively helping the NSA).As Wheeler notes, if this is true, then it actually makes CISA a super powerful surveillance tool for the government for a variety of reasons. First, it's all "voluntary" between the telcos and the NSA/FBI, so no FISA Court to get in the way. Next, she points out that, while the language of the bill says that Homeland Security will "scrub" private info before sharing it with other agencies, it actually notes that the FBI can "veto" that scrub. And working together, the NSA and FBI can do a lot of damage this way:As she notes, this makes CISA -- as Senator Ron Wyden has been saying for months -- not a cybersecurity bill at all, but a vast domestic internet surveillance bill.
Filed Under: cisa, cybersignatures, fbi, marcy wheeler, nsa, section 702, surveillance, upstream
Companies: at&t, verizonRebecca De Mornay and Tom Cruise in "Risky Business" "Risky Business" director: "Some people like the visibility. I don't" The reclusive director of the 1983 hit talks to Salon about the film, Tom Cruise, and turning down "Forrest Gump"
One of the most iconic '80s teen movies not connected to John Hughes turned 30 in August. "Risky Business," the film that made 21-year-old Tom Cruise a household name, was also a promising directorial debut for Paul Brickman, the Chicago native who also wrote the tale of Joel Goodsen, a sexually repressed North Shore high-schooler, who falls in lust with a trouble-magnet call girl (Rebecca De Mornay) while his parents are on vacation. But as Cruise's star rose, Brickman retreated from Hollywood.
Just 34 when "Risky Business" was released, Brickman directed just one other feature, the 1990 bomb "Men Don't Leave." The alchemy that made the filmmaker's arrival so enduring — elegant direction atypical of coming-of-age films; sparkling adolescent dialogue; the use of Tangerine Dream's propulsive, hypnotic score — makes his lack of output over the last three decades all the more surprising.
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Recently, I gave the hermit-like 64-year-old a call at his home office in Santa Barbara. His first question: “How did you get this number?” But it didn’t take long for him to warm up as we discussed his one-hit wonder 30 years after it hit theaters — and the Academy Award–winning scripts he turned down as he steered clear of Hollywood.
What was on your mind as your were writing the screenplay for "Risky Business"?
Well, I headed out to a rented cabin in the West to write it. I wanted to do a film for young people that was very stylized in a way that I hadn't seen before. I wanted to make the film that if I were in high school I would've wanted to see. I was writing it in the time just after Reagan had taken office and everyone wanted to be a little capitalist, get their M.B.A.s and wear power suspenders. I thought, That's all dandy, but life is more complex and darker than that. It's tough out there. Capitalism takes its toll on a lot of people.
Where did the title "Risky Business" come from? I’m glad there’s not a cheesy titular line in the film.
The working title was "White Boys Off the Lake." I think the studio rejected that because it sounded like an off-Broadway play. [Laughs] So we started doing word association to come up with a new title.
Were you acutely aware of the crop of low-I.Q. teen movies coming out at the time — "Porky's" and the like?
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I don't know if "Risky Business" was a reaction to "Porky's." I don't know if I ever sat through "Porky's." What I was inspired by greatly is Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Conformist." I thought, Why can't you present that as a film for youth and aspire to that kind of style and still have humor in it? That was the test: to meld a darker form of filmmaking with humor. Tone is what I wanted to play with. The Tangerine Dream score was all tone and texture.
Tangerine Dream was an odd but inspired choice for a coming-of-age movie. It added to the film’s dreamlike quality. What sort of direction did you give the band?
Initially we sent some film to Tangerine Dream in Germany and they |
be lowered down through the existing shaft to the sump beneath. The complete removal of the existing headhouse building is required to enable these works.
There are currently three pumps located at the base of the pump shaft. These will be replaced by four larger pumps. The existing headhouse provides very limited space around the pump shaft. The replacement building will provide additional space to enable access and maintainability of the new, larger pumps. The installation of the four pumps, rather than the existing three, requires the provision of a swing jib to enable placement of the pumps in the required location within the sump. An enlarged headhouse is required to accommodate this equipment.
There will in fact be two buildings, as more equipment will be in a concealed building away from the shaft. That helps to keep the replacement shaft head building to something closer in size to the original.
Although there is understandably a lot of public focus on the tunnels and stations, it is often these smaller enabling works that are more interesting as they show an aspect of the project that is sometimes overlooked and remind us that a tunnel is rarely just a tunnel alone.
Thanks to the team at Crossrail for the site visit.Everyone knows the UFC's battle plan when it comes to a new market. The idea is to get an Ultimate Fighter reality show on a strong television outlet, and audiences get to know the fighters, see them fight, and the best ones become television stars that can be used to build the sport's popularity in those markets.
But Japan is very different from most markets UFC has tried to open up, because they already have had a long history of different fighting styles, both modern mixed martial arts, and styles somewhat similar.
The popularity of Japanese MMA has declined greatly over the past few years, due to a number of factors, the key being the lack of new superstars that captured national attention and limited television exposure to create new ones.
On Thursday, Dana White, from Tokyo, talked about the usual battle plan, except with a few tweaks.
For the first time, UFC will be partnering with a local promotion, Vale Tudo Japan, formerly the Shooto promotion. Shooto, first called Shooting, a pro wrestling term for legitimate fight, was formed by pro wrestling legend Satoru Sayama, the original Tiger Mask, in 1985, long before the UFC or anything of the type hit the U.S.
The two companies will be a very different type of television tournament, using featherweights and bantamweights.
"It'll be eight guys per weight class," said UFC President Dana White, on the final leg of his Far East tour after stops in Hong Kong and Macao in trying to put together television and live event deals in those markets. "There will be 30 episodes on television, three fights on each show, over eight months."
The difference is the tournaments will be round-robin style, meaning all eight fighters in a weight class will face the other seven. The fighter in each weight class with the best win-loss record in the tournament will get a UFC contract. That style of tournament format is part of the Japanese culture. Sumo, one of the country's biggest sports, has done tournaments that way over a shorter time frame for generations. Every major pro wrestling company has used that format for annual major tournaments as well, dating back 55 years.
"Much like The Ultimate Fighter, this series will continue to cultivate and popularize top talent for us in new markets," White said. "The round-robin tournament concept is going to make for amazing fights, with a lot at stake. Every fight will matter, every performance will count."
The big announcement of a terrestrial television deal, the first time UFC has had regular programming on a major network in Japan, will come at the Sept. 20 show at the Saitama Super Arena, just outside of Tokyo. The roster of fighters will also be announced at the show, as well as the announcement of the network and time slot. The television is expected to start airing in December.
White explained the other differences between this format and the traditional Ultimate Fighter seasons.
"They won't live in a house, and they won't train under guys that we bring in," he said. "They will train with their own coaches and do their own thing. People will see they where they train, where they live, and their families. They'll get more in-depth. It'll be a real look at who these guys are. The thing about TUF is you put guys in a pressure cooker, and it's f***ing insane. Well, it wasn't last season, but the other seasons."
The show will be filmed more like a documentary on the fighters lives, leading up to fights.
"These guys will become known because of television," he said. "So you'll have people with some star qualities or you'll have fighters people dislike and want to see them lose, no different from anywhere in the world."
"This show will be very Japanese," he said. "It will be shot here in Japan by a big, reputable company, for the Japanese market, to build Japanese stars."
While not official, the show is expected to be airing simultaneously outside Japan on Fight Pass.
"It's still a work in progress," said White. "But if I had to give an answer right now, I'd say, yes, it will."Somebody forgot to don their red cap of compliance, this morning.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared on “Fox and Friends” Thursday morning to lend a bit of support to Senate Republicans and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Speaking of the failed attempt to pass the Obamacare “skinny repeal,” Gingrich said:
“The fact is, with very narrow margin — 52 people — [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell [R-Ky.] got 49 out of 52. And I think the president can’t disassociate himself from this,” Gingrich said on “Fox & Friends.” “He’s part of the leadership team, he’s not an observer sitting up in the stands. He’s on the field. It was a collective failure.”
That’s right.
Part of the blame for a failure to pass the GOP replacement for Obamacare rests with the Tweeter-in-Chief and his inability to work with the Senate and draw together a coalition of support.
President Trump blasted McConnell on Twitter for failing to get the bill passed. McConnell said later that the President had “excessive expectations.”
It’s not so much that his expectations are excessive. It’s just that he doesn’t know what he’s doing or that he’s supposed to be an active part of getting his agenda through.
As the Ronald McDonald of politics, he’s not making the Happy Meals. He’s just the face that gets stuck on the outside of the box. At least, that’s where he thought his involvement would end.
“Senator Mitch McConnell said I had ‘excessive expectations,’ but I don’t think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?” Trump tweeted Wednesday.
And that’s fair, but to be clear, Trump ran on the premise that he could fix all the woes of our government and that his superior deal making abilities would be the key to it all.
On the important issues, like repealing Obamacare, we haven’t seen evidence of that.The Senate voted Tuesday night to kill a controversial rule that would have allowed Americans to file class-action suits against banks instead of being forced in many cases into private arbitration.
The move by the Senate followed a similar action by the House in July to rescind the rule. President Trump is expected to sign the repeal legislation, providing a major victory for the financial industry.
Vice President Mike Pence cast the deciding vote after the Senate tied 50-50. All but two Republicans — John Kennedy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — voted to repeal the rule. No Democrats or independents supported the move.
The White House said Trump “applauds” Congress for voting to repeal the rule, which would have given consumers “fewer options for quickly and efficiently resolving financial disputes.”
The rule was unveiled in July by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and praised by Democrats and consumer advocates as giving average people more power to fight industry abuses, such as Wells Fargo & Co.’s creation of millions of unauthorized accounts.
But banking lobbyists argued that the rule would unleash a flood of class-action lawsuits, and that the cost of fighting those suits would be passed on to consumers. Republicans quickly moved to repeal the regulation.
“The entire purpose of this rule is to promote class-action litigation and stop arbitration resolution when there is a dispute,” said Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce praised the repeal vote, saying the rule “would have benefited the class-action trial bar at the expense of American consumers and businesses alike.”
Set to take effect in March, the rule would not have banned clauses in checking account, credit card and other banking agreements that say disputes between companies and customers must be dealt with privately or in small claims court.
Instead, there would have been a ban on provisions that block consumers from banding together to bring class-action cases. The CFPB argued that such cases help hold banks accountable.
The determinations of an arbitrator are binding and consumer advocates say most decisions favor the company. The private proceedings also allow banks to deal with individual problems quietly rather than address widespread abuses.
Bureau Director Richard Cordray called the Senate vote “a giant setback for every consumer in this country” and urged Trump to veto the repeal legislation.
“It robs consumers of their most effective legal tool against corporate wrongdoing,” Cordray said. “As a result, companies like Wells Fargo and Equifax remain free to break the law without fear of legal blowback from their customers.”
George Slover, senior policy counsel for Consumers Union, said the vote “means that big financial companies can lock the courthouse doors and prevent consumers who’ve been mistreated from joining together to seek the relief they deserve under the law.”
For years, Wells Fargo used arbitration clauses to block lawsuits from customers who alleged that unauthorized accounts had been opened in their names. Ultimately, the bank estimated that as many as 3.5 million such accounts were opened.
The bank agreed to settle some class-actions suits, but not until the CFPB, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Los Angeles city attorney’s office fined the bank over those practices last year. Even in cases that the bank settled, it had argued that the plaintiffs could not sue because of arbitration clauses.
Democrats cited the Wells Fargo case and the recent massive data breach at credit reporting company Equifax as proof that the new CFPB rule was needed to protect consumers from abuses.
Equifax has been criticized for initially making consumers give up their right to sue if they wanted to take advantage of the company’s offer of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection after the breach. Equifax later backtracked on that requirement after a public uproar.
“Our job is to look out for the people whom we serve, not to look out for Wells Fargo, not to look out for Equifax, not to look out for Wall Street banks, not to look out for corporations who scam consumers,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio.).
The House voted 231 to 90 to repeal the rule using the Congressional Review Act, a formerly little-used mechanism that Republicans have employed under Trump to invalidate more than a dozen Obama administration regulations.
No House Democrats voted to repeal the rule.
The Review Act was put in place in 1996 to give Congress the expedited ability to repeal new rules put in place by federal regulators. Such a measure needs only a simple majority vote in the Senate, so opponents cannot block it with a filibuster.
The act had been used successfully just once before this year, because it usually is only relevant when the presidency shifts parties and a new administration wants to invalidate actions of a previous one.
Although Republicans controlled Congress the final two years of Obama’s presidency, his ability to veto repeal efforts short-circuited most of them.BEIJING (Reuters) - Climate change fuelled storm waves and rising sea levels cost China 16.3 billion yuan and killed 121 people in 2013, the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said.
People watch waves hit the shores as Typhoon Usagi approaches in Shantou, Guangdong province, September 22, 2013. REUTERS/Stringer/Files
China is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases which scientists say is driving climate change.
Southern Guangdong province was hit hardest, recording 7.4 billion yuan worth of damage, the SOA said in a new report. Storm waves caused 94 percent of the destruction, it said.
Climate change-linked rising, warmer seas cause more frequent storms and typhoons, flood coastal areas, contribute to coastal erosion and salinate farmland, said SOA.
Average sea-levels in China have risen 2.9 millimetres on average every year since 1980, faster than global sea-level rises, said SOA.
“Sea temperature, air temperature, air pressure and monsoons are the main causes of the irregular sea-level changes,” it said.
Temperatures in coastal zones in China have increased by 0.34 degrees Celsius per decade since 1980 and sea surface temperatures by 0.18 degrees, it said.
China plans to put in place a number of policies to protect itself from rising seas, which threaten megacities such as Guangzhou, Shanghai and Tianjin.
The government will solidify embankments in vulnerable areas, build submerged breakwater constructions and convert some coastal farmland.
China also aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions per unit of GDP to 40-45 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.Sunday, a Major League Baseball game was broadcast in its entirety on Cuban open-air television for the first time since 1961.
Cubans who tuned in were treated to a game between the Nationals and Braves...from May 2.
For those who need a quick recap, Washington defeated Atlanta by a 3-1 score. Dan Haren earned his third victory of the season. Since then, Haren, currently on the disabled list, has won one game and is in the midst of a personal six-game losing streak. I'm sure he wouldn't have minded watching that game again himself.
According to the Associated Press, the game was "stripped of commercials and [lasted] just an hour and a half or so [while] Cuban commentators provided color and play-by-play over the original English, which could be heard faintly in the background."
More from AP:
The early reviews were not overly enthusiastic. The game turned out to be a nearly 2-month-old matchup between two teams that boast none of the defected Cuban stars whom islanders are most eager to follow. "It's interesting to see how they play, but I can't say it thrilled me all that much because I don't know any of the players," said Diego Sierra, 67. "I would really like to see the Cubans, see how they are developing in that league, really see how well they are doing."
The Nationals' lone Cuban, pitcher Yunesky Maya, did not appear in the game, but then again, I'm not sure if even Maya's countrymen would want to watch him.
Follow Adam on Twitter @AdamVingan and e-mail your story ideas to adamvingan (at) gmail.com.The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board has settled on plans for a major revamp of Cedar Lake’s South Beach. Now it just needs to find funding.
The centerpiece of the little park just off the corner of Burnham Road and Cedar Lake Avenue will remain its wide sand beach. The popular spot sits along the Cedar Lake Regional Trail and is just a few feet from the Kenilworth Trail that angles northeast into downtown Minneapolis.
Plans for the beach approved last week call for a new floating launch dock for canoes, a series of ramps, railings, stairways and retaining walls, bike racks, widened bike and pedestrian paths, picnic tables, toilets, new trees and bushes and a seating plaza between the Cedar Lake Parkway Trail and the beach.
The project will cost an estimated $331,000. Money has not yet been earmarked for it. A plan approved by commissioners is a necessary first step, however.
“It’s very, very tired down at South Beach, and I think people care enough about it that they’ve taken the initiative to come up with a general design that’s acceptable to the entire neighborhood,” said Anita Tabb, the Park and Recreation Board commissioner for District 4, which includes Cedar Lake. “We are trying to meet and come up with ways that we can see where we might be able to get some funding for that, but at this point we just don’t have the answer.”
One possibility is to make improvements to the park in stages, cobbling money together over time, Tabb said.
The improvements at Cedar Lake would include landscaping, bathrooms, a bike parking area, a pedestrian plaza and new stairways and ramps.
Commissioners approved the plan Wednesday after nearly a year of meetings and deliberation. The Cedar Isles Dean Neighborhood Association paid $40,000 in Neighborhood Revitalization Program dollars to prepare plans and construction cost estimates.
Cedar Lake is situated just west of downtown Minneapolis and accessible by canoe or kayak through a waterway from Lake of the Isles.After more than two years of landing its rockets after launch, SpaceX finally sent one of its used Falcon 9s back into space. The rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, this evening, sending a communications satellite into orbit, and then landed on one of SpaceX’s drone ships floating in the Atlantic Ocean. It was round two for this particular rocket, which already launched and landed during a mission in April of last year. But the Falcon 9’s relaunch marks the first time an orbital rocket has launched to space for a second time.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk appeared on the company’s live stream shortly after the landing and spoke about the accomplishment. “It means you can fly and refly an orbital class booster, which is the most expensive part of the rocket. This is going to be, ultimately, a huge revolution in spaceflight,” he said.
This evening’s mission was a critical milestone for SpaceX
This evening’s mission was a critical milestone for SpaceX, which has been working to make its rockets partially reusable since as early as 2011. Up until now, practically all orbital rockets have been expendable, so they’re basically thrown away once they launch into space. That means an entirely new rocket — which can cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars to make — has to be built for each mission to orbit. SpaceX’s strategy has been to land its rockets after launch in an effort to fly them again and again. That way the company can partially save on manufacturing costs for each mission.
SpaceX doesn’t save the entire Falcon 9 rocket after each launch though. It saves the first stage — the 14-story core of the Falcon 9 that contains the main engines and most of the fuel needed for launch. About a few minutes after takeoff, the first stage separates from the top of the rocket and makes a controlled descent back to Earth — either landing on solid ground or on one of the company’s autonomous drone ships in the ocean. Prior to tonight’s launch, SpaceX had attempted 13 of these rocket landings and eight vehicles had successfully stuck the touchdown. But as SpaceX slowly acquired a growing stockpile of recovered rockets these last two years, the company had yet to actually reuse one of these vehicles.
Now with today’s launch, SpaceX has proven that part of a used Falcon 9 can successfully launch to space again. And the fact that the vehicle successfully returned to Earth in one piece means that the rocket is poised to launch for a third time. Now SpaceX can boast nine successful rocket landings, as well as a Falcon 9 that has gone to and from space two times now.
“It’s been 15 years to get to this point, it’s taken us a long time,” Musk said. “A lot of difficult steps along the way, but I’m just incredibly proud of the SpaceX for being able to achieve this incredible milestone in the history of space.”
The rocket used for today’s launch was the second Falcon 9 that SpaceX ever recovered. It was the vehicle used for CRS-8, the company’s eighth cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. On April 8th, the rocket sent nearly 7,000 pounds of supplies — including an inflatable habitat module called the BEAM — to the station for NASA. After launch, the rocket then landed on SpaceX’s drone ship, titled Of Course I Still Love You. SpaceX decided to launch this Falcon 9 again first, since the company wanted to save the first rocket it ever landed — a vehicle that sent 11 satellites into orbit for the company ORBCOMM in December 2015. That stage is now on display at SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
An important step to make space access cheaper
Though today’s launch was historic for the aerospace industry, it was otherwise routine for SpaceX. The Falcon 9 help to loft a communications satellite for the company SES, which is based out of Luxembourg. The satellite, called SES-10, will eventually sit in a high orbit 22,000 miles up and deliver communications services exclusively to Latin America. SpaceX confirmed that SES-10 was successfully deployed shortly after the launch.
SES had been very vocal about its desire to be the first company to launch on a used rocket. And there is certainly financial incentive for customers. SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell has said that customers that fly on a used Falcon 9 could eventually get discounts of up to 30 percent. Since the cost to launch a Falcon 9 starts at around $60 million, launching on a used rocket could start at around $40 million. For the first few relaunches, though, Shotwell told Space News that the discounts will be more in the order of 10 percent. Neither SpaceX nor SES disclosed how much money was saved for this flight.
“We did receive a discount. Obviously to fly this there was some interest and there was some incentive to do so,” Martin Halliwell, CTO of SES, said in a press conference prior to the launch. “But it is not just the money in this particular case. It’s really, ‘let’s get this proof-of-concept moving.’ Someone has to go first here and SES has a long history of doing this.”
If SpaceX wants to maximize the economic benefits of its reusable rockets, the best method is to launch these vehicles as frequently as possible. But before a rocket can launch again, it has to be inspected, refurbished, and tested a few times to ensure that it’s ready for spaceflight. It took SpaceX up to four months to get this rocket ready for flight today, according to Shotwell, but the company is working to trim down that turnaround time. SpaceX could have a lot of practice on that front soon, as it expects to launch up to six pre-flown Falcon 9s this year.Image copyright Scorpion Wildlife Trade Monitoring Group Image caption The bears look skeletal and can be seen begging for food from visitors in a video taken in July 2016
Indonesian activists are lobbying for a zoo accused of starving its animals, including sun bears, to be shut down.
Recent videos taken at the Bandung Zoo by the activists show the bears looking skeletal and begging for food.
It is the latest accusation against the controversial attraction - it was previously criticised for mistreating an elephant which later died.
But a zoo official has denied the claims, saying that the bears are sufficiently fed and are healthy.
Indonesia's zoos are notorious for their inadequate conditions, with most scoring poorly against government-set standards.
Read more: Indonesia's 'zoo of death' in Surabaya
The push to close down the Bandung Zoo is led by Scorpion Wildlife Trade Monitoring Group, which has been monitoring the sun bears since last year.
It has staged protests calling for the zoo's closure, and is also running an online petition.
Their videos, taken since mid-2016, show the bears pacing around in a concrete enclosure and standing up on their legs apparently begging visitors for food, who throw them junk food.
Image copyright Scorpion Wildlife Trade Monitoring Group Image caption The bears are housed in a concrete enclosure
One clip also shows a bear defecating and immediately eating its own faeces.
"The enclosure is dirty, the water is polluted and unclean, and the floor has no grass. There are no live trees in the enclosure," Scorpion's programme director Gunung Gea told the BBC.
He said that activists had been periodically visiting the bears to feed them fruit, which is part of their natural diet.
'Soul-destroying'
"The fact that you can see their ribs, that is certainly not normal. They are underfed," said Gabriella Fredriksson from the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Ms Fredriksson, who is co-chair of the sun bear expert committee, told the BBC that a sun bear eating faeces may be exhibiting "extreme boredom".
"Sun bears are very active animals. If they are stuck in a concrete pit with nothing to do, no stimulation for climbing and digging, it's soul destroying to say the least," she said.
The concrete floors would also damage their soft feet, while the lack of shade may cause cataracts in sun bears which are used to living in dimmer environments.
Image copyright Scorpion Wildlife Trade Monitoring Group Image caption One bear is seen eating its own faeces immediately after defecation, a possible sign of extreme boredom, says one expert
Mr Gea said that the other animals in the zoo also appeared to be in poor condition. Other videos taken by the group show deer with skin conditions, and chained-up elephants.
Reviews on travel rating website Tripadvisor of the zoo have been universally critical, with many saying the animals appeared neglected and in distress.
"A horrible place, hell on Earth for all these poor animals. Rusty cages, dirty place and really neglected animals," wrote one reviewer.
'Old case'
But Bandung Zoo spokesman Sudaryo dismissed the issue as an "old case". He told BBC Indonesian that they feed the bears regularly and also conduct regular health checks.
"We provide enough food... People say they are thin, but does (that) mean they are not healthy and they are not eating? It's not," he said.
He added that the bears were begging "because there are people who throw food at them", and that the zoo has told visitors to stop this practice.
The zoo last made the news in May 2016 after activists highlighted the plight of Yani, an elephant that died from an unknown disease. The zoo was said to have failed to give adequate medical care.
Bandung's mayor, Ridwan Kamil, told reporters last year that he had no power to shut down the zoo as it was privately run.
A Jakarta Globe report in 2015 said that out of the 58 registered zoos in Indonesia, only four were found to be "decent and appropriate".
The controversy over Bandung Zoo follows that of the zoo in Surabaya, dubbed by some the "zoo of death" after several animal deaths in recent years.Once I had a chance to visit one of the derelict Stalin-era labor camps. The camp is located about 100 km (62 miles) away from the city of Nadym, on the road leading to the Yarudeiskoe mines, which is to the north.
Apparently, the prisoners’ labor was used for construction of a railroad from Nadym to Salekhard ( also referred to variously as Dead Road, and Stalinbahn, is an incomplete railway in northern Siberia). The railway tracks are still there in the tundra as well as bridges.
This landscape is typical of the region.
A railway bridge.
The small forest where the camp is located.
Security watchtowers.
The barbed wire fence.
An office building.
Everything looks rickety. The same building.
The prisoners’ barracks.
The inner space of the barrack. Everything is very simple. There are no walls.
The visitors leave cigarettes, coins, sweets and bread here – apparently, to pay homage to the prisoners.
The bunks. Just woodboards and nails, nothing more.
A general view.
Another building.
And another one.
The traces of time.
Here is the only well-preserved building on the site. This is the isolation barrack.
Inside the barrack.
The bars in the isolation barrack. Flattened bars and holes made with nails.
This is the last photo. While I was walking around the site, I was thinking that if I had ever become a prisoner here, I would probably have died very soon.
The temperatures reach -50 degrees Celcius (-58 degrees Fahrenheit). The housing is made of wood splits and clay. Moors all around.
The living conditions are simply non-human.
By danil2i for rusue.comThe practical challenges of characterizing the Advanced LIGO detectors.
The Advanced LIGO gravitational wave detectors are extremely sensitive instruments, measuring almost impossibly small changes in length. Their sensitivity is equivalent to measuring a change in distance the thickness of a human hair between Earth and Alpha Centauri, the closest star to Earth. Naturally, such a sensitive measurement picks up background noise in the form of disturbances that pollute the signal. For example, we might expect to see wind gusts, lightning strikes, earthquakes, or four buses full of middle schoolers rolling down the driveway to appear in the data as noise.
How then can we be sure LIGO really detected a gravitational wave signal in binary black hole merger GW150914 and not a short-duration burst of noise called a glitch?
At a fundamental level, the line of reasoning is simple:
1. First show that the signal is significant relative to the background noise
2. Then show that it could not be caused by anything except a gravitational wave.
The first task belongs primarily to the data analysis groups that search the data for coincident patterns consistent with gravitational waves between the two widely separated detectors. The second half is the centerpiece of this paper. Detector characterization is the boring name for the exciting detective work of tracking down causes of spurious signals in the LIGO detectors. It requires equal parts experience with the LIGO instrumentation, gravitational wave astrophysical analyses, and big-data mining. The LIGO Detector characterization group is charged with identifying the types of noise glitches and helping to mitigate them. The group is also responsible for vetting the quality of the data.
Often the first step in improving data quality is spotting patterns that allow us to sort glitches into classes that likely have a common cause. Without yet knowing the instrumental cause, this pattern-spotting can result in some whimsical names for different glitch types, including ‘Whistles’, ‘Blips’, ‘Koi fish’, and even ‘Fringey the sea monster’.
The next step is to find the source of the classified glitches, and as in any good detective story, this requires a mixture of intuition, experience, and solid legwork. One powerful method is to search for correlations between glitches in the gravitational wave output channel of the detector and any of more than 200,000 auxiliary channels. These auxiliary channels include monitors of behavior internal to the detectors as well as a suite of environmental sensors.
An example of this process from the recent observation run is the curious case of the 60 Hz glitches at the LIGO-Hanford site.
Before the start of the observing run, we noticed glitches at 60 Hz in LIGO-Hanford’s data that occurred about once an hour. We also saw coincident glitches in magnetometers at the end of one of the arms of the interferometer. During the summer, the time between these glitches was a little less than an hour. As the weather became cooler during autumn, the time between glitches grew to over an hour, suggesting a temperature-related cause.
Using handheld magnetometers, the culprit was identified as a refrigerator. Whenever the fridge compressor switched on, it would draw a burst of power that coupled into the electronics of the instrument. The glitches disappeared after the refrigerator was unplugged. (No refrigerators were harmed in the making of this discovery).
Another practical challenge is understanding how well we can measure the effect of the environment on the data. This relies on a network of environmental sensors such as seismometers, accelerometers, microphones, radio antennae, and magnetometers that are installed around each of the two detectors. We perform injection tests where we induce an artificial environment noise, like an oscillating magnetic field, and measure the response of the detector data as well as the sensor network. Sometimes this is done with equipment like a magnetic field generator, but sometimes simulating realistic anthropogenic noise comes down to a bunch of scientists jumping up and down, or dropping heavy objects.
So now that we understand our noise and how it affects our astrophysical analyses, what more do we know that makes us sure that GW150914 was indeed a gravitational wave? The argument is two-fold:
1) GW150914 is by far the loudest event in all searches for short-duration gravitational wave signals coincident between the two LIGO detectors; a clear outlier relative to the background noise.
2) At the time of the event, there were no environmental or internally generated sources of noise that could have caused it.
To find out more about noise characterization related to GW150914, check out the LIGO Scientific Collaboration’s paper in Classical and Quantum Gravity.
Read the full article for free in Classical and Quantum Gravity (Open Access):
Characterization of transient noise in Advanced LIGO relevant to gravitational wave signal GW150914
The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration
2016 Class. Quantum Grav. 33 134001
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.About 45 minutes in the stream Tuesday night, my computer suddenly turned off when I banged it a little bit and I was very afraid of that happening again. In turn, I lost all my progress from making my way up Pokémon Tower. I decided to stop streaming early and not upload the incomplete episode on my YouTube channel for this very reason.
I got my laptop inspected today by a technician and said under normal conditions the machine works fine and doesn’t shut off in that manner. He also suggested to get an external keyboard in case of heavy typing and I did.
I am very sorry for what happened last time, but I will be starting over the live episode tonight at 8pm Eastern Time on my Twitch channel. If you haven’t watched the previous episode (Team Rocket Hideout and Celadon Gym), I suggest you to go watch it here.
And in response to that issue, I decided to set up a StreamTip page so that you can support to help improve my stream any time you want. Of course, I probably can’t show that on stream due to my computer’s performance limitations, but I will gladly accept them anyway.
Drawing above is (once again) by Zokor from Reddit! It should’ve said 8pm Eastern Time, but oh well…A Sikh politician contesting in the upcoming elections from Australia's Greens party has been targeted with "racist flyers" which she claimed were distributed in her electorate.
Alexandra Kaur Bhathal, a candidate from Greens party for the seat of Batman, Melbourne, today wrote on her Facebook page that a flyer was distributed in her electorate targeting her background and beliefs.
VICIOUS, RACIST REMARKS
"Yesterday and today a flyer has been distributed in my electorate of Batman targeting my background and beliefs. The leaflet contains vicious and racist statements about me and my heritage as a Sikh," Bhathal said.
"I was sickened and disturbed by this, as are members of the Sikh community who've seen the flyer, but it only adds to my resolve to keep campaigning and defend multiculturalism. This propaganda, based on misinformation, racism and hatred, will not sway me from my faith as a Sikh, a religion that stands up for the rights of all people - we are a progressive, humanist faith that believes all people are created equal and that we must respect all religions," she added.
According to media reports, the alleged printed material claimed Bhathal supported "Khalistan terrorist movement" to create a "racist" nation in Punjab.
The flyers had a picture of Bhathal speaking at a Sikh congregation in Melbourne marked as Sikh Genocide Remembrance Day on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots anniversary last year and it claimed that she "infiltrated the Greens to promote her hidden race agenda."
COMPLAINT LODGED
Bhathal said, "It won't sway me from my political commitments as a Greens candidate. I have lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission. This kind of racism has no place in our politics. We cannot allow hatred to grow unchallenged."
"To the people who wrote and produced this flyer, I want to tell you that I will not be intimidated. I'm proud to stand up for what I hold most fundamental and that includes my belief that racism has no place in our country," she asserted.
Polling for the general election in Australia will be held on July 2.Here's what you need to know...
When you lift a load that doesn't allow more than five reps on the first set, you're already doing everything you can for optimal motor unit recruitment. You can use light weights and still build muscle, but you need to determine what load allows no more than 22 reps (about 60% of 1RM) for the first set, and don't go any lighter in subsequent sets regardless of how many reps drop off. a When training with lighter loads, accelerate the concentric phase, squeeze the peak contraction, lower under control and limit the duration of each set to 10 seconds when maximum motor unit recruitment is the goal. The strongest motor units can only sustain their activity for around 10 seconds before fatigue sets in and they drop out.
There are a number of ways to trigger hypertrophy, but just because you build muscle doesn't mean you'll be a more explosive athlete. For example, cyclists build impressively muscular thighs through countless hours on the bike. What's not impressive is their sprint or squat performance.
So when the goal is hypertrophy with concomitant gains in explosiveness and athleticism, it's necessary to appreciate the role of the nervous system. I'm talking here about maximum force production, which is the impetus for all the strength and growth you seek.
The force a muscle can exert is determined by two factors:
The number of motor units recruited. The firing rate of the motor units.
In neural science literature, motor unit recruitment and firing rate are mentioned separately, but they go hand-in-hand. Forget which factor plays a more crucial role. Your goal is to optimize both and you will if you follow the guidelines I've laid out below. The key is to recruit and fatigue the maximum number of motor units with each exercise. Once you do that, you've got nothing to worry about except for buying a new wardrobe.
Indeed, when you lift a load that doesn't allow more than five reps on the first set, you're already doing everything you can for optimal motor unit recruitment. Those heavy loads require intense focus, so the idea of trying to accelerate them or squeeze the peak contraction, is a lesson in futility. There's no cognitive space left for it. In other words, it's tough to screw up a heavy workout |
, and it smells awful. For a more vivid description of the taste of this beer, AV Club did a great job. I’m not going to even explain the taste of this beer, because I really don’t want to revisit the experience. It really is that bad. If someone tells you they enjoy the Budweiser & Clamato Chelada, they are simply lying to you. Here’s another review of this revolting fluid by some psycho named Aaron Goldfarb. Knock yourself out. The traditional michelada is an outstanding daytime beverage that definitely shouldn’t come in a gluey styrofoam cup or come out of a can. If you’ve tasted one of these monstrosities (or if you read one of the above reviews), don’t let this dissuade you from the magnificence of the real thing. My favorite michelada comes from a mix that can only be found at Connie’s Seafood on Airline. You can pick up a bottle of it for $5. Drop a spoonful and a half into the bottom of a glass with a salted rim, and fill it with an ordinary beer and a squeeze of fresh lime. Some people prefer it with ice. If you have a favorite michelada recipe, or a favorite place to buy micheladas, please share it! ***UPDATE!*** Commenter “Moe” explained the gray rock, and claims it is a “saladito”, or dried plum. (see comments below.) Not to alarm anyone, but there’s an FDA warning against imported saladitos dating back to 2009, citing that they contain lead. How lead gets into dried plums is anyone’s guess. To be fair, if we all went by FDA’s rules, food would be pretty boring.
Cinco de Mayo and Ignacio Zaragoza May 5th, 2012 in Tacos! by Jay | no responses Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone! If you’re not completely tanked on beer and seven-layer dip already, I’ve got something fun for you. Remember an older blog post where I interviewed Ben Johnson, the mastermind behind “Badass of the Week“? Yesterday, he offered up a nice history lesson on the origination of Cinco de Mayo, appointing Ignacio Zaragoza as this week’s Badass. It’s the best account of the history of Cinco de Mayo I’ve seen so far. No idea why they banned this guy from writing history textbooks for kids. Enjoy!
G&T For Mayhem February 17th, 2012 in Tacos! by Jay | 2 responses In this dark world of corrupt Yellow Cab drivers, tow truck vultures, and politicians with deep pockets and dark secrets, a swarm of evil has infected our landscape. Auto-tune technology has destroyed our airwaves. People are afraid to visit a bar or restaurant without first looking it up on Yelp. Women are wearing Uggs. Although the future may appear to be hopeless, the answer lies in anarchy, chaos and destruction. Fear not the Karsdashians, the Adam Levines, the Regis Philbins and Ryan Seacrests of this world; for their time is limited. Stand up and fight for mayhem, and we can take the law into our own hands. A special thanks to BuildaSign.com for their great work on these.Getty Images
Zoe Quinn has sold both a memoir of her time at the centre of GamerGate and the film rights to her story -- and Scarlett Johansson is already tipped to appear in the movie.
The book, Crash Override: How To Save The Internet From Itself, is due to be published by Simon & Schuster, with the film rights already sold to Sony-backed Pascal Films.
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Reports from Deadline, which have been partially confirmed by Quinn on Twitter, speculate that Scarlet Johansson is keen to step into the role of Quinn.
Quinn, a games developer, was the author of simple indie games like Depression Quest when a post by an ex-boyfriend went viral. She was subsequently embroiled in what has come to be known as GamerGate, a campaign to expose what they believe have been ethical lapses and bias by videogames journalists.
The phrase has since taken on meme-like status and spiralled into a complex controversy. Anti-GamerGaters argue that the campaign is actually driven by misogyny and that the harassment and threats received by Quinn and other women have more to do with sexism than gaming. It is these threats, and their aftermath, that will apparently be depicted in both the book and film of Quinn's life.
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Two announcements in one:
1 - I'm publishing a book with Touchstone, a Simon and Schuster imprint
2 - That book is being made into a movie — Taylor.swf (@UnburntWitch) November 6, 2015
"Gaming and internet message boards used to be niche interests, mostly for young men," Quinn wrote in her proposal. "In the past few years, however, they’ve gone mainstream." "Millions of people -- including women and other marginalised people -- have taken an interest in the platforms, image boards, and discussion forums that once belonged by default to a much smaller population. Most gamers give zero fu*ks about this. Like the rest of us, they’re just here to play games." "But a vocal minority are clinging onto the brand of Cheetos-and-Mountain-Dew exclusionary identity ‘hardcore gamer,’ muttering ‘fu*kin casuals’ under their breath."
Crash Override, the book, will be released in September 2016. There are no details on the movie, however -- the sale of rights is usually the first step in a very long process of development, which can easily fall apart or be shelved before concrete release plans are announced.For other people named Franklin Pierce, see Franklin Pierce (disambiguation)
14th President of the United States
Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804 – October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States (1853–1857), a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a fundamental threat to the unity of the nation. He alienated anti-slavery groups by championing and signing the Kansas–Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act, yet he failed to stem conflict between North and South, setting the stage for Southern secession and the American Civil War.
Pierce was born in New Hampshire, and served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate until he resigned from the Senate in 1842. His private law practice in New Hampshire was a success, and he was appointed U.S. Attorney for his state in 1845. He took part in the Mexican–American War as a brigadier general in the Army. He was seen by Democrats as a compromise candidate uniting northern and southern interests and was nominated as the party's candidate for president on the 49th ballot at the 1852 Democratic National Convention. He and running mate William R. King easily defeated the Whig Party ticket of Winfield Scott and William A. Graham in the 1852 presidential election.
As president, Pierce simultaneously attempted to enforce neutral standards for civil service while also satisfying the diverse elements of the Democratic Party with patronage, an effort which largely failed and turned many in his party against him. He was a Young America expansionist who signed the Gadsden Purchase of land from Mexico and led a failed attempt to acquire Cuba from Spain. He signed trade treaties with Britain and Japan, while his Cabinet reformed their departments and improved accountability, but these successes were overshadowed by political strife during his presidency. His popularity declined sharply in the Northern states after he supported the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which nullified the Missouri Compromise, while many whites in the South continued to support him. Passage of the act led to violent conflict over the expansion of slavery in the American West. Pierce's administration was further damaged when several of his diplomats issued the Ostend Manifesto calling for the annexation of Cuba, a document which was roundly criticized. He fully expected to be renominated by the Democrats in the 1856 presidential election, but was abandoned by his party and his bid failed. His reputation in the North suffered further during the American Civil War as he became a vocal critic of President Abraham Lincoln.
Pierce was popular and outgoing, but his family life was a grim affair, with his wife Jane suffering from illness and depression for much of her life.[1] All of their children died young, their last son being gruesomely killed in a train accident while the family was traveling shortly before Pierce's inauguration. He was a heavy drinker for much of his life, and he died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1869. Historians and scholars generally rank Pierce as one of the worst and least memorable U.S. Presidents.
Early life and family [ edit ]
Childhood and education [ edit ]
Franklin Pierce was born on November 23, 1804 in a log cabin in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. He was a sixth-generation descendant of Thomas Pierce, who had moved to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from Norwich, Norfolk, England in about 1634. His father Benjamin was a lieutenant in the American Revolutionary War who moved from Chelmsford, Massachusetts to Hillsborough after the war, purchasing 50 acres (20 ha) of land. Pierce was the fifth of eight children born to Benjamin and his second wife Anna Kendrick; his first wife Elizabeth Andrews died in childbirth, leaving a daughter. Benjamin was a prominent Democratic-Republican[note 3] state legislator, farmer, and tavern-keeper. During Pierce's childhood, his father was deeply involved in state politics, while two of his older brothers fought in the War of 1812; public affairs and the military were thus a major influence in his early life.[5]
Pierce's father ensured that his sons were educated, and he placed Pierce in a school at Hillsborough Center in childhood and sent him to the town school at Hancock at age 12.[note 4] The boy, not fond of schooling, grew homesick at Hancock and walked 12 miles (19 km) back to his home one Sunday. His father fed him dinner and drove him part of the distance back to school before kicking him out of the carriage and ordering him to walk the rest of the way in a thunderstorm. Pierce later cited this moment as "the turning-point in my life".[7] Later that year, he transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy to prepare for college. By this time, he had built a reputation as a charming student, sometimes prone to misbehavior.[7]
The Life of Franklin Pierce in support of Pierce's 1852 presidential campaign.[8] Novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne remained lifelong friends with Pierce. He wrote the glowing biographyin support of Pierce's 1852 presidential campaign.
In fall 1820, Pierce entered Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, one of 19 freshmen. He joined the Athenian Society, a progressive literary society, alongside Jonathan Cilley (later elected to Congress) and Nathaniel Hawthorne, with whom he formed lasting friendships. He was the last in his class after two years, but he worked hard to improve his grades and graduated in fifth place in 1824[9] in a graduating class of 14.[10] John P. Hale enrolled at Bowdoin in Pierce's junior year; he became a political ally of Pierce's and then his rival. Pierce organized and led an unofficial militia company called the Bowdoin Cadets during his junior year, which included Cilley and Hawthorne. The unit performed drill on campus near the president's house, until the noise caused him to demand that it halt. The students rebelled and went on strike, an event that Pierce was suspected of leading.[11] During his final year at Bowdoin, he spent several months teaching at a school in rural Hebron, Maine, where he earned his first salary and his students included future Congressman John J. Perry.[12][13]
Pierce read law briefly with former New Hampshire Governor Levi Woodbury, a family friend in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.[14] He then spent a semester at Northampton Law School in Northampton, Massachusetts, followed by a period of study in 1826 and 1827 under Judge Edmund Parker in Amherst, New Hampshire. He was admitted to the New Hampshire bar in late 1827 and began to practice in Hillsborough.[15] He lost his first case, but soon proved capable as a lawyer. Despite never being a legal scholar, his memory for names and faces served him well, as did his personal charm and deep voice.[16] In Hillsborough, his law partner was Albert Baker, who had studied law under Pierce and was the brother of Mary Baker Eddy.[17]
State politics [ edit ]
By 1824, New Hampshire was a hotbed of partisanship, with figures such as Woodbury and Isaac Hill laying the groundwork for a party of Democrats in support of General Andrew Jackson. They opposed the established Federalists (and their successors, the National Republicans), who were led by sitting President John Quincy Adams. The work of the New Hampshire Democratic Party came to fruition in March 1827, when their pro-Jackson nominee, Benjamin Pierce, won the support of the pro-Adams faction and was elected governor of New Hampshire essentially unopposed. While the younger Pierce had set out to build a career as an attorney, he was fully drawn into the realm of politics as the 1828 presidential election between Adams and Jackson approached. In the state elections held in March 1828, the Adams faction withdrew their support of Benjamin Pierce, voting him out of office,[note 5] but Franklin Pierce won his first election, as Hillsborough town moderator, a position to which he would be elected for six consecutive years.[18]
Pierce actively campaigned in his district on behalf of Jackson, who carried both the district and the nation by large margins in the November 1828 election, even though he lost New Hampshire. The outcome further strengthened the Democratic Party, and Pierce won his first legislative seat the following year, representing Hillsborough in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Pierce's father, meanwhile, was elected again as governor, retiring after that term. The younger Pierce was appointed as chairman of the House Education Committee in 1829 and the Committee on Towns the following year. By 1831 the Democrats held a legislative majority, and Pierce was elected Speaker of the House. The young Speaker used his platform to oppose the expansion of banking, protect the state militia, and offer support to the national Democrats and Jackson's re-election effort. At the age of 27, he was a star of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. Though attaining early political and professional success, in his personal letters he continued to lament his bachelorhood and yearned for a life beyond Hillsborough.[19]
Like all white males in New Hampshire between the ages of 18 and 45, Pierce was a member of the state militia, and was appointed aide de camp to Governor Samuel Dinsmoor in 1831. He remained in the militia until 1847, and attained the rank of colonel before becoming a brigadier general in the Army during the Mexican–American War.[20][21] Interested in revitalizing and reforming the state militias, which had become increasingly dormant during the years of peace following the War of 1812, Pierce worked with Alden Partridge, president of Norwich University, a military college in Vermont, and Truman B. Ransom and Alonzo Jackman, Norwich faculty members and militia officers, to increase recruiting efforts and improve training and readiness.[22][23] Pierce served as a Norwich University trustee from 1841 to 1859, and received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Norwich in 1853.[24]
In late 1832, the Democratic Party convention nominated Pierce for one of New Hampshire's five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. This was tantamount to election for the young Democrat, as the National Republicans had faded as a political force, while the Whigs had not yet begun to attract a large following. Democratic strength in New Hampshire was also bolstered by Jackson's landslide re-election that year.[25] New Hampshire had been a marginal state politically, but from 1832 through the mid-1850s became the most reliably Democratic state in the North, boosting Pierce's political career.[26] Pierce's term began in March 1833, but he would not be sworn in until Congress met in December, and his attention was elsewhere. He had recently become engaged and bought his first house in Hillsborough. Franklin and Benjamin Pierce were among the prominent citizens who welcomed President Jackson to the state on his visit in mid-1833.[25]
Marriage and children [ edit ]
On November 19, 1834, Pierce married Jane Means Appleton (March 12, 1806 – December 2, 1863), the daughter of Jesse Appleton, a Congregational minister and former president of Bowdoin College, and Elizabeth Means. The Appletons were prominent Whigs, in contrast with the Pierces' Democratic affiliation. Jane Pierce was shy, devoutly religious, and pro-temperance, encouraging Pierce to abstain from alcohol. She was somewhat gaunt, and constantly ill from tuberculosis and psychological ailments. She abhorred politics and especially disliked Washington, D.C., creating a tension that would continue throughout Pierce's political ascent.[27][28][29]
Jane Pierce disliked Hillsborough as well, and in 1838, the Pierces relocated to the state capital, Concord, New Hampshire.[30] They had three sons, all of whom died in childhood. Franklin Jr. (February 2–5, 1836) died in infancy, while Frank Robert (August 27, 1839 – November 14, 1843) died at the age of four from epidemic typhus. Benjamin (April 13, 1841 – January 6, 1853) died at the age of 11 in a train accident.[31]
Congressional career [ edit ]
U.S. House of Representatives [ edit ]
Pierce departed in November 1833 for Washington, D.C., where the Twenty-third United States Congress convened its regular session on December 2. Jackson's second term was under way, and the House had a strong Democratic majority, whose primary focus was to prevent the Second Bank of the United States from being rechartered. The Democrats, including Pierce, defeated proposals supported by the newly formed Whig Party, and the bank's charter expired. Pierce broke from his party on occasion, opposing Democratic bills to fund internal improvements with federal money. He saw both the bank and infrastructure spending as unconstitutional, with internal improvements the responsibility of the states. Pierce's first term was fairly uneventful from a legislative standpoint, and he was easily re-elected in March 1835. When not in Washington, he attended to his law practice, and in December 1835 returned to the capital for the Twenty-fourth Congress.[32]
As abolitionism grew more vocal in the mid-1830s, Congress was inundated with petitions from anti-slavery groups seeking legislation to restrict slavery in the United States. From the beginning, Pierce found the abolitionists' "agitation" to be an annoyance, and saw federal action against slavery as an infringement on southern states' rights, even though he was morally opposed to slavery itself.[33] He was also frustrated with the "religious bigotry" of abolitionists, who cast their political opponents as sinners.[34] "I consider slavery a social and political evil," Pierce said, "and most sincerely wish that it had no existence upon the face of the earth."[35] Still, he wrote in December 1835, "One thing must be perfectly apparent to every intelligent man. This abolition movement must be crushed or there is an end to the Union."[36]
When Rep. James Henry Hammond of South Carolina looked to prevent anti-slavery petitions from reaching the House floor, however, Pierce sided with the abolitionists' right to petition. Nevertheless, Pierce supported what came to be known as the gag rule, which allowed for petitions to be received, but not read or considered. This passed the House in 1836.[33] He was attacked by the New Hampshire anti-slavery Herald of Freedom as a "doughface", which had the dual meaning of "craven-spirited man" and "northerner with southern sympathies".[37] Pierce had stated that not one in 500 New Hampshirites were abolitionists; the Herald of Freedom article added up the number of signatures on petitions from that state, divided by the number of residents according to the 1830 census, and suggested the actual number was one-in-33. Pierce was outraged when South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun read the article on the Senate floor as "proof" that New Hampshire was a hotbed of abolitionism. Calhoun apologized after Pierce replied to him in a speech which stated that most signatories were women and children, who could not vote, which therefore cast doubt on the one-in-33 figure.[38]
U.S. Senate [ edit ]
Pierce in 1852
The resignation in May 1836 of Senator Isaac Hill, who had been elected governor of New Hampshire, left a short-term opening to be filled by the state legislature, and with Hill's term as senator due to expire in March 1837, the legislature also had to fill the six-year term to follow. Pierce's candidacy for the Senate was championed by state Representative John P. Hale, a fellow Athenian at Bowdoin. After much debate, the legislature chose John Page to fill the rest of Hill's term. In December 1836, Pierce was elected to the full term, to commence in March 1837, and at age 32, was at the time one of the youngest members in Senate history. The election came at a difficult time for Pierce, as his father, sister, and brother were all seriously ill, while his wife also continued to suffer from chronic poor health. As senator, he was able to help his old friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, who often struggled financially, procuring for him a sinecure as measurer of coal and salt at the Boston Customs House that allowed the author time to continue writing.[39]
Pierce voted the party line on most issues and was an able senator, but not an eminent one; he was overshadowed by the Great Triumvirate of Calhoun, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster, who dominated the Senate.[40] Pierce entered the Senate at a time of economic crisis, as the Panic of 1837 had begun. He considered the depression a result of the banking system's rapid growth, amidst "the extravagance of overtrading and the wilderness of speculation".[41] So that federal money would not support speculative bank loans, he supported newly elected Democratic president Martin Van Buren and his plan to create an independent treasury, a proposal which split the Democratic Party. Debate over slavery continued in Congress, and abolitionists proposed its end in the District of Columbia, where Congress had jurisdiction. Pierce supported a resolution by Calhoun against this proposal, which Pierce considered a dangerous stepping stone to nationwide emancipation.[41] Meanwhile, the Whigs were growing in congressional strength, which would leave Pierce's party with only a small majority by the end of the decade.[42]
One topic of particular importance to Pierce was the military. He challenged a bill which would expand the ranks of the Army's staff officers in Washington without any apparent benefit to line officers at posts in the rest of the country. He took an interest in military pensions, seeing abundant fraud within the system, and was named chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Pensions in the Twenty-sixth Congress (1839–1841). In that capacity, he urged the modernization and expansion of the Army, with a focus on militias and mobility rather than on coastal fortifications, which he considered outdated.[43]
Pierce campaigned vigorously throughout his home state for Van Buren's re-election in the 1840 presidential election. The incumbent carried New Hampshire but lost the national vote to William Henry Harrison, the military hero, whose Whigs took a majority of seats in the Twenty-seventh Congress. Harrison died after a month in office, and Vice President John Tyler succeeded him. Pierce and the Democrats were quick to challenge the new administration, questioning the removal of federal officeholders, and opposing Whig plans for a national bank. In December 1841 Pierce decided to resign from Congress, something he had been planning for some time.[44] New Hampshire Democrats insisted that their state's U. S. senators be limited to one six-year term, so he had little likelihood of re-election. Also, he was frustrated at being a member of the legislative minority and wished to devote his time to his family and law practice.[45] His last actions in the Senate in February 1842 were to oppose a bill distributing federal funds to the states – believing that the money should go to the military instead – and to challenge the Whigs to reveal the results of their investigation of the New York Customs House, where the Whigs had probed for Democratic corruption for nearly a year but had issued no findings.[46]
Party leader [ edit ]
Lawyer and politician [ edit ]
[47] The Concord house where Pierce lived from 1842 to 1848 is now known as the Pierce Manse. The house was restored in the 1970s and is now maintained as a historic attraction.
Despite his resignation from the Senate, Pierce had no intention of leaving public life. The move to Concord had given him more opportunities for cases, and allowed Jane Pierce a more robust community life.[48] Jane had remained in Concord with her young son Frank and her newborn Benjamin for the latter part of Pierce's senate term, and this separation had taken a toll on the family. Pierce, meanwhile, had begun a demanding but lucrative law partnership with Asa Fowler during congressional recesses.[49] Pierce returned to Concord in early 1842, and his reputation as a lawyer continued to flourish. Known for his gracious personality, eloquence, and excellent memory, Pierce attracted large audiences in court. He would often represent poor people for little or no compensation.[50]
Pierce remained involved in the state Democratic Party, which was split by several issues. Governor Hill, who represented the commercial, urban wing of the party, advocated the use of government charters to support corporations, granting them privileges such as limited liability and eminent domain for building railroads. The radical "locofoco" wing of his party represented farmers and other rural voters, who sought an expansion of social programs and labor regulations and a restriction on corporate privilege. The state's political culture grew less tolerant of banks and corporations after the Panic of 1837, and Hill was voted out of office. Pierce was closer to the radicals philosophically, and reluctantly agreed to represent Hill's adversary in a legal dispute regarding ownership of a newspaper—Hill lost, and founded his own paper, of which Pierce was a frequent target.[51]
In June 1842 Pierce was named chairman of the State Democratic Committee, and in the following year's state election he helped the radical wing take over the state legislature. The party remained divided on several issues, including railroad development and the temperance movement, and Pierce took a leading role in helping the state legislature settle their differences. His priorities were "order, moderation, compromise, and party unity", which he tried to place ahead of his personal views on political issues.[52] As he would as president, Pierce valued Democratic Party unity highly, and saw the opposition to slavery as a threat to that.[53]
Democratic James K. Polk's dark horse victory in the 1844 presidential election was welcome news to Pierce, who had befriended the former Speaker of the House while both served in Congress. Pierce had campaigned heavily for Polk during the election, and in turn Polk appointed him as United States Attorney for New Hampshire.[54] Polk's most prominent cause was the annexation of Texas, an issue which caused a dramatic split between Pierce and his former ally Hale, now a U.S. Representative. Hale was so impassioned against adding a new slave state that he wrote a public letter to his constituents outlining his opposition to the measure.[55] Pierce responded by re-assembling the state Democratic convention to revoke Hale's nomination for another term in Congress.[56] The political firestorm led to Pierce severing ties with his longtime friend, and with his law partner Fowler, who was a Hale supporter.[57] Hale refused to withdraw, and as a majority vote was needed for election in New Hampshire, the party split led to deadlock and a vacant House seat. Eventually, the Whigs and Hale's Independent Democrats took control of the legislature, elected Whig Anthony Colby as governor and sent Hale to the Senate, much to Pierce's anger.[58]
Mexican–American War [ edit ]
Pierce in his brigadier general's uniform
Active military service was a long-held dream for Pierce, who had admired his father's and brothers' service in his youth, particularly his older brother Benjamin's, as well as that of John McNeil Jr., husband of Pierce's older half-sister Elizabeth. As a legislator, he was a passionate advocate for volunteer militias. As a militia officer himself, he had experience mustering and drilling bodies of troops. When Congress declared war against Mexico in May 1846, Pierce immediately volunteered to join, although no New England regiment yet existed. His hope to fight in the Mexican–American War was one reason he refused an offer to become Polk's Attorney General. General Zachary Taylor's advance slowed in northern Mexico, and General Winfield Scott proposed capturing the port of Vera Cruz and driving overland to Mexico City. Congress passed a bill authorizing the creation of ten regiments, and Pierce was appointed commander and colonel of the 9th Infantry Regiment in February 1847, with Truman B. Ransom as lieutenant colonel and second-in-command.[59]
[60] Pierce's brief term as a general in the Mexican–American War boosted his public image.
On March 3, 1847, Pierce was promoted to brigadier general, and took command of a brigade of reinforcements for General Scott's army, with Ransom succeeding to command of the regiment. Needing time to assemble his brigade, Pierce reached the already-seized port of Vera Cruz in late June, where he prepared a march of 2,500 men accompanying supplies for Scott. The three-week journey inland was perilous, and the men fought off several attacks before joining with Scott's army in early August, in time for the Battle of Contreras.[61] The battle was disastrous for Pierce: his horse was suddenly startled during a charge, knocking him groin-first against his saddle. The horse then tripped into a crevice and fell, pinning Pierce underneath and debilitating his knee.[62] The incident made it look like he had fainted, causing one soldier to call for someone else to take command, "General Pierce is a damned coward."[63] Pierce returned for the following day's action, but re-injured his knee, forcing him to hobble after his men; by the time he caught up, the battle was mostly won.[63]
As the Battle of Churubusco approached, Scott ordered Pierce to the rear to convalesce. He responded, "For God's sake, General, this is the last great battle, and I must lead my brigade." Scott yielded, and Pierce entered the fight tied to his saddle, but the pain in his leg became so great that he passed out on the field. The Americans won the battle and Pierce helped negotiate an armistice. He then returned to command and led his brigade throughout the rest of the campaign, eventually taking part in the capture of Mexico City in mid-September, although his brigade was held in reserve for much of the battle.[64] For much of the Mexico City battle, he was in the sick tent, plagued with acute diarrhea.[63] Pierce remained in command of his brigade during the three-month occupation of the city; while frustrated with the stalling of peace negotiations, he also tried to distance himself from the constant conflict between Scott and the other generals.[64]
Pierce was finally allowed to return to Concord in late December 1847. He was given a hero's welcome in his home state, and submitted his resignation from the Army, which was approved on March 20, 1848. His military exploits elevated his popularity in New Hampshire, but his injuries and subsequent troubles in battle led to accusations of cowardice which would long shadow him. He had demonstrated competence as a general, especially in the initial march from Vera Cruz, but his short tenure and his injury left little for historians to judge his ability as a military commander.[60]
Ulysses S. Grant, who had the opportunity to observe Pierce firsthand during the war, countered the allegations of cowardice in his memoirs, written several years after Pierce's death: "Whatever General Pierce's qualifications may have been for the Presidency, he was a gentleman and a man of courage. I was not a supporter of him politically, but I knew him more intimately than I did any other of the volunteer generals."[65]
Return to New Hampshire [ edit ]
de facto leader of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.[66] By the 1850s, Pierce had become aleader of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.
Returning to Concord, Pierce resumed his law practice; in one notable case he defended the religious liberty of the Shakers, the insular sect threatened with legal action over accusations of abuse. His role as a party leader, however, continued to take up most of his attention. He continued to wrangle with Senator Hale, who was stridently anti-slavery and had opposed the war, stances that Pierce regarded as needless agitation.[66]
The large Mexican Cession of land divided the United States politically, with many in the North insisting that slavery not be allowed there (and offering the Wilmot Proviso to ensure it), while others wanted slavery barred north of the Missouri Compromise line of 36°30′ N. Both proposals were anathema to many Southerners, and the controversy split the Democrats. At the 1848 Democratic National Convention, the majority nominated former Michigan senator Lewis Cass for president, while a minority broke off to become the Free Soil Party, backing former president Van Buren. The Whigs chose General Zachary Taylor, a Louisianan, whose views on most political issues were unknown. Despite his past support for Van Buren, Pierce supported Cass, turning down the quiet offer of second place on the Free Soil ticket, and was so effective that Taylor, who was elected president, was held in New Hampshire to his lowest percentage in any state.[67]
Senator Henry Clay, a Whig, hoped to put the slavery question to rest with a set of proposals that became known as the Compromise of 1850. These would give victories to North and South, and gained the support of his fellow Whig, Webster. With the bill stalled in the Senate, Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas led a successful effort to split it into separate measures so that each legislator could vote against the parts his state opposed without endangering the overall package. The bills passed, and were signed by President Millard Fillmore (who had succeeded Taylor after the president's death earlier in 1850).[68] Pierce strongly supported the compromise, giving a well-received speech in December 1850 pledging himself to "The Union! Eternal Union!"[69] The same month, the Democratic candidate for governor, John Atwood, issued a letter opposing the Compromise, and Pierce helped to recall the state convention and remove Atwood from the ticket.[69] The fiasco compromised the election for the Democrats, who lost several races; still, Pierce's party retained its control over the state, and was well positioned for the upcoming presidential election.[70]
Election of 1852 [ edit ]
Campaign poster for the Pierce/King ticket
As the 1852 presidential election approached, the Democrats were divided by the slavery issue, though most of the "Barnburners" who had left the party with Van Buren to form the Free Soil Party had returned. It was widely expected that the 1852 Democratic National Convention would result in deadlock, with no major candidate able to win the necessary two-thirds majority. New Hampshire Democrats, including Pierce, supported his old teacher, Levi Woodbury, by then an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, as a compromise candidate, but Woodbury's death in September 1851 opened up an opportunity for Pierce's allies to present him as a potential dark horse in the mold of Polk. New Hampshire Democrats felt that, as the state in which their party had most consistently gained Democratic majorities, they should supply the presidential candidate. Other possible standard-bearers included Douglas, Cass, William Marcy of New York, James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, Sam Houston of Texas, and Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri.[71][72]
Despite home state support, Pierce faced obstacles to his nomination, since he had been out of office for a decade, and also lacked the front-runners' national reputation. He publicly declared that such a nomination would be "utterly repugnant to my tastes and wishes", but given the desire of New Hampshire Democrats to see one of their own elected, he knew his future influence depended on his availability to run.[73] Thus, he quietly allowed his supporters to lobby for him, with the understanding that his name would not be entered at the convention unless it was clear none of the front-runners could win. To broaden his potential base of southern support as the convention approached, he wrote letters reiterating his support for the Compromise of 1850, including the controversial Fugitive Slave Act.[73][74]
The convention assembled on June 1 in Baltimore, Maryland, and the deadlock occurred as expected. On the first ballot of the 288 delegates, held on June 3, Cass claimed 116, Buchanan 93, and the rest were scattered, without a single vote for Pierce. The next 34 ballots passed with no winner even close, and still no votes for Pierce. The Buchanan team then had their delegates vote for minor candidates, including Pierce, to demonstrate Buchanan's inevitability, and unite the convention behind him. This novel tactic backfired after several ballots as Virginia, New Hampshire, and Maine switched to Pierce; the remaining Buchanan forces began to break for Marcy, and Pierce was soon in third place. After the 48th ballot, North Carolina Congressman James C. Dobbin delivered an unexpected and passionate endorsement of Pierce, sparking a wave of support for the dark horse candidate. On the 49th ballot, Pierce received all but six of the votes, and thus gained the Democratic nomination for president. Delegates selected Alabama Senator William R. King, a Buchanan supporter, as Pierce's running mate, and adopted a party platform that rejected further "agitation" over the slavery issue and supported the Compromise of 1850.[75][76]
When word reached New Hampshire of the result, Pierce found it difficult to believe, and his wife fainted. Their son Benjamin wrote to his mother hoping that Franklin's candidacy would not be successful, as he knew she would not like to live in Washington.[77]
This anti-Pierce political cartoon depicts him as weak and cowardly
The Whig candidate was General Scott, Pierce's commander in Mexico; his running mate was Secretary of the Navy William |
guy's face* guy (to self): i have to deal with this guy's terrible code every day. i have this guy
workin' at the work job, making the money bucks.New York’s a place I’d love to visit, but it’s probably not my top pick for motorcycle riding. A bustling, pothole-ridden city is hardly the safest place to head out on two wheels.
Yet there’s a substantial motorcycling community in NYC—and Union Garage has them covered. Founder Chris Lesser (along with his partners and crew) is a curator of riding gear that gets the elusive balance between functional and good-looking just right.
Union’s website is also one of our favorite online stores to browse. Their product descriptions are always thorough and helpful, and their journal offers up regular insights.
So we pitched a bunch of questions at Chris about his store, what Union Garage stands for, and why we should visit.
When did you start Union Garage? We started in the fall of 2012 in a 300-square-foot space that previously served as an artist’s squat. We cleaned it up and made the most of it for a couple years while we got on our feet, but it sometimes felt like working in a submarine.
Last August we completed renovation on our new, current space—a 3,000 square-foot showroom adjacent to the original store. The upgrade was much needed.
Tell us a little about your building. It opened as a marionette theater, around 1910! It was later a dentist office, an auto garage, a marble tile cutting shop, and a commercial print shop.
The store is now a beautiful, raw industrial brick space. It’s tucked into a mixed-use commercial and residential neighborhood a half-block from New York Harbor. There’s a commercial container port at the end of the street, and every once in a while we’ll see the Queen Mary II or some other cruise ship sail by.
What’s it like inside? This place has un-replicable patina. We took the raw space and built custom fixtures specifically to house heavy armor-equipped jackets, and cabinets to hide bulky helmet boxes. And plush couches in the middle so people can relax.
Space is at such a premium in NYC, it’s rare to find high ceilings. Most are lofted or parceled up. The best part about the new store is the sheer size; with 20-foot-plus ceilings and new skylights, it’s airy and open.
What are your customers like? We get grizzled old guys who’ve been riding since before I was born (1980). We see younger riders coming in, who have just moved out of their parents’ house, and have recently bought their first bike. And we see lots in between.
This is a great place to be a fly on the wall, because we get some really interesting people walking through the door. I’ve made many friends and heard lots of great stories.
We’ve had opera singers from Mexico City, fourth-generation violin bow makers, chefs, celebrities, celebrity chefs, rock stars, workaday Cambodian dancehall singers (seriously), and loads of creative types. It seems every fourth customer is a photographer.
Plus we get a lot of international customers coming through, while on business or vacation in NYC. It makes it an exciting place to work.
So what exactly is Union Garage all about? It’s printed right over the door: Quality Motorcycle Gear. That means helmets, jackets, boots, gloves, and a growing catalog of smart accessories. We take the safety gear aspect seriously—as serious as a motorcycle accident.
To that end we spend a lot of time in-store on education, and basically just talking to folks about the blender of physics that happens when things go wrong on a motorcycle. We take a pretty blunt and honest approach to gear and what it can or can’t do.
Owning and riding a motorcycle is an inherently dangerous activity—especially in a city. We’re here to make it safer, easier, and more fun. But the right gear is important, and what’s ‘right’ depends on what and where you’re riding.
We are brutally honest about the strengths and limitations of this or that product. Nobody here works on commission and I’d rather not sell someone a piece of gear than sell it to them with unrealistic expectations of what it will do for them.
Our whole shtick is the curating aspect—presenting a sensible collection of gear. There’s so much poorly designed product in the motorcycle space, people seem to appreciate the simple service of getting a bunch of well conceived gear in one place.
What’s on offer besides moto gear? We don’t have a barbershop or a restaurant in the store, nor do we sell much in the way of lifestyle accessories. There are no casual knits, seasonal sweaters, men’s grooming products or surfboards here. Not that there’s anything wrong with any of those things. I shop at places that sell all those things. We just try to stay focused.
We’re also not a coffee shop, but we do have a commercial espresso machine in the back and coffee is free for anyone who makes it down to our little corner of town.
What are your most popular products? Our classic deerskin gloves are a perennial bestseller. We’ve also gotten into the bag category lately. We sell a ton of road-trip accessories. Motorcycle touring is an important part of our DNA and it’s fun finding new products to make life on the road better.
We also sell a lot of what I call Milk-and-Egg products—the basic covers, locks, passenger helmets and rain gear that can be essential to owning a motorcycle.
Do you produce your own gear too? Our Union Garage Tool Roll does well. We’ve made a few refinements over the years and it’s a pretty tight little kit. As much as anything we made it as a response to all the other tool rolls out there that sell for sometimes exorbitant prices, but come completely empty. Like they’re a purse or a fashion statement.
Ours is based off the original BMW factory took kit and comes with a full complement of high quality tools in a handmade roll that’ll last a lifetime. It’s super functional—that’s the statement we want to make.
And our armored waxed-cotton Robinson jacket made for us by Vanson has also continued to do well. We’ve got an armored leather jacket collaboration with Vanson coming out soon that we’re really excited about. It’s been about a year and five prototypes in the making, and I’ll be glad to see it hanging on the rack finally.
Is there a workshop on site, or are you just a retail space? We like to think of it as more than ‘just a retail space’ but no, we are not a workshop. One of my business partners is Peter Boggia of Moto Borgotaro, right next door.
Anything else on the go? Lately we’ve been using the store as an events space, like hosting a heavy contingent of riders from the store for the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride. We try to organize a few rides every season, we’ve had a few photographers and world travelers come give presentations, and we just pulled off our first art show with illustrator extraordinaire Ryan Quickfall.
Union Garage NYC, 101 Union Street, Brooklyn. Open 12 to 7pm Tuesday to Friday, 11am to 6pm Saturday, 12 to 6pm Sunday. Images by Ethan Covey.Bill O’Reilly did his final O’Reilly Factor for 2016 on Tuesday night, and it was a doozy. It led off with a patented “Talking Points Memo” about those who want to abolish the Electoral College. Fox News viewers long ago got used to Bill using the phrase “Talking Points” as a substitute for the first-person singular. Thus when he said, “Talking Points believes this is all about race,” he meant that “I, Bill O’Reilly, believe this is all about race,” and — wait a minute: Did “Talking Points” actually say, “This is all about race”?
Oh, indeed he did. O’Reilly’s thesis is that abolishing the Electoral College and using only the popular vote to elect the president will lead to “presidential candidates simply campaign[ing] in the nation’s largest cities — New York, L.A., Chicago, Houston — and rack[ing] up enough votes to pretty much win any election.” In Bill-World, “largest cities” is code for “minority vote,” which in turn is code for “black and Latino populations,” which he believes vote as a mindless, uniform bloc for Democratic candidates. In fact, O’Reilly doesn’t even bother speaking in code anymore — he just comes right out and says it, asserting that a popular-vote election would “neutralize the largely white rural areas in the Midwest and South [and] assure liberal politicians get power.”
All year, O’Reilly has been amping up his attacks on the concept of “white privilege” as it is taught in universities and, increasingly, in pop culture venues. On Tuesday, he swerved into a crazily disconnected comparison, linking the Electoral College issue to his favorite bête noire: “White privilege … permeates almost every issue: that white men have set up a system of oppression, and that system must be destroyed.” He said, “Bernie Sanders peddled this,” as did Hillary Clinton and “the liberal media, all the time. … So-called white privilege: bad; diversity: good!” Summing up, Bill said, “The left wants power taken away from the white establishment, and they want a profound change in the way America is run.”
But, but, but, Bill: “The left” and the Democratic Party are not the same thing. Leftists who prattle on about white privilege are not the same people who hold power in the party. And look, please, at the Democratic leadership — have you seen a whiter group? Do you really think they’d abandon their self-interests to a new, nonwhite leadership? There’s nothing for you to fear here, Bill: The power structure will remain white. And where is this cadre of militant black or Latino Democrats leading a charge against whites? “Very few commentators will tell you that the heart of liberalism in America is based on race,” says Bill, who has apparently not been watching his new lead-in, Tucker Carlson Tonight.
Other TV outlets were quick to pounce. Over on MSNBC’s The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell, the host and guests were gleefully crowing that O’Reilly “sounds like he was defending apartheid!” Loopy rhetoric on both sides.
The final O’Reilly Factor of 2016 also included a report on the truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market that excoriated the German government for not using the word “terrorism” quickly enough. (Exactly how soon after any disaster occurs must everyone in the world use the word “terrorism,” Bill? How many minutes can pass before this becomes an offense?) And at the end of the hour, Bill patted himself on the back while noting that the “war against Christmas” was in far better shape — that is, more people, by some mystical calculation, are saying “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy holidays” — than in years past, thanks to his vigilance.
Happy holi — excuse me — Merry Christmas to you, Mr. Reilly. Let’s hope you get some well-deserved, much-needed rest.
The O’Reilly Factor airs weeknights at 8 p.m. on Fox News.It is déjà vu all over again as we sit here a couple days after some controversial calls went against the Ticats and the CFL is once again forced to apologize for an officiating error.
This time it was a challenge by Argos head coach Marc Trestman for pass interference on S.J. Green by Demond Washington.
The officials on the field did not throw a flag, so Trestman challenged hoping to have the play, which resulted in an interception by Courtney Stephen, reversed. His challenge was successful and many were stunned, such as Glen Suitor, who was calling the game at the time and said on the broadcast after the successful challenge that it was “the worst call I’ve seen all year.”
And it looks like Suitor is correct as the league has now come out and said the call was wrong and that it did not meet the league’s standard for pass interference.
Great! But it still does nothing to change the outcome of the game, a 43-35 overtime loss by the Ticats that put a major dent in the team’s playoff hopes.
But this is nothing new in Tigertown, as we have seen this song and dance before. Multiple times, in fact.
In a late-season game against the Ottawa Redblacks in 2015, the Ticats had a possible game-altering interception return for a touchdown by Brandon Stewart called back because of a “tourist hit” penalty on Craig Butler and a low block by Simoni Lawrence. The touchdown would have put the Ticats up 13-12 in a game they would go on to lose 12-6. A couple days later, the CFL admitted the calls were wrong.
Fast forward about 11 months and the Ticats centre Mike Filer get assessed a “moving the ball” penalty in a game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. This call made Kent Austin fly into a rage and accidentally make contact with an official. Austin was pseudo-suspended for one game for the incident. Oh, and league later admitted the call was wrong.
Not a month later, and the Ticats are once again playing the Redblacks and a play that is initially ruled a catch and fumble by Greg Ellingson is changed to an incomplete pass by the command centre. The change in call allows the Redblacks to kick a field goal in a game they would win 30-29. The league later admitted they blew that one as well.
Then we get to the most recent before last Saturday, the East Semi-Final between the Ticats and Eskimos is a tight contest. Late in the game, with the score tied Hamilton’s Brandon Revenberg is called for holding and Odell Willis lays a late hit on Zach Collaros that goes uncalled. The Ticats challenge and the non-call is upheld. Collaros throws an interception on the next play and the Eskimos kick what would be the winning points to win the game 24-21. A couple days later, you guessed it, the CFL admitted both calls were wrong.
If you are sensing a pattern here, good. That’s a not a coincidence. This is becoming a more than yearly thing. Refs and/or the command centre screws up, league apologizes, wash, rinse, repeat. I look forward to us doing this all again next year. (I most certainly do not look forward to that.)
The time for apologizing came and went three mistakes ago, so while the league admitting it was wrong is great and all, it really does nothing to fix the problem. And yes, there is very clearly a problem. Bad calls happen, and for the most part we can live with that. It will never be perfect and I don’t think any reasonable person expects it to be perfect, but it can be better. And after another instance where a team’s season could be altered it is now time for action. The league must do something about a system that has produced this many major mistakes against just one team over the last 23 months.
For starters, the league needs to get new blood in the command centre. I do not like to call for people to lose their jobs, but time and again the people in the command centre get things wrong and if anyone else made this many mistakes at their job, myself included, we would be looking for a new place of employment. The current set up does not work, and fans will continue to lose faith in the command centre getting the call right if things stay the same.
Secondly, while the move to one challenge is one I support, there needs to be a mechanism in place to allow for more challenges. A coach should not lose a challenge if they get it right. Too many challenges wasn’t the problem, the fishing expeditions that came with the inclusion of pass interference and illegal contact becoming challengeable was.
And that brings me to my final change: get rid of pass interference and illegal contact as challengeable plays. I thought the league was being proactive in trying this out, but four seasons after introducing it, the challenges aren’t fixing egregious missed calls, they are becoming about finding small things to negate game-altering plays. I don’t blame coaches for taking every advantage they can to win, but like a child who tries to eat his Play-Doh, if you can’t play with it properly, you don’t get it anymore. Coaches have proven they cannot be trusted when it comes to challenging penalties, so penalties should not longer be challengeable.
These are just a few suggestions to fix the problems that plague CFL officiating and, more importantly, the command centre and challenge system. I am sure other people have other ideas, but regardless, something needs to change and if we are sitting here a year from now having this same conversation, the league has failed.
Randy Ambrosie has done almost everything right since taking over as commissioner, but being a leader in fixing a tremendously broken review system and command centre might be his toughest task, but also his most important.May 29, 2014
ATHERTON, Calif. -- On Wednesday evening (May 28), University of Michigan donors Jay and Michaela Hoag graciously hosted Michigan Athletics friends and supporters during the annual West Coast "Team Tour." Special guests included John Beilein, men's basketball head coach; Brady Hoke, J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Head Football Coach; and Dave Brandon, Donald R. Shepherd Director of Athletics. The Team Tour is an annual event that takes Michigan Athletics coaches and administration on the road to enjoy time with donors, friends and alumni. During the event, guests heard updates from Ann Arbor and coaches shared stories of Wolverine student-athletes' successes in competition and in the classroom.
The evening was capped off when Brandon announced that, as part of the University's $4 billion Victors for Michigan fundraising campaign, Michigan alumnus and generous donor Sanford Robertson (BBA '53, MBA '54) has committed a $3 million gift to endow the U-M football offensive coordinator position. Robertson, like many of Michigan Athletics' generous donors, supports several areas of the University, committing time and resources to better U-M and the student experience.
"The game of football has always been a part of my life. I can remember attending games with my father as a young boy, and, now years later, I am able to give a meaningful gift to support Michigan Athletics," said Robertson. "It is rare to see an institution with both a reputation of academic excellence and a steep history of athletic success. I am eager to watch Coach Nussmeier teach our student-athletes how to succeed both on the field and in the classroom."
Offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier was in attendance to celebrate the announcement. "I am humbled and honored to be at a school where alumni like Sandy care so deeply about the commitment to being leaders and best and developing our student-athletes," said Nussmeier. "This is what makes Michigan so special, and I am grateful to be a part of it."
In recognition of the gift, the offensive coordinator position will now be formally known as the Sanford Robertson Offensive Coordinator.
Sanford "Sandy" Robertson is a founding partner of the private equity firm Francisco Partners. He and his wife, Jeanne, generously support a multitude of diverse initiatives at the University of Michigan including at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the School of Music, Theatre and Dance. Sandy co-chaired the Michigan Difference campaign and serves as honorary co-chair of the Bay Area Campaign Leadership Council. A member of the President's Advisory Group and the Investment Advisory Committee, he received the David B. Hermelin Award for Fundraising Volunteer Leadership in 2010. This is the highest award bestowed on donors and volunteers of the University for their dedication to better the Michigan Community.
Victors for Michigan
The University of Michigan Athletic Department is grateful for the generosity of all of our donors who invest in the Victors for Michigan campaign. This $355 million initiative will focus on providing all student-athletes across our 31 teams with the resources they need to be the Leaders and Best in Every Way. With your support, we are investing in our three campaign pillars: Student-Athlete Enrichment, Scholarship Support, and Building Our Home. To learn more about our campaign priorities, please visit support.mgoblue.com.Guild Workshops, modern day maker spaces conceived in the spirit of the Renaissance, will be the central feature of a Piazza at this year’s Man Pavilion. Historically, guilds organized many aspects of a city’s socio-economic life. They may have included wool and silk traders, bankers, furriers and shoe makers. It’s no wonder that in a city like Black Rock, driven by art and experience, you will find glassblowers, blacksmiths, dreamers, chainsaw-wielding portrait makers, musicians, engineers, teachers, and many more. The Guild Workshops invite participants to manipulate mediums from molten glass to liquid steel, smelted aluminum to copper metal, sunlight to sound.
For years, Burning Man Regionals have been delighting participants with projects conceived in and delivered from far flung corners of the country and around the globe. This year is no different; 13 of the 32 Guild Workshops will be brought to you by Regional groups, including four international Regional projects coming from: Finland, Germany, Japan and Lithuania.
One of the guilds, Elephant Expressions, will examine Radical Self Expression as part of a 10-year project exploring the 10 Principles of Burning Man on and off playa. Members of Black Rock City’s own Department of Public Works will showcase their artisanal knowhow at Scultura di Collettivo, a blacksmithing guild guiding participants in the creation of a collective sculpture. We’ll witness the return of the Dragon Smelter as liquid aluminum is pressed into Florins before your very eyes, and knowledgeable engineers will provide instruction and resources to build your very own small scale flying machine.
This year’s Piazza is shaping up to be a bustling city centre full of beauty, inspiration and hands-on participation offered by participants for participants. We encourage you to learn from and engage with the many artists, artist collectives and Regional groups bringing their ingenuity and skill to the Guild Workshops of Black Rock City. A complete list of Guilds follows at the end of this article.
The Piazza
Rounding out the piazza, the campaniles, the piazza’s bell towers, will contain Leonardo-inspired bells to chime the hours:
Roger Carr is a feral physicist from Berkeley, who has done several Burning Man honorarium projects in past years. This year he has decided to channel Leo da Vinci and build a bell ringing gizmo in each of four campanile towers after a design of da Vinci’s. These are to call Burners to rotate Uomo Vitruviano on the hour.
Elsewhere, in the Piazza, you’ll find sculptures of a Renaissance inspiration:
Steven Lee Burright — playa name: Faceplant — is proud to create his first piece for Burning Man.
Steven has had a thirty year career as a Scenic Artist. He has painted, sculpted, built, and made props for hundreds of productions, but this is a grand opportunity for him to create a piece that is all his own.
Steven has worked on many production teams from Henson productions to the Discovery Channel but now creates for himself and for Burning Man.
He hopes with his Sculpture, “Determinazione”, to depict the determination it takes, in the face of the harsh elements, to create the event’s infrastructure. It is through this determination that artists and participants get a playground for their radical expression.
Vulfie Munson returns to the Man Pavilion with Improba Putti:
Improba Putti is in the style of an Italian renaissance sculpture with modern elements. She and they will have the look of Patinated Bronze and Copper. It has mythological beings inter-reacting in a playful (or not so playful) way, depicting an innocence during the Renaissance period.
Improba Putti is a Female Centaur being pulled by Winged Putti. The bas-reliefs encircling the plinth will be of underground scenes depicting caves, roots, stalactites, as well as a salamander, crayfish, bats and an armadillo.
Matthew ‘Fish’ Dockrey is a Seattle-area industrial artist who got his start on the playa with projects such as “Harmonic Fire Pendula” and “GMBLMZ.” He is now in the middle of an awkward transition to full-time artist focusing on public art installations. This year he is building “Hubris” for the Man Pavilion, a kinetic celebration of those who dare to defy the gods. Featuring Otto Lilienthal as Icarus, it will look at the last 200 years of scientific and technical progress through the lens of classical mythology.
Kevin Clark of Medusa Madness fame brings us Guardiano Leone:
Lions are representative of protection and therefore our Guardiano Leone is the guardian of the Man. Leonardo Da Vinci was fond of building flying machines and I felt it was only fitting to build a flying lion. Guardian Leone stands eight feet tall and has a wingspan of approximately 16 feet and made of various metals. (no photo available)
New York based artist and engineer Matthew Davis will be bringing his DISC-GO-SPHERE to the Man Pavilion. Last year was Matthew’s first burn, and he dove in way deeper than he expected, developing the breathing for “R-Evolution.” After many years of helping other artists bring their creations to life, he is finally doing his own interactive kinetic sculpture with help from a bunch of friends he’s made along the way. This sculpture takes the flat circular sketch of Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” and brings it into three-dimensional kinetic reality.
New to Burning Man but well versed in Leonardo da Vinci is Dennis George Sparling, a self-described Scythian Hunter. From New Haven, VT he brings us Leonardo himself to grace the piazza. His Leonardo stands a whopping 9 feet tall in metal.
And what public square would be complete without a vending machine? An Adventure Vending Machine, that is?
Can Burners be brave and redefine radical participation? LAME Arts, a Bay Area art collective, is creating an Adventure Vending Machine that dispenses adventures created by you! Push a button: go on a community-created adventure, receive a special token, and return to unlock a community-created gift!
Adventure Vending will be a beautiful sculpture and functional furniture piece at the Man base, but it won’t be anything without the creativity of Burners. The entire project is community-driven, so we need you to submit adventures and gifts ASAP!
Find out more at: LAME Arts and on Facebook at Adventure Vending.
2016 Guild Workshops at the Man Pavilion
More information on these projects and ways to participate will be posted here in the coming months, and on the Guild Workshops Facebook fan page.
If you have any questions about the Guilds, please email us at guildquestions@burningman.org.
Arte Della Luce – Maker Labs, Vancouver, BC
Becoming the Master / Mistress of Stones: The Arts of Buon Fresco Revealed – Gabrielle Clark & Ritual Arts Collective, Oceanside, CA
Chasing the Pounder “Repoussé Café” – Jim Williams & The Guild of Wanderlust, Salt Lake City, UT
Commedia dell’Arte Morality Puppet Play – Orange County Burners, Westminster, CA
Amalgamated Debris Assemblage – Jimmy Descant, Salida, CO
D’Oro de Sacramenti Regionale – Sacramento Regional, Sacramento, CA
Dragon Smelter – Dragon Smelter Crew, Oakland, CA
Elephant Expressions – Scott London, New York, NY
Geometrical Constructions – Rhombohedron Society, Los Angeles, CA
Grand Elaborated Rule Masters And No-holds-barrers (G.E.R.M.A.N.) – German Burners, Berlin, Germany
Guild of Mile Higher Knowledge – Colorado Burners, Denver, CO
Hot Glass Arts Guild – Berkeley Bohemian Glassblowing Cooperative, Oakland, CA
I Tamburisti di FIREnze – Camp Thump Thump, New Orleans, LA
Koulu on Fire – Finnish Burners, Helsinki, Finland
Leonardo Da Vinci’s Flying Machines – Ed Van Dyne, Loveland, CO
LOOP – Dream Machine Guild, Tokyo, Japan
M3 – Minnesota Makers & Masterpieces – Minnesota Regional Burning Arts Council, Minneapolis, MN
Mad Sorcerer’s Workshop – NY regional
Polimerica sulla Playa – Horny Camp, New York, NY
Renoardo’s Artisan Menagerie – Reno C.O.R.E. Project, Reno, NV
Scopri da Vinci – Mark Rodgers and Matt Boggs, Chicago/Denver
Scultura di Collettivo – Forge of the Global Enlightenment, Truckee, CA
The Black Rock Notary – The Guild of Absolvance, Saugerties, NY
The Mask Factory – The Mask Factory Collective, Kingwood, TX
The Renaissance of Musical Instruments – Lithuanian Burners & M-Lab, Vilnius, Lithuania
Vapor Cannon Guild – Alabama Burners, Birmingham, AL
YO! Union Guild BRC Local 420 – Philly Burners, Philadelphia, PA
Ziggy Sawdust & The Chainsaws from Mars – Glenn Richardson, Woodstock, VA
Top image by Jack HayeThe warning from Hizbollah's Hassan Nasrallah came as the death toll from a week of violence sparked by the movie rose to 19.
An eruption of Muslim anger over a trailer of the American-made film that appeared on the internet has spread across the world, taking hold Monday in Afghanistan, Indonesia, the West Bank, the Philippines and Yemen.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets of southern Beirut to denounce the film at Nasrallah's request, and the head of the powerful Shiite Muslim group surprised supporters by making a rare public appearance.
Nasrallah, whose Lebanese movement is blacklisted in the United States as a terrorist group, has called for a week of protests across the country over the film, describing it as the "worst attack ever on Islam".
"America must understand... the US must understand that releasing the entire film will have dangerous, very dangerous, repercussions around the world," he told the rally.
The filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a 55-year-old Egyptian Copt and fraudster who was sentenced to 21 months in prison in the US in June 2010, has not been seen since Saturday when he was questioned by his US parole officer.
The risks now facing those involved in the production of the film "Innocence of Muslims", which depicts the Prophet Mohammed as a thuggish womaniser, were underlined when a Salafist cleric in Egypt called Monday for the deaths of all those involved in its making.
The film producer's family joined him in hiding, as more cast members of the film that outraged the Islamic world insisted they had been duped into making it.
Before dawn on Monday, officers from the Los Angeles County sheriff's department escorted four members of Nakoula's family out of their home to be driven in unmarked police vehicles to an undisclosed location to join him.
The terrorism monitoring service SITE Intelligence Group said Ahmad Fouad Ashoush issued his fatwa, or religious edict, against the cast and crew of "Innocence of Muslims" via jihadist internet forums over the weekend.
"I issue a fatwa and call on the Muslim youth in America and Europe to do this duty, which is to kill the director, the producer and the actors and everyone who helped and promoted the film," the cleric said.
The controversial movie has sparked a week of furious protests outside US embassies and other American symbols in at least 20 countries.
In Pakistan, thousands of students burned US flags and chanted anti-American slogans in the northwestern city of Peshawar, where Osama bin Laden kept a home during the 1980s jihad against Soviet troops in adjacent Afghanistan.
In the nearby district of Upper Dir, a protester was killed and two others wounded in a shoot-out with police.
In Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, another demonstrator died after being shot in the head during clashes with police near the US consulate on Sunday.
The US embassy in Islamabad was closed on Monday because of the risk of demonstrations and diplomats have been banned from all but essential travel throughout the country.
In neighbouring Afghanistan, protests turned violent for the first time when more than 1,000 people rallied in Kabul, setting police cars and containers ablaze, police told AFP.
Between 40 and 50 policemen were "very slightly wounded" by stone-throwers and members of the crowd waving sticks, said Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi.
Google has barred access to the video of the film in Egypt, India, Indonesia, Libya and Malaysia, while the government has restricted access to Google-owned YouTube in Afghanistan.
Later, Pakistan blocked access to YouTube after an order from Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf to do so, following the video-sharing website's failure to take down the anti-Islam film.
Attempts to access YouTube met with a message saying the website had been classed as containing "indecent material".
In Jakarta, protesters hurled petrol bombs and clashed with Indonesian police outside the US embassy shouting "America, America go to hell", as demonstrations in the world's most populous Muslim nation turned violent.
The capital's police chief Untung Rajab said 11 policemen and a protester were injured and taken to hospital, and that four protesters were arrested.
Mass demonstrations after the main weekly Muslim prayers on Friday saw 11 protesters killed as police battled to defend US missions from mobs in Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen.
The unrest began in Cairo, where protesters stormed the US embassy late Tuesday, replacing the Stars and Strips with an Islamic flag.
Hours later it spread to the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, where the US consulate came under sustained attack, killing four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.
In Afghanistan, two US Marines died and six US fighter jets were destroyed when Taliban fighters on Friday stormed a giant airfield to avenge the film.
The United States has deployed counterterror Marine units to Libya to protect its embassy in Tripoli and stationed two destroyers off the North African coast.
A Marine unit was also dispatched to protect the US embassy in Yemen, where police shot dead four protesters and wounded 34 others on Thursday as a mob breached its perimeter. There were more protests in Yemen on Monday.
The United States has evacuated all non-essential staff and family members from Sudan and Tunisia and warned US citizens against travel to the two countries.
Libya said it has arrested 50 suspects in connection with the consulate attack.
Source: agenciesWith six picks in the top 65, the Browns can do a multitude of things (including packaging a bunch of them in an attempt to lure Kirk Cousins or Jimmy G from their respective teams), but if there are no trades (I honestly believe there will be), they have to go with a quarterback, here.
Everyone jumped off the Kizer bandwagon after the Combine. Not sure why. The analysts said he “underwhelmed,” but several of the sources I spoke with said he actually threw the ball pretty well. Having grown up just a few miles from Cleveland, there’s a fun connection here too. A pro-style QB in college and a big 6-4 frame built for the AFC North, I like Kizer for the Browns more than Deshaun Watson if both are still on the board. I like Trubisky to Cleveland more than both of them, but I think he’s off the board by 12.One way to eliminate power transmission loss is to create the power where it's needed. Read about Microsoft's research on using rack-mounted fuel cells in data centers to improve electrical efficiency.
Image: Bloom
Fuel-cell technology might be the answer to electrical-power issues looming large on the horizon; there are companies working hard, and spending huge sums of money, trying to make it so. Apple and eBay are already online using Bloom fuel-cell technology similar to the fuel-cell servers shown in Figure A.
Fuel cells are powering a majority of Apple's Maiden, North Carolina facility, and eBay's Salt Lake City, Utah data center is 100% off the grid using fuel cells. Albeit a departure, each data center's infrastructure is not perceptibly different from a data center supplied with electricity from the local power grid.
Microsoft departs from tradition
Microsoft's approach to fuel-cell technology is radically different. Eight months ago, Microsoft released the paper No More Electrical Infrastructure: Towards Fuel Cell Powered Data Centers (PDF). Sean James, coauthor of the paper and Senior Research Program Manager at Microsoft, said, "We are taking an unconventional approach to power a data center entirely by fuel cells integrated directly into the server racks. This brings the power plant inside the data center, effectively eliminating energy loss that otherwise occurs in the energy supply chain."
The Microsoft research team since releasing the paper completed a proof-of-concept study at the National Fuel Cell Research Center, University of California, Irvine. Sean James offered more details, saying, "Since servers run internally on DC voltage anyway, and already have sophisticated voltage-regulating circuits internally, we saw an opportunity. Using an off-the-shelf fuel-cell system, we cut out the power regulation circuits, bypassed the AC-DC rectifier circuits in the server, and powered each server directly off the fuel-cell stack." That effort improved the fuel-cell stack to server electrical efficiency from 39% to 53%.
Figure B
Image: Microsoft
Figure B details where fuel-cell technology beat traditional power-generation methods, mainly by eliminating parasitic loads. The researchers also determined rack-mounted fuel cells have the following additional advantages:
Improved power availability by reducing points of failure and interruptions from a power-grid failure.
Lower Power Utilization Effectiveness (PUE) from locating a high-efficiency fuel cell on the hardware, doubling the total system efficiency from the power plant to the chip.
The first universal data center design can be achieved since methane is a fungible energy source; there is no impact from the variety of grid frequencies and voltages around the globe. The design will work wherever there is a source of methane.
Microsoft and partners receive federal funds
Microsoft announced in June 2014 that it, along with partners Redox Power Systems, Trans-Tech, and the University of Maryland, were awarded five million dollars by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy to continue its work with transformational fuel cells. Microsoft noted the funds came specifically from the Reliable Electricity Based on Electrochemical Systems program. The program was created to encourage alternative methods of power generation and distribution.
The problem Microsoft and its partners are now focused on is reducing the high cost of fuel cells. If that is possible, there may be a reprieve for the beleaguered power-generation industry.
Side note
A friend could use some help. Rajat Ghosh, a postdoctoral fellow in mechanical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, is working on a National Science Foundation-I Corps project (real-time software-based thermal management |
dated 1821, and most were put into circulation in the Quito department during the Gran Colombia period.
Coins of Cundinamarca and Granada, dated 1818–1821, counterstamped 'MdQ' (quantities unknown):
1/4 real
1/2 real
real
2 reales
8 reales
Silver coin [ edit ]
Obv. arms of Colombia, rim inscription EL ECUADOR EN COLOMBIA and QUITO below the arms; rev. denomination, rim inscribed EL PODER EN LA CONSTITUCION; below the year and GJ (assayer's initials). A 1-real coin was authorized February 28, 1833. Minting of the medio real began September 30, 1832, before its characteristics had been established, which explains why some have the letter "M" (according to the law) while others have "1/2".
silver 666 fine dated 1833–1836
1/2 real 16 mm
real, 20 mm, 3.00–3.95 g
2 reales, 25 mm
Big Coin [ edit ]
Obv. Indian head with band reading LIBERTAD, the rim inscribed EL ECUADOR EN COLOMBIA, and under the head QUITO. The minting of 2-escudo pieces began in 1834. Some have their value expressed as 2-E (2 escudos), others as 1-D (1 doblóon).
gold 875 fine dated 1836–1838
escudo, 18 mm, 3.383 g
doblón, 22 mm, 6.766 g
1836–1843 Republic of Ecuador [ edit ]
History [ edit ]
After Ecuador became "República del Ecuador" on June 28, 1835, the inscription (rev.) "EL ECUADOR EN COLOMBIA" was changed to "REPUBLICA DEL ECUADOR" (but the Colombian arms were retained). The minting of 1 and 2 escudo coins ceased because of an influx of counterfeits of these coins. In their place, President Vicente Rocafuerte authorized a media onza (4-escudo or doblón de a quatro).
After more minting equipment was obtained from Chile and installed at Quito, the minting of onzas (8-escudo pieces) was authorized (February 1838). A 4-real coin was authorized October 8, 1841, with the same features as the other denominations, but with the added inscription "MORAL INDUSTRIA" around the circumference, making the coin more difficult to counterfeit.
Poor quality and counterfeit coin from Colombia and Bolivia entered circulation in Ecuador, and the coins produced by the Quito mint had many flaws, so that currency standards were difficult to maintain. The use of merchant tokens became widespread. In an attempt to end the use of tokens, the government introduced a cuartillo (1/4 real) in 1842. The cuartillo was 333 fine and was called a calé (the name given in Spain to the 4-maravedí coin and which in Ecuador came to be applied to any small coin of low value).
Silver coin [ edit ]
silver 333 fine
cuartillo, 16 mm (1842)
silver 666 fine
1/2 real, 17 mm (1838, 1840)
real, 20 mm (1836–1841)
2 reales, 25 mm, 5.80–6.10 g (1836–1841)
4 reales, 31.5 mm (1841–1843)
Gold coin [ edit ]
gold 875 fine
1/2 onza (4 escudos), 28 mm, 13.500 (1836–1839, 1841)
onza (8 escudos), 34 mm, 27.064 g (1838–1843)
1843 monetary law and coin [ edit ]
Counterfeiting had reached alarming proportions during 1842. At this time, Ecuador was on the verge of bankruptcy.
The National Convention passed a new monetary law in June 1843, changing the coin type (design) in an effort to distinguish good money from bad. It adopted a new coat of arms for the obverse and placed a bust of Simón Bolívar on the reverse on both gold and silver. It authorized a gold onza (E.8), 1/2 onza (E.4), doblón (E.2), escudo, and 1/2 escudo (never minted). Silver coins were the peso fuerte (R.8), medio peso (R.4), peseta (R.2), real, medio (R.1/2), and cuarto (R.1/4). But the absurdly low quantities of coin minted in 1844–1845 resulted in an influx of worn coin and coin of inferior quality from neighboring countries.
medio peso (R.4), 33 mm (1844, 1845)
onza (E.8), 36 mm (1844, 1845)
1846–1856 Peso fuerte [ edit ]
History [ edit ]
On December 29, 1845, President Vicente Ramón Roca authorized a coin to compete with the fuertes (full-bodied coin) of other countries. This was the peso fuerte, 903 fine. The standard of 875 fine for gold was identical to that of Ecuador's neighbors and presented no problem. The standard of 903 fine for silver, however, resulted in a heavy export of the coin. It disappeared as soon as it entered circulation (Gresham's law), grabbed up by the merchants of Guayaquil. On July 7, 1846, the value of the fuerte was raised from 8 to 9 reales in a vain attempt to keep it in circulation.
The November 1846 monetary law adopted a new type with a bust of Bolívar for gold and a Liberty bust for silver. These appeared on coins dated 1847. The bulk of the circulating currency consisted of poor quality, worn coins. As soon as the new silver coins appeared, they were clipped and perforated in order to reduce their value to that of the circulating currency, while gold coins immediately disappeared abroad.
By the 1850s the Quito mint was not receiving enough precious metals to justify its operation. It had to coin a minimum of 6,000 pesos a year just to meet overhead. The mint was shut down during 1853 while the government considered the options of keeping it open or shutting it down. The mint equipment was worn and could not produce coin in sufficient quantity to compete with the foreign coin that entered Ecuador, especially through the port of Guayaquil.
Many coins in circulation were pierced with a hole, and this was causing problems in financial transactions. The governor of Pichincha Province proclaimed that anyone piercing a coin minted after 1855 would be punished according to existing penal regulations and that anyone receiving such a pierced coin had to make note of the person passing it.
Silver coin [ edit ]
silver 666 fine dated 1847–1852
1/4 real, 12 mm, 1849–1862
1/2 real, 17 mm, 1848–1849
2 reales, 27 mm, 1847–1852
silver 903 fine dated 1846
peso fuerte, 38 mm, 27.000 g (1,386 pieces)
Gold coin [ edit ]
gold, 875 fine dated 1847–1856
onza, 37 mm, 27.064 g
1856–1871 Franco [ edit ]
Peso = 5 Francos = 10 Reales
History [ edit ]
Congress passed a new monetary law on December 5, 1856, adopting the French decimal system, a standard of 0.900 for silver, and the Ecuadorian Franco, equal to 4.500 g fine silver or 290.3225 mg fine gold. The peso remained a unit of account equal to 5 francos. This measure was intended to avoid the error committed with the peso fuerte of 1846. Only decimal standard coins were to be accepted after October 15, 1866.
The Ecuadorian silver coinage had been debased ever since 1833. The government wanted to produce coins of high silver content to finance foreign exchange, so the debased silver had to be withdrawn and replaced with 900 fine silver. This was the reason for the 5-Franco coin, but its appearance in October 1858 caused some confusion. The decimal system was quite unfamiliar to the public and, despite the Franco's introduction, the custom of counting in pesos of 8 reales or tostones of 4 reales continued.
Production of the 5 francos could not be sustained and it proved impossible to replace all the poor coin (moneda feble, i.e., coin 666 fine). The 1859 earthquake closed the Quito mint until 1861.
Banco Particular de Guayaquil obtained permission in June 1861 to have 200,000 pesos in coin 666 fine minted on the pre-1856 octal system (Sistema Octavario). Dies for the coins were engraved in Paris and arrived in Quito in October 1862. These were the last coins produced at the Quito mint. In February 1863 the mint equipment gave out and the government did not attempt to replace it. Besides, Banco de Guayaquil had no wish to continue minting: in minting 35,580 pesos, it had suffered a loss of 6,776 pesos (19%). Thus, after 1863, all Ecuadorian coin was minted abroad.
To keep coin in circulation, President Gabriel García Moreno prohibited the export of coin 666 fine. The circulation of various kinds of tokens became common. Imbabura Province, in the north, was authorized to allow the free circulation of Colombian francos.
Paper [ edit ]
Banco de Circulación y Descuento de Manuel Antonio de Luzarraga, Guayaquil, issued Ecuador's first banknotes in 1859 in denominations of 1, 4, 5, 10, and 20 pesos. All its notes were redeemed.
La Caja de Amortización, Guayaquil, opened in 1860, issuing notes for 5 and 10 pesos in the amount of 100,000 pesos. It closed in 1861.
Banco Particular de Descuento i Circulación de Guayaquil, founded in 1861 by an association of 50 merchants, began issuing notes in 1862 in denominations of 1, 5, 10, and 20 pesos, adding a 50 and 100 in 1864, and notes for 2 and 4 reales in 1865. This bank did much to popularize the use of paper money. It merged into Banco del Ecuador in 1870.
Banco de Circulacion y Descuento de Planas, Pérez y Obarrio opened at Guayaquil in 1865 and, without government authorization, issued 300,000 pesos in notes of 4 reales and 1, 5, 10, and 20 pesos. In 1867 it was obliged to recall its notes and close its doors.
Banco del Ecuador, founded in 1867, began operations at Guayaquil in 1868, issuing overprinted notes of the Luzarraga bank for 1, 4, 5, and 10 pesos. It issued new notes in 1870 for 2 and 4 reales and 1 peso.''
Coin [ edit ]
silver 666 fine
1/4 real, 12 mm (1855, 1856, 1862)
2 reales, 26 mm (1857, 1862)
4 reales, 33.5 mm (1855, 1857, 1862)
silver 900 fine
5 francos, 37.5 mm, 25.000 g (1858)
1871–1884 Peso [ edit ]
Peso = 10 Reales = 100 Centavos Conversion: 1 peso = 5 francos
History [ edit ]
The silver peso of 25.000 g 900 fine was made the monetary unit on November 21, 1871, and it was decimalized November 21, 1873. The issue of 1 and 2 centavo copper coins (minted in Birmingham) was decreed June 8, 1872, and President García Moreno provided that the new coins would be received by the government at the rate of 10 centavos per real or 100 centavos per peso fuerte of 10 reales. This established a legal equivalence between the old money and the new. It was further arranged to have Banco del Ecuador import coin based on the French decimal system. García Moreno thus settled the basic problems of Ecuador's currency.
In 1877 President Ignacio de Veintimilla authorized the free circulation of coin less than 900 fine, with the immediate result that good quality coin disappeared from circulation, replaced by coin from Chile and Bolivia that was only 500 fine.
Paper [ edit ]
Banco del Ecuador issued notes for 2 & 4 reales and 1, 5, 10, 20, 100, 500 & 1000 pesos.
Banco Nacional, Guayaquil, issued notes briefly in 1871 for 2 and 4 reales and for 1, 5, 10, 20, and 100 pesos. It was taken over by Banco del Eduador, which began withdrawing Banco Nacional's notes in 1872.
Banco de Quito was the first Quito-based bank. It began issuing notes in 1874 for 2 reales and 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 pesos. A new series appeared in 1880 for 1, 5, 10, 20, and 100 pesos.
Banco de la Union, Quito, issued notes from 1882 for 1, 5, 10, 20, and 100 pesos. It handled the personal finances of President Veintimilla.
Banco Anglo-Ecuatoriano was established in 1884 at Montecristi, later moving to Guayaquil. It issued notes for 1, 5, and 10 pesos.
Coin [ edit ]
copper, Birmingham, dated 1872
centavo, 25.5 mm
2 centavos, 31 mm
1884–1898 Sucre (silver standard) [ edit ]
Sucre = 10 Décimos = 100 Centavos Conversion: 1 sucre = 1 peso
History [ edit ]
Ecuador's monetary unit, the peso, was renamed Sucre (decree of March 22, 1884, effective April 1), equal to 22.500 g fine silver. The Sucre was named after the Latin American revolutionary Antonio José de Sucre. The 1884 monetary law permitted free circulation of gold coin of France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Colombia, Peru, and the United States. As for silver, the law permitted the import of 5-franc pieces of France, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland, of the pesos of Chile and Colombia, of the Peruvian sol, and of the United States dollar and its fractions. Copper (vellón) was made legal tender to 5 décimos. Bank reserves were in silver coin and banknotes were convertible solely into silver. Ecuador was on a de facto silver standard and did not coin any gold between 1884 and 1892. The government had silver coin minted abroad through the offices of the private banks, usually taking 25% of the profit.
The Government signed a contract, October 6, 1887, with Banco del Ecuador to withdraw Chilean coin and low-quality national coin and replace it with coin of standard fineness. A decree of April 12, 1889, made the Bolivian coin circulating in the southern part of Ecuador equal to other coin, since its holders had been losing 20% on exchange. Banco Internacional was entrusted with withdrawing the Bolivian coin, paying partly in good coin and partly in notes. In 1890 Colombian coin 835 fine was exchanged at its face value.
Between 1887 and 1892 over 1.75 million sucres worth of substandard coin was withdrawn, so that only high quality silver coin remained in circulation. President Antonio Flores Jijón (son of Presidente Juan José Flores) announced that from August 15, 1890, only national coin was allowed to circulate in Ecuador, and Ecuador's monetary system was finally unified. But the total face value of coin in circulation had been reduced. In order to alleviate the shortage of small change, the President authorized (June 14, 1890) the minting of 30,000 sucres in copper coins of 1/2 and 1 centavo.
The fall in the price of silver had been gradual in 1884–1890, but became very pronounced after 1893, and the government began looking at ways to adopt the gold standard. In 1897, the Monetary Commission reported that of the 4,790,730 sucres that had been minted up to then, 2,810,850 had been in 1-sucre coins and 2,079,000 in halves, tenths, and twentieths. It also reported that of the total, 2,931,081.15 was deposited with the banks and that half of the remainder was still in circulation, the other half either exported or used by industry.
Paper [ edit ]
Banco del Ecuador issued notes of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 & 1000 sucres. It was one of the most powerful banks of the period.
Banco de la Union issued notes for 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 & 100 sucres until it closed in 1895.
Banco Anglo-Ecuatoriano issued notes for 1, 5 & 10 sucres until it was reorganized as Banco Internacional in 1887.
Banco de Londres y Ecuador, Quito, evidently issued notes for 1, 5, and 10 sucres. (No information about this bank is available.)
Banco Internacional was reorganized in 1885 from Banco Anglo-Ecuatoriano. It issued notes for 1, 5, 10, 20, 100, 500 & 1000 sucres. New designs of the 50 & 100 appeared in 1889. It was reorganized in 1894 as Comercial y Agricola.
Banco Comercial y Agricola, reorganized in 1894 from Banco Internacional, issued notes for 1, 5, 20, 100, 500 & 1000 sucres. The color of the 1-sucre note was changed in 1897,
Coin [ edit ]
copper-nickel, dated 1884–1886
centavo, 17.5 mm
medio décimo, 25 mm
silver 900 fine dated 1884–1916
medio décimo, 15 mm, 1.250 g
décimo, 18 mm, 2.500 g
2 décimos, 23 mm, 5.000 g
medio sucre, 30 mm, 12.500 g
sucre, 37 mm, 25.000 g
1898–1914 Sucre (gold standard) [ edit ]
Sucre (S/.) = 10 Décimos = 100 Centavos
History [ edit ]
The gold standard was adopted November 3, 1898, the gold coin to be called the cóndor ecuatoriano, 8.136 g, 900 fine, with a value of 10 sucres. This made the sucre equal to 732.22382 mg fine gold or 2 shillings sterling. Gold par was 10 sucres per pound sterling, 2.055 per US$1, and 2.522 francs per sucre. Silver pieces were the peseta (2 décimos), the real or décimo (10 centavos), and the medio (5 centavos). The 1898 law also made the sovereign legal tender. A subsequent decree (October 29, 1908) authorized a gold 1/5 cóndor and vellón coins (75% copper, 25% nickel) of 1/2, 1, 2, and 5 centavos.
Paper [ edit ]
Banco del Ecuador and Banco Comercial y Agricola continued issuing. They were joined by two new issuing banks.
Banco del Pichincha, Quito, issued notes for 1, 5, 10, and 20 sucres from 1906. A second issue was for 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 & 100 sucres.
Banco del Azuay, Cuenca, issued notes from 1913 for 1, 2, 5, and 10 sucres.
Coin [ edit ]
copper-nickel, Heaton mint, dated 1909
1/2 centavo, 15 mm (4 million)
centavo, 17 mm (3 million)
2 centavos, 19 mm (2.5 million)
5 centavos, 21 mm (2 million)
gold 900 fine dated 1899–1900 (Heaton mint)
10 sucres, 22 mm, 8.136 g (100,000 pieces)
To mint the cóndor, the government sold 3 million sucres in silver coin (all the half-sucre coins and all the foreign silver that it had taken from circulation in southern Ecuador). The cóndor was minted at Birmingham and issued through the private banks Banco Comercial y Agrícola and Banco del Ecuador.
1914–1927 Sucre (unconvertible paper) [ edit ]
History [ edit ]
The gold standard was suspended in 1914 and banknotes were declared unconvertible tender. The price of silver rose and its export was embargoed. The exchange rate remained at par (2.055 per US$1) until 1918, when progressive depreciation set in. The government established a complete monopoly on foreign bills of exchange. Late in 1922 the free market rate fell to 5.405 per dollar. The government took draconian measures, requiring exporters to surrender foreign exchange earnings at a rate set by the Exchange Commission (3.60/US$). The government struggled with the foreign exchange problem until the sucre was finally stabilized in 1926 at 5 sucres per US dollar.
The economic situation was disastrous, due in part to the fraud of the commercial banks, the most notorious of which was Banco Comercial y Agrícola's issue of notes in excess of the legal limit in the huge amount of 18 million sucres. The Junta de Gobierno produced by the July Revolution (Revolución Juliana, July 9, 1925) wished to create a central bank, despite violent opposition. There were then six banks of issue: del Ecuador, Commercial y Agricola, de Pichincha, Credito Agricola e Industrial, del Azuay, and the recently opened (1920) Banco de Descuento.
Coin [ edit ]
copper-nickel, Philadelphia mint, dated 1917, 1918
2½ centavos, 19 mm (1.60 million 1917)
5 centavos, 21 mm (1.20 million 1917, 1.98 million 1918)
10 centavos, 22 mm (1.00 million 1918)
copper-nickel, Providence mint, dated 1919
5 centavos, 20 mm (12.00 million)
10 centavos, 25 mm (2.00 million)
copper-nickel, Heaton mint, dated 1924
5 centavos, 16.5 mm (10.00 million)* 10 centavos, 19.5 mm (5.00 million)
1927–1932 Sucre (gold exchange standard) [ edit ]
Sucre = 100 Centavos Cóndor = 25 Sucres
History [ edit ]
A government decree of October 9, 1925, authorized a central bank, and on June 23, 1926, President Isidro Ayora created the Caja Central de Emisión y Amortización (central office for note issue and withdrawal) in anticipation of the central bank. Its main task was to assume control of the notes and metallic reserves of the six private banks of issue, and to withdraw their notes in exchange for notes of its own. Caja began exchanging private banknotes for notes of its own in December 1926, continuing its operations until August 12, 1927.
The Kemmerer Financial Mission (Comisión de Expertos Financieros) arrived in 1926, and its report was the basis for the monetary reform of March 4, 1927, which created El Banco Central del Ecuador and put the sucre on the gold exchange standard, with devaluation (58.8%) to 300.933 mg Au (equivalent to US$0.20). The new cóndor was 8.35925 g 900 fine, valued at 25 sucres (equivalent to the US half eagle). Banco Central's statutes were approved June 3, it was formally inaugurated August 10, and it began operations October 1. Ecuadorian gold was recoined at Birmingham, silver at Philadelphia.
Paper [ edit ]
Private banknotes ceased to circulate after 1927.
Caja Central de Emisión y Amortización overprinted certain private banknotes of 1, 2, 5, and 10 sucres with its own name, domiciled them Quito, and put them into circulation in December 1926. This was a provisional series to prepare for a central bank of issue.
El Banco Central del Ecuador, Sociedad Anonima released notes for 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 sucres in 1928. These notes had a gold redemption clause, e.g., “Pagará al portador á la vista CINCO SUCRES en oro ó giros oro” (promises to pay the bearer at sight FIVE SUCRES in gold or gold exchange). The gold clause was retained on Banco Central's notes until 1939.
Coin [ edit ]
The great variety in type and size of the copper and nickel coins introduced between 1914 and 1925 was awkward and confusing, so they were all replaced by coins minted at Philadelphia and dated 1928.
bronze, Philadelphia mint, dated 1928
centavo, 20.5 mm (2.016 million)
copper-nickel, Philadelphia mint, dated 1928
2½ centavos, 18.5 mm (4 million)
5 centavos, 19.5 mm (16 million)
10 centavos, 21 mm (16 million)
silver 720 fine dated 1928, 1930, 1934 (Philadelphia)
50 centavos, 18 mm, 2.500 g
sucre, 23.5 mm, 5.000 g
2 sucres, 28.75 mm, 10.000 g
Banco Central sent 63,680 cóndores of the 1898 standard to Birmingham to be recoined into 20,000 new cóndores, the remainder to be sold as bullion.
gold 900 fine dated 1928 (Birmingham)
cóndor (25 sucres), 22 mm, 8.35925 g (20,000 pieces)
1932–2000 Sucre [ edit ]
The gold exchange standard was suspended February 8, 1932. Exchange controls were adopted April 30 and the official rate was fixed at 5.95 (buying) per US dollar. After the price of silver rose above the nominal value of most silver coins in the 1930s, Ecuador embargoed the export of silver (May 17, 1935). This was followed by numerous adjustments to the foreign exchange system as the sucre continued to depreciate. Foreign exchange controls were finally lifted in September 1937 and the official rate was set at 13.50 per US dollar. The sucre was devalued to 14.77 per dollar on June 4, 1940, and exchange controls were reimposed. The official rate became 14.00 per in 1942 and 13.50 per in 1944.
Parity was registered with the International Monetary Fund on December 18, 1946, at 65.827 mg fine gold (13.50 per US$), but a system of multiple exchange rates was adopted in 1947. The sucre's IMF par was devalued to 15 per dollar in 1950, to 18 per in 1961, and to 25 per in 1970.
The sucre maintained a fairly stable exchange rate against the US dollar until 1983, when it was devalued to 42 per dollar and a crawling peg was adopted. Depreciation gained momentum and the free market rate was over 800 per dollar by 1990 and almost 3000 per in 1995.
The sucre lost 67% of its foreign exchange value during 1999, then in one week nosedived 17%, ending at 25,000/US$1 on January 7, 2000. On January 9, President Jamil Mahuad announced that the US dollar would be adopted as Ecuador's official currency. Twelve days later, Mahuad was deposed by a populist, left-wing military coup; largely in reaction to the ongoing economic crisis. Vice President Gustavo Noboa became president, only to confirm the government's commitment to dollarization.
On March 9, 2000, Noboa signed a law passed by Congress, replacing the sucre with the United States dollar at an official exchange rate of 25,000 sucres per US$1. Both currencies were to circulate, the dollar being used for all but the smallest transactions. Only coins would continue in the local currency.
2000 Dollarization [ edit ]
US Dollar Conversion: 1 US dollar = 25,000 sucres
The US dollar became legal tender in Ecuador March 13, 2000, and sucre notes ceased being legal tender on September 11.[citation needed] Sucre notes remained exchangeable at Banco Central until March 30, 2001, at 25,000 sucres per dollar.[citation needed] Ecuador now only issues its own centavo coins.[citation needed]
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]Another music streaming service bites the dust.
The assets of Rdio — a subscription streaming music service that competed with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music — were acquired by Pandora for $75 million in cash.
This isn't a happy ending for Rdio. In fact, the $75 million transaction is "contingent upon Rdio seeking protection." Rdio will wind down the Rdio-branded service in all markets.
Whatever Pandora decides to do with the Rdio assets — Rdio as a brand and as a standalone service is dead.
Jay-Z's Tidal was one of Rdio's competitors.
Created by the two guys who founded Skype and Kazaa, Rdio had a lot going for it in its early days. It had a web, desktop and mobile option, was attractive and had a big library.
But it also faced a giant elephant in the room: Spotify. When Spotify launched in the United States in the summer of 2011, there were already a number of on-demand streaming companies. The biggest of those companies were Rhapsody, MOG and Rdio.
MOG fell first. It was acquired by Beats in 2012 and some of its technology was used as the basis for Beats Music (and Beats Music is the basis for Apple Music). Rhapsody still exist — somehow — but despite being the pioneer in on-demand subscription streaming, it hasn't made much traction.
In the ensuing years, the competition has become even harder fro Rdio. Not only with other subscription services (Deezer, Tidal, Apple Music, Google Play Music all launched post 2011), but with the undisputed king of subscription streaming: Spotify. And that's without even addressing YouTube.
If we're being honest, Rdio has been on life support since July 2011, when Spotify first came to the United States.
Competing with free
One of Spotify's core differentiating features is that anyone can listen to music on-demand for free — on the desktop. If you want to skip ads and listen on-demand on mobile, it'll cost you — but the free desktop plan has helped the service gain tens of millions of users.
Rdio, like every other on-demand service in 2011, didn't have a free option that was as robust as Spotify. The company tried various methods of giving users access to playlists, curated radio and select on-demand streaming on the desktop in the ensuing years (and even overhauled its free plans last year), but it could still never really compete.
The competition for Taylor Swift songs is intense.
Even Apple, the largest company in the world, isn't immune to the struggles of competing with free. It helps that Apple entered the space in 2015 — when people are increasingly listening to music on phones and not desktops (Spotify's free mobile offering is better than a lot of other services, but it's still basically Pandora. If you want to hear music on-demand on you phone, you're going to be paying $10 a month, whether it's from Apple, Spotify or Google).
If Rdio ever had a chance at competing with Spotify — which despite launching in the U.S. later, had more money and was already a popular brand in more countries — it was four years ago.
Fighting against a well-capitalized giant is tough. It's even harder when that giant has a core product that is every bit as good as your own.
This isn't to say Rdio was a bad service. The company employed some great UI and UX designers. Back in 2011, I called the Rdio for Mac app "iTunes for the Cloud" — a feat the real iTunes wouldn't fully achieve until 2015.
When good isn't good enough
Rdio's ending shouldn't be a surprise to anyone watching the company. The company has shed executives en masse in the last year. The attempts at reinvention have largely failed. And the competition is no longer just Spotify, but Apple and Google.
It's a shame that Rdio is going to die. It was a genuinely good service.
For its part, Pandora doesn't even seem to be interested in creating an Rdio component to its streaming radio service. The company wasn't explicit about its full plans for the Rdio assets and team members on a call with investors, but it seemed clear that the point of this acquisition was not to try to compete with Spotify and Apple Music on traditional turns.
Instead, this is about making Pandora's product better. Until the next, more popular streaming service comes along.For years, it seemed as if the future of the Thirty Meter Telescope was writ in the stars. The enormous, next-generation observatory would explore the birth of galaxies and seek signs of life on alien worlds from atop the dormant volcano of Mauna Kea, one of the best places on Earth to study the sky.
But last fall, when the telescope’s leadership quietly announced it had secured a backup site on the Spanish island of La Palma, it became clear there are more things in this life than even the owners of a 100-foot looking glass can predict.
The TMT might not be built in Hawaii after all—the latest development in a bitter battle over the placement of this larger-than-life machine, whose otherworldly agenda, including catching the first light from the dawn of the universe, comes at a price. To the native Hawaiians who hold Mauna Kea sacred, the 180 foot-tall observatory would be a desecration—which is why they’re opposing it in court.
The telescope’s fate is expected to be decided in a contested case hearing early this year. If the TMT winds up moving to Spain’s Canary islands, it’d be a major win for the project’s critics, whose opposition to the development of Mauna Kea for astronomy fell on deaf ears for decades. (The mountain’s summit is already home to thirteen world-class observatories.)
But would moving the TMT be a loss for science? That’s the billion-dollar question facing astronomers, and, as with every facet of the debate surrounding this telescope, there’s no cut-and-dry answer.
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Star-gazing conditions aside, the timing of the telescope’s construction is crucial. Its location could dictate its use in ways that, for better or worse, shape the future of astronomy. Finally, whether the TMT moves or stays put will have ripple effects on the relationship between native Hawaiians and the scientific community.
A $1.4 billion observatory wielding a 98 foot (30 meter)-wide primary mirror, the TMT is a prodigious international collaboration sponsored by Japan, China, the US, Canada, and India, and partially funded by nonprofits, the University of California, and Caltech. Once finished, the observatory will have 12 times resolution of the famous Hubble Space Telescope, with especially good optics in the infrared spectrum used to study faint objects like exoplanets, and to catch redshifted light from the early universe.
Together with two southern hemisphere counterparts—the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) and the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) now under construction in Chile—the TMT is expected to usher in a new era of astronomy, one in which scientists can study the hidden structure of the universe and detect fingerprints of life in the atmospheres of distant worlds. The TMT, E-ELT and GMT are collectively referred to as the “extremely large” telescopes because their size. But the label is also befitting of their mission, which is to answer some of the largest questions humans have ever dared pose.
The reason astronomers want to build the TMT on Mauna Kea is simple. “Mauna Kea is the best place to study the stars in the northern hemisphere,” said Fiona Harrison, a professor of physics and astronomy at Caltech who serves on |
already hooked.
Roles that Hero Can Fill:
Tank, one of the highest raw damage numbers bruisers in the game, potential late game instant win button, and one half of the Milk Carton combo. The one thing Stitches can’t really do is anything on his own. He shines in a more coordinated environment and is honestly quite terrible alone.
Kit Rundown
Q; Hook: A medium damage skill shot that drags the target to you, stunning them for 0.5 seconds. The stun is mostly to make sure nothing disrupts the pull animation, but if you pull them into impassable terrain and they get stuck it will appear to stun them since the stun lasts until the animation finishes. When pulling from the far side of a terrain feature make sure you leave room for the target to get pulled into or they will stop at the terrain feature. The hook will go through friendly structures and map terrain but not enemy structures, and all targets will get stuck on any building that has a health bar. Walls, gates, towers, forts, keeps, and core. His Q is literally the reason to play Stitches. It is all of his initiation and pick potential, but a Q without follow up from your team will usually do nothing. So you have to be aware of where the enemy team is, where your team is, and the geometry of all potential engage spaces. Unless you are on comms, try and ping a lot when you are trying to Q. You don’t have to hit all your Qs, and in fairness you should only really count the ones that result in kills as hits, but you should only need to hit a couple of those in the late game to make it worthwhile.
1; Helping Hand: Instead of hooking an enemy, you hook an ally and the cooldown is reduced by half. If you use Helping Hand but hit an enemy first, you will hook the enemy and get the normal cooldown. This can allow you to peel for for an ally in a fight or force them to back up when they overextend. It does stun allies the same way normal Q stuns enemies, to ensure the animation doesn’t break, which means it activates on-stun talents like Sgt. Hammer’s Resistant (1) and Tychus’s Relentless Solider (7), but it will also disrupt friendly channels like Lili’s Jug of 1,000 Cups. So be careful.
W; Slam: A medium damage frontal cone. This is a large portion of Stitches’s wave clear, and a lot of his damage as a bruiser with talents, but otherwise is pretty straightforward.
E; Devour: A large self heal, does medium damage to enemy heroes and very high damage to non-heroic enemies. Despite the tooltip, it heals you for 19.92% of your total health pool. Note the long cooldown. Outside of certain talents, the only way to use this multiple times in a fight is to use it early.
Trait: Vile Gas: A small area, damage-over-time ability that activates when Stitches takes damage. It has a cooldown between activations of 3 seconds. Without talents, it’s really just some free damage against melee enemies. If you position forward in a lane you can force minions to attack you and use it for wave clear, but with limited mobility that can be risky.
Maps:
Stitches is surprisingly good on Infernal Shrines with some specific talents, despite the weakness of Q on the Shrines themselves. Otherwise, he tends to shine on maps with lots of space away from minion waves but with narrow or predictable locations that the enemy team will set up in. On Cursed Hollow there are safe crannies near every tribute spawn that Stitches can Q from, and late game boss attempts are in some ways equally predictable. Towers of Doom, Dragon Shire, Warhead Junction, and Braxis Holdout also fall into this category. On Tomb he can deny turn ins if he has an ally who can grant vision, so he is conditionally good on that map.
Team Playstyle
In the laning phase of the game, Stitches is looking to punish anyone who is low mobility or over extended past the midway point of a lane. You can let the enemy wave push closer onto your side of the map to bait the enemy team into over extending in lane. Using Q to get enemy heroes into tower range is an easy way to get some early game damage onto them and possibly secure a kill. If your team has another initiating hero with crowd control, Q is a very nice follow up to secure the kill. Outside of that, W is reasonable wave clear and your E allows you to sustain in lane if needed, which means handling a lane on your own is usually an option.
In team fights, bruiser Stitches has the luxury of staying back and waiting for that easy Q on an out of position hero, while threatening a lot of damage against any divers. As the tank he usually has to be further forward and Q becomes a tool to deny disengage for a hero that is already low or drag a fragile backliner into the front line if they move out front. There is a lot of creative playmaking potential with Stitches between 1, Q, and both of his heroics, but as mentioned in his Q section sometimes it involves understanding the geometry of the map as well as the strengths and weaknesses of both teams. This makes Stitches a hero who requires a lot of game knowledge to really play at a high level and even then you still need your team to follow up on what you do.
Strong With:
Bruiser Stitches really shines with any mobile tank who can be in the front, allowing him to be in the back and wait patiently for that perfect Q opportunity. Muradin, E.T.C., Leoric, Tyrael, even Misha. He requires follow up crowd control and damage to maximize the value of his Qs. Of course heroes with stuns, roots, or burst are very valuable to him. Brightwing, Tyrande, Kael’Thas, Jaina, Malfurion, Thrall, Auriel can position to be reliable follow up. He is one half of the infamous “Milk Carton” combo with Medivh: Q into Gorge (10) into Portal, “Have you seen this hero?” on the back of the milk carton. Medivh also helps Stitches’s mobility issues quite a bit in addition to granting vision for more reliable Qs. Tyrande, Tassadar, Zagara, and Brightwing also help grant vision for better Qs.
Weak With:
Low mobility melee heroes of any kind, since having two of the same weakness in your frontline is always rough. Dehaka, Uther, Arthas, Diablo, Johanna, Artanis, and so on. Outside of that he works with most ranged heroes very well.
Strong Against:
Low mobility heroes. Hitting a Q on a low mobility hero with any follow up from your team at all should be a kill every time. If they have an escape the follow up crowd control from your team usually needs to be really crisp to ensure the kill, often being thrown out before anyone can even be sure the hook landed on a target. Stitches also works well against heroes who depend on knockbacks or disengages to be safe, like Sgt. Hammer. Lt. Morales, and Raynor. Get knocked back, Q the target to your team’s new position. If an enemy tries to use a disengage, like Sgt. Hammer’s thrusters, they usually make the mistake of doing it in a straight line. That is an easy Q and their escape is already burned.
Weak Against:
Strong percent based damage dealers, such as Leoric and Tychus, can shred through Stitches’s massive health pool. Heroes who can punish his immobility like Kerrigan, Chen, and Tyrael can also cause him problems. At higher levels of play, heroes who spawn extra targets to block Qs can be difficult to play around, such as Anub’arak with his beetles and even Lunara’s Wisp with good reaction times.
Talent Overview
Talent Key:
The Default: This talent is usually the default pick just because of how strong it is and at best other talents at this tier are only situationally better.
Niche/Situational: One of the most common questions I get asked is when do you take certain less picked talents. They often have uses but the uses are specific to either comps or maps. These are those talents.
Must be Paired with Other talents: Often there are certain talents that, by themselves, are not very impressive but synergize so well with other talents that if you plan on taking the other talent, you should take the talents that pair well with it.
Trap: Trap Talents are either actively bad or, more usually, simply so much worse than competing talents at the same tier it doesn’t make sense to ever take them.
Fun: This can be a little bit of a personal thing, but I’m going to label the talents I personally consider fun even if they are not actually worth taking in real games.
Heroic Discussion:
Putrid Bile: Stitches’s primary weakness is a lack of peel and a lack of mobility. Putrid Bile is both and offers a lot of damage as a cherry on top. As a bruiser who is usually looking for Qs from the backline, it allows you to peel for your backline or allow your team disengage. It functions as a follow up to a successful Q to help lock a target down and trap them with body blocking. If you’re tanking it is literally the only tool in your entire kit that allows for strong zoning.
Gorge: A mobile stasis with high damage attached for one enemy hero. Outside of something like the Medivh combo with portal to ensure a kill, a.k.a. “The Milk Carton,” this shines best as a tool to remove a critical hero from a fight. Swallow the tank while your damage dives and you’ve removed all the peel. Swallow the Illidan or Cho’Gall to disable those compositions temporarily, negate a large part of Kerrigan’s Maelstrom or Malfurion’s Tranquility. The way it is most commonly used, to try to set up a kill on a target after a hook, has a lot of counterplay and often results in baiting your own team into getting collapsed on and losing the fight. The duration is long enough to ensure captures on boss points, channeling Dragon Knight, Altars on Towers of Doom, etc., which makes it slightly better on those maps. If you are doing Q into Gorge as a combo, remember to shift queue so the Q-ed enemy cannot use an escape to deny the Gorge follow up. The ‘cannot be used on massive Heroes’ part refers to things like the Dragon Knight and Terror.
Level 1:
Chew Your Food: Stitches has a large base health pool and E is on a substantial cooldown, which mitigates much of the value of this talent. It’s only really worthwhile when combined with Last Bite (7), which means all the limitations of that talent apply to this one, and when Dampen Magic is not a stronger option. Despite the tooltip, the amount restored is actually 9.4% of your total health.
Dampen Magic: Essentially the best anti-ability burst talent in the game. Against most compositions this will offer more mitigation, as a tank, than any other talent. Li-Ming, Jaina, Kerrigan, Kael’thas, Chromie, Li-Ming, or any hero who does the majority of their damage as burst with their abilities on the other team makes this talent top tier.
Hungry for More: Only truly worthwhile on maps where it can be finished quickly because sacrificing early game power for late game power is a risk with Stitches; hooks often end games anyway if you can get to the late game while even or ahead. That said, the extra movement speed helps patch the low mobility of Stitches, but it doesn’t stack with Putrid Bile (10) movement speed so if you think you’ll only need the movement speed in team fights, as opposed to a map where you are skirmishing frequently, it’s less valuable unless you plan on picking Gorge (10).
Heavy Slam: Offers stronger wave clear. As a bruiser you often want the full W build, but this is the most often sacrificed talent if you need more survivability and your composition already has enough damage.
Level 4:
Amplified Healing: Applies to E, which makes it a little more than 25% your total health pool, which is a massive heal. Obviously, as a high health tank, your support having more efficient healing on you is also very valuable.
Restorative Fumes: If you are against three or more melee heroes, this will edge out Amplified for sustained healing, especially with Toxic Gas (7). With two melee heroes the numbers are quite a bit closer and Amplified will usually do better.
Putrid Ground: Adds your trait damage to every target hit by W. This doesn’t affect the cooldown of your trait, but your trait will not stack with the W inflicted version. This is a key talent for the W build and should almost always be taken if you are the bruiser on a team.
Level 7:
Tenderizer: With no real crowd control in your base kit, adding even a slow is a huge upgrade for a melee frontliner. It allows you to chase, body block, secure kills with Q more easily, and the uptime on a single target is 100% unless they have an escape.
Last Bite: This is only worthwhile when you can ensure consistent resets. On some maps where you are constantly fighting in lane or there are Monsters to eat like Infernal Shrines, this is very easy. Otherwise you have to depend on the enemy team to supply targets. Zagara’s Hydras and Roaches, Gazlowe’s Turrets, Azmodan’s Demon Warriors, Xul’s Skeletons if he goes Jailors, Anub’arak’s Beetles, Malfurion with Vengeful Roots, and Nazeebo’s Zombie Wall.
Toxic Gas: This is a cornerstone talent for both the full W build and the self-heal build against heavy melee teams. It adds one extra tick of trait damage, which for the W build synergizes with Putrid Ground (4). Against heavy melee teams gives you 33% more healing from Restorative Fumes (4) because of the extra tick and makes it more likely to hit multiple targets, potentially adding further healing. Without either of those talents this talent is just not worth taking.
Savor the Flavor: You won’t always be using E on enemy heroes and it has a very substantial cooldown. Even using it at every opportunity, which may not be ideal because you might not need the healing, the amount you stack up is usually very low, unless the game goes on a long time, which it shouldn’t with Stitches. Hit a Q, take an unfair fight, end the game.
Level 13:
Flea Bag: This really requires a minimum of two roots or stuns on the enemy team to be minimally good. The more you add, the better it gets. Resetting all your cooldowns is insane value for the W build, increases your self-sustain with E considerably, and obviously more Qs offers more playmaking potential.
Mega Smash: With the full W build, this ensures Putrid Ground (4) always lands on multiple targets and greatly increases the potential value of Pulverize (16). On its own merits the talent isn’t good enough to take, at least one of those talents is really required. That said, with enough stuns or roots on the enemy team Flea Bag will actually be better for the W build.
Indigestion: It isn’t so much that Indigestion is good, but it’s that it does something. Depending on your team, the enemy team, and the map, the other two talents at this tier can range from excellent to literally doing nothing, in which case why would you take them at all? Plus the Retchling is adorable.
Level 16:
Pulverize: Putting W on a 6 second cooldown with all the synergy that has been built up to this point is fairly powerful. Adding a 75% 1 second slow in addition to that is insane, particularly if you aren’t great at hitting Qs or your team has had poor follow up to them. This is the go to talent for bruiser Stitches, but as with the others, it isn’t worth it if you haven’t taken the other W talents.
Fishing Hook: This is the talent that opens up the possibility that Stitches just wins the game for his team. A single full length late game Q that results in an easy kill allows you to subsequently force a 5v4 on the enemy team. This either forces them to fight and likely lose, or it allows you to get a free Keep or other objective, which snowballs the late game in your favor and you win. The later the game goes and the longer death timers become, the more terrifying this prospect is for the enemy team.
Shish Kabob: Outside of the goofiness of this talent, there are some things that push it into viability. The first is that if you use 1 it will pass through the ally and still also grab an enemy. You get the reduced cooldown and bring your ally and one enemy to your team. If you have a hero like The Butcher, Kerrigan, or Muradin who can jump in and stun a target, you can ensure you always pull off this double combo if you line up correctly. This requires coordination obviously but is quite strong. The second is sometimes you want to grab two enemies. Against heavy melee teams while your team has heavy area damage, forcing a 5v2 is actually better than a 5v1. For instance, with a Kael’thas with Burned Flesh. The last is that many heroes produce targetable summons; this helps bypass that weakness for players who can’t time their hooks around, for instance, Anub’arak beetles.
Stoneskin: With a large base health pool this is technically strong on Stitches, but you give up basically all your late game play making potential as either a tank or a bruiser. This means it’s only good if your team is so bad they can’t seem to follow up on any of your plays and you just need to drag out fights for as long as possible. It’d be a trap but sloppy and ugly games do happen.
Level 20:
Regenerative Bile: If you’ve been consistently catching multiple heroes in Bile, which is even more likely with the additional movement speed this is now equal to mount speed, this adds a lot of healing, especially when paired with Amplified Healing (4). It can allow you to engage in a strong late game sustain fight. As with all talents of this nature, the actual healing amount is slightly lower, 48.1% instead of 50% of damage dealt.
Hungry Hungry Stitches: The best theoretical use of this talent is Medivh teleporting an entire enemy team into the kill zone on Towers of Doom. In a slightly more realistic scenario it can ensure boss steals on Cursed Hollow and Altar caps on Towers of Doom. In practice you just don’t need to swallow the entire enemy team to do those things. If you went Gorge there was clearly some synergy, just use that synergy, kill the enemy team, win the game.
Hardened Shield: Are you getting blown up? Do you need to stay in the fight and be soaking that damage for your team so they can win the fight? Take this talent. Otherwise, Bolt is usually better.
Bolt of the Storm: As always, any hero who has Bolt always has to consider taking it for the playmaking potential be it engaging, disengaging, re-positioning for good Qs, or abusing Gorge (10) to ensure a single late game kill.
Related: Being a HeroA few years ago, DisneyWorld executives were wondering what most captured the attention of toddlers and infants at their theme park and hotels in Orlando, Florida. So they hired me and a cultural anthropologist to observe them as they passed by all the costumed cast members, animated creatures, twirling rides, sweet-smelling snacks, and colorful toys. But after a couple of hours of close observation, we realized that what most captured the young children’s attention wasn’t Disney-conjured magic. Instead it was their parents’ cell phones, especially when the parents were using them.
Those kids clearly understood what held their parents’ attention — and they wanted it too. Cell phones were enticing action centers of their world as they observed it. When parents were using their phones, they were not paying complete attention to their children.
Giving undivided attention is the first and most basic ingredient in any relationship. It is impossible to communicate, much less bond, with someone who can’t or won’t focus on you. At the same time, we often fail to realize how what we focus on comes to control our thoughts, our actions, and indeed, our very lives.
Whatever we focus upon actually wires our neurons. For example, pessimistic people see setbacks and unhappy events as Personal (It’s worst for me), Pervasive (Everything is now worse) and Permanent (It will always be this way) according to Learned Optimism author Marty Seligman. Yet, with practice, he found that we can learn to focus more attention on the positive possibilities in situations to craft a redemptive narrative of our life story. Consciously changing what you pay attention to can rewire your brain from a negative orientation to a positive one. “Attention shapes the brain,” as Rick Hanson says in Buddha’s Brain.
Because attention is so closely connected to our brain’s basic wiring, it can be difficult to recognize our own patterns of giving attention — patterns we’ve been absorbing since birth. Yet different cultures do allocate attention differently. For instance, psychologist Richard E. Nisbett showed an underwater scene to students in the U.S. and also to East Asians. While the Americans commented on the big fish swimming amongst smaller fish, the East Asians also discussed the overall scene, including plants and rocks. Nisbett concluded that East Asians focus on relationships while Westerners tend to see isolated objects rather than the connections between them.
John Hagel reported on a similar experiment. “A developmental psychologist showed three pictures to children — a cow, a chicken and some grass. He asked children from America which two of the pictures belonged together. Most of them grouped the cow and chicken together because they were both objects in the same category of animals. Chinese children on the other hand tended to group the cow and grass together because ‘cows eat grass’ — they focused on the relationship between two objects rather than the objects themselves.”
Here’s what I take from these two studies: First, that whatever you pay attention to — or not — has a huge effect on how you see the world and feel about it. And second, it’s much easier to see your own attention patterns if you take the time to learn about someone else’s.
As leaders, what you pay attention to not only controls your own brain, but sets the example for your team. Yet as with any scarce resource, you can only intelligently allocate your attention if you know where you’re spending it. Let’s go back to the Disney example. Those parents probably thought they were paying plenty of attention to the different stimuli of DisneyWorld, and to their young children. But their kids’ behavior tells us what they were really spending their attention on: their mobile phones. Most of us have probably been guilty of devoting more attention to our cell phones than we’re aware of — even though it may make those around us irate (such as the boss who sees us emailing during an important client meeting or the spouse who catches us texting during a romantic dinner).
To learn about your own attention patterns, examine someone else’s. Most motivational speakers, self-help writers, therapists and pharmacologists encourage us to focus on “me.” They suggest that we look inward to understand and improve ourselves for a happier, better life. That’s not wrong; it is just incomplete. Instead of just asking, “What most preoccupies me? Does it make the world seem welcoming or withholding?” reach out to someone else. Be the best listener they’ve had in months. This is the first and most basic ingredient in any interaction. Simply gazing steadily and warmly at that person, nodding at times and reiterating what you heard will activate an empathic, mirror-neuron response in both of you.
Giving and receiving undivided attention, even briefly, is the least that one individual can do for another — and sometimes the most. And yet, attending to others doesn’t just help them — it helps us, by evoking responses that help the listener feel cared for, useful, and connected to the larger world. Paying attention may be an individual effort, but it’s also a kind of social cement that holds groups together and helps them feel part of something greater than themselves. It’s not always easy, but you can improve with practice — and find yourself becoming more flexible, more open to new ideas, and better able to resonate with others. Inevitably that leads to a richer, more meaningful life.RxJS Observable interop with Promises and Async-Await
Ben Lesh Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 22, 2017
Every now and then I’m asked a question about how to use async functions or promises with RxJS, or worse, I’m told some “fact” about how async-await and Observables don’t really “work together”. RxJS has, from inception, had a high degree of interoperability with Promises. Hopefully this article will shed some light on that.
If it accepts Observable, it accepts Promise
For example, if you’re using a switchMap, you can return a Promise inside of there just the same as you can return an Observable. All of these are valid:
Make a Promise-returning function retryable with defer
If you have access to the function that creates the promise, you can wrap it with Observable.defer() and make an Observable that can be retried on error.
Define an Observable with async-await using defer()
Defer is a very powerful little tool, it turns out. You can use it, basically directly, with async functions and it will make an Observable that emits the returned value and completes.
Subscribe to an Observable with forEach to create concurrent tasks in async-await
This is a lesser-used feature of RxJS that comes from the TC39 Observable proposal. There is more than one way to subscribe to an Observable! There’s subscribe, which is the classic way to subscribe to an Observable, and it returns a Subscription object which can be used for cancelling the data stream… and there’s forEach which is a non-cancellable way of subscribing to an Observable that takes one function for each next-ed value, and returns a Promise that embodies the completion and error paths for the Observable.
Use toPromise() with async/await to emit the last Observable value as a Promise
The toPromise function is actually a bit tricky, as it’s not really an “operator”, rather it’s an RxJS-specific means of subscribing to an Observable and wrap it in a promise. The promise will resolve to the last emitted value of the Observable once the Observable completes. That means that if the Observable emits the value “hi” then waits 10 seconds before it completes, the returned promise will wait 10 seconds before resolving “hi”. If the Observable never completes, then the Promise never resolves.
NOTE: using toPromise() is an antipattern except in cases where you’re dealing with an API that expects a Promise, such as async-await
Observables and Promises work well together
Admittedly, if you’re aiming for reactive programming, most of the time, you probably want an Observable, but RxJS tries to be as ergonomic as possible in a world where Promises are so popular. Furthermore, using RxJS Observables with forEach in async functions enables a lot of interesting possibilities for managing concurrency and tasks in a way that “just works” with async-await.
Come learn more about RxJS from me in-person or online at http://rxworkshop.com!SPD officer accused in drug case dies of gunshot
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and Police Chief John Diaz speak to reporters after announcing that Officer Richard Francis Nelson died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the veteran officer was arrested for mishandling drug evidence on Thursday, January 5, 2011. less Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and Police Chief John Diaz speak to reporters after announcing that Officer Richard Francis Nelson died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the veteran officer was arrested for... more Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close SPD officer accused in drug case dies of gunshot 1 / 9 Back to Gallery
A Seattle police officer who was arrested early Thursday in a cocaine investigation was found hours later with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound and died at Harborview Medical Center.
Richard Francis Nelson, of Issaquah, had been suspected of tampering with drugs seized as evidence since July 2011 when fellow South Precinct patrol officers alerted supervisors of concerns. The department then launched a criminal investigation.
In a separate incident, a South Seattle resident also alerted officers to Nelson's alleged misconduct. As part of the investigation, police tracked down that man but he did not assist police.
"He showed some inordinate interest in situations where drug evidence was being brought in," Police Chief John Diaz during a news conference when asked about the other officers' suspicions of Nelson. "It was a feeling, it was a hunch and I can't let those things go."
Nelson, the father of two teenage children, would have turned 51 next week.
Late Wednesday night, another agency helped Seattle police with what Assistant Chief Nick Metz described as an "integrity test." Nelson was given a purse with drugs to be entered as evidence, and investigators who tracked his moves wanted to see how Nelson would act.
They say he kept the cocaine, and Nelson was arrested after police followed his personal vehicle going home.
Metz said the drugs that were part of the investigation were found, and commanders took Nelson's gun and badge.
He was arrested, questioned at police headquarters, and booked into King County Jail about 4:15 a.m. Metz said Nelson declined to call an attorney or family. As part of the investigation, police investigators had been working with the King County Prosecutor's office.
Jail records show Nelson was released about a half hour later on personal recognizance, and an officer drove Nelson home to Issaquah shortly after.
"Nelson wasn't afforded any more lenient or severe treatment because of his status as a police officer," Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said in a statement. "To be released from custody is normal for first time drug offenders and is consistent with the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention."
Police also said Nelson's commanders offered several referral options for counseling.
Shortly before 11 a.m. Thursday, as Diaz was preparing to brief reporters on Nelson's arrest, his body was found by a woman with her dog near the start of the John Wayne Trail near Rattlesnake Lake, about 30 miles east of Seattle. The gunshot wound was self-inflicted, police said.
Diaz rescheduled the briefing as the situation was unfolding and left for Harborview Medical Center.
A hospital spokesman confirmed Nelson's death shortly after 3:30 p.m.
"This is just one more example," Whitcomb said, "of the sorrow and devastation caused by drug addiction."
Police said there is an ongoing investigation, and it's not clear if cases were hindered by Nelson tampering with evidence. Diaz said it does not appear that the officer was taking the drugs to give to someone else.
Nelson was hired Sept. 4, 1990, and spent several years in the South Precinct on second watch.
Metz, who had previously been Nelson's commander in the South Precinct, said it was a tremendous tragedy for the department and that many officers were grieving.
"Despite what actions this officer took, he was a friend to many," Metz said. "It's been a heartbreaking 24 hours to say the least."
Court records show Nelson was charged with fourth-degree assault in March 2009, but charges were dismissed in October of that year. The Issaquah Municipal Court files were not immediately available Thursday.
The case is another setback for Seattle police, which recently had a Department of Justice investigation show that in some cases inadequate training and supervision led to officers grabbing batons too quickly and escalating confrontations for even minor offenses.
The department also has taken criticism for several high-profile videotaped incidents and the Aug. 2010 unjustified shooting death of woodcarver and public inebriate John T. Williams. Last October, a sergeant in the domestic violence unit was arrested and charged with domestic violence assault after officers in Chelan County reported seeing him drag his girlfriend by her hair through a gravel parking lot at the Leavenworth Octoberfest. His case is ongoing.
"Officers reported this, Seattle police investigated it, and held one of their own accountable," Mayor Mike McGinn said of Nelson's case. "At the same time, this is a human being who was fallible and (had) drug addiction apparently, or it appears, and that can strike anybody.
"In the midst of this storm... of concerns, it's important to remember that our police officers, men and women, are going out there every day on behalf of the community."
For more Seattle police and crime news visit the front page of the Seattle 911 blog.
Casey McNerthney can be reached at 206-448-8220 or at caseymcnerthney@seattlepi.com. Follow Casey on Twitter at twitter.com/mcnerthney.Bernie Madoff, the hedge fund manager who fleeced Americans of $65 billion in the world's largest Ponzi scheme, continues to do business in prison. But instead of playing the stock market, he is selling hot chocolate.
According to Steve Fishman, a journalist who just started a podcast about Madoff and remained in contact with him during his prison stay, Madoff is well known and liked by his fellow inmates. "He's a star in prison. He stole more money than anyone in history, and to other thieves, this makes him a hero," Fishman told MarketWatch in an interview.
Madoff is also putting his stock market smarts to work, giving at least one other inmate financial advice when he was considering buying stock. "The guy later said he wished he had followed Bernie's advice closer," Fishman said.
But the funniest story Fishman told was about the time Madoff monopolized the prison's supply of hot chocolate and sold it in the prison yard at a profit.
Bernie really was a successful businessman with quite original insights into the market, and he's continued applying his business instincts in prison. At one point, he cornered the hot chocolate market. He bought up every package of Swiss Miss from the commissary and sold it for a profit in the prison yard. He monopolized hot chocolate! He made it so that, if you wanted any, you had to go through Bernie.
So, in case you were wondering if Madoff was still a greedy bastard, using his smarts to fleece the little guy, the answer is a resounding yes.
[H href='http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-series-casts-bernie-madoff-not-only-as-a-crook-but-a-product-of-a-corrupt-system-2017-01-12' target='_blank">MarketWatch']President Trump gives a thumbs up as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
President Trump, a longtime New York City Democrat who campaigned as a populist with little loyalty to the Republican Party, is increasingly choosing to govern as an unwavering conservative.
His first major legislative victory probably will be a $1.5 trillion tax cut that primarily benefits corporations and the wealthy. He is filling the courts with deeply conservative judges who will shape the legal landscape for generations.
And although Trump has struggled to chalk up wins on Capitol Hill, his Cabinet departments are rolling back scores of Obama-era policies on energy, education, the environment and law enforcement. Just this week, Trump cut two of Utah's national monuments established by Democratic presidents to a fraction of their original size and was preparing to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a step long sought by hawks.
At the same time, many of the more populist proposals that Trump championed as a presidential candidate — including promises to curb imports and spur $1 trillion in new spending on infrastructure projects — remain stalled.
"For the past year, he's done pretty much everything conservatives could have wanted," said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union. "In the past, Republican presidents have done conservative things to appeal to the base and then done not-so-conservative things to try to broaden their appeal. They've kind of ping-ponged. Trump has really doubled down."
The pattern has become so pronounced that even some of Trump's Republican critics acknowledge that — beyond the inflammatory tweetstorms, name-calling and other antics — he is pushing an agenda friendly to their interests and has not aggressively pursued anti-trade moves and other actions that would alarm them.
"As someone who's been critical of Trump, there's a lot that his administration is doing that I like," said Doug Heye, a Republican consultant and former communications director for the Republican National Committee, who said he was particularly pleased with Trump's judicial picks and other personnel choices.
The conservative tilt is explained in part by Trump's staff and Cabinet picks, who have been given freer rein by the White House to pursue their own agendas than in past administrations. Those picks — and subsequent policy choices — were heavily influenced by Vice President Pence who unlike Trump has a long history of championing conservative causes.
At a Values Voter Summit in October, radio host and Republican pundit Bill Bennett declared that Trump's Cabinet was more conservative than that of President Ronald Reagan. Bennett served in that Cabinet as education secretary.
Trump has installed the likes of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who hails from the oil-and-gas state of Oklahoma. Pruitt used his previous post as the state's attorney general to sue the EPA over its Clean Power Plan, the principal Obama-era policy aimed at reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. As EPA administrator, Pruitt is leading the charge to repeal the measure.
Other conservative Republicans aggressively pursuing an agenda at their departments include Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
President Trump, flanked by Speaker of the House Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) speaks during a meeting on tax policy in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Nov. 2. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Although the investigation of Russian meddling in last year's election has been the most visible aspect of Sessions's tenure, he has also been reshaping policies in his department. Those include a new charging and sentencing policy that calls for prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges possible and efforts to strip funding from cities with policies he considers too friendly toward undocumented immigrants.
[While eyes are on Russia, Sessions dramatically reshapes the Justice Department]
Trump's marquee efforts with Congress — the failed attempt to overhaul the |
67 percent or less of the fans we polled felt they could offer an opinion — again, suggesting the regionality of baseball. But more than 80 percent of fans had a rating for the Cubs, and they were well-liked by nearly everyone.
The Cubs are the most liked team and the Yankees the least Favorable and unfavorable ratings for every MLB team when respondents were each asked their views on ten randomly assigned teams TEAM RATED BY FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE NET FAV. Chicago Cubs 81% 67% 14% +53 St. Louis Cardinals 69 50 19 +31 Kansas City Royals 64 47 17 +30 Boston Red Sox 84 56 28 +28 Colorado Rockies 55 41 14 +27 Baltimore Orioles 67 46 21 +25 San Francisco Giants 69 46 23 +23 Minnesota Twins 58 40 18 +22 Pittsburgh Pirates 64 43 21 +22 Houston Astros 64 43 21 +22 Cleveland Indians 69 45 24 +21 Seattle Mariners 61 41 20 +21 San Diego Padres 61 41 20 +21 Atlanta Braves 70 45 25 +20 Arizona Diamondbacks 59 39 20 +19 Detroit Tigers 58 38 20 +18 Texas Rangers 64 41 23 +18 Los Angeles Angels 63 40 23 +17 Chicago White Sox 69 43 26 +17 Milwaukee Brewers 60 38 22 +16 Oakland Athletics 57 36 21 +15 Los Angeles Dodgers 73 44 29 +15 Cincinnati Reds 61 36 25 +11 Washington Nationals 61 36 25 +11 Tampa Bay Rays 57 34 23 +11 New York Mets 78 43 35 +8 Toronto Blue Jays 58 33 25 +8 Miami Marlins 60 33 27 +6 Philadelphia Phillies 62 33 29 +4 New York Yankees 92 44 48 -4 Percentages and percentage points are rounded.
Responses from a survey of 989 American baseball fans conducted from June 30 to July 8, 2017. Source: SurveyMOnkey
Sixty-seven percent of baseball fans nationally had a favorable view of the Cubs, while just 14 percent had an unfavorable view. Amazingly, this gave the Cubs the highest favorable rating in the poll in addition to a tie with the Colorado Rockies for the lowest unfavorable rating. In every region of the country, the Cubs had a favorable rating of above 60 percent and an unfavorable rating of 20 percent or less. The Cardinals (at +31 percentage points) were a distant second to the Cubs (at +53 percentage points) when it came to net favorability (favorable rating minus unfavorable rating).
The Yankees are an entirely different story. While a fairly high 44 percent of fans have a favorable view of the Yankees, they are the only team in the country for which more fans hold an unfavorable view (48 percent) than favorable view. (For the sake of context, no other team has an unfavorable rating above 35 percent.) Yankee fans will be particularly stung by the fact that more fans have a favorable view of the rival Red Sox (56 percent) than the Yankees.
Not only are the Yankees generally disliked, they’re also outright hated by more fans than any other team. When asked to give their least favorite team, an astounding 27 percent of fans said theirs was the Yankees. The Red Sox were a distant second at 10 percent.
The Yankees are America’s most hated team Share of respondents who said a given team was their least favorite TEAM SHARE LEAST FAVORITE TEAM 1 New York Yankees 27% – 2 Boston Red Sox 10 – 3 Los Angeles Dodgers 5 – 4 Arizona Diamondbacks 5 – 5 Chicago Cubs 4 – 6 Washington Nationals 4 – 7 Miami Marlins 3 – 8 Atlanta Braves 3 – 9 Chicago White Sox 3 – New York Mets 3 – 11 San Francisco Giants 3 – 12 Detroit Tigers 3 – 13 Toronto Blue Jays 3 – 14 St. Louis Cardinals 2 – 15 Oakland Athletics 2 – Texas Rangers 2 – 17 Cleveland Indians 2 – 18 Philadelphia Phillies 2 – 19 Pittsburgh Pirates 2 – 20 Minnesota Twins 2 – 21 Los Angeles Angels 2 – Milwaukee Brewers 2 – 23 Cincinnati Reds 1 – 24 Houston Astros 1 – 25 San Diego Padres 1 – 26 Tampa Bay Rays 1 – 27 Baltimore Orioles 1 – Colorado Rockies 1 – 29 Kansas City Royals 1 – 30 Seattle Mariners 1 – Percentages are rounded and may not add to 100.
Responses from a survey of 989 American baseball fans conducted from June 30 to July 8, 2017. Source: Surveymonkey
The Yankees were the least favorite team in every region in the country, and it wasn’t a particularly close race anywhere.
Every part of America hates the Yankees Share of respondents who said a given team was their least favorite by census region NORTHEAST SOUTH MIDWEST WEST TEAM SHARE TEAM SHARE TEAM SHARE TEAM SHARE Yankees 34% Yankees 25% Yankees 28% Yankees 26% Red Sox 17 Red Sox 10 Cubs 11 Dodgers 12 D-Backs 6 D-Backs 6 Cardinals 8 Red Sox 8 Mets 6 Nats 6 Red Sox 5 Giants 6 Cubs 4 Braves 5 Indians 5 Athletics 5 Phillies 4 Tigers 5 White Sox 4 D-Backs 4 Nats 3 Blue Jays 4 D-Backs 4 White Sox 4 Rockies 3 Marlins 4 Braves 4 Marlins 3 Marlins 3 Mets 3 Marlins 3 Rangers 3 Dodgers 2 Phillies 3 Twins 3 Angels 3 Brewers 2 Rangers 3 Nats 3 Percentages are rounded and may not add to 100.
Responses from a survey of 989 American baseball fans conducted from June 30 to July 8, 2017. Source: Surveymonkey
Interestingly, we do see that there is at least some correlation with being well-liked in a region and having haters. The Red Sox are the second-most disliked team in the Northeast, the Cubs are the second-most disliked team in the Midwest, and the Dodgers are the second-most disliked team in the West. Perhaps fans of other teams are just jealous of these teams’ popularity, or perhaps there’s a rivalry element to this finding. All of these team’s top rivals (Yankees for the Red Sox, Cardinals for the Cubs and Giants for the Dodgers) were fairly popular in their own right, and each fan base listed the rival as their least favorite team.
Of course, I don’t think any of these disliked teams in each region are going to be crying about being hated. Ownerships don’t care whether you watch a team to root for or against it — they just care that you watch. Each region’s most and second-most disliked team also ranks among the top 10 in MLB attendance this season. As Oscar Wilde wrote, “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
Still, these numbers suggest you shouldn’t mistake notoriety or ticket sales for being well-liked. In some cases, well-known teams (like the Cubs) are also well-liked — but in others (cough, Yankees), these teams can be better described as “notorious.”
Check out our latest MLB predictions.Getty Image
The process of gender transition is not easy for any transgender person. Our society is such that the process is not easy on the families, loved ones or anyone involved in the transgender community. I know this firsthand because my father began this journey a few years ago. The strain it put on our family has been intense, but we are private citizens, and my father is not in the limelight.
Going through this transition in such a public way, as Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! has, is assuredly intense, as a recent Rolling Stone profile on her points out. But, perhaps that’s why the letter that Laura Jane Grace’s ex-wife Heather Gabel posted on Facebook today is even more heartbreaking to read. Along with her commentary about the story and her own perspective on it, Gabel also shared a letter she wrote to Rolling Stone that she said she has not received a response to.
Gabel manages to write in a calm and collected way about a situation that was surely one of the most difficult situations in her life, calling out the magazine for the way she says the story twisted her words, and educating plenty of readers in the process. Most telling might be her comments about the magazine’s decision to show Grace’s nipples unedited — which she points out they do not do for cisgendered women — and how that is a clear example of misgendering. In her Facebook post, Gabel has posted a version of the photo that censors Grace’s nipples. I won’t spend a lot more time talking about the situation because Gabel’s words speak so eloquently and forcefully for themselves. But this commentary is a must-read for everyone:
The text of Gabel’s Facebook post:
A couple of weeks ago I talked to a reporter named Alex Morris for about an hr. It was the day before she had to turn in a piece she was writing on Laura Jane Grace (a person I married in 2007, had a child with in 2009, and separated from in 2014). She said she was calling to fact check for the piece which was going to be focusing on LJ’s life since coming out as a trans-woman in 2012. So she asked me questions and I answered them, correcting and clarifying along the way. When the article came out (you can read it here) I was really disappointed to see that it focused on how her transition had ruined her life, and that us splitting up was a result of that transition. Everyone who knows me knows that this is not the case, fuck, the writer knew it because I plainly told her. Why do I care what a bunch of other people reading the article think? Because it’s sensational hetero drama that I don’t want to be even an unwilling party to in print. Because us being together or not being together is not the story, because one day my daughter will be reading this one sided bullshit and that really upsets me. Despite the fact that Alex Morris completely botched what could have been a really eye opening, powerful, piece that other non-binary gendered people could have found something relevant or relatable to, my biggest problem with this piece is the gross misrepresentation of LJ’s gender identity. Rolling Stone has never published a photograph of a non trans women’s nipples uncensored before, which, to me, reads as them making arbitrary distinctions between trans and non trans women, which is fucked up. Everyone’s tits should be legal. In my opinion, this is not a subversive decision aimed at giving censorship the middle finger, it’s a blatant example of misgendering, of gender inequality, and a general slap in the face to anyone who expects to have their gender identity respected. ANYWAYS, I wrote to Rolling Stone after the piece came out but (surprise) they haven’t replied so I’m posting the letter I sent them here in the hopes that it opens a couple of eyes to the tired, biased, conservative, one sided “journalism” they are perpetuating. Oh, and I fixed the photo too. Believe me, I want everyone’s tits out, I am in no way supporting the idea that censorship of women’s nipples is ok at all, but since Rolling Stone censors women’s nipples the photo should have looked a little more like this.
xoxoDocuments reveal 'hard evidence' of Metro trains skipping stations to meet performance targets
Updated
Public transport advocates say they now have hard evidence of Melbourne's train operator, Metro, short-changing commuters in order to be awarded punctuality bonuses.
Internal documents revealed 400 services stopped short of their destination or bypassed stations in one week this month to meet targets set under a new automated performance monitoring system.
The performance bonuses are reportedly worth millions of dollars to the rail operator every year.
The new system which uses track sensors at stations replaces the old practice where Metro staff were responsible for recording and submitting on-time and cancellation data to government.
The Public Transport Users Association's Tony Morton said the new figures confirmed a long-held view that Metro was skipping stations to meet punctuality targets.
"It is in fact confirming we have a system that depends on the systematic inconvenience of passengers," he said.
"The system ought to be running a lot better than it is and we can see the hard numbers now to see how well or poorly it is operating."
Metro said while there were "too many bypasses and cancellations" it denied altering services to make profits.
"When we have a disruption, we need to recover from that to returning the network to on-time running," spokeswoman Larisa Tait told 774 ABC Melbourne.
"So if we were unable to amend late-running services then those services would continue to run late all day."
Ms Tait said the documents had highlighted a particularly bad week for the rail operator.
The Victorian Government used the new figures to highlight the need for its planned Melbourne Metro rail tunnel.
Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said more investment was needed to boost the capacity of Melbourne's rail system.
"These figures are very frustrating for passengers who use the system every day and who are experiencing the inconvenience of having their service changed," she said.
Topics: rail-transport, state-parliament, government-and-politics, melbourne-3000
First postedDETROIT – Detroit, to nobody's surprise, is on Rick Nash's short list of approved destinations. And the Red Wings, naturally, would love to land the high-scoring forward.
The Red Wings made "a hell of an offer" to Columbus for Nash, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. But the offer generated no conversation.
No counteroffer, no back and forth negotiation, nothing.
It is clear Columbus has no intention of trading the face of its franchise to the team it considers to be its top rival, a Detroit club that has dominated the Blue Jackets since they entered the NHL in 2000-01.
The last thing Columbus general manager Scott Howson wants to see is Nash being paired with Pavel Datsyuk and his Blue Jackets having to deal with that scenario six times a season.
It is not certain what the Red Wings offered. Howson recently told TSN's Geno Reda that he is seeking at least two NHL-ready forwards in return for Nash because he likes his defense.
The Red Wings, in need of a top-pair defenseman, would be more inclined to relinquish a couple of NHL forwards in addition to prospects and draft picks.
Which forwards might the Red Wings move to get a franchise player like Nash? The two that come to mind are Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula, though it's unlikely Detroit would deal both.
Franzen has been wildly inconsistent since the midway point of the 2010-11 season. He has a tendency to score goals in bunches and then experience long droughts.
But, he has averaged nearly 30 goals the past four seasons (excluding 2009-10, when a knee injury limited him to 27 games) and has a modest salary-cap hit of $3.95 million, though he does have eight years and $27.75 million remaining on the deal.
As for Filppula, the Red Wings view the highly skilled winger/center as a key part of their future and would like to lock him up to a long-term contract before he becomes eligible for unrestricted free agency next summer.
If Detroit were to offer Filppula in a trade, his value would be limited, unless that team can sign him to a long-term deal. Otherwise, he'd just be a one-year rental.
Again, it's unclear what the Red Wings put on the table for Nash, but if it truly was “a hell of an offer'' it wasn't a pair of third-line forwards, a couple of minor leaguers and a mid-round draft pick.
In any event, it doesn't appear as if Nash will be traded anytime soon.
It doesn't help Columbus that Nash, who has a no-movement clause, will approve a move to only one of six clubs (the New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Boston, San Jose or Detroit), according to the Columbus Dispatch.
Also complicating matters for the Blue Jackets is the fact that teams interested in Nash likely have made a pitch for Anaheim's Bobby Ryan, too. They are similar players, with good size and scoring ability. But Ryan, 25, is three years younger and has a more palatable contract (three years left at a salary-cap hit of $5.1 million). Nash has six years remaining at a cap hit of $7.8 million.
In addition, teams in the hunt for Nash might be waiting to see whether the $70.2 million salary cap will be significantly reduced when the NHL and the players union settle on a new collective bargaining agreement.
None of this likely matters to the Red Wings, since their offer for Nash “gained no traction.''
Whether Howson reconsiders dealing with Detroit remains to be seen. Perhaps he'll feel more urgency as the season approaches.
For now, Howson's asking price for Nash is more than any club is willing to give, and Nash-to-Detroit is a pipe dream.
Follow Ansar Khan on Twitter at twitter.com/AnsarKhanMLive and like MLive.com's Red Wings page on Facebook.
Download MLive.com's smartphone app to get all the latest Red Wings news on your mobile device.A conversation with the director, writer and subjects of a short film exploring the unjust sentencing of graffiti artists
Text Natty Kasambala
On the same day that known graffiti writer Vamp was sentenced to 3 years for vandalism, a BBC presenter, Stuart Hall, was given 15 months for the sexual assault of 13 young girls over 20 years, between the ages of 9 and 17. The contrast here is worrying evidence that in the event of two guilty verdicts, the courts seem to place more value on the inconvenience of spray paint on an old brick wall than they do on the lives of underage assault victims. Disturbed by a justice system that at times is not so just, Molly Manning Walker found inspiration to write a short film, More Hate Than Fear, as a follow-up to a documentary of the same name, that she had made on the same subject. Viewing graffiti as the ultimate freedom of expression, she felt moved to help preserve it but also highlight what was happening to its artists. She explains: “Graffiti is freedom of speech, it’s a statement of unhappiness with the status quo. But it’s not graffiti that drove me to make this film – it’s the disproportionate prison sentences.” Walker tells Dazed, “what has become apparent is that we have a judicial system that values money and property over human life.” “What has become apparent is that we have a judicial system that values money and property over human life” – Molly Manning Walker And unfortunately, her fears are backed by facts – graffiti writers are being sentenced to years in prison and placed in high-risk facilities alongside violent offenders.
Written by Molly Manning Walker and directed by Billy Boyd Cape, the film tails a young graffiti artist struggling to navigate prison at the beginning of his sentence. After an altercation with his aggressive cellmate, the young prisoner returns to sketching as an escape. As days pass, he starts to come to terms with his circumstances, makes a friend and even learns a few tricks. By the end of the film, everything he comes to know is called into question once again, as he tries to figure out who he can trust. It's a hard-hitting glimpse into the dark reality kids are facing in high security prisons, for crimes as small as graffiti in an underground tunnel. “... by putting a writer in prison, you are not deterring them; you are inspiring them.” – Harry Conway In a society where the likes of McDonald’s, Adidas and Nike decorate their spaces and marketing campaigns with graffiti, when reporters regularly adopt street art as backdrops for broadcast and the style embellishes designer clothes worldwide, it seems almost farcical to suggest that society might be scared of the prolific art form. Rather, the fear of graffiti is governmental and stems from a fear of loss of control, as Cummings suggests in Walker’s earlier documentary. However, the role the public plays is a different one altogether and boils down to a lack of awareness, one of the reasons this film was so important to both Walker and also director, Billy Boyd Cape. Cape states it plainly: “In the minds of the general public, there is this belief that once someone is found guilty and gets locked up, they probably deserved it. There is no sympathy … There desperately needs to be a change in public perspective.” A blind trust is being put in structures that are routinely failing to prioritise citizens’ wellbeing over public property. And in doing so, the punishment for costing the government money in damages, is costing the government even more in over-filled prisons as well as generating a vicious cycle of offending.
Molly Manning Walker
Harry Conway, subject of the original More Hate Than Fear documentary, deconstructs precisely why the unjust sentencing of graffiti writers does more harm than good. “Yes, it’s a crime and should be punishable,” he says. “But by putting a writer in prison, you are not deterring them; you are inspiring them.” Conway explains how prison sentences for graffiti artists – placing them in close proximity to higher risk criminals – actually introduces them to a wider ring of criminal activity and sets them up with the knowhow and connections to, as he puts it “live this life of crime.” Instead, Conway suggests a simple and effective solution for the crime – community service – as “a solid way of repaying their debt that also doesn’t cost the taxpayer anywhere near as much as paying for a prisoner.” Our current socio-political climate has meant that youth political engagement has risen rapidly in the face of a government that refuses to listen to our demands for change. Artistic expression has always been a way to reject the status quo, while graffiti art is one of the longest standing avenues for this. When the system considers damage to private property more harmful to society than violence against underage victims, we have to ask whose interest that could even be in. Unjust sentencing of non-violent offenders can only be seen as a gesture of performance to try and silence a generation that is disenfranchised but self-empowered. And the manner in which graffiti writers are being scapegoated is stubbornness to the detriment of our prison system, society as a whole and the lives of young artists. Branding them as severe criminals and treating them as such will, at best destroy any chance of rehabilitation, and at worst become a self-fulfilling prophecy – raising the question of who exactly has the right to disrespect and reduce another person’s freedom to just a threatening message for others. You can watch the full film above.JAPAN has pleaded with the Australian government to prevent Sea Shepherd's anti-whaling vessels from leaving port.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Dennis Richardson says Japan sometimes asks Australia to do things it cannot do.
"They have for instance asked us at times to prevent the Sea Shepherd leaving Australian ports," Mr Richardson told a Senate estimates hearing.
"And we can't legally do that."
Australia would not intervene to stop peaceful protest, he said.
"We have stated that to the Japanese on numerous occasions," Mr Richardson said.
The Japanese government last week confirmed it was cutting short this season's whale hunt, citing harassment from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Activists from the US-based Sea Shepherd have pursued the Japanese fleet for weeks to keep its harpoon ships from killing whales.
Mr Richardson said Japan's announcement was "encouraging".
"But I think it would be premature to jump to a view that it reflects a change in policy," he said.
Originally published as Japan seeks help on Sea ShepherdYou must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters
— A longtime civil rights attorney who successfully sued in striking down North Carolina's legislative district boundaries for excessive racial bias announced Wednesday she's running for the state Supreme Court next year.
Anita Earls of Durham, who is seeking the position currently held by Associate Justice Barbara Jackson, also helped challenge North Carolina's 2013 voter identification law and has sued counties over other voting rights matters. The successful redistricting lawsuit forced Republican lawmakers to redraw dozens of General Assembly boundaries last summer.
Earls' candidacy comes as Republicans who control the legislature canceled next May's partisan primary elections for trial and appellate court judgeships up for re-election, setting up only the November 2018 election that could attract multiple candidates to each race.
GOP lawmakers also are considering whether to do away with head-to-head court elections all together, replacing them with retention elections that could include some General Assembly involvement with judicial nominees. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and others fear Republicans are scheming to hijack the judiciary, citing previous judicial election changes as proof.
Speaking outside state Democratic Party headquarters, Earls said she's running now because it's "important to stand up for the right to vote and for the importance of the independent judiciary, and those are things that I see under attack.
"An independent court means that the rules are the same for every North Carolinian, not just insiders or those with great wealth and power," she said. "An independent court means that everyone is held accountable to the rule of law not to the whims of politicians."
Earls, founder and executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said her 30-year legal career working for the poor and disenfranchised shows her how important an independent court is to carry out laws fairly to all, not just to the wealthy or politicians.
"The central focus throughout my career has been ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate so that politicians can’t ignore or marginalize any voter in this state, no matter how powerful the politician or how powerless the voter," she said.
Elected in 2010, Jackson is one of three Republicans on the seven-member Supreme Court, which currently has a Democratic majority for the first time in almost 20 years.
Earls, 57, previously worked in private practice and at the North Carolina Center for Civil Rights. She also served briefly on the State Board of Elections.
To focus on campaigning, Earls plans to withdraw by year's end from representing plaintiffs in the legislative redistricting case and in another lawsuit alleging excessive partisanship in how North Carolina's congressional districts were drawn.
In the legislative remapping case, a three-judge federal panel this month ordered an outside expert to propose fixing several House and Senate districts they worry are still unlawful. The partisan gerrymandering trial went to trial last month, but no ruling has been issued.
Earls also will resign from leading the Southern Coalition. While she's been in the spotlight recently fighting laws and maps passed by Republicans, Earls said she knows wearing a robe would require a different role: "I understand the difference between being an advocate and being a jurist, and I want the opportunity to use my experience to help ensure equal justice for all North Carolinians in a new role."
Former Gov. Jim Hunt and 1st District Congressman G.K. Butterfield, both Democrats, immediately endorsed Earls' candidacy.
"She has been at the forefront of the fight for fair maps and voting rights in our state, and she has dedicated her life to achieving fairness, equality and justice," Hunt said.
"She understands the importance of an independent judiciary and will be a justice that will only make decisions based on the facts and the law," said Butterfield, a former Supreme Court justice.Fossil trackways are simultaneously wonderful and frustrating things. They are preserved bits of prehistoric behavior, but, unless an animal actually dies and becomes preserved in its tracks, identifying exactly what creature left the traces can be fraught with difficulty. (The types of prehistoric environments which preserved tracks often destroyed body fossils, so, when the two are found together, ichnologists celebrate.) Every now and then, though, paleontologists discover a creature which became fossilized with the impressions it left behind. Such is the case with a Cambrian trilobite discovered in the Czech Republic.
The trilobite fossil described by Oldrich Fatka and Michal Szabad is subtle, but significant. At the end of a short burrow is the body of the trilobite Agraulos ceticephalus, leaving no question as to the animal which created the trace. The fossil may even provide some insight into how this trilobite was feeding. Though described as a "burrow" in the paper's title, Fatka and Szabad argue that the trace might be part of a feeding trail. Agraulos ceticephalus may have been a common, bottom-feeding animal which helped form the base of the prehistoric food web. Perhaps, now that trace and trace-maker have been found together, additional burrows or feeding imprints might be found and thus provide paleontologists with a small glimpse at the behavior of the long-lost trilobites.
Top Image: The trilobite Agraulos ceticephalus at the end of a small, light-colored trace fossil it created. From Fatka and Szabad, 2011.
References:
Fatka, O., & Szabad, M. (2011). Burrowing trilobite caught in the act Paläontologische Zeitschrift DOI: 10.1007/s12542-011-0102-4True Blood's Hoyt Drinks Human Blood In Real Life By Jessica Rawden Random Article Blend True Blood’s final season, a season that has killed off some of the show’s most beloved characters and has brought some old friends back into the fold. One of the characters that has been
Parrack recently spoke with True Blood and to explain his love for real-life human blood. It may sound a little strange, but to be fair, the actor doesn’t think he’s a vampire in real life or anything. Instead, he argues that partaking in human blood is a fulfilling and interesting experience that he enjoys every once and a while.
“I don’t mean copious amounts of blood. I’m not getting a glass of it or something. But if you drink it, it does something to you emotionally. It’s hard to describe. It’s kind of like you’re in the moment, and the impulse comes, and I like it.”
Parrack doesn’t do all of this blood drinking regularly. Instead, he told the outlet he really likes the way blood tastes and occasionally gets into trying it, admitting he’s tried the blood of a girl he was seeing. In the interview, he doesn’t seem too sheepish about the incident, although he does admit that it might “seem strange” to anyone hearing he likes to try human blood every now and again. It does, Parrack, it does.
From
“I’m absolutely particular. It’s not like it’s just anybody’s! That particular night, it was my girl. Yeah. “
You can catch Jim Parrack on the final season of True Blood, which airs on We’re nearing the end of’s final season, a season that has killed off some of the show’s most beloved characters and has brought some old friends back into the fold. One of the characters that has been brought back is Hoyt, Jason’s former best pal and Jessica’s former lover. Actor Jim Parrack, who plays Hoyt, has only been back for a few weeks, and he's already used the limelight to dish about his love for drinking blood. I guess all of that vampy behavior on set really does have an affect on some people.Parrack recently spoke with Vulture to talk about the recent season ofand to explain his love for real-life human blood. It may sound a little strange, but to be fair, the actor doesn’t think he’s a vampire in real life or anything. Instead, he argues that partaking in human blood is a fulfilling and interesting experience that he enjoys every once and a while.Parrack doesn’t do all of this blood drinking regularly. Instead, he told the outlet he really likes the way blood tastes and occasionally gets into trying it, admitting he’s tried the blood of a girl he was seeing. In the interview, he doesn’t seem too sheepish about the incident, although he does admit that it might “seem strange” to anyone hearing he likes to try human blood every now and again. It does, Parrack, it does.From Scientology to fad diets, celebrities are often into some oddball ideas. I guess it doesn’t really surprise me that a person who is involved in a show that is literally all about blood—human blood, vampire blood, part-fairy blood, true blood—might be interested in blood in real life. The leap isn’t that hard to make, but it’s still beyond the realms of what most people would consider usual behavior. Luckily, Parrack says he is particular about the blood he chooses, so there should be no Hep V in his immediate future...You can catch Jim Parrack on the final season of, which airs on HBO on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET. Next time we see him, I wouldn’t be shocked if he opted for a blood vial around the neck as a fashion statement 5 Game of Thrones Night King Theories You Need to Know Blended From Around The Web Facebook
Back to topKIEV (Reuters) - Pro-Russian separatists said on Saturday they were ready for a ceasefire with the Kiev government after increasing gains by Ukrainian forces against rebel forces.
“We are ready for a ceasefire to prevent the proliferation of a humanitarian disaster in Donbass,” Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people’s republic, said in a statement, referring to the area of eastern Ukraine where combat is being waged.
He warned that Donetsk, the main industrial hub which is the center of the rebel resistance, faced a lack of food, water, and electricity, but said the rebels were ready to defend the city of around one million people.
“In the event of a storm of the city the number of victims will increase by magnitude. We have no humanitarian corridors. There is no supply of medicines... food supplies are nearing their end,” he said.
Ukrainian officials have said they are ready to agree a ceasefire but on condition the rebels surrender their arms.
The office of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was unavailable for immediate comment on Zakharchenko’s statement.
Earlier, Kiev said it had headed off an attempt by Russia to send troops into Ukraine under the guise of peacekeepers with the aim of provoking a large-scale military conflict, a statement Moscow dismissed as a “fairy tale”.
The White House said that during a call on Saturday, U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel “agreed that any Russian intervention in Ukraine, even under purported ‘humanitarian’ auspices, without the formal, express consent and authorization of the government of Ukraine is unacceptable, violates international law, and will provoke additional consequences.”
Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron also discussed the crisis and said tougher sanctions should be imposed on Russia if it sends troops into Ukraine, according to a statement from Cameron’s office.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, called for “urgent measures for preventing an impending humanitarian catastrophe in south eastern regions” of Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Kerry “conveyed that Russia should not intervene in Ukraine under the guise of humanitarian convoys or any other pretext of ‘peacekeeping,’” a senior U.S. State Department official said.
Ukraine has made several statements about Russian aggression during months of conflict with separatists on its eastern border with Russia that it says are backed by Moscow, none of which have been independently verifiable.
Ukraine says it has been gradually tightening the noose around the rebels, who have now been pushed back into their redoubts of Donetsk and Luhansk on the border.
RUSSIA SLAMS CLAIMS
A senior aide to Poroshenko said a large Russian military convoy had been heading for the border on Friday under a supposed agreement with the Red Cross, but had stopped after an appeal by Kiev to Russia.
It was not immediately clear what convoy Poroshenko’s aide was referring to.
On Friday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had finished military exercises in southern Russia, near the Ukrainian border, which the United States had criticized as provocative.
“A huge military convoy accompanied by Russian soldiers and equipment was moving toward the Ukrainian border, allegedly by agreement with the Red Cross,” said Valery Chaly, deputy head of Poroshenko’s administration. No one at the Red Cross was immediately available to comment.
“A humanitarian column with ‘peacekeepers’ was to enter the territory of Ukraine, clearly to provoke a full-scale conflict,” he said, according to Ukraine’s presidential press service.
Chaly said Poroshenko held urgent talks with his security chiefs and world leaders, though he did not specify which ones.
Separately, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said he had called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov who had assured him the convoy would be stopped.
“As of now, the danger of provocation has been removed, but operational staff continue to work,” Chaly said.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, dismissed Chaly’s statement as untrue.
“Each time Kiev is more and more inventive in creating fairy tales,” she said, noting special protocols had to be completed before Russian troops could be sent abroad.
“The (Ukrainian) National Guard probably have to report about their achievements in the field, so they pretended they have some,” she said.
Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said by phone: “We don’t know what (the Ukrainians) are talking about because nothing like that happened.”
Ukraine and the West see a growing danger of a Russian invasion under the guise of a peacekeeping mission. Kiev says any such mission would be perceived as direct aggression.
The head of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, this week called on Russia to pull its troops back from the Ukrainian border and warned further intervention would mean greater isolation from the rest of the world.
A Ukrainian serviceman uses a pair of binoculars as he guards a checkpoint near Debaltseve, Donetsk region August 6, 2014. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
The head of the U.S.-led alliance said Russia had massed about 20,000 troops near Ukrainian border, very close to the regions where Ukrainian government forces are fighting pro-Russian rebels.
Ukrainian officials say that frequent Russian military exercises near the border complicated the situation. On Saturday a Ukrainian military spokesman said the move was not a “stage in de-escalation of the situation near the border”.
Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Russia of orchestrating the revolt and arming the rebels, who have declared independent “people’s republics” in the two main industrial regions. Moscow denies involvement.Scotland’s University of Edinburgh is partnering with blockchain startup IOHK on a new research lab dedicated to the technology.
Announced today, the research initiative will become part of the university’s School of Informatics, its chief educational hub for computer science and software engineering.
Aggelos Kiayias, |
the Russian Academy of Medical Science in Obninsk.
The physical form of the devices found in Georgia poses risks as well, says Gonzalez. Because they are metallic--and not chalk-like as was the cesium in the Brazilian case--the IAEA is concerned that similar devices will go undetected and eventually end up being mixed with scrap metal for recycling. If melted, they could create a radioactive cloud that might spread for miles.
That is exactly what happened in 1998 when above-normal radiation levels were detected in Switzerland. "Russia again," thought Gonzalez when he first heard the report. But the origin of that radioactive cloud turned out to be Cadiz, Spain.
"Nobody knows where that source came from exactly. It's very difficult to say and there are different opinions about its potency," says Nogueira.
What is known is that contamination from scrap melted by the Spanish company Acerinox crossed Spain, France, Italy, and Germany before being detected in Switzerland.
Since the accident in Chernobyl in 1986, most European countries have established permanent field radiation detectors to monitor the environment. After the Cadiz incident, the Spanish government demanded that every company dealing with scrap use special devices to monitor for radioactivity.
Meanwhile, more sources have been found in Georgia. Last June, a cobalt 60 source was found near the botanical gardens in Tbilisi and in July two more cesium 137 sources were found in the town of Rustavi.
Gonzalez calls the orphan sources discovered in Georgia one more "legacy of the Cold War."
We knew, he says, that nuclear test sites and bomb production facilities in Russia and the United States were contaminated. We also knew about the waste left behind by civilian power reactors. We did not, however, expect to find the former republics strewn with radioactive sources after the demise of the Soviet Union.In this age of the aspirational cocktail, when bar menus can read like manifestoes or museum catalogs, certain drink orders are guaranteed to ignite the spleen of the serious bartender. Among them: the mojito (a lot of labor, particularly if customers ask for seven, which they often do); the Cosmopolitan (“Sex and the City” ended a while back); the vodka Red Bull (take your bad decisions outside); and the Bloody Mary, if ordered at night (seriously?).
And then there is the dirty martini, a salty invention that crowns the martini, a flawless drink, with a slop of random olive brine. It is the poison of choice of many a customer but to some mixologists, just plain poison.
One New York bartender, Naren Young, decided to do something about it.
“It all started with the fact that I hate dirty martinis,” said Mr. Young, the beverage director for the Empellón Mexican restaurants. “I used that as a challenge. How can we turn this into something respectable?”
Simply ignoring the cocktail was not an option, since there is probably one being ordered in half the bars in Manhattan this very moment. That includes Saxon & Parole, the East Village restaurant and bar where Mr. Naren was in charge of the cocktail program until last August. “It’s such an important drink in the New York scene,” he said. “Not important, like the Manhattan is important. But they’re everywhere.”1 of 1 2 of 1
Minority governments are rare in B.C. There had been only two, and the last one was in 1952.
With a provincial election coming up on May 9 this year, former B.C. premier Bill Vander Zalm says the possibility of another minority government cannot be discounted.
“The surprise may be the Greens,” Vander Zalm told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview Thursday (April 27).
According to the former Social Credit premier, the B.C. Green Party of climate scientist Andrew Weaver could become “more a force than what people perhaps thought previously”.
With a chance that neither the governing B.C. Liberals nor the main opposition B.C. NDP will win a majority mandate, Vander Zalm was asked what he thinks about the prospect of Greens holding the balance of power in a minority government.
“We haven’t seen a minority for a time yet, but maybe this time. Who’s to say?” Vander Zalm responded. “And that’s not necessarily bad. No, that could be a good thing.”
Asked to elaborate, the ex-premier said: “I’m not saying it’s a good thing. I’m saying it could be a good thing. There’s nothing wrong with minority governments. They have their place. They work from time to time.”
According to Vander Zalm, minority governments “very often may be restricted from doing a lot of things that perhaps a majority government could do”.
“That’s true. And of course for me, that’s not bad,” Vander Zalm went on. “I think the less government does, the better it may be.”
Standing in the middle of B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark and B.C. NDP leader John Horgan at the leaders’ debate Wednesday (April 26), Weaver made a pitch for voters to give his Green party a chance to hold the balance of power in the next legislative assembly.
Referring to the Liberals on his right and New Democrats on the left, Weaver said: “Neither of these parties can be trusted with majority government.”Crowdfunding has provided those aspiring to bring their dreams to life with new possibility. Here’s a list of some great Kickstarters that defied the odds and created a legacy for themselves:
Image : shutterstock
Shenmue
With over $6 million on a franchise game that had its roots in the American 80s, Shenmue has stumped marketers from across the world. It was the fastest funded video game in history, at that time, and had a large amount of support from endearing fans that wanted to revive the franchise after it became popular again on YouTube. It raised $2 million within eight hours, and was looking forward to raising more funds in the next 30 days. It plays on pure storytelling, which is the essence of the game. With low-end graphics and poor game mechanics, Shenmue still managed to capture the hearts of a whole generation of Japanese and American youth who wanted to become Shenmue in his journey to avenge his father. A total of 70,000 people pledged to bring this game alive. At an average of $100 per person, this certainly demonstrates that people didn’t just “pre-buy” a game, they actually invested in the creator and his vision of the game itself.
Kingdom Death
The fourth most funded Kickstarter in the history of the website’s existence. It’s a rule breaker in the sense that, in this day and age, a board game is actually beating many online and digital games as a winner. Kingdom Death is a board game that derives its gameplay from Dungeons and Dragons, and is also focused heavily on artwork and storytelling. But in the essence of it all, it is an engaging experience that you can share with your friends, demonstrated by the fact that it was funded to the tune of $1 million in 19 minutes. Super hype creation and super sales in less than 20 minutes flat. Twenty thousand people have pledge a total of $12 million. This means that the early adopters hustled into the space quickly, ramping up the demand, leaving late laggards to buy into the concept after the hype was generated.
Here’s a video showing real life gameplay –
3, Pono Music
Pono raised around $6 million for its iPod alternative for real lovers of music. The creator Neil Young (an accomplished musician himself) knew that nobody would trust another company trying to stuff another MP3 player down people’s throats. So he used up all his contacts and got testimonials from some of the biggest names in the music industry, across genres. People heard the sound quality and said, “That’s the best sound I’ve ever heard in my life.” Some solid words that helped Pono break the rules of marketing and get pre-funded and deliver on a brilliant marketing campaign that had no budget but 100 percent heart and ingenuity.
Fidget Cube
Six million for a toy for adults. It’s a fidgeting play-thing that has an absurdist humour driven campaign video that makes you feel empowered for fidgeting. The product description is straight out of Steve Job’s playbook, and it has over five million overall views online, with influencers, tech enthusiasts, and regular students fumbling around with it. Definitely the opposite of what everyone thinks when they think of toys that help calm anxiety. Fidget Cube earned a lot of prospects through its media mentions, and also took over the idea of empowering people through their bad habits instead of controlling them over and over again.
Wish I was Here
A movie by Zach Braff (from Scrubs) without any studio budgets or production financing. Braff chose Kickstarter, and within a few days, raised over $3 million from people that bought into his vision and passion for movies. The story was pitched to a large group of people (virtually) and instead of taking the risk or paying $3 million, everyone paid $20 out of the goodness of their heart. This is why Zach Braff’s venture landed itself on our list of rule-breaking marketing. He was brutally honest about what “the money folks” say and how they hamper creative vision. Bold move and definitely a rule breaker.Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky -- potentially the majority leader if the GOP wins control of the Senate -- tells CBS News that Republicans are ready to work with President Obama if he's ready to "move to the middle" and work with them.
"The main goal is to see whether we can make progress for the country," McConnell told CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes about his priorities for the next two years. "But obviously the president is the only person who can sign something into law. So whether we can make much progress the next few years depends on him. I'd like to see him move to the middle."
Should Republicans win control of the Senate, they will likely have only a one- or two-seat majority. Consequently, the party will have to decide whether it will work with Democrats to move forward with a modest agenda, or whether it will heed to its tea party faction and refuse to compromise on issues like tax reform. The direction the party takes could have implications for the 2016 elections -- both the presidential and the Senate elections that year.
McConnell told Cordes that Republicans want to address issues like comprehensive tax reform and trade agreements.
"Reagan and Tip O'Neill found things that they could agree on. Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich found things that they could agree on. My first choice is to make some progress for the country," he said. "And the only way to do that with the president in the office is with his involvement. So that's my first choice."
At the same time, McConnell acknowledged that there are "plenty of things we disagree on" and that the GOP is ready to send Mr. Obama a bill or two that "makes him uncomfortable."
"That's an experience he hasn't had!" the GOP leader remarked, noting Mr. Obama has vetoed just two minor bills in six years. Just about every conservative piece of legislation passed by the Republican-led House has died in the Democratic-led Senate, before reaching Mr. Obama's desk.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with sending the president a bill that makes him uncomfortable. He doesn't own the place! Congress is a factor, too," McConnell said. "You know we are elected by our constituents all across America. We need to have an impact on policy as well."
WH spokesman: GOP not committed to helping middle class
In response to McConnell's assertion that Mr. Obama should "move to the middle," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told CBS News, "For the last six years, the president spent his entire time fighting for the middle class. We have not seen that same kind of commitment from Republicans in Congress."
Mr. Obama's goals like ensuring equal pay for women in the workplace and making college more affordable have stalled because of Republican obstruction, he said.
"If Republicans want to move away from an agenda that only benefits special interests... then yeah, I do think we can make some progress," Earnest said, asserting that the president's proposals "aren't Democratic or Republican."
As for the specific issue of tax reform, Earnest said that Mr. Obama is interested in using some of the revenue saved by reforming taxes to invest in policies that will create jobs. Republicans so far, he said, have only expressed interest in reforming the tax code to "cut taxes further for big businesses."
Earnest said that Mr. Obama has consistently conveyed his "willingness to work with anybody," though he expressed skepticism that McConnell actually wants to work with the president.
"Actions peak a whole lot louder than words five days out from an election," he said.
McConnell, who has long criticized the way Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, runs the Senate, told Cordes that it's "embarrassing" how little Congress has gotten done in recent years.
Asked about the split between the tea partiers in Congress and the rest of the GOP, McConnell said it should be easy enough to reconcile those two sides.
"There's much that's been done that needs to be undone," he said. "And much that's been done that needs to be changed. And that will require legislation."
If he is elected Senate leader, McConnell said that he and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, would immediately hold a discussion with the Republican caucus to hash out their agenda.
"I think announcing the agenda before the election is over is somewhat akin to measuring the drapes, and the American people have not yet made the decision to entrust us with a majority in the Senate," he said. "I hope they make that decision, and if they do we'll unveil it shortly thereafter."
Still, McConnell noted that some obvious priorities for his parties include a vote on the Keystone XL pipeline and a vote to repeal the unpopular medical device tax that was included in Obamacare. He and his members, McConnell said, "have been talking about things we think could enjoy bipartisan support in the Senate -- none of which have been allowed to be voted on by the current Senate."
McConnell reiterated ways he'd run the Senate differently than Reid, noting that he would allow for debate over amendments to bills on the Senate floor and would include more Friday workdays on the Senate schedule.ANAHEIM, Calif. – Very little of what UFC President Dana White says on the topic of hirings and firings goes unnoticed by his fighters, particularly those further down on the fight cards.
If the boss says he plans to cut 100 fighters in the coming weeks and months, and if he’s using the next few events to figure out who stays and who goes, you can bet his employees will be fighting like their jobs depend on it. The question is, what does that mean, exactly? The answer may not be as simple as White makes it out to be, and a lot may depend on the fighter and the situation.
For instance, take Nah-Shon Burrell, the Strikeforce import who opened the show at Saturday’s UFC 157 event in a welterweight bout against Yuri Villefort. Burrell came in with one strike against him, having missed weight by nearly five pounds on Friday afternoon. Knowing how the UFC tends to frown on overweight fighters – especially when they’re newcomers on the prelims – Burrell knew he had to do something to get himself back in his employer’s good graces.
“That was a given,” Burrell told MMAjunkie.com (wwww.mmajunkie.com) following his decision victory. “After missing weight like that, you’ve got to come in and perform. … My thing was, go in there and do my job like I know I can, and I’ll stick around.”
Fortunately for Burrell, he did. His back-and-forth battle with Villefort got the crowd’s attention early and held it throughout all three rounds, with Burrell eventually getting the nod from the judges over the bloody and battered Brazilian. The performance probably saved Burrell’s job, but it wasn’t without risk. There were times in the fight in which he seemed so busy trying to make something interesting happen that he gave up easy takedowns he might otherwise have been able to stop. Had Villefort been of a mind to hold him there rather than working for one submission attempt after another, the outcome might have been very different.
That strategy usually isn’t popular with the fans or the UFC brass, but it is dependable. At times, maybe it’s even necessary. Just take a look at Brendan Schaub. He came into his fight with Lavar Johnson riding a two-fight losing streak. If he didn’t consider himself one loss from the unemployment line, he probably should have. So is it any wonder that the increasingly knockout-prone Schaub approached his fight with the hard-hitting Johnson like it was a potential disaster to be survived? After three rounds of takedowns and cautious top control, he got his hand raised to a chorus of boos, but at least he stopped the losing skid. He might not have won many fans, but at least he still has a job.
This is the double-edged sword of the pressure to perform in the UFC. Exciting fights keep you employed, but if you’re too eager to put on a show, you risk making yourself easy prey for an opponent who’s willing to win at any costs. You could see it in Johnson, who ended up flinging leather at Schaub with increasing desperation, and in the process only making it easier for Schaub to plant him on his back and smother him in sweat. If your opponent is more willing than you are to bring on the boos in exchange for a safe victory, it puts him at a certain advantage.
It’s hard to have an exciting fight all by yourself. Dennis Bermudez and Matt Grice earned “Fight of the Night” honors on the prelims, but they did it as a joint effort. That’s the kind of back-and-forth brawl in which, according to the UFC president, “there’s no loser.” Grice dropped Bermudez. Bermudez pummeled Grice. Both seemed about as concerned with safety as they were with keeping the blood on the inside of their bodies, which is to say not at all.
“When you turn on your TV set or you put down your money and you buy a ticket, that’s what you expect to show up and see,” White said at the post-fight press conference. “As a fight fan, those are the kind of fights you want to watch. And those are the kind of fights, guys won’t get cut. It’s pretty easy, pretty simple.”
Maybe it seems that way from the outside. But for fighters trying to balance the need to win with the mandate to entertain, there’s a more complex calculus at work. Some fighters are desperate for an exciting fight that will put some bonus money in their pockets. Others just want to remain conscious and not lose. Sometimes you can’t afford to go out and get in a brawl. Other times you can’t afford not to. You have to know not only where you are, but also what the man across from you is thinking.
Just go out and put on an exciting fight, people say. As if it’s that easy. As if that’s not what everyone would like to do. The trouble is, no one wants to lose. Not if it means taking home half as much money and adding another L to the ledger.
As Grice put it after Bermudez took the decision in their bonus-worthy fight, “I’m stoked to get the ‘Fight of the Night,’ but I’d give it back for the [win] any day.”
The cuts are coming. That much seems guaranteed. White told reporters on Saturday night that when he’d warned of a UFC roster that was 100 fighters over capacity, “that’s an absolute fact. Joe Silva and I were talking about this tonight. There’s going to be a night where we put on a card, and there’s going to be 15 guys we cut. And then there’s going to be a night where we don’t cut any of the losers.”
It’s just that, for fighters trying to weigh their own risks and rewards, it’s tough to know in advance which kind of night it’s going to be.
For more on UFC 157, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.
(Pictured: Lavar Johnson and Brendan Schaub)Immigration and Customs Enforcement seeks facilities within 180 miles of Detroit
For the Detroit market, ICE wants a 200- to 600-bed facility.
ICE's request for information from interested bidders is due Oct. 26.
President Donald Trump's administration is seeking information about potential facilities within 180 miles of Detroit that could be used as one of four new detention centers for immigrants suspected of being the U.S. illegally.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency recently issued a request for information seeking a 200- to 600-bed facility in the Detroit region in close proximity to foreign consulates, hospitals and an airport.
In addition to a new Detroit area location, ICE also is seeking information about potential facilities within 180 miles of Chicago; St. Paul, Minn.; and Salt Lake City that could be used for short- and long-term detention of immigrants suspected of being the U.S. illegally — suggesting the agency is making plans to handle an influx of people who have been detained since Trump became president.
The request for information said the immigrant detention center would have to be within 180 miles of ICE's Detroit field office at 333 Mount Elliott in Rivertown, while being within a 90-minute commute to an airport and a 30-minute drive from an acute care hospital.
ICE set an Oct. 26 deadline for responses from entities, including detail on how they can contain management costs.
The Michigan Department of Corrections' shuttered Standish Maximum Correctional Facility in Arenac County would fall within the 180 mile radius. The 164-bed prison was closed in 2009 and has been rented for movie production after the federal government abandoned a plan to house terror suspects from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.
"We have not been involved in any discussions with ICE about any of our vacant facilities," said Chris Gautz, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections.
In a recent public notice, the federal agency that enforces immigration laws said it seeking responses from prison operators "solely for information and planning purposes."
Michigan has one privately-owned prison in Baldwin on the edge of the Huron-Manistee National Forests that's about 220 miles from Detroit and 260 miles from Chicago. The Geo Group Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla.-based private prison operator, closed the North Lake Correctional Facility in June after losing a contract to house 370 prisoners from Vermont in a deal that lasted about two years. The corrections company laid off all 107 employees at the prison, according to a layoff notice.
Pablo E. Paez, vice president of corporate relations for Geo Group, declined to comment Tuesday on whether the company plans to submit information to ICE about its 1,700-bed prison in Baldwin.
"We still own the facility and are undertaking efforts to reactivate it," Paez said in an email to Crain's.
ICE, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has not issued a formal request for proposals to bid on the operation of new immigration detention centers. But the information could be used to solicit bids from state or county governments with excess jail space or private prison operators.
USA Today reported Tuesday that ICE agents arrested 97,482 people suspected of entering the country illegally between Jan. 22 — two days after Trump took office — and Sept. 9, a 43 percent increase compared to the same period in 2016.
Between the four cities, ICE's public notice indicated it may need between 1,000 and 3,000 new beds for detaining undocumented immigrants.
Trump's 2018 fiscal year budget request to Congress included a $1.24 billion increase to support housing up to 48,000 immigrants suspected of being the U.S. illegally daily in federal, state, local and private detention facilities.
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, told USA Today that Detroit and the other three cities may have been chosen because they're considered "sanctuary cities" where local police don't act as federal immigration agents.
Mayor Mike Duggan has said the Detroit Police Department cooperates with ICE on investigating crimes committed byiImmigrants suspected of being the U.S. illegally, but it's not the local agency's role to enforce federal immigration detention laws.
"If the definition of a sanctuary city is one in which people are not profiled because of their appearance, Detroit is a sanctuary city," Duggan Chief of Staff Alexis Wiley said Tuesday in a statement. "If the definition of a sanctuary city is one in which local law enforcement refuses to cooperate with federal customs and immigration officials, Detroit is not a sanctuary city.""We were supposed to go into Iraq, hold elections, turn over the keys, and get out," says photographer Michael Kamber, editor of the new book, Photojournalists on War: The Untold Stories from Iraq (University of Texas Press). "That's not how it works, and we need to think about that next time we get involved in a military adventure."
Lots of marvelous things were supposed to happen in Iraq. Shock and awe would quickly cripple the resistance. Iraqi citizens would welcome American troops as liberators. Weapons of mass destruction would be found. It would all be over by 2003. Mission accomplished.
The 39 photographers featured in Photojournalists on War have a different story to tell. In one shot, the burned bodies of slaughtered American contractors hang from a bridge over the Euphrates. In an image that conveys how violence became integrated into the daily lives of Iraqi children, a boy hopscotches over corpses exhumed from a mass gravesite. Some of the book's 160 photographs have been widely distributed already, their impact indelibly marked in the American mind. Others are being published for the first time.
"The first rule of war is chaos," Kamber told Reason TV. "The first rule of war is you make a plan, and it goes right out the window."
A harrowing work of anti-mythology, the images in Photojournalists on War look nothing like the understated, bloodless snapshots provided by daily newspapers. As the war deteriorated, American and British forces started requiring prior written consent from the military to capture images of wounded soldiers, and they placed an outright ban on photographing dead soldiers. These rules, which were strictly enforced, furthered the hawkish narrative of a remote conflict punctuated by "surgical strikes" and the inevitable march to victory.
It is almost impossible to read Kamber's new book without reflecting on how many of its images were captured by photographers who were later killed, severely injured, or taken captive during the conflict. Kamber, who photographed the war over an eight-year period, is one of the survivors.
While Photojournalists on War mostly features the work of establishment professionals working for major publications, enterprising and unaffiliated individuals have captured some of the most powerful images of America's armed conflicts. In 2006, photojournalist Louie Palu quit his job and traveled to Afghanistan at his own risk and on his own dime. He had never covered a war before. Working without an editor's support and the constraints that come with it, he was able to take pictures with total artistic freedom.
Palu's gamble paid off. His images are unconventionally stunning. It's no surprise that his portrait series of Marines and panoramic black-and-white landscapes reveal an Afghan war that looks very different from anything in the mainstream press. His photographs reveal a physical texture to the war-scorched land, weathered human skin, mud brick huts, soft grapes.
Both Palu and Kamber say that broken promises, neglect, and official censorship have led to a public that remains poorly informed about war's devastating effects on civilians. "There are these important moments when the dialogue needs to be had," says Palu. "Where it's such an integral part of our understanding of what's gone wrong, we need to publish these photos."
It's often said that the truth is always the first casualty of war. The images of Kamber and Palu help correct the record.
Todd Krainin is a producer at Reason TV. To see a video version of this story, go to reason.com or view it above.After years of waffling, Canada is finally moving forward on climate action, including the thorny issue of putting a price on carbon. Last December, Canada helped usher in the Paris Agreement, a new international framework to reduce the carbon pollution that is warming the planet. On the domestic front, federal and provincial first ministers agreed to the Vancouver Declaration on Clean Growth and Climate Change in March. Since then, discussions have proceeded in four working groups, with a target of finalizing a pan-Canadian climate action plan this fall.
What is not clear is how committed Canada really is when it comes to climate action. This past week has shown a federal government that is pulling in different directions: moving to ratify the Paris Agreement and pushing the provinces on carbon pricing; while committing to massive new fossil fuel infrastructure for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
The federal government’s carbon pricing benchmark would establish a floor price of $10 per tonne of CO2 (2.3 cents per litre at the pump) in parts of the country that do not already have a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system in place. That price floor would rise to $50 per tonne (11.5 cents per litre) by 2022, and by that point would be pulling up all provinces at the same time (BC’s tax is already $30 per tonne, for example). After that, it’s not clear whether the price floor would continue to rise.
Simon Fraser University’s Mark Jaccard highlights the political barriers facing carbon pricing, suggesting that regulatory approaches may be politically easier to implement. He and his team find that carbon prices would have hit $200 per tonne by 2030 for Canada to meet its GHG targets. They also modeled an alternative way of meeting the targets, via a modest carbon tax of only $40 by 2030, with most of the heavy lifting done through “flexible regulations,” such as minimum renewable energy standards in electricity generation or zero-emission vehicle targets for car manufacturers.
Carbon pricing is a policy that conservatives love to hate, and the immediate reaction included calling the carbon price a “sledgehammer.” However, the proposed national carbon price floor is quite modest. In fact, Canada has been pricing carbon for a long time – through federal and provincial fuel taxes – and at rates far greater than the proposed 2.3 cents per litre in 2018. A carbon tax is only different in that it would cover combustion of fossil fuels from other sources, like burning coal, natural gas or heating oil.
The federal gas tax is 10 cents per litre, so maybe we are making this harder than it needs to be: the feds could have just announced an increase in fuel tax in the 2017 budget. Federal gas tax revenues are mostly transferred back to municipalities and provinces in support of infrastructure. All provinces already have their own fuel taxes, ranging from 13 to 19 cents per litre ($55 to 82 per tonne of CO2 – see table at the bottom from the federal provincial working group on carbon pricing mechanisms). Additional regional taxes on fuel tax go up to 25.50 cents per litre in Metro Vancouver. Even in Saskatchewan, where Premier Brad Wall stated the carbon tax would kill the economy and hurt families, the provincial fuel tax is 15 cents per litre.
What you do with carbon tax revenues matters, too. As proposed, all carbon tax revenues would flow back to the source province, so Saskatchewan could use those proceeds to invest in renewables and infrastructure, provide a credit to households or compensate industry. This allows provinces to address equity issues that arise from the carbon price alone, and/or make investments that reinforce climate action and create green jobs.
In terms of magnitude, recent history is also worth revisiting. Oil prices crashed in the second half of 2014 and have remained low since. As a thought exercise, consider a carbon tax that would increase prices back to where they were in early 2014. That carbon price would be $140-150 per tonne (on top of existing fuel taxes). Canadians have experienced much higher prices at the pump than would arise from the new carbon price floor. It’s also worth noting that the price of gas is way higher around the world: European countries typically have gas prices 50-90% higher than in Canada.
While the federal move on carbon pricing should be viewed as a step in the right direction, albeit a modest one, the fly in this climate ointment is the approval of new fossil fuel infrastructure. Only days earlier, the feds approved the environmental assessment of the Pacific NorthWest LNG plant on the north coast of British Columbia. The project would create the single largest point-source emitter in BC, and would prevent the province from meeting its legislated greenhouse gas reduction targets. The total lifecycle emissions – from fracking in the northeast to pipelining it to the coast, energy-intensive liquefaction, shipping and final combustion overseas – add up to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 over 30 years.
This is a carbon bomb, although the vast majority of emissions from the project – carbon pollution from combusting that gas in the importing country – won’t be subject to a national carbon price. The feds will also soon make a decision on Kinder-Morgan’s proposed TransMountain pipeline expansion, which would transport Alberta bitumen to Vancouver, and would be in similar territory in terms of lifecycle GHG emissions. There is still time for the federal cabinet to reject the pipeline, but it would take real leadership to say no to Alberta.
It may be that the surprise announcement of a national floor on carbon pricing was aimed at changing the channel after a federal LNG decision that was widely criticized by environmental groups and first nations. Mission accomplished: PM Trudeau stood in the House of Commons to announce the national carbon price, and blindsided environment ministers who were meeting that very day to talk about the pan-Canadian climate strategy. Three of them to walked out in anger.
It’s good news that Canada is starting to listen to climate science, but we are still left with a problem around the climate math. To fulfill the Paris Agreement we need to start reducing emissions immediately, and that means we don’t have the luxury of opening up new fossil fuel infrastructure intended to last for many decades into the future. To have a climate action plan that meets our targets we have to get over our cognitive dissonance about new fossil fuel development, and invest heavily in the green infrastructure of the future.
Marc Lee is a Senior Economist with CCPA-BC. Follow Marc on Twitter @MarcLeeCCPA.
Save
SaveThe former PM has faced criticism for 'cronyism', after awarding honours to Tory donors and former staff
David Cameron could be called before a committee to answer questions on his controversial resignation honours list.
The former prime minister has faced criticism for his honours list, being accused of cronyism for awarding gongs to ex-Downing Street staff and donors to the Conservative Party.
Bernard Jenkin, the chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, has called for members to investigate the list and the nomination of 13 new peers when Parliament is recalled in September.
:: Cameron Honours List Branded A 'Sorry Legacy'
A group of MPs from across all parties would be able to call Mr Cameron as a witness and question him as part of an inquiry.
Cameron's Resignation Honours List Revealed
Mr Jenkin, MP for Harwich and North Essex, said: "We have already discussed the principle of holding an inquiry into the House of Lords. This should include the size and composition of the House of Lords, but also the way in which new peers are appointed.
"I think reform of the House of Lords is by far the most important issue arising from this month's controversy.
"I hope the new Government will consider this and our previous report seriously, and I hope the committee will agree terms of reference and to launch our inquiry as soon as the House returns in September."
::Who's Who In Cameron's Resignation List
Following the row surrounding Mr Cameron's list of honours, Labour offered to work with the Government to rush through legislation that could stop prime ministers giving out honours when leaving office.
As part of his resignation honours Mr Cameron created 13 Tory life peers, and awarded knighthoods to Cabinet ministers Michael Fallon and Patrick McLoughlin, former ministers Oliver Letwin and Hugo Swire and former chancellor George Osborne was awarded Companion of Honour.
Image: Isabel Spearman (R) with Samantha Cameron
More controversially, Samantha Cameron's aide Isabel Spearman received an OBE for political and public service, as did Mr Osborne's chief of staff Thea Rogers and her deputy Eleanor Wolfson. The ex-chancellor's constituency manager Jane Robertson also received an an MBE for political service.Photos: First ever Philistine cemetery discovered First ever Philistine cemetery discovered – Archaeologists have unearthed the first Philistine cemetery ever found, at Ashkelon in southern Israel. Hide Caption 1 of 6
Photos: First ever Philistine cemetery discovered First ever Philistine cemetery discovered – The burial ground offers clues to the ancient civilization that was home to Goliath, one of the Bible's most famous villains. Hide Caption 2 of 6
Photos: First ever Philistine cemetery discovered First ever Philistine cemetery discovered – "This cemetery is going to teach us a whole lot about the Philistines that we've never known before," said Daniel Master, professor of archaeology at Wheaton College. Hide Caption 3 of 6
Photos: First ever Philistine cemetery discovered First ever Philistine cemetery discovered – Some of the skeletons found at the site were buried with jugs, storage jars and bowls. Others wore jewelry or had weapons in their grave. Hide Caption 4 of 6
Photos: First ever Philistine cemetery discovered First ever Philistine cemetery discovered – The cemetery also had evidence of cremations, pit internments, and multi-chambered tombs. Hide Caption 5 of 6Dems Push Ahead With DREAM Act
No matter how you look at it, if you are in this country without the proper documentation, nor can’t prove your citizenship, you have broken the law. And that doesn’t matter who or how you came to this country. The longer you remain, knowing this, you don’t deserve special treatment. By granting amnesty to them throught the DREAM Act, is a slap in the face to the law abiding citizens born here, and those who immigrated through the proper channels. But as usual, there’s a plan to push it through, in typical political fashion, led once again by Democrats. You see, they need those hispanic votes. Politics has become so corrupt, that the parties will lie, cheat, steal, and even abet those breaking the law, to retain power.
In fact, Democratic Sen Durbin, plans to make a full-court press Tuesday to revive the debate over a controversial proposal to give illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children a |
osef will replace Amar, who did his best, but failed, to finagle a new law that would have allowed him to stay on beyond his term’s 10-year limit.
Yosef’s challenger, Eliyahu, had his candidacy okayed Monday by the Supreme Court following a challenge by Meretz MK Isawi Frej, who submitted a petition claiming the rabbi had incited violence against Arabs and made racist comments in the past. The court said there was not enough time to consider the allegations.
Yosef won with 68 votes, Eliyahu got 49 votes and Boaron got 28.
On the Ashkenazi side, Lau garnered 68 votes, while Stav got 54 and Rabbi Yaakov Shapira 25.
Shapira was the dark horse to fill the Ashkenazi seat unceremoniously vacated by former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, who stepped down last month in the wake of a massive fraud investigation.
Metzger, who has been accused of pocketing unspecified amounts of donor cash earmarked for NGOs, denies the allegations but nevertheless chose to take his exit early.
A fourth candidate, Rabbi Eliezer Igra, bowed out of the race after realizing his chances of winning were too slim.
Stav is the co-founder and chairman of Tzohar, an organization committed to helping couples maneuver the ultra-Orthodox rabbinate’s complicated maze of requirements on the path to religious marriage. He serves as the spiritual leader of Ma’aleh, a Jerusalem film school with a religious bent, and his contemporary, moderate take on Jewish life has led to a vicious backlash from more conservative sectors of society. A group of youths attacked him at a wedding in June, and that same month Shas spiritual leader Yosef labeled him “wicked” and “dangerous to Judaism.”
While Stav had been embraced by many Israelis weary of the ultra-Orthodox’s strict, iron-clad grip on Judaism, Lau said that his opponent’s platform of change was not something that should be supported.You must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters
Yesterday, the North American Soccer League (NASL) announced it has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation. The chain of events spawning this immediate legal action began on September 3 when the USSF Board of Directors voted to deny the NASL’s request for second-division professional league sanctioning in 2018. Last January, the USSF granted provisional second-division sanctioning to the NASL for the 2017 season.
North Carolina FC is a member of the NASL. The club declined official comment when contacted. However, sources close to NCFC tell WRALSportsFan that the club does not support the NASL's lawsuit.
In a statement, the NASL said that, “the USSF has violated federal antitrust laws through its anticompetitive 'Division' structure that divides men’s professional soccer for U.S.-based leagues based on arbitrary criteria that the USSF has manipulated to favor Major League Soccer (MLS), which is the commercial business partner of the USSF.” The league also alleges that “the USSF has selectively applied and waived its divisional criteria to suppress competition from the NASL, both against MLS and against United Soccer League (USL).”
U.S. Soccer has codified standards for men's and women's professional leagues at the first, second, and third division levels. Although the USSF has not spoken publicly regarding their denial of the NASL’s second-division sanctioning for next year, the NASL currently fails to meet at least two second-division requirements: a minimum of 12 teams in the league, and fielding teams in the Eastern, Central and Pacific time zones (the NASL does not presently have a club based in the Central time zone). According to the NASL’s complaint, the USSF denied the league’s request for waivers from these two requirements for 2018.
The NASL was the lone second-division U.S. men’s pro league from 2011-2016, after a group of USL team owners—including the then-owners of the Carolina RailHawks—split off to form the new NASL. Over that same time span, the USL remained the lone third-division men’s pro league. This year, the USSF granted provisional second-division sanctioning to both the NASL and USL.
While the USSF has denied the NASL second-division sanctioning for next year, it has yet to finally act on the USL’s second-division application for 2018. According to multiple sources, as well as the NASL’s lawsuit, the USSF board will consider and act upon USL’s application in early October.
The NASL’s 71-page antitrust lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, seeks injunctive relief permitting the league to retain its second-division status pending the resolution of this action. Moreover, the complaint seeks a permanent injunction enjoining the USSF from promulgating or implementing professional league standards, declaring such actions a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Among its myriad of factual allegations, the NASL claims that the USSF has selectively adopted, amended, and implemented its professional league standards for the purpose of, in part, suppressing the NASL’s application for first-division sanctioning in 2015, and then denying the league full second-division sanctioning in 2017 and 2018. Meanwhile, the complaint alleges that the USSF has overlooked or granted waivers from various divisional guidelines to MLS and the USL in an effort to preserve MLS’ longstanding first-division status and, more recently, position the USL as the lone second-division professional soccer league.
United States professional soccer does not incorporate a system of club promotion and relegation between divisions, as is the case in most national soccer federations worldwide. The NASL complaint alleges that the divisional construct erected and administered by U.S. Soccer acts as an unlawful restraint on trade and competition.
This lawsuit by the NASL appears to place Malik in an peculiar position. Malik, as owner of the North Carolina FC, is a member of the NASL, LLC, the named plaintiff in this action. However, Malik is a member of the U.S. Soccer Board of Directors and owns the North Carolina Courage, a team in the National Women’s Soccer League, a league administered and largely funded by the USSF. Malik also has a pending application to bring a MLS expansion team in the Raleigh area. MLS is expected to announce their initial two expansion selections in early December, although those teams likely won’t begin play in MLS until 2020.
Moreover, after the USSF denied the NASL’s second-division sanctioning application earlier this month, North Carolina FC released a statement reinforcing not only its MLS bid, but also its aim of “playing at the highest level possible in 2018 and beyond,” language many observers interpreted as Malik’s desire to remain part of a second-division league next year, even if that means leaving the NASL to join the USL.The research is young and the tech has only been used experimentally on three patients, but neurologists at Stanford say they are officially able to eavesdrop on the human brain in real-life (not just clinical) situations. What's more, they say their new method of recording brain activity opens the door to devices that can not only read but also manipulate the mind.
Stanford University
"This is exciting, and a little scary," Henry Greely, steering committee chair of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics who observed but did not work on the study, said in a school news release. "It demonstrates, first, that we can see when someone's dealing with numbers and, second, that we may conceivably someday be able to manipulate the brain to affect how someone deals with numbers."
The researchers call their novel method intracranial recording, and they tested it on three patients who experience recurring, drug-resistant epileptic seizures and were being evaluated for possible surgical treatment. Unfortunately, the method requires temporarily removing a chunk of a patient's skull to position packets of electrodes against the exposed surface of the brain to measure the brain's electrical activity. They did this for as long as a week, capturing the patients' seizures to learn the exact spot where the seizures were originating.
The researchers were particularly interested in a region of the brain called the intraparietal sulcus, which is currently understood as playing a role in attention and eye and hand motion. Because previous studies have suggested that some nerve-cell clusters in this region are also involved in numerosity (i.e. math literacy) the researchers asked the patients to perform mathematical calculations and monitored the region when the patients were both performing those calculations and when they were engaging in quantitative thought in the course of daily life (concepts such as something being "more than" something else).
The volunteers were asked some questions that required calculation (i.e. is it true or false that 2+4=5?) and other questions that required episodic memory (i.e. is it true or false that you had coffee this morning?). They were also asked to stare at the center of a blank screen to capture the brain's baseline resting state.
Their novel brain-monitoring technique did involve volunteers being tethered to a monitoring apparatus and mostly confined to their beds, but had benefits over the other standard monitoring approach called fMRI -- where patients are stuck in a dark and intermittently noisy tubular chamber. In the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday, the researchers unveiled the first solid evidence that the pattern of brain activity is very similar when someone is performing a mathematical calculation and when they are engaging in more general quantitative thought.
"We're now able to eavesdrop on the brain in real life," Josef Parvizi, senior author of the study and associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences, said in the release. With fMRI, he added, "You're not in your room, having a cup of tea and experiencing life's events spontaneously." What they wanted to know, he said, is "how does a population of nerve cells that has been shown experimentally to be important in a particular function work in real life?"
While the findings may not seem like a giant step, it allowed the researchers to observe that electrical activity in a specific bundle of nerve cells spikes when a patient is engaged in a range of quantitative exercises, from actual math work to using terms such as "many" and "bigger than the other one" -- what Parvizi describes as both direct calculating and more oblique references to quantities.
"These nerve cells are not firing chaotically," he said. "They're very specialized, active only when the subject starts thinking about numbers. When the subject is reminiscing, laughing or talking, they're not activated." So by listening in on the brain's electrical chatter, the scientists were able to know whether a patient was engaged in quantitative thought.
While the researchers say these findings could ultimately lead to mind-reading applications -- be they of the therapeutic variety, such as helping a stroke victim communicate through passive thought, or of a more dystopian bent, such as chip implants that control one's thoughts -- they acknowledge that the research is incredibly young.
"If this is a baseball game, we're not even in the first inning," Parvizi said. "We just got a ticket to enter the stadium."Joe Hart: On the bench for City's past four games
Hart was dropped for Costel Pantilimon after a defeat at Chelsea last month and has sat out City's past four games.
The goalkeeper started for England against Germany in midweek and kept the score down to 1-0 with several eye-catching saves.
Pellegrini was impressed but, pressed for answers ahead of Sunday's Sky live game against Spurs at the Etihad Stadium, suggested that Hart would remain among the City substitutes.
He said: "I can't continue to always answer about Hart and Pantilimon.
"Both are very good goalkeepers. Now we are playing Pantilimon, so Hart must wait.
"We'll see what happens in the future. With all the players in the squad - not only the keepers - I have to choose the final starting 11 each week.
"We'll see - it depends on the performance of him and the performance of Pantilimon also."
Continuing to discuss Hart, he added: "It was very important for him to play with England. It was an important game for England against Germany, it is a good test. I think he did very well."
Pellegrini was asked to explain his suggestion earlier this week Hart would benefit from a run out of the side.
He said: "He played the last two and a half years all the games in the Premier League. All the players are human and can have a bad moment."
The Chilean also stressed that he has confidence in Pantilimon, adding: "If I was worried about him, he would not be here. We'd have changed him at the beginning of the year.
"He remains here because he is a good keeper as well."
City go into the weekend with an injury list still including David Silva and captain Vincent Kompany, who has lost his fight to be fit for the Spurs game.
"Vincent is still working," continued Pellegrini, "recovering from his last injury. Maybe the next week he will work with the whole team."
Given the amount of time Kompany has spent out with muscle problems in the past two years, Pellegrini was repeatedly asked whether the matter was a serious concern.
"Of course," he said. "He is a very important player for the team but when we started the season we had a squad which would help us if this happened.
"We have other centre-backs who are playing at the moment but Vincent is always an important player.
"We are doing all the things we need to understand why he has so many injuries. I'm not a doctor. I talk with him but I can't tell you the opinion."
Watch Manchester City v Tottenham on Sky Sports 1 this Sunday. Coverage begins at 12.30pm.Today I am posting over at Wanda Ann’s blog, Memories By The Mile. You will find me there the 2nd Thursday of every month!
Just a note: This recipe originally appeared as a guest post on Memories by the Mile. I have now posted the recipe here as well for archiving purposes. The recipe is below my original teaser post. Check out Wanda Ann’s site too, she has a ton of great recipes! Enjoy!
Speaking of hot, today I am sharing with you a recipe for Spicy Veggie Quinoa Curry. It is not super-hot, like an August afternoon in southern New Jersey, but it does have a nice little kick to it! Of course, you can dial the spiciness up or down depending on your family’s preferences.
I try to keep it fairly mild for my family, especially for my younger son who seems to be allergic to flavor. Hopefully someday he will outgrow that, but in the meantime I try to not go too crazy with the spices!
Quinoa, of course, is really good for you. If you have not tried it yet, you really should! You can use it like you would use rice, but lots of people also use it in breakfast dishes, like you would oatmeal. It has a slight nutty taste, but the flavor is very mild and so it will take on the flavor of whatever you cook it in.
This recipe is actually vegan, and while not all vegan recipes are good for you, this one really is! You can use this recipe as is and make it a side dish for 4 people or an entree for 2. Or you can double the recipe and serve it as an entree for 4 people.
Spicy Veggie Quinoa Curry Print Recipe Pin Recipe Quick, easy, and healthy quinoa and veggie dish with lots and lots of flavor! Ingredients 1 cup quinoa (rinsed thoroughly)
1 1/4 cups coconut milk
1 cup vegetable broth
3 tablespoons curry paste (more or less, to taste)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce (more or less, to taste)
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 cup diced bell pepper (use different colored peppers for colorful presentation!)
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced broccoli and/or cauliflower
1 handful fresh spinach Instructions Mix together the quinoa, coconut milk, vegetable broth, curry paste, brown sugar, and Sriracha sauce in a pot over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer about 15 - 20 minutes until all liquid is absorbed and quinoa is tender but not mushy.
Heat the vegetable oil over medium heat, then add the garlic, pepper, onion, and broccoli/cauliflower. Saute until vegetable begin to soften.
When the veggies are almost done, add the spinach and stir until wilted.
Combine the quinoa with the veggies and serve. Notes Recipe adapted from Vegangela.com Nutrition Calories: 370 kcal | Carbohydrates: 42 g | Protein: 9 g | Fat: 19 g | Saturated Fat: 14 g | Sodium: 344 mg | Potassium: 603 mg | Fiber: 5 g | Sugar: 7 g | Vitamin A: 64.6 % | Vitamin C: 91.5 % | Calcium: 7.5 % | Iron: 27.6 %
Click here to head on over to Memories by the Mile get the full post, and while you are there, check out some of the other awesome posts on Wanda Ann’s blog!
Recipe adapted from Vegangela.com.
This post contains affiliate links. Check out our full disclosure hereDelta’s chief executive Richard H. Anderson would run the new airline and Delta’s chairman Daniel A. Carp would retain that role, with Roy J. Bostock, a Northwest director who also sits on the board at Morgan Stanley, as vice chairman. Northwest’s chief executive, Douglas M. Steenland, would have a seat on the board but would not have a role in day-to-day operations.
The two companies persevered because of the rising cost of fuel, which has destroyed the bright financial prospects of the carriers since they emerged from bankruptcy a year ago.
Delta and Northwest filed for Chapter 11 on Sept. 14, 2005. Both ran into cash shortages that were worsened when oil prices spiked in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Many people in the airline industry expected that the two airlines, which already had a marketing arrangement, would join forces once they emerged from bankruptcy protection.
Mr. Anderson became Delta’s chief executive in September, succeeding Gerald Grinstein, who led the airline through its restructuring. He was a surprise choice: Delta had been expected to name one of two younger executives to the post, but directors pushed for Mr. Anderson. He ran Northwest before being succeeded by Mr. Steenland in 2004.
Delta and Northwest are betting that cost cuts and the benefits of a bigger route network will outweigh the potential operating chaos and labor unrest that can result from airline mergers.
The long-expected Northwest-Delta deal could be quickly followed by another merger, airline executives and industry analysts said.
The leading candidates are United and Continental Airlines, which have explored the idea. The airlines may now try to get the deal wrapped up within the next 30 days, a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations said Monday night. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.
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One reason for the urgency is that airlines want to get their deals approved by the Justice Department under the Bush administration, rather than risk seeing them stall until a new president takes office.
United’s chief executive, Glenn F. Tilton, has been eager for a merger, but Continental had resisted, saying it wanted to wait to see if the combination between Delta and Northwest came about. The chief executive of Continental, Lawrence W. Kellner, called it “good news” last month when it appeared that the Delta-Northwest talks had cooled. But Mr. Kellner could end up running the combined Continental-United, should an agreement take place, this person said.
Such deals would put pressure on others to explore combinations or consider restructuring, analysts said. American Airlines, which avoided Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier in the decade, may be forced to explore that possibility so that it can rid itself of aging aircraft leases, and reduce its labor costs. Or, American could seek a deal with a smaller airline such as JetBlue Airways, in order to gain access to JetBlue’s younger fleet.
Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines, which has been the healthiest of the American carriers, may be forced to explore a deal with a low-fare carrier like AirTran, so that it can maintain its hold on the market for bargain minded travelers.
At the end of 2007, Delta and Northwest employed a combined 89,000 workers. American Airlines, currently the largest carrier, had 85,500. Delta said the combined airline would employ 75,000.
But the 6,300 Delta pilots and the 4,500 Northwest pilots were the two groups that executives worked so assiduously to win support from in recent months.
That effort was not successful. The two pilot groups could not agree on a merger of their seniority lists, which are important in determining pay, schedules and the type of plane they fly.
Delta’s Mr. Anderson faced the choice of either abandoning the deal or pushing ahead and risking fallout from pilots that could cripple his efforts to quickly combine the two carriers’ operations and make them run more smoothly.
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The chairman of the Northwest chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association, Dave Stevens, said in a statement Sunday that any deal not in the best interest of his members would meet “vigorous opposition.” Beyond enlisting members of Congress and the Justice Department to oppose the deal, pilots have little opportunity to prevent a merger.
But they can go a long way toward keeping a completed merger from being successful. At US Airways, the product of a 2005 merger with America West Airlines, pilots are still litigating over a combined seniority list and executives have been forced to continue operating the two carriers with separate squads of pilots. That makes the airline less efficient.
Pilots can also engage in legal work slowdowns, sometimes known as flying to the contract, which can cause late and canceled flights to swell and costs to rise. United suffered that fate in the summer of 2000, when its operations melted down.
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It is clear that the airline industry is headed into a steep downturn. Analysts now expect losses for the year. And the industry is highly vulnerable to further increases in the price of jet fuel — incurring $200 million in annual costs for every penny a gallon that fuel rises.
Michael Linenberg, an analyst at Merrill Lynch, noted Monday in a report that jet fuel in some markets had surged to as high as $3.50 a gallon, reflecting both higher oil prices and a steeper premium charged by refiners. Mr. Linenberg had expected fuel costs of $3.00 a gallon this year to produce an industry loss of $2 billion.
But if fuel prices moved industry-wide to $3.50 and stayed there, he said losses could soar to $12 billion this year. Before that happened, airlines would probably ground huge parts of their fleets, lay off workers and otherwise retrench.
Either way, without a remarkable increase in fares, the handful of smaller airline bankruptcies in recent weeks could grow to include some bigger carriers.
The deal comes nearly 30 years after the domestic airline industry was deregulated. But deregulation did not bring forth a flood of new and innovative airlines pushing aside the old guard, as some had envisioned. Instead, the industry since 1978 has been dominated by familiar names — Delta and Northwest among them.
Through bankruptcies, strikes and a broad decline in service, the old-line carriers have hung onto most of the market. And the merger, the largest ever among domestic carriers, is but the latest effort by old-line airlines to protect their businesses from low-cost rivals like Southwest, JetBlue and AirTran.
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“The staying power of the legacy carriers is a source of continual amazement,” said Steve Morrison, chairman of the economics department at Northeastern University and author of a book on airline deregulation.
Indeed, since deregulation, the old-line airlines built what are known as fortress hubs — such as Delta’s in Cincinnati and Northwest’s in Minneapolis and Detroit — with such overwhelming market share that there is relatively little competition and fares in those markets are high.
Then they introduced frequent flier programs — a boon, to be sure, with free travel — that made it harder for regular travelers to stray from the dominant airline in their region.
Having pulled those two competitive rabbits out of their hat, will old-line carriers produce a third miracle with mergers?
“No,” Mr. Morrison said, combinations will not affect the industry as dramatically. He and some other experts said the Delta-Northwest combination — and a possible merger between Continental and United — could bolster profits at old-line carriers in the near term through cost cutting. But that will not stop the steady advance of low-cost airlines, which now account for about a third of domestic air travel.
The growth of low-cost airlines and the ability of consumers to shop for cheaper fares on the Internet have kept old-line carriers on the defensive. Then, beginning last fall, oil prices shot past $100 a barrel. That effectively snuffed out an industry recovery that had barely begun, with Delta and Northwest having emerged from bankruptcy only months earlier.
Their survival again threatened, Delta, Northwest and others began merger discussions.
For consumers, one or more mergers could result in more crowded planes. Jets are already flying fuller than ever before because the domestic fleet shrank after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. And airlines merging are now expected to ground more planes and cancel more flights.
But even the companies’ admirers expect over time that costs will be cut deeply. It is just not politic to say so. “Note that while it’s O.K. to downsize in other industries,” Daniel McKenzie, an analyst at Credit Suisse, said in a report in Feb, in airlines “a merger announcement accompanied by 1-2 hub closings and the layoff of thousands won’t get far, in our view.”
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Pardus Capital Management, an investment firm, estimated in November that a combination of Delta and Northwest could reduce costs by about $1.5 billion a year, in large part by combining hubs. Delta’s hub in Cincinnati is close to Northwest’s in Detroit. And Northwest’s hub in Memphis is close to Delta’s in Atlanta.
In announcing the merger, the two airlines said that they had no plans to close any hubs, and that the transaction would generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue and cost savings. The two airlines also expect to incur one-time cash costs to not exceed $1 billion to integrate.
The headquarters of the combined airline will be in Atlanta, with executive offices in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
“I would call this a defensive act,” said Fred Reid, who was the first chief executive of Virgin America, the start-up low-cost airline backed by British entrepreneur Richard Branson. Mr. Reid watched old-line carriers file protests with the Transportation Department, seeking, ultimately unsuccessfully, to stop Virgin.
And though he is a former chief operating officer at Delta, Mr. Reid believes that within six-to-eight years low-cost carriers will have captured more than half the domestic market in the United States and will then go after the international business.
“The legacy airlines tend to have high levels of dissatisfaction” among customers, he said.
Despite the agreement, it is not certain that the merger will ultimately be completed. Previous combinations — notably United and US Airways in 2000 — were abandoned in the face of antitrust scrutiny and opposition from unions.
James L. Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, opposed that 2000 merger and “is generally opposed to any further consolidation,” said a spokesman, James Berard. The House cannot technically block a merger, but it can hold hearings and encourage the Justice Department to scrutinize deals.Armored Corps instructor course, 2000 (Photo: IDF Spokesman, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Infantry instructor course, 2000 (Photo: Abir Sultan/IDF Spokesman, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Armored Corp instructor, 1993 (Photo: Michael Chai/Bamahane, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Fighters reading a map during training, January 2000 (Photo: IDF Spokesman, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Hike to receive supplies parachuted from a plane, 1954 (Photo: Assaf Kutin, Bamahane, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Hike to receive supplies parachuted from a plane, 1954 (Photo: Assaf Kutin, Bamahane, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Hike to receive supplies parachuted from a plane, 1954 (Photo: Assaf Kutin, Bamahane, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Hike to receive supplies parachuted from a plane, 1954 (Photo: Assaf Kutin, Bamahane, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Rabin comes for a visit, 1959 (Photo: Assaf Kutin, Bamahane, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Soldier carries a rifle with a sniper scope, 2000 (Photo: IDF Spokesman, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Fighter hurls a grenade during infantry commanders course, 2000 (Photo: Abir Sultan, IDF Spokesman, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Infantry commanders course, 2000 (Photo: Abir Sultan, IDF Spokesman, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Fighters during pushups during training, 2000 Photo: IDF Spokesman, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Fighters training, 2000 (Photo: IDF Spokesman, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Fighters training with an Uzi, 2000 (Photo: IDF Spokesman, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Fighters training, 2000 (Photo: IDF Spokesman, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Fighters training, 2000 (Photo: IDF Spokesman, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Fighters training, 2000 (Photo: IDF Spokesman, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Fighters training, 2000 (Photo: IDF Spokesman, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
An Armored Corps instructor directing an APC, 1993 (Photo: Michael Chai, Bamahane, courtesy of the IDF Archive)
Anti-tank instructors practicing the firing of Tau missiles (Photo: Eran-Yofi Cohen, Bamahane, courtesy of the IDF Archive)Image copyright Imperial
Using electricity to stimulate parts of the brain may ease the symptoms of motion sickness, scientists have said.
The team at Imperial College London say early trials on 20 people suggest the method could have a similar effect to drugs, but without the drowsiness.
The mild electrical current interferes with the messages arriving from the part of the ear which controls balance.
Other scientists urged "healthy scepticism" until larger trials backed up the findings, reported in Neurology.
Whether you are travelling by plane, boat or car, motion sickness is thought to be down to mixed messages coming from your ears and your eyes.
It leaves the brain confused about what is going on and culminates in nausea and headaches.
'Chunder chair'
Dr Qadeer Arshad, from the movement and balance group at Imperial, said people no longer had motion sickness if their inner ear was damaged.
So the team used "transcranial direct current stimulation" to try to manipulate the part of the brain that interprets messages coming from those balance organs in the ear while people were made to feel nauseous.
Twenty volunteers were placed in a "chunder chair" which is like a twisted fairground ride that spins someone round at an angle.
Image copyright Imperial
It is guaranteed to make pretty much anyone motion sick within five minutes. Keep going and you will be physically sick, as some of the participants found out.
Everyone had an initial go.
Then one hour later, half of the participants had small electrical currents passed through their scalp to alter their brain activity.
The other half were given a dummy treatment.
With the stimulation, it took an extra 207 seconds, on average, for motion sickness to develop.
Whereas those getting the dummy treatment actually felt nauseous 57s sooner (one bout of motion sickness makes you more vulnerable to another).
The results showed the stimulation improved recovery times.
Augmented reality
Dr Arshad told the BBC News website: "The best comparison is with the best known drug scopolamine - we showed in essence that it's equivalent to scopolamine, but that drug knocks you out, it puts you to sleep."
He said there were no known side-effects to brain stimulation and that it would be easy to develop.
"Within the next couple of years people will be able to use these devices - it's not far away," he said.
"You can envisage on a cross-Channel ferry, having a small area where if you feel sick this could be applied by a trained person."
The group are also investigating brain stimulation for virtual and augmented reality devices, which can also result in headaches in some people, and for nausea after cancer chemotherapy.
Prof Chris Chambers, the head of brain stimulation at Cardiff University, commented: "It would be irresponsible to conclude that this study provides anything more than very early evidence of a potential benefit.
"Until the findings are replicated in a large registered trial, I recommend that the public approach any claims about treatment benefits with a healthy scepticism."Oct 9, 2016; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Nationals relief pitcher Mark Melancon (43) celebrates after their win against the Los Angeles Dodgers during game two of the 2016 NLDS playoff baseball series at Nationals Park. The Washington Nationals won 5-2.Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
The San Francisco Giants and closer Mark Melancon met last week to talk about possibly working out a deal this off-season. Melancon spoke with MLB Network Radio today to discuss the meeting.
Melancon spoke highly of the San francisco Giants organization, and the meeting. He also mentioned that this will be a hard decision. San Francisco certainly has a pitcher friendly ballpark and the Giants also have the commitment to winning that any pitcher would appreciate.
One thing that gets lost with fans, however, is how hard it is for families to uproot and move from city to city. Deciding where to spend the next few years of your life is never an easy choice.
Melancon on #SFGiants meeting: “It was an opportunity to meet & get to know people a little bit in 24 hours, organization speaks for itself” — MLB Network Radio (@MLBNetworkRadio) November 16, 2016
Melancon on choosing a team: “Ultimately I will weigh out by options and figure out what’s best for my family. It’s a tough decision.” #MLB — Casey Stern (@CaseyStern) November 16, 2016
Melancon also spoke about the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he had spent his entire MLB career before being traded in July to Washington. As Melancon and others explore their options in free agency, it is clear that a team that can spend to keep a roster together will play a key role. Pittsburgh’s lack of financial commitment to building on what they had started was clearly frustrating for the former Pirate.
Mark Melancon on #Pirates : “You look back and know we were doing something right. If we just could’ve added one or two more pieces” #MLB — Casey Stern (@CaseyStern) November 16, 2016
Earlier in the off-season, the Giants were clear that they planned on signing one of the big three closers available. Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported earlier in the week that the Giants have already spoken to representatives for Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen and Melancon. One factor that makes Chapman and Melancon more attractive on the free agent market than Jansen is there is no draft pick compensation attached to his signing.
Because both were traded during the season, their previous teams will not receive a first round pick in the June draft if they lose them. Jansen, however, would cost the Giants a first round pick. All of these factors are being weighed right now by general manager Bobby Evans and the front office. The one thing that has become clear is that Mark Melancon was impressed with San Francisco and will be in consideration for his services.
Be sure to check back every day for the latest Hot Stove news about the San Francisco Giants from Around the Foghorn.It’s been there for millions of years, and we never even noticed it.
Back in 1991, a farmer came across a cave in Phon Nha-Ke Bang National Park that was previously left unexplored. When the sound of water roaring inside the cave was audible, the farmer decided not to proceed further as he was scared. The locales named this cave as Son Doong. However, no one had the guts to go and explore the cave until 2009, when a group of scientists from Britain led by Howard Limbert came across the cave once again and he decided to explore it. He realized that it is a world that is contained in itself and is 5km long and 150 meters wide. Also, it was discovered that Son Doong was the largest cave on Earth.
It has its own vegetation, animals, lakes and clouds. Check out more pictures of the cave.
Entering the cave involves an 80 meters descent using rope.
A fast flowing river inside the cave.
There are small, emerald-coloured lakes, and even beaches.
It has abundance of stalactites and fossils.
Stalagmites of up to 70 meters have been found here.
A thick jungle inside the cave that also is home to animals.
The climate inside the cave is also different, all thanks to the clouds inside it.
Photo credit: flickrUpdates:
25 May - Info added Number of couples reuniting, Number of fatalities, Number of breakups/divorces, Number of possible fatalities, Number of characters leaving town, Number of resurrections and/or big returns, Number of time warps/jump, Number of nuclear disasters
25th May - Number of couples reuniting increased from 9 to 10, Number of fatalities increased from 51 to 53, Number of breakups/divorces increased from 8 to 9, Number of possible fatalities increased from 27 to 42, Number of characters leaving town increased from 17 to 19, Number of resurre |
(Image: Zineddine Hashas/Geoff Robinson Photography)
(Image: Zineddine Hashas/Geoff Robinson Photography)
Children are making the most of the rare snow storm and are building SNOWMEN in the desert town and SLEDGING down the sand dunes.
Photographer Sekkouri Kamel, 38, said: “It started snowing at around 1.30am this morning and is now one metre deep in some places. It’s absolutely incredible to have so much snow.”
Apart from the sprinkling before Christmas, snow was last seen in Ain Sefra on February 18, 1979, when the snow storm lasted just half an hour.
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Ain Sefra is around 1000 metres above sea level and surrounded by the Atlas Mountains.
(Image: Zineddine Hashas/Geoff Robinson Photography)
(Image: Zineddine Hashas/Geoff Robinson Photography)
The Sahara Desert covers most of Northern Africa and it has gone through shifts in temperature and moisture over the past few hundred thousand years.
Although the Sahara is very dry today, it is expected to become green again in about 15000 years.
It comes after expats who thought they had left behind the cold British winter and moved to Spain were in for a shock this week when Majorca and Benidorm were covered in a blanket of snow.
Brits who have retired to sunnier climes were greeted by the first snow in years with temperatures on the island of Majorca dipping to -2C.
Roads in the small Majorcan village of Valldemossa ground to a halt while on the mainland in Benidorm temperatures dipped below zero despite the average for January normally expected to be a balmy 17C.
Beaches, pools and promenades were covered with a layer of snow as temperatures dipped down to just 7C in the Costa Blanca.
Some food suppliers and supermarkets have warned that the recent bad weather in Italy and Spain may significantly increase the price of vegetables across northern Europe.
(Image: @bikersespana)
(Image: Splash News)
(Image: Getty)
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
(Image: Getty Images Europe)Published: 01:06 EDT, 23 July 2017 | Updated: 03:13 EDT, 23 July 2017
Protest erupted at a Brooklyn bar on Saturday amid anger at the owner's decision to make a feature of a 'bullet damaged' wall on the property, sell wine in 40 ounce bottles and suggest she might wrap beverages in paper bags.
Dozens met up outside Summerhill, a 'boozy sandwich shop' in Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York to speak out against the 'bar's commodification of stereotypes that only serve to hurt the community.'
The area has been rapidly gentrifying in recent years and the owner - Canadian former corporate lawyer Becca Brennan - has been accused of racism for trading on the neighborhood's African American roots.
Protesters gathered outside Summerhill in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to protest against its 'racist' use of symbols of the area's troubled past to brand itself. One such feature was a fake 'bullet riddled wall'
User Ang Low said: '#whitepeople move to hood, make fun of our struggle.. #ImDone @ALSHARPTON_REV @EaterNY @Gothamist "fake gun holes" #summerhill..Smh #bk.' The supposed bullet-riddled wall is pictured in his post
The area has been rapidly gentrifying in recent years before Canadian former corporate lawyer Becca Brennan opened the bar
One protester address the crowd outside the bar which was opened by a Canadian former corporate tax lawyer
Ms Brennan, wasn't in attendance for the protest but did release a statement admitting that some of her ideas are 'insensitive.'
As part of the bar's opening publicity, Summerhill issued a press release on Monday featuring a mixed drink next to a damaged wall described as 'bullet hole-ridden' and was supposedly part of a 'rumored backroom illegal gun shop' in the past.
'Yes, that bullet hole-ridden wall was originally there and, yes, we're keeping it,' it read.
The 'bullet-hole ridden wall' is actually a fake. It was originally damaged and Ms Brennan decided to make a feature out of it - a decision she later admitted was 'cheeky'.
Another of the bar's gimmicks is to sell rose wine in 40 ounce bottles, which Ms Brennan even suggested could come in paper bags.
However such features have not gone down well with many of the local population.
One protester told the Daily News on Saturday: 'People from my culture used to sit on the corner and drink, and they’re trying to profitize that. And that is their marketing. It’s not cheeky. It’s offensive.'
Customers are pictured on the bar's Instagram with a bottle of the Forty Ounce Rose. The owner even suggested the bottles could come in paper bags
The owner posted an Instagram photo of the 40 ounce wine bottle on the bicycle of one of her barmaids
Gothamist asked for clarification on the symbolism, to which Brennan said in an email: 'I'm not an authority so don't feel comfortable commenting on anything other than my business—a new bar and restaurant that locals (/my neighbors) seem to really enjoy and appreciate.'
Brennan hails from Toronto, Canada, and attended New York University and worked as corporate tax attorney for Bristol-Myers Squibb before moving to Crown Heights two years ago.
Natherlene Bolden, a founding member of the Crown Heights Tenants Union and resident of the neighborhood since 1978, voiced her criticism of the establishment.
'Actions speak louder than words,' said the 55-year-old.
'You are making money off of... negative aspects in our community which, you know, you're happy when these things go on because you can make money off of it.'
'And it's like you're not thinking about the black people or the long-term residents in the community. Or maybe you are thinking about them but they don't matter.'
Brennan released a statement to the initial backlash on Wednesday saying that she planned to 'talk to (her) neighbors about positive ways we can more involved, including with other local small businesses, artist and charities.'
It said: 'I deeply apologize for any offense that my recent comments might have caused.
'I did not intend to be insensitive to anyone in the neighborhood, and I am sorry that my words caused pain. I made light of serious issues and that was wrong.'
Owner Becca Brennan posted a statement justifying to the Instagram account and insist that she will do more to listen to the local community
Protest gathered outside the bar on Saturday after posting signs that read 'This is what gentrification looks like'
Outside the bar, police were said to have threatened to shut protest down if too many people convened in the area and weren't peaceful
Hundreds of people gathered at the protest on Saturday afternoon after news articles about the bar angered many people
But the sentiment was already cosigned by people on social media who also voiced their disdain with the restaurant's publicity stunt.
User Ang Low said: '#whitepeople move to hood, make fun of our struggle.. #ImDone @ALSHARPTON_REV @EaterNY @Gothamist "fake gun holes" #summerhill..Smh #bk.'
'Boycott Summerhill BK. Blatant racism. Trash. Go write a 1 star Yelp review,' added Joanna Reynolds, posting a link to the shop's yelp page.
On Instagram, Shanaya Amoy commented: 'Get out. We don't want you in our community. You are a culture vulture and you are not welcomed here. Your business will fail because you have disrespected the entire community. No one wants you here and we will not stop protecting until you shut down and go back to wherever you came from.'
'This was even more of an insult by not seeing the wrongs in what you have done. No apology no nothing. You and anyone else who dares to support this place is disgusting,' added another user.
One commented on Brennan's absence from the protest and said: 'YOU COULDNT EVEN SHOW YOUR FACE TODAY THATS WEAKNESS. WE WILL BE BACK.'
Summerhill also took a hit on Yelp, with many leaving one star reviews along with messages for the owner.
Thersea S said: 'Awful. The owner should be ashamed of exploiting the past violence of this area. Can't wait to see this business close.'
Another user called out the establishment in the last 24 hours.
'Good luck serving tourists that's not going to pay the rent. This neighborhood is built out of so much history you played yourself,' he added.
Another user posted: 'Trying to make money by mocking the economic hardships of longtime residents. This place should not have the right to exist. I can't wait to see it's doors shuttered.'
Brennan hasn't made a comment regarding today's protest.
Joanna Reynolds posted the link to the bar's Yelp reviews and told people to boycott Summerhill for 'blatant racism'
On Instagram, Shanaya Amoy commented: 'Get out. We don't want you in our community. You are a culture vulture and you are not welcomed here. Your business will fail because you have disrespected the entire community. No one wants you here and we will not stop protecting until you shut down and go back to wherever you came from'
'This was even more of an insult by not seeing the wrongs in what you have done. No apology no nothing. You and anyone else who dares to support this place is disgusting,' added another user'I was born in Hawaii...I don't have horns': Obama finally addresses 'birther' issue directly during whirlwind day of Chicago fundraising
Obama jokes about 'birther' controversy egged on by Trump and Palin
Arizona Legislature gives final approval to controversial 'birther bill'
While campaigning in Chicago yesterday President Obama startled audiences when he cracked wise about the ‘birther’ controversy, finally addressing the issue that is again sweeping across the media.
The President jabbed at claims made by celebrities and conservatives, making a joke of their challenges to where he was actually born.
‘Birthers,’ such as potential 2012 GOP candidates Sarah Palin and Donald Trump, have publicly questioned whether Obama was born in Hawaii or in Kenya.
Hometown hero: Obama wore a Chicago Bulls cap at a fundraising kickoff event for the Democratic National Convention and his 2012 re-election campaign at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois
‘I wasn't born here,’ Mr Obama said, before the crowd of 2300 that quickly fell into a pregnant pause.
‘Just want to be clear, I was born in Hawaii.’
His joke came as the Arizona legislature approved a final proposal requiring presidential candidates to prove they are U.S. citizens before their names can appear on the state's ballot.
It would become the first state to require such proof if Governor Jan Brewer signs the measure into law.
Chi-town: Obama talked up his old friend and colleague Rahm Emanuel at the Chicago event while the crowd went wild for their home town hero
Speaking with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos yesterday, Obama surprised again by at last directly addressing the issue that he has brushed off in the past.
‘Most people feel pretty confident the President was born where he says he was, in Hawaii. He doesn’t have horns... we’re not really worrying about conspiracy theories or birth certificates,’ he said.
ON THE MENU AT N9NE Chefs Michael Kornick and Erick Williams whipped up a special meal for the event: Lobster
griddled maine lobster sandwiches
Perch
sweet water organics farm raised perch, Fish Bar tartar sauce
Maine salmon
black pepper & tarragon demi-cured maine salmon, asparagus, shaved fennel, preserved lemon emulsion
Scallops/short ribs
seared Maine diver sea scallops, rosemary braised short ribs, parsnip puree, roasted carrots
Yesterday Obama hit three fundraisers while in Chicago, the city where he launched his political career and where he is basing his 2012 re-election campaign.
The President’s first event was at N9NE Steakhouse, where 150 donors paid $5,000 and $10,000 a plate to join the president, Mayor Richard M. Daley and Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel at the event.
‘This is the first time in modern history that a sitting President has based their re-election campaign outside of Washington,’ he said yesterday. ‘I want our campaign to be here because you guys are the ones who got me started.
‘I see people in this audience who supported me when nobody could pronounce my name. I see folks who supported me when I ran for Congress and got a beat-down - and then helped to nurse me back to health,’ he told the fervent audience.
The President teased Emanuel while ultimately showering his former Chief of Staff with praise in the town that just elected him to office.
USO: Michelle Obama and Dr Jill Biden, wife of VP Joe Biden, wave to the crowd while standing with Sesame Street characters during a USO event honouring National Guard members
Hugs: Today's event highlighted how several businesses have made commitments to ensure transferability to military members and their spouses
‘Yes, he is foul-mouthed. Yes, that finger thing is a little creepy. But I love him anyway,’ Obama said to the crowd of Emanuel.
‘And Chicago, you did the right thing by electing him the next mayor of Chicago,’ he added.
Emanuel lost a finger to a slicer while working at a fast food restaurant while in high schoo
Fundraising: President Obama managed to rake in approximately $2million during his one day whilrwind trip, electrifying his base throughout Chicago
l.
After the event, Obama rushed off to greet donors at the swanky MK restaurant in Chicago’s downtown loop, where attendees shelled out a staggering $35,800-per-person to dine with the president.
FINAL APPROVAL: Arizona presidential citizenship bill Final approval has been given by the Arizona Legislature to a proposal making presidential candidates prove they are U.S. citizens before they can appear on the state's ballot.
It would become the first state to require such proof if Governor Jan Brewer signs the measure into law.
But the author, Republican Rep Carl Seel, said it is not about opposition to Mr Obama. ‘This bill is about the integrity of our elections,’ he stated.
Thirteen other states have considered similar proposals this year, but they were defeated in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maine and Montana.
The bill won final approval from the state House in a 40-16 vote.
The President spoke to the crowd for a rather curt 10 minutes.
When his time allotted to this high-end event came to a close, Obama headed off to greet a crowd of over 2300 at Chicago's Navy Pier, where he was joined by a dream team of Democrats, including Emanuel, Mayor Daley, Derrick Rose, Ernie Banks, B.J. Armstrong, Colbie Caillat, and Joakim Noa.
It was here that Obama made his ‘birther’ jab, and also resuscitated the phrase that inspired millions to usher him into the Oval Office: ‘yes We Can’.
‘Whenever you hear people say our problems are too big to solve, or we can't bring about the changes we seek, I want you to think about all the progress we've made," Obama said.
‘I want you to remind you, and I want you to remind everybody else of those simple words that summed up what we believe as a people: Yes We Can.’
Obama will jet out of O'Hare International airport around noon on Friday - having rounded up a cool $2million for his campaign.
Not too bad for a day's work.
Meanwhile, in Colombus, Ohio, First Lady Mcihelle Obama and Dr, Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, appeared before a crowd of local military and community families along with Sesame Street characters in a the fifth instalment of the Sesame Street and USO Experience.As Portlanders puzzle over why local bike, bus and rail transportation has stopped rising, last week’s Census figures show another trend continuing to reshape the city’s population.
New construction in the central city hasn’t come close to relieving one of the country’s harshest rental housing shortages.
For structures built before 1940 — the bungalows and walk-ups built before the age of automotive planning that cover most of the land between the Willamette River, 82nd Avenue, Powell and Lombard, including many of the most bike-friendly neighborhoods in North America — median rents rose 19 percent in the two years from 2011 to 2013, Census estimates show.
Since 2005, when the City of Portland’s population growth began to dramatically outpace its supply of new units, rent in these central-city buildings has risen 47 percent.
“In Irvington, I can pretty much stick a sign in the yard and have it rented within a couple days,” said Shea McGrath, a broker with Carefree Property Management, in an interview Tuesday.
Citywide, median rents rose 9 percent from 2011 to 2013 and 37 percent since 2005. Nationwide, median rents are up 4 percent since 2011 and 24 percent since 2005.
“In terms of the Portland rental market, I don’t really see anywhere the rents are not increasing,” said Nicholas Cook, owner of Sleep Sound Property Management.
There’s little sign that Portland’s rental housing shortage is easing. The metro area’s rental vacancy rate was just 3.1 percent in 2013, its lowest in at least a decade and the second-lowest in the country after San Jose’s.
In fact, the Portland area’s rental vacancy rate in 2013 was the fourth-lowest recorded for any of the country’s top 75 metro areas in any year since 2005, when the Census began tracking the figure.
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Though people who spend time in central Portland sometimes speak as if the city is in the midst of total transformation, Census figures show the smattering of new four-story apartments on Division, Williams and elsewhere are basically a drop in the housing bucket.
The city’s supply of housing units grew by just 1.6 percent in 2011, 2012 and 2013 combined, according to the Census American Community Survey. The estimated number of households in the city, meanwhile, grew twice as fast.
To the extent that these estimates are accurate, that means that if about 4,000 net new households joined Portland in those years, about 2,000 either shacked up with another household or were priced out entirely by rising home costs. Tens of thousands of other households, of course, simply swallowed the big rent hikes; others moved to neighborhoods they might have avoided a few years before.
“They were already starting at kind of a high deficit in housing — a lot of it is kind of backfilling the deficit,” said Cook of the current construction. “I still think that supply is probably going to be less than the amount of people that are moving in.”
Demolitions of old houses aren’t to blame for the rent increase among those that remain: the Census’ estimate for the number of occupied units in pre-1940 structures actually rose slightly from 2011 to 2013, meaning the number of demolitions was statistically negligible. There’s also little chance it’s just a data fluke. The two-year rent increase among old buildings is far beyond the Census’ margin of error.
“It makes the utmost sense to invest in housing along those corridors … I think if we walk away from that vision, that a better city will not result.”
— Jason Miner, 1000 Friends of Oregon
Instead, tenants and housing experts said vacancies are low and rents soaring for all units in neighborhoods close to the region’s two main job centers: downtown Portland and central Washington County.
“People want to live in those kinds of neighborhoods,” said Jason Miner, executive director of the anti-sprawl nonprofit 1000 Friends of Oregon.
In 2005, Portland’s rental vacancy rate was about 9.7 percent, exactly the same as the national rate and in the middle of the pack for U.S. cities. But over the next few years (years that also, for whatever reason, saw a huge surge in local bicycling) people began pouring into the Portland’s area’s rental housing, driving the metro area’s vacancy rate to the lowest in the country in 2009 and 2010. It’s hovered in the top ranks since, as development has failed to keep up with people’s rising desire to live in Portland.
In response, landlords have apparently seen little reason not to continue raising their prices at about twice the national rate, even faster in walkable, bikeable, transit-rich areas that were originally built without cars in mind.
As rental prices in inner Portland neighborhoods have risen, people who can’t afford it are forced further and further away from their jobs. Once that distance goes beyond the 2-4 mile sweet spot for bicycling, other modes — like driving and transit — start to become more competitive.
The City of Portland, meanwhile, is in the midst of a public comment period for its 20-year comprehensive plan, with many Portlanders urging the city to prevent new development during this process and the zoning and parking reforms that are scheduled to follow.
“It makes the utmost sense to invest in housing along those corridors where we’re going to put more frequent transportation,” Miner said. “I think we’re at a real historic turning point where we’re thinking about balking at that vision. And I think if we walk away from that vision, that a better city will not result.”
The first of four public hearings on the comprehensive plan is tonight. You can also comment by emailing psc@portlandoregon.gov with “PSC Comprehensive Plan Testimony” in the subject line.
— The Real Estate Beat is a regular column. You can sign up to get an email of Real Estate Beat posts (and nothing else) here, or read past installments here. This sponsorship has opened up and we’re looking for our next partner. If interested, please call Jonathan at (503) 706-8804.
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comprehensive plan, Portland cycling stagnation, The Real Estate BeatJordan Winters - Burning Abyss
3 Mathematician
3 Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
1 Effect Veiler
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Upstart Goblin
1 Foolish Burial
3 Supply Squad
1 Allure of Darkness
2 Rank-Up-Magic Astral Force
3 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
3 Karma Cut
1 Solemn Warning
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
3 Vanity's Emptiness
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Trap Stun
Side Deck
1 Maxx "C"
3 Vanity's Fiend
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
1 Raiza the Storm Monarch
3 Pulling the Rug
2 Stygian Dirge
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Ally of Justice Cycle Reader
1 Dark Hole
Extra Deck
2 Ghostrick Alucard
3 Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss
2 Constellar Pleiades
2 Downerd Magician
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Number 20: Giga-Brilliant
1 Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
1 Number 47: Nightmare Shark
James Frazier - Burning Abyss
3 Mathematician
3 Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
3 Supply Squad
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Foolish Burial
2 Upstart Goblin
2 Rank-Up-Magic Astral Force
1 Dark Core
3 Trap Stun
3 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
3 Karma Cut
1 Solemn Warning
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
3 Vanity's Emptiness
Side Deck
3 Stygian Dirge
3 Wiretap
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Vanity's Fiend
2 The Monarchs Stormforth
2 Raiza the Storm Monarch
Extra Deck
2 Constellar Pleiades
2 Downerd Magician
3 Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss
2 Ghostrick Alucard
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Number 20: Giga-Brilliant
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
1 Number 47: Nightmare Shark
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
Sean Leeper - Geargia
3 Geargiarmor
3 Geargiaccelerator
3 Geargiarsenal
3 Geargiauger
3 Ice Hand
3 Fire Hand
1 Soul Charge
1 Raigeki
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
3 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
3 Vanity's Emptiness
3 Wiretap
3 Fiendish Chain
3 Breakthrough Skill
2 Call of the Haunted
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Solemn Warning
Side Deck
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Non-Fusion Area
1 Mind Control
1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
1 Ally of Justice Cycle Reader
3 Pulling the Rug
3 Stygian Dirge
Extra Deck
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Cairngorgon, Antiluminescent Knight
1 Number 103: Ragnazero
1 Daigusto Emeral
1 Number 80: Rhapsody in Berserk
1 Number 101: Silent Honor ARK
1 Evilswarm Exciton Knight
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Diamond Dire Wolf
1 Number 82: Heartlandraco
2 Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
3 Gear Gigant X
Desmond Johnson - Burning Abyss
2 Mathematician
3 Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
2 Shaddoll Dragon
2 Effect Veiler
1 Shaddoll Beast
1 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Foolish Burial
1 Beginning of the End
2 Shaddoll Fusion
1 Allure of Darkness
3 Upstart Goblin
3 Vanity's Emptiness
3 Trap Stun
3 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
3 Karma Cut
Side Deck
3 Majesty's Fiend
2 Vanity's Fiend
2 Mobius the Frost Monarch
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Puppet Plant
1 Super Polymerization
Extra Deck
3 Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Number 47: Nightmare Shark
2 Ghostrick Alucard
3 Downerd Magician
2 El Shaddoll Winda
2 El Shaddoll Construct
Dalton Bousman - Burning Abyss
3 Mathematician
3 Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
2 Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Tour Guide from the Underworld
3 Vanity's Fiend
3 Upstart Goblin
3 Supply Squad
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Rank-Up-Magic Astral Force
1 Foolish Burial
1 Allure of Darkness
3 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
3 Karma Cut
1 Solemn Warning
3 Vanity's Emptiness
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
Side Deck
1 The Monarchs Stormforth
2 Trap Stun
1 Super Polymerization
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Wiretap
3 Ally of Justice Cycle Reader
2 Cyber Dragon
1 Dark Core
1 Caius the Shadow Monarch
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
Extra Deck 1 El Shaddoll Winda
1 El Shaddoll Construct
1 Constellar Pleiades
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Number 20: Giga-Brilliant
1 Number 47: Nightmare Shark
1 Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
2 Ghostrick Alucard
3 Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss
3 Downerd Magician
Jacob Robinson - Traptrix Burning Abyss
3 Traptrix Myrmeleo
3 Traptrix Dionaea
3 Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 Majesty's Fiend
1 Vanity's Fiend
3 Karma Cut
3 Vanity's Emptiness
3 Trap Stun
3 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
2 Breakthrough Skill
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Time Space Trap Hole
1 Solemn Warning
1 Void Trap Hole
Side Deck
2 D.D. Crow
2 Mind Crush
2 Chain Disappearance
2 Flying "C"
2 Prohibition
3 De-Fusion
1 Majesty's Fiend
1 Vanity's Fiend
Extra Deck
1 Mechquipped Angineer
2 Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss
2 Downerd Magician
2 Number 47: Nightmare Shark
1 Number 49: Fortune Tune
1 Evilswarm Exciton Knight
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Daigusto Emeral
1 Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
1 Ghostrick Alucard
1 Lavalval Chain
1 Cairngorgon, Antiluminescent Knight
Parker Roberson - Chaos Shaddolls
3 Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn
2 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
3 Shaddoll Beast
2 Shaddoll Dragon
2 Shaddoll Squamata
1 Shaddoll Hedgehog
1 Shaddoll Falco
1 Black Dragon Collapserpent
1 White Dragon Wyverbuster
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
2 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Eclipse Wyvern
3 Upstart Goblin
3 Shaddoll Fusion
1 Super Polymerization
1 Soul Charge
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Charge of the Light Brigade
1 Foolish Burial
2 Burst Rebirth
3 Sinister Shadow Games
3 Vanity's Emptiness
Side Deck
2 Vanity's Fiend
3 Puppet Plant
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Forbidden Lance
1 Mind Control
2 Royal Decree
2 Xyz Universe
1 Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand
Extra Deck
1 Lavalval Chain
1 Daigusto Emeral
1 Evilswarm Exciton Knight
1 Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Arcanite Magician
1 Stardust Spark Dragon
1 Thought Ruler Archfiend
1 Crimson Blader
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Leo, the Keeper of the Sacred Tree
2 El Shaddoll Winda
2 El Shaddoll Construct
Nick Merchant - Shaddolls
3 Artifact Moralltach
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
3 Mathematician
1 Armageddon Knight
2 Shaddoll Falco
2 Shaddoll Hedgehog
2 Shaddoll Squamata
2 Shaddoll Beast
3 Shaddoll Dragon
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Super Polymerization
1 Foolish Burial
1 Soul Charge
3 Shaddoll Fusion
3 Artifact Sanctum
2 Vanity's Emptiness
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
3 Sinister Shadow Games
2 Breakthrough Skill
2 Wiretap
1 Solemn Warning
Side Deck
3 Rivalry of Warlords
2 Mischief of the Yokai
2 Mirror Force
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Mind Control
2 Forbidden Lance
2 Puppet Plant
Extra Deck
2 El Shaddoll Construct
2 El Shaddoll Winda
1 Leo, the Keeper of the Sacred Tree
1 Michael, the Arch-Lightsworn
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Arcanite Magician
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Armades, Keeper of Boundaries
1 Constellar Pleiades
1 Number 61: Volcasaurus
1 Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
1 Evilswarm Exciton Knight
1 Lavalval Chain
Mike Merchant - Shaddolls
3 Shaddoll Dragon
2 Shaddoll Beast
2 Shaddoll Squamata
2 Shaddoll Hedgehog
2 Shaddoll Falco
1 Armageddon Knight
3 Mathematician
3 Artifact Moralltach
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
3 Shaddoll Fusion
1 Foolish Burial
1 Soul Charge
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Super Polymerization
3 Sinister Shadow Games
3 Artifact Sanctum
2 Vanity's Emptiness
2 Breakthrough Skill
2 Wiretap
1 Solemn Warning
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
Side Deck
2 Puppet Plant
1 Mind Control
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Forbidden Lance
2 Stygian Dirge
2 Mirror Force
3 Rivalry of Warlords
Extra Deck
1 Lavalval Chain
1 Evilswarm Exciton Knight
1 Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
1 Number 61: Volcasaurus
1 Constellar Pleiades
1 Armades, Keeper of Boundaries
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Arcanite Magician
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Michael, the Arch-Lightsworn
1 Leo, the Keeper of the Sacred Tree
2 El Shaddoll Winda
2 El Shaddoll Construct
Zachary Leverett - Burning Abyss
3 Shaddoll Dragon
2 Mathematician
3 Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
1 Foolish Burial
3 Upstart Goblin
3 Shaddoll Fusion
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Soul Charge
3 Trap Stun
3 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
3 Vanity's Emptiness
3 Karma Cut
Side Deck
2 Mobius the Frost Monarch
3 Puppet Plant
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Majesty's Fiend
1 Super Polymerization
3 Vanity's Fiend
Extra Deck
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Number 47: Nightmare Shark
2 El Shaddoll Winda
2 El Shaddoll Construct
3 Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss
3 Downerd Magician
2 Ghostrick Alucard
Zach Butler - Shaddoll Artifacts
3 Shaddoll Beast
2 Shaddoll Falco
1 Shaddoll Squamata
1 Shaddoll Hedgehog
2 Shaddoll Dragon
3 Mathematician
1 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
3 Artifact Moralltach
1 Effect Veiler
1 Caius the Shadow Monarch
3 Shaddoll Fusion
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Foolish Burial
1 Soul Charge
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Super Polymerization
3 Sinister Shadow Games
3 Vanity's Emptiness
3 Artifact Sanctum
2 Breakthrough Skill
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Shaddoll Core
Side Deck
2 Puppet Plant
2 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness
2 De-Fusion
1 Mind Control
1 Raigeki
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Rivalry of Warlords
2 Trap Stun
1 Breakthrough Skill
Extra Deck
2 El Shaddoll Construct
2 El Shaddoll Winda
1 Leo, Keeper of the Sacred Tree
1 Stardust Spark Dragon
1 Arcanite Magician
1 Michael, the Arch-Lightsworn
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Armades, Keeper of Boundaries
1 Evilswarm Exciton Knight
1 Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
1 Artifact Durendal
1 Number 61: Volcasaurus
Ryne Hanson - Burning Abyss Artifacts
3 Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
1 Mathematician
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
3 Artifact Moralltach
1 Book of Moon
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Rank-Up-Magic Astral Force
3 Upstart Goblin
3 Artifact Sanctum
2 Breakthrough Skill
2 Call of the Haunted
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Karma Cut
3 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
Side Deck
3 Caius the Shadow Monarch
2 D.D. Crow
3 Maxx "C"
2 Forbidden Lance
1 Raigeki
1 Breakthrough Skill
1 Ceasefire
2 Malevolent Catastrophe
Extra Deck
3 Constellar Pleiades
1 Constellar Ptolemy M7
1 Downerd Magician
3 Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss
2 Ghostrick Alucard
1 Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
1 Number 47: Nightmare Shark
1 Number 49: Fortune Tune
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
Jackie Bernal - Burning Abyss
3 Mathematician
3 Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
3 Tour Guide from the Underworld
2 Vanity's Fiend
1 Effect Veiler
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
3 Supply Squad
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Foolish Burial
1 Forbidden Lance
3 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
3 Karma Cut
3 Vanity's Emptiness
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Solemn Warning |
in the 500 home run club that never had consecutive 30 home run seasons in a career.
Personal life [ edit ]
During his freshman year at Arizona State, he met Jennie Campos, a Mexican-American.[12] Jackson asked Campos on a date, and discovered many similarities, including the ability to speak Spanish, and being raised in a single parent home (Campos's father was killed in the Korean War).[12] An assistant football coach tried to break up the couple because Jackson was black and Campos was considered white. The coach contacted Campos's uncle, a wealthy benefactor of the school, and he warned the couple that their being together was a bad idea.[53] But the relationship held up and she later became his first wife. Jackson has been divorced since 1973. Kimberly, his only child, was born in the late 1980s.[54]
Reggie Jackson in 2008
During the off-season, though still active in baseball, Jackson worked as a field reporter and color commentator for ABC Sports. Just over a month before signing with the Yankees in the fall of 1976, Jackson did analysis in the ABC booth with Keith Jackson and Howard Cosell the night his future team won the American League pennant on a homer by Chris Chambliss. During the 1980s (1983, 1985, and 1987 respectively), Jackson was given the task of presiding over the World Series Trophy presentations. In addition, Jackson did color commentary for the 1984 National League Championship Series (alongside Don Drysdale and Earl Weaver). After his retirement as an active player, Jackson returned to his color commentary role covering the 1988 American League Championship Series (alongside Gary Bender and Joe Morgan) for ABC.
Jackson appeared in the film The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, portraying an Angels outfielder hypnotically programmed to kill the Queen of England. He also appeared in Richie Rich, BASEketball, Summer of Sam and The Benchwarmers. In 1979, Jackson was a guest star in an episode of the television sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. He played himself in the Archie Bunker's Place episode "Reggie-3 Archie-0" in 1982, a 1990 MacGyver episode, "Squeeze Play", The Jeffersons episode “The Unnatural” from 1985, and the Malcolm in the Middle episode "Polly in the Middle", from 2004. Jackson was also considered for the role of Geordi La Forge in the series Star Trek: The Next Generation,[55] a role which ultimately went to LeVar Burton. From 1981 to 1982 he hosted for Nickelodeon's Reggie Jackson's World of Sports.
He co-authored a book in 2010, Sixty-Feet Six-Inches, with fellow Hall of Famer Bob Gibson. The book, whose title refers to the distance between the pitcher's mound and home plate, details their careers and approach to the game.
The Sega Master System baseball video game Reggie Jackson Baseball, endorsed by Reggie Jackson, was sold exclusively in the United States. Outside of the U.S., it was released as American Baseball.
Jackson has endured three fires to personal property, including a 1991 fire to his home in Oakland which destroyed his 1973 MVP Award. One of his warehouses holding several of his collectible cars was damaged in a fire, with several of the cars, valued at $3.2 million, ruined.[54]
Jackson called on former San Francisco 49ers head coach and ordained minister Mike Singletary for spiritual guidance. Jackson credits Singletary, stating "he helped me drop that shell I put up."[54]
Post-retirement honors [ edit ]
Jackson and Steinbrenner would reconcile, and Steinbrenner would hire him as a "special assistant to the principal owner", making Jackson a consultant and a liaison to the team's players, particularly the minority players. By this point, the Yankees, long noted for being slow to adapt to changes in race relations, have come to develop many minority players in their farm system and seek out others via trades and free agency. Jackson usually appears in uniform at the Yankee's spring training complex in Tampa, Florida, and was sought out for advice by such recent stars as Derek Jeter, before his retirement, and by former Yankee star Alex Rodriguez. "His experience is vast, and he's especially good with the young players in our minor league system, the 17- and 18-year old kids. They respect him and what he's accomplished in his career. When Reggie Jackson tells a young kid how he might improve his swing, he tends to listen", said Hal Steinbrenner, Yankees' managing general partner and co-chairperson.[54]
Jackson was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1993.[56] He chose to wear a Yankees cap on his Hall of Fame plaque[57] after the Oakland Athletics unceremoniously fired him from a coaching position in 1991.[58]
The Yankees retired his uniform number 44 on August 14, 1993, shortly after his induction into the Hall of Fame. The Athletics retired his number 9 on May 22, 2004. He is one of only eight MLB players to have their numbers retired by more than one team, and one of only three to have different numbers retired by two MLB teams.
In 1999, Jackson placed 48th on Sporting News 100 Greatest Baseball Players. That same year, he was named one of 100 finalists for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team, but was not one of the 30 players chosen by the fans.
The Yankees dedicated a plaque in his honor on July 6, 2002, which now hangs in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. The plaque calls him "One of the most colorful and exciting players of his era" and "a prolific hitter who thrived in pressure situations." Each Yankee so honored and still living was on hand for the dedication: Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and Don Mattingly. Ron Guidry, a teammate of Jackson's for all five of his seasons with the Yankees, was there, and would be honored with a Monument Park plaque the next season. Out of respect to some of the players who Jackson admired while growing up, Jackson invited Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks to attend the ceremony, and each did so. Like Jackson, each was a member of the Hall of Fame and had hit over 500 career home runs. Each had also played in the Negro Leagues, as Jackson's father, Martinez Jackson, had.
Reggie Jackson speaks with Alex Rodriguez during the 2006 season.
Jackson expanded his love of antique cars into a chain of auto dealerships in California, and used his contacts to become one of the foremost traders of sports memorabilia.[59] He has also been the public face of a group attempting to purchase a major league team, already having made unsuccessful attempts to buy the Athletics and the Angels.[60] His attempt to acquire the Angels along with Jimmy Nederlander (minority owner of the New York Yankees), Jackie Autry (widow of former Angels owner Gene Autry) and other luminaries was thwarted by Mexican American billionaire Arturo Moreno who outbid Jackson's group by nearly $50 million for the team in the winter of 2002.[61]
In a July 2012 edition of Sports Illustrated, Jackson talked about several issues, and also was critical of the Baseball Writers' Association of America as he believes they have lowered their standards when voting for prospects in the Hall of Fame.[54] He has also been critical of players associated with performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), including distant cousin Barry Bonds, stating "I believe that Hank Aaron is the home run king, not Barry Bonds, as great of a player Bonds was."[54] Of Alex Rodriguez, whom Jackson has worked alongside as special assistant to the Yankees, Jackson remarked, "Al's a very good friend. But I think there are real questions about his numbers. As much as I like him, what he admitted about his usage does cloud some of his numbers."[54] On July 12, the Yankees released a statement from Jackson after the Sports Illustrated interview had been released. The press release included Jackson saying, "In trying to convey my feelings about a few issues that I am passionate about, I made the mistake of naming some specific players."[62] It had been reported [63] he had been told by the Yankees to steer clear from the team, although general manager Brian Cashman stated he had not been banned but only told to not join the club on a road trip to Boston and would later be free to interact with the club.[64] After the SI article became known and Jackson's status with the Yankees being talked about, Jackson confirmed in his statement "I continue to have a strong relationship with the club, and look forward to continuing my role with the team."[62]
In 2007, ESPN aired a mini-series called The Bronx is Burning, about the 1977 Yankees, with the conflicts and controversies around Jackson a central part of the storyline. Jackson is portrayed by Daniel Sunjata. In 2008, he threw out the first pitch at Yankees Opening Day, the last one at Yankee Stadium. He also threw out the first pitch at the first game at the new Yankee Stadium (an exhibition game).
On October 9, 2009, Jackson threw the opening pitch for Game 2 of the ALDS between the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins. On October 18, 2010, the Ride of Fame honored Jackson with a double decker tour bus in New York City.[65]
On September 5, 2018, before an Athletics game versus the Yankees in Oakland, Jackson was inducted into the inaugural Oakland Athletics Hall of Fame. He joined fellow inductees Rickey Henderson, Dave Stewart, Dennis Eckersley, Catfish Hunter and Rollie Fingers.
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Biography
Hi, I’m Catherine Flick! I’m a Reader in Computing and Social Responsibility in the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University.
I’m very excited about the social and ethical impact of technologies, and how we can make sure that development of a new technology creates a positive impact.
I am (or have been) a part of several European Commission-funded projects on responsible innovation in technology, computer ethics, and related topics.
I research video games and ethics, ethics of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and anonymous technologies such as Tor and the Darknet in my university-funded research time.
I’ve given talks all over the world, on a variety of social/ethical impact of technology topics, for all kinds of audiences. I also write papers, and have a video games-centred blog and podcast site Not Just a Game. I’m on the ACM’s Committee of Professional Ethics where we are currently rewriting the ACM’s Code of Ethics.
I teach computer ethics, research methods, and give occasional guest lectures and keynotes on responsible innovation, ethics of AI/ML, video games, fanfic, and other social impact of technology topics.
Why “liedra.net”? I’ve had this domain for a very long time and it’s become intertwined with my academic life. So here you get a bit of academia, a bit of me, and some of the fun things I get up to outside of my teaching.Baroness attacked black businessman and launched into drunken racist tirade in exclusive West London hotel bar
Baroness Marie-Claire Von Alvensleben slapped a black businessman at the Belgravia Sheraton hotel
She screamed 'you brown people are ruining Britain' at staff before ranting against 'blacks, Arabs, Asians and Jews'
The 60-year-old socialite has title from previous marriage to German aristocrat and lives in Geneva
She claimed drink was spiked and she remembered nothing of the evening
Her lawyer wouldn't tell JPs her name and tried to have press removed
Sentenced to six weeks in jail, suspended for one year, and fined £165
An aristocrat attacked a businessman and a security guard at a luxury hotel while drunkenly ranting: ‘You brown people are ruining Britain.’
Baroness Marie-Claire Von Alvensleben’s rampage at the Belgravia Sheraton in London ended with her spending 15 hours in a police cell.
The 60-year-old had been arrested for obstructing police who cornered her at a nearby hotel, a court heard yesterday.
High spirits: Von Alvensleben with Michael Barrymore at charity event in 2000 High life: Michael Barrymore grapples with Baroness Marie Claire Von Alvensleben at a restaurant awards ceremony (left). She can be seen at Cowes Week (right) in 2003
Adam Sumel, a Canadian businessman, was the first victim of her racist tirade in the bar at the Sheraton.
He slapped him across the hands five times and said: ‘N****** should not be allowed here – you brown people are ruining Britain.’
Baroness Marie-Claire von Alvensleben launched into a racist tirade against 'blacks, Arabs, Asians and Jews'
Tom Gill, prosecuting, told Hammersmith magistrates that the guard, Haliz Hamza, then stepped in. ‘He spoke to the defendant because other guests complained about her behaviour and she clenched both her fists and pounded his chest repeatedly,’ he said.
As Mr Hamza escorted Von Alvensleben out of the hotel, she said: ‘You have stayed here ten years, this must be India.’
The baroness carried on with a rant about ‘blacks, Arabs, Asians and Jews’.
Police were called and found her at the Diplomat Hotel.
‘She was intoxicated at the time, she was being obstructive to the officer,’ said Mr Gill. ‘She was using a mobile phone as the officer tried to speak to her.
‘She took a long time to get dressed and she was abusive and aggressive to the officer as he tried to cuff her.’ Von Alvensleben told the officers she felt her drinks were spiked and did not know she should not have mixed alcohol with medication for depression.
The society figure, who lives in Geneva and depends on the generosity of well-connected friends, obtained her title from a German aristocrat she divorced a decade ago. It dates back to 1163.
She has socialised with chefs Gordon Ramsay and Ian Pengelley and, at a restaurant awards party in 2000, was seen rolling around on the floor with entertainer Michael Barrymore.
She was also pictured at an event with her arm around Sebastian Sainsbury, the great grandson of the supermarket founder. At another event she was seen posing with Italian chef Aldo Zilli.
The baroness is also a novelist and has written a series of books entitled 'Absolutely Everything About...' but her publishing firm has failed.
Jyothi Somavarapu, in mitigation, said she was penniless and was in London to collect debts from the PR company which matches buyers and sellers in the international property and art world.
She said Von Alvensleben claimed to have had no more than two glasses of wine.
Celebrity dinner: Baroness Marie-Claire Von Alvensleben is pictured in 2005 with Ian Pengelley and Gordon Ramsay
Evening out: Alex Proud, Baroness Von Alvensleben and Harrison Funk
Baroness: Titus Johnson, Marie-Claire Baroness Von Alvensleben and Bradley Frankel at the Mauro Perucchetti exhibition at The Halcyon Gallery, London, in October 2010
Marie Von Alvensleben was drinking in Belgraves Hotel in central London when she launched into a tirade at fellow guests
Baroness Marie-Claire von Alvensleben arriving at court earlier today
‘She believes her drink was spiked at the bar,’ added Miss Somavarapu. ‘She has no recollection at all as to what happened and says it is out of character for her to say such things.’
She said Von Alvensleben had struggled following the deaths of her second husband and a subsequent fiance and had become forgetful, leaving her suitcases in airports.
‘For her it is shocking. She has never uttered these words before and is upset that those words have been quoted,’ said Miss Somavarapu.
Von Alvensleben told District Judge Jane Fudge she had returned to the hotel two days afterwards to apologise. ‘I don’t remember assaulting anybody,’ she claimed. ‘The police were very nasty and I retaliated.’
But Judge Fudge said: ‘What concerns me is the foul, unpleasant and abusive language used against other patrons of the hotel, there is no excuse whatsoever. You did use words and you continued to use those words.
‘You’ve got some extremely unpleasant racial abuse accompanying this and that concerns me. What was said was extremely unpleasant and no doubt extremely distressing for those around her that heard this.’
Von Alvensleben pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault and obstructing a police officer.
The baroness was handed six weeks of imprisonment, suspended for 12 months.Authorities say they have arrested two people on terrorism-related charges in Texas and California. (Published Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016)
Authorities said two people with ties to the Islamic State have been arrested on terrorism-related charges in California and Texas Thursday, including a refugee from Syria who is charged with lying to federal investigators about his travels to the civil war in that country.
Federal officials said 24-year-old Omar Faraj Al Hardan, a Palestinian born in Iraq, was arrested in Houston on Thursday. Meanwhile, a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday accuses a Sacramento man of traveling to Syria to fight alongside terrorist organizations and lying to investigators about it.
According to the federal indictment in Texas, Al Hardan has been charged with three counts alleging that he attempted to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization.
He is charged with one count each of attempting to provide material support to ISIS, procurement of citizenship or naturalization unlawfully and making false statements.
Federal authorities told NBC News that Al Hardan was allegedly trying to help get people in the U.S. to travel overseas and join a foreign terror organization.
There was no plot to carry out attacks in the U.S., one law enforcement official said. Another federal official said there was never any danger to people in the U.S.
Iraqi Refugee Arrested in Texas Terror Plot: Governor Abbott
An Iraqi refugee has been arrested in Houston as part of an investigation into an alleged terrorist plot, the Texas governor's office confirmed Thursday. (Published Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016)
Al Hardan is expected to appear in court Friday at 10 a.m. in Houston before U.S. Magistrate Judge John R. Froeschner.
He entered the United States as a refugee on or about Nov. 2, 2009. He was granted legal permanent residence status on or about Aug. 22, 2011, and resides in Houston, according to the indictment.
Al Hardan's arrest came to light after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's office released the following statement Thursday:
"I applaud the FBI for today's arrest of this dangerous subject. However, this is precisely why I called for a halt to refugees entering the U.S. from countries substantially controlled by terrorists," he said. "I once again urge the President to halt the resettlement of these refugees in the United States until there is an effective vetting process that will ensure refugees do not compromise the safety of Americans and Texans."
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement that the arrests may have prevented a terror-related event.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Sacramento said 23-year-old Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, an Iraqi citizen, was arrested Thursday morning in Sacramento. He is charged with making a false statement involving international terrorism.
Federal officials say the investigation in California led to the arrest of three of Al-Jayab's relatives in Wisconsin in a separate case.
Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Sacramento, said the arrest of three suspects Thursday in Milwaukee wasn't related to national security. FBI Milwaukee Division spokesman Leonard Peace said there was no threat to the public associated with the arrests.
Peace said the three haven't made an initial court appearance, which is expected Friday. They were not identified, and no further details were immediately available.
Al Hardan's Indictment
Copyright Associated Press / NBC 5 Dallas-Fort WorthAn organism’s behaviour and cognitive traits are shaped through selection pressures as well as through ontogenetic influences1,2. Animals are faced with social and physical challenges in their environment, ranging from finding food to cooperation among group members3. From both, evolutionary and ontogenetic perspectives, a more complex environment can advance social as well as physical cognitive abilities4. Domestication is a special case, as here, non-human animals adapt to the human environment. This adds new challenges and selection pressures that were not posed on the wild ancestors and may relax some of the requirements on traits that are critical for survival in the wild5. For instance, domesticated species may have acquired social skills to interact with their human partners (social cognition), and may have lost skills relating to independent problem-solving and understanding their physical environment (physical cognition).
Regarding social cognition, research in the last two decades shows that pet dogs are particularly sensitive to human communicative cues6. As such, they outperform other animals in following human gestures to objects7,8,9,10, and often use human-provided information only if they have been addressed through ostensive cues (calling their name, eye-contact, etc.) beforehand11,12,13. Dogs seem to develop these skills earlier than their closest wild-living relatives, wolves, even when the latter are extensively human-raised14. This indicates that selection pressures during domestication have influenced dogs’ ability to communicate with humans which, if enabled by human socialization, can be further improved by life-long experiences7,15.
Compared to dogs, wolves seem to benefit more from observing conspecific and human actions that are not directed at them. Wolves follow non-communicative human gaze more often than dogs, and seem to pay more attention when observing others’ behaviours, which they, in turn, use to skilfully solve tasks16,17,18,19,20. No research has specifically addressed, however, whether wolves can go beyond attending to others’ behaviour and infer the intention underlying this behaviour. Studies show that dogs do not differentiate between humans’ intentional and accidental actions21,22,23, but may interpret gaze as a cue of someone’s intention to approach a certain object8,24. Due to the limited data comparing wolves’ and dogs’ understanding of behavioural cues, it is currently unknown whether and how domestication has affected this domain of social cognition. However, given wolves’ higher attentiveness to conspecific and human behaviours in previous studies, there is reason to believe that wolves would outperform dogs in comprehending behavioural cues. Dogs on the other hand tend to ignore behavioural cues when the cue is not specifically addressed to them through eye contact13. In addition, it has been theorized that the developmental effects of living among humans could improve animals’ use of intentional behaviours, a phenomenon referred to as ‘enculturation’25.
Dogs perform rather poorly in tasks that require understanding causal connections or physical characteristics of objects26. Not even intensive training on object manipulation and solving physical problems improves their performance27. Further, pets living in close contact to humans learn to rely on human help instead of solving problems independently, more than pets living outside of the house28. This suggests that dogs that live more independently, could potentially be better problem-solvers. One evolutionary theory that explains dogs’ poor performance in the causal domain is the information processing hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that selection pressures that advance causal understanding and thus problem-solving in wild animals, have relaxed on their domesticated counterparts due to a buffering effect of human care29,30. Moreover, dogs’ different feeding ecology as compared to wolves may have altered their performance in the causal domain31. As dogs scavenge for food in waste stably distributed around human settlements while wolves search for and hunt prey actively, the feeding ecology hypothesis proposes that dogs might have evolved reduced causal insight, persistence and exploration. Indeed, wolves were found to be more persistent and explorative than dogs when confronted with novel objects or environments31,32. Thus, a manipulative problem-solving task may not be the most useful method to compare physical cognition in dogs and wolves, as the better success of wolves may reflect their greater persistence in exploration, rather than a more advanced causal understanding.
Here we aimed to investigate how selection pressures during domestication and/or ontogenetic effects might have influenced dogs’ and wolves’ social and physical cognition. Within the social domain, we differentiated between the use of communicative and behavioural cues given by a human. Regardless of cognitive domain, animals needed to choose between two containers (one baited with food while the other was empty) cued differently in an object-choice task but did not need to manipulate an object to solve a problem. After the cue was performed, the animals could indicate their choice by touching one of the two targets fixed on the ends of a table, on which the containers were presented. This table was placed against a fence on the other side of which the animals were free to move.
To test for differences in social cognition, we differentiated between the use of communicative and behavioural cues given by a human who sat visibly behind the table. For the communicative cues, the experimenter repeatedly called the animal’s attention in order to cue it the correct choice (i.e. looking or pointing at the correct container), while for the behavioural ones, the experimenter showed behaviours that could indicate her intention to access one of the containers or its contents (i.e. reaching out to or trying to open the correct object). In contrast, to test the animal’s physical cognition, causal cues were provided while the experimenter was hiding under the table (i.e. a container producing noise while shaken versus a container that made no sound, an inclined shape versus a flat shape). In addition, all animals were tested in a control condition to check whether they could find the baited container based on smell. All animals were tested in 2 sessions consisting of 14 trials. To investigate based on which cues the animals could infer where the food was hidden, we recorded the number of correct choices in each of the four conditions (communicative, behavioural, causal and control). Furthermore, to measure how attentive the animals were we coded the proportion of time the animals spent in front of the testing table (position) and spent gazing in its direction (orientation).
To test for the effects of domestication on the three cognitive domains, we compared dogs (n = 14) and wolves (n = 12) raised and kept under identical conditions. Finally, to address the effects of living in human homes, we compared dogs socialized with humans but living in captive packs to enculturated pet dogs living in human families (n = 12). We expected that, (i) pet dogs would outperform pack dogs and pack dogs would outperform wolves in following more difficult human communicative cues whereas (ii) wolves would benefit more from observing behavioural cues and (iii) would be more successful in using causal cues than pack dogs, who would be more successful than pet dogs.Ministers should not overrule the Bible by allowing same-sex marriage and David Cameron would be like a "dictator" if he lets homosexual couples get married, the Archbishop of York has said.
Dr John Sentamu, the second most senior cleric in the Church of England, said marriage must remain a union between a man and a woman.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, the archbishop said marriage is set in history and the state cannot change it overnight.
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He said: "I don't think it is the role of the state to define what marriage is. It is set in tradition and history and you can't just (change it) overnight, no matter how powerful you are.
"We've seen dictators do it in different contexts and I don't want to redefine very clear social structures that have been in existence for a long time and then overnight the state believes it could go in a particular way.
"It's almost like somebody telling you overnight that the Church, whose job is to worship God (that it will be) an arm of the Armed Forces. They must take arms and fight. You're completely changing tradition."
The Government will open a consultation on the issue in March.
Dr Sentamu said the bishops in the House of Lords did not try to stop Labour introducing civil partnerships in 2004, giving same-sex couples improved legal rights.
He added the Church was also content with last year's move to allow civil partnership ceremonies in places of worship, as long as it is voluntary and agreed by the governing body of any particular denomination.
But Dr Sentamu said the Government would face a rebellion on any changes in legislation on gay civil marriage.
"The rebellion is going to come not only from the bishops. You're going to get it from across the benches and in the Commons.
"If you genuinely would like the registration of civil partnerships to happen in a more general way, most people will say they can see the drift. But if you begin to call those marriage, you're trying to change the English language.
"That does not mean you diminish, condemn, criticise, patronise any same-sex relationships because that is not what the debate is about.
"The Church has always stood out - Jesus actually was the odd man out. I'd rather stick with Jesus than be popular because it looks odd."
Dr Sentamu has previously expressed concern over the "gay marriage" of homosexual clergy after two reverends exchanged rings and vows at a service held in St Bartholomew the Great Church in the City of London in 2008
In a joint statement with the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, he said: "Those clergy who disagree with the Church's teaching are at liberty to seek to persuade others within the Church of the reasons why they believe, in the light of Scripture, tradition and reason that it should be changed.
"But they are not at liberty simply to disregard it."
PA
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Subscribe nowBy now, we've heard all about the big stuff in the fiscal cliff bill that finally passed on Tuesday. The Bush tax cuts will become permanent for all individual income below $400,000 (and family income below $450,000). The sequester spending cuts will be delayed two months. And so on.
We're handing it out. (AP)
But Congress also managed to include all sorts of corporate tax breaks and other arcane provisions into the final bill, covering everything from electric scooters to NASCAR racetracks to taking the subway to work. Most of these tax breaks were already longstanding provisions — Congress has been working to renew them all year. They're just being extended again for another year (or sometimes two), at a total cost of roughly $77 billion.
So let's take a look at 10 of the more curious tax provisions in the fiscal cliff bill—it offers some insight into how messy the tax code is, and will continue to be for another year. (You can find the full text of the cliff bill here, with the individual tax extenders in Title II and the corporate tax extenders in Title III.)
1. A $9 billion "sop for Wall Street banks and major multinationals"
Check out Section 322 of the bill. “Extension of the Active Financing Exception to Subpart F.” Sounds dull, right? Not quite.
As Dan Eggen has reported, this provision, first created in 1997, allows manufacturers and banks to defer taxes when they engage in a special type of financial transactions known as "active financing." The break now costs $9 billion per year, and critics claim it encourages firms to create jobs overseas. But it's a top lobbying priority for companies like GE and JP Morgan, who say that it helps them compete abroad, and it will get extended another year.
Now, there are a ton of other costly business tax breaks in the deal, too, from tax credits for R&D to bonus depreciation (which studies have found are ineffective at stimulating the economy). But the $9 billion active financing credit was arguably the hardest-fought.
2. A rum tax for Puerto Rico
Delicious rum drink, excise tax included. (The Washington Post)
Another longstanding item—this one dates back to 1917. Congress currently levies an excise tax worth $13.50 per gallon on all rum produced in or imported to the United States. Most of that money is transferred to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, who use the revenue to support their rum industries. In 2009, this tax raised some $547 million. The cliff deal would extend the current arrangement another year. (By the way, Puerto Rico's non-voting representative in the House, Pedro Pierluisi, thinks this tax set-up is too favorable to rum distillers.)
3. Cheaper office space for Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs HQ, under construction in 2008. (Flickr credit: Amy Dreher
Okay, it's certainly not called this. Section 328 of the bill extends tax-exempt financing for the "Liberty Zone," the area around the former World Trade Center, for another year. As Matt Stoller points out, this tax provision was supposed to help fund reconstruction after 9/11. Yet a recent Bloomberg investigation found the bonds have mostly helped finance new luxury apartments, not to mention the construction of Goldman Sachs' new headquarters. Developers say the bonds were necessary to revitalize downtown Manhattan, but there's a fierce debate over how they've been used.
4. Help NASCAR build racetracks
Jeff Zelevansky/Getty
The so-called NASCAR loophole, in place since 2004, allows anyone who builds a racetrack to receive a small tax benefit through accelerated depreciation. This tax break cost roughly $43 million the past two years and will get extended for another year. Sounds tawdry, right? And yet, supporters claim the break is necessary so that NASCAR can compete on a level playing field with other theme parks. Looks like they got their wish.
5. Treat coal from Indian lands as an alternative energy source
The fiscal cliff deal has a bunch of provisions for clean energy—notably, it extends a key tax credit for wind power for one more year, thus preventing the U.S. wind industry from downsizing. (That credit will cost about $1.2 billion per year for 10 years.)
But the production tax credit isn't just for renewable energy sources like wind. There's also a provision, section 406, to continue subsidizing coal produced on Indian lands at about $2 per ton. Again, this isn't new. Nor is it a huge deal (it will only cost about $1 million). But it's a reminder that not all of the clean-energy provisions in the bill are entirely green.
6. Promote plug-in electric scooters.
For years, Congress has been trying to promote electric cars through various tax breaks and subsidies. But what about electric bikes and scooters? Section 403 of the bill extends a credit for "2- or 3-wheeled plug-in electric vehicles." Yes, these things do exist: The Observer recently reported that e-bikes have become ubiquitous in New York City, used for everything from Chinese food deliveries to expensive joyrides. Only problem? They might well be illegal to ride in New York, although the rules here are awfully confusing.
7. Repair the railroads
Section 306 of the fiscal cliff bill will extend a hefty tax credit to railroads for maintenance work. Congress originally passed this credit because there was a worry that many of the hundreds of "short line railroads" would abandon their small sections of track, which would in turn fracture the national shipping network. This credit costs about $165 million per year and will survive another year.
8. Subsidize Hollywood films
Key grip: expensed! (Bret Hartman/The Washington Post)
The fiscal cliff bill renews "special expensing rules for certain film and television productions,” at a cost of some $75 million per year. Studios in Hollywood and elsewhere can deduct up to $15 million of their costs if more than three-fourths of the movie's production takes place in the United States. (They can get up to $20 million in deductions if they produce the film in a low-income community.)
9. Crack down on tax cheats... in prison
The Internal Revenue Service has long worked with state and federal prisons to tamp down on fraud among prisoners who are filing tax returns. Yet as more and more states have been contracting out their jails and prisons to for-profit companies, the IRS has had difficulty sharing its data with private contractors. Never fear, section 209 of the fiscal cliff bill addresses this concern and allows the IRS to share its files with private prisons.
10. Provide incentives for commuters to take the bus or train
No pants. But at least we get a tax credit. (Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters)
Hey, not all of the lesser-known aspects of the fiscal cliff deal are seedy giveaways to big corporations. There's also a small tax break that gives people incentives to take mass transit. (This provision was originally part of the 2009 stimulus but expired last year.)
For the past year, the tax code has subsidized driving to work over taking transit. If you drove, your employer could cover up to $240 per month in parking expenses tax-free. If you took the bus, your employer could only cover $125 in expenses per month tax-free. The two benefits have now been set at equal levels once again for 2012 (retroactively) and 2013. There's some evidence that this change will induce more people to take transit to work, though it will cost $220 million.
Further reading:
--Suzy Khimm breaks down the main provisions of the fiscal cliff deal.
--The full text (pdf) of the bill.
--Matt Stoller details some of the other corporate giveaways nestled inside the bill.Manitoba’s legislative chamber is about to become safer and more accessible, but the price per seat isn’t cheap.
A $220,000 renovation slated to wrap up in March will include 24 new chairs with a price tag of about $1,200 each.
The cost is largely driven up by a need to maintain the heritage status of the building that opened back in 1920, said Susanne Parent, acting assistant deputy minister for the province’s accommodation services division.
“Up until now, those chairs were over 40 years old and were bolted to the floor, you could not adjust them in any way,” said Parent. “So, now, 18 of them have been replaced and it’s the back row that was made accessible. Those chairs have to meet heritage requirements.”
Another six chairs to be replaced next to the speaker’s chair mean 24 spots will allow movement |
toward corporatized media coverage of world events. Recently more people are seeking alternative online news sources for their information in response to growing public awareness that corporate media has become a mere extension of the government as its chief propagandist disinformation outlet. Even such traditionally prestigious and reputable newspapers like the Washington Post, New York Times and Wall Street Journal are now regarded as in-bed, embedded journalism fused with the government. As such, last year’s June Gallup poll indicated that a whopping 80% of Americans aged 21 to 64 find mainstream media lacks credibility. All these results reflect a growing trend that an increasing segment of both the US and global population has come to believe and accept that they are systematically and regularly lied to and misinformed by their corrupt leaders in both government as well as corporate media.
As products of their social and cultural environments, humans raised in the West have been victims of a massive global brainwash forced into a world of duplicitous dualism to “choose” sides, of course choosing the political side of their own nation, culture, ethnicity and/or religion, conned into automatically accepting that their nation/culture/religion is far more righteous and superior in comparison to others on the opposing side.
Since World War II those of us in North America have been dished the demonized view of Communist nations Russia and China, and now with cold war part two in full swing, they have come full circle again at our so called enemies. Then after the fall of the Soviet empire, and the 9/11 neocon false flag attack, came the new US manufactured villain Osama bin Laden and his band of evil bad guys, the al Qaeda terrorist network. Always those who appear most foreign and different from us are deemed the bad guys of the world.
Fortunately over time this oversimplified, black and white rerun version of the world has been challenged and exposed as jingoistic bias and distortion of how our complicated world actually is. Many of us have intuitively known all along that as members of the same human species, the striking similarities of our common human nature that bind us together far outweigh whatever differences in culture, skin color, nationality, political ideology, global region or religion. What many of us are increasingly realizing both here in America as well as in other nations around the globe is that we have been purposely and methodically lied to and manipulated for a very long time. The education system in America is more about socializing, programming and brainwashing young people into becoming obedient, mindless, robotic adults than learning any real truth or learning to cultivate and use their critical faculties to seek the truth amidst the world of illusion.
This “us versus them,” “you’re either with us or against us” dichotomy has been forever used as an artificial manmade device to separate humans into an in-group versus out-group duality. Unfortunately it has been operating nonstop ever since cavemen first emerged from their caves and encountered other human tribes. Through human migration and modern technology of air travel and most recently internet travel, more than any time prior in man’s relative short history on earth, Canadian communications philosopher Marshall McLuhan’s concept of the world seen as a “global village” has shrunk the earth into a here and now everyday accepted reality.
As a result, in recent years the world view of nations and continents has become somewhat more homogenized, made more accessible by mass media technology that transcends both geography and culture. Learning and communicating with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds have brought the world closer. That said, conversely the earth today is geopolitically moving rapidly toward more fragmented polarization, driven by a single globalization economy owned, controlled and operated by a global oligarchy. Its perverse vision of a New World Order currently has much of the global population brainwashed to fear, mistrust, hate and kill each other with unparalleled potential. But not all of us are being fooled by such divisively spun projections from a shadowy elite madly pulling their deceptive spin levers cloaked behind their gold curtain. An honest look at what is actually happening now around the world exposes the oligarch agenda to purposely increase worldwide tension, division and conflict.
Last February’s notorious power grabbing political coup pulled off by the US in Ukraine installing a weak, corrupt and vicious fascist government certainly was no accident. Neither was the IMF loan immediately slapped on the Ukrainian people. Neither is the current civil war raging in eastern Ukraine where government forces are committing war atrocities and ethnic cleansing against a majority population of ethnic Russians. Nor for that matter is the ongoing political crisis occurring this entire year long in Venezuela a mere random accident.
By carefully orchestrated design, the US-EU-NATO alliance is obediently carrying out the oligarch high command to destabilize, polarize and militarize every continent on earth, pitting regional adversaries against each other in a global offensive with the West jabbing and baiting the East into military conflict from the Arctic to every corner of the globe. Right now in Asia tensions are mounting between China and North Korea on the one side and on the other US allied neighbors Japan, South Korea, Philippines and Vietnam where a new US naval base is planned.
Then there is the perennial hotbed of a mess exploding right now in the Middle East. The same war pattern has been raging in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. And with covert predator drone operations likewise going on for years in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, the US is extending its imperialistic military foothold and hegemony further south with Special Operations stretching deep into Sub-Saharan Africa.
For well over three years Washington has been using US taxpayer dollars to arm, bankroll and train al Qaeda extremist militants throughout the Middle East and Africa to fight as its proxy mercenaries against Syrian leader Assad’s government forces as an obvious precursor to launching war against Syria’s foremost ally Iran. Obama just pledged another half billion dollars in arms to those same al Qaeda rebels in Syria.
But recently with the Syrian army gaining the upper hand, Washington made the decision to seek yet another regime change in Iraq, sending the so called Islamic Soldiers of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) sweeping downward from Syria into Iraq, taking over every major city in that country except the Shiite stronghold in the capital Baghdad. A major bloodbath awaits as the sectarian civil war America created years ago shifts into bloody regime-change overdrive. The US is guilty of backing both opposing sides in Iraq, ISIS and its weak Maliki puppet government, not unlike how oligarchs back both Republicans and Democrats using the old, highly effective, deceptive divide and conquer strategy.
Of course a similar situation in Afghanistan has the Taliban enemy controlling most of the nation’s territory, waiting six more months for US troops to withdraw by the end of the year. The 9800 US designated soldiers left behind will supposedly be in an advisory role for the Afghan National Army. The US war on drugs has bolstered the pockets of both the US drug smuggling operation as well as raising millions of dollars for the Taliban cause that controls the poppy field heroin production. The current undoing of ten years of costly American war and occupation of Iraq will more than likely be replicated in Afghanistan in 2015 as the surging Taliban will then be closing in on the capital Kabul.
In the meantime, virtually every other so called Arab spring CIA-Special Ops-induced regime change has been disastrous for the native populations. For example, in Egypt a third US supported government is run by an over-the-top, oppressive military dictatorship. Meanwhile, the US has created a highly chaotic, lawless, and violent failed state now in Libya. The oligarch planetary vision of destabilizing every Third World nation on earth is currently working according to plan now at an accelerated pace.
In recent decades America has moved from a corporatized pseudo-democracy to a full fledge oligarchy where oligarchs owning the most powerful transnational corporations have merged with virtually all national governments, regardless of ideology and culture. More than ever these days, money buys power. No longer does the US President, the US Congress, nor the US Supreme Court represent the interests of the American people but as hand-picked players operating within a corrupt oligarchy, they are all beholding to the powerbrokers that have made them their political puppets in charge of doing their evil bidding. As such, virtually all of the key political players today are treasonous traitors guilty of betraying the US Constitution that under oath they all swore to protect and uphold, and also betraying US citizens for failing to represent the very people who voted them into power.
Through the process of globalization and privatization, a parallel process to America has been unfolding with nearly every nation and national government on every continent on earth. Deploying US-EU-NATO power, the oligarchs have had their way with all governments. Thus the people on this planet have little to no say or power over their lives since a morally bankrupt global economic system of indentured servitude and slavery keep people drowning in insurmountable debt. These days people find themselves working longer and harder for less money just to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table for their families. However, in this growing era of severe global austerity and impoverishment, increasing pressures of providing for their families have too many people barely able to survive, and regretfully many around the globe are not.
Mounting inequality and disparity between the rich and poor are also accelerating to unprecedented levels globally. The elite 1% of oligarchs and their power-broking stewards continue growing exceedingly richer at the expense of the rest of us have-nots on the planet. War, poverty and illness are becoming the new normal far beyond Third World nations. EU countries throughout southern Europe as well as the US are on an ominous fast track to economic collapse. Led by cold war enemies and strongest BRICS nations Russia and China, a growing international movement is afoot to dump the US dollar as the standard international currency, which amounts to an approaching fiscal cliff for America.
Over 40% and rising of America’s adult working age population have not been working when the real unemployment rate include the growing masses who stopped looking for jobs that no longer exist for them. During the last couple decades, mothers as single parents have been struggling to raise America’s children, for the first time replacing the two parent nuclear family as head of household majority. More than half of US adults up to age 25 still live with their parents. But due to increasing financial necessity, a growing trend of even older adults and their children are being forced to move back in with parents at never before seen rates. US college students and young graduates today are mired in college loan debt now exceeding a trillion dollars, as of 2010 even surpassing the nation’s credit card debt. Upwardly mobile progress is long gone in America as the younger adult generations now for the first time can no longer expect to enjoy the same higher standard of living as their parents. The fast changing sociological economic dynamics of the family structure and how younger generations of Americans are being raised in an increasing climate of uncertainty and despair is far different and far bleaker than all previous generations throughout American history.
Without a manufacturing sector left in the US and a decimated middle class from funding an overstretched American Empire waging too many wars around the world, America is a debtor nation dependent as a consumer society on cheap outsourced products mostly from China. US permanent war policy with its conveniently fabricated “war on terror” has drained the middle class during a severe recession still floundering without recovery, chiefly caused by greedy banksters and Wall Street criminals who further gouged already emaciated taxpayers with enormous “too big to fail” bailouts. The national priority in the US has clearly been to not take care of its own citizens but instead wage the longest running wars in US history to ensure that the military security complex as the sole profiteers of war get filthily richer while reeking havoc all over the world with destabilizing regime changes, massive death and global destruction.
Meanwhile, the overburdened middle class shrinks to an all time low as the poor in America reach an all time high while decaying inner city war zones and rotting domestic infrastructure remain long neglected disasters waiting to happen. As a result of all this blatant theft, gross mismanagement of dwindling resources and pervasive criminal malfeasance, America is hopelessly stalled and a long ways from recovering from the 2008 bubble burst. Since 2008 the world’s total government debt has increased by 40% while the largest bailed out banks have grown by a hefty 37% just in the last six years alone. Yet for all its criminal theft and human suffering caused, not one bankster or corporate executive has been indicted or gone to prison for nearly bankrupting the richest, most powerful nation on earth.
Meanwhile, predatory worldwide IMF and world bank loans have opportunistically straight-jacketed Third World nations into debts they have no chance of repaying, leaving them defenseless against their homelands being plundered by predatory privatizing transnationals bent on extracting and stealing every last ounce of underground natural resource available on the planet.
This calculated, sinister process of globalization, privatization and increasing militarization bringing more wars to the planet is all part of the preplanned oligarch agenda to literally squeeze the life out of the world’s population of seven billion people, eugenically thinning the human herd down to anywhere from just a meager half to one billion people. This means that up to 13 out of 14 of us currently living on planet earth right now are slated to be mass murdered within the next few years. This is how the oligarchic plan for a New World Order will be fulfilled, complete with implanted micro-chips in the less than a billion people left on earth as the calculated number of humans still needed to serve as the oligarch’s subservient lackey class. This is their diabolical agenda currently being methodically executed to make life on planet earth over the long haul more sustainable for them and them only.
With all this increasing theft, death and destruction on every continent reaching such an explosive, unprecedented scale where World War III is all but impending, by now every alert citizen of the world should recognize what a handful of wealthy oligarch families have been doing for centuries to this planet – manipulating and enslaving the global masses through centuries of imperialist empire hegemony and controlling international economies at will though war making.
How can so few number of humans control and willfully destroy so many humans? Very evilly as psychopaths. But then they have had centuries of practice, skillfully, secretively operating in back shadows, using their puppet front men as their government leaders to lie constantly to the people. And of course for quite awhile they have had mass media bombarding us with nonstop lies, propaganda, disinformation and deceit just to make certain populations are kept in the dark. Today with big sports, video games, celebrity worship and digital toys galore, their ploy is to keep the masses distracted and ignorant of what has been really going on for a very, very long time. Through whitewashed history books that purposely cover up this same dark truth through the ages, Americans have long been brainwashed and mesmerized into accepting their illusion of democracy, equality, freedom and justice, but for only a few, not all of us as we were always led to believe.
But as demonstrated most recently by the world focus on the latest annual Bilderberg gathering in Copenhagen, the oligarchs are unable to pull the strings from afar any longer without our noticing. Though they wield ultimate power over all the most prominent governments and corporations on earth, there are seven billion human beings who are beginning to wake up now and are onto their evil agenda. Oligarchs taking notice and fast becoming nervous as their Oz-like curtain is finally being lifted once and for all. And behind that curtain we find a handful of wrinkled, prune faced, feeble old white men who look like Mr. Burns on the Simpsons still calling all the shots, but ultimately exposed naked like never before. With more and more of us world citizens every single day becoming aware of their vicious and heinous crimes against humanity, against all of us on this earth, like never before we are in a unique position of burgeoning power to call them on their diabolical plan and evildoing.
We have at our collective disposal much more power than we even know at this relatively early stage of mindful resistance. As globally aware, ethically-motivated, humane and compassionate citizens of the world, we possess the opportunity to finally break free of the shackles that have stifled and enslaved humanity for far too long. Overwhelming similarities are currently binding us earthlings together as richly diverse members of the same humanoid family as well as like minded world citizen-activists committed to doing our collective active best in bringing about peace and justice to our ailing, only planet, before the handful of hugely outnumbered oligarchs destroy everything we hold most dear and sacred. It is up to us ordinary decent people to recognize the truth and bravely act on that truth in unified solidarity for the sake of preserving life on earth in the way that God intended. Again, our beliefs and our actions will determine our reality.
Joachim Hagopian is a West Point graduate and former US Army officer. He has written a manuscript based on his unique military experience entitled “Don’t Let The Bastards Getcha Down.” It examines and focuses on US international relations, leadership and national security issues. After the military, Joachim earned a masters degree in Clinical Psychology and worked as a licensed therapist in the mental health field for more than a quarter century. He now concentrates on his writing.Cyclists looking to bike far out into the Columbia River Gorge will soon be one step closer their dream, as crews resume work on the much-anticipated Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail this winter.
The 73-mile hiker and bike-friendly trail along the Columbia River Gorge will inch forward toward completion in 2016, as work begins on another piece of the puzzle that will eventually connect Troutdale to The Dalles.
A MISSING LINK
Crews first started work on the 1.3-mile connection between Lindsey Creek and Starvation Creek in December, but started ramping up efforts in late January, the Hood River News reported. The project - a collaboration between the Oregon Department of Transportation and other state and federal agencies - is expected to be finished by fall.
It's a small portion of the sprawling bike-centric trail system that is attempting to replace the original Historic Columbia River Highway, the nation's first scenic highway dedicated in 1916, today connecting cities on the Oregon side of the Gorge along a whole different path.
The 1.3-mile segment of the Columbia River Historic Highway trail being worked on in 2016.
"You have a series of nice day trips which will become an international destination when they're all hooked together," former Hood River Mayor Arthur Babitz said in a promotional video series for the project. "When you connect all the pieces together, that's going to be transformational."
Cities along the route hope the connection will bring more visitors, bringing an economic boost along with them.
Cascade Locks was hooked up to the trail after the 2013 completion of the Bonneville Segment, between the city and John B. Yeon State Park to the west. For about a decade the town had flirted with a casino project, proposed by the Warm Springs Tribes, but now sees the trail project as a better opportunity.
"There was a period when people thought a casino coming to town would change the dynamic," Tom Owens, head of the Cascade Locks Business Association, told the Oregonian in 2013. "We have moved beyond that and believe the tourism side of things is poised to take off in Cascade Locks."
10 MILES, 2 YEARS TO GO
Only 10 miles remain unconnected on the Historic Columbia River Highway trail, all in a particularly tricky area between Wyeth and Hood River known to planners as the Mitchell Point Segment.
There, the Oregon Department of Transportation and other agency officials will need to circumvent several obstacles as they weave a pathway between Interstate 84, the railroad line, and the rock walls that have stymied engineers since the 1910s.
Chief among their challenges are bypassing Shellrock Mountain - which they plan to do with a trail behind the existing retaining wall - and building a 40-foot-high, 800-foot-long viaduct to connect Shellrock Mountain to Starvation Creek, via an old, unused segment of original highway known as Mossy Road.
But even that will leave the project's biggest challenge of all in the way: blasting a new quarter-mile tunnel into the otherwise impassable Mitchell Point.
The tunnel was built once before, considered a true feat of engineering that became one of the defining features of the old highway along the gorge, but it was destroyed in the 1960s during the construction of the interstate.
The new tunnel, which would help crews connect the final five miles of the trail, isn't expected to be done until 2018.
Until then, cyclists looking to tour the Gorge will have to take the risky incomplete route, a trip that requires biking the 10-mile stretch of the Mitchell Point Segment along the shoulder of busy Interstate 84.
A bicycle tour of the gorge is surely an unforgettable experience, but you might just want to wait for the trail.
--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesBMy very first job in Japan was with an established, well-known company that’s one of the top enterprises in its field. The company’s nationwide scale and decades of operations seemed to mark it as sophisticated and experienced enough to appreciate the value of a good employee support system, so I was a little surprised during the training session for new employees when we were told, “If you’re going to take a sick day, you have to tell your manager at least 24 hours in advance.”
The problem is, coming down with the flu isn’t like getting free shipping from Amazon, in that it usually doesn’t take more than a day. Unfortunately, my old employer never taught us how to know we’d be sick two days ahead of time, but another Japanese company has an effective way of sidestepping the issue entirely: never check to see if you have a fever.
Almost all major Japanese companies hire new employees just once a year, and each year’s batch starts working right now, in April. Complaining about the younger generation’s lack of gumption is as popular a hobby in Japan as in any other country, and one Japanese company is determined to toughen up their new recruits, according to Twitter user N_write.
“My friend just got a job,” he shares, “and at the training for new employees, they told him, ‘There are times when you have to come to work, even when you’re not feeling good.’”
So far this seems reasonable. After all, the gears of industry won’t stop turning just because you’re feeling a little under the weather, and everyone appreciates a team player who can suck it up and pitch in.
The instructor wasn’t done yet, though, as he went on to tell his company’s fresh-faced new recruits that, “If you don’t take your temperature, you won’t realize you’re actually sick, and you’ll be able to come to the office. Please throw away your thermometers.”
▼ All this time, we thought the biggest roadblocks on the path to riches were laziness, shortsightedness, and multiple lunch-time scotches, but it turns out all along the real culprit has been this little guy.
By preventing workers from measuring just how sick they are, the company is also keeping them from determining whether they’ve just got a little sniffle or a serious illness. This seems like it’d be counterproductive, since high fevers are often a symptom of contagious sicknesses, and it only takes one infected individual to pass it around to the whole office. Of course, as long as everyone adheres strictly to the instructor’s advice and diligently refuses to take their temperatures, the company will still have a full staff at work every day, so maybe having everyone throw away their thermometers would be good for business.
▼ Unless, of course, the company manufactures thermometers
Japanese business norms make this a particularly tricky situation. As we said, most companies in Japan do all of their hiring in a single batch, once a year. Failing to find a job means waiting 12 months until you can try again, and a blank year without gainful corporate employment is considered a serious black mark on one’s resume.
▼ Japanese doesn’t really have an expression for “finding yourself.”
Likewise, if you quit soon after starting, you’ve got about another year of waiting until well-paying, white-collar positions start hiring again, at which point you’ve got a large gap in your professional resume plus the stigma of being a quitter, something that hard-working Japan frowns on in general.
N_write, having much more empathy than his friend’s trainer, took the company to task for pressuring its employees into what he feels is an explotative relationship. “I think companies like this one scare their new employees by saying, ‘You won’t be new college graduates anymore. The economy still isn’t good, and when you go looking for a new job, they’ll think you’re the kind of person who gives up easily. There’s nothing to be gained from quitting, and all the hard work you did to get the job you have now will have been a waste.’”
We’ve heard of people throwing away their freedom, personal relationships, and even their morals in order to succeed at business, but for the sake of workers’ health, not to mention the health of the customers they come into contact with, we hope this trend of getting rid of thermometers doesn’t catch on.
Source: Jin
Top image: I Got It
Insert images: Twitter, Omron, Princeton Marketing, Guys Long HairPostgreSQL provides different ways to backup and restore your databases. With PostgreSQL, backups can be full, incremental or continuous, and they can be at logical or filesystem level. Point-in-time recovery is possible from incremental backups. PostgreSQL even supports a feature called timelines, which is a sort of branching history of your backup and restores.
Let’s have a look at the common options for backup and restore.
Dumping Using pg_dump and pg_dumpall
The pg_dump utility can be used to generate a logical dump of a single database. If you need to include global objects (like uses and tablespaces) or dump multiple databases, use pg_dumpall instead.
The output generated by pg_dump is not a traditional “backup”. It omits some information that makes it unusable for some operations, like for example initializing a standby server. The output is also much bigger than from other backup methods, making it suitable only for “small” databases.
It is however, powerful in other aspects:
You can connect as a normal user that has read-only privileges for all the relevant objects
You can selectively restore objects from the dump (using custom format)
You can manually edit and tweak SQL before restore (using SQL format)
pg_dump can create dumps as plain SQL files, as a tar archive, as a directory with a set of files or as a single file called a custom format file. Of these, the SQL file and the custom format file are the most interesting.
pg_dump is invoked like this:
# dump to single SQL file $ pg_dump -d mydb -n public -f mydb.sql # dump to a custom format file $ pg_dump -d mydb -n public --format = custom -f mydb.pgdmp
Note that we’re dumping only objects from the public schema. This is typically what you want.
The file mydb.sql is a plain text file with PostgreSQL commands, and the file mydb.pgdmp is a custom format file. Note that the custom format file is gzip-compressed and it is not required to compress it again.
The PostgreSQL docs have more info about all the options for pg_dump and pg_dumpall.
Restoring from a SQL dump file
The SQL file of course, can be sourced in the usual way with psql to recreate the database(s). However, there are a few options that you probably want to specify so that the execution goes through cleanly – see the second example below. Of these, the -1 option ensures that the whole script is executed in a single transaction, so that you have a all-or-nothing restore.
# restoring from a SQL dump file, the simple version $ psql -d mydb_new < mydb.sql # restoring from a SQL dump file, the recommended version $ PGOPTIONS = '--client-min-messages=warning' psql -X -q -1 -v ON_ERROR_STOP = 1 --pset pager = off -d mydb_new -f mydb.sql -L restore.log
Read about all the psql options here.
Restoring from custom format dump files
Let’s say someone accidently dropped a table, and you’d like to restore only that table. Restoring from a custom format pg_dump file is the easiest way to do this.
You can use the pg_restore utility to restore a full custom format dump file, but it’s real value lies in the ease of importing a single function, table or trigger from the dump file.
# restoring from a dump written to a custom format file $ pg_restore -d mydb_new -v -1 mydb.pgdmp # restore a single table from the dump $ pg_restore -d mydb_new --table = mytable -v -1 mydb.pgdmp # restore a single function from the dump $ pg_restore -d mydb_new --function = myfunc -v -1 mydb.pgdmp
You can read more about pg_restore here.
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Backup Using pg_basebackup
The tool pg_basebackup is the standard way to take full, filesystem-level backup of a PostgreSQL database cluster. (Here cluster refers to the Postgres’ usage of the term, that is, all the databases managed by a single server process.)
The pg_basebackup makes a replication protocol connection (just like a replication client) to the PostgreSQL server, and creates a binary copy of the data files that live in the $PGDATA directory of the server. The copy it creates is consistent – the files exactly correspond to the state at the end of some particular transaction.
This also implies that pg_basebackup needs to connect as a user who is explicitly permitted to use the replication protocol. You can do this by adding lines to pg_hba.conf similar to:
# TYPE DATABASE USER ADDRESS METHOD local replication myuser peer host replication myuser 10.0.0.1/32 md5
If you are worried about missing transactions that happen while the backup is going on, you can ask pg_basebackup to fetch and include those transaction log files (WAL files) also, using the -x or -X options.
# create the backup as a standard Postgres files in /path/to/datadir $ pg_basebackup -D /path/to/datadir # create a backup tar.gz file for each tablespace under /path/to/dir $ pg_basebackup --format = tar -z -D /path/to/dir -P # also include transactions since the backup started $ pg_basebackup -x -D /path/to/datadir
The pg_basebackup docs has more details.
Restoring from pg_basebackup files
The files created by pg_basebackup is an exact, consistent mirror of the files under $PGDATA (this is typically like /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main ). Restoring involves only moving these files into the appopriate place, like this:
$ sudo systemctl stop postgresql $ sudo rm -rf /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main/ * $ sudo -u postgres tar -xvC /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main -f /path/to/dumpdir/base.tar.gz $ sudo systemctl start postgresql
Streaming Replication
If you can afford the extra resources, having an up-to-date hot standby server, continuously replicating from your primary server, is a great way to mitigate downtime risk. You also get a “free” server to run your reports and other analytics, without loading your primary.
Learn how you can use the streaming replication feature to do this in our All About PostgreSQL Streaming Replication blog post.
Note that it is possible to take backups of any type from standby servers also.
Incremental and Continuous Backup
A PostgreSQL server generates a stream of changelog files, called WAL (Write Ahead Log) files. By archiving these files as they are generated, you can create an incremental, continuous backup system.
You can read more about WAL archiving in this All about WAL archiving in PostgreSQL blog post.
Typically, full backups are taken periodically along with continuous WAL archiving. Together, these allow for point-in-time recovery.
Point-in-time Recovery (PITR)
PITR refers to restoring the PostgreSQL cluster to the state it was at a particular point in time.
For example, let’s say something drastic happened at 11:20 AM and you’d like to restore the databases to the state it was just before 11:20. Assume you take daily backups at 01:00 AM each day and use continuous WAL archiving, you can follow these steps:
stop postgres
restore the last full backup, the one made at 01:00 AM
mount the filesystem with the WAL archive files
create a $PGDATA/recovery.conf file that has the contents:
restore_command = 'cp /path/to/archive/%f "%p"' recovery_target_time = '2017-02-08 11:20:00 UTC' recovery_target_inclusive = false
Then start the Postgres server. On startup, it will repeatedly invoke the restore_command script to fetch WAL files from 01:00 AM, upto but not including 11:20 AM. At that point, it ends the recovery phase and starts normal operations.
You can read more about PITR in the PostgreSQL docs.
Monitoring Backups
It is not sufficient to just add cron jobs for backup, you need to monitor them too!
Be sure to monitor:
whether your backup jobs are completing successfully
the time taken for each backup, and keep an eye on how this goes up
Additionally, you should also have another cron job that picks up a recent backup and tries to restore it into an empty database, and then deletes the database. This ensures that your backups are accessible and usable. Make sure you try restoring against the right versions of your PostgreSQL server.
You should monitor this restoration cron job too, as well as the time taken for the restoration. The restoration time has a direct impact on how long it’ll be before you are back online after a database crash!
Monitoring Backups, WAL Archiving and Replication
With OpsDash, you can quickly start monitoring your PostgreSQL servers, and get instant insight into key performance and health metrics including WAL archiving and streaming replication.
Additionally, each OpsDash Smart Agent includes the industry-standard statsd interface (and even a graphite interface) to easily report custom metrics.
The dashboard below shows the streaming replication lag and WAL archiving status for a server:
New Here?
OpsDash is a server monitoring, service monitoring, and database monitoring solution for monitoring MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, memcache, Redis, Apache, Nginx, HTTP URLs, Elasticsearch and more. It provides intelligent, customizable dashboards and spam-free alerting via email, HipChat, Slack, PagerDuty and PushBullet.The team of OpenPhoenux presented the development process of the open hardware and free software powered mobile plattform “GTA04” at FOSDEM 2011 and 2012, including working prototypes and preview-boards for developers.
Now, that the OpenPhoenux has taken off to reach a broader audience, we’ll show off all the open hardware (prototypes of new products and finished devices) at FOSDEM 2013. We hope you’re already eager to have your hands on the latest and greatest open mobile handhelds, which will be presented at our booth!
All of those are based on the GTA04 open mobile plattform, whose latest revision GTA04-A5 is ready and waiting for pre-orders to finance the next production run.
In addition, there are still a few complete GTA04 (revision A4) smartphone units on stock at the Openmoko reseller Pulster.eu. Contact him for further information.
Those are all great hardware projects for Linux/FOSS enthusiasts and freedom lovers! But the World of OpenPhoenux is not limited to hardware gadgets, but is connected to several other open mobile and communication projects, as well:
So, if you’re visiting FOSDEM this year and are interested in open mobile communications it is a must to drop by the “World of OpenPhoenux”-booth (No. 3) in building AW, right next to Jolla/Sailfish, Hackable Devices/MakerBot, Enlightenment and more!
We’re looking forward to meet you there, answer your questions and demo the devices to you!This week's Foreign Policy carries an unusually racy story: Assistant Editor Tom Stackpole 'embedded' himself with an outfit that, in apparent homage to the secret network that helped smuggle American slaves out of danger, calls itself Operation Underground Railroad (OUR). But the twist is a modern one: OUR has its sights set firmly on victims of child sex trafficking and their exploiters. It's a boys' own adventure with all the requisite motifs. The heroes are all hyper-masculine and chisel-jawed. The victims are very young and very beautiful. The perps are foreign, swarthy and snarling.
OUR was founded by self-proclaimed "Man of God," former CIA and Homeland Security official Tim Bollard. The Foreign Policy piece focuses on rescue operations conducted by OUR in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Last year the group attracted favorable publicity for its involvement in a similar sting in Colombia that reportedly broke up a major child prostitution ring. OUR's modus operandi is simple. The organization receives allocated funding to conduct a rescue. A team flies out to the selected country and makes contact with local law enforcement. An elaborate sting follows: Bollard and his friends pose as sex tourists. They actively seek out those who can supply young girls for a 'party.' The girls and their pimps arrive. Local police swoop in. The pimps are arrested and the victims are handed over to social workers. All this is filmed so the person who funded the recue can watch, in real time and from the comfort of his or her office or home, where their money is going. (Sometimes supporters can even participate). After arrests are made, the OUR team makes a quick exit, never to return.
Unfortunately, it seems that Stackpole, a seasoned journalist who should know better, got caught up in the drama and excitement of being on a real, live rescue mission. For example, he explains that Bollard and his partners trawl bars announcing their desire for "exotic" (i.e. underage) partners. But he hastens to assure the reader that they are careful not to entrap potential targets. Courts in the U.S. and many other countries would have a hard time making that distinction and in most jurisdictions such actions could constitute a defense to criminal liability. Stackpole also fails to explore the ethical and legal minefield of OUR live-streaming their operations to benefactors overseas. From the perspective of a victim's right to privacy, such actions are reprehensible.
And from a criminal justice perspective, there are even more pressing concerns about the OUR approach. First, the entire premise of its operations: that local law enforcement will take over when the dirty work has been done is dangerously naïve. Why are police in Mexico, the Dominican Republic |
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Branded, wrapped or sponsored vehicles, RVs, tents, etc utilized for marketing purposes.
FESTIVAL GROUND PROHIBITED ITEMS
These items are not allowed under any circumstances:
Illegal substances
Drugs or drug paraphernalia
Pets
Chairs
Compressed Gas Cylinders (CO2, Propane, etc.)
Massagers
Laser pointers and air horns
Pacifiers
Stuffed Animals
Eye drops
Over-the-counter medications (see FAQ for Prescription Medication Requirements)
Glass, cans, cups, or coolers
Markers, pens or spray paint
Unauthorized vending/soliciting materials (promotional stickers, flyers, commodities, etc)
Balls or Frisbees
Large purses, bags, or backpacks (over 12″×12″)
Outside food or beverages (including alcohol and candy)
Weapons of any kind (includes pocket knives, pepper spray, firearms, etc.)
Professional photo, video, or audio recording equipment (no detachable lenses, tripods, big zooms, or commercial-use rigs)
Conditions of Entry
THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS ARE FOR GUESTS ENTERING IMAGINE:
TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF OUR IMAGINE FAMILY, ALL VEHICLES, PERSONS, AND PROPERTY ARE SUBJECT TO SEARCH AT ALL TIMES. FAILURE TO CONSENT TO SEARCH WILL RESULT IN DENIAL OF ENTRY OR EJECTION FROM EVENT;
DRUG USE OR POSSESSION IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED;
INTOXICATED PATRONS WILL BE REFUSED ENTRY/ ASKED TO LEAVE;
UNDERAGE DRINKING/DELIVERY TO MINORS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED;
NO OUTSIDE ALCOHOL ALLOWED IN FESTIVAL GROUNDS;;
ALL CAMELBAKS/ WATER BOTTLES MUST BE EMPTY UPON ENTRY;
STROBE LIGHTS WILL BE IN USE;
NO UNAUTHORIZED VENDING/SOLICITATIONS;
NO PROFESSIONAL CAMERAS OR VIDEO EQUIPMENT;
NO CROWD SURFING, MOSHING, OR STAGE DIVING;
DAILY RE-ENTRY IS ONLY PERMITTED FOR CAMPING TICKET HOLDERS;
NO PETS;
GOOD VIBES ONLY – NO BAD ATTITUDES WILL BE TOLERATED!;
IMAGINE RESERVES THE RIGHT, WITHOUT REFUND OF ANY AMOUNT PAID, TO REFUSE ADMISSION TO, OR EJECT ANY PERSONS, INCLUDING THOSE WHO CONDUCT IS DEEMED DISORDERLY, DISRUPTIVE, ABUSIVE OR WHO OTHERWISE FAILS TO COMPLY RULES AND INSTRUCTIONS OF UNIFORMED EVENT STAFF;
FESTIVAL SAFETY TEAM RESERVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE THE FINAL DECISION ON ALLOWED AND PROHIBITED ITEMS WITHOUT NOTICE.
SMILE. STAY HYDRATED. PACE YOURSELF. TAKE CARE OF ONE ANOTHER.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING!
FAQ
Q: What can I bring with me?
A: See the complete list of acceptable and prohibited items Here.
Q: Does everyone that’s riding in my car need a car camping pass?
A: Yes, each person entering the campground must have their own individual camping pass and their own individual admission ticket to the festival. The camping pass includes free showers (with plumbing), free bathrooms (with plumbing), after party (silent disco), parking at your campsite, and much more.
Q: Can I add Camping to my ticket if I already purchased a Festival Pass?
A: Yes, you can add a camping pass to your ticket by visiting our Add-On tickets page. **Important** If you have a GA Festival ticket, you can only add a GA Camping pass. If you have a VIP Festival ticket, you can only add a VIP Camping pass.
Q: I have two or more tickets. When I go to edit the name on one of those tickets, it changes both tickets.
A: This year we are only requiring one person’s name to be on the ticket as we are shipping out wristbands in advance. Just make sure your shipping info is correct and we are shipping to the correct person as we can only ship to one person per order. Once you receive the wristbands, you will be able to activate and register them. If you need to update your shipping info, click here.
Q: If I am staying off-site can I leave the festival grounds and come back?
A: In an effort to ensure our patrons safety and efficiency of our entry operations, there is no daily in-and-out or re-entry permitted in the festival grounds without a camping wristband. Please pack accordingly and take advantage of our festival locker program, charging stations, and check out the festival general store to grab any essential you may have forgotten. Camping Pass holders will be free to travel between the campgrounds and festival as needed.
Q: If I am camping, can I leave and come back?
A: For the safety of our Imagine family, once your vehicle is parked within the campgrounds, it may not be moved until Monday at sunrise. Vehicles that leave the campgrounds will not be granted re-entry. Should a vehicle need to leave in the event of an emergency, please contact campground management to provide you with a safe escort. We encourage you to plan/pack accordingly and visit the Camping General Store for any necessities you may be lacking.
Q: When will I receive my wristband?
A: Wristbands will be shipped approximately 2 weeks before the event.
Once you purchase, you will receive an order confirmation email from Eventbrite on behalf of IMF.
IMPORTANT: If you do not see your order confirmation in your inbox, make sure to check your junk/spam folder. If you still do not see your order confirmation, click here to access the Eventbrite help center.
No barcoded tickets will be issued for this event, all ticket-purchasers will receive a festival wristband by mail.
If you are having any other technical ticketing-related issues with your order, click here to contact Eventbrite. For general festival info, click here.
All wristbands will ship in September 2017. Please allow to the end of September for your wristbands to arrive. Wristbands will be sent to the shipping address specified on your order. All international orders will be held at will call.
Need to view or update your shipping address? Click here for instructions.
All sales final. No refunds or exchanges.
Q: Can I pick up my ticket/wristband early?
A: Unfortunately we are not offering an option to pick up your tickets early this year.
Q: Can I upgrade my ticket?
A: Yes, if tickets are available, you can upgrade your tickets to VIP. In order to upgrade your ticket to VIP you need to go ahead and purchase a VIP ticket. Then send us your order confirmation # for both the VIP ticket and your previously purchased ticket at info@imaginefestival.com Once we confirm your purchase, we will cancel your original ticket.
Q: How long can my car be parked in day parking?
A: Cars parked in day parking will need to clear the lots after music ends at the end of each night. If you find yourself needing to leave your car and catch a sober ride home, we encourage you to do so, and will just require that you pay an additional day’s parking fee upon return. To ensure the safety and security of our patrons, no overnight sleeping or loitering in the day parking lot will be permitted.
Q: When can I begin to set up my campsite?
A: The campgrounds will open at 10am Friday for you to begin setting up camp for the festival.
Q: What should I expect the weather to be like during the festival?
A: Imagine Festival is a rain or shine event. No refunds will be issued should inclement weather occur. Weather can be unpredictable. Please keep an eye on the weather and plan accordingly. As always, please be sure to listen to any updates from Imagine staff regarding your safety.
Q: Will there be a lost and found?
A: Yes, Lost & Found will operate during festival hours and will be marked on your festival map. Following the event, lost items will be held 30 days for your convenience. A form will be posted on our website to report and describe your lost items, if found we will contact you. There might be a charge to ship your items back to you.
Q: I’m under 18. Can I attend with a legal guardian?
A: Imagine is an 18+ event. No one under the age of 18 will be permitted, with or without a guardian.
Q: What are acceptable forms of Identification?
A: The following are acceptable forms of identification for access to and the purchasing of alcohol at Imagine:
State-Issued Driver’s License
Passport
Uniformed Services ID Card
Foreign Driver’s License
Expired Driver’s License + State-Issued Temporary [Paper] ID
Q: Will lockers be available?
A: Yes! Lockers are available for purchase at the festival to to safely store your stuff and keep your cell phone powered up all weekend long. Lockers can also be purchased prior to the festival. Click Here for more information.
Q: Can I pass out flyers at Imagine??
A: No, there is no unauthorized vending or solicitations anywhere on Atlanta Motor Speedway property, including parking lots..
Q: Will Medical / First Aid be available?
A: We will have medical staff on-site for the entire duration of Imagine. Upon arrival, please take note of the location of our clearly-marked medical tents should you need to stop by during the event. If you need medical assistance, contact the nearest security guard, staff member, volunteer, or medic, or go to one of the on-site medical tents. If you’re not sure whether it’s an emergency or not, assume it is and get help immediately. All of our safety and medical staff are here to help you enjoy the festival and make it home safely – no judgements.
Q: Can I Bring My Medication?
A: Yes, medications are allowed into the festival and campgrounds as long as they comply with the following:
No over-the-counter medication is permitted unless in unopened, factory-sealed packaging.
No vitamins or supplements of any kind are permitted.
Prescription Medication can only be brought into the festival ground with the following: A valid photo ID (See list of acceptable forms of identification); Medication must be in original prescription bottle, in-date, legible, with name corresponding to photo ID; Only one type of medication per bottle (matching the description printed on bottle); Any prescription controlled substances may only be brought in quantities reasonable for your time at the festival. Unsure if your medication is a controlled substance? Check out a list here: http://bit.ly/DEAcontrolledsubstances
Q: Will there be FREE water?
A: Yes, Imagine has implemented even more FREE water stations for 2017, available both inside the festival grounds and in camping. Check your festival map for locations. There will also be water available for purchase at the bar.
Q: Are pets allowed?
A: Imagine has a strict no-pet policy, with exceptions only for service animals as specified by federal and state law. Due to large-scale service animal fraud and for the safety of our patrons, staff, and other service animals, all animals which do not meet the legal standards will not be allowed into the festival grounds. All service animals must be registered at the entrance gates. Please note, dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support are not considered service animals by the ADA and and will not be allowed into Imagine. For more info, visit www.ada.gov.
Q: Will there be an official afterparty?
A: Yes, the official afterparty will be located in the campground at the silent disco. You must have a camping pass to gain admission to the silent disco.
Q: The information on my ticket is wrong, how do I fix this?
A: To update the information on your ticket and/or change shipping address, click here for instructions
Q: Where should I buy my imagine Festival Ticket?
A: Eventbrite is the only authorized ticket vendor for Imagine Festival.
There are No refunds or Exchanges, all Sales are final.
Do not buy passes from scalpers, we do not service, authenticate, or support passes from scalpers. We do not assist in any 3rd party transactions.
Q: Are JusCollege Tickets Valid?
A: Yes, JusCollege is an authorized third party ticket seller for College packages. You must have a valid student ID and email address to qualify for this ticket option. Camping offered in these packages is Tent-Only camping in a separate lot from our GA campgrounds. However, JusCollege ticket holders will have access to the GA Campgrounds and Silent Disco. If you purchase a Jus College ticket and are not a college student, you will not be able to pick up your wristband.
Q: Are GetStreetTeam Tickets Valid
A: Yes, GetStreetTeam is an authorized third party ticket seller and represent our Brand Ambassadors. These brand ambassadors are selling Imagine Festival tickets at a discounted price (no fees) to earn a free ticket for themselves. Our Brand Ambassadors are not ticket scalpers, if someone is offering you a different deal and selling you tickets directly not using the Get Street Team platform, that sale is unauthorized.
Q: I can no longer attend, Can I get a refund?
A: Unfortunately, no; we have a very strict no refund policy.
Q: Is my camera allowed into the festival?
A: Small point and shoot cameras, GoPros, and other cameras without detachable lenses are allowed into the festival.
Q: I have a media related question, who do I contact?
A: For those interested in press passes and any other media inquiries,please email us at media@imaginefestival.com.
Q: I am interested in performing at Imagine Festival, who do I contact?
A: For all performance injuries please email us at performers@imaginefestival.com
Q: How do I become a vendor at Imagine Festival?
A: Potential vendors must sign up and be approved prior to the festival. Upon approval you will be able to sell merchandise. Click here to apply to be a vendor.
Q: Will there be water bottle refill stations?
A: Yes! Imagine has implemented even more FREE water stations for 2017, are available both inside the festival grounds and in camping. Any reusable water bottle or camelback can be filled for FREE. Check your festival map for locations.
Q: Does Imagine offer Merchandise?
A: Yes! We will be offering official Imagine apparel and merchandise along with a wide variety of other vendors as well!
Q: I would like to camp on site, what options are available?
A: Currently there is car camping, tent only camping, VIP camping, and RV camping! We also feature Glamping options and Easy Tents. Make sure and buy your ticket as soon as possible before any of these options sell out.
Q: Am I allowed to bring my own alcohol?
A: Alcohol is allowed into the camp grounds but not into the festival grounds. There is a limit to how much each person can bring in, please see allowed/not allowed items for specifics.
Q: What is the difference between car camping and tent camping?
A: With general car camping you will be able to camp right next to your car. With tent only camping you will be in a separate lot where there are no cars. If you arrive on site without a vehicle and have purchased camping, you will be directed to the tent only lot. There is not a seperate ticket for Tent-Only Camping.
Q: What size is my car camping spot?
A: Car campers will have a 20’x20’ campsite. Camping plots are first come, first serve and provide enough space to fit one vehicle and two tents. VIP Camping lots are approximately 50% larger than the GA Campsites and can accommodate 1 vehicle and up to 3 tents depending on the size of your tents.
Q: Am I able to camp at Imagine without a festival pass?
A: Everyone camping will need a festival pass to accompany their camping pass before entering the camping area.
Health and SafetyBreakthrough Cost
Part of Elon Musk’s grand plan of making the world a greener place and addressing the damage caused by climate change is ensuring that people have access to renewable technology. This means both introducing the technology and bringing the cost down so that people can actually have viable alternatives to traditional, carbon-emitting sources.
Tesla’s Gigafactory was a big part of this plan. Once the factory became operational, Tesla was gunning to reduce their battery cost by 30 percent. Now, a recent announcement from the company hints that it might be possible to bring it down even more. In a promotional video displayed in some stores, it seems that the factory was able to achieve a “35 percent reduction in battery cost.”
No numbers have been officially released, but given the small bits of information that have gradually come out to the public, it seems that Tesla is definitely getting closer to that $35,000 price tag that the company is targeting for its Model 3.
Affordable Technology
Since 2001, battery cost for electric vehicles (EVs) has been reduced by 80 percent. Even so, the current cost of today’s long-range EVs is still not very affordable for most people. To be able to bring down the overall cost, the price of battery cells and packs must significantly be lowered.You’ve been involved in the Star Wars saga from the very beginning. Did you ever think, when you were scoring the original, that it would have the enduring impact it has had and that you would be scoring another chapter in the series nearly 40 years later?
Well, when we did the initial recording in London in 1977, I didn’t have any inkling that there would be a second film, and George Lucas, who has created all this, as you know, didn’t tell me or, as far as I know, anybody else, if there was going to be a second film or, let alone, a third film. I thought that it was a great film and that it would be a wonderful sort of Saturday afternoon show for the family, and then in a few weeks it would be gone.
And, of course, what happened, we remember, is that it ignited in some way. The wonderful historian Joseph Campbell explained to us all about the interrelatedness of the mythological elements of the story that struck the psyches of people worldwide. But that came later. I certainly didn’t have that feeling at first, and I don’t think anyone on the production did, really, until the magnetism of the piece itself was so powerful and so appealing to people, maybe billions of people by now.
The opportunity to do now seven of them is probably unique in the history of film. I’m just lucky. To be able to work for nearly 40 years, off and on, on the same subject and to be able to add themes and musical material to the glossary of themes that went before and try, as I have tried in the new film, to keep it organically related, is not only a unique challenge but tremendous fun. And I feel very privileged to have that very special, unique opportunity after 40 years, and to have the energy to do it. I feel nothing but great good fortune.
“The wonderful thing about J.J. Abrams, just one of his many wonderful qualities, is that he is very appreciative of George’s [Lucas] legacy and has been very careful to forge a tapestry that’s strongly related to the originals, which he has done. But at the same time he has freshened it and rejuvenated it and revived the whole concept...”
How do you compare working with J.J. Abrams today to working with George Lucas in the ’70s?
I’ll tell you a little bit about that. We wouldn’t be having this conversation if it hadn’t been for George Lucas’ creation of Darth Vader and Yoda and Luke Skywalker and all the rest of it. J.J. Abrams, who is the new young director of the new film, has done a brilliant job, I think. The wonderful thing about J.J. Abrams, just one of his many wonderful qualities, is that he is very appreciative of George’s legacy and has been very careful to forge a tapestry that’s strongly related to the originals, which he has done.
But at the same time he has freshened it and rejuvenated it and revived the whole concept by bringing in a fabulous young cast that is energetic, and the dialogue is witty and fast and perhaps more contemporary in the way it strikes a sensibility. But we also have Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford doing a wonderful job. So you have a kind of new and old generation working at once in a fantastic way, a wonderful chemistry, and fabulous comedy timing and action acting, if you can put it that way, the always-difficult task of doing action and comedy together.
But George Lucas and J.J. Abrams have very different working styles. With George, who grew up with thirty-five millimeter film… George’s editing was constructed almost like Hitchcock. I mean the edit that I received was the edit we scored.
In the case of J.J. Abrams, he is a young man, still under 50, and he has grown up with Pro Tools and Avid and all the rest of these electronic and technological aids that people have now. And so his editing process is very different. We were making changes up till the very last minute, and because of this, we recorded with the orchestra sporadically through the months of June to November, which we never did with George. With George we always recorded the scores in seven or eight days running. So the process was markedly different in that respect. J.J. made, with great facility, a lot of changes all the time and they were always improvements. And we were glad to see them because he knew what he shot; we did not. We only knew what we had seen.
And so I guess you could say that it was almost like working with two different generations of varying technologies. We know George for the wonderful creator, philanthropist, and the serious man that he is. J.J. Abrams is a fabulous person. He is warm and extremely smart, with a beautiful family. He is someone I hope that the public will get to know because he is a very, very valuable man who will have a fantastic and long career.
What can we expect from the music in The Force Awakens?
Well, there’s about two hours of music in it. Maybe more. We actually recorded about three hours, believe it or not, one version or another of this cue or that. There are a variety of new themes, a theme for the character of Rey and a theme for the character of Kylo Ren and a march of the Resistance, the Resistance being in this case the Jedi, the forces of good, and other pieces of material relevant to various characters. And interspersed with that are references to Princess Leia’s Theme and the Force Theme itself.
“I hope people will find that the music is fresh and new and at the same time, interrelated with earlier material that we have come to know and perform so much.”
How did you approach the score this time?
The approach is always pretty much the same for me. It’s a working life, as you know, in music. I have done a lot of films and a lot of other composing, various projects in the interim years, but when I have come back to the Star Wars films or, for that matter, Indiana Jones where we’ve done four of them, I always felt that it was kind of like getting back on your teenage bicycle that you haven’t forgotten how to ride it at all, and it takes a few hours to get back in the swing of whatever the modalities are of that particular project.
I have felt that it’s been a long continuum that has been uninterrupted. Or if it has been interrupted by other projects, I seem to be able to jump back on the horse and enjoy what I am doing. I hope people will find that the music is fresh and new and at the same time, interrelated with earlier material that we have come to know and perform so much.
In your words, what dimension does music add to film and why do you choose this route of artistic expression?
Pictured: John Williams conducting a scoring session of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
I think the contribution of music to film is something that is immeasurable and we really can’t quantify that. I think what we have discovered is that music and film can’t be separated. You could illustrate that by simply saying that in the silent film days, they really weren’t silent - we had a pianist or a violist or an organist playing some music so that the film was not ever truly silent.
And some films, like Star Wars, will have music almost entirely in them. If a film is two hours long you have two hours of music. In this case, there are some minutes without it but not very many. There are other films that may have only 15 minutes of music, yet those 15 minutes are essential to the emotional connection between the audience and the story.
I think it’s impossible ever to measure it, but music and film are sister arts that live together and depend on each other. As for why I’ve chosen this particular field, I would say initially for very practical reasons. But what’s more interesting to me is that because of this symbiotic relationship between music and film, we will continue to hear wonderful film music in the future. There will be young generations coming along, countlessly coupling audiovisuals together in imaginative ways. And we’re seeing it already.
You know, film music is only what, 70, 80 years old? It’s in its infancy still. Initially when I went into it, I played piano in studio orchestras for a lot of very distinguished composers, and it was a natural progression for me to go from playing the piano in their orchestras to orchestrating material and finally being invited to compose scores of my own. So my own working career in practical terms and in terms of proximity, because I’ve lived in Los Angeles, drew me, I suppose, inexorably towards working in film.
Going back to Star Wars, which character is your favorite?
I have always loved Yoda. There is a new character in the new film, she’s called Maz, who is a Yoda-like character who is thousands of years old and full of wisdom and empathy, if you like. I really have enjoyed all of them. Of course Darth Vader on the other side of things, and the new villain is called Kylo Ren, who you will get to know and see. He’s played by Adam Driver, a young actor, who gives a fabulous performance. It’s one of the memorable characters certainly fresh in my mind. Harrison Ford has always been fabulous in this series also. I can say he is wonderful in this new film. His comedy timing is so impeccable.
How much collaboration goes on between you and the director, in this case, J.J. Abrams?
Oh, a lot. We had one meeting at the piano where I played him themes and he seemed to be very happy with them. And then we had our recording sessions with the orchestra and he always had wonderful ideas and he would sometimes change scenes and make suggestions for the music.
He was a great collaborator and great partner. I would play him a certain theme and he would be very enthusiastic about it, and he would say we should use that in this scene and that scene. And I have to tell you his guidance was fabulous. If you think the music is good in the film, a lot of it has to do with the empathy we shared together and with his very, very good ideas. Particularly in the beginning of the process, when I was working on the earlier reels, he was with me on that but he also knew the later reels which I did not at the time. So he began to guide me towards developing a theme that would eventually mature in reel seven or reel eight — scenes that I may not have yet seen at all or at least not in their entirety at that point.
So over a period of really close to nine months, we were very, very closely collaborating. Mostly talking, not at the piano. I always spend a lot of time at the piano with Steven Spielberg. But J.J…. we spent most of our time together at Sony Studios, where we recorded. He was a great help. He is very musical and has a wonderful sense of rhythm and dynamics. So he was a great partner.
How would you say your creative process has evolved throughout your career? Has it changed for you throughout the years?
I don’t think so. I think to a degree, I feel unchanged, but on the other hand, to be unchanged is to be unimproved. I’d like to think that now I probably know more about music and certainly about conducting because I conducted so many years with the Boston Pops Orchestra. I did so much live performance, especially in Boston but also elsewhere, that I began to have a different, and maybe more sophisticated, feeling about the orchestra and its way of breathing, its way of moving and so on. And that’s a subtle thing but I think I’m, in my mind as I am writing, much more of a conductor than I was before.
I still use the piano, I still use a pencil and paper; I have not evolved to the point where I use computers and synthesizers. First of all, they didn’t exist when I was studying music and luckily, mercifully, I have been so busy in the interim years that I haven’t had time to go back and retool. And so my evolution, in very practical terms, i.e. piano and pencil and paper, has not changed at all.
Is there a score from your prolific career that you are most proud of?
The whole body of what I’ve been doing is still to me a very organic thing. It’s a process that’s going on and nothing really seems fixed to me. I’m fixed on what’s on my desk and what is in front of me. Star Wars is done; I’m now working on Spielberg’s new film. I think it’s probably better to let others judge the quality or the effectiveness of this or that score, if it has any at all.
We are living in a world where we’re standing on shoulders that are unmatchable, especially in music. I mean the masters that have lived before are almost unapproachable in their inspiration and their technique. So we just have to work harder and contribute what we can.
“I never would’ve imagined that I’d have the opportunities I’ve had. And young people can’t possibly imagine how far and how high their efforts can reach.”
Is there a lesson you’ve learned over your career that could benefit film composers who are coming up in the field today?
The lesson I would probably offer anyone is to not call themselves a film composer but to call themselves a composer, and to compose for the theater, compose for film, compose for the church or the synagogue or educational music or instrumental, choral, secular, or religious music. Whatever they do; the ballet, and the theater certainly. Film is one thing that we do, and it’s good for young composers to know how to do that and desire to do it and find work doing it if they can.
But I think they should think of themselves in a broader sense because film music is restricting in many ways. You’re subjugating yourself to a soundtrack filled with sound effects and dialogue and other things that are in many ways equally important. Most of the great composers in history also have been great performers. So I think attending as many performances as one can is important. If one can play or sing, one should play and sing. If one can conduct, one should do that also. I guess that would be my singular first step in trying to advise anyone.
Life is so quixotic. I never would’ve imagined that I’d have the opportunities I’ve had. And young people can’t possibly imagine how far and how high their efforts can reach. All they can do is continue to work as hard as they can, learn as much as they can and not stop working. The process is the process. The joy of it is doing the thing itself.
You mentioned working on the next Steven Spielberg film. Can you tell us a bit about that project?
It’s called The BFG, The Big Friendly Giant. Based on the book by Roald Dahl; people who have young children will particularly know about that. We actually worked on it, just yesterday and today. And after this phone call I’m going to go and begin on reel one and that will be the rest of my day. And this is also, I think, the twenty-eighth film that Steven and I have done together. We’ve been working together since 1973. I mean, it’s amazing. I think he has done one or two films that I have not been able to do, but it has been more like a marriage than a working relationship. And we are also very good friends. We share offices very near each other. It’s been a great joyous ride with him.
“BMI has been brilliant in the work that it does, not only for me and for other composers but for music in general, which is the thing that we all want to continue to nourish. It has been good to all of us and given us our lives. So BMI is an enormous contributor to the vitality of the life of music itself, and I can only be grateful to this great friendship that I have had.”
Could you tell us about your relationship with BMI?
I joined BMI in 1960. Dick Kirk was the BMI executive who came to California in those years, and did such a great job on behalf of BMI, and after him Thea Zavin. They were the two principal energizers, let me put it that way, of BMI at that particular juncture in its history, who met me and other young composers here and convinced us that we should be with BMI, that our work in film and in television would be more properly represented with BMI than with other performing rights organizations. And so I thought that was right and I had advice from other people here, particularly Lionel Newman, and also Stanley Wilson, who are both people that I worked with at that time. It helped me to make the decision that BMI was best for me.
And it has been a wonderful relationship for all of those years. BMI has been brilliant in the work that it does, not only for me and for other composers but for music in general, which is the thing that we all want to continue to nourish. It has been good to all of us and given us our lives. So BMI is an enormous contributor to the vitality of the life of music itself, and I can only be grateful to this great friendship that I have had.
One last question: Were you surprised when you found out that Darth Vader was Luke’s father?
I was! And I was initially surprised when Luke and Leia were brother and sister. These are some of George Lucas’ well-kept secrets and he was right to keep them. So it kept us in the dark. There are surprises in the new film too that people will experience…and I hope they’re going to be happy. I think they will be, and I hope everybody who sees the film will have a fraction of the fun that we all had in making it.
Images ©2015 Lucasfilm Ltd and TMThere is one main road stretching north-south along the Bekaa valley between Lebanon and Syria. It runs in a beeline from the prosperous little city of Zhaleh, on through a series of villages each with its own religious bent — some Sunni, some Christian — to the border town of al-Qaa, then on into Homs and the bloody mess of the Syrian war.
We’re just short of the border when what has been an uninspiring landscape, a wafting sea of plastic bags caught on desert shrubs, springs suddenly to life. Out of nowhere: orchards, vineyards, fig trees; aubergines fat and fallen on the grass. The air is sweet with the smell of apples.
Dr Bassam El-Hachem, professor of sociology at the Lebanese university in Beirut and a big hitter in Lebanon’s FPM party, is our tour guide today on this jaunt to visit Christian refugees. He leans over his shoulder, to address the minibus (one priest, two hacks and the Doc’s flamboyant blonde wife). ‘The source of the Orontes river!’ He points, we nod. The Orontes, we learn, runs from here into Syria spreading rich, fertile soil through the Wadi al-Nasara — the valley of the Christians — up ahead. It traces the course of the fighting, past Hama and Idlib province into Turkey. On our return trip, I look at the Orontes in a different light, because though the conflict in Syria is fuelled by religion and repression, I suspect this river plays a part too.
As we pull into al-Qaa, the minibus team grows quieter. We drive past the checkpoint and peer into no man’s land. This is the portal through which the refugees escape from Syria into Lebanon: not just Christians, also Shia, Sunni and Alawite (Syrian President Bashir al-Assad’s family are Alawites). It’s still reasonably safe on this side of the border. Syria’s war hasn’t spilled over into Lebanon yet — but it’s a very precarious peace. Hezbollah has formed a little pro-Assad gang with the Christians and have a grip of this area here. In Aarsal just a few miles away, the Sunni population supports the rebels of the Free Syrian Army. Under the cover of night, both sides steal across the border to fight.
But in the mayor of al-Qaa’s house, all is calm. The windows are bulletproof, the shelves heavy with bottles of expensive drink, and we sit in the usual way on seats around the walls, like patients in an old-fashioned waiting-room. After tea, the Christian refugees who’ve been corralled in here tell their stories.
First up is Boutros (not his real name), a 26-year-old from the nearby Syrian town of Qusayr where once Christians and Sunnis lived side by side. So how did the fighting start? ‘At first the Sunni rebels offered us a choice: join us or leave. When we refused, they turned on us. Our neighbours!’ says Boutros in outrage. ‘Then the Sunnis began to threaten us. They would shout: “Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the grave”.’ This chant is so often repeated and reported, it’s become almost the official jingle of the civil war.
According to Boutros, a Christian called Matthew Kasouha was the first one killed in the spring of last year. Kasouha came from an important clan, and so other Christians arrived at his family’s house the next day to offer condolences — only to find themselves under fire too. ‘The mourners were shelled by the rebels, and this was when people began to understand that they must leave,’ says Boutros. In March this year there was showdown: ‘The Sunni Islamists launched another attack on the Kasouha family, they were all killed.’ And what is Qusayr like now? Boutros looks down at the floor. ‘It’s bad. There are snipers in the streets, shooting at everyone who moves. Even in your house you can be shelled.’
Who are these snipers? Are they locals? This question seems crucial. Everyone |
-funk. Another is Arabic/North African music, another is black African music. And there's a very interesting tension between those three types of black music, and then the vocals which are extremely European, like the vocals on Talking Heads' I Zimbra, deliberately choral and cut off; it'll be me and some other people singing. I don't want it to be just one voice in most cases, I want it to be a group of synchronized voices.
"There's one of the songs that at the moment - all of these things will change - a discussion that starts off with a group of women singing, and then it alternates with a group of men/women, men/women, like that, and each party goes through subtle changes on each verse until the Voice of Reason enters. The Voice of Reason is another voice of indeterminate quality, indeterminate humanity ready, a highly rational, cold, precise type of voice, which throws the thing into confusion, after which the men's syllables start becoming scrambled. I've discovered this new electronic technique that creates new speech out of stuff that's already there."
I wondered aloud if this stuff had been influenced by The Contortions, DNA and other bands like those on the No New York album.
"Yes. As you'll see, there's a certain quality of sound that's common to those people. For a start, things sound really messy, and it's a kind of mess that I've never had on anything before. I like it a lot, it's a sort of jungle sound, really. And there's a peculiar perspective to it, so that everything's upfront but there's this very wide space behind it: it's a new production technique I've discovered."
He puts on a tape of the backing tracks. It sounds like nothing we've ever heard from Brian Eno before; like nothing ever heard before, period. The influence of the move to New York is unmistakable: a polyglot freneticism, a sense of real itching rage and desperation. The stylistic mix is just as he described, with some of the roiling collective blast reminiscent of free jazz, funk sproinging everywhere and unmistakable Arabic strains, which he says he got from listening to and recording North African pop stations on shortwave. It gives intimations of a new kind of international multi-idiomatic music that would cross all commercial lines, uniting different cultures, the past and the future, European experimentalism and gut-bucket funk. Not the first step in such a direction of course, but likely one of the firmest yet.
Walking home, we wished we'd had the nerve to ask him if we could tape a copy of it, because knowing the way Eno works, what finally appears on the record will probably bear as little resemblance to this particular mutant spew as this bears to his past recorded output. As for Brian Eno himself, he is one of those of whom it might truly be said that his real estate is the future. But he is too self-effacing a genius to ever make such extravagant claims for himself. What he will say instead is "Nearly all the things I do that are of any merit at all start off all just being good fun, and, I think, um, I'm sort of building up to doing something else quite soon."
SELECTED BRIAN ENO DISCOGRAPHY
With Roxy Music
Roxy Music and For Your Pleasure (both Warner Brothers released 1972 and '73 respectively): Eno himself feels that Stranded, the first Roxy record without him, is really their masterpiece. Maybe, but in that album Roxy stopped being a vessel strong enough to hold both sonic experimentalism and Bryan Ferry's fashion flash, and settled instead for being the most lapidarily aristocratic pop group of the '70s. For Your Pleasure's The Bogus Man may be a failed experiment, but it at least points the way for others. This atmosphere of risk made the first album a bit cluttered yet diffuse - too many people trying to do too many things all at the same time - but the first side of For Your Pleasure is the pinnacle of the Ferry-Eno marriage, great songs in a luxurious setting.
Song-Type Albums
Here Come The Warm Jets (Island, 1974): Today some of this solo debut sounds inconclusive, the over-reachings of a whiz kid. But the predominant feel is a strange mating of edgy dread (Driving Me Backwards) with wild first-time-out exuberance. "I was just in a mad mood, really, when I did it", says Eno today, "and also had this feeling of incredible freedom." There's a Beatlesy pop sentimentality (and Sgt. Pepperishly cinematic sound) to things like Cindy Tells Me, Needles In The Camel's Eye still sounds to me like some previously unimaginable mix of Buddy Holly and The Velvet Underground and the underground standard (?) Baby's On Fire features perhaps the greatest guitar solo Robert Fripp will ever play in his life.
Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (Island, 1975): This is the absolute incontestable Eno masterpiece to date. Probably still a decade ahead of its time, this record's rich textures, rhythms dancing against each other, and exotic synthesizer treatments of standard rock instrumentation revealed that Eno had already mastered his ultimate instrument: the recording studio. As the overdubs pile up in Byzantine splendor, it's easy to forget that he made this awesome tapestry with a lineup of guitar, bass, drums and percussion. Guests from Roxy Music, Portsmouth Sinfonia and other sources provide seasoning and, perhaps more than his ambient efforts, Tiger Mountain demonstrates what riches may be mined from the simplest musical materials. Eno says, "For me Tiger Mountain is a kind of magic album; there's so much in there that I just wasn't conscious of putting in at all."
Another Green World (Island, 1976): First application of his ambient experiments to actual (and often quite pop-oriented) songs, while the instrumental etudes between them have more content than their ambient cousins. Where Tiger Mountain had the density and lushness of a thousand-hued tropical forest, Another Green World investigates various possibilities for small ensembles; it's chamber music reconciling the pastoral dells of Eno's geographic origins with the technological Alphaville that's his workshop.
Before And After Science (Island, 1978): Career neurosis time: the weakest of his four "song" albums, as he admits, this lacks the peaks of its predecessors, and (on the first side, anyway) sounds a mite disjunct. But still a fine, fine record. Foretells his current return to 'idiot energy', with unmistakable (and previously undisplayed) funk influence in places. The second side is classic autumnal fairy tale music, and Fripp tears out another coruscating solo in King's Lead Hat.
Ambient Records
Fripp & Eno: (No Pussyfooting) (Island, 1974) and Evening Star (Island import, 1975): (No Pussyfooting) may have had as much to do with Eno's departure from Roxy Music as Ferry's paranoia. It's comprised of two long jams, the first of which took place when Eno invited Fripp over to fool around in his home studio late in 1972. What they got was so interesting and they had such an obvious chemistry that they cut another a few months later and put this album out concurrent with Stranded, over the vigorous objections of Eno's management, who thought it would damage his "image and/or chances for solo pop stardom. Fripp was one of the few instrumentalists Eno had ever met who understood in front the sensibility of sparse playing when it was going to be channeled through all the echoing corridors of Eno's tape-delay system. Evening Star contains a retort to those who'd accuse Eno's ambient phase of being pleasantly placid to the point of the insipid: An Index Of Metals, has a quiet malevolence that's chilling.
Discreet Music (Obscure, 1975): Depending on your point of view, Eno's most passive piece is either the definitive unobtrusively lustrous statement on ambient musics or a wispy treacly bore that defies you to actually pay attention to it. Perhaps the garden without the sombre reptile that is Fripp. Also Eno's very favorite of all his recorded works (perhaps because this assiduously disciplined artist had to put the least effort into it). "In a way, I think my most successful record was Discreet Music, in a sort of economist's terms of success because that was done very, very easily, very quickly, very cheaply, with no pain or anguish over anything, and I still like it."
Music For Films (Antilles, 1978); eighteen short pieces written either for films he was hired to score or films unmade yet outside of his mind. Each of these little vignettes paints a palpable mood, conjuring mental images that vary from listener to listener, but seem to run to the sylvan, pastoral or aquatic. Good drug album, needless to say. Also features more players than any of his other ambient albums.
Music For Airports (Ambient, 1979): His biggest seller and the album that is beginning to try some people's patience in that there are now more ambient albums out under his name than "regular" ones, and this one doesn't add a whole lot to what he's already said in the genre. Still, it's very pleasant, as any album explicitly designed to "get them prepared for death" well ought to be. Eno says "I wasn't joking about that. I meant that one of the things music can do is change your sense of time so you don't really mind if things slip away or alter in some way. It's about getting rid of people's nervousness."
Collaboration
David Bowie. Low, "Heroes" and Lodger (all RCA, 1977, 1978 and 1979 respectively): The trilogy co-written and performed with the famous dilettante remains controversial even among Bowie and Eno fans - many in each camp feel that the other guy should never have entered the picture. The first side of Low is really interesting and some people consider Lodger a masterpiece, but in general these sound like half-baked imitations of the Real Stuff as in Tiger Mountain, Green World etc. They sound half-baked probably because, unlike Eno, Bowie's not real big on the long, arduous hours of disciplined craftsmanship; like Bob Dylan, he likes to just hit the studio, let the music appear magically in his head, cut it and run off to the next party.
Production
Talking Heads, Devo, Ultravox. No New York (various labels): In the past few years Eno has been much in demand as producer, various (mostly New Wave) groups counting on his touch to highlight their own strengths. Ultravox is a band too fundamentally uninteresting for anybody to save, Devo are there if you want 'em (sounds like tinkertoy music to me), and the second and third Talking Heads albums are so far the pinnacles of his production career. He says Talking Heads are "the best working relationship I've ever had within rock music," and it definitely shows: he sounds like a fifth (and crucial, on the evidence) member of the band. As for Antilles' No New York compendium (The Contortions, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Mars, DNA), these are some of the most interesting - though brutally inaccessible - new groups around. They've pushed rock experimentalism to a number of its absolute extremes, which Eno calls doing research that will be helpful for everybody else. I listen to them for fun, too, but must say that they've been produced far better elsewhere: he deliberately mixed them muddy, hoping to reproduce the hazy kineticism of The Velvet Underground.
ALBUMS | BIOGRAPHY | BOOKS | HOME | INSTALLATIONS | INTERVIEWS | LINKS | LYRICS | MULTIMEDIA | SITE | STORE | UPDATESSteins;Gate PS3 and PS Vita dated in Europe
5pb.'s sci-fi visual novel lands on June 5.
Steins;Gate will launch via retail and digitally in Europe on June 5, publisher PQube has announced.
As for the North American release, PQube head of marketing Geraint Evans told Rice Digital that, “the US version is still in submission — for a second it was looking like we would have to make a change to the game, and obviously this is something we did not want to do. Thankfully Steins;Gate will remain intact. We’ll update on release timings when it exits Sony submission in the US”.
Game UK will have an exclusive limited edition of Steins;Gate, which includes an art book, while Rice Digital will have an exclusive “El Psy Kongroo Edition” of the game, which includes the same art book and a set of exclusive pin badges.There have been plenty of athletes who have come up clever for Halloween. Then there was Lolo Jones.
The track star/Winter Olympics wannabe somehow felt dressing up as an injured Derrick Rose would play well.
It didn’t and Jones is taking heat on social media.
Article continues below...
Once again, this time in her Halloween costume choice, Lolo Jones fails to medal.
2012-2015 autograph card. – D. Rose #halloween #ballislife A photo posted by Lolo Jones (@lolojones) on Oct 30, 2015 at 5:23pm PDT
Tired from the game. A photo posted by Lolo Jones (@lolojones) on Oct 30, 2015 at 10:54pm PDT
So its ok for @RealMikeWilbon to dress as Rose but not me and I'm actually injured 🤔 fans: #WhoWoreItBest pic.twitter.com/Ai4fRa5yC2 — Lolo Jones (@lolojones) October 31, 2015
I would've laughed but only if the hurdle was busted up on their leg with blood oozing out. #makeItRealLife https://t.co/yIYJwyhb1i — Lolo Jones (@lolojones) October 31, 2015
I'm pretty sure I'm going to get an invite to a bulls game. I may not make it out alive but… 🤕 https://t.co/NvIyN90QxL — Lolo Jones (@lolojones) October 31, 2015For an editorial with a different perspective, please go here. To see the views of an Israeli diplomat, please go here.
The refrain used by the Israeli government, American lawmakers and many major media outlets to describe current events in Gaza conceals two important truths that, when brought to light, change the calculation of responsibility for this terrible tragedy.
Israel, we are told in this refrain, has to defend itself from rockets launched by Hamas, and that no country can permit its citizens to endure such attacks. This discourse presents a very simple picture of Hamas as an implacable aggressor, and the state of Israel as an innocent victim of terror.
Missing from this simplistic calculus is any serious discussion of the so-called Israeli “disengagement” from Gaza in 2005, and the nature of the Israeli blockade imposed on Gaza since 2007. When these two issues are rendered visible, the question of victims and responsibility takes on a different hue.
According to a vast body of international humanitarian law, occupied territory refers to territory under effective control of a foreign entity. In 2005, when it “left” Gaza, Israel did not relinquish its control over the territory simply because it removed its settlements and withdrew the soldiers protecting them. Instead, Israel exerted its control over Gaza in a different way.
Israel controls what comes into Gaza, and what can go out by land, sea, and air. Because of this control, the people of Gaza do not have the basic human right of free movement which is why Gaza is often likened to the world’s largest outdoor prison. In my four trips to Gaza since 2005, the authorities controlling my entry were not from Gaza. Israeli border police control passports and entry. This is not disengagement.
When Israel warns Gazans that they are about to be killed if they do not vacate their homes, the occupying power is able to do this because it controls Gaza’s “population registry,” a fundamental tool of governmental power. Control of this registry enables Israel to know the phone numbers and addresses of Gaza’s residents as well as other critical information about the Strip’s inhabitants. Such knowledge, along with control of people and goods moving in and out of the territory, and the power to bring in armed force at its discretion, gives Israel effective control over Gaza. Gaza is occupied territory.
Since 2007, Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza. In international law, a blockade is an act of war, a principle recognized by the U.S. and the state of Israel itself. Consequently, in 2007 Israel effectively declared war on Gaza. Moreover, the blockade constitutes collective punishment of the people of Gaza which is illegal under Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
When Israel says that no country would tolerate missiles being fired at its citizens, it conceals its blockade over Gaza for the past seven years, and the de facto declaration of war represented in this aggressive act. This fact, alongside the continued occupation of Gaza, changes the simplistic designation of victim and aggressor used to describe the situation there.
Israel seems to believe that its blockade and occupation should carry no consequences, and that it is the hapless victim of irrational aggression. What does Israel — and the U.S. — expect from the people of Gaza living under the conditions of a blockade that has made their life intolerable for seven years? Do they expect the Gazans to be well-behaved blockaded people?
The world would do well to awaken to what is missing in the dominant refrain about aggressor and victim in Gaza. In this case, the truth is more complicated than the simplistic reduction of Hamas as terrorist aggressor and Israel as hapless victim.
On another level, however, the truth is more obvious. This is not a conflict in the true sense because a conflict implies some degree of symmetry between belligerents. This is a coldblooded slaughter of the innocents, a modern-day “Guernica” as depicted by Picasso in which deadly weaponry from one of the world’s most powerful militaries is raining down upon people unable to defend themselves.
Israel and the U.S. are constantly asking the world: What nation would not defend itself from rocket attacks? The question needs to be turned around. What nation would accept being imprisoned, blockaded and starved for seven years? Only when occupation and blockade are part of the negotiation can there be any hope of ending this murderous siege.The new bridge would connect a break in the 30-kilometre Capital City Trail that loops around the inner suburbs. It was expected to open in 2014, the Coalition said two years ago, but to this day cyclists and pedestrians on the trail must negotiate the 42 steps at the end of Gipps Street.
Government authority Parks Victoria was given $264,000 in 2012 to begin works but has failed to make a start on the project.
A Parks Victoria spokesman admitted the original design for the bridge was so flawed it had to be scrapped and said a new design was being worked on.
"The design was deemed to be too intrusive, requiring substantial structures to mitigate flood risk, and did not meet accessibility requirements," the spokesman said.
It is understood Melbourne Water vetoed the original design.I'm sure you saw the story a couple of months ago about Jennifer Hepler, but just in case you missed it, it went something like this: Hepler is a writer at BioWare who said that she wanted a "fast-forward" button to skip combat. Then angry gamers saw the quote and aimed their rage cannon at her, unloading a huge dose of hatred, sexism, homophobia, and general jackassery.
The story wasn't so much about what Hepler said, but about the community response to it. She's a writer, not a game designer, and she wasn't advocating taking anything away from anyone else. She wasn't saying gameplay should be removed, or that games should be shorter, or universally easier. She just wanted a way through a game without having to play through the combat. Yet the mob rage was completely disproportionate to what was said, and it left a lot of people in the industry feeling dismayed. Suddenly, there was this huge crowd of hate-bots in our gaming community. It felt like being at a dinner party, and late in the evening you realize everyone else is a Neo-Nazi. "Wait, how did I end up mixed in with these people? How did I not know about this until now?"
Some of the hate was about her suggestion itself. Some of the hate was because of the specific things she worked on at BioWare. Some of the hate was just a more generalized anger at all the changes BioWare has gone through, making her a lightning rod for frustrations that have been building among BioWare fans more or less since the company was acquired by EA.
My own take is that this was less about the gaming community being full of sexist monsters, and more about the condition of the community at Reddit, where the initial thread took place. I could be wrong, but this is not the first time we've seen crowd-sourced madness and bile, and the phrase, "Did you see the crazy stuff people are saying on Reddit?" seems pretty common. I suspect that with the right phrasing you could go to Reddit and provoke the exact same behavior from movie fans, sports fans, or people with strong political opinions. I could be wrong, and maybe there is a large segment of the gaming populace who are simply incapable of having a reasonable conversation and who will explode into a flaming frenzy at any suggestion that makes games more attractive to "the casuals". I guess I'm about to find out.
Now that the storm is passed, I want to backtrack and actually talk about her proposal, because it doesn't seem that outrageous to me. All she's asking for is a way to skip combat sequences. Call this gameplay option "Hepler Mode". I mean, people who don't like the story can skip cutscenes. If you're watching a movie at home you can skip right to the car chase, the kung-fu fights, the sex scenes, or whatever it is you want. This is entertainment, after all. Would you walk into your friend's house and forbid them from fast-forwarding through a movie because they're "watching it wrong"?
I've actually played games in Hepler Mode. I've sat beside my brother and watched him play through videogames. I was curious about the story, but I hated the gameplay, so I hung around and watched the cutscenes without playing the game myself. Unless you're an only child, you've probably done this yourself at some point.For those unfamiliar there is a concept called the Panopticon which was developed by the British philosopher, Jeremy Bentham. The basic deal is that the inmates of a prison would all be watched by a single person but they would never know if that person was actually watching them or not. This would lead to a self-regulation among the inmates where they would behave as ethically as possibly, but by themselves. Those ethics, of course, dictated by the prison.
Where I work there are cameras that are large black orbs with no physical camera inside of it. You can’t see where the cameras are actually pointing (unless you’ve been in the office) and so you never know if you’re being watched or not. This is almost never a problem for customers, unless they’re intent on stealing something from the store.
But for employees (especially those like me) this is a big problem. How am I to know when I’m being recorded or when I’m not? These black orbs are like miniature panopticons that our managers can see out of but we (or the consumers) can not look into. This creates an inherent power dynamic just on this basis alone, even leaving any other matters aside.
Of course, the classic argument is that you’ve got nothing to worry about if you’re not doing anything wrong. But in the first place, what is considered “wrong” is often highly debatable even when unilaterally enforced. It may be considered “wrong” for me to read The Stranger by Albert Camus while I am at work, but why? If I’m doing the basic job assigned to me (helping customers at the cashier register) then what exactly am I doing that’s immoral?
According to my bosses, I’d be spending my time in a way I want, rather than what they want. Or, I’m sure they’ term it more abstractly as the company and what its needs are. But besides the basic fact that abstractions and collectives do not have any sort of coherent “needs” (or at least certainly not more so than individuals do), I disagree. I think by doing the basic job assigned to me and doing it as pleasantly as I can, I think I’m meeting the company’s needs adequately.
And more to the point my needs supersede the company’s needs. I am willing to put my own needs ahead of the company’s as long as the “harm” I incur is not so great as to threaten my job. And in the case of reading, it’s hardly harming my customer service interactions (except in those instances where I miss a customer for a second) and it’s unlikely making the company lose a massive amount of profit either.
Now, if customers have complaints about my service (and they usually don’t) then I’ll often be happy (happy is the wrong word but it’ll do) to try to assist them or get a manager to help them. There are items to scan, tags to scratch off with the equivalent of pointy sticks, items to face (make pretty) and other menial tasks, but why bother? That’s what the people are on the floor are for and if I really wanted to go above and beyond, I’d work for a company I actually care about.
For me, the store I work for is just to get a paycheck. It’s so I can pay room and board, pay for food and transportation and add meaning to my life through this inefficient cash nexus that state-capitalism facilitates.
Part of the panopticon isn’t just cameras but the managers themselves as well. I had at least around a handful of times where I had my managers explicitly looking over my shoulder (or down from the store) and closely managing my behaviors. They wanted to make sure I conform to the exact behaviors they’re looking for in employees. So this means that I shouldn’t ask if the customers want a bag or receipt but just give it to them.
As someone who is autistic, this drives me crazy. I wouldn’t want a cashier to just non-verbally give me a receipt and bag if I never asked. Unless it’s obvious I need a bag, then this doesn’t make any sense. And it’s almost never obvious if a customer needs a receipt or not unless they say something beforehand.
It also drives me crazy because I really value open dialogue with folks and just handing people (pushing it in their faces, really) strikes me as rude. But I know my arguments about this will win me little favor and likely hold little to no pull with my managers. So I have to grit my teeth and say I’ll do it, even if I really don’t want to.
And for the most part, I ignore these commands. Sometimes I’ll do them, but for the most part I do my best to ignore them because I’ve never (to my memory) gotten any complaints from customers for my process. I’ve gotten complaints before for sure, but never about these specific things. So I find any sort of survey from customers suspect since it fundamentally contradicts my own 6 months (totaling likely thousands) of interactions with customers.
Managers just have to wave their hands at all of these experiences, cite some data they’ll (almost) never take the time to discuss or show their employees and move forward. And the paranoia for all of this comes from their constant “check-ins” or the ways in which the watch us, or don’t. Or that we’re not sure if we’re being watched physically or digitally by someone in the office.
The good(ish) new is that unless the cash drawer is off by a significant amount, the managers are not going to spend hours going back on the video of a given day. But there’s always the chance that this can happen and you not having the power to know if they’ll just check it randomly can make it slightly nerve-wracking at times.
Part of the reason I read at work is that keeping myself busy at work is an exhausting activity. My brain starts to go crazy from the lack of internal stimuli and unless I can go super zen about it or interact with a co-worker, I usually get a hankering for some reading. It’s something I can focus on, think about and reflect on, but I can’t do any of that for most of the things that I work with or on. Maybe this is some sort of “failing” on my part, but I don’t think so.
Ultimately, no one took Bentham’s design seriously and it was never fully implemented into any prison structure. That being said, the surveillance state certainly uses some of its ideas (this is particularly prominent in the UK where some of the cameras don’t even work). And, as I’ve mentioned, in the workplace, the panopticon remains alive and well.
Here I guess I should make some sort of impassioned plea for bosses to be nicer to us. To get them off of our proverbial backs and stop leaning in over our shoulders, passive aggressively giving unreasonable orders without any discussion.
But I think that’s unrealistic and asking bosses…not to be bosses.
The more realistic thing to do is to tell my fellow workers to continue resisting authoritarianism like this the best ways you can. You know your situation better than I do, but for me, I mostly nod my head and play along.
Besides, how many eyes and ears could managers have anyhow?
If you enjoyed this article, consider donating to my Patreon!This weekend, for Valentine’s Day, the government is sponsoring a mass kiss-in, in an attempt to break the world record and raise awareness about domestic violence. “Bésame Mucho,” or “Kiss me a lot,” was recently adopted as the city’s motto by tourism officials, and Mr. Ebrard is expected to preside over the event, though his staff was not sure whether he would be publicly smooching his wife, a former soap opera actress.
But the free Viagra is what had Mr. Posadas, a retiree, hemming and hawing on a recent afternoon. After reading an announcement about Mr. Ebrard’s latest gesture, he summoned the courage to broach the topic of his erectile dysfunction at a local government health center. After undergoing an in-depth health exam and receiving a lecture on the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases, Mr. Posadas recently became among the first men in the city to be issued a handful of government-subsidized pills.
Apparently, they worked. “Now, I’m able to fulfill my wife,” he said. Mr. Posadas, the father of two and grandfather of six, acknowledged that his sex life had slowed somewhat in recent years.
The initiative may be more about politics than anything else, and with nationwide elections looming in July, candidates across Mexico are beginning to lay the groundwork for their campaigns.
To bolster the fortunes of his leftist Party of Democratic Revolution and to further his own dream of becoming the country’s president in 2012, Mr. Ebrard has pushed to legalize abortion and gay civil unions in the capital and crack down on illegal street vendors and unlicensed taxi operators, who have long been associated with crowds and crime. His plan to expand subway and bus service is ambitious and popular.
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In announcing the erectile dysfunction program in November, Mr. Ebrard, 49, portrayed it as a way of bringing smiles to the faces of those who have reached the tercera edad, or third age, as Mexicans call the golden years.
“Everyone has the right to be happy,” the mayor said, noting that many of the poorest elderly people do not qualify for employer-based health plans and have been abandoned by their families. “They don’t have medical services, and a society that doesn’t care for its senior citizens has no dignity.”
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An estimated half of Mexican men over the age of 40 experience difficulties achieving erections, said Dr. Irán Roldán, a specialist in geriatrics who helps run the new program at Mexico City’s Department of Public Health. But the subject has not been one that many men have felt comfortable talking about before.
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Getting men into public clinics with the promise of free erectile medicine, Dr. Roldán said, could help them get treatment for other related health problems, like diabetes, hypertension, obesity and depression. “This is a public health problem,” she said.
So far, huge crowds have not turned out for the free Viagra, Levitra or Cialis, which are the three tablets being offered. Fewer than 100 inquiries have been made at health clinics and only about a dozen or so men whose erectile dysfunction has been diagnosed have begun the process to get the pills, health officials say. They range in age from their early 60s to 82.
Still, the new program has managed to provoke a spirited debate on a topic that was considered taboo before: sex among senior citizens.
One of Mr. Ebrard’s long-shot rivals for the presidency, Fidel Herrera, 59, the governor of Veracruz State from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, dismissed the Viagra handouts as ridiculous. “What’s the point of encouraging old people to have sex?” he asked in a recent interview. “There’s such a thing as nature. You can’t play God.”
But others disagreed with that take.
“Nobody pays attention to us,” said Bernarda Valenzuela, 77, whose husband died in an accident years ago. “Those children who care for their parents only worry about giving them food and changing their clothes, as if we were children. They forget that we feel many things, even sexual things. We’re not made of wood.”
But Pepe Castro, 65, a barber who dyes his hair jet black, thought the money spent on the pills could be better used on more pressing matters. “There’s other things more important,” he said. “Everyone wants sex, no matter the age, but the government ought to be paying for medicines to keep people alive, not this.”
As for Mr. Posadas, he has used three pills already and has three left from his initial batch. Soon, he will return to the clinic for more tests and, he hopes, another supply.
His artificial knee still hurts him and his cholesterol is elevated. But other than that, he said he felt quite robust. “I’ll enjoy whatever time I have left,” he said, flexing his biceps a bit.Academic, pharmaceutical, healthcare policy and pension fund perspectives.
— By Elliott Williams
“The fundamental questions of whether aging can and should be classified as a disease are not new, but today they are more pressing than ever for many reasons,” says Dr Alex Zhavoronkov, CEO of Insilico Medicine and Chief Science Officer at the Biogerontology Research Foundation.
Gerontology, the study of old age, spans multiple academic fields from economics to social sciences. Biogerontology specifically focuses on those biological process that contribute to aging, as well as the ultimate effects of aging on our health. Insights from biogerontology studies will contribute to public and private medical research, influencing our societal values, and guide policy makers in their decisions.
“The main problems in biogerontology are similar to those in drug discovery for most human diseases — but with fewer resources, less visibility and less of a sense of urgency,” says Dr Alex Zhavoronkov.
To bring into focus aging as a disease, Dr Zhavoronkov is looking to the future, and the 2018 release of the WHO-curated ICD-11.
The ICD (International Classification of Diseases) is an extensive piece of work used at all levels of healthcare management: from physicians to patient organizations, from insurers to policy makers. Via the assignment of codes to disease, it helps countries to direct and reimburse research efforts.
“There is an urgent need to proactively develop actionable codes for age-related muscle wasting, many conditions related to cognitive decline, decline of the metabolic system, loss of regenerative capacity and even skin and hair pathologies.”
In preparation for the ICD-11, and to spark debate, Dr Zhavoronkov and his co-Topic Editors started a Frontiers Research Topic to produce a dedicated, and referenceable, collection of works which will present novel perspectives and reviews on aging as a disease.
We spoke with him to find out more about the topic and the specific challenges within his field.
What sparked the initial proposal of this project?
The fundamental questions of whether aging can and should be classified as a disease are not new, but today they are more pressing than ever for many reasons. Recent technological advances in many areas of technology allow for detailed analyses of the progression of aging and the development of epigenetic, transcriptomic, biochemical and imaging biomarkers.
Both animal and human data suggest that effective interventions can be developed to extend longevity and prevent the onset of various age-related diseases.
Another important factor contributing to urgency of the project is that the economies of some countries with a heavy burden of debt are slowing down partly due to the rising healthcare costs and lost productivity, which can be attributed to the increased morbidity of an aging population.
Finally, the 11th international classification of diseases, ICD-11, curated by the World Health Organization, is expected to be finalized in 2018; considering the fact that the previous version (ICD-10) was published in 1992, there will not be another chance to define actionable codes for aging and age-related conditions for many years.
Pharmaceutical and insurance companies need these codes to put forward business cases to develop and reimburse new treatments, and doctors need these codes for clinical applications.
Since there are many stakeholders involved in disease classification, we decided to make the initial proposal for this Research Topic as broad as possible. In addition to scientists and pharmaceutical companies, we also call for non-profit think tanks, insurance companies and pension funds to contribute their research and perspectives to the topic.
What are the major challenges currently faced in the field of Gerontology?
The main problems in biogerontology are similar to those in drug discovery for most human diseases |
0s to rename and redefine what had previously been known as ME as CFS. By relaxing the diagnostic criteria, CFS brought in a much wider group of people who had some form of undiagnosed chronic fatigue that, in some cases, primarily involved psychological or psychiatric factors.
Based on a new and seriously flawed hypothesis that CFS was largely being maintained by abnormal illness beliefs and behaviours, along with inactivity and deconditioning, CBT and GET became the two main recommended forms of treatment in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
Prior to publication of the PACE trial results, a small number of clinical trials had supported the use of CBT and GET, almost all of which had been carried out by health professionals who promoted a psychosomatic model of causation and management. However, patient survey evidence, as collected by the ME Association (ME Association, 2015) along with most other patient surveys (Kindlon and Baldwin, 2015), told a very different story. The majority of people with ME/CFS consistently reported that CBT was ineffective. And around 50 per cent consistently reported that GET had made their condition worse.
The largest and most recent ME Association survey (ME Association, 2015) of patient evidence on the acceptability, efficacy and safety of CBT, GET and Pacing involved 1428 respondents. In this case, 73 per cent of respondents reported that CBT had no effect on their symptoms and 74 per cent reported that their symptoms were made worse by GET.
Surveys carried out by patient support groups have a number of limitations and these are listed in detail in section 6 of The ME Association survey results. In particular, it should be noted that people who belong to patient support groups, or use their websites, are going to produce a bias towards those who have been ill for a longer period of time and/or have a more severe form of illness. At the same time, those who have recovered, or have largely recovered, are less likely to belong to a support group or take part in surveys. So the respondents in these sort of surveys are not necessarily a representative sample of the whole ME/CFS population who have tried these therapies.
And while entry to this survey was on the basis of having a diagnosis of ME/CFS, we did not collect any clinical details or contact the health professional involved for confirmation.
So the PACE trial was essentially set up to provide robust evidence of both safety and efficacy for graded activity (i.e. GET), CBT and a modified version of pacing known as adaptive pacing. But PACE was a study that selected patients using a flawed diagnostic criteria (i.e. Oxford) and only assessed a limited number of subjective outcome measures focusing on fatigue and disability – a design that required strict vigilance in order to prevent the possibility of bias. Not surprisingly, PACE met with widespread criticism right from the very start.
The MEA argued that PACE was not taking account of the clinical heterogeneity of the illness and was ignoring the complex interaction between central (brain) and peripheral (muscle) factors in the causation of fatigue in ME/CFS.
With specific reference to graded exercise, muscle performance and the observation that exercise often makes symptoms worse, Brown et al. (2015) have used magnetic resonance spectroscopy to demonstrate that there are at least two muscle phenotypes involved in ME/CFS. This finding, along with other research evidence on abnormal exercise physiology (VanNess et al., 2003), that is not consistent with a deconditioning/inactivity model of causation, emphasises the need to fully characterise muscle phenotypes, as well as muscle biochemical abnormalities, before generically prescribing exercise as an effective intervention.
The MEA therefore argued that PACE was unlikely to tell us anything we did not already know from previous clinical trials involving CBT and GET. The charity also argued that PACE was a colossal waste of money that should be far better spent on much needed biomedical research – which the main funder of PACE, the Medical Research Council, had always been reluctant to do.
When the first PACE trial results were published (White et al., 2011), they once again failed to convince people with ME/CFS that CBT and GET were the most effective ways of managing everyone with mild or moderate ME/CFS.
But it was the follow-up paper on recovery in Psychological Medicine (White et al., 2013) – where it was claimed that CBT and GET led to ‘recovery’ in 22 per cent – that really intensified the debate into the methodology of the trial, the way recovery had been defined, and the manner in which the results were portrayed to clinicians, patients and the media. Key criticisms included the following:
Recovery figures were based on a definition of recovery that differed from that specified in the trial protocol. In fact, the final definition of recovery was so lax that on some criteria it was possible to score below the level required for entry to the trial, yet still be counted as ‘recovered’. Participants were not even asked whether they had recovered in relation to normal aspects of daily living. Information on overall receipt of state sickness or disability benefits failed to support a recovery – with the PACE trial cost analysis study (McCrone et al., 2012) reporting: ‘Receipt of benefits due to illness or disability increased slightly from baseline to follow-up’. Information on return to some form of meaningful employment or education status was never sought. This was dismissed by the investigators as not being relevant. Information on ability to mobilise failed to support a recovery. Overall results for all treatments relating to changes in the 6-minute walking test from baseline to 52 weeks did not represent a return to normal levels of activity. In fact, data for all the treatment groups at 52 weeks indicated that they were below the 402 m achieved by patients with class three heart failure. In addition, rejecting the use of electronic activity monitors meant no objective assessment of mobility was carried out.
The term ‘recovery’ implies a sustained return towards symptom-free health along with the ability to repeatedly and reliably participate in all aspects of normal life – employment, education, social activities and so on. Without this information, it was impossible to conclude that any of the patients in the PACE trial had usefully recovered.
Not surprisingly, criticism of the PACE trial continued and intensified. There was a debate in the House of Lords (UK House of Lords, 2013) and 36 academics and clinicians signed an open letter to The Lancet (ME Association, 2016) calling for an independent re-analysis of the data.
Several requests by academics, clinicians and patients asked for unpublished data to be made available so that it could be subjected to independent analysis. These demands were consistent with the growing acceptance by the scientific community that there should be far more transparency in clinical trials, including the sharing of data. The investigators refused to give way even when asked to do so by the Information Commissioner. Queen Mary University of London, which oversaw the trial, then spent almost £250,000 of public money on legal fees by taking the case to an appeal tribunal – which they lost.
When the unpublished PACE trial data was re-analysed by Wilshire et al. (2017), the authors found that if recovery was defined according to the original trial protocol, recovery rates in the CBT and GET groups were low and not significantly higher than in the control group (4%, 7% and 3%, respectively). The authors concluded, The claim that patients can recover as a result of CBT and GET is not justified by the data, and is highly misleading to clinicians and patients considering these treatments.
I conclude with some observations on what we can learn from the mistakes of the PACE trial. Because if lessons are not learned, distrust of the medical and scientific community by the people with ME/CFS will only continue and intensify.
This is not an argument with psychiatry. Mental and physical illness are equally real and horrible. As with any long-term illness, some people with ME/CFS will develop comorbid depression and other mental health problems – where CBT can be of help alongside good quality general management. The argument here is with a flawed model of causation assuming efficacy for CBT and GET while taking no significant account of varying clinical presentations and disease pathways.
First, on behalf of all the journals that have so far published 16 papers from the trial, The Lancet must now set up an independent re-analysis of the PACE trial data, along with appropriate sensitivity analysis. This re-analysis should be carried out by well respected independent reviewers with expertise in statistics and study design. If any results are found to be significantly inaccurate or unreliable, the possibility of a retraction will have to be considered.
Second, if a drug treatment was found to be making a significant proportion of people worse, as is the case with patient evidence relating to the use of GET, the treatment would be withdrawn and would not form part of a NICE recommendation. As there is now both consistent and extensive patient evidence relating to the harmful effects of GET, the NICE guideline recommendation on GET must be reviewed as a matter of urgency. The generic prescribing of progressive and inflexible exercise programmes is not an acceptable form of treatment for people with ME/CFS.
Third, the enormous amount of public money spent by the Medical Research Council and Department of Work and Pensions on funding the PACE trial, along with legal costs met by Queen Mary University of London in appealing against the Freedom of Information requests, merits a formal inquiry, possibly at a parliamentary level.
Finally, there is a desperate need for clinical trials of activity management that examine the heterogeneity of ME/CFS, the fact that underlying disease processes involve both central and peripheral fatigue, and the consistent evidence from patients that inflexible or progressive exercise programmes aggravate symptoms in the majority of patients who come under the ME/CFS umbrella.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article. Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.Story highlights Witnesses observe intermittent artillery fire from Turkey into Syria, CNN Turk reports
Syria says it is investigating source of gunfire fired into Turkey
No evidence of broader conflict, U.S. defense official says
Turkey strikes targets in Syria following shelling of a Turkish border town
Turkey fired on Syrian government targets in response to the shelling of a Turkish border town in which five civilians were killed Wednesday, according to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office.
The town of Akcakale "was hit by artillery fire belonging to the Syrian regime forces," a statement from Erdogan's office said, in the first clear assertion of blame for the shelling.
"Our armed forces on the border responded immediately to this atrocious attack within the rules of engagement, and points in Syria determined by radar were hit with artillery fire," it said. "Turkey, within the confines of the rules of engagement and international law, will never leave these types of provocations aimed at our national security unanswered."
The retaliatory artillery fire marks a significant increase in tension between the two countries, and CNN affiliate CNN Turk reported that witnesses observed intermittent artillery fire from Turkey into Syria continuing into the early hours Thursday.
Syrian authorities are "offering sincerest condolences on behalf of the Syrian government to the family of the deceased and the Turkish people" and are investigating the source of the gunfire, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
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Photos: In pictures: Showdown in Syria Photos: In pictures: Showdown in Syria In pictures: Fighting in Aleppo – A mother holds her wounded daughter as she waits for treatment at the Dar al-Shifa hospital in the northern city of Aleppo, as fighting in Syria's second largest city continues. Hide Caption 1 of 13 Photos: In pictures: Showdown in Syria In pictures: Fighting in Aleppo – A fighter injured in the Arqub neighborhood of northern city of Aleppo is brought to a hospital on October 1, 2012, as fighting in Syria's second largest city between rebel forces and government troops continues. Hide Caption 2 of 13 Photos: In pictures: Showdown in Syria In pictures: Showdown in Syria – Three car bombs destroyed the area around a military officers' club and a hotel in Aleppo, Syria, on Wednesday, October 3. At least 40 people were killed and 90 wounded, most of them soldiers, a monitoring group said. Hide Caption 3 of 13 Photos: In pictures: Showdown in Syria In pictures: Showdown in Syria – Car bomb explosions in Aleppo on Wednesday left a crater in the ground. Hide Caption 4 of 13 Photos: In pictures: Showdown in Syria In pictures: Showdown in Syria – Friends lay a rebel fighter on a gurney after he was shot in the chest during heavy battles in the Midan neighborhood on Monday, October 1. Hide Caption 5 of 13 Photos: In pictures: Showdown in Syria In pictures: Showdown in Syria – A nurse helps treat a 7-year-old girl who's neck was badly wounded by shrapnel at the Dar Al Shifaa hospital in Aleppo on Monday, October 1. Hide Caption 6 of 13 Photos: In pictures: Showdown in Syria In pictures: Showdown in Syria – A doctor looks at the register of dead people, stained with blood, in a hospital in the eastern sector of the city of Aleppo on October 1, 2012. Hide Caption 7 of 13 Photos: In pictures: Showdown in Syria In pictures: Showdown in Syria – A Syrian rebel ducks for cover during clashes to control the area around the Zacharias mosque in the old city of Aleppo. Hide Caption 8 of 13 Photos: In pictures: Showdown in Syria In pictures: Showdown in Syria – Men carry the covered body of a child killed in an attack by Syrian government forces in Aleppo on Friday, Spetember 28. Hide Caption 9 of 13 Photos: In pictures: Showdown in Syria In pictures: Showdown in Syria – Syrians inspect damages in the old city of Aleppo after the area was shelled by Syrian regime forces on Sunday. Hide Caption 10 of 13 Photos: In pictures: Showdown in Syria In pictures: Showdown in Syria – Smoke billows from a burning textile factory after Syrian regime forces shelled a nearby position held by rebels in the Aleppo neighbourhood of Arqub Sunday. Hide Caption 11 of 13 Photos: In pictures: Showdown in Syria In pictures: Showdown in Syria – Rebel fighters gather as they hold their position some 50 meters away from Syrian government troops during fighting in Aleppo's northern Izaa quarter on Thursday, September 27. Hide Caption 12 of 13 Photos: In pictures: Showdown in Syria In pictures: Fighting in Aleppo – A Syrian rebel mans a machine gun near Al-Bab, northeast of Syria's second city Aleppo. Hide Caption 13 of 13
JUST WATCHED Official: Syria a victim of terrorism Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Official: Syria a victim of terrorism 01:41
"In case of border incidents that occur between any two neighboring countries, countries and governments must act wisely, rationally and responsibly, particularly since there's a special condition on the Syrian-Turkish borders in terms of the presence of undisciplined terrorist groups spread across the borders who have varying agendas and identities," said Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi.
Opposition groups in Syria said artillery fire from Turkey fell on a government military center near Tal Abyad in northern Syria's Raqqa province. Turkish military reinforcements are deployed near the border, they added.
The artillery shell fired into Turkey came from Tal Abyad, according to Turkey's semiofficial Anadolu news agency.
The North Atlantic Council, NATO's most senior political governing body, said it stands by Turkey.
The alliance "demands the immediate cessation of such aggressive acts against an ally, and urges the Syrian regime to put an end to flagrant violations of international law," the council said after an emergency meeting. The Syrian government has a recent pattern of "aggressive attacks" at NATO's southeastern border, it said.
Akcakale Mayor Abdulhakim Ayhan said earlier that three children, their mother and a female neighbor died when a house was hit. Two police officers were among those hurt, he said.
Nine people were injured when the shell landed on the town in Sanliurfa province, near the Syrian border, the Turkish prime minister's statement said.
Relations between Turkey and Syria were already under strain over Damascus' response to an 18-month-long uprising against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
A senior U.S. defense official said the Pentagon is watching the situation with some degree of concern, "but at this point, there's nothing to suggest it's going to become a broader conflict."
The official said the reciprocal fire appeared to be a smaller-scale border skirmish rather than a large-scale aerial bombardment.
"We think this is Turkey basically saying, 'Don't mess with us. Whatever is going on inside Syria, don't mess with us,'" the official told CNN.
Both nations would have an interest in not allowing the conflict to escalate, according to the official.
"In some ways, Turkey would have more to lose in that kind of fight than Syria. They've already got a potential refugee problem coming from Syria, and a fight would only make that worse, the official said, adding that "Syria has so many problems right now, the last thing the government needs is to add another."
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to express his government's "deepest concern" about the shelling, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said. Before launching its military strike against Syrian targets Wednesday, Turkey reached out to NATO and U.N. chiefs.
Ban issued a statement expressing condolences to the shelling victims in Turkey. He called on Syria to respect the territorial integrity of its neighbors.
The U.N. Security Council privately discussed the situation.
"The secretary-general has repeatedly warned that the ongoing militarization of the conflict in Syria is leading to tragic results for the Syrian people," Ban said. "Today's incidents, where firing from Syria struck a Turkish town, again demonstrated how Syria's conflict is threatening not only the security of the Syrian people but increasingly causing harm to its neighbors."
Musa Ozer, who lives next to the house where the artillery shell landed, was crying as he spoke on the phone with CNN in the aftermath of the attack.
"The bomb fell on us. My head's really not in the right place right now," he said. "My uncle was injured and his wife died. What am I to make of this?"
Ayhan said the shell landed on one house but debris from the impact scattered across a wider area, leading to the high number of injuries.
He also voiced the concern felt by residents of the southeastern town. "The people of Akcakale are rising up against this. They live in fear," he told CNN Turk. The mayor said the shell that caused the deaths was the second to land Wednesday on Akcakale.
Salih Aydogdu, a local neighborhood mayor, called for authorities to act to prevent such incidents.
"Over the last month, we've had these types of incident five or six times. This is a small place; every time it happens, we can hear it. We are right on the border with Syria," he said. "The people of Akcakale are upset. We want the governor and the police to take precautions. This was Turkey's most peaceful and tranquil area. Now we have neither peace nor tranquility."
For the past two weeks, schools have been closed in the town, and the teachers have left, he added.
Akcakale has been rocked by previous fighting just across the border in Syria.
Last month, Turkish residents watched as Syrian shells crashed into Syrian territory, barely a stone's throw away from the Turkish border fence.
The close artillery barrage forced Turkish authorities to temporarily shut schools in Akcakale and close off roads leading to the Syrian border.
Only two years ago, Syria and Turkey enjoyed cozy bilateral relations. The neighbors had instituted visa-free travel for their citizens, and cross-border trade was booming.
Diplomatic relations ruptured, however, months after the Syrian uprising began. Last March, Turkey shuttered its embassy in Damascus and the Syrian government declared Turkey's ambassador, Omer Onhon, persona non grata.
Erdogan has repeatedly denounced Syrian President al-Assad, publicly calling on him to step down after accusing him of massacring his own people. The Syrian government, meanwhile, has accused Turkey of arming and funding Syrian rebels.
CNN journalists have witnessed light weapons in the form of assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns coming from Turkey to Syrian rebels.
In addition, Turkey is currently hosting more than 93,000 Syrian refugees in camps. Turkish officials estimate another 40,000 to 50,000 unofficial refugees live in Turkey outside refugee camps.
This is not the first deadly cross-border incident between the two neighbors.
On Tuesday, Turkish officials announced at least two suspected Kurdish fighters were killed after a clash broke out along the border in Turkey's Mardin province.
In June, the Syrian government announced it had shot down a Turkish military reconnaissance jet after it crossed into Syrian airspace.
Two Turkish pilots were killed in the incident. The Turkish government continues to insist the jet was shot down by a surface-to-air missile after it left Syrian airspace -- claims that the Syrian government denies.A real life gold digger: Meet the 'urban prospector' who scours the streets of New York for discarded gemstones
It turns out the streets of New York really are paved with gold - as long as you don't mind searching for it on your hands and knees.
Raffi Stepanian, a self-styled urban prospector, has discovered enough tiny jewellery fragments hidden in the sidewalks of the city's Diamond District to make a living.
Using nothing more than a Styrofoam cup, tweezers and a butter knife, he collects hundreds of dollars worth of gold, diamonds and rubies each week.
Scroll down for video
Modern day prospector: Raffi Stepanian searches for tiny scraps of gold and gemstones in Manhattan's Diamond District
Striking gold: Armed with tweezers, a butter knife and a styrofoam cup, Mr Stepanian earned more than $800 in a week searching Manhattan's streets
The 43-year-old told the New York Post: 'The percentage of gold out here on the street is greater than the amount of gold you would find in a mine...
'It comes close to a mother lode because in the street, you're picking up gold left by the industry.'
Mr Stepanian spends his days trawling through nooks and crannies in the area around 47th Street, searching for a glimmer of the precious metal.
He eases up mud from the cracks in the sidewalk using a butter knife, then takes it to a nearby polishing studio where he pans the dirt using a bowl and a sieve, just like a 19th-century prospector.
Gold digger: The 43-year-old spends his day scouring the pavement and road around 47th Street for chips of precious metals and gemstones
Cashing in: Mr Stepanian says he has gained a reputation in the 'Diamond District' from sellers. Right, he holds some of the tiny bits of gold or gemstone he has retrieved from the pavements
Lucky find: He then takes his findings to a nearby polishing studio where he pans away the dirt using a bowl and sieve
He earned $819 in just six days last week by selling the gold to dealers in the area - where it came from in the first place.
Many of the fragments are carried out into the street by gold and gem merchants, who accidentally pick it up on their clothes.
Mr Stepanian also finds tiny chips of platinum, gold earring backs and loops from broken necklaces, watches and chains, all of which have been dropped by mistake.
He told the Post: 'Material falls off clothes, on the bottom of shoes, it drops off jewellery, and it falls in the dirt and sticks to the gum on the street.'
Urban prospector: Mr Stepanian inspects his latest find as the rest of New York carries on regardless behind him
His daily treasure hunt started several years ago, when he was working as a stone setter and found gold scraps on the floor of a diamond exchange.
He realised if he could find gold inside, it must be outside too - so he started scouring the sidewalks.
He said: 'The stones are already cut and manufactured - it's a step above a mine. I'm finding them already cut and polished.'
Finished product: Mr Stepanian with a bag full of gold and gems, which he will sell to merchants in New York's Diamond District
His unusual trade has earned him a reputation among the diamond sellers in the area, one of whom quipped 'half of its probably mine.'
For Mr Stepanian, it's no different to collecting cans on the street and handing them in exchange for nickels - except it's rather more lucrative.
He said: 'It's redemption of reusable gold. This is the gold that has been on this street for 60 years. I know how to look, and I know where to look for it.'A natural gas flare on an oil well pad burned as the sun set outside Watford City, N.D. Low oil prices have led to slower business in much of North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields.
In“The high tech of low carbon” (Page A1, Jan. 23), Robert Armstrong, director of the MIT Energy Initiative, claims that “history says we can invent our way out of” the climate-change crisis. The historical record, as I read it, is not so clear.
Climate change is the result of our violation of a planetary limit — the capacity of the planet to absorb a human effluent without being dramatically changed. If we take a limited view of history, professor Armstrong is right: For nearly half a millennium, European peoples have found ways to sidestep many kinds of limits.
At first they did this through geographic expansion, extending their economies — and ecological footprints — onto other continents. More recently they’ve used exponentially increasing amounts of energy to avoid or soften their encounter with ecological limits. Thus, fossil-fuel-based fertilizer, diesel tractors, and energy-intensive pumping have allowed us to increase our population far beyond the number that a prepetroleum agriculture could support.
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A longer view of history attuned to energy use offers little ground for being sanguine about the power of human invention. Physical law tells us that we’ll never create energy out of nothing, and that energy return on energy invested, or EROI, is a crucial measure of a civilization’s energy harvesting system. History suggests that it’s easy to look smart and be inventive on the high-EROI upslope of new energy-harvesting technologies, as was shown by Egypt under the pharaohs, China after the invention of intensive rice cultivation, Rome during its expansion of slave-based wheat farming, and European culture as we began to exploit coal and then, even more dramatically, petroleum.
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But today humans have discovered and used more than half of the oil the planet has on offer. Our use of it must eventually decrease, and the longer we postpone that decrease the more dramatic the decrease will be. Far from reassuring us that we can always solve our problems, history tells us that civilizations that experience dramatic declines in their net energy uptake usually develop authoritarian political systems in an effort to stave off collapse, but then crash and disappear anyway.
The challenge we face is difficult. We need to face it squarely, without illusions.
Eric Zencey
Montpelier
The writer is a fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont, and is the author of “The Other Road to Serfdom and the Path to Sustainable Democracy.”Vote Vote Vote!!!
It is that time of year again, and this year, Metalholic wants to hear from the fans. Get your opinion in the mix. There are so many extraordinary women in hard rock and metal these days and we want to know who you think are the Top 25 on the current list. This is our 5th year, so we want it to be something special.
Some basic guidelines: 1) We are looking for those who are/were relevant in 2014, 2) This is not about looks, but talent, 3) If you add someone to the list include name and band name and make sure they are in the hard rock or metal genre, 4) any artist not fitting the criteria in #1 or #4 will be removed, and 5), you may vote for more than one artist, but please do not mass vote for the same artist or your extra votes will be deleted. Support your favorite but play fair!
Horns up and happy voting, metalheads and rockers! \m/
November 1 Update: The voting is now closed and the final list after duplicate votes are removed and staff feedback is included will appear on Metalholic before year end. Thanks for your input!
[yop_poll id=”4″]
Check out the 2011, 2012 and 2013 lists. (The 2010 edition was print only)
Also check out our 2014 Poll for best female bassistDec 30, 2016; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Florida State Seminoles wide receiver Keith Gavin (89) is unable to make a catch as Michigan Wolverines cornerback Jourdan Lewis (26) defends the play during the second half at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
With the Dallas Cowboys revamped secondary taking shape, rookie cornerback Jourdan Lewis’ ball skills stand out above the rest.
When the Dallas Cowboys selected cornerback Jourdan Lewis from Michigan in the third round, I was extremely pessimistic about the pick. My first thought was he is too small as Lewis weighs in at 5-foot-10, 188 pounds. And that’s being generous!
With the New York Giants acquiring Brandon Marshall, the Philadelphia Eagles getting Alshon Jeffery and the Washington Redskins signing Terrelle Pryor, the influx of big physical receivers is now very prevalent in the NFC East.
My feeling was that the Cowboys needed bigger corners to combat them. But then I dabbled deeper into the film room and the numbers. My views started to change. There are two things that don’t lie. Game tape and numbers. And the first thing that stands out to me about Lewis are his natural ball skills.
This kid is feisty, scrappy always looking to make a play. You remember his absurd one-handed interception against the Wisconsin Badgers don’t you? If not, watch it below.
In his last three seasons alone, Lewis allowed only a 42% completion percentage against him. And he ended his Michigan career with a school record 45 pass breakups. That’s what I said. 45 folks!
The slot position would be the perfect fit for Lewis in Dallas because of his aggressive style. And the 5-foot-10 corner would also be facing smaller, quicker type receivers as well.
Let’s be honest Cowboy’s fans. Haven’t you grown tired of seeing the secondary getting burnt and flagged in the most critical parts of the game? Should I mention our last playoff game where Green Bay Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers torched them?
The point is look for new players like Jourdan Lewis to buck this maddening trend in Dallas. Will there be growing pains? Of course there will be. Lewis is a rookie. I still see him being a difference maker for the Dallas Cowboys in Year One.I finished a book a little while ago entitled A Reader’s Manifesto: An Attack on the Growing Pretentiousness in American Literary Prose and I loved it. I loved it so much that I’ve started calling it my little black book. It’s a long form literary critique using examples from numerous books, both – what the author calls – good and bad. It’s not a dry academic stuffy read. It is a fast, concise to the point essay about a specific topic that is not a high-minded far away abstract topic, but about book reviews, reviews people readers rely on to tell them what is good. If you love books, like books, or are thinking about reading more, I highly recommend this.
If you are thinking about writing about video games, I highly recommend this. In fact I’d call it damn near required reading, despite it being about another medium. Like Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, you need to read this. There are two main reasons for this. The first is that even though it’s about books, the critical writing he takes to task and the subject matter of such writing is equally analogous to the mainstream review writing and culture that revolves around video games. The second is the correct usage of the word “pretentiousness” with regards to it’s meaning in relation to critical analysis of the arts.
The second point can be made faster so I’ll deal with it first, before moving on to the bulk of the argument in favor of this book. ‘Pretentiousness’ is a word that gets thrown around a lot with regards to anyone who should dare to think above “duuuhh duhhh, explosions are fun.” Of course for most the word pretentious is far to big, so the meaning is implied or long explanations utilizing short words that could be summed up with ‘pretentious’ are used instead. You’ve seen them used. Recently it has become a hallmark phrase of people who want to avoid thinking about something negative or difficult.
It’s just a game.
What they are saying in effect it, ‘stop being a pretentious douchebag.’ The last word is added to connote the spirit in which the comment is given. That is what they are saying, what they really mean is, ‘stop bringing this shit up, I don’t want to hear/think about it.’
Pretentious – adj- 1. making usually unjustified or excessive claims (as of value of standing) 2. expressive of affected, unwarranted or exaggerated importance, worth or stature (Merriam-Webster)
That is what the word actually means. I want to establish that for most of the words usage or implied usage it doesn’t fit. I direct you to Moff’s Law for a full explanation.
So, if the word’s usage is not proper with regards to thinking critically about video games or any creative endeavor, then why would I apply it to the writing about video games after I just discounted its use? Because it is wrong to use it as a pejorative or first response against a thoughtful argument because it happens to be about video games, or again any creative endeavor. Even if you don’t agree with the argument or the argument is really outlandish and seemingly far fetched the term still isn’t applicable based solely on those grounds. No, pretentious is an adjective describing a very particular instance of critical assessment. It comes in two forms and this is where I segue neatly into the first point above.
A pretentious analysis is one that is unsupported or pulled from one’s ass. The first is self-explanatory. If you make a declaration or assessment and then do not back it up or explain yourself you are being pretentious. Saying the sky is blue and then not explaining that’s the color our eyes are interpreting based off of light refraction is not pretentious, it’s a shortcut. We know the sky is blue; it is a basic, natural, observable fact. I am specifically talking about statements of assessment or declaration of quality.
Over and over, B.R. Myers will excerpt passages, or rather sentences from books that were first excerpted by praising book reviewers. He only uses excerpts that were praised for their quality by high profile book reviewers first. In nearly every case the reviewer will describe the passage as great or insightful or maybe compare it to a literary great of the past and then give the quote. And then would move on. They would not defend their thesis that this excerpt warrants merit or mention. Meyers would often counter with a quality quote from a much better book. To show you what I mean I’ll pull one of the “so-called great literary passages” at random.
There’s something about German names…I don’t know what it is exactly. It’s just there. (White Noise).
Thank you for wasting my time then with those two sentences. I wont bother to give Myers appraisal of it, because I had to read this book and have been waiting 3 years to eviscerate it somewhere. I hate White Noise and in my Contemporary Fiction class I couldn’t help but feel, deep down, that it was bullshit. You can usually tell something about a book by its first sentence.
The station wagons arrived at noon, a long shining line that coursed through the west campus. (White Noise)
Yeah that’s memorable. I had to look that fucker up. Here are some other first lines:
“Call me Ishmael.”
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
“It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
“Samuel Spade’s jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth.”
“In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul.”
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
I shouldn’t have to label any of those quotes for you to recognize them or at least know where they came from. Every single one of them immediately holds your interest to read the next sentence. They are evocative and can be pulled apart word by word to discover the care and craft that went into them. The first line is probably the most important single line of any book.
There is nothing technically wrong with the first line in White Noise, but then there is nothing technically wrong with a lot of published books, but I wouldn’t call them literary genius. There is nothing technically wrong with the first line of The DaVinci Code:
Renowned curator Jacques Sauniere staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum’s Grand Gallery.
Again, nothing wrong with the line itself, it even tantalizes with a few intriguing questions of “who is Jacques Sauniere?” “Why is he ‘renowned?’” “Why is he staggering?” and “Where is the Grand Gallery that it must be capitalized?” The thing is, now that I look at it, this is a better first sentence than White Noise has. It is well crafted, it may not be superiorly crafted like the above list, but it gets the job done and throws in a few mysteries. But the real bug I have with White Noise is the third and fourth sentences. After two short ones, we get a sentence that is half a page long. That by itself |
we elect to solve our problems to see how well it is going to work out for us.
Every two years we can replace one third or 33 members of the Senate and one hundred percent or all 435 of the members of the House. Now that sounds great doesn’t it? Here is the problem, on average 90 percent of all members of Congress run for re-election — and 95 percent of them win!
Realistically this equates to only being able to replace approximately 68 members every two years, proportionately this works out to be 63 representatives and 5 senators. Listed within the Convention of States Project application is the need to propose an amendment that limits the terms of office for federal officials and for members of Congress. Only with term limits will we ever be able to end this desire for money and power that we see in that ugly creature — the career politician. But I digress.
How Many Years It Will Take To Elect A Simple Majority of “Good” People?
Now that we had our reality check, let’s see how long it will take to elect enough “good” people to office that will obey the Constitution and solve most of our nation’s problems.
To make this exercise simple we are going to assume that once the Senate and the House of Representatives reach a simple majority of “good” people that they will be able to stop all bad legislation and pass only good legislation.
So, let me ask you a serious question, how many “good” people do we currently have in the Senate and House? Now when I say “good” I mean someone that no matter what they will be voting on in the morning, you do not have to call or email them to tell them how to vote before you go to bed. You can rest your weary head on the pillow and sleep like a baby because you know they will vote according to the Constitution. Having a hard time with with a number? Yeah, me too. For the sake of this demonstration I am going to provide some numbers, and based on this outcome you can determine how your scenario will work out. (For more analysis see: The Fear Of An Article V Convention: What Should JBS Be Saying?)
In the Senate we are going to keep 10 “good” people and in the House 50 “good” people. Now a simple majority in the Senate is 51 and 218 in the House. This leaves us with having to replace 41 senators and 168 representatives to achieve a simple majority of “good” people in both houses. I want to keep this as realistic as possible, so let’s not assume we will win every single election across the nation. That Utopian ideal is just plain nonsense. How about a win rate of 33%? Is that possible? I think that is very optimistic and a hefty goal to achieve, but for the sake of this demonstration let’s use it.
So if we win one out of every three elections nationwide that equates to replacing 2 senators and 21 representatives every two years with “good” people. Are you still with me? We are going to start our exercise this year on November 4, 2014. Are you ready? Here we go! 2014, 2016, 2018…2028 simple majority reached in the House, 2030, 2032, 2034…2054 simple majority reached in the Senate. Here is a video demonstrating this exercise.
The year is now 2054 and we just reached a simple majority in both the Senate and House. It will take 40 years of electing “good” people to Congress in order to have enough in office to stop the insanity! Now keep in mind we are also assuming that we win one out of every three races for 40 consecutive years, every “good” person that gets elected stays in office for 40 years, and not a single one of them ever gets corrupted or influenced by power while in office. How do you like those odds? Are you feeling a little depressed right now? If you are that’s because deep down inside you know this is closer to reality than you would care to admit, isn’t it? So what do we do?
Amendments Are How We Are Going To Solve Our Problems
Let’s be honest with ourselves, do we really believe that the people in the federal government that have created the problems we have today will actually fix them? Of course not!
They will never voluntarily relinquish the power they have by implementing term limits on themselves, or forcing themselves to balance the budget, or any other number of reforms that will limit their power and jurisdiction. However, we can do all of this with an Article V Convention — and we can accomplish it much faster.
We have ratified twenty seven amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the first ten being the Bill of Rights in 1791.
Here’s what David C. Huckabee, a specialist in analyzing America’s federal government, has written regarding the amendment process for Congressional Research Services:
“Excluding the 27th Amendment (Congressional Pay), which took more than 202 years, the longest pending proposed amendment that was successfully ratified was the 22nd Amendment (Presidential Tenure), which took three years, nine months, and four days. The 26th Amendment (18-year-old vote) was ratified in the shortest time: three months and 10 days. The average ratification time was one year, eight months, and seven days.”
That is less than one election cycle!
Now let’s imagine for a moment what can be accomplished when we pass the Convention of States Project application in thirty-four state legislatures calling for an Article V convention limited to proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States that impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office for its officials and for members of Congress.
To date, the Convention of States Project application has been passed in three states — Georgia, Alaska, and Florida. If we can pass an additional fifteen in 2015 and the remaining sixteen the following year, the states will force Congress to call the first Article V convention in our history by 2016.
Let’s assume the convention lasts two months and passes a handful of amendments by the end of that year that are designed to force Congress to balance the budget, limit their spending, limit their terms in office, and provide the states the authority to overturn any federal law, supreme court decision, and/or executive order with a super-majority.
Those amendments are then sent to the states for ratification and let’s also assume that they all are ratified by the necessary three-fourths or 38 states in the historically average time for ratification of one year, eight months, and seven days. By the end of 2018 we will accomplish more in four years with a Convention of States than we ever could hope to accomplish in forty years with elections alone.
It’s Time To Stop The Insanity!
We often hear that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. A truer statement cannot be made about elections. Instead of hoping, wishing and praying that those we send to Congress are going to miraculously fix all of our problems, let’s take matters into our own hands and exercise our constitutional muscle by calling for a Convention of States to restore the balance of power and save our Republic.Now that the cell phones in San Bernardino and Brooklyn have been unlocked (no thanks to Apple), FBI warnings about “going dark” in the face of advancing digital encryption seem less urgent than before. Perhaps there are other ways — buying exploits in the zero-day market, plea bargaining pressure — to skin the encryption cat, after all. Are privacy advocates correct that a “Golden Age of Surveillance” has arrived, and the real question is whether law enforcement has too many tools, rather than too few? Or will unchecked encryption enable criminals and terrorists to wreak havoc via the Dark Web, as Director Comey fears? Although an interested spectator, I am in no position to judge that technical debate.
I am, however, better positioned to ponder a less publicized “going dark” threat to another branch of government, the branch most indispensable to the rule of law — our court system. Over the last 40 years, secrecy in all aspects of the judicial process has risen to literally unprecedented levels. Let me describe what I have seen, and why it is troubling.
Secret courts, secret dockets
In 1978, Congress created the first secret court in our history — the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court. Staffed by Article III judges borrowed from federal district courts, this specialized tribunal issues surveillance warrants for foreign intelligence purposes. Understandably, given its mission, FISA court proceedings are ex parte and mostly secret, although the Snowden revelations in 2013 forced a partial lifting of the veil.
While the FISA court remains the only congressionally authorized secret court in our nation’s history, secret dockets are another matter. In 1986, Congress enacted the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to regulate government access to our cell phone and Internet communications and records. This law authorized court orders compelling such access to be sealed indefinitely, “until further order of the court”; in practice, this has meant that these surveillance orders are permanently sealed. Moreover, these orders are routinely accompanied by gag orders forbidding the provider from telling customers that the government has read their emails or tracked their cell phones. (This has become a customer relations headache for providers like Microsoft, who sued last month to have ECPA’s gag provision declared a prior restraint of speech in violation of the First Amendment.)
How large is this secret ECPA docket? Extrapolating from a Federal Judicial Center study of 2006 federal case filings, I have estimated that more than 30,000 secret ECPA orders were issued that year alone. Given recent DOJ disclosures, the current annual volume is probably twice that number. And those figures do not include surveillance orders obtained by state and local authorities, who handle more than 15 times the number of felony investigations that the feds do. Based on that ratio, the annual rate of secret surveillance orders by federal and state courts combined could easily exceed half a million. Admittedly this is a guess; no one truly knows, least of all our lawmakers in Congress. That is precisely the problem.
These breathtaking numbers have no precedent in our legal history. Before the digital age, executed search warrants were routinely placed on the court docket available for public inspection. The presumption was that the public should be able to monitor the level of governmental intrusion into the “persons, houses, papers, and effects” of its citizens. Apparently, that presumption does not apply to government intrusion upon our digital lives.
Secret cases, secret evidence
Still, the situation might be tolerable, if criminal investigations were the only area of rising judicial secrecy. But that is not the case.
The same FJC study found that 576 civil cases filed in 2006 were completely sealed, meaning that the public was denied any information about the case, including the docket sheet. Rationales for the blackout varied from weak (“the parties wanted them sealed,” “to protect physicians reputations,” “to protect a party’s credit rating”) to non-existent (“17 pro se actions,” “30 habeas corpus and prisoner actions,” “33 forfeitures and seizures”).
Equally concerning is what was omitted from the study — cases with highly redacted docket sheets, or a substantial number of sealed filings, were not counted at all. This is understandable, because the numbers would likely have been too large to tabulate in any meaningful way. In my experience on the bench, unwarranted sealing in civil cases has become rampant. Even the most mundane employment suit will have a docket sheet littered with “Sealed event” entries. Litigants must often be reminded that there is no unalienable right to a private trial in a public forum.
Given the prevalence of the practice today, one easily forgets how new it all is. For most of our history, records of judicial proceedings were always accessible to the public, a practice inherited from English common law courts. Limited exceptions only began to appear around the turn of the 20th century, mostly in divorce, adoption, or juvenile proceedings. In 1915, the Supreme Court first encountered a judicial sealing order, which Justice Holmes denounced as “a judicial fiat” having “no judicial character” and “in excess of the jurisdiction of the lower court” before granting a writ of mandamus to revoke it.
That traditional aversion to court secrecy has been overcome in the last few decades. To take but one example, the case name In re Sealed Case first appeared in 1981; it is now the most common case name on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals docket. Another telling sign is that the government is far more aggressively (and successfully) asserting evidentiary privileges than ever before. This includes well-established privileges like state secrets, and brand new ones like the privilege for investigative techniques and procedures. Unsurprisingly, the brainchild behind this particular privilege was J. Edgar Hoover himself, the godfather of the “black bag” job and other illicit techniques. (The story behind this privilege is told here.) Hoover’s privilege is often invoked to limit court testimony about technological tools routinely used by law enforcement, such as cell site simulators (Stingrays).
Privatized justice, boiling frogs
My concern is not merely that a velvet curtain is being drawn across wide swaths of traditionally public judicial business. Over the last 30 years, with Supreme Court enabling, much of that traditional judicial business has been outsourced to private arbitrators and non-public “dispute resolution” mechanisms. Employers, Internet service providers, and consumer lenders have led a mass exodus from the court system. By the click of a mouse or tick of a box, the American public is constantly inveigled to divert the enforcement of its legal rights to venues closed off from public scrutiny. Justice is becoming privatized, like so many other formerly public goods turned over to invisible hands — electricity, water, education, prisons, highways, the military.
I realize that each of these developments has its arguable upside. Within the judiciary itself there are many who believe that, for cost and efficiency reasons, judges should spend more time managing cases off the record than adjudicating them on the record. My concern is that, like a frog in water heated gradually to a boil, these incremental changes to our judicial system will eventually produce a profoundly unpleasant transformation.
Turn out the light, and then turn out the light?
Absent good public information about what courts are doing, justice and the rule of law are left groping in the dark. Yale Professor Judith Resnik accurately summarizes the stakes:
Without public access, one cannot know whether fair treatment is accorded regardless of status. Without publicity, judges have no means of demonstrating their independence. Without oversight, one cannot ensure that judges, tasked with vindicating public rights, are loyal to those norms. Without independent judges acting in public and treating the disputants in an equal and dignified manner, outcomes lose their claim to legitimacy. And without public accounting of how legal norms are being applied, one cannot debate the need for revisions.
More elegant, perhaps, is the simple admonition added to the open court proviso of the New Jersey Provincial Charter in 1674: “Justice may not be done in a corner.” Unfortunately, this may prove to be one ancestral pearl of wisdom that our generation carelessly threw away.A Baltimore County jury on Thursday acquitted a man charged in an unusual February bomb scare using a toilet, according to online court records.
Duane Davis had been charged with planting a fake destructive device and making a false statement about a destructive device, both felonies that each carried up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He was found not guilty of the former and acquitted of the latter, according to court records.
The jury began deliberating Wednesday afternoon and returned the verdict Thursday morning.
On Feb. 6, outside the home to Baltimore County government, according to police. The toilet was covered with newspaper clippings and photos and tied to it were a portable television and a cell phone.
A county maintenance worker discovered the toilet on the morning of Feb. 7, thought it looked suspicious and alerted security. for several hours as police called in bomb technicians and a helicopter to make sure the toilet was safe.
After his arrest, Davis was held without bail and ordered to undergo a mental evaluation.
Davis, 51, told police that the toilet was a calling card and a political statement and was not intended to be a bomb, though a police officer testified that Davis said he "could see how someone would think that" it was.
Davis has a history of using the toilets, and said he had deposited a similar toilet early this year outside Baltimore City schools headquarters on North Avenue and gave another to the American Visionary Art Museum.
Davis maintains YouTube and Facebook pages where he asserts his views, and his toilets make an appearance in one video.
Davis and a small group of supporters who attended the trial had expressed confidence that he would ultimately be acquitted.
Rob Fiks, a North Bethesda filmmaker working on a film about Davis, said he expects Davis will continue to place similar toilets around the Baltimore area.
"I guess it might be a matter of location, but as for him if he's found not guilty, I feel like he's gonna stay the same person," Fiks said. "That was the belief then and the belief now. I feel like he would do it again."Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has denied he ordered security forces to kill protesters, as he faced a Cairo court over the deaths of 850 demonstrators during Egypt's 2011 uprising.
Mubarak told the court he never handed down orders to kill protesters.
"I, Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, who is standing before you today, never handed down orders for the killing of protesters. I never handed down orders for the killing of Egyptians," he said in his first speech to the court.
"I exhausted my life fighting against enemies of the homeland. I would never hand down orders for the killing of a single Egyptian citizen under any circumstances. Or hand down orders to wreak chaos of which I had been warning. I would never hand down orders to cause anarchy or a political vacuum."
Mubarak, his former interior minister Habib al-Adly and several other high-ranking officials are facing charges over the deaths.
The verdict is scheduled to be issued on September 27.
Adly, who has already taken the stand, told the court he made security decisions on the day to limit the number of protesters in Tahrir Square and still believed he was "100 percent correct".
"It was a wise decision," he told the court.
Mubarak came to power in 1981, taking over after President Anwar Sadat was assassinated.
In January 2011, embolded after seeing people in neighbouring Tunisia overthrow their long-time leader, tens of thousands of Egyptians took to Cairo's Tahrir Square, calling for more jobs, democracy and the end of Mubarak's rule.
Security forces and Mubarak's supporters tried to crush the demonstrations. After 18 days of protests, more than 850 protesters were killed.
On February 11, 2011, his vice president, Omar Suleiman, announced Mubarak's resignation.
A day later, prosecutors ordered Mubarak be placed under detention along with his two sons.
A lengthy trial for corruption and killing protesters during the uprising was held, and more than a year later, Mubarak was found guilty of failing to stop the killing of protesters and jailed for life.
However, the court threw out that conviction at the beginning of last year on technical grounds, and ordered a new trial.
Separately, another court sentenced Mubarak in May to three years for corruption. His sons received four-year terms.Model S-owning YouTuber and Tesla’s referral program leader for most referred sales, DÆrik, shared the low down on Friday’s VIP Factory Tour event in Fremont, California. The invite-only factory tour also featured a Model 3 and a private Q&A session with Tesla Senior Design Executive Franz von Holzhausen.
DÆrik shared that they were able to see the Model 3 at the event, but it was an Alpha unit and they were not able to touch it, sit in it, or be driven around in it. The Model 3 experience was a bit underwhelming but that was expected based on confirmation from Tesla prior to the event that the production-ready Model 3 would not be in attendance. With the official production Model 3 reveal and first delivery slated for sometime in July, it doesn’t comes as a surprise that Tesla didn’t put any emphasis on showcasing a release candidate of its upcoming mass market sedan during Friday’s VIP Tour.
Teslarati received reports from attendees who indicated that the VIP Factory Tour was not much different than a standard Fremont Factory Tour. Attendees learned about the history of the factory, were shown various production lines in action and were told about the factory’s commitment to unparalleled safety.
After the factory tour, attendees were whisked away by shuttle to a building across the street from for lunch and a Q&A session with Franz. Luckily for us, DÆrik captured all questions and accompanying responses in his second video update which we posted below. To make it easier for our readers, we have transcribed DÆrik’s account of the Q&A, as follows.
Q&A with Tesla Design Executive Franz von Holzhausen
The first 5 questions had been determined in advance, while 10 additional questions were obtained from the live audience. Here are the 5 predetermined questions and answers:
1. How do you feel to have designed the world’s most anticipated car (referring to Model S)?
He didn’t know it would be such a success in the beginning but he felt a desire and a need to just go for it. He felt it was a big opportunity.
2. Did you design Tesla Model S and X to be the safest cars?
The entire design of Model S and X was safety first and everything else was built around that.
3. What was the definition of design vs. style?
Design is more about solving problems and style is more of a personal taste. They are as much designers as engineers at Tesla.
4. What was the most challenging aspect of the Model S and X?
Model S: the door handles.
Model X: the falcon wing doors.
5. What was the design approach for Powerwall and Solar Roof?
Tesla designers were looking at the most efficient way to produce to combine it and make it beautiful. They wanted to make it completely flow as a line of energy products.
The next 10 questions were submitted by the audience.
6. Why did they include the black front end on the fascia of the Model S and why did they switch it later?
It gave a shorter appearance on the front end and made it look lower. He talked about how it framed the badging and helped with brand recognition on the Model S. After the brand had been established, they felt comfortable to refresh the front end.
7. How about a convertible?
No comment.
8. Design challenges for the Model 3?
To make a truly great affordable project and a sexy car. Sexy car were his words.
9. What about a Truck? See Elon’s Tweet.
10. How about a Sports Car? See Elon’s Tweet.
11. Favorite challenge to solve in Model 3 versus Model S?
He said he couldn’t go into too much detail but that he wanted to create a beautiful car at the price point without having to give anything up. So the process was generally the same as the Model S.
12. As batteries become more efficient will the space required for them go down or will Tesla continue to increase the overall battery capacity?
The battery on the bottom of the car allows for a ton of flexibility. They will always be looking out and focusing on efficiency and range and performance.
13. There are 120 people on Franz’s team. How many people contribute or is Franz in charge of the overall look and does he delegate?
There are thousands of decisions to make all the time. The team goes through design phases. Some are empowered to make decisions however, Franz likes to stay involved as much as possible. Elon has the final say. They have digital designers, they have clay modelers and everything is designed under one roof.
14. Tesla vs typical auto manufacturers. How do they compare since Franz has history with that?
What sets Tesla apart and what is Tesla’s ‘special sauce’? Good communication. Good communication between the designers and the engineers.
15. Did your friends think you were crazy when you left your stable career to work at Tesla?
Yes because it was such a new idea. It wasn’t known, they didn’t have a Model S on the road yet but it made sense to him. He had an opportunity to do a product that no one knew and do it from the ground up.
The VIP event was not mind-blowing but one could interpret some of Franz’s remarks as insight on what’s to come. Right? Ahem, Tesla convertible.
A big thanks to DÆrik for jotting down these notes. Be sure to subscribe to the channel here.Natalie & I am ready real swingers Looking for a Big Cock?. Whole package seeks same If you want a response put "whole package" in theSparta girls fucking subject, sexy women having sex send a picture and tell me your age otherwise I will not respond (the spam here is terrible) if I'm interested I'll send you some of my pictures. I'm white, x'x ", D&D free, in good shape and working out. I work full time and have a place of my own. I'm young enough to still want to have fun adventures and make exciting memories (outside and inside =b) but mature enough to know what it is I am looking for in life. The xxx most important things in a relationship to me are honesty and intimacy, mutual interests are just icing on the cake because if you maintain the first xxx you'll maintain happiness and a relationship. I'm looking to talk then flirt, go on a few dates and find someone that I share some chemistry with. If it gets physical it has to be a monogamous relationship (the benefits should be obvious) otherwise I'm not interested. I want to be with someone because I like them not just because our parts fit (but I am looking for a good fit!) =b I'm looking for a girl who has her life together, has respect for herself and others, sex chat in Fargo North Dakota sex tonight Moscow and capable of appreciating someone who treats her right. I love, but I'm not looking to start a relationship with someone that has right now =\. Interested? Clean and healthy? Cute/attractive and in good shape yourself? Good kisser? ;) Lets talk! It was sunny and nice today today, x nd is under construction etc. etc. Happy Easter =) female wants females married women for sex Charlotte North Carolina Sex swinger search free hookers Red Jeep independent adult marrieds at sex female Station. Naked women in Saint cloud Wisconsin Married bi wants women looking for cybersex sex nsa in grassland alberta strapon singles in Casper girls for fucking whos fucking.Potentially embarrassing the Turnbull government, the transcript also appears to expose Mr Turnbull bargaining on a quid pro quo. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The deal had been made with former president Barack Obama last November for the US to take up to 1250 of around 2500 asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru. Mr Turnbull was forced into damage control by the chaotic messaging from Washington, declaring he was disappointed by the leak, denying the President had hung up on him and insisting the America-Australia refugee deal would go ahead as Mr Trump had committed to honour it, even though he did not like its terms. "The call ended courteously. It was a 25-minute call, it covered a number of issues but mainly on the refugee resettlement deal," Mr Turnbull said, adding the pair had had a "frank and forthright" conversation in a call that was supposed to have lasted for one hour. "I'm very disappointed that there has been a leak of purported details of the call in Washington... I stand up for Australia's interests. I make Australia's case as powerfully and persuasively as I can, wherever I am."
"What I don't do is indulge in public commentary." The US-Australia alliance, based on 65 years of history, remained "rock-solid" he said. Under the terms of the refugee deal, it is possible that the United States could honour the agreement with Australia but not actually take all of the 1250 refugees as they could be rejected during the so-called "extreme" vetting process. Australian officials said there would be a flurry of high-level conversations overnight as diplomats from the two nations attempted to repair the damage done.
One cabinet minister told Fairfax Media that the reported details of the fiery phone call - which the White House had initially claimed concentrated on the "enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship" in a bland official statement - were broadly accurate. "Malcolm has stood up for Australia, he actually had a row with the President of the United States and he hasn't crowed about it, he has since gotten on with the job," the cabinet minister said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We are offended but as long as these people [refugees] get off Manus and Nauru, that's the main thing. I'm confident the deal will be honoured, this is part of the process. Trump is trying to get the message out that he hates the deal but can't do anything about it." Australian government officials were shocked and blind-sided by the tweet Mr Trump put out on Thursday afternoon. The brutal question they now face is how they are going to manage the relationship when, after Mr Turnbull observed diplomatic courtesy and refused to comment on The Washington Post's report, Mr Trump without warning issued a tweet that humiliates one of the US's closest allies.
Some in Canberra speculated that Steve Bannon, Mr Trump's close and most ideologically fierce adviser, may have leaked the details about the call in order to demonstrate that even if Mr Trump eventually accepts the refugee deal, he is doing so only grudgingly and angrily. Malcolm Davis, a senior defence analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the US alliance was too important to be rocked by Mr Trump's behaviour and Australia would need to essentially work around the current President if he was going to keep behaving like this. "For this to happen is unconscionable. I think that probably where we need to take this is [to] rise above it, make sure we don't let this derail a vital relationship because it's too important to let go. But we need to be on our guard because this guy is totally unpredictable … He's completely clueless." Mr Trump's Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, had said on Wednesday that the President would "honour what had been agreed upon" but that the asylum seekers would be subjected to "extreme vetting". Opposition Leader Bill Shorten demanded Mr Turnbull "talk straight to the Australian people - tell us what's going on".
The deal - to take asylum seekers currently on Manus Island and Nauru - was struck between Australia and the Obama administration and announced by Mr Turnbull in mid-November. In the days after the phone call, Mr Turnbull said Mr Trump had agreed to honour the deal, but Washington subsequently sent mixed messages and indicated the President was still considering whether to honour it. Mr Shorten - who had initially criticised Mr Turnbull for not standing up to the US President - demanded details about the phone call. Labor wanted the refugee deal to go ahead, Mr Shorten said, "but clearly President Trump and his people are saying one thing happened in this conversation, which is completely at odds with what Prime Minister Turnbull has told the Australian people". "They both can't be right and I think it's in the interests of the Australian people for Mr Turnbull just to be straight with the people and tell us what's really going on," he said.
"If I was Prime Minister, I would want the United States to be our ally, and I'm sure that the Americans want Australia to be their ally, but if I was Prime Minister I would never just be a satellite of the United States, and it is important that Australia speaks its mind." US Senate Democrats expressed alarm at Mr Trump's rhetoric and behaviour on Thursday. A spokesman for Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, a ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he was "deeply concerned" about Mr Trump's treatment of allies, including Australia. "The United States continues to face a number of challenges and they can only be solved by working in concert with allies and partners who share our values and goals like Mexico, NATO, and Australia." Loading
with Richard Willingham, Tom McIlroy Follow us on FacebookTwo games at home to keep climbing
Hi everyone,
As I write this I’m listening to Ludovico Einaudi. I always -or nearly always- update my blog with his music playing in the background; I like it and it’s very relaxing.
It’s been a quiet Sunday following Saturday’s victory. We have had an intense training session and we also reviewed the game in London. Now we are looking forward to our next two consecutive games in Old Trafford.
This last win was very important, that’s for sure. Arsenal is a team that keeps attacking the entire game, even more when they play at home. They created good chances and it was tough, but we managed to bring the three points back to Manchester thanks to David’s great performance, Antonio’s shot that ended up in an own goal and Wayne’s clinical finish. We are fourth now and we want to keep climbing the table.
After two victories in a row all we want now is to keep this good streak. It’s not going to be easy against Hull and Stoke, but we hope to play two good games and win.
The bad news were Luke Shaw’s injury, and unfortunately we are suffering too many of them so far this season, but the most important thing is to keep winning games and wait for the team-mates to be fully fit.
I couldn’t watch much football this weekend to be honest, but talking about la Liga, Messi’s numbers are definitely worth to mention. He broke Zarra’s all-time goalscoring record in the competition. And many more goals to follow…
Thank you all for your recommendations about movies, you have good taste… 😉
I think the next classic film I’m going to watch will be ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’.
These days I’m reading the biography of a sports legend -tennis to be precise-, Andre Agassi. Are there any other biographies that you like?
Hugs to all of you, to the ones who read the blog every week and also to those who were curious to know it and came here today to have a look 😉
Have a nice week,
Juan
PS: We have to praise Rayo Vallecano not only for their brave football but also for what they did to help one of their neighbours, Carmen. Congratulations.Historians and political scientists have most often linked the Great Society to the New Deal; there is no doubt that LBJ was committed to expanding the Rooseveltian reform structure, a phenomenon that he saw as organic rather than static. As he remarked in a March 1937 radio address: “If the administration program [the New Deal] were a temporary thing the situation would be different. But it is not for a day or for a year, but for an age. It must be worked out through time, and long after Roosevelt leaves the White House, it will still be developing, expanding.... The man who goes to Congress this year, or next year, must be prepared to meet this condition. He must be capable of growing and progressing with it.” In truth, the Great Society marked the culmination of the effort by liberals to use the concept of positive rights (the right to a decent education, a good job, adequate health care) as opposed to negative rights (freedom of religion, freedom of speech, the right to vote) to achieve social and economic justice.
But, ardent New Dealer though Johnson may have been, he realized that the 1960s were dramatically different from the 1930s. If the New Deal was about security and disengagement from the labor force through such devices as retirement pensions, unemployment compensation, and pensions for the worthy poor, the Great Society, in contrast, was about opportunity and labor force participation. The New Deal supported hard-pressed Americans at a time of economic catastrophe; the Great Society invested in people at the margins of the labor force at a time of economic opportunity. The New Deal was pessimistic, the Great Society optimistic. FDR wanted in the end to create a larger pie, but above all he wanted to ensure that the pieces of whatever pie that existed were more equitably distributed. Assured of an ever-growing pastry by postwar prosperity in general and by the Kennedy tax cut specifically, Johnson was more about political and educational empowerment of the poor and disadvantaged so that they could better compete. He did not on the whole support government-driven redistribution of wealth. He exhibited strong opposition to both guaranteed income measures and public works, favoring instead programs of social rehabilitation and affirmative action.
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An “us against them” motif ran through each of the three great reform movements that preceded the Great Society. The Populists railed against bankers, middle men, and railroad magnates. The Progressives decried the threat posed to middle-class society by robber baron capitalists and ignorant, rootless immigrants. In his 1936 acceptance speech, FDR denounced “economic royalists” who were laboring to replace American democracy with an American plutocracy. Lyndon Johnson was determined to rule through consensus, to avoid pitting one group against another. Not only was this a personal inclination, but the stratagems developed for dealing with the civil rights crisis seemed to demand it, and the prevailing prosperity promised to permit it. LBJ made the enemy—the “them”—abstract. Poverty, ignorance, ill health were not the fault of a class or group—they were boils on the body politic. These things were not the result of evil intent or greed on the part of groups or individuals, but seemingly free radicals that everyone hoped to see eliminated from the environment.
The Great Society’s most glaring departure from Populism, Progressivism, and New Deal liberalism was its frontal assault on Jim Crow laws in the South. Despite their idealism, the reformers that preceded Johnson proved unwilling or unable to confront the issue of full citizenship and equality of opportunity for African Americans. In many respects, the interests of black Americans had been sacrificed in the drive by Populists, Progressives, and New Dealers to secure economic and social justice for male-dominated, white, working-class families. Even before he became president, LBJ decided that civil rights for black Americans was an issue that could not wait. If the United States was to retain its fundamental characteristics—individual freedom and democracy coupled with equality under the law and equal opportunity—the nation would have to turn its back on racism in both the public and private spheres. The Great Society would do what previous reform regimes had not dared attempt and in so doing move the nation forward in its ongoing effort to resolve the greatest American dilemma of them all.
Adapted excerpt from Prisoners of Hope: Lyndon B. Johnson, the Great Society, and the Limits of Liberalism by Randall B. Woods. Copyright © 2016. |
” for composing the score: one-half should correspond to the idea of “festival” to represent the bacchanalia and violence of the film’s opening acts, and the second-half should be a “requiem” that is the complete opposite of that chaos. This afforded Yamashiro an immense amount of freedom to dictate the film’s pace and feel. This is immediately clear in the first scenes of the film.
The score begins in earnest, when one of the film’s protagonists, Kaneda, the leader of a teenage motorcycle gang, enters a song into the jukebox of an underground dive bar. He and his crew, the Capsules, are gathered right before they are set to meet a rival gang called the Clowns, to engage in a bloody street fight. Right as they rev up their motorcycle engines in a seedy alleyway, the needle of a record player hits a vinyl disc in the bar, and the first moments of music enter the film. This moment is boisterous, deafening, and unforgettable, courtesy of a melody of the Balinese Jegog, a percussion instrument formed from an array of bamboo trunks “aligned in a manner similar to a battery of bazookas.” The Jegog was one of the compositions’ consistent leitmotifs, and its power was brutal and immediate.
This first song “Kaneda” makes clear the fastidiously designed aspects of the film’s score. The thunderclap from its opening seconds was lifted from a field recording taken at the Golden Triangle in Thailand, and the motorcycle rumble was sourced from a 1929 Harley-Davidson engine. A chorus of festival chanters that come towards the back-half of the song is frightening and celebratory all at once. As Kaneda and his gang speed through the streets of the decaying city, Otomo’s dystopian vision is given life by the highly precise, yet emotional compositions Geinoh Yamashirogumi provided.
This feeling of pitched intensity and churning disorientation is something Geinoh Yamashirogumi achieves time and time again. In the following song, “Battle Against Clown” blasts of guttural chants and polyrhythms could likely cause vertigo if listened to loudly enough. The choral work is especially skillful, and the way the members of Geinoh Yamashirogumi manipulate and make magical and alien the human voice is a highlight of the score. On “Dolls’ Polyphony,” they create a sense of nightmarish weirdness using only a mix of childlike voices and baritone grunts. In the score’s grand finale, “Requiem” they perfectly create a sense of megachurch rapture with angelic hums and a pipe organ.
As the product of an unlimited budget and six-months of composition and recording, the score for Akira was never meant to be utilitarian or incidental. It aspired to greater heights, to immerse the listener in the world of Neo-Tokyo and stir the emotions without once dropping you out of the film. But on its own, the craft, care, and technology that went into the 70 minutes of the soundtrack are intense enough to place you right beside Kaneda without ever opening your eyes.Mayor Rob Ford behaved in a manner “indicative” of drug trafficking last year and was a frequent visitor to an Etobicoke crackhouse where gang members hung out and where the infamous video was filmed just over a year ago, according to police documents released by a judge Wednesday. Just after the video was made, Mohamed Siad, who is now facing drug trafficking charges, boasted in a “selfie” video that he had just captured the mayor of Toronto doing drugs. That is how you catch a person “slipping” or “catch a mayor smoking crack,” Siad explains in the short video, filmed in a car, which is described in the police documents.
Mayor Rob Ford visits a food truck on Queen St. outside Toronto City Hall on Wednesday with London Times food critic Giles Coren and his film crew. He shoved his way through a media throng on the way back in, refusing to repond to questions about the latest batch of police documents describing the infamous crack video and related videos now in police possession. ( Vince Talotta / Toronto Star )
The documents also reveal that while police have the crack video, they are missing a potentially key recording — Video # 13 on Siad’s phone — that may shed light on what else happened at the crackhouse, at 15 Windsor Rd., last February. These details have emerged from portions of a recent search warrant document that police used on Jan. 14 to get telephone records for numerous people, including Ford; his former “logistics” man and occasional driver, David Price; former Ford assistant Thomas Beyer; Siad and several others connected to the case. Justice Ian Nordheimer ordered the release of these new documents, while certain portions remain subject to a publication ban until a hearing next week. A more recent search warrant, approved and sealed on March 7, is the subject of a further application by the Toronto Star and other media to have its contents released. At least some of that document could be released next week. The Star believes that particular warrant was filed in an attempt to obtain video and audio recordings in the iCloud account controlled by Ford friend Alexander “Sandro” Lisi.
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Detectives with the Project Brazen 2 investigation are continuing to probe allegations related to Ford, Lisi and others. Lisi has been charged with extortion in connection with attempts to retrieve the crack video from Siad and another man. In the newly released document, detectives state that their surveillance of Ford and Lisi last year, including multiple meetings and phone calls, led them to believe that Ford and Lisi’s actions were “indicative to that of drug trafficking.” Lisi was charged with drug trafficking in the fall. Ford has not been charged. Ford did not comment at City Hall on Wednesday when asked about the new documents. His brother and campaign manager, Councillor Doug Ford, told a reporter at one media outlet, the Toronto Sun, that the court release was “political,” suggesting it was timed to the official announcement of John Tory’s candidacy for mayor. What follows is an account of the night the crack video was filmed, according to the police documents, which have not been tested in court. One year ago, on Feb. 17, just after the dinner hour, Ford was at the home of his friends Fabio and Elena Basso in Etobicoke. The house is just north of the Dixon Rd. community that at the time was the epicentre for gangs that trafficked in guns and drugs. One man who was with Ford that night was Mohamed Siad, who was later charged, as part of the June 21 Project Traveller raids, with gun trafficking and drug offences. Siad is the man who later tried to sell the video to the Toronto Star and Gawker.com.
According to a recent police interview with Fabio, Ford was often at the Windsor Rd. house. He either called to say he was coming or just showed up. Fabio and Ford went to high school together. Elena is a few years older. Elena has told the Star previously that Ford is “the best mayor Toronto has ever had.” According to the police document, Enzo Basso, their brother, works at the Ford family company, Deco Labels. Details provided in the police document indicate that Siad may have planned to videotape Ford in the bungalow’s basement. Off-camera that night, according to the police documents, was Elena, making comments the Star (which has seen the video) has previously described as an “attempt to goad” Ford into making comments. As the Star has previously reported, Ford made homophobic and racially charged comments in response to the goading remarks by Elena.
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In the video Siad later recorded of himself (at 7:57 p.m. that night), he explains that the best way to surreptitiously film someone is to hold your phone casually as if you are looking at it and “they won’t know what you’re doing as you’re just playing with your phone.” The video was recorded on Siad’s phone in February. A description by police detectives contained in the document is consistent with the video described by the Star in earlier stories. Police describe Ford “consuming what appears to be a narcotic while inside a residence” and describe a glass cylinder and Ford applying a flame from a lighter to the cylinder. No transcript of Ford or Elena’s comments is provided in the document. The Star was approached about six weeks later, on April 1, by a friend of Siad, Mohamed Farah, who said he had a video for sale. No deal was done and the Star and Gawker reported on the video’s existence on May 17. Police allege it is around this time that Lisi made attempts to retrieve the video and made several “threatening/extorting phone calls” to people in an attempt to get the video back. People were warned of “consequences” if the video was not returned. Further information related to this is subject to a court ban. The trail to the video went cold until a “Detective Menard” from the Toronto Police was assigned the task on Oct. 29 of trying to retrieve deleted information from the Siad laptop seized on June 13 in the Project Traveller guns and drugs raids. Menard found the crack video, and the Traveller detectives passed it on to the Project Brazen 2 detectives. In a news conference shortly after, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said he was “disappointed” by the video. That remark led to a war of words between Blair and the Ford brothers that culminated with Blair recently handing over control of the Ford probe to the Ontario Provincial Police. Also found on the Siad laptop was a series of photos of a “firearm.” The document does not make a link between the crack video and the gun photos. The document says Ford refused the police request to view the video. It describes the frustration detectives had in getting the mayor to talk, or to get others, including Elena Basso, to speak. Elena, according to the police documents, said her father was a master mason who built most of the buildings downtown. She said she did not want to talk about Mayor Ford. “E. Basso is not angry with Ford, she isn’t trying to protect him, she wasn’t threatened to talk about him, and she didn’t receive legal advice not to talk about him,” the police documents state after they spoke with Elena in November. Kevin Donovan can be reached at (416) 312-3503 or kdonovan@thestar.caAmericans in Orbit: The Flight of John Glenn (Part 3)
On the afternoon of 20 February 1962, millions of Americans listened and watched, transfixed as their countryman, John Glenn, plummeted back to Earth after completing three orbits of Earth. It was a triumphant mission, but was also laced with drama, for worrisome indications had arisen that the heat shield and landing bag of his Friendship 7 capsule might not be locked into position. If the critical heat shield was loose, it was feared that Glenn would burn alive as he re-entered the atmosphere, and for this reason he had been instructed to keep his retrorocket package—which covered the heat shield during the early stages of descent—attached until he was through the worst of the frictional heating. And if the heat shield was loose, only the retro package and its three metal straps had any chance of saving America’s newest hero from a fiery fate.
Throughout the early stages of re-entry, Glenn and Capcom Wally Schirra chatted like a pair of tourists exchanging travel notes, as Friendship 7 came within sight of El Centro and the Imperial Valley, followed by southern California’s Salton Sea. Then, as he passed over Corpus Christi, Glenn was told again, with evident urgency, to “leave the retro package on through the entire re-entry.” This meant that he would have to override the 0.05 G switch—which sensed atmospheric resistance and started the capsule’s re-entry program—and manually retract the periscope. Glancing at the on-board clock, which had ticked off four hours and 38 minutes since his 9:47 a.m. EST launch, his suspicions resurfaced that the reason for keeping the retro package on throughout re-entry was because the heat shield had indeed somehow become loosened.
Glenn would later admit to irritation at being kept in the dark about the potentially brewing disaster. Information about his spacecraft was his lifeblood, he wrote in his post-flight report, and it was knowledge, not absence of knowledge, which informed each of his decisions. Despite asking for Mercury Control’s reasons for wanting the package kept in place, he was told only that the decision was “the judgement of Cape Flight.” In Florida, Capcom Al Shepard gave Glenn as much information as he had. “We’re not sure whether or not your landing bag has deployed,” he said. “We feel it is possible to re-enter with the retro package on. We see no difficulty at this time with this type of re-entry.”
Although the package and its straps would eventually burn up as Friendship 7 plunged deeper into the atmosphere, Glenn assumed that, by keeping it on, the capsule might be protected for long enough until the thickening air would hold the heat shield against Friendship 7’s base. Max Faget, the father of the Mercury spacecraft, agreed with the plan of using the retrorocket package to hold the heat shield in place, but admitted that it posed its own risks: any unused solid fuel could explode when re-entry temperatures grew too high, destroying the capsule. Flight Director Chris Kraft was also concerned that the attached retro package could cause Friendship 7 to tumble, incinerating both it and Glenn. Kraft, although eventually persuaded by Faget and Mercury Operations Director Walt Williams, strongly felt that the “cure” could be worse than the “disease.”
As the main phase of re-entry got underway, Glenn switched Friendship 7 from manual to fly-by-wire control, placing the capsule in a slow spin to hold it onto its correct flight path through the atmosphere. A little more than a metre behind his back, the base of the spacecraft steadily heated to a maximum of 5,200°C. Its ionised envelope of heat also blacked out communications, as Al Shepard’s voice in Glenn’s headset faded to nothing. A thud reverberated through Friendship 7 as the retrorocket package’s three metal straps melted, a fragment of which “fell against the window, clung for a moment, and burned away.” Glenn would recount years later that he expected, as each second passed, to feel the heat on his back and along his spine, but continued working his procedures, as flaming bits of “something” streamed past the window. He had no idea if they were pieces of the retrorocket package or, indeed, of the heat shield.
He was preoccupied for much of the re-entry with damping out the capsule’s oscillations with the hand controller, but had the brief opportunity to glance through the window and see the sky turn to a bright orange, which he described to the automatic tape recorder as “a real fireball outside.” Every few seconds throughout the communications blackout, he attempted to contact Shepard, all the while working to keep Friendship 7 on the straight and narrow. At length, and by now through the worst of the re-entry heating, he heard the crackle of Shepard’s voice over his headset. The relief on the ground was audible.
Descending at subsonic speeds, Glenn felt the capsule rocking wildly and, as he looked upwards, could see “the twisting corkscrew contrail of my path.” Five miles above the Atlantic, the stabilising drogue chute deployed automatically, followed by the main canopy a few seconds later. Shortly before splashdown, Glenn flipped the landing bag deployment switch. As expected, it lit up. Green. Subsequent investigation would discover that the rotary switch to be actuated by the heat shield deployment had a loose stem, which caused the electrical contact to break when the stem was moved up and down. This was believed to account for the false landing bag deployment signal. However, thinking back over the decision to keep the retro package attached throughout re-entry, Chris Kraft would resolve never to agree to such a dangerous exercise again.
Glenn splashed down with what he later described as “a good solid thump” at 2:43 p.m. EST. His landing co-ordinates were later given as 21 degrees 20 minutes North and 68 degrees 40 minutes West, some 200 miles northwest of Puerto Rico. He was 45 miles off-target, a discrepancy caused by retrofire calculations which had not taken into account Friendship 7’s weight loss in consumables, but he was home safely. Seventeen minutes later, the destroyer USS Noa, codenamed “Steelhead,” drew alongside the capsule, followed by helicopters from the USS Randolph.
“I could hear gurgling sounds almost immediately,” Glenn said of his first few seconds back on Earth. “After it listed over to the right and then to the left, the capsule righted itself and I could find no traces of any leaks.” He released his straps and shoulder harness, removed his helmet, and put up his neck dam. He was sweating profusely, as physicians would later determine, and despite the open snorkels in Friendship 7’s hull, the humid air offered little respite. When the Noa arrived, he glanced through the window—coated with a smoky film from re-entry—and saw a deck full of sailors, so high in number that he asked the destroyer’s captain if anyone was actually running the ship! Within minutes, Friendship 7 had been winched aboard and, after obtaining clearance from the bridge, Glenn detonated the hatch. He received two skinned knuckles, through his pressure suit gloves, as the plunger snapped back. (It would be his only injury and, later, the realisation that manually activating the plunger caused such an injury would work in Gus Grissom’s favour.)
According to physicians Robert Mulin and Gene McIver, Glenn was clearly fatigued, sweating, and dehydrated; his only water intake had been from the apple sauce pouch, although his urine collector was full. After drinking water and showering, he became more talkative. He debriefed into a tape recorder aboard the Noa, before being flown to the Randolph for X-rays and an electrocardiogram and, later that evening, to Grand Turk Island for a welcoming committee of astronauts, physicians, and NASA officials.
When asked by psychiatrist George Ruff if there had been any unusual activity during his mission, Glenn replied, “No … just a normal day in space!”
This is part of a series of history articles, which will appear each weekend, barring any major news stories. Next week’s article will focus on Apollo 9, an Earth-orbital “shakedown” of the spacecraft which would attempt humanity’s first landing on another world.Cleaning up X server warnings
So I was sitting in the Narita airport with a couple of other free software developers merging X server patches. One of the developers was looking over my shoulder while the X server was building and casually commented on the number of warnings generated by the compiler.
I felt like I had invited someone into my house without cleaning for months -- embarrassed and ashamed that we'd let the code devolve into this state.
Of course, we've got excuses -- the X server code base is one of the oldest pieces of regularly used free software in existence. It was started before ANSI-C was codified. No function prototypes, no 'const', no 'void *', no enums or stdint.h. There may be a few developers out there who remember those days (fondly, of course), but I think most of us are glad that our favorite systems language has gained a lot of compile-time checking in the last 25 years.
We've spent time in the past adding function prototypes and cleaning up other warnings, but there was never a point at which the X server compiled without any warnings. More recently, we've added a pile of new warning flags when compiling the X server which only served to increase the number of warnings dramatically.
The current situation
With the master branch of the X server and released versions of the dependencies, we generate 1047 warnings in the default build.
-Wcast-qual considered chatty
The GCC flag, -Wcast-qual, complains when you cast a pointer and change the 'const' qualifier status. A very common thing for the X server to do is declare pointers as 'const' to mark them as immutable once assigned. Often, the relevant data is actually constructed once at startup in allocated memory and stored to the data structure. During server reset, that needs to be freed, but free doesn't take a const pointer, so we cast to (void *), which -Wcast-qual then complains about. Loudly.
Of the 1047 warnings, 380 of them are generated by this one warning flag. I've gone ahead and just disabled it in util/macros for now.
String constants are a pain
The X server uses string constants to initialize defaults for font paths, configuration options, font names along with a host of other things. These end up getting stored in variables that can also take allocated storage. I've gone ahead and declared the relevant objects as const and then fixed the code to suit.
I don't have a count of the number of warnings these changes fixed; they were scattered across dozens of X server directories, and I was fixing one directory at a time, but probably more than half of the remaining warnings were of this form.
And a host of other warnings
Fixing the rest of the warnings was mostly a matter of stepping through them one at a time and actually adjusting the code. Shadowed declarations, unused values, redundant declarations and missing printf attributes were probably the bulk of them though.
Changes to external modules
Instead of just hacking the X server code, I've created patches for other modules where necessary to fix the problems in the “right” place.
proto/fontsproto. Declares FontPathElement names as 'const char *'
mesa/drm. Adds 'printf' attribute to the debug_print function
util/macros. Removes -Wcast-qual from the default warning set.
Getting the bits
In case it wasn't clear, the X server build now generates zero warnings on my machine.
I'm hoping that this will also be true for other people. Patches are available at:
xserver - git://people.freedesktop.org/~keithp/xserver warning-fixes fontsproto - git://people.freedesktop.org/~keithp/fontsproto fontsproto-next mesa/drm - git://people.freedesktop.org/~keithp/drm warning-fixes util/macros - already upstream on master
Keeping our house clean
Of course, these patches are all waiting until 1.15 ships so that we don't accidentally break something important. However, once they're merged, I'll be bouncing any patches which generate warnings on my system, and if other people find warnings when they build, I'll expect them to send patches as well.
Now to go collect the tea cups in my office and get them washed along with the breakfast dishes so I won't be embarrassed if some free software developers show up for lunch today.As we make our way through Lent, we remember that Jesus calls us to see God in the face of others, especially the poor, to be compassionate, to respect human life and to be forgiving, chaste and loving. He said in challenging us to live a life that fully reflects God’s plan for us, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill…[W]hoever obeys and teaches these commands will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17-19). But we also are reminded of just how different are the values of the Christian way of life from those so often described today as “secular” or “modern.”
One area where the contrast between the revealed word in Sacred Scripture, the teaching of the Catholic Church and the current politically correct practice of today is most evident is our teaching on human sexuality and how we are to live that gift. There is nothing new in the Church’s teaching today. We can start with the Book of Genesis, continue on through the proclamation of Jesus and see today in the words of Saint John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and now Pope Francis the same essential points. God created us – male and female. Our sexual difference is a good that we must respect. Marriage is that first human community willed and blessed by God. Sexual activity is meant to be exercised in marriage. Children are the fruit of that blessed human love.
This is not new teaching – but it is challenging. Human sexuality is a gift and every generation finds the desire for sexual activity to be strong and inviting. For some, it can be even overpowering. Often the teachings of the Church flowing from the words of her Lord strike some as confining, even distasteful. So it has always been. Saint John the Baptist reminded King Herod that he could not just take his brother’s wife. The woman and the king had John put to death.
The Church presents a splendid vision for life. Yet, we also struggle to live it. The tension between what we know we should do and what we actually do is something referred to as the “human condition.” Nonetheless, we are called to strive to reach our potential, to manifest our faith in our actions. This is particularly true for those who minister in the name of the Church and teach and provide charitable and social services on behalf of the Church.
But today there is a new challenge. Some who reject the Church’s teaching – who choose to live by another set of values – not only find the voice of Christian values annoying, they would like to see it silenced or at least muted. Thus we have a whole new upside down version of words like “discrimination,” “freedom” and “human rights,” and laws to enforce the new meaning.
Today, many would have us believe that to present marriage as the union of a man and a woman is “discrimination” and as such should be punished. They would tell us that our rejection of abortion offends their sense of personal liberty and we must change our position if we intend to participate in the works of the common good.
This increasingly loud position implies that freedom extends only to those who share this new “moral code,” a redefinition of human life, marriage, sexual activity, and morality. For them it is not bigotry to challenge Catholic teaching. It only becomes bigotry and discrimination, they say, when Catholics assert our beliefs.
We all know that the faithful are to bear witness to the Gospel in both word and deed. We hear this expressed in the colloquialism, “We need to both talk the talk and walk the walk.” Yet increasingly Catholics are being told that we cannot – should not – be allowed to present and follow our beliefs if they offend politically correct thinking.
We are being told that in our schools, social service ministries and other Church programs we may not insist that those who teach the Catholic faith and carry out Catholic ministry should do so in word and the manner they live their lives. Nor should we be allowed to require that those who share in our teaching, healing and charitable ministries would also bear witness to the faith in their actions as well as in what they say.
In recent legislation in the District of Columbia, we are about to be forced to accept on our teaching faculties, Church staff and charitable services personnel those who live in a way that publically repudiates the teaching of the Church. The Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act of 2014 (RHNDA) would deprive the Church of its right to ensure that those whom it entrusts to carry out its mission are faithful to its teachings on human life and sexuality. The law would instead force the Church and its ministries to hire and retain employees who obtain abortions, conceive via surrogates, and so on. Meanwhile, the Human Rights Amendment of 2014 (HRAA) would require Catholic schools to formally recognize, endorse, and support student groups dedicated to promoting homosexual behavior. The new law says that for the Church to do otherwise in either case is unjust discrimination.
This reversal of the understanding of the freedom to present one’s position has now taken on the form of coercive public policy. Basically it says only some people are free to express and live their lifestyle. The rest of us have to conform in some way to that new morality. The Church does not require others to believe or live by her teaching. We simply ask for the freedom to do so ourselves and to insure that those who minister in our institutions also do so.
This Lent is a time to reflect on what the new social order means to each of us. It is a moment to ask ourselves if we are prepared simply to put aside our faith, moral conviction and understanding of human integrity and accept what someone else tells us must now be ours.
But there is even more. This Lent we all need to ask ourselves if we are prepared to stand up for our beliefs and to speak up on behalf of our schools, parishes and charities.
Yes, Lent is always a time of renewed conviction and deepened faith. This Lent is also a time when we have to deepen our courage not just to hold to what we believe but to be able to speak up on behalf of that faith..- President Donald Trump visited a Florida Catholic school on Friday, praising the Catholic education system and touting his support for school choice programs.
“You understand how much your students benefit from full education, one that enriches both the mind and the soul. That’s a good combination,” the president told Bishop John Noonan of Orlando at St. Andrew Catholic School March 3.
He toured the pre-K-8th grade school, located in Orlando’s Pine Hills neighborhood, and spoke with students, who presented him with two cards. He visited a fourth grade class, the Associated Press reports.
President Trump responded to a girl who told him she wanted to own her own business, saying she’s “gonna make a lot of money. But don't run for politics.”
His tour was followed by public comments attended by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Florida Gov. Rick Scott, various Catholic school officials and Bishop Noonan.
There, President Trump reflected on the contributions of Catholic education.
“St. Andrew’s Catholic school represents one of the many parochial schools dedicated to the education of some of our nation’s most disadvantaged children, but they’re becoming just the opposite very rapidly through education and with the help of the school choice programs,” he said.
He praised the school principal, Latrina Peters-Gipson, for her work, saying, “The love of what you do is really fantastic.”
The visit marked the president’s first official trip to a school since he took office. According to the Washington Post, about 300 of the school’s 350 students are beneficiaries of a Florida tax credit program that funds scholarships for families with limited resources.
Henry Fortier, superintendent of schools in the Diocese of Orlando, said the visit was an “exciting opportunity to share the good news and the work that we do.” He said school choice has also been an important part of his career in previous administrative roles in the archdioceses of New York and Baltimore.
“I know that there’s a lot of controversy about school choice for parents and lots of people have different opinions, but I see it as a partnership,” Fortier said. “It’s not a situation of us versus them, it’s a situation of us providing opportunities to our parents so that they have the right to choose an education that is appropriate for their children.”
“It shouldn’t be for just the wealthy that can afford it,” he said, lamenting that many working class families do not have the opportunity to choose the education for their children.
Fortier said the diocese’s schools work closely with their public school counterparts.
He said 25 percent of students in the Diocese of Orlando are in the state of Florida’s Step Up tax credit scholarship program. Of those 25 percent, 727 graduated in 2016, a graduation rate of 100 percent with a 99 percent placement in college or the military.
The superintendent touted the schools’ higher-than-average school scores on college entrance exams and student tests.
President Trump, repeating a campaign phrase, said education is “the civil rights issue of our time.”
“It’s why I’ve asked Congress to support a school choice bill. We’ve come a long way, I think. We’re ahead of schedule in so many ways when it comes to education.”
He predicted schools like St. Andrew would have “a fantastic relationship” with the Secretary of Education that would create “a lot of good things for your school and for the entire system.”
Bishop Noonan prayed for the president, his family, and everyone present.
“We pray for this day in dialogue that we may share the good news, and the future of our students,” he said.
President Trump thanked the bishop for his “uplifting prayer” and praised the bishop’s support for schools like St. Andrews.
The president’s visit drew criticism from some public school advocates like Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who characterized the president’s visit as a continuation of an “ideological crusade.”
Weingarten said that many voucher programs do not improve students’ academic outcomes and are not transparent in their spending and teaching policies.
Maureen Ferguson, senior policy advisor at The Catholic Association, said the president’s visit was appropriate given Catholic schools’ “record of success.” She said Catholic high school students are twice as likely as public school students to graduate college and their high school education is half the cost as public schools.
According to Ferguson, Catholic high schools in inner cities have a 99 percent graduation rate.Story highlights Orange crosshair stickers appear on brass nameplates, senators say
"This is a very open act," Sen. Maria Chappell-Nadal says
A second sticker appears on one door later, senator says
Police presence steps up in Missouri's Capitol
Five Missouri state senators, all Democrats, found stickers resembling rifle crosshairs on the doors to their Capitol offices Tuesday as the legislature debated health care reform, several senators said.
"This is a very open act," said Sen. Maria Chappell-Nadal, who said she was taking it as a serious threat.
Police presence in the hallways of the capitol in Jefferson City was stepped up after the discovery, Chappell-Nadal said.
Capitol police and the Missouri State Highway Patrol have taken the brass nameplates where the small orange stickers were placed, she said. A police spokesman would not comment to CNN.
Sen. Robin Wright-Jones, one of four African-American female senators whose doors had the stickers, said she was not intimidated. "It was a cowardly act," Wright-Jones said.
About 90 minutes after one sticker was removed from Chappell-Nadal's door, another larger crosshair sticker appeared, Wright-Jones said.
Sen. Jolie Justus, who said a lot of people walk by her door, found her sticker during the lunch break between a debate on federal health care reform.
Two other legislators who found stickers on their doors -- Sen. Shalonn "Kiki" Curls and Sen. Victor Callahan -- did not immediately respond to CNN requests for comment.Posted by KATHY GILL, Technology Policy Analyst on Aug 26, 2010 in Politics, Religion |
A Case For Religious History Classes, Take 2 : Newt Gingrich On “The Mosque”
Earlier this month, in the wake of the Prop8 ruling, I learned that the linkage of “marriage” and religious norms is an artifact of the Catholic Church’s fight for its life in the 16th century.
I had no idea that I would soon be plunged into another politico-religious controversy where understanding history would be essential. If I were a student of former history professor Newt Gingrich, I would think that the proposed Islamic community center in NY City is “deliberately insulting,” as he argued in July:
[Most] don’t understand that “Cordoba House” is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba, Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex. Today, some of the Mosque’s backers insist this term is being used to “symbolize interfaith cooperation” when, in fact, every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest. It is a sign of their contempt for Americans and their confidence in our historic ignorance that they would deliberately insult us this way.
The problem with this scenario is that Gingrich has cherry-picked his history. It is Gingrich who is relying on “confidence in our historic ignorance” coupled with his ability to dispense “rhetorical napalm” to fabricate a controversy that seems to have tapped a deep reservoir of hate and intolerance.
From Sacred Places (Sweet Brier College, VA):
When Córdoba was a provincial capital in the Roman Empire, the site was occupied by a temple dedicated to Janus, the double-headed god of doorways and gates.
The Visigoths built a Christian church dedicated to Saint Vincent there around 500 CE. (Who remembers the Visigoths?)
The Great Mosque of Córdoba was founded 785 CE. Over a 200-year period it became the third largest structure in the Islamic world.
In the 13th century, Córdoba was captured by the Christian Spanish king of Castile, Ferdinand III; the mosque reverted to a Christian sanctuary.
In 1523, the local clergy, with the support of Emperor Charles V, built a cathedral in the middle of the mosque.
Thus, rather than being a symbol of Islamic conquest, a comprehensive review suggests Córdoba is a symbol of Christian conquest: approximately 300 500 years* as Islamic versus approximately a millennium as Christian.
The soundbite is vintage Gingrich.
And it reflects this 1997 this indictment of his history course, “Renewing American Civilization:”
I am troubled by the chapter. Perhaps I don’t understand the purpose of the course, but if it is to be a course rather than a series of sermons, this chapter won’t do. It is bland, vague, hortatory and lacking in substance. But this chapter does not strike me as a thoughtful examination of the sources or importance of character in American life. Philosophically, it is a mishmash of undefined terms (“the universal immune power”), misleading claims (“principles are natural laws”), and unclear distinctions (e.g., between principles and values). Scientifically, it is filled with questionable or unsupported generalizations (e.g., standards of acceptable conduct are influenced more by the media than by the family, broadcasting cannot continue to live by the numbers, since World War I Americans have lost sight of right and wrong in favor of “quick-fix mentality,” etc.) Historically, it does not represent Adam Smith correctly.... The Founders are also treated somewhat cavalierly. It is true that George Washington spoke often of the importance of virtue, but he didn’t write the Constitution; Madison and a few others did. In the Federalist papers, Madison defends that Constitution by saying that it does not require virtue for its operation: ambition will be made to counteract ambition. I could go on, but I dare not |
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Twin RockerNOTE: Due to Daylight Saving Time in North America, the sale times may be shifted forward by one hour, beginning at 1:00 AM PDT on the sale start date and ending at 12:59 AM PDT on the day after the listed sale end date.
Anniversary Surprise Style Box
May 3 to May 16 in the Special Promotions > Limited Time category in both Reboot and non-Reboot worlds.
Each Anniversary Surprise Style Box holds a popular random permanent equip! There are 100 different permanent items available! In non-Reboot worlds, you can trade these style box items with other players through the Cash Item Trade window, if you haven’t equipped them. Right-click on a character to see the menu.
You can also exchange them with NPC Ari, located near the Free Market entrance, and receive an Avatar Box Stamp. You can receive one stamp per item. This stamp is permanent and untradeable. When you collect enough stamps, you can talk to NPC Shiro, also located near the Free Market entrance, to exchange the stamps for a permanent equip item of your choice!
Check out some of the amazing items you can get from the Anniversary Surprise Style Box!
Bloody Rose, Button-a-holic Toy Cap, Orange Checked Squares (F), Rabbit-Bear Slippers, Fairy Spark, Bloody Veil (F), Bloody Bride (F), Bloody Fairytale, Silver Wolf Coat, Magic Star Dress (F), Red Rose Label Ring,
Gothic Girls Uniform (F), Death Waltz Cloak, Luxury Pearl Label Ring, Ink-and-Wash Thought Bubble Ring, Ink-and-Wash Painting Name Tag Ring, Royal Navy Hat, Royal Navy Uniform, Sakura Sword, Odette Tutu (F), Snow Day Dream Word Bubble Ring, Snow Day Dream Label Ring, Snow Earrings, Snowman Padded Jacket, Featherly Angel Shoes,
Cat Hood (Pink), Gothic Boys Uniform (M), Schwarzer Coat, Thundercrash Cape, No Biting!, Oversized Oxford, Raging Lotus Aura, Petite Diablo, Christmas Padded Jacket, Magma Wings,
Rose Bud, Rose Prince (M), Pure Angel Shoes (M), Snow Angel, Rose Blossom, Rose Princess (F), Angel Rose Shoes (F), Pastel Rose, Crystal Cat Ribbon, Pure Farmer One-piece (F), and Shoes of Life.
Anniversary Surprise Style Box Price (1): 3,400 NX Price (11): 34,000 NX Duration: 90 days
Anniversary Royal Style Coupons
May 3 to May 16 in the Special Promotions > New Arrivals category in both Reboot and non-Reboot worlds.
Get a special new look for the Anniversary! Take your Anniversary Royal Hair Coupon to NPC Big Headward in Henesys Hair Salon, or your Anniversary Royal Face Coupon to NPC Nurse Pretty in Henesys Plastic Surgery to get your new style! You can preview the styles by double-clicking on the coupon in the Cash Shop.
Check out the Male Hairstyles available now: Twinkling Star Hair, White Mage Hair, Super Antenna, Sharp Cut, Layered Cut, Tone Block Hair, Young Neinheart Hair, Mop Top, and Jawbreaker Hair.
Check out the Female Hairstyles available now: Wavy Goddess Hair, Sunday Best Girl Hair, Ultra Bangs, Spiral Curl Hair, Shiny Ribbon Hair, Sugarbang Hair, Cotton Candy Hair, Irena Hair, and Juliet Hair.
Check out the Male Face Styles available now: Starry Night Face, Sparkling Face, Moonlight Eyes, Hoi Poi Face, Dreamy Face, Starling Face, MC Face, Sharp Eyes, and Surprised Face.
Check out the Female Face Styles available now: Starry Night Face, Sparkling Face, Sleepy Face, Jewel Eyes, Teary-Eyed Face, Pure Gaze, Marble Eyes, Moonbeam Face, and Surprised Face.
Anniversary Royal Face Coupon Price: 3,300 NX Duration: 90 days
Anniversary Royal Hair Coupon Price: 3,300 NX Duration: 90 days
Daily Deal: Discounted Scissors of Karma
[Updated May 5]
PDT: Saturday, May 6, 2017 1:00 AM – Monday, May 8, 2017 12:59 AM
EDT: Saturday, May 6, 2017 4:00 AM – Monday, May 8, 2017 3:59 AM
CEST: Saturday, May 6, 2017 10:00 AM – Monday, May 8, 2017 9:59 AM
AEST: Saturday, May 6, 2017 6:00 PM – Monday, May 8, 2017 5:59 PM
Available in the Special Promotions > Discounted category in non-Reboot worlds only.
On May 6 and 7, we will be having a special deal on Scissors of Karma and Platinum Scissors of Karma! You can use these items to make certain untradeable equipment tradeable one time.
You have until 12:59 AM PDT / 3:59 AM EDT / 9:59 AM CEST / 5:59 PM AEST on May 8 to purchase these items at a discount. These items expire in 3 days, so be sure to move them to your item inventory to use as soon as you buy!
Scissors of Karma Price: 3,000 NX 2,000 NX Duration: 3 days
Platinum Scissors of Karma Price: 4,000 NX 3,000 NX Duration: 3 days
Daily Deal: Discounted Beauty Slot Expansion Coupons
[Updated May 5]
PDT: Saturday, May 6, 2017 1:00 AM – Monday, May 8, 2017 12:59 AM
EDT: Saturday, May 6, 2017 4:00 AM – Monday, May 8, 2017 3:59 AM
CEST: Saturday, May 6, 2017 10:00 AM – Monday, May 8, 2017 9:59 AM
AEST: Saturday, May 6, 2017 6:00 PM – Monday, May 8, 2017 5:59 PM
Available in the Special Promotions > Discounted category in both Reboot and non-Reboot worlds.
On May 6 and 7, we will be having a special deal on Beauty Album Hair Slot Expansions and Beauty Album Face Slot Expansions! Use these coupons to expand the number of hair or face slots in your Beauty Album by one, allowing you to save one more hair or face style.
You have until 12:59 AM PDT / 3:59 AM EDT / 9:59 AM CEST / 5:59 PM AEST on May 8 to purchase these items at a discount! Be sure to move them to your item inventory to use them as soon as you buy!
Beauty Album Hair Slot Expansion Price: 1,000 NX 750 NX Duration: 30 days
Beauty Album Face Slot Expansion Price: 1,000 NX 750 NX Duration: 30 days
Daily Deal: Discounted Water of Life
[Updated May 5]
PDT: Saturday, May 6, 2017 1:00 AM – Monday, May 8, 2017 12:59 AM
EDT: Saturday, May 6, 2017 4:00 AM – Monday, May 8, 2017 3:59 AM
CEST: Saturday, May 6, 2017 10:00 AM – Monday, May 8, 2017 9:59 AM
AEST: Saturday, May 6, 2017 6:00 PM – Monday, May 8, 2017 5:59 PM
Available in the Special Promotions > Discounted category in both Reboot and non-Reboot worlds.
On May 6 and 7, we will be having a special deal on the Water of Life! If your pet has turned back into a doll, you can use this item to revive it!
You have until 12:59 AM PDT / 3:59 AM EDT / 9:59 AM CEST / 5:59 PM AEST on May 8 to purchase this item at a discount! Be sure to move it to your item inventory to use as soon as you buy!
Water of Life Price: 2,400 NX 1,450 NX Duration: 90 days
Gachapon Update
May 4 (after maintenance) to May 30 in the Random Rewards category in non-Reboot worlds only.
The Great Gachapierrot has added lots of new items! Hang out with Lucid and Pink Bean in the following chairs: Lucid's Nightmare Bed, Bloom of Lucid, and Pink Bean Ice Cream Umbrella.
Meet some cuddly friends with the Cocoa Sheep Chair, Ryko Chair, Cat Blanket, and Loyal Royal Yeti Chair.
Hide away with the Maple Tree Chair, Hidden Henesys Chair, Hidden Pantheon Chair, and Maple Block Friends Chair.
Have fun with the Maple TV Chair, Peek-a-boo Drawer, Slimy Scene Chair, and Sparkling Maple Chair.
Make a big effect with the Animal Crystal Ball Chair and Maple Trolley Chair.
Get your hands on the Heroes of Maple Cutout Chair Coupon, and use it to receive one of the following chairs. You get to select which chair you want!
Heroes Life-Sized Cutout Chair: Mercedes: (Untradeable.) A chair featuring Mercedes.
Heroes Life-Sized Cutout Chair: Aran: (Untradeable.) A chair featuring Aran.
Heroes Life-Sized Cutout Chair: Phantom: (Untradeable.) A chair featuring Phantom.
Heroes Life-Sized Cutout Chair: Luminous: (Untradeable.) A chair featuring Luminous.
Heroes Life-Sized Cutout Chair: Evan: (Untradeable.) A chair featuring Evan.
Heroes Life-Sized Cutout Chair: Shade: (Untradeable.) A chair featuring Shade.
Soar through the sky with the amazing Flame Bird Mount and Flying Whale Mount. These mounts are both available as permanent versions.
Spend your day in the clouds with the Kid Cloud Mount, Monster Hot Air Balloon Mount, and Starry Night Cloud Mount. These mounts are all available as permanent versions.
Make a fun new friend with the Balrog Mount, Double Orange Mushroom Mount, and Yeti Mount. These mounts are all available as permanent versions.
Find a friendly familiar to follow you around! Meet the Mutant Ribbon Pig Familiar, Mutant Snail Familiar, Mutant Slime Familiar, Shinsoo Familiar, and Cygnus Familiar.
Gachapon Ticket Price (1): 1,000 NX Price (11): 10,000 NX Duration: 90 days
Remote Gachapon Ticket Price (1): 1,050 NX Price (11): 10,500 NX Duration: 90 days
Andersen's Box
Updated May 4 (after maintenance) in the Random Rewards category in non-Reboot worlds only.
New mounts have also come to Andersen's Box! Get the Flame Bird Mount, Flying Whale Mount, Kid Cloud Mount, Monster Hot Air Balloon Mount, Starry Night Cloud Mount, Balrog Mount, Double Orange Mushroom Mount, and Yeti Mount. These mounts are all available as 90-day versions.
Andersen's Box is a special item that will give you one random in-game item when you open it! Andersen's Box can be regularly found in the Random Rewards > Special Items category in the Cash Shop.
Click here to read more about Andersen's Box!
Andersen's Box Price (1): 300 NX Price (11): 3,000 NX Duration: 90 days
Surprise Pet Box
May 3 to May 10 in the Special Promotions > Limited Time category in Reboot world only.
Open the Surprise Pet Box (available exclusively in Reboot world) to obtain one random pet! It contains both 90-day and permanent pets. Take home a permanent Stickman, Lil Moonbeam, Persian Cat, Furry Elwin, Fluffy Lily, Baby Nero, War Sheep, Mage Sheep, or Cleric Sheep!
Cuddle up with a 90-day Ice Knight, Mouse Monkey, Stjartmes, Toucan, Butterfly, Sassy Snake, Harp Seal, Elephant, Frankie, Bichon, or Beagle!
Make food your friend with a 90-day Strawbear, Bananabear, Cookiebear, Macha Man, Lady Hot Tea, Captain Café, Kiwi Puff, Berry Puff, or Mango Puff!
Explore the world with a 90-day Bonkey, Adriano, Craw, Monkey, Silver Husky, Brown Puppy, Mini Yeti, Penguin, Porcupine, Turkey, or Jr. Balrog!
Get a great partner with a 90-day Baby Tiger, Black Kitty, White Bunny, Pink Bunny, Panda, Skunk, Kino, Mini Kargo, Dino Boy, or Dino Girl!
After purchasing the Surprise Pet Box, you need to open the box within the Cash Shop to receive one random pet. You can then move the pet to your character’s inventory from the Cash Shop.
Surprise Pet Box Price: 4,000 NX Duration: 90 days
Lil' Ninja Permanent Pet Package
May 3 to May 16 in the Special Promotions > Limited Time category in non-Reboot worlds only.
Take home this stealthy Lil' Ninja pet! It comes with a Fox Mask to wear, yummy pet food to eat, a Pet Name Tag, and some useful pet skills and scrolls.
Lil' Ninja Pet Package Price: 13,935 NX Includes: Lil' Ninja (Permanent duration) Fox Mask (Permanent duration) Premium Pet Food (6) (90-day duration) Auto HP Potion Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Auto All Cure Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Pet Name Tag (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) 2 Scrolls for Pet Equip. for ATT 60% (90-day duration) 2 Scrolls for Pet Equip. for M. ATT 60% (90-day duration)
Discounted Special Scrolls
May 3 to May 10 in the Special Promotions > Discounted category in non-Reboot worlds only.
Start upgrading those equips because all of your favorite scrolls are on sale! Choose from Shielding Ward, Shield Scroll, Perfect Innocence Scroll, Guardian Scroll, Superior Shielding Ward, and Return Scroll.
Shielding Ward Price: 5,500 NX 4,125 NX Duration: 7 days
Shield Scroll Price: 2,800 NX 2,100 NX Duration: 7 days
Perfect Innocence Scroll Price: 6,000 NX 4,500 NX Duration: 7 days
Guardian Scroll Price: 2,400 NX 1,800 NX Duration: 7 days
Superior Shielding Ward Price: 6,000 NX 4,500 NX Duration: 7 days
Return Scroll Price: 5,520 NX 4,140 NX Duration: 7 days
Permanent Equipment Covers
May 3 to May 10 in the Special Promotions > Limited Time category in both Reboot and non-Reboot worlds.
Put together a fun outfit with these permanent items!
ITEM PRICE SALE Diamond Tiara (F) 7,400 NX 1,000 NX Bat Costume Hood 5,400 NX 1,000 NX Red Sweater 4,800 NX 1,000 NX Drill Muffler 5,400 NX 1,000 NX Butterfly Skirt (F) 4,800 NX 1,000 NX Moss Green Pants 4,200 NX 1,000 NX Little Prince 8,000 NX 1,500 NX Dark Blue Kimono 9,600 NX 1,500 NX Sailor Hat 5,400 NX 1,000 NX Celeste Blue Double Coat 5,600 NX 1,000 NX White High Top (F) 4,000 NX 1,000 NX Picky Ducky 9,600 NX 1,500 NX
Lil' Ninja 90-Day Pet
May 3 to May 16 in the Special Promotions > Limited Time category in Reboot world only.
Let the stealthy Lil' Ninja pet join you on your adventures in Reboot World!
Lil' Ninja Price: 4,900 NX Duration: 90 days
Fox Mask Price: 2,500 NX Duration: 90 days
Maple Leaf High Entry Key
April 26 to May 9 in the Special Promotions > Limited Time category in non-Reboot worlds only.
April 26 to May 9 in the Special Promotions > Maple Rewards Shop category in both Reboot and non-Reboot worlds.
Maple Leaf High is back! Schrodinger is running the school, and he needs your help. You’ll need to fight your way through all the classes before you can challenge Captain Finger!Pick up a Maple Leaf High Special Class Key in the Cash Shop or Maple Rewards Shop and take it to Schrodinger in order to enter the school. As you make your way through Maple Leaf High, you’ll earn Model Student Candy which can be used to purchase items from the Model Student Locker Shop or Four Pillars of Heaven Shop in the homeroom. Get your hands on two brand-new rewards:
Honor Roll Emblem : Emblem. Untradeable. Req. Lv: 100. STR/DEX/INT/LUK +10, Weapon ATT/Magic ATT +5.
Trigonometric!: Medal. Untradeable. Req. Lv: 33. STR/DEX/INT/LUK +10, MaxHP/MaxMP +700, Weapon ATT/Magic ATT +9.
You can also pick up totems, pocket items, medals, the Highlighter Damage Skin, School Outfit Box (receive a random equip item with a 30-day duration), and Schrodinger's Box (receive a random item such as chairs, cash covers, buffs, scrolls, potions, and more).
Click here to learn more about Maple Leaf High.
Maple Leaf High Special Class Key Non-Reboot worlds only: Price (1): 400 NX Price (11): 4,000 NX Duration: 30 days Both Reboot and non-Reboot worlds: Price (1): 400 Reward Points Duration: 30 days Purchase Limit: 5
Premium Surprise Style Box
April 26 to May 16 in the Special Promotions > New Arrivals category in both Reboot and non-Reboot worlds.
If you’re going for the premium look, the Premium Surprise Style Box has the most sought-after styles in all of Maple World! Each Premium Surprise Style Box holds a permanent random decorative item! These items are regularly found in the Random Rewards > Surprise Box category in the Cash Shop.
There are 100 different permanent items available from the Premium Surprise Style Box. In non-Reboot worlds, you can trade these style box items with other players through the Cash Item Trade window, if you haven’t equipped them. Right-click on a character to see the menu.
You can also exchange them with NPC Ari, located near the Free Market entrance, and receive an Avatar Box Stamp. You can receive one stamp per item. This stamp is permanent and untradeable. When you collect enough stamps, you can talk to NPC Shiro, also located near the Free Market entrance, to exchange the stamps for a permanent equip item of your choice!
Check out some of the most recent additions to the Premium Surprise Style Box.
Sweet Chocolate Cake Hat, Sweet Chocolate Dessert Suit, Sweet Chocolate Dessert Shoes, Cup Cat Weapon, Sweet Fresh Cream Cake Hat, Sweet Fresh Cream Dessert Dress, Sweet Fresh Cream Dessert Shoes, Polar Explorer Winter Hat, Polar Explorer Winter Clothes, Polar Explorer Backpack, Polar Explorer Boots, Polar Explorer Sunglasses, Spring Crown, Leafy Love Outfit (M), Blooming Spring, Blooming Leafy Love Outfit (F), Dreaming Dandelion, Flowery Breeze, Snow Moon Flower Outfit, Snowflake Umbrella, Snow Moon Flower Sandals,
Sky-blue Mini Crown, Sky-blue Overalls, Cats All Over Cape, Orange Cat Beanie, Crystal Cat Outfit (F), Crystal Cat Star Cape, Cat Knee Socks, Sky Blue Cat Beanie, Cat-Mouth Face Accessory, Crystal Cat Weapon, Crystal Cat Outfit (M),
Kamaitachi's Sickle, Kamaitachi Hat, Kamaitachi Outfit, Kamaitachi Gloves, Kamaitachi Cape, Blue Ram Horn Hat, Baby Ram Pullover (Blue), Baby Ram Slippers (Blue), Pink Ram Horn Hat, Baby Ram Pullover (Pink), Baby Ram Slippers (Pink), Rammy Scepter, Goth Cat Hood, Silky Black Eye Patch, Feline Blue Sleeves, Cat Balloon Cape,
Cat Lolita Hat, Cat Lolita Outfit, Cat Lolita Shoes, Cat Lolita Gloves, Cat Lolita Cape, Black Cat Plush, Cat Skein Chat Ring, Cat Skein Label Ring, Cat Hood, and Cat Soul.
Premium Surprise Style Box Price (1): 3,400 NX Price (11): 34,000 NX Duration: 90 days
Baby Fold 90-Day Pet Packages
April 26 to May 11 in the Special Promotions > Limited Time category in non-Reboot worlds only.
Take home a Baby Fold pet, a cute little kitten with folded ears! Choose from Fondue Fold, Sasha Fold, and Coco Fold. Summon these pets to obtain the Baby Fold skill, which will increase your Weapon Attack and Magic Attack. The skill will grow stronger as you equip more Baby Fold pets. The individual Baby Fold pet packages come with a little collar to wear, yummy pet food to eat, a Pet Name Tag, and some useful pet skills and scrolls.
Baby Fold Package Price: 14,840 NX Includes: Fondue Fold (90-day duration) Sasha Fold (90-day duration) Coco Fold (90-day duration) Premium Pet Food (6) (90-day duration) Auto HP Potion Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Auto All Cure Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Pet Snack (90-day duration)
Fondue Fold Package Price: 10,740 NX Includes: Fondue Fold (90-day duration) Fondue's Ribbon Collar (Permanent duration) Premium Pet Food (6) (90-day duration) Auto HP Potion Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Auto All Cure Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Pet Name Tag (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) 2 Scrolls for Pet Equip. for ATT 60% (90-day duration) 2 Scrolls for Pet Equip. for M. ATT 60% (90-day duration)
Sasha Fold Package Price: 10,740 NX Includes: Sasha Fold (90-day duration) Sasha's Ribbon Collar (Permanent duration) Premium Pet Food (6) (90-day duration) Auto HP Potion Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Auto All Cure Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Pet Name Tag (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) 2 Scrolls for Pet Equip. for ATT 60% (90-day duration) 2 Scrolls for Pet Equip. for M. ATT 60% (90-day duration)
Coco Fold Package Price: 10,740 NX Includes: Coco Fold (90-day duration) Coco's Ribbon Collar (Permanent duration) Premium Pet Food (6) (90-day duration) Auto HP Potion Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Auto All Cure Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Pet Name Tag (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) 2 Scrolls for Pet Equip. for ATT 60% (90-day duration) 2 Scrolls for Pet Equip. for M. ATT 60% (90-day duration)
Baby Fold 90-Day Pets
April 26 to May 11 in the Special Promotions > Limited Time category in Reboot world only.
Take home an adorable Baby Fold pet! Pick up Fondue Fold, Sasha Fold, and Coco Fold and let these little buddies join you on your adventures in Reboot World!
Fondue Fold Price: 4,900 NX Duration: 90 days
Fondue's Ribbon Collar Price: 2,500 NX Duration: 90 days
Sasha Fold Price: 4,900 NX Duration: 90 days
Sasha's Ribbon Collar Price: 2,500 NX Duration: 90 days
Coco Fold Price: 4,900 NX Duration: 90 days
Coco's Ribbon Collar Price: 2,500 NX Duration: 90 days
Royal Style Coupons
[Updated May 3] Corrected the end date of the sale to May 10.
April 19 to May 10 in the Appearance category in both Reboot and non-Reboot worlds.
Take your Royal Hair Coupon to NPC Big Headward in Henesys Hair Salon, or your Royal Face Coupon to NPC Nurse Pretty in Henesys Plastic Surgery to get your new style! Royal Style Coupons are regularly found in the Appearance > Beauty Parlor category in the Cash Shop. You can preview the Royal Styles by double-clicking on the Royal Hair Coupon or the Royal Face Coupon in the Cash Shop.
Check out the Male Hairstyles available now: Crescent Hair (NEW!), Crimsonheart Hair, Rolly Hair, Layered Cut, Slick Shine Hair, and Crayon Hair.
Check out the Female Hairstyles available now: Crescent Hair (NEW!), Glona Hair, Juliet Hair, Updo Hair, Muse Hair, and Kitty Hair.
Check out the Male Face Styles available now: Eyelash Perm Face (NEW!), Crimsonheart Face, Piercing Gaze, Guileless Face, Scholar Face, and Confused Look.
Check out the Female Face Styles available now: Eyelash Perm Face (NEW!), Glona Face, Piercing Gaze, Wounded Look, Glassy-Eyed Face, and Confused Look.
Royal Face Price: 3,300 NX Duration: 90 days
Royal Hair Price: 3,300 NX Duration: 90 days
Permanent Spring Effects
April 5 to May 11 in the Special Promotions > Limited Time category in both Reboot and non-Reboot worlds.
Get in a good mood with these permanent spring-themed effects! Double-click the icon or assign a hotkey to turn the effect on/off.
Price: 5,000 NXWhat do business mogul Sir Richard Branson, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, and JetBlue founder David Neeleman, have in common? Well, besides being monumentally successful, they all have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), and, like other entrepreneurs and CEOs, some will even tell you that they are successful largely because of the “diagnosis”, not in spite of it.
They may well be onto something. At a time when health care professionals are over prescribing stimulants like Ritalin, medicating the so-called “symptoms” of ADHD out of existence, it’s worth noting that some of the trait’s most common characteristics – creativity, multi-tasking, risk-taking, high energy and even resilience-- are, in fact, strengths when leveraged in the right way and in the right career. It’s why so many high profile achievers are beginning to publicly embrace their diagnoses of ADHD.
Of course in our over-diagnosed, over-medicated culture, we choose to only focus on the negative aspects of ADHD, which include procrastination, inability to concentrate, forgetfulness, disorganization and easily distracted. One easy way to think about ADHD is having a low boredom threshold (no, this is not the cause). Those with the trait become frustrated with routine, whether that includes sitting in a classroom for eight hours a day, or spending time chained to a desk at the office performing routine tasks. But there is so much more to this trait that can be leveraged to an advantage. ADHDers are often at their best in crisis mode, multi-tasking and free associating to intuitively reach a solution. And if they find something they truly love to do, they are able to focus for hours on end.
“If someone told me you could be normal or you could continue to have your ADD (the original name for what is now called ADHD), I would take ADD,” Neeleman told ADDitude Magazine, “I can distill complicated facts and come up with simple solutions. I can look out on an industry with all kinds of problems and say, 'How can I do this better?' My ADD brain naturally searches for better ways of doing things.”
Neeleman even went on to say that if there was a pill he could take to make it go away, he’d refuse to take it, because he wouldn’t be where he is today without it, and there is some science to back him on this point. Some research has suggested that a tendency to be self-employed and an entrepreneur is dominant in individuals with ADHD. One U.K. study of note found a genetic link between a dopamine receptor gene variation associated with ADHD and the tendency to be an entrepreneur. Sensation seeking, common in ADHD is more common among entrepreneurs than in the general population and anecdotal reports bolster this point, saying that people with ADHD are three times more likely to own their own business.
It makes sense. Besides being easily bored with routine and the status quo, those with the ADHD trait tend to thrive in times of crisis. Those with ADHD in pre-historic times were constantly looking for new hunting grounds, water supplies and sites for a new place to settle. Village life made them restless, so they felt the urge to keep moving. In fact the gene associated with ADHD is sometimes called the “explorer gene”.
It takes an adventurous spirit, to strike out on your own. Entrepreneurship fits perfectly with the ADHDer's need for stimulation and a willingness to take risks. The greatest success stories in business took a leap based on what they saw in the marketplace at a particular moment in time. Rejecting solutions that seemed to be “normal”, they instead trusted their instincts and forged ahead with something new and unproven while their more risk-averse peers shook their heads and insisted it would never work.
These ADHD entrepreneurs are also creative, with high-energy and an ability to hyper-focus on something they find innately interesting. This gives them the ability to spend limitless amounts of time accomplishing any task necessary to take their business to the next level. They thrive under pressure or, as ADHD entrepreneur and career coach Laurie Dupar puts it, the ADHDer “eats chaos for breakfast”.
I would add one other thing to this list of traits: an ability and desire to multi-task. Interestingly, studies show that ADHDers are not that much better at multi-tasking than the general population but, in my experience, the difference is that they LOVE to multi-task, whereas for most this is perceived as stressful. This strength lends itself perfectly to entrepreneurship because that’s what owners of startups do: juggle many tasks at one time, from sales, to R&D, admin and payroll. When you start something from nothing, you have no choice but to dart from task to task, doing everything for yourself until you can afford enough extra staff and infrastructure to delegate. It’s a role tailor-made for those with ADHD.
The entrepreneurs I have mentioned here are all very different, but their ability to leverage their ADHD traits as strengths is the common thread. As Orfalea tells it, he couldn’t write letters or fix photocopy machines, but his wandering nature lent itself perfectly to moving from store to store, observing and interacting with customers and understanding the big picture of what he needed to do, and who he needed to hire to keep his service-based business competitive.
Alan Meckler, Chairman and CEO of WebMediaBrands, has a famously short attention span. But it enables him to listen only for the most important details in order to digest complex information, grasp the big picture and spot the most relevant trends before his competition. It’s a lightning-quick reaction time that’s typical of many in the IT industries leading innovators, including the likes of the late Steve Jobs whom I (and many others) speculate also had ADHD.
To be sure, the ADHD trait isn’t always a superpower. For those who haven’t managed to garner the right insight or support, especially early in life, it can lead to problems. A recent paper published by the Yale School of Public health found that children with ADHD are 10-14 percent less likely to be employed as adults, and those who are employed earn 33 percent less income than people who don’t have ADHD.
Of course, many do struggle and need treatment, and in certain cases medication is warranted, although nowhere near at the levels it is being prescribed now-- for both children and adults. We need to understand that ADHD, isn’t just something that flicks on and off like a switch. It exists along a continuum, on a scale from one to 10, and very few with the diagnosis have symptoms that are severe enough to warrant a 9 or 10 and hence require medication. Unfortunately many in the 5-8 range are also receiving the diagnosis, and in today’s pop-a-pill culture, a diagnosis usually means a pill. For these, sometimes all it takes is awareness and a few simple adjustments to leverage this trait into your greatest strength. The real solutions aren’t that complicated, if you change your point of view.
I am currently working on a book for Penguin, titled, “The ADHD ADDvantage: What You Thought Was a Diagnosis May Be Your Greatest Strength,” to explode the myth that ADHD is an epidemic that needs to be medicated out of existence. We are trying to shove everyone into a box called “normal” all the while shrinking the box and using medication to accomplish the task. I am looking for ADHD entrepreneur and business leaders to tell me your story.
Consider this an official invitation to let the world know how it can benefit from an ADHD brain like yours, and offer encouragement to the next generation. Let them know that they, too, have something great to offer the world, and that the ADHD diagnosis is not always a curse, often a blessing.
If you would like to be interviewed for the book, or just share some thoughts with a fellow ADHDer, send me an email: Dale.Archer.MD@Gmail.com
"The ADHD ADDvantage: What You Thought Was a Diagnosis May Be Your Greatest Strength" is now available everywhere books are sold.What you have to know about to enjoy this image to its full potential: The Legend of Zelda; Katawa Shoujo.
There was a picture somewhere of Rin as Link, holding a sword in her mouth. It was adorable. I can't find it anywhere.
So I shamelessly stole the idea and ran with it. I hope that's not terrible.
~Ahem~
At many points in time in the land of Yamaku there has been a Prince Hisao. Some would say there has always been a Prince Hisao, just as there has always been... a Kenji.
One fateful day, the dark magician Kenji imprisoned Prince Hisao on the roof of Castle Yamaku, seeking to use the Prince's heart condition to unlock the wish-granting power of the Trirrhythmia. Yamaku was no match for his wicked powers and the evil mutant puppets he unleashed upon the land. His next step? Destroy the Six Eternal "Feminist Witches" that have been guarding the realm for millenia.
Rin, the armless painter of Sendai Forest, set out to rescue Hisao, who frequently stopped by her workshop to... exist. And chat in a way that was warm and not brainless like bubblegum foam bath jelly. He made her feel warm and fuzzy, so in return she decided to save his life and the entire kingdom.
Rin tried to seek the advice of the wise Mutou Tree, even venturing into Hero's Cave and emerging with a wooden sword to prove her courage. The Mutou Tree was skeptical given that she was the apprentice of Nomiya, a dodgy retired master painter the Tree had no patience for. Nevertheless, the Mutou Tree tersley told Rin to seek out the sanctuaries |
you lose. If you fight, you win.” Audio from Ventnor Blog.
[Scroll down for newest items added.]
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July 22, 2009 -- The madness of the capitalist market has yet again been starkly exposed as -- in the midst of the planet's worst environmental crisis, global warming -- workers at Britain's only factory building wind turbines have been forced to occupy their plant to prevent its closure and save their jobs.
The July 21 Morning Star reports that the workers are demanding that Britain's Labour government nationalise the plant. The workers' report that they have been beseiged by riot police, who are attempting to starve the occupiers out by preventing locals aand climate campaigners from delivering food and supplies.
The workers' website explains:
Vestas Blades UK on the Isle of Wight is due to close on July 31. Six hundred jobs will be lost immediately, many more jobs that depend on Vestas will follow. This makes no sense from a green or a labour perspective! The government has just announced a major expansion of renewable energy including wind power. We are calling on Vestas to keep the factories open, saving jobs and offering those who want to leave a better redundancy deal. We are calling on the government to intervene to save jobs at Vestas -- through nationalisation if that is what it takes -- to show that it is serious about saving the planet.
Morning Star reports: Production workers launched their occupation of the Vestas factory on the Isle of Wight in protest against the bosses' attempts to close down one of the island's largest workplaces and throw staff on the dole at the end of the month.
Vestas workers are fighting for jobs and the environment. Photo from http://savevestas.wordpress.com/
Executives at the multinational Danish firm claim that they have "lost faith" in the government's promise of huge investments in renewable energy and will now move the production of wind turbine blades to factories in the US and China.
But their staff are determined to resist, pledging to continue the occupation "for as long as it takes" -- even as their bosses imposed a lock out on the remaining production workers at the site.
"We are fighting for our jobs and a greener environment", a statement from the Vestas workers declared. "As workers at a wind turbine manufacturer, we were confident that, as the recession took hold, green or renewable energy would be the area where many jobs could be created, not lost.
"We want the government to nationalise the company and stick to its word because it has stated that it wants to create as many green jobs as possible, but so far the government seems quite happy to let this factory close."
Speaking to the Morning Star from inside the occupied factory, Mark -- who did not want to give his full name for fear of reprisals -- stressed that the staff had "done everything that management asked, keeping up the quality of the work so that Vestas would continue to invest in the plant."
Mark related that he had been making wind turbine blades for seven years."I have a family, a 14-month-old daughter and I've lived on the island all my life, but, despite making more than £350 million profits last year, our bosses want to add us to the already dire unemployment figures on the island."
He revealed that Vestas was "strongly anti-union -- management ask people at their interviews whether they are a union member or not -- and have refused to talk to us about what they intend to do, which is one of the reasons we have occupied the place."
On July 20, police were surrounded the factory while Vestas bosses called in private security guards and cut phone and internet communication to the site in an attempt to intimidate the workers.
But support from the local community has poured in, with residents passing food and blankets to those inside. Ryde and East Wight Trades Council secretary Tony Kelly urged trade unionists to support the occupation, pointing out that "the loss of these jobs would be a hard blow anywhere in Britain but, because the Isle of Wight has had no investment in the last decade, there are no other jobs."
Visteon car workers, who won their fight for redundancy pay after staging similar factory occupations, have also sent messages of solidarity, while the Campaign Against Climate Change echoed the Vesta workers' demand for nationalisation, insisting that the government "should take over the plant and restart production".
What you can do
Send messages of support from yourself or your organisation to savevestas@googlemail.com.
from yourself or your organisation to savevestas@googlemail.com. Send a donation from your trade-union or other organisation, or make a personal donation: cheques payable to Ryde and East Wight Trades Union Council, 22 Church Lane, Ryde, Isle of Wight, PO33 2NB
, or make a personal donation: cheques payable to Ryde and East Wight Trades Union Council, 22 Church Lane, Ryde, Isle of Wight, PO33 2NB Petition energy minister Ed Miliband. His e-address is ps.ed.miliband@decc.gsi.gov.uk. His phone number in his Doncaster constituency is 01302 875 462, and at Westminster, 020 7219 4778. Flood him with calls for the government to take over the Vestas factory and keep it producing, under new management.
. His e-address is ps.ed.miliband@decc.gsi.gov.uk. His phone number in his Doncaster constituency is 01302 875 462, and at Westminster, 020 7219 4778. Flood him with calls for the government to take over the Vestas factory and keep it producing, under new management. Visit the workers' wbsite at http://savevestas.wordpress.com/ and pass onword of their struggle.
Vestas workers dig their heels in
By John Millington
The Camp for Climate Action show their solidarity for the Vestas workers. pic: http://savevestas.wordpress.com
Unions and climate change campaigners have joined forces in solidarity with Vestas workers in their second day of occupation at the factory on the Isle of Wight.
Vestas employers are keen to move production abroad to China and the US with the loss of 625 jobs, despite making over £34 million profit in the first quarter of this year alone - up 70 per cent on last year.
But the defiant workers at the wind turbine production plant showed no signs of backing down until their demands for nationalisation and restoration of their "green jobs" at the plant are implemented.
A 200-strong picket line has massed outside the factory in support of the occupation.
In response to the show of strength by the workers, Vestas management have closed the factory and hired a private security firm to "protect the premises."
The anti-union employer stepped up the blockade by cutting communication lines and access to food and water.
Even though no crime has been committed on the site, Hampshire Police have set up an "operations base" in the building where the occupying workers are holed up.
The workforce have accused the police of being complicit in stopping food and water from reaching them.
Police arrested a man on suspicion of breach of the peace as he tried to enter the building in the early hours to deliver food to the workers but released him without charge.
But a mass walk-in from supporting protesters outside the plant made it inside this afternoon to get food to the workers.
Floods of support have poured in from all over Britain, with trade unions and climate change activists eager to show solidarity.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow declared the union's "full support" for the occupation and urged the entire trade union movement to get behind the Vestas workers.
"Nothing underlines the attack on job and communities that has been unleashed in the UK by greedy bosses and incompetent politicians better than the occupation at Vestas," he said.
Mr Crow underlined the importance of the occupation and agreed with the workers' calls for nationalisation.
But the RMT leader, who plans to address workers at the factory gates today, questioned why the police had such a heavy presence at the site.
"Why is the state intervening in what is a perfectly legitimate trading dispute?
"This is a major issue for whole trade union movement - we can't allow these workers to be starved back to work," he said.
"There's a simple solution to this dispute. The government should nationalise the factory, protect the jobs and show that they are walking the walk when it come to green and renewable energy."
Unite national secretary for manufacturing John Rowse urged the government to save Vestas.
"It would send out a clear message that it is serious about saving the environment as well as supporting UK manufacturing," he said.
Climate change campaigners staged a rally against the closure outside the Department of Energy in central London in support of the occupation.
Support for Vestas staff rises
Hampshire police said two men were arrested close to the Vestas Wind Systems site on Tuesday night following three arrests earlier that day.
The latest arrests were of a 41-year-old man on suspicion of criminal damage and a 23-year-old man on suspicion of a public order offence.
The sit-in is part of a bid to save the factory from closure next week with the loss of over 600 jobs.
The Danish owners of the factory have erected a fence around the site in response to a growing protest by environmental and climate change demonstrators.
Workers said the fence had been built to stop food or drink being sent in, leading to complaints that the company's action was illegal.
"It's appalling," said one of the workers. "We are convinced this is against the Human Rights Act because we are being denied humanitarian aid.
"But the more the management try to flush us out, the more determined we are to dig in our heels."
The occupiers were backed by Labour MP John McDonnell, convener of the Trade Union Co-ordinating Group. "These workers are at the forefront of the struggle to save their jobs and our planet," he said.
"The TUCG stands shoulder-to-shoulder with this occupation and calls for full support and solidarity with this vitally important campaign."
The TUCG comprises eight unions - the RMT, PCS, BFAWU, FBU, NAPO, NUJ, POA and URTU.
Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary, who was scheduled to visit the site last night, said: "We know from this company is aggressively anti-union and the TUCG salutes the courage of those who have taken the brave decision to occupy the factory. They deserve the full support of the whole trade union movement."
PCS assistant general secretary Chris Baugh called on the government to intervene "to save the plant in the interests of the Vestas workers, the regional economy on the Isle of Wight and the future of the renewables industry in the UK."
Vestas turbine staff get RMT help
Morning Star -- The Rail Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) has pledged legal assistance to workers occupying a wind-turbine factory on the Isle of Wight.
Around 25 workers have been occupying the Vestas Wind Systems plant on the island in a bid to stop the factory closing next week with the loss of hundreds of jobs. Dozens of climate change and environmental activists have also set up a camp outside the site in support of the workers. The workers have been told that the Danish owners will go to court next week to seek a possession order to stop the occupation. In addition to promising legal help for the workers, RMT also called for talks with Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband to try to save the factory. General secretary Bob Crow, who visited the site this week, said the union was also making arrangements to get food, water and other supplies into the factory. This might include the use of a helicopter, to prevent the workers from being "starved into submission." "The whole of the trade union and environmental movement should be proud of the courage and determination being shown by the workers at Vestas in the teeth of threats and intimidation," he said. "We all have a duty to ensure they are not beaten into submission." One of the workers within the plant commented: "People are coming along to show their support and that means a lot to us, the more support we get the better. "Hopefully people will come along and see us because it's all very important, this is for the island and we have to save these jobs, there's lots of families affected." Tracy Ferne from the Camp for Climate Action said that people were angry at the treatment of the workers at the hands of the police, Vestas management "and the government's empty renewables rhetoric." She was scathing about Mr Miliband's claim that there would be a huge investment in the renewables industry and 600,000 new green jobs. "It's all talk," Ms Ferne said. "The government is not pledging any money to save 600 genuine green jobs now."
Hundreds rally in support of Vestas occupation
By Tom Walker on the Isle of Wight
Socialist Worker (Britain) -- July 25, 2009 -- More than 400 people rallied outside the occupied Vestas wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight tonight after a march from Newport town centre. The workers have now been in occupation for four days in the fight to save their jobs.
Ed Rooksby, a teacher in the NUT union from near Southampton, told Socialist Worker, “I’m actually on holiday but I’m a socialist so I thought I ought to turn up. The government proclaims its green credentials. If it’s serious about them it should nationalise the factory rather than let it got to the wall.”
Andy Woodhouse, a Newport water worker and a member of the GMB union, said, “Six hundred jobs is a huge loss to the island. We don’t get many people protesting here. A lot of people on the Isle of Wight are retired and affluent. That’s why we’ve got a Tory council and a Tory MP. To get this many on a protest at such sort notice is great. It shows that some of us do care.”
Matt, an unemployed person from Portsmouth, said, “I’ve come to show solidarity. It’s about renewable energy. We need more wind power not less. And it’s about 600 jobs.”
As the march moved off protesters chanted, “Save our Vestas. Save our jobs.” One protester held up a cardboard wind turbine. Placards read, “More wind, less talk” and “Green jobs now.”
Cathy Tyler, a charity worker from Wooton on the island, said, “The government will save the banks but not the industries that can save the planet. The occupation is the best thing that’s happened to the Isle of Wight in the 27 years I’ve lived here. We’ve surely got the whole of the Isle of Wight’s socialist movement here today.”
Cohan Tyler, who is 14, said “I went up to London with my cousin to a meeting about Vestas. I’m trying to get others at my school to support the campaign for weeks. It’s an amazing cause. It’s 600 jobs here and it’s the only wind turbine factory in the whole country. It’s about protecting our future.”
Steve, a Vestas worker who has been elected to represent the occupation, told the rally, “Management have tried to bully the occupation into submission but it isn’t moving. They tried to starve them out but that didn’t work. They cut the power, but that disb’t work. Our message is, ‘No more games.’ We’re hitting the company where it hurts—in the pocket.”
Since the occupation began Vestas’s share price has fallen almost 7 per cent. Management have asked the occupiers for files from inside. The occupiers have said they’ll pass the files over in exchange for one hot meal. Throughout the rally the crowd broke into chants of, “One hot meal.”
Mark Chiverton, from Isle of Wight Unison union, told the crowd, “Everyone is inspired by the people on the plant’s balcony. I know how hard it is to get people to take action. Three weeks ago I was quite sceptical about the idea of an occupation. But each night support for this campaign is growing. This is a message that is going out worldwide.”
Mark Stringer, who had been one of the occupiers, told the rally, “I’ve got involved because I knew my chances of getting another job on the island were next to zero. I’ve got a family to feed. The atmosphere inside is one of solidarity. The management tried their bullying tactics but after a while they saw the occupation was there to stay.”
Maddie, from the Camp for Climate Action, said, “Moving to low carbon energy source like wind is vital if we’re going to tackle climate change. But there’s a question where that change is going to come from. This occupation shows that it needs to come from the workers not the bosses.”
Workers and supporters believe that the occupation can win. Another demonstration is planned for 6pm on Saturday, outside the factory. Campaigners are urging people to come to the Isle of Wight to join the constant camp and the picket outside the plant.
Finally, one hot meal
July 26, 2009 -- http://savevestas.wordpress.com/ -- Yesterday [Saturday, July 25] was fairly quiet for the early part of the day. Spirits were still high inside after the previous evening’s march and rally and the deliveries by tennis ball of tobacco, papers and most importantly the equipment needed to get them internet access inside. The police and security are a bit more relaxed now and the tennis balls that fell short were thrown up to the workers by some of the security guards. No one is being arrested as yet for trespassing on the waste ground next to the factory where the balls are slung in from.Earlier I posted a story about an elementary school in Massachusetts where the principal fired the security guards and expanded the arts program….and, voila! The school miraculously improved.
The title was, “Could This Be True?”
Sadly, it was not true.
According to our friends in Massachusetts, the principal fired most of the teachers and the enrollment of the school changed, raising its socioeconomic profile.
No miracle.
Here is a comment from EduShyster:
“Barack Obama visited this school just last year–although the principal’s decision to bulk up the arts budget was not the lesson that BO was there to promote. Before Principal Bott got rid of the security guards he got rid of 80% of the teachers. And unlike other schools in Massachusetts where slash-and-burn turnaround efforts have produced very little, test scores at the school have risen, making Orchard Gardens what Arne Duncan might call a SIG-sess story.”
ChemTeacher added this comment:
“Let’s ask Deborah Meier. She has some understanding of the pilot schools in Boston. According to the video, the school originally opened as an empty promise, and the art and music equipment was left in storage.
That was for the old Orchard Garden Children. After those children were replaced with higher socioeconomic children, somebody finally thought of hiring art teachers.
“The new Orchard Gardens replaced a failed, dysfunctional public housing development with a mixed income community of over 200 units of affordable family housing in an inner city neighborhood. ”
http://www.dhkinc.com/Housing/public_housing/9606A.asp
The moral might be that we need integrated, mixed income communities, or maybe we can just hire art teachers right away. I’m worried about where the old Orchard Park children are, and do they have art and music there?”
ChemTeacher added:
“This is not necessarily a heart-warming story. Please read the link I posted above. The scores rose because they moved out the old, low-scoring population. Firing teachers didn’t raise the scores. The only way corporate reformers know to dramatically raise average scores is to cheat, or to raise average socioeconomic status. Art and music will save children’s lives and souls, and eventually pay off for their community and nation, but it won’t necessarily work standardized-test-score miracles.
“My guess is that the school was prepared and equipped specifically for the new affordable housing development, and that’s why the arts and music curriculum wasn’t launched until after the old community was gutted.
“Affordable housing” doesn’t mean low-income.”
Another Massachusetts reader sent this story, of a school that got $4 million in federal grants, extended the day from 7:30 to 5:30 pm, and hired a new staff of data-driven teachers. If Arne Duncan wants to give $4 million to every low-performing school, maybe he will see big change. If they all fire 80% of their teachers, where will we find new teachers? And how destructive is that to the teaching profession? Or is that what he wants?The king and his mighty knights should have left to defend the upper castle. Seems there is no one here now, there is also no reason to stay here anymore! If they can leave you behind, it's time for you to escape the fortress before things get more dangerous...
Use your mouse to pick up and use an item.
Walkthrough • Start by moving the loose straw on the left to reveal a hidden cog, take the cog.
• Head forward through the doors. Notice the cart, on the back are some breadcrumbs, take the breadcrumbs. Check the chest, it's jammed so you will need to find something to pry it open.
• Move right, click on the knight's shield, behind it you will find a hammer, take the hammer.
• Move right again, under the tree you will find a crowbar, take the crowbar. There's a bird on top of the wall who looks hungry. Give it the breadcrumbs, it will fly down dropping a key, take the key.
• Move right, use the crowbar to pry open the chest. Inside you will find an emerald sword, take the sword.
• Use the silver key to unlock the door and then go inside. On the table you will find dagger, take the dagger. The cabinet is locked and you will need a number code to unlock it. Click on the crates to move them out of the way, behind one you will find some writing on the wall, click on the writing to take a closer look. The writing is roman numerals, 2-5-4. Click on the cabinet to see the lock, change the numbers to match the clue from the wall 2-5-4, then click the switch to unlock the cabinet. Inside you will find a black key, take the key.
• Move down to leave this area. Move right and head down the stairs. You will find some vines, use the dagger to cut the vines. Behind the vines you will find a cog, lever and empty shaft. Place the cog on the shaft, then flip the lever.
• Once the lever is flipped, you will see to key holes. Use the black key to unlock both gates. Go inside of the door on the left.
• move the loose straw to find a small shovel, take the shovel.
• Leave this area and then go inside the door on the right.
• Use the shovel to dig in the dirt, you will find a green gem, take the gem.
• Now notice the crack in the wall, use the hammer to make the hole bigger. Inside you will find a ruby sword, take the sword.
• Click the back arrow twice to leave the dungeon. Now place the green gem into the slot on the door to unlock the door.
• Go through the door and then click on the blue knight's face mask to lift if up and reveal a blue key, take the blue key. Move left, the door is locked, use the blue key to unlock the door.
• Once inside, click the white stickers on the crates to remove them which will reveal symbols that you need to unlock the cabinet. Click on the cabinet and push the buttons until they match the symbols on the crates. Triangle, star, circle, triangle, then flip the switch to open the door. Inside you will find a diamond sword, take the sword.
• Move down to leave this room and then move right. Click on the wooden box on the left book case. You will need to look at the design on the front of the desk to open the locked box.
• The first button stays where it is, the second button needs pressed twice. Third button press once, fourth button press twice, fifth button press once, and the last button press three times. Next press the switch to unlock the box. Inside you will find a white key, take the key.
• Leave this area by pressing down, use the white key to unlock the door with gems around it. Before going inside take a look at the knight's helmets. The one on the left is blue, the middle is green and the one on the right is red. This is a clue you will need in the next room.
• Move forward through the door. There are 3 empty sword slots on the left, place the Emerald sword on the far left, then place the diamond sword in the middle and the ruby sword on the right. After you set the swords, a chest will drop. Click on the chest and change the buttons to match the colors of the knight's helmets in the previous room. From left to right, Blue, Green and the red. Once the chest is open you will find a gold key, take the gold key.
• Leave this area by moving down twice and then move right. Use the gold key to unlock the drawbridge. Once the drawbridge is open click the arrow to escape!Moscow (CNN) Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow will not expel American diplomats in response to US sanctions against Russia.
Putin said he would not pursue "irresponsible 'kitchen' diplomacy" and would instead attempt to rebuild relations with Washington after the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump.
However, Putin said that Russia reserved the right to respond to the new US sanctions, which included the expulsion of 35 diplomats from the US. The Obama administration said the measures were in response to allegations that Russia had meddled in the 2016 US presidential election.
"Further steps to restore Russian-US relations based on the policies of the Trump administration" will be undertaken, a Kremlin statement said.
Hectic day
Putin's decision was the culmination of a hectic 18 hours in US-Russia relations:
• Thursday afternoon in Washington: The Obama administration said it would The Obama administration said it would expel 35 Russian diplomats and close two Russian compounds, in response to what it said was Russian interference in the US presidential election campaign. The diplomats and their families were given 72 hours to leave the country. The administration also ordered the closure of two compounds used by Russia: one in Maryland, and one in New York.
• Friday morning in Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recommended that the Kremlin expel 35 US diplomats in return. He also recommended the shuttering of two American facilities in Russia.
• Later on Friday in Moscow: In a statement from the Kremlin, Putin adopted a more magnanimous tone, saying that no one would be expelled from Russia and that he would await the inauguration of Trump as US President before taking any further action. "We will not create problems for US diplomats. We won't expel anyone. We won't forbid their families and children to use their usual recreation places during the New Year's celebration," said Putin. He also invited the children of US diplomats in Russia to Christmas and New Year's shows in the Kremlin.
#Putin: We regard recent unfriendly USA steps as provocative and aimed at further weakening relations with Russia https://t.co/p8iCM9TfAN pic.twitter.com/NgvFGC0BWo — MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) December 30, 2016
Russia was sending a plane to bring its diplomats and their families back from the United States, the Russian Embassy in Washington tweeted.
Russian Consul General Sergey Petro told reporters in San Francisco that 11 people -- four employees and their families -- would leave soon.
"Hopefully it's the lowest point we can go. We hope we will be able to restore relations," he said, according to CNN affiliate KGO.
We will do our best, he said, to serve 150,000 Russians in the western United States with the staff that will remain.
'Classic Putin'
Putin's "extraordinary" move essentially sidelines the Obama administration while it is still in office, said CNN's former Moscow bureau chief and Russia analyst Jill Dougherty.
JUST WATCHED The Cold War: Then and now Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH The Cold War: Then and now 01:40
By declining to match the move made by Washington with tit-for-tat measures, as a Russian president normally would do, Putin is really issuing "an enormous insult" to Obama, she said.
Putin's move also represents a huge challenge to Trump, Dougherty said, because he will come into office "having Vladimir Putin essentially reach across the divide and say 'let's do this together, let's just ignore all of this and go forward'."
Dougherty added, "It's an amazing move and it's classic Putin, I would have to say -- he's a master of doing things that are unexpected, and this is truly unexpected."
Former CIA operative Bob Baer told CNN he believed Putin was playing a covert game intended to weaken the incoming US President and his country.
"I've never seen the Russians ever try to manipulate American politics like this, and so successfully, because not expelling the American diplomats right now for me is an attempt to delegitimize the new president, Trump," Baer said.
"The fact that (Putin) is saying, 'look, Trump is our guy, I can get along with him, I'm going to ignore the president' -- this just fuels the conspiracy theories that Trump is the Manchurian candidate,' and there are people on the left who believe it."
A US State Department official told CNN: "We have seen President Putin's remarks. We have nothing further to add."
Russian cyber activities 'unacceptable'
The Obama administration's announcement of sanctions marked a new low in what have become increasingly frosty relations between Russia and the United States.
It described Russia's actions as "Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities" and, in addition to the diplomatic expulsions, sanctioned four Russian individuals and five Russian entities for what it said was election interference.
"Russia's cyberactivities were intended to influence the election, erode faith in US democratic institutions, sow doubt about the integrity of our electoral process, and undermine confidence in the institutions of the US government," a White House statement said. "These actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated."
The Obama administration also claimed its diplomatic personnel had been harassed in Russia.
Trump factor
Trump, who is due to take office in only three weeks' time, has signaled a desire for warmer relations with Russia.
Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very smart! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2016
On Friday, he tweeted: "Great move on delay (by V. Putin) -- I always knew he was very smart!"
While the US intelligence community has publicly stated Russia was behind hacks of political organizations and persons in the United States in the run-up to November's election, Trump has largely rejected the notion.
A top aide to Trump, Kellyanne Conway, speculated Thursday that the Obama administration's sanctions could have been intended to "box in" his successor over Russia.
JUST WATCHED Conway: Sanctions may be attempt to hurt Trump Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Conway: Sanctions may be attempt to hurt Trump 01:54
A senior Obama administration official acknowledged Thursday that Trump could reverse the sanctions by executive order, but added, "I don't think it'd make a lot of sense."
Senior Republicans in Congress have backed the measures against Russia, even while criticizing Obama's handling of foreign policy -- signaling a potential split with Trump on the issue.The Susan G. Komen foundation has reversed a controversial decision not to renew funding for Planned Parenthood projects for breast cancer screenings, the group said in a statement Friday.
"We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives," the group said.
"We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities," the group said.
The announcement comes three days after Komen, a group supporting breast cancer research, said it would stop the funding, saying that it decided it would no longer fund groups under federal investigation. Congress in September began investigating whether Planned Parenthood, a prominent family planning organization, illegally used federal funds to provide abortions.
But on Friday, Komen said that it would "amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political."
"Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process," the group said.
Some Planned Parenthood supporters had alleged the decision to withhold funding also had to do with abortion. Anti-abortion advocates around the country had questioned the Komen foundation about its grants for months, prompting the foundation to release a statement last year saying that "Komen funding is used exclusively to provide breast cancer programs."
In Washington, at least 22 Senate Democrats signed a letter calling on Komen to reconsider its decision.
CREDO, which describes itself as the largest corporate donor to Planned Parenthood, said Thursday that 250,000 of its members had signed a petition urging the Komen foundation to reverse its decision.
"The move is clearly connected to attempts by Republicans in Congress to defund Planned Parenthood," the organization said in a statement.
Planned Parenthood said funding from the Komen foundation has largely paid for breast exams at local centers. In the last five years, grants from the group have directly supported 170,000 screenings, making up about 4% of the total exams performed at Planned Parenthood health centers nationwide, according to the group.It is quite unusual to be the support act at your own coronation, but that is what happened to the new Ukip leader on 28 November. As Paul Nuttall gave his victory speech, photographers snapped away – at his predecessor Nigel Farage.
Earlier, Donald Trump’s new best friend had shown no sign of retiring gracefully. Farage took credit for the US election, claiming that Ukip had shifted the international “centre of political gravity”, and boasted what a great year 2016 had been.
Farage’s zombie-like persistence is not the only worry for Ukip’s incoming leader. Just 9,622 people voted for Nuttall. That was almost 7,000 more than for his nearest rival, Suzanne Evans, but it represents a pitifully small membership base compared to Labour or the SNP. (In the 2015 general election Nuttall stood in his native Bootle, on Merseyside, where he won 10.9 per cent of the vote.)
The party’s future funding will also be an issue. The big spender Arron Banks favoured another candidate, Raheem Kassam, who withdrew before polling day. And for all that Ukip might rail against the EU gravy train, the party depends on it. Many of their key lieutenants’ main source of income is the €8,000 a month that they receive as MEPs.
Nuttall inherits a fractured party. The self-described “unity candidate” must now manage the egos of Farage (who has vowed not to be a “backseat driver”) as well as Ukip’s only MP, Douglas Carswell, an ally of his rival Suzanne Evans.
Nuttall’s political views are, unsurprisingly, hardline. He has questioned the “credibility and motivation of scientists on board the global warming wagon” and once wrote a blog (now deleted) arguing that the “very existence of the NHS stifles competition... [which] drives quality and choice”. He supports the death penalty for child and serial killers, and would like the burqa to be banned from public buildings.
He has contributed frequently to Breitbart, the news website and house journal of the “alt right”, on which he has argued that there is “an unholy alliance of the left and Muslim community”. He said the UK should accept more refugees, but only if they are rehoused in “Hampstead, Crouch End and Notting Hill, or to be even more prescriptive, slap bang in the centre of luvvie land”, to annoy celebrities such as Benedict Cumberbatch who have called for a more humane approach.
Nuttall is a keen proponent of women’s rights – when it suits him. Born into a Catholic family, the 40-year-old supports restrictions on abortion and opposes sex education for primary-school children. Like many on the far right, he has made a show of decrying the “silence” of feminists over the sexual assaults in Cologne, Germany, at the end of 2015, and the sex abuse cases in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. (He has far less to say about male violence when the perpetrators are white.) He has also called for those with HIV to be banned from the UK and warned that our open borders could lead to an outbreak of ebola.
David Renton – an Old Etonian barrister and former member of the Socialist Workers Party who taught him history at Edge Hill College in 1999 – told me that he always had the sense that, even at 23, Nuttall was testing the limits of acceptable speech. According to Renton, in an essay on the causes of the Holocaust, Nuttall worked in two footnotes to books by David Irving. “I wasn’t expecting this, because Irving wasn’t on the course reading list,” Renton says now. “This was after his libel trial, and historians regarded Irving as an unpleasant, racist crank who was beyond the pale.”
Renton says that when he raised it, Nuttall blamed his girlfriend, who he claimed had taken the references from the internet. “I didn’t want to think the worst of him. He had attended at least one left-wing meeting at the college and, perhaps naively, I thought his ideas were in flux and I was willing to accept his denial.” Yet the incident left him uneasy.
True to form as a scourge of political correctness, Nuttall hasn’t worried about diversity in his top team: he named Peter Whittle, a Ukip member of the London Assembly, as his deputy, and Paul Oakden remains party chairman.
His acceptance speech was an indication of what he regards as the low-hanging electoral fruit for his party: white, working-class voters in the north of England. “I want to replace the Labour Party and make Ukip the patriotic voice of the working people,” he said. Unlike the “north London Islington set”, he will not talk about climate change or Palestine: such issues don’t affect “real working people”.
His boldness has many in Labour worried. Dan Jarvis, the MP for Barnsley Central, has said: “The Ukip fox is in the Labour henhouse.” Before the 2015 election a Fabian Society pamphlet warned that Ukip was as much a threat in Labour seats such as Great Grims |
the vast fur-trade economy, driven by the demand for beaver pelts in Europe. Outstanding leaders like Jean Talon, Bishop Laval, and Count Frontenac built a French Empire in North America that reached from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.
(From Left to Right)
Count Frontenac refused to surrender Quebec to the English in 1690, saying: “My only reply will be from the mouths of my cannons!” Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville, was a great hero of New France, winning many victories over the English, from James Bay in the north to Nevis in the Caribbean, in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Sir Guy Carleton (Lord Dorchester), as Governor of Quebec, defended the rights of the Canadiens, defeated an American military invasion of Quebec in 1775, and supervised the Loyalist migration to Nova Scotia and Quebec in 1782-83.
Struggle for a Continent
In 1670, King Charles II of England granted the Hudson’s Bay Company exclusive trading rights over the watershed draining into Hudson Bay. For the next 100 years the Company competed with Montreal-based traders. The skilled and courageous men who travelled by canoe were called voyageurs and coureurs des bois, and formed strong alliances with First Nations. English colonies along the Atlantic seaboard, dating from the early 1600s, eventually became richer and more populous than New France. In the 1700s France and Great Britain battled for control of North America. In 1759, the British defeated the French in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Québec City — marking the end of France’s empire in America. The commanders of both armies, Brigadier James Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm, were killed leading their troops in battle.
The Province of Quebec
Following the war, Great Britain renamed the colony the “Province of Quebec.” The Frenchspeaking Catholic people, known as habitants or Canadiens, strove to preserve their way of life in the English-speaking, Protestant-ruled British Empire.
A Tradition of Accommodation
To better govern the French Roman Catholic majority, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act of 1774. One of the constitutional foundations of Canada, the Quebec Act accommodated the principles of British institutions to the reality of the province. It allowed religious freedom for Catholics and permitted them to hold public office, a practice not then allowed in Britain. The Quebec Act restored French civil law while maintaining British criminal law.
United Empire Loyalists
In 1776, the 13 British colonies to the south of Quebec declared independence and formed the United States. North America was again divided by war. More than 40,000 people loyal to the Crown, called “Loyalists,” fled the oppression of the American Revolution to settle in Nova Scotia and Quebec. Joseph Brant led thousands of Loyalist Mohawk Indians into Canada. The Loyalists came from Dutch, German, British, Scandinavian, Aboriginal and other origins and from Presbyterian, Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Jewish, Quaker, and Catholic religious backgrounds. About 3,000 black Loyalists, freedmen and slaves, came north seeking a better life. In turn, in 1792, some black Nova Scotians, who were given poor land, moved on to establish Freetown, Sierra Leone (West Africa), a new British colony for freed slaves.
The Beginnings of Democracy Democratic institutions developed gradually and peacefully. The first representative assembly was elected in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1758. Prince Edward Island followed in 1773, New Brunswick in 1785. The Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the Province of Quebec into Upper Canada (later Ontario), which was mainly Loyalist, Protestant and English-speaking, and Lower Canada (later Quebec), heavily Catholic and French-speaking. The Act also granted to the Canadas, for the first time, legislative assemblies elected by the people. The name Canada also became official at this time and has been used ever since. The Atlantic colonies and the two Canadas were known collectively as British North America.
The first elected Assembly of Lower Canada, in Québec City, debates
whether to use both French and English, January 21, 1793 See larger version ]
Abolition of Slavery Slavery has existed all over the world, from Asia, Africa and the Middle East to the Americas. The first movement to abolish the transatlantic slave trade emerged in the British Parliament in the late 1700s. In 1793, Upper Canada, led by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, a Loyalist military officer, became the first province in the Empire to move toward abolition. In 1807, the British Parliament prohibited the buying and selling of slaves, and in 1833 abolished slavery throughout the Empire. Thousands of slaves escaped from the United States, followed “the North Star” and settled in Canada via the Underground Railroad, a Christian anti-slavery network. A Growing Economy The first companies in Canada were formed during the French and British regimes and competed for the fur trade. The Hudson’s Bay Company, with French, British and Aboriginal employees, came to dominate the trade in the northwest from Fort Garry (Winnipeg) and Fort Edmonton to Fort Langley (near Vancouver) and Fort Victoria—trading posts that later became cities. The first financial institutions opened in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Montreal Stock Exchange opened in 1832. For centuries Canada’s economy was based mainly on farming and on exporting natural resources such as fur, fish and timber, transported by roads, lakes, rivers and canals. (From left to right)
Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe was Upper Canada’s first Lieutenant Governor and founder of the City of York (now Toronto). Simcoe also made Upper Canada the first province in the British Empire to abolish slavery
Mary Ann Shadd Cary was an outspoken activist in the movement to abolish slavery in the U.S.A. In 1853 she became the first woman publisher in Canada, helping to found and edit The Provincial Freeman, a weekly newspaper dedicated to anti-slavery, black immigration to Canada, temperance (urging people to drink less alcohol), and upholding British rule
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The War of 1812: The Fight for Canada After the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte’s fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), the Royal Navy ruled the waves. The British Empire, which included Canada, fought to resist Bonaparte’s bid to dominate Europe. This led to American resentment at British interference with their shipping. Believing it would be easy to conquer Canada, the United States launched an invasion in June 1812. The Americans were mistaken. Canadian volunteers and First Nations, including Shawnee led by Chief Tecumseh, supported British soldiers in Canada’s defence. In July, Major-General Sir Isaac Brock captured Detroit but was killed while defending against an American attack at Queenston Heights, near Niagara Falls, a battle the Americans lost. In 1813, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles de Salaberry and 460 soldiers, mostly French Canadiens, turned back 4,000 American invaders at Châteauguay, south of Montreal. In 1813 the Americans burned Government House and the Parliament Buildings in York (now Toronto). In retaliation in 1814, Major-General Robert Ross led an expedition from Nova Scotia that burned down the White House and other public buildings in Washington, D.C. Ross died in battle soon afterwards and was buried in Halifax with full military honours. By 1814, the American attempt to conquer Canada had failed. The British paid for a costly Canadian defence system, including the Citadels at Halifax and Québec City, the naval drydock at Halifax and Fort Henry at Kingston—today popular historic sites. The present-day Canada- U.S.A. border is partly an outcome of the War of 1812, which ensured that Canada would remain independent of the United States.
(From left to right)
HMS Shannon, a Royal Navy frigate, leads the captured USS Chesapeake into Halifax harbour, 1813. There were also naval battles on the Great Lakes.
Major General Sir Isaac Brock and Chief Tecumseh. Together, British troops, First Nations, and Canadian volunteers defeated an American invasion in 1812-14.
(From left to right)
The Duke of Wellington sent some of his best soldiers to defend Canada in 1814. He then chose Bytown (Ottawa) as the endpoint of the Rideau Canal, part of a network of forts to prevent the U.S.A. from invading Canada again. Wellington, who defeated Napoleon in 1815, therefore played a direct role in founding the national capital.
In 1813, Laura Secord, pioneer wife and mother of five children, made a dangerous 19 mile (30 km) journey on foot to warn Lieutenant James FitzGibbon of a planned American attack. Her bravery contributed to victory at the Battle of Beaver Dams. She is recognized as a heroine to this day.
Rebellions of 1837–38
In the 1830s, reformers in Upper and Lower Canada believed that progress toward full democracy was too slow. Some believed Canada should adopt American republican values or even try to join the United States. When armed rebellions occurred in 1837–38 in the area outside Montreal and in Toronto, the rebels did not have enough public support to succeed. They were defeated by British troops and Canadian volunteers. A number of rebels were hanged or exiled; some exiles later returned to Canada.
Lord Durham, an English reformer sent to report on the rebellions, recommended that Upper and Lower Canada be merged and given responsible government. This meant that the ministers of the Crown must have the support of a majority of the elected representatives in order to govern. Controversially, Lord Durham also said that the quickest way for the Canadiens to achieve progress was to assimilate into English-speaking Protestant culture. This recommendation demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of French Canadians, who sought to uphold the distinct identity of French Canada. Some reformers, including Sir Étienne-Paschal Taché and Sir George-Étienne Cartier, later became Fathers of Confederation, as did a former member of the voluntary government militia in Upper Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald. Responsible Government In 1840, Upper and Lower Canada were united as the Province of Canada. Reformers such as Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine and Robert Baldwin, in parallel with Joseph Howe in Nova Scotia, worked with British governors toward responsible government. The first British North American colony to attain full responsible government was Nova Scotia in 1847–48. In 1848–49 the governor of United Canada, Lord Elgin, with encouragement from London, introduced responsible government. This is the system that we have today: if the government loses a confidence vote in the assembly it must resign. La Fontaine, a champion of democracy and French language rights, became the first leader of a responsible government in the Canadas. Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, a champion of French language rights, became the first head of a responsible government (similar to a prime minister) in Canada in 1849 [ See larger version ]
Confederation
From 1864 to 1867, representatives of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada, with British support, worked together to establish a new country. These men are known as the Fathers of Confederation. They created two levels of government: federal and provincial. The old Province of Canada was split into two new provinces: Ontario and Quebec, which, together with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, formed the new country called the Dominion of Canada. Each province would elect its own legislature and have control of such areas as education and health. The British Parliament passed the British North America Act in 1867. The Dominion of Canada was officially born on July 1, 1867. Until 1982, July 1 was celebrated as “Dominion Day” to commemorate the day that Canada became a self-governing Dominion. Today it is officially known as Canada Day. The Fathers of Confederation established
the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867,
the birth of the country that we know today
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Dominion from Sea to Sea Sir Leonard Tilley, an elected official and Father of Confederation from New Brunswick, suggested the term Dominion of Canada in 1864. He was inspired by Psalm 72 in the Bible which refers to “dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.” This phrase embodied the vision of building a powerful, united, wealthy and free country that spanned a continent. The title was written into the Constitution, was used officially for about 100 years, and remains part of our heritage today.
Expansion of the Dominion 1867 — Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick 1870 — Manitoba, Northwest Territories ( N.W.T. ) 1871 — British Columbia 1873 — Prince Edward Island 1880 — Transfer of the Arctic Islands (to N.W.T. ) 1898 — Yukon Territory 1905 — Alberta, Saskatchewan 1949 — Newfoundland and Labrador 1999 — Nunavut Did you know? In the 1920s, some believed that the British West Indies (British territories in the Caribbean Sea) should become part of Canada. This did not occur, though Canada and Commonwealth Caribbean countries and territories enjoy close ties today.
Canada’s First Prime Minister In 1867, Sir John Alexander Macdonald, a Father of Confederation, became Canada’s first Prime Minister. Born in Scotland on January 11, 1815, he came to Upper Canada as a child. He was a lawyer in Kingston, Ontario, a gifted politician and a colourful personality. Parliament has recognized January 11 as Sir John A. Macdonald Day. His portrait is on the $10 bill. Sir George-Étienne Cartier was the key architect of Confederation from Quebec. A railway lawyer, Montrealer, close ally of Macdonald and patriotic Canadien, Cartier led Quebec into Confederation and helped negotiate the entry of the Northwest Territories, Manitoba and British Columbia into Canada.
Challenge in the West
When Canada took over the vast northwest region from the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1869, the 12,000 Métis of the Red River were not consulted. In response, Louis Riel led an armed uprising and seized Fort Garry, the territorial capital. Canada’s future was in jeopardy. How could the Dominion reach from sea to sea if it could not control the interior? Ottawa sent soldiers to retake Fort Garry in 1870. Riel fled to the United States and Canada established a new province: Manitoba. Riel was elected to Parliament but never took his seat. Later, as Métis and Indian rights were again threatened by westward settlement, a second rebellion in 1885 in present-day Saskatchewan led to Riel’s trial and execution for high treason, a decision that was strongly opposed in Quebec. Riel is seen by many as a hero, a defender of Métis rights and the father of Manitoba. After the first Métis uprising, Prime Minister Macdonald established the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) in 1873 to pacify the West and assist in negotiations with the Indians. The NWMP founded Fort Calgary, Fort MacLeod and other centres that today are cities and towns. Regina became its headquarters. Today, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP or “the Mounties”) are the national police force and one of Canada’s best-known symbols. Some of Canada’s most colourful heroes, such as Major General Sir Sam Steele, came from the ranks of the Mounties.
(From left to right)
Fort Garry, 1863: the flag of the Hudson’s Bay Company flew over Western Canada for 200 years before Confederation
Sir Sam Steele: A great frontier hero, Mounted Policeman, and soldier of the Queen
Métis Resistance: Gabriel Dumont was the Métis’ greatest military leader
Members of the train crew pose with a westbound Pacific Express,
at the first crossing of the Illecillewaet River near Glacier, B.C., 1886
A Railway from Sea to Sea British Columbia joined Canada in 1871 after Ottawa promised to build a railway to the West Coast. On November 7, 1885, a powerful symbol of unity was completed when Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona), the Scottish-born director of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), drove the last spike. The project was financed by British and American investors and built by both European and Chinese labour. Afterwards the Chinese were subject to discrimination, including the Head Tax, a race-based entry fee. The Government of Canada apologized in 2006 for this discriminatory policy. After many years of heroic work, the CPR ’s “ribbons of steel” fulfilled a national dream.
Moving Westward
Canada’s economy grew and became more industrialized during the economic boom of the 1890s and early 1900s. One million British and one million Americans immigrated to Canada at this time. Sir Wilfrid Laurier became the first French-Canadian prime minister since Confederation and encouraged immigration to the West. His portrait is on the $5 bill. The railway made it possible for immigrants, including 170,000 Ukrainians, 115,000 Poles and tens of thousands from Germany, France, Norway and Sweden to settle in the West before 1914 and develop a thriving agricultural sector.
The First World War
(From top to bottom)
Maple leaf cap badge from the First World War. Canada’s soldiers began using the maple leaf in the 1850s
The Vimy Memorial in France honours those who served and died in the Battle of Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917, the first British victory of the First World War See larger version ] Most Canadians were proud to be part of the British Empire. Over 7,000 volunteered to fight in the South African War 1899–1902), popularly known as the Boer War, and over 260 died. In 1900, Canadians took part in the battles of Paardeberg (“Horse Mountain”) and Lillefontein, victories that strengthened national pride in Canada. When Germany attacked Belgium and France in 1914 and Britain declared war, Ottawa formed the Canadian Expeditionary Force (later the Canadian Corps). More than 600,000 Canadians served in the war, most of them volunteers, out of a total population of eight million. On the battlefield, the Canadians proved to be tough, innovative soldiers. Canada shared in the tragedy and triumph of the Western Front. The Canadian Corps captured Vimy Ridge in April 1917, with 10,000 killed or wounded, securing the Canadians’ reputation for valour as the “shock troops of the British Empire.” One Canadian officer said: “It was Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific on parade… In those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation.” April 9 is celebrated as Vimy Day. Regrettably, from 1914 to 1920, Ottawa interned over 8,000 former Austro-Hungarian subjects, mainly Ukrainian men, as “enemy aliens” in 24 labour camps across Canada, even though Britain advised against the policy. In 1918, under the command of General Sir Arthur Currie, Canada’s greatest soldier, the Canadian Corps advanced alongside the French and British Empire troops in the last hundred days. These included the victorious Battle of Amiens on August 8, 1918–which the Germans called “the black day of the German Army”–followed by Arras, Canal du Nord, Cambrai and Mons. With Germany and Austria’s surrender, the war ended in the Armistice on November 11, 1918. In total 60,000 Canadians were killed and 170,000 wounded. The war strengthened both national and imperial pride, particularly in English Canada.
(From left to right)
Sergeant, Fort Garry Horse, Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1916
Sir Arthur Currie, a reserve officer, became Canada’s greatest soldier
[ See larger version ]
Women Get the Vote
More than 3,000 nurses, nicknamed “Bluebirds,”
served in the Royal
Canadian Army Medical
Corps, 2,500 of them
overseas
[ See larger version ]
Agnes Macphail,
a farmer and teacher,
became the first woman
MP in 1921
[ See larger version ]
At the time of Confederation, the vote was limited to property-owning adult white males. This was common in most democratic countries at the time. The effort by women to achieve the right to vote is known as the women’s suffrage movement. Its founder in Canada was Dr. Emily Stowe, the first Canadian woman to practise medicine in Canada. In 1916, Manitoba became the first province to grant voting rights to women. In 1917, thanks to the leadership of women such as Dr. Stowe and other suffragettes, the federal government of Sir Robert Borden gave women the right to vote in federal elections — first to nurses at the battle front, then to women who were related to men in active wartime service. In 1918, most Canadian female citizens aged 21 and over were granted the right to vote in federal elections. In 1921 Agnes Macphail, a farmer and teacher, became the first woman MP. Due to the work of Thérèse Casgrain and others, Quebec granted women the vote in 1940.
(From left to right)
Canadian soldiers observe Remembrance Day
Remembrance Day poppy
Canadian war veteran See larger version ] Canadians remember the sacrifices of our veterans and brave fallen in all wars up to the present day in which Canadians took part, each year on November 11: Remembrance Day. Canadians wear the red poppy and observe a moment of silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to honour the sacrifices of over a million brave men and women who have served, and the 110,000 who have given their lives. Canadian medical officer Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae composed the poem “In Flanders Fields” in 1915; it is often recited on Remembrance Day: In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Phil Edwards was a Canadian track and field champion. Born in British Guiana, he won bronze medals for Canada in the 1928, 1932, and 1936 Olympics, then graduated from McGill University Medical School. He served as a captain in the Canadian Army during the Second World War, and, as a Montreal doctor, became an expert in tropical diseases.
[ See larger version ] Between the Wars After the First World War, the British Empire evolved into a free association of states known as the British Commonwealth of Nations. Canada remains a leading member of the Commonwealth to this day, together with other successor states of the Empire such as India, Australia, New Zealand, and several African and Caribbean countries. The “Roaring Twenties” were boom times, with prosperity for businesses and low unemployment. The stock market crash of 1929, however, led to the Great Depression or the “Dirty Thirties.” Unemployment reached 27% in 1933 and many businesses were wiped out. Farmers in Western Canada were hit hardest by low grain prices and a terrible drought. There was growing demand for the government to create a social safety net with minimum wages, a standard work week and programs such as unemployment insurance. The Bank of Canada, a central bank to manage the money supply and bring stability to the financial system, was created in 1934. Immigration dropped and many refugees were turned away, including Jews trying to flee Nazi Germany in 1939.
In the Second World War, the Canadians captured Juno Beach as part of
the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944 See larger version ] The D-Day Invasion, June 6, 1944 In order to defeat Nazism and Fascism, the Allies invaded Nazi-occupied Europe. Canadians took part in the liberation of Italy in 1943–44. In the epic invasion of Normandy in northern France on June 6, 1944, known as D-Day, 15,000 Canadian troops stormed and captured Juno Beach from the German Army, a great national achievement shown in this painting by Orville Fisher. Approximately one in ten Allied soldiers on D-Day was Canadian. The Canadian Army liberated the Netherlands in 1944–45 and helped force the German surrender of May 8, 1945, bringing to an end six years of war in Europe.
The Second World WarLt. Gov. Dan Patrick issued an ultimatum to the Texas House on Wednesday, saying he must see passage of two of his priorities — property tax relief and limits on transgender-friendly bathroom policies — before the Senate will act on key legislation to keep some state agencies operating.
What’s more, Patrick said, if the House fails to pass either priority, he will press Gov. Greg Abbott to call as many special sessions as necessary to gain approval.
"Whether we have a special session is now in the hands of the speaker," said Patrick, who presides over the Senate.
Read the full story on mystatesman.com.
Afterward, House Speaker Joe Straus released a statement saying he was encouraged by some of what Patrick had to say, particularly his indication that the Senate would move on House priorities "such as mental health reforms, fixing the broken A-F rating system and cybersecurity."
But, Straus added, compromise works both ways.
"Governor Patrick’s threat to force a special session unless he gets everything his way is regrettable, and I hope that he reconsiders. The best way to end this session is to reach consensus on as many issues as we can. Nobody is going to get everything they want," he said.
RELATED: Straus calls bathroom bill ‘contrived’ answer to ‘manufactured’ problem
Rep. Chris Turner, head of the House Democratic Caucus, said the House "should not be blackmailed into passing policies that we know are harmful to our constituents and the state economy."
"It’s just extraordinary," said Turner, D-Grand Prairie. "Less than two weeks to go in the session and the lieutenant governor would essentially throw a Donald Trump-style temper tantrum and threaten to blow up the session just to try to force passage of his unnecessary and harmful bathroom bill."
Patrick said he had been handling negotiations over the priority legislation — as well as other important bills that include school finance, voter ID and a budget that does not use the rainy day fund — in private but decided to change tactics after Straus released a letter Monday on end-of-session issues.
"My plan was going to continue this negotiation outside of the media, but that has now changed because of the private letter the speaker sent to me that he released to all of you yesterday," Patrick said at a morning news conference.
In Monday’s letter, Straus asked Patrick for action on Senate Bill 310, a version of a House sunset bill that was killed by a calendar deadline.
RELATED: Lawmakers fear agency closures at risk without special session
"The sunset scheduling bill … is now in hands of the Senate to pass. It’s very late, but we can still get it out. We have less than 48 hours, probably, to pass it to avoid the need for a special session," Patrick said. "Before we move Senate Bill 310, I must see action by the House to pass several key bills."
Abbott spokesman John Wittman said the governor is grateful that the House plans to vote Thursday on Senate Bill 2, which would limit property tax increases by cities and counties.
"The governor made clear yesterday that property tax reform and maintaining privacy in restrooms and locker rooms are legislative priorities that must be passed, and he believes both items can be achieved before the end of the regular session," Wittman said.
SB 2 would require cities and counties that want to raise property taxes by 5 percent or more to hold elections ratifying the tax hikes. Currently, residents can petition to hold elections on local property tax hikes of 8 percent or more.
Patrick also noted that House Bill 2899, which would block cities and school districts from enacting or enforcing transgender-friendly restroom policies, has 80 Republican co-authors — at least four more than it takes to pass the bill."
Patrick said the House could add HB 2899 as an amendment to another bill or act on Senate Bill 6, which passed the Senate in mid-March and would require schools, universities and government buildings to limit the use of multi-stall bathrooms to the sex listed on a person’s birth certificate.
The transgender bathroom bills have produced some of the most contentious fights this legislative session, drawing opposition from international corporations, small businesses, global investors, entertainers, pro sports leagues, tourism organizations, civil rights groups and gay rights activists.
"Senate Bill 6 has absolutely nothing to do with privacy and everything to do with targeting transgender people for discrimination," said Chuck Smith, head of Equality Texas.Image caption Senior Libyan politicians gathered to hear the results being announced at a hotel in Tripoli
Results from Libya's first elections since the overthrow of Col Gaddafi have shown gains for an alliance of parties seen as broadly secular.
The National Forces Alliance, led by ex-interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, has won 39 out of 80 seats reserved for political parties.
The Muslim Brotherhood's party has gained 17.
The 200-member General National Assembly will also include dozens of independent candidates.
The overall orientation that the assembly will have is so far unclear.
What remains to be seen is who, if anyone, will lead the assembly by majority, the BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli reports.
That will depend on the allegiances - largely unknown - of 120 independent candidates, she adds.
While congratulating other parties, the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Justice and Construction Party said it had made gains in seats reserved for independent members.
They may now be banking on a shift in their favour from the non-party lists, our correspondent adds.
Analysis It was, for many, the act of voting that mattered most. Nevertheless, this landslide victory for the centrist National Forces Alliance in the party-list was largely expected since the preliminary results started trickling out over the past week. Talking to Libyans, you find that many of the youth - who make up the majority of eligible voters - cast their ballots against anyone running on a religious platform. They opted for policy-makers rather than ideologies. You often also hear about lessons being drawn from election results in Tunisia and Egypt, where it was viewed that Islamists hijacked the Arab Spring. The recent sporadic attacks against foreign missions in Libya, believed to be carried out by some hardline Islamists, also seemed to spook people here and probably played some role in swaying the vote.
The current interim Prime Minister Abdurrahim al-Keib said the announcement of the results was "a time of celebration".
"Everybody in Libya is happy. And we are thankful to those partners and friends who have helped us to get to this point," Mr Keib said.
There will now be a two-week window for any appeals against the tally.
More than 100 parties competed in the poll, many of them formed only in recent months.
The assembly will have legislative powers, though it is unclear what role it will play in drawing up the country's new constitution. The assembly is expected to be in place for at least a year.
It will choose the first elected government since Col Muammar Gaddafi came to power in 1969. He was ousted in August 2011 and killed two months later.
The last fully free parliamentary election was held soon after independence in 1952. The last national vote was held in 1965, when no political parties were allowed.
EU election observers said the voting process on 7 July was largely "peaceful and smooth", although technical delays and violence disrupted polling in several locations.
One person was killed in a shooting near a polling station in Ajdabiya.
The election commission put turnout at 62% of registered voters.
In an interview with the BBC last week, Mr Jibril called on parties to form a coalition government, something which rival politicians tentatively welcomed.Congress passed the Obamacare law but won't have to live under it. My thoughts at this turn of events are unprintable.
Lawmakers and staff can breathe easy - their health care tab is not going to soar next year. The Office of Personnel Management, under heavy pressure from Capitol Hill, will issue regulations saying that the government can continue to make the employer contribution to the health plans of members and aides, according to several Hill sources.
Politico's headline on its story about the "fix" is hilarious:
Capitol Hill's Obamacare crisis solved
America's Obamacare crisis remains very much unsolved.
The OPM's move is illegal. Congress passed an amendment to Obamacare that mandated that Congress and staff had to abide by it themselves. OPM doesn't have the power to change the law any more than Obama had the power to delay the employer mandate.
As Obamacare fundamentally transforms our health care system, it's also fundamentally transforming the nation itself. We were once a nation of laws. Now we're a nation of the whims of bureaucrats.
The only fix here is to repeal the entire thing. Defund it. Repeal it. Rip it out root and branch. Obamacare delenda est.6 Things You Need to Know About Rat Lungworm Disease Before You Eat a Salad
Everyone’s talking about the recent disease outbreak affecting the Hawai‘i. Find out what it is, where it comes from and how you can prevent it.
By Catherine Toth Fox
Photos: Hawai‘i Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
A recent outbreak of a rare disease caused by a parasitic worm that invades the brain and spinal cord on Maui has raised concern and even fear about what we’re putting into our mouths. And rightfully so.
Here’s what you need to know about rat lungworm, or angiostrongyliasis.
SEE ALSO: 15 Ways to Protect Your Family from Rat Lungworm Disease in Hawai‘i
1. It’s More Common Than You Think
Even though the Hawai‘i Department of Health calls rat lungworm a rare illness, with between one to nine cases reported every year and two deaths since 2007, it’s hard to tell just how many people get infected. Symptoms can range from very mild—headaches, stiffness of the neck, nausea—to severe, even resulting in temporary paralysis or comas. And symptoms usually start one to three weeks after exposure and can last from two weeks to months. Because of this, the disease can go undetected or unreported. This year, six cases have been confirmed on Maui, with three more under investigation. But Susan Jarvi, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at UH Hilo, says she’s been researching this disease for more than five years, talking with farmers and residents on the Big Island about what it is and how to prevent it. She’s been getting a couple of calls a week about it, even before the recent Maui outbreak. “On the Big Island, practically everybody knows somebody with rat lungworm disease,” she says. “It’s been going on so long … It’s a fairly preventable disease, if you know about it.”
2. It’s Everywhere
People on every Hawaiian island—not just Maui or the Big Island—are at risk, thanks to our tropical climate. The disease is caused by a parasitic nematode, the adult form of which is found in rats. They host the worm and pass the larvae through their feces, which slugs—particularly the invasive semi-slug—and snails feed on. Humans get infected by consuming raw produce—leafy greens, herbs, sweet potatoes—or water contaminated by the slug or snail. You can also get sick by eating raw or undercooked snails, slugs, prawns and freshwater crabs. The DOH says it’s not known for sure if eating the slime left by infected slugs and snails causes any infection, but who wants to risk that?
3. There’s No Cure
The parasites die over time, so the infection is self-limiting. And, since symptoms vary so much—from headaches to vomiting to paralysis—there’s no specific treatment or medication for this disease. (Rat lungworm is hard to diagnose, too. The most effective method, so far, has been to get a sample of the cerebral spinal fluid from the infected person and run a molecular test on it. Jarvi is working on a way to detect the disease through a simple blood sample.) Anyone who has symptoms should see a health-care provider as soon as possible.
4. Beware of Uncooked Vegetables
There’s a reason why other countries, particularly those in humid, tropical climates, cook everything, including veggies. Heating them to at least 165 degrees—and freezing, too, for more than 48 hours—kills most bacteria and parasites, including rat lungworm. If you’re going to eat raw veggies, make sure they’ve been cleaned thoroughly. That may be hard to do in a restaurant, where you’re served a dish that’s been prepared out of your sight.
SEE ALSO: Rat Lungworm 101: What You Need to Know About This Potentially Deadly Parasite
5. It Can Be Prevented
Aside from avoiding all fruits, vegetables, slugs, snails, frogs, shrimp and prawns, there are easy ways to prevent contracting rat lungworm disease. First, wash all produce—even fruits—especially if you’re going to eat them raw. Since tiny snails and slugs are harder to detect on leafy greens, each leaf should be carefully washed, front and back, in water. (No need to add salt, bleach, vinegar or other cleaners.) Mikala Minn of Mahele Farm, a 10-acre community farm in Hāna, says you have to wash fruits and vegetables under running water, not just soak them in a bowl of water. He even recommends peeling bananas from the closed end and not eating any part of the fruit that was exposed. “Slugs are all over bananas,” he says.
If you have a garden at home, it’s important to controls rats, slugs and snails. Minn says the most effective way for his staff to deal with slugs is by hand-picking them and putting them in a concentrated salt solution. “That decreased the population [on the farm] by 50 percent,” he says.
6. Don’t Be Afraid To Buy Local
This recent uptick in rat lungworm cases has already impacted local growers. Mahele Farm, which also manages school gardens in Hāna, has decided to keep students out of the gardens for the rest of the year. Minn has also noticed fewer |
in the Queen's chambers were my mother's. If you want to redecorate, you're free to." The bodice loosened and fell, bunching around Anna's waist. Anna stepped out of the dress with her petticoat and blouse still remaining.
Elsa brushed a lock of copper between her fingers when Anna faced her. "We have some time, but… do you want me to wash your hair?"
Anna's eyes widened. Elsa looked hesitant and avoided Anna's gaze, her own eyes aimed down at the soft curl looped about her fingers.
"I used to do that for you. You probably don't remember, but when you were about four years old, you went through an episode where you had to be coaxed into taking baths—partly Kristoff's doing, no doubt. Something about boys being allergic to baths and not needing them. I had to convince you to take one sometimes. You seemed to like it when I washed your hair, when you weren't trying to splash water at me to freeze."
"Did I really?"
"You doubt that you were a rambunctious and an occasionally difficult child?"
Anna laughed and conceded defeat. "All right, I believe you." She started to unbutton her blouse while Elsa turned away to examine the jars of bath salts and soaps neatly lined on a side table.
"Have you been using these?" Elsa asked, picking one up to examine the contents. She kept her back to Anna, and tried not to swallow as she heard buttons being undone. The room was still warm and humid from her last bath, the candles casting the walls into a dusky light.
"No, not yet." Anna hesitated on the last button, her eyes on Elsa's back. Ignoring her jangling nerves, she pulled the button free.
"My mother used to like long baths," Elsa said, acutely aware of even the briefest silence. "Gerda always kept all kinds of exotic soaps and bath oils stocked for her. Some of these look new, though. Perhaps we should try—that is, you should try some of these," Elsa babbled, heat scoring her skin at the rustle of discarded clothes behind her. Anna was naked, or very close to it, Elsa thought in a half-daze. She was going to see Anna naked, and wash her hair, and probably get struck by lightning for all the impure thoughts that were parading through her mind.
"Perhaps I should wait outside," Elsa croaked, already lurching for the door. "Just tell me—" She caught a flash of Anna in nothing but an unbuttoned blouse bending over the tub to dip her hand into the water. Her legs were even more glorious out of riding breeches, and the blouse hem denied Elsa the opportunity to worship her wife's form any further than the top of her thighs.
"Anna!" Elsa yelped, immediately whipping her eyes the opposite direction. Her face was utterly scalded, hands fisted at her sides. "You could have at least waited for me to leave the room."
"Prude," Anna said, a laugh lurking behind the gentle insult. "It's not like you've never seen a naked woman before."
"I've never seen anyone else naked before," Elsa snapped. She attempted to chill her hands and press them to her burning cheeks, but she was too distracted to manage even that simple act, her palms clammy and useless.
Anna glanced at Elsa and had to swallow another laugh. Elsa's embarrassment was palpable and it helped to vanquish her own anxiety. Anna shucked the blouse, stepped into the tub, and, in a fit of mischief, balled it up in her fist. "Elsa, it's safe now."
The moment the queen turned, Anna pelted it at Elsa's head. Her aim was true, as it always was. Elsa made an undignified noise as the shirt enveloped her face; she wheeled backward, her arms windmilling, while Anna's laughter rang like a taunt.
"Anna!" Elsa growled, tearing the shirt off her face before she realized what sight would greet her. What she found was Anna safely submerged to her chin in the tub and still chortling gleefully.
"Are you five?" Elsa demanded, brandishing the shirt like a mauled boot to a puppy.
"You're going to wash my hair like I am. I thought I should get into character." She squealed and huddled in the far corner of the tub when Elsa rounded on her. "Elsa, you wouldn't dare!" Anna yelped, correctly reading the intent written on the queen's face.
"I wouldn't?" Elsa's voice was incredulous. "Why would that be? I am the queen. I'm well within my rights to exact punishment for your assault on me. Again."
Anna was torn between more laughter and morbid curiosity. "Because you're obviously the only mature one between the two of us?" Anna tried. "And—and you're above petty retaliation!" Anna threw in, inspired.
"Appealing to my higher nature?" Tossing the shirt on the table, Elsa pulled up a stool to the tub and sat. Anna watched her warily. "Come now," Elsa said mildly, eyebrows lifted. "You just said I wouldn't dare."
"I don't trust you."
"That's unfortunate," Elsa commented, looking far too forgiving for someone who'd just gotten pelted in the face, and beckoned. "We do have dinner to attend. Let's not dwaddle because you doubt my mercy."
Cautiously, Anna slid to end of the tub closest to Elsa. Elsa's face was still blandly innocent, though her mouth did twitch at Anna's reluctance.
"You're not going to make a snowball and smash it into my hair or the back of my neck, are you?" Anna asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"I'm above petty retaliation," Elsa repeated. While Elsa examined a jar of some concoction, Anna decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.
"You don't need to wash very thoroughly," Anna said. "My hair isn't as thick as yours, but—" A hand pressed down on the crown of her head and gave a mighty shove. Anna gave an squawk of betrayal, but only a gurgle emerged as her mouth filled with water. Elsa held her under for no more than a few seconds, but it was enough to make Anna thrash out of pure indignation.
"Elsa!" Anna shrieked the instant her head cleared. She sputtered and squinted burning eyes; her ears were clogged, but Elsa's laugh was unmistakable. Anna smacked her hand into water to splash the queen, who neatly dodged it. "You said you were above that and I believed you!"
"What did you expect, Anna? For me to roll belly up if you asked nicely enough?" Elsa snorted. "I may go along with most of your ideas, but certainly not all of them."
Anna flicked water at her, which only made Elsa laugh again. "Gloating isn't nice, deserved or not," Anna muttered, swiping wet hair back.
The scales righted now, Elsa poured soap onto her hands and motioned for Anna to turn, rolling her eyes when Anna glared. "Don't worry, my appetite for vengeance has been sated."
"Thank you," Elsa said, much more softly, her hands lathering the soap into Anna's hair.
Anna gave a wordless nod—the playfulness had broken the tension, just as Anna had hoped it would. A comfortable silence settled between them, interrupted by only the soft sound of hair being scrubbed.
"Anna, did the countess send you something?"
Anna couldn't help it—she stiffened enough that Elsa stopped. "Anna? What's wrong?"
"She did," Anna admitted while her thoughts raced. "How did you know?"
"I saw wrapping paper on your dresser. What was it?"
"Um. She sent a book." Anna fidgeted. "It was a French book."
"What kind of book?" Elsa asked, wondering at Anna's reluctance.
"It's a—I think it's a romance novel." Anna's voice sounded strangled even to herself. She could feel Elsa wanting to ask more questions, and quickly added, "That's why I was in the library. It's in French and you know I'm not fluent in it like you are, so I was trying to read it." She had certainly read enough to know 'romance novel' was putting it very loosely.
"I see," Elsa said, sounding doubtful. A romance novel? Her nose wrinkled; she wanted to ask more about it, but if Anna was embarrassed, she wouldn't press. "If you'd like assistance reading it, you can always ask, you know. I'd be more than happy to help."
Anna blushed to her roots—'help' was taking on all kinds of meanings in her mind, none appropriate—and was glad that Elsa couldn't see it.
"M-maybe," she managed, wanting to sink through the tub and into the floor. She knew she would have to tell Elsa at some point, but she only had to imagine the embarrassment that event would elicit to make her push it to another day. She reminded herself that now was hardly a good time either—Elsa might just dunk her head again on principle if she knew what was really in that book.
"Will you really be all right with your parents leaving?" Elsa suddenly asked.
"Why wouldn't I be?"
She felt Elsa's brief shrug. "I don't know. It's just—you may not be able to visit them as often as you'd like. You've always been close to your family and I don't think you've ever been apart from them for very long. I thought… perhaps their impending departure might be more affecting than you were letting on."
Anna gave a small shake of her head and smiled, even though Elsa couldn't see it. "I'll be fine, Elsa. I've always known I'd have to leave Corona one day. I'll see them again soon. Well, I'll see my parents soon. Kristoff—" She immediately shut her mouth while another silence, more tense, stretched.
"I miss him, too," Elsa said, her voice as gentle as her hands.
Unexpected tears prickled at the back of her eyes, to Anna's embarrassment. How strange, she thought in disbelief. She had not cried in years and it'd only taken an oblique slip of her brother's name to send her back.
She pressed fingertips into her eyes, her breath shuddering out. The words clustered at the back of her throat, wanting to be heard. Her parents never wanted to talk about Kristoff, and she'd never felt close enough to any ladies in Corona to speak of private family matters. "Elsa, he's been gone for nearly three years. I'm afraid—I'm afraid he won't ever come home," Anna whispered.
"He will," Elsa said firmly. "Kristoff knows that Corona is his duty. Nothing means more to him than family."
"He was only supposed to be gone for a year, maybe a year and half. That was all Papa would allow him. He sends letters, he makes promises, but he—" Anna's breath hitched. "He said he'd be here for the wedding. He promised months ago, but he didn't come."
Elsa squeezed Anna's shoulder gently instead, her voice quiet. "I'm sorry. We don't have to speak of it if you don't want to. I hadn't meant to bring him up."
Anna shook her head. "No, I think maybe I should. Talk about him, I mean. Nobody does, not even my parents. And if he does get brought up, everybody says it's when he comes home, but how can anyone know for sure? How long does it need to be before that 'when' turns into an 'if?' All we really know is what he writes in his letters, we don't know what he's actually thinking, what he feels—"
"Anna," Elsa interrupted. Anna covered her mouth, trying to breathe in deeply to quell the rising panic.
Elsa moved the stool alongside the tub to face Anna. She could see the helplessness and pain on Anna's face, and suffered her own helplessness for not knowing the right things to say when Anna needed her.
"I'm sure Kristoff has his reasons for staying away," Elsa said, though she did wonder what they were if promises were being broken. She hadn't been nearly as close to Kristoff as she had been with his sister, but she remembered the shared camaraderie between the two heir apparents; they'd both known what was waiting for them when the time came. For them, promises were not idly given.
"I wish I could go find him," Anna whispered. "I wish Papa would let me go find him and bring him home."
"That's more like you, to go after the things you want. Not surprising that your father wouldn't have let you, though. The places Kristoff have gone to don't make it easy to track down someone who doesn't want to be found, does it? I recall rumors that he'd gone off to Africa, of all places. You'd stand out like a thoroughbred in a string of nags there, if Kristoff doesn't already."
Anna couldn't help the small laugh that bubbled up. "You made a horse joke."
"I learned from the best." Elsa's brow furrowed as she considered options. "Anna, if you wanted, I could have Calhoun try to find Kristoff."
Anna looked up, hope lodging in her throat. "Would Calhoun be able to do it? What if I could go with him? Kristoff might show himself if he heard that I was looking for him."
Elsa was already shaking her head. "Anna, no. You know you can't. If Kristoff does not want to be found, he might be avoiding towns and cities where his presence would be noted. He might not even be in Africa anymore. Didn't he also want to visit places like India and the Far East? A trip like that, it would take years—" Elsa nearly cursed herself when Anna looked away.
"I'm sorry, I hadn't meant to sound discouraging," Elsa sighed. "I meant to say that it would be dangerous for you to go." Though Elsa had a suspicion that someone might already know where Kristoff was.
As understanding and gregarious as Frederick was, he was a king with a kingdom to look after; she doubted he'd allow his only heir to wander the world without knowing exactly where he was. The only thing she could not understand was why Anna was left in the dark about Kristoff's whereabouts if Frederick did know.
"I know it's a stupid idea, Elsa. I just can't stand doing nothing about it. If I could do something, anything to get him to come home—" Anna cut herself off. "I'm sorry. I just want to help and he's my brother. I'm supposed to be there for him and I can't help but wonder if there's more to why he left." Anna's voice dropped off in a way that conveyed exactly where she thought the blame might be.
"I hope you're not implying that you think it's your fault," Elsa said, her voice sharper than she'd intended. "Kristoff's decisions are his own. You are not accountable for what he does."
Anna flinched. Elsa wanted to curse herself again and scrubbed her face with her hands. There was no end to how she was botching things again.
"Forgive me," she started. "I'm apparently poor at reassurances. I meant that no matter why he's been gone, it's not your fault. Nobody knows his reasons except himself—perhaps now is a good time to tell you about my parents. We've delayed again, so if you'll finish your bath, I'll tell you."
Elsa turned away and rested her back against the tub to give Anna some privacy, the porcelain cold across her shoulder blades. "You remember what I told you earlier today? About my parents' reason for marriage?"
"Yes, of course."
"Have you ever wondered why they never had more children after me?"
There was a brief silence as Anna thought on it. "I did," she admitted. "But just in passing. I always thought you had to be lonely by yourself. Servants and parents aren't the same, not like me and Kristoff."
"No, you're right, it's not quite the same. Alice said it was because my mother couldn't have more children. When my parents married, the first pregnancy was a miscarriage."
There was a small splash that sounded like the washcloth had been dropped into water. Anna's voice was small and edged in shock when she spoke. "A miscarriage? I thought—the pregnancy was..."
"Was me?" Elsa examined the hem of her chemise that lay over her crossed legs, her fingers plucking at the lace. "I thought so, too, until I remembered the year they wed and when I was born. Alice said my mother and father tried several times, but it never… took. Until me. The doctors told my mother to not try anymore; another might kill her, miscarriage or not. My mother gave my father leave to take a royal mistress, for a male heir. Like the English do."
"A mistress?" Anna gasped. "Your mother, Aunt Marina, she would never—"
"My father refused," Elsa interjected with a smile. "And he decided I would be his heir. Do you see, Anna? For a very long time, I thought I was the reason they didn't have more children. I thought they didn't want to risk having another child inheriting ice magic, but that's not the case at all. I never had the courage to ask, though I'm sure they'd have told me if I had. When they died, I'd have never known if it hadn't been for your mother."
Anna was silent as she digested the rest of the tale.
"If there's anything I've learned from my family, Anna, it's to not think you know the reasons why. Don't take silence and uncertainty as proof. Kristoff wouldn't have left because of you; you know that's preposterous as well as I do. You're his sister and he loves you."
"But if not me, then Corona could have," Anna said softly. "And he can't leave Corona behind forever. Kristoff isn't like you, Elsa. He was never comfortable with power or responsibility, not the kind that comes with ruling a kingdom. He always felt too much." Anna realized her slip and bit her lip. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it the way it sounded." She certainly had not meant to imply that Elsa felt too little; Anna knew that was the farthest thing from the truth.
Elsa shook her head. "I know what you meant. There's a distance that rulers must place between themselves and those they lead and, well, we both know how good I am at that. He's not like me, but he doesn't need to be. I think Kristoff is capable."
Anna relaxed visibly. There was no one who knew better than Elsa, and she took comfort in that. "Do you really believe that?"
"Have you ever known me to give idle compliments?" Elsa asked with a faint curve of her lips. "I'm more apt to say nothing at all if I come across an incompetent."
"Or fill my ear with words like 'idiot,' or 'ass' privately—"
"Enough," Elsa shushed, laughing in spite of herself. "Some people look in the mirror and expect to find someone with a brain gazing back. Who am I to relieve them of this blissful state?"
Anna snorted. "Yes, it's a kindness that you dispense out like candy."
"But short of having Kristoff dragged home, you'd at least want to know he's safe, is that right?"
"Nobody can really make him come home other than Papa, but I do want to know that he's safe."
"I'll do my best," Elsa promised. "And who knows, perhaps Calhoun will enjoy the idea of wrangling a royal prince and bringing him here."
Anna grinned at the image. "I wouldn't object if he did. I'd like to give Kristoff a piece of my mind after all this time."
"I'll offer a nice bonus to him for you, then."
Dinner was confirmed to be a grand one; its opulence bordered that of the wedding party. Elsa suspected Gerda had browbeaten and baited the cooks into producing their very best, and maybe most questionable, fares. Dishes were laid out on the long table like a smattering of trophies, all vying for attention. Even the footmen were dressed in their very finest, which had to have taken some doing as they wore the exact same thing every evening. But they still managed to look… shinier than usual.
Elsa squinted. Yes, that was it—buttons had been polished, uniforms starched, pristine white gloves standing out starkly as a flock of doves, and boots gleamed like newly minted coins.
"Gerda, I'd no idea we were hosting every head of state on the continent tonight," Elsa remarked as she studied the glittering room. Even the candles looked brighter than usual. "I hope you've no plans to seat my mother and father-in-law at the other end, I have no yearning to shout conversation down the table like a street vendor at a horse fair."
Anna couldn't quite stifle her snicker. Gerda looked as though she'd like to send Elsa to her room without supper, which did nothing but make Elsa raise her brows in challenge.
"I certainly would not dictate where to seat the king and queen of Corona," Gerda replied. Even the housekeeper was attired in her best dress, the very image of a stately lady quietly plotting revenge behind a prim mask. Elsa bit back a laugh and nodded to the table.
"You've outdone yourself. I'm sure Frederick and Alice will love this," she said earnestly—a peace offering for the gibe.
Gerda beamed back. With Elsa apparently pardoned, the housekeeper turned and swept away to order more servants about like a power-mad martinet.
"She's still going to make you pay for that," Anna remarked as they seated themselves.
"Probably," Elsa agreed, unperturbed. "It's a game we play. You can probably imagine who wins most of the time, though I've long since lost track of the score."
"She loves you," Anna said, remembering her conversation with Gerda earlier that evening. "She calls you her little girl."
"No matter if I've a crown on my head, an army at my back, or you by my side, I'll likely always be that little girl to her," Elsa said with a half-smile. "I can't say I really mind it. I'm very lucky to have her."
Dinner began once Frederick and Alice arrived. Conversation was animated between Anna and her parents, and largely kept to the day's events, though Anna was careful to leave out details of the trip to Weselton, and avoided Lady Charlotte entirely.
"The servants were going on and on about your walk today in the city," Alice commented. "Goodness, one would think a stroll is tantamount to stripping down to undergarments in the middle of Ardvik Square and dancing about that statue of some ancestor of yours, dear. The way the maids talked! I really must question your staff's standards for real titillating gossip, Elsa."
Elsa closed her eyes while Anna burst out laughing next to her. Her mother-in-law, she decided silently, would never, ever be proper. Privately, Elsa couldn't say that she didn't enjoy it—conversations with Alice were never boring.
"I will pass along your comments," Elsa said, completely straight-faced. "I will suggest for them to speak to the stable hands. According to Anna, all sorts of gossip and tales fill the stalls that are not fit for polite company."
"The best kind!" Alice beamed.
And so that ridiculous line of dialogue went for most of the night with Elsa following along with good humor—dinner with her own parents had never proceeded in such an absurd fashion. While Frederick and Anna dove into discussion about horses again, Elsa turned to find Alice studying her. For once, Elsa did not feel pinned by her mother-in-law's gaze; she was remarkably at ease and gave her a questioning look.
"You look considerably happier than before," Alice said by way of explanation. "Both you and Anna, in fact."
"We did enjoy our city stroll that has the entire castle buzzing," Elsa said drily. "It also served the purpose of averting rumors that I am a vampire that only rises in the dead of moonless night."
"Ah, some domestic diplomacy! How thoughtful of you to both banish old rumors and provide fodder for new ones. Though your complexion does indicate that you favor nighttime activities. You will assure me that it was my daughter's idea, is that right?" Alice replied, just as ironic.
"Actually, it was mine." Elsa had not missed the innuendo and reconsidered the flag idea; there was some merit to it if it would stop all the personal questions. "We cleared up some more things about our future."
"Setting up ground rules?"
"More like making clear what our mutual intentions are," Elsa said, smiling. "How was your ride today? I hope Anna directed you to one of the milder trails."
"She did at least do that much before she abandoned us for your esteemed company. My last day and she still deserts her mother," Alice sighed, but continued in a more serious tone, "You know, dear, I've no great fondness for those hooved things despite what the rest of my family thinks. The irony that I am queen to the country famous for the beasts is not lost on me."
Elsa chuckled. "That I'm married to the princess of the same country is not lost on me either. I suspect Anna will try to sway my opinion on horses more actively than Frederick tried with you."
"My daughter does seem to think love for the overgrown things can be cajoled out of anyone, yes. I've no words of advice other than good luck to you and your saddle sores, dear. I do not envy you."
Elsa smiled again and gave a small shrug. "Well, she just might convince me. She's requested daily morning rides."
"Daily! Your seat will never be the same." Alice affected mock horror. "Not to veer very far away from topic, but I do trust you to take care of Anna. It's why Frederick and I agreed to allow the marriage. I can't imagine Anna being very happy with anyone else."
Elsa couldn't help herself. "Not even Prince Hans?"
Alice rolled her eyes, her expression remarkably similar to that of Frederick's when the Southern Isles prince had last come up. "Oh, that boy. He'd have bored Anna to tears inside of six months, I'd wager every one of my heirlooms on that. I've never known anyone so utterly lacking in personality; almost every opinion he had was from someone else. Not passionate about a single thing, if you could believe it. At least you can enjoy a good joke, dear. Half the time, the poor boy didn't know whether to nod like a farm chicken or scold me. His face would turn into a blank slate, like a mirror waiting for a subject to come by."
Alice shook her head and continued, "You'd think one of those dozen brothers would have pounded something into that empty head of his."
Elsa blinked, shocked at the narrative. This was the man Anna had wanted to marry, if only for companionship and respectability? By Anna's own admission, she had not known Prince Hans for very long; if he was as chameleon-like as Alice had implied, then perhaps he'd only shown what Anna had thought she wanted in a husband. Perhaps it'd be worthwhile to consider what exactly Anna had thought she wanted and how Elsa compared to it, but she pushed the thought away for the time being.
Surprising or not, Alice's commentary did thoroughly vanquished any lingering feelings of jealousy.
"You're a much better match for Anna," Alice added unnecessarily. Her eyes softened as she watched Elsa. "I think Marina and Alexander would have been very happy if they could see you like this."
Elsa waited, letting the familiar heartache and grief pass over her, though it wasn't nearly so intense as it'd once been. At its worst years ago, it would have choked her and left her mired in pain, barely able to eat or sleep, much less function in any kind of useful capacity. This time, the dark misery receded as quickly as it'd come, instead of haunting her like a spectre for days, or weeks.
A buoyant lightness slowly filled her as Elsa found that she believed Alice's words; if her mother and father were here to see her, she imagined they would have been happy. She wasn't the grief-stricken, orphaned daughter, or the withdrawn, reluctant queen, nor the woman bracing herself for heartbreak, anymore.
She'd changed, and become something that felt whole again. She only wished they were alive to thank them for steering her down the right path, and leading Anna to her to help her back up when she stumbled.
"I think they would have been happy as well, Aunt Alice," Elsa answered softly. "I truly do."
As dinner's end drew close, Kai discreetly delivered a message that Elsa had been expecting, though not quite so soon. Before she could ponder her next step, Frederick and Alice rose to their feet. Anna followed suit with a comment that she wanted to join her mother for a little longer before they retired. Frederick ruffled his daughter's hair fondly as she passed him by; Elsa sprung on the opportunity.
"Uncle Frederick, do you have a moment?"
Frederick stopped mid-step as Alice and Anna left, head turning to face his daughter-in-law. "I've no other plans for the evening," he replied, his tone as neutral as her own.
Elsa grimaced inwardly—relations were still a bit strained without company to buffer the tension. Frederick looked wary, as if she might start demanding marriage contract amendments again. "I'll try to keep this brief, but if you'd be seated?"
Frederick obeyed and aimed a questioning look when Elsa dismissed the footmen. The doors closed after the last man.
"I doubt you'd want this conversation to be part of castle gossip," Elsa said. She sat and pushed her plate aside.
"First, I do want to apologize about the way I handled certain aspects of my marriage," Elsa began. "Especially in regards to the marriage clause and… our previous meeting. I regret my words and I did not mean to offend you. I consider you my uncle, as I always have, and a second father," she added honestly.
Frederick puffed out a breath, then released a short bark of laughter. "Your father taught you to wear remorse well."
Elsa sighed softly in relief at that; the air eased and she relaxed against the back of her chair. "I've had a lot of practice recently. Anna humbles me. A great deal."
"I cannot say that you don't look improved recently. Very well, I accept your apology and you have mine as well. What did you wish to speak of?"
She hoped what she was about to say wouldn't damage their relationship so soon after forgiveness had been exchanged. "Anna has recently expressed her concern about…" Elsa gave it up. There was no point in trying to dance around the issue, especially not with Frederick; he appreciated the straightforward approach as much as she did.
"Anna misses her brother," Elsa said bluntly.
The mix of surprise and pain that passed over Frederick's face had a second apology hovering on the tip of her tongue as she braced herself for refusal.
"She wouldn't be alone in that," Frederick answered, before she could say anything else. "We all miss him."
Relieved that her father-in-law had not thrown her out of the room, Elsa nodded and continued, "While I have faith that Kristoff will return home soon, Anna is worried for him. I've promised Anna I would try to find him and at least confirm his well-being. The reason I bring this up to you is because I think you may know where Kristoff is. That you may have been keeping track of his movements since the day he left."
Frederick's face went blank. It was several moments before he could answer. "You're very much your father's daughter," he said, his voice oddly tight. "Alexander could do that as well—discern a man's thoughts with nothing more than what he could see."
"I may be like my father, but I've known you for almost my entire life, Uncle. I knew you'd have never let Kristoff put himself in danger, not if you could help it."
The king closed his eyes and rubbed a hand over his face before he answered. "You're right. He is my son, and I protect my own. I did have him followed."
"Did?" Elsa prompted.
Frederick looked immeasurably tired. "Did. My men lost track of him eight months ago in Egypt. He got caught up in some Bedouin tribal dispute in the desert and disappeared. I don't know where he is anymore."
She breathed in sharply as Frederick's words sank in. Kristoff was missing? "You haven't had any word of him for eight months? No letters from him or anyone else? What about his promise to attend the wedding?"
"His last letter did promise he'd come to the wedding, but that was almost ten months ago. This is not the first time Kristoff has disappeared. He's lost my men before for a few weeks, sometimes months. All I have now are sporadic sightings, none of which can be confirmed were him." He sighed. "The distance does not help. Even if someone were to find him, it'd be weeks before I'd catch wind of it."
"Why haven't you told Anna any of this?"
He looked away. "How do you expect me to tell my daughter that I've lost her brother in the godforsaken desert? She'd have no choice but to believe he was dead, and you know that would have hurt her deeply. If he were in a safe place, he'd have sent word of some kind. I don't know what to believe, but the only thing that can be done now is that I find my son, so that conversation with Anna will never have to take place."
"Do you think he might have been kidnapped for ransom, then?"
"No. If he had, I'd have received a demand for his life by now."
"Where was he last seen, then? What city?"
"South of Cairo. What do you plan to do?" Frederick asked when Elsa stood.
"I told Anna I would try to find him. Even if you haven't had any success, I'd at least like to try. My attorney, Calhoun, will likely have some kind of contact in Egypt or elsewhere. Give me the name of whoever is coordinating your search and perhaps we'll be able to find more."
Frederick relayed names and locations. "I know it's unnecessary to repeat this, but this must be kept quiet. As far as everybody else knows, my son is only traveling. Not a word about him being missing." Or dead, which truly did not need to be said at all.
"I know." Elsa filed away the names and made a note to contact Holsen at the soonest opportunity. She stopped at the door and looked back at the king with a trace of regret. "I can't promise the same for Anna, though. She should know. I don't want to keep secrets from her anymore."
Frederick looked resigned, but unsurprised. "I would not ask you to. I know she will be angry with me."
Elsa hesitated. "If you want, I can tell her after you leave."
But Frederick was already shaking his head. "No, you know that's the coward's way out, Elsa. I will not do that, not to my daughter."
Elsa nodded once and left her father-in-law to contemplate a glass of wine.
—
Anna later found Elsa in her study after she left her mother.
"You spend far too much time in here," Anna informed the queen. Instead of pulling up a chair, she simply tossed her legs over Elsa's lap and settled in like an affectionate cat.
"Comfortable?" Elsa inquired with quirked brow, her hands aloft and still full of parchment that she needed to read. "Does your highness require a pillow as well?"
Anna gave Elsa a patronizing little pat and looped an arm behind Elsa's shoulders, her fingers tangling in blonde hair. "No, thank you, I find your lap most accommodating. Mother wanted to give me some of her things before she and Papa leave tomorrow. What are you reading? Your father's old draft?"
"No, just some legislation about livestock. Shall I read it to you? It'd make for an excellent bedtime story. There's even sheep involved."
Anna laughed. "That would send me straight off into dreams, but maybe later. I'm still quite awake."
Elsa set the papers back down on her desk and wrapped one arm about Anna's waist and the other hand on her bent knee. "I was waiting for you, actually. Do you have any plans for tomorrow?"
"Are you referring to my demanding social schedule? All those visits that I, Princess Consort of Arendelle, must bestow upon the eager populace like the rare favors they are?" Anna said in her best imitation of Elsa's imperiousness.
Once Elsa had finished snorting at that, Anna grinned and answered, "Aside from the morning ride that you won't be wriggling out of, and seeing my parents off, no. Why?"
"Do you remember how I said that I would need to speak to the Royal Council about that inheritance law?"
"Of course, what about it?"
"Well, quite a few of them are in the city currently. It's rather fortuitous timing since most did attend our wedding. I sent a letter to one who I know will be itching to leave the city as soon as it's acceptably polite to, which is Baron Enberg. You don't know him—we weren't very social during the party, and he wasn't formally introduced to you."
"You'll be meeting him, then?"
"Yes, I received a response right after dinner. He's available tomorrow."
"Do you want me to come with you? If it might convince him to help you?"
Elsa paused to think about that. "I'm not sure. I'm afraid I don't know the baron very well. He's one of the more influential councilmembers. I know he dislikes city life; he much prefers his countryside estate that's rather far-removed to the east. His lands are rich in timber that's sold to shipyards, and he makes some profit selling furs, too. Quite different from how the rest of Arendelle's trade is done," she remarked. "My foref |
help from a social services office to apply for a work permit in 2014, but did not attend a follow-up meeting.
Canada has a process to deport a convention refugee deemed a security threat, but it requires a “danger opinion” signed off on by a senior immigration official. Canada generally does not deport people back to a country where they risk facing torture or other serious persecution.
Regardless, Goodale has said no decision on this will be made until the courts have dealt with the Criminal Code charges brought against Sharif — a process that could take years, depending on the complexity of the case and whether the police choose to lay terrorism charges.
“Those (criminal) charges pre-empt all other proceedings,” he said in parliament Monday. “Those charges, depending how they are dealt with in the final analysis by the courts, will determine the future prosecution of this case.”
• Email: bplatt@postmedia.com | Twitter: btaplattDelaware police arrested a local man who allegedly shot a relative last week during a struggle over a firearm.
Delaware police
Delaware police arrested a local man who allegedly shot a relative last week during a struggle over a firearm.
Police responded to a report of a shooting shortly before 1:30 a.m. Nov. 8 in the 200 block of Hayfield Drive. Upon arriving, they located a man with a wound to his hand who accused a relative of shooting him, according to police reports.
During their investigation, officers determined the suspect had retrieved a handgun during a dispute, and the gun fired during an ensuing struggle between the relatives, police reports said.
The alleged shooter, Bert R. Runyon Jr., 44, of Hayfield Drive, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, illegal discharge of a firearm, domestic violence and disorderly conduct by intoxication, police reports said.
In other recent Delaware Police Department incident reports:
* Police responded to a report of voyeurism that occurred between 7:45 and 8:45 a.m. Nov. 3 at a business in the 1700 block of Columbus Pike. A woman accused a man of attempting to take photos under her skirt.
Police have a suspect in the case but have not made an arrest, reports said.
* A woman reported her purse was stolen from her office between 2 and 7:45 p.m. Nov. 4 in the first block of South Sandusky Street. The purse, valued at $50, contained multiple credit cards, a checkbook and $23 in cash.
* Police responded to a report of trespassing shortly after 5:15 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Delaware County District Library's main branch, 84 E. Winter St. Officers reported they discovered a teenager who was attempting to enter cars in the library's parking lot.
The teen, who was released into his parents' custody, will face a misdemeanor charge of trespassing in juvenile court, reports said.
Sheriff's reports
An unknown suspect stole thousands of dollars worth of property recently from a Delaware Township home after breaking in through the front door.
Delaware County Sheriff's deputies responded at 2:45 p.m. Nov. 4 to the 1400 block of Braumiller Road after a woman reported a burglary in progress. She said she arrived home to find her garage door left open, according to sheriff's reports.
Investigators discovered an unknown suspect had broken into the home through the front door and fled through the garage, reports said. The victim reported $6,235 worth of electronics, firearms and jewelry, along with personal documents, were missing from the house.
The case remains open and under investigation, but officials have no suspects at this time, according to sheriff's reports.
In other recent incident reports from the Delaware County Sheriff's Office:
* Deputies responded to a burglary alarm about 8 a.m. Nov. 4 in the 1200 block of Bean-Oller Road in Liberty Township.
Deputies found evidence that a burglary had been committed, but there are no known suspects and no one has come forward with information regarding the incident, according to sheriff's reports.
* The rear window of a Powell woman's car was smashed between 4:15 and 5 p.m. Nov. 4 in the 2500 block of Home Road in Liberty Township. A purse valued at $50 was missing from the car, according to sheriff's reports.One Day After President Trump Signs Congressional Resolution Repealing Consumer Privacy Protections, Kennedy Introduces Legislation to Maintain Protection for New York State Residents
Legislation Would Prevent Internet Services Providers From Selling Customer Browsing History and Other Personal Information
BUFFALO, N.Y. – Following President Donald Trump’s signing of a congressional resolution to overturn privacy protections, allowing internet service providers (ISPs) to sell the personal information of their customers, Senator Tim Kennedy (D-Buffalo) has introduced legislation that would ban this practice in New York State. The common-sense legislation would prohibit ISPs from selling customer browsing history and other personal information to third parties. As a public utility regulated by New York State, internet service providers must comply with state laws and regulations. This legislation would ensure that New Yorkers continue to benefit from the privacy laws that were implemented under President Obama’s administration.
“When voters across the country elected this House and US Senate last November, I doubt they were voting with the hope that their ISP would be allowed to sell their browsing history,” said Senator Kennedy. “This kind of anti-consumer, anti-privacy action doesn’t benefit anyone except large corporations. This is not an abstract threat to regular folks – this is bad policy with real world consequences. The legislation I have introduced will ensure these actions never make it to New York State.”
Private browsing information can reveal personal and sensitive information. For example, an employer could purchase the browsing history of an employee, only to discover they are considering a career change, resulting in their firing. Additionally, if key protections under the Affordable Care Act are repealed, health insurance companies could potentially purchase the search history of customers and raise their rates, or even cancel their coverage due to searches about a preexisting condition. While these are hypothetical situations, they illustrate the real consequences that this federal policy change could have on ordinary New Yorkers.
The congressional resolution was signed yesterday by the President, after passing both the United States Senate and House of Representatives, despite protests from Democrats and privacy advocates. With the introduction of Senator Kennedy’s bill, New York joins the ranks of Democratic and Republican-controlled states considering new laws to enhance privacy protections for their residents.
###Australian scientists with the Bureau of Meteorology have been accused of manipulating the country’s temperature record to make it seem it’s gotten warmer over the decades, The Australian newspaper reports.
Dr. Jennifer Marohasey claims the BOM’s adjusted temperature records are “propaganda” and not science, according to the Australian. Marohasey said she analyzed raw temperature data from places across Australia and compared them to BOM data.
The result: the BOM’s adjusted data creates an artificial warming trend. Marohasey said BOM adjustments changed Aussie temperature records from a slight cooling trend to one of “dramatic warming” over the past century.
BOM disagreed with Marohasey and told the Australian that the agency “used world’s best practice and a peer reviewed process to modify the physical temperature records that had been recorded at weather stations across the country.”
The process used by the BOM is called “homogenization” which corrects for anomalies in the raw temperature data. The agency said it was “very unlikely” that “data homogenisation impacted on the empirical outlooks.”
“All of these elements are subject to change over a period of 100 years, and such non-climate related changes need to be accounted for in the data for reliable analysis and monitoring of trends,” the BOM told the Australian.
But Marohasey said she found instances where the BOM made “no change in instrumentation or siting and no inconsistency with nearby stations” but added there was a “dramatic change in temperature trend towards warming after homogenisation.”
Marohasey is not the first to find inconsistencies between raw temperature records and “homogenized” data.
Climate blogger Steven Goddard has criticized U.S. government scientists for manipulating the raw temperature record to show a rapidly warming trend.
“Goddard shows how, in recent years, NOAA’s US Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) has been ‘adjusting’ its record by replacing real temperatures with data ‘fabricated’ by computer models,” writes Christopher Booker for the Telegraph.
“The effect of this has been to downgrade earlier temperatures and to exaggerate those from recent decades, to give the impression that the Earth has been warming up much more than is justified by the actual data,” Booker writes. “In several posts headed ‘Data tampering at USHCN/GISS,’ Goddard compares the currently published temperature graphs with those based only on temperatures measured at the time.”
“These show that the US has actually been cooling since the Thirties, the hottest decade on record; whereas the latest graph, nearly half of it based on ‘fabricated’ data, shows it to have been warming at a rate equivalent to more than 3 degrees centigrade per century,” Booker adds.
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Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- His job was to drive the bus. But Meher Mohammad Khalil is now being hailed as a lifesaver.
On Wednesday Meher Mohammad Khalil went back to the place where gunmen attacked his bus.
When gunmen jumped out of bushes and began spraying bullets at the bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team Tuesday, Khalil quickly sized up his options and got everyone to safety.
"First I thought there were some firecrackers going off. Then, when I saw the elite force cars in front of me taking fire, I immediately lost my voice," Khalil told CNN on Wednesday.
"At that time, the other elite car that was with us gave me cover, and then, when I saw he was giving me cover, my courage and my patience returned. Watch CNN's interview with Khalil »
"I decided to take the vehicle from there, and one way or another, even if I had to drive over someone, I would take this bus and escape." Watch the gunmen attack »
Khalil returned to the scene of the attack in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday to honor those who were killed and to place flowers in their memory.
One of the dead was Zafar Khan, a friend and fellow bus driver who had been in a vehicle behind Khalil.
"My eyes filled with tears that these were people that I was eating with and who died in doing their duty."
Khalil had been part of a convoy heading to Gaddafi Stadium, where the Sri Lankan cricket team was to continue a match against Pakistan.
Six police officers were killed, in addition to Khalil's friend Khan who was driving a bus with the match umpires. See where the attack happened »
The Sri Lankan cricketers praised Khalil's quick thinking and action, saying he saved their lives. Six team members were injured by broken glass and shrapnel.
Team captain Mahela Jayawardene wrote on his Web site of Khalil: "He probably saved our lives, showing remarkable bravery in the face of direct gunfire to keep the bus moving."
Crowds mobbed Khalil as he paid his respects at the place where his life changed in an instant.
"He is a hero, a real hero, a real man of the people," a man in the crowd said.
Private donors in Lahore have rewarded Khalil with 300,000 rupees (more than $3,000) -- a small fortune for a Pakistani bus driver.
Today, Khalil says all he can feel is pain of the loss of life. And he called on the attackers to recognize that their victims are humans just like them, with mothers and sisters.
"For God's sake, please stop this terrorism and let this nation breathe a sigh of relief," he said.
CNN's Zein Basravi contributed to this report.
All About Pakistan • Terrorism • Sri LankaIn a slow week with just two practices the Bears are watching available free agents.
An NFL source said the team has put six players through tryouts at Halas Hall, a group including two safeties and three veteran defensive linemen.
In for a close look at Halas Hall was safety Darcel McBath, a Broncossecond-round draft pick in 2009, and fellow safety Tom Nelson, a Hersey product out of Illinois State who spent the last two seasons with the Bengals. The Bears have struggled at safety but there is no indication the team will sign either player.
McBath was one of the Broncos’ final cuts in September and he has been on the tryout circuit, recently working out for the Cowboys, Texans, and Raiders.
Three veteran defensive linemen also got a look,Chauncey Davis, Keyunta Dawson and Jovan Haye. Davis is a veteran who spent the previous six seasons with the Falcons. Dawson previously played for the Colts. Haye has been with four teams since 2005 and spent the previous two seasons with the Titans. It could be the Bears want to stay up to date with available players for their emergency list.
The Bears also looked at Reggie Stephens, a center from Iowa State who made a pre-draft visit to Halas Hall in 2010. He was a seventh-round pick by the Bengals last year.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune.Uber has been using secret software known as “Hell” to spy on drivers using Lyft, its little brother ride-sharing competitor, according to a new report.
Some of the data Uber reportedly sought includes the prices of rides, how many drivers were available at a particular point, and who was working for both companies. The computer program creates fake Lyft passenger accounts with locations dispersed across a certain area to track as many of the company’s drivers as possible, reports TechCrunch. The title of “Hell” is likely a converse reference to another once-secret feature called “God View” (also known as “Heaven”), which reportedly allowed employees to follow customers in real time without their consent.
A whistleblower announced in December he was suing Uber, his former employer. He accuses Uber workers of using the software to spy on customers, including “high profile politicians, celebrities, and even personal acquaintances of Uber employees, including ex-boyfriends/girlfriends, and ex-spouses.”
Local and national governments also accused Uber of evading authorities and circumventing regulations by using a secretive proprietary tool called “Greyball,” according to The New York Times. Uber said soon after The NYT report that it would ditch the program, which was designed to help the company detect and avoid undercover law enforcement officials, and pinpoint competitors who were trying to disrupt its platform.
The latest revelations of surveillance could be yet another black eye for the company, which has experienced numerous scandals and embarrassments in recent months. Allegations of sexual harassment, systemic sexism, rampant lewd behavior, and cutthroat work culture, as well as a number of various lawsuits, reveal an Uber under pressure from many directions. Following the many apparent missteps, like a videotaped argument between founder Travis Kalanick and a driver, the Uber leader told staffers that he plans on hiring a chief operating officer to help him with leadership responsibilities. (RELATED: Former Uber Employee Writes Incredibly Creept Account Of Her Manager’s Sexual Harrassment)
Lyft appears to be capitalizing on Uber’s woes, as the company announced Tuesday that it collected a total of $600 million in its latest fundraising round. The ride-sharing company reportedly experienced a bump in the U.S. market share after the #deleteUber campaign on Twitter, when people canceled their Uber accounts for a number of reasons, including because Kalanick was originally a member of President Donald Trump’s economic advisory board.
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An embattled sociology department at the University of Colorado Boulder is entangled in harassment allegations among faculty and staff that a local union organization is calling an ongoing, systemic problem.
The allegations include verbal abuse, intimidation and bullying that can largely be traced back to "one bad actor" within the department, according to Tim Markham, executive director of the union organization Colorado Workers for Innovative and New Solutions. The union, which Markham said represents more than 31,000 state employees and all classified state employees at CU, is working with a woman within the department alleging harassment, who has asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation. The woman reported her claims to her supervisor and multiple agencies around campus and saw no results, Markham said.
"Literally, they've done nothing," he said.
The poor treatment — yelling, condescension and inappropriate behavior and remarks — has created a hostile work environment and culture of fear that pervades the department, Markham said.
On Monday, the union organization posted on Facebook saying staff in the sociology department felt bullied and harassed by faculty members. The post called for people to tell the vice chancellor of academic affairs that harassment in the sociology department must stop.
Campus spokesman Ryan Huff said the university has looked into the allegations and found no evidence of harassment.
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"We take all allegations of harassment very seriously," Huff said in a written statement. "We are aware of this Facebook post and are looking into it. Colorado WINS has no official relationship with the university and does not represent our employees for purpose of collective bargaining. Despite this, they recently contacted the university on behalf of a Sociology staff member. This employee had alleged harassment in the department. Through a preliminary investigation, we have not found evidence of harassment. We will continue to review this case according to university policy. The university is committed to having a work environment that is civil and free of harassment."
An email obtained by the Daily Camera shows sociology department Chairman Don Grant telling faculty and graduate students within the department that the Colorado WINS Facebook post is a "larger tactic" being used by the union to unionize staff workers.
The email said if the Daily Camera got wind of the allegations, the university "is prepared to go public and call out WINS for its use of this tactic." The email advised anyone contacted about the matter to direct inquiries to Huff.
Grant declined to comment for this article.
"Their overreaction to a simple Facebook post is very telling," Markham said. "It seems really interesting that a university would get so upset about people freely expressing themselves and their concerns."
While Markham said they are always signing up and recruiting members to the union, what they're trying to do in this case is change the culture at CU.
"This isn't about membership," he said. "This is about standing up for workers and holding their management and administration accountable."
The woman alleging harassment reported her concerns months ago, with emails obtained by the Daily Camera showing conversations between her and the CU Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance dating back to November. In January, the email chain dies off after the woman said she hadn't heard back about her complaints and would like to know where it stands.
Markham said going public with the allegations was the next step after trying to work within the channels of reporting issues to the university and being ignored.
While the union is dealing with one specific case, Markham said he has a list of about 10 names of people in the department over a few years who have reported similar issues.
"Many of them have left, including faculty members," he said.
A Wednesday request for staff, faculty and graduate student turnover and retention rates in the sociology department for the past five years was not able to be produced on Thursday, Huff said.
Tensions within the department playing out publicly are not new.
In 2014, sociology chairwoman Joanne Belknap stepped down from her position after she reported sociology professor Patti Adler for a skit Adler used in her "Deviance in U.S. Society" course using undergraduate teaching assistants to portray prostitutes and pimps in front of the 500-person class.
Adler was first pulled from teaching the class and then allowed to return again by CU administration. Adler retired later that year. After the contention, Belknap left the sociology department and is now a professor in the ethnic studies department.
These conflicts aren't going away, Markham said.
"This is becoming a pattern at CU and in the sociology department," he said. "Clearly, something is broken."
Elizabeth Hernandez: 303-473-1106, hernandeze@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/ehernandezLindsey Graham, pictured, has been a colorful critic of Donald Trump. | Getty Graham corrects Trump: I never got past 2 percent
Lindsey Graham wants Donald Trump to know that he didn’t bring him down from 7 percent — because he never even got one-third of that in the GOP presidential primary.
On Monday the South Carolina senator, who briefly sought the Republican nomination and then jumped behind former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush after dropping out in December, tweeted out a correction to Trump: “@realDonaldTrump I never got past 2%. You aren't prepared to be Commander in Chief of worlds finest fighting force.”
He was responding to a tweet earlier Monday from the New York billionaire demanding respect from Graham.
“Failed presidential candidate Lindsey Graham should respect me. I destroyed his run, brought him from 7% to 0% when he got out. Now nasty!” Trump tweeted.
Graham has been a colorful critic of Trump, and on Sunday he told NBC's "Meet the Press" that selecting him as the Republican nominee would be a death wish for his party.
"The Republican Party will get killed, we'll get creamed, we'll lose, we'll deserve it," he said.VALKYRIE DRIVE -BHIKKHUNI- Takes Flight on Steam this Summer!
Marvelous Europe are today proud to announce that VALKYRIE DRIVE -BHIKKHUNI- will be launching globally for the Windows PC via Steam this Summer.
This Windows PC release of VALKYRIE DRIVE -BHIKKHUNI- will feature full 1080p, 60 FPS action with native support for even higher resolutions!, and Steam support for achievements, trading cards and cloud saving.
That's not all; as all previously released Downloadable Content for the PlayStation Vita version of VALKYRIDE DRIVE -BHIKKHUNI- will also be made available for this Windows PC version. The DLC Content, which covers a wide range of cosmetics and costumes, alongside characters such as Mirei Shikishima and Mamori Tokonome from VALKYRIE DRIVE -MERMAID-, will be available to purchase as a launch bundle with the base game or as a separate DLC Pack.
In VALKYRIE DRIVE -BHIKKHUNI- a mysterious virus known as the A-Virus infects young women, transforming them into weapons known as 'Extars' or those that control 'Extars','Liberators' - however, the voluptuous Valkyries are infected with a unique strain, the VR-Virus allowing them to take on either role at will.
Proving incredibly difficult to cure, they are sent to the sun-soaked Bhikkhuni Island for quarantine where a treatment is put into place - by having the Valkyries engage in combat against one another, it can strengthen both mind and body to allow them greater control of the Virus.
Who runs the island? What is the secret of the Virus? Will you choose Order or Chaos? This and more will be answered throughout your time with VALKYRIE DRIVE -BHIKKHUNI-.
Key Features of VALKYRIE DRIVE -BHIKKHUNI-:
Fully remastered in 1080p, 60FPS with native support for even higher resolutions!
Choose between 7 unique playable characters to learn and master, each with their own play style!
Tackle your way through 24 Story Missions and crank up the difficulty or change your character for even more replayability!
Engage in fast-paced arena based online multiplayer with up to four players!
Full-featured dressing room for deep customisation of all playable characters - from hair to accessories, clothing and more!
Support for both Steam cloud saving, achievements, and exclusive trading cards, plus backgrounds, emoticons and badges to unlock!
VALKYRIE DRIVE -BHIKKHUNI-.will ride on to Steam for the Windows PC this summer and we will share more news in the coming months.17th October 2013
Today sees the publication of the House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee (PCRC) report “House of Lords reform: what next?”. It also sees a story in The Times (paywall) that David Cameron is preparing yet another list of new peers. Nothing could indicate better the need for the kind of small steps that the PCRC recommends. The next steps in Lords reform may be small, but they are increasingly urgent. Tomorrow will see debate in the Commons on a Private Member’s Bill from Conservative backbencher Dan Byles, also on Lords reform. The small steps that it contains are welcome, and definitely worthwhile. But as the PCRC points out, the most burning matters are not contained in the Byles bill, and in fact do not need legislation at all – what they need is urgent and voluntary action by party leaders, and the Prime Minister in particular.
The context for the PCRC report is of course the failure of the government’s bill last year, which sought to move to a largely elected second chamber. Since those events – which showed splits on the government’s side as well as between the parties – there has been a growing feeling that some small changes must be made to the Lords in advance of any larger-scale reform. Everybody accepts that reform cannot occur until after the next election, and even then (as I point out in my recent book) it remains unlikely. In particular there is increasingly serious concern being expressed about the growing size of the House of Lords, which is plainly unsustainable. We pointed out in a high-profile report in 2011 that David Cameron’s rate of appointments had been unprecedented, and that the coalition’s stated goal of rebalancing the Lords in line with general election vote shares could take its size to over 1200. Since the furore caused by that report, few appointments have been made. But this August a further 30 peers were appointed, taking the size of the chamber to a post-1999 high. The Times story suggests that another 30 are in the pipeline, which is worrying to say the least.
Dan Byles’ bill (which is also mirrored by a bill in the Lords from former Lord Speaker Baroness Hayman, that goes further) would legislate to allow permanent retirements from the chamber, and the expulsion of peers convicted of serious criminal offences. In evidence to the PCRC last week (see question 24) Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg supported these changes, saying that there was ‘no reason to delay’ in making them happen. This may indicate that the bill will secure explicit government support, and could therefore reach the statute book. Which as a next small step, is welcome.
But as I pointed out in my evidence to the PCRC inquiry, and in a subsequent blogpost, the reform most urgently needed is not to how members can exit the House of Lords, but to how they enter. Even if retirements are allowed, the size of the chamber will still continue to grow unless prime ministerial appointments are regulated. Indeed, any retirement mechanism is likely to fail unless there is agreement between the parties on a formula for new appointments – because peers will be reluctant to depart if they think that all they will achieve by doing so is a weakening of their party (or Crossbench) group. Without an agreed formula on party balance, and on the overall size of the chamber, serious progress is unlikely to be made, meaning that the size of the chamber will continue to spiral upwards – making it both more expensive, and less effective.
Today’s PCRC report, while endorsing the idea of a voluntary retirement scheme and the expulsion of criminals (and thus adding weight to the argument behind the Byles bill), recognises this problem. In its closing paragraph it refers to “agreement on how to determine the relative numerical strengths of the different party groups and the Lords” as the change with “the most potential to have a positive impact on the size of the House”. The report’s summary describes this as “the most crucial” of the reforms that the committee considered. The committee – in line with my own evidence – threw this challenge to the political parties, and the Prime Minister in particular, to resolve. If we are not to be blighted with an ever larger, more expensive and less effective House of Lords, the government and the parties must do so with urgency. Those who could help bash out the right formula, and help facilitate such talks, such as the PCRC itself, the Lords Constitution Committee, the House of Lords Appointments Commission and perhaps the Lord Speaker should also now consider what part they can play. Meanwhile, until such agreement has been reached, making the new appointments indicated in today’s Times would seem inappropriate. Demanding that agreement should precede new appointments would certainly help concentrate the Prime Minister’s mind.
Meg Russell is Reader in British and Comparative Politics and Deputy Director of the Constitution Unit. Her latest book, The Contemporary House of Lords: Westminster Bicameralism Revived, was published in July.UPDATE: June 21, 2016, 12:04 p.m. EDT — We have since been corrected that Good Morning America out-memed us. Both Tea Lizard and Smockin' are indeed memes, born in the darkness of Weird Twitter. We still believe the following reactions are normal, great responses to a confusing situation.
Today, we learned just how hard memes — and muppets — can be, courtesy of Good Morning America.
The olds in charge of social media over at America's premier morning show wanted to cash in on the meme-ification of Lebron James crying after the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Finals Sunday. They did so by asking if the picture joined other hallowed memes like Crying Jordan, something called "Smockin" and "Tea Lizard."
While Smockin' is probably just a misspelling of "Smokin,'" The Mask's obnoxious catchphrase, Tea Lizard refers to the Kermit the Frog "But that's none of my business" meme.
Tea Lizard.
Again, they called Kermit the Frog "Tea Lizard."
As you would suspect, the sheer ridiculousness of GMA's tweet was not lost on a bewildered Internet.
Tea Lizard ☕️🐸
/tē/ /' lizerd/ 🔊
noun
a derogatory term for a frog 🐸 or green-skinned person drinking tea.#TeaLizard — NUFF$AID (@nuffsaidNY) June 21, 2016
I don't want to live in a world where people who run social media accounts think KERMIT THE FROG is a lizard. #TeaLizard — Stephen Albertini Jr (@S_Albertini) June 21, 2016
RT @Pontifex The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. #tealizard #smockin — Slade Sohmer (@Slade) June 21, 2016
All of us discussing whether some evil genius at @GMA created #tealizard intentionally pic.twitter.com/EaLbHRXJSE — Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) June 21, 2016
And of course, there is already a Tea Lizard parody Twitter account.
It's also worth pointing out that a "Smockin'" meme is not really a thing, either.
the only #smockin i'm aware of is the extent to which twitter'#smockin GMA right now — probably problematic (@swizzard) June 21, 2016
Best of luck with your future endeavors, Good Morning America. Just leave Kermit out of them.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.(Photo: Burt Lum / Flickr)A bold new threat to the economic status quo brings on a press blackout.
Social pain, anger at ecological degradation and the inability of traditional politics to address deep economic failings has fueled an extraordinary amount of practical on-the-ground institutional experimentation and innovation by activists, economists and socially minded business leaders in communities around the country.
A vast democratized “new economy” is slowly emerging throughout the United States. The general public, however, knows almost nothing about it because the American press simply does not cover the developing institutions and strategies.
For instance, a sample assessment of coverage between January and November of 2012 by the most widely circulated newspaper in the United States, the Wall Street Journal, found ten times more references to caviar than to employee-owned firms, a growing sector of the economy that involves more than $800 billion in assets and 10 million employee-owners—around three million more individuals than are members of unions in the private sector.
Worker ownership—the most common form of which involves ESOPs, or Employee Stock Ownership Plans—was mentioned in a mere five articles. By contrast, over 60 articles referred to equestrian activities like horse racing, and golf clubs appeared in 132 pieces over the same period.
Although 2012 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of the Cooperative—an institution that now has more than one billion members worldwide—the Journal’s coverage was similarly thin. More than 120 million Americans are members of co-operatives and cooperative credit unions, 30 million more people than are owners of mutual funds. The Journal, however, devoted some 700 articles to mutual funds between January and October and only 183 to cooperatives. Of these the majority were concerned with high-end New York real estate, with headlines like “Pricey Co-ops Find Buyers”
The vast number of cooperative businesses on Main Streets across the country were discussed in just 70 articles and a mere 14 gave co-op businesses more than passing mention. Together, the articles only narrowly outnumbered the 13 Journal pieces that mentioned the Dom Perignon brand of champagne over the same time frame, and were eclipsed by the 40 Journal entries that refer to the French delicacy foie gras.
Another democratized economic institution is the not-for-profit Community Development Corporation (CDC), roughly 4,500 of which operate in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Such neighborhood corporations create tens of thousands of units of affordable housing and millions of square feet of commercial and industrial space a year. The Journal ran no articles mentioning CDCs in 2012 and only 43 over the past 28 years—less than two a year. Meanwhile, the word château appeared in 30 times as many articles, and luxury apartments received 300 times as much coverage over the same period.
Not surprisingly, the growing “new economy movement” championing democratization of the economy has itself received even less coverage, despite growing citizen involvement on many levels. Over the past year, major national, state and other conferences focusing on worker-owned companies, cooperatives, public banking, nonprofit and public land trusts, and neighborhood corporations were oversubscribed, reflecting the growing interest in these forms. The Journal, however, gave scant coverage to the movement.
Thousands of other creative projects—from green businesses to new forms of combined community-worker efforts—are also underway across the country but receive little coverage. A number are self-consciously understood as attempts to develop working prototypes in state and local “laboratories of democracy” that may be applied at regional and national scale when the right political moment occurs. In Cleveland, Ohio, for instance, a complex of sophisticated worker-owned firms has been developing in desperately poor, predominantly black neighborhoods. The model is partially structured along lines of the Mondragón Corporation, a vibrant network of worker-owned cooperatives in northern Spain with more than 80,000 members and billions of dollars in annual revenue.
Since 2010 legislation to set up public banks along the lines of the long-established Bank of North Dakota has been proposed in twenty states. Several cities—including Los Angeles and Kansas City—have passed “responsible banking” ordinances that require banks to reveal their impact on the community and/or require city officials to do business only with banks that are responsive to community needs. But municipally led responsible banking initiatives appear to have received no attention in the Journal, whereas the newspaper published seven articles this year discussing President Obama’s birth certificate.
The limited nature of the coverage can also be seen in particular cases. Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) is a highly successful consumer co-op with $1.8 billion in sales for 2011, allowing it to share $165 million of its profits with its 4.7 million active members and 11,000 employees. Organic Valley, a Wisconsin-based cooperative dairy, generated more than $700 million in revenue for nearly 1,700 farmer-owners. From January through October 2012, the Journal referred (briefly) to REI in just three articles; Organic Valley rated just one mention. In combination, REI and Organic Valley appear in the Journal only as often as the Cavalier King Charles spaniel, a breed of dog that turned up in four entries in the Journal’s pages this year.
Further perspective on the coverage is offered in the way in which “hot topics” are presented, and others of greater economic significance played down. Co-ops in the U.S. generate over $500 billion in annual revenues. The global market for smartphones is estimated by Bloomberg Industries at $219 billion—less than half as large. Furthermore, there are 20 million more co-op members than smartphone users in the United States. The Journal, however, published over 1,000 print articles that included the terms “smartphone” or “smartphones” from January through October this year—more than five articles for each piece mentioning co-ops (many of which, as noted, were about upscale Manhattan apartments.)
The print coverage of the Journal was analyzed by the Democracy Collaborative of the University of Maryland through the online database ProQuest. Although the assessment focused on the Journal, the nation’s preeminent source of news for economic and business affairs, a preliminary review suggests that other national media outlets devote a similarly miniscule proportion of space to the exploding “new economy” sector. This highlights the need for greater media exposure regarding important developments toward a more democratic, sustainable and community-based economy.A group of Toronto professionals and academics who belong to the Anti-Black Racism Network are joining a growing chorus of activists calling for an end to police carding. And the group is searching for answers as to why, in an information age, police have the technology to gather the data but don’t have the statistics to defend it.
Anti-Black Racism Network of Toronto's Dr. Ak |
, according to the report, and the typical home value for black households is $250,000 — about two-thirds of the value of white households.
In addition to net worth, the report also examined debt rates, assets, car ownership and unemployment rates. The report indicated that 95 percent of white households owned a car, compared with 78 percent of black households. When it comes to debt, 33 percent of white households held vehicle debt, while 47.3 percent of black households held vehicle debt.
In the D.C. region, white and black residents had similar rates of business ownership, at about 9 percent.
“This result may be driven by the presence of a large federal government and a local district government whose membership and constituents have been largely Black, coupled with government policies designed to increase contracting opportunities for minority-owned businesses,” the report read.
Read the full report here.Nick Saban consistently tells his Alabama players to avoid three things in particular.
The situation involving star left tackle Cam Robinson and reserve safety Hootie Jones involved two of those three things, which Saban discussed during an appearance on the Paul Finebaum Show Wednesday afternoon.
Robinson and Jones were arrested early Tuesday morning on drug and weapons charges in their hometown of Monroe, Louisiana.
"One thing I always tell players is that there are three bad things: Nothing good happens after midnight, nothing good happens when you're around guns unless you're going hunting, and you don't want to mess around with women that you don't know because a lot of times bad things happen," Saban said during the interview. "And in this case, a couple of those things were violated. I think it's going to be a learning experience for everybody on our team."
Both players were charged with two misdemeanors.
In addition, Robinson was charged with possession of a stolen firearm, a felony.
The case has been forwarded to the District Attorney's office.
Saban said during an earlier meeting with reporters that he has talked to both players. He said on the Paul Finebaum Show that he talked to attorneys Tuesday, but said, "I don't know much. I can't really discuss it. So we'll just have to wait and see."
"It's the same thing I've been saying to everybody," Saban told Finebaum when asked about Robinson. "We're gathering information about it. When we get the facts, we'll determine whether there's something we need to do internally or not. But Cam Robinson's been a really good player for us. He's been a really good person for us. He's never been in trouble before. So all those things are things that need to be taken into consideration. It's certainly not the kind of behavior that we'd like for any of our players to ever represent the university or themselves or their family, and certainly there's lessons to be learned here."
Saban was asked what it would mean for Alabama if it had to play without Robinson for any period of time.
"We didn't have him all spring and we still had a team," Saban said of Robinson, who didn't participate during the Tide's spring practice following offseason shoulder surgery. "So we've got other players that can play. But Cam's been a really good player for us, and hopefully we'll be able to work through this in some kind of way and he'll learn from it, we'll learn from it and we can do something to help him have a successful future."By Rose Skelton
BBC Africa Business Report, Senegal
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Advertisement As dusk falls on the ramshackle neighbourhood of Guediawaye, on the outskirts of Dakar, hundreds of young men and boys in loincloths and Nike shorts are being put through their paces by trainers brandishing whistles. In their hundreds, the athletes drop to the ground and, seemingly effortlessly, run off dozens of push-ups while the trainer shouts encouragements from the sandy training ground. Young kids sell peanuts around the edges of the patch of land, which is strewn with rocks and rubbish. They watch eagerly as these bright young stars of the country's booming wrestling industry get ready to grapple with their opponents, hoping to throw them to the ground in an athletic display of strength, skill and style. Only a few of the more than 200 men who belong to this school will make it on to the professional wrestling circuit. For those that do, the stakes are high. The young men who make it up the ranks can look forward to winning up to 100 million West African CFA francs ($205,000) per game. In one of the world's poorest countries, where the average annual income is $980 according to the World Bank's latest figures, this will make them part of the country's financial elite and national heroes to the millions of men and women who follow the game. Humble beginnings Senegalese wrestling began in the villages, when farmers who only worked during the fertile rainy season would pass the time with this traditional African sport that has been practised across the continent for hundreds of years. Mohamed Ndao, also known as Tyson, was a wrestling pioneer in Senegal During the dry seasons, the farmers would come to the cities looking for work. There they found an audience of people keen to watch and bet on the matches. As the sport gained in popularity, it began to take on elements of martial arts, incorporating boxing, judo and karate, as well as the traditional elements of African wrestling. In the 1990s, Gaston Mbengue, a Senegalese sports promoter, started to stage matches that allowed bare-fisted fighting. In one of the only countries in the world where this kind of fighting is legal, this modern twist revolutionised the sport and turned it into a multi-million dollar game that now attracts more fans than any other sport, including football. With fans flocking to the stadiums - one match can attract up to 80,000 people - commercial companies are desperate to get their brands into the ring, from where the images will be beamed on television screens to millions of viewers across the country. "The main sponsors are the telecommunications companies," says Serigne Sarr, head of marketing at the state-owned television station Radiodiffusion Television Senegalaise, which televises the matches put on by Mr Mbengue. "It wasn't hard to sell them sponsorship rights, because they go where there is an audience. Since wrestling attracts a lot of people, they are necessarily interested by it too." Gaston Mbengue created the Senegalese wrestling boom While the wrestling scene bristles with rumours of how much money is earned in this famously-secretive game, RTS's Mr Sarr says that the game attracts between half and one billion CFA francs ($1m-2m) in sponsorship money a year. While Senegal failed to qualify for both the World Cup and the African Cup of Nations in the last two years, the audiences have flocked to wrestling and left football out in the cold. "The future of wrestling is bright," says Mr Sarr. "The whole thing is managed professionally now, like football." Gaining respect When wrestling first became popular as an urban sport, parents were unhappy about their children going into the game. It was seen as the pastime of thugs who typically had very little formal education and did not speak French, the administrative language of Senegal, a former French colony. "The first fight where someone earned a million CFA francs was like a miracle," says Pape Konate, a 31-year-old wrestler who goes by the name of Capitaine PK when in the ring and weighs in at 100kg. Audiences in Senegal now favour wrestling over football His body rippling as he hoists weights above his head in one of the city's gyms, he remembers how in 1995 a young wrestler called Tyson, named after the American boxer, was offered 15 million CFA for a fight. "When we young wrestlers love wrestling, it's because of Tyson," he says between sets of exercises. "Back then, wrestlers weren't taken notice of, but he had a good intellect, he spoke French well. "He came on to the scene with his image and then the sponsorship started to follow him. He had a match for 15 million CFA and kept on pushing to 30 million CFA. "That's when people started to take notice of the sport. Tyson woke things up." Reducing crime Nowadays the sport is considered one of the few routes to financial success in a country which is becoming increasingly poor. Senegal dropped 10 places in the United Nations Human Development Index in 2009 to become the world's 17th poorest country. "Wrestling has been able to reduce crime and delinquency in the suburbs," says Aboubacry Ba, one of the country's best-known sports journalists. "Young people now train hard and they can earn money from their work. Before, they didn't have any work, they were in the suburbs getting into drugs and fighting. "But now, with wrestling, they have a healthy occupation. It's a job which has really been able to turn the youth around, reduce unemployment and crime." Pape Konate, set to become one of the country's wrestling stars, agrees. He gets up at 0500 and runs 20km along the beach and then trains in the gym throughout the day. In the evening, he comes to the wrestling school to spar with the other young wrestlers, a routine which is physically gruelling and keeps him occupied in a country where half the population are unemployed. "Wrestling is our work and it's a proper profession now," says Konate. "You have to work hard and concentrate to get to the highest level. "Tyson is stepping down now, so it's us, the next generation. I'm working to be a big champion and to retire at 45, exceedingly rich." Africa Business Report is a monthly programme on BBC World News. The next programme will be on Saturday, 17 April, at 0430 GMT and 1730 GMT, and on Sunday, 18 April, at 1030 GMT as well as 2330 GMT.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionIn orbit above the semi-desert grasslands in Kazakhstan, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station spotted one of the few features that stand out. Lake Tengiz is the only large lake (1590 square kilometers, 615 square miles) in northern Kazakhstan. Through white wisps of cloud, the crew member photographed the 50 kilometer-long eastern shore of the lake, with its thin, winding islands and white beaches.
The islands and intervening waterways make a rich habitat for birds in this part of Asia. At least 318 species of birds have been identified at the lake; 22 of them are endangered. It is the northernmost habitat of the pink flamingo. The lake system is Kazakhstan’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it has been declared a RAMSAR wetland site of international importance.
Part of the richness of area is its complex hydrology. Fresh water enters the system via the Kulanutpes River, so there are small lakes (lower right) full of fresh water. But in this closed basin, the water in the main lake (top) slowly evaporates, becoming salty. Winds stir up bigger waves on the main lake, dispersing sediment and salt and making the water a cloudier and lighter blue-green. (Another astronaut photograph shows the entire lake system, while this story provides more information.)
The strange shape of the islands is not easy to interpret. They may be drowned remnants of delta distributaries of the Kulanutpes River. Westerly winds probably have had a smoothing effect on the shorelines, especially in a shallow lake like Tengiz, which is only about 6 meters (20 feet) deep.
The lake has an exciting history for people who follow space exploration. In 1976, a Soyuz spacecraft landed in the lake near the north shore (top right). The capsule crashed through the ice and sank during an October snowstorm when temperatures were -22°C (-8°F). Because of low power, the capsule was unheated and the crew was feared lost. It was many hours before the airtight capsule was located and divers could attach flotation tanks to get the capsule to the surface. It was then dragged ashore across the ice by helicopter. The rescue effort took nine hours before the crew was able to safely exit the capsule.
Astronaut photograph ISS047-E-83092 was acquired on April 26, 2016, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using a 400 millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 47 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson, Texas State University, Jacobs Contract at NASA-JSC.Penn State Band performs cool halftime show honoring U.S. Military. http://t.co/OUfEDhcA3D — ESPN CollegeFootball (@ESPNCFB) October 3, 2015
The marching bands actually pay for the rights to the music that they play at halftime.They explained to us that when ESPN used to cover figure skating they (ESPN) thought the actual songs that the skaters danced to would be considered ambient noise. Unfortunately, it is not, as the music was played in its entirety and was a critical piece of the performance. That does not make it ambient noise. ESPN who had paid for the rights to broadcast these major events was sued by musicians and music companies for broadcasting the figure skating performance without paying for the music that the skaters had used. Crazy, we know. ESPN isn't the only major company that has had to deal with music rights and performers. You may recall Taylor Swift penned a rather popular letter to Apple to get them to pay artists for their songs that would be available in Apple's streaming music service.It's not that ESPN doesn't have the money to take the risk. According to Forbes.com, ESPN is the most expensive cable network for providers to broadcast. The fee that providers pay the network for the rights to broadcast ESPN is around $6.55 per subscriber per month. The next highest is TNT at $1.58. ESPN is also projected to make over $2.1 billion in ad revenue this year. However, they are a business and businesses don't tend to make decisions that open them to risk or lawsuits and they shouldn't.Like figure skating, the same thing can happen to them if they were to broadcast the band playing halftime. They do however own the actual footage. On twitter, ESPN has started to make quick motion videos of halftime shows to show you cool things bands do. For example, here's a quick motion video they did at a Penn State game of the Blue Band:You'll notice that in the clip the audio is generic ESPN audio that they use. It would be awkward to broadcast the halftime show with no audio, so instead they speed it up to show you the formations and insert audio that they do own while one of their on-air talent explains what is happening.Now if you go outside of ESPN and look at the Big Ten Network for example, they tend to broadcast a small portion of the pregame and halftime shows. At pregame the music is owned by the school as it is primarily fight songs, an alma mater and the national anthem, which is available to use. The network has no issue broadcasting any amount of pregame as the school is part of the Big Ten Conference and the Conference owns the network. Halftime is a little different. They might show 20 to 30 seconds of a halftime show and then jump off. You will never see them show the full show. After all the games have been played they tend to do a link dump from halftime shows they find on YouTube as seen here: Click The reason they use YouTube clips and not their own is because once again, they do not own the rights. All of those performances were recorded by the bands themselves or fans in the audience. BTN does not take liability for posting the show, the poster does. So, they can't get in big trouble for sharing it.Now think about this. When are you most likely to actually see the band on TV during a broadcast? First off, when they are shown they are almost always playing. Second, the director in the ESPN control room who is deciding what you actually see on TV, has a rhythm and pattern that they follow. According to ESPN, the bands are most likely to be shown after a score occurs. Notice that when a score happens you can also hear the band playing much clearer than during the game. Well what typically is played after a touchdown or field goal? The fight song. The fight song rights are owned by the schools in 99.9% of cases and are perfectly fine to broadcast clearly through your TV.Over the summer the MEAC and FAMU Band announced that ESPN had agreed to showcase the MEAC bands on ESPN3 this fall when ESPN covered one of their games. We have been unable to confirm if this actually happened and we get the feeling that it hasn't.You may also remember that ESPN broadcast the National Championship game last year and showed halftime. They also do show parts halftime at bowl games like the Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl and Rose Parade requires bands to send in their music so that they can submit everything to ASCAP/BMI for music compliance. If your band goes off script there are serious consequences. They have shown that it is possible for them to broadcast a full show, but they are not going to work through all the compliance for the 40+ games they cover each weekend just to show the halftime shows. The ad revenue they would lose out on would be tremendous. Another insight is that halftime is usually not controlled by the ESPN crew that covers your game. You'll notice that halftime is always sent "back to the studio" in Bristol, CT. They control halftime and have contractual obligations to their on-air talent and advertisers.So could ESPN pay for the rights to all the halftime shows? Sure they could, but they don't have the infrastructure to accept the music from every band that is playing and then submit to compliance. After they go through all the processes they would not make as much money as they do at halftime currently. For big games like the Rose Bowl or the National Championships they will do it, but for regular games throughout the year? They're not ready to make that investment.As a fan you have the ability to record the halftime show. However, that doesn't mean you should. We here at CollegeMarching.com obviously enjoy sharing the halftime shows that our fans record. We have heard that YouTube is looking to crack down on fans who post halftime shows as you do not have the rights to broadcast the music or footage. As much as that sounds silly, it also makes sense. If you go to a game and record the show and then post it, you could very soon receive a very kind message that states, "please remove this content or else...".Our world is changing drastically when it comes to broadcast media as access to high quality cameras and the internet is easy and affordable. Periscope has changed the game for live broadcasts while YouTube has made it easy to upload content and distribute to millions of people. However, it looks like things are changing again.On October 28th, 2015 YouTube launched YouTube Red. It is a new pay to play platform that allows you to watch YouTube content for $10/month. Imagine it as access to Netflix style shows and other popular YouTube content without ads and the ability to watch offline. The point of this new platform is to a) make YouTube more money b) make content creators like you or me (if we were super popular) more money and c) create really good online content to rival Amazon or Netflix. However, this is just the beginning. ESPN explained that their properties like the Longhorn Network no longer have a YouTube channel and that Disney, the parent company of ESPN, is not participating in YouTube Red or really YouTube at all because of the complications and changes that are happening with the video platform.What does that mean for us the viewers and bands? Right now not a whole lot, but be prepared for changes in the future. Don't be surprised if YouTube scrubs themselves clean of videos that include content that you the fan don't own, like halftime shows. Universities across the country will have to restructure their channels. Content that is not part of YouTube Red will probably have pre-roll ads and pop up ads in their videos. You won't be able to stop it, unless you sign up for YouTube Red. For most of us, the YouTube experience will remain relatively the same, but don't say we didn't warn you.ESPN is focused on bringing you news, stories and live sports. They also are in the business to make money. Bands today just don't pull in the revenue that would be worth fighting a legal battle over. They also don't pull in a large enough audience for them to dedicate enough air time to, hence the discontinuation of the DCI World Championships. DCI is a great example of a niche market that thrives online. However, the big boys like ESPN can't sacrifice millions of dollars to broadcast it in prime-time to that small niche audience. It's simple economics.So the next time you complain about the talking heads at halftime or hear somebody ask why the band isn't being shown, explain to them that while ESPN would love to broadcast the bands, they simply can't. Now let's go and enjoy the free halftime shows on YouTube before we have to start paying to watch them.David Eagleman (born April 25, 1971) is an American neuroscientist, author, and science communicator. He teaches as an adjunct professor at Stanford University and is CEO of NeoSensory, a company that develops devices for sensory substitution[1]. He also directs the non-profit Center for Science and Law, which seeks to align the legal system with modern neuroscience[2]. He is known for his work on brain plasticity,[3] time perception,[4] synesthesia,[5] and neurolaw.[6] He is a Guggenheim Fellow and a New York Times bestselling author published in 32 languages.[7][8][9][10][11] He is the writer and presenter of the Emmy-nominated international television series, The Brain with David Eagleman.[12]
Biography [ edit ]
Eagleman was born in New Mexico to Arthur and Cirel Egelman, a physician and biology teacher, respectively.[13] Eagleman decided to change his name from Egelman after discovering alternative spellings in personal genealogy research.[14] An early experience of falling from a roof raised his interest in understanding the neural basis of time perception.[15][16] He attended the Albuquerque Academy for high school. As an undergraduate at Rice University, he majored in British and American literature. He spent his junior year abroad at Oxford University and graduated from Rice in 1993.[17] He earned his PhD in Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine in 1998, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute.
Eagleman is currently an adjunct professor at Stanford University, after directing a neuroscience research laboratory for 10 years at Baylor College of Medicine. He serves as the Chief Science Advisor for the Mind Science Foundation, and is the youngest member of the board of directors of the Long Now Foundation. Eagleman is a Guggenheim Fellow,[18] a Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies,[19] and a council member on the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Neuroscience & Behavior.[20] He was voted one of Houston's Most Stylish men,[21] and Italy's Style fashion magazine named Eagleman one of the "Brainiest, Brightest Idea Guys" and featured him on the cover.[22] He was awarded the Science Educator Award by the Society for Neuroscience.[23] He has spun off several companies from his research [24], including BrainCheck,[25] which develops portable cognitive testing and concussion detection, and NeoSensory,[26] which uses sound-to-touch sensory substitution to feed data streams into the brain, as described in his TED talk.[3]
Eagleman has been profiled in magazines such as the New Yorker,[4] Texas Monthly,[27] and Texas Observer,[28] on pop-culture television programs such as The Colbert Report[29] and on the scientific program Nova Science Now.[30] Stewart Brand wrote that "David Eagleman may be the best combination of scientist and fiction-writer alive".[31] Eagleman founded Deathswitch, an internet based dead man's switch service, in 2007.[32]
As opposed to committing to strict atheism or to a particular religious position, Eagleman refers to himself as a possibilian,[33][34] which distinguishes itself from atheism and agnosticism by studying the structure of the possibility space.
Scientific specializations [ edit ]
Sensory substitution [ edit ]
In a TED talk,[3] Eagleman unveiled a method for using sound-to-touch sensory substitution to feed data streams into the brain.[35] In 2015 he launched a venture-funded company, NeoSensory, headquartered in Palo Alto, California.[36]
Time perception [ edit ]
Eagleman's scientific work combines psychophysical, behavioral, and computational approaches to address the relationship between the timing of perception and the timing of neural signals.[37][38][39] Areas for which he is known include temporal encoding, time warping, manipulations of the perception of causality, and time perception in high-adrenaline situations.[40] In one experiment, he dropped himself and other volunteers from a 150-foot tower to measure time perception as they fell.[41] He writes that his long-range goal is "to understand how neural signals processed by different brain regions come together for a temporally unified picture of the world".[42]
Synesthesia [ edit ]
Synesthesia is an unusual perceptual condition in which stimulation to one sense triggers an involuntary sensation in other senses. Eagleman is the developer of The Synesthesia Battery, a free online test by which people can determine whether they are synesthetic.[43] By this technique he has tested and analyzed thousands of synesthetes,[44] and has written a book on synesthesia with Richard Cytowic, entitled Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia.[5] Eagleman has proposed that sensory processing disorder, a common characteristic of autism,[citation needed] may be a form of synesthesia[45]
Visual illusions [ edit ]
Eagleman has published extensively on what visual illusions[46] tell us about neurobiology, concentrating especially on the flash lag illusion and wagon wheel effect.
Neuroscience and the law [ edit ]
Neurolaw is an emerging field that determines how modern brain science should affect the way we make laws, punish criminals, and invent new methods for rehabilitation.[6][47][48] Eagleman is the founder and director of the Center for Science and Law.[49][50]
Television [ edit ]
Eagleman wrote and hosted The Brain with David Eagleman, an international television documentary series for which he was the writer, host, and executive producer[51][52][53][54][55][56] The series debuted on PBS in America in 2015,[57] followed by the BBC in the United Kingdom and the SBS in Australia before worldwide distribution. The New York Times listed it as one of the best television shows of the year.[58] In 2016, the series was nominated for an Emmy Award.
Eagleman serves as the scientific advisor for the HBO television series Westworld.[59][60] He previously served as the science advisor for the TNT television drama, Perception, starring Eric McCormack as a schizophrenic neuropsychiatrist.[61] In that role, Eagleman wrote one of the episodes, Eternity.[62]
Books [ edit ]
Sum [ edit ]
Eagleman's work of literary fiction, Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, is an international bestseller published in 32 languages. The Observer wrote that "Sum has the unaccountable, jaw-dropping quality of genius",[9] The Wall Street Journal called Sum "inventive and imaginative",[63] and the Los Angeles Times hailed the book as "teeming, writhing with imagination".[10] In the New York Times Book Review, Alexander McCall Smith described Sum as a "delightful, thought-provoking little collection belonging to that category of strange, unclassifiable books that will haunt the reader long after the last page has been turned. It is full of tangential insights into the human condition and poetic thought experiments... It is also full of touching moments and glorious wit of the sort one only hopes will be in copious supply on the other side."[8] Sum was chosen by Time Magazine for their Summer Reading list,[64] and selected as Book of the Week by both The Guardian[65] and The Week.[66] In September 2009, Sum was ranked by Amazon as the #2 bestselling book in the United Kingdom.[67][68] Sum was named a Book of the Year by Barnes and Noble, The Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, and The Scotsman.
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain [ edit ]
Eagleman's science book Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain is a New York Times bestseller[7] and was named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon,[69] the Boston Globe,[70] and the Houston Chronicle.[71] Incognito was reviewed as "appealing and persuasive" by the Wall Street Journal[72] and "a shining example of lucid and easy-to-grasp science writing" by The Independent.[73] The book explores the brain as being a "team of rivals", with parts of the brain constantly "fighting it out" among each other.[74]
The Runaway Species [ edit ]
In 2017 Eagleman and co-author Anthony Brandt (a music composer) wrote The Runaway Species, an examination of human creativity. The book was described by the journal Nature as "A lively exploration of the software our brains run in search of the mother lode of invention… It sweeps the reader through examples from engineering, science, product design, music and the visual arts to trace the roots of creative thinking."[75] The Wall Street Journal wrote that "the authors look at art and science together to examine how innovations — from Picasso’s initially offensive paintings to Steve Jobs’s startling iPhone — build on what already exists... This manifesto of sorts shows how both disciplines foster creativity."[76]
The Brain: The Story of You [ edit ]
In 2015, The Brain came out as a companion book to the television series The Brain with David Eagleman.
Brain and Behavior: A Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective [ edit ]
In 2016, Eagleman co-authored this Cognitive Neuroscience textbook with Jonathan Downar. The textbook is published by Oxford University Press, and is used by many universities around the world, including Stanford and Columbia.
Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia [ edit ]
Eagleman's book on synesthesia, co-authored with neurologist Richard Cytowic, compiles the modern understanding and research about this perceptual condition. The afterword for the book was written by Dmitri Nabokov, the son of Vladimir Nabokov, a famous synesthete. The book won the Montaigne Medal for "books that illuminate, progress, or redirect thought".[77]
Why the Net Matters [ edit ]
In 2010, Eagleman published Why the Net Matters (Canongate Books), in which he argued that the advent of the internet mitigates some of the traditional existential threats to civilizations.[78] In keeping with the book's theme of the dematerialization of physical goods, he chose to publish the manuscript as an app for the iPad rather than a physical book. The New York Times Magazine described Why the Net Matters as a "superbook", referring to "books with so much functionality that they're sold as apps".[79] Stewart Brand described Why the Net Matters as a "breakthrough work". The project was longlisted for the 2011 Publishing Innovation Award by Digital Book World.[80] Eagleman's talk on the topic, entitled "Six Easy Ways to Avert the Collapse of Civilization", was voted the #8 Technology talk of 2010 by Fora.tv.
Works [ edit ]The Earth’s magnetic field — which deflects harmful space radiation from the surface — has been weakening, losing about 10 percent of its strength over the last two centuries, and the decay may have been accelerating in recent years.
That weakening led to speculation that the magnetic field may be on the cusp of disappearing during a reversal, when the planet’s north and south poles flip, which could have consequences for civilization and life. But geoscientists have little knowledge of what has been occurring with the magnetic field during recent millenniums. The current decline could be just a squiggle of typical fluctuations.
So they turned to pottery and the record keeping of ancient bureaucrats.
In a paper published on Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team of scientists examined 67 jar handles collected from excavations of Judah, an Iron Age kingdom encompassing the region around Jerusalem between the eighth and second centuries B.C. Embedded in these handles, scientists say, are records of how the magnetic field rose and fell during those centuries.An Amazonian’s response to “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace”
(cross-posted at LinkedIn and booleanzen.)
Disclaimer and proviso: “The postings on this site are my own and don’t represent Amazon’s position in any way whatsoever”.
Update: I really appreciate the notes of thanks this post has received, here and on other social media avenues. If you enjoyed reading it, please share it with others. I tried to post it in the comments section of the New York Times article.I’m sad, but not surprised, to say it was moderated out. Thankfully, in today’s day and age, there are other avenues for rebuttal and setting the record straight.
Final Update: This article has gotten a lot of attention, and I won’t have time to respond to everyone. I want to state — unequivocally so — that NO ONE asked me to write this article, or had any idea that I would write it, or edited/proof-read it prior to it hitting LinkedIn, aside from my wife, who was upset that I was spending a perfectly good Saturday in front of my computer. Someone internal actually emailed me this morning, and asked if I had contacted PR ahead of time, and if I had seen the Social Media guidelines (the answers were no, and yes).
I wrote the article because it was the right thing to do. I would have written it regardless of whether PR would have approved or not, because the NYT article is so blatantly incorrect, and additionally, purposefully designed to make past data reflect current reality at a company that has done quite a bit to change its ways and continues to work hard to do so. Those in the technology community that know me, and have known me for many years, know of what I stand for, and where my integrity bar lies. My integrity is not for sale, at any price, and I don’t operate with a parachute or safety net. My words stand as they are, and I appreciate your readership and support.
*****
Very long read. TL;DR version **:
Step 1: Have bias
Step 2: Find ex-employees with anecdotal stories that fit in with your bias
Step 3: Gather old stories and criticism while glossing over changes made to improve on that, and completely ignore that it’s still significantly better than industry practice
Step 4: Take half-truths and spin spin spin!!
Step 5: Publish article
Long version:
As I woke up ready to start the weekend (without the slightest inclination to work, I might add — much more on this later), I glanced at my iPhone to appease my Facebook addiction and see what my friends were up to. Much to my surprise, a New York Times article describing Amazon had polluted my feed.
Amazon is a big company, and gets referenced often. I’ve read many articles that describe us. Some are more accurate than others. Sadly, this isn’t one of them. This particular article, has so many inaccuracies (some clearly deliberate), that, as an Amazonian, and a proud one at that, I feel compelled to respond.
To baseline, no one asked or expected me to do this. As I cracked open my laptop to write this article, people were already discussing its existence on certain email distribution lists, and the expressions were mostly of disbelief at how uninformed the article was. It’s certainly not how I anticipated spending a good part of my Saturday. But I’m not going to stand idly by as a horribly misinformed piece of “journalism” slanders my company in public without merit. I don’t have the data to discuss the past — so I won’t. However, so much that is written here is deliberately painted to match current reality, and it does not, even by a stretch of the imagination. That is not responsible journalism — that’s a hatchet piece. So let’s correct that, starting now.
Getting some bonafides out of the way of what actually qualifies me to rebut this article:
I actually work here, and can give you a data-driven perspective of what life at Amazon is really like, today. I’m not an anonymous source, and I’m not something a journalist made up to generate clicks. I am putting my name and reputation behind everything I write, and willing to stand by my words 100%.
and can give you a data-driven perspective of what life at Amazon is really like, today. I’m not an anonymous source, and I’m not something a journalist made up to generate clicks. I am putting my name and reputation behind everything I write, and willing to stand by my words 100%. I’ve been at Amazon since March 24, 2014, which means I have 18 months of data to draw from — recent, on-the-ground experience. I have worked in two of our biggest product groups: Marketplace and currently, Search and Discovery, which means my experience covers a good swath of the Amazon populous.
I’m an Engineering Leader. I manage other managers, as well as Engineers — which means I run an organization and have visibility into both Executive direction as well as everyday Engineering cadence. I sit on the floor, in a desk, not an office, by choice — because I like to be close to my folks — so I can relate to what it’s like for individual contributors as well as managers.
I’m a technical Bar Raiser, which means I’m part of a select group of people at Amazon who not only has visibility into our hiring standards and practices, but has the direct responsibility of ensuring they are always met.
More important, all those who know me know I’m a people-centric manager first and foremost: I live and breathe by the Golden |
common type of "planetary nebulae" and the Earth can be estimated simply with three sets of data: firstly, the size of the object on the sky taken from the latest high resolution surveys; secondly, an accurate measurement of how bright the object is in the red hydrogen-alpha emission line; and thirdly, an estimate of the dimming toward the nebula caused by so called interstellar-reddening. The resulting so-called "surface brightness -- radius relation' has been robustly calibrated using more than 300 planetary nebulae whose accurate distances have been determined via independent and reliable means (e.g. trigonometric parallax measurements of their central stars).
The first author of this research Dr David Frew, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Physics said:'measuring distances to Galactic "planetary nebulae" has been an intractable problem for many decades, because of the extremely diverse nature of both the nebulae themselves and their central stars. However, understanding their true nature and physical characteristics depends crucially on knowing their distance. With our significantly improved distance estimates we can finally provide more meaningful values for many key parameters of scientific interest.'
The second author of this research Professor Parker, who is also the Head of the Physics Department in HKU, explained: 'the basic technique is not new but what marks out this work from what has gone before is the use of the most up-to-date and reliable measurements of all of those crucial properties'. This is combined with the use of the authors' own robust techniques to effectively remove "doppelgangers" and mimics that have seriously contaminated previous planetary nebulae catalogues, which added considerable scatter to previous statistical distance scales.
Incredibly, the new distance scale works over a factor of more than six powers of ten in surface brightness. The technique can provide distances accurate to 20 percent, which a major advance on previous estimators that can have errors of a factor of two or more. "In the past, the old distance scales worked fairly well for small planetary nebulae but got systematically worse for the larger nebulae. Ours is the first scale to be able to estimate distances for all planetary nebulae. As big planetary nebulae are the most common, we will use our new scale in making an unbiased census of planetary nebulae in the Milky Way, which will then help answer some important research questions." Dr Frew added.
This latest research by HKU astronomers promises a new era in our ability to study and understand this fascinating if brief period in the final stages of the lives of low- and mid-mass stars.[This is a slightly edited text of a presentation made by Dave Holmes at the “Organising for 21st century socialism” seminar, held in Sydney, June 9, 2013 (pictured above, photo by Alex Bainbridge). Holmes is a leading member of the Socialist Alliance in Melbourne.]
By Dave Holmes
Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Today I want to talk about how socialists need to work to win mass influence and how that relates to the unity process between Socialist Alliance and Socialist Alternative.
On May 21, 2013, in Melbourne we held a very well-attended joint forum where our two organisations presented their views on the unity process. There is a report of the meeting in the May 29 issue of Green Left Weekly.[1]
I want to expand on some points touched on there and to raise some others. Hopefully most of what I say is uncontroversial but in any case I want to be clear and unambiguous on what I consider some key questions of socialist activity.
World in crisis
Our world has clearly entered what is arguably its deepest ever crisis.
In the developed First World countries the capitalist class is engaged in the demolition of all the gains won by working people over the last 150 years or so. Everywhere the welfare state is being dismantled as rapidly as our rulers think they can get away with it.
And in the Third World — with some exceptions, especially in Latin America — the dismantling of what protections ordinary people enjoyed (state subsidies, a relatively strong public sector in some countries) is going full steam ahead.
Combined with this, of course, is the looming catastrophe of global warming and climate change. This crisis, if unchecked, threatens most of the world’s population by the end of the century. Global warming stems from the same cause as the social and economic crisis — profit-crazed capitalism, determined to take every possible opportunity to generate profit, even if it means destroying the ecosystem on which all life on our planet depends.
Climate change is impacting on us right now and it will only get worse. Hurricane Sandy, which wrecked several working-class parts of New York, and the Oklahoma City tornado, which completely shredded several suburbs, are unfortunately a taste of things to come in this regard
Need for left unity
The only way out of the combined social and ecological crisis brought about by the capitalist system is to fight to build a movement that will ultimately get rid of capitalism and proceed to build a rational society — a socialist society.
However, despite the severe crisis of the system, it remains hard going for the left to rally major forces to fight against what is happening, let alone to challenge the whole system. In some countries — Greece, Spain, Portugal and France — the left has made some encouraging advances but there is still a very long way to go.
In Australia the socialist left is hardly on the radar. On some issues — such as equal marriage rights — we are part of a larger movement, but we barely register electorally. That space is still occupied by the Greens. We need to seriously bulk up — to amplify our voice, to stand on a higher vantage point — so that we can be heard by a lot more people.
This is where the unity process embarked upon by the two largest socialist organisations in Australia — Socialist Alliance and Socialist Alternative — fits in. If it succeeds in the next one to two years, it will be a significant advance. We will still be small — under 1000 members — but if it works, the stage will be set for further growth and an increase in our influence.
Toward a united socialist party
I like to think of the party we are working towards as the “United Socialist Party”. Obviously, it is still very early days and we have a long way to go, and the end result is by no means guaranteed, but that’s my suggestion for a name! The United Socialist Party will be a new party. Socialist Alliance will not be joining Socialist Alternative and we don’t expect them to join us. A new organisation will be established and we will both have to accept changes — exactly what these changes are, the process itself will determine.
Unity inspires and attracts. If we succeed in uniting our organisations, we will need to take advantage of the launch of a new organisation and make a strong appeal to other socialists and left-wing people out there to join with us. We will have a real chance to make an impact and should take every opportunity to do so.
Who is our potential constituency?
In his article in Marxist Left Review, Socialist Alternative’s Corey Oakley denies that there is a significant layer of people out there beyond the organised socialist left that we could attract. Furthermore, he assumes that if there were, we would have to soften our politics to pull them in. Here is the passage (it’s in his concluding section):
Of course it is true, as many before us have pointed out, that the road towards the mass revolutionary party we need will not be straight: there will be many jags and bends, at some times we will have to take great detours that are painful but unavoidable, at others there may be a chance to make substantial advances that we could not make by ploughing on straight ahead. But if you want to argue for a detour, you have to provide a compelling reason. In Australia today, there isn’t one. There is no section of workers or political layer outside the revolutionary left that we can aim to draw into our ranks by tacking to the right for a time, or softening our views with a perspective of future clarification. All those paths have proven, for now, to be blind alleys. So in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, the most sensible policy is to head directly towards where we want to go.[2]
I don’t agree with either of the basic contentions here.
1. For some time there has been a relatively large layer of people who could potentially be drawn into a new socialist party: ex-members of left groups, disillusioned members/supporters of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), disillusioned Greens members/supporters, movement activists looking for a political organisation, thoughtful people completely repelled by the horrible direction neoliberal capitalism is taking society here and around the world.
But these people are repelled by the division and sectarianism on the left. Many do not want to choose one group over another even if they lean towards one. Such people could potentially be drawn into the orbit of a united socialist party.
2. I don’t think that this means “tacking to the right” or “softening our views”. But it does mean that we need to explain our positions carefully, without jargon, using a transitional method and showing in action our bona fides — in the transitional way we put out our message, in the constructive and non-sectarian way we work in the movements, and in our open and democratic internal life.
A revolutionary organisation?
Socialist Alternative puts a lot of emphasis on the new organisation being explicitly revolutionary. Personally, I think there is way too much emphasis on this question. But we do not want this issue to be an obstacle to socialist unity. As comrades know, Socialist Alliance made some changes at our January conference in just that direction. We would argue that Socialist Alliance has always been objectively revolutionary. Now it is stated openly in key documents.
Our constitution now has a simple but clear socialist objective that states that the Socialist Alliance aims to replace capitalism with a system in which our economic infrastructure is under popular ownership and control:
3.1 The aim of the Socialist Alliance is to replace the capitalist system with one in which the fundamental elements of the economy are socially owned and controlled and democratic systems of popular power established. Only these radical measures will enable us to deal with the economic, ecological and social crises of the 21st century.[3]
Our draft document Towards a Socialist Australia says the same thing. It also makes it clear that only mass struggles can bring this about and that the resistance and the sabotage of the capitalists against the advance of the popular forces will have to be fought by the people.[4]
So the united socialist party will be explicitly revolutionary. But the matter doesn’t stop there. We don’t want abstract rhetoric about revolution but a careful explanation of the whole question.
Our essential message is that the social and ecological crises demand a sharp change of direction in how our society is run. The current thirst for profit by the capitalist oligarchy — logical from their standpoint but completely insane from a human perspective — will bring on a catastrophe. We need to replace capitalism with a society that has as its main aims: first, tackling global warming (and more generally the repair and maintenance of the environment); and, second, the welfare of the great mass of the people, a society where everyone will be looked after and no one will be abandoned.
What is revolutionary leadership?
At this point we might ask: What is revolutionary leadership? What does it actually mean to be revolutionary? It is not enough to simply believe in the need for radical social change. After all, all manner of complete sectarians claim that they too are revolutionary.
A famous 1967 speech by Fidel Castro (against the leadership of the Venezuelan Communist Party, which had betrayed the guerrilla struggle) is called “Those who are not revolutionary fighters cannot be called communists”.[5] Being revolutionary imposes a permanent obligation on us. We need to be constantly concerned with finding a path to the masses. This is an enormous ongoing challenge and responsibility. There is no roadmap to chart our course. We have to work it out for ourselves.
Despite our small size we need to be constantly trying to provide leadership where we can and promote the general struggle in all its diversity.
This can lead to all sorts of pressures. For instance, in a work situation, if you open your mouth, talk to your workmates and get a reputation as a political person, and then your colleagues push you to be a union delegate, it is hard to say: “No, sorry, I’m too busy with other things.”
Of course, we try to maintain some balance between external and internal work (trying to build our organisation). But at the end of the day, the party that is needed will only be built out of the struggle.
How do we present ourselves to the public?
In my opinion, the main public projection should not be that we are revolutionary but that we are socialists who want fundamental changes to create a “people before profit” society: the main elements of the economy should be in public hands and controlled democratically.
The “people before profit” slogan really sums it up. In his MLR article Corey praises Peter Camejo’s 1969 talk on “How to Make a Revolution in the United States”.[6] It is certainly a great speech. Camejo concludes with a discussion of the May-June 1968 upsurge in France the previous year and how it might have triumphed and ended capitalism in that country. He stresses that the whole development he outlines does not mention the word “socialism” but is based on democracy and what is needed to bring the great working-class majority to power.
General propaganda for socialism certainly has its place but the key task before us is find the ways in practice to move the struggle forward at a particular time and place and the demands, slogans and watchwords which best suit that task.
How we should work
Between the maximum program of socialism and the here-and-now there must necessarily be a great many intermediate steps. Unless we develop these intermediate steps a future united socialist party will not be able to build its influence beyond a very narrow base. I want to mention some elements of this approach which I think we should follow.
1. We need to take ourselves seriously — very seriously. It is not a question of exaggerating our size or influence — we are very well aware of just how small we are — but, rather, being aware of our responsibility to the struggle and the need to constantly try to reach out to people with our ideas. This means trying to connect with them at their level of consciousness, involve ourselves in their struggles and help lead them forward.
2. Socialist Alliance devotes a lot of effort to producing policies on various issues. These indicate what we think should be done right now — what we call for — and what a future socialist government pledges to do.
3. We also put a lot of effort and resources into producing leaflets for meetings and rallies, explaining how we see the problem and outlining what measures we call for. In Melbourne, for instance, this year we have distributed leaflets outlining our position on hospital funding cuts, the TAFE cuts, 457 visa workers, CCTV cameras in Moreland, occupational health and safety (following the fatal collapse of a wall on a Grocon site), legalising cannabis, on the Gonski proposals, and so on.
4. In the same vein, we also produce nationally a whole stream of attractive, bold, coloured A3 posters around various issues and themes featuring demands and slogans for use on stalls, on placards at protests, and so on.
How will the revolution come about?
In his Marxist Left Review article Corey says that:
The system of world capitalism that we confront today cannot be overturned by any means short of mass insurrection, a thoroughgoing revolution on an international scale that systematically dismantles the huge apparatus of capitalist class rule and replaces it with new institutions of workers’ power and popular control.[7]
Perhaps the term “mass insurrection” is just a throwaway phrase, but I think it is wrong and misleading. Toppling capitalism in this country or that may involve an armed uprising if a dictatorship leaves people with no choice but it certainly doesn’t have to happen like that.
For instance, in France in the almost-revolution of May-June 1968 there was nothing of the sort — the strikes spread everywhere and the government of Charles De Gaulle was simply left suspended in a void. Had the revolutionary forces been larger, and had they overcome the anti-revolutionary line of the Communist Party, as Camejo points out, the issue could have been settled very easily.
Today, in the concrete situation we face in Australia, abstract talk of “mass insurrection” can only appear to people as coming from another planet — quite apart from miseducating our comrades. It is sufficient for us to point out that the ruling class — the 1%, the capitalist oligarchy — will resist the advance of the people and we will have to be prepared and determined to overcome this opposition.
For instance, in Greece, if SYRIZA is elected — and doesn’t buckle — it will have to organise the people for an all-out struggle against the furious onslaught of neoliberal reaction — the capitalists, the EU, the media, the Golden Dawn fascists, and so on. The situation then might well develop in a revolutionary direction.
Murray Smith’s opinion
In a recent article in Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, “The real European left stands up”, well-known Marxist Murray Smith takes up the question of the road to revolution in the advanced capitalist countries:
… there has never been a socialist revolution in an advanced capitalist country with a more or less long tradition of bourgeois democracy. Never, nowhere. The strategy and tactics for making one will have to be developed in the course of the struggle and they will be very different from Russia in 1917, not to mention China, Vietnam, Cuba, Yugoslavia. They will certainly involve a combination of mass mobilisations and battles on the electoral terrain and in parliamentary institutions. That will involve in particular winning a majority in elections based on universal suffrage, and not only once. In fact it is difficult to see a revolutionary process that does not involve a left alliance winning an election. All of that will be the subject of debates based on experience, and no one has a blueprint. Rather than establishing an a priori cleavage between reformists and revolutionaries it is better to look at what anticapitalist measures a left government should take and how, how to mobilise support for them, how to counter economic sabotage and political pressures from the right, etc. Not to mention what kind of a post-capitalist society we envisage.[8]
Importance of electoral work
I think Murray Smith is right on the money here. Of course, we are a long way from any prospect of a left government in Australia. But even when we are small, electoral work is extremely important for a socialist organisation. There are several considerations here.
1. This is where people’s heads are at and we have no choice but to relate to this. Electoral work gives us an invaluable opportunity to gain a wider hearing for our ideas. In the Geelong mayoral contest last year Sue Bull received 10,000 votes. There is simply no other activity that could give us this sort of impact and reach.
2. Electoral work allows us to experiment with various ways of getting our message across. We are forced to be transitional in our presentation. For instance, in this year’s federal election campaign our overarching slogan is “Take back the wealth” — nationalise the mining and energy sector and the banks. We don’t intend to play games with Gina Reinhart, Clive Palmer or Twiggy Forrest [three of Australia’s richest minimg magnates] et al but propose to take back their ill-gotten loot — lock, stock and barrel. These resources are needed to make the “big switch” to a sustainable economy and to tackle pressing social problems.
We will make every effort to popularise this idea in radical and progressive circles, especially among Greens supporters and in the climate movement. And down the road, if we are ever in government, this policy is exactly what we will carry out.
3. Standing in elections allows us to measure our strength and estimate how much support we have out there. It is not simply the vote, important as that is, but also the number of people we are able to involve, the number of people we recruit, the money we raise, and so on.
4. We are not electoralists. We understand very clearly that building the mass struggle on the ground is decisive and any electoral or parliamentary work that ignores this can only lead to disaster. But this caution can in no way be used to support abstaining from this critical area of work. Electoral activity and work aimed at building the mass movement have to be seen as dialectically related.
Work around basic issues
Subject to its human and other resources, a socialist organisation has to be as active as possible in building the various campaigns against capitalist policies and in solidarity with popular struggles overseas.
Socialist Alliance and Socialist Alternative are both active, to one degree or another, in the movements for refugee rights, Tamil solidarity, Palestine solidarity and equal marriage rights. At various times we have both had some involvement in support of the Aboriginal movement.
Socialist Alliance is involved in the feminist movement but a sharp disagreement developed last year with Socialist Alternative over the annual Reclaim the Night events.
Socialist Alliance is involved in the climate change and general environment movements, quite heavily in some places (I’ll say more on this shortly).
We are both involved in trade union work and in several instances we collaborate closely, such as in the teachers’ union in Melbourne.
A big challenge for the socialist movement is to become more involved in campaigns around basic issues that impact on the lives of ordinary people. For example, we need to be active in campaigns in defence of public housing, for rational development policies in the suburbs, around transport issues (for better public transport, against the roads madness, and so on), a better deal for pensioners and welfare recipients, or whatever.
The capitalist lie machine works overtime attempting — with some success — to convince a significant number of working people that their problems are due, not to the capitalist system and the profit-crazed corporations, but to various groups of other ordinary people — refugees, Muslims, migrants, supposed “welfare cheats”, petty criminals, and so on. To most effectively combat this poison we have to develop effective campaigns that target the real culprits and point a way forward.
Developing this work most effectively needs a lot more resources (and socialist unity is the big thing here), working constructively with a broad range of forces, the direct involvement of comrades, electoral work, the newspaper and our general media, and spreading out across the suburbs in the big cities.
Climate change
At this point I want to say something about global warming and climate change.
This is not an add-on issue or something at the margins of political life. Global warming and climate change is real and immediate and deadly serious. Unless the people can force a sharp change of direction on their governments, most of the world’s people will perish over the rest of the century.
Huge storms, floods, droughts, heat waves, rising sea levels, bushfires — all these will start to disrupt more and more severely the pattern of human activity, place society under severe stress and dislocate the food supply leading in time to mass starvation and the decimation of populations.
However, for the capitalist class in its profit-focused unreality bubble it is simply business as usual; it is all just a minor perturbation — or even a business opportunity (witness the mad corporate salivating over the riches being opened up by the ice melting in the North-West Passage and in Greenland).
Socialists need to be out in front on this issue right now. We need to be involved in the movement as best we can, at many levels. We need to relate to the issue, develop and put forward our arguments, report on what is happening, relate to the various struggles and help to build them.
Green Left Weekly has been a key tool for Socialist Alliance in this effort. We have debated with the populationists, we have reported on the movement and helped to build it. We have argued that we need to forget useless market solutions but instead concentrate on large-scale government intervention, including nationalisations, to rapidly make the “big switch” to renewable energy.
We stood our ground against the ALP-Green push on the carbon tax but sought to present our arguments in a way which would make it hard for our opponents to isolate us or read us out of the movement.
A weekly newspaper
As I understand it, both Socialist Alliance and Socialist Alternative are agreed on the necessity of the new organisation having a weekly newspaper. I think this is absolutely correct. Our whole experience with Green Left Weekly (GLW) is that having the newspaper tremendously amplifies our voice, and as the class struggle becomes more stormy this will be even more the case.
Of course, there is another issue here. GLW is not directly a party newspaper — and in my opinion is all the more effective (in present conditions) because of that. However, this is something we can discuss down the road.
GLW fulfils a number of functions.
It is an invaluable source of information and perspective on a whole number of issues.
It publicises various movement campaigns and helps to build them. Even if the forces we can devote to a particular campaign are modest (or even nonexistent) we can relate to it through GLW. And through the paper we can discuss various questions of strategy or tactics.
As a “broad left” paper, GLW seeks to encourage discussion and debate and will often present a range of views on questions. But its political centre of gravity is firmly on the socialist left and the paper has always pushed a mass action line.
Green Left Weekly also presents the views of Socialist Alliance.
Sustaining the Green Left Weekly project over 23 years, for almost 1000 issues, has been an enormous ongoing struggle. But we have trained ourselves in socialist journalism and in all the facets of newspaper production. We have grappled with the problems of distributing the paper (including having to repeatedly defend our very right to sell it on the streets).
A particular challenge we face right now is to win a new generation of comrades to participation in this effort. This is way more than a mere administrative question but above all comes down to giving comrades the confidence to engage with readers and potential readers in an effective and political way.
And, of course, each year we have to raise prodigious amounts of money to keep everything going. There is a permanent schedule of fundraising activities around the country.
Three examples of socialist journalism
I wanted to mention several stories that illustrate what GLW does and show the value of the paper. They are maybe a bit eclectic but they appeal strongly to me.
1. In August last year intrepid Green Left Weekly reporter Daryl Davies climbed 60 metres up a giant tree in a Tasmanian forest to interview anti-logging activist Miranda Gibson on her treetop perch (she ended up spending 457 days there). What an epic scoop! It was one small but very determined protest and it deserved to be reported.[9]
2. The May 22, 2013, issue of GLW contains a full-page interview by Tony Iltis with Jock Palfreeman, the Australian leftist railroaded to a 20-year prison sentence in Bulgaria by a corrupt and racist judicial system.[10] It’s a great interview with a remarkable person whose progressive human values have shone through from the start — and which actually landed him in the very tough spot he is now in. We are doing what we can — and Tony’s interview is a part of this effort — to help build the campaign for Jock’s return to Australia.
3. At the other end of the scale is our call — through articles and editorials and reporting the Socialist Alliance federal election campaign in GLW — to nationalise the entire resource-energy sector and the banks. We are trying to both educate people and popularise this idea. I for one think the slogan ‘Take back the wealth!’ has a great ring to it!
Spread across the big cities
If we succeed in creating the United Socialist Party, while we will still be small in the overall scheme of things, we will have relatively significant forces in some places. How should these forces be disposed geographically?
Take Melbourne, for instance, where we could end up with several hundred or more comrades. I think it will be an absolute priority to move beyond the inner city and establish a number of viable suburban branches. The city has more than 4.25 million inhabitants. In the Australian manner it is geographically enormous. A serious party needs to aim at establishing branches in the west, out towards the Dandenong ranges, in Dandenong and so on. Of course, exactly where we go would have to follow serious study and some experimentation but it will have to be done.
Establishing viable branches in the suburbs will pose a whole number of challenges but we will simply have to make a start in this regard if we are serious about wanting to reach the mass of people.
Suburban work would involve some combination of newspaper distribution, general propaganda and education (through meetings, video screenings, etc.), activity around local issues (in most areas there are already plenty of things in train) and promoting big central city actions in the area. In some cases the branch would be associated with a campus unit or have comrades involved in work on their local campus.
Where we achieve a real implantation and a solid branch we could weigh up running in elections (council or even state and federal).
Of course, things are different in each city and in some cases Socialist Alliance already has more than one branch (in Perth and in Sydney).
We will also have to consider strengthening our work in regional centres such as Canberra and Newcastle or establishing new branches.
Conclusion
OK, comrades, these are my thoughts on what I consider are some key questions of the activity of a future united socialist party. We can discuss all of these points and more in the next period but I definitely think we will need some agreement or consensus on the main ones for any unity project to be successful.
Notes
1. See http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/54152.
2. Corey Oakley, “What kind of organisation do socialists need?”, Marxist Left Review #5, pp. 16-17 (emphasis added). See http://marxistleftreview.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=84%3Awhat-kind-of-organisation-do-socialists-need&catid=42%3Anumber-5-summer-2013&Itemid=81.
3. See http://www.socialist-alliance.org/page.php?page=1257.
4. See http://socialist-australia.blogspot.com.au/p/about.html.
5. See http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1967/19670314.html.
6. See http://links.org.au/node/606.
7. Oakley, ibid., p. 9 (emphasis added).
8. Murray Smith, “The real European left stands up”, http://links.org.au/node/3350.
9. See http://www.greenleft.org.au/taxonomy/term/2150.Russian President Vladimir Putin. Adam Berry/Getty Images
Last year, the Russian government approved the renewals of six trademarks for President Donald Trump that were about to expire, according to a New York Times investigation on Sunday.
Four of those renewals were officially registered by Russia on Election Day.
The Times found that the Kremlin approved applications for the trademarks' renewal beginning in April 2016 and ending in December of that year, according to records maintained by Rospatent, Russia's government agency which oversees intellectual property.
The trademarks were originally obtained between 1996 and 2007, but they had gone unused. Each of the trademarks was granted a 10-year extension in 2016, the investigation found.
Trump has repeatedly said that he has no remaining business deals in or involving Russia.
"Why is that Hillary Clintons family and Dems dealings with Russia are not looked at, but my non-dealings are?" the president tweeted last week.
"I don't know Putin, have no deals in Russia, and the haters are going crazy - yet Obama can make a deal with Iran, #1 in terror, no problem!" he tweeted in February.
In January, he tweeted, "Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA - NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!"
Although business deals the trademarks were originally issued for were never carried through, intellectual property experts say trademarks themselves can wield significant value.
"Trademarks have inherent value, per se, as they allow you to stop others from using the mark either by stopping competing registrations or stopping infringing uses," Annsley Merelle Ward, an expert in intellectual property law at Bristows law firm, told the Times.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
One of Trump's'most valuable assets'
When reached for comment about the trademarks' renewal, Trump Organization chief legal counsel Alan Garten seemed to confirm Ward's statement. The renewals had been requested, Garten told the Times, "to prevent third parties from infringing on the company's intellectual property rights."
He also said that the company has no plans to use the trademarks in the future and that it will not pursue new business dealings in Russia.
Garten is aware of the value trademarks carry, however. In a 2015 deposition over a separate dispute, Garten testified that Trump's trademarks were "one of his most valuable assets."
"We take the protection and enforcement of my client's brand extremely seriously," Garten said during the deposition. "We invest a lot of money in its efforts. It is his brand."
The Times noted that nothing in the records maintained by Rospatent indicates Trump was shown particular favor when trademarks bearing his name were approved for renewal. However, intellectual property law experts said that renewals are not guaranteed and can be difficult to obtain when trademarks have gone unused for a long period of time, like Trump's were.
While it was renewing Trump's trademarks in 2016, the Russian government was also engaged in an active hacking campaign to undermine the election. The US intelligence community concluded with high confidence that Russian operatives specifically targeted the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign in an effort to subvert Clinton's candidacy and propel then-candidate Trump to victory. Intelligence agencies also confirmed that Russian hackers designed an elaborate online fake news and disinformation campaign focused on disseminating false information about Clinton in order to swing votes toward Trump.
Donald Trump. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
And earlier this month, The Intercept published a leaked National Security Agency document which determined hackers connected to Russian military intelligence tried to breach US voting systems days before the 2016 election. National security experts told Business Insider the document was the clearest indication yet of a Russian cyberattack on the US electoral system.
In addition to investigating Russia's role in meddling in the 2016 election, Congress and the FBI are also looking into any potential collusion between Trump associates and the Kremlin to hand Trump the presidency.
The Russia probes picked up steam after Trump abruptly fired former FBI director James Comey — who was spearheading the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia — in early May. A slew of media reports published after the fact raised questions about Trump's motivations in firing Comey, and legal experts touched on the possibility that Trump may have waded into impeachment territory if he removed Comey specifically because of the Russia investigation.
Last week, The Washington Post reported that FBI special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Trump for obstruction of justice. In an apparent response to the report, Trump tweeted on Friday, "I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt."
However, Trump's legal team heavily pushed back on the Post's report on Sunday. In an interview on "Meet The Press," Trump's lawyer, Jay Sekulow, repeatedly denied that Trump was a subject in Mueller's probe, even after host Chuck Todd pointed out that Trump himself seemed to confirm that he was a target of the investigation in his tweet.
"Then why did he say he was [under investigation]?" Todd asked. "I mean, was this just mis-tweeted? Are we not to take him at his word?"
Sekulow insisted that Todd was "reading more to the tweet than what's there."
Read the New York Times report here»Announcing the RaiBlocks Bug Bounty Program
Colin LeMahieu Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 26, 2017
RaiBlocks operates as a secure, sustainable network that anyone can rely on to send, receive, and store currency. In the interest of further improving the security of the network, we are launching the RaiBlocks Bug Bounty Program.
We encourage anyone interested to review the code, find bugs, vulnerabilities, or ways bad actors could exploit the RaiBlocks network. We offer three tiers of bounties, based on the severity of the bug, vulnerability or issue, paid in either XRB or the BTC equivalent:
Minor (100 XRB bounty)
Moderate (1,000 XRB bounty)
Critical (10,000 XRB bounty)
Bug bounties will be paid out of the RaiBlocks Developer Fund.
The RaiBlocks protocol is open-source; you can find the code here and the white paper here.
If you believe you have found a bug in RaiBlocks, the process by which you can report the bug and claim your bounty upon its fix is as follows:
1) Notify us that you have found a bug in the #bug_bounties channel on Discord at chat.raiblocks.net and a member of the Core team will initiate a direct line of communication with you where you can let us know which tier you feel your bug belongs in.
2) The Core team will review the issue and if it is determined that the reported bug has merit, they will work with you to fix the bug and your bounty will be rewarded.
3) Following the fix, we will publish a retrospective on our blog regarding the bug, which will include the timeline from notification to resolution, all parties affected, the outcome and references to commits that addressed the issue(s).
4) All communications between the reporter and the Core team related to the bug and bounty will be published upon resolution of the issue reported. In the interest of full transparency this will be done regardless, whether the bug reported ends up being a critical threat or a non-issue.
If the details of the bug leak ahead of the retrospective being published, whether accidentally or maliciously, the contract between RaiBlocks and the reporter is null-and-void and the bug bounty will not be rewarded.
We look forward to anyone engaging with us to improve the protocol and we hope that you’ll try to find ways to break and improve RaiBlocks in order to build the best currency and network around.
Thanks,
The RaiBlocks Core Team
Last updated on December 26, 2017In February of 2007, when I was sitting with former President Khatami of Iran in his office in North Tehran, he asked me about Barack Obama, whom Iranians were hearing (and were very curious) about. "He could be the next president," I said, "but you know, his middle name is Hussein, and that won't go over well with many Americans." President Khatami was surprised to hear of Obama's father's Muslim connection of Obama's, one that he hadn't ever bothered to deny. "Ajab! Really?" he said with a big smile. The idea that a Black man might be taken seriously in a run for his party's nomination was surprising enough to the Iranian leadership and to most ordinary Iranians, but a Black man with a Muslim middle name, the name of the prophet's grandson and a |
doubt. It’s already there.
Is the script for the Wet Hot American Summer prequel done?
Yes and no. We’re talking about doing Wet Hot American Summer now as a Netflix series. So we have an outline but we don’t have a script.
Would that be a done-in-one, do ten episodes kind of thing? Or would you want to continue that if you could?
I think we would start with one and go from there, but I mean, I think one would be… if we could pull off one that would be a pretty amazing thing.
I think so too. When you say “prequel,” do you mean the week before summer camp? Because you could do it in high school…
No, it’s the first day of camp.
The entire season would be just the first day?
Yes, but there would probably be flashbacks to that year. Yes, the entire first season would be one day.
Are you confident you can get everyone back?
Yes! Yes, we wouldn’t have wanted to do it if we couldn’t get everybody. So we did our due diligence before the fact and everyone wants to do it.
That’s so awesome.
Yeah. At this point it’s just a scheduling thing.
Are you going to try build up to things that came to a head in Wet Hot American Summer? Like, the ragtag team of misfits? Are we going to see them get together?
Potentially, but we’re not going to try to make everything make sense. There will be some of that but we’re not trying to do a really intricate story. It’s more just an opportunity to bring the cast back together and tell more stories about these camp kids.
Have you ever thought about spinning a sketch from “The State” into its own feature film?
Like the way they do with Wayne’s World or something?
Yeah, like just Doug has his own movie for example.
Honestly I’ve never thought about it.
You’ve never thought about giving Doug his own movie.
I’ve never thought about it. I’ve never even thought about it. Isn’t that weird?
That is weird, actually. Is that just a complete lack of hubris?
Yeah.
Huh.
Yeah. It’s never really felt like something that… no, it’s never really occurred to me as something that I’d want to do.
Now that it’s occurred to you does it sound like something would want to do?
What we have talked about and what I would be more interested in doing is a “State” project. “The State” has talked about doing our Life of Brian, that kind of a thing. We would get together and make our own “State” movie, and that’s something I have always wanted to do, and I think we all have wanted to do it, but it’s just very hard to get everyone together to do it. But that would be cool.
It’s interesting how you guys split off afterwards. You and David Wain seem to work together a lot, and Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant seem to work together a lot now.
Yeah.
Was that just a natural thing, you just worked well together, or was it something like, “Screw it! I’m doing this with Robert from now on!”
No, I think it was just sort of a natural thing. It had a lot to do with those guys’ move to L.A. So for most of that time David Wain and Michael Black and I lived in New York. This is for the past 15 years until very recently, Michael Black, David Wain and I were living in New York and Tom and Ben and those guys were all living in L.A. So it was really just a natural flow kind of thing.
Did living in New York for that long really help you make New York City another character in They Came Together?
Ha-ha.
Yeah, I had to go for it, I’m sorry.
You had to do it.
I had to do it. Well what’s great about that joke is that it’s a joke about the way people talk about romantic comedies.
Yes.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard somebody in a romantic comedy say it. Are you sick of that joke now? Has that been beaten to death?
No, I think it’s a funny joke. I like it.
Read More Exclusive Film Channel Interviews:
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline's Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.Over 30 sheriff deputies in riot gear arrested 13 Occupy Fresno
protesters Sunday at 3 a.m. at the Courthouse Park in downtown
Fresno. Protesters were arrested for operating without a permit.
Sergio Robles / The Collegian Over 30 sheriff deputies in riot gear arrested 13 Occupy Fresnoprotesters Sunday at 3 a.m. at the Courthouse Park in downtownFresno. Protesters were arrested for operating without a permit.Sergio Robles / The Collegian
About 13 Occupy Fresno protestors were arrested Sunday morning at 3 a.m. and were later released at 1 p.m. by Fresno Sheriff’s deputies, according to Occupy Fresno’s official Twitter.
Since Tuesday, Nov. 1, the Occupy Fresno movement has been operating without a facility use permit.
The group received a final notice, or a “move immediately” notice, one of the protestors Steven Avila said. The eviction notice warned the group if they continued to protest in Courthouse Park downtown, they could be fined or possibly imprisoned.
Sunday morning around 3 a.m., sheriff’s finally decided to take action, according to the group’s Twitter page. Over 30 sheriff’s deputies in riot gear invaded the camp, and after a few hours more than a dozen Occupy Fresno protestors were arrested.
Avila, who is also a senior at Fresno State, explained that the group reached a general consensus to not reapply for a facility use permit, after their permit expired.
“We originally applied for the permit not expecting to get it,” Avila said. “We feel that showed an attempt to at least comply with the local or county laws.”
Avila explained that after the group received their permit, the county office began tacking on multiple clauses and addendums.
“They were basically telling us we have no say, and that they can put whatever they want on this permit,” Avila said. “Not anywhere does it say that we need a permit in order to protest.
“We’ve been peaceful and haven’t started any fights,” Avila continued. “We’ve just been expressing our message with banners and that’s a right guaranteed by the first amendment.”
Before Sunday morning, no one had been forcibly removed from Courthouse Park, another protestor Luis Sanchez said.
“As of right now, everyone is on standby, waiting for the police to show up and remove them,” Sanchez said on Thursday, Nov. 3.
The group has been working just near a month now. Sunday marked the group’s 28th camp out day, Avila said.
Avila explained that the group has been working on two levels; to help support the national movement, as well as to accomplish smaller local goals, and to gain local awareness of the movement.
Avila explained that members of the Occupy Fresno movement worked together to close their Bank of America accounts and to transfer their money to smaller, local credit unions. The group even protested outside of one Bank of America until the branch closed its doors and locked up.
On Saturday, the group also did the same for Chase Banks. The “Move Your Money” day urged members to close their accounts with the large bank chains and was a part of the larger national movement.
Sanchez explained that the group also worked on a smaller local scale by attending school board meetings and asking questions of the board members.
“I think it’s great that people are getting politically active and politically aware,” Sanchez said.
Avila said that the sheriff’s Department had actually remained relatively quiet when dealing with the Occupy protestors.
“They have been supportive for whatever reason,” Avila said. “Maybe it’s because they realize that they are a part of the 99 percent as well, and that we are fighting to protect their rights and pensions. The most opposition we are getting is from the county itself.”
So far the Occupy movement has gained momentum on a worldwide scale. The groups, tired of pay cuts, foreclosures and bank bailouts, have spawned off of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
So far, whether by coincidence or persistence, the group has got the Bank of America to rescind a proposal that would charge members for using their debit cards.
Sanchez thinks that even if the protestors are removed, the movement in Fresno will continue on.
“I expect this to go on, probably about another month,” Sanchez said. “I don’t believe these movements ever die. They just take on new forms of life in different ways.”
Avila said that if the group is removed, they will move, and continue their protest elsewhere.
“The movement is indefinite until we are satisfied,” Avila said. “We plan on being a presence in Fresno. If we are moved, we will redeploy to another spot.”Image caption Mr Armstrong's body was found at Inniskeen near where searches were carried out in 2008
Sixteen people were murdered by republican paramilitaries and secretly buried in isolated parts of Ireland during the Troubles.
Nine bodies of the people known as the Disappeared remain unfound but advances in technology alongside traditional methods means fresh hope for their families.
Forensic archaeologists work alongside the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR) to try and find their bodies.
John McIlwaine, who is originally from Northern Ireland, but works for Bradford University, leads the forensic archaeological team that works with ICLVR.
He outlined the process involved.
"The information first goes to the commission (ICLVR) and they have special investigators who try to prove how accurate it is," he said.
"Once it has been ground proofed through the investigators, we are then in a position to have a search area which we are deployed into, which we search for the remains.
"We have worked on four cases so far and have recovered two bodies.
"Once a potential site has been identified, the archaeological team can begin work.
"We use LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) on planes, geographical information, classic archaeology and cadaver dogs."
Many of the bodies have been buried in former cut-away peat bogs, so sites often need to be drained before an excavation can begin.
"It is very difficult because some people were buried over 30 years ago, also the locations were selected specifically for body disposal," Mr McIlwaine said.
"They are remote locations, designed to make it as difficult as possible for anybody to find the body again.
"Then you have the problem that the information is degraded, there is also the fact that there are no obvious grave sites, a lot of them are peat bogs that went out of use years ago.
"The vegetation looks similar, it's covered in heather so there's nothing very obvious, if it was obvious we could just go straight there and dig them up."
In June 2010, Mr McIlwaine led the team which discovered the remains of Charlie Armstrong.
Mr Armstrong, 57, from south Armagh went missing on his way to Mass in 1981, he was believed to have been kidnapped and murdered by the IRA.
His body was buried in an area of peat bog land at Colgagh, County Monaghan, several miles from the border.
In 2008, a team of experts concentrated on an area of bog and gorse at Inniskeen after an anonymous map was sent to the family.
It was the second map the family had received, the first showed a slightly different location.
Image caption Mr Armstrong went missing on his way to Mass in 1981
Nothing was found during those searches, but remains were discovered nearby in 2010.
Working within an area the size of three football pitches, the team had to painstakingly draw up the soil, three to four inches at a time, to be sifted through before the next level was taken up, eventually reaching a depth of two metres.
It took about a month, often working in strong winds and torrential rain, to locate Mr Armstrong's body. It then took two months for the DNA to be fully processed.
"It took a great deal of persistence and patience to recover Charlie's remains, but that is the nature of the work we do," Mr McIlwaine said.
"I've got to know Charlie's widow, Kathleen, and their children very well over the years and know how much it means to them to bring Charlie home and give him a proper burial in consecrated ground.
"I feel proud that the team has helped them bring their many years of waiting to an end."
He said finding the Disappeared "was massively important for the friends and family" but "also very important to help the healing process in Northern Ireland".
"We have another site to investigate in the north of Ireland shortly, once the clearance comes through," he added.
"We will continue with the other cases as long as the commission want us to and we have intelligence to work from."Please follow and like us:
What do agents look for in a book?
Well, perhaps not surprisingly, they’re looking for a lot of the same things as publishers; after all, that agent is going to have to convince a publisher’s acquisitions editor that you book can sell!
Below I’ll list some of the qualities that literary agents want to see in a new manuscript. Of course, it’s difficult to scientifically quantify things in this realm; there is no set criteria, and agents are going to be going on their gut instincts more often than not. But at the same time, if you keep these things in mind when writing you’ll increase your chances of finding an agent to represent your book:
Marketability- Hmmm. What the hell does that mean? Well, will your book sell? To how many people? Maybe you’ve written the definitive volume on mass-produced pre-war clocks. While that may be exactly what a niche press is looking for, it probably doesn’t have the makings of the next Da Vinci Code. To attract an agent (whose main task will be to get you a deal with one of the major houses), you’ll need to write a book that can sell, and sell big. The broader the appeal, the better your chances.
Uniqueness- Having broad appeal does not mean you need to pander. It shouldn’t be a cookie-cutter book. You should provide new perspectives on a relatable theme, or twist expectations in pleasing ways. Can you make the familiar new? You’ve upped your chances of finding an agent.
Clear demographic- This is part of marketing, of course, but you want to be sure your book has a target audience and an obvious place on bookstore’s shelves. While you SHOULD be unique, you don’t want your book to be so complex and convoluted that people don’t know what to do with it.
Along these lines, if someone asked you what your book was all about, could you pitch it to them in two sentences or less? Could you convey something about the plot, characters, attitude, AND style, all in a matter of seconds? If so, agents, editors, and publishers will appreciate the effort to keep things succinct! Plus, if your pitch is concise and descriptive, they probably will assume your writing is equally crisp and focused.
For more on this, see the point below about writing effective query letters.
Killer Query Letter- It’s worth mentioning that agents won’t even see your actual BOOK until you’ve intrigued them with an excellent query letter. This letter needs to convey the uniqueness and marketability of your book in just a few paragraphs. Make sure to spend some serious time and effort on your query letter. You’re a writer, after all! If it doesn’t sparkle, why would an agent assume the prose in your manuscript is any good?
Here are 3 videos with advice on crafting a great query letter.
Memorable- The people you want to impress most are the hardest people to impress. They have a hundred other manuscripts on their desk right now. At the end of the day, did your query letter stand out? Did you hook them enough with a few paragraphs so they want to read the whole manuscript? And when they read the book, did you leave them with a feeling they can’t shake? Did you make them laugh the loudest? Think the hardest? Uncap their deepest reservoir of sorrow? With so much competition, your book needs to be worth a second thought.
Polished Product- Does your book read like a finished work of art? Ask friends to read it and point out any flaws they find (grammar, syntax, character development, continuity, etc.) The less work an agent has to do to prepare your book for the big time, the more they’ll like you.
So, those are my thoughts. What has your experience been like finding an agent? Were they able to successfully pitch your book to a publisher? We’d love to hear about it in the comments section below!
-Chris R. at BookBaby
P.S. Also, see our article on finding a literary agent.Nitish Kumar Nitish Kumar
Ahead of completion of 8 years in government, Nitish Kumar's JD(U) has come out with a report card on the status of crime rates in the state and in a surprising revelation the report card suggests that the crime graph in the state has declined tremendously after JD(U) parted ways with BJP.In a way, JD(U) has blamed the saffron party for the deteriorating law and order in the state during Nitish's second tenure. To bolster their claim, JD(U) relied on figures of the National Crime Record Bureau to hit out at BJP.Speaking to indiatoday.in, a Nitish minister Shyam Rajak said, "BJP leaders in Bihar have been alleging that law and order in the state has deteriorated under Nitish's rule after June this year. I feel like laughing. According to NCRB, the crime graph after JD(U) parted ways with BJP has decreased in state. BJP is only trying to fool the people by presenting wrong figures".JD(U) also compared the crime figures of Bihar with Gujarat and other BJP-ruled states to prove that the crime rate in the state was lesser than BJP-ruled states. The allegation is being seen as the Nitish government's attempt to malign Narendra Modi, who claimed that law and order in Gujarat was better than rest of the states.Shyam Rajak said, "Population of BJP-ruled states is much lower than Bihar but the crime graphs in those states are higher than Bihar. In 2012, Gujarat registered almost 4 lakh incidents while Bihar registered only 1.6 lakh despite the higher population".BJP has ridiculed the report and says the disclosures that crime rate has declined after June are baseless. The former ally has challenged Nitish Kumar to arrest people from BJP who were sponsoring crime in the state, failing which he should quit his post.Speaking to indiatoday.in BJP leader Giriraj Singh said, "Nitish should himself have addressed this presser. Why he asked a parrot in his govt to do it? Terror attacks took place during Nitish's regime, after we parted ways. Nitish should reply whether Darbhanga module existed or not because NIA has proved this. Riots never took place in Bihar but after we parted ways, major riots took place. Lalu's regime is returning back now. Nitish's minister does not even know the difference between NIA and NIT. If BJP is behind crime, we challenge them to arrest the guilty or else he should quit".JD(U) & BJP continue to trade charges and Nitish Kumar, it seems, is leaving no stone unturned to show BJP's PM nominee in bad light This fight is only going to get more bitter and murkier as elections draw closer.In mid-April, a former Colorado Springs-area Fox Sports radio outlet switched its format to K-HIGH, a marijuana-talk station.
Now, a Denver station has followed suit.
What had been KDCO-FM/Mile High Sports Radio is now KBUD-FM, also known as Smokin 94.1.
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In March, the station and its sister signal at 1550 AM were reportedly sold to Marc Paskins's Marco Broadcasting for $875,000. And this morning, Smokin FM launched with syndicated host Bubba the Love Sponge.
Bubba the Love Sponge and his crew. Smokin941.com
Bubba, who's made headlines for shenanigans aplenty over the years (click to read about his claimed Hulk Hogan sex tape), is based in Florida, and his show isn't exclusively about pot. This morning, however, he kindly did an extended segment about THC lube.
Starting at 10 a.m., the man behind the microphone will be Ed Blaze....
Ed Blaze. Twitter
...followed by Gary Ganja and Stoney Reynolds. And on weekends, the man in charge is Billy Blunt:
Billy Blunt. Twitter
Marijuana Deals Near You
What to expect? A blend of pot talk and rock music that's considered to be smokin'. Like, for instance, Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water," which I caught this afternoon.
"I have created a unique radio format, there is no radio station anywhere in the country like Smokin 94.1," Paskin told AllAccess.com, adding, "There is not a better fit for our mornings than Bubba the Love Sponge. He loves weed, fast cars, hot girls and rock music. I think Bubba will take Denver by storm!"
In his own statement, Bubba added: “Rock music and smoking pot have historically gone together like peanut butter and jelly. The Bubba the Love Sponge Show has been an advocate for the legalization of marijuana long before it was the cool thing to do. Our listeners understand these facts, which is why many loyal Bubba Army members from my national audience have moved to Colorado since they legalized weed, so it will be like hooking up with old friends. I can’t wait to fire it up in Denver.”
Given the challenges facing terrestrial radio these days, the folks behind Smokin 94.1 are hardly guaranteed success. But give them credit for trying something new (or at least pretty new), rather than cycling through the usual formats.
For more information on Smokin 94.1, and to listen, click here.Regardless, Weber says AMG is prepping to offer something “special” by 2020, at which time it will be necessary to unveil the performance division’s hybrid and electrified plans.
Weber went on to say that, considering the current market climate, hybrid performance was not the right move, adding that AMG customers wanted the highest-performance option available. “We don’t know when they will be ready for hybrid,” he said.
As emission regulations in the EU become more stringent, Daimler must meet the goal of reducing average CO2 output to 101 g/km by 2020. Failure to do so will result in big fines. The most effective way to reduce emissions without significantly hampering performance seems to be through the use of battery power.
The impetus comes from growing pressure to increase engine efficiency across the board, with more than just Mercedes AMG feeling the squeeze to go green. Weber said that every part of the Mercedes stable needs a revamp, adding, “No one part of our business can be carried on the back of another. It’s a huge task to reduce AMG fuel consumption but we’ve realized that it’s also a huge opportunity.”
That’s the word from Mercedes-Benz’s head of R&D Thomas Weber. Speaking to the British publication Autocar, Weber confirmed that a hybridized AMG performance model could go on sale in the next five years.
The sports car world is changing at an accelerating rate. Battery packs are encroaching on territory where enormous displacement once ruled supreme, and now it looks like Mercedes-Benz’s performance tuning division, AMG, will soon cross to the ranks of hybrid power.
Why it matters
This latest news coincides with earlier statements Weber made mid-July. In a report from the Australian publication Motoring, the R&D boss told journalists that “We are completely convinced we will stay forever with V-8s,” but added that displacement would probably see a downsize and the turbos would probably get bigger. What’s more, he went on to say that the key to high performance could be electrification, with technology sourced directly from the world of motorsport.
Weber says Mercedes is looking to adapt its existing hybrid technology for use in high-performance models from the automaker’s tuning division, specifically mentioning an “e-boost” solution similar to that seen in the BlueTEC Hybrid.
"There is room for something which is more leaning to boost and energy harvesting and a role model could be the F1 story. It’s a little bit different than the hybrid concept,” he said.
Now, however, Weber says Mercedes is looking to adapt its existing hybrid technology for use in high-performance models from the automaker’s tuning division, specifically mentioning an “e-boost” solution similar to that seen in the BlueTEC Hybrid. The system would use a small battery and electric motor that would add power and a regenerative braking feature. This system has the benefit of already being in large-volume production. Weber also said that lightness and low cost were vital components to successful implementation.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Weber thinks the naturally aspirated engine is on its last legs. However, he seems hopeful that hybrid power will provide an adequate workaround for those consumers looking for high levels of performance.
In the past, AMG boss Tobias Moers hinted that the tuning division was working on a 918-fighting hybrid hypercar, possibly with upwards of 1,000 horsepower thanks to a 4.0-liter twin-turbo ICE and two electric motors. Presumably, the option to run in all-electric mode would drive down average emissions, which sounds like a bit of a loophole if you ask me, but I sure ain’t complaining.
Mercedes is currently gearing up to offer 10 new plug-in hybrid models in the next few years, which should provide plenty of development know-how ahead of the release of a hybrid AMG model in 2020.
Mercedes-AMG has traditionally been known for big, thirsty V-8s, which makes hybridization feel a bit out of character for the German performance tuner.
Several performance icons are currently on the path toward hybridization. The next-generation GT-R, for example, is rumored to get an electrified boost with tech sourced from Nissan’s FWD Le Mans LMP1 racer, the 2015 Nissan GT-R LM Nismo, with upwards of 800 horsepower possible from a turbo V-6 mated to a KERS-like system. Most blasphemous would be a hybrid or all-electric Porsche 911, with tech pulled from Stuttgart’s range of e-machines.
Mercedes-AMG has traditionally been known for big, thirsty V-8s, which makes hybridization feel a bit out of character for the German performance tuner. To me, AMGs have always been like the ghosts of the industrial revolution come back to haunt us, with big powerplants throwing down insane amounts of power, belching carbon out the back. The cars seem to fling their chrome-lined weight around with a blatant disregard for the environment, gulping down the world’s oil supplies with a V-8 bellow and clouds of tire smoke.
However, a new hybrid model wouldn’t be AMG’s first foray into electrification. A few years back, we got a taste with the 2013 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive, which boasted 740 all-electric horsepower and 737 pound-feet of torque from 0 rpm. The result was a neon EV supercar that lends a good deal of promise to AMG’s electrified future.
So I guess with all the hubbub over fuel efficiency and emissions, plus the widespread use of electric drivetrains for performance from a slew of different makes, this news shouldn’t come as some kind of huge revelation. But it does kinda make you wonder how long the ICE-only sports car will last.
Read our full review here.
Source: AutocarThe much-anticipated Harambe Market opens late May at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, where food plays a starring role with African-inspired street food at four walk-up windows and plenty of shaded seating – 200+ seats.
Built around a Colonial-era train depot design complete with a 1960s water tower, the marketplace re-creates a bustling center of commerce where guests are welcomed from around the world who have come to visit the little seaside town and venture out to the reserve to observe Africa’s animals.
Chef Lenny DeGeorge led the Food and Beverage concept development team, and tells us it’s the sort of food you’d find in a street market in Africa. “The menus reflect the unique personalities of the establishments’ owners,” says Chef Lenny.
“Kitamu Grill” offers skewered chicken and a kabob flatbread sandwich. “Famous Sausages” features a corn dog, inspired by a South African sausage called a boerewors, dipped in curry-infused corn batter. “Chef Mwanga’s” serves a spice-rubbed karubi rib with green papaya-carrot slaw.
“With three meaty ribs, the karubi rib is our version of the giant turkey legs served in the Disney theme parks,” says DeGeorge. We give two thumbs up to the curry corn dog, made with a special spiced sausage inspired by the traditional boerewors.
A fourth window, called Wanjohi Refreshments (“wanjohi” means “brewer” in Swahili) offers beverages including six South African wines by the glass; Safari Amber Lager and Orlando Brewing I-4 IPA on draft; red sangria with Van der Hum tangerine liqueur from South Africa; The Starr of Harambe, a frozen drink with Starr African rum with mango puree in a souvenir mug; non-alcoholic tangerine lemonade, and fountain beverages including Sparberry from Zimbabwe and Bibo from South Africa.
With shaded tables and merchandise shops, the new market, together with the recently opened Harambe Theatre (home to “Festival of the Lion King”) doubles the size of the original Harambe Village.05 / 04 / 2017
Special Prizes at 2017 WCQ: National Championships!
“Nationals Season” is about to kick off for another year as the 2017 WCQ: National Championships get underway over the coming weeks and months!
In addition to the title of “National Champion”, Duelists in participating countries also have the chance to win all sorts of prizes, some of which are exclusive to this type of event!
All Duelists that participate in a 2017 WCQ: National Championship (or 2017 WCQ: National Dragon Duel Championship) event will take home a special Mouse Mat*, featuring the same design that appears on the Game Mats awarded to high-ranking players at these events! This half-size accessory was a popular addition to our Ordeal of a Traveler programme over the past few years and we’re now expanding the concept to WCQ: National Championships as well.
Duelists competing in 2017 WCQ: Dragon Duel National Championships will get an extra bonus, as we’re handing out 2017 World Championship Qualifier (WCQ) Card Sleeves to participants in addition to the booster packs they get for entering! These sleeves will also be available to older Duelists as prizing based on what position you finish in at your country’s WCQ: National Championship.
On top of the prestigious title of “National Champion”, each winner will receive VIP treatment at the 2017 WCQ: European Championship in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Each VIP Package includes additional WCQ Sleeves, priority queuing for the Main and Public Events and a WCQ: National Championship Lanyard. As you can see, our top Duelists get the Seto Kaiba treatment for the entire weekend, making it an event to remember!
This year’s WCQ: National Championships are set to be the biggest ever, with World Qualifier Points, exclusive prizes and free goodies on offer. Check our Events page for information on your nearest event, and best of luck in your Duels!
* While stocks last.
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Page TopPleasantly Suprised!
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised given the price and the countless of not so great reviews all over the web. I mainly purchased this firearm based on the price. I also have a M&P Shield which I absolutly love and thought why not. I never handled the SD9VE before purchasing it, so when it arrived, it was my first time putting my hands on it. No, it does not feel like a M&P but it does not feel bad either. The slide is a little tough to rack compared to other manufactures but it is also a little tough on my Shield as well. It is a very nice looking firearm and I love the grip angle. I did find the grip texture way too rough and I did install the rubber Talon grips on it. I did have the issue of the slide not locking back on empty right out of the box. Not an issue with the firearm but the magazines themselves. I stretched out the magazine springs...problem solved. No issues since. The biggest complaint I hear is the trigger. Yes, it is long but that does not bother me. I have no issues putting rounds on target. Many people are upgrading to the Apex spring/trigger kit. I have no plans to do so. The pistol performs very well for me as is. I have another pistols in my arsenal (Sig, Remington, etc) and the SD9VE is starting to become my favorite to take to the range. If you are looking for a great range/backup gun or even a first time buyer on a budget, you can’t go wrong with the SD9VE.The DiscumBOBulator by Emma Electronics has superior filter-triggering as well as a huge dynamic range that you don't always find. The real key to this unique envelope filter is the huge headroom signal, so the pedal handles the red hot signals of active bass pickups and line level inputs flawlessly. Now add that the DiscumBOBulator has an independent 10dB boost so you can get up and over your band's mix when you need to and I rest my case!
As you can hear in the video I have done, the Emma Electronics DiscumBOBulator clearly has everything I mentioned above. I didn't plug an active bass in it, because I don't own one, but I have plugged a lot of heavy output pedals in front of it and it soared as if it were a low input bass.# Clustered Error Bar for Groups of Cases.
# Example: Experimental Condition (Stereotype Threat Yes/No) x Gender (Male / Female)
# The following values would be calculated from data and are set fixed now for
# code reproduction
names(stderr.males)
# Error Bar Plot
library (gplots)
# Draw the error bar for female experiment participants:
plotCI(x = means.females, uiw = stderr.females, lty = 2, xaxt ="n", xlim = c(0.5,2.5), ylim = c(-1,1), gap = 0, ylab="Microworld Performance (Z Score)", xlab="Stereotype Threat", main = "Microworld performance over experimental conditions")
# Add the males to the existing plot
plotCI(x = means.males, uiw = stderr.males, lty = 1, xaxt ="n", xlim = c(0.5,2.5), ylim = c(-1,1), gap = 0, add = TRUE)
# Draw the x-axis (omitted above)
axis(side = 1, at = 1:2, labels = names(stderr.males), cex = 0.7)
# Add legend for male and female participants
legend(2,1,legend=c("Male","Female"),lty=1:2)
[1] Cumming, G., & Finch, S. (2005). Inference by Eye: Confidence Intervals and How to Read Pictures of Data. American Psychologist, 60(2), 170–180. names(means.males)[1] Cumming, G., & Finch, S. (2005). Inference by Eye: Confidence Intervals and How to Read Pictures of Data. American Psychologist, 60(2), 170–180. Labels: R, spss, statistics stderr.males means.males names(stderr.females) names(means.females) stderr.females means.females
One of the reasons why I haven't made the switch from R to SPSS is R's lack of proper error bar graphs. I use them frequently because they are easy to interpret: If you plot the means of several groups of participants in one error bar chart and scale the error bars to a length of one standard measurement error, non-overlapping error bars indicate a significant difference between the according means. In fact, the APA advocates the use of error bars for reporting results since 2005 [1]. This way of reporting differences in means is also called "Inference by Eye" [1].After my rants about SPSS, my wise R mentor, Stephan Kolassa, pointed me at the gplots library that features a good function for drawing error bars in R: plotCI(). Stephan also pointed me to Rseek.org, an excellent search engine for R related queries. I fiddled with Stephan's example code in order to reproduce my SPSS clustered error-bar chart from last week's post on stereotype threat in complex problem solving And this is how I got in in R: I like it very much; the only thing I need to work out is how to offset the bars in the same conditions so that overlapping error bars don't actually overlap but are drawn next to each other with a few pixels between them.If you would like to try this out for yourself, here is the R code that produces the image above:Yes, you read it right. The Government of India is looking forward to ‘create’ world’s longest river, twice the length of Nile.
The project, a brainchild of Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, was officially declared in 2002. The plan is to link 37 major Indian rivers by 30 link canals, of which 14 are Himalayan and 16 are peninsular. The total length of the project is roughly estimated to be around 14,900-km. It was, however, estimated in 2014, to cost exchequer an extravagant Rs.11,20,000 crore (or $163.5 billion), doubling up from estimated Rs.5,60,000 crores (or $81.6 billion) in 2002.
Moreover, the project is not just limited to inter linking of rivers by the use of canals. It extends to creation of larger dams and high capacity canals to transfer large volume of waters from one river basin to another, to connect the high-discharge perennial Himalayan Rivers with the seasonal rivers |
I will say is that when Alan Pardew took them to 5th in 2012 they were, as noted earlier, the cheapest side to get that high in a decade. This is why I thought Pardew was doing a good job, especially given the fans’ contempt this season, albeit his tenure moved with the ebb and flow that most clubs experience. (Only Arsenal seem to be constant in their finishing position, year after year. Wenger keeps getting them into the Champions League, but the Champions League arguably stops them doing better domestically.)
The Newcastle fans wanted Pardew replaced with a proper manager – but they are owned by someone who, in 2008/09, appointed Kevin Keegan, Chris Hughton, Joe Kinnear and Alan Shearer en route to taking an expensive side down. Therefore, in disliking Pardew because he was an “Ashley man”, they missed the point that Ashley was only going to appoint another Ashley man – and that it might be someone pretty rubbish. But that’s another story, and I have some sympathy with the Geordies – and I can’t pretend to know the full ins and outs of their disgruntlement.
What’s interesting is that Southampton were the definition of a “selling club” last summer – more so than Newcastle have ever been under Mike Ashley, even if the Saints didn’t appear to sell their soul in the process. Southampton were fed upon by bigger clubs, just as Newcastle were when Yohan Cabaye moved to France. It can become virtually impossible to keep players against their will when more glamorous clubs come calling. Perhaps the difference is that Southampton immediately reinvested the fees, whereas Newcastle didn’t.
But even as brilliantly as Southampton have done, they haven’t broken through the TPI glass ceiling of 7th place – in the last decade Fulham, Blackburn and Bolton have finished 7th with very inexpensive squads, but unless Southampton leapfrog one of Liverpool or Spurs, it’s going to be ten years with only one relatively cheap side (Pardew’s Newcastle) finishing in the top six. So the model tells you that a “cheap” team can finish 7th, but they almost never push beyond that.
The longer the season wears on the more it becomes about the squad. Players get injured, and those who play every week start to get jaded – while cup runs, if they occur, can add to fixture build-up. Money is required to create and maintain a big squad, unless there’s an exceptional youth policy that provides top-quality replacements – but this is very rare indeed. Almost always, money counts.
Below is an updated version of the graphic that first appeared in Pay As You Play five years ago. It shows the costliest side in each given season as the deepest shade of red, with every other side reflected as a percentage of that (so if it cost half it will be a 50% shade of red). The table has the clubs in their finishing positions, and you can see how the money is now concentrated in the top seven, whereas up to the arrival of Roman Abramovich it was more evenly spread around. The rich are getting richer. Liverpool in 2008/09 and 2013/14 are two of the (relatively) cheapest sides to finish in the top two in the entire Premier League era.
Now, people insist that you can beat these odds. And, for brief periods, some clubs appear to be able to do so – just as Newcastle did by selling and buying well prior to 2011/12, and Southampton have in 2014/15. But no one outside of the Rich Three has broken the odds and won the title in 11 years. And England is unique as it doesn’t have a Rich One (Germany, Italy) or a Rich Two (Spain). It has three powerhouses. (See the Appendix for more on Atletico, Dortmund, et al, which is a whole other story.)
What happens, virtually all of the time, is that a lack of money exposes a problem with the squad. And that problem ends up being blamed on the manager.
Think about it. It’s true, isn’t it?
Now, the manager in question may have his faults; indeed, he will have his faults, as he’s a human being. And if he is responsible for buying the players – and not all are – he will be blamed for not buying the correct players – even though all managers and Directors of Football buy the wrong players, even if they are apparently buying the right players (because 50-60% of all transfers fail to be clearly successful).
You get what you pay for
People understand the concept of “you get what you pay for” with individual players – even if you don’t get what you pay for as often as you think, as I’ve proved many times – but they often don’t accept the concept that if you add up everything you’ve paid, and it’s not enough to take you to the level your fans aspire to, you’ll probably fall short. Somehow the manager gets the blame.
The more money you spend on the squad, the greater the chance of having a better XI and better back-ups, and, crucially, of being able to have some expensive flops who offer nothing. The less money you have the tougher it is when you make the kind of mistakes everyone makes in the transfer market.
Think about it. Arsenal and Liverpool are always supposedly one or two players short of challenging (maybe three, depending on the pundit). But the average cost of their £XIs is always at least £80m short of the Rich Three over the course of a season.
Now, put two £30m players into their XIs, plus one for £20m, and they’ll be closer. Easy!
But if they could afford to be doing that, in terms of transfer fees and wages, as well as convincing the players to join them, they would. And also, the law of transfer averages, which I’ve pointed out many times, means that it’s virtually impossible that all three signings will live up to expectations, and seriously unlikely that all three would do so in their first season. You often have to spend twice as much as you want to get the number of successful signings craved.
So, for Arsenal and Liverpool to add those three players without being given a ton of gold bullion (that FFP then turns a blind eye to), they’ll probably have to sell some good players first. But hey, you say – why not sell the bad players? Hmm, I say – who is going to pay good money for your deadwood? Or offer a good fee for your unsung heroes?
Now, those three fairly expensive players arrive. The likelihood is that one settles quickly and is brilliant; one takes to his second season to settle; and the third fails altogether, due to injury, homesickness, poor form, or whatever. So it’s two years before you’re getting just 2/3rd of what you paid for in terms of performances. If you’re lucky, within two years you’re getting £60m benefit from £80m spent, but overall, on all transfers, you’re probably going to get £40m benefit from £80m spent.
In terms of getting what you pay for, you may get 50-60% benefit from your mega-buys, but as I’ve noted before, currently only five of the 11 most expensive Premier League signings (after inflation) can be considered clear successes. You increase your chances of getting a top player by paying more, but top players like Shevchenko, Veron, Torres (at Chelsea) and Di Maria (to date) have proved that even the world’s elite can be utter duds. Plenty of no-brainers turn out to be awful, or merely average.
And every club only ever gets 40-60% of their expenditure into their XIs over 38 games. This happens every season. On average in 2014/15, a whopping 53% of the money all clubs spent on their squads (including only those who have made at least one league appearance) ended up on the bench or in the stands.
The current top five have a “wastage” of between 46% and 55%, with Liverpool’s at 50%. That means that Liverpool’s £XI is £141m and their squad cost, after inflation, is £281m. United’s wastage is slightly lower, at 47%, but the cost of all players they’ve used in the league is a whopping £557m TPI. Now, part of this “wastage” may be down to injury, suspensions or all kind of things. But it shows that no matter what a club spends, at least 40% of that spending will not be in the starting XI, and it may be as high as 60% or more. And it’s the same further down the table: Burnley are at 49%, for example, and QPR at 60%, for the amount of spending in relation to players who don’t feature.
Odds
People think you can improve your transfer odds by going back in time and just buying players who have gone on to do well elsewhere. Even if these were obvious signings, it doesn’t mean they would have succeeded at your club, in this given season.
When it comes to assessing these things you can’t then say “If Liverpool had just bought Remy instead of Balotelli or Lambert, things would be so much better”. Because, had he signed for Liverpool, Remy may have broken down with injury in the first training session – cue a million fans going mental for signing a player with medical issues – or myriad other things. He may have been great, and he may have been rubbish. He may have been great, but also broken Emre Can’s leg in training, and then we’d be wondering why only Remy was looking a hit from the summer’s business, and why we spent £10m on a young German who is never fit.
We all say certain players should never have been signed, but then we’ve all been shocked by players who should never have been signed who went on to be excellent. We’ve all said a certain player will definitely succeed at a certain club, only for him to then fail. We can’t just keep the ones we get right and pretend the ones we got wrong didn’t happen.
Spread thick or thin?
If you spend £300m on ten £30m players, you might get five or six superb first-teamers, but you’re almost certainly guaranteed some flops. If you spend £100m on ten £10m players you might get three or four successes, and maybe an extra flop or two. Yes, it all depends on the individuals in question, but no one has worked out a way to never sign duds.
However, if you have a small squad and spend £50m apiece on two players, it might be great; but if one flops, as the law of averages suggests, and the other gets injured, as can happen, you’re screwed. If you spend the £100m on ten players you might end up with ten scraps of deadwood, though it’s unlikely. However, the odds suggest that you’ll get at least a gem or two (see Can, Emre). But – and this is the key to the whole damn thing – no matter how you slice it – two £50m players or ten £10m players – if your squad still costs only half that of your rivals, you’re probably going to finish below them. You cut the cake thick or you cut the cake thin, you still won’t get as much as someone with two cakes.
So if your £XI costs below £150m each season, and the Rich Three remain at £220m-£295m, your team is still miles short. You are as far from the title as teams like Southampton are from the Champions League; it looks possible, but really, it isn’t.
Go back to the earlier example. You’ve added the three aforementioned mythical players but it’s taken two years to get two of them to purr; but in those two years all kinds of stuff has happened: you’ve also seen your ageing stalwart decline and eventually retire, and one or two of your best talents have been whisked off to Spain because, in all reality, you can’t force them to stay against their will when Barcelona or Real Madrid come calling.
If you’re lucky you get a big fee for one of them, but another will leave either on a Bosman or as an agent-enforced just-one-year-to-go half-price sale (because he’s threatening to do a Bosman). Another of your best players breaks his leg, or snaps his hamstring, so he’s out for the season. You’ve also bought some other, cheaper players, and some of those will do surprisingly well and others will become deadwood. Some youth players will graduate, although maybe none will be outstanding.
If you can’t afford to pay the highest wages (and FFP limits spending in relation to a club’s turnover) then you can’t afford to keep all your best players and buy only top-class new ones. Somewhere the maths breaks down. You gain in that period of time, whilst simultaneously losing.
What tends to happen is that if you’ve got a mega-squad you can lose a player for three games at a key stage of the season and prevail; if you have a smaller squad, which costs much less, you bring in Iago Aspas and you fall short. If you don’t fall short then, then you fall short at some other point.
On a lower budget, the law of averages suggests you don’t have seven international-class replacements on the bench, and six more who can’t even get into the match-day squad. You can stupidly blame the manager and players for bottling it, or bemoan the tactics (or rotation/lack of rotation), but it’s ultimately moaning that the blanket doesn’t cover your toes when you pull it up – when, if you pushed it down, it’d leave your shoulders cold. All the while your rivals can afford a bigger blanket, that covers more areas (as they eat their two cakes in bed).
And if these clubs change the manager the shortcomings in the squad will expose him too. He’ll be better at tactics but too conservative for your tastes; or he’ll be a better motivator but not as clever; or he’ll like pretty football but be too soft; or he’ll give you midfield enforcers but you’ll think he’s denying you a cutting edge. He’s never going to look like Pep Guardiola deploying Bayern Munich’s players. He’ll never be the best manager with an impeccable squad.
Few managers are perfect, and even Jose Mourinho last season, upon seeing that he had an expensive squad that wasn’t ideal, gave up the ghost and accepted 3rd place and no trophies. Now, Chelsea bought brilliantly in the summer, but when he was hamstrung he wasn’t quite so good, was he? He inherited a ton of top players in 2013, some of whom he’d signed or coached first time around (such as Petr Cech, Frank Lampard and John Terry), but he couldn’t make a top side out them until he’d brought in two £30m players in 2014 on massive wages. The loss to injury of just one player – Costa – almost cost them, but in fairness they dug in and, without much of a challenge from anyone else to put them under serious pressure, they saw it through.
My argument is that, since 2004, Arsenal and Liverpool have been financially hamstrung compared with the Rich Two (up to 2009)/Rich Three (once City joined them). They are always caught in compromises, like Mourinho last season.
Get a new manager and you’ll probably just find something else to moan about, and whatever you moan about won’t necessarily be true anyway: Benítez was “too negative”, for example, but in 2009 his team were the Premier League’s top scorers, and his Chelsea also scored loads (while his Napoli team score a lot too). Rodgers “can’t coach a defence”, and yet Swansea had a load of clean sheets under him in their debut Premier League season (13 I think), and his Liverpool side have kept clean sheets in seven of the last eight league away games, which is unheard of. These managers have weaknesses, of course, but the squad cost limits them – there’s always the time when they look to the bench and it’s Aspas or El Zhar. (And it’s not necessarily the manager’s fault there’s an Aspas or an El Zhar – just the difficulty in building a big squad on a limited budget, where holes will always exist, because bad transfers happen to everyone.)
Cups with a limited squad
In Rafa Benítez’s case I believe he takes his teams on so many extended cup runs it makes the league form harder to keep constant – because he always ends up with rescheduled fixtures and games crammed in towards the end of the season; and even the biggest squads can struggle there (and only at Chelsea has he had a big squad). This leads us into another area, in that silverware is important – but the cups (and particularly the Europa League) damage league form.
If playing games every three or four days increases the likelihood of injuries (and the famed AC Milan lab said it did), then to play 60-65 games a season means more injuries, which means you need a bigger squad to cope. But if you have a limited budget, you almost certainly cannot add both quantity and quality. You add quantity, and it’s spread too thin; you add quality and you don’t have enough fit and able bodies and risk losing all of your investment in one or two bad injuries. (Youth graduates are one answer, but they are often inconsistent, and that inconsistency then becomes the gaping hole in the squad.)
My sense is that even for an outside chance to win the title, Liverpool have to focus solely on the league, and use all of the cups for squad players and youth graduates, with Rodgers (or Klopp, Benítez or whoever) not even travelling with the team to cup games, but staying at Melwood to drill the senior side for the league fixture. But I don’t think any managers are ever keen on that, because they need trophies for their CVs – and some fans will want silverware and league success, because they think it’s 1986. And no one who pays to travel to watch games wants to see a shadow squad put out. It’s just that it might be for the greater good.
Managers want to win trophies, to instil a winning mentality. And the ‘problem’ is, when you finally get into the Champions League you naturally have to take it seriously – and then, of course, your league form can suffer, and you fall down the league table, perhaps out of the top four. The answer? Bigger, more expensive squads. Something which FSG can’t afford, and in Liverpool’s case, FFP won’t allow. The owners had a brief go, as could be seen in the spending of 2011 (Liverpool almost went into the Title Zone), but that was their first year in charge, and the only year when they could spend big and not fall foul of FFP. Since then it’s been far more complicated, with some expensive duds, some supposed duds who came good, and Luis Suarez, who came and then went.
Benítez and Rodgers – hamstrung managers
My opinion is that at Liverpool, neither Rodgers nor Benítez had/has a squad that costs anything remotely close to those of the richer clubs (this part is fact, to paraphrase a certain Spaniard, not opinion). And therefore, holes in the squad were/are inevitable; just as those with less money than Liverpool, like Everton, will mostly have either more holes in their squad (enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall), or weaker best XIs. Sometimes these holes will be exposed and other times they’ll be covered up, but they’re always there, waiting for November or February or May, when it becomes obvious. Unless you are a genius in the transfer market, who can beat the odds in a way that no one seems able to do over a long period of time, and/or are bringing through a crop of amazing kids, the holes are never far away.
Being rich doesn’t mean you’ll be successful, but being successful in the Premier League, beyond certain glass ceilings, happens only when you’re rich.
At times, the richer clubs will screw up and appoint a bad manager or buy the wrong players, and you may overtake them. But it’s usually only briefly; before long they change the manager and spend tons of money again. The poor can beat the richer in individual games, as we all know – and occasionally do better in seasons as a whole – but never if the rich are at their best. Depending on the wealth gap, the richer will win (or finish higher) seven, eight or nine out of 10 times.
Sometimes Everton will finish above Liverpool, but mostly Liverpool will finish above Everton. Sometimes Liverpool will finish above Chelsea, but mostly Chelsea will finish above Liverpool. And as I’ve been stating for a long time now, if Liverpool are only likely to finish above Chelsea occasionally, and United occasionally, and City occasionally, then what are the chances of finishing above all three at once? The only chance, of course, is if all three have bad or below-par seasons at the same time. And the chances of that are remote; it hasn’t happened so far.
What are the chances of a team that cost £140m finishing above three teams that cost £220m-£300m, given that at least one of those expensive teams will almost certainly have a good season?
And how often does a team costing £140m (all of these figures are in 2014 money ©TPI) finish with enough points to even stand a chance? Without including Chelsea, who are on par for 90 this season but could still hit 92, the title-winners have averaged approximately 89 points in the past decade. In the decade before it was 81. How does a non Rich Three team hit 90 points?
But for now let’s look at just those who reach ‘only’ 80 points.
Since 2004 – when Chelsea first mixed money with Mourinho – 23 “teams” have finished with 80 or more points: Chelsea and Manchester United tied on eight times each, with Liverpool (surprisingly) third – having achieved it three times, while both Arsenal and Man City have achieved it twice. (Arsenal are currently on par for 77 points based on points-per-game, but could theoretically hit 82 with three wins; while Manchester City’s maximum possible is now 79, so they can’t reach the magic mark.)
Hitting 80 points is one thing; hitting 10% more than that something else. The top nine points-scoring sides since 2004 – ranging from 95 down to 87 – have all cost in excess of 220m, with the average at £262m.
Only one single time since 2004 has a team costing less than £224m finished with more than 84 points: Benítez’s Liverpool, who rank 10th in that time with 86 points, achieved with an £XI of just £142m: only two-thirds of what the nine above it, and the four directly below it, cost. (And people tell me he wasn’t very good in the league.)
So that’s just one of the top-14 points-scoring teams since 2004 (Benítez’s from 2009) costing what, for that kind of achievement, is pittance. Everyone else has cost north of £224m to hit the 86-point mark, with the peak £XI being £335m of Chelsea’s 2005/06 vintage.
What’s interesting is that in 15th place is Rodgers’ Liverpool, with 84 points, costing £143m – virtually identical to Benítez’s team that went two points better, but didn’t take the title right up until the last day (but they were up against the United of Ferguson, Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez, Berbatov and co.). And the 16th-highest points scorer (since his Invincibles of 2004) is Wenger’s 83 of 2005 and which cost … £146m. All very similar.
In today’s money, the £XIs of Arsenal and Liverpool dating back to 1992 have never been higher than £169.7m. Liverpool and Arsenal average 20 league wins a season, and 70 points. Since 2003 they’ve averaged 21 wins a season, and 71.6 points.
What’s interesting is that since 2011, when combined, Arsenal and Liverpool have had an £XI that averages out at £142m. This season, Arsenal’s £XI is … £142m, and Liverpool’s is £141m. When Rafa Benítez’s Reds finished 2nd in 2009, the £XI was – remember? – £142m. Increase that by 50% and you still don’t get what the cheapest Rich Three side amounts to right now.
People talk about Liverpool having spent £770m in the Premier League era, but it doesn’t contain the context of how and why it was spent, and it doesn’t change that fact that Liverpool’s squad and £XI – at least since the ‘90s – has always been dwarfed by other clubs. Gross spend arguments are dumb; net spend arguments are flawed, but better – and team/squad cost arguments (as shown in our TPI work) are infinitely better than either when it comes to predicting where a team will finish.
What Benítez achieved in 2009 was incredible in relation to the budget – finishing 2nd with a team costing £142m, behind only United, whose average cost was £232m that season, and ahead of Chelsea, whose was £245m.
However, what Rodgers achieved last season was comparable. Manchester City cost £237m last season, and Chelsea, with Mourinho as manager, cost £250m. (United cost £257m; this year they average at £295m.)
This is why I defended Benítez at the time, and why I defend Rodgers now. I don’t just make this shit up – it’s all documented going back years (to 2010 in the book Pay As You Play) in terms of how effective the £XI is at determining league position. The correlations are clear to see, and the process can be seen from the Introduction written five years ago.
(It works out very similar to wage bill analysis, but this is the data we happen to own and use. We also find that the squad cost, once inflation is applied, closely matches wage bill analysis, but the benefit of £XI is that if a club’s expensive players all end up injured it will be reflected in the total – whereas wages stay the same no matter who is fit. Like any model it’s not perfect, but on average most clubs tend to finish within two places of their £XI ranking – see Southampton for the earlier example. There is far more variation in finishing position in relation to £XIs lower down the table, but everyone’s finances are more closely clustered: the team that ranks 13th may be only 10% richer than the team that ranks 14th, whereas the difference between 3rd and 4th is a drop of 50%. Equally, the Rich Three have vaguely similar finances, so the order in which they finish isn’t as clear-cut as the fact that at least one of the trio will be champions.)
The main change since that book, and since Benítez’s time at Liverpool, is the emergence of Manchester City. They pushed Liverpool from the 3rd- or 4th-ranked financial power into 5th, and squeezed the Reds out of the virtuous circle that rewards the top four.
Add two semi-finals and Liverpool have had a pretty decent season. The problem is that it hasn’t looked that way when watching the matches. Performances have been very poor for much of the season (almost unwatchable at times), with no strikers worthy of the name. And yet, even without a decent fit striker, and with an ageing talisman, and with a young side, and without a certain world-class Uruguayan, Liverpool are hitting ‘par’. That tells me that, for all his faults, Rodgers isn’t doing as badly as the critics suggest.
It’s up to other people to decide if someone else can do much better, and whether this is indeed just part of the ebb and flow of football.
(Edit: just to add here, I don’t want to kill all hope, which is what some people seem to think I’m doing. But Liverpool’s best seasons/teams since the glory days were in 1996, 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2014 – or roughly every five years. Maybe that’s our success-orbit now: Fowler, McManaman and Collymore in 1996; the treble of 2001; Istanbul; the excellent 2008/09 side with Torres, Gerrard, Alonso, et al; and last season, with Suarez and Sturridge. While this isn’t a set five-year pattern, I’m using it to show how rarely we feel totally excited by our side, but also, that these moments of joy and pride do still come around. The key, for me, is that these are now rare treats. But please, if you’re in the ground then stay hopeful and make a noise – however, don’t fall quiet if we’re not 2-0 up against a certain side because you think we should be winning the title, or think that the manager must be changed if we have a tricky spell. Hopefully FFP will level the playing field again, and make the sport more of a sport, and less of a case of financial doping; but again, don’t hold your breath.)
Appendix – Additional Points
TPI vs Finishing Position
That everyone eventually evens out to their financial level is a fact from our TPI work, based on the past 10 years, and the top 10 positions in the Premier League; i.e. the average finishing position for the richest club each season is 1st, the average finishing position for the 2nd-richest club each season is 2nd, and so on, without fail, down to 10th. This doesn’t mean that the 2nd-richest club in any given season will always finish 2nd – it means that over ten years they might finish 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 1st. And just to be clear, the second richest team may be Manchester United one season and Manchester City another, then United again, or Chelsea, and so on.
Poor teams can beat rich teams on any given day. But richer teams win more often, and poor teams rarely finish above rich ones; if they do it’s because the rich team has under-performed, and left the chance there.
Atletico, etc.
People keep pointing out the brilliance of Atletico Madrid to me, and whilst true, I keep pointing out the difference: they are the 3rd-richest club in Spain, where four teams get Champions League revenue; Liverpool are the 5th-richest club in England, where, once again, only four can thrive.
Atletico had an amazing season last year, and Simeone is almost certainly a world-class manager. But they also needed both Barcelona and Real Madrid to get much lower points totals than they averaged in the previous five years to stand a chance (a drop of around 10%, which is almost ten points; Barcelona are currently on course to get 94, closer to their recent average of 96!). Atletico jumped from 3rd-ranked to finish 1st in 2014/15; last season Liverpool jumped from 5th-ranked to 2nd. This season Atletico have fallen from 1st to 3rd, back to par; this season Liverpool have fallen from 2nd to 5th, back to par. No one is calling Simeone an idiot, and Rodgers was two or three points away from a genuinely world-class achievement last season. Yes, you don’t get anything for being nearly-men, but Liverpool won a fairly incredible 26 games last season, and it turned out they needed to win 27.
In Germany, Dortmund achieved a hell of a lot under Jürgen Klopp, but as the 2nd-or-3rd biggest club in the country; and they’ve also seen the biggest fall from grace that I can remember a massive club experiencing, and far worse than what we’ve seen at Liverpool (but that doesn’t make him a crap manager). Porto do brilliantly with buying and selling, but they’re part of the “Big Three” that usually end up in the Champions League every year. None of these clubs is the 5th-richest in a four-place system, or the 4th-richest with three places.
Let’s be clear: Atletico, Porto and Dortmund are selling clubs. They have built excellent sides over recent years by selling their best players and reinvesting wisely; as did Lyon and Udinese before them. They cannot keep their elite players, as they are not at the top of the food chain; so they sell them and try to improve. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. They try to buy young, hungry players on the up; but those players may be inexperienced, and not quite ready. Older players often cost more, and demand bigger wages, but the downside with them is that they may have lost their desire, or accumulated niggling injuries and wear-and-tear. When the younger signings work, it’s the best way to do business. When they don’t, those clubs should have done the opposite. Obviously.I t appears that Friends are again at a point of questioning whether institutions that have served well for centuries have finally become obsolete. Part of the problem may be that we are using structures that past generations of Friends created for very different purposes.
From the beginning of the Quaker movement, Friends have made decisions about acceptable conduct. The Epistle from the Elders at Balby is the best‐known example of this. By the eighteenth century, these rules and advices were collected in what Friends referred to as the Discipline. Friends created rules and structures “for the exercise of a Christian care over each other for the preservation of all in unity of faith and practice” and “as an exterior hedge of preservation to us, against the many temptations and dangers to which we are exposed.” Today, my sense is that only a minority of Friends—mainly pastoral Friends and those in Ohio Yearly Meeting—are concerned with the “unity of faith and practice” that our structures were intended to uphold.
Until the late nineteenth century, it was understood that to be a Friend meant to live according to the Discipline. Some of its strictures, against dishonesty, drunkenness, and other forms of immoral behavior, would have been embraced by believers of all kinds. Others expressed distinctive Quaker beliefs, such as the prohibition on oath taking. Still others, founded on Quaker understandings of Truth, served as part of the “hedge,” most notably plainness of dress and address. Finally, Friends created a hierarchy of meetings, similar to a Presbyterian system, to maintain ties and order.
Before the mid‐nineteenth century, few Friends questioned this hierarchy of Quaker business organization. It was understood that preparative meetings were subordinate to monthly meetings, monthly meetings were subordinate to quarterly meetings, and that yearly meetings represented the highest level of authority among Friends. In turn, American Friends deferred to London Yearly Meeting as “the good old mother yearly meeting,” and regarded visiting English Friends as especially favored guides.
The theological diversity that appeared among Friends after 1820 produced the first challenges to this consensus. When Orthodox Friends in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting tried to silence Elias Hicks, Hicks and his supporters perceived a clear abuse of power. It finally led them to conclude that Philadelphia Yearly Meeting had become so corrupt that a complete reorganization was necessary to return it to a sound basis. Once reorganized, however, they made only minor changes in the Discipline. They reinterpreted certain aspects of Quaker business practice, determining, for example, that a yearly meeting could not transfer a monthly meeting from one quarterly meeting to another without its consent. What distinguished Hicksites from Orthodox was the emerging Hicksite consensus that purely theological views were a matter of individual science and thus not a matter for church Discipline or disownment.
T he only truly radical challenge to customary ways came in the 1840s and 1850s, when Hicksites who had embraced radical reform causes like women’s rights and nonresistance broke away, or (in their own view) were forced out to form groups of what they called Congregational or Progressive Friends. Committed to the utmost spiritual and political liberty, they effectively abolished the Discipline, ceased appointing elders or recording ministers, and regarded anyone as a member who wished to attend their meetings. Some see the Progressive Friends as forerunners of modern liberal Quakerism, although their organizations proved short‐lived.
By the late nineteenth century, Hicksite Friends, while maintaining their long‐standing organizational structure, had ceased to see the Discipline and the plain life as hedges against the world. Only flagrant moral failures, such as being convicted of a felony, brought disownment. By far the most common reason for loss of membership was effectively resigning it by nonattendance or joining another church. Hicksites found a new vision of religious life through forming a religious community based on commitment to the Inner Light as the highest form of religious authority and bringing the message of Christ to reality through philanthropic and humanitarian work. Thus Friends General Conference (FGC) began as Friends Union for Philanthropic Labor. Similarly, the schools under their control ceased to be “select,” limited to Quaker students and staff. By the 1910s, a few meetings were finding it desirable to employ a meeting secretary to coordinate the varied committees that meetings saw as necessary to the life of the meeting. Over the past century, meetings in FGC and independent yearly meetings, such as Pacific, have shown considerable creativity in adapting older structures. Clearness committees are a prime example.
Meanwhile, Orthodox Friends were passing through a different set of changes, which ultimately brought them, however, to a similar conclusion. They also experienced stresses in the 1840s and 1850s. Most drew closer to the larger religious culture of the United States, becoming explicitly evangelical in faith and forming links through reform and humanitarian work, ranging from antislavery to missionary societies to Sunday schools, with non‐Quaker evangelicals. They became known as Gurneyites, after Joseph John Gurney, the English minister who was an articulate advocate of this vision. The minority who saw such ties as endangering Quaker peculiarity and distinctiveness became known as Wilburites. The result was another series of separations. After 1870, most Gurneyites transformed even more radically, eventually embracing pastoral ministry and a programmed form of worship. Those who could not accept such changes |
in the master chain should be an equalizer. Start by high-passing everything above 30 Hz and low-passing everything below 20 kHz: these frequencies are essentially inaudible, and can cause muddiness or harshness in your production. Next, listen to how your track sounds: does it need a little more fullness in the low end? Some more sparkle in the highs? Are the lower mids too muddy? Use the equalizer to make low-gain, fairly wide-bandwidth boosts and cuts in your track’s frequency spectrum. You should only be boosting or cutting a couple of decibels with any given EQ point: if you find yourself making more drastic adjustments, it’s time to head back to the mixing phase.
Compression
After equalizing your track, drop a compressor plugin onto the master (after the EQ). As with the equalization step, gentle adjustments are key here: use a low ratio (2:1 at most) with moderate-to-long attack and release settings. Keep a light touch on the threshold control: you’re trying to glue the different elements of the track together, not squash them into a brick. Use a soft knee setting if your compressor allows you to adjust this parameter: this will smooth out the sound and prevent the compressor from pumping too hard.
Stereo Image
One of the most important parts of adjusting the stereo image of your EDM production is making sure that your track sounds decent in mono. Drop your DAW’s stereo imager plugin onto the master and turn its “Width” control down to zero. Flip back and forth between zero and 100% width: if any element of your production suddenly becomes quiet or even disappears, it’s likely suffering from phase cancellation. To fix this, try going back into the synth and adjusting the unison or spread controls; you can also try using the imager plugin on the synth’s channel to make its stereo field more narrow. After adjusting the problem element’s stereo field, listen to your track again while flipping between mono and stereo: ideally, when you switch to mono, everything should remain at the same volume.
Limiting
The final plugin in your master chain should be a limiter. Set the limiter’s ceiling to -0.2 decibels, then slowly turn up the gain control (or drag the threshold control down, depending on the plugin you’re using) until you see the limiter’s attenuation meter just barely begin to activate. This should bring the volume of your track up to a decent level without causing it to clip and distort.
James P is the creator of Producer Tools, the ultimate mobile app for EDM producers. Read more of his tutorials at Quadrophone.com.
AdvertisementLONDON (Reuters) - British officials paids a psychic to exorcise a supposed poltergeist from state housing after the distressed occupants said otherwise they would leave and become homeless, a council official said on Tuesday.
Easington Council in County Durham said the family could not be persuaded to stay in the house, and that through paying half the psychic ghosthunter’s 120 pound ($235) fee they were saving money as otherwise they would have had to pay for emergency housing.
The Fallon family told reporters they heard banging from the loft, saw items fly across rooms and had doors slammed in their faces. They called police, who found nothing. Then they called in psychic Suzanne Hadwin and asked the council to help pay.
“This is the first time we have had to take such a measure,” a council spokeswoman said. “However, the tenants were extremely distressed at the time and we therefore believed it was the most appropriate course of action.”
Hadwin told the Sunderland Echo she used her Russian spirit guide and some angels to help rid the property of evil, which she said was linked to the murder of a woman in the house years earlier.
The council said the family were now happy to stay in the house and therefore they believed their money was well spent — although they had never taking similar action before.You can't beat STALKER. I've tried pretty much every game out there but, I've found none that put me where this game does. I start playing and get lost in a world that can be both beautiful and terrifying. I remember my first visit to the Yantar lab in SHOC. It was in the early hours of the morning, I was using headphones while sneaking around the lab. The atmosphere had me on the edge of my seat. Ten seconds later something totally unexpected happened and put my heart in my mouth. I paused the game, shaking like a little child and from that moment on for me it has been the stick by which all games are measured. And sadly they just don't measure up. STALKER is a thousand games in one. Set in a constantly changing, evolving world. The only time any two playthroughs are the same is when you hit that ENTER THE ZONE button at the start of the game.At One Maryland Prison, They're 'Knitting Behind Bars'
Enlarge this image toggle caption Michael Brandy/AP Michael Brandy/AP
This blogger's mom was a knitter. She and a friend made hundreds of knit caps that went to children in Rochester, N.Y. Some made their way to a village in Afghanistan when her youngest son went there on assignment for USA Today in 2002 and 2003.
Watching her, it always seemed as if knitting was calming and challenging at the same time. It's repetitive, yet also has to be done precisely right if you want to succeed. And if you mess up, you may have to unravel and start over.
So these comments from an interview due to air on Monday's Tell Me More strike a chord:
"Knitting provides everything you need to do — everything you should have learned in kindergarten. It teaches you how to focus. It teaches you how to make a task and meet that goal. It teaches you now to... control your anger.... All of these are skills are life skills, are job skills.... Skills that, quite possibly, many people in our society are lacking."
That's why, Lynn Zwerling told show host Michel Martin, she and a colleague started a program called Knitting Behind Bars at a prison in Howard County, Md.
Lynn Zwerling talks with Michel Martin Listen
And as the Baltimore Sun explained back in November:
"Defying every expectation, Zwerling's Thursday night program... has become in two years the most exclusive club at Jessup's Pre-Release Unit, an all-male, minimum-security penitentiary in Howard County. "Men literally beg to get in. There's a waiting list. And no one's more surprised about that than the assistant warden who couldn't help but harrumph when Zwerling told her she wanted to teach inmates how to make stuffed dolls and woolly hats. Every other prison in the area had already turned her down."
The men have made little dolls that first responders in Maryland now carry to give to children at scenes of accidents, fires and other tragedies. They've made caps for their own children. And they've learned something, Zwerling says, about the value of patience.
By the way, one of the best lines from Zwerling's conversation came after Michel asked about whether men are reluctant knitters. "They want to knit, they just don't know they want to knit," Zwerling replied.
You can follow the prison program's progress at its blog (Knitting Behind Bars) and on Facebook.
And you can hear much more from Zwerling's conversation with Michel on Monday's Tell Me More. Click here to find an NPR station that broadcasts or streams the show.Second-screen app Duet Display received a significant update today, introducing a new resolution option to support Apple's 12.9-inch iPad Pro and bringing significant performance improvements for both iPads and Macs that run the accompanying software.For those unfamiliar with Duet Display, it's an app that is designed to turn the iPad or iPhone into a secondary display for a Mac. Duet Display was the first app to use a Lightning cable to allow an iPad or iPhone to interface with a Mac, thereby drastically cutting down on the lag that's typically present when an iOS device is used as a secondary display for a Mac over Wi-Fi.Since its late 2014 launch, Duet Display has been updated several times to improve performance on a wide range of iPads and iPhones, but according to Duet Display developer Rahul Dewan, today's update brings "massive performance improvements." Improving performance was necessary to allow a Mac or PC to drive the high-resolution display of the iPad Pro while maintaining a lag-free connection, but the improvements also apply to all older iPads.With the latest version of Duet Display, CPU usage has been reduced by over 80 percent on iPad and Mac or PC, thanks to a new algorithm that's more efficient and an intelligent refresh feature that's similar to the iPad Pro's own faster refresh technology, but on the software end. Extremely high CPU usage was one of our major complaints with Duet Display when it was first released and it's been a customer concern for some time, so this update should go a long way towards fixing one of the major pain points in the app.Duet Display has proven to be a popular app with iPad owners as it gives the iPad the versatility to be used as a second display for a Mac. iPad Pro owners may find Duet Display to be especially useful given the large screen real estate of the device. Duet Display can be downloaded from the App Store for $9.99 (reg. $15.99). [ Direct LinkSyria is prepared to open lines of communication with the US, according to President Bashar Assad’s political and media adviser, Bouthaina Shaaban. She added that the “signs are good” for the step.
Speaking at the First Media Forum at Damascus University on Wednesday, Shabaan said there had been no secret talks with the US, but expressed “Syria’s readiness to open channels of communication” with Washington, the SANA news agency reported.
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The adviser also expressed hope that the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump would be “balanced and sensible.”
“We are currently observing and studying… and we are not making any judgments now, but the signs so far are good,” Shaaban said.
However, there is still doubt within the Syrian government about opening up lines of communication, meaning the step is far from certain.
“But the US administration was not able to deliver on its agreement with the Russian Federation. How can it open any files with others?” Shaaban asked.
Syrians are primarily concerned that “no one interferes in their affairs,” the adviser said, as cited by TASS.
Another issue facing Syria is the media bias over the crisis there, according to Shaaban.
“Few companies are in charge of Western media and 90 percent of the Arab media are owned by Saudi Arabia and held by those who are targeting Syria and want to destroy it,” she said.
“That’s why we have to find media and research centers that are not controlled by Western media.”
Her comments come shortly after President Assad told Portuguese TV channel RTP that the US and Syria could become “natural allies” in the fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) once Trump takes office.
WATCH MORE:For the first time since UNHRC's inception in 2006, Russia has lost an election to the UN Human Rights Council after being narrowly beaten by Croatia in a vote. Saudi Arabia was successfully re-elected, despite criticism from human rights organizations.
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The 47 places on the council are distributed on a regional basis, with staggered ballots seeing a third of the body re-elected each year. Russia had finished its three-year term and was running against Hungary and Croatia for the two available seats from Eastern Europe.
With Hungary far ahead, Croatia received the votes of 114 of the 193 member countries, and Russia was selected on 112 ballots.
""It was a very close vote and very good countries competing, Croatia, Hungary. They are fortunate because of their size, they are not exposed to the winds of international diplomacy. Russia is very exposed. We've been in the UNHRC for several years, and I am sure next time we will stand and get back in," said Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin. Russia is eligible to run next year, against a new set of countries.
Saudi Arabia sailed through the Asian ballot with 152 votes, and will represent the region on the UNHRC alongside China, Japan and Iraq for the next three years.
South Africa, Rwanda, Egypt and Tunisia were chosen from the African group, Cuba and Brazil from Latin America and the Caribbean, and the US and the UK will represent the Western bloc, which comprises Western Europe and North America.
Over the next term, which will last between 2017 and 2019, the 14 chosen members will be tasked with formulating the UN’s official position on conflicts occurring around the world, as well as the domestic policies of member states.
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The elections took place against a backdrop of criticism from non-governmental human rights organizations, who say that the body has been hijacked by oppressive regimes looking to deflect criticism and drive their own agendas.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International produced a joint statement earlier this year condemning Saudi Arabia for “an appalling record of violations” in Yemen, where it has conducted a bombing campaign against Houthi rebels since 2015, which has resulted in the deaths of up to 4,000 civilians. The two organizations called for Saudi Arabia, a member of the UNHRC since it was created in 2006, apart from a mandatory year-long break after two terms, to be suspended – to no avail.
Saudi Arabia used its power in the council to block an outside inquiry into the campaign last month, while leading a successful resolution that placed the responsibility of investigating human rights abuses in the hands of its allies, the exiled Yemeni government.
Saudi Arabia carried out 157 executions domestically last year – the highest number in two decades, and is on pace to match the number this year. Critics of the regime have often faced detention, while women do not enjoy autonomy and equal status before the law.
Riyadh has repeatedly refused visits from UNHRC rapporteurs looking to investigate the justice system, incidences of torture, and discrimination.
In its official campaign brochure, published ahead of the vote, Saudi Arabia boasted about its human rights record, claiming, for example, that it supports “the empowerment of women at all levels” in compliance with “Sharia law, which guarantees fair gender equality.”
No joke: Saudi Arabia is running for the UN Human Rights Council—and their campaign brochure cites the Saudi record on... women's rights. pic.twitter.com/2xqO62V1GS — Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 22, 2016
Ahead of this year’s vote Russia came under concerted pressure from human rights organizations.
“The non-election of Russia shows that the nations of the world can reject gross abusers if they so choose,” said executive director Hillel Neuer. “This makes the election of Saudi Arabia, China and Cuba even more preposterous.”
A petition signed by 80 NGOs, including Human Rights Watch and Refugees International, asked the voting countries to "question seriously whether Russia's role in Syria which includes supporting and undertaking military actions which have routinely targeted civilians and civilian objects renders it fit to serve on the UN's premier inter-governmental human rights institution."
Russia dismissed the petition, published this week, as “cynical” and “dishonorable,” and said the accusations were motivated more by politics than by concern for human rights. Moscow, which has been conducting airstrikes in the country over the past year, says that it is acting legally, following an official call for assistance from the Syrian government, and insists that its war efforts are targeted at terrorists.
"China, Cuba, Egypt, Iraq, Malaysia, Russia, Rwanda, & Saudi Arabia Should Not Sit on the UNHRC," op-ed by HRF https://t.co/y6e28YNULipic.twitter.com/vOE7wQJbKi — HRF (@HRF) October 28, 2016
Hope community of democracies does right today for #UN & culture of impunity- vote NO for UNHRC election of countries violating #Humanrights — Irwin Cotler (@IrwinCotler) October 28, 2016
China, Cuba, Egypt, Iraq, Rwanda, which all succeeded in their quest for council membership, were also accused by NGOs of being undeserving of a place on the UNHRC.
The current human rights body replaced the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 2006, which was plagued with identical accusations of domination by authoritarian regimes and preoccupation with Israeli violations in Palestine, at the expense of human rights crimes elsewhere in the world. The election of Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya to head the commission in 2003 was lambasted by Western media and politicians, and was seen as the catalyst for the reforms that have resulted in the formation of the UNHRC.Who Constructed the Great Pyramid. It has been shown (with the exception of the 'well'-shaft,'star' shafts and other minor features), that the architectural design features of the Great pyramid are contemporary with those seen at other 'Memphite' pyramids in the region. However, when viewed together, the normal evidence of the steps required to achieve such an imaginative process are lacking, and neither the physical construction nor the social philosophy behind it have no historical precedent in Egypt. This fact has frequently led people to suggest that the construction of the Giza pyramids (and therefore, all early dynasty Egyptian pyramids), show an external influence as yet unidentified. While there is little argument that they were constructed in the time of the fourth dynasty pharaohs, the influences in design and construction are debated. The delicate distinction between evidence and proof appears to be the reason why it has been so hard to determine the pyramids builder exactly. The following section examines the 'evidence' to discover if it is possible to ascertain, using currently available knowledge, who constructed the great pyramid. Quick links: The 4th Dynasty Egyptians.
Giza before the 4th Dynasty.
The 'Quarry marks' -'Cartouches '.
Athenticity of the quarry-marks. Interpretation of the quarry-marks.
The 'King-Lists'.
Who were the Hyksos?
Conclusions. The 4th Dynasty Pharaohs at Giza: The earliest solid evidence of association between the pyramids and the fourth dynasty pharaohs comes from the 'Inventory stele' found between the sphinx's paws. Although it is widely considered to be a later 'Saite' product, there is no doubting its existence, nor the association between Khufu and Giza. There is also much local archaeological evidence (cartouches and statues), that supports a clear and strong connection between Giza and the fourth dynasty pharaohs. Added to the 'quarry-marks' found in the relieving chambers above the Kings chamber, it is reasonable to conclude that the Giza complex was essentially constructed by the fourth dynasty pharaohs. We have already seen that t he 'inventory stella' contradicts the idea that Khafre built the Sphinx. Rather, it suggests that Giza was in use prior to Khufu's time. (Sphinx, Valley temple, etc). Confirmation of 4th Dynasty activity at Giza: F inding cartouches at the site is not proof of construction, only of association. Snoferu - (Father of Khufu). Petrie found a piece of bowl inscribed, 'nofru' Queen Hetepheres - (Wife of Snoferu). Inscription found in 'Burial' pit and Khufu satellite 'attributed'. Khufu - Found in the relieving chambers above the kings chamber, and on blocks of the Great pyramid. Khufu himself calls the pyramid, the house of 'Isis' in the inventory stele. Khafre - Statue in valley temple, over 400 'figurines', a bowl and a mace-head found in temple east of pyramid. Djefre - Cartouche found on roof stone of 'Solar barge' pit next to Central pyramid. Menkaure. - Cartouche found in satellite pyramid. Shepseskhaf - Cartouche found at Khafre's mortuary temple. Queen Khentkaues. - Rock tomb between Khafre and Menkaure's causeways. An impressive list from which we can determine that: Cartouches of almost all known fourth dynasty royals have been found at Ghiza. The Great pyramid contains original 'Khufu' (and Khnum-Khufu) cartouches. The Giza pyramids and their presumed builders, in chronological order: The issue of the 'Khufu' cartouches in the Great pyramid is covered more completely in the section below. Mostly, it is their interpretation that is in debate. One of the few other written references to Khufu is contained on the 'inventory stele', discovered at Giza in the 1850s. It commemorates the restoration by Khuf... of a small temple near the Pyramid, and indicates that the Sphinx, the Sphinx Temple, and possibly the Great Pyramid itself, were already in existence in his day. The stele is written in a later style of writing and whereas some Egyptologists regard it as a copy of a 4th dynasty original, others consider it to be an original Saite product. Either way, it contradicts the idea that the sphinx was built by Khafre, who ruled after Khufu. Egyptologists currently believe Hemiunu (fl. 2570 BC) to be the architect of the Great pyramid. He was the son of Nefermaat, a relative of Khufu. Archaeologists have found mentions of Hemiunu with titles roughly translated as Master of works and Vizier. His tomb lies close to Khufu's pyramid, and contains reliefs of his image. Some stones of his mastaba are marked with dates referring to Khufu's reign. For the second pyramid (Khafre's), and quoting Petrie - 'The only monumental evidences are the pieces of a bowl and a mace head with his name found in the temple (east) of this pyramid' (11). And from Fix - 'Statues of Khafre have been found in the vicinity, but Khafra - whom Petrie thought reigned from 3908-3845 BC. - was, like Khufu and Menkaure, also worshipped in later times (Petrie, A History of Egypt, p.53) and there is now no way of telling whether the artefacts and statues bearing his cartouche are products of the pyramid age or a later era '. (11). And of the third pyramid, again from Fix - 'The third pyramid has been attributed to Menkaura only because Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus attributed it to him and because the name Menkaura was found written in red paint on the ceiling of a chamber of the three subsidiary pyramids south of the Third pyramid. (Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, p. 120). No such name was found in the third pyramid itself. It is quite likely that small pyramid is not contemporary with the third pyramid'. (11). The lack of concrete evidence for the constructions at Giza explains why people have been forced to recognise (Petrie, Breasted, Edwards, etc), that beyond the traditional association between the Giza complex and the fourth dynasty Pharaohs, there is very little actual evidence regarding the extent of the 4th dynasty works at Giza. In fact, it has been suggested that the 4th dynasty were simply building over an already'sacred' place, which shows signs of use since at least the 1st dynasty. Evidence of Occupation at Giza Before the 4th Dynasty: It is worth recognising at this point that Giza was occupied before the fourth dynasty. As it turns out, there is plenty of evidence that clearly demonstrates this fact. The earliest monument at Giza is'mastaba V', which dates to the reign of the first dynasty pharaoh Djet. http://www.egyptologyonline.com/giza_plateau.htm 'The Giza plateau is also home to many other ancient Egyptian monuments, including the tomb of Pharaoh Djet of the First dynasty as well as that of Pharaoh Ninetjer of the Second dynasty'. (http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Giza ) Other pre-4th dynasty discoveries Mortensen (46) discusses four ceramic jars, reportedly found in the late 1800's 'at the foot of the Great Pyramid' (the exact location has not been recorded). When these jars were first found, the Pre-dynastic period was little understood and, given the accepted 4th Dynasty context of the Giza site, the jars were assumed to be of 4th Dynasty date. Mortensen, however, has re-examined these jars and considers them to be typical of the late Pre-dynastic Ma'adi period. Given that the jars were found intact, Mortensen has also argued that they were from a burial rather than a settlement site. These jars, together with other isolated finds at Giza, have been interpreted as evidence for a Ma'adi-period settlement at Giza that was destroyed when the 4th Dynasty pyramids were built (47) Set against the context of the 4th Dynasty development, the destruction of Pre-dynastic and Early Dynastic artefacts within the Giza necropolis is an important consideration. In the mid 1970's, Karl Kromer, investigated one such area of debris, approximately one kilometre south of the Great Pyramid. (48) Within the fill, Kromer reported finds from the Late Pre-dynastic, 1st, 2nd and 4th Dynasties. We can be certain from this that Giza was occupied before the fourth dynasty. The Quarry Marks (Cartouches): The now famous 'Quarry-marks' were discovered inside the Great pyramid, and above the King's chamber in one of the 'Relieving Chambers'. In 1837 Col. Howard Vyse and his assistants, by passing the narrow crawl-way leading from the top of the eastern wall of the Grand Gallery to the compartment directly above the ceiling of the King's Chamber (without inscriptions), managed to discover four more 'construction' chambers above it, each two to four feet high. They had been sealed since the Pyramid was built and gunpowder had to be used to gain access to them. On some of the walls and ceilings of these four chambers crude hieroglyphs were found (on limestone blocks only), daubed in red paint, which are thought to have been added by the work-crews. The inscriptions included two cartouches (royal names enclosed in an oval) -- 'Khufu' (Shofo) and 'Khnum-Khufu' (Noumshofo) (12), and Egyptologists have taken this as confirmation that the Pyramid was built for the pharaoh Khufu. As previously noted, the problems associated with the cartouches are two-fold, firstly the question of their authenticity, and then their interpretation. Perhaps it might be best to confirm their authenticity before attempting to interpret them. The Authenticity of the 'quarry-marks'. As one might almost expect, these inscriptions have become a point of contention, as it was been claimed that they contain spelling errors from a well known book on hieroglyphics that Col. Vyse was known to have had with him when he made the discoveries. Other findings by Col. Vyse have also been questioned over their authenticity, and therefore possibly discredit him. It was also suggested by the grandson of Humphries Brewer, the master mason who was engaged by Vsye to blow his way into the pyramid, and who was witness to the cartouches being painted, was objected, and was expelled from the site for disagreeing with the action. (Ref: Sitchin). Apart from the fact that some inscriptions apparently continue beneath other blocks confirms that they are genuine. (Which inscriptions and which chambers exactly?), it is worth looking closer at the accusations against Vyse: The sketch appears for the first time in Perrings The Pyramids of Gizeh, published in 1839, and some years later in the book of the alleged faker himself, in Vyses Operations carried out on the great Pyramid of Giza in 1837, published in 1842. (Perring has the cartouche in question on table VII), Sitchin shows the drawing in Stairway to heaven in a small and an enlarged version: Sitchin, 'Stairway to Heaven' Table 146 a, b p. 301 Look at the small sketch on the left side. Inside the circle you can see a small structure, which condenses in the larger picture on the right to a dot. Let's compare this to the pictures in the original reports: - Khufu by Vyse Khufu by Perring The cartouche by Perring looks different than Sitchins picture. The tail of the snake ends for example with an upward turn, whereas Sitchins snake bends the tail down. Sitchins picture actually looks more like Vyses drawing. But one thing is clearly visible: in both sources, Vyse and Perring, the small structure in the circle are three horizontal lines. Both pictures unmistakably show a "Kh" and not a "Re". And while we can see that Sitchins small picture on the left comes from Vyses report, we can also see that his "enlargement" on the right is no enlargement at all, but a new picture, probably drawn by Sitchin himself - and faked! Sitchin did not find a fake, he produced one himself to get his faker story. This cartouche was found at Ghiza. It is the same as Hawass' photo (a solid disc). Note - We now have four variations of the same cartouche. According to Sitchin, Vyse believed that "Khufu" was written with a solar disc. And because of that the faker had written it this way into the chamber. But Vyses Journal tells another story: On May 27th 1837 we find the first entry dealing with the Khufu-cartouche. In the following days Vyse begins with an analysis. And if one is able to read his hand writing he finds out fascinating things. Yes, Vyse was no expert on hieroglyphics. And yes, Vyse had the fatal book "Material Hieroglyphica" with him. And because he HAD the book with him he expected a solar disc as the first sign. And he was wondering, why this sign was NOT a solar disc. He couldn't get a sense out of the "Kh", therefore he philosophises on this page of his journal about the possibility to write a "Re" with lines in it instead of a dot. He even copied the faulty picture from Wilkinson to this page of his notes, it's on the upper left - the hollow solar disc is clearly visible. On the right side he notes, that this disc can also be written with a dot in the middle (the small circle on top) and that he had expected one of these two writings - and notes, that he instead got a circle with three lines. This is clearly an aberration from Wilkinson, a famous hieroglyphic expert. So Vyse did not copy something from a book to the walls - he found something that completely contradicted a table of a famous academic book. It is interesting to note that nothing more has been discovered since Vyse's original 'discoveries'. The Interpretation of the 'quarry-marks'. ( Birch's Analysis of the Cartouches from Perrings "Pyramids of Gizeh" from 1839) A 'Khufu' cartouche was found on the southern roof blocks of Campbell's chamber, the topmost one and a 'Khnum-Khuf' cartouche was found on the south wall of 'Lady Arbuthnot's' chamber, the one below top. (10) We can see that the two cartouches do not appear side by side. The style of writing is certainly hieroglyphics, but it also contains characters that have yet to be translated. Fix opens with the following: 'In terms of direct and solid evidence, the association of Khufu with the great pyramid rests entirely on the apparently straightforward fact that there are cartouches reading "Khufu" painted on the walls of hidden chambers inside the building. However, the general controversy surrounding the pyramid extends even to the meaning of these marks, and the evidence is not as straightforward as it may seem. The cartouches reading Khufu are not the only cartouches in the relieving chambers. There are others, more numerous, which read Khnum-Khuf. The problem is that Egyptologists do not know who or what Khnum-Khuf was. As Breasted has explained, the writing from these early dynasties "is in such an archaic form that many of the scanty fragments which we possess from this age are unintelligible to us". In addition, these cartouches are found together in a few other places' (11) (i.e. Mount Sinai). This is not then, a question of authenticity, but of interpretation. It is important to note that he accepts (as do others), that the cartouches are genuine, what he (and others) question, is their meaning. Extract from Petrie: - 'Another name is found on the blocks in the Pyramid, side by side with those bearing the name of Khufu. This other name is the same as that of Khufu, with the prefix of two hieroglyphs, a jug and a ram and it is variously rendered Khnumu-Khufu, Nh-Shufu, and Shu-Shufu. The most destructive theory about this king is that he is identical with Khufu, and that the ram is merely a symbol of the god Shu, and put as the determinative in this place of the first syllable of the name. But against this hypothesis it must be observed (1) that the pronunciation was Khufu, and not Shufu, in the early times; (2) that the first hieroglyph, the jug, is thus unexplained; and (3) that there is no similar prefix of a determinative to a king's name, in any other instance out of the hundreds of names, and thousands of variants, known.***
(*** Sent is sometimes named by a fish, a determinative without hieroglyphics; and An sometimes has a fish as a determinative in the name; but there is no case of a determinative prefixed). Petrie also says of this 'The only great royal inscription (of Khufu) is on the rocks of Sinai. There are two tablets: one with the name and titles of Khufu, the other with the king smiting an enemy, and the name Khnum-khufu The name is found in five places The two names being placed in succession in one inscription cannot be mere chance variants of the same. Either they must be two distinct and independent names of one king, or else two separate kings. If they were separate kings, Khnum-khuf must have been the most important. Fix also points out that while the 'Khnum-Khufu' inscription occurs more frequently than Khufu's, the name does not appear on any of the Kings-lists. (11) Manetho's king list names the two pharaohs, 'Suphis I and II', the first of which, etymologically connects from 'Raufu- Khufu' through 'Shoufu' and 'Shuphis' to Suphis. We are left with the other 'Khnum-Khufu' cartouche, which only requires identifying the 'Khnum' part. Garnier (19), says of the cartouches,'Suphis II, called Num Shufu, Is shown to have been co-regent with Suphis, and to have co-operated with him in the construction of the great pyramid; the two names being constantly found on its masonry with the mark indicating them to be joint rulers '. (He references Osborn's Monumental History of Egypt, Vol 1, pp 279-281) There is then, an argument that the cartouches were for two Co-regents. On the monuments bearing the name of Khnumu-Khufu at Gizeh, and at Wady Maghara, there also occurs with different titles, the name of Khufu himself. 'That the names should thus be found together is very likely, if they were co-regents, as their joint occurrence in the Pyramid, and elsewhere, would lead us to expect. Such co-regencies often existed. (15) Max Muller thought that 'Khnum-Khufu' represented a God. Fix also noted the association between Khufu and Hermes. He said: 'One scholar (Stewart?) says there was a god in Egypt called Khnemu who was the embodiment of intellect itself. Alternative names for Khnemu were Khnum, and Chnuphis or Chnouphis which is etymologically similar to Souphis'. (11) 'Khufu' is an abbreviated form of 'Khnum-Khufu', which means 'Khnum protects me'. The god Khnum was the divine potter who carried out the works of creation planned by Thoth. Thoth (or Djehuti) was the god of wisdom, the directing intelligence of the universe, and was known in later times as Hermes, Mercury, and Enoch. Thoth-Hermes was the inventor of the arts and sciences, the patron of the secret wisdom, and an initiator. The name was adopted by many initiated adepts, who were known as'serpents of wisdom'; the caduceus or staff of Hermes is entwined with either one or two serpents. Khnum later became known as Kneph or Chnuphis, who was represented as a huge serpent; he stood for divine creative wisdom, and was the patron of the initiates. (2b) It has also been argued that the presence of the Khufu and Khnum-Khufu cartouches inside the Great Pyramid and on some of the core masonry stones on the exterior does not prove that it was the 4th-dynasty pharaoh Khufu who built it; he may have been named after the Pyramid, rather than the other way around. Khufu's cartouche has been found on dozens of tombs and monuments in Egypt, some of them from later than the 4th dynasty. This disparity between argument highlights exactly how little people understand the events of the fourth dynasty. We are left with the following possibilities. Khufu may have been named after or associated with a god called 'Khnum' or 'Khnum-Khufu', but why put a gods name in a cartouche.
'Khnum-Khufu' or 'Num-Shufu' was a |
have lined the streets for years.
Until now.
The tents and tarps that stretched across entire city blocks are gone. Shopping carts are empty.
And the homeless people? Many seem to have disappeared. Cleanup crews are sweeping up belongings left behind.
Homeless advocate Michael McConnell has been observing and documenting the major transformation. He said police in large caravans have been conducting major enforcements.
RELATED: Death Toll Reaches 17 In San Diego’s Ongoing Hepatitis A Outbreak
"As far as I can tell this has been a phased approach with the knockout punch in the last two weeks to really try to get rid of the tents, disperse people, so there’s not large encampments," McConnell said.
Homeless people told KPBS their tents used to be tolerated from 9 at night to 6 in the morning, but now they have been told they can never set up their tents.
San Diego Police Lt. Scott Wahl said the increased enforcement was focused on education, vaccination and sanitation as part of the city's battle against the Hepatitis A outbreak, which has now killed 17 people. He said the streets and sidewalks had to be cleared in order to be cleaned.
The city of San Diego recently announced plans to house homeless people in three large industrial tents, but those are not expected to be up until at least December.
In the meantime, McConnell said he has noticed increased tension among the homeless population.
"It almost seems like something’s about to boil over," he said. "People — you can only push them so far before something happens and I'm really fearful that the city is creating a very dangerous, intense environment."
Homeless encampments have been removed from 17th Street in the East Village, and other streets in downtown San Diego.
To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.The winter window is now open, and that means the LIVE transfer blog swings back into action. Find out the latest news, gossip and deals here.
TOP STORY: Spurs to fight for Depay
Netherlands World Cup star Memphis Depay attracted quite a collection of suitors with his performances in Brazil, including Tottenham. Ultimately, the 20-year-old remained at PSV Eindhoven on Sept. 2.
Now, however, clubs are lining up once again to take PSV's prized asset out of the Eredivisie. According to the Daily Mirror, two of those clubs are Manchester United and Tottenham.
Memphis Depay has parlayed his impressive displays at the World Cup and with PSV into serious interest from the Premier League.
United may hold an edge in being managed by Louis van Gaal, who led the Netherlands to third place in last summer's World Cup, but Tottenham are aiming to close a deal for Depay by the end of the window for a fee of 15 million pounds.
LIVE BLOG:
23.00 GMT: That's it for this edition of Transfer Talk. We'll be back in only a few short hours with a look at what they're saying in the Tuesday morning papers.
22.42 GMT: What are the chances of some of these deals being completed? David Amoyal rates rumours involving Douglas Costa, Juan Cuadrado, Dani Osvaldo and more. READ IT HERE.
22.16 GMT: Here's a fun/dumb one... the Star says that Liverpool wish to sign Arsenal forward Chuba Akpom in the summer when his current contract expires. Great, eh?
Akpom has reportedly been stalling on a new deal at the Emirates, prompting Brendan Rodgers to take a closer look along with Everton, Man City and Tottenham. Eurosport adds to Akpom's legend with reports that the 19-year-old has been offered pre-contract terms by Borussia Dortmund, FC Twente and Feyenoord!
Pretty impressive for a kid with just six substitute appearances (71 minutes total) and one shot on goal for the Gunners' first team this season.
21.57 GMT: Neil Lennon may have moved south of the border, stepping down as Celtic manager in May and taking on the challenge with Bolton in October, though his efforts to tempt midfielder Kris Commons to do the same appear to have failed. Commons scored 32 goals in all competitions in 2013-14 but has become increasingly marginal under new Celtic boss Ronny Delia. However that doesn't seem to be enough for a deal.
Lennon told STV as much in a recent chat. "Celtic have come out publicly and said he's not for sale, he won't be leaving and we haven't pursued that any further... I've got a great relationship with Celtic, a great relationship with Peter [Lawwell] and I don't want to damage that."
Oh well, Neil. Bolton have a busy week ahead, with Championship fixtures against Rotherham (away) on Tuesday and Wolves (home) on Saturday before hosting Liverpool in their FA Cup fourth round replay on Wednesday, Feb. 4.
21.17 GMT: Swansea have offered French club St Etienne four million euros for the services of left-back Franck Tabanou, France Football reports.
The 25-year-old would appear to be a replacement for Neil Taylor, who is likely to leave for Crystal Palace.
21.10 GMT: DONE DEALS Orlando City have been a very busy team, introducing three new players on Monday.
Northern Ireland international striker Martin Paterson comes on loan from Huddersfield, while the new MLS club also added two young Colombian midfielers: Cristian Higuita and Carlos Rivas.
20.02 GMT: Does anyone need a veteran striker with eccentric tendencies? Well, if so, you're in luck as Parma have announced that Antonio Cassano's contract has been rescinded.
Parma Fc e Antonio Cassano: rescissione consensuale del contratto. Il comunicato http://t.co/NPxiNv3Ura - Parma F.C. (@ParmaFC) January 26, 2015
19.56 GMT: One player who will not be leaving the 20-time English champions is Adnan Januzaj. The 19-year-old, whose start on Friday at Cambridge was his first for Manchester United since Nov. 8, was the subject of an approach from Paris Saint-Germain, according to his agent.
However, despite using the Belgian international infrequently, manager Louis van Gaal rejected the bid and the winger will remain at Old Trafford.
19.45 GMT: It looks as though Darren Fletcher's Manchester United career is set to end. The 30-year-old has struggled for playing time in recent weeks and The Telegraph's Jason Burt is reporting that the Scottish midfielder has been granted a free transfer.
If he does depart Old Trafford, he is expected to sign for West Ham. If so, his debut will see him come up against some familiar faces...
Darren Fletcher granted a free transfer. If he signs for West Ham his first game could be Feb 8... at home to Man Utd - Jason Burt (@JBurtTelegraph) January 26, 2015
19.35 GMT: Juan Agudelo is set to return to the New England Revolution, according to Goal.com. The 22-year-old U.S. international previously played for the Jay Heaps-managed side in 2013 before joining Stoke City.
After his work permit application was rejected, Agudelo joined FC Utrecht of the Dutch Eredivisie on loan. He was released by Stoke in May 2014.
19.10 GMT: DONE DEAL! Inter have completed a move for Croatian midfielder Marcelo Brozovic from Dinamo Zagreb. The deal is reported to be worth about 8 million euros.
18.55 GMT: A further update on Valencia striker Paco Alcacer, who we told you earlier is in talks for a new deal at his club. It appears now that Valencia don't want any interference while their own talks are ongoing, and have placed a massive asking fee for any other interested teams -- 70 million pounds, according to TalkSport.
Liverpool had been linked with a move for Alcacer this month, but it appears that the forward will be staying put for the foreseeable future.
18.33 GMT: Parma striker Antonio Cassano could terminate his contract as soon as tonight, according to Tuttomercatoweb, after he took the club to court last week demanding unpaid wages. Crisis talks between club and player are reportedly scheduled for tonight.
17.27 GMT: The Daily Telegraph reports that Robin van Persie is uncertain whether his Manchester United contract will be renewed when it expires at the end of next season, quoting him as saying: "It is not up to me. For the moment, I am staying here for 18 months. That is it really: I can't look into the future. I don't know what is going to happen after that -- we shall have to wait and see."
17.25 GMT: Further developments from this morning's mooted move: Millwall have brought in Jos Hooiveld on loan from Southampton until the end of the season.
17.20 GMT: Tomas Cerny has joined Scottish Championship side Hibs, and he's pretty pleased about his decision:
Cerny: I'm really pleased to join Hibernian; this move was perfect for me for both personal and professional reasons. pic.twitter.com/isSWoImKoN - Hibernian FC (@HibsOfficial) January 26, 2015
17.15 GMT: MLS club Toronto FC have announced the signing of 30-year-old defender Damien Perquis, a former Real Betis player.
16.30 GMT: Paris Saint-Germain are keen to sign Manchester United's Brazilian teenager Andreas Pereira, the Daily Mail reports.
15.56 GMT: Former Liverpool target Yevhen Konoplyanka is set to disappoint his Premier League suitors by staying at Dnipro this month, sources have told ESPN FC. Liverpool, Everton, Tottenham and Roma have all been linked with moves for the Ukrainian winger, who is out of contract this summer. However, Dnipro are reluctant to let Konoplyanka leave for less than 15 million euros in January, despite the fact they might lose him for nothing at the end of the season.
15.45 GMT: Uche Ikpeazu, on loan at Crewe form Watford, is extending his stay with the Railwaymen and will be at Gresty Road until the end of the season.
15.30 GMT: Midlands newspaper the Express and Star has reported that Crystal Palace could beat West Brom to the signature of Newcastle striker Shola Ameobi. The report comes as the agent of AC Milan's Michael Essien claimed that the ex-Chelsea player had turned down moves to both the Baggies and Queens Park Rangers.
15.05 GMT -- DONE DEAL: Official and final confirmation from Real Madrid of what we've known for a fair old while now -- Lucas Silva has officially signed his five-and-a-half year deal for the club, joining for a reported 14 million euros. Here's how he was welcomed:
Florentino Peréz: "You have worked tirelessly to join the best team in the world" http://t.co/2rc4EKruJW #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/5nHqpmdy1m
- Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden) January 26, 2015
14.50 GMT -- DONE DEAL: Roberto Di Matteo and Schalke have signed Swedish prodigy Christian Rubio Sivodedov from Djurgardens IF in his native country. The 17-year-old will begin his Schalke career in the Under-19s side.
14.46 GMT: Middlesbrough FA Cup hero Patrick Bamford has said he could stay with the club on loan from Chelsea if they are promoted to the Premier league. Boro, second in the Championship, won 2-0 at Manchester City with Bamford on the scoresheet, and the forward told the Gazette: "The prospect of staying at Boro always crosses my mind. If we get promoted it would be a toss-up between whether to go back to get experience with Chelsea and playing a bit part there or be playing week in and week out with Middlesbrough. Put that way, it is an easy decision to make."
14.38 GMT: There may be a few people leaving, but there are also a few arriving at Cardiff. Manager Russell Slade made Huddersfield defender Lee Peltier his third signing of the window, with the deal announced on Saturday. Here's what the player had to say to the official Cardiff website: "I've worked under the gaffer before [at Yeovil], and he's asked me to come in to the group and give it my all. At this stage of my career, I'm looking for success -- and I think I can find that here."
14.31 GMT: Gabriel Paulista has been granted a work permit ahead of his proposed move from Villarreal to Arsenal, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The newspaper reports that the Gunners have received formal Home Office approval for Gabriel's work permit, with the former Vitoria man now undergoing a medical at the club's London Colney training base.
14.01 GMT: Cologne have said they want to bring former Hoffenheim star Carlos Eduardo, 27, back to the Bundesliga, kicker reports. The attacking midfielder joined Rubin Kasan for around 20 million euros in 2010, and Cologne are trying to reach an agreement with Russian club.
13.55 GMT -- DONE DEAL: Scunny disposition: Scunthorpe United have signed goalkeeper Joe Anyon, a free agent who last played for Shrewsbury, until the end of the season.
13.26 GMT: Brendan Rodgers has had plenty to say today, and here's some more: the Liverpool boss has dismissed reports that he is considering a move for Bolton goalkeeper Adam Bogdan. Asked whether there was anything to rumours that the Hungary international could be heading for Anfield, he said: "Nothing at all."
12.57 GMT: Wigan boss Malky Mackay is pretty pleased with his capture of Aston Villa's Australian defender Chris Herd until the end of the season. This is what he had to say to the Latics' official website: "I'm delighted that Chris has been able to join us on loan until the end of the season. He's a player I've looked at a lot over a period of time. I feel that his energy, his athleticism and his tenacity will be things that can really help us out. I'm delighted we've managed to get him."
12.52 GMT: What does the future hold for Chelsea's Andre Schurrle? Well, it looks increasingly likely to lie away from Stamford Bridge, but Germany's SID reports that a loan to Wolfsburg is not an option because Chelsea want to sell the Germany international. Wolfsburg sporting executive Klaus Allofs has said there is still nothing to the rumours that Schurrle could be heading back to the Bundesliga.
12.34 GMT: Brendan Rodgers isn't anticipating a hectic week ahead at Anfield, telling reporters at his pre-Capital One Cup semifinal news conference: "I think it will end up being fairly quiet for us. Unless something dramatic happens, we will be as we are."
12.27 GMT: And talking of bolstering defensive options, Everton and Aston Villa are considering a move for Porto's Rolando before the end of the transfer window, sources have told ESPN FC.
12.20 GMT -- DONE DEAL: Championship strugglers Wigan have bolstered their defensive options like this:
CONFIRMED: Chris Herd joins on loan from @AVFCOfficial until the end of the season - http://t.co/x77XjeUZvb #wafc pic.twitter.com/zAJVSRAoud - Wigan Athletic (@LaticsOfficial) January 26, 2015
12.10 GMT: Real Madrid are being investigated by FIFA as it tries to determine whether the Champions League winners have followed rules relating to the transfer of young players, Spanish newspaper AS has reported. Officials at world football's governing body want to establish whether Real have breached article 19 of its regulations on the transfer of players.
12.03 GMT: Here's a bit more from Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers, who says Mario Balotelli will be given the opportunity to save his Liverpool career. Balotelli's long-term Anfield future has been the subject of speculation after a poor first five months at the club.
12.02 GMT: Valencia have offered new deals to Paco Alcacer and Jose Gaya, who are both reported to have been have attracting interest from Premier League clubs.
11.52 GMT: Back in Germany, where kicker reports that Leipzig are set to sign 19-year-old US youth international Matt Miazga from partner club New York Red Bulls. The clubs have agreed a transfer, which will happen "should he immediately be able to help us," sporting director Ralf Rangnick said.
11.39 GMT -- DONE DEAL: Striker Alberto Gilardino is returning to Fiorentina on loan from Chinese Super League club Guangzhou Evergrande until the end of the season, when the Serie A club could make the move permanent. The 32-year-old striker, who moved to Guangzhou from Genoa in the summer, played for Fiorentina between 2008 and 2012.
11.21 GMT: BBC Wales reports that Cardiff, amid the exits, could be bringing someone in - and that someone could be Stoke central defender Robert Huth.
Cardiff City are expected to enquire about signing former Germany international centre-back Robert Huth from Premier League side Stoke City - BBC Wales Sport (@BBCWalesSport) January 26, 2015
11.17 GMT: Quite a few envious glances are being cast in the direction of Dele Alli, whose goals and performances for League One MK Dons have lit up their season. Reports suggest Newcastle are keen to bring him to St James' Park, although MK's desire for him to return on loan for the rest of this season could prove a stumbling block.
11.04 GMT: And so the Cardiff exodus continues, with Austria midfielder Guido Burgstaller leaving by mutual consent -- the eighth player to go since boss Russell Slade came in. Slade has said he needs to slash the club's wage bill.
11.01 GMT: Capital One Cup semifinalists Sheffield United, who will battle to overturn their 1-0 deficit to Tottenham on Wednesday and get to Wembley, made three signings on Saturday. And here they are:
10.58 GMT: From one loan move to another? Southampton defender Jos Hooiveld is on loan at Norwich, but he's not playing for the erratic Canaries, so he could be on his way to struggling Millwall. The Lions are in need of a bit of defensive solidity (that's understating the case), and boss Ian Holloway could make Hooiveld part of the solution, according to reports.
10.50 GMT: Let's face it, it's pretty hard to keep Mario Balotelli out of the spotlight, even when he's out of the Liverpool team. At his news conference before tomorrow's Capital One Cup semifinal second leg, manager Brendan Rodgers said: "It's been a difficult period for Mario, but he wants to fight for an opportunity here. I've seen some snippets that that is it for him here, but that is not the case."
10.40 GMT: Staying in Germany, Hannover are set to announce the signing of 19-year-old right back Petar Stojanovic from NK Maribor later today, with the Slovenia international undergoing a medical before signing a four-and-a-half-year deal, kicker reports.
10.30 GMT: Could Lionel Messi ever end up in the Bundesliga? No, he couldn't, says Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. Rummenigge ruled out any prospect of making a move for the Barcelona star, saying the La Liga club and the player "should not be separated from each other." Messi, 27, has been at Barca for more than half of his life, but in recent months he has appeared to be considering a transfer away from the club after reportedly clashing with coach Luis Enrique.
10.00 GMT: Here's a bit of what you might call preparing the ground -- Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Douglas Costa has spoken of his admiration for Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, with a move to Stamford Bridge appearing to edge closer. Reports suggest Chelsea have had a bid of 16 million pounds rejected and have submitted an increased offer of 18.7 million.
09.38 GMT -- DONE DEAL: Besiktas have completed the signing of Tolgay Arslan from Hamburg.
09.35 GMT: French newspaper L'Equipe has reported that Clement Chantome is set to join Bordeaux from PSG in the forthcoming days. The France international midfielder, out of contract at the season's end, will cost 750,000 euros.
09.30 GMT: Nani has claimed Manchester United want to keep him, suggesting that he will be back at Old Trafford next season. The 28-year-old is spending this campaign on loan at his former club Sporting Lisbon, having moved there as part of the deal that took Marcos Rojo to United. But he is under contract at Old Trafford until 2018 and believes he has a future there, telling reporters: "The club know my value and I know they want me to stay.
09.05 GMT: A Swansea director has said Wilfried Bony is destined to be on the bench for Manchester City, while claiming he was sold on the cheap. John van Zweden told reporters: "We will miss the goals from Wilfried Bony a lot. The most frustrating thing is that he will sit on the Manchester City bench, for Sergio Aguero remains their main striker. I'd personally love Wilfried to be at the heart of a top club like City."
08.54 GMT: Liverpool are increasingly confident that they will sign James Milner in the summer, sources told ESPN FC.
08.30 GMT: A birthday present for Jose or Brendan today? Chelsea are still chasing Douglas Costa; Liverpool are chasing a striker.
What a birthday party this would be. @ChelseaFC's Jose Mourinho and @LFC's Brendan Rodgers share a special day today. pic.twitter.com/tQsCQ2Hb2A - ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 26, 2015
08.14 GMT: Queens Park Rangers turned down the chance to sign Pato but are keen to sign AS Monaco striker Dimitar Berbatov, according to the Daily Star.
08.00 GMT: German paper Bild says Andre Schurrle's agent Ingo Haspel -- along with the player's dad Joachim -- were in London for talks with Chelsea about a return to the Bundesliga. It is claimed Wolfsburg want him, but because of FFP regulations they can only afford to take him on loan this month and buy him in the summer.
PAPER ROUND
Market for Ings heats up
Danny Ings' Burnley contract expires in the summer. The Bournemouth academy star has enjoyed an impressive debut Premier League season in which he's caught the attention of some of the league's biggest clubs.
His seven league goals have generated interest from the likes of Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester City, according to the Daily Mirror. Chelsea and City would likely be addressing their needs for homegrown players, but Spurs could have a genuine use for the England U-21 talent.
With that contact set to expire this summer, Burnley would be entitled to a mere 3 million pounds in training compensation should Ings join a Premier League club at the end of his contract. The Mirror report that a bid surpassing that compensation amount could tempt Burnley into a sale.
Ings, a long-standing Southampton fan, has also been linked with Saints in January. That could become ever clearer with the news of Shane Long's injury on Saturday.
Speroni to be rewarded
Another player with a contract soon to expire is Crystal Palace's goalkeeper Julian Speroni, who will be free to move in July. However, the Argentine is set to trigger an automatic extension that will keep him at Selhurst Park until 2016, according to the Mirror.
"I still feel fit and have a good few years left in me yet," Speroni said. "Not once have I ever wanted to play for any other club in England."
Blackburn's outstanding ROI
Twelve months ago, Blackburn Rovers signed Rudy Gestede from Cardiff for a mere 200,000 pounds. Now the 1994-95 Premier League champions are negotiating with Crystal Palace, West Brom and Hull over a 5 million-pound transfer, according to the Guardian.
The 26-year-old has scored 13 goals in 25 appearances across all competitions this year.BRITAIN’S decision to leave the European Union may open up a “kangaroo route” for more Australians to live and work overseas.
It may also benefit Australian bosses, with the number of British jobseekers searching for work Down Under doubling in the hours following the Brexit decision.
International jobseeker site Indeed said job searches from UK residents interested in Australian jobs increased by 190 per cent in the hours after the vote.
It also sparked a 220 per cent increase in those looking for jobs in Ireland, possibly reflecting concerns from UK residents about losing the benefits of being part of the EU.
Indeed chief economist Tara Sinclair said cities like Sydney and Melbourne had always been magnets for British job seekers, who were attracted to the location, lifestyle and lower cost of living when compared to London.
But the biggest advantage for Australian employers right now was the strength of the Australian dollar against the British pound.
“With the British pound slumping to a 31-year low following the Brexit vote, it gives Australian employers a lot more clout when it comes to recruiting the best and brightest from the UK,” Ms Sinclair said.
Brexit could also make it easier for Australians to work in the UK.
Ms Sinclair said UK jobs that would normally be filled by EU citizens, may instead go to skilled job seekers from other parts of the world, particularly Commonwealth countries like Australia.
“If the automatic right of EU citizens to live and work in the UK ends, British employers will need to look further afield to attract the best talent and overcome chronic skill shortages at home,” Ms Sinclair said.
“Commonwealth countries like Australia, with its deep historical ties, are most likely to benefit if and when the UK starts to dismantle its EU participation.”
This could see a welcome reversal of the current trend, which has seen a 40 per cent drop in the number of Aussies working in the UK since 2008, after visa requirements and jobs were changed to favour eurozone residents.
Fewer than 15,000 Australians managed to get work visas from the UK Home Office.
Australia’s high commissioner to the UK, Alexander Downer, has already suggested Brexit could be an opportunity for Australia to renegotiate its visa arrangements with the UK.
“There are all sorts of restrictions on Australians right now and whether there’ll be opportunities to change that when the new arrangements come into place, we simply don’t know. But we should try in any case, and that’s what we’ll do,” Mr Downer told ABC radio.
Ms Sinclair believes Brexit will create a “whole new ball game” in years to come, with Britain looking to build new trade and political ties.
Boris Johnson, the former London mayor who led the Leave campaign, has already suggested Britain could adopt a “free mobility labour zone” between Commonwealth countries.
Last year he also proposed an Australia-UK agreement to allow greater movement of skilled people between both countries.
“The two-way flow of skilled talent between Australia and the UK has always been strong, but relaxing visa restrictions for Australians would open up an important new ‘kangaroo route’ that benefits both countries,” Ms Sinclair said.Legendary DEAD KENNEDYS frontman Jello Biafra joined NAPALM DEATH on stage on May 6 at the Slim's in San Francisco, California to sing the DEAD KENNEDYS classic "Nazi Punks Fuck Off". Video footage of his appearance can be seen below.
Biafra, who has performed the track with NAPALM DEATH several times in the past, explained to the audience that the song's message has taken on a new meaning during the 2016 presidential election cycle. He said: "Nowadays this song is about the Tea Party, modern kinds of white supremacists who leave the white hood in the top drawer and think a four-hundred-fifty-grand-a-year combover will paper over the fact that a fucking racist is still a fucking racist fucking asshole. So nowadays… And the only way to stop this guy… If you know anybody that says, 'Yeah, I kind of like Trump,' talk to 'em. Don't argue — communicate as to why… It's Trump as much as Trump-ism and making racism cool again that's the problem. Right when black lives matter, this super-rich egomaniac says that brown lives don't matter? I'm sorry. Nazi Trump, fuck off!"
In a recent episode of his "What Would Jello Do?" video series, Biafra stated about the controversial Republican presidential candidate: "Donald Trump is serious racist. Just ask his buddy David Duke or all those neo-Nazi organizations coming out of the woodwork, doing robocalls in different states, telling [people] to support Trump. One of the main Ku Klux Klan people publicly endorsed him. Trump did not repudiate this at all."
Biafra first gained attention as the lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band DEAD KENNEDYS. After his time with the band concluded, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had co-founded in 1979 with DEAD KENNEDYS bandmate East Bay Ray. Although now focused primarily on spoken word, he has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations.
NAPALM DEATH released its 15th studio album, "Apex Predator - Easy Meat", in January 2015 via Century Media Records.Following the success of last year's San Francisco Bacon and Beer Festival, the party is coming to Oakland as a fundraiser for Oakland Grown! On Sunday, March 9th the Oakland Bacon and Beer Festival will be held at the Market Building at Jack London Square from 2:30-5:00. Brought to you by Oakland Grown in partnership with Bison Organic Beer and Eat Boston, the Bacon and Beer Festival is a day to celebrate two amazing comestibles, bacon and beer. Sign up on the email list to get event updates! Your ticket gets you into the Festival where you're free to sample from the restaurants and brewers, but please remember to share as there will be others there with the same idea. Invite your friends to join you and RSVP right here. Big thank yous to Jack London Square for the support and especially to Zoe's Meats for the bacon!
The Bacon
Bacon Bacon, 21st Amendment, Bellanico, Boca Nova, Boucherie Meats, Brown Dog Mustard, Chunky Pig, Common Fare Foods, Fist of Flour Pizza Co, Grand Lake Kitchen, Grease Box, Kainbigan, Kincaid's, Lungomare, Memphis Minnie's, Mocking Bird, Native Baking Company,, Nojo, Phatt Matt's BBQ, Pican, Plum, Powered by Pork, Pyramid Alehouse, Sweet Bar Bakery, Terrace Room, The Whole Beast, Tina Tamale, Zoe's Meats,
The BeerAgencies operating in the Commonwealth countries may need to prove they are meeting anti-corruption standards to get access to aid and loans, under proposals drawn up by Patricia Scotland, the Commonwealth secretary general.
She is also to set out plans to form a new Commonwealth Office of Civil and Criminal Justice Reform, a network of lawyers, bankers, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies capable of helping some of the smaller countries in the 53-nation Commonwealth to improve their laws and practices, including parliamentary checks against executive corruption. Her initiative suggests Lady Scotland plans to make the Commonwealth a more high-profile and interventionist body than it has been in its recent relatively quiet past.
Nigeria calls on anti-corruption summit to back registers of ownership Read more
She is to develop her ideas at a conference to be addressed by Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, who is in London for David Cameron’s anti-corruption conference on Thursday. Buhari’s office said he would be “urging the international community to move faster on the dismantling of safe havens for the proceeds of corruption and the return of stolen funds and assets to their countries of origin”. The president of the Nigerian senate, Bukola Saraki, is due to face trial on corruption charges.
Scotland, appointed secretary general last month, is a former Labour attorney general, responsible for introducing the UK Bribery Act in 2010. She is making an attack on corruption one of the chief themes of her office.
Scotland told the Guardian the proposed Commonwealth standard would identify those bodies, institutions and entities that are adhering to best practice, including transparency, in a bid to avoid corruption. Any agency that did not meet the Commonwealth mark was unlikely to get access to public contracts, aid or loans.
She said: “The idea is to make it positively advantageous to be a compliant, transparent non-corrupt entity in the Commonwealth. At present too many times the advantage lies in not being compliant. The idea is to raise the bar right across the Commonwealth and mark those that are at least trying to be compliant. When people realise ‘no mark [means] no work’, it will slowly raise the standard. It would mean that when monies are given out for instance by the UN, the Council of Europe or the Department for International Development, they would look to see if the entity has been given the Commonwealth standard indicating you have good systems in place, including meeting the standards of the Bribery Act.
“Those that were deemed compliant would go to the top of the queue for money”, she said, adding “that way you build a positive advantage to being compliant. If we can create this Commonwealth standard, and persuade it is the benchmark for suppliers that get international money then we can create a cadre of good practice”. She said that credit rating agencies might also look to see if the Commonwealth regarded a country as compliant in deciding what credit rating to give a country.
Corruption she said was “poisonous, corrosive, vicious and an enemy of sustainable development”. She promised to be like a magpie stealing good ideas from around the globe to help commonwealth countries fight corruption by a creating a “Conspiracy of the Just”.
Scotland said: “Corruption destroys people’s confidence in politics. If a system is corrupt and you feel your rights cannot be protected because you are not rich, don’t have the right name and cannot get ahead through your talents, the system defeats you. Take Tunisia: Mohammed Bouazizi could not get a fruit licence, and he thought “I cannot go to the courts, I cannot go to the police and I cannot feed my family”, and he set himself alight. The Arab spring was all about corruption and failure of the rule of law. The system implodes and eventually leads to civil disobedience because you cannot deprive people of their rights for so long.”
She said she believed the Bribery Act, including the requirement for companies to prevent bribery on its behalf, could become a model for Commonwealth countries to adopt. She said the act was trying to attack a culture so that compliant companies would have to show they had done all they could to end corruption. Scotland said: “It is the best standard internationally. It has extra territorial grip, it has got teeth, and it requires entities to ask themselves questions to ensure they have built a resilient system to fight corruption.”
She defended her decision to prioritise the issue, saying: “The Commonwealth covers a third of the population. We have got a common language, an adherence to the common law and a parliamentary system, so if we can deliver and develop something for 53 countries that delivers real change, we have then got a template to say to countries outside the Commonwealth: here is a model that delivers.”UT murder suspect not eligible for death penalty Copyright by KXAN - All rights reserved Victim Haruka Weiser, left, and suspect Meechaiel Criner (Beaverton School District Photo/APD Mugshot) [ + - ] Video
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Homicide suspect, Meechaiel Criner, has been indicted for capital murder in the death of a University of Texas student. He faces three counts of capital murder based on charges he sexually assaulted, attempted to kidnap, and robbed Haruka Weiser while in the act of killing her.
Criner, a homeless teen, was arrested two days after Haruka Weiser's body was found in Waller Creek. The indictment states Criner is accused of sexually assaulting and strangling Haruka to death with a ligature. Because Criner is 17 years old he is not eligible for the death penalty if convicted. A recent law, states if the individual committed the offense when younger than 18 years of age, they can only receive the maximum punishment of life in prison with a chance of parole after 40 years.
On the night of her death, Haruka, 18, called a friend to say she was leaving the drama building and on her way home. But Haruka was never seen alive again. Surveillance video (which was not released to the public) showed a man around Waller Creek the night of Haruka's death.
According to the affidavit, surveillance video showed a woman walking towards the bridge at Waller Creek, passing by the suspect. Police say the video shows the suspect put his bike's kickstand down and reach into the back of his pants with his left hand and pull out what appeared to be a "shiny rigid object." The next time the suspect appears on camera he is carrying a small duffel bag that he did not previously have in the video. He also appeared to have an injury to his left leg.
Crimer's family said he is mentally ill and has been getting psychiatric help since he was a young child. "He's slow on a lot of things. It takes him longer to pick up than the average person, but he's not slow enough to say I'm going to kill this person and take her purse and carry it with me," Criner's sister said to KTRK.
His next court appearance is scheduled for July 8.
University of Texas President Gary Fenves released the following statement on Friday:
As our campus continues to mourn the loss of Haruka Weiser, I deeply appreciate the tireless work of law enforcement and the district attorney's office to investigate and prosecute this crime. University police continue to coordinate closely with Austin police and the Travis County district attorney on this case.
Typically, there are only two punishment options for a capital murder conviction: Death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
However, some recent law changes are working in favor of Meechaeil Criner if he is ultimately convicted in the murder of Haruka Weiser.
When Weiser was killed, Criner was three months short of his 18th birthday. In Texas, 17-year-olds are treated as adults in the criminal justice system with the one key exception being death penalty cases. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty could not be given to anyone under the age of 18. As a result, capital murder convicts 17-years-old and younger received an automatic sentence of life in |
under negotiation, will be shorn of funding for the war in Iraq when it reaches the House floor, possibly on Friday. But Democratic leadership aides concede that the Senate will probably add those funds. A proposal to strip the bill of spending provisions for lawmakers' home districts was shelved after a bipartisan revolt, but Democrats say the number and size of those earmarks will be scaled back.
When defense spending is added to the total, discretionary spending for fiscal 2008 would reach a tentative total of $936.5 billion, $3.7 billion more than the president's request, said House Appropriations Committee staff members. All of the additional money would be spent on veterans affairs.
The agreement signaled that congressional Democrats are ready to give in to many of the White House's demands as they try to finish the session before they break for Christmas -- a political victory for the president, who has refused to compromise on the spending measures.
The House last night also approved a new version of legislation that would stave off the spread of the alternative minimum tax, a parallel tax system originally targeted at the very rich, to millions of middle-class families. The House version would not add to the federal budget deficit.
The progress yesterday on Capitol Hill did not mean that lawmakers will be rushing to the exits in the next few days. The AMT bill, which was approved 226 to 193, pays for the $50 billion tax fix largely by preventing hedge fund managers from deferring compensation by shifting their pay to offshore tax shelters. The White House issued a fresh veto threat, reiterating Bush's opposition to any tax increases to pay for an AMT fix.
The threat virtually ensured that the Senate will not muster the 60 votes needed to break a threatened Republican filibuster. It moved Congress further toward shattering a Democratic pledge not to pass tax cuts that are not fully offset by tax increases or spending reductions.
Senate Democratic leaders, backed by key Republicans, finalized a new version of a comprehensive energy bill. It would raise automotive fuel-efficiency standards and preserve a package of conservation and renewable-energy tax incentives, to be funded largely by revoking tax breaks given to the largest oil companies in recent years.
The Senate is to vote today on the revised energy bill, and senators from both parties said proponents are close to reaching the 60-vote threshold. Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) summoned from the campaign trail the five senators seeking the presidential nomination for this morning's vote.
The new version of the bill meets a key White House demand by stripping out a requirement that utilities move toward generating 15 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources. It also pares back tax increases on oil companies by exempting independent energy companies from a provision that would end a manufacturer's tax credit awarded in 2005.
But the White House is also threatening to veto that legislation. "It seems that Senator Reid wants to keep the tax title in there, which the president has been very clear that he won't sign," White House spokesman Dana Perino said.
Bush may also veto the spending package, even though Democrats shaved $22 billion from federal domestic programs to meet his demands, said Rep. Jerry Lewis (Calif.), the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee. He added, "And I think we'll have enough Republicans to sustain a veto."1900 words
100 posts!! A nice special post today, Robert Lindsay’s accusation of HBD being ‘racist’ is on the table today. As always, I want to hear what you want me to write on so send me an email, address is in the sidebar.
Robert Lindsay asks “Is HBD an Ideology of Hatred and Racism?” It, of course, isn’t. Today I’ll rebut his piece saying that it is “hatred and ‘racism’ (whatever that means)”. He says that HBDers who resist ‘racism’ (which I will address later) are “swimming against the tide” and “probably have to exercise a bit of self-control to not go over to the dark side.” What is he even talking about? What “dark side” is there? Being ‘racist’?
This is because HBD facts tend to lend pretty regularly to quite a bit of racism and the hatred that goes along with it. And if you notice, the more hardcore the HBD’er is, the more racist they tend to sound.
Of course these facts lead to ‘racism’, however, these ‘racists’ will be ‘racist’ with or without the facts of HBD. I will touch more on that later. In the meantime, he says “the more hardcore the HBD’er is, the more racist they tend to sound.” Robert, are you just making broad generalizations? Do you have anything to back your claim on this statement? Or are you just talking out of your ass?
HBD in and of itself is not racist of course, not in any sane sense of the word.
I agree with him saying that the Left has destroyed any “meaning” that the word “racist” has. However, even without the overstating of the word “racist”, HBD itself would not be a racist ideology. It is, however, racist to the average person who doesn’t know the science involved in racial differences. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary has two definitions for ‘racism’. It defines ‘racism’ as:
a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race Racial prejudice or discrimination
Well, “superiority” is meaningless. Race is not a primary determinant of human traits as there is a lot of crossover. However, there are racial/ethnic differences in phenotype which of course are caused by differences in genotype. That is not up for discussion, but the term ‘inherent superiority’ is.
Of course to the average person, HBD is seen as ‘racist’. But is researching/reading about human differences and being interested in their causes and what they mean today really ‘racist’ or a want to learn more about human evolution and how and why we got here?
But the ones who are very deep into it and talk about it all the time, well, it’s quite clear that they have a pretty low opinion of NAM’s. Even worse, a lot of them are just out and out racists. Some are even vicious racists. And almost all of them have the worst rightwing politics, usually Libertarian, that you could imagine.
‘Racists.’ There’s that word again. I did say at the beginning of the year that we should petition to have ‘racist’ changed to ‘ethnocentrist’, as what is being described when one cries ‘racist’ is actually ethnocentrism in action. This is mediated by the brain hormone oxytocin. I would wager that ‘racists’ and other, closely related people (ie Arab Muslims with high consang rates) would have higher levels of this brain hormone. This would be the reason why these groups stick to those who are phenotypically to themselves; it’s hormonally driven, like most, if not all things in life. Stop using the word ‘racist’ and use ‘ethnocentrist’ as it makes much more sense.
More importantly, HBD is a profoundly pessimistic doctrine. Just to give you an idea, they hate the idea that the environment or even free will has any role to play human affairs. Look at how furious they get about the Flynn Effect. Look at all the bending over, twisting themselves into weird yoga positions, hand waving, magic wand waving, “Don’t look over there”, and “just-so” explanations they have come up for to deny what is an obvious rise in human intelligence. The idea that the environment could actually increase intelligence fills them with rage because they are all wrapped up in this “intelligence is purely genetic” argument. (Bold is my emphasis)
Yes HBD is pessimistic, as is life, Robert. Who hates the idea that environment has any role in intelligence? Any sensible individual would acknowledge that environment does play a role, but would also know that intelligence is highly heritable. I’m pretty sure he’s just talking about the average ‘racist’, as I’ve never seen an HBD blogger every state that intelligence is fully genetic. Sure there are some intelligence researchers (a minority) who believe that intelligence is fully genetic but just like extreme environmentalism in regards to causes for IQ, extreme hereditarianism is also a stupid view to hold. Genes and environment interact to give the phenotype. We can take an African from, say, South Africa and place him in America. Due to better nutrition and better schooling among other things (like lessened parasitic load and disease), in my opinion African IQ would be about 10 points higher, give or take a few points. We know that environment and genetics (GxE) affects all phenotypic traits, but those like Robert like to play up Flynn gains as if they are on actual g – they aren’t. Flynn Effects are not genetic and are UNRELATED to race differences (Rushton, 2000).
On another note, I seem to have been wrong with my statement that Flynn gains were 3 points per decade in every country. I would wager that since intelligence is affected by nutrition that those countries with lower Flynn gains that showed the least improvement with nutrition would show the lowest IQ gains. I will write on this in the future.
Of course, that argument is a death knell for Blacks and other NAM’s. These people have enough problems as it is, but HBD just drives a stake through their heart to make sure the Black man (or other NAM’s) never rises again. It pretty much condemns them forever as genetic inferiors in sense.
They have enough problems as it is because of their biology which HBD speaks about, the supposed ‘racist ideology’. It pretty much does ‘condemn them’ as ‘genetic ‘inferiors” (whatever that means), but that’s Nature! Nature is not a kind Mistress. Nature is harsh, nature doesn’t care about feelings.
Intelligence isn’t either fully genetic nor fully environmental, but shifted considerably over to the hereditarian position.
It says “niggers ain’t got no brains,” and while that may be true in a very ugly and racist sense that most us don’t want to think about, instead, the HBD’er is overjoyed at this fact. “Black people are stupid!” he hollers to the sky with joy. “And they will stay that way forever!” he yells gleefully. “Environment can’t help them. They are condemned!” At this point, he is nearly gleeful and ready to party.
I laughed out loud at this. Environment can help, to a point (if they come from Africa or some other down-and-out place), but mainly, as seen in the Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study, blacks didn’t end up doing better than whites when environments were equalized.
And most of them are racist lousy people, but they are quite smug about their racism because now their racism is given the imprimatur of science. “If science says it’s true, I can’t be racist,” he chortles.
Idiotic. Everyone is ‘ethnocentric’ to a degree, whether consciously or subconsciously. Robert, you are an HBDer yourself whether you admit it or not since you recognize racial differences, so I guess you are ‘racist’.
After all, science isn’t racist. I agree, but distortion of science for racist means sure is, and delighting in the disturbing “racist truths” of science is doubly so. Sure, gay men are at very high risk of HIV, and up to 20% are infected. That’s a fact of science. So does that make you want to get up and party for 30 days and 30 nights? I hope not, and if so, you are one ugly homophobe.
Science is not racist. But, as Leftists love saying ‘Data isn’t racist, interpretation of it is!!!’ is idiotic. Of course a lot of people distort racial science, but that doesn’t mean that it’s ‘wrong’. Like with making myths on how Europeans were always in Europe 40kya (not true) or how Europeans were always white (not true) he is right here. Most people do not keep up to date on the newest data that comes out so they still hold to these ‘mythologies’ and ‘identity politics’ and push out outdated and straight untrue statements. But all that means is that they are extremely misinformed.
What would I do with that stat of gay men and HIV? Be cautious around gays, just like I’d be cautious around blacks knowing how much crime and murder they committ as a group. This is a sane position to hold. One group is overrepresented in a certain (negative) stat? Keep an eye out while around those of that demographic. That makes sense. Self-preservation always wins out. Robert is of course using the Leftist playbook on ‘racist’ namecalling. Most everything in this article I’ve seen around countless times being spewed to any HBDer who went against conventional wisdom. The term ‘racist’ is just used as a silencing tactic. Robert, you are a Leftist HBDer. You do know that a lot people you align yourself with politically consider you ‘racist’ right?
This notion that anyone who believes HBD is ‘racist’ or any other buzzword is used to shut down any and all discussions on matters. Something that, it seems, flew over his head. When one cannot rebut something an HBDer puts out, they get called ‘racist’. However, the term is pretty much close to meaningless nowadays as it’s been so overused by the Left. All of the HBD bloggers I follow are not racist (hell, one who is most certainly not racist is PumpkinPerson who has a very unhealthy obsession with Oprah. =^) You know it’s true, PP). Others like Razib Khan, JayMan, hbd chick, and Cochran and Harpending, just to name a few, have gotten numerous accusations of being racist. Hell, Razib Khan was hired and fired the same day by the NYT after going on board as a science writer when someone discovered his ‘racist’ writings.
Whether or not people believe HBD doesn’t change how true it is. Racial and ethnic differences still persist, so by just disregarding it we completely go over causes of it other than ‘systemic racism’!!! HBD is true and a valid, non-racist (whatever that means) ideology. We segregate with people like us. Hell, even you, Robert, prefer whites over others (oh no, racist!!!!). Once we start understanding how and why people are ethnocentric (with oxytocin playing the main role), then we can have a more peaceful society as we understand causes for actions, both negative and positive, and better curb violence.
HBD itself is not a hateful ideology, it’s just one based on facts and solid reasoning. Just because people use HBD to justify their own preconceived notions or to use ‘hate facts’ doesn’t mean that it’s a racist ideology. Nice job using the word ‘racist’ as invented by Trotsky. But knowing your political leanings, Robert, that’s AOK, right?
It’s worth noting that Robert banned me for my politics. He claims his comments are ‘free speech’, yet when I said the truth about socialism and the amount of deaths it caused (way more than National Socialism), I got an immediate ban. Truth hurts, huh?
AdvertisementsHow many widgets did I sell?
When you’re just starting out, chances are you’ll be asking a very simple question: How many widgets did I sell each day?
Your SQL might look something like this:
select date(created_at) as day, count(1)
from sales
where created_at > now() - interval '30 day'
group by day order by day;
With that SQL, you can expect results like these:
day | count
------------+-------
2014-03-12 | 5
2014-03-13 | 1
2014-03-19 | 6
2014-03-20 | 4
2014-03-21 | 1
2014-03-24 | 1
2014-04-08 | 2
2014-04-09 | 3
(8 rows)
If you viewed the results in a tool like Periscope, you’d get a graph like this:
Unfortunately, since you’re just starting out, you’re not selling widgets every day. And notice the zeroes aren’t even showing up! Your investors will not be pleased with such a misleading graph.
If you’re using Postgres, generate_series can help. generate_series produces a table with a given first point, last point, and interval that you specify. In this case we’ll choose 30 days ago, today, and each day in between. Here’s our revised SQL:
select date(d) as day, count(sales.id)
from generate_series(
current_date - interval '30 day',
current_date,
'1 day'
) d
left join sales on date(sales.created_at) = d
group by day order by day;
By building an explicit list of dates in our query, rather than relying on the dates, in the sales table, we made sure every date showed up in our result set.
day | count
------------+-------
2014-03-12 | 5
2014-03-13 | 1
2014-03-14 | 0
2014-03-15 | 0
2014-03-16 | 0
2014-03-17 | 0
2014-03-18 | 0
2014-03-19 | 6
2014-03-20 | 4
2014-03-21 | 1
2014-03-22 | 0
2014-03-23 | 0
2014-03-24 | 1
2014-03-25 | 0
2014-03-26 | 0
2014-03-27 | 0
2014-03-28 | 0
2014-03-29 | 0
2014-03-30 | 0
2014-03-31 | 0
2014-04-01 | 0
2014-04-02 | 0
2014-04-03 | 0
2014-04-04 | 0
2014-04-05 | 0
2014-04-06 | 0
2014-04-07 | 0
2014-04-08 | 2
2014-04-09 | 3
2014-04-10 | 0
2014-04-11 | 0
(31 rows)
And here’s the Periscope graph:
That’s more like it!
Caveats and gotchas
left join: We used generate_series to make sure we got a row for every day in the last 30 days, not just a row for every day in the sales table. So be careful not to use an inner join, which will wipe out the days on the left-hand-side that have no matching day on the right-hand-side.
count(sales.id): A snippet from our joined table looks like this:
2014-03-21 00:00:00 | 1178 | [email protected] | Dorian | Nakamoto | 4096 | 2014-32-21 22:19:03.36718
2014-03-22 00:00:00 | | | | | |
2014-02-23 00:00:00 | | | | | |
2014-03-24 00:00:00 | 1179 | [email protected] | Harry | Glaser | 500 | 2014-32-24 23:27:56.759234
As intended, there are blank rows for days where we had no sales. As a result, we can’t just count every row to get number of sales. count(sales.id) will count just the rows with non-null sales IDs, which is what we want.
Other databases
Not on Postgres? Here are some generate_series equivalents that are as good or better:
Oracle’s magic dual table can help:
select sysdate - level from dual connect by level <= 30;
SQL Server’s recursive with statements are helpful, and very impressive in general:
with t as (
select 0 as d
union all
select d + 1
from t
where d < 30
) select getdate() - d from t
MySQL, unfortunately, is trickier. For some clever hacks, start with this answer on StackOverflow.
An easier way
Of course, a visualization tool like Periscope will continuous-ify the data for you! In our tool of choice, head to a chart’s settings and toggle “Continuous Axis” for the desired effect.NEWARK -- In what could be called a wall breaking ceremony, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka hoisted a sledgehammer and laid into a 4-foot-high section of cinder block wall during a ceremonial launch of a warehouse redevelopment project.
Dressed in a suit and hard hat, Baraka took several wacks at the demonstration wall, before finally breaking through, prompting cheers from dozens of city officials, developers and other onlookers inside the 108-year-old Newark Warehouse Company building on Edison Place.
Over the next year and a half, Newark-based developer Edison Properties will transform the vast concrete warehouse into a 456,000-square-foot commercial and retail center, just across Mulberry Street from the Prudential Center arena, and a few blocks from Newark Penn Station.
"It felt good," Baraka said of the pounding he gave on the wall, carrying the sledgehammer as a memento of the occasion. "It released some of the tension that builds up."
The warehouse conversion is yet another development or re-development project Baraka has helped launch as mayor, presiding over a building boom in the city's downtown section fueled by the ongoing economic recovery and, the mayor said, his friendly attitude toward business as a source of jobs and local economic growth.
Edison Properties will receive a 30-year tax abatement on the warehouse project worth $1 million, said Baye Adofo-Wilson, the city's director of economic and housing development.
Designed by global architects Perkins Eastman, the $80 million privately financed warehouse redevelopment project will feature modern, loft-style and penthouse office space on its six upper floors, with a rooftop green space offering views of Manhattan, Edison said. The building will be linked to the city's Newark Fiber optic cable network providing high-speed internet access.
The 1907 concrete warehouse, also known as the Central Graphic Arts Building, overlooks a broad expanse of parking spaces that Edison is in the early stages of redeveloping into a park to be named Mulberry Commons.
Baraka said Ironside and Mulberry Commons will anchor the rebirth of an area of the city's downtown between Broad Street and McCarter Highway, west of Raymond Boulevard. The redeveloped warehouse, he said, will be an ideal location for the kind of technology companies Newark is seeking to attract or is already nurturing at its multiple technology incubators.
Adofo-Wilson said it would be about 18 months before the first tenants of the redeveloped warehouse would move in.
On Tuesday, project participants and boosters gathered on a vast, vacant floor of the warehouse, listening to speakers as renderings of the redeveloped property appeared on video monitors.
Michael Sommer, Edison's executive vice president of development, called the project a "truly unique opportunity" for businesses seeking space, with the availability of low-cost, hi-speed internet service, as well as easy access to highways and mass transit.
"Since Edison's beginnings in Newark more than 60 years ago, the company has remained deeply committed to the city and its success," Sommer said in a statement. "We could not be happier to announce this groundbreaking project."
Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Irish Water has confirmed there was almost a 50% reduction in revenue collected in water charges from bills sent out in April and May.
The bills relate to services used from January to March and were issued as the Government announced plans to suspend charges for nine months and to set-up an expert commission to look at the funding model for domestic water services.
Figures released by the company show that the amount collected in charges was €18.3m, down from €33.4m for the previous quarter.
Irish Water says 989,000 customers have "paid some or all of their domestic water charges over the first five bill cycles".
14,000 customers paid for the first time during this billing period, it added.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett has said today's water charges figures confirm what he called overwhelming support for boycotting and abolishing charges.
He said the expert commission was a waste of time and a delaying tactic and said there was a mandate inside and outside the Dáil to fund charges fairly in a progressive way through central taxation.Clemson Athletics taking unusual steps to dry out grass lots
Nikki Hood by Staff Writer -
SUNSET, SC – The torrential downpours of the last two weeks have caused flooding all across the state of South Carolina, including severely damaging several of the grass lots used on game days in Clemson. However, Clemson University and IPTAY are working around the clock to ensure that the lots will be operable by Saturday’s Homecoming contest against Boston College. Graham Neff, Clemson’s’ Associate Athletic Director for Business Operations and CFO, talked with TigerNet today at Brad Brownell Brad Brownell
Head Coach
View Full Profile ’s media golf outing at The Reserve and said the weather has been as bad as he’s ever seen, even comparing it to the 2009 season when it rained during every Clemson home game. “I've been told that back in 2009 it was bad, but I've also been told that it's never been this bad just from the amount of rain and the utilization of the night games,” Neff told TigerNet. “It's been tough. We know that parking is very important and a big driver for our IPTAY folks and part of the ethos of Clemson and the game day experience. We are making sure that we're investing resources as dollars and as people to get these things as ready as we can. “We did last Saturday, but it was kind of a second iteration, so this upcoming Saturday they're even worse. We're trying to get them as best as possible for this Saturday. Right now, our hope is that they're fully operational. We have contingency plans that we'll communicate prior to Friday if there needs to be adjustments for lot openings and reserved areas, but we're hoping we can get it back to normal as much as we can for parking people.” The athletic department is taking unusual steps to dry out the grass lots to help ensure they can be used on Saturday – including bringing in a helicopter to speed up the drying process. “Between last week and this week, we've called in a ground specialist - the crew that did Doug Kingsmore and Historic Riggs Field. We've called Precision Turf in, and they've been here all last week and all this week helping our grounds staff,” Neff said. “We've also called in another group - Hutchinson - that does a lot of earth work and they've brought graders, a dirt dryer - a big piece of equipment down in Lot 13. We've called in assistance. One other cool thing we're looking at is bringing in a helicopter to blow air and dry. We're doing everything we can from a dollar standpoint and a people standpoint to get them as ready as we can by BC.” As of Wednesday afternoon, Neff believes that the parking lots will be fully operational, but he encourages fans to watch their emails for potential contingency plans or delays in the opening of the parking lots. “Honestly, by Boston College. Longer term, hopefully by Florida State we'll have some rye grass planted there and over-seeded,” he said. “By Boston College, we're hoping to have as many people who park in normal spots parking in their normal spots. We're not there yet to be able to say for sure, but we're hoping by Friday morning to say we are. We might delay the opening of a few lots, instead of 10 a.m. on Saturday, maybe noon given that it's a night game. That might help even Saturday morning to give us some more time to dry. We'll have all of those plans communicated by Friday at some point, but that's an option as well.” The damage to the grass lots has also forced Campus Recreation to look for alternatives to play intramural sports, something that Neff said the athletic department is assisting in. “We've talked to Campus Rec, and we think so for this semester (not playing intramurals) on those fields. Luckily, they just built those new turf fields up by Y Beach,” he said. “They have some lighting assistance that we're looking to help them with because those fields don't have lights yet. They're planning to, but they just don't yet. Can we help Campus Rec with lights and things like that? We've looked at them using some of our fields that they don't normally do, but can they come and use those for the rest of the semester? Inside the track, the outdoor track, Jervey Meadows is in decent shape with grass - we're working with them as closely as we can to help them find an area for intramurals that have been displaced because of the lots.” Even though the rain has severely damaged the parking lots, the good news is that the Death Valley playing surface has been in excellent shape over the course of the last two weeks, and will be even better when Clemson returns home on November 7th for Florida State. “We've been talking about parking, but the cool thing is that The Valley has been pretty good shape,” Neff said. “It's been really impressive. We're looking to replace the field in Death Valley prior to the spring. This will be the fifth year, and it's kind of on a four to five year cycle is what's usually good for that turf, so we're looking to redo the whole surface this upcoming spring of 2016. From the last redo four years ago, it's held up great. That's been the primary focus from a playability and player safety standpoint, but it's been in really good shape. Hopefully, it will be by BC. I talked with our grounds guy yesterday, and Mike said that after BC, it might need a little TLC between the hashes.”Tropical Storm Erika, coming as it did so close to the beginning of the new college and professional football seasons, is a reminder that Monday-morning quarterbacking is nearly as popular an activity as the sport itself. And we at NHC do it too. After every storm we review our operations with an eye toward improving our products and services. Erika is no different, though there’s been more questioning and criticism than usual, with few components of the weather enterprise spared. Some in the media were accused of overinflating the threat, numerical models were bashed, and some public officials were charged with overreacting. NHC’s forecasts were questioned while others lamented that NHC’s voice wasn’t strong enough amid all the chatter. So, in the spirit of searching for a tropical storm eureka, in this blog entry we present some of our own post-storm reflections.
How good were NHC’s forecasts for Erika?
The NHC official forecast errors were larger than average. A preliminary verification shows that the average 72-hr track error for Erika was 153 n mi, about 30% larger than the 5-year average of 113 n mi. And nearly all of this error was a rightward (northward) bias – that is, Erika moved consistently to the left of the NHC forecast track. As for intensity, Erika ended up being weaker than forecast; the 72-hr intensity forecasts were off by about 20 kt on average, and the official 5-day forecasts called for a hurricane over or near Florida until as late as 2 AM Friday, when it became clear that Erika was going to have to deal with the high terrain of Hispaniola.
Why was Erika so difficult to get right?
Erika was a weak and disorganized tropical cyclone, and weak systems generally present us (and the computer simulations we consider) with tougher forecast challenges. In fact, the average 72-hr track error for all tropical depressions and weak tropical storms is around 155 n mi – just about exactly what the errors for Erika were. So the track issues weren’t really a surprise to us. Of course, knowing whether such errors were going to occur and how to reduce them in real time wasn’t obvious. If it had been obvious, we would have called an audible and changed the forecast.
What made this particular situation so challenging was wind shear, mainly due to strong upper-level westerly winds in Erika’s environment. These winds tended to displace the storm’s thunderstorms away from its low-level circulation, causing the storm to lack a coherent vertical structure. When this happens, it’s very difficult to tell just how much influence those upper-level winds will have on the storm track. Sometimes storms hold together against wind shear (Andrew of 1992 is a good example), and there were times when Erika seemed to be winning its battle. If it had held together better, it would have taken a track more to the north and ended up being a much stronger system. Obviously, it didn’t play out that way, but that was an outcome far easier to see with the benefit of hindsight.
An additional complication was Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. If Erika had been able to avoid those land masses, it would have been better able to withstand the disruptive effects of wind shear. And early on, we expected Erika to mostly avoid land. In this case, not getting the track right made it much harder to get the intensity right, which made the track forecasts harder yet.
Is there too much reliance on numerical models, and did they fail for Erika?
The improvements in track forecasting over the past few decades are directly attributable to improvements in numerical models, and to the data used to initialize them, to the point where it’s become almost impossible for a human forecaster to consistently outperform the guidance. The modelling community deserves our praise for the tremendous progress they’ve made, not criticism for missing this one. While we approach each forecast with an attempt to diagnose when and how the models might fail, it is exceedingly difficult, and it’s not something we do in our public forecasts unless our confidence is very high.
Human forecasters (including those at NHC) are still able to occasionally outperform the intensity models, mainly because satellite depictions of storm structure can often be used by forecasters more effectively than by models, giving us an edge in certain circumstances. But neither human forecasters nor the models are particularly good at anticipating when thunderstorms in the cyclone core are going to develop and how they’re going to subsequently evolve, especially for weaker cyclones like Erika.
Because the atmosphere is a “chaotic” physical system, small differences in an initial state can lead to very large differences in how that state will evolve with time. This is why the model guidance for Erika was frustratingly inconsistent – sometimes showing a strong hurricane near Florida, while at other times showing a dissipating system in the northeastern Caribbean. It’s going to take a large improvement in our ability to observe in and around the tropical cyclone core (among other things), to better forecast cases like Erika for which storm structure is so important to the ultimate outcome. But our best hope for better forecasts lies in improved modeling–a major goal of the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program (HFIP).
Given the overall model guidance we received during Erika, it’s hard even now, well after the storm, to see making a substantially different forecast with current capabilities and limitations. In fact, had our first few advisories called for a track much farther south at a much weaker intensity, or even a forecast of dissipation due to interaction with Hispaniola, our partners and the public might rightly have questioned our rationale to go firmly against many model forecasts of a stronger system farther north.
Was the message from NHC muddled?
We think that there might be some ways for NHC to make key aspects of our message easier to find. Although NHC’s Tropical Cyclone Discussions (TCDs) repeatedly talked about the uncertainty surrounding Erika’s future beyond the Caribbean, including the possibility that the cyclone could dissipate before reaching Florida, it does not appear that this was a prominent part of the media’s message to Florida residents. Making key “talking points” more distinctly visible in the TCD and the Public Advisory are options we are considering, as well as enhanced use of NHC’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. Having said that, consumers and especially re-packagers of tropical cyclone forecast information, like our media partners, should take some responsibility for making use of the information that is already available. We also invite our media partners to take more advantage of the numerous training sessions we offer, mostly during the hurricane offseason. Reaching anyone in the television industry with such training, except for on-camera meteorologists, has proven over the years to be very difficult. We would like to train more reporters, producers, news department staff, executives, etc. so they are more sensitized to forecast uncertainty and how to communicate it with the help of our products, but we realize that a more focused “talking points” approach as described above will probably be needed to assist these busy folks in conveying a consistent message.
An NHC advisory package contains a variety of products, each geared to providing a certain kind of information or to serving a particular set of users. Some of our media partners have expressed concerns over the increasing number of NHC products, but the various wind and water hazards posed by a tropical cyclone cannot be boiled down to one graphic, one scale, or one index. We are, in fact, still in the process of intentionally expanding our product and warning suite to focus more on the individual hazards and promote a more consistent message about those hazards. Even so, two of our products that have been around for many years are still crying out for greater visibility.
We’ve already mentioned the Tropical Cyclone Discussion, a two- to four-paragraph text product that is the window into the forecaster’s thinking and provides the rationale behind the NHC official forecast. In the TCD we talk about the meteorology of the situation, indicate our level of confidence in the forecast, and when appropriate, discuss alternative scenarios to the one represented by the official forecast. Anyone whose job it is to communicate the forecast needs to make the TCD mandatory reading on every forecast cycle.
Some users may not understand the amount of uncertainty that is inherent in hurricane forecasts (although we suspect Florida residents now have a greater appreciation of it than they had two weeks ago). We |
the grief, pain and trauma; whether they were buying something special to celebrate a child’s birthday; whether the hard life that he had been able to manage had just gotten the better of others who were born wired differently or who didn’t have any supportive family members, as he did with his beloved grandmother.
Another instance can be seen in this quote found in an article in the Washington Post about immigrants from a retired factory worker in Pennsylvania: “They’re not paying taxes like Americans are. They’re getting stuff handed to them,” the retiree complained. “Free rent, and they’re driving better vehicles than I’m driving and everything else.” He may not have known – or didn’t care – that immigrants do pay taxes (and so do millions of undocumented immigrants) or that they don’t typically get free rent either.
Indeed, this type of complaint – that undeserving people “cut the line”, as sociologist Arlie Hochschild puts it – is so common in coverage of Trump voters that it was recently caricatured by Katha Pollitt in the Nation: “‘I played by the rules,’ said retired rancher Tom Grady, 66, delving into the Daffodil Diner’s famous rhubarb pie. ‘Why should I pay for some deadbeat’s trip to Europe?’”
Another aspect of this phenomenon is known as “actor-observer bias”. When we watch others, we tend to see them as being driven by intrinsic personality traits, while in our own case we know that, for example, we acted angrily because we’d just been fired, not because we’re naturally angry people.
“We tend to see the world through our own experiences,” explains Stephen Pimpare, lecturer in American Politics at the University of New Hampshire and author of the forthcoming Ghettos, Tramps, and Welfare Queens: Down and Out on the Silver Screen. “We often think it is structure or circumstance that constrains our choices, but it’s the behavior of others that alters theirs.”
Air rage: why does flying make us so angry? Science says it's about class Read more
In other words, other poor people are poor because they make bad choices – but if I’m poor, it’s because of an unfair system. As a result of this phenomenon, Pimpare says, poor people tend to be hardest on each other. He gives the example of a large literature in anthropology and sociology about women on welfare published since the 1980s. “It finds over and over again that some of nastiest things you ever hear about women on welfare come out of the mouths of women on welfare.”
For instance, one woman will talk about how another down the hall is lazy and sits around, exploiting the system – even though her own behavior could be viewed from the outside as virtually identical. Some will even go so far as to deny that they even get welfare payments, he adds.
Biases about the nature of inequality, of course, don’t only affect poor people.
Among the wealthy, those biases allow society’s winners to believe that they got where they are by hard work alone and so they deserve what they have – while seeing those who didn’t make it as having failed due to lack of grit and merit.
“The myth of meritocracy turns out to be deeply anti-meritocratic,” says Richard Reeves, author of Dream Hoarders, a new book that suggests that it’s not only the 1% who need to take a look in the mirror when complaining about inequality – more like the top 20%.
“It’s something of vicious circle,” he says, describing how rising inequality increases physical and geographical segregation by class, which then reduces cross-class contact and decreases the ability to interact and empathize. Less empathy then fosters greater political polarization and justification of inequality, which in turn causes the cycle to repeat.
Cecilia Mo’s experience of the effects of inequality on education came during a stretch with Teach For America, a selective program that allows top university students to spend two years teaching in poor communities. It inspired her to study that organization, to learn whether close contact with people across class can change attitudes.
She figured that the elite students who wanted to join the program were already inclined to see structural disadvantages but found that, even for them, real experience deepened their commitment.
Intimate contact – such as the experience if teaching in the inner city, mentoring, other types of services that allow people to connect despite class difference – builds empathy. The more you engage with with people unlike you and learn about their lives and stories, the harder it is to see them as stereotypes or to dismiss their challenges as trivial.
While not everyone can participate in such intense service, the more we can recognize biases in ourselves, the less likely we will be to fall prey to them.
Outclassed: The Secret Life of Inequality is our new column about class. Read all articles hereNintendo demos 3DS across the US
Just as they did in 2006 with the Wii, Nintendo has announced plans to demo the 3DS at more than 40 locations nationwide in advance of its release on March 27. These ‘demo pods’ will give people access to play around with the 3DS’ built-in applications and 7 of the expected launch titles around the clock for the rest of the month. A list of the games playable and a partial list of locations and hours is posted after the break.
Locations
New York City: Grand Central Terminal (Vanderbilt Hall, West Side) Running March 11-30 Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
Chicago: Citigroup Center (entrance to Ogilvie Transportation Center) Running March 11-April 3 Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
San Francisco: Pier 39 (Main Entrance Plaza) Running March 11-April 3 Monday through Sunday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
Los Angeles: Third Street Promenade (1300 block) Running March 11-April 3 Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
GamesRemember Roy and Silo, the two male penguins from the Central Park Zoo in New York, whose gay canoodling caused quite a stir in the media, and a book deal (that was soon to be black listed)? Turns out that Roy and Silo are now Ex-Gays. They, thankfully, underwent Heterosexual Reconditioning at the Church of Latter-Day Penguins. At least that's the reason noted on the press release. Word on the street is that Roy left Silo because he never replaced the toilet paper, and even when he did, he let the dangling square unroll from the bottom. Can you believe that?
In reality, Roy and Silo were not gay, but part of the 1,500 species of wild and captive animals that engage in bisexual behavior. As Scientific American Mind noted, "Many species seem to have ingrained homosexual tendencies that are a regular part of their society. That is, there are probably no strictly gay critters, just bisexual ones." Yet references to scientific studies keep mistakenly labeling same-sex animal humping as gay. Like this one that came out [ed. note: hee] recently, noting:"Bottlenose dolphin, on the other hand, may appear to offer no practical advantage to the survival of the species, but'male-on-male mounting and genital contact appear to strengthen alliances and provide practice for later.'"Wait, if they're gay, then why are they mounting females? I'm so confused. It's probably because I'm bisexual. Also, malemount each other all the time and no one remarks upon their sexuality. Zing?Since bisexuality is so often considered a phase or a cop-out, one of the ways bisexuals counter this silly argument is with the help of Mother Nature. You'll often be able to spot the bisexual at dinner parties as the one cornering someone at the dip table with a lecture on the bonobo chimp or the mating habits of black swans."Did you know that bisexuality in animals serves as a peace keeping strategy? I was readingat the gym recently and it is just amazing what bisexuality can do to ease social tensions...much like this awkward exchange we're having now!"Until Science gets it straight [ed. note: hee], I will continue the important crusade of outing animals like Roy and Silo, who, while championed as gay heroes, were actually just a couple of sluts. I mean, bisexuals.David Reynolds has been fined $25,000 for a ‘disgraceful’ comment about the Supergirls wildcard entry at Bathurst.
Reynolds referred to the Simona de Silvestro/Renee Gracie entry as the ‘pussy wagon’ during the post-practice press conference.
De Silvestro and Gracie are the first all-female combination at Bathurst since 1998, running as a one-off entry put together in part by V8 Supercars.
The wildcard is being run by as part of a five-car effort from Prodrive, which also prepares Reynolds’ The Bottle-O-backed Ford.
V8 Supercars CEO James Warburton condemned Reynolds’ choice of words in a statement confirming the penalty.
“Reynolds’ comments were disgraceful and completely unacceptable in our sport and he has been fined $25,000,” Warburton said.
“Women are an integral part of our sport, whether they are fans, drivers or team members. And V8 Supercars will continue to support and promote female participation at all levels of our sport.”
The Supergirls wildcard is being backed by high profile sponsor Harvey Norman, whose CEO Katie Page attended the Mount Panorama Circuit today.
Reynolds followed up his initial comment in the press conference by expressing enthusiasm for having the wildcard in the field.
“I think it’s great,” he said.
“Renee and Simona are really good people, really good drivers and I hope they perform well. I really hope they go well.”
Prodrive has subsequently issued a statement from Reynolds apologising for the comment.
CLICK HERE to read Reynolds’ apology.
Fellow V8 Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen meanwhile offered to help pay the fine via Twitter.
@daffidreynolds need a tenner bro? — Shane van Gisbergen (@shanevg97) October 8, 2015
AUDIO: David Reynolds’ Supergirls commentHere, there and everywhere: Beatles songs to be streamed for first time
As a band, the Beatles were famed for their adoption of new recording technology, everything from tape-looped studio effects to double-tracked vocals. But in more recent years their songs have been absent from that most modern of ways to consume music: streaming websites. Until now, that is.
From Christmas Eve the full Beatles catalogue will become available on nine separate music streaming sites, including Spotify, Google Play and Amazon Prime. It will even be on Apple Music, eight years after the end of a long and brutal legal battle between the technology company and the Beatles’ Apple record label over the use of the Apple logo in the music business.
The Beatles let it stream – showing that the format is the future Read more
It will all happen at 12.01am local time “here, there and everywhere”, according to a heavily Beatles song-referencing statement on the band’s official website, which ends: “Happy Crimble, with love from us to you.”
The world’s most celebrated popular music group had long left a conspicuous gap in the offerings of streaming sites, which have become increasingly mainstream despite some acts’ concerns over royalties and other issues.
Last year, Taylor Swift removed her music from Spotify, though her catalogue remains available to stream on Apple Music. In June this year, Australian rock behemoth AC/DC finally abandoned their no-streaming stance.
Beatles songs were initially also absent from Apple’s pay-to-own music site, iTunes, but appeared five years ago, after negotiations described by this newspaper, inevitably, as a “a long and winding download”. Solo material from Beatles members has previously been available on streaming sites.
The Beatles (@thebeatles) December 24 at 12:01am local time, The Beatles’ music is available for streaming worldwide: https://t.co/99cigizLza pic.twitter.com/42vZSNGVHG
From midnight the Beatles’ 13 remastered studio albums and four compilation albums will be available to users of the free, advert-financed users of Spotify, as well as its claimed 20 million paying subscribers. Along with Apple Music, which has 15 million users, Google Play and Amazon Prime, the songs will be also be on Slacker, Tidal, Groove, Rhapsody and Deezer.
Gennaro Castaldo, spokesman for music industry body the BPI, said that the announcement meant “streaming’s journey towards the mainstream will nearly be complete”, and predicted the Beatles would help streaming services sign up more users.
He said: “An increasing number of music consumers are switching to streaming for their day to day needs, while still also buying and collecting their favourite artists on vinyl and CD, so the addition of such iconic albums can only accelerate the dramatic growth of this digital platform.”
There is seemingly huge demand for the band’s music on streaming sites. Nearly 1.1 million people are already following the official Beatles profile on Spotify, and due to a smattering of compilation tracks, the band already has nearly 350,000 monthly listeners. One song, Ain’t She Sweet, has so far been streamed 5.7m times.
The Beatles back catalogue proved popular in 2010 as iTunes downloads, selling more than 450,000 albums and 2m singles in the first week after going live. In the streaming world, their main competition will be younger pop acts. Justin Bieber is currently the most popular artist on Spotify with 31.7 million monthly listeners.Sundance is at it again on twitter. The coming Arena's (both SC2 and LoL) will be free.
Sundance DiGiovanni
@MLGSundance
Following
feeling good about making Arenas freemium. also feeling good about the drink I just poured.
Between a sponsor and strong season pass sales for Spring, this became possible
Sundance DiGiovanni
@MLGSundance
Following
Yes I meant SC2 as well as LoL. Yes Gold members still have benefits. Yes, I’m having another drink.
Sundance DiGiovanni @MLGSundance
Final note - this is possible because we did well with season passes and crushed it with Anaheim. Opened the door to more partner $. (cont)
Sundance DiGiovanni @MLGSundance
We have options now. Makes my job more enjoyable. Hopefully everyone who hasn’t had a chance to watch an Arena will enjoy. Yay growth!
So Arenas will now be under the freemium model like their championship events. No word on what benefits the Gold Members will get.EDIT: It is unconfirmed whether this is for all Arena's from now on. Summer season is freemium for certain though.Cisco Systems said that more than 300 models of switches it sells contain a critical vulnerability that allows the CIA to use a simple command to remotely execute malicious code that takes full control of the devices. There currently is no fix.
Cisco researchers said they discovered the vulnerability as they analyzed a cache of documents that are believed to have been stolen from the CIA and published by WikiLeaks two weeks ago. The flaw, found in at least 318 switches, allows remote attackers to execute code that runs with elevated privileges, Cisco warned in an advisory published Friday. The bug resides in the Cisco Cluster Management Protocol (CMP), which uses the telnet protocol to deliver signals and commands on internal networks. It stems from a failure to restrict telnet options to local communications and the incorrect processing of malformed CMP-only telnet options.
"An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending malformed CMP-specific telnet options while establishing a telnet session with an affected Cisco device configured to accept telnet connections," the advisory stated. "An exploit could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code and obtain full control of the device or cause a reload of the affected device."
Compounding the risk, vulnerable switches will process CMP-specific telnet options by default, "even if no cluster configuration commands are present on the device configuration," the advisory warned. The vulnerability mostly affects Cisco Catalyst switches but is also found in Industrial Ethernet switches and embedded services. Cisco plans to release a fix at an unspecified date.
While Friday's advisory said there are "no workaround that address this vulnerability," it did say the vulnerability was active only when buggy devices were configured to accept incoming telnet connections. Disabling telnet as a means for receiving incoming connections eliminates the threat, and Cisco has provided instructions for disabling telnet. Cisco switch users who aren't willing to disable telnet can lower the risk of exploits by using an access control list to restrict the devices that are permitted to send and receive telnet commands.
Cisco's advisory is among the first from a major electronics manufacturer to warn that its products are vulnerable to exploits discussed in Vault 7, the name WikiLeaks gave to thousands of pages of documents it said were leaked from the CIA. The cache appears to have come from an internal Wiki made available to CIA insiders. In it, the members discuss various exploits and the vulnerabilities they target in products from Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Cisco, and others.
Documents published so far don't appear to explicitly discuss technical details of the vulnerabilities or how to exploit them. Last week, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange vowed he would privately disclose those details to manufacturers so they would have time to fix them before the vulnerabilities became widely known. According to Motherboard, WikiLeaks has yet to provide any such details and instead has made only unspecified demands.
The full list of affected Cisco switches can be found here.CLOSE Go inside the Phoenix Fire Department 911 call center to learn about what's going on when you call 911 in the Phoenix metro area. Hannah Gaber/azcentral.com
Robert Kanoff (Photo: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office)
A man was arrested after he walked around a Walmart store in Tempe naked and carrying methamphetamine late Tuesday evening, Tempe police said.
Officers received a call about 10 p.m. on July 4 that Robert Kanoff, 49, was naked and walking around a Walmart store at 1380 W. Elliot Road, police said.
When officers arrived, Kanoff was across the street, wearing only a pair of shoes, police said.
Kanoff later said he had been on drugs and two people dropped him off thinking it would be funny to see him naked, according to police.
Kanoff also admitted to walking into the Walmart and carrying methamphetamine, police said.
He was arrested on charges of indecent exposure, public sexual indecency, disorderly conduct and possession of dangerous drugs, according to Tempe police.
READ MORE:
Police: Homeless dad found passed out with needle in arm, 2 kids in car
Mesa police release body-cam video of man punched, kneed by officers
Body found near dumpster in Phoenix
Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/2uAl2cVMANCHESTER: It is small enough to disappear in the palm of your hand but packs a real punch when fired. The personal pocket pistol of Britain’s revered spy princess Noor Inayat Khan — an Indian princess who later became Winston Churchill’s most daring spy, is on public display at the Imperial War Museum North (Manchester).Noor — a direct descendant of Tipu Sultan, the 18th century Muslim “Tiger of Mysore” who refused to submit to British rule was part of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) — a British secret service set up to promote subversive warfare in enemy occupied territory.Code named Madeleine, Noor was dropped into occupied France on Churchill’s order with the instruction to set Europe ablaze. A hero of the World War II, her pistol has now become a major draw at the IWMN. Charlotte Czyzyk from the museum told the TOI that the Webley M1907 pocket pistol belonging to Noor has been a major draw ever since it has been displayed.“She was a real war hero. It was quite unusual for women to do dangerous missions. But Noor went on a dangerous mission fearlessly for her love for Britain. The gun is important as it reminds us of the war that was secret,” Czyzyk said.The year 2014 has seen a massive increase in interest in the life story of the Indian princess.The Royal Mail celebrated recently brought out selection of remarkable individuals from the realms of sport, design, economics, heroism and the arts with the “Remarkable Lives” stamp issue.Noor Inayat Khan's pistol.The set, available from March 25 commemorates individuals whose centenaries of birth fall in 2014 and who have all made a major contribution to British society. One of the stamps is on Noor.Noor was born in Moscow in 1914 to an Indian father and an American mother. She began a career as a children’s writer but Noor fled from Paris to Britain after the occupation of France in 1940. She served with the WAAFs (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) under the name of Nora Baker until February 1943, when she applied to join the SOE.Noor was the first female wireless operator sent into France by the SOE. She landed in France in June 1943 and worked for a resistance network in Paris, under the code name Madeleine.She survived a wave of arrests among her SOE contacts but declined a chance to return to Britain. She was betrayed and captured by the Gestapo (Nazi political police) in October 1943, but resisted interrogation and gave no information away.After two failed escape attempts from prison, Noor was sent to Dachau concentration camp, where she was executed on 13 September 1944. In 1949, Noor was posthumously awarded the George Cross, which is the non-combatant equivalent of the Victoria Cross — the highest honour a civilian can receive in wartime.It is rare — Noor was awarded military honours by France and Britain — the Croix De Guerre and the George Cross, an expert said.British Prime Minister David Cameron recently said, “It is impossible not to be moved deeply by Noor Inayat Khan’s bravery in the face of capture, interrogation, and harsh imprisonment, and by her cruel death met with indomitable courage. The award of the George Cross, our highest civilian decoration, gave recognition to her heroism.”Greece has “basically achieved” the objectives of the reforms required by its creditors and its eurozone partners will begin discussing possible debt relief for the country, according to European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker.
IMF threatens to pull out of Greek rescue Read more
“We are now at the time of the first review of the programme (to aid Greece) and the objectives have been basically achieved,” Juncker said in an interview to be published on Sunday in Funke Mediengruppe newspapers in Germany.
Greece’s creditors carried out the review intended to evaluate progress on reforms by the Athens government as it hopes to unlock the next tranche of its €86bn ($95bn) bailout agreed in July.
The Eurogroup, comprised of the 19 finance ministers of the euro area countries, is set to meet on Monday in Brussels and take up this review of Greek reforms.
They will also “start the first discussions about how to make Greece’s debt sustainable in the long term”, Juncker told the German papers.
Approval of the reforms is needed before any consideration of Greek debt relief, but despite months of talks, Greece’s reforms have yet to win the backing of all its creditors largely due to differences between the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which has demanded more reforms.
Juncker’s comments come as Greek finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos Saturday called on his eurozone partners to back Greece’s reform package of cuts worth 5.4 billion euros, and to put aside the creditors’ call for 3.6 billion euros of additional measures.
“Any package in excess of 5.4 billion is bound to be seen by both Greek citiziens and economic agents, within and beyond Greece, as socially and economically counter-productive,” he wrote in a letter to the Eurogroup.
Europe's liberal illusions shatter as Greek tragedy plays on Read more
Tsakalotos warned of the price of a “failed state” if the crucial talks on Monday run aground.
At the same time IMF chief Christine Lagarde also addressed the Eurogroup in a letter, urging the ministers to take up the question of debt relief.
Lagarde stressed the need to revise down the goal of Greece achieving a primary budget surplus of 3.5% of GDP in 2018, saying it was “counterproductive” to expect Athens to meet the target.
But the IMF also said there were “significant gaps” in Greece’s reform offers.
Greece is under pressure as it faces a huge payment to the European Central Bank in July, with fears growing Athens could default if the bailout funds do not come through.Bumpology is our weekly column on the science behind pregnancy, written by our reporter whose own bump is growing larger by the day
Days to go: 97
Waist size: 89 centimetres (35 inches)
Additional note: Back to craving cakes this week. Perhaps baby is developing a sweet tooth.
Tucking into a particularly spicy curry the other night, I started wondering if my fetus was sharing in any of these wonderful taste sensations. Fetal taste buds are said to develop just 13 to 15 weeks into pregnancy, and we’re also told that babies can distinguish between different flavours in breast milk. But do flavours also get into the amniotic fluid?
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According to Julie Mennella, a taste researcher at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, they can. “If it gets into the blood supply, it will get into the amniotic fluid and the breast milk,” she says.
Volatile compounds, such as the sulphurous compounds that give garlic its taste, are able to get into the blood and thence into the amniotic fluid. Each day in the third trimester of pregnancy, fetuses breathe and swallow around a litre of amniotic fluid, which passes over olfactory receptors in the nose and the taste receptors in the mouth.
Several studies have shown that babies whose mothers consumed garlic or anise during pregnancy are drawn towards those smells in the first few days after birth. “If you take amniotic fluid from mothers who have eaten a really garlicy meal, you can smell it,” Mennella says, although she adds that no one to her knowledge has investigated whether capsaicin – the compound that puts the kick in chillis – can also get into the amniotic fluid.
Safety lesson
The memories of these tastes also seem to persist for some time after birth, and may shape babies’ preferences for foods in later life. In 2001, Mennella found that the infants of mothers who drank 300 millilitres of carrot juice four times a week for three weeks during the last trimester of pregnancy, or during the first two months of breastfeeding, showed a greater enjoyment of cereals prepared with carrot juice once they were weaned (Pediatrics, vol 107, p e88).
More recently, Mennella says she has found that infants whose mothers ate a lot of fruit during pregnancy are more accepting of fruit when it is introduced to them during weaning. “The baby is learning what foods mom likes,” she says. “I think it’s the first way they learn what foods are safe and also what foods are available.”
Pregnancy and lactation may therefore be ideal times to set babies a good example by eating a healthy and varied diet, she suggests.
It may also be possible to set a bad example, however, as Paula Abate of the Mercedes and Martín Ferreyra Institute of Medical Investigation in Córdoba, Argentina, and her colleagues recently showed. They found that infants whose mothers consumed at least 22.1 grams of alcohol per week during pregnancy – that’s just under 3 units (equivalent to two small glasses of wine) – exhibited more smiling, suckling and licking expressions in response to the smell of alcohol than those whose mothers drank infrequently or abstained during pregnancy (Experimental Biology and Medicine, DOI: 10.3181/0703-mr-69). None of these infants showed signs of fetal alcohol syndrome, however.
Intoxicated partners
All this raises the question of whether preferences learned in utero extend into the teens or adulthood. Could my mother’s wine consumption during pregnancy (she admits that she had the odd glass with dinner) explain my penchant for viognier, for example?
Studies in rats suggest it might. In a slightly bizarre experiment, adolescent rats whose mothers had been given alcohol during pregnancy showed a greater interest in intoxicated partners than those whose mothers hadn’t consumed alcohol, and also preferred its smell.
Recent evidence has also suggested that the children of alcoholics are more likely to battle with alcohol problems themselves. Becoming accustomed to the taste during late pregnancy might be one mechanism through which this happens, says Abate. “Prenatal alcohol exposure strongly predicts later drinking patterns and alcohol-related drinking problems,” she says.
It is also too early to know just how much a mother needs to drink for the taste to reach her baby, but personally, I’m not going to let this stop me from having the odd glass of wine. I also can’t stop wondering what these amniotic cocktails taste like.
Read previous Bumpology columns: My fetus is smarter than an earthworm, Ultrasound reveals breastfeeding mechanics, Boxing clever with the kung-fu fetus, Can old wives’ tales tell me my baby’s sex?, Active fetus, boisterous child? Uh-oh, Why do I loathe lettuce?, How does stress affect my fetus?.Browse > Home Parish Life / Unbelievably Wealthy Parishioner Has Some Great Fundraising Ideas
Unbelievably Wealthy Parishioner Has Some Great Fundraising Ideas
Tampa Bay, FL–Edward Goodman, parishioner and parish council member at Our Lady of Grace in Tampa Bay, has some great ideas for fundraising, he is reporting. The parish is in need of a new air-conditioning system as well as a roof repair, according to the Pastor, Fr. Greg Nussbaum, whose total lifetime income will be a fraction of what Goodman makes in a year.
“I think we should definitely start the process by sending out a flyer to all parishioners explaining the problem with the roof,” Goodman said to the rest of the parish council. “I don’t think we need to explain the broken air conditioner. You can’t really miss that lately!”
“Then,” Goodman continued, as he reflected on the 8 apartment buildings he owns as well as the Bentley he drove to church in, “we can ask each family in the parish to donate 10 dollars. If they all donate, that’ll be enough to cover the air conditioner. I’ll be the first to donate to kick things off,” he said as he signed a check for 10 dollars.
The parish council continued to listen as Goodman unfolded his master plan. “We need a bake sale. Not one of those chinsy little ones they do over at St. Anastasia’s. I’m talking big time. We can use the church hall free of charge, and take out an ad in the Pennysaver to spread the word.”
As the parish council considered the bake sale idea proposed by the man who had just finished telling them about the Euro trip he took with his family for three weeks, and who had paid more in taxes last year than the rest of the parish council made in income combined, Goodman sat back, pondering the amount of grace he was receiving that very moment for the guidance he was providing the council free of charge.
The funds made by the bake sale would be increased, according to Goodman, by a car auction. “We get ourselves a Camry, and if we sell 1000 tickets at $100 apiece, that’ll cover the initial cost of the car and make us more than enough to fix the roof,” Goodman continued, apparently believing $100 to be a reasonable amount to charge for a raffle ticket, and seemingly unconscious of the fact that he basically made the amount needed for the roof and air-conditioning through stocks in the time it took him to explain his idea. “Heck,” he continued, “I’d buy a couple tickets myself maybe, just to show support.”
After their meeting, the parish council members spent some time chatting in the parking lot while Fr. Greg thanked Goodman for his great ideas and valuable contribution, which came in the form of warm carbon dioxide molecules issuing from his trachea.
At press time, Goodman is waving to the rest of the parish council from his Bentley as he drives away, his window down slightly, just a tiny bit, about the width of the eye of a needle.Do you have a stressful life, high blood pressure, insomnia? Keeping an aquarium may be good therapy for you. Studies going back as far as the late '80s have shown that gazing at aquarium fish reduces stress and subsequently lowers blood pressure.
Fish Make a Difference
Researchers have compared the effects of hypnosis vs. an aquarium, fishless vs. fish-filled aquariums, and no aquarium vs. having an aquarium. In all cases, the presence of some sort of aquarium has been shown to reduce blood pressure. Additionally, greater reduction in blood pressure has occurred when there are fish in the tank, as opposed to tanks that are attractively decorated but have no fish. Even watching a video of fish has been proven to have therapeutic effects.
Multitude of Benefits
Seniors exposed to an aquarium filled with fish have shown a significant reduction in blood pressure. Watching fish has been shown to calm children who suffer from hyperactivity disorder. Dental patients who were subjected to hypnosis vs. an aquarium have experienced the same or greater benefit from the aquarium. Other studies have shown that dental patients required less pain medication after having watched fish in the dentist's office. It's little wonder that physician offices, dental clinics, and even counseling centers have traditionally kept an aquarium in the waiting room.
Aquarium Effect on Alzheimer’s
Studies have shown that seniors with Alzheimer’s experience a variety of health benefits from watching an aquarium. At Purdue University, researchers have found that displaying tanks of brightly colored fish may curtail disruptive behaviors and improve eating habits of people with Alzheimer's disease. A Purdue News August 1999 Report states that "Nursing Professor Nancy Edwards tracked 60 individuals who resided in specialized units in three Indiana nursing homes. She found that patients who were exposed to the fish tanks appeared to be more relaxed and alert, and they ate up to 21 percent more food than they had before the introduction of the fish tanks. The average increase in food consumption was 17.2 percent."
During the same study, there were reports that one female patient "who never spoke to staff members or other patients, became fascinated by the fish tank, spending long periods watching the fish. One day, the woman approached Edwards and asked 'Hey, fish lady, how many fish are in this tank, six or eight?' Edwards, surprised by the question, told her there were six fish in the tank. 'Well one time I counted six and one time I counted eight,' the woman replied."
Fish Fish Anywhere
Virtually any aquarium, from large to small, can offer potential health benefits. A large aquarium is great, but if space is limited, a mini-aquarium will do. Seniors and students can usually find a place for a "desktop" aquarium. These are compact and usually come in kits with everything needed to get started.Several religious leaders have been arrested while staging a sit-in protest inside the Geelong offices of a federal Labor frontbencher over the party's stance on children in immigration detention centres.
Police arrested the protesters - from Christian groups including the Salvation Army and the Uniting, Baptist and Catholic churches - on Monday night after when they refused to leave the electorate office of Shadow Immigration Minister and Corio MP Richard Marles.
Police watch the "prayer sit-in" inside the Geelong offices of Shadow Immigration Minister Richard Marles. Credit:Love Makes A Way Facebook page
A police spokeswoman confirmed that seven people had been taken into custody and charged with trespass. All were bailed to face the Geelong Magistrates' Court on December 11, she said.
The group of seven had been holding a "prayer sit-in" inside the office, saying they would not leave until gaining a public commitment from Mr Marles to "end the bipartisan brutality" and demand the release of all children and families from immigration detention centres.The final installment in a series of posts on the size of the infinite, as described in mathematical set theory. The first post can be read here, the second here, and the third here.
We have taken a long, strange journey into the properties of infinity. Over the course of three posts, we have seen that we can characterize the different “sizes” of infinity, though not in the way one might think. We have found, in fact, that there are an infinity of infinities! The smallest one we looked at was the infinite set of counting numbers (labeled ); the next largest we found was the continuum (labeled ): the set of real numbers between 0 and 1. We then found that, for any size infinity, we can construct a larger one.
This leads to an intriguing notion: if we arrange the different size infinities we have found in order, we might have a set of the form
This would seem to suggest a really elegant possibility: if these are all the infinities, then we could imagine that the set of all infinities form a countable infinity themselves, of size, and then we could build up the larger infinities again from this, continuing an endless cycle! For instance, the set of all subsets of the set of all infinities would then be of size, and so on.
For this to be true, however, we need to know whether there are any other infinities between those we have been able to derive so far. We have shown that there are an infinite number of infinities, but we have not shown that these are the only infinities. To condense this into the simplest problem, we can ask:
Are there infinite sets of an intermediate size between and the continuum?
This is what is known as the continuum problem, and it has vexed mathematicians for well over a hundred years, ever since Georg Cantor first formulated set theory in the 1870s.
But here is where we arrive at what may be the oddest part of the story of infinity! If we look at the history of the continuum problem, the answer to the question has changed over the years:
We don’t know the answer (c. 1870s) We can’t know the answer (c. 1950s) The answer is whatever we prefer it to be (today)
Huh? Okay, this is going to take a bit of explanation…
In order to make sense of |
ensies” is a thing!), so we can estimate that while a 42-inch-tall child weighs 40.5 pounds on average, a hobbit will clock in at around 70 pounds. Being generally smaller also means having a smaller stomach, but that shouldn’t prove a problem; your average adult stomach can expand greatly to hold multiple litres if needed–that means a hobbit can probably stomach 1.5 litres (more than 3 pints) without much effort. So that means that volume isn’t too much of a concern while drinking.
Type of Beer. LOTR refers to hobbit brew as both “beer” and “ale.” As we observe various species getting drunk off of the ale presented, we can assume that Tolkien is not referring to the small beers of yesteryear, but the average fare one might find in a pub in the 20th century. The majority of hobbit ales can be labeled as session beers, lending themselves to long nights out after a hard day’s work.
Alcohol Content. Ale averages around 3-6% ABV. For the sake of easier math, let’s assume 5% ABV for your typical hobbit ale. Something that’s sessionable, but not so low that your average Man wouldn’t notice the kick, since the hobbits are clearly fine drinking beverages that are brewed with Big Folk in mind, too.
Units of Alcohol. The specific unit for a measure of beer is also important here. It’s probable that a pint in Middle-earth is an Imperial pint, which is different from the American unit. (The Imperial pint is larger.) A full Imperial pint is 568 milliliters, making a half-pint 284 milliliters.
Alcohol Elimination Rate. This is one of the key variant factors in determining how quickly hobbits can process alcohol; contrary to what many people believe, your metabolism has very little to do with how quickly you process alcohol. The biological process that determines that is actually a construct called the Alcohol Elimination Rate, which is basically a calculation that determines how quickly your liver can filter the alcohol in your system.
One of the factors in this calculation is the frequency of how often you drink; a person who drinks regularly will eliminate alcohol faster than someone who only drinks once in a while because they’ve built a chemical “tolerance”. Another factor is the size of your liver compared to your body mass. If a hobbit’s liver size in relation to their body size is similar to that of an adult human, they will eliminate alcohol at relatively the same rate as an adult human. If a hobbit’s liver size is larger than an adult human one (which is true for children) when compared to their body size, than they are more likely to have an alcohol elimination rate closer to an alcoholic or a child. It is entirely possible–perhaps even probable–that hobbits have larger livers, the same way a human child would. Given that hobbits have a relatively constant rate of consumption (six meals a day, when they can get them), their systems are not exactly the same as a human’s.
With that in mind, it’s time to do some math!
Blood alcohol content is generally determined by the Widmark formula. While this formula is not absolute, it gives us a helpful baseline. Here is an updated version of the formula:
% BAC = (A x 5.14 / W x r) –.015 x H
Here are the variables that you need to account for:
A = liquid ounces of alcohol consumed W = a person’s weight in pounds r = a gender constant of alcohol distribution (.73 for men and.66 for women–this one is tricky on flexibility) H = hours elapsed since drinking commenced
The.015 in the equation is the average Alcohol Elimination Rate for a social drinker. If hobbits do indeed have a higher Elimination Rate, than that number should be altered to around.028 for the formula to give an accurate BAC%. We determine A by calculating amount of alcohol in the ale consumed, which is the number of liquid ounces in one beverage multiplied by the number of beverages consumed multiplied by the ABV of the beverage. If a hobbit consumes two half-pints of ale, the formula for A looks like this:
9.6 ounces x 2 half-pints x 5% ABV =.96 oz
If we use this formula to account for the BAC of a male hobbit who has had two half-pints of ale over the course of an hour on an empty stomach, with an average human Elimination Rate, this is what we get:
(.96 x 5.14 / 70 x.73) –.015 x 1 (4.934/ 51.1) –.015 x 1.0965 –.015 x 1 =.082 BAC%
For the record,.08% puts you over the legal limit for driving. (Granted, hobbits don’t drive cars. Do they need a license for ponies?) Let’s see what happens when we adjust for the Elimination Rate of someone with a larger liver, closer to the range of a chronic drinker:
.0965 –.028 x 1 =.069 BAC%
If we assume the latter, then a hobbit who puts away a pint in an hour would be in the “buzzed” territory–lowered inhibitions, a bit louder and more boisterous, emotions intensified. If the same hobbit consumed 1.5 pints in the same hour, their BAC would rocket up to.12%, leading to serious motor skill and memory impairment as well as poor self-control. Two whole pints in an hour would lead to a BAC of.17%, making this same hobbit start to feel dizzy or nauseous, with blurred vision and a possible risk of blackout. By three pints and a BAC of.26%, the poor guy is probably throwing up near some poor farmer’s stables and leaning on his pals for support because he cannot walk without assistance.
So, if a hobbit consumes a steady half-pint an hour, they’d maintain a vague euphoria. But if they plan on consuming at a more rapid rate, they have to watch themselves (or have some good pals looking out for them). Which means that hobbits process alcohol similarly to humans, just in smaller portion sizes. And they likely have awesome livers getting the work done for them.
Just some useful info for when the hobbits drop by your house, and you want to make sure they enjoy your holiday party.
Emily Asher-Perrin tried hobbit beer in New Zealand. It was delicious. You can bug her on Twitter and Tumblr, and read more of her work here and elsewhere.CAIRO (Reuters) - When Egyptian Christian Kerollos Maher watched on television as petrol bombs and rocks rained on Cairo’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral he had only one thought - emigration.
Coptic Christians sleep and relax on stairs inside Cairo's main Coptic cathedral after Sunday's clashes with Muslims in Cairo, April 8, 2013. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih (EGYPT - Tags: RELIGION POLITICS CIVIL UNREST)
“Egypt is no longer my country,” said the 24-year-old construction worker, standing in the courtyard of the country’s largest cathedral where one Copt and one Muslim died in sectarian clashes this week.
“The situation of Christians is worsening from day to day. I’ve given up hope that things will improve,” he said.
Christians, who make up a tenth of Egypt’s 84 million people, have been worrying about the rise of militant Islamists since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
But after days of fighting at the cathedral and a town outside Cairo killing eight - the worst sectarian strife since Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was elected in June - many Copts now question whether they have a future in Egypt.
An angry young fringe of a community that has lived in Egypt since the earliest days of Christianity may also be turning to violence.
“The attack on the cathedral was the crossing of a red line,” said Michael Sanouel, a 23-year old technician in a steel plant. Sanouel rushed to the cathedral “to defend it” when he heard about the clashes that lasted more than five hours.
“I have been looking for a while for a job abroad, in Italy or Germany,” he said, standing next to a piece of charred wood from a tree hit by a petrol bomb hurled over the compound wall.
“I have two children but I don’t want them to grow up under a Muslim Brotherhood regime,” said Sanouel, who slept in the cathedral compound like dozens of others after the clashes, ready to defend it if more confrontations erupted.
The trouble flared after a funeral on Sunday of four Copts shot dead last week in the town of El Khusus, north of Cairo.
President Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood allies were quick to condemn the sectarian violence, the latest turmoil to hit a post-Mubarak Egypt beset by political and economic crisis.
Mursi said the cathedral attack was like an attack on himself but in a rare rebuke, the Coptic Orthodox Pope, Tawadros II, said Christians were tired of promises.
“The president assured us personally that he would do everything to protect the cathedral... but in reality this was not the case,” Tawadros told a private TV station when he called in to a live talk show. “We have seen enough committees being formed. We want action, not words.”
Youssef Sidhom, editor of the Coptic newspaper al-Watani said the pope, elected in November, had chosen strong words because Christians inside the cathedral felt police had abandoned them by withdrawing when the clashes started.
“There is an absence of the state and the rule of law and the violence at the cathedral proves that,” he said.
Police had not stopped attackers throwing petrol bombs and firing bird-shot from neighboring houses into the cathedral compound. Live TV footage showed an almost motionless police cordon while clashes raged for several hours.
The interior ministry said Christians started the trouble by torching some cars after the funeral, angering neighbors, an account confirmed by a Reuters reporter at the scene.
GRIEVANCES
Copts have long complained of discrimination in the job market, before the law and in getting permits to build churches.
Now they say they were better off under Mubarak, who used to jail Islamists, although 23 people died in a bomb attack on a church in Alexandria shortly before his overthrow. Many Copts believe Muslim radicals want to eradicate Christianity, whose roots in Egypt predate the Islamic era.
Some Copts were dismayed that Mursi did not attend the installation of the new pope or Coptic Christmas ceremonies.
Samir Morcos was the president’s only Christian aide until he resigned in November when Mursi gave himself greater powers. “Some people want to destroy our state,” Morcos told Reuters. “The situation has become very dangerous.”
Christians acknowledge that some of their grievances such as access to government jobs are shared by many Muslims struggling to make ends meet in a country rife with corruption and poverty.
But some fear life for Copts will worsen as the Brotherhood extends its control to a growing number of state institutions.
“We are in state of depression,” said Father Metuas Nasr, a priest who said he had abandoned his church outside Cairo after repeated attacks from hardline Islamists. “The Brotherhood is now taking over all state institutions. We don’t have a (neutral) police anymore as you could see at the clashes.
There is no official data but church officials say many Copts have left the country since Mubarak’s overthrow.
“I know so many people who have left or plan to go,” said Peter el-Naggar, a church activist and lawyer.
Western diplomats said that while their countries do not record the religion of visa-seekers, anecdotal evidence suggests a high percentage of those who had left since 2011 are Copts.
The most high-profile departure was billionaire Naguib Sawiris, who settled in Europe after infuriating Muslims by tweeting a cartoon of Mickey and Minnie Mouse in Islamic dress.
Compounding their misfortunes, some wealthier Egyptian Copts traditionally deposited their savings across the Mediterranean in Cyprus for safe-keeping, a senior diplomat said.
They may now face large losses since accounts with more than 100,000 euros in the island’s two biggest banks will suffer a “haircut” to help pay for bailing the country out.
FIGHTING BACK
The sectarian strife is a sharp contrast to the harmonious images of the anti-Mubarak revolt in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, when Copts formed protective cordons around Muslims at prayer and Muslims brandished the Koran and the Bible.
Many moderate and liberal Muslims attended the cathedral’s funeral service and others were quick to come the next day after to show their solidarity and denounce Mursi and the Brotherhood.
“The attack is unacceptable to me,” said Ahmed Sharif, a Muslim. “For me, the Coptic Cathedral is a symbol of Egypt like al-Azhar,” he said, referring to the highest Muslim authority.
Sidhom, the Coptic editor, said that while some Christians might be planning to leave the vast majority would stay to confront the Brotherhood in upcoming parliamentary elections. “I am one of those who want to stay and fight back,” he said.
In last June’s presidential poll, many Copts voted for Mubarak’s last premier, Ahmed Shafiq, who came a close second.
Many now hope moderate Muslims fed up with queues at fuel stations, power cuts and a rise in crime will turn against the Brotherhood at the polls, which could take place in October.
But their hopes could be dashed if the weak and fragmented opposition fails to unite or sticks to threats of a boycott.
“I feel frustrated (with the liberal opposition),” Sidhom said. “I hope that... they would wisely reconsider their position and take steps to participate in the elections.”
RADICAL
If the Muslim Brotherhood and more radical Salafist parties gain the upper hand, some church activists have few illusions that their youth will also become more radical.
Some Copts are ready to resort to violence. A Reuters reporter saw two young men with guns and a crate of petrol bombs on the roof of the cathedral during the clashes.
Slideshow (2 Images)
A day after the clashes, the mood was still tense at the cathedral compound which also houses a theological institute, a nuns’ home and a tailor for religious vestments.
Officials kept the doors closed - not just for protection but also to stop angry young Copts arriving as rumors of more violence swirled around.
“We want to get in,” shouted a group of young men, banging at the door. Some showed cross tattoos on their hands but a guard told them: “Nobody is allowed in today.”Ten Fun Things To Do to Get you out of the House this Weekend.
Ahh the weekend is finally here. As always Dublin is flooding with loads of events that appeal to everybody looking for something fun to do. I have compiled the top ten events worth checking out this weekend.
Career Zoo
Career Zoo is Ireland’s leading career networking program. At career zoo you have the opportunity to meet with some of Ireland’s leading employers that are hiring professional jobs in Dublin. The event will also feature workshops and discussions in the fields of science, technology, finance, personal sectors and more.
Location – The Convention Centre Dublin, Dublin 1
Date – 15 Oct.
Time – 10:00
Admission – Free
Raglan’s Live at The Button Factory
Dublins own indie rock group Raglan’s are prepared to hit the stage with an energetic performance this Friday. Formed in 2011, Raglan’s released their debut album in 2014 and quickly caught fire, reaching number 5 on the Irish album chart and number 1 on the Irish Indie chart. The show is also to feature their new EP released today titled Again and Again.
Location – Button Factory, Dublin 2
Date – 14 Oct.
Time – 22:30
Admission – 15
Dublin’s Biggest Free International Pub Crawl
Come join over 100 people from around the globe in the biggest pub crawl Dublin has to offer. This free event also includes free pizza, free entry to the pubs and free entry to the club. Come join the fun at 20:00 to get your free wristband.
Location – The Czech Inn, Dublin 2
Date – 14 Oct.
Time – 20:00
Admission – Free
Ensemble Economique
Brian Pyle graces Dublin with his ambient and drone music this Friday. Ensemble Economique is an experimental rock group based straight out of California. The music covers all sounds and expressions to give listeners a night of emotional music that feeds the soul.
Location – The Workman’s Club, Dublin 2
Date – 14 Oct.
Time – 22:00
Admission – 8
Ireland Festival of Nations
A celebration of diversity, Ireland Festival of Nations is a festival dedicated to promote immigration in Ireland. The festival offers a wide array of activities including music, food, face painting, dance workshops and more! Bring the whole family to this free event for a day filled with culture and fun.
Location – Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1
Date – 15 Oct.
Time – 13:00
Admission – Free
Irish Cocktail Festival
Experience some of the best cocktails and pubs Dublin has to offer. The event features special drink discounts, special competitions and the kind hearted people that make up the city of Dublin. The event is free and takes place at various times and locations Friday and Saturday.
Location – Various
Date – 14 Oct,15
Time – Various
Admission – Free
Bad Company Live at 3Arena
One of the original Rock n Roll supergroups straight out of the 70s, Bad Company, are set to visit Dublin this Friday night. The group has been playing and touring strong for 40 years now. Their music features a hard rock appeal with a hint of a blues aspect thrown into the mix.
Location – 3Arena, Dublin 1
Date – 14 Oct.
Time – 21:30
Admission – 59.70
Speedfriending
New to the country and looking to make friends? Well speedfriending is the event created for you. The event is a great way to make some connections in a new city or an excellent oppurtunity to make conversation with loads of different people. Come on out to make some new friends and grab a glass of prosseco.
Location – The Czech Inn, Dublin 2
Date – 14 Oct.
Time – 22:00
Admission – Free
Ross Noble Live at Olympia Theatre
Comedian Ross Noble takes the stage this Saturday at the Olympia Theatre with his tour Brian Dump. Ross has been performing standup since the age of 15 and has an onstage presence that is mostly improve. With over 100,000 followers on Facebook to show for it, Ross Noble will have you laughing until you cry.
Location – Olympia Theatre, Dublin 2
Date – 15 Oct.
Time – 19:00
Admission – 27
Robot Rock
A live group creating mixes and mashups from your favorite dance tunes to boogie too. Robot Rock does what only deejays dare to do. They recreate already great dance anthems to fit their audience tastes.
Location – The Harbour Bar, Dublin 1
Date – 14 Oct.
Time – 20:00
Admission – FreePeter Greste trial: Australian journalist detained in Egypt denounces 'injustice'
Updated
Jailed Australian journalist Peter Greste has described his ordeal on trial in Egypt as a "massive injustice", after spending more than four months in jail.
Greste is on trial with 19 co-defendants, including five Al Jazeera journalists, for allegedly defaming the country and having ties to the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood.
Saturday's hearing in Cairo, where Greste's bail was again refused, coincided with World Press Freedom Day.
"We recognise the significance of the coincidence of this trial falling on World Press Freedom Day. This is a very clear message," Greste said from his caged dock at the court in Cairo.
Greste, a Peabody Award-winning journalist who previously worked with the BBC, also branded the trial "a massive injustice, regardless of the outcome".
Most of the defendants are being tried in absentia.
The Al Jazeera journalists in the dock along with Greste are the broadcaster's English channel Cairo bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy and producer Baher Mohamed.
The three journalists were arrested in Egypt four months ago and accused of broadcasting false news and aiding the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Their trial comes against the backdrop of strained relations between Cairo and Qatar, which supports the Muslim Brotherhood movement of deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.
It has sparked an international outcry and calls for the release of the journalists, while Cairo insists the trial does not presage a wider crackdown on journalists.
In a letter from prison published on Friday, Fahmy said he was on trial for simply doing his job.
"I write you this letter on World Press Freedom Day from my cell after 126 days of incarceration for doing nothing more than the job I love," he wrote.
The judge on Saturday adjourned the trial to May 15.
Greste says campaign for release has sent 'unequivocal response'
Greste's parents, Lois and Juris, read out a statement from their son on Friday ahead of his court appearance.
"If by arresting us, the (Egyptian) government sought to send a message to journalists both foreign and local working here, then the campaign for our release has sent an unequivocal response," the statement said.
"It is one that is being heard everywhere.
"We are confident that in time and hopefully soon all three of us will be acquitted and released."
Greste's parents said they would keep fighting for his release.
"We are not leaving any stone, any little pebble unturned because as parents we just cannot rest until Peter is out and exonerated," Mr Greste said.
AFP
Topics: journalism, courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, egypt
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ISIS’s brutal terrorist attacks in Paris have occasioned a manhunt in Europe, the shutting down of Brussels, emergency measures in France—and blatant political opportunism from Republican presidential candidates here at home. Donald Trump said that if he were president he’d institute registration, a database, and perhaps special ID cards for all Muslims in the United States. He also said he would “absolutely” bring back waterboarding, though he hasn’t specified whether he’d have all Muslims waterboarded, or just some subset of them. Ben Carson compared potential terrorists to “rabid dogs,” and urged screening of all Syrian refugees—even though refugees are already more carefully screened than any other foreign national seeking to enter the United States. Ad Policy
Ted Cruz has suggested that we accept only Christian refugees from Syria, a majority-Muslim country. Chris Christie wants to bar Syrian refugees from New Jersey, even 5-year-old orphans. And Marco Rubio supports a freeze on refugees until they get background checks—apparently unaware that they already get such checks.
This is the politics of least resistance. In a time of fear, a responsible leader would reassure his or her people, examine whether the nation’s defenses are sufficient, and propose sensible ways to shore up defenses against real threats. But too many politicians instead choose to play to the lowest common denominator, pushing measures that make them sound tough but respond to no identifiable problem. When it’s about political theater, not actual security, the harsher the solution, the better. And when one’s proposals would sacrifice the rights of non-voters in the guise of advancing their security, even better.
Listening to today’s Republican candidates, one might even begin to feel nostalgic for George W. Bush, who despite his many faults understood that it was critical not to confuse terrorism with Islam. Just six days after 9/11, Bush visited a mosque and insisted that the conflict was not with Muslims but with terrorists. The Republican candidates would do well to pay heed to that message. Nothing serves ISIS’s interests better than portraying the conflict as pitting Islam against the West. CIA Director Brennan used the Paris attacks to denigrate what he called “hand-wringing” over NSA spying.
To his credit, President Obama has resisted the easy route of scapegoating foreign nationals or minority religions, or doing things that sound tough but don’t solve the problem. He has not sought to exploit fear for personal or partisan gain. Instead, he has courageously insisted on the importance of respecting the rights of others, and called on all of us to do precisely that. In a press conference with French President François Hollande, he maintained that “another part of being vigilant, another part of defeating terrorists like ISIL, is upholding the rights and freedoms that define our two great republics. That includes freedom of religion. That includes equality before the law. There have been times in our history, in moments of fear, when we have failed to uphold our highest ideals, and it has been to our lasting regret. We must uphold our ideals now.”
Not everyone in Obama’s administration is so restrained, unfortunately. CIA director John Brennan took the Paris attacks as an opportunity to denigrate what he called “hand-wringing” over NSA spying, as if a single terrorist attack renders the global debate about privacy that has occupied much of the world for the last year and a half meritless. Yet Brennan surely knows that the increased privacy protections for Americans enacted in the USA Freedom Act had no conceivable connection to Paris, and that the NSA’s surveillance abroad, which has not been curtailed, nonetheless did not identify or disrupt the Paris plot.
Similarly, FBI director James Comey exploited the Paris attacks to resurrect his criticism of Silicon Valley for encrypting consumers’ cellphones without reserving a back door for the government—a debate he had lost well before the attacks. The fact that no one has actually pointed to evidence of encrypted communications in the attacks, and that no one has come up with a way to enable government access without simultaneously enabling access by criminals and others, did not seem to concern him. If history is any guide, nearly all of those targeted will be Muslim—but few if any will be terrorists.
Meanwhile, things are no better in Europe, where the attacks actually occurred. The day after the attacks, Hollande declared a war on terrorism. At the same time, he sought—and has received—extraordinary emergency powers from the French National Assembly. They include the authority to ban radical groups, suppress websites that glorify terrorism, conduct searches without warrants, and impose house arrest and electronic ankle bracelets on suspects not convicted of any crime. Hollande also wants, and will probably get, the power to strip French citizenship from dual nationals who are deemed security threats, in order to expel them. In just the first week following the Paris attacks, French authorities carried out more than 414 raids, arrested 64 people, and placed 118 under house arrest. One raid, in the Paris suburb of St. Denis, resulted in the death of the man suspected of being the mastermind of the Paris attacks. But it remains to be seen how many of the other raids, or individuals rounded up, are in any way connected to terrorism. GET THE LATEST NEWS AND ANALYSIS DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX EACH MORNING SIGN UP!
If history is any guide, nearly all of those targeted will be Muslim—but few if any will be terrorists. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration rounded up thousands of Arab and Muslim foreign nationals in the United States on pretextual immigration charges and subjected them to lengthy preventive detention while it investigated them; none turned out to be terrorists. In 1919, when terrorist bombs exploded in eight different cities in the United States on the same day, the Justice Department responded by arresting and deporting thousands of foreign nationals—not for their involvement in the attacks, but for their alleged connections to the Communist Party. None were ever charged with the bombings. And during World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the internment of over 110,000 Americans and foreign nationals, solely because of their Japanese ancestry. None were convicted of espionage or sabotage.
When it’s not evident where the next attack might arise, government officials inevitably reach more broadly than necessary, sweeping up countless persons whose only “crime” is to be of the same nationality, ethnicity, or religion as the suspects. Such responses often backfire, alienating the very communities with which the authorities need to develop healthy ties if they are to have a chance at identifying potential problems before they manifest themselves in another attack. New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton ended the NYPD’s controversial program of monitoring mosques and Muslim businesses when he took office, and recently asserted that “not one single piece of actionable intelligence ever came out of that unit in its years of existence.” That program has caused deep distrust in the Muslim communities of New York and New Jersey.
ISIS undoubtedly poses an unacceptable threat, and there is no straightforward way of eliminating it at the moment. In the meantime, we need to manage the risk. And if history teaches us anything, it is that invoking unnecessary emergency powers, sweeping up thousands of innocents, and calling for ethnic or religious registration and profiling is not only mismanagement of the worst kind but politics at its most base.PARIS (JTA) — In a penthouse office with a view of the Eiffel Tower, Olivier Kassabi uses a ceramic spoon to extract a small scoop from a jar labeled as Russian caviar.
Placing a clutch of black globules on the base of his thumb, Kassabi licks it off, savoring every fishy drop of the salty liquid inside the dark beads as they pop in his mouth.
As recently as a few months ago, Russian caviar would have been strictly off-limits for an observant Jew like Kassabi. Sturgeon, the endangered fish species whose eggs are harvested to produce caviar, is not kosher.
That’s what led Kassabi to import and market a caviar substitute that he hopes satisfies not just the growing demand among observant Jews for affordable delicacies, but also the desire for sustainable foods with minimal environmental impact.
“In the age of mass media and globalization, Jewish communities are much more exposed to fine cuisine,” Kassabi said. “People see special dishes on food blogs and they want a taste.”
Kassabi is not the only businessman aiming to tap into what people in the food world see as a growing demand among observant Jews for gourmet foodstuffs that meet their dietary needs.
Last year, the Brooklyn-based Black Diamond Caviar started marketing a caviar substitute from a non-endangered kosher fish called bowfin that is caught in Louisiana. And in February, Le Rafael became the first kosher restaurant in France to earn two stars from the vaunted Michelin Guide.
“All over the world, average restaurant goers are becoming more demanding because of the popularization of the the culture of gourmet dining, and kashrut keepers are no exception to this trend,” said Guy Cohen, one of the owners of Le Rafael, which is testing Kassabi’s substitute caviar. “Clients have become very demanding and we are rising to the challenge.”
Kassabi’s caviar interest was piqued last year when he read that a company in Saint Petersburg called Tzar Caviar was developing a caviar substitute through a process known as molecular engineering in which a fish bouillon is made to resemble the contents of sturgeon eggs in taste and consistency. The liquid is then compressed into a membrane that looks like the soft shell of a fish egg.
The result is a kosher product that its producer claims more closely resembles real caviar than most other kosher fish roes on the market.
Overcoming Tzar Caviar’s fear of compromising the secrecy of its production methods took some time, Kassabi said. But within a few months he was able to arrange for kosher supervision from the chief rabbi of Saint Petersburg, Menachem-Mendel Pevzner.
Kassabi and his partner, Yohann Assayag, have sold hundreds of jars of Tzar Caviar since they began marketing the product earlier this year. The demand is especially strong in France, where the ostentatious nature of Jewish weddings and other festivities is so renowned it is the stuff of parody, most famously in the character of Coco, an overzealous Frenchman (portrayed by the Jewish comedian Gad Almaleh) determined to give his son the best bar mitzvah the world has ever seen.
The partners have also sold Tzar Caviar to Jewish delis in New York and expect to begin shipping to Israel in the coming months.
“This stuff is flying off the shelf, thank God,” Kassabi said.
Meanwhile, French media were interested in Tzar Caviar not for its kashrut but because of its relative affordability. Tzar Caviar is 15 percent cheaper than real caviar, selling in France for just under $41 per 50 grams. It also has a longer shelf life and is produced without exploiting any endangered species. Traditional caviar production has rendered some sturgeon species near extinction, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Assayag was surprised when “Tele Matin,” a leading French daytime television program, didn’t bring up the kosher issue at all in an interview, asking only about the production process and pricing.
Tzar Caviar hit the market just months after Raymond Mizrahi began marketing his own kosher caviar substitute in New York. Mizrahi shares the notion that observant Jews are demanding more because of exposure to new culinary pleasures, but believes that most kosher substitutes have come up short.
“Kosher caviar substitutes are nothing new. You’ve always had salmon roe,” said Mizrahi, the owner of Black Diamond Caviar. “But it tends to behave like a plastic bubble and certainly not like the finer black kinds. And you have other kosher black caviar, too, but they are of poorer quality.”
High-end black caviar or its substitute, Mizrahi said, “will not leave a black streak on a white plate.”
Mizrahi couldn’t vouch for Tzar Caviar’s taste, but Kassabi claims the product is nearly identical.
“I don’t know what real caviar tastes like,” Kassabi said, “but experts who do said it’s nearly indistinguishable from Tzar Caviar.”NewsFreedom
ROME, October 16, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A council of former heads of state and government leaders has called on the European Union to establish national surveillance units to monitor citizens of all 27 EU member states suspected of “intolerance”.
The European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR), a “tolerance watchdog” launched under the leadership of former Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski and Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress, called for the establishment of government surveillance bodies to directly monitor the “intolerant” behavior of identified citizens and groups.
The council, which includes former presidents of the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Albania, Latvia, and Cyprus, and former prime ministers of Spain and Sweden, made the proposal in a report delivered during a 45-minute speech to the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE).
These “special administrative units,” the report says, “should preferably operate within the Ministry of Justice.”
“There is no need to be tolerant to the intolerant,” it states, especially “as far as freedom of expression is concerned.”
The ECTR called its proposal the “Framework National Statute for the Promotion of Tolerance” and presented it as part of the EU’s work towards a new “Equal Treatment Directive” (ETD), published under the title, “Proposal for a Council Directive on implementing the principle for equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation”.
European Dignity Watch, a civil rights watchdog group based in Brussels, has warned that this directive “aims to impose governmental control over the social and economic behavior of citizens in the widest possible sense.”
In a scathing critique, the group says that the ECTR Framework’s basic principles are flawed and that it “interferes in an unprecedented manner with citizens’ freedom and rights” and “distorts the concepts of ‘justice’ and ‘equality’.”
Through “a reversal of the burden of proof,” the proposal “encourages frivolous litigation” and will lead to “institutionalized public control” of private opinion and thought, they say.
The Framework demands the outlawing of “group libel” that it defines as “defamatory comments made in public and aimed against a group…or members thereof, with a view to inciting to violence, slandering the group, holding it to ridicule or subjecting it to false charges.”
It adds that “group libel” “may appear to be aimed at members of the group in a different time (another historical era) or place (beyond the borders of the State).”
Subject to criminal sanctions would be any “hate crimes” that would include not only “incitement to violence” but “overt approval of a totalitarian ideology, xenophobia or anti-Semitism.”
“Members of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups” it adds, “are entitled to a special protection” in addition to the normal legal protections afforded by the state. This “special protection…may imply a preferential treatment” for those identified as “vulnerable”.
The Framework said it hopes to take “concrete action to combat intolerance, in particular with a view to eliminating racism, colour bias, ethnic discrimination, religious intolerance, totalitarian ideologies, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-feminism and homophobia.”
The document proposes not only to outlaw what it defines as “intolerance” by governments, but also by individual citizens. It says, “It is important to stress that tolerance must be practised not only by Governmental bodies but equally by individuals, including members of one group vis-à-vis another.” It adds that |
this will have on the Egyptian economy," he added.
"But we have to put the safety and security of British nationals above all other considerations."
Extra consular staff have been deployed to the airport, Downing Street earlier said.
A number of travel operators have responded to the government's announcement:
Thomas Cook has cancelled its flight and holiday programme to Sharm el-Sheikh until 12 November
Thomson Airways along with First Choice, have cancelled all outbound flights to Sharm el-Sheikh up to and including 12 November
British Airways has postponed its Thursday flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh until Friday
EasyJet has cancelled all flights to and from the resort on Thursday and is keeping future flights "under review"
Monarch has cancelled all flights in and out of Sharm el-Sheikh on Thursday
The Irish Aviation Authority said it had directed Irish airlines not to fly to or from the area until further notice
British holidaymaker Craig Peacock, who has been in Egypt for nine days, said finding out he may not be able to return home is "not the greatest news".
But, he said, postponing flights was "the right thing", adding: "We don't want a repeat of what happened last week".
However, Helen Collins, on holiday in Luxor, said the government had made a "bad decision".
"I think that nowadays, this could happen anywhere in the world, and I feel really sorry for the Egyptians because I know that they have had a real drop in the number of tourists that are coming to Egypt."Wednesday Jun 15, 2016
A mother-of-11 was among the 49 who died in the Orlando massacre Sunday, the New York Daily reports.
Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, 49, who was a regular at the gay nightclub Pulse, reportedly died protecting her out son Isaiah Henderson, 21.
McCool and Henderson took cover when Omar Mateen opened fire at the club early Sunday morning. Mateen eventually crossed the mother and son but McCool, a two time cancer survivor, acted as a human shield to protect her son.
"Brenda saw him point the gun. She said, 'Get down,' to Isaiah and she got in front of him," McCool's sister-in-law Ada Pressley told the NYDN. "She was shot dead. That's how much she loved her kids. If it weren't for her, he'd of been shot."
During the incident, Henderson lost sight of his mother but was soon rescued by police. When he was outside Pulse, he frantically looked for his mother. But on Monday, he was informed McCool was one of the victims murdered by the shooter.
Henderson later took to Facebook to remember his mom, according to the NYDN.
"Just laying here thinking that I was just with my mom 24 hours ago, this is so surreal," Henderson wrote. "I love you mom."
McCool, a native of Brooklyn, New York, moved to California and recently to Orlando to be with her youngest child, her family told the newspaper.
In an interview with NBC News, Harden's sister, Khalisah Pressley, said he is feeling guilty about his mother's death.
"He had to watch his mother die. He saw everybody getting killed," Pressley told NBC News. "He feels it was his fault."
One of Henderson's sons created a GoFundMePage to support his younger sisters and brothers in the wake of his mother's passing.
"We have confirmation that this wonderful and caring woman known as a mother of 11 children left behind from fighting 2 types of cancer and now to be taken off this earth from what we call 'Insanity," he wrote. "She just went out last night and said goodbye to her children and to be called 3 hours later that she has been hit by 2 gunshots and later pronounced dead."
As of this writing, the fund's goal has reached just over $40,000 of its $50,000 goal. Click here to donate.Senior Israeli security officials said Sunday that the suspected Iranian agent, Ali Mansouri, had made three trips to Israel over the past two years and was working to make business contacts here and establish a covert base of operations, including a front company to market windows and roofing materials. (Government of Israel)
Israeli security officials said Sunday that they have arrested a Belgian businessman of Iranian descent for spying on Israel and gathering intelligence on possible terrorism targets.
Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence service released photographs that it said were taken from the suspect’s camera that included exterior shots of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.
The alleged spy was detained Sept. 11 as he was attempting to leave Israel through Ben Gurion International Airport. The announcement of the arrest comes two days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly, where he is expected to argue that Iran cannot be trusted and that stiff economic sanctions should remain in place until it agrees to curtail its nuclear program.
Israeli analysts said the arrest of the alleged Iranian agent couldn’t have come at a better time for Netanyahu.
Boarding his plane to New York on Saturday night, Netanyahu said: “I will tell the truth in the face of the sweet talk and the onslaught of smiles. One must talk facts, and one must tell the truth.”
Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, has said he seeks more engagement with the West and is prepared to discuss Iran’s nuclear ambitions. He had a 15-minute telephone conversation with President Obama on Friday — the first communication between the presidents of the United States and Iran in 30 years. Upon his return to Tehran, Rouhani was applauded by supporters at the airport, but he later was showered with eggs and shouts of “Death to Israel!” by protesters.
“This kind of thing [the arrest] has happened before, but in the past such cases did not get this kind of publicity. It is not in [the Shin Bet security service’s] interest to publish details of these cases in this way, so obviously it is related to the new geopolitical constellation,” said Uzi Rabi, director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, referring to Israel’s worries about a thawing of relations between the United States and Iran.
Senior Israeli security officials said Sunday that the suspected Iranian agent, Ali Mansouri, had made three trips to Israel over the past two years and was working to make business contacts here and establish a covert base of operations, including a front company to market windows and roofing materials.
The Israelis said that Mansouri was promised $1 million by Iran for his clandestine work.
It was impossible to reach Mansouri, who is being detained at an undisclosed location.
Israel said Mansouri was recruited by Iran’s Quds Force, a unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps charged with “extraterritorial operations” of assassination, insurgency and attacks, according to U.S. Defense Department officials. Its leadership answers directly to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
According to a dossier provided by Israel, Mansouri was born in Tehran in 1958, left in 1980, lived in Turkey until 1997, moved to Belgium, married a Belgian, became a Belgian citizen in 2006 and changed his name.
“During questioning, the suspect Ali Mansouri described entering Israel under a Belgian identity using the alias Alex Mans, and detailed his recruitment and activation process by Iranian intelligence elements,” according to Israel’s Shin Bet.
The Israelis said Mansouri was instructed after each visit to return to Iran to be debriefed by his handlers.
Ruth Eglash contributed to this report.Parody & satire
By Kyonzte Hughes, Contributing Writer
September 13, 2002
Satire is a centuries-old type of literature that uses humor and imitation to attack and ridicule individuals’ moral and character flaws, such as vice, unfairness, stupidity or vanity.
A parody is also an attack on folly, but it takes the form of a contemptuous imitation of an existing artistic production — usually a serious work of literature, music, artwork or film — for satirical or humorous purposes.
Satire and parody have served for generations as a means of criticizing public figures, exposing political injustice, communicating social ideologies, and pursuing such artistic ends as literary criticism. Satirists usually find themselves subjected in turn to criticism, contempt and, sometimes, lawsuits.
The First Amendment protects satire and parody as a form of free speech and expression. Questions that have arisen in case law concerning libel, emotional distress and copyright infringement are discussed in the relevant cases below.
Hustler Magazine, Inc. et al. v. Jerry Falwell
In this case from the 1980s, a well-known minister, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, suedHustler for an advertisement parody that portrayed him as having had a drunken sexual encounter with his mother in an outhouse. The parody was a spoof on a series of ads for Campari Liqueur. In small print at the bottom of the ad were the words, “ad parody — not to be taken seriously.” The table of contents for that issue of the magazine listed the ad as “Fiction; Ad and Personality Parody.” Falwell sued for libel, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Issuing a directed verdict in favor of Hustler on the issue of invasion of privacy, a federal district court also ruled against Falwell on his libel claim because, the court said, no reasonable person would believe the situation depicted in the ad to be true. The court did award damages for emotional distress, however.
On appeal, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s judgment, declaring that the issue was whether the ad’s publication was sufficiently outrageous to constitute intentional infliction of emotional distress.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court found to the contrary. The high court held in its 1988 decision that public figures and public officials could not recover damages for the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress without an additional showing that “the publication contains a false statement of fact which was made with ‘actual malice,’ i.e., with knowledge that the statement was false or with reckless disregard as to whether or not it was true.”
The Court recognized the importance of allowing the free flow of ideas despite a possible negative emotional impact on the target of ridicule. Although the Court said not all speech enjoys the same protection under the First Amendment (for instance, “fighting words” aren’t protected), it affirmed that “the sort of expression in [the Hustler] case does not seem to us to be governed by any exception” to general First Amendment protection.
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.
Creators of parody may be faced with questions of copyright infringement. In this 1994 decision, the Supreme Court held that a commercial parody may be a “fair use” in accordance with Section 107 of the Copyright Act, as a defense against an accusation of copyright infringement.
In this case, rap group 2 Live Crew’s song “Pretty Woman,” a parody of Roy Orbison’s rock ballad, “Oh Pretty Woman,” was challenged by Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. as an infringement on the company’s copyright on the Orbison tune. The publishing company contended that Campbell had not made fair use of Orbison’s song. They pointed out that Campbell’s version used the original work for commercial purposes and that he had taken too much of the original work.
Campbell countered that his parody was fair use. The U.S. Supreme Court took the case to determine whether 2 Live Crew’s commercial parody was indeed a fair use.
A fair-use analysis, according to the Court, involves four factors: “1) purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is commercially motivated or instead is for nonprofit educational purposes; 2) nature of the copyrighted work; 3) amount and substantiality of the portion used in the newly created work in relation to the copyrighted work; and 4) effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.”
A court must take all of these factors into account, none being sufficient alone.
The Supreme Court ruled that a lower federal appeals court had “inflated the significance” of the commercial nature of 2 Live Crew’s song. “The language of the statute makes clear that the commercial or nonprofit educational purpose of a work is only one element of the first factor enquiry into its purpose and character,” the Court wrote.
The Court reasoned that the copyright statute’s listed examples of fair use — news reporting, comment, criticism, teaching, etc. — are generally carried out for profit. Law professor Bruce Rogow, who argued the case for Luther Campbell before the Supreme Court, told the First Amendment Center Online that “the case stands for the principle that there must be breathing room for artists to create new works.”
Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount did a teaser ad for the film, “Naked Gun: The Final Insult 33 1/3.” The ad spoofed a 1991 cover of Vanity Fair,which featured a photo of a pregnant, nude Demi Moore. Paramount got another model, who was also pregnant, to pose nude. The head of Leslie Nielsen, the star of the film, was superimposed onto the body of the model. A federal district court and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the parody ad was a fair use.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises v. Penguin Books USA
Penguin Books published a poetic account of the O.J. Simpson trial in a book titled, The Cat NOT in the Hat! A Parody by Dr. Juice. The 9th Circuit held that the book did not parody The Cat in the Hat, but simply retold the Simpson story. Therefore, there was no fair-use defense, and the book was deemed a copyright infringement.
The Wind Done Gone
A 2001 copyright-infringement/parody case involved Alice Randall’s novel, The Wind Done Gone, a parody of Margaret Mitchell’s American classic, Gone With the Wind. Released in 2001, Randall’s book used characters and scenes from Mitchell’s original novel as a satirical critique of Mitchell’s primitive depiction of African-Americans.
Mitchell’s estate argued that Randall’s novel borrowed too liberally from the original and was in essence a sequel, not a parody. A federal judge ordered an injunction against the publication of the book two months before it was to be released, but the injunction was lifted by the 11th Circuit on May 25 (SunTrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co.).
In removing the injunction against The Wind Done Gone, the three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit at court did not declare whether the novel was a parody or not. But it said the Mitchell estate had failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success in pressing its claims against Randall.
The 11th Circuit explained its earlier order in its Oct. 10 opinion. The 11th Circuit determined that Houghton Mifflin, at least at this early stage of the litigation, had adequately shown that Randall’s book was protected as fair use.
Applying the elements of fair use, the appeals court recognized that Randall’s work was made for a commercial purpose. However, the court said that this factor was “strongly overshadowed and outweighed in view of its highly transformative use” of Gone With the Wind.
“Randall’s literary goal is to explode the romantic, idealized portrait of the antebellum South during and after the Civil War,” the appeals court wrote.
The appeals court also determined that the Mitchell estate had failed to show evidence that Randall’s book would harm the market value of Gone With the Wind’s derivative works or take away market demand for Mitchell’s book.
A concurring judge even pointed out that Randall’s book may “act as complement to, rather than a substitute for Gone With the Wind and its potential derivatives. The judge reasoned that readers of The Wind Done Gone“may want to refresh their recollections of the original.”
The 11th Circuit also reiterated that copyright law tries to preserve a balance with the First Amendment through the idea/expression dichotomy and the fair-use doctrine.
Fair use: An elusive doctrine
Even though 2 Live Crew and Alice Randall (at the preliminary injunction stage) prevailed in the federal courts, both cases required extensive litigation. Courts will decide the application of the fair-use doctrine on a case-by-case basis. The concept of fair use is flexible and hard to define. “Although the courts have considered and ruled upon the fair use doctrine over and over again, no real definition of the concept has ever emerged,” said the 11th Circuit opinion inThe Wind Done Gone case.
For this reason, Professor Jessica Litman, in the Dayton Law Review article “Reforming Information Law in Copyright’s Image,” calls fair use “a troublesome safe harbor for First Amendment rights.”
Stephen Fraser writes in his Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journalarticle “The Conflict Between the First Amendment and Copyright Laws and its Impact on the Internet”: “It is precisely because the line is unclear, whether it be idea/expression, infringement/noninfringement, or fair use, that conflicts arise and exist between copyright and the First Amendment.”
Courts have determined that the fair-use defense provides ample First Amendment protections in the copyright arena. A 2000 federal court decision explains: “To the extent there is any tension between free speech and the protection of copyright, the Court has found it to be accommodated fully by traditional fair use doctrine, with expression prohibited by the Copyright Act and not within the fair use exception considered unprotected by the First Amendment” (Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Reimerdes).
First Amendment Center research attorney David L. Hudson Jr. contributed to this report.EU Data Protection Official Says Revised Privacy Laws Should Ban Backdooring Encryption
from the sounds-like-a-plan dept
The new rules should also clearly allow users to use end-to-end encryption (without 'backdoors') to protect their electronic communications.
Decryption, reverse engineering or monitoring of communications protected by encryption should be prohibited.
In addition, the use of end-to-end encryption should also be encouraged and when necessary, mandated, in accordance with the principle of data protection by design.
In addition, the use of end-to-end encryption should also be encouraged and when necessary, mandated, in accordance with the principle of data protection by design. In this context the EDPS also recommends that the Commission consider measures to encourage development of technical standards on encryption, also in support of the revised security requirements in the GDPR.
The EDPS further recommends that the new legal instrument for ePrivacy specifically prohibit encryption providers, communications service providers and all other organisations (at all levels of the supply chain) from allowing or facilitating 'back-doors'.
The EU's "Cookie Law" is a complete joke and waste of time. An attempt to regulate privacy in the EU, all it's really served to do is annoy millions of internet users with little pop up notices about cookie practices that everyone just clicks through to get to the content they want to read. The EU at least recognizes some of the problems with the law and is working on a rewrite... and apparently there's an interesting element that may be included in it: banning encryption backdoors. That's via a new report from European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) Giovanni Buttarelli, who was put in charge of reviewing the EU's ePrivacy Directive to make it comply with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that is set to go into effect in May of 2018. The key bit:To be clear, this actually seems like it may go. There are plenty of situations where it seems completely reasonable for law enforcement to use other means to figure out ways to decrypt encrypted communications. Arguing that it should be completely outlawed seems a bit extreme. But blocking backdoors does seem like a good idea. The report also says that the use of end-to-end encryption should be encouraged to the point of being mandated in some cases:Conceptually, this sounds good, but the implementation matters. Mandating encryption seems to be going a bit far. While I tend to think it makes sense for much more widespread use of encryption, it's not clear why the government needs to get involved here at all. And that includes in the development of such standards. In fact, as we've seen in the past, when the government gets involved in creating encryption standards, that seems to be where the intelligence community can slip in their backdoors Still, this is certainly an interesting development. Of course, it would also conflict with the UK's Snooper's Charter ("Investigatory Powers Act") which mandates backdoors for encryption. Though, to be fair, by the time the new rules go into practice, perhaps the UK will no longer be a part of the EU.
Filed Under: backdoors, data protection, encryption, eprivacy directive, eu, gdpr, privacy17 of the 20 states with the fewest gun deaths per capita are blue and 18 of the 20 states with the most are red. The worst state- Alaska- has more than 6 gun deaths per capita for every one the best state- Hawaii- does.Generally speaking, the most densely populated states tend to have low gun deaths, but many sparsely populated states also appear on the list for the fewest gun deaths.The states with the fewest gun deaths tend to be the states with the most liberal gun control policies and the states with the most gun deaths tend to be the states with the most conservative gun control policies. However, gun control policies do not actually differ that dramatically between most of the states on the 'best' list and the states on the 'worst' list. For example, what freedom do gun owners in Wyoming have that gun owners in Iowa do not? Given how starkly the lists split along partisan lines, it is hard to imagine that policies do not play a significant role in determining the number of gun deaths in a state.Note that this statistic represents all gun deaths- not just murders. Suicides, accidental shootings, and non-murder intentional killings are all counted. Some people contend that including suicides is misleading. Certainly you should be clear about what this data is and what it is not. However, in my view, suicides are an important number to consider. Suicide rates are dramatically higher in states with higher levels of gun ownership. Many studies have found that people with a gun in the house are more likely to attempt suicide and far more likely to die from a suicide attempt, suggesting that gun policy can significantly affect the number of suicides.Boulder's Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center hires contractor to test soil for plutonium
Wanda Hood puts the lid on a 55-gallon drum filled with contaminated waste during the clean-up of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in this 2005 photo. ( MARK LEFFINGWELL )
Driven by concerns that running the Jefferson Parkway across a strip of land along the eastern edge of the Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge would stir up clouds of plutonium-laden dust, Boulder's Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center commissioned a study last fall to gauge contamination levels in the area.
The newly released results show the area is as contaminated by radioactive plutonium now as it was 40 years ago, before the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, which operated on that site, was closed and cleaned up.
"The material is still there; it's still on the surface," said Marco Kaltofen, president of Boston Chemical Data Corp., the contractor hired by the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center.
Still, officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment insist the amount of plutonium contamination at the eastern edge of the site is well below levels that would be dangerous to human health.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, which manages the refuge, agreed in December to a land swap that would add 617 acres to the refuge's southwest border in exchange for giving up a 300-foot-wide right of way along the refuge's eastern edge, adjacent to Indiana Street. The right of way would be used to build the proposed Jefferson Parkway, which would nearly complete a beltway around the Denver metro area.
Though the land swap is now being held up by several lawsuits -- including one filed by the cities of Golden and Superior, and another, filed last week, by two environmental groups -- Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center officials fear that any construction in the area could be dangerous.
The center joined other concerned citizens in asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to test the soils on the strip of land that would be used for the parkway.
When federal officials said they planned to rely on testing of the area that was done in the past, Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center hired its own contractor to test the soils. But after being denied access to the refuge for testing, that contractor was forced to take samples from just outside the fence along Indiana Street.
The results show that the plutonium contamination in the area is roughly the same now as it was four decades ago, according to Kaltofen.
"Essentially, what people found back in the '70s is still true," Kaltofen said. "There is a locus of plutonium contamination on the eastern side of the Rocky Flats site -- this is material beyond the fence line that pretty much follows Indiana north and south -- that hasn't changed."
Kaltofen said the finding is surprising because he would have predicted that weathering over the decades, especially from the area's stiff winds, would have dispersed the particles over time.
"One explanation is that there's as much material coming from the central part of the site that's replacing any material that's eroding or blowing away," he said.
Background levels
Kaltofen's results showed levels of plutonium isotopes in the area ranged from 0.019 picoCuries per gram of soil to 1.579 picoCuries per gram. By contrast, Kaltofen said the background plutonium contamination in the West tends to be no more than 0.01 picoCuries per gram.
But the question of how much background radiation is "normal" is contested, according to LeRoy Moore, a longtime nuclear watchdog with Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center. He says the baseline background radiation level that set the standard for the Rocky Flats cleanup was 0.04 picoCuries per gram of soil, four times the amount that Kaltofen believes is the average for the West.
"If the average background really should be lower, then maybe the cleanup is not as protective (as it should be)," said Moore.
But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the amount of plutonium contamination found in the soil in the right of way is not at unsafe levels.
The agency based its statement on older measurements -- which Kaltofen and Moore agree are similar to recent observations -- and sought expertise from both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
In a joint letter written last September, officials with the EPA and Colorado's health department say that the risk of excessive cancer incidence for people who work at the refuge is below standards set by the state and the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.
The two agencies point out that a construction worker might have a greater exposure to the plutonium through inhaling dust than an average refuge worker, but they also note that construction workers will be exposed to the contamination for much shorter periods of time.
"Due to the very short exposure duration, the very low levels of residual plutonium on the strip of land proposed for transfer and the calculated low radiation dose, the risk to a construction worker would be at or below (that of a regular refuge worker)," the letter reads.
Risks of exposure
David Lucas, chief of refuge planning for Rocky Flats, said the agency took the possible risks of plutonium contamination very seriously and that the Fish and Wildlife Service's efforts to reach out to the EPA and the Colorado health department reflect that.
"At the end of the day, the Fish and Wildlife Service gave this a hard look," he said. "We didn't rubber stamp anything. I think our comfort level is where it needs to be."
Moore said he disagreed with the Fish and Wildlife Service's standards for how much plutonium exposure is safe.
"I don't think the standards that exist protect the public or protect the workers," he said.
Moore said he has shared his recent testing results with the Fish and Wildlife Service, and he's calling for the government to take a closer look at what background radiation levels should really be set at.
And in the meantime, he's also considering what the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center's next move should be if the pending lawsuits fail to stop the project from going forward.
"We're watching the situation with the Jefferson Parkway closely, and we're working with other people and other organizations to think about the best approaches we need to take to make sure the public is well-informed about the danger of plutonium," Moore said.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Laura Snider at 303-473-1327 or sniderl@dailycamera.com.There are different ways for college football recruits to announce a commitment to whichever school they choose. A simple Twitter announcement is common these days. Hat ceremonies have not gone out of style. Professionally produced videos work, too. The entire process leaves a lot of room for surprises.
But I think this might be my favorite commitment scene of the 2017 recruiting cycle, courtesy of three-star Oregon signee Cyrus Habibi-Likio, of Mountainview, Calif.
A beautiful unforgettable moment. The entire Oregon staff and almost all of @cyrri3e family in home for his @oregonfootball commitment pic.twitter.com/X9Iv6sOkFt — Aremon Habibi (@Aremon45) February 4, 2017
Habibi-Likio is a running back/linebacker/safety prospect who’d become a top priority for Willie Taggart’s Oregon staff. The Ducks proved as much by sending what looks like pretty close to their entire coaching staff to Habibi-Likio’s house, just a few nights before Wednesday’s Signing Day. (In-home visits before Signing Day are a staple of national recruiting, as teams try to close strong.)
Anyway, I think this is cool. It’s not common to get video of a player celebrating his commitment with a coaching staff, because coaches can’t post anything too specific about prospects until they’ve signed, and most Signing Day ceremonies are done at high schools or someplace else while coaches hunker down at the team facility.
Watching Habibi-Likio and Taggart hug it out in this moment is a neat window into recruiting. Also, Oregon defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt is really excited.
Habibi-Likio publicly committed to Oregon on Jan. 26. He’s the No. 47 prospect in California and the No. 25 athlete in the class of 2017, according to the 247Sports Composite.NEW YORK — In this post-Superstorm Sandy era, geophysicist Klaus Jacob is regarded by many as something of a seer.
But in his view, the public debate over climate change and what it means for the city has wrongly been focused on extreme weather, and not on the rise of sea levels that will reshape the footprint of the metropolis.
In the second part of Gotham Gazette's sit-down interview with Jacob, the climate change expert speaks about the city's energy policy, long-term planning for sustainability and why he thinks Indian Point nuclear power plant needs to be shut down.
Jacob was interviewed at at his office at the Columbia University Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y., in late December.
Need to get caught up? Read the first part of Gotham Gazette's interview with Jacob here.
GG: So you’re saying that New York City’s density patterns will have to change because of our shrinking footprint due to sea level rise?
KJ: The housing density patterns of the city will have to be totally changed. When you look at the patterns of our population changes from the 2000 to 2010 census (he refers to a map on his computer screen) there are blue areas where there was a population increase. And red areas, where there was population decrease. Where are the blue areas? On the waterfront, mostly on the west side. Areas like Chelsea … Really got built up on the waterfront … All in the A zones, and A overlapping on B.
Where are the red zones? Washington Heights. Midtown. There’s one little anomaly, which is around the WTC. That is red and we know why. But that’s a temporary blip. In the next decade it will probably become quite blue — from 2010 to 2020 — because it will be re-occupied, both business-wise but even residential … It (density) goes up in the wrong places, and it goes down in the wrong places.
Brooklyn Heights will become prime real estate. Morningside Heights, Washington Heights... Our graveyards up in Queens, Brooklyn, Prospect Park, Central Park will be prime real estate. Not that I am saying we should do away with those. But the surrounding areas will be prime real estate.
GG: If you had to make any type of projection — what do you think the city’s next move will be regarding planning for climate change?
KJ: There’s some pretty smart people in the Department of City Planning. There’s been some unfortunate personnel changes in the Office of Long Term Planning over the last year from which they had to recover. They’re all working for the mayor. They can advise him, but they don’t make the decisions, they can only make recommendations. But it is easy sometimes to forget the long-term vision in the day-to-day pressures of decision-making, but ultimately they are well intended.
I sit on a DCP technical advisory board, and I always stress long-term vision … I’m going very strong on that... I have no power, except the power of the mind. The other people have the real power.
DCP has a HUD (sponsored) project that began way before Sandy, in which DCP assesses how to plan for the waterfront of NYC. How to make a plan, NOT for tomorrow — but rather for some time into the future. That’s in the works … Sandy … provided (data for the study) that actually wasn’t available before. Once that (plan) gets accepted by the mayor, it should influence the Department of City Planning, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Buildings …
GG: How does the city’s energy policy relate to planning for climate change?
KJ: Upfront, I should say I’m not an energy expert. I have limited knowledge and some opinions but they are not expertly based. They are more common sense-based. I’m also on the board of Scenic Hudson, where we occasionally discuss relevant energy policy.
In general, the greening of the city is making relatively modest positive progress. But I would call it modest. It’s not as aggressive as one could be. (Utilities) still behave in a very traditional way. They certainly are not up to sea level rise and climate change. They still look at their traditional distribution system. We are far away from a smart grid for NYC.
That is not to say that there aren’t many buildings that come online in NYC that are LEED certified. But that’s pretty much within the realm of what the owner wants to pay for and do. The city encourages it, but the building code doesn’t necessarily have the teeth that it would need to push all these measures through in a much more accelerated way.
Again, this is slightly outside my expertise. This needs to be verified and checked.
I think the city could be more aggressive on the energy side. The governor has a plan to shut down Indian Point, which personally I think is a good idea. There are plans to create new power transmission to NYC by laying a DC line in the Hudson, through Lake Champlain, all the way up to Quebec … to get cheap waterfall hydro-electric power into NYC with a DC-to -AC converter station, probably in Yonkers. From then on, it would be traditional power distribution into the Con-Ed grid.
That new source would replace a good chunk of Indian Point in terms of its normal production. There is still a need for peak time additional resources if we don’t change our use pattern. You still see all of the skyscrapers lit up in the night. Do you want to see black skyscrapers, or visible skyscrapers? It’s not very green to have all those visible skyscrapers in the night. Would it change the character of the city? Yeah, it would. But what is more important? This is something that hasn’t been discussed much. Is Times Square the right thing to do?
There’s all sorts of stuff that could be changed to make it a greener city, but it would be a darker city. So the question is, how can we make the city greener and have a little bit of light for our joy and amusement and for businesses.
We have changed water use in NYC heavily by metering individual households in buildings that before had just one meter for all. Water usage over the last ten years has gone down incredibly, which saves NYC on the infrastructure side since it doesn’t have to provide new capacity for the next million people … (by bringing) new water supply into the city.
We could do the same thing on the electric side. In many cases, consumption of a large building is just divided by the number of households … It’s buried in the rent, not on an electric bill. If we could find means and ways to charge people for what they’re really using, including inside skyscrapers … And maybe put a city tax on electricity. And then use this tax to do smart urban planning and relocation of populations. A cap and trade policy on a city basis. Which of course you can’t do, because everything has to be approved up in Albany. And we know where congestion pricing went.
GG: When Gotham Gazette interviewed Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway, he told us that natural gas would be part of the city’s energy strategy for the indefinite future.
KJ: It’s true that natural gas is a better fuel than coal, or diesel or fuel oil that we burn in our furnaces and boilers … In the first two to three minutes there’s this incredible black smog coming out. That wouldn’t happen with natural gas. It’s more efficient and whether we like it or not for the time being, an abundant resource. I don’t trust the governor that he will clamp down forever on the fracking situation.
Holloway is probably unfortunately right on that. I say unfortunately because it feeds our fossil fuel addiction. We have to get away from that kind of energy addiction. If we would spend as much money on a smart grid with photovoltaic cells and other energy resources, (or) getting full usage out of the methane from our dumps, as on allowing for conversion of heating oil to natural gas...
GG: How is the city policy on waste?
KJ: Our waste policy in this city is totally off the mark. Every waste. One-third of the waste in NYC is construction-related. That should not be exported. That should be handled like the Japanese do it. It’s a resource. They grind it up, steel, concrete and all, and form it into bricks and make new ground. We need new ground here. The only areas that stick out … above future flood zones (are) … a dump that’s not far from Kennedy Airport … and Fresh Kills on Staten Island. That will be extraordinarily valuable high land … It’s an engineering and planning issue. We should not export our construction waste to |
assault on Palmyra over the weekend ran against the prevailing narrative that the group is permanently on the defensive in Syria and neighboring Iraq, and showcased its continued ability to launch surprise attacks away from the front lines.
President Bashar Assad’s forces may be on the brink of victory in Aleppo, but the Islamic State group’s recent recapture of the ancient city of Palmyra shows that the complex conflict in Syria is far from over.
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President Bashar Assad’s forces may be on the brink of victory in Aleppo, but the Islamic State group’s recent recapture of the ancient city of Palmyra shows that the complex conflict in Syria is far from over.
The militants’ surprise assault on Palmyra over the weekend ran against the prevailing narrative that the group is permanently on the defensive in Syria and neighboring Iraq, and showcased its continued ability to launch surprise attacks away from the front lines.
It also provided a reminder that the Syrian war is more than the battle for Aleppo and underlined the enduring fragility of Assad’s military power in the absence of support from his Russian and Iranian backers.
So what does this recent victory for IS mean for Syria’s civil war, and what does it tell us about the the terrorist group?
The recapture of Palmyra isn’t strategically significant
A UNESCO World Heritage site dating back to the Neolithic era, Palmyra was once home to a stunning array of ancient treasures. But besides the presence of a military airport to the west, it holds little strategic value in the six-year civil war, said Michael Stephens, research fellow for Middle East studies at the Royal United Services Institute, a British defense and security think tank.
“It’s a very small victory for IS at a time when they’re still largely on the back foot,” Stephens said.
Still, he added, “a win’s a win” — and one likely to score symbolic points for the group’s critical propaganda operation.
The Islamic State group has a penchant for theatricality, and Palmyra was one of its favorite staging grounds during its 10-month occupation of the city. The group famously beheaded the city’s 82-year-old antiquities expert last year after he refused to reveal the location of hidden treasures, released footage of its militants gleefully destroying ancient monuments, and carried out gruesome mass executions in the ancient amphitheater.
Shortly after IS was driven out in March, Russia displayed its own understanding of the ancient city’s symbolic value when it flew in the Mariinsky Orchestra from St. Petersburg to play a concert in the amphitheater, a grand gesture meant to trumpet the triumph of civilization over barbarians.
“There’s a lot of emotion attached to Palmyra,” Stephens said. “It’s a small blow to the prestige of the Assad regime — but it’s not a sign that Syria is going to be swept up by the Islamic State again.”
Assad’s military might isn’t that mighty
The Islamic State group’s win in Palmyra says less about the terror group’s strengths than it does about “the general weakness of the regime,” Stephens said.
“What it reveals is that Assad is pretty much overstretched. He can focus on fighting on one front at a time, but not on multiple fronts.”
Syrian government forces, with the backing of Russian air support and Iran-trained militias, have all but destroyed the last stubborn enclave of rebel resistance in eastern Aleppo. And though the battle for the city, once Syria’s largest, has been the main focus in Assad’s war in recent months, it is far from the only fight in the war-torn country.
Stretches of Syria are now held by various internationally backed opposition groups, including Kurdish militias, moderate rebel militias, and jihadist brigades, some linked to al-Qaeda.
IS’s storming of Palmyra was opportunistic. This is in keeping with the group’s modus operandi of late, said Stephens.
In October, as a vast Iraqi coalition closed in on Mosul — the largest urban center under IS control — the terror group launched a surprise pre-dawn diversion strike on the northern city of Kirkuk.
‘IS is very adept at … the counterattack. They attack where the lines are weak.’
“Everybody, including the regime, was distracted by Aleppo this weekend, and IS clearly weren’t,” Stephen said. “They understood that that focus on Aleppo gave them a little bit of space to operate.”
Russia rushed in air support over Palmyra in an attempt to repel the jihadists on Saturday night, in strikes that killed about 300 IS fighters and briefly drove back the attackers, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry. But even Russia’s overwhelming air power was not enough to hold the town, as Syrian government forces, stretched thin by years of conflict, retreated Sunday.
“IS are very adept at being able to put themselves on the counterattack,” Stephens said. “They attack where the lines are weak.”
Assad is still more concerned with defeating rebels than ISIS
The fact that IS was able to sweep into Palmyra suggests Syrian and Russian military commanders were “guilty of taking their eye off the ball,” Stephens said.
“They were probably thinking that if they win in Aleppo, then this war is over by the middle of next year.”
Assad’s primary concern has always been staying in power. And by his calculations, that has meant that eliminating Western-backed rebels, such as those fighting in northern Syria, is a higher priority than dealing with IS, which has been able to retain control of stretches of the rural hinterland as Assad has focused on the fight against rebels in the cities.
These moderate rebel groups present “the only real threat to Assad’s political power, because they present an alternative,” Stephens said. “IS, of course, doesn’t present an alternative.”
Retaking Aleppo from the rebels has been a critical goal for Assad. Doing so would bring all of the country’s five major cities — the others being Damascus, Hama, Homs, and Latakia — back under his control, damaging the rebels’ prospects of being able to offer a credible alternative to his rule.
This in turn would strengthen Assad’s hand in leading his country after the end of the war, once an unthinkable outcome. It raises the prospect that his regime could even partner with other international players — including U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who pledged on the campaign trail to “bomb the shit out of” IS — to deal with the terror group once the war with the rebels is won.
“That’s been the military strategy for a long time, to erode the middle ground, to present a black-and-white narrative in which eventually it’s either Assad or IS, in which case the entire world’s going to choose Assad,” Stephens said.
IS is far from defeated in Syria
Analysts from IHS Conflict Monitor said in October that IS had lost about a quarter of the territory it controlled in January 2015 as a result of both campaigns by the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition in both countries, and the Syrian government’s Russian- and Iranian-backed campaign against “terrorists.”
Still, as the weekend’s attack shows, it is far from a spent force in the region, controlling an estimated 65,500 square kilometers of terrain across Syria and Iraq. It retains the ability to drive back Syrian troops even in the face of Russian air power.
Much of that territory consists of “places Assad doesn’t feel he needs to control if he’s going to control the country,” said Stephens. But it also includes some good-sized cities: Raqqa and Deir Ezzor in Syria, and Mosul in Iraq.
U.S.-led efforts to target the Islamic State group’s sources of income have been a success, said Stephens, choking the group financially and forcing it to slash salaries for its fighters. But it is still able to tax populations living under its rule, and its fighters hold the Tabqa dam, Syria’s largest, giving it control of hydroelectric power.
Syrian government troops, backed by Russian air support, are engaged in a brutal fight to retake the ancient city from IS. And monitoring groups have reported the possible use of chemical weapons in an IS-held area to Palmyra’s northwest, provoking the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to express “serious concern.”
Nevertheless, liberating Palmyra from IS for a second time should be a relatively straightforward proposition— under one condition, said Stephens: “If the Russians decide Palmyra is a priority.”Judi and Ron Barrett's 1978 book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs runs 32 pages. Over the weekend, the movie based on it opened and made more than $30 million. So, how does Hollywood serve up the kids' classic?
Will I like it?
Honestly, given the beloved-but-slim source material, I didn't have high hopes for this movie, but the likable characters and the amazingly rich visuals drew me in from the start. I was entertained all the way through. It also serves up a nice buffet of subtle background fun.
Will my kids like it?
Seriously? It's Food. Falling. From the Sky. It snows ice cream and there's a giant Jell-O and flying hot dogs. And if the food gags aren't enough, then here, have a monkey and a poop joke. Kids will eat this movie u- look, they'll really like it. The PG rating is for "brief mild language," but honestly I had to search online to find out it's for a "damn" and a "crap," because I completely missed them. Nothing sinister or spooky, with the possible exception of some mildly-perturbed roasted chickens.
Does it totally ruin the book?
I don't think so, though I'd definitely say the book should be read first, just to get the kids' imaginations really going with the whole food-as-weather thing. The original illustrations are the heart of the book and the animators did a fantastic job of capturing some of those classic images and adding depth while keeping them immediately recognizable. The obvious departure in this department is in the look of the humans populating Swallow Falls/Chewandswallow, who are far more cartoony than those in the book. Of course, being active participants in the story, they've got way more work to do than their forebears did.
So, how did they get a 90-minute movie out of that book?
They add characters and gadgets: The food storms don't just happen in the film – they spring from a gadget dreamed up by wannabe inventor Flint Lockwood. Add in a TV meteorolgist who's way smarter than she lets on and a shortsighted, gluttonous mayor, and there's pretty much your plot in a To Go bag.
What's the geek appeal?
Cartoon tinkerers like Flint have been all the rage the past decade or so, but besides the usual list of humiliating public failures, he also brings a wholly identifiable kind of enthusiasm. He's got a Nikola Tesla poster on his wall, his lab surroundings are half totally awesome tech and half just-for-fun goofery, and he narrates his hectic moments out loud like it's all a big video game or comic book.
Lessons learned?
You're familiar with them: Perseverance. Parental support. Don't be selfish. And as a GeekDad with a daughter, I was also happy to see a crystal clear "Don't dumb yourself down" message sent through the character of Sam Sparks, a brainy type who's abandoned her glasses and pretends to be an airhead to keep up appearances.
Who's in it again?
Bill Hader of Saturday Night Live is Flint, Anna Faris is Sam. Other voices you'll likely recognize are James Caan and Mr. T. Bonus Geek Cred: Bruce Campbell and Neil Patrick Harris are in there, too, but it's more fun if you don't find out who they are ahead of time.
Is it worth paying extra for the 3-D version?
We saw this showing at my daughter's request, and tickets were an extra $2.25 apiece. I've never found the 3-D gimmick adding much to my enjoyment of a movie, and it's often left me with a bit of a dull eyestrain headache. That said, the effect was flawless in this one and really did showcase the environment, and I didn't feel like I was overworking my eyes to maintain the illusion. There are also not a lot of gratuitous 3-D shots like long objects poking directly into the camera, which usually seem designed to distract viewers from a weak story. In this case, they weren't needed.
Do we need to stay through the credits?
We watched through the cast listing to see which voices we recognized, and to that point, the credits were entertaining – and yes, still in 3-D – but we didn't stick around for the very end.
Any memorable previews?
Where the Wild Things Are, Disney's Christmas Carol, James Cameron's Avatar, and Planet 51.
Related: GeekDad interviews with Cloudy directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord and character animator David Gibson.B. Riley Financial Inc. RILY, -0.73% announced Thursday an agreement to buy Memphis-based investment firm Wunderlich Securities in a deal valued at $67 million. Under terms of the deal, B. Riley's bid includes $36 million in cash, 1.9 million of its common stock and warrants to buy 820,000 common shares. B. Riley expects the deal to close in June 2017, and to add to 2017 earnings per share. "We believe now is an opportune time to build a fully-integrated brokerage firm to more fully capitalize on the current market conditions as well as be ideally positioned with greater capabilities, resources and distribution as opportunities arise," said B. Riley Chief Executive Bryant Riley. "On top of this, we see the cycle of active versus passive investing swinging back towards active management and believe the opportunity is now to begin investing for it." B. Riley's stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has tumbled 26% year to date, while the S&P 500 SPX, -0.48% has gained 5.3%.
Have breaking news sent to your inbox. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Bulletin emails. Sign up here.To the 35 respondents who cast You Be The Boss votes in favour of letting Oilers centre Connor McDavid go, I say bravo.
OK, it’s not the first thing I would say. But it’s right up there.
They might actually see moving McDavid as the only means of acquiring a stud defenceman. They might have been voting between hits on their bongs. They might just be contrarians, or trolls, or worse yet, Flames fans.
By suggesting the team doesn’t need the best player of his generation, just one rather impressive year into what should be a long National Hockey League career, they could also be reflecting upon the Stanley Cup-winning strategy employed by the Oilers in 1988, when then-owner Peter Pocklington sold the best hockey player of any generation, Wayne Gretzky.
Because that worked out pretty well, didn’t it? The Oilers won the Cup two years later, didn’t they? And Gretzky didn’t win another one, did he?
Sigh. No, he didn’t. And the Oilers haven’t won another since 1990. And dealing Gretzky for some odds, ends and $15 million US was the beginning of the end of this franchise’s ability to win anything but draft lotteries. It was, without doubt, the worst possible thing that could have been done to the team at that time.
In the 26 years since the last championship, the Oilers are 9-9 in playoff series and have been to the Stanley Cup Final exactly one time, a decade ago.
And yes, all sorts of factors, players, coaches and general managers come into play over a 26-year drought. Their decision-making at the NHL draft was often horrendous; their choice of head coaches was, at times, one of style over substance; their stubborn dedication to almost anyone with a connection to the glory days engendered group think and stunted the organization’s growth.
You just don’t move a generational player, no matter the return. The Penguins won with Mario Lemieux. They won with Sidney Crosby. The Washington Capitals might finally be ready to win with Alex Ovechkin. Generational players come up large at crucial times. They make most others around them better, too. They attract free-agent talent. And the team that coalesces around such a star eventually finds a way to win.
All that said, it is eminently clear the Oilers need to make trades to bolster a losing roster. Who do you move? According to the 2016 You Be The Boss survey, which drew more than 6,000 responses, Oilers fans are open to dealing the team’s first-round selection at this year’s NHL entry draft — 69 per cent in favour — but not nearly as convinced that one of the team’s core forwards has to go.
In the Keep Him, Let Him Go, Give Him a Raise section of the survey, only two per cent of respondents were ready to part ways with McDavid, 26 per cent would let Taylor Hall go, 36 per cent would say goodbye to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and 54 per cent would cut ties with Jordan Eberle. In a separate question on dealing core players, 35 per cent were in favour of packaging two of them, 26 per cent would trade Eberle, 13 per cent would deal Nugent-Hopkins and 10 per cent would trade Hall.
In his post-mortem address to the media, GM Peter Chiarelli said the most likely route to go would be trading a forward from their surplus for help on the blue-line. While he acknowledged he could upgrade his defence corps by moving his first-round pick at the draft, he also said the team would be getting a good player there, possibly one that could help right away.
Factor in a salary cap that is likely to stagnate or drop, and there is an obvious benefit to incorporating a talented, NHL-ready forward at an entry level salary and moving out one of the $6-million men up front.
The fans also favour cutting ties with Andrew Ference (94 per cent), Nikita Nikitin (93 per cent), Nail Yakupov (76 per cent), Mark Fayne (74 per cent) and Anton Lander (72 per cent). Those players will not fetch an obvious upgrade on defence.
So there are no easy answers. Just lots of questions.
Seventy-two per cent of respondents see McDavid as the Calder Trophy winner and 65 per cent figure he should be the next captain.
Most want Oilers Entertainment Group CEO Bob Nicholson, Chiarelli and head coach Todd McLellan to stick around. A goodly number, 72 per cent, spent money on tickets or branded merchandise, 56 per cent went to at least one home game, but just 30 per cent would buy season tickets for next year in Rogers Place, where it will be significantly more expensive to do so.
And strangely enough, 46 per cent figure it’s acceptable for the Oilers to miss the playoffs again next year, as long as they show progress.
To those fans I say bravo. Well, it’s not the first thing I’d say. But it’s right up there.
dbarnes@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/jrnlbarnes
Oilers reader survey results
You Be The Boss player/staff resultsMadison -- A tax increase on the working poor won’t trigger a supermajority vote in the Legislature on the state budget, GOP lawmakers said Wednesday.
But nonpartisan legislative attorneys found it more difficult to say whether a two-thirds vote of lawmakers would be required. That's significant because to reach the two-thirds threshhold Republicans would need to accomplish the unlikely task of winning over significant numbers of Democratic votes.
On Tuesday, the Joint Finance Committee voted to cut the Earned Income Tax Credit by $56.2 million over two years as part of the 2011-’13 state budget bill. That move has been scored as an income tax increase by the Legislature’s non-partisan budget office since it will either lower refunds or raise taxes for some low-income state residents.
That has Democrats asking about a law that was passed by GOP lawmakers and Gov. Scott Walker in February requiring a two-thirds vote of lawmakers to approve any increase in state sales or income tax rates.
Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester), the co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee, said that the cuts to the tax credit program wouldn’t require the budget to be approved by a two-thirds margin.
That’s because the tax credit program doesn’t raise state income tax rates and because most of the tax credits go to state residents without any income tax liability as a way to make low-wage work more attractive.
“When I voted for the bill it was about rates and people who owe money based on the work that they performed,” Vos said.
A report by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau says that a majority of non-partisan legislative attorneys consulted on the proposal agree that a two-thirds vote won’t be needed.
But, “others suggested that an argument could be made that the proposed changes could trigger the requirement because the change is economically equivalent to (a tax increase),” the report says. “It is not possible to determine how the courts will interpret the provision.”
Todd Berry, president of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, said that the Earned Income Tax Credit is "admittedly a strange duck."
"If I had to pick one or the other I'd call it a tax increase," Berry said.
But Berry said he didn't think a change in the credit would trigger the two-thirds requirement because it didn't affect the state's overall income tax rates.Queensland's YouTube stars win $110,000 Creator Original prize
Updated
Five Queenslanders who have become stars of YouTube have won the State Government's inaugural Creator Original awards, taking home $110,000 worth of prizes.
Korean language channel creator Sara Holmes, comical food critic Elly Awesome and beatboxer Tom Thum will get $30,000 each under the "Established creator" category.
It goes towards production and development costs and a trip to Los Angeles, with flights and accommodation, where the creators can access YouTube workshops.
Make-up artist Stephanie Hames and comedian Alysse Paris were selected as "Emerging Creator", which drew $10,000
Deputy Premier Jackie Trad said their quirky videos had amassed more than 500,000 subscribers and millions of video views between them.
"The awards will enable our talented Queenslanders to take their ideas and skills to the next level and boost their worldwide audience," she said.
YouTube Content Partnerships Manager Sanoop Luke said they had partnered with the Queensland Government to nurture the current and next generation of stars.
"Queensland is home to some truly outstanding YouTube creators," he said.
Tom Thum said the grant was essential to producing high-quality local content.
"For me as a self-employed creative with no outside funding, most of my productions have been on a bit of a shoestring budget," he said.
"[The grant] is helping people like me achieve things that would be near impossible."
Topics: social-media, community-and-society, information-and-communication, government-and-politics, youth, brisbane-4000, qld
First postedSex dolls that can be programmed to resist advances and allow men to “rape” them should be illegal in Britain, a campaigner says.
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Katie Parker, who founded the School's Consent Project, a charity that teaches pupils about consent, pointed to the Roxxxy sex doll launched by US-based True Companion, which uses artificial intelligence to create different personalities to cater for user’s fantasies.
One of these models is called ‘Frigid Farrah’ and it sets the robot to resist sexual advances. It has settings to cater for different fantasies such as ‘the dominatrix’ or the ‘barely 18-year-old.’
Parker says while it is not an offence to own one of the dolls in the UK, it normalizes sexual violence.
“Some say these robots reinforce the objectification of women and the commodification of sex; others, that they allow otherwise isolated individuals to experience intimacy. Either way, Roxxxy is a different beast,” she wrote in her blog.
“The fact that she is not a thinking, feeling human does not make her existence unproblematic. The robots normalize sexual violence. They service and provide a distraction for criminal impulses that should probably be subject to psychiatric intervention.”
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Parker says customers are promised that if they touch the robot “in a private area, more than likely she will not be too appreciative of your advance.”
“The proven relationship between one’s behavior and the type of content one if exposed to makes a strong case for criminalization,” she added.
For £7,670 ($10,000), True Companion allows customers to choose one of 73 hair colors in 39 styles, eye and eyebrow color, pedicure color, skin tone and the shape and type of pubic hair.
Roxxxy is the company’s flagship product and is a fully-customizable ‘sexbot’ costing £7,700. As well as sex, True Companion says she can provide companionship and social support for lonely men.
The company maintains the doll is not programmed to participate in a rape scenario, and such allegations were “pure conjecture.” It says the doll is designed to “provide her opinion or feedback, just as any person would on a date” and can therefore be a learning tool “to help people understand how they can be intimate with a partner.”Major Incidents
Major Incidents are incidents that delay 50 or more trains. Such events cause the most disruption to customers. Major incidents are separated into six categories:
Track - Track fires, broken rails, switch trouble, and other track conditions. Signals - Signal and track circuit failures, and other equipment and transmission problems related to signals, both for conventional color-light signals and for new technology Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) signals. Persons on Trackbed/Police/Medical - Police and/or medical activity due to sick customers, vandalism, assault, persons struck by trains, unauthorized persons on tracks, and suspicious packages. Stations & Structures - Obstructions and other structural problems, such as damage to tunnels or debris on the right-of-way; electrical problems such as defective wires, cables, and power systems that aren’t on trains, including traction power to run the trains. Car Equipment - Broken doors, seats, windows, lights, brakes, and other problems caused by defective trains, such as power or air conditioning failures. Other - Inclement weather, water conditions, external power supply failures, as well as drawbridge openings and other external conditions, such as unstable nearby buildings, nearby fires, civil demonstrations, and/or parades.
Filtering by AM or PM peak only shows incidents that began during the selected time period (regardless of incident duration)Sweded Movies: The Fans Talk Back
from the losing-control dept
One of the defining characteristics of the digital world -- and one of the problems for copyright law, which was conceived in an analog age -- is the importance of being able to build on the work of others not just indirectly, but directly, through mashups or the re-use of existing material. Stig Rudeholm points us to a fascinating feature in the Guardian about "sweded movies": home-made tributes to Hollywood titles that adopt precisely this approach of creative re-interpretation. The name apparently comes from the film "Be Kind Rewind", where DIY imitations of studio favorites are passed off as Swedish editions.
As the article's author, Ben Walters, writes, beyond the surface humor, there's something interesting happening here: sweded movies are a form of talking back to Hollywood. Along with recut trailers and "supercuts" of familiar tropes, they represent a fledgling digital moving-image culture that presents a radical challenge to the mainstream movie industry. They are created as fun for fans but the ideas of entitlement and agency underpinning these videos will shape how we all consume -- and produce -- moving images in the 21st century. They are a taste of what comes after Hollywood. He gives some examples of that "talking back": see, for instance, the video The Star Wars That I Used to Know, which combines anti-Lucas sentiment with Gotye's music. The same sense of media-savvy pushback is evident in trailers that reconfigure The Shining as a family comedy or Mrs Doubtfire as a stalker horror; and in supercuts that point out how much Julianne Moore likes to cry or how often the word "fuck" is used in The Big Lebowski. What's striking about these, he suggests, is the lack of traditional deference to Hollywood and its highly-paid artists. Films are no longer immaculate creations that can be looked at but not touched; instead, cinema has become a store of images, sounds and symbols to be constantly reshuffled, re-used and reshaped in new works of sweded art, offering yet another example of lowered barriers to creativity brought about by low-cost digital technology.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+
Filed Under: amateurs, communications, fan creations, fans, movies, sweded movies, swedingThe death of journalist Michael Hastings is raising new questions after an email he sent hours before last week’s fatal car crash has surfaced showing a possible FBI probe into the reporter.
KTLA News in Los Angeles received an email on Friday that was forwarded to them by a friend of the 33-year-old reporter.
Hastings, who wrote for Rolling Stone and the website BuzzFeed, perished after an auto wreck in L.A. early Tuesday last week.
According to an email Hastings sent Monday afternoon to a handful of friends, he believed his colleagues could be visited by Federal Bureau of Investigation officers due to an article he was working on.
“Hey [redacted}, the Feds are interviewing my ‘close friends and associates,’” Hastings wrote, before recommending to his colleagues that they seek legal advice if approached by investigators.
“Also: I’m onto a big story, and need to go off the rada[r] for a bit,” he added. “All the best, and hope to see you all soon.”
The Los Angeles Times originally reported that Hastings was working on an article about Florida socialite Jill Kelley at the time of his death, but Hastings' widow, Elise Jordan, said that wasn't the case.
"To correct the record, since I've seen it erroneously reported a few times: @mmhastings was not working on a story about Jill Kelley," Jordan tweeted on Tuesday.
Kelley made headlines last year after she became entangled in a high-profile scandal involving then-CIA Director David Petraeus and Gen. George Allen, who then commanded US troops in Afghanistan. A federal probe of suspicious emails sent to Kelley later unearthed an extramarital affair between Gen. Petraeus and his biographer, Paula Broadwell, which led to the CIA director’s resignation.
Before taking the helm as CIA director, Petraeus commanded US troops in Afghanistan — the same role that later went to Gen. Allen. Petraeus had inherited that role from Gen. Stanley McChrystal. On his part, McChystal resigned from that position after a 2010 Hastings-penned article from Afghanistan raised questions about the commander’s remarks about the Obama administration. He was forced to apologize for comments he made in the article that led to his resignation, and Hastings was presented with a Polk journalism award for his report.
Staff Sgt. Joseph Biggs, who met Hastings when the journalist was embedded in Afghanistan in 2008, said he received the email less than a day before the auto accident and told KTLA it sounded “very panicked.”
“It alarmed me very much,” Biggs said. “I just said it doesn’t seem like him. I don’t know, I just had this gut feeling and it just really bothered me,” he said.
“He was a good friend of mine,” Biggs wrote in a tweet sent after Hastings’ death.
According to the soldier, Biggs was blind-copied on the email sent mid-day Monday, which was addressed to a handful of Hastings’ colleagues. He died around 15 hours after the email was sent.
One week after his death, speculations continue to surround Hastings’ death. The other recipients of the email obtained by Higgs have yet to address the correspondence, but the soldier said it’s unlikely because others are worried of what will happen next.
“The reason I released the email is because those people were too scared. I'm not,” Higgs tweeted over the weekend.
“I won't let a man die in vein [sic] because I'm too scared of what will happen to me. If I sent that email to Mike he wouldn't rest,” Higgs wrote, “He would fight.”
On the eve of Hastings’ funeral this Monday in Vermont, Higgs said the deceased journalist’s wife thanked him for releasing the email.
“She's vowing to take down whoever did this. She's a fighter,” he wrote.
The Los Angeles Police Department says they do not suspect foul play in Hastings’ death, and the FBI said he was not the target of an investigation.
Appearing on Fox News on Monday, Ali Gharib, a journalist and friend of Hastings, said “I don’t think he was a reckless a person.”
“That doesn’t mean he might not have been driving excessively fast,” added Gharib, who said it wouldn’t be “a wild situation” to imagine Hastings driving quickly through Los Angeles late last week.
Speaking to Yahoo News last week, eyewitness Michael Carter wrote that he was nearby at the time of impact and “saw a giant fireball at the base of one of the palms that line the medians” on the road Hastings’ Mercedes was traveling down. “It was surreal. Even from as far away as I was, I could see how violent an impact it had been.”
Correction: This article was updated to include Ms. Jordan's remark.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Friday got some public pushback from fellow Nevada Sen. Dean Heller (R) for calling the supporters of rancher Cliven Bundy’s standoff “domestic terrorists.”
“What Sen. Reid may call domestic terrorists, I call patriots,” Heller said on KSNV-TV as quoted by Roll Call, with Reid sitting to his side. “We have a very different view on this.”
Bundy has been in a dispute with officials from the Bureau of Land Management over grazing fees on federal lands. Authorities began to round up his cattle earlier this month because he hasn’t paid any fees in 20 years, leading to the standoff last weekend.
“These people who hold themselves out to be patriots are not. They are domestic terrorists,” Reid said at an event Thursday.
“It’s a pretty broad brush,” Heller said of Reid’s characterization. “When you have boy scouts there, you have veterans at the event, you have grandparents at the event.”
“That’s grandmothers? That’s boy scouts? I hope not,” Reid said of the standoff.
“I take more issues with BLM coming in with a paramilitary army of people, individuals with snipers, and I’m talking to people and groups that were there at the event, and to have your own government with sniper lenses on you, it made a lot of people very uncomfortable,” Heller said.
Heller added that he hoped Congress would hold hearings on the matter.
“I want to find out who’s accountable for this,” he said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.Share. Original, creepy, memorable, silly. Original, creepy, memorable, silly.
This review contains Dead Space 3 story spoilers. Consider yourself warned: MEGA SPOILERS AHEAD.
Dead Space 3 Awakened grafts a grisly tale of Marker-induced dementia onto the end of the original Dead Space 3 experience, and in three brief chapters did more to unsettle me than the entire game managed. Disturbing, creepy, and entertaining, it’s great fun – though Awakened’s satisfying but brief story gets a bit silly and serves as a vivid reminder of the ho-humness that preceded it.
Exit Theatre Mode
If you finished the main game and watched the credits roll to the end, you know that Isaac Clarke is alive. Awakened picks up the story as Isaac and co-op sidekick John Carver attempt to figure out how they actually survived. That’s appropriate, because I seriously wanted to know the same thing. After all, in the finale, they were caught in a free-fall through the heart of a cataclysmic atmospheric storm kickstarted by a moon-sized Necromorph collapsing into the planet. The survival rate for that is estimated at around zero.
Granted, we are talking about a game where alien sculptures wub-wub and transform people into spider-like necro-beasts with super-vulnerable limbs, so you do sort of need to just play along.
Awakened is spread across three separate beats, following Isaac and Carver as they attempt to escape from Tau Volantis and get back to Earth in one piece. This involves a long series of backtracking through the buildings, hallways, and the many, many elevators of Tau Volantis, and eventually up to the elevators of the Terra Nova, the giant Sovereign Colonies starship hanging in the orbiting flotilla where the majority of the space sections of Dead Space 3 played out.
Once aboard the Terra Nova, things take a turn for the bizarre and... slightly silly. In the time since Unitologist leader Jacob Danik was killed on Tau Volantis, a fringe group of Unitologists (the craziest amongst the crazies) led by a zealot named Randall Carr have cobbled together an extremist uprising focused on a much more disturbing way of expressing their faith: they cut off each other’s hands and carve themselves up in a sort of hardcore Necromorph cosplay.
This is easily the most provocative bit of dark imagination in all of Dead Space 3, and it represents both smart art and gameplay design. The conceit that cultists put the Necromorphs on a pedestal and disfigure themselves to "transcend" is a nifty one. The grunt soldiers chant in devotion, they hobble around, at times on all fours, their heads cinched up in sacks, their tortured bodies carved up to ribbons, with twisted sharp blades where their hands once were. Necro Scissorhands, each of them, they pose a formidable challenge in packs on higher difficulties. As a drone of voices begin to invade in Isaac’s mind and Carr starts to appear and disappear, each time plodding closer and closer, a wonderful tension begins to emerge. It’s a fast, no-nonsense burst of flashes, combat, and haunting mood.
Exit Theatre Mode
Much as I love this more twisted side of Dead Space 3, it is a little far-fetched that these extra-crazy zealots have gone off the reservation so quickly. They managed to totally redecorate the Terra Nova in record time. Where exactly did all those candles come from? And how did they set everything up with no hands? Oh yeah, I'm playing along.
That's the lowpoint of the story, but the best bits are Isaac’s relapse into full-blown dementia, which didn’t happen in any meaningful way in the original Dead Space 3 campaign. Turns out Carr’s bad religion needs a new leader, and it slowly becomes clear that Isaac is the man to build a new church, as Carr would |
June 5th, accompanied by Prime Minister Mackenzie King and a host of local dignitaries. This was the first time a reigning British monarch had ever visited Canada, let alone Sudbury, a testimony to the growing importance of the region’s vital nickel mines. The nickel operations in the Sudbury Basin were booming due to growing global tensions and increased spending on military budgets. Sudbury and the northeastern Ontario gold mining centres of Timmins and Kirkland Lake were among the few economic bright spots in a country devastated by the Great Depression.
In an April 15, 1938 article, Maclean’s Magazine journalist Leslie McFarlane described the three mining communities as, “Northern Ontario’s glittering triangle….No communities in all of Canada are busier, none more prosperous. The same golden light shines on each.”
During the royal visit, precedence was broken by allowing Queen Elizabeth the first female ever to go underground at the Frood Mine. Traditionally miners thought women would bring bad luck if they were permitted underground. There were probably many who thought the beginning of the Second World War on September 1, 1939 was the result of her subterranean visit.
The German invasion of Poland was to have dramatic effects on Sudbury. Many communities across Canada, Britain and the United States played exceptional roles in producing certain commodities and munitions for the war effort. However, it would be no exaggeration to say that in North America, Sudbury was among the top few communities that were absolutely critical to the war effort. The International Nickel Company of Canada, as it was known back then, and its employees in Sudbury would go on to supply an astonishing 95 per cent of all Allied demands for nickel – a vital raw material and a foundation metal absolutely essential for the Allies’ final victory.
Nickel’s unique properties include a combination of strength, hardness, ductility, resistance to corrosion and the ability to maintain strength under high heat. It can transfer these properties to other metals making nickel a critical component for a wide variety of civilian and military products.
World War Two was a mechanized war that utilized more technically advanced equipment than ever before. To win, the Allied armies needed guns, tanks, planes, battleships and a host of other weaponry that could only be made from hardened nickel-steels and other nickel-alloys.
For example, in the mighty flying B-29 Superfortresses, thousands of pounds of nickel alloys were used ranging from oil cooling units and fastening devices to engine parts, exhaust systems, instrumentation, and control assemblies for guns.
The war in the Pacific was primarily an amphibious battle requiring rugged engines made from nickel alloy parts able to withstand the corrosive effects of salt water. Invasion landing craft, submarines and aircraft carriers contained various nickel steels like “Monel metal” in the hulls, propeller shafting, gas and water tanks, and vital valve and pump parts, just to name a few marine uses.
Nickel hardened armor plate for tanks, nickel alloys for anti-aircraft guns and ordinance and even lightweight, tough portable bridges used in the invasion of Germany all required this essential metal.
“Given the chance, Hitler would willingly have traded the whole Silesian Basin, and thrown in Hermann Goering and Dr. Goebbels to boot, for a year’s possession of the Sudbury Basin,” Maclean’s journalist James H. Gray aptly wrote in an October 1, 1947 article on the city.
From the beginning of the war, the company’s expertise and vast production and research facilities in Sudbury, Port Colborne, Huntington, New Jersey and Britain were at the complete disposal of the Allied war effort. Some of the British facilities and the Huntington rolling mills were sold in 1997 and 1998.
International Nickel facilities at complete disposal for allies
In 1939 American CEO Robert C. Stanley stated, “the first obligation of every corporation, as of every individual, is to give the utmost support to his Government in the prosecution of the war.” As it turned out, these were not empty words. Company profits actually declined approximately twenty-five per cent during the war years due to capital expenditures, war taxes and the use of more costly mining methods to accelerate the production of nickel, copper and platinum.
The price of nickel was under government control. From 1929 to 1941 nickel sold for 35 cents a pound. For the remainder of the war it was reduced to 31 ½ cents per pound. By contrast, the metal cost between 40 and 55 cents a pound during World War One.
The export sales of the company’s nickel, copper and platinum metals were made under Canadian Government permits and with the sanction of the British Government. The ultimate destination of all nickel products exported from Canada was strictly controlled by a system of warranties.
Nickel was one of the first metals to require allocation. Non-essential use of this strategic metal was banned which included most of International Nickel’s civilian markets.
Ironically, company scientists and metallurgists offered free technical assistance to over 14,000 American customers that the company worked so hard in the previous two decades to establish, to find substitutes for nickel. There were legitimate concerns that these customers would not come back after the war.
The 1943 Canadian victory nickel coin was no exception. Until the end of the war, the five cent piece was made from a copper-zinc alloy. In the United States, the five cent coin contained silver, a much less strategic metal than nickel.
Click here for Part 2 of 7: http://republicofmining.com/2008/09/26/inco%E2%80%99s-sudbury-nickel-mines-%E2%80%93-critical-during-world-war-two-part-2-of-7-%E2%80%93-by-stan-sudol/The Federal Aviation Administration has confirmed two separate reports of pilots spotting drones near Austin Bergstrom International Airport.The first incident occurred at 4:48 p.m. on Monday, August 3. The incident involved Jazz Flight 840, a Canadair regional jet. The pilot reported a small unmanned aircraft passing in front of the flight about 12 miles north of Bergstrom. No evasive action was taken.Later that same day, around 5:15 p.m., the captain of American Airlines Flight 2298 reported passing a drone five miles north of Bergstrom at an altitude of 2,500 feet. The pilot said the unmanned aircraft was to the right side of the American flight and was black and red in color. Again, no evasive action was necessary.
Law enforcement was notified of both incidentsThe FAA reports that there are around 60 drone sightings a month near airports around the country and involve consumer-grade models. According to the FAA, flying model aircraft for a hobby or recreation does not necessarily require FAA approval. However all model aircraft operators must operate according to the law, including a provision that no unmanned aircraft should be operated higher than 400 feet above the ground and no closer than five miles from an airport without notifying air traffic controllers, still remaining at 400 feet or below.Looking for news you can trust?
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In 2010, people cheered when Congress gave shareholders the right to vote on the pay of corporate CEOs. Too bad those nonbinding votes haven’t embarrassed the greed out of the chief executives. In fact, CEO pay crept up another 5 percent last year, once again far outstripping wage gains for middle-class workers.
While some CEOs, such as GE’s Jeffrey Immelt, took a modest pay cut in 2011, many continued drawing outsized checks. Here we list 10 of the most egregiously overcompensated executives. They’re selected not just on the size of their pay packages, but how much more they were paid than their peers at similar companies, as well as the disparity between their personal fortunes and those of their employer. Collectively, they highlight the cozy relationships between today’s corporate boards and their chief executives. “You don’t suggest [corporate compensation] consultants who are Dobermans,” Warren Buffet, a critic of excessive CEO salaries, quipped in this YouTube clip. “You get cocker spaniels and make sure that their tails are wagging.”
T imothy D. Cook, Apple
Compensation: $378 million
Corporate profits (2010-11): +85%
Stock gain/loss (2010-11): +34%
By far the nation’s highest paid CEO, Tim Cook earned more last year than the next four best-compensated CEOs combined. He raked in 378 million times the salary of his predecessor, Steve Jobs, whose 2010 pay was just $1. Apple could pay Jobs so little because it had given him stock options early in his tenure that exploded in value with the launch of its iPhones and tablets. The company clearly wants to replicate that approach with Cook, whose pay was mostly a one-time grant of $377 million in Apple shares. But even when averaged over their 10-year vesting period, those shares at current prices give Cook an annual take of $38 million, which is more than all but nine CEOs earned last year. “If Apple continues its growth at even more modest levels than it has in the past,” corporate governance consultant Paul Hodgson told Bloomberg, “then the award is going to far exceed anything we’ve ever seen.”
David Simon, Simon Property Group
Compensation: $137.2 million
Corporate profits: +67%
Stock gain/loss: +33%
Simon and Cook are the only two CEOs of publicly traded companies who occupy the exclusive nine-figure niche, but other than getting big lump payments in stock, they have little in common. Simon’s real estate investment trust earned just 4 percent of what Apple brought in last year, and it had smaller percentage gains in profits and stock price. Shareholders showed their displeasure at Simon Property Group’s annual meeting in May, voting nearly 3 to 1 to reject Simon’s pay deal. While the company responded that it would “take their views into consideration,” it did not pledge to renegotiate Simon’s pay.
David M. Zaslav, Discovery Communications
Compensation: $52.4 million
Corporate profits: +80%
Stock gain/loss: -2%
Shares in the media conglomerate that owns Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel slid last year over fears of ad revenue declines and concerns that the internet and Netflix are decimating cable profits. Even so, Discovery gave Zaslav a 23 percent raise, making him second only to Leslie Moonves of CBS (a much larger company) as the nation’s highest-paid media executive. In May, Discovery Communications’ stock slipped again when the company booked losses on OWN, its joint venture with Oprah Winfrey.
Michael S. Jeffries, Abercrombie & Fitch
Compensation: $46.6 million
Corporate profits: -16%
Stock gain/loss: -7%
Jeffries’ pay more than doubled last year even as Abercrombie shares took a tumble, dragged down by the preppy retailer’s poor performance in Japan, Canada, and Europe. He raked in more than four times as much as the CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods, a similarly sized retailer that logged a respectable 16 percent return on investment. Jeffries’ company has resorted to antics such accusing Jersey Shore star Michael “The Situation” Sorrentino of damaging the brand by donning Abercrombie shirts on television. A day after the company offered Sorrentino “substantial payment” not to wear its clothes, its stock plunged 9 percent.
Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation
Compensation: $29.3 million
Corporate profits: +18%
Stock gain/loss: +49%
News Corporation shares rose dramatically last year, but public confidence in the company that owns British tabloids, Fox News, and the Wall Street Journal plummeted. Starting last July, a series of investigations revealed that News Corp.’s tabloid, News of the World, had engaged in hacking private cellphones on a much wider scale than previously disclosed—and with the knowledge of senior News Corp. executives. The inquiries led to the shuttering of the tabloid, the resignation of Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton, and the arrest of three former high-level News of the World employees. Yet amid this imbroglio, News Corp. boosted Murdoch’s salary by 75 percent. In May, a British parliamentary committee released a report concluding that Murdoch had “exhibited willful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications” and was “not a fit person to exercise stewardship of a major company.”
Ian M. Cumming, Leucadia National
Compensation: $29.3 million
Corporate profits: -99%
Stock gain/loss: -21%
A diversified holding company with interests ranging from mining to vacation rentals, Leucadia National is often described as a “mini Berkshire Hathaway.” But unlike Warren Buffet, a vocal critic of excessive CEO salaries, Cumming took a whopping 555 percent pay raise last year (mostly in stock options), even as shareholders lost their shirts. Cumming acts as both CEO and longtime chairman of the board—an easy formula for chumming it up with board members who serve on Leucadia’s compensation committee. Granting stock to execs is “not based on any specific formula,” notes the company’s proxy statement, “but rather on a subjective assessment of the executive’s level and performance.”
Gregory W. Cappelli, Apollo Group
Compensation: $25.1 million
Corporate profits: NA
Stock gain/loss: +10%
Cappelli’s pay shot up more than 1,400 percent last year, and it’s far from clear what he did to deserve $23.5 million in stock and stock options; shares in Apollo, which owns the for-profit University of Phoenix, were up just 10 percent last year, and Cappelli isn’t even the company’s sole CEO. (He splits the title with Charles B. Edelstein, who received an even bigger options grant in 2008.) Stock options are supposed to give CEOs an incentive to promote long-term growth, but that clearly hasn’t worked at Apollo. Since January 2008, it has underperformed the S&P 500 and most other education companies. In 2012, its stock is down 40 percent.
Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman Sachs
Compensation: $16.2 million
Corporate profits: -67%
Stock performance: -45%
If Goldman Sachs really is a vampire squid that bleeds the rest of the economy, then perhaps we should thank Blankfein for bleeding Goldman Sachs. In 2011, net income fell 67 percent at America’s most-despised investment bank and it announced plans to eliminate 1,000 employees—though it separately said it would hire 1,000 new ones overseas. In the midst of all this cost cutting, Blankfein took a 15 percent pay raise.
John T. Chambers, Cisco Systems
Compensation: $12.9 million
Corporate profits: -16%
Stock performance: -30%
Chambers earned $6 million less last year than he did in 2010 (when he also made our most-overpaid list), but his $12.6 million take is no bargain for employees or shareholders. Beset by weak demand and stiff competition, Cisco lost 30 percent of its market value in 2011 even as it announced plans to cut 6,500 workers—the largest layoff in company history. Chambers isn’t exactly feeling their pain. Though Cisco’s shares have never recovered from their peak in 2007—when Chambers earned $11 million—his average annual salary has been 32 percent higher since then.
Robert L. Antin, VCA Antech
Compensation: $12.1 million
Corporate profits: -13%
Stock performance: -15%
Never heard of VCA Antech? You’re not alone. This provider of “pet healthcare services” had just $1.5 billion in sales last year—a drop in the bucket compared to, say, the profitable drugstore chain CVS, which nonetheless paid its CEO $100,000 less than Antin earned. Profits fell 13 percent at VCA Antech last year, but that didn’t dissuade the company’s board from giving Antin—who holds the triple title of chairman, president, and CEO—a 536 percent raise that included $10 million in stock and a $928,000 cash bonus. His package was opposed by a leading corporate governance consultancy and by his own shareholders—58 percent rejected it in a nonbinding “say on pay” vote.Earlier today, president Obama ordered a Russia Hacking Claim Probe.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a friend and backer of Hillary Clinton, heads up Obama’s witch hunt.
Barack Obama has ordered US intelligence agencies to conduct a “full review” of alleged Russian hacking into this year’s election and to issue a report before he leaves office next month. Lisa Monaco, White House counter-terrorism adviser, said that the review, which would be sent to Congress but which might not be made public, would look at both what happened during the election and would consider “some after-action”. The review comes as calls for congressional probes into the hacking of the election are increasing. The growing rumblings over Russia’s role in the election could set up an early confrontation between Congress and the incoming Trump administration, which has called for closer ties with Moscow. Although the US intelligence community issued a rare public statement in October claiming that Russia had been responsible for the hacks on Democratic politicians and political committees, president-elect Donald Trump has continued to cast doubt on Russia’s role in the hacking. In an interview with Time magazine this week, he said that he did not believe that Russia had interfered in the election. “It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey. I believe that it could have been Russia and it could have been any one of many other people. Sources or even individuals,” Mr Trump said. Over the course of the summer, WikiLeaks published tens of thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and from John Podesta, chairman of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Some Democrats have suggested that the controversies and bad publicity generated by the emails dumps — which only affected their party — contributed to Mr Trump’s victory in the election. Some Republicans are also pushing for a probe into Russia’s election role, led by Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain. “It’s pretty clear to me that WikiLeaks was designed to hurt Clinton and it could be us tomorrow,” Mr Graham told CNN on Wednesday. For the more hawkish Senate Republicans such as Mr Graham, the issue of hacking the election could become part of a broader battle with the new president over his approach to Russia, given Mr Trump’s desire to “get along better” with Moscow. “I’m going after Russia in every way you can go after Russia,” Mr Graham said. “I want [Russian president Vladimir] Putin personally to pay a price.”
Lindsey Graham a Hillary Backer
Just so you know why Lindsey Graham is so upset at Russia, he was a big Hillary fan.
For details, please consider praise for Hillary as noted in Correct the Record.
Here are some notes, going to the actual source, when links provided.
Lindsey Graham in New York Times June 27, 2012: Rock-Star Diplomat
“I think she’s represented our nation well,” Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican from South Carolina, who as a member of the House served as one of 13 managers in the 1998 impeachment trial of Clinton’s husband, told me in an interview in his Senate office. “She is extremely well respected throughout the world, handles herself in a very classy way and has a work ethic second to none.” When Tripoli fell in August and Qaddafi was killed in October, some of the same officials complained that she, not the president, was getting too large a share of the public credit. “Libya was a good showcase into who she is,” Lindsey Graham told me. “I said at one time during this debate, Thank God for strong women.”
Lindsey Graham in Fox New, May 28, 2007
Fox News: KASICH: “Bay — Bay, you’ve got — you got John McCain who says, and I quote, ‘I have no doubt that Senator Clinton would make a good president.’ Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican, says, ‘She’s smart, prepared, serious.’ John Warner, sort of the dean of the United States Senate, Republican, conservative, says she has a remarkable core of inner strength. These are people who have worked with her for seven years.” [Fox News, 5/28/07]
Lindsey Graham September 15, 2011: speech at Council on Foreign Relations
Lindsey Graham: “Secretary Clinton is a great choice to be our secretary of state.” In a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in 2011, Senator Lindsey Graham stated: “Leon Panetta was an outstanding choice. Let me be bipartisan here for a moment. This is an outstanding national security team put together by President Obama. I hope he will listen to them. Secretary Clinton is a great choice to be our secretary of state; Leon Panetta, great follow on from Secretary Gates; General Petraeus, CIA director. Good national security team.” [Sen. Graham speech at Council on Foreign Relations, 9/15/11]
Graham and Clinton Friends
Lindsey Graham on Hillary Clinton: “We have become, actually, good friends.” “Graham quipped that his relationship with Clinton is a good example of that. ‘We have become, actually, good friends. And that was a surprise to both of us,’ he said.” [Voice of America, 2/3/07]
Lindsey Graham Proud to Be On Stage With Hillary
Lindsey Graham on Hillary Clinton: “[I] share the stage with her – I consider that a compliment.” “Over the last few years, Sens. Lindsey Graham and Hillary Clinton have become a Capitol Hill odd couple, working across party lines on issues ranging from their mutual support for invading Iraq to their shared concern over vanishing manufacturing jobs and inadequate health care for military reservists… Graham said the two of them often come at problems from different directions, but share an interest in important policy issues. ‘Certainly, she’s a national figure, and to share the stage with her – I consider that a compliment,’ he said. ‘We’ll probably have totally different agendas that we think are best for the country, but the point is to speak boldly about problems that require bipartisanship and solutions that are essential to us surviving as a country in the 21st century.’” [The State, 1/28/07]
The above featured in Correct the Record, the following snip from the Weekly Standard on July 3, 2016 wasn’t.
Lindesy Graham: “When it comes to Syria, and Trump says it’s okay for Assad to stay, it tells me he has no idea what that means for the region. Israel is in threat from Iran. Iran is arming Hezbollah with precision-guided missiles. The trip to Israel was very unnerving to say the least. So, the Syrian civil war is having an effect throughout the region. Mr. Trump, when you said Assad should stay, you need to rethink that. As to Secretary Clinton, she says wants a no fly zone in Syria. That’s a great step in the great direction.”
It’s time to get rid of Lindsey Graham.
Mike “Mish” ShedlockWith that out of the way, why are we here? Well, I’d like to clarify some of the points made in the previous story that possibly could have sparked above mentioned comments and even respond to some of them in a more extensive way than a 140-character micro blog. Let’s start with the most personal stuff first.
Twitter me a tweet
First of all, this wasn’t an attack on Dona Sarkar, nor the team at her side. I’ll also reiterate that the comment about what she tweets has nothing to do with her personal content, it was solely about whatever she tweets about the Windows Insider Program (or related to it). It is just that the content posted since she took over (again, about the Windows Insider Program) isn’t as informative as what Gabe Aul used to do (especially in the early days of the program).
Don’t get me wrong, there are also helpful tweets that tell us whether or not we can expect a build for that day or days. And that’s something I applaud, something Gabe didn’t do. Problem is, beyond that and answering basic questions, every now and then, we got some information that wasn’t related to timing, but purely how Microsoft handled feedback (see previous story) and that’s something I miss. I perhaps don’t mind the less formal Windows Insider Content, it’s just that the ratio formal-to-informal is off. The same goes for blog posts.
Engineering Windows 7, Building Windows 8
Speaking of which… It probably doesn’t need any extra explanation that I miss the “series” we used to have like “Made by you” or “Windows 10 Team profile” (I get that at one point, you’ll probably run out of people to talk about). I don’t see a clear reason to stop with that kind of content and fair enough, this is something that went beyond Gabe Aul his time as the head of the Windows Insider Program. If anything, I hope these 2 things are what Dona Sarkar was talking about when she commented that they would “bring [some of it] back”.
Just for some perspective: during the “public” part of Windows 7’s and Windows 8’s development, Microsoft kept a blog called “Engineering Windows 7” and “Building Windows 8”, respectively. These 2 blogs got 67 posts over the timespan of 26 months and 90 posts over the timespan of 15 months, also respectively. How did Windows 10 do? 179 posts over a timespan of 34 months. Doesn’t sound too bad until you take into consideration that the vast majority (give or take 3 posts for both) of those 67 Windows 7-posts and 90 Windows 8-posts were in-depth explorations of the OS, while 127 out of the 179 blogs on Windows 10 where “just” build announcements, leaving only 52 more posts, including other announcements, only a few of these where in-depth articles on Windows itself. Some of these 67 and 90 posts are also announcements of new updates like the RC and RTM for Windows 7 and the 3 Previews for Windows 8, but substantially, it is nothing.
And now I don’t care what you’re saying, but Windows 7, and especially Windows 8, are both notorious for being developed behind closed doors (thank Vista for that). And to me, it is not a good sign when something that is being “developed out in the open” isn’t talked about nearly as much as these 2 versions. This has nothing to do with not liking fun. This has to do with what many Insiders expected. I’m pretty sure many of us, especially those who signed up on day one (the people that follow Windows as close as they can), were expecting the Windows 10-blog to jump over the Windows 8-blog in just a couple of months. It didn’t. It hasn’t even passed the Windows 7-blog, despite having been active for 1 year more than it.
But on this point, I would like to comment in length on a tweet someone send at me during a discussion on Twitter:
First of all, I dare to say that he would have argues against “slamming for geek” early in the dev-cycle if we were at that point in it. His main argument in this and another tweet is that only the early part of the dev-cycle should be used to talk about the “geek” stuff and that the later part of the dev-cycle can only be used to talk about “Tuning and UX”. Beyond the fact that that is clearly nonsense, behold the Engineering Windows 7 and Building Windows 8 blog mentioned above for clearly proving otherwise. For a matter of fact, even the initial wave of Windows 10 builds (up until 10240, and perhaps even 10586) had its focus on geek stuff as well.
Point is: there is no point in time where we have to stop talking about what’s behind it, because that doesn’t make sense. Such a mindset would have locked out any discussion about Fluent, Timeline, Edge 16, etc. as that’s already part of the UX, and not the early dev-cycle. Idem ditto for MyPeople back in the day with Redstone 2 (until it got delayed, of course). If you’re not willing to talk about the technicality of it in certain points of a dev-cycle, than perhaps you don’t understand software development, certainly not the modern way to do it (as a service, and guess what Microsoft wants Windows to be?).
[W]Insider4Good
Now, about the Insiders4Good program, which I’m well aware of that it lays close to Dona Sarkar’s hearth and probably that of many others. And guess what, I too actually follow this program (be it less active than the main WIP). But here is the thing: what is it doing in the Insider Program? Are people that participate in it supposed to be Insiders? Is this supposed to be a group exclusive to Insiders? That’s what the name implies. Heck, it was previously known as “WINsiders4Good”, so that implies Windows Insiders (as opposed to Windows AND Office, Bing, Skype, etc.). Now, even “Insiders4Good” still implies Windows Insiders, just not in the name, since it is part of the Windows Insider Program.
[The] Winsiders4Good program certainly deserves a place in Microsoft, but I don’t get why there has to be a connection to the Windows Insider Program where there isn’t.
But what is it doing there? This brings me back to my “exclusive” argument. Why limit it to Insiders? And if it’s not, why does the name imply that it is? And more importantly, if it isn’t even only for Insiders, what’s it doing in the Insider Program in the first place? It feels to me that this program should stand on its own, not as part of the Windows Insider Program, but somewhere besides the Windows Insider Program and all the other programs Microsoft has. I’ve said it in the previous story: I do believe there is a place for the Insiders4Good-program, but I also believe that the Windows Insider Program is not that place. Which would also result in a rebrand, of course. Right now, it feels like Microsoft is limiting what this program could do, just because of its place within Microsoft and what its name implies.
See picture as depicted below
Onwards to Ninja Cat. And Taco hats. And T-rexes. And bacon. Apparently, a lot of people took my previous story like I don’t like fun. I do. For a matter of fact, I don’t even mind there being a mascot like Ninja Cat. I like that the Windows Insider Program has a “soul”. My problem lies in that this is getting taken too far to the point where it becomes distracting to what the Windows Insider Program is. It’s like going to Disneyland and everybody only paying attention to the guy with the Mickey-costume and nothing else.
I get why they do this. It’s for the same reason any mascot exists. It attracts people, but like I said in the previous story: I’m not sure these are the people that belong in the Insider Program, that these are the people Microsoft truly wants in it. Whenever I scout any of the boards where people go to to ask for help and they have some basic issue that you as an Insider should be able to solve all by yourself, then I’ve got to ask the question if the Insider Program is the place-to-be for that person. Same goes for people talking about the stability, or rather lack of stability, and blaming Microsoft/the Windows team for it, or the fast pace at which builds are released. Note that there is a difference with asking whether an instability has been fixed, etc.
Ninja Cat has a place in the Windows Insider Program, I’d say just not as prominent as it does right now. But it has one. Everything else? Let’s take that Taco hat as an example. Last podcast we actually got some… uhm… “backstory” on why that taco hat was there. And you know what, I don’t mind it being there. Again, my problem lays with it being a distraction. Personally, to me, it would perhaps have been much more fun if that taco hat was there, in the podcasts, but would never get acknowledged, anyone just goes by their business as if it isn’t there while we do have something to grin about without it taking time that could be spend on things most Insiders (especially those from the early days) came for. And if not that, at least stop trying to make a meme out of every little silly thing.
How Ninja Cat is being used within Windows as an Easter egg. Emojis aren’t that serious to begin with, this is perfectly fine, although I do not understand how a cat with glasses equals a cat with a tattoo of a fish and a cup of coffee... and no glasses. Image from the Emojipedia blog.
I don’t mind some mindless fun. It helps relax. And whenever it pops up somewhere in a corner, like a silly little thing to grin about, that’s fine. But when a program that was advertised as the Windows Insider Program starts to pay overly much attention to it, it becomes problematic. Mindless fun, small Easter eggs for us to find, a mascot, I’m all for it. But don’t take it too far.
What could possible happen if you take it to far? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it attracts people that shouldn’t be in the Insider Program. Allow me to let someone who actualy tried to argue against my point explain it to you:
I’ve got no numbers to back this up, and I’m sure that he doesn’t either, but it certainly feels like his point on non-geek Insiders in the Fast Ring (or any ring at all) is where we’re heading. But unless he hasn’t read the Windows Insider website when he signed up, he should know that that’s the exact thing that Microsoft advices against. Non-geek people shouldn’t be in the Insider Program.
The Fast Ring receives Insider Preview Builds more often than the Slow Ring. It’s for advanced Insiders who want to explore new features even sooner — and don’t mind dealing with the bugs and other issues that come with these builds.
-From the Windows Insider website.
Are you truly trying to tell me that “non-geek” people are “advanced Insiders”, are you telling me that “non-geek” people don’t mind dealing with major bugs and issues that may result in you needing to reinstall your device, perhaps even from a point where booting into your OS isn’t an option?
The answer to that question should be no. Problem is that the Windows Insider-website isn’t Microsoft’s only outlet and if you would solely look at Twitter, what can pretty much be seen as the prime communication channel for the program at this point, you will clearly see 2 conflicting messages between Twitter and the Insiders website. A cat isn’t what a normal (“non-geek”, if you will) person associates with a program that may result in that person losing everything he has on his or her device. It is too inviting and when non-geeks get into this program without knowing what they are truly up for… That can only result in all kind of bad situations and it is just a matter of time before Windows’ quality will start to suffer from it.
Bottom line
So here is why I, and many others, are here: to try out the latest in Windows, to discuss it, to find and report bugs, to share ideas, to talk with other Insiders and to help others if they are experiencing issues or have general questions. Especially that last one for me personally (*cough* ChangeWindows *cough*). And these are the areas I’d expect the Windows Insider Program to evolve in. But it hasn’t for most parts of it. The Feedback Hub’s bug-and-suggestions-reporting-capabilities is vastly superior to the tool we used to have in the early days with build 9841, but there is still much left to desire.
For testing out the latest and greatest, there is of course Windows Update. There isn’t really a “platform” needed for that on its own (from an Insiders perspective, I dare to say that the people responsible for Windows Update dare to say otherwise if I wouldn’t specify the point of view). But the truly lacking part of it all is the part where I think the Insider Program should have shined from the beginning: an actual place to talk with each other and share ideas (rather than just upvoting them or duplicating it with our own spin to it in the Feedback Hub), ask questions, help each other out and have just general discussions with other Insiders and equally important: literal Insiders: the people that work at Microsoft.
Granted, a refresh of the Insider website was announced earlier and such a community website will be part of it. If you would truly take a step back and look at what the Windows Insider Program was made for, than it is hard to deny that THAT isn’t what it was meant for in the first place. We’re here to improve Windows foremost, to ensure that the millions of people that will get the next update in a couple of months have the best possible experience, to ensure that Microsoft is aware of every flaw and/or mistake that slipped into Windows and to make sure it gets fixed in time, everything beyond that comes second. The “fun” part of it all surely has its place, but second, not first.Is free speech worth the constitutional paper it’s written on?
After the September 26 FBI raids on peace activists’ homes in Minneapolis, Chicago, and North Carolina, it appears to depend on who’s speaking and what they’re saying.
The pretext for the raids was investigating “material aide to terrorists”, resulting in grand jury subpoenas and confiscation of computers, books, music CD s and from one home, a Martin Luther King poster. The targeted Minneapolis activists have openly protested US military policy since the 1980s. The FBI certainly knows they have nothing to do with terrorism. These activists simply have the audacity to challenge bi-partisan US invasions, occupations and support for dictatorships and human rights abusers. Dissent on the left has long been seen as ‘criminal behavior’. Where once “the communist threat’ was the argument for such repression, now, “terrorism” is.
When it comes to war, US government sees three roles for the American people:
Pay hundreds of billions for the largest military on Earth
Kill and possibly die or be maimed for US military and corporate dominance of other countries
Cheerlead war.
The US government—bought and paid for by weapons-makers and mercenaries (‘contractors’) —does not think that We The People have the right to even question, much less challenge and resist permanent war, which is bankrupting |
has been threatening to kill himself.
He says two other children and a woman have been escorted out of another apartment.Quarterback Joe Webb, a sixth-round draft pick in April, received second-team reps during Vikings minicamp this weekend.
Maybe one of the biggest surprises in Vikings minicamp was sixth-round draft choice Joe Webb, who could be the quarterback of the future. One person impressed with Webb is Rick Spielman, the team's vice president of personnel. "If you look at Joe Webb, he was a very good quarterback at the University of Alabama-Birmingham," Spielman said. "He actually threw for over 2,000 yards and rushed for over 1,500 yards. But he is such a unique athlete that everybody was looking at him as a receiver, and possibly looking at him as a Josh Cribbs-type, who plays up in Cleveland, who actually was a quarterback." Spielman said one of thing that impressed everybody was the size of Webb's hands. "So he got into minicamp, we're working him at receiver, we saw him and he was very athletic in catching the ball," Spielman said. "His hands -- what we do, is when we measure these guys, we try to measure all of their body parts. We measure their arm length, we measure their hand length, and his hand is one of the biggest hands coming out of the draft this year. "His hands are 11 inches long. How we measure them is from the tip of the thumb all the way out to the end of the pinky, and he, by far, has tremendous sized hands. [That's] a huge asset not only as a receiver, but what we found out is, as we were going through that rookie minicamp, he was out there working as a receiver, and coach [Brad] Childress said, 'Let's just throw him and throw some 1-on-1 drills and see what kind of arm he has.' And he was very impressive that one day we put him out." So as a result, instead of being a receiver, Webb became a quarterback. "We decided to go ahead and move him and let's take a look at him through these OTAs and this minicamp to see if he can potentially be a quarterback, as well," Spielman said. Webb was been outstanding in all of the minicamps.
"So we'll see what we decide to do with him when we come back at training camp," Spielman said. "But again, you can't deny, you can't teach the athletic skills that Joe Webb has." Based on how Webb performed at quarterback, and the fact that the Vikings didn't draft another QB, someone else at that position will have to come out of nowhere for Webb not to be at quarterback when training camp starts. The Vikings have had other sixth-round draft choices wind up playing big roles with the team, and Webb is in that class. Kundla ranks up there If the NBA gave John Kundla credit for the National Basketball League championship he won in 1947-48 in his first year as coach with the old Minneapolis Lakers, he would have a total of six professional basketball championships, ranking only behind Phil Jackson at 11 and Red Auerbach with nine. However, NBA historians don't give Kundla credit for that title, so he is tied with Pat Riley at five followed by San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, who has four. While the Lakers were in the NBL in 1947-48, there was a rival league made up of all the bigger Eastern cities called the Basketball Association of America, and the NBA has certified that championship coach in the stats rather than the NBL. The following year, the Lakers, Rochester, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis of the NBL joined the big cities and the title of the league was changed to the NBA. Jottings Gophers football coach Tim Brewster talked about starting defensive back Kim Royston: "It's really unfortunate: this spring, Kim Royston broke his leg. He had surgery, he's making amazing progress. I think he's weight-bearing, he's doing some very light jogging at this point, and we really think that Kim's going to be ready to go the week of the Middle Tennessee game, Sept. 2." New turf similar to the turf installed in TCF Bank Stadium has been installed at the University of Minnesota Gibson-Nagurski football practice facility. The cost of the turf was $475,000.
The NFL had a man described as a checker viewing the Vikings OTAs to make sure there isn't too much hitting, meetings or other activities. It turns out the Lions, Jaguars, Raiders and Ravens got busted for having too much hitting, losing OTA days as a result. While he was ineligible to play basketball at Minnesota last year, Trevor Mbakwe did well in the classroom, posting a grade-point average of better than 3.0. In fact, the basketball team might have one of its best academic quarters in a long time. Mbakwe tells friends he never did visit Memphis or any other school as reported, and that he wants to stay at Minnesota. Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi, who wouldn't allow Mbakwe to play last season because of a felony charge, said that if the Miami courts continue to postpone the trial like they have, he will take another look at his decision and allow Mbakwe to be eligible for the 2010-11 season. Meanwhile, while there are rumors that Kentucky is after former Mr. Basketball Royce White, and the word is that White will have to attend junior college in order to get eligible after dropping out of Minnesota in the middle of the semester. Gophers coach Tubby Smith said he hasn't decided whether he would take White back. However, they did meet some time ago. You want my opinion? I believe if White can get the academic OK that Smith will give him another chance. Ex-Gopher Marcus McKenzie has signed with Calgary of the Golden Baseball League and will be a starting pitcher against British Columbia on Tuesday. The Gophers football team will host its fourth annual Youth Day on Thursday at TCF Bank Stadium. The event starts at 1 p.m. and features kids from grades 3 to 8. Pat Neshek, who is working his way back to the Twins, has a 2.00 ERA in four games at Class AAA Rochester, including three shutout innings against Charlotte on Saturday night.... Former Gophers and Twins pitcher Glen Perkins still is struggling at Rochester with a 1-6 record and a 7.76 ERA.... Toby Gardenhire, son of Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, is getting a good chance to play at Rochester and is hitting.279.WILLARD, Ohio - Six-year-old Elsiy Lara Lopez seems oblivious to the conversation about her father's future while she plays with his iPhone.
But when he is asked if he is prepared to be deported to Mexico on July 18, she stiffens and cries, "No, no, daddy can't go away."
Hearing her plea, Jesus Lara Lopez looks away from the little girl on his lap. His eyes tear up and he struggles for words of comfort that do not come.
Barring a last minute reprieve, Lara Lopez will board a plane at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on July 18 for a one-way trip to Mexico City, leaving behind a wife and his four American citizen children.
Lara Lopez, 37, is invisible to most Americans. Like many undocumented workers, he lived under the radar, mostly working in fields picking fruits and vegetables, though today he works in a Pepperidge Farm food packaging plant. He may have packed the Pepperidge Farm goldfish in your cupboard.
He has no criminal record. With a valid work permit issued by the federal immigration officials several years ago, he has supported his family. He has paid taxes and never used public assistance for welfare, food stamps, housing or unemployment compensation.
Yet, Lara Lopez is among the tens of thousands of immigrants being swept up in President Donald Trump administration's directive to immigration authorities to deport thousands of people in the United States illegally.
In the first 100 days of the administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested more than 41,000 individuals who are either known or suspected of being in the country illegally. This reflects an increase of 37.6 percent over the same period in 2016, according to ICE's website.
In making his case for increased deportation efforts, Trump campaigned with the families of victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants. He vowed to removed "bad hombres" from the country.
Yet, ICE these days is not limiting its deportation efforts to criminals. Anyone found to be in the country illegally is subject to removal.
According to ICE, "Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly has made it clear that ICE will no longer exempt any class of individuals from removal proceedings if they are found to be in the country illegally."
"ICE agents and officers have been given clear direction to focus on threats to public safety and national security...but when we encounter others who are in the country unlawfully. We will execute our sworn duty and enforce the law," the ICE website says.
Jesus Lara Lopez comes to America
Lara Lopez, unable to find a job where he lived in Chiapas, Mexico, he came to Florida to work picking vegetables in 2001.
Soon, he moved to Willard, 70 miles southwest of Cleveland in Huron County, where large farms frequently need migrant workers to plant and pick their crops.
For years, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (now Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE) did not seem to notice him, though ICE was always in his mind.
Then in 2008, he was pulled over for a minor traffic violation. He was cited for not having an Ohio driver's license, which as an undocumented immigrant he could not get. The Huron County sheriff's deputy reported his status to ICE. He was given an order of deportation in 2008, which he appealed to an immigration judge. He was allowed to stay and work.
In 2011 he lost the appeal, but was given permission to remain and work until if and when the deportation order was activated. Each year he checked in with immigration officials and had routinely been given an "order of supervision" with a work permit while his case was reviewed. He had expected to be able to remain, since his case was a low priority.
In March, Lara Lopez was told to report to the Brooklyn Heights ICE office. He was nervous. He had heard stories about people reporting for what they thought would be a routine appointment, and being told they were going to be deported. Some even advised Lopez not to go.
"All the other times I went there the people were quite considerate," Lara Lopez recalled through translator Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of America's Voice, an immigration reform group.
"We waited a long time to see an agent," he said. "When he came out, he seemed mad. I had given him my tax records, employment history and letters of support from people.
"He put a bracelet (ankle monitor) on me and told me to get ready for deportation. I asked why he put on the ankle bracelet? I was not a criminal. They didn't answer."
His lawyer, David Leopold of Cleveland, questioned the order.
"Since 2008, Jesus did everything ICE asked him to do. He showed up every time he was asked, and did whatever they wanted. He presented all his tax records since 2002, showing he has been a taxpayer, which is more than our president has done,'' Leopold said.
"He held down jobs and raised a family. He never collected welfare, food stamps, unemployment compensation or housing assistance. He has never been in trouble with the law, he attends church and is the kind of person we want to live here."
Khaalid Walls, spokesman for ICE, said the government sees things differently.
"He was ordered removed in 2011 by an immigration judge," said Walls. "In an exercise in discretion, the agency has allowed him to remain free from custody to final(ize) his departure plans."
Tramonte said that previously, it had looked like he was going to be able to work things out and stay. "After all, he worked hard and raised a family, isn't that what America is about? But then, just as his goal was in sight, they yanked it away," she said.
Lara Lopez had found a comfortable home in Willard, making friends among the people at the Church of God of Prophecy. The jobs he found got better. He met a woman and they married. Last year, they bought a house.
"Things are different now," he said. "I'm sad, but I have to be strong for my family. My wife is frightened because without me she won't be able to make the house payments on her job alone."
"He said he can see his whole life -- the life he's wanted and worked so hard for -- and it's right there in front of him," Tramonte said. "He was so close. Now they (ICE) are killing his dreams and he does not know what he can do."
"And he wants to know why." she said.
When called for comment on the case, ICE spokesman Walls responded only by saying deporting Lara Lopez was "consistent with enforcement priorities."
Leopold called those priorities "a numbers game," where the focus for enforcement shifts from concentrating on deporting criminals to deporting anyone in the country who lacks documentation.
"Officially, ICE wants to deport what Trump called 'the bad hombres,' people who have committed crimes like murder and drug dealing," Leopold said. "But they are also deporting people like Jesus in huge numbers, people who have committed no crimes."
ICE's website doesn't disagree, pointing out the rise in non-criminal arrests increased from approximately 4,200 in 2016 to more than 10,800 in 2017.
"Cases like this are an incredible waste of ICE resources that only make it harder for the agency to identify and remove dangerous criminals," John Sandweg, the former acting director of ICE under the Obama administration, said in a news release he sent out after being contacted by America's Voice. "The Administration's focus on the low hanging fruit of the enforcement system only allows the bad guys to remain at large, weakening our public safety."
Tramonte said so far 33,000 people have signed a petition asking ICE to allow Lara Lopez to remain in the United States. Some of the letters of support can be seen here. They plan to continue to ask people to sign the petition.
Josefina de Anda, who lives across the street from Lara Lopez, is one of those who supports him.
"We go to church together, he's a good neighbor and a good guy," she said. "He's one of those people who is always ready to help out when he's needed. He has done nothing wrong, I don't think what's happening to him is right.
"What's going to happen to his four children when he's sent away," she asked. The children are Eric, 13; Edwin, 11, Anuar, 10, and six-year-old Elsiy.
"And that little girl, oh, she loves him so much. Everywhere he goes, she's right beside him. This is going to be really hard on her if he is sent away."
Leopold said he has reached out to Ohio congressmen and senators. "A call from the right politician could help," he said. But none have taken up the request.
The offices of U.S. Representatives Bob Gibbs and Jim Jordan did not return calls for comment on this story.
Local impact
Anny Sterling helps run the Church of God of Prophecy, which serves about 250 people from the Hispanic community in the Willard area. She said these days there is a shadow over them. She does not know how many people in her church are undocumented, but knows they exist. She does not ask.
She said in previous years, the number of migrants increases in the early spring through the fall as farmers hire workers to plant the crops, maintain the fields and harvest them.
"We would see all these apartments all over town being rented by people and families," she said. "There would be life everywhere. Not so this year. The units are not being rented, people are afraid to come here."
Thousands of workers are needed in the early spring to prepare the fields and plant radishes, lettuce, peppers and other early crops. Migrant workers have become such a part of daily life that the Willard economy is dependent on them, since local residents don't want the jobs.
Willard City Manager Jim Ludban said that there are plenty of good jobs going unfilled in this city of 6,000.
"Just drive around and you'll see help wanted signs everywhere," he said.
The three local farms that employ so many migrants, have declined to comment on the current employment situation. The New York Times recently quoted them as saying they lost millions of dollars of crops that could not be harvested because of the lack of manpower.
Jon Keeling, the director of communications for the Ohio department of Jobs and Family Services, said the number of unemployed people in all of Huron County is very low.
"In May of this year, only 314 people filed for unemployment and 1,650 had continuing claims," Keeling said. "In May of 2011, there were 549 initial claims filed and 4,040 people were getting continuing unemployment benefits. This indicates that a lot of people have gotten work."
But while high employment numbers are good, it makes it more difficult to get people to work in the labor-intensive, difficult jobs of planting and harvesting crops - even though they pay up to $18 an hour, twice the state minimum wage
At first, Ludban was not particularly sympathetic to Lara Lopez' situation.
"He came here illegally and he was caught, that's the way it is," he said. "But you could say that even though you don't like how a person came here, there should be more avenues to citizenship for people like him. I hope this works out for him."
Lara Lopez said he prays constantly for God to soften the hearts of the people at ICE.
"I don't know what will happen," he said. "I will return to my mother and two sisters in Chiapas, but there is less work there now than there was when I left years ago. My father died when I was a baby and I have been sending money home. How will I get a job that will allow me to support my mother and send money back here to support my family?"
Lara Lopez said he doesn't resent the government for his situation. "I just don't understand," he said through Tramonte. "Where is their heart? Why do they want to take me away from my family? My family is everything to me, it's all I have."
.85 people hurt in Wednesday morning ferry crash at lower Manhattan pier, two critically, authorities say
Ferry was carrying passengers from New Jersey to New York City's Pier 11 near Wall Street
Below are the latest updates as they come to us. You also can read our full story.
[Update 6:32 p.m. ET] Eighty-five people were injured in the crash, including people who were treated and released at the scene, according to Charles Rowe, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman.
Two people had been listed in critical condition, but now authorities are saying only one person's condition remains critical.
[Update 1:46 p.m. ET] Coast Guard records indicate that the same Seastreak ferry has been involved in prior crashes, including one in 2009 when the vessel slammed into a New Jersey dock and tore a 2- to 3-foot gash in the starboard bow of the vessel.
A year later, a collision with a dock pile punctured a hole in the port side of the same boat.
[Update 12:33 a.m. ET] Seastreak LLC, the company operating the ferry, has released a statement on its website. In part, it says that "our thoughts and prayers are with those that were injured."
"Seastreak LLC will work closely with the federal, state and local authorities to determine the cause of the accident," the statement says.
[Update 12:28 a.m. ET] Two of the 57 hurt passengers are critically injured, authorities say.
[Update 11:43 a.m. ET] U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, releases a statement saying that National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Deborah Hersman assured him "that this serious accident will receive a full and thorough investigation."
“Ferry systems are crucial for New Jersey commuters, and the public must have every assurance that the ferries they ride are operating safely. I have every confidence in Chairman Hersman and the NTSB, and I know they will conduct a first-rate investigation so we can take steps to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”
[Update 11:29 a.m. ET] Authorities have updated the injury count: 57 people were injured, including one critically, officials said at a news conference.
Officials say 326 passengers and five crew members were on board the ferry at the time of the crash at New York City's Pier 11 on the East River.
[Update 11:12 a.m. ET] A man who was on the ferry says "basically it was 60 to zero," describing the two-tiered ferry coming to an abrupt halt on impact. He clarified that he wasn't sure how fast the ferry was going before impact.
"Usually it slows down a little bit, (and) people get up to get off the boat," he continued. "People went flying... people got thrown down the stairs. That’s how most of the people got hurt."
[Update 11:06 a.m. ET] Julie Westfall, a bystander who wasn't on the ferry and didn't see the crash, says she's seen "a lot of bleeding heads with white bandages (and) a lot of people strapped to boards."
Overhead video of the scene showed emergency workers taking people off the ferry on stretchers, toward ambulances. That activity might have wrapped up - video now shows emergency workers on the ferry, but not tending to anyone.
[Update 11:01 a.m. ET] A little more detail from witnesses: They say that not only were some passengers standing as the ferry hit the dock, as we've heard before, but some of them were waiting at the top of a staircase. Many standing passengers were jolted to the floor when the ferry struck the dock.
[Update 10:58 a.m. ET] The National Transportation Safety Board says it's sending a team to investigate the incident.
[Update 10:46 a.m. ET] Video of the front of the two-tiered ferry from WABC shows a hole torn into the hull.
[Update 10:43 a.m. ET] A passenger, Ashley, 26, tells CNN that she lost consciousness right after the ferry hit the pier.
Ashley says that when the ferry hit the pier, she flew into the air. The next thing she remembers is that she woke up on the floor to see a woman shaking her and asking her to speak.
Ashley then heard emergency workers say that anyone who could walk should get up and leave the ferry. She got up and walked off the ferry and onto the pier, she says.
She says that as she walked through the ferry, she saw many people on the floor. Earlier, another witness told CNN that shortly before the ferry hit the pier, many people were standing, anticipating the moment they could walk off the boat.
[Update 10:34 a.m. ET] Here's details about the ferry and the route: It's the Seastreak ferry, and it was the 8 a.m. boat from Highlands, New Jersey. It crashed at New York City's Pier 11 near Wall Street, where it was due at 8:45 a.m. It generally carries about 400 passengers.
[Update 10:28 a.m. ET] We now have a direct quote from the witness we mentioned below, plus her name:
"There was a large jolt," passenger Elizabeth Banta said. "It felt like we were in a car crash.... Several people were thrown into the air and onto the ground."
[Update 10:27 a.m. ET] One person is in critical condition and being treated at a nearby hospital, police spokeswoman Sophia Tassie said.
[Update 10:22 a.m. ET] Overhead video of the scene shows firefighters taking people off the ferry in stretchers. The firefighters also appear to be taking a few people around in wheelchairs.
A passenger told CNN that people were standing, waiting to leave the ferry, when the ferry ran into the dock hard. The standing passengers were thrown into the air and slammed into the floor, she said.
The ferry was taking passengers fro New Jersey to New York's Pier 11 near Wall Street when the crash happened shortly before 9 a.m. ET.
[Update 10:07 a.m. ET] More than 50 hurt in ferry accident at lower Manhattan pier, New York fire department now says.
[Initial post, 9:54 a.m. ET] More than a dozen people were hurt when a ferry struck a pier in lower Manhattan, according to a New York fire department spokesman.
The accident happened shortly before 9 a.m. This is a developing story; we'll add more details as we get them.More than two billion people have been affected by drought over recent years but now new research may lead to drought resistant crops.
Scientists from Duke University hacked into a plant’s genetics and found a gene that tells the plant to conserve water when it senses there is not much available.
The discovery of the gene may help to enhance plants to react to drought conditions which could help to increase the amount of crops which could still grow despite a lack of water.
Figures from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation say that since 1900 more than 11m people have died from droughts.
These have been from either unsafe water sources or the negative impact they have upon crops.
Plants can adapt to a lack of water by increasing the amount of calcium in their cells.
The calcium levels then tell the plant that there is a lack of water, which can trigger further coping mechanisms.
The researchers identified the gene in the Arabidopsis thaliana plant – which is often used in lab research.
They said that the gene encodes a protein in the cell membranes of plant leaves and roots so it knows there is a lack of water.
Plants with defective versions of the calcium channel don’t send an alarm signal under water stress like normal plants do.
The team from the university grew normal plants and those with a defective version of the gene in the same pot.
When the plants were exposed to drought conditions, the plants wilted more than those with the gene intact.
Zhen-Ming Pei, an associate professor of biology at Duke who worked on the research, said that it is likely that plants will be able to be altered to adapt to the drought conditions.
“Plants that enter drought-fighting mode quickly and then switch back to normal growth mode quickly when drought stress is gone should be able to allocate energy more efficiently toward growth,” she said.
Now the researchers hope that they will be able to manipulate the gene and change it to a level where plants can be created to cope better without as much water as they would normally have.By Tina Hilding, Voiland College of Engineering & Architecture
PULLMAN, Wash. – Washington State University researchers have developed a way to practically separate lignin from wood, a breakthrough that could provide new sources of lignin for advanced renewable fuel and advanced materials applications.
The work is featured on this week’s cover of the journal Green Chemistry.
Lignin is the second most abundant renewable carbon source on Earth. It is in all vascular plants, where it forms cell walls and provides plants with rigidity. Lignin allows trees to stand, gives vegetables their firmness and makes up about 20-35 percent of the weight of wood.
The material holds great promise as a precursor for biobased materials and fuels, but it is also notoriously difficult to break apart.
The wood products industry has been struggling for a century to make valuable market products from lignin. The material is usually separated from wood during papermaking and biorefining processes, but these often contaminate the lignin and significantly alter its chemical and physical properties, decreasing its value. So most lignin is burned to produce fuel and electricity.
Led by Xiao Zhang, associate professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, the WSU researchers used a new type of solvent to separate the lignin from wood without altering its key properties. The researchers were able extract lignin from poplar and Douglas fir samples in high yields. The lignin products have high purity and distinct characteristics.
The researchers are still working to understand the solvent’s precise mechanism for separating the lignin. They are exploring new applications for this type of lignin and are in discussion with industry partners regarding scaling up production.
“Finding a way to extract a large quantity of lignin with limited chemical modifications from woody biomass can provide a breakthrough in realizing lignin’s potential,’’ said Zhang.
The work was supported through a National Science Foundation career grant (award no. 1454575) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (grant no. 2011-68005-30416 administered through the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance (NARA)).
Contacts:
Xiao Zhang, WSU Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, 509-372-7647, xiaozhang@tricity.wsu.edu
Tina Hilding, WSU Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture communications, 509-335-5095, thilding@wsu.eduIn his pre-match interview for West Ham's game against Stoke on Saturday, at the Boleyn Ground, Hammers boss Slaven Bilic released updates on both Payet and Lanzini's injuries.
Since joining the club in the summer for £10.5m from French side, Marseille, Dimitri Payet has had fantastic first few months with the London club, netting 5 goals as well as picking up 3 assists in his first 12 Premier League games.
However, after the ankle injury that he picked up in the Everton game, from a James McCartney challenge, Hammers fans feared the worst after rumours circulated that he could face 3 months on the sidelines. Despite the initial concern, new updates have revealed that Payet could return to training well before this 3 month period, with Bilic stating that he "expects" him to return within "2-3 weeks".
After Payet's injury, the West Ham faithful turned to Manuel 'The Jewel' Lanzini to fill his spot. However, many were left shocked as he was left out of last weekend's squad for the Manchester United game, due to an injury he had picked up in training.
There have been rumours that Lanzini could return for this week's clash against Stoke (mainly due to David Gold's tweet claiming that this was his return date). However, it is now believed that Lanzini will return for West Ham's fixture against Swansea on the 20th of December, according to announcements from West Ham's medical team.
This will no doubt come as great news to West Ham fans who have recently seen their squad become depleted due to various injuries across the team. Alongside Payet and Lanzini, prolific striker Diafra Sakho, winger Victor Moses and central defender Winston Reid are all out on the sidelines, with Sakho, Moses and Reid all out until at least the new year.
VIDEO: @EnnerValencia14 is back in training and hopes to make a first-team return in the near future. #WHUFC #COYI pic.twitter.com/lCXKZSvzdL — West Ham United FC (@whufc_official) December 11, 2015
It will come as a compensation to the Hammers that forward, Enner Valencia, will be included in the squad for tomorrow's game against Stoke City at the Boleyn Ground. The Ecuadorian returned for just one game (Everton at home), after recovering from an injury picked up in pre-season, before being stretchered off and sidelined for a further few weeks.
Hammers fans have been left questioning why this high number of injuries have accumulated in such a short space of time. According to Croatian boss, Bilic, it is West Ham's training ground Chadwell Heath that is to blame. The Hammer's newly appointed manager stated that the playing surface is "too hard underneath, and too soft on top", and as a result various players have picked up injuries in training.Richard Bowditch "Dick" Wigglesworth (April 25, 1891 – October 22, 1960) was an American football player and coach and United States Representative from Massachusetts. He was born in Boston. He graduated from Milton Academy in 1908.
He attended Harvard University where he was the starting quarterback for the Harvard Crimson football team from 1909 to 1911.
Wigglesworth graduated from Harvard in 1912, and from its law school in 1916. He also served as a graduate coach of the Harvard football team starting in 1912.[1] He was assistant private secretary to the Governor General of the Philippine Islands. He was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Boston.
During World War I he served overseas as captain, Battery E, and as commanding officer, First Battalion, Three Hundred and Third Field Artillery, Seventy-sixth Division, 1917-1919. He served as legal adviser to the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in charge of foreign loans and railway payments, and secretary of the World War Debt Commission 1922-1924. He was assistant to the agent general for reparation payments, Berlin, Germany 1924-1927. He was general counsel and Paris representative for organizations created under the Dawes plan in 1927 and 1928.
Wigglesworth was elected as a Republican to the Seventieth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Louis A. Frothingham. He was reelected to the Seventy-first and to the fourteen succeeding Congresses and served from November 6, 1928, until his resignation November 13, 1958. He served as United States Ambassador to Canada from December 15, 1958, until his death in Boston on October 22, 1960.[2] His interment was in Arlington National Cemetery.
Wigglesworth married Florence Joyes Booth in 1931, and they had three daughters, Ann, Mary and Jane.[3][4]
References [ edit ]PANIPAT: Finding it a violation of Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, laid down to ensure respect to the national anthem, the district administration has banned playing of national anthem before movie shows in two multiplexes of the city.
In an order issued on Thursday, deputy commissioner J S Ahlawat stated that "playing the national anthem inside the multiplex violated the rules of singing and playing of national anthem," and the multiplexes have been asked to discontinue the practice.
The DC said it had been brought to notice that national anthem was being played at Fun Cinemas and Mittal mega mall multiplex before movie shows, following which the orders were issued. As per rules, the national anthem cannot be sung or played in a closed room or beneath a ceiling and should be sung only under open skies.
However, the district administration remained quiet on the issue of taking action against multiplexes for having shown disrespect to national anthem. A spokesman of the district administration said that as of now only a notice has been issued, but no legal proceedings had been initiated against the two multiplexes.Image copyright Reuters Image caption Russian heavy armour has helped the rebels in their independence battle
The Ukrainian military says pro-Russian rebels have attacked its forces again at Donetsk airport despite a ceasefire deal earlier in the day.
The statement on Facebook said rebel shelling shattered the calm soon after both sides had ended their meeting.
Earlier the rebels reported a truce at the bitterly contested airport. And a ceasefire was agreed in nearby Luhansk region, European observers said.
Fighting has raged at the airport for three days. The rebels hold the city.
Ukraine says Russian special forces were involved in the latest Donetsk fighting, helping the separatists, who control a large swathe of eastern Ukraine.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied Ukrainian and Western accusations that it has sent tanks and troops to the war-torn region to help the rebels.
"There was a lull at Donetsk airport during the day," the Ukrainian military statement said, but after the ceasefire talks "the terrorists resumed attacks on the [airport] terminals".
The statement was echoed by Russia's Interfax news agency, which reported explosions on the northern outskirts of Donetsk on Tuesday evening.
A ceasefire deal agreed on 5 September has been violated repeatedly.
A Russian general attended the Luhansk talks, chaired by OSCE observers.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has a monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has raged since the rebels seized official buildings in April.
Under the new deal for Luhansk, the sides agreed to a ceasefire starting on Friday. A withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of confrontation was agreed for Saturday, 6 December. But it is not yet clear how wide the demilitarised zone will be.
There are some doubts about whether Cossack volunteer units operating on the rebel side will respect the ceasefire terms, Associated Press news agency reports.
But the OSCE statement said the Luhansk rebel negotiators "insisted that they were in control of all Cossack units and that these units, too, would adhere to this [ceasefire] proposal".EXO members Sehun and Suho will appear as guest counselors on KBS 2TV’s “Hello Counselor.”
This will be EXO’s latest appearance on the show since Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Chen appeared two years ago in April of 2015. Many fans are looking forward to seeing what kinds of advice Suho and Sehun will give to others.
“Hello Counselor” is a talk show program where people share their concerns in hopes of finding a solution. The MCs and celebrity guest counselors of the day listen to the worry and share ideas on how to best solve the problem. After a thorough discussion, audience members vote on whether or not this is a problem, and the guest with the highest number of votes wins a prize.
“Hello Counselor” airs on Mondays at 11:10 p.m. KST.
Source (1)Christy Clark’s Liberal government released a new climate plan that recommitted the province to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 over 2007 levels. The 52-page plan is a much-anticipated update to a 2008 climate plan introduced under then-premier Gordon Campbell. Here are five things worth knowing about the B.C. update:
1
The new plan lays out actions to reduce carbon emissions by 25 million tonnes, less than half of what is needed to reach the |
mark (Tx and TxWk) and not the enhancer mark indicate that these states are in fact less variable and more constitutive across cell types. On the other hand, all states composed of the enhancer mark (H3K4me1), irrespective of whether they do (TxFlnk, EnhG) or do not (EnhBiv, Enh, BivFlnk, TssAFlnk) include the transcription mark (H3K36me3), are far more cell-type specific. These observations indicate that the increased variability of states is largely due to the enhancer mark (H3K4me1) than the transcribed mark (H3K36me3). As replicates are not available in all epigenomes, we did not correct for inter-replicate variation in this analysis, but in the state-switching analysis below we utilize samples from the same tissue as quasi-replicates.
Chromatin state switching
To avoid spurious switching due to differences in data quality, we restricted this analysis to chromatin states from the 43 high-quality and non-redundant Roadmap epigenomes (see above). Using the 15 state primary model, we computed the empirical switching frequency of any pair of states across all pairs of 43 epigenomes. For a given pair of states A and B, we counted the number of genomic bins that were labelled as (A,B) or (B,A) in all pairs of epigenomes. The switching frequency matrix (which is symmetric) was then row-normalized to convert the switching frequencies to switching probabilities. This is done to avoid a dependence on the total number of epigenomes. Also, the switching probabilities unlike switching frequencies are not dominated by states that are highly prevalent (for example, quiescent state). Supplementary Fig. 7b shows the empirical switching probabilities for all pairs of states across the 43 epigenomes. To differentiate between chromatin state dynamics across tissues (inter-tissue) relative to variation of states across individuals or replicates from the same tissue (intra-tissue), we also computed analogous switching frequencies by restricting to subgroups of epigenomes from the same tissue type (Supplementary Table 1, Sheet VariationAnalysis). The frequencies were added across all sub-groups and then row-normalized to switching probabilities. Supplementary Fig. 7a shows the intra-tissue switching probabilities. We then computed the relative enrichment of state switches as the log 10 ratio of inter-tissue switching probability across the 43 epigenomes relative to the intra-tissue switching probabilities (Fig. 5c). We repeated this analysis on the 16 ENCODE cell lines and obtained similar conclusions regarding relative enrichment of state switches (Supplementary Fig. 7c). Analogous analyses were performed using the 18-state expanded model in Roadmap Epigenomics samples (Extended Data Fig. 5c) and ENCODE samples (Supplementary Fig. 7d).
Large-scale chromatin structure
To study large-scale chromatin structure we first calculated ChromHMM (15-state model) state frequencies identified in 200-bp genome-wide bins across 127 epigenomes. Then we averaged state frequencies over the 2-Mb genomic regions, thus defining vectors of length 1,458 for each state. The unsupervised clustering of a 15 × 1,458 matrix (using Pearson correlation as a similarity measure and complete linkage) revealed 11 distinct genomic clusters enriched in different subsets of chromatin states (Fig. 5d, top heat map). Clusters had different sizes, with the smallest one (c1) containing only 27 bins, while the largest cluster (c9), occupied predominantly by a ‘quiescent’ state for all epigenomes, had 377 bins. For each 2-Mb bin in each cluster we calculated average gene density, lamin B1 signal (see section 4 above) and overlap with different cytogenetic bands (Fig. 5d, bottom, which displays also average levels across each cluster). We also show chromosomal locations of the clusters as well as distributions of CpG island frequency across the 2-Mb bins in each cluster (Extended Data Fig. 5d).
DMR calls across reference epigenomes
As a general resource for epigenomic comparisons across all epigenomes for which DNA methylation data is available, we defined DMRs using the method of Lister et al.108, combining all differentially methylated sites (DMSs) within 250-bp of one another into a single DMR and excluded any DMR with less than 3 DMSs. For each DMR in each sample, we computed its average methylation level, weighted by the number of reads overlapping it109. This resulted in a methylation level matrix with rows of DMRs and columns of samples.
DMRs in hESC differentiation (Fig. 4h)
For analysing differentiation of hESCs in Fig. 4h, we used a second set of DMRs. We used a pairwise comparison strategy between ES cells and three in vitro derived cell types representative of the three germ layers (mesoderm, endoderm, ectoderm) and performed DMR calling as previously described53. Only DMRs losing more than 30% methylation compared to the ES cell state at a significance level of P ≤ 0.01 were retained. Subsequently, we computed weighted methylation levels for all three DMR sets across HUES64, mesoderm, endoderm and ectoderm as well as three consecutive stages of in vitro derived neural progenitors (please see accompanying paper53 for details on the cell types). Finally, we plotted the corresponding distribution using the R function vioplot in the vioplot package. In order to identify potential regulators associated with the loss of DNA methylation at these regions, we determined binding sites of a compendium of transcription factors profiled in distinct cell lines and types that overlapped with each set of hypomethylated DMRs51. Next, we determined a potential enrichment over a random genomic background by randomly sampling 100 equally sized sets of genomic regions, respecting the chromosomal and size distribution of the different DMR sets and determined their overlap with the same transcription factor binding site compendium to estimate a null distribution. Only transcription factors that showed fewer binding sites across the control regions in 99 of the cases were considered for further analysis. Next, we computed the average enrichment over background for each transcription factor with respect to the 100 sets of random control regions for each germ layer DMR and report this enrichment level in Fig. 4h right, where we capped the relative enrichment at 12.
Additional DMR calls
For studying breast epithelia differentiation, DMRs were called from WGBS, requiring at least five aligned reads to call differentially methylated CpG, and at least three differentially methylated CpGs within a distance of 200 bp of each other45. For studying tissue environment versus developmental origin, DMRs were called from MeDIP and MRE data using the M&M algorithm56.
DNA methylation variation
For variation in methylation of each chromatin state across epigenomes (Fig. 4g and Extended Data Fig. 4f), we first excluded any contiguous chromatin state region containing less than three CpG sites. Then, the mean of the methylation level for all contained CpG sites was calculated for each region, and for each epigenome density values were calculated for these mean methylation values between 0% and 100%, with density values estimated over n = 1,000 points with a gaussian kernel, with the default ‘nrd0’ bandwidth from the R stats package density function. Finally, for each chromatin state, we plotted the ln(density + 1) for each epigenome as rows, with the colour scale set with white as the minimum ln(density + 1) value and red, green, or blue, for WGBS, mCRF and RRBS, respectively, set as the maximum ln(density + 1) value in the matrix. Rows were ordered by the epigenomic lineage and grouping ordering shown in Fig. 2a. In Extended Data Fig. 4f, epigenomes were first grouped by methylation platform, and then ordered by Fig. 2a within each platform. The chromatin state methylation profiles in the cell lines versus primary cells/tissue cells were analysed using a mixed model with repeated measures. Overall effect of the group (cell lines versus primary cells/tissue cells) was tested using epigenomes within group as the error term. Testing for group effect was performed for each of the 15 chromatin states, resulting in a Bonferroni correction on the P values for the 15 tests.
Identifying coordinated changes in chromatin marks during development
To identify patterns of coordinated changes of histone marks over enhancers during heart muscle development, we compared ES cells, mesendoderm cells, and left ventricle tissue57. We identified relevant enhancers as those that show changes in at least one histone mark between a specific cell type cluster (heart muscle in our case) and other cell types using LIMMA (Linear Model for Microarray Analysis). We applied FDR-corrected P value significance threshold of 0.05 to obtain cluster-specific enhancers. For each tissue type (heart muscle in our case) we then clustered the enhancers into five clusters (C1–C5) based on their multi-mark epigenomic profiles using the k-means algorithm implemented in the Spark tool (Fig. 4i). The tools used to generate Fig. 4i are integrated into the Epigenomic Toolset within the Genboree Workbench and are accessible for online use at http://www.genboree.org.
Clustering of epigenomes reveals common lineages and common properties
For each analysed mark, we calculated Pearson correlation values between all pairwise combinations of reference epigenomes using the mark’s signal confidence scores (–log 10 (Poisson P value)) within 200 bp of the genomic regions deemed relevant for that mark. Relevance of regions is determined by whether a region was called in a particular (mark-matched) chromatin state with posterior probability of >0.95 in any of the reference epigenomes. For H3K4me1, H3K27ac and H3K9ac we used state Enh; for H3K4me3 state TssA; for H3K27me3 state ReprPC; for H3K36me3 state Tx; and for H3K9me3 state Het, unless otherwise noted (all based on the 15-state core model).
The resulting correlation matrices were used as the basis for a distance matrix for complete-linkage hierarchical clustering, followed by optimal leaf ordering110. Bootstrap support values are derived from 1,000 random samplings with replacement from all regions considered for a particular mark and a bootstrap tree was estimated for each resampling. The bootstrap support for a branch corresponds to the fraction of bootstrapped trees that support the bipartition induced by the branch.
In parallel to this, all correlation matrices mentioned above were used to perform Multi-Dimensional Scaling analyses using R.
Delineation of DNase I-accessible regulatory regions
For each of the 39 Roadmap reference epigenomes with DNase data, peak positions are combined across reference epigenomes by defining peak island areas, defined by stacking all DNase peak positions across epigenomes, and considering the full width at half maximum (FWHM). Note that for this we are only considering peak locations, not intensities. The goal of this is to obtain an estimate of the area of open chromatin, not to quantify the level of ‘openness’, as these data are not available for all reference epigenomes. In cases when peak islands overlap, they are merged because it means that the original DNase peak area populations overlap at least for half of the epigenomes with DNase peaks in that area (given the FWHM approach). Peak island summits are defined as the median peak summit of all peak island member DNase peaks. This results in a total of 3,516,964 DNase enriched regions across epigenomes.
We then annotate each of the ∼3.5M DNase peaks with the chromatin states they overlap with in each of the 111 Roadmap reference epigenomes, using the core 15-state chromatin state model, and focusing on states TssA, TssAFlnk and TssBiv for promoters, and EnhG, Enh and EnhBiv for enhancers, and state BivFlnk (flanking bivalent Enh/Tss) for ambiguous regions. Out of these, ∼2.5M regions are called as either enhancer or promoter across any of the 111 Roadmap reference epigenomes. Note that because DNase data are not available for all Roadmap epigenomes, the set of regulatory regions defined may exclude DNase regions active in cell types for which DNase was not profiled (Fig. 2g). Although most regions are undisputedly called exclusively promoter or enhancer, there are 535,487 regions that needed further study to decide whether they should be called promoters, enhancers, or both (‘dyadic’). We arbitrate on these regions by first clustering them (using the methods in the following section) with an expected cluster size of 10,000 regions, and then for each cluster calculating (a) the mean posterior probabilities for promoter and enhancer calls separately, and (b) the mean number of reference epigenomes in which regions were called promoter or enhancer. Clusters of regions for which the differences in mean posterior probabilities (a) is smaller than 0.05, or for which the absolute log 2 ratio of the number of epigenomes called as promoter or enhancer (b) is smaller than 0.05, are called true ‘dyadic’ regions, along with a small number of ‘ambiguous’ regions in state BivFlnk. Note that this particular clustering is only to arbitrate on these regions using group statistics instead of one-by-one; the final clusterings are described next. Overall, we define ∼2.3M putative enhancer regions (12.63% of genome), ∼80,000 promoter regions (1.44% of genome) and ∼130,000 dyadic regions (0.99% of genome), showing either promoter or enhancer signatures across epigenomes.
Clustering of DNase I-accessible regulatory regions to identify modules of coordinated activity
To cluster regulatory (that is, enhancer, promoter or dyadic) regions based on their activity patterns across all reference epigenomes, we expressed each region in terms of a binary vector of length n×s, where n is the number of reference epigenomes (111) and s is the number of chromatin states considered. For enhancers and promoters, s = 3, as both of these types of regions are made up of 3 chromatin states in the 15-state ChromHMM model (enhancers, EnhG, Enh and EnhBiv; promoters, TssA, TssAFlnk and TssBiv).
The thus obtained binary matrices are subsequently clustered using a variation of a k-centroid clustering algorithm111. Instead of Euclidean distance we use a Jaccard-index-based distance. This is done to be able to correctly cluster highly cell-type-restricted regions. From a computational point of view, we optimized the method to both deal with the size of the used data matrices and leverage their sparsity, to efficiently compute and update distances for matrices with sizes on the order of 106 × 103. The algorithm has been further modified to converge when less than 0.01% of cluster assignments change between iterations.
We selected the number of clusters k by tuning the expected number of regions within each cluster to be approximately 1,000 for promoter and dyadic regions, and approximately 10,000 for enhancer regions, given their much larger count (81,000, 129,000 and 2.3M for promoter, dyadic and enhancer, respectively). This results in a value of k = 233 for enhancer clusters (for ∼10k elements per cluster), and the algorithm converged on k = 226 non-empty clusters, which are used for subsequent analyses.
Clusters are visualized (Fig. 7a) by ‘diagonalizing’ when possible. First, ‘ubiquitous’ clusters (defined as having at least 50% of epigenomes with an enhancer/promoter density of >25%) are shown. Then, the remaining clusters are ordered according to which epigenome has the maximum enhancer density.
Enrichment analyses of proximity to gene members of a catalogue of gene sets (Gene Ontology (GO), Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO)) have been performed using the GREAT tool55. In particular, the GREAT web API was used to automatically submit region descriptions and retrieve results for subsequent parsing. We restricted ourselves to interpretation of results with an enrichment ratio of at least 2, and multiple hypothesis testing corrected P values <0.01 for both the binomial and the hypergeometric distribution based tests.
For visualization of a representative subset of enriched terms in Fig. 7b, c, we select representative terms for display (after diagonalizing the enrichment matrix by re-ordering the rows). We do this using a weighted bag-of-words approach to select highly enriched terms that contain many words that are over-represented in gene-set labels showing similar enrichment patterns. Briefly, sliding along the row names (gene-set terms) of the diagonalized enrichment matrices, we collect word counts and multiply these by integer-rounded –log 10 (q values) obtained from GREAT. We do this in sliding windows of size 33 for Fig. 7b (resulting in 35 terms) and size 16 for Fig. 7c (resulting in 15 terms). For each word in a window, these values are expressed relative to the same words across all row names, registering to what extent they are over-represented. Each gene-set term in the window is then assigned a score based on the mean over-representation of all words it consists of. Lastly, gene sets are co-ranked based on this mean over-representation and their GREAT significance. The best-ranked gene set label is selected as the representative label for that window. All terms are shown in Supplementary Fig. 11d and are available for download at http://compbio.mit.edu/roadmap.
Predicting regulators active in each tissue, cell type and lineage
We collected 1,772 known transcription factor recognition motifs (position weight matrices) from primarily large-scale databases68,112,113,114,115,116,117 and measured their enrichment in the enhancers for each enhancer module compared to the union of the 226 enhancer modules (as described in refs 9,68) using a 0.3 conservation-based confidence cutoff70,73. We clustered motifs using a 0.75 correlation cutoff resulting in 300 motif clusters68 and selected for each motif cluster the motif with the highest enrichment in any enhancer module for further analysis.
We computed an expression score for each enhancer module and transcription factor as the Pearson correlation between the transcription factor expression across cell types with expression data (quantile-normalized log(RPKM) with zeroes replaced by log(0.0005)) and the ‘centre’ of a module. For each enhancer module, its centre is defined as a vector of length 111, containing the fraction of regions in that module called as (any type of) enhancer in each of the 111 epigenomes analysed. This expression score is meant to act as the ‘expression’ of a transcription factor within a module of cell types. We then computed an expression-enrichment value for each transcription factor as the correlation of this expression score and the enrichment of the corresponding motif across enhancer modules. The top 40 motifs in terms of their absolute expression-enrichment correlation and the clusters with log 2 enrichment or depletion of at least log 2 = 1.5 for at least one motif are shown in Fig. 8 and Extended Data Fig. 8a (only one motif is shown in Fig. 8 for each factor).
We show all 84 motifs that were significantly enriched (log 2 ≥ 1.5) in any enhancer modules, across the full set of 226 enhancer modules (Supplementary Fig. 13a) and in the 101 modules in which they were significantly enriched (Extended Data Fig. 8a). Similarly, we show all 10 enriched motifs across the full set of 111 individual reference epigenomes (Supplementary Fig. 13b) and specifically in the 15 enriched epigenomes (Supplementary Fig. 13c). Lastly, we show all 19 enriched motifs across the full set of 17 tissue groups (Supplementary Fig. 13d), and specifically within the 10 groups that showed significant enrichments (Supplementary Fig. 13e).
For visualization of regulator–cell type links (Fig. 8), we computed edge weights between each cell type and motif using these motif-module enrichments. For each motif and cell type, we computed the sum across all modules of the product of the log 2 motif enrichment and the value of the cell type within the module centre (only consider the highly associated cell types by replacing values <0.7 with 0). We show all resulting edge weights of at least 1.5 and visualize the network using Cytoscape118.
Based on the same motif enrichment method mentioned above, we computed the motif enrichment in the tissue-specific Digital Genomic Footprinting (DGF) regions in each library. The tissue-specific DGF regions were identified by selecting the DGF region occurring in no more than 20 DGF libraries among 42 DGF libraries. To generate Extended Data Fig. 9b, we standardized the motif enrichment in each library into z-scores for each motif (row) and colour each DGF library (column) based on their tissue type.
DNA motif positional bias in digital genomic footprinting sites
We computed the positional enrichment of each driver motif (Extended Data 9c and 10) related to the digital genomic footprinting (DGF) sites in each cell type (Supplementary Table 5b). For each driver transcription factor motif, we generated two views corresponding to the motif position (the centre of the motif instance) relative to the centre of closest DGF site (centre view) and the motif position relative to the boundary of closest DGF site (boundary view). We only considered the motif instances with closest DGF site within 100 bp. For the centre view, we plotted the motif occurrence density versus the distance to the DGF centre for different cell types. For the boundary view, we considered the shortest distance between the centre of a motif instance and either side of DGF boundary, and gave a negative distance value for motif instances inside the DGF, and a positive distance value otherwise. Similar to the centre view, we plotted the motif density versus the derived distance value in the boundary view for each cell type.
To access the significance of the motif concentration within DGF in each cell type, we computed the DGF enrichment ratio as the ratio between the number of motif instances with distance less than 20 bp to the DGF centre and that number in the immediate flanking window, that is, the number of motif instances with distance to the DGF centre larger than 20 bp and smaller than 40 bp. As control, we randomly sampled the same number of motif instances from the shuffled versions of the given motif, and obtained the DGF enrichment ratio for the shuffled motif instances. The DGF enrichment ratio of the true motif is further converted to z-score by mean and standard deviation from the DGF enrichment ratios of shuffled motif from 1,000 times random sampling. Then the adjusted P value is further computed from z-score and Bonferroni correction for number of cell types.
Comparing DGF with DNA motifs that are predictive of epigenomic modification
The motifs that were predictive of epigenomic modifications71 were compared to DGF in Supplementary Table 5a. This was done in three cell types where both DGF and predictive motifs were available: ‘H1 BMP4 derived mesendoderm cultured cells’ (E004), ‘H1 BMP4 derived trophoblast cultured cells’ (E005), and ‘H1 derived mesenchymal stem cells’ (E006). The motifs that were predictive of the following seven inputs were considered: H3K27me3, H3K27ac, H3K9me3, H3K36me3, H3K4me1, H3K4me3 and DNA methylation valleys (DMV)11. To identify overlaps the predictive motifs were scanned against the modification peaks of the corresponding modification and the location of the best match between motif and sequence was recorded. Then we counted the number of times the locations of the best motif matches overlapped a DGF by at least 1 bp. These counts were compared to the number of overlaps identified randomly, which was calculated by comparing DGF to random locations within the modifications peaks. The reported random frequency was the average of 100 repeats. To calculate the fold enrichment we divided the observed frequency by the random frequency.
Tissue-specific activity of disease-associated regions
We tested the enrichment of SNPs from individual genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for the gapped peak call sets for histone marks H3K4me1, H3K4me3, H3K36me3, H3K9me3, H3K27me3, H3K9ac and H3K27ac as well as the DNase peak call set based on MACS2 in each reference epigenome where available. The SNPs used were curated into the NHGRI GWAS catalogue75 and obtained through the UCSC Table Browser119 on 12 September 2014. We restricted the enrichment analysis to chromosomes 1–22 and chromosome X. We defined a study to be a unique combination of annotated trait and PubMed ID. To reduce dependencies between pairs of SNPs assigned to the same study, we pruned SNPs such that no two SNPs were within 1 Mb of each other on the same chromosome. The pruning procedure considered each SNP in ranked order of P value with the most significant coming first, and we retained a SNP if there was no already retained SNP on the same chromosome within 1 Mb. We computed hypergeometric P values for the enrichment of each pruned set of SNPs overlapping peak calls against the pruned GWAS catalogue as the background. We estimated separately for each mark a mapping from a P value to a false discovery rate across tests for all study and reference epigenome combinations by generating 100 randomized versions of the pruned GWAS catalogues, shuffling which SNPs were assigned to which study and computing the average fraction of reference epigenome–study combinations that reached that level of significance (in a continuous mapping of P values to FDR) using randomized catalogues divided by the number based on the actual GWAS catalogue.Deep Web, Darkweb, Darknets
Dramatik Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 23, 2017
A menudo se suelen confundir estos conceptos cuando se entra en materia de Tor, I2P, Freenet y otras Darknets y queremos aclarar aquí un poco los conceptos.
Deep Web: La Deep Web (Web Profunda), también llamada Invisible Web (Web Invisble) o Hidden Web (Web Oculta) son partes de contenido de la World Wide Web que no está indexado por los motores de búsqueda por cualquier razón.
Qué queremos decir con ello? Muy fácil, toda la información contenida on-line, pero que no puedes acceder de forma pública, conforman lo que entendemos como Deep Web. Los archivos guardados en el Dropbox, los correos electrónicos alojados en el servidor del proveedor, los documentos de los últimos contratos de una empresa guardados en un servidor compartido, online banking, son ejemplos de parte de la Deep Web.
Con ello no significa que al tener acceso a parte de la Deep Web nos de acceso a todos esos archivos que están ocultos a la vista de los búscadores.
El término opuesto a Deep Web es la Surface Web
Dark Web: La Dark Web es todo aquél contenido alojado en la World Wide Web que solo se puede acceder mediante la utilización de un software, una configuración o una autorización específica para ello. La Dark Web forma una pequeña parte de la Deep Web, a menudo confundiendo los términos. Por ejemplo los sites.onion en Tor o eepsites en I2P son parte de la Dark Web.
Darknets: Como hemos explicado en este otro post, las Darknets son redes multicapa a la que solo se puede acceder mediante la utilización de un software, una configuración o una autorización específica para ello. Tor, I2P o Freenet son ejemplos de Darknets mientas que el contenido ofrecido en cada una de esas Darknets es considerado Dark Web.
Un par de referencias muy interesantes en cuanto a contenido sobre Darknets (en inglés) son pirate.london y allthingsvice.Two items came across my news feed yesterday:
The first was a new video by the singer Tyler Glenn. I won’t link to it because most of you would find it offensive (he appears to re-enact part of the endowment ceremony at one point), but I’m sure you can find it if you want to. Rolling Stone describes the video as a “slam” against the Mormon Church. Mr. Glenn’s frustration, as a gay former church member, is palpable in the video.
The second was the audio recording of a recent address by Elder Holland. I won’t link to it because it is against church policy to record and share local addresses by GAs, but I’m sure you can find it if you want to. In a devotional in Tempe, Arizona, Elder Holland described himself as “so furious” with people who leave the church and suggested that their conviction must be on the level of “patty-cake [and] taffy-pull” if they can’t stay unless all of their questions are answered. Elder Holland’s frustration is palpable in his words.
I don’t want to claim a false equivalence–because despite the obvious similarities, these expressions are not the same–but I do find it fascinating to see the frustration on both sides spilling over in public, on the very same day.
I get Glenn’s frustration and fury. I’m no fan of The Policy. While I don’t find his response appropriate or helpful, I do see the pain and anguish in his work, and that bit about mourning with those who mourn and comforting those who stand in need of comfort doesn’t end with “unless you don’t like how they choose to express their mourning and discomfort.”
I also get Elder Holland’s frustration and fury. I’ve seen people in my circle leave the church because they couldn’t quickly find answers to (what I consider to be) low-level issues, and so I’ve felt that frustration. But I don’t think Elder Holland’s rhetorical style is appropriate or helpful: I worry that it might deepen the anguish of the wounded. But it is nonetheless true that the question “have ye spiritually been born of God?” doesn’t end with “and managed to avoid any troubling questions you can’t answer?”
So I agree with the frustration that Tyler Glenn and Elder Holland reflected this week, while I have concerns about how they manifested their frustration. And I’m even more troubled by the vitriolic responses to both of them: people seem to be either completely sympathetic to Mr. Glenn and condemnatory of Elder Holland or vice versa. But it seems to me that the line cuts not between but through. I’m neither a gay saint nor an apostle, but I can try my best to understand both of them, even when I’m uncomfortable with how they’ve expressed themselves.
This is, undoubtedly, a tough moment in the history of the church, and so it’s no surprise that we haven’t refined our public expressions into perfectly coiffed statements. I joked with a friend who had been punched in the gut by the CES Letter that at least she wasn’t crossing the plains on barefoot, frozen, bloodied feet and, in all seriousness, she said she’d rather do that. (And I believe her.) I can’t imagine condemning a pioneer for her indelicate expression of frustration, and so I’m going to try to avoid that now. It seems to me that there is a great need for charity here–for both of them.WELCOME TO THE SWORD COAST—a region of Faerûn that comprises shining paragons of civilization and culture, perilous locales fraught with dread and evil, and encompassing them all, a wilderness that offers every explorer vast opportunity and simultaneously promises great danger.
While the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide is a valuable resource for Dungeon Masters, it was crafted with players and their characters foremost in mind. There is a plethora of new character options to intrigue and inspire every member of the adventuring party.
For use with the fifth edition Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide, the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide provides the setting, story, and character options needed to participate in a game anywhere along the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms.
Item details
Price: $39.95 C$46.00
Release Date: 03 November, 2015
Where can I buy it?
Purchase it at your local game store, book stores such as Barnes & Noble, or online at retailers like Amazon.
You can also find this material available at D&D Beyond.
Awards
ENnie Awards:
The winners of the 2016 ENnie Awards, an annual fan-based celebration of excellence in tabletop roleplaying gaming, were announced at this year's Gen Con.
Winner (Judges' Spotlight): Best Adventure: Dungeons & Dragons (Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide)
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A woman diagnosed with terminal cancer is making a feature-length documentary charting her battle - all in a bid to give those suffering from the disease hope.
The documentary, Against the Odds, will explore natural, or ‘holistic’, approaches to fighting cancer and the problems people face when “large multinational companies put profits before people’s health”.
Julie Reason, aged 39, from Swansea, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 and despite doctors’ best efforts the disease eventually spread to other parts of her body.
She has now been told the cancer has reached stage four - the worst category.
But she is refusing to give up, and is experimenting with non-conventional holistic approaches.
“It was obviously awful when I was first diagnosed with cancer and I tried chemotherapy and radiotherapy,” she explained.
“However, me and my husband decided to do a lot of research and travel to different places around the world such as Mexico and the US to study people who have beaten cancer with holistic approaches.”
The couple say the approach has led to the tumour shrinking.
“I totally believe in trying to beat cancer naturally but it is very difficult and I keep falling off the bandwagon,” Julie said.
“The diet is very strict, basically just fruit and veg while I can only drink water.
“I also take between 60 and 70 supplements a day with some of them as expensive as £90, while I also take cannabis oil which helps.”
On May 1 a crowd-funding campaign will be launched to raise £186,000 for the documentary, covering everything from filming to editing and marketing. Production on the film is scheduled to begin in June 2017 and be completed by early 2018.
Julie will be making the documentary with husband Christian.
“The feature-length documentary will look at how the chemicals used in agriculture and food, as well as our general everyday environment, affect our bodies’ immune system,” Christian said.
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“Against All Odds will bring a better understanding to the problem we face as consumers, where large multinational companies are putting profits before the health of the people, and will look at the influences corporations have on government.
“The film will bring you some inspiring stories from people who have turned their lives around and are beating cancer after being labelled as stage four terminally ill.
“The documentary will also feature interviews with leading experts from around the world and those who have used holistic treatment themselves.
“Julie has had some good success from holistic treatment.
“When she has gone to be assessed after the treatment it has shown that the tumour has shrunk.”
Anyone who wishes to contribute towards the documentary can do so by clicking on this link.Seven, this rule is so underrated
Keep your family and business completely separated Biggie Smalls Counterintelligence Theory and Practice for Crack Dealers
Guerrillas, Terrorists, Narcos, Spooks, and You
Guerrillas, terrorists, narcos and spooks the world over have learned the hard way how to keep their illicit activity safe from their opponents. The same principles of counterintelligence (CI) that help protect them from death can be applied to protect you from your adversary. If you engage in behavior that carries the risk of negative consequences from an adversary, you will need to develop and implement a robust CI program. This post will explain the foundations of strong OPSEC, a critical part of just such a program.
Establish Cells, or Live in One
The cornerstone of any solid counterintelligence program is compartmentation. Compartmentation is the separation of information, including people and activities, into discreet cells. These cells must have no interaction, access, or knowledge of each other. Enforcing ignorance between different cells prevents any one compartment from containing too much sensitive information. If any single cell is compromised, such as by an informant, the limitats of the damage will be at the boundaries of the cell.
Now, compartmenting an entire organisation is a difficult feat, and can seriously impede the ability of the organisation to learn and adapt to changing circumstance. However, these are are not concerns that we need to address for an individual who is compartmenting their personal life from their illicit activity.
Spooks, such as CIA case officiers, or KGB illegals, compartment their illicit activity (spying) from their “regular” lives. The first part of this is, of course, keeping their mouths shut about their illicit activities! There are many other important parts of tradecraft which are beyond the scope of this post. But remember, when you are compartmenting your life, the first rule is to never discuss your illicit activities with anyone outside of that compartment.
Compartmentation For Dummies
This will cover a basic set of guidelines for compartmenting a particular online activity. In our hypothetical scenario there are two people, Alice and Bob (natch), who want to exchange information with each other. They are deathly afraid that the adversary will learn (in ascending order of |
," she said when asked about her Indian counterpart's remarks on the Lahore High Court ruling, ordering Lakhvi's release.
Fifty five-year-old Lakhvi, who guided 10 LeT gunmen from a control room in Pakistan during 26/11, walked free on Friday after being under detention for six years, a day after a Pakistani court ordered his release.
Lakhvi, a close relative of LeT founder and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed, was arrested in December 2008 and was indicted along with the six others on November 25, 2009, in connection with the 26/11 attack that claimed 166 lives. The trial has been underway since 2009.Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) - State of Florida
A Massachusetts attorney is asking federal prosecutors to investigate a donation made to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi by GOP candidate Donald Trump, the Sun Sentinel reports.
Whitfield Larrabee, a Boston-based trial lawyer, has filed bribery complaints with the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in Florida and New York against Bondi and Trump, alleging they violated federal law. In 2013, Bondi, a Republican, personally solicited Trump and received a $25,000 contribution to her political committee.
Bondi’s office at the time was reviewing complaints against Trump University, which has since come under heavy scrutiny for allegations of fraud. Trump U offered seminars on real estate investing, but attendees said the courses proved useless and they were billed thousands of dollars.
Bondi was considering joining a New York state-led lawsuit against Trump, but after receiving the donation, dropped plans to pursue the case, even though her office had received fraud complaints from Floridians who alleged they had been cheated out of large sums of money by Trump.
Larrabee says he believes Bondi dropped the case as quid pro quo in return for receiving the money.
“If it looks like a bribe and quacks like a bribe, I think it’s a bribe,” Larrabee told the Sentinel.
His complaint, provided to the Sentinel, states, “Evidence strongly indicates that Bondi’s decision not to initiate or participate in litigation against Trump University was given in exchange for Trump’s contribution based on the short time period between the receipt of the political contribution and the announcement of Bondi’s decision not to participate in the New York litigation.”
Larrabee’s complaint is not the only one like it. Then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott — who is now the governor — received a $35,000 campaign contribution from Trump three years after dropping a proposed 2010 lawsuit against Trump U. Former Texas Deputy Chief of Consumer Protection John Owen has since said the case was dropped for political reasons.Call Of Duty: Ghosts 6GB Of RAM Requirement Is Fake, Modders Offer Patch By William Usher Random Article Blend Call of Duty: Ghosts for PC and it stated that it required 6GB of RAM? Remember that? Just in case you forgot we reported on the Call of Duty: Ghosts on PC are bogus and modders have offered a fix for the problem.
So originally, it was uncovered that those with early access to the game tried running it on a system with only 4GB of system RAM. A user posted up a photo of the error message for a system trying to run the game on anything less than 6GB on
As noted on
“RAM usage so far (Task manager, unsure about VRAM.) is usually around 1.1 – 1.8 GB. (Maybe it continues to grow the more you play, without unloading as maps change and such? Which isn’t ideal.),”
Regardless of how they designed the title, the game does not, I repeat, does not require 6GB of RAM. Even more than this, modders released a patch to get a workaround for the issue.
As noted on Call of Duty: Ghosts and bypass the 6GB requirement.
The crack seems to be available mostly on torrents so tread on that ground cautiously and use the file at your own risk, but you can easily search up the fix by looking for a file on search engines called: Call.of.Duty.Ghosts.RAMfix.Crack.Only-3DM
It's kind of a huge pile of bullcrap that Infinity Ward would pull something like this. It's either a showcase of trying to up-sell the game's next-generation status by forcing the requirement of higher system specifications or just a sign of lazy porting.
Some gamers believe that this was a marketing ploy – requiring gamers to have 6GB of RAM – by Activision in order to compete with Electronic Arts and DICE whose Battlefield 4 is also pushing
Now I don't mind upgrading a piece of hardware here or there or games that push for the evolution of graphics technology (e.g., Crysis) but I do mind artificial inflation for the sake of marketing prestige. That kind of bullcrap just isn't cool... at all.
Call of Duty: Ghosts is available this week for current-gen consoles and you'll be able to play it on the Xbox One and PS4 later on in the month. As usual, if you don't mind playing the graphically inferior version the game will be available on the So you know how Activision let loose the official system requirements offor PC and it stated that it required 6GB of RAM? Remember that? Just in case you forgot we reported on the system requirements here and even if you fanboys want a more reputable source, you can check out the story on CVG. Well, the system requirements foron PC are bogus and modders have offered a fix for the problem.So originally, it was uncovered that those with early access to the game tried running it on a system with only 4GB of system RAM. A user posted up a photo of the error message for a system trying to run the game on anything less than 6GB on Guru3D's forum, which you can view below.As noted on Incgamers, the user used Window's task manager to actually monitor the RAM usage and it turns out that the game barely uses 2GB, with the user writing...Regardless of how they designed the title, the game does not, I repeat, does not require 6GB of RAM. Even more than this, modders released a patch to get a workaround for the issue.As noted on DSO Gaming, there is a crack for the game that allows PC users with at least 4GB of RAM to playand bypass the 6GB requirement.The crack seems to be available mostly on torrents so tread on that ground cautiously and use the file at your own risk, but you can easily search up the fix by looking for a file on search engines called: Call.of.Duty.Ghosts.RAMfix.Crack.Only-3DMIt's kind of a huge pile of bullcrap that Infinity Ward would pull something like this. It's either a showcase of trying to up-sell the game's next-generation status by forcing the requirement of higher system specifications or just a sign of lazy porting.Some gamers believe that this was a marketing ploy – requiring gamers to have 6GB of RAM – by Activision in order to compete with Electronic Arts and DICE whoseis also pushing some rather beefy specifications for high-end PC gaming.Now I don't mind upgrading a piece of hardware here or there or games that push for the evolution of graphics technology (e.g.,) but I do mind artificial inflation for the sake of marketing prestige. That kind of bullcrap just isn't cool... at all.is available this week for current-gen consoles and you'll be able to play it on the Xbox One and PS4 later on in the month. As usual, if you don't mind playing the graphically inferior version the game will be available on the Xbox One at 720p and available on the PlayStation 4 at native 1080p. Just thought you should know. Blended From Around The Web Facebook
Back to topAs my blogmate Jim Rainey has frequently pointed out, Fox News has its own unique view of the world, where the facts rarely get in the way, most recently in the way Fox pollster Frank Luntz used a strange brand of faux science to find a panel of people unimpressed by President Obama's recent State of the Union address. But when it comes to seeing the world through the wrong end of a telescope, no one tops Bill O'Reilly, who has been the butt of a thousand jokes after confronting an atheist on his show with irrefutable evidence of the existence of God--using as his evidence the fact that the tides come in and the tides go out. I mean, O'Reilly said with great certainty, who else could possibly be controlling that?
As any scientist could tell you, it's the moon that controls the tides. So Papa Bear has taken to the airwaves again to pursue a new wrinkle in his faux science agenda. He now acknowledges that the tides might indeed be controlled by the moon. But so what? As he says: "How'd the moon get there? Can you explain that to me? How come we have that? And Mars doesn't have it. Venus doesn't have it. How come?"
Actually, as any amateur astronomer knows, Jupiter has lots of moons, 63 in all, several of which you can see through a good pair of binoculars. One of them, Ganymede, is actually larger than Mercury. Saturn has 62 moons. Uranus has 27 moons. And hey, Bill, Mars actually has two moons of its own, that were discovered in 1877, long before even Roger Ailes was born. As far as I know, there's no evidence that either of them are made of green cheese either. I'm beginning to think that O'Reilly might have slept through quite a few of his fifth-grade science classes. But he sure is certain in his beliefs. Here, watch for yourself:
--Patrick GoldsteinAs an exercise in restoring peace to his head and household, Brent Almond creates a list of what he likes most about his son.
—
Of course I love my son. However, I find it nearly impossible to like him sometimes. If you’re a parent (and honest), you’ve been through this, too — times when you look at your child and wonder what the hell you’re going to do to survive the next 10-15 years. The next 10-15 minutes.
I was going through one of these unlikable times recently. Then one evening as I tucked my 5-year-old in bed, I thought about how much I treasure this particular part of being a parent — this brief but precious moment of connectedness. It reminded me that in merely surviving between crises, I had neglected to focus on what I enjoy about being a dad…and what I like about my son.
So as an exercise in restoring some sanity and peace to my head and household, I spent some time considering the best parts of being this boy’s dad. Instead of attempting to churn out a long, impressive list, I picked a few to mull, ponder, and let sink in.
◊♦◊
Here are five things I like about my kid:
His laugh
Whether it’s from dad-initiated tickles or self-initiated silliness, my son’s laughter never ceases to warm my soul. I’ve always loved it. But especially now, as growing pains or clashes or independence-exercising are becoming more frequent. His unbridled laughter creates a vortex that wrests any stress from the room, leaving only the joy of being a family.
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On Inside the Actor’s Studio, the episodes end with the guest answering a questionnaire. More often than not, when asked what their favorite sound is, the actors answer, “children’s laughter.” As corny as that sounded pre-parenthood, it couldn’t ring any truer now. Perhaps it’s because of all the sounds children can and do make, when it’s laughter, it’s such a relief. Or maybe it reminds me what it’s like to be unencumbered with over-thought. Or perhaps hearing my child happy instinctively makes me happy — that in the midst of a giggle, everything is right and good.
◊♦◊
His hugs
Is there anything better than a hug from your kid? Not in my experience. Yet beyond having my own personal hugging half-pint, I adore that my son is a Hugger with a capital ‘H’. He hugs all, all the time, any chance he gets. So yes, he’s had to learn about boundaries; because yes, some kids don’t like to kiss or hug. That’s been a hard lesson to learn — for us both. Luckily he still has friends who are fellow Huggers. They’re the ones that — during preschool pickup, on our journey from classroom to car — if their paths cross will run and embrace as if they hadn’t seen one another in decades, instead of minutes.
Apparently, sadly, hugging’s not allowed in kindergarten. So we continue to have the conversation that if you have a friend that doesn’t want to hug, that’s OK. You can be friends in other ways. I continue to remind Jon that he can always get as many hugs as he wants from Papa and me. We then go through the list of everyone else that always has hugs for him: Grandma and Grandpa, Nonna and Nonno, aunts and uncles and cousins, Cordi (the dog) and Beary (the teddy bear), to name a few. Luckiest list ever.
◊♦◊
His imagination
Whether he’s playing make-believe, regaling the details of a dream, explaining a drawing — my boy’s imagination is always cranked up to 11.
There was a time when I fretted he wasn’t as good an artist as the crayon prodigy with the cubby next to his, but I’ve gotten over that. Now, to me, it’s more of a thrill to not immediately know what I’m seeing. T-Rex or rocket ship? Ninja or kitty cat? It matters not. What matters is my lucky front row seat to the inner workings of his always-active mind.
Another wonder is watching Jon set up the plot for a session of play. Certainly I see the seeds of superhero and Star Wars I’ve planted regularly in his noggin since birth. But the elaborateness, the detail, the sheer epicness of his scenarios — those are all him.
Life as his dad is an adventure of which I never tire… Okay, that’s not true — sometimes I’m very tired. Yet it is always fun to watch.
◊♦◊
His gregariousness
As an infant, Jon could work a room or melt a heart with just his big, blue eyes and a bit of drool. Now his arsenal includes the aforementioned infectious laugh, endless hugs, and a mind always imagining ways to make an impression. I can’t recall a time or situation Jon hasn’t been able to make a fast friend.
As one who grew up on the introverted end of the social scale, I marvel at my son’s outgoing talents: He’s leader, idea man, and instigator. He’s scene-setter (and stealer) and shot-caller. His confidence and swagger know no bounds, yet still (most of the time) his friendliness shines through.
“Making new friends” is one of the few items NOT on my Things to Worry About for Kindergarten list.
◊♦◊
His fear of the dark (sort of)
Jon was fearless and impervious all through toddlerdom. So it was unnerving, when, several weeks ago he began expressing a fear of the dark, having scary thoughts, or hesitancy to go certain places in the house alone. I’ve heard this is normal for kids this age, as he becomes more aware, more in tune with the things going into his brain. Per number 3 above, he’s always had a great imagination… now I suppose it’s catching up to him.
So now, after PJs, tooth-brushing and story time, several minutes of back-patting have been tacked on to the bedtime ritual. This brings me back to what inspired this list — these few minutes of nearly still, non-verbal bonding between parent and child.
My growing boy snuggles small under his covers, lying on his side facing me. As I begin to rub and pat his back, with one arm he cuddles his blanket and Ugly Doll Batman. With the other he reaches over and places his hand on my arm; sometimes still, sometimes patting along with my rhythm; then absentmindedly stroking my arm until he lulls himself to sleep.
So sweet, such tenderness. I smile to myself, recalling memories of his infancy; and basking in this exchange before it too, becomes fond, but distant memory.
◊♦◊
I hope to revisit this from time-to-time. Perhaps updating it, swapping things in and out. Or just meditating on one or two things on the list. Whatever it takes to reconnect with why I love being this little boy’s dad, and to remember that sometimes I really do like him, too.
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—
Photo: Flickr/Frédéric de Villamil Originally appeared on Designer Daddy. Reprinted with permission.
Would you like to help us shatter stereotypes about men? Receive stories from The Good Men Project, delivered to your inbox daily or weekly.Sorry you can't contact the jobs helpline we've all been sacked: Taxpayer funded hotline is unstaffed for hours because advisers have been made redundant
Taxpayer funded Broadcasting Support Services is paid for by the Skills Funding Agency
The firm could face a financial penalty for breaching its contract
Staff were told to lie to callers about why they couldn’t talk to an expert
A taxpayer-funded hotline to help the unemployed get back to work is unstaffed for hours every day – because its own advisers have been made redundant.
Bosses at the National Careers Service reduced the hours that remaining staff were available by more than a quarter after job cuts – but still advertised the helpline as open for longer.
Then other staff were told to lie to callers about why they couldn’t get through to an expert – claiming ‘all our advisers are busy’ when in fact there was nobody there.
No one's here: The helpline's website claims advisers are on hand to take calls from 8am until 10pm (file picture)
The helpline’s website claims advisers are on hand to take calls from 8am until 10pm, seven days a week.
But The Mail on Sunday has discovered that staff are there to field queries only from 9am to 8pm on weekdays and 10am to 6pm on weekends – a total of 71 hours a week instead of 98.
Last night the company that runs the helpline, Broadcasting Support Services (BSS), which is paid by Government quango the Skills Funding Agency, was facing serious questions following this newspaper’s revelations.
BSS could face a financial penalty for breaching its contract over the performance of the service, for which it was paid £8.6 million in public money last year and £10.4 million the year before.
A spokesman for Vince Cable’s Department for Business said: ‘We are very concerned about these allegations and have instructed the Skills Funding Agency to urgently investigate.
‘If there is evidence of wrongdoing, swift action will be taken.’
Accusation: A spokesman for Vince Cable's Department for Business expressed concern about the allegations
Staff at BSS feel they are ‘part of a deception’ leaving taxpayers’ money mis-spent. One insider said:
‘I think the public would be angry and shocked by this. Not only is it a deception, it’s misusing public funds.’
Callers to the free phone line first speak to a ‘frontline adviser’. The call is then transferred to a qualified careers adviser for an in-depth talk. During normal office hours, there could be up to a dozen available.
But a year ago, ten of these advisers, who were paid about £28,000 a year, took voluntary redundancy in an apparent money-saving plan.
BSS bosses then dramatically reduced the hours that the remaining advisers worked – and insisted that no one let callers or Government officials find out.
An internal email from operations co-ordinator Jonathan Morris said: ‘From Monday June 3 [2013] we will be reducing the careers adviser operating hours.’
A separate message from manager Ian Howard explained: ‘This will obviously mean there are occasions when there are no CAs [careers advisers] available. Can I ask that you please don’t make any changes to what you say to customers.
‘The official line is still, “There are no CAs available at the moment.” Please don’t give out the new CA opening times.’
The Skills Funding Agency – which can listen in to calls and visit BSS offices – has also been kept in the dark about the cuts.(A condensed version of this story appeared in today’s edition of USA TODAY.)
More than two dozen middleweight fighters have been selected for the upcoming 17th season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” and one of them is apparently capable of reducing his opponents to nervous breakdowns.
Ultimate Fighting Championship officials revealed to USA TODAY Sports the 28 fighters who will compete on the latest edition of the promotion’s long-running reality series, which debuts Jan. 22 (FX, 8 p.m. ET).
Now fight fans will inevitably try to determine which fighter UFC President Dana White recently said struck fear in the hearts of his opponents during filming of the tournament-based competition.
“The whole house is terrified of this guy. Everybody,” White said. “I picked this fight, and this guy is lined up with the guy I’m telling you about, and the guy has a nervous breakdown in the house over the weekend.
“This guy scared the living s— out of everyone. It’s awesome.”
The cast boasts talent from 16 different U.S. states and territories, as well as international prospects from England, Jamaica, New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden. Seven fighters bring undefeated professional records to the show, and the cast has combined for 200 pro victories. One of them will prove victorious in the tournament and earn a six-figure UFC contract, though the UFC traditionally signs at least a few cast members to deals.
In December welterweight Colton Smith claimed the “TUF 16” title in a season that White openly admits was the worst in the eight-year history of the show. The season also turned out to be the least-watched in show history, but UFC officials are hoping for a turnaround in the new season, which sees the series shift away from Friday nights to a new Tuesday timeslot.
Widely credited for the launch of the UFC’s current popularity boom, “TUF” debuted in 2005 and has produced more than 100 UFC fighters and three eventual champions. It’s also spawned international versions in Brazil and Australia, with additional countries expected to debut this year.
The two-hour season debut episode sees the 28 fighters compete in an elimination round of fights, and the 14 winners become official cast members. For the first time in the show’s history, each contestant was allowed to bring friends and family to the first round of fights.
UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and outspoken MMA superstar Chael Sonnen serve as opposing head coaches on the series and will face off at an April pay-per-view event.
The full lineup of UFC hopefuls includes:
Dylan Andrews (16-4-1), 32, Gold Coast, Australia (by way of New Zealand)
Kito Andrews (9-2), 34, Sacramento, Calif.
Luke Barnatt (5-0), 24, Cambridge, England
Leo Bercier (7-2), 31, Great Falls, Mont.
Ryan Bigler (9-3), 28, Yona, Guam
Kevin Casey (5-2), Hawthorne, Calif.
Adam Cella (4-0), 27, Fenton, Mo.
Zak Cummings (15-3), 28, Kansas City, Mo.
Andy Enz (6-1), 21, Anchorage, Alaska
Nik Fekete (5-1), 32, Las Vegas
Kelvin Gastelum (5-0), 20, Yuma, Ariz.
Uriah Hall (7-2), 28, New York City (by way of Jamaica)
Collin Hart (4-1-1), 23, Santa Rosa, Calif.
Clint Hester (7-3), 25, Atlanta
Jake Heun (3-2), 25, Salt Lake City
Mike Jasper (6-0), 29, Camarillo, Calif.
Nicholas Kohring (3-0), 22, Valley Springs, Calif.
Robert “Bubba” McDaniel (20-6), 29, Albuquerque, N.M.
Fraser Opie (10-5), 29, Milton Keynes, England (by way of South Africa)
Mike Persons (3-0), 28, Manteca, Calif.
Jimmy Quinlan (3-0), 26, Metheun, Mass.
Scott Rosa (4-1), 26, Sparks, Nev.
Joshua Samman (9-2), 24, Tallahassee, Fla.
Gilbert Smith Jr. (5-1), Colorado Springs, Colo.
Eldon Sproat (3-1), 27, Molokai, Hawaii
Tor Troeng (15-4-1), 29, Umea, Sweden
Eric Wahlin (5-1), 29, Taylorsville, Utah
Timothy Williams (7-1), 26, Millville, N.J.
For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.In early February the San Francisco Unified School District floated a plan to provide condoms to students as young as 12. The condoms could be provided without parental consent. The story was picked up by media outlets including all local TV stations, the San Francisco Chronicle, LifeSite News, and California Catholic Daily.
On February 7, 2016, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra Saunders had an interview (‘SF Middle Schools’ Condom Curriculum”) with the San Francisco Unified School District’s ‘Director of Safety and Wellness,’ Kevin Gogin, who is serving as the district’s point man on the issue.
Saunders began her column: “The San Francisco Unified School District’s board is poised to expand its Condom Availability Program for high school students into middle schools. The school district no longer offers Algebra I as an eighth-grade course — Algebra I has been folded into a two-year, eighth-grade and ninth-grade class that is supposed to be more comprehensive. But the board is ready to bring higher level learning to middle school by handing out condoms to sixth-graders. What could possibly go wrong?”
Saunders also noted a logical disconnect in the District’s rationale: “Problem: If 95 percent of middle-schoolers are not having sexual intercourse, why would adults want to establish a social norm of middle-schoolers having sex? (A handout from the district asserts ‘only 5.2 percent” of middle-schoolers have had sexual intercourse.’)”
What none of the news outlets covering the issue reported, but which should be of interest to Catholic readers, is that Gogin is an ex-Jesuit priest, who, in 2008 ‘married’ a man named Dan McPherson. Both Gogin and McPherson are, or were, parishioners at San Francisco’s homosexual activist parish, Most Holy Redeemer. McPherson is currently listed as the Director of Graduate Student Services at the homosexual activist (Jesuit) University of San Francisco. Before serving as Director of Graduate Student Services, McPherson was the university’s Associate Dean of the School of Education. And according to USF’s website, McPherson, an open homosexual, “coordinated the School of Education’s Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy program.”
The University of San Francisco/Most Holy Redeemer axis goes way back, and the Archdiocese of San Francisco is guilty for allowing it to exist. In addition to Gogin and McPherson, it includes Father Donal Godfrey, SJ, one-time Executive Director of Campus Ministry at USF. Godfrey still serves as a Campus Minister at USF, albeit no longer as Executive Director. Indeed, as Godfrey reported in his history of MHR, Gays and Grays: The Story of the Gay Community at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church: “The baptism of children being raised by gay couples took place publicly at the 10AM Sunday liturgy…One gay couple, Dan McPherson and Kevin Gogin, active Most Holy Redeemer parishioners while (Father Tony) McGuire was pastor, did adopt a daughter, Sarah, in 1998, but she was quietly baptized outside the parish at St. Ignatius Church....Rob Lane & Don Propstra’s adopted son was baptized at a regular liturgy in the parish on October 21, 1990... “Kevin and Dan [Gogin and McPherson] were the godparents.”
The Most Holy Redeemer/USF axis includes the Reverend Vincent Pizzuto, associate professor of theology and director of the Catholic Studies program at USF, who, as CalCatholic reported last month (‘Schismatic priest who performs gay weddings to speak at San Francisco Catholic church’) spoke at Most Holy Redeemer on February 13. Pizzuto’s affiliation with the church goes back to at least 2006, when he spoke at Most Holy Redeemer’s ‘Queer Perspectives” seminar.
This spotlights the alliance of homosexual activists between USF and Most Holy Redeemer. Each institution operates as a separate front in the homosexual activist attempt to influence Church teaching on sexuality and the family—and, as Kevin Gogin’s position with the SF Unified School District shows, society outside the Church as well. The University of San Francisco serves as the intellectual home of the activists. In addition to Pizzuto, the University has a long history of hosting homosexual activists/supporters including Jesuit Father James Keenan, ex-Jesuit James Nickoloff, Episcopal Bishop William Swing, politicians Nancy Pelosi and Gavin Newsom, and many others.
Most Holy Redeemer serves as the activists’ spiritual home. It provides an ever-ready forum within the church where the activists are free to propagandize for their true religion: the celebration of homosexuality. Over the years the church has hosted numerous speakers from different religious denominations, yet all shared the one overriding imperative necessary to speak there: the celebration of homosexuality. If one uses the sociological definition of religion as any person’s absolutely largest system of values, the fact that the speakers are not Catholic is rightly seen as insignificant, because the actual religion at Most Holy Redeemer is not Catholicism but the celebration of homosexuality.
On February 24, the San Francisco Unified School District unanimously approved the condom distribution program. The same day the SF Examiner reported: “In addition to supplying condoms at middle schools, the board also voted to update the language of the district’s condom distribution policy to clarify that parents cannot opt their kids out of the condom distribution program.”[NOTE: This post has been updated with a relevant statement released yesterday from Prosecutor Mosby’s office, and embedded at the bottom of this post.]
As Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby continues her efforts to convict six police officers of serious felonies–including depraved-heart second degree murder and multiple counts of manslaughter–in the death of Freddie Gray continue, those charges are already being subject to challenge, and looking increasingly vulnerable.
The Baltimore Sun reports that the defense attorney for Edward Nero, one of the officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, has filed a motion for an independent inspection of Gray’s knife, which formed the basis for the probable cause underpinning Gray’s arrest. (h/t commenter MouseTheLuckyDog)
The motion is embedded at the bottom of this post.
Arrest Timeline: Charges Against Officer Nero, In Context
It is perhaps worth stepping through the timeline of Officer Nero’s participation in the arrest and transport of Freddie Gray, and juxtapose that against the five criminal charges brought against him. (Note: we’re recounting the timeline “facts” as reported by the New York Times.) All events occur on April 12, 2015
8:39:12 AM
Officer Nero, Lieutenant Brian Rice, and Officer Miller are on bike patrol in a high-crime/drug area of Baltimore, and spot Freddie Gray–a known convict and career street-level drug dealer–acting suspiciously.
This raises the reasonable suspicion needed to justify a “Terry stop,” (commonly known as stop-and-frisk), and the officers seek to do so with Freddie Gray.
(For more details on a “Terry stop,” see Was Freddie Gray’s Arrest Lawful? Almost Certainly.)
Gray observes the officers approaching and flees their lawful stop, further establishing reasonable suspicion. The officers pursue.
8:39:52 AM
Freddie’s flight from the lawful Terry stop lasts only 40 seconds before the officers bring him to a halt.
(Humorously, the New York Times describes the end of this flight and pursuit as Gray “surrendering to” the pursuing officers. I guess the NYT forgot how to spell “captured by.”)
8:40 AM
The officers prone out Gray and handcuff him, all perfectly lawful and consistent with securing the safety of a Terry stop.
Prosecutor Mosby claims that at this point Gray requested an inhaler, and was not provided one. She does not indicate her evidence for this claim, nor whether the officers or Gray even had an inhaler in their possession that they could have offered Gray, nor whether the officers have a legal duty–or are even medically qualified–to provide medical assistance to a suspect.
Raising Gray to a seated position, Officer Nero (along with Miller) observes a pocket knife clipped to Gray’s right pocket. The knife is secured and examined, again entirely consistent with securing a safe Terry stop.
Upon examination, the officers observe that the knife employs a spring-assisted mechanism, and conclude that it reasonably falls within the definition of an unlawful knife under Baltimore City Code §59-22, which provides in relevant part that:
(a) Possession or sale, etc., prohibited. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, carry, or possess any knife with an automatic spring or other device for opening and/or closing the blade, commonly known as a switch-blade knife.
The knife thus established the probable cause necessary to escalate the Terry stop to an actual arrest, and the violation of Baltimore City Code §59-22 is specified for this purpose in the formal Statement of Charges:
Officers Miller and Nero put Mr. Gray in a seated position and find a folding knife, which Ms. Mosby said was legal under Maryland law. The officers charged Mr. Gray with illegal possession of a switchblade. The officers then placed Mr. Gray down on his stomach and restrained him until the police van arrived. Ms. Mosby said Lieutenant Rice and Officers Miller and Nero “failed to establish probable cause for Mr. Gray’s arrest as no crime had been committed.”
Notably, on Friday May 1, when Prosecutor Mosby publicly announced the charges against the six police officers, she was reported by the New York Times to have explicitly stated that there was no probably cause for Gray’s arrest because the knife was legal:
Ms. Mosby faulted the police conduct at every turn. The officers who arrested him “failed to establish probable cause for Mr. Gray’s arrest, as no crime had been committed,” she said, describing the arrest as illegal. Officers accused him of possession of a switchblade, but Ms. Mosby said, “The knife was not a switchblade and is lawful under Maryland law. (Emphasis added.)
Since then, however, the investigative Task Force assembled by the Baltimore Police Department has concluded that the knife, was, in fact illegal in Baltimore, as reported by the Baltimore Sun yesterday:
While Mosby said Friday that the officers had made an illegal arrest because a knife Gray was carrying was not a “switchblade,” a violation of state law, the police task force studied the knife and determined it was “spring-assisted,” which does violate a Baltimore code [§59-22]. (emphasis added)
For more details on all of the above see Legal Insurrection’s earlier coverage here Freddie Gray’s Knife – Why is Prosecutor Claiming Unlawful Arrest? and here Confirmed – Freddie Gray’s Knife WAS Illegal.
The conclusion of the Task Force that the knife in Gray’s possession fell within the unlawful category could theoretically be reversed sometime in the future.
The organized Task Force composed of senior department officers with access to specialized knowledge and the opportunity to examine the knife in complete safety and at their leisure concluded, as the arresting officers had, that the knife was unlawful. That makes laughable any argument that the officer’s own conclusion under stress to that effect was unreasonable on its face.
And if the arresting officers perception of probable cause for the arrest was not unreasonable, the arrest was not unlawful. Period.
To get back to the timeline, at this time the police van arrived, and Gray was placed in the van. Video suggests that Officer Nero assisted in the placement of Gray in the vehicle.
The New York Times feels obliged to note here that Gray was not buckled into his seat. While there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation for why this was not done, it seems irrelevant to Officer Nero in particular, as doing so would presumably be the van driver’s responsibility (Officer Goodson), not Nero’s.
Presumably by this point several minutes had passed, given all of the action just described.
8:46 AM
After the van travels one block Officer Goodson stops the van, purportedly at the direction of police Lieutenant Brian Rice. Along with Officers Miller and Nero, Rice removes Gray from the van, place him in leg restraints, and return Gray to the van, placing him on the floor.
There are many lawful reasons why this conduct may have occurred. Leg restraints are commonly used only when a suspect remains tumultuous even when handcuffed, and may present a risk of physical injury to himself or others if he is not further restrained in this manner. Reports that there was another passenger in the van who reported loud noises from Gray’s compartment consistent with a tumultuous suspect would support such a scenario.
In any case, Mosby makes no claim that the use of the leg restraints was unlawful.
On Such Evidence, Mosby Lays Five Criminal Charges
This encompasses the entirety, according to the NYT timeline, of Officer Nero’s involvement in the arrest and transport of Freddie Gray.
On the basis of those facts alone Prosecutor Mosby believes she can convict Nero, beyond a reasonable doubt, of five criminal charges, including:
Assault in the second degree (good for 10 years in prison)
Assault in the second degree (2nd count, good for another 10 years)
Misconduct in office
Misconduct in office (2nd count)
False imprisonment
Relevance of the Knife to Unlawful Arrest Charges
The alleged unlawfulness of Gray’s arrest would seem to be essential to the false imprisonment charge brought against Nero. |
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TrademarksEarlier this month, I gave an Ignite talk at the National Association of Science Writers meeting.
(I also organized a panel on covering scientific controversies–click here to listen to/download mp3s of my interviews with panelists Gary Taubes, Jennifer Kahn, Jeanne Lenzer and Brian Vastag.)
I’ve had numerous requests to share my Ignite talk, and so in an attempt to replicate the experience, I’ve put together a storyboard/slideshow.
Here it goes…
I’m here to tell you what more than a dozen years worth of reader letters have taught me about science writing. I had a list of about 20 lessons, but I have only five minutes, so I’ve scrapped all but one.
Which is—tell readers that they’re wrong about something they know in their heart to be true, and they will send you hate mail. For instance… I just wrote about how it’s tumor biology and not a person’s attitude that determines whether cancer their cancer progresses. A reader sent me this comment.
I’ve written numerous stories about how mammograms are more likely to turn a healthy woman into a cancer patient than they are to save her life. Those stories bring mail like this.
I’ve also written about climate change, which elicits letters like this one, which told me I needed therapy to…
But these are nothing compared to the letters I got when I wrote about how taking a multivitamin won’t make you any healthier. Mind you, this was not ground breaking news. It was a long, slow accumulation of studies showing that vitamins don’t prevent cancer or heart disease or strokes or a bunch of other scary things. Oh did I get hate mail.
Of course, my editors helped things along. Here’s the coverline they gave the story.
A lot people obviously never read any further. We got piles and piles of nasty letters, some sort of record.
Now it’s tempting to dismiss these angry readers as a bunch of idiots. But they’re not, and the truth is, I know where they’re coming from. I’ve been that person.
I’m married to an amazing guy. Dave is like those honeybees that always know the way back to the hive. Me, I’ve gotten myself lost in the Hearst building.
We’ll be hiking and we’ll come to a split in the trail and I’ll point one way and say, we need to go here. And Dave will say no, actually, this is the right way (as he points in the opposite direction). And I’ll insist that, no, this is the way.
And then he’ll point out that my way peters out below some cliff face. Which only pisses me off. The more evidence he shows me that I’m wrong, the more insistent I become — I’m right and he’s wrong.
And it’s not just me. This political scientist named Brendan Nyhan at Dartmouth has documented what happens when you show people evidence that their beliefs are wrong.
Instead of thinking, hmmmm, maybe I need to reassess here, what most of us do is go back and think about why we’d come to those beliefs in the first place. And in the process of doing that, we remember how great those reasons were and we end up reinforcing our original beliefs. Instead of re-evaluating, you become more sure of yourself.
So when Dave tells me that his way is right and mine is straight up a cliff, I think, oh yeah? Well I’m smart, independent and capable, so therefore I’m correct. I would never point us in the wrong direction.
See, it’s never really about the hiking trail. It’s about some bigger story you’ve told yourself. I’m not taking issue with Dave’s direction. I know he’s right. But the factual mumbo jumbo he’s showing me clashes with the story I’ve told myself. I don’t like what it says about me.
The idea that I could be giving wrong directions contradicts the vision I have of myself as a competent person. I’m sure that I know the right direction, because I’m too smart to lead us astray.
When Dave points out that I am directing us to a cliff face, here’s how I process the evidence. Dave’s way =I’m a helpless, dumb blonde. But I’m not a dumb blonde, I know I’m not, and so I reject his facts.
Which is the same thing that happens when the vitamin takers read my story.
They see the vitamin headline and they hear: your vitamin pill is a worthless scam, sucker! And then they think, no way! I’m no sucker — therefore this article is wrong. They reject the evidence.
Because the story they’ve told themselves is that they’re smart and “proactive” for taking the vitamin. In that story, it’s possible to protect yourself from scary diseases by taking a vitamin pill. And honestly, who doesn’t want to live in that world?
Of course, I heard lots of other stories too, about the soil and mother earth and evil pharmaceutical companies.
The bottom line is, people believe what they want to believe. It doesn’t matter what you’re writing about. People don’t want to know that they could do everything right and still die of cancer. I don’t want to know that I might not be as brilliant as I think I am. So we reject the facts and fall back on our worlds of truthiness.
And personal anecdote. Don’t even bother trying to overturn those with facts. No study will ever convince the people who are certain that the vitamin helped them. I’m not sure it’s possible to convince people with data that contradict their personal experience.
But I know this: if you’re going to have any hope whatsoever, you have to speak to their story. Because that’s what you’re competing against.
Here are two letters I received about the very same article. I know which one I believe.
I’m Christie Aschwanden. Send me a letter!
(Or leave your comment below.)
***
Rob Frederick, multimedia journalist extraordinaire, was kind enough to take a video of my talk. Watch it here: Ignite Video
Photo credits: Christie at NASW by Carol Berkower.
Christie and Dave hiking by Patitucci Photo.
Brendan Nyhan from Dartmouth.
Christie running with confidence by JT Thomas.
Christie as a ditz, don’t ask…The Guardian has a piece by 16 year-old Orli Vogt-Vincent about “STEM subject snobbery,” and how the emphasis on science, technology, and maths* leads us to both underfund arts classes, and encourage kids to see them as unserious. She writes:
At 16, I am constantly baffled by people who believe they can define what is of academic value. People see me as an equation – because I am academic, I should not choose dance and drama at GCSE. “But you’re, like, clever – why dance?” was one ’s response. “What do you even do? An extra A* to prance around?” was the response of someone who, needless to say, was not my friend…. There’s this stigma with the arts that only “unintelligent” students take those subjects. I still struggle to be taken seriously for taking arts subjects. I was told by advisers that dance and drama wouldn’t help me to get a suitable, and by other adults that I was wasting my potential.
This is the view from England, but you’d find the same problem in many schools in the United States.
The problem is, if we want people to be creative as scientists and engineers, discouraging them from taking arts classes (or for that matter discouraging them from playing rugby or football** or whatever) is exactly the wrong way to do it.
While I was writing REST, some of the most interesting studies I read compared the hobbies of gifted students and high-achieving scientists. One thing I discovered is that the of gifted students being nerdy and introverted seems to be pretty old, and efforts to knock it down are just as old: Frederick Terman noted in his study of gifted children that "The typical gifted child likes vigorous games, plays with tools and apparatus, likes the companionship of others, and shows no abnormal fondness for solitude or study." Indeed, they were more physically vigorous and more likely to be captains than control groups.
The most compelling work I discovered was a study started in the late 1950s by UCLA sociologist Bernice Eiduson to understand what separated great scientists from their less accomplished colleagues.
Lots of psychologists had tried to figure out what marked some people for greatness, but no one had found the thing— the single trait, the “genius,” the edge— that all successful scientists share. Eiduson thought that by watching their careers unfold over several decades, and talking to and testing them at regular intervals, she might see things in successful lives that one-off interviews and short studies couldn’t.
Eiduson found forty young and mid-career scientists who agreed to be interviewed about their life and work, sit for psychological tests, and most crucially, keep doing so. All of them were products of top graduate programs, promising researchers, and young enough to have long, productive careers. Eiduson would follow this group for more than twenty years, and in that time the lives of the forty diverged. Some were elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences. Others received promotions and prestigious chairs at their universities. One became a presidential science advisor. Four won the Nobel Prize; one, Linus Pauling, won it twice. Others settled into less distinguished careers. Some continued to struggle to do serious science, but couldn’t keep up. They became administrators, or focused on teaching.
From a sociological standpoint, it was an ideal outcome. A group that looked roughly the same decades earlier had split into two parts. The challenge now was to figure out why.
So what did she find that separated the top performers from the rest? It wasn’t performance on tests— there didn’t seem to be a genius gene— nor were there personality traits that were really unusual. (The high performer were ambitious and competitive, but so are lots of people.) No, what separated the great from the good were— as Eiduson’s collaborators would discover after she died in 1985— other factors.
They were physically very active. In fact the best scientists showed “an unusual urge to experiment athletically as well as scientifically,” and selected “athletic activities that could be carried from youth into old age.” (These quotes are from an article by Maurine Bernstein, Robert Scott Root-Bernstein, and Helen Garnier, who continued and extended Eiduson's work.) The top scientists took full advantage of the region’s geography: they played tennis, went swimming, hiking, and skiing. This being southern California, there was also an over-representation of surfers and sailors. Their less distinguished colleagues, in contrast, reported low rates of participation in.
They saw rest and recreation as connected. As Robert Scott Root-Bernstein put it, elite scientists shared the that “time relaxing or engaging in their hobbies could be valuable” to “their scientific efficiency and thus to their careers.” For them, playing the piano or painting was just another “expression of a general aesthetic sensibility about nature.” What they did in the lab, the court, the climbing wall, and the lecture hall were woven together, different activities linked by common interests and shared passions. Low achievers, in contrast, said nothing about serious hobbies. They “had none or found them irrelevant to their work.”
They expressed fewer anxieties about time pressure. For the Nobel laureates and world leaders, swimming or hiking didn’t compete with their time in their laboratory, and they didn’t feel that the time they spent on deliberate rest was stolen from more productive things. Because they practiced deliberate rest, seeking out activities that gave their conscious minds a break and provided a mental and psychological boost, but left their minds free (free to run through ideas, test and reject possibilities, and hone in on a solution), their sense of how much time they worked, and how much time they had at their disposal, differed from their less successful colleagues. In contrast, less well-cited, well-known scientists saw themselves as too time-pressed for hiking or surfing or playing the piano: they had too many commitments, too many obligations, too many demands on their time.
There are tons of examples I could give— and do give in the book— of world-class minds who are also great athletes, serious painters, musicians, even pool players (Albert Michelson, who measured the speed of light, was a master billiards player). And there’s good evidence that being good at these different activities strengthens creative ability, and provides much-needed deliberate rest for busy, hard-charging people.
So extrapolating from Eiduson’s work, if you want to produce people who have technical skills, but never will be able to do anything more imaginative than quality control for LG, then teach them lots of science and math, and nothing else. In contrast, if you want to produce people who’ll create category-defining products, overturn paradigms, and make scientific breakthroughs, by all means offer the physics and chemistry— but also encourage them to play sports, learn to paint, and play music.
Or as Vogt-Vincent put it,
Stopping young people from expressing themselves at such a young age is not doing them any favours…. To study arts subjects, you have to take risks, push yourself emotionally, expressively and creatively in every lesson, you have to persevere and be interpretive, passionate and collaborative. I’ve worked harder in these subjects than I’ve ever worked in my life.
* Since we’re talking about an English article.
** Once again, talking about an English article here.The Government is issuing newly designed PAN (Permanent Account Number) cards that have added security features to make them tamper-proof and with contents written in both Hindi and English, a senior Income-Tax Department official said on Friday. The distribution of new-look PAN cards, being printed by NSDL and UTIITSL (UTI Infrastructure Technology and Services Ltd), started since January 1.
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The cards are being issued to new applicants but existing ones can only apply for them. “The distribution of new PAN cards kicked off on January 1. However, these are only for the fresh lot of PAN card applicants,” the official told PTI here.
“We have automated the data and made the PAN cards error-free,” he said, adding, “In case existing cardholders apply for a fresh PAN card, they will be issued the newly designed cards.”
Keeping in view the Rajbhasha policy of the Government, we have made fixed contents of the new PAN cards bilingual in which the headers are in English and Hindi, he said.
The Government has added a new feature to the card, known as Quick Response Code, which will help in verification process.
The code will help in providing all details of the cardholder in one go as when the document is produced before any authority. Hence, no room will be left for the cardholder to either tamper or give any kind of wrong information relating to the card, the official said.
PAN cards are mandatory for any transaction above Rs 2 lakh and for a lot of other activities like opening of a bank account and as identity proof. There are currently more than 25 crore PAN cardholders in the country.
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As per Government estimate, every year 2.5 crore people across the country apply for PAN cards.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to launch a campaign to discredit the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court, following its announcement that it would pursue a war crimes probe against Israel over the summer war in Gaza, Israeli sources said Sunday.
Netanyahu convened a meeting of legal advisers and other officials to hash out an Israeli response to the ICC move, a source in the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Earlier, Netanyahu derided the Hague-based body’s decision and vowed to fight it.
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Chief ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda opened a preliminary investigation on Friday in order to examine if war crimes were committed by Israel, the Palestinians, or both in the lead-up to, and during, Operation Protective Edge, last summer’s 50-day conflict between the Israel Defense Forces and various groups in Gaza.
Netanyahu met with security officials and legal experts, concluding that it was necessary to thwart any attempt by the court to prosecute Israel for defending itself against terrorism.
The group will work to discredit the legitimacy of the international tribunal, as the Palestinian Authority is not a state, and technically unable to file a case against the Jewish state in the ICC, said the PMO source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The panel also expressed disappointment over the hypocritical nature of the ICC, accusing The Hague of being biased towards Israel, and stating that the probe would harm the international effort to fight terrorism.
Israeli and American officials have been harshly critical of the ICC move since the Friday decision.
“The decision by the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court to begin an inquiry against the State of Israel is the height of hypocrisy and the opposite of justice,” Netanyahu said at the start of the cabinet meeting Sunday morning. “I have already encountered such phenomena during my years of public service representing the State of Israel both as ambassador to the UN and as prime minister, but this decision by the prosecutor is in a category of its own. It gives legitimacy to international terrorism.
“We will fight it in every way possible and we will also recruit others to fight this absurdity, and they are already being recruited. We will not allow Israel Defense Forces soldiers to face international tribunals. I would also like to say that these steps will not deter us from doing what is necessary to defend the State of Israel and its citizens,” added Netanyahu.
The prime minister also slammed the investigation on Saturday, claiming the ICC was subverting its own “lofty goals,” which were to prevent the repetition of history’s worst crimes, including the Holocaust.
“The court was founded to prevent a repeat of history’s worst crimes, foremost among them the genocide of 6 million Jews,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Now the Palestinians are cynically manipulating the ICC to deny the Jewish state the right to defend itself against the very war crimes and the very terror that the court was established to prevent.”
Earlier Saturday, Hamas welcomed the ICC decision to probe Israel, saying it would provide the tribunal with evidence to aid the investigation.
“What is needed now is to quickly take practical steps in this direction and we are ready to provide [the court] with thousands of reports and documents that confirm the Zionist enemy has committed horrible crimes against Gaza and against our people,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.
Prosecutors in The Hague announced that the preliminary examination would review “in full independence and impartiality” alleged crimes committed since June 13 last year, the beginning of tensions between the two sides that culminated in the summer conflict, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 2,200 Palestinians, according to Hamas figures, and 72 people on the Israeli side.
Potential cases that ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda could take on include allegations of war crimes by Israel during last summer’s Gaza war, where the Palestinians suffered heavy civilian casualties. Israel’s settlement construction on land claimed by the Palestinians could also be examined. The cases could also include alleged war crimes by Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, including the firing of thousands of rockets at Israeli residential areas from crowded neighborhoods.
The prosecutor’s announcement came after the PA acceded to the Hague-based court’s founding treaty and recognized its jurisdiction dating back to July, the eve of the last Gaza war. That move opened the door to an ICC investigation that could target possible crimes by both Israel, which is not a member of the court, and the Palestinians.
“A preliminary examination is not an investigation, but a process of examining the information available in order to reach a fully informed determination on whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with a [full] investigation,” Bensouda said.
Depending on her findings, Bensouda will decide at a later stage whether to launch or quash the investigation, based on the initial probe.AUSTRALIA could be on the brink of making marine history.
In the near future, the Federal Government will decide on the creation of a marine park system around Australia, including whether to establish the world's largest highly protected marine national park in the Coral Sea.
This singular act would be a fitting addition to Australia's long history of setting aside national parks to safeguard our natural wonders and unique wildlife.
It would also significantly contribute to safeguarding the health of the ocean, less than 1 per cent of which is highly protected at this time.
More than a century ago, Australia created Royal National Park just 32km south of Sydney. It is the world's second oldest after Yellow stone in the US. This landmark decision set off a series of designations on land - and on water.
In 1975, the creation of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park put Australia at the forefront of global ocean conservation.
And 10 years ago Australia again led the world by implementing the GBRMP Representative Areas Program, the most significant environmental initiative in Australia.
Once again, we have a unique opportunity with the Coral Sea to demonstrate our conservation leadership by creating a lasting ocean legacy.
Our Coral Sea is unique.
It is one of the last remaining places where populations of large ocean predators - including deep-water sharks, mighty tuna and majestic marlin - have not been drastically reduced.
Scattered throughout this remote and wild sea are healthy coral reefs and atolls, as well as cays and islands that provide shelter to reef fish, turtles and seabirds.
As part of its national marine planning process, the Federal Government is now in the final stages of deciding what level of protection it will afford this unique marine jewel, along with other precious areas in Australian seas.
In November, the Government released a draft plan that would rule out mining and trawling in the Coral Sea - a very positive outcome.
However, that same draft plan fails to provide the scale of protection needed to sufficiently safeguard the Coral Sea's fragile coral reefs and spectacular ocean life.
In fact, the draft plan leaves 90 per cent of the area's coral reefs unprotected.
To ensure the future health of the Coral Sea, the Government's final plan must be strengthened: the proposed marine national park needs to protect more reefs and more of the deep waters that provide a blue highway for whales, turtles and other ocean giants.
Places like Osprey Reef, one of the world's top 10 shark dive sites, remain vulnerable, as do many of the coral reefs of the Queensland Plateau, a vital breeding and feeding pathway linking the Great Barrier Reef and Pacific Ocean.
The highly successful protection of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park has awakened community consciences and community attitudes to the need and value of protecting the Coral Sea.
More than 486,900 people from around Australia and the world have voiced support for protection of the Coral Sea in the world's largest marine national park.
This is one of the biggest public consultation responses in Australian conservation history. The enormous show of support includes school children, recreational fishers, divers and tourism businesses.
More than 300 marine scientists from 21 countries have endorsed the need for a stronger plan. They agree that a large, highly protected park is necessary to match the scale and biological importance of the region itself.
Commercial fishers with significant catch history in the Coral Sea are willing to restructure and remove fishing from this special place.
They should be commended and they themselves are entitled to protection through a fair financial assistance package to the small number of affected operators.
As Australians, we have a special relationship with the ocean. Our coastlines and beaches are places of leisure, work, celebration, discovery and wealth creation.
Our seas and shores are as much a part of our identity as Waltzing Matilda. In short, the ocean is a part of who we are. That is why we must protect it.
Right now, this generation of Australians has the opportunity to match the heroic and far-sighted actions of our forbears, who gave us the Royal National Park and other icons by which we are known and respected.
Peter Lindsay is the former Liberal MP for Herbert.Weld Defends Johnson, Drops Hint of Future Endorsement
by Josh Guckert
Speaking to Emerson College and The Boston Globe Thursday, Libertarian vice presidential nominee William Weld defended his running mate Gary Johnson for his supposed “gaffe” on Aleppo. Weld said it was not “that bad” and that the moment has been seized upon by “hystericists.” Said the Libertarian:
You do occasionally blank…Probably 85 percent of the people in the country couldn’t put Aleppo on a map, so I’m not sure the consequence of the slip is going to be lasting at all.
Talk soon shifted toward Mitt Romney, who on Wednesday tweeted that he would like to see the Libertarians in the presidential debates. Weld stated that he and Romney met “about a month ago” at Romney’s New Hampshire home. The Libertarian vice presidential candidate stated that he believes he and Johnson’s chances of making the debates are better than fifty percent.
However, perhaps most interesting is the final sentence of The Boston Globe‘s story, which states:
In a subsequent interview with the Globe, Weld said he expected the endorsement of a “household name” from the world of politics by next Monday or Tuesday.
This is fairly major news. Could Romney finally endorse the Libertarian ticket, or could another significant current or former politician make such a pronouncement? Only time will tell.Image caption The Devo Plus group believes Scotland should remain within the UK
MSPs from the three main opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament are backing a new campaign for increased Holyrood powers.
"Devo plus" would put Holyrood in full control of income tax, corporation tax and most welfare spending.
Unlike the "devo-max" alternative, it would leave pensions, VAT and national insurance in Westminster hands.
Devo Plus has the personal support of three MSPs from Labour, the Tories and Lib Dems.
The Scottish government, which supports independence and wants to hold a referendum on the issue in autumn 2014, sent a special adviser to the launch of the new campaign.
Former Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott, the Conservative MSP and former presiding officer Alex Fergusson and Labour's Duncan McNeil think devo plus could be a credible alternative to independence, if that option was rejected in the referendum.
The option is being pushed by Edinburgh-based think tank Reform Scotland and former Lib Dem MSP Jeremy Purvis.
Reform Scotland chairman, Ben Thomson, said: "I have found it difficult to understand why the one option in this constitutional debate that seems to command most public support in the polls is not being championed by any significant organisation as the best solution for Scotland as well as for the rest of the United Kingdom.
"Therefore, the formation of a group made up of members from different political parties and the wider community to develop and promote devo plus is an important move to address the imbalance between what has so far been mostly a political battle between independence and the status quo."
Under devo plus, Holyrood would gain new responsibility for welfare benefits except pensions, funding all its own spending through full control of income and corporation tax.
It would also receive a "geographical" share of oil revenues - tax receipts from oil and gas in Scottish territorial waters.
Analysis Today's launch of a Devo Plus campaign is intriguing - both for what is involved and what is not. Devo Plus was developed by the think tank Reform Scotland. It involves Holyrood gaining control of welfare benefits except pensions and funding all that devolved spending through full control of income tax, corporation tax plus a geographical share of oil revenues. Holyrood would also control Scotland's share of UK deficit borrowing, with an incentive thereby to reduce debt and release funds. For political parties who might have to legislate, this is a big deal, a substantial change. Also as above, there are political reasons for proceeding a little cautiously. At this stage, there is no formal involvement by any of the unionist parties, simply an individual commitment by high-profile individuals. This is not Calman Mark Two. This is not the Constitutional Convention revisited. There are other avenues for exploring Scotland's future within the Union. Taking it to the max
VAT and National Insurance would remain in Westminster hands, but Scotland would control its share of UK borrowing.
The devo plus campaign said it was a cross-party and non-party group which wanted a "new and sustainable financial relationship between the Scottish Parliament and Westminster".
Mr Purvis said: "Our objective is to see the creation of a system in which the Scottish Parliament, as far as possible, raises the money that it spends.
"That is the principle that underpins devo plus and it is the principle on which this group is based - Scotland cannot fulfil its potential while it is dependent on Westminster to raise taxes for it."
The debate on a possible middle-ground option, short of independence, is beginning to flourish with so-called civic Scotland - including the voluntary sector, churches, trade unions and the business community - offering its views.
The Scottish government has said it wants a one-question ballot paper in the independence referendum, but is open to backing a second question on further powers to Scotland.
The Westminster government said it recognised the majority SNP administration's right to hold a referendum, but prefers a straight "yes or no" question to independence.
Tory MSP Mr Fergusson said: "It is important that we address the accountability gap between what Holyrood spends and what it raises.
"Budget debates in the (Scottish) Parliament have a major deficiency because they are focussed solely on how public money is spent and not from where it is raised."
Lib Dem MSP Mr Scott added: "The devo plus principle of rejecting independence and improving on the status quo is exactly the right way forward to address Scotland's challenges.
"It is a very positive contribution to making Scotland stronger within the UK and I look forward to taking part in the group's discussions."
And Labour MSP Mr McNeil, convener of the Scottish Parliament's health committee, said: "There are important decisions to be made about the future of Scotland and the devo plus group will apply solid thinking and genuine rigour that places it ahead of the independence argument.
"I look forward to taking part in these ongoing discussions."
A spokesman for Scottish first minister Alex Salmond said: "Scotland is in a process of independence, and we welcome this contribution to the debate on the need for substantial economic, financial and social powers for the Scottish Parliament.
"The devo plus launch reinforces the need for clarity, in place of the current confusion, about what 'No' in the referendum from the Tories and other anti-independence parties actually means.
"This information needs to be in the public domain well before the referendum."President Obama on Wednesday will unveil over $1 billion in new federal and private funding for early childhood education, as the White House again looks to rally legislative support for the president’s universal pre-K initiative.
The announcement at a White House summit on the topic will include over $750 million in new federal grants awarded to states to expand their pre-K programs.
Two-thirds of that funding will provide early care and education programs for over 30,000 infants and toddlers across almost every state, while an additional $250 million will be awarded to 18 states to expand the reach of their preschool programs. Those awards are expected to enroll an additional 33,000 children in preschool.
{snip}
“The fact is like three in 10 four year olds have access to state funded programs, which means frankly we are not close,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday. “We are not close to where we need to be.”
Duncan said he is haunted by “the huge unmet need” and that he hoped lawmakers would take up the president’s $75 billion proposal to partner with states to offer low and moderate income families with high quality preschool. That proposal has gained little traction on Capitol Hill, despite support from some Republican governors.
{snip}
Original Article
Share ThisWhen you move a system from personality-based solutions to rule of law, there is a painful period of readjustment of the old way of doing things to the new. People, institutions and analysts all need to readjust to the new reality. The recent commentary around the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill that is up for debate in the winter session of the Indian Parliament has picked up on one section (section 52) of the Bill, ignoring everything else in the 125 pages, and has resulted in panic about the safety of bank deposits if this bill gets passed. I read the Bill over the weekend and this is my understanding of what the aim of the Bill is and what it means for you.
What is the problem the Bill aims to solve? It wants to put in place rules of the game so that financial firms can fail in an orderly manner and it provides for insuring your bank deposits. Let’s get some context. Pre-1991, financial firms (banks, insurance, mutual fund, pension) were mainly government owned. In a state-owned and -controlled market, the fear of failure was minimal. The need for sector regulators was not there. As the market expanded to allow in the private sector, the manner of oversight has changed. Sector regulators were born to set up the rules of the game of how a private sector bank or insurance company or mutual fund or pension manager must behave, what they can or cannot do and what happens when they mis-behave. But as markets evolve, the game becomes more and more complex. The 2008 financial crisis brought into sharp focus the perils of an interconnected financial system that could lead to an entire system crashing due to the sudden failure of one firm. Globally, governments have put in place systems and processes for an early warning system of financial firm failure in the form of resolution system. India has seen deep reform in its financial sector and the FRDI Bill is the next step of this journey.
The FRDI Bill seeks to put in place a new entity called the Resolution Corporation (RC) that will put in place a system to monitor financial firms such as banks, insurance companies, stock exchanges, and payment systems, so that the ill health of such a firm can be caught early on, rather than allowing it to get sicker and then suddenly come to the brink and fail causing the risk of contagion. But isn’t that the job of the Bankruptcy Regulator? Financial firms such as banks and insurance companies accept deposits and collect premiums from a large number of retail investors who may not be able to come together as creditors and initiate the bankruptcy process. Worse, in initiating bankruptcy, they will be the worst hit since the failure of a bank will hurt the depositors the most. Therefore, the need of an early warning system and a resolution process for financial firms.
India doesn’t have a process in place today, though different regulators have their own ways of dealing with it. For instance, the insurance regulator tried to get ICICI Prudential Life to take over the business of Sahara Life earlier |
rich. Kiss off environmental controls and drill baby drill. And on and on with the right wing agenda.
What promises he made to the white working class will all be broken. We won't be getting any jobs back in manufacturing for a start. A thousand mile wall with Mejico is not gonna get built, maybe an electrified fence. We're not going to be deporting all Muslims, although it will probably be harder for new ones to immigrate. We're not going to pull out of NATO and stop bombing MENA back to the stone age. He's not going to get Amerika out of debt, it will skyrocket even further until the inevitable Global Bankruptcy occurs.
On the positive side here, we're finally rid of the Clintons, at least unless Chelsea runs for office at some point. Her last name isn't Clinton anymore anyhow. I wonder how many contributions there will be to the Clinton Foundation now?
Insofar as a Left Wing goes, the FSoA hasn't had one of those pretty much since the McCarthy Era. The only thing the Democratic party is left of is the far right. The current democratic party is pretty much a complete failure having sold out to the banksters with the Clintons, although at least they had some window dressing of "concern" for the environment, which didn't do all that much good when you look back at the Deepwater Horizon, the water in Flint, the fracking ongoing every time the price of oil springs back up above $50 and the Dakota pipeline.
The infrastructure across Amerika is still decaying, and it will continue to rot until the bridges start falling down and the lights go off for good. The All Right Goobermint is not going to fix any of that. All of which indicates that at some point, a new and more Radical Left will emerge. Nature abhors a vacuum.
Millenials are now becoming the largest demographic, and by far they are the ones most screwed by the crowning of The Donald as POTUS. Also screwed though are any late stage Boomers coming into retirement years, because SS will be eviscerated along with medicaire. That probably will take a little while to play out though, hopefully I will buy my Ticket to the Great Beyond before it disappears completely. If I'm still above ground when it does die, I'll punch my own ticket and get on with a career of pushing up daisies.
For the millenials though, an early exit from the game of life generally is not the welcome relief it is for an old and broken down body. There's going to be a lot of very unhappy folks in this demographic, and when (not if) The Donald fails to "make Amerika GREAT Again" but makes it instead a whole lot WORSE, at the very least they will kick his ass out of office in 4 years, assuming the system holds together that long.
From the anti-establishment side, the one big winner in this was Julian Assange, because Wikileaks really did prove its power and swung this election by the non-stop release of e-mails demonstrating the extreme level of corruption embodied by the Clintons. Whether this gets him out of his prison in the Ecuadorian Embassy or not remains to be seen though. He's supposed to be meeting with Swedish "officials" next week on the one remaining rape charge, and even if they still want to try him on that likely Trumped up charge, I can't see Trump approving an extradition of him either for Rape or for leaking classified information. So he might as well just face it down now, and hopefully at some point jump bail and get whisked off to Mother Russia by some of Vlad the Impaler's KGB operatives. He can join Edward Snowden and they can head up the Hacking Department in the Kremlin.
Besides Putin who The Donald appears to get along with as a fellow narcissist and megalomaniac, he doesn't appear to be very well regarded by many of the other "leaders" out there, certainly not by any south of the border down in Texas all the way to the Straights of Magellan. It should be entertaining to watch as he practices the fine art of diplomacy and the "art of the deal" with these folks. One also has to wonder how often he will be hitting the "you're fired!" button on his own staff, he already axed his campaign manager on the way to the top here.
He can't fire Paul Ryan and the rest of the Repugnant establishment that don't like him too much though, so one can expect a decent amount of fireworks to occur as he uses his new position of power to try to bully through aspects of his agenda which aren't part of the Party Line, like backing out of NAFTA and making nice with Mother Russia. In general though besides those things, he's a fairly typical Repugnant, so with both houses of CONgress with these douchebags in the majority, the whole Repugnant agenda should go through pretty easily. Demodopes currently in CONgress might as well not even show up for work, nothing from their agenda is going get passed, or even make it out of committee. They're just taking up space at taxpayer expense for the forseeable future.
Anyhow, for the Kollapsnik, this is all just a show, just another manifestation of Collapse. Neither The Donald or Killary, nor Gary Johnson or Jill Stein or even Bernie Sanders could do anything to stop the inevitable collapse, although perhaps there might have been a more equitable spin down with Bernie or Jill at the helm. The Titanic is already holed though, and half the ship already under water. It's just a matter of the timeline on how fast it sinks. It probably will sink faster with The Donald steering the ship, but we'll never know that for sure. Killary probably would have sunk it pretty quick exchanging Nukes with Vlad the Impaler herself.
So, for now we can stop focusing on the sham of electoral politics we run here in the FSoA, and get back to our regularly scheduled program, the Collapse of Industrial Civilization.An official from the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique made a sobering announcement this week when it was revealed that rhinos are now extinct inside the park. António Abacar, the park’s director, indicated that no rhinos have been spotted in Limpopo since January, which leads him to believe that poachers have killed the few animals that had remained. With rhinos now gone, he believes those same poachers have now turned their attention on the park’s elephant population, which is endangered as well.
Rhinos are hunted throughout Africa for their horns, which are then sold on the black market in certain Asian countries. The horns are highly valued for their use in traditional medicines throughout Asia, despite the fact that there is absolutely no evidence that indicates they hold any kind of medicinal properties whatsoever. The mistaken belief that a rhino horn is capable of curing any number ailments has pushed the species to the brink of extinction across the entire continent.
The Limpopo National Park is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which includes Kruger National Park in South Africa and Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe. This large sanctuary was created in 2001, with the three countries agreeing to remove numerous fences between their lands so that the animals could continue to migrate freely across the region. At the time, more than 1000 elephants and 300 rhinos were relocated into Limpopo National Park to help bolster their populations there. At the start of this year, only about 15 of those rhinos were believed to still be living inside the park. Now it seems that those are gone as well.The poaching throughout the region has gotten so bad that South Africa has threatened to restore its fences along the border with Mozambique. According to the article linked to above, over the past five years South African law enforcement has killed 279 Mozambicans who were caught in the act of poaching, while arresting another 300. That would seem to indicate that much of South Africa’s poaching problems isn’t homegrown but instead comes from its neighbor.
It is incredibly sad to me to think that we on the edge of wiping out an entire species because some people erroneously believe that its horn can be used in medicines. The rhino is being pushed to the brink and it may soon be gone altogether.
[Photo Credit: Kraig Becker]Share. Johns bids the King of Atlantis farewell in November. Johns bids the King of Atlantis farewell in November.
Four years ago in DC Comics’ Blackest Night, Geoff Johns brought Aquaman and Mera to the forefront of the DC Universe, subsequently reinvigorating the King of Atlantis’ mojo in the DCU let alone in general pop culture.
Though Aquaman’s title has been going strong in the New 52, today we got word from DC that Johns will be stepping away from the book after November's issue #25, which features the conclusion of the current “Death of a King” arc.
Exit Theatre Mode
I had a quick chat with Johns about his decision to leave the title and his plans for the character in his ongoing run on Justice League.
IGN Comics: I’m bummed, man!
Geoff Johns: Yeah, I am too! I absolutely love Aquaman and the character has been a passion since Blackest Night. That was 2009, so I’ve been rebuilding the character and reintroducing him through Blackest Night, Brightest Day, and Aquaman for a little over four years now. What I wanted to do was build that character and his world, first with Ivan [Reis] and then with Paul [Pelletier], and it’s been great.
IGN: Obviously it’s a character that’s pretty close to you, so what ultimately led to the decision to leave?
Johns: Aquaman is one of the greatest characters at DC Comics and one of my favorites. Ultimately, there are some reveals coming up in the “Death of a King” arc through issue #25 that sets the stage for his world and some of those threats are going to carry over to Justice League in a pretty big story next year. But between making Forever Evil and Justice League the best they can be and Gary [Frank] and I doing Batman: Earth One, issue #25 felt like the right time to bid farewell to him for now.
IGN: Do you feel like you’ve accomplished what you set out to do with the character?
Johns: I think we put him back on the map. The thing I’m really proud of is the fact that Ivan and Joe [Prado] were there for most of it with Blackest Night, Brightest Day, and the Aquaman launch. I feel like not only did we put Aquaman back on the map, but we put Mera on the map, period. I don’t think she’s ever been a character people had really considered before, and I think having those two characters out there as strong as they are together with the mythology that’s there, I think Aquaman feels – and deservedly so – like an A-list, premier DC hero. I hope that carries on; it certainly will carry over to Justice League.
IGN: You left Green Lantern this year too; when you’re writing a team book like Justice League, do you get the urge to focus more on these characters whose solo books you’ve spent so much time with?
Johns: Oh, sure. Both of these characters I’ve spent a lot of time with. Nine years with Green Lantern and four years with Aquaman and Mera. There are a lot of elements and characters that will be introduced or revealed in Aquaman #25 that will play directly into Justice League, and Aquaman will take center stage in a big story there. With Justice League, it’s a great opportunity to have the characters bounce off one another and explore their relationships. And also to let each one of them take center stage for a particular story and the stuff that happens in the conclusion of “Death of a King” will bleed over into Justice League leading into a big story that’s kind of a follow-up to the “Throne of Atlantis” storyline.
IGN: So what are your hopes for Aquaman as a character, both in comics and in other mediums?
Johns: I think Aquaman’s one of the most well-known heroes in the world. Aquaman #5 and #6 outsold every Marvel comic those respective months. Aquaman has the ability to be a huge character and I think we really brought him to a new level in comic books, and I’m hoping that new level continues to everything that is DC Entertainment. Certainly that’s the goal. He’s one of our most recognizable and most important characters, and it’s going to continue to stay that way.
With the success we’ve had in the New 52 relaunch and the number of people that are now Aquaman fans, it’s much different than it was four years ago. Let alone a book in the overall top ten, an Aquaman book in DC’s top ten was never thought of. Now, it’s just been consistently up there. I don’t know that Aquaman will ever outsell every Marvel comic book again, but I certainly think he’s here to stay.
IGN: Well, I admit I am one of the converted. I never had an affinity for him until your work on the character, so I’m bummed to see you go, but I’m also happy with where you’re leaving him and I hope big things are in store for the future.
Johns: Thanks, man. I’m hoping to return to the character solo at some point in the future. I think we’ve unlocked something special in him and his world that will just continue to grow throughout not just comics, but everywhere.
IGN: So what’s next for you then? Just focusing on Forever Evil and Justice League, or is there something new coming?
Johns: Yeah, there’s some other stuff brewing but the only thing I’m focused on right now is Justice League and Forever Evil. Right now, it’s 100% villains, 100% of the time. People who love Black Manta, he’s a main character in Forever Evil and there are a lot of plans for him in that. There are plans for Ocean Master. There are plans for lots of characters in Justice League as well, and I’ll still be working with Aquaman and Mera in the months ahead.
As for who’s taking over Aquaman on issue #26, stay tuned to IGN.
Joey is a Senior Editor at IGN and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. He thinks Catwoman is swell.LONDON — The new line-up for The X Factor has been announced, and it doesn't look very new at all.
Grumpy stalwart Simon Cowell will be joined this year by Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh and Nicole Scherzinger in the judges' chairs, with Dermot O'Leary back in the hosting role.
Caroline Flack and Olly Murs have been ditched.
SEE ALSO: 10 British producers that are killing the music game right now
Sharon Osbourne has long been a feature on the show, having appeared from 2004 to 2007 and again in 2013. Scherzinger appeared in 2012 and 2013.
Louis Walsh, on the other hand, just won't quit. He's held on tight to his position for a record 12 seasons. Last year's presenters - Nick Grimshaw, Cheryl Fernandez-Versisi and Rita Ora - have all left.
Producers and the BBC insist that the show will go on, but last year's final only pulled in 5.95 million viewers on average.
Some, such as loudmouth personality Piers Morgan, were pleased at the news.
So glad @MrsSOsbourne's back on X Factor.
No more mischievous judge in the world & she knows real talent when she sees it. — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 1, 2016
Others, not so much.
With Sharon, Louis, and Nicole back it's a bit Ex Factor. #XFactor — Toby Earle (@TobyonTV) June 1, 2016
Never mind people who are vitally important to the music industry... let's bring back the nodding dog Louis Walsh.#xfactor 🚮🚮🚮 — Jason R (@GeordieJay) June 1, 2016
My reaction when I saw who the #XFactor judges are this year.. pic.twitter.com/Hum58jSsip — Jamie Hough (@jmehough) June 1, 2016
Some had better suggestions.
I want Tom Baker on the #XFactor judging panel. And that Brixton couple from GoggleBox. — Damien St John (@damienstjohn) June 1, 2016
Others, meanwhile, just wanted to see the show put to sleep.
I think it needs to be understood that it's not the judges that are putting people off #XFactor, it's just getting boring now #seenitbefore — Georgie Alesi (@GeorgieCorrick) June 1, 2016
Scherzinger's return does let us revisit this classic moment though.
Nicole Scherzinger being back on #xfactor is a good reason to relive this magic moment. pic.twitter.com/WOxdokw2Ne — How Upsetting (@How_Upsetting) June 1, 2016
The judge's auditions begin on June 10 in Leicester, and the show will be aired until the end of time (or Christmas, whichever seems later).
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.Failure, they say, is the stepping stone to success. In this blog, we review some of the startups that pulled the plug in June 2017.
Mortgage tech startup shuts down operations – San Francisco-based mortgage-finance technology startup Sindeo has announced that it is shutting down after four years of operations. HousingWire reports that the company chief executive, Nick Stamos, announced the company’s closure in an open letter posted on its website. “Startups are hard and simplifying the highly regulated, complex business of mortgages is even harder. I believed we had overcome the biggest hurdles, but unfortunately, we didn’t. Today, we made the difficult decision to wind down Sindeo,” Stamos wrote.
Automotive accessory startup Pearl is shutting down. A core of Apple employees wasn’t enough – Automotive startup Pearl is shutting down just one year after coming out of stealth mode, a source has confirmed to The Verge. The small company’s first (and now only) product was a $500 wireless backup camera that fit around your car’s rear license plate. The news was first reported by Axios. Pearl built its early reputation on the fact that most of its employees used to work at Apple. At the time of Pearl’s launch last year, around 50 of its 70 employees boasted a resume with time spent working for the tech giant.
Startup Postmortem: The reason food delivery service Hubbub failed – We’re a bit funny about failure in the UK. It’s a dirty word. It’s something to be ashamed of. In the US, however, things seem to be a little different. Create a company that ultimately fails and you’re not necessarily derided for it, you’re celebrated for giving it a shot. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and try again and you’ll be even more respected.
How My Startup Failed — But I Was Still Successful – In the startup world we often hear the phrase “fail and fail fast.” The thing that people don’t tell you is that failing hurts.
Startup reality: Time to fail more, fail better – Yes, startups fail. Large corporations fail, everywhere in the world. It seems we are so obsessed with the hugely successful consumer Internet companies across the world that we have forgotten the ten others that failed — that had mostly the same user proposition and business model as the one that is worth hundreds of billions of dollars today.
Should the Funds From a Failed Startup Be Returned to Investors? What happens if a founder fails a startup? Should he give back the money to investors? Answer by Bonnie Foley-Wong, CEO Pique Ventures, Pique Fund, author Integrated Investing: I was re-introduced to a founder who was running her second startup. Her reputation in the community is mixed. Some people remember her for running her first startup into the ground. Others, who might not know about her past or don’t care, like the civic mission of her new startup. She contacted me to discuss an opportunity for Pique Fund to invest in her second startup.
A eulogy for the golden era of VC-subsidized meals, which is finally over – Postmates has struggled to make its on-demand deliveries cheap and missed profitability targets for two straight years. It charges a delivery fee and a 9.99% service fee (recently raised from 9%) on most orders. Munchery, a San Francisco-based startup that prepares and delivers meals, has struggled with high food waste and losses that at times topped $5 million a month. The company has cut staff, replaced its CEO, and stiffed early backers to stay afloat. SpoonRocket, a Bay Area startup that cooked and delivered meals, went out of business in March 2016. Maple, a startup that dreamed of delivering a better office lunch, closed its kitchen earlier this month. On Friday, Sprig, a gourmet meal delivery service in San Francisco that raised nearly $60 million, became the latest casualty, announcing it would shut down by the end of the day.
Oh no, Silicon Valley! Failed startup CEO on fraud rap after allegedly bullsh*ting staff and refusing to pay them – In an indictment unsealed on Wednesday, Isaac Choi, founder and CEO of failed Silicon Valley job search startup WrkRiot, was charged with five counts of wire fraud for allegedly defrauding former employees. Problems at the upstart surfaced in August when Penny Kim, former head of marketing for the company, published an account of her experience at an unnamed biz. She said the unspecified outfit failed to pay her and forged wire transfer confirmations to make it appear it had transferred owed funds.
Feds come knocking at failed Zoom Health – Federal investigators are looking into the sudden demise of Zoom Health Plan, the failed insurance arm of the better-known ZoomCare chain of medical clinics. Investigators showed up at the downtown Portland offices of Zoom Health at about 10 a.m. Thursday and interviewed staff, confirmed Lisa Morawski, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services. She would not say which agencies were involved.Children with type 1 diabetes and their families have to do several calculations throughout the day to stay healthy. Did my daughter check her blood sugar before breakfast? Does she need an extra snack because she has gym class? Is there someone at school to help my child check her blood sugar?
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that injures the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas and leads to a lifelong requirement of daily insulin injections. It is a considerable burden of care on patients and parents, who effectively never get a rest from the demands of staying healthy and safe.
According to the American Diabetes Association, about 1.25 million Americans have type 1 diabetes. A new $1 million grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust will get doctors and scientists at Seattle Children’s Research Institute one step closer to better treatment for type 1 diabetes by studying the use of immunotherapy to treat the condition. The work is in collaboration with researchers at Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI).
“The only treatment for type 1 diabetes is to give insulin to patients because their bodies cannot produce it,” said Dr. David Rawlings, Director of the Center for Immunity and Immunotherapies at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and Chief of the Division of Immunology at Seattle Children’s Hospital. “With immunotherapy, our goal is to take a patient’s own T cells, modify them, and then send the cells back into the patient where they will help protect insulin-producing cells from injury. That advancement would free people with type 1 diabetes from having to take insulin to manage blood sugar and improve their quality of life.”
Juliana’s diagnosis of type 1 diabetes
Juliana Graceffo, an 11-year-old with type 1 diabetes, loves to dance—you can find her at home spinning, turning and kicking her way around the house. Juliana’s health depends on remembering to test her blood sugar throughout the day and taking carefully calculated doses of insulin.
“I wake up at 6:00 in the morning to test my blood sugar before I leave to catch the bus,” she said. “I prick my pinky, ring or middle fingers on the left hand to get a drop of blood. I have to test my blood sugar before lunch, when I get home from school and before meals or snacks.”
Juliana was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 4 years old. On Christmas Eve of 2008, Juliana became lethargic and sick. On Christmas Day, she woke up delirious with breathing difficulties. An ambulance brought Juliana to Seattle Children’s. Her blood sugar was extremely high, and she had developed diabetic ketoacidosis, a dangerous complication of type 1 diabetes. Juliana sees Dr. Craig Taplin at Seattle Children’s Hospital to manage her diabetes.
“It was a life-changing trauma and diagnosis,” said Juliana’s dad, Greg Graceffo. “We stayed at the hospital for a week until she recovered. We had to learn about counting carbs and how to give insulin shots and test blood sugar. We needed to learn about materials like syringes, lancets and test strips.”
Now that she’s in middle school, Juliana has taken on more responsibility in managing her diabetes.
“Her mom, Elisa, and I are proud of her strength, poise and maturity in how she deals with diabetes,” Graceffo said. “She has a lot of daily challenges she has to deal with, and day-to-day she is still positive and happy.”
The science behind potential new therapies
Type 1 diabetes affects how the body uses glucose, the sugar that fuels the body’s cells. Normally, the glucose level in the blood rises quickly after a meal and triggers the pancreas to make the hormone insulin, which delivers glucose to the body’s cells.
But in people with diabetes, the body either cannot make or cannot respond to insulin properly. A type 1 diabetic’s immune system attacks and destroys the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Without insulin, glucose cannot get into the body’s cells and it stays in the bloodstream, leading to a higher than normal blood sugar level that can result in immediate and chronic health problems.
“Researchers know that many people with type 1 diabetes have a genetic predisposition for the condition,” Taplin said. “In the context of that predisposition, at some point those people are exposed to one or more external triggers that results in the loss of insulin-producing cells and the development of diabetes. Researchers are still working to understand what those triggers are, but it remains unclear.”
Researchers do know that the genetic predisposition is related to genes that control immune function, especially important immune cells called T cells.
“In type 1 diabetes, a type of immune system cell, called an effector T cell, malfunctions and attacks pancreas cells that create insulin,” Rawlings said. “Normally, effector T cells attack foreign viruses, not the body’s own cells. With this research, we will edit genes in these cells and change these ‘dangerous’ cells into regulatory T cells, another type of immune cell that regulates an immune system’s response and keeps it from going into overdrive. We expect these gene-edited
regulatory T cells, when returned to a diabetic’s body, will stop effector T cells from destroying the body’s insulin-producing cells.”
Rawlings is partnering with Dr. Jane Buckner, President of Benaroya Research Institute. Buckner and her team have developed methods to pinpoint exactly which problematic T cells to target for editing. Once they have identified the T cells for this research, they will work with Rawlings and his team for the gene editing work and develop methods to efficiently manufacture regulatory T cells for immunotherapy clinical trials.
“This important collaboration with Seattle Children’s researchers allows us to combine our expertise to attack this complex problem,” Buckner said. “Our hope is that this research could lead to fundamentally new ways to prevent loss of immune system regulation, a common problem in autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes.”
Juliana’s hope for a cure
For Juliana and her family, managing type 1 diabetes is an hour-by-hour way of life that has become routine. They raise money for diabetes research and participate in the Nordstrom Beat the Bridge to Beat Diabetes Walk benefitting JDRF. When Juliana and Graceffo pause to think about what a cure would mean for them, it brings tears to their eyes.
“It’s hard dealing with type 1 diabetes every day,” Juliana said. “A cure would mean that I don’t have to think about diabetes all the time, and I can just be normal.”
Her family hopes that in Juliana’s lifetime, treatments will improve and researchers will find a cure.
“I hope people doing research know we support them and are advocating for advancements,” Graceffo said. “A cure would have a tremendous impact on Juliana’s life and the lives of many others like her. We are optimistic about the future and excited about what is possible with the new technologies and research we’ve been learning about.”
ResourcesGermany will be the one to pay the price if it imposes an embargo on Turkey: Erdoğan
ANKARA
AA photo
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has strongly slammed Germany’s threats to impose economic sanctions on Turkey amid ongoing tension in ties, saying Germany will be the one to pay the price in the event that it imposes an embargo.“You have to take into account a bigger price [that you have to pay] if you think you can frighten Turkey with your threats of embargo,” Erdoğan told ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmakers at a weekly meeting in parliament on July 25.We see that the firms of this country are smarter, more visionary, more prudent than its politicians, Erdoğan said, noting that German investments in Turkey were uninterrupted despite German politicians’ threat.Germany is revealing its real intentions through threats over the economy as the ministers of the country warn Turkey of avoiding investments, the president said.The president said the Turkish government has never rebuffed foreign investments in Turkey, adding there were German companies operating in the country for more than a century.Erdoğan’s remarks followed statements from Berlin that suggested imposing some economic sanctions and issuing travel warnings for German tourists that visiting the country will be at their own risk.Germany on July 20 told its citizens to exercise caution if traveling to Turkey and threatened measures that could hinder German investment there, as its impatience grew with Ankara after the detention of rights activists.Turkey this month detained several human rights activists, including a German and the local head of rights group Amnesty International, as part of the widespread crackdown that followed last year’s failed coup.German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel has said Berlin’s policies toward Turkey should go in a “new direction” and noted he could not advise companies to invest in a country without legal certainty.Turkish authorities had reportedly handed Berlin a list of almost 700 German companies several weeks ago, including Daimler and BASF, who they had accused of having links to the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, who is believed to have orchestrated last July’s failed coup.The Turkish government has later withdrawn its inquiry suggesting a miscommunication.Erdoğan said, despite the correction, German politicians were still escalating the tension between Ankara and Berlin.He indirectly blamed Germany for conducting “bloody massacres” in the First and Second World Wars.“Those who have not avoided bloodshed have no right to criticize us,” the president said, in reference to the detention of foreign citizens in Turkey.Foreign spies are “swarming” Turkey and the Turkish government will “walk all over” them when the time comes, Erdoğan stated.This is my first Monster Hunter game, and I have to say it made it pretty easy to learn the ropes. I'm sure most people already know, but I initially wasn't aware that this wasn't your typical RPG, namely that you upgrade your equipment rather than gaining levels and skills. However, although I thought it wouldn't be as fun, I found myself really enjoying it just as much as the standard RPG. One thing it has over games like Final Fantasy or Persona is that grinding has more of a purpose, as you need monster materials to craft better weapons.
The part that I really have enjoyed so far is the expanse of information that goes into this game. You can definitely play through it without ever looking things up and just hacking away at things, but I really like the weapon designs so of course I look up which weapons not only look the best, but perform as well. The weapon trees expand so far that it's hard to just pick which one you want to use in the end. That, and there are so many weapon types, each with their own nuances.
I'm not too far into the game yet, so I don't know how much more on the content I can review. I will say I find the dialogue a little boring, and it doesn't help that the voices are in some kind of gibberish rather than any known language. Is this something that is consistent in all the MH games? I also turn the volume off when I'm buying stuff from the shops. You can only listen to a shopkeep saying "Hi!" (or "Hrii!") every couple seconds for so long. Sometimes the random Palico meowing or the strained breathing from sprinting annoys me, too, but that's why I play with my own music on. Not taking a star off because I feel like all the sound-related stuff might just be me.
Anyway, fun game, good amount of difficulty, easy to learn.By Nicolas Van Praet
Montreal • Forget Newfoundland, derided for decades as the fish-dependent fiscal laughingstock of Canada. Another province is swiftly climbing the ranks of the penniless: Quebec.
Quebecers will displace their fellow countrymen as the poorest Canadians if current income and purchasing power trends continue, according to a new study released Tuesday by Montreal’s HEC business school.
The stark outlook underscores the urgency for Canada’s second-largest province to fix its structural problems and lends weight to arguments that its untapped natural resources should be developed.
[np-related]
“Compared to the rest of the country, Quebec has a real revenue problem,” says Martin Coiteux, an economist who wrote the study for the HEC’s Centre for Productivity and Prosperity. Unless the province begins an honest, nothing-off-limits self-examination, “it runs the risk of finding itself last among Canadian provinces with respect to income and standard of living.”
It’s the trend lines that should be worrying Quebecers,
Mr. Coiteux said. The income gap is widening between Quebec and Canada’s richest provinces while it is shrinking with the poorest. Over a 31-year period from 1978 to 2009, every region of Canada gained on income against Quebec, according to the study. Buoyed by revenues from offshore oil, Newfoundland has bridged the income gap with Quebec to within $3,127 per adult as of 2009. Ontario’s income was $9,853 higher per adult that year while Alberta’s was $17,947 higher.
That in itself is problematic for Quebec. But the HEC research also shows that one of the key things that made living in Quebec so attractive, namely the lower cost of living compared with other big provinces, is also rapidly changing.
While it remains cheaper to buy consumer goods like food, gasoline and haircuts in Quebec than most other provinces (9% cheaper in Quebec than Alberta in 2009 for Statistics Canada’s standard Consumer Price Index basket of goods, for example), the difference is narrowing.
And that makes the purchase power equation even worse for the French-speaking province.
What explains this income nightmare? Mr. Coiteux summed it up thus: “Proportionately, fewer Quebecers work [than other Canadians]. They work fewer hours on average. And they earn an hourly pay that’s lower than that of most other Canadians.”
The relative poverty of Quebec means that its residents pay less in federal income tax and receive more transfers than those living in richer provinces, which reduces the income gap with Ontario, Alberta and B.C. But that situation also represents “a form of dependency,” Mr. Coiteux noted.
Provincial wealth in Canada is increasingly split along the lines of those who have natural resource wealth and those who do not. In addition to a bounty of hydroelectric power and aluminum production, Quebec also has known shale natural gas and oil deposits on its territory.
The Liberal government of Jean Charest has signalled it is eager to tap its forestry and mining wealth, most notably with its plan to develop a vast portion of its northern territory twice the size of Texas.
It has put oil and gas commercialization on the back burner in the face of public opposition and a continuing ocean boundary spat with Newfoundland. But even the northern development plan isn’t generating unanimity.
Quebecers have proven to be tremendously shy in using their resources to generate wealth, says Youri Chassin, economist at the Montreal Economic Institute, a conservative think-tank.
“We are kind of afraid of the consequences. And it might be good to have public debate about this. But [in that debate], we have to take into account that we are getting poorer.”
National Post
nvanpraet@nationalpost.comGet ready for the next Black Friday protest in Seattle in what has become an annual event.
”IF BLACK LIVES and your life matters more than #BlackFriday cheap deals, then join us and invite everyone. This is a national event,” the Facebook event states for this year’s Black Friday protest.
Photos of the first Black Friday protest in 2014
Organized by the Black Freedom Front Seattle, another Black Friday protest is slated from 1-8 p.m. at Westlake Park. Once again, it targets the Westlake area in downtown Seattle amid the post-Thanksgiving holiday festivities, including the Macy’s star lighting and tree lighting.
The event is titled “Black Lives Matter Friday 3.0 – the Revolution Begins.” About 4,300 people have signed on to attend this year’s protest, with another 7,300 people indicating interest.
Holiday shopping at Westlake
According to the Downtown Seattle Association, the tree lighting production will be downsized this year. There won’t be a giant stage with two hours of live music performances, though the association stresses that the downsizing is not because of the Black Friday protest. The star and tree lighting will still happen, however.
Instead, the association says it is putting its resources into the weeks-long holiday shopping season downtown. There will be food trucks, and the popular Howlidays (dogs in costumes), a holiday market and more.
Seattle’s Black Friday protest
Last year’s Black Friday protest saw hundreds of people march around Westlake Center. They entered Macy’s but were forced to leave. The crowd also stormed a Forever 21. Protesters eventually surrounded the tree lighting event at Westlake and released balloons when the lights went on. They then took part in a sit-in. Seattle police presence was increased during the demonstration |
au Proche Orient; et que la guerre en Syrie concerne directement la Russie parce qu’elle met au grand jour ses succès et ses échecs au Moyen Orient. Les EU feront tout leur possible pour que la Russie et l’Iran se noient en Syrie et n’accepteront pas que l’administration américaine n’ait pas réussi à atteindre son but. La seule possibilité est de partager la Syrie (comme Berlin après la seconde guerre mondiale) parce que personne ne peut gagner. La partition créerait une partie ouest pour les proxies américains, tandis que dans la partie est Damas et ses alliés devront continuer à combattre les djihadistes et l’insurrection et il persistera une instabilité.
La Russie – qui croit que ceci est ce que les EU ont prévu – est au fait de la complexité de cette guerre. Mais faut-il pour autant penser que leur politique à l’encontre des djihadistes en Syrie est habile? Seul le temps saura le dire.
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TelegramA 31-year-old man died after he reportedly ignored warnings about swimming after getting a new tattoo and contracted a flesh-eating bacteria infection in the Gulf of Mexico. The unidentified man, whose case was detailed in the British Medical Journal, had gotten a tattoo on his right calf five days prior to swimming, Metro reported.
The man had chosen a crucifix and pair of praying hands for his latest ink, and began suffering from fever, chills and a rash close to the tattoo after swimming, the news outlet reported. He reportedly developed sepsis in his right calf, which had turned purple by the time he was admitted to the hospital.
DOG FLU IN FLORIDA: HEALTH OFFICIALS CONFIRM 7 CASES OF POTENTIALLY DEADLY VIRUS
Two weeks after he was placed on life support, his condition further deteriorated and his kidneys failed, according to Metro. Doctors reportedly believed his years of alcohol abuse left him susceptible to vibriosis infection and septic shock.
While the man’s nationality was not identified, vibriosis causes an estimated 80,000 illnesses and 100 deaths in the U.S. each year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), patients become infected by consuming raw or undercooked seafood, or by exposing a wound to seawater.New Hampshire, a state that was noncommittal on Medicaid expansion, is now on the brink of expanding coverage to approximately 50,000 poor residents. The Republican-controlled Senate voted to pass a state-modified version of expansion earlier this month. And, on Tuesday, a House panel endorsed the motion. The Democratic-controlled House is expected to pass the bill in a vote next week.
In Virginia, Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe has been fighting for Medicaid expansion since he was elected in November (the Republican-led House is opposed). Tensions came to a head this weekend when several hundred demonstrators gathered outside the state capitol in Richmond to rally for Medicaid expansion, carrying signs that read "We need Medicaid expansion now" and "Get sick, go broke, unacceptable!"
In Pennsylvania, Republican Governor Tom Corbett had originally proposed a modified version of the program, tying in a controversial requirement that mandated those working fewer than 20 hours per week participate in a job-training program to qualify for coverage. The governor has since submitted a softer proposal that "restores some benefits" and drops the work-search requirement in favor of a voluntary pilot program. That plan, currently under review by the federal government, is unlikely to win support from Washington, given Corbett's stipulations.
Representatives for Utah Governor Gary Herbert traveled to D.C. this week to discuss Medicaid expansion efforts with administration officials. The governor, who initially refrained from opting in, in January vowed to take action on Medicaid expansion, saying while he opposes President Obama's health care law, the state has an obligation to help its poor. But his proposal, a "block grant" option that would use federal dollars to cover the poor in private plans, failed to win the support of Republican leaders in the House and Senate. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that "though he lacks the backing of the Legislature, lawmakers haven't tied his hands." Herbert advisers meeting with the Obama administration this week include Wesley Smith, director of state and federal relations; David Patton, head of the state's Department of Health; and staff members from the Health Department's Medicaid office, according to the Deseret News.
Movement in Missouri has been stymied by a standoff between Democratic Governor Jay Nixon, an advocate of expansion, and the state's GOP Legislature. But even there, the dynamic is starting to shift. KCUR.org reported Tuesday that Missouri politicians "might be inching toward middle ground that would expand Medicaid eligibility while reforming the safety-net program to encourage recipients to work," according to two key participants in the talks. Legislation pending in the House is scheduled for a hearing on on March 25.In the future of Warhammer 40,000, humanity cling desperately to faltering technology they no longer understands, knowing once crucial systems break they can’t repair them and everyone will be doomed. Learning a lesson from all this, Relic is stripping out wonky old multiplayer tech from its WH40K: Dawn of War games, replacing GameSpy and Games for Windows – Live with warming Steam. And now I’m suffering frightful visions of a steampunk 40K spin-off. Brr. Chilling.
The first Dawn of War and its expansions use GameSpy’s services for multiplayer matchmaking, so without intervention that’d become unplayable online when Glu Mobile turns off the GameSpy servers on May 31. Last week Relic patched DoW to swap out GameSpy for Steamworks, going over to the same multiplayer backend as Company of Heroes 2, though it may be a bit wonky for now. Dawn of War design lead Philippe Boulle explains:
In the short term, there are likely to be some technical issues with the new setup. Recreating the multiplayer infrastructure for seven titles is no small feat, and there will be bugs. Ultimately, we felt that it would be better to get the update out in a slightly imperfect state in time to prevent an outright interruption in multiplayer play. So, bugs.
Relic are also cutting Games for Windows – Live out from Dawn of War II and its first expansion, Chaos Rising. They have always used Steamworks but mostly for DRM, relying on GFWL for matchmaking and achievements and all that. Now Relic are working on replacing that with Steam. (The expandalone DoW 2 – Retribution and its multiplayer spin-off The Last Standalone were always Steam through and through.)
Boulle’s story is that Relic simply “intend to take this opportunity to migrate them over to Steam in order for a consistent multiplayer experience across the entire portfolio.” GFWL is horrible, granted, but honestly, what is going on with it?
Relic join an ever-growing lineup of developers who just happen to casually be removing GFWL from their games, no real reason, they just felt like it. Reports did say that GFWL was shutting down in July, but Microsoft pulled that statement and have since avoided giving proper answers about what is happening to it. Something’s afoot. Oh well. Whatever’s going on, DoW 2 will soon be free from GFWL, which is great.Oppo have recently released their second planar headphone titled the PM-2 which looks a lot like the PM-1 only this time the big unique selling point is the fact that you should get all of the benefits of the PM-1 but at a more tempting $699 price tag, especially to a lot of people struggling to hit the $1k mark for the PM-1. There are some physical adjustments to fit into that alluring price tag but subtlety is the watchword here in terms of visuals and in the physical hand the PM-2 looks almost identical.
Oppo also used the gestation period of the PM-1 in the market to take back plenty of feedback from customers and reviewers alike before launching the PM-2. I’m usually a proponent of a warm, relaxing sound, but the original PM-1 didn’t really mesh with me when I first heard it. A little more treble and air would have done wonders for alleviating it’s impact. The problem seemed to be that OPPO put a felt disk in the middle of its pads, covering some of the driver. This acted as a low pass filter, which shelved the treble a little too much for some tastes. I am glad to see now that Oppo saw fit to roll out a new set of pads for the PM-1 free of charge to existing owners that goes a hell of long way to addressing the original concerns. The rev 2 lambskin earpads apparently have a new acoustic design (the removal of the felt disc ring and changing the perforation on the wall) and by all accounts the PM-1 treble has benefited nicely from the new pads. The feedback on the PM-1 has now allowed Oppo to now roll out the PM-2 with a tonality (new pads and all) and a price that might be a very nice sweet spot indeed for those looking for a long term investment.
Packaging and accessories
The PM1 is a lavishly packaged headphone, with a wooden presentation box, expensive stand, and nice metal accents. But OPPO knows that not everybody wants to pay for unnecessary extras, so OPPO released the PM2. It, according to OPPO, is basically the same headphone minus the box, stand, leather padding, and metal accents, for $400 less. Not only did OPPO release a dramatically cheaper version of their headphone, they also listened to the feedback and designed new pads to alleviate the shelved treble woes people had with the PM1. Now, the pads have no filter, which allows for the driver to shine, and shine it does.
While the PM2 does not come with the fancy extras the PM1 has, it still has the bare essentials: a 3M long 6.3mm cable, a 4ft 3.5mm cable (trust me, this makes sense; I’ll explain later), and a carrying case. Though I do have some qualms about the carrying case being slightly too small. It fits the headphones, but I have to unplug the cable. It’s not a huge problem, but I am worried that constant unplugging of the cable will wear out the jacks, so I never use the case. Before receiving the headphones, I was concerned that the pleather used would be flimsy, hearkening back to my days using cheap headphones. Thankfully, while the pads are unabashedly pleather, the pleather is of good quality and probably won’t peel like on headphones like the Sony V6 and such. Of course, leather would be nicer, but if it means getting the PM2 at almost half the price of the PM1, I’m all for it.
Efficiency
What I find most interesting about the PM2 is that it is incredibly easy to drive. I hate using portable amps, so I figured the PM2 would languish in my room being unused most of the time because I rarely spend time in my dorm. Thankfully, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Out of my Galaxy Note 3, I was able to get more than loud enough at 75% volume, so the PM2 has been one of my main portable headphones since getting it (which may be cringe-worthy to some, but I usually prefer open portable headphones to closed ones because Boston streets are pretty busy and I like knowing what’s around me). The 4ft long cable is perfect for my usage.
Click on next page for sound impressions…SALT LAKE CITY (AP) A panel of Utah lawmakers is recommending the Mormon church's top lobbyist take a new job overseeing the Legislature's office that drafts laws, gives legal advice and staffs committees.
A bipartisan group of a dozen lawmakers unanimously approved John Q. Cannon to take over the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel in September.
The appointment illustrates what's sometimes seen as a thin line between Utah's government and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a faith to which most lawmakers and a majority of Utah residents belong.
Cannon's appointment is subject to approval from the full Legislature early next year.
Lawmakers say they picked John Q. Cannon to take over the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel because he spent two decades working there before leaving to work for the church in 2012. He says he'll answer to and be completely loyal to the Legislature and the people they represent." A stop-start session like today’s is tough for everyone "
Albert Park, Melbourne, Saturday March 16
SERGIO PEREZ, MP4-28A-06
FP3 8 laps 1m33.527s(+6.598s) 18th Q1 (on Full Wets then Intermediates) 1m44.300s 4th
“Well, even though we didn’t manage to finish it, that was a really dramatic qualifying session, full of suspense and excitement.
“But, even though that uncertainty made things tricky for all the teams, I think our guys did a fantastic job. They kept calm and focused throughout the whole session, even in the gaps and delays, and as a result Jenson and I were always confident that everything was totally under control.
“We’ll have to follow a really tight schedule tomorrow – including a very short turn-around between qualifying and race – and that’ll be tough for everyone, especially the guys in the garage. Boys, I appreciate all your hard work in advance, okay?!
“Even so, I think the FIA stewards made the right call to postpone Q2 and Q3. The conditions were becoming too dangerous – in terms of low visibility as well as low grip.
“Tomorrow may be a tricky day for us, because our car isn’t yet as competitive as it’ll become, but our aim will be to score points with both cars so as to keep in touch with the teams who currently appear to be a little way ahead of us in terms of performance.”
JENSON BUTTON, MP4-28A-05
FP3 7 laps 1m33.236s (+6.307s) 17th Q1 (on Full Wets then Intermediates) 1m44.688s 8th
“A stop-start session like today’s is tough for everyone. For us drivers, it means we have to build ourselves up for the challenge of qualifying again and again – a bit like asking Usain Bolt to get ready for five 100-metre sprints one after the other and aborting four of them.
“That level of disruption creates quite a lot of mental and psychological stress for any athlete – but it was even worse for the fans, who’d been waiting excitedly for qualifying all day long and who then had to sit in the pouring rain with no on-track action to entertain them. So I’m very sorry for them, because the fans are what all sport is ultimately all about, but I hope we can make it up to them tomorrow by putting on a really exciting race.
“Even so, I believe the FIA had no choice. It was the right call to postpone Q2 and Q3 until tomorrow, for safety reasons.
“Having said that, deferring the completion of qualifying until Sunday morning means that I won’t now be able to go for coffee on the beach, which is my traditional pre-race routine here in Melbourne. But, you know, maybe that’s not such a bad thing, because it means I’ll be able to keep my Sunday morning Melbourne coffee as a lucky charm, since I don’t think we’ll be quick enough to win here tomorrow, so my coffee-then-win record here will remain intact.”
MARTIN WHITMARSH - Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
“Unseasonally heavy rain rendered today’s qualifying session unviable, with the result that we were only able to complete Q1. Q2 and Q3 will be run at 11.00am tomorrow morning, until which time all the cars will be held in parc fermé conditions.
“We started today’s Q1 session on Full Wets [tyres], but Jenson made the canny call to try Intermediates reasonably early, and immediately showed by neatly posting the quickest time theretofore that that was the way to go. Checo followed suit, and also recorded a fast and error-free lap.
“The weather is forecast to be dry tomorrow morning, and obviously we didn’t learn very much today about how our car will perform in the dry because it was so wet this afternoon.
“Time will tell.”Mario Balotelli is alive! A few days had passed without a story of him breaking the record for a bar bill or being seen with scantily clad ladies draped over him. We were genuinely getting worried about his safety, but fear not because he's turned up!
Catalan newspaper Sport are incensed over comments he's made to an Italian magazine regarding the Barcelona team.
When asked if he'd like to play for the club, he said "Play for the club? I do not play with girls."
Balotelli may still be angry after his Italy side were torn to pieces by Spain in the final of Euro 2012 but the Catalan press are fiercely protective of Barcelona and the club's players and have made the issue their top story right now. Sport.es say that Balotelli should concentrate on doing his talking on the pitch.
The Manchester City striker wasn't always irritated by Barcelona. His career could have been a lot different had the club taken up an opportunity they had to sign him. As a youngster Mario Balotelli stayed and trained with Barcelona for a few days and former La Masia coach Franz Sanchez told newspaper Sport.es "It was not too many days, three or four workouts and a tournament.
"He seemed a quiet boy, spoke little, also the language barrier, but he was very well behaved at all times. His attitude was good."
Barcelona didn't sign Balotelli but Sanchez says this was down to no contract being agreed and not a reflection on how they thought he'd progress "There was no agreement on economic conditions between the club and their representatives. It was not a sport decision."
Balotelli hasn't done too badly for himself since but he may not be looked on very kindly by Barcelona fans or the 'girls' who play for them as well in future.CLOSE Former Mesa police Officer Philip "Mitch" Brailsford is on trial for second-degree murder in the shooting of Texas man Daniel Shaver in January 2016. Here's an overview of the case. Wochit
Former Mesa police Officer Philip "Mitch" Brailsford was on the stand during his second-degree murder trial on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017 at Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, Ariz. (Photo11: Rob Schumacher/The Republic)
An Arizona jury on Thursday found former Mesa police officer Philip "Mitch" Brailsford not guilty of second-degree murder charges in the 2016 shooting of an unarmed Texas man who was on his knees begging for his life.
Eight jurors deliberated for less than six hours over two days, finding Brailsford not guilty of the second-degree murder charge as well as the lesser charge of reckless manslaughter.
The packed courtroom in Maricopa County Superior Court was quiet after one of Judge George Foster's clerks read the verdict.
Brailsford's acquittal came after impassioned closing arguments that offered contrasting narratives of why Brailsford shot and killed 26-year-old Daniel Shaver in a hotel hallway two years ago.
Shaver was kneeling, crying and begging not to be shot after he was confronted by six Mesa police officers in a La Quinta Inn & Suites hallway on Jan. 18, 2016. Brailsford, who was fired two months after the shooting, testified that he fired his AR-15 rifle five times because it appeared Shaver was reaching for a gun.
“If this situation happened exactly as it did that time, I would have done the same thing," Brailsford said in his testimony.
Read more: Ex-S.C. cop gets 20 years in prison for fatally shooting Walter Scott, an unarmed black man
Read more: How rare officer convictions are in police shootings
Laney Sweet, Shaver's widow, said she had no comment to make about the verdict as, crying, she exited an elevator with family.
Mark Geragos, Sweet's lawyer, called the shooting an "execution."
"The justice system miserably failed Daniel (Shaver) and his family," Geragos said.
Brailsford's lawyer, Michael Piccarreta, said he had expected the jury would come back with a positive outcome for his client.
“We had confidence that the jury would recognize this as a tragedy, not a murder, and that Mitch Brailsford acted in a split-second as he was trained," he said.
After the verdict, Brailsford and his family were escorted by a Maricopa County sheriff's deputy out of the courtroom through a back door.
Shooting captured on video
CLOSE Mesa police have released footage from Officer Philip "Mitch" Brailsford's body camera of the fatal shooting of an unarmed Texas man at a hotel in 2016. This edited video shows the moments leading up Daniel Shaver's death. Mesa Police Department
Footage of the shooting, captured on two police body cameras, formed the foundation of the prosecution's case. The judge did not allow jurors to hear about an etching on the dust cover of the rifle Brailsford used to shoot Shaver, which said "You're f--ked," because he felt it was prejudicial.
Throughout the trial, which began in late October, Deputy County Attorney Susie Charbel portrayed Brailsford as a "killer" who claimed he feared for his life to cover up an unjustified shooting.
In her closing arguments, Charbel told the jury that an intoxicated Shaver looked "pathetic" before he was killed and didn't get a chance to know who shot him.
“(Brailsford) doesn’t get a pass because he was wearing a police uniform that night,” Charbel said.
Read more: Hero cop of Pulse shooting is being terminated from force
Read more: Re-entry program helps inmate fight anger issues
Piccarreta said Brailsford followed the tactics of a well-trained officer. If jurors believe the training is wrong, he said, that’s not something Brailsford should be accountable for.
Piccarreta said Brailsford shot Shaver because he was protecting himself, five other officers and a woman police had taken into custody.
“The last thing in the world that Mitch Brailsford wanted to do that night was shoot. His goal wasn’t to kill Daniel Shaver,” Piccarreta told the jury. “Shaver is not a bad person, but his actions are what brought the police that night.”
Reaction to verdict
Former Mesa police officer Philip "Mitch" Brailsford was found not guilty of second-degree murder in the 2016 shooting of an unarmed Texas man. (Photo11: Nick Oza/The Republic)
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery's office brought the charge in March 2016 against Brailsford, and he issued a statement shortly after the verdict.
“This case did not and does not represent the vast number of honorable men and women who wear the uniform of law enforcement in Maricopa County," the statement said. "Should similar facts as readily evident as portrayed in the video ever present themselves again, we will do our job and place the matter before a jury.”
Mesa Mayor John Giles, in a statement provided by his spokeswoman, said, "We trust the judicial process and respect the court's decision."
Sgt. Diana Williams, a spokeswoman for Mesa police, emailed a statement, saying the department did a complete investigation of the shooting and trusted the criminal justice system.
"We have confidence in the due process of the criminal justice system to review the facts completely and accurately," the statement said. "Moving forward, we will continue to evaluate our policies, tactics, and training in pursuit of operational best practices. We are committed in our mission to be transparent and partner within our city to prevent and reduce crime; to build respect, trust and preserve human rights."
Nate Gafvert, president of the Mesa police union, which has supported Brailsford, said the trial took an emotional toll on both Brailsford's and Shaver's family. He defended Brailsford, saying the former officer followed his training the night of the shooting.
“We’re extremely relieved with the verdict, although not surprised. We believe Mitch Brailsford acted as he was trained to do, as all police officers are trained to do," Gafvert said.
"This was a terrible event with a terrible loss of life, but in no way does that mean anyone should be charged. This has been a long, emotional and expensive trial for everyone involved. We feel these charges should never have been filed in the first place.”
A gun pointed out a window
CLOSE Philip "Mitch" Brailsford, a Mesa police officer, was wearing a body camera when he shot and killed Daniel Shaver in January 2016. Brailsford was later charged with Shaver's murder. Mesa Police Department
The shooting occurred after police were called to a Mesa La Quinta Inn & Suites on a report of a person pointing a gun out a fifth-floor window. A couple in a hotel hot tub told staff they saw a silhouette with a gun pointed toward a nearby highway.
Police determined Shaver was unarmed after he was shot. They did find a pellet gun in his hotel room, which Shaver used for his job as a pest-control worker.
Shaver was in Mesa that night on a work-related trip from Granbury, Texas.
Police later learned Shaver had been showing his pellet gun to Monique Portillo and Luis Nuñez, two hotel guests Shaver had met earlier that night. Both testified Shaver had been playing with the pellet gun near his hotel room window.
The police video, which was released Thursday evening by Mesa police, shows Shaver was confused by some of Sgt. Charles Langley's commands when he exited his hotel room.
At one point, while Shaver was on his knees, he put his hands behind his back and was ordered to put his hands back up in the air.
Langley, one of six officers in the hallway and who has since retired from the force and moved to the Philippines, warned Shaver would get shot if he put his hands down again, the video shows.
Shaver began to cry and said, "Please don't shoot me."
Trying to follow Langley's commands, Shaver began to crawl on his hands and knees toward the officers, the video shows. But Shaver stopped crawling and raised his right hand near his waistband, prompting Brailsford to fire.
Research on charges against police
Since 2005, one other Arizona officer had been previously charged with second-degree murder. He later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter.
In 2013, former Phoenix police Officer Richard Chrisman was sentenced to seven years in prison for fatally shooting 29-year-old Danny Frank Rodriguez in 2010.
Since 2005, 84 police officers across the nation have been charged with murder or manslaughter in connection with an on-duty shooting, according to research by Philip Stinson, an associate professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
In that time, 32 officers have been convicted, while 40 have not, the research shows. The remaining cases are pending.
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/12/08/ex-officer-found-not-guilty-shooting-death-daniel-shaver/935524001/Houston woman arrested in cyclist's hit-and-run death
Margaret Renee Mayer, 35, is accused of intentionally not stopping her car after hitting 24-year-old Chelsea Norman, who was riding home at about 10:20 p.m. Dec. 1 from Whole Foods Market in Montrose. Norman later died from her injuries. less Margaret Renee Mayer, 35, is accused of intentionally not stopping her car after hitting 24-year-old Chelsea Norman, who was riding home at about 10:20 p.m. Dec. 1 from Whole Foods Market in Montrose. Norman... more Photo: Houston Police Department Photo: Houston Police Department Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Houston woman arrested in cyclist's hit-and-run death 1 / 24 Back to Gallery
Police arrested a Houston woman Wednesday on a charge of hit and run stemming from what authorities say was a night of drinking and driving that led to her striking and killing a local cyclist.
Chelsea Norman's death early December on her way home from work galvanized the city's bike riding community and spurred calls for justice and answers. Wednesday, cyclists applauded the police work, but some said they were disappointed a more severe charge was not applied.
In a document filed by the Harris County District Attorney's Office, Margaret Renee Mayer, 35, is accused of intentionally not stopping her car after hitting Norman, who was riding home at about 10:20 p.m. from Whole Foods Market in Montrose.
Victor Senties, spokesman for Houston Police, confirmed Mayer's arrest.
Norman, 24, was gravely injured but alive when she was found sprawled on the curb along Waugh and at the base of a bike lane sign. She died days later at a Houston hospital.
With the charge, authorities do not contend Mayer broke the law by hitting Norman, but by failing to stop afterward and render aid.
Mayer has a prior conviction in 2002 for drunken driving. The latest charge is a felony and carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison because it involved a death.
Mayor Annise Parker, who after Norman's death called for better safety awareness by drivers and cyclists, called the tragedy a senseless loss of life and praised police.
"There was a suspect identified early on and we have been confident from the beginning this case would be solved," Parker said in a statement. "It may have seemed as if it was taking longer than it should have. Detectives wanted to nail down all the forensic evidence to to avoid issues with prosecution."
'Very intoxicated'
Authorities allege in the affidavit they have built a case against Mayer in part with the statements of people who spoke with her before and after the crash.
Investigators also took DNA swabs from her car, according to the affidavit, but it does not note the results of any testing.
A neighbor supposedly told authorities that the morning after the crash that Mayer's car was damaged and that there was a piece of denim material stuck to it.
It is unclear whether Norman was riding in the middle of Waugh or in the bike lane, as well as how well her bike may have been lighted.
The affidavit signed by an assistant district attorney describes how the investigation of Norman's death unfolded behind the scenes as cyclists held public gatherings in which they mourned Norman's death and called on police to do more to find whoever hit her.
Anonymous tips to Crime Stoppers led authorities to a woman who said she had been drinking with Mayer the night of the accident, but left her at a bar.
She got a call from Mayer the next day.
"The defendant contacted her, and told her that she was very intoxicated the previous night and that she had gotten lost somewhere on Waugh Drive," the affidavit notes, "... defendant told her that she thought she hit someone because her window was shatter (sic), but she could not remember what happened."
Among the other evidence authorities said they have compiled is a recording of a telephone conversation three days after the crash between Mayer's brother and her mother while he was in the Harris County jail on unrelated charges.
"They can be heard talking about the crash," according to the affidavit. "In the calls, they referenced the defendant as 'Auntie M' and that she wrecked her car while she was drunk and hit a bike."
No additional charges
Cyclists questioned why more charges were not filed.
"She should also be charged with failure to comply with the safe passing ordinance," said Michael Payne, executive director of Bike Houston, who also wondered why a manslaughter charge wasn't applied.
Authorities have said such criminal cases are difficult to win in court because there are often no witnesses, and typically both the motorists and the cyclist are partially at fault.
Cyclists countered penalties and enforcement need to be clear to convince people to drive and ride safely.
"Fatalities happen when people fail to comply with laws, whether it is speeding, DUI, or running a red light, the consequences are always greater for cyclists than they are for motorists," Payne said. "Vulnerability is the reason why we have increased penalties for speeding in construction zones, or passing too close to a police officer on the side of the road."
Police have said there were no witnesses to the crash that killed Norman.
It is rare in Houston for motorists to be charged with crimes in connection with deaths of cyclists, which in the past has spurred cyclists to accuse officials of treating bicycle accidents as a low priority, and bike and pedestrian safety as second-class to free-flowing vehicle traffic.
A Houston Chronicle review going back to 2009 showed that prior to Mayer, just four motorists were charged out of 23 car crashes in which cyclists were killed.
In three of those cases the defendants were not sent to prison.
Charges remain pending in the fourth case in which a law school student is accused of failing to stop after fatally hitting a man riding a bicycle in the early morning hours on Richmond in October.
Enforcement lacking
Houston's cycling community united behind a push for better biking safety following Norman's death, with many riders detailing their own close calls and concerns to city officials.
Their goal, they said, was to increase awareness among drivers and cyclists, and press for more attention from state and local officials.
"Penalties need to be tougher for collisions with cyclists and pedestrians," Payne said. "We don't have a culture of respect for these users.... Our society has the capacity to manage this issue, we simply need civic leaders to step up and set the tone."
City officials, notably Parker, have stressed everyone needs to respect the rights of others on the road. Parker last month blamed impaired and distracted drivers and cyclists riding at night without proper lights as the causes of most fatal crashes.
Many riders believe lax enforcement of safety laws and poor street design puts them in harm's way and is leading to some of the wrecks.
A check of municipal court records conducted at the request of the Chronicle found that not one citation had been issued to a motorist during the first six months of a new ordinance, which began in May and required cars to stay at least three feet from bikes and pedestrians, and trucks six feet away.
"It used to be the people who had ridden smartly were not getting hit," rider Dan Morgan told the city council last week. "They were not part of the statistics, they are part of the statistics now."
Drivers and some cyclists, meanwhile, counter that riders need to clean up their act as well.
Cyclists running red lights is a frequent complaint in some neighborhoods, where motorists said the call for greater safety is undermined by the often aggressive pose some riders strike when they hit the streets.
"I guarantee you I am not going to run a red light in my car, because I'm afraid I'll get hit," Montrose resident Tom Clementine said. "But these guys will just fly by, not a care in the world."
Personal Safety
Cyclists acknowledge their own situational awareness and decisions can improve safety. Many rides are organized specifically so riders are in groups, as opposed to riding alone, because there is safety in numbers. Within the cycling community, riders often police themselves for proper equipment like helmets and nighttime lights.
"I have to admit I have ridden without lights and recently I have seen how important it is and so I got lights," said Hecort Garcia, a local cyclist active in some of the city's group rides, including the controversial Critical Mass rides at the end of each month. "We definitely need to be more aware and ride safe at night."
Police are working on an educational campaign for cyclists and drivers, and talking to local cyclists about other programs.
Council members meanwhile are debating other changes, such as registration for bicycles in the city to encourage not only better safety awareness, but also to raise money for bike infrastructure improvements.
Though the city is spending millions on new trails and bayou improvements – many that benefit cyclists via off-street routes – investment in street improvements for cyclists has lagged.
Many of the bike lane lines painted on city streets are faded, and they hug gutters that can be littered with debris. Those deficient facilities play a role in overall bike safety because it forces cyclists who otherwise would stay as far right as possible further into the interior of the street.
"Have you been to where this accident happened," Garcia said, referring to Norman's fatal crash. "It is jacked up right there, the street is crooked."Hungama TV's original 2004 logo, when it was under UTV Software Communications
Hungama TV is a TV channel for children in India based in Mumbai. Originally a subsidiary of UTV Software Communications launched on September 26, 2004[2], the channel was sold to Disney in 2006.[3] Disney then bought UTV in 2011 thus reuniting UTV and Hungama TV under same ownership of Disney. Hungama TV is now an operating unit of Disney Channels Worldwide. It does not have an English audio track.
History [ edit ]
UTV and Ronnie Screwvala formed United Home Entertainment with 51% and 49% ownership interests respectively. United Home was formed to launch an Indian children's channel. The company hired TAG for channel packaging. Chief Operating Officer Purnendu Bose was hired and was expected to hire 100 employees for the channel. Rs 100 crore was the expected initial investment with expectations of break even in three years. In September 2004, Hungama TV started broadcasting as the first domestic children's channel.[4]
In March 2005, one of the UTV founders, Zarina Mehta became head of programming for Hungama. In early 2006, Mehta was promoted to chief operating officer of the channel.[5]
In July 2006, Disney India acquired a controlling stake in Hungama TV from UTV Software Communications Limited while also taking a 14.9% share in UTV.[6] In 2006, Disney acquired Hungama TV from UTV.[7]
The channel started with both live-action and animated programming but, following the success of Doraemon, gradually shifted its focus to solely animated programming.[8][9] In 2013 Hungama started adding original Indian series as a part of a localisation strategy.[1]
Programming [ edit ]
Controversy [ edit ]
A Hindi dub of the Shin Chan anime started airing on Hungama TV on June 19, 2006, and it gained up to 60% of the channel's market share. [10] There were complaints from parents over the main character's behaviour and the attitudes exhibited towards elders on the show, both of which were seen as a negative influence on children. The show was banned from Indian television in 2008 but soon after it started airing again on Hungama TV and has become a popular show among kids.[11 |
if you want to have all of that, plus enjoy story and character development, Star Citizen reckons it has you covered.
Much has been written and discussed about Star Citizen, particularly its record-smashingly successful—and ongoing—crowdfunding campaign (more on that below). Not as much has been written about the fact that it's actually two games in one: Star Citizen, a "traditional" space sim on steroids, and Squadron 42, the single-player campaign that takes place within its universe.
This is Blastr, so we care about games with science and plot (space battles, too). So we had a chat with Star Citizen's creator and CEO of Cloud Imperium Games, Chris Roberts, about this current and currently developing game.
What goes into building a good star-spanning sci-fi universe?
A lot. It starts with the world. I like to take an historical time or situation and extrapolate it into future, which I think a lot of good science fiction does. It resonates and feels real to people.
We settled on the decline and fall of the Roman empire. But instead of it being the Roman empire, it's the United Empire of Earth, and we've got surrounding enemy alien factions who are analogous to the fall of the Roman empire.
Once we figured out the lore and the background, and fleshed out a timeline from today to when the game starts in 2945, we started to work with a lot of concept artists. I've done a lot of film stuff, and I was heavily pulling out top film concept guys who've done science fiction. We had a pretty large group of them, probably about 20 at the height, building out what the spaceships, the environments and the characters look like. Those are the sort of things that go into building the world.
Zoom In
What are the game's sci-fi movie/TV influences?
I would say things like Star Wars and Alien or Aliens, in terms of general look, had a decent amount of influence on the world. It's not quite as dark as Alien or Aliens would be, but something [director Neill] Blomkamp would do, District 9 sort of stuff. Somewhere between Star Wars and that, I guess, would be a good way to put it.
How realistic is the game?
The modern engine we use now has a pretty sophisticated physics system [CryEngine 4], and we design our ships to feel like a spaceship. They're fully modeled, the math is fully simulated, and they are quite realistic as to how a real spaceship would behave at that speed.... Newtonian physics applies to the ships.
We limit the top speed for when the players are flying around in combat … because if you're fighting at fast speeds, you'll have a brief moment where you can shoot each other. And then you would pass each other. And then you would turn around a couple of days later. That's not really fun as a game, so we keep the speed slow.
There's also a bit of a physical reason: Without any artificial gravity adaptor aboard the ship, you couldn't rapidly change your heading without a huge amount of g-force on the inhabitants of the ship. And you don't want to turn your humans into jelly.
What about the game will entice sci-fi fans who aren't gamers?
A couple of things: There's a fair amount of gameplay that isn't necessarily combat-focused. You can explore, fly around the universe and sight-see, and do things like trading, mine for ore, rescue and recovery, scavenge or run information. We're building Star Citizen in such a way that you don't necessarily have to be into blowing people up.
From the large group of people we already have in our community, I can tell there's a lot of them that aren't focused on combat. But they are excited about the other aspects, like building up a trade empire or finding a new planet.
Zoom In
Obviously, if you're a bounty hunter or a pirate, you're more combat-focused—and in Squadron 42, because in that one, you're serving in a military operation.
You've created other games, such as the Wing Commander series. What did you learn about your other games that you're applying to Star Citizen?
Wing Commander was one of the very first space games, and it [had] fairly primitive graphics, almost like a cartoon. But Wing Commander focused on a real narrative story, with characters. The moment I knew Wing Commander was going to work was when I could see people on CompuServe and chat boards discussing the characters, the wingmen that you talked to and flew with. It was like they were talking about real people.
That was kind of the bigger learning aspects of it for me: You don't have to have a high score. It was more about putting [the game] in a context of a world and story.
What is Squadron 42? How does it connect to Star Citizen?
Star Citizen has two parts, a single-person campaign, called Squadron 42, and that's 100 percent the spiritual success of Wing Commander but done with today's technology. If I was doing a AAA Wing Commander for EA, Squadron 42 is going to be that and then some.
On top of that, when you're wandering around outside of a single-player campaign, you have your own character and you'll be interacting with other characters all around the universe … who will be both NPCs and also other players. So it should feel like a huge living world.
What can you tell us about the plot? (Warning: spoilers.)
Bishop, a very well-known and -liked admiral of the UEE—think of him like Maximus from Gladiator—won a battle [with the enemy Vanduul] at great personal loss; his daughter commanded one of the other ships in the fleet, and she sacrifices herself to save Bishop's ship. That's one of the reasons why Bishop is haunted.
Zoom In
You start out in the military earning citizenship, and you get your wish to become a fighter pilot. While you're training, Admiral Bishop and the [UEE] task force go off into Vanduul space and take the fight to them. As you come out to deploy, the news comes through that they've lost contact with the task force. Bishop goes missing, and the rest of the game is you trying to find him.
You go behind enemy lines, trying to find out where Bishop is, and you see things that have happened along the way that gives you [a reaction] like, Has he lost his mind? What's happening? It's sort of the Ninth Legion mixed with Heart of Darkness.
So you get behind enemy lines, and you find out there's a Vanduul plan to shortcut past the Earth's defenses, and you have to stop it.
At the end of it there's this big last stand, and you get back to human space. But Bishop is still left, behind the Vanduul side, kind of like Commander Cain on the Pegasus in [classic] Battlestar Galactica. You come back a bit of a war hero, and you muster out, and potentially Bishop's still out there fighting the battle behind enemy lines.
Where do you see space sims going in the future?
I would see them going in the direction of Star Citizen, because it's not about being locked in your ship. We're a full first-person game. I can EVA out over to a derelict wreck, see if there's anything to salvage. Maybe there's an alien artifact, and I [can] find someone who knows what it does. The whole thing is like an adventure game, an FPS and a space sim all rolled into one.
[It's like being in the] Millennium Falcon with one of your buddies in a rear turret while you're flying it, and someone else down in the engine room making sure the engine's working. You can get up and walk around inside your ship in a fully detailed first-person environment in super-high fidelity. It's fully modeled and fully functional. The bigger ones have crews of dozens, if not hundreds, of people.
There's a new Elite out now [Elite: Dangerous], and part of that roadmap of the future of Elite is allowing you not just be in a cockpit, to get up walk around the ship and the space station. I think it's something a lot of people would like.
Zoom In
Star Citizen has a wildly successful crowdfunding campaign. How much have you earned?
$74.8 million.
Did you think your campaign would have earned this much money?
No. Not at all. We started crowdfunding, and part of the point of crowdfunding was to prove demand for this style of game. I set out to raise $2 to $4 [million], and that would help close private investors and set evaluation. We did much better than that on the initial campaign. So we ended up never doing a private investment round.
Because we have more funding, the scope of the project has increased, so we can build a bigger, more ambitious game. The original plan was to build a stripped-down version of what we're building, and once it was in the early alpha state we'd sell it as an early-access alpha, kind of like Minecraft did; it wasn't finished, but Notch was letting people give $80, $90 and get Minecraft, and he kept on updating it. That was my original plan: Get something out there, keep iterating on it, make it become the thing I wanted it to become. But we did so well early on and thereafter that I was able to a) not take investors and b) speed up the plan to make it as big and fully featured as possible.
When can gamers play the game?
We're crowdfunded, so we actually share components of the game as we're building it. Right now people can play Arena Commander, which is the space dogfight section of the game, set up in a simulation inside our universe. We're going to release a first-person combat section on top of the space dogfighting section next month, and then we keep on adding all these modules.
The single-player first episode of the story is going to be out at the end of this year. I would say that the final commercial [release] will probably be the end of 2016. But you'll be able to experience most of what you'll be doing in the game at toward the end of this year.
As of right now, people are playing portions of the game, and in some ways, what you can playing now is in some ways as good as other space games, because our game has so much more to it, and we're delivering in sections. Anyone comes in now and backs the game will get to play the early build and see it grow and will get the fully finished stuff as it's delivered.
We're having a lot of fun building Star Citizen. It's a very different way of making a game: an open, collaborative format. If you're into having the opportunity to give feedback that can actually affect the game, then it's a fun thing to get involved with, [rather] than wait until we're finished. When we're finished, the opportunity for feedback is less. Now people get to play and help shape how the game will end up.Pringlea antiscorbutica, commonly known as Kerguelen cabbage, is a flowering plant and the sole member of the monotypic genus Pringlea in the cabbage family, Brassicaceae. Its common name comes from the archipelago of its discovery, the Kerguelen Islands, and its generic name derives from Sir John Pringle, President of the Royal Society at the time of its discovery by Captain James Cook's Surgeon, William Anderson in 1776.
Distribution [ edit ]
The species grows on the remote Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Crozet, Prince Edward and Kerguelen Islands.[1] The ancestor of P. antiscorbutica probably migrated from South America some five million years ago.[2]
Ecology [ edit ]
The home islands of Kerguelen cabbage are at roughly 50° South Latitude and constantly buffeted by strong winds. This climatic feature is unfavorable for wind pollination, except on infrequent mild days, and this plus the absence of potential insect pollinators explains why the Kerguelen cabbage is self-pollinating.[1] The plants grow to a diameter of about 50 cm in around four years, and flower for the first time in their third or fourth year.[3] At the mature stage, this species exhibits several adaptations linked to cold tolerance such as high polyamine levels.[4][5]
Uses [ edit ]
The plant is edible, containing high levels of potassium. Its leaves contain a vitamin C-rich oil, a fact which, in the days of sailing ships, made it very attractive to sailors suffering from scurvy, hence the species name, which means "against scurvy" in Latin. It was essential to the diets of the whalers on Kerguelen when pork, beef, or seal meat was used up. In May 1840, botanist J.D. Hooker was the first to make a technical analysis of the plant, and to assign the Latin name. Hooker also reported having eaten some soup that had been made with Kerguelen cabbage, and described the raw leaves as tasting like cress, the boiled leaves as tasting like "stale" (i.e., dried-out) cabbage, and the root as tasting like horseradish.[6][7]
Conservation [ edit ]
The micropezid fly species Calycopteryx mosleyi is associated with this plant. Both are endangered by invasive rabbits which feed on the cabbage.In the small box of a store, blindingly florescent lights illuminate three rows of shelves stocked with a number of adult products and videos. I was interested to see how much, if any, of the Adult Outlet video library incorporated a sexual fetishization of the military. The best estimated answer I gathered from an unscientific survey of the selections? "Lots."
The phenomenon is easy to find: Just go into any adult video store and take a look. I saw it demonstrated for myself at the Adult Outlet in downtown Ithaca, NY.
In some ways, our fetishization of the military even manifests itself as a literal sexual fetish - a set of images, ideas, and scenarios that provide supreme gratification or fulfillment of our intimate desires.
The United States' fixation on war and the military could easily be described as a fetish - an excessive and irrational commitment to or obsession with something. We see it in our news coverage, which applauds war and trumpets the utmost importance of security. We see it in the industry of children's toys and games, where "good" defeats "evil" with guns and tanks and destruction. We see it in the "Support Our Troops!" rhetoric that requires us to prioritize patriotism over intelligent discourse.
Military-themed items inundate the shelves of the Adult Outlet's all-male video library. Titles like A Night in the Army, Deep in the Foxhole, and The Few, The Proud, the Naked caught my eye. Live Ammo and Fuck the Troops made no pretense about their subject matter.
The athletically toned bodies of muscular, mostly white, men were plastered on the covers of the DVD boxes, some in suggestive solo poses, others with their huge arms wrapped around the chest of their fellow service members. These men, the video packaging silently asserted, were masculine. They're strong, they're sexy, and they can successfully balance defending our country, pleasuring themselves, and initiating a new recruit into the fold.
Many military-themed videos clearly rely on the "initiation" story as a selling point. The packaging of many of the DVDs explains how the "sergeant" or "general" is ready to "discipline" or "train" the new recruits, showing them the ropes of the big, bad Army (or Navy, or Marines). The higher-ranking officials are dominant and powerful tops, demonstrating that even though it's sexy to serve in the military, it's even sexier to lead the military.
The military-themed porn is strategically positioned on the shelves. It's next to other pornographic depictions of hyper masculinity, including some videos featuring fire fighters and one police-dominated film called Friendly Force. They also share shelf space with "straight boy" porn, where supposedly heterosexual men are paid to have sex with each other or where burly guys experience man-on-man physical intimacy for the first time.
This positioning, lumping military material with other glorifications of masculinity, is significant. It encourages shoppers to equate war and military service with masculinity. You are a "real man" when you are actually straight and just having sex for money. You are a "real man" when you save lives in the fire department or on the police force. And you are a "real man" if you serve in the United States military.
And if you're not a "real man"? Well, you can check out the next shelf over, where "twink" porn and depictions of more feminine men await you.
The prevalence of gay military-based porn can likely be somewhat attributed as a wink to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Several of the videos alluded to the notion that the military man-on-man was a classified transgression that we dare not speak about. Covert Missions 2, in fact, advertised its contents as "Top Secret" and "Confidential." And A Night in the Army professed to feature actively-serving men who conveniently sneak away from base camp one night to satisfy their clandestine desires.
The secrecy included in these videos implies something happening on a deeper psychological level: We are supposed to want to join the military, to fight, even if the government does not want us to. Our natural, carnal desires, these videos assume, are those based in power, strength, and force - characteristics that the military epitomizes. Obviously, the impulse to desire what we once could not have - same-sex encounters among members of the military - definitely comes into play here, too.
I asked the store clerk what other military-themed merchandise was available in the store, and whether there was anything available for heterosexual men. That is, are there videos of sexy female sailors, female soldiers? And is there a similar fascination with the armed forces in lesbian porn?
The clerk stumbled throughout the store, racking his brain and even asking his co-worker for recommendations. They eventually offered me a number of videos featuring nurses and babysitters, but porn featuring women in the military was nowhere to be found.
He was, however, able to direct me to camouflage costumes and underwear that implemented obvious military language. The outfits, all male, again alluded to the soldier as a sex object. A pair of small green boxer briefs were stamped with an image of a fighter jet, reading "Soldier Boyz Like It Hard." A similar pair of camouflage briefs went for the more subtle route, simply reading, "Boyz Like It Hard." And in the costumes section, a full, lycra "G.I. Guy" Army suit was at the front of the rack. Perhaps the manufacturer was looking to satisfy a niche customer: Why enlist when you can role-play the masculine advantages of the Army at home?
The sex shop's military-themed offerings are an example of how our society is militarized. It is one of the most straightforward, literal examples of an obsession or fixation on the military. The military is clearly not just a force that fights wars abroad and supposedly defends the most red, white, and blue freedoms of the United States. It affects the type of news we watch, the food we eat, the videogames we play, the fashions we wear. And, for some, at least, it affects what we dream about, what we imagine in our most private moments, and what we masturbate to. That psychological link between orgasm or desire and war provokes and moves along the process of militarization. It advances the military as something deserving of the most fervent desire. Something valuable. Something normal.Radiohead – Kid A
A lots of the music I'm into is because someone turned me on to it. I was really into jazz, hip-hop and a lot of music from around the world, but I was pretty ignorant to rock & roll if I'm being absolutely honest. I had a room-mate who took it upon himself to show me all the cool rock he was into. He turned me onto a bunch of Beatles records, Rage Against The Machine, Nirvana. And I was already into Jimi Hendrix. Then he gave me Kid A.
I just dug the texture. It was so meditative. There was a freedom to it. Almost like free jazz. But it was rock & roll. It got me like: "Oh man, I've got to go and study this music now."In addition to crimes by Muslim migrants and jihad attacks, Germany is stuck with a sizeable bill to pay. Back in January, the Express reported that to clean up the mess created by Muslim migrants will cost Germany and EU taxpayers $46 billion. But then in a later report, the Express estimated that figure would be much higher. Despite the mess created by Angela Merkel’s irresponsible immigration policy, she “signalled her intention to increase international aid spending to record levels even as the cost of her refugee policies spirals to a staggering £70 billion.”
But apparently many Germans are rather forgiving:
Concerns over security and integration initially pushed up the poll ratings of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), but support has slipped as the rate of arrivals has slowed.
The public all over the West appears to be quick to absorb blame and forget news about Muslim rape gangs in the UK, where the gangs view young infidel girls as “easy meat”; the epidemic crime in Sweden; Christian genocide in the Middle East; and the Islamic brutality against gays, infidels and Yazidi girls. This willful blindness can be blamed on the likes of German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, who insists that poor housing and crowded rooms are the reason for Muslim crime.
Angela Merkel only decided to stem the flow of incoming refugees when she realized that it meant political suicide for her to continue to bring them in at such a rapid clip. Despite the Cologne sex attacks that made global headlines and further crimes that followed, her earlier words were “we can do it.”
“Number of migrant criminal suspects in Germany soared by more than 50% in 2016, as minister warns the number of crimes has ‘increased disproportionately'”, by Chris Pleasance, Daily Mail, April 24, 2017:Belgium international Kevin De Bruyne said the pitch for his side's World Cup qualifier at Bosnia-Herzegovina was the poorest he had played on for almost 20 years.
Manchester City's De Bruyne said the conditions had left him concerned about the risk of injuries in the Group H game, which was won 4-3 by Belgium.
Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini limped off with a knee problem after 30 minutes and is likely to be sidelined for a couple of weeks.
And De Bruyne told reporters: "Even metal studs didn't help in those conditions.
"It was quite honestly the worst pitch I've played on since I was seven years old and played in my club's youth team."
Colleague Thomas Meunier said the surface "became unplayable" as the match progressed, but Eden Hazard added: "This kind of pitch is good for small builds like me. I always want to play here.
"This mud, it brings back good memories of when I was young, when you play in the garden and the pitch quickly turns into a potato patch."
Coach Roberto Martinez said the surface had made it "impossible to play any tactics."
He added: "Our team spirit won the game. The Fellaini injury changed our play and we lost focus, but after that showed amazing character and never gave up."
Belgium have one more World Cup qualifier to play, against Cyprus on Tuesday.
Information from ESPN FC's France correspondent Ian Holyman was used in this report.
Jonathan is ESPN FC's Manchester City correspondent. Follow him on Twitter: @jonnysmiffy.Hundreds of outlandish architectural proposals envisioned for cities around the world are rejected every year, but some are notable for their vision, controversial nature or sheer scale. Berlin, for example, would be a very different place if Hitler had won World War II, and massive cities designed by Buckminster Fuller could be floating on the seas just off American shores. These seven unbuilt urban wonders of the world range from feasible concepts and almost-built developments to utopian pipe dreams.
Welthaupstadt: Hitler’s Vision for Berlin
If Hitler had won World War II, as he expected, this is what he planned to do to Berlin: turn it into ‘World Capital Germania,’ filled with monuments honoring himself and the Third Reich. The photograph depicts a miniature model Hitler created along with Albert Speer, the “first architect of the Third Reich.” Among the massive planned structures were an Olympic stadium that would remain the largest in the world today if it had ever been completed, a large open forum, and a triumphal arch based on Paris’ Arc de Triomphe (only much larger, naturally.)
The city would have been reorganized around ‘The Avenue of Splendours,’ a north-south axis serving as a parade ground with traffic diverted into an underground highway. Sections of the tunnels were started but never completed, and remain in place today.
Project X: Disney’s EPCOT as a Real City
Walt Disney wanted EPCOT (the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) to be a real, functioning city, and had every intention of making it so when he first began working on ‘Project X,’ the basis of what would eventually become Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Walt wanted EPCOT to be the opposite of 1950s Los Angeles, where he lived and worked. Plans for the project were designed in the special ‘Florida Room’ at Disney Studios. With a thirty-story hotel as its centerpiece, EPCOT was meant to be “a utopian environment enriched in education, and in expanding technology. A perfect city with dependable public transportation, a soaring civic center covered by an all-weather dome, and model factories concealed in green belts that were readily accessible to workers housed in idyllic suburban subdivisions nearby.”
Walt made a film showcasing the new city and showed it to a few friends shortly before his death. Walt’s brother Roy was skeptical, however, and shifted the plans to create ‘Disneyland East,’ or Walt Disney World. EPCOT isn’t exactly what Walt imagined, but vestiges of his ideas can be seen in the city of Celebration, Florida, located on the Disney World property.
Dongtan, China: The First Mega Eco-City That Almost Was
Dongtan was to be an eco-friendly utopia, the worlds first large-scale sustainable city producing 100% of its own energy from wind, solar, bio-fuel and recycled city waste. Public transit was to be powered by clean tech like hydrogen fuel cells, though the city was designed to be walkable and bikeable. Organic farms within the city limits were to produce most of residents’ food. Developers imagined that Dongtan would serve as a shining example for cities across China and the developing world.
Plans called for the city to be partially constructed by 2010, with accommodations for 10,000 residents, and fully functional for 50,000 by 2020. They began to fall apart in 2006 when Shanghai’s former mayor, the most enthusiastic supporter of the project, was arrested for property-related fraud, and reporters visiting the site found that ground hadn’t even been broken.DENVER — Barnacles can tell a whale of a tale. Chemical clues inside barnacles that hitched rides on baleen whales millions of years ago could divulge ancient whale migration routes, new research suggests.
Modern baleen whales migrate thousands of kilometers annually between breeding and feeding grounds, but almost nothing is known about how these epic journeys have changed over time. Scientists can glean where an aquatic animal has lived based on its teeth. The mix of oxygen isotopes embedded inside newly formed tooth material depends on the region and local temperature, with more oxygen-18 used near the poles than near the equator. That oxygen provides a timeline of the animal’s travels. Baleen whales don’t have teeth, though. So paleobiologists Larry Taylor and Seth Finnegan, both of the University of California, Berkeley, looked at something else growing on whales: barnacles. Like3D modeler with killer skills and able to design any complex model. I am an avid video gamer, and everything that is related to tanks is my topic.
So, it’s no wonder that you will find on this blog a large range of 3D models of tanks from various video games and not only. I strive creating HIGH-POLY models, with superb surface detailing.
Besides being true gamer, I am also collect 3D printed figurines. So, when I saw that I could find the game model I wanted, I gave 3D modeling a shot.
Now I design game models that are of interest to me first. Although, I regularly check the trends among other video gamers as well.
You are more than welcome to comment on every model. All constructive feedback will be appreciated.The rise of the Twitter bot has plagued the online world in recent years. These are Twitter accounts that are automated and require little or no human intervention. Many are entirely legitimate, publishing headlines and links to news stories.
But others are malicious. These Twitter bots produce spam, provide fake followers for anybody willing to pay, and can manipulate debates and public opinion in insidious ways that are hard to track and prevent. The effects of large swarms of Twitter bots—so-called botnets—are largely unknown.
That’s why Twitter has an ongoing program to detect and remove malicious bots. But as soon as a new technique becomes available to identify these accounts, botmasters modify and upgrade their charges to avoid detection.
The truth is that nobody knows how many Twitter bots are out there or how big the botnets have become.
Today that changes thanks to the work of Juan Echeverria and Shi Zhou at University College London. These cybersecurity experts have stumbled across a Twitter botnet consisting of more than 350,000 automated accounts, a network of almost unimaginable proportions, that has existed undetected since 2013. They call this network the “Star Wars botnet” and say that its longevity raises serious questions about the potential impact of botnets and the way they are tracked and monitored.
Echeverria and Zhou discovered this botnet almost by accident. Interested in finding automated accounts, the researchers began by downloading details of six million English-speaking Twitter accounts that they randomly selected. That’s about 1 percent of the total number of Twitter accounts.
Twitter allows the most recent 3,200 tweets to be downloaded along with any geo-tags attached to the tweets. This allowed Echeverria and Zhou to map the locations of all these tweets. That’s when they noticed something strange.
For the most part, the geographical distribution of tweets matches the global population distribution. In other words, tweets are more common in densely populated areas like cities. But the researchers also noticed a significant number of tweets—some 23,000 of them—that were geo-located in uninhabited regions close to Europe and the U.S., such as in deserts and in oceans.
When plotted on a map, these locations were bounded by sharp edges and corners that formed two rectangles, one around the U.S. and the other around Europe. “We conjectured that the [map] shows two overlapping distributions,” say Echeverria and Zhou. They thought that one set of tweets must be from real users and so coincided with the population distribution.
But the other must have been created by Twitter bots randomly choosing locations in the two rectangles. The goal, thought Echeverria and Zhou, was to convince other Twitter users that the tweets were created in the two continents where Twitter is most popular.
A simple assessment of the 3,000 accounts that created these tweets showed they had much in common. These accounts had never published more than 11 tweets, they never had more than 10 followers and less than 31 friends. They were all produced by Twitter for Windows phones.
But reading the tweets, Echeverria and Zhou realized that they all contained random quotations from Star Wars novels with hashtags inserted at random. A typical tweet is: “Luke’s answer was to put on an extra burst of speed. There were only ten meters #separating them now.”
At this point, Echeverria and Zhou conjectured that they had stumbled across a single botnet, presumably controlled by a single botmaster. This botnet was obviously large since 3,000 bots had appeared in a random search. And that raised an obvious question: just how big was this botnet?
To find out, the researchers trained a machine-learning algorithm to recognize Star Wars bots and set it loose on a much larger database of 14 million English-speaking Twitter users.
The results were a shock. The machine-learning algorithm, with the help of some manual filtering, found some 350,000 accounts that had the same characteristics. These accounts had never tweeted more than 11 times, had fewer than 31 friends and were all produced by Twitter for Windows Phone.
What’s more, this entire botnet was created in just a few days in June and July 2013. At the time, it produced 150,000 tweets a day.
Then it stopped. “When the creation of new Star Wars bots stopped on 14 July 2013, all the bots suddenly fell silent and remained so ever since,” say Echeverria and Zhou.
But the accounts have not been closed down or deleted. They could all tweet at a moment’s notice, should the botmaster so decide. Echeverria and Zhou say the bots have avoided detection because they were deliberately designed to keep a low profile. “It seems the Star Wars bots were deliberately designed to circumvent many of the heuristics underlying previous bot detection methods,” say Echeverria and Zhou.
The bots do this by tweeting quotes from novels to avoid machine-generated language, which can be easily detected. They never tweet urls or mention other Twitter users. And they have tweeted only a few times each to avoid detection for over or under use.
So what might these fake Twitter accounts be for? Although the accounts have been silent for some time, this makes them valuable since they are less likely now to be labeled as fake. For this reason, pre-aged bots have significant value on the black market.
Echeverria and Zhou say that about 15,000 of the Star Wars bots have followers from outside the botnet. “The only plausible explanation is that these bots have already been sold as fake followers,” they conclude. So whoever owns this botnet is already cashing in.
But it is possible that the entire botnet could be for sale. “What if someone offers a good price for purchasing the control of the whole botnet?” ask Echeverria and Zhou.
Clearly, the discovery of this giant botnet raises important questions about the extent to which the Twitterverse has been infiltrated by bots that can influence the dynamics of conversations, opinions, and even elections. The work leaves open the crucial question of who set up this botnet and why.
And the story doesn’t end there. For anyone who thinks this is as big as secret Twitter botnets are likely to get, Echeverria and Zhou have bad news. “We have recently discovered another botnet with more than 500k bots, which will be reported shortly,” they say.
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1701.02405: The “Star Wars” botnet with >350k Twitter botsYamaha has unveiled a teaser site for the upcoming galaco NEO, shortly after DTM Magazine posted their article. Yamaha will release the packaged version of galaco NEO in early August with “open pricing” (i.e. retailers set their own prices; it’s the norm for a lot of Japanese products, including some VOCALOID libraries) and a download version on August 5 at 16000 JPY. The official website is slated to launch on July 18 with demo songs. Unlike the original galaco, whose voice provider’s identity is still a mystery, the new version is publicly confirmed to be Ko Shibasaki. The Win/Mac software package will come with two VOCALOID3 soundbanks — the solid and clear galaco RED, with pitch and tempo ranges of F2 to G4 and 60 to 175 BPM respectively, and the calm and full-bodied galaco BLUE, with pitch and tempo ranges of E2 to F#4 and 90 to 195 BPM respectively. Furthermore, over 100 types of voice samples will be included as well as a Windows-only galaco Talk software. The character design has also been updated for the NEO release, with Tomioka Jiro as the new illlustrator. The DTM Magazine article also provided a quote from Ko Shibasaki, who said that she was looking forward to seeing her alter-ego galaco surpass her, reach out to a wider audience, get molded through the process of creation and give birth to a new wind that’ll sweep through the world.
RelatedRussian President Vladimir Putin is going to sign more than 20 bilateral documents during his upcoming visit to China. The declaration comes from Russia’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to China Andrey Denisov on Thursday.
Denisov said at a press conference that Putin would sign a “package of documents” after his talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said Putin would hold separate talks with Jinping and in the format of delegations of the two countries.
"These documents include all aspects of bilateral cooperation, including in finance and investment, transport and logistics," TASS quoted Denisov. "In general, it is obvious that the visit of our leader will give an additional impetus to our strategic cooperation in all spheres."
According to the diplomat, the first and the second group of documents consist of agreements on different aspects of energy. He said negotiations would continue until the final hour on some issues such as the ones related cooperation in natural gas.
Denisov added the issues were quite “large-scale” and “serious.” The issues are highly important for China and Russia as well as companies from the countries, he added. The envoy said a more transparent view about the documents would be disclosed on Sept. 3 but those documents would definitely be signed.
Gazprom, a major gas producer in Russia, said on Wednesday it would start gas supplies to China from 2021. It was previously announced that the gas supply would start in 2019, Reuters reported.
Gazprom signed a deal in 2014 to supply pipeline gas to China. It has supplied pipeline gas only to Europe so far. China is world’s leading energy consumer, and Russia has been working on building stronger ties with the Asian giant.
The Chinese president earlier invited his Russian counterpart to China. Putin will attend celebrations on the end of the Second World War and the 70th anniversary of Victory in the War against Japan.
Contact the writer at feedback@ibtimes.com.au, or let us know what you think belowConservatives are furiously attacking comedian Jimmy Kimmel after he exposed how the latest Republican bill to repeal Obamacare will hurt millions of Americans.
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel has become public enemy number one with conservatives just hours after his monologue exposed the cruelty of the latest Republican health care |
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This is an excerpt from my upcoming Raiden: Metal Gear Rising cosplay tutorial. Although this material is specific to Raiden, the basic knowledge can be used to freehand patterns for any armor or prop. I feel that patterning is so important that it warranted it’s own post.
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I would say patterning is the most important step of making a costume or prop. With sub-par patterns, the end result will not look too great. There are times where I re-did my patterns multiple times till I felt okay with the piece. Looking at my completed Raiden now, there are still pieces I would like to re-pattern and re-make but I felt it was good enough for a first shot.
Materials I used for this step:
1) I downloaded multiple photos online of Raiden in attempt to get every angle of his costume to make.
2) I would then choose a piece that I wanted to make and then envisioned how many pieces I would need to make the part.
For example, the bicep looks like it can be split into 3 main sections:
center upper left side lower left side
Since this piece is symmetrical, I would just need to pattern the center and left side (then flip it over to use as the right side)
3) In order to scale my pieces properly in real life, I would measure the total height of Raiden on the photo, take measurements (in centimeters) of the part I wanted to make, then use a simple formula with my height to get the approximate scale for real life.
Measuring Raiden’s reference photo height Measuring Raiden’s reference photo height
Example: Bicep_center_length = (My_Height (in cm) x Raiden_Photo_Height)/(Raiden_bicep center_length)Bicep_center_width = (My_Height x Raiden_Photo_Height)/(Raiden_bicep center_width)
4) Once I had a width/height estimate of each section of the piece, I drew a box with those dimensions on cardstock. If the cardstock was too small, I taped sheets together with scotch tape to make a bigger sheet.
5) Within the boarders of the box I just drew, I would freehand sketch the part I was trying to make. I am really bad at drawing so it took a few tries till I felt “eh, good enough.” I also made sure to cut out holes for the 200+ grommet holes that would need to be filled later.
6) I then cut out the pattern with an Xacto knife
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And that pretty much sums up how I patterned my armor pieces for Raiden. I used these same techniques for every section, including the props such as the sword and holster. By the way, here is the end result of the bicep piece.
Bicep pattern angles Completed Bicep
Again, I want to reiterate patterning is a VERY IMPORTANT step in making your armor. Bad patterns will result in a bad end product. So, if you try these techniques and you are unhappy with how your pattern turned out, then redo it! No biggy! I assume you cosplay for fun just like me, so we’re not pros or anything! Hope this tutorial helps some of you out there and stay tuned for the full Raiden tutorial coming soon.To spread the Christmas cheer I decided to walk around the city with my friend and hand out free gifts to little girls. Today I though perhaps a Christmas Raffle would also be a fun idea, so here’s to Christmas and the new year!
The Rules
$2 Per entry (each additional entry gets you another number which means more chances of winning)
You must reblog this post to spread awareness You must be following me. I will check. Don’t just follow for the raffle and then unfollow me. Not nice. If under the age of 18 you must have consent from your parents Payments are through paypal only unless you live in Brisbane (Australia) and want to pay in cash. (You must send me a message for my paypal address)
The Prizes:
The winners of this Raffle will be drawn randomly using Random.org. Photo proof will be shown when the winners are announced.
FIRST PLACE
Valued at $125+ the winner of first place will receive all of the following:
1x Tote Bag valued at $25 (choose from: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity or Twilight Sparkle)
1x Poster valued at $20 (choose from: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, Derpy Hooves, Doctor Whooves, Vinyl Scratch, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Trixie Lulamoon, Water Pony or Today Will Be A Great Day )
1x Limited Edition Princess Celestia Poster valued at $20 (This design will not be available on anything until April next year)
1x Necklace valued at $20 ( choose from: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity or Twilight Sparkle in bronze or silver)
1x Ring valued at $15 (choose from: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, or Rarity. Twilight is out of stock.)
1x Large Print valued at $10 (choose from: Derpy Hooves, Doctor Whooves, Vinyl Scratch, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Trixie Lulamoon, Today Will Be A Great Day, or the large square print of “Its what’s on the inside that counts” and “A Sister’s love”)
1x Set of 6 badges valued at $8 (comes in: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity or Twilight Sparkle)
1x Postcard valued at $5 (choose from: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity or Twilight Sparkle)
RUNNERS UP:
There will be two runners up, also known as second and third place.
Second Place will receive:
1x Set of 6 badges valued at $8 (comes in: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity or Twilight Sparkle)
Third Place will receive:
1x Postcard valued at $5 (choose from: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity or Twilight Sparkle)
The raffle ends 29th of Februrary 2016 however it may be extended if I don’t make back the cost of sending out all the prizes.Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday announced that pollster Kellyanne Conway, 50, counselor to President Donald Trump, would oversee White House efforts to combat the opioid overdose epidemic.
More than 64,000 people died in the US of drug overdoses in 2016, largely from opioids such as heroin, fentanyl, and prescription painkillers. Trump declared a national public health emergency over the crisis in October, and calls have emerged for an opioids "czar" to lead crisis response efforts in the last year.
Looks like Conway has the job. Trump has asked her "to coordinate and lead the effort from the White House," Sessions said at a news conference in remarks that went beyond prepared ones from the event.
"It is a positive sign. She is a high-profile figure in the administration, showing the administration takes this seriously," opioid policy expert Andrew Kolodny of Brandeis University told BuzzFeed News.
But Kolodny noted the administration still hasn't named someone to head its Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), or released a strategy to combat the crisis (one is promised in February), or requested any money from Congress to fill the depleted national public health emergency fund — now down to $66,000 — to pay for its health emergency declaration.As per the title. This claim was made in the book "Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling" by John Taylor Gatto. He makes numerous dubious claims, however this one interested me most (p. 67):
A Massachusetts Senator said a while ago that his state had a higher literacy rate before it adopted com- pulsory schooling than after. It’s certainly an idea worth considering: schools reached their maximum efficiency long ago, meaning that “more” for schools will make things worse, instead of better.
He repeats a similar claim several times; i.e. that literacy before compulsory schooling was actually almost as high (at least, among those who weren't slaves/servants) as after compulsory schooling - to further his thesis about the negatives of schooling.
Simply; is the claim in the title/quote true? Is it true/false in other instances?His 11th hour call-up was forced by the sacking of Labor's first pick, Jeff Salvestro-Martin, who is embroiled in the Independent Commission against Corruption's inquiry into Ryde Council.
But the new candidate is also no stranger to controversy. In a lapse of judgment in 1999 he berated the model Jodhi Meares for declining to wear a republican movement T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan: ''Give an Australian the Head Job''.
''It's a shame. She had the chance to be the tits of the nation, but she's missed out now,'' he said at the time, before later apologising.
Mr Yat-sen Li was flying back to Australia from Beijing on Thursday night to begin campaigning in the seat, held by former tennis player Liberal John Alexander.
As a fluent speaker of Mandarin and Cantonese and a successful businessman based in Asia since 2005, Labor strategists believe he will be a big draw with Bennelong's large Asian population - 16.9 per cent of which is ethnic Chinese - under the leadership of fellow Mandarin-speaking Mr Rudd.Brown, the father of Tampa Bay Lightning forward J.T. Brown and former N.C. State running back great, finished his four-year Wolfpack career as the all-time leading rusher in Atlantic Coast Conference football history with 4,602 yards, a record he still holds.
“30 years and counting,” he says proudly.
As Ted Brown sits with the rest of the Bolts dads in a corner section of Carolina’s PNC Arena watching his son J.T. and J.T.’s teammates go through a morning skate prior to their game later that night against the Hurricanes, a reporter from a local newspaper stops by to interview Ted about returning to the area where he grew up – Ted’s home town of High Point is about an hour and a half west of the city on Interstate 40 – and where he ran for all those yards across the street from PNC Arena at State’s Carter-Finley Stadium.
Five minutes after the reporter leaves, another man walks down the aisle, sidles up next to Ted and introduces himself.
“As a lifelong N.C. State fan, I just wanted to shake your hand,” the man says.
The two talk for a couple minutes before the man heads off satisfied with the encounter, leaving Ted in a reflective mood.
“They can smell you when you get close,” Ted jokes when asked if he usually gets this much attention on his returns to Raleigh. “Lot of fond memories here.”
On the ice, a couple players crunch into each other against the boards, the protecting Plexiglas above rippling like a wave away from the impact.
Which sport do you think is more physical, Ted: football or hockey?
“Football,” he answers without hesitation. “We’ve got the big uglies. Hockey players don’t know anything about the big uglies, six or seven guys weighing 300 pounds jumping on top of you while you’re at the bottom of the pile.”
A former first round draft pick (16th overall) of Minnesota in 1979 who would play eight seasons in the NFL with the Vikings before hanging up his cleats, Ted recalls what it felt like to have William “The Refrigerator” Perry fall on top of you, talks about changing plays in the huddle so he could get revenge against a particular defender, remembers some of the conversations he’d have with opposing players during a game.
“The guys on defense didn’t like to get cut [where an offensive player dives at a defender’s knees in an attempt to block him],” Ted said. “They’d say, ‘You better not cut me when I blitz.’ I’d say, ‘OK, I won’t cut you, but you better not run me over and make me look bad either.’”
A couple minutes later, the light morning skate having wrapped up, the fathers make their way down to the ice for a group photo with their sons.
J.T. never saw his dad play live. He was born in 1990, four years after Ted retired from football. YouTube clips from that era are hard to find too. Instead, he listens to stories from his father and develops an image in his head, a picture made clearer by the locals who bring up a particular run or play while talking to Ted.
“You think about it a little bit, obviously, with the father’s trip, a few plane rides talking about himself and how he played here and you get a little bit more of a background,” J.T. said. “So this trip was a little bit different.”
J.T. grew up in Minnesota playing football and hockey. His dad tells the story of how he knew J.T. wasn’t going to follow in his footsteps because when it was time to go to football practice, J.T. would procrastinate.
When it was time for hockey practice, J.T. was already out the door with his skates before the rest of the family was ready.
One of the Bolts dads asked Ted if he had ever played hockey and if he thought he could have been a professional hockey player had he grown up playing the sport.
“I have a pair of skates in my garage that have been there for 20-some years,” Ted answers. “They’re a constant reminder not to ever get on them.”
Earlier this season in Tampa Bay’s first visit to Carolina on November 1, J.T. scored his second goal of the season to give the Lightning a 3-1 lead.
On this trip, in a game the Lightning would win 4-2, their third-straight victory and one that would vault them back into second place in the Atlantic Division, J.T. scores again, netting the Bolts’ first goal by carving out space in front of the Carolina goal and rebounding Andrej Sustr’s shot from the point past Canes goalie Cam Ward, giving him two goals in two games this season in Raleigh, son continuing his father’s legacy of shining in Raleigh.
From a luxury suite on the arena’s second level with the rest of the dads, Ted beams proudly.All-Ireland club hurling final: Watson fires Loughgiel to glory March 17, 2012
Loughgiel Shamrocks' Damien Quinn and Johnny Campbell lift the AIB ALl-Ireland club SHC trophy at Croke Park ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne Loughgiel Shamrocks' Damien Quinn and Johnny Campbell lift the AIB ALl-Ireland club SHC trophy at Croke Park ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne
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Loughgiel Shamrocks beat Coolderry by 4-13 to 0-17 at Croke Park to claim the Tommy Moore Cup.Liam Watson registered an amazing 3-7 for the winners as the Antrim champions captured the All-Ireland club title for the second time in their history, the previous success coming in 1983.A hat-trick of first-half goals from Antrim talisman Watson and another from Shea Casey fired PJ O'Mullen's charges into a commanding nine-point half-time lead, 4-6 to 0-9.Coolderry's Cathal Parlon, wearing No.12, went straight in to the edge of the square and he hit a shot from close range into the side-netting inside the opening minute. Loughgiel goalkeeper DD Quinn seemed to have his angles covered.At the other end, Watson opened the scoring from a free after a minute and 45 seconds. When Brian Carroll was fouled, the Offaly champions' dead-ball specialist Damien Murray was on hand to nonchalantly level the scores on four minutes. Kevin Brady followed up with a wide off his weaker left side.In the sixth minute, Eoin Ryan pointed for Coolderry but opposing No.15 Casey then ran through the favourites' defence and kicked the sliothar to the net to make it 1-1 to 0-2. Murray replied with a point for the Leinster kingpins.Eddie McCloskey floated over a fantastic point for the Shamrocks off his left side from the left wing and corner forward Brendan McCarry followed up instantly to make it 1-3 to 0-3 with nine minutes played. But Parlon and Carroll knocked over a quickfire brace of points to close the gap to the minimum.And the sides were level for the second time when Carroll had ample time and space to take his second successive score. McCloskey missed the target before Watson showed what he's made of with an excellent point under pressure.Amazingly, in the 18th minute, Watson was on hand to flick a groundstroke to the net (just about!) after Stephen Corcoran had parried a shot from Casey: 2-4 to 0-6 and a great start for the northerners. Wing back Kevin Brady ran the length of the pitch to pull a point back after Parlon had struck an upright.Murray and Watson both missed frees from out the field but Joey Scullion, with the No.14 on his back, struck a lovely point from distance to restore the Ulster champions' four-point cushion. Watson won and converted a free to leave the underdogs ahead by 2-6 to 0-7 after 24 minutes. Five of their starting forwards were on target already.Murray's third converted free narrowed the gap and Coolderry full back Trevor Corcoran was perhaps lucky to escape with a yellow card when he clumsily caught Watson on the forehead with the butt of his hurl. But Watson had the last laugh when, after receiving treatment, he gathered himself and rocketed a shot to the top left corner of the net from the resultant free. Watson disguised his shot, pretending he was going for a point, and caught the Coolderry defence off guard from 20 metres.Astonishingly, the same player followed up with his third goal a minute later, juggling the sliothar on his hurl after collecting from McCloskey and keeping his composure to pop it across the line. Murray replied with a pointed free but the northern raiders led by double scores at the interval, 4-6 to 0-9.Coolderry surely knew before the game that Watson was a major threat, after his immense semi-final display, so they will have been disappointed to have let him get 3-3 in the first half. Kevin Connolly came on for full back Corcoran for the Offaly men during the interval and Loughgiel introduced Seamus Dobbin, who was booked within a minute of the restart.Murray floated over the resultant free and Connolly followed up with a point from play and Quinn made a good save to deny Connolly a goal before Parlon had the gap down to six with just four minutes played in the second half, 4-6 to 0-12. And it was a five-point game when Carroll floated his effort between the posts into the empty Hill.Watson was fouled by Coolderry captain Brendan O'Meara and he tapped over the free to lift the siege. Loughgiel struck their fifth wide via McCloskey in the tenth minute of the second half and Joey Scullion followed with their sixth. Still, they led by six points with less than 20 minutes to go, 4-7 to 0-13.Corner back Paul Gilligan defended like his life depended on it as Coolderry raided looking for a goal but Murray pointed a free after Neil McGarry's foul on the ever-dangerous Parlon.Midfielder Barney McAuley avoided the hook to float over another Loughgiel point and exceptional centre back Martin Scullion made two wonderful interventions to ensure the Red & Whites of a six-point cushion with three-quarters of the match played. When Joey Scullion was fouled, Watson was on hand to convert and make it 4-9 to 0-14 in the 48th minute.It was looking ominous when Watson pointed over his shoulder; Ryan replied for Coolderry. But seven points separated the teams with ten minutes left, 4-10 to 0-15. Murray's seventh free closed the gap but time was against the Leinster champions as they still trailed by six with only seven minutes of normal time to play.Watson brought his individual tally to 3-7 when he stroked over a free from the halfway line and Brendan McCarry added a point on 54 minutes: 4-12 to 0-16. Murray drilled over another free but Coolderry had no way back…McCarry supplied the winners' 13th point in the 58th minute after more magnificent defending by Martin Scullion and after the final whistle sounded Johnny Campbell collected the silverware on a massive day for Antrim and Ulster hurling.Loughgiel - DD Quinn; P Gillan, N McGarry, R McCloskey; J Campbell, M Scullion, J Campbell; B McAuley (0-1), M McFaden; J Scullion (0-1), D Laverty, E McCloskey (0-1); B McCarry (0-3), L Watson (3-7), S Casey (1-0). Subs - S Dobbin for McFadden, T McCloskey for Dobbin, D McCloskey for Casey.Coolderry: S Corcoran; B Kelly, T Corcoran, A Corcoran; K Brady (0-1), J Brady, B O'Meara; K Teehan, D King; B Carroll (0-3), B Teehan, C Parlon (0-2); E Ryan (0-2), M Corcoran, D Murray (0-8). Subs - K Connolly (0-1) for T Corcoran, B Larkin for Kelly.Ref - A Kelly (Galway).The ahmedabad stock exchange (ase) has finally decided to forge an alliance with the Ahmedabad commodity exchange (ace) for its foray into commodities trading. this is one of the first stock exchanges in the country which has finalised its plans of getting into commodities trading. the ace has been selected because of its local accessibility. the brokers of ase had offered conflicting view for tying up with commodity exchanges when ase was talking to ace and the bombay commodity exchange. those in favour of bombay commodity exchange had argued that it would provide larger and better platform for commodities trading. “we are joining hands with ace because of its local access,” ase president mihir shah told et, when contacted. ase has sought the permission of tata consultancy services (tcs) for upgrading its programme for commodity trading at ase, mr shah said. at present, tcs is providing software services to ase for its on-line trading.”after receiving the tcs approval for upgrading its system, a joint application will be sent to the forward market commission (fmc) for its nod to start commodities trading at ase,” mr shah added.according to mr shah, as per the preliminary understanding between the two exchanges, the ace will provide memberships of its exchange to brokers of the ase. in turn the ase will allow ace’s members to use on-line trading facilities for commodities trading. it may be pointed out the ase carried out an independent survey for commodities trading and the finding shows that the proposed diversification is viable for the exchange. ten commodities including oilseeds, cotton, cottonseeds, castor, fennel, isabgol, rapeseeds have been identified by the exchange for trading. despite this decision to forge an alliance with ace, the ase has not ruled out the possibilities of additional joint ventures with other commodity exchanges. “we may consider the bombay commodity exchange’s proposal, if it provides extra facilities in commodities trading, in addition to ace,” mr shah added.
AdvertisementsUFC No Sale Yet... Not Even Close
UFC: No Sale Yet... Not Even Close
EXCLUSIVE
Reports are swirling that the Fertitta brothers are no longer the proud owners of the UFC... but TMZ Sports has learned it's just not true.
According to reports, WME talent agency, along with a Chinese media org and a group led by Robert Kraft snagged the MMA powerhouse for around $4 billion.
Sources tell us... there are negotiations but "a deal isn't even close." In fact, we're told there has not even been an agreement on whether 100% of the UFC will be sold or just a portion. Nor have the parties agreed on price.
One report says the deal was finalized Sunday between WME CEO Ari Emanuel, Lorenzo Fertitta and other UFC execs at a dinner meeting in Hollywood. But we've learned Emanuel was on a plane Sunday flying back from a bar mitzvah out of the country and Lorenzo was in Vegas all day. We're told Dana White and Frank Fertitta were also in Vegas all day.
We're told if a deal is consummated, it won't happen this week and it's possible it will never happen.Lyrids 'Balloon-Cam' Update
11:54 p.m. PDT -- Balloon was launched from Bishop, Calif.
1:10 a.m. PDT -- The balloon entered the stratosphere and stayed in the stratosphere for 1 hour and 36 minutes -- a new record.
2:46 a.m. PDT -- The balloon popped at an altitude of 117,500 feet.
3:15 a.m. PDT -- The balloon landed after a total flight time of 3 hours, 21 minutes.
Media Contact:
Janet Anderson, 256-544-0034
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
Janet.L.Anderson@nasa.gov
During the peak of the 2012 Lyrid meteor on the night of April 21-22, Dr. Tony Phillips with Science@NASA and a group of students in Bishop, Calif., launched a balloon and an attached camera into the atmosphere. Their hope was to capture footage of Lyrid meteors from above Earth's atmosphere. Here's an update on the balloon and its journey.The balloon had a hard landing due to unusual way it popped; suffice it to say the parachute was not fully functional because it had a pound of rubber sitting on top of it! The last data file the DVR was writing to was corrupted because of the impact. However, the balloon captured lots of video, and the camera appears to be intact despite the rough descent. Fortunately, a 12,000-foot mountain caught the payload before it could plummet any further.We'll keep you posted on the balloon's data and its role in capturing a 3-D view of a meteor showerBefore I depart the subject of spin-offs, let’s look at a lesson to be learned from a conglomerate mentioned earlier: LTV. I’ll summarize here, but those who enjoy a good financial story should read the piece about Jimmy Ling that ran in the October 1982 issue of D Magazine. Look it up on the Internet.
Through a lot of corporate razzle-dazzle, Ling had taken LTV from sales of only $36 million in 1965 to number 14 on the Fortune 500 list just two years later. Ling, it should be noted, had never displayed any managerial skills. But Charlie told me long ago to never underestimate the man who overestimates himself. And Ling had no peer in that respect.
Ling’s strategy, which he labeled “project redeployment,” was to buy a large company and then partially spin off its various divisions. In LTV’s 1966 annual report, he explained the magic that would follow: “Most importantly, acquisitions must meet the test of the 2 plus 2 equals 5 (or 6) formula.” The press, the public and Wall Street loved this sort of talk.
In 1967 Ling bought Wilson & Co., a huge meatpacker that also had interests in golf equipment and pharmaceuticals. Soon after, he split the parent into three businesses, Wilson & Co. (meatpacking), Wilson Sporting Goods and Wilson Pharmaceuticals, each of which was to be partially spun off. These companies quickly became known on Wall Street as Meatball, Golf Ball and Goof Ball.
Soon thereafter, it became clear that, like Icarus, Ling had flown too close to the sun. By the early 1970s, Ling’s empire was melting, and he himself had been spun off from LTV … that is, fired.
Periodically, financial markets will become divorced from reality—you can count on that. More Jimmy Lings will appear. They will look and sound authoritative. The press will hang on their every word. Bankers will fight for their business. What they are saying will recently have “worked.” Their early followers will be feeling very clever. Our suggestion: Whatever their line, never forget that 2+2 will always equal 4. And when someone tells you how old-fashioned that math is—zip up your wallet, take a vacation and come back in a few years to buy stocks at cheap prices.UW Researcher Contributes to Study That Shows Planet's Oxygen Rose Through Glaciers
Kevin Chamberlain, a UW professor of geology, points to a glacial diamictite exposed in the Snowy Range. Chamberlain is the second author of a PNAS paper that determined a “Snowball Earth” event actually took place 100 million years earlier than previously projected, and a rise in the planet’s oxidation resulted from a number of different continents -- including what is now Wyoming -- that were once connected. The inset photo was taken by Arthur Snoke. (UW Photo)
A University of Wyoming researcher contributed to a paper that determined a “Snowball Earth” event actually took place 100 million years earlier than previously projected, and a rise in the planet’s oxidation resulted from a number of different continents -- including what is now Wyoming -- that were once connected.
“Isotopic dating of the Ongeluk large igneous province, South Africa, revealed that the first Paleoproterozoic global glaciation and the first significant step change in atmospheric oxygenation likely occurred between 2,460 and 2,426 million years ago, approximately 100 million years earlier than previous estimates,” says Kevin Chamberlain, a UW research professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics. “And the rise of atmospheric oxygen was not monotonic but, instead, was characterized by significant oscillations before irreversible oxygenation of the atmosphere 2,250 million years ago.”
Chamberlain is the second author of a paper, titled “Timing and Tempo of the Great Oxidation Event,” which appears in the Feb. 6 (today’s) issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The journal is one of the world’s most prestigious multidisciplinary scientific serials, with coverage spanning the biological, physical and social sciences.
Ashley Gumsley, a doctoral student at Lund University in Lund, Sweden, is the paper’s lead author. Other contributors were from the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa; Swedish Museum of Natural History; University of Johannesburg, South Africa; and the University of California-Riverside.
The research relates to a period in Earth’s history about 2.45 billion years ago, when climate swung so extremely that the polar ice caps extended to the equator and the Earth was a snowball, and the atmosphere was largely isolated from the hydrosphere, Chamberlain says. Recovery from this Snowball Earth led to the first and largest, rapid rise in oxygen content in the atmosphere, known as the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), setting the stage for the dominance of aerobic life, he says.
A later, and better known, Snowball Earth period occurred at about 700 million years ago, and led to multicellular life in the Cambrian period, Chamberlain says. The events show there was not one event, but an oscillation of oxygen over time that led to the Earth’s conditions today.
“So, both Snowball Earth periods had extreme impacts on the development of life,” he says. “It helps us understand the evolution of Earth and Earth’s atmosphere, and evolution of life, for that matter.”
Chamberlain’s contribution focuses on igneous rocks exposed in South Africa that record the existence of equatorial glaciers and contain chemical indicators for the rise of atmospheric oxygen. Chamberlain’s in situ method to determine the age of the rocks does not require removing baddeleyite crystals from the rock. This process allows for analysis of key samples with smaller crystals than previously allowed. Using a mass spectrometer, the age of the rocks is determined by measuring the buildup of lead from the radioactive decay of uranium, he says.
“The basic story had been worked out earlier by others, but our results have significantly refined the timing and duration of the ‘event,’ which is more of a transition actually,” Chamberlain explains. “With all the discussion of climate change in the present day, understanding how Earth responded and the effects on the atmosphere in the past may help us predict the future.”
Chamberlain points to a Wyoming connection in this research. From paleomagnetic data, many of the continents, at the time, including the basement rocks of Wyoming, were all connected into a single, large continent and situated near the equator. Other continents connected included parts of what are now Canada and South Africa. This situation is part of the trigger for the “Snowball Earth” conditions.
“There are glacial deposits exposed in the Medicine Bow Mountains and Sierra Madre that are from this same event,” he says.
These rocks, known as diamictites, have large drop stones that depress very fine-grained mudstone. The large stones dropped from the underside of glacial sheets as they spread out and melted over shallow seas, similar to sediments beneath the Ross sea ice sheet of Antarctica today.
“The fact that these sediments were at the equator at 2.45 billion years ago comes from the paleomagnetic data from associated igneous rocks,” Chamberlain says. “I think that it’s interesting that part of the story is just 40 miles away in the Snowies.”Female soldiers train on a firing range while wearing new body armor in September in Fort Campbell, Ky. (Mark Humphrey/AP Photo)
The American Civil Liberties Union announced Tuesday it is suing the Department of Defense to lift immediately all restrictions on women serving in combat units.
The military does not currently allow women to serve in ground combat units, such as infantry, artillery, armor or as special operations commandos. Recent wars without clear front lines have frequently pushed women assigned to support roles directly into the fighting.
The suit, which the ACLU announced at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, follows the military's ongoing analysis of what would happen if it introduced women into combat roles. The ACLU says the Pentagon is not moving quickly enough and the policy itself is unconstitutional.
"It's harming women in the field now," says Elizabeth Gill, a staff attorney with ACLU Northern California, which is participating in the suit. "Significant numbers of women have fought alongside their male counterparts in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and, in fact, are fighting in combat situations."
"Our clients in this case have served in capacities where they're shot at by enemy fire, they're engaged, they're attached to combat units," she adds. "They're fighting in exactly the same circumstances as men but they're not recognized for that work."
Regulations against women in combat roles are "outdated assumptions and stereotypes about the proper roles of men and women" and their respective talents, says Gill.
The Pentagon does not comment on litigation, a Department of Defense spokeswoman says.
Zoe Bedell is a retired Marine Corps captain and is among the plaintiffs in the case. She served on active duty from 2007 to 2011. Bedell was twice deployed to Afghanistan, where she led Female Engagement Teams that patrolled with infantry units to engage with Afghan women.
"I left in 2011 when my active commitment was complete, in large part because I felt the combat exclusion policy limited my opportunities in the military," she said in an E-mail to U.S. News. "I would be evaluated for assignments based not on my qualifications or accomplishments, but on my gender. This didn't make sense for me personally or professionally, and I frankly also don't think it makes sense for our military."
The practice is not only unconstitutional, but impractical, she says.
"Why would we want to stop our military from selecting the top people for jobs?" Bedell says. "We are asking for the chance to compete for the same jobs as men. This benefits our military by having people in positions not because of an irrelevant factor like gender, but because of their demonstrated abilities."
Other plaintiffs include Maj. Mary Jennings Hegar, a helicopter rescue pilot with the Air National Guard who was shot down in Afghanistan in 2009 while rescuing three injured soldiers; Army Staff Sgt. Jennifer Hunt, who patrolled with soldiers on combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq; and Marine 1st Lt. Colleen Farrell, who was also an FET leader in Afghanistan. Hegar and Hunt were both awarded the Purple Heart for being wounded in action.
Female troops have served critical functions in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where some communities limit the interaction between local women and male soldiers. Gill says the military's policy "artificially limits" the work these women can do and the recognition and career advancement that comes from it, which creates a "brain drain."
"It's not only doing a disservice to women who put their lives on the line for their country, but it's also harming our armed services," she says. |
, hoping that at least someone over there might notice that. And then I tried to find the paramedic report to copy it. There is the paramedic radio report that I fill in while I’m talking to them on the radio and they are inbound. Then there is their official run report, which is their paperwork, which they make a copy of for our records. Both were missing from the chart. In fact, every mention of the vaccines was sterilized from the chart. The primary nurse had not written in anything about it either.
…The doctor, of course, did not report to VAERS. In spite of the fact that there were lab findings, radiology findings, and symptoms which all warranted a VAERS report, and the child was not just brought in to the ER, but was hospitalized, and assigned neurological follow up care.
… I went and filed a VAERS report nice and publicly sitting at a prominent terminal as close to the doctors as I could get. I made sure to say it loud enough to be overheard that I was filing a VAERS report on the kid we just transferred when a colleague questioned what I was doing. I know the doctor overheard. She ignored me.Top of FormBottom of Form
Conclusion
Medical freedom is quickly becoming endangered. Sadly, some things must get worse before they get better, and this is what we are experiencing now. When persuasion to vaccinate fails, we are seeing mandates, coercion, and deception used instead. Although this may seem like things are getting worse (and in some ways they are), in the end, these kinds of heavy-handed tactics will only make us stronger. Mandating vaccines for nurses is ultimately what inspired so many nurses to speak out against vaccines. The biggest difference between the nurses who are against vaccines or for them is that those nurses who are against vaccines actually know something more about vaccines than simply how to administer them. Knowledge has a way of changing minds, the same way it has changed the minds of these nurses. They took the time to research vaccines, as they were not taught about the dangers of vaccination in school, they had to take the time to teach themselves. Knowledge is power. When we live in ignorance, we are slaves to the propaganda of others. It is knowledge of the truth that will set us all free and restore our medical freedoms.
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Sources:University of Florida honeybee researcher Jamie Ellis is interested in what happens to bees that encounter chemicals and Varroa mites — but he’s even more interested in how younger bees fare long-term after facing those challenges.
Scientists have been trying to explain the bee-killing malady known as Colony Collapse Disorder, which causes honeybees to abandon their hives, become ill and die. Ellis’ lab has been studying how combinations of environmental factors — chemicals, pathogens, natural enemies — affect bees.
Since widespread honeybee die-offs began to be reported around the U.S. in 2006, researchers have been working to pin down a cause. Bee pollination is critical for much of the food we eat and some estimates suggest the U.S. bee industry is responsible for pollinating as much as $15 billion worth of crops every year.
In the Ellis lab’s most recent study, outlined recently in the Journal of Insect Physiology, researchers reared honey bees from young larvae to the pupal stage.
The UF researchers then exposed the immature bees to a variety of chemicals used in agriculture and beekeeping, including two fungicides, two herbicides and five insecticides. They also exposed them to Varroa mites, which weaken bee colonies.
During the experiment, a control group of bees wasn’t exposed to anything, others were exposed only to the chemicals, or only to mites, and some of the bees were exposed to a combination of chemicals and mites.
The researchers gauged the effects on larvae by analyzing the activity of about 50 genes associated with stress, immune response and bee development.
Ellis, an assistant professor of entomology in UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, stressed that the scientists were only able to screen for expression in some — but not all — genes. They had expected that exposing the bees to the combination of mites and chemicals might produce a more pronounced negative impact, but they didn’t find any.
But their results did suggest, among other things, that two common fungicides — chemicals used to protect crops from fungal infections — apparently have more influence on bees than previously believed.
By examining the selected genes, researchers found the fungicides had pronounced effects on the larvae, although they are generally considered non-toxic to bees.
“The data suggest that fungicides are not innocuous to bees,” he said.
Ellis’ next study will go much further, with scientists preparing to raise the bees from larvae to adulthood, labeling and following each individual bee.
“In most studies, investigators treat a field with a product, put bee colonies adjacent to the field and then sample whole colony strength after pesticide exposure. At the end of the day, all you are able to say is ‘this colony is responding in this way to the field treatment.’ You don’t know why it’s responding in that way. When we begin to label bees, it will permit us to investigate an area that has yet to be studied.
“We’ll be able to follow individual bees throughout their entire lives, thus allowing us to determine long-term impacts of pesticides on bees.” Besides Ellis, the research team members included former UF post-doctoral research fellow Aleš Gregorc; Michael Scharf, a former UF entomologist and now the O. Wayne Rollins/Orkin Endowed Chair in Urban Entomology at Purdue University, and Jay D. Evans, research entomologist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Md.
The study was funded by the National Honey Board, the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.Get the biggest Liverpool FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has put Burnley goal machine Danny Ings at the top of his Christmas wish-list.
Rodgers wants a new striker to give him depth behind Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge - and the England Under-21 hot-shot is his main target.
Ings has been sensational in the Championship this season and the Reds' chief Rodgers thinks he is ideal to add an extra dimension to his squad.
The former Bournemouth striker could be persuaded to go to Anfield, although he would clearly only be cover to Suarez and Sturridge.
Rodgers has seen his strikeforce's shortcomings exposed by Sturridge's ankle injury, but was chasing 21-year-old Ings before that setback.
Now, the heat has been turned up.
High-flying Burnley would demand a major fee for Ings as they are chasing the massive financial prize of promotion back to the Premier League.
However, the parachute payments from their last stint at the top table in 2009-10 are running out, and they recently revealed losses that were only partly covered by the summer sale of striker Charlie Austin to Queens Park Rangers.
If Liverpool come calling with a decent offer - and if Ings wants to go - it will be a hard move for them to resist.
In the dark on Ings? Watch and learn:Pujie (Chinese: 溥傑; 16 April 1907 – 28 February 1994) was a Qing imperial prince of Manchu descent. He was born in the Aisin Gioro clan, the imperial clan of the Qing dynasty. Pujie was the younger brother of Puyi, the last Emperor of China. After the fall of the Qing dynasty, Pujie went to Japan, where he was educated and married to Saga Hiro, a Japanese noblewoman. In 1937, he moved to Manchukuo, where his brother ruled as Emperor under varying degrees of Japanese control during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). After the war ended, Pujie was captured by Soviet forces, held in Soviet prison camps for five years, and then extradited back to the People's Republic of China, where he was incarcerated for about 10 years in the Fushun War Criminals Management Centre. He was later pardoned and released from prison by the Chinese government, after which he joined the Communist Party and served in a number of positions in the party until his death in 1994.[1]
Names [ edit ]
Pujie's Manchu name was ᡦᡠ ᡤᡳᠶᡝ; Pu-giye, his courtesy name Junzhi, and his art name Bingfan. Zeng Guofan was a source of inspiration for Pujie's art name, Bingfan. Bingfan means "live up to (the legacy of Zeng Guo)fan".
Early life [ edit ]
Pujie, held by his father Prince Chun (left), and his older brother, Puyi (right).
Pujie was the second son of Zaifeng (Prince Chun) and his primary consort, Youlan. As a child, he was brought to the Forbidden City in Beijing to be a playmate and classmate to his brother, Puyi. A well-known incident recounted how Puyi threw a tantrum when he saw that the inner lining of one of Pujie's coats was yellow, because yellow was traditionally a colour reserved only for the emperor.[2]
In 1929, Pujie travelled to Japan and was educated in the Gakushuin Peers' School. He became fluent in Japanese. Later, he enrolled at the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and graduated in July 1935.
Pujie was first married in 1924 to a Manchu noblewoman, Tang Shixia, but they had no children. He left his wife behind when he went to Japan, and the marriage was dissolved some years later. After graduating from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, Pujie agreed to an arranged marriage with a Japanese noblewoman. He selected Saga Hiro, who was a relative of the Japanese imperial family, from a photograph from a number of possible candidates vetted by the Kwantung Army.[3] As Puyi did not have an heir, the wedding had strong political implications, and was aimed at both fortifying relations between the two countries and introducing Japanese blood into the Manchu imperial family.[citation needed]
The engagement ceremony took place at the Manchukuo embassy in Tokyo on 2 February 1937 with the official wedding held in the Imperial Army Hall at Kudanzaka, Tokyo, on 3 April. In October, the couple moved to Hsinking, the capital of Manchukuo, where Puyi was then the Emperor.
Life in Manchukuo [ edit ]
As Puyi had no children, Pujie was regarded as first in line to succeed his brother as the emperor of Manchukuo; the Japanese officially proclaimed him the heir apparent. However, Pujie was not appointed by his brother as the heir to the throne of the Qing dynasty,[citation needed] as imperial tradition stated that a childless emperor should choose his heir from a subsequent generation instead of from his own generation.[citation needed] While in Manchukuo, Pujie served as honorary head of the Manchukuo Imperial Guards. He returned briefly to Japan in 1944 to attend the Army Staff College.
At the time of the collapse of Manchukuo during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945, Pujie initially attempted to escape to Japan with his brother. However, as it became apparent that no escape was possible, he opted to return to Hsinking in an unsuccessful attempt to surrender the city to forces of the Republic of China, rather than have the city fall into foreign hands.
Pujie was arrested by the Soviet Red Army and first sent to a prison camp in Chita, and then to another in Khabarovsk along with his brother and other relatives. He spent about five years in the Soviet prison camps until 1950, when the Sino-Soviet rapprochment allowed him and his fellow captives to be extradited to the newly founded People's Republic of China.
Life in the People's Republic of China [ edit ]
On his return to China, Pujie was incarcerated in the War Criminals Management Centre in Fushun, Liaoning. A model prisoner, he was eventually pardoned and released from prison by the Chinese government. He joined the Communist Party and served in a number of positions.
In 1978, Pujie became a deputy from Shanghai at the 5th National People's Congress. He subsequently served as Vice Chairman of the Nationalities Committee of the 6th National People's Congress in 1983. He was appointed Deputy Head of the China-Japan Friendship Group from 1985. He rose to a seat on the Presidium of the 7th National People's Congress in 1988. From 1986, Pujie was also Honorary Director for the Handicapped Welfare Fund.[4]
Pujie was also a technical adviser for the 1987 film The Last Emperor directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. On 28 November 1991, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by Ritsumeikan University. He died of illness at 0755 hours on 28 February 1994 in Beijing at the age of 87. His body was cremated and half of his ashes were buried in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, while the other half were buried in Beijing.
Family [ edit ]
Parents: Zaifeng, Prince Chun of the First Rank ( 醇親王 載灃 ; 12 February 1883 – 3 February 1951) Primary consort, of the Gūwalgiya clan ( 嫡福晉 瓜爾佳氏 ; 1884 – 30 September 1921), personal name Youlan ( 幼蘭 )
Consorts and Issue: Wife, of the Tang clan ( 唐氏 ; 1904–1993), personal name Shixia ( 石霞 ) Wife, of the Saga clan ( 嵯峨氏 ; 16 March 1914 – 20 June 1987), personal name Hiro ( 浩 ) First daughter (26 February 1938 – 4 December 1957), personal name Huisheng ( 慧生 ) Second daughter (b. 13 March 1940), personal name Husheng ( 嫮生 ) Married Kenji ( 健治 ) of the Japanese Fukunaga ( 福永 ) clan in 1968
Immediate family [ edit ]
Pujie's first wife was Tang Yiying (唐怡瑩; 1904–1993), who was better known as Tang Shixia (唐石霞). She was from the Manchu Tatara (他他拉) clan, and was the daughter of Zhiqi, a brother of the Guangxu Emperor's concubines Consort Zhen and Consort Jin. Pujie married Tang when he was 17, but did not get along well with her. In 1926, Tang became Zhang Xueliang's mistress and broke ties with Pujie and his family. When Pujie went to Japan for his studies, Tang had another affair – this time with Lu Xiaojia (盧筱嘉), the son of the warlord Lu Yongxiang. She looted Pujie's ancestral house, the Prince Chun Residence in Beijing. Since then, Pujie and Tang had lived separately until their divorce. In 1949, Tang moved to Hong Kong and became a lecturer at the School of Eastern Languages in the University of Hong Kong.
In 1935, when Pujie returned to China from his studies in Japan, Puyi tried to help his brother find a Manchu wife. Pujie met one Wang Mintong (王敏彤) but they never married.
Pujie eventually married Saga Hiro, a Japanese noblewoman related to the Japanese imperial family, under an arranged marriage. They had two daughters: Huisheng (1938–1957) and Husheng (嫮生; born 1940). Huisheng died on 10 December 1957 at Mount Amagi in Japan in what appeared to be a murder-suicide case. Husheng married Fukunaga Kenji (福永健治) and became known as "Fukunaga Kosē" after her marriage. The couple had five children.
Succession [ edit ]
Under the terms of a Manchukuo succession law adopted in 1937, Pujie, as the emperor's full-brother, was heir to the throne of Manchukuo when Puyi died in 1967. Pujie had no sons. When he died, the right of succession was passed to his closest male relative, his half-brother Jin Youzhi.
Ancestry [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]A chat with Mark Duplass of “Humpday”
Mark Duplass, along with Joshua Leonard (“The Blair Witch Project”), is one of the two stars of one of the funniest and just plain nicest movies I’ve seen in awhile. If you haven’t yet read my review, writer-director Lynn Shelton’s Indie Spirit award-nominated “Humpday” is a really funny comedy about two completely heterosexual best friends who become possessed by the idea of making an art-porno in which the two of them take their bromance to its highly illogical extreme.
Duplass may be best known as one half of the film-making Duplass Brothers, who had a big indie/festival hit with “The Puffy Chair,” one of the most acclaimed films in the so-called “mumblecore” movement — improvised, usually comic, films in which no one actually mumbles much but in which the dialogue is largely improvised. While the “mumblecore” tag has become more than a little dated, the Brothers D are currently completing their first movie with big-name stars (specifically, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, and John C. Reilly), which was without a title when this interview was conducted but we’ve just learned via Anne Thompson is going to be named “Cyrus.”
“Humpday” technically could be considered mumblecore because, while it was for the most part tightly plotted, the dialogue was improvised. It’s a technique Duplass was clearly comfortable with as he has acted in the films he has been making with his brother, Jay Duplass, for over a decade, as well as in such other ‘core hits as “Hannah Takes the Stairs.” We caught up with Mark via phone a bit early in the day (my time), one recent Friday morning…
PH: Just before I saw “Humpday,” I reviewed the DVD of “The Odd Couple.” I was just thinking, now that you’ve had time to think about the movie and everything, and we have this recently coined word “bromance,” which this movie obviously deals with – how do you think “Humpday” fits in with all these other movies that have been out there?
MD: That’s weird. When we made “Humpday” there really wasn’t the bromance movement in the zeitgeist. We were just operating in Seattle doing our own little thing. We were not conscious that we were part of a movement at all. When I look back now I can see that there’s something about the lovable loser/shlubby guy over the last five or ten years that’s become our new hero or protagonist. And there’s something funny and interesting, and ultimately kind of sweet, about the burgeoning friendships that happen between these type of guys and in particular a little bit of buffoonery that comes with it.
I can’t say why it’s happening now. I definitely know that, in my own life, as I get older I look for more intimacy out of my guy friends. I don’t know why. I’m more comfortable in my own skin, I’m more comfortable crying on dudes’ shoulders and talking about my insecurities with guys than when I was at a keg party when I was sixteen.
I don’t know why it’s become such a part of the zeitgeist. I’m happy about it. I like exploring it. There’s a sweetness to it and there’s a comedy to it that I think is really rife for exploration and art.
PH: You said you and Joshua were basically kind of acquaintances before the movie, but now you’re actually pretty good friends. That happened on the film?
MD: We’re very close friends – he’s one of my closest friends. [Before making “Humpday”] I only knew him tangentially and then Lynn said “Look, I need help casting this role.” I recommended Josh, just based on knowing him a little bit. I knew him enough to know he was a very special human being. Very emotionally evolved – he’s been through a lot for a guy in his early thirties, but more importantly he and I have this great dynamic.
We love each other so much and we have no real physical boundaries. We’re very intimate emotionally, physically but at the same time if one of us did something wrong to the other one, we would have absolutely have no problem shooting the other one in the face. It’s a good love/hate combo that makes for interesting acting chemistry.
PH: Do you think you guys will ever do another movie together?
MD: We talk about it all the time. I think we would love to. It would be a question of the right time and the right characters. “Humpday” is so special to us, if we did something we’d want it to be something really different.
PH: I was looking at some of your earlier short films and I was curious about your acting background because you seem so comfortable in front of a camera. Is there any aside from these movies?
MD: There really isn’t. Jay’s my older brother and, since we were little, he would hold the camera and I would be in front of the camera and that’s what we’ve always done. It just began as a function of the fact that I was the best free actor that he could find. Then, as my brother and I got more serious making movies, and now we’re making studio movies, [and that’s] an artistically rewarding but also very stressful environment.
Acting has now become this sort of little safe haven for me to be truly creative and truly free and not bear the onus of the movie. When I’m done, I go home and I go to sleep. When I’m directing a movie I’m thinking about it all the time. It’s a great counterbalance to my directing life.
PH: (laughing) You just killed one of my other questions!
MD: Alright!
PH: About the final scene. You purposefully didn’t talk about it beforehand about what was going to happen and what you were going to do for the film’s resolution. Did you have a bunch of contingencies running through your head, since you didn’t know what Joshua was going to do?
MD: Yeah. I wouldn’t say “contingencies,” but I did have thoughts about where it could go and I did have markers of places that I thought would be interesting. I thought for sure these guys would try out a kiss. I felt like that was coming at some point.
PH: By the way, I’m going to try not to give [the ending] away to the readers.
MD: Of course. I didn’t really know, obviously, what was going to happen. I had some ideas, but in general it really was a true process of exploration. It was “he’s gonna walk into that hotel room and I don’t know what the hell is gonna happen.”
The first day we shot for an hour and about 75 to 80 percent of what you see is from that very day.
PH: Here’s another thing. I think it’ s from one of the DVD commentaries, but I believe Lynn Shelton has said that you all actually didn’t know that it was going to work. You never really know that on any movie, of course, but in this case you really came in with the idea that “maybe this will work, maybe this won’t” and the entire movie might be discarded and never see the light of day. What got you to make that commitment anyway, even though you felt it was risky.
MD: It was the right time in my life. I was just about to shoot my first studio movie with my brother. It was a movie that I had developed for a few years and I knew we could execute perfectly. It was right in my wheelhouse, it was everything I knew how to do well and that was very exciting to me. The other side of that coin is wanting to do something that was really at risk of failing and the feelings that brought out in me…. “Humpday” was a little bit of me regressing back to how I felt when I was 19 or 20 making art movies. “It could be really cool; we’re probably going to fuck it up, but let’s give it a shot anyway.” There’s a vitality to that; it was the right time in my life.
PH: So you wanted to get back on the high-wire again?
MD: Yeah, I wanted to get on the hire-wire again.
PH: You’ve brought me very nicely to the next question. Now, the movie with your brother you were referring to, this is the one with Jonah Hill? Do you have a title for that yet?
MD: We do not have a title yet, but we’ll probably have one in about two days. We’re all getting through all the best options right now and trying to decide what that’s going to be. But, yeah, we’re still working on that.
It’s really become a special kind of a thing. Everyone has been so supportive and they love it so much, and so do we and we’re being very careful about when we release it and what title we use and we really want to do it right.
PH: As I understand it, Marisa Tomei plays his mother and John C. Reilly is her new boyfriend. What’s it like working with that kind of actor, as opposed to the the sort of stock company you’ve built-up with the so-called “mumblecore” films.
MD: Creatively speaking, very, very similar. They had seen all of our movies and we only brought them on board because they wanted to make a movie like this. They wanted to improvise; they wanted to go explore. And so, creatively speaking, we really were on that level. But, I gotta say, and I did not expect this, there is something to working with quote-unquote “professional actors.” These people are fucking good. They are good at their job.
I was cocky and thought “me and my friends, we know what we’re doing, we’re fine.” There is something to working with professionals. There is a reason these people make the money they do and get the praise that they do. Particularly, Jonah is…there’s a whole new side to Jonah. It’s a completely different character than he’s ever played. And it’s really, really special.
We’ve always known he’s a special kid; we’ve known him for quite a bit socially. We’ve been looking for something that can break him out of just the teenage roles that he’s played before, and we feel like this is it for him.
PH: I’ve seen some more potential in him more recently. His part in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” was something that seemed a little bit beyond what we’ve been seeing.
MD: He’s got it.
PH: Getting back to “Humpday,” It kind of fits into this broad category that’s been called “mumblecore” and I’m kind of curious because I was kind of pleasantly surprised since I’ve started seeing the movies…you guy’s don’t actually mumble!
MD: I don’t think we mumble either. I think it was very nice to have that movement in, say, 2005 when my brother and myself, Jo Swanberg, Andrew Bujalski, and a handful of other filmmakers – Ti West, who made “House of the Devil”…We were making $10,000 movies on our little cameras and it was great that The New York Times gave a name to our movement, to whatever. They gave us reviews and it brought awareness to us.
PH: Was it The New York Times who coined the word?
MD: I don’t know who actually termed it, but they sort of broke it out. And that was great and we needed that attention, but fortunately we’ve all evolved as filmmakers and the styles have evolved and the technology has evolved. So, we’re a little bit out of that movement and the press still wants to use that word. I think it’s outlived it’s usefulness, unfortunately. But I’m glad that it was out there for awhile because it did help to launch our careers a bit.
PH: It’s interesting because the first one I saw was “Hannah Takes the Stairs” and I thought, “this is pretty written,” which brings me to a question I want to ask you about “Humpday” and this may be more of a question for Lynn, but this move feels written. It feels like one of those movies were afterward people ask if the dialogue was improvised and they say “no it wasn’t, but that was because we did our jobs so well it felt like people were making it up as they went.” Why do you think it feels so tight even though you really were improvising the dialogue?
MD: The editor, Nat Sanders, is unbelievable at trimming fat and Lynn as well is very good about knowing that we want to stick to the narrative and not go off blabbing about things. But I also gotta give credit to Alycia [Delmore, who plays Anna, Ben’s highly tolerant wife and does so extremely well], Josh, and myself for knowing that just because you’re improvising doesn’t mean you can talk about bullshit for an hour. We were improvising the narrative and you have to keep the actor-brain on but also a writer-brain. So, while you’re inside the scene you’re driving the story and throwing out little surprises to keep things on track. If you feel things going off track, you have to spin it back and make sure you’re headed towards that narrative. It’s a very specific kind of improv – it’s narrative driven improv and I think that makes the difference.
PH: Obviously, this is not a story where you have heroes or villains, but your character does kind of do the most questionable things of any of the characters.
MD: Yeah, I agree.
PH: He seems very comfortable taking some big chances with his relationships. How do you think about him, for example, in the scene where he stays several hours at the party, though he has told Anna he’d shortly be leaving for home and her special pork chops. What’s kind of going through your head about what he’s thinking about?
MD: His behavior is understandable to me because he’s at a bit of a crisis point when he sees Andrew. He’s in his early thirties and his life is fine and it’s great. But when he sees he remembers the person he was when he was 19, in college with Andrew, and their whole life was ahead of them and their dreams were at their fingertips. It makes him realize that he has not achieved that he would have hoped he’d achieve; he didn’t become exactly who he hoped he’d become, and that makes him want to take all the little elements of his life, throw them in a box, shake it upside down, dump it on the floor and see what happens. He wants to shake things up and see what kind of foundation they really have. I think this whole idea of doing this porn with Andrew is right in line with that.
PH: That’s funny. It’s pretty much in line with exactly what I was thinking. He almost had to be not really sure whether he wanted to keep going on the path he thought he wanted to go on.
MD: Absolutely.
PH: Now, I’ve got a very superficial question for you, and I guess we’ll wrap up with this one. I was watching “This Is John” [a very funny 2003 short subject by the Duplass Brothers] last night. You look younger now – and very different at times. In some of the shots I thought maybe your brother was subbing for you or something. You really look different now and I can’t figure out why. You have any ideas?
MD: I don’t know, except when we made “This is John,” we combed my hair in a very special way and put on the computer guy’s outfit that was our roommate at the time. That might have had a specific part in it, but, who knows, maybe I found the fountain of youth.
PH: I was thinking maybe you had a nose job but then I looked again and I said, “no, the nose looks the same.”
MD: I haven’t had any work done, if that’s what you mean. I don’t plan on doing that anytime soon.
PH: [Laughing] I was just comparing pictures and I couldn’t support that theory. Since we’ve got another second here, I’ll ask you another question about that film. You were playing your roommate?
MD: That was a pretty quick movie – from conception to when it was done shooting was a half hour. We shot one 20 minute take and then it was done. I dressed up like my friend, Will. Put his clothes on, combed my hair like him and just imagined what it would like to be a frustrated computer programmer trying to the outgoing greeting on his answering machine. And that’s what came out.
It happened very quickly. Cut it down to eight minutes and that was our first movie that got into Sundance. That’s how life is…a $3 movie.
Read the Premium Hollywood interview with Mark Duplass’s “Humpday” co-star, Joshua Leonard.All Politics Blog From Milwaukee, Madison and beyond, a daily dose of political news and glimpses behind the scenes SHARE
By of the
UPDATE:
Wisconsin officials just told us that the U.S. Census Bureau figures showing declining revenue collections in Wisconsin are wrong.
The state's numbers actually show Wisconsin's income and sales tax revenue did not decline in fiscal year 2012 compared with 2011, said John Koskinen, chief economist for the Department of Revenue.
Wisconsin's total tax collections did not decline either, said Koskinen.
The numbers get reported to the Census Bureau directly from the Wisconsin Department of Administration, a Census Bureau official told us.
The bureau posted the numbers that were supplied by Wisconsin, the official said.
The bureau received the numbers from the state Department of Administration in late 2012 or early 2013.
Those numbers, however, do not match up with what another state agency, the Department of Revenue, publicly announced in September 2012, Koskinen pointed out.
The September 2012 figures show increases in the collections.
Koskinen said he was investigating the source of the error.
------------
More economic news that puts Wisconsin in select territory:
Wisconsin was alone among the states in seeing declines in collections from both income and sales taxes in 2012 vs. 2011, U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday showed.
“Only North Carolina, California, Wisconsin, and New Jersey showed decreases” in sales and gross receipts tax revenue, the bureau reported. Wisconsin’s total dropped 5.8% from 2011.
Similarly, on individual income tax collections, Wisconsin was one of just four states to see a drop in 2012, the Census Bureau reported. That revenue was down 2.6% in the state.
Wisconsin’s total tax collections were down in 2012; only three states saw a drop over 2011.
You can see the summary of the tax data here, and the full data set for 2012 here.
Stateline news service has highlights from the Census Bureau report on its site under the headline, “State Revenues Reach Record High After Recession’s Decline.”Interview conducted by telephone on March 8, 2016, and this text edited from that conversation.
Todd Hignite: I’d love to start by hearing about your process and approach to such a long-term project. It’s obviously unique for you in terms of scope, but can you speak to how you see your work on Patience within the trajectory of your career?
Daniel Clowes: Well, when I began, I thought it was going to be a lot more streamlined, I guess—I have an early outline where I guessed that the whole thing would be under a hundred pages, so adding that many pages shows quite a shift in what I was intending. You know, most of my work, especially the last three or four things, The Death Ray, Ice Haven, and Wilson, are all about paring everything down to the bare minimum in a way, where each part of the story is boiled down to a little essential moment, and then those are pieced together to create a longer narrative. I felt like I was moving in that direction for a long time and Wilson was kind of a culmination of that, where there’s no exposition at all, it’s just the heightened moments of this character’s story—and after finishing that I kind of had the desire to do the opposite, which was to give myself as much space as I wanted, so if a single image felt like it was big enough to cover two entire pages, I could feel free to do that, and have a rhythm within the story where that made sense. So, it was in many ways a very different experience. It’s funny because in some ways this is probably the most readable, and worked out story, plot-wise, that I’ve ever done, but it also felt very experimental to me, because it was so different from the way I’d been normally working.
TH: Randomness, order, and fate are themes that you’ve explored overtly and as subtext in your work—and these big ideas in many ways guide the narrative of Patience—were such concepts the germ of the story, or does that come from the characters of Patience and Jack?
DC: Originally, the story came from the older Jack character—he was the first character in the story—and then I started to think that he would be more interesting from the viewpoint of the Patience character. So then I started to think about her as someone who’s sort of baffled by this creature, and she really came to life and became the most interesting character to me. So they were vying for power in the story and I tried to give them a certain amount of equality within the narrative, which is always difficult. You usually have to weight it one way or the other.
TH: That dynamic was very interesting to me—Jack leads the narrative, but there’s a very religious aspect to the pending birth of the child, and an optimism and spiritual aspect to Patience, with all of these crazy male characters constantly crashing into each other around her.
DC: (laughter) That’s right—but I certainly |
5, claiming: "The presentation is no sense indefinite or ambiguous."[45] The prophecy galvanized the movement and proselytism increased substantially. On the eve of the Millennium in 1974 the number of publishers (Witnesses who submitted their record of preaching) rose by 13.5 percent worldwide and many Witnesses were actively preparing for the dawn of the New Order. Yet as 1975 drew closer the degree of uncertainty expressed in publications increased. The chances of Armageddon occurring that year were initially described as "feasible", "apparent" or "appropriate", but from the end of 1968 it became a mere "possibility". In 1966 the Society's chronological calculations were "trustworthy"; by 1968 they were considered "reasonably accurate (but admittedly not infallible)".[46] The basis of the gradual retraction was uncertainty over the elapsed time between the dates of Adam's creation and that of Eve. In fact, says Singelenberg, from the end of 1968 Watch Tower Society publications never again explicitly focused on 1975 in a theological context. Though articles continued to remind readers that the "end of 6000 years of human history" was imminent, they increasingly highlighted non-Society sources that forecast a gloomy future with worldwide famine, ecological collapse and oxygen deficiency. The articles, says Singelenberg, were marked with emotional expressions of excitement, hope and urgency, with readers told: "What a time of turmoil is ahead of us! A climax in man's history is imminent!"[38] Less cautious language, however, was being used in publications distributed only to members of the group. In a 1968 issue of the monthly bulletin Kingdom Ministry, adherents were encouraged to increase their preaching activities because time was running out rapidly: "Less than a hundred months separate us from the end of 6000 years of man's history. What can you do in that time?"[47] Some Witnesses sold their possessions, postponed surgery or cashed in their insurance policies to prepare for Armageddon[16] and in May 1974 the Watch Tower Society told members: "Reports are heard of brothers selling their homes and property and planning to finish out the rest of their days in this old system in the pioneer service. Certainly this is a fine way to spend the short time remaining before the wicked world's end."[48] The prophecy was also disseminated at talks at congregation meetings and assemblies. Speakers at some conventions highlighted the phrase, "Stay alive till '75" and urged the audience to maintain their meeting attendance or risk losing their lives at Armageddon.[49] The Dutch branch overseer urged the audience at a "Divine Purpose" district convention in 1974 to "pioneer" (take part in full-time preaching) as the end approached: Many of us have suffered misery, sickness and death. You don't have to experience that any more. The new order is near... Sell your house, sell everything you own and say, oh boy, how long can I carry on with my private means. That long? Get rid of things! Pioneer! Plan to shower people with magazines during these last few months of this dying system of things!"[50] Yet The Watchtower's public coverage of the same series of conventions was notable for its far more cautious tone. In its summary of the convention talks, the magazine reiterated the teaching that Bible chronology showed 6000 years of human existence would be completed in the mid-1970s, then pointed out: "These publications have never said that the world's end would come then. Nevertheless, there has been considerable individual speculation on the matter." What was certain, the magazine said, was that the end would come within the generation of those who saw the beginning of world tribulations in 1914. "So we can be confident that the end is near; we do not have the slightest doubt that God will bring it about... we have to wait and see exactly when, in the meantime keeping busy in God's service."[51] Franz says a 1968 Watchtower article implied that members should be careful about taking too literally Jesus' cautionary words about forecasting the last days. The magazine warned: "This is not the time to be toying with the words of Jesus that 'concerning that day and hour nobody knows... only the Father'. To the contrary: it is a time when one should be keenly aware that the end of this system of things is rapidly coming to its violent end."[52] In a 1970 paper, Joseph F. Zygmunt commented on the likely outcome for Jehovah's Witnesses if this prediction, too, failed: "While return to this old strategy would seem to expose the sect once again to prophetic failure, the risks are balanced by the potent ideological reinforcement accruing from this forthright renewal of faith, which thirty-five years of diffuse watchful waiting seem to have made necessary." But he added: "The risks of another prophetic failure actually appear to be minimal. The new prophecy is being phrased in a manner that lends itself to 'confirmation' by the old device of claiming partial supernatural fulfillment."[5] Beckford, too, expected no significant organizational disturbance resulting from the absence of observable effects that year, suggesting in 1975 that Witnesses were being "skilfully prepared for prophetic disconfirmation" to reduce the dangers of disappointment. He noted an increasing frequency of Watch Tower Society warnings about the futility of making precise predictions about events expected for the jubilee year.[53] Yet Singelenberg, a Dutch social anthropologist, found that amid the conflict of Watch Tower Society statements from the era about what might happen that year, its sense of urgency on a probable apocalyptic event, and later the possibility of a cataclysm, expectations of a significant event in 1975 had a "startling impact" on the proselytizing activities of Jehovah's Witnesses and membership growth. His analysis of Watch Tower Society data showed annual growth of "publishers", which had averaged 2.8 percent annually between 1961 and 1966, leapt to between 10.4 and 12.4 percent from 1967 to 1975, with the number of active Witnesses through the 1970s peaking at almost 28,000 in November 1975. The number of average annual baptisms more than doubled, from 750 to 1851, with the ratio of defections to recruitments plummeting. The percentage of "pioneers" (Witnesses devoting at least 60 hours a month in preaching work) more than tripled from 2.3 percent of members to almost 8 percent in 1974 and 1975. He also found major increases in the number of "back calls" (return visits to interested members of the public who purchased publications) and average hours spent in service by individuals in the same two years.[38] Aftermath Edit The passing of 1975 without incident left the Watch Tower Society open to new claims of prophetic failure. Instead of maintaining the prophetic significance of that year, however, the group's leaders embarked on a lengthy period of denial and purge, blaming rank and file membership for misreading the organization's interpretations.[16] The Watchtower initially explained that the reason for the failure of Armageddon's arrival was due to the time lapse between the creation of Adam and Eve. Although the Society had earlier argued that the gap was "weeks or months, not years", it now decided the time lapse could, after all, be years.[54] The following year the magazine repeated its explanation, but declared the Witnesses themselves were to blame for their eager expectations about 1975 because they had misread the Bible.[38] "It was not the word of God that failed or deceived [the individual Jehovah's Witness] and brought disappointment, but... his own understanding was based on wrong premises."[55] In talks at conventions four years later, leading members of the Society finally acknowledged their error in the initial formulation of the prophecy, and in the March 15, 1980 Watchtower the Society said its claims about 1975 were regretted.[38] It assigned no different interpretation to the date and demanded that its members recognize that there never was an explicit prophecy.[16] Singelenberg's analysis of Jehovah's Witness preaching activity in the Netherlands in the wake of the 1975 prophetic failure showed a drop in the group's membership from mid-1976, a trend that was not reversed until 1980. It is thought that in the Netherlands about 5000 Witnesses either left the movement, were expelled, or became marginal and inactive members.[38] Singelenberg suggested many of those expelled and shunned in the late 1970s had rebelled against the group's authority structure out of "post-prophecy frustration"; post-1975 defectors were described to him and American researcher A. J. Brose as "opportunists" who had joined the group out of fear when the end seemed imminent, yet who lacked genuine commitment. One elder told Singelenberg: "It was good that Armageddon did not take place. It separated the wheat from the chaff."[38] Researcher Mathew N. Schmalz suggested the leadership drew attention from the disconfirmation by requiring an even greater loyalty from members, a demand enforced with the expulsion of almost 30,000 Witnesses in 1978 alone. The insistence on doctrinal orthodoxy reached the highest levels of the organization in 1980, with many in the writing committee disfellowshipped.[16] In almost every country the annual growth rate of Jehovah's Witnesses fell markedly after the 1975 failure. In the US, the group's growth rate fell from 6 percent to 2 percent; in South Korea it plummeted from 28 percent to 7 percent and the downward trend continued through to 1978. Even among the majority who remained, morale declined: in 1977 and 1978 the average "publisher" spent 140 hours a year proselytizing, compared to 196.8 hours in 1974.[56] In his ethnographic study of Jehovah's Witnesses, English sociologist Andrew Holden quoted the testimony of a Witness who had been in the movement from the early 1970s, but found it impossible to remain as an active member after the failure of the 1975 prediction. He said he, like many others, had been convinced the end would come in 1975: I said it from the platform! We told everyone the end was near. When I became a Witness I gave up my insurance policies, I cancelled all my insurance endowments, I never bought a house because I knew I wouldn't need one, we didn't even want to put the kids' names down for school.[57]
Armageddon to come within 20th century Edit
Watch Tower Society literature of the 1970s and 1980s repeatedly claimed that the "end" had to be expected before the turn of the century. The 1971 book The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah – How? stated: "Shortly, within our twentieth century, the 'battle in the day of Jehovah' will begin against the modern antitype of Jerusalem, Christendom."[58] A 1980 Watchtower article described the notion that "the wicked system of this world" would last "until the turn of the century" as "highly improbable in view of world trends and the fulfillment of Bible prophecy" (emphasis added).[59] A similar statement in a 1984 Watchtower article suggested that some members of the 1914 generation "could survive until the end of the century. But there are many indications that 'the end' is much closer than that!"[60] Until its October 22, 1995 issue, Awake! similarly included the statement, "this magazine builds confidence in the Creator's promise of a peaceful and secure new world before the generation that saw the events of 1914 passes away."[61] In 1989, the notion that the missionary efforts of the Witnesses would culminate before the turn of the century was first reaffirmed, then abandoned. As first published, a Watchtower article of January 1 stated: "The apostle Paul was spearheading the Christian missionary activity. He was also laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our 20th century."[62] (Emphasis added.) Nine months later a more cautiously worded statement appeared in the Watchtower: "We have ample reasons to expect that this preaching will be completed in our time. Does that mean before the turn of a new month, a new year, a new decade, a new century? No human knows" (emphasis added).[63] In later bound volumes of the 1989 Watchtower magazines, the text of the January 1 article was amended to state that Christian missionary work "would be completed in our day" rather than "in our 20th century".
Response to prophetic failure Edit
According to Joseph Zygmunt, the response to each of the prophetic failures by Watch Tower Society adherents followed a general pattern: The initial reaction by both rank and file and the movement's leaders was usually a combination of disappointment and puzzlement.
Proselytism declined, but members maintained an attitude of watchful waiting for the predictions to materialize. The doctrinal bases for the prophecies were reexamined and conjectures offered as to why the expected events might have been "delayed".
A fuller realization of the quandary was achieved. The group asserted that the prophecies had, in fact, been partially fulfilled, or that some event of prophetic significance—usually supernatural and hence not open to disconfirmation—had actually transpired on the nominated dates. Belief was sustained that God's plan was continuing to unfold.
Unfulfilled portions of the failed prophecies were projected into the future by issuing re-dated predictions, in association with retrospective reinterpretation of earlier failures.
A selective interpretation of emerging historical events as confirmation of the signs of the approaching end. A pessimistic worldview sensitized the group to perceive almost every social disturbance and natural disaster as an indicator of the impending collapse of the earthly system. Zygmunt concluded that the group's faith in its own belief system provided a basis for the claim of fulfillment, and the selective perception of global events furnished supportive empirical evidence. "In this sense and to this extent," he wrote, "the prophecies could not 'fail'." Unfulfilled prophecies were converted into partial successes and welcomed as divinely provided lessons revealing God's purposes more fully, yet it was accepted that each of those prophecies would eventually come to pass.[5] Singelenberg, too, believed a subsequent reinterpretation of failed prophecies was a survival strategy of groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses. Citing Neil Wiser,[64] he commented: "Whatever the outcome, prophecies cannot and do not fail for the committed."[38] The Watch Tower Society has acknowledged that some of its time calculations and expectations resulted in "serious disappointments", with consequent defections, expulsions and opposition, which it claimed was a process of "sifting" true believers. Yet of those who remained faithful it said: "They certainly did not err in believing that God would without fail do what he had promised... They recognized that a mistake had been made but that in no respect had God's Word failed."[2] The errors and speculation were attributed to an eagerness to see "the end of this evil system".[65] Holden concluded: "Simple as it seems, what sceptics regard as failure, the Governing Body regards as a test of faith." Holden said that given the scarcity of reference in Watch Tower Society literature to past predictive failures, it was highly unlikely that those who had joined the group within the past two decades were even aware of the Society's record. He estimated that more than 60 percent of current Witnesses had joined the movement since 1975, "hence the Governing Body has no reason to discuss with them the failure of its earlier prophecies." Yet he added: "The suppression of the 1975 prophecy failure by those who were active at the time but who have nevertheless remained in membership suggests an unusual degree of complicity." He also concurred with researcher Bryan Wilson's judgment that: For people whose lives have become dominated by one powerful expectation, and whose activities are dictated by what that belief requires, abandonment of faith because of disappointment about a date would usually be too traumatic an experience to contemplate.[66]
See also EditA photo taken on April 7, 2016, in Munich at the office of the German daily “Sueddeutsche Zeitung” shows several issues of the April 4 edition of the newspaper, in which the “Panama Papers” were published. (Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images)
There are two parallel worlds in German journalism.
In one, reporters face what they call unprecedented distrust and hatred on the streets — and in some cases even violent assaults. A quarter of Germans agree, according to a recent survey, that “Lügenpresse” — a Nazi era word that means “lying press” — is appropriate to describe the media.
But in the other, the public's trust in the press is at record-high levels. According to a recent study by the University of Würzburg, which tracked more than 15 years of public opinions on the press, 55.7 percent of all Germans trusted the press last year. The researchers suggest that the contentious and sometimes dangerous atmosphere journalists face when covering right-wing protests has not translated into growing media skepticism overall. In fact, the opposite might be the case.
Previous studies have recently come to a similar conclusion, said Martin Hoffmann, a senior researcher at the European Center for Press and Media Freedom. People who are disillusioned with the media hold increasingly hostile views toward journalists, but an unprecedented number of Germans openly disagree with those views.
For Germany's established parties, it could be an encouraging sign. Chancellor Angela Merkel and other mainstream political leaders fear that fake news disseminated on social media could help the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party win a large number of seats in the parliamentary election September. Germany's parliament even passed an anti-fake news bill on Wednesday that would compel social media companies to remove untrue stories or face stiff fines.
The study also has warning signs for the AfD and other parties whose supporters have turned away from mainstream media outlets. The Würzburg researchers found indications that the link between populist right-wing parties like the AfD and media skepticism is weakening. The number of respondents in the survey who considered themselves right-wing and said that they trust the press has increased by 18 percent over the last year, rising from 33 percent in 2015 to 51 percent in 2016.
The significant difference is probably related to Germany's refugee crisis, said Hoffmann. In 2015, the country took in almost 1 million refugees and migrants. Critics alleged at the time that almost all media outlets, including staunchly conservative ones, welcomed the massive influx. The welcoming attitude of many tabloid papers and conservative publications largely faded following the mass sexual assaults in Cologne on New Year's Eve 2015, which were mostly committed by foreign nationals who had only recently arrived in Germany.
Since then, national broadcasters and newspapers have made efforts to take the concerns of their readers seriously amid the growing refugee influx. But Kim Otto, a journalism professor at the University of Würzburg and author of the study, says the news outlets made other changes that also help explain the rise in trust.
“Many of the traditional German broadcasters and newspaper editors responded with more transparency. They invited citizens and critics to get to know how they work,” said Otto — whose findings suggest that the same methods could potentially work elsewhere, including in the United States.
Read more:
Trump’s attacks on the media sound eerily familiar to Germany’s journalistsAbout Good Game
Good Game is a feature length documentary about a group of men who exhibit the competitive drive of an athlete, the tactical skill of a general, and the creative talent of an artist. They bring all of these things to successful careers in competitive gaming as members of Team Evil Geniuses’ Starcraft 2 division.
Nearly every American plays video games in one way or another. They range from casual gamers on Facebook to hardcore gamers on Xbox Live. Hospitals and nursing homes have Nintendo Wii consoles in their common rooms, schools are finding ways to incorporate gaming into learning, and over twelve million people worldwide have characters in World of Warcraft. Gaming is one of the largest industries in the U.S., and it’s only natural that the best of the best have found a way to compete.
Competitive gaming isn’t an easy road, and it’s not a feasible career for many. But these seven men have made their dream into a reality, playing professionally in tournaments throughout the country and the world. Good Game follows these men as they compete throughout 2011, and explores the world behind the curtain, talking with the EG staff and their management team.
The film is available now from Devolver Digital Films, and can be rented or purchased through multiple digital platforms.
DVDs are now available through Square (U.S. customers only) and Amazon (International shipping available). Also check out our Square Marketplace for posters, soundtrack CDs, and other promo items! These are limited so get them while you can!President Trump at the White House on Monday. (European Pressphoto Agency/Chris Kleponis/Pool)
President Trump plans to file a disclosure shortly that will detail his assets and liabilities over the past year, a voluntary move that follows the practice of his most recent predecessors.
A White House official said Monday night that Trump will submit a personal financial disclosure covering the 2016 calendar year "in a short period of time," confirming a report by the Associated Press.
The president is not required to file such a report with the Office of Government Ethics until next spring, but past presidents including Barack Obama and George W. Bush voluntarily submitted financial disclosures in the year they took office.
The filing will provide a look at the assets, debts and transactions of Trump's real estate empire during the presidential election year. However, because the form only requires officials to report wide ranges of income and debt, it is impossible to use it to precisely gauge someone's net worth. The report also does not require officials to report their exact income or tax rate or charitable giving -- unlike a tax return, which the president has refused to release.
Trump's last financial disclosure -- which was filed in May 2016 and covered the previous 10 1/2 months -- showed that his company's revenues boomed as he launched his presidential bid. At the time, he touted the size of the report, saying that the 104-page disclosure was "the largest" in history.The government of Dorian Gray is showing its age.
Some months ago, I suggested an analogy to the portrait in the story: the prime minister out in public, smiling, unblemished, seemingly ageless, while in an attic somewhere his face was accumulating the marks and lines of his government’s many sins.
But something has gone wrong. Justin Trudeau does not seem so visibly unburdened by office any more. The image of youthful idealism is wearing thin. The cracks are starting to show.
Indeed there is accumulating around this government, and more and more around the prime minister himself, an unmistakable odour of hypocrisy and deceit, made more sickly-sweet by the sanctimony in which both are in the habit of expressing themselves.
It won’t show up in the polls yet, but they are storing up trouble. Liberals have always to guard against arrogance and self-satisfaction — envy and resentment are the Tory equivalents — and this current generation of Liberals are, let us just say, immensely pleased with themselves. That kind of smugness can lead to overreach and unforced errors, and if not checked will eventually give rise to public loathing. People fall out of love as quickly as they fall in it, as any number of once popular leaders can attest.
They are clever, these Liberals, there’s no denying it. They ran a brilliant election campaign, and have handled several files adroitly: the delicate climate change-versus-pipelines dance being perhaps the best example. But on a number of other fronts they have crossed the line separating clever from too-clever-by-half.
There is, first of all, the matter of the pay-to-play fundraisers at which Liberal cabinet ministers keep popping up, and the tone-deaf response from the party and its leader whenever the subject is raised. That ministers of the Crown should not be offering privileged access to themselves as an inducement to party contributors is axiomatic. That the amounts are smaller than in years past, or in some provinces today, is no defence — still less so that other favourite Liberal talking point, that no law explicitly forbids it.
Indeed, the practice would appear to be in direct violation of the prime minister’s own ethical guidelines for ministers, notably the bit about how “there should be no preferential access or appearance of preferential access accorded to individuals or organizations because they have made financial contributions to politicians and political parties.” That the prime minister is himself the latest to be caught in this compromising position, at a private dinner with some Chinese billionaires — with an echo of Clintonian side-dealing, in the form of a six-figure donation to the Trudeau Foundation and a $50,000 statue of Trudeau père — only adds to the sense of an ethics code whose first line is “do as I say, not as I do.”
People fall out of love as quickly as they fall in it, as any number of once popular leaders can attest.
Then there is the matter of the prime minister’s “nonpartisan” Senate appointments. This is, to be polite, a con, as is the claim that they represent a glittering “diversity” of backgrounds. They may come in different skin colours and chromosome counts, but their professional backgrounds are almost comically uniform, virtually every one drawn from Liberal client groups in the state sector and activist community, and while they may not be active Liberal partisans, the likelihood that they would pose any obstacle to the Liberals’ agenda is nil. That’s fine: so long as the Senate is unelected they shouldn’t. It’s when another government, of another party, comes to power that the potential for crisis looms.
A third point where the government’s devious slip is showing: electoral reform, and the public consultations in which a special parliamentary committee has been engaged these past several months. There is no debating this: as a matter of public record, the overwhelming majority of the representations made to the committee, whether from experts or members of the public, favoured some form of proportional representation. Yet the Minister of Democratic Institutions, Maryam Monsef, in what can only be described as an attempt to gaslight the committee, maintains that the consultations revealed “no consensus” on the way forward, while the government readies a separate consultation process, developed in secret, with which to cast doubt on the committee’s findings.
Where should we turn next? To the “interim” purchase of 18 new Super Hornet fighter jets as a replacement for what are universally described as “our aging CF-18s,” with an “open” competition for a more permanent replacement to follow — a competition that cannot possibly be truly open, in the circumstances, and that will now formally include the F-35s, in either case in violation of explicit Liberal campaign promises?
To the military mission in Iraq, and the ever more absurd logical and linguistic contortions needed to maintain the government’s original pretence that our forces are playing a “non-combat” role?
To the ongoing fraud that is the federal budget: not only the officially announced deficits, nearly three times what were promised, but what is widely acknowledged to be a massive effort to manipulate the numbers to fit the government’s political needs?
Are these the worst examples of government cynicism we’ve seen? Hardly. The Harper government set new records in that game. But this is a government that asked people to believe they were different, that made a great show of their sincerity, offering as a token of their good faith no less a surety than the prime minister’s smiling, unlined face. Only he seems to have acquired a few wrinkles around the eyes.Railroad Fire Grows To Over 300 Acres, More Evacuations
FISH CAMP — The Railroad fire continues to grow as fire managers have difficulty getting large air tankers over the incident.
As of 2:45 p.m., the fire was estimated at 300 acres, with spot fires out ahead of the blaze, and a potential for up to 5,000 acres. It is moving toward the park boundary.
Three structures have been lost.
As of 3:10 p.m., five dozers were en route to the fire. All helicopters requested are overhead, and more resources are on order, including more strike teams and ground crews.
The road closure on Highway 41 has been moved south from Road 630 to Cedar Valley. On the north it is closed at Summit Road in Fish Camp.
A mandatory evacuation is in place for the Narrow Gauge Inn, the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad, the community of Sugar Pine including the christian camp, and all homes in the immediate vicinity.
At 2:53 p.m., the Sheriff’s Office initiated evacuations of the Fish Camp and Tenaya Lodge areas. All traffic is being sent into Yosemite from Fish Camp, and the outbound traffic at the south entrance is being stopped.
As of 4:20 p.m. Highway 41 is closed south of Wawona.
Officials report zero visibility on the roadway in the Fish Camp area, so everyone is being warned to use extreme caution and headlights.
A Red Cross evacuation center has been established at the Oakhurst Community Center, 39800 Road 425B.
An additional evacuation shelter will be open at 5:45 p.m. at Yosemite Valley Visitor Center, 9035 Village Drive, Yosemite Valley.
The Central California Animal Disaster Team is on standby to assist the Madera County Sheriff’s Office/ Animal Control with animal evacuation and emergency animal sheltering if needed.
Sheriff deputies and Citizens on Patrol are deployed across the area making notifications and setting up along side roads such as Miami Mountain and Worman, to keep people from entering the fire zone.Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has told Japanese publication The Nikkei that he is dumbfounded by the incredible sales set by Animal Crossing: New Leaf in Japan. As we already reported the game has sold over two million copies in Japan, with approximately 1 in every 110 people now owning a copy. Iwata says that a growing number of sales are down to an increase in female and social gamers, with the highest percentage in the first three weeks of sales being 19 to 24-year-old women. Iwata says that it’s “an age range found typically in fewer numbers for Nintendo”.
“These are the sort of numbers that leave me dumbfounded. I’ve never seen anything like it; a game that sells like this on a Nintendo hardware.” “For a 47 minute video with developers talking casually about a game to have 1.6 million views is almost impossible, like really something unusual, I think.”Introduction
Many times I thought of a system that will track a sensor readings for specific time and save that data for future analysis after doing the same task for several days. So I made a system using Arduino and the amazing 1sheeld to save LDR readings in an Excel sheet and that is what we are going to do now.
LDR is an acronym for "light dependent resistor" as it's a resistance but its value changed with light in the environment. 1Sheeld is a platform for Arduino that allows you to tap into your smartphone's sensors and capabilities and lets you use them in your Arduino projects.
The project
Basically, 1Sheeld is a hardware shield that sits on top of your Arduino board and communicates over Bluetooth to this Android app, to transfer data between it and your smartphone.
You can check all 1sheeld's tutorials which will take you from the early beginning into more and more advanced projects from that link. And you can order it from here.With the offseason officially under way, Around The League will examine what's next for all 32 teams. The series continues with the New Orleans Saints.
What's Changing
The Saints are seeking stability in leadership after a lost season from the bounty scandal fallout. The most important change is the reinstatement of head coach Sean Payton, armed with a five-year contract similar to the one signed by general manager Mickey Loomis. Former Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan will bring his 3-4 scheme to the Big Easy after Steve Spagnuolo was fired for overseeing a defense that allowed the most yards in NFL history.
Biggest Free Agents
» LT Jermon Bushrod: Loomis has identified retaining Bushrod as his top challenge this offseason. At age 28, Bushrod will be seeking his last big contract after settling for a reasonable two-year deal in 2011. Loomis could have competition from a team such as the Chicago Bears if Bushrod is allowed to test the market.
» DT Sedrick Ellis: It's time for a change of scenery. The No. 7 overall pick in 2008 finished with just 36 tackles and no sacks last season while the Saints ranked dead last against the run. Ellis is a poor scheme fit in Ryan's 3-4 defense.
» WR Devery Henderson: Henderson has never played for a team outside of Louisiana. That might change in 2013, as Henderson lost a step and showed inconsistent hands while posting his worst season since 2005.
Other key free agents: LB Scott Shanle, QB Chase Daniel, KR Courtney Roby, LB Jonathan Casillas, DE Turk McBride
Best of 2012 - New Orleans Saints SEE PHOTOS The New Orleans Saints didn't make the playoffs but their season was action-packed, take a look at some of the best photos from the 2012 season.
What They Need
The biggest needs are on the defensive side of the ball, as one might expect an overhaul after setting an NFL record for futility. The cupboard is bare on pass rushers for Ryan's 3-4 defense. Other defensive holes include a run-stuffing nose tackle and depth at cornerback. Re-signing or replacing Bushrod will be the priority on offense.
Offseason Crystal Ball
Veteran defenders Will Smith and Jonathan Vilma have been asked to take major pay cuts. Expect them to be released if they don't comply. The Saints can then use early-round draft picks and the second wave of free agency to find players better suited to Ryan's defense. Flush with running-back depth, the Saints could look to trade restricted free agent Chris Ivory or perhaps even release Pierre Thomas in a salary-cap move. Freeing up cap space should allow the Saints to keep Bushrod from reaching the open market.
Follow Chris Wesseling on Twitter @ChrisWesselingJavaScript is a bit confusing for developers experienced in class-based languages (like Java or C++), as it is dynamic and does not provide a class implementation per se (the class keyword is introduced in ES2015, but is syntactical sugar, JavaScript remains prototype-based).
When it comes to inheritance, JavaScript only has one construct: objects. Each object has a private property which holds a link to another object called its prototype. That prototype object has a prototype of its own, and so on until an object is reached with null as its prototype. By definition, null has no prototype, and acts as the final link in this prototype chain.
Nearly all objects in JavaScript are instances of Object which sits on the top of a prototype chain.
While this confusion is often considered to be one of JavaScript's weaknesses, the prototypal inheritance model itself is, in fact, more powerful than the classic model. It is, for example, fairly trivial to build a classic model on top of a prototypal model.
Inheritance with the prototype chain
Inheriting properties
JavaScript objects are dynamic "bags" of properties (referred to as own properties). JavaScript objects have a link to a prototype object. When trying to access a property of an object, the property will not only be sought on the object but on the prototype of the object, the prototype of the prototype, and so on until either a property with a matching name is found or the end of the prototype chain is reached.
Following the ECMAScript standard, the notation someObject.[[Prototype]] is used to designate the prototype of someObject. Since ECMAScript 2015, the [[Prototype]] is accessed using the accessors Object.getPrototypeOf() and Object.setPrototypeOf(). This is equivalent to the JavaScript property __proto__ which is non-standard but de-facto implemented by many browsers. It should not be confused with the func.prototype property of functions, which instead specifies the [[Prototype]] to be assigned to all instances of objects created by the given function when used as a constructor. The Object.prototype property represents the Object prototype object.
Here is what happens when trying to access a property:
// Let's create an object o from function f with its own properties a and b: let f = function () { this.a = 1; this.b = 2; } let o = new f(); // {a: 1, b: 2} // add properties in f function's prototype f.prototype.b = 3; f.prototype.c = 4; // do not set the prototype f.prototype = {b:3,c:4}; this will break the prototype chain // o.[[Prototype]] has properties b and c. // o.[[Prototype]].[[Prototype]] is Object.prototype. // Finally, o.[[Prototype]].[[Prototype]].[[Prototype]] is null. // This is the end of the prototype chain, as null, // by definition, has no [[Prototype]]. // Thus, the full prototype chain looks like: // {a: 1, b: 2} ---> {b: 3, c: 4} ---> Object.prototype ---> null console.log(o.a); // 1 // Is there an 'a' own property on o? Yes, and its value is 1. console.log(o.b); // 2 // Is there a 'b' own property on o? Yes, and its value is 2. // The prototype also has a 'b' property, but it's not visited. // This is called Property Shadowing console.log(o.c); // 4 // Is there a 'c' own property on o? No, check its prototype. // Is there a 'c' own property on o.[[Prototype]]? Yes, its value is 4. console.log(o.d); // undefined // Is there a 'd' own property on o? No, check its prototype. // Is there a 'd' own property on o.[[Prototype]]? No, check its prototype. // o.[[Prototype]].[[Prototype]] is Object.prototype and there is no 'd' property by default, check its prototype. // o.[[Prototype]].[[Prototype]].[[Prototype]] is null, stop searching, // no property found, return undefined.
Code Link
Setting a property to an object creates an own property. The only exception to the getting and setting behavior rules is when there is an inherited property with a getter or a setter.
Inheriting "methods"
JavaScript does not have "methods" in the form that class-based languages define them. In JavaScript, any function can be added to an object in the form of a |
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